Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.

Shallan’s Sketchbook Part V (Reachers)
See image here.
I’ve gotta say that this spren in particular does not match what I would have expected. It’s very a different appearance than I feel matches my mental image for Timbre. In fact, I don’t have a problem at all with the descriptions of Reachers working on the ships etc. It’s merely the association with the physical realm form that creates the disconnect for me.

I do love the character designs though, both physiology and clothing. They definitely look like statuesque golems, idealized forms of people. 

The comment about their pupils dilating despite appearing as a single piece of worked bronze helps to convey that this is a life form that does not conform to our expectations from the physical realm. 

I do wonder whether Timbre has adopted a form closer to listener in appearance, or whether that is beyond her personal choice.

 

Fashion Folio #2 (Envoyform Fashion)
Image here. Every time I look at this picture I love it more. In contrast to the previous folio page, which I thought borrowed too much from human aesthetics, this one very gracefully highlights the carapace, the skin striations, the silhouette that all depart from the human norm. As the caption suggests, the fashion is very much supplementary to the body itself.

And it’s delightful that we see Envoyform here, giving us an image of Venli’s current appearance. I admit that I was picturing her much stockier than this lithe figure, and I’ll have to reevaluate my mental image. 

I also wonder about the flowers and chains in her hair. 

 

EDIT: I went to link the entry on the previous folio page and realized that I didn’t actually write my thoughts about it. Here it is now:

Fashion Folio #1 (Contemporary Singer Fashions)

The image is here. I need to start by saying that I love the way that the background and the clothing and the carapace patterns complement one another. The whole thing is exceedingly artful. The singer forms are also great. My complaint is that the poses and composition of the piece play heavily into human gender dynamics, something that has to be learned from the dominant culture. The singers have a significantly de-emphasized gender dichotomy, their multimorphism based on the fluid nature of the forms they can adopt. I wish they had been posed in a way that didn’t lean into the “human gaze” so much.