Lightdancer

Idea fusion. I like it.

As far as foreshadowing for this goes, we have a lot. This isn't even all of it: Kaladin struggles with the idea that "Bridge 4" as it once was no longer exists. As someone mentioned above, he questions Tien for going out with the other spearmen. He's always had a... let's say "possessiveness." Especially in the Way of Kings, he refers to Bridge Four as "they're my men" (emphasis mine). Now, that's not all bad- Bridge Four kind of needed someone to take ownership and leadership of them, and Kaladin has always strived to help them. But he does have a tendency to accumulate little groups of people whom he struggles to let go: spearmen, slaves, bridgemen, Singers, wall guards, space-whales... I digress. I think there's a lot of foreshadowing for a Fifth oath related to giving people agency. I don't think this is a huge flaw in Kaladin (at least not to the extent that it could be), but I would like to see him acknowledge that other people have agency for their choices and actions, and it's not all his fault. He's already begun to acknowledge this by ROW, but an Oath might be a nice way to tie that up.

Well, reading the theory, I think this would be epic. One note on this that I don't think has been mentioned yet in this thread. Kaladin has "set aside" the spear at the end of RoW. As Jofwu quoted, he need to take time away from the battlefield. During RoW itself, the spear turned into a symbol of Kaladin's life as a soldier on the front lines, and he went through a lot of turmoil when he "picked it up" to defend Urithiru. So when I read this death rattle (in the context of Kaladin taking Dalinar's place), it sounds like picking up "the fallen title" may come with some sort of combat role. I'm not happy about that, because Kaladin needs his rest and therapy, but I can visualize a cool Sanderlanch where Dalinar dies, becomes a Fused, or Ascends, and Kaladin has to take his place in the middle of a battle and turn the tide.

Just one?... Kaladin, since he's my favorite. It might be difficult to get him into a conversation, though. The optimal situation is Kaladin, Adolin and Shallan all together. Now that would be a good conversation.

Wow! These are great. Have you considered drawing Leshwi?

Oh! Good catch. I agree; that’s probably not what Brandon is trying to do. I’m going to have to think about this more. It sounds like you’re on the right track.

That was very enjoyable. I think a more useful way would be to think of the conjoiners as lying on a frictionless surface, with the positive direction parallel to the ground. That negates the extra acceleration from gravity that's throwing that scenario out of wack. (The surface is frictionless so that our fictional friction can take real friction's place in the equation.) What I said above depends on a possibly-wrong assumption. In real physics, objects dropping like that would experience no friction (besides air resistance). However, objects moving along a surface would experience friction, since the normal force is pressing them into the ground. (The force of friction is equal to -FNμ, with FN normally equaling the force perpendicular to the main force. Thus, if FN=0, there is no friction.) However, we've seen no reason for this to apply to conjoiners, since there would be no "normal force" affecting them. (Perhaps there's a Spiritual Realm equivalent?) When I visualize this situation, I leave out the ropes entirely and assume that whatever forces are exerted on the first mass are exerted on the second, and vice versa. I drew this diagram: Unfortunately that loaded sideways, but I basically drew a diagram of the force exerted on each mass. Since each individual mass had more force exerted on it than if it were falling on its own, it accelerates faster. For example, if F2=M2g, then M1 accelerates at A1=F2/M1+g, or A1=(M2/M1+1)g. In other words, each mass will accelerate faster than if it were falling on its own. How much faster depends on both masses. In the simplest language, both conjoiners would fall faster. That doesn't address how "decay" would affect this situation. I would assume that the greater the distance between the conjoiners, the smaller the additional acceleration would be. Hopefully that makes sense. Feel free to correct my math.

Brilliant. Have an upvote.

This isn't for any particular purpose. I've just noticed that there are a lot of popular options for Odium's champion (Gavinor, Adolin, Szeth), while there are some people that never seem to come up. I haven't scored the forums to see if these people have been mentioned- if I list your theorized champion feel free to call me out. Jasnah Renarin Lift Navani Lirin Rock Chanarach, or really any not-too-prominent Herald (although, there are some cool Shallan theories that could take Chanarach off the list) Felt Thaidakar Iyatil I can't really think of anyone else- I really wanted to bring up Jasnah though. Let me know who I missed.

That... that is true. Huh.

Completely separate from the rest of these trains of thought, I could see the Skybreakers historically following a strict "Just War" or battlefield code. Maybe if we had more good Skybreakers, we'd see something like this develop.

We already have an instance of a Lightweaver confronting an Unmade- two of them (three if you count Sja Anat). The most intense confrontation was Shallan's confrontation with the Midnight Mother in Uririthu (Oathbringer). I don't remember the scene exactly, but I think it was implied that the Unmade (the Midnight Mother) had encountered a Lightweaver before. Also, Shallan only drove her away- it seemed like it was possible for her to do more.

Ready the anti-voidlight bombs. (Maybe evacuate everyone first, though.)

Mistborn Secret History spoilers:

I have a similar story. I read Oathbringer first. When I started Warbreaker I realized I recognized that mysterious talking sword...