GreyPilgrim

I thought Lies was excellent. It's a nice quick read. Good enough to pull me in to book 2! It is very different for a fantasy novel, but you should enjoy it.

I feel like Kvothe will not spend too much time at the University in book 3, however. As good as the setting is, I don't think it can handle its own full book, and based on all the legend-making Kvothe has to do left I feel he will still have a lot of travelling to do.

I'd be really afraid of Adolin with Nightblood. As Bloodfalcon says, he has some potential to turn based on his killing Sadeas and his general inclination to turn to violence (though that often was a as a result of Sadeas, so that may no longer be a problem. This, combined with the fact that (no offense to him) he is not the most intelligent person and could be easily manipulated, would make for a potentially terrifying outcome if he were to get Nightblood.

You are correct on the Surges. However, I don't believe we saw a Lightweaving. We were in Ym's point of view, and it said "Experience ended", and for him experience means life. If he hadn't died, it wouldn't have said that. The only way he could he alive is

Whatever the 17th Shard is, its Investiture must involve time bending, because I swear time passes five times faster when I'm on here.

Even given that, I still believe there may be a different take. Brandon does say that there will be little tweaks, though that is not even how I was thinking about it. I was thinking more in terms of that a different Order may have a different connection or interpretation of the Surge and its uses.

When you're sad that you can't do it either, and the reason you don't have time is that all your free time not spent reading is spent on 17th Shard, being a Sanderfan.

Recall that Shallan recognized Amaram's Shardblade and when she and Kaladin were in the chasms (I think?) she mentioned something about her brother being killed and Kaladin made the connection (I believe, don't have the book to check right now; she definitely recognized the Shardblade though).

That was answered in WoR.

Welcome, Istra! I see you are very well read. I highly suggest you read Emperor's Soul. It provides quite a bit of cosmere knowledge, particularly the Cognitive Realm. (And Kobold, my friend, why must you always make the funniest posts????)

I have some thoughts, but since the purpose of this thread has been satisfied, maybe you should make a topic to address the specific question of why Brandon made two Truthwatchers, in the WoR board so we don't have to spoiler tag everything.

I was pretty indifferent on Korra season one. I really didn't like Korra in that season, and I felt like Bolin was a failed attempt to recreate Sokka. However, season two was really good. I got to like the characters much more and the story felt more cohesive to me. Plus the Avatar origin story was great to see. I still feel the show in general fails because of a lack of narrative cohesion. The original show was enhanced by this, and left a really high standard.

Seems plausible

Lift and Nightblood would most certainly be awesome (to make that pun again). Their ridiculousness would certainly complement one another quite nicely. Plus, both are insane. I actually think Kaladin and Nightblood would be pretty hilarious. Kal, like Vasher, is pretty deadpan, no-crap. Though their beliefs would conflict greatly, I still think they would have some hilarious conversations. Elhokar and Nightblood would be interesting. Elhokar's somewhat insanity and his seeming lack of purpose would go well with Nightblood's own craziness and simple purpose. And both are childlike in their own ways. For some reason, I feel like Nightblood and Zahel, the swordmaster ardent, would be perfect. Don't really know why, though.

Yeah, every Herald has his or her Divine Attributes, which Brandon uses to ascribe ideas to each chapter and put in the chapter headers. Often, of course, the Herald matches the order of the Radiant in the chapter, because presumably the Radiant will often do things or have ideas in line with those of his or her Order's Herald. It just so happens that such is not the case in Ym's interlude. It's fun to look at the headers before reading the chapter to try to guess what it will be about. Edit: ninja'd by Kurk

"Theory" may be a little ambitious for this, but here goes: The two Truthwatchers we have seen thus far, Ym and Renarin, both wear glasses. This cannot be a coincidence. I think that this may have something to do with the Truthwatchers' use of the Illumination Surge. We have already seen quite a bit about how the Lightweavers use it. My belief is that Orders do not use the same Surges the same way. Obviously, the Lightweavers weave light to create illusions which we have seen are manipulations of the truth, lies made true. The Truthwatchers' name suggests truth will also be given significance by them. They also watch the truth. Watching could well relate to this impairment of vision shared. Maybe this correlation means that the Truthwatchers will, because of their impaired vision, literally view the world in a different way, maybe somehow enhanced or changed by their use of Illumination. Maybe they see more truths in the world through this. The Order's Divine Attributes are Learning and Giving. Maybe because of the truths they see in the world, they have a vast store of knowledge. We know from Words of Radiance (the in-world one) that the Order is secretive and esoteric. Maybe they are waiting until they can reveal all of this truth they have been watching in their special way. Sorry if this makes little sense. It is really more of a bunch of random thoughts from everyone's favorite Pilgrim. Thoughts? Additional speculation?

I was thinking of our secret societies, and their differing ideas or how to treat the future. We have the Sons of Honor trying to return the Heralds and restore the Vorin Church, the Ghostbloods and whatever they're up to. So maybe "saving the world" was not the best phrasing. "All of the differing opinions of what is best for the future of Roshar" is more what I meant, not to prevent the Desolation per se.

I don't find this overly strange in any way. I don't think Ym served much more purpose than to show us that there are Surgebinders popping up everywhere, to show some stuff about Iri, and to provide that whole "the One" philosophy, so it doesn't really matter what Order he is. Brandon could also be withholding information about as many Orders as possible. Also,

Welcome, Wysawyg! I don't believe that the Diagram will necessarily spell Taravangian's doom. It is certainly a possible outcome, but not the definite one I feel. You say, Wysawyg, that the Nightwatcher is neutral. This is not my belief. I feel that she is interested in saving the world. We see that she is giving some sort of help to some people; at least with the example of Lift, whom she gifted the ability to metabolize food into Stormlight. It has been heavily speculated that the Nightwatcher is to Cultivation as the Stormfather is to Honor. The Stormfather has a great interest in stopping Odium, and as we saw in the climax of WoR, he will do it at all costs. I feel like the Nightwatcher must act similarly. Therefore, my belief is that her gifting Taravangian with this great intelligence was to create the Diagram as a sort of last-ditch effort to save the world. We have seen already that the Diagram is very radical in what it commands. It includes great loss, but we know that if followed, it will almost certainly work. So yes, it could very well be that in order to work, the Diagram must remove all opponents to Taravangian. Possibly this is because there are so many different parties trying to save the world that the Nightwatcher feels that the only way to definitely save the world is to get everyone under a collective interest. What I wonder if the Nightwatcher necessarily intended Taravangian to begin the Diagram so soon. As I said, it seems to be the last possible route, the least desirable. Based on Taravangian's Interlude, he should not have gotten smart enough to make the Diagram yet. Maybe for some reason it happened sooner than intended. It could also be in code because the Nightwatcher didn't intend for Taravangian to begin it yet. Possibly she wanted him to comprehend its last-effort nature and wait to translate it until it was absolutely needed. Just my thoughts. They could all be wrong.

The Bonehunters had more consistent narrative momentum throughout than most of the books thus far. I would definitely place it pretty close to Memories of Ice, though not quite on the same level. It's about the same as Deadhouse Gates. So far, I order the books MoI, DG+BH, MT, HoC, GotM. I'm looking forward to Reaper's Gale!

Given that bit from the Annotations, I really want to see a Twilight spoof novel set in one of those parts of Nalthis. Like really badly.

Swimmingly, you're currently a Returned. Are you hiding something?? And there is also another major difference: Returned were created by Brandon Sanderson, therefore they are awesome. Vampires are not.

I knew there was something, and that was pretty much how I visualized it. Just couldn't remember the exact details. Thank you! You know you're a Sanderfan when you note to yourself you need to file this bit of information so you don't forget it again.

When reading this gives you a panic attack because you have no idea. (Although I'm pretty sure Stormlight glowing looks different than Heightening glowing. At least in my head it does.)