Ewery1

Idk, Scadrial in Era 1 was EXTREMELY bleak. This is not outside of Brandon's style at all - but I think the key to Brandon's work is that the world may be bleak but we prevail anyways.

Would switch Ambition & Odium - rioting is very much like Odium & seeing futures seems very Ambition-oriented.

Really great catch. This confirms it for me.

Hmm I don’t agree. There’s definitely room for Roshar and Scadrial to be at cross purposes without the shard of Retribution involved.

Hmm in my view these dichotomies that you present as not as generalized to religion as they are made out to be - but are rather a feature of Christianity. The concept of what even separates religion from other philosophies/ways of living is a very Western/Abrahamic construction and is historically relatively recent. In China, for example, there is the three teaching model of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, which can all be considered religions in their own right, but also chafe against that categorization for various reasons. At times one may be more or less dominant but they are often seen to govern different parts of life. Another piece here is that Christianity is a particular orthodox religion, meaning that the ideas & the scripture are particularly important. Meanwhile, other religions like Islam are more orthopractic, meaning the rituals and doing-focused aspects are more important, as opposed to the actual scripture itself. I bring this up because I don’t think this system of failing to meeting obligations or live up to their ideals is a feature of religion, and nor do I believe that Christians who do not take their religion wholesale are bad people/bad at religion because they do not find every teaching to be useful to their lives. Some of the most devout people I know are ones who have a very personal relationship with the scripture and have arrived at interpretations that allow for things that others would not, or take issue with aspects other people take for granted. I know that Christianity is especially relevant here given Brandon’s personal beliefs and the composition of his audience, but I feel that it’s useful to take a step back when categorizing religion writ-large.

Yeah I’m in agreement! This is exactly the kind of discussion I was hoping for. It’s interesting - as a gay person myself, in my adulthood I have surrounded myself only with people who would not blink when I kiss my boyfriend. I think it’s pretty clear why that’s the case, my time in the closet as a child was full of the darkest, most horrible moments in my life. It's a time I never, ever want to relive. But, because of that, I rarely interact with people who don’t support gay rights anymore. I think it's so valuable to interact with and get the viewpoints of people you disagree with. But on the internet it is really rare to find places to have substantive conversations about these sorts of things, usually it's just blatant and disgusting homophobia that brings me right back to those dark times. So thanks all for comporting yourselves in a thoughtful and respectful way!

This is a very interesting question. My guess would be investiture force - if it was physical it seems they’d be pulled more like one body?

Haha I’d be interested to learn both of your perspectives - would here be a fine forum? Or a 3 way DM (is that possible)?

I think it’s very unlikely that Cultivation wants all of her creations on Roshar to be destroyed in a fight between Honor and Odium lol. Gonna agree to disagree here!

I don’t think so… if this were the case, why would she have set Dalinar on the path of Change? He has not had any serious victory since he visited her by “punching harder”. Narak was won by GIVING UP his shardblade to get Kal & crew, the Thrill was defeated by accepting his pain & emotional regulation, Urithiru was saved by him forcibly making his best soldier step down. This is no longer a man who wins by punching harder. Even more, that is the man Cultivation made him.

Hmm I’ve seen it on the Shard before. It was couched behind excuses & justifications, but I’ve definitely seen it. I see what you mean though, this probably isn’t the right forum to really get people’s opinions. I’m gay as well, and a writer too, so I often find myself wondering about what makes media effective and ineffective at impacting people. Not a very scientific way to get that answer, but I was curious nonetheless.

Yeah, I really appreciated the example he pointed to of the book he read as a kid that included a gay protagonist. To me that really demonstrates the impact that representative can have - it was clearly formative for him.

Really curious to hear people’s thoughts on Brandon’s article from today, especially those who reacted negatively to the subject matter he discussed in this blog post: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/blogs/blog/on-renarin-and-rlain

Also, if a Shard like Valor is intervening, using Investiture of Cultivation & Honor, that would be corruption, therefore red. Corruption isn’t *bad* or *good*, it’s something like an alteration of intent or another force highjacking power. So this could work - maybe the Shard’s color is orange and the red comes from the corruption.

I like this theory SO much more than the Ado theory.