COSMERE AVENGERS

[storming_kayana]

Hey everyone!

Talking about the future AppleTV's movies and shows, the easier comparison is the MCU (the Marvel Cinematic Universe). So, follwing this idea, do you think the Apple executive team will carry on with that structure? And do you think is a good idea?

I think the Cosmere will not end with a big characters assemble as the Avengers do (I thought it in a beggining but as I have been reading I understood they are not the same), and I think it would not be the best.

Sorry for my english, I'm from spain and, despite I could use the translator or Chatgpt, I prefer journey before destination.

[Jult]

I think the goal is to largely keep the movies and shows accurate to the books, so Apple won't have much power in forcing things in a new direction. The books are stuffed with cameos (whoever plays Hoid will be a busy man), but full team-ups haven't happened much at all yet. There are some almost Avenger-type Worldhopper groups forming such as (spoilers for... lots of books):

Spoiler

The Scadrian Ghostblood team in TLM:

• Shai came from the book The Emperor's Soul
• Kaise came from the book Elantris
• Dlavil is an original character for TLM, but his sister Iyatil is important in the Stormlight Archives

The Seventeenth Shard:

• Aslydin and Demoux are from Mistborn Era 1
• Galladon is from Elantris (those Selish people get around)
• Baon is from White Sand
• Iyatil (Dlavil's sister from the Ghostbloods above) used to be a member

 

[Qianweilian He/him]

3 hours ago, storming_kayana said:

Hey everyone!

Talking about the future AppleTV's movies and shows, the easier comparison is the MCU (the Marvel Cinematic Universe). So, follwing this idea, do you think the Apple executive team will carry on with that structure? And do you think is a good idea?

I think the Cosmere will not end with a big characters assemble as the Avengers do (I thought it in a beggining but as I have been reading I understood they are not the same), and I think it would not be the best.

Sorry for my english, I'm from spain and, despite I could use the translator or Chatgpt, I prefer journey before destination.

We got some stuff from Brandon on this (sorry for the WoB dump).

Spoiler

Questioner

Can we expect a Cosmere Avengers?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes and no. You can expect crossovers between the planets. My goal is not an Avengers-style, one character that you... like, if it were a true Cosmere Avengers it would be like, "Oh, we're going to have this character from this series, this character from this series," that's not what I'm going for. I'm going for more of a clash between the cultures and worlds. There will definitely be characters that you know that end up involved in that. But it's not, I'm not shooting for an Avengers-style thing, I'm shooting for more... It's more like imagine Star Trek, and retrograde back to all of the stories you're telling on the separate planets before they meet each other. Less Avengers, more "We're going to have an intergalactic... thing, going on." These are all of the origins of the cultures and peoples that are going to be involved in that. And since there are some immortals around, you will see people.

Barnes & Noble B-Fest 2016 (June 11, 2016)

 

ckannan90

I have a cosmere question. At the end of Words of Radiance, Szeth receives Nightblood. The wiki told me it was a sword from Warbreaker, but I didn't realize how significant it was till I read the book. This, to me, seems like the first major cosmere crossover. All the other crossovers so far seem to have just been cameos (Hoid tells stories, or there are mysterious people hunting somebody, etc). I will RAFO, but it does seem like Szeth getting the sword means Nightblood will play a not-insignificant role in Stormlight 3. Does this mean the cosmere books are going to converge more going forward? Specifically, would someone need to have read Warbreaker to understand Oathbringer? Till now your different cosmere series have been readable in any order (and I didn't read them in publication order). Similarly, Mistborn: Secret History seems to be a prerequisite for at least the next Mistborn book.

Brandon Sanderson

One thing you have to remember is that in my cosmere outline, Warbreaker was a prequel to The Way of Kings, explaining Vasher's backstory. So I consider them more closely connected than some other things. But you could consider this the first major crossover.

Nightblood will be re-introduced, so those who haven't read Warbreaker will be brought up to speed.

Thoughtsunthought

Wow. Cool to see this.

One of my "concerns" is that eventually the cosmere stuff will overwhelm the individual series arcs.

Kinda like the Marvel Avengers movies, whilst they are great on their own, they lose some of the individuality that an Iron Man movie might have. If the overall story adds characters then you may end up with a Captain America: Civil War movie which whilst was amazing. Wasn't really a Captain America movie and would lose so much to someone who had only seen Capt America movies.

That being said I totally trust your judgement on this, I say concerns but I don't mean in a bad way.

That being said is any book flagged for an Avengers style "battle for the cosmere"?

Brandon Sanderson

I do have some plans for mixing later on, though I'll be very forthright about when those books come out. Meaning, so long as I'm not talking about these things as the main focus of a series, you don't have to worry about it taking them over. Conversely, you can be very excited when it does happen, as those stories will be very clear about what they're attempting to do.

One thing I do try to warn people is that the cosmere isn't an "Avengers" style concept--the goal here isn't to collect a variety of heroes from a variety of worlds and then throw them at a problem. It's more of a, "What if you could watch the world of something like Star Trek develop, by seeing individual engaging stories from various planets, then slowly watching them merge into a larger universe."

While some characters will, obviously, continue on through the series, and the Vessels of the Shards will be very important, the focus of the greater cosmere storyline is the cultures, the magic, and the evolution of the planets, while the individual stories are about the people who live on them during turning-points in their history.

Stormlight Three Update #4 (Oct. 5, 2016)

 

fireflambe

This is a slightly old comment, but is the Marvel Cinematic Universe similar to what you envision happening with the cosmere movies? The moment that was announced the first thing I thought of was how great it would be if it followed the MCU formula.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, and its popularity is part of why I think the film companies were suddenly interested in things like the cosmere. I'd like to think I presaged the MCU with what I was doing--but the truth is that Marvel and DC had been doing crossovers before I was born, so...

Anyway, I've been trying to warn readers because many are starting to wonder things like you are. Is this like the MCU? Well, it is, and it isn't. The goal of the cosmere is to take individual fantasy worlds, then--over generations--tell an expansive story about their interactions one with another.

I'm not pointing toward an Avengers style, "Your favorite characters all team up" story. The magics will interact, as will the worlds, and even some of the characters--but the story is not about a super-team.

General Reddit 2016 (Nov. 28, 2016)

 

3 hours ago, storming_kayana said:

Sorry for my english, I'm from spain and, despite I could use the translator or Chatgpt, I prefer journey before destination.

Journey before destination (I wish my foreign language skills were that good). Btw, your English is excellent. If you hadn't said you were Spanish, I would've thought you were a native speaker (albeit a few errors).

[storming_kayana]

I think the main difference between MCU and the Cosmere is the lack of general purpose. We don´t have a Thanos as the villain (Odium could take on that role, but it's not the same). The Cosmere is something alive, and we are only contemplating how it grows up.

I strongly believe that as the books stop to tell us individual stories to do the Cosmere-mix (the original Mistborn Trilogy vs TLM), Sanderson should create the Purpose. Without main plot, people will be losing interest in characters' destiny (personally, I don't feel the same about Kaladin, Vin, Raoden than with Dusk, Nomad or even Marasi).

Nevertheless, I'm not talking about an Infinity War or Endgame, it is only an appreciation about stories and emotional connection.

 

P.D.: I like to think about Hoid and his power collection as Thanos with the infinty stones.