Rushu42

Interesting. That makes a lot more sense; thanks for clearing it up. Hold on, though. If you can break the bond just by willling it, why can't you create it just by willing it? Maybe you can, but it's just really hard without the gemstone.

Looking back on it, the fact that it's possible to summon dead Shardblades is rather strange. Multiple details as to how this happens are ingrained in the books, but it's still slightly perplexing. Shardblades, at least before Radiants started showing up again, are dead spren. I suppose that since they're Splinters, they can't really die in the conventional sense of the word, but they can still die; i.e. stop being sentient or functioning, as seen with Adolin's Shardblade in the Cognitive Realm. So that means that a Shardblade is basically a corpse. So why would attatching a gem to a Shardblade restore some of its power? It's revealed that the 10 seconds needed to summon a Shardblade is the amount of time necessary to bring the Spren back from the dead and into the Physical Realm. We also learn, from Dalinar's visions, that Shardblades were only able to be dissmissed and summoned once gemstones were attatched to them. We also know that fabrials work by trapping spren inside of gemstones. So the immediate response would be that the gemstone traps the original Radiant spren inside the stone. But...that spren is dead. And besides, fabrials need Stormlight to function, and there's no mention of Stormlight being needed for Shardblades. Otherwise you'd need to wait between highstorms to summon it again. Shardplates need Stormlight, with gems needing to be replaced when they're broken or lose their Stormlight. Granted, we don't know exactly what Shardplate is, yet, but it seems odd that Shardplate needs Stormlight but Shardblades don't. Unless Shardblades do need Stormlight, but just use it up really slowly, so that we don't notice. But that also seems farfetched, as we know that quite a lot of Stormlight is necessary for something to transfer between the realms, like a dead spren in the Cognitive Realm transporting to the Physical Realm. Hopefully we'll get an explanation of this in one of the later books, but until then, does anyone have any theories on why this works?

Thank you; I agree. Does anyone have any further ideas on Shallan's personalities? Maybe rebuttals to my point?

In Kon-Tiki's WOB, the last line really interested me. "There's a bit of a war inside Kaladin". I think that this war is between his Oaths and Honor (including Syl) and his own far more human impulses, which are vulnerable to the Thrill. We do see that Kaladin is fantastic at fighting, and his desire for vengeance is quite strong. Aside from his bond, there's no reason why he wouldn't be affected,andaffected quite strongly. Had Kaladin gone to battle after the incident with Elhokar (where he lost Syl) he probably would have felt the Thrill. He might still, if his bond with Syl begins to weaken again. I think that it's important that Kaladin doesn't feel the Thrill, for his value as a character, because he fights and kills quite a bit, but a large part of who he is is the fact that he hates it. He can feel empathy for the other side, to the point where he breaks down during the fight to reclaim Kholinar. Due to this, it's possible that Syl protects him from feeling the Thrill, not because it's universal to Windrunners, but because she knows that he wouldn't be able to handle it. Or maybe it's just universal to Windrunners, and Kaladin's characteristics are simply what attracted Syl in the first place.

A lot of the speculation on this topic has to be about Shallan's upbringing, as most of her emotional conflict revolves around the most disturbing parts of her past, and her desire to eliminate that from her personality. What we have to remember is that, when she killed her mother, she was just a child, and the person she developed then to deal with that was maskShallan. This is why personalities such as Veil and Radiant are so vital for her to function; maskShallan is, in many ways, still a child. Her tendency to run from or hide her problems and fears rather than confronting them led to the fracture in her personallity, while otherwise it would have led to emotional growth and maturing. You can see this in the way she deals with problems, such as deciding to rob one of the most powerful women in the country rather than negotiating with the Ghostbloods. As she's forced to confront more of her past, her personality and the way she deals with problems becomes much more complex. This is possibly also why she resents Jasnah once she comes back, and feels the need to run. Jasnah only knew maskShallan, the naiive scholar with a hand for drawing, and therefore still treats her as such, rather than see the emotional growth that she's made and the complex person that she is. It would be unfair to say that maskShallan does not include a large portion of Shallan's personality. However, the other parts of her personality represent her evolution as the series progresses. As her problems grow more complex, so does she, and this brings her far beyond maskShallan, while maskSHallan remains an essential part of who she is.

I think that, in a way, he kind of had. Obviously no character can really accheive perfection or complete satisfaction, but I think that Elhokar helping save his son and his city, and then swearing (or almost swearing) the ideal of the Radiants is in many ways accheiving the heroism that he longed for. I'm not happy that he died, since he could have still grown a lot more, but I think that he does show a lot of character arc.

I think that the most evidence we have is in the letter to Frost which mentions that he has a grudge against both Odium and Bavadin.

Perhaps, although the Coppermind says that Autonomy thinks that Shards are better on their own. How many times would she be willing to work with another?

That makes sense. It's possible that Kaladin's storm incident was just part of his being a Windrunner, but you're right that it could be something more. So far, though, I think we've only seen this in people with Investiture. Maybe something about the connection with the Shards makes this possible? Also, I think that, since Odium seemed to be interacting with Dalinar in the Physical/Cognitive Realm and reacting to what he saw, it's reasonably safe to assume that he was seing the present. Especially since I think that otherwise it would be little to confusing to be included by Sanderson.

Thank you! Do you think that Dalinar is unique in this potential, or is it universal in humans and only Dalinar is making use of it?

I was intruiged by the end (or near end) of Oathbringer, when Dalinar somehow unites the three realms, creating a temporary perpedicularity. There are some really good details there that could lead to further speculation on the nature of the Realms and of the Shards, so if you have the books handy I reccomend rereading the passage (Chapter 119). However, the part that stood out to me the most was on page 1139 in the kindle edition: "'No!' Odium screamed. He stepped forward. 'No, we killed you. WE KILLED YOU!'" Since the perpendicularity created was referred to as "Honor's Perpendicularity", I had originally assumed that this was Dalinar taking on the power of Honor, similar to what Vin does in Mistborn. However, Odium's use of the word "we" leads me to believe that this might not be the case. Since Odium's quest is to Splinter all the other Shards, I find it unlikely that he would have worked with someone else to Splinter Honor. Could he perhaps be referring to the original Shattering? Obviously this is just a theory, but the way Dalinar combined the three realms, along with Odium's fearful reaction (which wouldn't have been so extreme if he was facing an equal) leads me to believe that Dalinar might have somehow briefly touched upon the power of Adonalasium. Dalinar calling himself "Unity" is another hint, since Adonalasium was all of the Shards united. Since I'm planning to do more research on this, the theory isn't complete, so additions or rebuttals are more than welcome.

Interesting theory. I noticed on the Coppermind that the only (known) occurence of someone new taking a Shard is what happened in MIstborn, so the dragon would have had to have been involved in the original Shattering of Adonalasium. This isn't far-fetched, since it does take place in Dragonsteel, but I thought it was worth noting.

It depends on whether or not this is Legion. Are you my aspect, or am I yours?