Feelings over Blushweaver

[Lozen]

Pretty much since she was introduced I was eagerly waiting the end of Blushweaver.  She does nothing but deceive and warmonger the entire time, and I honestly thought she was behind the entire plot for a while.  However when she meets her end it is played as the loss of someone righteous and an ally of the people.

[Swimmingly]

That's what she was trying to be, anyway, even if she failed miserably. Besides, the entire scene is presented from Light song's perspective - and he's a little bit in love with her.

[Topomouse]

Well, I liked her as a character at least because of her fantastic conversation with Lightsong. As for her motives, we don't know much about them, but from what we saw I think she was more stupid then evil. The returned are pampered and isoleted, they aren't completely connected with reality, so it isn't strange for her to be deceived in helping Blufingers plot while thinking of protecting her country. She is probably similar to Vivenna, it's just that she didn't discover the truth until it was too late.

[Moash]

Why did this get downvotes? What could possibly have annoyed people?

[Shardmancer]

You had to enjoy the banter between her and lightson.. i early awaited thier encounter everytime.. Her trying to seduce him, and him being unphased was great part of the book

[Sylveris]

I was actually sad when she died, especially since I read the annotations with the book, which makes her POV far more clear, and confirm that she really loved Lightsong and he loved her, and for some reason I always feel bad when characters die/separate before they at least understand what the other character feel for them. (In this case the closest thing to that was Lightsong telling Blushweaver that he did care for her just before the vote).

And I also didn't had anything against her actions, which while annoying and ultimately manipulated, made sense when (both hinted in the text and confirmed in the annotations) the vision she saw on the future when she died was of war that will destroy her homeland, the same war Bluefingers tried to start, but after Returning all she knew is that a war was coming and she should prepare, but couldn't remember the exact details.

[Lozen]

I listened to the auidobook and as such had no annotations but wasn't she 15 years old as a Returned and among the Returned isn't that really old?  And I understand they only remember their prophecies vaguely at best but to not act on her vision for 15 years?

 

I enjoyed the book greatly, don't misunderstand, was just hoping to savor the end of Blushweaver as a character who to me felt like a pure villian who wasn't really redeemed  

[Quiver]

I think the suggestion that Blushweaver might be behind it was intentionally.

A beautiful, voluptuous, seductive woman, taking control of the army of the nation for who-knows-what end?

I feel like Warbreaker as a whole is meant to be a subversion of classic fantasy, so seeing the "evil" beauty turn out to be a hero is actually very satisfying to me.

[Chrono]

I always felt that Blushweaver was just misguided. You have to remember that one of the main themes of the book is communication problems. I always laugh when Vivenna is like, "Oh, my poor sister Siri, stripped of her dignity and honor, forced to live in this land full of heathens," and Siri's like, "This is FUN! I hope Vivenna's doing okay as ruler of the kingdom!" 

 

Likewise, one of the reasons the Idrians and the Hallandren are fighting is communication errors. The Idrians feel like they're being threatened by the Hallandren when in actuality they're just being ignored. Same thing for the Hallandren. Blushweaver in this case sees the Idrians as a threat, and so she's doing the only thing she can do: gain control of all the armies. She legitimately thinks that this is the best option for her people. I think she even mentions that she's doing this for her people to Lightsong, when he thinks that she's just trying to gain power over everyone.

[MrFloobie]

Misguided, definitely. I personally found it quite difficult to like her after she called Siri a slut. I understand why she did it, but oooohhhhh I bristled. However, she seemed to genuinely care for Lightsong and for the city.

[SpiteMalice]

I thought Blushweaver genuine in her belief in protecting Halledren. Hawks are convinced of correctness as much ad Doves. Oddly I found here outburst at Siri endearing as it was the first instance i felt that she playing politics out of a sense of altruism.

[ProfessionalLurker]

Lozen, the annotations Sylveris mentioned are available for free on Brandon's website and everyone has access to them if you know they're there. All of his earlier books have them - chapter summaries that Brandon wrote while writing/editing each book. Here's the link for the Warbreaker ones, starting at the dedication: 

 

http://brandonsanderson.com/annotation-warbreaker-dedication/

 

Each annotation has spoilers for that chapter, and some have them for the whole book so be ye warned.

 

On the topic of Blushweaver, I don't think we're giving enough credit to the way the Returned process works. First off, Blushweaver was a human woman at one point who did something that Endowment, their GOD, considered notable and worthy of a second chance at life with a very specific mission. She may have only had a limited idea of what that was - a consequence of being Returned, and not anything she could have done - but that left her with an overwhelming and literally God-given desire to protect her people from war. 

 

Topomouse made a really good point about the state of affairs in the Returned court. They are ALL pawns, all unknowingly, but no one more so than the God King himself. They are all naive to an extent, but they also do legitimately care about the well being of Hallendren and their people. From the court perspective, the only logical source of conflict is a direct war with Idris. Blushweaver, who also happens to be the only naturally adept politician in court, knows that war is coming and all of the people she was sent back to save are in serious danger of perishing in war during her lifetime. The Returned have all been literally conditioned since their "births" to ignore the Pahn Kahl and have no outside access. So for one point, she made the best possible moves when the entire game was rigged against her.

 

Additionally, I think her very appearance points to her being extremely intelligent. We know that the Returned form their physical bodies based on how they think of themselves and what they think they need to look like. Blushweaver, aware of the general decadent lifestyle among her fellow Returned chose a physically appealing body and continues to accentuate that because she knows it will sway the weaker minds to her side. So more proof that she understands politics and is doing the best she can to get her way - where her way is not having her people slaughtered by war.

 

If she is "deceiving" then it is because she knows how politics works. If she is "warmongering" then it is because she knows how strategy works. These traits can make her unlikable for sure - as MrFloobie said, she insulted Siri with a very hurtful attack. However, this isn't your standard morality tale. Unlikable characters are not evil, just as likable characters are not good. Denth is in almost every way the polar opposite of Blushweaver while at the same general "level" of influence, so to speak.

 

Ultimately, it is Blushweaver's influence on Lightsong (NOT her death, mind you) that helps him to sacrifice himself to save everyone in the end. Without Blushweaver doing EXACTLY what she did through the whole book, Hallendren burns and take Idris with it. 

 

TL;DR: Blushweaver was a woman who did something heroic, saw a vision of the future where everyone died, chose to go back to prevent said future, succeeded in controlling a useless court and one of the largest armies in the world where others could barely play golf without messing up, mentored a main character, contributed to said MC finding his own destiny without allowing her genuine feelings for him and desire to protect him stop her from saving the world, died because even with all her successes the entire set-up of her life was rigged to kill her (her second heroic death in less than two decades, for the record), and helped save the entire continent from destruction. 

 

Blushweaver is important.

 

Edit: I spelled "Idris" wrong twice and we simply can't have that.

Edited June 8, 2014 by ProfessionalLurker

[theravenchilde]

[quiet applause]

 

I literally can't add anything else to that.

[Tien'sPetLurg]

I think she resonated with the theme that no person is All good or All bad but a mix of contrasts. She had a Jessica Rabbit thing going on for me. "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." 
It was difficult from the text to know for sure what her motives were, but that helps put the reader in the mental space of the uncertainties of being surrounded by schemers. It's hard to trust people. In this book, people found it increasingly difficult to trust their own sense of identity....much less their impressions of others. I think Lightsong wanted to care about her but was hesitant because it seemed like she'd bedded down everyone. He knew getting naked with her would really confuse him even more.

As I was reading, I thought "Here comes the cliché: he's going to martyr himself for her." I'm happy that didn't happen. 

[gjustice99]

Honestly, I didn't really like Blushweaver because she was manipulative and basically most of the time we see her she is trying to seduce Lightsong. I thought, when I first read the book, that she and Treledees were plotting war against Idris (I thought that Treledees was stuck up and downright evil for cutting Susebron's tongue out (though I now realize he probably wasn't behind the latter)) and I wanted them both stopped. But when I found out that she was genuinely doing the things she did for the good of the people, it made me sad to know that she died trying to do what was right.