kaellok

@killersquirrel If there are significant changes to be made in order to make a live-action adaptation of the books, then it should be because it directly benefits the story--not just because it means that it can get made. Let's take a look at The Hobbit movies. Yes, 1 book, 3 movies, with tons of extra stuff thrown in. Adding a new, strong female protagonist in Tauriel was a really good idea for both commercial (selling tickets) and story reasons. Adding a really poorly done romance between Tauriel and Kili (and that romance being at least one of the major reasons for adding a female character) is a bad idea. Having Legolas standing around looking like he has terrible indigestion doesn't actually serve any purpose, and takes away from the enjoyment of the movie from those who read the books. Much of the cast of characters in WoK is already appropriately aged for any sort of live adaptation. Shallan is the youngest of the major characters at 17 at the start of WoK (of course, significant exception to flashback scenes). Even with your arguments, I see no reason to 'age' them 10-15 years just to make things 'easier' for those in charge of casting. There is little benefit to the story for this aging process. Regarding the actual casting, again, I see no reason to white-wash the cast in the hopes it makes the show more successful. I don't care if it is successful. Knowing that 200 million Americans watch the show every week for 5 years isn't going to make me enjoy it more. I realize that I am very strange in this way, but the popularity or commercial success of something means exactly zero to me. If these decisions create a better, more enjoyable story--then do them. Absolutely. But, why should we compromise on a fantasy that has zero chance of being made into a reality anyway just for the sake of it having a slightly higher chance of possibility? I mean, honestly, does anyone think that they're going to look at this thread in this forum for casting decisions should that ever become a reality? Why compromise with what we want?

Sorry, looks like I missed your post with that before. Hoid's thoughts on people in the story are, I think, particularly important to those of us who are at least somewhat aware of how important he is on a Cosmere level. If Hoid had liked Sadeas, that would have significantly colored our impression of him, and in particular of Adolin's murder of him at the end of WoR. Instead, we get a few different scenes where Hoid is particularly obnoxious towards Sadeas. We also have at least one extended scene where Hoid is mocking the Alethi elite in general, which also helps to color our impressions of them--we see them much more poorly afterwards (this is true even for those unaware of Hoid at the time, but it is enhanced for people that pay particular attention to him.) Your argument against Elhokar being Radiant material is entirely character-based, off of actions we have seen directly or stories we have heard from those opposed to him (which is not a bad place to be standing, at all.) Bringing up Hoid and Hoid's interactions with Elhokar is pertinent to Elhokar's character; the WoB we have both quoted is referring to this. Not attacking the King (verbally, of course) the way that he does with so many of the others tells us something about how Hoid views Elhokar. Now, what that something is certainly is up for debate as he isn't very clear... You keep thinking of and referring to Elhokar as a grown man, especially in other posts. However, it's clear that while he may be the age of one, he lacks the maturity. Why? Because he has likely never been forced to accept the responsibility for his mistakes and choices. When was he forced to acknowledge that he made a mistake? Even when he imprisoned Kaladin, he was clearly acting within the full scope of the law. Remember, Kaladin was as much in the wrong as Elhokar for that whole fiasco. Is the law wrong and unjust? Absolutely, but the Skybreakers wouldn't give two rats about that. Every bad decision we've seen him make is based off of his immaturity. If he's finally forced to grow up (which I strongly think we'll see in Book 3) then that could all slide away. Nothing that we've seen him do is deliberately mean, cruel, despicable, etc. which is why there is absolutely the potential for him to become a Radiant still. And I disagree absolutely with you saying Elhokar has been forced to see and acknowledge his mistakes. I've seen the result of him being bullied by Dalinar until Elhokar gives in, but that's it--and that makes for a piss-poor learning experience. Honestly, though, because we have seen so little of Elhokar on screen I have to give more weight to the opinion of other characters regarding who he is as a person. Dalinar may not see his faults, but does see his strengths; Navani has few illusions about him; Kaladin hates him at first, and changes his mind later. Combine the good opinion of those (and others), along with seeing the spren previously, and I definitely believe that he has the potential to become a Radiant. It could be that that's no longer a possibility at all, since he's not seeing the spren anymore. As far as his ability to inspire people goes, he's already done far more than you give him credit for. He kept a nation together when it was on the brink of disintegrating. Six years later, he still has the devotion and unquestioned loyalty of the two strongest highprinces. Szeth has inspired nothing but fear, and seems set to continue his reign of terror; even should he become a Radiant, he does not seem likely to inspire people out of loyalty or honor, or spur them on to greater and better things. And yet the consensus is that he is still Radiant-material. This means that not all the Radiant Orders are the same, and the expectations for each cannot be the same either. And don't forget that the common people didn't necessarily always look upon Radiants with praise and glad tidings; Dustbringers were considered equally bad as Voidbringers, after all. And it's more than possible for a truly despicable and evil person to be honorable; since Radiants reflect attributes of Honor, there is no reason to believe that they will all be 'good' as we commonly think of it (even though all will likely be at least good-ish, since the First Ideal is a fair counter to that). tl;dr: Character is important, but we only know what kind of character is important for a few of the Radian Orders. Because Elhokar has seen spren before, something about him had attracted them even if we don't know what. This means he could become a Radiant in the future, but almost definitely not tomorrow, since he has a lot of growing up still to do.

I still cannot find this WoB anywhere. Can you please provide a link, or specifically quote it? What I was able to find from the When Worlds Collide Festival actually suggests something quite different: Is he Radiant hunting, and can any interaction between Hoid and a character be seen as evidence that the person will be a Radiant? Absolutely not; no one is saying that. However, it does imply that we can look to how Hoid treats characters as an example of what he thinks they need.

Correct! And the relevant WoB:

An interesting take. I always assumed that the Pillars of Sky were more of a metaphorical nature referencing the Spiritual Realm. I think I still do, but I'll explore the idea in my head a bit more before coming to a firm decision.

If you can post the relevant WoB for this, I would be very interested. I could not find it with my quick searches. The closest that I could find don't really say that at all. I am going to continue with both Dalinar and Kaladin's assessment of Elhokar that he does, in fact, try. We absolutely do not have any good examples of this happening in text, but I'll trust their judgment. Especially from Kaladin, as he rather hates lighteyes in general--and he recognizes this during the very moment at the greatest depth of his inner turmoil over whether to allow Elhokar to be murdered or not. We'll just have to agree that we disagree on this issue. Regarding his possible Radianthood, he saw spren. Whether they were voidspren or Odiumspren, or cryptic spren, or something else entirely, is unknown. Based on that one facet alone, I think that it's worth looking to see if it's possible there's hidden depths to his character. We actually don't see much of him on-screen at all, and most of that is negative, which explains why most people don't like him. I still think he is far more Radiant-like than Szeth, because the only thing Szeth does is follow the laws of the Shin absolutely--not even those of other nations. So the crimes of Szeth are much more numerous, and worse. It seems increasingly like he'll find a home in the Skybreakers, though, and so I wouldn't rule Elhokar out yet--likely one of the Orders we know nothing about (he is certainly no Windrunner!)

Moogle isn't saying that the Radiants and Heralds are useless; far from it. The statement is that Radiants and Heralds can not win the war by themselves. Hell, even Hoid seems to think this: Saying this to Jasnah wielding a sprenblade. Radiants and Heralds are leaders, possibly generals--and definitely heroes. But not more. Think of it this way. In history, in the US, we learn about Sherman's march to the sea. MacArthur was a driving force behind many successes in WW2. Without their armies, these men would have still been intelligent and driven to fight their enemies, but absolutely ineffective on a large scale. Heralds, and Radiants, without the armies of mankind will be just as overwhelmed. SA isn't necessarily a series of books about a few plucky heroes killing the evil monster all on their own; it might just be a series of books about how a few plucky heroes come together to help unite the world in the face of a shapeless monstrosity bent on devouring the planet itself. Still very important, very relevant, and necessary--but utterly incapable of winning a fight against a god on their own.

Since Wit is Hoid, and Hoid is there to meddle, if Hoid is showing sustained interest in a person it is for a specific reason--that interest is of note. It doesn't necessarily mean that the person is good, or special, but that they have the capability of being important to Hoid's plans. We can speculate all we want on why Hoid is showing interest (maybe it's to keep Elhokar from being worse! Maybe it's to make sure he makes a decision poor to Roshar but good for Hoid! Who knows?), but in every other instance of Hoid showing interest in someone they had an important role to play. This happened in Mistborn, Warbreaker, WoK, and WoR (I was Cosmere unaware when I read Elantris last and don't remember him, but I imagine that it would be the same). Then again, he could have also been keeping his role as Wit to gain access to the Kholins, and Elhokar himself is unimportant to the plans. While very possible, it just doesn't seem right to me. That bolded sentence hits the nail on the head. Everyone in his family has been more successful, arguably more important, than him--even though he was the heir to the throne and later the king. He is the average son in a family that is incredibly above average in intelligence and skill. And his family doesn't seem to have helped the matter any, but rather helped to encourage his immaturity. Then, Gavilar dies and he's suddenly thrust into being the King long before he's actually prepared or ready, or before Alethkar itself is ready, and immediately has to deal with High Princes who have spent literally decades in the game of brutal politics and warfare. Dalinar himself tells us that Elhokar managed to hold the nation together, and that's worthy of a lot in and of itself. He's still a bad, immature king that hasn't grown up the way he should have. And maybe he isn't, today, material worthy of being a Radiant. This doesn't mean that he's wholly and entirely awful and without any worth or that he will always have nothing to offer. It just means that he never grew up, because he was never forced to do so. Growing up and maturing isn't something that just spontaneously happens--it has to be encouraged. Birds know that there's a time when the babies have to leave the nest and fly on their own, but Elhokar has been stuck in that nest for far too long. I think that we'll see a lot of really good changes in him after spending time with Lopen's mom. I also absolutely fundamentally disagree with your last sentences here--Elhokar does try. Over and over again he tries. He consistently chooses the wrong option, or the wrong decision, or fails--but never because he's a bad person. It's always in the heat of the moment, or due to bad advice, and we see how he is able to gradually be shown the more correct path. He didn't just execute Kaladin, but put him in prison; a few days later, he allowed Kaladin to be released. A bad person would have executed Kaladin out of hand, as well as anyone who spoke out against it. He's childish, and petulant, and needs to grow the hell up--absolutely no argument. But he's not, for instance, Sadeas (a man who remained selfish all through his years, but matured enough to get his way by being cunning, brutal, and evil.)

Based on what we have seen, it is highly probable that the Radiants were the driving/motivating force, and not that of the spren. Many of the primary theories are predicated on Radiants deliberately killing the spren, and not a willing self-sacrifice on the part of the spren. But, it's still a theory or assumption, not a fact. Contradictory statements here: you say that we see two Orders giving up their Blades and Plate, but that the Radiants didn't give up their Blades and Plate. The first is textually correct, the second is not. We can draw conjecture that if two Orders abandoned their Oaths in this way, that others did as well, but it is still assumption/theory. Precisely. Why would people dedicated to the preservation of life turn to murder? The example of the lie being used to convince them to break their Oaths is a really poor one. Maybe a lie could, but not that one. You're right; the Recreance did happen, and the Radiants did break their Oaths. As you mentioned above, the question is why. An easily disproven lie just doesn't work as a reason for me. Moogle's interpretation that the Desolations are of Honor, and not Odium, at least address this issue (I still disagree, and see the Desolations as Odium's attempt to break free of the prison Honor has made, meaning that they are still of Odium. Maybe I'm misreading the theory some because I disagree with it, but the point is that it addresses the major concerns I have with most of the "Cause of the Recreance Theories." It has nothing to do with KR superior intelligence, it's just simple logic. It might be wrong, in the sense that they would still be drawing conclusions based off of incomplete knowledge. Think of it this way: hurricanes exist, and periodically destroy towns. They've been doing this for a couple hundred years, and then people invent guns. Would it make sense if, a thousand years later, someone said that guns were the cause of hurricanes, and so to prevent hurricanes we need to get rid of guns? Absolutely not, and yet this is the same argument that is frequently presented. Continue to espouse your theory if you find it satisfying. That's what we're all here for. Don't get discouraged or upset if someone disagrees with you; just because something doesn't work for me doesn't mean it's wrong. I have problems with Kaladin's character arc in WoR for the exact same reasons that other people find it powerful and moving--and we're both right. What I'm looking for in an argument for why the Recreance happened is an explanation of why Superman decided that killing innocents was the right thing. I refuse to believe in a "For the greater good" argument, because that is directly counter to who they were at the core. That answer is the one I'm looking for because if it's not of that nature, it likely won't work for me. At all. And so, when I continue to have problems with people's Recreance theories, it's because they also don't work for me--not because I'm attributing supernatural intelligence to the Radiants (which they likely had through the Truthwatchers), and not because I'm denying the Recreance happened, but because they all feel lacking to what makes logical sense to me. Edit: Managed to mess up all over while using my touchscreen at work, sorry. Also, how do I get rid of a blank post? Looks like I can choose to hide it using the full editor, so, something of victory!

I broke up your post a bit, and added numbering, because it helps me. I'm sorry you have to access the site via your phone while at work, that really sucks (some coworkers spend their time on Facebook, I spend mine on 17th Shard! Bwahaha!) 1. The concept of the First Ideal is that you don't take the easy way out. The spren aren't the cause of the Desolations; Odium is. The spren know this, so presumably the Radiants do as well. This means that killing the spren isn't going to prevent a Desolation. This means that their act of murder isn't to save 90% of the population of the world--which, by the way, would be violating the First Ideal anyway. I think there are two epigraphs that are of particular import to this reasoning. Mr T, and his Diagram, are not of Honor. They sacrifice others with the goal to save humanity. If you sacrifice yourself, then that would be Honorable; sacrificing someone else, is not. 2. They did commit mass murder, and beyond that, likely of their best friends. 3. Modern spren consider what happened during the Recreance to have been the equivalent of murder/death/killing spren, by the humans. The Stormfather's reaction to Kaladin "YOU KILLED HER!", Pattern's insistence that Shallan will kill him, and this WoB: A further WoB explaining how or why: All of this to say that the Recreance was a betrayal of the First Ideal, en masse, because the First Ideal is that life is the most important thing--even if your life puts another at risk because of some third entity. The problem to be solved is the third, not you, and not some other innocent. The explanations so far are generally blaming the victims (in this case, Radiants and spren), rather than Odium (who causes the Desolations). It's possible that 90% of the Radiants all decided to just forget their Oaths at the same time, and forget logic as well in the hopes that this would cause some nebulous Greater Good (simple logic test: Did Desolations occur before Radiants? If yes, then the Recreance should not have happened to prevent the Desolations); I just have a really, really hard time accepting that as the answer.

First, my previous post was a direct refutation of your second point, that bringing Kaladin and Dalinar together is of the utmost importance. I don't see it, and you haven't really explained why or how it's so important. Second, if the question is asked without any context, then how can Honor know which way to answer? Especially one as vague as that about trust? What if Dalinar was asking if he could trust Sadeas to pay him back for that time they ordered pizza? Was Honor answering in the affirmative just because he clearly saw/heard something regarding trust? Does that mean that if Dalinar were asking if he could trust that Adolin would mature a bit and stick to courting just one girl, Honor would have also answered yes? Neither of the base premises you've offered really seem to be supported by the events we have seen so far. It could be rather neat if they were. One of my favorite Dr. Who episodes has a scene where the Tenth Doctor (Tenant) answers questions from the future, recorded on a DVD, to someone in the past (episode titled Blink). So, while I agree that the concept has a lot of potential to be quite interesting or awesome, I just don't see anything to support that that is what is happening. If that's your preferred head-canon (something that you believe makes it a better story that may or may not be supported by text) then that's more than fine, and part of the beauty of fans discussing books as well written as these. Even if we have differing opinions, thoughts, and theories, we still can agree that they're flat-out awesome!

Except that this would be putting death before life, weakness before strength, destination before journey--and all for an incredibly uncertain future, with absolutely no guarantee that things will be better. Imagine that you're trying to talk to armed robbers inside a bank who have taken hostages, and they say they'll start murdering these hostages unless you kill your best friend. It is ridiculous, in the extreme, to think that this will actually result in a good, positive solution. The Recreance is one of those areas where I'm a little bit nervous, because storytelling-wise, I have no idea how Sanderson can get it right without me having to suspend incredibly way too much disbelief. ie, I can't think of anything that fits with the very core of the Radiants and makes plausible sense. None of the posted theories so far do that, either, in my mind.

Like I said, you don't have to be fair to him if you don't want to, but you should know when you're being unfair I don't like the guy, but find it important to give credit to where it's due. Personally, I find the thought of Szeth as a Radiant far more distasteful than Elhokar. I also have concerns with Skybreakers in general, and modern-day Skybreakers in particular, so that's just one of my hangups (that has been addressed in at least a couple of the Skybreaker/Szeth threads and doesn't need to be rehashed here. Just bringing up this thread to show that the Orders of the Radiants are rather drastically different from some others, even if they all share a common goal.) And you are absolutely correct that the only reason people think that Elhokar may be a proto-Radiant is due to the spren he saw (whether they were Radiantspren or Odiumspren is up for debate, but not, I think, that he saw spren.) The same can be said of Eshonai--if she hadn't seen the comet-shaped spren, would there be such a consensus that she is likely to be a Willshaper? Without the spren, would there have been so many questions asked and answered regarding Parshendi Radiants? The biggest thing that I have to give Elhokar is the same thing that Kaladin does, finally, at the end--Elhokar tries. Sure, he's failed at everything, but that doesn't stop him from trying. Maybe that quality is what attracted spren to come to him in the first place; it's certainly worthy of recognition and even respect.

WoR spoilers contained within:

Important to note that Elhokar has a fear of the Assassin in White that goes well into the irrational. Focusing on one aspect, where multiple people point out he's crazy, to show a lack of courage is perhaps not entirely fair to Elhokar (which, if you're not feeling like being fair to him, since he's a spoiled, whiny, self-righteous and utterly incompetent brat, is, itself, more than fair).

It's possible you are correct. It goes against a mountain of evidence from in-text, as well as failing a few basic logic tests. (If Honor is speaking to Dalinar by directly responding to one of his questions, he should do so on at least one other time. If Honor specifically answers Dalinar just once, and never before or again, then that one answer should have Roshar-saving implications). Continue to believe what you want, if it makes you enjoy the story better. If you're looking to convince others of your theory, though, you have a very, very long way to go.

The Highstorm existed before the Radiants, and before the Heralds. Whatever ancient Bondsmith developed something to deal with Voidbringers, it wasn't the Highstorm. All native life on Roshar has evolved ways to live with and because of the Highstorms--changes that can't have occurred within thousands of years, but rather on much, much larger timeframes. Nahodan being Jezrien (King of the Heralds) and still alive is plausible. There is great debate over the Recreance, specifically what caused it and why. I currently reject every theory that I've heard so far, because I do not believe that even massive psychological horror and scarring that may have occurred by abusing their powers significantly would cause ALL Radiants (except for one order) to betray their oaths en masse when they know that doing so would murder some of their closest friends. Even if I found your Highstorm creation argument compelling, I don't see in any way how this relates to the Recreance. There's also some good information in the Wiki page, including all of the epigraphs for WoK and WoR. Epigraphs are the 1-2 lines at the start of most chapters that don't actually pertain to the direct story, but are part of the larger world-building. ie, the letter from/to Hoid, the descriptions about the Radiant orders, etc. You can check that out at http://coppermind.net/wiki/The_Way_of_Kings/Epigraphs

Try reading what Honor said, without all of the in-between bits. Those are clear, complete thoughts that work well together, independently from Dalinar's questions. There is not the emphatic "YES!" that you mention; it is a simple "Yes." It is not all-caps, and there is absolutely no emotion given to it by context or text. Furthermore, if there is a response to "Should I trust Sadeas?" from Dalinar, then why is there not an answer to literally any of the other questions or comments that Dalinar has? For instance, Dalinar, in this same passage, asks the following (again, taken all at once): Exactly one of these has anything that resembles a real answer.And, of course, Honor isn't the best at seeing into the future. His own words: There's a minimum of a few hundred years between WoK and when Honor died, which certainly seems to be a rather long period of time to be trying to see into the future in order to see very specific questions asked at a very specific time by a very specific person. A person that Honor knows nothing about. If Honor has no idea who he's talking to, or when, then why is he prepared to answer one, singular, question--one question that, honestly, isn't all that important? Kaladin would have been revealed soon or later, whether he wanted to or not. Shallan would have been revealed before him regardless, in basically the exact same circumstances, even if Sadeas had never had the opportunity to betray Dalinar. The biggest difference that is most likely, to be honest, is that Dalinar would have had an army large enough to stop the Stormform Parshendi from summoning the Everstorm. I really thought that I read from Dalinar that he had seen multiple repeat visions within WoR, but I could not find reference to that when I skimmed through the pages. I sadly don't have basic locations within the book of various scenes of import as well memorized as I do WoK. Regardless, though, even if that was a mis-memory on my part, what we have is a preponderance of evidence suggesting that Dalinar's interpretation of the visions being recorded seems the logical conclusion. If you can show some response, any response at all, from Honor to Dalinar then you'd have something. But you're continuing to make the same mistake that Dalinar did, without learning from the lessons he lived. Edit: I started typing this before Topomouse's reply, I just took forever and a day because I got distracted by things. Much of what I said is the same.

An interesting interpretation of events. However, there seem to be a few flaws, based on things we know and I believe. 1. Non-Heraldic Surgebinders came after the Oathpact, and as a direct response to the Heralds. This means that while the use of Surgebinding might cause torture and torment to the Heralds, it seems likely that it is not due to the Oathpact or anything specific that Honor has done or not done. There also seems to be little explanation given on why the use of Surges would cause torture to the Heralds. While this theory works to explain Darkness/Nale's words, it doesn't seem to stand on its own when compared to other magic systems we have seen, or even within what we know of Roshar. ie, while your theory may be true, it seems to currently lack supporting evidence, and to exist only as an unexpected 'twist.' 2. If 1 is true, 2 logically follows. So, no problems here! 3. I quite believe this to be true, even though I do not agree with the rest of your theory. The Recreance was an unequivocally a dishonorable event if you consider spren to be people (as I would classify most if not all self-aware, sentient beings). It was nothing less than wholesale murder--even if the reasons were the best, or if it were done out of ignorance. Because Mr. T is also a dishonorable person, and claims to have the means to force a Second Recreance, this seems ever more likely. 4. The Heralds undoubtedly had a much stronger impact/influence on Honor, and even when nine of them walked away from the Oathpact it wasn't considered a major factor of Honor's splintering (per WoB.) While it's possible the Recreance had a greater impact than the abandonment of the Oathpact, I find it hard to think so. After all, the damage was done to the spren, and it seems unlikely that it would so strongly affect both the Splinter and the Shard separately. Not sure how harsh this is sounding, as I'm typing it in a bit of a rush before I leave work, and my initial pass generally turns out much more terse and mean than I mean it (darn text, and strongly worded arguments!). I truly do think that this is an interesting theory--just one that I happen to disagree with.

I guess it depends on your definition of "powerful." Sure, Hoid can't kill anyone--but appearing to be functionally immortal while gathering all of the various magic systems of the Cosmere has got to count for something, right? Right?! Then again, now I see the duel of Hoid vs. The Super Lord Ruler as this: Hoid is tied up like a punching bag, and TSLR is just pounding on him nonstop. Hoid, being Hoid, continues to deliver witty one-liners and general mockery until TSLR gets frustrated and kills himself. Or, I don't know, leaves to conquer the galaxy after getting bored seems a pretty legitimate response, too.

I see your version of the Lord Ruler, and raise you Hoid.

Thisthisthis! Most especially if it's not something that's super obvious. And the closer you get to spot-on, the greater the thrill. Hell, finding for sure that spren are Shardblades gave me such a moment of YES! that it's nearly indescribable--and I had 'merely' guessed that spren formed Shardplate, and the Blades were something else altogether. Good stories demand speculation that helps to invest the reader/audience in the story, making all the payoffs that much better. A great example of this done well is, well, Sanderson--and an example of this done terribly is the ending to Mass Effect 3. I'm a fairly literal, logical person--who is prone to sudden blasts of irrationality and illogic and craziness that just sounds fun. So, most of the time I like to follow the breadcrumbs and hints of evidence that we have to formulate theories, and where it's murkiest is sometimes where I get the most frustrated--so I try to stay away. However, it's also those weird, wild leaps of random abandon that are the most fun, so I tend to take it all in and evaluate it separately...no matter how time-consuming that may be lol.

Wow, that's a lot of time spent listening to WoK and WoR. I start to lose the thread of whatever I'm listening to at about 20 minutes (if not sooner), so audio-books have always been out for me--I can't even begin to imagine how much I'd miss if I listened to it. You've certainly picked up on a few things, though, so let me respond! 1. During a Q & A session, someone basically tells Sanderson that Nahodan is alive, and the response is...an interesting RAFO. I'm very willing to believe that he is actually Jezrien. 2 and 4. Disagree with you entirely here, but you make a decent case. There's a few WoB that help explain Highstorms: 3. One of the Listener's will almost definitely become a Radiant. It took me a bit to realize who you meant by Merlain, because the spelling is much less like "Merlin" in the book haha (Mrain, iirc). However, the current prevailing theory is that Eshonai will become the Radiant--even though she adopted the Stormform, the fact that we've seen Interlude chapters with her identifies a certain importance to her character for the greater story that we haven't seen with Mrain. Mrain seems likely to become a Squire to Kaladin, in much the same way that many of the rest of Bridge 4 is doing--most especially Lopen regrowing his arm. 5. I tend to think that Chasmfiends aren't actually Voidbringers themselves, but were used and corrupted by Voidbringers and used in war. Think of how wolves and elves were twisted by Sauron, turned into wargs and orcs. At least, that's how I currently see it. 6. I 100% think that Kaladin's mother was a mixed light-eyes. His father was a high-ranking darkeyes, well respected, and of a necessary profession--and when his dad met Kaladin's mother's parents, it was the worst meeting ever. Worse even than the first meeting with Roshone. I also think that finding out that his mother is a lighteyes might finally get Kaladin to shut the hell up about it, and just judge people based on who they really are, instead of what they look like. 7. There's a few different WoB regarding the Parshendi. I can't find the other WoB I was searching for. However, there's a couple that work together to imply that Odium hasn't left the Roshar system, because to do so he would have to leave a chunk of power behind, or rip a piece of himself out--which would be difficult and time consuming and hurt a lot. Another one is that the Parshmen were on Roshar before the humans, Honor, Cultivation, and Odium arrived. I've always assumed this means that Odium did something that altered the Parshmen, making it so that they could bind with his spren, but forcing him to stay in the system (because he was trapped there anyway, by some other force...the Oathpact?) There was a fairly recent post that I saw from a Q & A with Sanderson that I, again, cannot find that said that the Unkalaki (Horneaters) contain Parshendi blood, and that so do another of other races. The myth you are pointing to is likely to be from this reality. 8. I think have conflicting views of Hoid...multiple theories that paint him as everything from the villain to the hero, and anything in between. In short, I just don't know!

There is definitely reason to suspect that, at least at one time, Elhokar was a potential proto-Radiant. There were definitely clues indicating such throughout WoK. However, I've begun thinking that this was either a deliberate red herring or, potentially, something else related and yet entirely different.

The spren died because the Oath died. (Pardon the lack of direct quote, as my book is at home and I'm at work) Syl said basically "I was only as dead as your oath." It had nothing to do with her being a Blade, everything to do with the Bond. So, the Stormfather wouldn't be protected simply by never becoming a Blade; my take is that his refusal is because he has a greater freedom than Syl. We've seen that Syl is limited in her freedom, in where she can go and in her intelligence, based entirely upon the bond to Kaladin. The Stormfather is not limited in that way. Presumably, though, if he were acting as a Shardblade, he couldn't also be Riding the Storm or any of the other things he does for fun. Or that are expected/required of him.