Stormlight Cast

Amazing. I love your Eshonai.

 

As to who is considered a main character by the author: Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar Szeth and Eshonai are.

 

Not Adolin. He isn't a main character within this series, nor will he ever be. A sad truth. 

 

Jasnah also is a main character but for the second half.

 

So you've got 5 out of 6 right ;-)

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The Heralds and Renarin are considered main characters too but I didn't want to go by the official rating because they've barely appeared so far.  So I judged "MC rating" by the frequency of their PoV chapters, their appearances in non-PoV chapters, and their impact on the story arc so far. 

 

For a non-MC, Adolin has gotten a lot of screentime, and that's why I picked him.  And also because I wanted to draw him talking to his sword with is mum's necklace.

Yeah well Adolin not being a MC is a tough one for me to bear. I just don't understand, well I do understand, but at the same times, the reasons I was given seem insufficient.

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You're too focused on one character rather than the story as a whole.  Adolin is a supporting character whose purpose is to provide a foil to Kaladin and Dalinar, as a human yardstick to show their character development.  He's pretty much the token normal guy in a cast full of broken people.  If he was broken from the beginning, he'd be less likable.

This is exactly what has been bothering me. Adolin is a worthy enough character quite capable of being so much more than a foil to Kaladin and Dalinar's character development.

 

I wanted this to stop and for Adolin to be the master of his own story arc. It has annoyed me greatly to see his character development always end up being dropped because Kaladin is so much more important. I just don't understand why both characters can't be important and why Kaladin's issues get such a strong focus. From my point of view, there is so much story to be written on Adolin, I am sadden to think it will never be.

 

Also, simply because someone doesn't have a tragic past doesn't make them uninteresting. Someone doesn't need to have been tortured to make a good protagonist: there are so many facets in life.

 

And Adolin can't be the token normal guy: he was never supposed to be in the story to begin with.

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Well the whole 10 book story arc is more than just one character it's all the characters interacting and bumping along like billiard balls while Odium pokes the cue in now and then.   Adolin does things, and he develops, but it's off-screen because the things Kaladin does are more relevant in moving The Plot from point A to point B.  

 

Adolin acts as the "normal guy" in the series so far, even though he was dead in WoK Prime and non-existent in the first draft.  His being normal is why he can't have flashbacks, and why his character progression won't have the depth of development that everyone else has when their focus books show they go from broken to functional to reforged. 

 

Just be happy he exists!  That is what I told the people who were upset about Jacob Black in the ending of Breaking Dawn.

Yeah well Adolin not being considered "good enough" to be a protagonist is something that hurts me on a deeper level. It is hard to explain and each time I try, I think I utterly fail. I think most people don't understand why it was so important for me to have Adolin as a main character in this story. It seems as if every reader I meet get something out of SA: depressive people get Kaladin, autistic people get Renarin, many similar-like people get Jasnah... It feels unfair the one character I actually relate to is the ONLY one who is not important. The unfairness of it is just harsh.

 

There are no reasons why Adolin can't be used to move certain plot aspects from point A to point B: it merely reflects on the author's preferences when it comes to writing characters. Kaladin doesn't have to be the only character of import, in fact him being overly used in the story is lowering down, IMHO. Kaladin is too predictable and painful to read at times. A good Epic Fantasy needs more than 3 main characters... especially when two out of three are so similar personality wise. Szeth and Eshonai, despite being MC will never get as much development as say Kaladin, so it truly is the story of three people, at least for the first arc.

 

Adolin was perfect, he was different, he was fun to read, he was unpredictable. He has a strong sympathy capital, why not built on him? Why not include him within the climax? Why elaborate a plan which is so rigid it cannot bring in one more character?

 

Adolin may have started as "normal", but there is so much on his plate right now, the opportunity is there to write a truly great character, one who wouldn't be so predictable as Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar or Renarin. The flashbacks are great and fun to read, but we didn't learn anything we haven't guessed in those. Whereas try as hard as we want, we can't guess anything on where Adolin is going.

 

He is in a prime position for a character, but no. The author has made his wishes clear: he isn't one of his important characters and he will never get more POV than he currently has.

 

I have no idea who is Jacob Black... Breaking Dawn, isn't this Twilight? You mean the half-naked werewolf? 

 

This being said, I haven't read book 3 yet, but from I have gathered, the numerous readers who love Adolin will be disappointed. Many of us expected more, a lot more than the author is likely going to give us. If it plays out as I think/fear it will, meaning the aftermath of Sadeas's death will be served solely to promote Dalinar, then I think several readers will be displeased with the next book.

 

Readers want to read Adolin and they want to know what happens to HIM, not just to Dalinar through him. I am far from the only one who feels this way. Also the fact the author gave us a character which appears like a MC, which we all though would become a MC only to fool us in saying, of course not, those insignificant characters you never heard of are the MC is so painful and deceiving to hear... Why? WHY?

 

If he weren't to write Adolin in as a fully fleshed out character, then he should have kept him dead. It would have been less hard to readers.

The reason why people don't understand is because they're not as invested in one character as you.  People who like the SA/Cosmere enjoy the works and expanded universe as a whole, instead of one single character, and the concept of fairness within the universe is not something that is ever considered.  Because they see the Cosmere as Brandon's artistic vision, and they trust Brandon's decisions as the God Beyond as to how he tells his story.  Because in the end, it does all come down to Brandon and you really can't apply fair or unfair to what is ultimately artistic license.

 

Yeah, it's harsh, but the big picture is that Brandon sells entertainment and it's a measure of his skill that he can write characters that people can get invested in, whether it's Adolin or Vasher or that Rithmatist kid.  Everyone has pet characters like Dobby or Ned Stark but if seeing bad things happen to them makes you ragequit, then it means you have your blinkers on and you should take them off if you want to continue reading.   But I would think that Brandon's writing style would not let someone die horribly unless it was necessary for the plot or they deserved it.

 

Jacob Black is the werewolf from Twilight and what made many long-time fans mad was that in Breaking Dawn, he fell in love with Bella's infant daughter, and that the reason why he liked Bella in the first place was explained as him being unconsciously attracted to her ovaries.  I mean, This post has been reported for attempting to skirt the rules kind of ending is that?   Many Team Jacob fans felt betrayed at that, but imho it's better to have read a book and liked a character even he gets a horrible ending rather than never read the book in the first place. 

 

Journey before destination, they say.

I don't read books for artistic visions, I read books for stories and characters. As a character reader, characters arcs are what I focus the most about: world-building or magic systems come dead last in my list of preoccupations. In other words, you are unlikely to see me critic how an author decides to built his world or use his magic unless it is blatantly contradictory with previous books or very poorly done. Little chance of that happening with anything Brandon has written.

 

This being said, I will not critic how an author chooses to use a character either unless it is entirely deceiving/disappointing.

 

For instance, Dobby has always been a side character. He may have been a pet character many readers enjoyed, it was obvious he would never be a main character within the world of Harry Potter. The same could be said about Lopen. A lot of readers like Lopen, but nobody truly expects him to become a MC as his role has been clear since the beginning: minor character mainly used as a comical relief who may get some additional layers. He could potentially grow into a Neville, for instances, but not a Harry or he could not. This is uncertain, no promises were made.

 

I will also never critic if Brandon decides not to exploit, for instances, Elhokar more as no written promises were made for this character. He has always been pictured as a minor side character, one without a POV, not one of import. Whether the author chooses to work more with him or not belongs to him and I will not critic this either. If I were rooting for him, I wouldn't be disappointed as it would have been obvious I was rooting for a very minor character. In comparison, when I read WoT, I really like Asmodean, but it was obvious his character was never becoming more, so even if I wished he did, it still is easy to accept it wasn't meant to be.

 

The problem is Adolin was written as something more. He got promoted to his own chapters in WoR with his own personal icon, which was great. It showed a progression and, even better, the character ends on a massive life changing cliffhanger which truly made the readers wonder about his faith. In other words, the author laid the ground for this character to seriously grow within the story, to the point where many readers actually expect it to happen. 

 

In that optic, being told from the author we got it wrong all along, Adolin is never becoming a MC, but some other barely mentioned characters certainly are, is deceiving and disappointing. Why? Because the books we read told us something else, they made us expect something else, but the author bluntly said he would not write it. 

 

The best comparison I can think of is Mat in WoT. He started up as a side character which grew into a MC. As we see him growing, it became obvious this character was becoming more than initially written. It was great. Now imagine if, as it was happening, readers have asked Jordan about Mat... "Hey Jordan, I really like Mat, is he going to get his own arc eventually?" "Nah, I never really planned to write Mat, but Hurin the sniffer will be a MC, eventually." Horrible right? This is exactly how it feels for me and Adolin's place within the story: failed expectations, but it is doubly painful because a bunch of barely mentioned characters get to become MC.

 

This is not the same as Ned Stark dying which is essentially flipping a trope over. If you re-read GoT, it is practically obvious Ned is going to bite the dust, there is no story if he lives. He isn't a throw-away character, his arc was done by the end of GoT: remain too honorable, die for it and set the ground for a story where nice people just don't win. Once you read the other books, you understand Ned Stark needed to die for the story to happen. Yes it was harsh, but it works within this story and it isn't dissatisfying.  

 

As a result, being told, by the author, Adolin is never getting his own spotlight and is never growing more than he currently is, worst he isn't even one of the important characters is terrible for a character reader such as I. It played with my expectations: I expected more from this character, but the author won't write it. Instead, he will write a bunch of very minor characters nobody has any level of investment in. If Brandon writes solely for entertainment, then why does he make the decision to wrap his story on characters his readers don't care about while keeping in the background those his readers do like?

 

Brandon essentially writes what he ultimately believes make the best story, plot wise, magic wise, world wise, but not necessarily character wise. It means his choices may not be optimum for character readers who basically read the books for character progression.

 

I have never rage quite reading a book, but I have lost interest in series before. It generally happens when I feel the characters have grown boring and uninteresting. I can't say it will happen with SA, but I can say I am likely to be unsatisfied by Adolin's arc as it will probably only be used as a foil and this breaks down every single expectations I had while reading WoR.

 

As for Jacob, huh. This has to be one of the worst way to end a love triangle: blame the ovaries and make the guy love a child instead. Creepy and disappointing. I haven't read those books nor do I plan to read them, but as long as the character had a nice arc, a terrible ending can be forgotten. As least, he had an important arc or I assume he did.

 

Journey before destination, yeah well, I have spent two years building on a character only to potentially be disappointed. Will the destination be worth it? I can't say yet.

Adolin can be a main character without having flashbacks.

His life is just to happy to justify having flashbacks.

Nah he can't. Brandon said he wouldn't. He clearly said the main characters were the flashback ones, anyone else is either minor or tertiary character. He has been not precise on the subject in the past, but new information got to my hear and it was rather... crystal clear.

 

That's why I am disappointed. I knew he was never getting the flashbacks, but I thought it wouldn't prevent him from growing into the story, but looks like all the growth he is going to get will have to fit within the limited POV times of tertiary character 1-2-3 or 4.

 

I dunno what can realistically be done in a satisfying manner in so little page time. It could be it will be amazingly great and I am just ranting for nothing, it could be, but huh doesn't look too promising right now.