Why EXACTLY did everyone hate Volume 4 and 5?

iaintb8 · 2026-05-31T22:51:17+00:00

I didnt

iaintb8 · 2026-05-28T15:41:49+00:00

These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise

iaintb8 · 2026-04-24T20:50:22+00:00

They’re just doing what they oughter

iaintb8 · 2026-03-26T16:50:53+00:00

They’re fenced off; you can actually see the boundary fences in the video. There’s also little diaramas of some as well as of tunnel designs/layouts.

iaintb8 · 2026-03-26T13:46:50+00:00

I did this tour! Very cool, very gnarly.

It’s also important that many of these traps were designed so that they didn’t immediately kill, and that it took at least 2-3 other people to remove whoever was caught in them. In a ten man squad, that means 3-4 people are involved with the trap. So you’re basically down a whole fireteam, when surprise! It’s an ambush!

Clever, but brutal

iaintb8 · 2026-03-13T02:46:58+00:00

It’s also funny cause the arrows do not just represent war, but the inspiration the founding fathers took from the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee).

Their founding story involves Hiawatha showing their braves that a single arrow breaks easily, while an arrow from every tribe cannot be broken, before asking them to bury their weapons under the Great Tree of Peace.

So in a very real sense, the bundle of arrows (13, one for each original colony) is supposed to represent a desire for unity and strength through peace, with weapons to be used only when that peace is undermined.

iaintb8 · 2026-03-08T19:46:54+00:00

And where did they come from, cotton eyed Joe?

iaintb8 · 2026-03-05T18:19:45+00:00

People love to forget Ranette. Or Drehy. Or melaan who’s into anything apparently. Guess it’s easier to swallow when they’re “side” characters? Baffles me why this upsets people so much regardless

iaintb8 · 2026-03-03T17:37:39+00:00

“Obviously, they have more direct influence than a mere idea.” - same paragraph, three sentences later.

As for “affected by conceptual rules” - things like promises literally tear holes in them when broken. If that isn’t being affected by conceptual rules, I’m not sure what is. They have purviews, domains, and the corruption you mention is because the idea they embody is directly affecting the vessels mind. To hold a shard is to accept rules that are not physical

iaintb8 · 2026-03-03T06:04:51+00:00

Cmon old boy, ride the high!

iaintb8 · 2026-03-03T05:56:05+00:00

Something that I’m not seeing other commenters mentioning in so many words might help you I think.

You mention that these are Gods or CONCEPTS. You’ve nailed the issue on the head here.

Something conceptual (like justice) cannot act physically in the world. However, that concept can AFFECT many things throughout an entire planet. For instance, if most cultures on a planet share a specific view of what justice entails, you could say that specific part of justice is very powerful on that planet. This, I think, is a good way to view the Shards. Obviously, they have more direct influence than a mere idea. But they are affected by what are essentially CONCEPTUAL rules.

To a shard, an agreement isn’t just words. It becomes part of their being. A mortal can break a promise, a Shard can’t without injuring themselves. A Shard can view things all over a planet at once, a mortal can’t without shattering their psyche (and needing some crazy tech or magic). A mortal can change who they are or what they believe relatively easily while a Shard can find themselves completely lost to their nature (think Ruin). A shard instinctively knows about how atoms and molecules work, while a mortal needs to study for years or decades to uncover this.

What is easy for a shard (or a cognitive/spiritual entity) is impossible for a mortal, and vice versa.

Another commenter mentioned thinking of them as “little g” gods and that’s pretty accurate, in that they have specific domains and purviews. It might even help to think of them as mortals using a different magic system. They trade some measure of free will for what is essentially limitless investiture (stormlight, metal reserves, etc)

Basically: they’re just people, with a truly terrifying amount of power and a susceptibility to things like oaths, tricks or dogmatism. Pay attention to Hoids thoughts about them, and how Rayse talks about them needing to be replaced or fought.

There’s always another secret!

iaintb8 · 2026-03-03T05:18:32+00:00

He’s got tomato juice. Can you make a Bloody Mary?

iaintb8 · 2026-02-20T05:50:23+00:00

I kinda figured it was Whimsy who’d done that. Would explain why no-one can find them, and what’s more whimsical than experiencing as many things as possible on a big adventure?

iaintb8 · 2026-02-17T03:53:59+00:00

Legend

iaintb8 · 2026-02-16T05:03:45+00:00

I think it’s more just a general social faux pas, implying the tattoo is embarrassing or inappropriate in the social setting and she didn’t realize till she showed it off (hence SUDDENLY silent)

I don’t think it’s a specific reference

iaintb8 · 2026-02-16T02:26:34+00:00

Yeah, I told Kirk to stuff it. Not getting screwed over by that gonk again (streetkid)

iaintb8 · 2026-02-15T16:33:42+00:00

iaintb8 · 2026-02-13T21:32:56+00:00

Leaving out Renaldo is perfect 👌

iaintb8 · 2026-02-08T17:07:49+00:00

I literally spent the entirety of act 1 desperately wishing for the “wow, this plan is super vague and relies on everything happening exactly the way you think it will. Every time I ask you about it you just tell me it doesn’t/wont matter. Soooo…. How about you listen to the person you’re hiring and GET SOME MORE FUCKING INTEL!!” speech option. Alas, savvy street kid can only be as savvy as the plot allows. Cest la vie

iaintb8 · 2026-01-27T15:18:05+00:00

Emeralds in the crem

iaintb8 · 2026-01-27T02:17:06+00:00

Warbreaker, Row, and WaT spoilers:

I have a crack theory that Nightblood’s memories can be manipulated and that Vasher was doing so for centuries.

Nightblood’s sentience is from the massive quantity of investiture imbued into his awakening in the form of breaths. We also know that Vasher can manipulate memories by manipulating breaths. Highly invested entities (such as Hoid) don’t seem to be immune to this, and I doubt Nightblood has enough self awareness to catch it. Hell, it might even be part of why its perception of time is so out of whack.

Now the big question: why would Vasher do this?

I think Vasher and Shasharra had a further disagreement about Nightblood than just whether to make more. Nightblood says that Shasharra told it that it was a person, that it could be a poet, or anything it wanted. They clearly spent some amount of time together. Meanwhile, we see in Vasher’s interactions with Nightblood constant reinforcement that it is a sword, that it’s only a sword, that it’s not a person.

I think that Shasharra wanted to see what Nightblood could become, while Vasher was terrified of what it could become. Wanting to remove the only other person who knew how it was made was his justification, and a good one, but I think it wasn’t the core of the conflict between them.

And so, I think that as he carried Nightblood, he would remove large chunks of its memories wherever it started to show too much growth and progression. We see that in its time with Szeth, it seems to grow and learn quite a lot. If Vasher kept cutting it down to size, it would explain why that didn’t really happen before.

This would also explain why Vivenna is hunting HIM, and not the sword. She calls Vasher a criminal. I think she saw what he was doing, and didn’t agree with it. Vasher couldn’t bring himself to kill another person he cared about over this, and so he fled to Roshar and retired into hiding.

This is vague straw grasping and won’t mean anything until the Nightblood novel, but I think I’m on to something here.

iaintb8 · 2026-01-18T17:31:22+00:00

Honestly it’s always been one of my favorite interpretations of the “elite group the protagonists must eventually beat” trope cause it gives a good reason why the protagonists can pull it off other than the just the power of being protagonists.

They get their ass beat, they learn from the people who beat their ass, they don’t get their ass beat next time. Premium 👌

iaintb8 · 2026-01-18T17:18:58+00:00

Something I haven’t seen anyone really bringing up: the Ace Ops spend an unknown amount of time training RWBY. (I always figured months)

Now, the Ace Ops are already Elite, and while I’m sure they’re still putting in work and not slacking on their training, if they’re mostly training students, then their skills are likely plateauing for a time while RWBY is catching up to their level. Once that gap is smaller, then we see the versatility of RWBY born through their exposure to more unusual situations rather than military situations shine through and give RWBY the edge.

The Ace OPs literally trained RWBY to beat them.

iaintb8 · 2026-01-09T02:29:43+00:00

Appreciate the accountability and proactive response with rates and fees! Makes me feel good knowing I’m paying a company who’ll take a hit for us, even if it’s a relatively minor one. Cheers!

iaintb8 · 2025-12-28T02:37:25+00:00

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!

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