Qianweilian He/him Posted March 10, 2025 Posted March 10, 2025 Who would win in a fight? We did see the fight in WaT, but now Kaladin has Herald powers and Nale is actually fighting instead of repeatedly stepping to the side.
Ninth of the Night Posted March 10, 2025 Posted March 10, 2025 Kaladin has Herald powers that he doesn't yet have any experience with. Like at all. Nale does. A lot of experience. An unimaginable amount of practice with said powers. This is no contest. Nale wins. It would be a repeat of what we already saw. Ask this question again in 10 years when it won't be completely one-sided. Seriously, and sorry if this sounds rude, these vs topics need a little more thought behind them sometimes. The cosmere just isn't really condusive to power scaling debates. 4
alder24 Posted March 11, 2025 Posted March 11, 2025 (edited) 18 hours ago, Qianweilian said: Who would win in a fight? We did see the fight in WaT, but now Kaladin has Herald powers and Nale is actually fighting instead of repeatedly stepping to the side. Honestly, I don't see the point of this poll because we've seen this fight and Nale has beaten Kaladin in a spectacular way. Yes, Kaladin is a Herald now, but he has no experience in being a Herald. so Nale still would win. Nale has millenia of experience in combat, he's made mistakes and learned from them in a way no mortal can do and that gives him an unfair advantage against a freshly made Herald such as Kaladin. Give Kaladin a thousand years of fighting and only then he would have a real chance against Nale in a fair fight. Spoiler Questioner How would Adolin fare against the greats like Lan, Rand, Galad, and how would Kaladin and his spear fare against Mat? Brandon Sanderson It’s really hard to say this, because what are different characters’ skill levels and things? For instance, I generally count Lan as the strongest and the best. My [Wheel of Time] books that I wrote show that. I think Lan would beat Adolin. You just can’t replace the twenty years of intense practice that Lan has, and the wisdom, no matter how talented of a rookie you are -- even though Adolin is not a rookie. I think Lan could go toe-to-toe with anyone non-immortal in the cosmere, because a lot of the cosmere people have an advantage, right? Taln has spent 4,000 years practicing with weapons. Granted, he spent a bunch of that time being tortured as well, but you know. He has many lifetimes behind him, and has been able to be killed making mistakes and never make those mistakes again. That is a leg up on someone like Lan or like Adolin that is just of a supernatural level. And so, while I think Lan would beat any swordsman in a fair fight from the Cosmere, I would count anyone who has a greatly expanded lifespan as an unfair fight. Like, I don’t think Lan would be able to stand against the better duelists among the Heralds or even against Vasher. Vasher’s got multiple lifetimes of practicing with the sword. How would Kaladin do against Mat? It depends, Mat’s luck is a very big wildcard, and how is the luck on Mat’s side and how is karma working in Mat’s favor or against him in that given moment? That’s part of what makes Mat fun. So Kaladin is a soldier, again, not a duelist. Kaladin is really good with a spear, but his training is in war, his training is to be a battlefield captain. What even is Mat? Mat has been trained by fate itself with weapons, which is just really hard to play. Let’s call that a tie, edge probably to Kaladin. Lan beats Adolin or basically any duelist but you put him up against the Heralds and he has a much harder time. YouTube Livestream 16 (Aug. 20, 2020) Edited March 11, 2025 by alder24
Master Silver Posted March 11, 2025 Posted March 11, 2025 Nale wins this for now, I imagine by book 10 Kaladin wins this no problem. 2
AceBassMan Posted April 1, 2025 Posted April 1, 2025 I think if Kaladin and Nale had fought WITH surges rather than without surges as they agreed then Kaladin would have outflown Nale and won. 1
Master Silver Posted April 4, 2025 Posted April 4, 2025 That is interesting. It is true that when it comes to flying, Kaladin seems to be a prodigy, he outflew the ancient Fused. But Kaladin very likely would have still lost because of division. Adding less restrictions favors the warrior with more use of their powers. Just like when Nale said Kaladin was new to his plate. 2
AceBassMan Posted April 4, 2025 Posted April 4, 2025 5 minutes ago, Master Silver said: That is interesting. It is true that when it comes to flying, Kaladin seems to be a prodigy, he outflew the ancient Fused. But Kaladin very likely would have still lost because of division. Adding less restrictions favors the warrior with more use of their powers. Just like when Nale said Kaladin was new to his plate. I agree with your points, though Nale would would have to catch Kaladin first 1
Master Silver Posted April 4, 2025 Posted April 4, 2025 True, but apparently Nale could just go after Szeth if he felt Kaladin wasn't living up to the agreement to fight. Also there is some strange preference that stormlight has for Heralds. So who knows how long Kaladin would be able to fight. I feel robbed that we didn't get to see Kaladin fight after achieving the fifth ideal. Both him and Szeth got a bunch of stormlight... ok big deal. It is immediately consumed by Nightblood. Now having them achieve the fifth ideal after Dalinar dies and Retribution reclaims all the stormlight, making it so that there is stormlight contained in a perfect gemheart with a tiny connection to the spiritual realm, that would have been very very cool. 1
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