The Interludes of the Words of Radiance.

 The Great Interludes of the Words of Radiance:

 

Greetings Dear Readers,

 

As you know between each Part within the Stormlight Archives there are Interludes spanning roughly 80 pages each. In each Interlude we experience many different, supporting, character’s points of view. These small ‘chapters’ give us, the readers, a completely different understanding of the plot, the world and there are even some easter eggs referencing other books within the Cosmere universe. And my my, are these Interludes good at doing just that!

 

First let's talk about one of the most important characters portrayed in the I
nterludes: Eshonai. Eshonai
is the main Parshendi leader that our protagonists fight. She, in the eyes of the Kaladin and Dalinar, is the main villain as not only is she the enemy since she is Parshendi but she is also a Shardbearer. She is so cool. She is the only character that is carried over throughout each Interlude and so we learn lots about her and the Parshendi, so here are my thoughts: The Parshendi are definitely heavily heavily influenced by Africa and its people. This is seen by their living style described as more nomadic, their architecture similar to African clay or mud huts, the Parshendi's form of communication through song, and its African counterpart of music heavily influencing  African religion and music’s connection to their ancestors mirroring the beliefs of the Parshendi. 
Finally and most obviously their dark skin tones. This therefore led me to deduce that the Alethi are extremely racist. Not only do the Althei have a superiority complex over the Parshendi, they enslave their relatives forcing them to do hard labor. The Aletyhi also often refer to the Parshendi as “savages and uncivilized” giving major colonialism vibes. 

 

Talking about the Althei and their problematic behaviors, I introduce to you: Pai. Pai is an ardent who works in the palace with the Queen, a character we have no real understanding of. Pai is new to the palace and has big ideas of how the Alethi and the Queen are failing their people. Pai states how she finds the system unjust and how the Queen has extravagant amounts of food rotting and going to waste while the majority of the Alethi people are starving, often risking their lives to steal this rotting food either getting killed by guards or dying from off food. Pai is told by other ardents or priests not to cause a scene as life for them is good working for the Queen as they don't experience the poverty they could face. In protest to this gluttony Pai wrote glyphs of foolishness calling out the Royal's fault in their Great Hall. In response she was publicly executed and to quote the final words of the Interlude: “the protests began the next day.”.

And last but not least since we are talking about food, one of my new favorite characters. Lift is a 13 year old girl who is a master thief although her only target: rich people’s food. We are introduced to her where she helps out strangers in a heist, and as I said before her only goal is to eat. This is where we learn that she is actually a Knights Radiant and has the ability of regrowth meaning she can grow nature and plants as well as the manipulation of friction. This ability basically allows her to make things slippery and she mainly uses to ice skate on the floor. Lift refers to her abilities as her “awesomeness” and is later revealed that her power of growth can even bring back people from the dead. The truly cool thing about Lift is that she doesn't need Stormlight like most people do to use her powers, instead she needs food. This weird attribute is apparently given to her by her spren’s mother who I assume is the Nightwatcher and is the only person to have this attribute. However a man of shadows with a Shardblade is hunting her and is the same person I assume as the one who killed Ym for having the same abilities as Lift.

 

I have been really enjoying these small dumps of new information and the Interludes really build the plot and give us so much to think about. Such as, who are we really rooting for: our problematic protagonists who are actually in the wrong one can argue are the Parshendi who murdered the Alethei king. Additionally, how can we root for the Alethi when their queen is the fantasy version of Marie Antoinette. This information was incredibly interesting as it revealed that there are two problems within the Alethi society: The conflict of Lighteyes to Darkeyes and the bougesis versus the proletariats and the poverty they face. Also what is the power the Nightwatcher possesses and who is she?

 

Let's find out together dear reader.