Sedside

Oh, thanks, I've missed it.

Is Towerlight accessible from the Cognitive Realm? I didn't quite catch it.

Totally agree with you on this. To me these problems started somewhere near the end of OB and then only grew larger. I hope the Stormlight removal will somewhat set the world to zero in this regard.

Let's not forget that it's like 99% possible that she is pregnant. She needs to earn some money for the journey, it will take her a couple of months. So the preparation and the journey itself can't be less than a year, and it means that the parturition will occur during the trip. It will make the task even harder. She will either have to give birth in a field with no medical help and no Stormlight to heal, or to find a midwife willing to go with her, which will also cost her time and money. Then she will be weakened by the birth, and also will have to continue her journey with a newborn, which is also not an easy task. Considering all of this, I don't think she will try to do it immediately. She will stay in Shadesmar till the child is at least 3 y/o or something. Or till she gathers enough resources to make this trip with a younger child.

Does it contribute to the book? Is it so necessary to write? I ask you to change your tone in referring to me to the more respectful one, if it's possible, please. I was not condescending on anyone, I'm just sharing my opinion about the book, which, I believe, this topic encourages. I suppose you haven't read my post carefully enough, or maybe I worded myself badly, sorry, I'm not native, but let me quote my own post again: My claim is not that it didn't happen, my claim is about Kaladin being treated like this. They are friends, he gave her a good gift, and there is no single word of appreciation of him from her side. Just silly talks of rejection and rivalry. And "relationship of shared pain", for storms' sake. I don't see any mentions of his bad state, or Kholinar, or Elhokar's death here: I never said they are not allowed to do this. I said it's repetitive and annoying, like checking the boxes on the list. Like there is some kind of density of them missing each other. Adolin misses Shallan every 3 chapters, Shallan misses Adolin every 5 chapters. Please ensure they still love each other no matter what. And yes, I agree, I think it's written solely for the fan service.

I absolutely agree with you. This is my second favorite sequence in this book, I enjoyed it so much, I think it was brilliant. I hoped that Sadeas' murder could be addressed in a similar way, but *sigh* it wasn't. Because this episode is actually a very good example of the possible ramifications of thinking someone deserves death for whatever reason. There always can be another side, a third party, who thinks otherwise, and it can backfire on you someday. That's why, in my opinion, moral is what it is. Not because of doing the right thing for the sake of the right thing, but mostly because of its possible long term consequences.

You are definitely not the only one. We even have an example of a decent romance in the very same book - Rlainarin. I enjoyed reading them, they were amazing. And when I read Shadolin I think Sanderson is either participating in some kind of writers' contest to write the most nauseating romance in the entire history, or desperately trying to convince me they are good by shoving this idea directly into my head. I was so annoyed by reading all of this "oh he missed Shallan so much, how is she there?", "oh she missed Adolin so much, how is he there?" stuff. Or this: Dear Mr. Sanderson, could I possibly read this scene, and draw my own conclusions about it, then decide if I agree with Adolin's conclusions or not? If it can be done like this, why bother writing everything else? I mean, why waste two chapters if you can just write "Taravangian brilliantly outplayed Jasnah using her own arguments and philosophy against her. He made several precise blows exactly where her views were flawed or twisted and that convinced Fen of Jasnah's hypocrisy. Later this day Thaylen decided to join the enemy". Or maybe "Kaladin played the flute and Nale became a good guy"? Or if you think romance isn't important enough for that, maybe don't write it at all? We already know from RoW that Shallan and Adolin are good together, no need to repeat it? Or why do I have to read this? Or this: Is it how people talk in real life? The world is ending, the enemy is at the gate, and May Aladar, the character we know almost nothing about, as well as we know absolutely nothing about her relationship with Adolin, brings up their "non-courting", says she is his "ex" (what? is it even a word on Roshar?), despite the fact that they were "NON-courting", and admits how glad she is that it didn't work for them and how good Shallan is for Adolin? Why is this woman deliberately saying something like "when I was your girlfriend you didn't pay any attention to me, and now when you are with another woman you treat her absolutely differenty, I am so glad about it!" Why is she repeating exactly the same idea Kaladin said earlier? "I'm glad it didn't happen, we would be so bad for each other, and you two are so good for each other, I think I'm going to cry from happiness for you now". Why should I read about Shallan rejecting Kaladin (from her standpoint), or Adolin's victory over a rival? What kind of rivalry was that even? Was it the example of a competition lost by not showing up, or something? Why should I read about Kaladin's emotionless mask on their wedding and brooding in the corner? What should it mean? "Oh, he is so upset I've rejected him, but he stands tall?" Screw you, Shallan. And this is exactly after she admits that his present helped her and relieved her anxiety, and now she is being mean towards him? I couldn't even read the chapter after this, I've skipped it almost entirely, because this treatment of Kaladin infuriated me. What is this all for? Why should Sanderson even address this issue if it's not an issue anymore? Does he think we are stupid? Or does he just like rubbing salt to our wounds inflicted by the whole stupid triangle thing that should have never existed in the first place? I remembered this WoB while reading WaT. I have no idea if questioner's friend is feeling very pleased now or not, but I can say what makes me feel pleased it went this way. It is the fact that Shallan's character has turned into such an utter garbage, that I'm pleased Kaladin doesn't have to deal with her now. She definitely doesn't deserve her second chance with the Herald of Second Chances.

I agree with everything @Returned wrote, but also would like to add a little bit to it. As was mentioned in Returned's post, alien mechanics are legitimate deus-ex-machina. It's like 'okay, this is alien stuff, so you don't have to think about how it works'. And as long as alien stuff is not marked as alien stuff, it wastes my attention and my efforts for nothing. In WoK Kaladin was magically surviving every bridge run and it was a puzzle, I wanted to figure out why it is happening. Then we had a reveal that he was using Stormlight all this time, and it was cool. But alien puzzles are unsolvable because the answer is not in the book. It's okay when there are just a couple of them. Like, Wit is a weird outworld dude and probably a god, fine. Zahel is also a weird outworld dude, as well as Azure. But with each next book the weird outworld stuff and dudes multiply, and I can't help but start to ignore them. The part of the book turns into blah-blah-blah for me, and I don't like reading blah-blah-blah. Like, in RoW there was an episode, when Shallan was searching for Restares, and there was a man called Sixteen. His description was so detailed and took so much page space that I thought this guy was important somehow. But then he wasn't. And now I am confused - what was this about? Just because it's fun to write a lot of words about unimportant guy? Because he will appear in the next book? Or because he is an easter egg from another book? Thats' what annoys me, besides of what Returned wrote.

Stuff you don't understand means chaos. If you turn a page and see some weird magic alien stuff you don't understand and could never anticipate saving the day, it ruins your experience as a reader and frustrates you. At least this is what is happening to me the more I get into WaT. If this unexpected stuff you don't understand doesn't save the day, but just exists, like Iyatil's tropheys or Wit talking to a dragon, it annoys you. Because you never know whether this stuff is relevant and you should keep it in mind, or it just takes page space and wastes your time. Also, it feels like new mechanics are brought over and over again, and they just become a mess in my head. Azure has a Shardblade, but it's not a spren in Shadesmar? How is that? Is it some kind of another Shardblade type, or maybe it's an Honorblade, or something else? If I were a simple reader, not participating in any community like this forum, I would have only figured out that she is from another planet in RoW. And all this time I would probably be puzzling over this. And after I've discovered that this is just "some weird alien stuff" I would have been disappointed. And then in RoW I see the sand, and it came offworld. Okay, so let's not even bother to understand this sand's mechanics. Then raysium mechanics also coming out of nowhere, just accept it. Okay, I will. Then El and weird bits of metal in his body, then the box for zoom calls. Then in WaT a strange ghostly guy with spikes in his eyes or whatever. Then Wit talking to dragons, changing his body, using bones for communication, and then I almost expect something like Ktulhu appear on the next page. Also, anything I don't understand becomes just a pure banner blindness, because I have no idea, whether it is a weird alien stuff, or Rosharan mechanics, that were not presented yet. Because I believe there are no captions like "Sword-nimi is from another world, if you want to know more about him, read Warbreaker". I can't tell weird alien stuff from other things because it's not signed as weird alien stuff, it's a part of the story I'm reading. There are certain rules that should be respected in literature. Like, if something exists in a book, it must exist there for a reason. WoK and WoR respect the rules, and they are great books. Warbreaker as well, I love it dearly, probably even more than WoK. But the more I proceed with SA, the more of the rules are violated. And, I believe, some people in this thread think the same. Well thought-out, concluded books turn into chaotic bang bang weird magic stuff pew pew explosion pfffff teleport wink God's speech and so on. It's boring, confusing and frustrating. I am highly invested in SA and want to know the ending of the first arc, but as long as you told me that the crossover was the initial plan and this is not going to end, I think I'm done with the Cosmere after it. Unless it is absolutely amazing and hits 100% of my requirements (I have the precise list of four items for what I want to see), which is not going to happen.

Oh, so the people who are not interested in the whole Cosmere story (like me) are out? I see. Well, I've already had a premonition that WaT will be the last Sanderson's book I'll read

I agree with you so much on this! It always looked for me like trying to guess what's in the author's head. What also gets me a little frustrated is that the more I read SA, the stronger I feel that I am obliged to read all of the Cosmere to understand the events of SA better. I don't think it's fair. Because the book series is Stormlight Archive, not Cosmere. I personally don't like Mistborn. I don't know, just not my book, I guess. I've tried to read it a couple of years ago, dropped it after several chapters, but this year I've managed to read FE and WoA. I've read several HoA chapters around five weeks ago and I don't feel I want to get back to it. Should I force myself to read it, because of all the Ghostbloods and possible kandra stuff on Roshar? But without the knowledge of Scadrial magic system El and Thaidakar are just "some weird magic stuff" that was not introduced in SA, and looks absolutely out of place and outright frustrating, because there was no way to guess they can happen. As well as the sand, the chickens and whatever else stuff I don't even know about, but it looks weird and unnecessary. Easter eggs taking too much space are annoying, imo.

I've already read the prologue 3 times and chapters 1-28 2 times, so I think I'll reread starting with 29th chapter, voted for skipping though

8. Their spren were under the surface, at the bottom of the sea of beads.

As much as I hate child champion theory, you make it sound too reasonable

Well, if this is Brandon's way to write intellectual maturing, then I can't agree more with what @VirtuousTraveller has written.

I agree that this chapter did have plot relevance, Lift's interactions with Gavinor are also, I think, very important. And even the fact of her ogling men is as well, because she is in puberty and so on, I just wish it would be written better. Why all of this toilet humor? It looks like a filler, like Lift's pov was too short and so he had to write something else there, so he decided to write some "funny Lift stuff", which is not funny at all to my taste. I mean, if you want to write Lift ogling men and thinking about Zahel leaving the tower before the occupation, why not write Lift pov during the strategy meeting, she could look at a lot of men there and also think about Zahel, while there would also be a lot of other things that are important for the plot or something like that? But instead we have a long pov about ogling men, farting, bacteria living in humans, Wyndle being a druff, and tons of other odd stuff, and among the odd stuff we have two useful bits of info - Zahel and Gavinor. It's almost as bad as Kaladin thinking about how odd Shinovar plants are and discussing it with Szeth for three povs, and almost nothing else happening. Only because they are my two favourite boys I can stand them talking about plants, which are not weird to people from Earth at all, for some chapters, but not forever, because sooner or later I can get bored even with them, lol.

And here comes the 29th chapter and the conversation solely about Sigzil being hot, Drehy being hot, Drehy's husband being hot, people farting inside the Tower, and bacteria farting inside Lift. And rust, of course, how could I miss it. I remember Brandon saying that this book had too many words in it and he had to cut it, is this dialogue something I couldn't live without? Do I really have to read this? I have nothing against comic relief, I also have nothing against physiology, as I have a degree in it and I'm basically not squeamish, but I want comic relief to be funny, not cringey. And I'm long ago past the age when simply saying "fart" and "rust" could make me laugh. Added: Oh, even on this forum this word is censored, but it's not censored in the book. How ironical.

He is a Stoneward, Darcira's husband. Ch. 28: That would be great. I agree with you about child champion theory being unlikely, and Gav being useful for Lift's progression in her oaths would explain this scene, other than "Brandon is mentioning every popular theory in preview chapters just to confuse us".

I'll be brief My theory is that Helaran is alive. I really want to see that guy in the story, lol Added (sorry, not brief enough): Not much of a theory, just another hope - Rysn will heal and Kaladin will marry her

Yeah, probably it is, and we will get something in the following chapters. I've actually reread all the previous ones before reading this week's chapters, so it didn't help I actually had the same impression when I was reading this, though you are right, there is no mention of the armor vanishing partially. Anyway, I just hope there is something more to Mraize's weird behaviour. Also, it probably was needed for Shallan's Mishram research, as she now knows about Renarin's spren being the spy and also that he is probably able to guide people through SR. It explains why the blob says Shallan will be working with Renarin and Rlain.

I understand all of this, but I wrote in my post that I didn't have the sense of danger for what was happening. If I have to think of what could have happened, make some calculations in my mind and apply logic to my reading experience, it doesn't help me feel any emotions about what I am reading. What I read in this chapter felt to me as cheap and easy, and no explanations can change what I feel. It was supposed to be something very dangerous and life-threatening, but it didn't read like it to me at all. Not even close to the infiltration of Amaram's house, Rockfall or Kholinar palace.

This is how it was portrayed, not only what Mraize says. And all of this was handwaved with Shallan's armor. I'm sorry, but it doesn't read to me as "Shallan was almost killed". It reads to me as "she felt some pain and wrongness from anti-light". I didn't feel any sense of danger for her in this chapter, she reads like fully in control, she knows how to react to anti-light, she talks to Mraize, and GBs do nothing against her, they just run away in terror.

I mean that I think this title foreshadows their marriage is set up to fail.

Looks like she will have to stab herself again with the reverted bolt to get it out Poor Shallan

I would add to this that Mraize was acting strangely, smiling and talking to Shallan, and Iyatil also was kind of suspicious about him. Maybe he was the one who expected Shallan to come, and Iyatil was unaware, so Mraize could have left some tidbits for Shallan there to find after Ghostbloods left. If he has to play the prey he could at least be a clever prey and mislead the hunter?