:/

I. What. I. No. There’s no way he. I. What. That couldn’t have. No. What. What. What. What.

Teft… he is so… I… what a tragic, beautiful man…

EEESSSHHOOONNNAAAIIIIIIIIIIII

I love her so much

You know actually I’m on Pattern’s side now. Shallan’s being an asshole and needs to talk to him.

P…. Pattern… I don’t think I can handle this. What the fuck.

Ooohhhhhh my God the One of Husks not believing Kaladin could have possibly not used any Stormlight. This is so good.

So we have multiple statements by Jorge Rivera-Herrans that he was inspired by video games in the creation of Epic the Musical. This is pretty plainly seen in the multiple “boss battles” that cap off most albums in the musical.

Two of the most important examples of “boss battles” come from the characters recognized as “monsters” in the canon of the story: Polyphemus and Scylla. These two are important, because they are the only two characters with songs named after them. This sets them apart as unique and special, which is substantiated even further by the impact they have on the wider story of Epic.

“…but wait” you may be asking. “Odysseus has a song named after him as well, no?” That is correct! This is because, like Polyphemus and Scylla, Odysseus is a monster. So much so that there’s an entire song in the Underworld Sage.

Okay so- what does this mean effectively? Well… the final boss of the musical isn’t the suitors. It’s Ody. The song Odysseus has a lot of parallels to Polyphemus and Scylla (the line “keep your head down he’s aiming for the torches!” Being a direct callback to Scylla), but the one I’d like to focus on is the narrative framework of the song.

He’s the antagonist. The song’s narrative is carried by the disparate Suitors as they are hunted by our old king and try to survive. (heh. See what I did there?) The background chanting of Odysseus’s name is even in the same style of how Polyphemus is sung in Survive!!! He’s the FINAL BOSS. (and tbh. He’s a LOT better at murdering everyone who wronged him than anyone else in the story. Polyphemus should take notes.)

So… what does this mean? He kills every suitor. And like- as he should. They sucked. So what? The final boss isn’t defeated in Epic?

…well no. He is firmly defeated in the end. By Penelope. Something very important in the story from No Longer You onward is this division between the “Old Odysseus” and the “New Odysseus”. It’s this Old Odysseus who is a monster, and it’s THIS man who Penelope defeats.

Her defeat of Odysseus is shown in two parts: Lyrically and Musically. The first is very clear. Odysseus argues that he is no longer the man who married Penelope, and she disagrees. She is the only one to effectively trick Penelope, responding to his rhetorical statement of “I am no longer the man you fell in love with” with a trap that ends with Odysseus confirming beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is, in fact, her husband. Furthermore If you payed any attention at all while listening to Epic, Jorge’s love for motif is very clear, and this is relevant in understanding the emotional “defeat” of the Monster Odysseus.

Ody has two key instruments: a soft guitar and a harsh, electric one. These correlate to the two unique Odysseus’s we’ve established. We hear inklings of the soft guitar when Odysseus and Penelope first reunite, but it quickly fades to that harsh electric guitar as they begin to “fight.”

But. Here’s. Where. It. Gets. Fun. Because after he’s deceived and defeated, the soft guitar returns. He is finally, after twenty years, being allowed to return to the kind man he once was. He’s finally, *finally* home.

And that, my friends, is why I conclude, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Penelope tops Odysseus after Epic.

When you look at Dalinar as a man, in his entirety, he is the perfect Bondsmith. His Honor and Passion mediated by Growth and Understanding. Were Odium not the enemy, Dalinar could have - probably would have - been able to be sponsored by all three gods of Roshar????

Seriously, looking at the Oathbringer flashbacks, this man must have had Odium kicking his feet. He charmed Cultivation and well- literally is chosen by Honor.

Stormlight Archives Spoilers

Eshonai would have been an amazing Bondsmith, what the fuck. We missed out so badly with her it’s genuinely making me sad.

Mistborn Era 2/Stormlight spoilers

Just gonna go out on a limb here, but I think the big bad organization Wax’s uncle is working with is preparing for some sort of Cosmic war thing. The things they are doing are utterly reprehensible and the only way I can fathom them doing it with a good conscience is believing it’s for the “greater good”. So with the knowledge that the government is… well, made of these men, and Harmony isn’t corrupt, the only thing big enough to make this make sense (obviously to a demented, immoral mind) would be an out-of-world threat like Odium or another Shard.

I imagine their justification is something like “You see what you did to that building, Wax? With these children we can selectively breed allomancers and feruchemists of whichever type we want, then combine their powers with Hemalurgy to create impossibly powerful soldiers. Imagine an army of 100 Miles Hundredlives! We’d be unstoppable.” With knowledge of hemalurgy and compounding and all that, I imagine they’d independently arrive at the concept of making another Lord Ruler, which like… would be extremely difficult to deal with for anyone we’ve seen in the Cosmere. But yeah, they’d feel they were doing the right thing, “making the hard choice for the greater good”

Then Wax would be all like “but the cost in lives is ridiculous! This is not worth it, man, can’t you see that?” Blahblahblah blah. This is a stretch, so I’d not be surprised if it’s something totally unrelated, but a lot of Rhythm of War is spent ranting about an impending God War, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable.

We love worldbuilding materials!!

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawn shop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

wind mill

wishing well

wizard tower

My friends look to me for insightful character analysis and detailed media literacy. I can’t let them know most of that is me feverishly trying to justify my shit taste in fictional people.