Humming

The more I re-read Part 5, the more confused I am. Shallan is not healed, it's her real being, definitely. This scene is pointless if she just repairs the fracture or begins to repair it by pushing her personas again to the bottom of her mind. Why spend countless ocassions in the book hinting that she's just a facade built to keep up with the environment she got it and to avoid being hurt (and to hurt) again if you are going to throw all that development into a rushed wedding. Even Evi's metaphors made more sense than that wedding. Special mention to the 'They were not her. She was occasionally them. But they were not her.' Yeah, of course you're not them, because you are a mask too, real Shallan is hidden by you 3.

Yeah, the part where she stands firmly in both feet, the posture in general, reminded me of Veil so I assumed that the persona was taking over. But Veil would never have the impulse to draw something, so it could either Shallan peeked from Veil's inside, or that it was never Veil in that scene, it was Shallan (the real Shallan, not the mask).

Did someone analyse this fragment? I'd love to read his point of view. I find interesting that Adolins feels no jealousy, not even a bit, he just feels... acceptance? (Kinda like Kaladin feels later when Shallan did her choice). He is so kind that jealousy is almost unknown to him. One can only feel bad for him reading these lines. Adolin truly cares about Shallan, and about Kaladin too.

Syl is special, but I had to vote for Pattern. *Hums happily*

Yeah, he gets always the coolest things, the best spren, the best name, depressions...

Yeah but for some reason people like to dismiss the early chapters pointing at these feelings he has, and give importance to what he said about not loving her as an excuse.

Reminder that Syl is the one who truly knows Kaladin. Is this a hint that he lies to himself and the end of OB?

Adolin would be the one who create a stronger impact on Dalinar. His chapters are not very introspective, but with some effective building Brandon can turn him into the enemy and create some interesting dynamics between him and Dalinar/Shallan. Moash is an obvious choice, but he is probably the most hated character in the Cosmere, I personally prefer him to stay as a little piece of sh*t slaying some Heralds and being an obstacle in the path to Odium's defeat instead of being its Champion. Maybe a final redemption, a single act of regretness before dying.

My trust in other authors have already been slain so I'm a bit skeptical even if I trust BS's serious way of fullfilling his deadlines. Merry Christmas to you, too, and the rest of the thread! Also, I'm currently re-reading Edgedancer in these breaks between family and friends meetings and noticed that:

Yeah, I can accept the rushed marriage as a plot device for a further advance in healing Shallan's mind and finally understand who she is. But the one year timeskip really upsets me. It is so convenient to avoid a boring pregnancy phase for a main character that it's almost mandatory. If in the next book we find out that the slow Kaladin and Shallan interactings built where just a red herring, it would be a waste of pages because it would have made the opposite effect. Instead of strengthening Adolin and Shallan connection, it weakened it. I always thought of Sanderson as a meticulous writer even if he is not that good in romance plots. What will happen 1 year later? Shallan, who had almost broke apart will be magicaly healed and is her true self? I don't see the marriage working well after being something so sudden, and built over a fachade of suppresed emotions (Adolin knows nothing about true-Shallan, thats a harsh fact). Anyway, the timeskip can be used as a poor excuse to mend these flaws offscreen, but I doubt that even Shadolin shippers would be happy with this. It'd be like putting a band-aid on an amputation.

First of all, welcome. I'm also new here and the strongest reason to create an account was this enormous discussion in this thread. I loved your contribution, agreed in everything. I also would love to see Adolin as an Edgedancer, if we sum up him failing the relationship he finally was focused the most and the discovering of the truth about his mother's death, maybe that would be enough for him to be broken and able to bond.

How she dare! Having feelings that are not towards Adolin!

Hmm no, Shallan is not the real Shallan.

So you want Shallan to magically heal her mind by getting with Adolin and ignoring her other feelings? Doesn't seem like a good cure, tbh.

Yup, the lack of strong reasons apart from them being 2 main characters and a simple Nope for Brandon to write this. *shrugs*

I think that's the main excuse to not to ship her with Kaladin, that they don't like 2 main characters together. Its easier than admitting that Kaladin and Shallan had more undergoing chemistry in 2 scenes than Adolin and Shallan admiring each other's bodies the rest of the books.

I'm totally into this. Mmmmmm.

My bad, sorry hahah

Yeah, I didn't notice when I read the book that Kaladin is playing with a stone, just like Tien did. It was @PhineasGage who pointed it, I think, but it changed completely how I view now Kaladin's word. A powerful lie, as Pattern would say.

Thanks for the welcome! I'll check the link as soon as I can. ---- Sorry, but I can't understand the hatred in your post, like Shallan was acting like some kind of immoral human being. Shallan and Adolin are bethroted, yes, but since when a legal agreement must be a barrier for new feelings? You used the word 'lusted', but I we assume that Shallan was lusting for Kaladin, what was she doing for Adolin? There are a lot of times where she notes 'how hot he is' like it was some cheap Twilight scene. Shallan totally lusts after Adolin, but that doesnt stop her from developing feelings for Adolin. The problem is that (in my opinion) Veil and Radiant sided with these new emotions flowing towards Kaladin, proving that Shallan is fractured almost as 3 independent individuals, and the Shallan that is in love with Adolin and rushes to a marriage because she suddenly felt the urge to, is denying that Veil and Radiant are part of her true self, as well as the feelings for Kaladin. It's just her tactic again, deny the problem, shove it the more deep you can, and carry on until you explode. And about Syl, well. First of all, she's bonded with Kaladin, not with Shallan nor Adolin. What's she supposed to do? An informal bethrotal is not an Oath, spren are not ruled by a legal system mirroring the one in Roshar. Why would she care about a single word of 'yeah, we are kinda going to marry, maybe'. For her, Kaladin chasing the woman he seems to love is not an immoral act, because he is a protector, he is not forbidden to love. Did the Stormfather for example complain because Dalinar married the widow of his brother? If I recall correctly, ardents were Ned Flanders-judgemental because they were flirting. But hey, the Stormfather was totally fine with it because he didn't see it as wrong or immoral.

I feel the same, both Shallan and Adolin work better when not interacting as a couple. Adolin is just flawless (but when he is alone, we can see him being impulsive, kinda stubborn, not bad traits, but HIS own traits, that are pushed aside when he's with Shallan), the perfect boyfriend you would expect from a Fairy Tale. And Shallan, jeez, she just cling onto him even trying to forget about her traits that could spoil their relationship. The difference is that Adolin just acts more pricely but Shallan truly changes her own personality. Maybe I was carried by the sadness of the scene where Kaladin lets her go, I didn't think about your point. Now that you mention it, maybe it's true that Syl indeed notices that something is not quite right about that, and we the readers should not believe what the characters said after a whole book feeling the opposite way.

I finished the book this evening and don't know how to feel. I'm not very into shipping, but to be honest with the kind of foreshadowing that Sanderson was pulling between Kaladin and Shallan, I thought they would get closer as we can't deny that they have mutual atraction, even though (superficial?visible?)Shallan tries to push it to their fractured personas. I've spent quite a while diving into this thread and I found some Shalladin shippers not trusting her decisions at the end. My money was on Kal, too, but don't get me wrong, one just can't simply hate my boy Adolin. But, how to explain it, they had nothing deep? I mean, maybe I've interpreted it wrong, but each time Shallan is around Adolin, she is the least of herself. Their interactions most of time in the early parts of the books felt cheesy as heck, like a low effort romance. As much as I like Adolin and Shallan, the two of them together feels very incomplete, at least in this moment of the story. Their interacions are dull and boring, thanks Pattern for relieving these boring 15 years old flirting into funny moments with your 'No mating!'. Everything about the wedding and the 'why I chose you' felt no romantic at all, just rushed. Like a rabbit looking for shelter from an unknown danger in his hole. Is this truly the end of this theme or just a 'prepare for whats next'-ending? Because Shallan is still hurt, pushing feelings aside and shoving them at the back of your mind doesn't work forever. This book is about her fracturing more and more, but I still think that we haven't seen realShallan apart from a few glimpses. Is Adolin marrying a whole woman, or another of her personas but without a Light Weave working on her? If this is the author breaking the 4th wall to interact with the readers to tell that this sub plot is done, I'd feel very, very disappointed. I've already read some of his other works and noticed too that romance is not his best writing, but come on... This is not the major point of SA, but I'd have a hard time getting over this kind of apparently rushed development.