AhMayzon

I thought of that too...but that would be a pretty weird operating room to have plants in it.  (Maybe the walls were spraypainted instead?)

 

Dawnslight also never mentions Regalia by name - it's always "she" or "her", though he does mention others by name.  Not sure if that means anything.

 

The "Dawnslight made Calamity" is a very interesting theory.  It seems that they both "happened" at about the same time.

Early on in the book, Mizzy comments that the glowing spraypaint started immediately after Calamity, and the plants started growing then too.  She says that they grew in the streets then.  So Dawnslight became an Epic in Babilar very early.

I did go back through Firefight to find what the cookies said.  We have:

 

First set:

"Help Me"

"She has me captive"

 

Second set, when they involved an actual conversation:

"Is this a dream?"

"Gnarly.  I get confused sometimes".

"They call me Dawnslight.  You're trying to stop her, right?"

"Don't know dude, I can't see her.  I watched that other one, though.  On the operating table."

"Sure. Yeah.  They cut something outta him.  You're sure this isn't a dream?"

"I like dreams."

"Listen to that music."  (After which there was no further answer)

 

Third set:

"Missouri, hide.  Hide now".

"Dream good dreams, Steelslayer".

 

Seems that Dawnslight has moments of lucidity mixed with non-responsiveness (is he doing something else besides focusing on the plants then, or just plain out of it?).  His lingo also makes him sound like he's straight out of the 60's.  That might go well with the psychedelic colors on everything!!

 

So now my question is:  Why / how could Dawnslight watch the surgery on Obliteration, when he couldn't see Regalia (whose hospital bed was in the same room with him???) 

Regalia employed the surgeon on Obliteration, and wasn't there a comment somewhere about the procedure "usually killing the Epic"?  Seems like a non-trivial amount of material is needed to make tech (or maybe that's only for powerful tech??)

 

I also wonder what they're taking out. Is it something specific, or do they just need a certain amount of tissue or a certain amount of mitochondria in the cells they're taking?  They are the "powerhouse" of cells after all, and it would make a certain sense that having more of them in your device would equal a more powerful device.

 

That also seems weird though - what is actually inside the device's motivator?  Whatever they're taking out of the Epic?  A copy?

Maybe there's something there, though. Fear of being wrong is, on it's own, a trivial fear. But the fear of being drastically, horribly wrong in a way that causes irreparable damage is not. It would need to be more narrowly defined, like the fear of being wrong about how to raise a child, or wrong about the cure to an illness, but that sort of fear could be an adult fear.

That's what I was trying to get at.  Something in his past that went terribly wrong, that he was responsible for, and that hurt or killed someone he cared about, maybe.

 

 

Also, it's possible that David's Epic power is the ability to absorb some of the Epic energy (I almost said "Investiture" ) from another Epic, kind of like a reverse-Gifting effect, such that what we thought as Prof Gifting David was actually David taking from Prof.

 

I actually wondered this same thing.  Maybe he's a "taker" instead of a "gifter".  He is able to use the Epic powers contained in "technology" easily (spyril), also the tensor powers that Prof gifts him, and Megan comments at one point that staying "sane" is easier around him (which might make sense if he's taking some power off her).  Of course, that stuff happened before the incident with Calamity. 

I'll have to look up what those cookies actually said again.  They came across as the messages of someone pretty out-of-it on first read... I remember "Am I dreaming"? and "Help me?"? 

Well Tia has to be taken off the table at the beginning of Calamity because David now understands how Epic weaknesses work, which means all he has to do with Prof Phaedrus is figure out what he's afraid of... which Tia would likely know. It's too easy that way, so she most likely appear until the end of the book. Perhaps David will have to track down the loreists to try to get their help instead.

Even moreso than knowing what he's afraid of, she likely knows how he got himself under control the first time (when he was running with the other Epics).  She was awfully conspicuously absent at the end of Firefight, probably for that very reason.

I don't know. From the little we get, Calamity and Dawnslight seem too distinct from one another to be the same person. Dawnslight comes across as a definitively post-fear Epic, whereas Calamity acts like one still driven by fear or something even more sinister. Also, if Calamity is working with Regalia, and their relationship is such that Regalia has to "convince" him to agree to her requests, and he is in such a position that he can withhold information from her, why would he allow her to kidnap Dawnslight and hold him hostage? If Calamity has the upper hand in that relationship, why would he let Regalia hold his "other self" captive?

Maybe Regalia wasn't holding Dawnslight hostage, but actually protecting his sickly physical self (in exchange for power?)  Heck, maybe Dawnslight is Regalia's kid and that's why she wanted a successor to rule Babilar.

 

Probably a stretch and they do seem distinct, and we've not been given much so far. 

I'm probably just making stuff up, but what if Calamity IS Dawnslight? 

We saw that Regalia could project her avatar where ever she wanted, as long as there was water.

Therefore, Calamity doesn't HAVE to be out in space, either.  He could be anywhere and just be projecting his avatar there.

Maybe he's Dawnslight's "bad dreams" whereas the funky plants are the good ones.  (Dawnslight does tell David to "Dream Good Dreams"...) 

I was introduced to Sanderson's work via Wheel of Time, and so far have read the Mistborn trilogy (and now listening to the audiobook versions as my workout entertainment), Way of Kings from Stormlight, Warbreaker, and most recently the Reckoners series (and I cursed at the end of Firefight due to having to wait a year for the next one!!!)

 

And my name is pronounced Ah-May-Zon.  It was my Arab mare's name (Symply Ah Mayzon) and I go by her name on forums.

It seems to me that there's a distinction in the type of organic matter:  it seems like some of the Epics' powers don't work on animal life, but they do work on plants.  Notice the park in Steelheart where David comments that the grass was turned to steel and is sharp (I guess it could have all been dead before, but maybe not).  And then we have Dawnslight who makes weird plants grow. 

 

But then there's still Deathpoint, so it must be Epic-specific. (Maybe he was opposite?)

New here. 

That's also my theory. Seems like the logical answer. The real question is how Prof managed to take control of himself afterwards.

 

Did Edmund go on a Rending? I can't remember what he said in the first book.

Yup.  And presumably Tia knows how he got control of himself last time.  She needs to talk (if she lived). 

 

Here was my thought:  What if Prof's fear is being wrong, or being proven wrong?  He plans things to minute detail (trying to cover all reasonable possibilities so regardless of what happens, he can't be wrong?)  That could also explain how he reacts to betrayal (was wrong about the person in question?)

 

I also wonder if the scene when he was doing small chemistry experiments to calm himself was significant.  If I remember right, there was a comment that he was containing reactions in forcefields too (can't find it right now).  Just messing around, or significant?  It's hard to envision a 5th grade-level science experiment that could go wrong enough to blow up, but if something like that happened it would be a very good source for a fear!

Hello all! 

I've been reading the boards for a while, and finally decided to sign up for an account.

I obviously love Brandon's work and can't get enough!