Numuhuku

Honestly I think a lot of the high princes could tolerate the idea that Dalinar had orchestrated a clandestine assassination of Sadeas. He'd certainly provoked the Kholin's enough. And those kinds of dynastic feuds seldom end peacefully. Most probably assumed that one of those men was going to die, and that it not being Dalinar simply meant house kholin was stronger. If Dalinar was to simply shrug off Sadea's death as "an unfortunate tragedy", I think most of the high princes would be content to let it rest. What will likely hurt Dalinar, is that he almost certainly won't just let people assume he assassinated Sadeas. He'll be publically earnest about finding out what happened, perhaps even appointing a new high prince of information to lead the investigation. Dalinar won't just leave a blatant threat like that unchecked. Perhaps so much that many of the high princes will doubt the Kholin's actually did it. Which will be bad, since then they'll spend all their time worrying about who or what did. In a situation like that, if it came out that it was really Adolin who did it, I think the High Princes would be quite angry. Since Dalinar would have appeared to have been openly duplicitous for all his talk about conducting a fair investigation. It might also appear that he diverted suspicion from himself deliberately to weaken the high princes by subjecting them to paranoia and suspicion. Strangely enough, things would be much easier to handle if Adolin had simply murdered Sadeas in broad daylight.

Wouldn't the illegitimacy of a child matter less to the mother in that situation? Whole pregnancy hormonal bonding and knowing it's still her child and all that. Seems that would have been very little of a motivation to off Shallan, especially if Lin was adamant in thinking and acting like she was hid daughter. Seems like if there was a motivation for lin to kill her own flesh and blood, it'd have more to do with her association with the Ghost Bloods. It is somewhat peculiar though, that Lin's association with the Ghost Bloods would drive her to kill her own child, yet the Ghost Bloods were also willing to associate with Shallan as a grown Surge binder.

Being able to see it would be interesting, but not mind blowing. With spanreeds and continental trade, most of the high level scholars on Roshar are probably going to be more or less aware of the unusual flora present in Shinovar, even though most would have never seen it. Though I don't know if Shinovar is home to some of the forests you see in the Lord of the Rings trilogy...hilariously enough, the moving plants in Fangorn are probably going to come off as being less strange than a lot of the other vegetation.

Part of the issue is that even if certain people feel that Adolin can be partially excused just for killing Sadeas, it might be harder to excuse any unintended fallout from the killing. Like the kind of suspicion and uncertainty it will generate. Maybe the readers understands why Sadeas was killed, but the rest of the Alethi don't. Maybe the Kholin's did it. Maybe it was one of Sadeas's underlings. Maybe it was the Parshendi survivors lurking around Urithiru in secret passages. Maybe the assassin in white is still alive. Nagging doubts like that have the potential to turn Urithiru into a nut house for months on out.

How can Lin grieve for his wife and comfort his daughter at the same time? A husband wouldn't forgive someone for killing his wife. Yet a father would do anything to protect his daughter. Both self-images are central to the patriarch of a noble family, and yet this incident put them in conflict with each other. It shouldn't be surprising that the strain from this caused a psychological break on Lin's part. This is an incredibly disturbing thing to happen to someone. Interesting theory. Might be a bit tricky to work with though. The Davar's are a notably pure Vedan blood line, and it's expressed in all their appearances (they're paler and more redheaded than most Vedans). If Shallan is illegitimate, it seems like her mother would have had to have an affair with another particularly pure blooded Vedan. Also not sure how meaningful a revelation like that would be. Both the Davar parents are dead. Shallan's status as a radiant is MUCH more important to the Kholin's than her being a legitimate child of some defunct Vedan house. And her surviving brothers are too emotionally indebted and attached to her to care much that she's only a half sister.

Well seems like you could manage that with almost any hand weapon. I don't think a mace is really different than a hammer in this regard.

Huh. Shallan walking from the man to her mother DOES somewhat imply something like that. Guess I hadn't noticed that detail. Had imagined that maybe the guy was distracted when Shallan killed her mother, allowing Lin to get out from under him. Still. Point remains. Lin would have easily been in a desperate state of mind, where he'd have been focused on nothing but his daughter.

I think Jasnah would be more interested in the whole "GIANT FLYING CHICKEN!" angle Particularly from a taxonomic perspective. Shallan is going to be doodling quite a bit. I think the general look of the world will be much more interesting to her than random silly plot inconsistencies. All being seasoned soldiers, I think Dalinar/Adolin and Kaladin would be a bit put off by the fact that clearly nobody on screen had any understanding of actual combat tactics.

Pray tell, what's a *normal* reaction to a situation like that supposed to be? Do keep in mind that Lin had just killed a man in a violent bare handed struggle in order to protect his daughter. The guy was running purely off parental instincts at that point. It doesn't seem remotely odd that when faced with the aftermath of such a horrible event, he'd hyper focus on trying to comfort his traumatized daughter. Heck. It's almost as much for his benefit as Shallan's. If he focuses entirely on Shallan, he doesn't need to think about what his wife tried to do.

I think part of it was Jasnah testing her ward. Shallan spending time with her meant an increased chance she might get involved in the cloak and dagger stuff Jasnah was up to. I think perhaps in her mind it'd be useful to try to inoculate Shallan ahead of time to that kind of violence, and get her thinking about the moral implications of it. If Shallan can't handle the incident with the foot pads, then it's probably better to scare her off before she gets involved in anything truly sinister. You might be drawing too hard of a line on that. By that logic, it wouldn't have been appropriate for Kaladin to accept Dalinar's order to patrol the roads leading to the shattered plains. After-all. In that capacity he wouldn't just be defending people actively being attacked. He'd also be expected to pursue and capture/kill any bandit parties he came across, even if they're not hurting anyone at that instant. By the strictest logic, wouldn't Kaladin be the aggressor in that situation? Is the fact that the bandits will attack innocent people in the future (and have done so in the past) an insufficient justification to pursue them? I think the Windrunners position on matters like this is a bit more nuanced than a strict legalistic "never throw the first punch" rule. Similarly, the Elsecallers don't necessarily follow the Windrunners own exact interpretation of honorable conduct.

Yeah. I think Shallan would be more worried about Adolin getting into trouble, than being upset that Adolin killed the guy who dropped a bridge out from under her.

I think that mostly has to do with Shinovar being the one place geographically on Roshar where an earthlike ecology could out compete the native Roshar flora and fauna. If getting weed whacked by high storms isn't an issue, earth style vegetation has quite a bit of efficiency advantages over plants that have to waste energy being able to move or growing shells for themselves.

While I'm sure you can form a spren into a wide range of weapons, I'd think you'd limit it somewhat to what performed well ergonomically, as well weapons that were most effective at cutting/piercing and parrying. So blades, polearms, axes and the odd shield seems like they'd be your primary bread and butter, though there's certainly a lot of variation between those categories. The one weapon form that honestly leaves me a bit confused was during the Kaladin/Szeth fight when Syl transformed into a hammer. It doesn't seem like a blunt force form is very conducive for a material that's unusually light (the mundane great hammers that are used with Shardplate are useful *because* of their immense weight). I suppose it's possible that the hammer generates some kind of magical impact on contact, though it doesn't seem like that'd be as effective as simply slashing them with a vorpal blade that can cut through stone.

I could see how he believed it would help out with Taravagian's larger plans, even though it wasn't specifically mandated by him. Offing Dalinar was meant to help instigate civil war among the Alethi, so I'm guessing he figured knocking House Kholin out completely would help fast track that. I could certainly see how he might not consider being a diagram supporter being at odds with being an Alethi patriot. After all. He is being honest about getting a "better" king in charge...just not the one he suggested.

You do realize that's the exact same logic Taravangian used to justify setting up an assembly line murder clinic, and to have Szeth go around the world slaughtering kings and nobility? It all does make sense to him. If he can get enough death rattles, and if he can destabilize things enough to take control, then maybe he can save more people than he killed. Remember. Plenty of people have acknowledged that Elothkar's main flaw is being greatly inadequate* for his job, and not being innately viscous or cruel. It's not THAT great of a leap to go to get from Elothkar to what Taravangian was doing. An..."understandable" course of action, but is it one that you can see the Knights Radiants condoning? Journey Before Destination, after-all. *It probably also worth pointing out that on his strong days, Taravangian came up with the "brilliant" idea of all the inadequate people in the city euthanizing themselves.

From a moral perspective I'd absolutely agree with that. There certainly were exonerating circumstances behind the murder. But they're not necessarily exonerating circumstances that are legally relevant (Sadeass technically broke no law by abandoning the Kholin's in battle, and "officially" did not try to have a bridge dropped out from under him). If Dalinar wants to create a unified Alethkar, he's going to have a hard time arguing that members of his household should be above the law. Also. I wouldn't attribute such humanitarian concerns to the highprinces. Most of those guys continued to associate with Sadeass even after he betrayed the Kholin's, and didn't follow Dalinar to the final battle. Most of them are still operating out of a position of solitary self-interest, and I think they'd be more concerned over a precedent that Kholin's can kill people who slight them with impunity, rather than Dalinar being willing to punish his own flesh and blood. I don't think Ialai Sadeas would argue that Adolin killing her husband with a knife in a dark alley was a forgivable crime. And she'd vehemently argue as much to every other high prince who didn't accompany the Kholin's to the final battle. Maybe you could try dismissing House Sadeas as Cremlings, and the rest as gold bricks, so that their opinion shouldn't matter, You can't unify a kingdom when whose lives matter is determined solely by popularity in House Kholin. Dalinar being a Bondsmith also complicates things, since he's kind of magically bound to not break his oathe's. Not unless we want a reenactment of what happened to Syl with Stormfather. There's a lot of potential drama and conflict here, and I doubt Sanderson is just going to brush it all off by having everyone agree Sadeas had it coming, and go on their merry days. I for one am VERY interested in how it turns out.

I think the fact that Dalinar would hypothetically be willing to prosecute his own beloved son, for a crime committed against his most hate enemy, is a sign that Dalinar was willing to be a mostly imperial arbiter of justice. It'd shock them, but I don't think they extrapolate that to mean the Kholin's were kill crazy...not in the way that Dalinar letting Adolin go totally unpunished would. Especially if it was very obvious that punishing Adolin pained Dalinar greatly. ...and keep in mind. Dalinar being called a tyrant or cold hearted are hardly the most effective insults in a world being ripped apart by an everstorm, and about to be overrun by Parshmen turned voidbringers. Dalinar being willing to play the part of the scary man with a big stick in times like that might not be the most unappealing thing to people.

Yeah, this. You can't really argue that Amaram is somehow better than Sadeass for planning what the latter did, only MANY MANY orders of magnitude greater. Only big difference is that Amaram is a bit more of a idealistic true believer*, and is better at public relations. And I'm not sure either of those things absolve him from wanting to bring about a desolation. *Though you could argue that earnestness makes Amaram worse. Purely self interested are usually self-interested enough to not want to watch the entire world burn. Sadeass may be a cremling, but he's a petty cremling who probably wouldn't have wrecked the world tooooo badly in the grand scheme of things.

One thing that should probably be considered before passing judgement on Adolin killing Sadeass, is that this wasn't exactly some unprecedented escalation. Even discounting Sadeass's betraying the Kholin's in battle, there was that whole bridge sabotage assassination attempt. That nearly killed his father and fiancee, along with many House Kholin soldiers and scribes. One COULD argue that since Tobol had escalated the house Kholin/Sadeass conflict into a game of assassins, that he really shouldn't have expected an encounter with a Kholin house member in an isolated place with no witnesses to not result in something quick and bloody. I could see many of the high princes figuring that Sadeass had it coming for instigating that feud with the Kholin's, but not being ready to handle the consequences of it. I think a lot of them would be more offended at the "impropriety" of Adolin doing it with a knife like a common footpad, and not doing something more gentlemanly. Like hiring footpads to construct a bridge over Sadeass's sleeping quarters at night, and to drop it on him. Honestly the real problem isn't that the other High Princes would be outraged by the assassination. The real problem is that they wouldn't be. They'd just take it to mean that even House Kholin is once again more influential, and even though they found this big shiny new ancient lost mystical city, it means that the typical underhanded games and bickering among the high princes is still very much the norm. And that perhaps they should be ready for such means against House Kholin should they come into disagreement. Which is why as an Oathbringer, Dalinar has to punish Adolin. Because he needs to demonstrate that the Alethi nobility are beyond that. Because if they're not, they won't be able to weather the coming storm. Adolin basically shot the head outlaw in cold blood in the lawless town right as his dad got sworn in as Sheriff. A week ago it would have been rough frontier justice. Now Adolin is a murderer. He certainly could keep it hidden for awhile. Nobody is going to suspect Adolin randomly encountering and murdering Sadeass in that couple of moments he was alone as very likely theory. Some might consider a dedicated Kholin assassin as being plausible, but Ialai will have a tricky time petitioning for that to be investigated without many people suggesting that perhaps that Bridge assassination against the Kholin's should also be looked into. Not exactly a game Islai Sadeass can try to play. OTOH, that wouldn't keep them from trying to pin the murder on some random schlub. Which Isn't something I think Adolin could live with. That reminds me that a few of Rock's relatives are still serving in the Sadeass army. And if one or two of them were in that scouting detail near where Tobol was killed, that certainly would be a motive.

Sadea's red shardplate has got me mentally thinking that the rest of his army also has red uniforms/banners, and I sometimes get weirded out when I realize they're actually green.

Very inclined to believe that it's some extension of the Nahel bond. There seems to be a bit too much emphasis on the paired nature of plate and blade for the former to merely be some kind of elaborate fabrial. Not to mention the rough parity between number of suits of plate and blade in contemporary and flash back Roshar. If the two artifacts were created by vastly different methods, one would expect greater disparity between the number of plates and blades. Lets not forget all the miraculous characteristics that plate and blade have with eachother. Shape shifting to benefit the shardbearer, as well as summoning/dismissing the shards. That shared capability certainly suggests they have a fair amount in common.