Almarenco

The fact it might track in real life doesn’t mean it works for narrative fiction. I get it, I have GAD and Depression. Have been medicated now for 6 years and I know it is a lifelong battle with ups and downs, but narratively, seeing a character fight the same battle 4000 pages in a row is exhausting to read, and when said character is lying (not to the therapist and not just to her friends but to herself) it makes her hard to empathize with. So narratively she is problematic, and this is a work of narrative fiction first and foremost, if it does have strong undertones of psychological problems. However, even putting that aside, on the real world psychology front she is also shown in a problematic/hard to believe way, I am no therapist, but far as I know, you cannot decide to consciously give yourself Dissociative Identity Disorder. That is something that happens to you unconsciously, you don’t consciously choose like: “I don’t like this memory and can’t deal with this situation so I’m going to choose to make up a persona named Radiant and hope she becomes a real separate person, and she can deal with that rust” - so clearly her mental issues were designed less to give a true representation of mental illness and more to force the plot in a desired predetermined way, which again, is just not great, and makes he hard to enjoy while reading, at least for me.

I honestly don’t know who I’m more pissed off at. Lirin for being a self righteous ass, who is so obsessed with turning Kaladin into what he wants him to be, that he is unable to accept his son for the man he actually is, causing Kaladin ridiculous amounts of pain and grief in the process - this btw started as a kid, he screwed up his whole family (SPOILER WARNING FOR Way of Kings) stealing those spheres just so he could force teen Kaladin to pursue lirin’s dream of being a surgeon. He didn’t do that for Kaladin, he did it for his own selfish ass of a self. But, sometimes I thin what pisses me off most is tha fact that Jaladin won’t storming stand up for himself ONCE. I want him to kick Lirin’s ass at this point, he’s the worst piece of rust father ever, psychologically harming his CLINICALLY DEPRESSED SON WITH SEVERE PTSD on purpose just to manipulate him into doing what he wants, and Kaladin just takes it,. BTW how the hell is (Spoilers for ROW) Kaladin letting every soldier on the tower get slaughtered while he delivers storming towels not a breach of his storming oath to protect????? That’s even worse than what he did before that almost killed Syl? That’s so inconsistent. But finally, I think I am most pissed off at Brandon Sanderson, writing his characters into rehashing the same character arc, book after storming book, leaving Kaladin idle for the last two books btw, while he bulked up the page count with repetition and filler rust that bring no new information, doesn’t build character (repetitive dramatic beats over and over) and most importantly, doesn’t advance the story at all, making the character’s lack of progression, lack of change (until that magic moment in the last 100 pages when everyone conveniently figures out their rust at the same time) all the more painful to get through. For storms sake, you could cut 400 pages out of WOR and ROW each and not only not harm the books I’d argue they’d be better. storm, what’s most frustrating is that the core story, worlds and characters are so engaging (except Shallan and Lirin - they suck through and through), so storming phenomenal that you still want to get through to the end…. storm, these books are at the same time sooo freaking good, but also so storming annoying!!!! alright. Rant over, sorry for this, but now I feel better, and can perhaps continue reading XD

I too am not a big fan of Shallan, and though I followed all her parts, I always found myself wanting to skip in The Way of Kings. I have no problem with her choices in that book, nor her quips and insecurities. They all made sense, I just found her journey in that book largely boring - so I didn't find her compelling, but I didn't dislike her. My dislike for her started as I moved into WOR, and reached peak now while reading Oathbringer. No, I have no problem with her quips, or most of the stuff some people appear to dislike her for. For me the problem is she is always between stuck or devolving. She not only has the same internal problem to overcome, she's actually getting worse, slowly, which after like 3000 pages of reading is particularly grating. I find in all of BS's books I've read, all his characters have a tendency to create stupid problems for themselves, by refusing to share key information/discuss with others they have every reason for trusting, but out of all the Characters, in Stormlight, Mistborn, and Elantris, Shallan Davar is by miles the worst offender on this count. For instance, if anyone would understand everything she does covertly, including her brother's secrets is Jasnah, and she knows this, yet still chooses to lie to her. I understand her lying to everyone else, I understand her past trauma, and I could even get on board (if with some difficulty) with her deliberately giving herself a dissociative personality disorder, but lying to Jasnah? The only person whom she knows would not only understand her, her problems (both internal and external) and not only not judge her for it, but actually be able to help her, it makes her not only infuriating to root for, but extremely non believable - at this point this just feels (to me) like forced character choices to artificially force/move the plot in the desired direction, making her less of a character at this point and more of a plot devise with the purpose of creating problems in the book - she's basically a walking chaos bomb - that's why I don't like her. I have no doubt at some point (perhaps even later in this very novel) she'll redeem herself, finally grow the storm up even a little, and help things not just by accident (as she has thus far), but with all the time and print devoted to her already, I am already beyond caring what happens to her.

You mean of all BS’s books I’ve read or just Stormlight? My favorite overall thus far has to be The Final Empire, I found that book had a great balance of different characters POVs, stakes, character growth with interest characters without padding the page count excessively, and has to my liking the most satisfying emotional conclusion, with SPOILER ALERT——————————- Kelsier’s death and further toppling of the Lord Ruler at the hands of Vin. Everything else I’ve also liked, just find them a bit more plagued with excessive backstories and plots for not so compelling characters with way too many self inflicted problems that make them not flow as well. Out of Stormlight I’ve only finished 2, but thus far for sure Words of Radiance, as it’s only at the end of that book that I felt a lot of the things set up in The Way of Kings were actually paid off - almost impossible to just read WOK and stop.

Thanks for the heads up. My fave would have to be Kal, I find his story the most compelling of all the protags, basically whenever I find myself bored or put off by any particular subplot, extended exposition or lenghthy flashback, it’s the need to find out what happens with Kal that keeps me going, and thus find myself often rooting for him. I also like Dalinar and Syl a lot.

Hello everyone. Colombian living in Canada here- I stumbled upon BS’s writings about three weeks ago with The Final Empire. Been listening (audiobooks) almost nonstop - After finishing the first Mistborn series and then Elantris I started Stormlight. Right now going through Oathbringer - and going through these often exiting, sometimes frustrating, but always gripping narratives I finally decided I had to talk to folks who are also into this and would know what I’m talking about, and so here I am !