Joshua Noel dives deep with TJ Blackwell to unpack the dynamic character of Kaladin Stormblessed from Brandon Sanderson's epic "The Stormlight Archives." Right off the bat, they explore what makes Kaladin such a compelling figure—his unwavering commitment to protect those who can't protect themselves, a mantra that resonates throughout the series. As they meander through the narrative, TJ shares insights about Kaladin's evolution from a slave in Bridge Four to a powerful Windrunner, illuminating the nuances of his relationships, particularly with his Spren, Sylphrena. The conversation takes delightfully unexpected turns, mixing light-hearted banter with serious themes of sacrifice, leadership, and the moral complexities of heroism. It's a fascinating blend of humor and depth that brings the faces behind the character to life, leaving listeners eager to discover more about the world of Roshar and its intricately woven tales. In this engaging episode, listeners are taken on a journey exploring the intricacies of Kaladin Stormblessed, a character who serves as a beacon of hope in Brandon Sanderson's expansive fantasy series. TJ Blackwell shares his deep admiration for Kaladin, detailing his journey from a slave to a heroic figure capable of inspiring those around him.

The dynamic between TJ and Joshua creates an informal atmosphere where listeners feel like they are part of the conversation. They discuss not just Kaladin's heroic deeds but also the underlying themes of loyalty and sacrifice that make his character compelling. The dialogue cleverly navigates through the complexities of the Stormlight Archive's world-building, touching on the significance of Spren and the unique magical systems at play. With a mix of humor and thoughtful commentary, the episode highlights how Kaladin’s story resonates on a personal level, encouraging listeners to reflect on their own struggles and the importance of standing up for others. By the end, the audience is left not only intrigued by Kaladin’s journey but also motivated to delve deeper into the rich tapestry of Sanderson's literary universe.

Takeaways:

• Kaladin Stormblessed is a pivotal character who embodies the ideals of protecting the helpless and leads by example, inspiring those around him.
• Bridge Four, initially a group of oppressed individuals, evolves into a family that finds strength and purpose through Kaladin's leadership and the power of their bonds with sprens.
• The relationship between Kaladin and his spren, Sylphrena, symbolizes the deeper connection between individuals and the spirits that guide them in their journeys.
• Brandon Sanderson's writing showcases a unique blend of complex world-building and character development that resonates with readers on multiple levels.
• The podcast delves into the significance of Kaladin's struggles and triumphs, reflecting themes of hope, resilience, and the quest for identity in a challenging world.
• Listeners are encouraged to explore the entire 'Stormlight Archive' series, as it intertwines rich narratives with profound philosophical questions about duty, honor, and personal growth.

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I will protect those who cannot protect themselves. I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right.

I accept that there will be people that I cannot protect. And I will protect myself so that I may continue to protect others. Those are Khaled and Storm Blessed Knights, Radiant ideals.

And that's who we're talking about today.

And if you're anything like me and want to know who the hell is Kaladin Storm Blessed, and you've been wondering this whole time, what On Earth is TJ's avatar? Great news. Today is the episode we're gonna find out part of our faces behind the series. We're here.

I'm Joshua Noel here with the one and only pot almighty, TJ Tabrizuan Blackwell, who's going to tell us about the character his avatar was fashioned after.

Yeah, yeah.

Kaladin Stormbli, which. That's the extent of what I know about this character. So today I'm going to just be asking him questions because I know the name of the character.

I know it's all to do with slavery now, that the Bridge 4 is not for people and that it's TJ's avatar. So if you know that much, you're caught up with me and ready for the episode.

Yeah.

Oh, actually, I think I know the name of the author of these books is like, Brandon Sanderson.

That's correct.

Now I'm pretty sure we've mined all I know. I'm Joshua Noel. You're a tj. We're going to talk about what we're geeking out on before we jump into anything else.

Tj, what have you been geeking out on lately?

Breaking Bad. Yep. That's pretty much all I've been doing, actually. Apex Legends again and Breaking Bad.

But between anything that doesn't need my direct attention watching Breaking Bad, me and.

Wife have been watching Riverdale. We've almost finished it. Parts of it I really like. Yeah.

Or something.

Yeah, it's pretty wild. Let's take some wild turns. You know, those things, like I say a joke works.

Just me saying something really absurd that just obviously is not gonna be what happened always happens. So far, all of my absurd jokes are actually what happens.

Yeah. Yeah. That's one show I know for sure. Jumped the shark and. Yeah, they really. They really did. They went for it.

I'm kind of glad. But this isn't a Riverdale episode. I've also been playing Mass Effect. I'm much more positive about it. I like both, though.

And with that out of the way, guys, if you like this show, as much as I like Mass Effect, then you should read and review our show. Do the five stars, whatever, Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever it helps other people find.

Our show gets the word out so we're able to continue to grow and continue to do episodes like this. And I have fun doing this, so I appreciate those who do the rates and reviews so that I can keep doing this.

Also want to shout out one of our financial sponsors. Today I'm going to shout out the one and only Gunner Burgum, who I've never known if I've said his name correctly.

Gunner, please let me know how bad I'm pronouncing your name. But we do really appreciate you man, and your financial support.

You guys want your own shout out like Gunner and want to see if I can pronounce your name correctly? Then all you gotta do is become an official member on the Systematic Geekology website. The link is in the show's description.

Same link will get you to where we have all kinds of other merch, free content, etc. Including a special T shirt that we have for this series, the Faces behind us, our annual theme of the year.

So the shirt will be good till the end of the year. I'm trying to find it. Like, I don't like that anyway. I like the shirt a lot. It's one of the only shirts we have that actually looks good in purple.

I don't have a lot of purple shirts, so I was pretty stoked to get it. If you guys enjoy it, like what we're doing with this series, talking about the characters behind our main characters.

Consider getting shirt while it lasts, while supplies last. And of course, if you want to find the playlist of the entire series. Faces behind us annual theme the another link in the show description.

There's a lot of links down there. They're all for pretty much good stuff. I think most of them involve more of tj. There's an entire TJ playlist and the faces behind us so far.

That whole playlist is also TJ right now. Up until the next episode. Yeah. So let's go ahead and let's jump into our main topic. Tj who the healthcare in Storm blessed the goat.

Next question.

All right, guys, this was a great episode.

Yep.

Let's backtrack because I know you care a lot about like books and whatever. So this is from series of books by Brandon Sanderson.

I feel like I've heard that name before and I think I've heard controversial things about that name. What do I know about Brandon? Brandon Sanderson.

Yeah. So he writes, you know, the infinite monkeys theorem. No.

So the idea is that if you put an infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters, eventually one of them would write the entire works of Shakespeare. Just because he writes like he is all of those monkeys. He is just literally constantly pumping out books.

So the opposite of the George R.R. Martin problem.

Yeah, complete opposite. George R.R.

Martin.

Patrick Rothfuss. Never heard of him. Probably the most controversial things for a lot of people is that he's Mormon.

Oh, yeah. That used to be way more controversial.

Yeah.

That doesn't seem like it's that big a deal these days.

There might be some more problematic things that I'm not super aware of. He lives on, like a compound. It's pretty sweet.

Interesting.

It's pretty sweet. But he has written Mistborn, which is. Which is, I think probably is. Might be his most popular work.

He finished the Wheel of Time series when Robert Jordan passed. Yeah.

Interesting.

So he's one of those names that get brought up when people are like, what are we going to do when George R.R. Martin dies before he finishes that book? Pretty much everyone's like, brandon Sanderson can finish it. That wouldn't be that good.

I mean, well, you know, I guess all the listeners know how I feel about Game of Thrones. I'm just not sure there is a way to have a good ending.

Just don't think it was probably not.

Premise for the most part.

Yeah.

See, the issue is that I think Brandon Sanderson's greatest struggle as a writer, and I think he's admitted this even is he's not that good at writing endings. When it comes time to make the conclusion to whatever he's writing, we call it the Sanderlanche.

That's interesting.

Yeah, it's just a lot starts happening. The pace of the book goes way up. It's like a long, extended climax.

And this series does suffer from that, especially when the truth, this last one was insane. It's just a couple hundred pages of wrapping up loose ends.

I mean, Tolkien, that is what happened in Return of the King. There was like three different endings.

Caladan Storm Blessed is one of the main characters of the Stormlight Archive. Up to this point, there is a kind of a rotating cast of main characters. Not really. It's.

It's more of an ensemble, but we rotate through each of their perspectives in each book. And Kaladin Storm Blessed is. A lot of people consider it the main one. He's the main character.

That's not really true, but he is the Catalyst for the events that are happening in the world. As far as we know, it's one of the first people to reawaken the Knights of Radiant. So in the Stormlight Archive, they are on the planet of Roshar.

Which is relevant because Stormlight Archive is.

The name of the book series.

Yes.

Okay. Following.

Yeah, they're on the planet Roshar. That's relevant because Roshar is part of the Cosmere. And all of.

Not all, but most of Brandon Sanderson stories happen in the same universe and are in some way connected.

Like an MCU thing or like a Steven King thing. In between.

Yeah, I'd say in between. Not an MCU thing. Definitely not an MCU thing. And significantly more relevant than a Stephen King thing.

Gotcha. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. Because there. There are characters that move between series. Only a couple. Mainly one. Spoiler warning for the Stormlight Archive.

And this one, it's Wit. Wit is in this. And Mistborn very famously. But Kaladin Stormblasted is a member of Bridge 4. He is an Alephi slave and start series.

That's what he does. He's the son of a surgeon. He's got a little brother. He gets a little aggressive, gets moved off, kidnapped, sold. Boom. Alethi slavery.

He is working in the Alethi war camps on the Shattered Plains. I feel like it's probably. I missed my chance to say that this world is like post. Post apocalypse. The desolation happened.

Oh, I don't remember how long ago. It was like Adventure Time, sorta. Okay, kinda sorta.

Where the Spren, which are the natural spirits of the world, just kind of stopped bonding with people and they lost the blessing of what they call the All Father. Very complicated story. He's had like 7,000 pages to explain this, and I've got like 40 minutes, so. Forgive me.

I'm leaving you. You're doing great.

But that's how we meet Kaladin. I'm just going to simplify everything from here on out, because we're talking about Kaladin specifically.

So recap. World had godlike things that would bond with people. They stopped because the people suck.

Yeah. But they did stop bonding.

Okay. Caladan and these other guys are slaves on this planet.

Yep.

Okay. All right.

I'm good. So what we've got on screen, this is Bridge four. This is post awakening. This is post all of their awakening.

They don't all have these powers until, like, book three. I mean, they all kind of learn it, but it's a whole thing. That's okay. By end of the first book, you can Kind of see how you'd get to this point.

But he leads this group called Bridge 4 because they carry bridge number four across the shattered Plains.

They put the bridge down, risk their lives crossing the chasms so that Alethie soldiers can run across the bridge, fight Chasm fiends, and kill them and take their gem.

Gotta be a better way of having a bridge.

No, because the plateaus crumble and change and shift and it's a whole thing.

Yeah, okay.

You know. Yeah. You know, Planet. Planet. Very weird planet. Very interesting. Super worth reading. You absolutely need to read this book.

I think you'd like it a lot,.

But this one scare me by talking about how many books there are.

Five.

That feels intense.

Each one's over a thousand pages.

That feels really intimidating.

No, no. It's so easy. He writes. He. He doesn't write for, like, academics. It's for just regular people who want to read some good fantasy story.

Okay. Okay. Okay. So they built these bridges so that the soldiers can get across, and eventually they get free.

I'm guessing they carry the bridges on their shoulders. They march across.

Okay, so they're not the bridges. They drop them.

They're not the bridge.

Okay, that's what I thought. They were just building a human bridge. There's got to be a better way to do that.

They carry the bridge. And one day, when Kaladin is just trapped in a chasm, so Farina, his Spren decides to reenact the bond.

So he says the first ideal, which was about to protect others, whatever I said earlier. And he became the first. I think chronologically might not be first, but he's first we were introduced to. So Knight Radiant of this era.

Is the protect thing coming from him, or is that from the spirits?

So it's the way it works, the power system, if you will. Knights Radiant are in order of knights who have these abilities that are tied to the kind of Spren that they're bonded to.

So for Kaladin, who is a Windrunner, all of Bridge four, except for, like, one of them are Windrunners, as they bond with Wind Sprin.

So.

And they all have the same ideals, Probably. Okay, probably. And they all have different powers, each different kind of sprint, but they're all wind power.

All of Bridge four is wind except for Renneren and Relay.

Okay. And they're just because of the Spren they're with. So they're with, like, air spread. So they have air power.

Then somebody else might have, like, fire or water Spren.

No, but conceptually you are correct.

But it's not going to go element wise. It's not the route we're going here. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Not. Not the route we're going. So Kaladin kind of becomes the leader of Bridge 4. They start becoming really successful.

He's encouraged because he can now inhale Stormlight to heal himself. Stormlight is kind. I'm getting there. Storm life is the energy they use in this world. It fuels contraction. Glowing blue stuff. Yeah, energy.

They have gemstones that get encased in glass. They set them out for the storms that ravage this planet. The high storm.

And that's what leads to all the really cool biology in this series because this half of the planet is heavily adapted to surviving this massive storm that rolls through. So like the grass retracts in the ground, the trees retract all their leaves. Super cool, super cool stuff. Very fun world building.

And he is the first person who can actually use Stormlight for something other than a torch. You know, a light source, an energy source.

And that's why your avatar on the show has the glowing blue eyes and the blue spear looking thing.

Yeah. When he's imbued with stormlight size glow when he has too much.

That's cool.

And they can fly and stuff.

That's just like a side note. They can fly and stuff?

Well, you know, I mean it's like their main thing.

But so I'm with them. Like, okay, how they get their power, their slaves, they're like bridge carriers. Help them with the war stuff.

Like, I assume the story is more than just they stop being slaves because like I feel like the powers are leading to something bigger than just. Yeah, we're tired of being slaves.

Yeah, yeah. So that desolation turns out that's actually a cycle that they are finding themselves in the crux of.

So you don't learn this early on, but they are trying to re establish the knight's radiant to stop another desolation. So Kaladin is really the first step in that. And then Bridge four becoming wind runners is. Is massive, super important world.

And then we get, you know, a bunch of other characters who are also making bonds with Sprint. So. Yeah.

So not just the bridge 4. Other people also have other people.

Yeah, yeah.

So the end goal is to what, stop the cycle of desolation?

Pretty much.

Okay, cool, cool. So the series is faces behind us. I'm interested how this like exactly how this fits in.

Because like I could see like the Spren being the face behind Kaladin and then Kaladin being the face behind the other ones is that I don't Know how does it fit in your mind as someone who actually knows what they're talking about?

No, you pretty much got it. Kaladin does have other inspirations. His dad is a big one for him. But also not kind of fell out with his dad because he's a slave now. Whatever.

Kaladin has some other inspirations. I would not consider any of them as significant as Sill, his Spren. So. Yeah.

Okay. So Sill, the Spren is the face behind Kaladin. What can you tell me about Sill? What makes her significant other than she's a spirit?

She's the daughter of the All Father. So there are levels? There are levels to this? Not all Spren are created equal. Honor Spren are kind of big special fancy Spren named Spren.

Not like Sil, like the All Father. Like named by everybody, not just Sprin. They have a name. Big huge deal. The All Father does bond with a person. He becomes a bondsmith. That's.

It's a whole big Dalinar. It's. Yeah, it is super cool. You should read the series. Anyway, Kaladin becomes just like a.

A massive source of inspiration because suddenly the members of Bridge 4 aren't dying. The members of Bridge 4 aren't getting hurt. Bridge 4 is doing really well because their power of flight is actually lashings.

They can impose a direction of pull that makes sense to you. So over time, you can make the bridge lighter. Literally. Lighter is no longer the most brag back breaking labor you can imagine.

It's still pretty high up there, but.

So did the Spren choose these people because they were slaves? Does that have anything to do with it?

Nope.

Or is it just coincidence?

Nope. It's coincidence. Well, Sil felt bad for him. She's kind of been around him his whole life as a. Just like a wind sprint. Like a thoughtless wind sprint.

And over time, they got you.

Well. So the army people, they're noticing that the bridge carriers aren't. Are doing better, aren't sucking as much.

Does that make them mad or are they like cool? Our Bridges are better.

It makes a couple of them mad. So the like post. Post apocalypse thing we're talking about. This is not the first order of the Knights Radiant.

The previous nights Radiant when they died.

There's a couple of ways for Knights Radiant to die, but usually if the knight dies and the Spren doesn't, in however way that needs to happen, their armor becomes just armor instead of something they can incorporate and discorporate. So once a knight says all four Id five ideals. Four ideals. It's kind of A scaling thing, as you say, the ideals, you unlock more of your powers.

But the fully realized Green Lantern to me. No, the fully realized. No, fully realized green light. Now you're making me say it. Fully realized Knights Radiant could summon their armor.

Their weapon could be anything. When they die, their weapons became mostly inert. Just super powerful big swords. Most of them were just really big swords.

Those are called shard blades. And. And shard plate is their armor, which just becomes super strong armor.

Shard blades can cut through anything except other shards like the shard plate, which is why they're both super powerful. The power of an army generally is dictated by how many shards they own. Typically Nobles, you know how knights go.

Does that have anything to do with the sprint? Is that, like, the more the knights understand what are dead Spren, the shards,.

Like the shard blades the Nobles use, the shard plate that they use, they're all dead Spren.

Is that why Spren don't really want to connect with them?

It plays a factor, but not quite.

In Wind and Truth, the most recent book, it actually has Adalyn Kolan, one of the nobles, who has a shard plate and a shard blade, trying to reforge his connection with Dead Sprint. His dead sprint. Because they can't really die. They. They kind of go through brain death, ego death, but they still exist. So it's really good.

Gotcha.

It's really good.

Interesting. So. Huh. So with this series, some of what we're trying to get to, I'm trying to.

I'm trying to think through this, because I'm just learning all this story all at once.

Yeah.

It's a lot what happens without Sill, without the Spren starting to make the connections again. Like, what would it play down?

Syl Kaladin dies in a chasm, drowning,.

Probably from the rains and trying to carry bridges.

Yeah.

As a slave. Yeah, that's.

Oh, no, no, he definitely dies in a chasm, drowned from rain, because that's when Sill saves his life.

Okay, but what. So the overall story, though, do they.

You know, I'm assuming without Sill, without the sprint, there's no way of them stopping the cycle, because they probably need the powers and all that for that to really play out.

Any Spren, it never would have happened, so.

Because they wouldn't have had all of the tools to create all the evil things.

Yeah.

Although humans might have found another way to do terrible things, because, sure, humans do so. But it would have been the same cycle.

Yeah.

Gotcha. Interesting. So then, without. Now I want to Know the other side though.

Like, without Kaladin, could Silva have attached to someone else and made a bond and thing played out? Does Kaladin really matter?

Yeah, I mean, he does. She still could have formed bond with someone else. She just probably wouldn't have. Someone else could have. I don't know. I'm a. I'm a timeline purist.

You know, I feel like if something's gonna happen, it's gonna happen.

This is what happened.

So. What do you mean this question? Because, like, yeah, what happened is the story. It has to happen.

Fair. Okay then. Well, then we'll go on to the other thing.

Would you rather in this scenario be one of the Spren or one of the knights who are making the bonds?

Knights radiant. There are some really cool knights Radiant powers. But that's not just. You've been with me for Disney World, right?

You know, I like to slide a lot on the wick. That's one of them Edge dancers.

So that's just what TJ is doing.

It's pretty sweet. I would probably. I would like to be a Windrunner. But yeah, I would probably be an Edge dancer. It's super sick. Or maybe a Dustbringer.

They have that same power in common. Super sick. Super sick. Now I want to just read all the books again, so.

But you were saying there is some merit to being a Sprint.

Yeah, I mean, it's cool. You're a spirit. You just kind of do whatever their emotion. Spren nature. Spren.

You know, like if you get really excited, little exclamation point shaped Sprint show up. It's really fun. Fun world. It's just funny. It's also why it's hard to adapt this as a series.

It's really difficult, actually.

Yeah.

The Amazon has the rights, by the way.

Or maybe I think Apple TV just acquired the rights to make a movie. Or somebody needs to.

Sounds like so. But like, wouldn't the Sprint have all the same powers? Like, why would you want to be one of the people you just be a Sprint have the same stuff.

Spren by themselves, except for the few exceptions. Like the named Spren don't have agency.

Interesting. So they're like spirits, but they can only work through participation kind of deal kind of.

They do have their own powers. They're kind of ancillary to others. Nature or man.

Gotcha. Okay, so I think I'm following how Spren relates to these people. Faces behind stuff. How does Kaladin inspire the other bridge 4?

I think that's what I'm missing.

Just literally he becomes first the most powerful person anyone knows. That's very inspiring. But he also. Raised by a surgeon. He is.

Even before he's able to try and heal other people with his stormlight, he's actually trying to keep these people alive. He cares about them, which, as slaves, not many people do. So he bonds with Bridge four very naturally.

Kind of becomes their leader, and he works them out of their fugue state, you know, brutal hard labor, slavery, and turns them into kind of a family.

And one by one, they form their own bonds with Windspearn just because they're, you know, in proximity to and being directly inspired by Kaladin and Sil.

That makes sense. So your avatar, whenever we started, the show could have been anything. You could have been Optimus prime with TJ head. You chose Kaladin Stormblast.

Was it because the design's really cool, or is there something about this character that really specifically is inspirational to you?

Yeah, he's awesome. He's just really cool, I think. Another one. I don't think character writing is Brandon Sanderson's strong suit.

However, I think Kaladin might be one of the best characters ever written. It's possible. The series does have some corniness to it a bit. MCU series once once in a while.

This last book was really hard to get through, actually, because bad things just always happen to Kaladin. That's his entire life.

So Spider Man, Batman, Khalid.

Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Maybe not in that order. Yeah.

Just not allowed to be happy, though. None of us can ever be happy.

Yeah. So he becomes the founder of the Knights Radiant. He's the first one to say all five ideals. And at one point, he. Wit.

I mean, I told you about Wit earlier. Kaladin is ascribed an impossible task. He's supposed to help one of the original Knights Radiant or the Honor Blades.

And interesting.

Carolyn's like, how am I supposed to do that? And Whit's like, you have to be his therapist. And it's like, what is that? What is that? So he's the world's first therapist here.

Phenomenal.

Love it. It's pretty funny. Yeah, it's pretty funny. It's not the. Not the bright spot of the book by far.

It does kind of take you out of the moment a little bit.

But.

Wait.

Is entertaining, though.

Yeah, it's entertaining.

So Kaladin does just kind of inspire people everywhere he goes because of Kaladin, you know, more and more people awake to an order of the Knights Radiant. Yeah. And it becomes a big, huge organization.

Is what's so inspirational about him. Is it just because he's so strong? Because he's like a good speaker. He's particularly in tune with the spirit. Like what? Exactly.

That's what I'm still trying to nail down.

So there is a pre strict cast system in their kingdom, at least the Alethi kingdom, and it's based on eye color. So when you bond with a Spren, your eyes become very, very light. Usually blue, not always blue. Usually blue.

So going from dark eyes to bright eyes is huge because all of a sudden there's this bright eyes guy. Running bridges, feeding slaves, working being a slave.

So that kind of rising against the machine, as it were, also very significant for a lot of the nobles are still like, yeah, yeah, that guy sucks. Somebody kill that guy. But some of them are like, oh, oh, now I see I'm not special anymore.

Interesting. So like he eyes thing change. He's more in tune. He's like feeding the hungry. Strong guy. Helping slaves is a slave. Okay.

Kaladin also does have a tremendous acumen for combat because unlike shard blades, he has an actual sprint. A living Spren who can be whatever weapon he wants her to be. So he can also fly a little bit, make other people fly. It's.

It's pretty spear. The look is pretty.

Yeah, it's pretty sick. It's pretty sick and it's pretty busted. And the army's like, I think we could use that guy. I think that guy could save a lot of lives.

So you mentioned the five ideas, and he's like the first one to say all five. Like, is saying these ideas or these principles, Is that what makes him more in tune with the spirit than others?

Or is it he gets attuned and then he knows the ideas?

Yeah, it's kind of both, but it's mostly once you're ready to say the ideal, you'll know it. You will know the words when you're ready to say the words. It's kind of how it works. He says them in like the last.

The fifth ideal, he says in the last 50 pages of the most recent book, maybe less.

That's cool.

Yeah. So he's the only fully realized night radiant as far as I can remember. Maybe Dalinar, Maybe the boss. Who knows?

I can't decide if this is because, like, we're doing systematic ecology and I'm overthinking it, or if this actually is supposed to feel spiritual, but, like, in my mind, it's making me think of like the Bible verse. That's like those who hear my word, know my word, and will follow kind of, you know, things, but those who haven't listened, won't know my word.

Is that kind of like he's Mormon. So he is actually definitely, entirely positive. It's funny, though, because it sounds almost Pentecostal. There's a lot of, like, let the spirit lead.

Then after the spirit leads, you'll learn the words rather than know this Bible. Then you'll find Jesus.

Yeah.

Isn't he Pentecostal? Are we outing him right now?

That'd be really cool, but I don't think so. They do call. They do call one of their spring the All Father, you know.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So it's definitely got some spiritual vibes here. So as far as things go, it's a very different world from our own.

But if you were to, in our real world, try to either be more like Kaladin or look for other people like Kaladin, or if you want to be more spirit led like he is, how do we do this? How do we find, you know, spirits to help lead us or be the kind of person who can help lead others like Kaladin does.

All right, well, there's only one spirit that can lead you. Amen.

Only one guy. Pretty sure he doesn't look like that, ma'.

Am. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Cap reference, you know, but it's. It's actually pretty easy to be like Kaladin, so it's.

It's kind of hard for me to say that he has inspired me, so I kind of already did that anyway.

Yeah. But, I mean, sometimes.

But he's very relatable. You know, if you can help someone that needs help, you should do it simple.

Yeah. You can make your eyes glow. You should.

You should.

No, you're probably not. That's probably terrible for yourself.

Don't. Yeah. It's just a matter of if you're willing to get one. I'm not, but go for it.

But the kind of inspiration that he invokes, it's just kind of being there to help people.

Yeah.

Feeding those who need food to do what you can. Yeah. As far as, like, spirit led since we got to this whole, like, when you're ready to say the words, you could say the words.

Do you think that's how, like, how it works with, like, our faith or, like, the divine. Do you think it's kind of more of like a. When you're ready to understand the Bible, then it'll make sense.

And if you're reading it and it doesn't make any sense, maybe you're just not ready or, like.

I mean. Yeah, generally. Generally, that's kind of how I feel like I was raised to read the Bible. Yeah.

I'm weird with this. Like, I love commentaries.

I think it's important to study, do all the hard work, and I think that that stuff is important for understanding the Bible. But having grown up Pentecostal, there's a lot of that whole, like, pray, let the Spirit just kind of tell you.

And I think that that's important sometimes to just kind of lean on that. I know my grandfather was a mechanic. Now, there's a. There's a lot of these stories where, like, people from all over the town he lived in.

He's in Kentucky.

Not a real huge town, but people would come see him with their car issues, and if he couldn't figure it out, he'd pray, go to sleep, and he would always dream how to fix it. And the next morning, he would just do whatever he dreamt and it worked out.

And, like, you know, not trying to do that Pentecostal, like, praying the Spirit's gonna fix everything. I don't think that's always true. You know, maybe a little bit of both true. Know the words. Yeah. Try to know the words. But I do think, you know, we.

I think we belittle the Spirit in, like, intellectual circles sometimes, and maybe we shouldn't. That's where I'm at.

I agree.

Yeah. Any. Any other thoughts? Behind the faces behind us? Kaladin Stormblusted. The Spree, I think, is what they're called.

Sprint Spree is candy. Spree is candy.

That's my recommendation.

Spree, the candy. They're pretty good.

No, but anything else is Spren. Kaladin Storm blessed the faces behind us. Anything before we start wrapping up?

Kaladin's influence on Bridge 4 allows the lopen. That's what he calls himself. His name's Lopen. He is a single amputee. He only has one arm.

We were just talking about Mossimo earlier, but Lopen has one arm, and living that life, you know, gets pretty rough. Two things I love about the Lopen. He's one of the better characters in the series. He's way up there. All of Bridgefort kind of is.

You can tell he put a lot of thought into each of them. Except Moash. That guy sucks.

But Lopen, even after he becomes a Windrunner and gets the power to regenerate with Stormlight, he just leaves the one arm because he's the Elopen. They Also, most of Bridge 4 kept their scars from their brands that marked them as slaves, just in defiance of the regime that used to stand.

Now where I'm going, Logan invents Burritos. That's where I was going.

We like. For real?

Yeah, for real.

Nice.

I don't remember what he called them, but they describe him and he's like. I meant the perfect food. You can eat it with one hand while you're walking.

That's. That's incredible.

Yeah.

I'm going to put a little bookmark on the. On the scars, on the forehead marking stuff, because that's going to be my bonus question about that, that forehead marking.

Because whenever I did the avatar, you were like, nope. Needs this.

Yep.

How to figure out how to do that. We'll talk about what that is. That'd be a bonus question. But anything else you want to. You want to add real quick, though.

It's a lot. All right. I'm not asking you to read the cosmere. That's ridiculous. That's like 40 books. I'm asking you to read five for now.

There will be 10 when he's done that. That's a long ways away. He's in the. He's taking a hiatus right now.

And they're big.

All mapped out. They're big books. I can go grab one. This is when the truth. It is rather large. Yeah.

And you don't understand why I think that's an intimidating read. Five of those.

Good. Longest one. It's the longest one so far.

Still a lot of books.

For someone with little time and little brain, that's a whole lot.

I think, outside of the Bible. Well, no. Leyland Mizrall is probably larger. That would still be like one of the three biggest books I've ever read.

They're long books and they're absolutely worth it if you're not a sass reader. Audiobooks, they're really, really good for this.

Now we're talking.

They're really good for this series. I've just kind of heard some clips from them. I'm not an audiobook enjoyer. I'm a physical book enjoyer.

But they are so incredibly worth it if you're to see.

That would have sold me.

Yeah, they're really, really good. Absolutely. Check them out and if they intimidate you a lot. Brandon Sanderson's other series, I also think are pretty. Generally pretty good.

If you're younger listening to this. Who listens? Why aren't you listening to Podcasts. You're so young. You have so much life to live. Elantris is really good.

The Reckoners is a really good, like, superhero story that he did. That's three books. Mistborn is phenomenal. I'd say it's the second best series. It's two trilogies and they're pretty reasonably sized.

Just a couple hundred to few hundred pages each.

Nice.

Also a really cool power system.

So really what we're building up to is how do all of these power systems coincide and what's the end game for this big universe being connected, intimately connected?

We'll find out when willpini why show up?

When will he show up? Who knows?

All right, well, on that note then, time to wrap this one up. And now I know it's an audiobook. I'm far more likely to read this.

Yeah, I mean, these are some of the biggest fantasy novels in the world right now. They have audiobooks.

Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. I don't know why I didn't think about that mentioned before.

Our extra question is just gonna be what the scar marking on the forehead is on TJ's avatar, Galladin Storm. Blessed. What's that about? We're gonna, I'm gonna ask him. For now, though, we do have to give a recommendation.

Tj, if you would recommend something, what do you, what do you recommend coming into our listeners today?

Something else.

I mean, it doesn't matter. It can be this if you want.

All right, well, for me, because I mentioned an earlier episode that I meant to start reading this again and I did start reading this again. Haven't finished it this time. Finished it once before, but it's been a while.

I'm reading Aleph, Aleph something G. Willow Wilson novel, Jinn and steampunk. You know, get some mystic, get some steampunk, learn about some more Islam culture, Muslim culture.

At the same time, it's, it's good, it's really good book and it's a lot of fun world building stuff. So I'm gonna recommend that one. Also, I want to recommend that you rate and review our show, wherever you're listening.

Get your podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever. Helps other people find the show. Which helps us continue to talk about books that we like.

So I will say I messed up the name. He's a surge binder, not a windrunner. Windrunner's thing is fly search bindings for lashings. Oh, there's a lot of Galadin.

Yeah, there's a lot of different orders.

Okay.

Because they tend to share a power with another one.

That makes sense. Also, I want to thank one of our financial supporters today. I'm shouting out Gunner Virgin. Who? I might be saying his name incorrect.

You also want your own shout out and for me to try to pronounce your name incorrectly. Sponsor our show. Go to the website links down in the show's description. Become an official member of cismacticology down there.

You can also get some free extra extra content, other merch, financial gift, whatever you want to do. There's a lot of stuff on the website to do, including checking out our annual themes. T shirt for the Faces Behind T shirt.

Again, looks great in purple. There's a few other color choices, but I recommend purple. Check it out.

And coming up soon for Easter. On Easter Day, we'll be releasing the Faces Behind Us, the Faces behind Aslan in Narnia. Yeah, we're gonna talk about that. It's gonna be a fun time.

And remember, we are all a chosen people. Geekdom. A priest.

Sa.