Vorlonagent

Come and see the violence inherent in the system!

Alignments as spectra, not distinct quantum states. Maybe characters also need a Shadow alignment to represent what they are like when their usual way of doing things fails.

Considering the Professor will always take in your Pokemon and always has resources to give you for them, you might want to look twice at that can of Pokelent Green you're holding... And that's before we talk about the ones the Professor keeps for his research....

Pokemon Go! is the only Pokemon game I've played and the setup so far is consistent with a parody of it. I haven't played in about 18 months but back when I did.... Pokemon Go incorporated a high degree of planned obsolescence into its gameplay. The player constantly outlevels her/his pokemon and can constantly catch better pokemon. Players can always sell their castoffs to the Professor, who apparently never runs out of space and is always happy to buy more. I just caught a better Water Grace? Off the old one goes to the Professor, never to be heard from again.

...which was going through my head as I wrote my post.

On a totally unrelated note,, World cup talk reminded me of World of Warships' Kings of the Sea VI tournament. WoWS has no pretenses to be an e-sport, but they were enjoyable to watch. The current match was Russian server vs EU server. The Russian Server finals were great, pitting Smile Gaming against their stablemates, Smile Saber. While Smile Gaming swept 3 games to 0, each game was down to the wire. Smile Saber went on to demolish the EU runner-up OM to take 3rd place while EU winner RAIN handily beat Smile Gaming 3-1. I'd include video links but the semi-finals are in an 8-hour long youtube video and the finals are in a 4-hour long one. That's a lot to push through.

No love for RoboRalley?

Sure. No spoilers, if you can avoid it.

Seasonal Affective Disorder is especially nasty on their world because of the very fast, semi-random nature of seasons. I hadn't put those labels on Kaladin but I see what you mean without difficulty. It was as if his brother Tian got all the "happy" for both of them. I am deciding whether Tian is a Down's Syndrome case. Sanderson is clearly describing a known RW condition but my conditions aren't in good condition...

This comment reminded me of Scott Manley's recounting of Eve's "Fountain War"... (23 min)

I'm not far enough into the books to have an opinion. I'm just getting into Part 4 of The Way of Kings...

I'm in Chapter 53 or so of Way of Kings. It was a slow buildup all the way through the book. Part 1 was OK, Part 2 better, Part 3 things got interesting. I am getting into Part 4 which is awesome. Sanderson is really putting his main characters through the wringer, though. I feel sorry for them both.

The Pokemon card game *was* one of those knockoffs... I suppose it's only karma. Avalon Hill was the big name in tabletop wargaming. Bought by TSR, the big name of tabletop RPGs, bought by Wizards of the Coast, the big name in CCGs, bought by Hasbro. A conga line of "summon bigger fish" spells...

Missed opportunity: A cameo for Questionable Content's Pizza Girl. Considering Moperville is Cheerleadra turf maybe it's just as well....

The terminology that seems to be missing are "playoffs" or "semi-finals".