Ookla

Oh, that's excellent.

If I understand correctly, I think Jesus didn't actually appear in the Americas until about a year later. If you read carefully in 3 Nephi 7-11, it looks like all the thunderings and lightnings and such that occurred at the time of Jesus' death in Israel was happening at the end of the thirty-third year after the sign in the heavens indicating Jesus' birth (as we'd expect given the timeline in the New Testament). However, though the Nephites did hear Jesus' voice a few times in the first few days afterward, Jesus didn't actually appear to them until the end of the thirty-fourth year. So that time crunch isn't an issue, because Jesus only spoke to the Nephites in those three days, and then went and finished up with the Apostles in Israel, and then a year later came back to show Himself to the Nephites.

YKYAN when you regularly use D&D terms in relation to everyday life--eg. "I really failed my Charisma check there."

Well said!

Yes. You can read about some of the consequences of those mistakes in the book of Doctrine and Covenants. While your argument against later-found books works well enough against the Doctrine and Covenants (which members of my church believe to be revelation from God to His prophet in modern times), I would recommend doing more research into what has been found in the way of archaeological evidence that seems to support the narrative in the Book of Mormon (and also to read the Book of Mormon so you can compare what's inside it to that evidence yourself). There have been a great deal of discoveries in the Mesoamerican region that seem to support the idea that the stories in the Book of Mormonactually happened--not to mention evidences within the book's language itself, including perfect and near-percet chiasmus, among other things, that Joseph Smith would not have been able to come up with out of his own head with the knowledge and education he had at the time of publishing the Book of Mormon. I would say that watching the "Journey of Faith" documentary series would be a good place to start in that particular endeavor, again with the caveat that actually reading the Book of Mormon, if you haven't yet, would give you the knowledge you'd need to really understand the arguments the archaeologists and liguists and such in that documentary are making. When it comes to the Pearl of Great Price, I don't know of any direct evidence to support it (though I'm no expert), aside from the existing Bible, and for me it's a matter of, "If I believe the Book of Mormon was translated by the power of God, it's not a huge stretch to believe the Pearl of Great Price was translated that way too." Also, a question for my own curiosity: Do you believe it possible to receive revelation or for there to be living prophets in the modern day? Why or why not?

Ah, friend. That's rough. Wishing you all the best.

I agree with @AquaRegia here--I believe a lot of historical art was intended to invoke emotion, as a lot of it has religious iconography and that was important and moving to a lot of people back then. Even though modern tastes are different, the intent to evoke emotion was still there at the time of its creation (to my knowledge) and it still had an impact on the people it was created for. And speaking of, Aqua, I really like your definition!

While I was still doing Irish dance, I felt that HARD (Also, hi, I'm getting assessed for autism and ADHD through school... sometime in the next month-ish. So we'll see how that comes out!). I learned dances really slowly, and only by having someone else walk me through the steps slowly about 7-8 times, and I eventually reached the point where no one had the time to do that for me (which is why I quit). So happy to find that this thread is a thing!

Accurate! Hoid will mock you; Yumi will just correct your technique.

I think art is any thing that has been created with love, thought, and care, by a person who wants to bring beauty and goodness into the world. But I also think art is a process, not just a product--it's as much, if not more, about how we develop as we create our art as it is about what we are actually creating. It's about the change it brings about within us as we experience it, both in the creation and the appreciation of it. And the beauty of it, in my opinion, is that because every person's experience of art is subjective, there can be a piece of art out there that speaks to every person--especially if we all engage in its creation. Personally, I think that if every person focused on bringing that beauty and goodness into the world rather than trying to "win" or "get ahead", the vast majority of the conflicts and contentions on this earth would disappear. So... I guess the shortest way to put it is that art is anything that makes the world a better place by bringing more light and beauty and goodness to it.

I guess that depends on how you're used to the word retribution being used. To me, Retribution is kinda like Justice--but in a more vengeful, hateful kind of way. I did a quick dictionary search and one of the definitions was punishment, which seems fitting enough. So at least for me, calling it Retribution works just fine, but if you're working off a differently-nuanced head-definition, then it might not be the best Shard-name for how your brain works.

I'd say Kaladin. Heraldic power is no joke, and Nomad's Dawnshard is doing all it can to keep him from fighting. The one advantage I think Nomad has is that the restriction to his fighting abilities has forced him to get more creative with how he does things, but regardless, if he doesn't siphon off the Investiture blocking him from fighting, he's a sitting duck. Plus, Kaladin is a 5th-oath Radiant as well as a Herald, and we still don't know what that last power boost is.

Here's my issue: ALL the Shards are a problem on their own, because they have no balance of Intents. Any one of the Shards, taken too far (which is the Shard's nature to do), is going to be an issue. Plus, all the single Shards we've seen most and gotten to understand best, the original Vessels either died, withered away in a constant tug-of-war with another Shard, or went insane before the Shard Splintered. It's not a great track record. If I had to choose a shard, I'd probably go with Endowment because, from what we've seen, she hasn't gone completely insane or been forced to do awful things by her Shardic Intent, but I also know I don't have a lot of information on Endowment's story and who she was before and after the Shard, so it's still risky. Even Endowment, taken too far, is going to be a big issue. But, honestly, if I could have all the power I wanted in the Cosmere, I'd pick up ten thousand Breaths on Nalthis, a bead of Lerasium on Scadrial, and my Edgedancer/Truthwatcher spren (depending on which got to me first; I flip-flop between the two orders whenever I take the quiz) on Roshar, and return home content with all my favorite Cosmere powers. Dealing with Shards is way above my paygrade!

I agree. And again, to go back to my earlier point: the series is not finished yet. While I don't think Brandon is going to end the series with any sort of "This is the Right Answer, listen to me" ending stance, I think he will explore what it means to make oaths, and the benefits and drawbacks of both making oaths and avoiding them, so that readers can make their own decisions. His job isn't to define a Right Answer, it's to explore ideas.

To be fair, we're halfway through the series. In tehnical story-writing terms, we're at the midpoint, which is where everything the characters have been doing and believing is typically flipped upside down and turned on its head. I don't think we're going to get the glorious, triumphant ending we want until Book 10. Yeah, we got some endings like that in the previous books, but that's because the story hadn't hit its darkest point yet, and even now I think you're right that things are only on their way down. We might get some inklings of hope along the way to help us through, but in story terms things shouldn't start looking up again until the end of Book 9, possibly even later.

Just got into Baldur's Gate 1. I'd play BG 3, but my computer is too wimpy. But BG 1 and 2? Totally doable for it! And quite a lot of fun, too; you just have to work out how the heck things work, which is the most challenging part.

I think it's because the Oathpact wasn't fully broken/dissolved and placed onto Taln (There's a WoB [Word of Brandon] about it somewhere; someone more knowledgeable help), so when Chana went back to Braize it still applied to her. Or something. Side note, for the people who know, how the heck do you look up/find WoBs?

S Tier: Warbreaker, Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Rhythm of War, Words of Radiance, Edgedancer. I'm actually a sucker for Brandon's romance, mostly because it doesn't typically follow all the classic romance tropes you see in Hallmark movies. It might touch on a few, but it usually does so in an interesting way rather than rehashing the same old romantic plots every time. A Tier: The Way of Kings, Oathbringer, Wind and Truth, The Final Empire, The Sunlit Man, Dawnshard. B Tier: The rest of Mistborn Era 1 and Era 2, Secret History, Elantris, Sixth of the Dusk, Shadows for Silence, the rest of Arcanum Unbounded. Does that cover everything? I think so? And this, by the way, covers the books in order of the frequency with which I typically reread them--A Tier being the ones I reread sometimes, and B tier being the ones that I almost never reread. I'm actually not a huge fan of Mistborn in general--I like The Final Empire because Vin stars most heavily in that book and it has the happiest ending of Era 1, in my opinion, but otherwise there are other Cosmere novels that I find more interesting and less dark.

I honestly hadn't thought about that... Makes a lot of sense, though.

Oh, you're definitely not wrong. But I do wonder if this is a case where the Vessel is trying to make excuses for going against the Intent of their Shard--maybe there's a dichotomy between the two and it's causing issues where Valor is at. I mean, it would probably take a decent bit of Valor to go out and face an ex (not that I would know; I've never had an ex), even work with them without fighting in order to save the Cosmere--or whatever Hoid is doing. Especially if Valor doesn't even agree with what he's doing. I don't know.

Your answer is probably more accurate, but I once ordered a book that got delayed and delayed and delayed... I eventually was listening to the news, and heard about that big ship crashing through a bridge in... Baltimore?... and when I checked Amazon again, guess where it said it was shipping from? I don't know where it's coming from for you, but if it were coming from California, I wouldn't be surprised if all the fires going on there are disrupting supply chains going out from that area.

I agree. We can explain some things, but really, the best sources to go to are these (especially the Book of Mormon), and then you'll have some additional information to ask questions from.

I didn't catch the episode, but I do have thoughts. I think animation would be the ideal format for many of Brandon's books--I think Mistborn could get away with being live-action, because the effects are easier to simulate with practical effects and good sets, but with Stormlight you'd have a hard time pulling off a live-action adaptation. Personally, I think Stormlight would look WAY better in an anime or anime-Western-animation-blend style than virtually any other format. As for the bit where live action reaches a wider audience, I think that's true--but I think that's at least in part because movie companies seem to have this mentality that anything animated MUST have a live-action adaptation (see Disney's live-action adaptations of classic fairy tales, which I admit was fun for Cinderella and Aladdin, but otherwise I felt were unnecessary; Avatar: The Last Airbender's various live-action adaptations, and the How to Train Your Dragon live-action adaptation that is in the works now). It's like they don't believe that animation can be a perfectly good and valid medium of storytelling in its own right, and frankly, that's what I feel most frustrated about in these kinds of discussions.