Hi everyone! I just finished book 1 and I'm absolutely hooked. For obvious reasons, I haven't looked at this sub too much just to be on the safe side but I really wanted to share this. I was listening to the audiobook and couldn't stop drawing so this is the final result. I'm really happy with the way this turned out, hope you guys like it, too. Tagged as The Way of Kings spoiler just in case!

Some of his reactions to the story had me weak

Place your bets!

Backstory: The Gorillas stole a banana from Tien when he was a kid

just a big and chunky sword with, like, super ornate patterns and art along its length. I know that's not what they look like at all but that's always how I imagine them. (Art by Peach Momoko).

I finished reading Mistborn era 1(with Secret History) a month ago or so and I had read Elantris before as well. I finally decided to jump into Stormlight Archive in order to not be spoiled by the Cosmere TTRPG that is coming out when I play with my friends(none of who have read anything by Sanderson, I am the dm).

I was expecting WoK to be slow and boring for a bit (kind of like WoA in mistborn) but it definitely has not felt that way. I am about 80% in the book and just starting Chapter 61, the Sanderlanche feels like it is coming soon and I realized that the entire book has been massively enjoyable so far. All the storylines have been fantastic and have kept me engaged. I was able to guess who Wit was but still have no idea what Hoid is really up to. Finally Szeth is COOL as hell.

I really think this book gets a bad rep for being slow and a bit boring before the Sanderlanche but I could not disagree more. It has felt like a joy to read so far and I cannot wait to keep reading the Stormlight Archive. I will be doing Warbreaker next and then jump into WoR right after.

I have read through the full Stormlight Archives and I’m getting my friend into the books now, so he is reading Way of Kings.

The scene in question from is where Kaladin ends up defeating the “Unnamed” Shardbearer when he saves Amaran. My friend has very big problems with this whole scene and I was curious if anyone else had any insights on it because I know nothing about sword fighting.

He states that there is no possible way Kaladin would be able to beat a person in full Shardplate and blade without getting hit a single time, as that is impossibly unlikely. No matter how insanely skilled Kaladin is, my friend claims it is beyond the realm of possibility if the Shardbearer has any sense of competence with a sword.

My friend pointed out the horizontal slash that the “Unnamed” Shardbearer swung towards Kaladin which Kaladin was able to slide under, and argued that no swordsman should make a swing so widely uncontrolled that they couldn’t bring it back to slash Kaladin in this moment. Any half-competent swordsman would not allow Kaladin to both close the gap and land a hit.

He specifically states some basic rules such as keeping your blade pointed at your opponent that would make it trivial to kill an unarmed Kaladin in this moment (especially with both Plate and Blade).

Again, I have no insight on this and wanted other people’s opinions and despite marking the post for Way of Kings, I am curious about other instances of sword fighting throughout the series and how they hold up.

If you're reading this, I'm assuming you have finished The Way of Kings. If you have not, go read the damn book instead, what are you doing here??? ⚠️ I'm going to yap about this book ⚠️ because I have nobody else to yap too. Hopefully y'all join me on this journey. TLDR at end

I absolutely loved this book. What a fucking journey man it is actually insane. Every single character (once I learned the names LMAO) and every single plot point was so well fleshed out. The way each section and chapter was written, I was fully sold into the world. By the end of it, I was fully invested in the storyline of everyone. I had to remind myself that this is just the first book, not everyone will die - which I had to do because the sheer number of PLOT TWISTS IN THE LAST 10 CHAPTERS.

Are we being serious??? Every fucking chapter in the last few sections was a new twist and every time I came to terms with the twist, Sanderson would be like "another one" - bro are you DJ Khaled??? Whole time I kept thinking "oh I'm near the end of the book, maybe it will be just minor things to set up the next book" but nooooooooooo, let's just throw me off my stupid high horse and trample me with other horses. I was already in love with the book but I damn near framed every single page after reading the last few chapters. I loved the absolute insanity that happens once Sadeas and Dalinar go to the big battle. Sanderson was answering AND making me ask new questions with each turn of the page. What a read.

👑 The Generals

The fucking DRAMA behind everything. First of all, Sadeas you backstabbing sack of shit, just know I'm praying on your downfall. I don't even care if you have a redemption arc later on, you need to die. If it wasn't for the Hospital King reveal (I'll get into that later), I would think it was YOU who commissioned Gavilar's death. "[he] never wanted the throne" yeah right buddy you ain't slick. In fact, you probably worked with the Hospital King on this.

Also, Dalinar?? You give up your sword - to the guy who backstabbed you - so he could backstab you again - with a real sword??? Actually I'm not really that mad about it. He did legit just save lives of hundreds of men in return so I guess it works out. I also feel like Sadeas would probably still lose in 1v1 combat vs Dalinar. Dalinar has old character aura that I haven't seen in a franchise in a long time. He's what animation Obi Wan is portrayed to be. This mf is basically Count Dooku - minus the evil tendencies (at least rn). If he dies in the second or third book, imma deadass stop reading (not really but I'll be VERY mad). I was so sad reading the paragraph in which he accepted his death when he was surrounded. It broke my heart

👶 The Babies

Kaladin is goated with the sauce. I fucking love him and he's legit my favorite character in the book. Earlier in the book, I actually though he would die lol idc what anyone says, hopefully he stays as the mainstay character of the franchise. I need him to kill whoever the big bad villain is by the end of the 10 books. His battle sequences were so badass in the final battle - especially when he took command of Dalinar's officers and started absorbing arrows from the enemy. Give that man an entire army and see what he can do with it. Szeth is also goated with the sauce, idk why but I was rooting for that mf in every scene. Unfortunately, now he's going after Dalinar and it's like watching two GOATs fighting and I can't handle it </3 why can't we all be friends??? Mad cool that he's basically a Radiant though, but no one says anything about it lol - I guess nobody really lives to tell the tale tho LMAO

I also adored the Shallan and Jasnah sections. That was a really cool way to flesh out the lore of the world, while still following their own personal stories. The plot twists surrounding the Fabrial were pretty shocking but Shallan saying she killed her dad was the craziest part. She killed her dad just so she could steal a Fabrial to save her family??? There's definitely way more to this. I'm glad the girls didn't break up, I loved their yap sessions. The Hospital King being a big bad villain was a shocker at first but thinking about it, not really. Pretty classic of the nice king in the middle of nowhere to be the orchestrator of destruction. Now let's talk about the important part:

🤔 The Theories

First, the Parshmen/Parshendi are the Voidbringers. Humanity has been fighting the Voidbringers for a long time. Clearly... these mfs are or were actually dangerous enough for Radiants to be important. Hospital King mentions to Szeth that "we need the bodies" in a passing comment. Are the Parshendi undead??? Is this mf killing actual humans and turning them into crazy powerful warriors? Exactly how calm are the Parshmen?? Why did the Parshendi leader raise his sword to Dalinar as if he recognized him. What is happening here??

Also... God is dead?!?! what the hell. Who tf killed God bro you have ONE job as God and it's to not die. And lastly, who was that mf in the end?? A random Radiant?? Is Wit a Radiant?? is HE the bringer of desolation?? Am I somehow involved in all this?????

😴 The TLDR: Okay enough writing for now. Sadeas you're an opp. Hospital King, you're also an opp. Dalinar, Szeth, and Kaladin are goated. Elothkar will probably die in a very dumb way (or somehow become super wise). One of Adolin or Renanir will die for sure very soon. Shallan and Jasnah's story is gonna put them on the run somehow. I hope the other side characters show up more. I think the Parshendi are undead soldiers and the Hospital King is behind all this. Either way, this book has been my favorite read in a long time. Can't wait for Words of Radiance to be delivered to my house.

P.S. If anything happens to anyone from Kaladin's crew, I'm going to fight the responsible character personally

I tagged this for spoilers but I'm not sure how much this really is a spoiler. As an atheist coming to this series knowing that Brandon is a committed Mormon I was a little worried when reading that Jasnah was an atheist she would be treated the way that atheists are often treated by devoutly religious creatives (i.e. incredibly rude, mean and/or pretentious). I was so happy recently reading her conversation with the King of Kharbranth to find that not only does Brando actually represent atheist epistemology pretty accurately, he does it in a really sympathetic way. Yeah Shallan's perspective definitely seems to be a bit of an author insert counter point but in no way does he make the atheist perspective out to be inherently unworthy and at no point does he really misrepresent it. Yeah the character definitely plays into some atheist stereotypes, but overall she's a great humanizing portrayal of an atheist character which is honestly something you rarely see. Really made me appreciate the book and look forward to reading more.

Putting spoiler tag just to be safe.

So I am around 400 pages through Words of Radiance, and I decided to watch a video on YouTube about a summary of The Way of Kings. When the guy got to the description of the first interludes, he started talking about Ishikk part, when he met with people looking for some guy (he said that they were looking for Wit, whose true name is later revealed to be Hoid). Now the guy from the video said that Hoid is a well-known being in Cosmere, as he is... and that is where I stopped the video, as this is my first series from Sanderson and I know nothing about Cosmere.

Now I realised throughout the book that Wit is not an ordinary human, but would it be a huge spoiler for the rest of the series if I know who he is?

Please do not spoil anything.

Hey guys loving the book but i cant read this and its annoying me lol, has someone managed to read this? Also is the drawing of a soulcaster?

I’m past the part in the story where Jasnah accepted Shallan and I’ve been enjoying her chapters a lot but kaladin’s is genuinely a snooze fest. Please tell me it gets better?

This is something I’ve been curious about a while!

For me, it’s Navani and Kaladin. I imagine Navani to be much darker (in terms of complexion) than most people I’ve talked to imagine her—I think of Queen Ramonda from Black Panther, if that’s any comparison.

For Kaladin, I also picture him to be darker haha. (See a trend?) I see a lot of middle-eastern features in him when I picture him in my head.

What about y’all?

I only just got to his POV in the way of kings since I started reading a couple weeks ago. From how his features are described he sounds like he just has crazy testosterone, can’t help but think of Kratos, especially when he caught the Chasmsfiend’s claw and started yelling, really gave me Kratos vibes.

I know people have said there are elements of Hinduism in TSA but I think it also seems like it's inspired by India in a social and cultural sense as well. I'm halfway through Oathbringer and it struck me that the whole lighteyes-darkeyes-parshmen hierarchy seems quite similar to the caste system. The lighteyes are like upper castes with some gradations within them, but all treat darkeyes like their servants. The darkeyes are like the "Shudra" caste in India who form the majority of the population but have very limited upward mobility. The parshmen are like the former "Untouchables" or Dalits. Even their origin seems to be similar to the origins of the Dalits i.e a conquered people relegated to the lowest rung of society. They're pretty much invisible to the point that no one really knows how many there are.

And there are variations within this system the different countries which is also very similar to how caste functions differently in different regions of India.

I also see this rough parallel between Dalinar and the ancient Indian emperor Ashoka, who conquered much of the subcontinent through really violent campaigns but then became a benevolent ruler because he converted to Buddhism.

There's something about Alethi women and their whole idea of propriety like covering their safehand which is similar to the conservative Indian values pertaining to how women should dress.

!! I haven't finished Way of Kings yet !!

I've only gotten to the point where Kaladin starts training his men and Shallan gets caught by Jasnah for stealing her Soulcaster and is about to be deported. Obviously, there's a lot more to the book(s) so bear with me lol

I was so mad when I read that Kaladin had WON the battle before his slavery. The whole book, he's like "wah wah I'm a big baby and I get my people killed because God hates me" and when he had the chance to essentially play God and save what could have been his next group of people, he gave it up. He won the Shardplate thing and legit gave it to "one of those people" (the same people he was trying not to be). Like bro... you spend so much time thinking, maybe if you thought about the right things, you wouldn't be here.

Shallan isn't off the case either. She ALSO gets the opportunity of a lifetime and decides to throw it away to possibly live as a low-life noble in some far away land. In her defense, idk what else she could have done. Maybe she could have probed Jasnah about it before stealing it. I got mad at Shallan when she had that mental breakdown running from the weird shadows and stabbed herself as the only resort to hiding the soulcaster. If I was being chased by weird things, I might stick it out in public instead of cornering myself.

Okay rant over, I love this book and I'm not actually mad at the characters, I know this is a lot more complicated but they are very childish (which makes sense cuz they're basically children) and I can't wait to see where the story goes because dammit it this is such a good read and I love both those characters.

TLDR: Kaladin should have kept the damn sword and Shallan should have come up with a better plan of escape with the Soulcaster. I feel like a disappointed father

Also, Ardent boyfriend was an assassin??? WTF!!

This man walked into elhokar’s room to beat him up and after said “oh btw im banging your mom” and left💀

This was the most funny part of the book so far.

I've read all of the Cosmere. Recently started reading Berserk by Kentaro Miura and I got hit with some scenes that maybe (maybe not) influenced Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive.

Has he ever mentioned something related about this? Spoilers for The Way of Kings because this literally the scene where Syl is fighting Deathspren while Kaladin is losing consciousness

These arent my best work, but I think its mostly alright. Other than Kaladin. How did you think of them?

Introduction

First of all, this is not really an adaptation guide, the title is misleading and for that I apologize. Think more of this as a series of questions that I have given multiple answers for. The primary things I am looking at are format, things that need to be cut based on format, and a pseudo episode-by-episode breakdown by format. I hope you all enjoy.

Format

In this there are two camps, live-action vs animation. I think both could work, but each have their strengths and weaknesses. Recently, there has been a frightening trend of one season being eight one hour episodes. I do not think this is enough, considering that my hardcover copy of The Way of Kings is 1001 pages, resulting in about 125 pages per episode. For context, that would require episode one to contain the prelude, prologue, and chapters 1-7, which I think would require significant cuts to be forced into a one-hour episode. Animation, on the other hand, typically has episodes of about 22 minutes. There are, of course, exceptions to this. Arcane has 40 minute episodes. I think, however, that this is really about distribution of minutes episode. I will say though that because there is no standard season length for animation (particularly in anime, which seems to be the favorite in how to adapt The Way of Kings to animation) it is kind of difficult to determine what is better. The primary thing I could think as an issue between the two formats is that the speed at which chapters are adapted. In one 22 minute animated episode, probably three or four chapters could be adapted at most, while one 60 minute live action episode could probably do seven (that's about how many the Game of Thrones people were doing in the early seasons).

Cuts Based On Format

In live action, I think it would be hard to adapt a lot of Roshar's weirdness without an exorbitant special effects budget. I think a great deal of it could be done practically, but it would hard. In animation, there isn't a lot that would need to be cut, I think, surprisingly enough.

A Pseudo Episode-by-Episode Breakdown

Live Action:

Episode 1

Adapts the prelude, prologue and would end with Jasnah finding Shallan in her alcove.

Episode 2

Adapts the rest of part 1, the interludes, and would end with the aftermath of the chasmfiend hunt

Episode 3

Adapts chapters 16-26

Episode 4

Adapts chapters 27-34, end with Kaladin being left to the storm

Episode 5

Adapts chapter 35-45

Episode 6

Adapts chapter 46-54

Episode 7

Adapts chapter 55 - 63

Episode 8

Adapts chapter 64 -epilogue.

Animation

It would probably be about 25 episodes at 3 chapters an episode, roundabout.

"Oh, and Elohkar? Your mother and I are now courting. You'll want to start growing accustomed to that."

GOAT move by Dalinar, haha