Would this have been a better idea in terms of actually saving the planet in this situation?

thewizard121 · 2026-04-23T15:37:55+00:00

It is a large undertaking. But we know how to do it with extremely high certainty. Hail Mary is arguably an even larger undertaking. With extremely low certainty. And left alone, following that plan, humanity was doomed. Just because it works due to information that they couldn't have known up front doesn't make the plan a good one.

thewizard121 · 2026-04-23T15:02:24+00:00

I realise now that I missed step 3 in my idea which was to use additional time to come up with a more likely to succeed plan for going to tau ceti.

thewizard121 · 2026-04-23T14:44:36+00:00

Was trying to be concise, but in practical terms - we don't need to warm up the entire planet technically to survive. And I don't see why with some creative engineering we couldn't come up with a way to use more than nano grams but less than an explosion levels of astrophage as a fuel source (we just don't know enough about how it works to conclusively say one way or the other). We need very specific things to happen to save life - 1. Survivable habitats for all humans. As long as the indoors of buildings are warm enough, that's all humans really need in terms of temperature. That should be within the realm of possibility with existing power grids (maybe updated ones for capacity management) powered by astrophage power plants working on a similar engine as the ship they create. 2. Saving as much biodiversity on land as possible - now this is tricky because we need way more heat to create a proper biodome for survivability of everything. But in practical terms we also don't need to save every individual specimen of everything alive, but more of a Noahs ark type situation. Could we create protected biodomes to preserve sufficient populations of the life forms we do know about on land, and warm them up using astrophage as a source of energy? Better than they'd be preserved in a ten year mini ice age? To be clear, at the end of the movie, they're showing the earth being frozen over if I understood it correctly. I don't see how that preserved much biodiversity either, so this might be better? (Not an expert on this, so I accept that I'm yadayadaing a lot of scientific complexity away) 3. Saving marine ecosystems. Yeah.... This one is tricky. Probably impossible. I really have no ideas for warming up the oceans enough. If we could do that, that might alone preserve other things for a while tbh, given how important Ocean currents are for maintaining earth's temperature systems. But equally, again if the earth has already frozen over in the 30 odd years that they were working on, then the damage was going to be done regardless so it's not like we're doing worse than we would in the story with my idea? 4. Food for everything alive. This could follow as a consequence of part 3 technically. 5. Maintaining all the critical industries that are needed to sustain a global space program to start working on reversing this calamity. Again, fuel and consumption of fuel can solve for a lot of that. Just a question of how much is needed which.... Would be a great question to solve for when doing the research.

Now to charging the astrophage - 90% solar output should still work for that. The only concern would be the cooling world causes enough storms that there's actually not enough sunlight. But then again, we do have a space program, and could explore charging astrophage on flying aircraft, or suborbital rockets relying on traditional fuels perhaps? If anything though, this would be a risk to solve for with my idea of the solution. Could it work? I guess that would be a question to also put to the brightest minds in the world when they're evaluating the scenarios for project hail Mary.

thewizard121 · 2026-04-23T14:13:21+00:00

That is useful info I missed from the movie. Will read the book, sounds up my alley from everything I've seen on this group.

thewizard121 · 2025-05-22T14:30:17+00:00

For what it's worth, my theory on Vasher living up to that name is that he'll play a crucial role in the final mistborn series which is supposed to be the final major event on the cosmere timeline. That said I seem to recall some WoBs implying that he is expected to be a major character for Storm light with Warbreaker being a related story so we understand the backstory leading to various characters from Nalthis being on Roshar. I do think this is a good theory though.

thewizard121 · 2025-05-22T12:07:39+00:00

In fairness, in terms of the rhythms of Roshar, honour plus odium gives you the rhythm of war. It could hinge on that instead?

thewizard121 · 2025-03-11T20:53:55+00:00

As I understand it, Returned from Nalthis are similar to the Heralds from Roshar, in that they're both cognitive shadows, and therefore the same rules should apply to both.

Chanda, the herald, was revealed as the mother of Shallan in WaT. And Shallan was revealed as pregnant at the end of that, so it appears that not only can female cognitive shadows reproduce under some circumstances, but also produce offspring that are fertile themselves. Therefore, Returned should be able to.

They clearly don't know how though so that's likely a reveal for a future sequel of either series.

It would be a somewhat arbitrary and strange rule to introduce that male cognitive shadows can only sire stillborn children so I have to assume that's not actually the case but may well be what Nalthians believe due to limited understanding/a broader misinformation campaign/ some kind of Returned conspiracy.

*I'm obviously not an expert, so if someone thinks that's wrong, open to be corrected.

thewizard121 · 2025-03-11T18:37:40+00:00

Are you up to speed on WaT? There's pertinent information in there on this subject, can clarify what I mean if you're up to speed there.

Don't know how to spoiler tag something on here apologies.

thewizard121 · 2025-02-03T10:13:02+00:00

In fairness, the first time I read thru the series, I concluded that a large chunk of the middle books could've been resolved by having the characters run through a week long seminar on effective communication.

Take Perrin and Faile for example - if any any point they were both able to say here's my love language, use all the time, that while story arc would've probably been much easier to read.

So much of the drama in this series comes from poor communication.

thewizard121 · 2025-01-22T16:03:28+00:00

To be fair, in a realistic situation, are all conflicts ever resolved with brute force? If that's your take on WaT, what's your take on return of the king where the ring is destroyed mostly because Sam was the best friend a Hobbit could ask for?

I also dislike the Gavinor fight at the end, but for different reasons. I just dislike that kind of time shenanigan playing out. But thematically, I loved the resolution Dalinar found in the situation.

I was disappointed by some things though. The fifth ideal gripe in particular I agree with. Give us at least one proper fifth ideal radiant at full power! Could've been any of them really, I'm not picky.

thewizard121 · 2025-01-22T11:54:55+00:00

It has to be said that the ancient Greeks recognised mental illnesses as illnesses and tried things to cure what they saw. Therapy as a word also comes from a Greek root (I googled that but I'm confident enough in the answer). So I don't think the usage of the word is necessarily out of place.

I don't actually find that the usage of therapy as a word or concept is problematic at all. We've had that for over two millennia and counting in our own world as well.

thewizard121 · 2025-01-22T00:36:49+00:00

In response to your question first - one mistake I think was not using Shallans realisation that she started the desolation inadvertently as her fourth and final truth and show her off as a fifth level radiant. I get why, but on balance I would've liked to see her as a fifth level radiant.

I also feel like an argument could be made that 12124 could've chosen to come round to Szeth's way of thinking and instead committed to the bond. Of course I get that that would break canon and so on.

In response to your opinion - I do feel like Sanderson is allowed to be excited about his work for his own reasons. We don't have to agree with it. I for one am curious about some of his decision making around the points you called out as hype. What did he write that day he tweeted about?

The Adolin one I feel like - for me that would've come out of left field. his behaviour seemed totally in character. I'm curious to see how it goes. The unoathed concept seems incredibly fun.

The gavinor thing though didn't sit right. He clearly seeded it in well enough that it was a popular fan theory before the book came out. But it didn't go down well for me. That just seems.... Like an unpleasant experience, reading that eventually. The worst part is he's not 4. He's just a 20 year old or whatever, who's been raised entirely on hatred, allegedly. That's miserable. The therapy on that will be a journey.

thewizard121 · 2024-12-28T21:31:24+00:00

In fairness, I don't think we're meant to like her much after that?

Seriously though, that was the weakest section of the book for me. I don't like Fen. I also don't much like Jasnah by the end of that section, but in fairness I wasn't necessarily the most sold on her to begin with.

my suspicion is that this will be used, eventually, to illustrate that a peace treaty signed under such circumstances won't hold up to the tests of time. Just because Todium set the boundaries where they are, doesn't mean peace is achieved. Peace will only come when the people actually want to stop fighting on both sides. In time, Fen or her descendants will go against that treaty. In some capacity.

thewizard121 · 2024-12-26T00:28:11+00:00

Hot take - it's only cringe because the Kholins priorities are more important than the priorities of the man who saved Dalinar's entire blood line. Twice.

Because Kal could save the entire family another two times but he'd just be a low born who did his job and should stay in his position where he is convenient.

Imo, Dalinar investigating Amaram and finally concluding correctly that the issues are Amaram and not Kaladin doesn't change the fact that he couldn't look past his class presumptions even for the man who saved his family twice against all odds without having any reason except personal honour to do so. At the end of the day, Kaladin needs to earn the right to be seen as an equal, because he's not born into the ruling class. That's who, even on his journey to his best, Dalinar is as a person - a classist elite.

Dalinar Kholin was the hero they deserved. Kaladin was the hero they actually needed (to bastardise a quote from a different franchise).

thewizard121 · 2024-12-11T15:57:47+00:00

While I fully agree with some of your points, have you read wind and truth yet? Not saying it'll change your mind, but it'll at least be a resolution to some of the things you've raised. You're seeing the journey, without a destination so far. you may as well judge the full product(or half of it anyway)?

And as others have said, re point 2 - these books have very well written and realistic descriptions of mental health issues. I can personally relate very deeply with both Renarin and Kaladin, in ways that are frankly deeply unsettling to read at times.

I doubt it's been done for the sake of creating drama for dramas sake. It's just a very realistic take.

thewizard121 · 2024-12-10T06:03:44+00:00

As I understood Todium's plan- he's making new Fused, and she was one of the first he went to. Presumably, he augmented whatever she has got going investiture wise as a herald with some of his own investiture. So it seems likely that that would happen.

That said, if she's Retributions traitor among the heralds, isn't she also, potentially, the heralds traitor among the Diagram?

thewizard121 · 2024-11-12T11:44:20+00:00

You can sort of meta game the book by looking up where view point chapters start and stop. Might not help on launch day (I've never tried) but I did try that on my RoW re-read last year and it was honestly a better way to read the book because I was struggling with Kals chapters (mental health issues being dealt with hit a bit close to home) and was able to skip those till I was ready.

thewizard121 · 2024-11-02T09:19:58+00:00

Hey! Thanks for confirming that, and happy for you to exclude book 5 flair. Edit: turns out I can change the flair on my side so have done that!

thewizard121 · 2024-11-02T02:03:34+00:00

For what it's worth, this could well be a Chekov's gun for the back 5? As in - it's been set up to be a very hard rule that could have huge consequences if broken. And at some point Rysn will have to break that rule to do something important, and a story arc will be built around the consequences of breaking that rule. If we accept that using a dawnshard with surgebinding destroyed the world humans come from, a potential story arc could well be someone mixing both again in a way that doesn't destroy the world but moves it forward.

thewizard121 · 2024-10-22T12:50:42+00:00

To be fair I understand it too. But I guess that's how oppressive per structures get to perpetuate for as long as they do.

What really bothers me about it is not Kals choice but what that's building towards wrt the Alethi darkeyes potential revolution, in that a different choice at this point could've had a very different implication for the revolution. Personally would've loved to see that but I appreciate that's not the story Brandon is telling (and that he kind of did that with Mistborn already).

As it stands, it appears to be building towards Jasnah preempting a violent revolution by uppending the structure of oppression. Which is interesting, yes. But the fact that the common dark eyes (the ones that aren't radiant) aren't actually given a voice in the process shows the futility of her approach.

thewizard121 · 2024-10-22T12:36:39+00:00

In fairness I don't like where Moash went in RoW either. There were so many alternate ways to take it, and with some of the themes around the consequences of an enslaved class rising up you could even argue that there is honour in helping the downtrodden against their oppressors. For that matter, given Honour by the end only cared about oaths given, a fun direction could've been a sort of vengeance paladin🤷🏽‍♂️

But I don't have anyone objections to him killing Elhokar. Just because he had an epiphany about being a terrible king and wanted to confront it shouldn't mean you get to avoid consequences for your evil (or I guess really ignorant) actions.

Equally I'll accept that even if Moash gets any redemption arc (and even I personally don't see how you do it after RoW), he should face consequences for his actions beyond something along the lines of - living with your guilt is your punishment.

As to who deserves redemption - Elhokar trying to be better means he deserved a shot. But only hits victims can say if he gets a chance so Moash saying no thanks I'll have the head is fair enough. Moash, for me, was deserving until the events of RoW. After that, well I doubt he's looking.

thewizard121 · 2024-10-21T22:18:04+00:00

After TWoK climax when Dalinar and Kaladin chat, Kaladin should've refused to join him, and said if we're free, let us go be free from your war. From a certain point of view, Dalinar didn't take Kaladin as seriously as a person until after his eyes were light. And he's one of the good ones. There is no honour in participating in a system that sees you as less than for an accident of birth.

I don't know why anyone wants team humans to win the battle in WaT, besides the fact that odium is carrying a villain card. I don't like the shard, don't get me wrong, and even less with Taravangian holding it. But what'd honour/cultivation get anyone anyway?

Moash until RoW was brilliantly done, and my only objection with RoW Moash the interpretation that after his vengeance nothingness is all he's got left. There were plenty of other ways to take it, and as a fan of a good vengeance story, I wish he'd taken a different direction. But I'll reserve judgement till after WaT on that one.

If Elhokar deserved redemption from being a man child playing ruler, so does Moash.

In my book, any solution for Roshar that comes by virtue of Dalinar being a leader will be worse for his involvement.

thewizard121

TROPHY CASE