Odd Observations WoKp

[Karger he/him]

So while reading WoKp I found myself making an odd observation.  I found myself a huge fan of the budding Taln Jasnah romance.  It was something I had no idea I needed.  Then I relized something else.  Jasnah's no longer cannon story mirrors her mother's cannon one.  Both woman had mothers who eventually underwent some form of dementia and died somewhat young.  Both fell for passionate young soldiers but picked other people for political reasons.  Both had important roles in founding Alethkar politically and setting up bureaucracy while their husbands were off fighting wars.  They both hated(or at least disliked) their husbands but still supported them.

 

Let me know any odd observations you made below

Edited July 9, 2020 by Karger

[Honorless he/him]

Not me but saw these over on Discord: Stormwights. Stormstriders?

Shardplate was made through Soulcasting...

...since there's no spren here, nor are there the Parsh

[Isilel]

It is also clear that in canon SA Taln was in a romantic relationship with another princess, which had begun as "star-crossed lovers", so that part of it was retained, too ;).

Good observation that this proto-Jasnah is much more like Navani than the canon Jasnah. And while I like the former, I love the glimpses that we had of the latter and hope that she will still get a real main character billing (i.e. not get short-changed like Eshonai/Venli/Szeth) in the back five. I am also tired of romance being an obligatory sub-plot for major female characters and an "ice queen" melting and acting irrationally due to true love trope, so I am glad that Sanderson seemingly changed these aspects.

One area where proto-Jasnah is superior is that she has an entourage, as is only logical for somebody in her position. It never made a lick of sense that canon Jasnah travelled by her lonesome, yet still always managed to look immaculate and wasn't attacked much more often. Or that she met assassins without backup in her pre-Nahel bond days and lived to tell the tale.

Oh, and I think that Shinri displays some of the traits of canon Shalash and I have long thought that Shalash will ironically turn out to have  been a musician and singer rather than any kind of visual artist. Maybe Hoid's flute belonged to her at some point?

[Karger he/him]

13 hours ago, Isilel said:

I am also tired of romance being an obligatory sub-plot for major female characters and an "ice queen" melting and acting irrationally due to true love trope, so I am glad that Sanderson seemingly changed these aspects.

I don't think Jasnah ever acted irrationally.  She became a bit more personable but that is not the same thing. 

13 hours ago, Isilel said:

One area where proto-Jasnah is superior is that she has an entourage, as is only logical for somebody in her position. It never made a lick of sense that canon Jasnah travelled by her lonesome, yet still always managed to look immaculate and wasn't attacked much more often. Or that she met assassins without backup in her pre-Nahel bond days and lived to tell the tale.

I always assumed that Jasnah hired an entourage to convey her places and then dismissed them when she got there.  This makes sense as a security measure as it is much harder to track where she is going and why until she has already departed.

[Isilel]

6 hours ago, Karger said:

I don't think Jasnah ever acted irrationally.  She became a bit more personable but that is not the same thing. 

She is getting steadily dumber and less capable as her romance with Taln develops. This is a common romance trope, to make the heroine depend on her love interest more and more, and I have always disliked it. In fact, by late book I can only agree with Meridas that she is much less clever than she thinks herself to be and her abilities are largely an informed attribute combined with lucking into having very capable men working for her.

And her breaking down during the battle + publicly revealing herself as an Awakener when Dalenar clearly badly needs her support is not irrational? Her believing a very clumsy lie dished by the ex-Herald Prael is not stupid? I beg to disagree. 

I didn't hate the relationship here, BTW, but I am very much against it happening in canon. Not the least because there he already got his princess and I would hate it if they fridged Shalash just so he could get together with another royal woman! I fully expect that once we get to Taln's and Shalash's flashbacks, we'll see shades of this early romance there.

 

6 hours ago, Karger said:

I always assumed that Jasnah hired an entourage to convey her places and then dismissed them when she got there.  This makes sense as a security measure as it is much harder to track where she is going and why until she has already departed.

On the contrary, it should have made it very easy for her many enemies to insert assassins and spies close to her. She was so determined to keep her research about Urithiru secret, but with strange servants necessarily having access to her quarters and things, it shouldn't have been possible. Canon Jasnah should have had at least a bodyguard or 2 and a loyal maid to be plausible back in WoK and early WoR. Oh, well, can't have everything, I guess. Having finished the book, I still vastly prefer the canon version.

BTW, another mirrored/re-used plot point is that canon Jasnah is, ironically, in proto-Taln's position in WoK/WoR! She has deduced that a Desolation is coming and tries to warn and prepare the leaders, while also figuring out what it all means. And her efforts are nearly as futile as his, in the end .

Another thing that seemed odd to me is that there was no hint of sword-nimi in proto-WoK. Vasher, who is totally Jarnah the Conquerer in disguise, is present, but I always thought that Sanderson had written Warbreaker to introduce and establish this very special sword. Now I am at loss as to why he thought that a SoA prequel set on another world was needed. Was proto-Jasnah supposed to make the sword in this continuity? Is this why she was positioned as a super-strong Awakener?

The Shin invasion here is hinted to have happened due to a mistaken belief that their Desolation equivalent was coming 17 years earlier than it actually did. I have to wonder if it had also been the motive/pretext for Shin invasions in canon and the reason why Szeth was slapped down so harshly when he began talking about the voidbringers' return. Having been burned in the past - and possibly having reformed their society in response, the Stone Shamans were understandably very resistent to such claims.

 

[Karger he/him]

7 hours ago, Isilel said:

She is getting steadily dumber and less capable as her romance with Taln develops

I did not get that impression.  During the final arc of the book Jasnah is preparing the army and Dalinar is grateful that she is around.  She talks practically and capably about supply moral and training just like she has for the past several years.

7 hours ago, Isilel said:

This is a common romance trope, to make the heroine depend on her love interest more and more, and I have always disliked it.

Agreed but I don't really see it here.  At least not in overt major ways until the last scene where she can't work through the battle.  That should probably have been handled better.  At the time of reading it I saw it the same as Kaladin's battle shock moment and I agree it should have been written more like that.

7 hours ago, Isilel said:

And her breaking down during the battle + publicly revealing herself as an Awakener when Dalenar clearly badly needs her support is not irrational? Her believing a very clumsy lie dished by the ex-Herald Prael is not stupid? I beg to disagree. 

Publicly revealing her power as an awakener was actually her last political move.  It gets her out of a marriage she is not interested in and away from a court that she can no longer stand.  It is arguably selfish but I don't think she wanted to be a politician anymore nor do I think could she stand the personal cost.  As to believing Prael's lies.  His story makes much more sense then the truth and is verifiable by evidence.  I do think that given some time Jasnah would probably think out the other possibility.  If Taln is telling the truth then exactly nine other people would have known about the birthmark but lots of people are vulnerable when grieving(just ask the US embalming industry).