Lurker > CoolCly

I'm 40% up on ARKG ETF from a month ago and 8.5% up on ARKK from two weeks ago.

Apparently Cathie Wood is VERY GOOD at actively managing these ARK ETF's. People on reddit rave about her. I think I want to look more into her and her method before putting more in though. I'll probably find some other other ETF's first anyway.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

KamikazePotato posted...

This happened to me in Dragon Age: Origins. I sold basically every item in the game to the same vendor (the one at your base camp, it was convenient!) and apparently the game took offense to that and corrupted my save file. Happened to some others too. Luckily I had a backup save from a few hours back but man did it still suck.

This is completely unrelated but when I was playing Dragon Age: Origins I was deep into some dungeon and I had the Blood Dragon DLC armour that was just given to me for buying the game, and I guess my internet connection flickered and the game lost its connection to Origin.... and decided I was illegally pirating the DLC armour and removed it from Alistair. When I reconnected, it never gave it back. So he was just naked in the dungeon....

I've never been madder at a game dev / DRM

Thanks you can all go back to being mad about cyberpunk now

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

ExThaNemesis posted...

It's still a little new but I loved EVERYTHING about the ending. It did drag on a little too long through the middle parts but I enjoyed the ride most of the way.

Kaladin absolutely STYLING on the Pursuer was f***ing amazing. When he called him Defeated One I almost lost my s***. That was SO pro wrestling and I'm all about it. The way Vyre killed Teft and his spren was heart wrenching, but I could see the writing on the wall about that earlier on because Brandon hammered home just how long Teft had been off the moss and how long he'd been better and everything was too good to be true. Kaladin saying his fourth ideal was just an incredible all around scene. I'm so glad that he's finally been able to get over the death of his little brother and even though he's still got parts that are broken, we finally see a path to getting those mended.

Yeah, that was such great showmanship. It's funny how other characters like Teft always comment about how much Kaladin likes to grand stand but we don't ever really see those kinds of thoughts from Kaladin's point of view. but goddamn, he knows what he's doing.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

He's been really cagey about what Stormlight Era 2 really means though, and says he'll talk a lot more about it after Stormlight 5. He's named the main flashback character for each book for the Era 2 books already which are all characters we have now, but it's still possible Era 2 actually does have a significant time lapse.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I would think it would have to be closer to the Wax and Wayne books to fit them all in that period, but maybe he'll see it as more of a "main series" and want to push it to 200k. I didn't actually realize how low the W&W books until now though! I felt they were lighter tone and scope wise but didn't really recognize the length.

Well of Ascension's weaknesses are probably due to Brandon still being a newly published author so I wouldn't worry too much about repeating that problem.

I'm gonna go ahead and speculate now that Brandon needs something to happen in Mistborn Era 3's finale before Stormlight Era 2 begins which is why he wants to push them all out in a row. He's left himself in a tight spot if that's the case!

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Seems all television / movie stuff is stalled out thanks to COVID

Highlight is probably the audio company Mainframe he made to produce audio originals, including the The Original and audio episodes of Legion since the television show is stalled out. And the collaborations he's doing with other people for things like Skyward side novellas.

It sounds like this is kinda going *backwards* to the days of radio drama, which seems strange, but maybe in todays world of people listening to audiobooks and podcasts throughout the day while driving / working / exercising from their phones, this kind of content could make a comeback. Brandon might be a pioneer here if it works out.

It also sounds like he wants to grow his projects to be successful enough to create his own film company and just produce adaptations of his books himself!

Besides that, it seems the writing schedule for Brandon to take us to the end of 2026 looks something like this:

Skyward 3
Mistborn: Wax and Wayne 4
Skyward 4

Stormlight 5

Mistborn Era 3 - Books One, Two, AND Three

Stormlight 6

With a couple small projects thrown in there as he likes to sneak in.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

State of the Sanderson!

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2020/


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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I'm really into this

it seems like the trailers are trying to imply somebody has put Wanda in here, but my assumption about this premise was always that Wanda created this fake reality in grief over the Vision. Which is harmless if it's just herself and a fake or real Vision.... but not quite so considering the unwilling participants trapped in there with them!

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Now for theory stuff

Talk of Dalinar becoming honor - that does seem like something a man of his caliber is on the path of. But at the same time.... I think that will be just as much of a bad end as Taravangian becoming Odium. Cultivation will be 2/2 for putting extremely powerful tyrants in control of the shards.... Dalinar has a strong sense of honor and morality, but he also is very quick to decide that he knows best and enforcing that view onto others whether they like it or not. We see it in his parenting towards Adolin. We see it in the direct control he keeps exerting over the Stormfather. It doesn't feel like he's trying to direct the Stormfather towards a better way.... he's going to force the Stormfather to go the way he wants. We also see it in some off hand thoughts he has about Fen's Thaylen City being partially governed by influential merchants, the Azish system where the Emperor is more symbol than monarch, and in Jasnah's ideas about reducing the power of the monarchy in Alethkar. He thinks all of this is foolish and that the monarch should take control... and he has thoughts about how he could help them maintain or increase their power. He's restraining from acting on these thoughts... but if there was no singer / Fused / Odium type threat... would he? What would this guy do if he actually became Honor?

Cultivation thinks she put a well meaning intelligent person in control of the shard of Odium... and it's clear she's wrong. I think she'll be wrong about making Dalinar into Honor as well. He'll become a villain... if he manages to avoid becoming Odium's champion to make it that far.

Thaidakar. Seems there's rampant speculation that Kelsier is the head of the Ghostbloods, especially with that Word of Brandon fanning the flames. I think in terms of capability and style... yeah, it kinda does seem like Kelsier. But... the Ghostbloods are at best amoral, at worst deliberate murderers who will harm anybody and everything to achieve their goals. One of Kelsier's best character defining moments was being ashamed of how much he let his hatred of the nobility drive him to monstrous acts. That's not Kelsier on a normal day. Kelsier cares about people, and so I have a hard time imagining him being directly behind these assholes. All in all, it's very possible Kelsier is behind the ghostbloods but I'm not sure that I want him to be.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Ok I finally finished

The Moash/Teft/Kaladin stuff was beautiful

The Navani / Raboniel stuff was beautiful

The Taravangian / Odium stuff was beautiful

The Adolin / Maya stuff was beautiful

The Shallan / Veil stuff was pretty good. Didn't feel the repetition throughout the book benefitted it much though. Will miss Veil a lot.

The Dalinar / Ishar stuff was alright. Definitely did not feel like it belonged in the climax.

Szeth from the outside really doesn't seem like somebody they should be keeping around.... Being inside his head for book five is gonna be a wild ride..

Rlain was kinda weird. The climax is happening and he's just constantly like "yeah i guess I should just lay low and wait a couple hours and see what happens". It's like, dude, Navani is upstairs bleeding out with Moash menacingly approaching with an honorblade and a spren killing anti stormlight dagger right now man come on it's time to do something. I like him a lot though and I feel like there's a lot of potential with him. Sanderson has already revealed that the back five flashback arcs are Lift, Renarin, Ash, Taln, and Jasnah, but I feel like the Heralds are a jebait. Rlain has strong main character potential.

The Venli stuff was meh. I definitely agree with her... she's weak and confused. I don't enjoy reading about her and her progress doesn't really satisfy me. She's now where she should have been at the START of her flashback novel......

The Eshonai final flashback was beautiful.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

ok guys i think i finally get it

https://clips.twitch.tv/DullPlacidPieKappaPride

is this what vtubing is

cause this is good

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I watched a video of Destiny and Adam from Your Movie Sucks discussing movies and Tenet came up. They talked a lot about how it's very difficult to just understand physically what's happening, like who's hitting who, because they didn't visually demonstrate how the mechanics are supposed to work earlier in the movie enough to prepare you for those scenes. They mostly just had exposition explaining it, whereas Inception would demonstrate visually what was happening along with the explanations and have some similar scenes earlier in the movie that made sense to help you wrap your head around it, so you are a lot more easily able to follow what's happening in the climax when shit gets out of control.

Destiny also compared it to backwards day at school. There's always some kid who takes it to far. How far does the reversing go? If someone says "you should run over there" to you, do you interpret that as "You should walk over there". Or is it "I should walk over there." Or is it "I should walk away from there." Or is it "I shouldn't walk away from there". Or Is it "You should walk away from there". Just what does this all apply to? It's not really clear, so when action starts in the movie you don't really understand what this mechanic applies to and it leaves you a step behind trying to interpret everything you see. If you punch this guy does that mean you are punching yourself? Who knows.

All in all, the idea is complex to the point of convolution and ultimately not set up well enough within the movie to support itself.

I thought this was all a very good explanation of this movie that I've never seen or heard anything about. This topic is literally the only thing I've ever read about this movie apart from that conversation. Seems good, I'll probably check it out.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

gravy is a prophet and i come everyday in supplication hoping to hear what small wisdom he is willing to dispense

i will qualify that by saying iv never bought a stock just because he said it was good, i do my own due diligence and make my own judgement calls. i just come here for ideas. his ideas just tend to pass my due diligence and align with my investing strategy.

(lopen says interesting things but we are so unaligned on goals that we are playing completely different games).

The rest of you belong on r/wallstreetbets

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

fuck it im all in on this

RISE (ft. The Glitch Mob, Mako, and The Word Alive)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB8TyLTD7EE

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Part 4 end - Navani

This is the last chapter or two of Navani

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onplsJSdp4A

What is that melody???

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Oh man my recent personal obsession is perfect

K/DA - Pop/Stars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOxkGD8qRB4

K/DA - More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VTkBuxU4yk

K/DA - Villain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoWxv2yZXLQ

K/DA - I'll Show You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW1BpABbzHs

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Chapter 89

Is cooperation with Raboniel possible? With Leshwi? It seems clear that Venli is going to swap sides but is it possible for a singer defection? Or is this all just token manipulation from Raboniel to keep Navani working on her research, and Leshwi's sympathetic attitudes throughout the book just do not extend this far?

Adolins trial is pretty cool. I REALLY hope Shallan does not perform Mraize's plan for Kelek. That would completely destroy any faith spren could ever put into humans again and it's very frustrating that she doesn't even consider it, and it would be a move into straight up villainy for her. The lie she tells herself of just working ghostbloods to gain information on them would no longer be believable.

I'm hoping for a touching moment from Maya or perhaps all of the deadeyes to turn this around for Adolin.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Chapter 85

Really enjoyed the Dabbid chapter. I hope he gets his own spren some day. That might be a fools dream though...

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Chapter 80 -

This Kaladin Wit dream is even better than his chat with Zahel. Design is a wonderful addition to the act, I hope we find ways to include her for future performances.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Also I like Navani genuinely believing she's not a real scholar. Now that's subtly lying to yourself done well.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

On a completely unrelated topic

But where did I come from?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhko3m7D6UA

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

In regards to Shallan - I don't really remember all of the details of the prior books since I haven't reread them, and won't until book 5 is close to coming out, but my recollection was that we resolved a lot the details about her history several times, including finding out about killing her mom.. and dad... and stuff about her brothers, including Heloran being killed by Kaladin. And Wit coming by for a nice visit. I didn't particularly remember if there was more to uncover or not, but the first chapter in RoW where Shallan retreats into her mind at thought of remembering her past basically made me go "oh, so we are we doing this again? I just hope he doesn't dangle this every chapter for the entire book until the climax at the end" and here we are...

I really enjoyed that mystery the first time as we pieced together she was a shard bearer.... and what she did with the shard. And then again several more times. But now this feels like we are repeating the same thing over and over again.

I do like the three personality arrangement that has been going on and honestly, I would be down for that being a permanent part of Shallan and not just something she has to "get over" and be normal again. I loved Legion, after all! But I dislike the way Shallan retreats so heavily at the mere mention of her childhood, when it's a topic we've already spent so much time peering into. It's not like we have no idea what her childhood was like. There may be further holes to fill, maybe an important hole like Formless always existing or Shallan having always been a Ghostblood, but this running away thing feels mostly like we are being teased about a secret we already know most of the answer to, which is pretty tedious when Shallan does it at the literal drop of a hat.


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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

there's very good pieces to it, but unfortunately the whole comes together as less than the sum of its parts. but there's a lot of enjoyment to be found

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Finished Part 3!

I'm actually getting overall frustrated with this book.

Navani manipulating the sibling into revealing the locations of the nodes was so dumb. she didn't have the resources to protect it well, so pushing that secret out into the open just makes it obviously way more likely to be found out. Even if she couldn't anticipate the eavesdropping (which she should have), her knowing makes it more likely someone will find out about it from her. Telling Kaladin, or Dabbid, or her scribes, or anyone, in order to enact defenses, make it far more likely it will be found out. Defenses were never the solution, they are in an enemy held stronghold, the only path was keeping it hidden and the best way to do that is to keep it secret. That such a "smart" character doesn't consider this and just keeps playing her game to force the secret out and then gets burned by it to feel the narrative impact of her failure was, IMO, a pretty weak writing mistake. This didn't happen

I feel like that's becoming a bit too prevalent in this book. Sanderson has something he wants to happen so he spends way to long setting it up just so he can pay it off. But the set up isn't as good as it should be, like being forced with Navani here, or it's simply taking way too long. I don't know how much longer I can take Kaladin repeating the same things over and over every time about the struggle he has to go through when he has to take action, or the denial and withdrawal Shallan goes through every time stuff about her past comes up. she can't reveal her true nature, so tells Veil "no" and she disappears. This was interesting... .but it's getting tiring. How many times does this need to play out before anything is going to be addressed? Honestly, I thought we'd already resolved the secrets of her past coming into RoW, so I was pretty surprised when... we started revisiting it basically every single Shallan chapter, hinting at a climax that will pay off at the end of the book. As I approach part 4, I can only hope that it does pay off and I don't have to spend the fifth book repeating these sequences again.

Hopefully there's some kind of pay off to these flashback chapters.... I don't know why we are seeing so much sibling rivalry and jealousy between Eshonai and Venli. What does this inform us on? I liked Eshonai, but she's already dead. we already knew all about Venli's ugly character flaws, and it's just showing us how this is show she has always been, thoroughly. Why deepen that negative view I already have of Venli - are Rlain and her radiant powers reforming her at the end of the book going to make that worthwhile somehow?

Sanderson is normally so good at setting things up subtly so that they pay off phenomenally in the Sanderlanche but I wonder if the sheer length of these books is causing him to make errors in pacing and repeating things.

I enjoy the game of cat and mouse in the tower in general. I love that Urithiru is such a detailed exploration of the "home base" that is present for so many "good guys" in all kinds of stories. Where does this highly advanced and useful home base even come from and how does it work? Almost all stories just take those kinds of bases for granted but we've spent a lot of time getting to know Urithiru.

Raboniel and Leshwi are entertaining. A lot of Navani's science experiments have been neat, but the thing with the glove pushed it too far. Explaining that thing to Kaladin bored me to ears. The Reckoners has a lot of gadgets like that but that was a little too much of the details. Adolin has been wonderful. I was getting tired of Taravangian, he seemed like such mysterious and interesting character in the Way of Kings, but by Oathbringer I felt like we were just going through the motions of playing him out, we already know exactly what he's doing, and I REALLY felt that way in this book. Dumb Taravangian might manage to bring this back from the edge though, I'm interested in this third interlude.

Also I swear to god, Dalinars offhand thoughts about how he should help Fen rid herselves of those pesky merchants that participate in ruling Thaylan City or how Jasnah would be crazy to weaken the strength of the monarch better not result in a power grab because "he knows best" >_>

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I was gonna get in on MMED, but my broker was down last night and it started skyrocketing this morning before i got my order in, so I backed off. I think getting in before joining the NASDAQ would be good but I think as a general rule I want to avoid buying things that have already started spiking up. I could be getting in on the hype or I could be buying the peak during a pump before the correction and I'm not sure I like that kind of gamble. I've already messed it up a couple times.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Antman's daughter is getting recast, this is going to change everything

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Nakia literally had an arc in the first movie where she could have become the next Black Panther but chose not to, it's strange to me that she never comes up as the obvious replacement.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I love Gorr, but this seems like a strange movie to use him. Isn't Love & Thunder primarily meant to star Natalie Portman, not Chris Hemsworth? Fitting all the pieces for Gorr to be good in one movie already seems a bit tricky.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Chapter 60

Rlain telling Venli how it is going to be is everything I could ever ask for

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Looks like a dip today?

I think i just made an error putting $2500 into some ETF's this morning and suddenly everything's dropping. what bad timing!

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I listened to a lot of Sanderson interviews leading up to the release and he mentioned that people will be disappointed with the flashbacks because they'll be expecting it to be so woven with the present like the others were, especially Dalinars. But the flashbacks are mostly irrelevant to the present, because the present plotline got completely taken over by a character he did not expect. He wouldn't reveal who that character was, feeling like it was a bit of a spoiler the reader should discover on their own.

Obviously, it's Navani fucking Kholin.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Preach it!

I'm on Chapter 47 now

Venli as a teenager was ambitious and wanted to obtain glory by bringing new forms to the tribe. But that dang Eshonai always goes running off and doesn't have to bother memorizing songs like smart diligent Venli. And now her great idea on obtaining warform is overshadowed by her stupid sister discovering humans!!!

This flashback arc isn't exactly on the right track to get me to start liking Venli... it's all of her ugliest characteristics in annoying teenage form....

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I think I did take it seriously because for some reason I didn't think people in the past were intelligent. Like, they were some pathetically sad version of humanity that didnt know how to use their brains well enough to make things like computers or pencils with erasers on them.

I guess they got me good

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

While an ominous thought, I think we've been indicated that's not the plan.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

DD posts for ARKG are coming in on the subreddits i follow

I'm ahead of the curve on this one baby

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Menji posted...

Am I the only one invested in NET? This gets better and better each week.

I'm in NET! got in at $56, I'm up like 42%.

DoorDash seems to me like it would be more valued now than ever. People used home delivery apps a lot more because of coronavirus preventing eating out, yet their sales didnt even explode that much in 2020. In a year when the effects of coronavirus are passing and people go back to eating out, won't sales actually contract for the company? It might hold a bit higher than 2019 due to people being more used to using it, but I have a hard time imagining it grow. So why would the share price be expected to grow in the long term?

Also, market penetration for Door Dash in Canada is low. I use Skip the Dishes the most and use Uber Eats sometimes. I've used Door Dash twice and it was somehow more overpriced and doesn't have much selection. From a personal perspective it was no good 2/10 would not invest

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I love Black Heart by Carly Rae Jepsen

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Do you guys like these "thoughts as we go" posts? I notice there's not really anyone else doing it - it seems people are mostly coming here after finishing the book and avoiding until they do. I enjoy giving my thoughts and hearing what other people have to say about those points, and I think I won't recall most of these details to bring them up when I'm done. I probably won't finish the book for at least a week or two anyways.

It's a bit risky I suppose as it's easy to end up reading the wrong spoiler post from a separate discussion but oh well \_()_/

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Chapter 41!

Invasion of Urithiru

It's very interesting that Kaladin is refraining from jumping into the defense of the tower and being the hero like he normally would. He doesn't have the mental well being to do it. It feels in general like we might be moving towards an end for him where he *truly* is done with fighting, and his new purpose helping the mentally ill is his calling. He's done with the battle. In a vacuum, I think that's a phenomenal character path for Kaladin and love the idea of going down this road with a character like this. In the context of the Stormlight Archive and the events happening, though, I think that would be pretty deeply unsatisfying for our #1 guy to just... stop contributing to the major war effort. I don't think that's what will end up happening.

What I've been thinking will happen is that discovering that some of the mentally ill just cannot be helped and truly DO need to be isolated and kept away from all others for everyone's safety and for their own protection, or that some people that you bring out of the sanitarium WILL end up killing themselves despite best efforts, will be what triggers Kaladin to accept the Fourth Ideal and say the words. I don't think it's ever been revealed in the text, and I've avoided hearing any Word of Brandon or online speculation on the matter, but I've suspected the Fourth Ideal is something along the lines of "you can't save everybody. you have to let some people die and/or suffer." Kaladin's hero complex has always forced him to put the burden of saving everyone onto himself. He's never been able to detach himself enough from the people he's sworn to help enough to accept that he can't help them all like Lirin is able to. Throwing himself into this mental illness crisis is a great way to confront that issue away from the battlefield.

It's also been mentioned (i forget if by the Sibling or Raboniel) that a Radiant of a high Ideal might still be able to use their powers inside the tower. So if he swears the Fourth Ideal, he could possibly have a decisive impact on this invasion.

The problem here though is that the mental illness treatment arc hasn't progressed far enough before this invasion for Kaladin to get to that point. So I'm not sure this is really possible. It sure seems like Navani won't be able to retake the pillar without him, even if she has her own crowning moment of awesome and becomes a Bondsmith with the Sibling. Maybe the invasion will be successful after all?


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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Oh oops can you spoiler text out the quote

True, he didn't kill all 20, by my count he killed 10-11 and injured 3-4 more including the leader, and the rest ran in terror =)

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I'm on chapter 37

Shadesmar Group just arrived at Lasting Integrity

Adolin killing 20 dudes without a shardblade was hype as hell. I like how he went into the situation noting the typical "it's actually not realistic that one guy can kill more than couple guys alone" thing so his goal is only to delay until backup arrives... and then he just kills everyone anyways

Pattern being the spy would be awesome. I suspect the answer is still Formless / another personality and Pattern is just working with that personality, as he sees all aspects of Shallan as his Radiant.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Well I'll keep it to the part you're at

I disagree with your assessment that Venli's stance is one-dimensional. Even early on in her first two chapters I was really impressed by the nuance being shown. Venli is right, the humans and Fused DO both suck. She has little reason to trust any of them! But when her followers point out her plan to fuck off from the war and reform the listeners has some issues, I was immediately impressed she admitted to herself that they were right even if outwardly she didn't know what to do about it. It's less egotism because she is consciously checking it and is aware if her past mistakes, but she is torn because of the very real need for self-preservation while having to rebuild a separatist group and her entire culture from scratch. She is pretty different tonally from everyone else at this point of the story and I can see how that could be grating but I loved it.

It is completely one dimensional. It's not taking any sort of profound "actually humans do bad things in this world" kind of stance, it's just Venli's typical "i know what's best and refuse to reconsider my positions" attitude. It's exactly what she was always like with her scientific pursuits unlocking new forms and pushing the Parshendi along. If she'd slowed down even a second to listen to Eshonai or anyone else's concerns, she might not have literally killed her entire race, including her sister. That's the entire tragic point of her character. After all, she doesn't "just happen" to be the Last Listener because she happened to survive by chance. That's Rlain. She actively created the destruction that happened, and now has to move on with the burden of what she's done. But here she is - still pigheaded in her own egotistical ideas. She admitted to herself her followers were right that she has no plan? Of course they were right - Venli has no idea what she's doing. But STILL she presents this "I know whats best and you have to listen to me and trust what I tell you is right" front to her followers, without deigning to listen to what they have to say. In fact, she even disdains her Singer followers for adopting human traditions like marrying eachother. She's failed to progress AT ALL from the extremely damning character flaws that led her down her previous path. I don't think she has grown. I do not respect her intelligence. I do not root for her to succeed. I think she SHOULD fail in her goals. The only thing she has going for her is that she's undermining her clearly evil bosses in the Fused and Odium, and is on the side of a clearly sympathetic people, which are the regular singers trying to find their place in the world, while being in the opposite faction from all our other "good guys". I think that's a phenomenal place to put an interesting point of view character. But her goal isn't to help them the best way she can. It's just to create the ideal singer lifestyle that *she* envisions, regardless of what they actually want.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Yeah but this should be the part that she's changing into someone that I like!!

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Venli is great. She's very flawed but I think she's interesting and shows a lot of nuance

she's just so insufferable! Especially her views on humans being just a one dimensional "man they suck and we can't trust em!" and the way she talks down to her little cult allies when they at all question her (complete lack of a) plan. After all the damage her hubris caused the Listeners (literal extinction), she still hasn't learned a damn thing. She's still just doing her own egotistical Venli thing. I really wish Eshonai or Rlain or someone else was our singer main.

Will come back to read your spoilers some day.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I'm at the same place in part 2! I'm gonna make my prediction then read your predictions

Beryl may be an agent, but she's not the spy. Formless is the spy. Shallan is the spy.

OK now to read your predictions.. Looks like me and tcaz are in different boats.... but CassandraCain and I are on the same page!! high five!.


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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

I still don't like Venli. I thought after what happened to the Listeners, because of her, there would be a change here....

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

finally, my very first trade to buy AMD for $87 is vindicated

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Oh man, Chapter 10 spoilers

Kaladin has been relieved of duty due to his depression making him too much of a liability. We've been dancing around this the entire series, and it's been especially blatant so far this book, but wow this is a step I didn't think Brandon would take. This is possibly more devastating to Kaladin than actually freezing up and allowing somebody to die on the battlefield, which is what I expected to eventually happen. I'm sure there'll be a rebound arc as he "gets through it" and returns to action in a critical moment but I love this.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

i enjoy chess a lot but im pretty low level. i'll beat my dum dum family members but anybody that knows what words like "pin" or "fork" mean will probably steamroll me. god help me if they know what openings actually are, cause i sure dont.

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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG

Punnyz posted...

also, I don't really like gamer chairs. They're just not comfortable for me. Usually the lowerback part comes forward too much. I usually like to have my whole back against the chair, but this forces you to like, slouch back.

Oh, is this from the lumbar pillow? I remember thinking it was weird at first but it was actually hit spot on my lower back and I think makes you sit in a better position.

That reminds me that I need to figure out how to get a new lumbar pillow.... the pillow accessory wore out and I had to throw it away and they don't sell replacements in Canada even though they do in the US....

Punnyz posted...

The chairs I was looking at were around 100. I can't believe how expensive chairs get, they're even more expensive than the desk I got

This is a trap a lot of people fall into. "hundreds of dollars for a CHAIR?????"

It's not just a chair. It's furniture that you will use for possibly many years, and potentially for many hours each day if you are a PC guy. Just like a couch or a bed, it can significant impact your quality of life each day if you cheap out vs getting something that will be very comfortable and stand the test of time.


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The batman villians all seem to be one big joke that batman refuses to laugh at - SantaRPG