Rorzikel

Agreed with @Treamayne, I do not think Brandon wrote Kelsier as what he thinks he did or that his depiction of the real life disorder is accurate. For one, psychopath is not the medical term for ASPD, and has not been featured as a term in the DSM since 1968, which conflicts with Brandon's assessment of "He's a psychopath--meaning the actual, technical term." It is a charged term that is soaked in pop culture stereotypes more than genuine science, and I'm skeptical that at the time of these wobs or even now that he has tried to take the same non biased approach that he did for Shallan or Kaladin's mental health. Similar to how not every bad ex is a clinical narcissist, not everyone who has certain traits qualifies for antisocial personality disorder.

They're talking about the Eighth Heightening's ability to "break" a lifeless's command and take control of them.

My theories on "destiny" is that it is the part of the spiritweb that Brandon talks about when he says that the soul knows how old you are, and that property being what made the Lord Ruler age to dust. You're "destined" to live a certain lifespan, and maybe have some genetic conditions that healing can't fix either as it is part of your ideal.

Or Steelpushing is (like certain others) better at getting around the resistance effects of investiture and identity such that it isn't ever noticed. For example, Stoneshaping can't be used on human flesh, but Division and Soulcasting certainly can be.

Despite how the traditional saying goes, what doesn't kill you does not always make you stronger. Struggle and suffering don't inherently improve you. Often times just the opposite in terms of depleted resources and capability.

Issue with that is that previous wobs indicate they aren't all divided into pairs and that P and R are outliers.

I don't mind if other authors write some small little pieces here and there like if someone wanted to write out the fictionalized accounts of Allomancer Jak or the going ons of a minor planet somewhere that had no shards or major magics, but I have zero interest in having to read another author's works in order to understand the main events of the Cosmere or get some reference. So I feel you on this one.

Might be part of why Elantrians have so much raw potential and variability.

I think the fact that the shard the magic system belonged to was splintered meant that it was more uncontrolled. My thought was that it was similar to this concept about the nightmares lacking oversight from a shard. My idea is less that this principle is the shard actively saying "no, don't do that" but that an unsplintered shard provides some kind of inherent stability, and that without that the magic can become dangerously unrestricted.

Agreed on it perhaps being her role being depicted as non-feminine in art, but I would also like to say that art doesn't have to hew perfectly to religious morals or public modesty even in the real world. Michelangelo's Statue of David was funded by the Church and was beloved by Renaissance Florence, despite it having full nudity. The only reason they didn't put it on the roof of the cathedral was because it ended up weighing 8.5 tons.

I view Jasnah's atheism as very similar to how someone in the DC comics universe could acknowledge Superman's existence and high level of superhuman ability (that depending on the iteration can match or surpass many irl cultures' deities) but still not think that Clark is a god or that he should be worshipped.

I'm not sure I understand your rating system. It seems arbitrary not just in individual percentage awarded, but also how large each divisor is. Why is intelligence rated on a scale of 10.5 while counterintelligence rated out of 9? Why is the Notable Uses of Investiture category the only +5 without being part of the average? Why even have decimals at all in the divisor? I think it would be better to rate each category out of five stars, and also for you to back up some of your reasoning. Some things seem fairly self evident for a low score like the lack of an intact shard, but "Komashi has spirits that can form powerful Connections" sounds like a good thing despite you rating it a 1/10.5.

Atium can be used as a metalmind.

I don't think we actually know that Aethers are Cognitive entities. They certainly don't seem to need a Nahel bond to anchor them and water on its own without any human input can cause it to grow.

"Oh, I see, Brandon, each surge pair combines in interesting ways and synergies, like how Windrunners can manipulate the air a bit and fly and such. What can Bondsmiths do?" "They can manipulate Connections which lets them do things like speak other languages." "Oh cool-" "And open perpendicularities, and steal spren bonds, and connect you to a planet to drain you of stormlight, and enhance other surges, and repair broken items, and make spren have physical forms in the real world and-" "Wait, how does that come from the power to stick things together and to make things stiff?" "It just does." "Do the Stonewards and Windrunners also have godlike powers from shared surges?" "Nope, as the Stormfather said, the Bondsmith surges work completely different for them. The Windrunners glow a bit during oaths though, so that's cool." --- The Bondsmiths are like someone let a super saiyan join a boxing tournament.

Glad to see him calling out Audible.

I guess it depends on your definition of protect, and if it is slightly looser than Brandon's, but nahel bonds help a bit. Prevents losing body parts from soulcasting, at least.

Devil’s advocate: Chromium was first isolated in 1797 while Aluminum was discovered in 1825, 28 years later. The initial process of discovery for Chromium was pretty simple too, the initial method was reacting ore with hydrochloric acid to form an oxide and then baking that oxide in a charcoal oven to yield pure Chromium. There’s not really a barrier to getting it if you already can produce Aluminum beyond knowing how to do it.

From Words of Radiance, Interlude 2

From the RoW epigraph letters between Harmony and Hoid: Clearly a "sword" is someone who fulfills both intents and acts for Harmony when he cannot. I wouldn't say that Marasi or Wayne can do destroy as well as Wax. Also, as others have said, being a "sword" isn't necessarily some distinct realmatic position or entity, Wax could be the sword simply because Sazed prefers him for personal reasons.

Pain raises blood pressure which could cause a stroke or heart problems depending on the person's pre-existing conditions and lifestyle. There's also the problem of non-mental damage that's still serious- PTSD etc. I could see these pain grenades being defined as war crimes irl. Cosmere All spoilers

Not sure that's necessarily true, steel is also supposed to be theoretically infinite but Brandon has said air friction will burn you up after a certain point. I don't know what may happen, but I don't think we should assume that feruchemic usage compensates for user safety infinitely.

The inability to replicate or advance is directly related to the complacency I was talking about. If people don't understand what they're using there's a major problem. Sure, average people might not fully get how their phones and toaster ovens work, but there are legions of engineers, technicians, and scientists who do know how these things work and the principles behind them. Radio isn't a crazy jump for Scadrians to work out, but what about Sazed giving them modern day computers? Will the Basiners learn to program and to work with hardware when Harmony can replace old technology with something that would take them decades to puzzle through? Who will innovate when God will do it better? Who will experiment when God has given you the right answers without the fumbling of human error? And I'm saying that it would take eternity to build a second one if Harmony wasn't holding their hand for the construction process and the myriad things that are needed to build the parts for the construction. The more Sazed gives, the more reliant they are on him like a child that never stopped breastfeeding. And as it appears, Discord might not be very reliable. Ultimately, think on this: who designs the next Apple iphone, the sweatshop workers or Apple's engineers and programmers? If Apple collapses, will the sweatshop workers be able to make the next version on their own?

I think Sazed's point is more if the Romans in your example behaved like the Basiners, they'd just use it to drive around the streets of Rome. The Basiners' problem in Sazed's opinion isn't a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of a burning need to take what has been given and advance. Like you said, the Romans would dominate the world, while the Northern Scadrians have barely left the Basin even with resources beyond nature's provision.

Yeah, definitely something to think about. I’ve never taken Brandon saying the Heralds were insane as him saying they were always wrong about everything they said or did, just that they weren’t reliable as sources. ”Even a broken clock is right twice a day” as the phrase goes.