Timewaster's Guide Archive

Don't the Parshendi jump all the distances?  If that's the case, I bet there aren't any 20 foot chasms. 

I'm pretty certain that Elantrians are looking for Hoid.  Whether one of them is Galladon or not (and I'm betting that he is), there had to have been a reason for Brandon to put this into an interlude.  The whole section offers very little except to show that people are looking for Hoid (which is made obvious by an epigraph elsewhere)... unless this section is added just so that we can do what we're doing now: speculating. 

The narration draws attention to the line that the fisherman overhears, the one with the Dula language in it.  I think Brandon wants us to wonder if they're from Elantris or not, and he probably has it all in there specifically for his hardcore fans.

Considering that there are already mentions of shards visiting Sel and creating disaster, another Elantris mix doesn't seem too ridiculous.  Especially considering that Brandon's made it very clear that all his epic fantasy fiction goes into one single universe. 

I do seem to recall someone asking if other characters from other worlds will show up again in tWoK, and I think the answer may have been "no," except Hoid.  Not sure about that.  Anybody know what I'm thinking of?

Hopping arOund Inter-Dimensionally.

Yes, it's a perfect acronym.

Okay, you're right, it's not just like Allomancy, or some knock-off of it in any way.  I think what I was trying to describe was my dissapointment in it being just another martial magic system--one seemingly designed to just make for cool fights.  (You can make up examples of how Lashing can be used for other things, I'm sure, but it does seem to be focused a lot around how it can be used in battle.) 

Allomancy was a martial artist's magic system, and made for intriguing and beautiful battles.  I guess I just didn't want the New Magic System (which I've only seen a little of, and is only one of 109234912 magic systems in the series) to be another "fighting" magic, because Sanderson's already written the most compelling "fighting" magic.  We don't have to reinvent Jedis every two seconds.

Again, I've just read the prologue, and I won't say I know exactly how Lashing works and is gonna play out in the narrative; it'll probably be fine.  I just know I wasn't as excited about it, when I first came upon it, as I thought I'd be. 

But when Kelsier first burnt tin in Final Empire, I was like "Woah, this sounds like an awesome magic system."  This time, I was like "Okay, so his magic makes him beat up lots of guys like a Jedi."  Szeth lands in the middle of a ring of armed soldiers sworn to die to defend their king, and he kills all of them without any of them landing a blow with a spear?  Does the arm holding his sword swivel 360 degrees around his body in less then a second, or did half the ring decide to wait their turn before they stuck Szeth in the gut?  That's really nit-picky of me, and I love me a dramatic "one awesome guy kills lots of extras in battle" scene, but it shows that this is all about making certain people seem really cool in battle, a lot like Jedis with lightsabers, at the expense of a little realism. 

I mean, I have to admit, I kinda like that.  But I just hoped that the first magic we'd be seeing would have a little more depth to it than "Use this to kill guys."  At the same time, there are traces of a lot of other interesting magical elements in the world, like the Shardswords and the mysterious nature of the Stormlight, that I did very much like.  Also, maybe Lashing only seems like too much of a martial magic to me because the entire prologue followed the steps of an assassin.

Maybe nobody else felt the way I did, and maybe it's very clear for everybody else how Lashing is nothing like Allomancy.  I just wasn't scrambling to sign my name onto the subscriber list for the Official Lashing Newsletter, and I kinda wanted to be. 

So there's supposedly a super evil shard in WoK, and I remember reading once (I think) that the shards all kind of oppose each other, like Ruin/Preservation.  (Confirmation on that note?)

After reading Brandon's summary of WoK's back story, and how the Voidbringers are trying to pull men into Damnation, I'm wondering if Damnation is the name of the super evil shard in WoK (since it's all capitalized and all).  It seems to fit the mold for shards (Ruin, Preservation, Endowment, Damnation), and I can totally see there being an opposing shard called Salvation. 

Thoughts?

Also, if that dual shard theory is legit, what would be the shard opposing Endowment? 

Honestly, I've felt a lot of the same things--namely, that the Jacob/Man-in-black conflict is very much a Ruin/Preservation conflict, where Gods are at work, using people as chess pieces, and nobody knows that's what's going on until near the end.

I don't think it's any kind of stretch to say the conflict this season is a lot like that of Well of Ascension and Hero of Ages, where the concept of being a "candidate" or the "Hero of Ages" comes into question.  Is the Hero of Ages concept a big con made to just serve some God's end?  Are forces greater than us manipulating our decisions? 

It'd be a huge feather in Sanderson's cap if he could get Cuse and Lindelof to admit some sort of inspiration from the Mistborn series, but I've got a feeling that all three of 'em just happen to be playing with the same Man vs. Gods meta-story.  Good stories both, though, for sure.

No, but there's always another secret...

Yeah, well, I am six foot seven and 240 pounds.

Edit:  Sorry, thought we were fighting over biggest fan.  My bad.