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DSC01

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Everything posted by DSC01

  1. See, my assumption is that Jasnah will turn up soon after the murder is discovered. She would never be a suspect otherwise. My hypothesis that Ialai will blame Jasnah is entirely dependent on her showing up, alive, amidst the furor surrounding Sadeas's death. That would cast a lot of suspicion on her. As for an assassin leaving a Shardblade behind, I really, really doubt that they would do that. Shardblades are worth waaaaaaaay more than whatever they're being paid. I expect that the discovery of the Shardblade will be a huge wild card for the investigation of the case. The value of a Shardblade is such that one would take enormous risks to retain one. Certainly, someone risking their life to kill someone for $5 thousand would go ahead and abandon their instructions when $5 billion dropped into their lap.
  2. Adolin probably has the knife. It's most likely what he used to cut the cuffs off of his coat. A Shardblade would not be good for that at all. As for Jasnah hiring assassins, why not? There are almost certainly a couple of assassins among the thousands that were brought to Urithiru. Spanreeds allow for instant communication. If Ialai were to imagine that Jasnah's apparent death was part of some scheme, I don't see why she wouldn't think that Jasnah was also in constant contact with agents she had on the Shattered Plains. So, let's say you're an average (fairly high-ranking) guy among the Urithiru refugees, and you find out that Sadeas has been murdered. Would you suspect Adolin? Dalinar? Elhokar? I doubt it. Then Jasnah shows up, back from the dead, a couple of days later...
  3. You know, reading that now, it occurs to me that Adolin probably intends to retrieve Oathbringer and stash it somewhere. I had always read him ditching it as sort of a panicked reaction. My thinking was that he freaked out, threw away the Shardblade, then calmed down a bit and covered up the evidence. Looking at that again, getting rid of Oathbringer was part of him calming down and obscuring the evidence. To be fair, it isn't completely insane to read someone throwing a Shardblade out a window as a panicked course of action.
  4. I was thinking that it doesn't really matter when they find his body, in terms of whether or not Ialai will blame Jasnah. She would suspect Jasnah of sending assassins, not of doing the deed herself.
  5. No, we're not sure that he's going to be found out. I, for one, suspect that it will not become public knowledge. If it does, it will be a huge scandal, I'm sure, and it will put Elhokar in a very difficult position (and probably Dalinar, too). But I don't see that working for the plot. It would be a huge distraction, unless those calling for Adolin's blood were quickly stomped on by Dalinar putting his foot down and declaring that he's the boss now. The story does seem to be leaning towards Dalinar taking total control as a benevolent dictator, but I don't think that Adolin killing Sadeas being what takes us there is something that works very well. I think that the biggest impact that Sadeas's death will have will result from Ialai's reaction. She is sure to cause some huge problems when she retaliates, and she may not even retaliate against the right person. In fact, I would wager that Jasnah would be her most likely target. When she reappears, Ialai will probably assume that her supposed death was part of a scheme of some sort, Jasnah being the most conniving of Sadeas's enemies. I can see that being how Adolin's guilt comes out: Jasnah is targeted by Ialai's assassins, and Adolin eventually feels terrible enough about it that he confesses his deed.
  6. I may be wrong, but I think that Thanos had the Mind Stone and lent it to Loki to aid in acquiring the Tesseract.
  7. I got Duskfall and Good Omens today. I've never read Good Omens before, despite its enormous popularity, and I heard some good things about Duskfall.
  8. What I'm talking about is how readers are morally judging Adolin. I realize that this is somewhat tangential to the topic at hand, but inevitably, discussions on what is going to happen to Adolin come down to the morality of him killing Sadeas. And inevitably, tons of people seem to think that it is the worst thing that any character in the series has done. Edit: P.S. The standards of moral judgement to which I refer are not necessarily derived from a perspective that is wholly outside of the story. What do you think Honor's moral judgement would be? What do you think Cultivation's is? Etc.
  9. I totally understand that Alethi society would judge Adolin more harshly, but considerations of whether or not Adolin might go over to Odium, etc., are likely not dependent on Alethi values. That's what I find odd about a lot of discussions about Adolin killing Sadeas: many people seem to be adopting an Alethi view of morality. Yes, how the Alethi view ethics is very important in considering what the consequences will be, but it seems to me that the series invites the reader to judge characters' actions outside of the context of their society's views on morality. These are people who are scandalized by nude hands (as long as it's the left one and is on a woman). It's indecent for men and women to eat the same kinds of foods. The color of one's eyes determines the extent to which one will be treated as a human being. Conflict is treated as a positive thing--conflict just for its own sake, mind you--with petty squabbles that result in the loss of life for no good reason treated as glorious affairs. And maybe we're arguing at cross-purposes here and actually agree, but the same can't be said of what I've seen in other arguments. A lot of people seem to think that Adolin is an attainted villain for killing Sadeas--horrified that he would do something so wicked--while they think Jasnah essentially blameless, almost as if they themselves have adopted an Alethi view of morality. And, again, of course Alethi law and Alethi values will determine a lot about how Adolin is treated by other Alethi, but these have nothing to do with whatever standard of moral judgement might be applied to determine his suitability for being a Knight Radiant or the possibility that he will be turned to Odium.
  10. The other background looks like it's the Everstorm and a Highstorm, about to collide.
  11. But a premeditated murder is always judged more harshly than a crime of passion. What Jasnah did was unquestionably more dark than what Adolin did. Sadeas was a self-admitted threat to the safety of the world. That threat needed to be removed. Did Adolin go about it the wrong way? Sure. But that is waaaaaaaaaaaaay different from coldly luring some petty thugs into a situation where you can execute them, simply as an illustration for an ethics lesson. Adolin may have lost control, but it wasn't just hotheaded nonsense. Sadeas had been conspiring against him and his family for months. He was a traitor and a selfish manipulator. And after being treated honorably over and over and over again, all while apparently doing everything he could to prove that he was not worthy of such treatment, he vows that he will kill Adolin's father right to face--that he will undermine their efforts to save the world, even as he stands in a mythic city after escaping an apocalyptic storm (both strong evidence that saving the world is exactly what his opponents are doing). So, yes, maybe Adolin could snap again. You know, if someone once again spends months attempting to wipe out his family with impunity, then happily affirms to Adolin, in person, that he's not going to stop trying to murder them. Anyone might be expected to snap under that kind of pressure. The same cannot be said of deliberately plotting to entice someone into an alley so that you can kill them in cold blood. I don't see either Jasnah or Adolin's actions as unforgivable--or even all that criminal, honestly--in the context of this fantasy world, but realistically, it's just insane to look at Adolin as the bigger offender.
  12. Worm by Wildbow. It's really good.
  13. I just signed up to do voice acting. I'm not sure that I understand this newfangled Discord app you kids are using, but I'll get along. Obviously, I won't be needed for a little while, but I've been interested in voice acting for some time and feel that I could be an asset. I'll follow this thread and everything, and you have my email (through Discord) if you need anything from me.
  14. Where is that coming from? I assume a WoB of some kind. I guess I missed it. I suppose my wording was imprecise, regardless. I shouldn't say that it won't be a big deal because I'm sure the death of Highprince will cause a huge uproar. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that everyone keeps clutching their pearls over this enormous trespass that dear little Adolin has committed, and I think everyone is overreacting on that front. I'm not saying that there will be no consequences for Adolin personally, and that the aftermath is all going to be the political consequences of a Highprince's death. I just don't think that people are focusing on the right things when it comes to Adolin. So many people view it as this huge sin that he committed, and that just doesn't match up with other events, in my view. What about Jasnah and many other nobles' habit of hiring assassins? What about the fact that the official plan for dealing with Sadeas was to corner him into a duel and kill him that way? While there are circumstances that make this particular killing different than the ones that the Alethi seem to just accept, the idea that Adolin did something that is light years away from normal Alethi behavior (and that it is one of the greatest moral failings imaginable) seems way off to me.
  15. I think we fans have chased the idea of the consequences for Adolin around in circles constantly and may be totally over-thinking it. It's probably really not that big a deal. There will surely be personal consequences, but this isn't the crime of the century here.
  16. I think that it would be interesting if the disarray in Hearthstone (after the Everstorm blows through and gives all the Parshmen Stormform) actually brings out the best in Roshone, and Kaladin finds him governing well for once in his life. It's not that I want him to be redeemed or anything--the guy's a total jerk--but that would be interesting. The one thing that I'm really hoping does not happen is for Kaladin to find that someone important, whether one or both of his parents, Laral--whoever--is missing, and he decides that he needs to go on a mission to find them. Nothing is more annoying than a subplot that requires a character to put their activities related to the main arc on hold. As much as I like The Wheel of Time, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of pages dedicated to characters doing anything at all besides what they ought to be doing with the end of the world at hand. That's not to say that I'm opposed to any of the characters being missing; I just don't want Kaladin to put being a Radiant on hold to run around looking for them. I also really, really don't want Kaladin to end up in jail again or something like that. He can summon his blade any time he wants, Stormlight or no, so that should be enough to quickly resolve the inevitable confrontation with guys who consider him a lowly Darkeyes and escaped slave to be resolved. I don't want some contrived reason that no one will take him seriously. We've already had two books of Kaladin being largely looked down upon, despite the fact that he is a freaking KNIGHT RADIANT. That's been more than enough, thank you.
  17. A messenger, who is already involved in several administrations' politics, teams up with a thief for an adventure.
  18. Oo, Dragonriders of Pern?
  19. So... You're reading other books... to celebrate the release of unrelated ones...? That seems odd... I mean, hey, to each his own. I was browsing through the comments thread on Brandon's Oathbringer update on Facebook, and I saw that one person commented that they were just going to read The Wheel of Time to tide them over while they waited. I was like, "But-but-but--I've read WoT three times since Words of Radiance came out. It can't tide me over any longer!!!"
  20. I started reading Slade House by David Mitchell last night. I probably would have read the whole thing, but I stared falling asleep, so I stopped halfway through. It's short (a novella by fantasy standards, I suppose, but it's over 200 pages), but it ties into The Bone Clocks, which I unfortunately read long enough ago that I'm probably missing the less obvious connections. Anyway, Mitchell is one great author. I hardly ever read anything but epic fantasy, but his writing is really gripping. Granted, this is technically fantasy, even if it's not epic fantasy, but it's of a more literary bent. I also normally hate present-tense writing to the point that I can't even read books written that way, but Mitchell writes present tense so much in the POV character's voice that it really is like someone telling you a story about something that happened to them. It isn't distracting at all.
  21. Remember, the Nahel bond is unique to Roshar. Nightblood is an artificial spren, of sorts, but what he did on Nalthis is not like the Nahel bond. What he does on Roshar, on the other hand, will be. That isn't to say that there won't be something along the lines of what the OP mentions, where Szeth feels compelled to kill himself, but it seems like some people are making the assumption that what we've already seen in Warbreaker characterizes how Nightblood is going to work on Roshar. I do not think that that is the case at all.
  22. As far as I know, Kenton has not been seen in person; however, there is a Kenton Street in Luthadel in the first Mistborn trilogy, so it seems that he may have done something before disappearing altogether.
  23. There is lots of extreme violence, including sexual violence, in The Second Apocalypse. There is no way for me to explain what I mean without using language more graphic than is acceptable on this site. I would absolutely not recommend it for anyone as young as 12. I know that's likely to only make you want to read it more, but honestly, I don't think much of the philosophical meandering that characterizes the series would be all that interesting to a 12 year old. That's not to denigrate any age group's intellectual capabilities--many young people are interested in subjects that adults dismissively assume to be beyond them--but some subjects are just going to be more interesting to someone in their 30s than to a preteen. Add graphic violence, language, and sexual situations to such subject matter, and I really think you should stay away.
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