What are your thought on the new leaked SA5 chapter-

[Sythrin]

Hi wanted to start maybe a threat for the new chapter that Sanderson read during comic-con, if it is allowed.

It was focussed on Shallan and we saw some interactions between Shalan, Adolin, Kelek, Notum and Testament. And we got 2 new big revelations.

Spoiler

1. We have semi approximation of where Ba-Ado-Mishram is. Her prison is somehwere in the Spiritual realm. How she got there, how to retrieve or even how that works is still unclear. But it is exciting. Never thought we would travel into the spiritual realm and it would stay ominous.

2. Shallan seemingly draws upon fortune when she draws, specifilly when she draws something ominous or when she envisions someone in a future.

 

[KaladinWorldsinger]

It also confirms to me, 90% sure, that Shallan will go to the Spiritual Realm and experience it.

Infact theory time, since spiritual realm has both the past and the future, this will be how Brandon gives us info about shallan's past without dedicated flashbacks. 

 

She will have a set of quick visions of the past and the future , like Rey touching the lightsaber in the Force Awakens, and we will have a bunch of theory fodder for the next 5 years. Chana can be revealed as shallan's mom, while also teasing about future Shallan and ghostblood fights in the cosmere.

[JustQuestin2004]

Something I found interesting was Kelek talking about the forbiddance of someone bonding two spren long ago, why was that the case? To stop people from trying to bond them all? 

As for Mishram, her being in the SR is genius because she is literally everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I wonder if Melishi just opened a Perpendicularity, Intended to go to the SR instead of Shadesmar and just chucked the Perfect Heliodor through.

It also explains what Dalinar and/or Navani will be doing since getting Mishram will probably require the aid of a Bondsmith.

[alder24]

That was interesting, I didn't expect BAM to be imprisoned in SR. How was that even possible? Very interesting. I wonder how they will recover her, not by physically going there as from WoBs we know that's not how SR works - it's not a place (WoB1 WoB2). I thought if BAM was in the vision Dalinar had at the end of WoR - many suspect that was a Dawnshard, based on how similarly it felt to Rysn becoming the Dawnshard, but could it be BAM, and those feelings and light was just the consequences of her essence and investiture bleeding through SR into Dalinar?

I did expect that not many Honrospren would join Radiants, but not that few. However I think Notum will organize the Honorspren navy to recover Shadesmar from Odium's control, the hint of this was quite clear in my opinion.

And lastly we have confirmation that Shallan draws upon Fortune when drawing, which wasn't surprising, we knew from WoBs that Shallan fiddles with Connections and SR, but what was interesting is that Kalak for some reason seemed to be not surprised by that, even expecting that. Weird. Does he know about something we/she doesn't know (Chana)?

Love to see Maya speak so much, she's really getting better  

[JustQuestin2004]

47 minutes ago, alder24 said:

I did expect that not many Honrospren would join Radiants, but not that few. However I think Notum will organize the Honorspren navy to recover Shadesmar from Odium's control, the hint of this was quite clear in my opinion.

Oh yeah, taking back control of Shadesmar from the Voidbringers will be especially important since both sides now have Anti-Lights, meaning that letting the Fused have control over Spren Cities means that they will probably begin mass producing Anti-Stormlight and start mass murdering Spren as soon as possible, which might cause more Spren to bond with humans to avoid dying, or maybe just fighting back and adding a literal second dimension to the war.

Also the confirmation, not a huge one but still, that Mishram hates humans. This pretty much solidifies that if she gets free she'll be going straight back to Odium, unless she realizes that there's a new Vessel and maybe starts a rebellion? Or maybe spending thousands of years locked inside a cramped little crystal will have given her a new perspective on life, maybe more appreciation for being free.

I'm wondering if it was specifically imprisoning her in the SR that caused such wide-reaching effects, since it is 'everywhere and nowhere'.

[therunner]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

That was interesting, I didn't expect BAM to be imprisoned in SR. How was that even possible? Very interesting. I wonder how they will recover her, not by physically going there as from WoBs we know that's not how SR works - it's not a place (WoB1 WoB2).

Or more likely Brandon changed his mind, as based on Pattern's description it is 'sort-of' a place, he even literally calls it a place.
And since basically all the info on SR is WoB, it would not even be a retcon.

Spoiler

"The Spiritual Realm is stranger by orders of magnitude. It is a place where the future blends with the present. The past echoes, like the striking of a clock. Time and distance stretch, like numbers, infinitely repeating. It is where gods live, and even baffles some of them."

If anything, just because of that description I do expect Shallan do actually go there.

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

 I thought if BAM was in the vision Dalinar had at the end of WoR - many suspect that was a Dawnshard, based on how similarly it felt to Rysn becoming the Dawnshard, but could it be BAM, and those feelings and light was just the consequences of her essence and investiture bleeding through SR into Dalinar?

Hmm...could 'Unite them', have been BAM all along? In that she is calling to him, because she wants to 'unite' deadeyed spren (or singers) with their fragments to restore them?

Quote

Love to see Maya speak so much, she's really getting better  

That was by far the best surprise of the chapter Maya deserves the best.

10 minutes ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Also the confirmation, not a huge one but still, that Mishram hates humans. This pretty much solidifies that if she gets free she'll be going straight back to Odium, unless she realizes that there's a new Vessel and maybe starts a rebellion? Or maybe spending thousands of years locked inside a cramped little crystal will have given her a new perspective on life, maybe more appreciation for being free.

That is just Kelek's opinion, and he has not been in contact with Mishram for literally millenia. Sure, it is likely bet, but things change.
Perhaps having the vantage point of SR granted her some 'perspective'?

Quote

I'm wondering if it was specifically imprisoning her in the SR that caused such wide-reaching effects, since it is 'everywhere and nowhere'.

Reasonable assumption I think.

[alder24]

4 minutes ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Also the confirmation, not a huge one but still, that Mishram hates humans. This pretty much solidifies that if she gets free she'll be going straight back to Odium, unless she realizes that there's a new Vessel and maybe starts a rebellion? Or maybe spending thousands of years locked inside a cramped little crystal will have given her a new perspective on life, maybe more appreciation for being free.

I suspect that BAM imprisonment was a necessity arising not just from the fact that she started a new Desolation, but that she overextended herself by Connecting to all Singers, which strained her soul and changed her and maybe drove her to insanity so Radiants had to react to help Roshar, not by just stopping the Desolation, but by stopping her specifically. I think there are clues for that, the way Ulim talked about her in RoW to Venli, or the Stormfather to Gavilar in the KoWT Prologue - it seems not so clear as we think of it. Mishram being insane right now, not just from her imprisonment but from this overextension is highly probable in my opinion. RoW ch 73:

Quote

In the past, Odium granted forms of power, but Ba-Ado-Mishram thought she could do it. Ended up handing out forms of power as easily as Fused give each other titles, Connected herself to the entire singer species. Became a little god. Too little

KoWT prologue:

Quote

She created your parshmen, he said. On accident. Long ago, after the Heralds’ final visit but before the Recreance, Mishram tried to rise up and replace the God of the Voidbringers. She gave the common voidbringers forms, Voidlight, abilities. To fight for themselves.
“Curious,” Gavilar said. “And then?”
And then...she fell. She was too small a being, not strong enough, to uphold an entire people. It all came crashing down, and so some brave men and women—Radiants—did something that had to be done, trapping Mishram in a gemstone to prevent her from destroying all of Roshar. The side effect of that event created the parshmen.

Note that the Stormfather said that Mishram felt BEFORE she was imprisoned. I don't expect her story to be just "let's release her and everything will be as it once was."

Regarding TOdium, it's possible that the fact that a human Ascended to Odium will enrage her IF Rayse was masquerading as a Singer even in front of her and she didn't know he was a human.

 

17 minutes ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

I'm wondering if it was specifically imprisoning her in the SR that caused such wide-reaching effects, since it is 'everywhere and nowhere'.

I'm not so sure of that. I think that it's her broken Connection to Roshar, which she established to grant forms of power to all Singers, did all of this, not that she's in SR specifically. But it's possible, SR is weird and she was there while being trapped in a gemstone - somehow.

Quote

"Agreed," Pattern said. "Mishram became like a god to the singers, the parshmen. She connected to Roshar, and echoes of that filtered to the spren. Ah, so wonderfully odd. Her imprisonment is the reason broken bonds now have such an effect on the spren."

 

9 minutes ago, therunner said:

Or more likely Brandon changed his mind, as based on Pattern's description it is 'sort-of' a place, he even literally calls it a place.
And since basically all the info on SR is WoB, it would not even be a retcon.

  Reveal hidden contents

"The Spiritual Realm is stranger by orders of magnitude. It is a place where the future blends with the present. The past echoes, like the striking of a clock. Time and distance stretch, like numbers, infinitely repeating. It is where gods live, and even baffles some of them."

If anything, just because of that description I do expect Shallan do actually go there.

It's possible, but I doubt it. But I agree, Shallan will "go" to SR, but not with her body, but with her mind. 

11 minutes ago, therunner said:

Hmm...could 'Unite them', have been BAM all along? In that she is calling to him, because she wants to 'unite' deadeyed spren (or singers) with their fragments to restore them?

I doubt it. It doesn't fit for her to do that when Dalinar was opening a perpendicularity and Ascending in OB. There was something going on a Shardic level.

16 minutes ago, therunner said:

That is just Kelek's opinion, and he has not been in contact with Mishram for literally millenia. Sure, it is likely bet, but things change.

I don't think she will stop hating humans after they imprisoned her for 2500 years. It might get even worse.

[JustQuestin2004]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

I'm not so sure of that. I think that it's her broken Connection to Roshar, which she established to grant forms of power to all Singers, did all of this, not that she's in SR specifically. But it's possible, SR is weird and she was there while being trapped in a gemstone - somehow.

Maybe she wasn't just forming Connections with the Singers, what if she was trying to form Connections with everything on Roshar? Forming powerful enough Connections in some dangerous gambit to control all of Roshar and everyone on it, only for it to completely blow up in her face. I don't know how else she'd be able to destroy Roshar by just empowering the Singers.

Sealing her caused a 'wound' to Roshar, so maybe by the time that she was sealed Mishram had managed to become a literal part of Roshar through reckless abuse of Connection BS?

[Forts Board]

Also, she bonded a spren and it was something 

Spoiler

"Her mother had not liked."

More fuel for the Chanarach theory!!!

[Pagerunner]

It was an interesting set of scenes. A little slow, a little talky, but necessary to set up a pivot in Shallan's story to the Spiritual Realm. I am very interested to see the Spiritual Realm; this might be the time for me to finally read Rithmatist, since I recall that there are beings in there that were originally planned as residents of the Spiritual Realm. For some reason, Inception comes to my mind for how Shallan might wind up experiencing the Spiritual Realm. It won't be an alternate plane of existence like Shadesmar, but I think she'll have to have some construction through which she can interact with the SR, reliving her own memories or something like that.

One other thing that stood out to me in this reading was the honorspren recruitment effort. They were unsuccessful in getting a lot of new Windrunner spren, but we get a reminder of all the deadeyes who are congregating at Lasting Integrity. I think they'll be the real payoff of Adolin's arc, and that it will set the stage for Sigzil's situation in Sunlit Man. Once the deadeye situation has been resolved, Bridge Four will be able to break the bonds with their own spren (passing them along to their squires) and bond former deadeyes, and then they can all bond former deadeyes of all Orders. I wonder if Aux is among the crowd of deadeye spren...

[CtrlAltDepressed]

22 hours ago, alder24 said:

That was interesting, I didn't expect BAM to be imprisoned in SR. How was that even possible? Very interesting. I wonder how they will recover her, not by physically going there as from WoBs we know that's not how SR works

Could this be Shardic interference? I'd be willing to bet that Cultivation had something to do with this.

 

21 hours ago, therunner said:

I'm wondering if it was specifically imprisoning her in the SR that caused such wide-reaching effects, since it is 'everywhere and nowhere'.

I think the perfect gemstone is what would have immediately caused the wide-reaching effects, and being in the SR is why no one has found / released her in all this time. They are not the same but the Thrill stopped effecting the Alethi soldiers as it was put into the gemstone, not when it was shipped far away.

 

21 hours ago, alder24 said:

Regarding TOdium, it's possible that the fact that a human Ascended to Odium will enrage her IF Rayse was masquerading as a Singer even in front of her and she didn't know he was a human.

How would she not know? She should remember when Odium first arrived on Roshar - fighting with the humans against the singers. I think this hatred of humans is specifically stemming from her Connection to all the singers of the past. Since she is 'too little' she lost a large part of her original Identity by bonding so many people.

 

Personally I think that both Sja-anat and BAM will be thrilled with their new vessel. They are both Odius creatures at heart - their issues were with Rayse. Tarvanagian is seeming like a much more capable Odium.

 

22 hours ago, alder24 said:

And lastly we have confirmation that Shallan draws upon Fortune when drawing, which wasn't surprising, we knew from WoBs that Shallan fiddles with Connections and SR

I bet you that Shallan draws BAM from her imprisonment in a very similar way to her drawing Pattern into reality in WOK. It will likely need to be a drawing on a scale we haven't seen before (in terms of grandeur).

 

22 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Something I found interesting was Kelek talking about the forbiddance of someone bonding two spren long ago, why was that the case? To stop people from trying to bond them all? 

I think this is probably part of the reason, but both of Shallans are cryptics. She hasn't gained access to more than 2 surges with her bonds. I bet it has something to do with not warping the soul too much. Having a full on nahel bond is a lot of change to a soul, I imagine having 2 high level bonds could have some weird effects (see Shallan able to draw upon Fortune when she draws).

[alder24]

20 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Maybe she wasn't just forming Connections with the Singers, what if she was trying to form Connections with everything on Roshar? Forming powerful enough Connections in some dangerous gambit to control all of Roshar and everyone on it, only for it to completely blow up in her face. I don't know how else she'd be able to destroy Roshar by just empowering the Singers.

Sealing her caused a 'wound' to Roshar, so maybe by the time that she was sealed Mishram had managed to become a literal part of Roshar through reckless abuse of Connection BS?

Yes, that might be it.

24 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

Could this be Shardic interference? I'd be willing to bet that Cultivation had something to do with this.

I doubt any Shard was involved in it. Honor was raving and dying at this moment, Cultivation is a wild card, she seems to be avoiding direct interventions, hiding in the Valley, waiting for people to come to her instead. It's possible Melishi went to the Nightwatcher and met Cultivation, but on the other hand Cultivation might have seen actions of Mishram and Singers as a new growth and might not have wanted to cut it off, particularly if it could have wounded everything on Roshar - she sees the future, she should be able to see it coming, I doubt she would have wanted to contribute to that.

31 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

How would she not know? She should remember when Odium first arrived on Roshar - fighting with the humans against the singers. I think this hatred of humans is specifically stemming from her Connection to all the singers of the past. Since she is 'too little' she lost a large part of her original Identity by bonding so many people.

She was unmade, but we don't know when, she might be younger than Heralds or Fused. Unmaking destroyed all memories. If she was unmade after Fused were created, she might have known Odium only in his Singer form, as that's how he always appears in their eyes. 

34 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

Personally I think that both Sja-anat and BAM will be thrilled with their new vessel. They are both Odius creatures at heart - their issues were with Rayse. Tarvanagian is seeming like a much more capable Odium.

Mishram might be but Sja-Anat wanted to be free and independent, be her own god, now she's under Taravangian's boot. He knows she betrayed Odium, working against him, he has reasons to unmake her again if he wishes. But he will do everything to force her back in line and prevent her from gaining freedom, he will keep her short on her leash.

37 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

I bet you that Shallan draws BAM from her imprisonment in a very similar way to her drawing Pattern into reality in WOK. It will likely need to be a drawing on a scale we haven't seen before (in terms of grandeur).

That's a cool idea, sounds doable. 

 

[Isilel]

14 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

Once the deadeye situation has been resolved, Bridge Four will be able to break the bonds with their own spren (passing them along to their squires) and bond former deadeyes, and then they can all bond former deadeyes of all Orders. I wonder if Aux is among the crowd of deadeye spren...

 

But why should they do something like this? Doesn't it make more sense for former deadeyes to bond the squires, if they choose to bond? Also, Aux was a highspren and the Skybreakers didn't participate in the Recreance. So, if he had been a deadeye, and there was no indication of this in "The Sunlit Man", his bond must have been broken under some special circumstances. 

 

42 minutes ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

I bet it has something to do with not warping the soul too much.

 

I bet that it was the same fear of destroying Roshar if some people had too much power at their disposal.

[JustQuestin2004]

2 hours ago, alder24 said:

Mishram might be but Sja-Anat wanted to be free and independent, be her own god, now she's under Taravangian's boot. He knows she betrayed Odium, working against him, he has reasons to unmake her again if he wishes. But he will do everything to force her back in line and prevent her from gaining freedom, he will keep her short on her leash.

Thinking more on this, TOdium will probably be doing whatever he can to prevent the circumstances that led to Rayse's death from ever happening again, like keeping a very close eye on Nightblood's location at all times or trying to seize him to make use of him.

He'd definitely keep a close eye of Sja-Anat since she had a very big part in causing Rayse's death with luring him to Taravangian with corrupted Windspren and corrupting the Mistspren that Bonded Renarin, who is a blindspot that messes up his future vision so he wouldn't see it all coming.

Actually I wonder if Sja-Anat will sell out Renarin and keep Rlain's Bonding another corrupted Mistspren a secret? Her philosophy is 'sacrifice one child to protect others' and TOdium shouldn't know that Rlain will be a new blindspot for him, which might throw a wrench in his plan for the Contest.

Although TOdium could also do the smart thing and compromise with Sja-Anat to help ensure her loyalty, promising her a home for herself and independence so long as they win the war. Plus I don't think TOdium will know how to Unmake a Spren right away as that seems sort of advanced since Rayse only Unmade 9 Spren into the, you know, the 9 Unmade. Though with Cultivation teaching him that could change very quickly.

[Pagerunner]

10 hours ago, Isilel said:

 

But why should they do something like this? Doesn't it make more sense for former deadeyes to bond the squires, if they choose to bond? Also, Aux was a highspren and the Skybreakers didn't participate in the Recreance. So, if he had been a deadeye, and there was no indication of this in "The Sunlit Man", his bond must have been broken under some special circumstances.

That's a good point on the highspren deadeyes.

The impetus for the idea is from Sunlit Man; once we learned that Sigzil became a Skybreaker, it got me thinking that it'd be pretty neat for other Bridge Four members to join other Orders, and now I'm looking for ways that could be happening in Stormlight Five (aside from anti-Stormlight killing their honorspren). I'd rationalize the deadeye logistics here as: perhaps the Windrunner squires aren't suited in temperament to bond those restored deadeye spren, but Bridge Four themselves have a lot of variety.

[Green Hoodie Mistborn]

On 4/27/2024 at 6:30 AM, alder24 said:

That was interesting, I didn't expect BAM to be imprisoned in SR. How was that even possible? Very interesting. I wonder how they will recover her, not by physically going there as from WoBs we know that's not how SR works - it's not a place (WoB1 WoB2). I thought if BAM was in the vision Dalinar had at the end of WoR - many suspect that was a Dawnshard, based on how similarly it felt to Rysn becoming the Dawnshard, but could it be BAM, and those feelings and light was just the consequences of her essence and investiture bleeding through SR into Dalinar?

I did expect that not many Honrospren would join Radiants, but not that few. However I think Notum will organize the Honorspren navy to recover Shadesmar from Odium's control, the hint of this was quite clear in my opinion.

And lastly we have confirmation that Shallan draws upon Fortune when drawing, which wasn't surprising, we knew from WoBs that Shallan fiddles with Connections and SR, but what was interesting is that Kalak for some reason seemed to be not surprised by that, even expecting that. Weird. Does he know about something we/she doesn't know (Chana)?

Love to see Maya speak so much, she's really getting better  

I thought the hint with Notum was more 

Spoiler

that he would end up bonding to Leshwi in the future. Maybe not book 5 but sometime given his lack of wanting to bond a human. Still, he might also free Shadesmar first... we'll see!

 

[+Child of Hodor]

On 4/27/2024 at 8:02 AM, KaladinWorldsinger said:

Infact theory time, since spiritual realm has both the past and the future, this will be how Brandon gives us info about shallan's past without dedicated flashbacks. 

She will have a set of quick visions of the past and the future , like Rey touching the lightsaber in the Force Awakens, and we will have a bunch of theory fodder for the next 5 years. Chana can be revealed as shallan's mom, while also teasing about future Shallan and ghostblood fights in the cosmere.

Great idea! 

On 4/27/2024 at 8:30 AM, alder24 said:

And lastly we have confirmation that Shallan draws upon Fortune when drawing, which wasn't surprising, we knew from WoBs that Shallan fiddles with Connections and SR, but what was interesting is that Kalak for some reason seemed to be not surprised by that, even expecting that. Weird. Does he know about something we/she doesn't know (Chana)?

Love to see Maya speak so much, she's really getting better  

Yes, love that Maya is talking now!

When first discussing Shallan being able to sketch the spiritual realm, Kalak implies that it may be because she bonded two spren. Which of course means it is absolutely not because she bonded two spren. That's one of Brandon's favorite tricks: have a character present an assumption as fact early on. 

Spoiler

"Not simply sketching, child. Do you often draw upon Fortune? Glimpse someone's possible selves, then pull one forth? Touch, in some way, what could have been? What might still be?" He glanced at her and must have seen the utter confusion in her eyes as he sighed. "Is this a skill commonly employed by Lightweavers during your time?"

"Not that I know of," she said. "But I don't exactly understand what you're saying."

He glanced toward Pattern and Testament. "Two spren... Of course, you've bonded two. Strange things happen when a Nahel bond is imbricated. There were rules against it once, I believe. How long have you had them both?  https://wob.coppermind.net/events/535/#e16576

Kalak should know that Chana had a kid (assuming she did which I do). We know the Skybreakers were involved with Shallan's mom and her eldest brother, Nale runs the Skybreakers, Kalak and Nale have hung out since that time you'd think it would come up.

Also, multiple Heralds mention that Ishar is the only one still sane (incorrect) which means they've talked to him and the other heralds in order to comment on all their mental states. These Heralds talk to each other a lot more than they said they would. Another promise not kept by these guys. 

[Ookla]

All I know is that I'm CRAZY excited for Stormlight 5 to be out! I read these leaked chapters a couple days ago and I couldn't quite keep myself from squealing--Shallan is one of my top 3 favorite Stormlight characters (the other two being Lift and Jasnah), and I've been waiting for the Sanderlanche in her character arc for so long now! Also, I love that Testament is at least responsive now, and that Maya is talking, and that Pattern's humor has only gotten more hilarious in the gap between books.

(On a side note; I do wonder if Brandon ever uses our theories when he gets stuck for ideas...)

[teknopathetic]

I find it interesting that Shallan opened up the safe to get her blade. Does ... does that make sense? Shallan went to the garden to go meet Testament AFTER her father put Testament/mother's soul in the safe.

So in terms of timeline assuming a blade was in the safe (and not a herald-soul)
1. Shallan kills her mother with the blade.
2. Lin Davar quickly puts the blade in the safe.
3. Shallan goes to the garden to meet with Testament
4. Testament manifests in the garden
5. Shallan unbonds Testament after a conversation.
6. Testament returns to the safe somehow?

Does that make a lot of sense? Did Testament agree to go to the safe after being unbonded and then became a deadeye slowly after? Or does a deadeye blade return to the last place it was located in the physical realm? Can Testament be a blade in the safe and also go meet Shallan in the garden? Or was there even really a blade in the safe at all? Did Shallan actually see a blade in the safe or did she find nothing and remember that she had the blade the whole time - but then forgot that? 

I am so suspicious of all of this. I still think Shallan's mother's soul was actually in that safe like Shallan says originally in WoR. If the soul were to be in there, then maybe Shallan released her mother's soul when Shallan opened the safe, and that is why Taln returns a few months later (enough time for Chana to break and cause all this) 

Edited Friday at 06:37 PM by teknopathetic

[The Sibling]

Spoiler

"Shallan," he said, and she looked up, meeting his eyes. "If it weren't for that capacity, then what good would choices be? If we never had the power to do terrible things, then what heroism would it be to resist?"

"But..."

"Did you turn it away?" he asked. And Adolin squeezed her hand.

"Yes."

"Then heroism it is, Shallan."

I love how we just start with some classic Hoid/Shallan moments. He's so so kind to her but I feel like it's in a slightly different way than he is with Kaladin. He often pokes fun at Kaladin and leaves him to tease out the meaning of his stories, but I feel like he knows what Shallan needs. She needs someone to come right out and tell her that she is important, she is loved, she is strong. I guess that's why Adolin is so perfect for her. 

Spoiler

"You think Shadesmar is odd, yes? Black sky, little sun, Pattern with arms and legs for perambulating."

I've missed Pattern so much. I'm trying to not re-read Stormlight until closer to the SA5 release, but it's quotes like these that make me want to start now. I've really really missed Roshar. 

Overall I really liked the new chapters. I feel like some of the dialogue feels a little clumsy, but it might just be that I need to get used to Brandon's writing style again. All the stuff about the spiritual realm is absolutely confusing to me, so I'll be relying on the coppermind/shardcast for any hope of understanding it, but that's okay. I'm really liking how complex but also less rigid the magic systems are getting. The Cosmere feels less like a bunch of hard magic systems that are entirely separate and more like a crazy patchwork quilt of hard magic systems interwoven with the soft magic system that is the Spiritual realm. It's really confusing but I'm here for it.

Also these chapters are reminding me how much I love Shallan. 

Edited Saturday at 04:57 PM by The Sibling

[VirtuousTraveller]

My reaction to this leaked chapter was a relief that Brandon's writing felt like Stormlight again.  The Sunlit Man didn't read or sound like a Stormlight book at all (I know Brandon was experimenting with voice and the Secret Projects were their own thing), but I've had concerns about the quality of cosmere writing becoming more like the way Brandon wrote Alcatraz (not bad, just different and too silly for my taste; The Lost Metal humor etc).  This feels like a return to form, or perhaps just a return of the form of Brandon I like best  

[+Child of Hodor]

On 5/3/2024 at 12:21 PM, teknopathetic said:

I find it interesting that Shallan opened up the safe to get her blade. Does ... does that make sense? Shallan went to the garden to go meet Testament AFTER her father put Testament/mother's soul in the safe.

So in terms of timeline assuming a blade was in the safe (and not a herald-soul)
1. Shallan kills her mother with the blade.
2. Lin Davar quickly puts the blade in the safe.
3. Shallan goes to the garden to meet with Testament
4. Testament manifests in the garden
5. Shallan unbonds Testament after a conversation.
6. Testament returns to the safe somehow?

Does that make a lot of sense? Did Testament agree to go to the safe after being unbonded and then became a deadeye slowly after? Or does a deadeye blade return to the last place it was located in the physical realm? Can Testament be a blade in the safe and also go meet Shallan in the garden? Or was there even really a blade in the safe at all? Did Shallan actually see a blade in the safe or did she find nothing and remember that she had the blade the whole time - but then forgot that? 

I am so suspicious of all of this. I still think Shallan's mother's soul was actually in that safe like Shallan says originally in WoR. If the soul were to be in there, then maybe Shallan released her mother's soul when Shallan opened the safe, and that is why Taln returns a few months later (enough time for Chana to break and cause all this) 

You're right it doesn't make sense as presented. 

What if Chana's blade dropped when she died and that was the sword and what Shallan thought of as her mom's soul? That could still fit with events as we understand them. When Szeth was made Truthless all 9 blades were in Shinovar, 8 when he left, but he's already Truthless at this point Chana could have gotten her blade. 

As to any inconsistencies in Shallan's flashbacks / memories, well Shallan lies all the time, especially to herself. 

Edited Tuesday at 07:26 PM by Child of Hodor

[The Stick]

47 minutes ago, Child of Hodor said:

You're right it doesn't make sense as presented. 

What if Chana's blade dropped when she died and that was the sword and what Shallan thought of as her mom's soul? That could still fit with events as we understand them. When Szeth was made Truthless all 9 blades were in Shinovar, 8 when he left, but he's already Truthless at this point Chana could have gotten her blade. 

As to any inconsistencies in Shallan's flashbacks / memories, well Shallan lies all the time, especially to herself. 

Aren't you forgetting about Nale's blade, which he reclaimed early on. Because your nine blades would imply them all except Taln's.

[CtrlAltDepressed]

23 minutes ago, The Stick said:

Aren't you forgetting about Nale's blade, which he reclaimed early on.

I believe Nale only got his after his chat with Gavilar.

[+Child of Hodor]

17 minutes ago, The Stick said:

Aren't you forgetting about Nale's blade, which he reclaimed early on. Because your nine blades would imply them all except Taln's.

1 minute ago, CtrlAltDepressed said:

I believe Nale only got his after his chat with Gavilar.

Before Szeth was kicked out there were 8 honorblades left. In WoR Taravangian interlude Tarvangian tries to explain away Kaladin's surgebinding by saying another Honorblade vanished. Szeth says "One of the other 7?". 

I assumed it was Nale's missing, I'll have to check the text though. If it is Chana's missing that makes my theory more plausible. Otherwise she had to go get her blade back after Szeth was made Truthless, but before the prologue. I'm not sure how long a timeframe that is.