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Showing results for tags 'brandon is trolling us'.
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Figgldygrak For those who aren't aware, this word was first used by Hoid in Way of Kings. According to Merriam-Webster, Nonsense and Balderdash are real English words that mean "words or language having no meaning or conveying no intelligible ideas." However, Figgldygrak is a Brandon invention, and has absolutely no meaning. This confused some people in the forums, but most passed it off as artistic license. However, @Natans uncovered something interesting. In this thread, he pointed out that Balderdash is actually an anagram for Shardblade. This led to speculation that perhaps Figgldygrak was also an anagram of something that might have plot relevance. Unfortunately, this was proving to be a tricky puzzle, and no anagram was found. The thread got popular, and we were blessed with words from @PeterAhlstrom, Brandon's editor. Undeterred, the thread continued to look for a solution, considering the phonetics of the word. Eventually, @PrncRny asked Brandon himself about this curious word. This doesn't appear to be in the Arcanum, but according to PrncRny, Brandon said: This led to a flurry of new activity in the thread. @discipleofhoid came up with this interesting idea. That doesn't seem all that accurate now, but it was the closest that thread ever got to making a sensible anagram. Fast forward six years, and Rhythm of War comes out. Lurking in Chapter 65, we have this lovely passage from Navani. Of all things, she uses the word figgldygrak. Specifically, she uses it in the context of making ciphers that mean absolutely nothing. I see three possibilites: This could be a rare occasion of Peter and Brandon trolling us. This would be a rather elaborate joke on their end. The thread was six years old by this point, so that would be one heck of a callback. However, let's consider wilder theories In universe, Hoid gave his speech to Dalinar, right before Sadeas revealed the results about the sabotage of Elhokar's saddle. Looking at the scene, it's unclear if Navani was present at that particular moment. We can't rule out that Navani overheard Hoid's speech, and appropriated his new meaningless word. Even if she didn't hear it directly from Hoid, Dalinar and Navani end up spending plenty of time together, so she could have heard it from him. This would be a nice in universe explanation, but let's get even crazier. Hoid's words always mean something. Perhaps the word Figgldygrak is of specific importance to the Cosmere. Perhaps Hoid coined the phrase during his early years, and it spread throughout the Cosmere. The word could even be Yolish in origin. I'm not sure what this would signify, but we know it's important enough for Brandon to bring back a second time. Honestly, I'm probably reading way too much into this word choice. Still, it's fun piece of trivia to speculate about. Let me know in the thread if you noticed this word choice. Do you think it has any deeper meaning, or is Brandon just doing a clever callback? I look forward to seeing your theories.
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