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That's true, but remember that when MeLaan told him that, she was doubtless very aware of the fact that the best answer to Wax's question about Paalm's personality was, "Well, you know her as well as any of us, since she was a loner, and you actually had a lengthy relationship with her, while she posed as Lessie." I'm not saying that it was definitely a lie, but it is a little shady. After all, she said that all the kandra from the generations that spent a lot of time, pre-Catacendre, on contracts were like that. But that's not really true. TenSoon took tons of contracts, and he was full of personality. Again, she may not have been outright lying, but she could have been rationalizing her avoidance of the full truth.

Why would Hoid spike her? We may not know his goals, but I am pretty sure that they don't involve bringing down Harmony. The Shard who is involved in the attempt has to be either Odium or Autonomy (or both), and he hates them.

Indeed it is. Also, I think Hoid is probably particularly interested in Scadrial, given that the resident Shardholder has two Shards and is not someone that Hoid knew before their Ascension. I don't think that's the main reason he's there now, though. It is pretty clear that one or more of the antagonistic Shards has designs on messing things up for Harmony. Hoid would be very interested in getting involved in that. Rayse and Bavadin being the prime suspects, he would be especially interested, considering that he freely admits to having a personal grudge against them.

Well, Ialai's parents can't be the only naughty ones in their society. As for Rillir, Roshone always was a crass dude. I'm not surprised he would commit a faux pas like that.

I want to talk about the stakes in the SA universe. I've noticed that a lot of people complain that the WoR plot really lowered the stakes for readers, with plot-armored characters coming back from the dead and such. Personally, I think those readers are getting it wrong. WoR is telling us what the stakes even are in the Stomrlight Archive. When Jasnah gets stabbed in the heart at the beginning of the book, we shouldn't think for a second that she was actually dead. But we don't know enough about Radiants yet. By the end of the book, I was wondering when she would reappear, because by then, it was clear that a little knife wound wouldn't take her out. As for Szeth's revival, that actually ratchets up the tension. Remember, Szeth is not a hero. A lot of people seem to have forgotten that, just because he's a cool character. It is not a cheap, throwaway plot point when it is revealed that a one-man army in the form of a homicidal lunatic can be brought back from the dead. And it isn't a ridiculous and contrived way to bring back a popular character; it actually makes sense according to internal logic of the books. I am pretty sure that major characters are going to die eventually. WoR was a little early to begin killing them off, so instead, we got a book that explains just how hard it is to do that. To me, that actually raises the stakes. It makes it hard to know if a villain is ever really dead. It will make it that much more poignant when a character who can usually come back from anything short of decapitation is stuck without Stormlight when they take an injury.

I wanna join, too! So many times, I've had observations that I was just about to make, until I realized that I would have to say all kinds of stuff about White Sand to do so.

Beldre is probably the best fit, I guess. I'm pretty sure she ended up with Spook, and "the Lord Mistborn and Lady Truth" has a nice ring to it.

Yeah, me too. Just because Kelsier's spirit is abiding in the aether with Sazed doesn't mean he cracks jokes with him and stuff. Though the alternate interpretation, that his spirit is no longer available to keep Sazed company for some unknown reason, is interesting too.

I definitely don't think there was ever a real Lessie. While kandra truebodies were often bizarre and abstract, it sounds like they don't do that so much anymore, since they want to fit in anonymously in human society. Pretty much any kandra in human form is probably wearing a truebody, not an actual human's bones. Doesn't MeLaan even say that's what they do these days?

Ah, well, in that case, it's still difficult to know how much any given spike had degraded, since the kandra are probably protecting them by carrying them in their bodies. That's just an assumption on my part, but it seems to make sense. MeLaan did give Wax his earring, after all.

I really feel like Bavadin is the one making mischief, but there is certainly evidence that Odium could be involved. Let's say he is still trapped in the Rosharan system. Sure, he could have escaped, but if he was actually in the vicinity, wouldn't Sazed have noticed? That visitor from another world looks a while lot like a Parshendi to me (I know some folks disagree, but I disagree with your disagreement--so there!). Odium could have sent one through a Shardpool with a spike to do his dirty work, then asserted his influence from afar. Or it could be a joint venture between Rayse and Bavadin. I don't know that old autonomous Bavadin has any worldhoppers of his own to use in such endeavors.

Yep.

I didn't take that as being him literally believing those thoughts. I just thought that it was part of his act--to actually think things about the character's motivations to himself so as to really sell the role. But you might be right about something more going on there.

Well, Marsh doesn't seem to have lost anything from his spikes (granted, they've been in his body). Vin sure took her earring out a bunch, and she could still pierce copperclouds with ease. I suspect that placing a spike "seals" it somehow, and the degradation (or at least significant degradation) only takes place after an ability has been stolen but before it has been bestowed.

Yeah, I suspect pewter, as well. As to how much charge it has, who knows? Whatever Investiture he's getting is coming directly from the mists, and Sazed could be intentionally making it subtle so as to not too directly sway the balance. If he ever tried to burn pewter, it might be quite a bit more dramatic.

What do you think it was, then? I just finished the book, so I've now seen the whole thing.

I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be a Parshendi, not Iyatil, because of the beard. Granted, the image is based on testimony that isn't exactly the most reliable, but still... Also, knowing that Bavadin's Shard is Autonomy makes me think that he's the one poking his nose into things on Scadrial, not Rayse.

I still think Marsh is more powerful, myself. Keep in mind, Marsh has all the Metallic powers (maybe not bendalloy and stuff. Sure, Szeth has a way to kill him, but sometimes the underdog wins the fight. The Lord Ruler was way stronger than Vin, but she still found a way to beat him. I don't know if Marsh is absolutely the most powerful character. Comparing Elantrians' powers to his is kind of an apples/oranges situation. Like, an Elantrian in Elantris could probably put out more power than him, but Marsh doesn't have to take the time to draw an aon to be able to do anything. In fact, since he has super speed, he could probably take out a bunch of them before they had time to draw a single one.

Sorry about that. I figured it didn't really spoil anything, 'cause I have no idea if it's a Parshendi or not. I mean, all I'm really giving away is that I thought I saw something that could be a Parshendi. I figure, if anything, it's just a little Easter egg and doesn't mean anything to the story. At any rate, if people think it's spoilery, then I'll err on the side of caution.

I don't think Hoid necessarily has a beef with Holders because of their Shards so much as for who they are (except when the nature of the Shard twists their minds, of course, as in Ati's case). I'm pretty sure he just really doesn't like Bavadin. If memory serves, Bavadin was somehow involved in killing Aona and Skai, even if it was mainly Rayse's idea.

...Parshendi?! Just got my copy of the book, so of course, I am neglecting all else at the moment, while I leap into it. So I just arrived at the broadsheet on page 106, and there is an odd face at the bottom, under the headline, "VISITORS from other WORLDS." Thoughts?

What do you mean by that, exactly? Are you assuming that there was a Dark One (a la Wheel of Time) that was opposing Adonalsium?

The ones above have to be from Scadrial. That's just what makes sense. The thing is, they kind of seem like bad guys. Not hard bad guys, who are only out to do dastardly deeds, but they are certainly just out to better themselves.They clearly exploited a loophole in their version of the Prime Directive to screw over the inhabitants of the planet. And I don't think that Harmony even cares. Sazed was a great guy, but after centuries as Harmony, he probably is okay with whatever, as long as a balance is maintained. Sixth of the Dusk may be foreshadowing Scadrial as a source of antagonists in the overall story of the Cosmere. I think there will still be good guys from the planet, but let's not forget that even the Lord Ruler was a product of both Preservation and Ruin, in his own way (and ultimately, he was much more of Preservation than Ruin). Scadrial is a proven source of villainy.

Okay, this is hardly a theory. There just isn't enough evidence at this point. It's not even a hypothesis, really--just an idea. So, let's assume that Adonalsium worked the same way that the Shards do. That is, there was some kind of person, if not necessarily a normal human being, holding Adonalsium. We can't assume that at this stage, but let's take it for granted, for the sake of my idea. It's hard to imagine why a group of people would be motivated to destroy their god, unless they were just power hungry. But it seems like a number of them were actually good people. Tanavast was apparently a cool guy, and Ati used to be a kindly fellow before he'd held Ruin for a bit. Yes, it could be that some douchebags decided to kill their god, and a bunch of nice guys swept in to take up a portion of the power before the @$$hats could become omnipotent. But let's just assume that most or all of the original 16 Shardholders were working together. So what made them decide to pursue deicide? What if they didn't set out to kill their god? What if he was already dead? We know that the Shards can and do function without a Holder, but they start to do weird stuff. If the entire power was without a guiding consciousness, things would probably start to get really crazy. That, in essence, is my idea: the holder of Adonalsium died somehow, so some people banded together to try to fix that. We know that a person can hold two Shards, thanks to Sazed, but it is entirely possible that the whole, unshattered power would be too much for any one human. The original Shardholders therefore sought a way to break the power into manageable pieces, then take up the Shards to help order the universe continue to function. Unfortunately, the individual divine attributes, now guided by discreet consciousnesses and separated from the context of being intrinsically linked to each other, just couldn't work together. That's how we got to the current state of the Cosmere. Thoughts?

I have a weird hypothesis that is probably wrong but does have some evidence to back it up. The only character to be described as looking Makabaki, but not exactly, in The Stormlight Archive is almost certainly Shalash (in one of the Way of Kings interludes). I think Khriss might be Shalash. That would, by the way, be a good way to turn Khrissallah (sp? Haven't read White Sand in a year or so) into a palindrome, per the Rosharan ideal.