Oltux72
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Posts posted by Oltux72
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On 4/14/2026 at 2:50 PM, Ripheus23 said:
I'm assuming Kal and Syl will restore the highstorm as of/around the same time.
So Jasnah Kholin, the ultimate realist, ready to do genocide and murder Heralds, is supposed to trust some people who operate without the aid of a Shard to pull that off? Trust it, knowing that failure would doom the Rosharan ecology? Something which there is no precedent for? Something the other side would absolutely try to prevent?
It would also mean that she agrees to a plan that would destroy a lot of the infrastructure built for the conditions of the Everstorm since the Night of Sorrows. And frankly, what would she gain? This is the main question nobody ever answers. What is Jasnah's motivation for effectively seeking to restart the war? A war they lost in the first place.
Furthermore why would she thwart a plan her uncle, who did have access to a Shard at the time, died to implement? Dalinar sacrificed himself so that somebody else, not the Rosharans, would need to deal with Retribution.
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On 2/10/2026 at 12:03 AM, Ripheus23 said:
Assuming locale and/or metanarrative symmetry lands Jasnah in a final showdown-debate in Spiritual Kharbranth, with Retribution, at the end of the second half of the Archive, should she abandon her atheism and confess that a di-Shard is sufficiently close to being a "true deity" and so, rather than try to convince Taravangian that he's not truly divine, she should argue that he ought to change his Intent from Retribution to Redemption?
This fails the most major prerequisite - a reason.
Why would Jasnah seek to confront a di-Shard without any Shards on her side? After the Fused will have years to establish Singer civilization? After her coalition has fractured? At the cost of many of the Knights Radiant seeing her as an oathbreaker, if she does so?
At the risk of destroying the only source of Investiture left to Roshar's ecology?In other words, she'd have to be desperate to confront Retribution. Hence her behavior is most likely totally shaped by the source of her despair.
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Will Roshar drop spheres as currency, now that you can no longer show that they are genuine gem stones by charging them with stormlight? Are soulcasters usable with warlight? Or will Fused and Regals infuse spheres with warlight?
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I must say that non-Cosmere stuff reads differently. I read the Reckoners without a pause because I wanted the relevations. But I have no interest in rereading them, whereas rereading Cosmere is fun. So, if you are ready for something different, read them, but be aware that they are not an alternate version of the Cosmere.
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Yesterday I watched Shardcast. Yet the crew - big shoutout to them - took it as selfevident that the people killing Adonalsium acted in some kind of conspiracy. To be blunt, this makes no sense to me. The godkillers were a very diverse group including two dragons. Except for Tanavast they also seem to have come from a fairly sophisticated background. One of them is described as kind man. Another was quite nasty even prior to his ascension. What made them do it? This group does not look like a group that would spontaneously form in order to play board games and one day decide to kill a god. Such an undertaking sounds quite risky to me. The power? Maybe, but two of them were dragons.
No, I think we have to assume that they had a good point and thus were not the only ones to have less than a completely positive attitude towards Adonalsium. In other words isn't it much likelier that at the time the dominant attitude towards the The Shattering was: good riddance?
They may have come to regret it, but regret after the fact actually seeing previously unknown consequences is not exactly uncommon.
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On 3/11/2026 at 12:34 PM, ParaTulip said:
I had once considered the idea of a possible future of the series where Jasnah swallows her pride and distaste for her enemy in order to try pursue her goal of the greater good; I thought she might eventually take up a position like Prime Minister for the large nation of Rosharans implied to be under the night of sorrow's cloud cover. I figured she would be better for the job than Battar and preventing people from starving to death or being killed with overwork on public projects is just a good thing to do, especially if it is done in a way that constrains Taravangian's ambitions. But this requires that Jasnah can form an agreement with Taravangian as to what her duties are and what she is not willing to do for him. Since Jasnah lacks a deterrent besides "your subjects will die" which seems meaningless; Many people die in wars, Taravangian says he cares, but his plan is a galactic crusade so fat lot that means.
I'd say that Retribution has left, meaning that Jasnah will find nobody to negotiate with. On the side of the Singers you may argue that either The Nine or El are in charge. Nor would I assume that the awakened Singers are ready to let the Fused rule forever. In fact, them growing up faster than humans there will be a new generation, which has never known slavery, very soon. And let's not forget that Ba-Ado-Mishram is free now. I doubt that she's entirely happy that Taravangian is human.
Yet none of them will put a human in an overall position of power. Hence I think it is more likely that Jasnah will kind of form an organization like - for lack of a better comparison - the Justice League, The Watchmen or Professor Xavier's school in order to be a reminder that the humans have some muscle, if the terms of the treaty are violated or humans are mistreated too badly.
But she will not want to keep fighting, if she can avoid it. What would she fight for? How would she do that? At least a sizable minority among the people in Urithiru and - more important - among the Knights Radiant will consider themselves defeated and hence bound by the terms of a peace treaty. She'd fracture the Knights Radiant even more.
Smuggling people out into the lands allied to Retribution, but still under human control (she will cooperate with Queen Fen), get more budding Radiants to Urithiru, explore the wider Cosmere for allies, negotiate with the Unmade and improve relations with the Spren including Wind and Truth will all help to improve their position rather than restart a hopeless war.On 3/11/2026 at 2:40 PM, PanLin said:Did he? He avoided killing his grandson, refused to give Taravangian what he wanted, and used the Sunmaker's Gambit to slap a divine 'kick me' sign on Retribution's back. He took an impossible situation and still found a way to surprise a god and force Taravangian into a place of weakness.
For the Cosmere as a whole you can argue that. For human Rosharans, well, no. They are bearing the costs of Dalinar's solution.
If you were an Alethi refugee in Urithiru, you'd see your homeland lost, your relatives toiling under Fused overlords, you or your close relatives may have bled or even died in the war, yet Dalinar refused to kill his grandson who had taken up arms against the realm and even mankind? While you were on the frontlines fighting other humans on Odium's side who were merely following orders? Go to a widow with small children whose husband fell at Narak and tell her that it is good that Dalinar avoided killing his grandson. They will consider this a defeat and even a betrayal.
Aladar and Teshav outright say it to Renarin and Jasnah's face. About their father respectively uncle. To people who could materialize a blade they have no defense against. Jasnah herself believes him to have failed. She needs to keep things together. She may see herself forced to put the blame on Dalinar.
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On 2/5/2026 at 11:54 PM, Oranjejuicemonki said:
I have not heard anything about any ebooks yet, but it is on the dragonsteel online store to buy if you want.
Elsecaller/King Lopen Story Deck® Double Book | Dragonsteel – Dragonsteel Books
The problem is international shipping. Normal shipping to Europe is 30$. That takes a long time. So we'd face shipping costs of 45$ (expedited rates) for a 20$ book.
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8 hours ago, Duxredux said:
Well... my beef with the legalese in WaT was more that there was no foreshadowing (not counting TOdium spotting the loophole at the end of RoW) for the vulnerabilities in the contract. Everything that went into the contest for the capitals of the Coalition was due to a hideously obscure section of Alethi legal code that had never been mentioned before but apparently existed in the contract created by Yolish Wit using a Connection language hack or the modified version made by Yolish Rayse in the really brief deal made by Dalinar. I didn't see either of them consult a lawbook. Too much weight on that little plot fulcrum.
True. I must say that this hits the problem on the head.
And it looked unforced at that. They could just have found out that Taravangian would have demanded that the Azish surrender or he would have destroyed the city and executed all civilians.
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2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:
I don't think it matters if the added material is Allomantic in nature, it just has to push the aluminum to not be Allomantic itself.
It seems to me that the decisive factor is the crystal structure. The difference between iron and steel is very small in terms of composition. It is definitely not the element itself. Mud and clay are made mostly from aluminium and oxygen in terms of composition.
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7 hours ago, Returned said:
That's true. I still don't read that as the technicality-in-a-contract sort of element of the plot, more a thing that happened which set the stage for the situation characters encounter when the books start.
No desolations without the Oathpact. Also no heralds to copy without it.
7 hours ago, Returned said:I can see an argument that what the nine members did in abandoning Taln is that sort of thing, though at least that isn't the resolution of anything. Maybe that's why it doesn't rankle as much as the contest of champions plot line: it sets the stage for events but doesn't guide or end all that many of them. It's a setup and creates opportunities for things to happen independent of it (while influencing those things)
I mean if something last for over 4000 years, it is kind of a resolution. The proposed contest of champions would have yielded a result lasting less than a quarter of that.
7 hours ago, Returned said:If you want to spend time in the forest where there are Shades, you have to behave in ways that account for how Shades behave (or die).
But the bears have quite reasonable a reason for their actions. They want to eat your food. The shades react to arbitrary triggers.
7 hours ago, Returned said:There is no contract governing what you may and may not do, and though there will still be consequences to the choices you make (like always) they aren't defined by any overarching agreement.
But there is a collection of religious texts that define what you are allowed to do, namely whether you are allowed to learn to read.
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16 hours ago, Returned said:
I'd meant along the lines of what I read the intent of the thread to be: major plots which are resolved because of specific technicalities in agreements which are struck between characters, sometimes off-screen. Certainly rules exist in all of the Cosmere books (they're kind of famous for it). Few of them feature binding contracts as the boundaries for how the on-screen conflicts unfold and are settled.
Fair point. I would counter that the rules of other arcane arts (Sel being another exception) are the kind of rules you'd expect laws of nature to follow. The Simple Rules of Threnody are not.
16 hours ago, Returned said:That's different from "here are a bunch of rules and restrictions that we've all already agreed to, so we will all follow those rules to the conclusion they allow". The OP (to my reading) is describing this, not the situation in the paragraphs above nor any other version of "rules exist in Cosmere settings". My position is that very few of the novels' plots are governed by the forma legalism the OP describes.
In that case I have to point out the Stormlight Archive exists only due to the specific mechanics of the Oathpact.
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If they are very fast for Christmas of 2029. Likelier 2030 or even 2031.
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On 2/12/2026 at 5:52 PM, Returned said:
I might be forgetting something about Shades, but which stories' plots turn on the technicalities of the rules Shades follow in the same sense that WaT turns on the promises made between Honor and Odium and, later, by the contract Dalinar struck with Odium?
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. You can club people to death as long as you trap the blood in a bag. The whole story depends on following the rules to the letter disregarding the spirit of the letter.
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On 12/17/2025 at 10:07 AM, taylercoooper said:
Do you think the increasing emphasis on hard rules, contracts, and cross-pressures in the Cosmere risks making future stories feel more mechanical or ‘kludge-driven’? I understand why binding promises are necessary to limit Shards and keep the story intact, but I’m a bit worried that relying on inviolable contracts and rule-based fixes could lead to shallower resolutions down the line. Am I overthinking this, or have others noticed the same trend?
No. The trend seems to be to the Shards mattering less and less. The Unoathed are rising on Roshar. Technology allows more usage of the wild card in the magic. Imagine what a hemalurgist who has a computational model of a spirit web can do.
The Cosmere is going softer, if you will.
On 12/17/2025 at 8:10 PM, Returned said:My own evaluation is that the hard rule, contract side of things only really came up in a meaningful way in Rhythm of War and Wind and Truth.
White Sand had a procedural question about how votes are to be done as a central element of the plot. Shades are literally about rules. So, no, I am afraid this is just factually not correct.
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On 2/6/2026 at 3:00 PM, Isilel said:
It is odd that this wasn't more common even under TLR, honestly. There are plenty of mentions of poor noblewomen becoming mistresses of men who could support them or even working in brothels. And chances of them having allomancer children should have been much more favourable.
I always assumed that TLR was using more subtle means to prevent this, like you'd find that you lose all bidings for public contracts when you are too blatant with such things. Hence only the most powerful got away with it.
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Use some of the remaining Stormform to return a few Fused. Then use the Shattered Plains as the core of a nation to be built and strengthen it over a few generations. Then he could try again.
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On 2/8/2026 at 2:49 AM, Aliroz-The-Confused said:
From the minute we know that it's slavery, we should have no doubt about the badness of the baddies (The Final
You will not like this, but not necessarily. Secondly, not in a movie. In fact I would argue that slavery is inevitable under some economic conditions. Suppose starvation and famine are common. Now further suppose you get into a situation where you have to take prisoners, like after a crime or after a battle. Then what do you do? Do you want to feed criminals in prisons or prisoners of war while innocent citizens are starving to death? You will not.
So what are you alternatives? You cannot let them go. You cannot just kill them. Nobody would ever surrender to you anymore. You can go to corporal punishment for criminals, but that is unlikely to be a general solution. This leaves you with enslavement. So no, you cannot expect people unfamiliar with the setting and left only with limited time to just accept that TFE is irredeemable without really showing it.On 2/8/2026 at 2:49 AM, Aliroz-The-Confused said:Empire's opening draws its tension from "will this work or will these people all die?" not "is this morally right?". Only a results-oriented consequentialist or a deontological pacifist can argue against the morality of Kelsier's attack on the Tresting plantation).
True, but it has to work for the whole movie.
On 2/8/2026 at 2:49 AM, Aliroz-The-Confused said:From the point I first reads about Sazed and learns what's going on with the Terris, I thought the destruction of the Final Empire was not only justified but morally obligatory.
True, but do you really want to show a scar from a castration on screen? I would really not go there.
On 2/8/2026 at 2:49 AM, Aliroz-The-Confused said:7) the preservation-and-ruin-theming of the setting making the destruction of the Final Empire Ruin-aligned and the continuation of the Final Empire Preservation-aligned, especially with the context of Rashek's backstory and Alendi's logbook.
That will not be obvious to a viewer.
And you will have to show the legend of TLR saving the world to foreshadow further movies. And that will raise the obvious question: Are we looking at something that is necessary due to circumstances TLR is keeping secret?
On 2/8/2026 at 2:49 AM, Aliroz-The-Confused said:Most of these are load-bearing, but remove Elend Venture, and you can keep it PG-13 without compromising the audience's understanding that Kelsier's actions are entirely justified. Or, have him be killed (or seem to be killed) in the first film so that his sympathetic-ness supports the perceived rightness of the Crew rather than undermining it. Maybe have him show up imprisoned but alive for a surprise and have Kelsier's decision to spare him be during some sort of escape or confrontation. Or have Elend be among the people that are going to be executed with Renoux and Spook (heck, this event is exactly where he almost dies in the book).
Removing Elend Venture is a bit too far. That would no longer be a Mistborn movie.
On 2/8/2026 at 2:49 AM, Aliroz-The-Confused said:Alternately, keep Elend as-is but focus on Tepper, Jassa, and Mennis, giving us at least a subplot of their trials and travails as they and the other skaa from the Tresting plantation try to survive, so that we get to know and care for the people that the Crew is doing all of this for. Make us like them enough, and the sympathies will be rightly aligned without the need for seeing things that would require an R rating.
That won't do. You need to justify that Luthadel is revolting.
On 2/8/2026 at 2:49 AM, Aliroz-The-Confused said:When I read The Final Empire for the first time back in 2009, one of the things that always stuck with me was Sazed's descriptions of extinct religions. I found the worldbuilding fascinating, and each little glimpse of a destroyed culture was, in its own way, a heartbreaking reminder of what the Final Empire had ruined. That some of them held out for centuries was beautiful but deeply upsetting. Including these sequences where Sazed talks about extinct faiths and gives little human details of them humanizes them, reminding us that it's not just about stopping what's going on, it's about protecting and preserving the memory of what's been lost. If the screen version gave us visuals of these peoples and cultures, of their cities/architecture/foods/clothing, you could go a long, long way towards making the Final Empire hateable without necessarily showing outright gore (think of the scene in The Incredibles with the computer showing all the superheroes, one after another, with text confirming their fates).
That will work for some people. For others this will just show that TLR had to break some eggs to unify Scadrial and defeat the Deepness, or whatever it will be called.
On 2/8/2026 at 2:49 AM, Aliroz-The-Confused said:I know a lot of my suggestions are dialogue-heavy, but, to be fair, that doesn't mean it can't also be an action thriller. Just look at Jurassic Park, which balances the action with quiet dialogue scenes to create a rhythm (inhale, exhale, tension, release, buildup, payoff) that makes the action (to some people, at least) more exciting than it would be, rather than less, because it prevents burnout. Jaws is an absolutely terrifying movie with very little in the way of actual shark-on-screen content, and from what I've heard Alien is similar (though I've heard Aliens might not be, or maybe I got the two confused).
You are not wrong, but I think you would make it worse in the long run. IMHO the Mistborn series (not The Final Empire) is built on a collision of two issues
- Destroying the empire and killing TLR are morally speaking correct actions, in fact the only correct choices
- TLR was indeed protecting Scadrial from an evil god
That conundrum is embodied in the person of Kelsier. If you lower the stakes you turn him into an ordinary imperialist, as opposed to a man who can with full justification say that the gods themselves betrayed him.
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On 2/5/2026 at 4:48 AM, ThatOneWorldhopper said:
I, and I think a lot of others, agree. And that's part of the problem Brandon has: The fandom is split, and it's hard or impossible to satisfy both sides.
To a certain extent it is possible . You can do a shot from close to an elevated platform and show up ony the axes going up and down and the fountains slowly turning red with blood. You combine that with a close up of the crew members and stuff like that.
I'd say that in a case like that you need to follow the logic of the story. You need as TV Tropes puts it to get the "Godzilla Threshold" to be crossed. Like in Star Wars you needed to blow up Alderaan. You have to remove any reasonable doubt about the justifiability of Kelsier's actions.
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10 hours ago, NameIess said:
Add in the benefit of allomancer children? Many more nobles would have harems and act as Straff did.
All of them would. The next house war would wipe out those who don't, as they would be outnumbered.
10 hours ago, NameIess said:The point, if I understand Oltux's argument, is that TLR is responsible for the system he set up.
He is also necessary to uphold it. That changes the power dynamics.
Therefore seeing Mistborn as a revolution against an aristocratic regime is just wrong. It is an uprising against a theocratic monarchy. The revolution even preserves the aristocracy, their priviledges, which are arguably even increased in the political realm under Elend's constitution, and the economic structure.
10 hours ago, NameIess said:Mm, that's more of a sideplot in book two, until the end at least. I would say the main theme of book two is: Now that we have freedom, can we keep it?
Yes, but there is no point in keeping freedom, if the end of the world comes within a few months of keeping that freedom. Nor can you just leave this out if you want to turn the Cosmere into a cinematic universe. Movies about the fallout of revolutions have been made. Shows are being made about it. Movies about the end of the world in a contest between gods not so many.
For the Cosmere at large you need
- The story of Preservation, Ruin and Harmony
- Kelsier's continuation and cult
- The Catacendre and remaking of the world
The Hero of Ages is much more significant than The Well of Ascension to the Cosmere as a whole. In fact I don't think that in a movie you have the option of doing Secret History separately. It would repeat a story already told. Nor can we be sure that we can get three, let alone four Mistborn movies out Era 1.
Hence, if you need to cut, the middle book and especially the civil war, is the natural victim.0 -
16 hours ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:
If that is the logic of power than it is not worth having. No framework in which treating people like that is normal is acceptable.
At the risk of repeating myself: You are seeking justification when talking about a question of consequences.
That just makes no sense.
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10 hours ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:
Having witnesses for contracts is very common in pre-modern societies. Even in our secular modernity, we have witnesses and lawyers.
But not for every little transaction. Nor is TFE strictly premodern.
10 hours ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:As for censorship, this very forum has rules on what content can or cannot be displayed, and certain things are not allowed. Having boundaries on expression is a feature of all but the most anarchic societies. Censorship, being preventative, is thus of Preservation.
It may be of Preservation, but what does that have to do with nobles letting the government decide what they can have in their libraries?
10 hours ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:If anything, the vilest part of the Final Empire is the (relative to anything acceptable) lack of restrictions on sexual abuse. I'm not sure how you read the books and think "Man, these nobles are unfairly kept from exercising their natural rights and it's unfair that they can't have what they want, there are too many laws restraining them in matters of consent".
OK, this is not about sex. Sex and sexual abuse matter in moral terms.
Again, this is not about morals. Morals is easy. Showing morals in a movie borders on the trivial. Power structures are different.Let me spell it out in detail. Nobles want power. Power comes from having loyal allomancers fighting for you. Allomancers come from, well, procreation. That means sexual intercourse between allomancers, or, if you don't have that many allomancers, allomancers and mundane people, resulting in offspring.
In other words, every house lord who can afford it should have a harem of Skaa women, preferably Skaa women with nobility in their pedigree in order to breed Allomancers. This is exactly what Straff Venture does and TLR wants to prevent and has established institutions to prevent.
This is not about fairness. This is about applying the logic of power to a genetic system of magic. It invariably leeds to breeding people for magic. Game theory, basically.
So, yes, the nobility in TFE is forced to act against their core interests.
That is exactly what Kelsier alluded to when he spoke with Harmony in The Lost Metal10 hours ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:So, being both the White Witch and the Dark Lord, Rashek is the Black-And-White Sorcerer Tyrant. And guess which two colors he wears in the books as The Lord Ruler?
Absolutely. Rashek should remain a mystery. However, that is not the same as the means of his power remaining a mystery. You cannot understand Mistborn if you see TLR as an extension or the pinnacle of noble power. He is not.
10 hours ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:Focusing on the perceived restrictions his rule places upon those he raises above all others is... questionable theming for a story revolving around the skaa rebelling against their abusive masters, a story that is already likely going to lose much of its color, richness, worldbuilding, and depth in being trimmed for film.
They just are not rebelling against their masters. They are rebelling against TLR.
10 hours ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:If anything, it's more important to set up Straff and his ilk for The Well Of Ascension.
I am not sure Straff Venture needs to be in the sequel. He is actually the side show. The main theme is "What have we done? Have we doomed the world by finally getting justice and freedom?"
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11 hours ago, Schizoposting said:
This goes for any socio-political system—just because the nobles are subordinate to the government does not change the fact that they're the ruling class.
That is not the only constraint they are living under. The empire is being ruled in ways that are not just subordinating individual nobles to laws, but is being run against their group interests
- requirement to use arbiters for all contracts
- subjecting the nobility to censorship
- the atium regime
- enforced monogamy
- limits on scientific research
just to give the most obvious examples
11 hours ago, Schizoposting said:TLR is just the embodiment of a broader political system; you could replace him with a council of inquisitors, and the result would be exactly the same; it's not like he takes a particularly direct role in running the Final Empire.
Well, no, you couldn't because thanks to the Kolloss TLR has the final say. A council of inquisitors would fragment. A god-emperor cannot fragment.
TLR is like nuclear weapons in international politics. He changes everything because he could act, even if he never does.
11 hours ago, Schizoposting said:"Lovers", is a... questionable choice of words.
Yes. It is the subset they really care about though. My apologies.
11 hours ago, Schizoposting said:I agree that there can be no compromise, but I think that killing TLR is not enough; certainly, getting rid of an immortal demigod would be hugely beneficial, but simply getting rid of him does not end the oppression of the Skaa.
Yes. But that matters only in the later books and consequently subsequent movies.
11 hours ago, Schizoposting said:I strongly disagree; like in a horror movie, you want to show TLR as little as possible and only gives hints about how terrible he is. Simply saying that he has an army of terrible monsters, works a lot more powerfully than showing them onscreen, where they'll just be glorified orcs.
Are you sure of that? I mean they basically are glorified orcs.
To quote you: film is a visual medium
11 hours ago, Schizoposting said:Now, as to why Apple may want to keep quiet, I think that it's part of some marketing strategy, or because they don't want people to get their hopes up on a property that may not work out (e.g. if the script is bad, or if Brandon is difficult to work with). I assume that they're having discussions right now, about how Brandon's fan interaction will play into the marketing.
That makes sense. Yet, silence for multiple years?
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9 hours ago, Schizoposting said:
I think that we have different interpretations of Mistborn; it seems like you put the moral responsibility for the Final Empire, on Rashek instead of on the Nobles; while I agree that he was a terrible person, I think that the nobles are just as responsible for the mistreatment of the Skaa as TLR.
I wouldn't call this a moral question, but one of power. TLR, if it came to that, commands the Kolloss. He can send them in to pacify (meaning mostly razing) Luthadel, if he really has to. He also forces the nobility to do what they really do not want to do.
He forces them to kill their potentially pregnant lovers. That is against their own interests. We know that because the most powerful of them, shown in the example of Straff Venture, flaunt that requirement and breed armies of allomancers.
In fact I am fairly certain that it takes TLR to keep the social system stable. It should develop to polygyny for the exact reason Straff Venture effectively practices it.This matters dramaturgically. Nothing short of killing TLR can work. Kelsier is the fanatic who is right. There can be no compromise. In terms of power and conflict that is the core of Mistborn.
In terms of morals you can and probably should despise the nobility. Again, you can and should show that. And it is easy to do with cinematic means. But it is not enough. You never see the Kolloss. In fact that probably needs to be changed in a movie. Possibly you could show the Skaa army lose a battle against Kolloss rather than ordinary troops and have Vin just ask what those monsters are and thus tell the audience that they are under TLR's personal command by mysterious means.
9 hours ago, Schizoposting said:I've seen speculation that Apple has forced him to keep quiet; he added a Mistborn script progress bar (at 2%), only for it to be removed. If that's the case, we're unlikely to hear anything until the film starts production.
You think so? They'd lose the publicity of the man who domineered Kickstarter. I am fairly certain AppleTV has a team charged with developing strategies in case plans leak.
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1 hour ago, Schizoposting said:
I mean, Rashek literally does not show up until the climax—that's the point. You can justify Kelsier's actions by showing how horrible the system is, without necessarily focusing on one person.
While that is true, it would seem incomplete to me. Rashek's agents show up in the first pages. The opening of TFE establishes that Tresting fears the inspectors. That is we do not have a situation where the aristocrats form an oppressive government. They are in a priviledged position under such a government, which they abuse. I'd say that is a distinction you cannot do without even in an adaption.
1 hour ago, Schizoposting said:You can have flashbacks or something, that show Kelsier's experiences in the pits, or Dockson's life on a plantation, if you really want to drive home how bad Scadrial is.
Again, that shows that the situation is bad, but not that TLR is actually evil.
For all we - seeing this as a hypothetical novice viewer - know this world could be a kind of postapocalyptic wasteland, not an evil dictatorship. The setting, with ash falling from the sky, rather suggests some kind of ecological catastrophe, which, while not actually wrong, is not what makes the Final Empire so horrible.
Hence I would actually open with a Steel Inspector ripping apart the thieving den and Kelsier rescuing Vin. After that you can switch to some kind of aristocratic festivity which shows a noble acting subservient to an ordinary member of some canton (film being visual you have the face tattoos linking them), which Kelsier uses as a distraction to rob the Atium.And again, this suggests to me that you cannot leave out the executions. I would actually concentrate on the fountains turning red. A great opportunity to show a character moment by facing on the onlookers rather than the actual killings.
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A gambit for Jasnah vs. Retribution?
in Stormlight Archive
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How would he avoid killing the whole rest of the plants and thus the ecology? It would seem to me that the sunless state is temporary.
And why would Taravangian need to pressure Singers into his armies? Singers ultimately depend on Roshar. No forms, no Singers. And his intended warlord is the semispren of a human and he put a Singer friendly to humans in charge. That indicates to me that he plans to integrate both species into his armed forces.
And on the gripping hand, the simplest and safest way for the rest of the Cosmere of dealing with Retribution is to take out his power base. I am sorry, but logic should point Jasnah to collaboration, just as it did for Fen.