Welcome, Sanderfans and Cosmere Chickens, to another Wind and Truth read-along discussion. Last week we saw a couple of fascinating Interludes featuring Kalak and Odium, which were pretty crazy, all around. We’ll be spotlighting some discussion of those down in the Social Media section, there’s been a lot of chatter online about these Interludes! Today, we embark on Day Two with chapters 14 and 15.
Note that this post will possibly contain full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content. And please remember, when posting or commenting about these preview chapters on social media, to follow your platform’s spoiler rules. Pattern says, “No spoilers!” Your comments here, however, don’t need to be spoiler-tagged, so feel free to comment as you will down below!
Onward to our commentary!
Paige’s Summary and Commentary
Chapter 14 is titled “Not Asleep” and the epigraph is from a different in-world book, The Way of Kings. (No! We were getting such good hints about Knights of Wind and Truth! Maybe we’ll get more of those epigraphs in future “days” so we can figure out who wrote it!) Well, we know who wrote The Way of Kings and in this excerpt from the fourth parable of the book, in which Nohadon meets a family seeking a new life. Perhaps we’ll hear more of this family in future epigraphs.
In this chapter, we pick up with Dalinar, unable to sleep. He’s thinking of how he only has eight days to find a way to defeat Odium at the contest of champions. Then a frantic knock comes at the door and he opens it to find a wide-eyed Windrunner squire.
We jump to Jasnah, who is also not sleeping. She’s drowning in a fluffy bed that she got for Wit because her bed had been too firm for him. I’m sorry, but this just cracks me up. Hoid… ten thousand years old and wanting a fluffy bed. I don’t know why I’m so amused by that, but I am. Also, he sometimes whistles when he sleeps. ::giggle:: While I realize this likely means he just whistles as he’s exhaling, but come on… this is Wit, who can’t picture him whistling a jolly tune as he sleeps?
Jasnah tosses and turns, thinking about how she enjoys many things about her relationship with Wit, but also that there are downsides. She whispers to him that he lies to her sometimes and Jasnah really, really doesn’t like being lied to. She has come to a realization about her paramour:
Wit would do what he thought was best for a person, not what they wanted.
She also thinks about how she doesn’t connect with him well on a physical level, but also about how he doesn’t connect well with her on an emotional level. It’s an interesting passage, but I won’t get too far into it as Lyndsey will talk more about this below.
She goes on to think about Dalinar and the contest of champions, how he would be the one to face Odium. She had actually written out the reasons why Dalinar was the best choice… though still she wonders if it shouldn’t be her. But then she knows that Dalinar hadn’t alienated people as she has done, despite having burned a city and claiming God was dead.
And finally… finally we get a detail about her bad experience as a child! She realizes that she hates the soft bed because it reminds her of the restraints they’d used on her when she’d been locked away for months as a child. What? She hasn’t forgotten about it though everyone else has. What happened? Why was she locked away? And restrained? Tell us more, Brandon.
But he doesn’t because just then, Wit wakes up. He’s agitated and he jumps from the bed, shockspren appearing. Then he says the most excellent swear, which I must repeat here:
“The darkest, hairiest, greasiest bollocks on the most unkempt nethers of the most wanton demon of the most obscure religion’s damnable hellscape.”
Now, the swearing is funny but that’s contrasted by the fact that Wit is freaking the storm out about something. Jasnah is also understandably freaked out, but Wit says to give him a moment and then spends some time scribbling notes that Jasnah can’t understand.
Then… then things start happening. The door starts to rattle, and Jasnah realizes that Wit is doing it, somehow. Metal starts to move away from him, his night clothes twist and move of their own accord, some sand he’d pulled out suddenly bursts into light, and as fearspren appeared around him, his physical form changes. Into the real him, the real Hoid.
He says he’s been tricked, then everything calms down and he changes back into Wit.
“I’m missing,” Wit said, “three minutes and twenty-seven seconds.”
Oh, Light! Wait… wrong series. Oh, storms! He’s finally realizes it! He realizes that a memory has been stolen from him! And he knows when that memory was stolen. And when Jasnah demands to know what happened, he admits that it was while he was having “a chat” with Odium. Jasnah says she asked him to involve her in any dealings with Odium and he says that he just told her, so he’s involving her.
But Jasnah has come to the realization that she’ll never be someone that Wit confides in, even if he may love her. Feeling betrayed, she makes the decision to withdraw from the relationship, though she doesn’t say anything at the moment. She seems to still be trying to make sense of what’s happening.
As is Wit.
But he knows now that Odium somehow excised a memory from him, he can see where it was done. But bollocks… he still believes that it’s Rayse. Obviously, his realization that Odium was no longer held by Rayse was part of what Taravangian took away, but I am just dying for Wit to remember what was stolen from him! ::rages::
As they peruse the contract Dalinar made with Odium, a knock comes at the door. It’s a member of the Cobalt Guard who tells her that Adolin and Shallan have returned, that there’s an army of singers in Shadesmar headed toward Azimir, and that Dalinar has called a meeting.
Wit says they need an expert beyond even his knowledge but that the only one currently on Roshar isn’t speaking to him. Instead, he says he’ll try to contact an old friend.
Navani, as you may guess, is also not sleeping. She’s exploring Urithiru. She finds a chamber filled with hundreds of fabrials that help the tower to function. She feels the power, thrumming around her:
The powerful strength of Towerlight, infusing all Radiants who entered.
This is very cool… The Radiants can all use Towerlight, which we saw Kaladin doing in chapter 6 when he flew Dalinar to the top of the peak and got too far away from Urithiru to rely on Towerlight.
Then the Sibling says something very interesting as they mentally talk to Navani about the tower being safe from more enemy attacks:
My Light not only knocks Fused unconscious, it makes the Radiants here virtually invincible.
Virtually invincible? And just automatically knocking Fused unconscious. Very cool. Of course, you’d have to keep enough “invincible” Radiants in the tower to defend it against another singer incursion. Not sure how realistic that would be.
Navani thinks that they need to find a way to send Towerlight out into the world with the Radiants but the Sibling says it’s not possible, that humans are too full of holes to hold their light. Not sure why it couldn’t be held in gemstones, like Stormlight, except that it drains faster than Stormlight does. But if it’s readily available in the tower, it could be taken and used immediately, then they could switch to using the Stormlight when it runs out. Just speculating… Thoughts, Sanderfans?
Next, we learn that Navani doesn’t need to sleep anymore. Like… wow. She can do research ALL the time! Though her husband may have a thing or two to say about that. ::laughing:: But I love this moment for Navani, which Lyndsey talks more about below. It’s like, yes, you are more than you thought you were!
Not sure if this is worth touching on, but it was kind of odd/interesting to me. Navani sees a keenspren and gasps as she’s never seen one. The Sibling tells her that they don’t often come to humans as they’re afraid of being captured. How does Navani know what it is, then, I wonder?
The Sibling then tells Navani that Dalinar is opening the door to their chamber and asks if she wants to listen. Navani chastises them for eavesdropping and we get a funny back-and-forth, but then they interrupt Navani, saying she really needs to know what the Windrunner is saying.
Aaand we jump to Queen Fen who is not… wanna guess? Right, she’s not sleeping. She’s with Kmakl and they’re in a hammock. In the bowels of a ship. Snuck away for some quality time. At almost seventy! Go, them!
They’re interrupted, in another very funny moment, by a lieutenant who sees them naked as the day they were born and gets all flustered. Fen tries to calm him as he gathers diamond spheres from the lantern that broke when he dropped it in shock.
She rolled her eyes, then pulled a glove onto her safehand. “Look,” she said, wiggling the fingers. “There. Does that help, Lieutenant?”
“No!” the young man said in a shrill voice. “It really, really doesn’t!”
As we would expect, the lieutenant is there to inform them about the force in Shadesmar heading toward Azimir. As they try to dress, they’re interrupted by an admiral, telling them that their blockade of Jah Kaved had been breached and there’s an assault force heading toward Thaylen City.
Yanagawn… was sleeping. Ha! Not really. He’s not sleeping, the schedule just says he should be sleeping so he pretends for the benefit of the ten citizens who, um, watch him sleep. Apparently, each hour, the citizens watching him depart and ten new citizens come to watch him sleep. These people are decidedly odd.
Poor Gawx wishes he could do more than just exist as a figurehead who can’t charge into battle or face danger. He can’t think of wielding shards, because he’s too important. Those kinds of things are for others to do. But, when he’s “asleep” and “dreaming,” he dreams of being dangerous.
Yaezir, god above, in the Halls pristine, he thought, is this really all you want of me?
Ugh, I just wanna hug him.
Then guards arrive and Yanagawn sits up to find that his head Vizier, Noura, is there. He realizes that something important has happened and rises to be dressed.
Chapter 15 is titled “Passionspren.” The epigraph again mentions the family Nohadon met in the last epigraph, and how they used glyphs to communicate.
In this chapter, Adolin discovers the wonder that is a shower. He’d napped for a bit and then rose to get ready for the meeting… but instead of heading there early, he luxuriates in the shower, which now works with Urithiru and the Sibling fully awake.
Shallan returns after meetings with her Lightweavers, and joins him in this wondrous new thing, the shower. She immediately turns down the pressure and turns up the heat. It’s a cute scene, with Adolin showing her his new collection of soaps and shampoo. Then it gets incredibly sweet as Adolin holds her close and thinks about how this is what he wanted but had never found until now.
Not merely skin to skin. Soul to soul.
Adolin is truly the best boi!
Shallan tells him that she needs to deal with the Ghostbloods and will miss the meeting. She asks him to tell Dalinar and Navani about Mraize and what she herself has done. He says he will, but his mood shifts and some of the joyspren wink out. He thinks how he can’t let go of the bitterness he’s felt since learning how his mother died, and how it’s actually gotten worse. Not only can he not move past it, he doesn’t want to get past it. He doesn’t want to forgive Dalinar. His pain has festered and he is more angry then he’d been a year ago.
He asks Shallan if she really needs to miss the meeting and mentions the second attack heading toward Thaylen City, but she begs off, stating that she needs to move against Mraize before he moves against her.
Adolin then laments that they’ve never had time since meeting to just be together, and that he wants to hold her tight whenever he can because he doesn’t know when the next chance to do so will come. Then Shallan remarks that she has to stop Mraize because he could capture or kill Adolin to get to her. It’s kind of a foreboding conversation despite taking place with them in the shower together.
As Shallan goes to leave, without even conditioning her hair, Adolin notices, he stops her and suggests a little bit of shower sexy time. He really has to twist her arm to get her to stay, and they remain in the shower a while longer, passionspren falling like snow.
Meanwhile, we catch up with Dalinar, heading to the Atrium to ascend the tower, when Sigzil finds him with a scouting report. It turns out that a third force is marching on the Shattered Plains with a thousand Fused and a thunderclast. Dalinar is shocked and concerned, as they don’t even have half that many Radiants. So they’re going to be facing a three-pronged offensive against the coalition’s three seats of power—excepting Urithiru, which they’re confident won’t be attacked. Though Dalinar does order extra guards around the tower, just in case.
As he’s about to have Sigzil lash him to the top for the meeting, he sees a nursemaid carrying Gavinor, who looks as if he’s been crying. The boy’s up in the middle of the night due to nightmares and the nursemaid is taking him to the garden room to comfort him. As Dalinar’s giving the nursemaid instructions, he’s interrupted.
A short, heavyset Makabaki woman dressed in brown addresses him, and responds to his question about whether he knows her by saying nothing except, “We’ve met,” and waving for him to follow her. He does so, thinking that her bearing and appearance are familiar… Could she be Cultivation, the third god?
So, wow. A lot is happening early on in Day Two, don’t you think, Sanderfans? We’ve got three enemy armies approaching coalition strongholds, we’ve got monarchs appealing to Dalinar for help, we’ve got Shallan ready to face off against Mraize, and we’ve got freaking Cultivation visiting Dalinar? What could she want? Is she perhaps there to give him a warning about Odium? About Taravangian? That would be some handy information for Dalinar to have, at this point.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Lyndsey’s Commentary: Characters and Relationships
In chapter 14, we see two characters portrayed in the chapter arch; Vedeledev (Vedel) is the patron of the Edgedancers and appears in 2 of the 4 arches. Her attributes are Loving/ Healing and her role is Healer. The other two arches are occupied by the Joker, or the Wild Card. He often appears in relation to Hoid, though not always. We can pretty safely assume that the Joker is here because Hoid appears, because this is a wildly varied multiple POV chapter, or both. As for Vedel… This one is a bit of a mystery to me, to be honest. Yanagawn is closely aligned with Lift, an Edgedancer, but that’s a bit of a stretch. This chapter deals with the leaders of the various nations so it would seem to make more sense to have Jezrien, Herald of Kings, in this place.
Chapter fifteen’s arches all feature Vedeledev (Vedel) again. Perhaps this is due to Adolin being the primary POV character, as Adolin has always seemed to align more with the Edgedancers. There’s also some healing going on here (for Shallan anyway), and a great deal of (::ahem::) loving. Cultivation’s appearance at the end may also be tied into this choice of Herald.
As I approached the first crossroads, I met a family seeking a new life.
—From The Way of Kings, fourth parable
This family did not speak my language, but we could both write glyphs, which proved facilitative in our conversation. As I shared their kindly cookfire, I learned some of their story.
—From The Way of Kings, fourth parable
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen parables or excerpts from the in-world text of The Way of Kings, so the question becomes… what about this parable, in particular, is Sanderson linking to the events that are transpiring? We’ll just have to RAFO, I suppose.
There’s a LOT going on in regards to various characters in chapter 14, so let’s dive right in!
Jasnah/Hoid
She had enjoyed [her relationship with Wit] for many reasons—the scheming together, the sharing of incredible plans, the chance to connect with someone so intellectually stimulating.
Sanderson has verified via several interviews that Jasnah is asexual. For those who may not be aware, “asexual” isn’t as cut and dry as “someone who never wants sex.” It’s more of a blanket term for a variety of experiences, from being totally uninterested in sexual activity to “I’m okay with it in very specific circumstances or specific people.” I suspect, based on this and other instances in the series, that Jasnah is demisexual. This facet of asexuality is defined as someone who only experiences physical attraction after forming a strong emotional bond with a partner. However, as becomes clear later, Wit doesn’t really form a strong emotional bond with her. On the surface it may appear so, but he seems to be incapable of allowing anyone through the walls he’s built around his inner self. And so we see the chasms in their relationship in this chapter beginning to widen.
So far Jasnah had caught him in only the most minor of lies. He’d engage in wordplay with her, or toy with puns, and she’d ask him to stop. He’d promise, and would appear to have done as he said. But then she’d notice that the games hadn’t ceased. They’d merely grown more subtle—Wit taking the wordplay to a more esoteric layer, difficult to spot.
This has to be so hard to deal with. My expectation would be that Hoid has spent so long playing word games (millennia, by all accounts) that he doesn’t even consciously realize he’s doing it anymore. Letting someone in, truly in, to his deepest, darkest center would be totally anathema to him. And unfortunately, that’s not a good basis for a relationship.
Even during sex, she felt distant. Perhaps the most distant she ever felt. That made him anxious, as if he were doing something wrong; he thought if he tried harder, he’d do something mind-blowing and change how she felt.
This quote in particular is what’s leading me to think that she’s demi. I do feel for Wit, here. It’s hard to have a partner who doesn’t seem to reciprocate your affection, whether that be physical or emotional, and the tendency to keep trying different things is a very human one. However, he can’t give her the one thing she probably really needs: true emotional connection and uncompromising trust.
There would never be a place for her inside his deepest self, would there? She’d always be on the outside, maintained as part of his collection. Enjoyed, perhaps even loved, but never confided in.
Ouch. To have the one person you wish to connect to be unable to reciprocate that connection… that’s a really difficult pill to swallow. I think Jasnah has fallen a bit harder than she’d expected to—but unfortunately she can’t fall all the way, without someone there to catch her. And Hoid’s got way too many plates spinning to be able to be that for her.
Jasnah
When Jasnah Kholin spoke her mind, people hated her.
I really hate to see this, because it’s such a stark echo of sexism in the real world. So often, when women are in positions of power, they’re perceived as “too forward” or simply discounted altogether, when a man in the same place, doing or saying the same exact things, would be heralded as “assertive” and a “good leader.” It’s frustrating and rage-inducing and it’s so annoying to see that it’s the same on Roshar as here on Earth. However… this is, after all, what makes speculative fiction so powerful. Seeing these same social issues reflected through the lens of another world can be eye-opening for some.
Trembling there, she at last realized why she hated this mattress so much. It reminded her of the soft restraints they’d given her when she’d been young. When those who loved her had locked her away for a few terrible months that basically everyone else had forgotten about.
Yet another tally mark on my “I can’t wait to find out about Jasnah’s backstory” tally board. I expect it will make me want to burn things down in vengeance for how she was treated, but a good spate of vindictive fictional vengeance never did anyone any harm.
Hoid
I have to say, seeing Hoid display actual, legitimate fear is terrifying. We knew at the end of the last book that he’d had the wool pulled over his eyes, and that was scary enough, but… seeing his reaction to realizing it was just as spooky. So much Investiture in so many different types (which I won’t go into as I know Drew will dig into this below) being used all at once is a sobering thought; and to know that if Hoid ever totally lost it and lost control of all that power completely? We can only hope that he keeps a good hold on all that power, for the sake of those around him.
Navani
It was all so wonderfully overwhelming. Not just the bond to the tower, but her emotional journey. Acknowledging her self-worth. Becoming a Radiant, when she’d been certain it would not be her lot.
We love to see it. I think this is a nod Sanderson’s making to the growth that Navani underwent in the last book. She’s realized her worth and has moved past her ex-husband’s lies that he used to belittle her. Does this mean that her character arc is complete, and we’re not going to be seeing as much of her in this book as the last?
Queen Fen/Kmakl
“The queen would like advice from her most brilliant of advisors: Is she too old for quality time with her husband? Perhaps she is too distinguished for an occasional tumble in the surf?”
This is honestly one of my favorite relationships in the Stormlight Archive. First of all, it’s pretty rare to see people older than, say, 50, in active roles in fantasy novels at all (unless they’re aged mentor types, of course) and to see a pair that are happily married and still getting it on? Glorious. I adore them. Not only that, but Kmakl is perfectly willing to play second fiddle/support to his Queen (not a role that a lot of men in Roshar would be willing to play). Everything about them is just so well-written.
Yanagawn
Yanagawn was basically like the rack that held up his clothing, kept to his shape so those passing outside could see it and be inspired. How he wished he could do more than stand and be seen.
The constraints of leadership are difficult to bear for adults, so for a child to be held so tightly to those strictures is doubly upsetting. Yanagawn has such a sense of duty to his people, possibly due to his less-than-privileged upbringing, and that’s beautiful to see. But I also wish he could just be a kid and have fun. It’s lovely that he cares so much for his people and wants to protect them. But this is a level of responsibility that a child should not have to bear.
He took in the five guards, pleased to remember each of their names, though he’d never speak to them directly—to do so would make them uncomfortable.
I like this for two reasons; one, he’s taking after Adolin a bit with trying to remember the names of those who serve him, and two, he’s empathic and understanding enough to not want to make them uncomfortable. This kid has grown in leaps and bounds since we first met Gawx in Words of Radiance.
Shallan/Adolin
This was what he’d always wanted, and had never been able to find, until he met her. Not merely skin to skin. Soul to soul.
Not going to get into the physical romance here (though I’d like to congratulate Sanderson on doing it very well—remaining coy about showing details while still getting some heat involved) but rather on the interactions between them. I’ve expressed dissatisfaction in the past with Shallan and how Adolin seems to be doing all the supporting; in this chapter we see Shallan reaching out and trying to support him in turn. It’s incredibly heartwarming and lovely to see. Their relationship is shockingly one of the healthiest we see in these books, considering how unstable Shallan’s mind has been. These two serve as such good foils for one another.
Adolin
“I don’t blame you for wanting someone to prep my father for you. He can be . . . stern to those who disappoint him.”
She perhaps sensed the bitterness in his tone, noticed how several joyspren winked away. It had been a year since Adolin had learned Dalinar killed his mother, and he couldn’t let go. […] He’d thought waiting would let the pain fade. It had instead festered. He found himself more angry than he’d been when he’d first found out.
Adolin is often criticized as being “too” perfect and good, but I’d like to point to this tension between him and his father as the thing that’s keeping the character from being a “Marty Stu.” Adolin has his faults just like anyone else, and his inability to communicate with or forgive his father is a very realistic and multi-faceted emotional problem.
Gavinor
It looks as though little Gav is still, understandably, dealing with the trauma and baggage surrounding seeing his father murdered in front of him, and undergoing months of torture at the hands of spren while suffering his mother’s neglect. I do sincerely hope that we can look forward to some healing for him in this book, poor little one.
Usually, I stick to commentary on the characters/relationships and their arcs, but I really feel I need to note the beautiful structure of chapter 14. Each POV section begins with a variation of “so and so was not asleep” and the entire chapter as a whole ends with “the emperor was awake.” It’s a really nice way of not only bookending the chapter, but also of using repetitive phrasing to drive home a concept.
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
Day Two kicks off with a serious bang.
Just in chapter 14, we’re served with an absolute feast of teasers, starting strong with Jasnah and Hoid.
He’d hinted that he visited other places at night. Other worlds.
On one hand, we’ve had this pseudo-established in Rhythm of War, with the famous “The Dog and the Dragon” chapter. Kaladin’s dream (really more of a nightmare) with Hoid on Braize did seem to be more real than a normal dream—but here we see that Hoid isn’t awake at all when he’s doing stuff like that. How he does this is anyone’s guess, though the easy way out is calling it the standard Something Something Connection, Something Something Spiritual Realm.
But that’s not all we see with Hoid!
His motions became increasingly frantic, fearspren bubbling up through the ground around them. Then in a flash—his body shape physically changing, molded like wax—he became another person. Shorter, with stark white hair and subtly different features.
This is one of the strangest passages yet, in my opinion. We’ve known for years that Hoid can change his appearance at will, but I think most people assumed it was due to Lightweaving—the Yolish variant, before he bonded Design—but this seems to be something much more intensive. The physical changes to his shape and form are, frankly, a bit alarming… not to mention the extreme Investiture output occurring when it happens, as he seems to be using some powerful Allomancy and perhaps also Sand Mastery as a side effect.
Is this a form of substantiation, but worked upon himself? We know next to nothing about it, as it was only introduced a few chapters ago, but I’ve already seen some great theorizing going on around the fandom since. More on that later…
Before we move on from Hoid, though, there are two other small elements to mention. The most obvious is that Hoid again admits that he and Cultivation did not get along; the more interesting one, in my mind, is the possibility that he’s going to our pen pal Frost for Shardic contract help.
“I will instead see if I can contact an old friend…”
With Navani, we get a lot more information about the function of Urithiru and see a massive array of old-school fabrials. There was one line that leapt out at me, however:
Humans cannot hold my Light; they are too full of holes.
This seems fairly innocuous on first glance, but it got me wondering. The Sibling was obviously around during the height of the Radiants, when they were at their most powerful. There would have been many Radiants of the Fifth Ideal back then, and I wonder what this line means for potential effects of the Fifth Ideal. Theories have been flying around for over a decade now over what the Fifth might provide; once it was clear that the Third grants a Shardblade and the Fourth grants Shardplate, people have been wondering what sort of final power-up lies in store.
One of the leading theories is that the Fifth Ideal grants perfect Stormlight retention. However, the Siblings words here might poke some holes in that theory. Yes, Stormlight isn’t Towerlight, but perfect retention would imply zero “holes” for Light to leak out. Differences in Lights aside, this seems like a tough hurdle to clear. It also makes me wonder if anyone ever tried to store Towerlight in a perfect gemstone, like the King’s Drop or Honor’s Drop.
Moving on to Adolin and Shallan, I have only one thing to say: I want that Investiture-powered shower so badly.
And then the final scene of this week’s preview. Two lines that couldn’t be more perfectly placed to get your pulse moving.
No. It couldn’t be. Could it?
Cultivation. The third god.
Way to slam that gauntlet onto the table there, Brandon. The urgency and tension of the story just shot through the roof in the last two chapters, and the arrival of a Shard in Urithiru would be the cherry on top.
Fan Theories
Likecorbyashi over on Reddit has a pretty interesting theory:
Why is there not a bondsmith spren of Odium? … I have 2 half-baked theories but they both revolve around BAM being capable of making a Bondsmith. 1. The Night Watcher is not the 3rd bondsmith spren, it’s BAM 2. It is possible for there to be more than 3 Bondsmiths at once
Meanwhile, mightyjor went back through some death rattles and found this:
I was looking through the death rattles and saw one that might have some meaning now: “Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns.” Odium is now the broken One, right?
Lastly in the Reddit roundup, bartbug has this theory which I hope winds up being true because WHOA, if so…:
What if each throughline interlude is a different pov from a Shard? Honor “the broken one,” Autonomy “the one is many,” etc. clearly the cosmere gloves are off in this as it is.
Here on Reactor, there’s been a lot of chatter about Odium’s interlude and GiangDo says…
Todium says that he won’t let the Shard rule him but I feel like we can already see him going down the same path as his predecessor. Their reasoning may be different but their end goal is likely the same.
Darnit26 replied with:
“So many children died here, unseen. And Odium…
That was not my name, he thought. I cannot lose myself in godhood. Odium wept for them,” As soon as I read that i knew he was starting to lose himself already.
In another response in this thread, Steve-son-son-Charles says:
Yes, this was bound to happen. But did Cultivation give him an advantage by training him to deal with inner conflict with his boon/curse as Taravangian? Might that let T-Odium have more freedom or control, and more importantly, is that a good or bad thing?
GiangDo jumps back in with:
It seems to me Cultivation is trying to sabotage Todium rather than helping him, which makes me wonder why she grooms him to take up the Shard of Odium in the first place. Maybe there’s a 3D-chess level of manipulation here.
Ha2 finishes up this conversation with:
Yeah, I’m still waiting for Cultivation’s endgame I don’t really think it makes sense that she “just expected Taravangian to be a good guy” since she’s the one whose Diagram directed him to the murder hospitals and to decimating Jah Keved. So it would be weird if she gave a guy like that divine power and then expected it to just work out. But we’ll see! Maybe I’m wrong and she’s just dumb lol
We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who choose to wait for the full release. See you next Monday with chapters 16, 17, and 18!
