Blaze1616

Confirmed. Merida is an Epic.

That could be any prison break or prejudice-ending media. I'll go with Shawshank? Could also be Mistborn:TFE.

Agreed. It would be quite boring. Bill and Ted seemed to have done it fine, though

I'll have to let it sit a little longer before I pass official judgements, but I'm confident this will be my favorite novella Brandon has written (aside from TES). It flowed relatively well (though the flashbacks felt unnecessary), all the characters were well written and engrossing, and the twist at the end actually makes perfect sense, as Chaos points out. All in all my only complaint is that there likely won't be more to come in this world. I don't want this story to be longer, it was the perfect length, but other stories would be nice. Perhaps show us a modern world, or a sci-fi world, or urban fantasy (which the other Liveborn don't seem to think exist). Also, this. Brandon's final twist is essentially this, and it is really cool:

As Twi/mail-mi (damnation April Fools) mentions, his caution came before the Obliteration event. His fear truly stemmed from the thought of some thing hidden in the depths taking him. This first occured when his thoughts about sharks developed. It was then intensified when, in the sub, he could see large, dark silhouettes in the water. There also seemed to be a general fear of drowning involved as well, though the majority of David's thoughts centered around sharks or the dark forms I mentioned. I do not recall which came first, though, the thoughts of sharks or Obliteration's drowning attempt.

My biggest concerns stem from Firefight, bleeding into this excerpt. First and foremost is Tia. When the ending of Firefight rolled around, Tia was abnormally absent. She disappears and never comes back, and we get nothing about her at the end, particularly during the epilogue, when David offers no passing thoughts to her whereabouts. Second is the Reckoners. Abraham and Cody returning is welcome, but what happened to the St. Louis crew that moved to Newcago? The excerpt implies they're all dead, which makes me very sad. It makes sense though, for Prof to target the one group that could stop him. I just wish the excerpt was more clear about what happened.

My biggest complaint is the word repetition. Example: "Shards settled specific worlds, but could have gone to other worlds before residing upon the worlds they now stay." Obviously it is not a factual issue, but it bugged my brain as I was reading. I'm not sure how you were wanting to organize the History section, but I think it could use some paragraph shifting. If you shift the initial Roshar paragraph (right before the Odium's Quest subsection) to before the Ruin and Preservation stuff, you can make a Ruin and Preservation subsection (it felt thrown in, and needs a subsection). Do the same for the short paragraph about the Survival Shard that is currently at the end of Odium's Quest. My other main question is why we're including summaries of the stories here? You essentially sum the entire Era 1 Mistborn in the Harmony section. That trend will mean every major Cosmere story dealing with Shards will wind up on this page, making the individual pages redundant (or rather this section becomes redundant). Instead, you could say something along the lines of "for more detail, go here". Or provide much shorter summaries? I just editted the page with some grammatical fixes, but left the above notes untouched.

You said your mother is on the list? Sometimes the e-mail can get sent to the spam folder by accident (check your spam filters too to prevent it from happening in the future), on top of the possible lag time that might delay the e-mail's arrival to her mailbox. If she still doesn't have it by the weekend then perhaps she isn't actually subscribed? Again, sending them an e-mail explaining the situation will no doubt result in them sending you the Newsletter.

Agreed.

The newsletter itself is okay, but the exclusive excerpt isn't. Here's the last few lines of the newsletter following the end of the excerpt:

I want to upvote because I know your pain...but I don't want to upvote because you're in pain...

I am not disagreeing with you, and I didn't mean to imply I thought the implications of the scene were lame. I just felt that such a monumental occurence would be more...eventful? Like it would take more than a paragraph? David didn't struggle. Having proven his fears had no power over him, it was legitimately just a matter of saying no. Meanwhile, Megan, as you point out, was likely kicking and screaming her refusal, fighting the Rending with all her sanity, but to no avail. Megan likely fought for a short period of time that felt like an eternity to her, struggling against the impending evil that was crawling, uninvited, its way into her mind. David just said "no." His struggle to overcome Calamity's influence was simply lackluster, and didn't show the fact that he "changed the game entirely," as you put it. Way of Kings, Warbreaker, and Rithmatist spoilers follow: All four of those events were game changers that resulted in eventful happenings that showed the extreme implications of said changing of the game. Meanwhile David just said "no." And I know, David did struggle to overcome his fear of the ocean. Only he didn't struggle very hard. I was actually a bit surprised that was the fear he had to overcome. He hadn't even known about that fear until he got to Babilar. Plus, he'd already somewhat overcome it with the spyril. That's a whole different dicussion though. I do want to say that I don't think Regalia herself gave powers. Considering she had to ask Calamity to make David one, I think her boasts about making people Epics, or increasing their power levels, boil down to her requesting Calamity's help. Otherwise why not give David the powers she wanted him to have, rather than imploring Calamity to give them to him? All in all I understand what your saying, I felt let down though. Maybe that's just me

I'm more itching to get home to read Perfect State.

I'm more upset he's responding to people posting to the AMA yesterday, rather than putting his time towards answering questions asked by people who follow the rules. I understand not responding to posts like mine that have multi-questions, but there were some single question posts he still hasn't answered, last time I checked.

In addition, another possibility is that the person's family has a history of bad events occuring when their 37. Previous family members may have died, or contracted a terminal illness, etc. during their 37th birth year. Lots of possibilities.

I understood their relationship to be one of superiority, with Calamity being "above" Regalia. As such, his silence could easily just be annoyance.

Err, the "south" didn't exist when the Constitution was made...so I don't see your point? Assuming Mckeedee was influential enough to convince the founding fathers to abolish slavery in the Bill of Rights, the 13 states would suddenly by slave-free. Cotton production wasn't huge yet (it was mostly tobacco farming, if I recall my history texts correctly), and so the loss of slavery wouldn't have been as large of a hit to the economy of the 4 "southern" states. As a result, during the Western Expansion (Manifest Destiny) time period, upon the birth of the cotton plantation, the economy would have evolved without slavery. It's very possible that the Civil War never happened, and history as a whole is changed. The problem with Mckeedee's solution, though, is that slavery wasn't the root of the problem. The root of the problem is that blacks were not seen as equal to whites. This problem stems back much further than the United States, and so convincing the founding fathers of making a slave free country would not have solved segregation as a whole in this country, which is the much larger problem.

I suppose you and I had two very different feelings towards this scene. I was really let down at how it all played out. I saw that it was coming, so when it did I was very excited to see how David would deal with it. Instead of being forced to grow as a character by dealing with becoming that which he hates, though, David literally just says "No thanks" and it's over. My thoughts upon getting passed that half a page was "LAME!" It was such a let down. I don't see this solution as being a problem. The only reason it is a problem is because we've been told that Epics cannot be gifted powers. The thing is, there had never been Epics who overcame their fears before (and those that had likely had no reason to be gifted powers). So we actually have zero data points as to whether or not a good Epic can be gifted. There is no evidence for or against. Well, I think there is evidence for it, but it's rather slim evidence. Consider this: When David refuses and apparently recieves no powers, Regalia is shocked. Downright flabbergasted. But how does Calamity react? I don't have my book on me currently, but if I recall correctly it doesn't react. At all, down to the point of not answering Regalia when she asks why David didn't get powers. To me, that is suspect. If everyone it's tried giving powers to before has manifested powers, David is clearly odd or different. Yet Calamity shows no signs that this turn of events bothers it. This tells me that David does have powers. In addition, it is evident that the healing powers were gifted to him, becuase they run out like gifted powers normally do. So there are two possibilities: 1) Epics who have overcame their fears can be gifted powers; 2) An individual that has overcame their fears prior to becoming an Epic has a lag time prior to manifesting powers. Given the simplicity of #1 versus #2, I think #1 is the correct answer to this puzzle. As I said, it's not very strong evidence. But we know an Epic that has overcome their fear is no longer affected by the corrupting power. So something about them has clearly changed. Not being capable of being gifted powers could also change.

Steelheart?

Did they form in 1993, or was their first album published in 1993? Big difference there, and a lot of bands I know of celebrate anniversaries of publication dates, not when the group of them came together and decided to make music cooperatively.

David was checked with the dowser in Book 1, where he got a negative reading. We think Prof. gifted him some powers. The proposed stealing/leeching of powers is still possible, particularly if the specifics of how the power works doesn't feel any different to David than being gifted powers does. I personally think David does have a power/powers, because it feels rather unlike Brandon to mention "thematically appropriate," a potentially meta addition to the story, but then not give them to David. As far as what thematically appropriate means, I was of the opinion it would have to do with discovering weaknesses or hording information. It could also be increased reflexes and physical abilities. There's a lot of possibilities. Of course, not having some form of a leeching power doesn't explain how David was "gifted" Prof's healing abilities without it meaning David has no powers. Unless an Epic who has overcame their fears suddenly is able to be gifted powers.

I think it was the 17S word filters filtering out the dirty word that Nicroburst meant. You know your a Sanderfan when dogs chewing on sticks causes you remorse.

No need to be sorry, I often have trouble verbalizing my thoughts (though my thoughts are beautifully written, rest assured). David's lack of knowledge on Dawnslight is an issue. The only explanation I can come up with is that the Babilaran's concept of Dawnslight as a deity and not an Epic could have kept info about the phenomenon from reaching David. In addition, it is likely that Babilar has an incredibly low rate of exit traffic, considering the generally good state of the city. So the people who do leave might not even bother mentioning it (of course, the more obvious answer is that in order to show us the true beauty and oddity that is Babylon Restored, Brandon needed someone with completely virgin thoughts on the city, a mindset his readers would share with the PoV character to help establish connection). As for Steelheart, obviously prior to his dad's death David didn't collect the information on Epics. Also, as a kid, he likely didn't bother with the news (I know I didn't). David's dad, on the other hand, is the odd ball here. The media was definitely still around at the time, as you and Twi have pointed out, yet David's dad still had no working knowledge of Steelheart. I still think Steelheart's image likely never surfaced. I was unaware/had forgotten that Steelhearts arrival in Chicago was a whole year after Epics began showing their ugly mugs. Now, I definitely don't doubt that evidence of Steelhearts Rending was found, but Steelheart himself being captured for news organizations to broadcast/print is still within the realm of likely possibilities. Steelheart Rends (is that proper grammar?), destroying whatever is in his path in his blind rage, and then leaves. Unless there just happened to be a reporter with a camera on scene already, I don't think it is very likely they'd have images of him to show people. In addition, I doubt Paul Jackson happened to be wearing his amazing super-villain get-up during his Reding. So David's dad, upon seeing a large, muscular, god-like man dressed as a comic hero telling another Epic--who is trying to rob the bank--to stop what he's doing, thinking "hey, a good Epic!" is not so far-fetched to me.

I see your points. But even if the news media were still thriving, Steelheart shows up in Chicago shortly after Epics start appearing. To me this implies he's among the first wave. My point of all the different Epics going through their Rendings at the same time, providing a news schedule overload still stands. More than that, when Epics with abilities akin to Steelheart undergo their Rending, they likely kill any and all people who might have seen them. I don't find it to be a stretch of the imagination to say the news in Chicago, even if it had mentioned Steelheart (do we have WoB on a hometown?), might not have broadcast his image very well. So I don't find it hard to believe that David's dad had no idea who the guy-who-just-stopped-an-Epic would be.