Ruin's Scariest Koloss

That's what I was thinking. He seems like he's hardened since ascending.

My immediate hunch is that Sazed lied when he said they didn't get Lerasium.

None of the Skybreakers besides Szeth are loyal to Dalinar. The Dustbringers have made it clear they're not part of his chain of command. That's ~20% of all Radiants right there that are not obedient to the Kholins. Plus the Reachers are reluctant to bond any humans, and the one that we know of bonded Venli, who again is not really loyal to anyone except herself. Can you explain how Kaladin's role is passive? It seemed to me that his role in RoW was one of the biggest. He got more screen time than just about anyone (besides maybe Navani) and made a lot of important moves. He is critical to defending Urithuru. Not to mention he absolutely wrecks the Pursuer twice, which apparently has never happened in any previous desolation.

The story largely follows the Kholins. It's the bias of our perspective that makes it seem like they're the only radiants when in the big picture, the vast majority of radiants are not Kholins. If you want to complain about them having two Bondsmiths, I'll give you that one though.

I absolutely loved the first time Kaladin takes out the Pursuer. The Son of Tanavast ain't got no time for monologues.

Wasn't that the whole point though? The Sibling didn't want to bond anyone, and once it was apparent they would have to in order to survive, they chose Rlain. The Sibling is the first spren we've really seen form the bond out of pure desperation.

Ooooooh, I like this. How poetic would it be that Navani, who has been trapping spren to create fabrials, is now trapped in a fabrial herself?

Yeah, I think it's definitely something to do with what Dalinar did. We keep hearing that the Bondsmiths are crazy powerful, and I think we're going to see more weird Connectiony stuff like that happen as Dalinar and Navani figure out their powers.

I kind of get the feeling sometimes that Brandon intentionally uses Hoid to channel his own personality/opinions.

Couldn't agree more. I found myself constantly itching to get back to the Shadesmar plot, and was a bit let down when I realized we weren't going to get much more. It's got to be tough for Brandon though when there's so much to cover. Honestly, this book almost seemed like setup for book five. I'm sure we'll get something fantastic.

But this is the climax of the story arc. We have to assume most of the tensions introduced so far will be resolved in book five. Sure, not everything will be wrapped up, or what would be the point of five more books, but I don't think there's any reason to believe that there needs to be some major intervention with the contest of champions.

I don't think Susebron could create another Nightblood in this scenario since some sort of shardic intervention was necessary to create Nightblood in its current form. He could probably come up with a shardblade more like Vivenna's though.

Assuming there's a ton of cloth available... It really depends on the environment when two OP characters are in a fight.

I second that.