AquaRegia

@legolasgalactica that's an interesting question, and its ramifications frighten me a little. We've certainly seen evidence that spren sort of work this way, and Syl and others explicitly agree - the more people view a cognitive entity a certain way, the more they BECOME that way. We may see the same with the Heralds: Nale, Taln, and Ishar have almost become caricatures rather than people - the weight of centuries of worship as ideals? Ash seems to be waging a war against people's perceptions of her. So there is some sense of perception affecting them, but I'm not sure about adding to their power. Vasher, as Zahel, may have the best insight into how Cognitive Shadows are affected by perception over time. I recall he describes how the Intent of the Investiture slowly takes over... does he say anything about the perceptions of people having an effect?

I have experienced a fountain pen "feature" that you all probably know about already: ink feed problems after several weeks of nonuse. I left for vacation at the end of June and returned today (19 July), so my pen sat untouched for about 3 weeks. I find ink flows while the nib is moving in some directions, but not others; I can draw a perfect series of half circles, instead of a continuous spring coil. I don't want to waste half a bottle of ink drawing scribbles, waiting for it to clear up... should I soak the nib in water? Alcohol? Do I need to worry about diluting the ink that's already in the pen? Or is a more aggressive remedy indicated?

I love Moash as a character. All the best villains in fiction have believable backstories and motivations... the "bad guys" are always the "heroes" in their own stories, e.g., Taravangian, Raboniel, and coming soon, Jasnah and/or Hoid! Were we not all on the same page with Moash at the beginning, when he was filled with rage at the injustice of Lighteyes rule? Did the Lighteyes, in fact, deserve to wield the power of literal life and death over the Darkeyes just because? Was Elhokar, in fact, deserving of his position and worthy of the loyalty of good people during WoK and WoR? That was such a realistic crisis of conscience for both Kaladin and Moash, and neither of them can claim to have resolved it without fault. Every decision Moash has made has been, to me, a rational one, based on his previous experiences and emotional states. And he has not blindly maintained the same position in the face of changing evidence; now that he "knows" ALL of humanity is fatally flawed and doomed, he's doing the best he can. Yes, I hate the things he has done, but I love the ride he's taking us on, and I can't wait to see where we go next! That said, I expect him to die with, at best, very minor redemption.

As my pfp implies, I'm a reasonably competent guitar player... if one allows "reasonably competent" to include folk and classic rock. ;-) I've been in bands that have performed on actual stages for actual paying audiences, although I'm not currently playing out. My last band imploded because - well, it's an all-ages-friendly site, so let's just say for a very rock-n-roll reason. I can enjoy listening to almost any genre of music, but jazz and classical are not my thing when it comes to playing. Kudos to those of you who do them! I think everybody should be able to make some kind of music.

I've been having essentially the same issue, including the double posts.

I had a feeling that this might pose some problems. Is there anything I can do to help find solutions?

I, for one, would LOVE a stuffed Soonie Pup.

Starting in January, I'm going to be getting Brando swag boxes in the mail, containing nobody-really-knows-yet-what. It occurs to me that I may not want every item, while others might want them very badly. Nobody I know IRL is a Sanderfan, so this is the obvious place to look for enthusiastic trading partners... is there an established protocol for Sharders to sell things to each other? I do not want to do anything against forum rules or community standards, but if get a t-shirt I know I will never wear, I'd love a fellow 17th Shard member to be able to have it. Let's discuss the ins and outs of how that might be handled.

Sounds like this party is going to be amazing and I wish I could attend LOL Be sure to post some pics afterward!

As I've said in other topics (here and here), romantic relationships between mortals and immortals are loaded with both emotional and ethical issues; exploration of this theme is at least as old as Greek mythology (where, if I recall, it NEVER ends well for the mortal). I'm reminded of Heinlein's Time Enough for Love - his best work, IMO - in which Lazarus Long and his near-immortal kin refer to the rest of us as "mayflies" with whom serious relationships are strongly discouraged. An immortal can be "friends" with a mayfly in the same way we are friends with dogs or cats... but romance is unwise and ultimately unfair to both parties. My guess is that, while Hoid and Jasnah may indeed both be sincere in their appreciation and affection for each other, their different agendas and worldviews (and possibly the knowledge of their differing lifetimes) will ultimately result in this fling being a short one. Brandon may just be laying the groundwork for a deliciously acrimonious and adversarial relationship between two powerful people who used to love one another, e.g. Obi-Wan and Anakin. My speculation is that this ship, while fun now, is heading towards an ugly breakup, followed by an EPIC "evil ex" dynamic - two powerful, resourceful, and dangerous people who still care about other but are now bitter enemies, working at cross purposes. Nothing would get Jasnah fired up more than Hoid betraying her trust and throwing all of Roshar under the bus... and he's already said he'd do exactly that.

While I agree with @Ixthos that the True Scotsman fallacy is a little trickier to apply to a group like "Christians", it is not invalid. One can make that same nebulous "membership" arguments about Scots: is a Scot living in London still a True Scotsman™? How about if one parent was English? How about someone who moved to Scotland as a wee baby, or someone born to Scottish parents in America? The concept of group membership is ALWAYS fuzzy. If someone says "I'm a Christian", and they attend a Christian church, well, that's enough for me to operate under the premise that they are, in fact, Christian. If I observe them violating the precepts of Christianity, I don't say "oh, they're not REALLY a Christian," I say "oh, they're one of THOSE kinds of Christians." This, to me, invokes a different logical fallacy - the appeal to authority. Not only that, it's an authority that some of us don't recognize. Similar to "How do you know that the Bible is the Word of God?" "It says so in the Bible." These kinds of spiritual or theological questions are simply beyond logic, and we are each left with the challenge to do the best we can with our imperfect knowledge.

Here is my review of Waterman Mysterious Blue: I like it, but it's not perfect. It's not as green as I'd like, and it seems to "age" in the pen and become darker and purpler with time. Here's some photos contrasting Waterman Serenity Blue (above) and Mysterious Blue (below). The Mysterious is a deep teal blue when freshly refilled, but within days it writes a noticeably different color. On the bright side, it is MUCH more smudge-resistant than the Serenity.

I agree. Further discussion is unlikely to change anyone's minds. No point in alienating fellow Sanderson nerds. Peace! One point: Seamus O'Toole is NOT a Scotsman; THAT guy's definitely Irish. The fellow you want is Angus MacTavish. ;-)

Some ideas occur to me. I find that I make a fairly explicit distinction in real life between a person's beliefs and their actions. Bottom line, I can't know your mind or heart - what you believe (your faith or whatnot) is irrelevant to me. That's between you and your higher power. I'm only interested in your behavior, i.e., how you treat me and your other fellow creatures. So what exactly do we mean when we say "a follower" of x? Someone who claims to believe in x, or someone whose actions demonstrate adherence to x? They are emphatically not the same thing. I'm not a Christian, but I can read and understand the Bible. If the Bible says "The foreigners residing among you must be treated as native-born," and I see Christians supporting anti-immigrant policies, I see a problem. If Jesus says "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God," and I see TV preachers buying Cadillacs and private jets while asking for more money, I see a problem. The No True Scotsman fallacy applies very well here, I think.

I do not know if it will happen but I LOVE IT. If it does happen, your brother wins a FutureSight Award!

The other feruchemist would be Gereh: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Gereh @Isilel well said. I agree with all your thoughts and opinions, most especially the observation that As someone pointed out earlier, Honor is the Shard of Oaths, not the Shard of Always Telling the Truth.

The biggest surprise (I'm tempted to say "disappointment") for me in the prologue was the utter lack of evidence that Gavilar was Invested when he died. I was willing to bet ALL my emerald broams that he was destined for Cognitive Shadowhood. While I'm not yet ready to completely give up on my dream of Gavilar making a spectacular comeback in SA5, I am bummed that we didn't see at least some hints at the beginning of that process. RoW seemed to imply that Gavilar 1) thought he had already done what he needed to do to be "immortal"; 2) knew he was working with Heralds; 3) had knowledge of Shadesmar, Braize, other planets, and Worldhoppers; 4) had access to multiple forms of Investiture; 5) might even hold Biochromatic Breath (some speculated about Lifesense when he noticed Navani peeking through the door); 6) had at least a proto-bond with the Stormfather. Every one of these is either explicitly UNsupported by the prologue or completely demolished. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that what I thought was tons of foreshadowing for Gavilar's return may instead have been a giant pile of red herring. I don't even LIKE fish! I spent the last six months believing Gavilar was a dangerous storming genius... and now he looks like a putz. I'm a bit sad.

There was never ANYTHING in the safe. It was always a visual metaphor - young Shallan visualizing the "fruit of her sin" or whatever. Nobody else ever saw it. I'm still not happy with the "Shallan's mother was a Herald" thing, despite the increasing preponderance of evidence supporting it... but I'm at least open to the possibility now. I agree with @king of nowhere above - it doesn't seem to add much to Shallan's arc and strains credibility. If it does turn out to be a thing, I hope we get more details that make it make more sense. I'm also not convinced of the "StormFaker" idea (although I LOVE the term "StormFaker"!). I have no problem believing that the Stormfather would behave differently with Gavilar than with Dalinar. I also have no trouble with the concept that a Godspren could be changed by interaction with Gavilar and other possible candidates before Dalinar. The Stormfather admits on multiple occasions that his Bond with Dalinar is changing him. I strongly dispute that he "lies" to Gavilar in the prologue; show me ONE instance of a direct lie onscreen. Allowing someone to believe an erroneous conclusion they have jumped to is not "lying", and he does this to Dalinar as well. While it's POSSIBLE that someone has piggybacked their own message onto Gavilar's communication with the Stormfather (I like Cultivation best as a suspect), I don't think it's necessarily a slam dunk.

I'm suddenly really craving ramen right now. I also did not get the impression that being a coat rack was voluntary, although - being Hoid - he passes it off as if it's all part of his plan.

"The Warden" has a name. I find it interesting, in your discussion of Liyun's character, that nobody chose to refer to her by her name. Yes, we're obviously supposed to dislike her that this point in the story... but let's not depersonalize her! We know very little about this world and this culture. My guess (hope) is that as the novel progresses, Liyun's motivations will become more clear. We may gain a more sympathetic (or at least more balanced) view of her, or she may go through some changes herself later in the story. Brandon seldom makes any of his characters completely one-dimensional. Yumi's situation definitely reminds me of the Returned in Warbreaker. Honored and pampered? Sure. Prisoners? Definitely.

Chapter 2 Not sure... but "Revels" would make more sense. Chapter 3 Should be "jars" plural, I'm guessing. Callous is an adjective; the noun is "calluses". "dispersed" Chapter 5 It's "cosine". Chapter 5 and 7 Could be an intentional "alternate" spelling, but "wisp" is standard. Chapter 7

Do you mean the Midnight Mother? Or the Nightwatcher? What does that mean? I very much doubt it. ;-)

I can empirically confirm that @cometaryorbit and @Serack are correct about reflected light being polychromatic. I work in the dyehouse lab of a fabric mill; one of our jobs is to make sure the color of dyed fabrics matches a standard. Color perception is a ridiculously confusing combination of three individually complicated factors: the light source, always polychromatic (we use at least 4 different "standard" light sources, none of which is the same as natural daylight or direct sunlight); the infinitely complex absorption curve of the object; and the way our eyes and brains work (three different pigments, each with its own unique absorption curve, sending signals to our squishy brains to be coded somehow into one perceived "color"). For one specific example of the nightmare that is color matching, check out this article on metamerism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamerism_(color)

One in a long line, I fear, of illustrations done by an artist who has not read the work. (To be fair, if you're a professional artist, you may have neither the time nor the inclination to read all the books you do art for.) Adolin was my first guess as well, based on how pretty he is... but that sure doesn't look like the "tiny, distant sun" of Shadesmar to me.

I always have a problem with the whole "favorite" question. There are too many different ways I can appreciate a character. The one I think is most compelling and realistic? Wax. The one I enjoy reading about the most? Steris. The one I most aspire to be like? Wayne. The one I find most personally relatable? Marasi. One big reason Mistborn e2 remains my favorite SanderSeries is how much I love all the characters.