Is Dalinar Done?

[Rando_webb]

On 12/13/2024 at 9:39 AM, Elder said:

I think… that the True Dalinar will appear in visions, the way Nohadon has.  Probably to Jasnah, possibly to Renarin.  Not sure where thst puts me on the poll.

I dont believe anyone from this generation, who hasn't achieved immortality, will make an appearance in further stormlight novels. It's likely that the next part will be far in the future. Probabally during the next return after Kaladin has had a chance to heal the minds of the other Harolds.

[Nitpicking]

4 hours ago, Rando_webb said:

I dont believe anyone from this generation, who hasn't achieved immortality, will make an appearance in further stormlight novels. It's likely that the next part will be far in the future. Probabally during the next return after Kaladin has had a chance to heal the minds of the other Harolds.

Brandon has explicitly said that the back half will take place after SPOILER

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/62/#e3049

Spoiler

... After Book 5 of Stormlight we will have a break, in-world, for about fifteen years. Not out of the world, not in our world, but we will have a break and when we come back fifteen years or so will have passed and we will start on the back five characters.

So ....

[mai_day she/her]

On 12/13/2024 at 8:34 AM, Wit Beyond Measure said:

Those two are Ash and Taln, heralds, and his previous seven include Windrunner (Kal), Lightweaver (Shallan), Truthwatcher (Renarin), Elsecaller (Jasnah), Skybreaker (Szeth), Edgedancer (Lift), and Bondsmith (Dalinar). Assuming Taln takes Stoneward and either Ash or Shallan moves to Dustbringer, then the only one left is Willshaper, Eshonai/Venli. Venli was there on Thaylen Field with them!

Something that I think a lot of people have missed is that even if you remove Dalinar from the equation, there was another Bondsmith present at Thaylen Field. Sure, Navani had not yet sworn the oaths, but neither had Venli, Ash or Taln. If anything, I kind of feel like Dalinar being gone for good reinforces his arc of being the man who could Unite, but that ultimately he could not do everything himself and had to let go and trust others to create a new world.

[LewsTherinTelescope]

On 7/1/2025 at 12:50 AM, mai_day said:

Something that I think a lot of people have missed is that even if you remove Dalinar from the equation, there was another Bondsmith present at Thaylen Field. Sure, Navani had not yet sworn the oaths, but neither had Venli, Ash or Taln. If anything, I kind of feel like Dalinar being gone for good reinforces his arc of being the man who could Unite, but that ultimately he could not do everything himself and had to let go and trust others to create a new world.

I agree it'll be someone besides Dalinar, but I actually predict Adolin will be the one to step into the Bondsmith role when it comes to whatever the countoff is leading to (not necessarily as a Radiant but more broadly a representation of cooperation and understanding). When Dalinar lists everyone (OB 119), guess who is the only "extra" person to appear in the entire section?

Spoiler

Kaladin Stormblessed stepped up beside Dalinar before the rubble of the wall, and Shallan Davar stood on the other side. Jasnah emerged from the city and surveyed the scene with a critical air, while Renarin popped out behind her, then cried out and ran for Adolin. He grabbed his older brother in an embrace, then gasped. Adolin was wounded?

Good lad, Dalinar thought as Renarin immediately set to healing his brother.

Two more people crossed the battlefield. Lift he had anticipated. But the assassin? Szeth scooped the silvery sheath off the ground and slammed his black Shardblade into it, before stepping up to join Dalinar.

Skybreaker, Dalinar thought, counting them off. Edgedancer. That was seven.

He would have expected three more.

There, the Stormfather said. Behind your niece.

Two more people appeared in the shadow of the wall. A large, powerful man with an impressive physique, and a woman with long, dark hair. Their dark skin marked them as Makabaki, perhaps Azish, but their eyes were wrong.

Then when he lists those who show "true honor" (W&T 141) and can stop Retribution (W&T 142), it's the exact same people listed in the first paragraph.

Spoiler

Dalinar strode toward Odium, the power of Honor surrounding him. He saw it, true honor, in the efforts of two young people to set right an ancient wrong. In the way a young spearman rose to his feet in the darkness. In a man who stood with friends to save a city that was not his own. In the Lightweaver who refused the lies and accepted truth. Even in the way a queen who had been wrong resolved to do better.

 

Spoiler

The answer was so close. Today, Dalinar had seen true honor. As Adolin stood for Azir, and Renarin set right a terrible wrong. As Jasnah picked herself up from failure, and Shallan rose above what had been done to her. And Kaladin …

Blood of my fathers, Dalinar thought, realizing. Kaladin will preserve a piece … That's what we need …

Now that he knew the end he wanted, Dalinar could see the answers. You never could find them unless you knew what you were looking for, could you?

"I can’t stop Odium," Dalinar whispered, a plan forming. "But they can." He looked to Nohadon. "Am I simply doing the same thing that has always been done, though? Kicking the problem down to the next generation. Isn’t that an awful idea?"

And Adolin's plot the past couple books has revolved around bringing people together and considering other viewpoints, not to mention ending this one by learning literacy by reading Oathbringer, the same book Dalinar learned literacy by writing.