Kaladin Zahel

Understandable. However, I'm a weirdo and don't care much for Wax and Steris so it would have bonus side-effects(evil grin).

I'd say Paalm. Favorite dead person(?) in the cosmere for me.

Or, a little tinfoily here: since Honor's death, Radiants are now able to summon/use common spren in addition to their Radiant spren. Perhaps that Kaladin scene along with Dalinar's glory spren scene are forshadowing that current KR are able to do more with surges than their predecessors because they don't have Honor's restrictions. Just a crazy shot in the dark.

All I know, is there better be at least a Rlain Easter egg in the Eshonai flashbacks.

The only way I would be happy with Kaladin dying is if he pulls a Lightsong and saves Moash and in the process gives him Syl. Vyre becoming Moash Stormblessed, Knight Radiant would be totally worth it.

I always figured that Kaladin's first experience with a weapon back home was the thrill having an effect on him. Otherwise it seems like some kind of odd 'magically-predisposed' situation. The WoB saying that the spren were protecting him does seem pretty reasonable. Maybe Maya was doing likewise with Adolin. And maybe the Stormfather was too rattled by Odium or Dalinar was too intimately familiar with the thrill to prevent the effect.

When I read the 3 books serially a few months ago this situation also bothered me. However, it does fit quite well with their rhetoric and partnership. Obviously he knows 'how' to write but it seems he either doesn't like to or isn't very good at it. I take the conversation now to be Wayne teasing Wax and Wax coming back at Wayne. It's similar to how they portray their roles as Wax being the planner/investigator with Wayne being the foolhardy thug. They are both more than capable of each others' jobs, but they just gravitate towards and present the roles they prefer.

@WeltallEh, I think the spren-named blades are only the living blades. In this case Kaladin calls it his Syl-blade which isn't even naming the sword. I'm pretty sure Oathbringer is not a spren's name but the name some historic king or muggle knight gave for the sword, presumably the Sunmaker himself. As for the Honorblades, I'm guessing they don't have names because they seem to be absent from the story. Religion and storytellers would certainly have recorded names if they were ever used. Perhaps their sacredness, lack of sentient nature, and being owned/used by one owner caused them to be purely associated with their perspective Heralds. They could certainly have pretty cool names so just fire up your head-canon and take a stab at it(pun intended).

The Rift king, Tanalan. Poking the Blackthorn and giving him the highground. Shhshshhsh, Evi.It's cold but true in my opinion. Elhokar and realistically Kaladin... sure, let's wrestle with oaths in the middle of absolute chaos. Kelsier, plan A is a hailmary, plan B is death and hope things get better. Presumably Adonalsium, I am God, but let 16.5 mortals tear me apart.

The KR oaths could be seen as 5 oaths between 2 beings. Humanoid says the 5, spren agrees/accepts the 5. So the number ends up being the neat 10 we want.

Perhaps, since he couldn't remember, he assumed his boon was sobriety, emotional peace, or to be a better man. And he thought from his lack of recalling Evi or hearing her name even that his curse was forgetting his wife. Maybe his perceived confidence in 'knowing' his boon was to ensure he wasn't open to further suspicion and doubts from Adolin and co.

I would imagine it works the same as with hand radios. If both buttons are pressed, nothing is received. If both buttons are released, nothing is sent.

I think it's a lot simpler than all of these proposed theories. I think Mr. T is just too easy to underestimate/overlook. He's an old, simple man from the outside looking in. And even though Dalinar has glimpsed Mr. T's intelligence and ruthlessness, Dalinar is a social fool and is being blinded by his optomistic belief in others.

The role of a guide is to lead. You can't guide if you are following the ones you are guiding or completely absent. I don't think Bondsmiths are/were oracles but shepherds.

Execellent points Yata and Lump-wing. Perhaps, in Odium's planning, he made sure to break down the boundaries where the Parshmen were being secured. If this is the case though, it seems like Odium has been under-utilizing such an impressive weapon. I am still holding out for some good lighteyed souls who would have kept their expensive pets/friends/slaves with them. It's just too simple for me to think he would have restored all of them so precisely.

Interesting explanation. I would have enjoyed reading about that. It just seems curious for this sort of thing to be left out. Perhaps we will get Parshman flashback later instead of just the Listeners' and Singers' perspectives.

A couple of thoughts just occurred to me, "Did Dalinar actually cause the Final Desolation(in-world term/voidbringers)?" And , "Shouldn't there be at least some remaining Parshmen somewhere?" It seems to me that there should have been some Parshmen who were protected (from awakening and becoming fused/singers) from the Everstorm by simply being indoors. We know that gems don't become infused if they aren't left out in highstorms and that Odium is unable to visit Mr. T and Venli during the Everstorm if he is physically blocked. So, is there some loophole here where Parshmen are able to be reconnected regardless of a barrier in the way, or did Branderson miss this inconsistency, or are we to believe Dalinar's warning caused 100% of coalition-related kingdoms' Parshmen to be left outside diring the Everstorm? If it's the latter, then it certainly seems like Dalinar goofed up big time and is essentially responsible for recruiting massive quantities of Voidbringers for Odium. How might this have gone if noone worried about Parshmen being Voidbringers and protected them as per usual? I think it would have been a more interesting Oathbringer if the few Fused and Singers that did transform had to free Parshmen in each city to acquire numbers instead of 'magically' having great numbers initially. Thoughts?

Well done. My only contrary thought to this is that I believe there were pre-shatterring magics and investitures. This is a very thought provoking post though.

True, but I want to believe it was a Nohadon sent dream so it would still be accurate. Granted, I have no idea how that's possible. I don't believe it was simply a dream, as Dalinar is not a very imaginative person.

We know from Warbreaker that seeing into the future is not inherently bad. So I chalk this up to something Rosharans are strange about. Also, I'm pretty sure Kaladin wasn't wrong in following his glimpse into the future either. Hoids warning of wariness to Shallan is a bit of an oddity for me but maybe that's context driven and not a generalization. Perhaps, the KR orders who have future sight abilities are where the danger lies.

I read that post and can defintely see that as being plausible. It seems impossible for shardic worlds to not be influenced even subtley by non-resident shards. I just haven't read Mistborn in awhile to see if there are any obvious similarities with how Ruin influences people compared to Nergaoul's. So maybe, you have Endowment's magic with a dash of Ruin(from the commmand 'destroy' and a sprinkling of Odium(Shashara presumably 'hates' evil when visualizing the command).

That was a quick and simple denial. Is there any other way Odium or Nergaoul could have gotten absorbed by NB or have a residual presence in Shashara when she created it?

Im on my 2nd reading of Oathbringer and am noticing the similarity between Nightblood and the Thrill. First, they both have people who are immune to their influence with those who successfully resist them experiencing nausea. Second, they both basically create berserkers who will kill until everyone is dead - usually including the wielder. So my proposed theory is that NB was created on Roshar using Breath and possibly ambient Voidlight. When Shashara gave the Command she was open to Nergaoul at the time and NB was awakened with an additional and unintended amount of Odium's investiture. This leads to NB being more bloodthirsty and probably more powerful than it rightfully should have been. This would also make me feel better about Vasher killing his love. Perhaps, during their trials with NB they ended up massacring Rosharans. Then, Vasher under the influence of the Thrill killed Shashara out of a mixture of bloodlust and horror at how wrong NB was. Additionally, black seems to be the color of Odium's captured investiture although not his metal. So this could explain NB's color change post awakening. There are also the more specific similarities between NB and the Thrill like the internal commanding and thumping coming from both influences. Please let me know if you all have felt similar or if I'm just plain crazy.

Is it possible that the black spheres held the/some Fused? Holding an Unmade in a gem would seem to have to be the size of the one in the vault that Odium's forces attempted to steal. So perhaps, the Fused were captured previously and these gems were a way to release them or be used to sacrafice a Fused to summon an Unmade from wherever they were trapped.

Hmm, interesting. Perhaps Pattern's apparent lack of invisibility is all in Shallan's head like the slave brands for Kaladin. Maybe she has such hate and fear for her truths surrounding Pattern that she causes a paranoia for herself that isn't real at all. Do we have an example from someone else's perspective of them seeing Pattern unpermitted? And no, Syl does not count.