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My theory revolves around finding the BEST thematic ending for kaladin. The thematic is important because that excludes narrative foreshadowing or clever wordplays and stuff. This is strictly the ending Kaladin should get if the the plot went along with his character arc. For example The name kaladin means 'born unto eternity', the line' Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do' and 'Son of Tanavast' seems to imply that Kaladin would become Honor. There is foreshadowing but it's not the most natural conclusion to kaladin's arc. Same with him being a herald or becoming king(that one stupid death rattle) What I think the most natural thematic conclusion will be: Kaladin becomes a worldsinger. Kal will go with szeth to shinovar. His budding therapist skills will be put to the test by szeth and ishar. This will become more complicated near the ending with the arrival of Moash. Kal will have a struggle if he really should kill Moash and then chooses to instead talk some sense into Moash. On the other side, something happens to todium prolly and Moash loses his 'gift' to not feel pain. So if he can't escape pain, what will he do? Moash will try to end his miserable life. Kal runs forward, grabs the weapon and says the fifth ideal, 'I will help others protect themselves'. The suicidal character will stop someone from killing themselves. Kool Kaladin moments ensue, for three seconds. Ishar goes crazy again, creates a perpendicularity and pulls syl thru it. Syl becomes a full human.( No I am not a syladin shipper) And Kaladin loses his epic stormlight powers and becomes a normal human again. I am guessing he will still use the windrunnur honorblade for the final fight before giving it up for Dalinar to reforge honor or something. My big theory is that the night of sorrows will be the darkest event in the books, where a major catstrophe occurs, a significant fraction of humanity will die(like a third). The human race will survive by escaping to shadesmar, but be broken by the sudden calamity At the end of book 5, Kaladin will start living more for himself while still doing his best to help other people. He wants to be a therapist. Who has been giving Kaladin free therapy since book one? Wit. The worldsinger who shares stories. Also after a calamity, knowledge will prolly be hard to pass around, humans will be fragmented. Stories, like the legend of stormblessed and a religion around Dalinar and oathbringer will connect people. Kaladin will finally learn how to play a flute and sing honor's and cultivation's rhythms to people as Instructions to create stormlight or lifelight. So kal and sigzil will go around shadesmar listening to and sharing their own stories almost definitely around a stew. Kaladin as the posterboy of the new worldsingers will become the travelling swordsman kind of figure/legend, cuz he will still be a badass in normal combat. He will prolly try to bridge the gap between humans and singers and listeners. In the back half of stormlight, kal will be a zahel,wit kind of figure who wouldn't be invested but still pretty badass. He could be the therapist for the new heroes. He will also reveal that in 10-15 years he has been successful in reviving many of the deadeyes, something he learned from Adolin, which will quite literally save the good guys side. Why does no honorspren bond Kaladin u ask? Because a nahel bond is more 'intimate' than even a romantic bond and I am pretty sure the honorSpren would consider Kaladin 'taken' and violating it 'cheating'. Kaladin might become a edgedancer, but only in the distant future. This is my perfect ending to Kaladin. What do u guys think?

So, just a quick little question for fun: What d&d (5e) classes would each main character in Stormlight be, and what level ?

So, I made a Kaladin Playlist, it's still being worked on, I think I'll stop around the 1.5-2 hour mark, but enjoy the songs I've chosen for now. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cFgRK5BumyBcY6swcCojE?si=13353027ed484fe1

Hi, Do we know if the windspren that forms Kaladin's plate in RoW are the same windspren that were with him throughout the novels; for example when he defeats Szeth above the Shattered Plains. It would be nice if Brandon could confirm if the windspren were always following him around.

I've been re-reading the Stormlight Archive and Into the Sky, chapter 52 of Words of Radiance combined with The Last Day Chapter 81 has begun to bother me the more I think about it. Kaladin asks Sly if his skill with the spear is from her and calls it cheating. Sly, however, points out what he has trained with the spear every day for years. She further elaborates that it is both of them, together, and compares what she and Kaladin do to a genius of music picking up an instrument for the first time and finding music. I was fine with this, Sly gives Kaladin an edge allows him to focus more and move with the winds and just generally enhances his skill with the spear. The problem for me is in Chapter 81 when Sly is "dead" and her bond with Kaladin is, at the very least, severely damaged. Kaladin tries to wield a spear and is utterly incompetent. Imo it goes beyond incompetence as he has difficulty with simple thrusts. It is like saying that both of them created or enhanced or developed his skill with a spear and then showing that it's all Sly. It irritates me all the more because Kaladin has legitimately trained with the spear for years and then without Sly he can't even do the basics. I'm not saying I don't like Sly, frankly I don't think that's possible, but I am saying is that Sly seems to be THE factor in all of Kaladin's skill when it shouldn't be. It should be 50/50. I'm posting this because I feel like I'm not correctly interpreting the scenes and I would like to see how other people interpret/view this to give me a better perspective. Edit (There was an edit button): I have dyslexia so little things like Sly instead of Syl tend to slip by. I'm kind of angry I missed this as I had re-read this comment over ten times before posting it. Anyway, I don't know how to respond to everyone at once (is there a reply all?) but I do appreciate all the personal experiences shared and it has helped me put myself more in that position. I think I partially ignored Kaladin's metal state because of how he said he had lost people before and this was no different. This was most likely my greatest mistake when revisiting these chapters as Kaladin has never worked like this, idk how I skipped over how out of character those words where. Everyone's comments have helped me better understand what is happening within the chapters and I am grateful you took the time to comment your thoughts.

I am re-reading TWoK and I just read the flashback where Kaladin decides to join Amaram's army to support Tien. Before that meeting, Hesina lays out that yes, they are spending spheres now, but they don't need to. She expected Roshone to think that Lirin is losing this fight and wanted to delay a few more months so Kaladin could take the rest of the spheres and go to Kharbranth and become a surgeon. When Kaladin asks them to come to Kharbranth with him, she says no. Now the question: If Roshone had not made the move, if Amaram would not have taken their sons, what did they plan to do once Kaladin had left? I expect Roshone would have been even more angry with them after that and it would have made their life a living hell, even more than it was already. What were they thinking they would do - a surgeon, his wife and their son who is not good at the chosen apprenticeship in a town where their landlord hates them? This doesn't seem wise. They couldn't think that Roshone would calm down after the spheres slipped through his fingers, could they?

Just re-read this scene the other day and had to create it.

I posted this over a year ago—2 maybe?—and have edited and added a chapter at the end. It is a romantic fanfic for Kaladin, set immediately after Oathbringer, and has no spoilers for RoW. About 39,000 words, just so you are warned. https://www.icloud.com/pages/0GYOFAiDTRyk0xGVbQlkVpeOQ#Elebet

Why is Kaladin so awesome? He starts out saving his bridge crew and they see him as something more. Then he saves a high prince from Sadeas’ betrayal, and beats down the a shardbearer, and they see him as something more. Then he saves Adolin by dueling two shardbearers at the same time, and they see him as something more. Then he stops the assassin in white in front of the entire army and casually floats over the entire army. Sorry about the repetitious format but Kaladin is so much better than every other Windrunner in terms of combat. The spren bond pulls the spren into the physical realm, and possibly pulls the radiant closer to it’s order ideal (head canon). Does the fact that Kaladin has such a legendary reputation influence him, similarly to how the collective consciousness of humanity effects spren? Even Vyre expects Kaladin to be the storm. If his bond pulls him closer to the cognitive realm could this explain some of his Stormblessedness. Sorry if this was asked before, wrote this during nap time.

My apologies if someone’s talked about this before, but I didn’t find it in a search. What’s going on when Kaladin is fighting the Pursuer after Teft dies? Stormlight powered Surgebinders are left unconscious and drained, even after Lift wakes them up with Lifelight. The the Pursuer attacks Kaladin directly going against Moash’s (Odium’s?) orders, and then Kaladin gets a power up. Not through Ideals, not through Stormlight or the bond with Syl, but through...something else? His eyes glow “yellow / red”. Red is Odium / Voidlight, but what does the yellow represent? How is a human using Voidlight, if he is? Is Odium tempting him with power to corrupt Kaladin from within? Was it driving a wedge between Kaladin and Syl, causing her to become more distant up until the Fourth Ideal was sworn? It actually reminded me of Amaram after he swallowed the Unmade at the end of Oathbringer.

I know there is already a thread on the Mistborn Movie cast, but I didn’t see one on the Stormlight Archive. This is where we can speculate on the cast of the Stormlight Archive Movie.

This was a conversation involving Kaladin and Shallan while trapped in the chasms in Words of Radiance. People take things personally. It is human nature, someone says something as a joke, and another person gets grievously offended. But it’s alright, isn’t it? Everyone does it to each other, so they will get over it. Wrong. I will give an example from my life. I and my friend (name changed) John have amazing banter. We undermine each other, give quippy remarks, and put in a show for anyone who cares enough to pay attention. We don’t try to draw attention to ourselves, and we really don’t, it’s just the way we act around each other. Like many people these days, the playful banter between friends is often more insulting and demeaning than it is friendly. But I had assumed that because he did it back to me, it must be fine. I wanted to let him enjoy the conversation, even if it shredded my happiness. I recently was talking to him, and to my surprise, he hated it to but kept doing it, because he thought the same thing I did. Now, this is just one example of people putting on a brave face but actually hating it. My whole reason for writing all this is to try and plead that people be kind. It doesn’t hurt anyone to be kind. If you think that your friends won’t like you if you are kind, then get new friends. The LDS church has said something similar in their “For the Strength of Youth” pamphlet. I can speak from personal experience. Failure (and appendicitis) feels like a knife in the gut. When someone points out failures and shortcomings, it is like that knife is being twisted around. I desperately implore that you do your best to be kind in all instances. Don’t insult people, even in jest. I hate it when people say stuff like this, but in a world where you can be anything, be kind. Edit: This ended up not being focused around Stormlight Archive. It started when I was rereading WoR, and I used that quote, but it kinda became something else. If any staff think this needs to be moved, feel free to do so

Ok so I believe the 5th windrunner ideal is something along the lines of “I will kill to protect” why do I think this, well the sky breakers progress toward different levels of the law snd personally I believe Shallan and all light weavers but especially her are progressing toward seeing themselves for how they are, and her final ideal will probably be “I am shallan” or some variation of that so what is the windrunner ideal progression is so far 2. I will protect those who cannot protect themselves 3. I will protect even those I hate These seem to pretty much encompass everyone you could protect. do that brings us to 4 This is an exception that makes you more effective at your job, it allows you to move on/ keep moving now additionally many of the main characters are almost the ideal(sorry not sorry) candidates for each order and so I think it’s probably a good idea to assume for speculation their arcs match up with the ideals and I think the biggest point in his arc kaladin has left is moash after rythm of war I don’t think moash is turning away from odium and based on the trend of the 4th ideal being a exception that makes you more effective at protecting, and kaladins biggest major plot point that has only been kinda resolved is that he wants to protect too many people, a big part of that is resolved now that he doesn’t have to constantly protect bridge four and many others but there are so many like the parshendi he still feels the need to protect, and this is paralyzing him This follows the trajectory of the oaths i think and I believe he will swear the 5th ideal before or after killing moash, why do I believe this, because kaladin has to kill someone he doesn’t hate for no reason other then to protect others and moash fits that description since kaladin still does not want to kill him but he is a threat to so many people and now may want vengeance.

Well, just to start this off, to get it out of the way... I think he is my least favorite protagonist, made up for the fact that I absolutely adore his always present friend, Syl, and wish we had a lot more of her. Anyway, on to Kaladin. My thoughts on him and depression, sacrifice, and oaths of protection: As someone who originally started reading all of Brandon Sanderson's works as an extension of my love for his wonderful work in the end of the Wheel of Time series, I have to say, in a lot of ways, I find Kaladin to be amazingly similar to Rand. From a 'darkness within', suffering from several bouts of what I would simply consider chronic mental health issues, to the need to protect everyone, to even having in the end, having to resolve that through visions from someone in their past that they loved, telling them something along the words of 'let go, we can make this choice ourselves to sacrifice'. Not going to spoil the specifics on where it happened when BS wrote it in for the Memory of Light, but in this spoiler area, one should recognize the vision before Kaladin here before saving his father and getting oath #4. I just think it was done better with Rand, I didn't really get much out of it here seeing it again. It seems to be a theme with him that makes less sense than in the former. Perhaps we simply don't know much about him, in 'the child of tanavast', and he might be more close to Rand than I think, but still... The best we get is darkness he had as 'melancholy' that his brother drove away, and he had to fight with ever since, as maybe something with chronic depression of a specific disorder? I was trying to narrow down the list of possibilities for mental disorders that it fit, but in the end I just gave up on that as too much effort than I was willing to put into it. It followed him all the way through the chasms and beyond (Syl, you were awesome there, my favorite scene from you, then that sort disappeared from you for a good while after that). There doesn't seem to be much progress on that, short of a few points along with sworn oaths, and ever back and forth with no real change from him and Syl, to mask the actual need for progress on that phase of his story, until like book 4. It would have served me better I think, if this went faster, and took less time away from interesting other story developments. My thoughts on him, his home village, parents, Roshone, and Moash connections. I truly get that he didn't want to go talk to his parents about his brother's death. And his guilt from it, it is something I have seen before, understand, and know that some sorts of people might just want to avoid the hurt altogether, and run from it in such ways. But he was interested enough to still go back and try to help him when he realized there might be trouble. So why didn't he send them money when he got rich enough, on what might be two occassions so easily possible? They were in a different sort of need. Ok, I get he might not have thought about it, which is regrettable, but it is still something I take small issue with. You know what in this whole scenario I take big issue with? He spends years blaming Roshone for the death of his brother. He hates him. He learns to hate Amoran even more. I can even understand why someone would. Though eventually I think he even hates Sadeus even more than Roshone. This makes no sense to me. It gets so bad, that when he finally gets there, he punches Rashon, and leaves it at that. I don't mind the old hero trope of 'learn to forgive, do not take vengeance', but here, that message was executed incredibly sloppily, and unbelievably to me. He was willing to even argue with Syl that punishing Amoran via the legal means would even avoid some of those vengeance of the heart tropes, even if that kind of did blow up spectacularly. And he still wanted a degree of justice after even that. So then, we are led to believe, that simply because he gets back home, and realizes that Roshone is 'a small town bully', he can be forgiven, simply because he isn't a world ending threat? There is blood on his hands, even if it was out of petty and spite, and there is no serious consequences of 'if we try and remove Roshone from position and do justice in the right legal way, the village and people of the area would fall apart', because they wouldn't. And that is me taking out the the possibility of direct vengeance because of Syl and honor factor. It is dishonorable to not do otherwise, much less practically forget it. And when Laral comes in and lays down the law and tells off on his treatment of Roshone, I about laughed my... Well, off but for all of the wrong reasons in the reading. She doesn't seem to get it either, but somehow she was 'the honorable' woman in that affair, having finally brought repentance to Roshone? If you want to let Roshone get off lightly, then you can do it in a much more believable way, this here, this doesn't make character sense, nor honor sense, nor spren sense. And it makes me look at like 3 different characters in scenes with a complete air of incredulity. Next part, why did Dalinar just talk Kaladin and his Spren via Kaladin's feelings into thinking letting Elokhar off for his negligent murder of two darkeyes go simply because it was politically expedient for the kingdom at that time to let it go, as 'we have bigger problems', yes, they do, but that isn't the 'honorable' thing to do. Even if you think death shouldn't be on the table, since Elokhar didn't directly do it (which is how I view it, since he was manipulated), he still was the cause, due to negligence, so like manslaughter. Him not pursuing is bad enough, but perhaps forgivable, but why in the long years since, did he never even bring up his PERSONAL involvement, involving the indirect killing of his brother based on actions of Elokhar, to what Dalinar did? This specific issue should be used to shame Dalinar for some sort of recompense, which he NEVER pays for, it is simply forgotten about, similar to the rift (aka, Dalinar's, ah, they killed a darkeyes in envy? Ah, let us put him in charge of more darkeyes and forget about him is a wonderful solution, Dalinar mistake). But Kaladin never does anything to get justice, or honor, in any three of these deaths. And simply ends up ignoring and forgiving, thinking it is all 'small time now'. That might be so, but that 'small time bully' still largely killed his brother, and, well, totally forgiven. Obviously not, but for the stories sake, it might as well be the case. I at least would love to one day see Dalinar's response to knowing what he did here, and it's results. Which he seems to have no concept of by book 4, so we might at least get some self awarded justice, however small, even if Kaladin was too honorless to quest it himself. In summary I just think Kaladin is the sum total of a lot of different generic way of the hero tropes, thrown in, and done worse than where they usually work best. With a lot of those similarities to Rand, executed way worse, makes nonsensical moral decisions along the way, with his friends, family, is often irritating with some of those unresolved obstacles for so long, and is less forgivable to me for that. I feel I could probably have written more on this topic, but I felt this was already growing too long, and doesn't need a list of 10 less direct points towards my general issues with Kaladin.