Windseeker

I don't want him to fail and be infallible at the same time. When I wrote that post, what I meant by it is that, even though the outcome was the same in my example(Elhokar and a bunch of other people dying), Kaladin attempting to save through more than a plea would have felt better than him remaining idle throughout that ordeal. And I completely agree that he's only human(Especially when Oathbringer is aimed at forgiving/accepting oneself with all the good and bad that comes with the package). I realize that there are many sensible, in-depth explanations that detail the cause of his hesitation, but like I said in the post above, I sorta expected him to have grown a thicker skin given all that he's been through so far.

Wow, you people are amazing at dissecting a character's psyche and explaining what happened 'behind the scenes' so to speak. Thank you all for contributing so far! I think the reason I found the part where he freezes is a two-fold matter: 1) Everything just happened incredibly fast. One moment, our team is surrounded, and the next, people start dropping dead. It's brutally realistic and portrayed the helplessness of Kaladin very well, which I guess is what made me wish for him to intervene so much. 2) Given what Kaladin has been through, I assumed he grew a thicker skin over time. He did discover ways to cope with his problems(Most recent being his burning desire to get out of Shadesmar to protect Dalinar), so I guess I expected him to be less vulnerable to the horrors of combat. 3) Actually there's a third point, now that I think of it. Given how quickly he bonded with the Wall Guard, I believed he'll prioritize them over the Parshmen(Even Kaladin admits that it felt unfair to have these people accept him so quickly when it took months to convince the bridgemen to get out of their sorry state). Anyway, I suppose that's the beauty of a book. Everybody interprets things differently, so it's very neat to have you folks contribute with your opinions on this matter and paint these other, different pictures in lavish detail that I can totally understand and appreciate. Also, on the matter of Kaladin's scars, do you believe the reasons they don't heal are tied to his fourth/fifth ideal? Sort of like Dalinar's own painful past that allowed him to become a new man in the end?

Kaladin is hardly infallible. If anything, he has a lot of unresolved issues he needs to attend, and his stubborness--or worse, ignorance--in the face of those only makes matters all the more difficult for him. I guess I'd like him more if he didn't have this very strange sense of pride to him. It always breaks my heart a little when he ignores sensible advice from Syl, who clearly wants to help, but throws that aside in favor of self-pity. Not to mention that he has the tendency to take over the leadership like he did in the palace, which impeded the retreat of his squad by trying to get everybody to stop. Like...what was he thinking? The bridgemen took a while before they started to listen to him, and suddenly he expects everybody to do as he bids in an instant? I'm happy that he's flawed; hardships is what I love to read about, given that my other favorite book series is "A Song of Ice and Fire." I completely understand that a character's growth is a long and arduous process, but with Kaladin, it feels like the payoff is often insufficient. I want him to make mistakes, but what irks me is that his mistakes keep happening over the same reason, over and over again. Let's consider another example. Let's assume that Kaladin grits his teeth, cuts through the Parshmen that used to be his friends, runs Moash through and saves Elhokar temporarily. An archer--or a fused, or somebody else--still manages to kill Elhokar, so Kaladin still failed his task, per se. However, I would have felt mega proud of him, for at least he tried. He did his best with what has been given, and stuck to his ideals of protecting those who can't protect themselves. He could anguish over the lives he took, and the choices he made, later. But at least he would have done something instead of nothing. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like him abandoning his duties to his squad is an unforgivable sin. It's like his first, most sacred of goals(The one that is shown in the very first chapter featuring Kaladin in "Way of Kings", to protect those under his responsibility) didn't matter in the face of that one moment of indecision. That's what frustrates me. The one thing he repeats to himself over and over is the one he can't fulfill.....

I was 90% certain that Azure was a Herald during the first few chapters that included her character. It would have played brilliant with the plot if it turned out to be such, as it would have allowed the Heralds to at least redeem themselves. I've always rooted for the possibility where the Heralds(At least the more sane ones) try to make amends for what happened. I'm not sure why Brandon resorted to bringing in characters from other worlds and mixing them into the current plot. It runs the very high risk of opening up gaping plot holes, or logical flaws that will be very difficult to explain(For instance, do the people on Roshar have a Breath? Can they surrender their Breath to somebody from the Warbreaker planet?). It does solidify the concept of a common universe for his novels, but it also takes away a sliver of a novel's identity by introducing elements foreign to it(Such as Nightblood that can vaporize the biggest and most badass of dudes). Leave a world's internal matters to its denizens is what I say XD I agree that Aesudan could have used more foreshadowing. I guess another disappointing factor is that, for all her scouting and infiltration tactics, Shallan didn't really discover anything. All that build-up, all the preparations to infiltrate the Cult of Moments, and her only discovery is "Yep, there's an Unmade there." No rust sherlock.... I also didn't understand why she fled the way she did. Sure, the Heart of the Revel was getting into her mind, but she was still expected to find a way to deal with it later, so why not at least stay a bit longer and see how much she can resist its influence? With Kaladin, I honestly expected him to fight for those he's responsible for. I have always interpreted his Ideals as "I'll be loyal to the faction I belong to" so it felt natural for him to defend the Wall Guard and his team, no matter who he has to fight to see to their safety. By freezing he did a disservice to everybody, as they massacred each other anyway.

First he rescues the people he feels responsible for(Enrolling to save tien and later on Bridge four), then he gets over his dislike of Lighteyes and saves not only Dalinar, but also Adolin. Later on, his perspective shifts and stops Elhokar's assassination, which bestowed an aura of maturity upon him that I really hope it would last. However, in Oathbringer he not only fails "To save the ones he can" by freezing up in the palace and letting all those people get massacred(Including Elhokar, who he was prepared to die for in WoR but now he just lets Moash casually walk in and run him through), but he's convinced by Syl that, "It's okay to let others save you." What's his journey supposed to accomplish? Though I understand the direction in which Brandon wants to take him(To be more forgiving with himself and accept his limits instead of being an idealist), I can't help but disapprove with the means employed here. I didn't really enjoy his depression in WoR, but at least he redeemed himself by standing up for what he considered an enemy at the time(Elhokar). Yet in Oathbringer he lets all of his friends down because of an existential crisis? Wasn't he supposed to learn something from past experiences so far? He hasn't even been to Damnation to get his soul flayed, yet he's as broken as a Herald :(

I also disliked the Kholinar arc and believe it to be wasted potential. It's one of the parts that feels the most awkward coming from Brandon Sanderson because he's usually the type who really takes his time whenever a major conflict occurs, whereas here he wrapped up a major battle in about a page. My biggest qualms with the Kholinar arc is the time it took to set it up vs the reward. Objectively speaking, I totally appreciate plot twists, and I am inwardly happy that even the best of plans can be thwarted by unknown variables, which the Voidspren and the Unmade are. However, the way the arc ended bothers me the most, not how it ended. It painted the protagonists as a bunch of emotional, immature brats who can't get anything right due to crippling doubts. Sure, Shallan and Kaladin aren't soldiers in the real sense of the word(Unlike Adolin who shrugged off Elhokar's death because he knew that freezing up wasn't an option), but I want to see these two show their capabilities. I want them to make use of their past experience and show us, the audience, that they have evolved. What good does it do me that Kaladin constantly finds reasons to brood over? It just proves that the journey is barely relevant in his case, as he's still the naive darkeyes from chapter 1 of "Way of Kings" where he wants to save everybody he cares about. The biggest offender here is that, just before the big skirmish, he tells Elhokar, "Save the one you can," an advice that he blatantly ignores. Being conflicted about his views clashing with the Ideals he swears is good, but it shouldn't come at the cost of turning him into a hypocrite. Shallan is equally guilty. I won't really go into detail about her since her coping mechanism is even weirder than Kaladin's depression, but I can honestly say that this pattern starts to get repetitive. We are 3 books in now, and it's a tad irritating for the protagonists to still carry the demons they supposedly banished in books 1 and 2. I don't want Shallan and Kaladin to miraculously solve all of their problems, but to at least mature and grow a freaking spine! With great power come great responsibilities indeed, yet these two seem perfectly comfortable remaining in their cocoon while whining about how unfair life is to them.

Maybe I've missed this somewhere because I literally spent a week reading Oathbringer from dawn till dusk, but I haven't caught a mention of what the corruption of Sja-Anat actually does to the spren. They still seem to be attracted by the same emotions as the regular spren and can be used as means of contact between Sja-Anat and the people her spren touch(Though I'm not sure if this works only in Shadesmar, where the spren have full bodies, or also in the physical realm). However, 'corrupted' is a bit of a heavy word, so I'm just wondering if the alterations to the spren involve something more than just a change in design.