Aminar

I suspect that Shallan and Renarin will both be instrumental in bringing Maya back. Shallan's drawings have helped people bring themselves back up(related likely to the spiritual "perfect self") and Adolin saw something similar when Renarin healed him.

So... Who's going to work out conjoined vibrational gem phones? I would guess any major changes will happen in the gap between books 5 and 6.

I think even the Shin have lost the original history at this point. Otherwise Szeth's PoV would be incredibly inconsistent with the revelation when it comes about, all to keep a secret. That would be pretty disappointing. Otherwise I like the idea of Shin being short for Ashyn/a hint. Good Catch.

I think that it's important from a personal perspective. To have those themes of forgiveness. People do terrible things. Lots of people do. Over the last five years I've worked with a dozen juvenile sex offenders. Most of which loathed what they'd done, but who had a terrible time coming to terms with it. And that meant they had a chance. Society tells them that what they did is the worst of crimes. And what they did is awful. And they need to feel guilt over it. But at some point, they have to choose between hating themselves and falling apart(either getting worse/reoffending or becoming damaged wrecks) or moving past it, apologizing, reconciling, and living a life that makes up for it. But even without crimes like that we all see things we've done as terrible. We all have shameful memories we wish we could forget. And seeing that even people who've done things far worse than we ever could getting up and being better can help us move on from those things. From embarrassing breakdowns, stupid decisions, and drunken nights. I don't think Brandon's books will ever make us empathize with Stalin, but because of what they show we get moral lessons that apply to our lives. @hoser Yeah. At one point he talks about a voice that used to talk to him, long ago. And his interactions with his Spren(rips in the air) are familiar and nostalgic.

There could have been something in the epilogue. But we had bigger emotional beats to hit. Weddings and Mr T revelations and children/bridgemen being alive. Still, I'd like to see something about it. (By the way, did anybody catch that Szeth's spren has been around since before Szeth became truthless?) He's honestly one of my least favorite characters. His decisions have ultimately all been about avoiding personal responsibility. I'm sure he'll have a big telegraphed moment where he starts to take that responsibility(when he becomes "The Lawwwww" and transforms into Judge Dredd) but until then... I dislike him. So I'd like to see the characters treat him like they should. Nightblood makes that difficult though. He's too deadly to contain, although we have yet to see how Nightblood does, striking a heavily invested being or Shardplate.

Well, at some point the spiritual part is described as the perfect version of a person. Like what Shallan has drawn and Adolin saw when Renarin healed him. This suggests that it might be related to bringing the spiritual side more to the fore. Repairing breaks and the like. I'm not 100% sure how that work, but Truthwatchers seem the most closely linked to it.

I think that the fact they don't exist is kind of why the fighting is so bad. Like... We've had a couple of jealous thoughts from Listener viewpoints about how the Spren prefer humans because of possibly their heightened emotions. Humans get more spren and more out of the spren bond, while needing the spren bond less. And that seems to be kind of the crux of the war. And why at some point there was a deity switch. Odium has created weapons that rival the destructive capability of Shards though. Thunderclasts and the omnisurging thing that Amaram became. If he'd been given that power beforehand and had time to master it... Well... Yikes. I'm sure Odium has more in store as well. Whatever unmade Szeth hid away will surely be found. (I don't think the one Amaram ate was that one, but rather the one the gives voidlight.)

Yes and No. It means we need a better word for Humans that aren't Listeners. Because Listeners are also Human.

So... Vacuum/pressure is very misused so far. I mean... Done right you could create pressure bubbles within them that block up blood flow, burst internal organs, suffocate them, rip their eyes from their heads, burst their eardrums, etc.... It could get really messy. But the radiants don't necessarily have the... knowledge of this and Bondsmiths probably can't use them in that kind of way. But windrunners. Scary.

And those ones tend to be the ones that scare me.

Absolutely. But the more we congregate... The more nitty gritty the discussion gets.

This. If all the Betareaders were superfans we'd be getting terrible books focused on the details most readers don't notice or care about versus the feelings and emotions that matter.

No. But Odium's likely going to be less involved in the next two books. The 15 year gap will likely involve him coming back as a major force after the Fused War has been finished and the Singers/Listeners/Parsh have peace and freedom with the humans. This will probably involve the capture of a few more unmade, the end of the Everstorm at the end of the next book, and a big dramatic conclusion at the end of book 5.(Which hopefully will not involve another Oathpact as its a proven bad solution.)

This was my point.

I did other. And the answer is Gaz. He's been just kind of there and I want to know why. But until then he just pops up and then is gone. (Second place. Szeth.)

It's touching a radiant it once had a bond with. And still had a gem. That changes the circumstances entirely. I don't buy that every shardblade spent centuries suffering before the gem thing was discovered. They had to be reawakened. Breaking the gem should still remove a significant chunk of that pain.

I said Voidspren metaphysiology not Parshmen metaphysiology for a reason. The Spren grants the ability to bring in investiture and so they would determine the form. It does make more sense for the Listeners to bring in Stormlight. But Voidlight is also a thing.

Yes. I get that. But we're talking about why the gems are related to the suffering of the blade's spren. Everything you said isn't especially relevant to my point.

Moash was broken by other people's ambition.

No. But search for snapping in this forum and there's a whole discussion on the similarities. Not sure what topic.

You don't go after the madman with the army of zealots if there are other options.

Multiple in world confirmations and Word of Brandons. Relevent quote from Syl. "They all were."

Chapter 87 "Dead," Syl Agreed. " Then they live again a little when someone summons them, syncing a heartbeat to their essence."

The Skybreakers talk about gaining their second surge later and each radiant has had a focus that's easier for them(though for both Skybreakers and Windrunners it appears to be Gravity, which is odd.) As far as why his regrowth is not voidish, it could be. And I don't buy that he needs voidlight. I don't think that's a thing perse, but a factor in voidspren metaphysiology. Voidspren can't facilitate intake of Stormlight. Renarin can take in Stormlight. From there investiture is investiture. Regrowth operates how Renarin expects/its his primary surge. Since then he's been trying to make illusions when his surge isn't lightweaving so it isn't working. Like if Kaladin thought he were a Skybreaker and tried to use Division he wouldn't accidentally use Adhesion. But it's still something to do with light. He's used it once and didn't need voidlight to do so. I would posit that it's still Illumination and it reveals truth, rather than creates a lie. So it... revealed the Thunderclasts's true nature, turning it back to stone. But this is probably wrong. It also would work with how he found the radiant memory gems though. And be thematic with Truthwatchers as a whole, suggesting that there is similarity in the Void orders.

That's not how its described in Words of Radiance. Not at all.