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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1686 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 19, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Today I got schooled about Brandon Sanderson on Discord. I made confident claims about Brandon Sanderson's writing: I said that his stories always have the same characters that go through the same arc that can be summarized as "angsty teen gets superpowers". However, this attracted the ire of the Chadliest Brandon Sanderson fan on this Earth, who wrote the following:

Except that's literally not most of his stories.

Of all his Cosmere books that in fact only describes the original mistborn series. It also describes Skyward but that's not Cosmere Doesn't apply to Stormlight, Mistborn 2, Elantris, Warbreaker, Tress, Sunlit Man, Emberdark, White Sand,.Yumi, or Emperor's Soul

So if you take something that's true of only 1 story out of over a dozen you're not going to convince people you know something about how he writes generally

If you want to say you don't like his prose, I get that, he writes in a very accessible and simple way that some people find boring. If you want to say you don't like his magic systems because they're formulaic and take away the mystery, I get that, it's a matter of taste. If you want to say you don't like that he doesn't write more graphic sex or violence and so you feel like it's juvenile, I get that, again, it's preference (though I might judge you for a lack of imagination). I've heard all those criticisms and they're valid

But when you say something that is just objectively incorrect, it only reveals you don't actually know what you're claiming, and you're basing it off incorrect shit you've heard off reddit or whatever

The thought upon reading this was "oh fuck, I just got owned". It's been a while since I've been owned this hard, and it was over Brandon Sanderson, of all things. So, for your own health, please be careful before you shit talk Brandon Sanderson. Always be sure that the person you're talking to isn't actually an Undertaker that can put you through 4 different tables at Summer Slam.

I don't really know why I don't like Brandon Sanderson stories anymore. If I had a checklist of boxes that needed to be filled in for me to enjoy a story, most of his stories would check all the boxes. I did enjoy quite a few of his books, I'd estimate I've read about 10 of them. Mistborn series, some of Alloy of Law, steelheart, way of kings, elantris, etc.

There is something that feels samey about the plot and arcs of all the books. And I often find my mind wandering to other topics while I read his books now. Its possible I just read too much of him.

There is something that feels samey about the plot and arcs of all the books.

He's the McDonald's of fantasy. Billions served, and you'll get the same assembly-line experience every time. And if you find it's not to your liking, that is simply an indication that your palate has matured. There's a place for McDonald's, and there's a place for Brandon Sanderson. But it has been many years since I particularly enjoyed either.

There are two ways to evolve the pallet. One is to go to nicer restaurants and eventually wind up in high cuisine where food is optimized for human consumption. The other is to go dumpster diving for unique tastes.

You can definitely find pallets near dumpsters, but I don't know that there's much evolutionary headroom for them.

That is part of the dumpster diving experience in literature, homophone words used consistently incorrectly.

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