Solant

I always pictured Ian McKellen as Odium and Hugh Jackman as Zahel

Just a friendly reminder: Due to recent changes in health code regulations, all Releasers are prohibited from smoking inside Urithiru. Smoking is restricted to the designated areas located outside near all entrances and Oathgates. We thank you for your cooperation! ~ Management

In regards to Odium's treatment towards humans vs singers, my understanding was that the singers can be scooped up by the Fused or given forms of power with very little effort on his part. In order to get cooperation from humans, however, it requires more coercion than actual threats. Even if it is portrayed as internal dialogue, you see the same sort of rhetoric ("It wasn't my fault, I can't be blamed" or the more direct "Give me your pain, you'll feel better") that seems to be indicative of Odium's version of making a deal with the devil. I'm on mobile, so I can't give direct quotes here, but think Moash, Amaram, or what he attempted with Dalinar. The major exception I see here is Mr. T, which is why I still feel like a loophole lies somewhere in his cooperation with Odium thus far. I'm not 100% sure of this, it was just my understanding of it.

The Dark Side stories were so much more interesting, too. I had a blast playing the imperial agent story. (Your confession is way more amusing to me since your handle is Goody ) I'm going with Human on this one for boring reasons, however. It's only because that's the primary POV we've had so far. If the story had been flipped, I likely would have voted the other way.

When you say you haven't read any other Cosmere books, does that mean you didn't read the first two Stormlight Archive?

There's your 15 letters, and it wasn't even intentional! Szeth Chompchompchomp

I almost chose Aesudan without a follow up post just to leave you all wondering who would actually think she was the best of anything. Ultimately I chose Jasnah. Brains and Beauty, she's the center of attention in every scene where she shows up. It's not even a question.

I mean regrowing damaged radiant plate, btw. Sorry, I wasn't very specific.

I always pictured Mr T like King Trode in his human form from Dragon Quest 8. http://dragonquest8.wikia.com/wiki/King_Trode I also could never shake the image of incomplete Elantrians looking like Hollows from the Dark Souls games. I just happened to be playing through one of them at the same time as reading the book the first time and the image just stuck with me.

Not to mention that the lives of ordinary people relative to the near immortal span of a shard vessel would seem so insignificant that they probably find little need to communicate with them. The most notable exceptions being Leras when people go beyond, and Sazed who is still relatively new and able to relate to his people (and not completely consumed by his shards intents).

Do we even know if radiant plate needs to be regrown? The only time it was shown or mentioned I can remember was in reference to regular shard plate, but I could be mistaken. I never cared for the lesser spren makes plate theory, either. It always felt like some kind of weird spren Voltron move or something (And I'll form the helm!) lol. The template idea sounds like it makes sense, but I feel like there might be something else we are missing. I'm sure it will seem absurdly obvious once the truth is revealed.

I'm indifferent. I think it was presented as a minor conflict so we would feel like their marriage was earned, and it's over now. I also think that with it hinted that Tarah is in Urithiru now, Kaladin has other things in store for him...

As a side note, I really enjoy the idea of a guy named Rock bonding a stone spren.

Just sone random thoughts on the subject. I always felt like the key to this was hidden in the terminology used to describe certain things on Roshar. Dead spren blades and plate are referred to as shards. Why? Fabrials are devices that grant specific uses of surges without the need for oaths, by trapping spren in gemstones and using them to power said devices. The honor blades are splinters of Honor which grant the general use of specific surges without the need for oaths or spren. Nahel bonds grant surges to surge binders through spren seeking to emulate the honor blades by willingly bonding with the surge binder. "Dawnshards" = new shards? Are the honor blades just unique ancient fabrials? Are the dawnshards considered so dangerous because they created devices for surgebinding which were intentionally or accidentally used in the destruction of Ashyn, necessitating Honors intervention requiring oaths for people to access these powers? Could the honor blades themselves be the dawn shards? I'm probably way off here, and I expect this post to quickly be blown to pieces, but I feel like there is an answer in there somewhere, and I'm not putting it together. Again, just some random thoughts off the top of my head.

I just finished my re-read tonight, and my first time through I had blitzed through the entire story in a few days. This time I took it in at a slower pace, and it helped me to pick up on some on some of the more subtle details I had missed the first time through, especially in regards to Szeth. I was originally confused and generally unconvinced that they would just let him show up and march right in as the newest Radiant as if he had no history as an enemy, but there was a heavy stress in this book on the theme that regardless of a persons history, they can change. The most important step a man can take is his next, etc. This is especially important in regards to Dalinar's POV near the end of the book. You can apply that to Dalinar himself, Venli, and especially Szeth. You have to remember that his showing up was critical to retrieving the ruby and allowing Dalinar to defeat the Thrill. It was also explained that off screen he explained that he had joined the Skybreakers and that most, if not all of the rest of them, had defected to the enemy. IIRC, with the exception of Lift, the fact that Skybreakers are still around at all is probably fresh news to everyone. I imagine that he also had explained the nature of his Oaths as well, and the nature of his previous status as a Truthless and the oathstone causing him to basically be a slave, and the Stormfather probably would be able to confirm at least some of this information. The part of this I can't get over is that Mr. T admitted to being the one who had access to Szeth, and had ordered the assassination of most of Roshars rulers, including Dalinar himself, and was allowed to remain in Urithiru unchecked. I know that he lied and said it was under direction from a herald or some such, but it still seems like shaky reasoning to me.

Didn't the Shin nearly conquer Roshar at one point?

The Kholin question makes me think of Family Guy and cool whip.

I always read it as yaz-nuh with the Z sound, like jasmine. You can hear it if you listen to any WoB where he says her name.

Sorry double post, my kindle won't let me edit. I meant to say what she looks like in the CR.

Like peeking in the window vs walking in the front door.

Buy. I'm picking up what you are laying down. While everyone is trying to get nekkid with everyone else, Lift is in the dining room eating all of their dinners.

@Bigmikey357 I like the spren theory. One thing that occurred to me as I was browsing the WoBs for Lift . . I wonder what she looks like in the SR when she is present in the PR. It doesn't look like anyone has asked yet.

There you go. We know it has been done, therefore it can be done. I expect the honorspren in question probably did something similar.

This is a cool theory, if only just speculation. I like it. The real question is how does Jon Snow fit into it?

In addition to what was stated above, I believe that Odium was unaware of Cultivation's influence on Dalinar and his memories. Odium had been grooming Dalinar as his future champion via the Thrill for his entire adult life, and if he had remained the man we saw through his flashbacks, he surely would have succumbed to Odium's influence in part 5. We know through several different characters viewpoint chapters that a sign of Odiums influence is when people start having thoughts like, "I can't be blamed for what happened, it wasn't my fault, I was pushed into it", etc (Moash is the perfect example for this, as is Amaram if I remember correctly). I believe it was cultivations intention to return those memories in such a way that Dalinar would instead accept responsibility for his actions and forgive himself, enabling him to reject Odiums influence, foiling that plan completely.