jamesbondsmith

I keep thinking of Dox's comments about how if he admits nobles like Elend can be good, then he would also have to admit that he and Kelsier may have been wrong to kill so many of them. Kelsier is probably one of the biggest Cosmere cases of 'I'm so glad he's pointed at the other side'. Sure, he fights for the underprivileged, but he's edging towards being a serial killer in the way he goes about it.

Just because it isn't a 'Captain America, Thor and the GOTG team up to save the universe' type of 'Endgame' doesn't mean it won't be a 'Earth, Asgard and the Nova Corps' teamup deal. That's the take I got from the 'it's not an Avengers type story' quote. Also, considering it's literally discussing the final battle of the Cosmere, I would assume anyone looking at this thread would either be up to date enough to not be spoiled or wouldn't care. It's like purposely flipping to the final page of a book and being angry that the ending got spoiled. As for the original post, I'm not sure who would be on which side, although there's certainly a precedent for people from the same culture not all fighting on the same side. It's entirely possible Scadrians could be villain protagonists, or there's a rogue group of them wreaking havoc

For context: I trained in martial arts for 18 years but quit because injuries were piling up (residual pain from a knee reconstruction and simultaneous issues with feet, shoulders and elbows). I'm more on the chronic pain end of the spectrum than an actual disability, but I have noticed that in stories which include a powerful magic system severe injuries are completely healed pretty quickly. Kaladin is healed in WoR, Lopen gets a whole new limb, even the Elantrians who suffer from chronic pain suddenly get better. It's gotten to the point where the questions of 'who will die next' make me think of someone like Adolin getting injured but without dying or being healed. I didn't notice it too much beforehand, but I've been seeing it more and more since I read the latest Dresden Files books (spoilers for all of them) I'm debating whether to go back to uni, and the treatment of physical disability in high-magic fantasy is starting to look like a decent PhD topic.

Judging by the reaction I got in a writers group, this is unpopular. People write and talk very differently. You only have to look at the people who talk somewhat simplistically and then toss out the 'howevers/therefores/one must' like candy in a written argument on social media. My opinion is that a frustrating amount of writers don't fully understand that, and Sanderson is sometimes one of them. I've read several patches of dialogue that quite definitely felt written, as opposed to what someone might say off the cuff.

Totally what a lightweaver would do https://xkcd.com/451/

I thought it was a popular theory (if not full-on WOB) that they did it to restrict women from things requiring both hands in order to keep them in their place. Like a culturally enforced 'stay in the kitchen'. Although denying literacy to men wouldn't exactly have been useful for keeping power, unless they thought that whacking stuff with sticks was the only way to power (which with the Alethi may not be too inaccurate)

I always found his 'until I find a more perfect Ideal' caveat to be really interesting. Was he just giving himself leeway in case he again made the wrong decision about a code to follow, or do Skybreaker oaths all allow for changes in codes, similar to how laws can be reinterpreted/amended/struck down? I really like the idea that he ends up being required to take out Taravangian because he was the one who lead to Szeth wrongly becoming Truthless.

Does anyone know if this will be necessary for ROW (I've been avoiding the preview chapters in favour of the actual book so no spoilers please)?

Considering PT/BG came up to around 750 pages altogether, I think they could (and should) have easily done it in one book. Butcher has released 650+ page books before, and our dear Branderson scoffs at books of a mere 750 pages (which are still bound in one volume)

Just finished Battle Ground (Dresden Files 17). Wasn't much of a fan of Peace Talks, but I did enjoy BG. Even if I'm tremendously salty about a certain event (if you've read it you can probably guess)

This is based on a reaction I'm having towards a certain other fantasy series, but I'd kind of like to see Adolin injured in such a way that his dueling is taken from him and he can't be healed. Perhaps he's hurt and stranded and has to come to terms with his disability while returning to Urithiru to the point that he accepts it as part of who he is and Renarin's healing isn't able to affect him. I trained in martial arts for the past 18 years, but injuries have piled up and I had to call time on it. I struggled a lot with the decision (and still struggle with it now), so I'd like to see stories of warriors who can no longer be warriors. Yes, Dalinar stepped back from open battle, but he's still capable of ridiculous feats.

One of the main ones I remember is Dracula Another which may not be popular in a Brandon Sanderson fan forum is Wheel of Time. I stopped reading partway through the first one because I couldn't stand what I call the 'storm you nah storm you nah storm you' style of narrative conflict. No-one can agree on anything, everyone else is obviously lying or just plain stupid, and it's all ridiculously petty. I keep wondering if I should try again, but other things get my attention.

Maybe it's just because I'm not religious in the slightest in real life, but Stormlight Archive (and much of the Cosmere in general) is full of people who do foolish or reprehensible things (to put it mildly) with little justification beyond 'my religion said so'. Shallan is one of them too, as she buys heavily into the Vorin gender roles and caste system.

I get frustrated with her for a lot of reasons. For one of the 'heroes', she just seems to buy into the whole 'lighteyes are superior' mentality way too much for my liking. For example, the boots scene everyone mentions and her abject horror that darkeyes can pretend to be lighteyed (but it’s fine and dandy for her to do the opposite). Granted, Adolin and a few others have had shades of this too, and one of my big hopes for later books is that all the lighteyes get off their 'we're superior' high horse. Is there a concrete answer for when each Order gets their Shardblades? Because if Lightweavers get it at 3rd Ideal, then it appears that Shallan went way backwards from when she was a little kid. She seems to skirt dangerously close to breaking the rules of Radiance and going back on oaths without significant repercussions. For an order based on honesty, I feel like constantly denying parts of herself isn't ideal. She seems to get far less flak for going back on oaths than Kaladin did. Her 'humour' has been mentioned heaps, so I won't get too into it. Suffice to say, it's terrible and been treated as the height of wit. To be honest, this is an issue I have with the character of Wit as well. Finally, let's be honest, if there was a zombie apocalypse, she would definitely be the one who pretends they didn't get bitten and then infects everyone. (I'm pretty proud of this observation, tbh). But the thing is, a lot of it makes sense. She’s a young woman in a world which has strictly defined gender roles. She came from an abusive household (even her brother is giving off warning signs of being a future serial killer), so it makes sense that she’d hold onto whatever power she felt she had. She’s been raised in nobility, so it makes sense that she’d think in ways that justified her ‘innate superiority’ (even if we and other characters think it’s a load of bull). It does draw me out of the story when she talks more like a dusty textbook than a real person, but an aspiring scholar would probably try their best to sound like that. Just because I can understand why she thinks that way doesn’t mean I have to like her for it. I can understand why the Ironborn and Dothraki in ASOIAF have such a cruel culture (or even why the Alethi are such warmongers), doesn’t mean I have to find that culture acceptable.

If we're using Dresden Files as an example, then I can imagine (Changes Spoiler)

First off, I'd wager that the one of the main reasons fans don't hate Dalinar as much as Moash is because we first saw the former mid-redemption. Second, let's not forget that Dalinar has such trouble with the coalition because many people outside Alethkar see him as a monster (or at very least someone who will conquer them the first chance he gets). It's not as if he's gotten off without punishment, it's just that the culture that committed the crime is one that considers resolving conflicts peacefully base cowardice. Third, as so many people said, Dalinar tried to be better, Sadeas didn't and was promising to do the same as he always did or worse.

Attempts at making a Knights Radiant character class are everywhere on the internet. Going with one of the handbook classes, I'd say it would be either a Paladin (oaths might need to be houseruled) or Warlock (pact with another being). You might be able to use 'Stormlight' as whatever fuels spell slots, with the number of slots being analogous to moving up through the oaths and greater Stormlight efficiency. I can't remember if healing actually uses up Stormlight or if it's just passive, but you might be able to just use healing spells.

Would Windrunners even go for pre-emptive strikes, given how they're focused on protection (if only to avoid losing their powers, regardless of their personal beliefs)? I suppose they could interpret it as 'best defense is a good offense', but with enough mental gymnastics you could probably justify almost anything.

The Skybreakers fall into the same issue as any law enforcement group: using the law as the 'be all and end all' needs the laws to be just and fair, otherwise they just become a tool of oppression. It's like the central argument of the MCU's Civil War (mild spoilers). The pro-Sokovia Accords side believes that the Avengers need oversight as they are overly destructive, while the anti-Accords side believes that oversight will prevent them from helping those in need in time (or even helping them at all). It all depends on which people/laws you put your faith in. Szeth's oaths are to uphold 'justice', while the general version is about 'the law' (taken from the coppermind). You could, or example, argue that the divides between dark/lighteyes are perfectly within the law, but to us would violate the 'fair and reasonable' definition of justice. The whole point of putting their faith in something external is because they know their own morality can be fallible, and Nale has somehow managed to convince almost every Skybreaker that his own admittedly fallible morality is simultaneously infallible enough to dedicate themselves to. I'd be interested to see if changing the external code that they swear themselves to will count as going back on their oaths. Szeth has a caveat of 'until I find a more perfect ideal', which may just mean that he's accepting the possibility of progression towards the other Ideals or could mean that he is leaving himself open to the fact that he may swear himself to something he shouldn't have (which he has all too much experience with). I'd also like to know whether that caveat is something unique to Szeth, or whether changing allegiances is something implied in the oaths and he's the only one explicitly acknowledging it. I'd suggest that it's the latter, considering every other Skybreaker happily jumps ship to support the Singers (or at least, Nale jumps ship and all the others are too blindy loyal to not follow him).

As I'm rereading I keep wondering, is the 'pork' they have literally pig meat? If so it's presumably Shin. Alternatively, is it another mammal in the same vein as all birds being chickens, or is it some other thing they call pork like how 'axehounds' are dog sized insects/crustaceans that are definitely not dogs as we know them.

Looks fun, and I'd like to play the end result. Please keep in mind that most of my limited game knowledge comes from playing them, so I have little knowledge about the technical elements of gamemaking (although it'd be nice to learn). I'm a pretty casual gamer, but I like the ones I play. Have you got much plot going? Who is your player character? I know you said you'd like to be a Mistborn, but there doesn't seem to be much in terms of emotional allomancy, which I feel that would be tricky to represent in any medium that isn't literature. If you stick to only playing as mistings, you could just limit the character choices to the physical metals. They could probably function as the traditional rpg character archetypes; e.g. pewter = melee/tank, steel = long range, iron = tank (where they draw coins towards their armour), tin = stealth. It could be cool to use iron/steelsight as a way to tell where enemies are (like how Dishonored lets you see through walls, or Last of Us has 'listening'), and bronze might work in a 'miss the mooks but lets you keep track of the boss/allomancer' way. Maybe emotional allomancy could introduce a whole bunch of stat debuffs. Soothing/rioting a positive emotion might increase whichever stat is involved with whatever task the NPC is completing, or give a boost to health/healing under the guise of 'confidence in their chances to succeed', and a negative emotion might do the opposite. Not to mention the 'agreeability spectrum' that some games have (I'm not sure what the game dev term is, but I mean like faction reputation in Outer Worlds, or how much people like you in the Fable games). Hopefully I'm not too much of a noob to help with this.

I can imagine the nobility would have stamped anything remotely creative out pretty damnation quick. Considering the whole 'if you really need to rape your skaa at least kill them afterwards' thing they had going, if they noticed (or even vaguely entertained the thought) that this art might be revolutionary (much like how capoeira was supposedly meant to disguise fight training as dancing), they'd probably squash it immediately. That's not even getting into the high likelihood of protest songs, and the crackdown those would bring.

As others said, I think Syl is the best bet, although I can certainly imagine a situation where she's so omnipresent that he has to remind her that he needs some privacy (like if he doesn't want her 'yelling encouragement from the headboard'). Of the options you gave, Adolin seems most likely. I'm wondering (with little hard evidence, mind you) whether he may be more friendly with someone he doesn't have to worry about protecting. It seems like the general consensus is that Dalinar is the second coming of Honor or Adonalsium, with all the power that implies, while Lift and Renarin both have Radiant powers specifically devoted to healing on top of their Stormlight healing. The deaths of people he cares about haunt him, so he may be more open to someone who he is less likely to lose. Again, little hard evidence.

I think he wasn't the greatest, but could have been better with the proper training (e.g. Gavilar surviving and passing on the throne when he was older along with some sort of 'apprenticeship', Dalinar focusing on teaching him how to lead rather than simply protecting him, or just not having the living pile of turd mixed with crem that is Sadeas as adviser), and had be not been king of the 'prolonged war = good, diplomacy/quick war = bad' Alethi. TBH, it would have been interesting if Alethi competitiveness had extended to areas other than war. People trying to find the most peaceful solution could have its own drama; for example, convincing people that your rival is a warmonger, only you can provide true peace. I know Moash is a controversial topic, but I feel one of the reasons people hate him so much was because he cut Elhokar's maturation and redemption as a leader short.

Apologies if this has been posted already, I didn't see anything when I used the search function. Supposedly this is the actual 'mood trailer' used to pitch Mistborn, where they edited existed movies together to show what a product could look like. I feel like they captured atium almost exactly. I am however a little skeptical about how they would adapt emotional allomancy into a visual medium.