Top 10 theories going into Oathbringer

[Alphax]

1. Rysn will become a radiant (dustbringer I hope)

2. Lirin will be revealed as radiant in training (Three radiants from Kholin clan, why not another radiant from Kaladin's lot)

3. Shallan's eldest brother is not dead and possibly another radiant

4. The bastard son of victorious Jah Keved's Highprince will join the ranks of KR (There is something about him that I can't describe)

 

[Stormrunner1730]

On 9/2/2017 at 5:23 PM, WayneSpren said:

I think Taravangian will take power in Alethkar by the end of the book.

 

This would be very interesting.  I'd be really curious to see how books 4 and 5 play out if this happens.  I would guess that conquering Alethkar is somewhere on the Diagram (Isn't Taravangian's goal to eventually conquer the world to save it?  Or at least that a potential goal of his?)

[Ansalem]

1 hour ago, Stormrunner1730 said:

This would be very interesting.  I'd be really curious to see how books 4 and 5 play out if this happens.  I would guess that conquering Alethkar is somewhere on the Diagram (Isn't Taravangian's goal to eventually conquer the world to save it?  Or at least that a potential goal of his?)

Well, the Diagram did say "you must become king. Of everything."

[+ILuvHats he/him]

My List of Totally Ridiculous Theories

1.  Shallan leaves Adolin and gets together with Jasnah.

2.  Lift kills a Thunderclast with her shard fork.

3.  Sadeas didn't actually die.  Turns out that the WalDo we've been looking for this whole time was impersonating him, and faked his own death.  In reality, Sadeas is a kind and charitable human being.

4.  Szeths hairstyle catches on and everybody starts shaving their heads.

[thegatorgirl00 she/her]

A few of mine that haven't been mentioned yet. 

1. Dalinar will abdicate as highprince. While trying to convince the world of the Radiants, he'll face problems since other countries will view it as another overpowered Alethi army. The fact that he is considered king of Alethkar in all but name won't help. He'll realize that to unite the Radiants and the world, he'll have to distance himself from the throne, abdicating. A side effect is that he won't be as controlling towards Elhokar. Elhokar will become a better, but not great, king. Dalinar will need to confront the fact that, although he tried to protect Gavilar's son due to guilt, Elhokar not only didn't need him, but was harmed by his actions. 

2. We won't learn about Shardplate. We will learn about fabrials. The discovery of Urithiru will lead to lots of new fabrial technology. They really need to get those Regrowth fabrials figured out for the coming desolation. 

3. Kaladin will tell Shallan he killed her brother. This will ruin any chance of a relationship between them. Not because Shallan is super angry at him, but because she excuses his actions too quickly, telling Kaladin he did what he had to do. Kaladin will realize their perspectives on things like killing are too different for him to ever be with her. 

[Ansalem]

Not a theory, but one of the things I'm looking forward to the most is learning about the surge of Tension. It's one of the only two we know absolutely nothing about (the other being Cohesion), and Dalinar has it now.

[Stonerwarden]

Not really in any order and some may be a bit of a more wider scope than just Oathbringer and are some crazy theories I have, so here goes;

1. The "Black sphere" of Gavilar's will turn up to be the condensed / contained essence of Odium's shardpool.
2. The big reveal of Dalinar's wife Shshshshsh will be that she killed herself after Dalinar confesses in a drunken rage that he's only ever loved Navarni, the shame of this is what drives him to the Nightwatcher to ask his boon.
3. We will meet Sadeas' heir who's an even bigger bastard than his father
4. Now this still isn't completely formed out theory but in Urithitu Shallan will find a complete list (compendium?) of every shardblade from the Radiant's who broke their oath during the recreance. so similar to how a flamespren will retain a static shape once recorded. I think this is somehow related to the dead shardblades if someone knows the name of the spren, what type it is etc then it's the start of being able to revive them. She'll share this information with Adolin who will spend the last part of the book in exile trying to revive his blade.
5. Once Kaladin returns he'll meet Veil who he'll have feelings for and Shallan will be with Adolin & Kaladin will be with Veil, until she can reveal her next truth as to who she loves.
6. Lopen will say the second ideal of the Willshapers

I think most of my remaining predictions have been mentioned, IE Kaladin's mother being from a mixed lighteye family (or Oldblood), Jasnah saving Kholinr (maybe with Kaladins help), re-opening of the oathgates etc

 

[Walin he/him]

Most of my theories are just two-book patterns that may be broken in Oathbringer-- but we won't know until it comes out!

1-Dalinar will have another "I feel no shame" moment in a late-book battle. Since the first was about what he became, the second about when he failed in an event, maybe the third will be him accepting his bloody past as necessary.

2-The bridgemen progress further in being a cohesive and effective unit.

3-There will be enough cohesion with the last book's plot that it just seems like a massive book with a cliffhanger at the end of every one of all ten chapters.

4-Lopen will keep his job as comic relief during bridgemen chapters but Lift will get a job doing so during Radiant Training chapters

5-There will be an especially traumatic flashback for Dalinar within a chapter's-worth of plot before his viewpoint in the series began.

i saw some awesome theories above, too.

[EmmaExtraordinary]

Great theories up above but I wanted to mention one of my own crazy theories

Adolin will go in search of the old magic. It may be caused by guilt or because he feels useless next to all the Radiants in his life I don't know. I do think his relationship with his blade being important and as much as I hate it I see the potential for him to become odiums champion. 

 

[Guest]

10 hours ago, EmmaExtraordinary said:

Great theories up above but I wanted to mention one of my own crazy theories

Adolin will go in search of the old magic. It may be caused by guilt or because he feels useless next to all the Radiants in his life I don't know. I do think his relationship with his blade being important and as much as I hate it I see the potential for him to become odiums champion. 

 

It had crossed my mind he may be bold enough to do so, but I am unsure if it will even fit within the existing narrative, but we'll see.

[Duke of Lizards she/her]

1. Jasnah will lay a verbal smackdown on her sister-in-law. 

2. Lift will run into/interact briefly with one of our main characters. (I'm thinking maybe Adolin in exile, or something...assuming that's what happens to him.)

3. Navani's motives will be revealed. (I may make a post about this later because I'm obsessing about this, but I think she is up to no good...or at least working toward her own gains.)

4. Kaladin will not save the day...someone else will.  (Vague, I know, but we now expect him to swoop in a save everyone.  It's someone else's turn.)

5. We will find out details about the Recreance. (perhaps through Shallan's arc)

6. Heleran is alive and is not the idyllic person that Shallan remembers him to be...perhaps he never was.  Shallan's brothers join her in Urithiru and cause her grief in some form or fashion.

7. I also think we are going to see more Amaram or Ialai.  (IIRC, There will be a character that we haven't had a ton of POV's from that will become more prominent in the story.)

8. Kaladin's mama tells him to cut his hair. 

 

[Necessary Eagle she/her]

1 hour ago, Duke of Lizards said:

6. Heleran is alive and is not the idyllic person that Shallan remembers him to be...perhaps he never was.  Shallan's brothers join her in Urithiru and cause her grief in some form or fashion.

Wasn't Helaran the guy Kaladin killed at the beginning of WoK?

[Velvet Thunder he/him]

On 09/09/2017 at 5:04 AM, EmmaExtraordinary said:

Great theories up above but I wanted to mention one of my own crazy theories

Adolin will go in search of the old magic. It may be caused by guilt or because he feels useless next to all the Radiants in his life I don't know. I do think his relationship with his blade being important and as much as I hate it I see the potential for him to become odiums champion. 

 

I like this one, and had a similar thoughts.

I think he will seek out the Nightwatcher, either while in exile or through shame. He will ask something along the lines of "Let me help the world, I want to redeem myself. Let my talents and anger help rather than damage". Nightwatcher will revive the spren in his blade. Adolin will come back as a radiant, at a particularly deadly and important bit, and save/surprise the group with radiant skills. They will grudgingly accept him back as they will realise they need everyone that they can get and adolin is an artist with the blade. His boon will come to light, and when asked what his curse was, he will claim he doesn't know and doesn't think he got one. Que Sadeas to walk back in, resurrected as adolin curse and also impervious to shardblades (not a radiant though) making him have nothing to fear from adolin. 

[Duke of Lizards she/her]

2 hours ago, Necessary Eagle said:

3 hours ago, Duke of Lizards said:

6. Heleran is alive and is not the idyllic person that Shallan remembers him to be...perhaps he never was.  Shallan's brothers join her in Urithiru and cause her grief in some form or fashion.

Wasn't Helaran the guy Kaladin killed at the beginning of WoK?

I know it's far-fetched, but it is only implied that Kaladin killed him.  Never confirmed.  There are theories floating around that the shardbearer that Kaladin killed was not Heleran...I do recognize that the plausibility of this theory is questionable. 

[Gloomspren she/her]

On 9/4/2017 at 3:27 AM, iRemedy said:

Shallan being a ho and progressing with Adolin but chilling with Kaladin as Veil on the side.

I'm reeling I didn't even think about her using Veil for something like that I'm so into this, but ideally I would want it to be like actual Shallan and Kaladin together but that should happen eventually

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Velvet Thunder said:

I like this one, and had a similar thoughts.

I think he will seek out the Nightwatcher, either while in exile or through shame. He will ask something along the lines of "Let me help the world, I want to redeem myself. Let my talents and anger help rather than damage". Nightwatcher will revive the spren in his blade. Adolin will come back as a radiant, at a particularly deadly and important bit, and save/surprise the group with radiant skills. They will grudgingly accept him back as they will realise they need everyone that they can get and adolin is an artist with the blade. His boon will come to light, and when asked what his curse was, he will claim he doesn't know and doesn't think he got one. Que Sadeas to walk back in, resurrected as adolin curse and also impervious to shardblades (not a radiant though) making him have nothing to fear from adolin. 

I honestly do not think the Nightwatcher has the capacity to revive dead-Blades. If Adoln revives his Blade, I am convinced it won't happen because he asked a boon to the Nightwatcher.

[Ansalem]

53 minutes ago, maxal said:

I honestly do not think the Nightwatcher has the capacity to revive dead-Blades. If Adoln revives his Blade, I am convinced it won't happen because he asked a boon to the Nightwatcher.

I agree, although she might be able to impart to him the knowledge of how it could be done. However, this is something I look at more in terms of if I were writing the story rather than thinking about the mechanics of it. If she just did it for him I would consider that cheap storytelling even with an interesting curse. But if it's suitably difficult, emotional, he gets an interesting curse, and he still has to put in actual work, that might turn into some pretty good storytelling.

Though, the real question for me would be how does he decide to revive the Blade and figure visiting the Nightwatcher would be the way to do it? I can see some characters considering reviving the Blade and getting him to try but even if he asked around I don't see anyone coming up with that particular plan. Certainly not at first, anyway. Maybe after a book or two of trying everything else first.

Honestly I expect if he does revive the Blade it'll be basically by accident.

Edited September 12, 2017 by Ansalem

[thejopen27 he/him]

On 7/13/2017 at 9:16 AM, winter devotion said:

Lift and Jasnah would either get along great or horribly. Hoid meeting Lift would be flawless. 
My prediction for Eshonai is that she becomes a radiant, maybe a wind runner too. Maybe it's because I like her a bit too much for a fictional character but darn if she wouldn't make the awesomest surgebinder ever. 

Hoid and Lyft have already met. Just not on screen. Lyft talks about a man who intentionally got swallowed by a greatshell in merebethia, she says she misses him. Hoid says he once spent time in the belly of a great shell.

[Guck]

On 7/9/2017 at 8:48 PM, Calderis said:

1. Kaladin's next oath (if it even happens in Oathbringer) will be about having to allow the people he leads the freedom to make their own choices (and how he is not responsible for the consequences of their choices) 

I really like this. I could see him being handed power and struggling with letting people make their own choices that he doesn't agree with.

 

[Guck]

1. Kaladin is going to struggle with being a lighteyes

2. A large-scale civil war will break out against those with and those against the Radiants having returned.

3. Odium is somehow going to show up, or reveal his 'champion' (will it be eshonai, or someone new?)

4. Shallan will be forced to choose between Kal and Adolin

5. Lift will make her way to the rest of the Radiants.

[Julio]

Mraize will turn out to be Odium. Or formerly Odium, or something. Perhaps he's trying to get his Shard back... 

[MistbornAlpaca he/him]

On 7/9/2017 at 8:53 PM, Lightspine said:

(I agree with a LOT of the predictions made above. I'm only writing down new ones that haven't been mentioned)

1. Jasnah will expose herself as alive to her family.

2. We find out what Dalinar asked for from the Nightwatcher. My guess is he asked to be like Gavilar. (Thus leading to his visions, reading and agreeing with The Way of Kings, eventually courting Navani, possibly even his position as a Radiant) (Also, nobody has posted this as a theory? I guess I should)

 

I really like the idea of what Dalinar asked for from the Nightwatcher being to be like Gavilar! However, my personal theory on that, and I'm sure someone else has come up with this as well, is that forgetting his wife was the boon, and we don't really know what the curse was yet.

[thejopen27 he/him]

- Kaladin will have to confront his past as a budding revolutionary leading the darkeyed revolt and his status as a protector of all against the backdrop of an Alethi revolt and the cruelty of Lighteyes like Roshsone, and the waste and callous behavior of the queen. A miserable, beaten down Leral and a angry, bitter Liridin will both play rolls in this.

- Dalinar will discover both his own dark past and the secret that broke the Radiants and have to overcome both

- We will learn that Ishar is a traitor to humanity, either out of madness or despair. He may be either Restares, Tezim, or both. Nalan will confront him 

- Szeth will not progress towards a Skybreaker, instead he will be either a Stoneward or a Dustbringer

- Eshonai will recover herself and swear at least the first oath towards being a Willshaper

- Rysn will swear the first oath in her Interlude. 

Edited October 13, 2017 by thejopen27

[Walin he/him]

-Dalinar gets rid of another Shardblade, since of his previous pace of one per book. It's not going to be the Stormfather, because that should be the finale of Book 5, when the Final Desolation is over and it's "okay again" to do another Recreance (because I assume they did it without fear since a Desolation wasn't happening)

 

-Shallan learns how to do sound with her Lightweaving, and Kaladin can Lash without line-of-sight being parallel to the Lash direction. Renarin will Lightweave a vision of his, which will be so bad the people watching it will be rendered catatonic for the next hour.

[Unhinged he/him]

Nale and Amaram will meet, and initially Amaram bows down before the herald and rambles on at great length to describe how hard he worked to bring the heralds back. Finally Nale tells him to shut up, rattles of the long list of crimes Amaram has committed in the name of returning the heralds. And then says something like "congratulations on your success... now come on you're going to jail". The irony would just be brilliant.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Unhinged