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Picturing a Parshendi-Kandra....Processing...Awesome overload.

Personally, I think that a down-vote option is not necessary as a rule, and particularly not in this community. If a post is so offensive that it actually requires community members to down-vote it as a means of "self-policing," then it will be both rare enough and offensive enough that it merits a Moderator's attention. I think that we have a good enough community that our Mods won't be swamped by the work In this case, down-voting may actually hinder the ability of the community to call attention to "bad elements" when members simply down-vote offensive/inappropriate posts and go about their day, duty done, instead of contacting a Mod. If by "self-policing" you refer to the possibility of using down-votes to spur and steer discussions, down-voting posts that you disagree with or find poorly written, but which are not offensive, then I think that this is a poor policy to follow both in the specific and the general case. First of all, our community does not, as a rule, down-vote anyone. Just about every time I've seen a down-vote on this forum, it's been immediately followed by a post saying "sorry, I meant to up-vote you, could someone else please up-vote that post for me?" I, at least (and others, from what have seen), up-vote posts I see as particularly funny, witty, helpful, or insightful. People simply don't "vote" on posts that aren't particularly noteworthy, and any post actually bad enough to warrant imposing the stigma associated with a down-vote upon is probably tangibly offensive, and worth contacting a moderator to address. I imagine that the reason why we focus almost exclusively on up-votes is because of the universal nature of Reputation on this forum, tracked under each and every post and strongly related to image and prestige. Down-voting someone for saying something that you disagree with, or for using poor grammar, is thus counterproductive and harmful to the community at large as it discourages members from voicing their opinions due to fear of having their Reputation and reputation damaged as a result. Especially given the current nature of Reputation and "votes" in this forum, I think that an attempted shift towards a more "negative" culture would be bad for us. It's always better to have actual input from someone who agrees or disagrees with you than just a number at the bottom corner of your post, which might have been a comment on how insightful it was, how that Portal reference was awesome (or annoying enough to warrant a down-vote), or just an accident as the anonymous forumite who clicked the down-vote button missed his initial mark. Even intentional down-votes don't provide as much tangible feedback as a well thought out criticism of a post that you genuinely disagree with. In the general case, I imagine that a "neutral" voting culture would be one such that members up- and down-vote freely to voice their support for various positions in discussions. As a rule, I hold that actual posts with substantive reasoning are always better than a number tacked onto the end of a post, but perhaps this might be the best solution in massive communities where it's unreasonable to read the hundreds of "me-to" posts that cluster around major ideas, with most users instead anonymously supporting their champions through voting. We have a small community of people with good ideas though, and we really don't up- or down-vote enough or for the "right" reasons for this kind of system. If your goal is to use down-voting as a means of self-policing unacceptable behavior within the community, then I believe that you actually undermine that goal by lowering report-rates and allowing problem-members to continue posting for longer before being brought to the attention of the Moderators. If your goal is to spur discourse, then I believe both that our culture is such as not to abide this use of Reputation and that, even if it was, we are small enough that substantive posts are still feasible and preferable when voicing support or opposition to the ideas of others. P.S. For instance, I could have just down-voted Chaos' post instead of providing everyone with this mega-post. How terrible that would have been for all of my loyal readers.

Also, I am not sure if you understand the difference between a gun and Mistborn push. (Sorry if I am wrong). In the gun, the force is applied to the bullet only inside the barrel, afterwards it decelerates due to air resistance. The mistborn push applies a (probably weaker) force continuously until either the Allomancer stops pushing, or metal goes out of range. The effect is similar to poking the enemy with an extending stick. You won't get much recoil when you are poking air, but try poking a wall, and you will be pushed back, the force of the push distributed more or less equally along your mass.

I had assumed the recurrence of words like this was a coincidence, but this makes a lot of sense. Perhaps Yolen==the Tranquiline Hills? But then why would the Hallandren speak a Yolish language? (Because the Returned talk with Endowment? Was Vo actually the first Returned or just the first in historic times?)

I think you've nailed it, except for the agreeing with it part. Brandon does believe in good and evil as absolute concepts, and I agree that is reflected in the subtext of his writing. On the other hand, he also understands that people are not purely good or evil, and so he does a good job (most of the time) avoiding characters that are unbelievably morally polarized.

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.

The much-fabled lately Mayan calendar proclaims the beginning of a new era this year. Jordan describes the First Age as being very similar to our own 20-21st century. The conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, is obvious - the Second Age, also known as the Age of Legends is coming!

In English "the Departed" can mean "the dead" and while not absolute, usually the term departed is associated with the deceased. I have no clue if it has been confirmed or not that Honor is dead. Also, remember Honor is not a person. Tanavast could have died, Honor could have been shattered, both, or neither could have happened.

Rule an Empire! LIKE A BOSS. Be immortal! LIKE A BOSS. Compound Atium! LIKE A BOSS. Kill a Mistborn! LIKE A BOSS. Write in metal! LIKE A BOSS. Be from Terris! LIKE A BOSS. Fight another Mistborn! LIKE A BOSS. Now I'm dead! LIKE A BOSS. Susebron: So that's an average day for you, Rashek? Fight two Mistborn and then die? Rashek: Absolutely. I'm the boss. EDIT: Some additional lines: Kill Alendi! LIKE A BOSS. Drink Preservation! LIKE A BOSS. Screw up the world! LIKE A BOSS. Make the Ashmounts! LIKE A BOSS. Persecute Terris! LIKE A BOSS. Control their breeding! LIKE A BOSS. Make the Kandra! LIKE A BOSS. Also the Koloss! LIKE A BOSS. Use Hemalurgy! LIKE A BOSS. Go insane! LIKE A BOSS. Make Steel Inquisitors! LIKE A BOSS. Eat some waffles! LIKE A BOSS. (Word of God confirms waffles exist in The Final Empire)

I disagree with the belief that Kaladin is too whiny. He's had everyone he cares about stolen from him multiple times. I recently moved and spend far too much time moping about not seeing my friends, so I can't imagine what kind of depression I'd be in if they were all dead because I failed to save them. I think the fact that he has enough strength that he can even go on is impressive, not to mention the fact that he has the strength to try one last time to help people. He's one of my personal favorite Brandon characters (tied with Dalinar and Vasher) and seeing his character arc coming out of depression was one of my favorite parts in the whole book. I agree with Chicken and CrazyRioter, Ati and Leras were extremely involved for Shards. If you think about it they are some of the few Shards we directly see interacting with humanity. Dominion, and Aona are dead, we get one memory of Endowment's voice, and only mentions of Odium and Cultivation. The only Shard that has any human interactions on par with Ruin and Preservation is Honor, and were hearing from him after his death. And I absolutely loved Preservation's beyond the grave win! It was beyond awesome to realize he had orchestrated the whole thing. It reminded me of chess, sacrificing the Queen (Preservation) in order to get a pawn (Vin) into a better position to become Queen herself and destroy the enemy King (Ruin).

he was named after a friend of Brandon's, and Brandon told him the character wasn't going to die so he didn't. And apparently he isn't allowed to die offscreen after the story is over either.

Truthfully, I think Kaladin is actually my favorite Brandon character, Dalinar is a close second, and Shallan was originally one of my least favorite. I don't need to tout Dalinar's awesomeness thanks to Zarepath, but Kaladin is waaaaaay more interesting than Shallan IMO. First off, Kaladin gave up his dreams to do what his father wanted instead. Then he gave up that plan again to protect his little brother. After only a few years he became a squadleader. Even after he lost his brother, he spending all his own money to intentionally get poorly trained recruits and protect them, as well as bribing medics to save his team! He killed a shardbearer, got betrayed in the most spectacular way, then got sold off as a slave. As a slave, he organized multiple revolts and escape attempts over the course of nine months, got "Dangerous" stamped across his forehead, and attracted the most adorable sidekick ever. After sent to the Shattered Plains, he gets sent to the bridge crews, survives the deathpoint, and lives longer than anyone else on his first run. Depressed to the point of suicide, what does he do? Jump off a cliff and end it all? No. He decides that rather than ending it all, he's going to take over the bridge crew and change everything for the better. AND THEN HE DOES. He turns the sorriest, most downtrodden depressed group of human detritus into a nakama, bridge-running, spear-wielding crew. Even when given a perfect chance to escape, he decides he'd rather go save Dalinar Storming Kholin's sorry shard-bearing butt from an entire Parshendi army just because it's the right thing to do! To top it off, he can also defy gravity. And survived a highstorm while tied to a pole. AND HE'S NINETEEN. THAT'S LIKE MY AGE! Gah, Kaladin makes me feel so inferior! Sorry, but I don't care how many fathers Shallan's killed. The only one who comes anywhere close to Kaladin's awesome is Szeth and he's had twice as long to get there (not to mention he's kinda fighting for the wrong side at the moment).

I always thought Eerongal was the girlfriend of someone named Eeron.

Yeah, he did have good reason to mope but I still wanted to kick him in the head. He was turning into Bella which is so freaking wrong.

I hope Shallan gets killed off in the first couple chapters.