Rainier

Adolin dying has always been somewhat likely, as he was the least important character in the prime WoK. It was always about Renarin and Dalinar, so the fact that Adolin has dominated so much of the first three books is something I expect is an aberration in the full scheme of things. That being said, someone needs to raise Gavinor, and Adolin/Shallan seems likely. That even gives Kaladin a reason to stick his nose in their business as he might have some bridgemen who are slightly attached to the tyke. And thus our awkward triangle keep staggering along, until one member kicks the bucket.

I really like this portion, but I like it for showing a glimpse of what Hoid's end goal will be. I think Hoid is trying to recombine parts of all 16 Shards into his own Shard that doesn't have an Intent, so he can continue to be himself while simultaneously holding divine power. This is also the reason why I think he turned down the opportunity to be one of the 16 so long ago. So him musing about putting the 16 back together, and how similar it would be is him musing on if he's actually going to accomplish his audacious goal, or if he'll get the balance wrong and not know it until it's all put back together. In any case, Gibletish is one of the most important scenes in the books, simply for the mention of Adonalsium.

I went through this with regards to Heralds vs Unmade. It was a stretch, but I definitely liked some of the connections. I linked up the Bondsmiths (Ishtar), so it's probably not accurate, but take it for what you will

I think so, but I'm not certain. There are a few of my questions there, and they're all about Nightblood. But that was definitely the question I was thinking of.

I swear I asked Brandon this at ECCC in March, but I can't remember specifically and I'm pretty sure if I did he evaded an answer. Here's the description of the most important painting in Warbreaker. And then the annotations from Brandon's site (spoilers for Warbreaker, but that's in the tag already) The key is the bit about a much larger story in this world. Of course Warbreaker is relatively old, and we're knee deep in exactly that story. And, I'll remind you, we've seen Nightblood unleashed in battle for the second time at Thaylen City. Nightblood is the Manhattan Project of the Cosmere, and Vasher/Warbreaker is Oppenheimer. So the painting is Shadesmar is supposed to be from Nalthis, but not necessarily any one painting. I don't think that The Battle of Twilight Falls is the painting Kaladin sees, due to the descriptions of colors, but there's something nagging about how Shashara is Odium's champion that I can't shake... Reading the annotations, this was a painting of a previous battle that foretold a new Manywar. Similarly, whatever Kaladin is seeing has already happened, and yet is also predicting what is ab out to happen. The fact that Lightsong sees the last time Nightblood was used in battle, and then Kaladin sees a painting that compells him to show up just in time to see it used again makes me think this is very important.

That's from Malazan Book of the Fallen. Osric is essentially a demi-god, and the Bonehunters are an army of the Malazan empire.

Any chance Osric Fingerbone has something to do with Osric, Tiste Liosan and Champion of High House Light, and The Bonehunters?

I'll chime in on what Nale's possible motivation for giving Szeth Nightblood. I'll skip over how Nale knows about Nightblood, or how he got it, or who he took it from, because that's all completely unknowable at this time. But the reason for giving the sword to Szeth is twofold. First, Nale can't bring himself to side with the humans as it is not their land and thus their laws are not the laws of the land. However, I don't think he actually wants to do this, and would prefer if the humans won and controlled Roshar. He himself can no longer contribute due to his rigid morality, but that means he has to help the Listeners, not that he can't help the humans. So when he gets the sword, and recognizes that he cannot wield it being too broken and worried about what he would do if he did wield it, he finds Szeth, who he hopes will side with humanity and who is also perfectly suited to be the conscience for the sword. Second, I think Nale wants to die. He's clearly insane, and struggling with what he's done and what he yet to do. I think he's tired of being a Herald, tired of living, and wishes he could end his existence. Of all the relics in the Cosmere, Nightblood is definitely capable of that. So giving the sword to Szeth is two-fold: to help the humans, and to manipulate events such that Nale is forced to face off against someone wielding a weapon that can kill him. We'll see how far off I am, but I'm most confident about the first part. Nale wants the humans to win but can't bring himself to join them. I'm less confident that he's trying to get himself killed, but this wouldn't be the first time we see a mentor killed by his pupil, as that trope is older than most.

I suppose we could see a dark Hoid, but he's already pretty much done this. He talks about three kinds of people who deal with the falling rock of time: those who run out of its way, those who stand up to it (and are crushed), and those very few who run alongside it all the way down the hill and try to give it a little nudge at opportune moments. Shallan looks for all the world like one of those bugsplats in the making, and Hoid's much too smart to get caught next to someone like that when the shadow of that rock finally falls on them a moment before they too are crushed. We've seen it happen in pretty much every time we've seen Hoid, and he's told Dalinar and Shallan the same thing.

Yes, thank you. Shallan can have Adolin, or Pattern, but not both, because (everybody say it with me) SHE'S LYING TO HERSELF! Until Pattern's actually dies, or until his dying can no longer be ignored. That said, if Pattern does get killed by Shallan, it will be because she realizes she's killing him, and then pushes that down just like she does with all of her problems. Awww yes, we're getting there. She's still lying, she's never confronted the truths she needs to, and her lies are killing Pattern. The reason is that she has to go through the same thing Kaladin did. She has to realize that her choices have real consequences when it comes to her spren, and she has to make choices not just for herself, but with Pattern in mind. I think that's almost true, but you're wrong. Wit has seen Shallan, the whole of Shallan, but I don't think anyone else has. Wit/Hoid is trying to help her, but he's not going to get bogged down saving one poor little girl or one LieSpren.

I think Nale knows that Humans are the trespassers, and can't stop himself from opposing them, but he still wants them to win. Nightblood is completely irrelevant to the question of who belongs on Roshar, and so Nale can rationalize giving it to whomever he pleases. In this case, Nale knows the power of the sword and is searching for a person with the right morals to wield it because he knows he himself is not that person. The fact that giving the sword to Szeth makes his job harder doesn't matter to him, because the two things are independent of one another, and in Nale's rigid morality both are correct actions regardless of the fact that they are destined to clash. Nale may even be counting on it. After millennia of immortal torture, I could see him engineering his own oblivion through Nightblood, and this is just one of the steps.

I'm still convinced that Shallan is lying to herself, and pretending to be the perfect wife for Adolin. This is going to explode back on her at some point, when she's either forced to acknowledge that she's killing Pattern, or she decides to ignore it and let him die by continuing to lie. And what feeling is that? Relief? Adolin doesn't love Shallan, he loves the fact that he doesn't have to choose for himself. He loves the fact that it's all arranged for him, and that all he has to do is walk the path laid out in front of him. Adolin, of the three, seems to be the one with the least amount of emotional attachment, period. Sure, he's ready for a relationship, but that's because he's tired of courting, tired of the expectations, and intimidated by the reality of choosing for himself who he wants to be with. I'm very disappointed with this arc, and will remain so until at least the next book, and it's possible I'll be very disappointed with the whole arc even when we see the aftermath. Generally I think it was poorly done, and it really stains my perception of WoR and most of OB. If there was a payoff, it could have been worth it, but as it is, there's a lot of misdirection that feels more like sloppy writing than well-crafted subversion. The fact that we're paused at the peak in the story is even worth, because now not only do I not understand the characters and don't believe in their motives, I can't see how they react. Depending on the actual resolution it could be recovered, but if we don't get anything more, I'll maintain that it was poorly done, a waste of words, and a net negative on the series as a whole.

Since I've been reading Malazan, and there's a whole bunch in there about chains and chaining, I'm leaning towards some sort of interpretation like this. Sure, hemalurgy require spikes, as far as we know, but who knows what other kinds of magic are waiting to be discovered? Perhaps it's a device that can bind any creature, voidish or mortal...A chain that could bind not in the physical realm, but in the cognitive realm, which is, after all, where it is embodied.

I don't think Bondsmiths have squires. After all, there's only ever been three of them at a time, so it's not like they need recruits like the Windrunners do. In fact, that's one of the main distinctions between different orders of Radiants: if and how they recruit. I don't expect there to be many Truthwatchers, either, as those are the two orders at the center of the double-eye diagram.

I think this is the likeliest possibility, and that this heterochromatic relative of Kaladin's was a nurse of staff in the household, which is why the song is recognizable. It's just the sort of Aes Sedai answer Brandon would give.

The key to the Radiants are their spren. Kal and Syl. Shallan and Pattern. Dalinar and the Stormfather. We've gone through three books with these three relationships, and they are the most important in the series, thus far. They will continue to be through the next two books, too, so it might be time for a Shallan/Pattern thread. Of course we all do this, every day of all of our lives. But Shallan does this with !!MAGIC!! Investiture, so it's codified and measurable. I remember doing this myself as a child, trying to rename myself because I thought it was cooler. What if I had Stormlight and a spren to facilitate my lies? The bond between Pattern and Shallan is based on lies and truth. If Pattern doesn't bring the truth out of Shallan, he'll die, just like Sylphrena died when Kaladin broke his oaths. I think it's supposed to be a threat of what Kaladin went through in the chasms, and if Shallan experiences the same thing she'll be forced to confront the most difficult truths in order to revive him and progress.

I've been advocating for something like this, yes. I don't think she'll be there alone, though, but with the 10 'founding' Radiants, two of whom were OG Heralds. Then again, I'm always up for something new. What if our back five characters (Lift, Renarin, Jasnah, Taln, and Ash) stay behind, but our front five (Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Eshonai Venli, and Szeth) sacrifice themselves to accomplish something significant, similar to the Oathpact. We've got our Bondsmith, somehow Ascended, who has a standing deal with the devil: a duel of champions. He has or can gain the power to bind shards, or perhaps Shatter them. The front five sacrifice themselves, with five others we meet in book 4, the back five are left with the task of preparing properly this time, due to their unique talents. The more I think on it, the more I realize that whatever happens at the end of book 5, it has to escalate the conflict somehow. This series is going somewhere, my easy guess the Shattering of Odium, and it's going to take ten books to get there. What can we do at 5 that both pauses and escalates?

There was a wedding scene, and it was theirs, and it was the best one we could have hoped for. I loved it. I think the contrast was intentional.

I agree with you, I think, but I was about to argue your first point because I'd say Veil and Radiant are lies, and that's the point you're making. There is no Veil, so pretending that Veil exists is a lie. Thus, Veil is a lie. Radiant does not exist either, and to pretend there's someone called Brightness Radiant is a lie. They're not masks, either, but parts of her that she doesn't like or can't admit are there. These are the lies Shallan tells herself, along with a million others. These are the lies that are so fascinating to Pattern and that she needs to overcome to keep from killing him.

I actively dislike Lift and Lopen. I think they are cheesy, obnoxious characters, and I've groaned out loud more than once reading them. If both of them died in the same Thunderclast attack, I'd cheer to myself. That's what I think of when I think of my least favorite characters. Adolin's not like that for me. He's nice enough, and I really liked his interactions with Dalinar. His role was really good in book 1, but frankly I think the books might have been better served if he had died on the Tower. Since then, I've not been much of a fan of his. It was interesting watching him duel, but that always seemed more like filling time than absolute necessity. The murder of Sadeas was satisfying, but the fact that it was left unexplored for four years between books, and then abandoned for parts 2, 3, and 4 of Oathbringer left a bad taste in my mouth, too. It's not like we didn't have Adolin on screen: he was everywhere. You couldn't escape him in Oathbringer, but his most pressing plotline just....disappeared. It served the mystery of Re'Sephir, which was also left unexplored thereafter, and it served the final twist where the Alethi army is consumed with the Thrill, but it didn't ever matter to Adolin himself. Overall, I think he's a nice character who's too involved with the main story. This is supposed to be about Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar. It's not supposed to be what Adolin thinks of Kaladin, what Adolin thinks of Shallan, and what Adolin thinks of Dalinar. Too much focus, not enough payout. Not enough there to bother hating, I just don't like how much there is of him.

As far as I'm concerned, Jasnah is going to survive because she's the one who is going to figure out exactly what's going on and how to stop Odium. Dalinar might have the power to make it so, but it will be Jasnah who finds out what to do in the first place. There's something about how Jasnah is the character that's changed the least from the original drafts, and how she's a main character of the final book, that make me think this could be possible.

One of his truths would absolutely be: I think for Elhokar he was coming to realize that he is never going to be his father, or his uncle, and that the life he had assumed he would lead, and tried to after his father's death, isn't reality, and will never be. Especially with the Radiants return, he was forced to admit that he wasn't in charge, he wasn't that important, and that he didn't matter like he thought he did.

But what's the end of book 10? Defeating Odium, right? Splintering or trapping him somehow. Also, it feels like they're failing. They barely held on to Thaylen City, they've lost Alethkar, and their alliance is being undermined from the inside. I'm expecting a giant sacrifice at the end of book 5, something that stems the tide. It will end an arc, but it's not going to defeat Odium, just delay. The back 5 is where our heroes crawl from the brink of defeat to finally overcome a living god. And that's really what I think: that the gap between books 5 and 6 will be the gap between Desolations. Something has to put a pause on the apocalypse, otherwise why have such a significant time gap? In a way, it reminds me of Wheel of Time In Stormlight, I expect Dalinar to somehow mimic parts of the Oathpact to restrain Odium and buy the world more time. That sounds more like Trell from the W&W books to me. I expect that to be revealed in the next series on Sel, not in Stormlight.

I'm still partial to having our 10 main Radiants take over for the Heralds at the end of book 5, only to break and return for another Desolation at the start of book 6, maybe 10-15 years later. We know that Ishtar created the Oathpact, so I'm expecting Dalinar's deal with Odium to mirror the original Oathpact. Then in the back 5, we have our Heralds nee Radiants trying to end the cycle once and for all.

I'm not ready to extend this to all spren or to all gemstones. The only time we saw this was the same spren (Yelig-nar, one of the Unmade). I'm not certain, but I think it was the same gemstone, too. So I don't think swallowing a gem with a trapped flamespren would do anything for you besides giving you an interesting bowel movement. I'll bet that we'll see more swallowing stones, but I'd be very surprised if there are more than a dozen spren who can take advantage of it. I'm not the first to draw this comparison, but this sounds more like what happened at the end of OB when Moash stabbed Jezrien. The difference is that it still requires metal, somehow, to matter. This is something I've been interested in: metal is clearly special throughout the cosmere. What's so special about rocks and crystals that allows them to store magic? The combination of knife/spike and gem at the end of the handle was enough to kill an immortal being, after all.