[OB] Lashings

[Nuatoma]

I just read the chapter (Shash 39, I forget the chapter #) in OB where Kaladin takes Dalinar, Navani & company back to the warcamps where Dalinar investigates what happened with the 'madman' Taln.  At the beginning of the chapter when they arrive at the war camp, Kaladin lashes them downward so they slowly drift down and they eventually land.  It wasn't mentioned in the book, so my quick thought was, did the lashing automatically go away when they touched ground?  Or can Kaladin automatically instruct when the lashing will end when he touches them.  Otherwise, even though they touch ground, the lashing should still be pulling them that way, almost pushing them against the ground. 

That could be explained away by saying the lashing wasn't very strong since they drifted slowly and then the stormlight ran out.  But then I kept thinking, could Kaladin lash people very strongly downward and smash them against the ground?  We've read instances where people are lashed upwards, specifically I'm thinking of when Szeth lashes Roion and Dalinar into the sky so that they are so high when the stormlight expires that they fall to their deaths.  But just as Kalidan lashed himself downward so hard in the duel in WoR to break the shardplate (and his legs), he could probably smash people against the ground very hard.  Probably just costs more stormlight, which is why we haven't seen it.

 

Just my musings.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Rock's Stew

[Weltall]

In that instance, he probably used a measured amount of Stormlight so the Lashing faded away at just the right time. We also see this in Dalinar's second run through the Starfall vision, when the Windrunner knows exactly when the Lashing affecting Dalinar will fade. It's probably an extension of how Surgebinders instinctively know what their Stormlight reserves look like, or how allomancers know about how fast their metals are burning and how much they have left.

And yes, it should indeed be possible for an airborne Kaladin to Lash a target downwards with harmful intent, just like Szeth Lashes people to the ceiling or walls during his rampages in the first two books. We just haven't seen Kaladin do this because the only opponents he's ever fought in the air are themselves Invested (and thus can resist being Lashed to an extent) and if they are, they can simply counter any such Lashing with one of their own, so it hasn't been practical to do.

[Szmit]

I mean if you are in air, and can't lash, you're basically dead, there is no need to waste stormlight on you.

[CalaCrisp88]

In the prologue, Szeth lashed Gavilar's balcony down many times to make it collapse to the ground