#cosmere critical

[marvelousmagicalaura]

I've been having a lot of discussions and thoughts about Ruin's future sight, Preservation's plans, and Harmony's knowledge.

Because of this, I have a good basis on how to write Ruin in my Mistborn AU. Sanderson has hinted that Ruin is the power of change and entropy, so I really want to lean in that direction. Rather than portraying him as the entity of death and destruction that Sanderson wrote him as, I want to write him as the God of Decay and Entropy. Everything we associate with canon Ruin would be parts of his desire/methods of ensuring that all things degrade and decay. Death and destruction are parts of his Intent, but they aren’t forefront in the Intent. The forefront of Ruin’s Intent consists of degradation, entropy, and chaos. To enhance this idea, I may write that AU Ruin pushes people to embrace uncertainty and change.

For example, we know that Ruin canonically pulled the strings behind Kelsier’s rebellion and the discovery of the Eleventh Metal. I would enhance this idea, so that Ruin is responsible for the rise and fall of pre-Rashek empires and kingdoms, war, the advancement of technology, and rebellions. In the Final Empire’s context he would be responsible for guiding its various rebellions, and for advancing technology in the less controlled Dominances.

Ruin weaves and executes multiple, branching schemes to ensure the subtle, slow downfall of Scadrial and its empires. He knows there are countless ways his Intent is present in the Universe, and will execute them through any avenue. I would significantly expand on his actions throughout history.

I desperately intend to expand upon Ruin’s precognitive abilities. It doesn’t feel right downplaying Ruin’s future sight when the only WoB we have about it came from 2012, way before Sanderson truly incorporated precognition into the Cosmere. Not only that but the Mistborn trilogy was written before he solidified Cosmere-wide mechanics. I think that once a Mistborn adaptation comes out, we will truly see his abilities in action.

AU Ruin’s future sight would still be inferior to Preservation. It feels slightly wrong LMAO, but it’s necessary for the ending. But it’s far better than Elend’s future vision and Odium’s future sight.

I haven’t read Stormlight yet, but I heard that Odium definitively has future sight. Going by the IRL definition of the word “odium,” I believe canon Ruin’s Intent of causing death and destruction requires a lot more foresight/planning than inducing hatred.

AU Ruin would also be so much more destructive when released. I want to give Ruin more influence over the world by creating more natural disasters - earthquakes with more impact, floods, earthquakes, blizzards, thunderstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes, scenes of Luthadel’s death etc…

Right now I plan to say that weakened Ruin w/ Preservation’s presence can manipulate phenomena that already exists in Scadrial's natural science. He can manipulate and create anything on the planet to his liking, but he can't _completely_ destroy its structure. He can't do feats like reduce the continents to nothingness, boil the oceans in their entirety, or burn the planet down until nothing remains.

But he can do everything the Lord Ruler accomplished during his Ascension. Weakened Ruin can move the continents or split them apart, move the planet, boil the oceans so they’re absurdly hot, and make the planet hotter or colder.

#mistborn #cosmere #mistborn critical #cosmere critical #mistborn rewrite #mistborn ruin #brief mention of stormlight #brief mention of odium #ruin is the god of decay and entropy #can’t see how odium could possibly see into the future better than odium #better see some of ruin’s future sight in the mistborn adaptation

[feral-biologist]

i hope all the kholins got guillotine at the end

#tsa #kholin critical #stormlight archieve #u know in an actual revolution they will be the first ones to be on the chopping block #reading row physically makes me sick #like the colonization mindset of relations between people as domination/oppression is DRIPPING in this one #why why WHY #rhythm of war #cosmere critical #sanderson critical #dalinar kholin #navani kholin #jasnah kholin #adolin kholin #shallan davar #yup i'm calling all of y'all out

[headcanonsandmore]

Kaladin, explaining his past to Adolin: So, after working tirelessly with Bridge Four to save ourselves from the near-hopeless situation we had ended up in, I was no longer a slave. I no longer had to walk barefoot and in rags everywhere. Adolin: *horrifed* Storms, Kaladin; you've had a incredibly difficult life. I can see exactly why you disliked me when we first met; people like me had literally beaten you down for your entire life. I'm... I'm so sorry. Kaladin: Thanks, Adolin; that means a lot to me. Adolin: So... what happened after you had finally been released from slavery? Kaladin: Your wife used her privilege as a light-eyes to rob me of the boots I was wearing. Adolin: ... Kaladin: ... Kaladin: Yeah, now that I think about it, that explains why I didn't like her for so long-

#incorrect cosmere quotes #incorrect stormlight archive quotes #kaladin #kaladin stormblessed #adolin kholin #shallan davar critical #classism #something something vimes boot theory of socio-economic unfairness something #cosmere #stormlight archive

[emrystheedgedancer]

Brandon Sanderson has finally become so popular that it’s cool for edgelords to hate him

#the amount of people I’ve seen saying that his books are awful recently #it’s fine to not like Brandedson! #don’t get me wrong #but a good portion of the criticism I see are giving the same vibe as the people who hated Harry Potter just because it was popular #people who think they’re reviewing him for the New York Times instead of leaving an Instagram comment lol #brandon sanderson #cosmere

[ofthebrownajah]

Not to shittalk Sanderson again but like they're both good shows? Idk why one being a closer adaptation automatically makes it inherently better. Also Brando you didn't even watch WoT, a show you consult on, but somehow made time to watch One Piece that you don't have any involvement in? 🤨

#sanderson critical #i dread when any cosmere projects get adapted #he's gonna be more intolerable about changes than he has been for wot #wot show #wheel of time

[strikerez]

Well, I can’t say I’ve ever heard someone say Brandon Sanderson is too much of a leftist before….

#cosmere #brandon sanderson #stormlight archive #stormlight #the stormlight archive #Shallan davar #Sanderson critical

[theothersecret]

I need to say this so bad guys have you seen Nimona? Balister. Balister guys. I’m about to spoil the movie so spoiler warning for Nimona, this is also and primarily about Kaladin Stormblessed btw

First of all Jessie Gender made a review of this movie and the new Spiderverse movie and she described what I’m about to attempt to way better than I ever could so here’s the link to her explanation.

But basically watching Nimona gave me so many feelings and also a great example of what frustrates me about Kaladin’s character, so here I go again-

What frustrates me the most about how Kaladin is treated in canon is that we see how much Alethkar has failed him, and every darkeyed person, and every Parshman, and yet Kaladin’s badassery arch is supposed to be how he proves himself as a Knight Radiant. This system that’s failed him continues to do so throughout the whole series, getting better at times in portrayal, but that’s the way Alethkar has functioned for so long. We’re meant to see that not all lighteyes but to be perfectly honest it frustrates me that the people still making the big decisions in this series are the people the system brings into power, not Kaladin, not the other “underdog” types. He still works under them and constantly deals with the ways Alethkar’s rules about eye color have shaped all of the people he interacts with. Like Jessie says, nobody’s made to change for Kaladin. He has to change for them.

And even worse is that the other huge conflict Kaladin faces is his internal struggle with mental health and his relationship to himself. Kaladin’s perspective of his worth and what he deserves is royally fucked because of the trauma he’s gone through and the ways he’s dealt with it. Kaladin does not believe that he’s a good guy who deserves to be happy and deserves respect. He’s a depressed lower class darkeyed soldier, previously enslaved, that saw his brother die in war, something that is part of Alethkar’s very foundation and core values, something that is undeniably out of his control and built so deeply into the system, and yet Kaladin feels like he failed his brother. He assigned himself the guilt and responsibility for what happened because he was in the battle, not realizing that the anger he holds toward the men in charge is completely called for. Not realizing that he was a teenage child soldier who literally could not have done shit to control anything about that event.

All of this build up for his character could have been so well executed—and that’s such a fucking shame. The stormlight archive is far from finished, but is Sanderson going to actually give Kaladin the arch that he, and the people who go through things synonymous with his struggles, deserves to see?

Going to my actual point bringing Nimona into this, Balister is a great example of what I wish to see be done with Kaladin. It’s a completely different scale of a story, but what I love about him is that he comes to realize that he was never going to be what he was promised he could be as a knight. He was recruited as a diversity hire and trained as a show of good faith towards “inclusion,” not justice. Not change. He realizes that the system he serves isn’t what he cares about, but instead what he cares about is the way the person he loves sees him. His focus shifts from earning his respect through serving a system that was never made for him, to opening his eyes to the pain he and others like him have had to endure, and sharing that pain whole heartedly to make a change.

If I could wish anything for Kaladin, it’s that he’s shown some damn respect. I want somebody to walk in on him getting frustrated with Dalinar, with Adolin or Shallan, and say, “What you’re thinking is right. You do not have to accept this.”

Because Kaladin’s struggles are so real, and Sanderson somehow managed to convey that, it’s so entirely possible to tie his arch together with those beliefs he has about himself and Alethkar being brought into the spotlight and reevaluated. I feel like Sanderson will probably (hopefully) do this with Kaladin’s struggles with guilt and shame, his pattern of assigning himself the blame for things outside of his control, and the aspects of his turmoil that are internal.

But my fear is that the same won’t happen for what’s happening outside of Kaladin. And this is where my opinions come into play, because I do not believe that a few good guys are going to enact the systematic change that needs to happen for like, half of Alethkar and probably beyond. I don’t think Kaladin can swear an oath to protect those who can’t protect themselves, and then sit back and aid the people who did this to them try to figure out how to not be bad. No, I think he should give those powerless people that power to protect themselves. I think the very best thing Sanderson could do with Kaladin as a character is to have him realize that he can’t save everyone, but he could fight for them to have a chance of defending themselves. That he’s been looking in the wrong places for what he needs. I would love love love to see him reprocess his memories, his internal beliefs about himself, and while he heals those long-ago formed wounds, come to reprocess alongside the lies he believed about himself, the lies he’s believed about how to save the world, and his place in it. I want his self love to be intrinsically tied to this. Imagine how fucking fantastic of an arch that would be for him.

#cosmere #stormlight archive #the stormlight archive #kaladin #kaladin stormblessed #sanderson critical #i guess #balister boldheart

[wyndlerunner]

All of these Tumblr tutorial posts for Reddit Refugees talk about avoiding fandom discourse on this site at all costs

But I literally joined Tumblr in 2020 to participate in discourse

I’d started rereading all of the Stormlight Archive in preparation for Rhythm of War and spent months lurking on tumblr in my browser without an account. I also lurked on the Reddit cosmere threads. Halfway through Oathbringer, I caved and finally made an account on Tumblr cuz the discourse here was less unhinged than what I saw on Reddit

#I can’t imagine not wanting to engage critically with the media that I love #picking apart art to try to understand what people resonate with #is one of my favorite things about consuming media #cosmere #cfbf #stormlight archive #the stormlight archive #reddit blackout #Reddit #new tumblr users

[captrosko]

Hi, #PortfolioDay ! I'm Matt, and I draw things! I illustrate ttrpg content for Keith Baker's Patreon and dnd supplements, draw fanart of various fandoms, and character design!

Ny full portfolio:

https://cara.app/captrosko

Email: [email protected]

#portfolio day #portfolio #fanart #d&d #dungeons and dragons #cosmere #eberron #world of io #critical role #illustrations #artists on tumblr #mistborn #dnd #dnd character #fantasy art #brandon sanderson

[stardustravens]

#most of my followers are cosmere blogs but i’m having way too much fun with polls so here we go #critical role #vox machina #mighty nein #bells hells #matthew mercer #cr #stardust posts

[spooky-lestibournes]

Kelsier Mistborn lookin ass

#no i will not elaborate and no i will not be accepting criticism #i thought loid's face was oddly familiar #then it just clicked in my mind #kelsier #Mistborn #cremposting #cosmere #cfsbf #brandon sanderson #definitely not arts arcanum

[marvelousmagicalaura]

Ruin was an amazing villain, but he could’ve done more. The way Sanderson wrote the scope of his actions has Ruin feeling mediocre compared to Preservation's grand plans, despite Preservation dying for millennia unlike Ruin.

One of the flaws I have with The Hero of Ages is that Ruin didn’t manipulate the kandra. I understand he’s a god trying to destroy the world, but he TAUGHT Rashek how to use Hemalurgy. Ruin was essentially responsible for creating kandra. And we saw how efficiently he controlled koloss and Inquisitors, and those who’ve had spikes for exponentially less time.

IMO the kandra should’ve been his pawns throughout their 1000 years of life, manipulated in a similar way as TLR and Vin. I imagine he could influence the Generations to grow more complacent and KanPaar to start a revolt. Even if the kandra still pull out their spikes (which makes no sense imo), at least this enhances the threat of Ruin. We canonically know that Ruin was responsible for manipulating Shezler and fabricating fake stories, in order to lead Kelsier to the Eleventh Metal's existence. Why not take it a step further, and have Ruin lead OreSeur into Kelsier's rebellion. He could even mold OreSeur and TenSoon into rebellious kandra, and explicitly manipulate Zane into a position that would goad chaotic situations and Vin.

I was discussing with a friend about Ruin’s influence on the world of Scadrial, and we agreed that Ruin should’ve done more with his Apocalypse. It would’ve been better if Ruin enveloped Scadrial in more natural disasters - floods, hurricanes, more earthquakes, tsunamis, thunderstorms, blizzards etc… Granted, it’s possible Ruin didn’t create more natural disasters because he wants humanity alive to benefit his search for atium. But if that was the case, Sanderson should've made it clearer.

I've realized that Ruin’s nigh-omniscience seems more limited than it should. The amateur Vin could sense the humans that are within the storage caverns, and hear Elend's voice from the Trustwarren. The amateur Sazed could sense the inhabitants within the metal-covered Trustwarren and storage caverns, protect them and move them around. According to a WoB he healed everyone in them. I know that Ruin could probably see through places like Fadrex's cavern, considering he interacted with Vin, But it sounds… off that Ruin couldn’t sense his atium, or at least not be aware of the Kandra Homeland.

Also, I'm not sure I like that Ruin’s personality is mainly a representation of death and entropy. I understand he’s supposed to be a force of change, so I wish his actions showed a side focused on change. We know he guided Kelsier towards crafting his rebellion, so he could’ve been responsible for other rebellions throughout history. The Crescent and Remote Dominances, and the Southern islands, seems to have been outside of Empire control. So Ruin could’ve taught them how to make advancements in technology. Since he’s a being of change, perhaps his goals could remain the same but his _personality_ is more neutral and calmer than canon. I don’t think Ruin is truly malicious, but his gloating(ugh) comes across that way.

Alternatively, he could've been just as destructive as canon, while intelligently planning things out to achieve multiple avenues for death. Manipulate people into destroying kingdoms and empires in the past, advance technology to breed war, create brand new Hemalurgic constructs after his release etc... There are so many avenues Sanderson could've taken for Ruin to consistently be this competent, subtle schemer he was during Alendi's era and WoA.

And according to Cosmere fans I've talked with, Ruin is one of the worst Shards at seeing the future. I have a big problem with that. Ruin is supposed to hasten and represent the inevitabilities of death and entropy and change. Preservation only wants to keep the universe the same. Even if Ruin is worse at precognition there shouldn’t be a big gap. Not only that, but he was surely setting up long-term and impossible to track schemes centuries in advance, like the Eleventh Metal fabrications and warping the Terris Prophecies. So he must've been seeing into the future to make them possible.

I know there's something something Secret History, something something Intent. But I can only take so much BS from a main antagonist before their threat feels neutered. Though I can’t speak about the other Shards until I read more. I've read Elantris and The Emperor's Soul, so I can at least see Devotion and Dominion being better at future sight than Ruin. Hopefully there are Shards that justify Brandon’s perspective on Ruin’s precognition.

#mistborn #mistborn critical #love the trilogy but part of me feels ruin could have been better #let evil gods of destruction and death be smart for once #xanatos could never #xanatos is totally my benchmark for evil schemers #need xanatos energy from these villains #cosmere #cosmere critical #got so many ideas for au ruin #dying grandpa preservation got so many plans yet ruin only got one 😔

[feral-biologist]

If I have to read “girlish” as the only description of Syl one more time I will loose it

#like we get it #you want to infantalize her #can we pls fck move on??? #tsa spoilers #sanderson critical #cosmere critical #kholin critical

[seph-on-an-irrational-planet]

Begging Cosmere fans to stop overselling the queer rep in those books that are, at best, a couple steps removed from supernatural level queer baiting

#non-pov side characters who could easily be cut from the narrative with zero impact on the plot? check #blink and you’d miss it inclusion? check #listen guys I’m happy he addresses queerness and specifically transness positively in SA but they’re still CRUMBS #there’s better out there I promise #Cosmere #like it or not his work is very conservative otherwise #brandon sanderson #sanderson critical

[isdalinarhot]

i was gonna add this to the post about how cosmere books are Possibly Worse These Days with this but i was like man that kind of looks like im trying to start an internet fight when im simply being a hater in a different way than op was being a hater. so this post is in conversation with that one. BUT. the thing with sanderson books is that imo the quality always varies extremely. like stormlight is consistently Really Fucking Good (even row, my least favorite one, was a Great Book instead of a Super Fucking Great Book) and mistborn era 2 is always Really Fucking Bad (is the lost metal worse than bands of mourning? cant tell they all bore me to fucking death equally) and everything else varies in quality highly (warbreaker rules, elantris sucks, yumi is up there with stormlight to me in terms of how much i like it but i kind of hate the sunlit man) like. i personally don't see a degradation of quality in recent years but rather the same variability that is in all of his books. the nature of sanderson to me is that every book release is a gamble. some series have better odds than the others but its always a gamble.

#sanderson critical #luke.txt #now i wanna rank all the cosmere books by how much i like them hehe #because like even mistborn era 1. well of ascension kind of sucks compared to the other two. whats up with that

[wahoopli]

drop the sanderson thoughts lmao. did you read the wired article everyone’s talking about?

yes i did read the wired article. it was weird? fine? i agree with the take that the writer thought it would be more interesting, and then had to come up with a story on a deadline.

tbh i feel like the more interesting story is that mormonism is a settler colonialist monument to white cisheteropatriarchy, and that really shows in sanderson's writing. stormlight especially really demonstrates this. it's structured to be all about oppression (darkeyes, the singers) but sanderson's narrative continually prioritizes the oppressors. that's so mormon! the book of mormon is so racist and present-day mormonism is so invested in whiteness and imperialism, esp with sending missionaries to convert people of color in the global south.

and like... we talk all the time about how sanderson is great at writing queer characters when he's not trying to. how his romances really fall flat. to me it's all connected to mormonism. he's talked before about how he doesn't really have emotional ups and downs, and the article kind of touches on this too. mormonism is such a passion-less religion. if you've ever been in a mormon church building, they're the most boring buildings alive. there's a complete lack of culture, art, life. mormonism is designed to produce nuclear family clones who have the same opinions and have a very "nice" society.

i'm rambling, and i have lots more thoughts, but i just think the way sanderson writes romance really positions it as a Thing You Put In A Narrative and not, like, a messy human experience. and that's so mormon. you serve a mission for the church as a late teen and then come back and are expected to marry. marriage is one of the essential Steps toward exaltation.

obviously the other really interesting thing is that the magic of the cosmere tbh is extremely mormon in a way I find very interesting and sometimes like! one of the key doctrines of mormonism is that if you live your life perfectly, you'll become a god and create your own worlds the same way god did with us. it's a complicated and fascinating idea, and i don't think it's terribly difficult to make the connection to whiteness and the settler fantasy of it all. but in the cosmere, humans become gods. gods are bound by rules (also important in mormon theology). ruin and preservation created scadrial and built it and humans from scratch.

idk i just feel like if you've read sanderson's work (which the wired writer says he did) and have a solid understanding of mormonism, there's a much richer and more interesting story to tell than what that article gave. it barely scratched the surface imo.

disclaimer, i say all this as a white queer exmormon who has lived in utah her whole life. i love lots of things about mormonism, and i can't separate my personal and family history from the church. it's defined my life up until the last couple of years, and that's the place i'm speaking from.

#emily types #sanderson critical #you asked for it anon #here are some messy thoughts that probably make no sense #but tbh that article just really demonstrates to me a misunderstanding of mormonism sanderson and the cosmere fandom #which is too bad because there are very interesting things to say and lots of really valuable criticism if you know what you're talking #about #and tbh some of this is from my brain #but lots of it is stuff i've seen other people say on this app