Kered

My brains going to explode with WaT thoughts so I’m data dumping here for future reference Random thoughts Where is Syl? where is Gavinor? Honor’s power telling Taravan that Dalinar belonged to someONE else and not someTHING else as he faded from the cognitive. Dalinar mentioning Kaladin having a “piece” before he gave up his oaths. A whole city worth of people in the Spiritual. Navani in flippin stasis. No more stormlight. Logical but whaaaaaaaa. the anti storm light dagger killing only the stormlight part of Mraizes Cryptic. new shardpool. Wits manner of survival. I mean come on. Where did Rysn decide to go? the “Exist” Dawnshard. Reason. We finally have all 16, and 2 new vessel names. This book went out of its ways to show the flaws in the decision of Shattering old Ado. Shards without the context of the others are baaad. Shards can grow and become more self aware??? Could this lead to changes of intent or at the very least a shard becoming a more nuanced and complete version of their intent? how tf is this return going to work. Even disregarding the new mind and soul split, it’s not making sense to me. The reason the fused tortured the heralds was because they knew it was the only way to get unbound. So is it just going to be Retribution trying to torture them? And if they’re not feeling the torture why in the hells would they return in the first place? If they do return doesn’t that just mean that Retri can just suck up the Spren? Ya know, the more I type this and think it through, the more confused I get lol. Positives Kaladin. All of it. His ending and relationship progression with Szeth most of all. 99% of the vision scenes. Particularly Ashyn exodus to the betrayal of Mishram. Shallans final showdown. Odiums interludes. Tanavasts POVs. Was a risky move on Brandon’s part but I think it was executed well. “let’s kick some Fused ass”. Szeth throwing a spoon at Aux. Negatives I feel like this is gunna be a popular one but Gavinor. Predictable and pointless. Considering Dalinars final decision, it made the Gavinor choice being champion pointless and lackluster. Seems like that it was just there for shock value. NOT SEEING TALN FIGHT. Pretty much all of the shattered plains stuff minus like 2 scenes. Pretty much any scene that was happening at the same time has Dalinar and Navani seeing the Herald visions. I think they should have had a dedicated, solo Day or at least drastically less pov jumps. I get it, the pacing. But those POV jumps prejudiced me against most other PoVs after the Herald visions excepting Kaladin and Szeth. the reveal of what caused the Shattered Plains. Felt suuuuper lack luster because it was almost talked about in passing. But I’m biased being a fan that’s been around pre WoK. This might be unpopular and I have no direct evidence just a vibe. It feels like Brandon wrote Sunlit Man then he wrote what Sig was going to do in WaT. The giving up of his oaths, the Dawnshard transfer and meeting of Aux, it all feels shoehorned. It didn’t feel organic. the Retribution name. Idk why but meeeehhh.

One of the most emotionally impactful WoBs I’ve ever read was the one where we found out Taln never actually broke. Coupled with his lucid moment in OB, it just hit different. So, in todays chapter Ishar says that through his control of what’s left of the oathpact, he’s taken on the burden and sorrow of the the other heralds, sharing the madness. Do we think this is true and this is why Ishar seems to be more batsh** crazy than the others? And why the others don’t seem as crazy as Ishar? Or is this just more insanity babble? If it’s true, it kind of adds fresh nuance and light to Ishar and another glimpse of what his character was like. Him taking on the a majority of the burden from the other is pretty selfless. It could be his way of pursuing penance for what they did to Taln. Idk, there’s a lot of implications if he’s beig truthful. what do yall think?

Ty, pals.

Was going to post this in Q&A then I remembered the spoiler policy lol. I've browsed arcanum, this forum and some of the coppermind. Has a consensus been reached on who Hoid is telling the story to in Tress? Haven't been on the forums in a few months and the last thing I remember seeing was a answer from Brandon saying there were clues that could potentially lead to us figuring it out. Thanks in advanced and sorry if this as been discussed ad naseum!

Loved the style of this book. It's still wild to me that we're now in the era of cosmere becoming center stage. I was always a bit nervous about how Brandon would execute it without it coming off as a more drawn out Avengers style thing. But with RotW, LoM and now Tress, I'm pretty confident that Brandon is going to pull of this connection storm very well. Gunna be a cosmere wide Brandalanche. Also Thank you for finally helping me define my issue with those characters and my opinion on that style. 100% agree with all of that. Been trying to put my finger on it for ages.

Quote from the Dragonsteel event for the Lost Metal Release My hype level to hear that on top of the ending was giving me hype flashbacks to the secret project announcements.

I know there’s a bunch of nuance to this conversation. Good arguments on both sides and what not. But when I read this for the first time: All nuance went out the window for me and I audibly said “you son of a tw*t” in the middle of a Starbucks and caused a 60 year old women to look at me, scandalized. The vibe I get from Moash in this book is Brandon intentionally attempting to make a irredeemable character. Someone that is “evil” with no nuance, the opposite of a character like Robonial or Taravangian. I get that the Pursuer fills in the that spot, but Moash packs more of a visceral emotional punch because of how long we’ve known him and for his knowledge of Kaladin’s weaknesses. Either for the purpose of having that spiraling arc of him getting worse and worse or to one day attempt redemption. But as it stands right now, hating him is satisfying. Imo seriously disliking/hating character is just as important as liking/loving characters like Shallan or Kaladin.

I feel like I have all the pieces but I'm not smart enough to put them together. This is either going to be a situation where the answer is so obvious that it's made me hesitate. Or I'm just missing something completely. Scrubbed through Arcanum and Coppermind and came up with nothing. Renarin and Sja-Anat have me confizzled. My simple question is, did the two of them conspire to assist in the Ascension of tOdium or were they just trying to undercut rOdium? The pieces I realized: Sja-Anat Interlude: Sja-Anat purposely manipulates the situation to get sent to watch Taravangian instead of the tower. She also calls Taravangian a weapon. Tarava Interlude: Renarin gives him a bowl of spheres that hold enlightened spren with a note saying sorry. Is the sorry because his and Sja's goal was for Taravangian to kill Rayse and unleash the power? So if the obvious is true and they were working towards this, was their goal to kill Rayse, not anticipating the tOdium ascension, or was it to assist in the ascension? If's the ascension, does that mean Sja-Anat is working with Cultivation?

A while back I had a tinfoil that the Mink would be the third Bondsmith strictly because a Nightwatcher/Mink pairing would be hilarious. I'm on kind of the boring side that I think it's important for there to be really strong characters that aren't Radiant. But if I had to pick one, it would be Lirian becoming a Edgedancer. Treating anyone, no matter what side they're on falls in line with the spirit of the Edgedancer oaths. And Lirian joining one of the healing orders would be amazing. When I see it in my head I see a scene where Hesina or someone close to him is dying and he can't save them through conventional means, he breaks down but then he swears the oath and saves them. But my dream wish that is 99.9% unlikely to happen is Leshwi bonding the her Honorspren friend that she helps revive from deadeye either with Adolins method or because of whatever happens with Ba-Ado. Would just be such an awesome scene. A huge arc of this series is Brandon emphasizing that this isn't a black and white conflict anymore. It's not just good guys versus bad guys. The listeners, Leshwi and her people, Sja-anat, Kaladin befriending those singers, etc. It's showing that peace between the peoples would be the best solution. With all the baggage on both sides, I think a Fused bonding a literal Honorspren would be a perfect way to show that reconciliation is possible.

Forewarning, 100% the reason I'm posting these is for this post to be forum equivalent of a tweet predicting a random event years before it happens. I'm 90% sure that most of these theories won't happen, but this is a risk vs reward situation. Risking looking stupid in order to be awarded random bragging rights years from now. Theory One. Sixteen is one of the original 16 vessels but let go of the power at some point after the shattering. We basically have zero clues on who 16 is which makes it perfect to throw my illogical hopes on him. Brandon likes playing with fans expectations in terms of magic/worldbuilding. We've yet to see an original vessel that isn't being yeeted into the beyond or one that isn't holding the power. I think it would be an amazing story for a vessel to have figured out how to give up the power(straight up splintering it would be cooler) and also survive. After doing that, the vessel being literally insane would make up a lot of sense. Theory Two If he doesn't die, Adolin will revive Maya enough to gain surgebinding but different. Kinda like how Renarin is something new. Reviving a deadeye by forging a bond could make weird things happen. On top of that, Adolin will also bond Notum. I know Brandon has said at some point in the past, paraphrased, that having two spren bonds is possible but something out of the norm has to happen. Having a regular nahel bond on top of having a bond with a revived deadeye strikes me as being....out of the norm. I think, though, that this will only be feasible if Maya gets revived enough before Ba-Ado gets released. I've seen variations of this theory before and honestly, the more i think about it, the more it makes sense. Maybe not the exact mechanics but the overall idea. Having a double bonded Radiant sounds exactly like something Brandon would like to play with. Creating interplay with surges that normally wouldn't cross with each other. The ability to manipulate gravitation and friction could lead to some crazy things. *takes off tinfoiled cover helmet now that i've excised my mental demons*

As the title says, this is for pure catharsis. As Ladylameness and Grey said in the SA5 Prologue episode, it felt soooooo good to see just how dumb Gavilar was. And so in honor of Navani, I thought I'd try to point out and meme on every mistake/misconception Gavilar made in the prologue. And I will admit now that I will be blatantly not giving Gavilar the benefit of the doubt even considering the purposeful misdirects the Stormfather has given him. What goes around, comes around, Gavilar ole boy. In your case, it was a flying, mildly psychotic ninja assassin. The only thing I'm not going to point out are the awful, many different guesses of the Oath. I think the Stormfather handled that better than I could have. Don't worry, buddy. That blade's about to come back at you like a boomerang. It was when I read this line that I knew Brandon was about to do Gavilar. I thought there was going to be some ambiguity on if Gavilar was a truly bad person or if he was just wearing thin from pressure and stress. Spoiler alert, I was wrong. This isn't really a dig but it's just hilarious that he literally said this. Said it on a night when at least 4 were in the palace that night and he had a meeting with 2. This is doubly hilarious because it's basically Brandon winking at us. After the Taln lucid scene with Ash in OB, reading this made me have to take a deep breath. It's technically logical thinking given the context Gavilar currently has but it still made irrationally livid at a fictional character. Brandon did a reeeally good job hammering home Gavilars ignorance in this prologue. I think this is one of the better examples of that given the fandoms general opinion of Taln. I think I speak for everyone now, given this prologue, thank god Dalinar was drunk. I would pay all the money in the world for the tinfoil theory of Gavilar still being around somehow to literally see one thing. The moment Gavilar finds out what Dalinar has done in the past 3 books. You have no idea, brother. Literally. Talking a small detour to poke at Amaram. #yelignar Oof, Gavilar. Oof. I think I've discovered Gavilars root issue that all others stem from. Dude needs to learn to read a room. A fitting epitaph, if there ever was one.

This is either a very small wink to hardcore fans or just a coincidence. Kinda leaning towards coincidence due to the pub date of WoK and the date of the WoB's. If it is a coincidence, I think it's a pretty cool one considering the odds of it happening lol. Anyway, came across this during a re-listen of WoK: Chapter 17, emphasis obviously mine. And the WoB's:

Was browsing Arcanum and came across this wob: Snoxcatko Who's telling "Unite Them" to Dalinar because it's obviously not Stormfather nor Honor because he's hearing it even outside of the visions, right? Brandon Sanderson He is hearing that, that is a RAFO. You can have a RAFO card. Prague Signing (Oct. 26, 2019) This then lead down a rabbit hole of looking around the forums for theories. I could have sworn that a bit after the OB release a consensus was made in the fandom that this is Dalinar Connecting(capital "C") to a combination of the remnants of Honor's intent/cognitive shadow. That one of the biggest pieces of Honor remaining was the intent of bonds(unite them being a desire or Intent to form a bond) because Odium couldn't completely destroy this piece because it more resided in the spirit of humankind than a tangible power. I remember that there was also discussion of Intent being separate from the physical power of the Shard if it had not only Invested in planet but also a sapient race. That way pieces of the Shards Intent can exist separately from the power itself meaning that Intent can survive past a splintering of a Shard. But I can't find the topic anywhere. Is this still the consensus or is there a new frontrunner?

I was in the middle of reading the Dunk and Egg novellas by GRRM and in the first one there is a prince that has prophetic dreams and shares them with Dunk. As soon as I read that, the first thing that popped into my head was “Well, this dude needs to stay away from the ardents” and I 100% expected Dunk to respond with “Careful, seeing the future is of the enemy”. I think I need to take a bit of a cosmere break.