5 of the Best Moments in Wind & Truth – Stormlight Archive

Wind and Truth is the epic conclusion to the first half of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series. While it doesn’t wrap the series up, it does tie up a lot of loose ends, and the entire back half of the book feels like one big crescendo.

This means there are many epic moments in the book — either because they’re payoffs for long-standing plot threads, or because they stand on their own as really freakin’ cool. There are also more subdued moments that are funny or simply sweet. All told, there were a lot to choose from, but below they have been narrowed down to just five of the absolute best moments in Wind and Truth.

WARNING: Major spoilers for Wind and Truth ahead!

#5 – Dalinar enjoys some bread

Dalinar took a bite of bread. “You saw my life, parts of it, as you made the visions for me.”
“Yes.” “You remember the one with the barrels of oil?” “That one played out wrong,” Honor’s power whispered. “You were supposed to burn the room, and all in it. Why do you do what is wrong? There was another you there, who understood.”
Storms. This bread really was good.

Ch. 142, p. 1276

This scene is near the end of the book, after Dalinar has taken up the power of Honor. He’s in a vision with Nohadan, trying to figure out how he can deal with Odium, and Nohadan gives him some “Shin bread”. It’s arguably the most important scene in the book, but despite the seriousness of the situation, Dalinar ends up eating some bread — and really enjoying it. The fact that it’s just bread with butter and salt makes this so believable: it’s a universally enjoyed food that most people would agree is really good, and if you were an adult who’d never had it before, it probably would blow your mind. But regardless of if it is believable or not, it’s hilarious that at the climax of the book, Dalinar takes a moment to really appreciate the magic of bread.

#4 – The Stormwall entering battle

Finally a fifth man dropped, the one they called the Stormwall. Dami, the Riran Stoneward. Shardplate formed around him—the largest, bulkiest suit Sigzil had ever seen, glowing a dangerous golden orange at its symbol and joints. In that armor, Dami stood a head taller than even the four conventional Shardbearers… …The Stormwall didn’t summon a Shardblade, but an imposing tower shield, spiked and as tall as he was. He slammed it to the ground in front of him, then shoved a Magnified One out of the way while hitting another with a fist that crushed its face.

Ch 63, p. 622

The Stormlight Archive has a lot of cool characters, but it does somewhat lack in true badasses. The ones we do have, like Dalinar or Kaladin, have either stopped being badass, or else are tempered by their Oaths or their personalities. So it was a nice change of pace to be introduced to the Stormwall, a badass with no qualifiers. The fact that he uses a huge shield instead of a Shardblade rules, as does his associated nickname. Everyone even refers to him as “The Stormwall” when discussing him in the third person. Awesome. Him getting dropped into battle from the sky via Windrunner is the icing on the cake.

#3 – Jasnah losing the debate

Jasnah trembled, and inwardly marveled at what Taravangian had done. He’d made her stay up all night, preparing political arguments so she now buzzed with exhaustionspren. Then he’d cornered her and besmirched her character and turned her very moral framework against her. He had come armed not merely with politics, but with the truth.

Ch. 116, p. 1071

We’ve spent a lot of time across four other books seeing Jasnah as the unimpeachably clever character — the one who is always prepared, never perturbed. To see her so utterly destroyed in a debate was kind of hard to read, but it was also too impressive to not appreciate. I was rooting for Jasnah to win, but by the end of the chapter, it was hard to fault Queen Fen for making her deal with Taravangian. The way he turns Jasnah’s own philosophies against her was masterful, and the fact that he told her from the start it was going to be Jasnah who convinced Fen to join him makes it even more impressive. Jasnah’s very smart — but not smart enough to outwit a version of Taravangian with godlike powers, as it turns out.

#2 – Kaladin standing

Storms, Kaladin thought. I have to help them.
It was a laughable thought. How could he help? He was barely functional. It was all he could do to stand there.
But stand. Kaladin. DID.
And somehow it helped. Seeing someone else resist helped. Szeth, groaning, managed to look up at him. Syl stirred.
“How?” Ishar repeated. “What are you?” He gestured toward Szeth. “Are you … are you his spren? His god?” “No,” Kaladin said. “I’m his therapist.”

Ch. 139, p. 1256

It was hard to pick just one “Kaladin the therapist” scene, since there were so many good ones. This is the climax of Kaladin’s therapy arc, and it’s a standout even amongst all the other climactic end-of-book moments. In a way, it’s the opposite of the Jasnah scene — Kaladin has spent the whole series being depressed, and it’s his constant battles against the darkness inside that prepared him for this crucial moment. In it, he stands strong despite feeling the suffering of a man who has lived thousands of years. Ishar’s surprised response makes Kaladin’s feat all the more impressive — the Herald asks Kaladin if he’s a god! His reply, “No, I’m his therapist” made me laugh out loud.

#1 – The deadeyes arriving in Azimir

The ashspren opened her mouth and forced out a few sounds. “Wa … wa … tch…” “
Watchers,” Adolin said, “at the rim.”

Ch. 135, p. 1231

Why does Adolin get all the epic battle moments? OK, that was a silly question. This scene in Wind and Truth has officially supplanted Adolin’s 1v4 duel as my favorite epic Adolin moment, however. It’s preceded by the Kholin warrior doing an incredible job fighting against an opponent with Shards despite being on a fresh peg-leg, which was another epic moment that was tough to top. But when the desiccated ash spren stammers while trying to express why they’ve come with Maya to help fight, I might have teared up a bit. So much of Stormlight Archive is about struggle, about doing the right thing regardless of the cost to you — and the deadeyes’ willingness to come back and fight to protect people, despite what happened to them, is a great example of that spirit of bravery.

This was very tough — there are a dozen more moments I could have included happily. Let us know your favorite Wind and Truth moments in the comments below!