Bloodfalcon

It's hard to tell if what you see in characters is even a fraction of what has happened to them or how they have been effected. Shallan is a great example of a character who would appear normal on the outside, but has actually had a lot happen to her. So pointing out characters with shaky values or pasts can only do so much anyway.

Good point. I submit to penguins.

No weapons, no children. They can be used as a weapon. It is just you and [animal] in an arena on the terrain of its choosing. (NOTE: No matter how stupid an animal is, it will never choose the wrong terrain.) Note: you have to bring enough to share with everyone. And fight them all.

You are one confident fish.

I'm 6'2, the thought isn't lost on me. I think it'd be too fast for me. I don't think I could land a good enough kick. But bobcat is on the safe side i guess. I would want to be certain.

I had to choose Roshar, because the element that drives the magic is easily obtainable. Scadrial's magic is so cool that I had to choose this one too. But my point is that I don't know where to mine most of the metals myself, so i'm dependent. I wouldn't want that. Roshar magic seems a bit OP too. The combination would be so so much fun.

Yeah that might be the easiest turn around on a quote i've ever seen. There you have it.

Yes.

Exactly my point. Don't say things cannot be when they clearly can be. We have unknowns.

thanks. Unless Kalak is trying to deceive everybody, I think we can put this one to bed.

I know for fact that my mind purposefully erases memories of things I learned from Morgan Freeman. It does that so that I'll have to go back and listen to Morgan Freeman's voice again. I can't tell if it is a subconscious function of my mind, or a subconscious function of Morgan Freeman's voice.

This thread is only serving to teach everyone that we don't know as much as we thought we did about penguins.

I don't think there is a single penguin in this world that has my strength or reach. So if I can hold something at bay, I see no reason why I couldn't "win." I'd take that chance for sure!

This thread doesn't need to be resurrected or given a lot of attention, but I did just notice that the marking on Kalak's face also appears on Brandon's website. It seems to be intentional. I don't know what that means - it just seems to confuse me. Can someone tell me where we stand? Do we have proof Darkness is Nalan yet? I thought I had accepted it, but the scar on the face is just mentioned so many times that I kind of want to put it to rest.

I'm not sure that's true. He freaks out at Kaladin initially, then flies away, and the next time we hear from him he's no longer shouting and seems to have come to terms with what he is looking at. He gives in to the fact that Kaladin must be a Radiant. I can find the quote for you. Should be in chapter 86 I believe.

Yeah, I think I could handle a goat once I got past that first charge.

What is the toughest animal you think you could win a fight against? The animal is going to be mad, and it will have no mercy. It is also a criminal animal. It just committed corporate fraud and stole from orphans, so it kind of has it coming. Note: I do not condone harming animals in any way. This is a hypothetical to prove your manliness/womanliness (but be honest!). I'm not a small man, but I find I don't have a lot of confidence in myself when it comes to defending against animals. On land I think I'd do alright against pretty much any animal that is missing sharp teeth or claws with the exception of an elephant or hippo. If we are into teeth/claws territory, probably nothing bigger than a single coyote. Two coyotes? I'm done. Bobcat? Probably done. Anything that is in the ocean/water would just use me as its play-thing. I don't stand a chance. I mean, if I have to give an answer? I'd probably say I could handle a decent sized carp. Or a crab no bigger than my chest. I'm trying to think of it in terms of "if someone offered me $1,000,000 to fight an enraged _____, would I do it?" Anyway, if anyone else is as bored as I am and feels like they have something to prove, feel free to post. If not I'll probably delete this as soon as things start picking up on real topics, hahaha

I feel like any confrontation is going to be a lot...calmer than this. Only because Brandon has said he's keeping his projects separated enough that you don't need to have read the other books to understand what is going on. Totally possible that they have a mind reading party, but I would just expect Zahel to show recognition and then pull Kaladin or whoever away from Szeth as fast as possible to save them from getting massacred. I just know that if I was reading a book and one of the characters on screen started having a buddy buddy conversation in his mind with a seemingly unrelated sword, I'd feel like I missed something. It's possible that this is how Brandon introduces Zahel as more than just an ardent/swordsmanship teacher, but I think it will be really tame (read less fun than the first post).

Great point. I was also thinking of how much characters progress in so many different ways when they attend school. I'm especially fond of magic progression, which is what both schools strive to provide. But yeah, it's very easy to identify with the characters when they are at school. I agree with Caleb; I'm so excited for the next book now that he is back at the University. Glad it's long, because lots of things suggest he won't be there for quite a bit of it.

I'm reading White Sand right now. After that is Aether of Night and then I am going to try to find a good excuse (a vacation or long car/plane ride) to really really focus on a Malazan read. It looks like it would fit me well, but I had to learn the hard way that it's not something you can audiobook-multitask. I'd have to really focus. So lots coming up.

Same reason a lot of people thought Harry Potter lost a lot of flavor when he left Hogwarts. For me I think I like that it sets so many rules for interactions. There is also a lot of magic/fantasy in those locations naturally and you don't need an excuse for their occurrence other than "that's what someone else at school is working on."

It's discussed quite a bit in the Kingkiller Chronicles post. I'll go grab a link. There are a lot of Rothfuss fans here. http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/412-kingkiller-chronicle/

Not your fault. I'm guilty of it too. This is one of maybe 3 discussions that inevitably gets heated every time because it hits so close to home for some people. There are plenty of similarities to real world issues that people can have very firm opinions on. Brandon does this on purpose. Such an instigator. Haha

No, the point isn't that the Alethi are in the right. The point is that there is no evidence that they are in the wrong for any reason. There is an action/reaction chain that leads to what we have seen, and the morality of it doesn't have a single thing to do with who was around first. That's the point I was arguing initially. However, I do think that the Parshendii's refusal to give any sort of explanation for the assassination is evidence that they aren't trying to negotiate. We have clear evidence that the humans are trying to negotiate. Szeth (sent by the Parshendii) assassinating Gavilar is also a stone cold fact. So that pushes my opinion towards the Alethi being in the right here. People come on this site and read opinion posts that frame characters in a certain way, then start molding events around an opinion. There is no proof that Gavilar knew what he was doing, and there is good reason for the Alethi to have reacted the way they did to his assassination (the Parshendii themselves state that the reaction was expected). The several chances that the Parshendii have to negotiate and end the violence are consistently ignored for some reason, and everyone has decided Gavilar is on the "bad guy" side by association. My point was never to say that your opinions can't be right - Gavilar could be an absolute monster, and the Alethi too - but you can't manipulate a lack of evidence and the theory "they were there first" to absolutely criminalize a society. Other stances are possible and I would say probable.

You presume nearly everything you just stated. We have other characters suggesting that Gavilar was trying to do X, but no indication that he really knew what he was doing. If he knew that doing X would bring back the Knights Radiant but didn't know the cost, he's not some evil tyrant that wouldn't listen to reason. Which brings us to another point. We have evidence suggesting Gavilar was never approached by the Parshendii to dissuade him from doing whatever it was - he mentions several people who might have reason to kill him and cannot imagine why anyone else would. We also know that when the Parshendii were confronted on why they did it, they STILL wouldn't explain. So with reasons of their own, without trying to peaceably argue against Gavilar's course of action, they had him killed on the same day they made a peace treaty with him. That's assassination at its purest. The Parshendii (minus Eshonai to a degree) knowingly accepted a form for its ability to destroy with every intention of harming humans. All except a few who fled. It was Eshonai and Eshonai's sister who were responsible for all that destruction (which stems from them misleading the rest of the Parshendii). It wasn't a human decision. The humans were trying to come to an agreement. Provide evidence next time you say I'm wrong.