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Never mind, y’all. I’m not sick. It’s just COVID.

So a year ago yesterday my life was changed.

Edit: it's up on the Google Play Store! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.itj.sandersonwidget Hello everyone, Here's a thing I'm making! It's a home screen widget for Android phones that pulls Brandon's writing progress from his website homepage and displays it for you. There's also the option to include a stack of the most recent articles to browse through (clicking on an article will open it in your web browser). The plan is to make it available for free when it's finished, along with the source code for anyone to tinker with. There's still a lot of work to do; things to make pretty and features to add, but one show stopper is the themes: I've sent a message to Michael Whelan's team for permission to use some cover art for non-commercial use, but I anticipate this taking a while. I'd like to petition the community to suggest some fan artists that might be interested in having their pieces showcased for users to enjoy. Also, if anyone would be interested in a preview version to do some light testing, please let me know. Thanks all, Rockbud

I keep finding little details that I totally missed before. This one I'd be surprised if it hasn't been noticed already. It's a small detail that doesn't draw attention to its importance, but in Hero of Ages, Elend notes that the Imperial line of Succession goes from himself, to Vin, and then to Sazed. Minutes before he Ascended, at the death of first Elend, then Vin, Sazed became Emperor. The Hero of Ages was removed from the Terris people. He was not royalty himself, but came to it eventually. ...One who is separated from the Terris people, a king of men, a rebel caught between two worlds. I had somewhat glazed over these, as I wasn't sure if they were altered by Ruin to make first Alendi, then Vin as Empress appear as the Hero. Nope, coming in at the last minute, Sazed became the rightful king of men before becoming their god. It's fitting, I think. Maybe this was obvious to everyone else, but I thought this was cool.

Professor Esserethel studied the water for some time, along with the figure inside of it. The young girl barely moved, numerous times he was concerned that she'd stopped breathing entirely and her corpse was simply being puppeted but her colour did not pale and she continued shallowly breathing. He tried on multiple occasions to retrieve her or push her away but she reacted instantly to each attempt and seemed much faster than he was. "Well what are we going to do with you now?" He wondered. He pulled out his pocket watch, a recent Fabrial design that he was quite fond of. Startlingly it had been several hours already, and given that he was in an unknown dimension right now that could cause additional time dilation. Jumping several years into the future was certainly an intriguing scientific prospect but he did have people he cared about to consider. The pocket watch slowed and stopped as a stream of tiny light drifted from it towards the figure in the water. He watched the thin lips part to breath the Light in as it reached her and with the faintest of smiles she finally met his gaze. Thinking that this might be a single opportunity to try to retrieve her and find out what exactly was happening, the Professor approach and reached a slow cautious hand towards her. This time the figure did not instantly pull away, it allowed him to get close until his hand was almost touching her before in a sudden burst of movement the figure reached out and pulled his hand into the rain. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whisper was floating in glorious, infinite knowledge. She had the comfort of knowing her gods were real, knowing that one stood in the room with her, slumbering though he may be. She wasn't sure what to think of that, that one of her gods had effectively caged another. Simpler was the realization that her entire life had been manufactured by one of these gods, that her very worship of them was itself an artificial construct. Beautiful. She thought as she looked at the broken spiderweb of Investiture that flooded the planet, subtly tweaking its history in a million different ways. Beautiful purpose created by their design. Even sped up as her thoughts were, it took her time to process the vast flood of information that she was receiving. She quickly realized she had spent far too long selfishly digging into visions of the past where she could see her gods in their full glory. She needed to understand the now, understand what they needed her to do next. Beginning with finding a way to awaken the one who slumbered. In slow motion she saw him, chained to a mortal body. He was concerned for her, trying to save her from the waters. The thought made her happy beyond anything she had experienced but she also knew that it was a desire born from ignorance and this false body. This was not who he really was. The true Lonely God was dark and terrifying as the Void. As he pulled a watch from a pocket Whisper smiled, she had been waiting for this eventual moment since the waters first whispered to her of the watch. She had burned through all of her own light when she entered the rain, but now she had a new source. Smiling, she took a long, steady intake of breath and willed the Stormlight from the gemstone in the watch to flow towards her body. She felt the familiar rush of energy at the Light, now feeling so dim and distant compared to the bounty that the water offered her. The Light already flickered within her, unable to sustain itself for long. Perhaps only for a single weaving. Then we'll have to let the waters show him what he needs to see. She thought. In an instant the waters showed her the outcome of that plan as clearly as if it were happening already. The Professor reached forwards as she knew he would, and just as he hesitated at the boundaries of the rain, unsure how tou grab her without exposing himself, she moved in a sudden flash and pulled his hand forwards. Not enough to trap him here or fight her for the waters, just enough to give him a glimpse of what was and what will be. ------------------------------------------------------ Voidus froze as the water touched him, unlocking memories that had been sealed away and burning bright pathways of knowledge into his mind. He saw the Stranger at work in his forge, resolute expression as he set to change the world itself for a friend. He saw the changes in those around him, the daughter who he could not openly acknowledge, the acquaintance who became a friend even while she was trapped in a mental hospital. He saw a burst of crimson from a wrist, saw a sad, painful smile form on her face as she looked for a friend she could no longer see. Saw her body lying on the ground, letter beside her. He felt a burning sensation grow within his chest, felt himself reach out for something, for nothing. He tried to feed his anger into the Void to draw on it but the rain washed the feeling away as quickly as he could summon it, trapping him in an endless loop of eerie calm followed by mounting rage. He felt stifled, he wanted to pull away but couldn't move. He wanted to stop seeing but the waters showed him whether he wanted to or not. Showed him that sad smile, the hope of what she wanted. Showed him what she sacrificed and just how painful that decision was for her. Again and again he saw the splash of crimson and felt his chest tighten a little more ----------------------------------------------------- The Professor wrenched himself back from the water, gasping for air like a drowning man and clutching at his chest. Tiny flashes of memories still struck him with the weight of a truck but even those dim flashes were fading now until he could not even remember what it was that had startled him so. Something about a friend? Some kind of danger? 'Bring more Light.' A hoarse voice whispered from the walls around him. 'Tell no one else.' He stared at the young girl within the rain, her tiny smile seemed distinctly more sinister now as she slowly retracted the arm that she had used to pull him into the waters to show him... something. "What did you do to me?" He asked, his own voice cracking as he found his throat suddenly parched. "What are these waters." 'Bring more Light.' The voice repeated, growing fainter already. He stared a moment longer as he caught his breath, and then ran from the terrifying cavern and its new, malevolent resident.

Oh cool. 500 posts.

You're right of course, leadership of the remains of a small decimated dominance may count, but there's a difference thematically, symbolically, and legally that he was the designated ruler over all of the empire, not just the remnants of Terris. He wasn't like Alendi, Rashek, Elend, or Vin who conquered by force of arms or Allomancy. True, he inherited their throne, but he was the first to rule who received the right without ousting or conquering the previous leader (counting Vin in that). That's significant. At any rate, I think the timing as part of Brandon's avalanche was intentional. I highly doubt he made Sazed third in line for succession as a whim.

GUESS WHAT SCHOOL'S OUT Y'ALL KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS Feels nice to have time to draw againnnn. In a span of a week and a half I went on a drawing spree lol WIPs ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Other very recent stuff. Just self-indulgent fanart of characters from anime I've been watching as of late ahah (Link to previous: https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/106572-regents-art-space-i-suppose/?do=findComment&comment=1326099)

.....everything you said about "sucking it up" could be said about Kaladin, Dalinar, ...and frankly, every character in the story. The story is obviously heavily focused on...and perhaps even just talking about, mental health and how important it is. She was basically tortured as a child, did you read the back story sections of Shallan's story? She was heavily abused, to the point that her mind was already fractured from a young age, where she has been trying to forget things that happened from even before her background PoV. Also, while as I don't love every aspect of Shallan's personality, I found her endlessly fascinating personally. I've always kind of summarized our three main characters as basically representing three major mental disorders/psychiatrics conditions : Depression (Kaladin); Addiction (Dalinar); and finally Childhood Trauma (Shallan). If you think any of these are easy to move past, I suggest...trying empathy. Trust me, moving past childhood trauma, no matter the circumstances, is not that easy. Shallan has also saved the day multiple times....so...I'm not sure even what you are talking about there. Shallan is broken. Kaladin is broken. Dalinar ...was broken (he seems to have...mostly solved his issues by the end of Oathbringer). Like, that's the way the books were written, choosing one character and telling them to "suck it up" seems needlessly cruel. Ask yourself this, say when Kaladin's mind breaks and he is unable to fight at several points in the books, would you think it appropriate to tell him to suck it up? And if you wouldn't say it to Kaladin, ask yourself why you are instead saying it to only Shallan.

Hi, I'm Shaajm and I have been obsessed with Brando Sando's books for years now. For some reason my friendship group are tired of my efforts to get them to read Sanderson, so here I am on the shard hoping to find some like-minded nerds to talk to Aside from Brandon's books I am a keen rock-climber and I have a passion for anything to do with Ancient Greece. Nice to meet you all!!!!!!

I’m totally new to this whole thing but I suppose introductions start with introducing myself. I’m a fairly nerdy guy who walked the plank into the Cosmere for the sake of conversation with my equally nerdy friend. I fell in love with Stormlight archives specifically and have enjoyed most other Cosmere novels to various degrees. I have only a basic understanding of the Cosmere but I’m keen to express opinions and learn more of the Cosmere through continual reading and conversation.

Yeah, losing that ability might be the betrayal of "stone and wind" (maybe there was a Dawnsinger form of Windrunning as well as Stoneshaping)? I assumed that was a relic of the original treaty for humans to remain in Shinovar, where there's soil: "don't leave Shinovar and go to the stone landscapes" got corrupted to "don't walk on stones" as a cultural/religious taboo once knowledge of the historical treaty was lost. But knowledge of Dawnsinger Stoneshaping might also have contributed to the idea of stone as sacred.

Saw something that I thought @Thaidakar the Ghostblood and the rest of your Pineapple-on-Pizza haters would like.

To recap: Kandra are "elevated mistwraiths" that were created by Rashek while Ascended from "all living Feruchemists", who in turn were all Terris. Rashek remade the world, moving land around (relocating Terris), creating ashmounts to offset the increased heat of the planet, and separating the Southern Hemisphere (with an uninhabitable "death zone" in between) as a kind of intentional "control group" of unmodified humans, in case his twiddles didn't work out. After Sazed "double Ascended" to Harmony, the world was remade yet again - "restored", for the most part. At the end of THoA, it says he dumped out what the pre-FE world looked like from "the detailed maps and charts of the Bennett people" from his copperminds and "restored the continents and oceans, the islands and coastlines, the mountains and rivers". But he obviously didn't stop there, because he then created the Basin with all of Rashek's storage cache/Ruiniation bunkers moved together into it, from which Spook, Ham, Breeze, and the rest of the Originators built Elendel and the surrounding cities. Apparently first he hit the "reset" button, and then realized "I'm GOD now, I can do what I WANT TO", including making Spook a Mistborn. (Until the Intent of Harmony had time to rein him in, "but you DON'T want to, do you?") What about the Southern Hemisphere, then? Was that always (even before Rashek) separated from the Northern Hemisphere, or did Harmony see some wisdom in keeping them separate (or some harm in rapidly reconnecting them) to the North? When it says Harmony "restored human physiology" to a pre-Rashek basis, undoing the adaptations to living under ash and consuming red/brown plants and all, why wouldn't he also have undone the adaptations to the Southerners to living in much higher temperatures (without ash)? But that kind of question has been posed to Brandon and officially RAFO'ed No, what I'm wondering about is what is implied - or not implied, full of loud silence - at the end of Bands of Mourning. When Steris steps in between Wax and Jordis (the Malwish captain of Allik's original ship and crew) to de-escalate tensions over possession of the Bands by giving it to the kandra, she assumes a lot about kandra and how Harmony has interacted with the Southerners: So, 1) Why would the Southerners "have stories of creatures like her"? Mistwraiths were all created from Terrisfolk in the beginning and would only become kandra via spikes given by TLR, and so only have existed in the Final Empire of the Northern Hemisphere. 2) For that same reason, the kandra in turn didn't seem to know about the Southeners, either. ReLuur didn't recognize the writing or origin of the "temple" that he found. At best it was all a ruse by Harmony to manipulate the two continents to meet in just this way - the kandra weren't in on it. 3) At the same time, Allik didn't bat an eye when MeLaan volunteered to walk through the booby traps at the temple, exhibiting superhuman imperviousness to physical trauma (the first time she did something overtly kandra-ish in his presence). I mean, he "gawked" as MeLaan casually ripped a spear out of her torso and said "if I lose a spike due to an explosive, you'd better be ready to stick it right back in". But more in surprise, not of "I didn't know this was a thing!" kind of reaction. And of course, those skeletal remains of the Sovereign's "priests", who Allik had described as "his closest servants... some of them eventually returned" from the temple to them to tell them about it... Seems like kandra? But then why would ReLuur, MeLaan, and VarSell have talked and acted like they knew nothing about the Southern folks and ways? Has Harmony created a "Second Foundation" group of kandra? Or were they somehow "rogue" kandra?

That's how I read it. It's integrated enough to give the power but not integrated enough to be hereditary. There must be some hereditary effect, since koloss-blooded exist (as the first WoB says), but maybe it's not directly related to the individual powers given by Hemalurgy (per the later WoBs). Koloss are 'Hemalurgic constructs', a different 'species' in a sense, not just humans with new powers. So are Inquisitors. So maybe the idea is that Inquisitor/human hybrids have some effects/differences from 100% human, but it's not "greater chance of Allomancy" (some would be Allomancers anyway since Inquisitors are generally made from Seeker Mistings, thus "it happens sometimes").

I just read this, and I'm glad this thread exists (I had actually been avoiding it for a while because I didn't want to look at a thread titled "Shallan sucks"). I'll admit to being one of those people who kind of skimmed over Shallan's arc in WoK my first read through because I wanted to see what was happening to Kaladin and Bridge 4. I couldn't really root for Shallan to successfully steal Jasnah's Soulcaster, but I had no issues cheering on Bridge 4 as they raised hope and cheer while in devastating circumstances. I like reading Kaladin and Dalinar because aspects of who they are I would want to be like (not surprisingly, my Knights Radiant quiz results put me as first Windrunner 81%, second Bondsmith at 75%, with Lightweaver coming in at 10th, at 41% which is telling of my personality). I think we've agreed that Shallan sucking it up is not a good role model to follow, and watching her do it is hard. Frankly, a lot of stuff that Shallan does are probably things that most people would not want to emulate, and so it can be harder to connect with her. Reading Jash and Kaymyth's comments gives me a different perspective to look at when reading Shallan. I don't need to emulate her to empathize with her or try to understand why she does what she does or have compassion for her. Her grief and the undermining of her self-worth when she tried to help the starving in Kholinar that resulted in them hating her for trying to do something good, that hurt a lot. Was she trying to play Robin Hood? Maybe, but as I think about it I know the crippling sense of fear, despair, and confusion when it feels like absolutely nothing you do works out and finding a causal chain of things resulting in what you hope for feels impossible. She tried, and even if her motives were off, she tried to do good and was hated and rejected for it. Have you ever tried to be nice to someone and then been snapped at? Were you nice to them anyway or did you snap back? I learned I need to try to see past the spikes and walls that someone who has the kind of trauma Shallan has, because hating her will not help her. I think I understand better why her deep secret with Formless and Testament was so devastating for her. Initially that seemed well, kind of a let down compared to "I killed both my parents", but I think it's a different difficult. Over the course of the last few years, she's been undergoing really difficult self-reflection to see what is true in her life with Pattern as her therapist (yikes). The new truths sworn as a Radiant Lightweaver has bit by bit been a process of her reassembling what is true in her life, giving her a firmer grip on reality and understanding herself. Then she learns that all of the progress she's made as a Radiant in trying to repair her soul, she finds out that she's already failed at this once before, as evidenced by Testament being a Shardblade. The "truth" she had forgotten and hidden from herself I think may look to the adult Shallan as "I'm lying to myself that I can actually change for the better." That is a really, really hard thing to overcome, and anyone with addiction that tries to overcome it and repeatedly relapses can talk about the hope-crippling effect that having the knowledge that you've tried to change and failed can have. It's a horrible thing for Shallan in particular, because if she lies about not having "relapsed" she can't move on, if she acknowledges that she "relapsed" then she becomes directly aware of how tenuous her grip on her recovery actually is. The difference between murdering her parents and murdering Testament I think could be described as "I'm a monster and I can't bring them back" and "I'm a monster, and I can't do anything about it to not be a monster".

I still have more. Lightsabers.

Man, I really liked Beyonders. Honestly, I think it’s my favorite series of all time. And Five Kingdoms is almost as good. Can I get your autograph? when you get a new car

Thanks! Chapter 13: Honestly, I felt bad for the chasmfiend, it was minding its own business and the humans just had to come and kill it... Great battle descriptions, and the shardblades are creepy but cool. I feel like Adolin should try to become the great man that he wants his father to be instead of obsessing over whether or not his father is doing a good job of it. Chapter 14 Yay, back to Kaladin! Very realistic how his attempts to get the men to train failed, and cool that he found something to do anyway. We'll see if it was productive or not. Syl changing is interesting, perhaps some kind of magical bond is forming between her and Kaladin? Can't wait for the next Kaladin chapter. I wonder when we'll finally find out about Kaladin's magic. I assume that the same thing that protects him against arrows gave him the extra stamina. Chapter 15 I think we all approve of Wit picking on Sadeas. We finally find out who came up with that horrid bridge idea. I tend to side with Adolin; Sadeas seems like a shady fellow; I wouldn't trust him. My guess is that Elhokar's worries aren't just paranoia, and someone actually cut his saddle. It's cool that they talked about Gavilar's message that Szeth wrote for him. I'm very curious about that. Chapter 16, back to Kaladin's childhood. I'm not sure if Laral was being a jerk or trying to help Kal discover the career he really wants. Very interesting to find out that if a darkeyes kills a shardbearer and takes his Blade he becomes a lighteyes. My theory is that Kaldin will achieve this at the end of the book.

I will head up this post by saying that while I like Jasnah, she's a bit of a jerk. First: Why I like Jasnah Jasnah is a fun character. She's competent, overkill, and everything that you want in a Stormlight character. In Way of Kings, she's a one-dimensional, static, and very minor character. She feels sort of like a backdrop for Shallan. But she doesn't stay that way for long. At the end of Way of Kings, she starts to become more relatable. She starts getting pretty fleshed out in books 3+. She's not unreasonably perfect: she grapples with insecurity, as shown in the prologue of Oathbringer. She's afraid of not being able to protect her family, as well as being behind on the curve. She's walled off because of this, and as of Rhythm of War, she's only just starting to truly open up. Her shell is slowly breaking open, and I can't wait for her to get the relevance she deserves Second: Why I think that she's a jerk I could make a lengthy argument here, but let's face it: we've all read Way of Kings. As she opens up, mainly to Shallan and Wit, she becomes less of a jerk, and she's becoming less of one the more we see her insecurities. All the same, here's a quote: "How often has "hope" been the reason someone refuses to move on and accept a realistic attitude? How often has "hope" caused more pain or delayed healing? How often has "hope" prevented someone from standing up and doing what needs to be done, because they cling to a wish for everything to be different?” -Jasnah Kholin, to Dalinar Kholin So yes, I really like Jasnah. However, she definitely has a lot of character development in her future. Thank you for reading this rant.

Well it's 9:57 in the evening and I want to go to bed. But it's also May 16th. Again. Somehow. And, somewhat unfortunately, this takes precedent over sleeping a reasonable amount. First and foremost. AHHHHHHHH WHAT THE ACTUAL FREAKING HECK HOW HAVE I BEEN ON HERE FOR FIVE YEARS???? I've been on here for five years. I uh... technically joined when I was 12, but we don't talk about that. Or any of my early posts. A whole hecking lot has changed over those five years, and a lot of it in no small part thanks to this site and the amazing people I've come into contact with. You all got me through a really rough patch (AKA middle school) and then about two years ago I got onto Discord and just got to know some people even better. You all are amazing. Time to start the list. @The Awakened Salad SALAD. Thank you for being the other half of STAELSAHD, for putting up with me despite all of my many erm... moments of being a crummy friend, and for forgiving me. Every time I look at the moon I think of you and your 42 elbow-ed arms reaching down to pat me on the head. You're one of my best friends and I don't know what I'd do without you. And I know that I most certainly wouldn't be where I am without you at this point. And thanks, of course, for watching Barbie movies with me in the ungodly hours of the morning. Honestly, those are some of my fondest memories. Dragons!!! @AonEne Eeeeeeeeeeeeene. I can't even put into words how awesome you are. Like dude. You ROCK. You're one of my closest friends, and the FAB squad just wouldn't be the same without you. I mean, then we'd just be the AB squad, and that'd be weird... But you're just so kind and amazing and funny and I love you so much. Hanging out with you in person is always a joy, and VCs are always an adventure. Thank you so much for coming to the anthology release, and putting up with my weird ramblings about stuff. You're amazing. Avi!!! Also I've been on the Shard longer than you so HAH. @Knight of Iron Koi. I gave you your nickname and I'll be forever proud of that fact. You're such an amazing, kind, considerate, and thoughtful friend. I love talking with you so much, and just... You're amazing. Thanks for the help figuring out Hollow Knight, and for talking about random stuff. You're one of the best people to talk to about Random Stuff. Honestly, you're just a really cool person and I really really value our friendship. @Ed Venture Vennie! I LOVE YOU. I love talking about musicals with you, and often times the more serious aspects of life and stuff. You're honestly just one of the kindest people I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with. I can't wait for the day when we'll be able to watch a musical together. It will happen some day, and it'll be so much fun when it does. @Channelknight Fadran Fadrinooooooo. THANK YOU for going to all those awesome writing things with me. You're so much fun to hang out with at them, and your chaotic energy is infectious. Thanks for yelling at everyone to play Hollow Knight. I suck at it, but it's fun, and I wouldn't be playing it if you didn't talk about it all the time. @DramaQueen Have I ever told you that you're just a really really cool person? You're such an amazing friend and I just love talking with you. You and Fadran are adorable and I can't wait to be your basement gremlin. We'll go see musicals all the time and drag Fadran to all of them so that he will actually have to listen to them. Tell Petri I say hi! It's not letting me tag people anymore for some reason so I might just have to do that in comments. @Condensation I love talking to you and hanging out with you and just... you're cool. It was so much fun to hang out with you that night in March. I don't have much that's very specific to say, just I love you and you're such a good friend. @Vapor VASPIE. You are the bestest bowl. And, once again, hanging out with you that night in March was one of the best nights ever. It was just a blast. I love you so much. Tell Chowder I say hi. @Mist I haven't really talked with you much lately, but you're such a cool person. Meeting was really cool, and I hope we can see each other again before too long. @Doomstick Shortie. Thanks for coming and visiting me this winter! That was such a fun day and I'm really glad I had that opportunity to hang out with you. You're a huge fricking nerd and just an all-around cool person. DFTBA! @Hentient ALSO DFTBA. Thank you for being the cameraman at Fadran's birthday party! I really hope I can meet you in person some time soon. (Wait I just realized that you'll be at the same school as one of my IRL friends from where I live.) You're also a super cool person. Tell Toto I say hi! And DFTBA! @S4S You're one of my oldest friends from here. You've been there since the beginning. And I'm so sorry you were there at the beginning. You're also a super cool person (is it just me, or am I friends with a lot of really cool people? Maybe I have a knack for finding you all.) and a super talented writer. Talking to you again after two years was amazing. I can't even tell you how cool that was. All I can really say is thank you. @Firerust You've also been around for quite a while! Thank you for carrying on KotC for so long. You're also a very talented writer, and a very good friend. And, like with S4S, talking to you again after those two years was an incredible experience. Thanks for hanging around. @King Aragorn of Gondor You're also super cool!!! Talking to you is always so much fun and I always tend to stay up later than I mean to when I do. Thanks for being awesome. Tell Bucky I say hi! He's such a good birb. This is by no means everyone. I'm missing a ton. However, if I did miss you, this is for you: YOU'RE SO COOL AND SUCH AN AMAZING HUMAN AND THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE. The Shard has honestly been a huge part of my life, and generally for the better. Thank you all for being here with me for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's now 10:36. AND NOW I'LL LEAVE YOU WITH A QUOTE FROM THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED BECAUSE IT'S AMAZING AND EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT. "I think two of the fundamental facts of being a person are 1. We must go on, and 2. None of us ever walks alone." Thank you for walking with me.

Why do I do it? Once every couple of months I ask myself this question. I feel like I'm a charlatan and an imposter. Why do I write? Why not quit and delete my work. It would be so simple to remove all traces and stop acting as though I have any skill whatsoever. As usual rejection is what brought this on. I had a real chance to break out into the world with my work. Last night it was slapped aside as not good enough. My heart and soul once again rent and torn. Is the pain worth it? Why subject myself to constantly being told what I have long suspected? All I have to do is stop and hit delete. The world will never know what it is going to miss. I doubt that it would even miss it in any case. If I'm truly as incapable as it seems then the world will never know my work anyway. The knife just carves out my heart. I want to believe that I'm capable, but its so hard. One friend called me the most creative person he knows. For all the good it does me. I apologize for my rant as usual. This last rejection really got under my skin and hurt.

I feel like this is intentional. As she explains to Shallan, a large part of things is perception of power and authority, and she's excellent at projecting that. And yet we do see hints that it is indeed a projection—the scenes on the boat in WoR, the scene in OB with Ivory where she lets out a bit about her terror at the idea of losing her mind (which is presumably part of where her intensity about being "rational" comes from), the scene in RoW where we see how absurd a safety standard she holds herself to after being taken by surprise on the boat (she can only relax when she's in a locked room, in the center of the second floor, with no walls exposed to the outside, with nobody besides Wit in the room, with fabrial traps hooked up, with a boat in Shadesmar at her location, with gems sewn into her dressing gown... this lady is tighter wound than a spring), etc. She's extremely good at presentation and putting up a mask because she has to always always always feel in control of herself and her situation (and each time this fails, it sends her even deeper into this idea), but when we see glimpses of her with it down, she's basically constantly in a state of tightly-wound panic and anxiety, and is just very good at repressing and hiding it from even herself and Ivory. We just don't really see her PoV often, so we mostly see her through people whose only exposure to her is that facade of perfection she maintains. Cons of not being a main character yet like Shallan, Kaladin, or Dalinar.

I think the primary point that needs to be made at this juncture is that Shallan burying her trauma actually is "sucking it up and moving on." That's what it looks like. That's why sucking it up doesn't work: actually processing trauma involves months, if not years, of work and in 99.9%* of cases, requires the guidance of a therapist in order to make progress. It's just not something a person -- let alone the Earth-equivalent of an 18-19-year-old (my gods, she's young enough to be my kid) -- can do on their own. And in a world that doesn't even know how to treat mental health problems, there are no therapists for Shallan to go to. And given the level of trauma she's sustained, even with help it wouldn't be an easy road. Shallan is, in a manner of speaking, trapped in the lies her own mind tells her. She lacks the necessary perspective to even understand how to properly process her trauma. She needs help to dig her way out, but she doesn't know help is even possible, let alone who to ask for it. Can it be frustrating to read? Sure, and it's completely reasonable to get a little uncomfortable during her passages. But is it really fair to judge a teenager for failing to fix herself when even an experienced therapist would likely need years to help her untangle it all? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no. It is not. And as frustrating as it can be for some people to read her POV sections, I invite you to take a moment and try and empathize with her, because living in that kind of brainspace is much, much more difficult than reading about it. *I'm one of the 0.1% of people who managed to muddle my way through on my own. It wasn't easy, and was only possible because I have an abnormally high level of self-awareness and ability to analyze myself. And it took years. I didn't really reach a reasonable level of functioning until I hit about 30, and I'm still not completely 100%. I'm finally getting some support for the ADHD and executive functioning disorder. The OCD is never going away; I just have my tics under enough control that I'm able to mask them well enough that it's rare for anyone to notice them.

I know that this isn’t a Final Empire character, but if they ever get around to an Era Two movie: Keanu Reeves as Wax. 100%

That would work as I doubt stormlight books are going to get much longer than 3 days of reading time.

... so why'd you ping me? was that accidental? i'm sorry I misunderstood (My fault! You can't have it! )

Is that a shark I see, no it's just 200 sharks. When you are the leader of a country

Lets go find some LIGHTNING When your friend falls in a hole

I had to think of something suitably random to give you my friend

I don't believe there is a god or conscious force guiding the Universe. Most creation stories seem aimed at answering the question "where did the Universe come from?". I find it odd that the answer most religions arrive at is that god made it since this raises the obvious question "where did god come from?". If god can just exist, I see no reason that the Universe can't just exist. Adding deities just seems like extra steps to me. I also take issue with the vast discrepancy between the creation myths of various religions and the actual observable Universe. We know, with a reasonable measure of certainty, what happened in the beginning of our Universe down to incredibly small units of time and it in no way relates to any creation myth. I'll also add that I take religious holy texts (bible, torah, ect.) literally and in that regard I find most religions abhorrent for their treatment of people that are "other". In the case of western religion, I take issue especially with their treatment of the afterlife. I have been created without the capacity for belief through no fault of my own. I literally lack the capacity to believe. I could meet god face to face, and would assume I was suffering from mental illness, severe head trauma or a reaction to a psychoactive chemical. Presuming one of the various western religions was correct, I am to be tortured for eternity in a pit of fire because of something I have no control over. That is evil. It's like making an ant farm so you can burn the ants. This got a bit ranty and off topic from your question, sorry. I'm gonna leave it in anyway since it is relevant to the topic at large.

I will follow Aunt Agatha's will and force all people that want my billion dollar to play a real life 1313 DeadEnd Drive for it.

YES, this is perfection.

What do you think of Mr. Lemoncello's library? What do you think they can do for the 4th, 5th, and 6th Kung Fu Panda movies?

okay. this character said Blagergaf.

Happy to help

Thank you so much @Eternal Khol, that solution works great for me!

I've been seeing these in my Instagram searches, sounds whacky, going to check it out when I actually have time

In which I pick at you about little things, apparently. Sorry. I think these last few scenes go some ways toward addressing my comments last week about not being sure what holds all these scenes together as a section, but not all the way. This sub helped ground things, but it still feels a little like we’re going back and forth between “things going well – things going poorly” without an overall shape. I think you just need to lean more into the feeling that you want more in the endcap throughout – even if things change along the way. As I read: P1 “…who she thought of as her adopted son” this stood out considering the attempt so far to avoid gendered language—and, unless I’m misunderstanding, gender isn’t assigned until someone makes their own decision. Unless P is just precocious and has chosen his gender already? Edit: I see this addressed later on, so nevermind! P2 “…when the had dinner together and Ji gave P back, which wasn’t as often as she would have liked.” The dinner or the handing P back? Maybe both? I wasn’t sure if this was ambiguous on purpose. P3 “literally crawling” welp “growing from the very center of the rplast” WELP “There was a spare ‘thrower…” Starting to get the impression that Ji is the only one who’s noticed this infestation? That doesn’t can’t be the case, surely? “More construction workers were showing up…” Ah, here we go. Maybe a reference to her getting there between construction shifts or whatnot (early for her shift doesn’t necessarily mean nobody’s around). It just seems odd that nobody has noticed a building literally crawling with fungi. P4 “…as it seemed every third or fourth day was… before Ji left for the day.” Within these couple of paragraphs I wasn’t sure whether it was a summary of them defending against a long fungal incursion or this was all happening in the moment. I think this is all happening in the moment, but “every third or fourth day” at the top of the paragraph was what made me wonder if we were going into montage mode. P5 “but I’ve seen this before…” Oh. I thought this was something new, in line with the “time to stop passively observing” bit from earlier in this section. “They can, but they won’t be happy about it.” premature close quotes here as the dialogue continues P6 “If you hadn’t noticed [it] tunneling through…” I stumbled here, because I thought this was really obvious, enough that Ji spotted it from a distance. And the foreman made a point of asking her to check the rplast, isn’t this what she would be looking for? Also… is this just the fungi drilling through the rplast sheets, right? If it started sprouting spontaneously that’d be a really big deal – which seems kind of understated here. Edit: Ah, this is addressed a bit later on. Maybe just a bit more of this anxiousness from Ji sooner to remind us that this really is A Problem. P8 “He’d known it would happen eventually… he’d assumed he would have five or ten years…” Given how aggressive this stuff is, WHY would he assume that? Maybe just a bit about his reasoning, if not here than in an earlier section. Because before it was (as I recall) presented as him being pretty confident about it – which you’d need to be given the aggressiveness of the fungi – so hearing this now just sounds like he’s been taunting fate this whole time. P10 “…he would need to prepare as if it was the second option.” Oof. I do not envy F right now. “…Ad would take all the Gens would give. And F was about to add to that problem.” I get the intent but the wording here is awkward enough that I stumbled. I think because “that problem” doesn’t, technically, have a clear antecedent here. Maybe “that burden” instead? would smooth this out without changing the rest of the sentence? P11 “F also knew…” I don’t think we have a corresponding “F knew” before this line. “It was like he’d never worked in R&D before…” lol P12 “After more bickering and infighting between Ad and scientists, Ad and Ad, and scientist and scientist…” My first thought here was “I actually want to see this.” “I don’t want to voluntarily expose more measures that the biomass might evolve around” ooh, I like this added danger. Is it worth foregrounding this a little more maybe? “…implement when it happens” – missing the close quote right at the end of the scene Oh good. It’s fireproof now. P17 “D’s name wasn’t on it…” Didn’t D get involved in a different disaster than the Kh one? The Kh disaster was the one really early on where Ji was hurt, right? P18 “But Mommy Ji works too” Oh no “he and Ch were fast friends” should be capitalized “He” “Just as soon as she could.” Heh.

Welcome to the shard @NerdyAarakocra!

Just because other people are having a harder time than you doesn't mean your problems aren't important or that you don't need help. Any level of issue is still an issue.

It would be hilarious if Brandon knew about this theory and is trolling with the SP5 prologue hints.

I'm going to paraphrase something I read somewhere: Religion is what allows humans to explain things that science cannot explain. And I think, that that is absolutely amazing. Human creativity, paired with the unwavering faith that humans can show, create a Religion. Which is something absolutely amazing. But it can also be... extreme. Religions can be something that brings people together, but also something that tears them apart. Such is the way of manmade/unmanmade things. Now, I don't usually frequent threads like this, where every response tends to be on the long side of things, as messages go, but I think that this thread is cool! And I'll try to talk here because theology and religion is an interesting topic. So yeah. And that third bit was kinda poetic I guess, but that's just me being me K great thanks enjoy this stuff I guess.

You're doing better than you think you are.

Hey Even though everyone goes through crap and some people's crap might seem more crappy than yours, your crap is important and deserves attention and support.

Yes, but when you are using gravity, you hook up the larger gemstone to something with enough mass to make the mass of whatever you are pulling irrelevant.

I was looking for something more Cosmere related to have as my name. I think I'm going to steal LerasNosed from you if you don't mind