i'm here to wax philosophical about the cosmere

as much as it hurts, i’ve gotta give it a 7/10. i’m sorry.  the first half was just SO boring. i love shallan and adolin with all my might, but their whole arc was so boring i just literally did not care about it all for the whole book.  shallan’s momentary turn into Formless was cool, and i did not see her first cryptic coming, but it was so short-lived! like damn girl i’m glad you’re getting healing and shit but i was BORED. 

the second half of the book started to pick up. WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG. anyways.  the last 1/3rd of the book was so good, i didn’t want to put it down. 

VENLI.  MY BABY. I AM SO SORRY I EVER DIDN’T CARE ABOUT YOU.  this is another adolin situation where i went for a time literally not caring whether they lived or died by now i’d die for them.  WHAT A GOOD CHARACTER.  WOW.  i love her.  i love her love her love her.  i’m still not sold on the idea of her and kal being a thing (and low-key still wanna see leshwi and kal be an item 👀) but i absolutely love her.  she’s so interesting. FUCK i love her. 

did not see navani bonding the sibling coming. i’m glad rlain got his bond but i’m a little salty it wasn’t him, i’m ngl.  i just want rlain to get his Moment in the Sun and it feels like brando kind of skipped over him a bit-- “here’s your spren we’re just going to pull out of the air lol bye” when i think him bonding the sibling would be so cool. but i’m glad navani got her sibling and that little “you’re not worthy” “fuck u yes i am” bit was a really nice scene. 

TEFT.  TEEEEEEEFFFFFFFFFTTTTT. need i say more. 

taravangian taking odium was accidentally spoiled for me on pinterest rip so i wasn’t surprised but also ???? what an interesting touch.  AND WHAT WAS EVEN MORE INTERESTING WAS THAT ENDING CHAPTER.  WIT.  HOLY SHIT. HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE THE SMARTEST PERSON AND HE’S GETTING PLAYED LIKE A PUPPET.  LITERAL CHILLS READING THAT SCENE. (also him and jasnah sleeping together? yikes. anyways)

the invention of the anti-stormlight: YIKES.  LIKE.   Y I K E S. i’ve been afraid kal’s going to die but it was kind of an irrational fear but now i know it can happen and i am FRIGHTENED. 

i wept at work during the dog and the dragon and i wept during the tien scene (and yes there’s a strange part of me that is waiting for tien to come back from the dead don’t come for me). i’m glad he’s feeling better i love him and i never stopped loving him this whole book--him and lirin’s dynamic was so interesting but honestly lirin can kiss my ass idc KISS MY A S S 

some weird things: 

one: it felt like....brandon’s been....setting things up.......and never following through? which is so unlike for brandon and honestly this will probably come back to bite me in the ass in two books but.....that thing with tarah at the end of oathbringer? nothing. it felt like the pursuer was going to be a thing for a while? dead. a few other things that have suddenly escaped my mind? never really played out. so that was weird and a little disappointing. 

second: it felt like brandon did this weird thing where he would be like “oh no this thing is happening!” and then.....skip to after it happened?  like when taravangian betrayed dalinar? and it happened a few other times. it was like brandon was so eager to get to other parts of the book that he just skipped over parts. but like, they were important parts! so it felt like i was missing parts of the book, but i wasn’t? idk whack 

third: that end was a little messy :( it was working for a bit, but then there was just so much skipping around it felt like all my threads got tangled 

which leads me to something i also had a problem with in oathbringer: brandon’s been doing this weird thing where he’ll have a character with a problem.  and where most people would have the character build to a climax, have one big epiphany, and then have the problem solved, instead he has them almost have a bunch of little epiphanies that just feel like they drag on until they solve the problem. and i get that life isn’t always One Epiphany, but it just feels like it goes on for so long and like they keep hashing out the problem when they’ve already fixed it? idk it just feels like it goes on WAY too long. 

last but not least: it felt like....characters weren’t entirely in character? adolin and shallan felt way off.  so did dalinar; he felt really unconcerned with the fact HIS WIFE WAS PRISONER IN OVERTAKEN URITHIRU.  idk they just didn’t feel like themselves; the narration was kind of off and especially adolin and shallan felt kind of juvenile.