Colours

Shh, it's only a guess. Based on one person's worth of anecdotal evidence. And even if it is true, exceptions will likely exist. I mean, there are plenty of good-sized subreddits and things that do a good job of keeping things civil, for example - maybe you just need a system of hiding the comments that have too many downvotes, or some such thing, to make it self-regulating (to avoid excessive increases in mod requirements). Prevents troll-feeding and all that. ...I have a feeling this might be an actual branch of sociology.

Welcome! Imagine if Sanderson was the kind of author who publishes one book every few years or something. We'd all be doomed. What other books do you enjoy?

Because more meta is best meta. This is a thread for making up remotely Brandon-related discussion topics, discussing the discussion topics, and maybe having the discussions that the discussion topics would entail. How remote is too remote? I have no idea! Shall we... Talk about the complete and 100% factual history of the name "Brandon" (which undoubtedly involves large amounts of conspiracy and possibly a prophecy or two)? Think up good Awakening commands for his favourite childhood pencil case? Have shipping wars over which two of the leaves on the (hypothetical) tree outside his window look cutest together? Whatever you can think of, fire away! (I personally think the second leaf on the far left branch should absolutely go with the one with the little black spot on it. They're so tragically separated by the (hypothetical) lamppost! You are, of course, welcome to disagree.)

I'm sad that we never got a viewpoint from the Lord Ruler's swivel chair.

Huh, looks like I'm the only one who liked it? Prior to reading it, to be fair, I tried trudging through The Myth of Sisyphus, which was almost disastrously obscure but did allow me to get a little more used to Camus' writing - enough to let me find The Stranger interesting. There are also people who manage to get too into it, which isn't exactly good for them; I wonder about the wisdom of making it required reading.

Welcome! Yeah, I agree that Warbreaker works really well as an intro novel. Great for dragging other people into the Sanderfandom. Before it's too late, I should warn you to apply a metal detector to any cookies that you may be offered. But if you've been lurking, you likely knew that already.

Seconded. I'd forgotten how visual Forgery could be - a movie adaptation could show off Shai's interior decoration powers pretty well, and it would be interesting to see her various guesses about the Emperor's backstory actually playing out. I can see the movie trailer being assembled around that scene where she presses the stamp into the wall and the mural blossoms out around it. It would be beautiful. I wonder if Mistborn would do well as an anime series. A Japanese reviewer remarked that the characters were very light-novel-like, which isn't what I would have expected - but then I looked over how the Japanese version was presented, and I can see how that might work. The overall tone of it was moulded to the light novel format. Going from that to an anime wouldn't be much of a stretch. Hmm... Whichever studio it was that animated Attack on Titan should have pretty good experience by now with people leaping dramatically through the air. It would require a very different art style, though - perhaps more in ufotable's field, along the lines of what they did with Fate/zero. Soundtrack by Kajiura Yuki?

I can see Soothers and Rioters being in high demand for any job that involves interacting with people. Every customer service centre could do with one to help with angry customers. All the best cafes would have one to promote an atmosphere of relaxation. They could enhance the excitement at concerts, tempt people to splurge on jewelry, convince people to trust that your pet psychics can indeed solve your intercaste marriage problems with black magic(?)... I can, in fact, see a future society in which people become very much more inclined to go out and be consumers, simply because when they aren't serving corporate interests, they just don't get to feel quite as vividly. This is actually pretty worrying.

Sometimes I wonder how much the internet's been screwed over by the general attitude of "please don't sue me".

That would be an interesting twist. I always thought, though, that Elend was a lot less dependent on Vin than Vin was on Elend - he doesn't have abandonment issues or a destructive impulse carved into him by Ruin. If he'd miraculously survived, or if Sazed resurrected only him (for some reason), he'd mourn heavily but still be able to help put the world back together. ...Of course, if their places were reversed, we'd all be utterly doomed due to a severe case of Very Angry Vin.

I get the impression that Elend was a sort of peacetime leader forcibly forged into a serviceable wartime one, and if we could see him after the end of the third novel, he'd probably have reverted to being the bookish teddy bear that I keep picturing his younger self as. Then again, the entire cast seems to spend a fair amount of time being pretty worrying. I guess apocalypses do that to people.

To be fair, she does a lot of the same thing to Elend. Although the context was different and all. Maybe she could justify it if his wife raises an army and camps outside Luthadel or something.

The story behind the story is actually Hoid building his personal harem out of every character ever. Can't believe I forgot about Shan. She and Vin hate each other - it's obvious OTP material!

To be fair, looking over the list of ghost rules with a bit of admin experience behind me tells me that the forum has grown out of hand, the moderators are fed up with people regularly trying to rules-lawyer their way through things, and - perhaps most importantly - parents have complained and possibly threatened legal action against them. All of this in mind, it's understandable that they'd want to regulate things strictly and play it as safe as is possible for them. ...I have an impression that there might be a "critical size" for internet forums. Once any of them grows too large, it irrevocably becomes unpleasant and the only way to perpetuate it is to over-regulate. Perhaps it's kinder to let them die when that time comes.

I wonder if there'd be a market for allomantic stomach implants - especially for copper or gold, since they don't react with HCl. That way, you could carry your reserve around with you all the time and your enemies wouldn't be able to disarm you without feeding you aluminium. ...Not that copper or gold would help much in a fight, of course. Maybe tin?

The lady in my avatar, Bernkastel, has been my favourite character for long enough that I can't quite remember why. I guess now is as good a time as any to try to put it together. To start with, there's her goth-loli character design, her voice, her army of cats... Hmm. She's really quite an exceptional villain - she acts as the narrator's ally, and for a time, her excessive harshness and her fondness for revealing truths that others would prefer to keep hidden are useful to an uncomfortable extent. Of course, it turns out that she's the biggest troll in the Sea of Fragments and, like she's been saying all along, is essentially hijacking the most important event in the narrator's life just to kill time. It's not as if there's nothing that she truly cares about, of course - she has an official ship and certain backstory events that she's afraid to think about and everything - but the fun part is that underneath her cold exterior isn't a warm heart but a laughing-mad-magnificent-bastard. ...Well, something like that? It's still hard to pin down, really.

Supernatural, another remarkably popular TV show. Involves a variety of mythologies and a main cast named after the four archangels. At least one of them wears a trench coat and fangirls scream about him regularly?

At a guess, maybe it's that the worst of the people get firmly warded off by his general philosophy of "literally every single character must have a decent-sized grain of goodness in them". It would run entirely contrary to their commonly-held belief that everyone is fundamentally selfish and/or evil. Try throwing a Sanderson book at one sometime and see if they cancel out in an explosion of light.

>implying that killing Vin is possible Seriously, she's immortaller than the Lord Ruler himself. I was thinking that the rest of the cast would be NPCs, but scratch that! Vin x Allrianne all the way. Because Vin clearly needs some pink puff in her life. She'll be the token loli heroine, taking everyone in with her innocent sweetness and a charming hint of spice.

Darn, I read those so long ago that I can barely remember what happened in them. I just remember that there was some exceptionally important pebble or something, and that Polgara likes baths. Was there also a really fancy sign language? A nation who crowns identical-looking girls Queen in rapid succession to fool their deity? And the resident thief character doesn't know his way around perfume? ...I should re-read this at some point, probably. Anyway, my top 5, hmm... In no particular order: Cosmere Discworld The Bartimaeus Trilogy (although it's been long enough that I can't quite remember what happened in it) His Dark Materials (ditto) Fate/zero Special mention to Pact (by J.C. McCrae), an urban fantasy web serial with a magic system that you most certainly do not want to get involved in. The magic works as I might expect it to in real life, which is pretty worrying. Another special mention to When the Seagulls Cry (by Ryukishi07), a visual novel series with the least reliable narrator I have ever seen - to the point where even with all the flashy magic duels and everything, it's still questionable whether it's actually fantasy.

As a reasonably frequent forum-goer, I must agree - it's surprising, in fact, that there's no official signature limit, since signatures tend to get out of hand quite quickly, in my experience. All the fancy features this forum has also help, of course. The flexible and straightforward post formatting, the little boxes that pop up to let you know about new replies... Also, that MultiQuote button is brilliant.

Don't worry, in his Good(?) Ending, the Lord Ruler turns the entire planet into chocolate and hands it to you on a silver platter. Because V-Day is the best day for an apocalypse.

The other day, I was pondering how our dear Vin seems to have an awful many potential love interests. Why, if she’d wished for it, she could have romanced half the main cast! I considered the possibility of examining all those possibilities and seeing how differently things might have turned out for, as it turns out, everyone on the planet. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I humbly present to you this: The Hypothetical Mistborn Dating Sim! Unmarked spoilers ahead. Protagonist: Vin Our lovely heroine, whom we all know well – small but dangerous, quiet but snarky, and somewhat worrying in many ways. Step into her shoes as she infiltrates parties, assassinates deities, and finds love on the streets of a dying world. Date-able characters: Elend This lovable bookworm is our cover boy, and of all the love interests on this list, he is probably the best for our protagonist’s health and sanity – even if most of your efforts will go towards making him put his book down. Philosophy, social awkwardness, and a soft and fluffy heart – what more could you ask for? (Maybe a dance or two?) The True End of his route may be regarded as the canon ending. Spook Our token boy-next-door character, by all the dating sim traditions, he is doomed to lose from the very beginning. You, however, can give him a chance at winning your heart! (You may or may not have to start by teaching him English.) When you meet him again post-timeskip, he will have grown into a legend in his own right – but will you need to save him from himself? Kelsier The legendary Survivor of Hathsin – is he the one who functions as our idol character? If so, be prepared to fend off his crowds of jealous fangirls (studies show that 84% of skaa women believe that Kelsier is the absolute best in everything ever) for the sake of your precious alone time together. Full of confidence, charisma, and mature appeal, the Survivor’s approval rating is off the charts! Zane Ah, our resident yandere character – dangerously insane and clinging to you as his final hope. He bears an intriguing air of mystery, but deep down inside, he’s really a lost little puppy. With rabies. For the sake of tradition, a major plot twist near the ending of his route will reveal his identity as your long-forgotten childhood friend or something like that. Zane is all but guaranteed to have a cult following amongst the players – the yandere always does. Super top-secret hidden routes: TenSoon Engage in a cross-species romance with everyone’s favourite kandra! Opening with a traditional tsundere storyline, the TenSoon route is sure to warm your heart. Break away from the politicking and go on an adventure with this wanderer-at-heart – explore the mountains and deserts, brave the edges of the burnlands, and follow the River Channerel to sail upon the sea. Melt his jaded heart, and see if you can establish a friendship with his Homeland! Lord Ruler Our infamous TDH, the Lord Ruler has it all – power, wealth, immortality, and devilishly good looks. The one thing he doesn't have is love. After his long centuries of solitude, will you be the one to capture his heart? Fight your way to his side, unravel his mysteries, and save him from the voice of Ruin that whispers constantly in his ear. Will the two of you save the world – or will you destroy it together? Hyper mega "there's always another secret" hidden route: Ruin There are literally zero ways this could end well, I mean seriously. Um. Good luck? …So, Hypothetical Mistborn Dating Sim. If anyone actually makes this, that would be unbelievably awesome and also hilarious. Thoughts, anyone?

I'm guessing that part of the point would be to control the doses so you don't end up with lead poisoning from eating pewter all the time, or something. Since, in the future, we can expect life expectancy to increase, these health concerns would start to take a higher precedence.

I think there was one section of my school library that happened to have lots of fantasy books in it (it was arranged by author surname), so I took up reading those. I can't remember what it was that caught my eye first - might have been the Belgariad, or something else that I read before that. I remember the Empire trilogy well, so I likely read it afterwards... Hmm. But even before that, fantasy books were pretty much everywhere, so I don't know what the first one was. Maybe something by Roald Dahl.