Where is Design?

[AquaRegia he/him]

30+ chapters of WaT, many involving Hoid, and so far not a single mention (that I can recall, I could be wrong) of Design.  She's been utterly IRREPRESSIBLE until now.  What's going on?

[Slayd_07]

It's tragic, really. But in all seriousness, I bet Hoid hasn't progressed far enough in his Lightweaver oaths yet to allow Design to have more of a personality. We saw with Syl especially, she self-actualized a lot more as Kaladin progressed through his first few oaths - and Sanderson has said that the Lightweaver oaths are going to be genuinely difficult for Hoid to move through, there are a lot of truths he's denying. 

[CognitiveShadow he/him]

32 minutes ago, Slayd_07 said:

It's tragic, really. But in all seriousness, I bet Hoid hasn't progressed far enough in his Lightweaver oaths yet to allow Design to have more of a personality. We saw with Syl especially, she self-actualized a lot more as Kaladin progressed through his first few oaths - and Sanderson has said that the Lightweaver oaths are going to be genuinely difficult for Hoid to move through, there are a lot of truths he's denying. 

That makes sense, but we have seen Design in RoW during Kaladin's vision and before Odium appears to Wit at the end. She seemed pretty similar to the way she acted in Yumi.. I'm assuming that she is just chilling as a pattern on his coat or something for now and hasn't been intruding herself into conversations, but hey it's possible that maybe she is handling some other task for him at the moment?

[The Sovereign]

Picking nits is fun sometimes...

Wind And Truth: Chapter 14, Section 2:

Quote

If he was aware, he didn’t say anything, though Design—on the wall behind him—pulsed and rotated. So far Jasnah had caught him in only the most minor of lies. He’d engage in wordplay with her, or toy with puns, and she’d ask him to stop. He’d promise, and would appear to have followed through. But then she’d notice that the games hadn’t ceased, they’d merely grown more subtle—Wit taking the wordplay to a more esoteric layer, difficult to spot.

 

[AquaRegia he/him]

@The Sovereign thanks for that!  I suppose we're to infer that she has gotten much better at keeping quiet... although when this new maturity had time to develop is a mystery to me; it's been mere hours since the TOdium scene, and she seemed to be just as "endearing" then as she'd ever been.  "I have bonded a literal monster." LOL

[teknopathetic he/him]

I forgot he even had a spren even though I’ve read Yumi. I really want her input back! Or to see if she knows Pattern? 

Maybe she will get pulled into the spiritual realm or something. I’d love that. 

Edited November 21, 2024 by teknopathetic

[RedBlue]

I’ve been reading with the assumption that Design’s absence is a deliberate omission on Brandon’s part. She isn’t some random extra, and there’s no way IMO that Brandon, his team, and all the beta readers wouldn’t notice an error like forgetting a character exists.

Maybe Wit and Design had a falling-out offscreen and she’s giving him the cold shoulder. Or maybe he’s been cheating on his Ideals and the self-improvement thing, and she’s not feeling well. Or maybe they split up to get more stuff done.

I’m sure we’ll find out.