Use the Falchion

And that's a wrap on Dragonsteel for me! I got all of the swag I could have wanted, had some fun conversations, and even got my questions answered!* Thank you @Argent for the 17th Shard ribbon! (I was the dude in the front row at the Defiant release party tonight!) Let's do this all again next year! *My questions were: (Asked during Intentionally Blank) - Between the worlds in Apocalypse Guard and Dark One, which would you [Brandon and Dan] rather live on?" (They both answered Dark One, since Apocalypse Guard's worlds are constantly ending and Dan loves the characters in Dark One very much.) (Asked during Spoiler Q&A) - Have we met the admiral of the Night Brigade or the family of said admiral (in Sunlit Man)? Paraphrasing, but the Admiral is the protagonist of The Night Brigade! Brandon emphasized that she is NOT the hero (which connotes a level of morality she may not possess), but she is the protagonist.

The sample of Apple Books let me read farther I think, so if you have an Apple device, check it out there also! EDIT: Nevermind, the one you link is better!

YKYASFW you see that Brandon's on a writing retreat in his latest update, and you use that information to modify your latest sheet of a theoretical work schedule for the man for the next five years. (The immediate breakdown is that if Brandon can get to 85-86% by this next update, then he has a solid chance of finishing the first draft of Stormlight 5 by the end of November. (Roughly 6 weeks at 2% and then one week at 3%, assuming he doesn't sprint the last 5% or so in a single night.) That gives Sanderson the month of December to choose between a few things: 1. Immediately start Draft 3.0 2. Start another project, such as Horneater or a smaller, less intensive project that can either be completed in a month or dropped/postponed without any harm. (My preferred choice, with Mulholland Homebrew's Sinister Shop of Secret Pets as the preferred project.) 3. Revise something else, such as The Apocalypse Guard. (If he could do this and Mulholland due to finishing Stormlight 5 early, I'd be living my best Sanderson life.) 4. Take a break, recharge, and enjoy a video game or two and increased family time. (The most likely outcome.) Granted, the above most likely isn't going to happen. I think it's more likely that Sanderson will bet to 83-84%, which puts him back on schedule with ample time to do a quick revision of this last chunk in December as opposed to ahead of schedule. Stormlight 5 is a big book, so getting that far ahead in about a week isn't very likely. It's still fun speculation though!)

Hmm...I think Adolin is high up on the list, but I think it'll be Szeth or no one will die. I think Kaladin will Ascend to Honor, Dalinar will pull some Connection shenanigans that allows Team Honor to win but leaves him as Zellion, and Adoin will lead a charge of newly revived Spren (and willing-to-bond Spren) as a "Big Storming Heroes" moment in the climax. Yes, Szeth has already died before, but I can't see a purpose for him in the second half of the series or the Cosmere as a whole. (Although him joining a Cosmere-hopping group would be hilarious. I can see him joining the Seventeenth Shard or other Cosmere-Aware groups as a sort of Ultimate Cop thing, but that's really it.)

Trying out "That Would Be Enough" based off of Chapter 52 of Oathbringer, "After His Father." This is a more...generous take of Evi and Dalinar's relationship, to be sure... (It was also far easier to do than "Burn.")

Playing Fire Emblem Engage again in order to complete some builds, and I just switched a few around as I didn't like how they were performing. Although honestly at this point, I'm just using it to bide my time until the next game comes out. (I'm really hoping Genealogy Remake is announced in the next Nintendo Direct for a January release!!) I'm hoping that I'll get the motivation to play Persona 5 Strikers again and go through that, but I just don't like playing the game on the Switch. It's a lesson learned, and I probably won't be getting Persona 5 Tactica on the Switch either then.

Somebody SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeee!

It wasn't about it winning, as I have faith it'll win other things. It's just about the nomination.

Movies: Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One. A great movie full of fun action, good set pieces, and a plot that was pretty easy to follow this time around. (Last time wasn't bad either tho.) The fight scenes were a bit choppy and the dialogue was quite generic at times, but a fun cast, dynamic (to the point of distracting at times IMO) framing, and very solid chemistry between the leads make it a phenomenal MI film. 9/10. Oppenheimer. Beautiful. Almost too beautiful. And so well cut! The pacing is a bit weird, but I also started the movie 10 minutes late unfortunately. On the bright side, I got to see it in 70mm IMAX, so it was stunning. I'm still annoyed that the movie was this good, as it probably knocks Across the Spider-Verse out of the "Best Picture" category. (Oh, I have no doubt Spider-Verse will win the "Best Animated Picture" category and maybe something for visuals or score, but Oppenheimer takes the cake here.) 9.5/10. I was unable to do the Barbienheimmer thing though, due to scheduling and the start of the school year. Shows: My Adventures With Superman. Aka Magical Girl Superman. Aka Sailer Krypton. Aka Superman the Anime. Aka a really fun and bright take on the Man of Steel. Clark Kent (age 22 or 23) is looking to be just a regular person, but between his own fractured knowledge of who he is, his own too-good-for-this-Earth nature, and his propensity for accidentally breaking anything he slightly grips or slaps, that's...out of the picture. But never fear! Along for the ride are his bests friend Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane. This show is interesting. Die-hard Prescriptivists of DC will probably take offense to the show, given how it plays with certain characters' looks, origins, and relationships to Superman. Others may praise this show and its tone as the best thing that's happened for Superman in decades. I'm personally somewhere in the middle, although I lean into the optimism. I love new takes on characters. I see each superhero as a tapestry, and each adaptation or run as a chance to add to that tapestry. Each change in actor or animation style brings in a different way of interpreting the characters involved, which in turn makes each performance that much different. Sometimes these changes are so defining that adaptations in other media conform to it. (See Black Nick Fury vs the pre-Ultimate Spider-Man and Samuel L Jackson version, or RDJ's Iron Man, who, while he looked like the character, had all other versions of the character* ultimately become more like him.) I bring this up because MAWS adds a fun homage to the anime, specifically shonen anime and the magical girl genre, to Superman with light, colorful openings and changing sequences, fun fights, and random power growths. (Not unlike Smallville for the latter example.) Do I think this show is the best version of Superman in years? Not really. I enjoyed Snyder's "God Amongst Man" interpretation of Space Jesus Clark, and I really like seeing the Superhero/Father/Husband/Friend balancing act that Clark in Superman & Lois has going on.* But as someone once smarter than me who I can't remember once said, after a certain point with superheroes who have been around long enough, you're not adapting a character, you're adapting a mythos, which is FAR more interesting to me. 8/10. *As an aside, I haven't seen a lot of fans like the aging up of Jon Kent in the comics. If they ever decide to de-age him, I think splitting him up between his older self and his younger self would be a cool way to introduce "Jordan" into the mythos.

I've really enjoyed the album since release day! I'm not sure I like it better than CLOUDS, but they do different things for me. It's also not my favorite album of the year so far. (That's a tie between Touzisya by EGOIST and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Original Score) by Daniel Pemberton.) Still, Hope is great in all the ways it needs to be, and adds a lot of flavor on a pretty stinkin' flavorful year for music. Favorites: "HOPE" "PANDAMONIUM" "TURN MY BACK" (One of my themes for the Cradle book series.) "LET EM PRAY" (Another one of my themes for the Cradle book series.) "RUNNING"

Thanks!! Oh I like that! My first knee-jerk reaction is admittedly Dalinar walking back from the Rift, but I'd have to look up the words again to make sure it fits...and probably reread Oathbringer...

"Satisfied" from Hamilton, but it's Dalinar singing at Gavilar and Navani's wedding. I've been meaning to do this for years, but today I actually, finally, just sat down and did it. (Not that it was hard, just annoying.) Not all of the words fit perfectly and I changed who sang which lyrics to make it more of a dialogue and mutual pining, but it's done. Dalinar is also very sorely mistaken in multiple parts of this lol! Color-coded for convenience and for those who want to listen and read. Someday I'd love to do Burn as well, but we'll see if that ever gets done.

Got my VIP ticket the second I could. Third year in a row! My current questions if I can get them asked at the convention and not during a live stream Q&A: To Isaac - Any updates on Dark One Volume 2? To Brandon & Dan - Between Apocalypse Guard and Dark One's novelization, which is more likely to be released first? To Brandon - What can we do as fans to help you write more Secret Project books? Has Adamant been considered as a Mainframe project? I feel like with Dan and Janci (and Isaac), you've got a really good group of potential cowriters to work with on it someday.

For Mistborn, my go-to is a now-deleted playlist by xKito. (It was the 2016 Futurebass playlist.*) From that playlist all I remember are "Synchronize (VIP Mix)" by Hellberg for Elend and Vin in TFE and "Lit (Skrux Remix)" by Lexy Pantera during the climax of HoA. Outside of that, I think that "Is This the End?" by 6th Street is the definitive song for Hero of Ages. (I mean, it works for the entire original trilogy, but it feels far more poignant during HoA.) Kelsier's theme-song to me is "Survive" by Rise Against. For Era 2, I don't really have much. I listen to "Submarine" by Hans Zimmer when reading Shadows of Self to ramp up that sense of unease and tension. I listened to "Ego Death" and "Bloodbath" by Polyphia for parts of The Lost Metal, with "First Fires" by Bonobo being the song I listened to during the final moments of the climax through the end of the book. (I was playing the Monday before TLM's release at Dragonsteel 2022 as people were being seated for Brandon's panel, and it just sort of...stuck to me.) If I was placing some of these in a movie, I'd say that "Survive" is the end-credits song to TFE, while "Submarine," "Is This the End?" and "First Fires" are the Official Trailer songs to SoS, HoA, and TLM respectively. ("First Fires" may or may not be the end-credits song, depending on how the director feels about it." *Another song I adore from the playlist is called "Ghosts" by Thousand Giants on YouTube. I've heard it called something else, and just a few weeks ago I read in other comments that it's actually from a Netflix add from like 2015 and is just a remix of "Ezio's Family" from Assassin's Creed. I enjoy the song regardless.

This was a CRAZY episode! I'm gonna need to rewatch it just to get all of the implications and absorb all of that information.

For Stormlight, I usually tie the character themes with the book with their flashbacks, but it's not a set rule. Outside of that, it's usually the books that get theme songs, not the characters. The ones that tie into the characters: Kaladin - "We Rise" by San Holo as well as both "Drown" and "Throne" by Bring Me the Horizon Shallan - Nothing that truly describes her, but I like listening to "On and On" by Cartoon when things are going well in TWOK and "Zephyrus" by Bloc Party when things are going poorly. Szeth - "Kingslayer" by Bring Me the Horizon Dalinar - "Insane Dream" by Aimer is my "anime opening" theme for Oathbringer, as it follows Dalinar's journey pretty much perfectly for me. "Sins of the Father" by Donna Burke is his personal song (and the "end-credits" song for Oathbringer) though, with "Wretches and Kings" by Linkin Park and "Weapon" by Against the Current being Flashback Dalinar's songs. Adolin - "Classic Man" by Jidenna, mostly for the vibes. Spensa - "Tribal" by Kicks'N'Licks, but the whole xKito 2017 Future Bass mix is my Skyward soundtrack. (Starsight gets "Fine" by Mike Shinoda and Cytonic and the Skyward Flight Collection get "Corallium" by Band-Maid) Lift - "PUPA" by Nothing's Carved In Stone Taln - "Again & Again" by Against the Current Ash - "Gravity" by Nothing's Carved In Stone Jasnah - I'm thinking about it just now, but "Swan Song" by Saweetie and NIKI seems like a really good choice. Yumi and Painter - "Lullaby" by Against the Current, "Calling" by Metro Boomin, Swae Lee, and NAV, and "NAMAENO NAI KAIBUTSU (Giga Remix)" by EGOIST I see your awesome pick, and propose "Survive," also by Rise Against.

I watched the first two episodes of My Adventures With Superman aka Magical Girl Superman. It's good so far! It's pretty. It's a light and breezy take on the Boy Wonder, something that feels pretty refreshing after the serious take of Henry Cavill's take on Superman and the dad that is Tyler Hoechlin's take. (For the record, I enjoy both takes.) There isn't too much to say on this show just yet, since it's only two episodes in, but I'm loving the reinterpretation of Superman and DC staples as well as the actions and visuals. If you're a fan of Superman and have watched any shows featuring or about the character since Smallville, nothing so far should surprise you, but it's enjoyable all the same.

I mean technically they did. The first trailer came out in December 2021, and it states

I've been REALLY into Progression Fantasy and LitRPG these days, which is weird to me given my general dislike of Isekais and the genre. (Log Horizon is the exception.) but that may be due to ignorance, and there admittedly are other stories that have interesting enough concepts that I'd be willing to try them. Back to books, I've gone through: Cradle series by Will Wight (as mentioned previously) - Recommended - 12 books and complete Unbound series by Nicoli Gonnella - Recommended if you like LitRPGs and OP main characters - 7 books and incomplete Manifestation series by Samuel Hilton - Recommended if you like Cradle - 2 books and incomplete Street Cultivation trilogy by Sarah Lin - Recommended if you like a hybrid of LitRPG stuff, Urban Fantasy, and Cradle - 3 books and complete Titan Hoppers by Rob J Hayes - Sci-Fi Progression Fantasy. - 2 books and incomplete All the Skills by Honour Rae - Recommended. (My favorite LitRPG, or at least tied with Unbound) - 2 books and incomplete 4 books in the Mage Errant series. - Not recommended. - 8 books I think. No idea if it's complete or not. I've also tried the Battle Mage Farmer series, but I couldn't get past 33%. The same is true with Defiance of the Fall. I may finish DoTF, but it won't be any time soon. Currently, I'm trying out One More Last Time in hopes that it'll give me what I want. Hopefully soon I'll go back to regular Fantasy books and cross some things off my TBR list...

After beating Jedi Survivor (my current game of the year), I'm on Persona 5 Strikers. It grabbed me initially, but now it's not engaging me as much as I'd like. When I play it, I just want to play Three Hopes instead, which then aggravates me because of how unfinished Three Hopes is, and how much I dislike the non-Azure Gleam routes...and how easy NG+ is...sigh... EDIT: I'm also playing a mod/rewrite of Fates called Silent Waves. It's good, but the novelty is wearing off pretty quickly, and I dislike playing it on my laptop.

If you like Sweater Weather, I have a remix for you!

Same, except from the teacher side of things lol! Having it on Thanksgiving Week means that I don't have to use 3 PTO days to attend, which is very helpful in the case that I get sick or just need a personal day.

Across the Spider-Verse has lived up to the hype.

Definitely one of my favorites as well, next to Satsified, First Burn, and Right Hand Man.

I read all 11 Cradle books by Will Wight in about 6 days (Saturday through Thursday), so that was fun! They're pretty short reads (the first five combined are still shorter than the first two Stormlight books combined, at about 530k words or so) and never get too dark, so I enjoyed them. I plan on exploring more of the Progression Fantasy genre, but this was a good and fun start. I don't plan on revising the series anytime soon, but I eagerly await Book 12 in June.