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Leadership in literature has often been used as an effective educational tool for students of leadership. Books that are often sighted as leadership texts include: -Ender’s Game -Starship Troopers -Once an Eagle The Way of Kings’ focus on leadership should place it strongly on the list. Whether it’s Kaladin building trust, culture and cohesion or Dalinar’s adherence to the codes and setting a standard for his army. In addition you have Shallan and Jasnah’s mentee/mentor relationship, or the antithesis of good leadership in Sadeas. I’ve begun using WoK with my team to use some of the conceptual works we have read like Start with Why, CliftonStrengths/Strengths Based Leadership, Radical Candor, Leaders Eat Last, and the Infinite Game (Heavy in Simon Sinek works I know) and show how the characters apply the concepts in the novel. Just wanted to see if anyone wanted to share their favorite leadership quotes from Stormlight. Thanks Everyone!

So I recently watched Frozen 2 and I could not help but find a deep similarity between the two pieces. The first thing that I notice is that in both works the main characters have to contend and struggle with the failings of their ancestors. In Frozen 2 Anna and Elsa find out that the inexplicable stories their father was told are actually very clearly explained by their grandfathers greed. This to me ran parallel to the issue brought up by the Eila Stele. In both of these instances the stories the main characters have been raised on are not so much an explanation of history as a placation of it. Each of these groups must then go about trying to make it right too. The other really huge point that I see in both of these books is the influences of mental health, and the ways that we see them overcome it, particularly with regard to Anna and Dalinar. After some really sad things happen and when all seems lost (I am trying to be vague just for good measure) Anna sings a solo song called "The Next Right Thing." This song begins as a soliloquy of despair but eventually transitions into one of determination. The opening verses reflect a state of mind that virtually every stormlight character has experienced (i'm inclined to say that everyone has at some point in their life) in that it feels like everything that has been overtaking you is crashing in. As the song continues she begins to recognize the idea that even when it seems everything you knew was over the only thing to do is to take the next step and do the next right thing. Although Dalinar's book has the luxury of being retrospective in its nature, both the book and the song resonate with the ideals of perseverance and strength that make these characters incredibly compelling to me. The last idea that I am thinking about after meditating on this is whether these characters will follow a similar path or not. In the climax of the film, Anna makes the choice to rectify her grandfathers wrongs and in doing so causes the destruction of her own kingdom. In this regard she takes it upon herself to make reparations towards the people of the forest. While I believe that the story Sanderson has woven is certainly more complicated, eventually the coalition of humans will have to acknowledged that it was the knights radiant that committed a mass genocide and enslavement. I wonder of we will be seeing anyone taking it upon themselves to make reparations for this particular act.

It's been quite a long time since my last post. During the period, I've finished OB, finally. As some guy here predicted, the book did answer some questions, and I'm noting that the number of queries I'm going to make decrease significantly when compared to the last thread. Here they are: - Let's remember the moment when Shallan hears about the return of Jasnah. At that point, Dalinar has refounded the Radiants, and new people with powers are popping up left & right. So when Adolin says You know what, she's back!, Shallan happily welcomes her princess. Huh? Really? How about giving that news a bit of doubt? She was the only 1 who witnessed Jasnah's death with her own eyes (and hands). She knows that she belongs to a group of Radiants who can create images. She's seen persons with the same power (both Kaladin and Szeth can fly). Of all people, she is the 1 who has used fake personalities to do various missions. I couldn't believe how she reacts when I read that part. - Speaking of her inconsistencies, Shallan in this book makes some stunning turn from the preceding ones. Where is her curiosity? 1 of the scenes I remember the most was when she jumped off the ship to be able to watch a santhid. Now she barely questions anything. OK I do know that in OB she's torn between 3+ personalities. But even when the true Shallan surfaces, I can hardly see traces of her inquisitive mind. - In a chapter, Dalinar is touched a bit by Odium, and he crumples down immediately. He knows that the god has only used like 0.1% of his 'power'. And Odium himself says he's not used with interacting with humans again, i.e. he has tried his best to hold back. He doesn't have to do anything and the Stormfather is already whimpering in some corner of the world. Now fast forward to the final battle, and during the confrontation, when Dalinar blabbers some words, Odium suddenly loses, saying Oh no! and retreating with a godly tail between his legs like a beaten dog? WTF? Well that's it for the questions. Now here are some of my personal thoughts on the book itself. I was surprised. A few times, a pleasant 1, such as when Dalinar faces resistance from other monarchs - unexpected for me but totally makes sense and great in retrospect. Others, not so much. The story feels incoherent and the climaxes lacking. It feels like somehow BS has changed from the man who wrote tWoK & WoR to this new man who wrote OB. And not for the better. Something has transmuted in him, not really in style, but maybe like in essence. Yes, OB is still 1 of the best novels out there, but when compared with its 2 predecessors, the book wanes. I like the concept "grip" to describe how great a story is. And man, I was hooked by the 1st 2 books. I set a time before bed to read. And I can remember vividly how fascinating it was when I read to the part where Kaladin jumped down into the arena to help Adolin fight, so gripping that I ignored the phone reminder alarm and read into the night to at least finish the whole scene. And you know what? I can't remember any moment like that with OB. In fact, what's alarming is that I found myself drifting into sleep a few times when having the book at hands. What a sad revelation. I don't really know where to point the finger to when trying to explain how or why OB slipped. It's quite hard TBH. So, what do you think of the book? Is it the best in the series? Better than 1 but worse than 1? Or definitely the worst of tSA until now? If so, what do you think is wrong with this last installment?

In one of Dalinar's early flashbacks (the one when he recruits Taleb), Sadeas says they need to get him some shardplate, not to protect Dalinar since he's "not sure a rock slide could kill [Dalinar]" but because it's embarrassing the others how much havoc he can cause without shards. Years later, Dalinar and Sadeas are sent to subdue Rathelas after Gavilar has failed to do so politically. Evie prevails upon Dalinar to try negotiating one last time so he can avoid slaughtering all those "innocents." During the talks, Tanelon reveals that a high prince supposedly loyal to Gavilar has been helping him but won't name him because he won't be believed without Dalinar discovering it for himself...and shortly afterward evidence is presented that Sadeas is the culprit. Dalinar goes off to meet that threat, Tanelon betrays him, Sadeas arrives at the Rift, and the situation with Evie is set in motion. Dalinar comes to the conclusion that Tanelon was framing Sadeas to sow discord in the king's supporters...but what if it wasn't a frame job? It's fairly obvious that Sadeas has been crafty for years and he's married to Ialai, another crafty, tricky, sneaky person. They are ambitious and power hungry. Sadeas may have been happy to have Gavilar as king and be the power behind the throne, but as long as Dalinar was around he wasn't the only power behind the throne. He was the political power, but Dalinar was the brute, military power, and Gavilar would turn to Dalinar instead of Sadeas at least part of the time. Dalinar on the other hand is very straight-forward and not likely to see through a convoluted plot. Sadeas could very well have been encouraging revolt at the rift, essentially playing both sides. He didn't want Tanelon to actually succeed, but he did want him to eliminate Dalinar. It would be far easier for Sadeas to make it look like he was supporting Tanelon (if this thought process is true), than for Tanelon to set up the framing himself. The appearance of evidence at just the right time would lure Dalinar away from the rift and there could only be two outcomes. Dalinar survives and returns to find Sadeas ready to attack Rathelas, confirming for Dalinar that Sadeas had been framed (even though he wasn't), or Dalinar dies, eliminating a threat to Sadeas, and Sadeas uses that as an excuse to destroy Rathelas anyway (double-crossing Tanelon who he never actually wanted to succeed), further cementing his influence with Gavilar. Sure I've strung this together on less than a shoestring, but the trap for Dalinar used the very thing Sadeas mentioned as one of the only possibilities for killing him - a landslide. What do you think? Did Sadeas betray Dalinar MANY years before Gavilar's death, or was it their rivalry and different approaches to warfare on the Shattered Plains that finally pushed him into betrayal for the first time?

Ok, couldn't find a WoB on this. Don't know if already asked, but was wondering. If Dalinar walked into a room lined with aluminum, such as the one under the Windblade in Kholinar where the ardent was soulcasting food. Would he be able to communicate with the Stormfather while he was in the room?

Um, OB spoilers. So, Cultivation removed Dalinar's memories in order to cultivate him, much like a gardner would remove branches or shoots from a tree that have fouled for some reason in order for growth to happen, maybe to be grafted in at a later date when they could help the tree instead of harm it. So Cultivation starts returning Dalinar's pruned memories, and Dalinar later in the book realizes that Odium intended to return the memories all at the same time, which probably would have overwhelmed him to the point of giving up his pain. So Cultivation had a really smart plot for foiling Odium by using Dalinar. Why the mysterious tenth pancake did the Diagram order Dalinar's execution, and when that failed, removal from power and humiliation? Why did cultivation not try to stop that? If she had the Foresight to cultivate Dalinar in order to be able to resist Odium, then why were her Diagrammists actively trying to subvert what she was working on?

Amazing what you notice when you reread something. This scene takes place during one of Dalinar's flashbacks. Oathbringer p396. At this point it Gavinar has started talking about the codes. So I think Stormfather has started sending him the visions. But Dalinar is still very much attracted to combat. So my question is this: Has Dalinar attracted a Dustbringer's ash spren?

So in (one of) the climactic scenes in Oathbringer, Dalinar does what Honor suggested in his visions to him and gets Odium to agree to a "contest of champions" for the fate of Roshar. A few questions come to mind. First and most basic - are the terms of the contest what Dalinar imagines? Odium phrases it as "As Bondsmith, you can offer this deal" - as if there were a standing clause in what binds him to Roshar that specified that a Bondsmith do it, or more likely (since the KRs were not created by Honor and the Order of Bondsmiths would not have existed before the Desolations began), that Dalinar is bonded to the Stormfather who is the "heir" to Honor as the biggest Splinter of him, the spren that was tasked with passing on the visions from Honor to a chosen recipient (Gavilar, at first, then Dalinar). Clearly Dalinar was thinking of the Alethi dueling tradition of single combat, with specified stakes. But Odium's agreement could be read one of two ways - agreement with the stakes that Dalinar just laid out ("your freedom if we win, our lives if humans win"), or agreement to a "contest of champions" according to some earlier compact where Dalinar is unaware of the details, including what exactly form the contest would be. Secondly - who is humanity's champion? Dalinar assumed it would be himself, as the issuer of the challenge, but then Odium went and designated him as his own champion - and Dalinar recognized that indeed, he had been so groomed for much of his life. So now what? By definition, no matter what Dalinar does, it would be a tie if he were BOTH champions in the contest. And he never named humanity's champion - his request, agreed to by Odium, was just to have the deciding contest at all. Odium naming him has his own champion suggests that Dalinar was "in play", which would also mean Dalinar could still pick someone else to be humanity's champion. Thirdly, who is Odium's champion, now? Dalinar's refusal to "give Odium his pain" was him refusing to fall under Odium's control, the way Amaram and Moash did. Does that mean Odium will have to choose someone else, or are there "no backsies" on his choice, and it's just too bad that his appointed champion is going to be working to lose on his behalf? Or... Did Odium technically choose Dalinar? Re-reading that scene, he never actually names Dalinar as his champion. He only points out that Dalinar fits all the criteria as to who he groomed to be his champion, as Nergaoul, The Thrill, consumes him, replaying all the gleefully violent acts from his past. Odium never throws that Pokeball and says, "Dalinar Kholin, I choose you!" And finally, when will the contest occur? When Odium has his little chat with Taravangian, he sees that the Diagram had predicted this scenario: How "Super-Genius Mr. T", "without access to Fortune, or the Spiritual Realm" as Odium noted, even knew about the possibility of a "battle of champions" between Odium and Dalinar is breathtaking. Odium does not dispute this assessment - which is not quite the same as admitting it is true, but let's take it as such. So, it is a "battle", which surely means combat mortal of some kind. It seems that Odium is bound by his agreement to the contest and its being binding, but the conditions are still left open - i.e., who the champions are - and that if he ever met with Dalinar again, he could force the deal to be completed. My call: Kaladin vs. Vyre/Moash. And... Storm it... Maybe Kaladin talks to him like he did to Amaram about how he still hurts... And Moash takes back his pain from Odium? Can he be redeemed? Or is that too obvious a storyline? It would probably depend on how we would get there in the next two books. What's that, you say? There are ten books in the Stormlight Archive? Yeah, but the way Oathbringer moved things along, I'm starting to suspect the "battle of champions" with Odium is the climactic element of "SA Part I" (Books 1-5), and the jump forward in time to the second quintet (?) is to represent how long it takes for the "final" conflict - possibly much wider in Cosmere scope than just Roshar - to bubble up and play out.

During WoK one of Dalinar’s Visions he see’s the Recreance. He estimates 200 shardbearers divesting themselves of there shards . He further gives an account of current shards . Alektkar has 20 , Jah keved has 20, and all remaining nations equal up to what the two major nations have collectively. So that is 80 shardblades . My question is where is the other 120 . Is there a hidden stockpile ? Maybe the parshendi have them hidden or is there just a big stockpile of shards somewhere on the shattered plains . Taln blade is not in the histories , not his honorblade but the blade that he showed up with in WoK was not in any scholars descriptions . So I’m trying to figure who is hiding all those shards . I really don’t think it’s the parshendi . My best guess is the heralds May have hidden them somewhere. Or some other Organization but that’s an aweful lot of shards to go unaccounted for

Honor has given certain guidelines to Dalinar in the first or you can say last vision that he sees in Twok. He tells him to Unite them, whatever that they actually mean, to found the Knights Radiants, Say the old Oaths again so become a bondsmith, to humans to stop in-fighting, and champions fight. this is tentatively the totality of Honors plan. But he also said to Dalinar, Read the book. Is there any confirmation that Honor was talking about The way of Kings? Could it be some other book entirely? he also says i m sorry to leave you alone but i have done all that i could for you. any ideas on what else could he have done for humanity besided leaving these visions?

About 3/4 of the way through an OB re-read, and reached the part where Dalinar has a dream where he has a conversation with Nohadon that he previously had never had in a vision. Nohadon talks to him about the way of kings and hints at its true meaning. A thunder last is walking about the city, and Nohadon says that it represents Dalinar’s fears or something like that. Given that we have seen shardic intervention in SA most predominantly through dreams and visions, is this dream coming from Cultivation? At this point, Dalinar has gotten most of his memory back, and so perhaps Cultivation sent him this to nudge him in the direction she wanted him to go with these memories now intact? The Stormfather says he did nothing to cause the vision in Dalinar, and it clearly wasn’t Odium’s handiwork.

Ok, here we go. I was thinking last night about the end of Oathbringer and couldn’t get over the fact that Dalinar is able to talk to Evi at the end. Now, the three possible answers are as follows. 1. The first idea was that the realms were so close at the end of Oathbringer that Dalinar was communicating directly with the Spiritual Realm. However, this causes greater implications for the Cosmere as a whole, since at this point Evi would have passed “beyond”, which is said to be a different place than the Spiritual Realm. Yet, here you have Dalinar being able to talk directly to someone in the Beyond? 2. The second idea is that Cultivation knew that Dalinar needed to hear Evi forgive him, so kept her around. Kind of like (MISTBORN SPOILER) 3. The final idea is that Evi is actually an Avatar of Cultivation. It is further possible that Cultivation saw with her future sight how Dalinar’s life would unfold, so she created a body (we know shards can do this, look at odium) and came down to help prune him to were he needed to be. I feel as if it is not that big of a jump for Cultivation to see so far into the future that she starts setting pieces in motion that fast. This explains why Sanderson won’t reveal the name of Cultivation, we all know it, and he wants that reveal for later. (You could go a little deeper, and say that the reason Evi feels so much for Dalinar is that he is so much like Tanavast, her old lover) TL;DR Cultivation created an Avatar of herself (called Evi) to come down to Roshar to help prune Dalinar to were he needed to be. I am sure this will get shredded to bits, but there really needs to be some explanation of Evi talking to Dalinar at the end.

I've seen a lot of people posit that when Dalinar says that he is Unity, he is taking a step towards taking up the Shard of Honor and renaming it Unity. I have a alternate theory What if Dalinar represents the unity of all three shards in the Rosharin system? Men are often referred to as "children of Honor", and he is bonded to the Stormfather, which contains the remnants of Honor's power. Dalinar spent his life being groomed by Odium to be his champion, and was called "Son of Odium" by the Nightwatcher. Cultivation takes some of Dalinar's memories and a piece of him. Ergo, I think Unity is more like Harmony, and while Dalinar is not a Shard, he was representing the union of all three.

Okay, so it seems that I'm not the only person who's come up with a version of this idea (hi, @Truthless of Shinovar!), but I presented the theory at JordanCon during the Cosmere Speculation panel, and it seems as though I should codify it in some sort of organized fashion so that all my crazy details can be seen. And also so I can go on record with this thing so when it actually happens you can all hate me. We all know Brandon has been moving the plot forward faster on Stormlight than most of us expected. So I think that Stormlight 5 is going to be the Knights Radiant vs. Rayse, final round. Rayse has freed himself from his entrapment on Braize and is ready to wreak some havoc on Roshar to make sure nobody there can challenge him (and root out Cultivation in the process). Ultimately, he will be defeated. I think he won't be re-trapped, though; I think he'll be killed. However, there is one important detail when it comes to killing Shardholders: Dropped Shards will Splinter naturally if not picked up. (Correction here: It's not an automatic given that a Shard will Splinter when dropped. There is a WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/132/#e1877) that states a voluntarily dropped Shard could Splinter, or become self-aware, or any number of other things. None of them if applied to Odium are going to create Super Happy Fun Time for Roshar.) Imagine the chaos that would inflict upon Roshar's entire Investiture biome. That much Hatred Investiture (and no, I do not believe Rayse's nonsense about Passion) spreading out throughout the planet, loose, leaking into everything? It'd be a disaster. Cultivation has more than enough knowledge to be aware of this; certainly the Stormfather, Nightwatcher, and the Sibling are as well. I'd bet money that most, if not all, of the Radiant spren have a pretty good idea of it. So it's reasonable to expect that the KR will be aware of this danger when they take on Odium. They may even have a plan in place to try to re-trap him, but I expect that ultimately to fail. They'll have to kill him. There will be no other choice. What then happens when the Shard of Odium drops, ready to Splinter into a million pieces of Hatred and leak into the planet's Investiture irrevocably? Or become a self-aware monster spren? Or get absorbed by one or more of the Unmade? Or any number of other potentially apocalyptic results? Dalinar picks it up. He doesn't do it to gain power. He does it to protect his friends and family. He does it for Honor (though his decision may involve his bond with the Stormfather being broken) - because humans brought Odium to Roshar; it's only proper for a human to fix that mistake. Most of all, because he has managed to deny Odium's power before, he does it because he believes he's the best person to do so. He believes that he can resist the Shard's intent better than any other person on Roshar. He might even be right. So he picks up Odium, rips every last shred of power that Rayse Invested into Roshar, and leaves. There are several reasons why I think Brandon will take this route: 1. It's an interesting full circle to take for the character. He starts out life as the perfect scion of Odium, though he doesn't know it at the time. He's ruthless. He's violent. It's through a huge amount of experience and development that he learns to control and reject that side of him. He becomes a better man. Then as a result of becoming that better man, he takes on the embodiment of what warped his past in an attempt to shield others from the evil that tainted him. That's some serious heroic tragedy. 2. Brandon likes to hurt us. 3. So far, our experience of the "negative" Shardholders has been pretty after-the-fact. We never saw Ati before he picked up Ruin; likewise we don't know exactly how awful Rayse was before he picked up Odium. We've seen Harmony, yes, but he's been pretty Light Side so far. It will be much, much more interesting to take a character that the readers have a strong emotional investment in and have him take up an "evil" Shard. The impact of seeing our hero Dalinar slowly corrupted by Odium's influence as he becomes an overall Cosmere Big Bad will cause internal reader conflict, and that's a good way to tell a story.

So I have recently read the SA books for the first time and I'm really into it ,but I'm confused by something. In Oath Bringer when Dalinar is excommunicated from the Vorin Church He rushes to the Oathgate to get back to Urithiru ,he uses something bright in his hand to activate the gate. If I didn't know any better I would say this is a living Shard Blade ,since only blades activate the Oathgates. Is this the Stormfather manifested as a blade ? Quote: "Dalinar ignored him, reaching beyond and pulling power through. Something bright white manifested in his hand, and he rammed it into the keyhole."

I think I have a grasp on this but I want some help with it. At the battle of Thaylen Field Dalinar held Honor and used the power when he united the 3 realms and created Honor's Perpendicularity. The Coppermind says that any person that does this (holds the power of a Shard) becomes a Sliver. It also says that a Sliver knows it is a Sliver. Does this mean that Dalinar has gained knowledge of the Cosmere? Does he now have a better understanding of what the 3 realms are, and what happened to Ashyn, and the presence of other Slivers & Shards through the Cosmere? And if so, how does everyone think he will he use this info in the fight against Odium?

I'm on my 4th trip through OB now and I'm trying to keep my eye out for odd stuff. A part of chapter 38 got my brain juices bubbling. It's the scene at the end where the Stormfather has finished explaining to Dalinar and Navani about the Heralds betrayal. A Shin soldier walks into the cave where the Heralds left their blades. "The man fell to his knees before the wonder of the abandoned Honor-blades. But a moment later, the man looked to Dalinar, and then spoke with the Almighty's voice. "Unite them". Could Tanavast have been telling Dalinar to literally unite the Honor-blades? By this I mean, use his Bondsmith weirdness to merge them into one blade that grants all of the Surges and all of the intersections that would result from having them.