Goatbringer

Fun fact, the tavern that Bridge Four debates going to in Words of Radiance is called "The Ornery Chull".

Cremlings! It has been far too long since we have graced this board with Tay’s witticisms about Slaveboi, JDM, Sneak, and all of our other favourite characters. Allow me to be the first to apologise for the lapse, but it’s been a long, slow journey through the last part of Oathbringer. However, I am very pleased to let you know that as of a couple of days ago, Tay finished book 3… and is thoroughly exhausted by it. It will be a while before we contribute to this board again, but I thought I might add this post today so that you guys have a little pick-me-up in the hand-wringing, nerve-wracking last four days before Rhythm of War drops. Without further ado, here are Tay’s contributions from Parts II to V of Oathbringer! -- *Kaladin is flying around with his big spear energy* TAY: *under her breath* You idiots. The skies are mine so suck my *censored* -- *Stormfather is being ornery with Dalinar* TAY: The Stormdaddy is such a sulky *censored*. He’s the kind of guy who would get a haircut, then get mad that Dalinar didn’t compliment him right away. -- *I am explaining to Tay that there are boards dedicated to theories around Book 4* TAY: Do you call them ‘Uritheories’? ME: … no, we don’t. TAY: You should call them Uritheories. You should tell them that I said that. -- *Jasnah is getting the transcript of her memoirs sent to her via spanreed* TAY: You’re gonna wanna write this pearl down. *pauses for effect* Jasnah should call her memoirs ‘The Princess Diaries”. Heh. -- *Navani is distracted by something and makes a flippant comment about Jasnah* TAY: PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR DAUGHTER NAVANI AND BE NICE TO HER! -- *Our Main Characters find out that Talenel is the actual Herald, not just some madman* TAY: So wait – you’re saying that they should have been feeding Talenel grapes and fanning him with palm fronds this whole time? -- *Mraize offers to help Shallan cover up any murders done in the name of the Ghostbloods* TAY: Okay I’ve got a golden nugget for you. Mraize is a pretty good employer. Hear me out! ME: What!? TAY: HEAR ME OUT! He only asks Shallan to do what she’s already doing, pays her by saving her family members, and offers covering up murders as part of her employment package. Can you imagine how much less stressful my job would be if I knew they would cover up my murders? -- *Odium meets with Dalinar in the visions* TAY: *sighing* Not sure I’m not Team Odium. Why wouldn’t you want to fight for passion? That seems like such a good thing to be the god of… not, whatever the opposite of passion is. I guess that’s Shallan. She’s the opposite of passion. Editor’s note: this is not the first time Tay has agreed with a villain in a major series – she felt like Thanos was very misunderstood. -- *Kaza’s interlude* Usually with interludes, I’ll describe what happens and Tay will say yay or nay to them since she isn’t interested in things other than our Main Characters. However, when I described how one of the Sleepless kills Kaza and the entire crew of First Dreams, this was what she said: TAY: Oh, that sounds cool. I wanna see people dying. Not sure that helped with her growing perception as an Odium sympathiser, but hey. -- *Kaza standing on the bow of a ship* TAY: See her now as she stands on the bow of a ship headed to a new land! In Aimia you can cast some souls! -- *I ask Tay what she thinks destroyed life on Aimia* TAY: *full of confidence* Oh, I know what did it. The dead sprens did it. Not the Dawnshards. Dead spren washed over it like an ocean of corpses. Then everyone on Aimia killed themselves. -- *Dalinar fighting Fen’s son* TAY: So this is Dalinar’s Strat? Just to get stabbed? -- While there were no zingers at Evi’s fate, we both are of the opinion that it is a little upsettingly cliché – the whole Fridge Horror trope of women being killed only to add to the character struggle of the main male character. Sanderson certainly has some great, progressive female characters, but it’s kind of a bummer that this trope wormed its way into the series. -- *Taravangian Interlude where he tells them to kill the singing children* TAY: Man, I guess I’m also Taravangian too. -- *Discussion on safehands* TAY: Hey, tell this to your shard people: do you think Sanderson created safehands because they are what he wants? You know? Like how some guys go crazy over feet? Think he’s all into handies? ME: I’m upset that this topic has been broached. -- *Tay likens the Stormfather’s visions to getting high* TAY: Stormdaddy party tricks get lit in a hurricane bru. -- TAY: Can you swallow a sphere to get Stormlight? ME: I guarantee you you’ll have an answer by the end of this book. -- TAY: I think I’m an Alethi. ME: What makes you say that? TAY: I would murder people for my cats. -- *Dalinar comes out of his rage-killing by smashing some dude’s head into a pulp* TAY: Big mood. -- Dalinar’s speech to Sadeas and his generals after he decides he’s going to go full scorched-earth on the Rift was so exceptionally badass for Tay that she got me to read it aloud to her family. -- *Szeth is back and calling Nightblood “sword-nimi”* TAY: Wait – is he calling it ‘Sword Ninny’? ME: No, he’s saying ‘sword-nimi’ like it’s a sign of respe- TAY: Doesn’t matter – it’s Sword Ninny now. -- *Overhearing Tay talking to our cat in the other room* TAY: Cosmo! Who’s my little Voidbringer? -- *Nightblood is making fun of Szeth for listening to the commands of his ‘magic rock’* TAY: The abject beauty of a magic sword looking down on a magic rock. -- TAY: Oh! I’ve got a good one! I have two memes you have to make for me about Taravangian – the one where he’s doing the mathematics in his head, and then the one where he’s doing the conspiracy theory on the wall. ME: I guarantee you those memes already exist. Lo and behold, they had the conspiracy one, but they didn’t have the math lady meme so I made one: -- *I described how Taravangian wrote the Diagram on every surface of his room* TAY: Why do you write like you’re running out of time? -- *Odium destroying Dalinar’s vision with Venli* TAY: Odium is like a shark. He investigates with his mouth. You know. Violence. -- TAY: Veil is me. I, too, choose my outfits based mainly on pockets. -- At one point a couple weeks ago, we were driving somewhere and made sure to avoid a stalled truck that was holding up traffic on one route. Turns out, it had been fixed and drove onto the route we were then taking to avoid it. It was vaguely funny, but then Tayla said this: TAY: Tayla attuned amusement. She then made a sound like a turkey being strangled and I nearly crashed the car from laughing so hard. -- *Odium gives Dalinar back his memories of Evi, but he’s already been getting them back* TAY: Haha! Odium! That’s all you got? Why do you think I haven’t been sleeping for six months? -- *Adolin gets stabbed by the Fused in Shadesmar during the fight at the Oathgate* TAY: *on her phone* Wait, Adolin got stabbed? *pauses* And he can’t heal himself, right? Ah okay I should actually pay attention to this part. *Puts phone down* -- *Skar and Drehy reveal they saved little Gavinor* TAY: Bridge Four Nannies: we protect those who cannot protect themselves. Our packages also include pickup from school, help with homework, and defense against the Unmade. -- *Odium’s discussion with Taravangian* TAY: Aw man, Taravangian is Boromir. He’s a villain, but all he’s doing is for the people of his city. -- *Jasnah becomes queen* TAY: *banging metaphorical pots and pans* Jasnah is SMASHING THE PATRIARCHY. HERE. FOR. THIS. -- *I had trouble remembering the name of the main female character from The Boys (that show on Amazon Prime that’s vaguely like BrandoSando’s Steelheart)* ME: Yeah, you know – uh… Shiny Girl. Dawnshard? What’s her name? TAY: Starlight? ME: Yeah, that’s her name. Shiny Girl. TAY: You have to tell them that you confused her name for Dawnshard now. -- Additionally, Tay wanted me to point out to you that because of my accent, she initially thought I had been saying Dawnshart, much to my chagrin. -- Speaking of Dawnshart Dawnshard, I’ve already read it – but Tay’s going to be taking a break from Stormlight for a while. Hope you guys have had a fun time reading these posts and we’ll be back… maybe some time next year for Rhythm of War. On that note – AHHHH GET EXCITED Y’ALL! ONLY A COUPLE DAYS NOW!!! And remember when you're reading Rhythm of War in a couple days time - Crem before cremlings.

I'm pretty proud of Brandon. He used an actual swearword. That means that quoting an canonical actual line from one of his works will be censored on this website lol

Hey sounds like we could use some of that in the real world amirite people? Ha!

Well guys – we’ve just kept on rolling in our house. To be completely honest, I think that we’ve kept listening to the books together mainly because Tay slipped a disc in her back and so walking upstairs to our TV has been a bit of a mission, so staying downstairs and listening to Oathbringer has been a much less painful experience for her. SO! We decided to skip Soilencourager for the time being, just because Tay wanted more Kaladin/Dalinar/Shallan action – but mainly she found out that Pattern wasn’t in the novella and wasn’t super interested in it. So! Without further ado, I present to you Tay’s reactions to Oath…breaker! -- One of the first reactions she had was to question – “Why did the Parshendi use Szeth to kill Gavilar? They just happened to have a super-skilled assassin who could be a Surgebinder tagging along with them to the treaty meetings?” I was similarly perplexed. In Eshonai’s prologue perspective, she mentions Klade or another one of the Listener leaders being drawn to Szeth by a voice – are we all in agreement that this is Odium influencing the Listeners to Szeth to make sure that this budding future Bondsmith is killed? Or are there other theories as to why Szeth just happened to be around to be used by the Listeners to kill Gavilar? -- To test Tay’s understanding of the books the farther along we go, I asked her to describe what spren are. TAY: Okay Chris. I’m pretty connected to the matrix. I can tell you what spren are. A spren is a cute magical thing that appears out of nowhere and helps you. Like a stray puppy. It’s important to recognize, however, that when they’re cute magical beings they are sometimes gods. Or storms. Or lamps. ME: Lamps? TAY: Yeah, lamps. Like Navani traps them in things and makes them do stuff. Like be lamps. They also come from the magical bead place. ME: What’s that place called? TAY: Sssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh…adesmar? ME: Yes! TAY: Oh good. I really wanted to say “Shallandavar”. -- *After I mentioned some of the Radiant orders* TAY: Willshapers? Is that what they call a conveyancing attorney? Help you dissolve your estate? Ha! -- *Kaladin is on his way to Hearthstone* TAY: Press pause. There’s something I have to do. ME: *presses pause* TAY: *sings the entire song of “My Hometown” off of Bruce Springsteen’s classic 1984 album Born in the U.S.A. while imitating Bruce’s singing voice* -- Not really a specific quote, but when the “No Mating” scene showed up, Tay lost it. She is starting to feel feelings for Pattern usually only reserved for our cats and is now referring to Pattern as ‘my baby’. She loved when Shallan says something along the lines of “Well if you love Adolin so much why don’t you marry him?” and Pattern asks if that’s possible. I think she now likes Adolin enough that she’s fine if Pattern ditches Shallan to bond with Adolin. -- Just a point that we both loved: the scene where Adolin and Shallan practice with their Blades and Shallan just loves doing a thing that Adolin is obviously thrilled about. We realized that being with a person while they’re in their element (even if you don’t necessarily like it) is an important part of love, and something that just makes the relationship that much more special. For me, apparently, it’s whenever I get into some deep rugby analysis or I’m explaining an exciting historical event in great detail. Tay realized that this is why so many of her students love her while her colleagues think she’s just decent – her students are seeing her get animated and gushing about The Great Gatsby or Ulysses or A Thousand Splendid Suns while her colleagues are only getting to know her through faculty meetings and such. Really fun realization through this scene! -- She also kind of wants to use Dalinar’s takama belt anecdote in her classes now, but can’t quite figure out where to fit it. -- TAY: Elhokar? Aladar? Gavilar? Dalinar? Kalanor? Revolar? Mrazie, Graves, and Rayse? Why are all these names so similar?! Can’t the leader of the Ghostbloods just be named “Steve”? -- She got actual chills down her spine when Dalinar realized he heard Evi’s name. -- *Hears Urithiru named* TAY: Kind of sounds like ‘urethra’ and I can’t unhear it. -- *Taravangian and Dalinar talking about Nohadon’s dilemma in The Way of Kings* TAY: Taravangian, you’re heavy metal and I am here for it. Kill them all. -- *I point out that many names in Vorin society are palindromic* TAY: Hahaha. Brightlord Tacocat. -- *Tay is upset that Re-Shephir is not killed by Shallan* ME: Well she fled further into the mountain so she’s not a problem any more. TAY: Not a problem!? She’s still a problem! I’d be even more paranoid living in this place now. It’s like if we had confirmation that there were deadly toxic mushrooms in our house but we don’t know where they are. Would you call that ‘not a problem’? -- To finish things off: I’m quizzing Tay before each post to name the Orders of Radiants. Here’s how she did: TAY: Lightweavers. Windrunners. Bondsmiths. Oathbringers. Edgedancers. Skywalkers. Waterdancers. Oathbreakers. Windrunners. Light… weavers. Have I done that already? Dammit. -- That’s all for now folks! Crem before cremlings.

Brandon and downsize in the same sentence... cannot compute.

Well everyone – we got there! Last night, Tay and I finished Words of Radiance together! This book was a much quicker read than the Way of Kings and I think that in spite of Tay’s insistence that she’s only reading these books for me, she really seems interested and committed to the series. It’s super cool to see! Since I haven’t posted since the end of part 3, this is going to be a longish post. However, I assume if you’ve been sticking around and reading these posts since I started this topic all the way back in March, you’re fine with a big dump of reactions. Before I go into the reactions to everything, this general reaction happened yesterday: TAY: Have there been other reactions to your thread on Mind Readers? ME: No not for a while. TAY: You’re not writing my reactions funnily enough. Anyways, here goes! -- *Lift interlude* TAY: This is it? This is the character that everyone loves? Does she have any other scenes in this book? ME: No, but she has a novella between this book and the next? TAY: I’m not sure I get the hype. ME: She’s just too awesome for you. TAY: I’m also unsure that Brandon Sanderson has ever met a 13-year-old girl. ME: Again – she’s too awesome to be a regular 13-year-old. -- *Lhan interlude* TAY: I don’t like interludes. ME: We can skip this one if you like. Not much happens. TAY: What happens? ME: A priest angers the queen of Alethkar, gets executed, and starts city-wide riots. TAY: *sighs* Yeah that sounds pretty metal. Let’s do it. -- There was a stretch of time where Tay and I just literally sat there, zoned out, and listened to the book for like four hours. When I quizzed her the next day, she had two new nicknames: SHADOWFIENDS – Formerly Rock Lobsters, this is what Tay called Chasmfiends. I kind of like Shadowfiends as a name for, like, chasmfiends that have been inhabited by Voidspren like Thunderclasts. How frickin badass does that sound? SHADOWBLOODS – This is the Ghostbloods. I think that Tay’s inherent love for Wheel of Time was seeping through in her retelling here, as there is a pretty prevalent use of “shadow” as a prefix for anything that is bad in Randland. -- I just wanted to comment on her lack of reaction to a particular scene. I, like many of you I’m sure also, cringe horribly when Kaladin says “AND FOR MY BOON…”. Tay, weirdly, didn’t react at all. When I asked her about it, she literally just said “It’s what I would have done. Screw Amaram.” Further evidence that Tay is Kaladin. -- *various reactions to Pattern* “Heh. What a guy.” “I could listen to Pattern explaining sex jokes all day.” “This dude is the real MVP.” -- *Shalladin happening in the chasms* TAY: They’re perfect for each other. They’re both colossal pains in the butt. ME: Yes! Finally someone agrees with me with Shalladin! -- *Kaladin is in the mouth of the Rock Lobster and says “I’m eternally grateful”* TAY: *laughs uproariously* -- *Shallan is strangling her father while singing him to sleep with the lullaby* TAY: Okay, I like how badass she is – but the singing is a little melodramatic for me. -- *Context: we both have asthma* TAY: Whenever I need to use my inhaler I’m referring to it as sucking in Stormlight. ME: I’m absolutely here for this. -- *Dalinar confronting Amaram* TAY: Yes! Go Dadinar! Protect your adopted son! -- In full disclosure, I have had to try to explain where the honorblades fit into the magic system like three times to Tay. By her own admission, she fully doesn’t understand it. However, she definitely understands the Orders of KR and gets that with each Ideal they speak, they kind of power up. At this point in the book, she was kind of getting that Kaladin had to say his next Ideal, but was confused when I referred to it as the Third Ideal. TAY: Third Ideal? Hasn’t he just said one? ME: No, he’s said two – remember “I will protect those who cannot protect themselves” is the second Ideal for the Windrunners. The First Ideal is the same for all Radiants – “Life before death. Strength before weakness- TAY: “Crem before cremlings.” Yep. Got it. -- *Szeth lashes Dalinar into the air* TAY: “I’m Kaladin! Come to save you on my chariot of winds! *air horn noises* -- *Dalinar is floating down thanks to Radiant Kaladin* TAY: I can show you the wooooorld! -- *Kaladin says “The winds are mine!”* TAY: I hate that. So cringey. ME: Cringey!? Okay let’s imagine you’re Kaladin – you’ve been depressed, torn up by your conflicting emotions, beat up, and finally got your powers back. You’ve been thinking about some badass line all the way to Narak to fight Szeth – what would you come up with? TAY: Well I cover up my depression with being funny. Maybe I’d let Dalinar float down and say “did you drop this?” ME: I think you’d just show up and do a dab, say "YEET" and then fight Szeth. TAY: That’s probably exactly what I’d do. -- We then discussed the nature of cringeyness in books like this – we realized that I really appreciate over-the-top badass lines, but Tay loves cutting tension with sarcastic comments. She said that if she had Radiant powers, she’d probably be more like Deadpool in her interactions than Batman. -- *Szeth constantly repeats his name* TAY: “I am Szeth-son-son-son-Dadanndo!” Ungh. I hate Szeth. He’s my least favourite character now. *Tay then spends the next few hours referring to one of our cats as “Flam-son-son-son-Dadanndo”* -- *Szeth and Kaladin fight each other in the air* TAY: Pew pew pew pew! -- *Syl changes from a Blade to a Shardspear* TAY: OOOOOH! So cool! SYL YOU THE REAL MVP! -- *Shallan tells the scholars to bind and gag Renarin to shut him up as she’s trying to work the Oathgate* TAY: Mood. *pauses* Alright… I think I’m starting to like Shallan more now. -- Just a little poetic synchronicity happening at this point – because we live in South Africa, our seasons are inverted from the northern hemisphere. We have summer in December and January and winter in July and August, etc. In Johannesburg, we’re a landlocked city at altitude and thus we have incredibly dry winters in comparison to summer where we have big storms every few days. Point is – since it’s the end of summer we haven’t had a proper rainstorm since, like, May. The day that we finished Words of Radiance we had the first proper thunderstorm in Johannesburg for months. It was so cool and fitting. -- *Shallan says she hates Pattern since she used him to kill her mother* TAY: You take that back! -- Not really a fun reaction, but Tay loved that Lopen could suck in Stormlight. I found it weird because I really didn't like Lopen all that much, but I immediately liked Lift. Tay seems to have the inverse reaction to mine. -- Tay’s reaction to Sadeas’ murder at the hands of Adolin deserves its own paragraph. When it happened, Tay audibly gasped, then clapped like the opening theme song from Friends, then proceeded to get me to pause the audiobook. She then became Adolin’s hype-man for like twenty minutes as she digested the scene. She absolutely loved that Adolin did it – she was sure that when he was saying “Unfortunately for you, I’m not as good a man as my father”, he was going to slide the knife away and say something like “Stay away from my family” and had an eye-roll primed and ready. When Adolin actually killed him, she was so surprised and happy. She then asked me to rewind the scene and play it again so that she could savour the death scene again. Sometimes I worry that my wife enjoys these murder scenes so much, but then again, I listen compulsively to podcasts about serial killers and unsolved murders, so I guess we’re evenly macabre. Long story short – she likes Adolin now, or at least has a hell of a lot more respect for him. -- As the last scene involved Dalinar, Shallan, Kaladin, and Renarin talking about which Order they belonged to, Tay decided to take a shot at naming them all. I’m going to try to recreate her thought process completely: TAY: Yeah, I can name them. I’ve been listening to two of these books now. I’m sure I can do it. WINDBREAKERS SKYDANCERS DUSTSLINGERS Wait. Wait… Oath…. Is there something with oaths? ME: Nope. TAY: I thought Oathbreakers was one. WATERWEAVERS. I don’t know, what other things are there? Oh oh oh! Farmers! They can grow things! Let’s call them… SOIL ENCOURAGERS! You’re not helping me by telling me what the other elements are. ME: None of these are correct. TAY: Um. FIRE? I’m thinking about Earth Wind and Fire. You know? Like September? *sings September by Earth Wind and Fire.* Okay so FIREMAKERS. Oooh ohh! LIGHTSPINNERS. Then the DARKDOERS. STORM…. Ssssssssssssss *making a hissing noise*. I’m thinking of another word! Something that arbitrarily seems to do with motion. STORMSNAPPERS. ME: That’s nine. What’s number ten? TAY: JAZZ HANDS. *Laughter ensues* ME: “I’m Dalinar Kholin! Order of the Jazz Hands! Give Odium the ol’ Razzle Dazzle!” -- There you have it, Radiants. Your ten orders of knights: Windbreakers, Skydancers, Dustslingers, Waterweavers, Soilencouragers, Firemakers, Lightspinners, Darkdoers, Stormsnappers, and Jazz Hands. Not sure when we’ll pick back up and do Edgedancer or Oathbringer, but we’ll give you an update when that happens! Until then – Crem before cremlings.

AAAAAHHHH! I had to reread that paragraph like three times I was so excited! Nalathis! Scadarial! Tal Dain! YEAH! I'm liking my theory of one of our main characters going off-world by the end of book 4.

Here's what Brandon said this morning after he completed Dawnshard:

Hello everyone! We’re back for another instalment of Guardboi – we’ve gotten up to the middle of Part 3: Deadly. The last chapter we listened to is Shallan getting ready to go on her “How do you poop?” date with Adolin. Here are some new names we learned in the past couple chapters: Eshonai – Captain Parshendi Venli – Captain Parshendi’s Sister Rysn – Crippled Khaleesi (this came after I told her that Larkins are referred to as “Dragon Bugs” by Isaac and Brandon) Here are some fun reactions: *Adolin’s first duel, he’s sitting there talking to his Shardblade (like a good Radiant should!)* TAY: Ungh. Of course Adolin talks to his Shardblade. He’s like a guy who kisses his knuckles before a fight. This was just the beginning of Tay’s full-on Adolin hate that’s been going on in the past few chapters. I think it’s cause she likes Kaladin so much and Adolin is bullying her homeboy throughout most of Part 2. Tay insists that it isn’t because she loves Kaladin (which I still think she does), but rather because “Adolin reminds me of every pretty boy, rich, jock idiot I went to high school with!” I just smile because Adolin and Kaladin become such homies and their friendship is one of the most delightful parts of the books for me. -- *After falling asleep through Ym’s interlude* TAY: So some geezer made a kid some shoes? ME: Yeah and then he gets shanked by a guy with a Shardblade. TAY: Should I care about this? ME: Only if you want to know that some guy is going around serial killing budding Surgebinders. TAY: I hope he kills Shallan next. -- *Tay noticed all the weird stuff that Kaladin was noticing about Zahel and started asking me who he was* TAY: Is he a bad guy? He sounds like a bad guy. ME: No! He’s a good guy. One of the best guys, I think. TAY: Oh, is this the one everyone keeps wanting me to meet? ME: Who? TAY: Lift? Is Zahel Lift? ME: *laughter* -- Shallan is crying in one scene: I look over at Tay and there’s a big, over-the-top eye roll. -- *Shallan and Adolin meet* TAY: They’re perfect for each other. I hate it. -- Speaking of Shallan: Tay LOVES PATTERN. She thinks he’s easily the best character and will avidly listen and laugh whenever Pattern has some dialogue. This is real, you guys. Pattern may be the thing that actually makes Tay commit to the whole ten-book series. She has started co-opting “LIES” into her everyday conversation, and appreciates when Pattern attempts to deconstruct metaphors, as she does it frequently with her students. For example, last night Tay learned a new slang word from her students: drip. Apparently, drip, means having a nice, expensive, impressive thing. To have a Ferrari is to have a drip… or be drip? Or be drippin? Not quite sure. However, this realisation happened around the time where Shallan is explaining to Pattern how Nohadon is a ‘symmetrical’ name… TAY: What!? No! I agree with Pattern! You can’t just say that a name is symmetrical when it’s not! Just like you can’t just say that ‘drip’ is cool now! A drip is a lame person! I’m so frustrated with language! Tay now believes that Pattern is too good for Shallan and wants him to find a cooler Radiant to bond with. She put forward Lopen or Rock as suitable candidates to bond with Pattern. -- TAY: Why is Shallan trying to help her brothers at this fair? ME: She’s a good person! TAY: No she’s not. -- *Wit showed up at Middlefest and is asking if spren speak to Shallan* TAY: So, this guy has come up to Shallan and has basically said “Yer a wizard, Harry.” Is that about right? -- Then, the other night we had some Horneater Lager and decided to watch Inception. At one point (you know the scene I’m talking about), Tay turns to me and very quietly whispers, “Surgebinding, Chris!” -- At one point, Tay pauses the reading and has a big old realisation – she is very much like Kaladin. I think she was a little annoyed with her quiz results (see above) that placed her in the Order of the Windrunners, but I think she’s very aptly placed. It was a scene where Kaladin is realising that he’s set a bit apart from Bridge Four and is feeling the weight of responsibility for all of these men who follow him. Yes, he’s set them free from their bondage under Sadeas, but he wants so badly to protect them, even though he knows that he’s not going to be able to protect all of them. Tay has this same thing, from time to time. She often makes a joke that she must have a tattoo on her forehead (that’s some big Bridge Four energy there) that says “TELL ME ALL YOUR PROBLEMS” since most of her students choose to confide in her and ask for her help with their various personal problems and issues. She wants so badly to keep them safe and make sure nothing in this horrible world is going to hurt them, even though she knows that they’re all going to have to go out there, make their mistakes, and be hurt by them on their own. That’s why I love these books so much – they’re not just full of awesome cinematic moments of mind-blowing fantasy, but they also provide characters that we can relate to on a host of different levels. Anyways, even though these posts are mostly happy-go-lucky laughing at reactions to characters and events, this one has ended on a somewhat sentimental note. Kind of reminds me, once again, that the journey is the most important part, and I’m having the time of my life listening to these books again with someone I love. Keep safe, Cosmerenauts! Only 85 days to go! -- PS: This interaction just happened before posting: TAY: Hey are we going to find out all of the bad stuff Elhokar did or are we just going to take Rayse at his word? ME: Rayse? TAY: Yeah… that Lighteyes with the Shardblade who Moash introduced to Kaladin? ME: Oh… Graves! That’s weird because Rayse is actually the real name of Odium. TAY: … ME: … TAY: Spooky-spook.

Legit, I took some time to think about what I actually truly predict for Rhythm of War. Some of these are going to be old hat theories that I think we all have concurred with happen in some form or another, and others are going to be a little more "out there". However, I like the idea of keeping a list somewhere and ticking off what was correct and what wasn't. - Shallan or Adolin will worldhop - Kaladin will swear the fourth ideal after saving Oroden instead of Lirin - Moash kills Lirin - Windspren will become his Shardplate - Jasnah got Shardplate in the time jump - Hoid will ask a boon of the Nightwatcher - Navani will become a Dustbringer - Urithiru will be turned on, but not by Navani - it will be started up by LUNAMOR. He has been working to bring people together since he started making stew for the bridgemen, and specifically, is all about unifying people as a community. Look at his chapter in Oathbringer. He's our next Bondsmith. - Urithiru "switching on" is the big pillar moment that BrandoSando has been talking about. - Taravangian bonds with Odium to become the anti-Dalinar Bondsmith - Liss is outed as a Herald - Adolin heals Maya and becomes an Edgedancer - Adolin and Shallan will find Azure imprisoned at Lasting Integrity - Once Szeth has become a known quantity in Urithiru, Zahel is nowhere to be found

I know people have pooh-poohed this in another thread because it is next to impossible to leave the Rosharan system with your spren, but I want to see Shallan worldhop by the end of book 4. I will, however, settle for Adolin doing so.

So even though this isn't strictly following the rules of the Metallic Arts, the metals are still mimicking their basic properties in another Shard system - couldn't this mean that the properties of these metals are intrinsic across all Shardic systems? Maybe they were given the basic properties by Adonalsium across all systems and it was refined and expanded upon on Scadrial by our boys Ruin and Preservation.

I dunno man, the way that Shallan just readily accepted that there was some other Ghostblood in one of their retinues seemed a little too accepting of murder. Everything else about that scene screamed that Ialai knew she'd been made and was on her way out. She'd rather die than be in the clutches of the Ghostbloods or Dalinar and so I actually had assumed she took the easy way out and got surprised when Shallan assumed it was a murder.

I thought of that immediately. I also was strangely pleased by Nale's nuts as a swear! As much as I love his stories, Brandon can be a bit PG-13. This felt a little more vulgar than usual! Yay!

I absolutely LOVE this chapter. The last book went into detail about how travel between the CR and the PR happens through perpendicularities, this book is going into the possibilities of other shardworlds being overtly discussed on Roshar. Ialai is talking about "exotic" vintages of wine, which sounds like she knows it's from off-world. Also the uncoincidental brass and zinc Metallic Arts pairing when discussing gem housings. I'm calling it now! Shallan is going to finish off this book by world-hopping to chase the Ghostbloods to Scadrial or Nalthis!!

So you're thinking that Lasting Integrity is a big, black monolith? I'm into it.

Alright let's mark our calendars for a month from now!

The more I'm thinking of it, the more I'm sure that it's an Awakened sword. If you look at it, it looks like the rainbow on the rock is coming out of the tip of the sword and there's nowhere else in the picture that has a rainbow aesthetic. Considering how integral the rainbow or the aspect of 'colour' in general is to Nalthis, I don't think this is a coincidence. It also looks bigger and more ornate than any other kind of basic broadsword that Adolin would take into Shadesmar. I'm excited about the possibilities!

I think it's most likely Adolin due to confirmation in the Amazon blurb... but I think it could be really fun if it isn't!

That's my thought as well. Maybe I'm colourblind, but doesn't that hair look silver rather than golden-blonde with dark flecks? Could this be someone with the royal locks of Idris? The rainbow only furthered that suspicion.

He does his best, considering he only has one arm.

How does a Ghostblood get onto the Seventeeth Shard!? Does this been our organizations are in cahoots?

Dude like half the posts in this topic is shipping Kaladin and Leshwi.

Rushu showing off some big Veil energy checking out that Windrunner Highmarshal