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That's not my reading of what Devotion means, as a Shard. Really, even in the context of love, devotion is about dedication. While that can be a part of love, it is hardly an opposing match to pure hatred. Not all Shards require a direct balancing Shard like Ruin and Preservation, but Odium certainly does.

That really stood out to me when I re-read Alloy, in preparation for SoS. I'd say that it was absolutely a wink and a nod to readers who have read all of the Cosmere books, but I think it's also more than that. When Hoid tells Kaladin stories, he kind of dodges the question of just how true the stories are. He seems to be suggesting that the details may change, but stories are told over and over again in the Cosmere, in different forms. Indeed, the "Wandersail" story that he tells in TWoK has meaning to Kaladin but also has elements that seem to directly tell the story of where Szeth is after he discovers that his belief system is a lie, in WoR. Repetition of themes and story elements in totally different contexts should be expected.

Guys, not to derail here, but shouldn't Odium's opposite be Love? Or something along those lines, anyway. We only know like half of the Shards right now, and it doesn't make sense to me to try to brainstorm ways to make Odium match up with a known Shard. I don't think we have a match for it yet.

I doubt he'll have a thing with the inventor's daughter. You're right about the living vicariously thing. He killed someone's father, and he can't ever make it right, so he was hit really hard when she accused him (or rather, the character he was playing) of killing her father. This is his chance to do right by someone who accused him of killing their dad. If they did have a romantic relationship, the psychological implications would complicate things. Not that it absolutely couldn't happen, but there would then need to be a scene where he came clean about why he approached her to begin with, or it would be pretty messed up.

That's an old review. I think he may have been talking about Elantris, actually. But, yeah, I assume that's Steris.

I kept thinking that Wax's assumption that he was talking to Bleeder might be wrong. The ability to speak into others minds has always been a Shard thing. I don't remember Paalm ever saying anything in person that confirmed that she was the one speaking in Wax's mind.

You know, now that I think about it, there actually could be some good information about the degree to which compounding expands a power. I think it's too rare in the post-Catacendre world to have been comprehensively studied (not to mention the social barriers). With the Lord Ruler as the only pre-Catacendre compounder of note, it's hard to say how much information there would be on it. Harmony may or may not have been able to access that on his ascension. However, Marsh could compound. Sazed absolutely could have put detailed information in the Words of Founding. That said, the tenfold quote really sounds like a guess to me. I can't remember if anyone quotes it in Alloy or later, but in the first trilogy, no matter how educated the guess, I don't think there was adequate information to have much certainty.

I agree with Moogle. The tenfold figure is probably not particularly scientific. The whole concept of science is pretty new on Scadrial, compounders are exceedingly rare, and the only people who seem to be doing systematic experimentation with powers are the Terris, who apparently are not interested in compounding. It's not that tenfold is necessarily wrong; it's just that they're basically saying, "a bunch more."

I didn't get the impression that southern Scadrial would have any magic at all. Feruchemy was always a thing of Terrismen, and Allomancy seems to have had its advent in the Lord Ruler's discovery of lerasium. Unless Sazed made some changes when he ascended, the southern Scadrians shouldn't have access to it. EDIT: Missed the WoB that says otherwise. Never mind. Carry on.

The foreign god metal spike must be fogging him. Sazed seems a little confused about why it's so hard to track Paalm. He has to know that there's more at work than a missing spike. He keeps his eye on Wax just fine, even though the number of spikes he has in him is usually zero--only sometimes one, the same number as in Paalm.

I've been thinking a lot about how copper compounding works, myself. There's a WoB that says it would do very interesting things. The HD memory is a popular theory, but that doesn't make sense to me. Copper stores your own memory. For it to become HD, extra information would have to be added, which means that Preservation (or Harmony, now) would have to step in and add details. That doesn't really seem likely to me. Another possibility: Compounding copper creates a ton of copies of the memory. You never have to put a memory back to preserve it because there's always another copy. What's left of the fading memory that is still in your mind lets you find the pertinent information easily. So you seem to have perfect recollection because you're constantly pulling out pristine memories, any time you need them. The thing is, neither of these possibilities seem particularly interesting to me--not compared to the other stuff that goes on with powers in the Cosmere. So this is what I think: copper records your memory by imprinting the brain activity involved in feeding a memory into a coppermind. Compounding copper compounds that brain activity, creating a sort of neutral network, like magical AI. The utility to the user outwardly seems to be perfect recall but is in fact access to something like a second brain--one that is entirely devoted to memory but a second brain, nonetheless.

Yes, I'd say that that's exactly what the text implied. Why was she so rational when one spike should have left her insane? Because she had a trellium spike, too. Why did they refer to multiple trellium spikes if she only had one in her? Because she used the others to create new hemallurgic creatures.

While I was reading, I kept thinking that the spike to mind communication was really weird. No one had ever done that before, except Ruin (and Harmony, obviously, but he was using the Ruin Shard). I don't know how sound the theory is, but I kept thinking that maybe the voice wasn't Bleeder's at all. Sure, Wax thought it was, but I don't know that anything happens to 100% confirm that.

I think you can compound aluminum, actually. Remember, the feruchemical ability overwrites the allomancy entirely. All burning the metal does is tap the multiplying effect of allomancy. The metallic effect is 100% feruchemical. However, I did see a WoB where he said it wouldn't do much, so I guess whatever storing identity does, it's not very useful.

Totally threw me for a loop, too. I don't think there's a double double-cross here, though. When it turns out that Paalm was talking about the priest, I'm pretty sure that's all it meant.

I don't think Ym's theology applies to Adonalsium. What he's talking about, the idea that there is a divine whole, and pieces of it incarnate in order to experience itself, then return to the whole after death, is something people in real life have suggested. That's what System of Down's song, "Aerials," is about. I don't know if any major religions teach this (maybe Hinduism, sort of). If the idea does fit into the Cosmere, it's in a very meta way that probably transcends the Shards and even Adonalsium. That's what I think, anyway. There are a ton of religions in the Cosmere, and whatever any of them hints at the true nature of Adonalsium and such, it rarely does so in a direct, literal way.

I am, and I did take that into account, but MeLaan's interactions with him the homeland convince me that he did have a real independent personality of his own. A lot of the kandra in her generation looked up to TenSoon. I don't see them doing that with a blank slate of a person. I do think that his time with Vin changed him deeply, and his success in working against the kandra leadership was totally dependent on that. He couldn't have prevailed without throwing them a bunch of surprises. Even so, I think he was more his own person (er, kandra) before that.

I understand what you're saying, but without the spiked feruchemical ability, can you still access that ability? I seem to remember a WoB that says that if a feruchemist survived being spiked, they wouldn't be able to use the Investiture they'd stored in their metalminds for the ability that was stolen. The quote, "Oh, this is healing, I know how to do that”--does it still apply if you don't know how to do that anymore (in this unique case, because the spike that lets you know how to do that is gone)? I can see how what you're saying would work, but I'm just not sure that it does. It may be the metalmind that shapes the power and not you, but you still have to be able to access that power. I don't know that you can without the spike, if your ability is hemalurgically obtained.

I'm not convinced that it would work that way, though. The speed is tied to having that feruchemical ability. Without the feruchemical spike, all she has is allomancy. So, she can use the extra power, but the Investiture would have to be channeled into allomancy. It would just be like having extra steel to burn. I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong. If so, I'd guess that we were watching Paalm using her compounding as best she could. She burned through a lot of speed. Storing speed has to take quite a while. Then again, I guess you could go to max storage every night while you slept and store speed all night.

Wayne and MeLaan was definitely great. Especially because it's not going to happen. That seems to be a theme--potential relationships that are never going to work. AoL pushed the Wax/Marasi chemistry so hard, only to conclude that the relationship just isn't in the cards. Now, we have Wayne really clicking with MeLaan. But Wayne loves Ranette, and that's that (even if that isn't going to work out, either). Wayne and Steris working out is really growing on me, too. It's a good thing, too. Wax is devastated over Lessie all over again, and Steris seems to be right there for him. I really want that to work now. Wax deserves some happiness.

Oh, I missed that. Well, in any event, I guess it doesn't really matter all that much. Real Lessie or no, Wax never knew anyone but Paalm. I do think that the kandra were completely wrong about Paalm, though. She did have a personality. No matter how much it was informed by the people she impersonated, she did legitimately fall in love with Wax, it seems. So it could go either way with Lessie having ever been a real person.

If you get a feruchemical ability through hemalurgy, I don't think you can fill a metalmind without that spike in. If she switched to her steel allomancy spike, she could burn a metalmind to get at that Investiture, but she couldn't put it in a metalmind because she doesn't have her feruchemicy spike in.

I was about to ask what made you think "Wandersail" was about Szeth, given the context of when Hoid told it, but I went ahead and pulled WoK off my bookshelf, and now I can't argue. I don't know, though. It certainly describes where he was during his last battle with Kaladin. I don't think it necessarily applies, now that Nalan has revived him. It may inform his actions to some degree, but the Skybreakers are all about law and order. Even if Nalan's interpretation of it is now pretty twisted, I don't think he's going to let Szeth burn the island down, so to speak. As for your meat analogy, well, I've been a vegetarian for almost ten years now, so... Seriously, though, WoR may be a little lighter in tone at times, but I thought it was every bit as... thick and flavorful...

She can't compound. She needs two spikes to be able to do that, and that would be enough for Harmony to be able to stop her. She does in fact always have two spikes in her (because she needs them to stay sentient), but the other is the alien god metal. If it confers any ability (and they don't have to: koloss spikes were made with ordinary humans), it's not one that works in concert with any Scadrian powers.

Without directly replying to any one person above, but just kind of addressing the general attitude about killing Sadeas being a barrier to Adolin's Radiancy, I think that's not quite it. I can't remember where/when I read it, but I believe Brandon said that some of the Orders would have specifically approved of Adolin's actions. I think he will feel guilty about it because, in his society, his action was very wrong. I think what he needs to do is actually embrace what he did. Everyone thinks it's sending him down a dark road, etc. But, ultimately, I think he did the right thing, and the Order he ends up in will be all about that kind of action. It wasn't a murder; it was an assassination.