Rainier

Huge progress, yet not enough to arrest or reverse her downward spiral. Rock bottom hasn't happened yet, which means everything she's done is prior (leading) to her lowest point and necessary upward arc. We saw this with Elhokar, whose rock bottom was at the end of Words of Radiance, when he's drunk and despondent, having been indolent for two books. If I were to point to a point in his story that matches Shallan's current moment, it would be when Elhokar got his chest nearly crushed by Dalinar. It was good for him, he seemed he might be better, but he hadn't reached his lowest point. That matches, somewhat, to where Shallan is at the start of this book. She started back in WoR. She has remembered some, and hidden others. She still, as of RoW, is suppressing memories, and fighting with herself over facing it.

The proximity makes me laugh. Moash is the bad guy to admire, here. He's Kaladin's foil, not Leshwi, and I can't wait to see more of him. Especially after what we see in chapters 7 and 8 (Brandon's readings). If we're getting one chapter per week, we're going to have to wait until September 8 to find out more, though (chapter 10). Then, Truthwatchers. From here, their description: Of course Navani immediately springs to mind, and in fact when I first read this, she is who I thought it was describing. But there comes another. From the chapter itself: A challenger emerges! I wouldn't be surprised to see a Truthwatcher spren, or several, hanging around Navani, not to bond her, but to bond the kind of people who she brings together. I thought Navani's description as a networker more than a scholar in her own right was a fake-out before she became a Truthwatcher, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe she is the nexus of Radiants, but not a Radiant herself. A somewhat cruel fate, if true. Ahem. If Navani is a Truthwatcher, you heard it here first (probably). If Rushu is a Truthwatcher, you definitely heard it here, first.

I'm just thrilled that I have confirmation that no, everything is not all right with Shallan, and yes, she is indeed still on the path downwards, towards killing Pattern, not upwards, towards greater self-awareness. From Brandon himself, as of yesterday, emphasis mine: Annotations Future tense! The place she is going is a downward spiral! I feel personally vindicated, because I was beating the drum that Shallan was not OK at the end of Oathbringer, and in fact was moving backwards. The main refutations framed what happened as a plateau, or resting place, and that with Adolin she would become more centered and work within her personae. No, the foreshadowing has held, she hasn't made progress, and in fact will fall further in this book. I look forward to revisiting this once the book is out, but Act 1 is leading her downward. To me, the least interesting part of Shallan is how her experiences match up with real-world DID. I know Brandon wants to be sensitive and respectful of people who suffer this in reality, but this is a story about giant swords and power armor and gods fighting over the realms of man with mortals as their playthings (very Greek, that). You can spare me the DSM as long as her character is well-written and compelling.

Since when has canonical sexuality mattered to shipping? We've got our own cohort who grew up on Draco-Harry and have transferred that to Kaladin-Adolin. Let me have my fun shipping Kaladin with every single female character who gets any screentime. I'm holding out hope for a flashback/reminiscence from Sigzil about Hoid, so I was also relieved. Also, cheated, somehow. This is supposed to be the conclusion of book that isn't getting written, the climax of the year we skipped. Have somebody die! People die in war, you mean to tell me the original Bridge 4 has a 0% death rate after a year of fighting? Show me the bodies before this becomes even more like DBZ and Kaladin is sent all over Roshar and through Shadesmar in search of dragonballs perfect gems.

Since everyone is shipping Kaladin with Leshwi, I feel it is my duty to ship Kaladin with any and all female characters, starting with the ardent Rushu. Poor Rushu, who everyone thinks is a pretty face hiding a dun brain, but it clearly smarter than Navani gives her credit for. A little heavy-handed there, Brandon, but I'll allow it. Why would Leshwi want to kill Moash? There would have to be some serious factionalism in the Fused ranks for the human endowed with an Honorblade and entrusted to kill Jezrien to be betrayed by those who took him in and gave him that power. The Moash hate-fantasies have gone too far, methinks.

What ever do you mean? She is dealing with Ialai better than Adolin did was (Torol) Sadeas. She has a plan, and has spent time on this. He did it in a moment of rage and passion. She set up an alibi, a patsy, and plausible deniability. He cut off his cuffs and ditched the body over a cliff. Sounds better to me!

I can criticize Brandon for making a bad choice about what aspects of a character to emphasize (or include at all) without saying anything about the real people those characters are based on. This is a book, a story, and it needs to first be entertaining. If it's a convoluted mess that doesn't go anywhere and doesn't pay off, but includes a true description of someone's real life struggles, then you're writing misery porn, and I get to say so and criticize accordingly.

Bah, of course I should have checked the index first. Sure enough, right there, links to two comments on reddit. Thanks!

From the newsletter today: This is the first I've heard of this. I couldn't find any annotations linked to the Tor chapters, and I couldn't find anything on brandonsanderson.com either. Does anyone know if these chapter annotations actually exist? The Warbreaker annotations and Way of Kings annotations are some of my favorite things to read, and I'd love to read annotations alongside the released chapters.

Exactly. Shallan can't tell herself the truth, why would we expect her to tell Mraize the truth? He should have guessed that Veil and Shallan were the same, not that Shallan is the true identity.

I don't see any reason why Odium should care about any of these things. Oh no! The Singers, my disposable tools for milennia, would be stuck! Roshar, my prison for millenia, would be trashed! The continent, which I despise, would be doomed! This seems like an unmitigated win for Odium. Everything about this seems great for his goals, which span the Cosmere. Remember, Odium doesn't want to be on Roshar, he wants to shatter the other shards. If he could escape but leave Roshar a crippled husk of a planet in his wake, he would do so without hesitation. Hell, Hoid himself said he's watch the world burn to get what he wants. To these kinds of powerful people, entire worlds are pieces on the board, to be employed while useful and sacrificed if necessary. Their loyalty is useful only until he's free of the prison. If he could break the bonds holding him by sacrificing the Fused, he would do it in an instant.

I want the new chapters, but I resent the slow pace, but I can't bring myself to wait, because I hate waiting, but waiting would be easier because then I wouldn't have to wait a week at a time, it would be all at once, but... is it Tuesday yet?

Nicely done, Ben. I didn't realize you two were doing recaps of a new reader. One question, though. With the hardbound wrapped up, how will you look at all the beautiful colors on the inside?

Mostly it's chapter 59, 60, and 61 of Words of Radiance. Fifty-nine is Fleet, one of Wit's story chapters, and doesn't really have much to do with Shallan except to align Kaladin's story with hers. The readers get a thinly veiled metaphor of Kaladin, told in a mystical style by the most powerful and knowledgeable man on the planet. Gandalf, if nobody knew to look for him. Then, they get two chapters in a row of Shallan. Sixty is Veil Walks, and has the key quotes. Pattern challenges her, she blacks out. Shallan blacks out. That was deep, so let's recap. The lies that she first told are what attracted Pattern in the first place, her deep lies. However, Shallan became what she is because of those very lies, because she cut off her memories. And what is she? Well, she should be a frightened girl who fliches when spoken to, but what she became instead was the one she fabricated in the name of survival. This is Shallan: the balance between the sniveling girl and the lie created to protect herself from that girl. What does she do next? She creates Veil, and what does she say about Veil? Veil was not-Shallan. V = ~S. Veil is everything left over when Shallan was created, Shallan the lie created in the name of survival. Sixty-one is a flashback chapter from a mere 15 months (year and a half, Rosharan calendar, etc.) earlier. The title is Obedience, and I need only quote the first paragraph. That's it, in black and white. Shallan is a lie, and Veil is not Shallan. Shallan is the perfect daughter now, and that's who we see referred to as Shallan right through the wedding we didn't see. Shallan is a lie, always has been. Moving forward and focused is the best description I could ever come up with for Radiant. I could do her next, but she's not as interesting as the other two.

I told you why: it's going to kill Pattern. Just like Kaladin making oaths he can't keep nearly killed Sylphrena, believing lies and refusing to acknowledge truths is going to threaten Pattern's life. Kaladin's struggles keeping his oaths is going to be paralleled with Shallan's struggles admitting her Truths. Probably when one of those personalities is based on denying exactly that self-awareness. From the RoW chapters: Shallan is the persona suppressing the truths she needs to acknowledge. Veil is the persona trying to bring up those memories, and move forward. Maybe in general it's not dangerous for a character to have split personalities, but it sure as L is for a Lightweaver whose bond depends on her own self-awareness. I'm making the assumption that by acknowledging these truths, the three different personalities will combine into a coherent whole, as that makes narrative sense. I also don't think Pattern is willing to accept three personalities as a truth, since there's only one body, one person. He'd call the other personalities clever lies, but it's those lies that are going to kill him. I suppose it is possible that Pattern wouldn't end up deadeyed from having to deal with all three, but I don't think it's likely. You'd have to do some convincing to bring me around to three-personality-Shallan as a suitable bond for a Cryptic, more than some hippy-dippy paean for a broken woman accepting that she's broken. There is only one her for there to be. The Lie is that there are three, the Truth is that it's all Shallan, all the way down, and always has been. The alternate personalities are the lies that will kill Pattern. I feel like everyone forgets about him, when it comes to these discussions, as if the purpose of Shallan as a character could be completely divorced from the fact that she's a Radiant, or that we would ever have spent this much time inside her head if she wasn't one of the main (read: Radiant) characters in the series. I'm disagreeing with you here. Shallan is the role she had to play, first for her father, then for Jasnah as her ward, then for Adolin (and the rest of the warcamps) as his betrothed. Radiant is the role she had to play when she was revealed as a Knight Radiant, and it's where she offloads all of her responsibility and stoicism. Veil, however, isn't like the others. Veil is the remnant of the whole person who used to be, stripped of those qualities needed for the other two masks. That's my opinion, and I think it's well supported in the text.

I'm confused why people seem to think it's hunky-dory to have multiple personalities for a radiant whose order is based on speaking truths as an approach to self-awareness. There's only one person there, there's only ever been one person there, and the longer Shallan pretends otherwise, the worse it will get for her. Shallan will kill Pattern if she continues to refuse to integrate her three personalities. Thus far, she has not done anything to accomplish this integration. In fact, she's consolidated the lies she's telling herself, relying on the lies she's telling herself, and has come to depend on the lies she's telling herself. Pattern said she would kill him, and he's right. She's killing him by refusing to continue on her journey of self-awareness. And for those people who think somehow Veil isn't the real Shallan, notice who is playing which role here. Veil is the one who wants to remember once and for all. Veil is the one who wants to reconcile the three different parts of her psyche. Shallan is the one who retreated immediately and took control, and Veil was the one who surrendered control, and sat back, resigned. Shallan is still in charge, but Veil is the one doing what needs to be done. Shallan is the mask, the shield against the world and against the trauma she suffered as a child. Whenever it threatens to reemerge, Shallan is the one lying, pushing it down, and killing her bonded spren. Veil is the representative of the whole, unbroken girl she used to be. Shallan is the persona used to protect Veil as a child, and Radiant is the persona protecting Veil from the responsibilities that come with her powers.

I'm inclined to agree, although I'm guessing Brandon is aware of the woman-in-a-refrigerator trope and will avoid it. Still, I can't help but think with Roshone dead in front of Kal by the hands of his current prisoner, there's going to be some grief and angst from Kaladin that he couldn't save him.

I certainly don't think Kaladin has any of the fondness for Laral that he used to have. After all, Laral spurned him after Wistiow died. If she comes crawling back, I don't think Kaladin will turn her away, but I can't see him embracing her with open arms. No, Kaladin will either hold a grudge, or feel simply nothing for her, having let go of those feelings long ago. I suppose I could see Laral being the Evi in this story, which means she's not going to have much of a happy ending.

Man, you're going to have to do some heavy lifting to convince me this man is still alive: That's....pretty dead. He took the man's own blood and scrawled out a message. The shardblade reappeared beside the dead owner. They had a funeral and everything.

I can accept that simply because Veil is the most complex doesn't make her the real one. This, on the other hand, does make me think Veil is the real one, mainly because that's how she thinks of herself. From inside her own head, Veil is too real, Shallan is less real/vital than Veil, and it would be easier to abandon Shallan than to abandon Veil. That tells me Veil is the real person, or the closest thing to it. Why would I ask Adolin anything? He doesn't know her, he doesn't know the depths of her personalities. He's only ever seen mask-Shallan, because that's the role she chooses to show him, most of the time. I could list all of the things mask-Shallan and Radiant lack the capacity to do, but it would get too long. The aversion to intimacy is insufficient to call Veil the secondary or tertiary personality, when she's so clearly the primary.

More like, Shallan and Radiant are parts of Veil. I don't think the part that calls herself Shallan is the real core of the person. After all, there's this quote from OB: If there's a hierarchy, it goes Veil > Shallan > Radiant.

Indeed. I see we're rediscovering the depths plumbed in those ill-fated Kaladin-Shallan-Adolin love triangle threads from post-OB. Yes, I think the personality called Shallan is just one more mask. I think Veil is the closest thing we get to the 'real' Shallan, as the mask-Shallan is what she had to use as a child. The mask gets the name Shallan, while the truest personality gets to hide behind Veil, because as a child she was called Shallan, and she was using her mask. Once she became a Radiant, she had to create Radiant, since neither mask-Shallan nor Veil were sufficient to meet the responsibilities required of her. If she were required to do something that exceed the boundaries of her current personae, she would create a new one. Shallan (mask) is the prim proper lighteyed Vorin daughter, page, betrothed, wife. The most prominent relationships are with men and authority, specifically deference to authority. This transfers from her father to Jasnah in book 1. Veil is the subversion of Shallan, the darkeyed trickster, manipulator, and spy. This is the one who hatched the plot to steal Jasnah's soulcaster, the one who learned from Tyn and used her wits to infiltrate both the warcamps and the Ghostbloods. Radiant is what was left out of the first two, the authority, the responsibility, the honor of being a Radiant, and the bravery required to fight like one. This is the noble, dutiful protector, the brave warrior, and the cold, unemotional, and logical parts of her broken psyche. It's also the one we've seen the least of, thus far.

Notice how it's Veil pushing to remember everything once and for all? Veil is the most "real" of the three personae, despite the fact that one of them shares a name with the body housing all three.

It would be symbolizing Cultivation, not Odium. This is my main problem with this theory. The Surgebinding chart shows the interaction between Honor and Cultivation. We've got an entire Voidbinding chat largely unexplained. If the Unmade are going to pair off with humans (or singers), I think it will be because of something in that chart, not something shoehorned into the already crowded Surgebinding chart. Plus, we already know this isn't the case. We have exactly one Truthwatcher to go off of, but he's bonded a spren very much like the other Radiant spren, but with a twist. The twist might be that this particular spren is sacrificing some surgebinding for some voidbinding (it remains to be seen), but the twist isn't Unmade in disguise the whole time.

This is a very similar question to animal rights. I don't think a firespren is anything to worry about, but there are clearly some spren that are more intelligent. However, pigs are pretty damnation intelligent and we factory farm them. Horses are intelligent and we used them as war machines for thousands of years. Elephants even more so, and they have also been tamed, yoked, and used as beasts of burden. We're definitely going to push for more and more intelligent spren being trapped in fabrials to use as weapons, and the question of morality will grate at the Radiants and put them at odds with people like Navani who have no bond but want to use spren to defend themselves and use in the war against the singers.