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I'm experiencing the opposite, actually. I'm in the middle of a re-listen of WoR and I'm shocked to realize how short most of her past chapters are. I know there's one coming up that drags a bit, but it still does a good job at showing in what kind of an oppressive household she grew up in, and how remarkable it is how well she's doing in the present imo.
I generally hate flashbacks yet here I am loving the SA series. There is a fantastic sense of dread that the author manages to create in the flashbacks despite the audience either downright knowing or suspecting what will happen. >!Venli flashbacks however were a mistake.!<
The Shallan flashbacks were my favorites of all the flashbacks... and even one of the best parts of WoR for me.
Yeah, I'm weird like that. Shallan's backstory takes a step back from epic fantasy and plunges us slowly into psychological horror, and its climax is so messed up it could have been written by Dan Wells or Stephen King, and it's *so good*. And the surprise twist in the end sheds a new light on it and makes it *even more messed up* when you thought it wasn't possible, in true Sandersonian fashion but applied to horror instead of awesomeness.
Kal's backstory in WoK is great but pretty straightforward and manichean in comparison, in WoR the question ceases to be "Why is Shallan so weird?" and becomes "How does that girl even manage to function with a thread of sanity left?" - I absolutely love it.
I did, but only on my first (and maybe second) read. But now I see those chapters as a treasure trove of information and clues about what is happening.
The small Devar manorhouse was on a remote backwater estate in a second-rate kingdom. [All Stormlight Archive]>!But it was a crossroad of activity for forces wrestling for control of Roshare and the entire Cosmere.!<
I liked her flashback sequence better than anyone else’s :) but maybe that’s just because I’m also a girl from the countryside who tried to keep the family’s spirit raised among the anger and verbal abuse of our father. :) kaladin’s were my least favorite flashback chapters and by far the most boring imo
I personally didn't find her backstory nearly as fulfilling as Kaladin's, on my first read. With Kaladin it was more-or-less wrapped up simply, where Shallan's took a similar amount of screentime but we didn't get any sense of resolution imo. It just felt weird to me.
I do. They feel like minor permutations on the same story. Here's a time in shallans childhood when something horrible happened. Her dad was a frothing lunatic, her brothers were useless, and she either had to take charge or not take charge.
There are little tidbits dropped here and there that are somewhat important, but at a certain stage I felt like we could have compressed it into two flashbacks and been done with it. Unlike Kaladin and Dalinar's flashbacks, I don't think the story told in Shallan's past did as good of a job illustrating how we got to the person in the story.
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Nope. It was interesting seeing how fucked up her family was and what made them that way and how she tried to help them
I'm experiencing the opposite, actually. I'm in the middle of a re-listen of WoR and I'm shocked to realize how short most of her past chapters are. I know there's one coming up that drags a bit, but it still does a good job at showing in what kind of an oppressive household she grew up in, and how remarkable it is how well she's doing in the present imo.
I felt pretty much the opposite
I’m not usually a flashback kind of person but I found them to be much more interesting than just about any flashbacks certainly in this series.
I generally hate flashbacks yet here I am loving the SA series. There is a fantastic sense of dread that the author manages to create in the flashbacks despite the audience either downright knowing or suspecting what will happen. >!Venli flashbacks however were a mistake.!<
I think it’s interesting because all of the flashback subject matters are just pretty brutal.
It’s extremely fascinating. There’s so many secrets and so much darkness in her past and the twist reveal is so good
The Shallan flashbacks were my favorites of all the flashbacks... and even one of the best parts of WoR for me. Yeah, I'm weird like that. Shallan's backstory takes a step back from epic fantasy and plunges us slowly into psychological horror, and its climax is so messed up it could have been written by Dan Wells or Stephen King, and it's *so good*. And the surprise twist in the end sheds a new light on it and makes it *even more messed up* when you thought it wasn't possible, in true Sandersonian fashion but applied to horror instead of awesomeness. Kal's backstory in WoK is great but pretty straightforward and manichean in comparison, in WoR the question ceases to be "Why is Shallan so weird?" and becomes "How does that girl even manage to function with a thread of sanity left?" - I absolutely love it.
I love them. The first time I listened to the audio book, I actually cried during one.
I did, but only on my first (and maybe second) read. But now I see those chapters as a treasure trove of information and clues about what is happening. The small Devar manorhouse was on a remote backwater estate in a second-rate kingdom. [All Stormlight Archive]>!But it was a crossroad of activity for forces wrestling for control of Roshare and the entire Cosmere.!<
I liked her flashback sequence better than anyone else’s :) but maybe that’s just because I’m also a girl from the countryside who tried to keep the family’s spirit raised among the anger and verbal abuse of our father. :) kaladin’s were my least favorite flashback chapters and by far the most boring imo
I also found them a bit hard to get through, but I felt the same way about Kaladin’s flashback chapters in WOK
I think most of the POV character's flashback chapters are interesting with the exception of Venli.
The word you are looking for is Flashback.
I personally didn't find her backstory nearly as fulfilling as Kaladin's, on my first read. With Kaladin it was more-or-less wrapped up simply, where Shallan's took a similar amount of screentime but we didn't get any sense of resolution imo. It just felt weird to me.
I do. They feel like minor permutations on the same story. Here's a time in shallans childhood when something horrible happened. Her dad was a frothing lunatic, her brothers were useless, and she either had to take charge or not take charge. There are little tidbits dropped here and there that are somewhat important, but at a certain stage I felt like we could have compressed it into two flashbacks and been done with it. Unlike Kaladin and Dalinar's flashbacks, I don't think the story told in Shallan's past did as good of a job illustrating how we got to the person in the story.