Child of Hodor

The Heavenly Ones have long robes that hang down below them when they hover. Kaladin thinks it looks cool. Baron Harkonnen in Dune (2021) has the same thing going on and I think it looks great.

She's hot, she's smart, she cares deeply about her family. She challenges the status quo. She loves intellectual debate. She's a loner, Dottie, a rebel! ... Also, she's hot.

a distant rumble like thunder could be heard "FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY IS FORBIDDEN"

The WoBs on Shallan are not trustworthy, Brandon lied to preserve the secret in a lot of those. I do like the idea of "I am terrified" being a Truth, maybe the restatement of a Truth from when she was a kid that reactivated something. Child Truths are probably very simple. I can't find the quote, but I am positive Shallan remarks in a later book that the voice that spoke to Shallan in the "I am terrified" scene didn't sound like Pattern. That was the scene where she first soulcast. Shallan is very good at lightweaving and terrible at soulcasting which seems like a hint that she is getting soulcasting from the deadeye spren and lightweaving from the non-deadeye.

Yeah, Brandon chose the surprise twist over the character development in the case of Amaram. I feel like the "Pure Tones" or music magic was foreshadowed by "The Rhythms" of the Singers, also the name Singers implies it. In The Way of Kings Kabsul shows how the Dawncities made by the Dawnsingers are shaped in accordance with sound (Cymatics). https://coppermind.net/wiki/Kabsal That said eyes did glaze reading the experiments being conducted with the Tones. I didn't find it interesting.

Nice! I don't know exactly what book it's in or if he just said it but I like this by Stephen King:

Love this Shardcast! Slyadin No thank you! I never got a romantic vibe. She is very positive and innocent like Tien. That's their dynamic to me. Unfortunately, I think there is a way this can happen that is the inspiration for what Ishar is attempting. My theory is Siah Aimians, like Axies, were spren who found a way to convert themselves into physical realm beings. Kaladin's Suicidal Ideation I would say it is there at a low level in Way of Kings besides the Honor Chasm. In WoK his constant complaint is that he continues to live while everyone else dies. A big part of that is him trying to redeem himself (in his eyes) for Tien's death by saving others. But he presents it as "everyone else dies, but I keep living" in other words "Why don't I get to die? I hate continuing to live." Kaladin's Fate Since so much of his struggle has been depression, suicidal ideation and struggling not to give up I think a death would be too easy. The more challenging ending of book 5 for him is to have to continue to live and deal with life. Life Before Death, baby! The Lirin's Advocate (hidden for length)

This is great! I'm trying to retranslate the way you describe how the word they chose is actually used most often in German back into English. Ruin in German is like if Brandon had gone with Bankruptcy as the English shard name. Schrulle is like kind of like "quirky", if quirky was almost always meant an insult (sometimes it is). Maybe "hippie dippie". "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" Shard. Ehr is like calling Honor "Hon" or "Hun". In English it is a shortened version of "Honey" when used a term of endearment. Cultivation: "Hi Hon!"

Could be. I would like to see her stick around and become a radiant and then who knows. The other thing that makes it easier on the Fused is that Leshwi and the others have stolen many, many bodies that were not their own over the years and body-less beggars cannot be choosers in the midst of a devastating war to reclaim their homeland. She's probably inhabited bodies of all 4 Singer genders at some point. She stated in RoW that Fused could always come back more than once in prior desolations, the Heralds have to engage the lock by going to Braize in order for the Fused to get permanently (in theory) trapped. On Genderspren: maybe that's what Cusicesh is. They show up once a day and are like "here are all the genders" and rapidly shifts through a ton of people. https://coppermind.net/wiki/Cusicesh

Yes in a way. That's good question about progression. To the body she stole the fact that the fact that the body is malen is not a wound or injury that needs to be healed. But, in other cases the mind or spiritweb are more important to progression. Kaladin's scars not healing until he was emotionally ready to let them go being the biggest example. Probably the answer is that it's a body she stole and to the body she stole malen is the default state. The fact it isn't her body creates a disconnect that won't allow for her to change it.

I don't expect Dalinar to be alive as a human after book 5, but it would be such a bummer if Dalinar not only became a servant of Odium against his will, but also was mostly written out of the back half because he's off fighting Harmony. I know he won't be a focus of the back 5 regardless of what happens to him, but still. Also, I don't think a Fused could cause Harmony so much trouble or be worthy of Harmony representing them by a giant red miasma encircling the planet as he does to Wax in BoM. Maybe if he's still connected to Stormfather / largest remnant of Honor it could be a package deal and would help explain why Harmony is like "I don't what this is". Sazed is still pretty cosmere ignorant, but we know from RoW he's talked to most of the Shards. I'm still going with Avatar of Autonomy for Trell. Sazed was very hands on as a god early on helping out the basin humans too much, even he says he regrets it in SoS, and that's something Autonomy would be bothered by. Plus all the Freedom talk from Trell's servants. It seems like there is Dawnshard along those lines of keeping things the same, unchanged or surviving. Hoid was a Dawnshard and he can't eat meat or hurt others, or himself because he once held/was this Dawnshard. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/443/#e14300 I don't know that Kelsier is it. When Rysn became one it was a very noticeable event. If Preservation had a Dawnshard I would think he could handle Ruin better than he did. He invested more in humans than Ruin so Preservation inherently had less power available to use, but Dawnshards are supposed to enhance what can be done with investiture to a crazy degree. I think Kelsier still likes Sazed and wouldn't sabotage him on a large scale by colluding with a hostile Shard or whatever Trell is. Kelsier is probably more self-interested trying to solve his problem of not being able to leave the system because he's a Cognitive Shadow whose investiture traps him there. The Ghostbloods serve as helping him solve that problem while also being his eyes and ears in the Cosmere. At the end of Secret History Kelsier decided he never wanted to be caught off guard by his ignorance of the larger Cosmere machinations again. He accidently set of a series of events that nearly destroyed Scadrial because he didn't know about Ruin and Preservation. I think he's spent the intervening time trying to learn as much as he can about the Cosmere and try to position himself to be a player in it, but he's not quite there yet.

My wacky theory for the nature of Deathrise is that he's an absorbed twin of Lifeforce with separate DNA. This happens occasionally, the surviving twin's blood will have separate DNA from their skin or hair We know from the motivators that Epic powers rely on DNA. Deathrise is the twin DNA that got the power, but is within Lifeforce's body and therefore reliant upon him. Lifeforce doesn't have any powers of his own which is why he is trying to take other people's powers.

They are too long in a way that causes him to cut important character moments. Especially in OB where we don't get Shallans' wedding, Jasnah and Navani reuniting, anything with Szeth in between the battle and him being Navani's bodyguard. I'm saying they aren't long enough because he cut things I would have preferred to read, but they are cut because there is so much other stuff that it's bumping up against the limit of how much they can bind with the normal binding method. To hold more they have to switch binding methods which would increase the price.

What Death Rattle is about alternate Dalinar future events? He sees visions in the Valley of what he would do killing his nephew to assume the throne and burning more kingdoms, but I don't think that's Moeloch showing it to him. There are only two death rattles that mention darkness, the one about it becoming a palace and ruling and one that doesn't mention ruling at all. This is referring to their skin having red in it. I don't see how this supports the original theory of a flood.

I think we can all agree that Shallan's jokes are mostly bad. It's pointed out by Jasnah "You often seem to say the first passably clever thing that enters your mind" (WoK Ch. 29 Errorgance ()) Most of Brandon's funny characters don't work for me (Wayne / Lightsong) or only in small doses (the Lopen). The humor that lands with me is the stuff like Wit and Design where it is more of an odd couple personality clash and less a character trying to make jokes. Shallan is real hit or miss with me. I enjoy when she's reading the deep lore in a giant library or inflitrating the Ghostbloods, less so otherwise. As a lot of people have said she has a serious mental illness and can't just suck it up.

I agree it subtracts more than it adds. Just because her story has twists doesn't mean THIS has to be the final twist. There's a lot of "her story is complicated so my theory is correct" going on. The mom's friend was a Skybreaker and that person influenced her decision to kill Shallan. If the Skybreakers knew about Shallan then Nale knows. Wouldn't Nale come talk to Chana himself and not send a lackey? Wouldn't Nale be aware of his Herald friend and know she's dead? The Heralds promised not to seek each other out, but they break that all the time. Also, if a Herald broke wouldn't the Fused start showing up like they would in a normal desolation? They could take over some Listeners and have the Listeners summon the Everstorm. It seems like a big risk to leave it all up to Ulim to pull off if there were other options.

Jasnah has accurate depictions of the Heralds from Wit who drew them for her. That's how she spots Taln and Shallash at the end of OB. I don't know if Shallan has seen all those drawings or not. Either way I'm not on board with Shallan's mom being a Herald. They both might have red hair, but it feels like an unnecessary twist to Shallan's already very complicated backstory. Plus, I think a Herald could dodge a child's blade if they are paying attention and want to. Taln grabbed two darts out of the air despite his stupor, Nale and Ishar displayed great ability to dodge and outmanuever adults in RoW. Jezrien just sat there drunk. Maybe a child could summon a blade and catch a Herald by surprise, but I dunno.

On Intent - Command, I think it is more a first principle of his approach to developing his magic system (although not one of his laws ). He doesn't want magic systems where people can accidently blow each other up without knowing they were even using magic They have to intend it. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/3/#e77 Looking at it this way it's easy to make every cosmere magic system fit into Intent - Command. There is a thing you intend to do and there is the means by which you attempt to do it. Also, every magic system doesn't really have to mirror the Dawnshard - Shard relationship in my opinion. The Dawnshards shattered Adonalsium and likely influenced the shards we got, but Adonalsium predated the Dawnshards and the Dawnshards are separate from the Shards. Magic systems arising from the Shards investiture wouldn't inherently have Dawnshard-like features.

Placing the humor stylings of Lopen and Wayne relative to this chart:

We have Zahel a Cognitive Shadow, who was once a famous scholar on Nalthis, saying it. It doesn't mean it can't be resisted to some extent like the Vessel resists or directs the full Shard. Zahel / Vasher is of Endowment he became an Ardent who are all property of Lighteyes and have no property themselves. He gave away literally everything he owned. He also became a teacher which is another way of giving. The Heralds are Cognitive Shadows of Honor, 9 of whom broke their Oaths and it has had magical, specific consequences to them. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/431/#e14004 They behave in ways directly in contrast to what their Divine Attributes were when they were still keeping their Oaths. Shallan's attributes were Art and Beauty now she travels the world destroying art depicting her. Ishar was Pious and Guiding like a priest or advisor. Now he declares himself a god and gives terrible advice (like murder surgebinders to Nale). Nale was Justice, now he uses the law to execute people he wants to kill already for unrelated reasons (they are surgebinders).

When a cognitive shadow is created the persons original soul is essentially replaced with a pure investiture copy from a Shard. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/183/#e3895 The Intent of the Shard that their souls is now made of influences how they act over time. (per Zahel in RoW Ch. 16) Kelsier's soul is now made of Preservation investiture which reinforces the importance of survival. He was The Survivor in life as well, but if anything Preservation investiture will reinforce it. Like other people have said I don't think he'll be too bad off yet. He hasn't died over and over and been tortured like the Heralds and it's only been ~300 years for Kelsier versus ~7,000 for the Heralds and Fused.

My guess is for the end of book 5 / beginning of book 6 world state is Dalinar finds a way to apply the Oathpact to Odium directly. Odium gets out of the bonds that Honor and Cultivation put on him and currently hold him on Braize, but Dalinar subjects him to the Oathpact that holds / held the Fused ... and gets rid of the Everstorm somehow. The Oathpact is between Honor and the Heralds, yet it holds the Fused in despite them not agreeing to it. So the Oathpact can bind entities that are not a party to it. In RoW, Ishar mentioned to Dalinar he could modify the Oathpact. What if Dalinar becomes a Herald and then becomes the Vessel for Honor, he's both Herald and Honor's vessel he can agree with himself to bind Odium using the existing Oathpact. My thinking is a mere herald can't lock up a Shard, only fellow cognitive shadows and spren, but a Shard / Herald could. Dalinar / Honor would have to go to Braize for this to work (and eliminate the Everstorm). Whatever surviving Heralds are left will stay on Roshar. As Taln demonstrated it only takes 1 Herald for the Oathpact to work. That's my prediction for the stalemate for the back 5. Dalinar and Taravangian stuck with each other on Braize.

I'm just saying he had a lot of help getting it

I respect that. I think what Brandon did was very clever and well done. I could see Rayse dying in book 5 and Taravangian ascending to set up the back half as the original plan and Taravangian may well be the Vessel for Odium in the back half. I am not overly fond of Taravangian as the main antagonist for the next 6 books. Taravangian has no mystery to him and he doesn't know anything aside from what the Power was used for previously and whatever Cultivation told him. He's been propped up by Cultivation, his ascension was more her idea than it was his. He's a great villain for book 5, but "Odium's smarter now (yet less experienced)" for 5 books after that doesn't seem like enough of a threat. I am expecting Brandon to really shake up Roshar in preparation for the back 5. Like alter the magic system and the balance of power. For example, Odium being picked up by Cultivation would incorporate Odium into the magic system in a way that Odium is not now. This would make Voidbinding an actual thing that matters, giving Brandon a new magic system to show off in the back 5. I think Cultivation + Odium held by a dragon who has been a Shard all along is more interesting and more dangerous. I don't think Cultivation would mitigate Odium in the same way Honor might. It would be a different, weird Shard making the back 5 wide open.

"As the Ska toiled in the fields all day they sang their traditional songs to keep their spirits up"