Fifth of Daybreak

This^ I know it's not intentional, but it seems like you're ignoring a good number of people who have experience with depression and are saying "this is exactly what it's like." I know it's hard to relate to, I've had this conversation with friends in real life who complained about Kaladin. I get it, depression makes it seem like someone is being willfully obstinate or unreasonable. It's not the case, it's a disease process. Just like you can't tell someone to just get over OCD, you can't just say that someone's clinical depression is a 'choice.' It's hard for others to relate to Kaladin because of those periods of depression. For those of us who have experienced it, it's why we relate to him. Without that life experience fighting the disease, you just cannot appreciate both the accuracy in which it's depicted and the sense of vindication we feel seeing our disease handled seriously like Brandon has. I know you aren't meaning to be offensive or hurtful, but if you were having this conversation with a friend who had depression, I would bet they would both feel hurt that you aren't taking their experiences seriously, as well as losing trust between you. When you have several people telling you from the own experiences that this is depression, telling us that you disagree and that it can't be is tantamount to saying that our experiences and hardship doesn't matter because it's not logical. Depression isn't logical. It's unreasonable in that it doesn't need reasons to make you sad or muted. I hope you don't take this as an attack on you or anything similar. I'm not upset or hurt, but I feel like I need to be very direct and blunt to get my point across. I definitely understand it's hard to comprehend or relate without the requisite experiences, but please try to take our comments at face value without doubting them. We do know what it is like.

I think you're looking at it backwards. Like Calderis was getting at, Kaladin isn't a moody guy who got depression after a bunch of messed up stuff happened to him. He's a guy with depression who ended having a bunch of messed up stuff happen to him but manages to survive the mental strain, just barely. You can't analyze depression in the way you want, at least in my experiences. I couldn't tell you why some days I'm fine and some days I lay in my apartment on the floor and stare at the ceiling for an extended period of time because none of the things I usually like sound good. Depression is 'unreasonable' period. It does not need reason or to be explained, it's in its nature not to be easily explained.

I think you're looking for a far too simplified 'answer' to what depression actually is. Depression is a little of the first, a little of the second, but the majority is an indescribable feeling of the world being muted from my own experiences. Outside events can certainly trigger depressive episodes, and having a depressive episode can make you sad despite happy circumstances. It can also make you ambivalent to even just regular things you'd normally take pleasure in: a sunrise, a good meal, a night out with friends. I've had days where I've laid on the floor and stared at the ceiling. As for the best course of treatment, there's no clear answer. I've found a way to manage mine without medication, but when I was younger and trying to find out how to manage, both with and without meds, I had a few of my own 'Honor Chasm' moments. One of the times that most sticks out to me was on my birthday my Sophomore year. It happened to also be the night of our spring musical. Whenever I wasn't onstage i found a quiet area of the dressing room to cry, though I wouldn't have been able to tell you what was wrong. If you're looking for straight up and down answers on depression, I don't think you'll be satisfied. It isn't just a list of symptoms, but a net of inhibitions that affect your whole life.

She made her own decision to leave the cognitive realm against the Stormfather's orders to make herself vulnerable and bond a human. Her mortality is her own responsibility now. Pattern accepts as much when he states that Shallan will eventually kill him. Most spren treat this as a forgone conclusion, Syl uses it as a weapon against Kaladin, even if unintentionally.

I'm big enough to admit that the stick is over hyped, but that does change my love for stick and that scene! I'm probably about to open up a giant can of worms here. I think Syl is over hyped. I do like and enjoy Syl, but there are things about her character that I find troubling. More than any other spren, she's treated her bind with Kaladin like it is his responsibility to keep her alive. Maybe this is something that other spren will develop, but it plays out sometimes to me as an abusive relationship where Syl is using the threat if her death as a club to force Kaladin's actions. It makes me especially uncomfortable because at times it almost seems to be an exploitation of Kaladin''s depression. This all is motivated by the fact that she is not intentionally and maliciously manipulating him in this way, but there's a certain innate possessiveness and controlling aspect to her character that makes their relationship seem to have a very unhealthy dynamic. Even on her return to him, she says that she has claimed him and he is hers. She wasn't killed, because their bond hadn't progressed far enough if I understand correctly, so up until then she could even have theoretically found someone else to bond. I don't dislike Syl, and I don't think she has a bad character, but I do think she's over hyped as an innocent and honorable character when there is a darker side of her actions and behaviors.

Best two comedy moments: "I am a stick!" Shallan hugging Hoid. Oathbringer spoilers from today for the new best scene:

Haha that was me asking, but it was when I was away from the forums.

Welcome! Poke around and be amazed at how much you don't know. "There's always another secret."

Hey guys, I'm only three years late, you still want my reactions right? Right? Unfortunately, I did finish the series up that year, so my reactions won't be as fresh and now has the benefit of hindsight, however, seeing as how I'm coming back to the forums I think it's only right that I take the time to finish up some of the things I left behind. Thankfully, I just finished listening to the series again, so it's pretty fresh in my mind. There was a lot of action in this book, which I think was a giant relief for me. I did not enjoy Crossroads of Twilight very much, and was glad to see things get moving again. At the same token, this is when the tragedy of RJ's death really struck me. With everything finally culminating and his meticulously crafted stories finally coming together, it's truly heart wrenching. I'm using the Wiki as a slight refresher (I'm on aMoL now in my listen through, so I has been at least a few weeks since I finished it again) so I'm going to use the same format it does and go character by character. Mat Can I just take a second here to appreciate the beauty that is Talmanes? Out of all the side characters throughout the series, he grew on me the most, and this is when he really started to shine. Oh yeah, talking about Mat. Mat's arc was probably my favorite. I've been gearing up for artillery warfare for a while, and this was a great first start for it. It was nice to finally get confirmation that Moraine was coming back. I never expected that reveal and resolution to take as long as it did. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Tuon and Mat, especially following the cringe fest that was Tylin. My favorite part of the book absolutely was when Tuon married him back and used his own words. I guffawed, chortled, giggled, and literally laughed out loud when this happened. Especially since she just up and leaves right after that. Mat will never understand his wife, not like Perrin does. Rand. Rand's chapters put me on edge. RJ did a great job building up the rage and fury inside Rand, making him less and less relatable even as you want to connect with the main protagonist. The growing conflict between Lews Therin and Rand continued to confuse me, even after Semirhage's reveals what's going on. It seems as though it's still a byproduct of the taint, so it didn't make sense for me that Rand's condition would continue to deteriorate. Cadsuane remains the ultimate badass and my favorite female character. (Apologies to Argent.) The confrontation with Semirhage I felt didn't really live up to the tension that was foreshadowing it. I'd have a problem with it, except that it was Nynaeve and Cadsuane who mitigated the disaster, and I'm alright with that. There has been more than enough proof of both their competency and the strength of their ter'angreal that it didn't ruin the tension too much for me. Egwene Still wasn't the biggest Egwene fan. I felt like the power balance between her and the rebel hall was still far too skewed, even after Egwene had proven she was at least as adept at manipulation as the hall was. I'm going to call it up to more of my problems with how the aes sedai are portrayed and not spend a lot of time thinking about. Lelaine and Romanda get enough screen time without me fixating on them. I was pretty happy to see Egwene get captured though. It showed she was still flawed as a leader, and an aes sedai. Too much competency was starting to ruin Egwene's arc. Siuan, keep giving me boatfulls of fish metaphors. They've become my favorite and least favorite part of the series simultaneously. I know it will never happen, but I'd totally buy a copy of "Siuan Sanche's Wisdom from the Sea-a fish metaphor for every situation." Perrin. Finally we get down to business with the Shaido. This bogged the series down for way too long. I appreciate the growth that Perrin went to, but at some point I just wanted to move onto more important things than defeating an enemy for the second time. Tylee was my favorite part of this arc and one of the only Seanchan I felt I could relate to. Aram's demise just felt like a waste to me. I feel like his entire character could be cut from the series and nothing would be lost. Good riddance to Masema too. I could have been done with him after the Great Hunt. Surprisingly, I found the Faile chapters more interesting than Perrin's. I think she really had a lot of growth as a character and made up for her insufferable attitude in earlier books. Though I was incredibly depressed when the brotherless died. She seemed to get over that rather quickly, and I was honestly expecting some sort of Ta'veren event to bring the brotherless under Perrin's banner. Elayne Elayne is still boring. You have to capture the throne you are next in line for? Oh good. Rand's already gotten so many of those he didn't even want your throne. Wake me up when you stop acting like a spoiled child and start acting like a ruler. There's no reason Egwene should be showing more sense and leadership skills than someone who was literally raised for the position. Loial It's nice to have a fantasy wedding that doesn't end in bloodshed. Galad I take back everything bad I've ever said about the White Cloaks. With him as Lord Captain Commander I was actually excited about their future involvement in the series. Lan/Nynaeve I didn't really understand why Lan all of a sudden just decided he wanted to ditch his wife and go ride to his death. The timing seemed strange. This did allow for my favorite Nynaeve scene in the whole series though. She finally embraced her Aes Sedai side, manipulated Lan deftly, and re-established Malkier as a kingdom (in a way.) Deal with it Aan'allein The black tower Taim's a bad guy. This is my shocked face. I think that about covers it for this book. I'm probably going to give it at least a week before I move on to the next one.

When you work in emergency medical services and think you should be filling your metalminds for when the next emergency call comes in.

Thanks for the correction. It seems like other shards wouldn't be directly aware of a pincushion without being tipped off to it's presence in some way. Ruin's blind spot with the Kandra at least suggests as much, whereas Harmony would be more directly aware of actions taken on Scadrial to set the chain of events in action. Still, it's an appropriate update to the question. How large is a Shardholder's sphere of influence to exert that kind of control?

We know that Harmony/Ruin can exert control over beings who have been pierced by two or more spikes, and the more spikes the more susceptible you are, but do we know how far that control can be effective? I assume that there would be no issue if someone were to use the perpendicularity to travel into the cognitive realm on Scadrial, but if they were able to travel off planet to somewhere else in the Cosmere, would Harmony still be able to control their actions? To create a practical example, let's say a full feruchemist has dreams of becoming a magic pincushion and the knowledge to do it, so he gathers all the necessary spikes and manages to make it to another planet without being stopped by Harmony's agents. Would he be able to spike himself (logistics of doing that alone aside) and still maintain his free will? Obviously he would never return to Scadrial for dear of being controlled, but is this something that's possible?

Welcome! Sounds like you've got a lt of great reading ahead of you!

I need to get around to the Alcatraz books and the newest novellas.

Yup, that's absolutely conclusive. Thanks for setting me straight.

You've argued your side well. I'm fully convinced. Thanks for the prolonged engagement, I appreciate it.

Where have we seen evidence that a stronger slider could overpower the bubble of a weaker Pulser, or vice versa? It always says the effects counter each other, not that it's a contest of allomantic strength to see which bubble survives.

Again, then stronger allomancer flaring their metals would be able to overpower a bubble of a weaker allomancer who is not flaring, and we know this to be false. This is empirical evidence that they don't all work under the rules.

I might be wrong on this but I remember Brandon saying that he developed the rest of the metals after finishing the series. It was in a discussion where he mentioned that he hated to include time magic. When I say it was developed separately I mean in the meta. The allomantic table wasn't complete when Brandon Finished Hero of Ages.

The time metals are different than the rest, they were even designed apart from them. Other metals don't cancel each other out like that, they work based on strength of the allomancer and the strength of the metal flare. This doesn't hold true for the time metals, so we can't assume that everything between them is completely analogous.

Welcome!

Basically I'm saying that the opposite pulses work as signal jammers on each other. As soon as one covers the 'radio tower,' it can no longer power the rest of the bubble because it's being blocked at the source.

The misting is still the origin of the allomantic pulses. The WoB does make me lean towards your answer, but it seems to me that as soon as the pulses hit the other allomancer it would negate the effect. They may not be able to move the bubble, but they still need to sustain it, and I assume that the allomantic pulses would still be involved somehow.

I think disrupting the bubble at the origin would be enough to suppress the whole effect.