Chapter 7: Adolin inferences

[+robardin he/him]

When he arrives to help Shallan with Ialai, his Shardblade is "brilliant" and he is described as carrying infused spheres.

He did have a Lightweaving illusion put on him by Shallan, so perhaps the spheres were meant to feed that (or maybe he just liked having money on him);  but it sure sounds like Maya is... Glowing?

[LuckyJim]

I don't think he's successfully revived Maya, at least to the point that he could bond her and become and Edgedancer anyway (mainly because it would seem a waste to put that in the timeskip). Still, this could mean that Maya isn't quite a dead blade anymore either, maybe she's come as close as she can to being restored, but needs something else before really making that last step.

[Pathfinder]

4 hours ago, robardin said:

When he arrives to help Shallan with Ialai, his Shardblade is "brilliant" and he is described as carrying infused spheres.

He did have a Lightweaving illusion put on him by Shallan, so perhaps the spheres were meant to feed that (or maybe he just liked having money on him);  but it sure sounds like Maya is... Glowing?

Maybe? Though shardplate and shardblades have been described in such manner before. So I don't personally believe it is indicative of anything, but interesting catch all the same. 

edit: for reference before you ask, glisten is one example off the top of my head, and means to shine or glitter. As mentioned shardplate is also described as brilliant. 

Edited August 18, 2020 by Pathfinder

[+robardin he/him]

4 minutes ago, Pathfinder said:

Maybe? Though shardplate and shardblades have been described in such manner before. So I don't personally believe it is indicative of anything, but interesting catch all the same. 

edit: for reference before you ask, glisten is one example off the top of my head, and means to shine or glitter. As mentioned shardplate is also described as brilliant. 

That's why I'm not 100% sure I'm not reading in what I want to read in for a simple adjective; however, in the vision where Dalinar witnesses the Recreance for the first time in TWoK, he notices that the Shardblades summoned and then abandoned by the Radiants "glowed softly in a way his own Shardblade never had", though immediately "their light started to fade" as a terrible feeling of tragedy came over him; by the time the soldiers from Feverstone Keep had emerged to claim the abandoned Shards, "the glow from within the weapons had completely vanished".

So while dead Shardblades reflect light, they do not ever radiate it themselves - and for a Shardblade to be "brilliant" as it cuts through a door's lock, well, that sure sounds like it's glowing.

And Shallan wasn't surprised by that, suggesting it's been the case for a while.

[Pathfinder]

4 minutes ago, robardin said:

That's why I'm not 100% sure I'm not reading in what I want to read in for a simple adjective; however, in the vision where Dalinar witnesses the Recreance for the first time in TWoK, he notices that the Shardblades summoned and then abandoned by the Radiants "glowed softly in a way his own Shardblade never had", though immediately "their light started to fade" as a terrible feeling of tragedy came over him; by the time the soldiers from Feverstone Keep had emerged to claim the abandoned Shards, "the glow from within the weapons had completely vanished".

So while dead Shardblades reflect light, they do not ever radiate it themselves - and for a Shardblade to be "brilliant" as it cuts through a door's lock, well, that sure sounds like it's glowing.

And Shallan wasn't surprised by that, suggesting it's been the case for a while.

So first want to stress this is not me attacking your theory. I totally wish you luck with it. Just saying why it doesn't sit with me.

When Dalinar's plate glowed in an unusual manner, Adolin mentally commented on such. As you said, if it was unusual compared to other shardblades, especially when there are living blades around to compare to, I would imagine Shallan would have mentally commented on such. But it didn't register to her as unusual. Regardless if something has been unusual for a little while, if something is still the first and only of its kind, I would think this would be forefront in her mind. 

To put it another way. If someone walks upside down defying gravity on earth, regardless if they have been doing it for a week or not, I would still remark on how unusual it is for someone to be walking upside down defying gravity. 

[+robardin he/him]

14 minutes ago, Pathfinder said:

So first want to stress this is not me attacking your theory. I totally wish you luck with it. Just saying why it doesn't sit with me.

When Dalinar's plate glowed in an unusual manner, Adolin mentally commented on such. As you said, if it was unusual compared to other shardblades, especially when there are living blades around to compare to, I would imagine Shallan would have mentally commented on such. But it didn't register to her as unusual. Regardless if something has been unusual for a little while, if something is still the first and only of its kind, I would think this would be forefront in her mind. 

To put it another way. If someone walks upside down defying gravity on earth, regardless if they have been doing it for a week or not, I would still remark on how unusual it is for someone to be walking upside down defying gravity. 

Yes, that was something I cited as evidence in favor of my suspicion - "Shallan wasn't surprised by that, suggesting it's been the case for a while."

Given that it's established that the usual dead Shardblades that Dalinar was familiar with for most of his life do not glow Radiant-style, either Adolin's Blade wasn't glowing - its being "brilliant" was due to something mundane but not otherwise described, like reflecting some bright light from within the room - or... Maya is indeed further revived than we last saw at Thaylen Fields (right after "Maya brushed his mind" after a building collapsed on him, we read that "though [Adolin] was covered in dust, she still shone bright"). And that that happened in the "skipover time" such that Shallan may even be identifying Adolin by the "brilliant Shardblade" that is cutting through the door. (Well, on top of the fact that Pattern already told her Adolin and co. were arriving, plus that they didn't likely have another Shardbearer or Radiant in his team of soldiers...)

Edited August 18, 2020 by robardin

[Pathfinder]

Just now, robardin said:

Yes, that was something I cited as evidence in favor of my suspicion - "Shallan wasn't surprised by that, suggesting it's been the case for a while."

Given that it's established that the usual dead Shardblades that Dalinar was familiar with for most of his life do not glow Radiant-style, either Adolin's Blade wasn't glowing - its being "brilliant" was due to something mundane but not otherwise described, like reflecting some bright light from within the room - or... Maya is indeed further revived than we last saw at Thaylen Fields (when it was also mentioned as being "bright"), and that happened in the "skipover time" such that Shallan may even be identifying Adolin by the "brilliant Shardblade" that is cutting through the door. (On top of the fact that Pattern already told her Adolin and co. were arriving, plus that they didn't likely have another Shardbearer or Radiant in his team of soldiers...)

Sorry to be a bubble burster but I found the quote I was thinking of:

 

Oathbringer page 809

Elhokar led the way, brilliant shardblade carried in a two handed grip

 

So unless Elhokar was also awakening his shardblade at that point in the story, I personally believe it is just a descriptor. 

[+robardin he/him]

Just now, Pathfinder said:

Sorry to be a bubble burster but I found the quote I was thinking of:

 

Oathbringer page 809

Elhokar led the way, brilliant shardblade carried in a two handed grip

 

So unless Elhokar was also awakening his shardblade at that point in the story, I personally believe it is just a descriptor. 

OK, fair point. Like I said, I could certainly be reading what I am hoping to read into it.

[Pathfinder]

Just now, robardin said:

OK, fair point. Like I said, I could certainly be reading what I am hoping to read into it.

No problem, and just for completeness because it came up in the same search, but another un-named shardblade was also described as brilliant:

 

Oathbringer page 1155

She pressed her hand against the rubble, and it vanished into smoke, revealing a corpse beneath - and a brilliant shardblade beside it

[cfphelps he/him]

It read to me like Adolin had the infused spheres specifically to resupply Shallan. 

As for glowing Shardblade I noticed that too but it seemed within the realm of a description for a dead blade.