ConfusedCow

Is it me or is the Lost Metal a bit raunchy and even puerile, exspecially when compared to Brandon's others works? I always thought Brandon was a bit uptight when compared to writers like Terry Goodkind, GRRM, Jordan and Rothfuss. It was nice to see him loosen his belt a bit. I imagine him wearing a sailor's hat to get into Wayne's mind.

Does strife produce innovation? Aren't peace, plenty and partnership as likely to produce advancement as hatred, hardship and horror? I'd be interested if anybody with a history of science background could chime in as to what the historical record tells us.

If you swallowed say three beads of lerasium and some duralumin and then you used a spike to burn the duralumin, what would happen?

Igneous, probably intrusive, given Brandon's comments about minimal volcanic activity. Has Roshar even been around long enough to form deep layers of sedimentary rock? Given the ecology, however, I do expect layers of limestone and with the steel weaponry at least some banded ironstone formations.

Well that was 30 minutes I won't get back. Fair point

So my theory is that Renarin is the son of Gavilar and Evi. This is more plausible than it originally sounds. We know Gavilar was horrible and oung ummm ... 'inattentive' in his relationship with Navani. Gavilar is a man of arrogance and power. He is a man who wants everything and takes it. I feel sure that he had affairs. Simultaneously we know that Evi was spending large chunks of time back in Kholinar without Dalinar. We also know that Evi was somewhat repulsed by the Blackthorn. It is not hard to imagine that Gavilar would be looking for an affair with someone young and beautiful, perhaps a bit naive and vulnerable. All the better that Evi was supposed to be with Dalinar. What better revenge for Dalinar and Navani's 'flirtations'? Evi on the other hand might be taken in by someone cultured and 'kind', someone offering her refuge and protection in the storm that is Alethi court. Evi seems like a very honest and honorable person in the books. We all love her. We see her from Dalinar's memory though. People are rarely totally good. Her drive to be a good wife, could as easily be guilt as a sense of duty or love. Renarin more like Gavilar than Dalinar. He keeps secrets. He's clever. He's refined. He acts with consideration in almost kingly way. This twist would have some beautiful parrallels. We rejoice in Navani and Dalinar together and then we feel betrayed by the fact that Evi and Gavliar got together. We could see in Adolin's conflict with Renarin, the old conflict between Gavilar and Dalinar. Could Adolin or Jasnah accept Renarin as king? What would it do to Dalinar to learn that Evi had betrayed him? Would Dalinar still see humanity as worth saving? Still textual evidence is pretty light. Evi did spend a lot of time in Kholinar raising Renarin up. She was eager to tell Dalinar, "you have two sons". I will admit that I was listening to a Game of Thrones audiobook when this idea struck. This is more GRRM. I would love it if anyone has evidence to support or disprove this theory.

I have theorized that the plane of Shadesmar cannot form a map (I think the math term is bijection) to a sphere. There must be a missing point, a point on the surface of Roshar that has no corresponding point in Shadesmar. A typical mapping for example involves drawing a line from the top of a sphere resting on the 'origin' of the plane to every point on the plane. Each line will intersect the sphere once and form a 1-1 correspondence between each point on the sphere and the plane except the point at the top of the sphere. This point at the top is sometimes thought of as the point corresponding to infinity. I believe the origin on Roshar to be this point that does not connect to Shadesmar. Instead it connects straight to the spiritual realm and thus is the source of infinite investiture.

We have been focused on Kaladin's strengths. Perhaps Kaladin's weaknesses are more relevant. Kaladin's depression is about giving up, choosing not to live, not to care, not to feel. Maybe the fifth ideal is about choosing to live for his friends rather than die for them.

A problem with religion (IMO), is that faith obscures belief. To take up any banner of ideology or religion is to surrender an element of individuality. Brandon has clearly considered many different points of view on morality. Characters like Szeth, Taravangian, and Jasnah express absolutism, utilitarianism, atheism, etc... so starkly and yet so humanly. The characters who are lost and searching for morality, Dalinar, Kaladin, Shallan end up being our guides. The authenticity and diversity of belief in Brandon's writing and the way that he centers protagonists who are not espousing morality but searching for it, sets his work apart from other epic fiction. His books are as he would say about "the hearts and minds of men". One does not consider morality and philosophy so deeply if one already has all the answers. I believe Brandon wrestles with such questions himself. To answer simply that he belongs to LDS Church and their beliefs are his, is (IMO) to gloss over the fact that he is creative, thoughful and conflicted on morality and philosophy. I am sure he counts himself among the faithful and views philosophy through the lens of the churches teachings. Yet, I believe his struggle and answers are unique.

Does anyone else ever think about the Radiant Ideals when you're trying to decide what is right and wrong in real life? I sometimes wish Brandon would tell the rest of the ideals not out of curiosity about the books but because I genuinely wish I had some more guidance in life. I wish I knew which order of Knight Radiants Brandon would place himself in. I wish I knew what philosophy Brandon really believes.

Assume for a moment you're the Ghostbloods after Gavilar's death. You want to keep tabs on the Kholins and the sons of honor; find out what they knew. You look to recruit someone in the Kholin's inner circle, someone with a penchant for assassination and spying, someone with a thirst for secrets, someone you know is hostile to your enemies. Assume for a moment you're Jasnah after Gavilar's death, your asking your assassin friends what happened, you're desperate for knowledge about shadesmar, you're desperate for answers in general. Maybe Jasnah found out about the Ghostbloods when researching her father, or through a mutual acquantince. Maybe the Ghostbloods sought her out. Either way they both would have wanted to work together. They wanted each others secrets. Jasnah was part of the Ghostbloods. This explains why Jasnah and the Ghostbloods have so much of the same information and objectives. This isn't randomly killing off the competition, Jasnah broke free. Perhaps she killed her handlers premptively. Perhaps the Ghostbloods struck first. The real question is, why did Jasnah quit the Ghostbloods? Jasnah has a utilitarian view of the world. I think she would be fine with most of the Ghostbloods activities. I think the only thing that would really turn her stomach is if she discovered that the Ghostbloods were a threat to her family or the world.

Ever read the crab cannon from Hofstadter's GEB? What's weird to me though is how crabs are the most asymmetrical animal, one giant claw sticking out.

And the plan is to use one submarine to search all the ocean depths for one burlap sack? All you're going to find is the Tai Na's bigger meaner cousin.

At Thaylen City Odium threatens to kill a fused but doesn't. Why doesn't he kill any of the fused? Many of them are insane, dangerous, useless, and others are worse then useless. They are exhausted and rebelling against him, Leshwi, Rabonial in her own way. Why doesn't he make more fused as he intends to do to Dalinar? If Odium was optimizing his armies he would let go of worn souls and create new fused, based on merit or service. Odium is bound in some way. I believe he created something similar to the oath pact with the fused. Perhaps he promised that if they served him faithfully they would rule Roshar again. Perhaps creating more fused leaves him vulnerable in some way. What are the implications? Could Dalinar exploit this agreement? Destroy them by surrendering?

The next secret announcement: Brandon is writing a new book! On paper! Readers can buy it in 'bookstores'. It will come out next year and pick up where his last book ended. Swag will be provided for all pirates. Boxes sold seperately.

We are depleting stores of water. I think that the true spren are supposed to naturally bond greatshells and elevate them to a final form.

I think the recreance was radical environmentalism. Spren and stormlight are tied to the natural eco-system of roshar, the radiants were depleting them. They realized they were an invasive species and like the stormfather said "tried to protect the world".

He could regret his choices, see that he was wrong. I think he already does. What he can't do is undo what he did. He's redeemable but not forgivable. He can never again eat stew among friends. He might hope for a good death, to die trying to make ammends.

Ivory is Jasnah's spren, my mistake. Some people have suggested Jasnah is utilitarian and logical. I see Jasnah as emotional. Consider how she treats Shallan. Not interested goodbye, I was so worried about you, I'll never forgive you, marry my cousin, alright let's practice note taking, congratulations sister. People can be both emotional and intelligent. Jasnah seems wildly out of control to me.

Kora reached out and felt the feeble grasps of Taravangian's dying mind. An interesting creation, a lovely work of contrasts. "All flowers grow pale and fall away, my son. We all must change even me." She touched the power. Such heat, "what are the passions of a man compared to the passions of a God?" Kora had experienced countless lives and she felt them all. Ecstasy! Every love, every loss, every joy, every HATE. It burned, Rayse, Tanavast, neither had ever cared for her, never truly known her, never seen her. And this world, none of them appreciated the beauty of it. The endless, impossible, life around them. They hunted her children. They shattered the very lands she had so lovingly wrought! And the outsiders, the interlopers, the pests. Emissarys of lesser Gods sent to peck and meddle and steal from her garden! Cephandrius schemed to unite them against her. Could she confront them, send her creations out to fight and die? She longed to rip them out, to build a mountain of weeds and corpses and cities. Then she saw the way. Her agents would spread from world to world. She need not fight them when she could so easily turn them against each other. She would grow, siphoning off their power, corrupting their intent. She would consume them, people by people. A good garden needs fertilizer. Cancer smiled.

I suppose my point is that vigilantes act in the name of the public without asking the public what they want. Maybe the barmaids and patrons of the Ralinsa want a trial, maybe they want restorative justice rather than retribution. I don't know. You're right Pathfinder. I can only speak for myself. Jasnah doesn't know either though. Just like she doesn't know what those men's stories were or what might have happened if she let them live.

There's all this talk about how Jasnah is protecting others. As is if everyone else is just helplessly waiting for someone to rescue them. I can protect myself. I am responsible for my own safety. Please don't hurt anyone in my name. Jasnah should worry about herself. What does casually killing people do to a person? It lessens the value of human life, normalizes violence. It haunts a person and makes them fearful and paranoid. It twists a person, steals the joy of life, moment by moment. How long before she starts ordering assassinations or plotting genocide?

In my experience, paranoid people have secrets. We know Jasnah is ruthless. Jasnah would kill all the singers or all the heralds, depending on her mood. Nor is family safe. She is willing to spy on and kill her sister in law and almost kill her cousin. She has the intellect, the disposition towards deceit, the poise and the murderous brutality necessary to be a traitor. She also has an arrogance and certainty; a willingness to make grand moves, great sacrifices, if she believes them necessary. She knows things she isn't sharing with Dalinar. Has Jasnah made a concerted effort to stop Odium. Not in WOK or WOR, her recommendations about the parshmen could have been a cover. I think she knew they wouldn't be taken seriously. In Oathbreaker, she choose to spare Renarin. Pattern said "a traitor is". Perhaps she meant that Sja-anat was a traitor to Odium. We know Odium has been concerned about Sja-anat and her 'children'. We know Renarin helped bring down Rayse. Perhaps that was Sja-anat's plan and Jasnah went to stop it but decided not to. In Rhythm of War she spends most of it away from the fight, interrogating the Heralds, getting close to Wit, consolidating her power. Before the books we know she investigated her father's assassination. She could have discovered things about his plans, how he got access to voidlight. Why hasn't she shared that information with Dalinar? What does she want from the Heralds? What is she keeping from Hoid? All I mean to say is it's possible that she is a traitor. She would need some grand reason, the fate of the cosmere, a better Roshar, the promise she could found a dynasty. I could see her stepping into her father's shoes.

It feels too obvious. We're supposed to believe Maya is getting better because of Adolin's kindness. What if Maya's recovery is part of Odium's plan? Healing Maya might be an excellent step towards recruiting Adolin.

I think he's trying to make a new kind of radiant, ones that are less corruptible.