Joy

While I agree with you, I also felt the same way about Dalinar...until I read Oathbringer. I trust Brandon to write a good enough Szeth story that even people who aren't currently fans of him will get invested.

I don't think it would be out of character for Jasnah to be bluffing during that scene. We know that, as of Oathbringer, she's starting to feel way out of her league.

Gideon could definitely be a Windrunner; he could also be a Bondsmith, and I think that actually suits him better! At the start of Battle for Zendikar, he'd fallen into the Kaladin problem of trying to protect everyone, and as a result he'd stretched himself too thin. The Windrunner solution to this problem, I'm pretty sure, is to make peace with the fact that you can't save everyone; that seems to be the essence of the Fourth Ideal. Gideon, however, learns to prioritize on a Multiversal scale: tasks himself with uniting and leading people toward large-scale problems. So I kind of read Gideon as someone who tried to be a Windrunner, then became a Bondsmith. I think there's an easy case for Chandra as Dustbringer, although I'd like to see the Second Ideal before I decide for certain. Her whole arc is about struggling with her own (self-)destructive tendencies. Liliana would also probably fit the order. Yes to Vraska and Angrath. I'd say Jace is a little too impulsive to be an Elsecaller, although Lightweaver could definitely work, what with all his memory wipes; so could Truthwatcher, I think. I don't know any of the other characters well enough to judge. I'm trying to think of an order for Nissa...but I'm drawing a blank. Truthwatcher? Edgedancer?

Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that Eshonai's death isn't tragic. I just meant that, while Elhokar's death feels like a proper end to his arc, Eshonai's feels like an abrupt interruption of her arc. Both are sad.

I have not read Brandon's MTG novella yet, but I can tell you right off the bat that it's not like the normal MTG storyline. From the way he described it in his blog, it sounds like more of a spin-off piece. Here's what I can tell you as someone who started reading the story with Theros block and stopped reading at the beginning of Dominaria. For the most part, the quality of writing ranges from "okay" to "bad." If you want professionally written fantasy stories, look elsewhere. However, it is kind of cool to know about the lore behind the cards. Even if the stories themselves aren't great, the ideas behind the stories can still be quite compelling . I don't know if you know this already, but Magic takes place within its own "Multiverse" made up of many individual universes, or planes. Each set or group of sets takes place on a different world: Ixalan is the dinosaurs-pirates-vampires-and-merfolk plane, which, yes, is very pulp-fictiony. However, there are some more streamlined worlds. Recently, we've had Innistrad (the Gothic-horror-inspired world that Brandon's novella takes place in), Kaladesh (a world of artifice and invention), Amonkhet (a world inspired by ancient Egypt), and Ravnica (one massive city where ten guilds compete for power). I'm sure the result kind of looks like fantasy kitchen sink, but each individual plane very much has its own feel. Just like the cosmere has worldhoppers, the Multiverse has people called planeswalkers who can travel in between worlds. These characters are the focal points of the overarching story. If you're interested, I made a guide to the MTG story, since it's kind of hard to figure out from just the website. Hope this helps!

I loved Into the Spiderverse! The writing was really solid, and the animation was fantastic. If you have a chance to see it in 3D, I'd highly recommend doing so.

Shallan is my favorite character hands down, but I liked her less in OB than in WoR. I wouldn't say I found her annoying; it's just that, for me, her fracturing personality in OB made for a less compelling story than her repression of childhood memories in WoR.

I'm guessing that he just means their "roles" in the story, i.e., whether they're major characters. That said, there will probably be in-world reasons why Kaladin and company won't be as close to the action anymore. Getting tired of the fight? Becoming parents? Found jobs that suit their talents better? Dead? We'll just have to wait and see!

I can see that! I guess you could say that Sokka is a Willshaper who nevertheless aspires to the role of Bondsmith, due to his own issues with what it means to be a leader and to be a man. I'm not completely sold, since Sokka doesn't strike me as particularly capricious or unreliable (in fact, he's more of a stick in the mud about staying on task than most of the protagonists), but it's an interesting idea. I agree with you that Katara is not, by nature, a healing or maternal person. However, I don't think that calling Katara an Edgedancer necessarily reduces her to that motherly role. She is a fighter, and the battles she chooses to fight are often for people who have otherwise been overlooked. When I brought up the "The Painted Lady," I was thinking about the argument she had with Sokka: he was thinking of the big picture, so he didn't care about helping one little village; but she refused to turn a blind eye. That, to me, says Edgedancer. In addition, I don't think someone getting forced into a role that doesn't suit them automatically makes that person into a Lightweaver; I think there needs to be some degree of secrecy, introspection, or at least creativity. I totally agree with Iroh as an Elsecaller! And Zuko as a Stoneward isn't something I'd considered, but it makes sense.

Good points! Zuko probably isn't a Skybreaker. I'm still not sure about his being a Windrunner, but talk of the similarities between him and Kaladin reminded me of this fantastic Tumblr post.

@Eris I hadn't considered Zuko as a Windrunner. I guess it could work, although I don't think his sense of "honor" is quite in line with what the honorspren are looking for. He seems less driven by protecting the innocent and more by finding his place in the world (he thought it was finding the Avatar, then realized it was actually teaching the Avatar). Now that I say that, I'm kind of thinking Skybreaker? But I'm still not sure. And I can't believe I didn't even consider characters from within the cosmere but outside Stormlight when making this post! I'll have to sleep on that. I definitely agree with Edgedancer Vin and Truthwatcher Elend.

I had no idea that so many people shipped Kaladin and Jasnah. Personally, I interpret her disinterest in men as a sign that she's either gay or asexual. (I have my fingers crossed for the former, but either would be cool.) That's part of why I ship her with Shallan--and why I'm still holding out hope that Jasnah will eventually find a female lover in canon. I can't think of anyone from the current cast that I'd want her to end up with (besides the sadly unavailable Shallan), though post-timeskip Lift would make for a hilarious dynamic.

I love categorizing characters using systems outside their canon (like sorting people into Hogwarts houses, for example), so I've thought a little bit about which orders of the Knights Radiant certain characters would belong to, should they exist on Roshar. I’m curious—does anyone else do this? Do you have any thoughts about which order your favorite book/show/game/etc.’s characters would fall into? (Spoiler tags to prevent this post from being ridiculously long.) Avatar: The Last Airbender Steven Universe She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (the 2018 reboot, that is) Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Oh absolutely. I don't actually think that's likely to happen; I just wanted to throw out the idea.

...Veil dates Kaladin? The ending of OB seems to suggest that Shallan is comfortable letting herself exist as three separate people. If everyone acknowledges and is okay with that...well, I don't see why it couldn't work. (My ideal solution is a polyamorous relationship between Shallan, Adolin, and Kaladin, but that seems pretty unlikely.)

If you want to ship spren, this pairing seems like an obvious place to start, but I don't think I really see it? I think their personalities are too different, and not in a way that I find compelling--although you could have some fun Romeo-and-Juliet shenanigans with the conflict between honorspren and Cryptics. I like, as someone suggested earlier, Wyndle/Pattern; I also think Wyndle and Syl could have a fun dynamic.

All fair points that I hadn't considered.

Elantris is the most recent cosmere novel I've read, and it's my favorite after Stormlight. It isn't amazing, but it is solid. Consistently solid. The beginning was a bit rough for me, but once the story got underway, I was so intrigued that I read the whole thing in three days (and stayed up until 4AM to do so...). While Raoden and Sarene aren't the most likeable characters, I think they serve the story just fine. And Hrathen is great.

You could be right, but I'm not completely sure of that. I would think that each Oath builds on the previous one, so that the Third and Fourth Oaths will help shape (if not completely determine) what type of "Law" Szeth becomes.

Not sure whether this is true, but I kind of hope it is because I really, really want Szeth to backpedal on his Third and Fourth Ideals. I don't think it's possible for him to grow as a character until he learns to make decisions for himself (I was hoping he'd swear his Third Ideal to pacifism, because how cool would that be), but as a Radiant he's more or less locked in to his Oaths once he makes them. If his highspren is actually just Nightblood, then he can betray (or revise?) his Oaths without losing his powers or murdering anyone. Either way, I'm looking forward to Book Five.

I had no idea until I read this thread that Eshonai was the next flashback character, and I gotta say, I'm stoked. As of OB it feels like she got the short end of the stick; I think she's the only major character whose death feels...wrong. Incomplete. (Elhokar's, while tragic, was fantastic storytelling in my opinion.) WoR built up Eshonai's personality, her backstory, her relationships, and her struggle with stormform only to abruptly kill her off. I think making her the flashback character and interweaving her story with Venli's is a good way to utilize a character that, otherwise, would feel extremely underutilized.

All this talk of Adolin is reminding me of why I think he's good for Shallan, even though they're not my preferred ship. He's perhaps the most stable protagonist in the entire cast, and Shallan needs the emotional grounding he provides. Their relationship is completely sensible, if not particularly thrilling.

My favorite characters so far are Shallan, Hoid, and Dalinar, in that order. I like the whole Stormlight cast, though...I can't wait for everyone to get their time in the spotlight. Also, Amaram is one of my favorite villains ever.

Sixth of the Dusk is also one of my favorite short stories! It might actually be my favorite, although it's close with The Emperor's Soul. The characters and their interactions are great, and the setting is great, but what I really loved is how seamlessly the explanation of the magic system is woven into the story: it comes piece by piece, every couple of scenes, without a single exposition dump. The only thing I'm ambivalent about is the ending. It was great thematically, and it tied everything together...but so much tension got built up during the story that I was expecting an action-packed climax. I'm glad Brandon plans to (eventually) write a sequel.

First of the Mid-Afternoon