Greetings, Cosmere Chickens! We had some fantastic discussion in the comments last week regarding redemption and psychology, mostly in regard to Moash. I’d highly recommend you go back and read through some of those comments, if you haven’t already—there’s some wonderful debate in there! As for this week… well, my chickens, I’m afraid that things are going to get much darker before we find the (storm)light.
Reminder: We’ll be discussing spoilers for the entirety of the series up until now. If you haven’t read ALL of the published entries of The Stormlight Archive (this includes Edgedancer and Dawnshard as well as the entirety of Rhythm of War), best to wait to join us until you’re done.
There are no spoilers for any other Cosmere works in this week’s article.
Heralds:
- 2x Nalan (Nale), Herald of Justice. Skybreakers (Gravitation, Division). Just/Confident. Role: Judge.
- Talenelat (Talenel, Taln), Herald of War. Stonewards (Cohesion, Tension). Dependable/Resourceful. Role: Soldier.
- Jezrien (Jezerezeh, Yaezir, Ahu), Herald of Kings. Windrunners (Adhesion, Gravitation). Protecting/Leading. Role: King.
Lyn: Well, Jezrien is almost certainly here for Kaladin. I’m a bit stymied as to the others, though. Why such a focus (with two appearances) of Nalan? I guess Kaladin taking out the Defeated One could be in line with his brand of “Justice,” but it seems an odd choice. I’m guessing that Taln’s here for his role as soldier, but again, it’s not as clear-cut as these things usually are. Paige, any thoughts?
Paige: I think you hit Taln spot on. And I like the idea of Nale being here for Kaladin. Both for Justice and because, broken as Teft’s death almost made him, he does regain his confidence, and Lezian’s death was certainly just.
Icon: The Double Eye, indicating several POV characters.
Epigraph:
For ones so varied, they are somehow intense.
—Musings of El, on the first of the Final Ten Days
L: Intense is an understatement for our boy Kal.
Chapter Recap
WHO: Kaladin, Navani, Venli
WHEN: 1175.4.10.4
WHERE: Urithiru
(Note: For the “when” notations, we are using this wonderful timeline provided by the folks at The 17th Shard.)
RECAP: Navani slams her painrial dagger home into Raboniel’s chest. The two share a few final words before Raboniel dies in which Navani realizes that the Fused’s true goal was to end the war, by any means necessary. After this revelation, however, Vyre/Moash shows back up and stabs Navani in the chest. (As he do.) Meanwhile, the Pursuer Defeated One makes the mistake of attacking Kaladin in the throes of his grief over Teft, and pays the final price as Kaladin completely loses it and beheads him. One of the other Fused takes Lirin and flies off with him. Kaladin gives chase, finally catching up on the roof of Urithiru. The Fused, panicking, throws Lirin off the edge…
And Kaladin follows.
Chapter Chat — War! Huh! Yeah! What Is It Good For?
“You must take… the notebook…” Raboniel said. “And you must… run. Vyre… returns.”
P: I love this. Navani just stabbed her in the storming chest and Raboniel is still trying to save her from Moash/Vyre.
“You tell me to run, after I tried to kill you?”
“Not… tried…” Raboniel said. “I… cannot hear rhythms.… My soul… dying…” She pried open her eyes and fixed them on Navani. “You… tricked me well, Navani. Clever, clever. Well… done.”
Buy the Book
The Lost Metal
L: You know, I was never the biggest fan of Raboniel in the beta read, but I’ve come to really like her in the final version. Also, I have to include this here…
P: The perfect gif for this sitch, I think. And I grew to like Raboniel as well. Primarily for her respect for Navani but also because she was just a great character. On the wrong side to many (most?) of us, but still a great character.
L: Wrong side.. Right side… a big part of Stormlight is making us question those judgments.
“The war must … end.”
…
“Stormfather,” she whispered. “That’s what it was all about.” Raboniel wanted to end the war, one way or another.
…
“I want… the singers to win. But your side… winning… is better than… than…”
“Than the war continuing forever,” Navani said.
L: I really respect this about her. The whole concept of not caring who wins, as long as it just ends. The mindless cycle of death and destruction and vengeance… What a powerful message.
P: She has to be exhausted, after doing this for thousands of years. I know I would be, and I kind of wouldn’t care who won, I would just want to be done.
Music, Mechanisms, and Manifestations of Light
The pain was excruciating. But Navani had tested these devices upon herself, and she knew what they did.
L: Major, major props to Navani for being such a magnificent bad@$$ that she actually tested this out on herself. Storms, woman!
P: That’s our scholar queen. Waking the walk.
Bruised and Broken
Moash had returned. Highmarshal Kaladin was dead.
P: What a gut punch this must be. All your hopes are on this one man and suddenly you realize he must be dead. And there’s nobody else. Nobody but you.
L: Especially for someone like Navani, who has historically had so much trouble seeing her own self-worth (thanks a lot, Gavilar). To know that you’re alone, that no backup is coming…
Kaladin clung to Teft’s limp form and felt it all crumbling. The flimsy façade of confidence he had built to let himself fight. The way he pretended he was fine.
P: I’ve often said that, if you have friends who struggle with depression and/or suicidal ideation, when they say they’re fine, they’re not really fine. And yet I’ve still been the one to tell people, “I’m fine.” So I know what this is like… to pretend you’re fine, when you’ve just created a façade that allows you to function in the world, but behind it you’re just a mess.
L: Sometimes it’s just easier to pretend than to exert the effort to try to explain (sometimes for the millionth time) what’s wrong. And that effort can seem meaningless when the person in question can’t do anything to fix it. So why bother? Better, easier, less effort, to put up a mask and just play pretend. There’s a bit of that here in Kaladin’s case, I think, but most of it was putting up that mask of confidence to try to give the people he’s protecting hope. But you can only keep up that mask for so long.
What was there to life if he couldn’t protect the people he loved?
L: And here we come to it at last… Kaladin’s All is Lost moment (for this book, at least). He’s confronted (again) with his greatest fear, the one that he’s constantly struggling with book after book: that he can’t save those closest to him.
P: Storms, I just want to hug him and tell him that it’s not his fault. Tell him that the bridge crews obtained their freedom because of him. That his friends have done so well because of him. That there are Windrunner Radiants because of him. But I know that in this moment, in the throes of grief, he wouldn’t be able to hear it. And I’ve been in that place and I understand. And it’s heart-wrenching.
Maybe if he’d lived as his father wanted, he could have avoided this. He said he fought to protect, but he didn’t end up protecting anything, did he? He just destroyed. Killed.
Kaladin Stormblessed wasn’t dead. He’d never existed.
Kaladin Stormblessed was a lie. He always had been.
L: In a way, he’s right. What are we, really, but a collection of masks we show to the world? Kaladin Stormblessed, the myth, the legend, only exists in so much as people believe that he does. The actual man behind the myth is still oh-so-human (albeit supernaturally powered). Kaladin, the man, is flawed. Kaladin, the man, can fail. And does. That’s a hard pill to swallow when it seems to happen over, and over, and over. Especially when that pill also happens to be losing people you care about. Grief, wrapped in a loss of self-worth, buried in a pit of fear.
P: Eloquently said, Lyndsey. We really do wear different masks for different situations, work, home, the grocery store, events we can’t avoid. And Kaladin is no different. Only he doesn’t realize that despite the masks he wears, he’s still the hero. And you know, Kaladin, you sweet, sweet boy… following your dad’s path wouldn’t have avoided any pain and suffering for your friends. They would have all died in the bridge crews.
He didn’t actually believe he could save his father. It was as if Lirin was already dead, and was screaming at Kaladin from Damnation. Kaladin wasn’t exactly certain why he followed, but he had to get up high.
L: We find out later in the chapter why he wants to get up so high. While I’m glad for his sake that he did (as none of the events which followed would have happened, should he have remained sunk in his despair), this still hurts so much to read.
P: It does hurt. And knowing what he’s about to do is chilling, because we’re not entirely sure where his mind is. We don’t know if he really thinks he can save Lirin or if he wanted to join him in death.
The numbness claimed him. That hollow darkness that was so much worse than pain. He couldn’t think. Didn’t want to think. Didn’t want anything.
L: I’m continually impressed, book after book, with Brandon’s handling of depression. He does this remarkably well. While I know there are some readers out there who are annoyed by it (and Kaladin in general), those of us who have been in that dark place can see the truth in Kaladin, and I think I can speak for us all when I say that we appreciate the realism of it.
P: Oh, storms… we appreciate it so very much. We’ve dissociated many a time. We know what that numbness feels like. We know about not wanting to think. About not wanting anything. Brandon’s writing of this character is superb.
Kaladin scrambled to the edge of the tower and looked down. Suddenly he knew why he’d come this high. He knew where he was going. He’d stood on this ledge before. Long ago in the rain.
This time he jumped.
L: I like to believe that, deep down, there’s a part of him that hasn’t given up. That’s jumping to try, to keep trying, to save his father. A part that he probably doesn’t even know about… But I don’t think that’s true. In this instant, he’s incapable of saving himself. He needs someone to protect and save him.
P: Yeah, this scene was so hard for me to read because he’s referencing the time he stood at the honor chasm. And I’ve stood at that same chasm and looked down into the darkness. So to see him do that again and to see him actually jump, even if he does think he can save his father, was so difficult for me.
L: In this instance, the savior needs someone to save him. And thankfully, someone answers that call.
That was how Venli should have felt upon losing her sister. Why didn’t she have the emotions of a normal person? She’d been sad, but she didn’t think she’d ever been so overcome by grief that she acted like Stormblessed.
…
Timbre pulsed comfortingly inside her. Everyone was different. And Venli was on the right path.
L: I actually really, really love this. It’s true that everyone grieves, and experiences emotion, differently. I like this nod to that. She’s not wrong, she’s just different. While Venli may not be my favorite character, I can grudgingly accept this.
P: She’s not my favorite character either and though I used to loathe her, I have grown to appreciate her and like her. But she’s right, that should’ve been how she grieved for Eshonai. This is how one should grieve a loved one taken with violence, taken too soon. But at the same time, I can admit that Timbre is correct: Everyone grieves differently.
L: I’m going to disagree with you a bit here. “Should” is a strong word, in this instance. There’s no right or wrong way to grieve.
Oaths Spoken, Powers Awakened
Navani looked up as a blur flashed in the hallway, reflecting light. A thump hit her chest, and she grunted at the impact, stunned—briefly—before pain began to wash through her body. Sharp and alarming.
A knife, she thought, befuddled to see the hilt of a throwing knife sticking from the side of her torso, next to her right breast.
P: And she’s too late. Moash is there, intent on killing her. She had only one option left, one thing that might save her.
L: Well… sort of too late, as we’ll see soon.
His eyes were glowing like a Radiant’s, his face a mask of pain and anguish, but the eyes… she swore the light had a yellowish-red cast to it. Like… like…
L: Oh. Oh, dear.
P: I’ve forgotten about this since my first reread after the Beta, but like what? Why were his eyes growing yellowish-red again?
L: I did a bit of research on the Coppermind on this. Some of the Voicspren do appear as yellow, so it would make sense if this were a sign of corruption. The only yellow gemstone association I could definitively find was for Ishar/the Bondsmiths, which doesn’t make a lot of sense (despite the fact that Dalinar does reach out to Kaladin soon).
The Pursuer stabbed, but Stormblessed grabbed his arm and turned, becoming a blur of motion. He somehow twisted around so he was behind the Pursuer, then found a knife somewhere on his person—moving with such speed that Venli had trouble tracking him.
P: His vengeance has been awakened and he is death itself, come to claim its revenge. ::shiver::
He re-formed and tried to grab Stormblessed again. But there was no contest now. Kaladin moved like the wind, fast and flowing as he rammed his dagger through the Pursuer’s arm, causing him to shout in pain. A knife toward the face followed, and the Pursuer ejected yet again.
P: No, no contest. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I experienced a fair amount of glee reading this scene. And I do again, every time I read it. I just want to giggle because Kaladin is so bad-ass.
L: Kal has a lot of these scenes, what I like to think of as the “triumphant badass” scenes. Ones that just make me throw my hands up in the air and crow like Peter Pan, because storms above when our boy really puts his mind to it, he can blow us away. It’s when he truly lets go, when he ascends to something more than just human, that he personifies that wonderful quote by Bruce Lee—be water. Or, in this case, a more apt phrase would be, “be the storm.” Why… You might say that he’s… swift as the coursing river. With all the force of a great typhoon. With all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon…
::cough:: Sorry. I needed to get that out of my system.
Stormblessed dashed to him, and they met near the vast window, flashing with lightning. The Pursuer tried to grab him, and Kaladin welcomed it, folding into the deadly embrace—then expertly slamming them both up against the window.
P: And Kaladin Infuses the glass and sticks the Defeated One right to it. And we all know what happens next. *glee*
The Pursuer’s head… it was pulling forward against his neck, his eyes bulging. He groaned, and Venli realized that Stormblessed had infused the ground, then made it pull on the Pursuer’s head. But his body was stuck to the wall.
Kaladin turned and strode toward the watching Heavenly Ones as the Pursuer’s head ripped from his body and slammed to the floor with a crunch.
L: I had to quote this one just because it’s so brutal. Kaladin has completely and utterly lost it. Now, whether or not the Defeated One had this coming (ethically) is certainly a debate (have at it in the comments if you like), I will say that he did bring it on himself by attacking Kaladin when he was expressly warned not to. It’s like touching a hot stove… you’re bound to get burned.
P: Lezian certainly woke Kaladin’s vengeance, didn’t he? And he had no defense against Kaladin’s wrath. Rip. Crunch. Yeessss. And me? I think Lezian deserved it.
Singers/Fused
“This is stupidity,” the Pursuer said, shoving Lirin into Leshwi’s hands. “I can’t believe we’re all just standing here.”
Leshwi looked up from her vigil, humming to Spite. Then, amazingly, she pulled out a knife and cut Lirin’s hands free.
P: What a great moment, Leshwi defying Lezian this way. He truly holds no more power.
“Your legacy is dead, Defeated One,” Leshwi said. “It died when you ran from him.”
L: Ha! Even the Fused are calling him this now.
P: Go, Leshwi! Lezian is truly destroyed.
“My legacy is untouched!” the Pursuer roared, causing Venli to stumble back, afraid.
P: Spoiler alert: No, it’s not. At least not the legacy you think you have. Now your legacy is cowardice, surrender, defeat.
L: Well said.
Humans
“I’m sorry,” Navani said through gritted teeth. “I’m… sorry. But next time… try… not… to be… so trusting.”
L: Oof.
P: Boom, baby!!
We’ll be leaving further speculation and discussion to you in the comments—do you think that Lezian/the Defeated One had it coming? What’s your favorite “Kaladin bad-ass” scene?—and hope to join you there! Next week, we’ll be back with chapter 107, in which Dalinar steps in.
Paige resides in New Mexico, of course. She very much misses baseball and is counting the days until Spring Training. Links to her other writing are available in her profile.
Lyndsey lives in Connecticut and makes magic wands for a living, as well as working as the costumer for two of her local Renaissance Faires. If you enjoy queer protagonists, snarky humor, and don’t mind some salty language, check out book 1 of her fantasy series. Follow her on Facebook or TikTok!
I think both Nale is there for Navani because she ultimately acts as judge against Raboniel. Talk is for Raboniel (and maybe Lezien) because they are soldiers in a war who are defeated.
I wonder if Nalan is there as an inversion for The Defeated as his confidence is broken for the ultimate time with his utter helplessness before Kaladin kills him.
Honestly, I think Nale is there as a subversion. He’s there to represent vengeance; for Teft, and also for what Moash thinks he represents.
As for my favorite Kaladin badass moment, it’s still “Honor is dead. but I can see what I can do” that there is just Kaladin being more honest than even when he has his badass moments. and of course, when it really shows his skill as a fighter, and of course, when him and Adolin first begin to connect.
Enjoyed my coffee with you as always, ladies.
Another gut wrenching chapter!
I love how Brandon draws us from fearing Raboniel as a super villain with even Leshwi leery of her to making her (almost) likable and sympathetic—from the heart rending killing her own daughter to the need to end the war in any brutal way possible—what a roller coaster ride she is.
My poor Kaladin. This chapter and the ones just before and after contain all the things that make me want to just hold him. Badass? Definitely. Terrifying? Definitely. Yellow-red light? Where were you going Kal? Did needing to follow Lirin save him from the obvious temptation that was there? Maybe. Did he jump hoping to save his father, or end things and escape giving Odium his pain? Both?
What a ride! But next week……I will need to take my migraine medicine before we discuss THAT chapter.
Or maybe, Nale is there twice because he represents both the Judge and Vengeance.
Moash was right about one thing. Kaladin might very well have killed himself had Lezian left him alone. But obviously, Lezian’s ego would get the best of him. As Leshwi noted during the Fused pow-wow, Lezian’s image was more important the the Fused goals. And he would ruin the plans just to preserve his image.
Lezian. A bully at his heart. When he could not win on his own, he wanted his soldiers to do his work. And had they killed Kaladin, he would have claimed the kill for his own. I think Lezian saw his fight against Kaladin as part of the war. As such, I have no ethical problems with the way Kaladin killed Lezian. Moreover, Leizan would have gone to great lengths to torture Kaladin (both physically and psychologically) if their respective positions were reversed.
Huh. I thought Navani would stab the pillar with the anti-Voidlight dagger to remove the Voidlight rather than kill Raboniel. I wonder if stabbing the pillar have removed the Voidlight. I suppose there would have had to be enough ant-Voidlight.
IMO, the dynamics/interplay between Navani and Raboniel was the heart of RoW. I thought Rabionel was an amazingly well written character. Raboniel is one of the most complex characters I have read in a long time (if ever).
Lyndsey. Speaking only for myself, a major reason that I am annoyed by reading Kaladin’s “woe is me”; “the sky is falling” attitude over and over again is it is sometimes like looking in a mirror. I suffer from some type of depression and there are times I feel like I am a complete failure. A tiny part of me tires to tell the rest of my mind to stop acting like that; I am not the complete failure I think I am when I am in those moods. Reading Kaladin sometimes feels too much like looking in the mirror and not liking what I see. Interestingly enough, Shallan in my favorite SA character. I am not annoyed when I read her “woe is me” moods. Perhaps I enjoying reading Shallan’s coping mechanism and am jealous she has one. Although, I understand Shallan’s coping mechanism comes with its own host of issues.
If the yellow-red eyes refers to Kaladin’s eyes, then I think whoever is looking at his eyes is reminded of the Fused under the control of Odium. They have a redish glow to their eyes.
Steven Hedge @3. That is a great Kaladin badass moment. My other favorite Kaladin badass moment when Kaladin confronts Moash and Graves right after Kaladin swears the 3rd Ideal.
Adding to AndrewHB’s comment about “over and over” … that’s my issue with post-WoR Kaladin. He gets the same story arc, well, over and over.
About Moash’s eyes: Yellowish-red eyes … a man of gold and red, perhaps? I will bet you $1 that Brandon didn’t do that by accident.
I’ve said all along that Raboniel was a great villain. Lezian was a standard superhero’s villain, he was all bad, there were no redeeming qualities.
Roboniel was all fleshed out. She was evil (she even killed those on her own side in the past) but she also had respect for Navani and love for her daughter. She had a reason for how she used Navani, it wasn’t to enjoy hurting her. She and Navani were wonderful together when they co-operated.
I agree, I loved Raboniel’s character (and even Raboniel herself at times). And I loved the bosom-friend type of relationship she had with Navani when they weren’t undermining each other! In another world, perhaps! Honestly, I kind of teared up when she died in her arms, it felt very Anne of Green Gables to me, lol. (That is, like one of the dramatic stories Anne would have written…)
@7 – I just had the same thought about the red and gold!
This also reminded me that I’m kind of a Kaleshwi shipper :)
“He’s confronted (again) with his greatest fear, the one that he’s constantly struggling with book after book: that he can’t save those closest to him.”
Now that Kaladin has finally – FINALLY – spoken his next Ideal, and he finally – FINALLY – accepts there are those he cannot save, and that most of the time, IT IS NOT HIS FAULT – I hope he’ll start to come out of this cycle of depression. I acknowledge Kaladin and his depression is wonderfully written and gut-wrenching, but 4 books worth of this struggle is a lot to read. Now that he’s confronted his fear, now that he realises all he needs to do is save those he CAN save, now that M**** is not around trying to get to Kaladin to kill himself, I look forward to reading a less moody, more content Kaladin.
Like @6, my favourite Kaladin badass moment is when he defends Elhokar from M**** and Graves, and then flies off like Superman to save Dalinar and face Szeth.
Why… You might say that he’s… swift as the coursing river. With all the force of a great typhoon. With all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon… *Snickers*
I agree with Steven @3 and Andrew @6 with my favorite Kaladin badass moment being “Honor is dead” (it is still my all-time favorite quote in the series, right before “We. CHOSE!”). I think I would rank all this sequence against Lezian (from the moment Kal walks into the atrium until he takes care of the Defeated One for good) as the second and my third is perhaps the one from the start of the book where Lezian uses the dampener on him and oopsie! This Radiant CAN FIGHT!
Agree with those who say Raboniel is a great character. There were times I really liked her, there were times I was so angry with her, but there was not a moment I did not respect her as a complex and interesting being.
And FWIW, I, too, interpreted the glow of Kal’s eyes as a warning sign of getting corrupted by Odium – he was so close to toal breaking and giving in to giving Odium his pain that had to have been overwhelming, and the reddish glow reminded the eyes of the Fused, so … When he jumped, I agree that part of him probably wanted to save Lirin, but a bigger part of him did not believe it possible and just wanted to do what he probably perceived he should have done at the Honor Chasm, to end it all. Though, I wonder if he had not been taken that far with Lezian’s stupidity and taken that last desperate step, had he been able to say the Words without being touched by the storm and a certain Bondsmith’s intervention? I suppose the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills .. I mean, oops, thank the Stormfather. And Almighty bless Dalinar for being there and stepping in.
Reading all of this chapter has every time being horrifying and exhilarating (all that badassedness from Kaladin and Navani!) and heartbreaking.
As full of great Kaladin moments as the series is, my favourite badass Kaladin still HAS to be when he goes to save Dalinar from Sadius’s betrayal. Everything from there through to Dalinar exchanging the blade for Bridge Four was just awesome. We had other ‘turnaround’ moments after, but the first, after a book of seeing Kaladin just go from bad to worse to worse to worse was still the greatest for me. Finally seeing our boy come into his own and do something ridiculously heroic and actually get recognition from others because of it was amazing.
There have been other moments, but the whole Saving Dalinar sequence still resonates the strongest with me and stands out and would be awesome to see in a Stormlight TV series, the whole thing was epic and ‘Peter Pan crow’ worthy.
I like @3 Steven Hedge’s idea that Nale is there as a subversion.
Kal’s eyes glow yellowish-red. Okay, definitely Odium, but what is happening to Syl at this moment where her Knight Radiant is being corrupted? Didn’t an earlier chapter have Venli use Voidlight to power her abilities with no problems from Timbre? This seems different, like a direct influence from Odium. Interesting that Kaladin can still use adhesion, the one surge the fused don’t seem to have access to.
My favorite part about this chapter is Leshwi calling The Defeated One, The Defeated One. Now there’s some pouring gasoline on a fire right there.
My favorite badass Kaladin moments might be him taking on the chasmfiend without powers in WoR. But if I can pick a non-combat scene, it’s in Oathbringer at the Radiant meeting where Kaladin saysto Dalinar, “Maybe that should make you reconsider those other wars, rather than using them to justify this one.” Because, yeah.
I definitely agree with others in that Kaladin’s eyes were indicative of Odium; but I feel like maybe folks get so excited to see him fighting like a beast that they don’t realize how close to becoming like Moash he is in this moment. When I read how ruthless and powerful he is against The Defeated in this chapter, I read it as being cold and emotionless. He doesn’t just kill The Defeated at the end, he slowly pulls his head off.. Now to be clear, I’m not trying for sympathy for this fused at all; but the way Kal is written in this chapter, combined with how Syl seems to be losing him again (much like how she almost lost him in WOR when he nearly broke his vows) makes me see it as Kal starting to let go and give in to Odium..
Luckily, we have Dalinar coming in to help bring him back to the light in what is my all time favorite chapter