RandomSpeculation

Think of it not as WHAT they did but WHY they did it. As a random example, perhaps Leras became involved because he wanted the power to preserve the life of a loved one who was sick and dying.

Ati/Ruin was certainly the antagonist of Mistborn Era 1, however like almost all well done antagonists he has personal motivations that move him. Think Magneto from x-men, he does some bad things, but is moving towards a understandable goal Equal rights for mutants and having them not be treated like government experiments. Hoid's motivations, whatever they are, are certainly complex. Calling him a "good guy" or "bad guy" is going to depend on which character from the cosmere you ask. The idea that his ultimate goal is the shattering of all shards to end "godhood" is interesting, but his letter from SA seems to imply he thought the shattering of Aona and Skai was a bad thing. That could just be a ploy to try and gain a powerful(dragon? I haven't read any of the unreleased stuff) ally in his fight against Rayse, who is one character we can say for sure is Hoid's enemy.

I always thought the Ym story started from a fact(the shattering of Adonalsium) and over lots of time evolved into a belief system, which would explain discrepancies in the story from the event. As far as the creation of the shards, I agree with what emailanimal said. The shard each received is tied to the INTENT each vessel had at the moment of the shattering. I think each knew they would gain some power, but did not explicitly choose a shard. Rayse was involved because of his hatred of Adonalsium, and ended up with odium. Others were involved out of their sense of duty, desire for free will, and the shards were created to match the intent of their owners. This would explain the WoB saying the shattering could have been different if a different group did the shattering. *Edit* I just remembered it was stated that Ati was originally a kind man, so maybe something else was going on. *Edit2* It could be that by the time they finished the shattering, Ati's mind was focused on the RUIN they were causing. Did I mention I love how much info this short little novel gave us to speculate over.

It seems the biggest argument that he would go Edgedancer is the fact that his blade used to belong to one. Brandon has said reviving a blade would be super difficult and usually require the original bonding radiant still be alive. Another point is that Edgedancers fight along the periphery and focus on lost and forgotten people. I see Adolin as too much of a rally point and front and center person for that role.

I maybe could have explained the "do what is necessary" thing a little better. I'm not talking about things like killing off the sick so you can hear their death rattles. I was thinking more along the lines of sometimes every choice is bad, and you gotta make the one that saves the most people. There is a strong argument to be made that Sadeas continuing to undermine the leadership was gonna get a lot of people killed when the desolation started, and Adolin saved a lot of people by taking him out. Also Adolin seems to be a very front line fighter from the battles we've seen him in so far, and I picture the Dustbringers as THE front line order. I'm not very sold on him reviving his blade, but I'll give the Edgedancer theory a read, you have a link?

My thought has always been that Adolin is either going to become a radiant, or not make it through the first half of SA(books 1-5). As I hope Adolin doesn't bite the dust, I think he's going to become a Dustbringer. There are the obvious attributes of obedient and brave, which fit Adolin perfectly, but a lot of my reasoning comes from gut feelings about how I picture the Order of Dustbringers. Take a look at what we know about the combat oriented orders. The Windrunners do what is right, regardless of the law. The Skybreakers always follow the law, regardless of morality. The Edgedancers look out for those who have been forgotten. I see the Dustbringers as the order that does what is necessary, even if it is distasteful. This could tie in to how they seem to be misunderstood and have a bad rep, and matches up well to Adolin's encounter with a certain Highprince at the end of WoR. I couldn't find it, but I remember a WoB that said we have met a radiant or proto-radiant from each order by the end of book 2. Who else other than Adolin is a good candidate for Dustbringer? Also giving one of Roshars top duelists an uber destructive skill set like the Dustbringers possess, is imo too good of an opportunity to pass up

I've always viewed the whole "flashback character doesn't have to be alive" thing as mostly hand waving by BS. After all, it kinda takes the suspense outta Jasnah's "death" if you know she is gonna be a main character in an upcoming book. Doesn't mean we wont get a dead flashback character, but I think at the time he made the comment it was more directed towards obscuring whats gonna happen in book two. In the same vein, we have Brandon saying not all flashback characters need be tied to the main radiant theme of that book. To me, the idea of ten books and ten orders, with a flashback character detailing an individual order for each of the ten, works pretty well. But once you have that knowledge, and a list of flashback characters, it becomes too easy to fill in the blanks on which characters will join what order before BS is ready for us to know all that. I look at Taln and Shalash as potential placeholders for a flashback character BS doesn't want revealed as a proto radiant just yet. This doesn't mean they won't become main characters, and TBH I would drool over a flashback sequence from the PoV of a herald, but i'm not totally sold on both of them being flashback characters just yet.