Nef

I find it interesting that the Radiant was a Skybreaker rather than a Windrunner. It was partly a scouting mission so one might expect that a Windrunner would have been the obvious choice. Given what we find out in Sunlit Man, makes me wonder about the Windrunner order in the future.

The major difference between Taln's death in the prologue of WoK and the death of Jezrien in OB is that Jezrien's soul was trapped in gem of the special dagger, this could explain why the Heralds could feel the death of Jezrien and not Taln. If Chanarach's soul was also trapped (according to the theory of her soul being in the box), it could explain why "StormFather" could feel her death.

Maybe "give it to me" now, spoken with intent, is as close as Gavilar got to the words, because the focus on "now" is (at a stretch) vaguely similar to focusing on the journey rather than destination. Definitely a longshot, but the "SF" did say its close yet far.

Agreed it's not what you'd expect of Honor, but we know that Tanavast was not himself in his dying days. Maybe this a CS of that version of Tanavast, not strictly dispalying "Honor" attributes.

I think the Storm father changed when the Herald died. For the whole prologue he was actively working/scheming to stop Desolations, then once the herald died he was like, let whatever is going to happen happen. My guess is before the Herald died , whatever part of the Stormfather is a cognitive shadow Tanavast/Honor had more agency, but this side retreated and let the force of nature side have more agency.

Based upon part 1, I expected Leshwi to feature more. There was that chapter where she was claiming first right to duel Kaladin over the Pursuer, which I thought was foreshadowing a bigger role in the occupation of Uirithru than she ended up having.

He gave two reasons, he also said that it was because Kaladin is extra-aligned with Honor's intent.

Regarding Honor not encouraging healthy relationship with the power later in his existence; has this been mentioned in the books? And yes, there were two explanations given for why Kaladin was conscious during the occupation. 1) Kaladin is extra-aligned to Honor's intent and 2) he was close to swearing the 4th ideal. So basically point 1) confirms that Kaladin has some special sauce, I'm hoping that book 5 gives us a "why" he has special sauce.

Agreed. My point was that turning the pages might be more physical effort than carrying the blackbane and she might not have been previously been able to turn the pages. That said, I think the point of the scene was definitely more to point out how she can now read, further demonstrating her "humanlike" development.

At the end of the book, Syl is able to smell Kaladin. That stood out to me. As if she was manifesting a physical form through some sort of progression. I just think that smell is something that's really of the physical realm, so its something that Syl will start to sense more strongly as she manifests in the physical realm. Also, turning pages of the medical book, that seemed like something a bit extra to what Syl was previously able to do. I think there's a subtle progression of Syl being more able to physically influence the world on her own accord i.e. lifting things as a spren rather than as a shard implement.

No disagreement here, Odium more or less mentions that he failed to Dalinar. I think Kaladin swearing the 4th oath was a really big step in his management of his depression/anxiety. It means he's not going see peoples' deaths as a failure. Also his bond with Syl, it has strengthened so that they're more able to use each other as support. Its almost turning into a healthy marriage, with good communication/sharing of feelings. Odium's pathway to "converting" Kaladin was through his depression. With what we saw in RoW, I would be surprised if that path ever opens again. Sure Kaladin will always have his ups and downs (he mentions as much), but not to the extent to be exploited by Odium.

I agree with others, Odium was looking at Kaladin as his next champion. At the very least he was converting Kaladin to his side. This quote, which I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is, almost states it:

I'm also thinking that the fifth ideal could be related the the fourth ideal. Similar to how the 2nd and 3rd ideal are both affirmative statements to protecting. the Fourth and Fifth ideal might both be statements towards not protecting. It quite devastating to think about, but the fifth ideal might be along the lines of self-sacrifice in order to protect. This is something that Kaladin has always done, but I think it now has particular meaning given that he has started to actually learn to love himself. There is honor in sacrifice. A parallel would be how the US military awards the Medal of Honor.

Its clear we all sit somewhere on a spectrum; some of us find more enjoyment in characterisation/character interaction and others lean towards world-building/lore etc. The Stormlight books also fit on the spectrum. For TWoK and WoR, being the first books, there was more character work as the characters had to be fleshed out by necessity. With the characters established, the pendulum has swung more towards world building and lore. Some of the character stuff is clearly stated rather than shown eg. We know Kaladin and Jasnah don't get along, but we've only had a short interaction between the two in OB, other than that we get a few sentences throughout RoW stating the fact. On the other hand we had a more space dedicated to fabrials, callouts to the greater cosmere etc compared to previous entries in the series. That's said, we're still getting good character work, for example chapter 12 spent time establishing the Kaladin-Adolin-Shallan friendship. Personally, I also prefer a balance more towards characterisation (more chapters like chapter 12) but I can understand how RoW is some peoples' favourite entry in the series. In fact, even though I don't read other series in the cosmere, I've found myself researching on coppermind because, give i'm invested in the characters, I also care about the world they live in.

I immediately thought: "likely cool scene where listeners save the day, entering the battle with chasmfiends".