Karger

Had a similar theory back in the day.  Metals and shards in my sig now.

I think its actually a step up for Dalinar.  Being responsible was very important to him personally as a leader but "I need to be responsible" can be kind of arrogant as it implies you are the only adult in the room.  One of his biggest issues is that Dalinar is an authoritarian, a dictator.  He's literally a warlord so this is not unexpected but it meant that he tended to solve problems unilaterally.  Being responsible for yourself is different from being responsible for literally everything.  Taravangian kind of went the opposite track.  "I'm responsible for everything so I can't be responsible for myself."  Dalinar by contrast went "I'm responsible for myself so I can't be responsible for everything."

"Symbol of your ignorance" from Dusk is probably the one that gets me the most.  Lots of opportunities to remember dumb mistakes.

Is Shinovar considered part of Odium's territories or Honor or neither?  I think that Szeth and Kaladin took care of Ishar in time but who held that capital? 

Towerlight is a combination of Lifelight and Stormlight but its also largely accurate to say that Stormlight and Lifelight are both two parts of Towerlight.  Technically speaking any combination of investiture is possible.

Conservation of energy is still canonically part of the cosmere.  The investiture must come from somewhere.

Welcome to the shard.  We have cookies!

I have to admit it was a pretty good reveal.  Also I was a bit shocked he was able to destroy them in the first place given the agreement.

Hmmm.  Decent book.  Didn't care too much for the ending.  A big part of that is probably the cliff hanger nature of a lot of things.  We'll probably have to wait until the series if complete before I entirely decided how I feel about this one.  For now B, 4/5 stars.

It returns! 

This is a pretty big deal.  This legendary thread remains one of the best ever.

Just now, The last Fae in the Woods said:

Couldn't a radiant stop the blade from existing then summon it back or am I just being silly.

They could but that would mean the arrow wouldn't penetrate.

The only problem is that if your enemy is moving they might trap the arrow inside a nonlethal part of their body (kind of like a lastclasp).  Doubly a problem with fused.

Assuming sufficient prep time I really don't see how the radiant wins.  Wouldn't the fullborn just decide things through raw physical ability?  Radiant physical abilities are way more limited by comparison.

2 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

The ships openly use fire. The planet would explode.

Its not that much methane nor is it pure methane.  You will also get a lot of CO2 and NO2 not to mention a lot of sulfur compounds.  We also don't know the oxygen content in the air.  I'd be much more worried about the smell.  The oceans must be awful. 

3 hours ago, FireandAshes said:

I had your exact same thought OP. Especially the Crimson sea scenes felt very cinematic, I would give anything to see huge spikes shooting up alongside rain. 

Very much yes.  I would also like the sequences of Tess saving everyone.  I think its a great introduction to Sanderson's style of writing in which heroics both make sense and are properly planed ahead of time (just like real life!).  I also think a group of good actors under the right direction could make the scene where her father calls in favors really good.

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

But we are talking about a large fraction of a planetary surface and most of the time.

I've put some more thought into it and I actually came up with a new theory.  I think the spores at the bottom are crushed to death by those at the top.  Some are also destroyed by lack of water (they don't get much down there) and other nutrients while still others are seared to ash by volcanic activity.  When a plant (or in this case fungus) dies under such circumstances it will release light gases like methane.  Methane will then bubble to the surface.  The only effect on climate that I can see is a high potential for some acid rain along with a higher temperature (methane is a greenhouse gas) but the right ecology could counter both of those effects.

7 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Over much of a planetary surface for centuries? The amount of gas needed would be astronomical. And where does it go? Lunamar does not have the amount of air that would imply.

We have volcanoes that do something similar(spewing vapor constantly for hundreds of years).  Even in our solar system their are planets and moons that are much more active in that respect.  You don't need much gas to produce the fluoridation either.

7 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

It can but it would still generate unpredictable weather. There is something Hoid either does not know or does not tell.

Its not as if the planet's entire surface has predicable weather.  Even on earth we have a monsoon season which had predictable enough winds for us to track and predict down to the day.

This needs to be a movie.

Enough said.  I know that some of you must be film students.  Your great Brandon Sanderson high priest commands you...

In all serious though this book was surprisingly cinematic.  All of he characters have wonderful quirks that would be very easily portrayed and the world itself would create some amazing opportunities for images.  I think this book might be the best of any of brandon's for a story that is easily adapted to another medium.  Anyone have actors in mind for different characters.  Music? Direction?

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

What causes the fluidization? What happens to stuff that falls into the oceans?

Bubbles from vents under the ocean.  I'm guessing that some sort of deposit of mineral is heated and that resales the gas but that one is just a shot in the dark.

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

How do the rains work? This looks like the weather on Lumar is artificial.

The whole planet is likely artificial(12 moons).  I imagine that the dead spores can dehydrate when on land and this creates water vapor.

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Why does a dragon keep slaves? Why not just hire people? 

He wants minimal interaction with the outside world.  Hiring people would make him a constant component of the economy and political world.

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

How does the life cycle of aethers work? If it takes sapient incubators, how were the first spores produced?

RAFO! (delivered in best Brando voice)

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Are the mad aethers still sapient?

They appear to have some intelligence.  I think they are kind of like cancerous aethers.  They still have the framework needed to make rational decisions but this is overpowered by their need to procreate.

On 11/23/2022 at 11:00 AM, Maximus said:

It's a bit of a reach, but what if the bands were drained to make Trell's perpendicularity?

When and by whom though?

On 12/2/2022 at 4:29 AM, Oltux72 said:

He knows there are many worlds out there. He and Harmony have permanent issues, let's phrase it that way. Will he stay on Scadrial?

He seems fairly comfortable with his current life.  I think he will stay.

A fun way to answer this question is just to say "one."  All rosharan magic systems depend on bonds made by spren.  Radiants are just the result of a group of spren bound in a particular way.  Fabrails are a different one.  Even the old magic and the fused are the result of people connecting to spren and shards respectively. 

Just now, Frustration said:

But there was never any narrative weight to "let's find out how bands work" or "what does the south scadrian government work?"

We thought we knew how they worked.  How the southern tec worked had huge weight behind it as well.  Neither question has really been answered now.  Instead we just have more questions.

1 minute ago, Frustration said:

Hey, that sounds just like what I said.

The bands were a major plot point in the last book as was the southern continent.

18 hours ago, Frustration said:

How Kelsier spoke to Sazed, what Adonalsium was, how Ruin and Presentation had been separated, who this Hoid fellow was, what the last two metals were etc.

Saze was a god and secret history revealed everything else anyway.  The last two metals weren't important and, so far as we knew, neither was Hoid.  We still had questions sure but all the major ones specific to the trilogy had been answered.