DSC01

I could see it happening, but the fact that Vasher shows up in WoR, and Vivenna is nowhere to be found, struck me as somewhat ominous. I know that there are a million ways that it would not indicate that anything had happened to her. Vasher remains the consummate antisocial grump, and whatever companionship the two shared, it is easy to imagine that they would have parted ways, how ever many years later it is. It's just an idea I had. My thinking was that Vasher seems pretty morose in WoR. While that's really just his character, I got the impression that perhaps his travels with Vivenna might do him some good. I just had a gut feeling that if he's back to where he started in Warbreaker, maybe something happened to her. He doesn't seem particularly depressed, but given what he has gone through in his life, I wouldn't expect him to, even if something really bad had happened to him.

Fain life. Yeah, me too. It's also part of why I think Adonalsium was dead. Like a spiritual mold or something.

I don't think Adonalsium was already Shattered. I think that whoever/whatever served the purpose of Shareholder for Adonalsium was dead, but the power itself was whole.

I guess that really depends on how his healing actually works--in particular, just how deep the well of Investiture is that fuels his healing. Hasn't it been confirmed that Nightblood basically is a Shardblade? I don't think it should make too much of a difference.

The 17th Shard are almost certainly after Hoid because he violates their strict non-interventionist policy at every opportunity, and they are very worried that he will do some real damage. As Frost (probably) says: He continues: Now, as to Hoid's role in the Shattering, which we can at present only make the wildest of guesses about, I don't think it had anything to do with preventing Adonalsium's death. I think, based on The Liar of Partinel, that Adonalsium was already dead (I know the sample chapters aren't canon, but I would imagine that the conditions described therein--or something similar--will persist in whatever ends up being canon). Conditions are bad in The Liar of Partinel. The level of technology is like ancient Sumeria, maybe. The environment is pretty much apocalyptic--I'd say nearly as bad as Scadrial after Ruin is freed, if in a very different way. And that, I believe, is why Adonalsium was Shattered. With no consciousness to guide the power, things were going haywire. Maybe it was too much for one human to take the whole thing, and they had to break it up. Maybe they accidentally Shattered it, trying to create cracks to let a consciousness in, similar to how humans need cracks in their spiritweb to let Investiture in.

Obviously, the WoB Moogle posted pretty definitively shoots down the main thesis of the OP, but I still think it's interesting to compare Odium to Ruin. See, I think readers are often tempted to look at Ruin as an evil god in the way that Odium is, but I don't think that's terribly accurate. For one thing, when Vin hears Ruin's voice while she's in the Well of Ascension, he sounds kind. I don't think that was just a deception. Hoid says that Ati was a kind person. I vaguely recall a WoB that said that Ruin is more like Cultivation than Odium (that may not be wholly accurate--vague recollection, after all). We kind of see into Ruin's head, via Marsh's POVs in the first Mistborn trilogy. His thinking has been entirely by Ruin, and it's rather horrific. Ruin's nightmarish vision of total destruction seems to resonate with Odium's destructiveness, and it's easy to equate the two. But Odium is much, much worse. That's what is so interesting to me about the comparison: Ruin was actually really nice compared to Odium. We haven't seen into Odium's head yet, but having seen into Ruin's, maybe we don't want to...

I do see the possibility that Roshar will be destroyed, and the survivors will flee to other Shardworlds, but I would see that happening in book 10. I would say that, no, Radiants wouldn't be able to get Stormlight anymore off of Roshar. They could figure out a way to hack other systems and fuel their Surgebinding with an alternate form of Investiture, but it wouldn't be Stormlight. Of course, if the Shards made it out and Invested elsewhere, they might be able to set up a system that provided something like Stormlight. I'm pretty sure that WoB confirms that the planets themselves shape how the magic systems express themselves, so if that did happen, it wouldn't be exactly the same as on Roshar. It would be very interesting if the series ends with all surviving Rosharans becoming refugee worldhoppers. It seems likely that this was how humans came to live on Roshar in the first place, so it would have a nice cyclical quality to it. That would also have huge implications for other Cosmere series in the future. I would then expect the sci-fi Mistborn series to feature a whole bunch of Rosharans.

So, if I understand the idea correctly, the idea isn't to ridiculously misinterpret the literal meaning of the quote; rather, we're to come up with a phony literary analysis-type thing? Say, we quote a description of some every-day object, then try to justify how it represents the author feeling alienated from his mother?

The sword could be nicrosil, too. We don't know how that works yet, but I imagine that if you have a lot of different powers, you could use stored Investiture to power any of them. I got the opposite impression as you about the military uniform. I would think that a snug uniform would be really bad at hiding bracelets and stuff. The things is, Hoid's version of feruchemy might not even rely on metal. All magic on Scadrial relates to metal in some way, but that's a characteristic of the planet itself more than of the magic systems. If a form of Lightweaving or Awakening had developed there, it would have involved metal somehow.

Personally, I doubt that worldhoppers will play a major part in Stormlight. Obviously, there's a connection to Nalthis, but I just don't know if the Cosmere story is quite at that stage yet. I'd say that there probably will be a lot of minor revelations and links to other worlds/series, but I think more of them will be Easter Egg-type things and not a major part of the plot. In particular, I think that Scadrial won't play a part any bigger than the appearance that Demoux already made (though I would be very happy to be proved wrong). I find that it's easy for me to forget exactly where we are in the greater tale of the Cosmere because I spend so much time speculating and reading WoBs and such. If you only had the books themselves to go on, you wouldn't know about Yolen or the existence of dragons or any of the many other little connections we superfans have made over the years. Heck, the Demoux appearance I just mentioned? I don't think I would have ever figured out that it's him in the Purelake interlude, or that the other two are Galladon and Baon, without the discussions here. Anyway, I think the projection that we'll have Scadrian worldhoppers playing major roles in the Stormlight finale is probably an example of getting ahead of the story because of all of that extra information we're privy to. But, again, if I'm wrong and things are moving faster than I think they are, I'd be very pleased. I have a suspicion that this Desolation may not be the disaster that previous ones were. Yes, things look really bad. In the past, there were 10 Heralds and a bunch of Radiants there to stand against the Desolation, and most of the population still died. However, everyone who wasn't a Herald or Radiant was basically a caveman who only had a weapon as nice as a crappy bronze spear because one the Heralds showed them how to make it. The lack of Heralds and dearth of Radiants is a major problem, but everything else is probably in way better shape than was generally the case during past Desolations. My prediction is that Roshar is going to be pretty battered but not totally devastated.

Nightblood and Shardblades sever the soul, and Hoid's Regrowth power heals the soul, specifically. If I recall correctly, someone asked that specific question, and Brandon said that he would still heal. My guess is that his healing is something like double gold but isn't exactly the same. I think that his feruchemy must be very different than the Scadrian version. Where are his metalminds? It seems very unlikely that they've been there all this time, but no one ever remarked on him wearing bracers and rings and earrings and such. Those would qualify as unusual attire in most of the places he's been. If they're all inside his body, then the feruchemy still works differently than Scadrian feruchemy because the couple of times internal metalminds are mentioned, it seems like they are small back ups, not primary stores.

Yo mama jokes are the best. I won't hear such slander! http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/i-put-fat-suit-understand-what-its-be-your-mom-2061

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! You should totally tweet that to Brandon.

I had to look up which arc that was. I don't want to spoil anything, so I can't really say much, but in response to "things have sure been shaken," I can only say, just you wait...

I don't mind the characters themselves so much, but, man, does Hawkman ever look like a dumb dudebro. If the Legends had a yearbook, he'd be voted Most Likely to Order a Pitcher of Beer. The pictures on his Facebook page would all be shots of himself in a mirror, iPhone in his right hand, left hand lifting his tank top so you can see his abs. I am soooooooooo mad that Cisco, who is awesome, lost his girlfriend to that douchey dude.

Little known fact about Hoid: per WoB, if he gets decapitated, his body will grow back a new head. Random dumb thing I'd like to ask Brandon: if he got decapitated on Sel, would his head grow back a body, instead?

Too bad Supergirl isn't in the same universe. That would be really cool. And speaking of disappointing things about the Arrowverse, apparently Constantine's one guest appearance is going to be it. There were rumors going around that he might be part of the ensemble in the second season of Legends of Tomorrow. Oh, well. At least we're gonna crazy stuff like Jonah Hex on Legends.

I had time to watch the first episode before work, and I have to say, it's great. I love the way they set up several mysteries and fed just enough information to us for each one to pace the story properly. The episode's resolution felt satisfying, even though everything that was resolved raised new questions. I think the key is that questions are answered, making it a more rewarding viewing experience than a show that just stacks mystery atop mystery. That's not to say that I can't appreciate a mystery. For example, I thought that the first episode of Colony was great, and there's little in the way of answers on that show. Still, it's more fun when we know a little about what's going on. I have to agree that the Jarvis couple are excellent. I suspected that they were going to try to make Mrs. Jarvis' character different than what one would expect, but she was still a nice surprise. So far, my favorite Mr. Jarvis bit is his dismay over Bernard the flamingo. Also, Dottie as a deranged Black Widow is pretty awesome. Showing up dressed as Agent Carter was great. You know she did it on purpose, but you're left to wonder if she's doing it to taunt Peggy or because she's feels a creepy lunatic's affection/obsession for her (I suspect that it's both at the same time). This season looks like it's going to be just as great as the last one.

Here are some of the problems with Kaladin and Shallan getting together: Kaladin hates the Weeping sooooooooo much, while Shallan loves it. I don't think that's just a superficial thing; rather, it seems to be a reflection of something in each of their personalities that is fundamentally opposite to the other's. And I don't think this is something that is an opposites attract/they'll complement each other kind of thing. I think it will have them butting heads constantly. Also, Syl really dislikes Cryptics. It's not just a matter of simple prejudice: Cryptics and Honorspren approach the world from opposing points of view. We haven't seen what Pattern thinks of Syl yet (from the way he's been acting, I'd bet that he doesn't even remember Honorspren), but I don't think he would have a very high opinion of her. I imagine that he would think that Honorspren's straightforward dedication to honesty is boring and beneath notice. That kind of dismissiveness would really fuel the feud between the spren, and that feud would be terrible for a relationship between Kaladin and Shallan. Remember, during their cute scenes in the Chasms, Syl was totally absent. It would have gone a whole lot differently if she had been hissing at Kaladin about the dirty, lying Cryptic the whole time. Then there's the differences in their life experiences. Shallan doesn't understand the social disparity between lighteyes and darkeyes that Kaladin has seen. Kaladin may be a little hard on lighteyes, but Shallan doesn't have the perspective to understand where his anger comes from. The way that lighteyes are usually automatically viewed as honorable, no matter how despicable they actually are, while darkeyes have to prove themselves worthy of decent treatment, is a feature of society that has seriously harmed Kaladin. Shallan, to her credit, doesn't think that way, but not being awful doesn't change the way most of the other members of society behave. Now, there are a lot of ways that these reasons it shouldn't work could be subverted to serve the story, but I would prefer that the narrative didn't go that way. Kaladin can learn to live with his depression (his aversion to the Weeping being an aspect of that) without inolving Shallan in a big romantic comedy-style subplot. The Cryptics and Honorspren can learn to work together and respect each other without being thrust together by a relationship between the Radiants they've bonded (which, again, seems like a romantic comedy plot to me). Finally, Kaladin's animosity towards lighteyes can be allayed by his interactions with Dalinar and by his burgeoning camaraderie with Adolin (which would be totally destroyed if Kaladin stole his girlfriend). Nor Shallan does need to date a darkeyes to realize that being a powerful person who is decent to the powerless isn't enough, if most powerful people mistreat the powerless. The tension of the attraction between Kaladin and Shallan will be very interesting for the story, but something actually coming of it? Not so much.

Maybe. I left out the line that the initial comment was directly responding to, which was something in the original post about Renarin fans needing to be patient. So Brandon mentioning Renarin specifically was just because he was the example at hand of a character who seems to have plot armor. I think, though, that at least one of the back five POV main character will be dead, based on all the hints being dropped. My money is on Jasnah, but one of the Heralds would be a good candidate, too.

Noooooo! DVR scheduling conflicts have stymied my plans to watch Agent Carter! I guess that I'll be waiting until tomorrow to watch it On Demand. It's Flash and the Legends of Tomorrow preview special for me tonight. Which isn't so bad, I guess. I've got The Expanse, too, but I'd better wait to watch that with my girlfriend.

Oh, that's cool. I checked Quintessence out from the library a year or two ago, but I never got around to reading it and just ended up returning it. Just a few weeks ago, my girlfriend bought the book. I suppose I'll have to get around to reading it one of these days.

There's no Agent Carter thread yet? For shame! The new season started tonight, and while I'm still at work and have therefore not seen it yet, I plan to watch it when I get home and come back to discuss. So start discussing, or I'll be forced to come back and double post. And we all know that double posting is bad form and generally frowned upon, so please don't force me into such an indignity!

I'm excited to get home and watch! Flash should be on my DVR now. And Agent Carter! Aaaaah!!!! There is so much sci-fi and fantasy and such on TV right now, and it's awesome.