Argent

Maybe one of us misremembers, but didn't Hoid say that he didn't want to bother with hurting Kelsier? Presumably because it takes some work for him to do actual damage to a cognitive shadow while he himself is physically in the cognitive realm. I don't remember anything about an actual inability.

We actually had the same piece of information in the Shadows of Self AA. There are some theories floating around about what Wax's and Wayne's "perks" could be, and obviously we had some about the characters from The Stormlight Archive.

It is a pretty large project, and one that requires careful planning. Messing it up would make it very difficult to reorganize things.

Can we talk about how she tried strapping an oversized shotgun to her thigh so she could smuggle it to a fancy party for Wax, and only dropped the idea because she couldn't walk right with it? That's the kind of love I need in my life.

You are late to the party, we've been loving for at least a book now

I seem to vaguely recall that there is nothing that makes the God metals' physical forms special - it's the combination of their three Realmatic aspects that lets them enable the powers they enable. So, sure, they should have all the physical properties we know of - (atomic) mass, density, electronegativity, etc.

I'd argue it could imply simply Cosmere awareness.

I doubt Edwarn will be inclined to tell him, and Harmony doesn't have any sort of leverage on him; and even if he did, I doubt he would use it, it's not who he is.

I don't know, this feels... convoluted.

A few people suggested lithium, because of its explosive reaction with water and the parallel between the Germanic nature of Allik's people, the fact that ett means or is similar to the meaning of "one" in more than one language from Germanic descent and lithium being the first metal on the periodic table. I like that better. As to whether it could imply more metals... I'll need to think about that one some more.

I hadn't made the connection that K. and N. could be Khriss and Nazh, but now it's obvious, especially since both of them are on Scadrial.

Except Suit is talking about his Hemalurgic spikes there, not about metalminds. and Hemalurgic spikes don't need the "make someone else feel weak" thing going for them.

Finished Terry Pratchett's Making Money a few days ago. Good book, but my brain is filled with The Bands of Mourning I started and finished today, so I can't really give Pratchett his due. I can't even review Bands properly right now.

Oh, boy. Oooh boooy. Let's try to organize this a little bit: Major reactions Telsin being a part of the Set is something I started suspecting at some point throughout the book, but then Brandon managed to trick me to lower my defenses. Good one, Brandon! Steris throughout virtually the entire book - priceless! Gold! I just wish she had more of a role during the climactic events, seems like everyone else did. But outside of that, I absolutely loved her. Wax's... postmortem? experience was all sorts of nice. The image of Harmony must've been quite the thing - I wonder if Sazed chose to appear like this, if this is simply how Wax imagined him; I lean towards the former.On that note, when Harmony told Wax that Lessie had asked him to look after Wax... I am not ashamed to say I teared up a little. Khriss (whom I didn't recognize as Khriss) and Nazh (whom I did) are two people whose appearance makes me very very happy. I do worry a tiny bit that Brandon is feeling pressured to include more and more Cosmere easter eggs just to please his rabid fanbase, but I am going to assume he has it under control for now. Evil kandra! I am confident they are kandra with trellium spikes, given to either mistwraiths that were never kandra, or to some of Harmony's kandra who have had their normal spikes removed. Food for thought I was wondering if the Set's soldiers, in their red uniforms, might be "the men of gold and red, the bearers of the final metal" Miles mentions before his execution, but I don't think gold was ever mentioned around them. They do have "some mark on the breast", but that's it. Speaking of the Set, can we talk about their ranks for a moment? They have Arrays, Sequences, and Series - which is immensely cool to this software engineer (though I will allow that mathematicians might appreciate it too). It kicked me out of the story a little bit, but I think I can allow for ranks like this to exist within an organization called the Set, in a fantasy world where people eat metal to do magic. Allik mentions the "five peoples." Could be five nations in Southern Scadrial. Allik mentioned (possibly)... 3 or 4 of them, depending on how you could: his own, the Hunters, and the ones that used to be kings. Maybe the Mask Deniers too. So you need a Metalborn and "the Excisors... the gifts the Sovereign made for us" to create the heat medallions. I wonder of the Excisors are a metalmind similar to the Bands, but much more limited in both power and number of powers. I like the idea that ettmetal could be lithium, pretty much for all the reasons already mentioned. It also turns out it was discovered during the early 19th century on Earth, which, accounting for parallels, could explain why denizens of the Final Empire and the Basin don't recognize it. My initial reaction was to assume it was either harmonium or an alloy of it, and I was happy with that idea since the timeline could possibly work (ettmetal-powered devices seem like a relatively recent invention, not something the Southerners have had for centuries), but I feel like more data points line up in favor of lithium. Suit being "limited to three boons, even if [they] have discovered how to make someone else be weak" doesn't make sense to me right now. I agreed, in another thread, that it could be explained with a kind of slow-drain Hemalurgy, where Suit doesn't steal a person's ability to, for example, burn steel, but burns steal through them instead. This doesn't make sense to me anymore, a recipient of a Hemalurgic spike wouldn't feel weak, would he? We don't have the best data, but Spook didn't report weakness of any sort, though he only had one spike. Maybe adding many spikes puts a strain on the recipient's Spiritual aspect? I remember the Inquisitors having to rest a lot, though at the time I assumed it was because they were storing health; maybe they just had to rest a lot. And the reason we don't see the same thing in Marsh is because he can Compound gold? I feel like we need to talk about this. When Wax confronts Edwarn in the airship, his Bands-enhanced steel burn allows him to see everything, not just metal. He (or possibly Harmony, I am honestly not sure) then realizes that "they are all the same. Metal, minds, men, all the same substance." So what is he seeing? Probably not trace amounts of metal in everything, that doesn't explain his revelation. Realmatic aspect(s)? He does report seeing the lines flicker sometimes, allowing him to see "the radiance inside of each person and thing" - this sounds like maybe Spiritual aspect? If this is even remotely close to being correct, I may need to write up a theory about how Allomantic steel/iron works... Side notes & comments Wax telling Steris how he would sometimes sneak out of parties when he was younger and find a quiet balcony, and Steris going "And do what? Read?" He is no Elend, Steris. Unfortunately, she probably doesn't know the homage she paid to the Last Emperor there. The text is unclear, but it looks like Marasi's constable credentials are actually an engraved metal plate. Seems like writing in metal has retained its symbolic value, if not the practical one. Marasi, looking up at Vin's statue in the graveyard, wondering if the Ascendant Warrior was ever insecure, or if she got jealous, frightened, or angry. Never in the entire 3 books since The Hero of Ages have I wanted Vin to come back more than I did during that scene because she was all those things more than she was the Ascendant Warrior, and I would've loved to read the scene where she tells Marasi that. I like that the Coinshots call the top of the mists "The Ascendant's Field." I remember when Vin first broke through the mists and marveled at their beauty from above. Nice nod. Allik's speech pattern, ending sentences with "yah" (when being translated) or "yes" (when speaking his native tongue) is mildly interesting and potentially something to watch for in other books, as it might be as much of an indication that there is a worldhopper afoot as Galladon's "kolo". Jaggenmire seems to be Allik's word for "Shard". Herr and Frue then are his people's names for Ruin and Preservation. Unfortunately they missed the memo that Preservation was a dude, but hey, not bad. Unsurprisingly they remained a bit more aware of Scadrial than the people Rashek crushed beneath his heel. Heh. Look at me trying to put together a comprehensive list. Steris, love, you are contagious.

I was wondering about that bit too. It's interesting to consider siphoning somebody's Investiture, Hemalurgically, slowly and over time instead of taking their ability to Invest completely. If Irich's punishment was to turn him into a source, and assuming he was a gold Ferring, then Keresina Shores' reward for disposing of ReLuur could've been to make her the recipient of his health. Only, I am not sure he was a gold Ferring - unless he was also Hemalurgically spiked for an Allomantic power, because he tried to use the "Allomantic grenade" on Marasi on the train. And he was already ill then, so his punishment for failing to keep Wax away from New Seran couldn't have been that. But Irich aside, I like the original idea. It's the only thing, so far, that explains Suit's comment.

Odd, I actually didn't reach much into this. It sounded a little ritualistic to me, something traditional one might say before somebody dies.

Having restrained myself - mightily, too - from reading White Sand (for... turns out only 3 years now, felt much longer), I'll have to your reports on her description matching Khriss' on face value. So, exciting stuff! She was great, very much what I would expect from her.

I finished Bands about 5 minutes ago, all excited to go post in threads, and now I need to go back to reading...

Sharing the screenshots outside of an archive should make it easier for more people to check them out.

There is so much information outside the books, I wouldn't know where to start.

Originally (but not originally originally) Wax & Wayne was going to be a trilogy, but I don't know how official that was meant to be. I am pretty sure quadrilogy is the final word on the topic though.

I love the beginning of the second season every bit as much as I thought I would. Jarvis is even more delightful than he was in the first season, and his wife is even more so. Peggy's fighting style seems to have moved a little away from the "slam people around" we saw in the first season, which I am a little regretful of - I liked her... directness there, but it's not a big deal. I did like the opening shot a lot. Dressing... Dorothy? up the way Peggy dressed in the first season, the contrast of her colorful hat and suit, walking opposite to the flow of the grey-clad crowd of men, it's good imagery.

Seemed a little out of character for him =\ But then, so is having somebody troll him, so...

I too thought Marasi might spike herself a little bit. The earring is a small thing, and I don't think she believes Hemalurgy is evil, I feel she would trust the Lord Mistborn when he writes that he figures "Hemalurgy is good now."

I probably should get excited about this "monster", but the highlight of the chapter, for me, is definitely the developing relationship between Wax and Steris. Brandon, if you do something to do those two, I shall be very cross with you!