mirahound

Right. I vote that if/when the books are adapted to screen, you are hired to compose the music.

This is amazing! I could absolutely see this as a leitmotiv for either Shallan herself, or for her flashbacks. (Also, you have one of the greatest "amateur" voices I've ever heard!)

'Kay, but what about movie posters for Words of Radiance that feature the spren? One of Syl, worried and upset, and text along the bottom reads, "You don't care about the law. You care about what's right." Next one features pattern. possibly in his Shadesmar outfit, hands behind his back, with text reading, "That is a good lie." The final one features a stormspren caught in a red gemstone, stormclouds gathering behind it, and the text underneath says, "The Everstorm comes."

Holy... I got chills just reading that.

Sweet, I know a great place to trade them! I trade in a new pair of heeled boots (turns out they weren't my size).

Allomancy, definitely. I love the abilities of a Mistborn (though I'll admit copperminds would make life a heckofa lot easier).

... and came up with an odd idea. So, hemalurgic spikes allow Ruin to speak to their users, right (in the first era, anyway)? So, say this is before the truth about Ruin and Preservation comes out. There's an obligator along the lines of Yomen who wants to better understand the dichotomy between good and evil, and so he takes a spike he steals from a killed Inquisitor (at great personal risk), uses it himself, and BOOM, you've got the Scadrial version of Jekyll and Hyde. I think I might need to start listening to a different soundtrack at work.

Just sayin', this would be the greatest Christmas present ever.

To my mind, Kelsier is a hero. I've actually given this a bit of thought since reading Alloy of Law, with its comparisons between Miles and Kelsier, and I can't help thinking of the different circumstances they were in. In Kelsier's case, the government actually sanctioned rape and murder to keep the noble houses from getting too antsy. That's messed up. In my opinion, Kelsier is a hero because he saw how much the system was hurting other people, and he fought back against everyone he thought was culpable. Granted, he was wrong when it came to the nobles, but he was also humble enough that when Vin pointed out that he was wrong, he was willing to reevaluate and make sure he was doing the right thing (hence his change of heart about the nobles in the letter he left for Vin). In contrast, Miles saw how much the system irked him and was willing to hurt anyone, including the people he knew had nothing to do with it (ie, Steris and the other noblewomen he kidnapped) in order to get what he wanted.

I think it's possible Graves didn't know what to look for. I seriously doubt Mr. T told his spies every detail of the Diagram, so while stories were being told about Kaladin Stormblessed, and he was certainly being watched, Graves might not have known to send a report about him just yet. In fact, asking him to join their conspiracy might well have been his way of watching Kaladin to determine whether or not he was worth reporting.

Kaladin also has the most on-screen character development (I kinda think Dalinar has the most, but we haven't gone through it with him, so it doesn't hit us as much). We watch Kaladin go from a lonely kid to an impassioned teen to a determined soldier to a broken slave, all just in his flashbacks. In the main story we then see him progress from broken slave to hopeful bridgeman to bitter captain to forgiving Knight Radiant. We've watched him grow from every single hardship, and that, to me, is incredibly powerful, because it gives hope that things will get better if you can hold on just a little longer.

Interesting, I'd never considered the consequences of recording/drawing the Shardblades. The implications there are actually mildly terrifying, especially considering Shallan has started to draw the Shardblades herself.

My first thought was that it would be FOR Shallan, actually. I think of all the people who could use one of Hoid's stories to guide their development, it's Shallan.

Oh my badness, that's a terrifying thought. It makes me wonder how many proto-radiants ended up in his creepy "hospital"...

Oh my gosh, he's perfect! I can see him playing a really good Kaladin.

Is it bad all I can think about now is Hoid being genuinely confused by being dragged suddenly into someone ELSE's crazy schemes?

Well, I'm not so sure. I mean, yeah, Kaladin was injured every time he said his oaths, but I attribute that more to him being stubborn and taking a long time to learn those oaths. And with Lift, she said her second oath because she wanted to help Gawx, not necessarily because she knew she could. I think it's completely plausible for Adolin - or anyone - to speak each of his oaths before reviving his spren. A spren isn't necessary to learning each of these lessons, they just make it easier by guiding you. If Adolin's character arc is going to be as difficult as I suspect, he might speak every one of them without even knowing what he was doing.

Oooh, this is a fascinating line of thinking! My thought, following your reasoning, would be that somehow whoever tried to revive a Shardblade would need to "summon" them in each realm at the same time. The physical realm would probably be the ten heartbeats, and I'm thinking the spiritual realm would involve speaking the oaths. I'm... not sure how one would summon a Shardblade into the cognitive realm at the same time as the other two.

Ooh, I hadn't considered David Tenant as Hoid before. That could be fun!

Honestly, I would be okay with that. Let the series get a little more solidly underway before we start doing adaptations.

I think we've forgotten something: Kaladin specifically notes that using the side-carry, and all its consequences, was a mistake.

Ehm, I dunno. I think something Brandon is really good at showing is the tragedy of war. He acknowledges that this entire war has been a horrendous waste of life, both in Dalinar's and Kaladin's perspectives. However, at the point where Kaladin did step in and rescue Dalinar's troops, all hope of diplomacy had broken down. Those soldiers had no other options; if he hadn't stepped in and killed those Parshendi that had the upper hand and no intention of showing mercy, even more lives would have been lost. The necessity was tragic, but I can't say that the action itself was.

Something I think Sanderson does really well in all of his books is to portray different points of view without necessarily picking one as being better than another. Every character has their faults, as well as their points. From what I've seen, I don't think he actually picks one viewpoint over another here. He merely presents them and allows his readers to draw their own conclusions. Personally, what I take from this is that, in a perfect world, there would never be a need to kill in order to protect. However, as they - and we - live in a highly imperfect world, there will always be people who will attack the innocent, and who need to be stopped.

Augh, that makes me so sad for Teft! Seriously, there are so many characters in this series I just want to hug - though I get the feeling that's something Teft would resist with every bone in his body.

Oh my badness, I would LOVE Robert Carlyle as Hoid. I'll admit, he's not exactly the way I imagined him, but it would be totally worth it.