Brandon Sanderson

So, according to Brandon, Oathbringer (or whatever Stormlight 3 will eventually be named) includes flashbacks from a surprise character (assuming it doesn't get cut like the Sophie/Mhelhi scene from Perfect State). Shall we get the ball rolling on guessing who it will be?

My vote goes to the Pirate Crushed Throat, because that will be REALLY surprising.

My money is on Nale, as a way to shine more light on the breaking of the Oathpact.

Is Bavadin/Autonomy talked about in Arcanum Unbounded? I'm partway through it (rereading Secret History in it because fuck yeah Kelsier) and I haven't come across any mentions of her yet. That said, what a douche.

Also, consider Shai's method for calming down her nerves was to think of herself as Forging into someone who could handle the situation. I wouldn't read too much into her thinking of Bloodsealing in Forging terms.

She gets a mention in Khriss's bit bout the Taldain system, is all.

Random weird confession: Every time I read Stormlight, I can only picture Dalinar as an older black guy. No particular actor specifically, just an older, tough as nails black guy, somewhere between Samuel Jackson and Morgan Freeman in age. Despite every detail about him the book gives me. And despite me picturing Adolin and Renarin and literally every other Alethi as... well, not black. I don't know why.

Actually, it'd be really cool if an adaptation had different races among the Alethi. It's a big place, after all.

Apparently Alethi tend towards slightly darker skin. Not quite black, but definitely not white. The Tor dreamcast used mostly darker-skinned Asians for the roles. Of course, they tried to use Asians for everything but Szeth (though they compromised on a couple, like Shallan) because this is one of the few fantasy series where you can justify giving Asians more representation, but still.

Like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Ghost in the Shell? We all remember how THAT turned out...

edited 7th Dec '16 10:43:19 PM by SCMof2814

Unless Sanderson sells the tv/film rights completely, to the point that he has no creative control, I don't think that's an issue. After all, he's the one who writes these stories, and they're for the most part good about race. Sure, white is considered default, but Wax and Wayne are half black (Terrisfolk have a broad number of races, but they have the lion's share of the darker skin tones), and then there's everyone on Roshar being quasi-Asian.

Maybe it's not the best opportunity for representation, but it's better than books where all the evil races are dark this and dark that and enslave/slaughter the noble fair-skinned heroes because of Always Chaotic Evil.

I doubt the Terris are THAT darkskinned, else it would have been stupid-obvious what the Lord Ruler's ethnicity was. And skin tone shouldn't even work like that on Scadrial, they've only had the one latitude for a thousand years. Everyone should be equally pale from needing the same amount of melanin for the same amount of solar radiation.

edited 7th Dec '16 11:18:24 PM by SCMof2814

A thousand years is not that big a time for evolution to do its thing, especially since TL Rs breeding progroms kept Terris blood probably a discrete gene pool.

There also was probably no actual evolutionary pressure to loose the darker skin color. Evolution is not some adaptive ability that automatically reacts to the environment. The extra melanin in the skin would not be a hindrance, even if its not needed, so where would the need to loose it come from.

Word Of God on the matter, btw

On another matter: Unfettered II by Shawn Speakman has some of the Dalinar Flashbacks as a semi-short story named Thrill

edited 8th Dec '16 2:21:42 AM by 3of4

Extra melanin actually is a hinderance — it makes it harder for the body to make vitamin D. In other words, this.

Still, 1000 years are not very long for true natural selection.

And that's Discounting TLR screwing with human physiology during his Minutes of Power and a forced eugenic breeding program for the Terris

My guess would be that the Terris have a fairly wide range of skin tones, and don't reach either extreme on Scadrial. If there are any physical features that people try to pick Terris out with, skin color isn't one of them.

Kelsier explicitly mentions that thinking you can tell a Terrisman by their skin tone is a common mistake. They run the gamut, though perhaps Sazed's color (olive? medium brown? whatever) is the average or default.

Also, you are thinking of Idris Elba in Pacific Rim, natch.

Also also, I believe Brandon mentioned that he thought of Shallan as something like Korean-Caucasian (he did live for a couple years in Korea) with red hair. And that Sazed's skin tone is like that of the guy from Key and Peele, which isn't far from what I was thinking of (or my own skin). And finally, that dreamcast is pretty good (never really pictured Kaladin as black but it's workable), except for Pedro Pascal as Lopen, I mean c'mon.

edited 8th Dec '16 7:19:42 PM by Ninety

I still think that, if you do an adaptation of The Stormlight Archive, Anime or Animesque animation would be the best way to do it, rather than live action. I mean, c'mon, it's a story where eye color is an important plot point; those giant anime eyes would finally be serving a story function.

I'd want the guys who did Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defender on it.

Would also be practically required for the environment.

Two spots that really stand out to me as difficult to do in live action would be the Shattered Plains. Its not that I think they can't do it. It just I think they spend too long there to make it look realistic. Although I suppose they could minimize time spent near the edges of plateaus.

Also the Reshi Isles. For other obvious reasons.

Also writing this I realize I completely forgot about Spren. It's not that they couldn't do it in live action. It's just I think the budget would be insane to get it looking anywhere close to how it does in the books.

Yeah, other Cosmere stuff could work reasonably well as live-action, but Stormlight Archive is basically begging for an animated version. (Incidentally, the fact that animation lets works do crazy things like Stormlight Archive that would never work in live action is pretty much the entire reason I watch anime.)

Hey, where are the Warbeaker rereads at now?

There was a bit of a break in between 6 and 7. If you're only following them via this thread then you'll need to read the two latest ones of seven and eight. Which as far as I know haven't been posted here yet.

Normally I was the one posting them, but I've been having computer problems and got distracted.

In other news, the progress bar on Sanderson's site shows Stormlight 3 first draft at a hundred percent! That's the hardest part out of the way.

Dreamcasting for Mistborn. Mistborn is a more likely first movie than Stormlight, since Roshar is just so alien that it's a hard place to start.

If we're dreamcasting, than the company I'd dreamcast to do it is ufotable. They do excellent work on magical epics.

Hey, question. As per WOB, Returned are Splinters. But Endowment is still around, isn't he? How's that go?

Also, The Mentalist guys for Kelsier does fit pretty well.

edited 15th Dec '16 7:09:01 PM by Ninety