Shadowthrone

Hmm. So assuming Adolin is also his biological son, the other possibility could be that she's still alive but in a state which causes constant pain to Dalinar. I say this because in WoR when Shallan infiltrates the Kholin temple to search for Taln Pattern tells her that there's an "interesting" woman there who rubs excrement on walls. Could it be her?

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but has anyone asked this question of Brandon? I'm from India, so really hard to get my questions answered directly from the author. Is Dalinar the biological father of Adolin and/or Renarin? Sure, it sounds like some sitcom twist, but there are three reasons for the hypothesis. Firstly, and most importantly, Dalinar's memory erasure of his wife's memory is very inconsistent with his character. It is hard to imagine him doing it because he couldn't handle the emotions etc. Most people would treasure their memories of a loved one. He is a pretty tough guy emotionally and wouldn't resort to such an extreme merely for even far-fetched scenarios like loveless marriage, wife being traitor and so forth. If, however, he were party to information that Adolin and/or Renarin were illegitimate sons of Gavilar, it could be potentially destabilizing to the throne of Alethkar and his own loyalty to Gavilar would suffer. Putting his other great duty to the newly forged kingdom of Alethkar over his antagonism towards Gavilar (remember his Calling is leadership and even the Dalinar of youth wouldn't want to jeopardise the kingdom he'd helped build) he would effectively eliminated possibility of treason from himself in the future. It could be his great act of selflessness that marked him out to be a Radiant. Secondly, there is a disproportionate number of Radiants in the Kholin family. Perhaps Gavilar knew that he would father several Radiants so he simply wanted to maximise his progeny by passing off his own children as his brother's (who better?), giving them the advantage of a privileged childhood and being groomed for leadership roles, as opposed to illegitimate children borne of concubines. Thirdly, Dalinar is the pivotal character of the series. He was the first character of SA conceived by Brandon, has extremely complex motivations and needs an ideal foil story. These point to the enigmatic memory wipe episode, which would typically end with a twist or two and should showcase his honor and sacrifice. Hence the question. If the opportunity presents itself, would be great if someone put it to him and get a WoB on this. On a separate note, I think the author could be pulling a Mistborn-type trick here whereby Kaladin is the protagonist in terms of screen-time (like Vin) but the hero who saves the day is Dalinar (like Sazed) who could even be the Champion of Honor.

One of things that I think could have been done better is this: doesn't it seem like Kaladin has to go through an awful lot more than the other Radiants-in-training? The ideals expected of a Windrunner are extreme, making for a good plotline, but then how were there so many Windrunners in the past? (I recall reading sixteen together at one point, but for the life of me, can't remember where) For Dalinar, it goes: get an epiphany about kingship, be a strong leader (which he should have been anyway), refound KR (which he failed miserably in, until they did it themselves), say a few words, and Voila! One Bondsmith ready. Shallan may have had a horrid time of it in the past, but in the ongoing plotline she faces no great conundrum, moral or otherwise, and the problems she faces are ones a Lightweaver is best suited to handling. Don't even remind me of Lift and her "awesomeness". In contrast, Kaladin has to almost kill himself for every step of advancement as a KR? Maybe it has been deliberately done to highlight the social bridge and how difficult it is for an Alethi darkeyes to rise in that society, but it poses a weighty issue. It doesn't seem like there will be more Windrunners at all in the series, which, on one hand, is a shame. I for one want to see a squadron of them against a bunch of Thunderclasts. On the other hand, there is going to be at least one other person with Windrunner-like abilities, owing to the Honorblade, which strikes me as very unfair. I found it annoying in Mistborn when Elend becomes an instant Mistborn after Vin had to fight her way there. I suspect I'll start hating this series as well if another Lighteyes or bridgeman took up the mantle of Windrunner and got easily to Kaladin's level.

Yeah, sorry for the title; I know it's a tad(?) overdone. So following the grand tradition of people not revealing their true names on Internet forums, I am Shadowthrone, minus-sixth of that name, aged 22, from India, and have been reading Sanderson on and off for several years now. My first Brandook (or Sandernovel, maybe?) was Elantris, which I thought was actually not that great, but after repeated persuasion by several Internet forums, read Mistborn a couple of years back. Mind well and truly blown. Even after the complicated intricacy of Stormlight's systems, I still think the Metallic Arts are the most elegant fantasy system ever created, topped only by the vision of the Cosmere's system itself. I've since read all the Cosmere works, and a couple others as well (Rithmatist, Reckoners) and have been reading stuff on 17th Shard and Coppermind for well over two years now. Finally decided to add my voice, worthless as it may be, to the chorus of fellow Brandergeeks, enraptured by the imagination and intelligence of one man. Shadowthrone, inititate neophyte of the 17th cult, signing in.