DeployParachute

I don't really think we disagree much in terms of how we should view individuals suffering from mental disorders, or how still too often society still deals with these individuals in ways that are ostracizing, insensitive, and ignorant. I am intimately familiar with this in my own personal life, What inspired me to respond to your post originally was comments you made that seemed to suggest that society and culture themselves are what control what is considered a mental illness and that if we could only just change how people view what is normal around them, then mental illness itself becomes normal to the point where the claim that they are illnesses at are is debatable. As if extreme debilitating and persistent depression wouldn't be a problem for individuals if we could just find a society or culture on the planet where such a thing would be seen as a benefit rather than a detriment. After reading your response, I don't think I read into your point accurately the first time, and I don't think you were trying to make that case any longer, so I'm glad we had the exchange. Your response regarding what truly constitutes a "cure" has the makings of an interesting philosophical discussion, especially when you apply it to physical ailment as well. What does cure mean? If I come down with the flu, and then recover, I am "cured" of that, however this does not preclude me from getting sick with the flu in the future. If I break a bone, and it is set and healed over time, I am still subject to the possibility that the bone can break again. In fact, i may be more at risk for subsequent breaks due to having already broken it. I suppose an even better analogous physical medical condition to mental illness would be cancer and remission. I suppose one could make the argument that just like physical illnesses, mental illness can also fall onto a spectrum of acute and chronic. Perhaps whether a mental illness is "curable" vs "managed" would correlate to where it falls onto said spectrum. I do not know where DID would fall, but could only make assumptions at this time. Personally, I would say that a better description to use for "cure" would be bringing the physical or mental state back towards an equilibrium where the individual can conduct most normal human functions in order to operate successfully in the physical world. Life is a constant trial in moving in and out of this state of equilibrium. Functionality is key, and there are certainly illnesses or ailments that will permanently alter what equilibrium looks like for the remainder of their lifespan. However I would still argue that this does not mean that there isn't an optimum human equilibrium that fits the world on the human timescale (evolutionary timescale is another matter). Which brings me to Take "mental condition" and replace it with any number of physical ailments, and you can make the same argument. Mental illness is not special in this way. Just because a disease or injury is common, and likely to happen to you through the course of your life, does NOT mean the state of the disease itself is a optimum state for the human body. And just like physical illnesses, mental illness may be a temporary deviation from an existing equilibrium (acute/treated), or a permanent altering of what their equilibrium is (chronic/managed). My usage of normative distribution examples was not an attempt to determine likelihood of illness or its prevalence in a population, but to illustrate how it can be used identify and categorize potential illnesses, as well as set some baselines to build potential treatment plans on. We set a lot of baseline markers for what physical equilibrium means for the human body to assist in medical treatment: temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels etc. I don't see the human mind any different. It may be exponentially more complicated, and exponentially more uncertain, but that doesn't mean that they don't exist, and that we shouldn't make attempts to find them. Again, the existence of mental disorders within the population may be (and likely is) the norm, but that does not mean that remaining ill is desirable. So to bring it full circle: there may be other individuals on Roshar who are suffering from DID, but that does not mean that Shallan should not seek treatment to bring her to a more optimal equilibrium. We could have the discussion of whether we think her current 3 alter state is her new equilibrium, one that she has to work to manage and maintain, We can even have the discussion on whether having 3 distinct personalities is in fact the most optimal equilibrium. I personally do not think it is, as I believe re-integration to be the most optimal. However I'm open to persuasion on that.

I think you are conflating two different, very distinct ideas under the umbrella term "normal" 1. The very generic, broadly applied idea of what society considers to be proper behavior, or viewpoints, acceptable language, etc etc 2. The mathematical concept of "normal", which involves the distribution of possible outcomes for a given data point, which can be used to predict the likeliness of the occurrence of different values along a distribution curve (yes the bell) How we as a society view and treat individuals who have medical conditions that cause them to fall outside of expected social behaviors and etiquette certainly falls under the first consideration. I think your points about historical treatments of said individuals have merit within this context. HOWEVER Mental health disorders are not socially created conditions. They are medically created conditions. They exists as a consequence of biological factors responding to a variety of stimuli, and to varying degrees within an individual. Medical disorders are identified by using the second consideration of the operative word "normal". Medical conditions are derived by observation of available data within populations, they are not imposed socially. You can plot a data set in order to assist in determining whether there is something that is ailing a person by identifying a normative distribution. So if we were to see an adult human male in society who was, let's say, 3ft tall (that's 91cm for most of the world), you could look at a distribution of the normal height range for a human male and determine that this individual was on the extreme low end of this distribution. This is of course a natural occurrence, and it is possible that the distribution's data set is incomplete. Yet it could also indicate the existence of some medical condition that would merit investigation and study. Now, there is likely not anything that could be done to bring this person to a normative height (a "cure" so to speak), but that does not mean that they could not live a meaningful life at that height. However, that does not dismiss the existence of the normative distribution for human males for height, and neither is the normative distribution for human male height derived from socially constructed ideas. It is derived through observation of a population, with measurable data point. Let's take another example. Let's plot a new data point: the number of arms humans are born with. Imagine the curve of this distribution. It would likely be a very steep one, with the middle being extremely tall and falling onto one outcome: 2. If we were to observe a human who was born with 1 or no arms, we would all likely agree that this was not a normative condition for a human being. This individual, again, would likely be stuck with this condition, as there is currently no cure, or at least nothing that could bring them the use of 2 fully biological human arms (maybe in the future using gene editing to turn on a "regrowth" mechanism). They would exist, they could live life (in modern society) as fully and successfully as they are able, and we as a society should all support that. It does not mean that 2 arms for a human being isn't the norm. I would suspect that if there did someday come a "cure" for that person to be given 2 fully working biological arms of their own that they would take it, over their current circumstances. (assuming they don't have a set of badass artificial arms that to them are far superior, who knows) All right, so final example. How about we plot the number of distinct, individually thinking personalities a human exhibits. A normative distribution for this would likely be centered around 1. The strength of this norm would be determined by the sample size of the dataset, and how flat or steep the curve is when plotted. Now, as with our individual with the extremely variant height, an individual with multiple personalities may be no cause for concern, so long as that individual is not so impaired that they cannot function, and impairment is often used as a metric for whether an individual has a diagnosable mental health condition. However, in the instances where they are impaired, and they cannot function or operate in the world to their detriment, there are treatments and therapeutic techniques available to bring this individual's data point back within the normative distribution. Unlike regrowing an arm, or adding extra height, DID has documented cases of successfully addressing the trauma and reintegrating the personalities back to the 1. Not all cases will do this, perhaps not even most, but there is "technically" a cure available that can bring a person back into the normative distribution for number of personalities exhibited by a human being. Not all mental disorders have this available, such as various types of depression or anxiety, whose lifelong diagnosis are more often the result of chemical imbalances that must be managed with medication. DID, as far as I've been able to find, is trauma induced, not a factor of your genes, and has documented treatments available for a "cure". Where a cure is available, I would think most people would be interested in pursuing it.

Ah, sorry, I made the assumption that this particular information from Brandon had become common knowledge, but realize that that might have been a bit presumptuous. It was in a RoW chapter annotation. Here is the shard post that alerted me to it: And the direct reddit link to the annotation post by u/mistborn I broadly agree with you here. I think from a clinical perspective, from what I've read (which is subject to extreme limitations and lack of expertise on my part), progression of treatment for DID can be distilled down to Stabilization Address Trauma Re-integration With the knowledge that not everyone diagnosed will reach each level, successfully, and may settle on one stage of treatment indefinitely. I believe that at the end of OB, Shallan probably had a pretty good grasp on Stabilization, and probably has done so for the past year. In that regard, stabilizing at 3 alters rather than what was happening to her at the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Thaylen Field is definitely an improvement. So agreement there as well. But I think the chapters so far indicates that Shallan has not moved on to progression 2, and without that, it would make sense to me that her Stabilization is at severe risk.

1. Citation needed? Are you a researcher in the field? A medical professional with experience treating this disorder? Do you have a published peer review journal that documents that most cases end without learning to live with the disorder rather than recovery? How are you so confidently able to quantify the percentage of people who end up learning to live in a stable balance with their alters as opposed to those who are able to successfully integrate? I'm genuinely curious, is there data somewhere? 2. The DSM outlines reintegration as a common and achievable goal for DID treatment: https://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/dissociative-identity-disorder/dissociative-identity-disorder-did-treatment-challenging . I'm not an expert, just somebody doing some rough googling, and of course the site is only as good as its citations. However here is some verbiage that is probably of most interest to this particular conversation: 3. Even if some, or even MOST people with DID never fully integrate as part of treatment/recovery, does not exclude the possibility that integration is what Brandon intends for Shallan. Same goes for working through any other mental health disorder, no goal of treatment should be taken off of the table just because of its statistical unlikeliness. Seems to me that the literature suggests that so long as the patient is willing, a state of re-integration should be pursued. 4. Brandon has said during the current serialization of these chapters that the plan for Shallan's immediate future is that of a "downward spiral". We know she is going to get worse. She may have found a balance that has suited her for the past year, however that does not mean that it is working for those close to her (Adolin, etc), or that she will continue maintain balance as she faces more challenges in the narrative. Ultimately, it's all too early to tell how this downward spiral is going to play out, or who is going to be involved in it. However we shouldn't be so quick to rule anything out.

That's my point. Adolin is currently perfectly balanced on that line between "not important enough to readers to have the desired impact" and "too important to the narrative arc or is currently in the middle of their own character arc". He's in what I would call the "Goldilocks spot" for this. If Brandon puts Adolin into a new personal arc for this story, then his chances of being offed during that arc are decreased, much smaller. If Brandon completes that arc and then kills them, that is also possible. Adolin is important to readers. We have spent enough time with him. He's been developed just enough to put him in this position. I never said Adolin wasn't important, both to characters in world or to readers outside of it. You yourself indicated such an attachment, meaning that his death would likely have more impact on you than other character deaths we've seen thus far (though perhaps I'm off on that assessment). What I've tried to make clear in earlier posts, is that he currently has no personal arc that is being explored. Without one, he is unattached to the narrative in a way that puts him at risk for death. That is the point I am trying to make, hope that is a bit clearer. I think we're just having a misunderstanding/miscommunication. I don't recall having indicated that I thought Shallan's arc wasn't about personal discovery, or was going to be resolved for her by outside actors. If I did, it was not my intent, and a mistake in my communication, apologies.

True. I have gone off course with my discussion. I was going to start a thread on Adolin specifically, but wanted to wait a few more sample chapters until we got some scenes with him (assuming we get any good ones). Couldn't help it from bleeding over when I was going through this topic, unfortunately. Perhaps when I have more time to do such a thread justice, we can revisit this discussion on the definition of "mauling", and your thoughts on whether Adolin's throwing of Kaladin off of him with "all the strength of a Shardbearer" was an appropriate response to defend his life. For now, I'll switch off my Adolin discussion in this thread. I think you misunderstood me. I was not trying to establish Adolin's state as a character as a bad thing. I was using his current state as evidence that he is at extreme narrative risk for an untimely death. That was the crux of my argument: Adolin's current lack of long term arc or growth is a strong indicator that he is at the top of the list for the narrative's required "meaningful death". The fact that he is sharing his time in this book primarily with Shallan increases the likelihood that she will be involved in those circumstances, and is also likely to be related to her own ongoing arc. To bring things back full circle, this strong potential (in my mind at least) for Adolin's death will put Shallan's mental and emotional well being at great risk, depending on how it is dealt with. Sorry to take us on such a roundabout journey. I'll save the remainder of my Adolin thoughts for a topic appropriate thread.

"All his messed up romances" is a very broad statement, and certainly is part of his backstory. However, can you give one example of how all of these messed up romances (of which we have little to nodetail as to WHY Adolin messed them up) in his past affected his romantic pursuit of Shallan in a negative way? Also, "nearly failing his relationship" with Shallan? Did we read the same version of Oathbringer? Adolin didn't "nearly" fail at anything with regards to her. He was compassionate, attentive, supportive, loving, and considerate in all his interactions with her. He was never jealous, possessive, abrasive, or distant to her, even though those would be some very real, very human reactions to seeing the person you hope to marry constantly drooling over someone else. At the end of the book, Shallan thinks something to the affect of "oh no, i've screwed it up!" and then "now he's trying to ruin it". But that's the joke, that's the irony. She's right on the first thought, but wrong on the second. Shallan is the only one culpable in Adolin's hesitation towards her at the end. He is just responding naturally as any person would to his betrothed displaying obvious signs of attraction to another person. She triggered that, not him, it was her failings that almost broke them up, not his. As for the strained relationship with Dalinar, I would agree, Adolin had this arc: in Words of Radiance. And it was concluded in that book, with nothing considerable happening in Oathbringer to pick it back up. We are assuming that future revelations on Dalinar's past (the truth of Evi), and Adolin's OB confession (Sadeas) are going to have some impact on them, but it is just speculation, character potential for Adolin that may or may not be realized in this next book. Hence my assertion that Brandon had better do something with Adolin's character in RoW. Adolin got into the 4v1 duel because a single moment of focused anger towards a particular person (Sadeas) caused him to forget to think about dueling codes. His blistering hatred for the man is also what causes him to murder him later. Adolin's singularly focused hatred towards Sadeas could indeed be considered a character flaw, I wholeheartedly agree. It caused him to exhibit a pattern of behaviors that had negative consequences, and caused him to act against his own interest. However, the key word here is was. That arc is done, finished. The focus of that anger, that flaw, is gone, and thus far, Adolin has not faced any personal complications for the murder of that focus. Even if Adolin eventually faces some sort of repercussion for that act, the character flaw itself: the focused anger at Sadeas is still gone, it has no more legs to run on, unless he transfers it over to someone else. And then, then I might agree that he has anger problems. Trouble sorting out how to behave around Kaladin was a personal flaw or failing for Adolin? If it is, then everyone else in the narrative had/has this flaw too. Everyone was trying to figure out how to behave around Kaladin. Why? Because of Kaladin's own character flaws that make him come off as an obnoxious and discriminating <explicative>. More on this below. In summary, I don't think you've provided much evidence for Adolin still having arcs to complete for his character. I would agree with you that Adolin is a balanced character, however he is balanced at a development "depth" that is much shallower than a lot of other POV's. Brandon has even said that when it comes to Adolin "what you see is what you get". He's a main character POV with secondary character development, at best. The narrative requires a death, one that can deliver the full weight of this conflict to us, the readers, in a way that we truly haven't felt yet. Adolin is currently the only character who fits this need. No, I am not forgetting his anger management issues, because he does not have ongoing problems with managing his anger. He has moments where his anger can get the best of him, like every other character in the story, but it is not a debilitating trait of his. Characters do not see Adolin as an angry person. Most readers don't see him as that. Having constant issues with controlling his anger would be something noteworthy about his interactions within the narrative, just like Dalinar's reputation as the Blackthorn was. As for mauling Kaladin, I could not figure out what you were talking about here, so I had to dig up WoR and do some reading, and I think you're being a bit hyperbolic with your description of the events. The text, found in the chapter "Bruises" Kaladin's ferocity takes Adolin by surprise, knocking him over. Kaladin then proceeds to attempt to slam a real spearhead into Adolin's faceplate. Adolin shoves him off with one arm, and sends Kaladin flying. So your interpretation of that scene is that Adolin "mauled" Kaladin. Mauled him? Really? Go back and read that section. Kaladin looks at Adolin in shardplate and sees only Amaram, and he is out for blood. It takes over him and has him attempting to seriously maim or injure Adolin. If Adolin hadn't had his arm between the two of them, Kaladin would have brought that spear tip right down into Adolin's face. So Adolin gets a pass from me for tossing Kal off of him quickly, without much thought to safety. In fact, while you're in there, give the other Kaladin chapters in that section of the book a reread. It is a great example of what Adolin's character is lacking in terms of flaws, by direct comparison to Kaladin during this time. Kaladin's hatred for lighteyes, and Amaram in particular, has him acting in ways that are very off-putting to almost every person who doesn't know him intimately. It's what keeps Adolin's suspicions toward him up, it hampers his ability to contribute to strategic or tactical discussions that happen around Dalinar's inner circle. It makes him less effective of a bodyguard, AND less effective of a leader. Even Moash...MOASH has to dress him down at one point for his attitude (Chapter 16 "Swordmaster"). Also, Kaladin's attitude here, his disregard for authority, his hatred of the class system and lighteyes in general, are acting on Moash at this point in the narrative. He's not setting an example for Moash to follow about how to deal with anger towards people who have wronged you. He's building confidence in Moash that Kaladin would be understanding of Moash's desire for revenge, even a possible ally in the act itself. Kaladin's blindness towards his own flaw is actively contributing to his friend wandering astray, which come back to bite him later, and are clearly still acting on him at the start of RoW Kaladin's anger issues (for they are real anger issues), have him acting in a manner that continually alienates friend and foe alike. It makes it more difficult for him to act effectively in Dalinar's household, and to manage his responsibilities as a leader. They also have him acting in ways that set poor examples for the men that follow him, one of whom ends up becoming a principal antagonist later as a result. Real, tangible, long lasting consequences that Kaladin still has to deal with. THAT is building a character flaw in your narrative.

You may have been "told" these things in the writing, over the course of a couple of books, but none of it has been shown to have any meaningful negative consequences to him as a literary character. Tell me, when have any of these things prevented Adolin from getting something he wanted, or needed. When have any of the things you outlined stopped him from accomplishing goals, or from achieving results. When have these things so negatively affected him that he has struggled to do what has been asked of him? In fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to identify much if anything that Adolin actually does want. Not because they couldn't be there, but simply because Brandon hasn't taken the time to write them. Inadequacy? Brandon may have written various internal monologues for Adolin that express these feelings, but how have they come to fruition in his capabilities or interactions with others? Impossible expectations? The only thing keeping Adolin from being this series biggest baddest superhuman is the fact that he hasn't attracted a spren to give him superpowers, and even then he manages quite capably. The only expectations he doesn't live up to are the ones he chooses not to. Prior trouble holding down a stable relationship? Didn't seem to trip him up one bit when the "woman of his dreams" showed up out of nowhere, and announced she was his betrothed. He seemed to say and do all the right things at all the right times, excepting the one instance when he told her that he would always protect her (WoR i believe), and she very briefly took offense at that. No, I'm afraid that you are taking the prose around Adolin at face value. Brandon may have "told" you that Adolin is this or that, or Adolin feels this or that, but he has not really done much to show you how those things actually impact him personally as character. He experiences no direct challenges or hardships as a consequence of these "flaws", and the reason for this is because Brandon has not spent the time writing them. The first rule of character writing: show, don't tell. Actions speak louder than words. Consequences convey more weight to the reader than dictation and exposition. Adolin's narrative arc was done long ago, back when he was struggling to decide whether to believe in his father or not in WoR, and even that struggle didn't cost him much, since the things he lost (status in the Alethi nobility, friends, etc) didn't seem to bother him in the end, as he realized that he truly didn't care. There was some promise to his character, briefly, when he murdered Sadeas in a rage. But, well, we see how that turned out. No personal consequences for him thus far, and the consequence to the narrative being Sadeas' army turning at the end of OB, something that Brandon needed to happen anyway. Really, you could look at Adolin as a story tool. Something that Brandon uses to plug holes, or build opportunities for when he needs to get things moving, or keep things moving, and there are limited options for doing so. And now, Adolin will be Brandon's tool for showing us Shallan's spiraling mental deterioration, and possibly a tool for triggering her way out. And don't fall for the thought that Adolin's challenge this book is his marriage to Shallan, because he has no agency in that either. He is not contributing to their marriage problems. Shallan's mental state are not a result of Adolin's direct actions or personal failings. He is not a cause of her condition, thus it is not an obstacle in his own personal development to overcome. No arc, no growth. A tool for Shallan. So if Brandon wants this state of affairs to change in his narrative, he needs to do something, anything with this "character" called Adolin.

The fact that Shallan is going to experience a downward trajectory for her character arc only makes sense for the narrative, as it would be weird if it were only Kaladin on the downward trend. The real question is whether or not Adolin's tragic death awaits her at rock bottom...possibly at her hands. I'd put money down on that at the tables, oh yes I would. No character arc of his own, no personal flaws or self reflection. No personal growth or challenges to overcome. A normal functioning, capable, competent, honorable, self sacrificing, noble, and completely likeable and popular character. A character with nothing to do but to be pulled along in Shallan's wake on her descent. Had to log in to give you an upvote, thought I might as well post while here. Glad that Tor is serializing Part 1 for free, as Shallan's actions and state of mind over the next several chapters are largely what will determine whether or not I buy the book on release.

To Shallan "Marrying Adolin won't make him more interesting. YOLO"

I do too. Now that I know for sure that there won't be a "failing marriage" or "falling out of love" storyline for Shadolin, I've never been more convinced that Adolin is going to die. And if Shalladin had to be buried in order for that to happen...I find myself at peace with this trajectory.

Reading OB really helped to take off the rose-tinted glasses I was wearing with regards to Brandon's writing. He has a lot of talent in many different areas of writing, but I believe he weaknesses revolve around his characters, and his dialogue between characters. The originality and creativity of his plots, worlds, and magics are second to none, but he has a ways to go in other areas. But you know, that's ok. Some authors you go to when you want to really read and enjoy a description of a sunrise cresting over a beautiful and intricate landscape. Others for when you want to absorb clever or thought provoking dialogue. Others you read because the concept of the narrative conflict, and the plot revolving around it are just so intriguing. There are many such elements to stories, and authors aren't always going to hit on all of them. Perhaps Brandon will get better at things that he misses as he grows as a writer and gets further in the SA, perhaps he won't. I would say so long as you are still enjoying your journey, then keep reading, and then let it go as soon as you don't. Sounds to me like SA may just not be doing it for you, and that is ok.

I think we're arguing semantics at this point. Whether the traits are minimal or absent entirely doesn't make much difference. I also think you read the bolded line, and then misremembered what it said, as it used "very few character traits", not complete absence. You know, there really is no good way of providing you with examples without making individuals feel like they are being singled out. So I'll just say that I disagree, and leave it at that.

Yes I think this is the relevant portion that is spot on in describing Adolin's reception in many of the fan forums I've been on: As to your comments to Adolin's importance to the narrative, I agree that he had importance to the setup of the narrative arc, but that does not necessarily mean he will remain as important to it's continuation nor it's eventual conclusion. I guess I would say it would do us all good to be mindful of this trope, so we may be on guessed about our inclinations for projecting things into the character that the text doesn't support.

Solid gold analysis right here. It fits so well, thank you, I learned something new today

From a literary perspective, Adolin is a lukewarm character, whose popularity with the fan base even the author finds to be a bit puzzling, if WoB are anything to go by. He has no interesting flaws nor narrative lines to explore. He had potential with regards to the Sadeas murder plot going into OB, but clearly the author decided not to explore Adolin's dark side, since everyone in the books and everyone in the fandom seems to not have a problem with it. So I guess if you like the prospect of reading about "Adolin the happy house husband who can do no wrong", you're going to probably enjoy his character in future books. I wouldn't have as big of a problem with him at this point if everyone I talked to didn't seem to have one big Shard-on for him. I don't understand it, and probably never will. Don't care to either. I can only hope his page time remains minimal.

Just trying to adequately attribute a quote that I took from another thread, and using Moderator Team approved statements to encourage members within this thread to police themselves accordingly, without getting moderators involved. Interesting. I wholly agree with this...and yet, it feels like this sentiment is not always consistent across the Moderator Team. If people say their piece and leave, and the only people remaining in the thread are an echo chamber for a particular viewpoint, at what point would the following sentiment apply to this particular thread? "It really worries us that this might be the thread people see and it's one of the first they participate in, and they get into something that's very heated and they immediately nope out of the thread. You can very clearly see that members who briefly join the thread don't continue pages later." - @Rubix Clearly you and I agree that people who don't like the ongoing discussion in a thread should probably chill out and go elsewhere for a while. But at what point does a thread cross the threshold where the Mods no longer consider the threads discussions to be worth having? Appearing at the top of the boards for too many days? Too high of a page count? The ideas being presented in the thread are disagreeable to just the right amount of members? I personally don't find I have anything to contribute to this thread that I feel could sway the opposing viewpoints. Does that mean there is no merit to people continuing the discussion, and I should lobby the Mods to get the thread shut down? I don't think so, but then again, I can't help but wonder under what circumstances the Moderator Team decides we have reached this point: "I think opinions have been said at this stage, in extensive detail, and don't need to be continued. When the cost to the community is the impression that the site is overall toxic, we need to act, so we have decided to close the thread, and hopefully things should cool down." - @Rubix

I believe some words from our friendly, neighborhood Site Admin would be applicable here: "Generally discourse has been very poor in this thread, with all involved thinking they are excellent at arguing, and of course, you are definitely accepting the other side, but everyone else isn't listening to your amazing arguments. Is this you? Then you should think about that. People are making others feel unwelcome, and this is a major issue." - @Rubix

I'm mostly in agreement with Jofwu. The only thing I would add is that I'm pretty confident that Adolin Kholin will be dead.

Your initial focus was very much on Adolin, so that is where I focused. I see you are trying to pivot here, and open it up to include more than just Adolin. Which I think is a good direction, because if we look at Teft, Lopen, the other bridge for squires, and even Shallan's squires, we can see that common soldiers and officers (Teft is a noncom at least), and even non soldiers are indeed on their path to Radiancy, while Adolin still is not. Idon't think there is any deeper or hidden meaning here. I think, like many other things Brandon has chosen not to write explicitly, it is supposed to be self evident. As for why the other characters are not asking questions, perhaps in Adolin's case, they don't want to bring it up, because they recognize the potential for embarrassment, or hurt feelings, or resentment. Maybe there are more important things on their minds than whether it is strange that Adolin Kholin has developed no radiant powers (and I remain focused on him, because clearly other non MCs are developing bonds) and maybe Brandon expected that to be self evident to us as well. Or maybe you'll get some people questioning it in the next book, which might finally make Adolin more interesting: "look at that Adolin Kholin, where is his spren" "you'd think that all the Kholins would be radiants, what's the deal with Adolin, maybe he's hiding something" , "I never did trust that Adolin fellow. No spren seem to. I bet he's really a piece of crem". Maybe his family and friends are currently giving him time to develop a bond, but after a while, even they've got to start wondering. I bet that Adolin could take it coming from strangers, but perhaps it coming from those he loves would break him. Cause him to do things, things that inadvertantly lead him further away from Radiancy. Who knows, maybe Brandon left it out so he could surprise you next book.

I think you know why this is. We've discussed it at length before. Just trying to offer alternatives in order to keep the dream alive. Take it or leave it. Also: "He beamed with pride when he learned about Renarin" this is the sentence that stood out to me as suggesting you felt Dalinar felt some sort of elevated sense of satisfaction for the son who was radiant, and perhaps the son who wasn't had fallen down in worth, at least in Dalinar eyes. Overall, the tone of your posts here suggest (rightly or wrongly) that you find these characters at fault for not having the same thoughts and questions about Adolin that you do. So my reading of them reflected my thought that you assumed the worst about the characters motivations in this regard.

Further thoughts What makes you think that Adolin is not capable of leading armies, even Radiant armies, simply because he himself does not have a bond with a spren? If Adolin is as much of a capable and brilliant and experienced military commander that you say, why would Dalinar not utilize him anyway? Perhaps Dalinar doesn't ask these questions because he doesn't value his son less simply because he doesn't have a bond. Perhaps Dalinar never doubted his son will have a role to play. Perhaps Dalinar has more faith in Adolin's future without Radiancy than you do.

Every one of those individuals have reflected on their flaws (well, perhaps not Jasnah yet, but that is a lack of viewpoint issue likely), the fact that they are flawed. They all also view Adolin as, if not flawless, at least a better person than they are, so again, perhaps instinctually they know. Your speculation about how they all should be asking those questions has about as much support a my speculation as to why they don't question it. So in the end, all I can offer you is reasonable explanations contrary to what you have put forth. I don't think it is odd at all. They know Adolin is different, and perhaps that is enough for them to not question it further.

Perhaps because these characters understand at a deeper level that it is the spren who choose, not the individuals. Maybe all the individuals you and maxal named recognize that they have flaws that played a role in their selection, and they recognize that Adolin doesn't have any flaws (something to assist in breaking open of their spirit web that allows the bond to form), and it just goes without saying that he is not in a place where he would attract spren. Maybe, because Adolin hasn't been confronted with any issues severe enough to challenge his behavior and morals, he shouldn't be trusted with access to surges quite yet...

Perhaps, despite all the things that Adolin excels at and had been gifted with in his life, that these things are not what would make him worthy of attracting a spren to become Radiant? Maybe the spren know something about him we don't?