Singer

I am sure Brandon would be very interested in reading your letter Claincy! It is wonderfully written and brings up some great points. As someone who has experienced depression, I appreciate a good depiction and you definitely deserve to see some quality representation! Thanks for sharing with the rest of us. Ableism is something I've been trying to become more aware of. Honestly, having kids has opened my eyes to a lot of it. Through pregnancy I have near constant nausea, migraines, and fatigue. It just changes how I need to do things day to day. I know I would be extremely hurt if someone thought that I should be able to just "power through" feeling sick all the time and get over it. Taking a heavy stroller everywhere has certainly opened my eyes to how poor accessibility is for wheelchairs...let's just say I (and the world in general) have a long way to go in understanding the needs and experiences of people of all walks of life!

I'm calling it now: MAY ALADAR!!

He is a true pacifist and would not consider violence as the right choice, but he spent pretty much all of WoK fighting Light eyes who treated him and his family cruelly. He will defend his principles with word and deed, but physical altercation isn't the only way to fight for something. In the end he loses his fight to protect Tien and Kaladin from Roshone, but if he'd have used violence he would have lost anyway and a lot quicker. He tries to teach Kaladin about the realities of war, about the human cost of violence, and he tries to do the best he can in the world he lives in. He'll fight for what he believes in, using methods he believes in, why should we always assume brute force to be the best or only method of fighting the good fight?

Right now his choices are A) light eyes who would kill him if he stepped out of line and Fused who would kill him if he stepped out of line. A dead surgeon can't help anyone. Ergo, being pragmatic and helping in the way he can given his circumstances doesn't seem cowardly to me. It's called choosing your battles. There isn't some freedom fighting cause that is going to liberate the dark eyes from their oppressors, not in Alethkar and certainly not in Hearthstone. So what is he would he be fighting for exactly? The right to have his son sent off to war to die for someone else's wealth? Why would he want to fight to protect the status quo of the light eyes when it did so much harm and this new situation isn't worse? So he chooses to continue to save lives the way he knows how. I don't really think there is a wrong way to read a character, but it doesn't seem that you are at all trying to understand his situation or perspective. There is a lot of nuance to the conversation of pacifism vs militancy, it certainly isn't black and white. For some, dominance is a hill they are willing to die on. The status quo is the hill they'll die on. Lirin is not one of them.

Lirin certainly inspires good discussion! I am not quite the pacifist he is, but I do see his point. I think for him what is the difference between two different but equally as oppressive regimes? I think certainly light eyed humans would feel oppressed and want to overthrow the Singers, but if you are dark eyed and getting the same oppression either way, does it matter? Is it worth dying and sending your children to die to protect someone else's wealth and ability to oppress you? There isn't a "give me liberty or give me death" option. Just oppressor A vs. Oppressor B. This isn't a freedom fight for Lirin. Putting the light eyes back in charge won't improve his community to his way of thinking at least, and there isn't a single person in Hearthstone proposing something more egalitarian. Whether the situation is the same in Herdaz, I have no idea. Maybe for them it really is a freedom fighters situation, but in Hearthstone? Not so much.

I don't know that I agree with that assessment. He reminds me of my mom. Her older brother suffered serious injuries in the Vietnam war and she worked at the VA hospital for 30 years treating war veterans. When you see that side of warfare, the human cost of it, for that long it really makes you think differently about what is actually worth sending your young men and women off to die for. So what you perceive as cowardice I perceive as a totally accurate portrayal of a pacifist medical professional. You can, of course, continue to read Lirin's perspective as cowardly. There isn't a wrong way to read a book, but I thought a different perspective on him might add to the discussion in a positive way.

Looks like Tuesday is my new favorite day of the week!! I can't believe they are starting to drop chapters so early. It's almost as if they knew that there is a world full of people who desperately need something positive to look forward to...

The art will be worth the wait. I looove the sketches and bits of ephemera in SA books. It's difficult to wrap my head around all the work that goes into a book this huge. It really takes a whole team to release a book that looks and reads as beautifully as Stormlight!

I took the quiz and was assigned Willshaper. Cool. I looked at the numbers and I actually had a three-way tie between Willshaper, Lightweaver, and Edgedancer, all at 71. So....am I really a Willshaper? Or am I a Willweavedancer? Has anyone else had ties on this thing?

Story of my life: I got a three way tie between Willshaper, Lightweaver, and Edgedancer. All of which beat out Windunner by exactly 1. WHO AM I???

Just putting this out there: It is understandable for the poster on Reddit, or anyone else reading this thread, to associate "Mormonism" with conservatism. However, there are millions of people, people on every continent, who practice that religion. Are there racist folks in that church? You betcha! Have the policies of that church always represented equality for people of color. No. BUT, this church is also one that has sought out to ally itself with the NAACP, and really worked to improve the way it's policies and members interact in that regard. So, it may be surprising if you aren't familiar with it, but LDS faith wouldn't be at all at odds with BLM. To my way of thinking it should be supportive of this movement, but members aren't really told how to vote or think politically, so there is a lot of variance in thought and views amongst actual members. So, yeah it is totally reasonable to equate Brandon's faith with a universally conservative world view, but the reality is that there is a lot more room for more progressive and liberal political thought than most people would assume. Utah is really conservative as a whole, but there are a handful of democrats here! I know all 5 of them! (that's a joke. there's more than that...)

Llarimar had a pet parakeet that he loved dearly, but it flew away one night and managed to stow away with Vasher when he came to Roshar. It flew away from Vasher, only to immediately be caught by some Alethi warriors on their way to the Shattered Plains. They didn't know what to do with the "chicken" so they gave it to Dalinar, their high prince, who gave it to the kitchen staff. They cooked the poor thing up and it was the very chicken that Adolin ate before the fateful duel that won him a crem ton of shards and landed Kaladin in jail. Soulcasters and The Lord Ruler

A great, thoughtful discussion! You gave me a lot to think about on these tropes and some of my biases. Shallan's nameless mom is another interesting look at this trope. Unnamed mother who is killed, and her sons certainly think it was their father who done it and would remember her as better than she was. In contrast, Lin and Shallan know the truth about her and how she really died. It's a different version of the trope, but still another example of Cosmere dead mom.

Calvin IS ADONALSIUM! and Hobbes splintered him, and currently holds a shard that is hitherto unknown to readers... The Book of Endless Pages and Hrathen

Kaladin and Raoden are secretly half brothers. Hesina was a worldhopper, she visited Sel and married Iadon but shortly after her son was born she learned that her husband was a jerk and she was needed on Roshar. She tried to flee with Raoden but was stopped and had to leave him behind. She returned to Roshar, met and married Lorin, and the rest is history. Secret half brothers! The bands of mourning and sadees the sunmaker

The Sibling is actually also a sibling of Patji as part of the pantheon on first of the sun. The Sibling and Patji have a sibling rivalry of course, so Patji wants the Sibling to wake up and face off in metaphysical arm wrestling match. The winner gets to keep all the Aviar. The Girl Who Looked Up and Endowment

A few things to understand: 1) we have no idea what precautions Dragonsteel are taking at this time. It would be pretty silly of us to make generalizations based on the 2 hour stream when we don't see what they're doing with the other 100s of hours. It could be that none of them interact with anyone outside that room. We don't know and we can't and should not judge based on our tiny peak into someone else's life. 2) COVID has not spread uniformally across the world in the same way at the same time. Different places are experiencing different levels of infection and different population ages and density...there is a lot going on. The part of the world in which Brandon lives is currently not overwhelmed with cases and has not put in place very strict lockdowns. 3) Let's all admit that we aren't epidemiologist, we aren't public health experts, we are caring fans who want the best for our favorite author and each other and we all have very different ideas of what "best" means and we are all experiencing a global catastrophe in very different ways. Let's be kind, and understanding, and try not to assume too much. I know you all have the best of intentions with your concerns, Cosmere fans are good people. Much love and I hope for the best for every one of you fantastic fans and your families!!!

Here's how the game works: First someone posts 2 random things from the Cosmere: could be characters, events, locations, objects, or magic/other ethereal intangible stuff. The next poster takes those 2 things and creates a theory involving them. The crazier and less likely the better. Then they list two different things for the next person to theorize on. Use spoiler tags where appropriate, and don't take it seriously. Like at all. Ready! I will start it off with Kelsier and Shadesmar

If you want to do some more game/debate podcasts as we wait for RoW to come out, I would love to hear a Versus match up similar to Ship it or Rip it, but it's all about people facing off in a fight. It might be hard to debate with some really OP characters, but I bet you could come up with some interesting arguments to circumvent that (master manipulators need not be physically strong, etc).

What do you think our Rock would be doing? Making a delicious stew?

Everyone tell me what other characters might do! EDIT: Thanks for the feedback guys, it is now multiple choice so go nuts!

Clue #3.

@Toaster Retribution, an awesome WTCC. And I guessed it before all y'all, so I am giving myself a point.

That Storm loving son of a Shard is a miracle worker. This book is less than a year away, I'm so ready for ALL THE HYPE!

If I could choose absolutely anybody in show business for some of the big villains and side characters, these are my picks: Chiwetel Ejiofor as Moridin. He could easily play the ice cold nihilist. Meryl Streep as Elaida. Djimon Hounsou as Demandred Christina Hendricks as Graendal. I can see no one else in this role. Morena Baccarin as Lanfear I don't know who he should play, but as usual I want Jackie Chan in there somehow. Maybe he could be a Shienaran soldier or one of the great captains. Or maybe a warder, like Hammar. Thoughts?