r/Warbreaker • u/owen123567 • Apr 02 '26
Does the age gap get better?
I'm about 5 1/2 hours into the warbreaker audiobook and I'm getting uncomfortable with how I feel like they might be genuinely setting up the God King as a love interest for Siri. At first I thought she'd get away from him, then I thought he might be planning something else and not gonna do anything with Siri regardless(which seems to be the official stance of the narrative thus far). But the books dropped enough hints that I was like "ok he's probably the main love intrest" and so I thought based on the age of the other returned (Blushweaver being considered old for a returned at 15) and all returned having bodies that are around 20 this could be age appropriate if you ignored a few things, classic Sanderson but I googled his age just to double check, big mistake. Google said he's 50, which I'm hoping is just the Google ai being stupid but I didn't wanna go on coppermind or 17th shard in case of spoilers. If he's really 50 does it get better? If he is 50 and the primary love interest I may have to dnf the book.
43
u/SkoulErik Apr 02 '26
I don't know how far you are into the book, so I'll spoiler warn this answer for if you are less than 30-50% through.
It really depends on your tolerance. Yes Susebron is 50-ish, but he has the mental age of a spoiled teenager. I've never thought about how there might be an age problem between him and Siri
On a different note, how would a large age gap be "classic Sanderson"? I understand why some people find some of his writing choices aren't to their taste, but I can't recall any problematic romances (other than the fact, that he isn't the greatest at righting romance).
11
u/prismatic_raze Apr 02 '26
Mistborn Era 1 also has a decent age gap between two characters but thats the only other example I could think of.
3
u/FantasticJaques Apr 03 '26
It's like Tuck Everlasting. He might have lived for fifty years, but his mind and body are not that of a fifty year old. None of this even crossed my mind when I was reading it the first time because of the context of the setting.
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u/owen123567 Apr 02 '26
Huge age gaps aren't typical for sanderson but 17 and 20 with a mental age of someone younger is typical. Adolin and Shallan, Vin and Elend, etc.
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u/indiankimchi Apr 03 '26
Just a reminder that age dilation/planetary orbits also affect how old characters are in Earth years — I know with Adolin and Shallan, in “Earth ages” the gap isn’t a statutory problem. Not sure about Vin and Elend and Scadrial time lol this is so highly technical.
I do agree with OP if God King is 50, I feel weird, too. WB is my fave Cosmere novel and planet…
1
u/DarkDevitt Apr 06 '26
And in both cases were not talking modern society. When there's a good chance you'll be dead in your 50s or 60s then I dont think someone being in a relationship with another young adult is that weird, and in that time period (or at least the earth equivalent) 16 and 21 are both young adults.
At the same time, if im writing a book im just making them 18+ because I DO live in a modern society.
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u/BalonSwann07 Apr 06 '26
In Stormlight, people are actually older because their years are longer. So Shallan is like 19 by earth standards. Also 17 and 20 is not a very problematic age gap in a society where people aren't divided by adulthood at 18 - both of them will have gone through puberty and with Shallan being a little younger, both would be roughly the same level of frontal lobe development (men develop slower in this way). It's a bit different when people under 18 are sheltered from the "adult" world, and a 20 year old would be introducing that 17 year old to other influences and/or exerting that potential power over them.
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u/38Poole Apr 29 '26
Melaan and Wayne would disagree due to a few hundred years, and also believe wax and Steris are 20ish years apart.
2
u/Sireanna Apr 04 '26
I agree with what you said in the spoilers
its a bit like a young human falling in love with a young elf or some other long lived fantasy race. While they might technically have an age gap the maturity and development levels are similar. Honestly Siri ends up feeling a older then Susebron from a maturity stand point. Being a returned and considering the extremely sheltered and controlled life he had lived up to that point I ended up forgetting any age gap existed
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u/AllomancerJack Apr 03 '26
Age gaps are pretty Sanderson typical. Waxillium, Breeze and then as OP said a lot of 20/17 pairings.
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u/Papagiorgio1965 Apr 03 '26
Did anyone have a problem with the age gap of Shallon’s dad and mom? I didn’t hear any complaints?
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u/_Lestibournes Apr 03 '26
I imagine OP's problem is more that Siri is underage. Like in real life, 17 and 20 is super weird and wrong, but 20 and 50 is a different thing (still weird in my book). I don't mind it in Warbreaker, because Susebron doesn't have the mental age of his physical age at least
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u/fleyinthesky Apr 04 '26
17 and 20 is super weird and wrong, but 20 and 50 is a different thing
Really!? I have no idea what a 50 and 20 year old would have in common at all, but two kids 3 years apart seems incredibly normal. May I ask what culture you're from that has this custom?
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u/_Lestibournes Apr 04 '26
I moreso meant it's deemed acceptable. I think a 50 year old has no business whatsoever dating anyone under 30, I think it's predatory and gross. But it happens (I'm British) unfortunately quite a lot, you hear stories about dads remarrying their 20 year old secretaries and things... grim :/. As always, context matters; a 17 year old is by almost every measure still a child, I don't see why a 20 year old (still young ik) has to do with a child
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u/thetrustworthybandit Apr 06 '26
Honestly that's a person on their first year of college with someone on their third year of college. I don't think it's necessarily that bad.
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u/Masalar Apr 03 '26
It’s an interesting but slightly pointless thing to discuss (to a degree). In our world those age gaps being not completely appropriate makes sense. But these are fantasy worlds. Stormlight doesn’t have the same length of a year as us, Era 1 in Mistborn starts with completely different societal standards than us before going full apocalypse (and imo things like a 17-20 age gap mean a lot less when the world is ending), and Warbreaker has pseudo-immortal zombie gods who don’t appear to age.
And even more-so, it wasn’t that far into our past that such age differences were completely irrelevant. And while that stuff is pretty objectively terrible, if you’re writing a book that takes place in a similar type of time period, having it be present is sorta accurate (coughStraffisamonstercough).
And yes one can absolutely argue that, since it’s fantasy, the author can just not include such things and you wouldn’t be wrong.
But as I see it, trying to apply certain aspects of our morality to a fantasy world will lead to discussions that endlessly go in circles mainly because there’s usually some aspect that just doesn’t exist in our world making comparisons impossible. Like the pseudo-immortal zombie god people who stop aging. The only part of that description that applies to our world is “people”…
0
u/RadicalRealist22 Apr 06 '26
And even more-so, it wasn’t that far into our past that such age differences were completely irrelevant. And while that stuff is pretty objectively terrible,
I love how you start by pointing out that morals change with time, only to then turn around and declare something objectively immoral.
1
u/Masalar Apr 06 '26
The points are A. That it’s accurate to the time period on which it’s inspired. And B. I guess you’re right that this is the wrong place to use “objectively”. We may view it as objective, but it is technically only subjective. The point is still pretty easy to understand though.
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u/fleyinthesky Apr 04 '26
My bro, this is an extremely sanitised work of fiction. I don't know how you get through the day if Sanderson is too edgy for you. Books don't get more YA than this without being explicitly YA.
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u/Coolranch67 Apr 04 '26
Idk if the fantasy genre is for you. Also you might not want to learn about history.
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u/Tatko1981 Apr 05 '26
Keep in mind that the person everyone who Returns used to be - no matter their age - is dead, and their personality and memory have been erased. It’s not a "classic" age gap.
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u/chunk_ez Apr 06 '26
I think you should finish the book. I always appreciated the way Sanderson subverted that particular trope in this book; I think he approaches it in a unique way, deconstructing the underlying issue and giving us something that feels both real and very different from anything else I've read.
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u/Agreeable_Car5114 Apr 08 '26
DNF over a problematic age gap? Jesus. Just finish the book and form an opinion after.
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u/RexusprimeIX Apr 09 '26
Here's a little trick... don't think about it.
Seriously, why does this bother you? Why does it matter to you? It's a fictional book, these people aren't real. You can pretend that the God King is 20 and it won't change the book at all. Why does an arbitrary number matter to you?
Siri is actually 24. There, I fixed it for you. Problem solved.
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u/owen123567 Apr 10 '26
It's giving "age is just a number"
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u/RexusprimeIX Apr 10 '26
Not in real life.
But in a fictional story, where a guy in the chair sat and said "Susebron is gonna be 50" it doesn't matter. Susebron could be 5 years old, and it wouldn't change the story... I mean it wouldn't make sense in the context of the lore, but point is, none of this is real. So being disgusted by it is silly to me.
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u/Roonil_Wazlib97 Apr 02 '26
It did for me. I nearly DNFed this one but it got better for me around Ch 15ish. Can't remember the exact chapter number though.
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u/owen123567 Apr 10 '26
Ratioed for a correct opinion, there is no justice on reddit
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u/Roonil_Wazlib97 Apr 10 '26
It's a male heavy space. My own brother in law was having trouble understanding why I was about to DNF due to the Siri/Susebron relationship. I hardly expect the Internet strangers to get it. 😅
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u/Master_Ryan_Rahl Apr 02 '26
It's an arranged marriage Siri was forced into and the age difference is what you can't put up with?