The Stormlight Archive 5 Wind and Truth and why I'm DONE with Brandon Sanderson and the COSMERE

Summary

In this candid video, Battsauce expresses his disillusionment with "Stormlight Archive 5: Wind and Truth" by Brandon Sanderson, and the general direction of the author's Cosmere universe. The creator feels that Sanderson's recent works are overshadowed by 'woke' themes and forced representation, which he argues detract from the story's quality and escapism. Despite once being an avid fan, Battsauce is choosing to step away from Sanderson's future projects, advocating instead for indie authors who focus on storytelling without political agendas.

Highlights

• Battsauce criticizes 'Stormlight 5' for feeling forced and ill-fitted with themes that don't belong. 💥
• He points out Brandon Sanderson's shift towards modern ideology, negatively impacting the fantasy setting. 🌪️
• The video discusses how representation issues have muddled plot points and character arcs. 🎭
• Battsauce calls for support of indie authors who offer fresher and politically neutral stories. 📖
• He plans to discontinue following Sanderson's works in favor of more genuine storytelling. 🚪

Key Takeaways

• Battsauce is disappointed with the latest Stormlight book, citing 'woke' themes as a major issue. 📚
• The creator critiques Sanderson's focus on modern ideologies in a fantasy setting, feeling they disrupt escapism. 🧙‍♂️
• Battsauce is shifting his support to indie authors who prioritize storytelling over political agendas. 🔄
• He believes that 'unplanned' representation in Sanderson's books negatively affects the story's authenticity. 🎭
• Battsauce encourages viewers to explore indie authors, highlighting their originality and less politically driven narratives. 🌟

Overview

Battsauce starts by expressing his frustration with Brandon Sanderson's 'Stormlight Archive 5: Wind and Truth,' claiming it diverges significantly from the quality and escapism typically expected from the series. He suggests that the inclusion of modern 'woke' themes, gender ideologies, and forced representation disrupt the fantasy narrative, making it less immersive and enjoyable.

He outlines how these modern elements clash with the medieval fantasy setting, citing examples such as the awkward integration of diverse genders and therapy-like dialogues that feel out of place for the era the story evokes. Battsauce also discusses his belief that characters were altered to fit a representation agenda, which he feels damages the original storytelling intent.

Concluding the video, Battsauce announces his decision to withdraw from following Sanderson's future works, instead promoting independent authors who provide engaging stories without political subtext. He encourages viewers to delve into the world of indie literature, highlighting their potential to offer pure, agenda-free narratives that prioritize creative storytelling.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Announcement In this introductory chapter, the narrator shares their experience of finishing "Stormlight 5: Wind and Truth" by Brandon Sanderson. They express their feeling of completion with the Cosmere series and hint at a transition point in their journey with Sanderson's works. The transcript includes a playful reference to an "alert" which adds a touch of humor to the announcement. The narrator also mentions forthcoming plans to conduct a review of the book.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Review Information and Initial Thoughts In this chapter, the narrator provides an overview of their upcoming review content, specifically focusing on the Cosmere universe and Brandon Sanderson's works, particularly after the fifth book in the Stormlight Archive series. They mention their plan to release a full review soon, teasing the content by sharing some initial thoughts and insights about the current state of Sanderson's work. However, they clarify that this chapter will not delve deeply into a review of the book itself, but rather discuss its relevance to their thoughts and future commentary.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Critique on Cultural Themes The chapter titled 'Critique on Cultural Themes' addresses the perceived decline in quality of Sanderson's books, attributing it to what the speaker describes as the author's focus on 'woke' themes. The speaker acknowledges the complexity and often misunderstood nature of the term 'woke,' indicating that it's commonly used without a clear understanding. The critique explores the broader implications of these themes on the storytelling and reception of Sanderson's work.
• 02:00 - 03:30: Discussion on Character Representation The chapter titled 'Discussion on Character Representation' explores the infusion of contemporary issues, such as gender ideology, within fantasy genres traditionally set in medieval contexts. It highlights how these modern themes, categorized under concepts like cultural Marxism, can disrupt the immersive fantasy experience by introducing elements that are distinctively modern, thereby impacting the fantasy narrative's authenticity.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Reflections on Story Changes and Criticism This chapter discusses the shifts in storytelling and critique associated with changes in narrative direction. The speaker reflects on the influence of Brandon Sanderson's personal beliefs, mentioning his Mormon background, and how it might contrast with the themes of his stories. The speaker notes that the fifth book in the 'Stormlight' series feels disconnected from the initial direction set in the first book, implying significant changes have occurred, which may not align with the original vision.
• 04:30 - 07:00: Therapy Themes in the Story In this chapter, the discussion revolves around the changes in the story, particularly in Stormlight 4, attributed to various influences including societal trends or 'woke' culture. The narrator believes these influences have caused a decline in the story's quality. Despite different opinions on the reasons for this perceived dip, such as prose style or other factors, the narrator suggests they are interconnected with broader thematic elements.
• 07:00 - 11:30: Personal Decision on Future Reading This chapter explores the concept of incorporating themes and elements in storytelling that the author did not originally intend or desire to include, such as politically or socially motivated topics like gender ideology. The discussion points to 'Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire' as an example, where the inclusion of gay characters serves as a relevant illustration of this phenomenon. The chapter seems to reflect on the tensions between original design intentions and external influences or trends in literature.
• 11:30 - 14:00: Exploration of Other Authors The chapter titled 'Exploration of Other Authors' discusses how certain elements in stories may not fit seamlessly into the narrative and could appear to be added intentionally to address specific aspects. It highlights a character from the book 'Stormlight'—a younger brother of the colins, who is a significant character and is suggested to become even more prominent in future stories. The chapter speculates that the character's sexuality, being made gay, might not have been part of the original plan, suggesting the author took the opportunity to include this representation.
• 14:00 - 15:00: Closing Remarks and Call to Action The chapter titled 'Closing Remarks and Call to Action' seems to explore themes of societal norms and representation in literature, specifically focusing on discussions around character traits, sexuality, and cultural systems. There's a critique of the way certain authors, such as Sanderson, may portray ‘weird’ characters as being gay or queer, and an argument against simplistic representations of inclusive societies.

The Stormlight Archive 5 Wind and Truth and why I'm DONE with Brandon Sanderson and the COSMERE Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I recently finished Stormlight 5 wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson and I got to say I think from here on out with the cosmere and Brandon Sanderson I'm done uhoh [ __ ] alert [ __ ] alert class presenting the short bus veteran so I recently finished storm L 5 as I mentioned want to talk about it and I'm going to be doing a review on
• 00:30 - 01:00 another Channel that I run iron se's link for that below uh a review for a full review of that will be coming out in a day or two with the ultimate Kahuna so I just wanted to cover a few of my thoughts overall with the cosmere and Sanderson as where we are right now uh after Stormlight 5 uh and not I'm not going to really review it this book in this video I am going to discuss it a little bit of what it pertains to what I want to say
• 01:00 - 01:30 there's been a downhill Trend with the Sanderson books and I think there's a reason for it and I think it's a reason that nobody really wants to talk about uh mostly because saying this comes off a little cringe um but is there a better way else than saying it then Brandon sanderson's gone woke um now what do I mean by saying woke because everybody throws it around nobody necessarily knows what it means and it just is used as a catchall term that people don't really technically understand I am
• 01:30 - 02:00 talking about stuff that pertains to cultural Marxism so what's something that's going to fall under that category it's something like gender ideology right things that that are very modern in our day that's thrown into our fantasy like more medieval type of setting uh which some of the cosm takes place in right uh and just completely destroy and just completely taking you out of the fantasy aspect of her of hitting you with like these current day
• 02:00 - 02:30 type of ideology speak and everything that the exact stuff that we're trying to escape from right very strange with Brandon Sanderson being a Mormon uh and then having these stories whatever I'm not Mormon I guess I don't really care it's just kind of strange uh it definitely doesn't feel like stormway 5 was at all the book that Brandon Sanderson had planned when he wrote Stormlight one I
• 02:30 - 03:00 think there was drastic changes made because of that and I think we very clearly saw in storm light 4 it take the story took a dip because of things like that now people are going to point to things like uh oh it's his Pros or you know there's there's XYZ and whatever reasoning of why it it failed nothing to do with woke uh now book four I guess you could say that but I I think all those things are tied together once you
• 03:00 - 03:30 try and fit in something that you did not honestly want to put in like something that you would consider woke gender idology and you just kind of make it in there and it really wasn't something that you planned for or kind of goes against your your original design let me be clear right because some of this stuff is with like gay characters right and I'll point to Game of Thrones A Song of Ice and Fire of something that where you have gay characters and they're
• 03:30 - 04:00 perfectly fitting into the story uh and in this it's in Stormlight is thrown in there to be there and it doesn't fit very specifically right and the the ralen or whatever the younger brother of the colins uh pretty major character and he's kind of hinted at to be very major uh in future stories I don't think that there was ever a plan to have him be gay and I think Sanderson took this opportunity to make him gay
• 04:00 - 04:30 because he's a little weird and it kind of feels like authors like Sanderson are like oh if they're weird weird they must be gay or queer or something right um but no I don't think that like like look if he's going to be gay you can't also have like this culture that's built around in roshar in Stormlight just be like oh yeah we don't care because we're all just non- bigoted people right and it's like okay you guys have a political system that's set up like similar to
• 04:30 - 05:00 ours where it's marriage is very much for political game and set up with with that with adelyn his the older son Shalon there's a bunch of different types of marriages that happen for you know political gain very similar to our own world so that's something that's established there and then you have your second son right and in this world people die right adelin your first son might die and they're king of a you know they're their royalty to a big land so
• 05:00 - 05:30 if uh you know you're likely to lose a son that means your second son probably also important uh and you can't I think there would be some discussion of being like hey um we like we like there would be some sort of loss of trust and confidence in the renalin or something like that or or something but the people being upset that he's gay and then therefore their land is going to potentially not Prosper
• 05:30 - 06:00 as much because they can't have a marriage for legal uh for political gain uh it just it it feels weird that you know we're we're not going to have doar be big it so he's going to be accepting for the most part of his son being gay like you're not even going to like mention it like hey son like I need you to like start looking at punani I don't care if you think it's icky or whatever um I got to marry you off to somebody maybe those asist people then uh that's Ras in in the book
• 06:00 - 06:30 uh so we can maybe make some Nies with them uh so I don't know uh and and also again with marriage and the reason why it's use for political gain is again so they can have kids and pass down their wealth or whatever so it's again like it's just like you can't can't just like not acknowledge it right like again so that's why I'm like he just shoved it in there to have representation which is just [ __ ] but the thing is is that the overall quality and everything like that I think is did suffer because of
• 06:30 - 07:00 changes that were needed to be made in order to allow stuff like this to occur in the story for political reasons for woke reasons like I mentioned and I brought up book four because they they mentioned how the spren have gender like come on dude like there we just have so many genders we have more than two genders you're weird you humans get out of here dude like stop like gender isn't tied to sexuality that's why we have two genders because we have two types of sex right if you make a fantasy race and
• 07:00 - 07:30 there's like a third gender sex that like has a different process besides being the seed or the Egg maybe they're the carrier yeah hey guess what you got a third gender but I don't want to hear that [ __ ] of like spren who don't reproduce being like oh well we got uh you know all different kind of genders just take the token route where they're just like you know they're they're Gods so technically yeah they don't have gender but they're like yeah I'm more masculine I'm just I'm a man like don't bring this this [ __ ] pronoun stuff
• 07:30 - 08:00 and the therapy speak listen the th the therapy speak is just a symptom of this woke stuff it just cannot work in this fantasy Escapist setting I mean like just just take the fact that when when did we first have therapy in our real life the 1900s how many [ __ ] years and everything went past before we started to have actual talks of maybe doing something like a therapy so to have people to talk about their feelings
• 08:00 - 08:30 and stuff like that it's just so weird and awkward and takes you out of that escapism not to mention I don't want to people for people to be talking about their feelings and stuff like that when we got important stuff going on like the end of the world and our main character being like I'm going to be retired cuz I'm just my feelings are hurt and you're the most powerful person in the story go save people kaladan go go go do stuff stop this [ __ ] therapy stuff uh and again I'm
• 08:30 - 09:00 going to go more detail and talk about this in depth on the iron C show Link in the description I'm just tired of it so I I basically what I'm saying is I'm going to go with an author that's not going to steer me into these like look I don't care if there's gay gay people in a story or if it's tied into a story well I don't care it's just the obviously Brandon has an agenda tied to his story writing now and that's made it it worse and so I'm just not going to
• 09:00 - 09:30 [ __ ] bother investing more time more money into something that's just going to be some propaganda being shoved down my [ __ ] throat [ __ ] that yeah we saw it like there was a little hints of it in the secret projects like I said before but it was nothing that really deterred Too Much from the story but now this is just has been crazy but not not only that it's just like the the overall story of storl 5 was so bad and this was so important to the overall cosmere story that I'm like
• 09:30 - 10:00 dude you needed to have a this needed to be decent like it just it's such a vital part of the overall cosm your story that it's just it just sucked and so it's like okay so if this vital Peg sucked like how many more vital pegs that we going to have like storm light 5 probably storm light 10 is going to be the only thing as important as storm light 5 maybe and yeah then we get all the in between stories and just to learn pieces of information to this overall story that kind of just cuz Stormlight 5 if it's any indication
• 10:00 - 10:30 of how Stormlight 10 is going to go it's going to suck a lot of things that a lot of the things that were revealed just suck and I think a lot of people are like coping I've seen a lot of criticism thrown at storm L 5 which I kind of didn't expect so it's people you know being honest um but and I don't think that they're being unhonest by not being more critical I just think it's like well they're they're they're deeply invested so it's hard to walk away for something that you invest in I've I've invested over like cuz I've you know Miss borne the storm light series War
• 10:30 - 11:00 Breer which war breaker is still like my favorite book I think of all time aess the secret projects blah blah how many hundreds of hours have I invested in my personal time watch videos and stuff like that it's hard to just to be like okay I'm done you got that sunk uh cost an like fallacy what is that called like once you invest enough time you can't like walk away because you're just like well I've already invested more time or too much time
• 11:00 - 11:30 I don't want all that time I spent wasted away um which I don't see it that way look look I I'll just look at Stormlight one through three feel like those were good stories and just pretend like the other two don't exist um I like sunlet man but again it's part of Stormlight uh very much so now I don't really care for it uh War breaker always going to love that I'm still going to recommend that to people and tell people to just stop right there the mbor trilogy uh cin never came back aive head now I did read
• 11:30 - 12:00 that uh but no he's he's he died he got [ __ ] slapped like uh and became you know a symbol the Survivor that's how he's going to be in my head forever and always um but yeah there's there's nothing really worth investing more time into this cosmere uh again just like I said the secret projects were kind of like poking with like little like uh trans allegory and stuff and you're just like and it was it'll be in like some random moment we like why are you talking about this
• 12:00 - 12:30 right now dude uh so yeah again reach out to other authors they won't try to shove down political [ __ ] down your throat uh never mind just the general quality of stuff kind of just going down from him um like I don't know if it's the editors or were too many editors too many people on the pie uh it's kind of crazy when you do have that many people you don't have a masterpiece like nobody told you Brandon that like this goober line is [ __ ] trash and needs to be out of here get the goober line out of here that's cringe dude uh yeah um look
• 12:30 - 13:00 I I in again iron se's link below we talk about a lot of Indie projects and stuff like that we we promote a lot of stories um from Indie authors Indie comic book writers and they're you know again not all of them are going to have these great stories or whatever but like at a minimum they're not trying to shove political [ __ ] down your throat we're not going to promote them if they are um and we Tred to you know there there are some Diamonds in the Rough there there are some great stories
• 13:00 - 13:30 in there that I've read uh John A Douglas comes to mine has a great book The Black Crown it's called something else but the Black Crown lookup John A Douglas great author I'll I'll link his book in the description um and I have a book if you care to take it out just look at my channel I got the promotional video for that I'm going to put the link for that in the below uh tale of the D whisper uh if you want a laugh uh and I will make you laugh unlike Brandon who sometimes he has jokes to land but like man he really
• 13:30 - 14:00 tries to be funny and just the goober line if you know the goober line if you read the book you know what I'm talking about just stop dude um but yeah there's there's there's other authors there's other people that are more worth my time investing and I always highly recommend anyone to not bother wasting or investing any time into somebody that's going to waste your time by focusing on trying to shove
• 14:00 - 14:30 their political nonsense [ __ ] down your [ __ ] throat horfe it down here uh [ __ ] that [ __ ] them uh and uh thank you for watching my video if you have this far appreciate it but like if you watch any my videos uh you are [ __ ] but that's okay cuz we're all [ __ ] it'll make sense if you read my book it'll make a lot of sense uh but anyways guys uh please consider subscribing uh become part of the [ __ ] uh Warriors or whatever we're calling each
• 14:30 - 15:00 other I guess we're just we're too [ __ ] to come up with a good name so uh whatever uh and like the video and let me know if you uh what do you think in the comments you think I'm being crazy have you even bothered reading any of Brandon Sanderson uh and or if if you did read it if hopefully this is cathartic let me know like because you're kind of like what the [ __ ] is going on and and yes people are criticizing it but like there's more going on uh at least I but till next
• 15:00 - 15:30 time guys where the king's off the ground all enjoying us every SE is the back seat special that war conquer riding the short bus with the cool [ __ ] in town knocking out heart and slowing down short bus levels no never com for we are the kings of the stor