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bluefoxicy

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  1. Nobody seems to be speculating (anywhere, even on the wiki) about the talents being, you know, alive? Alkatraz even comments on it. …after seeing the Incarnate Wheel with a creature in the center reaching out to poke a spot in one corner during Kaz's teleportation trick. It looks like only one thing is alive in there, so why the plural anyway? Wonder if we'll find out exactly how they got the talents in the first place, the nature of that creature, why only certain people have them, and if there were any obvious (and understood) ethical problems at the time. Really it'd be nice to see the whole understanding of prior history, but that would require someone getting another translator's lens, another copy of the book Shasta burned (can't say she didn't have a good head on her shoulders for that, but that probably also makes her the one person who should have read the damned thing to make sure anything extremely important was grabbed first while also not revealing anything incredibly dangerous), and some way to keep idiots from deciding they can learn from past mistakes by repeating them but not messing up this time instead of by realizing some things are a really bad idea to begin with—which would violate suspension of disbelief far more than even Sanderson can fix. Remember: knowledge doesn't stay secret (notice one guy tried to make an entire language permanently-inaccessible and still failed). That and the amount of stuff that's still up in the air would require Sanderson to drop a Stormlight novel as #6, or do the annoying Mistborn thing and jump to an entire new setting and cast of characters (I would really prefer to not see a distant prequal going through Incarnate history, at least not before seeing a sequel where people other than the reader discover and draw conclusions about that history from records and reflections—it's more interesting to have to see the past first from the present trying to discover the past).
  2. The indication throughout the later part of the series was it's annoyed, not evil. It complains Alkatraz doesn't like it, always complains about it, etc.. The last thing he does is release it. With all the speculation that he broke the entire earth in the process, you'd have to wonder how he could fix something on a massive scale. The little gremlin seems to be disruptive…to time, space, knowledge, and matter. Fixing things that are too massive to fix is also disruptive. Hell, everything here seems disruptive: Alkatraz states the LIbrarians's laws of physics aren't wrong, just incomplete. They're right about the entire natural world—all of it. The sands, lenses, and talents all add to that…or disrupt it. The talents came from a desperate attempt to stop an immense amount of uncontained energy from destroying the city, as if someone somehow tapped into something they shouldn't have and couldn't control it. Biblioden is speculated to be from the same era, which would be an interesting explanation for his behavior: tying down the physics to avoid that entirely would seem the kind of thing someone might decide is necessary after watching the whole world almost get destroyed. The unending war would be necessary, since if it happens on the other side of the planet, it'll eventually destroy the world. So apparently that thing's been tied down and forced to perform for 2,500 years, and is suddenly free, on purpose. Maybe it was feeling generous.
  3. The Curators specifically claim your soul. All effects stem from that. If they operated unlawfully, then everything must be made whole, including the deterioration of the body. No such law in such a capacity was violated: Curators caused all kinds of spatial alterations; murderers just stab people to death.
  4. That's really hard to process. The Shards would then appear to not be things, but rather ideals; and investiture is just power, linked to an ideal, such that bringing it together in one place causes that ideal to manifest. Is there confirmation that the Shards were part of Adonalsium, or only that Adonalsium was the source of investiture? i.e. were Honor, Cultivation, Preservation, Ruin, and so forth split from Adonlasium, or was Adonalsium simply power which was rended by giving portions of that power connection to these spiritual ideals and thus distinct identities as Shards rather than a single identity?
  5. I'm not entirely sure what's going on here. I keep hearing the magic system works by binding people to the shards through their spirit web, but that sounds strange to me. Some of the shards are splintered, and the power didn't go away. Do people form Connection to the Shard—the condensed form of power itself—or to the aspect represented by the shard, such as Honor or Dominion? (I know, that's a big question: it implies that a Shard isn't the source of its aspect, but rather that it's just Investiture bound strongly to an aspect represented in the Spirit Web. That, in turn, suggests a lot of odd things about Hoid. It also would suggest that Investiture is either limited entirely to what comes from the Shards, or otherwise readily-available—and in the latter case, that suggests you can make Shards.)
  6. What method do you use to manufacture characters? In my case, I have copies of people. Everyone I meet gets copied. Their behaviors become interpolations and extrapolations, to the point that I've rooted out people's secrets by coming to understand what in their minds must have minor influence on their actions. It's not something I can do by intent, but it's also something everyone seems to do in some capacity. I have archetypes, ideas, fragments. I make pieces of characters. I make scenarios and pick attitudes and stresses and relationships, and mold someone out of a rough model of a particular type of person. The same facility that makes copies of people makes constructs; I can talk to these people, I can mask facts from them, I can prompt them and have them respond without recognizing or remembering the discussion. I can read into their thoughts and feelings and insecurities. I've spent a lot of time discussing things with others, turning them on and off at will. I'm at a point where I don't actually hold conversations; I have the idea of the conversation, and everything we would have discussed leaves its emotional impression immediately on my mind, and I instantly have every nuance of memory of the conversation impressed on me without taking the minute or two to exchange words. It's hard to build characters this way. You have to build them with some backstory, then insert them into situations in that backstory to explore the little things. You let them wander. It's like discovery writing, but it's really hard to get started; it can take months to make one person actually do or say anything, even though they're standing right there staring into your eyes with a blazing anger at what's been done to them, with a single instant of complete, developed life, every emotion, every motive, all ready to snap, and you're not sure what actually happened. They know, but you have to ask the right questions. Maybe I need another method. Something to get the wheels turning.
  7. That woman said "on Scadrial." In nearly the first sentence she spoke to Wax, she said "on Scadrial." He didn't catch this? He has her address, and she's free of tongue. This could get interesting.
  8. In the first book, we start with a very clear picture of the Heralds saving the world repeatedly and having thousands of years of horrors for their troubles. One comes back, apparently mind broken, four thousand years later. Will there be more explanation of this? Why are they locked away as such, how did that come to pass, how were they roped into this mess, where did their blades come from, were they sent back to hell when they died anyway? Likewise, Dalinar tried very hard to get someone to tell him why the Knights were abandoning their shardblades. Apparently something was wrong in the world; the manner in which they abandoned their oaths, orderly, determined, and apparently willing to commit mass murder in the process, indicates they were deeply disturbed and disgusted by something. What was it? Did they find an unimpeachable moral decision? Did the world around them decay into hubris and despite? I want to know what it was that made and broke these people, and why they were faced with their trials. They all have failed.
  9. Honestly, there's nothing between Kaladin and Shallan. Sure she noticed him, but she isn't wavering or confused; she's made some basic comparisons. She'll probably learn to admire him in battle, like every other person on Roshar; it would make zero sense for everyone to be so into Kaladin but have some woman completely not notice him. Besides, Kaladin is in some hokey thing with Syl. He keeps examining her as a woman, he considers that her true form; and she shows concern entirely for Kaladin as a person, not Kaladin as a radiant, not even Kaladin as a horribly unstable axe hung above her head. Whenever he drifts, she worries about him; she pays exactly zero attention to the stress on the bond that will kill her. She argues with her father up to the point of claiming him. And now she can take a physical form; who knows where that'll end up. Seriously, did nobody notice the way these two interact?
  10. Interesting theories. Lift's crimes were interrupting a holy service, which is heresy and punished by death. Just the locals are a bit weird about what is 'holy'. Filled out the wrong forms, must be Voidbringer, send immediately to hell upon receipt of proper forms and verification of signatures in all the correct positions.
  11. I don't understand something. Not completely. There are spren who bond to oaths to honor: to protect those who cannot protect themselves, to do what is right regardless of all else. Syl has indicated, directly, that she flatly does not care about the law; she concerns herself only with what is right. Others bond on oaths to the law: to uphold the laws of man, regardless of the cost, regardless of whether they agree or not. They are restricted to this. If the law allows for legal process by the powerful to execute the innocent, they must aid in the commission of murder, fully aware that they serve evil and destroy the lives of those who have committed no wrong. Why would anyone bond like that? Why would the fallible laws of men be the guiding beacon? This does not seem a thing of Honor; it seems a thing of escape, a way to make yourself important without accepting the consequences of your actions, without having to answer for pain and suffering and murder. On that note, shouldn't there be some sort of legal loophole? The law may say that a murderer must come to justice; but bringing the murderer to justice does not mean executing him. Shouldn't these men be able to argue for acquittal, for pardon, for some form of leniency? The law allows for pardon, and we have seen that pardons will halt execution and immediately preclude all action against a person: the moment was pardoned, pursuers promptly left, no threats, seeming to have lost interest completely. Do they need to be mindless servants of the law? Can they not uphold their oaths whilst seeking to ensure that the law does only what is right? They must necessarily fail at times, but they still should have some kind of freedom to try. The law allows for that. For that matter, the law allows for pardon of crimes: it allows for placing aside punishment for a crime committed. That is legally binding. But what if someone is accused of a crime which they have not committed? Is the accusation binding, or is it now a violation of the oath to commit injustice by executing a sentence for a crime which has not actually occurred? Is that situation even resolvable: legally bound to follow through with the sentence, but also fully aware that what he is doing is a crime, either action violating the law.
  12. Something bothers me about the series. I suppose it will be resolved eventually, but... The Listeners, the Parshendi, aren't really evil or black-and-grey morality. There's a strong implication that they've fought for freedom from Voidspren--except for Esohani's sister, who acts as if she was both aware of what exactly she was doing and entirely too pleased about it, not for vengeance or salvation but because she has a direct motivation. They're shown with culture and aspirations, with a desire to become what they can be without the rule of their evil gods. And then it's all ripped away from them. After that, a new implication is lain: parshmen and listeners will become Voidbringers, all of them. They have no escape. And they have no allies: they will be hunted and murdered. No one thinks of their salvation, not men or spren or gods. The resolution lain before us is to kill the vessel, nearly. Dalinar regards the Voidbringers as a consequence; he did not set out to have all parshmen executed in preparation, though probably he should have taken the chance while sounding the final alarms. His stated goal is to destroy their god. That may, as a consequence, free them; but that as well has not been given as a goal: Adolin once considered that Esohani had been a different person when they first met, but that consideration has since left. Now they are simply in the way. As well, the spren who form shardblades are lost. They are revived when called, and near as anyone can tell from what we're shown they spend their entire time screaming. A broken bond kills them... and forcing them back to serve is torment? Spren place themselves in no physical danger; they bond to serve, and they die when the one they bond with fails in any way to uphold those oaths. If a Skybreaker shows pity or acts on what is right and just instead of what is law, his spren dies; if a Windrunner fails to act on what he believes is right, his spren dies. All have failed. This implies that all have died. All have a promise, an oath, and when they die they fail something. Kaladin is sworn to protect, and he cannot simply lock himself away because there will always be those to protect; and when he dies, he will fail. Good people are hurt. Good people die. But this world, it asks too much. The spren who live in Shadesmar are isolated, completely bored; those who come to see the world lose themselves, become demented; and those who become something worthwhile are destined to die. An entire race of beings has no potential, as they are only tools of a demented and hateful god, and exist only to be slaughtered or to be the right hand of slaughter. And from what we can tell, men are either dead to oblivion or sent to eternal damnation--save for a Shardblade, which apparently destroys the soul... or not, given Szeth's revival, hinting that the disruption is of the nervous system. This world was made brutal. It's not like Sel or Nalthis, carrying the banes of men and society; the world itself seems to have been forged from hatred, a demand that all must suffer the worst dooms imaginable.
  13. How did that... THING... get from Nalthis to Roshar?! This means... there are too many implications here. The fact that the damnation thing doesn't cease to exist implies... a lot...
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