Subvisual Haze

So far I've been struck by just how much time characters talk about things that are going to happen later in the book. This level of setup seems excessive. It has a strange "tune in next chapter!" vibe where characters keep talking about doing things instead of just doing them.

Perhaps instead of anime, shonen would be a more accurate specifier. (Or Marvel. Or YA.) There does seem to be a distinct change in the writing vibe compared to the earlier books.

I keep finding myself reading new chapters and thinking "I know exactly which subset of the fandom this was written to directly appeal to".

The plot has to give her something to keep her busy.

and Reinforces the idea for me that there was a conflict between the Honor shard and its holder Tanavast (mirroring the conflict between Rayse and Odium). The Honor shard demanded oaths never be modified or walked away from, Tanavast probably favored more sympathy for those caught in bad oaths (like the Heralds).

I like this theory. And it helps explain why we've had so little interacting with Honor/Tanavast, we've talked with him incognito via Nohadon. I guess there could be a couple distinct ways the Nohadon=Tanavast theory could play out. 1) Nohadon as a person didn't exist historically. The Way of Kings is an allegory written by Tanavast to guide the newly emerging surgebinder/Radiants. 2) Nohadon was something like a human avatar of Tanavast on Roshar. He temporarily abdicated the power of the shard to live as a normal human on Roshar. Nohadon abdicating the Kingship is a parallel of Tanavast doing the same. 3) Nohadon was a human being who temporarily swapped places with Tanavast. (moon story, like you mentioned).

Quite a bit of talking about stuff that will happen in future chapters. Shallan and gang talk about attacking the Ghostbloods (tune in next chapter). Szeth almost reveals something about his past (tune in next interlude). Dalinar talks about entering the Spiritual and revealing what happened in the past (tune in next chapter).

King of the Hill rules are in effect. Whoever has the most people standing around in the Oathgate when the contest concludes wins the entire Kingdom.

I get that in universe there needs to be a board meeting where people get assigned to the C, D, and E plots but its kind of boring to read about. And drawing even more attention to silly rules lawyering arguments (Odium can exploit the rules but you can't because the inscrutable rules say so) seems awkward. What character stuff we got was good. Poor Szeth, everyone else's spren seems supportive in some way, Szeth's spren just encourages him to be worse and won't even tell him his name. I also like Szeth's unique perspective (super black and white thinking), wish we spent more time with him. Dalinar and Adolin's conflict is very believable from both sides. Which one is going to tragically die leaving the other full of regret about unresolved conflict?

Smooshed with Odium to form a shard of war.

He sure talks a big game about how potent his unchained power is and how willing he is to sacrifice to achieve his goals but so far he hasn't done a whole lot. I'm hoping he will do a dramatic heel-turn and reveal his hidden plans-within-plans to achieve sneaky goals because so far the more time we spend around him the more mundane he appears.

That's a good point, completing an arc implies he had an arc to begin with.

My 3 guesses seem to match the consensus: Dalinar, Adolin and Szeth. Mostly just because they don't really have any character growth left. They've completed their arcs (or will soon in Szeth's case), and can now die in a tragic yet heroic manner.

Tanavast is clearly a fan of that "Here's what you would look like if you were Black or Chinese" meme account. I do think it's interesting that he has a similar windspren helix pattern as the Jezrien endpaper. Something to do with him being connected to The Wind? Or maybe related to that Epigraph about how people shifted from worshipping the wind to the storm.

I think Dalinar wants the eternal war to stop, which is in contradiction to what Honor wanted (fight a forever war to keep Odium occupied). Honor + Odium = War. The endless fighting was actually intentional.

Stormfather back to being very sus. It seems like Cultivation timed her arrival and words to purposefully slip past the Stormfather's attention.

I'm ready for the 2,000 year age gap discourse.

That's a good point. I wonder if Ishar's original Ashyn Bondsmith powers were sealed away/regulated by Honor after Ashyn's destruction, but then when Honor was dying the limitations starting reverting and Ishar's old unregulated powers returned. We are told for example that Dalinar's ability to see connection lines was something that Stormfather had only had described to him once before by Melishi. If Honor's limitations on Bondsmith magic were degrading for Melishi (shortly before Honor's death), then Ishar's original Bondsmith powers might also have been making a return.

My thought is more that Ishar is manipulating their connections to make himself seem completely sane, good, and trustworthy. The other Heralds then construct delusional explanations to explain reality in a way that won't challenge Ishar.

The Seon was the real spy all along! Which makes the cremling/Sleepless now a red herring. Hoid not considering that the Seon could spy makes him seem extra incompetent in the whole affair. Felt was present back when Dalinar visited Cultivation. He made a comment about not getting a blessing from the old magic due to being too foreign, but now I have to wonder if Cultivation was to some extent working with the Ghostbloods. I like the implied internal dissent in the Ghostbloods and that Iyatil/Mraize have gone rogue. Might set up an eventual situation where Shallan gets recruited back into the Ghostbloods to eliminate the rogue branch and become their new leader on Roshar. I really liked the depiction of Odium being the God of passion (and not the usual hulked out rage). Strangely I found myself thinking Kaladin would make an excellent match for a shard of passion. I never really understood before Odium's desire to claim Kaladin as a champion (beyond subverting the other team's hero), but here it seems more clear. Weeping over dying victims is peak Kaladin.

They're basically engaged.

Didn't we already see Sja Anat corrupt one of the oathgate spren at Kholinar? Could have used that one or corrupted another gate.

My guess would be that Siz's and other honorspren are the ones initiating the breaking of bonds and vanishing from contact. To re-forge the Honor shard? Or the oathpact? Sizgil would be understandably bitter that his honorspren was basically sacrificed to that end.

I actually see #1 as likely. Killing Adolin and Shallan would be devastating to Dalinar. Do whatever you can to mess with Dalinar psychologically in the days before the contest of champions.

Mraize? He knows Shallan is at Lasting Integrity and Shallan quite directly burned that bridge. He could have leaked the info to Odium.