leinton

Hey friends, this is supposed to be a Bisexual Shallan Party...

I mean I personally want her to meet Rysn and see if they hit it off. Anyway, PARTY!

But Mare... how do you expect me to kill your thunder... WHEN I'M ALREADY HERE?!

Lovely to see a nonbinary topic! For my writing, I intend to mix they/them with neopronouns, depending on the individual characters and cultures they interact with. I tend to lean more toward they/them, as those are my pronouns, but I think it's important to also be able to expand the language to include new pronouns.

Remember that Gavilar asked Dalinar specifically to follow the codes and not get drunk at the party, but he still did. I seriously doubt Gavilar trusted Dalinar in anything beyond warfare. Also, I've been meaning to ask Brandon if Dalinar is an alcoholic. He does show signs similar to recovering alcoholics, but it's not as clear. He could just as easily be recovering from realizing how terrible of a person he was in his youth.

Not with currently known metals. I imagine you also couldn't steal autism with a spike (that we know of). Mood and anxiety disorders maybe, though? Zinc steals "emotional stability/fortitude"... I wonder where that will be taken.

The main problem with the post was honestly the declaration that the series of characters were "wholly unlikable". It is fine to not like a character, but it's wrong to make a declaration like that. It assumes that others unilaterally agree with you. Also... Urban Dictionary is a terrible source.

About healing via Stormlight: Brandon has specifically said mental disorders cannot be healed by Stormlight, as they are not simply diseases but more a part of someone's personality. http://leinton.tumblr.com/post/108721161161/my-questions-to-brandon-not-verbatim-sorry

Atastor, do you mean "youth that people can identify with"? Because a lot of people have thanked Brandon for writing these characters because they feel and act like we do. Believe it or not, but Kaladin is not mopey, but depressed, especially during the constantly cloudy season. Shallan isn't bratty, she dissociates and is still learning to use her skills (not just surgebinding, but also just politicking). Renarin isn't crazy, he's autistic and anxious, partially because he literally has powers that his religion says are the ultimate evil. ... that being said, I imagine a significantly smaller number of people will be able to relate to Young Dalinar.

Also in spoilers, just in case (never hurts, right?). edit: Addition for a reply to Skaa I suppose that could be accurate, but it seems to be contradicted by evidence in WoR

Brandon specifically said the Highstorms have no rotation tonight. That was the focus of my question. I asked because rotational storms, such as hurricanes, have a very different structure than what is described. Jupiter's red spot is thought to be a hypercane, which is essentially a large hurricane of tremendous power, and cannot happen on Earth as it is today. As such, at the edge of the storm, it should be at its weakest, getting continuously stronger (with some small sections of weakness) until you get to the stormwall, which is near the center of the storm, where it is at its strongest. Then you break through to the eye, you get a calm day. Then you break into the other side of the storm, hitting the storm wall, and the storm gets progressively weaker. This is not how highstorms are described. Highstorms have a form closer to that of a frontal storm, yet no front can hold the amount of power that a highstorm holds. It's not physically possible. A storm with that much energy would not form a front. It never made sense to me that it would have the structure of a hurricane, but this is the first time I've remembered to ask this question.

Okay! In an attempt to do a better signing report, I live tweeted most of it. I missed a lot of questions in the Q&A section, but none of the questions I missed had any relation to the comsere. There’s a good chance a recording of it will come out, as the person next to me was recording, but I failed to ask whether they were recording for themself or for a group like 17s. So, onto the actual report! *looks at livetweet* holy smokes, batman! That’s a lot of tweets! Brandon’s lecture: Brandon discussed his trip to Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates. Basically, he went there because he got a free trip to go to a place he’d never been. He had no idea if there would be people actually lining up to to to a signing of his, but there were definitely plenty of fans of his books. He then moved this to the topic of the Koreans, and their relationship with the Chinese written language. Apparently, the reason the Koreans have an alphabet is because one of the kings decided he wanted a language that the commoners could easily learn, to increase the literacy of his countries. So, he had a group of secret scholars who helped him write a new written language, presented it to the council thing, and they were all “noooo we can’t have an easy written language, then the commoners won’t be as obvious because of literacy!” but the language came into use. Despite several attempts to illegalize it. Brandon then went on to say that this theme, the theme of the elite trying to silence the common folk, was common throughout history, and that our nerd culture is doing this. The elitism of the nerd community was harmful to both women and to newcomers, and that made him really sad. So he made a plea to us that we stop and think before we shame other people within nerd communities for our love of nerdy things. He says this does not mean we should stop criticizing literature or games, just that the community needs to be more accepting. Q&A: Like I said, I did not record most of the Q&A. There were some of the regular questions I see every signing. Who’s your favorite character, for example. The two questions I do remember are mine, and the question of the guy standing next to me, as both were somewhat cosmere related. I asked if there were storms on Roshar other than the Highstorms and the Weepings. He said that there were, but that Highstorms dominated the weather patterns so much that they were few and far between. They are more common the further west you go, but they don’t get much stronger than San Diego storms. On top of that, they are most frequent in Roshar’s “summer”, as the Highstorms are less frequent. The guy next to me asked if humans were all created on Scadrial. Now, I thought I knew this answer. Then Brandon through a curveball. Humans did not all originate from Yolen. Sure, all the cosmere important humans did. However, Brandon specifically said that there were humans on other plants as well as Yolen. This is fascinating to me, as I did not know this before. I thought all human evolution stuff had happened on Yolen. Reading: You may have heard this already from previous reports, but Brandon has asked that no record be made public of his readings for this tour until the end of the tour. As such, I will not say anything about it, except to say this: If you are on the fence about going to a signing, then you should definitely go to the signing. It is worth it. My signing: So I was 92 in line. Got to talk to some people about Hoid, and got to introduce a couple of others to the greater cosmere stuffs. I wore my mistcloak. Brandon took my picture, and I may end up on his blog. I’m really happy about this. Onto my questions. I first asked Brandon if crem was made out of calcium carbonate. He said no, that it was a darker material, and wouldn’t directly correlate to any rocks on Earth. I followed up by asking where it comes from. His response: “That’s one of the greater mysteries. Far in the future, scientists on Roshar will start asking that same question.” He then did that face he always does when he’s being mysterious. As usual, it was glorious. I asked if Highstorms have rotation, noting that the way they’re described, they do not sound like storms on Earth. He said that they do not, and that they are unlike Earth storms in their structure. They do not have an eye, unless you count going to see the Stormfather in them. He was impressed that I asked this question, so I told him that I have an earth science background, and that he would possibly get more questions like this in England, relating more to the geology of Roshar. Despite me not asking a question about this specifically, he told me that the entire planet of Roshar is on a single plate. Roshar, he said, was specifically sculpted to look the way it does. It will also not last forever, due to erosion and deposition. I asked if a person who had enough spikes to have all the allomantic powers would be considered a Mistborn. Brandon said that they probably would be called a Mistborn. Finally, I asked about neurodivergence in the cosmere. First I asked if Steris is autistic. Brandon said she is definitely on the spectrum, but more toward where Asperger’s used to be. Not nearly as far along in the spectrum as Renarin. I asked if Wayne has PTSD, to which he said he absolutely does. I thanked him for his time, and also thanked him for putting me in The Wheel of Time, and that was the end of my San Diego Signing for Shadows of Self.

I think that, given the TV show's name, Brandon does indeed belong there. He is a True Monster.

The suit in question makes the claim that Harriet had foreknowledge of the episode being aired. I'm not saying they're right (in fact I think they're lying) but that is what the suit claims.

Slander, which is essentially saying something false (while knowing it to be false) to ruin someone's reputation, is in fact illegal and not covered by free speech. Though proving that someone knows something that they're saying is false is tricky, from what I've heard. I've been told a lot of slander and libel lawsuits were just attempts to get someone to back off. Either way, this is just a horrid move by Red Eagle as far as I can tell. Light, this is going to be such a mess...

I highly suggest watching it as a "so bad it's good movie". Go in knowing it's awful (it is) and expecting bad design (burn me, that channeling is hilarious), and just lay back and laugh at it. You can find a decent recording on youtube. (In other news, please watch the advertisements as well as they are equally awful and hilarious)

Hello all! Just a few thoughts I wanted to put in, maybe clear up some things because it wasn't verbatim (my phone's battery drains real quick if I turn on any recording). The last part of the Hemalurgy question is almost verbatim, but not quite. He was vague on the hemalurgy part, but there needing to be a merger between science and magic is almost word for word. That was the question he answered the most succinctly. The person I was with talked to him about using allomancy on other worlds, and I have as well in the past, and I don't think allomancy is limited by distance at all. I don't think it's tied to the shard's power quite the same way as the Dor. However, my friend did discover that Brandon and Peter have worked up conversions for this stuff, I'll ask her when I do a more comprehensive write up later what he actually told her on that. Also, this is the second time I have had a roll on answering cosmere questions in a row. The other was Words of Radiance. I feel like I've been getting lucky, but he seems to appreciate specific questions that don't directly relate to plot. I plan on doing a more comprehensive writeup either today or tomorrow with the Q and A section and other stuff he talked about. The reading was still Perfect State so nothing new there, but he talked about some interesting stuff in his speech beforehand. Edit: In answer to the OP's question, the event was numbered for place in line, not for a numbered copy. I assume the OP knows this by now, but I figured for those of you who might be wondering about whether we got Official numbered copies I'd say something anyway.

Oh noooooooooooooooooooo how could I make this mistake it's the worst I feel terrible now Thank you for catching. Windrunners are cool but not Edgedancer cool. Is important that I have this said. It is now edited.

Oh yes I am always down to talk about Lift. She is so fantastic. I can't wait for her book, that's going to be so exciting. I really just love in general how she's like... "I wanna do the thing" and then she does the thing. Her goal for eating food of rich people is weird and fun and her reactions with Wyndle are great. And her compassion! Her scene has convinced me that Edgedancers are the Best Order (for me) I mean that second Oath was so beautiful, and just how strongly she felt that it was important, that this person who meant nothing to anyone was still important enough to risk her life for... that's the kind of person I strive to be. I also really can't wait to see other uses of growth and friction because they are such interesting powers! I hope we get more Lift in the next 3 books, but even if we don't I will be content with the second arc having her as a primary character.

Imagine Pattern vibrating to the tune of Ride of the Valkyries. This is appropriate for the level of spazzing.

People continually describe what Kogi just said as being "politically correct" but really, making sure that people have agency is actually just being polite and accepting. Women are people. They aren't pieces of meat. That's not just "politically correct". That's being a decent human being.

Not all book characters are always going to be KR. Remember, Eshonai gets a book. Or maybe she will become one? I dunno, I'd prefer to see her exploit Voidbinding and using it against their masters.

This is a good point. In order for something to be physically addicting, there has to be something happening that makes you need the drug in order to stay "healthy", which you find more in pain killers and depressants. So, health, age, and perhaps mental speed could be physically addicting?

Oh gods they would wouldn't they? That's terrifying to think about.

I'm pretty sure there's a withdrawal feature though. Like if he were to stop compounding, suddenly he'd get really sick. Like the Lord Ruler started aging quickly.