Heroes, Villains, Gods & Monsters: We’re All Only Human

How ‘Wicked’ and ‘Wind and Truth’ reminded me that authority is merely a mask

The Wizard

I’ll level with you, I only thought to include Wicked in the subtitle because of the song I chose to include above (give it a listen!) and then because I took courses on trends and SEO. 

But! The fact that Oz is currently (or was recently) in the cultural zeitgeist is also deeply important because it gives a popular parallel for the ideas I want to write about today. (And Ghost were referencing the Wizard back in 2022, so I’d say it’s a fairly recognizable touchstone regardless.)

The Wizard of Oz, pulling levers and maintaining his carefully crafted illusions, is a potent reminder that power and authority are always projected through a lens, or mask, such that people see only what they are supposed to see.

In the Wizard’s case, this is further emphasized by his actual abilities being far less than he implies; like so many real figures, he rules with his fearsome bark despite having no bite to speak of. Though as Wicked (2024) shows, people wielding this illusory power will also desperately try to control anyone capable of the real thing.

Wind and Truth

That isn’t quite the case in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive, even considering the revelations we got in Wind and Truth. (Spoilers ahead for that book; you can find much of my past writing about the series here.)

There's a lot going on in Wind and Truth, as you might expect for a novel clocking in at 1,344 pages. One theme that I really only understood as I began thinking about this piece is that there is a lot of humanizing in this book – here more meaning 'granting personhood' considering the number of non-human characters involved, whether they be Singers, Shards or Spren.

We learn a lot about mythical figures like the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and Herald Ishar, seeing the underlying suffering and dreams behind their world-shattering actions and millennia-spanning lives. This will certainly serve to make the back half of the series (and re-reads of the front) all the more tense and engaging, since we'll be seeing conflict between more empathetic and fleshed-out characters.

But the most profound revelation to me in this area was about the three gods (Shards) of Stormlight. We already knew they were once normal people – sure Cultivation was a dragon, but those are people too around these parts – but as always, there's a profound difference between expectation (knowing) and reality (seeing firsthand).

Through the eyes of Tanavast, Vessel of Honor, we learn that he and Rayse, Vessel of Odium, were on deeply unfriendly terms long before they each ascended to aspects of godhood. Tanavast worked as a simple tanner, and was a kind man with a fondness for dogs. He participated in the Shattering because he thought it would be a kindness to both Adonalsium and the Cosmere. Rayse was cruel and clever from the start, every action he took – including the Shattering – for his own self-interest.

Rayse as Odium in Human and Singer forms, art by Felix Abel Klaer

Tanavast admits that he was not a good fit for Honor, particularly when forced into a millennia-spanning struggle with Rayse as Odium, who still taunted and bullied his rival even as he had in their mortal lives. Tanavast wanted to help people, where Honor wanted justice. This tension ultimately led to his death and the splintering of Honor.

All of which would have been nearly incomprehensible to me before reading this book, let alone for the characters who have lived their lives worshiping Tanavast as their one true god. It's amazing to see the difference perspective can make, when you see the mask fall away.

Three final notes:

Though Wind and Truth focuses on Honor and Odium, I think Cultivation is just as powerful an example of this. Despite being a wise dragon, mother figure and the literal god of care and planning, she spends both this book and her ten thousand years on Roshar fucking up catastrophically: blind to her husband Tanavast's struggles and the threat Odium poses, then serving up both Shards to Taravangian on a silver platter. Tanavast and Rayse's stories are done, but Koravellium Avast's may be still to come.

Speaking of Taravangian (whom I wrote about here), it will be fascinating to see a very dangerous but very human mind move forward as Retribution – the new Shard formed by the combination of Honor and Odium. A scene late in the book makes clear that Taravangian isn't as imperturbable as he would have the universe believe, having secretly saved his loved ones' souls when Cultivation moved against them. I'll also be fascinated to see how much his new Intent meshes with his goal of 'saving' the Cosmere.

Intriguing as hell but only a hint at this point, the dormant Shard of Honor began gaining a sentience of its own in the years following Tanavast's death. The book ends with Dalinar placing his hope – and the fate of the Cosmere – in this nascent intelligence, that it will one day grow enough to break Taravangian and Odium from within. Is there still a mask when the person is the power? It will be very interesting to see where Sanderson goes with it.

The Death of Honor, art by Ari Ibarra

Takeaways // On the Horizon

I was going to have a whole section dedicated to our own frail reality, but you get it. These assholes only have as much power as people believe they do. Behind their masks, they're far dumber and more human than you can even imagine.

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For once in my life, I can actually offer some small insight into what the next two weeks will look like around here. (Don’t get used to it or anything.)

Next week will mark two years of writing here, so as I did in 2024 I’ll be taking a look back at the journey so far.

Two of my book clubs this month are reading vampire novels, and the first (Stephen Graham Jones’ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter) already has me chomping at the bit to write Part IX. We’ll see whether I end up writing about both books together or saving the second for a Part X, but you can look forward to at least a little more fanged action before New Years.

Thanks as always for reading and until next time <3