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I am assuming that with spoiler tag in the title, The Thrill is fair game on this forum? At any rate, this is less about the actual things we learn from the flashbacks, and more about Brandon's writing. Has anyone else read the flashback at the dinner party and thought that Dalinar sounded like he was separated at birth from Wayne?

I am in the process of a pre-WoR re-read and had heard the rumors that Shallash is Baxil's mistress so when reading this time through, I kept an eye out in particular for any herald-spotting. I noticed that when Navani mentions Dalinar's wife's name, it comes out as Shshshsh. This could just be the sound of the wind as Dalinar thinks, or it could be somehow a hint that his wife was Shallash. Given the lifespan of the heralds, I assume they have become accomplished at faking their own deaths. If Baxil's mistress is Shallash and she is going around and destroying images of herself, then maybe there is some affinity between Heralds and the Nightwatcher and that is why knowledge of her was wiped from Dalinar's memory. This is a bit of a roundabout thought and likely goes beyond what the Nightwatcher is capable of, but maybe Shallash even went to the Nightwatcher and asked for her memory to be removed from Dalinar's mind - which lead to Renarin's blood weakness and Dalinar going west and asking for him to be cured (if that was indeed his boon). It would also lead Adolin and Renarin to have herald-blood, if that ends up having any significance. Just a thought that occurred while I was reading, curious to see if anyone thought the same or similar.

These two were the only (surviving) highprinces to join Dalinar at the Battle of Narak. What do you think their roles will be during Oathbringer? Will they continue to work with and support Dalinar?

Does it explicitly say that Dalinar's lack of being able to remember his former wife or hear her name is a CURSE from the nightwatcher? I ask, because I was discussing it with a friend and I always assumed that it was his BOON. My theory is that he asked the Nightwatcher to take away the pain from the death of his wife, and the form of the BOON was to forget her completely, and that we don't know yet what the curse is. But I wanted to verify if it says it's a curse explicitly. Thanks.

Words of Radiance Spoilers below, please be warned. Perhaps I failed to follow something, however this seems to be an oversight in Words of Radiance. We start out with a conversation between Dalinar and Amaram in which Dalinar shows Amaram his irrefutable evidence of Amaram's deceitful nature. Dalinar reveals that he had planted the rumor that the Herald Talanel spoke of a treasure of Shardblades hidden in a cave. Dalinar had placed Talanel's blade in the cave, but only after having bonded with it. He then summoned the blade after Amaram had thought he successfully stole it. The important distinction to recall here is that Dalinar bonded with Talanel's blade. Later in the book Dalinar is speaking with the Stormfather and wishes to bond him. The stormfather tells Dalinar that he will have to get rid of his shardblade, which we have learned is essentially the undead corpse of a spren (rather metal in my opinion). Dalinar drops the blade and instantly breaks his bond. This is the part I have a question about, as it does not make sense, and if it does make sense it paints a very different picture of Talanel. We learn from both Sylphrena and the internal monologue of Szeth that the original shardblades were made by Honor, whom Dalinar refers to as the Almighty. We also learn that these blades are different from other shardblades in that they give the wielder surgebinding powers, and are referred to as Honorblades. This was later imitated by the spren who wanted to follow in the footsteps of Honor and help fight the Desolations, thus creating the Radiants. This sets up the conflict that I read with Dalinar's conversation with the Stormfather. The Honorblades are not spren corpses like the rest of the shardblades. The honorblades give surgebinding capabilities to the wielders. With those two statements held to be true, we have to ask two questions: 1.) Why was Dalinar unable to inhale Stormlight until after he bound the Stormfather if he was bonded to an Honorblade? and 2.) Why did the Stormfather have Dalinar cast aside his shardblade if it was not a spren corpse, but in fact an Honorblade? I can arrive at two separate conclusions for this. One is simple, there was a Continuity error and it was missed in editing. There was never meant to be any hidden meaning behind Dalinar bonding a Herald's Honorblade, and it's a miniscule issue in what has so far been an exemplary piece of fantasy writing. The second conclusion is a little heavier. This is the assumption that Sanderson and his editors are far more diligent than I am, and in fact intended every scene. This implies that either the Herald Talanel bonded a shardblade other than an Honorblade; or Talanel is not a Herald. If this is the case, it could suggest a follow up, if Talanel is not a herald, is it possible that the man who saves Szeth is not a Herald either? I am very interested to hear anyone else's input on this. I am new to the forum, and it is possible this has been discussed before and I haven't found the thread, if so I apologize.

It's kind of funny how a reread can change perspectives, I've noted a few things here but feel free to add your own/throw rocks and fruit. Shallan For one, I definitely found Shallan much less annoying on reread. I mean, she still feels too Suey. But I used to find her chapters a chore to get through, and now less so. I still don't really like her wit, mainly because she gets praised for stuff that is just kinda weak and bland (maybe that is Vorin wit?) but I actually found her chapters to be a nice contrast to Kaladin's grim early WoK chapters and his later heavy brooding chapters. In general it was really cool to see her come out of her shell and to (re)learn a lot of the stuff about Roshar with her. I will say this though, the mind blanking stuff is frustrating as allthing. Kaladin Wow. You really notice the tendency to self flagellate on the reread, and the racism against lighteyes. Overall I was actually rather surprised how much less I liked Kal on the reread. Not to mention the number of times he could have done better if he'd acted different. Top marks for genuinely struggling to function and having legitimate issues with authority and emotions. This aside though, I was still pleased with how cool he could be. Maybe because I noticed how close to the edge he was through so much of WoK and how torn up he gets in WoR. Adolin Wow. Adolin is way nicer than I remember. Maybe it is just because he is fighting in so many of his chapters I always kinda imagined him as a brasher, darker character. Maybe that's just because of how WoR ends. But even right up to Sadeas I was in his corner and thinking about it I still am. I mean on my first read I was very into Dalinar and Kaladin, but I think in general Adolin comes across as a much nicer, cooler character. Maybe even too cool. I mean, awesome at the sword, funny, stands up for the little guys, makes choices based on solid evidence, and the one time he does actually lose his temper and snap it is to kill a man who has just declared that he's pretty untouchable, unashamed and won't stop at anything. Noting this, I am definitely in Adolin's corner with Sadeas. Much more than I was on the first read. It is pretty comparable to the situation with Straff in Mistborn so far as I see it, maybe even more justified. Dalinar I was actually surprised by how little Dalinar does and how much of a doormat he is for so much of tWoK and how little he does in WoR. Really. I remembered him as pretty solidly badass with the rest of the Highprinces acting like kids, but he drops the ball on so many occasions it is actually surprising. Still a good character, but I spent way more time than was healthy... puzzled...by how he acted. I suppose the big thing that struck me if how often we're told he is a good commander or leader, but how rarely we see it. I'm honestly surprised he got as many Highprinces as he did at the end of WoR. Strangely enough, I actually think in a lot of ways Dalinar might be the most human SA character. On the first read, especially with the gap between WoK and WoR, I didn't really notice just how haunted he was by Gavilar's death and how isolated he was. This may have come across as pretty negative, but I don't mean it that way, I actually might be happier with how the books are now.

Hello, I recently read two books of Stormlight Archive, and they are the first I have read from Brandon Sanderson. Those were mildly a good surprise, and I did enjoy reading through them. So far, I like - Kaladin - Hoid - Jasnah - Adolin - Renarin - Elhokar - Pattern - Tien - Amaram - Hesina - Lirin - Sigzil Dalinar and Shallan though...I'm not sure what to make of them.

From the end of WOR, it seems we have two groups who are or will grow to be the main powers on Roshar: the Taravangian led Diagram; and the Dalinar led Radiants (I know that he does not truly lead them but he is the closest that they have right now). While I am sure other groups will come into play, I am not sure that they will be able to match these groups easily. What I want to discuss is the different plans for weathering the coming storm. It seems to me that the Radiant strategy will rely more around fighting their way through the desolation. I know many orders were not necessarily fighters (although they all seem to possibly get a shardblade anyway) but in my mind, the strategy is more directly confrontational. They want to protect as many people as they can while also fighting back against the voidbringers. This is what they have done in the past but never without the Heralds. It may not work well to use this same strategy, with or without them. Taravangian, on the other hand, seems to be more about survival by any means. This may be what is required to make it past the desolation this time but one wonders at the cost. It seems to me (from the quote above) that he believes as long as enough of humanity survives to allow them to repopulate, he has done his job. But this may even mean sacrificing all other humans besides this necessary seed population. The Diagram would likely see no difference between using all remaining humans to fight/protect this seed or slitting their throats themselves as long as it served their ultimate goal. Obviously, I am somewhat skeptical of the morality of the Diagram. Like I said, it may offer the best hope for Roshar but the sacrifices of the innocent that it could allow makes me wonder. I am also somewhat biased towards the glory of Radiant battles (how Alethi of me). But I do know that the Radiants will have to be and do more than they have in the past if the hope to actually make it through this fight. What do you guys think?

We know that before Dalinar, the visions were sent to Gavilar (as Taravangian knows some of its contents since Gavilar confined in him). Why? I suspect it has to do with the Way Of Kings and Alethi War Codes. Way of Kings probably is like a Bible to Radiants and if somebody follows its teachings, he or she becomes Radiant material as he or she exhibits behaviour and attitude which attracts spren. I suspect that combined with the Alethi Codes of War which, among others, contain teaching for what a leader should be, they make a Bondsmith material (as Bondsmiths seem to be about leading/uniting people: "I will unite instead of divide. I will bring men together" and the Divine Attribute of Guiding). That would explain why the next recipient after Gavilar is his own brother. Because Dalinar did what Gavilar did. Followed the same teachings. Now, I'm not sure whether Gavilar was chosen because of his actions to unite Alethkar or perhaps he united Alethkar because of the visions. I suspect it was the former, as he started behaving differently only recently. Dalinar continues his work, becoming obsessed with keeping Alethkar whole. But no, this is a distraction. Deviation. We must discuss the nature of my theory. I say that the visions are sent to those who are proto-Bondsmiths. This makes sense, as Stormfather can sense those individuals (much like Shallan's lies attracted a Cryptic, Kaladin's behaviour attracted honorspren and so on). Perhaps he doesn't want to bond them, and who says he did? Maybe Dalinar was the first to actually progress to the point of bonding the Stormfather? But I digress again. Who said Dalinar was the second one to receive the visions? Who said Gavilar was the first to receive the visions? Maybe the visions were sent to him only after the previous candidate failed/died? Let's go further with that. How many times were the visions sent throughout the history? Did Sunmaker receive them? Maybe Talenel had a hard time back then and it made Stormfather react with selecting an individual. Then Talenel pulled himself together. Then he started breaking again in the modern times and visions were sent once again.

So... The other day I was poring over the coppermind... And I saw one of hoid's lines in WoK. This one: “ Nonsense. Balderdash. Figgldygrak. Isn't it odd that gibberish words are often the sounds of other words, cut up and dismembered, then stitched into something like them—yet wholly unlike them at the same time? “I wonder if you could do that to a man. Pull him apart, emotion by emotion, bit by bit, bloody chunk by bloody chunk. Then combine them back together into something else, like a Dysian Aimian. If you do put a man together like that, Dalinar, be sure to name him Gibberish, after me. Or perhaps Gibletish. ” — Hoid to Dalinar (after namedropping Adonalsium) So... The upshot is... Considering he just brought up Adolnasium, does it seem to anyone else that Hoid is in fact talking about recombining the sixteen into a single deity again? I mean, pulling adolnasium apart is likely a reference to the shattering... But Hoid implies some kind of reconstitution of adolnasium following this. The resultant being would be different from the original adolnasium, but whole again... Is this, perhaps, Hoid's agenda? EDIT: Also, I can actually see Sanderson naming the resultant deity "gibberish". It would be in the same vein of humor as the second era Scadrial novel's "high imperial" language.

During my latest reread, the thought struck me what it will be like for Dalinar to have the Stormfather as his bonded spren. Kaladin has Syl - who exerts herselfs quite a great deal to 'keep him honorable'. Shallan has Pattern, who helps her explore the nature of truth and lies. Both 'couples' like to chat quite a lot. Dalinar has the Stormfather. The one who sent a highstorm to clean away their dead bodies from the plains. The one who started his bond with these encouraging words: "Go, Bondsmith. Lead your dying people to failure." Dalinar is supposed to unite people. To unite Alethkar, probably (non-Stormform-)Parshendi and Humans, maybe all Anti-Odium forces of Roshar. More directly, he is supposed to lead ten orders of KR, who probably contain people of very different moods and mindsets, to bring and keep them together for a common purpose. All of which needs a great deal of empathic skill, flexibility and generosity. And what help can he expect from his new 'bosom companion'? Has anyone tried to imagine what that will look like? I hope we may be in for some dry humor here. Maybe some harsh verbal sparring. But I fail to picture it... Ideas anyone?

This craziness started here. So, here's the theory: Dalinar's wife is Vivenna who is currently Nightwatcher. What I'm proposing here is: Vivenna took over the entity known as Nightwatcher, merging with it. In exchange for boon, she takes Breath of the person who asked for it... the thing is, Rosharans don't have easily detachable part of the soul, so it causes complications. Neurotypical complications, known currently as 'curses'. Prior to taking over Nightwatcher, she was Dalinar's wife. She worldhopped to Roshar with Vasher and that's why Zahel likes Dalinar's kids. Because they are Vivenna's kids. That also explains their hair. Dalinar thinks he went to Nightwatcher, because he did. With Vivenna. Then she merged with Nightwatcher and took his Breath (or rather equivalent of it), what caused his memory loss. And what made him broken which opened possibility of the bond to the Stormfather. Vivenna gathers all these 'Breaths' in attempt to check whether there is Eleventh Heightening. What she plans to do with it, I don't know. Maybe a stronger Type IV BioChromatic Entity?

i have been thinking and reading several threads have led me to think about the visions. A death rattle was recorded by an individual known to have visions during high storms. Gavilar had them (is there actual proof of that?) and Dalinar has them. Can multiple people have these visions? Are they the same for everyone? How does a vision work? It seems that Dalinar can interact very specifically with his visions. He can fight beasts, the radiant notices his skill at fighting and tells him to go to Urithiru to become a radiant. Does this have an impact on the past or the man (Heb?) who's body he was in during the vision? Did he influence Nohadon to write the Way of Kings? Is there more to this than we have seen so far?

I speculate that before the end of SLA Dalinar will assume Honor’s power and become Honor himself. My reasons: Dalinar is the Bondsmith, currently the only one. His spren is the Stormfather. I’ve stated elsewhere that Bondsmiths are the purest expression of Honor among the KR orders. They “bind” like Honor himself. After Honor’s death, the Stormfather assumed Honor’s power. The Stormfather has yet to manifest itself in the Physical Realm. He refuses to be a “Shard” for Dalinar. Dalinar is the first character Brandon thought of who is in SLA. If Odium is ever to be defeated, Honor’s ability to re-bind Odium seems like it would be important. That means his power, now held by the reluctant Stormfather, will have to be exercised as a whole by someone else. Add it all up, Honor will need to re-appear before the end. Who is a better candidate that Dalinar? Edited to reflect Matt Snow's correction.

Words of Radiance, Chapters 59, 60 and 61 Epigraphs, pages 725, 733, and 746 (emphasis mine). We know this to be Frost, the Dragon from Yolen, replying to Hoid's letter. Over the last few years, people have teased some answers out of Brandon here and there, and we now know that Hoid was actually the name of Hoid's master many years ago. And, obviously, the current alias is Wit, but what about that first part? Another quote somewhere (I couldn't find it, though) states that one of Hoid's old names was Topaz (correct me if I'm wrong), so it could be that Frost is asking after his aliases, after all, he opens without knowing to whom he should address his letter. I could be that "the gemstone" is simply a reference to his old name, and that that alias died, and Hoid did whatever regeneration thing he does, moved on, and picked a new name. I do not think that that is the case. The Way of Kings, Chapter 57, page 801 (emphasis mine) I hereby theorize that it is the gemstone itself that died, not the alias itself. Perhaps something Hoid did "killed" it, or him using it lead to its "death." More on this later. Now, I was reading through some WoBs, and I found this: Which relates to the section in WoR chapter 54 when Hoid name-drops Adonalsium, blows it off, talks about taking people apart and stitching them back together, and says his goodbyes to Dalinar. I would say that this subject was very important to Hoid, as Dalinar notes that he seems preoccupied, which is quite unusual. This WoB tells us a few things. 1. The secret society that Gavilar was part of knew, at the very least, the name "Adonalsium." 2. The secret society also knows more about the History of the Knights Radiant, Honor, and the Desolations, than the average Rosharan. 3. Hoid needs to know about them for some reason. What else do we know about Gavilar? Not much, except that he handed Szeth a black glowing sphere upon his death, saying "they must not get it." Another WoB I found: I theorize that this sphere is the gemstone after which Hoid was named, and it has since died, which is why it has gone black and weird. Hoid is looking for it, which is why he wanted to know if Dalinar knew anything about Gavilar's secret society. Frost asked if he has given up on it, now that it is dead. Perhaps he meant "given up on looking for it," rather than "given up on the alias." Source. Since Brandon didn't correct the questioner, this could confirm that the black sphere was at least a gemstone. So? Thoughts? Feel free to poke holes, theorize, and add to this as you will. Thank you for reading.

Weee, random theory time. I've been in the mood for a reread recently, and though I have not yet gotten around to going through WoK and WoR, I have been thinking about a few things that I wanted to keep an eye out for. That carried me through to thinking about the ending of WoR, and the scene where the Stormfather bonds with Dalinar. ...[We don't need to tag WoR spoilers, it being the last released book and all, do we? I would have posted this later, but the quote I was after was actually brought up in another topic by Moogle. In particular, I was focusing on the underlined parts below. And while it is highly likely that I am merely seeing what I wish to see here, I think the wording does leave the Stormfather with some wriggle room, in terms of alternate interpretations. From how I am reading it, there are two possible interpretations, excluding the "I'm not gonna be a Shardblade, deal with it" one. First, the Stormfather could be saying that, if he becomes a Shardblade, it will not be a "normal" variant, and while he can take sword form, it would be his choice, not Dalinar's, though I deem this one somewhat unlikely. Second, a more likely variant, is that his Shardblade form is normal, but again, he will take it on his terms. So I am hoping, though I think it may be unlikely, that we will get another "Stretch forth thy hand" moment, albeit with less awkward Old English, and the full dramatic effect of the Stormfather entering the fray, rather than merely hurling Stormlight from the sidelines. ... It would appear that there is a similar topic in existence, though it has a slightly different spin on it. Not sure if I should have created a new one, or Necro'd the old one, but it is a good time to find out.

So, I've been thinking on this for a while, and wanted some extra insight on it. So, at the end of Words of Radience, as Dalinar bonds with the Stormfather, the Stormfather makes him cast aside the Shardblade he is bonded to. Because of the Amaram subplot, we know Dalinar is currently bonded with Taln's(the madman we assume to be the Herald) blade, which, if he is in fact a Herald, would make this blade an Honorblade. However, when Dalinar summons it, he still hears the screams of the dead spren. However, when Kaladin took Szeth's Honorblade, he heard no screams. Does this mean that the man we assume to be Taln the Herald is not in fact the Herald? Or does it mean that Taln lost his Honorblade somewhere along the way? Any input is greatly appreciated. I hope I got some of ya'll's gears turning.

I may have stumbled onto the answer to two running mysteries during a recent reread of The Way of Kings. The theory is running so strong in my head I was forced to register to these forums to see what others think. I've yet to see this theory anywhere yet which is amazing considering the vast multitude that these forums produce. There are a few pieces of information that are needed as a base so I'll go through those first. In Chapter 61 we get part of the answer. The curse he speaks of is of course his loss of memories of his dead wife. Few doubt this obvious part, but the Boon has been more elusive. Later in Interlude I-7 Many have commented on the unlikelihood or seeming incongruous nature that nearly every Kholin character is either a surgebinder or at least has been seeing spren. When the other surgebinders from the interludes and Kaladin have been far apart and alone, every single one of Dalinar's family is becoming a Knight's Radiant. In Words of Radiance Interlude I-9, Wyndle says that Lift was chosen for him to bond to because she had visited the Nightwatcher. That there is the connection. The Boon Dalinar received was for every one of his relatives to become a surgebinder. Now of course this wouldn't be what he asked for. Surgebinding was a fantasy at the time. His request was almost certainly more like "I wish that all members of my house to succeed in whatever way they wish," but the Nightwatcher through some form of Cultivations clairvoyance knew that surgebinders would be needed and the Alethi would need them more than any others. I like this as his request because it is vague enough where he could believe to have been granted it without being aware of what was actually delivered. I have no direct confirmation of this theory, but the fact that it can solve two ongoing mysteries at once just feels right.