Toaster Retribution

So thoughts on her (and Shallans Unseen Court in general?). I wonder if she is the same girl who Adolin rescued in the Sadeas camp back in WoK.

Brandon has spoken about this. I'll put the quote under a spoiler tag for lenght:

I really enjoyed this book. Most of it worked for me. Navanis arc was one of my least favorite ones, given that I am not too interested in Light or fabrials (unlike most of the fandom, who loves that stuff). And Navani isn't really a character I relate to, or find interesting. But still, her interactions with Raboniel were awesome, and I really enjoyed the Navani + Kaladin team-up as well. The resolution felt a bit simple, but it was cool nonetheless. I would have preferred someone who isn't a Kholin to be the Bondsmith, but given that the Sibling is closely affiliated with the science and the tower, she makes sense as the second Bondsmith. Kaladins arc was really good, and him trying to keep Urithiru safe during the occupation was really engaging, and had him do a bunch of cool things. I also really enjoyed Rlain and Dabbid, as well as Lezian as the primary villain of that arc. The payoff was great as well, and Kaladins interactions with Lirin made for really interesting scenes. I liked that Brandon manages to continue diving inte various philosophies, such as Lirins anti-violence, Taravangians extreme utilitarianism, Raboniels incredibly progress-focused mindset, and so on. The Shadesmar arc was probably my favorite, to be honest. I really liked that Adolin got an arc of his own this time, and he had the best fight scene as well. His interactions with Shallan really worked for me too. I also had no problems with Shallan in this book, and her internal struggles, as well as her Ghostblood and spying plots were very interesting. Mraize finally got screen-time as well, and I really liked both Zu, Kalak and Godeke. Dalinars arc was great, even though it was more of a setup for book 5. Ishar and the Taravangian-Rayse stuff made it really great though. The one thing I didn't really was Venlis and Eshonais flashbacks, which felt pretty insignificant. Eshonais final flashback was pure awesomeness though.

Except for Talenel "I'm glad that you abandoned me to face several millenias of torture alone, since that gave humanity lasting peace" 'Elin.

And mentally. At least, that was what he believed.

I wonder if it has to do with how he percieves himself. He does consider himself to be very old (which he is) and quite sick and tired of everything. I wouldn't be surprised if that affected his appearance.

I also have no idea how realistic Shallan is, but I do know this: she is an attempt at a portrayal, and not a harmful one. I think that should be enough. People are different, and so their experiences from mental illnesses will also be different. What is wrong with this? It was a twist that worked fine.

I think Moash will have one of the highest killcounts in the series when it comes to killing important characters. Moash has been around longer than Mraize, depending on how you count. And also, Nale is up there as well, given that he appeared before Mraize did in WoR.

Would Nale really be Lawful Evil though? Wouldn't he more be Lawful Neutral, in that he is plain and simple about obeying the law.

I love him! I hereby name him Fritjof!

Spaceship go BOOM.

Everyone needs a hemalurgic beaver. I'm selling 'em on Amazon for 30 gold coins each.

He was a really cool ostrich.

I guess Brandon was serious when he said he wanted to meet deadline on Skyward...

I have seen a lot of people talking about Kalaks goals, Kalak being Restares, and so on, but I haven't seen a thread purely dedicated to discussing our impressions of Kalak as a character. Did you like him? Dislike him? Indifferent? Personally, I was surprised at how casual his attitude was. I expected him to be a constant nerve-wreck, but he didn't give off the vibe he had at Gavilars feast, or in the prelude. He felt much more relaxed. But he was a bit funny, and seemed to be less dangerous than Nale or Ishar.

First off, Shallan has always been the most controversial, and most disliked, out of the three Stormlight-mains. So that is not really anything new. I agreed that parts of her OB-story felt frustrating, but I actually really did enjoy her in RoW. Partially, I think it was because she was actually doing interesting stuff, namely chasing spies, chatting with Mraize and then the whole Kalak-situation. I also thought that her arc felt way more complete this time around, and, while I certainly prefer reading Shallan over Veil and Radiant, I thought Brandon pulled of the personas pretty well. As for your point about the stakes, yes, it does feel a little meh that everyone can survive more or less anything, but I think the stakes will rise now when we have weapons that can kill spren permanently. Not sure that this is what OP was doing. He/she found Brandons portrayal of it cringe, not necessarily the real-life phenomena, which is not at all the same thing.

I thought about this too. Vivenna is much more helpful than her master. Alethkar is falling, and Vivenna intervenes despite having other things to do. Urithiru falls, and Vasher doesn't do anything, despite literally living there.

Haven't watched those seasons of Rebels yet, but i have read "Thrawn" and "Thrawn: Alliances", as well as Book 1 and 3 of the old Zahn-trilogy (school library didn't have the middle book for some reason). Anyhow, I know what Thrawn does in Rebels pretty well, and Im not terribly fond of the direction they went with him there either (Thrawn explicitly turned down orbital bombardment of civillians in "Thrawn", but does execute it in Rebels without much hesitation as far as I understand). So, while I love Filoni, I am not super-confident in his ability to write Thrawn. But yes, old Thrawn is a bit different from new Thrawn. I will spoiler this, since it relates to the old Thrawn-trilogy, which you haven't read (wont contain much in terms of actual plot spoilers though): Anyway, I hope they stay consistent with Thrawns current portrayal. Gideon works fine as a ruthless Empire-loyalist. Let Thrawn be Thrawn.

The latest episode was great, but one thing has me a little worried:

Well, given that Brandon generally blindsides everyone no matter our theorizing, I will go ahead and guess May Aladar. At least she will finally find some relevancy.

Tefts death is like Yondus in Guardians of the Galaxy. I am sad that it happened, but I would have been disappointed if it hadn't happened. Someone needed to die for the stakes to feel high, and for Kaladins arc to work. So had Brandon just dodged that bullet (or, rather, had Brandon allowed Teft to doge the bullet) the story would have suffered, and had less of an impact. I was rooting for both Teft and Yondu to die for that reason: because I want the story to impact me. But I am sad that those characters won't be around for more adventures. Teft got a great send-off though. I hope we get to see Kaladin and Bridge 4 visit him in the hall of dead KRs.

Brandon defenitely needs to go more in-depth on Kalak as Restares, because both the enslavement of Kaladin, the hunt for Urithiru, and the attempts to bring back the Desolations, are not at all something that feels in character for Kalak. Either there is more to him than there seems to be, or there was another Restares earlier, and Kalak took his place after he died, for some reason. It still doesn't make sense though. I can't really think of a viable reason for Kalak to want to lead the Sons of Honor.

Yes, you read the title right. No, I wouldn't have made this if we still had the downvote-button :-P But honestly, while Moash is chull dung, he is also incredibly efficient. You have to give him that. He gets stuff done. Just look at his track record as a villain in two books: killed off Elhokar, Teft, Jezrien and Roshone, almost broke Kaladin, almost killed Navani and almost prevented the Sibling from recovering. Compare this to some of our other villains: Rayse: Spent four books being tricked by Cultivation, lost every battle he commanded despite having the better odds, and got tricked by Mr T on one of his dumber days, and then died. Sadeas: Traded away the most valuable military company on Roshar for one Blade, failed to kill Dalinar and Adolin, lost Aladars loyalty, almost got tricked by Adolin, and then died. Amaram: Was manipulated by basically everyone, failed to control Sadeas army, got tricked by Dalinar, ate an Unmade, and then died. Mraize: Has spent three books being on the phone with Shallan, and then she hung up on him. I could go on, but I think you guys get it. Moash may be reprehensible, but at least he displays competency.

I honestly believed that Pattern was evil for a while there, and that made his dialogue shift for me. Suddenly all the wierd things he said felt more alien and scary, and not as funny or friendly as usual, which goes to show how much context can change things.