Aminar

Unless she's a longtime ghostblood herself. Maybe a founding member or the like. That raises their threat level significantly.

Not to mention how interesting she would be as an antagonistic ally. Or a rival to Jasnah.

This. This is the answer. The Everstorm has never been part of a desolation before so that's not it.

I'd agree, except that the severing wasn't done to enslave the Listeners. It was done to end a war in which they were enslaved by voidspren, in such a way where genocide wasn't necessary. Which gets just all kinds of morally complicated. Real life slavery just isn't an analogue for the situation. The unreal aspects twist the morality in some real weird places. The closest thing I can come up with is, How do you feel about the end of Shaun of the Dead. Is putting Zombies to work ok in a post apocalyptic environment? Because that was the situation.

Before this the Parshmen seemingly couldn't survive without care. Much like domesticated animals, but with a limited ability to communicate. As a society we still struggle with how to deal with similar populations in the real world. Most of the time it remains the parent's responsibility. But the parshmen don't have functioning parents. The question the parshman is asking isn't the right question. Now that the Parshmen can care for themselves they should not be used. But before that... There wasn't a good answer. The options were, let them all die, take care of an entire species because they're incapable, make parshmen into a resource so the species could continue, or make them pets. None of those options are good, but the slavery angle made sure the Parshmen had a large population and kept society from falling apart. It wasn't right, but it might have been best.

Godwin's law came quick on this one. Yeah, Ialai was already more dangerous than Sadeas. Now she's likely to be worse. The fact they loved eachother was set up pretty well last book though.

Expectations are never harmless in regards to how we perceive stories. Expectation is huge.

Mostly that the theories are all overly dramatic to the point they'd actually make the story bad. And it's always Shallan destroying herself. Which is somewhat... It comes off badly motivated, whether the people theorizing know it or not.

Guys. Alcoholism is not just an addiction to alcohol the substance, but to the effects of alcohol. The fact she's burning those away purposefully and using it as a tool to alter people's perceptions is a huge sign you're worrying about nothing. She's messing with people's expectations to get what she needs. It's clever. Not concerning. This forum clucks over Shallan like we're her mother. Not everything she does is going to doom her.

The writing is Brandon's standard. He's always said he's not a great prosist. And this lives up to that. It's passable but the emphasis is on plot, worldbuilding, and character. And all of those are excellent. (Like... Phenomenal. The single lines that speak volumes about the world are everywhere.) Anachronisms are a non-issue given the writing philosophy Peter mentioned, that this is a localized translation. 100% valid and much easier/less annoying than the alternative. As for Cliffhangers. Man... That's writing. It's good. It keeps us interested. We're not even into the first interlude.

I disagree. It started as naivety, which is 100% Shallan. Then once she realized how to exploit her stormlight in the situation she used it to play on expectations. I found the whole thing quite clever. Something Shallan has always been. If anything this arc is going to be her recognizing just how competent she is and that she doesn't need any mental tricks to be deviously effective as a spy.

I'm not offended by you hypothesizing on it. I have no right to expect you to be educated on the subject. There's too much to know and too much pop culture misinformation for that. But I do expect Brandon to be smart about his portrayals of mental illness. He's a professional. (And has researched depression, autism, and trauma very well so far, setting up that expectation) And while it isn't DID it's too close. Alternate personalities created due to a traumatic experience taking over a person's life is basically the Hollywood standard. And it's always wrong. But the way you did it took things a step further away from the truth and into a very blame the victim place. Hence saying it would be offensive if printed.

That would be a truly ludicrous and offensive character arc. It, along with Renarin going evil, would actually stop me from reading Sanderson. That's not how DID works. You don't create a character and then it "takes over" The effects of the disorder are 100% involuntary. And really nothing like what we're talking about. Pop culture multiple personalities are stupidly wrong, but then putting the onus for the disorder on the people suffering from it like that... Brandon is smarter than that. He does his research better than that. Her character arc might very well be learning not to use these characters, and to be comfortable in her own skin. That would be fine. But the way you're talking about it. No.

Nope. I would love to see a massive fakeout where this series ends in diplomacy and understanding between two factions expected to be at war. The groundwork is being set even now. Then a third thing can come in that is less sapient and more destructive and the voidbringers and radiants can demolish it.

Tropes is all Shalladin has. Its page time has been two or three antagonistic scenes between the two and one dangerous outing in which they saved each other's lives(which is the plot of a lot of oh so many bad romance subplots). They've never had a conversation in a situation that wasn't rife with external conflict. Meanwhile Adolin and Shallan have something resembling an actual relationship. That's most of my argument. It's more than just the tropes because they have the domestic pagetime to work with. And adding a love triangle subplot is always annoying.

Self medicating is not a coping skill. Therapists and counsellors teach coping skills all the time. Including distancing techniques. Truth be told, what Shallan does is exactly what a good roleplay is. It's stepping into another personality for a while. We have all sorts of methods to do that because it's beneficial for treatment. It's something you have to commit to, but it's beyond most people so not commonly taught.

Everybody has trauma. It's just not part of early relationships(and not something you share specifics of on a message board). I mean, sure, Shallan's is impressively bad, but that's just not how relationships work. You don't make a person your support structure a few months in. They aren't even two months in. That's well within the honeymoon phase of a relationship. Eventually a couple becomes a team. It takes years typically. You issues with Shallan don't change that. But the way their relationship looks is a whole lot more succesful than the cliche. And Brandon's tropes are still far less common than what we see across every bloody sitcom and romcom and bad movie. The tropes for Shalladin are overused and everywhere. It's why people expect it. But that makes it expected and dull.

I've never understood the superficiality argument either. I mean, they haven't supported eachother through any major tragedies or anything, but their relationship looks a lot like my wife and I. Joking, talking, laughing, eating, and in general loving each other's company. And we've been doing this for 7 years. The tragedy thing is something you don't ever want early in a relationship. It colors too much too fast, or at least it can. (I speak from experience here.) Plus the whole love triangle thing is overdone almost as much as the "two people who look like they can't stand eachother are actually in love" thing. So I'm with you. It's not superficial, just more real than is often presented in regards to love. Outside of romance novels and sitcoms the best relationships are living with your best friend. That's what I see in Shallan and Adolin. Two people who actually enjoy eachother's company even when they aren't tearing clothing off/hateloving eachother.

It's not method acting. The actual term for what she's doing is role-playing. Method acting is done for film shoot length's of time. Days or Months spent as another person. And it isn't a coping mechanism. Playing a role for a time is. The discussion above on adaptive vs maladaptive behaviors covers it very well. But this is really reading too far into it. What she's doing isn't symptomatic. It isn't part of the issue, but a thought out result. Like you said, a coping skill. Coping skills are not a sign of mental illness. In a person living with mental illness they're a sign of improvement. Especially coping skills worked out alone and put into use.

The DSM is a book. DID is dissociative identity disorder. And yes. She's traumatized. Even showing many symptoms for PTSD. I said as much earlier in the thread. But what I'm disputing is that her personas are part of that Trauma. If they are Brandon is failing badly to show a researched approached to the problem. One that would be as offensive to people living with DID as other the other split personality nonsense we see on screen and on the page. And given how well he's portrayed depression, ptsd, and high functioning autism I just don't see that being his style. And to OP. If you want to look at a character's mental health you cannot ignore the tool most used by professionals to assess and diagnose mental illness. You use it to back up what you're talking about or you don't really have a case. Especially in relation to theories posited before ~99% of this forum's userbase was born. Work with the most recent tools in the field. They're what Brandon is using for his research if nothing else.

Pretty sure using the DSM for fictional characters is fine. Especially given Shallan's regular lack of normal function(her trauma is absolutely making it hard for her to live the life she wants, as evidenced by the techniques she's used to get around it and the way confronting it has helped push her closer to her goals(although having those come from an external source and with magical benefits to boot is outside the norm anyway)). But I agree she lacks any symptoms of DID. And Freud is still hopelessly outdated. The fact he's the first thing most people learn about psychology, and that he appears as a major portion in courses not called, "The History of Psychology", is an incredible tragedy that furthers people's lack of trust in the field as a whole.

The personas aren't seperate. They're characters. Like how when Brandon writes Shallan he mentally becomes Shallan for a time. She's never going to control Brandon. Or like how "writing case notes Aminar" is different from "meeting clients Aminar" is different from "At home with the wife Aminar". But augmented a little by magic(but really only by her illusions) Anything more is looking too far into what she's dealing with. Dissociative identity disorder works very differently, and Brandon is the kind of writer that does his research. Especially with a series where mental illness is a huge and intentional subtheme.

That's not multiple personalities. It's... a completely separate thing and bears no real similarity with how dissociative identity disorder manifests in real life. It's more just "fake it till you make it" augmented by magic. On that I have to say you need to do way more research. I know Brandon has done plenty.

She's not insane. She's traumatized. The difference is important. Shallan suffers from PTSD. Everything you're talking about falls under PTSD. What she's doing isn't more problematic than avoidance and repression. It's a step towards living with the Trauma. In order to deal with PTSD a person has to confront what they did/what happened to them(or around them) They have to confront the truth(this should seem familiar). Then they have to learn to live with that truth. Shallan's relevant trigger is her shardblade. Her trauma is killing her mother. (Also Jung's theories, while miles better than Freud's are still early work in the field and better as a historical reference than diagnostic criteria. The DSM will serve you better.)

I highly doubt what you're picking up on is intentional. In all of writing excuses they've always denied purposefully doing this kind of thing.