[OB] What parts of Oathbringer touched you?

[Drag0nR3born]

Personally I think it was Elhokar's death that hit me the hardest.  In the first two books, I viewed him as a bratty but well-meaning guy.  He wanted to do good but was kinda self-absorbed.  I really enjoyed seeing him progress to become a better man.  The truths he spoke to Kaladin at the end of WoR and how he admitted he would mess up in Kholinar made me start to bond with him.  Then he started listening to counsel and doing well planning to storm the palace, and right when I think to myself, "You know what......I like Elhokar", Moash happens. SMH

Edited January 4, 2018 by Drag0nR3born

[SpeakoftheDeval]

On 03/01/2018 at 5:20 PM, digitalbusker said:

I've mentioned this before elsewhere, but Renarin's "Don't worry. You didn't miss something funny. I... well, I doubt you'd find it amusing." really got to me.

First off, it's probably the first time he's gotten good news from one of his fits. Second, it would have been so tempting to write that line "cooler" ("I just saw the future, and you're not going to enjoy it." *the music kicks in as he slowly puts on his sunglasses*). But it's Renarin, so instead it comes out all awkward and concerned for the feelings of the immortal monsters who want to kill him. Which somehow makes it even cooler.

It sounds 243x cooler when you imagine Renarin having Eddie redmaynes voice

[Iarwainiel I]

Wow I should not be reading this thread in the middle of my work day - tearing up at EVERY one of these!

Elhokar's death was just a knife to the gut - devastating. And his poor little boy being tormented by those awful red spren, wearing his little uniform and holding his little soldier doll. I'm not a sentimental person, but that got to me. Also the scene at the end where you find out that Skar and Drehy protected him, "chapped lips and haunted eyes" ...

Kaladin's baby brother

Rock's family

"Teft. Knight Radiant."

Laral's reaction when Navani and Dalinar responded to Kal via spanreed

Dalinar crying on Renarin's shoulder when he told him he bought him some wine because he "missed her too"

Lift interacting with Dalinar - all the scenes, from hilarious to touching at the end

Adolin being so afraid for Renarin fighting the thunderclast, and Renarin just chops the thing's hand off

Glys's childlike excitement when telling Renarin how to kill the thunderclast: "Make it so that it will go! You will make it go with light!" You can just hear how happy he is to be on the side of "good"

"You cannot have my pain!"

Venli bonding her spren and saying the first oath - I hated Venli in WoR, but I think she's gonna be a real interesting character

Kaladin explaining to Syl how "this rock changes color when you put water on it," harkening back to Tien and maybe indicating he's starting to deal with that pain and bringing those good memories into his life now

The Lopen saying his second oath unintentionally - so funny! so Lopen!

[Mistform]

My favorite moment was the The Girl Who Stood Up. The moment was so perfect between Wit and Shallan and I really felt all the stuff he said about failure. <3 <3 <3

[Fan theories]

 

Spoiler

When Moash killed Elhokar. But when Jasah started soulcasting in at the final battle I got the chills, she was soooooo AWESOME!!

 

[Patrick Star]

On 1/3/2018 at 4:19 PM, thejopen27 said:

Edit: Patrick Star beat me to this joke. 

On a serious note though, I loved when Dalinar comes out to talk to Odium while clutching a copy of The Way of Kings, then Odium blows it up with lightning.  That scene hit me hard.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Patrick Star

[Blazenella]

I LOVED Dalinar's exchange with our resident Willshaper Venli. 

Also

Szeth, Lift, and Nightblood make for one storming trio.

ALSO

Moash can go to Hell, Damnation, get socked by Kelsier and Kaladin combined, and slontze slapped across eternity by Harmony, Cultivation, Unity (Maybe), and any other shards with any decency

[Wit Beyond Measure]

On 1/3/2018 at 3:23 PM, thejopen27 said:

Like the previous two books, I was the most moved during the flashback scenes. In Way of Kings it was Tien's death, in Words of Radiance it was when Shallan and Wit meet at the fair. In Oathbringer it wasn't the scene you might expect. It was actually when Dalinar meets Cultivation and instead of asking to forget as I expected, or to move on, or to be a better man, he asks for forgiveness. The Cultivation-Dalinar scene is my favorite scene in all of Oathbringer. 

Yes! 

And the moment when Odium makes Dalinar relive killing Evi, the sound of her screams over and over, in his effort to break Dalinar completely.  Dalinar relives all of that pain again, the most powerful pain I can imagine, and then he stands up and denies that pain to Odium.  Almost immediately after taking responsibility and owning the pain, we get this moment:

Quote

He closed his eyes, breathing out, listening to a sudden stillness. And within it a simple, quiet voice. A woman’s voice, so familiar to him.

I forgive you.

Dalinar opened his eyes, and knew what the parshwoman saw in him. Swirling clouds, glowing light, thunder and lightning.

“I am Unity.”

He slammed both hands together.

And combined three realms into one.

Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 1136). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

So he does get that forgiveness he was looking for, and he gets it from exactly the right one.

Evi was quite filled with awesomeness, actually.  I also adored this moment, after all of the disagreements they'd had over his violence, when he suspects that Evi poisoned their sons against him:  

Quote

“What did she tell you?” he said, voice ragged. “What did your mother say about me?”

“The only honest officer in the army,” Renarin said, “the honorable soldier. Noble, like the Heralds themselves. Our father. The greatest man in Alethkar.”

Sanderson, Brandon. Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive (p. 890). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition. 

The Renarin-Dalinar moment that @MonsterMetroid mentions is among my favorites, as well. 

And I would wholeheartedly agree with Monster's reread sentiment: these books are built to be better on the rereads than the original reads.  So many things are placed in the slow Parts 1 through 3 that won't be slow at all after finishing OB.  And then after reveals in the next couple of books, a few years down the line, we'll realize how dense the goodness is in these three parts because that's just how Sanderson writes.  I was completely floored on my first Sanderson reread of WoK and WoR when prepping to read Oathbringer.  I just had no idea how brilliant they were before that moment.

[StormingTexan]

There were several in this book for me. Pretty much all the Bridge 4 pov and of course a lot in the Dalinar flashbacks. Dalinar and Jasnah after Gavilar's death when she reads tWoK to him. Renarin giving Dalinar the bottle hit me hard in the feels being a dad. Kaladin telling Teft "We lift the bridge together" after Rock killed Amaram. The scene when Lift shows up to help Dalinar in Thaylen City even with the jokes it was just a special moment. 

[Rathmaskal]

On 1/3/2018 at 3:58 PM, Everstorm Entropy said:

One moment no one has mentioned yet that I thought for sure would be a top contender:

Talenel speaking with Shash, both of them crying.  Him crying because humanity had more time to actually recover from the desolations.  Her crying because she still feels the guilt of leaving him to suffer for 4000 years.  It was a beautiful scene and quite surprising behavior from both of the Heralds; I had really expected both of them to act differently (based on what little we knew about their characters before OB).

There were other great moments.  But this was THE moment that really got to me.

[Kered]

There was a lot of emotional impacts for me, a lot have already been said. Rlain's POV chapter, Elhokar's death, Dalinar and the rift, Wit consoling Shallan, Adolin and Maya's 7 second summoning, Kal in Hearthstone, Odium and Dalinar's first meeting, Unity scene with Dalinar, and that's just off the top of my head. But the number of scenes that hit me the hardest are smaller. 

Taln's reaction to Ash. Dude. I had to take a breather after this one. We've had three books to lead us to the understanding of just how awful it was for Heralds in Damnation. Ages upon ages of torture. And yeah we find out that only a few years separated the last few Desolations and the way the Stormfather says it is kind of dismissive. Could you imagine being tortured by people that you've been fighting for thousands of years for just an hour, let alone two years? Mind boggling that the Heralds didn't give up after just a month. Knowing that they did it for generations is just insane.

Then we have my boy Taln. Dude was never even suppose to be a Herald, just a guy that what's to do the right thing and protect the people from some bullies. Agree's to be tortured for untold thousands of years by his most hated enemies . Then on top of that he knows that his fate is tied to nine other people. Boom, that's bad. That right there is sad enough story as it is. But oh no, it's not over. My dude from humble beginnings gets abandoned by the people that helped shared his burden then GETS TORTURED FOR 4,500 YEARS WHICH IF YOU'RE CURIOUS IS THE ROUGHLY THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME AS REAL LIFE RECORDED HISTORY(disclaimer, I did not fact check this) And you have to think, the Voidbringers know that all they have to do to get free is to break this guy. After four and half thousand years I think we can safety assume they got creative and progressively more and more sadistic. 

Thhhhennnn, what does Taln say during one of his few lucid moments after recognizing one of the people that abandoned him? The dude celebrated. Celebrated the fact that the unimaginable torture he went through was worth it because it gave humanity a chance to be prepared. THEN we have think about how Taln has nooooo idea how much of a mess Roshar currently is and how distinctly unprepared everyone was even with advanced(and yes, vague) warning. I don't know about you guys, but if I'm Taln and I just get done with thousands of years of torture in order to give humanity a fighting shot, I'm expecting some well oiled, world wide, advanced coalition of forces and an elite group of warriors trained in the powers of gods that have been training for generations to fight the things a Desolation brings. 

Simply said, my man needs a hug. 

 

Renarin hugging Dalinar in the flashback. For some reason I didn't remember this chapter and when it came on during my listening of the audio book I was in the middle of a 7-11 buying vanilla pudding. Needless to say I traded in my vanilla pudding for some ice cream and jameson. 

Kaladin watching his parsh and wall guard friends kill each other. Out of all the books I've read I have never felt as hopeless as that scene made me feel. It was just brutally systematic.

 

 

 

 

 

This post made me sad. 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by Kered

[stonedshaman]

Doing my reread and just got to the part where shallan defends renarin and tears janala apart.  Rusting awesome 

[Draigon]

The image of Navani leaning out over the edge of the wall cheering for Dalinar when he Ascends.

[hula]

for me the 2 biggest- were

1. when we found out definitively that in a way, dalinar himself killed evi... just feeling the crushing that dalinar would have felt

2. finding out that teft was an addict... when i read that, in my mind, i stopped... and just felt bad for him- just lost so much respect :-(

[Laryyl]

This made me think of Taln.

"Ten spears go to battle,” he whispered, “and nine shatter. Did that war forge the one that remained? No, Amaram. All the war did was identify the spear that would not break.”

 

[Song]

3 hours ago, stonedshaman said:

Doing my reread and just got to the part where shallan defends renarin and tears janala apart.  Rusting awesome 

Yes! I started disliking Shallan for the way she treated Renarin in WoR, so I was glad she turned that around.

[Fifth Scholar]

While many of the scenes in OB moved me, the only one that actually caused me to tear up was the Dalinar flashback when Renarin hands him the bottle. The whole scene is profoundly moving, and I love how it’s Renarin that makes Dalinar turn around, consider his problems, and finally turn himself into a better man. In particular, these sentences at the end: 

“Oh, Almighty. Oh God. Oh God please... I’ve started to hate my sons. Why hadn’t the boys learned to hate him back? They should hate him. He deserved to be hated.

Please. Anything. I don’t know how to get free of this. Help me. Help me...

Dalinar wept and clung to that youth, that child, as if he were the only real thing left in a world of shadows.”

-Oathbringer chapter 94, “A Small Bottle”

[IllNsickly]

The edge of page 449, I think it was. Got a bit of a papercut.

But, Jasnah/Renarin and Dalinar vs The Thrill were probably the biggest ones.

[dvoraen]

I forgive you.

[Vissy]

I also really loved the scene where Dalinar came to the scribe meeting with Renarin, it was so heartwarming! 

Kaladin showing concern for Syl was also really nice to see. 

Szeth wrecking his fellow Skybreaker acolytes was a very funny moment

And Dalinar's recovery in general was very well written, it was a great arc.

[Procreator]

On 06/01/2018 at 1:04 PM, Vissy said:

I also really loved the scene where Dalinar came to the scribe meeting with Renarin, it was so heartwarming! 

Kaladin showing concern for Syl was also really nice to see. 

Szeth wrecking his fellow Skybreaker acolytes was a very funny moment

And Dalinar's recovery in general was very well written, it was a great arc.

The growing tenderness between Kaladin and Syl is touching, but I was somehow expecting more when he saw her as a full-grown, beautiful girl in Shadesmar, especially when she was locked up by the Honour spren. I know she's thousands of years old, but she doesn't look it, and he's a red-blooded young man!

[Vissy]

55 minutes ago, Procreator said:

The growing tenderness between Kaladin and Syl is touching, but I was somehow expecting more when he saw her as a full-grown, beautiful girl in Shadesmar, especially when she was locked up by the Honour spren. I know she's thousands of years old, but she doesn't look it, and he's a red-blooded young man!

It's just down to Sanderson not wanting to write people like normal people. With him it's usually normal people minus sexuality.

[+ElephantEarwax]

On 1/3/2018 at 3:16 PM, Stormrunner1730 said:

Speaking of Hoid... "Life before death, friend." 

My sentiments exactly.

[Landis963]

The cover, the dust jacket, and the pages.  

(Serious answer to be edited in later)

[Procreator]

3 hours ago, Vissy said:

It's just down to Sanderson not wanting to write people like normal people. With him it's usually normal people minus sexuality.

Strange to have to admit that I'd never realised this—but I think you're right. I suppose that, given all the other complications of his worlds and characters, adding 'normal' romance would probably be a step too far!