Child of Hodor

Same. It fits Shallan as well with her Truths thing.

He really boxed himself in with this thing. All for Knights of endless breaking wind jokes. I dunno … “Knights of Wind, not that good. Hmm. AND Truth! Got it.” It’s an awkward title that doesn’t sound cool, doesn’t mean much and feels too long. Like a run on title. It won’t matter it’ll sell the best of all of them since it’s the final book for this arc.

I think Vasher can use Stormlight as a substitute for breath to keep himself alive because he went to the Valley and was granted the ability and he had to leave Nightblood behind as the Bane. Either Cultivation or the Nightwatcher did it. In WoR Vasher thinks he lost Noghtblood by mistake going to the Valley asking for a way to stay alive and having to give up nightblood fits with that. The Nightwatcher offers Dalinar a blade that bleeds black smoke in OB.

Great post! I don't think Cultivation is as down on humanity as she seems to be (per Wyndle and her dialogue to Dalinar) if her husband is still alive in a meaningful sense. I think he straight up got killed but had a contingency to merge with his Spren making it a super special spren that could carry on his plans. I agree with your overall point that a LOT more of Tanavast is still around then we've been led to believe. The weirdness we are seeing is that there were two separate entities with separate minds that merged in a way we don't fully understand. My personal theory is that there is one mind in there that is a mashup of the two minds and the Stormfather is taking a different approach with Dalinar, playing dumber than he is. Although, It could very well be that there are separate minds in there and Tanavast has been letting the Spren run the show with Dalinar because Tanavast swore off Kholins after dealing with Gavilar. In the SA 5 prologue Stormfather says (hidden for length) The Stormfather is now both the (mind) ghost of the guy who commanded the spren to find a bondsmith AND the spren that was commanded. As far as what gets recontextualized or outright lies: I've always thought the "Unite Them" voice Dalinar hears in his head when he is awake was Tanavast. Mostly because Tanavast says "Unite Them" in every vision. In OB, right before the climax Dalinar hears it in his head and Stormfather is like "I didn't say anything". That's a lie or a half-truth. In the final Vision in WoK Tanavast is like "gee without the Dawnshards I dunno if y'all have a chance" which is weird since we know at least one is on the planet, well guarded, but still. That's a weird thing for him to say. What's that weird blinding light Dalinar keeps seeing? Is it Honor or something else?

My prediction for Era 3: The clash of Intents has mostly been occurring in Sazed's mind in Era 2. He wrestles with the two urges and only acts when he can reconcile them. In Era 3 he'll be like "let's settle this on the field" instead of Ruin and Preservation butting heads in Sazed's head they'll be allowed to do it out in the world. Preserve this, Ruin that an active god. I think the Shards (The Power) inherently want to do stuff they don't like to sit around. Sazed is a relatively new Vessel so the Power hasn't had as much time to adapt him to their purposes. He has been able to wrestle with them and reconcile them in his mind, but that won't last much longer.

Im not sure what he did to get the body could be mistwraith, fresh corpse or spiked himself into a living body killing the original person. He's a cognitive shadow in a physical body as you note the Fused unique marble pattern comes with them when they inhabit a body. The Returned bodies in Warbreaker have a great deal of malleability as Vasher demonstrates. The Returned seem to get a body that fits what a majority of people think a god should look like, Vasher is able to change his body to what he thinks he should look like. Maybe Kelsier's situation is allows for this malleability as well. That makes a lot of sense.

Until Book 6 when he has to come back for one last job. The job lasts another 5 books.

I also think the Irali were on Sel. They built Elantris and left which is why modern Elatrians found it empty. https://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/108743-crack-theories/?do=findComment&comment=1362762 That both have metallic skin seems like a big clue. Also the names they use are often 3 letters like Aons. Iri, Evi, Toh Not sure if Sel was first world for them or not. I can see the Autonomy connection. They have three monarchs each working independent of the other two. Their Long Trail mythology of a god dividing themselves into many fits Autonomy as well or better than Adonalsium’s shattering.

With Ghostbloods it’s more Kelsier can reign in his subordinates on Scadrial but can’t physically leave the planet to supervise the others. He basically recruited a bunch of people like him and they are running a amok off world. I agree on the Brandon’s recent Cosmere entries being disappointing. I’m not 100% sure it’s the crossover stuff or him not spending enough time one them. He wrote Way of Kings and Words of Radiance during the period where he was writing three massive wheel of time books and alloy of law. His attention has been divided for a long time. Both RoW and LM were disappointing to me, I still liked RoW just not as much as the other SA books. RoW is a setup for book 5 and that hurt it a bit. Era 2 was never supposed to be a thing he wrote Allow of Law for fun then kept going which is why it’s not as well planned out. He’s saving the big stuff with Autonomy and Discord for era 3 which is why we get “Ill get you next, Harmony!”

His only chance would have been to find a fridge to hide in. He wouldn’t have been hurt at all if he was in a fridge. I don’t think he could have healed through it. He was right next to the largest man made explosion in the history of the Cosmere. He would have been reduced to a fine mist within a second.

Kill Bavadin. Take Autonomy. Then he'll be free to act. Really any of them will work. Might take after Bavadin by expressing Ruin and Preservation in separate Avatars. Maybe that's already a thing he is thinking about with the "shadow" Sazed that Kelsier senses. I notice someone's already thought of this.

I have minor concern about the increasing crossover nature of the Cosmere books. I'm overall excited for more people we know to show up in different series, but one thing with Moonlight gave me pause. Marasi asks Moonlight to tell her what her capabilities are and Moonlight gives a list of the stamps she has, what they can do and whether they are reusable etc. On it's own it is OK, but it was a bit tedious and I had a vision of like Stormlight 7 where there's someone from every other series present using magic and they all stand in a circle and explain what they can do. I would prefer it be like when Vasher and Kaladin fought in RoW where Vahser is using breath to make Kaladin see things in the laundry. It's never explained he just does it and then strangles Kaladin with a scarf. Brandon is great at explaining the magic while the POV person is using it, but when a non-POV person is doing it it can get clunky. I feel that if a magic is explained in another published book and the worldhopper is not the POV then it shouldn't be explained. The main character sees a person doing magic things, but they don't know how it's happening and either I've read the other series and recognize what's happening or I don't. If we're gonna have like 8 magic systems actively used on the page in a book the listing of powers would get old fast.

It really contributes to the Set feeling unimpressive in this book. They had 6 years to think of something.

I've long speculated that Taldain was one of the prior worlds the Iriali were on. They have 3 Autonomous monarchs. Each one is in control of one aspect of the country like Foreign Policy or the Economy and they don't answer to each other. Their whole Long Trail origin talks of a god, the One, splitting into many to experience more. That could be an interpretation of Adonalsium shattering, but it is also exactly what Bavadin is doing by creating Avatars all over the Cosmere. They may have moved again, but Iri is an entire nation on Roshar and they are only occupying a portion of a mid-size city on Scadrial. The rest of them have to be somewhere else. They could be on Scadrial and we don't know it or maybe this is like the vanguard, forward scouts for the migration. Seems like a good time to leave Roshar, some Horneaters have bailed and gone to Silverlight and they appear to be refugees.

I agree they are Horneaters. It could be they fled a massive disaster that reshaped or wiped out some of the land. Like this way of kings death rattle: “A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears. ” —Collected on Tanatesev 1171, 30 seconds pre-death, by the Silent Gatherers. Subject was a cobbler of some renown.[25]

The series is more of an adventure serial than Era 1 or SA. Both Era 1 and SA have at least 1 book focused on siege warfare which is inherently a drawn out process. 3 days or less is kind of surprising since these novels are 500+ each. Also this:

I think this is Odium's truest color. It's the color of the raw investiture used as fuel by the Fused and as you say it's what the core of the Shard looks like in the spiritual realm from what Dalinar saw. Rayse seems to have liked gold and white. He gave himself a gold crown and scepter with white robes often, when he appeared as a Singer on Thaylen Field in OB he had gold skin with white marbling. When Odium summons the Thrill to the physical realm a stream of golden power was seen behind him by Venli. The Voidspren that led the Hearthstone Singers Kaladin was captured by in OB appeared as a golden human. The Raysium knife Vyre was given was gold and white. Rayse summons Taravangian to a golden room in OB. When Rayse invades a vision the sky cracks open and a blinding golden light is shining through. After Rayse destroys and recreates the Vision and is talking to Dalinar he makes a golden chair for himself to sit on. My conclusion is when Rayse intentionally makes something with his investiture he makes them golden or white gold because he thinks himself king of the cosmere and wants to project a regal bearing. Or he may just like the color.

Shai definitely felt different to me. But in Emperor’s Soul she was in a cell by herself with no one to talk to for big chunks and we were in her head so it’s just different. She seemed more cheeky and had more winking wry humor. Ghostbloods definitely less evil than Roshar bunch although some of them really wanted to murder Marasi at the end. Brandon talked on the Shardcast about how the branches of Ghostblood that aren’t under Kelsier’s direct day to day control are worse. Kelsier fosters a cut throat environment which becomes really toxic when he’s not physically present to keep people in check. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/460/#e14637

I enjoyed the book. The ending sequence was thrilling. I actually felt kind of bad for Talsin at the end. A nice send off for Wayne. I was so worried he'd be a worldhopper and show up in all the series going forward. In other words (hidden for slightly graphic Batman (1989) image): I like the foreshadowing of Harmony becoming Discord and maybe being an antagonist in the future. Makes me wonder if his "other half" is the serial killer in Era 3. A lot of Cosmere stuff to parse. I had not made the pilgrimage to BYU to read Dragonsteel prime so it was cool to read what a Sho-Del looked like. Emperor's soul 2 seems to be set up with the search to recover Shai.

“Autonomy is trying to outcompete the others by filling the Cosmere with versions of herself … Trellism is a remnant of an ancient religion of your world founded by Autonomy a long, long time ago. A seed for when she decided to move in.” TLM chapter 20. Autonomy is basically posting “FIRST!” in every comment section in the Cosmere. Its nice to have a different villain than Odium even if their plan is just blow up the planet.

That's probably right. Autonomy will strike more directly in Era 3 which was probably always the plan for Brandon considering Era 2 was only going to be a stand alone book and then he expanded it.

When I read the lab scenes in the preview chapters my eyes kind of glazed over. "Another lab experiment scene with an explosion so soon after RoW?". But this thread is a lot of fun to read and makes me more interested in the magiscience. Thank you!

Live-action movie of Mistborn Final Empire. If the poll had been for tv series I would want SA animated, which Brandon won't do because he wants it to reach the widest audience possible. Nevertheless!

In other words it hinges on SA5's ending like I was saying. And who are his "Boys"? The Fused? How are they going to leave the system they, like the spren and the Heralds are stuck due to their nature as cognitive shadows. They don't need Dalinar's permission to leave they need to change their Connection which is something they are trying to figure out, but haven't as of SA4 so if the Fused or Unmade show up it's another spoiler for SA5. Dalinar has the power to release Odium, if Odium wins the contest Dalinar is under his power and can order his own release. So yes, if he wins he's free. Taravangian even hints at there being a loophole he can exploit in text.

Yeah, I forgot about that. Dalinar is to be the leader of the Fused if Odium wins and if Odium wins he's Odium can leave the system and can show up in other systems. If we don't see the shard vessel and we don't see Dalinar that implies he didn't win. Or he won and considers Scadrial not important enough for either he nor his forces leader to get too involved. My thing with contest is I don't think Brandon is going to loudly announce the real result of book 5 in book 4. When Brandon has characters say "The outcome will definitely only be either A or B" I think neither of those things will be the real state of things at the end of book 5. There could be a shard merger, a splintering a splintering and them H&C both absorb a piece. Odium could have the same vessel, a new vessel or no vessel. Dalinar could be dead, a Fused or a god. I don't know how Odium's forces showing up won't give something away unless they only talk in vague terms. That's not super satisfying for a mysterious force that's been teased for 4 books.