Use the Falchion

It's in the banter, the fact that when she daydreams or doddles and Kaladin is in the room, the "storming bridgeman" ends up on the paper, or how that his passion and his looks are all that Shallan sees. Also as a reminder, remember that their first meeting was Shallan conning her way into the warcamp; and she never once went back to apologize about it or explain herself to Kaladin. And their most intimate scene? Both Kaladin and Shallan show how racist they are to each other: Shallan thought that Kaladin is unfair for being racist and suspicious against her for what in her mind amounted in a silly joke. She thought so little of him and his role other than "he might be a nuisance" because of he was darkeyes. And while he might be wrong about the former, Kaladin was certainly correct about the latter (the same way how Adolin was correct to be suspicious about him. Maybe classism isn't the best word to use, but it's what I'm using in this context; I save racism for the views and conflicts between humans, singers, and any other separate race, not lighteyes and darkeyes. I apologize if it has caused any confusion of any kind. Anyways! My example: Chapter 15: Brightness Radiant "'I know it's not feminine, but who cares? You've got a sword; you should know how to use it, and custom can go to Damnation. There, I said it.' He took a deep breath. 'I mean, the bridgeboy can have one, and he's darkeyed. Well he was. Anyway, it's not so different from that.' Thank you, Shallan though, for ranking all women as something equivalent to peasants." This is important for multiple people. First is Adolin to show that while he has good intentions, the level of sexism in this culture is still very, VERY strong. But he's willing to overcome tradition and gender roles for her. Secondly, this shows what Shallan really thinks about darekeyes. Our Lightweaver might treat darkeyes well, but currently she sees them all still as peasants. She is a lighteyes, and even in poverty is above such things. That level of classism is so ingrained in her she doesn't even think about it. Overall though, I think Adolin and Shallan will last for two reasons: First, Adolin is open with Shallan. The key to a good relationship is openness and honesty, and Adolin gives that to Shallan in spades - chapters 13 &15 are literally Adolin confronting his fears about their relationship and him willing to break gender norms by teaching her swordplay. Secondly, Adolin KNOWS Shallan. He knows who she is and accepts that. He's her rock. Shallan says Kaladin is like a storm, and I find that accurate. Kaladin would be able to passionately sweep the redhead off her feet, but he could offer her no safety after the high. She'd rise with him and fall with him. Adolin is constant. He might not provide such dramatic highs, but when she's lost herself, if she can find Adolin, she can find her way "home".

Meh, in this case wouldn't it be more like "one is seemingly perfect for the job and the other was hired by nepotism. But when they both get the chance, the nepotism hired one actually exceeds all expectations while the seemingly perfect one can't fix the coffee maker?" Sanderson rarely does things just to break the trope and leave it at that. He explores the consequences and plays out scenarios to their conclusions - but he always circles back to the heart of the genre/trope. Kaladin and Shallan wouldn't work together IMO because of how they handle trauma at this moment. Kaladin effectively shuts down while Shallan buries what she can and ignores what she can't. And Kaladin is impressed by this. Shallan also has a bit more work on her classism and racism to do. Kaladin has less work, but work nonetheless. So on the surface, Kaladin and Shallan seem great for each other with all that belligerent sexual tension and whatnot, when the attraction fades away and they have real life problems to work through, I'm not sure they would have the strength to do so. And like @Greywatch said, there are ships for everything. The key is not to get too caught up in what your favorite one is. That way leads to madness...

I like Adolin because - as it's mentioned in one of this season's Writing Excuses episodes, Adolin is more of an outgrowth of the world than the story. It makes him feel real and relatable. He's also not as heavy a character as his father/wife/vitriolic best bud. On one hand, that might not make him as relatable to others (I see a lot less posts on Reddit about how relatable Adolin is vs Kaladin/Shallan/Dalinar), but it rarely makes him controversial. Overall, he's a stand-up guy; but more importantly, he's a good guy. Not perfect, but definitely good.

Oh that'd be pretty cool! I'd be down for that.

That's a great point! Kaladin with Edgedancer powers would be pretty scary! No it won't, but Dalinar is a very weird case as well. As of Book 3, we've never seen a normal Bondsmith "on-screen". We know of what Melishi did, but Dalinar is basically a super-charged Bondsmith; and Ishar is a Herald which is something else altogether. Kaladin gaining the powers to Connect with other cultures with a touch due to Adhesion, combined with Cohesion to help rebuild fort and garrisons and his natural leadership abilities (with a touch of his Windrunner Resonance kicking in), Kaladin would make for a DEADLY insurgent/guerrilla warfare trainer. He could nearly single-handedly go into enemy-controlled territory and raise an army/resistance. Heck, pretty much did that in OB! But with the Bondsmith Honorblade, he wouldn't need to know the language first. Also, don't different surges act differently under different Orders? I feel like Sanderson has mentioned something like that before... All that said, you do make a good point, and maybe just for extra power the Dustbringer or Stoneward Honorblade would be better.

Voidspren eyes red Dustbringers too I would join Odium To be with you

It's an outgrowth of a theory of mine that not all of the original Heralds will have their Honorblades back by the end of Book 5/the series, especially since Vyre's going around, doing his thing. So the question becomes "who will have them?" Kaladin was one of my potential picks for Ishar's blade. As for why? Maybe to be a Bondsmith out in the field, without restrictions; maybe to just be a super awesome multi-powered Radiant. I don't really have a reason other than Kaladin has some of the attributes of a Bondsmith and I could totally see him going that path. The blade just allows him to gain the powers without the need to go down that rabbit-hole. That was definitely not my intent for Kaladin to become a Mary Sue (or the only over-powered character...). My point was that if Dalinar doesn't make it out - which I really, really want him to - it wouldn't be too far out of the realm of possibility that Kaladin could pick up where he left off. You could argue that Navani could do the same, and I wouldn't disagree (as some of her internal monologues sound very Bondsmith-y too). Also, Sanderson has a habit of both building stuff up only to subvert our expectations (Eshonai and Elhokar) as well as changing his drafts around to suit the story he feels he wants to tell (Kaladin's arc from Book 3 being moved to WoR, Shallan's love triangle becoming more focused on how unstable she is, Navani going from flashback character to prologue character, etc). Besides, if we're talking multi-Radiants, like I said in my above post, my first choice goes to Shallan.

1. A love triangle. The main couples for now have gotten together. Let's explore what it means to be married on Roshar right now and the trials that entails. 2. The same Radiants. It's Desolation time! I want to see Radiants coming out of the woodworks and see how our main group handles that! 3. A longer book. This one's kind of heartbreaking for me because I LOVE the Stormlight Archive, but right now I feel like Sanderson has so many other stories on the backburner he needs to fulfill, I'm fine with this one being shorter (and by shorter I mean WoK or WoR length). Yet...this is the first Stormlight book (and I think the first Cosmere book) where a large part of it won't be from the viewpoint of a human, and I'm really excited for that. I don't want that to be shortened. So I'm conflicted here. I guess the best compromise would be a slightly shorter Stormlight 4 but we'd get 2-3 novellas in the meantime to make up for it.

Next thing you know Sanderson's gonna separate us all into Orders of Mistborn, Stormlight, or Skyward or something like that, and the Mods here (and Reddit) will become the Herald equivalents.

Interesting! I have a secondary theory that Kaladin might end up with an Honorblade (Ishar's to be exact), so I'll put that more in the forefront then. Thanks for the info!

Okay, so I no joke just saw this after I created something similar (sorry!) so I'll repost what I said here. I also used Dual Radiant instead of multi-Radiant As for Dual Radiants, I only have two guesses at the moment: First is Shallan with Sja-Anat. Sja-Anat seemingly wants to switch sides, and has influence over voidspren not unlike the Stormfather. So, what if joining with her makes Shallan the Voidbinding equivalent of a Bondsmith? I think this is interesting because it satisfies multiple agendas for Shallan: capturing Sja-Anat for the Ghostbloods while making herself invaluable to them; helping Sja-Anat truly switch sides; taking out a major threat for the Good Guys while getting an Unmade to study. Everybody wins! ...until this inevitably goes bad, which would be AWESOME. Second is Kaladin. Kaladin is clearly on the growth track to becoming a Bondsmith. The way he brings people together sometimes feels like it goes beyond just leading - sometimes it screams "Unite Them." If I remember correctly, Syl even fought off some Gloryspren, which seems like some foreshadowing to me! Lastly, not every character is going to make it out. Dalinar, as much as I love him, is probably closest to that chopping block and they'll need all three Bondsmiths for whatever happens next. And that's where Kaladin steps in. Alternatively Kaladin can bypass this by simply taking Ishar's Honorblade as mentioned above. Third is Rlain. Or by proxy, any Singer. Venli demonstrated the ability to be both a Voidbringer and a Radiant by having Timbre capture the voidspren in her gemheart. But if she didn't have the voidspren, would it have been possible to host two Radiant spren?

So thought this might be a fun bit of theorizing - who do you think will end of with Honorblades by the end of the series? And since we know Dual Radiants are possible, who do you think is likely to end up as a Dual Radiant? Personally, I think that while there's a chance that Heralds will retake their blades (and how AWESOME that would be), I think it's more likely someone else will eventually take up their blades. As for who, I only have a few guesses: Shalash will get her blade back, making her both a Dustbringer and a Lightweaver master. It might seem overpowered, but by the time she becomes a main player, I bet our heroes will need all the overpowered people they can get. Adolin will get Vedel's Honorblade. The reason I think this is because I don't think Adolin will be able to bring Maya back all the way on his own. He needs something to...jumpstart her, and an Honorblade might provide the patch. Hoid will most likely end up with Kalak's blade - it offers him powers that don't involve killing and that might make worldhopping a tad easier. I low-key want Rysn to have Ishar's blade, but that's a stretch. Besides, I'd rather her become a full Radiant instead! Besides, giving Ishar's blade to one of our Bondsmith candidates (Rlain, Rock, Navani, Kaladin(?)) might be a good way to satisfy all parties. Jezrien's blade will probably either go to Rock or Renarin in the end. For both, it's more about symbolizing they're truly a part of Bridge Four than anything else, as Renarin's already (what I call) an aberrant Radiant, and Rock might be on the path to become a Bondsmith. As for Dual Radiants, I only have two guesses at the moment: First is Shallan with Sja-Anat. Sja-Anat seemingly wants to switch sides, and has influence over voidspren not unlike the Stormfather. So, what if joining with her makes Shallan the Voidbinding equivalent of a Bondsmith? I think this is interesting because it satisfies multiple agendas for Shallan: capturing Sja-Anat for the Ghostbloods while making herself invaluable to them; helping Sja-Anat truly switch sides; taking out a major threat for the Good Guys while getting an Unmade to study. Everybody wins! ...until this inevitably goes bad, which would be AWESOME. Second is Kaladin. Kaladin is clearly on the growth track to becoming a Bondsmith. The way he brings people together sometimes feels like it goes beyond just leading - sometimes it screams "Unite Them." If I remember correctly, Syl even fought off some Gloryspren, which seems like some foreshadowing to me! Lastly, not every character is going to make it out. Dalinar, as much as I love him, is probably closest to that chopping block and they'll need all three Bondsmiths for whatever happens next. And that's where Kaladin steps in. Alternatively Kaladin can bypass this by simply taking Ishar's Honorblade as mentioned above. Third is Rlain. Or by proxy, any Singer. Venli demonstrated the ability to be both a Voidbringer and a Radiant by having Timbre capture the voidspren in her gemheart. But if she didn't have the voidspren, would it have been possible to host two Radiant spren? Anyways, what do y'all think? Will the Honorblades go back to their respective Heralds or be taken up by a new generation? Will we see Dual Radiants or will they forever be an untapped potential?

I don't have anything to shoot it down - and this is indeed a very interesting idea! - but I think the simplest explanation is that he isn't a Radiant yet. Once we get to his flashbacks, we'll have a LOT of history to cover (especially since we're only getting two of the Heralds), so seeing him gain his oaths throughout the books beforehand might help us cheat in that since. I think the switch was simply done by the Stone Shamans. They seem to have a way to know if and/or when Szeth died in order to get his Honorblade back, so they probably have a way of tracking all the blades. A new one appears, they switch it out thinking no-one is the wiser (because who actually knew the difference between Honorblades and dead-Shardblades?).. But overall, your theory is pretty cool! I just think we have too much history to cover to let that happen.

Rhythm of War...I like it! I gets "war" in the title like Highprince of War was supposed to, so I like it better than Song of Secrets. I kinda wish it wasn't an X of Y format, but I can live with it (especially if he keeps Book 5 as Stones Unhallowed).

That just makes me excited at the idea of Odium sending an army of both Fused and regular Voidbringers to try and take Nightblood from Szeth, not realizing he's trained in all the surges and he just goes H.A.M. Or alternatively, he pulls Nightblood a little out of the sheath and waits.

Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns is my favorite (and probably only) concept album. Happens to also be my favorite album by them.

Water, because I feel like I go with the flow (sometimes a little too much). But I'd love to be able to bend metal or lava...or both...

And here's where I disagree a little. I think with what we know it makes a kind of terrible sense. It's like doing the wrong thing for the right (or in this case stupid-but-understandable) reason. The voidbringers are coming back as told from the visions, right? And the visions Gavilar received didn't have a clear meaning other than "get ready" and "unite them". If even Dalinar wasn't so sure he could trust the visions until Navani helped translate them, why would Gavilar? So Gavilar starts to receive visions he doesn't understand, and goes out to understand them, eventually finding the Sons of Honor. The visions say the Radiants (and maybe the Heralds? Again, my memory is fuzzy) need to come back, and the Sons of Honor want Vorin powers and the Heralds back. What brings them all together? A Desolation. So, like many villains in today's pop culture, Gavilar wants to use a potential world-ending threat to bring people together. Is it a good idea? NO. But it does make sense. Galivar's problem was most likely that he couldn't see why people would disagree with him. He knew they would, but he was so caught up in himself and his goal he didn't see the why. As for matching up, a Desolation answers that too. The Heralds are all but deified in modern-day Vorinism. And they're supposed to come back with every Desolation. So you start receiving visions from a being who claims to be God warning you about the apocalypse (when the final one was thought over), you've got your faith stating something else. Dalinar goes the path of "is this me? Am I insane?" while Gavilar goes the path of "how can I reconcile these two differences?" and his path takes him to the Sons of Honor. After all, if the apocalypse is really coming, and you're having a crisis of faith (while trying to secure your own legacy), why not call back Jesus and get all the answers while uniting the world? Also, quick Q about the Aesudan quote, which chapter is it from? Because from the quote above, it could be misconstrued as Gavilar knew that Radiants had to bond to ancient spren, but he didn't know which or how. Unless Aesudan said "Gavilar was trying to bond an unmade" she could have just as easily assumed that Unmade = High Spren/Bondable Spren. Aesudan's words lend to that too in a way; calling her guards Radiants, talking about bonding with spren. Gavilar's last words being about "The most important words a man can say," something he seeming to only focus on at the end of his life (hinting that he himself didn't really have the answer). It feels like Galivar had all the pieces to the puzzle, but arranged them in a way that was ultimate detrimental. I don't think Gavilar was 100% Team Void. I don't think he could be, if he was really on the path of being a Bondsmith. I think it's a little more nuanced - and in turn far scarier - than that.

I have a pet theory that Hoid got Mraize his Aviar in return for the Ghostbloods helping him drop off a letter to a certain Shard (it'd happen in-between the end of WoR and part two of Oathbringer). No real proof, but it makes sense to me! Anyways, yeah I assume Hoid and the Ghostbloods have a working relationship at the moment. Why Mraize would remind Shallan of Hoid specifically...no idea!

Awesome theory! I'm totally on-board with the Jasnah-Ghostbloods "failure to communicate" thing (which in turn could lead to them ending their feud, or even scarier, Jasnah joining them). Maybe he didn't know that the Parshendi gods were bad?* How much did Galivar know about the Parshendi society before his assassination? And how much did he know about the Knights Radiant? If he knew the Parshendi gods were spren, and he needed to bond to a spren to become a Radiant, his actions make terrible, terrible sense. On the other hand, it could have simply been hubris. If the order is changed a little, I think it makes more sense: Galivar, as he's uniting Alethkar, starts to receive visions about uniting the world and reviving the Knights Radiant. He wonders how to do that and ends up joining the Sons of Honor, as their plan coincides with what he is seemingly called to do (a desolation needs Heralds and Radiants to fight it). After all, the world needs to unite under a banner. What greater banner than religion (read: something that reaches farther than a single human could)? He starts to research the Radiants, which in turn leads him to The Way of Kings. *I'm doing most of this off of shady memory and speculation, as my major re-read won't happen until next year at the earliest.

You will be thirty? I'll most likely be older... Sweet summer child

I want book four now Please Can I see the future? I will pay the price.

I've heard of it as "The Honeymoon Phase."

Adolin - Gryffindor/Hufflepuff (he's noble, but his hardworking and affable natures make him a shoe-in for Hufflepuff) Renarin - Ravenclaw (although possible Hufflepuff - Hufflepuff would help him find a place he feels like he belongs, but learning like the Ardents and scholars is where his heart is I think) Lift - Hufflepuff Szeth - He is Sorting Hat Chat's definition of a burned Gryffindor. He wants to do what is right and has very strong convictions, but he doesn't trust himself anymore. Mr. T - Slytherin trying to act like a Gryffindor.

Am I the only one that DOESN'T want one of the Main Front Five to die before the end of the series in some heroic sacrifice. I mean, I get it, they can't be a Spotlight Stealing Squad, but there are other ways to handle that. Put them in places where our viewpoint characters don't interact with them; make them mentors or secondary characters; make them evil! Having them sacrifice themselves is great and all, but at this point, what good would it do?