Requiem17

The little wizard doodle guy was adorkable. The lady of the lake pulling tools out of a bucket of water got a chuckle out of me. I really felt the "chapter by chapter" format in near the beginning of the book. The early chapters strongly felt like they were mostly there for the laugh or the lighthearted-mystery, but I don't fault him for it. Glad he had some fun and he and Emily got to enjoy that. Ryan and Jen's turn of character was my favorite Sanderlanche twist. They were just selfish, and didn't treat the people of this dimension as actual humans. Stupidest theory: the wight was the ghost of Jen Best theory: Ealston killing Ulric with a gun. I just thought it'd be with the pistol Ryan linked to John's nanites, which I assumed Ealston still had. Most confused theory: Thought the Black Bear would show up and be another Earth-prime person. I need to reread the Thor mythology to make better sense of all that.

Thank you! I also feel like I've read a forum post on it before, or a group of forum posts! I had this all clear in my head at some point and I doubt I figured it out myself hahaha For now I think the best long term plan for me will be to make a User page so I can link to various Coppermind articles more easily, thanks for that insight!

So much of your first time through reminds me of my first time through! I also was constantly waiting for the next Kaladin chapter. But! When I reread the books in advance of Book 4's release, going back over Shallan's chapters with the new perspectives on her character and secrets made her a very interesting reread. I love the image of Wyndle moving around & talking. That's something I'd love to see animated or CGI'd one day.

Is there a page on the Coppermind (or somewhere on the internet) that goes through all the secrets we've uncovered in the Stormlight Archive prologues? If there isn't one, any recommendations on how I could go about building it?

I'm glad you made this post because what was going on there!? I also thought Sho Del at first but yeah, it doesn't make sense. This is a new mystery we have to keep an eye out for. Who was Lightweaving? The reptilian?? Riina???

I wasn't loving the crossover aspects in the main books, but I'm realizing it's because (to me, and I understand completely it's a personal problem) they felt like side paths to the main story, and maybe a little shoehorned? These crossovers were integral and I LOVED it. I'm way back on board. Really behind Hoid as a main character in endgame. Love. It. Artwork was stunning. I thought, "Howard you brilliant mfer" when the chapter headers changed from green vines to red spikes. I can't decide if there's a universal Connection trick they've figured out, or everyone is using their own magic systems and coming up with ways. Sel - AonDor can rewrite Spiritweb. An Elantrian doing this makes sense, but how was Shai doing it in TLM? She didn't have constant access to Dor. Nalthis - Awakened tablets (bloody brilliant, and I cried when Fort got a replacement), Xisis potentially using Breaths or an unknown magic system Scadrial - Feruchemy Allomancy Medallion stuff, but Ulaam definitely had a different method here.

Sazed says this at the end: This is like Shadesmar vs Cognitive Realm vocabulary. People in world are going to have a name for it which is not it's most correct name.

I agree completely. Her reaction to the secret keeping was a breath of fresh air. Every time she fought it I had a smile on my face. "Wax shares what I need to know," & feeling satisfaction that Wayne is catching Moonlight's acting, & laying into the Ghostbloods for not being forthcoming in what could have led to the foiling of the Set's plans much earlier. I very much agree she made the right call and is going to make a bigger difference in Scadrial & the cosmere because of it. And maybe the GB will stay friends with her and maybe work with her on a few things over the years still (here's to hoping).

There are some small things I want to toss out because I think the big things are being said better than I'd say them. 1. Having Wayne mourn Tobal, who up until that point for the reader & the other characters was just a means to an end, was very beautiful. There was so much melancholy in the "only a man's whole life" line. 2. Marasi and Allik are a flip on the working husband and classic stay at home wife, and it's done very sweetly. At first I thought it odd but I came around to it by the end. He just takes care of her, is there for her, and lets her do her thing, and he'll probably have more agency in the Southern Continent when they go there. 3. For us as readers, Jak is a doubly campy, fantastical version of Wax & his adventures, meant to be a little tongue-in-cheek on the campy stories that inspired Era 2's more "real" campy steampunk western vibe. & Nikki Sauvage is the same for Marasi. Nikki has got that less offensive except in the perfect situation power, etc. And then we have this story from her about Nazh saying goodbye right after Marasi & Wayne have their goodbye, and I really think it's a campy play on it. The campy romance near-kiss she's been wanting for six years, he taught her to curse, came into her life with bursts of adventure, picks her pocket, then leaves her behind to save the world. 4. Wayne's mother's story is what I thought during the preview chapter discussions. Marasi flies across a (dry) river & shoots the man in the face. Steris finds the snake (Set member) in the canyon of death / den of snakes (Senate). Wax goes into the belly of the beast (staircase scene in Shaw) and pushes to choke it (knocks the rocket over), the beast dies (Telsin) and he walks out in glory (duralumin push & explosion Marasi sees). And then Wayne at the end of course (TT_TT)

Just to make us cry, and dang did it work.

I think this conversation is missing that Wax's Pathian earring is very likely giving him pewter powers. There were other theories out there about this in previous books, and it's reasonable to assume that Sazed is just giving the reader confirmation finally that the earrings he keeps giving Wax are a Pewter Hemalurgic spike. That's not to say I don't think Wax could be a micro-Mistborn or something, I just really don't think he took the not-Wax pewter spike.

To add to this: 1) Were the gooey biscuits Allik made chocolate chip cookies? And more seriously: 2) How did Nazh get to the CR through an aluminum compass and key? What sort of insane portable perpendicularity was in that compass? 3) Is Wax a mistborn & did he and Steris have a third kid who might carry that more pure genetic trait? She said she wanted another child. 4) ...Where is MeLaan? What creature(s) is she interacting with? Are those black mists representing Outer Space? 5) Is Daal that Ghostblood dude at the end? Probably not right? 6) What are the four primary systems that are too dangerous to access? Bjendal, Roshar, Scadrial(?), Taldain(?), Sel(?)

There was so much else I was ready to discuss about for this book, and I'm trapped in Wayne's death. Huge credits to Brandon, because he captured the experience around a shocking death of a family member who died young. I identified with Marasi throughout the books, and her finding out Wayne was dead-- that feeling of safety, then dread, the feeling like the world is cracking, the terrible grief immediately held back by an incredible denial-- it is so true to my own life and the way it felt. I thought I was mostly over it, and I'm clearly not. This hurts so, so bad. For whatever else we're going to say about this book, to me what Brandon did here is incredible. Not just that he wrote that scene with Marasi, but that he made me really feel the family between these characters before he broke me with it.

YALL IS WAX A MISTBORN. IS ATIUM IN THAT SIXTEENTH VIAL. I'm freaking out. So happy about clearing up Trell = avatar of Autonomy. I'm too distracted about Wax probably being a Mistborn to even focus on other secrets of this chapter. storm.