Lemingas1 Posted November 18, 2015 Posted November 18, 2015 Hey guys, I am a new reader so please don't go hard on me. I have a question regarding interludes in The Way of Kings. Are these chapters supposed to be some distant parts of the main plot or are they completaly pointless (not counting Szeth chapters)? Are we going to see characters such as Ishikk and Baxil in the future or are they just one-off characters? Thank you in advnace.
Edgedancer he/him Posted November 18, 2015 Posted November 18, 2015 Hey guys, I am a new reader so please don't go hard on me. I have a question regarding interludes in The Way of Kings. Are these chapters supposed to be some distant parts of the main plot or are they completaly pointless (not counting Szeth chapters)? Are we going to see characters such as Ishikk and Baxil in the future or are they just one-off characters? Thank you in advnace. It depends. Some Interludes are very important and actually feature future protagonists, while others are mostly there for worldbuilding of various degrees of importance. 2
Purelake Earthquake he/him Posted November 18, 2015 Posted November 18, 2015 Each interlude usually has something important to offer, usually for later in the series or the Cosmere as a whole. Have you read WoR yet? Some of those interludes are more important. What's important from each (non-Szeth) interlude: Ishikk: He himself probably isn't important, but the people he's meeting with and what they're doing are (they're characters from other series) Nan Balat: This, I think ,is just to show what's going on in Shallan's household, and is sort of a prelude to the Shallan flashbacks later. This one ties in more to the current events of the book. Rysn: We'll see more of her later, she's not getting her own book, but she's important. Plus Shinovar is a major location, but there's no one over there yet. Also, it's looking like the whole Babsk system is more important to the world. Axies: There'll be more from him later. Plus Aimians seem important, but they're far away from Alethkar, and it shows more about how spren work. Baxil: His mistress is the Herald Shallash, I believe she'll be the flashback character for one of the very last books. Plus gives us information on the Nightwatcher, who is an extremely important entity. Geranid: I think this is just to show us that attribute of Spren (how they respond to being measured). I think this is probably the least important interlude Words of Radiance has more interludes than Way of Kings. If you discount the main interlude characters, all of WoR's interludes combined are over three times as long as WoK's, I believe. I also think that it's interludes are, in general, more important to the overall story.
Blaze1616 he/him Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 Geranid: I think this is just to show us that attribute of Spren (how they respond to being measured). I think this is probably the least important interlude It's interesting that you believe that interlude to be unimportant. I wouldn't be surprised if that becomes one of the most important interludes as we learn more later on. 1
DSC01 he/him Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 It depends on how you look at it, I suppose. I doubt that the characters are ever going to become major players (if they even ever reappear at all). I doubt that it's ever going to be the most important information that we get, but it certainly is important information for understanding how spren work. The similarity to quantum physics gives us hints about how some of the fabrials are working (a sort of quantum entanglement, most likely). Sure, Rushu mentions the work in WoR, but that came immediately before a fabrial test, if memory serves. I suspect that the mention is dropped in right there to sort of say, "Hey, remember that Interlude? That information will help you understand what is about to happen."
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