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Showing most liked content on 11/02/12 in Posts

  1. I've given this a little thought in the past, but as has been remarked by others, we simply know too few to guess at the rest. However, now that I've told you it's useless to have an opinion on the matter, I'd like to give you mine. On the "Shard/CounterShard" line of thought, I agree that Devotion would, of the Shards known currently, be the best match for Odium. In the first place, there is the previously mentioned supporting Word of Brandon that, at least in this case, Aona's Shard (Devotion) is a synonym of love. Now, I can understand all the arguments for Honor and others, but honestly, when looking for an antonym to hate, if love is an option, there is little sense in considering much else. Furthermore, the most cogent defense for Honor - a reinterpretation of the meaning of "Odium" from hatred to worthy of hatred - has two fatal flaws: One, such a definition would necessitate a reciprocal meaning for Honor, as "worthy of loyalty." Unfortunately, Honor has not given any indication that this is the case. Rather, he has, as would be predicted by the conventional definition, rewarded any and all honorable actions. The second hole in the idea is simply that "worthy of hatred" does not seem - in my own opinion - to convey the characteristic singularity of purpose found in the other Shards. What sort of decisions would an "Odious" person be inclined to make? Incidentally, the recategorization of Devotion as love resolves a different issue that I'd been considering: the motivation of Devotion seems too vague. After all isn't Preservation "devoted" to preserving things? If simply being devoted to something were enough, then holding literally any other Shard would put you at the top of the list for Devotion's favored servants. Furthermore, the opposite of devotion would be ambivalence, implying that its Shardholder would have to... fervently not care about things. I'm not exactly sure how you would go about that. Returning to the topic at hand, I feel that we have too easily allowed ourselves to be duped into thinking that Devotion and Dominion are counterparts, simply because they are on the same Shardworld. While I acknowledge that there is admittedly some friction between their purposes, I do not believe that the two are in direct opposition. I see a much greater enmity between Dominion and Endowment. Endowment is fundamentally oriented toward giving indiscriminately, relinquishing its power wherever it can. Dominion, on the other hand, is about conquest and acquisition, seizing and taking control of anything and everything. These two - giving and taking - seem to be fairly contradictory to me. Furthermore, this means that Devotion must needs look elsewhere for a match... See above. Based on the completely indefensible assumption that each Shard must have a polar opposite, I have done my best to throw together the following: Preservation vs. Ruin Odium vs. Devotion Endowment vs. Dominion Honor vs. Deception/Treachery/Corruption/Treason/Cowardice/etc. Unfortunately, Cultivation's name, out of context, tells us frustratingly little that can actually be trusted. She could stand for anything from life and the boundless growth of nature to the chaining of nature and the progress of civilization. As such, I do not feel confident enough to speculate as to her opposite. Lastly, I would like to affirm the conviction that in a world this complex, it hardly seems likely that these Shards are simply a random collection of attributes. In fact, I would like to take the notion even further. I feel that Brandon, with his notorious reputation for complex, yet somehow beautifully unified worldbuilding, would not settle for simply sorting the Shards into a number of (in many of the above theories, pretty much arbitrary) categories. It seems far more probable that each individual Shard was chosen very carefully as a true, elemental aspect of reality, such that when taken as a whole, they take on a unified centrality. I'm not sure that the way I worded that will make sense to be anyone but me, so consider the following analogy: I feel that it is far more likely that the Shards would be Red, Blue, and Yellow, as opposed to a random assortment of Green, Yelllow, and Purple or a loosely categorized system of Red with Orange and Blue with Purple. In a sense, I'm saying that even the most rigorous systems suggested so far seem a little too haphazardly put together for Brandon. (Also, the color theory referenced in this analogy is unfounded, simplistic, and extremely outdated. However, despite all of this, it is almost invariably still taught in public elementary schools, so it made a useful bit of common ground upon which to base my explanation. Please do not perpetuate its academic use.)
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  2. Speed reading... Now there's a skill I'm glad I don't have. When I read, and especially when I read fiction, I want to take my time so as to be able to properly picture the scene and the characters in my mind.
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  3. The majority of these questions and answers are paraphrased, as I wasn't able to record them, and I wasn't able to write everything down exactly as it was said. If the answer was a partial evasion, I did make sure to make special note of it, so those answers should be as said. Mistborn: Stormlight Archive: Emperor's Soul: Everything else I believe that these were all the questions that I asked & got responses to, but if I mentioned an answer in the chatroom that isn't on this list, remind me about it - I think I wrote down all the questions that I asked, but I feel like I might have missed something.
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  4. Ditto. This is all a good idea also, I think. I like the acid idea better than wings, although you may consider making it a little more subtle than straight-up dissolving... such as somewhat slowly degrading, only to become obvious it's directly associated with him (and not ill luck) when he's stressed, or something. Or you may want to go all-out, I suppose. I don't know exactly how the rest of the story will play out, so I don't know exactly how to advise here.
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  5. Wow, this thread is cool! I am afraid he has some middle name also.
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  6. It's not the cookies you have to watch out for; it's the onion salt. If Chaos offers you onion salt, it's all over.
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