Marabout Posted March 9, 2023 Posted March 9, 2023 I was reading through Edgedancer again and noticed something.. Lift is able to talk with a street urchin who uses very odd language. When Wyndle asks her about it, she doesn’t say that she learnt it on the streets, she says that she just understands it automatically. This is similar to how Dalinar can connect to people and communicate through his surgebinding powers. Lift has an unusual relationship with light. In her case, she has a unique connection to Lifelight. Dalinar has a unique connection to Stormlight through connection to Honor’s Spren. Navani has a unique connection to Towerlight through connection to the Sibling (combining lights). It would stand to reason that Lift’s unique connection to Lifelight is through connection to Cultivation’s Spren (Nightwatcher). Lift can enter Dalinar’s visions. This is offhandedly called interference from Cultivation, but it makes more sense if Lift is a Bondsmith. Lift can touch Wyndle, so basically touch things that are partly in the cognitive realm. We know that Dalinar can bridge all three realms which is the most similar power we’ve seen. It could also be related to the surge of Tension. All of Lift’s “unique” abilities have been lumped into the explanation of Cultivation’s boon but the abilities shown are too diverse to be explained by one boon and especially by what Lift asked for. In my opinion, the more obvious explanation for her unique abilities is that she is a Bondsmith. 13
JohnnyKaizen he/him Posted March 9, 2023 Posted March 9, 2023 So, that would mean the different bondsmiths share a different surge of the ten orders, but not the same as each other? If Navani has a different second surge than Dalinar in SA 5, that would confirm this to me. 4
alder24 Posted March 9, 2023 Posted March 9, 2023 (edited) That's an interesting theory. Very interesting observations. Her relation to light is a bit tricky. Brandon said she can metabolize calories into Lifelight (before RoW he said Stormlight), and even said it works like Mistborn burning metals. This is a limitation that Bondsmiths have at all. Both Navani and Dalinar just create it, without any input. Then Lift can only use Lifelight to power her Edgedancer abilities, and she can't even draw Stormlight in from gems. That's another weird thing, and we don't know yet if Navani has the same limitation. So if your theory is true, Cultivation also had to mess with her spirit web, to make her Lifelight generation work like it does. So WoBs about Lift's light Spoiler Gary Singer (paraphrased) Could Lift convert food from other cosmere worlds into Stormlight? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) Yes. Lift's Spiritweb has something changed about it to allow converting mass to Investiture directly. Out of Excuses 2016 (Sept. 23, 2016) Spoiler Argent Does Lift turn food into Investiture directly or is it similar to the metals on-- Brandon Sanderson Similar to the metals. Argent So like a gate? Brandon Sanderson Yes. Argent Okay, that's good to know. Brandon Sanderson She can metabolize-- She can draw-- It's not actually the food, it's-- It's not like the metals, not exactly. It's not-- What she can do is she can metabolize into Investiture instead of sugar. Does that make sense? Argent Yeah. Brandon Sanderson We metabolize food into sugar. She can metabolize it into Investiture. Does that make sense? Argent That makes a lot of sense. So if she eats-- Brandon Sanderson She's got to have a blood sugar spike. Argent So if she eats like a cake it will give her more Investiture-- Brandon Sanderson Faster. It will give her faster. Argent Whereas if she eats a vegetable... Brandon Sanderson Vegetable... More calories is going to equal more. But the better comparison would be a sausage and bread. Because bread is a fast blood sugar spike and the sausage is not. And that's how I'm working in my head. It's kind of a magical version of a blood sugar spike and I have it happen to her faster than it could happen. Like normally you eat a piece of bread and your blood sugar spikes in a half hour, it's going to go faster for Lift. Argent Hers is like five minutes. Brandon Sanderson Hers is like five minutes, but a sausage would be slower. Firefight Chicago signing (Feb. 20, 2015) Spoiler Laryyl (paraphrased) [Can Lift] get Stormlight from spheres like normal or if it's just from food for her. Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) She can only get it from food. Laryyl (paraphrased) Which [is it] related to her boon or her curse? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) RAFO. Arcanum Unbounded Fort Collins signing (Nov. 29, 2016) And her language skills might be related to resonance between her two powers, but it's an open door for speculations, as Brandon Rafo'd that: Spoiler Argent So, the Edgedancer's resonance, the Perk? I think you've called it resonance at some point, is that still accurate? Brandon Sanderson Yeah, that totally works. The powers affect each other in interesting ways. Argent Right. Brandon Sanderson Um, so the thing about it is, calling it a Perk, that like saying-- Argent It's a side effect right? Brandon Sanderson It's less a side effect-- It's like, when the powers merge, they are always slightly different. For instance, Lightweaving from a Truthwatcher is different from-- Slightly. There will be things. So, you're gonna see that they all have access to the Surges, but in combinations, they act a little differently from one another. Questioner So is the Edgedancer's resonance something to do with communication? Because we see Lift-- Brandon Sanderson Yeah, yeah we'll RAFO that. Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing (Dec. 6, 2016) 1 hour ago, JohnnyKaizen said: So, that would mean the different bondsmiths share a different surge of the ten orders, but not the same as each other? If Navani has a different second surge than Dalinar in SA 5, that would confirm this to me. No, Bondsmiths have the same Surges. Lift in this theory is bonded to two sprens, Wyndle and Nightwatcher, giving her access to four Surges at once. Edited March 9, 2023 by alder24 3
JohnnyKaizen he/him Posted March 9, 2023 Posted March 9, 2023 23 minutes ago, alder24 said: No, Bondsmiths have the same Surges. Lift in this theory is bonded to two sprens, Wyndle and Nightwatcher, giving her access to four Surges at once. Ooooook. That's not where my mind was at. That also would be wild for a lot of reasons. No matter what, there is a bunch of stuff going on with Lift, and I'm excited to speculate on all of it. 1
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