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...I just can't get this idea out of my head. Something feels off about the dynamic between Shallan, Pattern, and Mraize as of chapter 13... Maybe it's just that Pattern wasn't fully cognizant at the time, but then Shallan had progressed far enough into her bond to summon him as a Blade... Anyway, preliminary self-justifications aside, something is fishy about Pattern and Shallan's past. Obviously Shallan is very much NOT okay with whatever happened back then, and refuses to remember. I don't think Pattern would try to push her like that, perhaps believing that she would break the bond just to get him to stop. But yet Mraize is here, promising to "reveal" her past... to herself. And she seems to want that. She doesn't want to have to be the one to admit what she did, but once someone says it, she'll be okay with it? That's... odd. But I could see her having some logic to it, to justify it. So why doesn't that apply to Pattern? Why wouldn't she be okay with him spilling the beans about it? Or... does she not think he can? Did her regressions weaken the bond enough that Pattern also forgot? Or does she believe that because he hasn't told her yet, so she's not going to ask? I don't know anymore, I just talked myself in circles for like 5 minutes. Something just doesn't add up about all this to me.

I believe that everyone who's read the most recent (tenth) chapter of RoW has one question burning in their minds: What is going to happen to Kaladin? Today, I have the answer to that question. (Slightly less crackpot part of the theory) Most people seem to agree that the obvious next step in Kaladin's journey is the fourth ideal. However, I see a problem with this: Kaladin is dealing with more than one problem. Kaladin always feels an urge to protect everyone, even other Windrunners. This has caused a lot of what we see in the early chapters of RoW, and Kaladin references it when Dalinar suggests he help train Windrunners, saying that sending them off to possibly die would tear him apart. However, this is not the only problem. When Moash confronts Kaladin, he tries to hurt him by telling him that everyone will die, and that Kaladin cannot save them all. Kaladin is bogged down by the guilt of all the people he has failed to save, and simply ceasing to hold himself responsible for people who can protect themselves is not going to end that guilt, and Kaladin will not be able to recover fully. An obvious ideal to deal with both of these problems would be something along the lines of: "I will forgive myself for failing to protect" but that would be seemingly contradictory to a Windrunner's gem archive statement in OB, "Aren't I supposed to want to protect people?" (I paraphrased that). So in conclusion, in order to make more than a , either Kaladin needs to say both the fourth and fifth ideals, or Brandon has thought of a fourth ideal that solves both of Kaladin's problems, fits with the gem archive, and leaves room for further character development. (On to the crackpot part) So, everyone who's read the tenth chapter of RoW knows that it ends on a downer, and anyone who's in Brandon's newsletter knows that there is a Syl interlude (Spoilers ahead) during which (last warning) Kaladin is still depressed, and it is uncertain whether he has chosen a new job yet. Here is my theory: the Syl interlude is the end of Kaladin for the rest of the series. Kaladin fades away into a background character, perhaps appearing a few more times, maybe even swearing the fourth ideal, only to find it is not enough. Kaladin will even go so far as to change his name, and we will not even know who he is. We will have so much nothing from Kaladin that everyone but his most ardent fans move on. Then, in the back half, near the end of the second Stormlight, some random person will say the fifth ideal of the Windrunners and save the day in awesome fashion, revealing the one person whom we never would have considered as a possible Kaladin (and there will have been many), to be the real Kaladin. (Either that or Kaladin will swear both the fourth and fifth ideals almost simultaneously in RoW, even odds I'd say).

I was thinking of posting this in the other topic but i felt it was marginally different enough that it might warrant its own topic *mods, if this isn't the case, you know the drill* Now seeing as we have barely any concrete information on the 17th Shard and their purpose, this is just theoretical speculation/speculative theory and could just be reiterating what we already know, but i thought it an interesting view So from what little information we do have, the 17th Shard seem to take a very non-interference approach to matters relating to the Shards and perhaps to the Cosmere as an extension. We know they don't take too well to people meddling in Shardic matters as demonstrated by Hoid and in the Letter to his old reptile-like friend. Carrying on from that, I think it very possible they will intervene to prevent people (and possibly factions) with the skills and resources from causing wide-scale ramifications (aka Hoid) from interfering also. Spoilered for some references in soon-to-be published works TC;DR: Basically to summarise, I think that the 17th Shard are meant to represent the/an Intent that Adonalsium didn't have (doesn't particular narrow it down, I know but I think it could be something relating to Observation/Restraint etc. etc.) Their purpose is to monitor and record Investiture-related shenanigans along with the history of the Cosmere, with very little direct intervention on their part.

Hear me out here: At the beginning of WoK during Gavilar's assassination, Szeth notes that he has a choice between surgebinding and shardplate, that something about shardplate prevents/interferes with his surgebinding (likely specific to surgebinding granted by an honorblade as we see other KR surgebinding in shardplate in Dalinar's flashbacks). Gavilar always wore his plate while wielding his blade (on screen at least) and so would not be able to surgebind. I think it's likely he didn't even realize exactly what he had given the apparent conflict between plate and honorblade-surgebinding. Also, when on the practice grounds training under Zahel in WoR, Kaladin hears no screams while holding and practicing with a blade similar in description to Gavilar's old blade. We know Kaladin is between oaths 2 and 3 at this point, and that he hasn't progressed any further during the full disadvantaged duel in which he first heard the screams when touching an enemy shardbearer's blade - so it's unlikely that during training he would not have heard screams if he were using a deadspren-blade. He also cannot use Syl as a blade yet as he hasn't given the third oath. This leaves only 2 options - he's using someone else's KR spren-blade (though this seems doubtful as I can't see a KR leaving their spren around a training ground for others to use as practice) OR he's using an honorblade. Thoughts? Contradictions? Figgledegrak?