Nitpicking

A person who is Exist can't harm a living being, but of course the shades are dead. We have no real clues (that I know of) what the Evil is, though. It is alive?

Hey! In the battle for Thaylenah, Adolin cuts off a Thunderclast's foot. In the battle for Azir, Adolin's foot gets cut off. Edit: and Dalinar says to the Thrill, "I understand you." Then he says it to Honor's personification in WaT.

Here's something from Oathbringer that's relevant. Dalinar is about to open the Perpendicularity. Isn't that what Kaladin sees in Syl?

I was looking up something else in Oathbringer and noticed this: when Dalinar visits the Nightwatcher, and Cultivation is about to grant him the boon of forgetfulness, he hesitates, then says "Do it". In WaT, Cultivation's child asks Navani to join her in resisting Retribution, and she says, "Do it!" Deliberate echo on Brandon's part, or just a sentence he likes? [announcer voice] You make the call!

For some reason, my brain unthinkingly assumed that a Nightwatcher Bondsmith wouldn't have Adhesion. There is no textual support for that, of course. Then again, we haven't met a Nightwatcher Bondsmith yet.

Reverse of The Lopen's history (as we close out the ketek that is the Stormlight Archive). Adolin loses a leg, Szeth an arm, and Kaladin fingers. Kaladin may have regenerated his lost digits, though.

@Argenti, right, but I don't understand why you say that Bondsmiths of the Nightwatcher can grant Adhesion. Bondsmiths don't grant Surges, that I can tell, except maybe to their squires.

When does the Nightwatcher "grant" the Surge of Adhesion?

Hey, do you think Brandon meant Taln to be the tortured child in Omelas?

If it means "tines of a fork", I can see that. It could certainly also be lines.

Reviving this topic from the dead to ask: would it be cruel to ask Brandon about this when we're both at Worldcon in August?

That is a very good point that I missed.

Benevolence Faction: dedicated to helping the lower classes. Except they're like "benevolent" slave masters, trying to help the lower classes be more subservient and productive. But happy about it!

Someone (@Treamayne?) posted that this is what makes Biochromatic Breath and Awakening unique and interesting among the magic systems: anyone can in principle get Breath and learn to Awaken. Warbreaker spoiler:

I have no memory of this. That's in the text of the book?

Why do you think that Odium and Rayse had separate oaths, and that Taravangian is not bound by the latter?

My reading of the end of Wind and Truth is that Taravangian-Odium, and later Retribution, was (or felt that he was) bound by Rayse's oaths, thus the Duel of Champions still happened. Rayse promised to preserve Kharbranth and anyone born there. Thus, Taravangian could not destroy Kharbranth without weakening himself so much that Cultivation could kill him. Hmm ... will he be defeated in the Back Half when someone enrages him at the wrong time, and he kills a Kharbranthian?

Separatist faction--wants the Grands to withdraw to their home province and stop interacting with all other humans (Strikers, MaiPon, etc.) as much as possible. Agriculture faction--think that farming is the base of society and that the government and all others should exist mostly to support farmers.

Dang it. I meant that Adolin created the Oathless, not the Oathpact.

Lifeless are made from corpses. If a Fused dies, do you get, say, Leshwi's corpse, or the corpse of the Singer whose body she possessed after expelling him? Whose remnant would the Command activate?

When a Herald dies, it's their soul that goes to Braize, and a new body is created for them from Investiture. We saw that at the end of Wind and Truth, when Kaladin's eyeless body is found by Szeth. Would a Herald be restored after part of their soul gets ripped off? I suspect it would depend on what was spiked out, like @Trusk'our said. Trellists on Scadrial had worked out a way to non-fatally spike regular people.

My own reasoning was that even if anyone could burn Tanavastium, a Mistborn would think of doing it.

Brandon has explicitly said that the back half will take place after SPOILER https://wob.coppermind.net/events/62/#e3049 So ....

Isles is way ahead of schedule and will be released in July.

There's a lot of echoing going on in Wind and Truth. The one that made me notice it was Adolin summoning a circle of Blades to create the Oathpact, mirrored by Ishar's summoning his old comrades to a circle of Blades to recreate the Heralds. Then there's the various people who significantly stand. Taln stands to defend the wounded. Dalinar stands to save Gavinor. To quote Mayalaran, the Lost Deadeyes "stand again". And of course, Kaladin stands up despite the mood-blighting power of Ishar. Another obvious one is people breaking oaths, for the best of reasons (again). Sigzil, to save Vienta. Szeth, because he feels that Aux is not a good match for him (and he doesn't want to be a corrupted Skybreaker). Dalinar, to use the Sunmaker's Gambit and make Taravangian everyone's problem, not just his world's. I'm sure there are others. What springs to your mind? Longer term echo that came to me after hitting Submit: Adolin killed Torol Sadeas with a knife to the eye, despite both having Shardblades. In WaT, Shallan kills Iyatil in almost exactly the same way, if you look at the fight choreography.