snoopy

There aren't many people in the cosmere who are as old as him, so his choices would be pretty much non-existant by that criteria. A 17 year old and a 30-something year old would be worlds apart in terms of maturity. 30-something is old enough to decide and for it to be ok, imo.

Brandon has said that Hoid has had multiple love interests. Why not Jasnah? Hoid has said he is way too old for Shallan, but maybe Jasnah is old enough..

On Reddit, Brandon confirmed Zahel is not of the 10th heightening and that he was whispering commands:

I think there will be a singer/human relationship this book. However, now I am thinking it could be Venli + whoever she captures to train her. Who are the single Bridge 4 members besides Kaladin? I don't think Kaladin would be captured, though that would be a cool plot twist. On the flip side, Venli is very young.

In WoR, Mraize discovers that Veil is also Shallan and he believes Shallan to be the false identity. Shallan contradicts him. However, I don't think we should underestimate Mraize. Veil's appearance may be false, but I think he is on to something regarding true identity/personality and Veil. Then in Oathbringer, when Shallan is speaking to Vatnah and Ishnah, and she shows them how she can untransform her appearance to that of Shallan from Veil, they think Veil is a false identity and Shallan the true one. This is a moment of truth for Shallan in admitting that the persona 'Shallan' is not her true self.

I just read through most of the chapter 2/3 discussion board of reddit, and I would say that any hope of a Kaladin romance in this book (with anyone!) is more or less crushed based on comments by Brandon himself (u/mistborn), and comments by beta reader and the real-life Lyn, who the book character is named after (reddit user u/kaladin_stormblessed). I don't know how to get stuff copy and pasted from reddit to format correctly, but here we go. For example, when discussing the Lyn/Kaladin romance, we have: And later on: Ie Brandon himself says that "Kaladin just isn't ready for this kind of relationship yet." Hopes quashed......

Can someone remind me of the definition of 'highmarshal'? How it ranks among other high ranks, what it entails, etc? It's obviously an important role, significantly higher up that 'captain', but I don't remember much else. It's not defined in the coppermind wiki and I'm wondering what it specifically means for Kaladin.

Laral's first marriage was not founded on romance/love. Many marriages on Roshar are political or for personal gain/convenience. However Laral is not important enough to be set up on a political arranged marriage with Kaladin. I don't see a plausible marriage between Kal + Laral that isn't because they fell in love. Kaladin + Jasnah could conceivably be political, but not Kalaral. As a "homeless, pennyless refugee" as you put it, she may have incentive to move forward quickly, but I think her physical/monetary situation can be improved without a marriage with Kaladin.

Normally, a widow would need a considerable amount of time before being able to move on romantically. However, I imagine she was never "in love" with Roshone, though she seems to have made the best of it. If she was never truly emotionally attached to Roshone, she should be ready to quickly move on romantically, should the right person present himself, which is another positive sign for Kalaral in book 4.

I agree that those interactions would be fascinating.

Thank you for that. Thinking of Kaladin as "lucky" if he gets a romance with Laral is exactly how I need to think of it. And it makes me more excited at the prospect that I think is being set up. She has accomplished a lot and has made the best of her situation. I agree about Kaladin+Shallan. Oathbringer was painful for me to read because of how all of the foreshadowing was wasted between Shallan and Kaladin. There is a WoB quote that the romance arcs are supposed to mirror that of previous characters (Dalinar+Navani+Gavilar+Evie). In the prologue of RoW Navani says she loved both Gavilar and Dalinar, but that everyone knew she would choose Gavilar because of his position, and that Dalinar's intensity scared her. I think it was the same for Shallan. She loved both Adolin and Kaladin, but was always going to choose Adolin for his position, and that Kaladin's intensity scared her. I have taken that to mean that Shallan and Kaladin will end up together in later books (but not book 4). I also think Jasnah is out because of her stated smaller arc in this book. I don't know that Jasnah in a romance would be believable to me anyway unless I could get in her head, because she hasn't seemed interested in romance thus far. And we aren't going to get much of her thoughts until the back 5 books. I also think Brandon is sensitive to introducing too many characters, so I think a Kaladin romance will be with a player already introduced. And it seems Laral is the one being set up for the spot.

With Roshone dead, what do you think the possibility is of Brandon setting up for a Kaladin + Laral romance. In Lirin's chapter, Lirin thinks about how he would have liked to have her as a daughter and how he admires her. It says: In Oathbringer, we learned that Syl likes Laral: I was never on team Kalaral (sp?) before, but I can see a subtle setup by Brandon. She was the girl Kaladin was supposed to marry as a child, but it was doomed when her father died and she needed to marry for position. Now Roshone is dead with Kaladin trying to protect him (so none of the Helaran issues that Kaladin + Shallan would have). We don't know much about Laral. I think Kaladin views her as a little stuck up, but his interactions with her have been very limited in recent years. We know Lirin and Syl like her, and if Brandon chooses to have Laral and Kaladin interact, there is potential. I can also see Laral possibly coming to Urithiru as a scribe for Bridge Four, since she now has nothing tying her home. It would be easy for Brandon to bring in Kaladin+ Laral interactions with her as a free agent. I also don't think Brandon would have killed off Roshone without having something better in mind for Laral. I do think Brandon is going to bring in some romance for Kaladin in this novel. Syl has talked about wanting him to have romance too much for nothing to happen. Shalladin is certainly out for this book. Rysn only gets an interlude in RoW. Jasnah is in a different character grouping and so interactions with Kaladin would be limited. Not to mention that Brandon has said that we won't get to know Jasnah too much until the back 5 books. Tarah or Azure are possibilities, but it seems to me that Brandon is setting up the stage for Laral. She hasn't been my favorite character in previous books, but if we go off of Lirin's opinion and Syl's, then I think she has potential that Brandon might want to explore. Plus Kaladin saying that she is "the girl he was never going to marry" is begging to be proven wrong.