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Stormlight Three: Dalinar Flashbacks


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Choosing Eshonai would be an awesome way to differentiate the third book from the two before it, exploring new places and introducing new characters abd magics before the completely revelation overloaded chaos that book four and five will be. I believe the middle book of a series is a good place to experiment and surprise readers.

The same can be said of Dalinar and the Old Magic and Gavilar, or Szeth, Nale, and the Shin.

I'm not sure we know Eshonai well enough to care... or if she's in any state for us to relate to in the present! 

 

Of course, half of that statement could be said about Szeth... blood and bloody ashes, by replying with a rebuttal I may have made a case for Dalinar to be the next character! WHAT HATH I WROUGHT?!

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Why do I have a feeling that Mr. Sanderson will hit us with emotion right off the bat by starting the book with a flashback of Dalinar being romantic and devoted to his wife (Since we know that he will likely have another flash back where we see him lose all memory of her)

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While that was posted May 24th I'm pretty sure the actual interview took place when he was in Spain last summer.

 

As for the whole "Szeth only has a handful of viewpoints so far so can't be a main character" keep in mind we've only read two books. Take the Wheel of Time for example, Mat is most definitely one on the main characters, but he doesn't get his first viewpoint until The Dragon Reborn, book 3 (several years ago Brandon was doing a retrospective re-read of the series he actually points out that he didn't realize Mat was a main character until then, so this is definitely a thing that he is aware of).  Rand on the other hand, the actual Dragon Reborn, gets maybe two chapters.  Perrin is also just gone for the entirety of The Fires of Heaven.  This is an epic series, sometimes one needs to look at the long game.

 

I agree a character can evolve from side to main through the course of a series. In WoT, nobody would have called Mat a major player in the first books: he became one, which is great, but his development did not come at the expense of other characters. The reason I sound so obsessive about it is because we currently have other characters more important than Szeth (or more fleshed out or with more POV time, choose whichever interpretation works for you). Having Szeth (or Eshonai) being brought forward before Dalinar is difficult to understand for a simple fan such as I am. Having Szeth (or Eshonai) being given a prime spot while Adolin remains in the backseat is also hard to understand for the simple fan that I am.

 

I am therefore glad Dalinar gets the next spot. I will always be sore Adolin does not get one.

 

 

 

Choosing Eshonai would be an awesome way to differentiate the third book from the two before it, exploring new places and introducing new characters and magics before the completely revelation overloaded chaos that book four and five will be. I believe the middle book of a series is a good place to experiment and surprise readers.

The same can be said of Dalinar and the Old Magic and Gavilar, or Szeth, Nale, and the Shin.

 

I personally found Eshonai POV boring. The attuning and the singing, not my cup of tea. The dialogue did not do it for me. I guess I am not as interested in the world-building as others as I prefer an interesting character and less world-building. Eshonai just has not come up too good for me. Same with Szeth: painful read, for me.

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I personally found Eshonai POV boring. The attuning and the singing, not my cup of tea. The dialogue did not do it for me. I guess I am not as interested in the world-building as others as I prefer an interesting character and less world-building. Eshonai just has not come up too good for me. Same with Szeth: painful read, for me.

 

Eshonai's POV's kind of struck me as spoilers. There wasn't any tension in the last few chapters because we already knew what was going on  :/

Edited by Mckeedee123
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Great! Thanks Botanica. This is great news. So Oathbringer and not Highprince of War... I have wondered how Dalinar bonded Oathbringer... Did he win it in a duel like Adolin? Did he kill its previous owner during war? Was it a family heirloom? He bonded it when he was about 20 years old, so I would rule out heirloom: he would have gotten it sooner. I don't want Dalinar to have won his Blade dueling because dueling is the one special Adolin does and he does it better than daddy  :ph34r: Also, for him to have win it during a war would fit his previous status of Blackthorn, a name I am rather keen to find out how he earned it.

 

I wonder if Oathbringer will be relevant to the story... Stormfather won't be a Blade for Dalinar, so would Dalinar re-bond his old Blade? Doesn't seem likely, but him stepping into battle to save the odds with his old Blade in hand as his dorky spren doesn't want to cooperate would be awesome. 

 

And why is it called Oathbringer?

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Oathbringer has been dropped into an anonymous planter at Urithiru.  This gives the title a lot of play with any combination of the following.

  • Dalinar's history with the blade
  • Dalinar's role gathering the Radiants
  • Future developments with the blade (does Adolin retrieve it, does someone random pick it up, ...)
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as I remember, Dalinar traded Oathbringer with Sadeas for the bridgemen. the blade he dropped was the one carried by Taln and dropped at the gates of Kholinar. correct me if I am wrong..

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Oathbringer has been dropped into an anonymous planter at Urithiru.  This gives the title a lot of play with any combination of the following.

  • Dalinar's history with the blade
  • Dalinar's role gathering the Radiants
  • Future developments with the blade (does Adolin retrieve it, does someone random pick it up, ...)

 

And also it would be the name of an in-universe book... yeah, quite a few things seem to flow together here...

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as I remember, Dalinar traded Oathbringer with Sadeas for the bridgemen. the blade he dropped was the one carried by Taln and dropped at the gates of Kholinar. correct me if I am wrong..

Sadeas's Oathbringer is the one in the anonymous planter though. Adolin tossed it out the window.

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Striking news! We can almost safely assume it's Dalinar's book! Oathbringer as title sounds intriguing! Can't wait!!!

 

ibDdLoB.png

 

 

Wait, so does this mean Brandon has given up on the convention of using in-universe book titles for the Stormlight Archive, or did Dalinar (or whoever named Oathbringer) actually name a Shardblade after a book?

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My thoughts exactly.

I was thinking that given the whole reason Jasnah was looking for Urithiru, was to find long lost books about radiants and the desolations, the in-world book "Oathbreaker" may have been found there.

If so, nobody has been there in thousands of years, so nobody should know that name.

Now I can't wait to find out where Oathbreaker the shardblade came from??

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Well, I hope that Szeth's chapters will be more about the Skybreakers than about Nightblood. I must be the only person here that can't stand its psychopaticaly eager personality for too long.

 

Oh no, you are not the only one. I do not care so much about Nightblood and I do not share the excitement. Szeth cannot yield Nightblood anyway and I am not a fan of Warbreaker, so it just a big mew for me.

 

 

There will still be Szeth chapters in it, most likely.

 

Presumably yes. There has been several Szeth chapters in every book: it is safe to assume there will be some in book 3 as well. However, I am not a fan of the solo mission, so whatever happens with Szeth, it would be neat if he were to join up with someone. One of the reason I was anxious about the following books was the idea of following Kaladin's solo mission, Szeth's solo mission and Eshonai's solo mission... Characters are good when they interact... when they are left alone well, it is just no as good, for me.

 

It is one of the reason I loved WoR so much: all the characters finally meet up! 

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Wait, so does this mean Brandon has given up on the convention of using in-universe book titles for the Stormlight Archive, or did Dalinar (or whoever named Oathbringer) actually name a Shardblade after a book?

 

No it's still the name of an in-world book:

 

[00:12:38]

Questioner

Have you thought of titles for the rest of The Stormlight Archive?

Brandon Sanderson

No, I only named the first five when I was doing my outline. They were Stones Unhallowed, Oathbringer, and I don't like the other name so I'm not going to mention it.

Questioner

Are they names of books in-world?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, they are all names in-world.

(source)

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No it's still the name of an in-world book:

That's great! Consistency is good!

I wonder if the in-world book was named after the sword (like, if it's a biography of the Blackthorn, and the author used Oathbringer as a metonymic epithet for Dalinar). Or maybe both the sword and the book were named after some historical guy who was called Oathbringer.

It'd be weird if the sword was named after the book; it's like naming a sword Necronomicon (which does sound cool, I admit, but still weird).

Edited by skaa
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