StrikerEZ

Well, if we’re being pedantic here, there’d only be 6 surges, since some of those Orders share surges.

I mean, Eshonai’s death is just as tragic as Elhokar’s, just in a different way. It’s tragic in the fact that she died alone, all because her sister tricked her into taking stormform, and all Eshonai was trying to do was do the best for her people. As for her being a major character, I didn’t ever really think she was super major. I liked her, but she felt more like an Adolin-type character. I definitely agree that the flashbacks for her are going to be awesome paired with the present-day Venli arc.

Personally, while Shallan isn’t my favorite character in the series, I can really relate to her. And I really don’t understand all the backlash she gets from other readers. Anyway, as for Shalladin, I felt that, because of the whole chasm sequence, that relationship would’ve been way too cliche, and I really don’t like cliches when it comes to romances. Adolin and Shallan’s romance never felt cliche to me, though I can see how some might view as the “Prince Charming gets his girl” cliche. Personally, I don’t think Adolin is much of a Prince Charming character, so him marrying Shallan doesn’t come off that way to me. I do, however, agree with the general consensus that they should not have rushed into marriage so quickly. But I think it’ll be a much better story for them to work out the problems in their marriage and the problems with Shallan’s personas together.

@Weltall @ScarletSabre @goody153 @Just a Lifetime (Just tell me if you want me to stop tagging you in these updates) I just finished Winter’s Heart. Not as good as The Path of Daggers, which was my favorite since The Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising, but still pretty good. Not much to say, except that lots of stuff happened. Osan’gar died again, saidin was cleared, Rand bonded the three women, and those renegade Asha’man were killed. And that’s just what I can remember off the top of my head real quick.

To expand upon @Bigmikey357‘s point, Nightblood kind of looks at the person, sees what they evil is, and if they would use the sword for those purposes, they go crazy and end up killing themselves. Here’s a WoB that touches on this: (spoilered for length)

I mean, the highspren, the spren for the Skybreakers, are just rips in the sky that show stars. That’s not very solid to me. So there’s definitely precedence for it. As for Renarin and Glys, I definitely think that his visions are either something related to the fact that Glys is corrupted, or are the resonance between his normal Progression surge and his voidbinding Illumination surge. He has no control over the visions or when they come, and it doesn’t even seem like he takes in stormlight to fuel them, which would be necessary if it was surge/voidbinding. And I totally agree that Renarin and Lift are gonna be really special in this series. Including Venli and Dalinar, there are several new types of Radiants this Desolation, which is exactly what team Honor needs.

Nope, voidbinding, along with surgebinding and whatever the third system is (presumably something related to fabrials), has 10 “orders,” so to speak. The chart at the back of WoK is the voidbinding chart, and that has ten symbols, just like the surgebinding chart does.

I hadn’t thought about those two together before, but it actually makes a lot of sense. At least thematically.

They’re definitely alive.

I think personalizations are where you can ask Brandon a question and he’ll write the answer in your book, usually on the title page. Or you could get him to write a quote from the book.

Yeah, you’re not wrong. The only characters I can remember anything about of the top of my head are the ta’veren, Egwene, Elayne, Nynaeve, Aviendha, Faile, Min, Gaul, Taim, Logain, Berelain, Morgase, Lini, Brigette, Lan, and Loial. Which looks like a lot, but in comparison to all the characters in the series is nothing.

Yeah, I remember that viewing, but I think it was much later than The Shadow Rising because Min saw Logain in Salidar, I think. And I’m glad to hear that all the Aes Sedai stuff will get sorted out eventually. Half the time I’ve read this series I’ve just been like “Yeah, that’ll be good eventually.” I am interested in those Aes Sedai that are using the Oath Rod to root out the Black Ajah in the White Tower, though. Did you see my reaction post to book 8? Was that what you meant by the Black Tower subplot?

@Weltall @ScarletSabre @goody153 @Just a Lifetime So, I finished book 8 the other day. Definitely my favorite book since books 4&5. I wish I could keep all the Asha’man straight in my head, but it’s so hard. And I’m still so confused about what happened at the end. Did Dashiva, Gedwyn, Torval, Rochaid, and Kisman really try and kill Rand? Why? I don’t understand why they would want to do that. And I just read the prologue of Winter’s Heart and I’m even more confused. Rand did not tell Taim that Flinn, Hopwil, and Narishma were deserters, so why the heck did Taim put them on the deserters list?

I think the Recreance as explained makes sense, though I do agree there are plenty of layers and nuances to it that we don’t quite understand yet.

Well, you’re in luck! (This was from before OB, so we could theoretically be getting that in book 5)

You’re welcome! I can’t remember any specific examples of the top of my head, but when you showed me that play you’re working on, I think what had been bothering me the entire time was that you were using passive instead of active. Passive has its uses sometimes, but using it too much can suck away the narrative drive. (Trust me, I use it too much as well)

I just have to say that I love this so much.

I like it! I’m definitely intrigued by this as well! One thing that I think would make it better would be to use lest passive voice and more active voice. So instead of “Weapons of power are sought out by each side so that their enemies can be crushed underfoot,” I would use “Each side seeks weapons of power to crush their enemies.” Something like that makes it feel more relatable.

I mean, I understand what you’re saying, but I don't think it’s really that much of a problem. There was a pattern of “X of X” titles, but with only two pieces of data, that’s more a coincidence and less an actual pattern. In the long-run, this isn’t really that big of a deal. Brandon will choose whatever title he wants, and the naming pattern is already broken anyway.

Like the title implies, I have no evidence for this theory, I just wanted to post it and see what people think. So, we know that Nightwatcher :: Cultivation as the Stormfather :: Honor. Presumably, both H&C changed the spren that became the Nightwatcher and Stormfather when they arrived on Roshar. Also, from the way the people of Roshar talk about the Old Magic, to me, it sounds like it used to be far more prevalent. Here’s the crazy part: I think there used to be tons of smaller spren who did what the Nightwatcher now does, though on a less grander scale. Then, when H&C arrived, Culti took them all and combined them into one spren, which became the Nightwatcher.

I don’t see how both don’t work, though maybe I was unclear in my phrasing. What I think is that the bonded spren, if they had known what the Radiants were planning, would have been unable to keep that information hidden from the unbonded spren. That’s simply the nature of a secret: the more people who know about it, the more likely that someone is going to leak that information. Then, extrapolating from that premise, I think it’s unlikely that the unbonded spren and any new spren would behave as they do now if they knew that the bonded spren were aware of and/or planned for the Radiants to break their oaths. Does that help?

It doesn’t have to be. People do use it for that, but people also post single images all the time.

My point is that I think the bonded spren would have told the unbonded spren what was going on if they were in on it. Plus, I find it highly unlikely that none of the bonded spren wouldn’t have accidentally slipped up and mentioned the plan to someone.

I’d love to see how it turns out once you’re done! You should probably post the final version in the image gallery.