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For reference, if you don’t remember, Jasnah said that while talking to Dalinar and the Azish Prime about methods to retake Urithiru. Somewhere around Chapter 100, if you want to go find it

OB:

I went to the library today!!! 43 books. 42 turned in... I definitely don't have a problem!

I’m dying!!! Anyway this is a pun not a meme but it works Moash: Hello, I need a new window. Window Salesman: Why?? Moash: Odium took my pane.

WoR

When you decide that if you lived on Roshar, you would name your cat Tacocat. Because it’s a palindrome.

As a side note, I'm disappointed that there were no jokes or references from Kalak about bronze.

Can't wait for this in the back 5...

That would imply your cat is godlike. Oh, wait what am I saying, cats are god like. That is completely fine then.

Wow, we really missed out on watching Shallan's expression when she finds out that the top dog of the Ghostbloods is a talking dog

I was re-reading the section where Mr. T ascended to Odium, and something caught my attention. Chapter 113 (Italics as per original text) That sounds to me as though Taravangian was losing hope, and some external force helped tilt the scales in his favor. And what external force was that? Bravery, otherwise known as Valor! What do we know about Valor? Sazed to Hoid - Epigraph to Chapter 25 We know that Hoid hated Rayse and was looking for a way to bring him down. Perhaps he did take Sazed's advice and approach Valor again. If Valor did indeed affect the situation here, that explains so much: Why did Brandon feel the need to give us 4 new Shard names? So that he could hide the foreshadowing for Valor. What exactly was the deal with Hoid's conversation with Todium in the Epilogue? Given his dealings with Valor, Hoid knew that Taravangium had Ascended to Odium. This conversation was his way of getting a feel for the newest Odium. The scene felt strange because Hoid does not want to let Taravangian know that he knows about the replacement, so he hid those relevant memories in the coin. Could one mortal really take down a Shard? Well yes, but it still seems odd that one person was able to out-plan a Shard. Okay, so maybe this was Cultivation's planning. But could a plan with so many moving pieces really work flawlessly without support? It's much easier if another Shard helps out at the pivotal moment.

Let me make up an extremely short story: "You stand accused of murdering your wife" "I did not kill her" A Willshaper recreates a cognitive memory. "Your floor says otherwise. String him up. Next case" OK, I hope Rosharan judicial procedures were a bit more evolved, but after what the Honorspren did, I have my doubts. Now seriously, after wat we have seen Stoneshaping, we must wonder how they could even have difficulties reconstructing the past. Is the development of history as a scholarly discipline of post Recreance thing. In fact, during a trial can your spren be used against you? I mean if your are showing creation spren while telling the court what you did on that fatefull night, the judges may not be quite so inclined to believe you.

This feels exactly right to me. Throw in the fact that Gavilar also received the visions from the Stormfather, but that he seems to have construed the command to “Unite them” in a different, but potentially reasonable/defensible way. And THEN consider Dalinar’s oath-like promise after nearly attacking Gavilar in the flashback in OB 26: Imagine how Dalinar would struggle if placed in a position where he’s reunited with his brother but then forced to fight him and potentially break this pledge.

If we find out that Gavilar isn’t fully dead (which I think we’ve found a lot of evidence to suggest that CS Gavilar is very possible, even likely) then what other purpose would there be for bringing him back? I think it would be really lame to find out Gavilar is a CS out there somewhere and there not being an important reason for that... On the other hand, I think the fact that each book begins with us learning more and more about this mysterious Gavilar and the way he is connected to so many of the characters we follow - Dalinar, Navani, Jasnah - and the way he is so interconnected with so many of the plots that have been unfolding - Sons of Honor, Ghostbloods, Unmade stuff, anti-voidlight discovery, Heralds, etc etc... And the fact that book five’s prologue is going to be from Gavilar’s perspective provides the perfect opportunity to reveal his sticking around... And then there’s the fact that Dalinar has decided to be his own champion - I just don’t see any other character being as impactful in the role of Odium’s champion than Gavilar. Like the only other character that I think would have had an interesting dynamic against Dalinar in a battle of champions would have been Taravangian, but then he’s so old and not a warrior, and he’s Odium now and it doesn’t seem that shards can be their own champions. But I can just imagine how much a reveal like this would be crippling to Dalinar - Taravangian showing up and revealing himself as Odium (oh the shock and confusion, already now Dalinar is on the back foot) and then BOOM, Gavilar shows up!?! How will he react?! How does he fight his own brother whom all this time he’s carried so much guilt for failing on that night of the assassination... Any of the other choices opposing Dalinar that I’ve seen just don’t seem that interesting. Gavinor as child champion, I just think that would be weird and I don’t see him turning against his own family to side with Odium just out of the blue. I think his revenge plot against Moash will be a back five plot line. Then there’s El. Like yeah, he’s interesting for sure, but I just don’t feel like he’s been set up to be Odium’s champion. We’ve been gearing up to this battle of champions since book one and we’ve only just barely heard about this El guy, I just don’t see him as champion being anywhere near as epic and emotional as Gavilar as champion would be. Then there’s Szeth, like it is the Skybreaker book and we’ll be getting his flashbacks, and he’s got this weird relationship with Taravangian but again I just don’t see it. The whole Taravangian manipulation thing I feel we’ve been there done that, and I just don’t see him as an epic challenge to Dalinar... This is my opinion, but I’m sure there are going to be some crazy twists in this next book, and whatever they are Brandon is going to make it so freaking awesome!!

Thanks for the recs! I follow Mike's Book Reviews on Youtube pretty religiously since our tastes (and ages) align better than most booktubers, so I saw his Ruocchio interview and definitely want to dive into the Sun Eater series at some point. Call was not on my radar though and I'll throw his series on my TBR! And yeah, Malazan is a much tougher rec to make to more casual readers than crowdpleasers like Mistborn or Riyria. I'm pretty well-seasoned and have been able to follow plot threads w/o much trouble and make connections within and across books, but in the end it's not my desired reading experience. I'd prefer I think to just luxuriate in a fairly straightforward tale with characters I can fully root for and be invested in (Mistborn, Stormlight, Faithful and the Fallen, Dresden, and Riyria are my favorites). I can completely see why you'd like Stonewielder for its really well done theme of exploring faith, but at this point in my life I just don't have the interest in that side of literature. A few years ago I switched from mostly reading literary fiction to almost exclusively fantasy/sci-fi I think somewhat for that reason. No doubt Erikson does some of the deepest work with theme in the genre, and listening to academics like AP Canavan and Philip Chase break down the themes in each book on Youtube is interesting--but it seems like they get much more out of all that than I do. Thankfully there's so much else than just theme and symbolism to enjoy in MBotF, and on the whole I'm happy to have taken the plunge--I've definitely had some late nights when I needed to finish some of the books, and while I may not love all the thematic stuff, I have no doubt that the series has made my worldview more nuanced, complex, and empathetic than it was before.

I will eat all the food I want to eat

Oh heyyyyyyyyyyy! Welcome to the Shard! Who's your least favorite character (I know you answered that part already) and describe why you hate Moash in 3 words.

I think we've been making an assumption in saying that Shards have a perpendicularity, almost like... a possession of some kind, in a "Hi, I'm Honor, and this here, is my perpendicularity" manner. The way the text talks about it may seem that way, but... I don't think that's quite the case. Any place where you can have enough investiture, you're going to be able to pierce the realms and have a perpendicularity. So... in that sense, "Honor's perpendicularity" is kind of not exactly a thing. Like... there is a small, weird perp even in the Highstorms, as they expose the gems to the spiritual, in that timeless moment that comes at their eye. There would have to be another kind of perp at the heart of the Sibling, too, and not that different from the Highstorm perp, except this one pulls invetiture from both Honor and Cultivation and mixes them together. So... what people like Dalinar and Ishar are doing then, is not strictly summoning "Honor's perp" to them, it... would have to be more "I'm going to use this power of Honor to open a perpendicularity here." Which would be actively different from Transportation, which would be more about travel, being "a force that pulls people through realms" and somehow also a force of motion, separate from gravitational acceleration. We've seen multiple powers interact with Connection, like how Illumination has a small Connection component to it, so... people with access to Transportation and Transformation being able to slip through realms would not exclusively limit the ability to open perpendicularities to them either. What the Bondsmiths do is more general, and is specifically opening a perp all the way through the spiritual, and pulling a Shard's power through it (which makes a lot of sense, considering at least two of the three bondsmith-spren are Light generators), whereas for soulcasting and for Transportation, you need to expend stormlight, and don't get a window into the spiritual to pull more of it through.

Sanderson Memes

What if all of us making memes and obsessing over SA is just a meme someone else is making and all of our lives are lies?? …Anyway here’s another meme.

Stormlight Alignment Charts

I think he is similar to Cenn in WoK, I that he is a character that exists to provide an outside perspective on main characters. I doubt he’ll play an important role, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he popped up again. Edit: I WOULD be shocked if Cenn popped up again.

The Ideal of Law is an Oath of consistency. It doesn't invalidate previous Oaths. Rather, in concert with previous Oaths, it solidifies the Skybreaker as an embodiment of a constant set of Ideals (actually, the consistency of these Laws are in dispute as it's possible that the 5th Ideal Skybreaker can change them over time. I believe this caveat is along the lines of the Constitution being a "living document" that can be changed by legal precedent and Amendment to meet current needs). Previous to this Oath, the Skybreaker was "practicing" with certain modes of Law. This Ideal makes permanent a specific set of Laws that the Skybreaker will follow and enforce forever (see caveat above). To do anything that isn't consistent with the chosen set of Laws is to break the 5th Oath. Nale might be crazy, but he is forced by Oath to follow that craziness consistently. His 5th Oath gave him no choice but to join Odium's side when he interpreted that Odium's side is the righteous side, for instance. Let's put this "solidification" Ideal onto a Windrunner: Life before death, etc. I will protect something ("...those who cannot protect themselves" were the words spoken by both Kaladin and Lopen, but Lopen was copying what Kaladin said the Oath was. It's possible others may choose a different set of people to protect) I will protect even those I was excluding when I spoke the second Oath. ("I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right." by Kaladin (Kaladin excluded those he hated from the 2nd Oath), "I will protect those I hate. Even...even if the one I hate most is... myself." by Teft (Teft excluded himself from protection in the 2nd Oath), "I've got to protect people, you know? Even from myself." by Lopen (Lopen excluded protecting those he hurt with his words). I will accept my failures (Kaladin was the only one we've seen, and he needed to accept those who he couldn't protect. Others may have some other failure or hangup caused by the 2nd and 3rd Oaths that will lead to a different target for this Ideal. Teft, for instance, may have needed to forgive himself for failing himself, Lopen may need to allow himself to joke around again, etc.) The 2nd Oath defines purpose. The 3rd extends that purpose beyond what was assumed when the 2nd was spoken. The 4th is a pressure relief valve, solving an inevitable issue that arises with the 2nd and 3rd Ideals. The journey is obviously one meant to create a constant, functional protector. What is missing to "solidify" that journey? Something simple but all encompassing. Something that anchors the previous 4 Ideals without invalidating them. I don't have a good answer, but there's some setup for someone else.

I have a theory about Ishar's experiments. First off, I believe the reason he is trying to bring spren physically into the physical realm is because this is a potential "cure" for Cognitive Shadows. But my theory is more about the consequences of these specific experiments. I'm not sure where it was said, but there is a WOB saying that using hemalurgy to steal powers from a radiant would be difficult because the surges come from the bonded spren, not from the radiant themselves. But what if you were able to spike a spren directly? I think that these physical spren will be spiked in the future to grant surges through hemalurgy. The experiments are already pretty dark, and I think it will only get darker....

Riva set the journal down about a half an hour later and yawned, rubbing her eyes. Doing so made her realize three things: she hadn't taken off her make-up, she was quite tired, and she hadn't eaten any dinner. Luckily for her, those were all quite solvable. She got out of bed and walked over to the washbasin. Most of her make up came off quite easily with a towel, water, and a little bit of scrubbing, but after that was done - leaving her face far less youthful, her features far less sharp, and her glare far more corpse-like - she had her hair and eyelashes to deal with. After removing the feather in her hair and a few carefully placed pins, Riva's hair cascaded down her back, like water spilling down a cliff-face. Since Caden didn't have a brush anywhere in the room, she had to settle for running her long fingernails through her thin black locks. The color was artificial, of course. Once upon a time, she'd had a full head of raven hair, but a couple decades ago, she'd started seeing strands of grey. And so, she'd gotten to dying it. To Riva's credit, it actually looked quite natural. The only person who knew she dyed her hair was Daku, since he'd seen her doing it, and it was highly unlikely that anyone else would know. What would change, she thought, if they did? It's no secret that you've grown old... She hissed at the memory, though the sight of her own face in the mirror quieted her. She was an ugly old wretch, Riva was fully aware of that. Why else would she obsess so much over make-up and overly-gaudy dresses? She was reminded of the fact every time people parted for her in the hall or started at her oddly when they thought she couldn't see them from the corner of their eye. It hadn't always been like that; once upon of time, people had stared at her for her intense beauty. Decades ago, in fact, she'd assassinated a king who'd had a rather terrifying obsession with her. Now, the thought of her being any man's object of desire was laughable. Stars, she didn't want to admit it, but the way Caden tried to sit away from her in the carriage made her stomach twist... But none that meant she was any less effective at her job. Surely Ivian was aware of that. She sighed and moved on to plucking out her false lashes. Something ominous was coming up around the corner, she could feel it. --------- Nicolae moved to open the door for the maid. "Oi," he said while walking over. "D'ja here 'bout the Lady Raven? She's gettin' married tuh'day, she is." @Condensation

Finished The Blade Itself

I'll get it on this. First up, Spanish Metal Sailor Moon An Aladdin song, this one in English Now, with this cover in the Japanese language, you might think I'm just posting metal covers of anime songs from the same guy And you would have spoken too soon!

After the caste system caused so much plot and character development? Again, this is exactly what I'm talking about. The books didn't tackle the problem at all, it just went "not every high caste person is bad", "hey, you no longer belong to the lower caste" and "hey, we should forget about all this and unite (under the high caste) to fight the big bad", none of which address the issue at all. You're right that Darkeyes Radiants and how they destabilize the Vorin caste system could be an interesting thing but it is also never brought up.

Hmmm interesting. Well by my least favourite you mean sb that is written in way that makes him/her unlickable (like an antagonist perhaps) or sb that I personally find really obnoxious? If its the former ,then I really HATE Vyre (using that name to avoid spoilers).

I think the Honorblade is giving him the same Surge Dalinar uses to open the Perpendicularity It never seemed that weird to me, at least no weirder than Dalinar It was probably Honors Perpendicularity

Apologies if any of these have been done before: EDIT: I keep adding more. I really like the Cap in the elevator template... XD

Reminds me of this video by Kurzgesagt: But I don't think Soulcasting is a molecular transformation. It's part of the matter-energy-Investiture conversion. So the wood turns into perfectly normal stone with the same volume, maintaining the same shape (though the shape can also be changed)

I think it should be the embodiment of the ideals. I am the Law! I am Honor! I enforce Oaths! I am Helpful! etc. Just my humble opinion! The question is does taking the 5th oath make you a Herald, and is there only one allowed?

For one thing, her aceness stands out to me. That's a very human thing, a very rare thing to see in media, and is a character trait that really stands out to me as making her unique. Beyond that, I honestly have to ask - and I mean this with all sincerity - why is Kaladin more realistic than Jasnah? Aside from the depression, since we don't know what mental struggles Jasnah may be having, not having gotten her book yet.

Works for me. Thanks.... Edit: I have finished, and will thus tag everyone who needs to see it: @Ghanderflaffle, @Truthless of Shinovar! Hehe In my opinion, it's not as good as my original one. Hopefully enough! Truthless, your turn!

Yet another double post, but of my roast I must boast, @DramaQueen is surely toast!

@Fezzik and @Matrim's Dice, both of your roasts are awesome too! I had to channel quite a bit of Wayne for this one Italicization galore!

So, a word of warning before my roast. I have been reading WoK prime, where Taln suffers from flashbacks and hallucinations of his time on Braize, and so some of that made its way through.

Nice roast @Hentient! Tezim has no such problem. Tezim the Great, Ishi'Elin, Ishar, the Herald of Heralds, the Binder of Gods descends to the open air stage high atop the tower city of Urithiru in the center of a column of light.

I love: Egwene - her chapters in the middle-later books (where she is becoming Amyrlin) are some of the only redeeming ones. Her arc throughout the entire series is fantastic, and I love that she never looses her curiosity. Siuan - I enjoy her arc as well, from her scheming with Moiraine, to her being cast down, to her scheming with Egwene. Perrin - I like Perrin because while he is generally competent he seems to have almost no idea. He is also excellent at bringing people together, even people who initially hate him (and one another) come to respect him. I especially like his interactions with Galad and, of course, the hammer forging. Aviendha - Aviendha is fun to have around, and I always enjoy her chapters. Particularly her relationship with Elayne. Mat - But only after the Aiel wastes. Before that he is a whiny idiot who never does anything to help. After that he is awesome and highly competent despite his best efforts. Lan - Seriously, who doesn't like Lan? The most badass character. I do wish we had gotten a little more time for closure between him and Moiraine at the end. I hate: Seanchan - There are some individual Seanchan that I do like (Egeanin and Tylee are the only ones that come to mind), but overall their culture is disgusting. I was sickened by their treatment of Egwene at Falme, and by the concept of Damane in general; dehumanizing people is somehow even worse than just enslaving them. Despite their increasing involvement across the series, this initial impression was never challenged. They suck and Rand should have wiped them all out. Tuon - Tuon is easily the worst character that doesn't serve the Dark One (including Elaida and even Padan Fain), though she is obviously evil. Confronted with evidence that the Damane are no different than her, what does she do? Comfort herself by relaxing in the room where new Damane are broken. No idea what Mat sees in her, I hate reading chapters from her perspective (except for instances where she is slowly realizing how awesome Mat is). Cadsuanne - For reasons I can't figure out, everyone (in book) acts as though she is intelligent and competent. Not sure why, because she screws almost everything up. Plus she is super annoying. Nynaeve - I absolutely loathed Nynaeve in the first few books for her extraordinary arrogance and lack of empathy or patience. Also the braid tugging. She does get better across the series, and by the end I did like her, but along with Mat she is terrible in the first few books. She is down here, rather than in the upper list like Mat, because of how much longer it takes her to not suck.