Subvisual Haze

He's a good jumping off point to discuss the economy of the camps and Urithiru. He also acts as an interesting example of the importance of diversity in perspectives and personalities. Jasnah's notes and Dalinar's thoughts dismiss him as a fool because they are all business and super serious and as such view him as a fool. Shallan is more irreverent though and is able to discern that Seb is more clever than he lets on and is a very useful ally in his own way (economy+trade).

I feel like Moash is pretty blatantly being set up for a redemption arc. The themes of the series are largely about forgiveness and second chances (Dalinar/Szeth/Venli/Shallan's squires/Ash), and Brandon just has such an inherently optimistic view of human nature that his villains tend to be immediately apparent by their complete lack of empathy. Also I have to imagine Brandon would be drawn to a good Prodigal Son narrative. I'm guessing Moash ultimately either takes a bullet for Kaladin or takes Jezrien's place as penance in Damnation to hold back Odium during the timeskip between the front 5 and back 5 Stormlight books.

He's definitely lying about the secondhand education. That may have been part of it, but he almost certainly went to the surgeon school (and likely got kicked out for hooking up with a woman above his station). Lirin acts and performs like an actual surgeon, not a civil war era sawbones for hire. His knowledge is extensive and he even has an anatomy textbook that Kaladin studies from. The fact Lirin is able to predict highstorms (as a hobby!) indicates that he has a much broader and classical education than would be obtained from a simple country apprenticeship.

It would be an enormous stretch to assume Brandon may have been heavily influenced by https://brandonsanderson.com/terry-pratchetts-discworld-might-be-the-highest-form-of-literature-on-the-planet/

Sensible!? Vedel is the patron of surgeons. The surgeon school is in Kharbranth. Kaladin's dad likely met Kaladin's mom while studying surgery in Kharbrath. Kaladin's mom has darkeyes, but culturally acts like a lighteyes in all respects and receives detailed letters from her family about advances in fabrian technology. Conclusion: Vedel is Kaladin's Grandmother!

I assumed they just represented the 4 patron Heralds of the most elaborated on Radiant Orders so far (including the first 3 books and also Lift's short story). Kaladin + Bridge 4 = Windrunners = Jezrien Shallan = Lightweaver = Ash Dalinar = Bondsmith = Ishar Lift = Edgedancer = Vedel

Ironsides was a very confused (and I'm guessing very internally conflicted) woman. Almost none of her actions with regard to Spensa actually advanced any of her supposed goals. She discriminated against Spensa only just enough to inconvenience her into trying harder and generate sympathy from the other students. She claimed to be ultimately worried about the danger of the defect yet sent Spensa armed into multiple livefire fights? I get the feeling she was mostly just lying to herself about what her goals and motives were.

Agree, and after reading Defending Elysium and seeing this line I think the colorful teleporting slug is actually a shell-less Varvax.

“I hope you're proud of yourself for the times you've said 'yes,' when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to someone else.” - Fred Rogers

Yes that's basically my reading of it. Humans with out of control surges already nuked Ashyn, the fear is that they'll do the same to Roshar. I think that's Odium's ultimate gameplan. Not destroy Roshar himself via bruteforce, manipulate angry and victimized humans to do it for him.

Riddle Contest? Or perhaps a dance-off? Fiddling competition?

In which a Guild Navigator from Dune re-enacts the plot of Gurren Lagann?

Violet Evergarden is a beautiful show that made me cry and think deep thoughts about the human condition and empathy. Usually "terk jerker" media don't work on me, they feel emotionally manipulative and overly dramatic and I kind of check out. For whatever reason though this show felt extremely authentic and thus hit me hard in the feels.

Based on what I think caused the formation of the Shattered Plains, magic floating cities may not be the best long term solution.

Neither is perfect, both disrupt the originally designed immersive multi-sensory experience, so I mostly just dislike anyone who thinks their opinion on this matter somehow makes them superior to anyone else. Dubs cause an audio/image disconnect and lose original voice acting flavor, however subs disrupt the synchronization of language delivery across a scene and temporarily distract your focus from visual details (if you think this is not the case, see how well people drive when texting). On the whole I think I personally prefer dubs, assuming they are made with quality. Cheap dubs are awful, but high quality dubs can get really close to the original language experience though. That and I enjoy being able to change the laundry, answer the door, feed the cat, get a snack, do some exercise etc. without necessarily needing to pause. I worry that subs are so demanding on your attention that they kind of encourage an inactive lifestyle. Especially if you're binge watching a show!

I think we're meant to see a connection between The Diagram listing the final highstorm dates and Renarin's powers manifesting during those same highstorms to predict the date of the return of the everstorm.

You tap the Electrum metalmind...It fills you with determination!

"Turn and Face the Strange"

Perhaps not though, didn't one of the kandra remark that they wanted Wayne's bones when he died because the skeletons of gold Ferrings look unique?

But Odium himself makes clear that agreements with him must be done with intention and follow certain formalities. See when Dalinar earlier offhandedly asked Odium to leave: and he echoes the same idea in his deal with Taravangian He quite explicitly names Dalinar his champion. He doesn't dispute it when Taravangian later uses this restriction on him when bartering their deal. There's no temporal qualifiers or take-backsies here. This whole exchange would be pointless if Odium could just wave his hand and declare some new mortal his champion at any point. If there are no actual longterm stakes in such a contest, what point would Odium's opponents have in proposing such a contest? If you accept that the champion in a contest of champions can be retroactively changed you're essentially calling both Honor and Cultivation utter fools. Honor for proposing such a pointless plan in his visions to Dalinar in the first place (make Odium commit to contest...so he can just change his champion whenever he wishes because he isn't winning, this will totally slow him down for like a day until he chooses a new champion!), and Cultivation for giving Taravangian the mental capacity to base the Diagram's plan on such a useless contingency.

I agree completely. Why else have the whole scene at the end where Taravangian explains that Odium can't directly interfere in Roshar now that Odium has named Dalinar his champion if Odium can just name a different champion? When did Dalinar formally deny the offer to be Odium's champion?

Chunks of investiture can manifest sentience if left alone for long enough periods of time through methods we don't really understand. I think in WOBs though it has been implied the Stormfather (and likely Cultivation/Nightwatcher) somehow help give birth to the sentience of higher spren and that this is a method to relieve the dangerous excess investiture sloshing around Roshar after Honor's death (preventing a similar situation to the uncontrolled magical energy on Sel). Outside of Taln's honorblade (and perhaps Nale's), the other honorblade's have not been fulfilling their purposes for the last couple millenia. They have been guarded and lightly used by the Shin at best. Perhaps the other honorblades are almost at the point where they could manifest sentience in the near future under the right circumstances?

Easy answer: It's just Kaladin in the climax of Way of Kings. He picks up the fallen title (Knight Radiant by swearing his oath) at the tower (name of the plateau where the battle is fought), saving the crown (Dalinar), by finally taking up his spear. Much better and not crazy answer: Kaladin ultimately becomes King of Everything (crown) via marrying Jasnah (Tower is symbol of house Kholin) and discovering that he is a secret descendent of Taravangian via his mother's side. All of Taravangian's kingdoms pass to Kaladin, and Kal even has special protection from Odium because his mother was born in Kharbranth and Odium has promised not to harm the families of those born there.

Well, I think it's more like the breath of life is what allows a "soul" to function and change/interact with the world. All the mechanical nuts and bolts of the soul remain in the spiritual realm even after the person passes along, however they're basically frozen in a brief moment of time. Specifically those last moments before their death. I think this explains the screams of the murdered victims that Szeth+Dalinar hear, as well as the screams of the dead shardblades, both are "stuck" in the last tragic moments of their life. This makes Evi's final message still profound but in a different way. The implication is that Evi had always forgiven Dalinar, even at the moment of her painful death she still forgave him. The important thing isn't so much the existence of Evi's forgiveness, instead it's Dalinar actually being able to hear that forgiveness voiced. I think Dalinar's temporary "ascension" into the spiritual plane allowed him to interact with Evi's ghost beyond merely the surface screaming.

I did think it was potentially important that the Skybreakers currently have their secret fortress on the edge of the Purelake. Perhaps the two are related.