Marethyu316

Yup, you're totally right!

Except lots of shardblades are described as silver or silvery. There doesn't appear to be a description of the Patternblade that describes his color, but it seems perfectly likely that he is also silver. Do we have descriptions of Blades being other colors? Re: Pattern not responding right away. Shallan is able to summon Pattern from far away, like she did in Rhythm of War. I think you're right about it being Testament, but I don't think Pattern's absence is definitive.

Vin says in Well of Ascension that they ended up destroying the Lord Ruler's bracers to get out the little bit of atium that was in them. I think that the legend of the Bands being the Lord Ruler's was a big red herring that Kelsier set up to distract people.

This feels like a twist for the sake of a twist. I don't see how it fits with what we know about Taln's character or his actions on screen. Brandon is great at hiding clues, so if he was going to do this I'm sure it would be well done, but right now I don't see any basis for it and think there's tons of evidence against it.

Hoid has traveled through Sel's cognitive realm multiple times. At a minimum, we've seen him enter it once at the end of Elantris in the 10th Anniversary edition and we know he was on Sel again for Emperor's Soul. I'm guessing he's done it other times as well. He does travel through the cognitive realm and it's difficult but not impossible for him. Kaladin and Hobber were both able to regrow limbs that were severed by shardblades. Hobber had been wounded for a long time, as well. In fact, Brandon has said that one regret he has about changing how Szeth dies is that he was wanting to point out that while Szeth couldn't heal shardblade wounds, Kaladin could, because of a difference in the way Honorblades worked and the Nahel bond. Also there are WoB saying that both Miles and Hoid could heal shardblade wounds.

The Delvers surprise to learn that the things that were annoying it were actually alive makes me doubtful that they used to be human.

This was a while ago, so you may have already figured it out. Sometimes you have to go into "Manage Your Content and Devices" and if it says "Update Available" next to the book, select "Update this Title" from the actions button. I think it may continue to download the old version unless you select this or have automatic updates selected...at least it was still asking permission to update titles on books that I didn't have currently downloaded to any of my devices.

One problem with using Nightblood is that you have to have access to a large well of invesiture, or he becomes more liability than benefit. You'd have to find a way to sneak up on Hoid, so that you didn't need to draw Nightblood until the last second, but even then, I'm guessing Hoid would know and be able to evade long enough for you to have to sheath Nightblood.

There are some good arguments in the last few posts for why Adolin could be considered broken. I think of how he was as a little boy in Dalinar's flashbacks and there is clearly some issues with how ready he is to please his father, which then extends to other relationships. It makes him a great guy to be around, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't damage there. He's certainly gone through enough to warrant being broken. That said, I am still drawn by the possibility of this theory: As Goodyshop says, the symmetry is appealing. Another hint of something "bond-like" going on, is on page 1169, where "...he felt something -- a faint panic on the wind. He forced himself to roll to the side, and a Fused swept past, its lance barely missing him." If I remember correctly, Kaladin, Dalinar and Shallan (when rediscovering her bond) would get these sorts of premonitions of danger early in the bonding process.

Good points! I'm re-reading now and will soon reach that point again, so I'm interested to see if it seems more obvious the second time.

When Szeth decided to swear himself to Dalinar with his third ideal it was obviously a good idea from the reader's perspective since he's the most honorable person (except maybe Kaladin) in the books, but I'm a little unclear how Szeth reached that conclusion. IIRC, Szeth's interactions with Dalinar have been seeing him drunk I the night he killed Gavilar, and the two assassination attempts. Certainly, Dalinar fought well during those two later encounters, but that doesn't seem like enough to earn Szeth's allegiance. Otherwise, most of the world seems convinced that Dalinar is either a tyrant or a madman. The only thing that I can think is that since Szeth predicted the Voidbringers' return that he knew Dalinar wasn't crazy, but that still doesn't make it obvious that he would know Dalinar as an honorable person. It makes sense if you know Dalinar's whole story, but not if you've been off working as an assassin. Have I missed something where this connection is set up?

It did come up one other time, when Kaladin returned. She does suppress her emotions, but she also tells herself that he was justified. Not sure if she really believes that or was just trying to keep herself from dwelling on it.

Now that you point that out, I think what you guys are saying makes a lot more sense, and conveniently still has a connection to Eshonai.

I thought it was Eshonai too, because we see a spren come out from under her body when Venli discovers that she is dead. It does make more sense, though to think that Timbre had been following Eshonai and then started following Venli when Eshonai died.

You're right! I hadn't read that email very carefully when I posted.

You mean the third one is Sazed, right?

It is referred to in the final chapter as well. It seems to have something to do with seeing the future.

So it would be the spren that is broken and the human who fills in the cracks? Interesting idea!

Okay, so it's possible that I am completely off base, but did anyone else think that Timbre is actually Eshonai? There is an interaction at the end of the book where Venli seems to be conversing with Timbre. We only hear her responses, but if she is actually hearing a voice, I guess it wouldn't make sense for it to be Eshonai. It's hard to tell if she's just interpreting Timbre's mood or actually interacting with her. Irritation seems like an odd reaction to the conversation, if it's really about how many people Timbre lost. It seems like there'd be some other rhythm that would be more appropriate. Of course, it would make sense that a spren doesn't care much for humans given the Recreance.

I didn't recognize Vivenna immediately from the name, but it's how I figured it out before she used the color metaphors. I was suspicious when I saw that it was a woman, and started looking for her to use a color metaphor. Then, right before she said "white on black", it occurred to me that her name meant "blue"! I could have kicked myself for not realizing it right away. It fits Vivenna, too, that she only used the color metaphors when she was under stress (e.g. the Fused attack), like with her hair in Warbreaker.

I think that the epigraph for chapter 86 gives a clue: It sounded like something that Kaladin would struggle with as well, and he then went on to not being able to say it. That made me wonder if it isn't something like, "I will let people protect themselves, if they are able" or something like that. It seems like Kaladin has a hang up about needing to protect everyone, including members of Bridge Four who were in the midst of learning to protect themselves. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that is right now that I finished the book, but it's what I thought when I read that epigraph.

The audiobook (from Audible, at least) doesn't have the ketek at the end of the book. It goes straight from the epilogue to the Ars Arcanum. Perhaps this was intentional, but the first two books had the ketek.

Those are what I noticed too. I agree that those definitely point at him; I just wondered if I'd missed anything else, since I just finished the book and haven't had time to read many reactions yet. Edit: I think I missed the "new to godhead" part...that is even more obvious.

Is it confirmed that Sazed wrote that letter? I thought it might have been, but is there a WoB or something obvious in the text that I should have noticed.

Mine was delivered with a huge dent in the binding, since the box had no protective packaging in it. They are going to send me a new one, plus gave me a $4 refund that I didn't request (I have to return the damaged book.)