One More Shardplate Theory

[Wrath]

We've seen that a modern day Surgebinder who tries to use Shardplate just has their Stormlight sucked away, but we've also seen that the historic Knights Radiant had no such problem. They could also summon and dismiss their Plate to at least a partial extent. So obviously they were capable of doing things with Plate that a modern Shardbearer simply cannot, just as they can't do the things with a Shardblade that Kaladin and Shallan have learnt to do.

My theory is that one of those functions of Shardplate was to serve as a reservoir for Stormlight. The KR have an elegance and ease to their powers that the modern day characters still lack, and one of the clumsiest things remaining is the need to store Stormlight in gems. A Surgebinder needs to carry around gems or hold their breath to maintain their supply of Stormlight, but if a KR could truly summon their Plate like their Blades then they might be able to access their reservoir of Stormlight at a moment's notice. It'd also save on unnecessary glowing.

I think the reason that modern Shardplate sucks up Stormlight might be that it's not properly bound to the Surgebinder, so the Plate is trying to siphon it off for its true owner, kind of like how people can summon Shardblades by putting a gem on the Blade and tricking it into thinking they have a proper Nahel bond.

Of course as a theory this is probably completely wrong. And good night.

[RShara]

Do you mean the helm that Kaladin used during the duel?  It sucked away his Stormlight because it was cracking, and trying to repair itself. When he ran out it exploded.