Brandon Sanderson: There's always another secret project.

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HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

elmer fud posted:

That was amazing. I'm still confused about all of the orders. What does he mean I wasn't sure which one you'd be? When he said she was an edge dancer. Does that mean each spren has two orders bound to it?

Loving the preview chapter with a hapless mentor playing the opposite of the usual inscrutable instructor and trying to desperately explain the worlds mechanics to an uninterested superpowered girl. If only she'd listen, we'd learn more!

# ¿ Dec 20, 2013 19:09

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 14:42

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

ShadowGlass posted:

In the prologue there are two guys who talk about "that creature" (assumed Szeth) who "carries my lord's own blade". This could mean that Szeth's blade is not a shardblade, but actually Jezrien's honorblade. (Jezrien was a king, so if the two talking guys were also heralds, it'd fit). Since Jezrien is the herald associated with the Windrunners, it could explain why Szeth has the same abilities as Kaladin. Probably the blade gives him the same abilities as a spren would.

Maybe shard blades are made of Spren, would explain why Syl is so distrubed by them, they are spren being enslaved rather than entering into an agreement

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 21:47

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Read it, loved it, want book 3 ASAP

End of book spoilers

I know Lopen says some of his cousins just call him The Lopen but he calls himself that, somethings up.

I wonder if Shallan "killed" Pattern before when she repressed her memories of what happened to her mother and she had to begin the process again this book.

Looks like Tanavast splintered Honour to fight Odium and Rayse did the same in response or visa versa. Would explain why Odium is still on Roshar, I wonder if its endgame is to get put back together and get off Roshar, might be why Wit was warning Dalinar they are not entirely on the same side.

Taravingian also implied that there were major Odiumspren up to stuff, wonder if they work together or are deliberately independent.

Was wondering if Sadeus was going to end up Odium's Champion, Adolin headed that one off at the past, good on him, Sadeus's prickishness earned a good stabbing.

Bondsmiths apparently were drat rare (3 at most?), makes sense if Dalinar had to bond one of the most powerful Spren to become one. You also totally know at some point in book 9 or 10 Dalinar is going to get the Stormfather to turn into a Shardblade when poo poo gets real.

I liked that the parallels between Dalinar and Kaladin were a big part of the theme of the book and its about Kaladin realising who Elokhar is to Dalinar.

Liked the Jasnah thing, never believed she died and Shallan needed the room to grow.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2014 17:50

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

treeboy posted:

More end of book thoughts

Sadeas murder has me wondering if Adolin will become a Skybreaker. They're good at arguing (the epigraph suggested obstinately so) and based on Nin are far more concerned with justice than doing what's "right" like Windrunners. And his relationship with kaladin seems to fit the somewhat strained relationship they apparently had with the Windrunners

Interesting interactions between the Windrunners and the Skybreakers. Third Ideal of the Windrunners is "I will protect those I hate, so long as it is right", the Ideals seem to become more restrictive as you go along, greater access to power from cleaving closer to the Sprens ethos. Now protecting the weak and what's right would seem like it could come into conflict with justice.

So did Odium defeat the Knights Radiant by forcing their oaths to conflict with other Orders and the Recreance happened rather than fight a war?

# ¿ Mar 9, 2014 22:38

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Khizan posted:

I never got that impression that he swore the Third Ideal. I think that that still counts as the Second Ideal, "I will protect those who cannot protect themselves." Kaladin lost contact with Syl when he broke that oath by deciding to help/let them kill the king. When he realized that protecting the King was the right thing to do and went back to do it without his powers, I think he had a chance to reswear the Second Ideal and renew his broken oath and that "I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right" is just a rewording of it.

I can see both sides on this one, on the one hand, the scenario where he broke the oath and needed to reswear is plausible. On the other hand, the stricter oath he swore and the increased power indicates a deeper bond, which is why I felt Third Ideal.

I'm also not sure he broke the oath, I thought he came close and the Stormfather separated Syl and Kaladin to stop her being "killed" by Kaladin breaking it. He then overcomes the separation by forcing a closer integration with Syl.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2014 01:41

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Lobsterpillar posted:

Being immortal is a pretty good way to go insane, even without the torture. I'm sure the heralds have seen so many things, even forgotten so much, that they're no longer as sane as most mortals.

It makes you wonder how sane Hoid is...

He might be a Feruchemist, Copperminds seem a good way to handle immortality.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2014 21:17

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

NecroMonster posted:

Why would the Heralds, who were given the Honorblades, which are basically piece of Honor be agents of Odium?

My guess is that there is actually something about how the Radiants opperate or get their power that is fundamentally incompatible with the first oath that they all share. Using stormlight is probably somehow destructive, or it's a finite resource.

Re: Recreance

I think we have to think about what Desolations are. What if the Desolations start not when Odium ramps up his spren but when the Heralds go to Roshar. We know that the Knights Radiant weren't founded by the Heralds but occurred spontaneously because spren started copying what Honour did by empowering the Knights Radiant.

We've seen that shards become dominated by their intent. Looks like the fight on Roshar was between Odium and Honour. So whats the Oathpact? It seems crazy sadisitic, between Desolations the Heralds have to chill on hell planet getting tortured by someone, we guess Odium. The heralds mention the Oathpact holds while one of them holds to it.

What if the Oathpact is, no harm comes to Roshar while the Heralds remain on Odiums planet, but the second they tap out, everyone is sent to Roshar and fights until they die. Honouring your oaths while enduring hate.

We might also see a parallel in this with Honour and Cultivation spren being active on the Physical plane empowering the Odium-spren to also act out.

I can see the Knights freaking out if they found out their spren being around causes the Odium-spren to be empowered to mess the world up.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 00:01

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

senae posted:

If atium was the body of ati (ruin) and larasium was the body of laras (preservation) would those both even grow anymore? Wouldn't sazed have his own body?

Atium and Lerasium seem to be some kind of condensed form of the power of Ruin and Preservation which resulted from them being split up into Physical, Cognitive and Spiritual forms.

I don't think they were their body, but the physical form of their power.

It's been implied that to balance his power Sazed would continue to make Atium.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 11:31

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Habibi posted:

Kaladin's oath (which I am still not convinced was the third, but whatever), perhaps it granted him the ability but it wasn't until he really concentrated / hit on the right method that he could do it. It just seems silly to be, "Well Kaladin didn't swear immediately before Lopen absorbed stormlight, so it wasn't a perfect chronological relationship."

Lopen mentions he tries to absorb stormlight once a day, every day, so if Kaladin got to the tier of power that gives him the Squire class feature that day, it lines up.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2014 21:08

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

I think Brandon confirmed Kaladin suffers from a version of Seasonal Affective Disorder. He does mention in the books that he used to get very depressed during the weeping I think and only his brother can cheer him up.

Don't they also mention that spren can only bond to people who are on some level broken or have a bit of their soul missing?

# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 07:22

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

So with regards to the ending of Shadows of the Self
I'm not convinced Bleeder/Lessie is dead. When Wax shoots her with the earing, Harmony could potentially assume direct control, he doesn't appear to, but he might have and then had her feign death. We've never seen a Kandra die on screen before so we don't know if they are forced to shift back or not when they do, but she notably doesn't. Also if he didn't take control we have the huge smoking gun of Wayne's stolen metalminds, if she had them within her she could have caused her body to enter fatal shock, Harmony to have withdrawn as she died and then accessed the metalminds once they thought she was dead, having two spikes in her could be avoided by her creating cysts inside her body with the metal minds suspended inside without touching her

# ¿ Nov 2, 2015 12:06

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Subvisual Haze posted:

Regarding Kelsier he was stabbed to death with a spear by the Lord Ruler. That spear-tip should now be charged with a portion of Kelsier's soul. I would guess that's enough of an anchor for him to rebuild a physical body.

I reckon making a new body might include using Identity hacks to draw in Kelsiers cognitive self. If you got his identity into a spike, then jammed it into the body of a person you might be able to draw in Kelsier. The real question is, was the body Kelsier co-opted Spooks? Though with the timeline of the ecological catastrophe that was destroying the people of red and gold it seems unlikely as Spook was active for one hundred years post the Catasundra and I don't think they would have lasted more than a few months.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2016 22:30

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

First part of the White Sands TPB is available on comixology. Good read, decent (oddly Micheal Turner flavoured) art. Some classic Sanderson elements in play. Poorly understood magic system and plot twists seem to be seeded already.

Looking forward to the rest.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 00:25

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

One of the most heartening things about Brandon Sanderson is while he has weaknesses as a writer, he is markedly improving. He has taken the craftsman approach to being a writer, he writes constantly and critically evaluates himself continuously. He is just going to improve consistently with an attitude like that, in ten years if the current trend continues he is going to be a scary dude.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2016 22:16

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

The oath pact seems to be some kind of ideological argument between Odium and Honor, where between Desolations the Heralds return to Braize to be tortured by Odium until they give up at which point Odium gets a chance to destroy the people of Roshar again, if the Desolation is repelled the torture starts again. Honor is betting his guys won't break and will maintain this cycle, whereas Odium is betting they will give up. We're missing the full details on it but it seems to fit in that rough framework.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 11:01

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Brandon Sanderson has weaknesses. However Brandon Sanderson is also a craftsman, who considers himself a craftsman. He writes because he likes it but he also writes to improve his writing. There is a consistent pattern of improvement in his writing and an acknowledgement of his own weaknesses, then he reflects on them and how he can improve them. If he doesn't burn out he is just going to keep getting better and better as time goes on.

By the end he is going to be one scary guy.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2017 12:17

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Well they mention that you need to be to an extent a damaged person, cracked in the soul to form the Nahel bond. Presumably forming that bond to an extent helps you, maybe just by facilitating change and recovery. Removal of that patch might cause regression or just trauma. It�s probably not a good thing to break that bond just from a personal mental health point of view.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2017 13:01

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Loved the sword forms in Wheel of Time and they were definitely evocative, every time someone used Courtier Taps His Fan, someone got their throat cut.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2018 22:57

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Sab669 posted:

What necessitates Wheel of Time being 4,410,036 words long

You can�t just slam straight into a harem ending dude! You need hundreds of pages of misunderstandings and teasing to build the tension perfectly so the only acceptable ending is one man boinking three women.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2018 16:35

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Decius posted:

Uh, what is happening above the debris field gets explained or at least shown in this book, you should read on if you haven't hit the part yet (which you obviously haven't).

After anyone finishes Skyward its worth taking a look at one of his older short stories �Defending Elysium� on his website.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2018 14:31

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Data Graham posted:

Oh god, I almost forgot about the boob ceremony

That scene has to be in the TV show, it is monumentally important in terms of world building. Also Aes Sedai all being at least bi is critical to depicting the One Power on TV.
The sexposition must flow!

# ¿ Mar 5, 2019 19:23

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Lift is definitely divisive, she seems really tonally divergent from the rest of the Stormlight Archive, to the point of being the wacky animated comic relief sidekick in a particular type of Disney movie. However I think that's kinda the point, she's not Bugs Bunny, she's John McClane.

The conflict in the Stormlight Archive begins between 3 shards, Odium vs Hono(u)r and Cultivation. What seems to matter a lot in these shardic showdowns is foresight, the ability to predict the future. It's why Preservation beats Ruin for example. Brandon has implied or otherwise stated that Honor has poor foresight, Odium has good foresight and Cultivation has great foresight. Thus Odium in some way foresaw how the Oathpact would work out and killed Honor with it and had a major counter to Honors plan to make Odium choose a champion, by preparing Dalinar as his champion. Oathkeeper is basically Odiums final plan to win in Roshar and free himself of the Oathpact (which if you know Legend of the Five Rings is possibly like Togashi's choice of weapon against Fu Leng "My weapons is the people of Roshar, until they are destroyed you cannot win).

So in Oathkeeper everything is going exactly according to keikaku (it means plan) for Odium, bar one thing.
Cultivation is better at foresight than Odium. So while he was prepping Dalinar to become his champion, Cultivation prunes Dalinar to change him in a subtle way so he defies Odium. Then he manifests Honors perpendicularity. At this point Odium goes nuts

quote:

"No!" Odium screamed. He stepped forward. "No, we killed you, WE KILLED YOU"

I always found the phrasing on this weird, Odium could be referring to the "we" as himself and his spren and thus Honor, or he could be referring to "we" as in the original group of 17 who shattered Adonalasium.

In any case his plan goes to poo poo and he ends up retreating and teaming up with Taravangian instead. Incidentally Taravangians plan is derived from a gift from Cultivation so that may not go great for Odium.

So who is the third character significantly altered by Cultivation? Lift. I think Lift is the final fly in the ointment for Odium, what will ultimately finish him off. This has been hinted at with Odiums interactions around Lift being odd, she spies on him when he is in Dalinars visions, IIRC he seems to have trouble noticing her, she can touch spren physically, directly convert food into Stormlight. She seems designed or cultivated into something that can directly gently caress him up in a way the other characters can't. Her being so quirky and atonal may be a consequence of this or just Brandon indicating she's a literal rule breaker so her later significance is foreshadowed.

TLDR: Lift is the Monkey in the Wrench for Odium.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2019 13:13

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Perrin has one really great scene in Midnight IIRC.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2019 13:19

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Perrin�s big awesome moment

When he forge Mj�lnir

# ¿ Apr 30, 2019 14:10

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

In the book Siuan says Mat reminds of her of her uncle who was a gambler and n�er do well who died pulling children out of a burning building. So its probably intentional.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2019 16:22

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Gestational diabetes is a real threat, also their knowledge of Healing had atrophied greatly. I appreciate any bit of weird world building that remind you you arent in the normal world with funny names.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2019 13:43

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

What are the odds they cast a white or African-American actor to play Lan rather than an Asian actor?

# ¿ Aug 15, 2019 01:01

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

She also has a habit of joining a group, immediately gets on board as this new group being the best thing ever and taking all their lessons super seriously. Then the second she leaves the group everything she learned gets ditched and she disdains them from that point on.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2019 19:45

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

That Spren have a tough time leaving Roshar thing seems like the kind of problem you can fix with the Connection haemalurgy hack, might be able to use a similar trick to metabolize the local magic Investiture into Stormlight.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2019 10:32

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Also they are pre-antibiotics and the bacteria on Roshar can infect humans so even minor infected wounds can be dangerous and high winds plus sand can abrade skin.

You also can�t underestimate how bad wind and rain are at killing an exposed human.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2019 14:07

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Sanderson is a pro in a way a lot of other writers aren't. He considers writing his job and so he writes every day even when he isnt feeling inspired. Its a craftsmans approach to writing. So long as he has time to do other stuff occasionally he wont burn out because he has trained himself to work constantly at a steady pace.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2019 13:59

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Also didn�t the Lord Ruler create/alter the Ska to be more fertile, more docile and less intelligent, just as he altered the ruling class to be less fertile? Which is why Kelsier crew are almost all half breeds.

Stuff I imagine Sazed rolled back when he got his abilities, I know he made snapping �easier� and I doubt he�d be cool with a designed underclass.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2020 20:07

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Elsecaller

# ¿ Jun 12, 2020 21:14

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

There is a fair amount of skin colour/hair colour variation on Roshar, it�s just that epicanthic folds are common to everyone but the Shin. You can�t map earth ethnicities one to one on it, which is nice really. Also everyone�s over six foot tall and some people have crystalline growths.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2020 21:34

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

I wonder are the folds common on Roshar because Cultivation adapted the humans to fit in better, there is a theory that they evolved to protect people eyes from grit in wind.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2020 21:37

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

How well does someone with S.A.D. and depression combo with someone who at her best qualifies as arrogant and emotionally distant?

# ¿ Sep 1, 2020 17:39

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Adolins Blade is an Edgedancer Blade IIRC

# ¿ Sep 8, 2020 19:05

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

So was Adonalasium one person that held 16 shards? Or was it one piece of power that they used the 4 Dawnshards to split into 16 pieces.

Does Odium still have access to a Dawnshard? Is that how he is Splintering shards into smaller pieces?

Did Honour have a Dawnshard which was �Unite Them�? Is that part of why Odium is still hanging around, because that Dawnshard could start putting things together again?

# ¿ Nov 8, 2020 03:28

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Oathkeeper and Dawnshard spoilers

"He's going to fall," Renarin whispered. "He's already fallen. He belongs to the enemy now. Dalinar Kholin ... is no more."

...

Nearer to her (Venli), Dalinar Kholin - the man who had resisted - slumped forward, head bowed, holding one hand against his chest and trembling.

Odium stepped back, his appearance that of a parshman with golden carapace. "It is done," he said, looking toward Venli and the gathered group of Fused. "You have a leader."

...

Something stirred inside of Dalinar. A warmth that he had known once before. A warm, calming light.

Unite them.

"I will take responsibility for what I have done," Dalinar whispered.

...

UNITE THEM!

Dalinar thrust his left hand to the side, ... grabbing ... the realm of thought.

He thrust his right hand to the other side, touching ... something that ... was all places in one.

... A young parshwoman, the one that Dalinar had visited in the visions.

"What are you?" she whispered ...

He closed his eyes, breathing out, listening to a sudden stillness. And within it a simple, quiet voice. A woman's voice, so familiar to him.

I forgive you.

Dalinar opened his eyes, and knew what the parshwoman saw in him. Swirling clouds, glowing light, thunder and lightning.

"I am Unity."

He slammed both hands together.

And combined three realms in one.

...

"Honor's Perpendicularity," Syl whispered. "A well of power that pierces all three realms."

...

"No!" Odium screamed. He stepped forward. "No, we killed you. We killed you!"

I keep coming back to that scene, lot of common elements, different words that keep coming up, golden light, unexpected powers. Also Odiums freak out seems much more in proportion to Dalinar pulling some Adonalasium poo poo than just Honour poo poo.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2020 15:20

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 14:42

HidaO-Win: Jun 5, 2013; "And I did it, because I was a man who had exhausted reason and thus turned to magicks"

Just finished RoW

Definitely deliberately hard going in the middle with people struggling with their respective trauma.
A lot of great twists and turns and some uplifting moments in there. Genuinely hope Dabbid issues are indeed repairable brain damage as the Sibling told him, its mean otherwise.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2020 20:55

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Brandon Sanderson: There's always another secret project.

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