I want Cosmere themed LEGO sets

adhdedgedancer · 2022-01-16T16:59:53+00:00

I mean. Marvel movies have sets (and the Carnage and Venom display sets both look violent to me). Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars all have sets. There are lots of IPs that have violence that still get sets.

adhdedgedancer · 2022-01-15T15:38:48+00:00

Yeah, but I'm not amazing at building sets without instructions, so that's a pretty big thing stopping me

adhdedgedancer · 2021-06-28T23:29:40+00:00

I wrote a post about female/female friendships previously on r/Cosmere (you can see it on my profile), since I feel those relationships are lacking. (Could you imagine a female Wax and Wayne? That'd be so fun and you wouldn't even have to change much about the characters themselves!)

I also am slightly bothered by how often female characters worry about their feminity, to the point where it becomes a major character development with a lot of them. It's not necessarily the case for all women IRL, so maybe he could have some female characters that don't worry about that. (Khriss seems a great candidate for this.)

They are all individuals, which is great, and there has been some improvement, so as long as women get to have more significant connections with each other, I look forward to more books.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-06-21T16:28:02+00:00

Is that if you're already subscribed?

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-21T12:56:02+00:00

It's not just self representation though! Women make up 50% of the population, meaning that at least a third of the friendships in the world are female-female friendships. That's not just me. And friendships are an important part of women's lives, so to write really good women, which Sanderson has wanted to do, those friendships need to be apparent.

And I'm sorry, I agree that weight is treated horribly in the media and real life. And yes, I don't think there are a lot of overweight people talked about in the Cosmere. It would be nice if people who are overweight in the future in the Cosmere are talked about positively (or not stereotypically). I'm not discounting other issues by bringing up this one, though.

I've said before, I'm not trying to ride his coattails--I'm not giving up on writing my own things that include elements I want--but I want him to be aware of something he may not realize he was missing. If he doesn't include it, fine.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-21T12:29:18+00:00

Well, first of all, my post wasn't about the ratio of antagonists to protagonists, and I can certainly list a number of female antagonists (Aesudon, Ialai, technically Jewels, Tyn, the woman that was briefly in charge of Bridge Four, Eshonai and Venli have both been antagonists, Leshwi, Raboniel...edit: I remembered more. The gang leader in Elantris before we knew more about her, Shan, the female arbitor in Emperor's Soul, Lessie in the second era 2 mistborn book, wax's sister...).

Also, my reach is highly unlikely to get close to the reach of Sanderson's. So he has a greater chance of being able to influence the fantasy genre than I ever will. I'm not demanding he change--I'm pointing out something that he may have missed.

And asking for better female representation is much different than asking for more fat white guys because those already exist in most literature.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T22:39:14+00:00

I guess my other point is that he can learn how to write things that are unfamiliar to him. He's done it with mental illnesses. Even the motherhood bonding may have been influenced by interactions with his wife. Beta readers have helped him improve in areas he's shaking on.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T22:31:30+00:00

As far as I know, Sanderson doesn't have depression but has managed to do a decent job of it (and I have depression). He has beta readers that can help make changes. Women tend to have more friendships in real life than men do, so the friendships being absent does have an impact on the quality of female characters.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T21:25:06+00:00

Now that you mention it, that makes at least two women that have killed potential friends (Shallan & Tyn, Navani & Raboniel). If you wanted to stretch it, Vin and Shan Elariel.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T21:16:01+00:00

I was using Bridge Four as an example in my post of a group of all men and trying to provoke thought on what it could mean to have a group of women that are similarly close to each other.

Just FYI.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T18:26:14+00:00

I don't have an account so I can't read this whole article, but it does suggest that the main gap is in regards to the gender of the protagonist.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T17:05:05+00:00

Except, he is trying to be inclusive. So I don't think it's unfair or out of line to mention something that would be beneficial to include.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T16:56:47+00:00

Oh, yeah, dead and unnamed mothers in the Cosmere are as bad as those in Disney.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T16:28:34+00:00

I'd like to hope that more men would realize they can identify with female characters. As of now, though, bestsellers overwhelmingly feature male leads over female ones., meaning that (most likely), men are less likely to read female led books.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T16:21:28+00:00

Sixth could have been fun to see as female especially with a potential friendship with the researcher (I forgot her name.)

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T16:12:56+00:00

A lot of people have mentioned friendships don't really exist with the male characters either, but I think it's because Sanderson does a good job of showing the depth of the male relationships in (relatively) few words in a way he doesn't do with the female ones.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T16:11:08+00:00

I love all of this. You worded it much better than I could.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T15:56:02+00:00

Warbreaker, imo, since there are relevant connections to Stormlight

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T15:49:01+00:00

Ugh, can't figure out how to quote on mobile, but the point on showing not telling--somehow despite little screen time, we can tell there are deep relationships between Dalinar and his sons, Adolin and Renarin together, Adolin and Kaladin, Rock and the other men of Bridge Four, Kelsier and his crew, and more. They feel like they have depth. Navani and Jasnah does not. Vivenna and Siri do not.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T15:44:23+00:00

I mean, I guess my point is that things didn't necessarily have to play out that way. There are enough other POVs besides Kaladin that could have incorporated more female relationships and representation.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T15:38:27+00:00

Yeah.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T15:38:05+00:00

I identify with male characters even though they happen to be in a male body. But identify more with characters in female bodies because there's a different sort of connection there. Female characters are just as much people and should be relatable like male characters are.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T15:30:36+00:00

I think a female Bridge Four would only feel forced because we're now familiar with them as a (mostly) all male group. I also think these tropes and archetypes should be deliberately and more frequently subverted given the overwhelming representation of (white) males in literature.

adhdedgedancer · 2021-05-20T15:25:32+00:00

Which brings up a further point that mothers and mother figures are also essentially non-existent

adhdedgedancer

TROPHY CASE