Row Spoilers - Tumblr Posts

So I have been thinking

A. Now that Zoya has access to all Grisha orders and types, do we think that she'll throw herself into training to master them or not? The way she was reluctant to acknowledge her dragon powers (or I could be completely misinterpreting this entire part, idk) makes me believe she doesn't do well with change. However, she worked her ass off her entire life basically to be the best Squaller she could be. Hm

B. Since shadow and sun summoning are also technically considered part of the Etherealki, do we think Zoya could do it? When she was using her Durast abilities she said that it felt wrong if I'm remembering correctly. But the other elements of the Etherealki order came to her fairly easily. Hm

Disappears into the void 

Wylan: We don’t want to do anything illegal

Kaz: It’s for Inej

Wylan:

@un-eteinvincible​ and I noticed how Leigh Bardugo focuses on ‘sight’ when it comes to make her fictional couples express their feelings to each other, and it’s just too beautiful. It’s as if when a person sees you, they know you thoroughly and the meaning behind it does nothing but bring us to tears. 

Here are some examples. Beware there are some RoW spoilers, so skip the last screens if you haven’t read the book yet. 

Let’s start with Mal and Alina. I know the discourse around them is thick, but honestly Mal doesn’t deserve all the hate he gets. He’s just a 17 year old boy who is confused until he realizes that Alina is his ‘true north’, and it’s beautiful that he apologizes to her for taking so long to really see her.

In chapter 25 of Six of Crows, the one in which Inej climbs the incinerator shaft, there’s this flashback which tells us how she ended up working for Kaz and we have this beautiful line. Inej is so stealthy that she’s able to sneak up on everyone, except for Kaz because he always knows when she’s near. It’s even more heartbreakingly beautiful if you think about the fact that Inej’s wish was to never be invisible again: “She was not a lynx or a spider or even the Wraith. She was Inej Ghafa, and her future was waiting above.” We know well that to Kaz, Inej was never invisible.

Next who else is there if not our favorite Drusje and Drüskelle? For Nina and Matthias there are many examples that focus on ‘sight’, especially from Matthias’s pov. He knows he’s supposed to hate her, yet his eyes cannot help but always seeking Nina out, as Inej herself tells him. “So why do your eyes keep searching the crowd for her?”. This other passage is very meaningful as well, because we see Matthias thinking that he does see her.

Another beautiful example are Wylan and Jesper, which to me are really the epitome of a love that’s so pure that it can overcome any obstacle. When Genya tailors back Wylan, our favorite sharpshooter helps her. The merchling’s surprise is palpable and it’s very telling. Wylan has always felt like a burden, a waste of space, overlooked by his own father and yet Jesper really sees him for what he is, and therefore loves him for being himself. 

These last two passages are taken from Rule of Wolves so they contain spoilers. First we have the beautiful scene in which Genya and David exchange their wedding vows. We’ve been told many times in the trilogy that David is a person extremely focused on his work, and it appears that there’s nothing else that interests him except the Little Science. This changes when Genya enters the picture and it’s done so well that it’s even more sad if you think how their story ends. David sees his Genya in something that means a lot to him, the making at the heart of the world.

Lastly, we have Zoya and Nikolai. On these two entire essays could be written, so much so complex and multifaceted their relationship is. It brings me to tears that Zoya had always felt like she wasn’t enough, that no matter how powerful she was, that would not make others lover her. When she looses the only family who cared about her when the Darkling expands the Fold, she realizes how alone and lonely she is, how she had kept secret an important part of herself, of her heritage… until Nikolai enters the picture that is. He is the only one who is not afraid to look at her, and see her for what she is and love her despite her thorny exterior and this is just so beautiful. 

I hope you liked this post. I’m always taken aback by how Leigh Bardugo writes her characters. All the struggles they had to endure and eventually they overcome are what makes them special and relatable and I think it’s just so beautiful that all of them had found in another person that solace of being seen, because at the end of the day that’s what we all wish for, to be seen and therefore to be loved unconditionally. 

Spoilers for Stormlight Archives books two and beyond. Ye've been warned.

I find it greatly amusing that Brandon Sanderson named Moash (in part) after his editor. Like just imagine.

"Hey, you've really been great to me so I thought I'd name a character after you."

"Oh, that's nice of you! What's he like?"

"He betrays everyone and everything he cared about in a quest for vengeance. He swears fealty to an evil god, and urges his best friend to kill himself."

"..."

For those who can't wait for more Renarin content, I've updated my fic Renarin's Special Interest (rated General, 2000 words, RoW spoilers) to include a piece of commissioned art, done by chickengk aka thebridge4chicken on instagram! Check out their Stormlight art!

Fellas is it gay to run experiments with the STEM savvy former queen of the place you conquered and holding hands with her as you create a whole new form of power through song

Raboniel(she's probably thinking about Navani)

Still have a lot to experiment with the way I want her to look, and fused/parshendi in general

Okay so is it going to be addressed that Adolin grew up with an alcoholic father (with the whole set of organising an intervention at 15, finding him black out drank etc.) oooooor will the story be just as oblivious to it as Adolin is atm?

a tango with the enemy (…?)

when you're scientific genius enemies turned doomed toxic old woman yuri by the narrative, which is literally named after the musical manifestation of your lesbian gay love for one another

Kaladin in Urithiru

Kelsier's really gearing up for his hot girl summer

yk what really makes me emotional about the zoyalai garden scene? in king of scars, when lizabetha is talking to zoya in the fold, she mentions to zoya how other people do not want to look too closely at the thorns of others’ pains and fears. she even shows the quinces blooming and flowering, saying that it still does not change the nature of the thorn; it’s still prickly and covered in pain and anger. 

and then in the garden, zoya talks of the exact same thing. about how the thorns are so uselessly symbolic with no real value, that the thorn is too bitter and worthless and how people will not pay attention to it nor love, not unless they see something worth seeing in them or have something for themselves to see in it. 

and nikolai just. straight up counters it. he says the thorn endures so many winters, keeps others strong until they bloomed with the sun and when the cycle starts again, the thorn grows yet again, endlessly strong and persevering and blooms again. and that just. does feelings to you because we see how nikolai sees zoya’s thorns, understands that it’s more fear than a mere metaphor for her and her ruthlessness and of who she is. 

so the last quote ‘i will always seek to make it summer for you’ is so stark against ‘what if the winter is just too long and hard and it can’t bloom again?’ hits you hard because. they!!! understand and value who they are as people and vow to become the weather to make each other bloom. and that does BRINGS SO MANY FEELS to you in this essay i will—

its always “wyd” and never “biagftsoybtpoftwtlwyfmwfbifidwtffafiicfawtmafwy”🙄