Vaidd

Why did Calamity interact with Regalia? Not only is it a break of his no involvement rule, for which he already has the Larcener persona, but he also effectively came at her beg and call to upgrade and create Epics for her, which goes entirely against his motives as displaed in Calamity. I also have a hard time buying him not knowing about Regalia's plan, so the question becomes what his endgame was for that.

Calamity wanted to see the humans get wiped out, and he assumed that the Epics would do it.  Apparently it wasn't happening fast enough for him, so he may have figured that a super-duper-powered Epic or two would speed things along.  Also note that Obliteration was going around wiping out humans, so Calamity may have wanted to "reward" him by enhancing his powers.

^exactly. Unless something supernatural is going on, they should be able to see him relatively clearly. Therefore, something supernatural must be going on.

 

Is there a word for that logic, by the way? like the logic i just used to support my opinion that Calamity "cloaked" his details in some way? lik "without X, Y would have happened, and since Y did not happen, therefore X is true".

This follows the pattern of modus tollens:

Premise: If A is true, then B is true.

Premise: B is not true.

Conclusion: A is not true.

You used the negation (that, is you said "not X" or "X is false") in place of A, but it's still a valid way of forming an argument.  Of course, as Blaze noted, the challenge comes from rigorously proving the premises.

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"Kaladin!" Syl's voice. "Stretch forth thy hand!" She zipped around him, suddenly visible as a ribbon of light.

"I can't. . . " Kaladin said, drained.

 

Stretch forth thy hand"

 

 

I cringe every time I read this. It just doesn't sound right in my head.

I'm with you.  That's an awesome, stand-up-and-cheer scene...except that line throws me out of the narrative every time.  Either make her say "your," or have her say "thy" every now and then during the previous three-quarters of a million words. 

Still, if that's the worst I can say about the books, I guess they were pretty darn good overall.

I know I was going to go to the convention as Sadeas, but having seen the picture Brandon posted on Twitter, I have another idea...

 

I have a similar build to Brandon, and could easily do a costume like this. It strikes me as being a little meta - most people go as characters, I'll go as the author

I think this would be awesome, especially since Brandon is planning to be at Fantasycon.  If you do it, please:

    a )  try to get a picture with Brandon, and

    b )  keep track of how many people ask you for autographs.

 (SI soul units? Someone should work on that).

That unit would be the brown, of course.  Based on Leester's theory, where 1 Breath contains 0.5 browns worth of soul, one would achieve the Fifth Heightening after accumulating approximately one kilobrown.

Edit: made my stupid joke more consistent with the discussion above.

I personally liked it a lot, so I'd say go ahead and take the plunge.  If the size is intimidating (and I don't blame you if it is), there's nothing that says you have to read them all back-to-back-to-back-to... etc.  If you finish a book and want to "take a break" and read a something else, do it and come back later.  The subsequent books won't change any while you're gone.
 
I'll warn you that the middle portion of the series may seem a little, um, unfocused.  Oh, okay, I'll say it straight: Jordan's storytelling starts to seriously meander into some really wide-ranging plot threads.  You might, for instance, spend several chapters wondering why you're reading about characters you find annoying.  Don't give up on it.  There are some really awesome scenes in there (the climaxes of books 6, 7, and 9 come to mind).  And all of those meandering plot threads will start to converge, resolve, and make sense starting in about book 11.  By the time you reach Brandon's contributions in books 12, everything will be building up to the big finish in book 14.
 
And by "big finish," I mean (seriously, this is a spoiler)

 
And by the way, if you were really channeling David, you'd have compared the series to a parking lot or a flamethrower or something like that.

Hmm... it's a good theory, but to accept it I'll need a little more evidence. Is there anything in the text that actually says he is a stick, or is that just a common reader assumption?

Well, if you accept this deleted scene as canon, then you pretty much have to accept that the stick is a stick.  Otherwise, we only have Shallan's word for it, and we know she's an unreliable narrator.

It's not yet confirmed, but he's "leaning that way." I believe Brandon has previously said that he wants to write the first couple chapters of multiple (two? three?) flashback characters and see which one works best.

Edit: Cleaned up formatting.

Okay so I just signed up for this website and I have only read the first mistborn trilogy but oh god does this all sound like the coolest thing. This post really helped me out a lot but I was wondering if you guys have any recommendations on what order I should read the rest of these series in? This is a lot of reading to do over the summer and I wanna make the most of it while confusing myself the least.

Welcome to the site! LabRat's suggestion is as good as any, but Brandon wrote the different series so that they stand alone, so read whichever one looks most fun at the moment. I'd also add, don't forget about the Mistborn sequels (starting with "Alloy of Law," with two more coming out in the next few months). You should also make time for The Stormlight Archive, which is my personal favorite Sanderson story, but not by much.

Have fun reading, and be sure to come back here to share your ideas and theories.

Just one.  I originally got The Way of Kings in paperback, but when I realized how awesome it was and that there would be nine more in the series (this was before Words of Radiance came out), I decided to get a hardback copy.  Since I now had an extra, I gave my original paperback copy to a friend.  A week later (!) I got an email from her that said, "Why didn't you warn me he hasn't written book two yet!?"

In a genre that is replete with such terms that are gleefully displayed (i.e. Half-Blooded Prince), I feel this is a non issue. There is no actual societal or cultural context where "half-breed" is terribly derogatory.

If you're referring to the Harry Potter series, "Half-Blood" was used pejoratively.  Rowling made a point of showing us how hurtful it was when the "old" wizarding families were dismissive of a "half-blood" or "mud-blood's" talents or accomplishments.

Going back to the real world, I'm afraid the term is much, much more common than you realize.  In the U.S., it was historically applied to people of both Native American and White descent, but its use has expanded to include people of both Black and White descent.  In both cases, it was a way for racists to categorize someone as "not White" or specifically as "less than White."  If you still don't believe me, try a few Google searches with "safe search" turned off.  Be prepared, though: you will see some truly vile, racist screeds if you do this, but maybe that will help you understand why I felt I had to speak up.

Oh, you're so silly. We would never take away rep for something like this--heck, the only time rep is ever changed if there's rep abuse, or some other disciplinary action, I guess. So don't worry about it; it is never something you need to fear.

I guess I can sort of understand why you'd feel this way. However, it is my opinion that half-breeds are awesome. Feel free to take that statement entirely out of context. I mean, Kelsier and Vin? Yeah, I'll be a half-breed, please.

I suppose it is something to think about, maybe, but that is my opinion now.

Oh, I know you wouldn't dock rep points.  It was more of a lame joke to let me segue from my disclaimer to my actual point. 

Okay, so Vin and Kelsier are awesome.  But would you walk up to Vin and say to her face, "Yeah, I guess you're doing pretty well for a half-breed?"  If you did, there'd be two half-people standing where you used to be.  Even in a fictional world, a label can hurt no matter how widely it is used or even accepted.  In the real world, race relations are much more complicated.  (And besides, if all "half-breeds" are really that awesome in the Cosmere, this rank would be much higher up the list.)

I understand your point but I disagree with one thing. I work very hard not to live in the real world. That place sucks.

If only it were this easy to avoid the real world. 

I'm of the opinion that most people visiting a fantasy authours fan site would be able to make the connection but on the off chance someone does just find it offensive it can't hurt to change it.

This is basically my point, except expressed in a single sentence instead of an essay. 

I'm mixed race. I've been called all sorts and i've almost never felt offended by any term used to describe my ethnicity. Call me half-cast, bi-racial, mixed race, coloured etc. in no way do I find it racist. Thats what I am. No one else should be made to watch their tongue everytime my ethnicity is brought up in a conversation.

Thanks for weighing in--it's good to have an "insider's" view on this.  I agree that it should not be awkward to discuss race when it is relevant, although if I found myself in such a discussion, such as this thread, I would try to avoid terms that historically have been used to disparage or insult others.  That way, if my my listener(s) would be insulted by such terms, I would avoid giving offense (at least in that particular way--I'm perfectly capable of putting my foot in my mouth in other ways.)

I have one question for you, and this is to help me understand your point of view, and not to try to bait or entrap you.  If someone posted and said "I'm bi-racial and I get really mad when people use this term," what would your reaction be?  Would you accept it as a valid response, or would you say that person is too sensitive?  Or perhaps some other response that didn't occur to me?  And yeah, that was technically three questions, but they're all asking the same thing.

There's something that's been bothering me since I started coming to this site a few months ago, and I've decided I have to say something about it.  Please note that my intention is not to make any accusations toward anyone, nor do I want to inflame any angry debate.  I would encourage anyone who contributes to this conversation to do so in a reasonable and respectful manner.  If the mods feel that this topic will lead to--or has led to--a massive flame war, I'll completely understand if they wish to lock or even delete this thread.  (I just ask that they don't dock me 15 reputation points from my current 33, for reasons that I will explain in the next paragraph.)

When a person has between 16 and 19 reputation on these forums, he or she is given the rank of "Half-breed."  I'm fully aware of the connection between this term and Sanderson's work.  However, we Sharders live in the real world, and in our world, "half-breed" is often used as a racial slur to describe a bi-racial person.  If you don't believe me, look it up for yourself.  I'll wait here.

Everyone on this site makes great efforts to be friendly and agreeable, so I know that we all want to be as welcoming as possible to everyone who comes here.  I'd hate it if a new user came here, made a few posts, earned a few rep points, and then was made to feel unwelcome because the label "half-breed" was suddenly applied to him or her.  This would be especially true if he or she had only read, say, The Reckoners and didn't understand the context from which the rank was derived.

I'm certain that the admins who came up with the ranks had no intent of being offensive or insulting when they put "half-breed" in the list.  That doesn't mean it can't legitimately offend or insult someone. Unintentional insults can inflict just as much pain as malicious ones, and it's important that we always do our best never to give offense, whether accidentally or on purpose.

Of course, if we're going to do away with a rank, we need to think about what to replace it with.  I nominate "Slontze" because we don't seem to have any Reckoners ranks on the current list, but really, just about any Sanderson-related term we pick would be better than what we've got.

I'm certain that an admin could, in far less time than it took me to compose this post, change whatever table governs the ranks and replace "half-breed" with something more appropriate, and this brings me to my final argument: cost versus benefit.  With only a few seconds of effort by one admin, we'd all gain the benefit of being even more welcoming to potential new members of our community.  I'd say that's worth the cost, wouldn't you?

damnation i almost regret buying the audio version....

Fear not!  All of the illustrations are available at Brandon's web site.  Just select any individual title from the "Books" menu at the top, then look in the right-hand column for "<book name> Maps and Illustrations."   For example, here are the illustrations from The Way of Kings.

If you're accelerating a small object though air using only gravity, the object will reach terminal velocity reasonably quickly.  At that point, the "downward" (whatever "down" is for the object at that point) force of the Lashing will balance out the force of friction/drag holding the coin back.

By way of reference, in the real world there is a widely-told myth that a penny dropped from the Empire State Building will kill the unfortunate pedestrian it lands on.  According to testing done by the Mythbusters, the impact would probably sting quite a bit, but it it wouldn't be enough to crack your skull, let alone kill you.  At one point, one of them let himself be hit in the hand by a coin that had been artificially accelerated to terminal velocity (65 MPH), and it didn't even break his skin.

Of course, all this assumes a single Basic Lashing.  Stack up a whole bunch of Lashings, and terminal velocity will be considerably higher.

But this thread is about thinking outside the box, so consider this:  Could you get a friendly Edgedancer or Dustbringer to make the coin "Slick?"  Would it even have a terminal velocity then?

I just got through the signing line. Since it was a mile long, I only asked about the Reckoners. The ratio of Epics to normal folks is about 1 in 10,000. Brandon then clarified, without prompting, that was pre-Calamity population and the ratio is much higher now because so many normal people died. He then gave an example of Newcago, which has about 1000 Epics in a population of 250,000, so in that particular case the ratio is 1:250. (He didn't say, but I'd expect that to vary from place to place depending on the local politics.)

For this one it is important to remember that that chart is not technically depicting the Orders though we generally use it that way, it's a philosophical representation of the Essences and Surges (i.e. the elements and fundamental forces) known as the "Double-eye of the Almighty".  So it's less "There's a connection between the Windrunners and the Lightweavers" and more "There's a connection between Zephyr and Blood".

Thanks for clarifying that for me.  It's good to know what that chart actually shows, although it wouldn't actually affect my question, because I plan to phrase it along the lines of "What's the deal with these here lines in this here picture?" 

I'll have to come back and browse this thread before the signing on Saturday.  So far, here are the questions near the top of my personal list (in no particular order).

Reckonerverse

(is this seriously the best name we can come up with?)

• What's the approximate ratio of Epics to "normals?"  Is that number increasing, decreasing, or staying roughly the same?

(Firefight spoilers)

Cosmere

• Can Parshmen reproduce without entering mateform?  If so, is there a reason Given that other forms are capable of reproduction, why do the Listeners view mateform as being essential?
• What is the significance, if any, of the heavy white lines that connect some (but not all) of the Orders in the surgebinding chart in WoK?
• Will the update of Elantris include a description and/or picture of the chasm line on an Aon that comes close to making sense?  Any chance of sharing those on your site?
• I may also ask about how allomancy (in particular steel and iron) gets along with Newton's Laws as briefly discussed in this thread.  If I do, I'll ask about the point Moogle made about not being able to accelerate small bits of metal to hypersonic speed (because Vin totally would have done that if it were possible).  Does the effect depend on surface area, like spraying a jet of water against an object, or there some other limiting factor?  Either way, there must be some coefficient to account for the allomancer's "strength."

Cosmere-ish

• Is there any chance of publishing the full-color map of Roshar in poster size?  It would look awesome in my living room.

Naturally, what I think is interesting enough to ask about is different from everyone else.  If you don't like my choices, you'll have to come down to the con and ask questions yourself. 

Brandon will be a Guest of Honor at ConQuesT 46 in Kansas City on Memorial Day weekend.  Although I haven't seen an announcement on his site, the con has Brandon's schedule here.  (And here's the full schedule for those who are curious.) 

EDIT: Brandon's announcement of his schedule.

Will there be any 17th Sharders there besides me?  I'm not sure what I plan to ask Brandon, but I'm open to sufficiently interesting suggestions.

Also, I've never been to a con before.  This one only caught my interest because it's close and both Brandon and GRRM will be there. For those who have attended cons, what suggestions would you give to a "con newbie" to help me best enjoy the experience?

• Calamity is a member of a university bursar's office (which would explain his MO—preying on peoples' worst fears as he claims to give them the key to their future, only to exact a terrible, unthinkable price that isn't even written in the fine print). 

If TwiLyghtSansSparkles were an epic, her weakness would be student loan bills.

I wonder if a Mistborn that managed to become a 16-metal Savant would get any special powers, outside of the usual Savant stuff.

I thought about this, but I imagine that this is like the gamer who just has to grind out XP to reach the level cap of 99, when the last boss can easily be defeated by level 60 characters.  In other words: no benefit at all.

To those who are explaining Newtonian physics and the effects of force applied to objects of different mass: I think you misunderstood my question.

 

Yes, a coin Pushed by an Allomancer accelerates much more with the same applied force, but what I was really asking was this: What determines the amount of force applied? Is there a difference depending on the mass of the object Pushed or Pulled? Is the force simply the required amount to accelerate the mass of the Allomancer X meters per second? I haven't been able to figure it out.

The answer to this--and your question #2 in the original post--are really vague from the text.  Partly that's because none of the POV characters is a proper scientist (even Sazed doesn't deal in empirical measurements), and part of it is probably because Brandon doesn't want to bog down in details or paint himself into a corner.

For question #2 about where Pushes and Pulls originate, there must be some sort of Cognitive or Spiritual gobbletyblarthy to explain it.  If the force originated at a particular point, or even a particular bone, Coinshots and Mistborn would all have holes in their torsos.  Maybe the force pushes or pulls on the "whole entity" as seen in the Cognitive Realm.  I suppose the same idea might also go along with Moogle's point about Pushing on very small metal objects.

Regarding the  "weight vs. weight" thing, I regard that as the character/narrator having an incomplete understanding of Newton's laws of motion, which may not be widely known on Scadrial.  The second law says "force = mass x acceleration", while the third law says that whenever one object exerts a force on another, the second object exerts the same amount of force back on the first object in the opposite direction.

To a physicist, or physics student, "acceleration" means any change in speed or direction. (Those who know what I'm talking about, please don't sidetrack the discussion by nitpicking "speed" versus "velocity.")  The force exerted will always accelerate the object in the direction of the force.  If a bullet is flying straight toward Wax, and he Pushes the bullet straight away from himself for a brief instant, he may only slow the bullet down.  This slowing is still "acceleration" because it's a change in speed. (Pushing to the side or at an angle is also acceleration because it changes the bullet's direction.)

Meanwhile, by the third law, the bullet is pushing back on Wax with the same amount of force, and where there's force, there's always acceleration.  Because Wax's mass is much greater than the bullet (feruchemical tricks notwithstanding), he won't be accelerated nearly as much.  He'll still feel a slight backward push, but he won't suddenly accelerate to the speed of the bullet.

If you don't have a friendly physics professor to show you all the math involved--and it does involve some elementary calculus--you could easily simplify these concepts in your head as just saying "it's the allomancer's weight against the object's weight."  That's close to the correct interpretation, but it's not quite right.  Since Brandon tells his story through third-person limited viewpoints, we never really know facts; we only know what the character thinks are the facts.  If a character has a flawed understanding of Newtonian physics, that will show up in their narration.

Oh, boy. So what are we going to call Dalinar when he takes the repaired honor and odium? ☺

Honor + Odium = Judgement.  Note, however, that may not be the same thing as "justice."