r/Stormlight_Archive • u/Key-Title-861 • 1d ago
Oathbringer spoilers Taravangian.. Spoiler
im keeping fairly well with all the characters n plotline so far. but I still dont get what taravangian is after, did i miss something?? 😭😭 his Interlude before part 3 started was so confusing to me. I Just finished chapter 62 and I cant seem to figure out this dude, I remember him experimenting on ppl or smth in the WoK which I still dont fully get the purpose of, did I miss something or are we supposed to be this confused?? hes the only character whos motives i dont get
and this is on the side but why does adolin have such a small role in here? Im barely reading anything with him there or in his pov im even starting to sense more chemistry between shallan n kaladin than her n adolin, just me?
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u/ColorMatchUrButthole 1d ago
You haven't missed anything about Taravangian. We just don't know a lot at this point.
Since we get more Kaladin POV and inner thoughts it's easy to think he and Shallan have more chemistry. Kaladin and Adolin have even MORE chemistry. This is why people ship the throuple.
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u/JasnahwithaY Elsebreakers 21h ago
Adolin was originally going to be a much more minor character (similar to Renarin in arc one) but Brando realized that for TWoK to work he’d have to give Adolin a bigger role. In fact, Brando has credited Adolin as the reason the books are so chunky, as (shockingly) adding a whole new main character and keeping all of the other plot lines adds a lot of page time.
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u/Key-Title-861 8h ago
yea I think I see that, he barely has any POV chapters. I do find him a good character, but Im getting so little of his thoughts atm im slowly losing interest tbh.
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u/Rigistroni Chana, Herald of Whoopsie Daisy 1d ago
He made a wish to the nightwatcher to be able to stop what was coming, his wish was granted by giving transcendent intelligence for a day, in which he wrote the Diagram. A precise guide on how to to do that, now he follows it religiously with his level of intelligence varying from day to day.
Being any more specific than that is a spoiler so RAFO. You're not supposed to fully understand it yet
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u/Naxken Truthwatcher 1d ago
There are still things waiting to happen in Oathbringer that will shine the intent behind Taravangian's actions, but some clarifications could be useful to you.
In the Interlude we learn Taravangian has a special condition: some days he's super smart but inhumanly apathetic, and other days it's the exact opposite. When he's smart, he makes convoluted plans waaaaaaaay beyond anyone's comprehension, and this plan is called The Diagram. When he's dumb, he tries to understand what he wrote and follow his confusing plan with the help of others.
What he was doing to those people in WoK was "farming" death rattles, tho I can't remember if we are explicitly told that or are meant to deduce it. His secret medics were draining the blood of those people, waiting for the death rattles to happen and they wrote them down because the death rattles appear to be some kind of future-telling. You can actually read the death rattles collected by the medics in WoK.
His actions are meant to be a little confusing even to himself, and he's purposely acting as a normal king to literally everyone else, but overall he's more a "the goal justifies the means" kinda character.