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Slanderer posted:I wonder if that quote addresses my concern. Maybe it means (stormlight 5 spoiler) that the Stormfather interfered with the Heralds bond to mask one heralds death from the others…
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# ? Aug 22, 2023 06:01 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 20:10 |
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Mordiceius posted:Stormlight spoiler - I’m ready to be done with these loving covid complications so I can actually get back to the series. It's going around my workplace, supposedly a new variant
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# ? Aug 22, 2023 06:38 |
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Mordiceius posted:Stormlight spoiler - I’m ready to be done with these loving covid complications so I can actually get back to the series. Sorry if I’ve missed some updates the past week but are you trending for better? Last I heard you could barely move from the couch. Wishing you a speedy recovery
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# ? Aug 22, 2023 06:42 |
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Synesthesian Fetish posted:Sorry if I’ve missed some updates the past week but are you trending for better? Last I heard you could barely move from the couch. Wishing you a speedy recovery So my Covid symptoms wrapped up last week (and my wife has long since recovered). My breathing has been hosed for the last four days. Ended up going to the emergency room tonight. The bad news is that my oxygen intake was not good. The good news is that there doesn’t seem to be anything catastrophic going on. Got some breathing treatments and medication and am feeling slightly better already. TLDR - I’m a long Covid winner so I just get to deal with subpar breathing for a while.
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# ? Aug 22, 2023 07:02 |
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Mordiceius posted:So my Covid symptoms wrapped up last week (and my wife has long since recovered). My breathing has been hosed for the last four days. Sorry for the setbacks but glad to see your moving forward. You sharing your first time experience reading Mistborn here got me to go back and read it for the first time in like a decade which then made me reread everything else of his since then. Looking forward to your next update but more importantly, take the time to rest up
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# ? Aug 22, 2023 07:10 |
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CapnAndy posted:2. It's from the Stormlight 5 Prologue. Direct quote follows, which is why I broke this into separate spoiler tags: Related to that there's also a theory that this wasn't actually the stormfather but Ishar pretending to be him.
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# ? Aug 22, 2023 11:05 |
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CapnAndy posted:(Stormlight speculation, still, but don't read it unless you're caught up)The sum of the evidence is: Full Stormlight It can’t be Paliah, she’s in Way of Kings.
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# ? Aug 22, 2023 15:26 |
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Avalerion posted:More stormlight spoiler:
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# ? Aug 22, 2023 18:40 |
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CapnAndy posted:I choose to believe that theory. That's why I put "Stormfather" in quotation marks. If that's the actual Stormfather in that prologue, there's a lot of poo poo that doesn't make sense. Absolutely agreed.
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# ? Aug 22, 2023 18:46 |
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CapnAndy posted:I choose to believe that theory. That's why I put "Stormfather" in quotation marks. If that's the actual Stormfather in that prologue, there's a lot of poo poo that doesn't make sense. It doesn't really make sense to me. More Stormlight spoilers I googled discussions of the theory and the top arguments are "he cant see inside buildings!" and "he can't lie!". Well the first isn't true, it's just reflective of his nature as both the storm and as a discrete cognitive entity. That entity, when bound (or quasi-bound, in this case) can perceive its surroundings. But his other half, the storm, is limited to only see what the storm sees. He's both of them at once! Like the holy trinity but two. RE: the lie thing, a lot of stock has been put into who can and cant lie, and it's mostly been wrong! The spren have also been wrong a lot! But more directly--we know from as early as Words of Radiance that the Stormfather was granting the visions to Gavilar. So unless the Stormfather is only lying about that, its something that would have to be retconned. the whole thing smacks of sloppy writing and bad editing, which Rhythm of War was emblematic of. I think Brandon goes out of his way to tell you at least three separate times that a shardblade cannot permanently kill a spren. We get it, you're retconning Oathbringer without putting out a revised 2nd edition, but calm the gently caress down dude
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 00:44 |
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Mordiceius posted:So my Covid symptoms wrapped up last week (and my wife has long since recovered). My breathing has been hosed for the last four days. Sorry to hear that friend. When I got covid in 2020 it knocked me down for 5 weeks and took close to 2 years before my lungs were near where they were. I hope its easier for you. Stay safe out there goons
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 00:50 |
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Ok, here's my completely unexamined theory re: stormlight 5's prologue this is way too close to all the dumb Shallan stuff that happened, but what if the "faker" is just some remnant of Tanavast's will? Or maybe the opposite, some aspect of the Spren sans-Tanavast that he used to be, and in the rest of the series we only see the New Stormfather that was remade (almost unmade...) after Honor's death We don't really understand what the Stormfather is--maybe a fusion of a Great Spren with Honor's "soul", or his/tanavast's cognitive shadow? I really dont know man. But he was alive before Honor died. He described that time as something like "when I did not truly live", but I can't imagine he wasn't sentient, because the sibling and the Nightwatcher both are. Maybe he was just fused with some part of Tanavast's human soul, along with a big chunk of Honor's investiture? But that still doesn't get any closer to explaining his nature.
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 00:57 |
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Slanderer posted:It doesn't really make sense to me. We'll largely put aside "that seems nothing like the Stormfather, especially the Stormfather of Books One and Two who's pretty far removed from humanity" and how this Stormfather seems somewhat loving malevolent because the whole thing rests on the thesis that the Stormfather's been lying to Dalinar since Day 1 and is playing a long con, although I will just note that I side-eye the idea that the Stormfather could lie that completely to someone he's literally soul-bonded with. No, here's what seems really off. First off, a minor one. quote:His guards had not knocked to warn of his guests arriving; if they had, the Stormfather would have told him in the vision. Next, and the first really big one; Gavilar spends the entire prologue trying to guess the Words. Two guesses in particular stand out. quote:“If I should die,” Gavilar said, quoting the Way of Kings, “then I would do so having lived my life right. It is not the destination that matters, but how one arrives there.” quote:“Give it to me,” Gavilar said. “Now. I need it.” Thirdly, this bit. quote:Suddenly, the Stormfather wavered. Lightning pulsed through his shimmering form, lighting Gavilar’s room with an electric glow. Blue frost on the rugs, pure light reflecting in the glass of the balcony doors. Also, that is not a subtle reaction. At all. The death of a Herald practically drives the Stormfather to his knees, so it's very interesting that Jezrien suffering true death doesn't seem to affect him one tiny bit. But y'know who does feel that one? The other Heralds. Finally: quote:“You must take this,” Gavilar whispered to the Stormfather. “They must not get it.” He seemed dazed. “Tell…tell my brother… He must find the most important words a man can say…”
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 03:38 |
Slanderer posted:Ok, here's my completely unexamined theory re: stormlight 5's prologue to me this -- or something along these lines -- reads as the thing sanderson is most likely to do. I think "the Stormfather in that prologue is a fake" is just piling on big new mysteries to a character that already has plenty of mysteries. instead, it could be some aspect of his unique situation, like maybe Tanavast's Shadow has had more agency than the Spren of Storms at times or some similar weird poo poo. there's certainly been other weird unexplained poo poo that could imply that some version of Tanavast is hanging around out there somehow eke out fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Aug 23, 2023 |
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 03:51 |
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Stormlight 5 prologue: What makes no sense to me is that the "Stormfather" in the whole sense seems completely lucid, and Gavilar would certainly have had an internal remark that the "Stormfather" at times was a lunatic, if the "Stormfather" was Ishar in disguise. Or do we think that Chanarach's death (if it was her) was the thing that pushed Ishar over the edge, but because he shielded the other Heralds from feeling it, they didn't become worse? I find that hard to believe. We know that the Heralds became more and more insane over time, Jezrien was completely gone even before this night. Maybe this "Stormfather" is fake, but I don't think it's Ishar in disguise.
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 09:44 |
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Save us, pik_d! Post more reactions and theories!
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 10:12 |
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Anshu posted:Save us, pik_d! Post more reactions and theories! Yeah OK. I was planning on waiting a few more chapters but I have so much from the first few chapters that it makes sense to share now! Stormlight Words of Radiance Prologue-Chapter 4 I'm a *little* disappointed that I didn't get four prologues this time, I at least hoped for one from 4500 years ago with the Heralds. I'll have to make do with Dalinar's answering machine visions. So far all of the epigraphs have been taken from the same day, the first day of 1174. I'm Even more happy I reverse engineered the date format now. The last epigraph of the first book was on the 9th day of the 9th month, so there was about a two month gap, similar to what was mentioned by Navani as the timeframe for "what has happened". So I'm guessing that the contents of the book is actually still in 1173, leading up to when Navani figured poo poo out. Jasnah's flashback was cool, though I'm wondering why she wanted Elhokar's wife dead. I don't know enough about her. Pretty wild that there were two assassination plots going on at the same time though, maybe Oathbringer will give us a third! Liss is suspicious with her mixed accent, that sometimes comes with being a worldhopper. This whole thing is very weird, with the Parshendi already ready to take blame for the assassination even though Szeth hints that they didn't actually order it. It feels like a grand conspiracy, puppeted by someone in the shadows, or "just" Odium/Rayse, similar to how Ruin made things line up on Scadrial. The two people that Jasnah overheard, worried about Ash and themselves, talking about a blade, I think they gave the Parshendi shardbearer the blade. There's a future book's prologue assassination POV right there. We also got Jasnah's first fall into Shadesmar, which she later tells Shallan that it is the Cognitive Realm. Here's a quote from myself from a few weeks ago. pik_d posted:Stormlight WoK chapters 43-51 & Part 3 Interludes (second ~half of Part 3) Then later in these chapters, finally getting to meet Shallan and Jasnah's spren is amazing. I had wondered about that in the last book, given that I believed and got confirmation that the spren "bonded" to people to help them become Radiants. Just need Szeth's now! Pretty wild that Shallan "freed" hers by drawing it, but I suppose that makes sense. I love that it's described as imbecilic, at least I know it'll become more of an individual as it spends time with Shallan, like Syl did with Kaladin. And Jasnah's is a little ink man named Ivory. I wonder if he's the Voidspren that Jasnah namedropped? Calling Shallan's a Liespren seems weird, considering the lineheads demanded a truth from Shallan in order to help her perform some magic. I'm also very curious about Jasnah's comment about them not having the same spren meaning they're in different orders. Does that mean that only ten types of spren make Radiants? And the overlapping surges, I really want to know more about that! I think Kaladin and Szeth both have gravitation, while Jasnah and Shallan both have transformation. I'm glad that Shallan is taking some lessons on how to present herself, going from backing down from the ship captian to having him stop the boat so she can get a look at the santhid. Looking at the sketch, it's just a big turtle shell with a side eye and some super long tentacles. What a cool thing, I hope it stays friendly. This is going to be a book where Shallan transforms herself into a powerhouse, I can feel it. Jasnah has really taken hold of Shallan's life though, helping out with her brothers, then hooking up Shallan with Adolin. RIP that two chapter lady he had. Shallan/Adolin feels like it could have an Aes Sedai/Warder dynamic. Or it could be a disaster. Or it could be a comedy. I'm looking forward to seeing Adolin from the POV of his bethrothed. RIP Kaladin's tattoo, though it's cool that everyone else gets to cover their branding. I'm curious if Kaladin will eventually get skilled enough to heal his scars. Either that or, looking at the cover, he'll wear a headband to hide them. I'm fully on board with Teft telling Kaladin to just show Dalinar what's going on. I know Kaladin will have to find a way to trust him, but I'm ready. And whether or not Kaladin is ready, he may have to reveal himself if Szeth shows up glowing too. Not much else going on here, except getting the bridge crews organized how he wants them, and the patches. Except for the Naxh sketches. I've seen that name on some maps I think? Naxh is clearly a Hoid-like world hopper. Maybe working for Hoid? Or the Seventeenth Shard? Dalinar's Face-in-the-water-spren is a weird one, in that it's a spy for "Sja-anat" and that it brought an escort, which awakened the riverbed into a Thunderclast. I remember that name from WoK since I re-read the prelude a few times, and it matches the description of this thing here. And finally what feels like an answer to Dalinar, he's got to refound the Knights Radiant. And the "Unite them" might be just about the Radiants, not about the Alethi Highprinces as Dalinar believed. The "Sixty-two days, Death follows" glyphs make me think that this is 62 days before Jeseses 1174, so Tanatakev 1173. And if some spren in a river can make a rock monster, maybe some other spren can carve out some glyphs? I feel bad for Kaladin though, I have a feeling whatever made those carvings wasn't something more eyes could easily catch. Progress so far:
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 17:24 |
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Great update and thoughts!
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 17:31 |
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pik_d posted:Yeah OK. I was planning on waiting a few more chapters but I have so much from the first few chapters that it makes sense to share now!
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 17:50 |
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CapnAndy posted:Minor clarification: She didn't, at least, not yet. She wanted the option. This should tell you something about both Jasnah and Elhokar's wife. My interpretation was that she did want her dead, but the thought that her father might be on to her made her back off. But she did already have both notes written up, so yeah I guess she hadn't decided yet.
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# ? Aug 23, 2023 17:57 |
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This is just a minor question for WoK and I don't need detailed spoilers but am more just curious in a yes/no way - Is it ever explained why Kaladin is so "lucky" in the first quarter of this book? Like, I know becoming a slave isn't what you would call "lucky" but pre-slave, they talked about how his team never lost people and then when he's been on Bridge 4, he's survived endless bridge runs taking the lead position when everyone else around him dies.
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 22:39 |
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Yes
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 22:41 |
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Mordiceius posted:This is just a minor question for WoK and I don't need detailed spoilers but am more just curious in a yes/no way - It almost doesn’t matter what the end of this question is. The answer will be “yes” either in this book, a future book, or according to book signing interviews.
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 22:43 |
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Also - every time Dalinar isn't present, I'm asking "Where is Dalinar?"
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 22:51 |
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Grundulum posted:It almost doesn’t matter what the end of this question is. The answer will be “yes” either in this book, a future book, or according to book signing interviews. I think this is what hooked me on Stormlight in the first place. All in due time, RAFO
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 22:52 |
Mordiceius posted:Also - every time Dalinar isn't present, I'm asking "Where is Dalinar?" Yes
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 22:52 |
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It was so cool to learn he was lucky because [Spolier]kaladin's brother from the dark timeline is protecting him via time travel, the reveal that the "highstorm thunder" and "small brass drinking cups" kaladin keeps finding are the sound and shell casings from his brother sniping kaladin's enemies with a M1 Garand are a big highpoint [/spoiler]
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 23:01 |
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Almighty, fix that spoiler tag before Mordiceius or pik_d sees that!!!
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 23:06 |
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When there was only one set of footprints in the sand, that was because I was fighting the Parshendi in my mechsuit.
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 23:09 |
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I kinda like the idea of someone fairy-sized or something following around a guy with a gun and not really understanding anything beyond "that thunder tube makes drinking glasses sometimes? what a weird thing to have"
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# ? Aug 24, 2023 23:10 |
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Mordiceius posted:Also - every time Dalinar isn't present, I'm asking "Where is Dalinar?" Replace with Shallan, and also Yes.
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# ? Aug 25, 2023 01:29 |
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pointlessone posted:Replace with Shallan, and also Yes. WoR Chapter 7 I am LITERALLY asking this question right now. And also for Jasnah. Who, by the way, isn't dead.
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# ? Aug 25, 2023 01:35 |
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pik_d posted:WoR Chapter 7
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# ? Aug 25, 2023 01:43 |
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CapnAndy posted:Wishful thinking, or do you have a theory? Stabs to the heart and then having your boat dissolve around you in the middle of the open ocean tend to be fatal. Full WoT spoilers in addition to WOR Chapter 7 Magical royal lady, has a magical rock jewelry, her power is vaguely understood by those around her, "died" while on a trip to do something important, written by Brandon Sanderson? She, like Moiraine, is alive. Also she was off the ship before it decided to turn into water, with some slight convincing by Shallan. That part wasn't a problem for her. I have all the epigraphs written down , and I vaguely remembered this, but I feel like there was a second reference to fast travel somewhere in WoK. code:
Edit: She's literally being Gandalfed, and he came back. pik_d fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Aug 25, 2023 |
# ? Aug 25, 2023 01:57 |
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pik_d posted:Full WoT spoilers in addition to WOR Chapter 7
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# ? Aug 25, 2023 02:06 |
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pik_d posted:Full WoT spoilers in addition to WOR Chapter 7 Sanderson didn't invent that character or her arc though
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# ? Aug 25, 2023 02:12 |
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big mean giraffe posted:Sanderson didn't invent that character or her arc though I am aware, I was just drawing parallels.
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# ? Aug 25, 2023 02:16 |
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I have a sort-of related question: is Gandalf the White supposed to be the same entity as Gandalf the Grey? Are there things that one of them could/would do that the other couldn’t/wouldn’t? Based on the name, we the reader are supposed to attach all of our previous knowledge and expectations to version2, but it’s been so long since I interacted with that story I can’t remember if we eventually get disabused of that notion.
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# ? Aug 25, 2023 02:30 |
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I remember when I was 13 and read LotR, I just saw Gandalf the White as an upgraded Gandalf the Grey. When Goku goes Super Saiyan, he’s still Goku. Not a perfect parallel, but how my brain works.
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# ? Aug 25, 2023 02:37 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 20:10 |
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Grundulum posted:I have a sort-of related question: is Gandalf the White supposed to be the same entity as Gandalf the Grey? Are there things that one of them could/would do that the other couldn’t/wouldn’t? Based on the name, we the reader are supposed to attach all of our previous knowledge and expectations to version2, but it’s been so long since I interacted with that story I can’t remember if we eventually get disabused of that notion. Gandalf is a Maia, an angel. Nothing physical is ever truly him, because he's not a physical being. How could he be? He existed before Creation. He predates the physical universe. The Maiar and the Valar, their higher-order counterparts (the archangels) have been tussling with the forces of Darkness that Sauron is an actually pretty feeble representative of since, again, before Creation. Since the actual universe was created and they went down to dwell in it, they've learned the hard way what happens when they directly intervene in mortal affairs, and "cataclysm" doesn't begin to do it justice. When they go in and make all-out war, the shape of the world gets literally changed by the forces unleashed. Also, while none of them knows all of God's plan, they know fragments, and they also prefer to stay out of direct action because they're aware that this is something the mortals are supposed to do by themselves. So when Sauron starts getting really uppity at the end of the Third Age, they're neither willing nor able to directly smack him down, but he does seem to be getting uncomfortably close to winning. So they try something new -- rather than direct action, they're gonna try and just put their thumbs on the scale. Five Maiar are sent to the mortal world. These five are forbidden from attempting to match Sauron strength against strength. They're there only as advisors and guides, to support the mortals and offer good advice. And to drive this home, their powers are strictly limited and they're in the flesh of old men and locked to those bodies, when normally they can put on and take off physical forms like clothing. These are the Istari -- the wizards. And they're not all given the same power set, either. They're given what they're going to need. Saruman, as their leader, is the most powerful of them. That's the origin of Gandalf the Grey. He can do some magic, he knows some stuff, he has his nature as a wanderer and lover of forgotten things and peoples. When Gandalf dies, his physical body really does die -- but that was only ever a set of clothes he was wearing. His spirit returns to Valinor, where the Valar and Maiar dwell. That could've been the end of it, but when he gets there, the Valar immediately send him back. And for whatever reason -- because things are worse now, because Saruman has gone rogue and is unquestionably their problem, because Saruman has gone rogue and that's created a power vacuum on the forces of Good that's desperately needed if everything isn't going to fall to poo poo, who knows, nobody ever says -- they send him back with a power upgrade and a promotion. Now he's the leader of the Istari, with all the strength he needs for that position, which by definition is enough to make him stronger than Saruman, because he's the boss now. So he's being quite literal when he says "indeed I am Saruman; or rather, Saruman as he should have been". This is the power set that Saruman had, this is what he would've been able to do if he'd spent his time increasing his knowledge rather than going down the path of Evil. (In Tolkien's works, evil is always a reductive act that diminishes its wielders.) So there you go, there's your answer. And as a bonus, you learned that Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron, and the Balrog were all the same species! Okay, technically I never mentioned the Balrog, so... surprise! Balrogs were Maiar too. CapnAndy fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Aug 25, 2023 |
# ? Aug 25, 2023 03:03 |