[OB] Full Book Reactions / Full Spoilers Thread

[Starla]

16 hours ago, WalksIntoMordor said:

I had actually before this book had a theory that the Death Rattles were associated with Voidbinding in some way - the fact that they were capitalized was a weird clue.  Finding out how much of the stuff that had been taken for granted, though (Death Rattles, the Thrill) were more than we thought... that was amazingly well-written, I think.

You know what else is capitalized? The Weeping. Could an unmade be associated with the Weeping? I know Kaladin has seasonal affective disorder which causes him to to be depressed during the Weeping, but could his illness be triggered or caused by him sensing something of an unmade?

 

12 hours ago, Fulminato said:

1) odium in the dialogue whit Mr T. is amaze of the diagram (“You did this without access to Fortune, or the Spiritual Realm? Truly incredible.”) , and azure "I realize you’re all eager to return to your lands. I can even believe that—through some tide of Fortune—Kaladin Stormblessed has foreseen some danger.”

the sphere can foretell the future, at on extend. but need someone invested to works properly

2) in warbreaker the people think the returned can see the future in the painting, i suppose, like the sphere, a sufficient invested person can make this work.

I've had a couple of additional thoughts on the orb and painting. I think it's confirmed in the text that the orb is from a different world. Note this conversation: “The lighthouse keeper wanted the Stormlight,” Kaladin said. “He kept it in some kind of globe.” Captain Ico grunted. “Foreign technology,” he said. “Dangerous. Draws the wrong spren.” He shook his head. “At Celebrant, the moneychangers have perfect gemstones that can hold the light indefinitely. Similar.”

Someone also mentioned its similarity to the Elantrian orb in Secret History. It's been a while since I read that, but my guess is that the orb is from Sel. Also the lighthouse keeper seems to be from Sel. I'm not sure how this related to Fortune, or if it is using some Selish magic along with stormlight. 

Regarding the painting, I think it could be Lightsong's red painting. He notices that he can see a scene within it, even though it appears to be all red random brush strokes.

[ericth]

4 hours ago, Stromblessed said:

Ikr , I thought we'd seen the end of Moash's errant meddling after he killed Elhokar and finally got some closure (especially since he salutes Kal after killing Elhokar) but then no he has to go and kill storming Jezrien and then become some whole new villain.

 

Speaking of that what are the odds of Moash becoming Odium's Champion ?

He sure seems to be getting a lot of built up seeing as how he has the support of both the Singers and the Fused plus seems to be almost as good as Kaladin in fighting , not to mention the whole killing Jezrien (with some kind of special knife which seems only he can use) and then taking his Honorblade

I suspect that blade was taken from Azure when the ship was overhauled.  If it is a Nightblood-as-it-should-have-been it may be able to kill in two or all three realms and may be a danger to even be handled by at least certain types of invested beings.

The heralds may be like the Fused in that a normal death will cause them to be reborn on Braize but able to come to Roshar.

That blade seems a pretty large Checkov's Gun to me.  I wonder if it could slice a piece off of Odium.

 

[Fulminato he/him]

57 minutes ago, Devisor said:

Rereading this something occurred to me that I don’t think has been brought up. Everyone assumes that Urithiru is of the KR but Shallan talks about the red strata pattern that runs through the tower.  Maybe this is of Odium and would explain way they can’t infuse the cord. It might take the dark light to infuse which Renarin might be able to do.

“Though many wished Urithiru to be built in Alethela, it was obvious that it could not be. And so it was that we asked for it to be placed westward, in the place nearest to Honor.”

WotK, Chapter 35 epigraph 

and the epigraphs from the gems-stormlight-powered-library renforce the idea 

I am worried about the tower’s protections failing. If we are not safe from the Unmade here, then where? —From drawer 3-11, garnet

Oathbringer chapter 73 

[Mestiv he/him]

Ok, I haven't read much of other reactions, but it seems no-one else is bothered by the fact, that Adolins spren name is Mayalaran and we have May Aladar in the book too. That's just suspiciously similar names 

Also, I think I deserve an Honorspren of my own. I promised by fiancee to watch Stranger Things with her and I had to stop reading just at the "I am Unity" line to fulfill my oath... I'm impressed by myself.

[StormingTexan he/him]

Finished the book last night and felt like I needed to sleep on it before posting my thoughts here. 

Parts 1-4 I absolutely loved. I think it’s some of Brandon’s best writing. This was the first time I really started having an emotional connection to most of the characters. The highlights were the Bridge 4 chapters which were completely unexpected. Rock’s POV was absolutely beautiful. I liked the Kholinar expedition although I felt like it was a little slow up until the ending which very rushed. The Shadesmar adventure was amazing I likes every bit of it. I’m actually glad we saw two deaths of significance. As sad as they were it added some reality of consequences I think were lacking in the first two books. Dalinar. I was actually a little worried other characters would overshadow him after the preview chapters. Not the case at all. His story is by far the most tragic.  

Part 5... I feel like I need to reread this. There seemed to be way too much going on. I guess this is a case of my expectations not being met but being exceeded and maybe a little too much. Going in to this book being the third I thought it would still be setting the stage for a showdown with Odium. Instead we got a full on battle with him and for whatever reason it seemed too soon. I was actually thinking Dalinar would end up being Odiums champion and would have to fight Szeth. It would have been tragic yet I feel like that would have been a viable path. Instead Dalinar Ascends.. I’m probably not expressing this well but the entire battle with Odium corrupting Amaram and his soldiers then Dalinar combining the three realms just felt way too soon. I think a re-read with out all the anticipation of how it will end will help a lot. I did however like several of the character arcs like Kaladin, Szeth and Adolin. 

I liked the book though. I liked it a lot probably more than the first two. We learned a lot more than I would have ever imagined.

Only major thing that bothered me was the lack of any consequence for Adolin murdering Sadeas. I have to give maxal credit for predicting this as I thought it was impossible. I guess since Adolin confesses this to Dalinar at the very end it could come up again in the next book but just feels like by then so much tension would be lost. 

 

The one other thing that was a tiny bit of a let down was the interludes. Venli’s were pretty good but the rest just were not as impactful as the previous books. 

 

[Seonid he/him]

4 minutes ago, StormingTexan said:

Only major thing that bothered me was the lack of any consequence for Adolin murdering Sadeas. I have to give maxal credit for predicting this as I thought it was impossible. I guess since Adolin confesses this to Dalinar at the very end it could come up again in the next book but just feels like by then so much tension would be lost. 

I thought this way at first,  until I read a reaction to the book that pointed out that the murder made it so that Amaram and his men were willing to turn.  The murder has not yet had personal ramifications for Adolin, nor political ramifications in the coalition,  which is what everyone expected, but it did have a significant impact to the plot.

[Necessary Eagle she/her]

11 hours ago, Tetrisash said:

For some clarification, maybe I'm missing it, but do we have any more light shed on the Sons of Honor and the Ghostbloods? The Sons of Honor, through Amaram, I got the impression their society has the goal of helping the Listeners reclaim their world from the humans. The Diagram, I feel it was Taravangian's plan the whole time to unite all he could and be the human leader under Odium's rule. The Ghostbloods are still ??? to me. Maybe the only secret society that doesn't suck?

I, personally, would like to know what happened to the rest of them. Amaram found out about the Heralds and ragequit Vorinism, but did the others stay true to their task? Did Odium just talk to Amaram, or to the rest of them too?

[Michael Portz he/him]

On 14.11.2017 at 7:10 AM, SLNC said:

Least favorite (minor) plotline: The "love triangle". This might sound bitter from me,...

Yes, it does ... you just want Shallan for yourself, admit.

Quote

Shallan's constant swooning about Adolin and Veil's swooning about Kaladin (though not as frequent) was really one of the worst things in this book, often leaving me with rolling eyes.

See? HA!

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Michael Portz said:

Yes, it does ... you just want Shallan for yourself, admit.

No, thank you. I'd rather keep my sanity.

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

 

3 hours ago, ericth said:

I suspect that blade was taken from Azure when the ship was overhauled.  If it is a Nightblood-as-it-should-have-been it may be able to kill in two or all three realms and may be a danger to even be handled by at least certain types of invested beings.

The heralds may be like the Fused in that a normal death will cause them to be reborn on Braize but able to come to Roshar.

That blade seems a pretty large Checkov's Gun to me.  I wonder if it could slice a piece off of Odium.

 

I doubt Azure was captured or the ship taken. The Fused seemed wary enough of honorspren to wait to get reinforcements to chase them. And Viviena was last seen preparing to awaken and fight like hell. A high level Awakener, with a powerful Shardblade and honorspren around to take advantage of the surprise are not bad odds. I suspect the ship defeated/killed the Fused. Azure's sword was doubtlessly powerful but it was also obviously not at Nightblood level, wasn't leaking smoke, and Azure was not repelled or wary of it as she always was of Nightblood. And obviously still is considering she was chasing Nightblood .

2 hours ago, Mestiv said:

Also, I think I deserve an Honorspren of my own. I promised by fiancee to watch Stranger Things with her and I had to stop reading just at the "I am Unity" line to fulfill my oath... I'm impressed by myself.

I feel you. I read "I am Unity" then offered to accompany a friend to the library since she wasn't sure where it was. I'm not certain my conversation was fully coherent but I still deserve an award for the semi coherence part I scrapped up. Of course I then spent the walk convinced he was going to unite Honor.

 

Edited November 19, 2017 by WhiteLeeopard

[DSC01 he/him]

1 hour ago, SLNC said:

No, thank you. I'd rather keep my sanity.

Your profile pic indicates otherwise, you deceitful Cryptic-lover!

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, DSC01 said:

Your profile pic indicates otherwise, you deceitful Cryptic-lover!

Uh.. uhm... I would explain, but I don't know if drug discussions are allowed on this forum

[AbsentKeeper he/him]

Holy chull-flipping Stormfather!

It took me longer than I expected to finish, but I'm glad I took the time to enjoy it, Oathbringer is a work of art!

I don't even know where to start, there's just so much.

Random outpouring of thoughts below:

Brandon pulled another HoA on us and I can not believe I didn't see it coming! The Warbreaker tie ins are amazing, I don't know now whether the book I'm waiting for most is Nightblood or Stormlight 4. I think smart Taravangian is probably counting on dumb Taravangian to not give away his true plan to Odium. Navani made a Fabrial taser? storms yes! It was pretty obvious by this point that Renarin was connected to Odium, I'm glad he doesn't seem to actually be a traitor though. I really hope to see more travels in Shadesmar in the future. Kaladin can't bring himself to say the fourth oath yet? It's obviously something to do with letting go of the people he failed. Dalinar wrote Oathbringer after all, I guess the easy answer was right  Queen Jasnah!!! Mayablade!!! Redeemed Szeth!!! 

My brain is kinda fuzzy, I think I'll just go start a reread now.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Cowmanthethird

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

3 hours ago, rjl said:

I now think that the "them" that Dalinar is meant to unite is Humans and Parshmen - I'm hoping that Venli is going to lead a breakway group of Singers/Listeners that then side with Dalinar

I think what he needs to unite is Honor itself, but parsh and humans is a very good option too. Even odds I'ds say.

3 hours ago, rjl said:

I understand Nin's choice - BUT I don't understand how a large number of Highspren would go along with it - some yes but surely not the Highspren of all those Skybreakers 

I suspect the skybreakers are used to following Nale without question, seing him as a demi-god and seeking his approval desperately. I hope that some Skybreakers decide to go follow Szeth after they see he sides with the humans and still keeps Nale's respect. And after their spren pressure them for a while .

3 hours ago, rjl said:

Taln and Shallash appeared at the avengers assemble moment but then we didn't seem to see them do anything in the actual fight - what's next for them?

Probably recover from the shock of finding out they can now permanently die and rejoin the war effort since dead Heralds ups the stakes considerably. The fact that Jasnah has them should make the transition to working with our heroes easier. Taln probably already wants to help when he is lucid, hopefully that and the shock of her father's death will make Ash join the fray again. Although she may need some Windrunner bodyguards considering how Heralds will likely be hunted. Windrunners because they seem the only Odium-proof order (and maybe Edgedancers). (Then next book an evil Windrunner appears shredding my little heart appart).

3 hours ago, rjl said:

Who else genuinely thought that Dalinar was going to be turned? (and then was so glad when it didn't happen)

Me . Since somewhere around Part 2 I realized Dalinar was Odium's endgame. I then was so focused on Dalinar as the champion I didn't even consider anyone else as a potential for it. I was convinced he'd have to fight as Odium's champion vs Szeth as Honor's. Then when in the climax Szeth was deciding to follow Dalinar, I thought for a heartbeat that Szeth would drop to follow Dalinar, and Dalinar would order Szeth to fight him as Honor's champion a moment before he succumbed and became Odium's. Was sooo happy that didn't happen.

3 hours ago, rjl said:

What limits will be placed on Dalinar's ability to summon the perpendicularity? - if he can do that any time he wants to it seems like far too powerful an ability unless perhaps the "limit" will be the existence of stormlight using surgebinders on the other side meaning it's a two edged sword.

I suspect that with Szeth having Nightblood around the perpendicularity may be needed as a simple security measure. We saw since a chat with the SF the bondsmiths were very, very powerful. It may just be possible the perpendicularity will not be as large or powerful as during the battle, and that it leaves Dalinar drained for a while. I'd be willing to accept that as enough. Specially as it would mean Dalinar would often need a radiant bodyguard around. Would be so ironic, the ex-Blackthorn, who could defeat an army by himself bonds a piece of Honor (and maybe becomes a splinter himself) and somehow is more vulnerable than ever and needs a bodyguard as he never did before .

I liked your post, we seem to think quite similarly on some things, IOU an upvote once they refresh.

[Arch he/him]

I think some people misunderstood Nale's reasoning for joining Odium's forces. I kinda missed it too at first, but it's not that he never knew that the singers were the orginal owners of the Roshar, he and the other heralds have always known. The Stormfather even says that the truth was well known among the radiants at some point. Nale's view of justice is very feudal and he bases government legitimacy on divine right. Before he could ignore the fact that Roshar belongs to the singers, because Honor supported the humans. Now that Honor is gone, Odium is the #1 authority on Roshar (according to Nale by right of conquest). The same way a conqueror/Usurper can impose laws on his new subjects a god can do the same and impose his will. This is why Nale worked so hard to stop the desolation from starting again, now that Odium and the singers have returned all human governments (that dont side with odium) are officially illegitimate. He knew that he wouldnt be able to fight for the humans without contradicting his previous oaths as a skybreaker. However, at the same time he realises that he isnt the same as he once was and that, even if appearing logical, his reasoning may be flawed. This is why he gives Szeth the choice of swearing his 3rd Ideal to Dalinar.
Nale's decision here makes a lot of sense if you agree with intial premises. And I think it really highlights the flaws in Honors shard in following bonds and oaths for the sake of it even when it ends up undermining the oaths original purpose.

Personally I'm with Nighblood on this 
''Don't be stupid, lets go fight those guys''.

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

26 minutes ago, Arch said:

I think some people misunderstood Nale's reasoning for joining Odium's forces. I kinda missed it too at first, but it's not that he never knew that the singers were the orginal owners of the Roshar, he and the other heralds have always known. The Stormfather even says that the truth was well known among the radiants at some point. Nale's view of justice is very feudal and he bases government legitimacy on divine right. Before he could ignore the fact that Roshar belongs to the singers, because Honor supported the humans. Now that Honor is gone, Odium is the #1 authority on Roshar (according to Nale by right of conquest). The same way a conqueror/Usurper can impose laws on his new subjects a god can do the same and impose his will. This is why Nale worked so hard to stop the desolation from starting again, now that Odium and the singers have returned all human governments (that dont side with odium) are officially illegitimate. He knew that he wouldnt be able to fight for the humans without contradicting his previous oaths as a skybreaker. However, at the same time he realises that he isnt the same as he once was and that, even if appearing logical, his reasoning may be flawed. This is why he gives Szeth the choice of swearing his 3rd Ideal to Dalinar.
Nale's decision here makes a lot of sense if you agree with intial premises. And I think it really highlights the flaws in Honors shard in following bonds and oaths for the sake of it even when it ends up undermining the oaths original purpose.

Personally I'm with Nighblood on this 
''Don't be stupid, lets go fight those guys''.

Thats a good point and reasoning. Nevertheless Nale could have decided to keep fighting for whoever was siding with Honor at the time. Just because the Shard was shattered doesn't mean one side wasn't clearly fighting for Honor and with Honor's power. 

I can imagine Vivenna's reaction:

V: Hand over that sword! Its a criminal and it shouldn't be out loose in the world

S: Sorry, you can't have him, he is one of the most sensible sentient beings here

V:...Maybe I should go back to Nalthis, people there actually have common sense. When I left my planet I never thought that'd be so rare

[Darvys]

3 minutes ago, WhiteLeeopard said:

Thats a good point and reasoning. Nevertheless Nale could have decided to keep fighting for whoever was siding with Honor at the time. Just because the Shard was shattered doesn't mean one side wasn't clearly fighting for Honor and with Honor's power. 

From his point of view, it was a contest between Odium and Honor, the fall of either of them spelled the end, the pieces left on the board would be irrelevant.

Where this reasoning would fail in my view is that it disregards Cultivation's claim to Roshar, which equals that of Honor.

I don't get him really, he keeps repeating that his mind is not to be trusted but i can't see why, do we accept that his brand of madness is the lack of emotion ? (troublng on its own now that we understand Odium's nature) Why would that undermine his reasoning and ability to judge ? I can't help but think that this mess is Ishar's doing (yeah i'm set on him being a traitor). Every herald we've seen assumes him to be sane and trusts in his ability to guide them yet we know from the Stormfather himself that he's as mad as the rest if not more. My guess is he somehow managed to convince his fellows that he had retained all his faculties and has been hard at work fanning their selfdoubt to ease the manipulation.

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

3 minutes ago, Darvys said:

I can't help but think that this mess is Ishar's doing (yeah i'm set on him being a traitor). Every herald we've seen assumes him to be sane and trusts in his ability to guide them yet we know from the Stormfather himself that he's as mad as the rest if not more. My guess is he somehow managed to convince his fellows that he had retained all his faculties and has been hard at work fanning their selfdoubt to ease the manipulation.

That seems a tough sell considering Ishar's Masema-style ravings as god-priest of Tukar. I guess if thats true it shows how mentally compromised the Heralds are to not see the obvious.

[Darvys]

4 minutes ago, WhiteLeeopard said:

That seems a tough sell considering Ishar's Masema-style ravings as god-priest of Tukar. I guess if thats true it shows how mentally compromised the Heralds are to not see the obvious.

It may seem like mad raving from afar, but we have no idea what he's like in person, he did manage to get a nation to back him and for all we know he has a sellable rationale for what he's doing.

[Arch he/him]

37 minutes ago, WhiteLeeopard said:

Thats a good point and reasoning. Nevertheless Nale could have decided to keep fighting for whoever was siding with Honor at the time. Just because the Shard was shattered doesn't mean one side wasn't clearly fighting for Honor and with Honor's power. 

I can imagine Vivenna's reaction:

V: Hand over that sword! Its a criminal and it shouldn't be out loose in the world

S: Sorry, you can't have him, he is one of the most sensible sentient beings here

V:...Maybe I should go back to Nalthis, people there actually have common sense. When I left my planet I never thought that'd be so rare

Honor's remenants just don't have the same sort of moral authority that Odium does (especially now that Odium has essentially won against him). I think the reason he's ignoring Cultivation is because she doesn't seem to have any concern over how men govern themselves, but its hard to say since we really dont know anything about her at the moment. Maybe she'll be how they get some of the older Skybreakers on the side of humanity. 

Nightblood should really write a book to help all these morally confused Rosharians. The Way of Swords maybe?

Edited November 19, 2017 by Arch

[rjl]

I think this idea of Ishar actively and intentionally working for Odium would explain a lot, perhaps he convinced the already weakened heralds to abandon the oath pact; then he slowly worked over time to weaken and eventually break the Knight's Radiant.

I note that Honor is said to have died sometime around the time of the Recreance why is it that the Heralds abandoning the oath pact happened without Honor dying BUT Honor did then die many years later, WHY? Could it be that Ishar worked with Odium to destroy him?

[WhiteLeeopard she/her]

2 minutes ago, Arch said:

Nightblood should really write a book to help all these morally confused Rosharians. The Way of Swords maybe?

Muahahahha! Upvote just for that line .

[Tetrisash]

54 minutes ago, rjl said:

I think this idea of Ishar actively and intentionally working for Odium would explain a lot, perhaps he convinced the already weakened heralds to abandon the oath pact; then he slowly worked over time to weaken and eventually break the Knight's Radiant.

I note that Honor is said to have died sometime around the time of the Recreance why is it that the Heralds abandoning the oath pact happened without Honor dying BUT Honor did then die many years later, WHY? Could it be that Ishar worked with Odium to destroy him?

isn't Ishar the one that gave Nalan the bright idea that killing Radiants would help keep the Desolation from happening? Would explain where Nalan got that whack logic from if Ishar is working with Odium.

[Turnblade Jade she/her]

Most poignant moments:

• Eshonai in the chasm.
• Elhokar's death. (So mad a Kaladin.)
• Teft's third ideal.
• Taln's moment of peace and clarity. "What a wonderful thing." "What a gift you gave them!"
• "Have you seen me?" The second time.

Funniest Moments:

• "He came at me," Adolin said, "in the training rooms, screaming that... if I didn't come, you'd probably--and I quote-- 'go do something stupid without letting  watch.'"
• Lift: "Hey, could you, uh, stop hugging yourself for a minute? I need some help."
• Punchy guys.
• Shallan trying to draw corrupted shame spren. XD

A bit over the top:

• Most of the puns from Shallan.
• Jasnah lecturing in the middle of a battle. 
• Amaram as Kaladin's boss-level kind of jumped the shark. Let's give Kaladin's nemesis the powers of an unmade and two shardblades? I think it needed a bit more support for it not to feel thrown together. Kal's way of getting under his skin with "Then why do you still hurt?" was epic though.
• Odium "No! We killed you!" His whole reaction to Dalinar needed a bit more of Sandrson's first law of magic. Dalinar solved a problem without the reader understanding quite enough about HOW. I can forgive though, because Dalinar is AWESOME. Also, having Honor come back to life would be a bit of a cop out. I'd rather see progression than restoration in this part of the story.

Awesome Sauce: (There are too many to list, but here are some.)

• Jasnah running across the rooftops. And her nonplussed way of being epic with her soulcasting.
• Rock. Just, Rock. I loved his POV chapter with all the spren, and the bit with killing Amaram confirms that he's got super strength for some reason. I'm very interested in his back story.
• Venli's character development.
• Azure. Yay for old characters showing up in new places!
• Queen Fen in the vision that Dalinar brought her into. Talk about a natural leader!
• Dalinar holding together a vision against the wrath of Odium, (HOLY CRAP!) and rescuing Venli.
• Syl and Pattern getting along.
• Renarin vs the thunderclast
• Unite them! Dalinar making a perpendicularity...though I'm still not sure why he did that...what it just for the stormlight?
• Meeting the Nightwatcher and Cultivation.
• Vatha becoming a squire.
• Elhokar swearing the first oath. Snuffing out a fledgling light. That was so painful because what was happening was so awesome.

 

Tid bits: (Aka, hints.)

• Kaza turning into smoke.
• The isle of Aimia.
• Navani's talk of the strata in Urithiru and the representation of blood. (More on this later.)
• Windspren in Shadesmar. 

Theories/Realisations:

• Urithiru is the body of Honor. I'm pretty certain of this.
  • Navani talked of the strata and blood.
  • The reason they can't infuse the gemstone pillar in the depths of Urithiru is because Honor is dead.
  • Odium appears as a pillar of fire. One might even call it a tower of fire.
  • Ruin and Preservation both left behind physical bodies in the form of metals.
  • The gemstones in the drawers speak of Urithiru's functions failing...perhaps because it was literally dying?
  • pg 1217 Odium wants Taravangian to find out what the Alethi have discovered about the tower.
• Ash being a Harald. I figured this out on my re-read of Way of Kings and it was confirmed here in OB.
• Adolin is going to revive Maya and become something akin to a radiant. I don't think that he will become a full radiant, but something different that will reveal a bit more about the radiants. Kind of like what Renarin has done in bonding a corrupted spren. There is no reason for Brandon to have spent so much time over the last three books developing Adolin's relationship with his sword unless something is going to come of it. And too much time has been spent on it for it to be as simple as becoming a regular old radiant. 'Cause radiants are old hat now.
• Humans on Roshar are mostly a pretty good mix of human and parshendi blood.
  • The stormfather calls Kaladin a "son of Honor". This may well refer to the fact that he has bonded an honor spren, but could it also be a reference to Parshendi blood in Kaladin's veins? Perhaps darkeyes have more parshendi blood than lighteyes? Parshendi have nearly black eyes after all.
  • Kaladin has started noticing rhythms that convey a feeling.
  • Moash can tell how a parshendi feels by listening to the rhythm they are speaking.
  • The Nightwatcher calls Dalinar a son of Honor AND a son of Odium. Pg 1077
  • Felt (who is at least partly Shin, pg 1073) says that the Nightwatcher didn't come to him, and says that he thinks she "doesn't like foreigners." "You're a little less foreign, sir," he says to Dalinar. pg 1074
  • There are many human races with funky colored skin or other anomalies that could be a result of Parshendi blood.
• Perhaps Odium was not the original god of the humans. Perhaps he helped them destroy their old world and intends to do the same to this one before moving on.
• Venli's spren, Timber, has something to do with Eshonai. I wonder if Timber is somehow the spren of Eshonai, or what was left of her after she died, kind of like the spren of the Fused are ancient parshendi.
• "Unite them" ultimately means melding the Parshendi and the Humans into one people.

Questions:

• What shattered the shattered plains? Still don't know about this! I'm sure there are a lot of theories flying around. My go to is that it happened when Honor was killed, but I don't know how it connects.

I want more!:

• Rock backstory
• Lopen's foundation. I think he's hiding a bedrock dependable, deep, and penetrating character under all of his silly fluff. 
• Spren politics. The trip through shadesmar was cool and the little tid-bits here and there about what the spren think of everything going on in the physical realm is interesting.
• Stormfather. I loved the character development of this spren during the book. The idea that the Stormfather "died" when Odium broke his bond with Dalinar has a lot of interesting implications.
• Kaladin's musings on right and wrong. I'm sure that this will continue, and I'm excited to find out more about the fourth ideal and what that will mean for Kaladin's character.
• Rlain. I really want him to be a windrunner squire with the rest of bridge four.
• Szeth and Lift. 

Other thoughts:

• I'm super happy about the Shallan/Adolin/Kaladin love triangle. The love triangle is a very used plot device and I'm over it. This one didn't drag us through the mud nearly so much as many others and it didn't compromise the characters like many love triangles do.
  • I think that Shallan made a good choice. Adolin will ground her like Kaladin, by nature, could not.
  • All that said, I hope to see Shallan's relationship with Kaladin develop in a strong and platonic way, because I think that she can help him ground himself. We don't see nearly enough relationships of substance in our literature these days, and we see even less relationships of substance without sexual tension driving them. There's a huge opportunity here for Brandon to illustrate something that I think our society needs to see. #dothisbrandon #hinthint
• Anybody else notice that once something is revealed to the reader, we start to see the characters treating it as if it has never been a secret? Like Dalinar seeing the marble soulcaster at Gavilar's funeral. I've noted a few of these sorts of things.
• Jasnah is going to be an awesome queen. I think she's going to make at least one REALLY BIG mistake though. Not sure what it will be, but it just feels like the right direction for a plot to go.
• Adolin: At the end of WOR I thought that Adolin's character had been completely ruined, but he's come back from that, and I like him even better now, even if I still don't like what he did. Another reason that he's a good match for Shallan.

That's all for now, though the thoughts are still swirling in my head. Any thoughts from y'all?
 

[Shoots]

Favorite Section: the mission to reclaim Kholinar.  These chapters had great character and world building plus an emotional, climatic scene.

Funniest Quotes: Pattern's math jokes.  Each of these made me laugh out loud.

POV Character I'm most looking forward to in next book: Kaladin is a close runner-up as he draws close to his next ideal and getting his shardplate, but Szeth takes the prize.  I'm interested to see how his highspren interacts with nightblood and hope he travels to Shinovar like he wants to.  Of course Dalinar won't just give him permission to go to Shinovar to kill people so maybe Szeth won't travel there, but I expect Szeth will make it there in the next book even if he doesn't go on a killing spree (which is perfectly fine with me)

Biggest Question: Was I right to spend all my time reading or should I have paced myself (like the Tor.com releases made me)?  And when should I reread the book? Next year? summer? right now?