Jofwu

The Scouring of Aimia was basically one giant crawfish boil. I feel like there's a crazy theory in this about Rock being a chef...

I love Lift as she is. It would get old if she doesn't develop, but I have no doubt whatsoever that she will "Awesomeness" was unpleasantly jarring. I get what Brandon was trying to do with it, an it is fantastic in a way. But it certainly jerked me out of Roshar on the first read (and still does somewhat). But I think it's too late to change abruptly. You can't just leave it out and pretend it never happened. That would be even more awkward now. Also, I don't suspect we'll see a whole lot of Lift between now and book 6. I'd guess we'll have one... maybe two interludes from her in the next three books.

I think he meant "corrupted" in the sense that one is likely a time-worn version of the other. Like the way "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" is a corruption of the original song. It doesn't mean one of them is bad/wrong/etc. While it's possible they were both written around the same time, to convey slightly different aspects of the same form, it's more likely that one was composed first and then evolved into the other (or was changed intentionally) over time.

But Szeth's survival is pretty significant. You'd have so many casual fans who are super confused in Oathbringer.

I don't think the Vasher/Nightblood background is (or will be) terribly vital. You can completely enjoy Stormlight without the context of Warbreaker, and I think that will be true going forward. In the books, I think Nightblood will be framed as some kind of very strange (artificial?) spren/shardblade. He will be explained in a context that Rosharans (and thus Stormlight-only readers) will understand. Zahel's probably not going to stand up and say, "Hey, let me explain to all of you how this sword was created on another world with a totally different magic system." Yes, the connection and the reveal was a lot of fun for those of us in the know. But it's far from important to the story. That said, DMG bought the rights to the entire Cosmere. No reason to assume they wouldn't give us Nighblood's background via a Warbreaker movie. It's just a question of which would come first. You can read Warbreaker second. Not as much punch to the revelations, but it probably makes more sense if you're shooting for broader appeal and not just trying to surprise a bunch of nerds like ourselves.

That's basically the opposite of spite. Spite is about fulfilling a personal grudge. Here Hoid is saying, "I'm gonna do what I must, but it's nothing personal."

I've never been fond of the idea that it's Lerasium. Is there a WoB about it? I think whatever it is will be more directly involved with Stormlight Archive itself. Perhaps the Letter is JUST cosmere fan service... But I'm inclined to believe it's more meaningful in the Stormlight context than we might think. I like the Tanavastium idea.

You don't have to have ALL of your characters interacting to build a story and have good characters. There's no reason Shallan has to be at the Shattered Plains for us to get to know her and for her to matter in the context of the story. I'd argue that can be done much better in Kharbranth. It's important to develop Jasnah, so having those two interacting is good enough. Plus I think it's important that we're introduced to Taravangian, since he's obviously going to play a big role down the road (I'd introduce the Diagram at the end of TWoK perhaps, along with the Silent Gatherers). But I DO think you could have Shallan and Jasnah begin their journey sooner. This would work really well. Instead of studying in Kharbranth for all of TWoK, you put them on a ship maybe halway through. Cut out Jasnah's ethics/murder lesson and Kabsal. Shallan steals the soulcaster shortly after they're on the boat and makes plans to get off in a couple days at the next port. She has her soulcasting "accident" and gets discovered (skip the poison). Can't get rid of her until the next port, but then Shallan confronts Jasnah and they work it out before that point. You can probably work it out so Jasnah's murder happens during the climax. Perfect for a brief Jasnah "prologue" when WoR starts, and then the first scene is Shallan waking up on the beach. We already have romance in TWoK: Dalinar and Navani. I may be biased... I HATE love triangles. And I refuse to accept that we have a love triangle in Stormlight. Kaladin and Shallan shared an intense experience, there's no solid evidence that a romantic relationship between them will continue to develop. And I don't want to see YA-style love triangles in Stormlight. Shawshank Redemption? The Great Escape? There's plenty of great movies where the protagonists are in captivity the entire time. And in this case, it's only one protagonist out of three or so. I disagree that this is necessary. I also think you're making Kaladin's story way more complicated than it needs to be in an attempt to cut flashbacks. We don't need extensive flashbacks. Just show Kaladin wheeling up in a slave cart from the beginning, explain his background contextually, and maybe throw in a very brief flashback scene as he shares the Shardbearer story late in the movie. That's all it needs. We don't need to see pre-slave Kaladin being awesome. Just show us Kaladin being awesome as he tries to save/protect Bridge Four. I don't like this either because it's the complete opposite of what he is in the books. I would just downplay his role. He primarily exists in the book because we mostly see Dalinar from his own POV, and Brandon needed someone to highlight how crazy he seems to everyone else. In a movie we're not in Dalinar's head, so there's no need for those. No need to change Adolin. Just push him more to the background for now. Use him to speak reason to Dalinar on a few cases. Use him to add some light humor.

Here's a theory... What if the God Beyond created the Cosmere, filled it with Investiture (and mass and energy), and then peaced out. We know that Investiture clumps together and that it develops sentience over time, right? So if enough time passes, it makes sense that it some kind of powerful, sentient thing might naturally develop. Then some person comes along and takes that power, and now you've got Adonalsium. Lots of time passes, so eventually we have the myth that Adonalsium himself created the Cosmere, while the God Beyond is mostly forgotten. Then Adonalsium gets shattered and the rest is history.

Kaladin sings Defying Gravity pretty much verbatim.

Yeah. There's essentially no language (since all curses are in-world phrases, and generally tame regardless) or nudity (at least none that's in any way necessary). Can't speak for the rest of the world, but without those obstacles you can squeeze in a LOT of violence before getting an R rating in America. And the fact that it's mostly fantasy violence helps as well. The most violent scenes involve Shardbearers mowing people down... using a magical sword that just burns out people's eyes and doesn't draw blood. I suppose if we followed a few bridge runs up close then it would be R-worthy... That gets pretty brutal. But its hardly necessary to show every person being gruesomely shot down and tramped.

Here's my take on a scientific explanation (copy pasting from a Reddit comment, with some edits) of Tension and Cohesion: I believe the general assumption is that Tension is control over Young's Modulus (and similar stiffness properties) while Cohesion is control over strength. So Tension would allow you to make rubber as stiff as glass (and vice versa) while Cohesion would allow you to make steel fail like aluminum (and vice versa). For anyone struggling to grasp the difference (because the technical terms mean nothing to you)... Tension could make a piece of rubber stiff like glass, but that wouldn't affect the strength. A rubber bouncy ball given the rigidity of glass would NOT shatter as easily as a glass marble, but it would definitely break more easily than a steel bearing. And on the other hand, Cohesion could make a piece of cloth as strong as a sheet of steel. This means it would be very hard to tear the cloth, but it wouldn't be as stiff as a steel plate (it would still flap in the wind, for example). HOWEVER I'm skeptical Brandon will define the terms this scientifically. These are the best explanations I can think of, based on what he's said. But I also get a sense that he's got particular ideas in his mind of how these powers can be used without having the science nailed down yet. And if that's the case, there probably won't be a nice, simple, scientific way to explain them in the end. If I had to guess... Tension will allow you to control rigidity AND strength to a degree. I'm imagining he'll have someone take a rope and turn it into a staff to fight with, for example. Or use a coat to shield against projectiles. This would require making the materials more stiff, but it probably also needs to come with a bit of increased strength. And I get the sense that Cohesion lets you basically treat anything like clay. You can take any material and reform it with little to no resistance.

No, Brandon recently mentioned that he originally made it work this way, but it does not. Can't remember the Adolin scene exactly, but I'm guessing it was mainly symbolic, to make a point. We saw him summon it, so it was bonded to him. But I agree that this doesn't imply it wasn't "on loan". Just means the person he borrowed it from is powerful enough to be comfortable loaning Shardblades. I think there are potentially people in Roshar in such a position.

I'm pretty sure he's said that there's four or five drafts. The final draft or two is just going to be spelling, punctuation, etc. so that won't take as long. But it still takes time. And there's a lot more art in these books than just the cover. And they like to get the audiobook out on release day now. I'm sure they don't wait until it's all totally finished to start with that, but still. Printing and distribution takes time. Lots of reasons.

I think he misinterpreted that question slightly. His answer seems to be primarily about who how that specifically relates to shardblades, which I don't think is what she was trying to ask.

I asked this on Reddit, and my favorite answer was that perhaps Nightblood is simply unable to use commands. He's not mature or developed enough cognitively to properly visualize commands.

Huh, great points all around. Seems odd to me that they're aware they have a gemheart. Parshendi don't seem like the sort of people to dissect their dead, and how else would they know?

But why would you bother with that if you could just be a Mistborn and be done with it?

I like the way Brandon described Surgebinding connections to Honor and Cultivation in the Rithmatist Q&A. I've always jumped to judge the orders by the niche they seem to fill, so it was interesting to hear how the Surges come into it. Also, anyone else really struck by his explanation of honorspren and cultivationspren? I've been assuming that they are more closely associated with the shards in some way. But the way Brandon talked, that's not true at all. He made their names seem almost arbitrary.

Is @DAdam's recording of the Sunday Signing up somewhere? The one linked in the first post ends abruptly and the transcript says he has more. But I don't see a link.

This wasn't my interpretation of the Prologue. When listeners change form, they capture a spren in a gem and go out in the storm with it. I think this is the similarity that Eshonai was referring to here.

Got my volume at max and I can't make it out fully. But it's something about red eyes in Bands of Mourning. I filled in those clues. For the first, I think I got all the words basically right... But it makes no sense to me what he was asking. For the second, it's a Sixth of Dusk question. It feels like he's asking "what happens if humans are born on Patji? do they get powers?" But I can't make out any words that form a question like this. Filled in what I could.

@Bcknight2, that's a fantastic WoB find! And I think there's more evidence here than a mere lack of reaction from Amaram. There are three possible situations: Amaram doesn't know the man's name (at the time he spoke with Shallan) Amaram knows the man's name and it's Helaran Amaram knows the man's name and it's not Helaran You're right about the first point here. It's possible we're assuming too much about what Brandon is saying. Also, the question says "did he ever" and I think an argument could be made that Amaram finds out the name after speaking with Shallan (either with Brandon speaking from some place much further in the future, or with Amaram finding out between then and the end of the book). This seems unlikely to me, but it's a possibility. Lastly, there's always the chance that the WoB is mistaken. But let's take the WoB at face value and assume Amaram knows the man's name at the time he spoke with Shallan. It's strange how he describes the man to Shallan after lying to her about knowing the name. I disagree with @The One Who Connects that he might not have connected Helaran and Shallan. Shallan's full name is mentioned at the beginning of their conversation, and indeed Amaram doesn't recognize it until she clarifies "Betrothed of Adolin Kholin”. But her full name was out there. It's possible that he only knows Helaran's first name, but it seems unlikely. There's not much meaning in "knowing the name" if all he has is an unattached first name. I can't even see how he might discover just a first name with no other information. Possible, but unlikely. So surely the Davar name would ring a bell with him, right? But it apparently doesn't. He shows no reaction, and he goes on to describe the man with enough detail that surely another Davar would think, "Hey, that sure sounds a lot like my brother who died..." Not just that... This Davar woman is going out of her way to ask him about his blade and the previous owner? That's code red level suspicious. How would he not think she's on to him? It's obvious he wants to keep the name a secret, because he's lying about it. The fact that he doesn't see a need to conceal the man's description from Shallan, however, is pretty good proof I think that he has a name besides Helaran's. Another odd revelation here is that Amaram lied about knowing the man's name to Dalinar (and presumably others). He wasn't just trying to conceal the name from Shallan. So I think we have to disregard your final 2nd possibility. He didn't lie out of indifference. For some reason, he doesn't want somebody (or people in general) to know that he knows the name. Maybe he doesn't want "secret society X" to know that he's on to them, for example. As far as I can see, this doesn't have any obvious implications concerning my little conspiracy theory. However, it might be telling if we get into some of Amaram's other secrets, which might give us a connection to which name he's trying to hide exactly. Just musing here.

No, that's what the Shardblades are. Plus from Dalinar's visions I think we can be pretty sure that Voidspren were around prior to the Recreance.

Hmm... I'm not sure where you may have heard it... Perhaps Shadows for Silence? If you check a lot of the other drawings in WoR, look for this same handwriting. On some of them you'll see a name.