Aliroz-The-Confused

Back in 2005, the fantasy genre was vigorous, hearty, and thriving.  Now it's all but dead.  In 2005, the rigorous logic and artifice (I use this word in its original sense, meaning skill, rather than deception, or, perhaps, to suggest a sense of craft and diligence rather than something wild and natural) of Elantris was like a blood thinner on a form that was clot-thick with generic mass-market no-originality fantasy (the most egregious of which being, of course, The Wheel of Time (which, to its credit, did contribute one thing to the fantasy aesthetic:  the quarterstaff as a weapon that fictional grown-ups take seriously)).  But a blood thinner is no help to one who has anemia or hemophilia, and after that Song of Fire And Ice nonsense, that Court of Thorns and Roses baloney, and a whole host of "realistic" edgy deconstructions of fantasy parasitically sucking the lifeblood out of the genre, the genre needs a Sonic CD or a Belgariad more than it needs a Sonic 2 or Cosmere, though Cosmere and Sonic 2 be admittedly the better work.

Basically, Fantasy got all samey, Sanderson tried something cool and different; but now there's so much different that the original feels like an endangered species.  Not even his fault, nobody could have guessed two decades of cultural change beforehand.

At this point, Fantasy might not survive if Stormlight turns out to be the deconstruction it appears to be rather than the reconstruction it might be.  I mean, it'll be remembered and loved, but not as a living form with significant new contributions.  Ya can't just subsume the numinous into the rational and pave fairyland without killing something beautiful, ya know.  Ya gotta either prevent that transition (Lord Of The Rings, Elantris, Warbreaker... before you point out the scouring of the shire, remember that it is the scouring of industrialism and modernity FROM the Shire) or timeskip that transition, then have the return of wonder and the numinous and the unmaking of evil's cold work (Mistborn; The Lion, The Witch, or the Wardrobe).  Both of those are inimical to the materialist conception of progress which the Kholins and their ilk serve (Navani Kholin is a fantasy villain every bit as awful as the Lady of the Green Kirtle, the White Witch, or Spenser's Blatant Beast... no, the real protagonists of Stormlight, by the rules of Fantasy are the defiant last holdouts against invasion, the natives, originals, strange creatures from the oldest days, the few-and-fading-but-not-yet-dead... in other words, the 1700 Listeners).

Baaaaaaaaaaasically, Navani Kholin is a nerdy scientist lady in the literary form where nerdy scientist ladies are allowed only as bad guys.  Our boy Brandon's coloring outside the lines and I'M NOT HAVING IT.  Puddleglum didn't step in no flame just for us to not learn to recognize Creepy Rationalism Metaphor Gals when we see 'em.  S.T. Hedgehog and M.T. Prower didn't run all over S---- Island, W--- S--- Island, and A---- Island (okay, M.T. Prower didn't participate in the S---- Island thing, but still) just for us to NOT grow up knowing that you don't put cute little thingy-thingies in your weebly-woo devices!  And the silver moon mistress's pigeon didn't almost die for us NOT to learn the difference between not meaning to do evil and meaning to do good.

Come on, ya radiant doofuses!  Get'cha Curdie on and knock off ya bullcrap so y'all can make e'rything right.  Sincere lack of intentional malice ain't mean squat when ya done a badness-do.  I talk a lotta smack but I beliebs in ya!