Ask Nerdy Anything

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

Well, I'm slowly taking up the role of "ancient sharder who's mostly inactive but pops on random forums sometimes and also posts strange SUs late at night," I figured that I should find a way to, you know, actually engage with the online community that remains the best I've been a part of.

So.

This.

Rules are the same as asking a sphinx (I will neither confirm nor deny that I am one): I cannot lie, but I may refuse to answer or say something technically true, but misleading. No personal questions, obviously - other than that, ask things.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

Favourite Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy character?

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

4 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

Favourite Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy character?

Da Shi.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

Just now, NerdyAarakocra said:

Da Shi.

Good pick.

Thomas Wade is better though.

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

3 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

Good pick.

Thomas Wade is better though.

Hard disagree with you there. I found him to be moderately annoying at best and a hypocritical chauvinist at worst.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

2 minutes ago, NerdyAarakocra said:

Hard disagree with you there. I found him to be moderately annoying at best and a hypocritical chauvinist at worst.

Well

But he could've saved everything

Sure, his mental state is not the best

Death's End

Spoiler

But 100% deterrence is... something.

And he could've carried Halo Group and saved all of humanity if not for Cheng Xin.

Well, not all of humanity, but most of it.

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

35 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

Well

But he could've saved everything

Sure, his mental state is not the best

Death's End

  Reveal hidden contents

But 100% deterrence is... something.

And he could've carried Halo Group and saved all of humanity if not for Cheng Xin.

Well, not all of humanity, but most of it.

DE all

Spoiler

Ah yes the character who, when faced with the question of how to get humanity to invest in curvature propulsion said "Ah yes first we repurpose an important research station to manufacture antimatter, threaten to commit a genocide, ask the one person who is least likely to find any of this acceptable weather it's okay to commit a genocide, act disappointed when she says no, and ignore all experimental results that we don't immediately find relevant." 

Forgive me if I take issue with his choices in the book.

 

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

Just now, NerdyAarakocra said:

DE all

  Hide contents

Ah yes the character who, when faced with the question of how to get humanity to invest in curvature propulsion said "Ah yes first we repurpose an important research station to manufacture antimatter, threaten to commit a genocide, ask the one person who is least likely to find any of this acceptable weather it's okay to commit a genocide, act disappointed when she says no, and ignore all experimental results that we don't immediately find relevant." 

Forgive me if I take issue with his choices in the book.

 

Well

Spoiler

He kept his promise though.

And antimatter weapons - he knew they were needed. He knew that there was no other way he could get lightspeed ships. If he caused a genocide, well, at least everyone else would've lived. 

 

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

1 minute ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren said:

Well

  Hide contents

He kept his promise though.

And antimatter weapons - he knew they were needed. He knew that there was no other way he could get lightspeed ships. If he caused a genocide, well, at least everyone else would've lived. 

 

Still DE

Spoiler

"No other way" is a lame excuse.

Remember, a sizable majority of the best scientists in the system (those who went to the university he controlled) are perfectly fine with curvature propulsion research. He has no need to resort to threatening to kill everyone in the system as his first choice. For heaven's sake, the book implies he would have probably got curvature propulsion re-legalized if he had just sat back and waited another decade, to say nothing of the other options available to him, such as constructing a research lab outside of the plane of the ecliptic!

He thinks of using the threat of genocide first because he is mentally unstable and way too obsessed with mutually assured destruction. He is absolutely the wrong person to be leading humanity into a bright future.

Worse, he commits the cardinal sin of being unfun to read. He just comes off like a self-righteous prick with a savior complex because this is what he is. He isn't a character meant to be liked.

 

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

5 hours ago, NerdyAarakocra said:

Still DE

  Hide contents

"No other way" is a lame excuse.

Remember, a sizable majority of the best scientists in the system (those who went to the university he controlled) are perfectly fine with curvature propulsion research. He has no need to resort to threatening to kill everyone in the system as his first choice. For heaven's sake, the book implies he would have probably got curvature propulsion re-legalized if he had just sat back and waited another decade, to say nothing of the other options available to him, such as constructing a research lab outside of the plane of the ecliptic!

He thinks of using the threat of genocide first because he is mentally unstable and way too obsessed with mutually assured destruction. He is absolutely the wrong person to be leading humanity into a bright future.

Worse, he commits the cardinal sin of being unfun to read. He just comes off like a self-righteous prick with a savior complex because this is what he is. He isn't a character meant to be liked.

 

Spoiler

But the government wasn't alright with curvature propulsion. How'd curvature propulsion be re-legalised if he hadn't found out that it was also the key for the Black Domain? I may be forgetting something, but yeah.

Constructing a lab outside the ecliptic plane... the government would still try to stop him, even if they waited until his lab entered the plane briefly. Unless it was so far out it passed the Oort Cloud or something, which would be pretty useless as you couldn't get anything done so far away from anything else.

Even if he isn't the perfect person to lead humanity, he's better than his competitors. 

He isn't meant to be liked, yes, but a lot of good characters aren't. Elhokar, for instance.

 

Edited August 31, 2025 by KaladinsSenseOfHumorSpren

[Sophrosyne he/him]

How many gloomspren to does it take to tell a depressed person is SUPER depressed?

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

6 hours ago, Sophrosyne said:

How many gloomspren to does it take to tell a depressed person is SUPER depressed?

I genuinely have no clue.

[TruthwatchingRadiant He/Him]

What’s the Death Rattle of Taravangian’s mom?

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

Do you think we’ve already met Ash’s or Taln’s spren, and if so, who do you think they are?

[Doomslug the Arcane she/her]

On 8/30/2025 at 9:34 PM, NerdyAarakocra said:

Well, I'm slowly taking up the role of "ancient sharder who's mostly inactive but pops on random forums sometimes and also posts strange SUs late at night," I figured that I should find a way to, you know, actually engage with the online community that remains the best I've been a part of.

So.

This.

Rules are the same as asking a sphinx (I will neither confirm nor deny that I am one): I cannot lie, but I may refuse to answer or say something technically true, but misleading. No personal questions, obviously - other than that, ask things.

Since no one has asked yet,

I supposed I must ask,

What is the color of your bones?

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

On 9/1/2025 at 8:26 AM, BigBadBagsworth said:

Do you think we’ve already met Ash’s or Taln’s spren, and if so, who do you think they are?

Doubtful. None of the shadesmar scenes that I can remember have a likely candidate.

On 9/2/2025 at 9:47 PM, Doomslug the Arcane said:

Since no one has asked yet,

I supposed I must ask,

What is the color of your bones?

White, or a similar shade. The surgeon would have remarked when I broke my elbow had they been otherwise.

[BigBadBagsworth He/him/his]

17 hours ago, NerdyAarakocra said:

Doubtful. None of the shadesmar scenes that I can remember have a likely candidate.

Ash’s spren might be Spark, and Taln’s might be that one peakspren that’s cousins with Zu’s in RoW.

But IDK