This article contains SPOILERS for The Wheel of Time through the end of the book series.
Last month, we had the honor of interviewing bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson about his works, including The Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, his new short fiction collection Tailored Realities, and more. It was a far-ranging discussion that touched on many different corners of the Cosmere, and we're very, very excited to share it with you.
All week long we've been celebrating its impending release with the "Week of Sanderson," where we've posted excerpts from the interview each day ahead of dropping the full discussion over the weekend. From new details about Sanderson's next Mistborn series Ghostbloods to how he purposely engineered Wind and Truth to challenge Stormlight fans to the future of the Cosmere and more, we've covered a lot of ground. Now we're back for one last excerpt before the climax.
Since we've gone deep into Sanderson's works over the course of the week and, it feels appropriate to take a breath before the finish line with a fun anecdote. Back when Sanderson was still an up-and-coming writer, he was tapped to finish The Wheel of Time, the iconic fantasy series by Robert Jordan, following Jordan's death in 2007. Sanderson's star was already on the rise by that point because of his Mistborn series, but The Wheel of Time launched his career into the stratosphere by introducing him to legions of Jordan's passionate fans, who in turn became Sanderson's fans.
This was fitting, because Sanderson himself had long been a huge fan of Jordan's works. This is part of why he was such a good fit for finishing The Wheel of Time. He has theories that many fans would find relatable and questions he never got to ask Jordan about personally, questions he didn't find solid answers to in the author's notes. He holds onto some of those theories to this day...such as the idea that Robert Jordan changed a major identity reveal because fans guessed it ahead of time.
When it comes to The Wheel of Time, Sanderson is truly one of us
The idea that Jordan might have changed a plot twist in The Wheel of Time came up during the interview while Sanderson was discussing plot twists in his own series, The Stormlight Archive. The latest book in the series, Wind and Truth, served as a climax to the first arc of the story, and had some of the Cosmere's biggest revelations yet. Several of those reveals are things Sanderson has been planning for quite a long time, just as Robert Jordan had to with The Wheel of Time.
"One of things you have to do when you're writing a book across 20 years, is you have to make a decision. And the decision is how well are you going to foreshadow your bombshells?" he explained. "I was able to kind of watch Robert Jordan and read his notes, and he never said, but I got the sense he got very annoyed that fans were guessing his bombshell revelations very early on. And you get this sense of annoyance from him."
"I have no evidence for this, but for Wheel of Time fans, I really think that he changed who Demandred was because fans guessed it. I think. I'm in that camp. The notes don't indicate either way, but I'm in that camp. "
Demandred is one of the Forsaken, a central group of antagonists who often pull strings from the shadows. As such, they frequently appear with secret identities, sometimes hiding in plain sight. Demandred comes into focus very late in the series, especially in the three final books which Sanderson wrote. But long before that, fans theorized that Demandred might in fact be Mazrim Taim, a False Dragon who Rand al'Thor comes into contact with in the sixth book, Lord of Chaos. Sanderson didn't mention Taim directly, but it certainly sounds like he's team Taimandred.
Sanderson's mentality on plot twists and fan theories
As for Sanderson's own work with The Stormlight Archive, he's committed to not altering the story because of fan theories. "One of the things I decided very early on was I was not going to change things because fans guessed them," he said. "It's important to me for multiple reasons, one being that I think the books will stand the test of time better if I don't, because people who don't have 12 years to guess things and just read the books straight through are not going to pick up [on the biggest twists]."
Despite the fact that some of the Cosmere's most hardcore fans guessed a few of its revelations ahead of time, Sanderson "kind of like[s]" that the foreshadowing in the series worked well enough for people to figure them out. "Part of it annoys me as an author because you're like, 'I can't fool these people anymore,'" he joked. "Part of me is like, well, a twist is all about the execution and not the actual twist, right? You don't twist just to have a twist. You twist because it makes the story and the characters more meaningful, and the narrative more meaningful in some way."
"I watched this in Wheel of Time, being part of the fandom," he continued. "People get so invested in the theories and reading the theories that when it is just one of the theories — like when Asmodean's killer was just one of the theories — a lot of people are like, 'That's it?' Well, it's like it can't not be that because you've now discussed every option ad nauseam, and to blow your minds it would require undermining the actual narrative of the story."
"I do hope to be able to blow people's minds now and then...but a lot of things like, you know what? I'm totally fine if you figure it out. That's why the foreshadowing's there, so that you can. If you couldn't, then those styles of twists are not good twists, in my opinion."
It's been quite a journey this week, and such a pleasure sharing it with you. This is our final excerpt before we share our full interview with Brandon Sanderson. Rest well, fellow Radiants. Tomorrow, we dive deep into full spoilers for Wind and Truth, reveal more about Mistborn Era 3, the future of the Cosmere, and more. See you then!
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.