Full Edgedancer Reaction Thread [Edgedancer Spoilers]

[Kanrei]

14 hours ago, DSC01 said:

As for Szeth, it does seem like he has Gravitation again, but I suspect that there is something unusual about his Surges. Because of Nightblood's nature, I am confident that he does grant Surges as part of a bond on Roshar, but I am less confident that they will automatically be the Skybreaker ones, just because Nalan "adopted" him. It could be, though.

Which part suggest that Szeth has Surge of Gravitation? When two Skybreakers fly to Orphanage Szeth just stay behind. Except strange afterimage he is just normal crazy ex assassin in Edgedancer.

I think there was WoB that Nightblood dont grant surges (im not 100% sure) and other WoB about if Nightblood will use Stormlight instead of Breath which indirectly suggested that Nightblood wont grant ability to suck in Stormlight --> Sanderson there said that Szeth shouldnt use Nightblood for now as he cant suck in Stormlight.

Ability to suck in Stormlight is I think first thing granted by forming bond, so if Nightblood was able of Nahel bond, Szeth should be able to suck in stormlight. 

Edited November 23, 2016 by Kanrei

[Glamdring804]

AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAHHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

She did it! She summoned a Shardfork! My life is complete!

[DSC01 he/him]

@Kanrei The quote I found is, "Nightblood can feed off Stormlight, but Szeth can't draw in Stormlight right now. So Szeth better not draw that sword, for a while at least." The "for a while at least" part suggests that it will be fine at some point.

There's another quote, "Nightblood is a very unique kind of Shardblade, but IS a Shardblade," and one features of Shardblades is that they can be bonded. Assuming that the process is more like bonding a dead Blade than a live spren, then it would simply take some time (explaining that "for a while"). He also does partially draw Nightblood, which would likely be pretty damaging to him if he wasn't past that point.

As for the Surges, well, the other Skybreakers certainly seem to assume that Szeth can join them. That doesn't prove anything, necessarily, but Szeth's response to them indicates pretty clearly that he is choosing not to do so because he doesn't wish to be in the Everstorm again. There's nothing definitive there, but the circumstantial evidence very strongly points to him having access to, if not Gravitation, then something like it. 

Edited November 25, 2016 by DSC01

[Asperity he/him]

I wonder what crazy stuff Szeth will get up to since he's falling further and further into the abyss.

[DSC01 he/him]

I just realized something about a recurring theme in the Cosmere, thanks to Edgedancer:

Arclo talks about that one culture where they believe that every soul always only has a day to live. When you go to sleep, you always die, and a new soul comes to live its allotted day, still possessing the memories of the body's former occupant, since they're stored in its wetware. Are you still the same person, if a different soul inhabits your body, with an identical personality and identical memories?

Stuff from other Cosmere books:

Spoiler

As I was writing this post in the Sel forum, I realized the connection between Arclo's story and The Emepror's Soul. The Returned are sort of the opposite, where the same soul (maybe) persists without any of its former memories. On Scadrial, there are characters whose souls have bits of other ones Hemallurgically fused with their own. Are they still the same people? The are a number of ways in which the theme expresses itself in the various Kandra's arcs.

 

[Garglemesh he/him]

On 11/23/2016 at 3:07 PM, DSC01 said:

There's another quote, "Nightblood is a very unique kind of Shardblade, but IS a Shardblade," and one features of Shardblades is that they can be bonded. Assuming that the process is more like bonding a dead Blade than a live spren, then it would simply take some time (explaining that "for a while"). He also does partially draw Nightblood, which would likely be pretty damaging to him if he was past that point

I interpret that quote another way. Nightblood is a very unique type of Shardblade and what are all Shardblades? Spren. So if Nightblood is a spren, it would be a living Shardblade, not a dead one, that Szeth is bonding to and thus there would come some benefits like holding stormlight and surges. So I'd argue he's gaining abilities.

[DSC01 he/him]

My interpretation seems to be the same as yours, so I may have been somewhat unclear in my argument.

Now, to be fair, Nightblood is something of a Franken-spren. He might very well share some characteristics with dead Shardblades, since he's more like a reanimated corpse than a living body (so maybe Brandon said Szeth shouldn't draw Nightblood "for a while" because it will take time to bond with him, just like bonding with dead Shardblades does).

Whatever the case may be, I will be very surprised if Szeth doesn't gain powers of some type through his bond to Nightblood.

Edited November 25, 2016 by DSC01

[WayneSpren he/him]

I really, really loved this story, and I really, really, hated had a mild distaste for certain elements of this story. Because I'm special this way, I'll make an uninteresting and unsatisfying list of pros and cons for you to read. 

Pros:

No elections!

Humor. A lot of it. Specifically Lift's humor. 

Gave me more insight to Nalan's character. He's awesome.

Szeth. Nightblood. 'Nuff said.

Reminded me I love Roshar and I need to reread WoR six hundred times or so.

Shardfork. Pancakes. 

Cons:

Pretty much exactly what I wrote for Pros', except twisted in a way to make them seem bad somehow, and you know what, I'm going to bed. It was good, ok? I liked it. 

(As a completely unrelated side note, I'm tired. Nothing I wrote above should be held against me in a court of law on account of my chronic disorder of having to sleep.)

 

Edited November 25, 2016 by WayneSpren

[Kanrei]

@DSC01
We dont know if Nightblood is capable of Nahel bond, and I think only sprens capable of Nahel bond grant surges which could mean specific Roshar sprens - for example I assume that Seon which would come to Roshar would not grant Surges to his bonded human (or not know surges at last)
I didnt have time to look for WoB I was thinking about, but I guess question is - would sentient pieces of Investiture not from Roshar grant any powers to humans on Roshar?
Or Nahel bond and powers are specific to Roshar sprens only?

I agree that at some point Szeth will get powers but I not sure if it will be bacause of Nightblood or him bonding with Roshar spren.
Nightblood for me is just backward, when Roshar spren exist in Cognitive Realm with Nahel Bond is slowly pulled into Physical Realm untill it can manifest as metalic weapon, with Nightblood is kinda opposite, he is already in Physical Realm as heavy Invested sword, but can he be what sprens are in time? Will he be able to change form or disappear into Cognitive Realm fully?

This differences between Roshar sentient sprens and Nightblood are what make for me hard to accept theory that he will grant surges himself.

[Lightflame he/him]

On 2016-11-22 at 4:48 AM, skaa said:

Yeah, when I got to that scene I barely managed to stifle my laughter thinking of that particular Reddit comment and how mind-blown that fan must be right now.

Can confirm. Made the Reddit comment, finished Edgedancer last night, and my mind is still blown.

[Ammanas]

Just finished it! While it is always awesome  (pun intended) to get a story set in the stormlight series I'm not as thrilled with this story as others are. I think that my problem is with Lift...I just don't find a little girl a very relatable character to me. She gets on my nerves at times. Still glad Brandon wrote it though; Bring on Oathbringer!

[Djarskublar he/him]

Loved it. We definitely need a targeted re-read looking for cremlings. I hope this makes more people like Lift that didn't before. She just needs to get older and grow some, then she won't be so storming annoying for not listening to Wyndle and getting us ALL the info. By the time we hit the back five, she should be much more relatable.

[maxal she/her]

I have finished reading Edgedancer. Alright. I finished last Friday while waiting for my ultrasound appointment: I was so engrossed with it I didn't hear the lady call out my name when my turn came  This being said, considering I have been the one sitting onto the "I am not happy" side of the fence, I did not expect to read so many ambivalent reviews: I expected to be the one to write one of those... Not the opposite  As it turned out, I actually liked the novel, in fact, I loved it. I thought it was a good novel, well written, well paced, offering a healthy balance in between action scenes, dread, character development and world-building.

Some might remember how ambivalent I have been over Lift being a main protagonist. It wasn't I disliked the character, it was more I doubted she could actually carry on a story arc. My reasons to doubt it were linked to her nature: carefree, scattered brain and having no guiding line. She made me think of Wayne. Do not get me wrong, I love Wayne, I think he has one of the most interesting backstory which I direly hope will get explored in detail in the last Mistborn book, but I would never read a book from his perspective. His viewpoints were often hard to follow as he sounded plain mad most of the time or, at the very least, slightly mentally deranged and well, I found out with him I did not particularly enjoyed reading characters offering little logic. Thus I feared to read Edgedancer as I feared the story would more or less be about Lift bouncing around from one place to the next without any cohesive plan. The first excerpt did little to dispel those fears.

I was pleasantly surprise to read Lift actually had reasons to run away from Azir: she was afraid she would feel obliged to become someone she is not. She feared she couldn't be anyone until she figured out who she truly was and I absolutely loved it. This being said, even if she did run away, Lift had a hidden agenda: tracking down Darkness as he was a thread to Gawx... so when she heard he was in Tashikk... she pretended it was for the pancakes, but it was for him, all along. I loved how, through this short story, Lift actually managed to grow up and to leave her carefree childhood days behind. She finally acknowledge she couldn't just not care anymore as if everyone were like her, where would the world go? I thought her entire inner monologue was quite interesting to follow.

I was also interested in reading more about the Edgedancers: what an interesting order. Prior to reading the novella, I thought Lift was the odd one, the "unlikely" Edgedancer, but turns out she isn't. It turns out she is the "most likely" Edgedancer ever... as who are the others? Ym, an old shoe maker living a small life in a tiny village and Stump, an unsympathetic woman carrying for hurt children when no one is looking. The epigraph in WoR said the Edgedancers were the most refined of the order, deadly warriors and yet... Wyndle shrinks at the idea of being used as a weapon while all known Edgedancers are everything but "refined" and "deadly". They all are/were poor people with a good heart, carrying for others in their own personal way, while never asking for anything in return. This wasn't how I pictured the order, before. I thus have to re-adjust my perception. This being said, I thought it was great to finally have confirmation on Ym, but I sincerely wonder why Brandon kept it a secret for so long... Why did it matter that Ym has been a proto-Edgedancer? It bears no significance to the overall plot, except telling us Wyndle was to bond him, but Ym was presumably killed before having said any oath and thus starting the real bonding process, just as Stump has yet to say an oath.

On the matter of Stump, I didn't see her coming: I thought the Radiant was the little boy, not her. 

It appears Edgedancers "special ability" is to be able to mimic other people rapidly, much like Wayne does in Mistborn. 

It was also interesting to read more about the Skybreakers. They stick to the letter of the law, completely lobotomizing their thinking faculties in order to blindly obey to some inner higher standing code. Szeth fits just right in, though his experience with the oathstone has made him more doubtful of those who proclaimed to know the truth. I thought it was interesting to see him here and it totally confirms him as a Skybreaker even if we have yet to see him have a Highspren. This is a sore point for me as I had hope the Radiants wouldn't all turned to be the flashback characters: too practical and predictable.

Overall, I felt this novella was an "episode": it starts with Lift leaving Azir and it ends up with Lift going back to Azir, presumably to resume her training. I think she might value learning how to read a bit more now and I expect, next time we see her, she would have progress in this regards. It seems Cultivationsprens do not take kindly to their knights not being able to read and being uncultivated: I wonder what will happen to Stump...Speaking of Wyndle, I liked him. He is an artist... who shies away from action, who is afraid of everything, that was interesting. I expected Cultivationsprens to turn out being more forthcoming. I guess I was wrong about them.

To me, it was a good read. The pacing didn't bother me: I do not need an avalanche in every story I read. The climax was satisfying and how Lift ended figuring out her oath was brought forward in a satisfying manner. She could have dwindled on it longer, but as ever, she had the "unknown weird wise man" to give her pointers. Anyway. It was an interesting one, even if it more or less kills some of my personal theory making, I was pleased to read it.

So this is about it. My perception of Lift is she is working as a character, even if she still needs to grow up to gain more agency. I think she is on the right path.

[DSC01 he/him]

@maxal I am so happy that you took it that way (by which I mean, your whole reaction to the novella)! I specifically thought of you when I read it because I thought that the things that you don't like about Lift were directly addressed by the end of the book. She seemed particularly obstinate about some of those things near the beginning, but by the end, she was clearly on the path to growing beyond them. I am now more convinced than ever that she is going to be a great character, not because she was the coolest ever from the very beginning, but because she actually started out being very annoying and wrong about a lot of things but grew beyond that in a satisfying way.

Now, I still really liked her a lot in her WoR interlude, but the biggest Lift fan in the world can't deny that she spends as much time as she possibly can annoying almost everyone that she interacts with. That kind of character is necessarily going to rub some readers the wrong way because the humor just won't resonate with them at all, and they'll be left empathizing with the other characters, who are being subjected to unrelenting annoyance.

Your observation about the similarities between Wayne's extra ability and Lift's is very interesting. We've been discussing her ability here, so I won't go into too much detail about my take on it in this thread (though I'd love to see your input in that thread, maxal). I don't think it's quite exactly the same as Wayne's, but there definitely is a connection. Feruchemical gold is really close to the Progression Surge. Bendalloy is a little harder to connect to Abrasion, but bendalloy Mistings are called "Sliders," after all. There is a certain connection there. I think you're onto something.

[desi_sparta]

What if Szeth's ability is to act like an anti-radiant? He can either such the stormlight from other invested objects,like the larkin thingy, or, he can block both radiant and voidbringers from accessing their surges?

[Kanrei]

7 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

 She just needs to get older and grow some, then she won't be so storming annoying for not listening to Wyndle and getting us ALL the info.

After Edgedancer I started wonder how much exactly Wyndle knows.
People are annoying that Lift dotn listen to him, but glimpses we got in Edgedancers could suggest that he wouldnt actually give us any more info then we already had.

He seemed to match Lift in immaturity level that sometimes I wondered who of two was more mature.

At times I had feeling that Edgedancer was as much about Lift progress like Wyndle progress. Their's decision after they broke into Darkness hideout to do something about whole situation- it seemed to me that Lift basically lead Wyndle to it, he said what she already decided herself.

Its rly strange and interesting at same time - other sprens we saw were sure of themselves and acted as guiding figures for their humans but here Lift actually care more about people then Wyndle.
With Wyndle and Lift first time we have relation where both sides grow and progress and change.

Wyndle words at end “… I was a very regal fork, wouldn’t you say?” were rly sweet and at same time says a lot about Wyndle himself.

 

3 hours ago, DSC01 said:

Now, I still really liked her a lot in her WoR interlude, but the biggest Lift fan in the world can't deny that she spends as much time as she possibly can annoying almost everyone that she interacts with. That kind of character is necessarily going to rub some readers the wrong way because the humor just won't resonate with them at all, and they'll be left empathizing with the other characters, who are being subjected to unrelenting annoyance.

I can deny that because its simply untrue.

Lift often annoy other people but when we look closely they are almost always stuck up, in power people.
She was making fun of scribes etc, but at same time she was never making fun of hurt, weak or down on luck people.
And even if she make fun or annoy someone its not in mean way.

It was visible even in her interlude in WoR.

Way she talked with urchins, sick kid at orphanage, even with Sleepless (when he first asked her what body part would she be), she had way more understanding for them then other people. And she is helping other people without making any deal out of it too.

People painting Lift as immature annoying brat because she dont care much about science, or jokes, or having fun in most absurd way but at the same time most people ignore fact that she care about people in need and is kind to them way more then some other mature characters in series.

Other example was her speenread conversation with Gawx, when she tell him about food, all around thinks she just make jokes when she actually says very important mature thing that people will need to eat even after end of world.

So yea, im defintly at TeamLift after Edgedancer I believe that she is much better person in simple down to earth human way then people realize.

@maxal Can we actually be sure that both Stump and Ym are/were proto-Edgedancers? It might be that there are people who share some characteristic which make them suitable for both Edgedancers and Truthwatchers Orders.
I read discussion about sprens look but Im still not convinced.
As far as Wyndle knows, Cultivationsprens didnt decide to bond Ym. He said "we were considering" not that he personally and they went with Lift instead.

[Landis963 he/him]

5 hours ago, Kanrei said:

After Edgedancer I started wonder how much exactly Wyndle knows.
People are annoying that Lift dotn listen to him, but glimpses we got in Edgedancers could suggest that he wouldnt actually give us any more info then we already had.

He seemed to match Lift in immaturity level that sometimes I wondered who of two was more mature.

At times I had feeling that Edgedancer was as much about Lift progress like Wyndle progress. Their's decision after they broke into Darkness hideout to do something about whole situation- it seemed to me that Lift basically lead Wyndle to it, he said what she already decided herself.

Its rly strange and interesting at same time - other sprens we saw were sure of themselves and acted as guiding figures for their humans but here Lift actually care more about people then Wyndle.
With Wyndle and Lift first time we have relation where both sides grow and progress and change.

Wyndle words at end “… I was a very regal fork, wouldn’t you say?” were rly sweet and at same time says a lot about Wyndle himself.

 

I can deny that because its simply untrue.

Lift often annoy other people but when we look closely they are almost always stuck up, in power people.
She was making fun of scribes etc, but at same time she was never making fun of hurt, weak or down on luck people.
And even if she make fun or annoy someone its not in mean way.

It was visible even in her interlude in WoR.

Way she talked with urchins, sick kid at orphanage, even with Sleepless (when he first asked her what body part would she be), she had way more understanding for them then other people. And she is helping other people without making any deal out of it too.

People painting Lift as immature annoying brat because she dont care much about science, or jokes, or having fun in most absurd way but at the same time most people ignore fact that she care about people in need and is kind to them way more then some other mature characters in series.

Other example was her speenread conversation with Gawx, when she tell him about food, all around thinks she just make jokes when she actually says very important mature thing that people will need to eat even after end of world.

So yea, im defintly at TeamLift after Edgedancer I believe that she is much better person in simple down to earth human way then people realize.

@maxal Can we actually be sure that both Stump and Ym are/were proto-Edgedancers? It might be that there are people who share some characteristic which make them suitable for both Edgedancers and Truthwatchers Orders.
I read discussion about sprens look but Im still not convinced.
As far as Wyndle knows, Cultivationsprens didnt decide to bond Ym. He said "we were considering" not that he personally and they went with Lift instead.

Wyndle mentions in the WoR interlude that there was a council of sorts which came to the consensus that Lift should have a spren (as opposed to Ym or the Iriali matron).  We know that Ym eventually received a spren whose shape is suggestive of Wyndle's, but who is distinct from him (female voice, for starters).  I suspect that Stump is a Truthwatcher-initiate, instead of an Edgedancer-initiate, if only because the spren is described differently (admittedly, though, Stump's spren is given one throwaway line of dialogue while Ym describes his to the audience in more detail).  

[kari-no-sugata]

I've not really been active on these forums for about 2 years, so maybe there's all sorts of things that I've missed. But anyway, I was happy to finally read some more Stormlight. While Lift was never my favourite character, I enjoyed this short story and am generally feeling more positive about her character and potential.

I don't have much to add since most of it has already been covered. One thing I've not seen much discussion of is "Darkness" and his motivations:

Quote

“Unfortunately, no,” Darkness said. “I once thought as you, but Ishar made the truth clear to me. If the bonds between men and spren are reignited, then men will naturally discover the greater power of the oaths. Without Honor to regulate this, there is a small chance that what comes next will allow the Voidbringers to again make the jump between worlds. That would cause a Desolation, and even a small chance that the world will be destroyed is a risk that we cannot take. Absolute fidelity to the mission Ishar gave us—the greater law of protecting Roshar—is required.”

In WoR he seemed very certain and seemed to have lots of agency. However, I always felt that was probably insane - or at least, I thought it was dangerous to take his words as is, despite him being a Herald. Well, the quote above and others makes it clear that if anything he's more of a pawn. Why is he hunting down Radiants? Essentially, because Ishar told him so. Will Radiants coming back definitely cause a new Desolation? No, only a "small chance" and to be honest I doubt we can trust Ishar on this either since he was wrong about the return of the Voidbringers. I'm not sure if Ishar was simply lying to Darkness (for his own benefit) or actually believed it. If he really believes it to be a real risk then maybe Ishar was behind a number of dark events in Roshar's history.

On a more general note, though we don't see it there's clearly a lot of discussion going on between the governments of this world about the "new storm that blows the wrong way". Dalinar wasn't trusted on this until rather too late and some have taken to suspecting him for causing it in the first place. It looks like much of SA3 will be focused on the initial reaction to this storm and attempts to coordinate a response. If Lift gets more involved in this she would be able to tell the others that the Assassin in White isn't actually dead and that there's a Herald running around killing Radiants.

[Kanrei]

7 hours ago, Landis963 said:

Wyndle mentions in the WoR interlude that there was a council of sorts which came to the consensus that Lift should have a spren (as opposed to Ym or the Iriali matron).  We know that Ym eventually received a spren whose shape is suggestive of Wyndle's, but who is distinct from him (female voice, for starters).  I suspect that Stump is a Truthwatcher-initiate, instead of an Edgedancer-initiate, if only because the spren is described differently (admittedly, though, Stump's spren is given one throwaway line of dialogue while Ym describes his to the audience in more detail).  

Yep, he called it Ring. I assumed that it was sort of Cultivationspren ruling body.

Dont know if you know this, but Sanderson said that sprens often (tbh not always) have oposite gender then their's human.

[Landis963 he/him]

2 hours ago, Kanrei said:

Yep, he called it Ring. I assumed that it was sort of Cultivationspren ruling body.

Don't know if you know this, but Sanderson said that spren often (tbh not always) have opposite gender then their humans.

I am aware of that WoB.  I am also aware of the WoB that states that we shouldn't read too much into the exceptions.  In addition, I am assuming that Wyndle would have presented as male regardless of whom he was bonded to.  (Also, there are differences in character and voice between the two spren - Ym's has a stutter, and is unfamiliar with the point of cobbling, while Wyndle does not and is keenly aware that Lift's every action is inexplicable in some way, shape, or form)  

[maxal she/her]

20 hours ago, DSC01 said:

@maxal I am so happy that you took it that way (by which I mean, your whole reaction to the novella)! I specifically thought of you when I read it because I thought that the things that you don't like about Lift were directly addressed by the end of the book. She seemed particularly obstinate about some of those things near the beginning, but by the end, she was clearly on the path to growing beyond them. I am now more convinced than ever that she is going to be a great character, not because she was the coolest ever from the very beginning, but because she actually started out being very annoying and wrong about a lot of things but grew beyond that in a satisfying way.

Now, I still really liked her a lot in her WoR interlude, but the biggest Lift fan in the world can't deny that she spends as much time as she possibly can annoying almost everyone that she interacts with. That kind of character is necessarily going to rub some readers the wrong way because the humor just won't resonate with them at all, and they'll be left empathizing with the other characters, who are being subjected to unrelenting annoyance.

Your observation about the similarities between Wayne's extra ability and Lift's is very interesting. We've been discussing her ability here, so I won't go into too much detail about my take on it in this thread (though I'd love to see your input in that thread, maxal). I don't think it's quite exactly the same as Wayne's, but there definitely is a connection. Feruchemical gold is really close to the Progression Surge. Bendalloy is a little harder to connect to Abrasion, but bendalloy Mistings are called "Sliders," after all. There is a certain connection there. I think you're onto something.

I think I have referred in the past to my dislike of static characters: I enjoy reading them when I feel they are progressing, but I dislike reading characters constantly reassessing the same issues over and over again. Kaladin, for instances, has become a difficult character for me to read because he always takes fives steps back to take one step forward: it would take a character I am seriously enjoying for not to be bothered by it. It was thus I feared Lift wouldn't progress and would remain static. Since she didn't, then I am satisfied, even more so I actually liked where she seemed to be going even if the Edgedancers didn't turn out to be exactly how I envisioned them.

The similarities in between Wayne and Lift literally jumped to my face: it might be because I had already linked both characters together. It might be I was looking for them, but I still maintain there is something to be explored here. I'll go check the other thread, but from my "character reader" perspective both characters had a lot in common to begin with: both were meant to be comical, both have a hard time with rules, both only seems to obey to their whims more than anything else, both have a past ordeal they have a hard time getting over it, both aren't logical... Thus, from my perspective, there were many links to be made.

16 hours ago, Kanrei said:

 Can we actually be sure that both Stump and Ym are/were proto-Edgedancers? It might be that there are people who share some characteristic which make them suitable for both Edgedancers and Truthwatchers Orders.
I read discussion about sprens look but Im still not convinced.
As far as Wyndle knows, Cultivationsprens didnt decide to bond Ym. He said "we were considering" not that he personally and they went with Lift instead.

I am 99% sure they are Edgedancers. A few months ago, someone asked Brandon if the fact Lift was partially into the cognitive realm influenced how she perceived Wyndle. This was, of course, linked to  Ym's spren. I do not recall the exact wording but, at the time, it gave me pause long enough to consider Ym might have been an Edgedancer when everyone took him for a Truthwatcher. 

Now we have the novella. To me, it is rather clear Wyndle was supposed to bond Ym. He states it often enough for us to doubt it and quite frankly, I doubt one individual could be so equally suitable for two orders, the very first sprens to bond humans, taken from two different order, since the recreations would choose the same individual. Already, being chosen seems to have an incredible strike of luck, it seems incredibly improbable both Edgedancers and Truthwatchers would have equal interest into one old man from a remote village.

I think the fact Wyndle mentions he was to bond Ym pretty much confirms him as a former proto-Edgedancer. 

It seems Edgedancers prefer to take their knight out of unimportant people, thieves, orphans, old unsympathetic lady, old man... They say they have to remember the forgotten, but it seems they are the forgotten. They have the less glamorous spren, the one having the least influence within Shadesmar: they are low profile, they chose humans befitting those criterion. 

[thejopen27 he/him]

On 11/23/2016 at 6:00 PM, Kythis said:

I wonder what crazy stuff Szeth will get up to since he's falling further and further into the abyss.

I actually saw Szeths actions here as a ray of light. I thought he was beyond saving, but his actions in Edgedancer gave me hope.

[Yata he/him]

10 hours ago, thejopen27 said:

I actually saw Szeths actions here as a ray of light. I thought he was beyond saving, but his actions in Edgedancer gave me hope.

I think Szeth has simply become less and less confident of his own mind, and now He delegate the decision to the sword...On the topic, I liked really his part in the novella.

I have to say that Edgedancer confused me. I began to read it with a precise expetation....a lightweigh story on Roshar with Lift as main character, I honestly didn't prepare myself to "relevant things"...But there are tons of relevant facts, not only for the humor-creep spectrum, but actually for the our understanding of Stormlight Archive as serie.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Yata

[thejopen27 he/him]

7 hours ago, Yata said:

I think Szeth has simply become less and less confident of his own mind, and now He delegate the decision to the sword...On the topic, I liked really his part in the novella.

I have to say that Edgedancer confused me. I begat to read it with a precise expetation....a lightweigh story on Roshar with Lift as main character, I honestly didn't prepare myself to "relevant things"...But there are tons of relevant facts, not only for the humor-creep spectrum, but actually for the our understanding of Stormlight Archive as serie.

Szeth having questions is good. He was too sure when he was Truthless. I actually don't think Szeth will end up as a Skybreaker. I think mindlessly following laws will not hold appeal for Szeth anymore. Maybe Dustbringer?

[Argent he/him]

On 11/24/2016 at 6:00 PM, DSC01 said:

Arclo talks about that one culture where they believe that every soul always only has a day to live. When you go to sleep, you always die, and a new soul comes to live its allotted day, still possessing the memories of the body's former occupant, since they're stored in its wetware. Are you still the same person, if a different soul inhabits your body, with an identical personality and identical memories?

I personally wouldn't read too much into this, as I believe there is a real world equivalent to this philosophy, which is what I think Arclo is mirroring here.