Kaladin is everything Gavilar wanted to be but never could. The first five books opened on the death of a man who wished to herald the return of the Radiants to Roshar, and the back five could open on the revival of the man who will.

The idiom "not my circus, not my monkeys" means you're going to mind your own business. But lately people have been playing with variations on that idiom, and now I am going to do the same thing but with Cosmere characters!

1. Lightsong

[not opening his eyes] "Not my circus. Not my monkeys."

2. Vasher

"Not my circus, but are those...? Yup. My monkeys. Dammit."

3. Tress

"Not my circus, not my monkeys, but soon? Soon they will be my monkeys. My friends."

4. Shallan

[Lying] "Not my circus, and I've definitely never seen those monkeys before."

5. Dalinar

"Not my circus, not my monkeys, but I am a man of principle. Very well. I shall claim these monkeys. I shall raise them as if they were my own."

6. Harmony

"Yes, my circus. Yes my monkeys. Me? Oh, I'm mostly staying out of it."

7. Gavilar

"My circus. My monkeys. My rules."

8. Kaladin

"That didn't' used to be my circus. Those didn't used to be my monkeys. But now--now I will protect them with my life."

9. Taravangian

"What? No, of course those aren't my monkeys. And of course that isn't my circus. I am but a simple old man. :)"

10. Telsin

"Soon my monkeys. Soon my circus. ...Those monkeys won't know what hit them."

11. Dusk

[Seeing mainlanders on Patji] "My circus, but not my monkeys. Where did those monkeys come from?"

12. Moash

"Not my circus, not my monkeys. But I've been observing that circus's labor practices and I'm not standing idly by!"

13. Azure

"Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But yes, they have sworn loyalty to me."

14. Wayne

[already putting on his monkey hat] "Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But when in monkey-ville..."

15. Lift

Dead siblings au, anyone? :)

I love the Stormlight prologues because for three giant ass books we hear about how great Gavilar was. We hear how much Dalinar admired him and thought he was a much better person than Dalinar was (and, of course, Dalinar was NOT a good person for a lot of his earlier life). And how Elhokar looked up to his father and wanted to be great like him. No one close to him seems to really have a bad word to say. I feel like Navani dropped at few subtle hints, but then.

Then you get to Rhythm of War and BAM. He's actually a callous motherfucking shitstain with some pretty startling narcissistic tendencies (which I feel like tracks with so many people thinking he's great, then you get to know of the people who really got to see the dick inside. And wow, he's a grade A asshole who manipulated the shit out of people into thinking he's a fucking hero.

And, of course, he strong-armed his was into being king and absolutely spilled blood to get there. But the way it's written, it feels like that could be a youthful dream of glory-filled unification that solidified into a grown-up goal that came along with terrible, terrible choices.