Nitpicking

Except neither of them is working on any of the announced "Brandon main timeline" stories, like the Elantris sequels. They're doing side projects. I thought that too, but then Brandon (as you say below) couldn't let go of any of "his" stories, so they're just adding even more not-yet-written stories to the Cosmere. (Isaac mentioned some time last year that he wasn't actively working on his novel at that time. IIRC.) I mean, I hope Brandon does live to an actively-writing 100. I won't be here to see it (I'm older than he is) but it would be great for the grandchildren of the youngest current 17th Sharders.

I interpret it more biologically (given my own bio degrees): the "worms" are the caterpillars of those butterflies. Lots of Earth animals are called "worm" and are not what we biologists would use that word for. Inchworms, for instance, are caterpillars of a moth. When the bird eats one, she is actually Connecting to the Cognitive entity the butterfly represents. Likewise, these particular Cognitive beings can't pupate and become adults without gestating inside a Physical Realm bird. Brandon is very intentional in his naming. It is almost certainly not a coincidence that "worm" can also mean "dragon".

I sort of disagree. Isles of the Emberdark spoiler:

Taravangian. There are others I don't like, but T. is such a vile self-deluded hypocrite ....

Consider the middle of The Lord of the Rings, if you will. Mordor's armies conquering almost everything, only a few refuges holding out, Denethor self-immolates, Frodo captured by orcs .... The great length of the Stormlight Archive does mean we'll have to wait, what?, 20 years to see our guys win (if they do).

Your quote says that Taravangian is dead. By "Brandon is wrong," I obviously am not hallucinating that I'm in charge of the Cosmere. I'm saying that Brandon's allergy to letting his characters die is, to my personal taste, a flaw.

Interesting. And by that I mean, makes no sense and goes into the territory of "Brandon is wrong."

The idea that WaT has a "brutal ending" ... it's the exact middle of a series. In an adventure story, the exact middle really has to be a very bad time for the characters. They have to be in trouble so they can come up with a way out in the end, right?

"Elsegate"? Otherwise: yeah.

Jasnah has access to Towerlight. She just can't open a Perpendicularity for anyone but herself, it seems. For what it's worth: either "her" Seon or Olo (the one she sent to Adolin) would suggest getting help from an Elantrian, since their magic can do almost anything. There's a member of the Ire living in the Rosharan subastral, or at least there used to be: the person who shows Kaladin Lightsong's painting.

Yeah, a Cognitive Shadow can't pick up a Shard. That's why Taravangian failed to pick up Odium and went directly to the Beyond. And why Kelsier totally failed to pick up Preservation between the Leras' death and Vin's becoming available and didn't wield Preservation's power against Ati and Ruin at all. Don't forget that Kelsier is already a Sliver.

Dragons are older than the Shattering, and there are lots of remnants of Adonalsium's power around that aren't directly of any Shard, notably The Wind, as met in Wind And Truth. I don't see why the Dragons can't continue to have Investiture directly from Adonalsium, just like The Night does on Roshar.

Well, Brandon said somewhere that Kelsier would be leading one megafaction in the Space Age. Presumably he's head of the empire. Also, my reaction to Isles was that Harmony is Kelsier now, Sazed having gone Beyond. No text supports it, just where my mind went after reading SP5. A kandra could probably speak Malwish without a heavy accent, though.

Why do you assume that? (Does she? I haven't reread that book in years. Or do you mean the one Breath all Nalthians are born with?)

Vasher makes that girl forget her trauma in Warbreaker.

I agree completely. I just like to speculate.

Cusicesh seems way too passive to be Ambition. By definition, Ambition is about wanting to constantly change your circumstances and/or yourself.

Yes. After all, Silverlight is under a permanent time-stretch effect.

We know that Eelakin eating live worms doesn't work, because somewhere or other it's mentioned (a WoB? Can't remember). I wouldn't expect it to work for any mammal, nor for cold-blooded reptiles, but that's just intuition.

I believe I'm also assigned to the Diagram, as a King's Tester.

I'm pretty sure foreigners who live in Aonic lands will have children who can become Elantrians. Could be wrong, but that's how I remember it.

Presumably a Mistborn or nicrosil Misting could let a Windrunner flare her Stormlight ....

To be really obvious: only iron and steel feruchemists would be yanked around by an MRI (or other magnet). Small enough pieces of metal (like the flakes in a vial) would be OK in an MRI, but big pieces like feruchemical spikes would heat up, even if they are not magnetic. (I had an MRI earlier this year. My dental work didn't heat up much, or even enough to notice.)

I've thought for years that Brandon should do for himself what Harriet did for Robert Jordan: find collaborators to finish the series. He'd have to write about twice as fast as he currently is to complete every book he's got solidly planned, let alone the "optional" ones like the Threnody sequel. Find two up-and-coming writers and farm out books to them, under the support team (led by Peter Ahlstrom) and finally Brandon's supervision. I don't think he'll actually do it, and of course that is 100% his decision, but it means the Cosmere won't be completed unless Brandon lives to be 100 and retains his full writing capabilities into advanced old age.