Schizoposting

I think that it's pretty clear that the Evil is not composed of anti-Ambition, but of anti-investiture as such. So, its intent is the opposition towards regular investiture, which is why individual Nephilim seek to destroy as much of it as possible.

Well, Brandon only has a finite amount of time and must therefore prioritize certain things over others. It's a sad fact of life, but he won't be able to get around to writing everything.

While the lore may have been interesting, the actual writing was pretty boring, and it felt like generic Sword and Sorcery—The Fires of December is far superior. But maybe you think differently.

Actually, Kaladin saw Szeth kill people in Iri, in his visions. So Taravangian did target them, at least somewhat. As for your question, the Diagram is too convoluted for mortal minds to understand, and we don't have access to all the information regarding the political situation in Roshar, so we don't know for sure. If I had to guess, I'd say that he killed the Prime to weaken Azir, so he could dominate it as part of his coalition, without triggering a full collapse. But obviously, this is all speculative.

Both can be true. While Tanavast is not infallible, we should take his views seriously, given that he has Shardic powers and knowledge.

I'm sorry, but this is just wrong: In western culture, at least, love and hatred are widely considered to be opposites. Maybe you disagree, but the way the Cosmere is written, it's a perfectly valid interpretation.

It's hard to say, because I have read a lot of good books so far in 2026, but I'd say that the Otherland tetralogy was one of the favorite things that I've read this year. It's one of those series that you appreciate the more you think about it.

I think the main problem with your list is that you assume that there are only two powers, and everyone must be under the dominion of one or the other. This is unrealistic—even at the height of the Cold War, there were still major independent powers, that pursued their own interests. Today this is even more the case. So, we should expect something similar in the Cosmere: Sel, Nalathis, Threnody, Dhatri, Taldian, Yolen, etc., all probably constitute their own poles. They may be closer aligned to Roshar, or to Scadrial, but they aren't dominated by them and are capable of independent action.

Unlikely, the evidence provided is very weak—if this was really the case, you'd expect to see more foreshadowing than a random newspaper ad, that is only vaguely connected to a WoB about Cultivation.

Mistborn represent the mythological ideal of the hero. The point is, even if they're resurrected, they'll be just another soldier/assassin, a powerful one, to be sure, but nothing particularly extraordinary. So, it won't mean a glorious return to a legendary past, but rather a banal continuation of modernity.

The main theme of Mistborn is technological progress, and the transition from mythology to modernity. The disappearance of the Mistborn, and the development of Allomantic technology to replace them is an integral part of this. So, even if they return, it's highly unlikely that they will play the same outsized role, especially with things like aluminum being an effective counter. Maybe they will still have a use, all things considered, but it's likely to be a rather minor one.

I agree—a sufficiently technologically advanced Scadrian civilization will invariably figure out how to safely split Harmonium (which they have plenty of) to get Lerasium. So, by era 4, we might see the Malwish mass produce Mistborn. Although, with medallions, they might end up being superfluous, anyways.

This is probably the result of Brandon becoming more liberal over the years about profanity and sex—what happened in WaT isn't particularly out of line with something like Yumi or TLM. Although, to be fair, some of Brandon's earlier works like AoN and Warbreaker, have a similar level of sex, so I think that this of a less of a rupture than you're implying.

I'm too lazy to look it up, but in a WoB, Brandon says that you can consider them to be opposed. And we know from WaT that Rayse specifically targeted Devotion. So, it's a perfectly viable interpretation.

I think that the reason for the shower scene was to foreshadow Shallan's pregnancy, and to emphasize her relationship with Adolin, since they latter end up separated. So, for me, at least, its inclusion was fully justified, especially given that it was just a few pages in a 1300-page book.

This isn't anything new—all the way back in Aether of Night Brandon include explicit references to sex and "on screen" nudity. And Warbreaker went even further. So, I'd argue that his prudishness has been rather exaggerated.

We do have conformation that it's possible for a different number of Shards, and different intents, to have emerged from the shattering, so the configuration that we got is a lot more contingent than "shard mapping" would imply. It's likely that the Dawnshards provide a thematic influence, but I strongly doubt that there's some exact formula that allows you to derive every Shard. The Cosmere's mechanics are a lot softer than what most fans think. By the way, Odium's "opposite" is considered to be Devotion—the former and Honor are actually attracted to each other.

To be honest, I am pretty skeptical about these ultra complicated theories that map the Shards on to the Dawnshards: when Brandon came up with all of this, he probably relied more on the rule of cool than on some precise framework. That's not to say that there's no relation between the two, but I think that it's a lot looser than what's being suggested.

Well, again, your idea is reasonable one, as far as fan theories go, but I don't think that we have conclusive evidence either way.

It's not the worst theory, but in WaT it's stated that the Night "left Roshar", which seemingly contradicts her being Mishram—although Honor says that the creation of the Unmade was "hidden" from him, so it's still possible that Rayse corrupted the Night without anyone realizing it.

To add to what @Treamayne said, we can pretty safely assume that the speed of causality is faster than the speed of light, so traveling faster than the latter doesn't violate the former any more than breaking the sound barrier does. I'm not a physicist, but as far as I know, this is fully compatible with relativity. But even if it isn't, we can just suppose that the Cosmere is based on different natural laws than our universe.

Honestly, I dislike the cliché that every character needs to end with a romantic partner to be happy—plenty of people in such relationships are miserable, while, conversely, many single people have fulfilling lives. But given what we've seen in WaT, it seems very likely that he'll end up with Syl.

Given that Kaladin can move at supersonic speeds, he's probably the favorite to win any fight.

That's not Taravangian's plan at all—he wants to create a utopia through divine intervention, by conquering the Cosmere. This antithetical to preserving the status quo, which is the intent of Preservation.

The fundamental problem with this is that it takes away Dalinar's agency—giving up Honor is no longer a brilliant gambit, but rather something that he was manipulated into doing by a higher power. A big theme of the Cosmere is that the divine are just as fallible as the mortals, if not more so. Having everything be the result of Cultivations master plan would completely undercut this. It's hard to imagine the series ending without the heroes getting some kind of victory, given Brandon's general style. But since that the fascists win the Scadrian cold war, it's not impossible that something similar happens with Roshar. I'm not sure where you're getting this from—I actually said the opposite: that what happened in WaT wasn't part of Cultivations plan.