Small Question about Dark One

[Zoey]

I can't find a place to ask this so just decided to make another question.

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Note that I did end up pulling it out of the Cosmere, as it ended up working better as a dark secondary world fantasy than it did as a Cosmere YA series. It went both older, and more twisted, in the current outline.

Sanderson said this about Dark One, and I am wondering what exactly he meant by it. Is he just saying it got too dark for a YA Novel and he decided to move it away from Cosmere as well. Or is he trying to say it got too dark for Cosmere? Which I highly doubt considering the themes and subject matter of Cosmere books. Like, Drug Addiction, Rape, Slavery, Child Abuse, Depression, among others.

 

I know this is a small question and shouldn't need a whole forum thing, its just weighing on my mind. I am just very confused as it seems to be saying the latter, but the latter makes little sense to me. The former makes a lot more sense, but it doesn't seem to be saying that due to how it is worded. Reading through Dark One, it isn't more twisted or older than Cosmere novels.  So he likely just meant the former, just two largely unrelated decisions. 

Edited June 18, 2021 by Zoey

[Use the Falchion]

I think he just meant that the "you're the evil overlord, Harry" type of story didn't work out as well as he wanted in the Cosmere, from both a magical and storytelling perspective. As awesome as the Cosmere is, it has limits on what it can do for the magic and for the world itself. Skyward ran into this problem as well, so Brandon took it out of the Cosmere and created the Cytoverse instead (Skyward, Starsight, Cytonic, Book 4, the future novellas, and Defending Elysium).* 

 

There are a few WoBs on this as well. 

From the Houston Skyward Signing: (I was there!!)

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Questioner

What made you decide to take the Dark One out of the Cosmere series? You couldn't get the magic to work?

Brandon Sanderson

It work a lot better once I pulled him into our world, and had the people coming to our world to assassinate him. And once I pulled something into our world, I boot it out of the cosmere. That did free up the magic to work in a different way from cosmere magic, which it is doing. It's kind of based on this idea of the narrative, that stories that people tell become real in the other world. Which could have worked in the cosmere with some Cognitive Realm things, but its working much better outside.

 

From a December 2017 signing (so before Dark One snapped into place):

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Questioner

Is Obrodai going to be the setting of Dark One?

Brandon Sanderson

Excellent question. That is also a RAFO. Sorry, sorry! This is partially because Dark One pops in and out of the cosmere a lot, depending on which version I'm doing. It's been the hardest book. For those who don't know anything about, this is a book I talk about in my blog once in a while... It's like the Harry Potter story, except you get told "By the way, you're the Dark One who's gonna destroy the world, so we're gonna assassinate you while you're a teenager, so that never happens." It's a really cool story that I have never been able to get to work.

Questioner

*inaudible*

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, and Obrodai is one of the Shardworlds, but I keep popping Dark One in and out of the cosmere. Sometimes it feels too self-referential to the fantasy genre to actually be in the cosmere. Because I don't want the cosmere to be self-referential, right? Whenever something gets even a little too silly, I'm like, "Nah, this can't be in the cosmere anymore." So, we'll see what happens.

 

18 hours ago, Zoey said:

I can't find a place to ask this so just decided to make another question.

There is a Dark One section of the Forum that could use some more love

[Zoey]

11 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

I think he just meant that the "you're the evil overlord, Harry" type of story didn't work out as well as he wanted in the Cosmere, from both a magical and storytelling perspective. As awesome as the Cosmere is, it has limits on what it can do for the magic and for the world itself. Skyward ran into this problem as well, so Brandon took it out of the Cosmere and created the Cytoverse instead (Skyward, Starsight, Cytonic, Book 4, the future novellas, and Defending Elysium).* 

 

There are a few WoBs on this as well. 

From the Houston Skyward Signing: (I was there!!)

 

From a December 2017 signing (so before Dark One snapped into place):

 

There is a Dark One section of the Forum that could use some more love

Okay, yeah, makes more sense. He just didn't word it that well on State of Sanderson. Thanks. Kinda forgot about Archanum when I asked this question, lol.