[OB] Full Book Reactions / Full Spoilers Thread

[EvilNuff]

I loved the book, I thought it was much better written than Words despite having a less satisfying climax.  In no particular order things I liked and disliked:
 

Loved Maya, I think Adolin is fantastic with his sword.

Loved seeing Vivenna, I'm assuming her sword was created similarly to Nightblood just less psycho?

Loved Dalinars story arc.  It broke my heart when he went back to drinking.

Ehlokar is just a tragic figure, he wants to do better but just cannot.

I hated Shallan in this book.  Reading her chapters was just pure torture for me.

I want more Jasnah, she is so much more interesting to me than Shallan.

I am torn whether I feel sorry for Venli or not early and happy for her at the end or not.  On one hand she brought the about but on the other she suffered quite a bit as well.

I absolutely hated that Renarin lived.  Ugh by far my least favorite Sanderson character ever and I was so hopeful that Jasnah would do the right thing and kill him...ARGH!

[Leyrann]

4 minutes ago, EvilNuff said:

I absolutely hated that Renarin lived.  Ugh by far my least favorite Sanderson character ever and I was so hopeful that Jasnah would do the right thing and kill him...ARGH!

Don't let Odium control you.

[the winter system]

8 minutes ago, Leyrann said:

Don't let Odium control you.

Don't let feather hear you, more like it. Wonder how she's holding up with that turn of events. 

[Leyrann]

3 minutes ago, winter devotion said:

Don't let feather hear you, more like it. Wonder how she's holding up with that turn of events. 

 

[the winter system]

Just now, Leyrann said:

 

I was just looking at that. I'm guessing before she got to the point where Jasnah spared him, there was large amounts of scremaing

[IndigoAjah he/him]

3 hours ago, Islington said:

I disagree. She defies all in world explanation and sticks out like a sore thumb. It's like when Doctor Strange shows up in Thor. Hes against the...aesthetic so much he opens a million questions when he shows up. 

 

Like I said, I trust Brandon. It didn't sour the book for me or anything, but it did stick out. 

YMMV. I think she fits perfectly, and how does she defy in world explanation? The key plot twist in this novel was all about migration from a different world. 

[Starla]

The Shadesmar section was my favorite part of the book. I love the spren and am fascinated by the Cognitive Realm. A few observations from this section:

Is Captain Ico Timbre’s father? Ico said his father was a radiant spren who is now a dead shardblade, and that his daughter used to work in Celebrant before leaving to chase stupid dreams. Timbre said her grandfather was killed by a radiant. If they are related, this would make the Reachers Willshaper spren, if that’s what Venli bonded. 

I loved getting Syl’s backstory. She's an ancient Honor princess who is so well known in Shadesmar that people recognized her despite Shallan’s illusion and a big floppy hat. And the Stormfather is an overprotective dad. I also loved her and Kaladin’s interactions. She’s very loving and cuddly and it was nice to see them interact in a different way.

Pattern is not very cuddly, but is awesome in his own way. At one point Shallan said he was standing around thinking about numbers and I laughed out loud. Also, it seems that he and Syl like each other, which is nice. I would love that have seen a little more from him in this section.

What’s deal with the oracle orb in the lighthouse that showed Kaladin a future vision? It seemed connected to the highstorm, and the stormfather sensed his presence when he touched it, but I don’t believe Honor has any access to foretelling. Could it use magic from another world, maybe Sel? It's great to see Kaladin and Dalinar’s strong connection in this section.

Poor Maya. I am curious about what happens to her when Adolin is in the physical realm. Does she disappear in the CR when he summons his blade? And when it’s not summoned, does she move around in the CR to follow his movements?

With all of the oathgates and Cultivation’s perpendicularity guarded by voidspren, it seems Azure and other worldhoppers may be trapped in Shadesmar for a while. I hope Jasnah can perfect her Elsecalling abilities so someone can move between realms. I want to see more of it.

What’s the deal with painting Kaladin saw in Celebrant? The merchant said it was from the Court of the Gods. Could this be related to Lightsong in some way? It’s been a while since I read Warbreaker, but I recall paintings being a big deal for him.

[Hischier]

Overall, I liked the book but it didn't blow me away like the first two did. My main complaints were with a lot of things being set-up and then fizzling out. The love triangle, Adolin murdering Sadeas, Elhokar's death should've had a more lasting impact to me, Ialai I thought was going to be more of a threat, a few other things I'm probably forgetting.

I didn't mind the secret of the Recreance being what it was. It makes sense that it happened well after the 'Final Desolation' and it went along with the theme of the book. 

Jasnah, Lift, Hoid, and Dalinar were all awesome. I'm not a big Renarin mark but I loved the twist there.  I also thought the bait and switch with Eshonai and Venli was well done. 

While I enjoyed the bridge 4 perspectives, I probably would've kept it to Teft and Rlain. 

Syl and Pattern continue to steal the show for me, especially Syl.  Wish there had been more interaction between Syl and Pattern though while we had the chance. 

Adolin didn't feel like he had much going on to me. All of the other characters had such powerful inner conflicts and he's basically perfect. I like Adolin and not every character needs a major arc, but I just would've cut some of his viewpoints in favor of other characters. 

Kalladin is my favorite character by far so I am biased here, but I would've liked to see more from his POV during Shadesmar. I thought his arc was solid overall, but even from his perspective the whole Shalladin was disappointing. Halfway through it's set up to make you think he's in love with Shallan and right when Shallan chooses Adolin he realizes that she just reminds him of his brother? That's awfully convenient (my opinion is he's lying to himself there). I just wish something would go right for him (just not a way too convenient new love interest just to give him one). Next book he's probably going to find out his parents have been murdered though. 

Shallan has always been a little annoying to me, but I thought her character arc had a the potential to go in a lot of really cool ways. I think it would've been a lot stronger if there were more consequences to her split personality thing. That was set up so well, but it was a lot of almost to me, so I hope there's more to that going forward. It is left kind of ambiguous at the end there. Like, she thinks she's getting better but I didn't really get that impression. 

I figured out who Vivenna was really quickly. She was great but I think she got a little too much screen time for her first appearance in the story. 

That's a lot of complaining about stuff, for a book I still enjoyed. So I'll end with how much I loved Dalinar's story in this one. It was really fantastic.

[MonsterMetroid]

Just finished and I just wanted to say I loved this book! Once I get home I will add more to this post.

Biggest disappointment: Everstorm destruction reveal. In the last book we heard how much destruction the everstorm was going to cause a ton of destruction because it blew the wrong way. In this book at the beginning it is something more just talked about and not really felt. I suppose I was expecting much more feelings of destruction and death and it just felt glossed over until near the end of the book after the storm hit several times. 

[Islington]

1 hour ago, IndigoAjah said:

YMMV. I think she fits perfectly, and how does she defy in world explanation? The key plot twist in this novel was all about migration from a different world. 

Her strange "Shardblade", her insistence that she's been in Shadesmar before to travel, her preparation for Awakening, and her speaking about Nightblood all stood out to me as things that if you haven't read Warbreaker, would lend Azure "I'm a protagonist" syndrome. 

 

Azure raises SO MANY questions to the reader of just the Stormlight Archive that she could eclipse some of the main characters in terms of Protagonist-ness. She feels like the protagonist of a separate work dropping by to say hello, which she is, but it makes you want to see more of her than perhaps some of the actual main characters. She basically says "I'm from another planet with different magic and I have a special lightsaber and know other mysterious characters in the plot. Anyway, good luck saving the world or whatever, I'm going to go reminisce about Warbreaker 2: Vengeance over here" and it kinda pulled me out of the story for a bit. 

[IndigoAjah he/him]

13 minutes ago, Islington said:

Her strange "Shardblade", her insistence that she's been in Shadesmar before to travel, her preparation for Awakening, and her speaking about Nightblood all stood out to me as things that if you haven't read Warbreaker, would lend Azure "I'm a protagonist" syndrome. 

 

Azure raises SO MANY questions to the reader of just the Stormlight Archive that she could eclipse some of the main characters in terms of Protagonist-ness. She feels like the protagonist of a separate work dropping by to say hello, which she is, but it makes you want to see more of her than perhaps some of the actual main characters. She basically says "I'm from another planet with different magic and I have a special lightsaber and know other mysterious characters in the plot. Anyway, good luck saving the world or whatever, I'm going to go reminisce about Warbreaker 2: Vengeance over here" and it kinda pulled me out of the story for a bit. 

How is that any different to, say, Jasnah? Szeth? Mraize? The only reason she seems out of place is because you KNOW she's from Warbreaker (or more accurately, Warbreaker is her character prequel to give backstory for when she turns up here). Ignoring that cross- world interactions is meant to be a major point in SA anyway, none of those things are any more enigmatic than the first time we hear about any of the new concepts in this book (as in, new to the characters). You are biased simply because you know the origins of her mysteries 

[Fineous he/him]

O.K. so does anyone else have a serious problem with the revelation of the Recreance?  I apologize if anyone else already posted this, I wanted to get this out whilst I was thinking about it, and will go back to read other posts afterwards.  So we discover that the Recreance happened because the Knights discover that A. Humans are the voidbringers and B. Humans fled to Roshar after destroying their own world with surgebinding, something that Jasnah says 'she had suspected'. 

The problem I have with this is that certainly Jasnah, and also all the ardents, and I am pretty certain it is common knowledge to virtually everyone, that the Radiants came AFTER the Heralds.  The Heralds were the first to have surge binding powers from the Honorblades, and the Radiants copied those powers with their bonds to Spren.  So the early pre-history of Roshar just doesn't hold up.  How could humans have destroyed their world with Surgebinding before having had access to Surgebinding?  Magic in the cosmere derives from investiture from the local shard, in this case Honor, which means that before coming to Roshar Humans couldn't possibly have been able to Surgebind.  Even if Jasnah doesn't have access to all the information we do about the Cosmere and Investiture, surely she would have realized that she was putting the cart before the horse with saying surgebinding destroyed humanity's first world.  This is made even more clear with our access to Hoid's parable about the humans having lived in the protected valley of Shinovar, and how they then 'climbed' out, thus giving them access to the Highstorm's Stormlight and the powers of Surgebinding (Which admittedly Jasnah doesn't have access to, but it was just the part that really cemented in my mind that something was really not right).  Jasnah is a bit of a mary sue, and from the way she is written I think she should have discovered this error in logical thinking right away, but instead she is actually the one who puts the idea forward.

So, taking into account Jasnah's illness as a child, which drove her out of her mind, and the revelation of Radiant's being able to bond to storm twisted spren but still have access to Radiant powers, do people think that Jasnah may be bonded to a corrupted spen too, something that happened to her as a very young child, and she doesn't even realize it?  And has it been subtly guiding her since childhood?  Is JASNAH the one destined to be Odium's champion?

 

Just a few thoughts.  Will continue to think about this for a while, but I only just finished Oathbringer and it will almost certainly take a second reading of Oathbringer (Also, Warbreaker) before I have any other thoughts about the book cemented in my head.

Edited November 17, 2017 by Fineous
didn't mean to trigger Smileys.

[Aleksiel]

@Fineous you are not alone. I think it was actually voidbinding, we have a voidbinding chart in the first book. Also, Ishar sealing the Oathpact raises questions, too: why would Honor give them Honorblades before swearing any oaths? Why not bind the Heralds himself? Does this mean Honorblades predate Desolations? Listeners' lore has it they joined the enemy after spren betrayed them, but nahel bond became a fact after the Oathpact. There are a bunch of things that just don't add up.

 

58 minutes ago, IndigoAjah said:

Ignoring that cross- world interactions is meant to be a major point in SA anyway, none of those things are any more enigmatic than the first time we hear about any of the new concepts in this book (as in, new to the characters). You are biased simply because you know the origins of her mysteries 

The cosmere is slowly taking over SA imo, despite Brandon saying he'll avoid that. Nightblood can be explained as a Blade poorly crafted by the Nightwatcher, however Azure is so out of place there's no in-world explanation for her. Hoid and the rest of the worldhoppers were already heavily hinting towards something far more than Roshar, but that could have been swept under the rug for most readers. Vivenna on the other hand can't, at least I do not see how all her out-of-placeness can be explained away without making the readers cosmerely aware unless she's not explained at all just like Hoid and all the cosmere mail, which makes even less sense - who in Damnation provides planetary postal service? All that magic and a bunch of heavily invested beings are communication via letters? 

[Jess]

48 minutes ago, Fineous said:

How could humans have destroyed their world with Surgebinding before having had access to Surgebinding?  Magic in the cosmere derives from investiture from the local shard, in this case Honor, which means that before coming to Roshar Humans couldn't possibly have been able to Surgebind.

This thought occurred to me too, but I haven't really finished thinking about it. For now I suspect that Jasnah et al are calling all magic "Surgebinding" (cf "chickens" "wine") and whatever the migrant humans destroyed their previous world with was probably different. However, two things:

1. I think the ancient humans arrived from Ashyn, which is just next door, so to speak. I think it's entirely plausible that the whole Roshar system, not just the planet that Honor and Cultivation are most involved with, has some overarching theme/mechanic underpinning its various magics. Thus, the pre-migration magic could very well have resembled Surgebinding significantly.

2. The migrant humans are said to have brought Odium with them. The answer could be as simple as "It was actually Voidbinding, not Surgebinding".

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

1 hour ago, Fineous said:

O.K. so does anyone else have a serious problem with the revelation of the Recreance?  I apologize if anyone else already posted this, I wanted to get this out whilst I was thinking about it, and will go back to read other posts afterwards.  So we discover that the Recreance happened because the Knights discover that A. Humans are the voidbringers and B. Humans fled to Roshar after destroying their own world with surgebinding, something that Jasnah says 'she had suspected'. 

The problem I have with this is that certainly Jasnah, and also all the ardents, and I am pretty certain it is common knowledge to virtually everyone, that the Radiants came AFTER the Heralds.  The Heralds were the first to have surge binding powers from the Honorblades, and the Radiants copied those powers with their bonds to Spren.  So the early pre-history of Roshar just doesn't hold up.  How could humans have destroyed their world with Surgebinding before having had access to Surgebinding?  Magic in the cosmere derives from investiture from the local shard, in this case Honor, which means that before coming to Roshar Humans couldn't possibly have been able to Surgebind.  Even if Jasnah doesn't have access to all the information we do about the Cosmere and Investiture, surely she would have realized that she was putting the cart before the horse with saying surgebinding destroyed humanity's first world.  This is made even more clear with our access to Hoid's parable about the humans having lived in the protected valley of Shinovar, and how they then 'climbed' out, thus giving them access to the Highstorm's Stormlight and the powers of Surgebinding (Which admittedly Jasnah doesn't have access to, but it was just the part that really cemented in my mind that something was really not right).  Jasnah is a bit of a mary sue, and from the way she is written I think she should have discovered this error in logical thinking right away, but instead she is actually the one who puts the idea forward.

 

It is suspected that what is meant is that humans used Voidbinding to destroy their previous world. Its close enough to surgebinding that they use that word, after all after thousands of years some knowledge shifted or was lost.

Secondly, the fact that Odium was originally the human god was not so clear in any of the records. I believe that was confirmed by the spren instead?

Finally, I know many people say they are underwhelmed by the Recreance, so I will say that its likely part of the problem of the Recreance is that Honor's death had started. The KR were been led by a dying Shard, becoming pure Honor without morality or goodness. In addition there hadn't been a Desolation in 2000 years, the KR likely felt useless and without purpose. Add these 2 points to knowing parsh were in Roshar first plus humans destroyed their old world, and its not so unlikely.

In any case, don't assume we know all the past, as we are still missing some pieces. Like, who were the KR fighting when they forswore their oaths? What destroyed Aimia?

Edited November 17, 2017 by WhiteLeeopard
ninja'd

[Seonid he/him]

3 hours ago, EvilNuff said:

I absolutely hated that Renarin lived.  Ugh by far my least favorite Sanderson character ever and I was so hopeful that Jasnah would do the right thing and kill him...ARGH!

Why would it have been the right thing to do? I think it's clear that Renarin is on team Honor.

[Fineous he/him]

28 minutes ago, Jess said:

This thought occurred to me too, but I haven't really finished thinking about it. For now I suspect that Jasnah et al are calling all magic "Surgebinding" (cf "chickens" "wine") and whatever the migrant humans destroyed their previous world with was probably different. However, two things:

1. I think the ancient humans arrived from Ashyn, which is just next door, so to speak. I think it's entirely plausible that the whole Roshar system, not just the planet that Honor and Cultivation are most involved with, has some overarching theme/mechanic underpinning its various magics. Thus, the pre-migration magic could very well have resembled Surgebinding significantly.

2. The migrant humans are said to have brought Odium with them. The answer could be as simple as "It was actually Voidbinding, not Surgebinding".

Yes, I'm not worried about the fact that it was a different power.  That seemed pretty clear to me.  What confuses me is JASNAH making that mistake.  It is obvious that it had to be Voidbringing or possibly even some sort of racial memory of Adonalsium splitting in the first place.  After all I am pretty certain that we know that all humans were actually created by Adonalsium EXCEPT for the ones on Scadrial, as none of the shards were able to create life on their own, and it was the joint work of both Preservation and Ruin that was necessary to create the humans on Scadrial.

So we can probably infer that all humans other than Scadrial humans have in essence come from another world, and powers of investiture will vary.  Jasnah should have enough of the pieces even without knowing about investiture to realize that story shouldn't make sense.  And she never tells anyone anything until she is sure she has figured it all out.  But she is the one who puts the theory forwards in the first place.

As for them coming from Ashyn, I don't think so, see above about human creation, but perhaps I am mixed up on my Cosmere knowledge?  Anyone else more knowledgeable about the Cosmere than me want to weigh in?

 

Edit*

Just realized didn't make my thoughts particularly clear on why it matters.  It matters because if the powers were given up because of the radiants fearing that they would inadvertently destroy another world, then Jasnah should be the first one to say 'but that doesn't make sense because...' in order to stop any possibility of it happening again.  But she didn't...

Edited November 17, 2017 by Fineous
more thoughts...

[IndigoAjah he/him]

22 minutes ago, Aleksiel said:

@Fineous you are not alone. I think it was actually voidbinding, we have a voidbinding chart in the first book. Also, Ishar sealing the Oathpact raises questions, too: why would Honor give them Honorblades before swearing any oaths? Why not bind the Heralds himself? Does this mean Honorblades predate Desolations? Listeners' lore has it they joined the enemy after spren betrayed them, but nahel bond became a fact after the Oathpact. There are a bunch of things that just don't add up.

 

The cosmere is slowly taking over SA imo, despite Brandon saying he'll avoid that. Nightblood can be explained as a Blade poorly crafted by the Nightwatcher, however Azure is so out of place there's no in-world explanation for her. Hoid and the rest of the worldhoppers were already heavily hinting towards something far more than Roshar, but that could have been swept under the rug for most readers. Vivenna on the other hand can't, at least I do not see how all her out-of-placeness can be explained away without making the readers cosmerely aware unless she's not explained at all just like Hoid and all the cosmere mail, which makes even less sense - who in Damnation provides planetary postal service? All that magic and a bunch of heavily invested beings are communication via letters? 

You are entitled to that opinion. I find it inherently illogical- I don't think Azure stands out any more than any other character seen for the first time with backstory, and again, it's only an imagined problem that people who have read warbreaker assume exists. We'd have to ask people who haven't read the Warbreaker book(s).

 

i can kind of see your point, just can't agree with it 

[Musica she/her]

On 11/16/2017 at 9:19 AM, Leyrann said:

NOOOOOO BRANDON! WHY ARE YOU MAKING US WAIIIIIIT?

I assumed the third one is the Shin's "Ancient of Stone"..did I miss something?

[Mulk he/him]

Re: the whole Vivenna thing - knowing Azure is Vivenna and an offworld means absolutely zilch for understanding the plot.  Some folks are way too focused on the fact that she's an offworlder.  So is Mraize. So is Iyatil. So is Zahel.  So were the other 17th Sharders in the Purelake.  You don't have to know anything about their off-world history to understand for the most part what is going on and enjoy it. Or, if you don't understand, you roll that into the rest of what you don't understand and keep reading until Brandon keys you in on what you need to know to make the pieces fit.  Knowing they are is an easter egg that gives you some depth to analyze from.

Seriously - it's not that hard to find in world explanations for what you see from them. And even if you do suspect the truth, you don't need to know where she is from and all that to know what she's doing now, understand what is going on.  Like, I know what it looks like from that POV because until September, I was there.  I hadn't read Arcanum Unbounded or Warbreaker.  I didn't take Zahel/Vasher and Nightblood to be out of place.  I didn't take Wit/Hoid to be out of place, though I figured he at least knew a lot more than we could see onscreen.  Vivenna/Azure is just more of the same, though more obviously offworld, obviously with some experiences that until now we could only attribute to Jasnah in this series.  But the fact that Jasnah is the only one on-screen (depending on whether you recognize Hoid/Wit encountering Rock or not) to have been bodily to Shadesmar and back prior to part 3 does not automatically mean that no one else ever has or could.

This is an instance where I really think the readers should trust the author a bit more and...you know, actually talk to people who haven't read the other stuff before you just say stuff like this sticks out too much there's no way people can understand it without reading other works.  They won't understand it in all of its depth, but you make a false reasoning from the fact that they won't know it all to say they can't understand or enjoy the book right now without that deeper knowledge.

3 minutes ago, Fineous said:

Yes, I'm not worried about the fact that it was a different power.  That seemed pretty clear to me.  What confuses me is JASNAH making that mistake.  It is obvious that it had to be Voidbringing or possibly even some sort of racial memory of Adonalsium splitting in the first place.  After all I am pretty certain that we know that all humans were actually created by Adonalsium EXCEPT for the ones on Scadrial, as none of the shards were able to create life on their own, and it was the joint work of both Preservation and Ruin that was necessary to create the humans on Scadrial.

reference this:

I typed this yesterday morning - we have never in the books seen the term Voidbinding.  We call it that here, but people on that world DON'T HAVE THAT TERM.  So Jasnah isn't making a mistake.  She's using the word they have available for the magic that is used.  People here get confused because someone coined a term to differentiate it.

[Fineous he/him]

5 minutes ago, IndigoAjah said:

You are entitled to that opinion. I find it inherently illogical- I don't think Azure stands out any more than any other character seen for the first time with backstory, and again, it's only an imagined problem that people who have read warbreaker assume exists. We'd have to ask people who haven't read the Warbreaker book(s).

 

i can kind of see your point, just can't agree with it 

Am I the only one who finds the gradual combining of all the cosmere worlds that show just how much work has gone into the world building of the Cosmere to be super cool?

[Islington]

1 hour ago, IndigoAjah said:

How is that any different to, say, Jasnah? Szeth? Mraize? The only reason she seems out of place is because you KNOW she's from Warbreaker (or more accurately, Warbreaker is her character prequel to give backstory for when she turns up here). Ignoring that cross- world interactions is meant to be a major point in SA anyway, none of those things are any more enigmatic than the first time we hear about any of the new concepts in this book (as in, new to the characters). You are biased simply because you know the origins of her mysteries 

You're saying she's as engaging as two viewpoint characters and a possible major villain. I'm not saying she's bad or that it's bad she's in the book. I'm saying she's distractingly out of place. She states outright that she's from another land. It's almost like, she shows up and the Dawnchant gets translated and you're like "Wait, she's maybe from the same  place as the original humans? Are there aliens in this? Where is she from?Why aren't we following this chick? She's obviously the main character!" It's not good or bad, just a statement. If it increases the world and mystery for you, cool. It took me out of the story. 

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

6 minutes ago, Fineous said:

Just realized didn't make my thoughts particularly clear on why it matters.  It matters because if the powers were given up because of the radiants fearing that they would inadvertently destroy another world, then Jasnah should be the first one to say 'but that doesn't make sense because...' in order to stop any possibility of it happening again.  But she didn't...

We have a lot of extra information. Jasnah doesn't. Its not even certain Jasnah knows about the Cosmere. She would have no way of knowing Odium came later just from texts in Roshar. For all she knows humans always worshipped Honor and Odium has always been the parsh god. The information that that is not so comes from the spren, not any texts. Even the dawn text is not enough as with Odium claiming he is Passion, the parsh could be claiming Honor is a void.

[Mulk he/him]

1 minute ago, Fineous said:

Am I the only one who finds the gradual combining of all the cosmere worlds that show just how much work has gone into the world building of the Cosmere to be super cool?

no you're not. I agree We know Brandon is eventually going to knit it all together, and I look forward to it. I just hope I (and he!) live long enough to see the culmination of it all.

[Fineous he/him]

3 minutes ago, Mulk said:

Re: the whole Vivenna thing - knowing Azure is Vivenna and an offworld means absolutely zilch for understanding the plot.  Some folks are way too focused on the fact that she's an offworlder.  So is Mraize. So is Iyatil. So is Zahel.  So were the other 17th Sharders in the Purelake.  You don't have to know anything about their off-world history to understand for the most part what is going on and enjoy it. Or, if you don't understand, you roll that into the rest of what you don't understand and keep reading until Brandon keys you in on what you need to know to make the pieces fit.  Knowing they are is an easter egg that gives you some depth to analyze from.

Seriously - it's not that hard to find in world explanations for what you see from them. And even if you do suspect the truth, you don't need to know where she is from and all that to know what she's doing now, understand what is going on.  Like, I know what it looks like from that POV because until September, I was there.  I hadn't read Arcanum Unbounded or Warbreaker.  I didn't take Zahel/Vasher and Nightblood to be out of place.  I didn't take Wit/Hoid to be out of place, though I figured he at least knew a lot more than we could see onscreen.  Vivenna/Azure is just more of the same, though more obviously offworld, obviously with some experiences that until now we could only attribute to Jasnah in this series.  But the fact that Jasnah is the only one on-screen (depending on whether you recognize Hoid/Wit encountering Rock or not) to have been bodily to Shadesmar and back prior to part 3 does not automatically mean that no one else ever has or could.

This is an instance where I really think the readers should trust the author a bit more and...you know, actually talk to people who haven't read the other stuff before you just say stuff like this sticks out too much there's no way people can understand it without reading other works.  They won't understand it in all of its depth, but you make a false reasoning from the fact that they won't know it all to say they can't understand or enjoy the book right now without that deeper knowledge.

reference this:

I typed this yesterday morning - we have never in the books seen the term Voidbinding.  We call it that here, but people on that world DON'T HAVE THAT TERM.  So Jasnah isn't making a mistake.  She's using the word they have available for the magic that is used.  People here get confused because someone coined a term to differentiate it.

The term Voidbinding was used multiple times in the book.  Will go back and skim to see who uses it, might just be Kaladin.