Brandon Sanderson: There's always another secret project.

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CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

I'm about 25% of the way through RoW if kindle isn't lying to me, and I need to write this down somewhere because I'm pretty sure I've solved one of the mysteries and I want proof if I was right.

Shallan's the traitor in her team, isn't she? Another personality, probably Formless, acting while she's blanked out mentally.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2020 19:48

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:14

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

th3t00t posted:

Part 2 was certainly a slog for me. 200 pages of Shallan/veil/radiant talking to themselves about how Shallan needs to confront her past and Adolin wishing he could help her/them.

I just started part 2, but at least early in part 1, Adolin calling out Roshar's real need for mental health professionals was great, so maybe I'll like this part more than you.

Sanderson's clearly been getting his ears filled by the entire mental health community since Oathbreaker came out, I always love it when his need to be an ally bleeds through the page. He tries so hard and it's endearing. (Dawnshard was just heaving with the stuff he's clearly learned from the disabled community.)

Sab669 posted:

That's my belief as well. I'm at about the same part as you are.

So now that someone else thinks what I think, I no longer think it's correct

Well maybe we're both very smart! :v:

# ¿ Nov 18, 2020 20:17

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

doomisland posted:

Just finished..........The Way of Kings!! It was alright and then the ending was somewhat better but not really that exciting.

I hated Way of Kings for 90% of it and then felt the ending was somewhat okay but I didn't care enough, so I put it down and didn't pick of Words of Radiance until months later. Then I loved WoR and got hooked, so, for what it's worth, I think the first book is by far the weakest and it picks up when characters actually meet up and start having magic powers.

Mordiceius posted:

Well of Ascension question - does Elend ever stop being a dumbass/annoyingly lawful good in this book? Or does something good ever come out of his dumbassery? I�m starting part 4 today and pretty much everything with Elend has been �I�m a mastermind! OH NO!!!� and it has been getting exhausting.

I mean... he's always gonna be Elend, but I was actually waiting for your reaction for when a character marched on screen specifically because the other characters in the book had your same complaints and had called someone in to fix him. It's very intentional.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2020 23:16

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Okay, I'm at least a decent way into Part 3 and RoW is starting to grate on me. Navani chapters were cool worldbuilding as a leavening, but an expodump every other chapter with no plot movement is too loving much, and so far at least the flashbacks are no new information. Plus, I'm pretty sure I can see what's going to happen; Adolin's gonna win his case by waking up Maya, Navani's gonna bond the Sibling, tower's gonna wake up, Kaladin will swear the Fourth Ideal and get his Plate, either surprise me or just get there and then the plot can move again.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2020 00:52

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Bruceski posted:

RoW page 125
I know that ability! Renardin's got malatium aura!

Yeah, Part 1 rewards Mistborn readers pretty frequently.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2020 05:38

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Subvisual Haze posted:

El is God in Hebrew. Was also the name of a fatherly God in some other semitic religions. If you see a name ending starting or ending in El, odds are its a Hebrew name meaning God's-something.

Yeah, this is why basically every angel name ends in El. They're all something-of-God.

I'm at the 85% mark, and Adolin's trial just ended, and I feel like Sanderson really didn't actually have five books worth of story, and locked himself into a format because he made the number ten so symbolic.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2020 01:58

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Speculation for future events without finishing the book yet: It can not be a coincidence that Wit tells a story about the time he lost all his money because he didn't plan for the possibility of a tie and then draws up a contract with Odium where what happens if he wins or loses are both clearly spelled out, but just those two things.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2020 05:51

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

There's always another secret, and it's all connected.

Also I finished RoW and oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

# ¿ Nov 21, 2020 09:14

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

So my initial reaction:

CapnAndy posted:

I'm about 25% of the way through RoW if kindle isn't lying to me, and I need to write this down somewhere because I'm pretty sure I've solved one of the mysteries and I want proof if I was right.

Shallan's the traitor in her team, isn't she? Another personality, probably Formless, acting while she's blanked out mentally.

Ha ha ha I'm smart. Things I also knew would happen and was just fussing at the book to get on with the obvious poo poo so something cool could happen instead: Navani bonding the Sibling and Adolin being saved by Maya (although admittedly I thought he'd have to swear the first Ideal to power her up. I actually wonder why he hasn't said it anyway -- c'mon, dude, you know the spren are strengthened by their bonds, why aren't you actively trying to bond Maya? It can only possibly help, say the words and see what happens!)

Which leads me to my overall opinion, which is that this is definitely the weakest book since Way of Kings, and for the same reason I disliked that one. Stop worldbuilding and make cool poo poo happen, Sanderson, we both know you can do either one for as long as you want, but the difference is, I don't care about the worldbuilding if cool poo poo isn't also happening! I reiterate my opinion that Sanderson foolishly locked himself into a 5 book cycle without 5 books of story, and this is the result. You could edit out about 60% of this book and lose nothing, and just graft the actual plot onto Book 5 and make it even more ridiculously overlong, oh well. Yes obviously he wants Book 5 to be the Last Ten Days, I get it, but that's just coming at the whole Sanderson's Letting Style Dictate Plot Instead of Vice-Versa criticism again but from another angle.

Also I can read the spoilers now, and I have things to say!

funkymonks posted:

I do have a question:

Was it made clear that Dalinar's contract with Odium is still in place despite Odium's vessel changing from Rayse to Taravingian? Does knowledge transfer from vessel to vessel? Does T-Odium know everything that R-Odium knew?

It was made very clear. The contract binds him, and Taraodium was at least able to sort through everything R-Odium knew; he's not very impressed by the plans and thinks he can do better.

RC Cola posted:

Yeah, I took it as Odium reading all of Hoid's magically stored memories, and then erasing the last 5 minutes. This gives Odium knowledge of the history of the cosmere so he doesn't have to ask about it from other shards, and Hoid has a hint of it, because he's lost enough breathes to lose perfect pitch.

Oh, he did way more than that. I'm pretty sure he took all of Hoid's Breath. All. He's lost everything he didn't have in his mind right at that moment.

I looked it up to be sure, and perfect pitch is only the second heightening. Hoid has less than 200 breaths now. So the question rapidly becomes, if Taraodium was gonna steal that many Breaths, why leave any at all?

team overhead smash posted:

I think we see pretty much every world's magic system represented or mentioned in one way or another whether obviously or in the background (Except maybe Allomancy? Can't remember anything specific about that)

Allomancy is up, down, all around, and through the middle of the fabrial construction notes in Part One's headers. They're using the allomantic metals to get exactly the results you'd expect.

RC Cola posted:

Also it was super obvious to me that Kelsier leads the ghostbloods and Taravangian would ascend to Odium. I just thought that would happen next book.

One more edit: I said I knew Kaladin would be the leader of the Ghostbloods, but jfc. He's a cognitive shadow. Powered by hemalurgy (blood). Ghost blood. The name makes it even more obvious

Jesus Christ the clues were right there, they literally named him The Lord of Scars and I didn't see it, Jesus Christ

# ¿ Nov 21, 2020 09:45

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Strumpy posted:

ROW / mistborn
i really want to know what kelsier and the ghostbloods end game is here. All we really know of where kelsier left off is that he saved the southern scadrial people and got pegged to a body. The ghostbloods seem almost too comically evil given what we have seen kelsier up to before. Is there some bigger plan in play? Is kelsier actually a little more evil now?

I mean, we very much don't know. Kelsier was always not a very nice guy, but "what is Kelsier up to" is quite the hanging question in Mistborn too at the moment.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2020 19:28

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Solumin posted:

Well I backed the ebooks.

I've never actually read any Sanderson, I guess this is a good time to start.

Oooh, ooh! It's always a good time to start!

Do you prefer more traditional high fantasy or something more grim and modern? The Way of Kings if the former, Mistborn for the latter.

Also, Jesus gently caress, Sanderson wrote four extra books on top of his already insanely prolific output? This settles it, the dude is clearly a book-writing android who escaped from some secret Mormon lab.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2022 19:18

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

As a writing prompt, "why did Buttercup sit around when she heard her love had been kidnapped by pirates? Why didn't she go and do something about it?" is absolutely fantastic.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2022 21:18

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

I laughed pretty hard at this:

quote:

Sidebar: A helpful method of visualizing this is to think of Nebraska. Nebraska is a landlocked state in the center of the United States of America. Because of its general lack of importance�and its distance from trendy population centers�it generally lags between the coasts a few years in fashion, music, and distribution of collectible card games.

You might feel like you�ve time traveled when visiting Nebraska, but careful scientific experiments using synchronized timepieces has proven no time dilation is in effect. (See Luddow, Sing, and Coffman, �Nebraska really is just like that� in Journal of Relativistic Studies, June, 2072.)

So I consider that promising.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2022 21:53

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

eke out posted:

woah today's 10 chapter release is some real poo poo

far-future sigzil!

Honestly, this one worries me. There's a constant stream of fucky punctuation -- either Aux is narrating himself or the italics have been badly formatted on nearly every single line -- and there's such a stream of unanswered poo poo going on due to the time-jump that I found it actively distracting. What's a Torment? What kind of a name for a spren is Auxiliary? Why does the spren refer to itself as a knight, and Sig as a squire? Why are we seeing the first results of Adolin's ongoing bond-to-a-deadeyes-and-wake-them-up experiment here, rather than, y'know, when Adolin finally does it?

# ¿ Mar 25, 2022 20:12

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

eke out posted:

aux is definitely narrating out loud, that isn't punctuation error he's like a batty old knight (and he drops the schtick later)

I mean, that's actually better -- if Aux thinks he's a knight and Nomad is his squire, that's fine, but if the omniscient narration was giving them those titles I was inclined to pitch fits.

quote:

Also imo it's more likely that freeing Ba-Ado-Mishram is what fixes Deadeyes, Adolin's merely proved that they're still alive, there's a larger magical problem that created them that's directly linked to BAM

Vociferous disagree on this, though. I know that it didn't happen before BAM got bound, but "Knights breaking their oaths makes Deadeyes" is used as a bludgeon against Adolin again and again in RoW, and we flat-out see that Shallan breaking her first bonds created a Deadeye. Spren are only as dead as their oaths.

Also on a personal level I've been expecting that this plotline ends with Adolin swearing his Ideal to Maya to fully wake her up, which I am excited for because it's going to be an incredibly cool moment and I'm extra excited to see what comes after that -- seeing what having Enlightened Knights and Deadeye Knights and Singer Knights knocking around with the quote-unquote "normal" Knights looks like and what that does to their Orders and society is something I expect for Book 6. So if I don't get what I want, I'll be pissed. In fact, the entire Adolin/Shallan plotline mostly pissed me off in RoW because, to my eyes, it was all wheel-spinning -- the logical next step is Adolin swearing his oaths to Maya, it has been since the end of Oathbringer, quit wasting my goddamn time and get to it. Sanderson usually surprises me by jumping predicted events up way earlier than I expect them to happen (everyone thought Rayse was being set up as the big bad of the entire Cosmere!), so I get extra annoyed when he of all authors drags his heels on a plot point.

quote:

anyways that's a lot of words to say i get where you're coming from but i think he's purposefully hiding the stuff that would giveaway plot arcs in Stormlight 5. we'll probably see the effects in ways that hint at possible causes but not fully confirm them

Yeah, but "purposely hiding the stuff that would give away plot arcs in Stormlight 5" actually pretty astutely puts a finger on what's bugging me about this one. An entire book that's going "tee-hee, can't actually explain this because it'd spoil another book that's coming out later" has a lot of potential to get really grating really quick. Just sit on the goddamn story for a year if you can't tell it yet, I promise not to be mad!

CapnAndy fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Mar 26, 2022

# ¿ Mar 25, 2022 21:31

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Louisgod posted:

What's wrong with the teases? Ultimately these books aren't slated to come out until 2023 anyway, which is supposedly when Stormlight 5 is being released. Personally I'm gonna wait to read ANY of what's in these surprise novels until they're fully out so that it's a fresh experience and a full package.

I don't think Stormlight 5 comes out in 2023? I thought he wanted all of 2023 to write it. If Secret Book 4 comes out concurrent or after Stormlight 5 it'll bug me way less.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2022 21:57

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

A completely random thought: has anyone ever asked Brandon if gunpowder is even inventable on Roshar? Maybe there's just no sulfur on the entire planet, who knows. It'd explain why they're still stuck at swords and bows despite having 4500 years to figure out something better.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2022 17:42

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

ConfusedUs posted:

I'd say it's probably a combo of the higher-than-average oxygen content of the air making explosives very risky, the recurring apocalypses resetting technology levels to subsistence levels, and the general availability of magic as an alternative.

I'm taking the latter two into account; with only 4500 years since they last got reset to the Stone Age and sources of magic power I'm not, for instance, too down on them for not figuring out steam power yet (though they should be right on the cusp of that, especially now that they've invented vehicles that could really use it). But gunpowder is much earlier and "kill those fuckers wearing armor and using swords" is a problem that their magic can't solve.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2022 18:00

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Torrannor posted:

There's probably an assumption that magical research always somewhat competes with "real" research in fantasy works. It should be noted that fabrial science can be done by anybody, no need to have inborn or acquired magical abilities. Which removes one of the main arguments against magical technology replacing "normal" technology (the underclass searching for ways to gain advantages over the magical elite). Also, Roshar is inherently more inhospitable than Earth. Earth's Stone Age ended (depending on your definition) between 4000 to 2000 BCE. Which means it took between about 5600 to 3600 years from the end of the Stone Age to the invention of the steam engine on Earth. Which fits with the 4500 years sine the end of the Final Desolation on Roshar, even apart from the Rosharans being thrown back deep into the stone age that they had to climb out first, on a harsher planet than Earth. And with magic science probably partly crowding out non-magical science to a degree.

As for gunpowder, that may be a case of the base materials being harder to come by in Roshar's strange geology and ecology.

Yeah, I agree with you on literally every point. I'm specifically not knocking them for not having steam yet, I just note that they should be right on the cusp of it, both on a general time-to-develop sense and in the more specific sense that they have all the technological prerequisites, and with the invention of vehicles powered by force-isolated cojoined rubies, they now have a need for engines that they didn't have before. They can brew tea and they're using highstorm winds to turn windmills to lift the weights they're currently using to store kinetic energy; I expect someone shortly to make the mental step to cutting out the middleman and just sticking forward-force-only rubies on a pinwheel.

As for gunpowder, my point is that it comes much sooner than steam, and "we need to kill dudes wearing armor and using swords and bows" is a problem they have no solution for, magical or otherwise. So I specifically weondered if the base materials just aren't present on Roshar or something, and if anyone's ever thought to ask Brandon about that.

Tunicate posted:

Scadrial had gunpowder but TLR didn't like it and deliberately suppressed the tech.

Combination of wanting to freeze technology more-or-less at a medieval level so he didn't get overthrown and being so strongly of Preservation that he just didn't like change in general, I think.

Also "You people really should be on radio by now, I think I made it too easy on you" is one of my favorite Harmony lines.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2022 19:26

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Fezz posted:

How useful is guns against magical armor and people who can heal themselves instantly?

Not very, but they had some 2000 years where that was not the problem, other random-rear end humans with Shardbearers being an extreme rarity was.

It's definitely possible that there are no nitrogen-fixing plants outside of Shinovar, though.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2022 19:48

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Anshu posted:

I don't read the line that way at all. I guess comparison to the Set and the Southern Scadrians might be part of it, but he all but explicitly puts the blame on himself for making things too easy after the Catacendre.

Yeah, that was my reading of the line too. He has a broad strokes timeline in his head for how he expected Scadrial to advance after he recreated it (he presumably seeded oil deposits and such) and he's starting to realize he might've hosed up a bit, because they're lagging behind it.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2022 23:22

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Potato Salad posted:

Imo there's almost certainly going to be a present-and-future or influence-and-observation tradeoff in the spiritual plane as a fantasy ripoff of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

I mean, that's already basically confirmed. The whole thing with Renarin loving with godsight is so highly reminiscient of atium cancelling atium in Scadrial that it has to be intentional. Seeing the future only works if you're the only person doing it.

Also, Sanderson, you delightful loving lunatic. Stephen King's always been my favorite writer at using the internet because I find it endlessly amusing that the world's greatest living horror writer uses his Twitter almost exclusively for dad jokes and pictures of his dogs, but goddamn. Is the Stormlight 5 prologue in text anywhere? I don't like listening to books, I read much faster than people can talk.

CapnAndy fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Mar 30, 2022

# ¿ Mar 30, 2022 19:31

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Jose Valasquez posted:

There aren't any plans for them to print any more copies of The Way of Kings Prime, but they do have it as free e-book

Way of Kings Prime is such an interesting artifact. There's a lot of Warbreaker and Elantris still kicking around in its magic system and the way the characters diverge so wildly from what "actually" happened to them while still remaining recognizable even if they don't have the same name is fascinating.

Proto-Kaladin loving sucks, though. He's so boring and generic.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2022 18:33

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Brutor Fartknocker posted:

Stormlight 5 prologue is in the newsletter he sent out this morning, for anyone who wanted the text version.

Well, that was interesting.

What the gently caress game was the Stormfather playing at? Knowingly being involved with bringing back the Voidbringers? It may have been lying and/or using "new Herald" as words Gavilar would understand better than "become a Bondsmith and reforge the Oathpact centered on yourself", but... "Give it to me. Now. I need them." isn't within a mile of any Radiant or Bondsmith oaths, and notably, Gavilar comes really close to at least "Journey before destination" earlier and the Stormfather doesn't react at all. He's up to something in that prologue, and it -- intentionally, I'm sure -- begs the question: is he still up to it? Because, as it turns out, the Stormfather lies.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2022 21:47

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

eke out posted:

Lotta people seem surprised at the lying but that part didn't seem like a big deal to me, Honor's all about bonds and contracts, and unbonded Stormfather doesn't owe anyone poo poo. But his level of agency and scheming DOES make it seem like maybe something more is going on, especially when you compare it to how he'd later talk to Dalinar where he constantly claims to be just a shadow of Tanavast and not know anything about anything.

It's a big deal for two main reasons I can see. First, we know he's willing to lie, and lie about the Big Important Stuff. This calls into question everything he ever told Dalinar, especially before they bonded. And second, it means the Stormfather has an agenda of his own and he's willing to go to lengths we didn't know he was capable of to see it done. The implications of the Stormfather not being trustworthy are pretty vast.

New Yorp New Yorp posted:

Silly question... how do we know it's actually the Stormfather? It's an entity that told Galivar it's the Stormfather and showed him visions. That's all we have to go off of. It's from Galivar's POV and all we know is what he knows or thinks he knows.

That's not a silly question at all! I had the exact same thought. He doesn't act at all like the Stormfather does anywhere else, and he manifests physically, which the Stormfather never has done. It's weird.

Tunzie posted:

Ive seen a theory doing the rounds that it�s ishar, since he shows visions without there being a storm, knows when a Herald dies, and could be interested in getting someone to replace him in the Oathpact, while not wanting him to surrender immediately.

Yeah, maybe. The points against I can think are: he does the "my face turns into the eternal storm" trick, and... we knew Gavilar got the visions before now. What I can't remember, and it's suddenly important: how do we know that? Does the Stormfather say he sent them specifically?

Major point in its favor, though, it's so goddamn weird that the Stormfather is like "well I'm never talking to your family ever again" and then... changes his mind?

# ¿ Mar 31, 2022 22:48

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

MartingaleJack posted:

Skyward is my vote. I hope that one gets adapted. I think we need another decade of tech improvements and before a Stormlight book won't look like crap.

I think the tech is there. It'd be expensive, because drat near every shot's going to have CGI elements, but I've seen other properties do magic swords, crazy mech armor, kaiju, and shapeshifting magic spirits before. It's doable. You'd just need someone willing to cut a LotR/GoT-sized check and spend $200 million on a season of television.

Sab669 posted:

T's referred to as The Lord of Scars by Hoid.

Hoid also says that if Thaidakar doesn't get his nose out of Roshar, Hoid may be forced to beat him up again. The list of dudes Hoid has beat up has exactly one name on it.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2022 18:09

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Grundulum posted:

On-camera, right? Or is there text suggesting that it hasn�t even happened historically?

Hoid can't hurt anyone, for reasons we don't know (but may or may not be connected to playing host to a Dawnshard at some point). That's why he says when handing his sword to Jasnah that it's never been used before, ever. When he decks Kelsier in the Well, he notes with pleased amazement that he wasn't sure it was going to work at all, but apparently Kelsier isn't enough of a person any more to count. So we know the list is one name long because he literally can't beat people up.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2022 19:10

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Regarding the two "bad" gods we've met so far: honestly, they're both understandable. Odium is divine wrath untempered by divine mercy, Ruin is the knowledge that all things must die without the corresponding knowledge that all things must live. Similarly, it's easy to tell how any of the "good" ones could go/are going bad -- Autonomy has gone entirely isolationist, Cultivation doesn't necessarily care what she grows, Preservation thought the Lord Ruler was the most awesome dude because he was an immortal tyrant who intentionally locked society into strict castes and stagnated it, etc., etc. I think it's kinda very much Sanderson's entire point that these are all fundamentally bad ideas, and Adonalasium should never have been split in the first place and needs to be rejoined.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone's been following the Stormlight minis kickstarter, but they just revealed an official design for Lift:

Not what I expected -- I know she has long hair but that's longer than I expected, and both the hat and the jacket seem a bit too fussy for her, but it works. (There's also an official design for Kaladin's shardplate there.)

# ¿ Oct 6, 2022 20:07

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

ConfusedUs posted:

I have always pictured lift in basically a smock and a basic jacket, that is way fancier than I expected! I mean, it's not fancy, but I didn't really expect any sense of style at all.

Yeah, exactly! I didn't even see her with a jacket; unless she's in a situation where the Azish court is making her wear the fancy clothes (and I imagine she's always wearing ill-fitting fancy clothes when they do on purpose), I just imagined a really baggy shirt and pants. "I'm an urchin, gently caress you, also I'm still 10" is her vibe.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2022 20:17

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

NikkolasKing posted:

But Wit himself contrasts Ruin and Odium in that Ruin was originally a good man corrupted by his singular aspect of Adonalsium, while Rayse was always a shithead. His actions seem to show this since he has gone more out of his way than anybody to do great harm, even going after to kill other Shard holders right after the whole thing started.

Oh, definitely, it shows. Ruin tried to work together with Preservation to create something, he wasn't even the one to break their pact, and even mid-apocalypse he's still in complete sincerity giving "this is for the best, why can't you see that" speeches. He really tried to be good. Odium, meanwhile, just immediately goes "well this is rad, I'm rad, gently caress the rest of you" and becomes a divine serial killer.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2022 20:54

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

NikkolasKing posted:

And can I jusr say, on the topic of Wit, I'd like to pick some peoples' brains on this. Stormlight spoilers.

I have an admittedly out-there theory on Wit. I think he's God.

I think he's Adonalasium incarnate, who participated in his own Shattering for Reasons, and is working towards his own rejoining for Reasons.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2022 23:30

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Grundulum posted:

I was under the impression that (full Cosmere, since I don�t remember the source) Wit/Hoid is predated by some sort of white dragon thing, meaning he can�t be Adonalsium�what could predate the literal creator?

Edit: I appear to be right. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Frost <� This link will obviously contain spoilers for darn near the entire Cosmere released to date. You�ve been warned.

Oh, Wit/Hoid/Cephandrius/etc. definitely existed before the Shattering; we know he even took part in it in some fashion, and had the opportunity to claim a Shard but refused it.

Do I really have to point out the precedent for God incarnating himself as a human being while still also remaining God to carry out some sort of plan that, to a Mormon, would include traveling to other planets? (General Cosmere spoilers)

# ¿ Oct 7, 2022 03:13

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Oathbringer and beyond spoilers:

I'm rereading Oathbringer, and something jumped out at me this time that I'd never really noticed before. When Dalinar goes to the Nightwatcher and meets Cultivation instead, she says he's the first human she's interacted with in centuries. But we know she's also touched at least Taravangian and Lift, so this time I went and checked the timing on that -- and it all happens in a span of less than two years. Taravangian creates the Diagram two months later, so he must've shown up, like, the day after Dalinar left or something. Both of those things happen in 1168, and since Lift is fixated on the idea of being ten years old and was born in 1160, it's likely she visited in 1170, since that's when she'd think she got her age frozen.

That's a hell of a tight window. Coincidence? Did Cultivation pull in the other two based on whatever she saw in Dalinar? Or it's possible she was lying/Brandon hosed up, because seriously, that timeframe between Dalinar and Taravangian is technically possible, but absurdly tight. Taravangian must have had his one good day on, like, literally the day he got home.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2022 06:00

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

It's pretty obvious in the text, too. The Stormfather rages that Lift has been created specifically to gently caress with him, and Lift can identiy the scent of Cultivation on Dalinar. And when Taravangium meets with Cultivation, she takes explicit credit for setting him up to ascend -- and the whole thing is pretty clearly premeditated in retrospect what with Taravangian's stupidest days also being his most emotional. That's a level of both forethought and future sight that the Nightwatcher isn't capable of.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2022 08:26

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Torrannor posted:

The only people you "need" an explanation for are Dalinar and Taravangian. Lift is just a random girl who happened to come to the Valley at the right time. Everything that makes her special, even her Radiant bond, comes as a result of Cultivation meddling with her.

I mean... that's a dangerous assumption. Gods play the long game by their very nature.

But in this case, my concern isn't the who, it's the when. It's such a surprisingly short timeframe.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2022 16:49

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Tunicate posted:

I wouldn't exactly call Kelsier indiscriminate considering how absurdly over the top evil Final Empire nobles are.

Yeah, but it takes a lot of talking down and him basically already going to his death anyway so he won't have time to do any more murders for him to decide that Elend can live, because his policy is very much "kill every noble, they were condemned by their own birth".

I think Sanderson's dead-on. Kelsier has great goals, but not only does he fundamentally not care how much blood he's got to wade through to get there, he views wading through the blood as a benefit. He gets downright confused when people are like "maybe we only kill the bad nobles?", because why would you kill fewer people than you could get away with?

# ¿ Oct 12, 2022 18:17

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

There is definitely a spectrum between Glorious Revolution and Kill Everyone Wearing Eyeglasses, and Kelsier's on the wrong end of it.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2022 19:01

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

The Stormlight Minis kickstarter had one final stretch goal: Brandson said to them "hey you should include <name>" and they said "who?" and he said "yeah, I'll get Ben McSweeney to make some concept art for you".

So it's not so much a spoiler as a tease, but if you want to see the name and concept art of someone who's apparently gonna be important (in Book 5?): this is Zellion: https://imgur.com/6p60j8i

edit: "Brandson" was a typo but it amuses the gently caress out of me and I'm keeping it

# ¿ Oct 14, 2022 16:39

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Can we at least start tagging what sort of stuff we're spoiling again? I'm not reading the TLM chapters but I want to talk aout other stuff, and it's turning into russian roulette up in here.

Donkey posted:

Makes me wonder if one of Shallan's final truths she has to admit is that when she killed her mom she set events in motion that indirectly led to the desolation. Though Gavilar, Ulim, and Venli were also already doing whatever they were doing, so it may have just been a matter of time anyway.

SA in general: That's not really a truth in the way Lightweavers seem to need them to be, though. It'd be new information to her, not something she denies about herself.

And on that note, Shallan should be Fourth Ideal now, right? "I killed my mother", "I killed my father", "I killed Testament", that's three. She ought to be due Shardplate when she gets out of Shadesmar. And her final truth basically has to be "I deserve to be loved".

NikkolasKing posted:

As much as I do love Oathbringer, I probably don't have the intended emotional reactions in some areas.

Tanalan at the Rift brought this fate upon himself and his people through his duplicity.

Himself and whatever of his military forces it takes to make the rest surrender, absolutely. Dalinar is not at fault for that. But killing literally every single civilian is a loving war crime. I'm sure there was a baby or two born just hours before the Rift burned. What'd that newborn do to deserve being burned alive?

# ¿ Nov 2, 2022 18:40

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:14

CapnAndy: Feb 27, 2004; Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

M_Gargantua posted:

Stormlight RoW speculation - I had a thought that maybe Shallan will have to say 7 or 8 truths, as Testament is still following her around and bonded to her, as she was able to summon a Testament blade in WoK even before speaking the first truth to Pattern in WoK Ch 45. That first technical truth spoken to Pattern was "I am Terrified", so by that count she's already at four truths on screen as of RoW. So I think maybe she has a truth deficit to pay back in parallel, having both a dead and living spren bonded. The one or two unknown truth's she spoke as a kid to Testament that granted blade. Right now we know that Lightweavers get both Illumination and Transformation before blade. So with some conjecture - "I am Terrified" was the first truth spoken to pattern, granting her soulcasting which she used to create the bloody mess, and "I killed my father" gave her access to Pattern as a blade, which is what she used to kill Tyn and lend to Kaladin. So now she's caught up to where she was originally before Testament died. That makes "I killed my mother" her fourth ideal, but one given to Testament, and "I killed Testament" her fourth idea, spoken to Pattern. I think then she now qualifies for Plate, and she'll have to swear two more to complete the fifth. A problem the original knights or shard bearers didn't have, and a unique case.

I mean, I really don't know about that. It seems really out-there, but who knows Deadeye Knights are gonna work.

I just hope I'm right, mostly for plot consistency, but also because it's an opportunity for prime physical comedy.

*Shallan steps out of Oathgate with two Blades*

Hey everyone, I'm back, and boy do I have things to tell... wait... WHAT THE--

*Shallan is cut off as hundreds of creationspren zoom in out of nowhere and slam into her*

# ¿ Nov 3, 2022 21:43

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