[Spoilers] Shadows of Self Full Book Reactions

[Asperity he/him]

There was a WoB that said that Hoid would be a major character of the Sci-fi Mistborn trilogy where everything comes to a head, but I don't recall him saying that Hoid would be the main character of that trilogy, per se.  

Here it is: http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=689#5

 

My fault. I remembered it as "main" for some reason. I'd search around to see if any other instances came up involving that context but searching appears to be currently defunct on theoryland (only found this WoB from a link on Hoid's coppermind page.)

[Elbereth she/her]

It's been a couple days since I finished Shadows of Self, and I really loved it. I'm posting here to ask some questions, some from this specific book, some just thoughts I had as I read. Many of them are likely answerable.

• Do we know exactly how long it will be before the Pits reform? I know it's scheduled as around 300 years, but it's already been 341. I feel like there's a power of 2 that should be in there, but the closest is either 256 (which would probably be estimated as 250, not 300) or 512 (which would be about 500). Why isn't it a power of 2, then? 16x19 is 304, and 16x20 is 320, I guess.
• Where did Sazed put the new location for atium creation? The Pits aren't likely, because Wax crawls through them. So where? If he were smart, he would have put it in the desert, where it wouldn't be found for a while longer, but I don't think that's likely.
• Did the world have a giant desert wrapping around its middle even before Rashek moved it too close?
• Did Rashek also create Ashmounts in the South? If not, how did they survive?
• Why did Wax go to the Roughs in the first place? What was the catalyst?
• Did early motorcars actually have roofs?
• Is the "man of hours" a reference to somebody we know?
• Can you still spike someone after they're (recently) dead?
• Can you take someone's powers through Hemalurgy without killing them?
• Is any of the First Generation still alive? (My guess is no.)
• How does Sazed see aluminum? Is it bright like other metals, or dark, or something else?
• Do mistwraiths still exist?
• What were sequins made of before there was plastic?
• I'm SUPER CONFUSED about atium. On the one hand, it's a "lost metal". On the other, various food items are infused or sprinkled with atium. What?
• Why don't the mists come as often anymore?
• Did we ever figure out why mist doesn't enter buildings?
• Was Brettin a kandra we know?
• What happened during the Remarked Duplicity?
• The room with two baskets in it-- Is that Vin's old room? Something else?
• What did Paalm do between the Lord Ruler's death and the end of the world?
• If you made an alloy of an Allomantic metal (say, iron) and atium, would an Iron Misting be able to burn that metal, or would it take a specific iron-atium Misting?
• Are there 3 magics on Sel? (because there's two Shards, like on Scadrial) How many have we seen?
• How can Marsh be immortal? I know he has a little bit of atium, but I don't understand why he can compound atium (there were a limited number of Feruchemists available and atium seems like a really useless Feruchemical power for Marsh to have) or how he can survive 300 years with only the little bit that he has.

Obviously some of these can only be answered by Brandon or future books, but I thought I'd post here first in case anyone can clear up some of the others.

Edited October 15, 2015 by Limelleth

[Argent he/him]

Let me answer a few of those.

• We don't know anything about the atium - not how long it takes for it to start coming back, nor where it will come back. 
• You can probably spike someone if they've been dead for a very short time - if Nale can heal from the brink of death, I imagine other forms of Investiture will also work
• You can use Hemalurgy on people without killing them, but it's difficult and dangerous. It's the whole thing about having your soul ripped apart.
• I don't know why you think atium is in the food, but I am pretty sure that's not the case
• The mists don't come as often because Harmony made them not to. There is no need.
• I don't know why so many people are confused about the Remarked Duplicity. It's blatantly obvious to me that it refers to the time when TenSoon was impersonating OreSeur, a series of events which ended with TenSoon effectively turning on his master. 
• Which room with two baskets?
• There is really only one magic system on Sel, it just has different flavors in the differen countries / areas / cultures.
• Atium Compounding is really really powerful. Spend a day being twice your age, and you get 10 days being half your age. Which 10 days you don't actually utilize, you stick them right back in the atiummind, getting 100 days back. We don't know the rate at which atiumminds fill and burn, but I imagine you are virtual immortal the moment you start Compounding atium. 

[natc]

Pretty sure dead people lack souls, so how do you spike them?

Wikipedia tells me early real-life sequins are metal, so probably that.

Not sure what in Damnation you're going on about with atium and food.

Why would they need to come often? They're part of Sazed, and he isn't some 99% mindless shadow that can't control anything like Leras was.

Brettin was TenSoon, I'm pretty sure.

Presumably the Remarked Duplicity was when TenSoon murdered OreSeur and impersonated him.

Iron mistings burn iron. Period. That's all they do, and I see no reason that they can burn the proposed alloy when they can't burn steel either.

Just from the two Sel books alone there are at least blatantly 4 already, maybe 5. Though they can be interpreted as 1 as well.

Harmony can always just make atium directly. I quickly looked up the spike itself though, and it was asked and RAFO'd.

Edited October 15, 2015 by natc

[StormingTexan he/him]

The Atium in food I'm assuming you're talking about the wine of nobles being spiked in the original trilogy? That was to test for Atium mistings.

Wax actually says in SoS one of the reasons he went to the roughs was the corruption in the banking his uncle was doing charging more interest to the people who could afford it least.

Edited October 15, 2015 by StormingTexan

[Elbereth she/her]

Let me answer a few of those.

• I don't know why you think atium is in the food, but I am pretty sure that's not the case
• I don't know why so many people are confused about the Remarked Duplicity. It's blatantly obvious to me that it refers to the time when TenSoon was impersonating OreSeur, a series of events which ended with TenSoon effectively turning on his master. 
• Which room with two baskets?
• Atium Compounding is really really powerful. Spend a day being twice your age, and you get 10 days being half your age. Which 10 days you don't actually utilize, you stick them right back in the atiummind, getting 100 days back. We don't know the rate at which atiumminds fill and burn, but I imagine you are virtual immortal the moment you start Compounding atium. 

Atium in the food:

"Five is on the high side, wouldn't you say? Marasi asked, picking up an apple. "Unless these are infused with atium."

There's another reference to a baker powdering cupcakes or something with atium in AoL, I think, though I can't find it right now.

About the Remarked Duplicity:

That's what I thought it was, too. But then something made me change my mind. Partly, it was because why would that make other kandra timid? (That's the context of the quote). I feel like there was another quote, though, later in the book.

The room with two baskets:

I got that a little wrong, sorry. When Wax is walking through the Homeland:

Wax nodded, walking alongside the kandra as they penetrated ever deeper into the twisting tunnels of the Homeland. They passed many empty chambers, but some that held oddities, like two with old baskets and some discarded bones on the floor.

About Marsh's Immortality:

I know that atium compounding is really powerful. My problem is that 1) it's cumulative, and 2) Unlike the Lord Ruler, Marsh only had a very limited amount of atium, which is basically the only atium left in the world until it's rediscovered. Atium burns fast. So Marsh would have to be very, very careful about how he went through his stock, and I'm not sure it could have lasted him this long.

Wikipedia tells me early real-life sequins are metal, so probably that.

Thank you! I didn't mean to put that question in. I should have just looked it up.

Brettin was TenSoon, I'm pretty sure.

Thanks! Does anyone have a WoB for this?

Iron mistings burn iron. Period. That's all they do, and I see no reason that they can burn the proposed alloy when they can't burn steel either.

Very good point. But if 16% of the men in Elend's army Snapped and all of them became Mistings, what happened to the atium-alloy and lerasium-alloy Mistings? Of course, they didn't have chromium or nicrosil Mistings either, and we never learned what percentage of the Snapped became recognizable Mistings.

Harmony can always just make atium directly. I quickly looked up the spike itself though, and it was asked and RAFO'd.

Can he? Then why didn't Ruin just make atium, instead of looking for it?

Wax actually says in SoS one of the reasons he went to the roughs was the corruption in the banking his uncle was doing charging more interest to the people who could afford it least.

I know that, but what was the catalyst that made him leave?

[natc]

Ruin making atium would defeat the point. Ruin wanted to reabsorb the atium to regain the investiture taken from his body and overpower Preservation. Making more would just doom himself to defeat. He doesn't need the actual metal, just what the metal is made of: that missing piece of himself.

Economically speaking, infusing the rarest metal in existence (to the point of almost not existing outright) into an apple would drive up the price considerably. She was taking a jab at the unreasonable pricing by offering an absurd scenario for the seller to justify it with.

[Argent he/him]

Pretty sure that's a joke there with the food. "Haha, this cup of coffee costs $25, what did you put in it, gold?" kind of stuff.

 

The baskets... Yeah, they could come from Vin's room. When Vin gives OreSeur the wolfhound body, he (TenSoon, actually, but that's not important) puts the human bones he was wearing beforehand in a basket (the other set of bones go in a closet). Un unfortunate maid finds them. For reference (coming from The Well of Ascension):

 

The "corpse" was actually a skeleton. One completely picked clean, without a hint of blood—or even tissue—marring its shiny white surfaces. A good number of the bones were broken, however.

"I'm sorry, Mistress," OreSeur said, speaking low enough that only she could hear. "I assumed that you were going to dispose of these."

Vin nodded. The skeleton was, of course, the one OreSeur had been using before she gave him the animal body. Finding the door unlocked—Vin's usual sign that she wanted a room cleaned—the maids had entered. Vin had stashed the bones in a basket, intending to deal with them later. Apparently, the maids had decided to check and see what was in the basket, and been somewhat surprised.

 

The bones Wax sees could maybe hint that this is indeed what we are seeing.

 

But, interestingly, this is the only basket mentioned in the books. I am going to go off on a limb, however, and say this is not a critical plot point.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

I think the "cupcakes with shavings of atium" was in one of the broadsheets. I would say it wasn't actual atium, just part of the fantasy of bakery. Much like adding coarse sugar to muffins and claiming they're diamonds.

[signspace13 he/him]

I am seriosuly disappointed with harmony for keeping this hidden. He should have told wax "look, lessie was a kandra all along, I planted her to influence you, but she actuallly loved you, so she didn't want to manipulate you, so she decided to bring me down and went crazy and started killing people".

I'm sure wax would have agreed that lessie needed to be stopped. just as he would have shot wayne. just as he faced his former colleague miles, or his uncle. he wouldn't have left innocents be killed like that. And while he may have been mad at harmony for trying to plant a kandra as his lover (though the fact that she came to actually love him should at least offer serious mitigation; I mean, I wouldn't be so mad at someone planting an agent close to me if she turned out to be my genuine true love), wax would have certainly been less mad than he was by having it broke up to him that way. If nothing else, that reveal just threatened to make wax fail at the wrong time.

Aside from that, I see a potential continuity error: at some point, MeLaan said that Paalm was a very good impersonator, and only tensoon was better. But wasn't it established that tensoon was actually a poor impersonator?

On another line, I spot a potential romance between Wayne and MeLaan. By the way, I am surprised that wayne, that normally understand people so well, is still taken with ranette. hasn't he figured out she's lesbian by now?

Harmony can discern the future, you see him do it with what would happen if wax had shot the seat, he actually 'knew' for certain that wax finding out about Leslie would have been very bad.

[Jaller he/him]

I LOVED the reference to how Edison stole the idea of light-bulbs from Tesla. When Wayne is at the party pretending he's Prof. Hanlanaze, Sophi Tarcsel storms up and smacks him saying:

 

 

Edit: Also, I like that Wayne is going to be the number one tech investor in Elendel, after asking Sophi at the end if she needs money for her ideas. If I had to guess, his descendants will be fabulously wealthy and very important techies in the next Era.

Loved this bit too, and I can totally see Wayne amassing his family fortunes this way! I only hope that he names his company Wayne Enterprises, and in the 1980s era one of his descendants runs around beating up criminals while dressed as a bat

[StormingTexan he/him]

Wayne Enterprises! Please let this happen!

[Kaymyth she/her]

Oh, ouch.  Poor Wax. 

 

I started suspecting that Paalm actually was Lessie early in that final conversation, and settled at confirmation when she talked about not having the heart to kill Wayne.  That implied a strong personal connection.

 

 

• Idashwy is still a mystery. She was spiked by someone, and "visited by her dead brother". They found no spike in her dead corpse - what spike was she given?

 

I almost wonder if Paalm had somehow manipulated her into going off on her own and actually being involved in the attack.  Idashwy started the madness whilst Paalm was disguised as the bodyguard fellow?  And the Paalm spiked her for her power afterwards?  Eh, it's a stretch, I know, but we still haven't reconciled someone matching Idashwy's description at the party vs the fact that Paalm couldn't have used her bones.

 

I move for putting Soonie cubs in the store.

 

Oh, man.  Soonie cubs.  I NEED DIS.

 

In AoL, Wayne and Steris meet exactly once, when Wayne pretends to be Wax's uncle at the very start. In SoS, this is their only scene together. A year has passed, so there could be any number of reasons for this, but I do not care, because we are neither shown, nor told. If there is going to be a skip, and there is going to be something significant happening during it, tell your readers about, otherwise I am going to assume, I think fairly reasonably, that the books we do get do show or at least mention all the major events we need to be aware of. For the record, the idea that Steris somehow represents Wax having to come to the city and responsibility, and that she should just leave him alone - which is what is said during this scene - is incredibly laughable and stupid. I am not sure if Wayne has a game here, for some weird reason, or if he is actually this petty and stupid. Either way, this is supposed to be our protagonist's sidekick? No.

This is not even the only horrible thing he does this book. His university visit is beyond awful. As I brought it up during the pacing section, I do not like how it is presented in the first place. The time it takes him to get inside is wasting paper. It tells us nothing, and it is not interesting. Avoiding campus security and the dorm doorwoman is not impressive or relevant. Then there is the way the narrative goes in his head, like he is a hero facing trials. This may have been meant as amusing, but it is actually disgusting. Paying the girl blood money is not heroic, it is exactly what he should be doing. It is a consequence of his actions, not a challenge he can proudly overcome. Of course, he does the whole thing drunk, so at least we know he is cowardly too. The icing on this cake of despicable behaviour is that he insists that he give the money to the girl personally. Good job forcing her to face her father's killer every month. What the hell?
 

 

Quote snipped, emphasis mine.

 

I think, actually, that this is Wayne's way of trying to punish himself.  He makes himself go there, every month, to look her in the eye and acknowledge what he's done.  We know he has a strong sense of guilt about what he did, to the point where has a gun-triggered PTSD reaction.  He drinks to numb the pain, but when he finally comes face-to-face with her, he burns off the alcohol and sobers up.  This is one of the few things in his life that he truly takes seriously, deep down.  He jokes and buffoons around when leading up to it (because he's Wayne, and humor is one of the ways he deals with life in general), but again, he's dead serious when he meets with her.

 

Unfortunately, he's also rather self-centered, so it never really occurs to him the effect he could be having on Allriandre herself.  I'm certainly not saying that he's not flawed, but ultimately, I think in his mind he feels as though he deserves to have to face that pain every month.  It's a very Wayne way of facing up to his responsibilities.

 

 

 

I agree with Arkennys, Steris contined to be best girl, and got even better.  Wax should appreciate and treat her a bit better, and I don't understand Wayne's assholish attitude to her either.  Maybe Wayne was just feeling snappish since Tesla (Tarcsel, halfway between an anagram and portmandeau with "arc") girl reminded him of the girl whose father he killed, but acting that way towards best girl Steris annoyed me.  I imagine most of Wax's emotional distance is Lessie-related, both before and after the reveal, but how can you not love Steris?

 

 

I think we're slipping into Geek Social Fallacy territory here.  Is Steris awesome?  Yes.  Is Wayne my favorite?  Absolutely.  Do they have personalities that clash horribly?  Ayup.  It'd be a wonderful world if all of the people we liked could get along with each other, but sometimes that just isn't possible.

[Alisto]

If I remember correctly, there was a WoB that said you could rip off a piece of someone's soul via Hemalurgy without killing them, but doing so would do unpleasant things. Any consideration that the "chimeras" are, at least partially, byproducts of this?

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

I.realmatically.cannot.even....

The spike

The emotional roller coaster

The vague allusions

The little Easter eggs

That ending scene of Wax and Steris....

Edited October 21, 2015 by ParadoxSpren

[Carcinios he/him]

Anyone notice the worldhopper: the 'immersive' constable Ahlstrom

[Blaze1616 he/him]

Anyone notice the worldhopper: the 'immersive' constable Ahlstrom

 

He uses names of friends like that relatively frequently. If you notice, the party that Wax and Steris (and Wayne) attend is hosted by the ZoBell family. You'll find that name in the acknowledgments section too.

[Delightful]

Ohmigod. Wax and lessie. Ihmigod n

-wax has a sweet old Terris grandmother!

-Wayne and Hoid sit next to each other and we don't have a record of their conversation???

-Soonie pups!

-shardpool!!!

-stereis is insanely likeable.

-lessie lessie lessie

-loved the poke at kelsier being a psychopath and then all being thieves and wax might have arrested them if he lived at the time.

-sazed didn't want anyone in the dark in the pits of Hathsin again :'( :'( :'(

Felt like it room a while to get going though. Wish it was longer. Great book.

[Meandbooks she/her]

I just finished it, and now I need emotional support. All I can think is that I'll never be able to read Alloy of Law in the same light again. Every time he feels bad about killing Lessie, I'll be a mess, thinking both "but you haven't" and "but you will!" When I read the reveal....man. For a moment, I didn't believe it - I thought there was no way he would go there. And then Wax's scene at the end...

 

The other powerful moment was the bullet-spike reveal. The way Brandon kept that so cleverly hidden....just wow. And as soon as it happened, all these little odd bits made so much sense.

 

Emotional trauma aside, I loved how much we see of Harmony (even though I wound up pretty angry with him), TenSoon and MeLaan. There was so much more from the first series in there, and it's awesome.

 

I also thought it was cool how there was a sort of mini-revolution - it's like he's mirroring the pattern of the TFE and TWA, except more in the background.

 

And I love how Steris is developing. I didn't like her much in AoL, but I really liked her in this and how she and Wax become a bit more close. The last scene especially is nice in that regard.

[GoddessIMHO]

If you read through this topic you will find that everyone's reaction was pretty much shock and awe. And yeah, Steris.

[Erai Sedai he/him]

just put my spoiler free review up here!  http://theyabookshelf.boards.net/thread/28/shadows-self-brandon-sanderson-mistborn

[Lightning he/him]

My feelings after reading the book were quite mixed.  Let's start with the positive.

 

Wayne: I really liked about everything done with Wayne.  It was fun, playful, and just awesome.  I didn't understand why he had to visit the daughter of the man he murdered (that was a huge plot hole at least one other has mentioned), but I actually enjoyed the scene itself.

 

Steris: I just really liked her as a character in both books, perhaps because she is authentic.  I agree with another poster who earlier pointed out that people don't really treat her very kindly, in their choice of words.

 

The bullet reveal:  I absolutely agree with others that Brandon hid it quite well.  I thought the bullet might do something else, like have some of the serum in it that temporarily paralyzes kandrakind.

 

Now come the things that actually bothered me a bit.

 

The Lessie reveal:  I figured it out at least a good 20-30 pages before it happened.  It was just a bit too obvious.  Sazed blatantly tells Wax that women can be villains; and in essence I could see Brandon trying to say "You silly readers, you can't see it either."  Except I did see it, and it somewhat ruined the ending for me.  It just seemed too cliche.  Also incredibly sad.  My theory here is that:

 

Lessie was ordered by Sazed to become Tan, to try to figure out how Tan knew about hemalurgy, and perhaps infiltrate his secret Trellic society.  However, this backfired when Lessie also ate Tan's Trellium spike, thus becoming spiked herself.

 

It was also obvious that the villain had some connection to Wax, and besides those characters we already knew about, Lessie was the only one left.  Also there was an obvious connection to bloody Tan.  So, just a bit too obvious here.

 

The kandra plotline:  The idea of a kandra impersonating a friend in the Well of Ascension worked because of four reasons.  (1) There were a TON of characters that we knew intimately.  (2) We trusted in Vin's abilities to see discrepancies.  (3) The kandra needed to be someone important.  (4) The kandra were (apparently) weak (unable to do allomancy), so we could ignore them as a threat (when we really shouldn't have!).

 

In Shadows, there are only really three characters that we know really well (Wax, Wayne, and Marasi).  That meant that I was constantly looking at every other character wondering if that was the kandra.  It got really annoying, because it meant I couldn't just enjoy the story without thinking I might miss the tip-off that that person was the kandra.  Second, Wax's plan to have secret pass-phrases was stupid since he knew that the kandra could hear him when he was speaking in a bare whisper-- so I had no reason to believe he would be like Vin and be able to spot the kandra.  Third, that left the only important person who could be the kandra to be the governor himself.

 

Now, for a theory that I highly advise people to NOT read, since the thought also somewhat ruined things for me.

 

Since I couldn't trust anyone in the story, I was highly suspicious of everyone.  (Which, as I said, was really annoying, since I like trusting people.)  Even the apparently noble Aradel.  Thus, when the governor, whom we know is a kandra impersonator and tied to the Set, appoints him chief-of-police in the city, this seemed too convenient.  I wouldn't put it past Brandon to have Aradel be an agent of the Set; especially since he wants to know Wax's habits, and routes, from Marasi.

 

Sazed's impotence:  Seriously, Sazed can't you look through Wax's (or MeLaan's) eyes at the party, and notice that you cannot sense the governor with your other senses?  I just do not buy the idea that Sazed had no way to track down Paalm.  I'm okay with the spike being hidden from Sazed, and even people with spikes being hidden from his view-- but shouldn't he be able to use his agents (like Ruin did) to just look around and see what he cannot?  Or become a mist spirit and start pulling on people's emotions?  etc... etc...

 

Sazed's duplicity:  He plays God while not really believing he is God (because he isn't).  Not a good place to be.

 

How religion is dealt with:  I was surprised at how lightly Sazed, MeLaan, and essentially all other characters treated religion.  Yes, Sazed is not God--but doesn't he believe that God did give him those powers, to help people?  For some reason, the way Sazed and others talked translated (in my mind) into a high level of irreverence for the truly sacred.

 

The cameos/this isn't a sequel to Alloy of Law:  This one isn't all Brandon's fault.  It is all on me.  I just really wanted another western because Alloy of Law worked so well!  This wasn't a sequel (for reasons already written earlier in the thread).  The pacing was way too quick.  I wanted more character development of the characters from Alloy that we had grown to appreciate.

 

I did not connect to MeLaan or even TenSoon in this story, nor really to Sazed.  Part of me felt like they were included only for the "cameo" aspect, even though that wasn't true.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Lightning

[Blaze1616 he/him]

...

 

Interesting. I'm going to go ahead and label what you've pretty solidly described as the Sharder Symptom. Essentially, it is the symptom that you, as the reader, know about both the Cosmere and the fact that Brandon likes to hide things in plain sight. As a result, upon reading new works, you find yourself over analyzing, which ultimately ruins the experience for you.

 

To put this another way, I'm fairly confident that you read most, if not all, of Brandon's library other than SoS prior to discovering the Cosmere/17th Shard, which means that you fell in love with Brandon because he dupes you, the reader, with his endings. But because you know of all that trickery, you tried to catch him doing it this time, but as a result lost all enjoyment that the book presented. Because it certainly sounds like you were too busy focusing on not letting any subtle hint get past you than you were just enjoying the story.

 

Clear proof that you were exhibiting the Sharder Symptom:

 

The kandra plotline:  The idea of a kandra impersonating a friend in the Well of Ascension worked because of four reasons.  (1) There were a TON of characters that we knew intimately.  (2) We trusted in Vin's abilities to see discrepancies.  (3) The kandra needed to be someone important.  (4) The kandra were (apparently) weak (unable to do allomancy), so we could ignore them as a threat (when we really shouldn't have!).

 

In Shadows, there are only really three characters that we know really well (Wax, Wayne, and Marasi).  That meant that I was constantly looking at every other character wondering if that was the kandra.  It got really annoying, because it meant I couldn't just enjoy the story without thinking I might miss the tip-off that that person was the kandra.  Second, Wax's plan to have secret pass-phrases was stupid since he knew that the kandra could hear him when he was speaking in a bare whisper-- so I had no reason to believe he would be like Vin and be able to spot the kandra.  Third, that left the only important person who could be the kandra to be the governor himself.

Underlined the important sentence.

 

Why did it matter that you catch the tip-off? Why not just enjoy the story, and on a subsequent reread attempt to catch it. Isn't that how you caught most of the other Cosmere easter eggs and foreshadowing for Brandon's other works? But maybe you always over analyze every piece of literature you read for the first time. 

 

Just something to think about. 

[Lightning he/him]

Interesting. I'm going to go ahead and label what you've pretty solidly described as the Sharder Symptom. Essentially, it is the symptom that you, as the reader, know about both the Cosmere and the fact that Brandon likes to hide things in plain sight. As a result, upon reading new works, you find yourself over analyzing, which ultimately ruins the experience for you.

 

To put this another way, I'm fairly confident that you read most, if not all, of Brandon's library other than SoS prior to discovering the Cosmere/17th Shard, which means that you fell in love with Brandon because he dupes you, the reader, with his endings. But because you know of all that trickery, you tried to catch him doing it this time, but as a result lost all enjoyment that the book presented. Because it certainly sounds like you were too busy focusing on not letting any subtle hint get past you than you were just enjoying the story.

 

Clear proof that you were exhibiting the Sharder Symptom:

 

Underlined the important sentence.

 

I agree with this completely.  A lot of it was as you describe.  (I even admitted as much in my post.)  But not all of it.  (See the second spoiler for instance.  My paranoia is not completely unmerited.)

 

 

Why did it matter that you catch the tip-off? Why not just enjoy the story, and on a subsequent reread attempt to catch it. Isn't that how you caught most of the other Cosmere easter eggs and foreshadowing for Brandon's other works? But maybe you always over analyze every piece of literature you read for the first time. 

 

Just something to think about.  

 

I think there is a valid reason I wanted to catch the tip-off, and it actually doesn't have to do with sharder syndrome, per se.  It has more to do with putting myself in the main character's shoes.  If I was in Wax's shoes I really would be looking around every corner for the kandra.  But ESPECIALLY if I started hearing her voice in my head in response to things I said out loud.  I really wouldn't trust anyone around me if I couldn't do what Vin did (which was slightly push on their emotions to see what happened).  It was important to catch this kandra because she is a murderer and very dangerous.

 

In Vin's case, it wasn't as important, nor was the kandra such a huge threat, so it was less important to be suspicious of everyone.

[ccstat he/him]

My theory here is that:

Lessie was ordered by Sazed to become Tan, to try to figure out how Tan knew about hemalurgy, and perhaps infiltrate his secret Trellic society. However, this backfired when Lessie also ate Tan's Trellium spike, thus becoming spiked herself.

This is the best theory for those events I think I've seen yet. Thanks for presenting it!