Plot holes

[Koloss17]

I was wondering if there is any continuity or plot holes within the cosmere. I’m fairly sure there isnt any major ones, but maybe there’s some minor ones. I know there’s quite a few metal using hiccups within the mistborn series, but I’m fairly sure they’re not major. I don’t know about the rest of the canonical cosmere though. Its so big that there’s bound to be a few, but Brandon also has things so darned planned out that I also wouldn’t be suprised if there is none.

[Elsecaller_17.5]

My big one (that I've mostly made peace with) is that Marsh didn't just compund his way to victory in era 1.

[+robardin]

On 4/25/2020 at 6:00 PM, Elsecaller_17.5 said:

My big one (that I've mostly made peace with) is that Marsh didn't just compund his way to victory in era 1.

The usual answer is, he hadn't figured out how to do it yet...? Though Ruin should have known all about it, being a god and all and connected enough to Feruchemy to be able to corrupt copperminds, and after having about a thousand years to observe how Rashek did it.

In the end, I think there is an element to Ruin that we saw in Rashek as TLR, who didn't just "compound his way to immediate victory" against Vin and Marsh in his throne room. Why not? He wanted to savor the experience, and to monologue and gloat while doing so. He didn't just want to destroy Scadrial, he wanted to rub it in Vin and Elend's faces that they'd tried so, so hard to stop him, but he had played them all from the beginning. Not just to defeat them, but to ruin them.

[KandraAllomancer]

There was a minor issue about Stoneward and Bondsmith Surges in Oathbringer:

Quote

Pagerunner

I was at the Houston signing, and Brandon referred me to you on a few technical questions that I was asking him, since he he was quite "brain dead."

First was what Surges the Bondsmiths have. Based on the ordering in the Ars Arcanum in WoR and OB, they should have Tension. But the application of the shared Surge we saw for both Stonewards and Bondsmiths in OB looks to line up more with Brandon's previous description of Cohesion from the Words of Radiance tour. (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/223/#e6061, although he did identify it as a Willshaper Surge there.) Brandon believed it was an error in the Ars Arcanum, and that Bondsmiths do have Cohesion, but he told me to confirm that with you.

Peter Ahlstrom

What power did you see in the book that Bondsmiths and Stonewards share?

Pagerunner

In Chapter 38:

The Shardbearer pressed his hand against the incline leading up to the Voidbringer, and again the stone seemed to writhe. Steps formed in the rock, as if it were made of wax that could flow and be shaped.

...

"And that Shardbearer I saw? A Herald?"

No. Merely a Stoneward. The Surge that changed the stone is the other you may learn, though it may serve you differently.

Which seems to align with how Brandon has previously described Cohesion in the past, as opposed to Tension.

I assume this Surge is what Dalinar used to repair the temple of Talenel in Chapter 59, but that's not actually essential to the point.

Peter Ahlstrom

I think this has to be an error in the text.

Pagerunner

Sorry, which do you think is the error? The order of Surges in the Ars Arcanum? Or the Stormfather's statement to Dalinar?

Peter Ahlstrom

The Stormfather's statement.

Peter Ahlstrom

I have verified with Brandon that what the Stormfather said here is wrong and will be corrected in the future.

General Reddit 2017 (Dec. 14, 2017)

 

[+Brassweaver]

The best part about Brandon plot holes is the way he uses unreliable narrators to do lore dumps. Like if the Stormfather ever says something wrong he can just chalk it up to the character being wrong haha