Retsam

Yeah, but this doesn't answer the most obvious question: what order of Radiants will the girl he's seeing be?

For Sanderson I could just say "Part IV of Way of Kings"; (which includes the Justice scene, the second ideal scene, the oathbringer scene), but I'll specifically mention the Wandersail chapter, the story Hoid tells to Kaladin, as I don't think it was mentioned. It's a fun scene, with Hoid and Kaladin's banter, and a great story; but it's the connection to the plot and the armor-piercing question at the end "What are you trying to avoid responsibility for, young bridgeman?" that really gets me. For non-sanderson, I can think of a couple: Major spoiler for the Dark Prism by Brent Weeks: Verin's scene in the Gathering Storm, as well as the end of that book. The ending to the fourth book of the Temeraire series:

I've only seen moderate amounts of anime, but I've enjoyed a lot of what I've seen so I'll recommend a few series; the first is my all-time favorite series, the other two things I've seen more recently. All 3 of them are less than 30 half-hour long episodes in their entirety, which is part of what I like about these series (and anime in general), they do a good job of telling a story without overstaying their welcome. Also, all of the shows on this list are quite "clean", i.e. free from any major gore, nudity, violence, jaywalking, etc. Nothing wrong with shows that do have those, but personally don't enjoy excessive amounts of those. Trigun This one is my all-time favorite anime; part of the reason I haven't seen a ton of anime is that I keep coming back to this one; I've probably seen it ~8 times through; it's fairly short, but still, I'm generally not the type for rewatch. It's sci-fi western (I'd say "space western", but it all takes place on a single planet), the main character being a legendary gunman, "Vash The Stampede", with a massive bounty on his head... who happens to be a pacifist and not like killing anyone; the series follows him, two girls who work for an insurance company, assigned to follow him around in order to minimize damages, and a wandering gunslinger priest. The series starts out as a comedy with elements of drama, but becomes much more of a drama with elements of comedy in its second half. (And it always has some pretty good action) What I like about this series is a lot of what I loved about Way of Kings. It's not the comedy or the action of the series that I really enjoy (though I do love both), but the characters and it's ideology, which can be accurately summarized by what Kaladin says at the end of Way of Kings: "a life is priceless", but also like Way of Kings, Trigun takes place in a setting where human life is largely treated as disposable, which sets up much of Vash's character. (Sub vs. Dub? Dub. Definitely dub; it's one of the few anime I've seen where the dub voice acting is generally considered to be superior to the sub. Johnny Yong Bosh is one of my favorite voice actors and does an excellent job doing Vash, and everyone else on the main cast is pretty good) Stein's; Gate This is the anime that I watched most recently, and also really loved. It's best known as the "time travel anime", it does with time travel (to a limited degree) what Sanderson does with magic; creates a set of rules for time travel that the viewer can (mostly) understand, and sets the series around exploring those rules and the consequences of those rules. It's not perfect in this regard, (there's one particular bit of "reverse the polarity" nonsense that really threw me - data compression via black hole) but it's still easily the best depiction of time travel I've ever seen. And the characters and plot are what really sell it; you come for the time travel mechanics, but you stay for the gripping plot and hilarious character interactions. Like Trigun, this one is a similar combination of drama and comedy; starting off mostly comedic but getting much more serious in the second half. (Sub vs. Dub; more of a mix, I lean towards dub; again I really enjoyed the main characters voice actor in English, and they do a good job of replacing jokes that wouldn't make it through translation with equivalent English jokes, where the sub I think generally just attempted translation) Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Or just Madoka Magica as most people call it) On this one I'm going to be rather brief, because it's difficult to say much about this show without ruining it. At first glance, this show (intentionally) looks like run of the mill "magical girl" stuff (basically a sailor moon clone), but it's really much more intelligent and interesting than that. I'm really not a fan of the magical girl genre (nothing against it; it just doesn't generally appeal to me), but I watched this on a friends recommendation and I'm glad I did. Basically, it's normal to have certain expectations about the magical girl genre, (or really any show in which the main characters all run around in brightly colored miniskirts fighting evil), and this show takes those expectations and smashes them into a wall repeatedly until they stop twitching. To say much more than that would likely ruin the series more than I already possibly have. This is also the shortest show on the list; only 12 half-hour episodes or 2 movies (same content, different format), with a 3rd movie (which I haven't seen) that serves as a sequel of sorts, so if you're not sure you'd enjoy it, it's a fairly minimal time investment to give it the chance. (It's what, a fifth or a sixth of a Sanderson audiobook in length?) (Sub vs. Dub, up to you; there's nothing particularly good or egregious about the dub in my opinion) ------------------- Anyways, those are my recommendations, I do have a couple others I could mention if there's interest, but I figured this post is long enough already.

This is a really good question; my guess is that there still will be significance to that gemheart, that simply got pushed back from this book due to pacing (or perhaps never was meant to be in this book at all, despite the depiction on the cover) Perhaps the gemheart will contain some secret (perhaps some sort of spren) that's significant to the nature of chasmfields? Maybe there's something unique about killing a chasmfiend other than the ones that are pupating or that can be lured onto the plateaus for a hunt?

Maybe this could just be moved to the WoR subforum to avoid spoiling people with the title? I don't think there's any other way to avoid spoiling with a title that connects WoR and Nightblood...

It was the yelling match outside the King's chamber that did it for me. That's when I started shipping it at least. A first meeting (not counting the boots incident as Shallan was pretending to be someone else) that spectacularly bad couldn't possibly be anything but the start of a romantic subplot.

I read TNotW a couple years ago on the recommendation of my roommate and enjoyed it but wasn't hugely impressed. (Admission: I read it immediately after I read Way of Kings. I may not have been entirely fair in my original assessment) A few months ago, I read WMF, and then stared getting into theories a little online and discussing with my roommate. I've been meaning to reread Book 1, but haven't gotten around to it, so the first books events are rather hazy. Impressions of WMF: *Some spoilers* -The Adem really reminded me of the Aiel (Wheel of Time). Not really in a bad way, but I felt like I was expecting them to say something about "milk-hearted wetlanders who know nothing about ji'e'toh" at any minute. -Didn't mind the Ferulean thing as much as the fact that Kvothe seems to decide he's gods' gift to women afterwards (and that he's apparently more or less justified in this only makes it worse). This mildly frustrates me on a few levels. One is simply that, as someone pointed out earlier, Kvothe already feels a little too talented at times. (Music, sympathy, artificery, poetry, naming, etc.) I can justify a character being really intelligent and thus good at all these things. But adding sexual prowess to that list just seemed unnecessary. -I really enjoyed Vintish court politics with the rings and Bredon. (It moderately worries me that some suggest that he is Master Ash) Random Theories that I enjoy: -Ambrose succeeds to the throne, and Kvothe kills him. On evidence is the connection between his sword being the "poet-killer" and Ambrose being a poet. But just from how the story's being told; when I first read book 1, I assumed Ambrose was the Malfoy, as I think many do. (The side nuisance who never really goes away, occasionally stirs up trouble but's never the main threat) Yet, we're two books in and Ambrose is still the biggest antagonist that we've seen, IMO. -Kvothe changing his Name. I wouldn't say he necessarily locks it inside the box, but I do think that he's changed his Name from Kvothe to Kote is likely. -The map is deliberately useless. I hope really hope so, because it really really is. -The tree on the cover of TNotW is the Chtaeh tree, marking the story as a tragedy.

It's interesting because the Black Prism reminded me so much of Sanderson it was real easy for me to compare the two. The magic system was comparable, and was phenomenal. As well as certain twists within the first book, one moment in particular -nearly- caused me to throw the book across the room. (But it was a kindle, and not mine. So bad idea.) But I found parts of Brent Week's execution to be a little bit weak. For example, it seemed to me that Kip being fat and being insecure about it came out of nowhere about a third of the way into the books. I felt like it wasn't mentioned at all up to a certain point, and then suddenly the idea is introduced and Kip is thinking about it all the time. One might argue that at the beginning things are moving too quickly, but then again, things are moving pretty quickly at the end too, and the self-deprecating thoughts don't seem to slow. And characters other than Gavin never quite felt consistent. (Gavin was somewhat erratic, too, but that was a character trait in him but less explainable in others) In particular the decision made by a certain female character at the end didn't feel "surprising" as much as it felt "arbitrary", but other characters seem to suffer from this as well. (But definitely a book that I enjoyed immensely. I'm just saying that it made me appreciate more some of the things Brandon does well)

I'm just finishing this book up. This is my 3rd read through of the series, and it's interesting how my view of this book has changed over time, perhaps more than any other book. I remember my first time through being perhaps a little disappointed by this book; not really anything specific to this book, but just as the series began to be less centered on the characters I really cared about and spend more time on things like Andoran politics, and Aes Sedai and Rebel Aes Sedai plotting and counter-plotting. This is the first book where Rand's part of the plot can be summed in about a sentence without missing much. "Rand leads the Aiel out of the Waste, chasing Couladin's army, and defeats Couladin at Cairhrien, before Skimming to Andor to kill Rahvin." (I'm not being -entirely- fair here, but not entirely unfair either.) My second time and third time through, though, I found that I liked this book much more. What really makes this book, and what I mostly associate this book with is Moiraine. Moiraine is easily my favorite female character in the Wheel of Time series, and a good part of that is from this book here. She's the first, and one of the only characters (particularly among the females) to realize that winning the Last Battle is more important than her own ego. I thought Moiraine showed a lot of maturity for doing so in this book, and was frustrated that no one else seems to figure out the same in the next 6-8 books, instead we get many books of people who try to control Rand (Elaida and the tower), people who manipulate him (the nobles), or whatever you'd call how Cadsuane treats him. But I do miss Perrin.

I'd also like to add my name here. I've already been working on this myself, but probably need to pick up the pace, and this might be fine motivation to do so. I'm currently about to finish TFoH, hopefully tonight.

Right, I should probably have been more clear about what I meant. I wasn't implying that fabrials couldn't be Cultivation because they are spren-powered, as much as I was implying that the process itself, of trapping something and harnessing its energy, seems very opposed to the idea of Cultivation. Cultivation seems to imply the idea of building up and a symbiotic relationship, whereas the fabrials seems to be a more parasitic idea. If anything, I might suggest that fabrials are of Odium, in the same way that people have suggested that Shardblades might be.

Personally, I doubt that fabrials are related to Cultivation, at least what I remember of the translated fabrial diagrams.

Personally, I think I'd question the usual assumption of "voidbinding is evil", which seems to be the implication here. Granted, the whole connection with the voidbringiners and the Desolations is possibly a strong argument, but I wouldn't necessarily assume that the powers themselves are bad, or that only those associated with voidbringers can have those powers. And if either of the two, Jasnah or Shallan, is actually a voidbinder not a surgebinder, I'd put my money on Jasnah, at this point. Jasnah responds to Shallan's question about the symbolheads by replying that the Radiants drew their power from a connection to spren. This answer seems to indicate that Shallan is a surgebinder. (More precisely, it indicates that either Shallan is a surgebinder, or Jasnah is Aes Sedai) Jasnah's exact quote is: Jasnah makes an assumption about Shallan's abilities, but then revises that assumption when she finds out about the spren, and then it's "obvious". If Shallan's simply a different order of Radiant, why would Jasnah (who isn't known for jumping to conclusions) so quickly assume that Shallan is in the same order as her, rather than having an even chance of being in the other order. In fact, this is a stretch, but the quote almost indicates that Jasnah is surprised that Shallan sees spren at all, not that she sees a different type than Jasnah. What if, instead, Jasnah is originally surprised because she wasn't aware that the Radiant orders were returning, because Jasnah isn't one of them? Perhaps this is why there seems to be no evidence of Jasnah interacting with spren when she performs her abilities (as far as I know). Heck, perhaps this is where Jasnah's atheism comes from; being born with what are considered by her religion to be "evil" powers would certainly make it not very surprising that Jasnah turns out to be not so fond of religion.

This started out as a thought on comparison between Shallan and Jasnah's abilities, and attempting to address the question of exactly how the two are different. (A piece of my thoughts on this below) But in looking into that question, I was studying the front and back book cover diagrams. General consensus seems to be that the front diagram is of Surgebinding, big circles being orders, smaller circles being surges. The back cover seems a little less accepted, but the common theory is that it's a voidbinding diagram, similar to the surgebinding one. So for now, I'm referring to the back diagram as the "voidbinding diagram" and the small circles as "voids" (but we'll get to that). Comparing the two, I noticed something. The smaller symbols on both diagrams at a glance look unrelated. However, on both diagrams the smaller symbols (surges and voids) correspond with each other as below: (Numbering is just arbitrary. Thinking now, I realize I should have probably numbered according to our best guess at the orders, but I didn't think to do this) (It's a little harder to see this correspondence, looking at the book, since both charts are oriented to face "inward" towards the book, so looking side-by-side the correspondence is mirrored) Now, you might say "Huh, those look somewhat similar, but it's a bit of a stretch isn't it?" But let's put them side-by-side, and do a little coloring. (I didn't want to make this too big, so zoom in if you can.) They aren't just similar, but there's a nearly perfect correspondence of shapes between the two. In fact, to generalize how to get a "void" image from a surge image, simply cut the image in half, flip the right half, and put back together. (Often times overlapping a middle section to go from two parallel lines to a single line as in 2,4,7,9) This sort of correspondence can't be accidental. So what does it mean? Perhaps nothing important. Not being accidental doesn't mean significant. Perhaps it's simply supposed to be a figment of the artwork, drawing the two systems with similar symbols, perhaps in the same way that some suggest that the Shadesmar map being a negative of Roshar is a figment of the artwork. But, it's probably obvious that I doubt that. Instead, I believe that it means that each surge-void pair are related. I'm pretty much certain of that. However, what I really am starting to suspect is that they're more than just "related", I think they may be one and the same, that although the symbol varies slightly, there really are just 10 surges, repeated in both diagrams. (Or perhaps there's another more general name, and they're only called "surges" when used through surgebinding, but I'm going to keep calling them that) I'm really not confident on this last point, but I think there may be some evidence to this. Most significantly, Szeth. Szeth and Kaladin share the same abilities, and Kaladin is clearly becoming a Windrunner. Yet, it's confirmed that Szeth doesn't have an honorspren as Kaladin does and that his abilities are somehow different. To me, this suggests that Szeth is a voidbinder, and Kaladin a surgebinder. Same surges = same abilites, yet fundamentally different in some way. I also wonder this about Shallan-Jasnah. Common thought is that they're both surgebinders, but in different orders, but might one of them really be a voidbinder, not a surgebinder? This goes back to the more general classifications of magic on Roshar. From the Q&A on this site: Yet, he also said in a previous Q&A: My thought is that the 10-system counting is that there are 10 surges. The 30-system counting is that there are 10 orders of surgebinding, and 10 orders of "other". Given that fabrials are in the "other" (or at least related, depending on how you interpret that answer), I suspect that the third group may be 'artificially' using the powers of the surges, without the contract of a spren used in surgebinding or ... whatever it is that voidbinding does. But perhaps I'm getting too far afield here. So yeah. The symbols are the same. I hope the reaction to this isn't "D'uh, we all knew that"; though I haven't seen it mentioned up to now. Thoughts?