Mr Horrible

Yeah my bad, was the wrong phrasing. He was however flightly enough to go through almost every woman available in the shattered plains :P.

I have to disagree with the you guys who are saying this subplot isn't over, I would be extremely surprised if Shallan and Adolin were to get divorced (does it even exist on Roshar?) just going from Brandon's previous works. Now there's the possibility Adolin dies, but I personally think Shallan or Kaladin are much more likely to kick the bucket first, indeed the chances of Dalinar/Shallan/Kaladin all surviving book 5 are really low imo. However, that doesn't mean I can't comment on the execution again, as apparently I can't seem to stop myself. My big issue that it feels rushed, there were threads to this subplot that I was sure would be explored and they are mostly just left hanging or have a sentence dealing with them. These include: Kaladin killing Helaran. This is less clear than the others as it's possible it's still an issue, however Shallan *really* didn't like Amaram when she thought he was responsible in a time when everyone aside from Kaladin respected Amaram. It was addressed in a paragraph early in OB where Shallan reminded herself that Kaladin was protecting his brightlord, however there's still a disconnect there for me as Amaram would have been defending his life as well. I don't know, it seemed resolved too quickly considering what was saw in WoR imo. Adolin's fickleness with women - I *really* hate the trope of a female main character being so interesting/charming/whatever that a previously womanising male character immediately changes his ways upon meeting her. This plot point felt simply abandoned, it wasn't addressed anywhere outside of in WoR when the relationship was new and Adolin would still be interested in any of his previous relationships at that point in them. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to diminish Adolin's character here, just that it's a trait of his that went out the window upon meeting Shallan. I really hate how the deciding factor - Adolin knowing the 'real' Shallan, was a solution to a problem that was almost completely confined to this book. People theorised about Kaladin liking Veil or vice versa but that wasn't well supported at all in WoR and was a guess at what might happen. It's more annoying because prior to this book no one really contested that Kaladin had a better understanding of Shallan than Adolin did. Shallan was explicitly wearing a false persona around Adolin for almost the entirety of WoR and Kaladin saw right through it even before the chasm scene (admittedly Kaladin's distrust of all lighteyes helped with that). Heck even in OB Kaladin was the only one to work out what Shallan was doing with her safehand in Kholinar. This ties in with @Naerin's post about how the roles seem very forced. Kaladin's quote about not actually liking Shallan romantically just seems... Odd. We have viewpoints of him being attracted to her and Syl (his closest companion) has shipped the heck out of it for some time, but then Brandon throws in that line? It's fine for Shallan to choose Adolin even though Kaladin likes her too, I don't think you need to backtrack on that. Admittedly yes I would have preferred to see Shallan and Kaladin, but my biggest issue is in the handling which felt extremely rushed, particularly at the end. This book introduced some great reasons why Adolin was the better choice for Shallan, but a lack of time makes some of them feel forced to me.

So I really disliked this subplot and particularly its resolution. Fair call I was wanting Shallan/Kaladin, but my problems aren't really with them not getting together but rather with how everything happened. All the way through the book Shallan/Veil are crushing on Kaladin, Jasnah even explicitly called her out on this early on and absolutely nothing changed. It persisted nearly all the way up until the final few scenes before the wedding and I'm just like "...", now obviously she loves Adolin however this felt so rushed that I wonder if Brandon condensed it based on reader feedback. It seems the only purpose to this subplot was differentiating Veil/Shallan/Radiant and I'm not a fan, they always felt distinct from the start. Idk we have several scenes of Syl really pushing Kaladin to find someone (whoever that is), in which case I expect that he will.

My guess would be: "I cannot save everyone, but I will save those I can".

damnation, that's pretty harsh of Syl then. Although I guess she can hardly know that Dalinar is about to go super saiyan.

I mean Adolin, it was when they were in Shadesmar and Adolin was wounded, Syl was pushing Kaladin to say the words and he couldn't.

I think it's about accepting that some people he leads will die or fighting for the living, Kaladin clearly still has issues surrounding this. I guess somewhat ironically, accepting that people will die and progressing through the windrunner ideals would make Kaladin more capable of saving people. Edit: it was also implied pretty strongly that if Kaladin spoke the fourth ideal then Adolin would survive.

I have to agree here, I think this and the number of viewpoints in the climax make me disagree with the pre-reviews I read that said this book was the best so far (I mean I also slightly preferred TWoK to WoR, which doesn't seem to be the consensus). I also really like Kaladin and this book was a lot of set up for him without much resolution, admittedly this was probably necessary to avoid every book being 'Kaladin says an oath and kicks chull' at the end. Yeah, I believe Shallan thought about it precisely once around Kaladin? When you compare that to her reaction to Amaram (who was respected by everyone at the time) there's quite the disconnect there for me. Heh, I agree. I also did not get the impression previously that we were being set up for that in WoR. Sure people theorised when Shallan's personalities became more prominent in the preview chapters but this seems like quite a cop out to me. Idk combining it with Shallan choosing Adolin because he knows her, which if you step back a book was the opposite (I mean even in OB that safehand scene has only Kaladin work out what she did). I personally wonder if Brandon made cuts because the love triangle angle was not popular with readers, if this was the case I question the need for it at all, there was quite a lot of Veil->Kaladin in this book and I don't understand why you'd have that much and then rush the conclusion. I agree again. I think the most important part for Taravangian/the KR was the revelation that Surgebinding destroyed their previous planet. Now this might be enough to cause them to set it aside when it's been 2000 years since the last desolation and they show no sign of starting again, but in a situation where there's a huge threat in Odium I don't really understand why anyone would expect the KR to not use any weapons they have available. I also agree and wonder how on earth Nale didn't know who the original voidbringers were, or perhaps he's been working for the Singers for a long time? Sure, although I expected more from the diagram, unless Taravangian has a bigger plan he just rolled over (I'm hoping the former tbh). Odium clearly wanted Taravangian's assistance, it was discussed in blatant terms in the scene, which makes the claim that Odium will only negotiate with Stupid!Taravangian rather suspect to me. I guess I just don't really buy that the Diagram is so complex that it could predict events years and years into the future but not account for Odium potentially hardballing negotiations. This does tie in with people wondering if empathy is how Taravangian has the capacity to save the world rather than his intelligence, I hope there's something more here. I disgree here, we haven't seen them all and that Unbound that helps Shallan/co (and presumably corrupted Glys) has a bunch of possibilities. I have a couple more things that I feel were glossed over when I expected them not to be: Adolin's murder of Sadeas - had a whole 2 paragraphs or so of ramifications for Adolin's character. I didn't particularly like how Amaram was handled, it seems like we are moving on to the Unbound being the big threats, but that makes me question why have Kaladin develop past Amaram only to give him a powerup to make him relevant and then kill him off. Idk, it wasn't particularly satisfying for me to see Amaram basically be the poster boy for what would have happened to Dalinar (especially considering Moash also fills this role).

I don't think Adolin has ever really gone head to head vs Kaladin with a spear or the Blackthorn.

Minor SA3 spoilers: On a more general level I don't really understand why breaking the bonds would cause spren to die. They would lose their consciousness in the physical realm due to breaking the Nahel bond however Syl's talked many times about what she has done in shadesmar when she wasn't bonded to Kaladin. Now the shardblades I understand due to the KR effectively trapping their spren in the physical realm by breaking their bonds while their spren were blades. Does the Nahel bond expose them to these vulnerabilities if the oaths are broken? Even so if spren are *mostly* representations of belief on the cognitive realm, wouldn't killing them involve forgetting?

This might well have merit too, we've seen Kaladin's internal monologue about the effects of stormlight and what happens when it runs out, Kaladin would have been using a lot of stormlight for quite some time and the lack of it may be influencing his mood. However the fact that it had been over a day since he ran out of stormlight would probably rule this out, unless we're seeing the effects of an addiction.

Well the rest of the world isn't prepared at all for a storm going in the opposite direction that turns all their Parshmen into voidbringers, perhaps all communication infrastructure was wiped out when the Everstorm went through? Well Kaladin has only touched 3 (did he grab one while training at all?) shardblades (and 1 honorblade), of those Shallan's was the one like his. Now you might be correct in saying that since Syl was 'dead' and Kaladin didn't have access to his bond, he might not have heard normal blades scream. However this is an assumption (one I don't agree with given that Kaladin's bond clearly was not completely severed) and barely leads to an inconsistency. You are correct that the size changing aspect is better proof though. Well if she was overseeing the murder of Jasnah would it not make sense to be in the same region? Particularly when she would want to see a body to confirm Jasnah is actually dead, as the ghostbloods do know of some KR abilities. Also the fact that the person overseeing Jasnah's murder was a ghostblood is hardly a coincidence when they are the group that's established to want her dead. Now I don't agree with this purely because of Moash. If Graves immediately forced the issue who knows what it might have caused Moash to do, as he was a member of Bridge Four and likely capable of foiling the assassination if he felt so inclined. As far as Moash not ending it quickly, well that makes sense too given what he says as well as his history with Kaladin. As far as the hint goes, it's clear that Graves is in shock and not thinking properly. Perhaps the fencing is designed to simulate the stances and reach of a shardplate user? It would also be likely that a 1 handed stance is better against spear bearers. I agree that using such a long and relatively heavy weapon with one hand would be rather stupid in a duel with another shardblade user though.

As other people have said, Kaladin returned to find his hometown in ruins and everyone missing and quite possibly killed by the Everstorm-effected Parshmen. Would you like him to crack wise in this scenario? Even with the gloomspren, comparing this Kaladin to the one in the slave wagons is absurd as well, I'd suggest you have a reread. Why? I would imagine Kaladin has pretty decent credit given his new status as a KR, not to mention he seems to have left the honorblade in Ulrithu, which would be rather overkill as collateral. The idea that Dalinar wouldn't lend the spheres to anyone in the new KR circle is frankly absurd. Maybe he's not eager to find his parents dead? Are you saying two guardsmen who likely haven't even been to the shattered plains are a threat to Kaladin? I mean sure he doesn't have stormlight currently, but he's been fighting for a long time and significant stormlight usage is a new occurrence, not to mention the whole shardblade/spear thing. It seems like you're reading entirely too much into this and I don't find this particular conclusion logical at all.

I disagree with you using the SA3 Kaladin excerpt as indication he's going to be just as depressed and mopey as he was previously. We were dropped into a pretty terrible situation where Kaladin didn't beat the Everstorm and Hearthstone had been ruined with no one in sight. Come on now, any character would have shown much the same emotions in this situation.

I imagine there's going to be quite the high death toll for our current viewpoint characters, especially Kaladin and Dalinar. Jasnah will be the one to have a post-mortem flashback book imo.