NameIess

This one was fun

As preface, I'm not a Catholic or Orthodox or any other denomination that holds Mary as sinless. She was a good woman, but I don't think there's any basis for believing she was sinless. Her suffering, then, was that of a sinner living in a world broken by sin. But Jesus was sinless, and his sacrifice was necessary, his suffering undeserved. I think an important point to bring up about Jesus' suffering is that Jesus is God. God the Father did not force Jesus to suffer. Jesus, God the Son, voluntarily underwent that suffering in order to save us. At any point Jesus could have called a legion of angels to save himself, thought every Roman soldier out of existence, or anything else you can imagine. He is God. He was not forced into it, but chose to follow the will of his Father in order that all humans could have salvation. That is not comparable. Your mother's justification of herself was selfish. She inflicted abuse on you for no good purpose, forced suffering upon you. God the Father sent Jesus to suffer for us that we might be saved from suffering ourselves. God the Son became flesh and dwelt among us, freely suffering and dying to save us. Thank you for your honesty. First, I would say that your view of me can only be accurate if you are right about God and I am wrong. If God is real, then I see the world for what it is, and you are, to speak in metaphor, one who cannot see through the barbs and thorns of the world to the light and hope that is behind them. Second, I would say that I am not blinded to the evil in the world. I am as capable of seeing suffering as you. I can see the horrors brought on by wars and droughts and corrupt politicians and greed and prejudice and just plain evil people. I do not deny that the way the world is right now is not right. But you do rightly say that I find comfort in knowing that it will not be this way forever. If you are right about God, then you are right that I do not understand the real way the world is. Third, I would say that my view of the world does not prevent me from acting to prevent evil. In fact, I believe that I am commanded by God to help those in need. To quote Matthew 25:31-46: In this parable, the final judgement is pictured. Caring for those in need, preventing evil, is framed as doing the same for Jesus. Further, it is framed as the difference separating the dammed from the Saints. Although there is more to salvation than works, refusing to care for those in need is not a Christian attribute. I can answer, and absolutely don't see this question as an attack. First, there is no such thing as a 'good person' in regards to salvation. Every human is condemned by their works. If God were to judge me by my works, I would rightly be condemned to Hell. That in mind, yes, I believe that if you were to die unrepentant and unbelieving, you would likely go to Hell. I won't say that you would certainly go to Hell, because I am not God, able to judge perfectly. But based on the scriptures God has given, Jesus is the only way to salvation. So through the scriptures, I can have no confidence in the salvation of anyone who does not follow Jesus. Also keep in mind that Hell is not a place where sinners are tortured by demons, but a place where humans (and demons) are eternally separated from God, and thereby all the good things he gives us even in this current sinful world.

Do the Ghostbloods have a method to unkey Stormlight? Even if they do, it seems like it would be more difficult with Feruchemically compounded Investiture, since it's not only keyed to Preservation, but also to the kind of thing it's supposed to do (healing, weight, heat, etc.).

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I would rather know what you think of my beliefs than avoid being offended, so feel free to explicate if you want. I think it is a fallacy to equate your parent’s ‘need’ to abuse you, a belief that is horribly distorted and wrong even if they genuinely held to it, with the necessity of Jesus’ sacrifice in order to restore mankind to a right relationship with God. God did not feel that he needed Jesus’ sacrifice in order to forgive sins. By His just nature, such sacrifice was needed. By His nature, he made that sacrifice freely.

I am sorry that you went through that. Abuse is terrible, and abusing the gospel to justify it is more so. I have not been abused, really my life has been exceptionally good. But personally I find comfort in knowing a loving God exists who punishes evil, and better yet forgives those who turn to him. A God who will wipe away every tear and right every wrong.

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That’s possible even if Lan is better than Gawyn and Galad. Rand is an exceptional swordsman, and beating Lan once out of many sparring duels is, while impressive, not an unheard-of feat. Based on the Demandred duels, I would rank Lan, Galad and Gawyn in the order of: Gawyn<Galad<Lan.

Gawyn does not trump both. Lan is a superior swordsman to both Gawyn and Galad.

Galad and maybe Lan? Lan is a superior swordsman to Galad.

‘Easily’ is a stretch. Maybe Navani could’ve figured it out with the Sibling’s help, but she didn’t necessarily know it would be possible, since only Dalinar heard about the possibility from Odium. At the time, he might not have mentioned it. But yes, that likely would’ve been a better solution if they’d known about the possibility.

Destroying the Oathgate would’ve worked most likely, but it also would’ve been a serious economic blow to Azir. At the point that it would’ve been possible before the battle, they thought they had a significant army that would reinforce them in a few days. So they didn’t think they needed to take such desperate measures.

Do you mean that, because God did not answer your prayers to end the abuse and suffering you were going through by killing you, he is not real/is dead?

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Even just being able to do half of it would have been a massive advantage. If it was any non-living matter then the swords/spears the Alethi warriors used against them wouldn't do anything as they would just pass through them. Pretty sure they mention using aluminum specifically to stop Deepest ones, which would make no sense if they could only move through stone, considering its rarity.

Alright, longer thoughts here. Keep in mind that it's been a bit since I've reread/relistened to the books, so I might be a bit rusty. Also, I apologize in advance for rambliness. WoK: Not much except setting up for WaT's deal loophole as I mentioned earlier, this could be done in any of the books, but ideally I would set it up here or in WoR. But there's nothing in this book that I think needs changing. Shallan's theft plot was a really stupid plan, it truly would've been better to get into Jasnah's good graces and try to fix the soulcaster. It makes sense for her plan to be stupid though, given her sheltered and traumatizing upbringing. WoR: Also not much. This book is awesome. I would change Jasnah's fakeout death to be not a fakeout, as Brandon himself thinks would've been a good idea. A chapter with her in Shadesmar would solve this issue, while leaving Shallan's plot mostly unchanged. OB: Some actual changes this time. Actually... maybe not. The Kaladin/Shallan/Adolin love triangle is not great, but it has an in-universe reason for Kaladin to act that way, and it ends the right way, so yeah. I don't know how anyone could think Elhokar survived, Moash stabbing him, then stabbing him again until he stopped glowing was a very obvious "Yeah, this guy's dead" in my mind. And there were consequences for it. Adolin, Kaladin, Jasnah, Dalinar, and Navani had consequences in their character arcs. His death wasn't too impactful to the war effort, but wasn't that the point? Dalinar had sidelined Elhokar so much that him dying in Kholinar had little more effect politically speaking other than to put Jasnah on the throne. I do think Jasnah acted a bit illogically to try to kill Renarin without actually discussing anything with him, but we don't see the full context of what Renarin saw. Maybe in that possibility she did talk to him, or maybe he tried to defend himself by attacking her. And it is still within the bounds of her philosophy to carry out such actions. We already saw her kill fleeing robbers in the alley in WoK, we know she considered assassinating Aesudan, it makes sense for her character. Actually, maybe one change. Elhokar would've been a thousand times better as a champion than Gavinor. Put some indication in there that Odium grabbed him as a backup champion, just in case. RoW: Hm. This book is my #3, close behind the first two. Navani's arc is good. Kaladin's is awesome. Adolin's trial and Maya speaking is incredible. Dalinar starts more Bondsmithing. Shallan and Venli are there. (Actually I thought Shallan and Adolin were really sweet in this book.) @Frustration, you mentioned Shallan's reveal not living up to her fears, and I think that's intentional. We, the readers, know that no secret from her past will stop Adolin from loving Shallan. But Shallan does not. At least, she doesn't believe it. I do agree that the Fused could be a bit more scary. Part of this I think comes from following Kaladin around all the time, so the Pursuer, who would probably be deadly to just about any other Radiant, is defeated in the course of a single book. We could see more Radiants actually dying to them. Actually, having Raboniel kill off a lot of the captured Radiants could lead into WaT, maybe helping to explain why they were so short on Radiants that they couldn't send a SINGLE ONE to Azir. Like, not even Lift, whose healing could've been quite useful even if she wouldn't be allowed into the fighting, was sent. But more on that below. WaT: For real this time, some actual changes! At least one Radiant gets sent with Adolin's task force. Maybe a Stoneward or Edgedancer. They can get targeted and killed off early, maybe by Abidi or some other Fused, but seriously, send one Radiant that can actually fight. Would one Radiant really have made such a difference on the Shattered Plains? They ran out of Stormlight, not Radiants. Kaladin and Szeth... I don't know, it was pretty nice to see Kaladin get to relax a bit. The whole book could use another draft to polish dialogue and delivery. I liked a lot of the things that happened (Kaladin becoming a Herald, Dalinar's gambit, Ba-Ado-Mishram being released, the Unoathed) but they didn't hit as hard as they could've (actually, I take that back. The Unoathed were awesome). I think this book suffers a lot from the dilemma of being both a final book and a middle book. Because it's a final book, we need a climactic final battle. Because it's a middle book, we need to set up side characters for later plots. A traditional last book (look at something like A Memory of Light) kills characters off in that climactic final battle. But here? Kill someone like Adolin and you lose the punch from the Unoathed plot and Shallan's later story is seriously negatively effected. Kill off too many cool side characters and now you don't get to use The Lopen ever again for the next 5,000+ pages left in the series. Heroic noble sacrifice is basically off the table for any important characters whose arcs do not conclude in WaT. This is exacerbated by stuff like TSM, which looking back at I really wouldn't have read before WaT. Knowing Sigzil would survive really took the punch out of the 'death rattle says you'll die' thing. So, the Contest of Champions: Yeah, it should've been Elkhokar. That would've been way more impactful, because Elhokar and Dalinar actually have a history of conflict. Gavinor is an innocent child Dalinar loves and a reminder of the bad things he did to Elhokar. Put Elhokar in there instead, and bam. A character who wants the best for Alethkar just as Dalinar does, who has been wronged by Dalinar, a man who genuinely wants to do the right thing. And it doesn't have to feel like a Diabolous Ex Machina that he's even of an age to fight Dalinar. Well, those are my thoughts. I'm certain that if I reread the books with changes in mind there would be a bunch of other things I'd think of.

Ooh, this is fun. Feels much more doable than the Cosmere Wordle. I got today's Cosmeredle in 6 tries! Try and beat me at https://cosmeredle.net/

True. An attempt to totally conquer Roshar would inevitably turn into guerrilla warfare if the nations couldn’t be convinced to surrender in exchange for not having their populations decimated, assuming the US would have the will to do that. A more realistic scenario, I think, is the US discovering the portal, sending spies through it, realizing soulcasters and other potentially useful fabrials exist, and offering military aid (we’ll bomb the enemy army into oblivion next time you both march out to war and equip your guys with guns) in exchange for Soulcasters making extremely rare and hard to get materials for them.

There are microscopic organisms living on the sand that the Koloss might be able to metabolize.

Eric's eyes snapped open, a gasp of pain escaping his lips. His shoulder had taken the brunt of the damage, with some fairly serious burns covering it. The boy squeezed his eyes shut, face pale as Kingslayer slowly healed his wounds. "I... well, alright." The woman cleared her throat. "I'm not sure if we'll be fine. But that's mostly because of your presence. I've heard... rumors about your like."

The Venusaur fired its own attack, a beam similar to solar beam, but made from darkness instead of sunlight. Oddly, it did not attempt to clash with Pikachu’s thunderbolt, but instead targeted the tree behind which the young boy stood. Venusaur-possessed used Shadow Beam! It’s super effective! Young boy Eric is knocked out! Pikachu used thunderbolt! It’s not very effective… A critical hit! Venusaur-possessed is knocked out! Pikachu gained 3870 exp. points. Both attacks landed, the Venusaur’s attack plowing through the tree and clipping the boy, sending him to the ground with a cry of pain. Pikachu’s thunderbolt landed as well, electrocuting the Venusaur and knocking it into the air. It hit the ground on its back with a crash and a burst of dark mist, and lay there unmoving. “We don’t need your protection.” The woman said stiffly. “We’re perfectly fine on our own, right?” @KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren

Maybe I’ll post more thoughts here later, but here’s my biggest problem with anything in the series: the whole premise of the conflict in WaT, that capturing capitals means capturing an entire nation, is never established and feels stupid. At least set that up as an Alethi custom or law first, rather than bring it up from nowhere to justify the (admittedly very cool) entire plot of most of the book.

The woman gulped. “Oh. I don’t know where we are. An island somewhere.”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the munitions expended were only a sizeable portion of the most advanced munitions. They had plenty of simpler missiles and bombs, which would suffice to destroy any target against an opponent with no air defenses beyond Windrunners and Skybreakers. And I feel that for the purposes of coercion, threatening to destroy population centers, burn farmland, etc. would be impactful.

“A pool? Like the one on- The woman raised a hand to her chest, trees quivering in response to her shock. “Who are you?” She asked.