Interpreting a death rattle

[Gderu]

I am going to be talking about this death rattle:

“The day was ours, but they took it. Stormfather! You cannot have it. The day is ours. They come, rasping, and the lights fail. Oh, Stormfather!”

—Subject was a young boy.

There are many death rattles that seem to refer to Honor's eventual defeat in book five. I want to talk about this one specifically because I think we can learn something new from it.

The first part of this death rattle is relativity obvious, as well as in line with other rattles. Honor lost the day, after thinking they had won. This fits very nicely with what we know from RoW - in either scenario, the humand thought they would win, because they won't be completely destroyed. Taravangian found the loophole and won.

The interesting part is the following line: "They come, rasping, and the lights fail." When I read "the lights fail", I immediately thought of stormlight, because that's the only light that we have seen that can really fail. Regular light would not fail because the Fused have come, but stormlight can. Also note the word "lights" is plural. Odium's forces are going to discover anti-lights for cultivationlight and towerlight (the two other lights that are in use by Honor's forces). 

Another interesting thing about this sentence is it's mention of voice. This seems to almost guarantee that Odium's forces will sing the anti rhythms in order to stop Honor's forces somehow. This will be a major advantage to them, seeing as the average singer is going to be much better at this than the average human.

[mathiau]

4 hours ago, Gderu said:

Honor's eventual defeat in book five

Honour's possible defeat in book five

4 hours ago, Gderu said:

The first part of this death rattle is relativity obvious, as well as in line with other rattles. Honor lost the day, after thinking they had won. This fits very nicely with what we know from RoW - in either scenario, the humand thought they would win, because they won't be completely destroyed. Taravangian found the loophole and won.

That could also be on a much smaller scale, an Herdrazian who lost their homeland thinking they would manage to hold it forever for example

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The interesting part is the following line: "They come, rasping, and the lights fail." When I read "the lights fail", I immediately thought of stormlight, because that's the only light that we have seen that can really fail. Regular light would not fail because the Fused have come, but stormlight can.

The metaphorical light of hope can also fail

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Also note the word "lights" is plural. Odium's forces are going to discover anti-lights for cultivationlight and towerlight (the two other lights that are in use by Honor's forces).

This time I can't really find another interpretation

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Another interesting thing about this sentence is it's mention of voice. This seems to almost guarantee that Odium's forces will sing the anti rhythms in order to stop Honor's forces somehow. This will be a major advantage to them, seeing as the average singer is going to be much better at this than the average human.

That could also be a particularly violent Rhythm of the Fused and Regals, the Rhythm of Execution for example

 

Please note that like every other types of future sight, the Death Rattles can and will sometime fail, even though they seem to be the most robust kind of future sight we've seen

Edited May 6, 2021 by mathiau

[Leuthie]

Prophecies are usually completely correct, just not in the way that's most obvious. Since you called the first part obvious, you're probably wrong.

BTW, this line could apply to ANY CLIMAX in any epic series. There's always a "day that was ours" that was taken away. There's always a rasping enemy and lights going out. Hell, this line could apply almost perfectly to the end of WoR.

Also, you conveniently ignore the hope in the middle of the line: "You cannot have it. The day is ours." That's not a rallying cry. That's a statement of fact. "The day is ours". Despite the rasping enemy and the lights failing, they "cannot have it."

I speculate that the first half with end with a pyrrhic victory. The "good guys" will win but at huge cost. The intermittent 15 years will be stable but difficult. Sure, this death rattle might be specifically aimed at the events leading to that pyrrhic victory, but it could just as likely be aimed at parshmen at the Battle of Thaylen Field as Dalinar closes Honor's Perpendicularity and the gems on the field begin to go dark.

[ScadrianTank]

Also this one:

"Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us."

The rasping voice and Singers singing is a good connection, but I took it not as Anti-light Rhythm, but their regular songs or Rhythms being unnerving to humans. 

[Gderu]

16 hours ago, Leuthie said:

Prophecies are usually completely correct, just not in the way that's most obvious. Since you called the first part obvious, you're probably wrong.

I agree that there might be more to the first part than I noticed, but that isn't really the focus of the post. The new observation that I'm making here is about the line "They come rasping and the lights fail.". 

If you want to speculate about the first part, I'd like to draw your attention to the odd phrasing of "Stormfather! You cannot have it. The day is ours.". This almost sounds like someone is telling the Stormfather that he cannot have it. Could this be possible foreshadowing for the Stormfather being corrupted, or switching sides along with Dalinar in the case that Dalinar loses?

[Gderu]

13 hours ago, ScadrianTank said:

The rasping voice and Singers singing is a good connection, but I took it not as Anti-light Rhythm, but their regular songs or Rhythms being unnerving to humans. 

But notice the structure of the sentence: "They come, rasping, and the lights fail.". This sounds to me like it could be either cause and effect or two statements of fact. In the case of cause and effect, my theory is probably correct. If it's two statements of fact then I'm wrong, but then why put the two unrelated facts in a single line? It's a bit odd, which is unlike Brandon. I could be wrong though.

[Gderu]

19 hours ago, mathiau said:

Please note that like every other types of future sight, the Death Rattles can and will sometime fail, even though they seem to be the most robust kind of future sight we've seen

This is true, but foreshadowing like this is generally going to be correct for narrative reasons.

 Because I am on mobile I can't quote you a second time, but this is going to be a reply to "Honor's possible defeat"

I think that we have enough death rattles stating horrible scenarios to know that Odium is going to win in book five. This victory will not be absolute, but Honor is going to lose.

 

"So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life..."

 

"Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us. "

[LewsTherinTelescope]

On 5/6/2021 at 1:39 PM, ScadrianTank said:

Also this one:

(Sorry for the other message, hit submit too early accidentally)

There's a lot of Death Rattles about this kind of thing, really.

Spoiler

Two mention "they come" and light failing:

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“The day was ours, but they took it. Stormfather! You cannot have it. The day is ours. They come, rasping, and the lights fail. Oh, Stormfather!”

—Subject was a young boy.

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“They are aflame. They burn. They bring the darkness when they come, and so all you can see is that their skin is aflame. Burn, burn, burn. …”

—Collected on Palahishev, 1172, 21 seconds pre-death. Subject was a baker’s apprentice.

One mentions the night reigning:

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“So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life . . .”

—Subject was King Valam of Jah Keved.

One mentions the storms that bring light dying:

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“Above silence, the illuminating storms—dying storms—illuminate the silence above.”

—Subject was an illiterate Herdazian man.

This one mentions light growing distant, and a never-ending storm (an Everstorm):

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“Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us.”

—Dated Palahakev, 1173, 16 seconds pre-death. Subject: a Thaylen sailor.

This last one isn't the only one to seemingly reference a storm that keeps going, either (though neither of these mentions light):

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“I’m cold. Mother, I’m cold. Mother? Why can I still hear the rain? Will it stop?”

—Collected on Vevishes, 1172, 32 seconds pre-death. Subject was a lighteyed female child, approximately six years old.

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“A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears.”

—Collected on the 4th of Tanates, year 1171, thirty seconds before death. Subject was a cobbler of some renown.

(Shameless plug for my own post a couple days ago on these)

[Lunu’anaki]

Hear me out.... What if it's a singer or a fused talking to the Stormfather? "The day was ours but they took it. Stormfather! YOU cannot have it." It really seems like they are yelling at the Stormfather, saying that they dont want him to take their victory from them.

In this case it would reference an expected victory by the fused that ended with the Stormfather being involved in their defeat somehow... that or the Stormfather switching sides or messing up the victory for the Radiant somehow? I find that last bit unlikely though.

[Gderu]

15 hours ago, Lunu’anaki said:

Hear me out.... What if it's a singer or a fused talking to the Stormfather? "The day was ours but they took it. Stormfather! YOU cannot have it." It really seems like they are yelling at the Stormfather, saying that they dont want him to take their victory from them.

In this case it would reference an expected victory by the fused that ended with the Stormfather being involved in their defeat somehow... that or the Stormfather switching sides or messing up the victory for the Radiant somehow? I find that last bit unlikely though.

That's an interesting idea, but then the line about lights does not really work. We have consistently seen the word "rasping" being used to describe the singing of singers in forms of power. I don't think it would be used to describe humans.

Edited May 9, 2021 by Gderu