discuss How will SA5 end?

[Rune he/him]

I started my journey through the Cosmere with the Stormlight Archive and it has remained my favorite all throughout (though there have been some contenders!).  I cannot wait to read book five and look forward to seeing how this chapter of Roshar will end. But how will it end? Do you think we will have a positive end or a more negative one? I hate to see things going wrong for our heroes but I would not put it past Brandon if it was what the story required. We do know a little of Roshar’s place in the future cosmere but no specifics.

Spoiler

Regardless of the Contest’s outcome, Odium will be bound to the system.

And regardless of the wide world outcomes, what of the outcomes of individuals characters like Kaladin, Dalinar, Szeth, Shallan, Hoid, Adolin, etc? Kaladin has been my favorite but what if this spells the end for him? His and Moash’s arc needs to end in some way and no matter how much I hope it can all go awry. The end of Stormlight’s first arc could be a sad one. 

Spoiler

The contest may be lost to Odium, resulting in either him breaking Dalinar in some way, freeing him from Roshar, or Odium still sending his forces to expand.

What are some of your theories/hopes for the end?

[Ookla she/her]

From a writer's perspective, I'm guessing Stormlight 5 isn't going to end the way we want. I'm sure it'll have a satisfying resolution, sure, but not necessarily a happy one. After all, Sanderson has 5 more books to write in this series, and while the latter half will have its own arc, I believe it's been confirmed that there's only about a decade gap between the two halves--nowhere near enough time for a totally brand new arc to form. I bet something goes horribly wrong with the contest of champions, making the whole situation worse than it was before. We might even get a massive end-of-arc cliffhanger that'll have us all extremely annoyed until book 6 comes out. But I do think it'll at least have a satisfying ending, even if it does end in a cliffhanger and Roshar devolves into utter chaos.

Also, Odium may be bound to the system (for now), but (spoilers for Stormlight 4)

Spoiler

Taravangian is a heck of a lot cleverer than Rayse was; there might be a way for him to loophole his way out of the contract and leave the Rosharan system. If he does, the latter half of Stormlight might have to do with Roshar desperately trying to reach the space age in order to hunt him down and capture him again. Or else, you know, they have to scramble to reform the Oathpact and trap Odium that way, and some of our favorite characters get trapped on Braize. Could be interesting to have a Listener Herald, honestly.

[+Child of Hodor]

Odium wins the contest, tries to get out of the deal by using his leverage over Fused Dalinar. But he's now Fused/Herald/Honor Dalinar who has modified the Oathpact to apply to Odium. Dalinar and Taravangian stuck on Braize together debating philosophy endlessly or until the back half. 

Alternatively, Odium is split in two and Dalinar/Honor and Cultivation Ascend to a piece of it. Really shakes things up for the back half. We don't know a partial Shard ascension is possible, but we don't know that it isn't. 

I think Shinovar gets destroyed towards the end. Szeth will be looking down on it crying as the ocean rushes in and it will fulfill this death rattle: 

Quote

A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears.  https://coppermind.net/wiki/Death_Rattle/list#cite_note-The_Way_of_Kings-chapter-3-epigraph-24

 

[anna she/her]

I'm expecting Odium to win, but in a way we / team Radiant feel good about.

 

Quote

So the night will reign, for the choice of honor is life...

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Death_Rattle/list#cite_ref-Words_of_Radiance-i-14_47-0

 

[alder24]

My theory is that Odium will force Dalinar to break the terms of the Contest and get free from Roshar (but Odium doesn't want to leave Roshar). However Odium will kill Dalinar (and I'm hoping he will still be made into a Fused) and deadeye the Stormfather and that will cause endless Weeping with no Stormlight (the Night of Sorrows), flooding Kharbranth which will be interpreted as Odium destroying the city against the oath he made with Taravangian. This will weaken Odium, exposing him to attacks, forcing him to withdraw back to Braize, or maybe even this weakness will be exploited by the Coalition by the end of SA5. To fix the Stormfather I suspect Kaladin will replace Dalinar as the King of Urithiru and later he will Ascend to Honor, but that seems too predictable and too grand. BAM will be released but that won't fix deadeye spren, it will only cause further complications as I suspect she's mad by now. So Odium will win but that will cause his downfall later and by the end of the book the Coalition will find a way to achieve some kind of costly pyrrhic victory, at least reversing the consequences of the Stormfather's death (doing with him what Adolin is doing with Maya and bringing back Highstorms and Stormlight) Those wild speculations were mostly inspired by Death Rattles:

Quote

A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears. 

The day was ours, but they took it. Stormfather! You cannot have it. The day is ours. They come, rasping, and the lights fail. Oh, Stormfather! 

Light grows so distant. The storm never stops. I am broken, and all around me have died. I weep for the end of all things. He has won. Oh, he has beaten us. 

I'm cold. Mother, I'm cold. Mother? Why can I still hear the rain? Will it stop? 

He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!

We have a WoB from Brandon telling us what to expect, or rather what to don't expect from the SA5 ending and based on that I don't think we'll see anyone fixing and Ascending to Honor yet. Maybe something like a temporary Ascension to a portion of Honor's power at best, but not full Ascention (you know what I'm talking about).

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

Stormlight Five is the end of the first arc of the Stormlight Archive, right? I've been saying that since the beginning, since Book One, but then I went and I ended Mistborn, and people are expecting it to end like that. That's not what I mean by the end of the first arc. This is more like an anime arc than it is like the end of Mistborn One. And I need to start preparing that for people, because one of the things I'm getting from beta readers is: number one, it's going really well, people are really liking the book. Number two, they're like, "Oh, I thought this would be an ending like end of Mistborn Three." No, it's more like the end, as I said, of an anime arc. The end of the Stormlight is Book Ten. You are going to get some decent resolutions on things I've been promising for a while, but you're not gonna get resolutions on everything, because it's not the end, yet.

C2E2 2024 (April 26, 2024)

 

 

2 hours ago, Child of Hodor said:

We don't know a partial Shard ascension is possible

It is possible  

Spoiler

Yoitsthew

 Theoretically, would it be possible to form a new Shard from splinters of multiple other Shards? Could I have posses enough investiture from Honor, Cultivation, and/or Odium and effectively become Unity, without holding the entirety of those shards?? I’m really just curious haha.

Brandon Sanderson

What you want here is theoretically possible, but more difficult than it sounds.

General Reddit 2020 (Sept. 30, 2020)

[EdgedancerJacob he/him]

Others in this thread have provided such great and specific ideas, but all I'm certain about is it's going to be melancholy. A victory, perhaps, but not the victory we'd want. 

[Master Silver]

Sounds like this going to go the way the end of Cell Saga went in DBZ, So who is Goku and who is Gohan. That is the question.