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Mordiceius posted:While listening today, I came to a realization. Brandon was asked about this directly: "Shardblades aren't inspired by keyblades specifically, though there is a core inspiration that might be shared by both myself and the creators. While I did play the first kingdom hearts game when it came out, the first draft of The Way of Kings was well under way when the game was released. However, I did play all of the final fantasy games--I had the first on original Nintendo, so get off my lawn, you kids. The origin of Shardblades relates to fantasy games and art in general, and the concept of the stylized sword which is also horribly impractical. In a lot of my writing, I react toward or against the fantasy archetypes of my youth in the 80s and 90s. When designing the Stormlight Archive, one of the things I asked myself was, "Can I make a situation where these oversized, over-stylized blades are actually practical? Why in the world would you need a weapon like that? And how do you actually use one?" (Not sure if you two actually know about this mechanic at this point or not so spoiling last sentence just in case but it's a minor thing about how shardblades work) Making the blades summonable seemed one of the only ways that carrying one around would be reasonable."
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Aug 7, 2023 18:53
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Ojjeorago posted:(Not sure if you two actually know about this mechanic at this point or not so spoiling last sentence just in case but it's a minor thing about how shardblades work) I wouldn't really consider that a spoiler per se. If he really wanted things inspired by video games all of the swordbearers should have to have the sword fastened to their back, but for some reason floating 6 inches away from their body. Thanks for the quote btw. I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt the connection.
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Aug 7, 2023 18:57
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For a completely different topic (Rhythm of War spoilers), is it just me or is there no prospective love interest for Kaladin on the horizon right now? He's on his way to Shinovar right now, and Szeth is not likely to be the one for Kaladin, due to the Law of Conversation of Straightness, which states that there can only be so many queer characters in a fictional work not explicitly targeted at queer audiences. We have ace Jasnah, gay Drehy and his lover, the trans king of the Rishi Isles, plus of course the much more prominent upcoming gay pairing confirmed per WoB whose members will likely play a bigger role after the time skip. So no Szeth/Kaladin. Maybe Kal finds a nice girl in Shinovar, but that would be a bit strange, especially with the time skip coming up. Then we have the female characters we already know about, but it's really not evident who could be the right one for Kaladin, especially since most are unavailable by default. From the three prominent women, Jasnah is out for various reasons, among them being partnered already, ditto for Navani. Which leaves Shallan, but I feel like that chapter was closed with a lot of finality in Oathbringer. Not to mention that in all vaguely realistic scenarios, Adoling would have to bite it, and I can't even think about that. If Brandon fridges Adolin before the time skip, I will be really pissed off. Which leaves some less important female characters. He's Lyn's direct superior, so that would be icky. And then there's the Lightweaver with Shallan, but they had next to no contact. Who's left, Rysn?? So there's no real obvious woman who could be partnered with Kaladin, not to mention the fact that Kaladin's mental state might make him unable to be in a relationship anyway. I had the impression that he's pretty ace when he's in his depressive phases. And even though he got a bit "better" after RoW, his mental issues have by no means been "solved", and I don't think Brandon would go that route. So there's a pretty high possibility that Kaladin will go into the time skip unpaired, which is pretty rare for one of the three main characters in a series, especially for the mid 20s character. And it's not even that his longstanding LI will get killed before the time skip, no he never really had a relationship in the first five books (ignoring Laral). I find this quite remarkable, and approve. It's not like Kaladin's story suffered for lack of an LI. Sometimes it feels like authors have this pressing need to pair up their main characters, especially in fantasy with young boy protagonists, and it's pretty much a box checking thing in some cases. Brandon doesn't need to do this, which is another reason why I like his works so much.
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Aug 7, 2023 19:07
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Torrannor posted:I find this quite remarkable, and approve. Strong agree. That topic you included under your spoiler text is indeed common, but I do not mind in the slightest if that is the path Sanderson chooses to take since it mirrors a lot of peoples’ actual lives (not really RoW spoilers, but covered because the topic was initially tagged): sometimes people are just too busy for romance, or they would be interested but don’t know how to go about starting anything, or, or… Or maybe that one character is just incredibly unattractive and has a face not even a mother could love..
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Aug 7, 2023 19:43
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Didn't Kaladin (RoW spoilers) have a romantic fling in between Oathbringer and RoW that didn't work out? Ultimately the message I'm getting from Sanderson is that Kaladin needs to fix and love himself first before he does anything more. That, and I appreciate Kaladin not having a love interest, we already have enough of that with Adolin and Shallan.
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Aug 7, 2023 19:47
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Tarah is still out there if he must have a love interest.
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Aug 7, 2023 19:47
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It is not mandatory
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Aug 7, 2023 20:08
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Continuing RoW spoilers. What about venli? I’m cool if no love internet but maybe she would be the best suited… really finish off that circle of realising how much she hosed up.
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Aug 7, 2023 20:22
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Holy poo poo Tonk Fah and Denth were running a real nice scam. Goddamn. Getting Vivenna to pay her own captors to engineer a war with her home country while also getting paid by whoever had hired them to start that war. (Warbreaker) Gotta respect that hustle.
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Aug 7, 2023 20:33
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stramit posted:Continuing RoW spoilers. Lol, I totally forgot about her. She's back with the Parshendi, and even though she's not really fine with genociding humanity, she's not a big human fan either. And I feel like Rlain and Renarin already occupy the literally interspecies romance niche. Did Venli and Kaladin interact directly at all in RoW? I can't remember. In any case, I would be extremely surprised if they were to get together.
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Aug 7, 2023 20:38
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Torrannor posted:Which leaves some less important female characters. He's Lyn's direct superior, so that would be icky. Louisgod posted:Didn't Kaladin (RoW spoilers) have a romantic fling in between Oathbringer and RoW that didn't work out? Yeah this was Lyn while he was still her commander, during the time skip between OB and RoW before Dalinar transferred him out so it already happened. stramit posted:Continuing RoW spoilers. If we have to ship, how is nobody besides me shipping Kaleshwi? Which would make far more sense than Venli since they, you know, actually already have had an entire book's worth of relationship development.
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Aug 7, 2023 23:42
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Kaladalinar
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Aug 7, 2023 23:57
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Torrannor posted:Lol, I totally forgot about her. She's back with the Parshendi, and even though she's not really fine with genociding humanity, she's not a big human fan either. And I feel like Rlain and Renarin already occupy the literally interspecies romance niche. Did Venli and Kaladin interact directly at all in RoW? I can't remember. In any case, I would be extremely surprised if they were to get together. @Renarin Wait, what about Renarin and interspecies romance? I'm forgetting something, I guess. NikkolasKing fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 8, 2023 00:06
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NikkolasKing posted:Wait, what about Renarin and interspecies romance? I'm forgetting something, I guess. It hasn't happened yet. All we have are WoBs. Fezz fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 8, 2023 00:30
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We're now at the point of unmarked spoiling things not even published
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Aug 8, 2023 00:38
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Yeah it would be nice to know what is behind the spoiler bars when its 7 chained quotes deep and I'm not sure what book is being talked about anymore To be fair, I'm just not clicking them
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Aug 8, 2023 01:36
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Ojjeorago posted:Brandon was asked about this directly:
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Aug 8, 2023 02:00
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NikkolasKing posted:@Renarin Renarin and Rlain, while nobody's actually said it out loud yet including them, are both unsubtly hinted to be gay and somewhat attracted to each other. As for Kaladin, if he's getting together with anyone in book 5, it's Leshwi. Yumi spoilers too: too bad for him that the "give spren physical bodies" Lightweaving tech is who knows how far in the future, he could really solve most of his problems if it was possible to give Syl a nice butt.
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Aug 8, 2023 04:25
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I'm like 3/4 of the way done with Warbreaker and have read the original Mistborn Trilogy. Is there an order for the next Cosmere book I should read? Should I go to Alloy of Law? Or another subseries?
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Aug 8, 2023 04:34
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Nitrousoxide posted:I'm like 3/4 of the way done with Warbreaker and have read the original Mistborn Trilogy. Is there an order for the next Cosmere book I should read? Should I go to Alloy of Law? Or another subseries? Way of Kings is typically the next step there, it's the first of the Stormlight books. There's not too much harm in doing Alloy of Law either though.
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Aug 8, 2023 04:42
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Jose Valasquez posted:Kaladalinar 
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Aug 8, 2023 05:44
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Nitrousoxide posted:I'm like 3/4 of the way done with Warbreaker and have read the original Mistborn Trilogy. Is there an order for the next Cosmere book I should read? Should I go to Alloy of Law? Or another subseries? Gotta bite that Elantris bullet sooner or later.
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Aug 8, 2023 05:45
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Leng posted:If we have to ship, how is nobody besides me shipping Kaleshwi? Which would make far more sense than Venli since they, you know, actually already have had an entire book's worth of relationship development. CapnAndy posted:RoW and beyond spoilers: As for Kaladin, if he's getting together with anyone in book 5, it's Leshwi. Thank you! Though I still think I prefer this doesn't happen because these things don't always need to happen.
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Aug 8, 2023 09:54
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My White Sand Omnibus delivery date just got pushed back to November 22nd. 
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Aug 8, 2023 16:38
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pik_d posted:My White Sand Omnibus delivery date just got pushed back to November 22nd. Thats okay it’s not very good.
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Aug 8, 2023 17:35
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I still want to read it!
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Aug 8, 2023 17:36
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Taking stock of my Cosmere completion, here is my current read vs unread list (taken from the Coppermind list of Cosmere works): READ: Elantris The Hope of Elantris Mistborn: The Final Empire The Well of Ascension The Hero of Ages Warbreaker The Alloy of Law The Eleventh Metal The Emperor's Soul Sixth of the Dusk Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania Shadows of Self The Bands of Mourning Mistborn: Secret History The Lost Metal In Progress: The Way of Kings Arcanum Unbounded Unread: Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell Words of Radiance White Sand Volume 1 Edgedancer Oathbringer White Sand Volume 2 White Sand Volume 3 Dawnshard Rhythm of War White Sand omnibus Tress of the Emerald Sea Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
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Aug 8, 2023 18:23
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Please don't read White Sand twice. There is a prose version of that floating around, I think you get it by signing up for his newsletter. And there's also a version of Aether of Night you can get from the 17th Shard messageboards. And of course, Dragonsteel Prime if you have physical access to the BYU library.
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Aug 8, 2023 18:32
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I was saving Yumi because I was going on vacation shortly, and wanted to read it then. I have now come home from said vacation and I have Yumi thoughts. Non-spoiler territory: I liked it quite a lot. Tress is still holding the Secret Project crown, I found its intentional fairy tale vibe tremendously charming, but Yumi takes second place. I also enjoyed the setting, and even though the narration calls out their planet for not having much Cosmere significance, I'd still be quite eager to see more stories there. It's a fun place. Surprising amount of not just romance, but actual sensuality, shockingly well executed. Acknowledgements of the fact that people have bodies, and it is sometimes nice to look at those bodies, and it can be exciting if they take their clothes off? By Sanderson standards, this was pornography. I didn't think the Mormon robot bastard had it in him. Story wore its anime/video game/real world history influences on its sleeve, which I didn't mind at all. This is definitely one of the less alien worlds in the Cosmere, and that's fine. Art was absolutely gorgeous and it fit the setting so well. Two of them were misfires, though -- the two where it's attempting to depict a scene with something the narration is calling a masterpiece in it. Which isn't the artist's fault! One of the nice things about prose is that you can just declare any non-text work of art to be a masterpiece and the audience has to take your word for it. Actually attempting to paint said masterpieces was an unfair ask, because they're not gonna be good enough basically by definition. Spoilers: First off, I didn't see a shred of evidence that this takes place after Tress, and in fact I think there was a lot of evidence that it's not just earlier, but significantly so. There are no worldhoppers making casual interplanetary travel and outworld artifacts of absurd technological advancement like Awakened tablets aren't showing up via random trade. I'm guessing that the people who think it's post-Tress are pointing to Hoid's lines about getting his memory messed with, except... that is not what happened at all during Tress. Hoid's memory of the events is quite clear, hence why he can narrate it, we're told exactly what Riina took from him and his memory's not on that list. In fact, it's explicitly stated that she didn't touch his memories, because leaving him aware of what was done to him so he can fight helplessly against it is part of the sadism, and Tress finding a way to get past Riina's blocks to let Hoid tell her what he knows is a crucial plot point. So, no, get out of here, that's not a Tress reference. We're meant to think it's referring to what happens at the end of RoW, which is doubtlessly going to have some really bad consequences in KoWT, and if that's a headfake and it's actually something else, well, it's still not Tress. (Which actually bothers me, because it means the "where the gently caress was Design during all of this, is she okay" question that's hanging over all of Tress is still not answered.) But speaking of the spren in question -- oh no, she's hot! I loved Hot Design, Insane Noodle Shop Proprietor and All-Around Babe. She's always a delight when she gets scenes, so getting an entire book with her as a supporting character made me very happy. More Design, please. Also, spren with physical human bodies is a very interesting development. And I guess they do manage to crack that Connection problem and learn how to take Rosharan Investiture off-planet, huh? Kelsier's gonna be interested in that. Also, side-note, Hoid was clearly telling the story to a Rosharan audience. Which is interesting. When's he telling this story? To who? And why? New Shard name! We're down to only one unknown now! Loved that the magic on the planet was all based around art. It's Virtuosity's world, of course it would be. Also, interesting that she deliberately Shattered herself. Yet another clue that something is very wrong with the entire system, not that we needed it, but still, I think this is the first time we've actually seen a Vessel seem to realize it themselves. The ultimate plot reveal being "oops we accidentally made an Awakened Paperclip Maximizer" was pretty loving funny, in a dark way. I do have some questions with how all of this worked vis-a-vis what we already know about Cognitive Shadows, but I think the answer is that the nightmares weren't Cognitive Shadows at all -- the machine just made a bizarre hash of their Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual selves and trapped it all. That's why everyone moved Beyond once it was broken. Except, of course, for Yumi. What is Yumi now? Given that she's rocking Elantrian-level Investiture, this seems a somewhat pertinent question. (It also seems to imply that she's immortal, which I don't think she'll like very much.) And also, even if the yoki-hijo are no longer needed, that's not gonna stop the spirits from randomly picking girls to dump all that power into, is it? Even a dozen or so individuals per generation with that much power is something that really ought to have ramifications. CapnAndy fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 8, 2023 19:25
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yumi/all cosmere: I agree re: timeline. It's definitely in the future because of Design and because there's a freaking Scadrian space station, but not necessarily after the future period in Tress. Also how far is Tress necessarily in the future anyways? We see an Elantrian doing totally insane poo poo with spaceships and laptops, but Elantrians are godly overpowered even in the far past, we really have very little idea what kind of tech they might be capable of and when if they set their might towards it. Also I would not rule out "benign shattering" or whatever you want to call it. Perhaps Virtuosity decided that the best way to advance its goals was to invest the people and spren(-like entitites) of its system more than normal by shattering itself, or something along those lines where "shattering" voluntarily was done for a specific "good" purpose. Also there's a wob where confusingly says that shattering is kind of a spectrum and there's huge differences in the effects between you doing it on purpose and someone doing it to you, so I wonder if this kind of divine suicide was to distribute the power and promote virtuosic advancement everywhere or something. eke out fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 8, 2023 20:07
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Timeline chat: It may not be as far as Tress, but the advanced level of Fabrial technology (and Connection understanding) in the Connection box Design has definitely indicates a bit farther in the future to me. I'd bet at least post SL part 2
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Aug 8, 2023 20:31
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eke out posted:yumi/all cosmere:
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Aug 8, 2023 21:08
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CapnAndy posted:Far. The deaf guy's magic slate is a Scadrian tablet with Awakened circuits. That means that Scadrial has advanced to a technology level at least contemporary with ours. Also there seems to be a lot of cross-polination going on; everyone's Awakening their stuff, the Elantrian ship has Lightweavings. Either Tress or Sixth is the last book chronologically so far. Future Cosmere spoilersThe rocket ship in Tress seems way more advanced compared to the two space travel examples we see in Sixth of steelpushing off a planet or just flying through space in Shardplate so I assume Tress is much further.
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Aug 8, 2023 21:14
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All/future Cosmere spoilers: Which is kind of crazy. And I wonder if people will get upset if the setting changes from medieval fantasy into science-fantasy. I'm all for it though. But it makes me wonder, Stormlight Archive is his main series, isn't it? The big opus, ten novels all a thousand+ pages long. The time skip will be short enough that mortal humans won't age too much, so the main series will conclude long before we get this far. I guess he has two main series, SA and Mistborn, and the latter will get into the science-fantasy age, but still. It's a bit strange.
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Aug 8, 2023 23:03
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Stormlight WoK chapters 43-51 & Part 3 Interludes (second ~half of Part 3) Future @Mordiceius be warned, I have some galaxy brained theories here, but obviously only based on stuff I (and you) have already read Shallan has been, by far, the more interesting POV character in these few chapters, with the exception of Kaladin's highstorm vision. She's still got a lot of secrets, but at least Jasnah has finally seen the deception, even if she barely believes the reason. Shallan really is in way over her head here. I'm frustrated that the section ended without Shallan talking to Jasnah about the lineheads (who can now talk to her) and the soulcasting. Speaking of, that one chapter where she kept drawing the lineheads getting closer was a straight up horror story. When she was soulcasting, it felt like she was seeing the atoms or molecules of the goblet and wine, then spoke to them to instigate the change, that's pretty wild. I wonder if that's a personal interpretation or if everyone does it that way too? One of my theories for this part is that the lineheads are actaully in the Cognative realm. Possibly Spiritual, but the Cognative realm has distinct locations per the Selish system essay, so morel likely that. That matters because I believe that Shallan's Memory snapshot is actually taking "pictures" of all available realms, which is why she ends up drawing the lineheads. I'm glad the hot priest is gone, especially after his dumbass poison and antidote scheme. I had suspected that Jasnah transmuted the jam into poison, but it seems like the antidote just spoiled it instead. If Jasnah is capable of using Stormlight the way Szeth and Kaladin are, she could have done that even with the broken fabrial. As a note, it really does seem like Shinovar is incredibly Earth-like, or maybe Scadrial-like, since Scadrial is pretty Earth-like itself, outside of the 1000 year Final Empire era. The vegitation is described like our grass and trees, strawberries and other things that grow there can't grow in regular Roshar soil. I'm wondering if Scadrial, or another "normal" world ended up having some land transport into Roshar? Or maybe Roshar was all like this, and the rest of the world had to adapt, but Shinovar, being on the west coast, is protected from the worst of the Highstorms. Kaladin's flashbacks were a mixed bag for some of my theories. I thought that Roshone would have had Kaladin's parents killed, forcing Kaladin to flee with Tien, but instead Tien's name was called for the draft and Kaladin went with him. I also was sure that Kaladin killed the shardbearer but was told he couldn't have the Shardblade and plate, but instead he didn't even want it. I suppose I was a little right there, because Amaram did take it from Coreb. Gotta say though, as Amaram, it was really stupid to let Kaladin live. I'm sure they'll meet again and Amaram will end up dying that time, and Kaladin will take the blade and plate that time. I really enjoyed Kaladin's highstorm vision, but I think I'll have to go back to them later to see what connections I just don't know about right now. The cities in clawmark-like gashes reminded me of Kharbranth nestled in the clif wedge. Living in hollowed-out stalactities reminded me of the ATLA Western Air Temple, so that was nice. The triangle lightning building seems important. I'm wondering if the pretty gold/red haired woman in the corner will be important. It sounds like this is in Shinovar, where Szeth is from. Who the gently caress is Tanavast? This seems important, since Kaladin is a child of Tanavast, despite Tanavast being "long since departed". This Odium... person? being? reminds me, in name, of Atium. I think that's a coincidence though. Also they're the "most dangerous of all the 16" which immediately made me think of the shards, because the presence of the "Seventeenth Shard" as an organization makes me think there are actually 16 shards. This gave me huge Rayse vibes, since "He holds the most frightening and terrible of all of the Shards." So either Odium is the shard that Rayse holds, or they literally are the same being. I'm going for the latter, if only because Odium doesn't sound like any other shard name, and I still think the Roshar shard (if there is only one) is named Desolation. I'm going to be honest, Kaladin's present day life is just slowly getting to where he needs to be. Teft knows he's something special but is dancing around the subject. I do think Kaladin will find an underground river since he's thinking about the water needing to have somewhere to go. I am just ready for him to not be a slave anymore. After the theories about the lineheads and Odium, I also have some theories about how the spren fit in to things. One of the more recent spren the book told me about was Groundspren, which are described as basically being gravity. Szeth uses lashings to change his gravity orientation. I think that his use of Stormlight is actually directing, or maybe "casting" spren to interact with him differently. Stormlight use, "soulcasting", is the use of different spren to affect the world in ways useful to the user. My second theory is more of a stretch, but comes from the interlude by Geranid. The spren literally have an observer effect, but only takes effect after the measurement is written down. This instantly made me think of Ruin's ability to "read" and change the words written. From this I'm making the leap that spren are the physical part of Roshar's shard. I really hate saying that spren, including Syl, are part of Desolation, so I'm hoping there's a second shard! Either way I think they are the shard's way of interacting with the world. Progress so far: 
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Aug 8, 2023 23:39
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socialsecurity posted:Way of Kings is typically the next step there, it's the first of the Stormlight books. There's not too much harm in doing Alloy of Law either though. Mordiceius posted:Gotta bite that Elantris bullet sooner or later. Thanks. Thinking back to the Mistborn trilogy. Since I read it like a decade ago I'm having trouble remembering how it went except for the existence of that special metal. I guess I'll re-read that and then go with either Way of Kings or Elantris.
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Aug 8, 2023 23:42
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Man, some of those observations are incredibly observant, pik_d. It's great, and sometimes you're so close but at the same time so far away, and the truth will blow your mind. Have fun reading the upcoming Sanderlanche 
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Aug 8, 2023 23:53
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pik_d posted:Stormlight WoK chapters 43-51 & Part 3 Interludes (second ~half of Part 3) These sure are some thoughts and theories. 
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Aug 8, 2023 23:58
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Nitrousoxide posted:Thanks. Rereading mistborn is always a treat
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Aug 9, 2023 00:12
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Torrannor posted:Man, some of those observations are incredibly observant, pik_d. It's great, and sometimes you're so close but at the same time so far away, and the truth will blow your mind. immoral_ posted:These sure are some thoughts and theories. Yeah I've decided that the best way to do this is go all in. Either I'm right and it's great, or I'm wrong and it's funny.
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Aug 9, 2023 00:36
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