Elegy

Definitely the worst for me. I still like it a lot, obviously, and I think most of the big things are just amazing once again, I want that to be clear up front. But for the first time in the series, there's things (mostly details) that I think Brandon did a bad job with. Like, not in the sense of a reaction like "I don't like this" but more like "this needed more work". Some examples (spoilered for length, although it's not terribly long): Anyway, there's more, especially to the last one, but I don't want this comment to get too negative. Most of these things are details and only really important for a bunch of chapters. The main character developments (in Kaladin, Shallan, Navani, also less major characters like Rlain and Taravangian) were all great in my opinion, I loved the world-building, most of the action (especially in Part 1, what a sequence!) and all the important twists. It also has several of my favorite Stormlight chapters ever (the Syl interlude, the second Taravangian interlude, "Dog and the Dragon", Taravangian's Ascension, Eshonai's death). So don't misunderstand me. It's merely the first time that a Stormlight book has things that make me feel llike they would have needed more revisions. But the contrast between one of the other Stormlight books and this one is more like ... "one of my favorite books" and "not one of my favorite books", not anything more dramatical than that.

I think after Rhythm of War, that train has left completely. It would have been doable over the course of two Stormlight-sized books, even though a satisfying redemption arc is hard to do even under those conditions. But now, instead of taking a few steps in the right direction, he's only gotten worse. One book before a 10 year time jump is just not enough for such a journey, and if that book really spans 10 days, it's completely impossible, and I can't imagine Brandon being so delusional as to try it. It's fair to say that's not what he has in mind for him. Although whatever it is that Brandon plans to do, it seems to be very important for us to hate him when it happens, given how much his depiction in Rhythm of War is aimed at making him seem as insufferable as possible. . .

But who's denying Kelsier is a maniac and potentially dangerous? Noone in this thread, as far as I know. I think you're setting up a straw man there. People are not surprised by him being a villain. They are surprised that he's the head of a group that doesn't seem to fit his worldview and his view of himself. Imagine Taravangian becoming Lezian the Pursuer between books/book series. Of course Taravangian is not a hero, and chances are he's responsible for even more deaths than Lezian (since we don't know of any devastating large-scale civil wars that one started) ... People would not be surprised by him being a villain, they would be surprised by him being that villain. (Again the reminder that I don't think it's necessarily wrong for him to be Thaidakar or even a bad decision in general, just that it isn't intuitive and some things about the informations we have at the moment don't add up and need clarification.)

The whole book is actually on his website (This is chapter 32)

It's not necessarily El who calls them the Final Ten Days, or is it? Maybe it's what historians call them afterwards. "Ah yes, the musings that El wrote down on the Final Ten Days before [something significant] happened! I'll collect them with that heading."

Does Warbreaker also count? If so, there's one in chapter 32.

Probably, but it being in or out of character for Kelsier isn't that much about the Ghostbloods being evil or not evil, or Kelsier being evil or not evil. It's about how they operate. When Kelsier recruited Vin, he was like a father to her, just like he was a friend to every member of his crew. Veil has had much of the same potential and Mraize completely wasted it by always trying to play her and messing with her psyche. His way of treating people is the exact opposite of what Kelsier would approve of (note how he treats Lift, literally waiting for an excuse to "hunt" her, when she is actually very close to Vin in many ways). I'm well aware that this can be explained with something along the lines of "Kelsier isn't there to control what his subordinates do, so they do things he wouldn't like", but well, that's exactly what my point is: It needs to be explained. The way it is, it seems a stretch to me. (Although I want it to be clear that I'm not against it. Kelsier is an exciting character and I'm always up to more of him! I'm merely skeptical.)

I don't think there's a significant difference. Brandon refers to them as spren: So, that sounds like Rosharans would call them Devotionspren.

We have seen Autonomy's light and it would probably be called Sandlight (albeit only because the term Sunlight wouldn't be very useful ).

https://www.facebook.com/BrandSanderson Adam should post something on there on the day of the livestream (Thursday) or the day before. At least that's how it went the last few times!

Yeah, I imagine he could have waited a few more books with the reveal if he had to and just felt this was the right time for it. It's not really crucial to the story to know who he is (at least yet). He definitely makes those posts on his Facebook page ... Not sure about Twitter etc. I think I've seen them on his YouTube channel as well. In case you don't have an account on any of those and don't want to make one, maybe someone could ask the question for you, it's an interesting one.

Rithmatist and Dark One were originally meant to take place on Cosmere worlds. Were any of the newly revealed Shards in consideration to be on these worlds, and if yes, which ones for which story? --- Normally, there will be posts on his social media sites that you can reply to and Adam picks some of the questions. You can also write in the YouTube livestream chat while he is streaming, but as far as I know the questions are less likely to be picked then. I don't know ... Brandon always knew that he would survive (he planted a lot of seeds for that in Hero of Ages and later said so in the Secret History postscript), so it's possible that he had always planned it this way. Maybe he just wasn't sure when to reveal it. But I'd also like to know!

The scene that was one of the pillars of his original vision for Stormlight was the sequence of Kaladin jumping: So if you mean that one, that's it. But as noted above, chapter 80 is his favorite, and he had stated previously that he was very excited to write the epilogue. (The other "pillar scene" he's already gotten to was Kaladin getting the Sylblade at the end of Words of Radiance.)

I took that as referring to humans, since human culture is El's field of expertise, so he's obviously interested in how they behave. It's also in line with his considerations in the Part 5 epigraphs. The other Fused seem to feel more antagonistic towards humans, if Lezian is anything to go by (Raboniel and Leshwi are presented as exceptions in their respect for humans). I guess if a species has thrown you out of your home and kept killing you for 7000 years, you get kinda angry and don't like any compromises. That said, I find it interesting that Rayse (who else) seems to have taken his rhythms because he proposed the very thing he himself secretly wanted - using humans for, for example, a greater war (the Desolations being a way of training Rosharan humanity for a cosmere war, those things). Rayse seems to have been serious about making the Fused believed he did the whole thing for their revenge rather than for himself and a plan that would probably make them expendable.

Are there any instances of golden Odium light outside of visions? Because the golden light could have a different cause, just like light becomes red when corrupted. Maybe it's a special use of Investiture that would make it golden with any Shard. Because Voidlight is basically Odium's body in the form of light and I think it's hard to argue with that. Another thing that speaks for violet as Odium's color is the violet flame that Dalinar sees when Odium shows him his Intent in Oathbringer.

Brandon has actually been asked about this and your intuition is right:

[[Mistborn spoilers, of course!]] Brandon definitely has some explaining to do. Kelsier is a thief, but he always stole to spite oppressors. He is also convinced that he's a messiah, but he couldn't keep up that charade if he didn't also act like one to some degree. He has a God complex, but that God complex includes being a savior (which he was, for several people several times). I always thought that those who saw Kelsier in line with the Ghostbloods' plans had a simplified view on Kelsier. Now that they've been right, Brandon needs to prove he didn't flanderize the character. --- Kelsier also almost jumped into an enemy army because he couldn't bear his supporters being murdered, and only Vin kept him from it. If he had been interested in power first and foremost, his plan wouldn't have included dying. He would have made sure he became the Lord Ruler's successor, which he didn't. He died, because he wanted to be a messiah, and because he wanted the Lord Ruler to fall - which could all be seen as egoistic reasons -, but not because he wanted power. On a side-note, could you please refrain from mentioning anything about Sixth 2 outside of spoiler boxes? Brandon has said it's spoiler-y and many people have not read it for that reason, including me.

Yeah, that's international, Brandon basically confirmed that much: Seems to be mostly because it's more convenient narratively, but he does call it an "in-world reason"

That is a good thought, but then the surges don't add up. If Lightweaving is the primary surge for Lightweavers and Progression, like you suggest, the primary surge for Edgedancers, then there's nothing left for the Truthwatchers in between. And if Edgedancers have Progression and Windrunners Adhesion, you have three surges left between them (Gravitation, Division, Abrasion) but only two Orders (Skybreakers and Dustbringers).

Most interludes could have worked as normal chapters just as well. And the Jasnah chapters could have been interludes by the standards of this book. It makes sense because all the world is tied into the conflict now and the story is getting nearer to its first ending, so introducing random new things this late would feel weird. On the other hand, just dropping the interludes altogether would be weird as well, since we've come to expect them from a Stormlight book. So I understand this compromise and think it's a good way of doing it. But what I miss is the short story format of these interludes. The only interlude that I felt worked as a coherent little story was the Syl one. All the other ones are short set-ups and hardly more than that. In Words of Radiance (hands down the best interludes by far, in my opinion), the Rysn and the Lift interludes alone were complete short stories within a larger book. And I hoped that, for example, this one's Lift interlude would do something like that and was kinda disappointed to have it end on a cliffhanger. So basically, while I have nothing against the way interludes are less independent now, I do believe that Brandon doesn't put the same amount of work into them as he did in previous books. At least I would be very surprised if he did.

Felt mentions in Oathbringer that the Nightwatcher doesn't like "foreigners" like him, so it would probably be very hard to convince her. I"m not saying it's impossible, but it wouldn't be happening for a long time, I think. --- I'm also siding with the Rock theory. Although it has a few inconveniences, at least if it's going to happen in/until the next book. For one, I don't believe it would happen in his novella, since Brandon tends to keep novella spoilers out of the next main book, and hiding a new Bondsmith in book 5 would be very, very difficult I think. And then still, for Rock to become a Bondsmith in book 5, it would be hard to get him there and give him that place in the story without spoiling the stuff that happened in the novella. It's certainly possible to work around that, but it demands some trickery.

Brandon will probably find a way to get them to Urithiru at the latest until the fight of the champions. And if they have to ride starspren to fly to the Oathgate of Azimir! I doubt she'll still be stuck in Shadesmar by that point. Now that book 5 will wrap up the front 5, I think it's likely it will see the end of Mraize, with new Ghostbloods representatives in the back 5. After all, Brandon promised a decent sense of closure at the middle point of the series (on the level of the first Mistborn book), so the main antagonists will probably be dealt with (although I don't mean that they have to die, just be incapable of doing much more harm during the time between book 5 and 6). And I guess having a hunt as his climax as an antagonist would make sense.

Liberation is an important theme for sure. The main plotline is about freeing the occupied Urithiru, which both Kaladin and Navani work on hard throughout the book. With this, they also want to free the Sibling, who is kind of like a hostage to the Fused, and of course the Radiants that are captured for pretty much all of the book. Venli's whole arc is about liberation, since she is the Willshaper and her whole progress is built around it. Most obviously, she frees Lift, but also Leshwi and the other Fused that finally decide to side against Odium after 7000 years. Eshonai's wish is to be free to explore the world. Lasting Integrity is described as kind of a huge prison, and the honorspren isolate themselves in there, a process that is ended by Adolin. Adolin's punishment was going to be imprisonment but he escaped that. His bond with Maya seems to have freed her of some of the limitations she had as a Deadeye, and she insisted that the spren of the Recreance made a free choice instead of being forced into it by the Radiants. Shallan's way of shutting her other personalities up is locking them up, which she does as she loses it towards the end. Kelek's aim is to be free from the system - the Willshaper Herald, fittingly. The Ghostbloods, however, want to imprison him in a dagger (well, because their master wants to be free as well). Jasnah wants to end slavery and eventually monarchy, both ways of liberating a people. And lastly, the anti-Light is a way to free the Fused from the war once and for all. When Raboniel kills her daughter to end her suffering, she says: "No more rebirth. No more Returns. Free at last,my baby. Free."

Mraize says in chapter 13: "The Sons of Honor don't have an agent close to Dalinar. They simply managed to intercept some communications from one of our agents who is close to Dalinar." So there's not really a Sons of Honor spy, but a Ghostblood spy. That one, on the other hand, was revealed, since it was a Sleepless working for the Ghostbloods that spied on Wit (as seen in the chapter that ends with him telling Jasnah about Thaidakar). How the Sons of Honor got the information out of that Sleepless is as of now unknown, I think. I was also a bit disappointed about the lack of Thunderclasts and Unmade in this book, but honestly, it makes sense. In the battle of Thaylen, two major things happened: Nightblood killed a Thunderclast spren permanently and Dalinar trapped an Unmade (and threw it into the ocean afterwards, so I guess that counts as permanent as well). Odium just couldn't afford any other Unmade or Thunderclast spren to be taken from him, since there's so few of them. So he'd only use them when absolutely necessary. And it wasn't necessary in Rhythm of War: The war in Emul was just a distraction anyway, so no need for them, and Odium seemed to think (as indicated by Taravangian) that Nightblood was still in Urithiru, so using them there would have been a risk in his estimations. I think it makes sense that way, although I too expected more Unmade stuff after Oathbringer. I'm sure TOdium will find good use for either in book 5 though

I agree, I'm also a bit confused by how little attention the Ars Arcanum gets. Then again, there might just not be enough to go on speculating, since the things she mentions are mostly very vague. Still, that hasn't stopped the Shard before, has it? Another interesting thing in the Ars Arcanum is the first canonical mention of microkinetics, the Yolen magic that can manipulate axis. Brandon always said he wanted it to be less overpowered once he writes Dragonsteel, but from what Khriss indicates, the canon version still seems to be very destructive. Yep, this is the biggest mystery in there. That said, the oceans in the epigraphs don't seem to allude to Obrodai but First of the Sun (the Sixth of the Dusk world). (Obrodai is related to as "there", while Patji refers to the oceans as "these waters", so he means the place he currently is.) It would make sense for these "oceans" Khriss mentions to be the same ones that Patji mentions in his letter, but Foil doesn't fit the naming conventions of the Pantheon (Patji and Sori are the names we know). I'm sure there are plenty of other oceans in the cosmere that Khriss could refer to. I guess Foil being on the world of Aether of the Night makes most sense, since such a being would get the most out of controlling the Aethers, I guess. But, as I said at the beginning, there's not much to go on. In the section about "Windrunning and Lashing", Khriss says her knowledge about Windrunning is derived from information about Szeth's abilities from his time as Assassin in White. So she doesn't seem to have been around before the Recreance to witness Radiant powers first-hand before Szeth used their abilities when they already were mythological to the Rosharan cultures. Thank you for making this topic! The Ars Arcanum is oddly overlooked!