happyman

This is as good a description as any. In the first case, it was the light (silver) ones that didn't have enough contrast, at least in my opinion. The difficulty is that when you get it right for the lighter ones, the darker ones become harder to see, and vice versa. I think the only way to change that would be to make the color schemes for the symbols and the background sufficiently different in some way besides darkness---I don't know the words, but they just seem too similar to each other, right now. Both are currently metallic, so if the darkness level becomes the same, they blend together.

As if it wasn't already murky enough. I suppose the fact that losing breath does something is a vital part of the fact that it comes from Endowment (e.g. breath must have value if it is to really be freely given), but it does make the magic system that much more problematic.

It's entirely possible it's my computer display that's the problem, but I thought I'd mention that the contrast between the shield and the symbols isn't as large as it should be, at least the way I see it here and now.

That the blades are tainted has been tossed around a bit, without coming to much of a conclusion. That Dalinar was feeling it seems to be a new idea, though. It's possible, I suppose, especially if he is becoming more in tune with Honor.

True. This still suggests a certain physical weakness that the Returned do not have. It also suggests that their bodies are affected by aging on a time scale comparable to a normal human. I'm certain they live a long time, and can live even longer if they choose, but they still seem more vulnerable than Returned, or Hoid, or even the Heralds.

I'm not so sure. Didn't Galloden's father die of a heart attack?

I came to Eragon way to late to be hit by that one. I already thought it was cliched and not terribly well written. But I was about 25 when that happened, so I guess it's a different story. I think the story that was the biggest disappointment on re-read was Prince Caspian from Narnia. Too short, too simplistic, and not that engaging. (This doesn't extend to the other books in the series.) In my case, though, there are an enormous number of other books I read as a kid which I wouldn't bee so keen on any more. My dad had an amazing collection of mostly sci-fi, with some fantasy, from the early 60's, some of which I think had been published in the 20's and 30's. A large amount of those were essentially published pulp fiction novels. Many aren't that good on re-reading. Others, like the Lensmen series, seemed terribly cliched, even though they created the cliches. Also, it was a lot more disturbing on re-read. That probably happens a lot, too!

So there you go, SOM1else. My opinion is that that would be the best choice for making an electronic copy of that kind of thing. You can refer back to it when you are editing or looking at or creating other articles on the Wiki. If you feel you want to do it, it could be an enormous resource and help to others. (I, personally, don't have that kind of time.)

I would actually take this a couple of steps further. It would create a world where you would eat your own hated child raw, and hate the taste. And hate yourself for doing it, but keep doing it anyway. I suppose this would lead to self-destruction. Anyway, the more I think about this, the nastier it sounds. Ruin is a picnic by comparison.

I don't know much about the Coppermind Wiki (besides Ruin's edits in the Terris Prophecies, of course), but it seems to me that that would be the best place to put a lot of this. I ask some of the others here: Is it possible to create scratch or personal places in the Wiki where this kind of thing could be stored until it could be unpacked and placed into other articles? Some of this stuff sounds like it could be a useful reference page that would back other articles or the like.

That post was much better. You've got a lot of good ideas. They're just a little bit spread out. I would suggest focusing on the ideas you think are most important, and finding how they relate to others. For instance, the idea that Spren are attracted to attributes in people seems extremely likely---and it's been floated a lot in various places in the forums, but not as a single coherent theory. Just focusing on that, for instance, would let you know which quotes are most relevant. Then you pull in the other ideas as needed to support it. On the whole, though, I like what you're doing, generally agree with it, and I'm glad you're trying to put this Nahel bond stuff together. Good luck.

Yeah, I realize that. It's just really effective, is what I'm saying.

Heh. I mostly agree with this sentiment. My only change would be the last sentence. I would say that on Nalthis, they can endow it on something (or someone) else.

Reasonable speculation for the most part. It would be better with quotes and evidence.

To die? More seriously, Brandon would agree with your criticisms. He said essentially the same thing, after all. And Parlin's purpose really was to die. He should have been better fleshed out in the meantime, though. Oops.

Yep. But since that's all we have, it's what we will end up reading. I'm guessing most fans will still consider it canon, though. It's more than fanon, after all. I mean, many of the most important revealed mysteries in the books Brandon wrote were clearly from RJ's notes. So, gray area?

Oh, I'd have to say that the parallels aren't nonsense. It's a good parallel, actually. I don't know if Brandon referred to the Illiad specifically. I think it's just as likely to refer to historical cases where long sieges result in the wars becoming somewhat stylized.

Being scared and scarred as deeply as Brooke was can effect changes this severe. In a real sense, she really did end as a different person: A combination of whoever Brooke had been (and we didn't really know her that well) and what Nobody was. Whatever else you might say, Nobody was proactive. Deeply disturbed, but she always did something about it. It never worked for Nobody (I doubt anything could), but that aspect of her could theoretically be negated by Brooke's perspective on life. If it had been anything less than full psychic rape by a seriously broken demon, I'd probably be more skeptical. I also suspect she picked up a bit of perspective from her experience. It became a whole lot more personal and ironically, probably less bizarre. It also isn't weirdness that she can't handle any more; it's now part of the world that she understands better than any living humans.

Sure, his books are good. They also scare the living daylights out of me. Spoilers: Seriously, I'm putting in some mild spoilers. Don't let me ruin them for you. Ditto. I mean it. It's not the friggin' monsters/demons/whatever that scare me.

I agree with this. It's also one of the reasons I can't get into comic books---they have nifty premises, and I enjoy the movies in brainless kind of way (and some individual realizations are brilliant), but 30+ years of continuity snarls, and different authors, and enormous amounts of illogical situations, makes it impossible to invest myself emotionally in the characters. By the time I was in a position to actually read them, I was well past the point where they would impress me. I was too old.

Heh. My bad. I'll admit to having just guessed on the spelling. I think Ari is right about the reason his name doesn't stick, though.

Then what? They all take a very small amount of damage, or only one takes the normal amount of damage?

Bit off-topic, don't you think? Also, a loaded question if I've ever heard one.

I like this one. There are related questions. The breath is also related, in the annotations, to the health of the person holding it. For instance, in the annotation, we learn that this is why they often use children to keep the Returned alive; their breaths give the Returned more power through the week. So do breath's decay over time? Or does a single breath decay over time, leaving the rest untouched?

It's entirely possible that all magic systems on Roshar are the result of interactions between the Shard's, in which case pure honor would not need to be involved to access the power. On the other hand, it seems extremely likely that the Knights Radiant were connected with honor in important ways, so I suspect her powers come from some aspect of honor, at least partly.