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Unpopular Brandon Sanderson Opinions


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5 minutes ago, Quick Ben said:

Ok firstly, calling someone toxic for posting unpopular opinions in an unpopular opinion thread is just overly dramatic, an pretty offensive.

Um, isn't this you?

30 minutes ago, Quick Ben said:

Maybe you shouldnt read unpopular opinions on BS if your gonna be so anal about those opinions.

 

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3 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Um, isn't this you?

 

Given the tone of the below, i wouldn't say so no. I would call it a pretty accurate description of how they were being.

51 minutes ago, Mason Wheeler said:

You don't like Elantris, or Stormlight, or Wax & Wayne, or Brandon's interactions with his fans, or the most popular character in the Cosmere, and think the Cosmere overall doesn't measure up to some obscure series a lot of us have never heard of... taken together, the larger picture painted by those details is "this person does not like Brandon's work."

 

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14 minutes ago, The Technovore said:

Well, the guy made an account, he's read all the books, and he's posted in the unpopular opinions thread, and boy did he! I respect the guts. Also I'm just sitting here curious about this MBoTF

First book in the series is called "Gardens of the Moon" should give it a google, there is 10 books in main series, and 6 in an accompaning set, as well as a 3 book prequel series. There is 2 Authors.

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Calm down, everyone. You're all missing the biggest point: both Stormlight Archive and Malazan Book of the Fallen are garbage! :P

Pretentious jokes aside, one should not be attacked for their unpopular opinions in a topic about unpopular opinions. Now, you might think that OF COURSE,  I would say that! I was after all attacked in this same topic and gave the same "le gasp!" response.

That said, socially maladjusted responses are also not an excuse to be socially maladjusted as well! So everyone take deep breaths and walk away for a bit. 

Afterall, the neat thing about these unpopular opinions are that they don't matter... Brandon still has our money and is using it to fund his half cooked dreams of running a Hollywood-lite studio! 

 

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10 hours ago, Quick Ben said:

Just found this thread,

Unpopular opinion 1: OB and RoW are 5/10 books and if any1 other author than sanderson wrote over 1000 pages of a book that could fit in 300 pages then people would go mental, instead people think the filler (which is what 700 pages is) is "great"

Unpopular opinion 2: No Kholin deserved a radiant bond so far

Unpopular opinion 3: Elantris is a bad book, 

Unpopilar opinion 4: too much info comes from WoB rather then from the books themselves

Unpopular opinion 5: stormlight archive and indeed the entire cosmere works combined, don't and won't come close to the MBoTF series.

Unpopular opinion 6: Hoid/Wit is a) not funny b)) kind of annoying

Unpopular opinion 7: mistborn era 2 wasn't that good.

1) I agree with you about RoW, but OB is my favorite SLA book. I think it's a shame that so little actually happened in RoW, not going to get into specifics because of the RoW spoiler policy, but yep, disappointed with RoW for sure. 

2) I agree, the Kholin are a tad too radiant as a family. Though this might provide a solution to the dearth of Knights Radiant, Dalinar and Navani can just start adopting people, until all the humans are part of the Kholin family. Might work. 

3) I absolutely agree with this, but I think this is first book syndrome. The magic system for Elantris is very cool, and it has it's moments, but it's definitely my least favorite Cosmere book. 

4) I think WoBs are great, and I was drawn deeper into the Fandom by how approachable Brandon was. His fan interaction is tops, but I think we're entering a new era where WoBs are going to diminish and more Cosmere wide revelations will occur in text in the books. I think this is unfortunate, but I'm about the same age as Brandon and I know from first hand experience that there's a limit to what a body can do once you enter into the "napping years". It's pretty amazing that he did marathon signing sessions that would routinely finish in the wee hours of the morning, and that he can answer pretty esoteric and specific questions off the cuff, but these will most likely be limited to the fans that are more heavily invested in the Fandom from here on out. C'est la vie. 

5) While I agree that Malazan Book of the Fallen is my favorite epic fantasy series of all times, I also think this isn't necessarily a zero sum game. Stormlight Archives is one of the best Epic fantasy series too, at the feast of life why deny yourself buttery croissants just because you like crumpets better? Sanderson is like Plutarch or Dickens, he primarily tells stories for moral instruction while Erickson is more like Montaigne, a somewhat cynical observer of the tragic, comic and beautiful dramas that play out both on a miniature and on a grand scale. (Spoilers for Oathbringer and MBotF up through The Bonehunters) 

Spoiler

At the end of the day, I can't say which I truly like better, Dalinar's oath about Every time you fall, rising to be a better man, or the character of Itkovian the Redeemer and the idea that true compassion is unconditionally given. Both are truly beautiful sentiments, and I'm glad I don't have to choose just one.

6) I can see why Hoid's not your favorite. I like him as a character for now, but the jury's still out on whether I'll like him 30 years from now... 

7) I actually like MB Era 2 better, but I still think Era 1 is pretty darn good, with the exception of The Well of Ascension. WoA is probably my 2nd least favorite Cosmere book. 

7 hours ago, Orlionra said:

Afterall, the neat thing about these unpopular opinions are that they don't matter... Brandon still has our money and is using it to fund his half cooked dreams of running a Hollywood-lite studio! 

Hahaha, yeah he's got us by the ankles and is shaking all the loose change out, but it's still worth it for now. 

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The Stormlight books are getting to be a bit too long. He cut or skipped big emotional scenes from Oathbringer like Jasnah and Navani reuniting after Navani spent all of WoR buried in grief over her "death", Shallan's wedding occurs off page and Dalinar / Navani confronting Szeth after the battle isn't shown. Szeth's suddenly her bodyguard after killing her first husband and trying to kill her second husband twice. This seems like the result of trying to cram too much in, he had to omit these because they aren't that plot important, but they are extremely character important.

He recycles some big plot arcs quite a bit. 

Shallan's Oathbringer plot of feeding refugees and it backfiring is a recycled Elantris plot where they the naive noblewoman is ignorant of gangs that control the area of a closed off city under siege/ guard and she gets people hurt / killed by giving away food. It's like he needed a reason for Shallan to be in need of a Hoid pep talk. 

Taravangian being revealed to be performing human sacrifice is a better done version of Iadon in Elantris. Both were monarchs who seemed kind of stupid and had a hidden chamber where they performed human sacrifice to gain something from supernatural beings. 

Bridge 4  and Kelsier's crew coming together are very similar to Raodon's "building a community" plot. They all realize they need to do something to make life worth living. Cooking, cleaning taking pride in the small things. Kelsier, Kaladin and Raodon all fake smile and laugh to keep other people's spirits up. Since Bridge 4 is a transplant from Dragonsteel prime the other two are reiterations of Bridge 4 really. 

Edited by Child of Hodor
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11 hours ago, Hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

1) I agree with you about RoW, but OB is my favorite SLA book. I think it's a shame that so little actually happened in RoW, not going to get into specifics because of the RoW spoiler policy, but yep, disappointed with RoW for sure. 

I think the same of OB, very little happened in it as well, these books are mammoth, but last 2 had very little story for there mammoth size, both books could of been told in 400 pages each, with ease.

11 hours ago, Hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

2) I agree, the Kholin are a tad too radiant as a family. Though this might provide a solution to the dearth of Knights Radiant, Dalinar and Navani can just start adopting people, until all the humans are part of the Kholin family. Might work. 

Stormlight Archive could easily be renamed the Kholin Chronicles at this point,  All bar one is a radiant, even Elhikar was about to become one, 

11 hours ago, Hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

3) I absolutely agree with this, but I think this is first book syndrome. The magic system for Elantris is very cool, and it has it's moments, but it's definitely my least favorite Cosmere book. 

I 100% agree its firdt book syndrome, and i agree magic system is good, magic systems in general are a very strong point with BS works, even if they are over explained at times.

11 hours ago, Hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

4) I think WoBs are great, and I was drawn deeper into the Fandom by how approachable Brandon was. His fan interaction is tops, but I think we're entering a new era where WoBs are going to diminish and more Cosmere wide revelations will occur in text in the books. I think this is unfortunate, but I'm about the same age as Brandon and I know from first hand experience that there's a limit to what a body can do once you enter into the "napping years". It's pretty amazing that he did marathon signing sessions that would routinely finish in the wee hours of the morning, and that he can answer pretty esoteric and specific questions off the cuff, but these will most likely be limited to the fans that are more heavily invested in the Fandom from here on out. C'est la vie. 

I think BS interactionn with fans is great, more authors should do the same, but at times more info comes from WoBs then within the books themselves and this shouldnt be the case.

11 hours ago, Hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

5) While I agree that Malazan Book of the Fallen is my favorite epic fantasy series of all times, I also think this isn't necessarily a zero sum game. Stormlight Archives is one of the best Epic fantasy series too, at the feast of life why deny yourself buttery croissants just because you like crumpets better? Sanderson is like Plutarch or Dickens, he primarily tells stories for moral instruction while Erickson is more like Montaigne, a somewhat cynical observer of the tragic, comic and beautiful dramas that play out both on a miniature and on a grand scale. (Spoilers for Oathbringer and MBotF up through The Bonehunters) 

  Reveal hidden contents

At the end of the day, I can't say which I truly like better, Dalinar's oath about Every time you fall, rising to be a better man, or the character of Itkovian the Redeemer and the idea that true compassion is unconditionally given. Both are truly beautiful sentiments, and I'm glad I don't have to choose just one.

 

Surprised to find someone on here who has read the obscure MBoTF. Jokes aside im glad you like both series. I do like stormlight but i think the series was let down in OB and RoW by just the story becoming glacial, OB was too bogged down by repetitive politics, and RoW suffered the same with the fabrial science and even the 90s video game like nodes kaladin had to do.

11 hours ago, Hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

6) I can see why Hoid's not your favorite. I like him as a character for now, but the jury's still out on whether I'll like him 30 years from now... 
 

Being honest i struggle to see why hoid is popular at all. 

11 hours ago, Hoiditthroughthegrapevine said:

7) I actually like MB Era 2 better, but I still think Era 1 is pretty darn good, with the exception of The Well of Ascension. WoA is probably my 2nd least favorite Cosmere book. 

Ya as you said earlier, wach to there own, i will re read era two and not completly write it off, just found it lacking, hence why i said wasnt that good.

5 hours ago, Child of Hodor said:

The Stormlight books are getting to be a bit too long. He cut or skipped big emotional scenes from Oathbringer like Jasnah and Navani reuniting after Navani spent all of WoR buried in grief over her "death", Shallan's wedding occurs off page and Dalinar / Navani confronting Szeth after the battle isn't shown. Szeth's suddenly her bodyguard after killing her first husband and trying to kill her second husband twice. This seems like the result of trying to cram too much in, he had to omit these because they aren't that plot important, but they are extremely character important.

I would add to that the the fact the fall out from Adolin killing Sadeas, that was severly lacking, as well as the fall out from the revelation Dalinar killed his wife, and how both Adolin and Renarin reacted/dealt with it all etc

Considring the amount of filler in OB and RoW these could easily of been incorporated.

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On 2021. 2. 25. at 6:50 AM, Quick Ben said:

Just found this thread,

Unpopular opinion 1: OB and RoW are 5/10 books and if any1 other author than sanderson wrote over 1000 pages of a book that could fit in 300 pages then people would go mental, instead people think the filler (which is what 700 pages is) is "great"

Unpopular opinion 2: No Kholin deserved a radiant bond so far

Unpopular opinion 3: Elantris is a bad book, 

Unpopilar opinion 4: too much info comes from WoB rather then from the books themselves

Unpopular opinion 5: stormlight archive and indeed the entire cosmere works combined, don't and won't come close to the MBoTF series.

Unpopular opinion 6: Hoid/Wit is a) not funny b)) kind of annoying

Unpopular opinion 7: mistborn era 2 wasn't that good.

I also think there's too much information in the WoBs. If there's something readers need to know it should be in the books.

I think Renarin deserved that bond. Agreed on the rest of the Kholins though. 

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7 hours ago, Gyirin said:

I also think there's too much information in the WoBs. If there's something readers need to know it should be in the books.

All the books make sense and are completely fine on their own, without WoB, so I'm not sure what you're saying here.

Edited by Frustration
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3 hours ago, Bejardin1250 said:

There’s not really anything from WoBs that we need to know book wise 

If it became important it would be told in a book

If you put it this way, I don't think you understand how important WOBs have been for the community's understanding of Cosmere lore in the past. There are Shards (the two on Sel, for instance) that have literally been WOB-only-canon for 7 years. Of course they are important either way. And since they are, they were indeed put in a book (Arcanum Unbounded, that is). But it sure as damnation was really nice to know about them before that!

Edited by Elegy
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9 minutes ago, Bejardin1250 said:

Well this is a Book Dicusion Website

Most of the stuff on here we won’t know for 10 to 15 years so by the time this stuff maters well know it in books

If I'm understanding you correctly, you're basically just saying readers don't need to know the WOBs in order to understand the books? If so, then I don't know what's unpopular about that. The books would be really useless if that wasn't the case. I definitely agree that the WOBs are no required reading for the books. I'm sure so does pretty much everyone on here.

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On 2/25/2021 at 3:22 PM, Quick Ben said:

I would add to that the the fact the fall out from Adolin killing Sadeas, that was severly lacking, as well as the fall out from the revelation Dalinar killed his wife, and how both Adolin and Renarin reacted/dealt with it all etc

Considring the amount of filler in OB and RoW these could easily of been incorporated.

Absolutely agree. You would think these would be Scandals of Unusual Size, but instead we mostly get a bunch of hands-on-hips "oh, you" reaction followed by canned laughter, a guitar rift outro and producer credits on screen...

What was I talking about again? 

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On 26/02/2021 at 0:52 AM, Child of Hodor said:

The Stormlight books are getting to be a bit too long. He cut or skipped big emotional scenes from Oathbringer like Jasnah and Navani reuniting after Navani spent all of WoR buried in grief over her "death", Shallan's wedding occurs off page and Dalinar / Navani confronting Szeth after the battle isn't shown. Szeth's suddenly her bodyguard after killing her first husband and trying to kill her second husband twice. This seems like the result of trying to cram too much in, he had to omit these because they aren't that plot important, but they are extremely character important.

He recycles some big plot arcs quite a bit. 

Shallan's Oathbringer plot of feeding refugees and it backfiring is a recycled Elantris plot where they the naive noblewoman is ignorant of gangs that control the area of a closed off city under siege/ guard and she gets people hurt / killed by giving away food. It's like he needed a reason for Shallan to be in need of a Hoid pep talk. 

Taravangian being revealed to be performing human sacrifice is a better done version of Iadon in Elantris. Both were monarchs who seemed kind of stupid and had a hidden chamber where they performed human sacrifice to gain something from supernatural beings. 

Bridge 4  and Kelsier's crew coming together are very similar to Raodon's "building a community" plot. They all realize they need to do something to make life worth living. Cooking, cleaning taking pride in the small things. Kelsier, Kaladin and Raodon all fake smile and laugh to keep other people's spirits up. Since Bridge 4 is a transplant from Dragonsteel prime the other two are reiterations of Bridge 4 really. 

I feel like people have kind of ignored this. But you’re right here, he’s constantly reusing plot elements, I suppose if you’ve written as many books in the same genre that he has then you are going to to have to retread at some points. I hope that this doesn’t become more of a problem in the space age cosmere.

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On 2/25/2021 at 1:22 PM, Quick Ben said:

I would add to that the the fact the fall out from Adolin killing Sadeas, that was severly lacking

It got exactly the reaction it deserved: virtually everyone who is not Dalinar either not caring or pointing out that Adolin did the right thing.  What more needed to be said?

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26 minutes ago, Mason Wheeler said:

It got exactly the reaction it deserved: virtually everyone who is not Dalinar either not caring or pointing out that Adolin did the right thing.  What more needed to be said?

That Adolin flat out murdered a political rival? That that is pretty much assassination and sets a dangerous precedent? That Adolin acted out of passion and not out of compelled philosophical reasoning, so who is he going to kill next that won't deserve it?

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1 hour ago, Mason Wheeler said:

It got exactly the reaction it deserved: virtually everyone who is not Dalinar either not caring or pointing out that Adolin did the right thing.  What more needed to be said?

Well its never said the other highprinces even know Adolin killed Sadeas, never revealed if they pinned the murder on someone else or just decided to close the case ((Adolin and Hatham(i think) were investigating the murder)). And said they couldn't find who did it, etc

The fact Adolin investigated a murder he in fact commited for how long saying nothing etc ? The implication to the other monarchs Dalinar is trying to build a coalotion with would probably have an opinion on his son killing a rival highprince who wasnt playing ball and how that could be what happened them if they didnt play ball etc etc

Also isnt the punishment for killing a highprince death ? So would imagine should of been a trial or some such at a minimum, 

How it effects Dalinars and Adolins relationship wasnt shown/explored, same as Evi's death.

Dalinar struggling with what to do given its his son but "honour" would mean turning him in. How not doing the "honourable" thing effected his mindset even his oaths/bond

Given all the fall out that could of happened i find it strange you say everything that needed to happen and needed to be said happened and was said

 

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1 hour ago, Orlionra said:

That Adolin flat out murdered a political rival? That that is pretty much assassination and sets a dangerous precedent? That Adolin acted out of passion and not out of compelled philosophical reasoning, so who is he going to kill next that won't deserve it?

Sadeas was a traitor and an unrepentant murderer, boasting to Adolin about his plans to commit further treason.

Given the way Sadeas's high social status insulated him from consequences, what other morally justifiable course of action was available to him?  Adolin did the right thing, and as near as I can tell the only right thing he was capable of doing.

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49 minutes ago, Mason Wheeler said:

Sadeas was a traitor and an unrepentant murderer, boasting to Adolin about his plans to commit further treason.

Given the way Sadeas's high social status insulated him from consequences, what other morally justifiable course of action was available to him?  Adolin did the right thing, and as near as I can tell the only right thing he was capable of doing.

Unpopular opinion: Adolin did more harm than good in clandestinely executing Sadeas. 

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