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The original was posted on /r/cremposting by /u/LostInTheSciFan on 2025-01-28 14:39:50+00:00.
Okay, I’d like to talk about something I haven’t seen anyone else talking about, which is rather surprising since it was one of my biggest takeaways from WaT.
In case you hadn’t known, Brandon has previously teased one of his ideas for a magic system (with the implication it would be an Invested Art in the Cosmere): kite-based magic. (IIRC this was mentioned on Intentionally Blank but it might’ve been elsewhere, idk.) Now, Brando Sando is basically the Hard Magic System guy, and I dunno about you, but I stormin’ love his magic systems, and I was excited to see what he would cook up with something as specific as kites.
This is where WaT comes in. I don’t have my copy on me so I can’t give you an exact page number, but IIRC when Mraize is describing other worlds he wants to visit, he mentions a world where people glide around on massive kites. That might not be where the mention is, I binge-read the book in 4 days and it’s kind of a haze, but who actually said it doesn’t really matter to my point here, the important bit is that someone mentioned another world in the Cosmere where people glide around on huge kites.
Let’s talk about kites. As anyone who has flown a kite will know, it’s kind of a finicky thing. It has to be windy, getting the kite in the air is a process, keeping it in the air is a chore, keeping it out of trees is a constant threat, and if anyone else is flying a kite nearby then things can get complicated. The more you think about it, the more this seems like shockingly fertile ground for a magic system, particularly in the Cosmere. American readers might be familiar with Benjamin Franklin’s kite-and-key shenanigans- I can imagine something similar, with a Shardworld with highly invested clouds or cloud-to-cloud lightning-like phenomena that have their investiture harvested by specialized kites. (Let’s be real, Brandon loves his magical meteorological phenomena.) Combat could involve keeping one’s kite in the air while channeling the investiture into something (yourself? other kites?), and there could be kite-to-kite combat with specialized strings for cutting others’ lines.
Wind and Truth took this possibility, threw it in the trash, and stomped on it. It reveals that the hinted-at kite-based magic system is about people gliding on kites. Well let me tell you something right now: people don’t glide on a kite. If someone’s on it, it’s not a kite. That’s just a glider. This is not a kite-based magic system, this is a glider-based magic system. Does Avatar Aang fly around on a kite? No, he flies around on a glider.
So, maybe I’m alone on this, but WaT has left me feeling cheated. I had such a clear picture of something great that was coming, but now that image has been shattered I just know I’m not going to enjoy what actually happens in its place because it’s not going to be as good as what I predicted. I just know that actually sticking to real kites would be a lot better than whatever Brandon has been planning for months if not years now. Anyone else feel this way?
(/uncrem Just to be clear, this is 100% a joke, I am hyped for glider kites and while I can see it being Whimsy’s Invested Art I kind of hope it’s something unexpected like Valor’s or Mercy’s.)