Sp00ks

So, we know each Radiant Order has a "resonance" that occurs through having two different surges, much like Twinborn do in Mistborn. For example, it's known the Windrunners have a vastly increased number/strength of Squires, and the Lightweavers have some sorta memory ability. But what about the other orders? Any ideas? Off the top of my head, it seems to have something to do with the spiritual identity of the surges, since you could argue spiritual gravitation (drawing people to you) and spiritual adhesion (uniting people) would have that sort of effect.

Why exactly would she be "more powerful than a radiant"? Her being able to metabolize life light through food isn't nessesarilly any more powerful than a Radiant sucking stormlight from a gem. Sure, sometimes it's more *convinient*, but there are also situations where it's less convinient. None of her abilities really seem better than other Radiants

What exactly would killing the Nightwatcher gain Odium? Yeah, bondsmiths are important, but wouldn't he be better off killing the stormfather or the sibling?

Well, I imagine a lot of it will be her childhood. Maybe a few chapters at the end in shadesmar and in the timeskip, but honestly I doubt it

Hard agree. I know people say "people don't have to die for things to be compelling", but when bad guys are dropping left and right, it sure feels weird that no good guys die. People do die in the Cosmere, usually one in each stormlight and era 1 mistborn book, but Brandon kinda half asses it a lot with all the fake outs.

Why waste half your post on a semantic argument? By "off", I quite clearly mean "it's quite different from all the other characters we have PoVs for" not "it's different from other people who have written Jasnah".

I know this is probably gonna be controversial, and a lotta people probably are gonna disagree with me, and that's fine. Does anyone else kinda not like how Jasnah is handled? I don't really hate her or anything it's just, the way Brandon writes her just feels sorta off and not very compelling. To me anyway. Specifically, it feels like she's sorta too perfect, especially in a series where being a flawed person striving to do better is such a big thing. Never at any point does Jasnah ever really fail at anything, and the few times she sorta does, nothing really becomes of it. She, despite being a woman of extreme privilege uproots the ancient Alethi slave tradition, and completely ends Dark Eyes oppression (which none of the characters this ACTUALLY involves even really comment on or are a part of), because she's just so cool and epic and badass because she just is. There's no real backlash to this, she steals this moment away from characters that actually care about this. She's just this perfect queen. And like, every time someone in world legitimately opposes her, they are made out to be an absolute buffoon. Look at the Alethi lord in RoW. That entire sequence was frankly just rediculous. Navani and Kaladin and Shallan are facing extremely dangerous situations, and making mistakes that have lasting consiquences because they are human beings, while Jasnah is fighting a storming caricature of the patriarchy. Seriously? A lot of the time she doesn't feel like an actual human being, to the point where the few scenes Brandon tries to make her seem vulnerable just feel fake, at least to me. Am I missing something? Am I supposed to see her in a different light? All the other characters have their ideals and attitudes radically challenged and are forced to adapt and overcome things. Jasnah, despite having a pretty rediculous and arguably un-radiant moral code just succeeds at everything. I'd love to be convinced otherwise, it's just, it's been really bothering me on my second reread of the series

I do agree that from a story telling perspective, Taln breaking eventually would have been better. Just makes him seem somehow more heroic and real that way. But, I imagine Brandon will say something like "he wasn't able to give up because of his spiritual madness" or something. I very much dislike this, but it at least sorta makes sense. It relates to his reputation of fighting hopeless battles, much like Nales madness relates to his following of the law

Always

It's not that I dislike the magical fights, I just feel like his big end of book ones feel poorly written sometimes. This is very difficult for me to explain. I guess it's maybe that, often the climactic end of book fight happens AFTER the main character has finished their emotional arc for the book. Like again, WoR, the fight happens after that scene (not gonna put spoilers but you know the one) and the fight really just feels like "Wow Kaladin sure is epic now guys" rather than there being an actual emotional conflict that I care about. I LOVE the emotional payoffs, I dislike the fights that come after them. The end of the Final Empire and We'll of Ascension we're really good since the emotional payoffs were part of the fights at the end I know it's the point and that they all need to eventually come together. That's not the problem. My issue with it is he often handles it pretty poorly, at least in my opinion. Sometimes, he handles it fine, I like the Ghost bloods since it's very gradually revealed. I really dislike things like the Ire where it just "happens" and feels extremely forced. There are other examples but these are the easiest.

It's sorta hard to explain. Some of the ways he paces and goes about specific scenes is a little "off" to me I guess. Like, totally subjective, but I feel he gets a little over excited during climactic magical fights, and it comes across a little weird to me? End of Words of Radiants, end of Bands of Mourning, they just sorta rub me the wrong way slightly. Plus when he gets into cosmere crossover stuff it is just... Idk, I don't like it. The Ire stuff in secret history just felt really forced and unnatural to the story. There's other stuff, but again, it's all just my specific tastes

You know, I finished Hero of Ages a couple weeks ago, and was REALLY expecting to not like Alloy of Law, since I typically don't like modern settings with magic. I even specifically searched up people who didn't like Alloy specifically to see reinforce this idea. But I actually really liked Alloy, Shadows, and Bands. I think I just really dig the cowboy aesthetic of Wax and Wayne. Still not excited about era 3 though. And, there are some "Sanderson-isms" that I dislike in many of his works. Still, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like Alloy. Hope you push through and you end up liking era two more OP

These are some good points, though I'd still argue that the two are more opposed than two shards would normally be. The way Raboniel talked about it, the Rhythms were pretty hard to imagine fitting together. Though you're right, Ruin and Preservation are certainly more diametrically opposed. Though, Preservation would probably have problems with a lot of shards, there's a WoB about how he wouldn't have gotten along at all with Cultivation, and I'd imagine Ingenuity would too

Nope, I'm just making sure I was correct in what I had said.

Didn't all the others "die" in the Recreance?

Are you talking about Lasting Integrity, the city, or just the Honorspren that were born after Syl? Because, I'm pretty sure it's explicitly stated Syl is the only living Honorspren born directly of the Stormfather. It was (I think?) also stated that the other Honorspren were born the way spren regularly are

So, Brandon has talked about how a Splintered Shard can be restored, though he didn't elaborate much besides that there would need to be a new vessel and that it has never occurred thus far in the Cosmere. What would it take to actually do this? Would you just need to bring all of/enough of the splinters together and Honor will just reform? We know that the Spren are splinters that hold some of Honor (and Cultivation), and the Stormfather seems to hold quite a bit, and is capable of supplying Honor's investiture through the Highstorms. However, Spren clearly existed long before Honor was splintered, so recreating Honor through Spren seems unlikely. The Stormfather claimed he was a sliver, so he probably holds a significant portion of the shard, but clearly you need a lot more than just the Stormfather to fix Honor. Other than that, Dalinar can open Honor's perpendicularity, but that also clearly isn't enough either. The way Odium talked to Dalinar at the end of Oathbringer made it feel like Dalinar was very close to Honor/Tanavast, but Dalinar definitely isn't a Shard, and if he loses next book, which people generally seem to think is likely, he probably never will be. There's another theory that Kaladin will take it up, and him being called "Son of Tanavast" definitely makes this seem possible, but how would he actually do it? I think Kaladin would fit well with the Intent of Honor, but the shard needs to be fixed first. Maybe it has something to do with Adhesion? Maybe somehow you could "glue together" all the splinters with some super spiritual form of Adhesion? I sorta doubt Kaladin or Dalinar have that sort of power in them, I doubt even 5th ideal Bondsmith could. However, Ishar did mention how swearing ideals near him could bring back some of his sanity. Perhaps in swearing these oaths, some of Honor is pulled together for a bit? After all, Honor was all about oaths. Plus, Ishar tried to "Steal" Dalinar's Radiant bond with the Stormfather, is it possible a powerful enough Bondsmith could instead "give" his bond to someone? What if Dalinar, after losing to Odium, "gave" his bond to Kaladin, to protect it from Odium. We know its technically possible to have multiple Nahel Bonds at once through a WoB, maybe as a 5th ideal Windrunner/Bondsmith, Kaladin would have such a Connection to "honor's truest surge" that he could literally pull the splinters of Honor back together and recreate the Shard? Especially if he swore both 5th ideals at once, both orders holding the surge of Adhesion, maybe that would pull enough of Honor together to allow someone to take the power? I know this is definitely a long shot theory, but I really feel like Honor will come back at some point. There's the death rattle: "Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns!", and Honor seems a lot more "broken" than Odium or Taravangian do. Plus there's: "He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!", couldn't Honor be the fallen title? Kaladin lives in the tower, serves the crown of Kholin, and is known for his spear.

I dont really understand the point you're trying to make. Warlight is called Warlight because thats what the song reminded Raboniel of. The name given to the Rythm doesn't suddenly mean that's the name of the hypothetical shard that could make it

Are you sure? The way Navani talks about Honor's Rhythm, it doesnt seem very "Stormy", I'm pretty sure Stormlight is just called Stormlight since in the modern day, people get it from storms. No reason Honor's song couldnt have a name like "The Rhythm of Oaths"

Well, I doubt Honor + Odium would become "War", since shards never seem to have the same name as their light. I think they may become something like Harmony since they are very different (almost opposite) shards. I think perhaps, the name/form a fused shard has depends partly on the vessel, since I believe there is a a WoB on how Harmony could just as easily have become "Discord", so Honor + Odium could become a Harmony synonym perhaps. Besides that though, Hatred/Passion but with Honor/Integrity makes me think of some sort of idealized war, the sorta glorious think people who haven't been to war think of. Only problem is this seems rather similar to the Shard "Valor". Honor and Cultivation, I think back to what Navani says when she and the Sibling made Tower Light for the first time, she called it "The Song of Science itself". The issue is, that may have been said because she found out how to do this with science, and not that the Intent of the Rhythm was science. Plus there's already a Ingenuity Shard. Honor/Law with Cultivation/Life makes me think of like Civilization, though that's a weird name for a shard. Cultivation and Odium, some sort of hateful life? I think I'd call the light "Plaugelight", but idk about the shard itself. Maybe if you think of it like Cultivated (planned/thought out) hatred, you could call the shard something like Revenge or Grudge? Honor + Odium = "Glory" or "Harmony" with Warlight Honor + Cultivation = "Civilization" with Tower/Science Light Cultivation + Odium = "Revenge" with Plaugelight? All three, I have no idea, maybe that's a better fit for Civilization?

Welcome, the last 100 pages are pretty great! What's your favorite Order of the Knights Radiant?

I hope so too. I'm a little worried, not sure how much I'll enjoy radios and guns in a high fantasy series, but we'll see!

Stormlight, is my favorite series, but my favorite book is probably a tie between Rhythm of War and The Final Empire. Both were pretty tight the whole way through, and didn't seem to drag much, which was surprising considering the length of ROW. The other Stormlight books seemed to drag a little in spots, Zane really hurt Well of Ascension, and while I liked Hero of Ages, it almost felt too fast. Warbreaker was okay, don't feel that strongly about it.

I mean, like most people my favorite surge is definitely Gravitation, since flying is just so cool. But in terms of my favorite order, I think it would be the Dustbringers. Just the way they have been described makes them sound so destructive, and yet due to their oaths they clearly were good guys at one point. Really wanna know more about them

Hey, welcome! What books have you read, and which of them did you like the least?