teknopathetic

The simple rules are pretty close to the most commonly known rules of the orthodox jewish sabbath, which are basically all variations of "don't create new things or show mastery over the world". Which to me is sort of like saying, don't be ambitious in the face of God. 

Simple Rules Applied:
- No intentional fires or sparking electricity
- No intentionally going fast or exerting yourself too hard 
- No intentional  life mastery, no intentional watering, no intentional cultivation, no intentional killing

So to me, doing these ambitious things is what sets off the shades. They don't like seeing reminders of the dead shard's intent. Or it is like Ambition is resting, so the entire planet is now in permanent Sabbeth! 

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Other Rules Not Applied in the Book
- no unsticking things, tearing things, disconnecting things
- no writing or drawing, no destroying written works
- no commerce, no financial dealings, no paying bills 

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Source for anyone interested in the rules that some follow: https://aish.com/laws-of-shabbat-for-beginners/

I think Abdi would have worked better as crazed insane loser if we could have seen him in the Spiritual Realm and learned some of what had caused him to be how he is to make us feel bad he's this insane. Or have someone close to him try to calm him down and be upset at how insane he appears to be now. Or have him lose someone close to him via anti-light and have Abdi get more insane. 

There was just no pathos there at all with Abdi which makes him pretty ridiculous. And that's a real shame since the book could have maybe made us conflicted here and feel for the former King Abdi in some way. Hell, we could even justify his increased vigilance because of what he saw Shallan do with forbidden double bond dangers. I mean ... just anything....

But I guess the book suffers from trying to split between so many human narratives and forgetting to give us perspectives and motivations from the Singer side of things. The book seems to have given up on the Oathbringer "Kal learns the singers are not cartoon villains" plotline. We have completely reverted to "Singer and fused crazy bad crazy town banana pants" with this blood drinking stuff. 

Who has a safe that is large enough for a shardblade? Isnt that odd? I wonder if the sword Shallan took is actually Chana's shardblade. Maybe she had that panic safe built to keep her sword around after her death for some reason. 

Now this podcast has me thinking Ba Ado Mishram is the StormFaker doing her spiritual mumbojumbo from afar! 

The theory that Cultivation is setting up new vessels has been around for a long time. It would make some sense that a dragon like Cultivation would want her shard to go to a dragon like herself.
 

So maybe Cultivation turned Lift into a dragon because of shard-succession, and we are soon going to see Lift get her actual boon of dragonboon. 
 

it would be interesting to know if Dragons could pop in and out of visions like Lift does. Seems likely. 

So glad you asked questions about Autonomy and Aethers. My theory that Autonomy was Aetherbound before she took up a shard survives!

I was wondering when Shardcast would get around to those spicier WOBs!

Would it make sense if Bavadin was an Aether or an Aetherbound of note? The idea of granting your powers to other people but still having them be a part of you sounds A LOT like how Aether's work. Aethers also have a fluid identity that incorporates and individual and autonomous aspects, so this all sounds a lot like an Aether to me. Could also explain why there appears to be Aether-like aspects to the magic without it actually being a known Aether. 

Amazing as always! I agree with Overlady that I’d prefer a more serious tone, but in the end enjoyed the book. Audiobook Ulaam was too much for me though and might have to stick to paper version with this novel because the “Oooooh myyyyjyyyyy” affect was far too distracting. Huck was amazingly done as a voice though!

Let's say the Aethers predate humanity or mortal-type life, then their 12 essences would be very focused on their own experiences in the universe. To an aether, maybe "sharpness"would be a core aspect of the universe. And likewise, "meat"would make absolutely zero sense to an aether as something inherent to the universe. 

I wonder if the reason the Crimson Sea has random rainfall is because there is an immortal scientist living under the sea and screwing around with the ecology. It would be interesting to know if the Crimson Sea was always this unstable or if it got worse in the recent past.

Sort of related, but is that maybe why the Iriali left? Maybe their island was on the Crimson? Charlie seems to know a lot about the Iriali, so maybe the Irali were on a neighbouring sea. 

1. That future Sazed “it is yours" quote makes me think Harmony is a shard that is gifted to new people to prevent the power from getting too stagnant. 
 

2. I am also not so sure Sazed is doing a bad job. He has incredible foresight powers, and maybe we should be more impressed by Wayne being present than thinking it was just a fluke. Harmony, while blind, managed to outmaneuver Autonomy. To me, that shows Harmony is an incredible force. I side with Harmony on this one and say letting people be in the right place at the right time is the way to go here.  I think the  foresight and positioning  in Lost Metal is exactly the sort of thing Leras pulled off in Era 1. We wouldn't call what Laras did "lucky", so why would we do this with Harmony? Harmony has probably unparalleled ability to laydown foundations for preservation. You don't need to be all "punch punch" with Harmony. 

And Sazed is so new as well. Yes he probably let himself get into a bad position, but he is still learning. And as he showed us, he has the ability to. get himself out of these situations by putting people in the right place and letting people choose. 

That photoshop! 

Amazing work as always!

I kept thinking that the doppelgängers were trying to steal connection/destiny through imitation. It would have been interesting if people could reverse engineer an identity/fortune/destiny connection. That would have made some sense. Sadly, no.....

Storing dried shelf stable foods and setting up in caverns? This whole things feels like the Set are building storage caches to survive a new cataclysm. Even going to Bilming in the final book feels like headed to Fadrex City in the Era 1 final book, which gives me "deepness" or "Ruin Endgame" vibes. 

In a previous chapter the Set grunt says: "Your end,” the voice whispered. “Your end comes. Either in ash, or at the hands of the men of gold and red. Gold and—”, so ... is a new Ash coming? Is that their plan to end the threat on Scadrial?

On how Hoid got a spren. 
 

Hoid grumbles at one point that the Gods of Roshar are a annoyingly strict when it comes to making a bond. I got the impression that with Honour dead and the heralds imsane, there was a lot less oversight this time with Testament than there would have been any other time in history. 

Basically, anyone who would have said no is gone. And for the first time une millennia, spren are willing to bond. 
 

Just wanted to point out that the Chana Davar post predates the Taln Never Broke WOB. The theory actually started as a way of explaining what the Glowing Light in the safe might be, and then everything else pulled together around that key thread. It’s the safe, not Taln, that was the key detail there.  The Taln quote certainly helped grant legitimacy because the Chana theory also posited that it was nearly impossibly for Taln to have broken in the first place  

The theory predicted that Taln could not have broken because what could even break an insensate lunatic after 1000s of years of torture? A ticklish spot? It just didn’t make sense that suddenly the Fused found a weakness after so long. 
 

Hope the glowing light from the safe gets explained in book 5! That was the key data point of the theory and I can’t wait to see what was really placed into that safe! 

Could strong human souls go to the Barrier Storm? Could there be more truth to the Vorin afterlife than just the memory of the Heralds vs the Fused? 

Thanks for this! 

On my reading I took The Deniers of Masks as the forces of Trell, but that was just my read. 

Also, doesn't the whole "priests died frozen in supplication" and "we heard to from the lips of a dying priest" all sound little staged? The whole thing is just so staged. Would Kelsier let his people freeze to death? Seems more likely someone dragged those bodies there and placed them in a prayer position, and then someone had orders to leak the information about the temple at a certain point.

I also like Argent's Iri idea. Seems like if Kelsier wanted to make a fortress, he might go ask the people who's fortress he was just in.  

Cant wait to see who is right! Though you seem so sure I am a bit worried you have some beta-reader information or something from another book haha

5 minutes ago, Chaos said:

Sure, but we just don't believe that. I don't think anyone on Shardcast thinks that is plausible, so there's no one to genuinely argue for that point. (Sorry to those who believe it isn't the Stormfather!)

I will defend the StormFaker and the now infamous Chana theory I put forward anytime haha! But thank for another great episode! I know you all must be working overtime on these like mad

Great episode, but I wish you had someone defending the Stormfaker theory. With a poll saying 70% of people didn't believe it was truly the Stormfather, having someone argue the popular other side would have been fun (or at least go over the points people have against it being the Stormfather). A lot of the viewers dont think it was the Stormfather, so no discussion of the other side was odd (especially when not-Chana got time). 

23 hours ago, Kaymyth said:

I condensed them as much as I could while still covering the plot. xD

But yeah, length is an issue, and while we've already recorded all of Mistborn Era 1, Era 2, and SH, we do have some ideas to put into play for when we get into Stormlight. (We'll start putting chapters into future episodes so people can skip if they want.)

Stormlight way too long for recaps. Must sum up.

Just want to make it clear I think you did a good job! I just thought I would add my two sense about maybe adding is a discussion break in the middle of the plot synopsis. I actually really liked and appreciated  the thorough recap, I just lost stamina haha