Rushu42

I think that Lirin is a good man but a poor father. His ideals are admirable, if occasionally shortsighted, and he is by no means perfect, but he's still a good man. His interactions with Kaladin are a big blind spot - the truth is, at this point he doesn't know his son any more. Kaladin changed hugely while Lirin thought he was dead, and Lirin is still coming to terms with that. But, because he is a good man, I believe that he can change. He's not there yet, but he can be.

Oh man, I wish I'd realized that this thread existed sooner. Everything on here is very cool - thanks for all the info, @Ookla the Mok Turtle Soup! I'm still pretty amateur at astronomy, and my scope is tiny - the Celestron Astromaster 70 AZ - but I've been saving up for an upgrade. I'm currently planning on an 8" with a Dobsonian mount, but if anyone has some tips on which specific model, I'd love to hear them.

Ooh, lucky. You get to see the best of the whole sky. Meanwhile I'm stuck in the Northern Hemisphere with only half of it. Can you see the Milky Way from where you are? I've heard it's particularly spectacular in the Southern Hemisphere, but I don't know anything about how it looks on the equator.

Yeah, I'm just praying for a clear sky the next two Mondays. The clouds in my area like to thwart my plans. If you're willing to answer, which hemisphere are you in?

Agreed! Space is generally underappreciated, I find. Between the Geminids and the conjunction, December is a very exciting month for stargazing. It's too bad it's so cold...

You already mentioned this with Nohadon, but Dalinar's relationship with the Way of Kings definitely reminds me of the Book of Mormon/scriptures in general.

That's cool. I live in a place with a lot of light pollution, so it's hard to appreciate the sky without the aid of some sort of 'scope. Sorry to derail your intro thread with discussions of space, but are you excited for the great conjunction on the solstice?

@Lemiltock We disagree on the tactics side of things. You seem to think that Navani would have been just as helpful carrying water; I don't. But since that's just speculation anyway, arguing over it probably isn't our best use of time. Instead, I'd like to focus on the validity of Navani's choice, and the way it plays into the theme of the book at large. Navani is a Bondsmith. Although the plot can make it seem like that was just a matter of luck - being the only one available when a Bondsmith was needed - it really wasn't. Navani's been exhibiting Bondsmith ideals the whole time. Even aside from her mantra of order out of chaos (a suitably Bondsmith way of thinking), each of her actions show her willingness to reach across traditional divides, and to unite people behind one common goal. My very favorite part of Urithiru before RoW was the room full of scholars of all nationalities, working together for mutual benefit. And Navani created this a year before swearing her first ideal. She's always been bringing people together, just with a different method than Dalinar's; scholarship, not war. And then she meets Raboniel. Raboniel is many things, including an adversary to Navani. She doesn't seem a good person - but nor does she seem an evil one. Nothing that Raboniel did was any worse than what the human leaders would have done in her place. And Navani recognizes this. When they meet, it is not one warlord to another, it is two brilliant minds recognizing an equal. Each sees in the other the potential of an ally, and acts accordingly. When Navani and Raboniel work together on their technology, I don't see it as defecting to the enemy. Instead, Navani was acting consistent with her ideals in the rest of the book - she looked past their differences to see that they could accomplish something greater together. And that willingness to look past the human/singer divide is a big theme of the book. We get flashbacks and viewpoints from Eshonai and Venli, and we see positive interactions between Leshwi and Kaladin. And then, by working together, Navani and Raboniel create Warlight - proof that humans and singers are not incompatible. I think that this is far more important than the war. Did working together give the Fused a powerful weapon? Yes. Did it give the humans a weapon too? Probably. But this is secondary to me, because the chance of working together is more important than the war. The science is more important than the war. Both sides got something out of the arrangement, but more importantly, both sides put something into it. I don't think that the end of the war is going to be one side annihilating the other with magical nukes - I think that it's going to be working together for a greater good.

I'm in the same boat. Maybe someday I can make it my career. Do you have a telescope? If so, what kind?

Very few; I'm coming up on two years on the Shard, and I'm still in the 800s. Meanwhile people who joined a few months ago are like "oh man I only have 2000 posts I need to catch up".

Other Sharders: talking about not having very many posts for how long they've been on the Shard Me:

Welcome to the Shard, @TheAstronomer! As a space enthusiast, I love your username. Are you a professional astronomer or just a hobbyist?

Oh, you're right; I misread that. Thank goodness.

I'm going with Navani, for sure. I won't get into too much detail here on the specifics of why, but I love her character. Watching her overcome her insecurities and finally move past her toxic relationship with Gavilar was so satisfying. On that note, how did anyone vote for Gavilar after Navani's perspective on the epilogue? I hate that guy. Edit: I mean the prologue.

I'm surprised that there isn't already a thread by this name. After Rhythm of War, Navani skyrocketed to the top of my list of favorite characters, both in SA and in the Cosmere at large. So here's a thread for all those that feel the same way I do. Time to fangirl over Roshar's favorite Scholar-Queen! [I'll probably contribute a post or two about why exactly I love Navani, but I think I'll keep the OP free of the details for now.]

I very much disagree with this. The contest of champions is not a failsafe plan, and it mostly targets Odium, not the Fused and singers. I suspect that the ability to destroy Voidlight will be instrumental in book 5, and likely the back 5 as well. This was a very important discovery, and it could easily be the difference between winning and losing, in the end (I could see the final solution being to use a modification of this technology to permanently destroy Odium's power - but that's a digression). As for Navani's choice to work with Raboniel, I'm not convinced that it was the wrong one. And even it was, it's a very justifiable mistake. Navani would have been passing up the opportunity to work with a 7000 year old scholar to unravel the secrets of technology very relevant to their current war efforts. Even without knowing exactly the outcome, that seems like a pretty big opportunity to pass up in favor of water-carrying. Plus, by working with Raboniel she was able to have a lot more influence over the Fused than she would have otherwise. It wasn't the political side of things that did turn out to be the most important, but she couldn't have known that going in. And it's hardly like she was sitting idly by and handing the enemy weapons! She was constantly trying to figure out ways out of the mess, which she wouldn't have been able to do otherwise, and in the meantime building traps and contacting allies. Yes, she wasn't able to hide her discoveries from Raboniel, but it's not like she didn't try. The decision was a difficult one, but still, I think, the right one. I respect that others may not share this opinion, but a complete denunciation of Navani's actions is unjustified.

Man, I hope not. I wasn't hugely excited by the relationship, but it's clear that Jasnah does feel for him. At the moment, Cephandrius is a fairly sympathetic character, if still a mysterious one. If your theory turned out to be true, I would lose pretty much all respect for him. After all the ways that he's helped our main characters, I don't think that Sanderson would villainize him like that.

A lot of what I have to say has already been said by others on this thread, so I'll do my best to keep this brief. Before RoW, Jasnah was my favorite Stormlight character. After RoW, Navani absolutely swept her off the board, but most of the reasons that I loved Jasnah still remain. Jasnah suffers from chronic competence. This is a character who's amazing at practically everything, from scholarship to politics to combat. When done poorly, this can be annoying to a reader. "How can a person be so perfect?" we cry. "It's just not fair!" In my reading, however, that was not my reaction. I think this is because her abilities don't feel cheap. We don't get the impression that she woke up one day with the ability to write perfectly logical treatises; instead, we feel that she has pushed herself for years to reach this level of excellence. Yes, she's powerful, but that's because she earned it. (Of course, this is a simplification - she had plenty of natural talent to help her on her way. Still, my point stands.) But an interesting thing happens when you start to excel: expectations change. Almost all of the characters in the book show this awe of Jasnah, really beyond what is reasonable. They treat her like a figure of legend. Because Jasnah has pushed herself to such heights, the people around her expect her to do the impossible. So she does. Others in this thread have already spoken of those that wish for her to fall - I agree that she likely does some of what she does to prove them wrong. But even more powerful, I would argue, is the influence of those that expect her to succeed. We see hints, in all four books, of the effect this has on her. She's absolutely terrified of what would happen if she doesn't live up to what's expected of her - what she now expects of herself. It's this insecurity, I believe, that makes her so beloved. Fear of failure is something that a lot of people can relate to, so seeing an example of it in someone so amazing as Jasnah is really powerful. If Jasnah were just a hyper-competent, powerful woman, I'd still probably cheer for her. But I wouldn't love her. Because despite what everyone thinks of her, despite what she herself thinks, the real Jasnah is still just a human. I have more to say on this topic (Kaladin parallels, relationship with Hoid, childhood, etc.) but I've talked for long enough. Suffice it to say that we've only gotten hints at Jasnah's character development, but those hints make me very excited for the back 5 books.

I'm hoping to have 1,000 posts by my two year shard-anniversary, but I'm honestly not sure that's going to happen. Most of my posts are fairly long, and they take me forever to write.

I'm not confident about that... although perhaps that's just because we're in a rather inactive spell at the moment. Maybe in 20 years I'll finally have a post count over 1000.

Aln unconsciously took a step forward. "A memory you shouldn't have?" That description, too - too much like what she "remembered" to be a coincidence. A chill ran down her spine, and she reached for a notebook instinctively, forgetting briefly that she had abandoned her satchel when attacked. "Listen, I think something's going on. Do you know somewhere more private we can talk? Preferably with something to write with?" @Ookla Fell From The Sky

That reaction was entirely too nervous for someone talking about a children's tale. Aln felt a cold pit of dread settle in her stomach. Could the Dark Alley possibly be real? She desperately wished not to be insane, but what if the alternative was worse? "So monsters are invading your library, and you ran off to investigate fairy tales?" Aln ignored Pel's comment. The spren was helpful most of the time, but he had a habit of fixating on one element of a situation. This was important, too. Maybe it was related. She studied Poller as he tried to change the subject back to aluminum. "Do you know something you're not telling me? About the Dark Alley?" @Ookla Fell From The Sky

That's right, she thought. You already bought out their stock. It was hard to tell which of her memories were real - Aln had to push down a brief surge of terror at that thought. "If you don't have any aluminum currently in stock, don't worry about it," Aln said to the man. "My idea was a long shot, anyway." Of course, she reminded herself, I can't even be sure that the memories are fake. I don't know what else they would be, but how could they have predicted Temeria's arrival? Storms. I wish I had my library. "Why do you not wish for the members of your guild?" asked Pel. What? "The members of the guild", he persisted. "You've shown concern for your books and your research, but not the people. Some were likely hurt in the attack." I... What could I have done? I'm just a scholar. "You're a Knight Radiant. Do you know what it means to be a Truthwatcher? Why have you not sworn your third Oath?" Aln put a hand on her head, unthinkingly disturbing a piece of the illusion. Pel, I really can't deal with this right now. Thankfully, he didn't press the issue. Rather than dwell on his words, Aln focused on the most concerning part of her new recollections. "Poller," she asked, "have you ever heard of an organization known as the 'Dark Alley'?"

In the end of the book, when reflecting on Teft's death, Kaladin realizes that he still feels pain and grief, but he's let go of his shame. That's what the slave brands symbolized, to me - the shame at not saving those he loves. The idea that, deep down, he still deserves to be a slave. When he finally overcame that through the fourth ideal, they finally healed. (I think that's also the same reason that his tattoo didn't stick - he didn't see himself as redeemed from his past).

Well, you have to think about the sort of technological advancements that the Rosharans would be motivated to make. The three main things that they appear to be behind in is weaponry, transportation, and medicine. A lot of our other modern conveniences are accomplished to some degree by fabrials. So why not these? Consider the powers of the Knights Radiant. Using Stormlight, they could create powerful weapons, transport people great distances, and provide instantaneous healing. If you already have these things, why put in the effort to invent a different way of doing it? Once you've excluded the things already covered by the magic system, Roshar is very advanced.