Observer

I assumed he was using some kind of Shade-based weapon, even if it is possible that all he had was a very loud and mundane laser gun that got mistaken for a haunted pistol. Wish we could see what that gun does against silver.... (Also the closest thing we know of to Necromancy in the Cosmere would be Bloodsealing, from TES.)

I don't know about any other planet, but Scadrial at the very least seems to originally use the term universe in the first trilogy.

Getting anything over the wall would require flaring steel for a decent amount of time. So better to flare it out of range (or far enough away any Seeker not actively listening that moment would miss it), to send Wayne over than to push yourself into range on your way over. IIRC Bronze only detects allomancers, not allomancy, so it should still work.

The real question is whether or not you would be able to use Atium for either feruchemy or allomancy while holding the Bands, or any one of its alloys. It would mean some very interesting things either way.

With the kind of foresight Harmony has, it's not that far-fetched to say that he was able to tell that Kelsier had the Southerners' situation well in hand.

It's coming from you. The energy the planet exerts on you is being stored away in a metalmind instead of expending itself pulling you downward (or something like that weight is a tricky attribute.) The Sovereign essentially filled the Bands with "Fullborn-ness", enough to, for example, run at a steady burn for a whole day. During that time, he had no powers, or weaker powers. In exchange, he could tap the stored power and boost his strength for a period of time. If Wax or Marasi had wanted to, they probably could have used up all of the Band's power at once to make themselves absurdly powerful. Or they can infinitely compound "Fullborn-ness" to refill the Bands. The Investure is coming either from things in the Physical Realm (Storing a physical attribute like speed or weight) or someplace else. In the case of all allomancy and compounding, you're taking Investure from the Shard powering the magic. Nothing really created or destroyed, just converting things to and from Investure.

Did it for you But yes, for the vast majority of BoM I was left wondering how on earth TLR could be alive, given we watched him virtually turn into old dust onscreen. Secret History makes it 100% clear that guy died when we thought he did, and makes it very clear who the real Sovereign was. (not that there were many candidates to begin with)

Assuming he did that, and it's a stretch given how much he values free will, the logic still holds. Considering how bad things could have gotten if the Set had succeeded in AoL or in BoM, either with the Bands or with the airship, the world would be pretty screwed. Causing grief to two people and killing one murderer seems like a small price to pay for saving the world. Still, given that Harmony seems more the type to ask than to take control, it feels like a bit of a stretch.

Less spoilery title please? This is visible from the front page still. Also I think you mean "why he did not want to go to the Beyond." It's also worth noting that he is the Survivor. By his very nature he won't let well enough alone. Throw sudden knowledge that there are a lot more secrets than he knew, and why would he ever leave?

Maybe I missed something offensive here, but the downvote button is not an "I disagree" button, so I put this post back to neutral. In regards to the quoted comment, I recall Brandon mentioning something specific about the Higg's field? I don't have my references with me, but it was something like that. Either way, gravity is already trippy enough in regards to spacetime, it's hard to say much about it. Back on topic, it sounds to me like he's just reading a normal science-fiction book, and I do agree that the parallels to Blake's Seven are compelling. Occam's Razor leaves me thinking it's just a reference, but I guess when it comes to Brandon you can't ever be too careful.

I agree wholeheartedly that Twig is a better story than Pact. But Pact was still a good read, and it's worth spending a few chapters on it to see if it's your cup of tea. No reason to skip out on something just because it's not the best they've written. That'd be like jumping Elantris for Way of Kings

I recommend checking out Pact next. It's not for everyone, but I highly recommend giving it a few sections to wind up. If you don't like it, then Twig, Wildbow's current serial, is where I'd point you next.

Johan from Monster. As the titular Complete Monster, he has earned his place on this list several times over.

Worm was fantastic. I found it to be an extremely interesting look into the world of superpowers, and I absolutely adore the way it rewards cleverness. I usually don't much care for the superhero genre, because it tends to devolve into two people smashing powers against each other until somebody wins, so Worm's treatment of the Superpower Lottery was a very pleasant surprise. Obviously it has its ups and downs, it's kind of part of the territory with a web serial, but Wildbow gets better as he goes. After you finish, I highly recommend Twig as well. Re: Taylor Actually I found her to be one of the best parts of the story. Taylor is far from perfect. But watching her grow and learn for such a long time, coming to terms with things she's done and doing her best to do what's right made me cheer for her anyways. "Doing the wrong things for the right reasons" is the unofficial theme of Worm, and it really shows, especially when some tough decisions come along. I suppose it's up to the reader to decide whether or not the characters make the right choices in those situations, but one way or another, Worm is something I'm very glad to have stumbled upon.

To be totally honest I didn't get around to finishing either, so I wouldn't be able to judge. I just remember Railgun's a lot more :/ But yeah. I don't know when it happened, but I've suddenly become way more frustrated with fanservice. Before it just existed and I barely noticed, but somewhere along the lines it started to really irritated me. So Railgun had the misfortune of also happening in the middle of that. Maybe I'll give it another watch during the vacation.

Was I alone in finding Railgun very hard to sit through compared to Index? Far too much in the way of fanservice, even if I was pretty sure it was going to go away if I just waited it out.

Is that from the Stay/Night series, not specifying which one? Because that sounds like it.

The first bit sounds a lot like Mistborn, but the last bit not so much. MC is male apparently, helps narrow it down, but I've got nothing.

@Kasimir (Is the quote button broken? I've been gone too long to know these things) Aaaaand I love how I just walked straight into my own pet peeve without noticing it. Yeah, I'm often annoyed by that too, it just happened that I'd had a really huge conversation with a friend about the merits of Consequentialism right before posting, and opened with that. Sweet, delicious irony. It sounds like we're kind of dancing around moral/cultural relativism principles at the moment, and all the fun things that come with it. First one to bend or break Godwin's Law loses

So, what philosophy should we discuss? Kant and the Deontologists? How about Utilitarianism? Or, because I haven't been near the parent thread, you meant an entirely different type of philosophy and I'm gonna feel stupid soon.

Agreed. A 'good' karma or good/evil system is usually one that counts your little actions as much if not more than your cutscene/big actions. How you act in the towns or in minor dungeons matters just as much as how you deal with the Big Bad. On the side, has anybody played Bastion? I'm thinking of getting it sometime soon but have heard mixed opinions.

And stuff like this is why you'd love Undertale's narrative Good endings, good-neutral endings, bad-neutral endings, and of course evil endings so messed up they exist for the sole purpose of seeing how horrible a human being you're willing to be for no other reason beyond 'it was a thing I could do, so I did it' and 'I wanted to see something new'. I was also referring to that exact part of the Force Unleashed. You can murder everything that moves in the nastiest way imaginable, but if you just 'make the right choice' in the very end you're totally forgiven and everything is great. The drawback of karma systems. It's hard to predict how messed up a player can be and still stay within the bounds of a good ending.

Somewhat off-topic, but is anybody else vaguely annoyed when a game penalizes you karma-wise for killing named characters but won't care at all if you mow down thousands of mooks? I'm looking at you, dark-side meter. Especially you, Force Unleashed.

I've been enjoying the heck out of Undertale, a deconstructive RPG with a really good story. The trailer didn't really get me interested, but the demo convinced me to buy it. Everything from the characters to the story to the way everything changes based on previous actions and decisions, it's all amazing. Highly recommend it, especially if you don't know anything about it and don't know what to expect.

The secret weakness and suicidal bits make me think of Beyonders.