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Rhythm of War Part Two Reactions


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If you're reading the book and you want to liveblog some thoughts as you read, this thread will exist so you can chat about Part Two but NOT be spoiled by later stuff in the book. So feel free to discuss Part Two of Rhythm of War! 

No spoilers, even tagged, for later portions of Rhythm of War beyond Part Two.

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I have to say, the interludes between part 1 & 2 took my breath away.

We've already read the Syl interlude. Syl tries to understand Kal's depression and asks Dalinar for advice, realizing that she does understand, to some extent. Syl also delivers some burns to the Stormfather.

Sja-Anat and Odium's relationship was interesting to observe, as well as her perspective on the world given her nature and what exactly she's trying to do, and why and how. She's considering Mraize's deal. Her thoughts on the Sibling are certainly interesting. It seems the Sibling really is the Tower of Urithiru itself. Sja-Anat confirms that the Sibling is a child of both Honor and Cultivation, and calls him... "cousin".

And we get our first glimpse of how well the Intents of Honor, Cultivation and Odium fit. Odium is about feeling passionate about something, arguing against things you don't agree with, questioning the existing status-quo, standing against the wrong, becoming better by questioning things and by acknowledging the parts of yourself you do not like to transform yourself into something better, allowing yourself to like and dislike things, dispute against moral majority and group-think, hating injustices... Odium is the spirit of conflict, of dissent, of disagreement, of discord, of anger, of defiance, of disapproval, of protest and opposition, of differences. Odium isn't evil but the ability to discern evil from good: Odium is integral, and slots right in with Honor. Growth begets conflict and conflict begets growth, Odium slots right in with Cultivation. It's just like Preservation and Ruin, pieces of a whole.

Taravangian's interlude reads like the turning point like Kaladin at end of Way of Kings or Dalinar at the end of Oathbringer imo.

Also Battar is still in Kharbranth and appears more sane than the other Heralds, making Taravangian even more distrustful of her.

The Part 2 epigraphs, ohmygodguys, the letters continue....

Edited by Honorless
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Guest Parallax
7 minutes ago, Honorless said:

The Part 2 epigraphs, ohmygodguys, the letters continue....

Does it say who it is from? (I am assuming Hoid is the recipient to mirror what we had in WoR). 

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2 hours ago, Parallax said:

Does it say who it is from? (I am assuming Hoid is the recipient to mirror what we had in WoR). 

It's easy enough to guess who this is from!

 

Shallan in warriors' garb, we need a drawing! 

Hmm... wonder which magic system Mraize's cube is from... 

Also all the Radiant spren drawings as promised! Wow, uh guess we know who the Truthwatcher spren are now and we may have met them before already

Honorspren hate Highspren and Inkspren the most, due to their unbending nature. They dislike Cryptics much less but are wary of them all the same. Looking forward to seeing more spren culture!

Ooh the Lightweaver team structure! They call themselves the Unseen Court... ugh, the Windrunners need a cool name too, dammit! Hmm... the High Court? Probably not, what with the Highspren... and Teft.

Kaladin is now the most eligible Alethi bachelor, lol

Edited by Honorless
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I wasn't sure if the Interludes go in the section for the Part they precede or follow, so I'm playing it safe and assuming the former.

  • I-1: Sylphrena
    • Skipping since we saw this already
  • I-2: Sja-Anat
    • The Everstorm appeared in Shadesmar before the stormform listeners? Perhaps as early as Gavilar's activities?
    • Odium is "one of the three pure tones of Roshar", so the rhythms are post-Shard arrival?
    • It seems like Rayse is really the hatred part of the shard, and the Intent is much closer to Passion
  • I-3: Taravangian
    • Danlan was a Diagram member! (I think scribe that Adolin courted once
    • Which Unmade is in Shinovar?
    • Taravangian seems to sincerely believe that Dova is Battah as he said to Dalinar, not Pailiah as some have theorised
    • OH rust burning the Diagram
  • A Portion of the Southern Sea of Souls
    • These Nazh maps are confusing - looks to be annotated in the present day given mention of Adolin and Shallan, but the "strange storm" is suggestive of the Everstorm, which should already be passing through?
    • What does he have of Khriss's?
  • 20: The Unseen Court
    • Only 20 Lightweavers so far, and interestingly different progression system
    • The Stump made it here!
    • What on earth is this nausea? Formless? Some external influence on Shallan?
  • 21: The Seething Knot
    • Adolin's fashion thing is feeling a eensy bit overdone
    • Have we seen these Zahel discs before?
    • Is Beryl the spy? This seems too obvious a plant to send her over Stargyle, but that makes me think it's a red herring... I think we'll all feel stupid if Ialai's killer was someone who hadn't even been named at the point of the assassination after how much we argued over it
    • Oh come on, give us the name of the Iriali curse god!
    • Felt's on board! Maybe we'll see some more about him
    • What about the final truth is blocking Shallan from Soulcasting?
    • Dalinar and Adolin have serious stuff to deal with... it's interesting this book so far how not having Dalinar POVs has made him seem markedly more frustrating than in OB
    • Still unclear how they unlocked the Shadesmar travel
  • 22. No Use Talking
    • Nvm, it was the Stormfather. Interesting that the Oathgates were created by the Sibling as well; makes sense given their link to the tower
    • Interesting that Urithiru looks like the highstorm - another Sibling parallel I'm not quite sure what to do with
    • WTF Gallant's afterimages remind me of Szeth! Are Ryshadium cognitive shadows?? Why afterimages only in Shadesmar and not the Physical realm, if it's about imperfect mind-body attachment?
    • <3 perambulatory Pattern
    • Should we already know the Kasiden demonym?
    • Maya's brushing feels very Cultivation
  • 23. Binding Wounds
    • TEFT I wanna cry
  • 24. Full of Awe
    • INVENTION??
    • What did Radiant do that she feels guilt for? I'm forgetting
    • Shallan never told Adolin about the Soulcaster heist until now??
  • 25. Devotary of Mercy
    • WHIMSY?? MERCY?? VALOR??
    • Lirin for Lightweaver?
    • I think I'm really going to enjoy this Kaladin/Teft buddy cop act
    • I'm glad Kaladin is becoming a therapist/mental health provider? Some Iroh "best way to help yourself is to help others" action
  • 26. A Little Espionage
    • How did Veil pick all of this espionage up? From Ishnah? And Radiant from Adolin? That'll be pretty crippling if they can't consolidate, and it also feels like a juggling act if they need to switch every time they need to do something.. what if they have to Lightweave and swordfight at the same time?
  • 27. Banners
    • Shades are something to do with the Spiritual realm??
    • Lightweaving won't stick to Nightblood's sheath - is this just because it's aluminium or Nightblood specific? I forget if we have seen this happen to anything else, but I could see Nightblood just sucking up Lightweavings
    • I like that Brandon sometimes chooses to just craft a chapter around a particular motif. This one works well
    • They really need to finish exploring the tower...
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Guest Parallax
Just now, Honorless said:

It's easy enough to guess who this is from!

Cultivation? I am stuck without the book until tomorrow afternoon, since I don't mind spoilers I decided to hang out here in the forums and read what people are posting. 

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1 minute ago, Parallax said:

Cultivation? I am stuck without the book until tomorrow afternoon, since I don't mind spoilers I decided to hang out here in the forums and read what people are posting. 

 

1 minute ago, Eternal Khol said:

Sazed!!!

Yes, it's definitely Harmony - the writer mentions being new to the role, Scadrial, and holding opposed powers.

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28 minutes ago, Parallax said:

Cultivation? I am stuck without the book until tomorrow afternoon, since I don't mind spoilers I decided to hang out here in the forums and read what people are posting. 

You sure?

Just in case...

if you change your mind halfway through I'm putting it in a spoiler box

Spoiler

Tis our boi, the Harmonious One!

Edit: Ah, I didn't see EK had already obliged you

Edited by Honorless
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Adolin talking to Kaladin about the thrill (not that Thrill) of competition and how it's different from taking enjoyment from hurting others. I'm really enjoying the dynamic between these two since OB.

Adolin totally sounds like an Elsecaller here, being the best one can be...

Haha, they still haven't figured out Zahel. He had given Adolin a Hallandren coin.

Oh wow, the Ryshadium are very intelligent horses

And now Adolin sounds like an Edgedancer...

Ooh Adolin's sword collection! I've always loved the look of the punchy stabby swords: think knuckleduster but pointy, I dunno what they're called irl

We'll see the Stump again (an older woman on an adventure! About time fantasy did this! Looking forward to Rothfuss' promise to deliver the same... whenever that might be), and the Stoneward is Iriali & very free-spirited, and an Edgedancer (the same one from the preview chapters) whose religious views are very interesting. More Vathah and Ishnah, I'd like to see more of Gaz and Red too, but the former hasn't even made an appearance yet. Huh, thought Stargyle would be a cameo, was surprised when he was chosen to accompany Shallan & Adolin but he got switched (conveniently!) with one of the newer Lightweavers who's under suspicion for being with the Ghostbloods and killing Ialai but I don't know, seems like a possible red herring.

Why, hello there, Felt

Even Adolin is wary of Jasnah, wonder what will happen if he finds out what Jasnah intended to do to Renarin in Thaylen City. Soulcasting is how the Alethi armies maintained their military might, so it makes sense that Jasnah is concentrated on that. It's a valuable commodity: an army marches on its stomach. Shallan is the most talented at illusions and wants them to be spies, Jasnah seems to have been careful enough to not undermine her. Shallan's accidental Soulcasting: blood, fire, crystal, is there more to it (looks at Ten Essences chart) or is she just bad at control?

I'm really starting to dislike Dalinar's controlling, monarchical, domineering attitude.

It seems the Dustbringers' affiliation with the Diagram is quite visible. Their spren are among the ones most angry at humans for the Recreance.

Finally, Adolin's inner thoughts after finding out who exactly the Blackthorn was and what he did. I've waited long to see at least some consequences.

And now I'm thinking of Willshaper for Adolin... from his fashion to his free-thinking and making his own path, being his own man

and such control over himself, perhaps a touch of Dustbringer too... He always tries to be honest with himself, he could be a very good Lightweaver too...

He's fine with his own choices, not wanting to live up to the ideals of some spren. He wants to be all of the things. And there's Maya..... There's a lot going on with Adolin.

So the one that the Oathgate spren called the parent was the Sibling. The Stormfather and his Bondsmith, Dalinar were the ones to convince them to start operating again.

Nohadon was the Sibling's Bondsmith intensifies! The steps from the Oathgate in the Cognitive Realm are named after him.

We've suspected Melishi to have been the Sibling's Bondsmith too, since "one Bondsmith was in constant accompaniment of Urithiru" and he was the sole Bondsmith during the False Desolation and the Recreance, and now the Sibling is called a Deadeye.

Basically, I'm fully expecting a Sibling Bondsmith to revive the Tower, but who?

"The tower was the same color the sky turned in Shadesmar when a Highstorm was passing over Roshar." Hmm... further support that Urithiru is the Sibling. How else would the Tower be as Invested?

The Ryshadium are a bit different in Shadesmar too

Isasik the mapmaker, hehe

That reminds me, where's Unyielding Fidelity? I expected to see it in the map (another Sea of Lost Lights map from Nazh!) Ah, it'd be between the two maps, that's unfortunate. But plenty of interesting stuff on this map too.

More spren interactions! With Mistspren and Peakspren we now know all the names. Congrats to those who guessed the Peakspren were the Stoneward spren, sorry to those who guessed Keenspren were the Truthwatcher spren. Mistspren appearance is really interesting, I wonder what they represent. Hmm... Cultivationspren appearance is strange too, now that I think about it. Pattern is adorable.

Oh wow, some spren have their own cities, some have their own countries that means that the same type of spren can have different nationalities! This is fascinating!

"Fused to the east (around Cultivation's Perpendicularity), strange things in Shinovar (no idea), Honorspren acting uppity (something to do with Restares?)"

Syl being a total bro. Jasnah can Soulcast medicine... wow. Kharbranth has stethoscopes too, I shouldn't be surprised but I was. Kaladin has found a sort of peace here. Heh, the Rosharans shall now know the common cold! Teft's spren was Phendorana!? I like Hesina, hope she gets a chapter or interlude too.

heh, they still can't quite wrap their minds around the concept of another world as other planets. Shallan still seems to think of off-world as beyond Shadesmar, though it would be a bit difficult to conceptualize and admit for modern Rosharans. Huh, so the Ghostbloods are looking for Ba-Ado-Mishram. The Heralds Nalan and Kalak were present during her Binding, note that it happened after the Aharietiam.

Haha, bad drawings of Adolin trigger Shallan it seems. I like Radiant and Veil, even independent of Shallan, as their own characters.

Kaladin talks a bit about being depressed. Kaladin is, no surprise here, absolutely awesome. Kaladin is as much a doctor as he is a soldier and it looks like he might become a psychologist. He's found a new purpose, where he's needed, where he has experience, where he can help!

 

OMG, other Shards!!!

Invention (perhaps the one who is hiding and just wants to survive? Same as Wisdom? Harmony wasn't able to contact them again), Whimsy (apparently wasn't of much help), Mercy (worried him for some reason), Valor (she actually likes Hoid). Harmony and Endowment talked. Harmony just learned of Devotion & Dominion's demise & Splintering. Ambition and Odium apparently did not clash alone, Mercy was there too and the fight left a scar in the Spiritual Realm somehow! He's disturbed by the effects on Threnody (we need Dust Brigade to release already!). Autonomy and her Avatars remain hidden from him. No mention of Cultivation, perhaps she is hidden from him too and/or perhaps he didn't try to reach her in the Rosharan system with Odium active. *starts counting* Ambition, Devotion, Dominion, Honor, Cultivation, Odium, Preservation, Ruin, Autonomy, Endowment, Invention, Whimsy, Mercy, Valor... so two other Shards are also hidden.

Wisdom might be one other, which would leave just one other. Invention, Wisdom (assuming the two arr not the same, the last one (or two, if Wisdom and Invention are the same) might refer to the Shard that is not on a planet (though Ambition isn't either, for the most part. Ooh nor Autonomy, sort of) unless of course that WoB was referring to the same Shard who was hiding and just wanted to survive, which could be either of these three.

Harmony realizes the danger Odium poses and wants to take action. He also understands his motive: to be the sole god in the Cosmere, to remain Odium by Splintering the other Shards rather than absorbing them and changing him, and as Shards are essentially infinite he doesn't need power. He thinks that Odium is not being controlled well by its Vessel, and we now know that Rayse is somewhat in conflict with the Intent of his Shard, so he's not off the mark but Rayse isn't nearly as warped by Odium's Intent as Harmony suspects, the two still conflict, so he's correct that he isn't a perfect Vessel. Harmony also says that Odium's Investiture would remain and gain sentience even if Rayse is gone, many of us do suspect that Rayse might get killed in book 5 and the wider conflict as well as the Shard of Odium itself would come to the forefront in the back 5, this might support that theory.

Harmony is looking for a champion. I'm thinking Kelsier: he was Connected to Ruin and held Preservation for a time.

Edited by Honorless
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I’ve not gotten far in part two, but I want to put this here (and maybe some one can tell me how to forward it to Brandon?)

Brandon: As a mother of a child with severe cognitive delays, I want to tell you thank you. Thank you for the scenes of Adolin and Maya. Thank you for showing his belief in her and her understanding.

Because the doctors told me my big girl would never be capable of anything. Would never know or understand the world. But she smiles when she sees me and her big brother. And she has a rivalry with her little sister. And today she lifted her hand onto her crackers because she wanted one.

Everyone here talks about how well you show mental illness. But no one talks about how well you portray what it’s like to have a child with cognitive disabilities, which is almost never shown. So thank you for showing it here.

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  • 28. Heresies:
    • Oh, I was not expecting the spanreed writer to be a spren. I was sure it was a Sleepless. True, it isn't confirmed yet, but the writing does point a lot more towards the spren theory than before, and probably Sja-Anat given the location.
    • I don't understand what Navani is expecting by breaking the spanreed, though
  • 29. A Cage Without Bars
    • How would Jasnah know the expected distribution of gemstone quality??
    • We really need to understand more about deadeye mechanics this book - Adolin is definitely doing something along the lines of waking Maya up but there must be a reason that everyone thinks it is so impossible
    • I have no idea how this Mraize box works, magically...
    • New deadeyes? My feeling is that it isn't from new radiants that we haven't seen, but i have no basis for any other method of creating deadeyes.
  • 30. The Betrayal
    • Goddamnit, Beryl is the spy? Not sure that feels very satisfying.. it just seems too obvious. I'm still expecting a double-fake somehow.
    • It's still unclear what happened at the Recreance. Notum does not seem to make a promising case for the envoy
  • 31. Daughter of Traitors
    • Hoid is hoping to maintain Odium's prison? That is a more specific goal than I think we have explicitly known before
    • Adhesion is the missing surge for the Fused, then. Created only by Honor? Not sure how to process this. It does point to special roles for the Windrunners and the Bondsmiths, since they have Adhesion.
    • Cohesion appears to be about mixing atoms together - will be interesting to see what the limits of this are.
    • Raboniel describes Honor as a god of laws, which is an interesting take on oaths. Honor created the surges, to provide physical laws. Honor might be Tanavast's intent mixing with a Shard that might otherwise be called Order
  • 32. Of Three Minds
    • Man, Brandon is really able to match the epigraphs to the chapters so well.
    • I wonder how they measure Stormlight. What's the unit? Adolin notes that gems go dun soon after dimming, which feels oddly nonlinear in a way that, e.g., a leaky bucket wouldn't be.
  • 33. Understanding
    • "There was more than one way to protect" - YES KAL
    • Sad that Kaladin hasn't told Hesina everything yet. I guess that's a lot to ask but I hope that he realises that he can. He talks right here about needing to know that others understand and then immediately says that others don't understand him. Give them more credit, or at least a chance, buddy.
  • 34. A Flame Never Extinguished
    • This was just really cute. That's it.
    • Oh, and the Ryshadium are totally some sort of honorspren spren horses attached to a body. Somehow.
  • 35. The Strength of a Soldier
    • Oh man. Adolin for the Stonewards
  • 36. The Price of Honor
    • I wasn't expecting that. Honestly, the sanderlanche is coming and I'm just trying to ride it.
  • 37. Silence from the Dead
    • The fused use the word ralkalest! (like the Rose Empire on Sel)
  • 38. Rhythm of the Terrors
    • Was the explosion a distraction to get Navani away?
  • 39. Invasion
    • SIBLING?????
    • Why wasn't Kaladin affected like the other Radiants?
    • Oh what? Adhesion not affected? I guess because that wasn't one of the ones that the tower was set up to negate?
  • 40. In For All
    • Oh man, this is not the position I wanted Navani to be in.
    • Tshadr :(((((((
  • 41. The Most Dangerous
    • Venli's description of the Pursuer suggests that Shadows can influence/set their own Intent, which is intriguing

Oh jeez. I'm gonna be up for a long time.

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Guest Parallax
1 hour ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Because the doctors told me my big girl would never be capable of anything. Would never know or understand the world. But she smiles when she sees me and her big brother. And she has a rivalry with her little sister. And today she lifted her hand onto her crackers because she wanted one.

I think her mother deserves some credit too! :) 

Best wishes to you and your family. 

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2 hours ago, Parallax said:

I think her mother deserves some credit too! :) 

Best wishes to you and your family. 

Thanks! I think my parents deserve the most credit; without them she would never be where she is. They’re awesome.

It was just really nice to see that kind of interaction in a book that isn’t specifically about that sort of relationship. It’s a very rare thing and I thought it was done really well. I love how Adolin treats Maya here because it’s just how I want people to treat my girl. And all the Spren reactions are just like all her pessimistic doctors. So this was really, really touching for me.

 

I hope someone on here knows how to contact Brandon and can forward the message for me. These are totally going to be my favorite chapters.

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