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Most Improved Character


Stitof

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Probably Shallan. In TWOK, I found her sections to be distracting on my first readthrough. WoR made me like the character. But the Oathbringer came out, and I was...confused. I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it. After giving it some thought, hearing some WoBs, and thinking about it some more (along with a later reread), I've come to like and respect Shallan's arc in that book. Rereads - and the right music choice - have also made Shallan's arc in TWOK more interesting as well. 

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Nale. When he first appeared as Darkness in WoR, I wasn’t on board. He came across as flat, almost cartoonishly evil, and I found the whole ‘Darkness’ aesthetic corny. After we found out more about him as the story went on, I got very interested. The fact that he used to be genuinely heroic, and has wound up like he is now by trying to do the right thing while having warped judgement, has me very excited to see where he goes from here.

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Didn't care for Moash on my first read of the series. I didn't hate him, I just didn't think much of him. I knew he was the guy everyone hated before I read Oathbringer, but once I actually read it I kinda thought "is that it?". He just felt like a fairly standard villain and didn't really prompt any strong reactions from me (It didn't help that his relationship with Kaladin was very "tell don't show"). It's kinda hard to explain the exact process of what happened next, but after another reread or two, he became my second favorite character in the series *behind Adolin) and I felt he could easily take the top spot depending on how RoW went.

Then RoW was actually published, and I haven't been okay since.

Anyway, Szeth has been kinda growing on me lately, I guess.

Edited by LuckyJim
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Lift. I had skipped her words of radiance and novella, first reading her I Oathbringer, where I was taken aback about who this random character was. I didn't dislike her, but didn't care for her either. Then I read the WoR chapter and novella and found her frustrating, but with the new context, I liked her more in Oathbringer and found her to be a breath of fresh air in a fairly stoic set of characters, which is why I came to the conclusion that she's the type of characters that needs other characters, with presence, to bounce and contrast of off and doesn't work in a vacuum. 

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I don't have a character that exactly fits the criteria but here's Shallan's progress for me.

 

 

WoK: Worst thing to exist, ever, period. I cannont itterate enough how bad Shallan is in WoK, and she should have been put on hold until WoR if not cut from the series entirely.

 

WoR: Still my least favorite character by far, but I no longer groaned and wished for her death when I saw she was the PoV.

 

OB: Only a small dislike, a bitter after-taste left from WoK, but she wasn't as disliked compared to other characters

 

RoW: Finally a book that knows what to do with Shallan, I have nothing negative to say about Shallan in RoW.

Edited by Frustration
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Adolin, I found him annoying and obnoxious throughout the first two books. Really him & Shallan made WoR as bad as

(Mistborn)

Spoiler

Zane made WoA

for me. I just hate romantic subplots in general and the way they interacted with Kaladin did not help their case. I started liking Adolin only after the OB Shadesmar sequence. And I like him even better in RoW.

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If it counts:  Azure by a mile.

From the actual main cast, Shallan started ok, dipped low in her initial Veil time (the unearned mask never quite fit, as she realized), then has gotten a lot better since.  I was pretty much on board with all the other POV characters, or else at least intrigued by their arcs.  She was the only one who's ratio of off-putting to interesting tipped the wrong way on my first read.  On rereads she's better because I know more of the secret context.  

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On 8/30/2021 at 10:14 PM, Frustration said:

WoK: Worst thing to exist, ever, period. I cannont itterate enough how bad Shallan is in WoK, and she should have been put on hold until WoR if not cut from the series entirely.

0.0 I'm sorry, I have to ask, why? You and I have the complete reverse order with Shallan, with my being frustrated with her in RoW and like her in the previous installments.

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2 hours ago, Aspiring Writer said:

0.0 I'm sorry, I have to ask, why? You and I have the complete reverse order with Shallan, with my being frustrated with her in RoW and like her in the previous installments.

Two main reasons

  1. because of Shallan WoK feels like an odd hybrid of a war novel and Jane Austin. Guess which one I prefer. We go from Kaladin doing something intresting to Shallan doing the same thing she's been doing for the last 300 pages
  2. In the entire book what does Shallan do? She becomes Jasnah's ward, the same thing she did in the first 100 pages.
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Pattern. He was already developing some personality in Oathbringer, but it wasn't until RoW that I realized he was an interesting character beyond just giving Shallan magic powers. I love his sense of humor so much.

And I have to give a shoutout to my now favorite character, Navani; I didn't like her much when she was first introduced, since I really wasn't a fan of her attempts to force a romantic subplot on Dalinar. Until RoW everything we knew about her was just seen in relation to Dalinar (which is a personal pet peeve for poorly written love interests), but as soon as you took him out of the picture she was a fascinating, awesome character who I really related to. I'm so glad Sanderson decided to flesh her out.

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I have two characters that I immediately thought of. 
 

Dalinar- I didn’t love him in TWoK. Initially, I just felt like he was a subplot. It wasn’t until later into the books that he really came together in terms of plot. He felt kind of pretentious to me at first. He just seemed like some lighteyes with a stick up his ass. But now he is one of my favorite characters. His arc was so impactful to the story and I absolutely love him. 
 

Navani- when navani was first introduced I thought it was unnecessary. I also was weirded out by the fact that she involved with dalinar even though she had been married to Gavilar previously. Now I understand that was strictly a political marriage and not because they loved each other. It wasn’t until WoR that I really loved her. She had a huge impact on the story and really is a wonderful character.

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So I will mention 3 characters. 

Adolin I always liked. But he grew on me more and more until now he is one of my absolute favorites. 

Vinli I never liked. I'm still not sure I like her that much. Before  I used to just want to skip her chapters and now they are fine.

 

 

In the reverse.... I loved Syl at 1st but I find her annoying me more and more as the story progresses where I fall further in love with the little nitwit cryptics every time I listen to the book again.  

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Definitely Adolin, but not so much because he changed - just that as the books go on you can appreciate him more and more. At first he seems an over-confident, foppish, privileged pretty boy. You get hints early on at what a good leader and overall person he is, but he's in constant conflict with Dalinar and Kaladin and it kinda clouds it.

On 02/09/2021 at 5:47 PM, Rushu42 said:

Pattern. He was already developing some personality in Oathbringer, but it wasn't until RoW that I realized he was an interesting character beyond just giving Shallan magic powers. I love his sense of humor so much.

And I have to give a shoutout to my now favorite character, Navani; I didn't like her much when she was first introduced, since I really wasn't a fan of her attempts to force a romantic subplot on Dalinar. Until RoW everything we knew about her was just seen in relation to Dalinar (which is a personal pet peeve for poorly written love interests), but as soon as you took him out of the picture she was a fascinating, awesome character who I really related to. I'm so glad Sanderson decided to flesh her out.

To be fair to Navani, she wasn't forcing too much. Dalinar literally couldn't concentrate if she was in even the corner of his eye - dude stared straight at the sun to contain his horniness. All she had to do was exist nearby and that dam would break eventually.

I'm not sure she was only seen in relation to Dalinar, though. In WoR she is, if anything, only seen in relation to Shallan and Jasnah, and as an artifabrian.

Edited by ElMonoEstupendo
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6 hours ago, ElMonoEstupendo said:

To be fair to Navani, she wasn't forcing too much. Dalinar literally couldn't concentrate if she was in even the corner of his eye - dude stared straight at the sun to contain his horniness. All she had to do was exist nearby and that damn would break eventually.

I'm not sure she was only seen in relation to Dalinar, though. In WoR she is, if anything, only seen in relation to Shallan and Jasnah, and as an artifabrian.

Fair point, I had forgotten about her dynamic with Shallan in WoR. Still, I think it's fair to say that she's not really seen as a character in her own right until RoW.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lift, I didn't like her at all in her first appearance other than when she went to go heal her friend. I didn't really like her in Oathbringer when I first read it either. I didn't get a copy of her Novella until after I read Oathbringer but that warmed me up to her considerably and when I reread her parts I had a new appreciation for her.

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How about...Wit?

Not that I disliked them, but I don't think we have known that much about them. But now? We have seen that they have flaws, they are scared of things. We have seen him want things and people who they like and dislike.

We knew Wit before even Stormlight began, and he has grown much from the start of the first book. From a guy who just told stories to a guy who has now has a girlfriend(?) and we know that the mysterious bard can be afraid.

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2 hours ago, apepi said:

How about...Wit?

Not that I disliked them, but I don't think we have known that much about them. But now? We have seen that they have flaws, they are scared of things. We have seen him want things and people who they like and dislike.

We knew Wit before even Stormlight began, and he has grown much from the start of the first book. From a guy who just told stories to a guy who has now has a girlfriend(?) and we know that the mysterious bard can be afraid.

I'm going to be real, I think that's one of his weaker points

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On 30/08/2021 at 11:31 PM, Aspiring Writer said:

Lift. I had skipped her words of radiance and novella, first reading her I Oathbringer, where I was taken aback about who this random character was. I didn't dislike her, but didn't care for her either. Then I read the WoR chapter and novella and found her frustrating, but with the new context, I liked her more in Oathbringer and found her to be a breath of fresh air in a fairly stoic set of characters, which is why I came to the conclusion that she's the type of characters that needs other characters, with presence, to bounce and contrast of off and doesn't work in a vacuum. 

Just out of curiosity... How did you skip her WoR chapter? Did you skip all interludes or just that one?

Edited by An Inkspren
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