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So, I’ve been thinking about the differences between the Nightwatcher’s boons and Cultivation’s boons. For the Nightwatcher’s boons, we keep seeing completely unrelated boons and curses. For example, one of Ash’s assistants, Av, talks about how his father got cloth for his boon, and then saw the world upside down. However, when Cultivation gives a boon, she appears to make them related. For Dalinar, he forgot his pain from Evi’s death, but he also can’t remember anything else about her. For Taravangian, he received wisdom and empathy/passion, but he could never have them at the same time. Each boon and curse appears to be related. They also appear to be influenced by what Cultivation knows about them. This brings us to Lift’s boon and curse. We don’t know her exact words, only that she has said that asked not to change. We also don’t know exactly what her curse was. What we do know is that she now can make Lifelight out of food, and appears to be partially in the Cognitive Realm. I’m not sure how this is related to not changing, however we can try to guess her curse off of her wording. My theory is that she's changing mentally instead of physically. After all, she’s obviously growing, but her mindset stays the same. She mentions that stealing food is her thing, and she doesn’t want to change it. She says the first time we see her that the reason she hasn’t stolen from a place like a palace is because she doesn’t know where she would go after that. She demonstrates a ridiculous level of stubbornness and a hatred of change throughout the entire series. I believe this is because she is partially stuck in the Cognitive Realm, the realm of spren. Syl mentions that spren don’t change, and we’ve seen other groups of spren stuck in the same behaviors, like Lift is. Spren also regard stormlight as a kind of fuel. For instance, when Notum is injured in RoW, the group gives him stormlight to help him heal. Lift uses Lifelight in this way, turning food/fuel into Lifelight. Whether these are just coincidences or not, Lift does appear to be stuck mentally, and I believe that this was her curse. Please tell me your theories, if you have any!

Let's talk about the Old Magic. Do you think that the Nightwatcher acts justly in the boons and curses she gives out? As a case study, do I just have a dirty mind, or do you think the man who got numb hands might have asked for something a bit... personal? Something numb hands might help with a bit? (trying not to get R rated.) Maybe the Nightwatcher found his request pathetic and decided to give him his boon in the form of numb hands. And why the heck did Cultivation answer Taravangian's request for capacity to save humankind in a twisted way that led him to become Odium? Doesn't Cultivation want humans to survive? She does not have to maintain any kind of balance in her boons and curses, apparently, so she didn't have to give him a curse as large as his boon was great. And anyway, it doesn't appear that she did give him the capacity, not really, though we can't tell that for sure yet. Thoughts?