dbulick

Crazy tenuous, probably not actually related, time. Mistborn spoilers below. Extremely unlikely, but makes me think!

I find the disagreement in how to handle the war between the fused extremely interesting. Does this open the door for some of the factions of fused to work with the radiants?

I am not sure if this has been brought up, but Ash is known to destroy art of herself. I wonder if she isn't suffering some of the dissociative identity disorder that Shallan is? It could be some of her personalities don't care for the images of herself that are displayed? That would make for a very interesting conversation with Shallan.

I think Elantris is objectively a better written book than either White Sand prose or Aether of Night. With that said, I liked the potential and magic system that Aether had more than either of the other two books listed. White sand was probably technically a better written book than Aether, but I did not like it nearly as much. The characters in Aether were more interesting IMO, and I like the concept of the Aether magic system a lot.

Fair enough. It was an interesting way of having off-spring. Really neat world building that Brandon did with this alien race.

Morriumur specifically throughout almost the entire book is literally two people, which is why I thought they were referred to as they/them. I guess I would need to go back and look if that holds for all the other Diones.

This was something that Sanderson tried multiple times before it was good enough for his expectations. This trope was in Aether, Warbreaker, and another unpublished book Mythwalker. He probably did it best in Warbreaker, but I didn't hate D'Naa as a character.

Sequel to sixth of dusk, yes please!

You win.

On topic, I would assume he never REALLY loved her. He probably cared about her, but he was most likely in that relationship out of expectation and convenience.

The 5 Scholars. I want to know what they studied, what types of methods did they use. What led to their falling out, and what has Yesteel been up to.

damnation it, Highlander lied to me as a kid.

I actually think my favorite story is Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell. The tone and pacing of that story really hooked me. I was immediately invested in the characters and thought the setting was awesome. As far as full novels go, I think Mistborn: The Final Empire is my favorite. Again the setting was super interesting to me, but the characters here are IMO the best Sanderson has ever done. Thinking about that now I just think that Vin and especially Kelsier are so damnation good it carries everyone else. The way The Lord Ruler was dealt with at the end was something that really sticks out to me.

I imagined two possible reasons why Kenton wouldn't be with her. The most likely reason being that he was too important to leave on the kind of extended time that is required to do the scholarly work that Khriss does. He is the leader of the sandmasters(right? Its been awhile), and radically changing the way they are structured and working. Seems to me he is kind of a big deal now. Secondly, he could have died on Darkside while over there. That is just my personal head cannon on why he isn't seen running around with those 2.

The issue with using surgebinding off Roshar is that it would be very hard to get your spren offworld. Not sure if that would prevent the spren from coming through as a shardblade only, or if it would limit surgebinding in general.

Ah, it was my understanding that when you split the cyrstal it grows back. Then all subsequent generations are created the same way.

Most likely it is an Amberite Aether. That is one that would allow the person that has bonded it to grow crystals of varying sizes(depending on the strength) to create weapons or armor. As far as how first generation versus later ones, I am not sure there is any difference. They are propagated by carefully splitting the gem and implanting it in a new host.

Well to play devils advocate, didn't people think Dalinar was crazy when he started talking about visions. Soooooooo, if Dalinar's father was seeing visions, would people consider them delusions?

You are right, I got mixed up on which of the realms they appear in after death. Edit: Bleh sorry, was supposed to edit that into the previous post.

I read a couple WOB that seem to indicate that a sort of framework of their soul remains in the spiritual realm after death. Like you said that is kind of an echo of that person. It seems that is what would be used to still give that lifeless a sense of the person they used to be. Depending on how rapidly that framework decays, and based on another WOB what breaths(potentially their own original) would give them more of a sense of themselves. It would be interesting to see what a best case scenario(made immediately after death with their own breath) lifeless would look like.

Apologies if this has already been discussed, but I didn't it on a search. I was rereading Warbreaker and the annotations and had a couple of thoughts on lifeless. I will start with the gross one, Brandon notes that Jewels is still in love with Clod(Artsteel) and occasionally still sleeps with him. Not sure we need to get into the mechanics of that, but that it was interesting and incredibly disturbing. Secondly, it is hinted at strongly, and confirmed in the annotations that lifeless retain some semblance of themselves. Brandon also says he wants to do a POV lifeless character in the next book. This made me think a few things, first is the innate investiture of Nalthis with each person having a Breath enough to keep people around in the spiritual realm for a long time to allow some of their soul to be brought back into their body after death? If you awaken their body immediately after their death, would they retain more of who they are? Is the reason that a lifeless does not regain full cognitive ability is because they see themselves as being dead and believe dead things aren't whole? Lastly, if Breath innately isn't enough to keep people in the spiritual realm for a long enough time to bring them back into their body, and they have already passed to the great beyond, is awakening able to rip them back from there? If that is what is happening, that would be the only magic system we have seen that can affect a soul once it has passed to the great beyond. Random musings, but I am guessing that people stay in the spiritual realm longer on Nalthis, and the quicker you awaken their body the more they retain. It would be interesting to see if there is a way to bring back more of their humanity through unlocking their spirit web further, or something a long those lines.

I haven't played a game of MTG since I was in probably middle school, however that was one damnation good story.

There is also the whole ends justifying the means argument that could be had.

What is more awesome than a man holding out against unspeakable torture for as long as he did? Torture is not perfect, you can torture someone who did nothing wrong and they will eventually confess to whatever it is they think you want them to know. Taln was a beast, now he is presented as a shell of his former self. For the narrative it doesn't matter as much what he WAS, but what he IS now. If he is going to play much of a role going forward I would say he is super flawed.

I think it is pretty heavily implied that Taln is just a bad mamma jamma. I guess that does not prevent Odium taking his time with him, but the evidence points towards him just enduring.