#its also frustrating we cant have a genuine discussion about the issues this chapter has without dudebros coming in all

[stargalaxyshooter]

It's actually amazing how okay I was with 430 being the ending for mha - despite all the villains dying, despite izuku and katsuki never getting a proper conversation despite it being lampshaded all series even by all might himself, despite wasting the final couple of chapters on bs we could've had in 1 chapter, despite not focusing more time on HOW MUCH society has changed to really hone in on the themes, despite not having most of the characters we've come to love converse/interact in the final goddamn chapter - I was still fine with the ending. That is until I had read the dumpster fire that is 431. Forget the whole weird ship confirmation(??) that was pushed onto the final page instead of including it in the actual main manga, I hate how this chapter essentially shits on most of what we've built on for the past four hundred chapters?? Like the problem isn't the ship, the problem is more so of how much was needed to be sacrificed and have characters behave ooc for it to happen? Especially when hori could have still made an iz//cha ending without doing all that. We could have confirmed that ship while also giving proper care to the other characters and also finally getting more on deku's thoughts on all that has happened to him from the series to the man he is now. The man he has had to become in the last 8 years and what that means now that he can be a hero again. We could've finally ended on the note of Izuku and Katsuki emulating the win to save, save to win as a hero duo, cementing them as proper childhood friends again after spending the majority of the manga with them apart and in deep miscommunication.. Instead we got whatever the fuck 431 was while leaving most things implied or done away with abruptly. And don't even get me started on why hori felt it was needed to shift focus and POV to someone else when this was a time it was very much needed to be deku's POV

[radiantmists]

rhythm of war part two thoughts

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  (spoilers through the second interludes under the cut, and at the very bottom some comments based on what i have to assume is a major spoiler for the entire book, or close to it, though i'm warning again beforehand.)

well, last things first: taravangian's working against odium! i'm super excited about this, and very happy about the support for the concept that Taravangian's compassion isn't his curse, it's just the division of his intelligence and compassion that's sthe problem.

so we've been able to talk to the sibling, who is mostly trying to help despite genuinely feeling that what navani is doing is wrong. except now they're locked away, and navani is under the direct scrutiny of rabaniel and messing around with her is going to be risky. that being said, we're on our way to some very interesting revelations about how investiture works on roshar:

the stormfather is purely of honor. the sibling is a mix of honor and cultivation. the nightwatcher is purely cultivation

the sibling should not be able to function on pure stormlight, because it's purely of honor.

lift may not run on stormlight at all-- we already knew she can't pull it from spheres.

adhesion, which is somehow a fake surge and purely of honor, is not totally cancelled by whatever rabaniel did to the sibling. from lift's interlude, neither is regrowth when she uses it, which if i had to pick is the surge i would choose to be purely of cultivation.

as far as we can tell, people can still draw in stormlight with no issue, they just cant use it to power surges.

windrunners, who bond honorspren, are less affected by the fabrial: this applies especially to kaladin and syl, and we know syl is different from other honorspren, older. my money is that she's in some way more fully of honor than the others. lift, who's been hugely modified by cultivation directly, is also immune. the edgedancers as a whole are not immune and apparently are reacting as badly as anyone else.

...syl notes in the last set of interludes that she's different from other honorspren, mentally. is this a byproduct of whatever she did to sneak out of shadesmar, or of her being older? interesting.

To me, this all implies that whatever rabaniel did interferes with how cultivation and honor interact. lift, who seemingly only uses cultivation's investiture, can power the surge that seems most directly associated with cultivation; kaladin, probably closest to honor, can do the surge that seems to be entirely honor. the regular edgedancers aren't immune at all because they run on stormlight; the windrunners are somewhat but not fully immune because they're almost fully of honor, but cultivation likely had some hand in the way honorspren were made after the shattering.

Regrowth really is a very odd surge, compared to the others, which seem to deal with much more fundamental physical forces.

the fused do have access to regrowth while powered by voidlight, though. interesting.

speaking of: did navani's weird sphere contain some kind of... cultivationlight? or maybe it's some kind of combination, and that's why the sphere exploded right around the time of rabiniel's experiments (or the sibling was drawing on it somehow?)

on a more immediate level, the current tower resistance is as follows: navani, under constant monitoring but she has the best chance to figure out how to fix this shit. kaladin, who's a mess, being hunted by the pursuer, and who's about to start getting suicide-baiting nightmares from odium, but he does know how to fight! lift, who's amazing and knows how to sneak around the tower but is being hunted by someone who i assume has to be mraize. and rlain, masquerading as a singer (im so worried about him i hope he's okay).

if this somehow ends with kaladin killing mraize to protect lift before he can give shallan answers, i'm going to fucking SCREAM.

speaking of frustrating things: lirin turn on ur location i just wanna talk. Kaladin was actually rebuilding himself until this whole invasion thing, and i don't understand how lirin can look at a man who's that committed to doing good, sees exactly what it is that drives him to kill, and then calls him a monster.

I loved Kaladin's efforts to deal with mental health care! He's in the unique position ofhaving way more political power than any medical professional, darkeyes, or mentally ill person could ever have hoped to have, and I really want to see him come back to this once the world is burning down a bit less again, especially because it genuinely seemed to be helping him.

navani's plots have sorta been subsumed into this whole plotline, but i enjoyed what we got-- the little episode with the other scholars taking bets on whether she'd use tomor's fabrial was adorable, and i also liked how clear it is that they look to her to make things work.

moving on, uh... shadesmar stuff.

adolin's making some progress at waking maya! she doesn't talk but she shows a clearly unusual ability to learn and make independent decisions. i love it.

...also the thing with notum's horse implies that ryshadium are sentient enough to imagine spren. that's fun, and also terrifying.

adolin offering to stand trial for the crimes of humanity is fascinating, but all i'm thinking about is the episode of avatar where he agrees to stand trial for kyoshi, except in this case we already know that humanity did actually do the thing he's in trouble for. it would be unjust to punish adolin for it, but... i worry.

especially because there are, apparently, new deadeyes. this isn't extraordinarily surprising as syl was two skips away from death (though, im curious, does it work differently if the spren's never been a blade prior to dying? or are there just deadeyes wandering around who aren't tied to blades?) but it is very alarming.

and then there's the other thing: pattern is lying to shallan. i frankly don't think it's as simple as him being a spy for the ghostbloods; we saw even here that he's a terrible liar, and to have concealed this he'd have to have been pretty impressive.

on the other hand there was clearly some shit going on between shallan, her family, and the ghostbloods when she first got pattern. he's admitted that he has more exposure to humans than most spren. it doesn't look great, honestly.

i also appreciate that brandon is acknowledging how fucking weird shallan's timeline is. hopefully we get some answers about this.

adolin and shallan's relationship continues to be adorable; the sequence with the starspren is lovely and i totally get why it's brandon's favorite chapter in this part. between this and part one, he clearly enjoyed how the shadolin came out in this book and i agree. the fact that his romances continue after the marriage, with issues beyond just jealousy, is one of my favorite things about sanderson books.

venli's whole set of pov's this part was about walking up to urithiru. i really do want to like her, but she spends a ton of time just following more dynamic characters around and observing in these first two parts, and if not for the juicy secrets rabaniel's been dropping, it would make me just want to get back to other characters. hopefully that'll change in the next few parts.

i was going to make a comment about how we havent even had flashbacks yet, but i just glanced at the POVs for the next part, so I guess those are coming. I do wonder if these eshonai flashbacks will be info venli knows, or what.

she did kill someone for the first time, and attuned the rhythm of the lost for the dead man. the whole incident disturbs her, and i appreciated that as the rest of our viewpoint characters are extremely accustomed to death. i'm interested in seeing how this affects her going forward.

the epigraphs are so exciting! sazed is writing to hoid again, but this time he's gotten his bearings and spoken to some new shards... ones we haven't heard from before! also he asks hoid to say hi when he's on scadrial, which, fair enough tbh. i dont remember whether hoid shows up much in mistborn era 2 but for some reason i have the feeling he is not going to oblige this request.

the epigraph where sazed mentions he wants someone who can both preserve and kill immediately made me think of kaladin. (i think this is what he ends up trying to do with wax, but shhhh) he and sazed would agree on a lot of things philosophically, i think. (omg au where kaladin ends up working for sazed?? i have no idea how this would work the idea just fascinates me.

...where are the heralds? did dalinar take them with him, or are they in the tower? if the latter, are they also passed out? probably not, since they're not radiants, right? although whatever they are is very investiture-dependent so who knows. vasher's probably alright.

why is odium afraid of nightblood? is he worried it could eat him?

lots of POVs for the next part, but no shadesmar crew, so i guess we'll find out whether adolin gets executed by honorspren later. i do wonder why so many pov's from the battlefront; i guess something more is going to happen along those lines than i'd really expected. crossed fingers for some actual insight into renarin, finally.

in light of said spoiler: holy god i hope that division (between taravangian's intelligence and compassion) doesn't continue, though I have the horrible feeling that it will. This puts sazed's discussion of the intent of a shard combined with the cleverness of its vessel into a terrifying light: a godlike being who is at his smartest when he's a complete sociopath is like, the worst case scenario,  not even taking into account that the odium shard is uniquely suited to make people act on impulses. this is so bad.

but i can't know the full extent of that until i read the context, so let's move on!

[humanoid-lovers]

5/5 I'm not an expert on writing book reviews. In fact I'm not an expert in anything. I do know this book is raw and real. Whitney puts herself in a vulnerable position- something I'd never have the guts to do. I've been a fan since watching her show, but I admire her even more now. Just read it...or listen like I did...because I'm lazy. Go to Amazon

A self help book without being obvious about it Whitney is relatable throughout the entirety of the book, and keeps even the darkest chapters light with her clever comedic writing style. Codependency and eating disorders are often belittled, humored, or ignored when discussed. This book addresses the illnesses for what they are... addictions. It’s calming to know I’m not the only one who sits up at night because my friend didn’t post a picture for my birthday, even though I posted one of her. Why didn’t she post one? I deserve a picture too??? Okay sorry I’m working on it. Also I shouldn’t be sorry for having emotions, I learned that too. Go to Amazon

I love Whitney, and this is life changing for anyone with codependency and control issues! I barely ever write reviews, especially when I’m not asked to, but in this case I WANT TO!! I had heard Whitney’s latest interview on Howard Stern’s show last week, and I was laughing so much and (sadly) relating to all of her issues, and knew I had to get this book immediately. Go to Amazon

and also does a great job of not being aggressive about identifying your (the ... This book laid bare a lot of who Whitney has found herself to be as a person, and also does a great job of not being aggressive about identifying your (the reader's) problems. There's a lot of self-discovery on the cheap here for those of us who have refused to think we need a therapist despite alienating people and finding ourselves in confusing and frustrating social situations. Go to Amazon

Everyone's a work in progress This book is a great reminder that the outside (attractive, successful, comedienne) doesn't always mean that everything's unicorns and chocolate. Like Whitney, I've spent a lot of time researching psychology/wellness (tho at a much lower budget) and it's been a loooong process of ups/downs. I appreciate people are willing to admit they aren't quite happy and have problems; and even better, they admit they need help and want to pay it forward. Whitney isn't perfect but she shares her stories, and even tho we have different backgrounds I learned things that I could apply to myself. Her overall message is positive and encourages female empowerment which is never a bad thing. Go to Amazon

... I got this book it was because of my love for Whitney Cummings and her hilariously relatable comedy When I got this book it was because of my love for Whitney Cummings and her hilariously relatable comedy. What I didn't realize was that this book would actually change my life! Funny, witty, real, relatable, and therapeutically beneficial for anyone trying to navigate through life with co-dependant tendancies. So effing good and very eye-opening! I think I'll be fine after reading this... no lie (; Go to Amazon

A smart, insightful book that might help YOU as it has me Funny and smart but also helpful if you’ve struggled with finding your own identity as a woman - Whitney is very candid about her struggles and so far I’ve listened to the audio version twice! Her candor has helped me think though some of my own actions and issues. Go to Amazon

One of the best books I've ever read. This book was an ingenious mix of hilarity and insight that I would highly recommend to anyone! Whitney Cummings manages to make you laugh, while explaining things about your life that will leave you dumbstruck for days at a time. Not only did I learn a lot about myself by reading this book - and have many unanswered questions that I look forward to working through - but I genuinely enjoyed the read. With a mix of humility and humor she uses her own life as an example to teach you about your own. Mostly to embrace failure and not take ourselves (and others too seriously). Absolutely loved every part of the book! Whitney Cummings - you're a badass. Thanks for sharing your story with the rest of us. Go to Amazon

I finally know the definition of codependent. Healing with Whitney Loved it- This book was not good. Life changing My toddler purchased a kindle version accidentally and I cant ... Honest and entertaining Its a good listen. Shes pretty relateable and answers a ton ... Surprisingly honest and a good laugh Book was a bad idea, for her