Nitpicking

Sure, here you go: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1195:_Flowchart

I need to reread Bands.

Brandon has stated that both Endowment and Preservation deliberately added more Investiture to "their" humans.

How could even an unsealed metalmind be simultaneously made of two metals, in a Metallic Art where alloys are considered their own metal?

Who says Jezrien's power was greater than other Heralds?

Both Scadrians and Nalthians have "extra" investiture compared to humans from other worlds.

@SpiritOfWrath, Hoid is only an Elantrian in the far future of the Cosmere (from the Stormlight Archive/Wax and Wayne era).

@AlmightyGir, I think what you write applies to all spren, no just deadeyes. If you can chip an Honorblade, why couldn't you chip a living sprenblade? "Deadeye" spren are not, in fact, dead.

I think that last line is the essence of our disagreement. I want the individual bookmonsters to work. You're reading a single long story. I'm reading individual books in a series (if I may oversimplify). I maintain that utterly eliminating Zahel from RoW would change nothing. Aside from maybe a sentence, the entire rest of the book would still work and would in fact be unaffected. Thus: disposable.

FWIW, there's an actual swallowable piece of Tanavastium somewhere. Nightblood chipped off a chunk of Ishar's Honorblade. I spent all of WaT waiting for Hoid to burn it allomantically.

I wrote in my previous message about how editing one of these monster books would take a year. I didn't claim I could outline all the required changes in a forum message written in less than five minutes. I'm not magic. I think one of Brandon's weaknesses as a writers is too much setup. Back when he did a podcast, the Writing Excuses crew would talk about "in late, out early." Brandon has not, in my arrogant opinion, mastered "in late". I commend to you a famous quote said to be from William Faulkner. In general, I'd tighten up those topics you listed, not eliminate them. Also, Vasher/Zahel fighting Kaladin--that whole chapter is irrelevant, teaches nobody anything, and shouldn't be there. I'm sure Brandon is saving Vasher for Book Nine or something, but I'm not of the mindset that says, "It'll matter in 5000 pages" is justification for taking up space now. Make it relevant or just don't do it. (The Faulkner quote is the one about killing your darlings.)

This always bothers me. Electrum is an alloy. Properly, the "atium" Vin used to burn is an alloy of gold, silver, and atium.

Well, in RoW, I'd eliminate about half of Part One, in which almost nothing happens. In WaT, I'd cut half of the endless Spiritual Realm odyssey. That's just off the top of my head. Oh, and eliminate the weird "beat the minibosses and collect the Honorblades" videogame segment. This refers to my statement that it was only partly edited. That was based on Eric (@Chaos), IIRC, saying on Shardcast that the Tor editorial team didn't get a chance to edit it due to deadline pressure. It's a huge book, Tor edits would have delayed publication by as much as a year. (That's my guess, neither Eric or Tor said that.)

It's unpolished and only partly edited, and both RoW and WaT are flabby. I'm not a professional editor, but I confidently say that I could easily cut 15% from both books and improve them tremendously. (Yes, that's arrogant. I stand by it.)

Of course, he also believed that the Knights Radiant were a fraud, didn't he?

I was engaging in wordplay. Kaladin was tempted by retribution, the act of taking vengeance for an offense. OTOH, I wouldn't be shocked at all to find that Brandon had Retribution in his outline by then.

You rate Elantrians as a group above Dalinar? Consider that he's a Bondsmith, and that if he breaks an Elantrian's Connection to the land, they instantly lose AonDor and have no way to regain it.

If you think about it, in Words of Radiance Moash and Graves tempt Kaladin specifically with Retribution, with vengeance against the lighteyes and Elhokar. He resists, but it's a close thing.

You mean the Blackthorn spren? If so, where is Dalinar on your list? Give me a little prep time and a team, and I could kill Miles (if he doesn't have his criminal army) quite easily. Use explosives and/or artillery to deprive Miles of his guns and other tools. Five strong people--not even pewterarms, just strong fighters--grab Miles and chain his legs to big weights. Throw him in a pond that's at least 3 meters deep. (Short chains, obviously.) Don't bring him back up until his body visibly rots.

We've seen at least one person remove his spike and be OK afterward, but Spook was probably also soul-healed by Harmony. Note: Minor point, but Brandon refers to former Vessels as "slivers" (not "splinters"). A former Dawnshard also has a modified soul with remnant power and restrictions, as seen in The Sunlit Man.

He did memorably beat up Kelsier in Mistborn: Secret History.

Crack theory: Venli is one of Brandon's many "brilliant scholar who is also an action hero" characters. (Prince Raoden, Elend, Shai, Navani, Jasnah, Wax the metallurgist and Marasi the college-educated criminologist, Vasher and the rest of the Five, Sigzil, Jerick ...) In Book Six, she learns about how the Heralds were made and what they do. She has a strong Connection to both Odium (she's a Regal) and Honor (she's a Radiant), meaning she constructively has a strong Connection to Retribution. She forms a new set of Heralds, 9 of them (Odium's number), to bind Retribution even further, forcing him to allow sunlight to shine again. Maybe the 9 Heralds are all Singers? Ba-Ado-Mishram is the "piece of a god" needed by Ishar's formula?

Sunlit Man takes place in the Space Age, Mistborn Era 4. Scadrial has interstellar travel! That's centuries in the future, long after the timewarp. I'm putting it contemporaneous with Emberdark, just because I think that would be fun and therefore fit Brandon's "Rule of Cool".

Vasher hates gods. He said so himself. He might not want Surges that are granted by Honor/Odium/Retribution. Just tossing that idea out there.

That's an interesting point. I suspect the Odious Investiture being poured into Kaladin had effects similar to the Oathpact, but what do I know?