Things You Weren't But Are Now

[+Slowswift he/him]

Simple, this. Anything like a ship, character, theory, or something that you didn't subscribe to, but do now? This can extend to books as well.

 

It could even extend to anything at all, in which case this topic might need to be moved.

 

For example, I enjoyed the Reckoners books at first, but didn't really think them anything special. After reading and playing the Reckoner RPG, they're among my favorite Sanderson works.

[Kobold King he/him]

I thought that Firefight wasn't as good as Steelheart, but reading theories and analyses about it, and talking about it relentlessly with my fellow fans, ultimately twisted my opinion around. Now it's one of my favorite Sanderson books, surpassing even Words of Radiance in terms of my appreciation.

[Kestrel she/her]

At first I didn't like Way of Kings. I was so foolish.

[BenevolentTyrant he/him]

Reckoners

After finishing Steelheart, I was ... a little uneasy, shall we say, with the David/Megan ship. Now that I've read Firefight it's one of my favourite Sanderson romances. Also, what's up with everybody talking about Reckoners in this thread?

 

Stormlight

After The Way of Kings, I still held a shred of hope that Sadeas might be a well-intentioned soldier-turned-politician trying to protect Alethkar from Elhokar's inexperience and Dalinar's apparent insanity. Words of Radiance crushed that hope like a bug.

 

On the other hand, I have a much longer list of opinions that haven't been altered by time or re-reads. I still love Vivenna more than Siri, and I never warmed up to Sazed at all.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Reckoners

After finishing Steelheart, I was ... a little uneasy, shall we say, with the David/Megan ship. Now that I've read Firefight it's one of my favourite Sanderson romances. Also, what's up with everybody talking about Reckoners in this thread?

On the other hand, I have a much longer list of opinions that haven't been altered by time or re-reads. I still love Vivenna more than Siri, and I never warmed up to Sazed at all.

Maybe because Reckoners is awesome and underrated, and we like talking about it? I adored Warbreaker, but Reckoners is still my favorite.

I used to be someone who thought high fantasy was all the same generic sword-and-sorcery thing that's been done a million times, but Sanderson proved me wrong.

Edited April 20, 2015 by TwiLyghtSansSparkles

[BenevolentTyrant he/him]

Maybe because Reckoners is awesome and underrated, and we like talking about it? I adored Warbreaker, but Reckoners is still my favorite.

I used to be someone who thought high fantasy was all the same generic sword-and-sorcery thing that's been done a million times, but Sanderson proved me wrong. 

I agree - it's totally awesome. I didn't mean to sound as if I don't love Warbeaker and the Reckonerverse, because I really truly do!

 

And kudos to Brandon for giving you a fresh reading experience. We need more Sanderbots like him.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I agree - it's totally awesome. I didn't mean to sound as if I don't love Warbeaker and the Reckonerverse, because I really truly do!

And kudos to Brandon for giving you a fresh reading experience. We need more Sanderbots like him.

Sorry if I sounded a bit snarky. I just came from Facebook, where Sanderson can't post a Calamity progress update without Stormlight fans hijacking the thread. (Which...I understand wanting your favorite author to finish your favorite series, but I wouldn't ask about Calamity on a Stormlight or Rithmatist update.)

Yes we do. His work is so original that it makes me wonder if more authors are capable of greater creativity.

[Curiosity he/him]

I used to believe that 0.9999999..... ad infinitum didn't equal one. I realize now that I just have a problem with decimal representation of infinite series. 

[Kaymyth she/her]

I used to believe that 0.9999999..... ad infinitum didn't equal one. I realize now that I just have a problem with decimal representation of infinite series. 

 

Heh.  I remember figuring that one out when changing decimals to fractions in Math for Elementary Teachers.  My professor was actually surprised that I'd worked far enough to notice.  The rest of the class gave me confused puppy looks.

 

My favorite explanation is that to define two numbers as being different, you have to be able to find a number in between them.  You cannot find a number in between 0.99999999... and 1, ergo they are the same number.  Math is weird.

[+Slowswift he/him]

It took me a while to read Way of Kings, and when I finally did, I got bored and just read Shallan's chapters. Now it's one of my favorite books of all time. 

[StormingTexan he/him]

I thought I'd hate a book seemingly about people with superhero powers. I also thought I would hate a spinoff book from a trilogy I loved set 300 years later in a western timeline with a steampunk feel (two things I do not really like). I have learned I should just trust Brandon.

 

I've learned as I've gotten older you don't know half the things you think you know when your young. 

[skaa he/him]

I used to think Atium Allomancy was External Temporal (as was implied in the Hero of Ages Ars Arcanum). Now I believe it's Internal Temporal just like Electrum (except Atium Allomancy targets other people, like Internal Mental Allomancy).

---

For the longest time I didn't believe that Shardplate was made of spren, but just this year I've started espousing the theory that Shardplate is made of multiple non-sentient spren that combined and turned into solid form after a Radiant has spoken a certain number of Ideals.

---

I was already a bit of a Science geek before joining the Sanderson fandom. But there were some scientific fields that I just wasn't into, that I felt were boring, that I had no urge to study in the slightest. Yeah, I was a bit close-minded back then.

After joining this fandom, though, I found myself strangely interested in more areas of knowledge. I never imagined I'd voluntarily spend hours on the Internet researching about metallurgy, mineralogy, and microbiology all because I wanted to formulate cool theories about some fantasy stories. Also, I've started looking deeper into topics that had only been of mild interest to me before like optics, quantum field theory, and (recently) string theory, for the same reason. I think this is awesome.

Not that my Cosmere-related research has been completely about scientific topics; I've spent more time reading about alchemy, astrology, heraldry, kabbalah, alternative medicine, and comparative religion than I'd care to confess. But hey, it's good to be aware of other cultures, right? So I don't mind it much.

Anyway, I love it when works of fiction lead me to appreciate real life things. This is what speculative fiction (fantasy and sci-fi) ought to be about. It ought to expand our minds. Brandon's works have succeeded in this beautifully, in my opinion. And for that I will always be grateful. Edited April 22, 2015 by skaa

[Xaladin he/him]

I used to believe that 0.9999999..... ad infinitum didn't equal one. I realize now that I just have a problem with decimal representation of infinite series. 

I used to believe that 0.999... ad infinitum equals one, because of intuition.

 

Now I know that if the real numbers are defined by Dedekind Cuts of the rational numbers, we identify successor elements (like 0.999... and 1.000...) so that we get connectivity (one is just a copy of the other anyway).

 

So they are defined to be the same.

[kaellok he/him]

I once wasn't on fire. But now i am. I have failed the Church of the Stick.

Also, can someone get me a bucket of water?

[TheSilverDragon he/him]

I used to think 300 pages was a good size for a book.

 

Now I try not read anything under 500.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I used to not come up with theories about the books I read. Not even Harry Potter.

Yeah....not so much anymore. I may not post all my theories, but I do come up with them.

[Kobold King he/him]

I used to not come up with theories about the books I read. Not even Harry Potter.

Yeah....not so much anymore. I may not post all my theories, but I do come up with them.

You should post more of them. It's hard for us to upvote things that are only in your head.

[Sirce Luckwielder he/him]

I used to think that I could go back to reading books by other authors when I was finished with Sanderson's current library. I have found that I was mistaken.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

You should post more of them. It's hard for us to upvote things that are only in your head.

I'm afraid some of them would sound horribly silly, though. :/ I mean, I don't think David is secretly Obliteration's mind-wiped time- traveling grandson (or grandfather, for that matter) but still.

[Kobold King he/him]

I'm afraid some of them would sound horribly silly, though. :/ I mean, I don't think David is secretly Obliteration's mind-wiped time- traveling grandson (or grandfather, for that matter) but still.

 

 

Seriously though, I think we'd all like to hear them. The worst case scenario is that you're way off base and we can all look back at our kooky fan theories and have a laugh when Calamity comes out... and the best case scenario is that one of those kooky theories is confirmed. There's really no way to lose in the Game of Theories.

[Zas678 he/him]

You mean I can finally post my 4000 word theory that Reckoners is Cosmere?

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I once thought that the cosmere was a joke and then that it was a really weird idea (and not in a good way).  And then I actually read the books, the rest is history.

[The Shadow he/him]

Heh.  I remember figuring that one out when changing decimals to fractions in Math for Elementary Teachers.  My professor was actually surprised that I'd worked far enough to notice.  The rest of the class gave me confused puppy looks.

 

My favorite explanation is that to define two numbers as being different, you have to be able to find a number in between them.  You cannot find a number in between 0.99999999... and 1, ergo they are the same number.  Math is weird.

The thing that's always confused about this is that if they are truly the same number, you should be able to get the same number if you multiply both sides of the equation with the same number. E.G:

If .9999 = 1, then the equation (10000 X .9999) = (10000 X 1) should be true. However, 10000 x .9999 = 9999 and 10000 x 1 = 10000. Clearly, some sort of mathematical voodoo is going on on one side or the other, but I'm not sure which side it is.

 

EDIT: And I've realized the error in my math.

 

Back on topic, I used to think classical heroes were kind of useless...until Kaladin.

Edited May 4, 2015 by The Shadow

[Kaymyth she/her]

The thing that's always confused about this is that if they are truly the same number, you should be able to get the same number if you multiply both sides of the equation with the same number. E.G:

If .9999 = 1, then the equation (10000 X .9999) = (10000 X 1) should be true. However, 10000 x .9999 = 9999 and 10000 x 1 = 10000. Clearly, some sort of mathematical voodoo is going on on one side or the other, but I'm not sure which side it is.

 

EDIT: And I've realized the error in my math.

 

Yep.  It's not 10000 x .9999, it's 10000 x .9999999999999999999999... forevers and evers.

[Surgebound Rainspren he/him]

I used to think that fandom specific forums where full of over-obsessed people who tore you to shreds if you haven't seen/read/played every book/film/game a thousand times over.

 

Now I know that there was at least one fan-forum that's different, well except for the obsessed part.