Dunkum

My take on Tyrion is that he's a bit selfish, but largely a decent person. I can think of very few times in the books where he does something just completely bad. He is clever, like his father, but tends to use it towards decent ends. the only probelm with him is that he ends up opposing the Starks, who we tend to view as the heroes of the story, but even there his motives are generally good, it's his family that is bad. as to show jaime, they mishandled the one scene horribly, but honestly it isn't a great scene for him to begin with. that said, from everythign I have seen (only the first 2 so far, didn't watch the leaked), they are keeping his character arc (different story, though a promising one, but same basic character growth) more or less the same.

Can't speak for others, but one of the things that draws me to fantasy is the sense of exploring different worlds with different natural laws, and the cosmere books excel at that, both on a series by ser0eis basis and taken as a whole.

Well, remember Hoid worked/works for her brother, so presumably she could have met him before. As to things Hoid doesn't know, that could easily just refer to some specific facts about Roshar that Hoid had not discovered for himself yet

I like Cersei's bits in the books, but mostly because we can see inside her head, and watch her mental state during her whole plot. I think that is very very interesting. I doubt they can quite match it in the show, but if anyone is up to the task, its Lena Headey. As for miraculous spinoffs: Jaime and Bronn would be a good one, but the best one I have seen suggested is Arya and the Hound. just those two wandering around westeros, occasionally killing people. it would be great. Tywin and Olenna is another one that would be pretty wonderful as well.

a reasonably accurate description. it's a lot of fun.

I've not watched the leaked episodes, but I can't imagine any season that gives us Varys/Tyrion and Bronn/Jaime scenes can possibly be bad. that said, based on last night's episode, I have no idea what they are doing with littlefinger

Seconded. Speaker for the Dead is pretty good, but there are diminishing returns after that. I still enjoy them, but I've probably read Ender's Game about 10 times, and all the rest maybe 2 or 3 at most

I liked Things Fall Apart when I read it for school, but then, compared to most of the other books I had to read for world lit, it was a masterpiece, so it might just be that I had very low expectations and it was able to scoot over them.

I could see that helping. Cersei, Jaime, and Arya have great storylines, and just getting them all at once would be fun. likewise for Arianne and the Dorne story (most anticipated part of this season for me). My most recent reread, I did the conjoined version, where you switch between 4 and 5 chronologically. it was a pain to do (I have the physical books, so I was switching between two nearly 1000 page monsters on the regular), but it helped alleviate the problems I had by sticking some of the book 4 character arcs I liked better in between the boring/annoying ones from book 5

I didn't quite do that, but I was pretty close, especially during the scene where they try to escape from the goblins in the mountain. And each commercial I saw for the other 2 turned me off of them so completely that I still haven't bothered. And this from someone who a. liked the LOTR movies in spite of the changes, and b. was alright with them adding in the white council (or was it the council of the wise, I forget which is which) to the hobbit films. The commercials for Ender's game (possibly the book I have reread the most) did the same. Every time they blatantly showed you the end of the final battle, with him screaming his command no less, I was more and more convinced that they had taken everythign I liked about the book and just trashed it. As far as good adaptations, I'll second Princess Bride, LOTR, and Harry Potter 1 (I didnt see any of the others until HP 7 pt 2, which was awful). beyond that, I couldn't say

Settlers is a favorite, but I haven't played a whole lot of others (would, but just haven't had the opportunity). in the not quite a board game category: a friend of mine has this card game called "Bang!" which is great. it is basically a game version of the whole spaghetti western genre, right up to the fact that it was created in Italy and translated (not always well) into English later.

Seconded. the first part anyway. I still thinks the books are better than the show (and book 4 is way underrated, it is just so good. book 5 not so much)

Definitely conceivable, storing weight and steelpushing, or storing weight and compounding pewter could give him enough force to lift off in theory (with some steel compounding to help if necessary). moreover, if he had the right metals (and I don't feel like double checking whcih ones just this moment), he could probably survive in space for a bit: stored up breath, food, water, and warmth, plus maybe some kind of metal suit to ironpull on in order to keep the pressure equalized.

Never use Rosharian curses, but for some time I would drop the WoT "Blood and bloody ashes." less so now, though i still do occasionally use "bloody" as an amplifier. These days when I want to swear, i mostly string together 3 or 4 english swear words into whatever combination comes to mind

I wonder if Sazed/Harmony could alter the ruin/preservation balance in human souls after gaining his shard(s) though? Or more accurately, I assume he could (though I'm open to evidence to the contrary), I'm just wondering what sort of consequences that might have and whether he might possibly consider it(WoB seems to suggest that he hasn't). In that case the Ruin/Preservation balance thing could be addressed. For that matter, if he made the Koloss with a bit more ruin than preservation, then he could have expended the power that way. though based on some of the WoBs out there and what Brandon chooses to be secretive about (the extra ruin power, atium, the Pits, etc.) I'm inclined towards the atium theory. To the OP's question, Brandon is a bit vague and wishy-washy about it in the WOBs I can find, but the interpretation seems to be that Harmony is one shard. Examples (and I apologize in advance, but I forgot how to link to a specific question in the WoB, so I can only go to the whole thing, so I'll do that and reference the appropriate item number): 1. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=642(Question 10) 2. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=948(question 2) 3. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=979(question 174) this is probably the most definite as far as one shard vs two

fair enough. it must have always hated me, because I never found him all that useful. nowhere near lyn of hector levels

I think I read up to about book 8 or 9 before I had to start waiting, so that isn't biasing my judgement when I tell you that if the series isn't doing it for you by book 4, then it is probably just not for you. I'd say move on to something else. if you aren't enjoying it now, you probably won't enjoy it for a while (not until book 11 or 12, if at all, I would guess), and it'll just be a chore to get through. and no one wants that.

I have to disagree. A2 was maybe a bit more balanced (in A1, I had an assassin that could hit with the instakill attack from behind 95% of the time, it was great), but I hated having to unlock pretty much every single class. Also, the Gria and Seeq species felt like they weren't fully developed. they needed a few more classes each to fill them out, including some more unique classes, preferably I think on that first play-through, I may have just underused Hector, in later games, he dominates, and is next to impossible to damage, let alone kill. Eliwood is an upgraded cavalier, not a paladin, if memory serves. I don't think he can use axes. and Lyn is great because you can stick her in the woods and she becomes impossible to hit, while slaughtering anyone that comes near. I do go through her weapons rather quickly though. I have the same problem. haven't wanted to try replacing the battery. And back in Red version, I had a lvl 100 Alakazam. I would use him to solo the elite four. Back on the original topic: for an actual old-timey game that I still think is great I have to nominate "Combat" for the Atari.

Agree to disagree on Pokemon then. Though on the team rocket plot, I guess it sort of is. closest thing to it, anyway. moreso in Gen 2 than gen 1, where it was more an obstacle to overcome than an actual plot (or thats the way it always seemed to me). beating them was never a priority, i did it because otherwise I couldn't get in and fight Sabrina, and all that entailed. either way, I do agree that team rocket is far superior to all of the ones that follow for Fire Emblem, I think I beat Eliwood's story once. and Athos and Hector were almost useless at dealing damage to the dragon. they did some, but not very much, and its attacks were devastating. could be I just didnt have enough healers around to restore them, or hadnt put enough time into developing Hector or something (Lyn has always been my favorite). Ive played parts of hectors quest, think I even made it to the last level, at one point, but I haven't played it in a few years at this point, so Im not sure

Fire Emblem occurred to me, and I enjoyed it, but the permadeath feature means I never finish it because I get finicky about not letting people die. Also Eliwood is boring and compeltely useless, but also the only character that can deal signifcant damage to the final boss, which is annoying. Lyn and Hector are great though on Gen 3 its a couple of things: 1. it was the first game to openly involve the legendarys in its plot, which I found kind of annoying. I like them better hidden away in some out of the way cave or some such, not inserted directly into the plot (gen 4 is much worse about this, but 3 did it first) 2. I think a bit of it was a reaction against the ability mechanic. While I am OK with the ability mechanic now(though I think some of the combinations they do are absurd e.g. giving a steel type levitate means you just took away one of its few weaknesses. Steel types don't need that help, they are already steel type), it took some getting used to at first 3. aesthetics. I honestly hate the look of almost every non-legendary pokemon they introduced in that generation, especially the starters (seriously, the worst looking batch of starters of any game) 4. the beginning of the annoyingly long dominance of the fire/fighting starter. who thought that was a good combination? and then did it 2 more times. terrible 5. plot. not the plot, specifically, but the fact that there was one at all. this is more of a hindsight thing, but I think the later games suffer because they all have terrible plots, while the first games have almost no plot, and are great. in theory they could do a good plot, but I dont think they've succeeded yet.

This is literally the first time I have even heard of the possibility of there being a Wii U controller other than the game pad. Never once have I seen or even heard mention of the Wii U Pro controller before this. Every time I see a Wii U, either my friends' or the demo at a store or a commercial it has the GamePad and/or the Wiimote/nunchuck. I hate the Wiimote with a fiery passion, it is 100% gimmick, and it is mostly super annoying to use. The game pad is better, and seems like it could have some uses (NES and/or SNES virtual console games would look just fine on that screen), but my main concern with it is the size. that thing is gargantuan. I agree the Pro controller looks fine, and is a game changer (pun not intended), it makes me feel a lot more confident about actually being able to play games on the system. Plus its about 1/5 or 1/6 the cost of getting the dang adapter and a GC controller.

Yea, not big on skateboarding, but I sunk countless hours into THPS. If memory serves, I was almost at the point that I could clear the first level in one run, before college intervened and I stopped playing. Also, Gen 3 pokemon may be the worst, though it has stiff competition from gen 4. and since it didn't occur to me last night that Gen 3 was for Game Boy Advance, let me add some GBA games to this list: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Golden Sun 1 and 2, and Metroid Fusion are all amazing.

Well now you're just making me feel old. I played first and second Generation Pokemon when they came out. They are the best ones, and I switch back and forth on which was the better game. beyond that Super Metroid is pretty great; pretty much any Zelda game, but especially the handheld ones (Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons, and I have a special place in my heart for Link's Awakening, which introduced me to the series). I didn't have an N64, so I never played most of its games (something I plan to remedy once i get around to getting a Wii U and that virtual console), but the original Smash Brothers is great. going up to the N64's generation you also have the NES, SNES, and PS1 Final Fantasy games, of which 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 are all pretty great (though 7's graphics really don't hold up). And the PS1 Spyro games are also a lot of fun, especially Spyro 2. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the PS1 is always good, and I'm told the sequels are pretty decent too. Oh and can't forget Banjo Kazooie.

I liked Phantom Hourglass, which is kind of a DS sized version of those graphics; though some of the people's faces bothered me, most notably Link's which is a bit of a problem, but not an insurmountable one. The main thing holding me back from getting a Wii U right now, aside from price, is that I absolutely hate both the Wii and Wii U controllers. If I were more confident that I could just use a Gamecube controller (I know you need an adapter, but that's doable, just not sure about the control's compatibility with the games themselves) I'd be on it in a heartbeat, but since Nintendo decided to scrap the best controller they ever made for two generations of gimmicky nonsense, I've been less inclined to get their systems. Even the DS and 3DS I only got because they had great games, and the DS was used from a friend for the price GameStop would have paid him.

But we also know that 1. Szeth is less efficient (or something) in terms of his use of stormlight than Kaladin is after 3 oaths and 2. that kaladin gets more efficient as he swears his oaths (or at least I think we know this. I could be misremembering). This would lead to the conclusion that a full radiant (all five ideals sworn) could power the plate much more easily than szeth or kaladin can right now, and so might not need as much of a backup supply as szeth does.