Dark One Reactions

[Chaos]

So it's 10pm Pacific time on June 25th, and Dark One is coming out on ebook tomorrow, June 26th. Time to make our Dark One forum! I'm not entirely sure when the ebook will fall out, so here's your official spoilery reaction topic! For info on where to preorder and a 29 page sample, see here:

Consider this forum to have spoilers. You do not need to tag topic titles here.

Additionally, last week Brandon said the Dark One stream would be this week, but today Dragonsteel said it was postponed: 

I'll have to get reading on this tomorrow! I imagine Vault comics will send it out via email. Dark One should be our next Shardcast on next Friday.

EDIT: It's still not out yet. Boo  

Edited June 26, 2020 by Chaos

[Chaos]

Apparently it's coming out at 6pm. Timezone unclear at the moment:

EDIT: Just got word that it will be out 6pm Eastern, so about an hour and fifteen minutes from now.

[Use the Falchion]

Haven't received my copy yet, but I'm eagerly awaiting the email. 

[Rushu42]

6 minutes ago, Use the Falchion said:

Haven't received my copy yet, but I'm eagerly awaiting the email. 

I'm in the same boat. It will be sent via email, right?

 

[Use the Falchion]

Just now, Rushu42 said:

I'm in the same boat. It will be sent via email, right?

 

It should be! The bonus material hasn't updated like a pre-downloaded game or whatever, so it should be via email. 

[Use the Falchion]

Just finished!

Okay, that was DOOOOOPE! Of all the projects Sanderson's been attached to, this definitely a contender for the darkest one (pun intended). There's optimism in the story, but given the perspective, it feels almost like anti-nihilism in a way. 

For a while I've said that Mistborn was Sanderson's response to the Wheel of Time, but after reading this, I think I might have spoken too soon (or maybe this is the Game of Thrones to The Wheel of Time's The Lord of the Rings...if that makes sense...). All of the talk of the Narrative was straight up Jordan, and how it's finished at the end is so fascinating. 

Paul was a cool character, although I do worry that his ascension to power, while terribly long for a graphic novel, would be too short for a television show (depending on the length of the first season). Nikka was a ride. I thought she was going to be

Spoiler

the spirit of the previous Dark One locked away

but it turns out she was telling the truth about a lot of things. Paul and Nikki's father is hiding a lot of secrets as well (although I think they pretty much state the largest one). 

The princess (Feodora?) was an interesting character, but it's clear her journey is just beginning. 

The ending was awesome and I CANNOT WAIT for more books in this series. 

I have more to say, but it's too fresh right now. I'll come back after reading it a couple of times.

 

P.S. - Bring Me the Horizon's new song "Parasite Eve" goes GREAT with this story (it also goes great with the latest chapters of My Hero Academia). 

[Snorkel]

1 hour ago, Use the Falchion said:

Just finished!

Okay, that was DOOOOOPE! Of all the projects Sanderson's been attached to, this definitely a contender for the darkest one (pun intended). There's optimism in the story, but given the perspective, it feels almost like anti-nihilism in a way. 

How self-contained is volume 1?

[Rushu42]

2 minutes ago, Snorkel said:

How self-contained is volume 1?

It's pretty self contained - it has a story with a beginning and end, and a reasonably satisfying conclusion. It does end on a cliffhanger, though, and several plot threads are left unresolved.

[KandraAllomancer]

18 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

Just finished!

Okay, that was DOOOOOPE! Of all the projects Sanderson's been attached to, this definitely a contender for the darkest one (pun intended). There's optimism in the story, but given the perspective, it feels almost like anti-nihilism in a way. 

For a while I've said that Mistborn was Sanderson's response to the Wheel of Time, but after reading this, I think I might have spoken too soon (or maybe this is the Game of Thrones to The Wheel of Time's The Lord of the Rings...if that makes sense...). All of the talk of the Narrative was straight up Jordan, and how it's finished at the end is so fascinating. 

The basic premise is also quite similar to the Sundering duology by Jacqueline Carey (and the word "sundering" is used several times in relation to the Narrative). Additionally, the Blackened Lands and its inhabitants reminded me of the Misery from Ed McDonald's Raven's Mark series.

[Menderbug]

On 27/06/2020 at 3:48 AM, Snorkel said:

How self-contained is volume 1?

It's interesting... while the book spans one complete self-contained story arc that ends with a very important event that would be worthy of a full-novel Sanderlanche, it also very much feels like this is only the beginning of something much grander. Like a pilot episode of a TV show that already resolves a massive plot thread by itself if that makes sense.

Something a little more spoilery:

Spoiler

I feel like this slightly diminishes the significance of said event in the grand scheme of things, though I think that's very much intentional. The people in this world thought this event was gonna be the big deal, but it turns out it's really only the beginning.

Anyway, I loved it and I'm left with so many questions. Can't wait for the community to take apart every last detail and unravel the secrets of this world (and plot).

Regarding someone's earlier comment that this is Brandon's darkest work yet:

Spoiler

I mean, in a literal sense, yes, but I'm pretty sure that the direction this is going is that the Drull are ultimately the good guys, but their society (and the way they've been framed by the "light") happens to be built around a lot of elements or concepts that we traditionally associate with dark or evil.

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Mender

[Use the Falchion]

4 hours ago, Mender said:

Regarding someone's earlier comment that this is Brandon's darkest work yet:

  Reveal hidden contents

I did notice this and have read many stories/played more than a few games where the premise of "Dark Is Actually Good and Light/Holy Is Evil." But the fact that the story 

Spoiler

in the end says "the Dark One wins rather than being exclusively misunderstood is what makes it dark (well, that and the Drull philosophy on life). 

I am a little afraid that the story is going to go in a direction we've seen and alluded to, but hey, Journey Before Destination. 

[Mistcloaked Mountains]

17 hours ago, Mender said:

Regarding someone's earlier comment that this is Brandon's darkest work yet:

  Hide contents

I mean, in a literal sense, yes, but I'm pretty sure that the direction this is going is that the Drull are ultimately the good guys, but their society (and the way they've been framed by the "light") happens to be built around a lot of elements or concepts that we traditionally associate with dark or evil.

Spoiler

It seems to me that it's going this way too, or more likely a two-sided story, but it's a little disappointing because it takes away from the premise of the story. I was expecting the Dark One to do everything that Voldemort would do, but maybe not as willingly. It could be that Brandon originally intended it this way but decided that it would be too hard to write it like that. I think this might also be part of the reason he switched it to a visual medium. It's easier to portray him as the Dark One despite his not doing anything particularly dark, in a comic book form.

Overall I really enjoyed it which is a relief because Brandon didn't actually write it. Though the preview was promising it was still impossible to know for sure until we got the whole thing.

[+ILuvHats]

On 6/26/2020 at 7:24 PM, Use the Falchion said:

Paul was a cool character, although I do worry that his ascension to power, while terribly long for a graphic novel, would be too short for a television show (depending on the length of the first season). Nikka was a ride. I thought she was going to be.

I actually think it wouldn’t be too hard to write an entire season based on the first graphic novel. I felt like the story moved really quickly, enough so that it was a bit difficult at times for me to wrap my head around anything. For example,

Spoiler

The assassination plot to usurp the king was hatched and carried out in something like two pages. Two pages! If you added more meat to it, it could have taken up much more of the story without feeling slow paced.

Personally, I think there are a lot of opportunities to expand on the lore and character motivation, which the graphic novel touched on, but didn’t dive into. So I’m not too concerned about a TV series as long as the effort is put in.

[Snorkel]

Oh man, I wanna read this so baaaad :-O

[shadowwisp]

Man, I feel bad for saying this since it seems like everyone else here loved it but.....I hated it.

 

This is easily my least favorite Brandon Sanderson story. Maybe it was the comic book format (but I liked White Sand) but everything was so shallow and nothing made sense. There was no feeling of the puzzles falling into place perfectly as I expected with Brandon Sanderson books. I have a lot of questions but I don't think they will be answered and instead I get the strong impression that you just have to accept certain things which again is very atypical of a Sanderson story. True, this is just the first volume but I just feel so completely dissatisfied after finishing that story that I don't know if I will get the next one.  I have trouble explaining why exactly I really didn't like this book.

 

Sorry guys But maybe y'all will enjoy it more than me and I'm just the weird one here.

 

The only thing I liked about the story was:

Spoiler

Nikki and how she came to be. Probably because that was the only part of the story that felt "Brandon Sandersony"

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by shadowwisp

[Lightning]

I actually really liked it!  It left much more of a cliffhanger than most of Brandon's works, which was unnecessary for me since I'll buy the next edition, but I understand it for the medium.

I was surprised by my reaction to one scene.

Spoiler

At the end when the cop busts Paul's head with the stock of his gun. It is hard to describe the shock it gave me.

Such police officers deserve to be held accountable for their actions.  I know the comic can't address it, but it really bothered me.

My favorite part was:

Spoiler

When Paul is at the well, and saying that it was a conscious choice, and he wasn't going to make that choice as it would have later effects. Paul's morality impressed me.

 

[Koloss17]

I really appreciated the conflict of connotation within the story. You have the golden borders around text as good, but the actual words are bloodthirsty. You have red as bad and you have the actual words be fairly good-not pure, but good. The black text bubbles at the end was cool as well. I like the whole “The dark one doesn’t kill, it steals” which I would say is Sandersony. 

On 7/12/2020 at 6:47 PM, shadowwisp said:

There was no feeling of the puzzles falling into place perfectly as I expected with Brandon Sanderson books.

I’d say this is fair. To do this, you need a looong book. Brandon dedicates four fifths of his book To setting up questions that need to be answered and one fifth to answer them. It’s more slow paced, and is much harder to do in a fast paced small graphic novel. I’d say that this story does not adhere to the Brandon Sanderson style. It’s an interesting new taste, and I happen to like it. I understand why it could be disliked, though.

I give this a 3/5 for worldbuilding. It’s okay, but not as engaging as any of the cosmere books.

the characterization is nice, but also not his best work. I’d give that a 3/5 as well. 
 

the plot had some nice surprises and I was definitely pulled further and further into the book, but no earth-shattering reveals. 4/5 for me.

I liked the art and style of the imagery within the novel. Brandon is experimenting, an I like that. I’ll give a 4/5 for artwork.

Overall, I’ll give this comic a 7/10. It’s a nice read, but not really something I’d recommend. I enjoyed reading it and am exited for the next installation!

[Weltall]

I actually waited until my physical copy arrived to finish reading it, which was just last week. I generally liked it a lot (way more than White Sand) and thought there were some good Sanderson twists thrown in there, along with that ending.

One comment on nature of the graphic novel and how 'Brandon' it is, from the livestream: Brandon has said that it's a very faithful adaptation of his outline for Dark One as a TV series, including bits of dialogue that he wrote for various scenes. He's left the writers and artists flexibility in the specifics and worldbuilding but in broad strokes it's basically the world as he wrote it. So I very much doubt that the way the ending plays out was a change from Brandon's original concept because something was 'too hard' to convey. Brandon has also mentioned that if he had his way the TV series would be a faithful adaptation of the same outline, but that might change from what he's said. And hey, if it's Brandon and JMS working together to come up with a different spin on the same basic material, I'm all for that.

So, some spoiler-y thoughts.

Spoiler

- I think that people wondering why Paul isn't doing anything particularly evil as the Dark One might be missing the big picture that Brandon seems to be setting up. The whole 'Light versus Dark' motif seems to exist because the Narrative demands it and it requires that the former be Good ant triumph and the latter be Evil and fail. Paul may be the antagonist as far as the Kingdoms of Light are concerned but that doesn't mean he has to play the role as it's written.

- Speaking of which, there is clearly more at work here than the 'typical' Light/Dark battle the Narrative has been weaving. Illarion did something unprecedented in confronting two Dark Ones in his tenure, the second of whom was apparently atypical as well and wasn't called by the Narrative even though he has the powers. Meanwhile something screwy happened because the latter wasn't killed but somehow got exiled to Earth. And then you have Paul who's a child of both worlds even though this isn't supposed to be how it works. I'm pretty sure that has something to do with how he's able to break the pattern and actually win a victory at the end.

We know Illarion is trying to wrest control of the Narrative back from Earth (or is claiming to at least) so I suspect that what we're seeing here is part of his plan, along with his grooming of a (false) Destined One. I wouldn't be surprised if the Narrative itself is the real 'antagonist' of the story at the end, with Illarion being genuine in his desire to break Mriandus free of the Narrative though his reasons aren't nearly as good as he'd like you to think.

- Related to that, Brandon mentioned that when Dark One was Cosmere he was planned to use fabrials to use 'magic' without having access to Investiture of his own, to pull off some impressive tricks. That seems to have survived in some form, as Brandon has said he's using magic that not everyone would be happy about if they knew. He also mentioned that Nikki started as a normal character, then became a Cognitive Shadow when the story went Cosmere, then stayed like one after pulling it out. Given the discussion of how Earth is somehow directing the Narrative, I suspect that we're getting something similar to the Cognitive Realm where perception on one side shapes the reality of the other. People on Earth unconsciously want a Good versus Evil story so that's what the Narrative compels Mirandus to experience.

- Shakespeare having some sort of visions of Mirandus and trying to write a play based on it (and being told to try something else) was funny, especially in light of seeing a post wondering about connections to the Tempest's character of Miranda. So, was old Will the first Destined One? Either way it reminds me a lot of Discworld's inspiration particles and Hwel.

I'll probably have more thoughts later but this is what immediately sprang to mind. Looking forward to the next volume and any news about its other adaptations.

[GroundPetrel]

I kinda liked it, but I had some major reservations.   

--The worldbuilding wasn't really deep enough IMO, I get that it's partially that way on purpose to be revealed like an onion as we go but with the insanely fast pace that throws it out of whack.  

--The hero is...a mashup of Vin and Kaladin really.  At least in feel.  His concept's pretty cool, but he's still basically "if Kaladin's arc was more like Vin's" and that's really not fun for me.  

--This thing is way too storming fast, especially on Mirandus.  Key point: One character dies and I felt nothing, because I hadn't had time to get to know and love him.  Like, he dies faster in screen time terms than

Spoiler

Dunny

, I think.  That's what really damages the story for me.  I don't really feel like I KNOW the Mirandus characters the same way I do the mom and her client.  Which is why the courtroom plot works and the Dark One side...is eh.  

--I think that Mr. Wise Wizard is behind a lot of this mess to some degree.  The creepy villain is great but I think he's playing a revenge game here (and just has really bad APD).  

 

Probably the weakest Sanderson book I've ever read--that still puts it above most authors though.  Still want to see more.