What's a Seawolf?

Chapter 88.

Random thought: 'Cloud Spying' is the magic system or a result of the magic system of the Darkside. I haven't read White Sand, and this is based on the OP's line 'The Darksiders on Dayside a VERY up to date.' Who else seems VERY up to date on all Cosmere happenings? Khriss. Maybe she uses 'Cloud Spying' in her Worldhopping adventures to gather information.

I had the same questions about the title when re-reading that chapter recently. At the time I assumed Nalan, because he does have the 'flying' part of the Windrunner abilities, and because he seems like he could be set up to be a foil to Kaladin, former Herald gone mad who abuses the law. But I like the concept of it being Mraize. Always thought of him as an offworld type though, someone from another planet that's worldhopped to Roshar.

Just to add a little more to this theory, during Taln's interlude in WoR, he states "Kalak will teach you to cast bronze, if you have forgotten this. We will Soulcast blocks of metal directly for you. I wish we could teach you steel, but casting is so much easier than forging, and you must have something we can produce quickly. Your stone tools will not serve against what is to come." Now in context that last line is innocent. But it could have deeper meaning. Especially the use of the word 'serve.' Stone tools would serve Odium, not the heralds and humanity.

I had the same thought during my current reread. It would be very unBrandon-like for that scene to mean nothing, but I can't come up with any significant explanation. The only thing I can think of, similar to what you mentioned, is that in that moment Syl somehow (maybe unconsciously) greatly increased her connection to Shadesmar to try and answer Kaladin's question, understanding it's importance and maybe not wanting him to feel so alone. So the brief image change is her reverting to her more 'actual' image, i.e. that is her most accurate, age appropriate image. (Her looking and acting more childlike since she bonded Kal because she lost her memories.)

When I first read the title I thought you meant Odium was invested/trapped in that black stone that Mr. T uses to control Szeth. If this theory is correct, maybe that plays into it as well? Either way, I love your theory. Makes sense both in the Stormlight Archive and the cosmere as a whole. And there HAS to be a reason for the Shin's treatment/reverence for stone. It could just be world building, but that sounds like too simple an explanation for Brandon/the cosmere, especially because Szeth, a Shin, seems to be one of the major characters in the series.

Wax arguing with Marasi that no matter how badly she wants to investigate, it feels like a really, really bad idea to approach the bald guy with the black sword that leaks smoke. ...ok, fine. Slightly more realistically, Wax and Sazed have another 'out of body' power session discussion about some new revelation Wax has made regarding the outside threat to Scadrial. This discussion leads to a revelation about the possibility of actually moving to those other worlds, and/or time bubbling to the future. Next up, Kelsier

What's the Lift Novella mentioned above?

True, but I can see how fine grained stone can be gray/silver. And maybe soulstone on Scadrial becomes metal? Isn't there a WoB saying that the other Shards would have their own metals on Scadrial? And if soulstone is a piece of Devotion or Dominion, that would give us another metal.

So I was just re-reading Emperor's Soul and came across a passage that sounded slightly familiar. Forgive me if this has been brought up before. From paperback pg. 131 "Soulstone, as a rock, looked not unlike soapstone or another fine grained stone, but with bits of red mixed in. As if drops of blood had stained it." And if I remember correctly, the spike controlling Paalm is SoS was silver flecked with red. Is it possible that her spike is actually a Soulstamp, meant not so much for control but to 'rewrite' whoever is spiked? Apply this to the red eyed 'immortals' at the end of BoM. Maybe they're not a new type of kandra, but just kandra who have had their souls rewritten to serve a different Shard. In the Mistborn trilogy, we see Marsh with some measure of self-thought and control when Ruin is not focusing on him. For the enterprising villain, rewritting a soul to being on your side is a lot more efficient then having to constantly watch over and control. Maybe I'm misremembering the color of Paalms spike, but if it is indeed silver flecked with red, it certainly matches the description of Soulstone. Just a thought, and possibly more fuel for the 'Trell is from/has been to Sel' theories.

I thought it had something to do with the devotion others/the Skaa had for him and eventually the power he temporarily picked up?

That's...very interesting. If Kelsier could hang around in the cognitive realm because of the variety of reasons he is able to, someone(thing?) as powerful as Adonalsium HAS to have had the ability to stick around. And probably in a much more significant manner then Kel. (Assuming extraordinarily greater Investiture/presence/power = extraordinarily greater ability to stick around after death/shattering.) If whatever took out Adonalsium only took out the physical aspect of whatever it was, Hoid being the Cognitive form of Adonalsium makes a certain sort of sense. "I began life as a thought, a concept, words on a page. That was another thing I stole." I can see that fitting the Cognitive form of Adonalsium and because of the strength of his physicial form, the Cognitive form (Hoid) can have a massive impact on the Cosmere. Now, I'm not anywhere near knowledgeable on the WoBs and practicality of this, but based on my knowledge (just the books really,) it seems feasible.

Before the reveal of what Steris was reading, I really thought it would be Spook's Hemalurgy book. Still say she ends up spiked or with the Bands of Mounring before the book's end.

Agreed. Crazy theory time. Ranette's new girlfriend is actually a kandra sent by Harmony to finally get Wayne off his fixation with her. So Wayne can then become fixated with MeLaan, paving the way for Wayne to be some sort of Kandra/Worldhopper/it doesn't matter how as long as he can be in multiple books in multiple series.

Well I love Wayne and really want to see him around for as long as possible... So I'm going to have to go with...Wax and Wayne et al. stop some major parts of the Set's plans, but some other evil survives/is not defeated. (Since it's an 'unplanned' era, I'll look at it as a loose prologue to the next round of books.) Wax, Wayne, Marasi and Steris (who obtains some sort of A or F abilities,) realize that there is nothing they can do in the present, but need to leave knowledge for the future in regards to the truth about the threat etc. The best way to do that? Leave themselves. They hide away somewhere, Marasi (having previously figured out how to do so) creates a massive time bubble and let's the world fast forward by. And boom, all four can become minor/hidden characters in the next era. No idea how any of it plays out. But I want to read scenes in Era 3 book 1 where the main characters constantly have their things 'disappear' and get replaced by seemingly random objects.

Hey all, first post. Guess it's kind of fitting Star Wars finally gives me the push to register. I'm very conflicted about the movie. As just a movie, I would say it was okay. Not good, not great. But entertaining. However, (to me) it's not just a movie. It's a continuation of the greatest trilogy and story ever. And I have to look at it in that light. With that said, my biggest problems (AND MASSIVE SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY): 1. Luke. Not that he wasn't in the movie. (Though he obviously could have been included more in some fashion.) It's the reasoning for him vanishing. This is LUKE SKYWALKER. The man who strode up to death star 2.0 knowing his friends were going to blow it up, in order to confront/save Vader and beat Palpatine. The man who left training against the wishes of his master to rescue his friends who otherwise would have died. It is BEYOND out of character for him to sit around doing nothing while new dark jedi rise and create a superweapon capable of blowing up SOLAR SYSTEMS. I don't care what sort of trauma he experienced. That is more out of character than him turing to the dark side. He would NEVER sit around and do nothing. Now that being said, my hope, HOPE, is that all the talk of Ben killing the other jedi is false. That Luke has a group of jedi hidden off somewhere and he's been training them in secret/faked their deaths. But even then, there better be one hell of a reaons he went MIA as a huge threat was rising and tens of billions died. 2. The jedi. If the narrative is to be believed, Luke was training other jedi, ben turned and killed them all. Really? After RotJ we're back to square one? Not only should there be more jedi out there, but there should be more skywalker and solo kids running around too. 30+ years, the last known lineage of jedi? Sorry, I'd expect (both for in unvierse reasons and narrative purposes) more skywalker/solo children. Granted, this could all be solved in Ep. 8 with the reveal of more children and other jedi. Understandable not to clog Ep. 7 with all of them. But if there were more jedi...I feel like Rey should have seen at least a couple on her way up to meet Luke. 3. Speaking of Rey...it's kind of obvious she's Luke's daughter, right? The only thing holding me back from being 100% is that it IS so obvious, and if it is, why wait a year and a half for the answer? Just have Luke say it to her as the last line in the move. ('The force runs strong in my family. My father had it, my sister has it...you have it.') She's obviously a Skywalker or mind-wiped Solo. And the latter makes more sense with the lack of reveal. 4. Han's death. I get killing him off. I never bought into the main characters have to die in all stories to keep them interesting thing, but fair enough. But his death was meaningless, pointless and 100% obvious the moment Kylo stepped onto a random long-pit-crossing balcony with no guardrails. Ben was too new, there was almost no father/son dynamic shown on screen, not a touch of heroism in the death, for it to have an impact. (Could have had him at least die on the Falcoln, but that''s more a preference and minor quibble.) Perhaps even worse, THERE IS NO ON SCREEN IMPACT FELT OVER HAN'S DEATH. Leia sits down when she feels it, Chewie roars. No touching moments, no remorse or reminscing, no funeral or touching moment as Resistance fighters learn of the death of one of the most famous leaders of the rebellion. And yes Finn and Rey screamed, but they barely knew him and doesn't add any emotional weight. (What was up with Leia walking right by Chewie as well and hugging Rey instead?) 5. Starkiller base is used...so what? I'm not even going to complain that's it's Death Star 3.0. There was no emotional impact or meaning behind destroying that planet(s) or killing billions. Sorry, there wasn't. At least in ANH we had Leia there to witness her home's destruction, plus it was the first time seeing something of such magnitude. Why should we care about that system? Home of the Republic? That's nice, we knowing nothing about it and are only shown the resistance anyway. So it looks like the galaxy will be fine? There's just no meaning or ramications behind the destruction. (Granted, ramincations could come next movie, but I can only deal with what's been shown.) 6. Speaking of Starkiller, the final aerial fight scene was terrible. No tension, almost no conflict. Looked like they were going for a homeage to ANH, which is fine, but did not work at all. No real goal besides shoot things 'til they explode. Didn't even have any good dogfighting scenes. That's it for major, Star Wars as a whole complaints. Minor quibbles. R2-D2's magincal awakening, No Big Three reunion on screen (perhaps more of a major one,) would have liked Han and Chewie's entrance to be more heroic, could have used a few more familiar races just to feel more like Star Wars, some of Finn's lines and over the top actions took me out of the movie, Rey's magical jedi mind trick and saber skills. (The last probably to be explained in Ep. 8, but as of now we have nothing to go on.) Again, most of all, they better have a damnation good reason for Luke. Likes: In general, the five new characters were great. Rey, despite the flaws mentioned above, definitely held her own. As did Finn, despite a couple out of place/non Star Warsish lines. Poe was great in limited time, though wasn't a big fan of him showing up in an X-Wing with no explanation. It was obvious he survived (typical rule of off screen death=not dead,) but for such a new character with limited screen time, just showing up was a tad, 'wait, is that the pilot guy?' BB-8 and Kylo were great as well. Loved that there were no ballerina-esque lightsaber duels. It didn't carry the weight of ESB or RotJ battles, but was far superior to the prequals. Han was pretty good. All in all, I WANT to like the movie. But I can't. Not yet anyway.