Wandering Drow

Disclaimer: I am not a therapist. I do however have several close friends and family members who are, so what little info I have about this kind of stuff is mostly true, to the extent of my knowledge. I also am in no way trying to judge anyone based on their opinions. Shallan is a fictional character, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, whether or not I agree with them. Personally, I really like Shallan, for a few different reasons. Firstly, one thing I haven’t seen people talk about here is the science behind trauma. When you experience something traumatic, especially something tied to your family or other close relationships, it doesn’t just become a ‘bad memory’. It physically changes other parts of your brain. Your brain actually buries those memories and changes how your body works and responds to stimulus, especially anything related to the trauma. Since you now have heightened and extreme reactions to things similar to that trauma, dealing with it and experiencing it isn’t just like remembering your last birthday party, you have to relive extremely painful events that your brain has trained itself to see as way more painful as it was. You actually make those memories more painful. Now, considering Shallan, she is interesting because every Ideal she swears means she has to confront one of her many, many traumatic memories, and then she can’t forget it again later, something your brain is designed to do. Her progression through power isn’t about vowing to protect people or realizing you can’t protect everyone, which is growth for Kaladin. Her progression is about forcing her mind to acknowledge things it has literally changed itself in an attempt to forget those memories and protect Shallan from them. Her progression is a much more painful and serious process. And, since she can’t forget it again later, she has to constantly live with those memories, which probably resurface constantly. Knowing this, is it any wonder she created alternate personas to cope with those memories? Seeing this growth and development of having to unbury deep trauma is something I can really relate to and think is really interesting to read. Secondly, compared to the other characters, Shallan’s struggles are ones that as far as I’m aware are almost completely unique to her as a character. Sure, Kaladin and Dalinar are great and really demonstrate other mental illnesses, but those mental illnesses are fairly common across other fantasy. Very few stories accurately portray a DID main character this well. Most DID is portrayed in the media as a method of making the villain reveal be “the main character the whole time?!?!” or something like that, but Shallan is interesting and unique in that her DID is not a plot device, but instead an obstacle that actually makes it harder to progress forward. That’s a really difficult thing to write, and part of why I like Shallan so much is that BS did this so well. Thirdly, Shallan’s arc isn’t as action packed as the other characters’. Sure, action is fun, but when we have so many characters full of action packed scenes it is really nice to be able to sit back and have some more interesting things unfold, which is still very, very important to the plot. The last thing I want to address here is what other people are saying when they say they don’t like Shallan. The main two arguments are 1. She doesn’t do very much to further the plot, and 2. Her jokes aren’t very funny. Now, these are both totally valid reasons to prefer other characters. The second one is mostly opinion, but as someone pointed out they were originally a coping mechanism for her and her siblings during a time of trauma, so even if the jokes are pretty bad I like how they are included and demonstrate how she is growing. The first point I disagree with. I think she has done so much in every book to further the overall plot of the series. Sure, it may not be as much as the other characters, and maybe it doesn’t help the immediate plot, but it is important regardless. Now, I’m not trying to say I think you are wrong if you don’t like Shallan. Your opinion is totally valid, and I completely understand why you might say that. I really hope this post doesn’t come across as accusatory or judgemental, because that’s really not my intent. All I want to do is share my reasonings for enjoying Shallan and hope that I may help you guys to see a different perspective, even if you don’t share it. Thanks for listening to my rant!

I agree that Gavinor wouldn’t be a great option, partly because I think he will be an important character in the back 5. I personally think the Gavinor speculations are right that he is experiencing Odium-like tendencies, though I don’t think this will make him the champion. I think it’s more likely that he will be a Moash-esque antihero (though hopefully not quite as evil) in the second half.

These are amazing! Doing this takes way more skill and dedication than I will ever have. Good job! That cosmere musical thread sounds so cool but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Maybe this is just me not knowing how to do stuff, but would someone mind sending the link?

Honestly, Moash is a very interesting character. From a reader’s perspective I absolutely despise him with every fiber of my being. He is terrible and I want him to be destroyed. However, from a writer’s perspective, I absolutely love Moash. He’s so interesting how he is misguided and has done terrible things for a cause he genuinely believes in. Sure, he has done some awful things that are 100% inexcusable, but that’s what makes him interesting. He has so much potential to grow and learn, and honestly despite how much I hate him I want him to get redeemed, at least somewhat. If I’m being honest, I doubt he’ll be a hero. He may not even get redeemed, just because there are so many other characters to focus on. I do genuinely hope that he gets some sort of redemption, or at least learns somewhat, because that would make him an amazing character. I don’t want him to be an Amaram: someone who does bad things for a kinda good reason but dies without learning or doing anything good. I want Moash to end the series having learned that it’s good to feel, good to have pain, and learning to see things from the perspective of others, just as we are having to do with him.

I do think you brought up some interesting points about Nohadon. I definitely think he will have more importance in the past of Roshar, since he is a strange and important dude. I heard a really interesting theory some where about how maybe Nohadon was/is one of Hood’s apprentices. That could explain how he maybe got knowledge to live longer, as a lot of worldhoppers seem to have unusually long life spans, so if this is true your theory could still stand. Edit: I found the thread where I found this theory. Secret Project Spoilers:

Cool, I'll check that out. Thanks!

I'm a new user, so please excuse any formatting errors and such. If I'm doing something wrong let me know. If this thread already exists somewhere please direct me there, but I'm fairly certain it doesn't have a dedicated thread. Anyway, I recently learned of a WoB vaguely connecting the Unmade to each Radiant Order, with the exception of Bondsmiths: I was thinking about it, and even though there might not be a direct correlation, if we could connect each known Unmade to a Radiant Order we may be able to discern some secrets about the two we haven't seen yet, or figure out some more secrets about the ones we've seen already. Here's what I've come up with so far: Re-Shephir = Lightweavers (Because of the history of Re-Shephir's capture and the events in Oathbringer and their abilities) Sja-Anat = Elsecallers (Because of a strong connection to Shadesmar) Nergaoul = Dustbringers (Because of a tendency for destruction) Moelach = Truthwatchers (Because corrupted Renarin saw the future) These are all the connections I've come up with. I'm honestly not sure about any of these except Re-Shephir. None of these are good connections, though I guess from the WoB there's not likely to be strong connections in the first place. Any thoughts guys? You all seem like smart people.