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MasterGhandalf

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Everything posted by MasterGhandalf

  1. I would assume so, as Nightblood seems to take Breaths from his wielder over time while drawn, not all at once the instant he is drawn, based on what we see in the climax of Warbreaker (he drains Vasher progressively over the course of the fight where he's used). But I'd doubt that it's possible to draw and then sheath him again so quickly that he wouldn't take any Investiture at all. After all, Nightblood's always hungry.
  2. IIRC, the very first we ever heard about Adonalsium was in the Hero of Ages epigraphs (which alludes to the shattering but doesn't really spell it out explicitly) and the online Q&A session that followed HoA's release.
  3. Per WoR, Dalinar realizes while fighting Szeth at the climax that he couldn't have defeated him that night; I'm inclined to defer to Dalinar's judgment, so I voted for Szeth.
  4. IIRC, it's explicitly mentioned in Alloy that Hinston's death wasn't planned and he was supposed to take over the house for his father and run it on his behalf - he died unexpectedly, but Edwarn's plans to fake his own death were already too far advanced at that point to stop, so Wax becoming heir and coming back to take over House Ladrian then became something Edwarn just had to deal with. Hinston's article on the Coppermind is backing me up.
  5. And so, it's time for the last(?) installment of our little series - Stormlight 5, as based on the opening lines of the prologue Brandon has already posted! Of course, some would say that seeing the future is of the Voidbringers... but if so, the Voidbringers would seem to have some very, uh, interesting ideas about what lies in store for us in the next volume (and go into first person for a few paragraphs for some reason). And like previous incarnations of the bot, are struggling with what, exactly, characters' relationships to each other are. But at least Bridge Four seem to be well-fed this time around. Spoilers (?) to follow:
  6. And now, it's time for Rhythm of War, once again using the opening lines from the prologue! In which Gavilar (who has apparently renounced his throne to become an ardent) and Navani talk politics, business, and sorcery, while the bot is very confused about the exact nature of characters' relationships.
  7. And now, for Oathbringer! In which Eshonai leads an invasion, Dalinar has trouble with people who like pointy hats, and apparently Bajorans are involved somehow?
  8. The original Mistborn trilogy (Final Empire, Well of Ascension, and Hero of Ages), the currently ongoing Era Two/Wax and Wayne series (Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning and, coming this fall, Lost Metal) and a couple of short works in Arcanum Unbounded (most obviously the novella "Mistborn: The Secret History") are what's out now. At least two more full arcs, Era Three (modern/urban fantasy) and Era Four (space opera) are forthcoming. And of course the rest of the Cosmere is set in the same universe as Mistborn, but not actually on Scadrial.
  9. Stormfather and Nightwatcher, I would assume. Stormfather is Honor's Cognitive Shadow/successor, Nightwatcher is described as Cutlivation's daughter and per WOB is to Cultivation as the Stormfather is to Honor, and the Sibling is depicted as a blending of Honor's and Cultivation's power. They're also all "siblings" in a more poetic sense, as the three Bondsmith spren.
  10. On a whim earlier today, I decided to see what might happen if I fed the opening lines of the prologue of WoK into a bot and watched what it came up with. Bizarrely, it seemed to have some idea of what the Stormlight Archive is, who some of the major characters are, and even concepts like bridge crews, lighteyes, spren, etc. It also managed to be marginally coherent, at least until the character limit ran out. Of course, being a bot, it has no idea of the context of anything, and so ended up producing a twisted funhouse mirror version of WoK where Kaladin and Bridge Four are trying to build a bridge under the not-so-watchful eye of a nameless king, while Kaladin is apparently pretending to be Sadeas's son for some completely inexplicable reason. Oh, and Szeth may be the Dragon Reborn, but I'm not entirely sure on that. The text I gave it was, of course, "Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king." The bot I used was here:https://app.inferkit.com/demo As for the "story" itself, behold behind the cut! And yes, I know it cuts off in mid-sentence. That's part of the charm;).
  11. Considering the qualification "meaningful," I would assume that this is the case; Wednegon was the last (or one of the last) to be powerful enough to face TLR on something vaguely resembling even footing, while by the time of the later conquests he was powerful enough (with large enough numbers of koloss, allomancers and Inquisitors + conscripts from places he'd already conquered + increasing familiarity with his own abilities should he choose to take the field himself, etc.) that he was able to pretty much steamroller any and and all opposition. Considering it was Tindwyl who added the "meaningful," there may be some of her biases creeping in as well; ie Wednegon was one of the last whose resistance to the Final Empire was significant enough to impress her, personally.
  12. Depends on how you're judging "favorite". Mistborn (the original trilogy especially) is what introduced me to Brandon's work, and it has a special place in my heart that is unlikely to ever be challenged. On the other hand, by almost every objective metric, I think Stormlight is the more accomplished work. Since those two aspects can't really be judged against with one another, I'm going to go with a Mistborn/Stormlight tie.
  13. So, since this is now out in the US, anyone seen it? I caught it this afternoon; definitely a slow burn, but I thought it extremely epic and well-done and am hopeful we get Part II.
  14. Yeah, I'm going to have to second this. Having just finished a reread of RoW, Raboniel was already complaining that Lezian was following his vengeance to the exclusion of strategy and common sense, and it's repeatedly stated that through their long lives and repeated resurrections, both Fused and Heralds are becoming more like spren than people (ie, driven by ideas and archetypes more than mundane concerns). Considering Lezian just got killed and resurrected again, which has a negative effect on the Fused's sanity, and then add in his humiliation at Kaladin's hands... yeah, I'm figuring Odium (whether Rayse or Taravangian - do we know for sure if T had Ascended yet when the kill order went down?) decided he was a liability and his skill as a warrior wasn't worth putting up with the risk of him going off the rails, and it was best to just cut their losses and get some use out of him, even if it was as a test subject.
  15. So, yesterday I finished a re-read of Rhythm of War, and then today wrapped up my annual re-watch of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy (if the username didn't clue you in, I'm a fan;) - like the books better, but enjoy the movies too). It got me thinking of Taravangian's ascension and his plans to use Odium's power to 'save everyone' and it reminded me of a quote from Tolkien's letters about what might have happened if Gandalf had been corrupted by the Ring. "Gandalf as Ring-Lord would have been far worse than Sauron. He would have remained 'righteous', but self-righteous. He would have continued to rule and order things for 'good', and the benefit of his subjects according to his wisdom (which was and would have remained great)." A bit later, he added that "Sauron multiplied... evil, but he left good distinguishable from it. Gandalf would have made good detestable and seem evil." Now, Taravangian's no Gandalf (he's more like Saruman in some ways, 'his feet were on a crooked path,' though IMO the Cosmere's closest parallel to Saruman is probably actually Ishar - though that would be a topic for another post) but the way Odium!Taravangian and Ringlord!Gandalf are described makes them seem somewhat similar in motivation and action, and when you throw in Harmony's letter talking about how he most feared the combination of Odium's power and intent with a mind saner and more cunning than Rayse (who would be Sauron in this analogy)... yeah. Brrr. Not really a super insightful analogy, considering the LotR characters obviously aren't part of the Cosmere, but it did make me think of exactly how Odium's new Vessel is shaping up to be far more dangerous than the old one.
  16. New trailer for the Villeneuve adaptation dropped yesterday! Looking very epic, if I do say so myself. Also hearing good buzz from the IMAX promos (containing scenes from the opening and a bit from later in the movie) as well.
  17. 1. Whatever you want to ask! 2. Eventually yes, in some form! Various IRL things have thrown me off lately, but I definitely have more story to tell there! I've also been exploring potential self-publishing options for it; I don't have anything concrete at the moment, but if I do end up going with something I won't continue it here and will probably take down what I've already posted. I definitely intend to finish it in some form, though! I've got a couple of other high fantasy story ideas rattling around that might see the light of day at some point or other. 3. I'm a grad student, currently working on my doctoral dissertation (one of the big things that's been taking me away from my fiction writing, alas). In undergrad I was a dual major in English and Religious Studies with a Classics minor; at the graduate level, I've focused on Religious Studies. That's probably the most interesting thing about my personal life, TBH.
  18. So, I'm MasterGhandalf (MG for short); I'm a long-time but fairly sporadic poster, though I've been decently active posting my original fiction in the Creator's Corner. I'm also on various other sites under the same username; some of you may have run across me there before. In any case, I just stumbled upon this section of the forum recently and realized it was a thing, so... ask away!
  19. Going to have to give this one to Sja-anat, at least for now, potentially being subject to change as we learn more about the others. She's just the most complex and interesting so far, IMO, what with her scheming, her 'children' and the precise nature of what she does to them, and her desire to be free of Odium. Nergaoul, Ashertmarn and Moelach are really more like forces than characters, not really having personalities so much as an instinctive need to inspire whatever their particular concept is, and as such they're more interesting for their effect on the plot and world than for themselves. Re-Shephir and Yelig-Nar seem to have more individuality and be more interesting, but have really only had a couple of major scenes so far and we don't really know all that much about them. Ba-ado-mishram definitely sounds intriguing based on everything we've heard about her, but since she's been (so far as we know) an entirely offscreen character so far, I'm reserving final judgment until we actually meet her. And Chemoarish and Dai-Gonarthis are, at this point, mostly blank slates though I'm interested to learn more about them (and personally I'm looking forward to finally meeting them in part because I want to see if the theory about the number of hyphens in an Unmade's name corresponding to their general level of sapience and individuality is true - if it is, I'd expect Chemoarish to be more a force than a person and Dai-Gonarthis to be more intelligent but still with notable limitations). So ultimately, as Sja-anat is by far the most developed of the Unmade so far, I'm going to give her my vote for this one.
  20. Yeah, I never got the impression that the second mistborn was meant to be anyone important; always figured he was probably either another Elariel relative, or possibly even a minor noble who Shan hired for extra muscle. If he was supposed to be Zane, I think the text would have made it explicit. If nothing else, Vin would probably have recognized him eventually whether from his appearance or just his fighting/allomancy style. And IIRC that mistborn got taken out of the fight pretty quickly and the overall focus was on Vin vs. Shan; Zane was much more formidable.
  21. Though we've only seen him directly in a couple of scenes so far, I find Ishar one of the most intriguing of the Heralds and a character I'm very interested in figuring out more as Stormlight progresses. Most obviously because, though he doesn't get as discussed as often as, say, Jezrien, and isn't set to be a main POV character like Taln or Ash, almost every time he's mentioned we find out more of the major events of Roshar's history that he's had a hand in - seriously it seems like half the time a rock gets turned over regarding the history and lore of Roshar, we find him hiding under it. Whose experiments with the Dawnshards and/or the surges apparently led to the destruction of Ashyn? Ishar's. Who founded the Oathpact? Ishar did. Who became the Herald associated with the Bondsmiths, arguably the most powerful Radiant order? Ishar. Who enforced order on the proto-Radiants and was apparently already powerful enough to personally destroy them all if they refused? Ishar. Who convinced the other Heralds to abandon the Oathpact, or at least showed them how? Ishar. Who convinced Nale that he had to hunt down surgebinders to stop the coming of the Everstorm? Ishar (and I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out he also convinced Kalak to start the Sons of Honor, considering Kalak and Nale hung out at least occasionally). Who has Ash convinced he's the only Herald to still be sane and trustworthy, despite being a ranting megalomaniac? Ishar. Who's that Tukari warlord with a god complex who gets namedropped every now and again? Ishar. And who's apparently involved in some way with the Shin Stone Shamans? Ishar again. The point being, dude's had his fingers in a lot of pies, even for a Herald. And it seems like he was a very dangerous man even before he went all megalomaniacal. I, for one, have been suspicious of how often his name keeps cropping up from as early as Words of Radiance, and each further book only reinforces my belief that this is a guy to watch and be wary of. From what we see in Rhythm of War he's scary powerful and involved in some strange and creepy things (and I have a feeling we've only seen the tip of the iceberg regarding what he's really capable of). With Dalinar sending Kal and Szeth to bring him to heel it looks like he's being set up for an important role in book five - which, interestingly was originally supposed to be Dalinar's book (aka, the Bondsmith book). Personally, I don't trust even Ishar's moment of sanity; sane or mad, I think there's more going on with him than we've yet been privy too. Now, everything I mentioned above could be just the random acts of a madman, but personally, I'm inclined to doubt it- Ishar may be a madman, but he's also a genius, and I think he's got some sort of endgame in mind even if it doesn't make sense to anyone but him. Is his ranting about taking up Honor and Odium and becoming a new Adonalsim just the delusions of a megalomaniac, or does he actually have some sort of plan to achieve it, even if it probably won't work (he's not actually Honor's champion, for one). Or does sane!Ishar have some other plan that got buried under the character of Tezim the God-Priest? How has he convinced the other Heralds to listen to him - is he just more rational when the person he thinks is Odium's champion isn't around, or does he (as I've seen suggested) know some trick with Connection to make people trust him (which is incredibly creepy in its own right, if true)? Why is he experimenting on spren? Why does he want Dalinar to meet him in Shinovar specifically? And, perhaps most importantly of all, will he be dealt with in Book Five or will he continue to play a role (as an ally or an enemy) in the back half of the series? Personally, I've got a lot of thoughts, but few that feel like concrete answers. But I do think, one way or another, Ishar is going to have a very important role to play in how things unfold from here. Anyone else have thoughts on the Herald of Luck?
  22. Gonna have to go with Hrathen on this one. I like Raoden, but he also feels a lot like a dry run for later characters like Kelsier or Kaladin who have a similar 'charismatic leader who has to learn how to give others hope in a terrible situation' vibe but also much greater internal complexity. Sarene is more interesting, IMO, but also doesn't have as much depth as some of the later cosmere protagonists. Hrathen, however, is and remains one of Brandon's best characters, and his struggles with his faith, his conscience, and his duty are the strongest parts of the book. So ultmately, it's not really much of a contest - got to give a vote for the gyorn.
  23. Per the most recent State of the Sanderson, Brandon says that an omnibus edition of all three volumes of White Sand is in the works, and that it will contain some material not present in the initial release, including a new prologue. Does anyone have any info or updates on when this might be coming out (whether a rough idea or something more specific)? State of the Sanderson doesn't mention, but I was wondering if this had been mentioned anywhere else.
  24. I hadn't considered Gavilar, mostly because I'd been assuming he was really and completely dead, but if he is still around in some form (maybe some of his experiments with spren and investiture bore fruit after all...) then wouldn't that be interesting...
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