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Showing most liked content on 09/29/21 in all areas
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*depressed marshmallow eating*9 likes
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Not quite That easy huh? You got it! You're up3 likes
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Status: unable to hold in girly screams3 likes
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Nope Yes, I was shooting for the big guy Galivar! Nice work, you're up!2 likes
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Some more exciting news this week: first, Sunreach is out! Also, the next revision of Wax and Wayne 4 is finished, Skyward 4 has been started, and Mistborn playing cards are up for preorder! Additionally, all orders have been shipped for the tenth anniversary Kickstarter for The Way of Kings. (Summary's a bit late, due to school stuff, but this turned out to be fortuitous, as Brandon's newsletter today contained some announcements of its own to put in.) You heard that, Sunreach, the first of the Skyward Flight novellas written by Brandon and his friend and former student Janci Patterson, is officially out in both eBook and audiobook formats! It takes place around the end of Starsight and start of Cytonic, from the viewpoint of FM. You can find links to order it on Penguin Random House's website, alongside the rest of the series. In case you missed the previous announcements, ReDawn (the second novella, which follows Alanik) will release October 26th, Cytonic (the third full novel, which of course follows Spensa) will release November 23rd, and Evershore (the third novella, which follows Jorgen) will release December 28th. The update also clarified a point of minor confusion: the recommended reading order is release order, and even if you wait on the series for the print collection of all three novellas to release next year, it is suggested to start with Sunreach and ReDawn, and then break to read Cytonic before continuing on to Evershore. Publisher's blurb for Sunreach: That's not all, though–the Cytoverse train continues full speed ahead as Brandon has started outlining Skyward 4 (which he hopes to title Defiant). The goal is for the first draft of Defiant to be finished by the end of the year, and for the final book to release spring 2023. But wait, wasn't he working on something else already? Well, turns out the second draft of The Lost Metal is now complete! From here, the book will be sent to Brandon's editors and to the beta readers, and he will return to revise it with their feedback in the spring. The book is planned to have a fall 2022 release date. While we'll have to wait for a while yet for that book, we do have new Mistborn products in the form of the Mistborn playing cards by Kings Wild Project. A full article about those will be forthcoming [edit: it's up!], so for now I'll leave it at a link to their site, where you can preorder a set. As one preorder opens, another finally comes to an end: shipping for the The Way of Kings 10th anniversary Kickstarter campaign is now complete. While some packages are still in transit, most people should have received theirs, so Dragonsteel Books recommends that if you haven't, you should check your email (including spam or junk folders) to see if they contacted you about any problems shipping, and to reach out to your postal service. Let us know what you think of the novella in the Sunreach Spoiler Forum or the #sunreach-spoilers channel on our Discord server, and be sure to drop a rating and review on whatever platform you used to purchase it! The latest Weekly Update video (featuring special guest Janci) can of course be found on Brandon's YouTube channel, and a transcription will be able to be found on his blog in the coming days. You can also sign up for his newsletter via the form on his website, and the newsletter for Mainframe (Brandon's audiobook company, co-founded with his friend Max Epstein) via its MailChimp page. (You may have noticed this week's title is a bit different—originally this series started as just me summarizing the videos in a quick article format. However, I've more and more been adding other things, whether it's news Brandon didn't get to in his update or convenience improvements such as putting the book blurbs right here in the article body, and so I figured the title should reflect this.)2 likes -
I noticed that. I would not be surprised in the slightest to find out in Era 3 that instant noodles are a popular item first invented in the Terris enclaves. The planned protagonist for the era is supposed to be Terris and a computer programmer so her having a love of instant noodles would fit right in. I'm also quite certain that if we ask Brandon before then we'll get a RAFO. xD2 likes
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OK, maybe I am dense. The shades in the Forests of Hell are definitely ex-humans, aren't they? And shades dissolve slowly, so there is no such thing as a primordial shade. When the Forescouts arrived the forests were full of shades. There is no mention of aboriginies or ruins in the novella. That raises a question. Whose shades are they?1 like
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Okay so I posted a theory about Odium’s champion in the ROW lore/magic thread and I feel like nobody saw it or maybe just thought it was too unlikely or insane or something... BUT I was just rereading the ROW prologue and gosh I’m so damn convinced that Odium’s champion is going to be Gavilar!! This is what he says to Navani in the prologue: This is freaking me out. Like at first I was just trying to think through all the possible candidates for Odium’s champion and people like Szeth just seemed a bit too obvious to me, so I thought who would be the most surprising AND crippling to Dalinar? And who better than Gavilar himself, the one he looked up to and failed. Now I do actually think this could be possible! And maybe even likely from these words that Gavilar says. And since we know that the next prologue is going to be from Gavilar’s perspective, what if we get to the part where he’s killed and he appears in the cognitive realm and finds a way to stick around? He was slightly invested like Eshonai was. And the more info we get about him (RoW prologue and Venli flashbacks), the more we learn how much crazy cosmere stuff Gavilar was in on. His relationship to the heralds, and to Axindweth who seems to clearly be a worldhopper of who knows what allegiance - he even seems to know of Kelsier/Thaidakar. So what if he figured out a way to stick around and his motives are not what we think. His whole stint with the Sons of Honour seem to have been a cover for other intentions, since he already knew the heralds were around? It just seems crazy to me how much Gavilar was in on - like where did he get those void light and, especially, the anti-voidlight spheres?! So many questions. Can we get all the answers to them in one prologue? Or will we get those answers from Gavilar as an actual character in the next book!! He is so obsessed with being extraordinary, with unending existence, so what if he finds the opportunity for this by joining Odium’s forces? I at least think it’s possible that we will find out in the prologue that Gavilar has stuck around, and if he does I think he would be an excellent and surprising candidate for Odium’s champion. Also one death rattle I remembered could perhaps support this theory... Interested to read thoughts!1 like
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Hmm. Normally never make posts on here. This is strange. So I've been re-reading Warbreaker, as you do, and I've been thinking... if someone dies with breaths and they Return, do they still hold those breaths, or do they lose them? And if someone like a Mistborn (Because there are Wobs that say non-Nathlins can become Returned, if rarer) Returned, would they retain their Mistborn abilities when they return, or does being a Return somehow just wipe your slate? If there isn't an answer to this (Which is probably the case if I couldn't find it) Could someone ask BS this on one of his Q&As?1 like
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Nice change, it is great, nice pic btw.1 like
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"Burned alive, if some fool thinks that it might save your soul from mal."1 like
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It is absolutely the rotten Rillir Roshone! *whitespine roar* Back to you1 like
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Well duh! Take it away you secret Wit fanboy!1 like
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Normally, the Breaths would escape when the person dies. If an Awakener Died and then Returned, they could recover Breaths they had stored in objects, etc. I think it's an open question on whether they Return fast enough to hold on to any normal Breaths store they may have in their own bodies.1 like
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*fights the urge to not ask horribly controversial questions about politics* sorry, the most non-controversial I can get is: Is water wet? ikik still pretty bad but its the best I got.1 like
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Nice, thank you! I always wanted to do a round with these super clicheed black metal songtitles, just took a while to find 5 fitting titles to any character. But here it goes, presented to you by Cradle Of Filth. 1. Filthy Little Secret1 like
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Okay, @Marukka, I choose you!1 like
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I did not expect the Spanish Inquisition in all seriousness, if Honor + Odium would make War, I think Odium + Dominion, especially + Ambition would make something like Conquest. Devotion is just the added bonus that makes them care about the conquered lands afterwards1 like
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Hypothetically speaking: Ambition + Dominion = Imperialist/Conqueror + Dominion = Fanatic + Odium = THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!1 like
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This books suffers from being designed and written specifically as a set up to the fifth book. All 3 books so far spend an insane amount of chapters and mini plot only for the sake of character development and making lighthearted interactions to break tension. The first 200 pages dedicated to insert some sort of 1 year climax further deepened this, as in other books those chapters would be instead dedicated to right mini stories to reveal more details of the cast This one just need to have so much plot going that we have almost no space for the same feeling, and the most sacrificed character was for sure Venli It's still hard to emphatize with her, her interactions with her crew were small and punctual, this was fairly frustrating and she was supposed to share protagonism with Navani. I think Sanderson wasn't able to create a more interesting plotline for her and her crew without compromising the books structure after all this is still a massive 1200 pages book and he couldn't spare a single more chapter Personally, I would sacrifice most of Kaladin chapters if this meant to get more Venli. Indeed I could remove Kaladin from part 3 (and cut many POVs of part 4) altogether and the book would still be mostly the same. But seems like Sanderson liked too much the idea of creating an epic moment for Kaladin's 4th ideal to happen, so yeah, poor Venli1 like
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From the album: My Stormlight Stuff
Here’s everyone’s favorite depressed boi. I just finished reading Rhythm of War, and holy crap did I relate to this poor thing. I love Kaladin so much and I just couldn’t resist drawing him.1 like -
Hi All, I had a quick look but couldn't see a post on this topic so wanted to make one. Since my re-read of the Mistborn books, including Secret History, I started getting a sneaky suspicion that the Hero of Ages prophecy doesn't necessarily solely have to apply to Sazed - I then recently came across a post where someone had laid out all the Hero of Ages prophecy quotes and I think this is worth a discussion. We all know that Brandon loves pulling a fast one on us, hiding hints very early for much later pay-off. My theory essentially suggests that multiple people can fulfil the Hero of Ages prophecy - and that the next person to do so will be Kelsier in Era 3 or 4. Now I don't know whether this will mean he will take up the shards, as that isn't necessarily a pre-requisite of being the Hero of Ages as per the quotes, but that he is in someway destined to save the world. I have laid out the quotes below, and left some comments underneath some of them. As you can see, since the release of Secret History, there are a lot of these prophecies that match Kelsier very nicely. Let me know what you all think of this - I can't help but think that many of these prophecies can be linked with Kelsier too nicely given what we know since Secret History and Mistborn Era 2. As always, rip it to pieces.1 like
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Hi All - I have been around for a fair while but never particularly active. I just like to see all the amazing theories. Thought you might like to see my Stormlight tattoo though - I got a stylised version of the Kholin house shield. We flipped the positions of the glyphs, because the crown fits the space better at the top - and also went for a more photorealistic crown, because as a tattoo the glyph crown was hard to make work in the space and also looked a tad strange compared to the gate to have walking around in public all the time. But I know what it means and represents, and have had a couple of people ask me if it is based on the Kholin shield over the past year which is cool. I got this specifically as I lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago, and the quote that was consistently in my mind, and helped me the most was: The most important step a man can take. It's not the first one, is it? It's the next one. Always the next step, Dalinar. So it's both a reminder of the quote, and based on my love of all things fantasy, especially Brandon Sanderson. It's on my inside forearm for reference. Hope you like it!
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@Shard of Reading - If I was going to get a Mistborn tattoo I would probably do something slightly more abstract - for instance, I have been thinking about having the metal symbols styalised into the shape of a spear. So that the symbols, each on their own, make up the shape of the spear itself. I think that would look great on the inside of the arm or up the centre of the back.1 like
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Thanks all! Good to be here and plan to get a bit more active. Now for the real question though - what Cosmere based tattoo should I get next? Any recommendations?1 like
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Wow. Love the tattoo, dude.1 like
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It was probably something I read on coppermind back then. If you read about the OG religion and then look at Miles and Set, they don't seem to share the same religion or god.1 like
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I think this is a phrasing that gives Brandon way too much wiggle-room. Something like "has there ever been a significant connection between Trell and Whimsy" might serve you better. "Ever connected" could be wiggled out by saying yes, because they met once, or something like that. ¤_¤1 like
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Yes, specifically this (shorter but also long) bit: It's.... unclear, to me, exactly how much this involves the Vessel shifting focus, etc, because presumably she's still "on" Taldain while doing this, but at the same time, also isn't, because Vessels are weird. Oh I'm not denying it does happen, just noting that, with the context of other things like the name Trell and the knowledge other Shards have been involved, it's potentially suspicious. Agreed that on its own it doesn't mean a lot, just combined with other "coincidences" + Trell's name. Hm, is Vun Makak associated with the sun? Skimming, I don't see a mention of that, but I might be missing it. Probably got locked out like Khriss seems to have been, lol.1 like
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There's actually some rather interesting things on this.... The most important one is this: and a rather curious one is this: (For context, in the original version of Well of Ascension, there were 3-4 other mist spirits besides Preservation that drove Marsh off when he was about to kill Sazed, and this WoB seems to be a confirmation one was Endowment, of all Shards. Now, this is very much non-canon, and Edgli seems to have a strong no-interference policy in canon, but it shows Brandon's been thinking about other Shards being involved since very early on, and it's odd how the original Trelagism lines up with Taldain, and there's a Scadrian religion connected to Nalthis as well...)1 like
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Ehhhh, I'm not so sure about the cosmere aware part, their focus on astronomy is shown to be very litteral and we only know of star charts relative to Scadrial, as they are what Sazed uses to judge the correct orbit when restoring the world. I also find both the labeling of an entire population and the implication of all adherents of a specific faith as cosmere aware to be a stretch, it just sounds too unlikely. The descriptor of whimsical might be as opposed to concrete, with it being a religion that doesn't provide direct answers or claims to truth. I don't think that the assertion that the concept of "ask [god name]" implies an actual entity being there holds much water, do people in the real world not ask beings of worship for guidance/answers? Er, I don't mean that last part as an attack on religion/religious people, just the observation that there's not exactly an abundance of empirical evidence for anything supernatural and people still seek interaction with a supernatural existence. My take has always been that it's imitation atium, as it seems to fill the same function, with the discolouration and spots being the manifestation of the typical red for corrupted investiture. Also, small nitpick, it's officially era 2. I believe this has to do with how different and conflicting the information we get about the Nelazan religion of Trellagism and Miles' Trellism is. They seem to be very different belief systems and it's very possible that they are entirely different people, one a god of unknown reality, the other a Shard using the name of an existing divinity to do... something. As I said further up, I don't think that the original Trell has to be a Shard/avatar/splinter, and I find it odd if Ruin and Preservation would have let another Shard gain a foothold on their world, with no hints to Shardic interference in all of era 1, nothing in Secret History, nothing from Ruin, nothing from Sazed, so I think Trell being associated to a Shard is recent, as these things go. I like that, even if I vehemently disagree that the historical Trell had any Shardic connection. ¤_¤1 like
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Ah perfect - thanks for the useful WoB's @mdross81. Okay - I think we might be getting somewhere with this. If we lay out what we know: 1. The Nelazan worshipped a God named Trell in era 1 - with their religion described as whimsical, and their focus suggesting they are cosmere aware. 2. By era 1.5 Bleeder has a spike of Trellium metal, which is described as: 'a silvery metal with a red cast to it, and dark red spots similar to rust'. 3. We know that in the cosmere the colour red has the implication of corrupted investiture. As far as I am aware, every other metal we know of has a singular colour, so the red rust spots on the metal are inherently suspicious and suggests that something has happened to the original metal. My thinking would be that a god metal has been corrupted by another shard. From the stormlight archives we know that in people their eyes turn red when corrupted, not their entire body or being, so red 'rust' spots on a metal would be a similar process on a metal. It doesn't turn completely red, but parts of it do. 4. We know that the metal spike in Bleeder, which is probably a corrupted investiture metal, comes from one of the 9 Shards we knew of at the time, before the Shard dump in Rhythm of War. Also - looking at past topics I found this: 'Also, if you compare pre- and post-Catacendre Trell, they are not the same gods. The new one just took on the name, probably' - I found this comment by a user name @Oversleep from a couple of years ago, and would be interested to know why he said this. As this would play nicely into the theory. 5. So if Oversleep is right, and this god Trell has changed, then this change doesn't necessarily have to be a different god taking on the name, but instead an avatar/splinter/sliver that has been corrupted by a different Shard. So to conclude, drawing together what we know, it suggests that Trell existed as a god pre era 1, perhaps linked to the shard Whimsy, but was then corrupted and taken by a different shard who is operating in era 1.5. I would love to see a WoB that suggests that 'Trell' as a god is uncorrupted, and has always been the same Shard. But given the red rust spots and red cast to the metal, I am leaning towards believing that the Trell we know isn't the same as Era 1. Which opens up an interesting possibility of one of the Shards going around corrupting other shards avatars/splinters/slivers - which seems a rather Autonomy thing to do to me. As always - rip this to pieces everyone!1 like
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Aha - nice work Quantus - I knew there would be a WoB somewhere to take apart the theory. Just to tie off the loose ends with this theory, with the wording of the WoB question, we are sure that the metal in Bleeder definitively comes from Trell? Alternatively, might Brandon be pulling a fast one on us? We know that red means corrupted investiture. Could Trell have previously been connected to Whimsy, but was corrupted by Autonomy/One of the other shards we know to create the metal. It has been a while since I read Mistborn 1.5 - but could we be looking at Whimsy still being relevant but corrupted? Knowing Brandon I am still inherently suspicious of his use of the word whimsical.1 like
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Here to write down my opinions on how Shallan's past all fits together. There's so many ways to interpret it, especially when you bring WoBs in. I like mine, and I think it has some interesting implications about the nature of deadeyes. Shallan bonded Testament at a young age. Probably some family troubles that drove her to it? Something giving her reasons to want to hide in the gardens and dream. As we have seen, the Cryptics have been very eager to bond humans though. Recall how Shallan saw several of them in Kharbranth? Pattern was present when Testament bonded Shallan, and may have even been following her around for years afterward. So Testament and Pattern were part of the same group who saw the coming need for Radiants and went looking for humans. They found Shallan. Testament bonded her first. It lasted for... a couple of years? Months? We don't know exactly. But the bond eventually broke. Pattern is considered brave at least in part because of his willingness to bond her after what happened to Testament. Now, I think that Shallan advanced all the way to (at least) her second truth with Testament. Her third ideal. This is because I prefer to assume that all orders get their Shardblades at the same level. Could be a faulty assumption... but until we've seen otherwise, it feels like the best bet that she would summon Testament in self defense against her mother after she had spoken the usual number of ideals (3) to obtain a Shardblade. Then things go south. She breaks off her bond with Testament... Or does she? What does it mean to break a bond with your Nahel spren? The books so far have suggested they become a deadeye. And, well, okay... they do. Obviously that's what Testament is. But I don't think they necessarily have to follow the rules of the deadeyes we've seen. I think it's very clear that, despite Testament's state, she and Shallan still have some shred of a bond between them. She knows where Shallan is, and followed her around. (plus more that I'll get into momentarily) In Shallan's final chapter she talks specifically about how odd it is that she had powers after killing Testament and before finding Pattern: So when Hoid shows up one year at Middlefest, holds up some spheres of Stormlight, and Shallan seems to interact with them briefly? That's because she still has the tatters of her bond with Testament. There's... something in here about the imprisonment of Ba-Ado-Mishram that matters, but it's very difficult to speculate on what that means for Shallan's bond. Anyways, then we get to the Soulcasting of the goblet in TWoK. People have often assumed that her bond with Pattern allowed this. I don't think it was him. Note this line: The voice Shallan spoke with in that scene wasn't Pattern. Or at least it dosn't seem to be. Kind of an odd line no? It makes sense though. Testament was following her. She's "dead", but they still have a bond. Shallan can still summon her deadeye as a Shardblade. She can still make use of their bond to Soulcast. And that's what happens in her rooms in Kharbranth. I think the truth that she seems to speak in that scene ("I'm terrified") was either an advancement in her bond with Testament, or maybe it was a slight reparation of it. Not clear how "repairing" a bond like that works. It's somewhere at this point that she begins to bond Pattern as well. She speaks her first truth to Pattern at the end of TWoK ("I killed my father"), and that's why he begins to manifest a few days later on the deck of Wind's Pleasure. The biggest problem with this idea is that she believes the blade to be Pattern on several occasions. She's an unreliable narrator to the extreme. I absolutely think this could be one giant self-deception. I don't think we have any clear descriptions of the Blades well enough to say if the descriptions do or don't match unfortunately. But I'm sure this will bother some people. Nevertheless, I think this is what Shallan is admitting when she says she had two Shardblades in chapter 115. In any case, at the end of Words of Radiance Shallan speaks her 2nd truth to Pattern putting them at "level 3". Meanwhile, her bond with Testament is still there. There's a notable WoB that Shallan is "a step higher than Kaladin" at the end of WoR. This may be because she originally advanced with Testament to "level 4" and that doesn't entirely regress just because she broke her oaths. (Kaladin being at level 3 at the end of WoR) It's also possible that Shallan originally made it to "level 3" (Shardblade level) and then her "I'm terrified" actually advanced their bond further. Remember when Adolin asks about Shardplate in OB chapter 15? There were theories that her bond with Pattern had advanced this far and she's holding back. This always bugged me. Why should she have trouble admitting this? Testament makes it all make sense. She can't summon Shardplate because it would require her to acknowledge her bond with Testament--the one that's far enough along to grant Plate. But she's not there yet. Where's Shallan at the end of RoW? Both of her bonds are now at level 4, with "I killed Testament" being her 3rd truth with Pattern. Shallan has not just one but TWO more truths to go, perhaps. One for each spren. EDIT: Added qoute about the holes still in Shallan's past, and a mention of the "two Shardblades" quote. EDIT #2: I've reevaluated some of my opinions and added a bunch of analysis on page 3 of this topic:1 like
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Two weeks ago, we started an anonymous poll where we asked you, the users, to judge us, the mods! Now that two weeks have passed, we have pored over the results to discover the answers to what are clearly the most pressing questions we could have - who's the people's favourite moderator? Who's the most terrifying? And what did anonymous user #78 have for breakfast the day they filled out the poll? (it was a turkey sandwich, apparently) All in all, 146 users have given us their answers over the course of fourteen days that the poll was up - assuming we didn't have anyone answering the poll multiple times. Two people have decided to leave their polls blank for some reason, so: here are 17th Shard's opinions on the staff as represented by 144 people. Quality of moderation on the Shard The first three questions were focused on general opinion on the staff: in short, are we doing a good job? Well, in your opinion, it seems that we are! A 1 here meant we were doing terribly; a 5 meant very good. Almost 70% of you gave us the top marks when it comes to general moderation on the Shard, while no-one said we're horrible at it - nice! There were, of course, responders who believe we could do a better job of it - this is valuable for us to know and we will work to improve and hopefully raise these responses in the next poll! In this question, 1 indicated that the mods are too harsh; 9, that we are too lax. As perhaps could've been expected, it seems you find us to be on the harsher side of things; only twelve people answered on the lax side of the poll, while almost half believe we have attained the happy middle ground. Here, 1 indicated that the mods are too scary to approach, while 5 meant that you felt you could be casual with the mods. It seems like almost a quarter of you are at least somewhat wary of mod interactions, which is probably tied to the prior result naming us somewhat harsh. This is something we can improve on in the future. The People's Mod and the Scariest Mod The next two questions were mostly fuelled by our curiosity: who do you think is the most approachable mod? Who do you find the scariest to talk to? When it comes to question number 1, the race for the top rank was close, but the results were clear: in Excel, because Google Forms wouldn't let me sort the answers The People's Mod award goes to Ene! Rasarr (it is I!) comes in second place (thank you, thank you), while trailing close behind are Argent, Overlord Jebus and LadyLameness. While the race for the most approachable mod was somewhat close, especially in the first few days, you folks never hesitated when it came to the scariest one. Yep! The Scariest Mod award goes to Chaos by a landslide. No less than 53% of the responders found him to be the most fearsome; the next mods (Argent, Grey, LadyLameness and Ene) trail far, far behind. Conversely, the Least Scary Mod award goes to Paleo, Mestiv and FelCandy, whom no responder found scary. I would also like to shout out the anon who found Argent to be both the most scary and the most approachable of the mods, and another anon who thought the same of Chaos. I do not understand how this works, but I respect you. Preferred ways of contacting the mods Our next question concerned itself with how you would go about contacting the mods, and I'm happy to see that most of you would not shy away from contacting us in some way, should the need arise. Only 7 of you found us too fearsome to summon (I must wonder if it's the same 7 who found us too scary, though I admit I did not look into that). I will say, there is nothing to fear! If you have any issue with something happening on the forums or on the Discord server, do not hesitate to contact us! If you don't want to speak to the specific mods directly, the forum's report and Discord's @Staff ping will summon any mod currently online, and we will absolutely not begrudge you for using it. The open questions Questions 7 and 8 were open text fields, letting you folks tell us what you think in plain English. We will not be inserting a full list of them here - first of all, it doesn't graph well, second, some of those answers might be used to guess who the speaker was. For question 7 ("Is there something you particularly like or dislike about 17th Shard's moderation, or think we could do better?"), the answers were roughly half praise and critique. While the former was very nice to hear, the latter in particular is extremely useful to us; we will strive to improve on the points you have raised. Question 8 was a bit more freeform ("Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"), and so were the answers. The bulk of it was outpouring of love and affection for the mods, which we are very grateful for, as it feeds our egos quite well indeed. There were several more serious issues raised, and we will be looking at them in the future. There were also comments of other nature, such as: culinary advice (I'm not a fan of pickles myself, but I'm sure someone will make use of it) "Today I had a good day" (good to hear! Hopefully, you had more good days since) "Hi" (and hello to you as well!) "I used to be addicted to soap, but I'm clean now." (good for you, buddy, good for you) A picture of a cat (aww) There was also an assumption that we are all beta readers, which I feel needs to be clarified: no. At least half of us (myself included) are not part of Brandon's writing process - and the part of the staff that are beta or gamma readers are absolutely forbidden from telling us anything. We do not have any knowledge you don't have. The Shard's Favourite Mod Now that I've talked your ear off, let's get to the real question, and the one that inspired this poll in the first place: who is the Shard's favourite staff member? The answer is clear: you have no idea. On a less facetious note, ignoring the "all or none" answers, the Favourite Mod crown goes to Argent! In the second place we have Ene, while the third is shared between Rasarr and Chaos, followed by Lady Lameness. So, there you have it - a look into the minds of the Shard members. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who responded, and doubly so the people who praised and critiqued us. Knowing what you feel we're doing right and wrong is extremely helpful, and we promise we will try to learn from what you've told us. And if you've missed the poll, or feel like we should need more data - do not worry. We definitely intend to run it again in the future, both to see if we're improving and to hear more of your honest thoughts.1 like -
This. My father is a great man and a good person. If a book was written from my perspective though, everyone would hate him lol. Father-son relationships, particularly when the father thinks his son should absolutely do as he did/said, can be volatile.1 like
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The Night of Sorrows. I have a similar theory - that by the end of Book 5, Odium would find a way to block or destroy Honor's Perpendicularity, so that no more Stormlight can reach Roshar. It would be like an extra long Weeping. And why do people weep? Because of sorrow. So what is the appropriate name for a long time of weeping? The Night of Sorrows. Although I disagree on this being a tool to make Dalinar lose. I think it'll be an outcome of the Contest of Champions.1 like
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Kaladin: *approves greatly* Lirin: *shakes head in disappointment* Conclusion: Kaladin and Wax would be bros.1 like
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Allomancy is now a soft magic system1 like
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I definitely agree with this. I was hoping Rlain wouldn't bond the Sibling since it was brought up. The Sibling basically only was willing to because of immutable characteristics. Which would have felt awful for Rlain after him talking about wanting to have a spren bond him because it wants HIM. The whole Sibling being willing to bond Rlain felt like a different beat on the whole Kaladin ordering that honorspren to consider him. "Please consider our token Listener." I also didn't want Dabbid to bond with the Sibling either considering how he was extorted by them. It is my sincere hope that an honorspren decides to bond him. Anyways, Navani bonding the Sibling is great. They both have their faults, they both have their conflicting beliefs, yet they both mesh together. It was truly enjoyable to see the Sibling get all excited over Navani understanding the fabrials they made of themself.1 like
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There should have been more death, on the Radiants side, The Fused Seize Urithiru turn it on the Radiants have everyone outnumbered and the only Radiants dead are Teft and some unnamed individual, really?1 like
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Honestly, to me, I found Wit and Jasnah to be acceptably platonic or platonic-adjacent (hand-kissing, scandalous). I mean, she's a colossal heretic NERD who didn't never need no man in her life, and he's a class-clown immortal worshiped as a god (who also may be worshiped BY at least one god), so I'm pretty sure this sentence ends not with "AND THIS IS THE STORY OF HOW THEY FELL IN LOVE", but with "TOGETHER, THEY FIGHT CRIME". Unpopular opinion(at least for this thread): I actually really liked the Venli chapters and flashbacks, but then I'm a sucker for worldbuilding and the turn-to-good (I mean, seriously, how can you NOT feel for Leshwi during her last scenes).1 like
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I have a few, though I'm not sure what's unpopular and what isn't: -Shallan's 'secret.' Really, that's it? You killed your spren? After the reveals in WoR I expected something so much worse. The whole plot point with Formless and even the trial fell flat. There was a decent amount of time spent on promising looking side characters as well that ultimately went nowhere. -All of Venli. She barely did anything with or learned anything about her Radiant powers, and she was at best an unsympathetic hero. Her flashbacks were easily the most unnecessary of the four flashback viewpoints, and she is basically a bystander for all of the important plot points. I expected so much more, both from her and Willshapers in general. She could be written out of the story right now, and nothing would be lost. -Navani's 'science' - the nitty gritty details of discovering the anti-magics felt a little too hand wavy and not as clean as I'm used to from Brandon. My eyes kind of glazed over when the 'technical' details kept coming up. -A general lack of lighthearted moments - I feel the story really missed the normal doses of Rock, Lopen and (as of OB) Lift. -The part three Dalinar and Jasnah scenes - while they contained some interesting moments, it felt like filler, a plot excuse to get them away from Urithiru. I see why it was done, but I can't help but feel the story would have been so much better if the two of them were at Urithiru the whole time. -A general lack of 'high' moments: Completely personal preference here, but nothing in this book came even close to 'Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do' or 'You cannot have my pain!' or the Tower or the fight at Thaylen City or the onset of the Everstorm/Kal's arrival.1 like
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Not enough Dalinar, I felt like he was just banished to Emul.1 like
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Gavilar could have had Breaths: And Life sense potentially??1 like
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I did see this theory somewhere else (Todium's Champion thread?), and the second I read it it really struck home. There's a scene in Oathbringer at Gavilar's funeral, the Soulcaster says something really weird to Dalinar that could be interpreted as Gavilar lived on.1 like
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Here are some reasons why Jasnah is awesome: Jasnah "Abraham Lincoln" Kholin. More political stuff: Kaladin doesn't get along with her. And yet... Jasnah is awesome because her morality is a rational, reasoned one. She's the quintessential philosopher-king. She's what Taravangian wants to be: relentless, almost ruthless pragmatism nevertheless tempered with altruistic motivations. By defying the prediction, Jasnah probably saved Roshar if not the Cosmere here. The fact that she was in position to make such a decision is also a testament to the methodical scholarship to recognize that there was something dangerous about Renarin; the decision she makes is what makes her a better Taravangian. Despite her awesomeness, I would argue against the claim of her sue-ness. First, Jasnah has relatively small direct impact on the plot given her ability: she's missing for essentially all of WoR and a significant chunk of Oathbringer. This puts her somewhat behind despite her massive initial lead, something she acknowledges in Oathbringer: Second, not everyone likes Jasnah. As noted above, Kaladin doesn't get along with her very well. Shallan forces herself onto Elhokar's mission team to get away from her. Her highprinces certainly have issues with her policies. Navani is pretty ambivalent considering she's Jasnah's own mother. Dalinar does get along very well with her, but this was noted as far back as TWoK; it's not a sudden development: It may feel like everyone has a high opinion of Jasnah in RoW, but this is mainly because she's interacting primarily with Dalinar and Wit, and to a lesser degree the other monarchs. Finally, Jasnah's not immune to making mistakes, and there's plenty of things that she's not necessarily an expert in; the most immediately applicable is that she's not particularly good in personal combat. Her surgebinding makes her incredibly lethal, but she's not able to automatically become proficient in battle in general: Fundamentally, though, Jasnah is awesome because she's the best person to be leading your country.1 like
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