Bigmikey357

Oh, point of fact. Sadeas was bonded to Oathbringer the Shardblade at the time of his death. He wasn't unarmed.

Sadeas was untouchable legally. Reform at the beginning of an apocalyptic event is probably not the best time for it. I mean, did Sadeas not deserve execution for past crimes? For plotting treason? If Adolin hadn't smoked him I hope someone would have. Because this ain't a comic book where the villians get infinite chances to screw up the world. Sometimes villians need killing.

The Blackthorn + Division = Destroyer of all possible worlds.

Our confirmed Edgedancer and our potential one. Up vote goes to you! One final note specifically about the Sadeas issue. Sadeas had to die, both for narrative construction reasons i.e. he had no more purpose going forward, an active irritant when bigger concerns are looming, and for story reasons, basically he's a cremhole way past the point of redemption yet powerful enough to face no consequences even after killing a third of an ally's army. He straight up admitted to treason and l planned treason, bragged about it to a peer of the realm. Yet people want to take the moral high ground for that guy. My question boils down to this: how strong is the Adolin bias? If Sadeas popped off that way to Jasnah and she turned his chull to smoke would she get the same kind of grief? If Sadeas happened to run into his former property and Kal casually put a Sylblade through his eye socket would we be singing his praises or condemning him? I can understand dislike, even irrational hatred for a fictional character on whatever basis anyone chooses to name. If I'm wrong in my view of the situation I do apologize. Not trying to offend anyone on these boards.

Jasnah is an ends justify means type of gal. Yet she's progressing quite nicely. Sadeas is a good guy in his own story, 99% of the population of any world, real or fictional would vehemently disagree with him. And as far as Adolin killing Sadeas, I think you're downplaying the threat he posed to make a point. Sadeas, the dude who already succeeded in killing a quarter of his army, the leader of the opposition when it's clear they have bigger problems than a squabble between highprinces, threatens to kill everyone he loves for the sake of personal ambition, and has both the troops and the will to back up everything he says and get away scott free. If you were Addie, would you feel bad for ending him? And he does feel guilty about it, he's just not sorry he did it. Otherwise why confess at all?

Living plate is more intuitive, more user friendly than the dead version. I would think it's not too difficult to be competent in living Plate. Plus she's seen Plate work all her life. It's not something she's unfamiliar with. Lastly we don't know Elsecaller progression. She might have gotten Plate on Ideal 3. Renarin seems to have gotten blade on Ideal 2. The point is that we cannot be certain until at least RoW. As for my opinion? Glad u asked! I think Jasnah sparing Renarin was Ideal 4 for her, but ain't no telling.

Nothing in life is sure. But the story is written. And in the end neither of our opinions are the be-all-end-all. I know that it constantly surprises me how polarizing Adolin is in the fandom. Just outta curiosity since I know I won't sway your opinion, assuming Adolin doesn't die what would you like to see Adolin do that wouldn't cause you to drop SA? If nothing, that's cool. Like I said, juss asking.

I think it would work. The power isn't coming from the metal after all, it's just a key.

Basically what I'm saying is this. You're obviously here because you're a fan of SA. If a character you do not like was removed from the narrative, would that make your enjoyment of the series increase? I do a little writing so I am always aware of the author's narrative choices and compromises, at least on rereads. And I think a part of the reason I like Adolin is because he aids the big 4 without overshadowing their awesomeness. Without him the characters have to put in a lot more work and would likely fail several of the tests Brandon sets forth for them. Does Kal learn to trust Lighteyes without Adolin? Maybe, but the journey is harder. Does Dalinar come to the realization that he ain't crazy? Again not sure, but maybe Dalinar still doubts himself without someone to push him to examine himself. And a confident Renarin looks a lot like a Radiant Adolin. What a disaster when Renarin tries to emulate Dalinar instead. The Chasmfiend hunt. Anyway, my opinion only. Take from it what u will.

I have always believed that Adolin gets judged unfairly because Brandon is a trope breaker. Normally, as fantasy readers we have been conditioned to pick guys like Adolin to be the hero, the MC that can do no wrong. In a more simple story he would be. SA is generally a refuge for those of us who reject the simple story nearly by reflex, and Adolin as poster boy for the simple gets smashed as a result. The thing is though, is that Adolin isn't simple. He didn't just step on the scene as a good duelist. He has that natural talent but he worked hard as hell for it. And for years he was the best in the camp but duty kept him from showing it. He could have defied his restrictions like his peers but he refuses even that. He's 3rd in line to the throne. He could easily be the vacuous spoiled noble people want to portray him as, but a person like that doesn't even see the dark-eyed prostitute in the street about to be beaten. Adolin does. In an enemy camp no less. He treated Dalinar badly? I say that Dalinar needs someone he cannot just bully his way through. He's irresponsible? He's been second in command of the Kholin Army for like 2 years on the Plains. He didn't want to be king but so what? Hell if he had become King of Alethkar his detractors would have another reason to hate him, saying he was just handed a crown. Look, I could come up with counter argument after counter argument, could go point by point with the Adolin detractors without changing a single opinion one way or the other. But even though he ain't my favorite I like him and believe he is necessary. Dalinar needs pushback, Renarin needs someone in his corner no matter what happens, Kaladin needs a friend, someone he doesn't have to command. Shallan needs someone she can actually lean on when so many of her other relationships require her to be the pillar. Her brothers are hopeless around her, Dalinar piles responsibilities on her without thinking whether she can bear them, and her and Jasnah have that mother/daughter dynamic where they both attract and repel each other. Much like the Edgedancer I think he'll become, he just naturally smooths over the frictions these broken people face from an uncaring world. Without the function he provides Team Honor got no chance. Last thing. For those who hate Adolin, take a look through SA. If you remove him from the narrative do you think it makes the story stronger or weaker? I did something similar for Sadeas in a previous reread. I felt that he was a great villain for the first 2 novels but would have dragged the narrative down had he been allowed to survive into OB.

Pushing that idea to its logical conclusion is hard since we haven't seen very many oaths sworn. We can see Skybreakers doing their best Judge Dread impersonation (I AM THE LAW!!!), or maybe Edgedancers saying I am Compassion. Lightweaver maybe I am the Truth, but we don't know enough for the rest. Maybe we can speculate.

If Kaladin were to have an Honorblade to keep, Ishar's blade would be wasted on him. He already shares one surge with Bondsmiths (Adhesion) and the other (Cohesion or Tension, cannot remember which) doesn't have much of a battlefield application. And holding that blade ain't gonna make him Dalinar, even Dalinar-lite.

A chalkboard with math equations constantly being divided by 0.

Two things. Humans forget. And any organization made for a purpose tends to lose their way when that purpose is accomplished. Once humans weren't fighting off Desolations anymore the KR began to lose focus and eventually rot.

@SLNC of course you are entitled to your opinion of Adolin, we all like different things. However, in an effort to keep you reading SA I suggest you try to look at his character in a different way, change the perspective as it were. Looking at how others see him may help. I see Adolin as The Glue Guy on Team Honor. He has some issues of his own and is by no means perfect but without his actions the squad falls to pieces. Our Radiants are extraordinary people but let's face it, they are, one and all, broken. That's a major theme in these books. Adolin is a normal dude, or at least as normal as someone 3rd in line to be a king can be. He picks up the broken ones when they're down so that they can be awesome later. He's the only dude that can keep Dalinar from bulldozing his allies. He has had success keeping Shallan's fractured soul from flying apart. He changes Kaladin's preconceived notions of lighteyes and keeps dude from depression overload. He provides a safe space for Renarin so that he can walk with confidence later. And he took out Sadeas, a problematic act but better than the alternative. You may not like Adolin, and like I said it's your right. Without him though, you get a poorer story product. That's my sincere belief for what its worth.

So Maya becomes the Edgedancer Honorblade and Adolin can still provide that human perspective when all around him is Radiant. I actually kinda like that, at least for the front 5 SA. Maybe Addie is due for a visit to the Valley eventually, maybe have a convo with NW and Culti on Maya's behalf.

Somewhat off topic, if Roshar advances in technology enough to build an internet, how fast would new types of spren be created? The memespren would be of particular note right there. Or will regular spren incorporate these new ideas generated by so many new thoughts, thus making them more powerful? Or harder to attract? Would the CR expand? New cities?

I do believe that Odium invested some in Sel when he took on Aona and Skai. I think that he induced them to fight each other somehow and he out down roots at the last when he felt that they had sufficiently weakened each other. Once they were Shattered he withdrew his power from the planet, stuffed their shards unassimilated into the CR and moved on.

At this point @Jace21 and I will likely disagree and that's totally fine. I'll just explain my point of view as to how Shardic war Odium style commences. Basically I see it as a balance. In order for Rayse to put in a focused punch he has to put some roots down in the same Realm as his enemies who are likely heavily Invested. But if he gets as heavily Invested as his enemies then the power he has to bear gets tied up in the emerging magic system and its practitioners. It also makes it more difficult to leave a system once he emerges victorious. I believe his strategy for beating Aona and Skai was turning them against each other and striking them unawares. Not the ideal strategy for Tavanast and Culti. As to why he fears Sazed, it's because he can Invest in his Realm deeply yet still have enough left in the tank to fight Rayse on better than even terms. Rayse wins anyway cause he has experience in how to hit another Shard directly, experience he hopes Saze never gets the opportunity to learn.

For the 1st: word_thief What would happen if a Mistborn ingested the metal of a Shardblade/plate? Brandon Sanderson A shardblade is invested. A Mistborn isn't likely to have a tie to that type of Investiture. So probably nothing would happen… General Twitter 2013 (Oct. 24, 2013) For the second: DTF_20170515 Why refrigerate food when you can just stamp spoiled food so that it was stored properly before? Aurora_Fatalis You'll have to ask Brandon how that'd interact with gastric acid breaking down the stamp. Or how porous/loose material interacts with stamps in the first place. Come to think of it... There's a WoB saying the Nightwatcher could change your species, but have a hard time making a spren bond to you. So... could the Nightwatcher turn you Scadrian and make you eligible for Allomantic powers? Or does the Nightwatcher's boons operate on soulstamp principles? Hell, let's say you bought a vial of the wrong metal on your field trip to Sel. Could you pay a Forger to stamp the vial into being a vial of the right metal (it's believable that you would check before such an important trip) and then drink the metal contained in the vial to fuel your Allomancy? Brandon Sanderson All right, all right. Let's see... /u/Aurora_Fatalis, changing metals around with other forms of Investiture is generally going to work, according to how I view the magic right now. The power is there, you just need to align the matter the right way. So forging new metals: not too difficult. This is because Allomancy isn't actually using Investiture in the metals, but using it as a key to get power from somewhere else. Forging a sword to be a Shardblade, however, would be very, very difficult for multiple reasons. The most obvious one is that the Investiture required would be enormous. A Shardblade is a highly-Invested object, with its own self-aware soul. If you could overcome the initial resistance invested objects have to being influenced by other magics (something that Forgery is particularly good at doing anyway) you'd theoretically be able to change Shardblade/spren's personality like you could a person's. Fooling the magic via Connection and Identity is not so hard, under the right circumstances, so making a Forger into an Elantrian (or an Allomancer) for a short time is plausible. Making yourself into a Radiant, however, would be more difficult--because the limitations placed on that magic have to do with persuading a sapient being you are worth the bond. Aurora_Fatalis How about regular food? If I stamp a pineapple pizza into a pepperoni pizza and eat it, what nutrients do I end up with? Brandon Sanderson The way I have it working now, I believe (though I'd have to do some double-checking, as it's been a while since I've been working on Sel) soulstamps are more fragile than things like Aons, and it would be very hard to eat something with one without breaking it. But assuming you could, you'd get nutrients from what it had become--but those would change back once the stamp broke or ran out. It is possible to go so far down this rabbit hole, however, that the chemistry of Forging (like the physics of Allomancy) it just can't make sense any more. So be aware. Oversleep42 With things like Stamping metals for Allomancy, you have said that it'd be possible for short time, but then burning it would break the Seal and metal would revert back. I guess it would be similar with food, right? Brandon Sanderson Yes, that's the big problem with Forging. Getting the stamp to stay in place once you start to change the object that has been stamped. General Reddit 2018 (Aug. 27, 2018)

I do think the Shards are limited in exactly that fashion. If a Shard wants to float around, laying low until every's conflicts blow over (Brandon's infamous 'Survival Shard') then of course it's free to do so. But no magic system develops from that. By the same token a Shard can visit another world and not take up the local Investiture apportioned to him/her. Say Edgli wants to visit her good friend Cultivation so they can dish about boyz and such. On her visit to Roshar she sees endowment-flavored Investiture all around but doesn't reach for it. She doesn't wanna be tied to Roshar; she's got her own planet to run. Plus it would probably be rude to introduce herself to that system, now all of a sudden you got people flying around whenever they see the color blue or however crazy way Endowment interacts with Roshar. Whatever, no magic system is created. It's going to take more to invest in a system and by doing so create a magic system. An enemy Shard putting down roots is the first step. The theory for this is simple. All Shardic power is Infinite and everywhere. But when Shards clash it's not about power, it's about focus. A Shard with an anchor has a distinct advantage over one without an anchor because they can bring more of that power to bear at the point of attack. Now we've seen indications of Shards at war in 2 different Systems. Their first act in both instances was to establish an anchor. To me that means tapping into the local Investiture coded for them. That creates a magic system. That to me is the only reason why Odium, self-appointed enforcer of the 1 planet 1 Shard agreement at the Shattering, would invest enough in any planet to create a magic system. He needs an anchor in which to fight other deities. And I don't see him or any other Shard capable of dragging that type of anchor with them across the Cosmere.

A person can have the type of personality that attracts multiple types of Nahel spren. Ym in the interludes illustrates this. He bonded a Truthwatcher spren but was considered by cultivationspren prior to him forming his bond. As for actually achieving that double bond? Ark beat me to it. A minor point of contention however. When a Spren fills the hole in a particular spiritweb, it doesn't just sit there. It incorporates itself into the spirit, eventually becoming one with their bondmate.

This isn't me pulling this outta thin air, this is what Brandon said is the nature of Vessels. They direct the infinite power of a Shard while being themselves being limited. Their minds are greatly expanded but a person's mind cannot be infinite. That results in a Vessel that's connected to everywhere their Shard's Investiture exists, but until they come across it they're unaware of that connection. Of course once they become aware of that connection then they've always known of that connection. As a result of this somewhat confusing dichotomy, a Shard who never leaves the system it's invested in will never know about instances of its power that occur elsewhere. That's not what I'm proposing. What I'm saying is that the Stormlight we see today isn't the original Stormlight. It changed it's nature either when Adonalasium shattered or when Honor came to claim his Investiture. Of course it's speculations but I'm riding with that until I'm explicitly proven wrong.

It is a unique method but not entirely foriegn. This planet is teeming with beings that transverse Realms. Is it that much of a stretch for a being to evolve to eat such an abundant resource? I don't think so. IMO its a short step; hardly anything on Roshar sticks to its birth realm. Well to be fair Chiri did suck that Fused in the bank vault dry. That speaks of choice, or being a picky eater. Hell, maybe Voidlight is tastier, in the same way one would rather eat steak than brussel sprouts. Oh I didn't think of the bioweapon possibility, thus pointing to a purposefully designed entity. Get a couple hundred of them to clean up a certain Cognitive Realm Investiture spill. But then we get to ask who made them. You know that some spren pre-date the arrival of H/C right? And before humans came to Roshar? And the ancient spren are fundamentally different than the more recent ones created when the Shards came a'callin? Things were different when Adonalasium built Roshar. Is it such a stretch to believe that Stormlight was different too? Or are you proposing that the stuff our favorite Radiants are sucking up has not changed in property or potency, is the same stuff that rode the Storms before the Shattering? I don't agree but a case can be made.

Larkin can metabolize aka eat any type of Investiture, not just Stormlight. So that brings up a couple possibilities. 1. Larkin are not native to Roshar. We know Roshar is a popular destination for worldhoppers because it has tons and tons of free Investiture just floating around. One of them, or a group like the Iri, could have brought them along as they visited or migrated. 2. The modern Larkin is a recent adaptation. If the Larkin evolved on Roshar, it probably started off from the same common ancestor as the numerous species of greatshells. Note when I say recent, I'm talking in evolutionary terms. So like within the last 5 to 10 thousand years give or take a decade. Anytime a new element is introduced into a closed system there will be lifeforms attempting to exploit it. 3. Investiture has always rode the Storms of Roshar. We've been told that Roshar was designed and built by Uncle Addie. We know that every lifeform on the planet other than humanity is designed to survive, even thrive in a place where Force 5 hurricanes sweep the land bi-weekly. The argument could be made that Stormlight rode those storms before Honor Invested on Roshar. That would of course make Stormlight not Honor's Investiture. But was the Investiture that rode the storm before Honor came actually Stormlight, the same kind we witness in modern SA? It doesn't have to be.