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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.

Lobsterpillar posted:

Also in the cosmere there's another word for a walking ghost: cognitive shadow
What a good tangent, I wanted to talk about cognitive shadows.

Vasher's definition of them is that they're people who died highly Invested, and when the soul goes Beyond, that power remembers being alive, so it keeps right on going because it thinks it's still the same person, right? But because it's not a real soul, the fakery unravels over time because it can't change and evolve properly, so it gets more and more set in its ways and spren-like? So they may or may not have Physical components, they're Cognitive but it's not the original mind, it's a copy of it, and there's no Spiritual. So they don't go Beyond? (Or, if they do, they do as a "new" soul?)

But... that doesn't apply to Kelsier. We're in his mind from the moment of his death, and he never goes Beyond. He's still original model Kelsier. So he's not a cognitive shadow, then, even though I'm pretty sure he's been referred to as one before. And Shards wouldn't be either, because they don't go Beyond until they die (and when they do, we even see their Physical component pop back into the realm). And we don't know what happened to the Heralds to make them Heralds, but we know Jezrien faded out of the gem they put him in because once stripped of his Connection, he goes Beyond too. That doesn't sound like a cognitive shadow by the definition we've got, that sounds more like whatever Kelsier is.


The whole thing is one big RAFO bait so I doubt there's answers, but it confuses the heck out of me.

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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.

Brutor Fartknocker posted:

Re: Cognitive shadows, mistborn/stormlight spoilers Trying to remember stuff, but I think Kelsier is a cognitive shadow, since when he dies his "soul" lasts longer because of his being a mistborn. The soul being tethered by being more invested makes it seem like the soul is just investiture, someone who is physically dead has lost that original physical body person. This would put the heralds and the fused all in the same bucket of power that lived on remembering who they are after death, vs the returned who are memory wiped by endowment, but otherwise the same.
Yeah, but Vasher is very much under the opinion that Cognitive Shadows are not the original person at all, they're the power that person left behind that -- since "power wants to be alive" and "how something is seen/thinks of itself matters tremendously" are building blocks of this universe -- starts acting like that person, maybe even legitimately not noticing that it's not the real person any more. But definitely in Kelsier's case, and probably in others that are getting classified as Shadows, it provably is the same person. Kelsier never goes Beyond. If he's a shadow, then the definition we have for them is deeply flawed.

It confuses the hell out of me and I wish I had access to one of those events where people ask Brandon a bunch of questions; I just would like confirmation that I'm supposed to be confused and find everything self-contradictory.

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:

There's been a ton. Cognitive shadows [realmatic theory] are created when a highly invested creature dies and the investiture fills in their absent aspect in the cognitive plane. He's compared it to a petrified tree or a fossil, can't remember which.
Yeah, that's what Vasher says, which is my whole point. That does not apply to Kelsier, or at least, it shouldn't. He never goes Beyond and we're in his head when he dies and there's no indication that he has even the slightest break in conciousness -- and Preservation certainly talks to him like he's the real Kelsier. So, original soul, original mind, and while whatever they did for his new body, it's not like the power rushed in to make him a new one. He doesn't fit the definition. And what's more, under that definition, cognitive shadows shouldn't have souls. So how are the Heralds fading to Beyond when they get their Connections cut?

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.

His Divine Shadow posted:

Also are the heralds fading to the beyond? I don't remember that, which book?
RoW. It's mentioned by multiple Heralds that Jezrien faded away and is really gone, and Kelek's epigrams explain why -- trapping him in a gemstone broke all his remaining Connections -- and mock the reader (who he assumes is an assassin sent to do the same to him) for not knowing that and playing with forces beyond their understanding.

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:

I just got through the relevant part in RoW again. To quote:

Zahel: "Be wary of those Fused, kid. The longer one of us exists, the more like a spren we become. Consumed by a singular purpose, our minds bound and chained by our Intent. We’re spren masquerading as men. That’s why she takes our memories. She knows we aren’t the actual people who died, but something else given a corpse to inhabit.…
There, right where I bolded, that's what I can't get past. Kelsier is absolutely the actual person who died, whose entire problem was that he was not given a corpse to inhabit and had to go manufacture one for himself. He's not the same thing as a Returned, and the evidence suggests that Heralds aren't either, because if you're a spren masquerading as a man, you could be trapped in a gemstone.

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:

To quote Secret History exactly

Very well. Be Preserved, Kelsier. Survivor.
Something shoved him forward, and Kelsier merged with the light. Moments later he blinked awake.


But yeah the Ship of Theseus analogy is a good one.
Huh, I didn't notice that. That definitely opens the door and makes it not the open-and-shut case I thought. However, after he drops Preservation, the narration also says he can feel the tug to Beyond starting again and he has to re-resist it. So that indicates he's still got a soul, doesn't it.

Of course, "do the Shadows have souls, can one soul be connected to multiple minds" is sort of a hanging question right now, isn't it.

NikkolasKing posted:

ROW spoilers
So Rayse (the vessel) was struggling with Odium (the Shard) and being reminded of this made me think of something else which has been on my mind.

This is the "True Desolation"...but all anyone ever talks about is that the Fused want to occupy, not destroy. They are, in some cases, better, more benign rulers than the humans were. This is nothing like the civilization eradicating fights of old. Could this be why his hold on the Shard weakened? His goal is not to destroy but to build - build an army to scourge the Cosmere and the Shard wants obliteration and it wants it now.

That could definitely be a factor. I think we're meant to at least assume that Rayse agreeing to a contest of champions but then playing silly semantic games of "but I didn't agree when! haha!" is pissing off the Odium shard. Oaths are a very, very big deal to Shards; breaking his is what left Preservation open to Ruin killing him.

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 would like to wish you all a very merry Finding of Metals Day.

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.
Extremely minor spoiler for up to chapter 29 of TLM: the Ghostbloods logo is a stylized Marewill? Kelsier, you utterly corny bastard.

Also, slightly uncool for a Mistborn book to casually toss off major Stormlight spoilers, maybe?

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:

I've finished the book, and my head is kind of swimming with all the stuff, which major Stormlight spoiler was there?
Same chapter: when they're looking at the Ghostbloods logo and Marsh just casually goes "oh yeah that's the organization run by my brother, who's a Cognitive Shadow". Imagine reading the Mistborn books first and then going to Stormlight now; I feel like it's gonna be somewhat frustrating watching Shallan struggle with "who are these mysterious Ghostbloods" for three books.

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:

But it's kind of unavoidable to spoiler this for Stormlight readers. And it's not even the first such spoiler. Stormlight only readers were likely a bit confused why there's suddenly a talking sword that wants to destroy evil, while Warbreaker readers of course were hyped simply by Nightblood's introduction at the end of Words of Radiance.

And really, is Sanderson not allowed to write about this deeply Scadrian organization in his Scadrial books? When their leader is the freaking Survivor itself, who will play a much bigger role in Era 3, according to WoB? If Era 3 comes out before SA is finished, which I think is a given, it would be even more ridiculous to write around the issue in order not to spoil Stormlight Archive readers. As I wrote above, spoiling other series' readers is kind of unavoidable when you have concurrent series, like SA and Mistborn Era 2 are.

Of course he's allowed, and it is unavoidable, especially as everything gets more interconnected. Hell, we're more-or-less guaranteed a future conflict between Roshar and Scadrial, aren't we? If the Knights Radiant show up in spaceships in Mistborn Era 4, that's gonna put a lot of tension pre-emptively to bed for someone who's been Mistborn only to that point. (It would also be rad as gently caress. SPACESHIP RADIANTS.)

I imagine you're right; we're just going to have to adjust our advice for newbies with something along the lines of "and be aware, after <X point> everything starts crossing over with a vengeance, so before you get there either read everything else or be prepared for spoilers".

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.
TLM secondary character spoiler: I've now seen elsewhere online that Moonlight was Shai, and... what? Are there some pretty major clues I missed somehow, or are people really doing that solely off of "is a female Forger"? Because Shai would have all her self-changing Essence Marks (and the ultra martial artist one would have come in handy), she wouldn't be so amateur as to forge a mark where she wouldn't know if she'd remember her true self afterwards, and I'm pretty goddamn sure the timeline in no way lines up.

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:

Her name is shai, but with the elantrian pronunciation when she transforms. I'm guessing she had some issues with bringing her magic to scadrial, explaining her relative level of unpreparedness
Ugh if that's not a coincidence. Literally the first thing I thought when Moonlight was all "I only have two all-purpose stamps and one that'll work on me but I don't know what'll happen if I use it" was that it made me appreciate Shai more, because that was amateur hour crap that she would have never countenanced. Shai is quite capable of carving a stamp where she still remembers her core identity! We've seen her do it and use one!

Also, what's with the "oh gosh I might stay an Eltantrian forever" thing in general? One of the hardest rules we know for Forging is that no soul forge lasts more than 24 hours; after that, you've got to be restamped or it wears off. Even Shai's forget-everything stamp included a reason to keep stamping herself.

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 believe the latest WoBs put Mistborn Era 2 as happening definitely after Stormlight 5 and possibly after Stormlight 6, although Brandon hasn't fully nailed down the chronology yet.
Happening after Stormlight 5, during the timeskip, sounds right.

In the RoW epigraphs, Harmony says, in part: "I have begun searching for a pathway out of this conundrum by seeking the ideal person to act on my behalf. Someone who embodies both Preservation and Ruin. A … sword, you might say, who can both protect and kill." And we know that correspondence between Hoid and Harmony was started when Hoid wrote to all the Shards asking them for help in containing Odium, which is going to be a settled (or at least changed) problem after Stormlight 5. So even though there's precedent for epigraphs coming from the future (Oathbringer epigraphs including the foreword to Oathbringer), if Harmony has only now just started putting Plan Wax into action, Mistborn Era 2 is still several years into the future.

Also, regarding the big emotional thing from TLM, I have to admit it didn't affect me much. We're about to timeskip out, everyone's gonna be dead by the next Mistborn book. Wayne went out successful, on his own terms, and as a hero. Good for him.

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 6-10 are only supposed to be a few years after 1-5 right? With Mistborn Era 2 happening in-between them. Those are plenty of decades between Roshar sorting its poo poo out and things getting spicy on Scadriel again.
I believe that it'll be long enough that Lift will be a grownup, but I have absolutely no idea where I got that impression from.

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.

Calidus posted:

TLM Kelsier doesn’t know about the investing of spikes via average people because moonlight is missing and Marasi doesn’t bring it up. Curious if Marasi just doesn’t think it’s important or if she made a choice to not tell him.
She's been so overwhelmed by insane poo poo happening that night that I doubt it particularly registers with her at all, and if she gave it any thought, she'd probably assume that Kelsier knows already. After all, "we know all the mysterious secrets" is very much how the Ghostbloods present themselves.

He'll probably find out when she puts it in her police report.

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.
Absolutely read Stormlight, but I always note that I bounced off Way of Kings pretty hard -- I don't think it gets good until Words of Radiance. Too much worldbuilding before we have a reason to care, most of it clunky, and nobody's got their superpowers yet.

Tunicate posted:

Missed opportunity forher to call Wanye a fantastic bang instead
Go to jail :mad:

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 thought that was explicitly stated in the text of The Lost Metal, though? It was certainly the impression I left the book with.
Never explicitly stated, but it was very much the impression you were supposed to come away with.

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 seems like the actual limiting factor is going to be that the supply of Trellium is limited and nobody's making more, yeah?

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:

In regards to metals being used up, Brandon wavered a bit over the years, but for now has settled on "the metals get used up". They act as the keys to Preservation's investiture, and as of right now just get burned and don't reform anywhere else.

But as was noted, base metals are not going to run out any time soon.

If, in a millenia or two, Rosharan Surgebinders aren't capable of creating whatever metals they want out of whatever's laying around, they have nobody to blame but themselves. They have multiple ways to pull that off, given appropriate scientific knowledge.

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 have decided I really want to see star-spanning Radiants now.

An Elsecaller, landing on an asteroid: Hello!
Asteroid: I am an asteroid.
Elsecaller: Yes. This is lerasium. Would you like to be lerasium?
Asteroid: I am an asteroid. I soar through the heavens.
Elsecaller: That's nice.
Asteroid: I am doom, and change, and portents. I am an asteroid.
Elsecaller: Look, buddy, I got three more stops to make today, so let's cut to the end. Become lerasium, or I give you to my Stoneward friend here, and we use you for fuel in the fusion drive.
*Stoneward waves*
Asteroid: ...I will be lerasium.

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.
Literally the minor-est of spoilers for Tress, about a quarter of the way through: At the start of chapter 24, Hoid refers to himself as a Worldbringer. Is that a typo? Sigzil has always referred to himself and Hoid as Worldsingers.

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.
Mid-Tress prediction, and I'll eat one of Tress' cups if I'm wrong: Huck is Charlie. It became blindingly obvious when he used his ability to talk incessantly about every last small thing he'd seen while ashore to calm her down, and in retrospect there were hints: Huck repeatedly mentions his family in disparaging terms and says they cut him loose, and narrator-Hoid offhandedly mentions that in stories like this, maidens tend to discover that they've had the thing they were questing for all along.

And a guess that I'm not sure enough about to make another facetious bet over: I wonder if marrying Huck isn't how Tress breaks the curse to turn him back into Charlie? It was Huck himself who told Tress that the Sorceress' curses have a fixed shape, and you can find how to break them just by noting what the cursed individual talks about and what they can't talk about, and he keeps on bringing up his family but rapidly descends into nonsense when questioned about them in detail. So family is key to breaking the curse, and therefore if Tress becomes his family, she qualifies, and the Sorceress is established to love ironic curses so "you came to marry me, huh? okay, rat forever until you can get someone to marry you" would fit nicely with that, and also it's a lovely way to justify a fairy tale cliche.

The only thing I'm really wondering about, assuming I'm right about all that, is how Huck got on the one ship that Tress coincidentally stowed away on -- that's a hell of a lucky break. But I assume it'll be explained.

There are some Cosmere things I've noticed and want to talk about, but am gonna save it for when I'm done so I don't have to fear spoilers.

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.

pik_d posted:

I'm talking about the linked annotations for Elantris on Sanderson's website.

As for your question, I'm going to get through the Elantris novellas before moving on to Mistborn.
God, have fun with that gear shift. You’re going from the worst thing Sanderson ever wrote to one of the best.

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.

pik_d posted:

Well I've only read about 7 chapters so far so it's hard to say, but I do really like it and think it'll be right up there with some of the best from below. I really like books/series that have really good world building and this seems to be doing that well. I like the snippets at the beginning of each chapter that I assume are Lord Ruler from 1000 years ago.
I will say this and only this: you're not misisng anything. You're asking the questions that the narrative wants you to be asking, and drawing reasonable inferences. (Incidentally, get in the habit of that.)

Mordiceius posted:

What was your gateway to Brandon Sanderson?
Every year I go to GenCon, and every year I get a bunch of book recommendations for the airplanes and hotel rooms, preferrably thick and escapist-y. On year I got The Way of Kings recommended to me. Don't remember where, it might've been from some internet listicle or something.

I loving hated it. I didn't give a single poo poo about anyone or anything happening, I thought it was all tedious-rear end worldbuilding until a relatively good finale that didn't justify the boredom I had to slog through to get it. But the next year, for whatever reason, I thought to myself "gently caress it, why not, at least they're long", and grabbed Words of Radiance. And that one I loved. Devoured Oathbringer and every other Cosmere book, haven't looked back.

Incidentally, I still think TWoK is just... not very good. It's the first book in a series all about superpowered knights fighting ancient evils with the cosmos themselves at stake, and loving none of that is in the entire first book! For gently caress's sake, nobody even gets their superpowers until Book 2! Half of the main characters don't even meet each other until Book 2! It's ridiculous! The whole goddamn thing is table-setting, almost none of the actual plot matters in the slightest, it should've been 100 pages max at the start of Words of Radiance to set up the characters and setting before the real loving inciting incidents start happening.

And, no, wasn't a tremendous fan of Rhythym of War either, but that moved the plot forward, if incrementally, and at least everyone had cool superpowers to pass the wheel-spinning with.

CapnAndy fucked around with this message at 03:31 on May 17, 2023

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:

Got the Mistborn year of Sanderson box, it's the first one with something I'll actually use, Mistborn book ends:



Gorgeous Mistborn bookends. Worth the price of the boxes all by themselves, IMO. Box also came with a reversible Soonie Pup!




And the pin was Wax, seen here chilling with Hoid and Sterris from the other boxes. Sterris still retains the Best Pin crown.

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.

Mordiceius posted:

Err Way of Kings. Yeah.

Typo on my part.

But yeah, I need to commit to just forcing through the first few hours to get hooked and I haven't had the time or patience to do so. Maybe this weekend since it's a long weekend. I found myself exhausted by "here's an event out of context from 5000 years ago. okay now, here's a guy and before you have a chance to get your bearings, we're going to talk about all the family ties and countries he's affiliated with and all that culture."
Like I said, I hate hate hated TWoK first time I read it, I still dislike it, and yet Stormlight is my favorite series. If you can power through to Words of Radiance, everyone gets their superpowers and the plot actually starts, and then it's good.

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:

Thats gotta be sarcasm? Telling people to "power through" 800,000 words and it gets good...

I like The Way of Kings, and I liked Words of Radiance, but I can see how its not for everybody.
It's not. TWoK is bad and the next several million words are really good.

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.

Mordiceius posted:

I'm going to stop my bitching rant here. I'll get past this part eventually, but I'll just say that it isn't the strongest start imo.
I am always down to bitch about TWoK. Always.

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.

pik_d posted:

Continuing my first time reader stuff, The Final Empire, chapters 18-25 (Part 3 of the book)

Vin has gone from being awkward at balls to wondering if some of the nobility are good, actually. That's loving gross. I realize she's got a crush on Elend but she's spent 16 years being a Skaa. It's wild she can look at the rest of them and see redeeming qualities after the life she's lived.

I still don't know what the 9th or 11th metals do, but at least I understand Sazed and the Keepers. A different kind of metal magic, seems like a more patient but also more sustainable form of Allomancy. I'm actually wondering if there's truth to the claim that the Lord Ruler gave those loyal to him Allomancy, and it's just a bastardized version of Feruchemy.

Kelsier is a dick and either needs a hell of a redemption arc or is actually just going to go full Lord Ruler himself, and Vin's more nuanced abilities are going to help her stop him. RIP their army though, I'm expecting a reaction from Lord Ruler to the tune of gratuitous death. And the guy who hired them died, so that paves the way for Kelsier to do whatever the gently caress he wants now, which is probably extremely bad.

And I saw Hoid! I read Elantris first so this is my 2nd time seeing him. He was trying to luck into some Elantrean powers there so I assume he wants to be an Allomancer here. I love that he and Kelsier were both playing each other but were playing entirely different games when doing so.

I think you're misreading Vin a tad. It's been a while since I last read Mistborn but if I remember right, her reaction at this point re: the nobles is after spending her whole life blindly hating them as a class, she's met one that's actually nice (and yes, she has a major crush on) and it's got her shook because if that noble is a human being, she can't broadly dehumanize them any more.

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.

pik_d posted:

The Final Empire chapters 26-34 (Part 4)

I finally know what the 9th metal is, but it's just gold and it sends you on a self discovery acid trip. I do think it'll eventually be useful for something though. Kelsier has underestimated pretty much everything but iron and steel in terms of the nuance of how to use them so why not this too?

It's also pretty interesting that Vin can detect stuff through copper clouds, it makes me wonder if it's simply that she's better (I don't think so) or that there's another rung on the Misting/Mistborn ladder. Misting/Mistborn/Mistlord?

Some really cool fight scenes in this part as well. Vin took on two Mistborn and some number of Mistings when she killed Shan. She's a boss. Then Kelsier getting some action in destroying the Pits of Hathsin and then killing an Inquisitor before ultimately getting brushed aside by the Lord Ruler.

Which is screaming "fake out" death to me. The Renoux Kandra is involved somehow. Can Kandra's use Allomancy when they absorb Allomancers? :thunk: Their abilities have really not been explored at all, I have no idea how much of someone they need to absorb in order to take on their shape.

I'm also really curious how important Eland is going to be, for a while I thought he'd turn out to be a Mistborn but he very much doesn't seem like one, though maybe he hasn't snapped yet. He's definitely getting in over his head if he really has no Allomancy.

Oh, this is just priceless.

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:

Keep it wholesome and come enjoy the best sci-fi show of the 90s with us!
Weird, weird way to misspell Deep Space 9

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.
Got this month's Sanderbox today, it is Sel themed. I got a Soulstamp!

But the highlight is definitely an Elantris-branded bandaid box, full of bandaids. For if you wake up Shaod and need something for the unhealing scrapes.

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.

pik_d posted:

Will I finished The Hero of Ages and the first Mistborn era with it.
If you go back and read through your reactions throughout Hero of Ages, you'll now notice that you stress how oddly informative the epigraphs are and how often the number 16 is coming up again and again. I imagine that both Preservation and Sazed are very proud of you.

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.

pik_d posted:

This seems like a really big spoiler for something I haven't read yet?
Yeah, that was massively uncalled for. The proper answer is that there is, in fact, information you don't have regarding why the two cases are different. If it helps, remember that he was able to talk to Vin and Elend too -- there are reasons why he could meet up with those three.

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.
Warbreaker is… interesting. It’s a neat setting, but it somehow reads as earlier Sanderson to me. Like, I know the chronology, and yet I can’t help but always think that it came out right after Elantris and that Mistborn was the work of a more mature author.

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.

smackfu posted:

I recently read Words of Radiance for the first time and then circled back to Warbreaker because the “internet” said you should read that book first.

Even if I had read Warbreaker I would not have caught any connection other than Nightblood showing up.
It gets a lot more blatant in Oathbringer, and explicit in RoW.

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.

pik_d posted:

I'm curious if there's any reason that the Returned need a new Breath a week, but then can't actually use those Breaths without dying.
I think -- and I'm not sure if I'm remembering right, and I really don't think this is a spoiler, but just in case: they burn through one Breath a week just to maintain themselves, and have, separately, a massive stash of Breaths they can't access without dying.

quote:

Since I just finished the first Mistborn era I'm having a hard time not seeing Vasher as Kelsier 2.0
Ha! I personally thought a character in this book was Vin 2.0, and there's a Vin 3.0 coming in TWoK.

Louisgod posted:

Yeah between Tress and The Lost Metal, we're due for some much needed context. It'd be WILD if the bands ended up on Roshar.
Tress is so, so far ahead in the chronology. The Elantrians have spaceships, the Nalthans are making smart tablets, I'm pretty sure there's at least a hint that Scadrial is also at least at their technological level, which means the Rosharans might be too. It's either Tress or Sixth of the Dawn that's set the furthest in the future.

CapnAndy fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Jul 11, 2023

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.

pik_d posted:

Hmm, Vivenna definitely has the attitude. Siri definitely starts out more carefree than Vin ever was in her life, but they've both proven to be jus as bad at listening to directions as Vin ever did. I'm guessing it's one of them but I can't tell which yet.
It is definitely one of them, and you'll know Vin 3.0 the second she walks on screen.

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.

Democratic Pirate posted:

Can someone spoil Vin 3.0 because I’ve read all things Sanderson and I am drawing a blank.
Okay, maybe it's just me, because I thought it was pretty obvious that it was Shallan? They don't end up in anywhere near the same place, obviously, but the similarities in how they start off are through the charts. "Hello yes I am a spunky young woman with a deep well of talent I'm not self-confident enough to tap, sure is a good thing that this somewhat abrasive older mentor has taken me under their wing, if only my extremely abusive childhood hadn't left me with some major trust issues!"

Marasi is kinda Vin 4.0, but it's a faint echo at best.

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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.

Mr Hootington posted:

Ok. OK. OK. OK lost metal spoilers

KELSIER IS BEHIND THE GHOSTBLOODS!?!
I think you might be the first person in this thread who didn't get that information from Rhythm of War. Did you read that one and miss the clues, or didn't read it at all? And please expand more on your reaction, Lost Metal's very straightforward "oh yeah that's a thing that I, the Resurrected Kelsier, am doing" is way different than RoW's grand reveal at the end of the book. We were genuinely wondering in the thread how people who first got that information from Lost Metal were gonna react to it.

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