Shaggai

If it's not an Honorblade, why would someone go to the trouble of switching it out for a different Shardblade? It's also possible that there was some weird stuff with Szeth and the Honorblade. For example, it's supposedly impossible to bond Honorblades. But then how did Szeth summon it? Was it some property of the Oathstone? Either way, there are probably some different mechanics going on here compared to an Honorblade straight from the hands of a Herald. The light eyes might be a related effect.

Yeah, I thought the bold text was weird too. It didn't seem to be for emphasis, because there was so much of it, but I can't really think of another reason to do that.

The chest full of spheres that Wistiow left to Kaladin's father?

Vivenna and the Breath?

1. His honor and his religion compelled him to follow the wishes of the Shamanate. I suspect that he didn't have any real proof that the Voidbringers were coming, but had visions or some such. He would, of course, have wished to warn the Shamanate, at which point they would have declared him Truthless. 2 and 3. He was basically insane at that point. Everything he thought was true was crumbling around him, and he was desperately clinging to anything that told him that he had had to kill all of those people.

That depends on how the puppetry works. If it's literally just "the child uses the people as a meat puppet", that won't work because the person's brain is being overridden. You can't change their behavior, because it bypasses their neural structure entirely.

I agree. I can't really imagine that there's an in-universe reason that Roshar is shaped like that specific projection of that specific cross-section of that specific Julia set. It's just at the wrong level of arbitrarity. It's too arbitrary to have an obvious in-world reason. But because it's a frame in an animation on Wikipedia, we know Brandon didn't choose all of those factors, so it isn't arbitrary enough to suspect something.

The problem is that your solutions would have consequences beyond the obvious ones. Maybe crime will go down. But then what happens when you die? A vast number of people will (even during your lifetime) be out for your blood. There are plenty of people who would attack you out of fear alone. Then, when you puppet them (because what other method do you have to deal with them?), lots of other people get scared, reasonably, and try and kill you. Eventually, you'll be puppeting so much of society that all of the governments will attack you because you're too much of a threat. So you puppet them. Then you and/or your child dies. Suddenly, all of society no longer functions. It was running entirely on puppetry. A vast power vacuum opens up. The government no longer knows how to do its job. There are probably several attempted takeovers and secessions. Anarchy ensues, with the government unable to do its job. Crime skyrockets, infrastructure collapses, and millions die throughout the world. Eventually, some sort of governments arise from the ashes. The world has been set back a few hundred years. (Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it would still be bad.)

True, true. You know, I may have been wrong about all the Kholins dying. I think I notice a pattern with the Kholin deaths. Way of Kings: One Kholin dies. No Kholins are resurrected. Words of Radiance: One Kholin dies. One is resurrected. Stones Unhallowed (hypothetical): One Kholin dies. Two are resurrected. Therefore, some Kholin from the past (possibly Gavilar) will turn out not to have been dead.

That's a bit inaccurate. We haven't had even one so far. Wait... Stones Unhallowed is coming out in 2015/16. CONFIRMED: ALL THE KHOLINS DIE IN STONES UNHALLOWED.

You might be right on that. Syl did seem to just be reverting to her past state, as opposed to dying. So yes, that instance wasn't particularly bad. However, the implications of the bond on Kaladin's future are not good. At this point, the bond is strong enough that Syl can manifest as a Blade. As far as I can tell, it's too strong to simply be dissolved at this point. If he breaks his oaths, she dies.

You like Elhokar as a useless wimp?

Those problems are either because of him, or because of the influence of Odium. Syl is in no way causing his hatred. Sure, and in that situation it makes sense. I personally still find it morally repugnant that, by its very nature, it kills someone, but in that situation it's not such a big deal because all he has to do is do what he actually thinks is right. The real problem here isn't situations like that. The problem is that he's still bound to the oaths, even if he legitimately thinks they're wrong. What if he meets Taravangian and decides that the Diagram is the best hope for Roshar? His oaths preclude him from accepting some of the tenets of the Diagram, no matter what he thinks about it morally. That seems horrifying to me. (Unless the Third Oath's addendum "as long as it is right" means that he gets an exception if he really believes it. But that kind of defeats the purpose of the oath.)

I can see that text without highlighting it. Just barely, and I can't read it, but I can tell it's there. I don't think you're as skilled at camouflage as you think.

"Protect Hallandren" would be a terrible command. What if Hallandren is taken over by an evil tyrant who wants to conquer the world? What if Hallandren becomes the threat to the world? What happens to Nightblood if Hallandren changes its name? What if Hallandren ceases to exist? Linking a command to a specific entity would be possibly the worst thing to do with such a powerful weapon. If you tell it to defeat x threat, what happens when that threat is over? At least "Destroy evil" stays applicable under almost all circumstances.

Well, obviously Brandon doesn't want everyone knowing he's Jezrien. So he gave Jezrien a beard in his books, so people wouldn't guess it was him. He also changed the stuff with Pens to Blades. In reality, it was all Honorpens and Shardpens and whatnot. (This is the one thing I disagree with Delightful about. It's not that he traded in his Honorblade for a Shardpen. He's had an Honorpen all along.)

What's your job?

Just because you glow doesn't mean that it's okay to do bad things to you.

Won't work. Your solution is basically to smash society, then duct-tape it back together in a better position. You and your child are the only things holding the world together. If either one of you dies, is incapacitated, or loses access to the powers, society will come crashing to the ground. Telepathy and the ability to puppet people can't make you immortal. You're basically doing short-term bad things in return for medium-term good things and long-term terrible things. The only moral system that would consider that acceptable would be egoism, and if you were an egoist you wouldn't be trying to reform society.

Nah, I think they're just never going to get together. Either one of them is going to die (again, if it's Bastille), turn out to be a secret Librarian agent (if so, it'll probably be Alcatraz), or be transformed into something weird (or maybe I've just been reading too much Clark Ashton Smith), or they just won't get together. The complete defiance of expectations, narrative physics, and foreshadowing is just the sort of thing that Alcatraz would do.

Really? That's the only thing I'm sure isn't going to happen. There's so much foreshadowing for it that it's never going to happen.

Generally, one's spouse does not die if one gets a divorce. If that happened regularly, I think marriage would be a vastly different institution.

Get a couple of Shardbearers to stand guard. Because that always works.

Shardplate is a pretty effective weapon on its own, though.

The Lord Ruler, by Ruin? The rebels, also by Ruin? Pretty much everyone, by Ruin?