Laral + Kaladin

[Ramona Tehradin she/her]

 

Quote

 

Questioner

Will Kaladin ever find love?

Brandon Sanderson

He's asking that same question, as well.

Tor Instagram Livestream (Nov. 25, 2020)

 

 

Not anytime soon, and there is no more time. He's not going to end up with anyone, he has Syl and she's his everything with no romantic morphemes implicated. 

 

 

[Adolinalsium he/him]

17 hours ago, Ramona Tehradin said:

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The Ideal has sailed and its not what you think. 

 

What do you mean? Kaladins ideals

[MONARCH]

No, just no.

Never as indulged in Kaladin's so called "character charisma" as some might be, however, even I found that Sanderson acted as if he was deriving pleasure from torturing the character with multiple issues "Well, you've somehow come around with the flaws of the social structure? Guess what? Now you'll have major mental issues to cope with! And adding to that is your father continuously trying to force you into a confinement suitable for his unrealistic morality!"

Perhaps Laral's attitude in Oathbringer is understandable (though from a reader's standpoint, I honestly consider it almost unbearable), but seriously...it's just the fourth book, and although the first arc of SA is about to complete, I just do not see the point in having Kaladin going back to Laral, with potentially other choices around. A large chunk of my guts wish she'd just die of old age and sickness while eventually becoming irrelevant to Kaladin, or she could just be swallowed by a chasmfiend.

A more savage and whiny version:

Spoiler

 

I literally wish for him being with ANYONE (cremlings included) other than some degenerate filth "compassionate, strong, determined girl" like Laral. 

Just please, if that ever happens in future story arc, I think imma throw up and to never read SA or related book EVER again. Such kind of unnecessary romance would be literally a form of devolution to his character, and besides, if this will ultimately be the path BS takes, then what's the freaking point for introducing Tarah in that damn flashback? All for nothing?

Now I just sincerely hope Sanderson would NEVER consider this as a possibility, otherwise Kaladin might as well brand a massive "SIMP" on his forehead with some device that prevent stormlight from healing the flesh. The character has received enough mental torment from his own hypocrite and coward of a father, he certainly does not need another...stuff from his miserable early days.

 

 

[ShardplateJoe III]

At this point, I don't think we have time to see Kal in a relationship. We have ten days until the duel of the champions, little time for a serious relationship to grow, and if the duel of the champions happens at the climax of the book (which it almost certainly will, though I may be surprised) we have fifteen years between the events of SA 5 and 6. 

 

Assuming Kal survives SA 5, we will have fast forwarded Kal's life fifteen years, at which point he will probably have been married for about a decade ish.

[IndigoAjah he/him]

52 minutes ago, ShardplateJoe III said:

At this point, I don't think we have time to see Kal in a relationship. We have ten days until the duel of the champions, little time for a serious relationship to grow, and if the duel of the champions happens at the climax of the book (which it almost certainly will, though I may be surprised) we have fifteen years between the events of SA 5 and 6. 

 

Assuming Kal survives SA 5, we will have fast forwarded Kal's life fifteen years, at which point he will probably have been married for about a decade ish.

I'd say the duel is likely to happen quite a lot before the climax of book 5 to be honest. 

 

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

19 minutes ago, IndigoAjah said:

I'd say the duel is likely to happen quite a lot before the climax of book 5 to be honest. 

 

Ah, but if the surprise is that it happens early in the book, then wouldn’t it be just like Brandon to shock us by making the book occur over ten days? Or better: the duel is delayed by mutual agreement, and takes place at the end... with lots of time in the middle. Because the beginning? That’s practically expected!

[GameOfGroans]

Laral certainly has some good qualities but, just, not enough. Kaladin especially needs somebody warm and thoughtful besides strong, somebody who opens up to him and shares feelings, not somebody who cuts him off every time they meet.

On a personal level, I'm not sure if this makes me more or less invested in what I read, but I like slow and complex buildup of emotions and romantic tension, which means both characters involved need to be given plenty of POV or at least "screen time". A rushed side story with somebody who barely got a few mentions in 4 books does not appeal to me at all. I don't want to have to imagine all the details, I want the book to take me through them, slowly. Like a good foreplay. Sometimes when the words come from the book they have stronger impact than just the images in my mind, just like real foreplay feels different than imaginary foreplay.

[Ailvara]

I think it's safe to say, if Brandon would plan anything between Kaladin and Laral, he had every opportunity to at least re-establish some form of friendship between them in this book. Between that and "it's a girl I would never marry, no matter what", I'm not sure how much more he could sink this ship, aside from maybe killing any of the characters.

[+robardin he/him]

1 hour ago, Ailvara said:

I think it's safe to say, if Brandon would plan anything between Kaladin and Laral, he had every opportunity to at least re-establish some form of friendship between them in this book. Between that and "it's a girl I would never marry, no matter what", I'm not sure how much more he could sink this ship, aside from maybe killing any of the characters.

Yeah, Laral raised her eyebrows at Kaladin saying to her "I imagined coming back and saving you from all of this" (what a very Kaladin thing to say), when she was apparently relatively happily married - running the town as citylady for Roshone, and having a family (her two children must have existed already in that scene in OB, given their ages in RoW, he just hadn't any time time to learn about their existence or to meet them).

So on top of having to re-establish an emotional bond between the two that goes beyond "we used to have a mutual childhood crush on each other", and her reaction of "stop viewing me as an object of rescue when I'm a capable citylady", and her being in sincere mourning over the death of a man he's hated for pretty much all of his adult life in Roshone...  Can you imagine Kaladin wrestling with being the stepfather raising Roshone's kids?

[Kfish]

I've always liked them together. I think the biggest point against them has always been their argument in oathbringer. I agree but think Laral was just trying to defend her family. She WAS wrong in her defense of Roshone but a simple softening by saying "there were issues on both sides and I'm sorry for what happened and so is he". 

 

Keep in mind she had said she was sad about Tien right before that. 

 

If they were to get together, I'd want a scene with Kaladin talking to laral about how it all made them feel honestly. We'd need forgiveness from Kaladin otherwise he'd be stepfather to two of Roshone's children and that...could be not good. 

[bmcclure7]

On 7/26/2020 at 11:09 AM, snoopy said:

With Roshone dead, what do you think the possibility is of Brandon setting up for a Kaladin + Laral romance.  In Lirin's chapter, Lirin thinks about how he would have liked to have her as a daughter and how he admires her.  It says:

In Oathbringer, we learned that Syl likes Laral:

I was never on team Kalaral (sp?) before, but I can see a subtle setup by Brandon.  She was the girl Kaladin was supposed to marry as a child, but it was doomed when her father died and she needed to marry for position.  Now Roshone is dead with Kaladin trying to protect him (so none of the Helaran issues that Kaladin + Shallan would have).  We don't know much about Laral.  I think Kaladin views her as a little stuck up, but his interactions with her have been very limited in recent years.  We know Lirin and Syl like her, and if Brandon chooses to have Laral and Kaladin interact, there is potential.  I can also see Laral possibly coming to Urithiru as a scribe for Bridge Four, since she now has nothing tying her home.  It would be easy for Brandon to bring in Kaladin+ Laral interactions with her as a free agent.  I also don't think Brandon would have killed off Roshone without having something better in mind for Laral.

I do think Brandon is going to bring in some romance for Kaladin in this novel.  Syl has talked about wanting him to have romance too much for nothing to happen.  Shalladin is certainly out for this book.  Rysn only gets an interlude in RoW.  Jasnah is in a different character grouping and so interactions with Kaladin would be limited. Not to mention that Brandon has said that we won't get to know Jasnah too much until the back 5 books. Tarah or Azure are possibilities, but it seems to me that Brandon is setting up the stage for Laral.  She hasn't been my favorite character in previous books, but if we go off of Lirin's opinion and Syl's, then I think she has potential that Brandon might want to explore.  Plus Kaladin saying that she is "the girl he was never going to marry" is begging to be proven wrong.

I ship it, but I don’t see how the book will have time given that 

Spoiler

Kal is going to shinavar I’m not sure he’ll have time unless they’re gonna rush a romance at the end but I hope not as that would be forced especially since we actually don’t know that much about Laral she’s barely been in the books at all, and even that was mostly her child self. 

 

[alder24]

@Kfish Please, watch out for old topics. This topic has been dead for almost 4 years. Reviving such topics and necro-posting is against the site's policy.

Personally I think this ship sank with RoW - there was basically no interaction between those two. If they were meant to be in a relationship in the future, there would be some nice moments, but there were none.