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World misconceptions that are difficult to shift.


ljósmóður

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All Sanderson worlds are so brilliantly created in such a lot of detail but, even so, there's always room for imagination to run amok!

 

For me, it's spheres. I know from early on in WoK (don't have my copy to hand to quote) that they're the size of a fingernail and slightly flattened on one side to prevent rolling but I only noticed that on my second read through by which time they were thoroughly established in my "head-Roshar" as being the size/shape of Christmas baubles :ph34r:  :rolleyes: . In my head, most people are carrying unwieldy, lumpy heavy bags of spheres (I know, entirely practical for soldiers like Kaladin!) and anyone remotely wealthy would need a couple of parshmen pushing a wheelbarrow to carry their small change! I know it makes no sense but I can't shift my initial picture.

 

Anyone else have things like that when reading fantasy books?

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SYL IS GREEN. I will not be persuaded otherwise.  :mellow:

 

She does appear as a leaf quite a lot doesn't she so I can completely see where you're coming from with that.

 

I have no idea if Pattern looks like black ink or if he looks like an pattern under the surface of things, but I will always see him as a black, ink-like, pattern flowing around over the surface of things

 

I do too - although in his case, we have Shallan's drawings of him to give our head cannon some boundaries!

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I have always pictured Syl as blue for no reason. I also thought that Rock was black until my third reread and I still picture the Alethi as Germanic, even though I know they are not.

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I have always pictured Syl as blue for no reason. I also thought that Rock was black until my third reread and I still picture the Alethi as Germanic, even though I know they are not.

 

I regret to inform you that you are "correct" about Syl: she is quite consistently described as blue within the books.

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In my head, Sadeas is bald as a cue ball. He's always described as overweight with a very red face and the first two times I read through the book, this was matched in my head with a perfectly bald scalp. Then the third time I read it, one of the first times we see Sadeas, his hair is described as long, flowing raven locks tumbling around his shoulders. I kept my eye out and not one more thing is said about his hair, or lack thereof, in either of the books from that point on.

 

It's not just that I see him as bald but he's got hair. I see him as bald and he has ALL THE HAIR.

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All Sanderson worlds are so brilliantly created in such a lot of detail but, even so, there's always room for imagination to run amok!

 

For me, it's spheres. I know from early on in WoK (don't have my copy to hand to quote) that they're the size of a fingernail and slightly flattened on one side to prevent rolling but I only noticed that on my second read through by which time they were thoroughly established in my "head-Roshar" as being the size/shape of Christmas baubles :ph34r:  :rolleyes: . In my head, most people are carrying unwieldy, lumpy heavy bags of spheres (I know, entirely practical for soldiers like Kaladin!) and anyone remotely wealthy would need a couple of parshmen pushing a wheelbarrow to carry their small change! I know it makes no sense but I can't shift my initial picture.

 

Anyone else have things like that when reading fantasy books?

 

I never imagined them THAT big, but I did picture the gem in a "chip" as being about the size of a marble with the final product being a little more than golf-ball size.

I've since changed that to the gem being around ball-bearing size, with the final product being a small marble. Took me 3 reads to get down to that size.

 

SYL IS GREEN. I will not be persuaded otherwise.  :mellow:

 

I never thought of her as a particular colour. In my mind she STILL changes color, even though there are ZERO references to her doing this.

 

I have always pictured Syl as blue for no reason. I also thought that Rock was black until my third reread and I still picture the Alethi as Germanic, even though I know they are not.

 

I dunno why, but on my first read I pictured Rock as having Ram's horns on his head.  Not a helmet, they were actually part of his skull. I now know I'm wrong, but can't get the image out of my head.

 

I picture the Alethi as looking Native American (but a bit paler), and the Shin as Inuit (AKA: Eskimo)... which is Asian decent, kind of.

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For me, Rock is still an enormous black man who sounds exactly like Andre the Giant.

 

This thing, I am glad others feel the same way. It's good to know I'm not the only one who comes to wild misconceptions during his readings.

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Also, Wayne always had a Scottish accent. He actually sounded pretty much exactly like Scotty in my head...

 

EDIT:

When I first read Way of Kings, Rock had a rather thick Russian accent. 

 

^This. It wasn't as thick, but Rock's accent was distinctly Russian during my first read. 

 

Oh, and Hoid is basically Benedict Cumberbatch in my head.  :ph34r:

Edited by Lindel
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My biggest problem is the uniforms. While reading WoK I pictured gladiator or roman style uniforms in the beginning then realized they were more like 19th century revolution type uniforms as they were described. There was nothing I remember reading that should have made me think they were roman style but I still see Kaladin in a skirt. I think it is because the scenes where he is traveling in the slave cart reminded me of the movie Gladiator and it stuck in my head. 

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^^ Just reread that thanks for pointing that out.

 

 

 

 

Also, Wayne always had a Scottish accent. He actually sounded pretty much exactly like Scotty in my head...

 

 

 

In the AoL audio book Kramer gives Wayne a Aussie accent that is awesome. 

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I cannot see kelsier with blond hair. for many other characters i can't keep a good mental image of them. that's why i'm ggrateful to movie adaptation, even if they do nothing else: i have a visual image to link to the people and settings.

 

And I never bothereed with accents. Just for once, brandon is american, and I have really big problems with the american accents. I talked in english with people from england, france, spain, germany, finland, italy, sweden, east europe, russia, india, china, south corea, and I could understand pretty well all of them. In new york, I wouldn't have been able to ask for direction in the underground without my brother or rather, I would have been perfectly able to ask, but I would have never understood the answer. In washington, little better.

So I don't read the characters with the voices brandon uses for them. If I did, I would not be able to understand them.

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Also, Wayne always had a Scottish accent. He actually sounded pretty much exactly like Scotty in my head...

 

EDIT:
 

 

^This. It wasn't as thick, but Rock's accent was distinctly Russian during my first read. 

 

Oh, and Hoid is basically Benedict Cumberbatch in my head.  :ph34r:

 

THAT's who has been in my head for Hoid! I knew I was thinking of him as someone famous but couldn't put my finger on it. Of course he's Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock version).

 

Wayne is definitely Aussie in my head (probably because of his name) but Rock is Scottish to me - I tend to envisage him in a kilt!

.

 

My biggest problem is the uniforms. While reading WoK I pictured gladiator or roman style uniforms in the beginning then realized they were more like 19th century revolution type uniforms as they were described. There was nothing I remember reading that should have made me think they were roman style but I still see Kaladin in a skirt. I think it is because the scenes where he is traveling in the slave cart reminded me of the movie Gladiator and it stuck in my head. 

 

The uniforms are definitely a conglomeration of all manner of styles - there's definitely some Gladiator type stuff going on. I have the UK books, published by Gollancz. Cover Illustrations by Sam Green (props to him/her? I LOVE the covers for SA and Mistborn) so my pictures of the uniforms/armour are influenced by them. But, in all honesty:

 

Kaladin, landing in his fiery glyph having just saved Dalinor, is all Neo / Matrix, long coat as pseudo-cape superhero uniform to me!

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I know almost all Scadrian nobles have dark hair and I'm pretty sure Shan is described as much. But she's golden blond in my head.

 

And if you shone a light directly in Vasher's face, his eyes would still be in shadows. They generate their own shadows. It's a thing. Look it up on wikipedia.

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For me Chull look like giant woodlouse. Most of the shelled creatures have more of an exoskeleton look rather than crab shells.

 

Also axe-hounds look identical to d&d rust monsters in my head... making them the scariest of pets... unless your a shard bearer.

 

Also Kelsier is never going to be blond in my head cannon... maybe he died his hair as part of a disguise... but all skaa are dark haired

 

edit: oh also all the names without an x in them that are pronounced french like ... are wrong :P its KEL-SEER-ER damnit

Edited by InstantWalrus
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Hmm... This makes me question all the fan art I've seen, along with all the art featured on and in the books. Myself, I initially pictured Shards as being made of a kind of crystal substance, and during WoR, I swear I heard something about it being metal. Also, I can't stop thinking about Stormlight as white, though everyone tells me it's blue.

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