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digitalbusker

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  1. digitalbusker
    The Diagram endorses assassinating Dalinar. Cultivation is (probably) behind the Diagram. Those two things together don't necessarily imply that Cultivation endorses assassinating Dalinar. The Diagram could easily be a bluff or feint, designed to not achieve its stated ends. Although the general aim of the Diagram is pretty Cultivation-y. When the wildfire comes for your garden, you worry about saving enough to rebuild, not saving everything.
  2. digitalbusker
    Tanavast bought Adonalsium a beer once?
  3. digitalbusker
    I don't think we have evidence that the spren related to the Forms of Power are more self aware than the ones related to nimbleform, warform, etc. Just that they're Voidspren, i.e. carrying Odious investiture. That is to say: maybe Venli's Voidspren can't tell on her because it can't talk.
  4. digitalbusker
    They're definitely on my list to focus on in rereads. I think I missed out a bit on my first read because Venli and Moash are obviously foils of each other, and I initially guessed wrong about which one was going to be the redemption story.
  5. digitalbusker
    Timbre (Venli's spren) is probably Captain Ico's daughter. She tells Venli that she wouldn't bond a human because her grandfather was killed by one. Ico's got his father, who is a deadeye, on board his ship, and he mentions that his daughter ran off "chasing stupid dreams".
  6. digitalbusker
    They've got a gemheart for Investiture and a meatheart for blood.
  7. digitalbusker
    I enjoy Iyatil. And I guess Mraize a little. The Ghostbloods are, at this point, barely antagonists (as far as we know). Taravangian and the Diagram are probably the closest thing to outright villains that I have any affection for. I guess it depends on what you mean by "like". I enjoyed Torol Sadeas's PoVs, but not because I enjoyed him so much as in anticipation of schadenfreude. (This goes double on rereads, now that I know what's coming for him.)
  8. digitalbusker
    Alternate chorus: Jezrien, Jezrien, Herald brave and true! We're so glad we've seen you and you know just what to do! Jezrien, Jezrien, Herald brave and true! You would never lie to say the Desolation's through!
  9. digitalbusker
    Oh Happy Koloss Head-Munching Day! Though truth be told it's best to stay away. They're big and blue and not very bright, but you're not going to beat them in a fight. Retreat! Retreat! The koloss are here! And any sane man ought to quake with fear.
  10. digitalbusker
    Mistborn Era 2 Spoilers
  11. digitalbusker
    Oh the weather outside's psychotic, and the Stormfather's neurotic, but the heatrial's nice and warm, Let it Storm, let it Storm, let it Storm!
  12. digitalbusker
    Oh, Roshar tree, oh Roshar tree, How lovely are thy... Where'd it go?
  13. digitalbusker
    I like Jasnah, but I think she's doomed to stay mostly a background character, partially because she's so powerful and partially because PoV's for super-smart characters are difficult to make work.
  14. digitalbusker
    I always assumed that Szeth's training included academics as well as surgebinding. I figure we'll get a flashback at some point that explains how he figured out another Desolation was coming, but it probably wasn't as simple as a Diagrammist in a scary mask jumping out at him yelling "Boo, I'm a Voidbringer and we're back!"
  15. digitalbusker
    So, as far as I can remember we have three viewpoint characters that have sought the Old Magic: Dalinar, Taravangian, and Lift. Did any of them actually wind up dealing with the Nightwatcher instead of Cultivation herself? I'm leaning no, given how far what they each got was from what they asked for, and the difficulty of nailing down a discrete boon/curse for any of them. (Taravangian is closest in both these metrics, so I suppose he's most likely to have dealt with the Nightwatcher directly, but the outsize role the Diagram is playing in events makes me suspect Cultivation would have wanted to handle it personally.) The relevant Dalinar flashback implies that Cultivation steps in for some but not all supplicants, so it makes sense that these three, all of whom are going to have a huge role in this Desolation, would merit her attention. It's also possible that the lore we have about the Nightwatcher is unreliable, and even "standard" boons/curses are more complicated than we've been led to believe. It would be nice to have a PoV from somebody with a more standard experience, or even a scene where we see the Nightwatcher do her thing without intervention from the boss. Maybe Baxil will change his mind and be back for an interlude.
  16. digitalbusker
    It's storming inconvenient sometimes, though. I've finally found some cool new wilderness to explore, when I sneeze and BAM! Found a city. *sigh* On to the next frontier....
  17. digitalbusker
    We don't get to see when Shallan gets her Radiant powers. We get to see when Shallan admits she has them.
  18. digitalbusker
    Elhokar's been ranting about seeing symbolheads in mirrors since WoK. His whole purpose in life is to pretend to be something he knows (or fears) that he isn't because he thinks that's what the world needs him to do. He was going to be a Lightweaver.
  19. digitalbusker
    Willshapers have Transportation and Cohesion. We've got one major character with Transportation already, but we haven't seen her do anything with it except go to Shadesmar, which is handy, but doesn't seem likely to be all it does. We haven't seen anybody use Cohesion as far as I know, except maybe in a vision once, but I think that was in Oathbringer so I won't go further. So we don't really know what either of their Surges do, and we have even less idea what their synergy effect will be, but I'm hoping for teleportation (Trek style, where you disassemble and reassemble at the destination).
  20. digitalbusker
    I'm sorry I don't have the ability to produce a citation now, but at the end of the battle somebody comes to help Shallan and tries to hold the "normal" Shallan in the middle, but finds her illusory. Radiant then speaks up and identifies herself as the one that's physically present. And Shallan narrating a scene from the point of view of her illusionary doppleganger two feet to the left isn't even in the top five craziest unreliable narrator shenanigans she's pulled. ETA: And apologies for the threadjacking. I hope we get to hear at least one of Hoid's truths.
  21. digitalbusker
    You're right, of course. I'm not pretending to have the answers to this dilemma. I agree that the slave is not morally obligated to have a new Constitution in their back pocket when fighting back against their enslavement. But at some point somebody has to do more than fight back against oppression. Somebody has to put thought into bulking a system that's just for all participants, or else you just have a parade of rotating oppressors. As for violent versus peaceful protest, I think neither is sufficient alone. If we assume the ultimate end goal is something like a democracy where everybody has a say in the government, but the rights of historical out groups are protected, then the nature of their grievances must be discussed, if only to give the privileged the vocabulary to understand what they've been doing all this time. Otherwise you can't safely share power after the violent overthrow of the old order, and we're back to Parade of Oppression.
  22. digitalbusker
    Radiant was the non-illusionary one.
  23. digitalbusker
    Being on the battlefield on the opposing side was a crime, though. I'm not arguing that something that is criminal is necessarily wrong. I'm arguing that just because you agree with something doesn't make it not a crime, nor change the name of that crime. As for whether Moash was morally right to take up arms against Elhokar and kill him at the palace, I think you have to look at it in context. Yes, the Alethi system condones chattel slavery (dressed up as indentured servitude in the case of humans, but permanent for parshmen), denies political agency to the vast majority of its people, and treats political power as flowing from a combination of eye color and strength of arms. Would Moash be justified in trying to overthrow that system to institute something better? Absolutely. But that's not what he's doing. The house is on fire. Billy is in charge the chore wheel and has been giving the easy chores to his buddies and the worst chores to people he doesn't like. The house is still on fire. Timmy is mad at Billy about the chore wheel, and brings it up all the time. Still on fire. Some of Billy's friends had to ask Timmy to step outside the still burning house. Timmy meets some dudes on the lawn with gas cans and sparklers, strikes up a friendship over mutual disdain for Billy, and helps them break into the house, where they start setting interior fires. Timmy pays no mind because he's punching Billy out and ripping up the chore wheel. Vis a vis the chore wheel, Timmy is clearly in the right. But in context it's hard to imagine how his actions are going to result in a better system.
  24. digitalbusker
    How sure are you that she doesn't? (There's some evidence during the battle at the end of OB that she might.)
  25. digitalbusker
    Aiding an attempt by agents of a foreign power to assassinate your Head of State ("not immediately reporting what you know" counts as aid) is treason, full stop. You may feel the government that you're betraying is not legitimate (and I agree with you in the case of Alethkar), and that that justifies committing treason against it. You might even be right. Doesn't make it not treason, though. (Yes, I think the members of the Continental Congress were guilty of treason against England. I'm fine with it, but let's call a traitor a traitor.) ((The fact that Kaladin changed his mind and foiled the assassination plot would play well in a trial, and might keep him from being convicted, but the charge is treason.))
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