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So I've been kicking around in my head for awhile some music of the Cosmere and their characters. I messaged @Chaos about this and he said as long as I spoilered the lyrics and tagged the thread as explicit it should be ok. It is kinda hard to find music that doesn't have cursing in it, to fit this violent galaxy, but I was wondering what everyone else thought. So I read the original Mistborn trilogy awhile back, and then heard this song and it immediately attached itself to the first era Mistborn in my head. It's My Name is Human by Highly Suspect. Lyrics: Dalinarar from Oathbringer in his early years is incredibly murderous and the song Scream Aim Fire from Bullet For My Valentine seems to fit him well. Lyrics: The last one in for Kaladin and also kind of a joke. How to Save a Life by The Frey. Lyrics: Thoughts? Any other characters you have in your head? Disagreements, maybe you think of different songs? Am I the only person that matches music to books they read? Hope no one is offended by the songs picked.

Warning: This post discusses romantic relationships, so do not proceed if that it not your thing At Brandon's signing last weekend, we got an interesting WoB where a fan asked about Kaladin's proficiency with the spear... and Brandon ended up taking the conversation around to a Connection (appears to be Cosmere capitalized Connection) between Syl and Shallan. I am specifically interested in the latter point. The link for the WoB is here and text below, with the part about Syl and Shallan in bold. I'll discuss my thoughts after the text. The scene Brandon is mentioning is in WoR, text copied below, and I personally had no idea this was supposed to be Shallan. At the very least, this is a specific reveal that Syl "knew" Shallan, in a similar way to the fact she "knew" Kaladin prior to actually meeting her. (With hopefully a different outcome though! Don't know how I'd feel about Syl bonding Shallan... ) The context for this is that Kaladin is training his men in the chasms, and Syl is discussing the danger she faced in coming to find Kaladin. On the face of it, she is encouraging Kaladin that he is not alone, that other spren are struggling against the prohibition for bonding humans, and there will be other Radiants. Syl of course doesn't actually know Shallan, when Shallan finally shows up at the Shattered Plains, Syl doesn't recognize her, know she is a Radiant, or even sense Pattern except maybe vaguely at the 4v1 duel (there's a number of spren she could have sensed then though.) But something about the Connection between Shallan and Syl in the Spiritual Realm allows Syl to "see" Shallan in that moment. Brandon analogizes that moment to Kaladin's affinity for his spear and Syl and Kaladin's own bond. In other words... "fun Cosmere connections" language aside, it seems pretty significant. One of the things we see in OB is that Syl really likes Shallan. She encourages Kaladin multiples times to pursue Shallan, pushing against his own wishes; I would argue Kaladin would not have made even the (small) overtures he did towards Shallan if it wasn't for Syl's insistence. Syl and Shallan hang out in Shadesmar without Kaladin, including the fact Syl wants to remain with Shallan in Celebrant. (This is of course partially due to Shallan's lightweaving skills, but Syl at that point already had a lightwoven disguise.) Syl is also skeptical of Shallan's choice of Adolin at the end of OB, encouraging Kaladin to continue his pursuit, and indicating she can't see Shallan's "choice is made". All in all, we know Syl has a Connection to Shallan through the Spiritual Realm (where everything is one), and that these types of connections are "echoes" of events that are forming, not something as strong as "destiny", but still a definite "something is there." And since Syl is constantly pushing Kaladin towards Shallan, I think there's a great inference to made that Syl is "knowing" something about Shallan which is not yet explicit in real time in the Physical Realm. While not for certain (as nothing is until confirmed as such), the fact Brandon spontaneously brought this up in a question that had literally nothing to do with romance or Shallan at all, seems to be him pointing towards yet another piece of foreshadowing for Shalladin, one which was not apparent from the text, but he obviously seeded a long time ago.

Now before you people start prosecuting me, or denouncing me as a heretic hear me out. I love Kaladin, and relate to him on a personal level, but there's just one issue... Ask yourself this question: How many problems could be solved if Kaladin just told people he was a Radiant? In Words of Radiance I was practically screaming at Kaladin to tell Dalinar about his powers, which would have ended the conflict with Amaram, allowed Kaladin to protect people better by using his powers openly, and many more. Also when Kaladin goes to Hearthstone again, he does tell them, and no one cares about the "Lost Radiants" they just want protection from the Singers. In both cases there was no uproar when he said anything about his powers. Now let's take Kholinar. How much you want to bet that if Kaladin, or Shallan for that matter had told people about their powers. They could have rallied the people behind them, assaulting the palace, and saving Kholinar. This would result in many lives saved, and stopped Alethkar's collapse. I love Kaladin, and I know him being smart wouldn't make for an interesting book or character arc, but it still severely annoys me.

Below is my case for why Kadolin (Kaladin and Adolin in case that wasn't clear) is the greatest ship of all time! (Disclaimer: I know this won't happen in the books, but I still absolutely love them together.) As an intro, I love gay romance, I read probably too many of them (bless you Kindle Unlimited), and when I finished WoR, the whole reason I found this forum in the first place was to see if anyone else had picked up on the obvious romantic vibe between Kaladin and Adolin. I mean, I may have had a bit of confirmation bias, but I think there is a lot of book evidence to support them. So, onward! Kaladin and Adolin: Would They Be in a Romantic Relationship? Although gay relationships are perceived with various levels of comfort on Roshar in general, in Vorinism such relationships are perceived as the same as heterosexual relationships, though subject to the same prohibitions about premarital sexual relations. Kaladin displays no issue with Drehy’s relationship with a man, and in general neither does anyone else in Bridge Four (although Sigzil has a level of discomfort for not having the proper paperwork.) Kaladin is described of a man of passion by many people. While we have only seen him on page have romantic feelings for a woman, he could very likely translate his passion into romantic feelings for a man. In fact, Adolin is one of the people (see below for relationship timeline) that Kaladin has felt the most passion about; half of WoR is about the strong feelings they have vis-à-vis one another. We have seen another passionate dislike (Shallan) where Kaladin’s strong negative feelings turn into romantic interest, so it is likely the same could happen with Adolin. While Adolin is often seen as an admirer of women’s physical beauty, he doesn’t seem eager to have a physically intimate relationship, and in fact we can take his “missteps” in these relationships as a way of avoiding physical intimacy; if he doesn’t let a relationship progress past the introductory stage, he won’t have to be physically intimate. His one relationship which progresses to a stage with any physical intimacy (Shallan) is a relationship where his partner is determined to make it work, even ignoring his glances at other women (a tactic Adolin has used in the past to escape early from relationships with women.) When Shallan initiates physical contact with Adolin, he is hesitant to respond to it, although eventually he does reciprocate, likely because he knows this is what is expected as him. I suspect while Adolin is not incapable of romantic feelings for a woman, he strongly would lean towards a relationship with a man. We can also take Adolin’s extreme love of fashion as a hint towards his sexual preference; though we do not want to reduce gay men to stereotypes, a love of and focus on fashion is something which in popular culture (and real life, though this obviously varies) is associated with gay men. Kadolin: The Relationship's Progression and the Literary Tropes Involved Kaladin and Adolin meet in a typical dramatic scenario, as you often see in fictional romances. Adolin and his father are surrounded by enemy soldiers and likely to die. Kaladin comes in to save the day, and in the process, aggressively tells Adolin (the battlefield commander at the time) what to do. We now have a setup where Adolin resents Kaladin’s asserting authority in such a manner (especially given Kaladin’s station, as we discuss below) but at the same time knowing that Kaladin saved his life, which sets up interpersonal tension in Adolin as well as external tension between the characters. The perfect setup to have them obsess over each other! We spend most of WoR with Adolin and Kaladin progressing through your typical “enemies to lovers” romance setup. They are involved in many cute antagonistic scenes in which they challenge each other but at the same time show a growing respect between the two. (Notable scenes include the horse riding scene which leaves Adolin in awe of Kaladin, and the dueling ground scene where Kaladin observes that Adolin is a master at the sword even though they get in a fight later.) We also get to see some physical interaction between the two (fighting). At the same time, we start to see how Kaladin and Adolin work extremely well together in difficult situations, including the attack by Szeth and most notably, the 4v1 duel. The latter is of course a huge turning point for Kadolin, as after that point we see Kaladin accepting that Adolin is pretty good for a lighteyes, and Adolin actively trying to befriend Kaladin. But that doesn’t mean their prior passion and obsession over each other should go to waste… In OB, we see a further strengthening of their bond. When Amaram is appointed highprince, Adolin’s first thought it for Kaladin. When they assemble the team for Kholinar, the number one person Kaladin wants to bring is Adolin. After Kaladin freezes in Kholinar, we see Adolin’s amazing tenderness in dealing with Kaladin’s shock and defending him to Shallan when she doubts Kaladin is up to the task in infiltrating the lighthouse; Adolin is incredibly insightful that what Kaladin needs the most is a task, and in fact we see that the task of getting to Dalinar is what helps pull Kaladin out of his depression. Before we get to a couple more literary tropes, I wanted to point out that we get a couple viewpoints at the end of OB where Adolin is a bit miffed that Shallan is acting interested in Kaladin. While you could take the obvious read here, another interpretation is that Adolin is also realizing the romantic attractiveness of Kaladin, and so these moments are a bit discomforting because he’s not sure he can deal with his own feelings for Kaladin. And these feelings then lead to him wanting to get out of the betrothal with Shallan; ostensibly he is stepping aside for Kaladin to be with Shallan, but could it really be that Adolin doesn’t want to be with Shallan because he himself is in love with Kaladin? To highlight a few more effective literary tropes, Adolin and Kaladin exemplify highborn/lowborn or prince/country girl (err boy). Adolin is the son of a highprince, literally at the top of Alethi society, whereas Kaladin is a darkeyes, the peasant class of Alethi society. As I will discuss below, this actually provides them both immense opportunities for growth, in addition to help provide some depth to the passionate conflict discussed above. Another trope which would be at play, if Kadolin came to fruition, is quirky individual reforming the playboy. Adolin is showing jumping from woman to woman, a notorious playboy with a bad reputation. Who better to reform him than our plucky darkeye who overcame horrible injustice and saved the day? Note that all of the tropes highlighted above are used in Shalladin and Shadolin, but are split between the two relationships. With Kadolin we have all these tropes combined in one! The more the merrier Kadolin: Why They Work Despite their obvious differences in social status, Kaladin and Adolin have many similarities. They are both extremely good fighters; Kaladin is presented as the best spearman in the books and Adolin as the best swordsman. They are both immensely loyal individuals who are surprised/hurt when others are disloyal to them (e.g. Jakamov for Adolin and Moash for Kaladin), because they could never imagine acting that way themselves. They are both very honest individuals, often portrayed as being too blunt, but which means they will always speak their minds to one another. Both have fathers who they deeply admire but are not sure if they can live up to; but both of them have moments when they doubt the quality of their father’s character (and Adolin may have more of this to come.) Both have younger brothers who society portrays as “weaker” than them that they want to protect, but both also know their brothers have hidden strengths which society cannot see. Both also can tend towards vengeance, while also have a strong moral compass in other respects, which will allow them to understand the other’s need for vengeance by also providing the perspective to push back on this. Kaladin and Adolin of course have many differences. The most obvious is their social standing, and in this respect they are good foils for one another with Adolin providing Kaladin an example of an honorable lighteyes and Kaladin providing Adolin with an example of a darkeyes who is every bit his equal. On a purely physical level, they are presented as opposites; Kaladin’s dark hair and dark eyes and Adolin’s light hair and light eyes are often mentioned. Their personalities mirror this dichotomy; Adolin is generally positive whereas Kaladin suffers from depression. From a metaphorical sense, Adolin’s name literally means “born into light” and that light is exactly what Kaladin needs in his life at times. Adolin is also associated with the “sun” in the books whereas Kaladin is the “storm”, an accurate summary of this light/dark dichotomy. Kaladin is also a more scholarly type with his background in surgery while Adolin is more practical, always focused on the action-items. While Kaladin can get into his own head, Adolin is better at focusing on what needs to be done. In any relationship, one of the most important things in how each person can help the other grow. I already highlighted above how Kaladin and Adolin help resolve each other’s classist prejudices. Adolin is also one of the most supportive characters in the book (and he actually is a supporting character ), and he displays this enumerable times towards Kaladin in the books, following Kaladin to jail after the 4v1 duel and being Kaladin’s main support when he’s in shock in Shadesmar are two notable instances. (I would argue Adolin’s main concern in Shadesmar is for Kaladin, which just shows the strength of his affection.) Kaladin is all too often shown supporting others, but he sorely needs support in his life as well, which Adolin can provide. Kaladin is also worried about protecting everyone, and Adolin is one of the characters we’ve seen who needs the least protection; Kaladin trusts Adolin can take care of himself! As far as how Kaladin can help Adolin, I think Kaladin’s scholarly side can help bring that out in Adolin. Because of the strict gender split on scholarship in Roshar, Adolin has been pushed by women to read their books and see scholarship from their perspective. As an action-oriented person, Adolin is more drawn to active pursuits. Kaladin can help provide Adolin a form of scholarship to which Adolin will be more inclined – taking action and relating what one has learned to real-world problems. In fact, one of Adolin’s more scholarly moments (cutting through the plateau structure at the end of WoR) is the result of this kind of melding of scholarship and action which Kaladin can help him achieve. Perhaps most instrumentally, Kaladin can help provide Adolin perspective on how the majority of Alethi live, which will help Adolin be the best ruler he can for his people (because, no matter what he wants, he is going to be a ruler.) As Kaladin has a strong sense of leadership (it is one of his order’s traits after all), he can help Adolin not lead out of duty but instead out of a desire to lead, as so far while Adolin is quite talented at leading, he has had to be pushed to take up the responsibility. Kaladin can help provide inspiration in that regard. And well, let’s be honest, Kadolin is just plain hot Conclusion Kaladin and Adolin's relationship is acceptable in-world and both would welcome/accept a romantic relationship with a man. Kadolin follows popular tropes for setting up a romantic relationship. Kaladin and Adolin have similarities which allow them to understand and support each other but enough differences to add spice to their relationship and provide each other avenues with which to grow. Kadolin is the best NB: If anyone would like citations for any of the above, I am happy to provide.

Okay am I the only one here who thinks this whole Helaran killed by Kaladin is a little too convenient..... Well. It just seems to me that Helaran dying on a battle field only six months after his father ordered his death by assassination a little to coincidental seems to me that whoever it was that died in that battle at Kaladins hands may not perhaps be Helaran and that may perhap turn up in next book right around the time that Shallan figures out that Kaladin was the one who killed the shard barer. More than likely he will show up to help convince her to work more closely with the ghostblood... It's a legit theory I mean the only eviadance that we have that Helaran is dead after all is what his shard blade which he wielded once years ago and the fact the dead guy had red hair... I doubt the ghostbloods would leave a tool like a shard blade to be used by only one person and as for the hair colour the dispute took place on a boarder near the horneater mountain ranges where everyone's hair is red. Also who else would have enough influence to convince her brothers to leave there home and go to uruthiru without an argument or a fight. I think Helaran is alive and I think he's going to turn into a major pain in the chull... Just saying.

As far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely no support for this in the books, but I just get a feeling that Azure's and Kaladin's relationship might evolve in the future to something romantic. They're both passionate about what they care for (the men in their care, Kaladin for obvious reasons, and Azure with proper treatment and loyalty even in pressing situations), have seen the rough sides of the world, and seem the share traits such as: persistence, pragmatism, and obvious leadership skills. I am one of the people that does not want Shallan and Kaladin to end up together. 1. I think Kaladin's shift from "lighteyes are awful!" to "I like Shallan!" was a bit too quick. At least in the beginning. Once I got used to it, it made sense, but even rereading those chapters, I'm grimacing a bit. 2. I don't think Kaladin should be in a relationship with a lighteyes. Yeah, he's come a long way from the distrusting wretch he was, but even with changed people, there's always the ingrained bias. (It's very tough to change a racist person into a picture-perfect egalitarian, no matter what therapy and experience may tell them otherwise.) 3. Brandon Sanderson is too smart to make a love triangle. So, with Shallan out of the way (at least, in my opinion), I do think that Kaladin is going to end up in a relationship with someone. Unless, of course, he goes through more character growth and accepts himself as himself. That, however, is not the current case, as Kal seems to be the kind of person who needs — craves — reassurance from other people. Syl, Dalinar, or Bridge Four. Kaladin is always talked through his depression, with much oppositional thought and relapse. I think he'd really benefit from a relationship, where he's given love and affection with no strings attached, and he'd really soften up. (Dear Lord, someone give that boy a hug.) Syl, I believe, knows that, too, and that's why she's always pressing him to make a move. With all that in mind, I think Azure would be a good fit for him, at least for a short time. My guess is that they'd never have a long-term relationship, just because their goals are so different and would drive them to part ways. But I think for the little while that it did last it would do him good, and the end of the relationship would be with mutual respect in both directions.

So I see a lot of controversy to why Kaladin was able to heal his wound when cut by a Szeth's Shardblade, while Szeth was not able to heal himself with his excess Stormlight he had with him when Kaladin killed him. So, my question; Are Spren, Stormlight, or Shards able to look at your strengths, and automatically apply it when in need? For example, Kaladin could heal a Shardblade (an Honorblade non of the less) cut which should have torn his soul because Syl or his Stormlight could make a mental connection with his past as a Surgeon, and apply that to the power that he already had, healing his arm. And the reason why I do not believe it was due to him being a Windrunner, is because while Szeth was not a true Windrunner (getting his power from the sword) he still had the capabilities, but could not heal.

This will be a brief theory, because mostly I just want to open up discussion on the topic. Most of the surges we have seen have... Fairly broad spheres of influence. The surge of illumination doesn't just deal with controlling light in a few limited ways, it even extends to controlling sound. So, lets look at the three lashings. The two most useful lashings in my opinion, first and third, come from the surge of gravitation. We can see that within reasonable limits, someone with the surge of gravitation can control the effects of gravity. That all seems to line up. But lets look at windrunners' second surge, adhesion. Its sort of useful, but compared to any of the other surges, it feels as if it should be able to do more than just stick rocks together. Technically, the surge of adhesion includes all kinds of atmospheric pressure. Atmospheric pressure can do a lot more than hold things together... So... I predict that the surge of adhesion can do more things than Kaladin or Szeth were aware of. The original order of windrunners might not even have been aware of these additional powers. This, I suspect, also lines up a little bit with Sanderson's writing style. Magic is never something set in stone, people are figuring out how it works during the books. This is evident with allomancy, in how people were confused about how many metals there were, learning new metals, and wondering how atium fits in with the others.

Szeth, using his surges at the ending of Words of Radiance threw a table at someone, Adolin I think. Does this mean Kaladin will, or can currently do the same with his surges. He has Gravitation mastered well. Does anyone suspect he can do it, or he just hasn't been showed how to yet by Syl or another Windrunner? I doubt his 4th ideal is in the way, Szeth was told after 3rd ideal he could use Division now. I recall some passage in some book that said Windrunners could destroy items with the barest thought. Any thoughts?

Just posted up a new gallery album with some Kaladin Fanart in it. I'm working on getting it up on my shop/website as well, but in the mean time: enjoy!

So I've been re-reading parts of WoK, and got to the chapter Wandersail where Hoid tells Kaladin the story about the island. When he finishes talking and leaves Syl starts talking to Kaladin about his ability to draw Stormlight (because Kaladin thought he was cursed to watch everyone die while he lived) and she says this: What exactly is she taking from Kaladin? I have searched the copper mind about Nahel Bonds and the WoB database and don't see this discussed. Is she taking his ability to choose? Now as a Radiant he must protect? That's the only thing I can think of. But this seems like it could have major implications in the future when the Desolations continue past Oathbringer and more Unmade/Fused join the fight.

When Kaladin and Notum are talking about the Nahel bond to Syl, Notum suggests that he could kill Kaladin to save Syl from the bond "Though this would be painful for her, there are other ways, at least tell the final Ideal is sworn" (Chapter 108, audio time stamp ~45:01:45 I wouldn't mind getting the actual text for the quote.) Kal seems to gloss over the "other ways" and focus on the one way where he is dead. Do we know what the "other ways" are Notum may be referring to? Possibility 1 a spren swap. Something similar to the scene with Pattern telling Shallan that the cryptics would send her an other spren because Pattern believes Shallan hates him. I do not think this what Notum was suggesting because of how appalled he is that Kaladin is bonded to Syl. Possibility 2, suggested by Kered on the coppermind Discord, "a 'purging' of Syl's memory. Maybe something the Stormfather could do. Possibility 3, sugeested by R'Shara on the coppermind Discord,"convincing Syl to break the bond" Possibility 4, Trapping Syl in a perfect gemstone. I do not see that any of these fill the "tell the final Ideal is sworn" aspect of what Notum was talking about. This might also steer us to an idea about what the power up from saying the 5th ideal is, if we do not already know. If I remember correctly: 1st ideal, access to stormlight, minor surgebinding abilities squire level stuff etc 2nd Ideal, improved surgebinding abilities, bonding of a spren. 3rd Ideal, Shardblde 4th ideal, Shadeplate? 5th Ideal, ??? I would love any info any of you might have on the subject this has been on my mind for a few days now.

So it's a trope in anime that their massive swords break at least once. Tetsusaiga breaks in Inuyasha, Guts' sword breaks in Berserk in the battle of Doldry. So what if a Shardblade broke either in half or was shattered worse than the plains? How could this happen? My best guess would either be Nightblood, Odium or a Fused. Would an Honorblade break differently from a Shardblade? What if Syl was broken in blade form? Or Maya, what would happen to them?

Can we please talk for a second about all the fan art that shows Syl as this like super babe? I mean if she's a pretty person thats great but the fancy dresses and giant boobs seem ridiculous. She's described as wearing a childlike dress, and I dont know any children that dress like this.