Bigmikey357

Dalinar Kholin, or Unity as he'd like to be called, would be the star witness for the defense.

We went from a courtroom through the philosophy department and landed straight into the theology classroom. Pretty awesome to argue the efficacy of fictional brutality and whether the person we know is responsible for it is actually guilty. I would argue that the brutal treatment gives context to the triumps our favorite characters experience, that without the brutality their eventual victories would have no meaning. One must acknowledge that suffering promotes growth in the best of characters and though some of them will inevitably break that suffering is by no means pointless. So what weighs more in the eyes of the prosecution, the journey or the destination?

As Brandon is creator of several dissimilar universes, he is the only common element among them. Therefore I propose a motion that David of the Reckoners Universe and his testimony be admissible. Has he not been brutalized by the same creator? By the same token if Spensa, Alcatraz, or Joel wish to speak either for the prosecution or defense, they should be allowed to do so. To refuse them is to cast aspersions upon the entire process and thus should be deemed as a mistrial.

I was thinking cancer in terms of overgrowth. The problem is that that type of killing isn't anything like instantaneous. Probably better to go the poison ivy route if you aren't severing souls with Shardblades. The cancer thing though? Long form assassination. Or one can use targeted tumors as a behavior modifier once the Rosharans learn more about biological processes and brain chemistry. Pop a tumor in just so and bam! The target can no longer see blue and rainbows feel like cotton candy and tears.

In brutality he brutalizes himself, as his art is an extension of his own will and imagination. As well put someone on trial for suicide.

@galendo Amaram's public image after WOR is in tatters because Dalinar was going to put him on trial. The war took precedence but Dalinar was not going to just forget about him. IMO, his shoddy reputation is exactly why he got the job as Sadeas Highprince. Ialai knew that the appointment would stick in the craw of the man she felt was responsible for her husband's murder and had a fair chance of undermining his authority. You cannot imagine Ialai actually giving Amaram any power outside of a martial context. But even if his rep remained pristine after WOR he resented the fact that some people, powerful people, threw shade upon his actions. Nobody recognized that although some of his actions were shady, he was working towards the greatest good in his opinion and that he should be praised for his dedication instead of ridiculed. Plus he was dumped on the word of a former bridgeman. What an insult. Is Amaram petty enough to switch sides, to throw away everything he'd spent his life working towards over an insult like the one he endured? Judging from the fight with Kal at the end he is certainly that petty. Pettiness is the only thing that makes sense to me regarding Amaram considering how he had a golden opportunity to rehabilitate, restore at least some trust and cover himself in glory. As far as the Kaladin/Amaram parallel, the difference other than the severity of the betrayal is two-fold. One, Amaram betrayed someone who had earned his trust, someone he owed his miserable life to. Helaran would have surely cut his butt in half were it not for a well placed knife by Stormblessed. Meanwhile, the king was due protection through oath and position, but he never earned anything like Kaladin's loyalty. The man would have had him killed were it not for Dalinar's intervention for pete's sake. Obviously it would have been the wrong thing to do, but I don't know how much I could have really blamed Kal if he'd let Elkohar die. But that brings me to two. Amaram, lusting power, did the obviously wrong thing and felt guilty about it. Kaladin, broken and thinking his power lost, was willing to die to fix his mistake, to do the right thing. One does evil and makes excuses that show that he really was doing the right thing. The other puts his life on the line to address an issue he freely admits that he caused. He not only takes responsibility for his screw up, he actively tries to fix it no matter what it would have cost him. I agree that without that Amaram viewpoint we as readers are forced to guess at which point in the timeline that Amaram actually turned. Brandon didn't leave many breadcrumbs hinting that he's switching teams but plenty about his questionable character. But I think its a fair assessment that until the end of OB we didn't know Odium could turn anyone in the manner he turned Amaram and almost turned Dalinar. I'm sure I didn't know that was in Odium's toolbox of skills. Taravanginan had recruited himself. I guess that since we got to witness Odium's sales pitch to Dalinar and Moash that it'd be only fair to get Amaram as well. So was Amaram just a wasted character, someone full of potential who was snuffed out before he could make a truly momentus impact on the villian side? Or is the fandom putting too much emphasis on a guy who wasn't important enough to get so much as an interlude chapter, who could have never been radiant and had proven time and time again that he didn't have the will to resist being gobbled up by Yelig-Nar? Maybe the two statements are not mutually exclusive. For my two cents I think he was a perfect mid-tier antagonist, a good mini-boss for the middle book of a five book arc. Brandon is just so good that he wrote Amaram in such a way as to have him stretch the role he placed him in. It's the Adolin Principle.

Two issues with this. 1 is knowledge obviously. Jasnah is probably the smartest non-shardic entity on the planet and she is still calling air molecules axi. To do what the OP proposes needs an understanding of physics and chemistry orders above what is known currently on Roshar. And on a world with Soulcasting, technology may not even develop along those lines because nobody needs that knowledge. But 1 is an easy enough fix given time and probably a nudge in the right direction. The second may be a bit more insurmountable. If I understand correctly, the more complex the object and the further it is removed from the essences the harder it becomes to soulcast. We rarely see Jasnah soulcast anything that isn't one of the essences even at Thaylen City where she had ascension levels of Stormlight to work with. But even if one Soulcaster Radiant could produce planet-buster type effects I'm not sure that they would as it would likely flub up their fuel source. Now the meta reason. Brandon has always been more interested in magic limits. I'm sure that very soon we're going to learn more about the limits of Soulcasting quite soon. We already know of one regarding fabrial Soulcasting tech in that they require a specific gemstone to produce the effect intended. Radiants will be less constrained but I don't see it being so huge a difference that Jasnah can just nuke a populace on a whim. Hell, maybe the oaths themselves will provide the check. We will see I guess.

So we are 3 books into the Stormlight Archives and we have multiple magic users. Good so far. Yet all of our new Surgebinders are different than what we've been led to believe they were in the past. Dalinar has a power boost from his Bondsmith spren because it holds Honor's Cognitive Shadow. Kaladin and Jasnah bonded spren that went against the orders of their societies. Shallan broke and rebonded her spren. Timbre bonded an entirely different species. Renarin's Glys is corrupted, Lyft is a half-spren, Malata and Spark hold power granted by Honor and is working directly against his remnants. Szeth belongs to an Order that never disbanded so his bond should be typical, yet he wields a robot spren as an add on to his powers or so it seems. I brought up these examples to raise a few questions. One, Have we been misled as far as what we've been told the Radiants used to be? Edgedancers are supposed to be elegant but Lyft belongs. That's just the most blatant example. Are our new Radiants closer to the Ideal or were the pre-Recreance Radiants just as screwed up as our current crop? Next, should we expect any Radiants introduced from now on to be screwy or will the behavior of the orders even out as their ranks fill back up? One more. I presume that the Radiants present at the Avengers Assemble moment at Thaylen City will be the leaders of their respective Orders. At least that's how they've been presented so far. So will their idiosyncrasies influence how the Orders will conduct themselves moving forward or will they change to conform to the way their Orders were traditionally viewed? These are just questions I've thought about. I haven't truly attempted to answer them but if anyone wants to take a crack at it feel free. Also, if the post raises further questions please share.

@Toaster Retribution Every villian is a hero of his or her own story, is that what you're going with regarding Amaram? That and he's a victim of his upbringing? I reject that interpretation because it robs him of agency. Dalinar was raised to be a blood-thirsty war machine and he most certainly was. But he'd be the first to tell you that his hands were on the sword that slayed thousands. He doesn't try to fost off responsibilities for his actions on his culture or the Thrill or Odium's left pinky toe. Amaram shows some remorse? Some humanity? All well and good. He still committed atrocities and was unrepentant for them. He still betrayed people that trusted him, that earned trust. That's my take on it. I'll admit my own bias. I have a thing about betrayal. It's why I wanna punch Moash in his fat face until his nose explodes. It's why I wanted to throttle Kaladin when he was killing Syl. Betrayal is my pet peeve. But anyway, Amaram. Right. I think dude's a bad guy. You are of course entitled to your own interpretation of the guy. All I'll say is,good or bad, I'm not picking that dude to lead my army.

Ettmetal is what allows Scadrial or what will allow Scadrial to mechanize and industrialize the Metallic Arts in mass quantities. Otherwise we'd see its usages looking much like it does in Avatar: Adventures of Korra. However, the rarity of the metal and the difficulty of finding attributes to put into the metalis why I would classify Scadrial as a low-mana worlds. Compare it to Roshar where free Investiture sheets down in buckets from the sky averaging around twice a month or Nathis where anyone can become a magic user.

Pokemon is short for Pocket Monsters. From artist depictions of cremlings and axehounds, I would have to say that there are indeed pokemon on Roshar. The Rosharan varieties don't live in balls, only difference. As far as Venli's Ideals, my personal theory uses the divine attributes as a guide. The first attribute in the set involves what they vow, the second is what the vows build up to. For example, Windrunners divine attributes are protecting/leading. Kaladin's Oaths are all about protection and as he masters these oaths he's becoming a better leader. If my theory is correct then Venli's oaths will be about her resolve as she works on becoming a better builder.

So in magical terms, places like Roshar and Nalthis are the high-mana worlds while Scadrial, Taldain and Threnody are low on the spectrum. Elantris and FOTS are middle of the road. That probably says much about how they will employ technology in the future. Scadrial relies heavily on technology and manipulates Investiture IOT augment it, Roshar takes the opposite approach, manipulating technology to augment its magitech devices. Bottom line, they're both getting spaceflights one day. Roshar is faster sub-luminal, Scadrial looks faster with FTL.

Another gemstone entry indicates that the orders were indeed infighting prior to the Recreance. It's the one that has a Truthwatcher trying to play mediator for Skybreakers and Windrunners, saying that they are not so different.

According to some WOB's that I'm sure others have on tap, it was a writer decision. He first had silver in the role of aluminum but felt that was too cliche. He still plans on silver having a role in the wider Cosmere, not just on Threnody, but as of yet he hasn't written it in.

I think the desire for a viewpoint or 2 from Amaram stems from the fact that he has had a significant role in the backstories of at least 2 of our Radiants and had so much power at his behest. We've seen on screen how he mangled Kaladin, Jasnah's reaction to him strongly suggests that their dealings in the past were quite unfavorable, he was at the Rift when Dalinar went full rampage war crime mode, he was Gavilar's co-conspirator regarding the Sons of Honor. Dude was important, important enough in some people's minds to deserve some sort of voice for closure's sake. I'm not necessarily agreeing that that was necessary as I recognize a writer decision when I see one. Let's just say that although I'd have liked at least one small viewpoint from him, I'm not losing any sleep over not having to live in his head for a few moments. YMMV of course.

I agree that it would have been favorable to have some sort of Amaram POV. Maybe in an interlude or something. But there's hints in story that his public image isn't real. In WoK where he makes and forgets his promise to Kaladin regarding Tien. In WoR when Sadeas tells him straight out that he knows where all his bodies are buried. Or when he supposedly tries to heal the rift between Dalinar and Sadeas by telling Dalinar that his public image and flexible moral character makes him a perfect bridge. Or in OB when he believes Dalinar killed Sadeas and attempts to praise him for the master stroke. I would have liked to have seen it explicitly in the text but we had more than enough clues if reading between the lines. As for his heel turn coming out of nowhere, well after WOR his reputation, his pristine public image, was blown to shreads, unfairly so in his opinion. At the same time his faith was shattered upon spending time with the Ancient of Stone. So the 2 things that served as a bedrock for his worldview both broke at the same time. The important thing is that he thought he was blameless. Honor failed him by letting him suffer even as he dedicated his life to healing all the world's ills. Odium comes in and confirms his blamelessness. To me it seemed inevitable that Amaram would turn, I was only surprised at the timing. Lastly, if someone craves respect and legitimacy, they can be awfully blind to whatever advantage they posess if they feel they're getting less than their due as they see it. Amaram was in a position to reassemble his tattered reputation, he got a massive promotion, he could duel-wield Shardblades. But he lost Dalinar's respect and couldn't forge a path to legitimacy through a match with Jasnah so none of it mattered. A rational person in Amaram's position during OB would be pleased as punch at their prospects even with a trial looming. Amaram wasn't.

I think Kelsier is Bondsmith enough to receive visions from Stormfather, but I think he falls short of the 1st Ideal.

Beating is an imprecise tool at best. You can beat the decency out of people as well as into. I'm all about and for beating Amaram, just on general principles. I just don't know what would result from it.

So basically what we're all saying is that Amaram is the type of guy where it isn't enough for him to be a hero, he must be seen to be the greatest hero ever. He cannot be mearly instrumental in the success of a mission, he must be the entire reason for mission success. It's how he built his reputation, it's how he speaks when being honest. I mean, this dude actually takes credit for Kaladin and his eventual status upgrades. I always thought Amaram was stupid for betraying Kaladin. Kal was young, talented and naive. He took on a Shardbearer for Amaram when nearly anyone else on the planet would have run as fast as they've ever ran in the other direction. Amaram would have had no trouble recruiting him to his cause. But in light of the OP's analysis of Amaram's character it makes a sick sort of sense. He knows he could have never in a million years pulled off what Kaladin did. He could get close with Shards though. And lookie here! Shards for the taking, without all that pesky business of actually besting a Shardbearer in combat. Get rid of a few bums who, let's face it, weren't worthy of Shards anyway and voila! He can be the hero he's always imagined himself to be. And as for the switch to Team Odium, the god promised him something he could not refuse. Greatness. He'd burned all his bridges with the most powerful people in the land. His reputation was in tatters. He could have rebuilt his reputation and become a fairer dealer but he'd never be fully trusted again. And he'd never be Radiant. Besides, he never once truly thought he'd done anything wrong. He may have been forced into some regrettable situations but he wasn't wrong to act as he did. He resented the fact that others tainted his glorious legacy so when Odium lays his sales pitch Amaram figured better King of Hell than Heaven's street sweeper.

A practical use for this would be for the slow burning metals, your tin, your cadmium ect. The idea behind this is so one wastes less of the metal. Remember, some of these metals are toxic when not being burned away. So you are about to have a battle or something just before sundown, you swallow an entire vial, after the battle you still have metal in your belly when it's time for bed. But pop a stick of gum in the morning and you have all day reserves. You waste less metal and have it available if you come upon an unexpected fight.

I had a theory about Oaths, that everyone swears their 2nd through 5th oaths in a different sequence depending on the divine attributes and what they needed to work on in order to become the Ideal Knight of their Order. So someone like Kaladin would swear Protection oaths first while Lopen would do the leadership ones. That theory was unabashedly crushed but that's before I knew that the oaths are personalized along the same theme.

I would ask her: After observing Lightweaver Transformation, how does it differ, if at all, from your Order's version? Have you met a Willshaper yet and if so, same question in regards to the Transportation surge.

This entire argument becomes difficult because up to a certain point we are judging a society based on modern values instead of the society at the time. Context matters. Remember that TLR made the skaa and nobles 2 distinct yet interbreeding species for one thing. The differences were mostly bred out in 1000 years but the fact that they started fundamentally different is worth consideration. For another, most people do what society conditions them to do. Social programming is at least partially to blame for the everyday cruelties experienced by the skaa. Many an excess took place and tended to be licenced by society, as well as by God. Third, the civilization was soaked in Ruin despite being made largely with Preservation's power. Even their good guy was so infused with Ruin that Kelsier initially couldn't even hold Preservation, that even when he held it the fit wasn't ideal. People are people. Most of us don't make the hard choice, at least not consistently, we'd rather go with the flow because we just want to live as normal a life as possible. It's just easier to follow societal norms that dictate our moral code. Just like the Nobles at the top of the food chain, there were some skaa that believed that the society had no real need to change either. There were soldiers that enforced the status quo. Are they evil for propping up the Nobles and their evil ways as well?

I'm not so sure about the puppetry in Alethi kingship. I mean the King still has to appoint that price to the position and can fire them at anytime for any or no reason. And the check is there so that if any one prince tries to buck authority they face reprisals from the other 9. I look at it like cabinet appointments from the president.

I think anytime aluminum pierces the skin of a magic user it's going to cause problems, but those problems are temporary. Get the spike out and things turn to normal. Hemalurgy, remember, is intent-based too, just like the other Scadrial magics. Surgebinding, you can do things before you know you can do them. See Kaladin. So unless said aluminum gatling gun user forms a connection with each round and intends for any bullet he uses to snatch power away from target it's not likely to work. IIRC Wax has been wounded by an aluminum round before, yet he could still do magic. Am I right?