Renarin and Rlain

[Synapticsam]

Does anyone else feel like the latest chapter building up a relationship between Renarin and Rlain is one of the best Brandon has done so far?  Maybe it's recency bias or maybe I'm just the target demographic, but I really enjoyed what he did.

Renarin and Rlain haven't had much POV time outside of strictly main plot stuff, but getting in their heads this chapter really felt to me like this was a relationship I could root for.  They have a lot more in common than what I had previously assumed from the outside.    Both of them struggle with communication in different ways.  Both of them work hard to fit into a "normal" that doesn't really exist.  The fact that both of them are enlightened truthwatchers is just icing on the cake.  

 

Did anyone else feel like this relationship has a much better chance of working out than anyone else in the Cosmere? (Outside of maybe Tress, which is like storybook romance so that's cheating)

[TheOtherDave]

The Alethi don’t seem to mind homosexuality, so I suppose it depends on whether Listeners have barbed genitals or something and what exactly Renarin and Rlain both want out of a relationship.

 

Speaking of Rlain, do we actually know he’s gay, or is that just assumed from his comment about an “embarrassing surprise” when he tried mateform?

Edited November 12, 2024 by TheOtherDave

[OOKLA_the LIV She/They/Lesbian/hungry]

WELL i think they are adorable together, ( i am a les-bean so i am expert)

and if rlain is gay, which i think he is, then I LOVE THEM.

[Synapticsam]

4 hours ago, TheOtherDave said:

The Alethi don’t seem to mind homosexuality, so I suppose it depends on whether Listeners have barbed genitals or something and what exactly Renarin and Rlain both want out of a relationship.

 

Speaking of Rlain, do we actually know he’s gay, or is that just assumed from his comment about an “embarrassing surprise” when he tried mateform?

 

I guess I'm more talking out of character, from a narrative perspective.  This single chapter of setup that Brandon wrote has done more to show a connection between the two of them than anything else I've read from him

-Dalinar and Navani never felt particularly emotional.  Dalinar is too stoic and Navani too analytical.  Their POVs don't really capture any sort of yearning.

-Any romance in Kaladins story is more backstory than actual romance.   

-Theres little bit for Shallan and Adolin, but honestly I've always felt like that writing only explains why Adolin is able to help Shallan with her identity crisis, not any real romantic connection. 

-If I reach all the way back to era 1 mistborn, Vin and Elend are a POV couple but I can't really remember much about their relationship except a couple flirtatious moments where they were being rebellious.

 

My point is, I feel like Brandon is maybe flexing some new writing skills that we haven't seen him use before, and I'm excited to see what he does with it.

[LewsTherinTelescope]

On 11/11/2024 at 8:07 PM, TheOtherDave said:

Speaking of Rlain, do we actually know he’s gay, or is that just assumed from his comment about an “embarrassing surprise” when he tried mateform?

Brandon confirmed the interpretation of that line:

Spoiler

snowdayplease

Eshonai's one experience as a mate was a "disaster" and Rlain's time in mateform "didn't turn out the way he expected". Is that implying what I think it's implying?

Brandon Sanderson

No, they're implying different things. With Rlain it's just that it turned out he was solely attracted to other men. Not a disaster, just not what he had anticipated. And Eshonai, I'm not implying the same thing there. I'm implying that she... when she did a mate she just did not like being in that form. It did not mesh well with her, she embarrassed herself in ways that... Eshonai outside of mateform considers that entire time an enormous disaster and a huge embarrassment. Does that make sense? I wasn't trying to draw a correlation between those two. It's a good question to ask because the structure of how I wrote those is very similar.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 (June 3, 2021)

 

[Jescape]

I think they work quite well together too!

[teknopathetic he/him]

On 11/11/2024 at 6:07 PM, TheOtherDave said:

The Alethi don’t seem to mind homosexuality, so I suppose it depends on whether Listeners have barbed genitals or something and what exactly Renarin and Rlain both want out of a relationship.

 

Speaking of Rlain, do we actually know he’s gay, or is that just assumed from his comment about an “embarrassing surprise” when he tried mateform?

Horneaters and herdazians have singer blood, so it seems like Adonalsium designed these species to be quite compatible. Or perhaps a shard or God Spren stepped in to bridge the gap. 

Edited November 22, 2024 by teknopathetic

[PanicPug]

On 11/12/2024 at 3:07 AM, TheOtherDave said:

Speaking of Rlain, do we actually know he’s gay, or is that just assumed from his comment about an “embarrassing surprise” when he tried mateform?

Iirc it was described in one of the WAT chapters that he didn't care at all for the female singers in mateform, but only for Harvo, one of his (male) best friends and that made it awkward between them afterwards.

Quote

“That happened to me,” he [Rlain] explained. “The first time I tried mateform. Everyone expected me to bond with one of the three females from our group … and I tried very hard to get the attention of Harvo instead.”

“A … male?”

- WAT Chapter 84