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Created this so we can all stop flooding people with notifications on the status update.

I found this on Sanderson vending machine (the thread it's not an actual thing, unfortunately ) And I just.. Y'all need to watch this

I have been considering retiring from the shard and the alleyverse for a while now. My energy for it has been low, my motivation lower. But, instead of doing that, I'm going to give activity one last try! So ha ha sharders y'all are stuck with my beautiful personality for at least another week or so. Basically, to summarize: I'm gonna try to be active once again

When you find a way to make all your projects for your digital art class Sanderson related. Pixel art Oathbringer cover. Urithiru Christmas ornament. Vector sketch of Shadesmar. 3D model of a Shardblade. Laser-cut cube, where each face is one of Pattern’s permutations. (The assignment for this was literally “make a cube with each face as a different pattern”, so it was pretty on the nose) Also, you know your a Sanderfan when your device auto fills Oathbringer after only three letters.

I'm not sure if this is the right place in the forums for this, but I'm trying to wrap my brain around the Cosmere a little better. Thought it was time for me to see if people think I'm in the right ballpark. There are 3 planes of existence in the Cosmere: Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual. And everything in the Cosmere has a "tridentity", or an identity on each plane — a physical DNA/identity, a mental DNA/identity, and a spiritual DNA/identity. And there are connections and pathways between the 3 parts of the tridentity. Investiture, energy, and mass are all interchangeable within the Cosmere, like E=mc^2, but with an investiture component. Investiture was controlled by a single source — Adonalsium — until it was split into 16 pieces. Those 16 pieces exist in different forms on each of the three planes. They each have an intent — kind of like a spiritual aspect/directive — and that intent is translated by a vessel. So far, these vessels seem to have originally had a strong physical identity and the investiture has caused rapid (and imperfect) cognitive and spiritual awareness and identity. Investiture can pool outside the vessel. Pathways created in something’s tridentity allows investiture, energy, and mass to be converted. Pathways or conduits can be created in a number of ways — temporarily and permanently. These pathways take different forms. “Breaking” or other trauma can create a situation where pathways can be created more easily. Some examples: Honorblades create a temporary pathway to allow the holder to access surges (manipulating energy and mass). Those holding an honorblade don’t use stormlight as efficiently as a Radiant because the temporary pathway is more “leaky” than the one created by bonding a spren. Spren-Radiant bonds create more permanent pathways to allow the holder to access surges. Saying the right ideals create more pathways. The process of learning the ideals creates stronger bonds between the radiant and spren, altering their collective tridentity. Shardblades and shardplate are physical remnants created by the breaking of the collective spren-radient tridentity. Some investiture can still be converted though broken spren-radiant pathways that remain with the damaged spren. Shardplate is powered by invested gems. Shardblades still have a connection to a damaged spren’s cognitive aspect/identity and can somehow draw on investiture to manifest in the physicial world. Allomancy is using metals to temporarily complete pathways to convert investiture for immediate use. Feruchemy is the use of physical metals to create temporary pathways to convert mass or energy into investiture stored for later use/conversion. Hemalurgy is the use of physical metals to (violently) transfer usable investiture conversion pathways from one entity to another. So far, aluminum can temporarily block or shield some kinds of tridentiy pathways. Can also store tridentity pathways. A breath is a store of investiture that can be transferred to people or objects. The more breath an entity has, the more pathways that can be created. Pathways can be created internally — leading to the stored breath powering things like heightened senses. Pathways can also be created externally to give objects endowed with breaths an intent or a quasi-temporary sliver of tridentity. A divine breath can be thought of as a set of pathways which overwrites some existing parts of the tridentitiy. Stamps/forging create temporary pathways that can shape the tridentiy. Aons create pathways to convert investiture. Dakhor monks bone forms create permanent physical pathways to convert investiture. Kandra blessings create pathways to solidify cognitive identity and ways to convert investiture into mass or energy. Dalinar can create a temporary conduit through all three planes of existence to collect and distribute investiture Fabrials capture investiture (spren) in a gem and use color and metals to create pathways to convert the investiture into energy or mass. So far, it seems like different kinds of pathways are usually investiture-specific, but we have hints that they can be translated/filtered somehow to allow a different kind of investiture to use a non-standard pathway. Lyft is able to convert food into an investiture usable by her Edgedancer pathways. So instead of stormlight, she is converting/metabolizing mass into investiture. Singers are transformed by Fused — by rewriting pathways to change the original singer’s tridentity. Those pathways also allow the conversion of voidlight into surges. In this case, the transformation seems to overwrite significant portions of the tridentity. I think in a couple of these, I'm probably using pathways and DNA/identity interchangeably when I shouldn't be, but I'm tired and rambling. Does most of this seem right?

Wow.

Granted, you're now 2 mm taller. With your added height you get a very real yet imperceptible increase in the distance of your subjectively viewed horizon. Your bane is that you fart loudly and uncontrollably at the most inopportune times (you have to sit on special acoustic dampening cushions at church, on dates, etc). But over time you gain mastery over your gaseous emissions, and you can modulate the frequency and pitch. So in your later years you accompany the Church Organist on Handel's Messiah, and your rendition of Ode to Joy is known to make the sensitive members of your congregation weep from the sheer beauty of your performance. I wish someone would pull the Nightwatcher's finger (Answering the deep realmatic mystery, Does her gas glow with Cultivationlight?)

OK, I have changed my mind upon finishing Oathbringer and reading its Ars Arcanum. Let me quote: Pretty damning words in an academic work. Enslavement, not entrapment or capture. These words are written by Khrissalla. That explains why the writing and the wording are odd. She is about as foreign as possible.

Ooh, I bet it's the Shin / Stone Shamans. Just as the Shin regard the stone of Roshar as a holy thing that they should not step on or mine, they likely have a similar reverence for the spren of Roshar. The Shin recognize that humanity are guests on the planet Roshar, and their cultural beliefs tend to keep them inside the original area set aside for humans. Shinovar itself had no visible spren during Rysn's visit, and while the Shin barter for soulcast scrap metal, they do not seem interested in acquiring soulcasters fabrials of their own. While they've allowed the existence outside of Shinovar of a small number of fabrials and soulcasters until now, Navani's research as well as sharing of her knowledge to multiple kingdoms has the potential to result in the enslavement of an enormous number of spren with potential dangerous ecological effects to Roshar. As for who planted the communication ruby inside Navani's travel pod: one of the Shin holding an honorblade with the Illumination surge would be an exceptional spy/infiltrator.

We have some exciting news to announce. So far in order to obtain some unpublished works of Brandon's, you'd have to email him through his site, and his assistants would distribute them. Well now you won't need to wait for that, because we will be in charge of distributing Aether of Night! All you have to do is post in this topic (you'll need a 17th Shard account, but that's it), and our staff will PM you the document. You do not need to post an email address here; we will send it to you through this website. Once we do this, we'll remove your post here. We'll be using this topic as a to-do list for requests. Ideally since we have lots of staff members, we will get this out to you soon, within a week or two. We hope you're excited about this, so many of you will be able to get this text in a much more obvious way now! You will receive a .docx file, and if you need to convert it into a .pdf or .epub, there are many converters to do that for you. (We are not distributing the old prose version of White Sand; that is distributed in Brandon's newsletters.) Thank you Dragonsteel for letting 17S do this! Edit as of 2024: This is still going! We've gone through over 300 pages of replies distributing. It's just that we remove posts here once we send them out.

Hey everyone! So I, like many of you I'm sure, have been trying to successfully convert my wife to the Cosmere. Literally since I met her I've been trying to get her to read The Way of Kings but there never seemed to be a good time for her to jump into it - either she was reading something else, had too much work, or just couldn't commit to a 1000-page book whose series wasn't finished yet. However, we've recently figured out that she really enjoys being read aloud to - she likes the sound of my voice and it helps her relax after a long day (she's a high school English teacher dealing with teenage angst all day - please show her some sympathy here). So naturally, I finally sold her on tWoK and I've been reading it to her for the last few months, a bit at a time. At the moment, we're in part 2 and just read the scene where Dalinar experiences the first vision we see 'on-screen' where the Midnight Essence shows up and he fights it off with a fire poker. So here's another thing: my wife is absolutely hilarious and also has trouble remembering names (to be fair, Alethi names have a lot of -lin, -as, -nar suffixes), so I recently asked her to give me a breakdown of what she remembers each character as. Here's what she's got: Kaladin - Slaveboi - "He used to be soldierboi, now he's slaveboi, but I'm pretty sure by the end of all this he'll be shardboi" Shallan - Sneak - "She's so mean! She's just becoming friends with her to steal her magic jewellery. I don't like her." Dalinar - Jeffrey Dean Morgan - "He looks like JDM." Adolin - The Hot Brother - "He's kind of a slut right?" Renarin - The Awkward Brother Sylphrena - Manic Pixie Dream Girl Sadeas - B****boi - "He's the idiot with the bridges right? Yeah, he's a b****boi." Jasnah - Princess Jasmine - "She's a princess right? No? Yes - she's the daughter of Dead Kingy Boi." Gavilar - Dead Kingy Boi Szeth - The Michelin Man - "Because he's big and all in white!" "Tay, he's average size. Just his eyes are described as big." "Are you kidding me?" Elhokar - Boi King - "You're making sure to write these all as 'b-o-i', right?" Gaz - C***! - I know this board doesn't allow swearing - but she just straight-up shouted the c-word when I mentioned Gaz. The Stormfather - The Stormdaddy - "Make sure they know it's being said in an uncomfortably sexual way." Chasmfiends - Rock Lobsters Some early hot takes from Tay: - Dalinar killed Gavilar so that he could become king because he's in love with Gavilar's wife. - The shardbearer who Kaladin fights in the first chapter killed all of his men and enslaved Kaladin. - Sadeas is behind the cut saddle. - Kaladin and Syl are going to fall in love. - Kaladin is going to get a shardblade ("He's obviously going to get a shardblade Chris... don't mess with me here.") - Shallan already has a shardblade (!) - Shallan is going to feel too guilty to steal Jasnah's soul-caster OR "Princess Jasmine is going to catch her sneaking around and say 'Hey Sneak. Let's have a DMC about why you want to steal my magic jewellery.'" I also thought I'd pop back in on this thread every once in a while to update you with any fun observations she makes in the future, and thought this could be a nice place to share our experiences with introducing the series to the people in our lives and their reactions to us being insufferable and incorrigible nerds!

With ash literally falling from the sky at my house here in Oregon due to all the forest fires...It seemed like an appropriate time to start drawing a map of The Final Empire . It turns out that even though I love the books, I'm not sure Scadrial is a place I would actually want to live. Nevertheless, Mistborn was the series that got me back into the fantasy genre and caused me to begin doing cartography more regularly. This style of map is a little more simple than some of my other recent work. Part of the reason for this is I wanted to just have some fun with a little more traditional fantasy style, but I also want to show that with just a little bit of knowledge, anybody can draw a pretty cool fantasy map. You don't need to have "talent" for drawing or even have to consider yourself an artist to have fun in the world of cartography. I hope to share more updates with you as I go, but here is the first glimpse of the map. I look forward to hearing what you think and letting you see how it progresses! - Josh

Chapter 10 hit me like I a storming boulder. I know how Kaladin feels, being told he can't serve anymore. Being lied to that his work will be just as important. Most of all I have the same fear as Kaladin, what if he never swears the next oath?

Hello! I am new to the fandom and glad to be here. Kals story and journey has helped me cope with some rough stuff in my life. Brandon is a genius and I’m grateful to have found the cosmere. I even recently got my first tattoo and decided to get “the spear that would not break” in women’s script with a spear through it on my right arm.

Several reasons: Story Based Reasons: 1) Szeth is still the Assasin in White, the most notorious and dangerous criminal on Roshar. No one likes him and no one trusts him. Think of our major characters. Kaladin - Fought and semi-killed Szeth, protecting his commanding officer. Would be very slow to trust the man who tried to kill the one Lighteyes he truly respects. Shallan - Doesn't really seem inclined to care much about Szeth and unlikely to have any reason to want to work with him. Probably knew about the Assassin in White who was responsible for sparking a terrible civil war in her homeland. I doubt she has much love for him. Dalinar - Was nearly killed by Szeth on multiple occasions. Szeth did kill his brother. Because he wants to Unite people and because Szeth has pledged his loyalty directly, he seems willing to give him a chance. But he has other pressures on him that are more important than trying to rehabilitate the image of a mass murderer who is not overly powerful or important to his fighting force. 2) Even if there is a close group of Radiants who have gotten to know Szeth in the last year and do trust him, the vast majority of political leaders are going to be even more prone to distrust him. This is probably why Dalinar put him in jail - Szeth was going around assassinating specifically people in power. Even if Dalinar himself has absolutely no doubts in Szeth (seems unlikely), all the other rulers will be adamantly opposed to Szeth being given any trust. Allowing Szeth to go free could break the alliance of nations. 3) No one (other than possibly Zahel/Vasher) knows that Nightblood can kill the Fused permanently. 4) There is no possible way for anyone on Team Radiant, including Szeth, to figure out that Nightblood can kill the Fused permanently. Meta Reasons: 1) Using Nightblood, a character/object that originated in another series, as a key factor in the ability to win in Stormlight Archive just seems really lame. None of the Knights Radiant can win their own battles? They need people to come in from the outside? Super lame. 2) Though he's always willing to humor his fans and talk about what if scenarios, I know Sanderson understands that all these ideas about how Nightblood could defeat all possible enemies in all situations are not practical for the story. If Nightblood could always defeat all possible enemies, what's the point of the story? Why have Mistborn, Stormlight Archive, or other future series if the solution to every problem is to have Nightblood come in and destroy all evil? Just call it the Nightblood series, have one book where Hoid wields Nightblood and defeats all enemies, destroying all Shards, and ending by dying to Nightblood himself. 3) In general, I believe that Sanderson has said the Warbreaker characters are intended to be more like Easter Eggs, not playing key roles in the overall plot. Personal Reasons: 1) Fan speculation about Nightblood has pretty much made me hate him/it. Please let him drop into a black hole so we don't have to hear about how every possible problem can be solved and all possible enemies (or friends) could be easily defeated by Nightblood.

He's currently guarding the inside of a prison cell. No one trusts him. Fighting alongside one that you don't trust is a liability in battle not an asset. He may have the ability to end the Fused, but if the entire command is constantly looking over their shoulders then the war effort will be hindered. Without trust the entire ability to wage war is in jeopardy.

That last thread was more dead than two walruses enjoying tea laced with arsenic.

I have early morning seminairy, and I'm also in an area where the smoke is AWFUL. This morning when I was walking from the church to the school, I swear, the sun looked exactly like Calamity. It was creepy. It was both terrifying and super exciting at the same time.

I have returned to again scream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH ENE'S A MODERATOR I CAN'T EVEN

Thank you guys! Thanks TFA

I would be remiss if I didn't throw some congratulations into the mix, GO ENE!!

Thank you! Sixteen of us What even would our Intents be... Does anyone else, like, love balloons to an absurd childish degree? I just wanna play with balloons now Huh. Under 100 until I have more rep than Brandon. That's...sobering.

I have the funniest joke!!! 2 Muffins were in an oven. One muffin says, "Boy is it hot in here," The other muffin says, " Ahhh!!! I lost the game!!!!"

I'm sorry but you are clearly missing the point of the Oath. Only two people of authority listened to what Kaladin had to say. Adolin and Dalinar, and even Dalinar didn't want to believe him. Kaladin was just dismissed as crazy and trying to smear Amaram by the king, that's not the same as listening to him. I've never once even implied that they were about Are you saying that Kaladin wasn't suffering? If someone stole your accomplishment and claimed it as their own, wouldn't you want someone to listen to you? The Oaths can be interpreted differently for each Radiant, take Szeth versus all of the other Skybreakers for example. Lift is only one point of reference for Edgedancers and Szeth has proven there is variation.

The difference is that Venli will have a PoV in Part 1, but Renarin will not. Brandon directly said within the outline chart:

I've felt the same way as Kaladin very recently: enreasonably exhausted about what i do and convinced that i am impotent and that i am not in control of my life anymore. But actually these chapters have been kind of heartening, i've felt less alone and i am starting to feel a spark of hope about feeling better. I can not wait to read RoW and how Kaladin Journey will continue.

@Koloss17, so I had my daughter finish this up. Just as a refresher, spoilered below are PART THE FIRST and PART THE SECOND. And now, I proudly present the ridiculously amazing cartoon stylings of my daughter for: PART THE THIRD Wherein the enlivened Wig does perforce dispense a judgement most ironic (my daughter came up with the punchline too!) @The Awakened Salad turns out I had time to do your drawing after all. I proudly present to you a humble sketch of the Awakened Musical that is taking Nalthis by Storm, Spamilton. My daughter came up with "La Baguette" for Lafayette. So funny!

Life goal: learn how to english. I mean, seriously. Why is English so difficult? I read all the time. I should know how it works! But noooooooo. *sigh*

When you move into your new college apartment and the number is 16 and you decide to take it as an omen that you’re going to have an awesome semester (and maybe even meet some cool Sanderfans ).

Probably been done before, but I haven't seen it yet:

Wow, this thread keeps getting revived. Seeing the amount of hate some of my favorite characters get you'd think I'm rooting for the bad guys.

I don't see, personally, how the story has become his depression outside of the story. It's literally the reason he can't progress and get more powers--which spirals into further distance and growth he has to traverse to get there. I also take issue with the idea that we care about Kaladin because he's a mythical Knight Radiant--I think we care about Kal long before he's a Knight Radiant because he's a well written, complex character on a path to personal growth. It so happens, as @ftl mentions above, that in this fantasy context, personal growth = powers, so we are definitely spending more time tryng to figure oout how Kal will grow next. But I think, as I said on another thread, that much of the hand wringing about Kal's depression is really just because we're over analyzing 1 chapter a week, when really, Brandon got Kal to a new pivot point in his character at a relatively quick 10 chapter pace (it's just taken us a month to read). But maybe that's just me.

Ok here is an update on the project. So ultimately I had 6 pendents in 2 of each wood. So I tried several different ways to fill in the script in. I wanted to start with the lighter woods and fill with green. Of these my first set didn't turn out very visible but I learned how to best fill in with color. So that anyone reading the best way to fill in the script is to pack the lines with mica powder then cover with resin. Anyways with the padouk wood I decided that I wanted to try to to fill in the white on one and I left the other alone though with the laser cutting that means black. Ultimately I didn't like how the birch turned out the resin created dark lines that altered the look to much. So after applying my mica and resin to fill the inside I was able to sand the extra off then apply a outer coating to give it a nice shine. Pictured here is the final maple with green and both versions of the padouk. I have also included the unfinished maple as well so you can see the difference. I used no stain on these.

Whenever anyone asks if they're the only one who has [insert opinion here], no, you're not... you just have to check the main chapter discussion thread to see that a few people complained as well lmao. There's usually a few people who will agree, unless your opinion's really out there... Anyways, Kaladin never actually dealt with his core issues. He just managed to succeed at what he wanted in the first book, finally saving everyone he cares about, which allowed him to feel better for a while - but that never actually dealt with the fact that he can't always save everyone and his inability to come to terms with that. Kaladin has multiple issues that he's successfully distracted himself from and repressed, but as I see it, in book 4, they're all coming to a head; his lack of self-worth outside of being a soldier, not knowing when to let go and stop taking responsibility for the wellbeing of other people, et cetera... and his depression is always gonna be there at times and be an issue, not always for a specific reason, as it's a matter of brain chemistry that can't be controlled, but this time, the other unresolved conflicts Kaladin has within himself are compounding the depression. (I also have to add, there will always be the possibility that Kaladin might become suicidal because of his depression. Like... that's just how it works. It's not going to go away, it's something Kaladin will always have to deal with. It's not a simple matter of just feeling "mopey" from time to time, and I really dislike how that word keeps being used in relation to Kaladin.) IMO, Brandon had Kaladin mentally hit rock bottom and be taken off duty for the purpose of taking his character in a different arc. If it was still looking like Kaladin would remain a depressed soldier, still unable to deal with fighting the Singers/handle losing people, and that would just continue for the entire book, then yeah, maybe I'd call the arc repetitive. But the author clearly intends to actually do something with Kaladin's issues and take him in a different direction that will likely finally allow him to self-reflect and heal in a way that may allow him to say the 4th Oath, so... That said! I think it's fair if people feel emotionally drained or upset, because it is upsetting to see Kaladin like this. If it's not something you want to read, fair enough, and you're not insensitive for feeling that way. But I really do digress with the idea that Brandon still intends to follow the same story beats for Kaladin.

As someone with depression, oddly enough these preview chapters aren't hitting me as hard as previous Kaladin sections have. I guess it's all a matter of individual variances and life experiences. I read these chapters as being at the end of a depressive experience, where things are about to get better. The chapters that hit me the hardest are where Kal can feel himself slowly worsening and sinking into a depressive episode. WoK part 1, WoR when Syl was mostly dead, OB in Shadesmar are big examples. I guess from my perspective its more important where I feel the depressive cycle is moving rather than where it currently is.

From Brandon's annotation on reddit saying that the next chapter is from somebody we haven't seen yet, I'm guessing that it is going to be Venli. The only other option would be Lirin.

"I was sorry to hear about your brother." -- what else would she say about something she had no hand in, and from her POV was 4+ year old news? And her not commenting on Kaladin's slave brands is actually a plus mark to me. Everybody else - the lighteyed and darkeyed guards alike, Roshone, even to some extent his own father, were like, deserter! With a shash! Dangerous! Killer on the loose! - Laral is focused on dealing with the people and their problems. If you go back and read her "entrance" in Ch. 7 of Oathbringer, she meets Radiant Kaladin after walking in (and after hearing) what he says to Roshone about the Everstorm, the parshmen transforming into Voidbringers, and the necessity to build homes that slope in both directions. Roshone, already in shock, slumps down morosely; and then from behind him, Laral says, "We'll do it." And then dresses him down for damaging her floor. This after he'd noticed with a bit of surprise that the guards who'd refused to fight him on Roshone's direct command, would not bring him maps from the study without the lady's approval. "Whined?" Far from it. She is setting parameters as to who's in charge in her domain - her. That's how she got that respect from the guards and the people in the first place. Yes, her first priority is not Kaladin's happiness or emotional well-being. That hardly makes her a bad person. It makes her a leader in her own right, the true leader of the people of Hearthstone. And what we see of Roshone (all too briefly) in RoW where he finally seems to be coming around to being one himself, is likely due to her influence, not Kaladin punching him in the face.

Here is a things I think may be important to understand: while, in reality no one can draw, use stormlight, and turn themselves into different people, some people do something similar in their life. I can relate to Shallan because, I , no matter how much it hurts changing, end up almost "becoming" a different person, depending on who I'm talking to. At one point I found it so difficult to be myself around anyone including those who have known me my whole life. And honestly, one of the best ways that I could be with people and still be as close to being myself as possible, I make jokes. Aweful ones. I'm not so good at humor, but I make some people laugh occasionally, and I sure found Shallan's jokes hilarious. If you don't find her jokes funny, that's fine, you probably just don't have the same sense of humor. I understand that you may feel she's written crappily, but understand that she is more real to some people than others. That is what is fun about having a diverse cast of character like in SA. None are catered to be likeable for everyone, and any characters I hate you may love and vice versa, and that is one of the joys of reading these books, and talking to others in the community.

Sanderson is more than capable of creating extremely solid characters (as we've seen with many other characters). We need to keep in mind the manner in which she was raised, her naivety, etc. Also the fact that, although cringey for some, it creates diversity, and actually contributes to her character's arc. Personally she's not in my top five, or even ten, favourite characters, but those things that make her cringey set her apart from all the other characters. Dont forget she's a somewhat spoiled lighteyes who's been through an incredibly painful childhood, leading to her not being the most stable (leading to her imagining being other characters.) In terms of drawing on the pad, etc, that could relate to the Order of the KR she's in, as they tended to be the artist type of people. I do know what you mean in terms of wanting to skip to another chapter, mainly because I found a lot of the other characters very solid and easy to associate with (whereas I couldn't as much for Shallan). I think it's all down to viewpoint, and as an aspiring writer, I can see how Sanderson is capable of showing such diversity across a multitude of character's in an assortment of manners. Personally, I feel it's necessary to have characters that are so different, and even not pleasant to read about, otherwise the story will end up bland as all the chapters are the same. Also, welcome to the Shard! Don't accept any cookies, they're dangerous.

Count me in @Ghanderflaffle as Silence's Grandmother! I'll be the one throwing shade.

This is not a reasonable question. I guess I have to go with Bands of Mourning, but we're splitting hairs to get to that. I need a all of the above option.

I figure that we are 1/2 way through part one at this point and still no Venli. She has to be next. We need something to pick us up from that gut punch of an ending.

I can't really figure it out. For now, I think I'll just stick to what I've been doing previously.