Jump to content

CamilleDesmoulins

Members
  • Posts

    18
  • Joined

  • Last visited

CamilleDesmoulins's Achievements

33

Reputation

  1. I honestly kind of dislike Shallan because of how she treats other people. Except for her relationships with her brothers, who barely feature in the present day, all her relationships are all take and no give. She meets Kaladin by stealing his boots, never properly apologizes for that, and then decides to oogle him while he's in the middle of a catatonic episode. She begins her relationship with Jasnah by planning to steal from her and then demands she continue to take her on as an apprentice. She endangers poor people in Kholinar by playing Robin Hood and then immediately forgets about them, and never tries to help the poor again. Even her relationship with Adolin is based on him providing emotional support for her.
  2. Most of of our main characters are Kholins. Dalinar, is directly or indirectly responsible for mass murder and genocide, and Elhokar, who was clearly being shaped on a redemption arc pre-death, was directly responsible for judicial murder and genocide. Even both Adolin and Shallan are murderers, and Jasnah is likely responsible for several extralegal deaths as well (she considered killing Aesudan). Moash is responsible for trying to assassinate Elhokar (honestly justified), killing Elhokar and Teft in battle, murdering Jezrien, the two prisoners in the basement of Hearthstone, and the unconscious Radiant in Urithiru, and suicide baiting Kaladin. Objectively, he’s done far less than Dalinar and Elhokar, and maybe less than Jasnah.
  3. While I’m sure some real people do respond to trauma the Shallan does, I found reading her perspective immensely frustrating, like a Sisyphean nightmare. She always seems on the brink of making progress and then looping back around to Square One. It makes for an unpleasant and unsatisfying narrative, especially because the focus on her mental health means that other issues (such as her character flaws, classism, etc.,) are ignored and handwaved by the narrative. It is to some extent a personal taste issue, because I also didn’t enjoy the more navel gazey Kaladin depression bits. It does feel like SA is torn between being an introspective Russian novel and following a classic fantasy narrative.
  4. I don’t think it’s true that a noble is just as likely to become an allomancer than a skaa, and a bloodline power inherently lends itself to formation of an aristocracy. It doesn’t matter what class they belong or belonged to, what matters is the class they currently fight for, and all of them currently fight for the aristocracy. Also, again, a system which gives power to the associates of the powerful is inherently nepotistic and contrary to equality. Alright so why did Kaladin swear to Dalinar to protect Elhokar? It was because Dalinar was in a position of power over Kaladin; that is the nature of most feudal oaths. Peasants swear fealty to the lord, who swears fealty to the King, etc., A system which is based on enforcement of and adherence to existing social obligations and power dynamics is inherently reactionary and in the world of SA (and our own) that is authoritarian. As for Kaladin’s arc about who to protect, I feel like that is largely unfinished or aborted, since Kaladin decides to continue to protect the powers that be, even after the encounter with the Singers. Why not protect the darkeyes from Kholin tyranny? Why not protect the Listeners the Kholins were slaughtering? By choosing to protect the existing power dynamic, Kaladin was actively harming more marginalized groups and that is just never addressed.
  5. So it is true that not all magic systems necessarily facilitate an Intent based dictatorship, but the other systems you listed simply facilitate other types of tyranny: aristocracy for feruchemy and allomancy, and some kind of murderous state for hemalurgy. In fact, we already see that play out in the final empire. Obviously not every noble is an allomancer and vice versa but allomantic bloodlines legitimize nobility. So I don’t think Brandon or Honour intentionally decided to promote tyranny but this is definitely what the revival of the Knights Radiants ended up doing by vesting power in the ruling class. Stormfather himself seems to be pretty authoritarian in general, since he was okay with Dalinar burning Rathalas for rebellion. Kaladin had to have a reason for deciding something was right or wrong, and obviously Kaladin’s reasoning (unstated though it may be) aligns with the honourspren’s, since he is basically the archetypal windrunner. So I don’t think we can say “it’s just Kaladin following his heart”. Even if his reasoning was unstated, he evidently had some reasoning, which precluded him from violence against the state but not for it. Also, a system which awards power to the friends and family of the powerful is inherently nepotistic and contrary to equality.
  6. In terms of anarchism, most of the magic systems you listed are hereditary, which does not help the whole equality bit and one requires murder which I think limits it’s praxis. I can’t speak for the Elantris systems since I haven’t read the books. For SA, the magic system explicitly penalizes Kaladin for acting against the upper class and it grants god like power to the Kholins. While it may not necessarily be an inherent part of the magic system, in practice this is what it does and I think Honour, with his focus on oaths, militarism, and loyalty, does lean authoritarian in tendency.
  7. Shallan is def not one of my favourites… it’s a mix of her attitude being rather unlikable (boots, stabbing a random dude in a bar) and never being held to account for it, and her mystery box amnesia backstory.
  8. The way the cosmere is set up is inherently authoritarian; a lot of shards trend auth (Dominion and Honour especially) and both Elantris and Stormlight are set up for a dictatorship of whoever hues closest to a certain type of intent. Investiture in SA also legitimizes the authoritarian caste by conferring literal god like powers on the ruling class. There are no real anarchists in the Cosmere: Paalm and Kelsier are both revolutionaries but closer to the Blanquist idea than to anarchism, and Kelsier in particular I think is a little bit too fond of his own authority to be an adequate anarchist. The closest we have to anarchism is the Listeners and Willshapers, but we don’t get a whole lot on Willshaper ideals.
  9. Anti light is just as bad for the Radiants as the Fused, since it gives the Fused a way of destroying spren. Depending on the numbers, it may potentially be worse for the Radiants than the Fused.
  10. I just want to add in my two cents and say that, while I like Navani as a character, I am disappointed that she took up so much screen time— time which I felt would’ve been better spent fleshing out the world, especially the Singers. I would’ve liked it better if Navani got some of Venli’s page time, and Rlain or Dabbid got to be the Sibling Bondsmith. I don’t think we really need another Kholin radiant at this point and it would’ve been nice to see more power devolved to marginalized groups. I also do not think that Navani’s arc was necessary— she didn’t need to be some super brilliant tony stark type scientist, her being a rich amateur who uses her wealth for a good cause and has some managerial abilities was good, because it offered a breath of change from the normal “comprehensive designer” archetype. I think it would’ve been better for Navani to realize that her previous role was okay, rather than also ending up special.
  11. I lowkey have began to ship Kalak and Ba Ado Mishram, solely based on the fact that he calls her Mishram in his epigraphs. It's so cute!
  12. Moash is very self loathing: he just tries to absolve himself by projecting it onto the rest of the world. He considers himself broken, and then jumps to deciding that all humans are broken.
  13. Odium wanted Kaladin to be his champion. Moash was supposed to turn him, not kill him. He decided to make Kaladin kill himself as a sort of sick way of protecting him from Odium. Moash’s way of thinking is very twisted now though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he convinced himself that Kaladin genuinely couldn’t be killed.
  14. My guess is that Nale opposed Jezrien because of something he was doing (fighting the Singers? Reckless experimentation with surges?) and Jezrien admitted Nale was right.
×
×
  • Create New...