Lightning

That's really weird because just the other day I heard the song "8675309" and thought "Wow, I wonder if anyone actually has that number?" I guess me and young Smedry are on the same wavelength.

I didn't even think about that fact! You get an up-vote!

Suddenly Brandon's change makes sense to me. Szeth couldn't have had his soul fixed, just his body. So I'm thinking his hand will be withered. Also, I don't think Nightblood will be able to heal his soul.

Okay, so here are the big questions. Is Szeth's hand still withered after being brought back to life? Can Nightblood heal soul wounds like shardblades?

Are we sure that Deathpoint's power actually interacts with humans? Meaning, if my power is that I throw lightning bolts, is it really my power that kills you, or the lightning bolt that was created by my power? So it could be that Deathpoint is actually creating something that then kills the person. That said, it seems that there are still epic powers that interact with organics/people, like shadow spikes, or hair-color change, or most importantly gifted epic powers.

I don't view the original ending as Kaladin killing him out of vengeance. If Kaladin had originally chosen against killing Szeth, I would have thought that was an incredibly bad choice to make, but it would have been in the story and I would have lived with it (and would not have wanted it retconned).

So, I personally strongly dislike the new ending. Here are some reasons: It doesn't really make sense. In the original ending Kaladin was surprised that Szeth didn't block; and so it makes sense for him to continue the stroke. In the fury of the battle it is just unrealistic for a fighter to change their strike because they perceive a sudden change in the person they are fighting. In the changed version, Kaladin still does not know that Szeth had severed his bond with the sword, and thus it is just stupid to not deal with a serious threat. It isn't pity to leave a rabid dog alive, who is currently a major threat to others, and has just tried to kill one of the most honorable people you know, and has killed loads of other people; it is stupidity. Retconning is a bad habit. Yes, the cosmere is Brandon's world. But it is also our world. By giving us these books, we become a part of that world, and those parts that we have shared are no longer merely Brandon's. By changing the world he is disenfranchising us from our shared experience. He is, in essence, saying "We did not share that scene together." I seriously hope this does not happen again. (I'm not talking about changing mistakes or typos. I'm talking about changing fundamental actions.) Brandon's reasons for the change are, frankly, lame. He could have easily, in future books, emphasized that dead shardblades, or even honorblades, cannot heal souls, while living ones can. He says that Szeth is now killed by the storm, not Kaladin, but (as many have already pointed out) this is false. Kaladin lets him fall to his death--which is much more dishonorable than dealing with a threat. Perhaps, in hindsight, it is the right logical move, because the honorblade is very important. But then this goes against Brandon's purpose in having Kaladin be all about protecting. This ending just does not convey what Brandon was trying to get across--it does the opposite. In the original ending, it made sense to me that someone who is about protecting still must kill. That is an important principle. All this said, I'm not severing my ties to Brandon's books. They are wonderful. One (or even many) mistakes on his part does not make me any less of a fan. Just as long as he doesn't go the way of Paolini, who got too caught up in his own story-telling that he didn't realize the last 300 pages of his last book should have been cut. (Ten pages just about someone's fingernails? REALLY??) But I don't think Brandon is even close to that point.

Having read Brandon's thesis, let me recommend against it for anyone else. Sure, there are some things in there that are not found in Brandon's other books. However: There are things in there that are found in Brandon's other books, which have been changed. (Such as the shattered plain, lightweaving, etc....) In my opinion, almost nothing from that thesis will survive unchanged. Anything learned in it is non-canonical. So, you would just be reading to see Brandon's very early mind in action. This is a very early work, and not well written at all. Sometimes it is like reading an inaccurate spoiler-board. I personally hated the experience at those times. I hope that is helpful.

But the question is: Was it really Steelheart's power which transmuted the skull, like Tia and Prof claimed to David? Or was it already steel because that was part of his becoming an epic?

That might be the case, but I don't think they have ever specifically said what they cut out of the epics. Also, do we know that the skull is solid steel?

No, this isn't about her secretly being an epic (which theory I like). Rather, this is about the secret organization she belongs to, which she wouldn't tell David too much about. At the end of Steelheart, Tia and Prof were much too quick to say that Steelheart's skull being turned to steel was some accident. It is my opinion that his skull can act as the motivator for epic-tech, and they both knew this. Which would mean that someone could essentially gain (one of, perhaps all of) Steelheart's powers through technology. Do we know if they let David keep the skull? I would think Tia would be quick to send it off to a lab. On that note, we know that this "epic-tech" can interfere with other epics' powers. Would this be a possible hack to kill Prof (if it came to that)? Just find the right type of epic-powered tech to interfere with his different powers (which would take some doing) and then presto.

When David was offered the powers, he felt them and called them tainted. He had already overcome his fear, so what he was being offered was corrupt independent of any fear he might have needed to overcome. So no, I don't think he would have been able to pick up the powers without feeling the corruption, because he had faced his fears and yet still felt the corruption inherent in the offer. He rightly refused the "gift".

We've seen some strange limitations when epic powers come in contact with organic life. Steelheart's "steelization" power doesn't work on living things, but does work on recently dead bodies. Prof's tensors don't on organic life as well. But we also have some weird examples of epic powers interacting with life, such as Dawnslight's power to make fortune cookie trees. Does anyone have any thoughts/theories about this? I have to say I'm a little stumped.

Has anyone had the gumption, temerity, or just down-right awesomeness to ask Brandon what David's power would have been if he had accepted it??

Hmmm... you want down-votes and in return you'll give up-votes? Sounds like a potato in a minefield to me. You get a down-vote!

I love it when a plan comes together... and sharks come apart.

Having lived in Alabama/Mississippi for two years, my experience was that "y'all" could be used either way. The wiki article says that there is "long-standing disagreement" on this issue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%27all While y'all is the southern second-person pronoun, nobody realizes that they also have four different third person masculine singulars! "Him", "you", "that", and "that there".

From what we learn in Firefight, it appears that epics have different levels of weaknesses. For instance, Sourcefield's electricity is dampened by kool-aid, but her power is completely nullified if she drinks it. Similarly, Steelheart's weakness to damage could only be exploited by someone not afraid of him, but the mere presence of someone who was unafraid did not negate his powers completely. So, what was Steelheart's true weakness? What would have led to his (temporary) loss of all powers?

Who would win between a snapped Prof and Steelheart? I supposed Prof would just try to squeeze Steelheart to death. But I doubt that the forcefield would actually do any direct damage. Does Steelheart need to breath? If so, then Prof would win quite handily. Since Prof's forcefield was able to redirect the Obliteration bomb, I imagine it could also redirect Steelheart's energy blast if need be. So it seems like Prof could at least neutralize Steelheart for an indefinite amount of time. Perhaps a better question is who would win between Obliteration and Prof? The forcefield squeezing trick wouldn't work because Oblit would teleport away. I suppose Oblit could set off a heat-bomb close enough to Prof that he wouldn't be able to simply redirect the energy; but Prof could simply hide inside one of his own forcefields. I wonder if the Reckoners could combine an Obliteration bomb with a device built from Sourcefield's body to pass through objects, to destroy Prof.?

Good point. But if Obliteration was touching David when he teleported, then David would have ported as well.

550456, I agree with your thoughts. I also think that people are trying way to hard to try to re-interpret Prof's final gifting as some "stealing ability".

Who is to say that David did not gain epic powers from Calamity? Sure, he didn't ever use them. But how do we know that he doesn't still have the potential to do so? Perhaps if he is overly tempted? Are we so certain it was a one-shot deal? Along these lines, do we know whether people can refuse giftings from other epics?

I don't think he just transferred away, because the explosion actually burns David, but previous teleportations did not involve any explosions. It seemed to me that Obliteration committed suicide.

I like all these theories, but here is another one to chew on. Perhaps his weakness is related to his class of children. Then again, I imagine that when Prof first got his powers, he may have just killed them all.

This might also explain why powers from different Epics cannot held by the same person. The universes those powers come from have incompatible physics.