SwordNimiForPresident

In what way did Rashek accept his death? He fought to the end and then tried to talk Vin out of killing him.

There's a big difference between my favorite and the best. Best goes to Taravangian (because Hoid is excluded). In a handful of interludes he gives us more background on the Cosmere than the entire rest of the series. My favorite is Wax, because I enjoy reading him the most. He has some of the most powerful scenes IMO. An example would be the climax fight scene in Alloy of Law when he tells Harmony that he should help people, and Harmony responds "I did, I sent them you". Another standout would be when he dies in Bands of Morning and goes on a walk with Sazed. As for edit 3. Kelsier is an interesting character because he is kind of an antihero. His motivations are easy to sympathize with but his methods are grisly. For me personally, most characters beat Kaladin. He is easily one of my least favorite main characters in the entire Cosmere. I find him to be overwhelmingly whiny. Reading his PoV is basically just listening to him say "whoa is me, no one has ever had it this bad" for three chapters, and then he finally does something cool for one chapter. Rinse, repeat. He has gotten better in the later books thankfully, but I definitely read Stormlight in spite of him, not because of him. Actually the only thing that really kept me engaged with Stormlight for the first three books was Dalinar.

I almost wish he wouldn't answer questions outside of his books, there's like a million pages of WoB's that I can't bothered to read because they aren't canon.

I must have missed it somewhere. Where did we learn that Rosharans are more invested?

The extra power they gain is finishing their character arc.

I wonder how big of a deal Roshar's lack of exposure to outside diseases would be. The common cold was apparently new at the time of TWoK, what if you introduced something a bit more spicy like small pox?

He also implied during the torture scene in the interludes that he had enough Breath to just wait for Axindweth to die of old age.

It seems an awful lot like Feruchemy to me. Nale and Ishar both seemed to use speed at some point, and Kalak said that Hoid told him he could store his memories in Investiture. I'm fairly confident Taln also used speed and possibly strength when he killed all the Fused at Azir. It definitely makes the Heralds far more powerful than I thought they were in earlier books.

Kaladin: You don’t actually have a chull down there, do you? Syl: Wanna see? Yea, I rest my case. This is way to thirsty for anything other than Syladin.

That's the nice thing about these forums, someone else already has and will pretty much always quote it to you.

In chapter 5 Kelek tells Shallan that bonding two Spren used to be impossible. With the idea of a double bond in mind it occurred to me that Dalinar can make Stormlight, Navani can make Towerlight, and Lift can make Lifelight. Lift is also capable of physically interacting with her Spren, and can see into the Cognitive realm. I think she may be bonded to the Nightwatcher and Wyndle. Anyone see any obvious holes, and/or supporting evidence?

I couldn't agree more. I've been wondering the same thing since we saw the Spren in Ishar's tent at the end of RoW. The fact that they appear to have functional biology makes me think this theory has legs.

I never meant to imply that men and women couldn't have platonic relationships. My point was that it is not uncommon for a platonic relationship to evolve into a romantic one. I would even argue that those are the best relationships because both parties already share a bond and are simply adding another layer to it. I also don't understand why it is damaging just to men, as both parties would need to develop feelings in order for the relationship to transform into a romance. Furthermore, in this specific example it is Syl that is hypothetically developing feelings, and so it simply isn't an example of what you're concerned about. I'm curious if you would have the same problem with this relationship if their genders were swapped, or if they both presented as male or female? Finally, as you point out, Syl is not a human or in fact a woman. Given her nature, I would argue that she is closer to a self aware LLM than she is to a person. If anything, this potential ship is an example of an AI becoming self aware and falling in love with it's creator.

You've said that a platonic relationship has value, but I'm still not sure on your reasoning for why. What makes it more or less valuable than any other relationship? I would imagine that it's a common trope because it is common in real life. I don't understand how it is damaging to men. And yes, all of the books that I read are for entertainment. If you're talking about mandatory reading materials, at best, I skimmed them. I don't read books for a moral or for a lesson in life, I read them solely for enjoyment. If you are referring to academic texts, I don't see the relevance to our current conversation. Thank you, and apologies.

What value does any of it have beyond entertainment? Generally speaking people like a sense of catharsis at the conclusion of a story. Wrapping up with a satisfying romantic conclusion usually delivers this. Yumi would be a good example of that actually.