#jaswit

[nooneinnportant]

I find it so poetic that Jasnah, being a veristitalian she strives for unbiased and factual "reconstructions" of past historical events in order to understand the present and be prepared for the future.

But you cant have unbiased accounts of history at least not completely. Because we as human beings cannot help but be biased. And I find it is so fitting for her character to try to remove this vital human aspect from history in the name of the greater good.

While Hoid, on the other hand, has spent the past ten thousand years spreading stories all across the universe, and all stories are, at their core, just really biased accounts of real historical events.

Hoid, unlike Jasnah, doesn't try to remove those vital human aspects of history but in fact adds to them so that the people of the present can learn from the mistakes of the past and build towards a better future.

They're doing the same exact thing but approaching it in such vastly different angels and It informs us so much about both of their respective characters and how they view the world. They're both such perfect foils of each other not just in this particular instance but in so many other facets too that it genuinely makes me want to go insane.

[spellbound037]

There's something truly wild in the fact that Jasnah "No communication" Kholin dumps her one and only boyfriend for... not communicating. (And she did it by leaving a letter on his pillow, couldn't even get it delivered.)

[natequarter]

jasnah and wit are really fun if you keep in mind the whole thing is one elaborate game. i mean, for fuck's sake, he's her legally-enforced insult man. he's her pet jester. this is an inherently weird dynamic even before you throw in the fact that he's 10,000 years old and bad in bed, or that she's an atheist and he killed god. they're both playing endless games, performing for an audience. they're playing rulers, playing heroes, playing gender. he's a storyteller, she's a historian. they can run rings around most of the people on roshar, immortal heralds included. there are very, very few people around who can keep up with the pace their minds move at. they both have secrets they're never telling anyone, including each other, such as what they're doing, or planning, or what their intentions are. despite the various power imbalances (some in favour of jasnah, others in favour of hoid), these two are maybe the only people in the cosmere who can truly consider each other intellectual equals. is it a romance? in the conventional sense, no. i think if you asked hoid if he was a romantic, he would view it in the sense of the literary movement - Romantic, not romantic. whether this is true or not is, of course, irrelevant. they don't plan on spending the rest of their lives together, in part because that's literally just not possible. i don't think it's even particularly written to be a romance - and that's to their advantage, because their dynamic is so dubious and weird that romance is really underselling it. it's just another layer to the game they're playing with each other - because together they can brush past the idiocies and formalities of everyone else's tediously limited minds and play with words and feelings and what it means to be alive. and that, to me, is infinitely more interesting than any of the genuine romances going on behind them.

[sankta-wraith]

In that scene in RoW where Wit kisses Jasnah’s hand, she makes a little offhand (heh. I’m amusing) remark about how he’s doing it to try and “evoke passion” in her or something like that, and while that could be true, personally I think he was just doin it because he wanted to. If you think about it, he lives a pretty lonely life, bouncing from planet to planet, never staying long, never forming proper bonds with anyone. When was the last time he got to engage in such domestic intimacy? When was the last time he had someone with whom he wanted to? He meets so many people, from so many different worlds, and yet there’s almost no one in the Cosmere who really knows him at all. It must be incredibly rare for him to find someone he’ll allow to know him, even the smallest bit. So sure, maybe he’s just trying to “evoke passion” in her, or maybe he’s reveling in the fact that he has someone he cares for enough to want to kiss her hand.

[erratic-dragon-fruit]

Jasnah (drunk): you know, if you really think about it, trees are like crabs. but plants. Wit: I was a tree once. I didn't like it

[elsecaller-alora-sedai]

So ik the jaswit divorce was inevitable, but as an ostracized demi/ace INTJ nerd (but more into liberal arts than science) and Weird Bookworm Kid, I relate to Jasnah more than almost any other fictional character ever and am I wrong for wanting them to work out? 😭

Just… the meeting of minds. Two brilliant but lonely misfits finding someone who actually understands them. Challenges them. Takes care of them when they can.

I hope there’s more to their story ahead, and I hope things get better than book 5. In the meantime, I’ll be rereading the jaswit highlights of book 4 and thinking about Them as I plot too many d&d campaigns

[purple-egg-yolk]

Being in a fandom can be so good for figuring out literary analysis. I saw some posts about how people would like for Jasnah and wit to have a kid, which I get their reasoning for but also vehemently disagree with haha (Jasnah would hate having kids, she doesn’t even like having a ward and she’s bad at it). But anyways I have an assignment rn where we need to come up with a “contestable claim” about a passage of our choice from the odyssey. I’ve been agonizing over this, what do you mean by a contestable claim?? And it struck me while reading this post that ah, “Pregnant Jasnah is a good thing” is a contestable claim. Now I just do that for the Odyssey.

Pregnant Odysseus anyone?

[cosmereplay]

🍬 jaswit? happy Halloween!!!

Thank you! Here is a treat for you! Rated just on the Mature side for some suggestive and murderous language.

Jasnah's rage burned like the fire of a thousand stars. Looking down at the pages of proof—statements from witnesses, purchase histories, death records from the Devotaries—she wanted to rush out into the darkness, summon her Blade, and kill the man behind this trail of misery.

“Darling, you look like you’re about to Soulcast that desk to oil, Soulcast the oil to fire, then find a way to explode the fire. Can I help you in any way? Massage? Draw you a bath? Murder?”

Jasnah threw Hoid a glare. Now was not the time for jokes

“Murder it is,” he said smoothly, unperturbed by her intensity. He got up from the sofa where he’d been lounging and leaned over the desk. He rested his hands on the pages, but looked at her. “I could help you bury– ah, hells, how do they say it on Roshar?” “I could help you burn the body,” Jasnah muttered, shuffling the pages uselessly.  “Of course! Although you wouldn’t actually need my help to do that…” He trailed off, following her with his eyes as she stood, then started pacing.  Her anger burned from within. “I have, I can, and I will work with murderers and liars. I understand the necessity of it, particularly among the Highprinces, and I recognize the inclusion of myself within those labels. But I draw the line at the abuse of women and children. Ruthar has made an enemy of me today.”

Eyebrows raised in interest, Hoid perused the pages as Jasnah continued to pace. “If only I could challenge him to a duel!” she spat. “I would tear him open from asshole to forehead!” “I see I’ve started to rub off on you,” Hoid said with a smirking tone. “Vulgarity doesn’t suit your queenly alter, but it certainly does alter the fit of my suit.”  Jasnah didn’t have to look at him to know he had winked and/or gestured towards his crotch. She rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. Then, letting her anger get the best of her, she swung around, summoning Ivory, and pointed the Blade at his heart. “What you need to alter is the proportion of time you spend anciently wise, clever, and unfathomably inappropriate. That would suit me. Or perhaps I should practice my swordsmanship on you, one limb at a time, which would also alter the fit of your suit.” Angerspren pooled at her feet. He fell to his knees with his hands over his heart, half in awe, half mockingly, which was as disarming as a well-placed joke. Storms, he was a well-placed joke. She allowed her face to relax, and the angerspren faded on their own. Hoid smiled back at her, unmoving.  “So, my dear Wit, how can I destroy this man without killing him in a duel?” She met his eyes, searching their ancient depths for answers. Was there a way she could solve multiple problems at once? She knew that he knew that she was not as respected as she should be among the Highprinces. They both knew the mess the laws were currently in. They both knew the importance of developing an image, a reputation. Perhaps she could banish the man, as Dalinar had done with Roshone all those years ago? She dismissed the idea. She also knew Stormblessed’s side of that story. An abuser banished was an abuser who could act with impunity.  Hoid shifted on his knees, resting his hands on his thighs. He knew she liked him in that position, and she knew he was placating her right now. She could almost accept that. “What if you did challenge him to a duel?” he asked. Jasnah raised an elegant eyebrow. “He’s an experienced duellist and I’ve hardly mastered the basics. I don’t believe winning would be a reasonable possibility. Although…” She caught on to what he was really saying, and felt her anger Soulcast to excitement. She started to pace again, accentuating her point with Ivory. “If I challenged him to a duel, he would likely refuse, on the grounds of how demeaning it would be for him to fight a woman.” “He’s arrogant and vile, and his lack of Alethi honour would shine through in a moment like that, particularly if he were in front of the other Highprinces at the time,” Hoid added. “But if it were set up properly, he would have no legal recourse to refuse, and then I could burn his soul from the inside out!” She stepped in the practiced moves of a kata, swinging Ivory, then stopping at Hoid’s neck.  He just smiled, his deep eyes sparkling with something between admiration and worship. Jasnah dismissed Ivory, feeling pleased. This could work. She could galvanize her power as Queen while dispatching a monster.  Fondly, she stood in front of her Wit, and reached out to bury her hand in his carefully coiffed black hair. “So very clever,” she preened, petting him. “You’ve pleased me.” He closed his eyes and hummed sensually, smiling. Pleasure for pleasure. What a wonderful arrangement. She didn’t mind offering parts of herself for him to kiss and get off to, if she could picture Ruthar’s eyes burning, and work out the details of how quickly she could organize it. She might actually get to relax tonight.

For my Halloween ask game