Toaster Retribution

While While I do agree that Ruin as a shard isnt evil, I do think that Ruin exhibits evil in non-everything-shall-end ways. He obviously enjoys taunting people and watching their desperation. For example (Secret History spoilers):

Just wondering if anyone knows if Brandon has an interest in doing more Jak shorts (annotated by Handerwym, of course!). Because the Pits of Eltania is a very fun read.

I picture Shin as white european people. I'm pretty sure that is what Brandon imagines. To a certain extent I can picture others as white as well. For example, Im onboard for casting Rose Leslie as Shallan, and she is scottish (and also a bit too old). Shallan is supposed to have an asian look as well though, albeit fairer skin.

True that. I prefer going asian for the Alethi because Brandon describes them as middle eastern but with darker skin, if I remember correctly. That said, everyone can of course imagine them in their own way :-)

There are casting threads for Stormlight. One was active just a couple of weeks ago. Personally, I dont really feel capable to cast Gavilar, due to lack of knowledge of asian actors. Daniel Wu maybe?

I hope you are right, but I will set my Axies expectations low so that I'm not disappointed when the book arrives.

I dont remember the Laral passages that well, but she might just have tried to protect herself by behaving in a shitty way towards Kaladin, who, at the time was disliked by Roshone. She was young, and probably scared, given that she basically can be traded off to people. She tried to be as safe as she could in an unsafe environment, which included being mean to those who were disliked by the guy in power. Yes, it is cowardly, but also quite understandable.

Granted, but you will only be immune to the non-life threatening ones. I wish I could have a living, talking sock as a friend.

Lift will be in the book, we have WoB on that. I also think there was a recent WoB from Australia that said Axies would be mentioned, but not appear in person (that saddens me, since he is one of my favorite characters). The storylines I´m most interested in are Adolin and the curious case of the murdered highprince, as well as Shallan & the Ghostbloods. The secret societies are interesting, so Moash and Mr. T POVs will be fun too. I also want to see more of Amaram and Mraize, as I like both characters. Kaladin is probably the one I´m the least hyped for. He is a good character, but I feel that WoK and WoR has Kaladin overload, and so him taking the backseat here would make me quite happy. Hopefully he doesn´t save everyone at the end in this book. Oh, and the aforementioned Warbreaker spoiler is also interesting.

Yeah, Adolin murdering Sadeas is one of the most heavily discussed things in Stormlight (it ranks second behind a certain Stick). Anyway, my take on it is the following: Random murders are always wrong, and as such, Adolin killing Sadeas was wrong. That said, I completely get why he did it, and I dont think he deserves to be harshly punished. Sadeas had betrayed him and his house, left him for dead, and taunted him repeatedly. In addition to this, Adolin doesn´t like to just stand around and do nothing. Taunts, and other bad acts towards him or his family gets him angered pretty fast. And he is also very loyal, and wants to protect his loved ones (the same people that Sadeas was attempting to harm). Given all this, him snapping and killing Sadeas is understandable, and I also think that Sadeas should, at least in part, blame himself. He was basically playing with fire, and in the end, he got burned.

If Nightwatcher and Cultivation are connected in a similar way as Honor and Tanavast, wouldnt that mean that Nightwatcher has merged with Cultivations cognitive shadow? And wouldnt that mean that Cultivation is dead? Also, how much of Stormfather is actually Stormfather? And how much is Tanavast? Like, does Tanavast still have a conciousness, and an ability to affect the world? Also, about Bondsmith-spren, maybe Cusicesh can be one? We dont know exactly what it is that places Nightwatcher and Stormfather a level above him, but I guess it is the connections to shards. As @Spoolofwhool said, Stormfather has been bonded before merging with Tanavast, so it might be that the required sprenlevel for being a Bondsmith spren is the one that Cusicesh is on, and Stormfather and Nightwatcher just got leveled up. This would make Nightwatcher, Stormfather and Cusicesh eligible for bonding Bondsmiths.

I agree that Denth is bad (he is still my favorite Warbreaker character though), but how is he and Gavilar alike? Gavilar did a lot of bad things for his own glory, and Denth did them for money. He is a mercenary, and was only doing what he was hired to do.

Roshone has a peg leg? Wonder if this is subtle foreshadowing, and he ends up a pirate?

That Rayse is scared doesnt mean that he would lose. It only means that he sees Sazed as a big risk to take on. And also, he is probably scared about Sazed getting more experienced, because if that happened, he would be a dead shard walking (or whatever shards do instead of walking). If anyone has read aSoIaF, I guess it is a bit like:

That is what I meant when I spoke of Elsecalling. Probably wasnt clear enough though, sorry about that.

One of the major questions about the Shins recovery of Talns blade is how they managed to do it. Of the shamans had to send a guy out from Shinovar, he would probably not make it to Taln before he arrived at the warcamps. Also, Im pretty sure we have a WoB that says Hoid is aware of the switch, so its likely that it happened before he left Bordin, which gives it a pretty small timeframe, one far too small for a shin to make it there if he is travelling from Shinovar. So either the shin have people spread out over Roshar who they can A) trust and B ) reach quickly, who can then go get the blade, or they use one of blades that grants elsecalling in order to get there.

Well, I generally spend more time discussing characters as opposed to magic systems (although Im trying to get more informed in that area). And I'm also pretty bad at math, so I always get impressed by people who are good at it.

I'm just extremely impressed by all the math going on here.

I dont remember exactly, but didnt Arcanum Unbounded say that travelling from Sel was hard? Because in that case, it wont be solved in the Elantris sequels, since AUs essays take place during Mistborn Era 2, I think. If it isnt fixed by then, it will not get fixed in the sequels. Btw, this Hoid scene with the shardpool, is that in the Elantris book? Cause I dont remember it.

Could they go faster than a steel feruchemist (forgot their official nickname)?

They had some sort of relationship, I think, but Im not sure either. But I think it has to do with them living alone together out among the Reshi islands. They didnt need to follow rules very strictly out there.

Good points there. And personally, I think I would place Gavilar above Amaram: there is a chance that Amaram genuinely believes that his goal will be the best for humanity. Gavilar apparently just wanted personal glory.

Adolin spent the entire book being taunted by Sadeas. But we know that he acts upon emotions. He got angry and things went out of hand. One misstep doesn't stop him from being honorable.

Gavilar? Huh. May I ask why? Also, @Firerust thanks for reminding us of Iadon. He should definitely be on this list (Telrii probably should as well). Oh, and about Denth, he did kidnap children in order to blackmail their parents. That was probably his worst action, IMO.

Since Zahel/Vadher is originally from Nalthis, he probably wont look like the Alethi. So why doesnt anyone react? I dont think Kaladin ever mentions it. Has Vasher managed to change his appearance in some way?