Greetings, fellow rereaders! Buckle yourselves in and prepare for some fun as Aubree, Alice and I continue the debate on Moash from last week and witness two more members of Bridge Four find their places in the group.

AP: Along with a very special tuckerization!

L: ::blush::

Reminder: we’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the ENTIRE NOVEL in each reread. Once again, there are the usual minor Cosmere spoilers in talking about the epigraphs. But if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

L: Okay so, since I wasn’t here for the last one, let me lay out a little of my overall thoughts on Moash here before we really get going. I love to joke about the f*** Moash thing. LOVE it. (No really, at last count my “F*** Moash” badge ribbons at JordanCon stood at 13, Sanderson got a laugh out of it.) At this particular moment in time, I despise him for what he did to Kaladin and what he’s about to do to Elhokar’s family—especially his infant son. However… I have an undeniable weakness for anti-heroes in fiction, and I have to face the facts—I despised Jaime Lannister, too, and now he’s my favorite character in A Song of Ice and Fire. Sanderson is an accomplished enough writer to be able to pull of a very satisfying heel-turn for Moash, and I don’t doubt that if he does, I’ll be singing the bastard’s praises when it happens. I can also appreciate that he’s a very well-written character and he justifies his own actions well to himself. But, like with Katniss Everdeen, I can appreciate a well-written character while still hating their guts.

For now.

AP: Yes, absolutely! Free Moash! It’s only with the help of lighteyed allies that darkeyes like us can overthrow the corrupt Alethi caste system. Support the slave rebellion on Roshar!

L: Right. Yes. Free. That’s absolutely what I meant. ;)

AP: Also y’all, this fun squabble at JCon is why I’m guesting on the blog. If you haven’t attended before, you should seriously consider it!

AA: Just to throw in that third POV… I really don’t like anti-heroes, but like Lyn, I’m more or less expecting Sanderson to write a convincing redemption for Moash. When it happens, I’m sure I’ll be all teary over it and all that, but for now, I really wish he wouldn’t. Not unless it includes taking personal responsibility for making choices.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Moash; Skar

WHERE: Revolar; Urithiru & Narak

WHEN: Moash: 1174.1.5.2 (same day as Chapter 43); Skar: 1174.1.8.1 (2 weeks after the first Bridge Four chapter, 4 days after Teft’s)

Chapter 45: Moash arrives with his Voidbringer captors to Revolar, where he’s dumped into a slave pen with the rest of the humans. He finds an old caravaneer friend who brings him in to meet some revolutionaries, but Moash is immediately turned off by the fact that they’ve chosen a lighteyes to lead them. He allows his old friend to be beaten and leaves to go volunteer for the hardest slave task he can.

Chapter 46: Skar arrives at the Oathgate with the rest of Bridge Four for some training, not yet having been able to breathe in Stormlight. He worries about the possibility that he might be left behind, then sits down and has a heart-to-heart with Lyn, helping her to succeed where the other scouts have failed and breathe in Stormlight on her own. As he heads back over to chat with Rock, Rock points out that he, too, is glowing.

The Singing Storm

Titles: A Revelation; When the Dream Dies

In that moment—surrounded by the pettiness that was his own kind—Moash had a revelation.

He wasn’t broken. All of them were broken. Alethi society—lighteyed and dark. Maybe all of humankind.

L: Ugh. I mean… he’s not entirely wrong, there are definitely some major issues with this society. But Sanderson’s laying the seeds here for Moash to turn to the Voidbringers and that’s like saying “Yeah, this Mussolini guy’s pretty bad. Let’s work with Hitler instead!”

AP: That’s not a terrible way of putting it. But also, it’s all he knows. Alethi society is awful, and I’m not surprised he wants to take the first chance to get out.

“As long as you keep trying, there’s a chance. When you give up? That’s when the dream dies.”

L: This is such an important message and something that I feel like so many of us need to hear at so many points in our lives.

AA: I just have to say that every single time I read this, I get choked up. That line is so good.

Heralds

Moash’s chapter shows Vedel in all four spots. Vedel is associated with the attributes Loving and Healing, is the patron of the Edgedancers, and has the role of Healer.

L: Man. This one is a total head-scratcher for me. Maybe because Moash is remembering those who have been forgotten—namely, his family? That’s the only thing I can think of.

AA: I have to think that this is one of those cases where we’re seeing the inverse attributes. As he observes—and to some extent, interacts with—the humans here in Revolar, there’s precious little of loving or helping one another, and as for the Edgedancer Ideals… Moash walks away from the one man who tried to help him, allowing him to be beaten because he can’t be bothered to answer a lighteyes’s question.

Skar’s chapter Heralds are Battar and Taln. Battar’s attributes are Wise and Careful; she’s the patron of the Elsecallers and has the role of Counsellor. Talenel is known as the Herald of War, has the role of Soldier, is associated with the attributes Dependable and Resourceful, and is the patron of the Stonewards.

L: If there are attributes that better encapsulate Skar in this chapter than Careful and Dependable, I don’t know what they could be.

AA: We see, repeatedly, Skar being the Counselor, as well as being resourceful in the ways he finds to teach others, and dependable in the way he supports the others even when it feels that they are leaving him behind.

Icon: Not Bridge Four; Bridge Four

AA: The contrast between these two chapters is almost painful; Moash reflects on his unworthiness to be part of Bridge Four, and continues his downward path, while Skar feels that he’s unworthy but strives to help others anyway.

Epigraph

As the waves of the sea must continue to surge, so must our will continue resolute. Alone. Did you expect anything else from us? We need not suffer the interference of another. Rayse is contained, and we care not for his prison.



AA: So Autonomy continues to claim self-sufficiency, refusing to allow anyone to interfere with any of her worlds or personae, and refusing to care what happens to anyone else or their worlds. It seems to be in character!

Also, this seems as good a point as any to note that the multi-persona act fits pretty well with the intent of Autonomy: you create any persona you want to present for a particular world or situation, and that way you really don’t need anyone else for anything. You can even be company for yourself.

Stories & Songs

Why hadn’t they used their powers to Lash him upward and make him lighter, as Kaladin would have?

L: A good question…

AP: I’m really interested in seeing more about the differences in his Stormlight vs. Voidlight work, especially in relation to the surges. Unlike our newbie Knights Radiant on Team Human, the dudes on Team Voidbringer should know how to use all their powers since they have had countless reincarnations.

L: They’ve definitely got a leg up on the competition in regards to knowledge.

AA: I suspect Aubree is right, that it’s a difference between Voidbinding and Surgebinding. I tried to figure out if it could be that they only have access to one of the Surges, but according to the Ars Arcanum description of the Lashings, that doesn’t fly. So… Voidbinding.

There’s been a fair amount of speculation on whether they’re accessing the same Surges as our Radiants. Since they’re all on the same planet, it seems like the same physical principles should apply to both forms of magic. On the other hand, perception is a huge aspect of magic in the Cosmere. It could be a difference in how they see the same Surges, or it could be that they simply see the physical forces differently, and access a similar but distinct aspect.

The air was thinner up here at Urithiru, and that made running harder, though he really only noticed it outside.

AA: I had to mention this, if only because they ought to notice that the air is thinner at this altitude. But also, it’s more noticeable out in the open than it is inside the tower. Does that mean there’s another aspect to the tower-fabrial that’s still sort of working, increasing the air pressure and/or oxygen content indoors?

Bruised & Broken

The people of the eaves, some had called them. Men and women who hovered close enough to civilization to get out of the weather when it turned bad, but who never really belonged.

L: I feel like this says a lot about the way that Moash views himself. Always an outsider, never truly belonging.

AP: I think that’s spot on. Prior to Bridge Four he didn’t have an in-group. His only family seems to have been his grandparents, which is why their loss was so devastating. It also indicates, to me, that his betrayal of Bridge Four was at least in part because he really didn’t know how to deal with having a support system.

He’d always been met with hostility, no matter where he storming went. A youth like him, too big and obviously too confident for a darkeyes, had been considered a threat.

…

A man on his own, a man you couldn’t control, was dangerous. He was inherently frightening, just because of who he was. And nobody would ever let him in.

Except Bridge Four.

L: On the one hand, I sympathise with his thoughts on being treated like an outsider. Like most of Bridge Four, he endured prejudices based on something outside of his control. However… I feel like his attitude probably didn’t help anything, either. He could have taken efforts to make himself more personable, to try to form connections despite himself—but I don’t get the impression that he did. It looks to me like he just internalized all that anger and threw it back as snide condescension.

AP: I think there is some merit to that. But also, some people just aren’t good at connecting to others.

L: That’s true. I’m SUPER extroverted and empathic so I’m looking at it from my own perspective which is admittedly biased.

AP: I know I really empathize with this part because I’m non-conforming in a lot of ways. Replace “darkeyes” with “woman” and this quote could be about me. I could totally change everything about my personality to try to fit in better in certain social scenarios, or I can be myself and people can grok that or not. But making myself less because some people don’t like it when women are assertive and project confidence, that’s a non-starter.

AA: A different way of looking at it, though, is the civil attempt to blend a little without making yourself something you need to think of as “less.” While it’s true that not everyone can do this well, it’s a bit egotistical to refuse to moderate something you know frightens people. It’s pure arrogance to make that refusal and then hate people for not wanting you around, which is what Moash seems to do.

AP: I strongly disagree with that characterization. The attributes that he says make people afraid are ones that he cannot change—his size and eye color. And he is told that he shouldn’t have confidence, not because it isn’t earned based on his abilities, but because he is a darkeyes. What is described here is how a bigoted society responds to someone who doesn’t meekly submit to assigned class roles.

L: I’m with Aubree on this point. If we were discussing aspects that he had direct control over then he could have made some efforts to “compromise” to fit in, but there’s nothing you can do about your size.

AA: No, you can’t change your size or your eye color, but you don’t have to walk around glaring at everyone, either. Demeanor is something you can control, and I don’t believe for a skinny minute that Moash is the only large darkeyes in Alethkar.

This was who he really was. The man everyone looked at with distrust, pulling their children tight and nodding for him to move along.

L: He’s letting them define who he is based on their initial impressions rather than taking steps to try to show them that they’re wrong. I think this is what annoys me so much about him in these early chapters—it’s just a lot of “oh boo hoo, poor me” when it was his own poor decisions that landed him here to begin with. He bears no responsibility for them in his own mind because he’s too wrapped up in his own anger over everything else.

AP: I really like the insight into his state of mind. He has internalized much of the prejudice of Alethi society. I’ve had POC friends tell me similar stories of self-doubt. That they are treated so poorly for so long that they wonder if they deserve it somehow. So much of how Moash is written shows such a great insight into how low power individuals are treated in oppressive societies. I also think it’s important to recognize that here he accepts that he failed Bridge Four. He says he deserves to be treated like this because he failed the one group that let him in, so he doesn’t deserve to be let in again.

L: That’s a good point, he does admit fault here. Touche.

AP: He does the same several other times in this chapter. That he failed Bridge Four, so he doesn’t deserve any better than his current lot is the thread running through this chapter.

They smiled in a friendly way to Moash, and he gave them an old caravaneers’ salute—close enough to a rude gesture that everyone else mistook it—and strode in the direction they’d pointed. Typical. Caravaneers were a big family—and, like a family, prone to squabbling.

L: Belying your earlier assertion that you never belonged anywhere except Bridge Four, aren’t you, Moash?

AP: Yes and no. Having a professional association, while nice, doesn’t replace a support system. I’d really like to see his time with the caravaneers to see if he was really part of the group, the substitute family, or if he was still not really connected.

“I just need to be who I was.” “That makes as much sense as the storming Stormfather playing the flute, boy. But you wouldn’t be the first to go off to those Plains and come back not all right. No you wouldn’t. That’s the Stormfather’s storming own truth, that storming is.”

AP: We touched in this last week too, Moash doesn’t have a strong self identity. Having failed Bridge Four, he’s trying to go back to something familiar. But this whole sequence is wild without Moash’s inner monologue to give it context. He isn’t able to express himself clearly verbally even before we get to him meeting the lighteyes. This whole conversation does not make sense to anyone not inside Moash’s head.

“They tried to break me. Damnation, they did break me. But then he made me again, a new man.” Moash paused. “I threw it all away.”

AP: This is the one for me. This encapsulates the Moash arc so far. He was broken, and rebuilt by Kaladin & Bridge Four. And here he recognizes that he made the choice to mess that up. When people say that “Moash never takes responsibility for his bad choices”, well, he does.

L: Ah, but does he? Admitting it and taking RESPONSIBILITY for it are two different things, I think. Words are great, but it’s your actions that define you, and over and over and over Moash refuses to just… do the right thing.

AA: I’m coming in a bit late to this conversation, so I’ll just interject that my continual complaint against Moash (which is being refined as we speak!) is along the line of what Lyn just said. Moash accepts that he failed Bridge Four, but he continues to just blame it on “who he is” without taking personal responsibility for his decisions. His attitude reflects a fatalism, a refusal to accept agency, that makes me angry.

AP: I think I’m comparing it to our favorite addict, Teft, who keeps coming up with excuses to keep using firemoss while Moash admits his failure. He’s definitely not in the “make amends” stage any time soon though.

L: That’s a fair point, but we’re also dealing with apples and oranges here—addiction and depression (or whatever Moash has), while similar, aren’t the same.

AA: I don’t think it’s depression, though it bears some similarities.

“I always do that,” Moash whispered. “Why must we always take something precious, Guff, and find ourselves hating it? As if by being pure, it reminds us of just how little we deserve it.”

L: We? Okay there, Smeagol. Looks to me like you’re the only one with this issue, but you just keep telling yourself it’s everyone if that makes you feel better about yourself.

AA: It seems to me that he doesn’t want to make any effort to change, and he assumes that everyone else does exactly the same things he does. What I can’t tell is whether he really believes it or if he just wants to.

AP: I think he does believe it. Moash is incredibly self-destructive which is a key feature that makes me believe that like many other characters, Moash has some degree of mental illness. I’m not a psychiatrist, but at various points he shows significant signs of depression, passive suicidal ideation, executive dysfunction, and PTSD. He knows that Bridge Four was a good thing, and he messed it up for himself.

“He wasn’t broken. All of them were broken. Alethi society—lighteyed and dark. Maybe all of humankind.” … He wasn’t the exception, always ruining what he was given. Men like Kaladin were the exception—the very, very rare exception.

AA: Putting these two statements together, I can’t tell if he honestly thought he was the only one who screwed up his life by being a jerk, or if he believed that everyone did. Or if he just didn’t know what he really thought, and used whatever assumption got him off the hook at any given time.

AP: I don’t see how he thinks it “gets him off the hook”. He doesn’t make excuses anywhere in the chapter for his betrayal of Bridge Four. There’s no “someone else made me do it”. I take this at face value that he thinks this.

AA: It’s not so much that he’s blaming someone else, as that he swings between “humans are all jerks by nature” and “I was just born this way so that’s what I do.”

“Have that one beaten, and post a competent guard next time, Ked, or you’ll be next!” Old Guff cried out as they seized him. Moash just nodded. Yes. Of course. That was what they would do.

L: ARGH this makes me SO MAD. He COULD choose to be a better person, here. He COULD decide to stand up for what’s right, to stop them from beating his old friend, to try to take the reins of leadership away from those who are undeserving of it, like Kaladin would do.

But he doesn’t. He takes the path of least resistance, like he always does. The fact that he sees these injustices and can just… just stand there and not try to stop them is what really makes me hate him.

AA: I think what made me angry was that I kept expecting each step to be the one where he decided he had to do something about it—he had so many chances, and I really thought he’d do something. And he didn’t. I was almost starting to pity him, but by the end of the chapter that was fading already. He’s getting plenty of pity from his own head. He can’t have mine, if he’s going to be that way.

L: This said (she says with a hefty sigh)… I recognize this as the beginning of an arc. You can’t start from the top. You have to start from the bottom and work your way up. Even Kaladin had a time when he’d given up. Sanderson’s probably going to make me love Moash eventually but for now? He’s the worst.

AP: It’s interesting to see how y’all read this, because to me, this reads as a trauma reaction, where he has executive dysfunction. He isn’t ignoring the questions, he’s just unable to answer. Just a few lines before it says that he was overwhelmed. He’s not consciously choosing to not help Guff. He is not in a headspace where he can clearly hold a conversation, much less defend Guff from an undeserved beating by people who shouldn’t be in charge of anything in the first place. He also doesn’t resist as he’s dragged out of the tent himself. And he doesn’t take the path of least resistance, his next step is to go sign up for the most difficult job available. He is still self-sabotaging.

L: I’m not entirely sure if I buy that this is a trauma reaction vs pure, simple apathy. His whole chapter has been a downward spiral of “I’m not worth it, nothing’s worth it” so this final moment struck me as a sort of “why bother” thing. I also didn’t really get any textual descriptions that keyed me in to psychological trauma—but it could be that Sanderson was just being really, really subtle.

“You’d think,” Teft said, “that our high and mighty leader would have gotten here by now. I swear, Kaladin acts more like a lighteyes every day.”

L: Poor Teft. I know from experience how you can come to resent people who are trying to help you to overcome your addiction.

Were these people, these new recruits, going to start glowing and take his place in Bridge Four? Would he be shuffled off to other duties, while someone else laughed with the crew and got ribbed for their height?

L: This is so real and such an awful feeling. When you do find that clique, that group of people who you feel comfortable with, the fear of being ousted is so, so horrifying. (It can’t be just me who feels that way…)

AA: Nope. Not just you. The older I get, the less it bothers me, but it’s always been part of my mentality. I could relate to Skar a lot in certain aspects of this chapter.

“What did you do?” “Nothing,” Skar said. Which was the problem.

L: Oh, poor sweet Skar. You did do something.

“And the fact that you are glowing with Stormlight right now is not at all consideration in decision?”

L: ::squee::

AA: Absolutely!

Squires & Sidekicks

Skar was the only one who—despite two weeks of practice—still hadn’t figured out how to draw it in. Well, except for Dabbid and Rlain.

AA: I can’t quite figure out what it is I want to say about this. I feel so bad for Skar at this point, but even so, “well, except for Dabbid and Rlain” is such a dismissive afterthought it just grates on me.

L: I agree. Poor Rlain. I think of all of Bridge Four, he’s the one I feel most badly for.

AP: Completely agree. When talking about characters who live on the edges and don’t have an in-group, Rlain is at the top of the list.

“Knowing what we’ve suffered, it’s insane to think that we wouldn’t need something to get us through the day. The moss isn’t the problem. It’s the storming world going all crazy. That’s the problem.”

AP: Man, addiction logic is rough. I’ve never been addicted to anything myself, but this mirrors what others have told me about the addiction process, that you will make any excuse to justify using.

L: Yup. Accurate.

Teft was an addict. Drehy had struck an officer. Eth had been caught planning to desert with his brother. Even simple Hobber had been part of a drunken brawl.

L: I love finding out these little snippets.

AP: Me too! I love that all of the characters are gray. They are imperfect. It makes them more real. Which I realize is a ridiculous statement when talking about characters with magic glowing powers.

L: One of the things I love most about well-written fantasy worlds is that they’re taking real people and putting them in fantastical situations. It’s why we can still relate to them. While we may not be riding dragons or battling Voidbringers, we can still see pieces of ourselves in these characters and wonder, “how would I react to this? What does this say about me?”

AP: I also want to note that I think it’s important that we see the various ways that members of Bridge Four are broken in the chapter right after Moash has his revelation that everyone is broken in some way.

“Everyone knows that we’re in a new world now—a world where rank and eye color don’t matter.”

L: And, reading between the lines, gender roles.

AP: This is also quite striking right after the Moash chapter, where even though everything had changed, there was a facsimile of the old order still in the prison camp.

L: Yup! It’s a direct contradiction to Moash’s thoughts about how nothing really changes. People are breaking free of their predefined roles left and right.

“I keep thinking, maybe I don’t belong here. If you haven’t noticed, none of the women have managed this. I kind of forced my way among you all, and nobody asked—”

L: There’s that pesky imposter syndrome again.

AA: So relatable. I want to hug her.

“Why do you want to be a Windrunner?” “Because I want to help! I want to do something other than stand around, waiting for the enemy to come to us!”

L: I love seeing this for so many reasons. I adore Lyn (obviously) and her breaking of societal norms in order to become a soldier. I love Skar doing what Windrunners do—helping others, without even realizing that what he’s doing is exactly what he’s telling her to do. The camaraderie of Bridge Four is so beautiful and special, and I don’t blame Lyn for wanting to be a part of it, or Skar for fearing that he might be excluded from it.

She met his eyes, closed her fist around the gemstone, and breathed in with a sharp, distinct breath. Then started glowing. She yelped in surprise and opened her hand to find the gemstone within dun.

AA: I’m pretty sure I did a lot more than yelp when I read this. There was a good bit of whooping, hollering, and fist-pumping up in here. Speaking only for myself, of course.

Places & Peoples

“You’re the slaves now.”

AP: This is heartbreaking, because it means the Parshmen were cognizant of how they were being treated by the humans while in dullform, but unable to do anything about it.

He’d spent the trip here alternately assuming he’d be executed or interrogated. Instead, they’d made a common slave of him? Even in Sadeas’s army, he’d never technically been a slave. Assigned to bridge runs, yes. Sent to die. But he’d never worn the brands on his forehead.

AP: So this is interesting, and it’s a deliberate technique used by hierarchical societies for control. The lower class is quite bad off, but not as bad as the lowest class, so they are more compliant because things could be worse. Also, I fell into this trap last week when I said Moash was a slave in the army because he wasn’t, but only technically. He was paid, but not enough to live on because he wasn’t expected to survive, and he had no freedom of movement. But it was still more than the Parshmen had under the Alethi. So he sees it as worse to lose class status than to have just been killed.

He lingered here, listening to a parshman ask for volunteers to pull wagons of supplies with the army when it marched. Apparently, there weren’t enough chulls. … Caravaneers. The long staffs were for slapping chull shells while walking beside them. He’d worn an outfit like that many times, though many of the caravans he’d worked had used parshmen to pull wagons instead of chulls. They were faster.

AP: This contrast is great. We can see the disconnect with how the Alethi thought about the Parshmen as being basically animals.

L: I also find it interesting to note that as of now, Moash doesn’t have the same reactions to the parshmen’s sudden liberation that Kaladin did. For all his thoughts about freeing slaves and liberty, he never really stops to consider that the parshmen had it even WORSE.

They put him in charge, Moash thought, spotting other lighteyes. They wore fine clothing—not silks of course, but well-trimmed uniforms. Exceptional boots. There was food aplenty set out at the side of this chamber, while those outside scrounged and did heavy labor.

AP: Reading this part always got to me, and made me so angry. Paladar is highlighted as a greedy and corrupt man, and he is still at the top of the hierarchy the humans set up inside the prison camp. That lends credence to his revelation above, that everyone is broken. And why I think it’s sincere.

L: Yeah, this is upsetting for sure. I think people in general have a tendency to gravitate towards established power systems rather than attempt to break out of their predefined roles, so it makes sense—but I can see how Moash wouldn’t really understand the underlying psychological and societal things going on and just see “lighteyes still in power? BROKEN!”

AA: On a slightly irrelevant note, Paladar is (or was) regent to Highprince Vamah, who always had his ways of being exclusive. Even at this point, he’s one of the two Highprinces who refused to go to Urithiru, and instead remained at the Shattered Plains to try to carve out their own little “kingdom” there. In this particular scene, I can’t help being reminded of a news article I read yesterday, about the leader of a nation whose people are literally starving in the streets while he publicly enjoys expensive steak dinners. It’s completely typical of humanity, and frustrating as Damnation.

They’d found a building full of artwork of a style that baffled the Alethi scribes. Parshman art. They’d been painting even while they fought a war. Just like … well, just like ordinary people.

AA: Callback to WoR, where the Listeners were diligently painting during their free time, trying so hard to attract creationspren in the hope that they could discover another form. It’s a bit melancholy to remember it, and know just how much wasted effort it was. Highly amusing, though, that the Alethi scribes are baffled by the style and keep trying to understand it.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

“That’s the Stormfather’s storming own truth, that storming is.”

AA: Back on the beta, someone commented, “Wow, Guff really IS bad at cussing!” To which someone else’s response was, “A fun lampshade of what happens when you have one word for all swears.” It made me giggle. Also, it’s way true.

L: I have no storming idea what the storm you’re talking about, get out of here with your storming self. (This is reminding me of the f-word monologue in the Boondock Saints…)

“Tell the merchants when they next come through,” Kaladin said, “that the Knights Radiant are not their doormen.”

L: On the one hand, this is amusing, but on the other… starting to get a little big for your britches, aren’t you, Kal?

AA: On the other other hand, there aren’t nearly as many Knights Radiant as there are merchants right now, and that handful has plenty of different things to be doing besides running the Oathgate.

AP: And on the fourth hand, it’s yet another example of changing roles. The former darkeyes Knight Radiant is pushing back from being ordered around.

There had been only one logical way to get the equipment he needed for his application: He’d stolen it from the Blackcap quartermaster.

L: ::gigglesnort::

“So I’m supposed to accidentally but deliberately breathe something in without breathing, but not try too hard at it?” “Doesn’t it make you want to string the lot of them up in the storms?”

L: Classic.

AA: I loved this whole exchange between Lyn and Skar. Pure gold.

Also, someone on the beta was shipping these two. Just sayin’.

Weighty Words

“Drehy, you used a quarter of a Basic Lashing, by Kaladin’s terminology?” Sigzil continued, still making notes. “Yeah,” Drehy said. “I… I know the precise amount, Sig. Strange.”

L: That’s interesting. Does knowing the precise amount make him an anomaly?

AP: I really like these insights into the magic system. Sig’s data collection is a great way to do an info dump for the reader.

“We have no proof that we squires are a step toward becoming full Radiants. We might always be your support team—and in that case, it’s not individual skill that matters, but your decision. Maybe that of your spren. You choose them, they serve under you, and then they start drawing in Stormlight.”

L: This is a good distinction, and an important question. Do all the squires eventually move on to become full Radiants, or do some—historically—stay squires? We know that the Knights Radiant of old HAD squires, but we don’t know if they stayed that way forever or if it was just a stop-gap, a sort of… training period. (Do we?)

AA: We don’t. For that matter, we don’t even know if the squire of a Windrunner can only become a Windrunner, or if he could become, say, a Stoneward. I find it mildly amusing that in context, Teft is still hiding the fact that he’s bonded a spren; he’s still pretending that he’s just a squire like the rest of them.

Meaningful Motivations

“He felt at the Bridge Four tattoo under his shirt, on his left shoulder.”

AP: So I think this is really important, and why I think we may get a different arc than people expect. Moash has his tattoo of Bridge Four even though he took off the patch. I’m waiting to see what happens with this. If it “heals” through Stormlight/voidlight or if it get otherwise obliterated, then I think we are less likely to see a redemption arc. But right now, he has a constant reminder of who he could have been.

L: Narratively speaking, that’s a really good point and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you’re right.

Quality Quotations

“That makes as much sense as the storming Stormfather playing the flute, boy.”

* * *

“Even Rock beat your time, and he was skipping like a girl the last third.” “Was Horneater dance of victory,” Rock said from near Leyten. “Is very manly.”

* * *

“Ha!” Rock said. “You could hit my face, Skar. I have seen you jump very high. Almost, you seem as tall as regular person when you do that.”

With that, we’ll sign off. Be sure to join us again next week for Chapters 47 and 48, as we finally get inside Jasnah’s head and have yet another visit with Moash. Meanwhile, we’ll see you in the comments!

Alice is feeling her age and can’t think of anything clever to say. Lies of the Beholder is out, though, so that’s cool.

Lyndsey is in the final days of setting up the haunted attraction she works for, which means a lot of stress and fake blood on all of her work clothes. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.

Aubree thinks pop tarts are sandwiches.