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What would Stormlight Archive books be if told mostly from the point of view of the Parshendi?


Vambram

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After re-reading WoK, and WoR, I have come to the conclusion that the Stormlight Archive books could be very interesting, entertaining, and compelling if the major pov's were reversed. If the main protagonists were the Parshendi instead of the humans, I'm convinced that Sanderson's books would still be just as great for me. 

 

What do y'all think? Considering the thousands of years of history of Roshar, the roles of the 3 shards on that planet, I truly believe that Sanderson has created series of books in which it's very difficult to say which side of the war is the "right side" to cheer to victory.  

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I think it would be equally good written from their point of view, too. For me it's easy to see which side I wouldn't want to be on, I feel like everyone is part of a long and terrible game of Odium's. Some humans have started to figure it out, I think. And when enough Singers figure it out, if they can because their access to information is so heavily controlled and manipulated, there will be an impressive level of righteous outrage. The good thing about Sanderson is that, if that day comes, no matter who's side it's viewed from, it won't be as simple as, oh let's join forces against our common enemy. As we see so often, people are never that simple, and Brandon knows this. Some will. Some won't. And it's between those ends of that spectrum that things will get interesting. I'm excited for this next book. I don't think anything like that is coming yet, but we're going to have a lot more nonhuman perspectives in general in this book, and possibly more in the future, from what I understand. So crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

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So with Venli and Eshonai flashbacks we will actually get their perspective on events in the upcoming Rhythm of War.  I personally think that reading from the perspective of a generally doomed people would be super depressing.  (Although if told with Rlain as the main character you really could do something.  Oh great now I have started to outline the book...).  It is a testament to Brandon's writing that the books would work validly from either perspective. 

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I think this is a really good point. The world of Stormlight is so well thought out and complex. We’re still going to be finding new things decades after the series is over. 

I think Rhythm of War is going to be the most diverse book in the series so far, because we’re getting perspectives from people that are on opposing sides, going mad, even dead. I can’t wait to see how Brandon handles it! 

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3 hours ago, Karger said:

So with Venli and Eshonai flashbacks we will actually get their perspective on events in the upcoming Rhythm of War.  I personally think that reading from the perspective of a generally doomed people would be super depressing.  (Although if told with Rlain as the main character you really could do something.  Oh great now I have started to outline the book...).  It is a testament to Brandon's writing that the books would work validly from either perspective. 

I'm hoping that with the flashbacks from Venli and Eshonai that Brandon Sanderson reveals more canonical clues who were the former gods of the Singers were before the humans arrived on Roshar. I do not believe their gods were Odium and his spren. Am I not seeing something obvious about the former gods of the Singers? A fact already stated in the first 3 books?

 

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1 minute ago, Vambram said:

I do not believe their gods were Odium and his spren

It seems fairly clear that they were not.

1 minute ago, Vambram said:

Am I not seeing something obvious about the former gods of the Singers? A fact already stated in the first 3 books?

The "obvious" answer is that they were the three great spren. 

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I'd love it. How Parshendi would describe humans when they first (ish) saw them at the Shattered Plains. What they think of the Parshmen. Their supposed savior, Odium. All the Parshmen awakening. Losing loved ones to the Fused. The Songs of Remembrance, the original Voidbringers and the current ones.

It would be a very interesting series. I hope Rhythm of War manages to show Parshendi viewpoint well.

Edited by Dreamer
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11 hours ago, Dreamer said:

I'd love it. How Parshendi would describe humans when they first (ish) saw them at the Shattered Plains. What they think of the Parshmen. Their supposed savior, Odium. All the Parshmen awakening. Losing loved ones to the Fused. The Songs of Remembrance, the original Voidbringers and the current ones.

It would be a very interesting series. I hope Rhythm of War manages to show Parshendi viewpoint well.

Yes. That's exactly what I'm talking about. To me, the Singers and the Listeners and the humans have all been deceived by Odium and also some of the spren. I'm hoping each side figures that out. 

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So in an outline of our inverse WoKs we have Rlain subbing for Kaladin as our main PoV with a secondary as Eshonai both people forced into something they do not want and are not ready for with a side of Venli(and maybe her once mate) as an inverse Shallan getting what she wants at the cost of what she feels she should believe in. 

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1 minute ago, clockworkspider said:

Distinctly darker, I think.  Certainly more tragic, at least early on.

Even compared to bride crews?  The Parshendi at least have a sense of camaraderie and the value of each soldier and unlike most actually have a decent idea of what is going on. 

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2 hours ago, Karger said:

Even compared to bride crews?  The Parshendi at least have a sense of camaraderie and the value of each soldier and unlike most actually have a decent idea of what is going on. 

The bridge crews were bad, I can't argue there, but we also got other viewpoints where things weren't as (blatantly) grim.

Telling the story mostly from the Parshendi point of view, though, leaves us with the story of a civilization's inexorable slide into destruction, at least for the first two books.

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1 hour ago, clockworkspider said:

The bridge crews were bad, I can't argue there, but we also got other viewpoints where things weren't as (blatantly) grim.

Telling the story mostly from the Parshendi point of view, though, leaves us with the story of a civilization's inexorable slide into destruction, at least for the first two books.

I'm not convinced that the story of the Listeners and Singers will end with their destruction. 

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8 hours ago, clockworkspider said:

Telling the story mostly from the Parshendi point of view, though, leaves us with the story of a civilization's inexorable slide into destruction, at least for the first two books.

Except we have Venli who is in conference with a Voidspren and knows that they can win.

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22 minutes ago, Karger said:

Except we have Venli who is in conference with a Voidspren and knows that they can win.

At the cost of going back to their old gods and effectively negating their ancestors' sacrifice.  They left Odium's cause originally for a reason, remember.

Also, to Vambram, neither am I, which is why I mentioned "at least for the first two books."

Edited by clockworkspider
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Just now, clockworkspider said:

At the cost of going back to their old gods and effectively negating their ancestors' sacrifice.  They left Odium's cause originally for a reason, remember.

We won't know how bad that is yet and Venli does not see that as a cost yet either.

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39 minutes ago, clockworkspider said:

Venli's is not the only perspective that matters.  And her entire Oathbringer arc is about realizing that going back to Odium was not worth it.

She is not the only but I think as far as depressing goes they would be about equal.

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