Quiver

Thanks- I just realised you've been here for a much shorter period of time than me, and have a much higher post count. I worked hard, and you beat me effortlessly? You even have a higher reputation than I do! I will have vengeance.

My 1,001st post, celebrating my love of Zelda and MLP. Because why not.

Non-show related spoilers.

Ah... didn't realize Shardblade appearances changed over time, thanks for that. Hm... kind of makes me wonder if there is any kind of a link between the Heralds perceptions of themselves and the appearances of their blades... With Taln, I thought his blade was noticably smaller, but that might have been my own mistake; I know it was described as being spike-like, rather than the cleaver-like blade Dalinar gets his hands on... so maybe I was confusing appearance with actual sizes. I might have phrased it wrong; I know that the Knights Radient existed prior to the Recreance. What I meant was that, thanks to Kaladin, we know Spren were able to take a variety of forms and weapons, but it seems like, once they betrayed their oaths, all the spren turned into Shardblades, rather than having some Shardspears, or Shardshields, or Shardaxes, or whatever an individuals preferred weapon might have been. I'm assuming the form of a sword was taken as the default because the relationship between spren and KR was modelled on the relationship between Honor and the Heralds; the Heralds used Honorblades, so the default form for spren as Shardblade seemed reasonable.

Hm... maybe one of the mods should see about moving this to the Words of Radiance forum; spoilers and all that.

So, a little while ago, I mentioned an idea that kind of interested me; the concept of make-up or cosmetics being used to facilitate magic. The topic can be seen here, and once again, I want to think everyone who made suggestions; I may not have responded to all of them, but I did read them, and I appreciated the response. I've been doing a little bit of research into the ideas suggested in the thread, and into the concept of body art... which, as it turns out, is significantly more complex than I had imagined. That's a good thing, obviously, since it provides more freedom for the magic system to work with. One particular idea I was thinking of playing with was the idea of a protagonist who uses what is commonly called Henna tattoo's. According to my extensive research (wikipedia) the paste used to apply those (Mehndi) used to be reserved for women's palms, but as time has gone on, it's become more natural for men to use it as well. And that's an idea that I really want to explore; I've fascinated by the idea of transgressing gender roles, so the idea of a gender-specific magic system, being used by someone who isn't that sex interests me. I was just wondering, though, if anyone had any good ideas or examples of how a gender-specific magic system should look like? The only one that immediately comes to mind is the Saidan Saidar split in Wheel of Time... and honestly, I don't think I've gotten far enough into that series to understand that well enough. Are there any other series which have particularly split magic systems like that?

So, my understanding of things is that, as a result of the Recreance, the spren took the form of Shardblades because the Nahel bond was an attempt by the spren to recreate the Heralds; since the Heralds had the Honorblades, that meant the Spren's 'default' form would be Shardblades. And we kind of see that play out when, upon transforming into a weapon, Syl's first choice is a sword, before correcting herself and saying Kaladin probably wants a spear instead. My question is... if the shardblades are "based" on the honorblades, why is there such a size discrepancy? The Shardblades are kind of oversized weapons, whereas the Honorblades (at least the ones we've seen) are smaller. Is there any realmantic reason for the size difference?

Up voted Contrary for you; let it not be said the Herd is not generous.

Were we reading the same book? ; ) Smart comments aside... honestly, I haven't been pleased with an ending to Brandon's books yet. They are good...but none of them give me the sense of closure I expect or want. And time skipping seems to be a favourite trick of his, given the endings to this, Final Empire and Warbreaker.

Hoid?

Oh dear. I'm really, really sorry to tell you this, Khognilin. but like everyone else on this board, you clearly suffer from OCD. Wanting to find out more about the cosmere? Cursing in Alethi? Classic signs of Obsessive Cosmere Disorder. You have my condolences. Seriously, welcome, and that is a cool username and field of study.

Haha! Thought you had defeated me, Pottermore? Clearly you did not count on the Grey Pilgrim!

I shall hold you personally responsible for my mild inconvenience. Thanks though; that would explain a lot. I've been trying search engines for a loooong time trying to get it, and all I could find were news articles talking about it. Speaking of which... apparently the thing the news thinks is most relevant to this story is the fact that Harry is going gray? I admit, that's... an odd thing to focus on. I also read something about there being a series of articles leading up to the Quidditch world cup final, but... can't really vouch for the accuracy of that. Anyway, I'll get the story read and get back to you.

I hate it. Not out of anything to do with the quality, you understand. I just hate it because I can't find the Braize-ing thing. Is it exclusive to people who have membership on Pottermore? If not, would you mind copying the link to it here?

Actually, I think everyone took my "glasses" comment a little too seriously- my bad. Actually... I'm kind of tempted to drop that Renarin neding glasses thing at Feather and see what happens. Renarin wanted to try and make his family proud during the series, so it could be argued that he has some kind of ideal of himself as an alethi warrior... and yet he's also the first person, after Sadeas, to disparage his blood weakness, and how that means he can't be a real lighteyes warrior.

I wonder what parrot tastes like...

...Well. That's not scary at all. You have my sympathy Leftfinch.

I... don't think so. It seems like an odd idea to me; I mean... I guess linguistically, theres a similarity between Glys and Glass, but... Everyone seems surprised that Renarin doesn't need his glasses anymore, meaning his poor sight is a long-standing condition. So he's probably had glasses long before Glys appeared. After Glys appeared (whenever that might have been)... I would imagine that Shardglasses would look different from regular glasses. So I can't buy into it happening then. So... sorry, doesn't seem terribly likely to me. The point about both Truthwatchers wearing glasses is kind of a neat thing to pick up though; I think I've seen theories that Glys may be the same spren who bonded to Ym, so that might be a case of foreshadowing. Which means Shai should be appearing at Uritheru as a Truthwatcher any day now, yeeeees...

I don't have much of consequence to add; honestly, I need to re-read Stormlight Archives and put together an essay or something on Amaram. For now, though, I more or less agree with Moogle; the revelation that Amaram doesn't have a good reason for what he did- that he is, effectively, a through-and-through villain- was one of my least favorite things about his role in WoR. Ironically enough, it made moments where he did seem more human, like the kindness he seemed to show his servants, or his slight bashfulness over 'finding excuses to summon' his blade more interesting. I was really, really hoping he was going to be the most morally complex character in the series, the Snape, the enigma; that character who you never know whose side he is on. I was hoping that his reputation really was the truth, that he was a good man who, in a moment of weakness or pressure, made a decision; a hard decision, one that he forced himself to do... But he doesn't seem that bothered by it. Which... is a shame. Also, Dalinar has lousy taste in friends. First Sadeas, now Amaram? Damnation..

I don't know whether that's a compliment to my reputation as the 17th Shards number one Brony... or a subtly veiled insult given the character in question. You win this round, scholar.

Try going to full editor options and selecting the picture there. That works for me; for some reason some pictures I try adding won't work on the forum with the image tags, so... I use that. And haha! Behold! A Prince strides among you!

Uh... I'm not the only one who that picture isn't working for, right?

I JUST SAW A PINKIE PIE PLUSHY TOY IN A SHOP. Not for sale or anything, just... sitting there. On the till. The person working the cash register was showing off an MLP plushy. This seems portentous, somehow.

Hmm. I have to admit, the diea of there being something that has not yet been ponified disturbs me greatly... so I re-searched with the proper game title. Other than 3D Tank models, painted with ponies (FLUTTERTANK, YES)... this was the best I could find. I hate your love of obscure titles.