Elegy

We still don't know the ability, it's been RAFO'd: But it's confirmed that it's carnivoristic: So yeah, it probably gained its ability by eating an Aviar and therefore indirectly eating the worms that Aviar had eaten before.

Finished The Final Empire. Still one of the best books I've ever read, all these years later. I feel it's got that extra spark even among Sanderson's work, like he was extra inspired when he wrote it. The story just flows extremely well. Two things I didn't really notice back then but bothered me a bit now: The prose during dialogue is extremely repetitive (there's one page with three "x nodded" on it, seriously), and the finale isn't quite as impressive as Sanderson's later endings. (I feel like it's a bit rushed, like instead of showing everything that happens, like Warbreaker does, it only shows one major event and only implies the other important things that happen at the same time). Those are not all that important in the great picture though, since everything else is so on point. Kelsier and Sazed in particular are two of my favorite characters, and this re-read confirmed that once again. Now I'm on to Well of Ascension, which I'm more lukewarm on in comparison (although I still really like it). (Just throwing this out there, I think that with Luthadel and T'Telir, Brandon created two of the very best fantasy cities of all time. The world building on those is just spectacular, and the cultures feel so real and lively!)

Yeah, you're right, I feel like that's a fairly recent development though? I watched it, like, 2014. Didn't feel like anyone was talking about it back then ^^ I haven't seen the remake. It's supposed to be more action oriented, but it also looks more generic (especially the character design). The original series is really over 100 episodes of mostly just dialogue haha, even the space battles are mostly talking what they're about to do. It's also pretty much the most exposition-heavy thing I've ever watched or read (some entire episodes are solely that), but I guess it says a lot about the quality of story and characters that I still enjoyed it a lot nonetheless!

The numbers seem to be a planetary/system thing, not a Shard thing. It's not Honor or Cultivation that have the number 10, it's the Rosharan System that they inhabit. Likewise, 16 is relevant for Scadrial, not specifically Preservation or Ruin. It's probably the interaction between a planet and the Invested Shard(s) that makes it associated with that number. 5 is important for Nalthis: Similarly, Sel seems to have the number 3, but not as prominent (3 continents, 3 letters for most Aons, the chapter triad system for Elantris). Also, the Aethers have the number 12 associated with them: I've also noticed many Eights in White Sand, but that could be unrelated. The more intuitive number would be 2, with its two sides, but maybe there is none. There's also a hint at a number for Secret Project #3, but for spoiler reasons I'll just link the Word of Brandon (you have been warned): https://wob.coppermind.net/events/493/#e15498 Anyway, I don't believe that every world has a number and I also don't believe that a number is "taken" once one planet/system has it.

Nice, that one's really niche, I don't see people talk about it much! Do you watch the 80s series or the remake?

I might have missed something, but isn't it still possible that Mercy is the "Survival Shard"? On a side-note, I still tend to believe that the non-Whimsy Shard that Brandon was alluding to in the stream is Autonomy because of the similarities between Taldain and Lumar he stressed. So there would be an avatar of Bavadin on the planet in that case.

Yeah, they have two songs about Wheel of Time as well! Also a lot of Stephen King, Michael Moorcock and the likes. The next album coming in a few months will have a song called "Damnation", so let's hope for the best

On to an Elantris reread (also long overdue). It's immediately apparent how Brandon has grown as a writer between this and Warbreaker. The writing is really clunky at places and the scenes don't flow as well . . . But still, Hrathen is an early top tier Sanderson character and his key elements (twists, world buiding, character development) are already in great shape. I also remember Elantris as one of the few Sanderson books that just constantly get better and better, basically on a chapter per chapter basis, without that certain mid-book slump, so we'll see

I imagine this more as a Tom & Jerry kind of situation - not a straight up fight, but Kelsier trying to get him good and Hoid finding increasingly inventive ways to avoid him - while also hindering his greater plans where he can

I'm re-reading Warbreaker! It's been a while. I don't know where to begin, it's all so fantastic. I'm half-way through now. The beginning was way more exciting than I remembered. The way the three main stories interact in sometimes very subtle ways is beautiful, and I love how they show different layers of the city's society, so the picture of that place just feels extraordinarily complete! I think T'Telir might be my favorite of the many cool cities in the Cosmere books (rivaled only by Luthadel), for that very reason. Now I'm at the part where Vivenna's chapters get a bit repetitive, and Siri (my favorite of the three main story lines, I just love the intrigue of the mysteries in the palace) doesn't get as much attention. But I'm very excited for the part when everything picks up again and one of my grumpy favorite characters gets the spotlight

Watched the Vinland Saga season in three days ... It was amazing! Not quite on the level of the equivalent manga arc (which is one of my favorite things ever), but to see the story come to life was totally worth it. I'm also happy that the second arc will also be adapted. This manga is a really thought-provoking work of art, and is one of those rare things that I feel are "deep" in the actual, non-overused sense of the word.

It's confirmed that it will be some kind of closure: There's also a WOB that explicitly compares it to Mistborn 1, but I can't find it right now. It was on one of the live streams as well. Edit: FOUND IT!

Yep! Also: This would be a plausible reason for why it "became important enough", because the Marewill flower has not become more important at all. But obviously, the Ghostbloods have. I imagine we can expect answers in Lost Metal . . .

I don't think so since the Lifeless is not the same person, it's just the body inhabited by completely unrelated Investiture. I feel the body would be treated like a thing in this case, albeit a thing that kind of remembers having been alive once. Abilities like being a Mistborn are determined by Identity, and I suppose that's gone when the original Investiture leaves the body. There's also this WOB: ... but I'm not quite sure what to make of some of it.

I generally think that these new worlds are all in completely new systems that we haven't seen yet. I've also seen the theory that SP4 is set on future Taldain . . . Like, there seems to be a need to push these new things to things we already know (similar to how a lot of people assumed that the Secret Projects would include stuff like Aether of the Night or Nightblood when he first announced them, despite him saying they were a break from his planned stuff), even when there's only slight evidence to it. I believe every Secret Project has its own star system that was specifically designed by Isaac for that story (with two of them taking place on one planet in that respective system and one of them on two, that being SP3), and this WOB hints at that:

I don't know, there seems to be nothing on the star map that hints at something like the shroud that covers Painter's planet, so it seems kinda unlikely to me

The striving for knowledge seems to be a Cultivation thing. But yeah, Invention probably has similar tendencies, which is why I also like it a lot

No, it's all good, I wasn't offended at all I do think that saying something has a "pretty bad reputation" does not mean that everyone dislikes it. It's just not been well-received in comparison to other Brandon works, so I still stand by that wording. If that makes it sound like I don't accept or realize that there are people who like them a lot, that was definitely not my intention. To summarize, I wouldn't actively advise people to never ever read them, but considering that these graphic novels are expensive and kinda hard to get by (at the moment, we'll see how that'll change with thr omnibus), I think it's fair to suggest that they are not necessarily considered must-reads, especially when one has read the prose version and got almost all the important information. If you're a strict completist however (like I am), sure!

I'm just going to say that there's a reason why they are doing a massive clean-up for the omnibus edition. The art is a mess in a lot of places, the technological level of several things displayed in the background makes no sense to the point of having become a meme (the boombox being the best example). Those and the artist changes are things that Brandon and his team seem to have issues with themselves. As for its reputation on this site, it's easy to just look at the number of replies to the topics and the generally lukewarm reaction to each of them (the most common reaction to the third one being something like "well, this one was actually okay!", which is a bad sign) on here and on the Discord server, also the reactions on Shardcast. It's not hated, of course, but it's easily Brandon's least liked work overall. (As for my personal opinion on them, yes, I coincidentally dislike them and (as someone who likes the medium a lot) think they don't work as graphic novels at all. I think people can just skip them, read the Prose version (which I like) and then read about the changes made, and Brandon would do well to actually replace them with a revised prose version so they don't have to be canon anymore, which he still seems to consider actually doing. But that's just my two cents and they don't influence my point above at all.)

Of course it's important that it sounds good, but I also hope it's something you can just drop casually in a conversation. "Hey man, just went to the book store and bought Knights of Woeful Truths, it's gonna be a blast" doesn't really work well in my opinion, as opposed to all the other titles in the series. I still think "Keepers of Wisdom" is the best one I've heard, partially for that reason.

Brandon initially planned White Sand as a trilogy, but didn't write the two sequels. That was the plan when he wrote White Sand Prose. At first he was unsure whether to do them as graphic novels: But since the graphic novels are generally unpopular, he doesn't want to go down that route. He wants to include some of these elements in a potential Khriss sequel story though: And there's some more details about that story as well: ... which make it sound like it will be more of its own thing and not that much of a White Sand sequel, but we'll see. Since that was in the middle of 2020 and we've not really heard of it since, the process seems to be a slow one. I wouldn't count on it in the nearest future. All of that said, I think the ending of White Sand Prose is actually well-rounded, of course with a sequel hook (especially the unnecessary epilogue), but Kenton leaving Dayside seems like the typical Brandon way to end a story - instead of having all characters settle down, he likes to make people go on an adventure at the end, so the reader feels like their lives continue and they will still experience exciting stuff after the story is over (he also does this in Emperor's Soul and Warbreaker, to name some more examples within the Cosmere, both of which are not sure to get a sequel). --- As for the question which one is canon: The changes made in the graphic novel are canon, but they are few. The most substantial (and still not really important) in the first two volumes is Ais being female in the graphic novels. All other important changes are in the last volume (for example one character surviving that dies in the prose version) and even those are few. So White Sand Prose is not strictly canon, but you should be fine having read that, you know the story, the world and all the important stuff, and the few changes are not worth the money and time (like I said, the graphic novels have a pretty bad reputation).

To clear up one thing first, I think a fair comparison in general is a hard one to make for a lot of reasons. (Like, would the Force even work on neutral ground? It's based on the premise that the Force surrounds everything, so outside of the Star Wars universe, nothing of this is possible since the Force doesn't surround anything, so noone could use it anyway.) So there can be a long and thorough discussion on this, but I'm personally not that eager for that - not because I think that these discussions shouldn't be had (they should!), but because I've got a bunch of other things to do at the moment But a few things to clear up what I meant before without wanting to venture too much further into the comparison: Fair, but I still think that Vader is really obviously outmatched in this scene, like, he shouldn't have that much of a problem ... but anyway, point taken! It's not a central point to my line of thinking anyway though. Like, I wasn't trying to argue that Kaladin in Words of Radiance would have actually beaten Vader, it was just an extreme example to show that power levels in Star Wars are vague. (And I still think that Vader as the killing machine he's portrayed as nowadays would never have lost that fight, be it against his son or not.) I disagree with this, because the question is asking to compare two things, and in order compare them, they both have to be defined first. And when one of the two is (relatively) clearly defined and one of them is not clearly defined at all, it's not only fair, but necessary to question how far an argument for either side can even go. It's not dodging the question, it's reflecting on what the premise of the question is, which is the best way to lay the groundwork for answering it. And in my first post, I was trying to say that you would definitely need these gray areas (which only exist because of these inconsistencies) to argue that a Radiant (not having these gray areas, but being more clearly defined) could lose - the inconsistencies give the Jedi wiggle room that makes the comparison not really fair. I think that's important to point out. That is definitely true, and I wasn't trying to say that it invalidates those feats - but it certainly puts a major question mark on a lot of them, in my opinion. It doesn't mean that they shouldn't count, but that we should be cautious with just saying that this or that character can do a bunch of things that they actually can do in some iterations and can't in others. Like I said, it's something to be aware of. It's why this question is way more complicated than that Mistborn vs Radiant question that keeps popping up. But yeah, of course they should be considered, but cautiously, in my opinion. Yeah, I wasn't trying to say that Radiants are better because they might potentially be able to destroy planets, this part of my comment was actually not meant as a part of the direct comparison (but I guess that wasn't really clear). I was just trying to say that the scope of things magic in the Cosmere is able to do is by design way beyond what the Force in Star Wars is shown to do, in general. Brandon tells a different style of story, where humans can become gods. That's not something that Star Wars does, and it's good that way. In a similar way, a lot of Shounen anime character could easily defeat Radiants of any Ideal, probably Heralds, probably anything but Shards, because over the course of 1000 chapters, they just become mind-boggingly powerful so they can, I don't know, destroy planets with one punch or something like that. It doesn't make one story better than the other (I'd even argue that those power levels usually lead to bad writing), but it's different styles of stories and Star Wars characters are not designed to be able to keep up with Stormlight characters.

But he can do that some times and not do that other times. In the end, he gets defeated by an angry youth. By the standard of that scene, Word of Radiance Kaladin would wipe the floor with him! We have to keep this in mind: The Cosmere power levels are strictly consistent (Brandon takes care of that), Star Wars power levels are not. Which is what I hinted at above. Charcters can do something in one scene because it looks cool, but can't do it anymore in another scene because it would defeat the point of the scene (Vader just hiding somewhere and choking people - technically he doesn't even need his lightsaber for anything if he can just choke them). That's because in Star Wars, the effect of a specific scene (like Vader seeming badass) is more important than internal consistency. Which is fine by me, I'm not even saying that's bad writing or anything, it works just fine for the movies in my opinion. It just makes claims like these hard to argue for on a consistent basis. It gets worse with changing writers between mediums, giving Vader overpowered abilities in some side story comic while he never shows them when he needs them in the movies. It's a general flaw in this comparison. We can't just take anything that a Jedi/Sith has been shown to do somewhere and apply it, because in a lot of cases, these abilities contradict what's been shown elsewhere in the series. ... Also, yesterday at the livestream, Brandon has said that Shardplate protects from mind control. Which makes it easy to argue that all that force stuff will probably not even work against Fourth Ideal upwards Radiants anyway. I'm still convinced that in a comparison between Brandon's established canon and the things that work consistently in Star Wars, no Jedi or Sith could stand a chance against any Fifth Ideal Radiant in a fair situation. I'm not saying that that makes Jedi dumb or useless or anything like that, just that Star Wars functions on a different (not worse) power scale than Stormlight. It's not a story with "could be destroying the planet with our powers so let's just abandon them" type of situations. Which is fine, it doesn't need to do that, it's just that Stormlight does and in these comparisons, it makes it hard for Star Wars character to keep up.

A good Jedi could have a chance against a Second Ideal Radiant. Third Ideal, harder. Fourth Ideal, with Plate and Blade, almost impossible. Noone can convince me that any Jedi ever could take on the weakest Fifth Ideal Radiant. Just a completely different power level. Any argument for Jedi there has to be based off of inconsistencies, e.g. weird things that Jedi can do in some iterations that they obviously can't do in anything else.

I think you contradict yourself - in your theory, do they want to unmake the Dawnshards or Adonalsium? Also, that's a huuuge assumption that 1. you need the Dawnshards in order to unite the Shards (at least one event in the Cosmere implies that Adonalsium could be reformed without them, just like a vase can potentially be fixed without the stone that broke it) and 2. that you could just reunite the Shards by getting together the Dawndhards - they'd probably need all the Shards at one place, too, and - with the Dor and other ones Splintered and other problems - that's a task that is close to impossible. Also, Unmaking as used in the Stormlight Archive (mainly by Raboniel) seems to imply corruption of the Investiture of one (or more) Shards by another Shard, writing it over and making it Investiture of the other Shard. Which means that Adonalsium can't be Unmade, since there is no Shard outside of Adonalsium that could possibly corrupt it. So there's a lot of problems with this. That said, I do agree that they are most likely hunting the Dawnshards - maybe to use them, maybe to eliminate them. The former is probably more likely, but the latter seems more interesting to me personally