Cracknut

I put down Homm3 as well. Favorite faction?

Necropolis, Conflux and Tower. Least favorites would be Stronghold and Fortress. Yours? Such a great game, wish there was a new version of it that would build upon and improve it instead of doing what they did with newer heroes games ;(( 

This game was so broken with its overpowered spells/items/units/etc but somehow that made it even better. Still much more fun with it then most of today's ultra high quality graphics and balanced strategy games. That could be because of nostalgia though

Not sure if they're old enough but these are some of the games I loved and still play sometimes: Heroes of Might and Magic III, Diablo 1/2, Dungeon Siege, Warcraft 3, Quake III Arena, Half Life and Comandos.

The honorblade is still an open question for me though. We don't know enough about it yet. It seems possible that had Kal let it fall, Nalan would  have grabbed it, and used it to  - whatever it is he is actually doing. Maybe someone even worse was lurking around.

Not something Kal was aware of or had any reason to suspect. They were in the middle of nowhere with two highstorms doing their work. I'm sure it would've ended up in Nalan's hands if Kal let it fall. But even knowing that, *right* decision(for Knight Radiants) would still be saving Szeth in my opinion.

 

I'm not sure I can articulate this effectively, but I'll try.  For me, it's about Syl's role seeming to change for plot reasons. 

What is the value of the Honorblade?  So far it is less than an honorspren.  In fact, it has essentially been serving Odium.  Out of the hands of a Herald, it may be just bad. 

Would the blade have been lost?  Szeth believed the Shamans could retrieve it.  I think a significant amount of investiture like that would be detectable.   Even if Kaladin can't currently detect it, I imagine that the Stormfather's Shard-o-vision or a Herald could find it. 

A Szeth that is no longer a threat may need protection.  Failing that, he could be an amazing source of information.  There are significant reasons to grab Szeth.  It is bad enough that Kaladin never asks Szeth any useful questions in their conversations.  Forever giving up the possibility of gaining information is a significant cost to letting Szeth fall. 

Syl has been a source of information and essentially Kaladin's conscience, but she has not been directing him in the heat of the moment.  She has been a supportive presence, but not directive as I recall.  The correct decision is not clear.  Now, all of a sudden, she is deciding what needs to be done instantaneously and directing him as to how to choose.  It is a different role that seems to be determined by the plot's need to keep the protagonists from communicating more than retrieving some hardware that can (IMO) be retrieved at any time. 

Yeah, you're right... She feels really off too... I'm really confused at this point this doesn't looks like BS at all maybe it's some kind of a foreshadowing or something and we're just wasting our time complaining about something that will make perfect sense in next book :|

Kaladin has killed before to protect. He killed Parshendi and he killed humans. Didn't he kill some of the assassins to save Elhokar? Did he hesitate then? No. Killing Szeth maybe wasn't good but it had to be done just like other times. This time wasn't any different. Szeth alive = Dalinar in danger and his safety is essential for worlds safety unlike Elhokars. Did he hate those assassins? Nope. So when our heroes are killing some unnamed assassins with no reason except to protect someone else it totally normal but if its an exceptional assassin and a main character at that... now there has to be hate and pity and now he has to protect even those he hates! Oh and how he protects!

Alright lets forget why he shouldn't have gone all good on Szeth. Lets say he had a very good reason to do so.
Szeth releases the bond.
Syl informs Kaladin about it and adds that "Szeth is nothing without it".
So, basically Szeth isn't dangerous anymore. You don't even have to hide Honorblade from him as he released it himself. What does Kaladin do now? Does he saves someone who obviously forfeited and doesn't presents any danger to anyone Kaladins trying to protect? Nope, he doesn't. He goes after Honorblade. How is he clean after this? It's not like Szeth died from fall because he got unlucky. No normal human would survive that fall and Kaladin at this point knew that Szeth was pretty much normal human. He recovered Honorblade, something that would survive that fall and then when it was convenient for him, he went to look for Szeth(I mean his body). Why not save Szeth, get him to the land then search for Honorblade. It's something Amaram would do, not Kaladin. And the best part? Syl was one who put Kaladin on that path.

The fact that Szeth is actually alive doesn't matters at all. He died. Kaladin let him fall to death. Then he was resurrected by someone who shouldn't have been there. Someone who Kaladin has no idea is still alive or even existed at all. With a power that Kaladin doesn't even knows exists. So, no, I'm not buying that this new version of Kaladin is better than old. So far he's much worse. He traded Szeth's life for an Honorblade. And he did it after acknowledging Szeth as someone who needs protection. And then he went and made himself believe he saved Szeth. Most irritating thing about all of this? Kaladin has no reason to believe Szeth is alive. I mean, dude actually died from that fall what else is here to be said? And I can already imagine Szeth and Kaladin meeting at some point in next books and Szeth being grateful about it or something... 

I am sorry, but what you are saying makes no sense in this context. Brandon didn't change the fight because he simply wanted to make a change to it - the "dragonball-esque" style of it is not something he has a problem with; the problem was with a very specific action Kaladin took during said fight - the killing of Szeth. Killing the Assassin in White, while practical and prudent in an objective kind of way, is not something that fits Kaladin's character. His entire character arc for these past two books has been about protecting others without reservation. For him to kill Szeth, he would have to back off from that in a major way. So no, the change makes perfect sense in the narrative of the story. The question is whether it makes (enough) sense in the world of publishing, and in this I trust Brandon more than I trust myself.

 

Also, that "WoR just came out" argument you have - you must be able to see that it's better to make this change now rather than three books down the line, when Kaladin is already written in as somebody who bends around his beliefs when it's convenient.

 

This whole thing might be a little confusing for book #3, but in the long run, it will make for a better Kaladin. And maybe better Szeth.

But it doesn't. He still killed Szeth, but this time he did it for Honorblade. More I think about it worse it gets I can't stop thinking about this why can't I get over this little piece of writing whyyyyyy ;((( :D

You bring up a good point. Once you look at it that way the scene changed from Kaladin killing a threat to the people he's sworn to protect in combat, (which while not perfect is understandable, he killed Parshendi as well afterall) to sparing said killer out of pity (which is arguably better) and then deciding that securing a powerful weapon is more important than actually protecting said guy he just decided doesn't deserve death. (Which is very bad and somewhat reeks of the plot demands he meets up with Nale and the blade ends with Kal and co.)

 

Maybe I'm being too harsh on it because I have a natural aversion against Retcons but that's a legitimate problem as far as I can see it right now.

Exactly! I really hope it won't be considered as something that makes Kaladin a better person. But it looks like it will and in that case please just don't rub it in.

• Get that sword! Syl sent to Kaladin, a mental shout. Grab it.
• “The assassin!”
• He has released the bond. He’s nothing without that sword! It must not be lost! Kaladin dove after the Blade, passing Szeth, who tumbled through the air like a rag doll, buffeted by winds toward the stormwall.

I don't like these ones at all... Kaladin slashes Szeths wrist instead of killing him because he feels pity and Brandon explains that change with Kaladin killing Szeth being somewhat wrong. But Syl has no problem with it at all? She knows that he released the bond and there's no way he would survive("He's nothing without that sword") but she has zero honors to give about that? But it would've been problematic for Kaladin if he killed him? Well he killed him AND there's totally no reason for this:

 

• “I didn’t kill him,” Kaladin said.

Yes you did bro, that's what happens when you let someone who can't manipulate gravity, fly, regenerate, etc fall to their deaths. And you should know you killed him because there is no more reason to believe his alive then there was in original version.

Sorry but I don't like this at all and hope I will be able to ignore it in future books... To make it clear though, my dislike for these changes has nothing to do with the fact that these changes were made after official release. Its not even what was changed, but how. Disappointed because for me Szeth's final scenes had some weak points but instead of fixing them these changes simply added some more weak points on Kaladin's side... I seriously hope this won't be brought up too many times in next books.

The two series I'm currently following are Tokyo Ghoul and Aldnoah.Zero.  And I'm enjoying both... but for markedly different reasons; they're sort of foils for each other in a way:

 

Tokyo Ghoul is the show that has interesting ideas and characters... but is a bit muddled by somewhat mixed execution, in terms of technical details; the animation has been a bit lackluster at certain points, some goofy censorship, odd pacing, etc.  Though the soundtrack is phenomenal and deserves special mention in my book.  The whole reason started watching this show is because the opening is really good; and the rest of the soundtrack has been good as well.

 

Aldnoah Zero, on the other hand, is a show with great execution (the season 1 finale notwithstanding), but just doesn't seem to be interested in doing much with it.  I've found it a bit like SAO... the parts not involving the OP main character are actually the best parts.  It really doesn't help that the show reminds me so much of Code Geass... but compares so unfavorably to it.  But if you go into it expecting a fairly simple plot and fun robot battles you probably won't be disappointed... but I feel it had the potential to be much more.

Yeah, it wasn't bad. But disappointing because it could have been much better. And main character...

Tokyo Ghoul is great. Stopped watching anime because of censorship and went with manga instead but some of the soundtracks I know of are real good. btw manga has much better pacing and there are some  very cool stuff missing in anime if my information is correct. 

Another good anime that got ruined with censorship is Terraformars imho. Why censor anime adaptation of a seinen manga. Especially when there are lots of shounens with as much gore and violence in them and they don't get censored.

And why are they using these strange big white things :| mosaics too mainstream or wut : D 

Love it. Hated first season though and everything Rick's wife was involved with.

Hated Aldnoah Zero. What's up with these emotionless, cool characters who solve every problem with ease and don't even try to get any development... Fact that he's more on the side of cute then handsome makes me hate it even more for some reason and I feel weird about it   :D  Kawaii is killing anime ;((

Davy back is only half filler, unfortunately. There were a few non-canon fights, but the arc itself was in the manga. Or so I'm told.

 

After I'm done with Water 7, I'd be curious to hear your reasons. I've found it to be excellent so far. And I did take back my negative comments. It's not perfect, but it's a really fun and imaginative show.

Yeah, you're right it has canon stuff too but meh...

W7 is great. I simply had a hard time watching it because original Russian dubbers dropped it there and new ones were horrible. + it was in a better quality and my pc couldn't handle it :D oh and new dubbers stopped doing it halfway through W7 and I had to wait several months for second half... 

36? I thought it was suppose to have only 10. Oh, well. I liked the previous season, but the this season is a real dissapointment so far. I don't like it.

 

Its gonna be 3 sets of 12-13 episodes. Not gonna lie, there were stuff so far that I didn't enjoy much but I'm sure it still gonna be better then a lot of stuff we'll get this year. + we're just 2 episodes in so...

 

I love me some Yowapeda. It's surprisingly addicting. I'm a little cold on the Inter-High arc, though, since that's where the Shounen-style battles start in earnest, and you see less of Onoda. It's still fun, though.

 

 

 

Ah man. That was a trippy show. I didn't know it was getting another run. Something else I don't have time to watch!

 

 

In other news, I continue to watch One Piece. I'm up to episode 255, which puts me right in the middle of Water 7. The writing and animation really stepped up in this arc (1080p resolution helps with the animation, of course). Even the stupid Davy Back prelude served to set the thematic stage for the rest of the story. Don't get me wrong, it still sucked, but I do appreciate it a little now from a story structure standpoint.

 

Davy Back is last filler arc and I hate that one W7... I got some mixed feelings about that one because reasons Can't believe you getting so far without enjoying it

Durarara!! x2 anyone? Wasn't expecting it at all and now it's getting 36 episodes >_<

Death Parade looks interesting as well. Will be watching it for sure.

Native English and a smattering of German and Spanish. How do you guys learn Languages if there isn't a Native speaker for you to practice with?

Studied German in School. I had classes for Russian and English(those two were jokes anyway in school, teachers only came to ask for cigarettes) as well but I got to them before they started from TV and internet. Back in the day 90% of stuff on TV was in Russian and most of older generation knew it so it was easy. English from Manga and subbed Anime because they weren't as popular as they are now and most anime's didn't have dub + i couldn't wait for another episode so I had to read Manga which wasn't being translated in Russian at all. 

Georgian is my native language and I know Russian, English and German but I'm not very fluent in any of them. Curious how it would feel watching animes and original dub so I would learn that if I didn't hate learning new languages

Not to jump into an argument about justifying killing and whether or not it was the right thing but do you know what always rubbed me the wrong way about Jasnah killing those thugs? Just the chapter before, which might have been the morning of the very same day, she preached that all humans are inherently good, if only given the chance. Kind of the opposite to judge people whose circumstances she doesn´t know as irredeemable murderers. From what she knew these people weren´t neccesarrily the same as the ones that commited the murders. It´s likely but they could have been desperate people that only wanted to feed their family and heard that they could get money this way, not even planning on killing anyone.

Not every person with a knife has to be such a unrepentant killer like the joker. Actually it kind of makes me think of a Steelheart scene in which Abraham acts like someone with the belief system Jasnah claims to have, when confronted with muggers. (Granted, the scene laid it on a bit to thick for my taste but that´s something else entierly.)

 

Just for the sake of discussion: Well I doubt she wasn't sure whether those people were some poor thieves wanting to feed their families without killing anyone or those exact dudes who murdered several people. And maybe all people are inherently good if they're given the chance but obviously people who start killing random people either missed to take that chance or weren't offered one in the first place.

 

 

 To clarify, are you in favour of killing all killers? If so then society will have take resonsibility for killing them and it includes us too. Then we will all be a society of killers. Do you belive that no criminal deserves a second chance? Do you believe that some people are born criminals and the only solution is to kill them? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you have a wrong idea about justice system. If the justice sytem is not working properly, the solution is to reform it, not entirely bypass it. Because otherwise we are going to have the rule of force not rule of law.

 

Also is Jasnah's vigilante killing an example of "KR living right" as you put it?

 

No I'm not in favour of killing all killers. But why is Kaladin killing Szeth KR thing, but Jasnah killing those murderers not a KR thing? Because only difference I see there(except authors choice to give us more information about Szeth and let us see from his point of view, while giving us almost nothing about those murderers.) is class difference. they were four lowly thieves/rapists/murderers or whatever and Szeth, a professional killer with lots of cool tricks up his sleeve as well as top class weapon.

 

Well she still has her Spren right? If that deed had been something horrible in the eyes of her Spren he would indeed tell her about it. I don't know whether that was "KR living right" or not. I never said that by the way.

+1 Kyats Rani.

Well Jasnah killing them can be considered bad thing because it was planned but that's kinda shallow in my opinion.

DC logic. Lets imprison killers so they can later escape and kill more people. Well I don't like that. What's more honorable, bloodying your own hands so that those extra people not die, or keeping yourself clean and letting that happen? If Jasnah wasn't able to use her powers those people would have done what they did to others to her as well without any remorse and I don't see how they deserved Jasnah wasting her time on capturing them and handing them to authorities. 

I also don't see Life before Death as in Life is always more important than Death. Well, there's an example for you: Kelsier.

How I see it: Life is the ultimate journey while death is ultimate destination. Destination is unimportant compared to the journey i.e death is unimportant compared to life. It has nothing to do with KR killing someone, it's about KR living right even if it leads them to their deaths.

 

He is a psychopath, in my opinion. He killed a man, destroyed the evidence, then went and put his arm around Shallan like nothing happened. I got the sense that he enjoyed the killing. I might be wrong, but Adolin will never be a Radiant, this murder wouldn't "destroy" him, and he will kill again. He might face Kaladin at one point as Kaladin tries to defend the man Adolin would kill. That'd be cool. I'd love to see that fight.

Well I don't think someone has to be a Radiant to be a good guy. I really hope we'll have characters on the side of good guys who aren't Radiants. Now that I think about it, we already have Radiants that are bad. At least from my point of view. Maybe magic is just a tool in the end and it's not a deciding factor of who's good and who's bad. What I'm trying to say here is that Adolin does not has to be a radiant to be a major protagonist of this story.

Well killing in a duel isn't a holy deed either to be honest. I kinda agree with op except I believe it will ruin his relationship with Dalinar and maybe even Kaladin which will in turn destroy him but I believe he won't become a villain and if he does then it's gonna be for a short period of time.

We also shouldn't forget that even though Sanderson writes in heroic genre it doesn't means that every single character on the side of good has to be someone like Kaladin or Dalinar. Vasher pretty much "murdered" someone in first chapter of Warbreaker. Kelsier did what he did as much for the good of people as for his personal vengeance and even though I can't remember him "murdering" someone I doubt he hasn't done it. Dude didn't kill nobles because he had to, well sometimes he did it because of that but he also did it because he hated them. So I don't see Adolin killing Sadeas that problematic although there will be some consequences for that and let's face it, one more book with Sadeas in it? I'd rather have Adolin go bad and team up with Odium

It is Nightblood and you should take a closer look at Zahel

Dark Souls and loving it so much :3 where have I been all this time

 

Dota 2, Path of Exile, Civ5, Duel of Champions, Fallout and Bad Company 2 or Battlefield 3 when in mood for fps...

I personally wouldn't skip any canon episodes of One Piece... If you're getting into 600+ episode anime watching 40 or so meh episodes isn't much. Even though I don't agree on them being bad

DBZ being my 1st anime really set the bar high for me. I've  watched DBZ, FMA:B, and Deathnote all the way through, and am watching Fairy Tail and Bleach develop. Personally most of the other popular animes, such as Naruto, are lacking in story for me and some manga trump the anime so much that I cannot watch the anime (One Piece). Is Cowboy Bebop any good though? I've been meaning to watch that one. 

Well I love Fairy Tail and have fond memories of Bleach but I wouldn't go comparing them to Naruto and One Piece. Especially Bleach which has most repetitive and inconsistent story I've ever read/seen...

I quit watching No Game No Life in the first minute or two of the first episode. Panty shots on prepubescent girls provoke an insta-drop from me.

 

I'm up to episode 132 in One Piece. Somewhere along the way I started to really enjoy it. I take back every negative thing I ever said about it. It starts slow, but it's worth the wait.

 

Maybe that could be your Shonen anime, Peter?

That instantly made my day much better :D 

Have to agree with kaladamSB. It was good, but not as good as any of other books from Abercrombie. Can't really compare to WoR. On the other hand it was best YA book I've ever read. All the twists were good and I don't think there were any characters I disliked. Nothing and Yarvi were best though.

I didn't hope Nothing was Logen. I believed it at one point Still figured out his twist pretty soon by my standards Last twist was best for me and whatever your question, my answer is steel? That's pure gold right there.

I find this offensive  :D