thekingofpillowland

41% Willshaper!

Guys! we've all missed the most important piece of Cosmere info! That is, Hoid stole The Lord Ruler's flute and gave it to Kaladin.

Wasn't there a WoB saying something about Elantrians on other planets still being able to use their powers, it'd just require them to learn the features of that world's landscape and to create new Aons for it? That's something i seem to remember, but I'm probably wrong....

Not to mention there was also another entity that was opposing Adonalsium that we know very little about, which is apparently still lurking around somewhere.

I can't be bothered to scour the net for the quote im looking for, so im not 100% on this, but I certain that there was a WoB saying that a using a gem that was not the right colour for soulcasting would basically be like using a bad alloy in Mistborn. So trying to use a discoloured gem could be dangerous, unpredictable, or innefficient. Or it wouldn't work at all. I suspect that trying this with an infused gem would likely make no difference, save for making it harder to drain the colour from the gem, because of WoB saying that invested objects are harder to effect with magic. (For example, hemalurgic spikes and metalminds are somewhat harder to steelpush than regular metal.)

So this is going to be brief because frankly, this is pretty insane and most likely wrong. But my theory is that Trell is the force that WoB has confirmed to have been opposing Adonalsium. And why do I think this? Because of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/im_novelist_brandon_sanderson_ama/crwx3j1?context=3 WoB states that there is belief in a God who is not one of the Shards, and implies that that god is real. So how does that relate to Trell?. Well, the people of Scadrial believed in him pre-final empire, and Miles and Lessie seem to believe in him, and surely a third shard's presence on Scadrial would be detected by Ruin or Preservation? (Although, I admit i dont think anything says that there has never been a third shard on Scadrial at any point.) So maybe the presence of a being that was not a shard, and was instead something either powerful enough or different enough that it could go undetected on Scadrial was felt? Well that could easily be the force that opposed Adonalsium. And what do we know for certain about that force? A) It opposed Adonalsium, it had created a weapon to be used against Adonalsium and C) It's still around. So we know that whatever this force was, it really didn't like Adonalsium, and it's still out there somewhere. Which is why I think that it could be seeking to eliminate the shards. Now who else doesn't like the Shards? Lessie. Lessie, who believed in Trell and hated Harmony (a.k.a the biggest/strongest piece of Adonalsium around). So we know that there was something that was totally against Adonalsium, and it is still around, doesn't it make sense that it would set it's sights on what was left of Adonalsium after the Shattering? So maybe it looked around, and found that two of the shards which were diametrically opposed were on the same planet and decided that it would be easy to start off by getting rid of the two that would have the hardest time working together, and best to eliminate the one that embodied destruction itself (Ruin) for safety's sake. Heck, maybe it even looked around and noticed that Odium was going around doing his work for him and decided to steer clear of it's unwitting helper, and chooses Scadrial over somewhere like Nalthis or Roshar. So along to Scadrial comes Trell. He sets up shop, either waiting and watching the shards or subtly turning people against them. But then something totally unexpected happens, the two shards combine, creating Harmony. Suddenly Trell has an even bigger piece of Adonalsium to be rid of, so what does he do? He redoubles his efforts to destroy it. Thus leading to his increased presence on Scadrial as he starts trying to turn people away from Harmony. Which incidentally leads to why Trell might not be another shard as seems to be the most popular idea. Firstly, the timely reveal of Autonomy's existence totally seems like a red herring. Intended to distract people and make them think that Autonomy is Trell. But so far, all we really know is that whoever Trell may be, that someone is fighting against Harmony. But Autonomy has been off, being autonomus forever and Harmony as far as we know, has given Autonomy no reason to think that he might intend to interfere with that, while Adonalsium's Opposition (which has been lying conspicuously low) has just gained its new most powerful enemy. And guess what? as soon as Harmony appears, Trell returns and his followers, scarce though they may be, are starting to turn up. And those followers seem pretty opposed to Harmony. Sorry if this isn't all that coherent. I'm basically grasping at straws here, and im rushing in case someone else thinks of this and posts before me. Please tell me what you think. Tl;Dr: I think Trell is the force that opposed Adonalsium, because it has been confirmed to still be around and it is confirmed that a god that is not a shard exists, and the revealing of Autonomy looks like a red herring, while enemies of Harmony (the biggest piece of Adonalsium right now) seem to follow Trell.

Well played, good sir.

So funnily enough, if you tried this, you would still get a net-negative. The negative being that you kill yourself by plunging a spike into your body.

First off, no offense taken. I'm happy to have a discussion. That is partly why I'm on these forums in the first place. To be fair, I did say he acted pretty honourable except for the killing of Sadeas, which in itself is an act that I find totally understandable. Sadeas was deliberately provoking Adolin, who does have a very short temper. In my opinion, a person can be honourable and still make mistakes, (and yes, a murder is a very big mistake) but Sadeas was a danger to Adolin's father, and Dalinar is a man worth protecting. Dalinar is just about the only powerful Alethi who is trying to do some good, and trying to protect people, so all in all, murdering Sadeas could be seen either way. However, I will concede that Renarin has not proved himself honourable. As I said, different cultures and people have different ideas about what is considered honourable. You don't think that a profession can be inherently honourable? That's fine. That's your opinion. I'm just pointing out the fact that other people will see it differently. As I said previously, honour is differently defined for everyone. This is your opinion, so all I'm doing is trying to persuade you, that you may have misjudged the afforementioned characters. I will point out that the first ideal consists of: "Life before death" (dont kill unecessarily, don't throw your life away) "Strength before weakness" (protect and serve those weaker than yourself) "journey before destination" (the ends do not justify the means, how you accomplished your goals is more important than the fact that you completed them at all.) Based on that ideal, I think that they are honourable. They never do anything dishonourable, (as in murdering innocents in cold blood) in pursuit of their goals. And I will point out, those are goals that will protect the weak, if they succeed. Sorry, my mistake. But the way you say that makes it sound as though you are trivialising it. Almost as if you're saying "Eh, she's not that good. All she's done is try to save the world." I don't mean to offend, I just think that trying to save the world counts for a lot.

First off, depending on how you want to define acting "honourably", there are more honourable characters than just Kaladin, Dalinar, and possibly Szeth or Lift. Adolin, for example is very honourable even if he chafes at some of the restrictions and winds up murdering Sadeas. Renarin is also honourable.But aside from that, honour is hard to pin down because it more or less comes down to a moral code, and with all the different Rosharan cultures, you are going to get people that value very different morals and ideals than others, so honour is hard to really define. The Shin would call farming honourable, while the Alethi would say the same for warriors, for example. And as for Radiants acting honourable, I will point out that Radiants don't necessarily have to act honourable, they just have to act within the confines of their oaths. Kaladin, has to protect people at all costs (which he does), Skybreakers have to follow laws, while Lightweavers don't really have much in the way of a moral code. After all, the KR's purpose was to fight Odium and protect humanity, not to be nice people. Plus, I will refute your claims that Shallan and Jasnahhave done a total of three honourable things, as they have both tried to figure out how to save the entire world, for Kalak's sake. The Radiants are associated with Honour (the Almighty) but they don't have to BE honourable as other people see it, they just have to follow the moral codes dictated by their spren/their Radiant orders.

Granted. You wake up the next day and find out that your best friend has legally renamed themselves "Expectations". I wish for glitter. Too much glitter.

All we really know is that Rayse was dangerous, even before he had his shard. We don't know how he thinks or interprets Odium's intent. From an external p.o.v it might seem that Odium is trying to become the supreme power, but as of now, we don't know for certain.

You become one. However, your presence now causes internet-capable devices to explode. I wish to meet Kalak.

Having been lucky enough to be given a copy of White Sand by Sanderson, I have ideas for the essences that seem most likely to correlate with Taldain, but I'm not sure if I should even say which ones. As I did promise Brandon that I wouldn't let out any of the details, and I don't wanna give hints, even inadvertently. But suffice to say, from my perspective, this theory is making a lot of sense.

I totally agree with what maxal posted. Yes, the characters have done many stupid or unreasonable things, but you know what? Those are part of their character flaws, their personalities. Having characters sometimes make bad decisions is a part of good writing. If you don't do that, you get a Mary Sue. As I've seen a lot of complaining about Renarin keeping his shards, I want to point out that he is a young person who is very handicapped (though the scale of how handicapped he actually is, compared to how handicapped he feels that he is, could be debated) and as a young person who also has medical conditions (type 1 diabetes, colour-blindness and mild dyspraxia), I found his motivations quite justified. He has felt completely useless for most of his life, and desperately wants to be like his big brother and father (a young boy's biggest role-models!), and when Dalinar basically hands him the key to his dream isn't it understandable that he wouldn't be incredibly eager to give up the chance to beat his disabilities? Dalinar giving Renarin shards is also understandable. Firstly, Dalinar is a father who has seen his son hope and wish to be able to be a soldier, and he has seen his son struggle with illness, which must be painful. Any dad would wish for a chance to help their child overcome challenges like those. Secondly, Renarin is someone that Dalinar can trust totally, he knows that Renarin would never ever betray him or purposefully let him down, and Renarin's desire to be useful only tells Dalinar that he will work hard. Thirdly, Dalinar is not the most intelligent man. Sure, he is a great general and soldier, but we see him get manipulated and fall for ploys all the time. He doesn't always make the best choices possible. But I will get on with what I personally did not like. Firstly, Renarin's reveal as KR just seemed badly handled to me. On my first read through, it seemed to come out of nowhere, like "Hey guys, I'm a radiant, too!" On my second, I did notice the hints and thought that it was well foreshadowed, but the timing seemed all wrong. Personally, I think that it would have been better for him to reveal the he was KR partway through book 3, after he has had time to see what the other KR's have been able to do, and gain some development from trying to decide if he could be equal to the others. Secondly, Jasnah. I kind of wish that she had stayed dead. Don't get me wrong, I think Jasnah is an excellent character, but I feel like having her come back will just mean that she occupies a lot of Shallan's role in the future plot. I think that Shallan has a lot more room for character growth and plot-importance without Jasnah. Apart from all that, I totally think that Amaram be more of a grey-area character, rather than a straight villain would have been cooler. An end-justifies-the-means guy would have been better in my opinion.