StrikerEZ

@TheOoklaThatComesBefore @Toaster Retribution already basically gave my point of view, but I feel like you’re being a bit unreasonable about this whole thing. I can understand being frustrated that Brandon isn’t writing more Cosmere books, but I think it’s unfair to be mad about him writing the MtG story. That story was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him, and it was a chance to write a story for something he loves. I feel it’s really selfish of you to complain about not getting the books you want. I don’t know your preferences when it comes to Cosmere vs. non-Cosmere, but I don’t really care what Brandon writes, as long as it’s good and it makes him happy writing it. (As for the quality of Oathbringer, while it did have its flaws, I definitely found it the best Stormlight book yet). Hell, I wasn’t all that excited about Skyward, and I ended up living it. I definitely think it’s his best non-Cosmere book ever, and better than several Cosmere books.

Oh, I was arguing against Eshonai surviving past her initial death, not for. Sorry for the confusion.

I don’t really get all the Lift hate, especially in the scene where Odium shows up. She’s not my favorite character (though I think she might be become one of my favorites by the time we reach the back 5 and she’s older), but I still like her. And in that scene, after all the heavy stuff with Odium and Dalinar, we kind of needed that comedic relief right then. I didn’t feel it was over the top at all, honestly.

I just don’t really care about the Shin and all that, I guess. Like, it’ll be interesting and really cool to read Szeth’s flashbacks once we get there, but I’m not really dying to read them. The Listeners/Singers are so much cooler than the Shin, in my opinion. And I totally agree about Eshonai’s flashbacks syncing up really nicely with Venli’s present day stuff.

I would totally be down for some Kadolin action in later books. Maybe Shallan dies in the front five and Kaladin and Adolin hook up during the gap between books 5 and 6. Though I really don’t want Shallan and Adolin to just break up. It’ll be so much more satisfying to me if they at least attempt to make things work.

You see, I kinda like the Greek tragedies. So that might influence why I’m excited for Eshonai flashbacks a little bit. But besides the potential tragedy of the flashbacks, I feel like there’s so much more to learn in Eshonai’s flashbacks then there is in Szeth’s. We basically know almost everything we need to know about his past, all we need now are the details. There’s so much me we don’t know about Eshonai’s (and Venli’s) past and all the secrets about Listener culture that I’m way more excited to learn about. Also, this is probably again just coming down to personal preferences because I’m just not a huge fan of Szeth, and I really like(d) Eshonai and Venli. @What's a Seawolf? I mean, it’d be interesting if Eshonai somehow survived past her death, but I don’t even think it’s realmatically possible. In order to resist the pull of the Beyond, you need to have been very thoroughly Invested during your life (which Eshonai was not) or have a Shard intervene and make you into a Cognitive Shadow (like the Fused). I don’t think Odium would’ve seen any need in making Eshonai a CS because, as Ulim mentioned, it seems the Voidspren, and presumably Odium, knew that Eshonai had resisted the change into stormform and would probably be a problem later on. I doubt they would waste Odium’s Investiture on her.

@Extesian You much more eloquently described why I’m excited for Eshonai’s flashbacks than I was able to. I would upvote you, but I’m out for the day.

So, me, @Rasarr and @What's a Seawolf? were talking in a topic that isn’t in a spoiler section, so I felt we should move the discussion here instead. Basically, we were discussing what we expect to see happen in Eshonai’s flashbacks. I’m gonna quote what I’m responding to, and you can see the discussion that led to it here. First, I would like to point out that Brandon has basically said Eshonai is gone for good: (spoilered for length) All of those WoBs make it pretty clear to me that Brandon has killed off Eshonai for good. Plus, he’s already brought back so many ‘dead’ characters, I’d be really disappointed if he did it with Eshonai. As for how Eshonai flashbacks and Venli’s story arc will pan out, here’s what Brandon’s had to say on that: Anyway, as I talked about in the discussion linked above, I’m really excited to see more of the Listener culture before they were discovered by the Alethi, what Eshonai and Venli were like as children, and what the first contact between Alethi and Listeners was like. Plus all the (potential) songs we’ll get. The tidbits we got from the WoR epigraphs were really interesting, so I’m excited to see how they can impact our understanding of events now. Overall, I think our disagreements stem simply because we’re excited about different things. I do want to know about the Shin and Szeth’s weird backstory, but I don’t mind waiting for that. I’m more excited to learn about the Listeners (and by extension, through Venli, the Singers) than the Shin.

@What's a Seawolf? @Rasarr I’m actually really excited for Eshonai’s flashbacks. Spoilers for everything Stormlight Archive! Enter at your own risk!

https://brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2018/ That’s the state of the Sanderson post, so you can go read about Skyward on there. The tl;dr: Starsight in November 2019, and Skyward 3 probably 2021

@Void89 I’ve probabilities talked about this before earlier in this thread, though I can’t really remember. I feel like the thing with Shallan and Adolin getting married at the end of OB feels rushed because Brandon wanted it to feel that way. Brandon is such a good author at this point that, while he will and has made mistakes every now and then, I don’t think this was a mistake. I don’t know for sure where he’s planning on taking this, but the scenario I see being most likely is Shallan and Adolin having to work to make their marriage work. Because, let’s face it, they rushed into that marriage. This isn’t super unrealistic; people rush into relationships and marriages all the time today, even without the pressures of being in an arranged marriage. While I could easily see Brandon make a believable arc where Shallan and Adolin realize they rushed into things and shouldn’t have gotten married and decide to divorce, I think it would be much more satisfying to see them work past their struggles and work to make the relationship work.

I feel like I’m basically repeating everyone else here, but Elhokar’s death completely floored me. Everything in that battle was just gettin worse and worse, what with the rescue mission not going to plan, then Aesudan taking in Yelig-nar, then the fight back down the stairs, and then the Singers breaking into the castle, then all of Kaladin’s friends from both sides killing each other, then finally Elhokar about to say the words, only to be struck down by Moash (*insert obligatory storm Moash*) I was kinda shocked by Eshonai being dead on my first read through of OB, but that was more me misremembering how final her fall in WoR seemed. When I reread WoR after having read OB, her fall seemed much more like she died than I remembered it seeming. Her death didn’t really surprise me as much as Elhokar’s did. Other deaths didn’t really affect me nearly as much as these two (and the deaths of Kaladin’s friends) did.

I’m gonna try and list as many Radiants as I can remember. Kaladin and Shallan: I can relate to so many of their mental problems on so many levels, so I have to put these two up there. Not so much that I like them as people, but more because of how I can relate to them. Dalinar: Oathbringer arc. ‘Nuff said. Lift: she’s just really fun, and I’m really excited to see how she grows as a character between now and the back half. Malata: even though she’s working for the diagram, she seems so intriguing. I just have to mention that I really don’t like Nale. He’s an idiot.

@MistbornAlpaca I’m currently about halfway through book 7, and I would say it’s been worth it so far. I think I’ve started to hit the slog though, because it’s gotten kind of a little boring, but books 4-6 were good enough that I’m pretty invested into the series now that I want to finish. I will admit that other people’s complaints about female characters are well deserved.

Have you read Oathbringer? If so, just use her interludes, and that should about sum up her story so far. Those and the little we learn of her from Eshonai in WoR.

@Spock I’d love to hear a Venli song!

Have you ever thought about going to a local library and checking out the book? If you have access to one, obviously.

Here you go.

I don’t have much else to add because I agree with what pretty much everyone has said so far. I feel like I can add a little more perspective to this issue as a bisexual male myself. I knew that Brandon was LDS long before I discovered the essay he wrote. I knew that he disagrees with me about homosexuality, or even bisexuality, yet that didn’t deter me from reading his books. Even after I read the essay (which, yes, the original does have its faults, but the foreword specifically addressed that, and I could tell through his more recent books that he has changed views anyway), I felt that he handled it relatively well, considering when he wrote it and what he believes. I don’t remember where I was going with this. Something about being friends with devout religious people who know I’m bi.

Oh, I wasn’t really talking about that. I was talking more about semantics and stuff. My main point was to point out that you used sentience instead of sapience in the post I quoted, but in a subtle way.

Basically, you think an intelligence is sentient, but not sapient, and a consciences is sapient?

You were right.

This is probably just a stylistic change that Brandon decided to make. I’m sure that in future publications of WoK and WoR, it won’t be capitalized anymore. Or the alternative: later publications of OB do have it capitalized.

@HSuperLee I think the reason stormlight emits light when it’s in gems is because the stormlight basically acts as cord that plugs into the gem, connecting it to the Spiritual Realm. The gem glows because it is connected directly to the Spiritual Realm. In the case of normal gems, the imperfections allow the stormlight to leak out; we don’t notice stormlight leaking out much because the light of the gem glowing is probably brighter than the stormlight itself.

Like others have said, I don’t think that’s really possible. In my opinion, what makes it possible for Larkin to eat Investiture like stormlight or voidlight in the first place is because it is not keyed to any specific Identity. The Investiture that sustains the Fused is almost definitely keyed to them by now, much in the same way that the Investiture that sustains the Heralds or other Cognitive Shadows we know about. I don’t think it would be possible for a Larkin to eat the Investiture that sustains the Fused, much like it is probably impossible for them to eat the Investiture that makes up humans in the Cosmere.