Toaster Retribution

I defeintely agree, and as a religious person, I´m quite happy with that. It is very easy for a lot of fantasy to just do the political aspects of religion, and not really focus on the faith-part of it (Cursed on Netflix is a great example of this). I think that could be because people in general grow more and more non-religious, but it really is neat to have an religious author writing about spirtituality (or the reasons for lack thereof), and not just pulling the Inquistion from the history books and placing it in a fantasy setting.

No problem!

I think people are prone to discuss what they disagree about, more than they discuss their agreements. And most people are in favor of putting an end to systemic oppression and murder of black people, which is why that isn´t a talking point when debating BLMs effectiveness as a movement. Furthermore, since the general climate on a lot of places at least seems to be "If you dont like BLM or support them, then you are silent coward at best, or a racist at worst". Most people who won´t support BLM are neither of those things, but instead question various policies that the official BLM-site says that the organization has. Every issue (or suggestion for societal improvement) that BLM adds to its list of "things we are fighting for" will just make it more complex (like pretty much any polical movement that lives beyond one week). The more complex BLM becomes, the more dissenters it will have (again, just like any political movement). Long story short, you can´t have an organization that is portrayed as something every decent person should agree with unconditionally, if that organization is even the tiniest bit complex. Tl;dr: More policy questions leads to more complexity, more complexities leads to more disagreement, and most people dont want to place their wholehearted support behind an organization that they, in some manner, disagree with on an important level.

First off, I dont think Brandon needs to write people with tons of different sexualities, faiths, illnesses, etc in order to be good at characterization. That is representation, which is a different beast. So if anyone on that reddit thread is using that as critcism of his characterization, they have got their terminology wrong. Second, I think Brandons characterization is one of the strong points in his books. I have not suffered from depression myself, but I have never seen a person with that experience criticise Kaladins character. On the other hand, they praise him. That is a sign of good characterization. Same with Jasnah. I am no atheist, but she has been praised for being a great representation of how atheists do think. Personally, I have recognized myself in Elend (just general nerd behavior), Dalinar (being ashamed over bad stuff you have done) and Hrathen (religious stuff). As long as Brandon keeps on creating characters which tons of readers identify with, I think that is a sign of great characterization.

I said that I don´t think Mraize lies very much at all, so I agree. I was discussing the claim that Mraize is a generally unreliable narrator, and not that what he said about Ialai wasn´t true (I think it is).

Just looking at movesets and things like that: I think Marth would be the most fitting for Adolin, which someone above pointed out. Lucina could be Azure. And then we could give Chrom to Denth, who also is a great Cosmere swordsman. Robins kit would probably work fairly well with Raodens powers, so I assign that to him. Byleth could be Amaram, given that he uses a sword and a bow, which is at least two of the four weapons Byleth has. Ike would be Szeth, given his usage of fire, which would fit with the Skybreaker powers that Szeth will supposedly get. Olimar would be Sadeas, and the Pikmin would be Bridgemen, or just other slaves. I think the Vin as Fox idea fits really well. I would like to propose Kelsier for Wolf, and Wax for Falco. I think Hoid would work well as the Pokemon Trainer. Just give him an axehound (Squirtle), a whitespine (Ivysaur) and a chasmfiend and we are good to go. Hoid himself will stand by the sidelines and wave, like Pokemon Trainer. Greninja is very sneaky, so I think Yesteel would fit. For Link... Graves? He uses both a Blade and a bow. Oh, and I forgot Nale. I guess he could be Cloud, and then we´d have Clouds energy waves manifest as the Surge of Destruction. Since we know little of how that surge works, I think we can get away with it.

I somewhat disagree with this notion. Mraize seems to operate with an idea of mutual trust. He will threaten you, or offer you deals and promises to make you do what he wants. He will then deliver on the threats and the promises. What he in most cases probably does not do is telling outright lies. It suits him to be seen as trustworthy and building a long-term relationship of mutual benefits with various people. I do think that he deliberately chooses what truths to tell, but I don’t believe that he lies unless it is absolutely necessary. I think head ardent would be a pretty good guess. I think he is one of the men with Gavilar in the prologue of OB. Ialai isn’t in book 1 at all. She first shows up in WoR. I dont think she is even mentioned in book 1. Oh, and Mr T is still around, and I’d say he is a book 1 villain since mostly everything bad Szeth did in 1 was on his orders.

One thing that hasn’t been discussed as much in the wake of the new chapters is Shallans hunt for the Sons of Honor, and, seemingly, Ialai Sadeas. The chapter makes it seem like they have teamed up. So, my questions are: 1. Will we finally see Restares? 2. How did Ialai learn of the Sons of Honor, and does she buy into their cause, or does she just want to hijack them? 3. Are the Sons of Honor corrupted by Odium Amaram-style or are they still idependent? 4. If they are idependent, what is their goal now? The Desolation and the Radiants are back. 5. Are Mraize and the Ghostbloods involved in any capacity (fun fact, my phone wanted autocorrect Ghostbloods to Ghostbusters, and now I can’t stop thinking how awesome of a band name ”Mraize and the Ghostbusters” would be). What do y’all think?

Well, it could certainly use some more... creativity: 1. Whitespine catapult: They spoke of having archers or rock throwers on it. But they never spoke of the tactical efficiency of bombarding your enemy with angry whitespines! Just build a catapult, and bombard Odium with whitespines. 2. A trebuchet. Because it is the best siege engine. 3. Axies the Collector. There is huge potential for all kinds of spren on there. He could presumably catalogue them. The guy could also scare off the Irali, who are working with Odium. 4. An A.H.L.S. Advanced Herald Locating System. 5. Some neat statues and art of the Stormfather to make him a bit less cranky. 6. Ishikk. He seems pleasant to have hanging around.

Well, mostly various actors who have attended conventions which I also went to. I did take photos and speak to a couple of them (David Wenham, William Kircher, Alexander Ludwig, Kristofer Hivju and Billy Boyd). I did however not chat with people like Sylvester McCoy, Harry Melling, Christopher Lloyd and Eric Roberts, so I guess it would be them. Oh, I also missed out on swedish Youtubers Montefjanton on a convention. They are not known outside of Sweden, most likely because all their content is in swedish, but their videos are hilarious, and meeting them would have been fun. One of the princes of Sweden visited my school once as well, but I didnt meet him. Also stood a couple of metres away from one of the major politicians here in Sweden but never spoke to him. I only now realize how most of these are very regional...

It seems like both sides have been content to lick their wounds. The Urithiru Alliance needs more manpower, and most of all more KRs (presumably they also wanted to rebuild Thaylen City). They have much to gain from being on the defensive at the moment. Odiums forces also has much to gain from a slacker year. More and more Fused will keep on arriving from Braize, both the ones killed off during OB, and also older and more powerful ones (I guess this new one is one of those). Every day, Odiums forces will grow. For some reason Odium also went on the little sidequest in Herdaz, which seemed to demand much more attention and manpower than intended (as an aside, have we even considered how badass the Mink is, since he held not only against superior numbers, but presumably against Fused as well, with little to no access to magic of his own). So as an aside, I think both sides were on the defensive, and when both sides are on the defensive, not a lot happens when it comes to gains and losses.

He could be the General Grievous of Roshar.

Yeah, I wonder if that Fused will be a recurring character similar to Leshwi. Brandon has given him interesting powers, Kaladin made a point of noting that his minions seemed to be afraid of him, and he was also very good at fighting Radiants. I hope he keeps on appearing, since we need more cool and competent Fused. Leshwi is kinda lame.

Fair enough, I guess. As long as we dont get high rates of chull-unemployment.

I am not sure that I agree with the notion that Shallans issues are better. Different, yes, but not better. She still uses her personas to shield her from dealing with issues, and she is now essentially three personalities in one body. That cant be healthy long-term. She defenitely has huge issues to deal with. Also, why haven´t anyone mentioned that Shallan is hunting the Sons of Honor, and that Ialai seems to be working with them, and is attempting a betrayal. Are the entirety of the Sons going to pull an Amaram and join Odium? Or are they trying to pursue an independet goal unrelated to the KRs and Odium? Also, will we finally meet Restares? Kaladin had a relationship with Lyn. I guess the shipping threads will be fun now. Also, if the Mink continues being awesome, he will be one of my favorite characters soon. Don´t you dare suggesting such heresy! Chulls are amazing creatures.

May Aladar?

Elodin?

To be fair to Laral, we dont know what she said to Roshone in private. And she was still a very young girl, married off to an older man she didn’t know super-well. I wouldn’t judge her to harshly for being too afraid to speak up. Also, Amaram couldn’t get Roshone to change his mind. I doubt Laral could have done anything.

Yeah, we have done so many rounds on Amaram before :-D Another discussion wouldn’t lead to much, unless we get some more spicy stuff from a new book/WoB. I can understand your point though, even tho I do want to point out that Sadeas did pretend to be the good friend Dalinar knew just to get a window to murder him and his entire family. Sadeas is not upfront with who he is when it doesn’t suit him.

This. I don’t get why people ignore all of Sadeas crimes with the argument ”at least he is honest”. Because: A) Sadeas isn’t honest. He is lying and manipulating the entirety of WoK, pretending to save, support and appreciate Dalinar as a true friend just so he can murder him, his son, his nephew and thousands of his soldiers. This far above the lies that Amaram (or Mr T for that matter) have told. B ) Just because you are honest about being crem, it doesnt change the fact that you are crem. In a way, it makes worse. You could at least make the argument that Amaram, Moash, Mr T and Gavilar all have managed to convince themselves that they commit crimes for a greater good. You really can’t do that with a guy who knows that he does everything for himself.

He used the Blade to kill some others first. So I think they know.

The one character I liked was Devi the loanshark. The others were kind of uninteresting. Prose was great, but I meed more than that to be hooked.

A theory I think. A lot of it is based on how he can rid himself of manacles so easily.

Well... not Amaram. The guy isn’t actually evil in my book. Gavilar is still too much of an enigma, I think. I would probably say Sadeas. In the face of a new Desolation, he STILL planned to murder Dalinar and cause chaos, just for his own personal short-term gain. He could have done what Aladar or Roion did, but he chose not too. None of the others have done anything resembling that.

Not to be that guy, but I don’t think we know exactly how that works. Aesudan might show up again somehow. I hope so. She was kinda wasted. I don’t think it will happen, but who knows? I do think that it is important to remember that Gavilar most likely isn’t Odiums Champion. After all, he seemed to be pretty serious in grooming Dalinar for the part. If he already had Gavilar, he would just whack Dalinar instead of pulling a Darth Sidious routine and asking him to join the dark side. In short, I think both Aesudan and Gavilar are dead, but the speculation is cool.