happyman

I'm pretty certain the meaning is the one you get by taking every other letter and disentangling the two ideas. Diagram!Taragavinian apparently could think at least two thoughts at a time and thought that they would be easy to disentangle after the fact. Considering that that's actually a fairly simple cipher, I'm thinking he was basically right.

Add me to the list of people who actually think that Kaladin saw into Shadesmar, just a little bit, to get access to the Lashing. I think this episode shows us pretty clearly that Windrunners do access Shadesmar a little bit in order to do their lashings. However, it also strongly suggests that the don't have to go very deeply into Shadesmar to do so. My guess is that just peeking into Shadesmar allows them to understand/see/manipulate the cognitive connections between things very slightly, thus allowing them to affect their world in limited ways via the lashings.

Shallan's attitude towards Adolin killing Sadeas will be interesting. Given how she reacted to Jasnah's killing of those men, she's more than a little sensitive (and hypocritical) in that regard.

Does Lift noticing the vandalized artwork in the palace count? It's very much second-hand, but I'm guessing it's the trace of an (already-seen) Herald.

Crysjana, I don't think you appreciate just how hard it is for a naturally shy introvert who has been told he is useless his whole life to try to affect the world around him, no matter what is at stake. His comments to Kaladin when he joins Bridge 4 are the most honest things I think we have heard from him, and I'm guessing that that's partly because he thought Kaladin would be the most likely to listen (and he wasn't wrong, was he?) Revealing himself as a radiant to the others was probably harder on him than the same thing was on Kaladin. He's so scared, Dalinar even notices. And just like you, Dalinar wonders what the problem is; he's never had that kind of problem. The second time I read that scene, my respect for Renarin jumped up a lot.

I've felt that Renarin regrowing his eyes without the need for glasses and Lopen regrowing his arm mean that, at some level, neither of them had really accepted those changes as part of themselves. It also makes Kaladin keeping his brands but not his tattoo even more meaningful.

Because She is an aspect of Cultivation, just like the Stormfather was an aspect of Honor, even before he (Tanavast) was killed? Shards aren't simple in the Cosmere.

Between Szeth and the Everstorm, they are going to be seriously hurting, aren't they?

I'm afraid, though, that the last entry is overshadowing the rest of them, which seem pretty good. As I said, I'm not sure about the Nightwatcher, although if I had to guess, I would say that the Nightwatcher is to Cultivation as the Stormfather is to Honor. With Cultivation still active, though, I'm not entirely certain what that would imply.

Pretty sure this one isn't a Spren at all. It's pretty clearly Hoid/Wit. The rest of the things you list are likely Spren, though, although I'm still not sure on the Nightwatcher.

Shallan is also trained and allied with other Surgebinders. But yes, as far as Darkness is concerned, she's such fair game, it isn't even funny. Catching and keeping her, on the other hand, is a different problem.

I wrote an earlier post answering this, but while writing it, I came up with a much better answer. I think that the betrayal that killed Syl at this point was the betrayal of Syl herself. Don't get me wrong; the bond was weakening because of Kaladin's earlier mistakes. At the moment he killed her, though, he actively and insistently tried to use Syl's powers knowing full well that she didn't want him to do so. That is not honorable, and deep down, he knew he was betraying her very essence by trying. That is what I think happened.

For now, The Letter and The Response will work. I don't think we need to bother changing that until the next book, at the very least. Also, the fact that the Dragon also doesn't like Rayse is pretty telling, don't you think? It's not just Hoid/Wit who thinks he's dangerous. It's just that they have a different attitude toward what can be done.

Not easy, just easier. They will be traveling somewhat slower before they hit. Time to do something, like pull yourself a long ways out of the way.

I actually think that how you get the magic is the element of each magic system most closely bound to the Shard which fuels it. With Allomancy, you have to deliberately Preserve yourself. Then you might become an Allomancer if everything else is lined up. With Hemalurgy, you have to deliberately Ruin somebody else. This is apparently cosmere wide. With Feruchemy, you have to Ruin yourself in order to later Preserve yourself. No reason for a life-changing event on this one. With Awakening, the power to perform magic must be Endowed on you from the outside. That's why giving breath must be (at some level) voluntary act from giver to receiver (baring Hemalurgy, of course). It's been speculated that to use any of the magic systems we have seen on Sel, you need to be Devoted to a Dominion. It certainly fits very well with the (scant) evidence we've had so far. Certainly, most of the Elantrians we saw had devoted their life to something. Shai had as well, although in a different way. On Roshar, you get magic based on what you do. Act with honor, and Honor will aid you, kind of thing. Probably there are related ideas, like "Cultivate you talents, and Cultivation will help you grow." Shallan might have some of that going on. So that's how I see it. Snapping is important, but I doubt it is universal. It comes from Preservation's nature.

Sounds like it would make a very impressive form of armor. Not perfect, of course, but it would make one-on-one combat very difficult, and bullets much easier to dodge.

I think junior has it right. Although there is definitely something very changing about the power, I think at least some significant part of the motivation behind Epics comes from the human. We all have those dark urges, and being Epic definitely gives them a chance to be free without consequence. I don't think that's the whole story, though. Even by that standard, Epics are callous. There are some humans who at least try not to hurt animals in their day-to-day life, despite having (for all practical purposes) life and death control over them.

I've become more and more certain that the allomantic force doesn't actually work on center of mass. Like others here, I believe that it generally pulls on metals, and pulls most cleanly on metals that are one object, but that with practice, you can successfully learn how to push or pull one side of an object. This would allow the torque to be exerted. The center of mass comes from a mechanism like Gagylpus references: pulling on the entire object with the same force tends to produce something very close to center-of-mass behavior.

It's entirely possible he doesn't need to breath at all. That sounds like a useful secondary power for somebody who is intangible. After all, that would be the least of the impossibilities of his power set.

That would also make conflict tricky to do well. No, you would have to give both really serious motivations and misunderstandings to get it to really work. Of course, I can imagine such scenarios. I'm just saying that it's one of the more difficult conflicts to write.

Part of the reason that'd be tricky is because you'd have to find a good and deep reason for them not to form an alliance. That's how Raoden worked, after all. If he liked what he saw he'd recruit.

Yeah, but which color goes with which emotion? You get what you wish for...

I strongly guess that to harm Steelheart, it has to be (1) a deliberate attack, like when David's father accidentally hit Steelheart, and it has to be (2) triggered by somebody who does not fear Steelheart. Steelheart intended to kill David. That was his intent. He wanted somebody to die. David set it up so that it would kill Steelheart, too, but it was definitely a fatal intent which resulted in the trap being triggered. In short, I think Steelheart was weak to somebody who didn't fear him who was also actively trying to kill (but not necessarily him).

Actually, David asks her this when he finally realizes that she is Firefight. She says she doesn't know. I'm guessing it had something to do with her humanity returning, though. Probably left her seriously confused.