The One Who Connects

As the others have said, weight is some of it, but not all of it. I think of it as a sliding scale, personally. If the Allomancers are roughly equal in power, then weight is about 95% of the equation. (It's unlikely for two people to be exactly equal in power, or else it'd be 100%) As the power gap increases, weight takes up a smaller piece of the equation. Against Vin, weight is probably only about 75%. I'd put an Inquisitor with one spike here too. For a Mistborn with an A-Steel spike(or an Inquisitor who has two A-Steel Spikes), weight is probably about 66% or so. For a Lerasium Mistborn like Elend, weight is about half of the equation. Elend physically knocked back an Inquisitor because of this power difference in HoA. For the Lord Ruler, the weight of his opponent is almost irrelevant. His Allomantic Strength is high enough that he shook the doorframe of his throne room(which should be braced by the wall), and the weight difference didn't even make him flinch. Vin isn't that light, and he still sends her flying into a pillar with a casual push. It's the same with Piercing a Coppercloud. If the two are roughly equal in Allomantic power, cloud blocks the seeker. But if the seeker is more powerful(via a Spike, for instance), they can pierce the Coppercloud.

Regarding the contents of your spoiler tag, I still dislike your EMR idea. Partially on the conceptual level, and partly on the specifically Nalthis aspect. Being limited to what may as well be "Nalthian Color" seems very counter-intuitive in its own right, especially in light of the fact that we aren't limited to "Scadrian Metal."

Excerpt from my Fabrial Questionnaire:

While it's a bit of sequel-bait, the Chapter 44 Annotations do provide an answer to your question(spoiler tag, because it's a text wall)

And now I shall say what I said last time: That and(much like the discussion I pulled this quote from) I'm not entirely sure Nicrosil and Steel are the same color.

MB:SH Spoilers: Besides, the CR space between worlds is smaller than the physical space, so a CR Train system would actually be pretty efficient, all things considered. (It'd take a heck of an effort to set up, but that's trains in general) As for the actual question contained within your spoiler tag, I think that location has been around longer than the Recreance(but I cannot prove that)

The Stormlight Prelude is halfway through. The Prelude is 6,000 years into the Cosmere timeline. We're over 4,500 years past the "midway" point already.

So... there are two parts to this. The current crop of Nahel Spren are Splinters of Honor(mixed with some of Cultivation's power like normal). The previous ones all died off during the Recreance, so the current ones are splinters of Honor. The second part is that the Older Spren were of H&C to begin with, because of.. Realmatic Technicalities. Splintering is reversible. This doesn't mean anyone is currently capable of doing so, or if they know how to, but it's theoretically doable.

Ah, it's been a while since I've heard this. A rhythm is just a beat. Frost is a separate discussion, but the rhythms themselves don't feel as indicative to me as you seem to think they are.

On the assumption that you haven't been tied down by the sheer number of suggestions you've been given, it'd be nice to know what types of fantasy topics you're interested in so the suggestions can hit their mark more often. For example, I'm a fan of intrigue. I've started drifting back into Young Adult books, because they are usually in the right median between simplistic(children's stories) and over(whelming)ly complex(you've seen how rabbit hole theories on here go). To me, intrigue is at its best when it's an underlying component of character motivations, rather than the premise(like mystery novels). I've also got a few more suggestions, now that I've read more of the books I've gotten recently. I'll reiterate my personal recommendation of the Sweet Venom Trilogy by Tera Lynn Childs, mostly because I finally found&bought the third book. Now that I've finished the series, I can say for certain that it should fit your standards of clean. Nothing worse than kisses. (okay, there's a little blood, but no graphic descriptions or anything). If mythology is your thing, it's a fun read. My next suggestion would be The Selection series by Kiera Cass. It has that same competition feel that Hunger Games had, but it takes place within a royal court-esque setting, with less violence and more intrigue(which is what drew me in). It's technically a 5 book series, but it's more like a trilogy and a duology set past the aftermath(similar to how WoA is dealing with the aftermath of the fall of the Lord Ruler, but a longer time-gap). Haven't read the duology yet, but I've finished the first 3 books, and the cleanliness level is fairly high so far. Minimal descriptions of violence, not much beyond kissing(that I remember). I really wish I could recommend the Three Dark Crowns duology by Kendare Blake, but while the descriptions of things would meet your standards of clean, some of the actions themselves wouldn't. I'm mentioning it anyway because I loved it, so.. ya know. It's got that same Hunger Games-esque feel, but with a focus on multiple characters(rather than just Katniss), so you actually have stakes and uncertainties about who's gonna come out on top. I'll hold off on recommending the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr until I've found time to read them, but if you are a fan of stories where the normal world meets the world of fae and magic around us(thinks like Fablehaven, Spiderwick, etc...), then it'll probably pique your interest. I'll also toss in one more(because a recent post reminded me of them). The Bionicle books(2001-2010), by Greg Farshtey(and C.A. Hapka). The earlier series start out pretty simple(and somewhat "young reader" level), but the series seemed to grow up with the fanbase, getting more mature, serious and complex as it went. Another point in favor is that they are absolutely, 100% clean.

Realistically, I don't think so. You need to read a lot of a given script to achieve that level of fluency, especially a script using a different alphabet. [...] At this point it is still more of a code that needs step by step translation than a fluent reading. I assume some people are dedicated enough to be approaching literacy, but I don't think we have enough extensive texts to get there, yet. So I have an example. Being a Bionicle Fan growing up, I was fascinated with the Matoran Script, similar to how many of us are fascinated by Alethi or the Steel Alphabet now. As a consequence of this fascination, I can recognize the letters without much/any effort. However, stringing letters together requires a bit of start-up. I can't recognize words straight away, but the more of it I read in one sitting, the faster I translate and connect the letters, so my reading speed increases as I go. If I had a 3-page essay in Matoran(Close, but no cigar), I would probably be reading at a pace that implied proper literacy by the end of it, even though I'm not. This is where I imagine several of us are at with Alethi, a slow start but once we get going, there's no stopping.

Peter weighed in on the subject back in 2015, when Frost mentioned "the gemstone" in his letter.

I don't see why not.

Gatorgirl knows that WoB exists. She's complaining that other people are saying Shallan isn't in spite of that WoB.

I suppose "to each their own," but you can feel sympathy for a character without them having a "redeeming side," as you put it. People have penned some pretty twisted individuals that we still feel sorry for, thanks to a tragic backstory or someone tricking them into doing what they did. We feel sympathy for the tragic stories, even if they became a villain through and though by the end, because of that "what-if?" This isn't really relevant to the discussion at hand(and it got a little text heavy), so I'll put this in a spoiler tag. It's on the subject of villains and redemption. Anyone can see why it's only semi-relevant, but thoughts spill out of me whenever they want, and writing it out is better than forgetting them.

Judging by the votes so far, I'm gonna have to make a case for the Axe, aren't I?

What makes you think this? I'm genuinely curious, given how "out of left field" this feels. Toss an expanded train of thoughts into the topic, see where the discussion goes. Odium didn't appear to have too much trouble with Aona and Skai. (I get your point and can see the argument against my statement, but it's still somewhat valid) Wax/Wayne is between SA 5 and SA 6. Odium survives to see Stormlight 6.

It's the Intent.

Gotta keep a hold of the object you are using a reverse lashing on (as Szeth demonstrates in WoK Prologue), so I'm not sure you could do it behind them. That said, I'm not 100% sure if Atium lets one fight with their eyes closed(ie: can react to stuff behind them), so you may still be onto something.

Hoid also pulled some interesting storytelling tricks during Warbreaker, using a few things that were not sand. I'm of the opinion that the simple answer(Yolish Lightweaving) is the right one.

Kel (is still "kell") • Si (like the spanish word) • Er (the "r" is rather faint, so it's almost like the "ay" in hay")

Oh right. I did forget about that possibility

It's favoritism towards family/friends. No idea what gave them this idea, but it's interesting nonetheless. Care to elaborate @Jeffo?

Sidenote: Kandra is like "Fish," both singular and plural, so you don't need the ('s). You do raise an interesting point, albeit unintentionally. We know that Mistwraith's breed true, so I'm very curious why Kandra do not seem to be able to.

So this has nothing to do with your theory(I agree with Calderis, FWIW), but this is a greatly entertaining statistic you've provided us. The Fused in the Thaylen Vaults is in Interlude I-13, so you've gotten that far already. There is only one interlude, nine chapters, and the epilogue after that. Thus, Part Five of the book is nearly 6&1/2 hours on the audiobook, which is patently ridiculous.