quaggan emperor

That's an interesting read. I never noticed it, but you make a valid point.

It could have the traditional five parts if it's divided like so Holy / so we are. / Wait. / Are we / so holy? I am not certain about the fourth part forming a complete thought... I wonder if Alethi scholars ever argue about proper division of keteks. "Clearly, it's Above / silence illuminating / storms dying / storms illuminate the silence / above!" or something like that. I decided to write one about history repeating itself. History of slaves / chained by vicious spiral / repeating, vicious / spiral by chained/ slaves of history.

I love Jasnah Kholin so much. She's such a brilliant person, and I love her depiction in the books. A big part of my unconditional devotion to her stems from personal reasons, as she reminds me of a loved one. The dichotomy between empathy + emotional intelligence and intellectual intelligence* is a big thing in Stormlight Archive books, best exemplified with Taravangian, but also shown quite well with Jasnah's character. I wouldn't say that she is emotionally unintelligent per se, as she is shown to have awareness of how people react to her and how to present herself to achieve her goals. In Chapter 1 of Words of Radiance, Shallan notices that Jasnah takes time to cultivate her appearance and presence, and they have this whole discussion about authority. She also doesn't broadcast her discovery that parshmen are the Voidbringers to the rest of Roshar because she has enough foresight to know how it would go. Even when accepting Shallan as her ward, rather than dismiss her on the grounds of her lacking education, Jasnah showed impressive judgement by realizing the circumstances surrounding Shallan's learning and admitting her on more shaky, less definable grounds. Jasnah has emotions and is capable of showing empathy. She genuinely grows to care for her ward - after Shallan fakes suicide, she waits outside the hospital for her to wake up and shows genuine concern for her. The burden she carries is heavy enough to draw fearspren from her in Words of Radiance. Why is that? The first thought that springs to mind would be that it's disadvantageous. There is no advantage in showing how scared she is to Shallan, considering that Jasnah is her mentor. There is no advantage in wasting time better spent teaching, strategizing, researching, on comforting each other. Jasnah is incredibly dedicated to her goal and spends pretty much every waking minute working towards it. She has no time to waste on emotions. The other reason could be simply that emotions aren't her preferred way to do things. Jasnah's weapons are truth and facts, the arsenal of a scholar. Emotion is subjective. Emotions are hazy. Jasnah searches for the one single truth as a Veristitalian. By arming herself with facts rather than opinions, she assures that even if her argument is defeated, a new truth will arise and enriches her knowledge. Even when examining Shallan's education, she shows no interest in something as subjective and hard to judge as art, choosing instead to focus on something she can actually evaluate. I do not claim to know whether Jasnah's people problems stem from actual decreased empathy, or simply the most human mistake someone can make: assessing others by one's own standard. This is especially crucial for people like Jasnah: highly intelligent and efficient to the point of appearing inhuman and flawless. It is shown in the scene where Shallan applies to be her ward: to Shallan - who is later acknowledged by Jasnah herself to have potential to be one of the greatest scholars of her generation - Jasnah's standards appear to be impossible to meet. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Jasnah has read every book she mentions by the time she was Shallan's age. This whole 'not understanding other people are not as perfect as she is' flaw Jasnah has going is truly amazing. After Shallan's faked suicide, she waits for her outside the hospital room to wake up, and shows real concern. I love this scene so much and it goes such a long way to humanize Jasnah. She apologizes to Shallan, acknowledges her flaws and makes efforts to mend their bond. Rather than a condescending 'she doesn't understand people because they aren't so smart as her' that never leads to anything, here Jasnah is confronted with her lack of understanding potentially leading to Shallan's suicide. While in the end, she was wrong and Shallan acted out of completely different reasons, it was still a moment Jasnah had to acknowledge potential consequences of her misunderstanding. This is why Shallan is the perfect character for Jasnah to interact and work with. Shallan trained herself from her childhood to make witty comments without thinking, so even when confronted with the full majesty of Jasnah Kholin, she still speaks her mind. As intimidated and awed as she is, her sincerity makes her so valuable. The downside to the presence Jasnah possesses is that she intimidates people - which makes Shallan, who can speak up despite it, so important. Jasnah is a scholar, a Veristitalian, she wants to know the truth more than she wants to be the one to speak the truth. She can reflect on peer review, even after rejecting Shallan, she keeps her mind open and allows her opinion to be changed. A big part of her character and something that sets her apart from the 'cold douchey genius' archetype is how she respects people's right to live their lives and freedom to do so. In her words, 'a woman's strength lies not in her role but in the power to choose that role'. Someone so brilliant and talented as her would have no trouble challenging the ardentia to religious debate and tearing down every single flaw in the doctrine. And yet, she doesn't do it. She doesn't preach. She accepts people's right to believe in the god she refuses to acknowledge. She will 'defend' herself if 'attacked', she easily shoots down the arguments of Kabsal and Taravangian, but it is a reaction, not an action. Her views are a bit more modern than most of the other characters when personal freedoms are concerned - a good example would be Shallan's causal betrothal to Adolin. Jasnah is genuinely worried that Shallan would be offended by her making such an arrangement, she sincerely believes that it was a violation on her part. I love the dialogue she has with Shallan, it really shows how clearly Jasnah prefers facts to emotions - rather than apologize for getting Shallan engaged without her consent or knowledge, she begins to outline the advantages in such a deal, benefits Shallan would enjoy, because in Jasnah's mind, those are clearly more important elements than her being sorry. Another aspect of Jasnah that I love is her willingness to admit to being wrong. I know, Jasnah being wrong happens so rarely, we don't see a lot of it, but bear with me. It is deeply tied to her being a scholar - the first thing any scholar must learn is to be wrong, to keep an open mind. Because the point of being a scholar is to learn the truth about the world, not decide the truth and enforce it. As a Veristitalian, Jasnah has to accept the truth. Being stubborn and persisting in an error is something I would say is out of character for her. Her acceptance of Shallan is the biggest piece of evidence I have. Jasnah rejects Shallan. But she allows her mind to be changed. She listens to Shallan's arguments, views her actions with an open mind and takes her as her ward in the end. She gives Shallan a second chance, first to further plead her case, and at the end of the book she still hears Shallan out after she's tried to hear her Soulcaster. Jasnah tries. Showing people her emotions and appreciation of them isn't something that comes easy to her. But she keeps working on it, rather than dismiss emotions as something inferior to her intellect. In chapter 7, she calls Shallan back to apologize for lashing out at her and to give her the things she left. She could have easily asked a parshman or a servant to find Shallan and give her her spheres back, but she instead chose to personally apologize. Shallan was a girl she just rejected, a child of a moderately important Veden house - there was no tangible benefits for Jasnah to acknowledge her faults and apologize to her. I love Jasnah's relationship with Shallan because it's so full of those moments. Jasnah values Shallan and struggles with her social shortcomings - something she never had to face earlier, as most of her relationship are either professional or family. Now that my rant is over I would like to say that I loved reading this thread and people's interpretations of my most beloved character, both positive and negative. I also hope that my language is acceptable - I frequently accidentally stray into tone I didn't mean to use, so if something I wrote sounds condescending or rude, please let me know and I will change it! * I couldn't find the proper word, if you know the right one, please let me know and I will edit.

Hello there! After spending a few months anonymously lurking around the forums in order to keep myself abreast of theories, I decided to register if only to share my unconditional reverence and adoration of Jasnah Kholin. Out of all Cosmere works I've read the Mistborn original trilogy, Alloy of Law, Elantris, Legion + Emperor's Soul, the Stormlight Archive works (Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer, Oathbringer) and Warbreaker. I also read the Reckoners trilogy (sans Mitosis, due to amazon shipping problems) and all the samples available. As much as I like the highstorms, I wouldn't like to live on Roshar because it hasn't been confirmed that there are cats there.