Child of Hodor

When you lay it all out it feels very convincing. Either Brandon is a doing a deep misdirect by planting all these little seeds or he is foreshadowing Autonomy being involved.

Odium can't leave Roshar because of something Honor and Cultivation did that Honor or Dalinar as close enough to Honor can release Odium from by intent. His Fused and spren are stuck due to their nature as cognitive realm beings much like the Heralds are stuck. As you say Odium is invested and even if he were freed it would take some effort for him to move on from a world he's been on for so long unless he is willing leave a bunch of investiture committed to Roshar in the physical and cognitive realms. I don't think Trell's agents are of Odium simply for the meta reason that I don't think Brandon will give away a major development in SA5 before that book comes out. If Odium is committing significant resources to attacking Harmony then he must no longer be having issues with Roshar or why wouldn't he dedicate everything he has to freeing himself? Plus there are so many other Shards we haven't met yet.

Brandon's new favorite trope is lab explosions involving investiture in his books. I'm going to guess this doesn't involve anti-investiture and he's deliberately putting a similar scene to the black sphere explosion in here as a misdirection. I assumed the same thing, the Kandra already on Roshar wasn't sent by Harmony. Either sent by Lord Ruler or snuck off on their own (somehow). Please no Worldhopping Wayne (you're probably right :\)

That would be pretty crazy for Kelsier to be Trell. There's aspects of it that I like, but I kind of want Trell to be Shard or agent of a Shard we haven't met yet. It being Kelsier all along while a clever Sanderson-esque trick is a bit of a let down. Beyond my not wanting it to be the case I do think there are some issues: 1) Trell's faceless immortal at the end of BoM said the plan has changed to wiping out life on Scadrial. This isn't something Kelsier has ever been into. Keslier has some narcissistic and sociopathic personality traits and was planning a mass slaughter of the entire ruling class in Luthadel before he changed his mind. However, he's never been omnicidal. He is the Survivor after all. We know from WoBs that Kelsier is still stuck in the system, why would he want to burn the planet he's stuck on? 2) Harmony has no idea what Trell is. Harmony is well aware of Kelsier. For Harmony to be baffled there must be outside influence. Even if Kelsier is a member of the Set or something like that I think there needs to be a separate Shard involved. 3) Harmony represents the threat of Trell as a red miasma in space trying to invade the planet. While it's likely not meant to be literal it does show that the threat as coming from off world.

Whoooaaaaaa! Incredible!

Agreed. The theme of Trell seems to be freedom or at least that's the sales pitch. Legit LOL. Imagining a shard vessel shake their fist in the air and yell "CURSE YOU WHIMSYYY!!!!" as Whimsy floats away in a giant bubble.

It's something that will benefit the Set's goal of overthrowing the central government in the basin by stirring up unrest in the outskirts against Elendel. Or at least that seemed to be a goal of theirs before the faceless immortal told Suit that they wanted to wipe out life on the planet now. Unclear if the leadership of the Set (whoever they all are) is still pursuing their older goals or if Trell has changed their plan. I agree not everybody can be in on it a lot of people probably voted for it out of economic interest and power as you say.

Mistborn Era 1 Netflix Movie is my guess as well. Zack was a great addition as an industry expert! I see the concern about Mistborn seeming like YA dystopia, but most of those stories are teenage girl joins Dystopia Academy or Dystopia Olympics with other teens and this is definitely not that. I've never really linked Mistborn to Hunger Games or Divergent. I looked at it as Brandon taking "farm boy saves the world" that 90% of fantasy stories are then changing it to "urban street rat saves the world" and changing the gender of the lead. I really love Final Empire, but what makes Era 1 special from a narrative perspective are the reveals in books 2 and 3. We doomed the world by killing the evil overlord. Without those the unique things are the setting which visually could turn people off before they really give it a chance and the intricate magic system which needs to be streamlined for 2 hour movie. Kelsier as a lifelong conman trying to do a good thing for once is the other aspect that could really pop.

I think Helaran actually joined the Skybreakers and Nale gave him some shards. If he's giving something as dangerous as Nightblood to someone as unstable as Szeth then it's not out of character for Nale to give a more mundane blade and plate to a recruit. Nale is the only Herald to become a Knight Radiant and the Skybreakers are the only order not to quit during the Recreance. Nale would have been a member by the time of the Recreance and likely encouraged the order not to quit. I imagine as these other orders were giving up their plate and blades the Skybreakers swooped in and grabbed a bunch for safekeeping which is why Nale has a stash of them to give out to new recruits like they're nothing. I don't think Nale has ALL the missing blades, but I bet the Skybreakers grabbed a bunch of them.

I think he had to have met him on Braize. In RoW epigraph 80 Kalak says the Fused and Heralds have been fighting for 7,000 years. We know from OB CH. 38 that Honor and Cultivation bound Odium to Braize and then the Heralds bound the Fused to Braize kind of emulating what H&C had done. Odium's been on Braize for at least 7,000 years, well over 1,000. If Hoid was referring to an event 9,000 years ago he wouldn't have thought "over 1,000". Brandon was asked a while ago if Hoid had been to Braize and he RAFO's but in doing so implies the answer to that is extremely important. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/221/#e6196 It's a non-answer, but given Hoid's thought about meeting Rayse over 1,000 years prior it seems the answer is yes. One thing I don't understand is why Hoid is so afraid of Rayse finding him in the present timeline if he went to Braize where Odium is at his most powerful not that long ago. "I came to your land to chase an old acquaintence, but I end up spending most of my time hiding from him instead." - WoK ch. 57. I assume that's referencing Rayse. They knew each other pre-Shattering and were friends. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/136/#e2101 Wit is also dodging the 17th Shard, but Frost is the old friend running that group and he never leaves Yolen per Brandon. Wit wouldn't come to Roshar looking for him. Maybe Wit made a deal with Rayse 1,000+ years ago and then went back on it which is why he's worried now. My understanding is Wit only seeks out Odium after the contract is agreed to because he wrote protections for himself in the contract (he includes his name in it according to the RoW epilogue).

What, no Lirin mini? Lirin with his arms crossed, scowling. Like a bobble-head but his head shakes back and forth in disapproval.

Oh Storms why do they have to look so good! When it comes to figurines and such I'm usually like "what gonna do with that, look at it?". Yes, yes I will look at these!

I like how even Brandon has conceded the title options for KotW are not great. He said on a recent update he’s not happy with the ones he’s looking at and may break the Ketek for a title that sounds good. King of the Week (Maybe Szeth goes back to Monarch killing) King of the Weak (Ok I kind of like this one. Don’t know the plot so I don’t know how to pretend it’s relevant to the events of the book.)

Way of Kings, but it's close. I like WoR and OB a similar amount. I just really love the ending where Kaladin saves Dalinar and Dalinar frees the slaves. As @Returned said the world building is great. I like WoK interludes a lot, they are the most diverse and disconnected from the main plot which I enjoyed. Shallan's arc is slight compared to Dalinar and Kaladin, but her hanging in a giant library with Jasnah and studying the Deep Lore works for me. Most of the Death Rattles we get are in WoK and they are awesome foreshadowing. Child of Tanavast, where Kaladin dreams he is the Storm has great prose in the descriptions of what Kaladin sees. Convo with the Stormfather is cool "Odium Reigns" The excerpt from in-world WoK about candles being a metaphor for leadership is one of my favorite things in SA. WoK big weak point to me are flashbacks which feel repetitive and are the weakest of the first three books for sure.

I don't like Tien. He comes across more as the personification of innocence than a character or person. Brandon has given WoBs about stuff that was going on with him (He's afraid of people finding out he's not as good as people think he is) but I react to that stuff like I do with Rowling saying Dumbledore is gay "OK, but it's not really in the books". I believe Brandon had this in his mind the whole time, but it's not on the page in a meaningful way. Every time we see Tien he's trying to cheer Kaladin up or he's nauseous because he saw some blood (innocence personified). Even long after he's dead Tien shows up just to cheer Kaladin up like he always does and talk about the bright side of children dying in a war. "It's sad but we just got dropped off earlier. When you die you'll float TOO!" OK, he didn't say the last part.

I appreciate how nearly the entire crew from the start of TFE has been killed or turned into a monster-man (Marsh) by the end of the trilogy. Especially in contrast to most of Brandon's other works which are more focused on people who are functionally immortal one way or another. 16 (or 18) Metals is too many. A lot of the Feruchemical and Hemalurgic effects of the metals don't seem to relate to what the metal does in Allomancy. I hate the thieves' cant that Spook uses and I don't enjoy the Spook sections of HoA.

I think a key hint to when spren like Ulim were made is that they look human and usually don't speak to the Rhythms. Ulim gets yelled at by a Fused in the 2nd Venli interlude in OB for speaking like a human. The voidspren that is guiding the Singers that took Kaladin prisoner early in OB looked like a human. Spren can change their shape so maybe the one that Kaladin saw chose to look like that because she was talking to a human, but there were no humans around when Ulim was doing all that stuff with the Listeners and the Fused. My theory is the Voidspren encouraged Humans to invade the rest of Roshar and were mostly made around the time between the Ashyn exodus and the first desolation. Odium likes to encourage fighting he encouraged the humans to invade through spren he made and then he went to the dead Singers like "oh what tragedy! Vow to serve me and I'll make you immortal and help you reclaim your homeland." We don't have a canon Ashyn magic system, but the not quite canon one has no Spren and people get magic only if they get a disease. A boon and a bane in a way (Nightwatcher's thing is called The Old Magic because it reminded humans of Ashyn magic). While it's explicitly stated that Odium tempted Ishar and others to experiment with the surges on Ashyn I don't know that he did it through spren. Anyways I don't think the voidspren were made for Ashyn. They were made to influence humans to attack the Singers which puts their creation in a very narrow window.

I know it hasn't been announced and we don't technically know it's Mistborn all the streaming services are vying for, but come on. It's his second most popular series and unlike Stormlight there is a full arc of books completed. Anyways, I didn't see an active casting thread on Mistborn (apologies if I missed it) so I'm making one. I know it's myopic to fancast based on actors who have already done something similar because no one would have cast Heath Ledger as the Joker. BUT! I watched Sandman on Netflix and there is a blond-haired, charismatic sociopathic character on there and I was like "that's so Kelsier!" (name of the Mistborn sitcom spin-off?) Boyd Holbrook you may know him as the charismatic villain in Logan or as the charismatic villain in Sandman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyd_Holbrook Clips of him, both a lil NSFW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE2kKyJZRBo Logan https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VX1ziGBy4b8 Sandman I'm assuming he can speak without a southern accent. Although for all I know Kelsier has a southern accent, I've never met him. Either way I think he's perfect for Kelsier.

That's a good point. It asks Taravangian to take it up, so it clearly feels it needs a Vessel and the Vessel basically serves as the decision-making mind that directs it. I think it's more sapient and able to act on it's own than the other Shards we've encountered. Maybe like you say animal-level, a horse trying to buck Rayse off for all of RoW because it thinks he's a lousy rider.

I think it's something like this she is better able to stay the same cognitively, but not physically. The "not change" request was met in a round about way by as you point out putting her more in the Cognitive realm than most people are. Things in the Cognitive realm are more resistant to change or better able to resist change through their thoughts. I'm mostly basing that on Shallan trying to turn the Stick into fire and it easily defying her by insisting "I am a STICK!". That's a good point. I think she does, but barely. She is primarily doing it for her own purposes, but she does modify the people in a way that technically, from a certain point of view, are a boon and a bane. "I'm gonna take away the memory of killing your wife so you have an opportunity to become a better person without the guilt. I'm also taking all memory of her ever and I'm gonna give it all back eventually that's bane." "I'll give you great emotional capacity and intellectual capacity but not at the same time which you'll view as a bane, but really it's necessary to lure in Rayse" "I'll push you into the Cognitive realm partway where things can resist change if they really don't want to. Also you'll produce my Light by eating which will play into my plans ... somehow." Ahem not to brag, BUT!! 'twas I that posted said theory right after RoW came out. That's not to say no one else thought of it or would have thought of it on their own.

I have always assumed that Death Rattle was just somebody butchering the first ideal because they are dying and confused by what they are experiencing. Some of the Death Rattles seem like someone not being able to fully convey what they are experiencing. You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me! While the sun is still hot, I die! This one I think is referencing how the Sun in shadesmar is not warm. Like they are transitioning realms and see the cold Shadesmar sun, but can still feel the heat of the physical realm sun. This other death rattle talks about the cold sun as well: “I'm dying, aren't I? Healer, why do you take my blood? Who is that beside you, with his head of lines? I can see a distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a black sky. ” There are two that sound like they are both talking about Dai-gonarthis, but one calls him The Black Fisher and the other The Black Piper. The pied piper lured rats with his music and lures are commonly used in fishing. “Let me no longer hurt! Let me no longer weep! Dai-gonarthis! The Black Fisher holds my sorrow and consumes it! ” —Collected on Tanatesach 1173, 28 seconds pre-death, by the Silent Gatherers. Subject was a darkeyed female street juggler. Note similarity to sample 1172-89.[43] This is not a reference to Hoid.[31]

That was such a gut punch to learn that Gavilar said it to ensure he drank. Then I thought about it and if someone telling Dalinar essentially "be careful" made him binge drink it really doesn't take much at all. Gavilar is still terrible though. In OB ch. 84 Queen Aesudan told Kaladin and Eholokar that Gavilar found an "ancient spren", but never bonded it. It was when she was bragging about how she swallowed the gemstone with Yelig-nar in it and found 2 other Unmade. So I guess he had like a proto-bond, he hadn't gotten to the first ideal yet. I'm not sure what Stormfather wanted Gavilar to say. I assumed he is trying to trick Gavilar into becoming a Bondsmith or something, but what he said seems nowhere close to the normal first ideal and it doesn't seem like an ideal since those are usually about pledging to behave a certain way.

I think it's heavily implied to have developed a mind of its. When Rayse appears to Sja-Anat, Moash and Dalinar they see a bright gold light rapidly moving around beneath his skin like something trying to break out. After Rayse essentially loses against Dalinar in OB Rayse says "No. No. We killed you. We Killed you!" . Talks in plural and repeats himself in a slightly different font. The schism between the Shard and the Vessel is widening he says it twice because once is the Vessel talking and the other is the Power talking. What Harmony says in the epigraphs is essentially "I think this shard is poorly controlled and Shards can develop minds of their own if not controlled well for a long time." The final thing is that after Rayse is dead the shard talks to Taravangian. That didn't happen with Ruin and Preservation. We could say it's just Taravangian interpreting something as the Shard talking to him, but I think it talked to him in its way. Taravangian and the Shard:

Yeah I think that is the theme of his emotions, conflict and aggression. From what little we got of Taravangian's POV after ascending he has the logical side that wants to plan and the emotional side that is all "burn, kill". Frost and Hoid consider the Shard to be Hatred and Harmony thinks all the destruction is what the Shard truly wants. It's weird that a god of powerful emotions routinely takes them away from his followers. It's his main selling point to Moash and Dalinar. My crack theory is Odium only uses those other emotions as fuel for the Hatred. Taravangian will be great as the book 5 villain. I kind of hope he doesn't last beyond that. I'm more curious to meet the Shard since it has a mind of it's own and can talk. I really like idea that the divine hatred of a specific god has a mind and it's real mad that 16 people killed the god and stole that god's power. It's got a hit list it's going through.

Ah, that makes sense. I remember him being super weird, not taking any food into his room and rarely leaving it.