Elegy

It's not on the Arcanum yet, but we got confirmation that Brandon didn't have the idea of the couple until like, the end of Oathbringer. (Which was kinda obvious for how there's no set-up at all, and once again something that suggests that Brandon is bad with gut decisions.) So if something like this is going to happen, it wasn't the plan for Jasnah and/or Hoid until a few years back. And I don't think Brandon would improvise something this important for the characters just out of nowhere. So I don't think it's going to happen. (And yes, this line of thinking implies that Jasnah and Hoid as a couple won't ever be extremely important, and probably not a thing anymore in the back five.)

Doesn't seem like it: Since no non-Stormlight Cosmere books have been released since then, that should still hold up. As for proto-Ghostbloods, besides the obvious ones, I like the idea that Allomancer Jak is set up to become one. After all, Thaidakar seems to guide him in some way, judging from his short story.

Here's what Steven Michael Bohls said in one of the comment boxes on YouTube (spoilered for pic size): That doesn't really answer the question, but the second option (novellas ran long) seems more likely that way. I'm sure he'll talk about it on the next Weekly Update though.

Here - I immediately knew I would have use it when I saw it, it's priceless

Don't know if animated movies are allowed, but if so, Princess Mononoke.

Well, even considering that Thaidakar is not a Shard now, I would be surprised if he didn't really want to become one. He got a taste of the power and what he could potentially achieve with it, and he's a Cosmere-aware megalomaniac. It seems very plausible that it's sort of a dream of his. I hope he finds out where Ambition was Splintered and finds a way to reforge it. If there's someone who could find a way, it's him. And that Shard is the perfect fit.

Yes, what a fantastic movie. Sublime writing as well, the characters in particular. Cartoon Saloon has been delivering amazing animation films for a decade now. Can't wait to see where they go next! (Song of the Sea and Breadwinner are my favorites, although the latter is very different from the rest.) Most impressive 2D animation would likely go to a Ghibli film or Loving Vincent for me though. The latter being literally completely oil-painted, so there's that

Pretty much the most nondescript title he could have chosen. Has the air of a last minute decision tbh. I like the cover better than the previous two though, although I will still go with the UK edition (as always with Skyward - they are great).

(full size) I know this is incredibly half-baked, but you get the idea. I love this specific set of epigrahs a lot (some of my favorites in the series), and these parallels stood out to me and I wanted to get them out somehow. I wonder how much of that was intentional. Feel free to discuss! The artists of the pictures: Visions of the Future by Ari Ibarra A Man’s Worth by Randy Vargas Weep As You Kill by Ari Ibarra Lightweaver by Audrey Hotte Driven by Guilt by Ari Ibarra Kaladin by Angel1802

I wasn't talking about AonDor, but about the Shards Dominion and Devotion. I doubt they have been restored if the Dor - which is basically the Shards' powers thrown into the Cognitive Realm - is still a thing. So they wouldn't come to help since they are presumably still Splintered.

I could totally imagine Harmony sending a bunch of Kandras to help a bit. I really want to see that. All the letters have to lead to something anyway. I agree that Valor is another candidate. That said, I don't want too many godlike beings to meddle with the story just yet, since that might cheapen the impact of our human main characters on the long run. After two books ending with Cultivation having her way, I really hope the next time around the humans will have to solve the problems (almost) by themselves. The Arcanum Unbounded essay on Sel is written at an ambiguous time around Mistborn Era 2 (judging by the Scadrial essay and the confirmation that they were all written around the same time). So that's long after the Elantris books, and the Dor is still a thing - which means that Dominion and Devotion are most certainly still Splintered, as far as we can tell.

Thing is, we already have Conquest, because that's Dominion. And it still feels absolutely outrageous to me that there would be a double Shard called War without Dominion, the Shard of Conquest, being part of it. I agree that text seems to imply War, but it still doesn't make sense.

Here we go . . .

The other viewpoint characters will all be members of the Skyward Flight on Detritus, as it seems: That means there's not much to choose from. Besides FM, probably Kimmalyn and Jorgen, since those have been established as important characters and are popular with the fan base.

There's a frog mentioned in the 10th anniversary epilogue of Elantris, so there's frogs on Sel. Edit: Sorry, no memes today. Sometime within the next days though

I thought about this some more and I believe the only way to explain this are indeed the Unmade. The Radiants and Heralds had no idea how to deal with them and only found a way to trap them during the False Desolation (and even that knowledge was quickly lost due to the Recreance and only recovered via the gemstone archive). I imagine having to deal with 9 of them with no way of defeating them for good has to have been pretty insane. Especially since we don't know what at least 2 of them do. Maybe Chemoarish or Dai-Gonarthis could somehow cancel Surgebinding/eat Investiture in one way or another. The Unmade proved to be a huge advantage in the Battle of Kholinar, with three of them tearing the city apart (Yelig-nar possessing the queen, Ashertmarn manipulating the palace guard, and Sja-anat preventing spanreed communication and travel through the Oathgate by corrupting spren), and they won that battle. In Thaylen City, there were two Unmade - and Nergaoul had to be captured in order to win that battle (because they couldn't have fought Amaram's army indefinitely). They only won that battle because they had found a way to defeat an Unmade. Then, Rayse became very cautious with the Unmade by Rhythm of War. He knew that the Radiants could trap them or even potentially destroy one of them definitively with Nightblood (which actually happened with one Thunderclast spren). So rather than losing another one of his strongest weapons, he avoided using them. Which makes sense, since losing for him only meant losing time - losing an Unmade on the other hand meant losing a weapon that would have been useful in potential future Desolations. Maybe that's the reason why he didn't use potential overpowered powers of the Unmade that didn't show up yet. However, I do hope that Taravangian won't be this reluctant. And I don't believe he will be. I'm sure he will use whatever means he has to win. All of that said, even if this is reason, I still think it should have been more obvious to us as readers. Also, a demon army from outer space should be terrifying on its own and even more terrifying with the help of their Elderitch Abominations - not only terrifying with them. The Fused have definitely been rather disappointing thus far. The same goes for the Thunderclasts, to a degree. Kalak is said to have died to them several times, yet Renarin survives getting crushed by one of them repeatedly. How did they even kill a Herald? It also made me realize another weird thing: Honor, Cultivation and Odium fought on a world where people light their rooms by capturing spren, yet neither them nor anyone else ever had the idea of trapping Heralds or Unmade, which are obviously spren (at least the Shards should have understood that) for 5000 years? It makes them look pretty dim-witted. Rayse being kind of slow and falling for a lot of things in Rhythm of War can be traced back to his conflict with the Shard I guess, but you can't really say that about him during the original Desolations, I think. I guess if you're well-meaning, it shows that at the very least, knowledge about Cosmere mechanics is far less accessible for Shards than many of us (including me) would have thought.

The Heralds now are not comparable to what they were during the previous Desolations. They were all there, they were all sane, and they were all powered by Honor himself. They should have been able to completely destroy entire armies. Maybe one could argue against this using Adolin's "a shardbearer can't hold a city" line of thought, but I'm skeptical. All things considered, I also think that Odium's forces seem under-powered, and if there is a reason for it that we don't know yet, I feel we should have known it by now. To nitpick a bit further, neither was the Battle of Thaylenah, to be fair, since she had access to abnormal quantities of stormlight. But yeah, I agree - definitely more on the impressive side for sure either way

If I recall correctly, Vin was brought into all of this by Ruin (hence him calling her the "Beautiful Destroyer") when he made her mother spike her as a child. Preservation just latched onto her to take away Ruin's weapon. So her arc was first and foremost set into action by Ruin, and Preservation then molded her (which is why he helped her against Rashek). So I think it fits because she was initially "of" Ruin. Also, the contrast between Ruin and Preservation fits how they complimented each other. That's what the arc of their relationship in Well of Ascension is about: Elend trying to keep peace, but needing Vin to protect him by fighting assassins and such. A good example of this is when Elend's attempts to find democratic (instead of destructive, oppressive) solutions are interrupted by a bunch of assassins and Vin busting their heads in return. Although I guess this duality is kind of muddled as soon as Elend starts fighting a lot himself in Hero of Ages.

If I'm understanding you correctly, you're basically just saying readers don't need to know the WOBs in order to understand the books? If so, then I don't know what's unpopular about that. The books would be really useless if that wasn't the case. I definitely agree that the WOBs are no required reading for the books. I'm sure so does pretty much everyone on here.

If you put it this way, I don't think you understand how important WOBs have been for the community's understanding of Cosmere lore in the past. There are Shards (the two on Sel, for instance) that have literally been WOB-only-canon for 7 years. Of course they are important either way. And since they are, they were indeed put in a book (Arcanum Unbounded, that is). But it sure as damnation was really nice to know about them before that!

Joining in . . .

I think Moash is the most likely. He's the most important antagonist that didn't have one yet, except for maybe one that isn't on the list anymore (that being Rayse - most of ROW, I was convinced he would be book 5's interlude character, but that's out of question now). Just like Taravangian is Dalinar's counterpart and main antagonist, Moash is the same to Kaladin. And since Kaladin is the main character of the front five (with the highest POV word count by far), it would only make sense for his personal main antagonist to be the antagonistic interlude character in the climatic book of the pentagoly. Additionally, I can't imagine the front five being over and Moash of all people not being an interlude main character ever. It would feel like an odd decision and a wasted chance. The down-side to this: That would mean that Moash lives at least until the bunch of interludes before the last part of the book. But I guess that's never been unlikely, unfortunate as it is.