GroundPetrel

TaravOdium, Nale: Lawful Evil. Both are "mean well in theory, but in practice monsters". Dalinar, Kaladin, Teft (RIP): Lawful Good. Adolin, Lift: Chaotic Good. They are "storm it, I'ma do the stupid dangerous thing to help some nobody" personified. Especially Lift, whose establishing character moment is quite literally doing a tremendously stupid dangerous thing that nearly gets her killed to save some thief's kid who nobody else would so much as give the time of day. Moash/Vyre: Chaotic Evil. Only cares about himself. Szeth: Lawful Neutral Shallan: Neutral Good. Personalities vary a bit but she's less spontaneous "storm it I'ma do the stupid thing" than Adolin and Lift, while less scrupulously honorable in all things than Dalinar and Kaladin. Navani: Probably Neutral Good too. She's a mom. She didn't get to mom her bio daughter, so she's gonna mom the rust out of anyone who needs a mom. Maybe she'll teach them SCIENCE!!!! Mraize: Neutral Evil. I get sociopath vibes from him. I wonder how his boss's mental state is doing, being a Cognitive Shadow skulking around the backwaters of Harmony's place? Is the Ghostbloods being dickholes a sign of that charming fellow starting to lose it? Kalak: Neutral. He's too pathetic to be outright evil but he lacks the gumption to be any major extreme. Venli: Not sure. She's in the middle of a major alignment shift but on the balance I'd put her leaning towards CG. That is a Willshaper thing anyway. Rlain: NG or LG. He's just a good guy trying to do the right thing in the middle of an incredibly complicated apocalypse. Nightblood: NG. Nightblood is basically a kid who wants to be a hero but doesn't quite get what that means. (If BS gives us an arc about Nightblood gaining an internally determined abstract concept of evil and developing a more adult personality I will literally cry while dying of laughter)

Holy crap this is the most brilliant theory I've seen all year.

TBF on Renarin, he has plenty of reasons outside of autism to be "broken"--until Words of Radiance, he has his brother, and his father, and his aunt/stepmom, and that's it. His father and aunt/stepmom treat him with kid gloves and he's smart enough to recognize it; only Adolin is there, unconditionally loving and supportive in a way that even Dalinar, to my view, isn't. Everybody else in Alethi high society treats Renarin as something between a joke and something to pity. Note how easily Sadeas slipped into degrading him before Dalinar threatened to murder Sadeas for the insult (and it would've been murder, even in a duel Dalinar could take Sadeas any day of the week with one hand tied behind his back, and both men clearly know it). Renarin has two living parents who treat him with borderline overprotectiveness until prodded into giving him a chance, and one brother who loves him unconditionally and unreservedly and tries to help Renarin live up to his potential. First thing Adolin does upon winning a Blade in Words of Radiance? Gives it to Renarin. "Here, bro, your turn to be a badass." Dalinar gave him plate but doesn't seem to have ever thought of giving him a blade, because he's instinctively thinking of how to protect Renarin from the world. And that's not bad, but Renarin as somebody with neurological issues needs the kind of support Adolin gives (the kind of support Adolin seems to give everybody, the being there in the moment and doing little things and stuff that's just as important as Dalinar's leadership and Kaladin's forging of community and Shallan's giving people the chance to see themselves as better people and Lift's...actually Lift kinda does the same thing, c.f. giving Nale a hug in the storm and her small kindnesses that come almost instinctually) much more than he needs to be shielded from the world. See, I'm kinda like Renarin. I have Tourette's Syndrome, probably undiagnosed tardive dyskinesia, OCD, ADHD, and possible autism (diagnosed Asperger's but that's probably OCD/ADHD comorbidity though I do have some stimming habits). I spent most of the years between 8th grade and the second or third year after college having violent spasms that are primarily distinguishable from epileptic grand mal seizures in that I remained fully cognizant of my surroundings and able to communicate during them. I still managed to run several half-marathons, do a triathlon and competitive swimming (being submerged in water is extremely effective at suppressing my symptoms for some reason), and made it through college with minimal accommodations. People tend to underestimate people with neurological issues and that can be emotionally harmful; I'm lucky that my parents were more interested in helping me find and push my limits than in protecting me from everything. So. Yeah, Adolin is actually my favorite Stormlight Archive character, in part because of how he supports Renarin, in part because of his fantastic instincts for judging people, and in part because he's a good, supportive person in a less dramatic but no less significant way than those embodied by Dalinar, Shallan, and Kaladin. Kal brings people together. Shallan inspires people to be better. Dalinar gives people an ideal to aspire to. Adolin is there when Kaladin desperately needs someone to believe him, when Shallan needs somebody to want her for Shallan, when Renarin needs someone who believes in him wholly and unreservedly, when Maya needs somebody who will be there for her no matter what because he values her for what she is rather than what she provides or could be. And that's why Adolin is, IMO, almost certainly going to become an Edgedancer through a roundabout route. Edgedancers, per Lift's example, seem to be all about the little guy, small but meaningful emotional support, and being cosmic dorks. Also Lift and Adolin are both super snarky and need to spend more time together.

I actually have liked Shallan more as her mental state has deteriorated. (or maybe, the flimsy sham of order that she imposed on her broken mind has cracked so now she can buckle down and actually take the time to think things through and start to unstorm herself? Is being a spy kind of her therapy maybe?) Her stuff in this book felt like Kaladin in Words of Radiance--ot1h I see what's going on and the recovery is incoming, but otoh, get your rust together, you dumbass! Maybe I'm biased though because I wrote the same basic story arc (character with deep-seated issue that they've flimsily papered over suffers extreme trauma that tears everything open, gets help and therapy, makes real progress on the deeper issue, defeats villain representing their issues) for a Star Trek fanfic I spent a year and a half on, and I've been told that it's over too fast because I had it done in 150 pages rather than 600+. So for me reading BS's take on this kind of mental-health arc is like, "OK, that's what I should've done if I'd had enough to fill things out more", I'm taking notes as I read so that I can do better next time and it's fun to see something that I wanted to see done the way I wanted it to be. If any of that word salad makes sense.

Me either! And that's a big part of why I think he's a perfect fit for an Edgedancer. He was given plenty of chances to abandon her for "something better" (i.e. a living spren) and flatly refused. He's completely loyal to someone that everybody else has effectively written off as either a lost cause or something to be addressed way down the line, simply because he sees value in all people. Also he consistently defends the little guy at personal cost--as early as TWOK he was willing to escalate to drawing Maya when some asshole got aggressive with a prostitute, when he was in Sadeas's warcamp during a delicate political situation, and implicitly missed a meeting with an important officer to make sure she was taken care of. Kaladin blew up his and Dalinar's entire plan to stop Sadeas, which Adolin had minutes before nearly died for, and Adolin's immediate reaction was to lock himself up in protestof the injustice. He was running from a thunderclast in Thaylen City and stopped to run back and grab a kid who he heard crying in the middle of battle even as the thunderclast was specifically targeting him. And he already has some level of heightened bond with Maya, enough so that she can convey thoughts to him and vice versa. Also...Edgedancers are Awesome. Dramatic. Flamboyant. Elegant at their most refined. Catastrophic dorks more often. And, uh, Adolin is a dramatic flamboyant catastrophic dork who is also awesome and an elegant duelist. I can 100% see him taking awesomeness lessons from Lift and enjoying every second of it.

I will read everything Brandon writes. I will beat the everloving crap out of those who do evil. I will make up wild speculations about various things Brandon has written. I will obsessively hunt Worldhoppers through all of Brandon's books. I will kick Odium very, very hard in the groin (or the Shardic equivalent). Failing that, I will face-roll Odium like that Klingon bird-of-prey did to God in Star Trek 5. Failing THAT, I will get a Windrunner and a Dustbringer to Surgebind Odium's face to the ground and then set him on fire. That sounds like enough to me.

Somebody said this upthread, but I seriously think that Prof may have been the Epic who destroyed the school where he worked. One accidental use of his tensor powers could take down a building in seconds. And I THINK that Prof's healing, like Wolverine's, is always active and can revive him from what ought to be fatal injuries. The speed at which it works certainly seems to support that. Have to wait for Word of Brandon on that, though.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Brandon Sanderson! Or as I like to call it, Elysium. I read the Cosmere novels in the following order: Elantris Mistborn trilogy Warbreaker Way of Kings Alloy of Law & short stories that were out before Words of Radiance Words of Radiance. I've also read Rithmatist and Steelheart. From a writing quality POV, the first Mistborn book and IMHO Elantris are the best non-Stormlight books. From a lore POV, just don't read any series out of order, and ALWAYS read Warbreaker before Words of Radiance if you can. As navybrandt said, The Wheel of Time is an excellent series, and Robert Jordan is an excellent author at least as good as Brandon is. It's a mammoth undertaking, but IMHO well worth it; it'll keep you occupied while you're waiting for Stormlight 3. Best, GroundPetrel

Maybe more like ATLA? I love that show to bits, and the format (the animation style, in particular) is really kind of perfect for the Stormlight Archive.

--Yeah, he could pull it off. I still like David Tennant; the things that man can do with his face and voice... --He'd be OK, but I think that Shia LaBeouf or Gordon-Levitt would be better. Although, Gordon-Levitt's probably too clean-cut. --HELL YES. She'd be excellent. And it'd be great payback at those incompetents who made the last Spider-Man movie...

My opinions on this: --Yeah, sure. He could pull it off. Joseph Gordon-Levitt wouldn't be terrible either. --Val Kilmer? Maybe, but I'd prefer David Tennant. Dude's ridiculously expressive. --I hate Jennifer Lawrence. I won't deny her acting skill, but she's been insanely overused and horribly miscast as Mystique, the Hunger Games girl, and pretty much every role I've ever seen her in. Try Zoe Saldana instead. She's good, excellent action actress, has the necessary skills. --Tom Hardy would be good, but I think that Christopher Eccleston could better pull off Abraham's speech patterns and accent. He's pretty physically imposing, too. --Ron Perlman as Cody would be perfect. --HELL YES GIMME GINA TORRES AS TIA. Excellent choice there. --Your choices for Conflux and Nightwielder are excellent. However, I don't think that Hemsworth has the sheer brawn to play Steelheart. In fact, some amount of CIG will most likely be necessary...

Gheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen. Where's my Brain Bleach when I need it? Unfortunately, this makes a great deal of sense and I am stuck with assuming it to be correct until Word of Brandon says otherwise. Now. I seem to be out of Brain Bleach. Maybe I should reread Mistborn...

Calamity seems to be a Shard-level being at the bare minimum. Assuming that Epic villainy as a result of power usage is linked to Calamity's influence (assuming a Shard-like system, do Epics count as Splinters?), sort of like the Steel Inquisitors and Ruin or the Voidbringers and Odium, it would seem that Calamity is at least as powerful as Odium and is in some ways similar to the "typical" wannabe Evil Overlord Epic, with a need to be worshiped and feared. . That's what I can come up with off the top of my head.

Deathpoint's statements suggest that extremely evil Epics, who have been using their powers for a long time, hear Calamity in their head a la Ruin. As for Prof's weakness; I don't know what it is, and I am not willing to speculate on it yet. We know VERY little about Prof, although I suspect that we will learn a LOT more about both him and Megan in book 2.

Powers: Telepathic control over all birds. Ability to transform into a bird or birds of any species at will. Weakness: If I see a bird that is more than 500 miles out of its normal range, my powers are nullified until a minute after it is no longer in view. Cheesy name: Aggravated Aviator. Costume design: Cheesy bird headdress and faux-winged suit. Inevitable evil: I would talk. And talk. And talk. And talk. And kill anybody who wouldn't listen.

Was I the only guy who saw Dwayne Johnson playing Steelheart?

So I reread "Steelheart" today, and I noticed 2 things. 1. In the prologue, David notes that Epics only started showing up a year after Calamity. 2. In the climax, Prof says that he's been an Epic since Calamity arrived. That makes Prof the "oldest" current Epic by a long shot, and a definite outlier. This, I feel, is significant. He's also got Wolverine levels of healing power and he's effectively impossible to contain; given the sheer speed of his regeneration, I believe that it constitutes a Prime Invincibility, and that even Steelheart could not kill Prof (Prof gets his head crushed by Steelheart and is projecting forcefields MAYBE a minute later; at this rate Steelheart could blow him up all he liked, Prof'd just regenerate when Steelheart got tired). Plus, the tensor powers make him impossible to contain, and if he's feeling like it the protective field makes him basically invincible. Prof clearly hates Steelheart intensely, and possibly other extremely powerful Epics. His hatred of Steelheart is even present, and possibly strengthened, when he is using his powers. I don't know why, but this also seems significant. I have no idea what Prof's weakness is, but it appears that Epic weaknesses are linked to something that their former selves cared about or spent a long time around (c.f. Mitosis). Does anyone else have thoughts or ideas about Prof/Jonathan Phaedrus and/or his powers and weakness?

It is certainly possible and even likely, especially from a creepy-nobleman-with-perfectly-obedient-servant POV. Kandra/human reproduction is unlikely for the following reasons. --Kandra do not appear to have biological gender, and do not appear to be able to reproduce sexually. If memory serves, WoB or something from one of the books (Final Empire?) is that mistwraiths reproduce by budding or division. --Even if kandra had biological gender, they are a vastly different species from humans, and have a lot of Investiture in their bodies (Hemalurgic spikes). Just my 2 cents.

Uncertain, but hopeful that this is the same character. Brandon tortures us so...but it is a good pain! Right, back to rereading WoR and waiting for SoD

I'm just a bridgeman. But proud of it. I like to think of myself as something like Skar or maybe Rock.

I think that The Lopen is badass enough on his own. He doesn't need a title. What order do you guys think he is? Edgedancer? Windrunner? Stoneward?

Wayne...and THE Lopen. EPIC BADASSES. As a team... Surgebind Odium's face to the ground (do gods have faces? Maybe have Odium in his Rayse body just for fun) while using a time bubble so he can't counter or dodge, then insult him. I would pay good money to see that.

This. Surgebinding is very deeply rooted in the Cognitive Realm and a bit in the Spiritual; personal perceptions have a lot to do with it. If he's never fully internalized that his arm is gone, he'll grow it back.

Appropriate use of AonDor ought to work for gender reassignment surgery. Feruchemical gold and Stormlight healing might work because of the cognitive aspect. Which makes me wonder; would using appropriate mind-altering magic on a Stormlight user to make them alter their gender perception cause them to accidentally gender-swap when healing? It's a tall order, because gender perception is basically ingrained, but it's hypothetically possible if you can find some really good cognitive-alteration powers.

He's a tier 0 Radiant now, likely a Dustbringer. I'll be honest here, I want to see him set Odium's face on fire.