Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'paalm'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Categories

  • Brandon and Book News
  • Events, Signings, & Giveaways
  • Columns and Features
  • Site News
  • Shardcast

Forums

  • 17th Shard
    • Introduce Yourself!
    • 17th Shard Discussion
    • The Coppermind Wiki
    • Arcanum Discussion
  • Brandon Sanderson
    • General Brandon Discussion
    • Events and Signings
    • Sanderson Fan Works
    • Arcanum, the Brandon Sanderson Archive
  • Spoiler Zone
    • The Sunlit Man (No Cosmere Spoilers)
    • The Sunlit Man (Cosmere Spoilers)
  • The Cosmere
    • Cosmere Q&A
    • Cosmere Discussion
    • Stormlight Archive
    • Mistborn
    • Other Cosmere
  • Non-Cosmere Works
    • Cytoverse
    • Other Non-Cosmere
    • The Wheel of Time
  • Related Works
    • Writing Excuses and Intentionally Blank
    • Reading Excuses
    • Sanderson Curiosities & Unpublished Works
    • TWG Archive
  • Community
    • General Discussion
    • Entertainment Discussion
    • Forum Games & Random Stuff
    • Creator's Corner
    • Role-Playing
    • Social Groups, Clans, and Guilds

Blogs

  • Chaos' Blog
  • Leinton's Blog
  • 17th Shard Blog
  • KChan's Blog
  • Puck's Blag
  • Brandon's Blog
  • The Name of your Blog
  • Darth Squirrely's Blog
  • Tales of a Firebug
  • borborygmus' Blog
  • Zeadman's Blog
  • zas678's Blog
  • The Basement
  • Addy's Avocations
  • Seshperankh's Blog
  • First time reading The Well Of Ascension
  • Zarepath's Blog
  • "I Have Opinions About Books"
  • Test
  • Which actors would you like to see playing the characters of Mistborn?
  • Drifted Mists
  • Jaron's Realm
  • Roshar Speculative Theories
  • ChrisHamatake's Blog
  • Paradox Flint's Blog
  • Deoradhan's Blog
  • Storm Blessed's Blog
  • Elwynn's Blog
  • firstRainbowRose's Blog
  • Rotabush ShardBlog
  • Hoid's Compendium
  • InterContinental Adventures
  • Claincy Creates
  • Theories, quotes, and details to keep it all straight.
  • WoR Thoughts and Questions
  • Blogfalcon
  • David Coppercloud's Blog
  • yurisses' notes and theories
  • Lark Adventures
  • LUNA's Poetry
  • Inspiration Board
  • Trying to be Useful for a Change
  • Cosmere Nerd Things
  • The Way of Toasters
  • An Elephant's Blog
  • Shhh Spoilers for Ronald.
  • Wyn's Adventures in Geekiness
  • Words With Ene
  • Dapper's Blog
  • Things to talk about, stuff to do
  • Zelly's Healthy-Accountability Blog
  • Dapper's Music Blog
  • GM Test Blog
  • Rhythm of War Liveblog
  • Zephy’s Art Blog
  • Axioms Idioms & Adages
  • Weather Reports
  • Unnecessarily Overcomplicated
  • 5
  • The Blog of Dubious Copyright Legality
  • Trutharchivist's Rambles
  • Xino's corner of insanity
  • The Perfect Space Opera
  • My Journey Through Roshar (A Liveblog)
  • Lost Metal Liveblog by ccstat
  • D&D campaign design.
  • My Depression Log
  • Story Ideas and Whatnot
  • deltarune AU concept.
  • How I Relate to Every Character in The Stormlight Archive
  • A thing
  • random jank and jabber.
  • FNF crem

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


Website URL


AIM


MSN


ICQ


Yahoo


Jabber


Skype


Member Title


Location


Interests

Found 16 results

  1. The linchpin for this idea came from a question that came to mind while viewing other threads, though I will admit that it's based on supposition and unconfirmed ideas. I'm not asking if Paalm was influenced or corrupted by Trell, that much is obvious, I'm wondering if the control was to the extent to make her a slave as Marsh was. Ruin could corrupt and alter a person with even a small degraded Hemalurgic spike, as seen with Lord Penrod who eventually drove Luthadel to collapse. However, it seems that Harmony required 2 Spikes in Bleeder to take control of a Kandra. Three spikes was the limit that the Set determined would let them avoid influence from Harmony. I'm not sure why there is this great of a disparity. The question is this: how much control would Ruin have had over someone with a freshly charged Atium spike in them? It would make sense to me that Ruin would have much, much deeper control with his own essence piercing the soul of his slave. The follow up question is if a single spike of Trellium would have given Trell sufficient power over Paalm, particularly if Trell could make Paalm think that there wasn't anything wrong? This would be in the same way that Ruin could make Marsh think death and ash was beautiful, even while part of him was horrified at what he was doing. A few things that have made me wonder this is that in BoM, we get transcripts of VenDell's interview with ReLuur while ReLuur was missing a spike. Compare ReLuur's behavior, language, and mannerisms to the level of control Paalm has when mimicking Governor Innate or taking up the persona of Lessie. Basically I think there's no way ReLuur could have held it together to do a fraction of what Paalm did. So why does Paalm have such control, creating and executing an intricate and convoluted plan that almost works without a hitch, tricking a city, Wax, and the Kandra? Why didn't she have a major personality mood swing when Wax shot her with his earring, making a mismatched Blessing that apparently was incredibly unpleasant when ReLuur was given one of TenSoon's spikes? What happened with Paalm is not consistent with what we see later without a Trellium spike. Basically, I think that there was a lot of control and planning involved with Paalm, it just wasn't her own. There's obfuscation in that Edwarn Ladrian says that the Set are merely riding the storm of Bleeder's campaign, but we now know that the Set follow Trell, and that spike was from Trell (or at least Brandon lets us call it Trellium. Which brings me to my idea that Paalm was being controlled all along to do things that had she been sane might have agreed in a specific context, so even as a slave perhaps she never considered or even had the control to kill herself as she did at the end of SoS. I suspect she died there because Trell didn't want to reveal their hand more than had already been done. As a final note, at the end of BoM, Harmony says that Paalm would have remained "a slave in her mind" had Wax not killed her. Thoughts?
  2. Sorry if this is something that has already been discussed a lot, I did a search but didn't turn up anything. In Shadows of Self, chapter 16. Wax is stalking Paalm down the street while they are having an earring-aided mental conversation. At one point, Paalm says "You know he's just another pawn." And Wax says "I don't know that." Paalm responds "I wasn't talking to you that time, Waxillium." It's been bothering me since I first read it. If she's not talking to Wax, who is she talking to? It has to be someone with a hemalurgic spike, correct? Could it be Kelsier? It just makes me think of all of the little hints and weirdness that didn't make sense (like Vin suddenly deciding not to go talk to Hoid-the-informant), that were explained in Secret History as Kelsier moving behind the scenes. If it is Kelsier-- what is the context of that line? "You know he's just another pawn." Could we assume that she's referring to Wax himself? Discussing Wax with Kelsier? In which case, Kelsier would be on the scene and interested in Wax (or, at least, interested in Sazed's interest in Wax). Thoughts?
  3. Ah, it's been a while since I've posted a topic. Hope you all didn't miss me. So, we know that Kandra spikes are unique to them and that they can't accept another Kandra's spikes. This is probably because of Identity, similar to how metalminds only work with their user. However, we see Bleeder use two new spikes that were not her original, made out of trellium, a god metal. So how is she able to do this, despite the problem with identity? I have two theories. 1. Trellium is an alloy of a Shard's god metal and whatever Paalms original spike was. This would explain why Paalm has two that she uses despite having access to more (Which she uses to create chimeras), and why they are still useable for her. (The metal most likely being copper, as Paalm was third generation, and from Tensoon, it appears the third generation was created with blessings of presence, which needed copper spikes (This is also based on my assumption that generations were made with one type of spike.)) OR 2. Trellium's special ability has to do with identity, allowing bleeder to use it despite not being keyed to her identity, like that of an unkeyed metalmind. Seeing as every godmetal seems to have one unique capability (lerasium creates mistborn, atium is the best metal for hemalurgy, acting as a wild card, tavatsium is incredibly hard and can cut your soul, etc.) this would not be hard to believe, and would also fit in with all the identity and connection shenanigans going on in Mistborn Era 2 magic system.
  4. In Shadows of Self, Wax asks Bleeder who she is. Bleeder says that she is the surgeon. We know that Era 2 happens after SA 1-5. Is it possible that either Kaladin or Lirin are in someway connected to Bleeder? Maybe they were killed and became a spike for her? I don’t have any evidence, I just want to hear people’s thoughts and see where this goes.
  5. Paalm's story seems to me to be a deconstruction of the trope of the Fridged Woman. In AoL, Lessie is presented as your Standardized Fridged Love Interest, in the same way that Steris is the Sitcom Unsuitable Fiancee and Marisi is obviously going to be the Real Love Interest. Lessie gets through all of one prologue before she dies tragically and her purpose in the story is pretty much to drive Wax in the direction of the plot and give him something to angst over. Then comes Shadows of Self, and we find out she was meta-fridged. Writers are often accused of giving female love interests little characterization beyond "she loves the Hero"; "Lessie" (as opposed to Paalm) literally only exists for Wax. When Lessie refuses to get Wax back to Elendel-- in a sense, when she refuses to further the plot-- God himself kills her off to motivate the hero. Except that while Lessie is dead, Paalm is still there to take back her agency. She still has a voice. And she is pissed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying she's not really a villain or something-- when your business card says "serial killer", it's time to think hard on your life decisions. I'm not even saying Harmony was wrong in the scheme of things. But as awful as Paalm's actions end up being, her rage is very understandable. I don't know if Brandon did this on purpose, or it just came out that way. But every time I read Era Two, I can't help but see Lessie as standing in for fiction's silenced, disposable women.
  6. So I am curious, if say, a live mistwraith were spiked with the deceased Paalm's spikes (or those of any other deceased kandra), what does anyone imagine would happen? I would expect nothing at all, however I could not find any information upon the topic and was curious about anyone elses theories. Is there any chance of resurrection of the Kandra in question's soul?
  7. This might be a stupid question, but I couldn't find it in the Coppermind or Arcanum. In the prologue of AoL, how did Paalm leave Lessie's bones after she "died" without being noticed? Did Harmony have something to do with it?
  8. When precisely did Bleeder take the Governor's life? Simple, shouldn't take too many responses. Thanks Cosmerans.
  9. Cosmere characters doing song covers! Or rather, it's me, singing from the point of view of various Cosmere characters. I've definitely stolen the format "Broadway So-and-so" from the Homestuck fandom, who used to have a whole slew of singers rewriting lyrics and singing them in-character. No, they're not all Broadway songs. Actually... I don't think I've actually covered any actual Broadway songs, but that could be fun... Anyway, I realized I'd never really posted my covers here all in one place and thought I should probably try to fix that. The newer ones are more polished as I've gotten better recording software and equipment, as well as just figuring out how to edit songs better with practice, but I figured I'd post even the rougher ones. Relistening to some of these is making me want to redo some. The Cosmere lyrics for each song are in spoiler tags to keep this from cluttering. If there's no credit given for the cover track, then it's one that was either an official version provided by the artist themselves, or it's one that I pulled the vocal track out myself. From most recent to oldest: It's Over, Isn't It? Character: Paalm, Shadows of Self Original: "It's Over, Isn't It?" by Rebecca Sugar and Deedee Magno-Hall (Steven Universe) Piano Cover: ThePandaTooth Lyrics: Light Runs Out Character: Shallan, Words of Radiance Original: "Love Runs Out" by OneRepublic Karaoke Cover: Cyberwave Karaoke Lyrics: Let It Go Character: Vin, Well of Ascension Original: "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel (Frozen) Lyrics: (Inspired by those written by @Lightflame) Additionally, I've done a few songs that are Cosmere-focused but aren't actually from any specific characters. Those are always fun too. Fandom Monster's Beautiful Darkside Description: Written in honor of the annual "Cosmere Fandom is Still the Worst Fandom" writing challenge, which is always a good, fun time to make everyone you know distressed and crying. Also, I love sad fanfics. Fandom monster's gotta earn her title somehow. Though technically the lyrics could work for any fandom, it was specifically written for the Cosmere. Original: "The Beautiful Darkside" by The Classic Crime Lyrics: Cosmere's Happening Description: Meant as a "fandom anthem," this one cheers out references to events and places all over the cosmere, because heck yeah, why not? Original: "Something Big" by Shawn Mendes Karaoke Cover: YOU SING Lyrics: In the Final Empire Description: A Survivorist hymn, meant to be from a later era, looking back on the time of the Originators before. (Also the first song I ever covered like this!) Original: "In the Bleak Midwinter," Traditional Hymn Instrumental: Sarah Brightman Lyrics: (written by @EHyde) So, that's what I've got for now. My SoundCloud has a few other covers, but for other fandoms. I'm willing to take requests, though of course, it depends on how well I know the song, if I can adapt the lyrics, and if I can find or make an instrumental track to sing over. Someone on tumblr asked me if I'd do a cover of "Colors" by Halsey for Warbreaker, so I might end up doing a Vivenna and Siri duet for that one. Let me know what you think!
  10. EDIT: One day I'm going to clean this up and take out the parts that have been debunked. Rust is not a Splinter, as there are none of Ruin or Preservation, and I've since become more convinced that Rust is held by Kelsier's cognitive shadow. The location of the missing piece of Ruin has been a subject of a lot of speculation, so this may have been brought up before. This is also my first post here, so I apologize for any mistakes I might make and for the disjointed stream of consciousness that is this post. Basically, I believe that the missing piece of Ruin is either a splinter similar to a powerful spren, or the power was turned into a kind of a minor shard which has been taken up by someone. I believe that this is Rust, and that they are either the force working against Harmony, or aiding another Shard who is also hostile to Harmony, either Autonomy or Odium. There is a WoB somewhere that I haven't been able to find, but which basically says that the phrase "Rust and Ruin" has more significance than it might seem. This is, I think, a hint at another entity called Rust. This could be another, previously unmet Shard, but I doubt that for a couple of reasons which have been brought up in different places on this forum: - Rust is a very similar Intent to Ruin, arguably too similar to be another Shard of Adonalsium - We know that Ruin and Preservation are the only Shards on Scadrial from a WoB - We know that the metal in Paalm's spike was of a Shard we already have met from another WoB I believe that, to balance the forces of Ruin and Preservation within himself, Harmony cleaved the excess Ruin off from the whole, which eventually became Rust. If this is correct, there are a couple possibilities for what the exact nature of Rust is: -It could be a piece of Ruin's power which was large enough to develop a consciousness of its own. We know, from WoB, that a Shard left without a holder for long enough will develop a consciousness of its own. This could extend to large enough pieces of that power as well. -It could be a powerful spren-like entity created intentionally by Harmony. -It could be a person or entity which took up the extra piece of Ruin, either by being given it by Harmony or by obtaining it against Harmony's will. If we now assume that Rust exists and is in some way derived from the excess power of Ruin, there are further questions to explore. Is Rust behind Miles and Paalm's plans? Finding Rust behind Miles is not something I can do right now before a reread. He is connected to the “men of gold and red,” the red men could be tied to Rust, who the gold is I couldn’t say. Maybe Miles himself, as a gold compounder, or maybe there is another Shard involved as well and the gold refers to them. Is Paalm's spike from Rust? The most obvious bit of evidence for this is the rusty spots on Paalm’s spike. That is by no means conclusive however. We are led to believe that Harmony should recognize anything from Scadrial, but we are only told this by Harmony himself, I believe, in his early godhood when he wrote the words of Founding (unless there is a WoB I missed). Even if the metal is not of Rust, Paalm’s extensive knowledge of Hemalurgy must have come from Rust. You might say that she could have gotten the knowledge from her close relationship with the Lord Ruler, but her knowledge of Hemalurgy extends beyond his own. It is said that the Lord Ruler had his inquisitors working on discovering a new Hemalurgic creation for nearly the entirety of his reign, and yet they never succeeded. Paalm created a new Hemalurgic species, and used Hemalurgy in other ways that no one else knew was possible, such as endowing powers on Kandra and speaking into minds. Where could she have gotten all of this knowledge of the ridiculously complex magic system, Hemalurgy, except from a piece of its source. We know that Ruin had an instinctive knowledge of all of the hundreds of bind points on a body and how to use them, so Rust could as well. I’m going to cut this off here, I think, because I don’t want this post to be too long, as I may be suggesting nothing new here I would like to end with a mention of my personal beliefs on this issue. I believe that Rust is something akin to a minor shard of Ruin’s power, and that it has been taken up by a cognitive shadow of either Kelsier or Ati. I know this sounds very tinfoil, and it may be, but I see some evidence for it. The book is entitled Shadows of Self, which is the exact term used to describe the mist spirit, Leras’s cognitive shadow, in HoA. Ati would have the motive to bring down Harmony, and would also already have the Hemalurgic knowledge to aid Paalm if the power of Rust did not endow it. I’m less confident in Kelsier being Rust. He is mentioned as still being around, and I can’t remember if Harmony refers to him in a positive or negative way in era 2. Harmony may have endowed the power on Kelsier, possibly believing him to be beyond the ability to influence the world with the power. He could have been corrupted by its Intent, and now seeks to Rust everything (I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but I also believe that Rust is a name attributed by a metal-driven culture, and a more accurate Intent might be Corruption). The main thing that makes me want to believe Rust is Kelsier is that Rust is likely to be, in some way, tied to the Set. A set is “a group or collection of things that belong together, resemble one another, or are usually found together” or “a group of people with common interests or occupations or of similar social status.” This sounds an awful lot like a crew, no? EDIT: I should clarify something. When I suggest that the power was turned into a minor Shard, I do not mean that this was done intentionally by Harmony. It could have been, but he could also have cleaved off the power and hidden it away somewhere, and someone found it and took up the power. I believe that it would function similar to how a Shard would, whether or not it is what Harmony intended. EDIT 2: I would also like to add that if Rust exists and is working with another Shard, then that Shard could be Autonomy, and Autonomy could have helped Rust to become completely autonomous from, and invisible to, Harmony
  11. Hi all, just trying to get my first theory out for critiques and thoughts! So, just finished Shadows of Self, and the big question is, what shard did that new metal come from? I've seen a lot of theories out there, but I am thoroughly convinced that it is not Odium as many have thought, but Autonomy working WITH Odium. And here's why: I believe for several reasons that the shard is not Odium Odium is very busy on Roshar as is. Odium is terrified of Harmony, so would not be likely to challenge him in person, especially not on Harmony's own world. However, he might send a friend to do the dirty work. Brandon has said that not only could Odium work with other shards, but that he likely has. Odium would be willing to work with others and probably has. Paalm's entire purpose is to set herself and everyone else free of Harmony's influence and control. If another shard was controlling her, it would logically follow that she would reject this control as well. Unless that shard was influencing her towards "freedom".... So, if it's not Odium, who else could it be? My thoughts point to none other than our friend Bavadin, holding the shard Autonomy. Why? Well, It seems that Rayse (Odium) and Bavadin may be working together. This theory is not hugely supported, but the writer of The Letter did mention them and his grudges against them respectively in the same sentence, pointing to the fact that they may have more connection than we know. A full theory as to why Rayse and Bavadin may be working together was posted by Spire and can be found here. Bavadin's shard is Autonomy, or "freedom from external control or influence; independence." This seems to be exactly what Paalm is fighting for the whole time. What other shard's influence could one who so clearly wants freedom have fallen under save freedom itself? Autonomy may be fighting for a world free from Shardic influence. Who else better to ally himself with then, than someone who is actively splintering shards? The biggest argument I have seen against Autonomy being the unknown shard is the creatures that Paalm creates through Hemalurgy, likely with the same metal that is in her. This seems to be against Autonomy's intent, taking away the people affected's freedom to choose. However, we know that human sentience on Scadrial comes directly from Preservation. I postulate that the Paalm's Hemalurgic use of Autonomy's metal in this case removes any part/influence of another shard from the person the Hemalurgy is used on. This thus would remove Preservation from them, taking away their sentience and reverting them to a primal, beast-like state. Brandon said that this shard is one we've already seen. Dominion, Devotion, and Honor have all been splintered, it isn't of Harmony, for reasons shown above I don't believe that it is Odium, Cultivation is hiding on Roshar, and Endowment seems content on Nalthis. This leaves only Autonomy. Thank you for reading my theory, any comments and responses will be appreciated!
  12. If Paalm was Lessie than why did Bloody Tan say it? doesn't make sense to me
  13. All right, I tried to keep that title from spoiling anything, considering the reader knows Paalm has at least one spike the whole book, but let me know if it needs to change. So we've all been clamoring with theories, and rightfully so, particularly about Paalm and her wonderspike. We also know, thanks to Chaos, that the spike is from a Shard we know. As many have detailed in other threads, the likely candidates are Autonomy or Odium, as none of the other Shards we know of are 1) alive or 2) give a flying lick about Scadrial or Harmony. In addition, we've all been curious as to how Paalm could speak to Wax's mind in a way similar to Harmony, and many have been saying this ability is due to the wonderspike. I apologize if this has been stated before, and if so please point me to the source. Hypothesis 1: The spike is of Autonomy, and not Odium. As a result, the spike grants Paalm her autonomy in regards to Harmony. Reasoning: Paalm kept her sanity. This means that she had more than one spike within her. I know what you're thinking: Blaze, that's obvious, it says so in the book, as they found that polka-dotted spike in her along with the one granting her allomantic steel! Correct, and I'm saying she keeps her autonomy because of that spike. The spike grants her the ability to be autonomous of Harmony. We know that Preservation had some access to the spikes, even though Hemalurgy is of Ruin. Harmony says outright that while Ruin could speak to spiked individuals, it was Preservation who could hear those people's thoughts. So why, then, would this new spike be invisible to Harmony? Sure, it being of a different Shard might prevent Harmony from controlling it, but that doesn't mean Harmony should be blind to it. Hypothesis 2: Paalm got her hands on that extra bit of Ruin, either directly or indirectly from Harmony. Reasoning: It was made very clear in the book that Paalm had Ruin's power to speak with hemalurgic people. She couldn't hear them, only speak to them. As I've said, this is specifically something Ruin could do. In addition, Paalm's plan of "overthrowing" Harmony is exactly the plan Ruin would use. Her whole purpose was to bring Elendel into chaos. There could easily be other ways of doing so, given her more expansive knowledge about the situation, but she specifically focuses on bringing Elendel to its knees. Now, we know that Harmony has an extra bit of Ruin due to Preservation's gambit to keep Ruin in check prior to and during Era 1. We also have a very coy WoB of "Well I wonder what Harmony could possibly be doing with that extra Ruin?" My theory would suggest that Harmony did one of a few options: 1) He gave this power directly to Paalm. This seems rather unlikely, but it would fit with the theory. Perhaps Saze did so as a means to convince/force Paalm to kill herself as Lessie, just a thought. 2) He gave this power to kandra as a whole. None of the other kandra have spoken to Wax using this method, but it too is a possible reason for why Paalm would have the ability. Perhaps the little bit that Paalm gets is enough, or perhaps she managed to take some from other kandra. We don't really have enough information to judge this possibility further, aside from TenSoon's comment which seems to contradict this possibility. He says that Wax is Harmony's Ruin, while he is Harmony's Preservation. Perhaps TenSoon wasn't given part of the power, but other kandra were, though that feels a bit like straw grasping to me. 3) Harmony discharged the Ruin into someone/something else, and Paalm got her hands on it. The first thing that jumps to my mind are the Bands of Mourning, as it offers us an easy lead into the next novel, as well as providing a base story line to follow throughout the trilogy. In addition, the Bands are made of atium, so perhaps that's the reasoning why Harmony can store some Ruin in them. I can't really think of any other possibilities as for where Sazed would store the extra Ruin, but I am a bit rusty on my Era 1 knowledge for important artifacts. tl;dr: The extra spike is of Autonomy and grants autonomy from Harmony. The ability to speak to spiked people's minds came from that extra bit of Ruin that Harmony has hidden somewhere.
  14. Question from a confused person. Did Paalm have one spike (the silver+red one), or two spikes in her (silver+red, and a Harmony spike)? If she just had one spike, did that spike just give her full Twinborn powers, then? Since she uses speed and steelpushes and so forth. Do we ever see her actually changing spikes by falling on them, like MeLaan mentioned?
  15. Honestly, I agree with Paalm. (No, not her methods. Do you think I'm insane?) I mean her goals. Harmony is being manipulative here. Though Sazed himself disagrees with what he has to do, I don't think he has the right. 'It's not my fault, it's the fault of the power I hold' is a lame excuse. I still think that if Paalm had been able to tone down the murder aspect of her plans, I would be on her side. (Again, I don't agree with the murder aspect. At all) She wasn't controlling the governor forever. Only recently. That type of connection takes time. (Or so I would assume). And his brother is corrupt. She was obviously not controlling him, as she killed him. And Harmony "strongly encouraged" her to cause Wax tragedy just because of his intent. So yeah. I'm not saying Paalm was right, but I'm also saying that maybe our protagonists aren't right in supporting Harmony either.
  16. We know very little about how kandra work. Even if they do clearly appear as kandra, instead of being fully in hiding mode, when they are not viewpoint characters, as MeLaan was not in SoS, we cannot truly take anything they say or do at face value. Though of course that was a different era, before Harmony, we should always remember that for a thousand years their very existence was the extreme long-con, them being the ultimate spies not against other people, but Ruin himself. Depending on your personal level of paranoia, MeLaan's comment that she is just showing everyone what they need to see to keep them on mission is either a bit of light-hearted fun, or extremely creepy. Therefore, let me start by saying that is this is all guesswork based on what makes sense and feels right to me. I mostly only have questions, and what few theories I do have lack any kind of proof, but hopefully you will find what I have to say interesting and worth reading. I am only mildly Cosmere aware - I lurk these forums a fair amount, and have read most major theories; however I do not on my own automatically think in Cosmere terms. Furthermore, I intend to find an interpretation that is character driven, not system driven. I certainly appreciate the very consistent and rule based nature of Mr. Sanderson's magic systems, however I consider characters more interesting as people first (e.g. certain behaviour may be a documented result of Cosmere stuff, but if I can find a personal reason for it, I will always prefer that). I believe my interpretation is based on text - albeit by arguably over-analysing things - without adding any speculation that is explicitly external to the books, but it is an interpretation, an alternative reading, and as such has little direct evidence to support it. With this disclaimer out of the way, I will now present everything as obvious facts for the sake of clarity, but do keep these first paragraphs in mind. 1. Background To understand Lessie-kandra, I first need to establish how her mind works. To do that, I will have to go back to TenSoon. This is especially helpful, because Lessie-kandra is compared to him quite heavily - I could of course question that information, but I do not have any reason to, and I think that that bit of insight is key. A very simplistic way to summarise what happened in the first trilogy would be that Vin's friendship allowed TenSoon's personality to manifest. Two things to note about this: a) his personality was there before, he was not actually completely empty - that was what drove him to take all the contracts, resent humans, etc. - it was merely not dominant and on the surface; Vin's actions provoked him to let his personality through, and develop, but it was not like flipping a switch - now you are a blank slate, now you are the real TenSoon. A good comparison - though I do not believe the two are exactly the same - would be to children. A teen has the core of their personality ready, but needs the experience and confidence to fully grow into it. I think I can be very brief here, by simply saying "coming of age". A kandra that chooses TenSoon's path - like Lessie-kandra did, for example - would be like a child, not having the room to become who they are, because their self is being suppressed by the personalities they keep taking on. Kandra, especially the old ones, are very dedicated to their roles. I think that Wayne's viewpoint chapters in both AoL and SoS give a good approximation of this, where he starts thinking like his disguise, to get into the role. Kandra must surely do something similar. Now, I want to point out that even in the case of kandra, I do not mean to go over the top with this, and suggest that they somehow lose their identities, or are truly blank slates; simply that their personal growth is delayed and very slow, spread over a long time - in some cases many centuries. One last thing to note: this is all about their personality, and what can best be described as their own awareness of it, and confidence in it. It is independent of their factual knowledge, or practical abilities. 2. Relationship with Wax I do not believe Lessie-kandra was in love with Wax. That is to say, I do not believe it was as simple as that. While it may not have been Harmony's - or Lessie-kandra's - intentional plan, I think it was logical for the Lessie-persona to fall in love with Wax, and vice versa. This approach is not very romantic, but it makes sense in the story; it is also something that happens in real life as well. Love can be mysterious and special, and all the rest, but also sometimes there are people that make a good couple, and it is easy to see why and how they would fall in love. The complications begin when we realise that Lessie-kandra's actual personality, her core, was also such that this relationship appealed to her. In the prologue, there are two interesting bits of dialogue with Lessie-kandra, that are very telling. First, she says that killing Wax would have been like killing what he stood for. This proves that she knew about him - in reality, very likely knew more about him than just his Roughs reputation; Harmony sent her to be his bodyguard, he must have told her at least something of why Wax was important - and it is a very profound statement. It also reveals an appreciation of Wax, his goals, and his morals. Second, she talks about how she did some things for Granite Joe she is not very proud of. I do not think this foreshadows her turning against Harmony, however I do think she was talking about more than just her cover. We know that she was always somewhat unconventional, and did things most kandra find distasteful. We also know that Harmony made use of this - indeed, this was why she became Wax's bodyguard. Knowing about Wax, and how important he is, she felt she was doing something important and worthwhile in this job, something she could fully get behind. Just for the record, I do not think there is anything inherently unlikely about a kandra falling in love with a human - I only question it in this specific case. In summary, the high regard she held Wax in was genuine, and part of her "normal" personality, however it, and their being in love, was also tied to, and very probably started by, the Lessie-persona. 3. Chain of events - going rogue Here is where things get really confusing. At first glance - and first reading of SoS - the events seem to be: I. Harmony wants Wax to return to the city. II. Lessie-kandra does not approve, believes Wax would be happier staying where he is. III. Harmony pushes Lessie-kandra hard, but without taking control of her. IV. Harmony arranges the Lessie-persona's death. V. Lessie-kandra snaps and goes crazy [more on this in the last part]. VI. Lessie-kandra begins to plan and execute the downfall of Harmony, to free everyone from him. VII. Lessie-kandra gets and uses one or more trellium spikes. VIII. Lessie-kandra removes one or more of her spikes. The order of these events is implied, however not confirmed. In fact, the events themselves are uncertain; IV. especially is questionable. I. and II. are pretty much undisputable and I have nothing to add. III. We do not know what Harmony pushed Lessie-kandra to do. It could be that he wanted her to encourage Wax to return to the city, maybe even return with him. There is some evidence for this, and it is the most benevolent reading. It is also the only scenario which could lead to Lessie-kandra arranging the Lessie-persona's death herself. On the other hand, it could also be that the thing Harmony pushed Lessie-kandra into was IV. More, a possible extension of this would be that Harmony was also the one who prevented Lessie-kandra from coming out to Wax initially. While by the end of SoS, after she becomes unstable and a year passes, I can grudgingly accept that she just wanted to spare Wax because she knew that the truth would hurt him, this does not work at the start. It is very difficult to imagine that Wax would be overly upset if "Lessie" just got up after he shot her and explained things right then and there (or within a few days). IV. This is the biggest issue. Who arranged it? Harmony or Lessie-kandra? I am not going to go into the latter too much, because to me it makes no sense. The Lessie-persona's death was what made Wax return to the city, which is precisely what Lessie-kandra did not want to happen - if she arranged her death, she miscalculated very badly, and that does not seem to fit with her brilliant, extremely methodical nature. Even if Harmony arranged it, though, there are problems. The way Bloody Tan talks seems very in line with what Lessie-kandra thinks. Why would this be the case? If he is just a random criminal who happened to be one they were chasing when the Lessie-persona needed to die - honestly though, how many people on this forum are willing to believe that? - he should not be saying anything relevant at all. But if he is not a random criminal - who is he? His dialogue seems to be counter to Harmony's goals, which makes me believe that even though Harmony arranged to use him, he is not somebody Harmony is directly controlling - either via his godly powers, or just by talking to them and asking them to help, as he sort of does with Wax. However, since this the point where Lessie-kandra is being the most heavily influenced, and her death is not something she wants, I find it unlikely that she would cooperate with Bloody Tam. It is worth consideration, however, that maybe since Harmony was not completely controlling her, once she realised what was going to happen, she gave Tam information, so that it would get back to Wax and be a clue to him. V. to VIII. These are things we know happened, but the order is not determined at all - both just among these four, and their location on the list. It seems likely that Harmony's heavy handed influence was what made Lessie-kandra go crazy and turn on him, but not certain. It could be argued that by refusing to go along with his plans in the first place, warranting such heavy intervention, she was already rogue. Did she go crazy and remove her spike(s) out of madness, or did she go mad because of a lack of spikes? Did she remove her spike(s) and look for alternatives then, finding trellium, or was gaining access to trellium what triggered her to removes her spike(s)? If having trellium made her confident enough to remove her own spike(s), and removing her spike(s) is what made her insane, does that mean the she had access to trellium before she snapped? It has been noted that Harmony seems very troubled by her ability to hide, yet does not directly tie this ability to her lack of spike(s). Further, Harmony implies that the madness is a result of spikelessness, yet I do not think he ever comes out and explicitly states that Lessie-kandra only went insane because some of her spikes were removed. All of this could be made more crazy, if we assumed that she got a trellium spike in her during her time running around in the Lessie-persona. Maybe that spike influenced her, or opened her to influence. Maybe that is why she started opposing Harmony's wishes in the first place, requiring him to step in. This is probably more of a stretch, but we know for certain nothing that would prevent this. Primarily the point I am trying to make is simply that despite SoS seeming like it reveals many things and appearing shocking, we actually know very little of what exactly happened for sure. Any of these variations could be true, or any other combination of these events could have happened, and it would still fit with the tiny amount we can be certain of. Also, it is important to note that Harmony likes to interfere as little as possible, wants to ensure people have independence from him and free will as much as possible, and the idea of personally taking care of things is distinctly unpleasant to him. By SoS, after Lessie-kandra has destroyed a dam, causing who knows how much damage, and murdered a lot of people, he is ready to handle her, but the question is, was he always? I find it entirely possible that Lessie-kandra exploited Harmony's principles. She can very easily be opposed to him, and work against him, and as long as she keeps her actions below a certain level of visibility and wrongness, Harmony would not directly involve himself. For example, could she break into an empty house and steal some jewellery or would that be something that Harmony find offensive enough to prevent himself? Could she rob a bank, if she only used a fake gun and made sure not to hurt anyone, only scare them? Could she murder one person? Two? At what point exactly would Harmony decided to go Old Testament on her? I think murder is a pretty good threshold, but we cannot know for sure, and in all honesty, it does not really matter. The only important thing is: could she start working on her evil plan and by not doing any technically wrong for a while, avoid Harmony's ire? One last thing to note in this area: Harmony is not omniscient. Under normal circumstances he can probably find most people and information that he wants, but he has to work at it. This is my lack of Cosmere knowledge showing, so please do correct me on this point, but I actually think he cannot directly read the minds of non-spiked people - I recall that this is mentioned in SoS at one point and it was a main plot point in the first Mistborn trilogy, though that was only Ruin. The numbering above is what I prefer. I. to III. seem fairly certain, and I think arranging the Lessie-persona's death makes more sense for Harmony than Lessie-kandra. I also think that tying back to 1. and 2. the Lessie-persona's death was what made Lessie-kandra go crazy. The reason she did not go to Wax and reveal the truth initially was that she could not do it. Their relationship was tied very strongly not just for Wax, but for her as well, to the Lessie-persona. On top of that, acting as her true self was not something she was overly used to or comfortable with. When she lost the Lessie-persona, which she grew fond of - she even says at the end she wanted to become her - and which was the core of her connection to Wax, she simply could not take it. I also think that as I mentioned, she did not immediately remove her spike(s). She is ancient and extremely crafty. She fully exploited Harmony's principle's against him. She started planning, and somehow, somewhere along the way, she was given trellium. Armed with that, she only removed her spike(s) once her plan reached the point where Harmony would have stepped in, and after she was certain it would work out for her, thanks to trellium. The only thing I am baffled by is Bloody Tam. I cannot for the life of me figure out a scenario that makes sense. In a way, this makes everything I said so far look weak, because I cannot work everything in - I admit, this does bother me, however I have no choice but to accept it, because no alternatives I could think of, or read on these forums, properly account for his oddity in a way that is fits and works with everything else. Mr. Sanderson's consistency is beyond question, so I am sure there is a logical explanation, but it has not been found yet; or at least it has not yet been presented in a way that I find convincing and acceptable. 4. Insanity Much has been said about Lessie-kandra's supposed insanity. Serious mental health issues aside, I think there are four primary ways in which one can be insane. First, the worst case, is a loss of the ability to think normally. People in this category are no longer capable of making the same logical connections a healthy person does. This prevents them from functioning in many situations, causes their behaviour to be off, and their plans, if they can make them at all, are not workable because the steps do not properly follow each other. Lessie-kandra's pragmatic cognitive abilities have not decayed. Her planning, attention to detail, and execution of said plan prove this. Second, when people lose grip on part of reality. It can be summed up in one word as delusion. This and the first one can occur at the same time, but they are separate things. The first one is about how you connect two points, and this is about what those two points are, to put it simply. In this case, the affected person may make plans that are well structured, logical, may make arguments that are convincing; however the key issue is that one or more part of their reality is wrong. To give a blatant and silly example, if a very charismatic and talented politician suddenly became convinced that aliens [in the sci-fi sense, not immigration] run the government and started rallying people against them, he could have some success, by virtue of his talents - he would still know how to work a crowd, for instance. Lessie-kandra could be considered in this group depending on what you think about her plan against Harmony. I do not think that is the case, however. Needless to say I do not approve of mass murder, but I do not think her conclusions and goals are inherently incorrect. Third, we will often call someone crazy for doing something too far from normal. Serial killers are often in this category - though they can suffer from the first and second version too. A serial killer that kills their victims in a sadistic way for no overall purpose other than the fact that he enjoys it can very easily be seen as crazy, even if the previous two do not apply. This definitely does not apply to Lessie-kandra. At first glance her murders, some of which are quite gruesome might seem to qualify, however there was always a point to them. To repeat, this is not about whether I approve or not, of course, but there is a difference between a killing that serves a rational purpose, and one that is done just for the sake of it. Fourth, which I can best describe as "unreasonable focus". This is not a very good description, to be honest, but I cannot think of a better one. The best way to explain, I think, is via example. A common trope is that close to the final battle, the hero has to do something very difficult. "I will defeat the evil overlord by walking through his maze of doom." "But Bob, that's crazy!" Other variations include the heroic last stand or suicide mission. Many different motivations and circumstances can be the cause of this, but I would argue that very often the underlying mentality is one of "it does not matter how hard this is, if I fail everything is lost, I have to commit myself to this task fully and without any reservation or consideration and concern for any other priorities". Despite the examples, this is of course not a necessarily good thing. Such release of discipline and control can indeed be crazy - and very dangerous, in more ways than one. This is the version that best describes Lessie-kandra. The reason she can be fairly described as insane in SoS is because she has decided on a goal, and has set her mind on achieving it to a truly radical extent.
×
×
  • Create New...