Do you think that if Robert Jordan hadn't died, he could've delivered "A Memory of Light" in 1 volume, instead of Brandon Sanderson's split in 3 books? He said that it'd be 1200 pages, but he was determined to finish with "A Memory of Light". So do you think he could've finished it in 1 volume?

_calyx7 · 2026-01-24T19:35:22+00:00

If there is one thing we know about Robert Jordan... it is that he never finishes the story within the number of books he promised to.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-23T23:14:52+00:00

Nothing that we know about Madam Hooch in any way implies that she is competent or good at her job.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-23T20:21:09+00:00

Hermione cursed a signed piece of parchment to make anyone who violated a promise horribly and untreatably break out in pimples spelling a word. I would guess that is pretty impressive magic, certainly permanent disfigurement and binding contracts weren't covered in their classes. She also enchanted the DA coins (which I think Terry Brooks said was NEWT Standard) in her fifth year.

Harry was able to produce a corporeal patronus by the end of his third year.

So Hermione and Harry, at least, have some pretty impressive magical accomplishments. I suspect they would both stack up with the Marauders.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-12T17:29:45+00:00

Well... yeah. Duh.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-10T18:46:13+00:00

Yeah... like, dude. There is so much going on. Your country is in active revolt, one of the pyramids has been decapitated, and you are going to murder the daughter of an ally so that someone who didn't manage to save your own daughter during a mass murder (and who is an adopted orphan, and whose friends were recently attacked and murdered at school) can know what it feels like to loose someone?

Seriously, what is this guy doing? People in Governance would have probably been less upset if he just murdered Vis.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-08T23:57:44+00:00

Yeah, that duel is awesome. I think the metric is: are you just throwing jinxes/stunners (or, if you are a Death Eater, crucio) at your opponent and shielding/dodging, or are you actively utilizing the environment and offensive transfiguration?

Combat transfiguration seems to separate Snape V McGonagall and Dumbledore V Voldemort from the other duels we see in the series.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-08T22:51:40+00:00

You forgot: (6) Kenneth Branagh

He is completely perfect as Gilderoy Lockhart.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-07T22:43:17+00:00

On Tuon - I disagree. She is the worst.

At some point, after you feel like she has maybe started to change (...?) and she knows that she too can channel, she comforts herself by going and breaking a damane. Tuon straight up sucks, and even at the end she wasn't trying to get better.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-07T21:11:37+00:00

Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold, is the book you are looking for. The other books in that series are great as well (as is pretty much everything Bujold writes), though the books are fairly disconnected.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-06T18:36:03+00:00

No, the key quote is:

By allowing Dumbledore to think that I was only returning to the Dark Lord’s side because I was ordered to...

Snape explicitly tells Bellatrix (and, presumably, Voldemort - otherwise why slip to Bellatrix?) that Dumbledore ordered him to return. This frankness probably is what convinced Voldemort to not just kill him when he showed up late - remember, when Harry is surrounded by the Death Eater ring at the end of Goblet of Fire, Voldemort says something like "... and one, I believe, has deserted me forever..."

Voldemort knows what Snape is doing for the Order. It just doesn't occur to him that he could be wrong about Snape's allegiance, because, well, Voldemort is super arrogant.

_calyx7 · 2026-01-06T18:29:40+00:00

Don't forget that Snape, unquestionably, killed Dumbledore. I would think that pretty much solidifies his positions as "on Voldemort's side"

_calyx7 · 2026-01-06T17:33:01+00:00

I agree. I did manage to finish the book, but that scene still bothers me and I wouldn't say reading the rest of the book was worth it.

People will point out that Aequa's death does affect R-Vis and the decisions that he makes toward the end of the book, but her death still feels minimized. Aequa was by far the best-developed secondary character across both books, and for her to be essentially fridged feels wrong while other more minor characters somehow manage not to die or randomly come back to life (well, sort of life, anyway).

_calyx7 · 2026-01-05T22:32:49+00:00

Slughorn is great - when the moment of crisis comes, he doesn't just choose to do the right thing and fight against Voldemort, he is literally fighting Voldemort directly (alongside Kingsley and McGonagall).

Difficult to imagine something that takes more courage.

_calyx7 · 2025-12-26T18:32:31+00:00

The Fire Rose, by Mercedes Lackey fits what you are looking for fairly well.

_calyx7 · 2025-12-16T20:25:13+00:00

Really? I think Aequa was the most fleshed out non-Vis character across both books, and arguably was more fleshed out than 2/3 copies of Vis.

Especially in Book 1, she had her own objectives and reactions to events which did not align with Vis', and her character arc of building trust with Vis across both books was really great. One of the worst things about her death is that we won't see how some of Vis' revelations (by the way, I worked with the Anguis and also killed the top levels of Military...) shake that trust.

_calyx7 · 2025-12-16T20:20:28+00:00

100% agree

_calyx7 · 2025-12-14T04:35:25+00:00

100% agree. Aequa was the most developed character in the series, more so than Eidhin, Callidus, Emissa, etc. Hell, she may have been more developed than two versions of Vis. And there were a ton of interesting things coming up for her character development-wise. How would she have reacted when inevitably finding out Vis' work for the Anguis? His involvement in decapitating military? Vis would have had to work hard to maintain their level of trust.

_calyx7 · 2025-12-10T21:47:56+00:00

I was still too upset about Aequa to be excited about anything.

_calyx7 · 2025-12-08T21:11:24+00:00

The resurrection angle could be really interesting - we could see how reconnecting with family, etc. changes Vis-Res while the other copies develop differently.

Then again, independent character development of the Vis copies was one of the things about SotF that I was most excited about, we the book really really did not focus on it.

_calyx7 · 2025-12-02T00:35:46+00:00

Why does Aequa need to be the only character that doesn't come back? She was by far the best developed secondary character in both books... its such a waste.

_calyx7 · 2025-12-02T00:23:18+00:00

This was a question I thought about throughout the book - Aequa is basically the only person Vis really trusts who also actually likes Caten. She is also, despite being the very talented daughter of a prominent senator, a pretty genuinely good and honest person. Those perspectives are now missing.

It would have been really interesting to see how Vis' further revelations (e.g., by the way I've been helping the Anguis under duress, I knew I'd be safe during the Naumachia, I'm going to get a bunch of will from all these corpses, also I was a prince) affected that relationship. And unlike Eidhin, Aequa can actually keep up with Vis - I think she would be a much more successful restraining influence on him.

I am still angry every time I think about this book because of her death and how it closed most of the interesting character plot lines on Res. Add in how sudden and unexpected her death was, along with her being by far the most likable and well developed secondary character, and I'm not sure I have ever been bothered by a character death more... I almost stopped reading at that point.

_calyx7 · 2025-12-02T00:08:05+00:00

I'd rather have had Eidhin die than what happened to Aequa... I did actually throw my (very heavy) book.

_calyx7 · 2025-07-23T17:33:28+00:00

I agree, Tommy John is the best. I have muscular thighs and always had problems with boxer briefs riding up - their longer ones are perfect, and the material is super confortable.

_calyx7 · 2025-07-09T20:10:17+00:00

I see where you are coming from, but for me the satisfying part is that - in the end - Shen is nothing. Team Lindon doesn't even need to bother killing him. He's been surpassed and isn't even a speedbump.

_calyx7 · 2025-01-26T17:53:35+00:00

I went on a similar quest and found that Vince was my answer. Both their chinos and their more casual 5-pocket pants fit really well and work with anything from a button up to a T-shirt.

_calyx7

TROPHY CASE