The way Adolin and Renarin treat each other has always caught my attention.
From the few interactions weāve seen between them, I donāt think they act like "normal brothers." I donāt have siblings myself, so I canāt speak from personal experience, but based on what Iāve seen with friends who do have siblings, seeing Adolin and Renarin interact without teasing each other, arguing or simply disagreeing... itās unusual.
Thinking about this raised a few questions for me. Like: Could it be because of their age gap? Thereās only a four-year difference actually, that's not a really huge gap. Maybe Iām exaggerating, and they actually treat each other more "naturally" when they aren't directly talking to each other in the book? There are moments where Renarin laughs because Adolin had a bad date (again) and stuff like that.
But what really struck me at the time was a conversation they had before one of Adolinās duels (I don't remember exactly when it was, but I think it might be on Words of Radiance). Renarin asks things like, "Have you eaten chicken?" and Adolin answers as it was a perfectly normal question (like some kind of pattern of actions between them that they have the "obligation" to make them(? Perchance). Then Navani shows up, hears that, and thinks theyāre a couple of weirdos.
The truth is, they are a couple of weirdos for real. My explanation for this is... well, Evi died when Adolin was about thirteen and Renarin was around nine. Add to that the fact that their father was the devil incarnate (hating them, yelling at them, and actively despising them for something as natural as looking like their mother. Wow). That might have helped trigger certain odd behaviors, in my opinion.
After this useless mental stroke: My theory is that they essentially had to raise each other. Adolin would have played a more significant role, being the older brother, but at the time, they really only had each other (the rest of the Kholin family was busy with other things; I mean, itās never been said that they have a particularly close relationship with Navani beyond regarding her as their aunt, for example (obviously, I mean they don't view her as a mother figure). Even if they had a nanny, Adolin would have felt the need to raise his younger brother, while Renarin would have felt the need (as always) not to be a burden, and try to help Adolin as much as he could.
And, naturally, children raised by one another don't turn out the same way as children raised by experienced adults. Thatās why neither of them knows how to talk to women (lol, just kidding). In any case, Iād love to see more interactions between them. A lot more. We already missed out on a Jasnah and Elhokar moment... Brandon owes us one (please).
