therunner

Having machine capable of channeling that amount of Investiture does not mean that people could as well. Hmm, interesting. I suspect if it did happen, it would have been when he has Bands or he was momentarily fueled by Harmony, as he very much does not do anything like that against either Miles or Set, where it would have been useful. Heck, if he could do that regularly, he could have stopped Bleeder trivially (just push the spike out), or even simply tracked her. In TLM (chapter 25) Wax also mentions that he had his Metalminds implanted into him, specifically so they couldn't be pushed, which, if he did that himself under ordinary circumstances, wouldn't make sense. Neither can he track 'Not-Wax' by his spikes, so even after becoming Mistborn he cannot see spikes, much less push on them. So I think it was with Bands, or perhaps you are misremembering?

You are correct on TLR, however no one did it in Era 2. And Duralumin is likely insufficient, as otherwise Vin could simply Push out Inquisitor spikes, yet neither she, nor Elend did. Pushing on implanted metals is far beyond the scope of mere access to Duralumin or pure Investiture. I mean, if someone is pointing that gun-thing at you, having metallic implants is the least of your concerns. That thing could simply melt you likely.

Note also that Leonore never mentions anything about heat medallion for herself either, so either she is Northern scadrial (unlikely considering her mask) or the problem has been somehow resolved (maybe that is the mysterious thing Sazed did?). In SA we also see Malwish, and there is no mention of heat medallions made as far as I know. Or it is not considered particularly notable, no more than someone having e.g. a wristwatch Those however seem to be mentioned as devices, or have the same form as seen in Era 2, like a coin. Metals piercing a body are not pushable/pullable, so it is not a vulnerability. Only instance of those metals being pushed was Vin powered by Preservation BTW, to clarify, I am not saying those cheek implants cannot be spikes/medallions/metalminds, I am just saying there is no evidence of that as far as I can see. All the connection of those is that they are metal, and are in a body, but the people who have them don't show any Invested powers, and the narration explicitly calls them a modern form of mask. I meant obsolete on personal level, not necessarily on larger level. A coinshot won't have particular advantage over anyone equipped with relatively basic repulsor (i.e. effectively everyone can have steel bubble now), and mobility-wise those are also semi-easy to disrupt (e.g. large magnet, or again repulsor). Pushes and Pulls being dependent on external infrastructure is inevitably a vulnerability, E.g. the Skybreaker could cut the supports of the Scadrian landing platform, and the Scadrian ship would be grounded on Drominad. For defensive structures it is smaller problem (you control the terrain so you can setup semi-permanent fixtures, likely those steelfields), but for offensive actions you have to deploy infrastructure, which is a weakness. Well we have the following facts: In TLM he seems concerned about her behavior, as well as in W&T. He didn't equip them with Invested arts. Both of those are explained by lack of trust on Kelsier's part. Why would he sent someone he does not trust? Well, perhaps she was the best positioned asset, afterall she is off-worlder (Silverlight heritage). So it was sending her, or having to train someone from Scadrial, and then have them track for months to Roshar. Or he did trust her, but didn't want Metallic arts to fall into Rosharan hands, so he didn't give her that stuff.

Masks are generic things among the Malwish, everyone has them. If somehow only some superiors started getting ones implanted, it would immediately be clear what is happening. People know about Feruchemy, and likely basic idea of Hemalurgy, so it is not a large leap. Unless only some of those masks are Invested implants, but then, their mere presence is no evidence of them actually being Invested, since they would be present either way. He revealed to a Dragon that Scadrians broke into their most secure vault. If he reveals that, I don't think there is much he wouldn't to lord over people.

Leonore was part of the very same military Dajer is. If the 'masks' have general utility, she would likely know. I mean, Dajer loves to brag, so you think he would use this opportunity as well to demonstrate how he is superior to deserter from different group. Combined with zero Invested powers demonstrated or linked to masks, I am still inclined to believe they are what the narration says, just masks.

At first I thought so too, however the Malwish simply don't exhibit any characteristics of these being metalminds or spikes. Plus Starlight later describes them as modern style of mask, so I think they are simply cyberpunk-style implant, that shows both their cultural heritage, and can work as e.g. communicator: Starling description: and later They can also be changed: so likely Scadrians have some implanted studs in their cheeks, and then swap the bits as per social occassion. If they were also spikes/metalminds, Starling should know that, since she is traveling with a Scadrian deserter. So I think we can safely conclude that those metal appendages are not metalminds or spikes, instead being modern analogue to Malwish masks.

I think that is quite likely. Well, we know that external healing methods (i.e. ones not part of your soul) are less effective, and that perception also plays role in healing. And aluminum in wounds prevents Invested healing. So reasons Dajer cannot heal it could be: He internalized his wound as part of himself (possibly due to traumatic circumstances of it) Malwish healing methods are simply not good enough. Wounds contain Aluminum (i.e. he breathed in some Aluminum dust) And he is not breathing in oxygen, but some aerosol that is helping his lungs function/prevents the damage from getting worse. Not necessarily. Fighter plane is generally speaking superior weapon to regular soldier who can push and pull. If you have limited ability to produce such Invested mechanism, putting them in planes makes more sense. Plus, Pushes and Pulls are quite likely obsolete methods of fighting, you can negate them either with Reverse Lashing, or with repulsor fabrials. Just because he sent her on a mission does not mean he fully trusted (as he clearly didn't). Plus, spren don't like Hemalurgy, so equipping your agents with it is counterproductive when you are sending them to a place with such developed culture in Shadesmar. And I'll note that none of the Ghostbloods in TLM use Hemalurgy, so for one reason or another, Kelsier is not keen on having his people use it (or they all refused). Or he is keeping it a secret for himself, after all, he is still lying to Ghostbloods about being able to use Allomancy. It didn't lead anywhere yet. We are literally only half way through series. And some things are just world-building, because of it we know that knowledge of Hemalurgy is present off Scadrial. It could also be considered foreshadowing for crystal Hemalurgy. Heat medallions are the only thing that allows them to survive, so those being widespread is necessity for their civilization. Food is also widespread, doesn't mean that every edible thing is affordable (see any of the kinds of luxury food). Some might be more difficult to make (and since we don't know how they are made, we cannot really tell), which Wax noted already in TLM. Likely there are more limitations to medallions than we assume. Thank you. Though I disagree, slang is also something used by in-group to distinguish themselves. So it could be that people who can afford to buy powers call it that. So on its own I would personally not consider it as suggestive of the fact that devices providing Invested arts are now common (as in, smarthphone common). Thank you, I will appreciate it. My WoB skills are a bit rusty. This is not statement from Khris but from Brandon: I will note that this is a bit after the WoB where he comments that 1:50 is too much, and the actual frequency is less than that. If anything, it lets us know how Brandon is thinking about it intuitively, so per his intuition, it is still quite rare. And knowing somebody likely simply means you met somebody, not necessarily that in every friend group there will be a metalborn. True, though why do you think Tin Allomancy or Feruchemy would be more common? I know there is WoB that states that powers are not uniformly distributed, but I don't think we know which powers are more common. Set going after Gold more than after Tin makes sense to me, being able to heal otherwise deadly wounds is huge boost, as your members have higher chance of staying useful longer (and you don't have to recruit as much due to lessened attrition). I wouldn't take Dajer at his word, he is clearly unreliable narrator in that he is hyping up Scadrial beyond what is actually true. It is true that Dragons stagnated, but Scadrians inability to e.g. heal his lungs, or their lack of Invested powers among their soldiers clearly shows us he is exaggerating. Both Starling and Dusk call him out on this tendency in their internal monologue:

While I am a bit worried too, here we have seen primarily Malwish, for whom Metallic arts are rare enough to literally venerate anyone who has them. And second, I think "Mechanical Metallic Arts" will be literal, machines using Metallic Arts not people. Isles explicitly mentioned 'Feruchemical Healing devices', and the 'Starfighters Pushing and Pulling on Steelfields', so they clearly have some. There were also the weight devices you mentioned, the 'breaking' device, and I suspect the room heating was also supplied by Metalminds. So it is there, just not very overt. I suspect going forward Malwish side will have primarily tools that use Invested Arts, and not people who are Invested. While Kelsier is accepting of Hemalurgy, that does not mean he is going to share that knowledge, the man is practically build on secrets. And he clearly mistrusted Rosharan cell even before they went nearly completely rogue (as discussed in TLM), so all the more reason not to share it with them. I can imagine Mraize tried to spike Gereh, but failed, Hemalurgy requires great precision. I mean, unless cost of Invested Arts technology goes to effectively 0, having personal Metallic Arts be a commodity just turns 'genetic superheroes' to 'economic superheroes'. The only difference is they bought their powers, instead of being born with them (which arguably limits their background more, as there is minimum economic strata they are from). I don't think he ever planned them to be that widespread, as even in TSM 1000 BEUs is still basically a fortune. But maybe I am missing some WoBs, would you mind sharing them? Edit: And side note on W&W, though WoBs vary, Metalborn are roughly 1 in a thousand or so, which means there is a total of ~15000 metalborn in all of Basin. Across all 32 powers, and all ages. Likely there is ~few hundred Tin eyes of all ages, and not all of those will necessarily want to work as sentries. Still a plot hole, but Metallic Arts are still quite rare, just not as much as in Era 1.

They do have some means of Feruchemical healing, Dajer mentioned them in context of the soldiers going to the cave: Either his wound is somehow being renewed, or medallions are limited in what they can heal, or his perception is keeping him from healing it (perhaps sufficiently traumatic event makes wound harder to heal?) Or make the situation where the wound occur traumatic enough that they are unable to not see the wound as part of themselves. Dajer's description sounded to me like someone with PTSD, so perhaps he cannot heal it because of that.

I think maybe Breaths are more than 'just' Endowment-Keyed Investiture, and Awakening as whole is more spiritually involved than Scadrians can do at the moment. After all, many here speculated that Connection medallions/powers could be used to make someone trust you, treat you as friend, etc. and we see none of that here, though it would be very useful. So either that is flat out not possible, or it is beyond the scope of what Scadrians can do. As @JustQuestin2004 said, It might be that Invention tech is, unusual, and so those not of Invention have hard time with it. This would prevent it from spreading, despite being advanced. Plus, Invention might be a bit insular (as in, not interested in others), and as result other nations might underestimate them. See Dejer boasting about Scadrian technological prowess, which is basically immediately contradicted by the POV (e.g. Taldain, Invention planets, need to use Rosharan tech for levitation). Could be, though that is all the more reason for Malwish to use Hemalurgy to obtain powers, by e.g. kidnapping Elendeians. Since they are cosmic power, that would be well within their power. Unless Harmony is enforcing some kind of balance on Scadrial, that prevents Malwish from interfering with Basin too much. Or Basin is fully subservient to Malwish, but there are other issues with granting powers we do not yet know. Huh, right. At the time, I thought what Night Brigade did was more their specialty, and not general purpose tech, but yeah we did already see that. Yeah, I think that is likely either some Invested gas that heals his lungs, or just ordinary healing 'item'. Other Malwish also have metallic elements in their faces that are functional (like comlinks at minimum), so his having additional functionality does not make it Hemalurgy. Personally I read it as Malwish having basically cyberpunk-style implants (which increases my hope for potentialy Cyberpunk Mistborn Era or novel).

We learned few things as far as technologies used go: Scadrian ships use Pushes and Pulls, but only in prepared 'Steelfields' Is this Allomancy used by non-living object, like Malwish ships used Feruchemy? They are reliant on steelfields, otherwise use Aether-based engine. Suggests either Aether's are much more efficient, or their rocketry is a bit behind what we would expect Scadrians rely on Rosharan tech for levitation and anti-gravity Scadrians don't seem to utilize Hemalurgy on large scale None of the soldiers exhibited overt Invested powers, perhaps one instance of F-steel (but then didn't use those in combat) Cultural problem? Or general problem with harvesting powers? Aether drive seems to be rather common way of propulsion FTL already exists, but is very expansive, no further details Scadrians can modulate Investiture on the fly (unkeying or reversing it), though only through large specialized machines Scadrians can break Dragon magic (some at least) Traps for Shades exist, and there is general knowledge of how to kill them (anti-investiture or silver) Sufficiently strong Clouding (likely more than regular Misting can achieve) can disrupt Sleepless Sufficiently strong/sensitive Seeking can be used to Navigate in Emberdark Perpendicularities can be expanded (likely via infusion of unkeyed, or aligned, Investiture) Please, feel free to add or expand. Sidenote: I find it a bit funny that Brandon has fit in effectively Shadowrun-like dragon in Xisis

Yes, however that also requires discussion. Exactly. Basically any suggestion of cutting something leads into further changes. Which alone tells us that most of what is suggested be cut isn't 'bloat', because it does play a role in the plot of the book. Could the same end be achieved more economically? Maybe, but so far none of suggestions would lead to that. If I get in the way of robber in my house, they are by default my enemy. Radiants are not at fault for the adversarial relationship, Ghostbloods are. Again, they didn't even try to approach Radiants like they did Fused in RoW. None of these are for free, and most of them have analogue for other characters. Allowance for providing her services as scribe, and for improving Sebarials standing. Should we also list among Kaladin's achievements the fact he gets paid? A pardon that was provided because they saved her life. You know, like Kaladin got Bridge crews freed because they helped saved Dalinar? She isn't full leader of Lightweavers, just her cell. She explicitly does not want to grow them beyond a certain size. And she is leader because she was the first and is most experienced. Again, do we complain that Kaladin is leader of Windrunners? Wife of High Prince. Political machination of Jasnah to attach Kholin name to Radiants. And the title means nearly nothing, now that Kholinar is fully lost. She is wife to high prince in exile. Kaladin is heir to Urithiru, nuff said. Magical powers...really? That is a problem? Two spren Which is benefit how? So far it didn't lead to appreciable change, outside of wielding shield one,two times. You mean soulcaster? Because she failed at that and got caught basically immediately. Only being Lightweaver saved her. ...like, who doesn't in this series? Dalinar got away with genocide. Frankly this just seems like you don't like Shallan, because most of these things are not things she wants., and they are common protagonist stuff. You could make a list like that for Kaladin: Becomes a soldier and squad leader at ~18. Kills full Shardbearer with a spear. Magical powers Spren nobility is his spren Frees all Bridge crews Kills brother of one of his fellow Radiants without consequences. Becomes leader of the largest Radiants Order. Becomes heir to Urithiru. Becomes Herald. Do I need to go on?

And I countered with why it would not lead to better books in my opinion, or why it is basically pointless suggestion, being chapter or so very often. You have yet to reply to most of those points. I disagree. Death of Teft already has place in narrative as the 'finishing blow' so to speak. If you move it to earlier point, what would you replace it with in the climax? Kaladin isn't forced to take a step back because events of Heartstone evacuation deeply affected him, it is just culmination of his general trauma and depression, and his usage of Stormlight to effectively self-medicate. This is made clear by his breaking coming only when deprived of Stormlight via suppression fabrial. Hearstone then is both microcosm of the battles Kaladin fought over the last year and a reveal of what is effectively his addiction. Killing Teft accomplishes none of this. Fourth Bridge and evacuation of Hearthstone isn't just about Kaladin, and so whatever it is replacing has to also play the part in those aspects, unless you are suggesting far-reaching changes to entire narrative. (i.e. Kaladin's family isn't in Tower, nor are we shown fabrial progress). But the conflict is ended for the current time, i.e. next 10-15 years at minimum. Conflict was always Rosharan Ghostbloods vs Radiants, and that is resolved. They are destroyed, they cannot get new agents, and their tasks (free and recruit BAM, get information on CS, get Stormlight off-world) are all failures. WIder Thaidakar machinations will clearly continue to play a role, but that will be a new plotline, likely leading into Era 4. That is completely illogical way to end her plotline, considering that Ghostbloods were working against Radiants since Book one. Ghostbloods were an enemy of Radiants since get go, and never made any attempt at peace. In fact, they collaborated with Fused more readily than with Radiants. Shallan likely would be fine with settlement, but Ghostbloods were clearly against that. I mean, she spends rather large amount of time bemoaning the fact that she will eventually have to choose, because Ghostbloods and Coalition Radiants simply cannot coexist. Not really no. Shallan basically wants always one thing, to have peaceful life with her family, and she never gets that. In order Her mother tries to kill her, and she accidentally kills her, driving her father to madness. Shallan tries to keep up the mood of her brothers, and shield them wherever possible, mostly failing, culminating with her killing her father, which just causes further problems. Shallan goes to Khabranth to again protect her family by stealing Soulcaster. She fails, though gets promise of possible protection. This however, leads her to problems crossing Ghostbloods. Ghostbloods do protect her family, but also use this to threaten her. Her bethroal to Adolin works out surprisingly well, but then she ends up in CR, with no way to get to Adolin in near-distant future. Shallan get more powerful, but rarely she gets what she wants. And if she does, it often just leads to another problem.

Spren have enough physicality to interact with PR objects, e.g. even in TWoK Syl is capable of physically carrying a leaf. Hence, spren do have physical bodies. In Cognitive they also have bodies, that are just as physical as anything else that exists there, there is no distinction made between physical object brought into CR, and native CR objects. CR realm is bound by different laws of physics, but they very much still are laws of physics. Citation needed that Breath does not have mass, or that soul does not have mass. Investiture is just another 'phase' so to speak, and as such must have mass. Just because no one measured it yet, does not mean it does not have it. No, that is not what he said, Brandon said that in Cosmere Laws of Thermodynamics are extended by Investiture So in-world, nothing breaks law of conservation of energy, because Investiture is also type of energy. If some Invested art is seemingly breaking conservation of energy, that energy just comes from Investiture. That is even the reason for why some metals burn faster than others, they do more work, so they must provide more Investiture. You are wrong again, here is Brandon literally saying that Investiture follows its own version of Laws of Thermodynamics While Investiture is metaphysical to us, in Cosmere it is just another aspect of nature, no different from light, or protons, or anything else, and it obeys certain laws which can be described and quantified, so to them it literally it's just physics. Here Sanderson literally says the same

After your list of proposals you said this that is what I was reacting to. That has nothing to do with Fourth Bridge, so I don't know why you mention it. That is basically what Shallan does at the end of WaT. All on Roshar presence is eliminated, no new Ghostbloods can arrive, and Shallan and Thaidakar have sort of cease fire. Leaving Mraize and their leadership alive leaves them in far more unresolved position and leaves Shallan's plotline unresolved. I actually agree with this. It should have been three books, or alternatively if ten books are absolute limit, first two books should have been more focused. Condense a bit TWoK, and move in what was the start of WoR into it, to deal with fallout of Battle of Tower directly in the book. WoR, after moving parts into TWoK, add in early exploration of Urithiru and Kaladin's trip to Heartstone into it, again deal with fallout of Battle of Narak directly in the book. Oathbringer, have arc 1 of RoW happen as an epilogue, but set it maybe 6 months later, not full year. RoW, move the realization that Odium has new Vessel here, including the realization of loophole, and setup SR arc for WaT. WaT, use the created space to flesh it out a bit, possibly choose to lose non-key Interludes (save those for anthology that could be published in the break between books 5 and 6). Personally, I think 3 books would be the better option though.

No, they are capped far lower than speed of light. There is friction, at some point they won't be able to overcome that or will burn up. Getting access to Abrasion would apparently help them (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/360/#e10858) On short race A-Pewter + F-Steel beats Compounded steel, per WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/175/#e8380) (TLR has access to both of course, but it shows that compounded Steel is not necessarily unbeatable) There are large losses when tapping massive amounts of attribute, which means that to get to high speeds you require not multiplicatively larger, but exponentially larger stores. You need to have metalmind on your person, and they have maximum storage capacity. Marasi nearly depleted F-Steel stores of BoM in seconds, and that was one of the largest metalminds we have seen, and she was moving nowhere near light speed (few Machs at most). We still don't know precisely how these limitations behave, but they will be very important for any Compounder. Heralds, demonstrated atium-like reflexes and massive strength and speed, while Oathpact is damaged and Honor is 'dead'. I would say that we think we have good understanding of Rashek's powers, but we actually don't. The general surprise on the 'Peak Taln beats anyone in Cosmere'-WoB clearly shows that. We still don't know if/how he was able to reverse compound, nor do we know what were the actual storage capacities of metalminds he wore, or how the losses when tapping compressed attributes behave. All of these are very important to determining actual power of Compounders. Don't get me wrong, Compounders are still insanely powerful, but they are not out of reach of more extreme ends of Surgebinding, which Heralds certainly are, especially with unlimited Investiture directly from Honor.

Coincidentally, we see Heralds also have improved physical attributes, i.e. Taln moves fast enough to cause window shattering sonic boom. That is faster than Marasi moving in BoM, and far faster than anything TLR ever showed on-screen. They also have atium-like use of Fortune, see Nale vs Kaladin, or Ishar vs Windrunners, or Kaladin during the duel in WoR. So, yeah no, Taln certainly has necessary qualities to beat even TLR. So Brandon isn't logically wrong, he just knows his universe better than we do (and even what we know is enough to determine that).

I must say, that is somewhat confusing perspective to me. LIke, yes, I want individual books to work, and in my opinion they mostly do. But they are part of a large series, and are intended as part of large overarching narrative, which means they won't be structured like standalone books. So you will get elements of the books that don't make sense if you look at them as standalone books, because they are not. And this does not affect just RoW or WaT, e.g. TWoK does not work as individual book, Shallan's and Dalinar's stories basically lead to nowhere, and only Kaladin's plot ends in mostly resolved position. From standalone perspective, Shallan at minimum should be cut from TWoK because she does not contribute to the individual novel and is isolated plotline which never connects to the rest. Of course this is a bad idea from series perspective. And I think you are wrong. Even if RoW was standalone (which it isn't), Zahel chapter serves Kaladin's plotline in that book. It is his first attempt to find life outside of fighting, but he still does not want to give it up completely. Zahel serves to further push him away from that life, and towards healing. If you remove that chapter, you either have to replace it with something that does structurally the same, or Kaladin immediately after being forbidden to fight switches to being a surgeon without any internal conflict about it.

You claimed that you can confidently cut 15% and improve the books tremendously. Claims require evidence It is easy to claim you can easily improve something, if you don't actually try to do it. As such, vague 'I'd tighten it up' is easy claim to do, that does not really hold much weight. I disagree, Mistborn Era 1 is good example of him using setup for very good pay off. If anything, Stormlight suffers of not enough setup soon enough. E.g. TWoK and WoR do comparatively very little of setting things up, and as a result RoW and WaT have to do a lot. I love those books, but spending ~500 pages on Kaladin in Bridge Crews, something that ultimately matters very little for big picture, is not a good idea, from the perspective of entire series. If Kaladin was the sole protagonist, and not part of ensemble, than it would be more justifiable. And that would net you few percent of the total page count at most. Again, I am not saying cutting some trim here and there couldn't be done, but not 15% worth. That chapter is Kaladin's first step in trying to find himself outside of his role as 'Captain Kaladin', so just from character development idea it is not irrelevant. Second, it introduces some concepts surrounding spren and CR to readers who would not be aware of them otherwise, and will be relevant for Kaladin relatively soon (i.e. end of WaT and onwards). Third, it emphasizes the point that people form other planets are active on Roshar, so that Ghostbloods being off-world organization does not seem like an a**-pull. For a single chapter it does a lot. If you don't care about improving the books, you can also simply cut the books. Of course, that is completely pointless argument. If the cuts don't improve the books, what is the reason for the cuts? Possibly doable (second half not withstanding), mostly just removes foreshadowing for Dalinar's choice. Why? It loses you fabrial progress (clearly relevant), it loses you Heartstone and as a result Kaladin's character arc in RoW. And it also makes Kaladin's glove be much more arbitrary. That is like one and a half chapters, and you would lose Moash as a whole. Why? They don't take up particularly large amount of space, again like one or two chapters in total. Which one? Ultimately it is a discussion for few chapters, and that is it. And if you eliminate it, there is no reason to fear new Odium, since he is bound just as Rayse was, vastly lowering the pressure on Coalition. People on these forums wrote more about loophole than was ever in the books. Bad plotting, Ghostbloods are the main villains in Shallan's plotline and as such should be resolved. Letting Mraize live would be just a bad writing decision. And then you would have Ghostbloods as a dangling thread for second half, better to wrap it up. What subplot? The one interlude where he is in WaT? Or those two-three chapters where he is focus on RoW? That is one interlude. Sure, you could do that. Though already it takes up just few chapters, before Shallan thinks she figured it out. That is again just few chapters, and serves both as a setup for Shallan and removes two dangling plot thread (Sons of Honor and Sadeas camp). All together, these suggestion would at most remove ~15-20 chapters out of 291, and would cause plot threads to remain open (eventually leading either to plot hole, or to be resolved somehow anyway). Mink is probably the easiest to remove, though that would likely require changes in second half, if his last chapter is any indication.

I can see the point, and it makes sense to leverage the time-skip like that. Though, since the language already was more modern in RoW, could it be that Brandon did the language shift in RoW, because there is a year long gap there? And simply went further here? Not saying it couldn't be executed better (since it clearly didn't work for some plurality of readers). Ok, let's take a look. I'll preface this by saying that I don't necessarily say nothing can be cut, but I don't think people realize how large certain parts of the books actually are. E.g. when I first read RoW, the Kaladin-Die Hard arc fell awful to me, and in my mind it accounted for huge part of the book. In fact, it is start ~40% through the book, and is only 15 chapters (from when Kaladin kills Singer in clinic, and to when he jumps from roof), and in most of those, Kaladin is not the only PoV. On re-read, it didn't feel nearly as obstructive as on the first read. RoW: Part One is 19 chapters out of total of 126, so nearly exactly 15%. By eliminating half, you reduce RoW by at most 7.5%. And I'd dispute that nothing happens in Part One. Part One does heavy lifting in setting up plots for literally the rest of the book: Kaladin - his deepening trauma and family conflict + honor of Heavenly Ones + Lezien rivalry + suppressor fabrial Shallan - murder of Iatil and Ghostbloods friction + problems with lack of Honorspren willing to bond Navani - fabrial progress (also set's up Kaladin's glove) + communication from Sibling Venli - her quiet rebellion + Raboniel + Singer culture So which of these you would cut? Because frankly, you cannot remove basically anything, without also inserting basically the same content into some other parts. Easiest to 'cut' might be Venli and her rebellion, but you would still need to move it to her flashbacks, and as such you would either make them longer, or what is currently there would be partially lost. WaT: 'Endless' Spiritual Realm odyssey appears in ~30 chapters out of 165 (and starts only on Day 4), and for more than half of those chapters, PoV from outside of SR are also present. It on its own accounts for 12-15% of the book. Structurally, it has 4 parts in my opinion Orientation: PoVs get to SR and have to figure out what is what-> This could be shortened, but likely accounts for 3-4% of the book at most, and it cannot be eliminated entirely, so maybe 2% cut? Flashbacks: Further flesh out background of the conflict, who was aggressor etc. Also reveals cause of False Desolation, and cause of Recreance. Hunt for Mishran and GB: Shallan hunting Ghostbloods and looking for Mishram -> In my opinion the one that could be cut the most easily. Have Shallan eliminate GB in the attack on their hide out, and then have the environment be the largest danger in SR. Though it would still likely result in at most 3-6% cut. Tanavast: Provides important context for Shard behavior in the entire series, and gives glimps of limitations and conflicts Shards and Vessels face. Foreshadows Dalinar's choice. You could cut ~5-7% maybe there. If you eliminate Szeth and Honorblade journey, what would you replace it with? Because you cannot just cut it, and leave Shinovar with nothing in the book. So this isn't editing decision, it is plotting one. So far, neither of your suggestion would come close to cutting 15% of the books, so I think your confidence might be misplaced. Finally, all the things you would want to cut and shorten, I liked So these specific cuts wouldn't necessarily result in better book at least to my tastes.

Out of curiosity what would you cut? 15% should be roughly 200 pages, so which chapters/parts should go, in both RoW and WaT? @Oltux72 I think to some it is quality of the prose, to some it is the amount, so then 'we' will never make up our minds. Different strokes and all that. Personally, I think there are some issues with the prose, but for me personally they are minimal, and don't appreciably detract from my enjoyment of the story. Most importantly, I think some simply don't like the direction the story took. From Oathbringer onward it went in increasingly high-fantasy/science fantasy direction, and clearly some of the fans don't like that. It also coincides with shifting of the language used in the books, which I think was done on purpose to signal this shift both in-world (as Roshar rapidly develops, and culture changes) and out (as tone and focus of the series moves to high fantasy/science fantasy, which was intended from the start).

No problem, miscommunication happens. Fair enough. Hmm, with rat maybe? But cockroach I strongly doubt would be compatible, their physiology is too different. Same way I think that Feruchemist simply coudn't tap a sense they don't have (i.e. tapping metalmind full of magnetoreception wouldn't let them detect it, because they lack the organ to do so), I don't think e.g. strength or sight, etc. from cockroach would be in any way compatible, not without gross distortion of the body. Another issue would be that they possess far smaller amount of attribute to store, e.g. rat is ~300-400x smaller by weight than human, so to obtain human-level stores would take correspondingly larger amount of time.

I'd just note that you would likely also have to store memory of storing those memories in the first place, because so long as you know you stored away memories of the wound for such a purpose, you still have cognitive knowledge of you seeing the wound as 'yours', and so it is not yet 'new' to you. Question the also is if this is sufficient, i.e. if the block on healing also does not come from Identity (where the wound became part of it).

1) Kandra spikes are not ordinary spikes. 2) Kandra are not humans, they are hemalurgic constructs and spikes are literally part of their 'natural' makeup. For Kandra, they serve as organs to some extent. As such, Kandra are not good starting point for any discussion on spikes and hemalurgy, because they are literally designed to function in this manner, and unlike even Koloss or Inquisitors, the original host is no longer human. No, it is providing something as its function in Kandra biology. I.e. Blessing of Potency implanted in human would not provide the same benefit, because human are not kandra. Because I don't think soulbearer does do the same. Again, Soulbearer likely does not render themselves Drab or worse when they store, someone would have noticed that. The end result of the IA might look the same, but I think the underlying mechanism is different. Feruchemy does not literally remove and store parts of your spiritweb (otherwise you would have to tap to get back to regular state), but Hemalurgic spikes do. As such, they are fundamentally not the same thing. Also, Nicrosil metalmind alone does not allow anyone to use that power, that is why Medallions are so interesting. So you need to do something to Nicrosil metalmind to allow it to bestow powers, and that also grants measure of sentience to Medallions. This is not at all like Spikes.

It less dictates, and more filters. Renarin never saw himself as inherently ill, he saw those things as 'external' to who he is, so they got healed. Same with Godeke. Ral-na could be that the spiritweb is their 'true' gender so to speak, so healing just works as usual, but I'd rather not go into too much speculation on that. Rysn on the other hand internalized it, and so cannot be healed (at least so far) with Investiture. But human couldn't heal themselves to have wings, no matter how much they thought about that. Kaladin regrowing his arm after being cut is rather basic application of healing, it is literally just straight up damage. You are trying to use healing to overwrite different Investiture with something else, that you want to mold according to your Intent. I think that is far beyond the scope of healing, and more into the realm of Awakening (programmable Investiture). The WoB is not about what you want coming into play, it is about how you fundamentally see yourself. E.g. Kaladin and his scars, so long as on some level he was himself as someone who is danger to others, he couldn't hide them or remove them, because they were who he is. So wanting some change is insufficient, it has to be something you have fully internalized about yourself.