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So while everyone talk about powers and swords, I want to talk about something more personal. A while back, I made this topic about Kaladin's parents. In Words of Radiance, our boy has went from rags to riches when he finally accepted his role and became a part of Dalinar's new Knight Radiant order. Now, it's almost certain that he'll return to Hearthstone in the next book. But. What exactly will he go home to? As I've said in the last thread, the situation in Hearthstone really stinks. Kaladin's parents have always been portrayed very positively in his flashbacks. It's really out-of-character for either of them to just cut off their sons as coldly as they did Kaladin and Tien when the boys were recruited into the military. Seriously, not one letter from them in Kaladin's entire military career. It's a bit heartless of them, ain't it? There are a lot of ways for his parents to contact Kaladin if they wanted to. His mother can read and write, and there should be fresh recruits for Amaram's army every year. They also have the spheres for it too, if they wanted to be fancy. It's not like they still held out much hope for Kaladin to be a doctor after his recruitment. So unless Kaladin's flashback is really unreliable and his parents truly are heartless, there are only two explantions: 1) Someone with power and money intercepted/stole all of the letters between two parties. 2) Roshone continued to prove to us what a bastard he is and has done something terrible to Kaladin's parents after Amaram snatched up their sons for his army. After the latest book, I lean more towards latter option than ever. To be honest, I've always thought that Roshone was a really petty and evil person. Now, Dalinar has confirmed this for us. He's the ambitious kind who'll even kill people for profit. Even for a lighteyed, he's a horrible person. He is dangerous. Like it or not, he have the most authority over Hearthstone, and he is a cousin to Amaram, a powerful lord and a shardbearer for almost two years. Roshone can easily use his cousin's name to increase his power in that time. Even if this weren't the case, I have doubts that this would stop at Kaladin and Tien. Roshone and Lirin already had a fierce rivalry between them prior to his Rillir's death. After Roshone robbed Lirin of his own sons, you can say they're even, but Kaladin's father still has the spheres that Roshone so desperately wants. It's hardly over. Roshone was exiled to Hearthstone because it was an unknown town. It's not so that he won't be able to hurt anyone anymore, it's so that the damage he caused to others won't make as much noise and can be ignored. Roshone won't be able to do much to lighteyes, but he can still dish out a lot of hurt on the people he is charged to watch over. People only need a little power to abuse it. The fact that he's in exile won't change the fact that he's a greedy S.O.B. Have Kaladin's parents finally been subdued? Are they currently sharing a cell in Hearthstone? Or worse, are they dead? Either way, I hope Roshone gets what's coming to him, and I hope Kaladin's the one to do it too. Thoughts? Also, I hope Kaladin won't fall for Laral all over again. He just barely slipped away from a complicated relationship with Shallan the last book. Him and Laral will be a trainwreck, me thinks.

Have Lirin and Hesina even tried to contact Kaladin after he joined the military? In his own PoV, I think it's implied that neither have for some time, perhaps never in his entire military career, but in his earliest flashbacks, it is obvious that they both loved him very much. In fact, before Kaladin and Tien were recruited, his mother basically told him that he didn't have to follow his father's path and choose another career if that's what made him happy. Sure, Kaladin may have disobeyed his father's wishes and disrupted his plans, but he is still as much their son as Tien is. No parent ever wants to see their kids die before them, not when your last conversation ended with bitter and angry words. So whatever the reason for their silence, Tien's death should be more than the incentive they needed to contact him, even if it's just to mourn his death together through letters. Unless they got real busy and popped out another one in the past five or six years, he is their last son. Plenty of men have joined the army and survived. He's also done very well for himself before the Amaram incident, youngest squadleader and all. There's no reason for them to completely ignore him as they did... ...Unless Tien's and Kaladin's recruitment into the military was not Roshone's final stroke. As weak as Roshone is, he is still a brightlord, a cousin to a Shardbearer. What little power he has, he can still use to inflict a lot of damage if he wanted to do so. And the loss of his only son could be the last push he needed to dish out the hurt. Kaladin have suffered so much, and it chills my bones just to think of it, but could something have happened to his parents that prevented them from something as simple as responding to their son's letters? And if so, what does this mean for Kaladin as a character? A part of me thinks that they're both alive and well, that Amaram decided to take it upon himself to protect/provide for them after the way he stabbed their son in the back, but this whole situation at Hearthstone stinks if you ask me.