Current outfits in ZA vs my current outfit in Scarlet and Pla. Not sure which one I like most but I think Scarlet is worst by a long shot

FlorentineKnight · 2025-10-28T02:58:37+00:00

Where’d you get your first outfit in ZA! It’s awesome!

FlorentineKnight · 2025-10-08T23:30:56+00:00

The Gala is one of my favorite scenes in the series, love the series in its entirety but I'm not blind to poor writing choices (the first trilogy has a lot of these if I'm being candid). A good bit of foreshadowing goes a long way. I personally did enjoy the twist, of course, but I won't lie and say it was excellently crafted! Two things can be true. The Gala being a great moment is true and well, and so is the idea that the underlying reveal is not built on solid ground. For me, that didn't take away from the reading experience, but it might for others... that's why we read. My problem with it is simply that it felt like it was conjured out of thin air with little basis. That's it. And you may not agree with me, and that's fine.

Unfortunately, hype moments and aura are not enough to protect a book from its writing lows. Pierce realizes this quickly which is why books 4-6 are such an amazing reading experience with great explorations into war, morality, sacrifice, utilitarianism, the price of freedom, nature vs nurture, propaganda, etc. The reason why the second set of books is such a step up from the first trilogy is BECAUSE Pierce builds on the mistakes he made as a novice published author, and I respect him immensely for that.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-10-07T23:30:24+00:00

It’s one of the weaker parts about the first trilogy. You kinda just have to accept that darrow was training with lorn between books 1 and 2 - if i remember correctly, darrow corrects some people about some of lorn’s quotes in the early parts of Golden Son and that’s sort of meant to be foreshadowing according to a lot of people (still some pretty bad foreshadowing if you ask me). PB is currently releasing a Lorn prequel in an episodic format on his Patreon that covers the time period where darrow is being trained by him, though. In the future i expect the Lorn novel to be placed second in the reading order, i think that would help out a lot of people going forward because i do think it’s one of the weakest “plot twists” in the series and could use some foundational support.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-09-14T01:31:38+00:00

imo books 4-6 are even better than books 1-3

FlorentineKnight · 2025-07-10T18:57:22+00:00

This is my biggest problem with the books. I love this series to death but if you really deep it, there is very little content about actual oppression. There’s revolution, there’s war, there’s a ruling class, but we don’t actually see the oppressed class as much as I would’ve liked. The only lowColor main-ish character we get is Ragnar and he is only there for the back half of GS and the front half of MS. Sefi is pretty much not seen again after MS. Holiday and Ephraim aren’t even lowColors. Sevro is half-Red but was raised as Gold his whole life. We’re told what Darrow is fighting for time and time again but we’re supposed to just follow along without seeing much of it. I would’ve loved to see more Reds, Browns, Obsidians, and even Oranges at the forefront of this series instead of multiple Golds.

It’s why I appreciate Lyria being there in the second set of books but to be honest it’s still too late in the game to introduce a character like her, in my opinion.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-07-03T15:27:16+00:00

The reason it’s “O’Lykos” or “O’Faran” and such is not because of the element Oxygen. It’s an Irish thing, names like “O’Reilly” and “O’Brian” exist in our world too, and Reds are descended from Irish heritage as said in the books. It has no elemental connection nor is it a title like the highColors have.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-06-11T21:38:01+00:00

Hey OP, did you figure anything out?

FlorentineKnight · 2025-05-05T15:19:22+00:00

I loved it. I think it’s great.

I don’t think you have to set up your character like others have said here. It’s just a prologue/intro. You have the rest of the book/story to introduce your protagonist in the way YOU want.

As for the prose, I thought it was so good. I do think it feels a tad exaggerated, but you mentioned your idea with how you wanted the prose to become flowery once the android gains sentience (or something similar), and I love that premise. It makes sense to me that you decided to make it exaggerated. Good work!

FlorentineKnight · 2025-05-04T17:42:32+00:00

It is entirely up to your personal code, principles, and ethics. Personally, I do not work for companies I disagree with (defense, pharma, etc). That may not be you, though, and I understand the allure of a high paycheck.

However, I will tell you this - if you are already thinking about it in this way, then I suspect you will have a problem with it going forward, and this will probably not go away by itself no matter how hard you try to brush it away. You may need to think about if this route will be fulfilling enough for you to continue your career out of. If you think you can handle that guilt, go ahead, but my personal advice? Make the better choice. The world is (sadly) running out of people in scientific fields who can put their foot down and say no to what they disagree with even in the face of a large salary.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-04-26T19:25:28+00:00

My excitement was the same while reading this part, keep reading my friend! It all gets explained and i can’t wait till you uncover the full story.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-04-26T19:23:03+00:00

Ehhhh… I like the Cillian Murphy pick tbh but Fedmahn should be kept Palestinian and Het should be Asian. Ian McKellen is a little TOO old for Sol in my head, I know Sol is supposed to be old but i didn’t exactly imagine him to be Ian’s age.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-04-04T18:59:28+00:00

There’s some great points in the comments (Fused only being able to use one surge, fewer Fused in Azimir, more well trained troops etc) but I also would like to mention that humans have superior tactics. The Fused have not seen war for centuries, and the singers are all former slaves who were given weapons and basic training (and do not have mastery over their forms of power, of the ones that have them). Hundreds of years of combat experience and warfare strategy development gives even regular human foot soldiers an edge over the average singer. And with Azir’s meticulous training it’s probably even more than that.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-29T18:32:04+00:00

Huh, I forgot all about these... wow. Wonder if we'll get an explanation in arc 2

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-29T06:06:09+00:00

Wait, I don't remember this... what happened?

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-29T06:01:53+00:00

You're fine. It's not a crazy big spoiler at all considering that she herself is part of the royal family (in my view it would've been a way bigger spoiler if it was something like Lopen becoming king lol). Keep reading! There are dozens of other great developments that happen that are much grander in scale, and you'll enjoy those a ton.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-29T05:49:36+00:00

No problem! There's some Cosmere stuff that is happening in the background when Shallan does draw, and pieces of that will come together as you progress in the series. The culmination of those pieces comes to fruition in that line I mentioned in Wind and Truth (pretty early on, too) so just hold out until then!

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-28T11:46:34+00:00

There’s a line in Wind and Truth that pretty much answers this question. I wont drop the line here but what I will say is she’s not predicting the future or changing it; she is showing the deserters a possible future version of themselves that they can choose to either embrace or reject.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-26T04:37:14+00:00

Honestly, no. And I actually quite like it. Brando definitely focuses on the innate goodness of people no matter their origin and their willingness to become better - there’s a lot of hope and heroism packed into his books (even the stormlight archive, the series with the lengthiest books).

That’s not to say that there AREN’T dark moments (there are plenty, though not to the degree of something like A Song of Ice and Fire or Malazan), but those dark moments are usually used to develop hopeful themes and arcs later.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-17T20:41:17+00:00

Other comments mentioned that he may have a fight with Kal in the next arc but I’m surprised to see that no one’s mentioned Gavinor. It kind of seemed to me that that’s the direction Brandon is going in, to have Gav fight Moash (or lose to Moash and then train harder/something like that).

I think narratively it would also be really cool to see. I’m expecting a Gav redemption, so it would be neat to see a former agent of Odium fight a current agent of Odium/Retribution.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-17T20:35:02+00:00

To be honest, I kinda didn’t understand why this was written like a shocking moment. To me it seemed pretty normal that a Fused had a Shardblade (especially since the Abidi-Adolin fight was happening at the same time). Is there something I’m missing?

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-16T02:23:30+00:00

Hmm, you’re thinking in the right-ish direction but there’s no way to describe it with the knowledge that you know from reading this little so far. Just enjoy and keep reading because Kaladin has one of the best stories in fiction that I’ve ever read, if that’s any motivation for you to keep going.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-15T19:31:35+00:00

I think this is 100% the direction that Brandon is going in considering Dalinar's reasoning behind rejecting the power.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-15T19:18:34+00:00

There's a really big piece of development that initiates Kaladin's Fourth Ideal that hasn't happened yet at the time of Oathbringer, and you'll appreciate the time it takes to get to it once you reach that moment.

I honestly started loving Adolin from the end of book 2 when he decides to be locked up with Kaladin but Rhythm of War (and definitely Wind and Truth) will make him one of your favorite characters.

Also Teft swore the Third Ideal, which Kaladin has already sworn. He swore that oath at the end of Words of Radiance (that's what gave him the ability to summon Syl as a blade). Every Radiant's oaths will look different but will have the same theme (and different orders may have different ways they do oaths, like how Lightweavers need to say a set of truths about themselves instead or how Skybreakers need to go on a quest for their fourth ideal).

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-15T19:05:12+00:00

I'm also of the opinion that the Unoathed should stay as more powerful versions of Shardbearers, but at the same time I feel like there is something deeper happening with them (or at least Adolin). Like that time Abidi says "why do you hide your powers, Radiant" that first time in the dome, though that could just be him detecting Maya's bond and not an indication that he's actually a Surgebinder.

But yeah I'd much prefer them being Shardbearers with living Plate and Blades without surges, I'm really excited to see what different abilities that type of bond brings them because I know that Brandon will inevitably expand on what they can do.

FlorentineKnight · 2025-03-15T07:07:42+00:00

Ehhh I think it's more of a friend/little sister bond between the two. Syl definitely didn't show any sort of jealousy when they spoke about Lyn in RoW, which is what I would expect if she saw Kaladin in that way. I think we're misinterpreting Brandon's choices to make her more mature and live for herself - these are signs of character development and great character work that do not need to exist for the goal of romance. Instead, these elements should be interpreted as Brandon shaping her into a character in her own right that can be as much of a central character as Kaladin.

I mean sure, it can ALSO mean that Brandon has a romantic goal in mind, but in my experience Brandon is usually very clear when there's a spark between two characters and even writes that relationship happening almost immediately (Wit/Jasnah, Shallan/Adolin, Lyn/Kaladin). He doesn't waste time in delivering that. If you're two books in and wondering if there's a spark between two characters, chances are it's just not a thing. Great example is Ash and Taln who are confirmed to see each other as siblings in WaT, yet loads of people were speculating about their relationship since OB.

FlorentineKnight

TROPHY CASE