king of nowhere

yes, and that's a completely sane plan. What could possibly go wrong? it's a nice comparison to vin, who also tried something similar regarding burning the mists. however, vin was truly desperate, it was a last resort for her. spensa? she's still got plenty of options. and her whole inner thought are not those of someone who is taking a great risk knowing the stakes.

I don't think so. everyone already wanted to be a pilot. it was the only path to fame and glory, and it was a requirment to get into the best jobs. they could have boosted recruitment, but only by lowering their standards. actually, there were other populations in other caverns, they could have boosted recruitment by tappping into those populations. time is the issue, though. they take 6 months to train a pilot; and that's for youths who studied hard to pass the test. they can't take a random guy from another cavern and train him in 6 months. so I'd exclude that avenue. they also don't have enough training facilities and teachers. all problems that can be solved, but they all require time. I'm sure they could build another training room with holoprojectors, but it will take some time. I'm sure they could get some elder pilots to retire and go into teaching, but being goood at something and being good at teaching something are fairly unrelated skills; those new instructors probably won't be good at it. And if they have more fighters, they also need more mechanics, and those also cannot be trained in six months. @Invocation gives a good rationale for increased fighter production, so they no longer have issues with their ships. I am sure they can increase their pilots too, now that they don't have such a strict limitation on acclivity rings. Getting plenty of pilots in six months? that, I don't think they can do. Maybe they are all cadets?

I'm a bit disappointed in spensa, really. she seemed to value cooperation and teamplay, and now she's trying to go solo. Hurl died like that. This all raises more questions, really. what are the humans doing into space? they were already short on pilots, they were getting less and less new cadets to graduate, and they just lost a depressingly large chunk of their pilots and ships in the battle at the end of the last book. While the aliens could always make more drones; they literally have the resources of an entire galaxy. How the hell are the humans managing that? are the aliens letting them? where did they find enough pilots and ships? I'm confident we'll get the answers along the book.

This is for everyone who plays magic. you all read children of the nameless, and you all know that davriel has his own card now. You probably got very fond of davriel by now, and you are terribly sorry that he'll have to work . Brandon said that he is on ravnica more or less against his will, and So I thought, why not help him? I hearby propose that all sanderfans get as many copies of davriel as they can, and never put him in any deck! that way, he'll be able to stay out of trouble and get some (un)deserved rest. Who's with me on the proposal?

yes, the book presented her as quite competent, just like his former husband. unfortunately, just like her former husband, she put personal ambition in front of the common good, and she choose the worst possible moment to do it. and yes, it does not add much to the discussion. now, if we want to talk about women's right to rule in vorin society, a much better example is the former queen. while she formally was merely a regent, she was the absolute autority in alethkar minus the shattered plains for five years, so she was ruler de facto. which brings me to believe that while there is some kind of ban on women ruling, as long as it's not official it can be done anyway.

as others have said, the king has his share of power, his actual power depends a lot on the king and the highprinces and their specific skill, ambition and interactions. I'm sure jasnah will not be a puppet. Her opponents may become ones, but only if she soulcasts them into something soft enough to bend at the joints.

"work hard, then work harder" There's no secret to it. And since I've figured out along my life that i'm too lazy to be amazing, it's no good. My questions spurs from that: I'd ask her if it bothers her to never be able to relax, to let others see her human side, to trust, to slack a few days without undermining your lfie's work. And how she copes with it.

I remembered that the book merchant couple in karbranth needed the whole couple because there was something that the woman could not do. I think it was related to the handling of money, but it of course cannot be a simple ban on handling money because shallan handled money without any trouble. Maybe my memory is failing me and shopkeeping could be a fully female occupation under vorin laws. I'm too lazy to dig out the book and look for myself.

not talking about job affinity. I'm talking about how many jobs seem to be run by a husband-wife pair, with vorin ridiculous restrictions forbidding either gender from completing all of the required task. For example, correct me if I'm wrong, in the beginning of book 1 shallan tries to buy books in karbranth, and there is a couple owning the shop, the man cannot keep contability, the woman cannot handle money, or something like that. I'm also thinking that most commoners are farmers, and farming requires both hands. You could have a lesbian couple of craftsmen, but most families don't have the education or resources for that. Plus, I'm sure most crafting jobs require both hands anyway. Basically, the whole "you can't use both hands" strongly restricts the kind of works a woman can do, especially for the lower strata of the population, who are not literate and cannot access the women-only jobs.

oh, nice, we have exact quotes. Still, gender roles are going to be very restrictive. I expect gay commoners don't really have any problem with literacy, as commoner women are illiterate too, but gay women are gooing to have a hard time making a living, since most jobs are only for males.

in the early chapters of oathbringer, Kaladin is quite nonplussed at finding out drehy is gay, while Sigzil is quite upset that he didn't compile the proper forms to date a man. while kaladin's reaction is entirely his own, I am more than a bit surprised that someone raised in a culture with such strict gender roles has no qualms about homosexuality, as the two often go together. Kaladin himself shows strong gender bias when a female scout wants to apply for radianthood. So I'm wondering, how is homosexuality considered in vorin society? my first impression would be that it should be strictly forbidden, on account of mixing up gender roles. especially among nobility, it would be extremely disgracing for one's family to have an homosexual relative, and great pains are taken to cover things up. the only thing we have against this theory is that kaladin is cool about drehy, but kaladin as an inddividual does not represent vorin society as a whole. A second option would be the ancient greece way: homosexuality and homosexual sex was very commonplace, but it was strictly distinct from marriage and raising a family. Nobody had any problem with men loving each other and having sex, but men had a certain place in society, and women another, and that wasn't subject to discussion. That could be the case. it may well be that homosexuality is fully acccepted, as long as men stay illiterate and women cover their safehand. The only thing against this theory is that we don't see it talked about, which should be the case if homosexuality was prominent - especially in a warcamp full of soldiers. A third option would be a strong divide between public and private. Publictly, the vorin church does a great show of condemning homosexuality, but the individual vorins are much more tolerant, as long as it is not flaunted too openly. I don't think it's plausible that vorin men can choose to have their gender reasssigned as women and viceversa, or we'd have seen evidence of men covering the safehand or similar. What do you think? Do we have any solid WoB on the matter?

i understood that "if she seduces him" meant if she actually got into her bed. As for the cards, I found them really unsatisfying ways to translate the story.

what is wot wednesday? i googled it and it gives so many results, but they are all people commenting on wot wednesdays. can't find out the actual thing

i strongly disagree. it's a stone. stone tend to last for a long time. we're talking some 5000 years in this case. we got plenty of stone artifacts from the stone age perfectlly intact, and that's older. we have painting preserved from longer than that. no need to assume a supernatural reason for what is perfectly natural

In soviet russia, other genres write sanderson!

this crops up every once in a while. the answer, ultimately, is "depends on how many side projects he undertakes". he would have enough time to finish all the cosmere if he wrote nothing else. but he's not going to write nothing else. alcatraz, rithmatist, reckoners, skyward... all those are great books, but they are also side projects that suck time away from the cosmere. Ultimately, I'm pessimistic about our chances to see a whole cosmere. every state of the sanderson, the list of hanging projects keep getting bigger and bigger. For every book brandon writes, there are two more he pledges to write eventually. But then again, he's still writing awesome books. Each one of those side projects, I was skeptical about at first, being all "oh geez, here is ANOTHER thing he started instead of completing what's already on his plate". And every time I eventually tried the book out of curiosity, and I ended up glad that he took the time to write it. Well, since skyward I've started to read any new book immediately, because he's gained enough trust with me. So as long as he keeps churning out great books, I'm not going to complain about whether they are cosmere or not.

Jasnah is smart. Also, Jasnah is always striving for any advantage she can get. She surely trained to fight somewhere. Not sure exxactly how, but she must have tried something. Maybe she didn't practice much with the blade because she had no way to do it secretly, but she certainly took some time to figure out her powers. that's what she would do. Do notice, by the way, that using a blade to skewer someone doesn't require any training. That's my personal experience, attacking is easy and parrying is just mildly more complicated. No, what's really difficult about using a sword is to hit the opponent without getting hit yourself. attacking leaves you open, and if you are close enough to strike the opponent, the opponent also can strike you. Most of my sparring with the instructor ended in a mutual kill or wound. After that exprience, I got much more appreciation for adolin's duels: he most often trades blow, hitting the opponent on weakened plates while taking hits where he's still whole. that's actually how it would probably go. Anyway, as I said, what's difficult is to hit without being hit. However, if your sword is twice as long as your opponent's while still being just as manueverable, and if you can afford to be hit without much fuss 'cause you'll regenerate, this solves the problem. You can look like a pro with minimal effort, just for how stupidly overpowered you are. Also, using sword against armor is difficult, as you need to hit just right to get past the armor. Again, if your sword bypasses the armor completely, that's one less problem.

I would show kaladin some of those tv series based around doctors. Doctor House, ER, whatever, I've never seen any myself but I know there are a ton. Because kaladin complained that doctors are never heroes in stories, so I could show him wrong. Jasnah and Navani are interested in different topics, but both could make good use of wikipedia. So yes, internet for both. As a general, I'd love to give dalinar a modern armored division or two, that would also prove invaluable against the voidbringers. Or perhaps an aircraft carrier with full complement. But lacking those, satellite reconnaissance. not sure what to give adolin. he doesn't need anything specific, though he could use some help. but no simple way to deliver it; though now he has good friends he can rely on and a wife he also can rely on, and that's all that can be done for him. Unless said wife goes all crazy, in which case it's not going to help him at all.

i came here without thinking anything in particular, but now i'm seconding a moash redemption arc. I've always considered moash a waste of organic matter. He's completely different from dalinar, who got a great redemption arc: dalinar showed the seeds of what he would become since the first flashback. shalladin is also something i'd rather not see, unless shallan and adolin decide to be an open couple, but i really don't see it happening... and speaking of that, shallan's issues should not be fixed offscreen in the year that passed, and they must impact the marriage in some way. Finally, i don't want adolin to disappear. none of thoose things are very likely, though

I think it already happened, and wyndle is the result. really, he's a shardblade that doesn't want to hurt people and spends his free time gardening. It really seems similar to the chicken incident. As for the obvious retort that alcatraz is not cosmere, well, obviously alcatraz broke the universe segregation barrier. It's actually very similar to the fourth wall, and alcatraz has a lot of experience breaking that one

this topic has been debated a long time in the past. while I agree, i'd rather not take part in more discussions about it

As I was rereading the reckoners, I came to the point where abraham reveals he was facing court martial. I've always been curious, but now I have better ways to sate my curioosity, namely the arcanum. which, alas, doesn't give much in this case So, this is a RAFO about a story that ended. Doesn't make much sense, as there is nothing further to read. Unless brandon is planning to write more reckoner novels (unlikely) or unless the apocalypse guard will feature abraham, and he'll have a large enough part to tell his past. also unlikely. So, now I'm not only curious at what the hell happened to abraham that got him court martialled, but also as to why brandon would rafo it. Anyone has any answer?

they have at least some reserve pilots: cadets who got shot down shortly before graduation. they still have more experience that skyward flight did for most of the time. they may not have enough, but it would certainly be rational to send all those available. I like zath's explanation's more. yes, FM counterculture movement is really needed

Or maybe Allriandre is actually hoid in disguise, who's behaving that way to give wayne proper motivation

yep, it is possible that allriandre would have forgiven wayne long ago, if he wouldn't come every month to remind her on a more serious note, it's actually likely that she would be better able to let go without wayne coming every month. anyway, she does know that she grew up fatherless because her dad was shot by a guy who got away with it, mostly. Now, I agree that she could have reacted in diffferent ways. i just don't find her attitude irrealistic