sugjesstive

@Kaymyth — I'm curious as to what color your hair was during recording vs. when this aired?

EDIT (I paused the ep & came back to it!)

@Overlord Jebus & @LadyLameness — YES! I graduated with a BA in Philosophy for some god-awful reason (pun intended) and I've been yelling "HE'S FORCING DETERMINISM" for the last few minutes. I'm so glad you guys brought this up.

This is exactly what bothers me so much about Harmony's development as a god-character over the last few hundred years. 

This fact is just... genuinely not ignorable to me. The whole point of determinism is that the choices we're presented with for the entirety of our lives aren't choices; they are determined; they are "fate". This is sickeningly true for Wax. Harmony is not giving Wax "choices" by intervening when he possesses future sight; he is pushing him down a path. Honing him into a weapon, forcing him to fall in love and ripping it violently away from him — as a god (whose prior existence was ALL about understanding theology), it feels like there's something very predatory about the way he uses Wax. Knowingly, fatalistically, deterministically predatory. 

(All of this said, I don't hate Harmony. I just don't think he is Sazed anymore. That guy is gone.)

Hmmm... It's hard to say for sure... But I'm thinking I'll probably skip this one.

I want to check out that prologue + the ars arcanum pages. But I'm not sure I need to own it.

I have the 3 White Sand hardcover volumes already, and I'm rather fond of them. Not sure if this version will be updated with enough new content for it to be worth the price; each volume I have cost around $25. (Though it looks some of them are on sale/available cheaper now!)

I'm saving shelf space, at this point, for leatherbounds.

Hi guys!! I want you to know that (A) this is the VERY first time I've watched y'all on youtube, and it feels like NONE of your faces match your voices in my mind.

And (B) I particularly appreciated your discussion of Jasnah's "lunacy", and the point you brought up about schizophrenia. Thank you for mentioning it, Grey.

Some thoughts below:

Notes/Thoughts on Jasnah's "Lunacy" (Potential Psychosis / Schizophrenia)

• I do think it would be extremely interesting (albeit cruel) for Jasnah to end up schizophrenic, since her mind/perception is what she values most beyond anything — but I think this would be a huge undertaking for Brandon. Writing in the POV of a character whose schizophrenia is worsening (which is what would happen as she ages) would presumably be very challenging for a man who hasn't experienced it. I also wonder if this would take away from Taravangian's story slightly; since a huge motivating factor for him was trying to "get back" to "smarter" days again, when he could better trust the inner workings of his mind.
• All of this said... this article made me think it could indeed be childhood psychosis/schizophrenia, maybe. I didn't know that flat affect was a symptom in children with schizophrenia; this might fit with Navani's quote to Dalinar about how different/unusual Jasnah seemed as a preteen. 
• Thematically, it would also make sense to try an tie a mental illness in with Jasnah, since it seems like a very common theme in his Stormlight works. [But does everyone need to have a defined mental illness, I wonder?]
• Lastly... if the lunacy was caused by environmental/outside factors... My bet is on some Unmade/Splinter nonsense, or having started a proto bond with a spren.

Thoughts on Jasnah/Hoid

Evgeni perfectly summed up the icky feeling about Jasnah/Hood; it feels incredibly transactional. He gives her secrets, she gives him sex, and neither of them are happy. The only benefit of this pairing = the potential for a messy breakup and some INTERESTING "evil ex" dynamic stuff in the future!

Shannon said it well too: Are we supposed to believe Jasnah doesn't know how to define boundaries? Are we supposed to believe Hoid, who's like 10,000 years old, doesn't give a crem about Jasnah's feelings/comfortability in these sexual situations?

I'd have rather seen Jasnah explore her sexuality (or lack thereof) and/or romantic feelings with almost anyone else. Jasnah/Kriss sounds like a wonderful ship. I also kinda like the idea of Jasnah/Radiant. 

P.S. —

@FeatherWriter: You convinced me to try the Chestnut Praline latte an hour ago! IT'S AMAZING.

WOW, horrifying. This is exactly how I pictured this scene! (But with more badass lighting! And more external screaming, from me!)

All the hard, rough angles in the Cryptic's body are also a really nice [and unexpected] touch. I love the lighting, the severed hand on the table nearby, and the back of Dalinar's gorgeous head. WOW. Amazing job! 

22 hours ago, Argent said:

This is something I personally know very little about, but it's been lowkey on my radar of things I think we could be doing better. It's not something we specifically are planning to do, but I agree that we should, and it's mostly a matter of doing it well (and wrangling the sites' software suites into cooperating).

So if this is something you know something about, I would value your thoughts, and any resources that might be useful to us in the future.

I don't know that there is any quality, free software that will help you achieve good alt text. :/

(Side note: Good alt text is genuinely something I would prioritize over having just any alt text!! While alt text is great for SEO, its primary implementation should be for accessibility. If the alt text is bad, you may be making your site less accessible for those with visual impairments, who could be using screen reader tools.)

In an ideal world, with unlimited resources at your disposal, I would suggest that you have a human being go through every single image >after &/or alongside any software that you might use for alt text. 

...If this sounds unfeasible (like it did for our company!), you could consider outsourcing the job to a marketing/SEO team. If that also doesn't sound feasible, maybe you could wrangle a bunch of us Shardies to help — similar to NaCoWriMo. It's a much easier job when there's a team working on this, if you're going to go the manual route. (You'll want to break down exactly what kinds of images take precedent, and create a process for how you'd track it and get it all done.)

Final note:
When trying to add alt text for the company I work for, I have this Hubspot page bookmarked for best practices. 

1. I work in branding/marketing and graphic design, and personally, I love the new looks for the logos. Cohesion among the 3 of them will allow people in the fandom to recognize that the 3 websites are run together!
   • I didn't know that you guys also ran the Coppermind, somehow, until this year.
   • It's particularly smart to give new, dedicated logos to the Arcanum and Coppermind. No direct visual reference to the cosmere = no problems with copyrite laws! 
   • The flat styles are also just visually satisfying + modern. Great choices!
      
2. I happened to finish the Shardcast episode today where you guys were discussing the Part 2 Epigraphs in Rhythm of War, and your excitement had me CACKLING!
   • Y'all are ballers.
   • I spend so many hours a week listening to your voices in traffic (I drive a lot from NJ to NY). Thanks for being the best! 

On 11/22/2020 at 1:22 PM, teknopathetic said:

I am surprised no one talked about "Mercy Kill". To a lot of people Mercy is a form of death or ending pain. What if Mercy goes around smothering people with pillows? 

The Threnody planets also have names that are puritanical like the term Mercy (Elegy, Purity, and Threnody) so to me it seems like Mercy was likely invested there at some point. 

SO SORRY to come at you 1 year later but I finally listened to this episode today. (Just finished it. 3 minutes ago.)

And yes! Mercy killing! That play on words was on my mind the whole time!

Just now, sugjesstive said:

lalalala

• Kabsal mentions cymatics a few times, and makes some strange magical music rust happen

I also just learned that cursewords for doo-doo are autocorrected to rust. So sorry! 

I loved this episode, guys! My thoughts: 

• The Delvers are disappointing to an almost-concerning degree. (Keeping in mind I haven't read any cytonic novellas yet!) Chaos was very on-point with that beef. The delvers are terrifying and super-spooky in Skyward, and then when Starsight dramatically pivots to a completely different kind of sci-fi book, the Delvers are de-mystified and un-spookied.
• With all the incredible foreshadowing Brandon tends to do, I'm surprised how unsettling and unsatisfying the "pure tones of Roshar" thing is on a thematic, big-picture level.
  • Other than being innately important to Singers/Listeners, and their physiology, I didn't think that music had any particular significance in the cosmere, or on this planet. 
  • THAT SAID: In my WoK reread (first-ever reread!!!) happening now, I'm noticing that Kabsal mentions cymatics a few times, and makes some strange magical music rust happen. I can't wait to keep rereading!
• Kaladin's complacency towards the class struggle in later books is probably the biggest beef I have, after having stewed (yesss) on this for a few days. Because Amaram and Roshone are no longer relevant, Kal's anger towards the caste system is made less important, especially throughout RoW.