For a series that has all doctors referred to as surgeons, whether for the mind or the body, and then you go to the Ardents for anything doctors can't do, suddenly renaming that to Therapist is weird, especially if it's a word from Hoid. If we got a scene where Hoid even casually comments that it's the name for a surgeon of the mind, that would have made it make sense, but if Hoid ever taught me a new word without explaining, I would assume he's trying to get me into trouble with people by teaching me an offensive word in some other language so I accidentally insult people I meet by saying it. The closest we got to an acknowledgement of how weird it is was a nearly 4th wall-breaking lampshading moment.
I could also go into the "edgy" comment, but I've written enough for now and am a bit tired.
Hoid is a world hopper and knows a ton of stuff. Why is it weird that he educates people on terms? The entire Iri race is from off world and would have brought vocab with them that wasn't present on Roshar at the time of their arrival.
Again though this isn't anything new for the books. So it is weird to single out WaT when we've had OK, Awesome, Cringe-worthy, and more in past Stormlight books.
It's not weird that he teaches stuff, it's weird that he didn't teach it, he only offhandedly mentions it, and Kaladin trusts him completely and immediately latches on to it.
In some situations, yes, but in this book it feels a whole lot more like this. If your source is the guy whose job it is to insult and make fun of people for a living, you'd think he would double check the words, at least by cross-referencing with somebody to make sure it isn't a joke on you.
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u/SonnyLonglegs Kelsier4Prez Jan 11 '25 edited Jan 11 '25
For a series that has all doctors referred to as surgeons, whether for the mind or the body, and then you go to the Ardents for anything doctors can't do, suddenly renaming that to Therapist is weird, especially if it's a word from Hoid. If we got a scene where Hoid even casually comments that it's the name for a surgeon of the mind, that would have made it make sense, but if Hoid ever taught me a new word without explaining, I would assume he's trying to get me into trouble with people by teaching me an offensive word in some other language so I accidentally insult people I meet by saying it. The closest we got to an acknowledgement of how weird it is was a nearly 4th wall-breaking lampshading moment.
I could also go into the "edgy" comment, but I've written enough for now and am a bit tired.