Elegy

It's confirmed that it wasn't a formal agreement:

That would make sense, but in the Allomancer Jak short story, there's this footnote by Handerwym that states otherwise (kinda close to the beginning): The religions on Scadrial are definitely weird and I have a hard time wrapping my head around them as well. I have kinda come to peace with the thought that they are comparable to certain ancient cultures that worshipped one specific god in a pantheon while not denying the existence/godliness of the other ones. That's apparently called "monolatry" (here's the Wikipedia article). I don't know if that's actually how it works on Scadrial, but it's how it makes sense to me.

(Scadrial as well)

Harry Potter is an unusual case in that it's obvious how many things are just complete nonsense, how many weaknesses there are, etc, yet still none of that ever ruined the immersion for me. Somehow - and I blame the characters, the detailed world and the many weird situations for this - it always felt alive as it was, warts and all. It has its tone, the atmosphere, the whole feeling of Hogwarts so well down that it doesn't bother me as much. Honestly, I kinda enjoy how broken the logic of this series is - I never do stuff like that with other stories, but I could scroll through plot hole articles and watch YouTube videos on things that don't make sense in Harry Potter for hours. It's weird. That said, I do think it will turn into more and more of a generational thing as time goes on, in contrast to what, say, Lord of the Rings achieved. Still, I'm grateful to have been around when it all added up, seeing the boy who lived grow during my school years. You could say, the experience of being there was probably better than the books. I hope that there will be something comparable for future generations, one day, because since Harry Potter ended, there sure wasn't. More generations need their Harry Potters.

Looks like all the other UK covers to me. I wouldn't worry too much about the cover character. It doesn't need to be a faithful portrayal of someone in the book: The Whelan covers are another thing, of course.

It's a tough call for the books, but I think I'd go for book 3 or 5. Globet of Fire is fantastic for the most part, but I really dislike the reveal at the end, which drags it down for me quite a bit. I also like Deathly Hallows a lot - I know that a lot of people can't stand the camping and found it disappointing as a whole, although I think it did a great job at wrapping things up - but it's very chaotic, given that they literally search for 6 mystical items at the same time. It's just a tad too much of that. The films - easily the third one for me. It's extraordinarily well-filmed - only a handful of blockbuster films are on that level in that regard. Also, I think the changes they made to that one actually made it better, the scene in the Shack is also probably my favorite Harry Potter movie scene (along with the Ollivander scene in the first one). It's a well-rounded, well-done movie that has a lot of charme, a good flow, and at the same time, the story-telling doesn't feel as rushed as in the first two films (which I also like a lot). I honestly feel the later films don't have a lot of personality. All the Yates films are really uninspired in terms of colors/tone, and some of the actors grew out of their roles (not their fault, of course, just a bit unfortunate). Still, I think they're okay. Fantastic Beasts is another story. Oh boy. While I liked the first one well enough, the second one is down there with Cursed Child. I don't know how you can mess up so many things at once. It's bewildering. Ah well. Also, the best theatrical adaptation of a Wizarding World story is A Very Potter Musical. I will die on that hill.

I get where you're coming from. However - the Cosmere is a huge universe with tons and tons of characters. Some time ago I spontaneously wrote down all the Cosmere characters I could think of, just to see with what I'd end up with, and the end result was 160 names on a Word document. That's the scope of this universe, and having, like, 2 confirmed gay characters in there is just not enough. Even if representation is not an issue. It's just not plausible, statistically. Okay, I'm going to say it: It's a fictional universe that contains magic, god-like beings, soul-stealing nails and flying knights, yet the most implausible thing is actually the quotient of gay people in it! It's mind-boggling. However, he promised he'll get around to it, so that's at least something.

I wouldn't be surprised if Szeth would become one of the very best at the end of book 5, but that's just an assumption for now. Vasher's advantage is, we know his backstory, where he came from and why. We will learn all this about Szeth, but as long as we haven't, he's not quite up there for me. It's the toughest call for me as it is, however. Oh okay, thanks!

Won't make an account just for this, but - just for the fun of it - these would be my picks: Shallan, Kelsier, Wax, Vasher (tough one!), Kaladin, Vin, Dalinar, Shai. I like Elantris a lot, but character work isn't its strength.

Allomancy is the best for fight scenes. Feruchemy would be the most practical in real life. But Surgebinding is my favorite. It's a magic system that grants powers through character development. The most ingenious magic system for story-telling imaginable. It's beautiful!

This is what Brandon said about this:

I feel attached to Scadrial for nostalgic reasons (as I became a Brandon/Cosmere fan via the Mistborn trilogy), but over time, it's gotten hard to deny that Roshar is just the most amazing world, in terms of depth, personality, ideas, etc. The re-read last year fully sealed the deal, and Roshar it is. Favorite character on there is Kaladin (of course). If we leave out all the obvious ones (since it's kinda unfair to compare a fleshed-out world like Roshar or Scadrial to, say, First of the Sun), then it's Threnody. I love the atmosphere and the fact that we'll learn more about that mysterious place makes me very excited. Favorite character on there would be Silence - except if Nazh counts, but we haven't actually seen him "on" the planet. If he counts, it's probably a tie.

Nice! I've been re-reading all Cosmere short stories and novellas in the last few days (one per day). Shadows for Silence is actually the one I enjoy the most, along with Emperor's Soul. Its story-telling is just amazingly tight - I think in that regard, it's only matched by the Lift interlude (which is an absolute masterpiece in that aspect). Needless to say, I love the atmosphere.

I'm guessing a rather adult looking pseudo-anime mainstream animation style, like Castlevania or Legend of Korra (but with more of a black-red color palette): Which I would like a lot. It fits the tone better than live action with CGI overload (which would be inevitable). However, I agree that it's unlikely to happen. But one can dream.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica x3, it's pretty amazing once you get over the art style. The film is great as well. The writer, Gen Urobuchi, has also created the dystopian sci-fi anime Psycho-Pass, which is worth a watch as well - as long as you stop after the first season (the only one that Urobuchi wrote). That one is self-contained though, so no worries about cliffhangers! Baccano! and Durarara! are both by the same creator, set in the same world, and the style is rather similar. If you like one of them, chances are you'll enjoy the other as well. The former is more story-driven, the latter is more loose in its story-telling. I recommend both, but Baccano! is short and tight, and I personally liked it a bit more. If you're into surrealist stuff, Paranoia Agent by the great Satoshi Kon (the creator of Paprika and Perfect Blue, among others) is a must. Monster is a calm thriller drama and my favorite series in general. Very character-driven though, and clocks in at 74 episodes, so it's a commitment.

Johann Liebert, from Naoki Urasawa's manga (and anime) series Monster. It's a thriller/crime drama set in Germany, and Liebert is the driving force behind it. Everything in the manga happens because of him. He has an unreal presence. My favorite. Naoki Urasawa is fantastic at writing villains, and I want to add that the antagonist of his other big manga series, 20th Century Boys, simply called "Friend", is also worth a mention. Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust (both parts), to name a classic. The writing and nuance are phenomenal. The tone and metre of his lines alone are enough to tell it's him speaking. Also one of the Trope Codifiers for those manipulative jerk antagonists that are everywhere today. Another one from a manga is Griffith, from Berserk. His whole story is very NSFW and I won't get into it. But man, it's just complex, well-woven and devastating and the hate is real. Sadly, the manga is not as compelling as it used to be. As far as television series go, Gus from Breaking Bad has left an immense impression. Everything about him is so respectable, charming, and intimidating, all at once. These are a few from the top of my head. I might add some more later.

Honestly, I think it's Alcatraz. He has such a distinctive tone and he's a great example of a person that's not the nicest guy ever but still makes it easy to sympathize with him. Stephen Leeds probably deserves a mention as well.

I've played the Prime trilogy and Zero Mission, all fantastic. Perhaps that's not enough to be a "fan" but the overall atmosphere, design and music have had a lot of influence on me. Prime 2 is the most well-rounded of the bunch, it's just best at what it's aiming at, but Prime 3 was the most fun to me back in the day.

I agree with the observation about Adonalsium's "uncorruptable" Investiture, but you're assuming that the stars are definitely red because of corruption, which doesn't have to be the case. While it's true that red Investiture means that it's corrupted, these are stars, not Investiture. They can simply be red for the same reasons that stars in real-life are red. I tried finding out these specific reasons several times but the results were kinda conflicting, so I'm not quite sure about this (maybe someone on here knows his stuff about astronomy?), but this is what Brandon said about the Rosharan star being white: So, not canon, not entirely reliable, but it's at least a hint in a direction. If a white star is younger than a yellow one (the most usual star color in the cosmere), then a yellow star might be younger than a red one. Which is why personally I believe that the red stars are simply the very first ones to be created back in the day. In turn, the white stars are the youngest and show Adonalsium's late attempts at experimenting with astronomical stuff (Drominad being very crowded, Taldain being binary, and Roshar being all kinds of stuff). Maybe he got bored with the good old traditional star systems.

The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart, and illustrated by Chris Riddell, was the first book series I was obsessed with. Riddell has since gone on to illustrate covers for Neil Gaiman among others. I love his drawing style, so clean and rich in detail. The Edge world reeks of bizarre alien biology and doesn't make much sense in retrospect, but has so much personality. It's also the only other fantasy series I know, apart from Mistborn, to show a civilization develop from one era of technology to another (although it never gets beyond steampunk).

It's confirmed that they are not related: Also, the phrasing of this WOB makes it sound like the Sleepless are not originally from Roshar, because they "settled on" it rather than stayed there. I personally believe they are both originally from different worlds we haven't seen yet.

The answer has to be no. In 10 years of being a fan, I have never seen anyone accuse Brandon of sexism (and most of the Brandon fans I know in person are progressive females) - this is a first.

I still believe that Sora is kinda likely, but on the other hand, we have a lot of swordfighters already, so they might pass on that one. I wouldn't mind Dixie Kong since it feels kinda wrong that's she's not in there already. There's mostly 2 things that I hope they don't do: More meters (we've got enough of those by now) and (while this is more of a personal thing) edgy, gritty gunmen, since I don't think they belong in Smash.

I'm a Lucina and Palutena main in Ultimate. I don't play that often either anymore for a number of reasons, but Melee and Brawl are my two most played games ever by long, long shots.

Thank you so much for this - I didn't know there were so many additions, and it's oddly satisfying to see things from the prose version that didn't make the cut find a way out of that one's obscurity. The first Khriss chapter, for instance, is one of my favorites of the book and its omission really hurt the story's flow at the beginning, in my opinion - in the GN, she's just a random character showing up with the panel size trying very hard to make sure the reader knows she's important for some reason, while the prose introduces both as parallel stories and has you wondering when and how they will start to interact. Ah, well. Maybe this will eventually replace/expand the GN as canon?