Fifth of Daybreak

I don't spend much time talking about Renarin, so I wanted to talk about his role in chapter 29 and whether or not it will serve as a trial by fire for him and his confidence in the future. I think the groundwork has been laid. He's comfortable enough with Bridge Four that Shallan noticed it, and then has been well trained enough to fall in line when given orders. Finally, he will have tangible evidence of his value in battle from his ability to heal his friends and comrades I'm Bridge Four. He'll come to understand that he was instrumental in the victory and grow from here, having been part of the first battle against the ancient spren of the enemy.

That whole situation just didn't work out in his favor. A proto radiant stepped in and took out one of his followers. That's like a double whammy.

It seems counter-intuitive until you grow one out. Back when I kept it short I would consider it just a mustache, now mustaches make sense to me. It's actually a process itself just to keep it meshed into two distinct mustaches and not a relatively good looking handlebar mustache on one side and on the other side the half a mustache closest to your lip is just sticking straight down and looks ridiculous. (Sorry about the scruff, it's the last day of my once every three weeks five day weekend.)

@JoyBlu I'm not opposed to dressing up as him, but he's described as short and I'm a little closer to Kaladin's height on that side of things.

Good find. I have to agree with this interpretation.

I don't think so, in the one, in the instance you supply, the magic is rewriting the history of the object in order to change the present. Regrowth is accessing forces in the present to enact changes.

I disagree. From other characters maybe I'd be open to an argument of boasting, but Dalinar is a reliable narrator. There's no reason he'd mislead us in this.

Is it too on the nose to say Hoid?

It was Yalb of course!

When you realize Mraize's shoulder chicken is a weapon of mass destruction.

Mraize says that Helaran sought out the Skybreakers, so it's actually likely that Nalan wanted to kill Amaram. Since Amaram lived his life so nobly before then, the running theory is the battlefield was the only way Nalan could find to do it "legally."

Sometimes I get paid overtime to sleep so it evens out haha.

I have an idea, and I wanted to start out here, but rest assured I will get appropriate permission from the venue as well depending on how discussion goes here. I was lucky enough to win a Calamity give away that netted me a whole stack of postcards from each of the books as well as cutout figures for Limelight, Firefight and David. I've wanted a way to get this out to other Sanderson fans that was cost effective to me, but I've already exhausted my personal friends and family. So I had an idea to get to the signing in Chicago I'm already planning to go to early and run a 17th Shard gameshow for an hour or so and give away all the extras as prizes. I recently invested in some equipment so I could get it all recorded and post it on the site later. It would probably just all be trivia, but I'm welcome to any brainstorming ideas people have here. Before I go through with this though, I wanted to make sure that I'm not stepping on any toes, and I wanted to start with the shard.

The Anderson bookshop outside Chicago is about two and a half from me, but I'm pretty used to long drives. I'm a paramedic, and Chicago is actually one of the closer big cities we take patients to on a regular basis. I work for a private service and we do a lot of transfers between hospitals, and I work 24 hour shifts, so doing 5 hours in a car in one day is like a piece of cake for me haha. That's something I could do in a single sitting at work and still have 19 hours left in my shift.

Now I just have to decide if I should ask him about this at the Chicago signing.

@Alderant 99.99% sure we see eye to eye after the other post now.

Thanks for putting so much effort in. It shows. Oooo! I think we agree far more than we disagree at this point. I'm going to put the rest of my comments in a spoiler tag for heavy Warbreaker and Emperor's Soul discussion. @Leyrann , Emperor's Soul should be a priority for you if you're interested in identity. It's the focus of the story. I also think because of this that Shallan was not actually the one enacting the changes on the deserters, but rather, she made them into squires and gave them the ability to do it to themselves, as she can't be an external force imposing this change, it has to come from an internal impetus to perceive yourself differently then make that change a reality. So she shows Bluth the picture originally and plants the seed, and her continued efforts to exude confidence and power attract Bluth, who eventually becomes recruited and a squire like Bridge Four. Later, he steals the picture and starts to actually believe that's who he could be, at least with someone like Shallan leading him instead of Tyvlotsofsylables, and the changed perception combined with Shallan allowing him to access soulcasting investiture speeds up that organic change a hundred fold. Your argument about magic not being the reason for everything is excellent, and has been thematically explored throughout the story. Kaladin isn't a super spearman because magic, he's an excellent spearman with idealism and that attracted the magic spren. Shallan can't inspire others to change and become better because of magic, but her ability to adapt and change herself and inspire the same in others attracted the spren who was interested in that sort of thing and who could augment the abilities. So unless I'm not fully understanding what you're saying, I think we see eye to eye. Shallan wouldn't have been able to do this to Sadeas, as Sadeas thinks of himself as the prime Sadeas already. He's the best highprince there is, so there's no way to get him to perceive himself as something better, therefore no way to 'soulcast' him into a better version of himself. Without his own internal view of what he can become and a perception that he's already becoming it, she would only be able to traditionally soulcast him.

Words of Brandon on the subject seem pretty definitive, but I think that your arguments were absolutely convincing and that your ideas on perception are crucial to this and instrumental in making the magic work which is why I was even cued into the Warbreker tie.

It's more that she's changing her innate perception of herself which allows her magical abilities to make the change, once she changes how she views herself, she no longer has that trigger point, and the change reverts. That concentrated and held perception, that she's different than she is, acts as a sort of internal mental soulstamp.

Don't open the spoiler box and keep reading Warbreaker It's so good. Come back here when you're done and give me your opinion.

Not if she's accessing the same perception altering Cosmere skill set Zahel uses as I suggest in my OP.

Urgh! My cpu had a small rebellious moment with the copy paste. That wasn't supposed to be there at all. Yeah, I think she took a huge step toward solving everything in this chapter.

Are you kidding? This was the perfect task for Shallan. Re-Shepir:“And what if I think I’m beginning to understand you?” Shallan: “Then I’m at a severe advantage, Kabsal tried that line already."

Here, have one of mine...oh wait.

I really want Thaylen eyebrows.