Popular Post Zarepath he/him Posted January 6, 2012 Popular Post Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 No, really, he's my least favorite of all Sanderson characters right now. Vivenna disagrees. I agree that Kaladin, despite his deep backstory and awesomeness, isn't that intriguing of a character. He's a lot more intriguing for what he does than for who he is. He's mostly just obsessed with hating Lighteyes. Dalinar, however, is badassery incarnate. Retired warlord trying to learn ancient magical religions so he can effing UNITE people, even though they all think he's crazy. Guess how many craps Dalinar gives? ZERO. The Blackthorne could take any of his haters ezpz any day of the week except during a Highstorm, when he's too busy having AWESOME PROPHETIC VISIONS and chatting with the Almighty. Oh, people say he's only hardcore when he's wielding a shardblade? Np, he'll just trade one for some slaves, and while he's at it, give some plate to his handicapped son ('cause you know that awesomeness runs in the fam). He'll just go pick up another pair from the lifeless bodies of his enemies. Speaking of enemies, even THEY'RE forced to acknowledge his uber sweetness (see: giant Parshendi shardbearer). King sends him on a wild goose chase? The Blackthorne slams him against the wall and makes him piss his pants. Did I mention that he made a pact with the Old God? So between all this badassery, what does he do for a break? Nothing -- he just cuts giant rocks with his sword and lifts the chunks out with his own hands. Oh, and in his spare time, he has a train of chicks coming to his tent all day to read ancient scripture to him, so he can live by an ancient moral code that nobody else believes in. Dalinar is a Sliver of the Awesomeness Shard. 23 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter she/her Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 I disagree with you guys about Kaladin, but I agree with Zarepath that Dalinar is awesome. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 I believe you mean: I disagree with you guys about Kaladin, but I agree with Zarepath that Dalinar is awesome-sauce. /thread 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeAgain he/him Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 I actually registered just to delurk and say I actually liked Vivenna. I also like Kaladin, and Shallan and Dalinar are indeed awesome-sauce. I really, really dislike Szeth; he whines, but his problems seem almost entirely self-imposed. Still, it's still a sign of good characterization that I have a strong opinion about him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeatherWriter she/her Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Truthfully, I think Kaladin is actually my favorite Brandon character, Dalinar is a close second, and Shallan was originally one of my least favorite. I don't need to tout Dalinar's awesomeness thanks to Zarepath, but Kaladin is waaaaaay more interesting than Shallan IMO. First off, Kaladin gave up his dreams to do what his father wanted instead. Then he gave up that plan again to protect his little brother. After only a few years he became a squadleader. Even after he lost his brother, he spending all his own money to intentionally get poorly trained recruits and protect them, as well as bribing medics to save his team! He killed a shardbearer, got betrayed in the most spectacular way, then got sold off as a slave. As a slave, he organized multiple revolts and escape attempts over the course of nine months, got "Dangerous" stamped across his forehead, and attracted the most adorable sidekick ever. After sent to the Shattered Plains, he gets sent to the bridge crews, survives the deathpoint, and lives longer than anyone else on his first run. Depressed to the point of suicide, what does he do? Jump off a cliff and end it all? No. He decides that rather than ending it all, he's going to take over the bridge crew and change everything for the better. AND THEN HE DOES. He turns the sorriest, most downtrodden depressed group of human detritus into a nakama, bridge-running, spear-wielding crew. Even when given a perfect chance to escape, he decides he'd rather go save Dalinar Storming Kholin's sorry shard-bearing butt from an entire Parshendi army just because it's the right thing to do! To top it off, he can also defy gravity. And survived a highstorm while tied to a pole. AND HE'S NINETEEN. THAT'S LIKE MY AGE! Gah, Kaladin makes me feel so inferior! Sorry, but I don't care how many fathers Shallan's killed. The only one who comes anywhere close to Kaladin's awesome is Szeth and he's had twice as long to get there (not to mention he's kinda fighting for the wrong side at the moment). 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wisdom he/him Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 I second that Featherwriter, Kaladin>Dalinar>Shallan is the way to go . On another note, you remind me of Julius Caesar, Featherwriter. Apparently when he was visiting Greece as a youngster he lamented the fact that he haden't emulated the achievements of Alexander the Great yet - and conquered the known world . Some people just don't know when to be satisfied. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treblkickd he/him Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Dalinar is a Sliver of the Awesomeness Shard. hahahaha - wow now I will only ever be able to visualize this image when imagining Dalinar. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiken Frost he/him Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Sweet mother of mercy. This thread is so full of raw, unfettered WIN that I will need to recover the bits of my brain from the ceiling! Truthfully, I think Kaladin is actually my favorite Brandon character, Dalinar is a close second, and Shallan was originally one of my least favorite. I don't need to tout Dalinar's awesomeness thanks to Zarepath, but Kaladin is waaaaaay more interesting than Shallan IMO. First off, Kaladin gave up his dreams to do what his father wanted instead. Then he gave up that plan again to protect his little brother. After only a few years he became a squadleader. Even after he lost his brother, he spending all his own money to intentionally get poorly trained recruits and protect them, as well as bribing medics to save his team! He killed a shardbearer, got betrayed in the most spectacular way, then got sold off as a slave. As a slave, he organized multiple revolts and escape attempts over the course of nine months, got "Dangerous" stamped across his forehead, and attracted the most adorable sidekick ever. After sent to the Shattered Plains, he gets sent to the bridge crews, survives the deathpoint, and lives longer than anyone else on his first run. Depressed to the point of suicide, what does he do? Jump off a cliff and end it all? No. He decides that rather than ending it all, he's going to take over the bridge crew and change everything for the better. AND THEN HE DOES. He turns the sorriest, most downtrodden depressed group of human detritus into a nakama, bridge-running, spear-wielding crew. Even when given a perfect chance to escape, he decides he'd rather go save Dalinar Storming Kholin's sorry shard-bearing butt from an entire Parshendi army just because it's the right thing to do! To top it off, he can also defy gravity. And survived a highstorm while tied to a pole. AND HE'S NINETEEN. THAT'S LIKE MY AGE! Gah, Kaladin makes me feel so inferior! Sorry, but I don't care how many fathers Shallan's killed. The only one who comes anywhere close to Kaladin's awesome is Szeth and he's had twice as long to get there (not to mention he's kinda fighting for the wrong side at the moment). THIS. And Dalinar as The Most Interesting (ex)Shardbearer in the World was awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhalagirl she/her Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Yeah, but there are a few moments where I wanted to kick Kaladin in the head so he'd stop moping around. Dalinar didn't have such problems. Sure he occasionally thinks he's crazy but when the time comes to do the right thing he doesn't hesitate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter she/her Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Kaladin had REASON to mope around! Given the shitty situation he was in it's amazing he didn't just snap and end up gibbering in a corner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiveAM he/him Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 WOW this thread totally exploded while i wasn't looking... But yes I agree that Dalinar is badassery-incarnate and i see so much potential for Kaladin as a character. Shallan is also interesting but i think she's the most static of the three (in Book 1 at least). She's completely convinced of her wit and we don't see her change at all. She still thinks lowly of Taravangian cause he's "stupid" and doesn't have an open-mindedness which will probably come to bite her in the butt real hard. In terms of actual character development, I think she's developed the least, which is why I was so excited to hear book 2 would focus on Shallan. Sure I was dissappointed to hear it wouldn't focus on Dalinar (my favorite character) but i really want Shallan to develop more, I feel like we've only see her backstory and none of the development. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhalagirl she/her Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Kaladin had REASON to mope around! Given the shitty situation he was in it's amazing he didn't just snap and end up gibbering in a corner. Yeah, he did have good reason to mope but I still wanted to kick him in the head. He was turning into Bella which is so freaking wrong. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiken Frost he/him Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 (edited) Yeah, he did have good reason to mope but I still wanted to kick him in the head. He was turning into Bella which is so freaking wrong. What is it I don't even ... You didn't... You just didn't compare Kaladin to the worse character from the worse book to ever gain a physical presence outside of Hell. I really can't even begin to comprehend how you could compare the character with most tragedy, growth and overcoming of the book with a retarded girl which biggest problem was that she can't decide if she prefers to engage in necrophilia or bestiality. I mean, Kaladin got all his dreams crushed, one after another, to try and protect Tien. Then he saw his brother being slaughtered in front of him, after that he was betrayed in the worse way he could, again saw the people he cared about being killed, was sold into slavery and finally became the lowliest lifeform in the most brutal and oppressive job ever. And he STILL managed to protect, or at least try to protect, everyone around him. Managed to help a lot of people and to make them feel like it was worth living again and ultimately saved and became the personal bodyguard of the greatest highprince of Alethkar! How can you even begin to compare that to Bella!? Edited January 7, 2012 by Aiken Frost 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 This. This, this this. Kaladin vs Bella: Dramatic hero with Shard-related superpowers vs Melodramtic (plain-looking) teen with issues giving birth to anything not undead/going to kill her /discussion Kaladin is in my opinion, Brandon's most balanced and well portrayed character yet. You can surely see that he is way more down-to-earth than someone like, say, Vin. He is just easier to relate to, more realistic (despite having the power to launch people into space just by touching them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarepath he/him Posted January 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Calm down, everybody. It's clear that he was referring to the shaggy brown mare from The Wheel of Time. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link Von Kelsier Harvey he/him Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Calm down, everybody. It's clear that he was referring to the shaggy brown mare from The Wheel of Time. That's "Bela." But you're right, that does make a lot more sense. This is why spelling is important. Don't want to unnecessarily confuse people, now do we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeatherWriter she/her Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Why hello there, thread. When did you get so full of win? As for Kaladin's depression, hey! That's why he's a balanced character! He needs something to balance out all the unfettered awesome that he is, otherwise everytime you read his chapters, that awesome would burn your eyes out as quickly as if Szeth had just given you a Shardblade hug. Not that I would really call Kaladin "prone to depression." I mean, seriously, have you seen what the guy's lived through? A little sadness is excusable on his part. As for Bella? No. Just no. I'm not even going to answer that. The only thing right in that post was that the whole comparison was "so freaking wrong." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhalagirl she/her Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Sorry guys, the spelling was correct. I was referring to a whiny teenager and not a horse. I happen to have a lot of respect for that old mare. As for the comparison I made, I wasn't making light of Kaladin's situation. Yes, he was given the short straw more than once and has suffered many a tragedy. However, instead of digging deep and fighting to the best of his ability he gave up and moped on more than one occasion which is exactly what Bella did. It's also why I can't stand Bella. That being said, the fact that Kaladin did eventually get up off his butt earned my respect. That he took so long to do it is the reason why he's not my favorite character. He's still in my top 5, but he falls short of Dalinar. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Dalinar is a Sliver of the Awesomeness Shard. If someone can photoshop Shattered Plains on the background of this it'll be even more win. ... On the other hand, Hrathen is still the more badass older man character of Sanderson. Sure Dalinar is great, but Hrathen still gets to be the one with bigger cojones for managing to win his battle against himself. This state of affairs is likely to change with future Stormlight books though. And top 5? Nah. Rollcall of awesome: Leras>Ati>Lord Ruler>Vin>Hrathen>Dalinar>Kelsier>Denth>Jasnah>Kaladin One might claim that putting Shards in such a list is cheating, to which I'll reply: bollocks. I want to see more Shards getting personally involved in stories if they will be anything like those two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 They don't get personally involved! They're freaking twisted to such an extent that they can't eradicate the source of their doom even with the full power of a Shard, not to mention help themselves from destroying the very people they made a pact to create! Evidence of this: See Vin the exact week she took up Preservation. Leras had millenia to do the same darned thing, but Vin immediately attacked and destroyed Ruin, releasing they power of the Shards into a new and awesome combination that is: Harmony! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
name_here Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 I'm not too fond of Kaladin myself. He's just so whiny all the time. Dalinar is in the ring with Vin, Vasher, and Hrathen for #1. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter she/her Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 They don't get personally involved! They're freaking twisted to such an extent that they can't eradicate the source of their doom even with the full power of a Shard, not to mention help themselves from destroying the very people they made a pact to create! Evidence of this: See Vin the exact week she took up Preservation. Leras had millenia to do the same darned thing, but Vin immediately attacked and destroyed Ruin, releasing they power of the Shards into a new and awesome combination that is: Harmony! yes, but none of that would have been possible without Leras outgambitting Ati from BEYOND THE GRAVE having been effectively dead for thousands of years. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windrunner he/him Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 I disagree with the belief that Kaladin is too whiny. He's had everyone he cares about stolen from him multiple times. I recently moved and spend far too much time moping about not seeing my friends, so I can't imagine what kind of depression I'd be in if they were all dead because I failed to save them. I think the fact that he has enough strength that he can even go on is impressive, not to mention the fact that he has the strength to try one last time to help people. He's one of my personal favorite Brandon characters (tied with Dalinar and Vasher) and seeing his character arc coming out of depression was one of my favorite parts in the whole book. I agree with Chicken and CrazyRioter, Ati and Leras were extremely involved for Shards. If you think about it they are some of the few Shards we directly see interacting with humanity. Dominion, and Aona are dead, we get one memory of Endowment's voice, and only mentions of Odium and Cultivation. The only Shard that has any human interactions on par with Ruin and Preservation is Honor, and were hearing from him after his death. And I absolutely loved Preservation's beyond the grave win! It was beyond awesome to realize he had orchestrated the whole thing. It reminded me of chess, sacrificing the Queen (Preservation) in order to get a pawn (Vin) into a better position to become Queen herself and destroy the enemy King (Ruin). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcanist Lupus he/him Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Having a reason for being mopey isn't the same as not being mopey. Fortunately, Kaladin should be much better in the next book. He'll still have his issues, but he'll be less mopey about it now that he's accepted that he's going to protect his friends, and that his friends don't condemn him for his insanely awesome powers (which was a fairly stupid plot point in the first place. I'm glad Brandon ended it quickly). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter she/her Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 haha, I agree, that was the one point when I really wanted to slap Kaladin, I was like "Dude, you have superpowers, quit whining about it!" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts