[OB] Syl is either mentally young or her SpiritWeb was severely broken.

[MountainKing]

Everytime Kaladin says a new oath or unlocks a new power, usually, Sly gets back a bunch of her original memories. She does not know all the abilities that a Windrunners has, while the other spren, Pattern, Wyndle, and the Stormfather have a clear understanding what their radiant order does. In some cases, they tell their radiant that they have access to other powers, and how to use them. In the case of Wyndle, he told/taught Lift how to growth and regrowth. Sly never does this. Kaladin has to figure it out by himself by experimentation and using Szeth as an example, what his powers are.

[Calderis he/him]

Syl was extremely young when she bonded her first Radiant. An old man who died of natural causes before the Recreance occurred, and the she slumbered. She is remarkably inexperienced, and unlike the other spren we've seen return, she didn't study and prepare to seek out a Radiant, she came against the Stormfather's command and struck out on her own. 

Her lack of knowledge is due to her inexperience. 

[Subvisual Haze]

I think the counter-examples you listed are much more the exception than the norm.  Pattern actually has been bonded with Shallan for a long time and is more re-discovering his bond/mind than blazing a new one.  Stormfather is a lesser God, he doesn't so much cross over to the physical side (how most spren temporarily lose their sentience) as he does talk with Dalinar and pull him into dream visions.  Wyndle breaks the rules, he doesn't know why he remembers so much, but he suspects it has something to do with Lift's special boon from Cultivation.

Other spren are probably closer to the norm like Syl: pretty stupid and child-like at first.  Ivory didn't talk at all when Jasnah met him, Lopen's spren doesn't seem to talk at all, Ym's spren just whispered small sentences etc.

Also it's important to remember that Syl was a pioneer.  Other honorspren have the benefit of piggybacking on Syl's work with the Bridge 4 Squires.  The newer Radiant squires are more "prepared" to bond spren, by wielding stormlight through Kaladin/Syl their spiritwebs are probably more ready for a bond.  Syl had to start her bond with Kaladin from scratch, which made her extra stupid at first.

[RShara she/her]

Wyndle and Pattern specifically were sent by their people, who took steps to protect them from the trauma and memory loss that comes from the transition.  So they're going to remember more, and faster.

Syl went against her people and the Stormfather to find Kaladin.  So it makes sense that she recovers much more slowly.

[MountainKing]

I'm saying after they regain their mental faculties, most spren seem to know their order's capabilities.

[Calderis he/him]

2 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

I'm saying after they regain their mental faculties, most spren seem to know their order's capabilities.

Yeah, which is why I said what I did. She was young when she bonded her only Radiant prior to Kaladin. That was short-lived as he was an old man. And then she "slumbered" for centuries. 

She's naive. She's inexperienced. She's a teenager who believes she knows best, and doesn't know half as much as she should for the things she's doing. 

[MountainKing]

1 hour ago, Calderis said:

Yeah, which is why I said what I did. She was young when she bonded her only Radiant prior to Kaladin. That was short-lived as he was an old man. And then she "slumbered" for centuries. 

She's naive. She's inexperienced. She's a teenager who believes she knows best, and doesn't know half as much as she should for the things she's doing. 

But she was alive during the Era of the Knights Radiant meaning her Radiant would be taught how to use his power, and she would have ample examples of Windrunners who mastered both surges.

[RShara she/her]

29 minutes ago, MountainKing said:

But she was alive during the Era of the Knights Radiant meaning her Radiant would be taught how to use his power, and she would have ample examples of Windrunners who mastered both surges.

She was only bonded for a very short time before her Knight died, though, so wouldn't have had a chance to learn much.  And who knows what she's forgotten in the thousands of years that she was unconscious?

 

So I guess my answer is that she's mentally very young.

Edited March 20, 2018 by RShara

[Naurock]

5 hours ago, MountainKing said:

Everytime Kaladin says a new oath or unlocks a new power, usually, Sly gets back a bunch of her original memories. She does not know all the abilities that a Windrunners has, while the other spren, Pattern, Wyndle, and the Stormfather have a clear understanding what their radiant order does. In some cases, they tell their radiant that they have access to other powers, and how to use them. In the case of Wyndle, he told/taught Lift how to growth and regrowth. Sly never does this. Kaladin has to figure it out by himself by experimentation and using Szeth as an example, what his powers are.

But the Stormfather didn't know what Dalinar could do. He said the surge wouldn't serve him like it does Stonewardens. Then when Dalinar puts the temple back together by just acting on an instinct the SF says, I knew you could do it when you did it or something to that effect.

[mosaab]

I feel there has to be a point to syl being an ancient spren yet without much experience. like she never got to creat children of her own, might that make her a more potent spren? manifested in a stronger level of resonance for kaladin. 

For example a fifth ideal kaladin's resonance is so strong that he can creat a spiritual bond with people in a very short amount of time, like he goes to a village and in a day or two people start to gravitate to him and accept his teachings and ideals that they start to inhale stormlight. 

But it is still not over powered because when kaladin leaves they can't use stormlight, and when he doesn't return the bond slowly fade a way like it never existed. 

Now someone might feel that this is too specialness is unneeded and too much, but radiants used to exist in the thousands. Our main radiants need to stand out, you can already see Brandon doing this from dalinar's perpendicularity to left's stormlight consumption to zseth's nightblood and renarin's corrupted spren.