discuss Wayne's Uncanny Foreshadowing and Luck?

[Duxredux]

Anyone else notice how Wayne is uncannily good at picking up information before it happens or doing the exact right thing at the exact right time to save the day? I'm starting to think it's supernatural. Here's a few off the top of my head.

Alloy of Law

• Came to Elendel right before the wedding that Steris was kidnapped at. This could be a writerly reason.
• Comments on how innocent looking stuff is always exploding around Wax a few minutes before Tillaume blew up
• Swiped the tea that Tillaume had poisoned for Wax
• When Wax shot the bullet in midair, Wayne dropped the bubble at exactly the right time (okay, there's been discussion on Wax's accuracy, but the timing on that is insane the more I look at it, unless they have specifically practiced over and over with this kind of stunt, which is likely. This is the closest they have to firing out of a speed bubble)

Bands of Mourning

• Finds and steals the Bands of Mourning within minutes of arriving at the Sovereign's Temple 
• Swaps the Bands of Mourning for ReLuur's spike in Marasi's bag, right where and when she needed it. This is just after thinking about how he doesn't pay attention to what society says something is worth, unless by itself it's worth more than a house. This one is really suspicious to me.

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones I remember easily. Anyone have any others they can think of? Are these coincidences or does this have something to do with Wayne's resonance? Does Wayne just have insanely good instincts? Is Wayne's mind broken enough that Harmony can nudge him (Wax would probably say so in jest, but I dunno)? Here's what has been noted about Wayne's resonance:

Spoiler

Argent

Have we seen the resonances of either Wax or Wayne?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, well, Wax is really good at sculpting bullets and things away from him.

Argent

The bubble.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah and things like this. This is playing with the fact that he is-- Let's just say that the abilities make this happen, and I’ll let you theorize on why, but it's just an enhancement to what he can do.

Argent

I might be wrong, but I thought you said it was because he was becoming a steel savant.

Brandon Sanderson

A savant, yeah, definitely, but this is what this is coming from.

Argent

But being a savant has to do with being really good with one power--

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Argent

--and resonances--

Brandon Sanderson

Being a savant has to do with using Investiture a lot, and it's starting to permeate your soul. Like we've ta--

Argent

So he's more a savant with both of--

Brandon Sanderson

He's used them a lot, and they are changing his soul, and so the powers are morphing and changing. Just in slight, little ways. You're not gonna see a whole bunch. But you can imagine these two separate powers are kind of becoming one to him.

Argent

Yeah I can see that. And Wayne?

Brandon Sanderson

So Wayne's is not as obvious. I'll go ahead and RAFO that right now.

Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing (Dec. 6, 2016)

 

DSC01

I'm probably too late to this party to get a question in, but just in case... The resonances for Edgedancers and Bloodmaker/Slider pairings--are they basically the same thing? It's maybe mostly linguistic for Edgedancers and more like Invested method acting for the Wayne types, but if I'm reading things correctly, it seems that they're very closely related.

After all, Progression and Bloodmaking are quite similar. Abrasion and speed bubbles have a more tenuous link, but they do call bendalloy boys "Sliders," after all (no disrespect to bendalloy girls, but I couldn't pass up the alliteration).

Brandon Sanderson

The connections are more because the magics are all inter-related, and based on fundamental rules, and less because I was trying for any specific connection.

Footnote: Brandon has confirmed that Wayne's acting has nothing to do with his resonance.
Stormlight Three Update #6 (Jan. 21, 2017)

 

Questioner

I have a question about Wayne, are his skills of taking another personality, is it his trait, or something magical?

Brandon Sanderson

It is not magical, he’s just really good at it.

Kraków signing (March 21, 2017)

I'm wondering if something about his accelerated time and tapping into his Spiritual self while storing and withdrawing health is giving him a bit of instinctive future sight, but I'm not good with resonances.

Thoughts?

Edited June 10, 2022 by Duxredux
added another thought

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

I think it is completely possible that he is being guided somewhat by Harmony.

[StormingTexan]

I do not have any solid evidence but agree I have always thought something is up with Wayne.

[+Harrycrapper]

He came to Elendel because a shipment of goods for Weathering was stolen by the Vanishers. It's likely he wanted to go see Wax at some point, if for no other reason than to annoy him, but the timing was specifically related to that event. And innocent stuff is always exploding around Wax, perfectly reasonable observation at any time. I do think he does have some sort of above average Fortune thing going on for some of the stuff he does. 

[Returned]

I hope that he does, if only because I hate the narrative device of a lackadaisical figure decisively and constantly wandering into every important event "randomly". Even if it's just a lampshade through Harmony or some as-yet-unknown detail of the setting I want there to be some in-world explanation.

Resonances are kind of a mess for theorycrafting right now. We know that they exist but have so little detail it's hard to do more than just make things up out of whole cloth. What fits for me is that anything to do with temporal fiddling probably comes from the Spiritual Realm. We know that some effects come from the future and that this is accomplished via the SR. So for someone who uses a time-altering power a lot we might see some SR "leakage" or something. And he uses his Feruchemy very frequently, which is all about making himself whole. I can imagine a resonance

It's also worth noting that Wayne is a pretty good investigator in his own right, though his approach differs from Wax's. It's not impossible that he's just clever, observant, impulsive, and intuitive. He could still be an investigative superhero, but more on the order of Sherlock Holmes rather than someone perceiving the future.