Kersplattle Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 Does anyone else find it a bit odd that nobody seems to have noticed just how incredibly well Kaladin fought in the duel ? He's in an arena with 4 opposing shard bearers and all he has is a normal spear. He also takes a flying leap, smashing into the back-plate of a set of shard plate with just his legs and cracks the plate. The impact is huge and he breaks his legs which may or may not be obvious, but he heals them with storm light and gets up and continues to fight. He then performs the known but fabled "kiss of death" in catching a shard blade between his hands to stop it. The audience must surely be absolutely amazed by this, light and dark eyes regardless. That he is immediately arrested afterwards for his faux-pas about Amaram may be a temporary hiatus, but storms, that fight should have generated a huge story about Kaladin and his feats. Surely people noticed how he jumped and cracked shard plate, I bet nothing like that has ever been seen before, and yet he comes out of it uninjured (after healing that people don't know about). How is this not news of the utmost interest ? It just strikes me that it gets passed over too easily. But I liked the scene itself and absolutely loved Adolin's last trick of locking himself around Jakamav, brilliant improvisation. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elena Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 Probably people were too shocked by what happened after to spend too much time re-thinking the duel. Also, it was probably something of an uncomfortable topic, with him being darkeyed and everything and yet in the end winning the duel, so probably it was in everyone's best interests to simply ignore it - especially considering that Kaladin had fallen out of favor with the king in such a spectacular way in front of everyone. Most lighteyes likely figured it wasn't worth to risk complications by talking about him 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seloun Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 I generally agree with this. Kaladin _catches a shardblade_ with his bare hands - and apparently no one comments on it. Yeah, it's just taking a page out of Dalinar's book, but...really? No one mentions it at all? That said I think it's not too unreasonable to chalk it up to Kaladin being immediately arrested, combined with the spectacle about the challenges. By the time he gets out, it's a pretty short period of time before the chasm scene, which is possibly even more mindboggling. Then a couple of weeks later, he's a Radiant, so the previous feats are almost par for the course. The latter half of the book seems to move very fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIT Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 "huh... Guess THATS why the king made a random Bridgeman head of his guard." Also he was in prison for weeks, by the time he got out the novelty had worn off and the people had convinced themselves he cheated somehow most likely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nero Vance Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 "huh... Guess THATS why the king made a random Bridgeman head of his guard." Also he was in prison for weeks, by the time he got out the novelty had worn off and the people had convinced themselves he cheated somehow most likely. I don't think they convinced themselves that he was cheating, but I do agree with the topic having probably died down by that time. That, and Kaladin is kind of a jerk sometimes, so I think even the people impressed with him(save Bridge Four and Adolin) wouldn't be too keen to talk about his insane "literally kicked open a shardplate" deal. I do think it was odd we never got to see Shallan's reaction to that though. She seems like the type who would be like "Excuse me, guys, but are we just going to ignore that?" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kersplattle Posted March 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 Kind of related, but why isn't anyone out there looking for survivors of the bridge fall, or at least retrieving bodies ? I would have thought that Adolin at least would have made damnation sure to go out and at least retrieve the body of his causal betrothed. It just seems a bit odd that they are left unsought after. Maybe they were searched for but at the fall site, and they let/were chased away were they not. Or am I reading too much into this as well ? Thanks for the feedback, sure, the arrest interfered, but duelling is a highly appreciated art in Alethia, dark-eyed spearman just don't go about competing and surviving against shardbearers; it has to be almost completely unprecedented and arrest or not, the stories surely would exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seloun Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 There was a Parshendi attack during/immediately after the bridgefall, which Kaladin hypothesizes would lead to Dalinar retreating. Everyone assumes they're dead (for good reason, since every non-surgebinder died from the fall). There's highstorm the day after, which probably makes going back out to the plateau incredibly risky; after the highstorm, the bodies would have been washed away even if they could be found. Back to the OT - I'm going to headcanon and say that there was in fact a lot of talk about Kaladin's performance during the duel, but none of the major characters really have much reason to interact with it. Adolin is also in prison (cold water, the horror), while Dalinar and the bridgemen don't really need more proof of Kaladin's awesomeness. When Kaladin comes back from the chasm, the woman who tells Dalinar refers to Kaladin as Stormblessed (in a manner that seems to imply that everyone knows who that is), so word definitely seems to be getting around (this is not the first awesome thing Kaladin has done, in any case). It's not too long after that that he becomes Superman which kind of renders everything else moot. The main events that occur after the duel and the chasm event (after the chasm event, the armies leave almost immediately for the last assault, so there's no real time for anything to occur) are Shallan's mission to investigate Taln and Dalinar/Navani at the party where Dalinar's visions are being mocked. In the former Shallan mainly just talks to the ardents and the Ghostblood woman where it doesn't really make sense for Kaladin to come up; the latter would make more sense (Wit abuses Amaram a bit) but it's probably overcome by Sadeas's attempts to ridicule Dalinar's visions. Dalinar also spends a week in seclusion during the time Kaladin is in prison binding the shardblade for his Amaram trick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 Lighteyes probably thought just like Sadeas: it was all Adolin with some help by Kaladin. What Darkeyes think doesn't matter. They were already telling fantastical stories about him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fistsofrage Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 (edited) The thing I would have expected them to notice was how the helmet survived so many blows from shardblades. I wonder if it was even noticeable that his stormlight was healing the cracks in the helmet. Edited March 9, 2014 by Fistsofrage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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