Necessary Eagle

1. I am, like, 99% certain Cultivation inspired the Diagram "It sure is suspicious" that Taravangian managed to figure out all those secret things about Roshar just from being really smart. The primary candidates for giving Mr. T a helping hand have been Odium and Cultivation. Odium's reaction to the Diagram at the end of OB implies that it's the first time he's seen it- and more importantly, there are parts that he can't perceive. It seems reasonable to me that the only being that can hide things from a Shard would be another Shard. And which bits can't Odium see? Something about Renarin Kholin. (Who, it may or may not be relevant, was the one who wrote the Diagram in WoK Prime). 2. Renarin the sorta-Radiant and Glys the sorta-voidspren The most unique thing about Renarin, of course, is that he bonded a corrupted spren. Whatever that means. As far as I can can tell from Renarin's PoVs, Glys is solidly on Team Kick Odium's Chull Back To Braize. This despite the fact that he was remade by an Unmade, and (as per Argent's Secret Hint) gives access to Voidbinding. I think Glys used to be a normal Truthwatcher spren, because he does give regular Progression, and because Renarin's visions sound like a corrupted version of normal Truthwatcher resonance. There's a very popular theory around here that the top of the Surgebinding diagram is the orders and spren closest to Honor, and the bottom is the closest to Cultivation. Truthwatchers are right in the double eye, smack in the middle of the presumed Cultivation-centric spren. 3. Sja-Anat Sja-anat, despite being an Unmade, wants to defect. I think this must be a recent development, or Odium would have noticed. If the epigraphs are to be believed, her ability to corrupt bondspren is a recent thing, too. 4. Theorycrafting: Cultivation's long game Renarin might just be a central piece in Cultivation's long game. What if Cultivation is working with Sja-anat to help her break free from Odium? Subtly, at first, so that at the right moment S-a can switch sides without getting squished by her former boss. What if Cultivation deliberately sent Glys to Sja-anat, to be corrupted in a very specific way which would further Cultivation's plans? Maybe she even helped S-a with the corruption process, which is why S-a was able to "enlighten" a bondspren in the first place. Thus, Odium eventually loses one of his nine strongest minions. And Team Honor-Cultivation gains a new type of Radiant, one that, for some reason, is in Odium's blind spot.

Drehy doesn't die. He shows up at the end with Gavinor.

All the books name their parts with keteks. The WoR ketek was from the cover of Navani's journal, and (IIRC) the WoK ketek was a death rattle.

But why does he want people to know who he is, now that he's not Assassinating his way across Roshar anymore? The old him is dead- literally- and I'd think he wouldn't want to be associated with that person anymore. I hope it's not just for the readers. I'd be very disappointed if his clothes were the sartorial equivalent of an "As you know, Bob" speech.

Why does Szeth still wear white robes? It makes him kinda noticeable- even Lift was able to identify him right away. And does he have extras, or has he been wearing the same outfit since WoR? Because that's just nasty.

Every time I see the word "Urithiru", my brain wants to read it as "urethra". Not such a great visual.

I hope this happens. I don't want the whole Sadeas princedom to basically turn out to be the Slytherin House of Roshar.

Okay. My memory of the middle of the book is a bit fuzzy.

See, I thought Odium meant, "Aesudan went nuts from bonding an Unmade", not specifically, " Aesudan went nuts from bonding Yelig-nar". Are we sure Y-a was the one Aesudan had?

There's something darkly humorous about when Dalinar is shouting his sins to the sky, immediately after "YOU CANNOT HAVE MY PAIN!" Odium can't get a word in sideways, Dalinar just keeps talking right over him.

You may be on to something there. Upvote.

I, personally, would like to know what happened to the rest of them. Amaram found out about the Heralds and ragequit Vorinism, but did the others stay true to their task? Did Odium just talk to Amaram, or to the rest of them too?

"No mating!" Plus dividing by zero. "You cannot have my pain!" No words, just all the feels. "Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before pancakes." Words to live by, gancho.

I was thinking about SA and Order of the Stick today (specifically the similarities between Moash and Redcloak), and I realized which OOTS character Torol Sadeas reminds me of. So: Order of the Stormlight, by Rich Burlew:

Plus, the victim has to be spiked in just the right place. It didn't seem to me that Moash was aiming for a specific place.

I think Hoid sent out letters to all the other Shards asking for help with Odium, and we got to see three of them. The third one was from Harmony; your guess is as good as mine for the first two.

Nope, Lighthouse Guy is from Sel. He has an Aon-type name and says "Merciful Domi!" Probably asks about Heightenings because Kal obviously isn't an Elantrian, and no one thinks the KR are back.

So how many people followed the Tor reread of Edgedancer? Journey before pancakes, indeed.

https://www.tor.com/2017/11/10/spoiler-free-reactions-to-beta-reading-brandon-sanderson-oathbringer/ Ones I'm pretty certain about “You little whore!” I feel like Brandon could be taking direct comments from prior beta reads as dialogue here. That book the interlude ardent was reading, obviously. It’s a little alarming when Nightblood is the voice of reason. The conversation with Szeth when Nale defects. WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE’S DEAD IN A DITCH? Alas, poor Eshonai... Pattern is a Vulcan. Dividing by zero. She’s CREEPY! I wasn’t expecting her to be creepy… ^^ I expected creepy, just more humanoid creepy, not mist-like, incorporeal creepy. The visit to the Nightwatcher. Ones I think I might have He’s going to die, isn’t he? I'm guessing Dalinar in the climax, or, if this reader has better plot-sense than I do, poor Elhokar. Oh, you make me weep! You just don’t see anything wrong about him, do you, no matter how he treats you? You are far, far too good for him ::sniffles:: Evi and Dalinar. My feelings about [this character] have been all over the place throughout the series thus far, but this was almost a ‘WHOOP!’ moment for me. I’m… I don’t know about happy, but certainly pleased for him. Big WHOOP!! moment for me too! I’m loving the journey from “OMG THIS DUDE IS BAD NEWS ” to “oh wait I kind of love him??? and want him to be happy???” Same here. I have such mixed feelings about him. I love him and he scares me. Szeth? Chuckle. Well that’s one way to get a ride. I’m looking forward to learning more about this Princess business. Some point in Shademar, but I'm going to have to reread that section again. “OH SH*T. Eeeek. Yeah Dalinar he’s super great… Oh no.” “Ruh roh.” “NO! IT’S A TRAP!” “OH CRAP NO” “Oh My God.. No…..” Odium names his champion. Oh crap! Anti-Radiants & stormlight. Stormlight? Stormdark. Stormshadow? Everlight? Ahem. Well, that cannot possibly be good at all. Kaladin meets the Fused. What about you guys? What did you come up with?

I noticed Moelach and Nergaoul, and I suspected Ashertmarn, but I had no idea the others fits into the pattern. Wow, that's really cool.

I guess we read him very differently. I've always seen him as a True Believer; it's like if a fundamentalist Christian character suddenly turns up working for Satan. That's why I think Odium wanted it for something else, and Dalinar just happen to figure out a way to use it for himself. I think Moash is gone, the one it made me think about was Szeth. At the end of WoR, Nin tells Szeth that it wasn't really his fault that he became a murderer, it was the Stone Shamans' fault. And part of Szeth knows that Kaladin was right, he could have stopped any time, but Szeth decided to accept Nin's rationalization. Nale, of course, has gone over to the other side. And I'm worried Szeth will be the next target.

And I thought she was Sja-anat, because S-a was also described as having blank spots for eyes, or something like that.

I thought Odium was talking about failing to stay sane after bonding an Unmade in general. The epigraphs associate Yelig-nar with swallowing stones. Can't see anything about Unmadaram that's either blightish or windy, though. Edit: ninja'd by pagerunner

I thought Vivenna was going to have a cameo. Not a whole storming major story arc. When exactly did Odium have his chat with Amaram? Did I miss some hint or foreshadowing? His transition from Vorin fanatic to Odium's lackey felt really abrupt to me.

Do you think that transgender individuals in the Cosmere would be the result of a mismatch between their Physical and Cognitive aspects? If such a person became a KR or Returned, would they change biological sex?