Aethling

Alera and Dresden are both good. I wonder how this one will turn out. Still would like more books to Alera.

Frankly, I can't see how you can't see how they are related. I doubt she has the required medical knowledge to do it, but that doesn't mean is not possible. Give Kaladin's father access and some lessons in how a fabrial works, and I imagine you would see some miracles.

Economics. The same reason that armies even today don't have full body protection for each soldier or a surgeon in each unit. They are continuously throwing away the lives of their soldiers in a stalemate much like WW1. Why spend the money or effort to heal someone that stands a high likely hood of being killed on the next run. If Dalinar were to suffer a serious wound, there would probably be several things being used to bring him back to whole.

Just because she has very powerful fabrial does not mean that she is capable of using it to its fullest extent. She has already admitted as such in the text. An item capable of turning rocks into food should be able to smooth the skin back over with a skilled medical mind behind it. Now whether or not it is subtle enough to do so would be a different idea.

Well, we already know that Jasnah has her limitations in soulcasting, just see the strawberry incident. Someone with more training and skill for healing could probably do away with almost any scar or wound.

I am not sure that the slave brand would make all that much of a difference. We have artifacts in the world that turn rocks into food. I doubt it would be very far beyond reasonable to say there is one that can get rid of scars. He could also be him disappointing someone that had faith in him. I am still leaning toward her being someone that helped him overcome the loss of his brother. There could have been some romantic entanglement, but it wouldn't have been a given.

There is a quote by Hoid near the end where he hints that there is a valid reason for the eye color making someone part of the ruling class. Not worth the effort to look it up really, but he is fairly explicit.

And considering the entire tone of the series, Kwaan being mistaken is probably more likely than him being right.

All the joking comments aside, this is actually a good question. She was probably a romantic/semi-romantic interest at some point. Maybe she helped him overcome his grief over losing his brother. The question of his "failure" has the potential for being an even bigger world-changing event than who she is.

I can't see attached hair ever being used for awakening. That just opens up way too many cans of worms. If can do hair, why not eyes, or skin color? We do have examples of skin color and hair color changing, but that was on inanimate objects. The royal locks wouldn't do you any good if you had to be dead to use them for awakening. Hair cut and braided into a rope or something else, now that would be a different story. I don't see any difference between that and straw that used to be a blade of grass. What might be extremely useful are extension made from real hair. Attach them as part of an outfit for a princess awakener, and she has a functional means of self-defense and offense if someone tries to attack. She could even wear a completely white outfit to put people at ease.

The AS do have a history of setting aside rulers. If one started behaving very erratically, it wouldn't be so far fetched for them to do it again. The borderlanders were also hyper-vigilant about such things.

I really doubt many people would consider risking your life to try untying a weave as a low hanging fruit. The AS also had evidence that being an experimenter wasn't exactly the best idea in the world. True, most of it came from the artifacts, but it was also possible to burn out through channeling. I see your point about Compulsion, but the AS did know of it, and a world leader that suddenly starting acting weird would have attracted much of their attention. Morgase was largely attributed to her just being a woman, at least that was the way I read it.

He might have tried to buck the family trend, but he doesn't seem to have done it fairly well. At least for that family, it seems to be playing a big role. it might not be anything more than the family mores causing the correct actions, but that still falls under family.

Well, all of his fantasy books so far have included some type of magic that runs through bloodlines, so the Kholin family being radiant central really isn't all the far-fetched. Plus, it is a fairly standard fantasy treatment.

You have to remember that many of the weaves that became common place later in the series were only discovered a book or two earlier. Many of the new AS powers came only after the kidnapping. If not for that, they would still be lost. Why didn't the Ashamen tie off the weaves? They trained mostly for battle, and there was not really anyone around to train them to tie off weaves. Sure, they might have an AS tell them it was possible, but how many times was it brought up that a female could not train a male to do something? Also, remember what happened when Avi tried to untie the gateway? It basically blew up a hillside. The lack of innovative uses for brand new weaves can be easily attributed to the lack of time since discovery. The entire series is set over what, two years or so?