Scout_Fox

Man prepared again you people are just too good . Think I'll have to mix this one up a bit. Glad you have heard a lot about the site (all good things I hope... uh... right?). It is a fantastic place to get your full Sanderson on. You can get your Cosmere discussion here, your-non Cosmere discussion, your general Brandon discussion, random meme discussion, news and updates, and assorted entertainment discussion. If you order more than one I'l even throw in some fries for free . Most definitely time to make an account! This is where the Sanderson becomes the... uh... the Sand-... yeah idk... this is where you go if you want more. Everyone here is super friendly and awesome! Do not hesitate to reach out or just jump in wherever (try to avoid random pools of acid or concrete surfaces tho, jumping into those has yielded... poor results). That reread sounds like perfect timing. If you would like to verify your identity as not an evil cosmic being set on our destruction would love to know what was the first book in the Cosmere that you read was and do you wish you had started elsewhere? As far as everything else, welcome to the Shard!

Humph I go and make an incredible greeting message and then you gotta be all prepared and organized. People these days . But you still get it anyway. Think I got some you didn't answer Welcome to the Shard! We hope your trip through inter-dimensional space to reach our lovely section of the internet was as enjoyable as possible. If you were traveling with any magical pets or items you will be able to retrieve them in the “Checking and Bagging” section of the spaceport. If you have any questions, our forum members tend to be well versed in the advanced art of “conversation” and “being a nice person.” Please do not hesitate to ask! As a precautionary screening measure, we would love to know what has been your favorite book in the Cosmere. If you would like to provide additional answers to verify your identity as not an evil being set on destroying us and everything we stand for, answers to questions such as, “What do you think of as the most critical event in the history of the Cosmere?” “What was the first book in the Cosmere that you read and do you wish you had started elsewhere?” and “Which magic system would you bring into the real world, if you could only choose one?” serve as useful measures of your non-evil identity. As for everything else, grab your bags and get ready for a ride, we hope you enjoy your stay here at the 17th Shard!

I'm late ! I shall amend by trying to be as entertaining as possible So glad you are enjoying! New-ish myself but the content here definitely reaches Cosmere-ic proportions (oof that was bad sorry about that). As far as the glowing mind I would tend to agree. Just want to make sure tho you haven't swallowed any radioactive waste at any point in the past few days right? That would have me slightly concerned for the glowing effect. Alternatively, if you have somehow managed to locate and absorb Stormlight to start glowing I am also quite intrigued. Also slightly concerned, I find bigger worlds tend to get clogged in the throat if you try to inhale them too quickly. If you are Galactus though, please avoid devouring Earth for the time being, would love to have Brandon be able to finish the SA. If it is our time tho, can't say we haven't sorta earned it so ig it's okay. Maybe just inhale the smaller worlds for now tho . As for outside life slowly distancing itself from reality, feel it too lol it's crazy rn. Well at least you got an excellent author to read books from and an entertaining forum to peruse. Welcome to the Shard!

Thanks! I was hoping people would get a laugh out of it, so glad you enjoyed it wow! I figured if I was going to write something so ridiculously long that the season started changing outside my window I would try to make it as entertaining as possible

Lol that was exactly me yesterday (might have the time zone jump on you??). Been waiting for so long was the first thing I did when I got up! Am exactly in the same boat though, got through the first bit and am working on the rest when I got time. Glad we have another fan here. And no spoilers yet although I shall amend my original post to ask for them to be labelled in spoiler boxes if people desire to discuss them. Good thinking!

Also late to the party (Uber took me to the wrong planet again, thinking I might need to try Lyft or something) but still thought I should post this since apparently I had a lot to say (I swear the keyboard took over idk what happened). Disclaimer: Totally loved the book just like I love basically every book Brandon writes with everything I have, wasn’t as good as later novels but was good in its own right and highly enjoyed seeing how Brandon’s ideas and writing style grew in the later novels and especially the way he handled challenging moral concepts and character creation. Its just… you killed Taln, and for that I can like never forgive you… jk, jk, literally every character could die in ROW and you already know I’d be lining up at the crack of dawn for Stormlight 5 Ok first … HOW COULD YOU KILL TALN MANS WORKS SO LONG TO GET THE TRUST OF HIS PEOPLE SURVIVES AN ADDITIONAL 1000 YEARS IN ETERNAL TORTURE MORE THAN ANY OF THE OTHER HERALDS AND YET STILL SHOWS UP TO TRY TO DEFEND MANKIND AND YOU JUST SHANK HIM IN THE SIDE WHILE HE’S TRYING TO HELPPPPPPPP Ok… now that that’s out of the way, WOW. What a book. Had it’s flaws yes but dang that was a trip. Ok I’m gonna start with what I thought was really good about this one then move to what I didn’t like then move more to like general discussion. First off, what an incredibly interesting way to treat the characters. What I loved about this was that it goes away from the normal “You’re a hero so you will survive even if all hope is lost and we have to invent a secret magical unicorn that farts rainbows and existed with you this entire time even though you didn’t know it” theme that exists in MOST hero stories that we see in movies and other modern stories. I had always wanted to see something where the good guys didn’t win, where you like go to help you’re Parshen who got set up and end up just dead on a stake, no hesitation not even a paragraph to you’re death, just bam, adios baby, despite being one of the most likeable people in the entire kingdom and heir to the, idk, TYRANTBANE. And then like can’t forget the magical warrior who survives an additional 1000 years in torture after already having WILLINGLY chosen to be part of the cycle of returns and having to forsake ever finding love no matter how long you live and then goes on to rally entire armies of people who had given up hope, kill 1000 people by yourself without plate, rescue like 100 or so people from a palace that was being invaded, forsake the only love you had found for the good of saving humanity YET AGAIN, then fight back your demons and question your own sanity as no one around you believes in you beside some drunkard Lord who just yeets outta there the minute you say he should put his history skills to the test… only to be shanked in the side by someone you were trying to protect while just barely being able to stay sane enough to stay alive. I mean but we could just ignore that right??? But for real though I had always wanted to see something where just everyone you love dies and just everything is brutally practical and totally not story-shielded (I mean why not just slaughter your sister and son who had come begging for your protection, eh… let’s snap some more bird necks too… hey after u wanna grab a beer by any chance?? Go for a stroll?? Nah me neither fam let’s just go slaughter a herald, literally the only one remaining who was actually willing to save us from the Khothen… no biggie bro it’s ight). AND what I found is that I absolutely hate it. Even though you totally expect the main hero to survive and it’s totally predictable it’s what you need… you need that bit of hope to survive cuz if not it’s just so damnation depressing (but like if that’s you totally support, mad respect bro). I got to the end of this and I was just like WHAT???? They’re all dead??? Ok and the character treatment wasn’t all bad, you finally had that like brutally practical “if they are an enemy to us they will die” attitude instead of the “Oh.. wait.. you’re the enemy, but what a good heart you must have… despite the fact that you killed all those people, how about instead of killing you I’m just gonna knock you down and you know what… I’ll stand over here and just look at myself in the mirror while you stay there right next to the massive gun I just happened to leave there… oh, what could happen??” attitude. Like Dalenar goes and kills Elhokar because he realized he’s a bad king. Like thank you … finally some initiative and doing what’s right instead of just story-shielding the whole time. I mean they followed rule #1 of being a hero: ALWAYS KILL THE BAD GUY! But like at the same time I realized that that type of character treatment, as much as I thought I wanted it, was totally just not at all as fulfilling. Now lets get to what I really didn’t like about this version and what I realized I really liked that got fixed about later drafts. For one the naming, yes as someone mentioned we are used to the words from the published Stormlight series, but at the same time, I never realized how big of an effect naming had on making a story good. Like I was reading the beginning and I was like “crom??” uhhhh for real?? Like just the way “crem” sounds is just soooo much nicer. And like Jeksonsonsonsonsosnosnsonsosnwehadtoomanysonlettersattheprintingpress was just confusing as heck. Szeth just flows. And like Shinri to Shallan. Like just the way the names sounded and how starkly I noticed them was really surprising to see and made me really appreciative of all the work the Sanderson team must do to make the published Stormlight as awesome as it is. Ok another thing, while we are on the topic of Jekmustuseallthesonletters his not retirutbution arc (taking him and Szeth to be the same character) at the end just really bothered me. Like I needed it… like soooooo badly. Like when Szeth finally realized he was right and his clan was wrong and he is not Truthless and then like mans up and goes to fight for Dalinar my heart was like literally bursting. Like after all the pain and death he caused he goes and just jabs a massive middle finger at Taravangian. So when Jek sees that Merin is a Windrunner as he air Thanos punches him across the freaking battlefield and then doesn’t go like… "wait… if the old powers have returned (quoting him basically) then I’m not Truthless and I can go kill Ahven," and instead is just like “You know what, how about I just kill these guards here as well cuz you know I like killing people” I was just severely heartbroken. I mean this does suppose that he became Truthless for the same reason (“lying” about radiants/Epellion knights returning [just putting both here for the similarity comparison but yes they are different]) but like since no other reason was given I assume he did. So for me this was just a major example of how much better Stormlight is than the Oathshard realm because you get these characters who actually follow meaningful arcs and who you can empathize with. Speaking of characters, another thing I REALLY didn’t like about this was that you didn’t have a consistent good guy like at ALL in the book. And though like in the end Dalinar comes out of Wussinar (Wuss + Kholinar [yes I am aware I’m amazing]) and goes and fights and Taln finally gets to like just be a badass and just god-style his way through the Veden army it still felt like there were massive parts (ESPECIALLY the middle) where you just didn’t have a hero. Like I got to around 50% in the book (thanks Kindle) and was just like, wait…. IS there even a good guy in this book?? Like Aredor (rip broski may you fight in the Tranquiline Halls with honor [yes I realize wrong world let me have my moment!!]) was dead, Renarin and Merin were captured, (cuz like why the frick not at this point even though they were captured by Jek and his crew who were supposed to be searching the passages out of the hill that Taln had led the squad out of in a completely different part of the WORLD I thought???) Shinri is over here just being shut down by Ahven, Jasnah is under Meridas’ watch, Elhokar and his wife are evil and brought assassins just so they could attack their cousin and Dalenar is over in Wussinar (does it get better if I use it twice??) and I’m just reading this going like wait, who IS even good in this. And like even Balenmar or whatever his name was who turned out to be the Herald who broke the Oathpact despite the fact that I thought he would be like a Wit type character and actually turn out to be good, was also gone and apparently evil. So… I’m just sitting here at 50% sobbing in my PJs like WHY?? WHY MUST THIS HAPPEN?? AREN’T THERE ANY HEROES LEFT???? Jk jk I was more just sitting in my nicely furnished chair inside my quiet house reading about an entire palace being slaughtered and heroes dying while sipping my coffee, CUZ YES IT WAS MORNING DON’T JUDGE ….. So anyway one thing that I think significantly undermines the success of this book (and makes the later books all the more awe inspiring and amazing) is that you didn’t really have a GOOD character. You didn’t have that one (or even better many) characters that you just really empathized with and wanted to survive. This is another thing that I had COMPLETELY overlooked when reading Stormlight. Ok and another thing, the addition of Wit/Hoid to the later novels I think was suuuuuch a good choice. Cuz although he isn’t like a main, main character he is someone who is always there and he gives you hope. Like even when just the dung hits the fan and everything seems hopeless you always hold out that hope that Wit will be there and guide them and see them through. This hope that he and for the most part Future Jasnah provide just keeps you reading the books even when everything seems hopeless and I think it was a REALLY good tactic to add to the book and Cosmere as a whole. I GOT 2 MORE SO HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS AND GLASSES AND KEEP ALL ARMS AND LEGS INSIDE THE VEHICLE. My second to last rant has gotta be about the whole Merin/ Dalenar thing. So Merin leaves to go track down and hopefully save Aredor because Renarin said he was gonna die. This is something that not even Dalenar was willing to do for his son. Goes there, rides a freaking HIGHSTORM to get there, survives days on horseback, gets captured for no reason, survives days being imprisoned (something we know is characteristically difficult for Windrunners from both series'), finds a way to escape, kills a shardbearer despite being handcuffed, gets Dalenar’s last remaining son out of there to safety, listens to him about where to go, ends up liberating an ENTIRE country that had been enslaved for 30 years after WILLINGLY giving themselves up (not to mention oh I don’t know defeating 3 soldiers in full plate and blade and 2 with just blades all at the same time and winning all their blades and plates and then distributing it to the right people including the humble soldier who held his blade and made all of this possible in the first place) showing that the country had low desire to fight given that they had just handed themselves over 30 years ago, somehow gets all of them to support and even idolize him, gets one of them to even swear an oath to him proclaiming him as their lord, advises Renarin AGAINST seeking the full truth by diving too far into the Onyx despite not even knowing what it would entail (him going brain kaput apparently), and then bringing his dead body back anways, IN ADDITION, to getting them to overthrow the Vedens despite fears of retaliation and take their entire fleet to go LITERALLY save Dalenar and all of his people … and then just because his son is dead (after having gone against Merin’s advisement, which he obviously told Dalenar about right Merin big guy??? LIKE WOULDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE TO KEEP THAT AND EVERYTHING ELSE A SECRET YA BIG DUMBO) Dalenar can’t forgive Merin despite the fact that it isn’t his fault and he literally freed an entire nation and saved Dalenar and all of Alethkar and so Merin gives up his blade and title and goes to be hmmm lemme check … A FARMER AGAIN???? After finally figuring out what The Way of Kings meant and how to be a true noble lord freeing nations and getting men to swear an oath to you (not to mention he is one of the now two alive Knights Epellion since Renarin is brain smooshed [and maybe some other Onyxseers of Ahven’s and the Elinrah]). After all that he just gives it up to go be a farmer. Uhh WHAT?? He doesn’t even give a second thought to Kalenmar or whoever who has now sworn himself to him or the Thalankenwhatever army that basically worships him. AND at this point the blade didn’t even belong to Dalenar. He had won it twice already (once to protect Elhokar once to get it back from the Jailer) then won 5 more, freeing Thalankakakaihwhatever. HE was literally a lord like 7 times over the title didn’t even belong to Dalenar anymore and he had no claim to take it away. Maybe the Kholin namesake but Merin coulda just switched names especially since IDK, he saved the entire kingdom basically single-handedly and deserved at least his own 2nd rank city named after him if not after Kholin. Dalenar showed no gratefulness for the man who literally kept Alethkar from falling and existing no more and Merin showed no f-ing spine to be like you know what I earned this. BESIDES, he never even went against Dalenar’s order because he never actually fought in the Crossguard war, freaking Dalenar did himself. Like this whole arc was so damnation frustrating and pointless then. I thought (keeping with the non-standard arcs) that Dalenar would be like “Merin, I have no more sons or heirs and neither does the kingdom since the past queen thought it a good idea TO WALK BACK TO THE ARMY OF THE ENEMEY WITH THE KINDOM’S HEIR (uhhhh does anyone have any braincells here??) … since I was so fond of you Merin and both of my sons even grew to really respect you and consider you a friend, will you be my adopted son if not at the very least my heir?” This entire story was just like yo can anything good happen at all? Ok and my last complaint here has gotta be that ending. O. M. G. Taln is just over here fighting 1000s of guys, already having beaten 5 Shardbearers with no problems, literally using the last of his sanity to keep himself in it and keep fighting, only being able to focus on the cloaks even, and then here comes Jek woop-die-do lookie here is that a good guy up there, welp look where I just happen to be again *SHANK* oops my b homie were you trying to live there sorry about that now let me go off and hide in my cloak that I stole that also happens to be THE ONLY THING THAT TALN COULD SEE AT THE TIME CUZ MANS IS TRYING TO STAY SANE SMH and just walk off here completely unnoticed in an ENTIRE ARMY where I look nothing like anyone else on either side. HMMMMMMMM. Ok but like that ain’t even the most annoying part. Although that part just absolutely pissed me off to no end and made me want to throw my Kindle across the room and run over it repeatedly with a freight train (I’m not mad idk what you talking about not like Taln was the only truly honorable character in the book [besides Nelshaden who also freaking died]) the epilogue ending like seriously got me. Two more of the non-traitorous Heralds just show up there, watch Taln die (without having explained anything to him about why things were off this return the entire time he had been there but who obviously had to know of Taln’s existence the whole time cuz they followed him there), see the traitorous Herald, obviously interfering with political matters and HMMM maybe having helped get Taln killed IDK not like he’s a bad guy or anything, and then use the reasoning of “No, remember we decided to not search each other out and interfere" despite the fact that we are both here so we obviously searched each other out and the fact they found Taln so they obviously searched him out and the fact that the TRAITOR the one who literally killed their bond and ruined the Oathpact is obviously interfering. Like ARE. YOU. FREAKING. KIDDING. ME. They knew of his return since they followed him and tracked him (and spoke with him in Riemak but didn’t yknow… tell him that they were who he was looking for and going mad trying to find) and yet the ENTIRE time they didn’t do a single thing to help him in any way nor did they think to… idk.. EXPLAIN TO HIM THAT THEY HAD ALL ABANDONED HIM TO ETERNAL SUFFERING WHILE THEY JUST JOINED DALENAR IN WUSSINAR (I think if I keep using it, it’ll get even better) AND THEN WHEN HE HAPPENS TO MIRACULOUSLY COME BACK WITH A SUSPICIOUS WARNING OF THE RETURN OF THE KHOTHEN (BECAUSE IDK MAYBE SINCE HE SUFFERED AND WAS BROUGHT BACK IT MEANS SOMETHING) THEY DON’T DO A SINGLE damnation THING TO MAKE CONTACT, SAY SORRY, EXPLAIN, GET INFORMATION ABOUT WHY HE’S BACK???? NO THEY JUST SIT THERE, WATCH HIM DIE, SEE THE TRAITOR WHO NO DOUBT HAD A HAND IN KILLING HIM, AND THEN JUST WALK AWAY USING REASONING THAT WAS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT THE TRAITOR WAS DOING AT THE MOMENT. S. M. H. So anyway not that it really got me riled up or anything but that part of the story just felt really wrong to me. That and the way Ahven was just pure evil with not like a single redeeming quality or attempt to save the world were two things that just didn’t feel right at all. And this is obviously why these versions of the story stay in draft and the ones we see now are so meaningful to us. SO anyway, really, really enjoyed being able to read this version. It is amazing to see how different aspects of the world changed over time and all the time and effort the team had to put into the official series to turn them into the books we all love. I totally agree that this book was not as fulfilling as later ones in the series but at the same time the fact that we were able to see where it all started was really amazing.

Ok that seems a lot more manageable lol I read on Kindle so I kinda forgot there was PDF version that you could just use word count on. I was fearing that you had actually counted out each word as crazy as that seemed and was just... yknow... making sure all the marbles were still there (not really, but not not really at the same time lol). Still though, quite impressive and interesting to look at the time given to each character and think about how that affected the plot

Far too late to the party to be anywhere near relevant but figured I'd chime in anyway while I was here. Quite an interesting blurb tbh. While the download page and introduction do make it quite clear this is a separate novel that is in no way tied to SA I did feel as I was reading it that it had the essence of what I expect would be the result of taking all the eventual SA novels and smushing them into one book while changing up the plot a bit. It had the whole I am a Herald, why don't you believe me, I have to make you believe me, we must prepare, something bad is coming, look at how amazing I am with a sword, let me train you and lead you sorta vibe that I'm thinking SA will eventually get to but just isn't at yet. This feeling of almost being a condensed but slightly different version of the eventual SA series made it quite interesting to read and think about how it could be applied and improved upon for the future novels.

Wow... I hope this wasn't all counted but can't really think of another way to find it. If it was, all I can say is you have incredible patience.

Hmm well I'd be game to give it another try after this recommendation. As for Shield, now you're talking. Although even that one went down the drain imo. First few seasons were awesome then they started getting weirder and less interesting. Think I finished the one where they were in space and then got to Evil Coulsen with the truck-mobile and I was just like what even anymore. I think it really all just goes to show how hard it is to make something that lot's of people will like. It's easy to make something for one person but to get an original idea across to large audiences and then be able to maintain momentum when moving into later seasons is really difficult and really impressive. Can show how underappreciated authors, directors, and artists are and makes me more appreciative of all the work that must go into a really awesome series.

Yes, completely! Huh had actually never made that connection. Interesting though, I'll pay attention to the similarities as I watch this time around. Ah yeah I can attest to the Arrow quality differences. One of the reasons why I was never able to stick with it. Kept getting interested and then losing it. And yeah, the Avatar franchise is definitely a read-in-order one (or watch lol). Each episode is a closely linked part of a whole. The DC shows for the most part are self contained episodes where they introduce a problem, solve it, then rinse and repeat with some ties through the season. Well said, well said. lol mostly just a comparison on how the plot and visual/auditory devices differ between the two series, no life changing revelations (yet). And yes me too! It's nice to have one place to watch it all especially one as accessible as Netflix. I applaud, got to 5 and had to get on to other things sadly. I'll be back

Lol watching as well though don't know that I'll have time to finish today. I definitely agree though, they weren't afraid to take on complex establishing shots with multiple light sources and dynamic reflections such as in the water. The improved resolution from 480p to 1080p (perhaps 720p but I believe Netflix would opt for the highest quality) also helps things look more distinct. Hadn't been paying attention to the music actually but now that you point it out I am noticing a broader scope of sound. Yeah think it depends on how well it has stuck in your memory . And it's definitely nice to have it on Netflix. Far more accessible so it can reach a much larger audience.

Me and also me lol. Although I don't have the clearest memory since I watched it so long ago (and I don't even know if I actually ended up watching all of it) I do remember thinking it wasn't quite as good as far the story and character development goes. On the other hand though, the visual aspects of it were much improved. It being created in 16:9 instead of 4:3 is soooo much nicer to watch on modern displays and the handling of lights and darks is way more seamless. You also get more distinct and realistic images with blended colors obv due to improvements in technology over the 7 year span and undoubtedly a larger budget. Just to give a mediocre example between the two, in Avatar on the top you have very distinct, this color goes here, this color goes here images where everything feels separate. In Korra on the bottom you have more blended colors and shadows and the way the sun melts into the frame from the top is a technique they make much better use of. (They don't really spoil anything because they don't make sense out of context but just in case anyone absolutely doesn't want anything spoiled they are hidden)

Hear ye, hear ye, Avatar fans, the complete Avatar animated franchise is now fully on Netflix and set up for the perfect binge-watching opportunity to stave off pandemic boredom. Forsaking all future plans to watch everything over again? First time watcher? Didn't even know there was a sequel? Discuss it all below! (Spoilers in spoilers boxes please for all us new (or returning but can't remember) watchers!)

Lol I feel Accurate Edit: lol @The_Truthwatcher

Much agreed, much agreed. Yes, not the most optimal habit though, I must confess. Tends to produce mild headaches when practiced over long periods of time Me too, me too. Also a common habit, with similarly poor results My apologies, but I am a grammar cop and proud of it. It just bugs me. Lol no worries, I can be too, I just tend to ignore it because often it is the result of limited time to type or stylistic differences based on being raised in different areas, neither of which can a person truly be faulted for

This was awesome Thank you, thank you I do my best lol Thank you Mist, my forehead was starting to hurt a tad from all the facepalming. And I only use "y'all" Condensation because it's more gender neutral than saying "you guys" or the like, although you are right "everyone" is fitting (just longer to type ) Nothin much just sitting here while I try not to think about all the things I've been putting off. What's up with you broski-dude-man-homie?

My apologies y'all "I'm going to remember this one." Thanks Condensation, wouldn't have wanted the "g" "o" "n" and " ' " keys to feel left out

Lol will do, thx for the recommendation If we ever need to make a disaster preparedness plan I think you found our guy. Foresight: 100, ima remember this one

Sorry, sorry! My daily bad pun quota needed to be fulfilled

You could almost say they've gotten reel-y hooked on each other, anyone.... yeah, didn't think so

Daang that transition was smooth. Executed with finesse

Alternatively, you could also try the walk over as nonchalantly as possible, trip cuz you were trying not to look down at the ground, get up and realize you have mud on your hands, wipe it on your pants and make it worse leaving you with mud on your hands and now also two mud stains on your pants, pull out your phone to try to play it cool and end up dropping it in a puddle right as you reach her, garble something unintelligible as your brain turns off and then run away as fast as possible method. Has mixed results but you could probably pull it off

Lol I hadn't even thought about that, you're so right!

The broski-dude-mans are hot! We just had to have confidence (and ignore the fact that half the replies are not generated by boys)