Child of Hodor

Yeah, that WoB doesn't line up with what we know from the books and it doesn't line up with other WoBs. Sometimes Brandon says things that aren't correct. Unless Oathbringer is an Honorblade becaue he said it on a stream one time it must be true.

Interesting WoB, he's said pretty much the opposite about NB before. I agree with you, Investiture is basically infinite on a long enough timeline because it eventually recycles to the spiritual realm. I don't think it's infinite in a given moment in time. Time doesn't matter in the spiritual realm, but it does matter in the other two. They can't pull a specific piece of investiture out of the spiritual if that piece is already in use in the physical or cognitive realm at that moment in time. He does say most investiture, maybe Nightblood is an exception. Maybe (MB spoilers): I assumed there was a natural delay between it being used and it being available to the Vessel. This may just be my head canon though, I thought he actually said this, but I don't see a WoB quite on point. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/256/#e8605 Nightblood holds onto a lot of the investiture he eats, it is not destroyed, just mulched and mixed together. When Nightblood is unsheathed and the black smoke spreads out I interpret that as the consumed investiture leaking out. It "evaporates" and goes back to the spiritual realm where it would become available to whatever Shard they were from. That's been my head canon and what Brandon basically said recently:

Yep, I think so!

I think this is right. If Ishar can take away Dalinar's bond to the Stormfather and his status as the guy Odium made the agreement with, then other things can be taken by a Bondsmith. Perhaps Dalinar could do this himself if sufficiently powered up and with some guidance from Ishar. Maybe a typical KR Bondsmith can't do these things, but we've seen Dalinar step into the role of Honor more and more (perpendicularity, control highstorms, accept KR oaths). If Ishar can do it then Honor's part-time vessel can do it. One possibility is Dalinar could do a reverse Thaylen Field gambit (Odium makes Dalinar his champion) and make Taravangian Honor's champion by transferring that status of champion from Dalinar to Taravangian (the vessel). Odium promised to spare anyone born in Kharbranth and the power is still bound by that. Taravangian is screwed, in order to win he has to die, but the power he holds can't allow someone on Odium's side to do that. This is one way @Chaos's idea that the Kharbranth agreement will come back to bite Taravangian could pay off. Taravangian appears to Dalinar at the top of Urithiru "Surprise! Now here's my champion (Kaladin's baby brother or other small child he is sure Dalinar won't harm)". Dalinar then knows Mr. T is still alive and he can do the switcheroo. Alternatively he can take away the status of champion from Odium's champion and give it to someone he is willing to kill (himself or someone else). Maybe make Taravangian fight. Taravangian fighting: (I know, I know he killed Rayse, but that was in the cognitive realm with Nightblood and the element of surprise.)

RoW set up book 5 to have 10 days until the big clash of champions. Meaning everything is going to move really fast, but people like Shallan and Adolin are separated from everyone with no obvious way to get back in the action quickly. How will they get back to the others? Kalak will send/take them. One of his surges is the transportation surge. Oh but Heralds can't surgebind without their blades and he doesn't have his Honorblade ... or does he?!?! He was away from the fortress for months on "patrol" which is why the trial had to wait for him to come back (RoW Ch. 78). Mraize makes a vague comment to Shallan about how the Honorblades were in Shinovar, but the Ghostbloods are having trouble tracking them recently.(RoW Ch. 78). Ishar took his blade back and said Shinovar was a big 'ole mess. (Ch. 111). Simplest solution to Shallan and Adolin's problem is Kalak has his blade and will use Transportation to get them back. Why get more involved when he's been hiding this whole time? I dunno, maybe he feels bad and wants to help. He does write in the epigraphs that it's important that BAM is released and finding BAM is Shallan's goal.

Mistborn era 1 is my recommended entry point because SA can be overwhelming even though it’s by far my favorite.

I like Rhythm of War the least and it's largely because of structural reasons. Killing off the flashback character two books ago was a bold move that didn't work out. But Venli is not in this book that much and her veiwpoints largely serve as a way to see more of Raboniel. Raboniel was great, but it left Venli being more of an observer than major characters usually are. Navani-Raboniel ended up being the main character, but not in the way the other books had a main character. It lacked that resonance we get between a character's past and their present because of decisions made years ago. The whole book felt less focused in a way that didn't work for me. Shallan/Adolin plotline disappears for a part and a half and when it's picked up it fragments into two separate pieces. Adolin does his trial with almost no involvement from Shallan and Shallan does her investigation without Adolin. Similarly the Emuli group splinters into Dalinar largely without Jasnah and Jasnah's chapters don't have Dalinar in them. It becomes like the shattered window the Shards describe futuresight as being. All that said, the actual prose is on par with the rest of the series and it's probably the funniest cosmere book. The humor had a better hit/miss % with me more than any other cosmere book. Design, Nale & Ulim, Chiri-Chiri and even Kalak were all big hits with me.

We have a WoB that Renarin has a crush. I think it's Rushu! Renarin spends most of his time either with Bridge 4 or the scholars or with close family. I don't think he has a crush on a family member so we can rule that out. There is Lyn in Bridge 4, but she was already in a relationship. We know Renarin attends scholar meetings because he attends some in OB. He would see Rushu there and Rushu is Navani's assistant in scholarly matters, the two are often together so Renarin would be around her even more that way. I mostly just want it to be Rushu because I really enjoy her and if they end up together that means we'll get a lot more Rushu in the back 5. Yes, she's an ardent, but that can change, Kabsal was willing to leave it for Shallan, it's a thing that can happen.

I did like how many non-human ones we got Syl, Sja-Anat and Chiri-Chiri. I agree I like the random world-building ones best.

Nightblood isn't very good at telling time amongst other things, his memory is not the best. I am not sure if he knows Taravangian's name, maybe he does. The only way Szeth will maybe figure it out is if Nightblood says something like "I liked it when that old man wielded me for a thousand years in that golden room. Now he knew how to use me properly." Szeth may begin to piece it together.

I feel Taravangian is done after book 5. That doesn't make him a 1 book villain though, he's a 5 book villain. He's been murdering people since before WoK. He's actively been an antagonist to Dalinar specifically throughout all the books. He orders Szeth to kill Dalinar at the end of WoK. He send Szeth to kill Dalinar a second time in WoR. He backstabs Dalinar in OB. He has his army turn on Dalinar in book 4. I really feel Taravangian should be gone after the next book while Szeth and Dalinar are still main characters since those are the two people Taravangian has a real relationship with.

This makes a ton of sense! Explains why they don't appear outside otherwise and don't seem to eat or bathe. They probably are dispersed when not going to the garden. I guess they need to take a humanoid form to carry their notes to the garden and check something against them. That's the only issue I have, why do they feel the need to assume human-ish form? Can't they have a few hordlings in the garden looking for whatever they are looking for while the rest of them is in their room looking at the notes for comparison? Or even have the rest of them outside the fortress? Unless there is something about the fortress that blocks their psychic link. We don't know what Sixteen is trying to accomplish which makes it difficult to understand their reasoning.

When Kaladin goes sicko mode on the Fused his eyes turn evil Odium colors. Sounds familiar

TL;DR Before Ba-Ado-Mishram's imprisonment broken radiant oaths did not create deadeye spren. Ba-Ado-Mishram's release is needed to fully restore deadeyes and prevent future deadeyes. The radiants and their spren at the time of the Recreance did not think the broken oaths would do as much damage as they did to the spren. Surely at some point in the thousands of years the Knights Radiant were an official organization someone broke their oaths before this. The spren would have some knowledge of what happens when Oaths are broken. It must not have resulted in deadeyes prior to the Recreance. The Sibling was wounded from the trapping of Ba-Ado-Mishram. This is what caused the Sibling to lose the ability to make Lifelight. According to the Sibling this act of trapping BAM hurt all the souls of Roshar, including spren. Kalak seems to agree in the epigraphs he alludes to her imprisonment doing a lot of damage to Roshar and to all spren. Perhaps releasing her is necessary to restore the deadeye spren. Ba-Ado-Mishram is able to Connect with an entire species over a wide area, providing singers both forms and voidlight. The Ado in her name means light. I can only conclude that BAM being absent made spren more vulnerable and led to the deadeyes being created. She is some sort of Connection superspren or "spren of the world" that may be Connected to all things on Roshar and with her imprisoned all Roshar is missing something. Ba-Ado-Mishram Sibling's Lost Light Kalak's Plea

Lol Szeth is a “main” character in this series. He’s mentioned on the back blurrb by the Sleepless in multiple books. I wonder if we should take the Lift, Renarin, Ash, Taln, Jasnah back 5 with a big grain of salt given there are really only 3 of the 6 front 5 flashbacks characters are really main characters.

It is flat they had Dalinar’s wedding up there and Dalinar bonded the Stormfather up there. It just has to start up there. Several surges allow easy travel off the roof. If it’s an actual fight (and not some morality / mind game contest with Mr T picking a baby or something) the champions might break the roof and fall inside fighting through the tower. It may be a realm spanning thing. If Dalinar sticks to fighting himself they could go to different realms during the fight, or that weird pocket dimension Stormfather pulled Kaladin into a couple times.

I don't think either contest of champions outcome, as outlined by the agreement, can happen the way it's laid out because it wouldn't make for a good back 5. Dalinar loses, he becomes a Fused and leads Mr. T's armies to conquer the Cosmere. They ain't going to Sel in book 6 of this series. Renarin's book isn't going to take place on Nalthis. By the end of this 10 book series we'll have gotten closer to that point, but I expect the back 5 conflict to mostly take place in the Rosharan system. Dalinar wins and Odium has to stay on Braize and not influence Roshar for 1,000 years. That's boring. Maybe there will be a new villainous Shard or other antagonist getting involved in the back 5, but even with that I would not think "Odium gets locked away and does not influence events in the back 5" is a thing that will happen.

Why would Rayse want to read his memories? They met 1,000 years ago and he apparently didn’t do it then. Rayse was alive pre-Shattering and has been a god ever since what does he need with some of Wit’s memories? Wit is even surprised Rayse asked him a question at all. The only way Wit could have planned this great subterfuge, a subterfuge where he even needs to pretend to be surprised and scared in his mind even though Odium can’t read his mind, is if he knew in advance that Rayse is dead and there is a new vessel. Which really doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe, just maybe Brandon’s author avatar who is great everything finally made a mistake. As Sazed points out in the epigraphs Wit doesn’t completely understand the Shards. Which is what Frost has been warning him about all along as well. He messed with something he doesn’t understand and it bit him. For once.

Ishar to Radiant Spren:

Brandon says he thinks Taln has been back for a couple months before he shows up at the end of Way of Kings. He hasn't finalized this timeline, but that's what he thinks it's around. It sounds like he broke. Normally the Fused could start showing up after that, but Odium didn't want to do it that way this time. The Everstorm is a way to circumvent the Oathpact so that even if the Fused are defeated this time they can't be sealed on Braize by the Oathpact as long as the Everstorm is still on Roshar.

The flashbacks were the least effective of any of the books so far because they were split between two characters, only one who is still alive and Venli isn't even the main character of this book, probably 3rd in line behind Navani and Kaladin. The last Eshonai flashback was very bittersweet and effective emotionally though. The Venli flashbacks gave us some lore nuggets.

Sixteen-Son-Vallano of Shinovar wore black on the day he checked his notes in the statue garden ...

I wrote the above theory that Taln was at one point in league with Odium, but isn't anymore. I wrote that because Tanavast told Dalinar that Odium wanted the long break between Desolations so that humanity would forget and turn on each other (WoK Ch. 75). Taln is the key to that. There needed to be a Herald who never broke, but died in nearly every Desolation in order to tempt the other 9 Heralds into quitting. I want to add to that theory based on what we learned in RoW. In RoW we get a glimpse of how great the Heralds were at fighting. Nale takes an arrow through the head shrugs it off and dispatches Szeth easily. Ishar fights 5 windrunners at once and wins. Dalinar is amazed at how great Ishar is at dueling. The Stormfather say Ishar was average at fighting among the Heralds and Taln was by FAR the best. Taln, the greatest fighter among the Heralds had a reputation for dying the most. (WoK Prelude). This could be because he was so self-sacrificing and the greatest, bestest person ever, but it's very convenient because he needed to not survive Desolations in order to tempt the Heralds. The other minor support I'd like to add is that Taln is currently slotted to have the 9th book. 9 being the number of the enemy, the number of Braize, the number of Fused orders, the number of Unmade, the number of Heralds who quit etc. https://wob.coppermind.net/events/374/#e12214 I know in WoK Prime spoiler: I don't have a good idea of the specifics of how the subterfuge worked, but Taln is too perfect and he is crucial to the long break during which Honor died and the KR were (mostly) destroyed. It's more interesting if he helped trick the other Heralds and deeply regretted it due to his love for Ash.

That's very thoughtful of you to do!