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This is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. When I first read Syl's line in WoR, I didn't think for a second that it was anything other than a comment on human nature. In other words, the Knights weren't some kind of special group of superhuman; they were just broken people like everyone else. I was surprised when I saw everyone on the Shard taking it for granted that Syl was referring to something special that happens to all of the KR. I wasn't convinced, but when I saw that WoB about cracks in the spiritweb being necessary to let Investiture in, I decided that I must be wrong. However, the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that my original interpretation was closer to the truth. A happy, well-adjusted person with a perfect life, who never questions social conventions and cultural dogma wouldn't be a good candidate, but they don't necessarily have to have a major trauma in their past, either.

I would say that it's not the body of the god; although, it is basically the same thing as Breath, in that it is Investiture. Atium being Ruin's body in Mistborn--that's different.

It seems to me that Shallan and Kaladin were both experiencing the same feeling and interpreting it through the lens of their respective life experiences. However, I do think that there is something to the idea that different orders with overlapping Surges each access the Surge a little bit differently. The first time I read WoR, I was confused about Renarin, as a Truthwatcher, saying that he sees things. I wondered if maybe it was something peculiar to his spren or something, since we'd already seen how the Illumination Surge works, through Shallan's POVs. But on a reread, I noticed that Shallan also has some kind of precognitive/clairvoyant elements to her Illumination abilities. When she lets her mind go blank and does random sketches (as she does when she draws the Cryptics in TWoK), she draws a couple of pictures that show events from elsewhere and possibly the future. I don't have the book in front of me, but as I recall, it happens shortly before she arrives at the Shattered Plains, when she's sketching plants at the mini-lait they find. I remember that one of them appeared to Shalash destroying a representation of herself. Based on that, I'd say that it's possible that Renarin doesn't really have as much of an affinity for Lightweaving, but he is still using the Illumination Surge fairly well.

It's very dark. The violence can be pretty shocking, too, but the darkness is more pervasive. There's a sense of dread that infuses everything because of the nature of the villain's powers. Anyone could be his pawn and could do something absolutely horrific at any moment. In some ways, the entire narrative is a metaphor for the experience of surviving abuse, specifically sexual assault. It's not light subject matter at all. While it is handled with respect and nuance, it is going to be too much for a lot of viewers, even some who are okay with pretty explicit sex and violence.

Just finished it. When Daredevil came out, I said that it was probably the best superhero show ever, and Jessica Jones is certainly more of the same. One could argue that it's not exactly a superhero show, but even so... Great series.

Ah, I forgot about that. I wasn't basing any major theories on the notion of anything.

So, while Shallan may seem the most likely audience for Hoid's next story (unless he decides to keep up his tradition of only telling stories to Kaladin), Jasnah shouldn't be ruled out just because major parts of her arc have been moved to the back 5. I'm pretty sure she'll remain a major supporting character. She was around plenty in TWoK, and the WoR prologue being from her POV told us a lot about her character. Her absence in the rest of the book was basically a device to let Shallan's character grow independently. I really don't think that her book being years down the road means that she'll never have an important role to play until then.

Well, that's the problem, there. It doesn't seem like there is a "thereafter" for the Alethi.

First two episodes down. Kilgrave is definitely creepy, and he's not even in the episodes, really. You get a real sense of dread about his character. The end of the first episode... Well, you'll know what I mean if you've seen it.

I think some of the confusion is also coming from the way Szeth understands his Lashings as variations on a single thing. He talks about Lashings that involve Gravitation and Lashings that involve Adhesion, which are different from each other, as if they're just different versions of the same powerc. It's interesting that Windrunner Surges are related to each other in such a way that a Surgebinder might think that they're using a single power in different ways, while other orders could never conflate their two Surges. Really, all of the other orders that we have seen in action fit into the latter category. I bet that the Dustbringers, Stonewards, and Bondsmiths all access Surges matched to each other such that they could be similarly confused. And Rakei, yes, that's exactly right. I think it was in something Peter Ahlstrom wrote somewhere. When a Surgebinder lashes themselves to the sky (or a wall or whatever), regular Rosharan gravity no longer has any effect on them. Instead "down" becomes whatever point they've Lashed themselves to.

It's very possible that some of the cryptic death rattles describe the ending of the series. The ending of The Wheel of Time is exactly described in a prophecy in the 6th book in the series--published about 19 years before the ending was--but you really wouldn't be able to decipher it unless you already knew the end.

It depends on how you look at it, I suppose. I doubt that the characters are ever going to become major players (if they even ever reappear at all). I doubt that it's ever going to be the most important information that we get, but it certainly is important information for understanding how spren work. The similarity to quantum physics gives us hints about how some of the fabrials are working (a sort of quantum entanglement, most likely). Sure, Rushu mentions the work in WoR, but that came immediately before a fabrial test, if memory serves. I suspect that the mention is dropped in right there to sort of say, "Hey, remember that Interlude? That information will help you understand what is about to happen."

Since he said that's it's like Wandersail and Fleet, I'm sure Hoid will tell it. I suspect that Jasnah will indeed be the one to hear it, this time. I bet she's going to be all like, "Everything has gone mad while I was away! Give me solid information!" And he'll be like, "Nope. Gonna be cryptic and say stuff that would only mean something to you if you knew waaaaay more about the Cosmere than you do. Now here's a story."

I think it's just plain Investiture. It's not really accurate to call it Stormlight; Stormlight comes from storms. I said that in the other thread where people were talking about Lift, and I got some disagreement, but as I mentioned there, nicrosil. Nicrosil stores pure Investiture. What I don't know is if she would just be a Radiant on other planets, if she would be able to hack their magic systems, or both.

You know what I find interesting? No one has thought to ask if Earth 2's Wells was also replaced by Earth 2's Thawne. They're all distrustful of him for dumb reasons--"Waaah! You look like the disguise that was used by a bad guy, and I'm scared, even though I know that wasn't his true appearance!"--but they don't bother considering the real danger.

I am seriously considering setting my alarm for 3 AM and starting my binge then. I did that for Daredevil. No reason I shouldn't do the same for Miss Jones.

So what do you suppose nicrosil stores?

I think that Lift turns food into straight Investiture. It's not Stormlight and never was. Keep in mind, that Investiture never went through any storm. She's pretty special. Lift could be quite the worldhopper.

Yeah, it's just an idea. However, there are spren around all the time. The narrative takes the time to draw our attention to angerspren, fearspren, etc, wriggling out of the rock. Why does it never do so with an occasional prank-ish spren interference into daily life? Maybe the whole reason that Rosharans believe that they do such things is because the higher spren (not to be confused with highspren) occasionally reach out towards the creation of new Radiants. Again, just an idea. It's really not that important, all things considered.

Something like that. In the same vein, the glowing hammers in Dalinar's Purelake vision always struck me as a little odd. I think they may be Shardhammers, so to speak. That said, I don't think that anyone is quite fully a Radiant yet. As soon as we see some living Plate, then we can talk.

You know what seems odd to me? Syl is the only spren that we've ever seen playing pranks. It's possible that the whole idea of larger spren doing that is just folklore, based on proto-Radiant type experiences various Rosharans have had. So Kaladin had a "windspren" start pranking him, and he figures that that's what is going on, even though the idea is based only on accepted superstition (which, to be fair, is rooted in fact). I could be off on that, though. I'd have to go through TWoK again and see if it says that windspren, in particular, are known for such antics.

Just a sidenote: the deathspren are almost certainly of Cultivation. Death is a part of of the lifecycle invoked in cultivating plants. While the concept of Cultivation in regards to the the Shard is certainly more abstract, the literal meaning of cultivation should also apply. That explains why Syl doesn't react to deathspren the way that she does odiumspren.

I guess it's just that it was pretty much exactly what I expected, except toned down a bit to keep the character from becoming totally unlikable. I'm just surprised by people's reactions. Real feudal warlords didn't just round up civilians and show them off to make their enemies nervous; they slaughtered those civilians. I know grimdark isn't Brandon's style, but he could have still made Dalinar a whole lot worse than he did. The first two Stormlight books have made it abundantly clear that Alethi honor is a load of crap, and it is standard operating procedure to waste lives intentionally as a battle strategy, particularly those of the darkeyes. You know what surprised me? That he judges his soldiers by their merit, not their social status. He has lighteyes and darkeyes in his elite squad. I was surprised that he didn't smirk at the kid screaming for his parents as he died, instead thinking of how men of any age often did the same. It didn't stop him from killing the kid, but it was more respect than I expected from a brutal warlord. I was surprised that he ordered his men to only round up hostages and wait to do any kind of looting, rather than telling them to go ahead and raze the village to the ground while they're at it. Yeah, the young Dalinar was a jerk, but the seeds of the honorable guy we know from some decades later are already there.

Trell probably does not hold Bavadin's Shard. There was a WoB somewhere that suggests (he was being rather coy about it) that Trell is indeed a worldhopper, and he seeded a religion or two different places in the Cosmere. Certainly, he did on Scadrial, where his name survives as that of a god. Now, here's the thing--the original Trell, god of Trelagism from Mistborn Era 1, doesn't seem to bear much resemblance to the Trell of Trellism that we see in the Era 2 books. My personal hypothesis is that Bavadin (probably working with Rayse) is influencing Trellism. He chose Trell, in particular, as a sort of revenge against the worldhopper.

Well, the thing is, there is some kind of magic at work with the macro-fauna of Roshar. I think a lot of the macro-fauna of Roshar are using Stormlight just to keep themselves operational. The chasmfiends, for example, don't have body plans that fit an organism that size. They're like giant versions of smaller animals and seem like they ought to collapse under their own mass. I don't have the books in front of me to look for references, but I think Dalinar might make an observation to that effect in the disastrous chasmfiend hunt from TWoK, and I'm positive that Shallan notices something that indicates that there's something strange about the chasmfiends when she is trapped in a chasms with Kaladin in WoR.