Stitof

I'm so excited!!!

I like WaT much better than KoWT personally.

Could Syl become a gun?

Agreed.

Done.

Who is your favorite spren?

I think if Adolin dies in book 5, Shallan's fragile mental state is going to snap completely. That seems like a strange direction to take her right at the end of her book sequence.

What are you guys most looking forward to seeing or learning in book 5?

Interesting thoughts. Ah, sorry. How do I edit the title? I didn't think about it being a spoiler.

Kaladin killed Shallan's brother. I think this is the biggest unresolved plot thread in the series. These are the two characters with more pages devoted to them than any other characters in the Stormlight Archive. Shallan briefly finds out about it in Oathbringer and then it immediately gets swept under the rug. Knowing Brandon, this will surely have a massive effect on the story. Shallan killed her mom in self defense and her dad was a murderous lunatic who she eventually also killed. Her other brothers had serious issues and brushed her off. But Heleran was kind to her. Heleran was the most stable and loving presence in Shallan's childhood. And Kaladin killed him. Shallan is very good at suppressing things... until she suddenly doesn't. My question is, how do you guys predict this will play out?

Shallan. I'm the most invested in her. I love that Brandon just lets her be herself, warts and all.

I'm sure this has been asked before, but we've had some new Cosmere novels published recently such as The Lost Metal and Tress of the Emerald Sea, so I wanted to see how people would order the Cosmere novels as of 2023. You don't have to have read them all to post. Just rank the ones you've read. I haven't finished Tress or Lost Metal yet, so my list would be: Words of Radiance Rhythm of War Oathbringer Way of Kings Warbreaker Bands of Mourning Mistborn Final Empire Shadows of Self Hero of Ages Well of Ascension Elantris Alloy of Law

I like this idea.

I love Kaladin, but he usually gets 90% of votes in a favorite main character poll so I was curious to see what would happen to the numbers if we took him out of the running. Vote away!

Is there a character that you didn't like/care about at first, but has grown on you as the series went on or on re-reads? Who and why?

Yes, no nameable reason is definitely a better way to phrase it. Thanks! She does get a slow start in book one, but people continue to have the same reactions to her, or even stronger reactions, over 3,500 pages later which I don't think can be explained by her slow burn narrative in the first half of WoK.

The gist for those who don’t want to read a massive post: Shallan is a Byronic hero. Female Byronic characters are rare and tend to be received more poorly than their male counterparts. Do you think this may have affected how some readers responded to her? Long version: I recently watched a great PBS video about Byronic heroes and it got me thinking about a certain Veden redhead. If any of you aren’t familiar, a Byronic hero is a character modeled after the characters of Lord Byron (and indeed Lord Byron himself). They are a contrast to traditional heroes in that they are more morally ambiguous. These are deeply flawed and self destructive characters who lie somewhere between hero and villain, but we are meant to root for them anyways. There was a section of the video in which they discussed the recent trend of occasionally seeing female Byronic characters. Traditionally, pretty much all Byronic characters have been male, and the vast majority still are. They noted that Byronic heroines often haven’t been well received. Which is interesting because male Byronic heroes have been hugely popular over the centuries. So, Shallan. I find the reactions Shallan draws to be fascinating. I know there are a lot of people who love, like, or are ambivalent towards her. But the large subgroup who hate her really, really hate her. Which is fine. It’s just interesting. I’ve seen calls for her to be killed, to have her head chopped off, to have a stroke. Commonly listed reasons being: Bad puns (Which, while bad, can’t possibly account for this reaction. Combined it’s like a paragraph's worth of puns in a 4,000+ page series). Some find her mental pathology off putting. But by far the most common is to give no reason at all. People just plain hate her. Can’t stand her. Annoying, loathsome, intolerable, cringe. Shallan happens to be the most Byronic character in the Stormlight Archive. (Most Byronic in the entire cosmere goes to Kelsier). Classic Byronic characteristics that I feel fit Shallan are: tortured by a dark secret from her past, morally questionable, self-destructive, traumatized, highly intelligent, sardonic, arrogant, manipulative, self-serving, enigmatic, reckless, self-indulgent, prone to substance abuse, an air of dominance while deep down she’s extremely vulnerable, an obsession with getting what she wants regardless of the cost to others, and a persistent inability to face her demons. This might be entirely unrelated to these strong reactions, but I can’t help but wonder if there is a connection. Shallan is a deeply flawed and messy character in ways that might have been more forgivable, or even appealing, if she were male. The more typical and expected male Byronic hero. Then again, it might have nothing to do with her gender. But I wish she were at least recognized and accepted for her Byronic nature instead of being treated like a traditional hero but a really crappy one. If you try to read Shallan like a traditional hero, she fails as a character. Shallan constantly makes bad choices and is very slow to learn from her mistakes. The narrative doesn’t necessarily punish her for bad behavior, and she doesn’t punish herself. Because she’s Byronic. I know people respond to characters for many different reasons, but does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Yay! Great topic. Can't wait to listen.

Blended explicitly stated at the end of RoW that although Adolin is not a radiant, they are bonded. We just don't understand the nature and consequences of their bond yet. But something clearly happened right before Maya's first words when Adolin tried to "give her strength." Like how suddenly Adolin can feel all of her emotions which he couldn't do before that moment. We'll just have to wait till book five to see what that bond will do to the two of them.

In case anyone was wondering, here is the number of votes per character so far. If people voted for multiple I just added it to the tally of each of those characters. Adolin 7 Navani 6 Syl 6 Lopen 4 Lift 4 Renarin 3 Kaladin 3 Jasnah 3 Cultivation 2 Zahel/Vasher 2 Hoid 1 Nightwatcher 1 Stormfather 1 Axies the collector 1 T-Odium 1 Restares 1 Shallan 1 Rock 1 Rlain 1 Nightblood 1

I think it's not at all likely in book 5, but quite probable in books 6-10 if they both live. Brandon specifically brings up what their child's hair would look like at some point in Words of Radiance which makes me think it's more likely to happen eventually.

This theory makes a lot of sense.