TheChesireMouse

If you are just intrested in the theory than i think it could be possible

oh, well oops xD i think if you placed them right it might help stabilization, but the other point of binding circles are to attach chalklings, and those will be pretty useless inside the circle.

Hey, just finished re-reading the book again and i noticed something referring to this (unless i was reading it wrong which is highly possible, im tired soooo...) Anyways, right as joel finishes the melee when he is still drawing after the bell has rung he was working on making a "secondary bastion of defense because their main circle had been breached a dozen times" (<--- that was paraphrased but still gets the point across) however after typing this i am realizing that the bastion might have been the smaller circle inside, but that also works for your theory. Also if you look at the taylor defense sketch it is a circle inside a circle, and that is why its called the impossible defense (that and the fact that it is a huge 9 pointer) so to answer your question i would say that yes, you can use circles inside of each other, it just isnt done often because it is impractical? when drawing rithmatists kneel. If you were to draw two defenses inside each other i think it would become to large and harder to move around the the kneeling position as well chull take too much time to draw. You would be attacked before you could finish. Plus the size would need to be even larger because without drawing the binding circles on the second inner circle would take up more space, and if you left those off the lines stability would be thrown off. Hope that made sense, if not oh well.

so i just finished re-reading Joel's inception and a few things struck me as odd, first because it seems fitting i will throw out a wild theory that probably won't hold out, but any thought can be a good thought so here i go... Something i noticed as odd about Joel's inception was that the shadowblaze didnt just retreat and run away as people seem to forget but it "shook violently" this could be something about Joel (maybe something to help my previous theory or something to contradict it) the point is this wasn't just running away from Joel as people think. this could be nothing, but the way Sanderson included shook violently, not just said retreated stands out to me. This could have physically changed the shadowblaze maybe? if that is the case then maybe it could show back up in the next book, maybe recognizing Joel, acting differently now, having character? this is much more wild than my normal theories but i felt like seeing other people thoughts on it. anyways that is all for now, i'm interested in anyone else thoughts as well

It is possible. I myself am not a fan of shadow blazes being attracted to the gears, however I can provide no evidence saying else wise. On another note one thing I find intresting is the mention of finding shadow blaze drawings on the walls of cave people (this was said when Joel first read about them.) I am just saying what comes to mind, but if we are to assume that only rithmatists and Joel (failed rithmatis?) can see them than would the rithmatics be found earlier than when the king discovered it. If this isnt the case than could it mean there was a time when shadowblazes just walked about? As to the comment about Nalizar just trying to act normal than you think he would just send joel away, assuming he wasn't a rithmatis due to the lack of coat to any other people watching. I would be intrested to any other theories you have about the book related to this thread (Joel is a rithmatist spoilers) or otherwise =D P.S. Waiting not so patiently for Brandon to start writing the second book , People are saying it could be out this year, hurry up Aztlanian

This may have already been said but i havnt seen anyone else mention it. Before i start I want to say that I dont believe Joel is a rithmatist (at least now, it is possible he may become so, but with brandon writing who knows?) However something that struck me as odd was when Nalizar first saw Joel he thought that joel was a rithmatist saying "why are you not wearing your uniform" it is all but confirmed that the forgotten (or something else) inside Nalizar can see something physically diffrent about rithmatists. It is also said that he doesnt notice non-rithmatists as easy, yet he when he took flitch's position he noticed Joel right away. This implies that something is off about Joel. I heard one theory I like about the shadowblaze attaching to rithmatist and that is what Nalizar can see. My only problem with this is that the encounter between Joel and Nalizar i have been referencing took place before joel ever entered the chamber. As to the common theory that the coin is what made the shadowblaze run from joel. I don't think that holds out. First off it didnt effect any of the chalklings when the children had the coins in their pockets, and even more importantly the king (who discovered rithmatics and saw the first shadow blaze) had his watch out, which means that watches and other gears most likely do not effect shadow blazes. Lastly the church is in the middle of a steam punk spring and GEARED covered city. if shadow blazes are there every time a new rithmatist is chosen it is more than likely they have become accustomed to gears just as it i proven Nalizar has become.

I was just re-reading all the posts and the book and something caught my attention. Satsuoni and many other people mentioned Nalizar being able to see something different about non-rithmatists. Satsuoni you said that maybe he could see a shadowblaze attached to them, but the only problem i have with his is when Nalizar first sees Joel after beating Flitch he looks at Joel and says "'What are you doing there?' Nalizar demanded. 'Why aren't you wearing your uniform?'" This brings up a few problems. If Nalizar can recognize rithmatist by shadowblazes and can barly pay attention to non-rithmatist than why would he think Joel was a rithmatist? If he saw a shadow blaze than why can't joel use rithmatics? And (someone else hinted at this) but could it be possible that joel has something else that confused Nalizar? I may just be overthinking this. It could just be that "Joel's love and knowledge" of rithmatics confused Nalizar but that just seems like a cheap way out to me. Tell me what you think and feel free to tear my comment to shreds.

@WayneSpren The reason he probably didn't recognize him is because as WeiryWriter said all non-Rithmatists look alike, which is fair. @WeiryWriter The only problem with this that i have is that when Nalizar first sees joel in the classroom the book goes "'What are you doing there?' Nalizar demanded . 'Why aren't you wearing your uniform?'" this shows that Nalizar saw him as a rithmatist. This could mean other things, but if he mixes up all non-rithmatists than he should have instantly saw something different about Joel and not assumed he was a rithmatist.