soulcastJam

Why do we only have shardblades found? It seems strange that all the knights would prefer a blade as opposed to a spear/hammer/flail etc. I also think it unlikely that they were required to keep their weapon in the form of a blade as a sort of uniform because it is so limiting. So why a blade? My suggested answer is that upon the death of the spren through the breaking of the Nahel bond the shardblades reverted to a sword as their basic state since they were based on the honorblades. I could go into some pretended spren psychology that combines the trauma of their death and feeling used with references to Aiel beliefs about swords having no purpose but to kill... but I won't.

Isn't the city basically falling apart though since the below water stuff is all rusted and now it's not below water anymore? Is it still safe to live there? Or maybe I only got the impression it was a problem because of the building that collapsed when water rushed back in.

I finished the Wheel of Time (which kind of puts me in a special club) and I'm left emotionally reeling. I can't remember the last time I felt the loss of characters so much or mourned finishing a series. And I'm filled with a deep sense of gratitude for the experience. Brandon really knocked it out of the park with all 3 of his books and especially aMoL. So here is a public show of admiration and appreciation to Brandon Sanderson.

Isn't it nice to know we'll have some solace in our old age?

So, I'm re-reading the series right now. I got through book 10 when it came out but I was busy for a couple of years and lost interest. Anyway, I'm half-way through book 10 again and looking forward to new parts of the story, especially Brandon's part. I used to feel like there were slow parts to the books but I think that was just because I had particular characters I liked (like Perrin) that were neglected for a while. This time through I'm just in awe at the scope of this world and the inclusion of so many interweaving plot-lines. The whole world is focused on the events in this series and a lot of people are trying to influence what happens. It's kind of amazing how he holds it all together. Obviously, that's not for everyone. A lot of people prefer a streamlined plot without looking too deeply into the implications that it has on characters outside a small core. In fact, I prefer that for most of my reading because it doesn't take me 6 months of heavy reading to get through the plot. I still think that RJ's work is nothing short of brilliant. My one beef with the series has always been the male/female dynamic. RJ clearly goes out of his way to make women overly aggravating, bullying, hypocritical, ungrateful, manipulative, stubborn, violent etc. The only relationship you see that is any sort of healthy is Perrin/Faile, but that only lasts for a short time. I don't think there is a single female perspective mentioning a man where she doesn't either say or think that he is a fool. There is almost no attempt at real communication between the sexes with the men assuming it's impossible and the women banding together to enjoy talking about how inept the men are. The men don't really stand up for themselves most of the time either (excepting maybe Mat). The whole thing seems to be contrived to make male readers angry at women. I have no idea how this affects the women reading it but I assume they are also annoyed at the portrayal. I've wondered if RJ writes this way to showcase a world where men are generally subservient to women (somewhat a reversal of how many people see the history of our own world). It also might just be that he chose this as a consequence of having the most powerful people (those who can channel) being women for several thousand years. Or maybe it's just to drum up your emotions like a TV soap to make you more invested. Whatever it is, I've also wondered how his wife felt about him writing this way...

We know that everyone on Scadrial and Nalthis are born with investment. I assume that's true to some extent on all shard-worlds.

I'm not at all surprised that Sazed treats Kelser a little differently. Kelsier is very charismatic and Sazed was used to following his lead, but there was this large period of time where Sazed lived without his influence. He's out of the habit of listening to him. Sazed has had intense personal struggles and his worldview has been flipped on it's head more than once, so he's changed a lot. Add to that the realization the whole crew had that Kelsier had manipulated them into a plan he didn't share with them (a little loss of trust?). Also that Kelsier wanted an entire class of people slaughtered while Sazed has seen how necessary they were to survival. It's not really that surprising.

I think I only had trouble with finishing the series because I started when there were about 1/3 of the way done. Some of the middle books go slower, which is ok so long as you aren't re-reading them every time a new book comes out. Yeah... I was young. Anyway, I've been meaning to re-read them all so I can finish the series. I haven't gotten to Brandon's section yet, and it just feels wrong to not have read the thing he is arguably most famous for.

I was under the impression that Rysn survived by the power of the greatshell. Was that not as clear as I imagined it? (don't have my book on me right now.)

This is interesting. I always assumed Obliteration was happy because he figured out how to take out all the other epics, not because he wanted to deal with his own problems.

That depends upon which part of his life you are talking about. The jaded, angry, heart-broken Sazed would indeed have labeled it untrue. Prior to certain events he would have taught it without worrying if it was true or not. And current Sazed might see it in the light of realizing that all/many of the religions were used by intelligent design for the ultimate salvation of the planet. So, your statement is only true for the time of his life when he was most unhappy.

The question though is whether you actually can smash plate fueled by infinite stormlight.

Can't you just behead them? That is, assuming they didn't have armor on...

I'm not sure why this is considered likely. Of the many occasions of mistborn battles I recall only two (possibly three) occasions where a single individual accomplished this. I thought it was a fluke actually based on some sort of godly preferential treatment. I was suggesting the liquids they wash it down with would fill them up.

A new point. If we assume infinite stormlight then we must be talking about either being in a highstorm or being on a giant crystal/sea of spheres etc. Sucking in stormlight doesn't require more than proximity to the source which can be easily achieved by a windrunner skimming over the surface. Now, if we assume infinite metal, this requires repeated, almost continuous ingestion of metals. At the very least, atium requires very frequent swallowing to maintain the battle. This is time consuming, but more importantly, swallowing metal is difficult without some sort of liquid (water, alcohol). So my point is this: A mistborn who is continuously ingesting atium would soon be too full to ingest anything else. So beyond the initial time consuming activity of swallowing things constantly they have to add the time consuming activity of throwing up to make room for more. I think the OPs intent was to ask what would happen if they had infinite stormlight/metal inside of them without having to replenish it from outside, but I wanted to add a little more reality to the question.

It's OK. All you have to do is nothing.

Don't they believe that breath is part of your soul? Even if they returned they wouldn't want to give that up.

Thats what YOU think! Now go clean your room!

I don't believe either would win with standard fighting methods. Infinite Atium is next to impossible to beat (especially since flared Atium lets you see further into the future as evidenced by the Duralumin enhanced Atium burn witness in canon). But shardplate with infinite stormlight is also impossible to defeat as it's a full-body shield that can't be destroyed. A possible solution would be for the windrunner to lash a giant landmass to the sky and let it fall on the allomancer. This would be quite difficult to avoid because you are limited by the strength of the allomancer in creating large speed-bubbles, running fast etc. But with atium you could see what was happening and duralumin push yourself on top of the landmass before it gets over you... So, no finishing blow after all. The only thing I see working is fighting until one person becomes so tired they fall asleep. Of course, the shardplate could still stay intact during sleep, so the windrunner wouldn't die anyway. The allomancer would be susceptible to death while asleep though, so I guess they would be the loser. Things just get silly when you give anyone infinite anything.

My thoughts: I think the difference between epics and normal humans in this regard is how quickly an impulse becomes an action. An average person might have a thought about rape and discard it because it is repugnant. But if they continue to dwell on the thought, over time it becomes more likely they will change thought to action. With epics, the time frame is much shorter and more of a steep slope. I see epics as a kind of addict where their self control is limited in certain areas. Successful recovered addicts avoid scenarios that tempt them and have plans for how to overcome the inevitable temptation. Same with epics except not many of them ever get to EA. ( Hi, I'm Conflux and I haven't used my powers in 3 days...)

Do you have a reference?

Nothing wrong with a good healthy P.

While Adolin has a different personality than young Dalinar, he has probably killed many more humonoids who were equally unable to defend themselves. Battle with a shardblade is just faster at dealing death. And they both feel the Thrill... Sadeas is pretty justified in his statement.

This is a tough assignment because most of these titles have several meanings an it's not clear which one Brandon is honing in on. For example, Dominion as referring to a conqueror or Dominion as referring to a domain would have different opposites. All that means is that everyone's guess is as good as anyone else's, and counterarguments don't really work. =)