Use the Falchion

At long, LONG last, I have completed Claude and Edelgard's support chain! Accompanying songs are "Listening With a Million Ears" by Ramin Djawadi and/or "Gion-Cho" by Band-Maiko (a spin-off of sorts of Band-Maid) C-Support: B-Support: B+ Support: Is only available after Chapter 7: The Battle of the Eagle and Lion A-Support: Epilogue: Author's Notes: Now, as a bonus support, I'll even give y'all my terrible Bernadetta x Ignatz support. Accompanying song is "No Judgement" by Niall Horan OR "Final Fantasy XIII-2 Theme" or "Serah's Theme - Memories" by Masashi Hamauzu (with Frances Maya providing vocals on the latter). C-Support: C+ Support: B-Support: B+ Support: A Support: A+ Support: Author's Notes And for one, final surprise. You see, when talking about the Silver Routes, I always thought that there should be a path where Edelgard and Rhea team up to face down TWSITD. (Claude would serve as the Big Bad for this route, sadly.) And to that end, I wrote the support for Edelgard and Rhea. It's not complete, as there was some extra, non-support dialogue that needed to be added, and it's not polished enough for me to consider posting here, but it has been written. Right now it's sitting at at four conversations - a C, B, B+, and A. I'd like to write an A+ support before I finish, but I need to figure out how I want the epilogue to go before I do that. (I could very well end it with the A-Support, but I want the A+ Support to wrap things up.) So yeah, hopefully soon-ish, I'll give y'all what I consider the final Silver Route support.

Well now we have some updates in this year's SotS. Three novellas, written as one "episode" or "book," if you will. The first one, going off of what we know, is called Deathrise. Bohls is revising something now, and maybe that with that revision and announcement teaser we'll get some more information! Steven Bohls on Instagram: “Writing a book is fun. Revising a book is not. I've been working on an exciting project for a while, and I'm excited to finally share it…”

It's up now!

THIS IS THE FULL STORMLIGHT SPOILERS SIGNING. DO NOT WATCH IF YOU HAVE NOT READ EVERY STORMLIGHT NOVEL AND NOVELLA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF8nuJte1o8

Looking forward to playing!

70%!

It's quite possible they will, especially if some of the theories I've heard about Kaladin's ultimate fate end up being true. But it's also possible that just like some of the humans we've seen in Shadesmar, we may get some spren who want to fully live in the Physical Realm in the future. Again, possible, so while you're trying to be sarcastic, I actually don't have a problem with this. Oroden would have to bond post-timeskip though, as he's too young to comprehend the words right now. The only squicky part about this is Kaladin marrying Cultivation. Not because I have a problem with the ship, but because Kaladin is explicitly called the "Son of Tanavast" by the Stormfather, which we've yet to fully decipher the meaning of. Add to that, given what we know of Tanavast and Slammer's previous relationship (and how Cultivation may feel about the Stormfather in some ways), it'd be kinda weird. But if we find out that there's no real connection between Tanavast and Kaladin, I'm game.

I always cheat on answers like, these. To me, The Way of Kings is my favorite to rearead, Words of Radiance is objectively Brandon's best work, Oathbringer is the one I connect with the most (and is better than WoR on a technical level), and Rhythm of War is the one I had the best time reading. What does "the best time reading" mean? To me, it means that I wasn't worried about questions from previous books or too heartbroken when my theories were proven wrong. I enjoyed the journey more than the destination.* I'm not sure if that moniker will stick to be honest, but I think that's where it is now. In terms of the tone, this book felt a lot like Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi to me. I AM NOT SAYING YOU HAVE TO LIKE ONE TO LIKE THE OTHER, NOT AT ALL. But there's something in the tone and experience I had that makes them feel similar. Or maybe another way of looking at it is like the middle Wheel of Time books. It feels like a lot happens, and so much is being discovered, but the plot doesn't really go anywhere, you know? Not that it's a problem - I LOVE digging into those small, character driven scenes. Regardless, I can't answer yet, because I need a reread. *This had the side effect of me not being as emotionally invested in the story as I feel like I should have been. I'm sure that'll change once I do a full reread though.

And here I thought it was a shoutout to the people at The Dusty Wheel, or all of the taverns in The Wheel of Time.

I primarily ship Renarin with Lift, but yeah, I also have a feeling that he's probably gay. In that case, after ROW, him and Rlain being a couple makes a lot of sense.

I promised a friend I'd read her current favorite book in exchange for trying Mistborn, so I'll be reading The Inquisitor's Tale sometime soon hopefully. Other than that, I've been really enjoying Boom! Comics' Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers run. I just finished Shattered Grid, which was...whelming. I was expecting something more than I got, but I wasn't disappointed either. Maybe there were some crossovers I was missing? I'll have to reread it sometime. Anyways, the comic is great for those who want all of that good Power Rangers feel but don't want to deal with the '90s stuff either.

And I forgot to add, Phin from the PS5 Spider-Man: Miles Morales game and Terry McGinnis from Batman Beyond. MASSIVE, GAME-RUINING SPOILERS FOR SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES.

Who is into YA romance, which usually have teenage protagonists. I'm not saying it's bad - again, I second your choice. But if the intended audience wants a little more than just "does s/he like me? What am I supposed to do in a relationship? Why am I messing this up," then they should be warned of that ahead of time.

Seconding the rec, but the romance aspect is pretty...immature? Not bad, but it's VERY much about pre-teens and teens learning to sort out their feelings than sappy romance from what I remember (I still need to read that final book though...)

Yes I do! I'll edit that now.

When you have a dream about someone clearly from the future leaving Stormlight Book 5 behind,* you only getting to the artwork and then deciding to give it to Brandon so that he can release it Winter 2021 and spend his time writing other books...and then you wake up and wonder about what Sanderson would actually do in this scenario. (I think Sanderson would probably give the book to Peter or someone to see if it matches up with his outline, write out the first draft, and only then look and see if it's the same. If it is, then he'd probably use the future version to fast-track revisions and speed up the release time. All of that said, I'd LOVE it if he believed it was from the future, released the book early, and used the year and a half Stormlight requires moving ahead on Mistborn Era 3.**) *It was only clear in retrospect. At the time, it was just a beta or gamma copy that a beta/gamma reader had left behind (that had the artwork and everything weirdly enough). Brandon clearly knew whose it was, and even signed it, but obviously hadn't written the book yet. **Although if I was Brandon, I'd probably use that time to write out [EDIT] Rithmatist 2, polish The Apocalypse Guard, and write out that YA Cosmere Kite-based magic system. I DO believe he'll do those first two in the back-half of 2023 while revising his Era 3 outline, but having a year to do that earlier...yes please!

I know I said I shipped Miles and Hailey from Spider-Man: Miles Morales...and I do! But in a different world, I'd like to see what Miles and Lucius Fox's (youngest) daughter Tamara Fox would be like as a couple. This stems from my weird idea that the Bat-family and the Spider-Man Family (and the Superman Family) would all be really close. The Lucius' family is part of the Bat-family for all intents and purposes, so I like this idea of the "The Spider, the Fox and the Bat."

If she doesn't mind reading right-to-left, might I recommend the manga series Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War and Rurouni Kenshin? Both have anime, but I think the manga are better. Kaguya-Sama: Love is War is about two members of a presitgous high school student council (the president Miyuki Shirogane and his Veep, the titular Kaguya Shinomiya) as they fall in love with each other and engage in hilarious hijinks to make the other admit their feelings first. The two's incredibly different backgrounds help set the mood as well - Miyuki lives in a tiny apartment with his little sister and pretty useless father, while Kaguya comes from wealthy, being the daughter of the owner of one of the wealthiest companies in Japan (in the story). There are other hilarious cast members as well! The series evolves after a bit, but it's a fun-low stakes emotional comedy that I think you both may enjoy. VIZ | Read a Free Preview of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 1 Rurouni Kenshin is the story about a samurai named Himura Kenshin who travels around Japan 12 years after the Meiji Revolution, fighting to bring peace wherever he is. After a run in with a man claiming to be Hitokiri Battousai (aka Battousai the Manslayer in the anime's dub), one of the most famous assassins in Japan and a villain even among those he fought beside, Kenshin finds himself at the dojo of one Kaoru Kamiya, and ends up as a guest there. And so the tale of romance, reconciliation, and redemption begins... Rurouni Kenshin is one of my favorite manga of all time, even still. It has action, romance, tragedy, a little fantasy, and a lot of heart. The anime is very well-liked (well, the first two seasons anyway), the Trust & Betrayal OVA is breathtakingly beautiful and tragic, and the live action adaptations are actually good. If you liked Dalinar's arc in Oathbringer, you may like Rurouni Kenshin. HOWEVER, there is a downside, and it's a big one. This work necessitates the separation of an author from their work. The creator of this series got caught doing with some incredibly heinous stuff which more or less killed his reputation in the west. If you read this, you'll have to ask yourself if you can separate the message from the man. If not, I don't blame you. Heck, I still struggle with this. I'll link some videos that cover it better than I can. VIZ | Read a Free Preview of Rurouni Kenshin, Vol. 1 Other than that...maybe Jay Kristoff's Lotus War trilogy? I really like those books, but they do have sexual content, so be warned. EDIT: Another, more modern (and far less angsty) manga your daughter may like is called Spy x Family. It's about the journey of a spy as he takes on a dangerous mission to gain information from a reclusive diplomat during this world's Cold War era...by finding a wife, having a daughter and sending her to a prestigious elementary school where she can befriend said diplomat's youngest son. Unfortunately, the daughter the spy ends up adopting is a telepath, and the woman he ends up marrying is an assassin for the other country, using him as her cover for why she doesn't have a boyfriend. Overall it's the story of a three vastly different people coming together as a family, despite them using it as a disguise. It's also hilarious. VIZ | Read Spy x Family, Chapter 1 Manga - Official Shonen Jump From Japan

Mando Season 3 will air around Christmas 2021!

Songs provide a lot of inspiration for me, but sometimes I'll just imagine a scene and come up with a story to justify it. For other stories, I come up with a concept first and work from there. Those ideas are usually me having "conversations" with other stories I like and working off of similar concepts in order to achieve a different answer.

I just got back from where I was, and am going to watch them! Here's a list of all of the updates from Reddit: Disney Investor Day - Webcast Discussion (Dec 10th 1:30PT) : marvelstudios (reddit.com) Now, onto the controversial topic - Chadwick Boseman. Marvel has decided not to recast him. I understand and respect that decision, but I also wholeheartedly disagree with it. Keeping the role uncast deprives black youths (and youths of all ethnicities) a role-model. It's stopping progress on the road Chadwick worked so hard to build. It's immortalizing him without immortalizing what he stood for. We can have Shuri take over as the Black Panther and still have T'Challa as a king. The two aren't mutually exclusive. But Disney made their choice, and I'll respect it.

Update 2 has officially reached Reddit! Skyward Three Update Two : brandonsanderson (reddit.com)

I don't think Nale will side with Odium, especially now. Nale's argument has been that the land belongs to the Singers, and that since the Singers are with Odium, he'll side with Odium. However, as of RoW, we know there's a "third party," so to speak. If/when Nale finds out about them, then he has no reason to side with Odium anymore. He can side with Singers who want their independence and freedom, and not go against Team Dalinar. Anyways, I'm on the Gavinor is Odium's Champion for a few reasons. First is that it reminds me of a some really cool character twists in movies and shows. I sadly can't think of too many, but two come to mind. MASSIVE, MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING AND ELEMENTARY The key points are that the hero thinks the villain is one person, when it turns out to be someone completely different, who they can't take out without collateral damage to either their family or their soul. That is what Gavinor is to Dalinar. In terms of the Death Rattle, I too used to believe that the "suckling babe" was too old to be Gavinor. But Death Rattles aren't always literal, are they? They capture the spirit of the event, not the actual event itself. First, let's try to figure out how and why it could work: The first thing of note is that Book 5 was originally going to be Dalinar's book, and Book 3 was going to be Szeth's book. In a way, this makes sense. We couple the birth of Szeth as we knew him with the rebirth of Szeth now, and it would allow him to be more present in the story without actually being physically present. (I think he only starts to appear in Part 4 of Oathbringer.) Something happened that made Sanderson switch the two however, and after reading OB I think we're all grateful that he did. But what would have happened had Brandon kept the flashbacks as they were in the original plan? What moments would have been thematically and narratively resonant? I think one would have been Dalinar first taking Oathbringer. You see, when Dalinar first went to the Rift and fought the lord of Rathalas, he refused to kill the lord's son Tanalan because Tanalan was just a child at that point. Unfortunately, that child grew up to be a hateful, vengeful man. What if that was supposed to be the narratively resonant moment in Book 5? A foreshadowing of what is to come? At one of the main points in Oathbringer, Dalinar is faced with a choice to kill a child, and chooses not to. We believe he killed this child for a decent amount of time, and are relieved to find out he didn't. But what if that feeling was supposed to pair with the dread we'd later feel when Dalinar didn't kill a child that we knew he should probably kill? What if Dalinar was once again faced with the same choice as before, but this time we wanted him to make the terrible decision? The pairing that with the idea of seeing this man make the a choice that at one time leads to personal ruin and political glory, and then make that same exact choice later on for personal glory and political (and global) ruin? That's something I can see Sanderson doing. So if this moment is thematically resonant for Dalinar, how can we shape Gavinor to fit that? Why would Gavinor join TOdium? This one's an easy answer - revenge. Gavinor wants to train in order to kill Vyre. He explicitly states this, and both Dalinar and Navani note how weird this is. TOdium could easily promise Gavinor three things in order to help convince the child. 1. I will let you have kill the man who killed your father. (Gavinor wants revenge, and it's a pretty Alethi thing to do. I can easily see TOdium giving up Vyre (especially in his weakened state) in order to have a willing Champion that his enemies won't kill.) 2. I will give you your kingdom back. (Gavinor is/is being raised to be a loyal Alethi and a king. I'm sure having an actual kingdom is high on his list. And yes, Alethkar will go back to Dalinar if he wins, but TOdium doesn't need to tell Gavinor that.) 3. You won't have to hurt anyone. (Technically true, as TOdium probably expects Dalinar to either give up rather than hurt Gav, or kill himself in some sort of misguided sacrifice.) How I imagine this would play out: Dalinar spends the next ten days learning about his powers as a Bondsmith, going over the type of person Odium might use in order to win the Contest. A Spren? Possibly? But Dalinar now knows it's possible to bring Spren into the Physical Realm and kill them that way. (Oh, and Anti-Voidlight). A Fused? Possibly, but would Odium leave such an important challenge to a lackey? No...it must be someone else... On the tenth day, Dalinar rises and heads to the appointed spot. He looks and sees no enemies, only his soldiers...and soon Gavilar walks out, slightly confused about what is going on, but trying to put on a brave face. Dalinar wants to usher the boy back in, and then horror and understanding sinks in. And now, Dalinar, trapped to a battle to the death with a boy he sees so much of Gavilar, Elhokar, Adolin and Renarin in. He failed them all at some point or another, and now he has agreed to fight and kill Gavinor. That would almost certainly break the man. Now imagine the above paired with Dalinar's flashbacks. Him trying to fight Gavinor after seeing how he treated his own sons when they were young. Him trying to fight Gavinor after seeing what the accidental murder of Evi did to him. Him trying to fight Gavinor as he hears the screams of those he murdered before, coming back to him. So, how does Dalinar escape this? He's a Bondsmith, right? And we saw what Ishar could do, almost stealing Dalinar's bond to the Stormfather and his bond to Odium. Why not have Dalinar replicate that? Dalinar switches the bond between Odium and Gavinor to himself, and his bond as Honor's Champion to someone else (most likely Taln or Kaladin, if the latter is nearby), and has the latter kill him. And at that moment of death, Dalinar swears an Ideal and Ascends not (unlike Mr. T), becoming Honor and defeating Odium. Problems I've seen with this theory: "It ruins Dalinar's arc" - I personally don't see it this way. Dalinar's arc has always been about improving oneself. I don't see Dalinar not letting a child take fall into revenge undoes that. "Dalinar sacrificing himself is stupid" - While I do think that sometimes martyrdom can be vanity at time, I also think there's a time and a place for it. This would be one such time. "Dalinar fought so hard to NOT be Odium's Champion. Him ending up there ruins everything he did." - This is a difficult one for me to counter, as I have problems explaining myself well. I think that Nohadon's quote applies here more than anything else. Dalinar ending his journey as Odium's Champion doesn't mean that it ruins any of the work he did as being Honor's Bondsmith, especially if his actions under Odium help Honor. His journey is more important than his destination. And yes, the destination is important (and the ending of stories often time shapes how we feel about the journey), but if Dalinar's journey ends in him being honorable and maybe even becoming Honor itself, then I think it's fine. Besides, things like intent matter. For example (and this may be a TERRIBLE example): murder is bad. Let's just cover that. Killing someone in a robbery is ABSOLUTELY, 100% WRONG. However, killing someone who came into your house with the intent to harm you as a form of self-defense is far less bad. They both may end with you in jail, but in one you defended your family from a danger. That's sort of how I could see this going with Dalinar. Yes, he may die either way, but in one circumstance, he defended his family and saved the world. Anyways, what would all of this mean for Roshar going forward? I have some ideas, but nothing set in stone. What I think I'd like to see the most of would be TOdium fighting his intent. After he loses, TOdium realizes that due to the change of his Champion, he actually has some wiggle room. And in that moment, he decides to strike a fatal blow to Roshar, weakening his prison and the world as a whole. However, a moment later, Mr. T realizes how dangerous this power is and decides he needs to would himself even further. To do so, he attacks the one place the power that he now holds promised not to attack - Kharbranth. In doing so, the Shard of Odium is weakened enough to be taken out by either Honor, Cultivation, or Nightblood. (Or some unholy combination of the three.) However, TOdium's actions have destabilized the planet, and now they must find a way to get everyone living in both the physical realm and the cognitive realm out of the system. Or something. "That makes the Champion's Battle so anti-climactic" - I mean, everyone in-universe acknowledges that it won't just be about fighting the enemy. There's going to be more to the contest than that. Besides, this way is far more thematically resonant with Dalinar's history (as a person and with the two Shards).

And in more Marvel news (we should be getting a LOT more info tomorrow via the Shareholder's Meeting), Charlie Cox aka Netflix's Daredevil may be in Spider-Man 3, or at least introduced in the MCU proper. No word on whether or now Vincent's Kingpin will join him, but here's to hoping! Charlie Cox is Back as Daredevil in 'SPIDER-MAN 3' - Murphy's Multiverse -

The actor of Spider-Man 2's Doc Oc is revising his role for Tom Holland's Spider-Man 3, and theories of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their roles are now full fledged rumors. Personally, as much as I'd love to see all three Spider-Men in a movie together, I think it'd be just as impactful to have Tobey cast as Uncle Ben and Andrew cast as Richard Parker (aka Peter's dad). Either way, if these are true, how will you feel about them? https://collider.com/spider-man-3-cast-doc-ock-alfred-molina-andrew-garfield/amp/?__twitter_impression=true https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/how-the-multiverse-can-reshape-marvel