Adolin and his blade

[Dalinaut]

3rd or so re-read of WOR...

There is alot of talk about Adolin becoming a KR and all, and this got me thinking on those lines...

 

So I got to the part where Adolin was practicing throwing his shardblade.  He kept failing to keep it substantial when it left his hand, even though it was a maneuver he had mastered long ago.

2 theories:

1-He is having some trouble  due to a new spren trying to get his "attention" to bond with him.

or

2-He may awaken/revive the spren in his blade.

 

I prefer the 2nd as he as always shown alot of respect for his blade, talking to it before duels, refusing to name it because it is far older and has more experience that himself.  This seems like the kind of thing Spren would respond well to.  I think it would be awesome to be the only one with a spren that kept its memories of the past.

[Miyabi]

I like this. It's not something I have personally considered, but will have to when I reread WoR the next time.

[hoser]

I love both the developing spren bond and awakening the Shardblade ideas.  I hope either or both works out.  However, I read the scene as his confidence being shaken and him being distracted by the way he was handled by Szeth the night before.  Given his antipathy toward Kaladin at this point, Kaladin's greater effectiveness probably didn't help.  He is used to being a complete badass, and he was useless.  He also took a beating and, IIRC, didn't sleep the night before.  While the above could be contributing, they don't seem necessary to explain his difficulty. 

[king of nowhere]

You're not the first to come up with this theory. I certainly would like it.

[maxal]

I love both the developing spren bond and awakening the Shardblade ideas.  I hope either or both works out.  However, I read the scene as his confidence being shaken and him being distracted by the way he was handled by Szeth the night before.  Given his antipathy toward Kaladin at this point, Kaladin's greater effectiveness probably didn't help.  He is used to being a complete badass, and he was useless.  He also took a beating and, IIRC, didn't sleep the night before.  While the above could be contributing, they don't seem necessary to explain his difficulty. 

 

I read it the same way.

 

He took a solid trashing :he does complain of a headache and later on, at the social gathering, he complains his whole side throbs. He also didn't sleep at all, so no doubt he was feeling quite exhausted and there is also the matter of the whole ordeal that obviously emotionally disturbed him for reasons you mentioned.

 

I felt he just couldn't concentrate hard enough to make it work.

 

However, I would love to be proven wrong on that one as I am number one fan of the "Adolin revives his shardblade" theory.

[bobsaveg]

could you tell me the page number of that passage

[Bremen]

2-He may awaken/revive the spren in his blade.

WOB is that this would be very difficult, iirc.  You'd need the KR the spren is bonded to to take up the oaths again.  Since they're dead that is a problem.

 

Still, I think everyone would like to see it, and hopefully there is another way...

[maxal]

WOB is that this would be very difficult, iirc.  You'd need the KR the spren is bonded to to take up the oaths again.  Since they're dead that is a problem.

 

Still, I think everyone would like to see it, and hopefully there is another way...

 

It is not exactly what the WoB said... It did say it would be very difficult, but it did not say you needed the dead KR. Pattern thinks you do. However, the WoB does mention you would need to "replace what is missing" and Brandon explained breaking the KR oaths was akin to ripping the conscience and memory from the spren. I thus think you would need to give back a conscience of the world to the spren in order to re-awaken it.

 

This have always let me believe Adolin is indeed perhaps reviving his shardblade as he has the habit to summon it outside of fights. He talks to it, he explains things to it, he venerates it greatly, he treats it as if it were a living thing and I am pretty sure he must sharing his fears/feelings to it (and I do have the mental image of Adolin using his shardblade as a mirror to groom his hair  ). He has the habit of summoning/dismissing his shardblade when he feels nervous. I am thinking he is unconsciously deepening the bond between them. He is also showing the world to it, explaining many things and thus giving it back some of the lost data.

 

I also think it is quite possible Adolin will share some of his upcoming angst with his blade, especially concerning the return of the Radiants (and the fact his whole family are one but him, he'll feel left out) which may trigger his blade in the good direction.

 

I am dying for him to find out his blade's name... I so hope Brandon will use this plot.

[king of nowhere]

I also think, now everyone among the alethi armies - or at lleast anyone important, and certainly adolin - should know that shardblades are really dead sprean. so adolin, knowing about it, could consciously try to reanimate his.

[maxal]

I also think, now everyone among the alethi armies - or at lleast anyone important, and certainly adolin - should know that shardblades are really dead sprean. so adolin, knowing about it, could consciously try to reanimate his.

 

I think he is more likely to be horrified his beloved blade is a dead spren suffering each time he summons it... He was so keen it was alive, so learning it isn't, worst it is unhappy and madly screaming each time it is being held may upset or unsettle him.

 

Others I agree may actually try and will fail.

[WeiryWriter]

I actually have a not-a-theory about this that I shared elsewhere on the internets:

 

 

Okay so this a neat thing I want to happen as The Stormlight Archive progresses.  It concerns Adolin and his course going forward.  I don’t want to call it a theory, because I quite honestly don’t know what direction Brandon plans on going, but this is how *I* would handle things.  Obviously there are spoilers here for WoR so don’t read if you haven’t finished.

 

So Adolin killed Sadeas, this is going to cause major issues.  There has to be an investigation of some kind, but Adolin is going to keep quiet.  (Renarin may or may not find out from his Truthwatcher-y-ness but he’ll probably wait to see what Adolin does first.)

 

Adolin is probably going to question his actions, especially when he spends  a lot of time around the extent Radiants.  Most of them are from orders that would not approve of his actions so he is going to get a skewed image of what is Honorable, he won’t know that some orders would approve and maybe laud his “execution” of Sadeas.

 

Adolin’s shardblade will be from one of these orders (though that only becomes apparent later).  It will be the only entity that Adolin open ups to about Sadeas, talking to it like he always had before a duel, though more frequently now.  He’ll also agonize the torture he is putting it through now that the nature of the Shardblades is known.  Eventually though he’ll come to accept that he was not wrong for doing what he did to Sadeas, that it was what needed to be done and that using the Shardblade despite the pain that it is in is unfortunate but necessary.  He’ll go to Dalinar to confess and say that he will accept the punishment (which customarily would be exile probably) for his actions (but he’ll make his beliefs about his actions known).  Dalinar will think long and hard about what to do, Adolin is his son after all, and he doesn’t want to send him away, not to mention it goes against his Second Ideal (I will bring people together not send them away).  Eventually he’ll decide that Adolin will have to give up his Shardblade.  Adolin will acquiesce.

 

HOWEVER Adolin’s Shardblade has started “waking up”.  The years of Adolin talking to it before duels kind of primed the pump, so to speak, starting to restore the bond to what it should be though by itself it wouldn’t be enough.  In come Adolin killing Sadeas which is right in line with the Ideals of the spren’s order, it jumpstarts things.  It still isn’t enough to restore it but it sparked something.  Adolin confiding in it about his actions as he comes to terms with it really cements things.  At the end of one “conversation” Adolin makes a comment about how he still doesn’t even know the spren’s names and just as he dismisses it he hears a whisper, the spren telling him its names.  He’ll just shrug it off as fancy though, at least at first but the name just *feels* right to him for some reason he can’t understand and it’ll stick in his mind.

 

Flashforward to when Adolin has to give up the shardblade (which will be very public and stuff), he’ll summon it and just as he tries to break the bond a voice says “No.” Everyone looks around to see who spoke, except for Adolin (and probably Renarin, because of course he’s going to figure things out, he’s sees) who knows who spoke.  It’s the spren.  The bond starting to break after all the progress it has made jars it into fully waking up.  It continues to say how it will not leave Adolin, somebody (Stormfather? Dalinar? Random spectator?) will ask why, to which the spren will say that Adolin knows.  Cue Adolin saying an Ideal after which the shardblade slowly shifts…

 

So yeah.. probably not how its going to happen, but I can hope.

 

I'm like 95% sure that someone is going to revive a spren at some point.  The "impossibility" has just been made too much of a point, just like "you can't heal severing/gentling/stilling" or "you can't heal taint-insanity".  And then Nyneave al'Meara comes along.

[maxal]

I actually have a not-a-theory about this that I shared elsewhere on the internets:

 

 

I'm like 95% sure that someone is going to revive a spren at some point.  The "impossibility" has just been made too much of a point, just like "you can't heal severing/gentling/stilling" or "you can't heal taint-insanity".  And then Nyneave al'Meara comes along.

 

It sure is an interesting set of ideas.

 

My "theory" of how it could happen is similar and yet different. I love the idea of Adolin talking more and more to his blade, confiding in it and worrying about the pain he is causing it by summoning it. I could even see Adolin asking the blade if it wouldn't prefer if he gave her up and put her somewhere safe, not to be bonded again.

 

I think the likelihood of Adolin loosing his blade in the next book is quite high. Although I doubt it would be in a public event. It will be a close-up with Dalinar asking him his blade and Adolin having trouble obeying, but complying, in the end, not without murmuring a "I am sorry" to his blade first. Then, as the bond breaks, he will hear it: a name, but it won't stick to his mind, not now.

 

His shardblade will be offered (and all of the Kohlin's shards) in paiement to the Sadeas for them to drop the accusations. His shards will go to someone else and someone else will bond his blade.

 

At one point, they'll be a battle. Adolin will end up in a tight spot, perhaps he'll fight the new owner of his blade, perhaps not, but he is struggling, after all he does not have shards anymore. Most likely Adolin will end up in his predicament while doing something rather reckless, brave in order to protect his family, yet again, even if they shut him out, even if they ostracized him for having killed Sadeas, despite all, Adolin will still stand up for them.

 

Unconsciously, he'll try to summon hos blade, after all, it is nearly a reflex for him, he hardly realize when he is doing it anymore. But the blade belongs to another. He'll try nonetheless. It won't work. The fight, the war whatever, will go badly, he'll probably get hurt, it is clear he is losing it. He'll try again, but this time, he'll remember the name he's heard before. He'll call her. Desperately. He needs her. And she'll hear and for the first time in thousand of years, she'll see. She'll see Adolin fighting. She won't want to hurt him, not him, not the nice kid who always talked to her. She'll break the bond with her holder and she'll fly to Adolin.

 

Adolin's blade will materialize in his hands as it always does when he summons it, but this time, it will be glowing, red. The fight will turn over and Adolin will win. When he'll try to dismiss his blade, it won't work, the blade will just take back its spren shape and they'll meet for the first time.

 

Or something like that. I like the idea of it happening in a battle, it would fit, I think.

[Kal973]

 

At one point, they'll be a battle. Adolin will end up in a tight spot, perhaps he'll fight the new owner of his blade, perhaps not, but he is struggling, after all he does not have shards anymore. Most likely Adolin will end up in his predicament while doing something rather reckless, brave in order to protect his family, yet again, even if they shut him out, even if they ostracized him for having killed Sadeas, despite all, Adolin will still stand up for them.

 

Unconsciously, he'll try to summon hos blade, after all, it is nearly a reflex for him, he hardly realize when he is doing it anymore. But the blade belongs to another. He'll try nonetheless. It won't work. The fight, the war whatever, will go badly, he'll probably get hurt, it is clear he is losing it. He'll try again, but this time, he'll remember the name he's heard before. He'll call her. Desperately. He needs her. And she'll hear and for the first time in thousand of years, she'll see. She'll see Adolin fighting. She won't want to hurt him, not him, not the nice kid who always talked to her. She'll break the bond with her holder and she'll fly to Adolin.

 

Adolin's blade will materialize in his hands as it always does when he summons it, but this time, it will be glowing, red. The fight will turn over and Adolin will win. When he'll try to dismiss his blade, it won't work, the blade will just take back its spren shape and they'll meet for the first time.

 

 

I like everything you said here and I would love to see Adolin revive his shardblade. He already seems to have a kind of link with de blade...

[maxal]

I like everything you said here and I would love to see Adolin revive his shardblade. He already seems to have a kind of link with de blade...

 

Thanks These are just wild speculations, it may not happen, but if it were, I think this could be a possibility.

[Dalinaut]

Thanks everyone for the great support of this idea.  I really hope it happens one way or another.  I really like that princeling

[maxal]

Thanks everyone for the great support of this idea.  I really hope it happens one way or another.  I really like that princeling

 

This theory is a popular one. You are not the only one to wish it.