The Voice of the Sword

[Saodar he/him]

I'm curious to hear how others of you guys would describe Nightblood's voice. What qualities does it have? Does it sound like someone else in your mind?

[+Invocation]

Alan Tudyk, a la Sonny from I, Robot

[Kesamijr]

On 9/6/2020 at 9:07 PM, Saodar said:

I'm curious to hear how others of you guys would describe Nightblood's voice. What qualities does it have? Does it sound like someone else in your mind?

It kind of sounds like Bill Cypher from Gravity Falls to me! Like not exactly but an analogue 

[+Harrycrapper]

In the Warbreaker audiobook, it was extremely mild mannered and even toned. Actually, Invocation's answer matches up with that pretty well. 

We're not in the Cosmere section, so spoilers below. 

Spoiler

In Oathbringer it sounded vaguely British and as if the voice was coming out of a metal box. 

 

[HSuperLee]

I always hear the voice of Russell from the movie Up. So yeah, Nightblood is a kid in my mind.

[Saodar he/him]

3 hours ago, Harrycrapper said:

In the Warbreaker audiobook, it was extremely mild mannered and even toned. Actually, Invocation's answer matches up with that pretty well.

That's a good point actually, I hadn't considered that there would be an audiobook version. Do people consider those voices "canon?"

[+Harrycrapper]

2 minutes ago, Saodar said:

That's a good point actually, I hadn't considered that there would be an audiobook version. Do people consider those voices "canon?"

Hmmm tricky question. For the earlier books like Elantris and Warbreaker, Brandon had less input on how the narrator did their job. And in big books like in The Stormlight Archive there are so many characters that Brandon probably can't supply detailed notes on how they would all sound and the narrators probably make something up based on context. If you asked Brandon, he might have something different in his head than what's in the audiobook but would also probably say you can consider the audiobook as close to canon as that. I'd definitly say that Michael Kramer 100% nailed the voices of everyone in the various Mistborn books. Stormlight archive is a little trickier because there are two narrators, Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. Although they're both very good, there are some accents that they do differently because they're both obviously better at doing voices for characters of their respective genders.  

And then there's also the Graphic Audio versions of books(these are basically audiobooks with a full voice cast, sound effects, and a musical score in some areas). Because they can use a large variety of people as opposed to a single(or in the Stormlight Archive's case, one male and one female narrator), I'd like to think these are more accurate than the traditional audiobooks. There were accents that the traditional narrators tried to do that are preformed better in these. Though there are some where I think the traditional narrator did a far better job than the full voice cast member. For example, in the traditional audiobook Lopen has a kinda rural Australian accent(I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong here) and the Graphic Audio version sounds more like a surfer from California. I much prefer the traditional audiobook version so that's the canon in my head.  Actually I think my recollection of Nightblood's voice that was in the spoiler tag earlier was from the Graphic Audio version of

Spoiler

Oathbringer. 

I cannot recall how the traditional audiobook version sounded. 

I'd say yes they are technically canon, but they aren't always precisely what Brandon imagined when he wrote the respective books. And even if it is how Brandon wished it to be, you're free to imagine it as you wish, that's the benefit of this part of a book being entirely in your imagination. I personally am not at all good at imagining voices, so it actually makes it a lot easier to read books if I've heard the audiobook first(or if there's a decent film version out there as well). 

[Weltall]

There's another topic on this here for anyone interested.

As I said there, my own mental 'image' is of a slightly hyperactive child who's really excited about Destroying Evil and petulant when he doesn't get to. But to put a specific name to it, Alan Tudyk as well but with a different character in mind. I like the thought of a less-mechanical version of his K2S0 voice from Rouge One, since that's got the whole 'You're not using me properly, I could do so much more than this' angle already covered.

 

[+Bliev she/her]

Nightblood has no gender--Vasher hears it as male and

Spoiler

Lift hears it as female

for instance--as Brandon says:

Quote

 

Heartlight

What is Nightblood's opinions on gender, and who decided on him having he/him pronouns?

Brandon Sanderson

Nightblood is fascinated by gender, and trying to figure it out. Unlike spren like Syl, Nightblood has not self gender assigned as an influence of interacting with humans. That said, Vasher was probably the one who just started calling him He, so if you want to take the issue up with anyone, go to him.

/r/books AMA 2015 (March 13, 2015

I've always heard it as almost Jenny Slate-like. But that's just me. 

 

 

 

[Koloss17 She/They]

I thought about it as like the lop’s dagger from wakfu ; rubilax. I watched that first, the read the books, and he just reminded me so much of rubilax. Kinda demonish, like that typical demon voice in sketches and stuff, but overall friendly demeanor; for a murder sword.

[NeonGenesis]

I like to think of the voice as a young adult regardless of gender while sheathed. However when drawn with it yelling DESTROY I think of it a ferocious wild deep sounding voice. 

[11thHerald]

On 1/22/2021 at 5:03 PM, NeonGenesis said:

I like to think of the voice as a young adult regardless of gender while sheathed. However when drawn with it yelling DESTROY I think of it a ferocious wild deep sounding voice. 

I like to think of it as an excitable 9 year old which I think that makes the instances where Nightblood yells DESTROY even better.

[jamesbondsmith He/him]

Basically how I imagine Nightblood (with a tiny bit of the Australian 'Inner Health Plus' commercial, but I can't find a version which isn't either potato quality or horribly clipped) Funniest Moss Moments | The IT Crowd | Part 1 - YouTube

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

On 9/11/2020 at 3:26 PM, Weltall said:

There's another topic on this here for anyone interested.

As I said there, my own mental 'image' is of a slightly hyperactive child who's really excited about Destroying Evil and petulant when he doesn't get to. But to put a specific name to it, Alan Tudyk as well but with a different character in mind. I like the thought of a less-mechanical version of his K2S0 voice from Rouge One, since that's got the whole 'You're not using me properly, I could do so much more than this' angle already covered.

 

I think if it as pretty childish, but more middle-schooly. And then when he says destroy evil he's a video game character voice.

[jamesbondsmith He/him]

On 2/24/2021 at 4:05 PM, The Unknown Order said:

I think if it as pretty childish, but more middle-schooly. And then when he says destroy evil he's a video game character voice.

Well now I can't stop imagine unsheathed Nightblood as the 'Finish Him/Fatality' voice from Mortal Kombat.

[i’m in the details]

Dunno why but I always heard his voice as the vampire child from the dark brotherhood quest line in Skyrim. Likely due to Vasher describing him as childish, and the fact that he says creepy things