bo.montier

I would expect to see development in how many shadows she has, though, if this is the direction it's going. I would also expect us to know who is going to be the champion by the end of book 4, at the latest, with a pretty good idea by the end of book 3, but that's just because book 5 would be building up to the confrontation as the climax.

This whole question fascinates me, for so many reasons. Hoid could probably do it, but what makes these individuals special? Simply their being around back before the splintering? Are they superhumans of some sort? Do they just know things that others don't? I mean, if Rayse, Tallinvast, Ati, etc weren't special, then why hasn't someone taken up Honor? If it's because Odium is still on the system, what about the power of one of the other shards? I mean, Vin was able to take up Preservation, and Sazed 2 shards...I just don't see the pattern yet.

Thanks. I'll look at it again. I missed that implication. I still feel like he has to be put in a difficult situation first, otherwise why is there talk of forcing him to pick a champion.

My god. Her personas being shadows, that's genius.

I can see how Ruin becomes a shard, but not chaos. Of course, I'm looking at attributes of what I think of as God (christian here) and breaking it into pieces, which gives you weird things like ruin apart from preservation and hatred apart from honor. You get some awesome things, like preservation and cultivation, but to me, they would lack as well. If Mercy were a shard, for instance, and it lacked hatred or honor, how would the evil be punished? The shard might want to be purely merciful all the time. We've already seen discussion about how preservation NEEDS ruin, otherwise nothing ever would die. So hatred/odium makes sense as an attribute of "god" whereas Chaos doesn't. Chaos is created when god's attributes are split up. Again, this is all my understanding of the shards, which I fully expect to be incorrect. Just how I think about it.

I desperately want to know what Mr. T is up to.

I'm going to have to re-read. Which chapter was that again? I'm so frequently wrong with my predictions that I would not be in the least surprised to be wrong here.

I don't know that I buy this. The implication seems to point to Odium becoming somewhat desperate, and only THEN does he appoint a champion. I feel like the Heralds would already need to be involved for it to get to that point.

I guess I hadn't considered there to be a primary villain of the whole Cosmere before. If there is, I bet it's not even a Shard at all, and it 100% has to do with Hoid. We still don't know why or how adonalsium split, do we? If there was a specific individual or group behind that, seems like their main goal would be chaos.

My biggest problem with Eshonai is that hate isn't part of her motivation prior to transforming, so I see what you're saying there. My second choice would be Szeth, but then you've got the Nightblood hating evil thing, he'd have to break again pretty hard, which seems to be totally within the realm of possibility to me. I still lean towards Eshonai, at the end of the day.

Ok, I'm not as knowledgeable about all the theory as some of you are, but I'm confused as to why Eshonai isn't in the discussion. It seems like she is the obvious choice (which understandably makes me skeptical). She's a voidbringer, who has plate and blade. The fact that Odium's champion has plate and blade mean they've gotten it from somewhere. One of the existing KR would have to kill their spren to become the champion, and Dalinar is ruled out as a result, since the Stormfather won't become shards for him. I don't see Shallan or Kaladin killing their spren at this point, particularly not Kaladin, not after WoR. Shallan could go down that route, but I, like several of you, read her as healing more and more over time, and becoming stronger and more resilient as a result--as an aside, I genuinely wonder what her last truth will be. So, to me, Eshonai makes the most sense. A voidbringer with plate and blade, one who has been utterly consumed by odium, despite the tiny inner voice protesting the change.

Yeah, he's for sure evil, at this point at least, unless there's some grand plot twist where humans are the source of all evil in the universe and splintered adonalsium in their wickedness or something like that. I don't see how that could be AND honor be on their side.

It's too late for me. Save yourselves.

Ah, I broke just now and read the prologue, following some of you in this thread. I'm about to go read the rest of the released chapters because I'm too weak.

See, I don't get this. Wrath and Hatred are righteous in the right circumstances. It is GOOD to hate murder and rape, it is GOOD to want to destroy evil, therefore Odium could be a good thing/entity, if only his methods weren't so dang evil.

I read a definition of evil, somewhere, as the pursuit of one's interest with no boundaries. Sadeas acts in his self interest and he literally doesn't care who he hurts, so he qualifies by this definition. Taravangian probably falls under this category as well, for me. He seems to have no bounds on the behavior he will condone and engage in to pursue his goals, however noble sounding they are, so he is evil. Amaram will lie, cheat, steal, and murder to achieve his goals. I categorically reject, both in the series and in life, the idea that noble ends justify evil means. I believe Dalinar said something to the effect of "No good end can be achieved by evil means" though I could be wrong on the source of that. Regardless I agree with the sentiment.

My big problem with Shardplate being some sort of Aluminum is that Aluminum is much lighter than other metals used in Armor. Sure some sort of investiture could increase its strength, but why would it weigh so much more than steel plate? I don't think Shardplate being soulcast Aluminum is reasonable given this.