Overblown expectations

[MerlinArcane]

I’ve been reading a lot of theories on here and reddit and such, and it seems to be there’s a lot of (understandable) hype. But I think we need to remember this is only one half of a series. If Dalinar wins or loses, it won’t loose Odium upon the Cosmere. That’s a way higher level threat than just Roshar, it would involve the other series.

 

Whatever loophole TOdium is seeing, I doubt it lets him enter Scadrial or Nalthis or Sel. At least partially because if it did, and they beat Odium, it would reduce him as a threat to readers. A rogue murdering Shard is way too high level for the other series to handle, right now. They haven’t built up the skills like Roshar have 

[BlueWildRye he/him]

Yeah, I agree with you. I think Brandon said that some of his beta readers were surprised that the ending of Stormlight 5 wasn't as gigantic as they thought. Or at least, not Hero of Ages style gigantic. I'd bet it's definitely the most climactic of all the Stormlight books, but there will still be five more books in the series to go after that. Hence there is not going to be an absolute victory or defeat.

[+hwiles]

On 5/13/2024 at 10:02 PM, MerlinArcane said:

I’ve been reading a lot of theories on here and reddit and such, and it seems to be there’s a lot of (understandable) hype. But I think we need to remember this is only one half of a series. If Dalinar wins or loses, it won’t loose Odium upon the Cosmere. That’s a way higher level threat than just Roshar, it would involve the other series.

 

Whatever loophole TOdium is seeing, I doubt it lets him enter Scadrial or Nalthis or Sel. At least partially because if it did, and they beat Odium, it would reduce him as a threat to readers. A rogue murdering Shard is way too high level for the other series to handle, right now. They haven’t built up the skills like Roshar have 

I'm very much inclined to agree unfortunately. Roshar isn't on the path to world-peace, they're on the path to interplanetary war...

The real questions that I'm hoping to see folks be able to have clarity on are:

Spoiler

1. which, if any, of the Rosharan shards will be aggregated into a composite super entity (like Harmony)?

2. How much of Taravangian's former ultra-intelligence and hyper-empathy as a man will he be able to leverage as levers of control as the cosmere's current God-of-Hatred? He was compelled to author the diagram under cultivation's influence and out of his sense of honor and duty as a sovereign...he's objectively the best mortal candidate to ever achieve ascendancy other than Sazed, who was meticulously purpose-built by Preservation for his eventual dual-wielding.

3. Does cultivation truly love and wish to protect her subjects that she invests in the growth of (she...does perform extremely unethical experiments on them in my opinion...) or is she simply self-absorbed in her own godhood and protecting herself at this point? (She...does perform extremely unethical experiments on people sometimes...)

4. If Odium doesn't break free of Roshar in book 5, then...what motivation could there ever be for him to ever want to leave? If he realizes that he is well and truly trapped, while still impossibly powerful, it might make more sense for him to begin trying to just kill other shards remotely...(recall, he knows that this possible and not nearly as difficult as it used to be now. Thank you darksouls! Cough. I mean: Thank you Nightblood!!)

This will hopefully be a very exciting and entertaining one. Or, failing that, an excruciatingly illuminating one.

Edit: threw in a spoiler block because I think I probably broke a rule or two. Sorry and thanks!

Edited May 15 by hwiles