king of nowhere

No, the battle for the junk was far away from Alta (2 hours of flight, meaning thousands of kilometers) while both lifebusters exploded nearby. no, the real question is whether the krell fleet that was trying to crash it was already repelled by the time the human ffighters were called back in a desperate attempt to defend alta.

the book ends with the second battle of Alta, where spensa saved the base from destruction. however, the battle started for possession of the big crashed shipyard, which contained a lot of salvage. We know the ddf sacrificed hard in that battle. it lost at least 20 ships, probably around 30, possibly more. Over one third of their army. they took all those losses because they hoped to salvage enough acclivity rings. but we are not told if they actually did. because, having spensa save the base only to lose anyway because they run out of ships... there is also the fact that cobb, piloting m-bot, killed one of the bomber escorts with the light lance, smashing it into the ground. we are pretty sure those ships are manned, and being smashed like that should be far less destructive than being blasted. So it's likely the ddf will have a krell body relatively intact to study.

all the politiking between cobb and ironsides make it clear that a lot of people knew of "the defect". if nothing else, all first citizens who survived the battle knew, and the medics putting sensors in spensa's helmet probably knew, and top level politicians also knew. yes, it is actually a lot of people

that's a pretty reasonable explanation. Full pilots are probably going to want to see the battle of alta, unless there was already a circulating (fake) record.

actually, the ecosystem needs some form of energy input to recicle matter. I expect the surface to not be completely barren, but to have stuff like grass and moss around, where it doesn't get too many debris. anything bigger won't have the time to grow, but grass and moss are very hardy. those vegetables could then feed an insectile population (insects are also hard to destroy), which may die in the caves, feeding the fungi. still, there are too many fungi for natural explanations. real deep caves are lifeless (except for bacteria).

Can I vote "it doesn't matter"? Everyone who actually started the war is long since dead, as are their immmediate descendants. even their cultures are either dead or radically changed.

I don't know, I thought the ars arcanum was supposed to be a reference for people reading the book who forgot some specific thing about the magic system. So instead of having to reread it all, they could check the arcanum to find what they were confused about. What would be the point of reading the magic system recap after you already finished the book?

this may hold for out own universe too. we're still not sure. so, investiture being technically finite does not necessarily mean anything. no morre than matter in our universe being finite

yep, the shattered plains are now a full ecosystem that would be cancelled if they were mended. such is nature, always renewing itself, so that what is now only came into being at the expense of what was before, and it will be something different in the future. You can't really say it has a "right" state. And I really see no point in mending the chasms.

basically, brandon prevented her from discovering stuff that would have been spoiler in the ars arcanum

the ars arcanum is what they know in-world of the magic. it's not always perfectly accurate, and it may lack obscure knowledge. for example, the tenth heightening gives the capacity to awaken mentally, but that's not mentioned in the ars arcanum.

not a matter of healing. nightblood drains investiture from the user. Hoid certainly has plenty of it, and so could use nightblood for a prolonged time, but it would eventually drain him too.

Though, as written, she does focus on ejecting, but I think that's more about what the DDF might believe and her transcending that. I mean, are we suppose to believe that she would not have transcended that if the second eject/don't eject sequence had never occured? She got into the barely working poco Arturo almost died in that didn't have even have a shield and flew that into a swam of escorts. She was imo already there, even if she didn't realize it. Dunno. Without that part about ejecting, the paraagraph could refer to pretty much anything. What did she learn about herself? that she was willing to face a squadron alone in a barely working fighter because it really mattered? that she was willing to ram the bomber in a suicide attack when her gun stopped working? that she was willing to tow away the bomb when she could have escaped, leaving alta base behind? That she sounds really dumb when she tries to make her bombastic threats? No, what she learned about herself is that she didn't eject. At least, the emphasis she put on it make it seem the most important thing. Also consider the space it got in the narrative. Spensa didn't think twice before taking to the air. She didn't hesistate before trying ramming. No, she hesitated about ejecting. It's clear that in her mind ejecting is by far the biggest deal. sure, I agree with you that she would have been pretty satisfied with herself even without the ejecting part. she amply demonstrated that she's ready to give her life for the slightest chance to make her sacrifice matter. but still, in her mind ejecting is the biggest part. Which, I agree, shows how deranged DDF culture has become.

I don't think you can assimilate the investiture just by eating something invested. investiture needs specific conditions to be assimilated by a person. Heck, eating an invested object would probably be no less ridiculous than eating a battery and expecting to be energized by it. Just like your body is not geared to turn the chemicals of a battery into energy, but it can only assimilate a specific kind of biomolecules, so your body is not geared to take any investiture, but requires some specific forms of it

I would make futuristic soldiers in powered armor and particle accelerator rifle. Sad thing, they would not shoot, they'd just bash each other with their rifles. Also, I suck at drawing, so I would make a poor rithmatist. I'd stick with being a chemistry teacher. Though now that I think about it, I have a few unruly classes that could use lines of silencing. And some kids who enjoy throwing objects while I am turned. I could box every student in a line of forbiddance and draw lines of silencing all around. Would be great.

+1 and it's also possible blessings are made to work in pairs, and so getting only half a set is bad.

she'd also get hurt because the spike would damage her insides, but she can heal with stormlight, so not a problem. and she won't get hemalurgic powers from the spike because there is no intent behind it

well, that part about civilization and ftl seems more bigot lingo than anything else. "A civilized people wear smokings and cravats. Those guys don't, so we can take their stuff and make of them indentured slaves impose our culture on them and kill any who rebels show them the right way" And I already stated elsewhere that attacking with lethal force a peaceful fleet and then nuking civilian populations on a regular base are not civilized acts. But of course, since they have ftl and humans didn't anymore, then they could nuke them. They could nuke them because they are more civilized... which further supports the "bigot lingo" interpretation

graves is now dead

Warbreaker, chapter 25: "[Clod] stood as still as one of the d'denir statues". Of course, since the statues are lifless themselves!

So doomslug is also akin to a lemon? This keep getting more complicated

It's noteworthy that in the end spensa thinks she's not a coward because she didn't eject. Not because she was trying to ram the bomber in a suicide attack. Not even because she was lugging the bomb away at full speed, knowing that she'd not be able to escape afterwards. No. She tried twice to pull a heroic sacrifice and only collateral events prevented her from being successful, but what she still gauges boldness on the single act of ejecting. that part must really be ingrained in ddf culture. Speaking of ejection, the story makes Hurl seem stupid. She dies because she won't eject, and her last words are along the lines of "never a coward", which makes the reader think she just went down with the fighter without reason. It's only when we see the crash site and see that she almost managed to save the ship that we see she may have had a point. If her last words had been more along the line of "I think I can make a soft landing", she'd have looked much better. Not sure what was brandon's intention

the advancement bars on his site are all 100%. He says he's going to start working on SA 4 next year. Anyone knows what he's planning to do in the meanwhile? notice, it may also be tropical vacation, given how much money he must have made it's a surprise he doesn't take more of those... i'm just curious

I'm now picturing several different scenarios of jesus' crucifixion with hemalurgy 1) jesus get hemalurgic powers when nailed to the cross. the pivotal scene is where longinus stabs him with the spear, but jesus, having acquired Allomantic steel, burns the speartip for allomantic power [EDIT: whow, I wrote a-steel all together, and the forum automatically completed it for Allomantic steel. Wasn't aware of that] 2) jesus is nailed to a wooden cross with aluminium nails by a troop of hazekillers. It was the only way to stop him regenerating. 3) longinus was actually hoid, and the spear was made of whatever metal steals connection. the resulting spike is thus imbued with the connection of being son of god. Actually, hoid wouldn't stab, so it's more likely longinus was acting on hoid's behalf 4) centuries later, saint waxillia think she can hear the voice of god. That's actually because her earring is made with a splinter of the original crown of thorns.

If sanderson was a policeman, people would intentionally commit crimes to get a report written by him If sanderson wrote obituaries, there would be a crowd in ffront of the graves of his customers. if sanderson wrote the news, people would pick up old newspapers to read them again if sanderson wrote medical recipes... they would still be inintelligible (in italy it's a common joke that doctors have horrible handwriting and their recipes look more like hierogliphics. Don't know if there are similar memes in other countries)