Show Posts
826
Brandon Sanderson / Re: How much of the prophecies can we trust?
« on: July 12, 2008, 06:43:27 PM »
I think we can do better than most people here are thinking.
The obvious things are the logbook and Kwaan's bumps, but there are logical things that we can do as well. Remember when Sazed and Tindwyl are reading the modified account, and Tindwyl is worried that the story (as modified by Ruin, but she didn't know that) didn't make sense? Remember that Sazed barely had a chance to read the plate before he copied it. If Ruin's power was anywhere near as complete as some people here seem to think, Ruin could have made it anything he wanted, but instead he did the bare minimum to keep it from alerting anybody about his plan. The logical inconsistencies could have and almost did stop him from being released (by making Sazed suspicious)! Surely he didn't want that. No, I think that Ruin's power was much more limited than we usually credit it with. I don't think he would have tried to change every scrap of information everywhere because it would take too long, would have had little point and much more importantly could have alerted somebody that something odd was happening. He probably focused his efforts on the key players. The changes with respect to the heroes' height are a case in point; he changed Sazed's copy of Kwaans slab, but not the other records that described the hero as being tall.
So: using logical guidelines, what else can we say is true? Is there a Hero of Ages? Was there any truth to Kwaan's religion (and if not, how did he discover Ruin?) What he says on his metal slab implies he had figured out that something was controlling his religion and that releasing the power would release it. How did he know that? And how did the Kandra get their religion which knows about Ruin and Preservation if someone didn't tell them? The truth must have been somewhere. Surely there are hints in the text; logical consistencies or inconsistencies that might take us somewhere.
The obvious things are the logbook and Kwaan's bumps, but there are logical things that we can do as well. Remember when Sazed and Tindwyl are reading the modified account, and Tindwyl is worried that the story (as modified by Ruin, but she didn't know that) didn't make sense? Remember that Sazed barely had a chance to read the plate before he copied it. If Ruin's power was anywhere near as complete as some people here seem to think, Ruin could have made it anything he wanted, but instead he did the bare minimum to keep it from alerting anybody about his plan. The logical inconsistencies could have and almost did stop him from being released (by making Sazed suspicious)! Surely he didn't want that. No, I think that Ruin's power was much more limited than we usually credit it with. I don't think he would have tried to change every scrap of information everywhere because it would take too long, would have had little point and much more importantly could have alerted somebody that something odd was happening. He probably focused his efforts on the key players. The changes with respect to the heroes' height are a case in point; he changed Sazed's copy of Kwaans slab, but not the other records that described the hero as being tall.
So: using logical guidelines, what else can we say is true? Is there a Hero of Ages? Was there any truth to Kwaan's religion (and if not, how did he discover Ruin?) What he says on his metal slab implies he had figured out that something was controlling his religion and that releasing the power would release it. How did he know that? And how did the Kandra get their religion which knows about Ruin and Preservation if someone didn't tell them? The truth must have been somewhere. Surely there are hints in the text; logical consistencies or inconsistencies that might take us somewhere.