FeatherWriter

Hehe, it's short for "relationship"!

You're in luck. I already wrote that essay. I ain't duplicating it here. It was written before WoR, but it's still all good meta.

You... just made me choke on my coffee actually. I just. Okay, friend. I am going to attempt to not be rude about this, but you insult Renarin, you bring the Featherstorm upon yourself. So, sit down. Imma 'splain you a thing. Aleksiel, Swimmngly, and Shadewolf brought up the main points, but just. Renarin. Easily one of the strongest characters in this book. And no, I'm not talking about physical strength necessarily, but his strength of will. The amount of stress and pressure that he goes through is astonishing and his ability to remain functional in the face of the kind of overwhelming opposition he is facing is nothing short of phenomenal. Renarin's ASD, which means already, life is going to be quite a bit more difficult for him than it would be for normal people. There's going to be situations and everyday experiences that might not be stressful to a neurotypical person, but that are going to have an added layer of stress and difficulty for him. So that's there all day, every day. And because of this, the people around him often think he's weird or "creepy" so he's got a level of insecurity about himself that compounds on top of this. Now then, this book, we've got... he starts seeing the future. You know, that thing that Vorinism expressly forbids as a thing of the Voidbringers. I'm pretty sure he's not fully in control of himself when he starts drawing thos glyphs everywhere, so now he thinks he's cursed by the Almighty with blasphemous powers and losing control of himself during highstorms and writing which... yes they're glyphs, but on top of the the future sight, I'm pretty sure he's feeling pretty horrified by what he is doing and what's happening to him. Theeeeen he gets a Shardblade. That is screaming in agony the entire time he touches it. Kaladin touched a Shardblade for what... a few seconds? And the opponent whose blade he touched ran screaming and babbling from the arena after that, sounding like a crazy person because hearing that scream broke him. Not so Renarin. No, Renarin is stronger than that. He takes his blade with a grimace. A single freaking grimace. And then he has to hold it for five days in order to bond it. Yeah. And then keep bringing it out to train with it. And try to use it in battle on a plateau run. Excuse you, Kaladin, you are awesome but you don't even compare to what Renarin goes through with that Blade. And on top of that he doesn't know why. HE THINKS HE'S GOING CRAZY. HE THINKS IT'S JUST HIM THE WHOLE TIME. And how about that duel huh? I'm just gonna quote my response in the other thread because I pretty much said it all there. Darling. Like... I don't even have words for what he went through. There's a reason I sobbed in the last chapter of the book. For minutes on end. Because RENARIN KHOLIN IS AN IMPORTANT CHARACTER AND DANGIT SOMEONE NEEDS TO APPRECIATE HOW AMAZING HE IS AND THE THINGS HE HAS GONE THROUGH. I WILL DO IT. I WILL APPRECIATE RENARIN. AND I WILL TYPE LONG RAMBLY ESSAY LIKE THINGS WITH TOO MUCH CAPS LOCK AT THOSE WHO DO NOT. Renarin. Freaking. Kholin. *drops mic* (Edit. Added quotes.)

Excellent. I am appreciate. Good ships. Very good. Yes. (And I actually did have a shipping thread around here somewhere, but it's been buried. I ought to dredge up the link again.) I wonder if we should get a thread specifically for Stormlight ships though. Could be a fun topic... Briiiiing it, shellmuncher.

*SCREAMS LOUDLY ABOUT RENARIN KHOLIN FOREVER* People who do not appreciate Renarin get served, essay-style. Don't even mess with me on Renarin. Those who do forfeit their soul, well-being, and any protection against the depths of my protective machinations•

That moment when Renarin joined the duel before Kaladin did without his Shardplate, with almost no training, against four fully armed Shardbearers who have bribed the judge to let them maim opponents, and oh yeah he summoned his screaming Shardblade and held his ground against expert duelist opponents through the middle of a seizure. Remember when that happened? Remember when that was a thing? Kaladin touched a Shardblade for like... two seconds and could barely endure it. Renarin held his for days on end to bond it and then willingly summoned it to protect his brother. Get on Renarin's level, Kaladin. Like dang. Renarin Kholin, y'all.

Harakeke, I continue to be convinced that you are a secret magical Rosharan sent to help us figure these out because storms you're good at this! And this linguistics knowledge is fascinating.

Keep listening to Splintercast! You will certainly hear them!

Dang, that fashion Alethi uniform page is still so gorgeous. Aaah, I love it.

Ah, right. I remember that about the Releasers now. Thanks.

Dalinar said the second Ideal of the Bondsmiths! And Pattern has told Shallan that the Lightweavers don't have ideals after the first, they have to confront truths. We will have to wait and see how far dear, sweet Renarin has gotten with his oaths.

@Lummi. You're on! I will defend the honor of non-Shalladin ships against you!

Ah, the Thaylen script not having vowels makes a lot of sense actually. Explains why they tend to mash a bunch of consonants together. Their alphabet literally does that, so they probably don't have tons of awareness of vowel sounds. Light, that's really cool. Also, Harakeke, I think you might be magic. Just saying.

Should "Releasers" be something else? Isn't that where Dustbringers should go? And around the circle our surges are: Adhesion Gravitation Division Abrasion Progression Illumination Transformation Transportation (not Teleportation) Cohesion Tension Other than that, the chart looks excellent!

Yeah, the coppermind currently has Truthwatchers as Order #5, with the surges of Growth and Illumination. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it seems like a good guess.

Actually, Renarin freezing up in the middle of the battle (when he goes to oversee a plateau run) is what he says wasn't a seizure later. The seizure in the duel is never disputed. I'm pretty sure the screaming is what triggered the seizure, as that was a very high-stress environment for him. Still a seizure though, even when it's triggered by outside influences. As for the stimming terminology, I suppose we'll just disagree on those terms. I'm just using the terms that my ASD friends have used, and I defer to their judgment here. I've talked to two of the main consultants on Renarin's behavior about him and they both used the word stimming to refer to both their own personal coping behaviors and Renarin's behaviors in the book.

Not that I know of. Eric and I were running the trivia table downstairs so I didn't even get to hear the Q & A. This was during a personal convo with Peter during the night though. (The group of us volunteers just kinda chatted with Peter about things for a few hours while Brandon was personalizing books.) Yep. We've got a few cool tidbits about it, but the series is a very different thing from its original form, it seems.

Peter definitely confirmed it at the release, so that's good enough for me. Also, Brandon told us that Vasher was actually in Way of Kings Prime so, he's been a part of this story since the very beginning. I totally missed this one too. I was actually talking to Eric as I finished my readthrough about "Oh no, Nightblood! Where's Vasher? Did Vasher die?" And he just kinda laughed at me and said "Oh... you didn't see Vasher?"

Really, like I said before, it's not a characterization issue that makes me dislike Shalladin. It's a metatextual issue. Despite the fact that I found it well written for the most part the fact that they have been these two main characters and the fact that it seems to be setting up a love triangle still seems really boring and obvious. And, when I say "well written for the most part" I mean that there were some passages that felt forced to me, but I will also be the first to admit that when you don't ship something and there's shippy stuff between them on screen/page, you become hyper aware of things that aren't 100% perfect. So I'm probably being unfair with that one. But yeah, metatextual. It seems obvious and there are more interesting ways that I would have preferred to see that dynamic played with.

The next set is up! Oh, and because I think I mention Sydney Scroungers in this one I figure I can link to that story in case anyone's interested in checking it out. This is... not the only time that Scroungers will be mentioned in these, whoops. Sorry, I'm obsessed.

Are there people on the forums who are unaware of how much I love Renarin still? NOT FOR LONG. (Obligatory link to the discussion thread.)

We actually do see one of his seizures. In the middle of the duel at the end of Part 3. I'm pretty sure it's Dalinar who notices, but he definitely mentions that Renarin is having "one of his fits." His shoulder starts pulling upward involuntarily. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I'm curious. If you wouldn't call his behavior with the box or with his rocking back and forth stimming, what would you call that? Soothing repetitive behavior that is mostly unconscious is... pretty much my definition of stimming.

Hehehe, I also have the Japanese books, though I don't read Japanese. Those covers tho. Like dang. Gooooorgeous. Okay sorry I'll let you all get back to work and stop distracting you!

Avez-vous un probleme avec ceux qui parlent français? Yes, I speak French... passably. I have all three Mistborn books in French, Fils-des-Brumes. And I am EXTREMELY excited for La Voie Des Rois to come in because A.) the cover is gorgeous, and B.) I can read Renarin in French, thank. As for the code, y'all are on your own with that one. Deeeeefinitely not a numbers person at all. I will keep checking this topic to see if y'all get it though!

Well... my first half of Way of Kings in French came out... today. (Though it hasn't arrived yet.) I don't know if the second half has a release date yet even. So, for Words of Radiance... could be a while.