Subvisual Haze

Thanks for translating these! Usually I find it fun to translate these myself, but the text is painfully small in some of the images. Kind of a bummer.

I feel like half of Part 3 could have been cut in editing and it would still feel bloated and meandering.

Each of the 16 shards being diced up into 16 parts is very exciting. I now present my theory on the identity of all 256 shards of Adonalsium:

It was wise of Brandon to pander to the "my girlfriend who appears childlike is in fact a 5000 year old vampire spren" community.

Kaladin yelling "I was born perfect! Only God can judge me!" and being granted the hidden 6th oath was pretty cool

Or this perfect setup occurs and Kaladin again fails to swear the oath while Moash presumably kills his parents. Because if there's one truth about the Stormlight Archives it's that Kaladin must suffer.

Some connection to the ghostbloods does seem an unpleasant possibility for Sigzil here. On the other hand he was Hoid's apprentice at one point, so maybe this is some elaborate play by Hoid to get Shallan where she needs to be because "destiny". Or it's just a rather large plot contrivance (hope not, but possible)

It's way too big of a coincidence that shortly after Shallan gets a Ghostblood mission to travel to Lasting Integrity a diplomatic envoy is assembled by the monarchs to go just there. What's more Sizgil makes recommendations in such a way that basically guarantees Shallan will be a part of the mission. What's Sizgil's game here?

Remember when Kaladin was sitting in his room hopelessly depressed until Syl fetched Adolin and Adolin forced him to socialize a bit and he felt better afterwards? All 3 of those people who can force or encourage Kaladin to better take care of himself are leaving (Adolin, Dalinar, Jasnah).

A reproduction of Shia Labeouf's "Just Do it!" motivational speech was not what I expected for Kaladin's 4th oath, but I must admit I found it satisfying.

Feeling legitimately disappointed that Kaladin isn't going to Lasting Integrity. I loved him and the other Honorspren obstinately butting heads with each other in Oathbringer, and I was hoping for of the same here. The whole mission feels kind of odd. You'd think the other Radiant orders with zero or only a handful of actively bonded spren in the coalition would be a better recruitment/diplomacy target than the Honorspren, who while not universally agreeable, are very heavily represented. This whole thing being whipped up on a passing comment from Sizgil's spren felt a little abrupt too. Worried this is all just setup to leave Kaladin isolated. Both Adolin and Dalinar feel at risk of being killed off in this book. They just don't have much conflict or personal plot threads going forward. Adolin could revive Maya and then die, or even sacrifice himself heroically in order to revive Maya and win back the support of the Honorspren. Dalinar is personally holding this mess of a coalition/army together, him dying and throwing everything into chaos would be appropriate for a penultimate book in a series.

The viral campaign to #cancelodium and deplatform him from the spanreed network felt out of place and ultimately pointless.

Making "Creation" one of the dawnshard "quadrants" seems flawed as creation itself is the purpose of Adonalsium. So we should be looking for aspects that would enable constructive creation of life/matter on the Book of Genesis model. Let there be X...X was good. Both constructive and evaluative of the construction.

Oh there it is. I knew I had heard the "I have no response to that" line before. I wonder if that was just a missed repetition.

I was impressed with how he wrote the viewpoint of a disabled person. It's easy for that sort of thing to come off as preachy or scolding if not handled deftly. Here it just seemed really informative and compassionate to everyone involved.

Oof both of those reviews sound like they had serious issues with the book and were trying to phrase them in the most vague and sugar coated way possible. They both even did the "compliment sandwich" approach of delivering criticism.

This expansion of understanding sounds similar to how Brandon has described Slivers. So it wouldn't necessarily need to be a current holder of a shard, but also could be someone who previously wielded the power of one. Someone who is very good at surviving for example.

Lopen is entertaining in small doses. In real life I would find him completely intolerable. He's lol random monkeycheese and seems to have a strong narcissistic streak.

Still hoping for a Gurren Lagann ending. All the Radiants combine with Urithiru to form a giant mech, spout some nonsense about the power of friendship and determination and fly into space to punch Odium in the face.

"I will not deny the agency/autonomy of those I protect. I will let them make their own choices." I think Rock's situation is the key here. Kaladin protected him when he needed to be protected by another. Now however Rock is safe and an adult, he can and should make his own choices (in this case submitting himself for judgement by his people for violating their customs). The only way to perfectly "protect" Rock would be to lock him in a cage forever, to perfectly shield him from the world regardless of how infantilizing it would be to him. The morally correct position is to protect him when he truly needs it, and then let him live free. Kaladin forgiving himself for the deaths of those he wants to protect is a natural consequence of this oath. If you accept the agency of others, you also accept that you needn't feel guilty for the choices they willingly made. All on the path of Kaladin becoming King of everyone, the new Jezrien

Lirin wants to protect Kaladin from the world, he thinks he knows best how Kaladin should live (as a surgeon, staying away from combat) to be safe. In time Kaladin will chafe under this role though, this is how Lirin wants his life to play out, not necessarily what is best for him. Protecting another shouldn't smother them, you have to be willing to let others live their own lives, honor their autonomy to make choices and accept consequences. This parallels the difficulties that Kaladin is having regarding Rock especially (but also the other Windrunners). He wants to protect Rock, but finds it difficult to accept the choices that Rock has made regarding facing judgement. 4th oath will be some variant on letting go and allowing others to live their own lives (the anti-helicopter parenting oath)

My God, Urithiru is an EVA and the gemstone pillar in the basement is the entry plug.

Only 3 Truthwatchers!? I wonder if they're being jerks about Renarin and Glys and refusing to bond more humans as a result.

Kaladin having huge issues seeking daddy's approval is hardly surprising, hard to please father figures are a common real world factor in producing extremely ambitious over-achiever children. I doubt Kaladin will find surgery satisfying long-term, but it's still something he can do for the time being to feel a sense of purpose/accomplishment. I get the feeling him and his Father will drive each other insane trying to work together though. Surgeons in general are very particular about how things are done and Kaladin/Lirin only know how to communicate as parent/child, not adult to adult.

Feels a bit like he's trying to have his identity cake and eat it too. Jasnah was written to be a character who is private about her sexuality and doesn't want to be defined by it, this kind of undermines that intent.