Nitpicking

I agree with several Shardcasters that this book needed one more full draft, full rewrite. And Brandon just didn't have time to do it, because of the aggressive deadline. It isn't bad, it's actually better than RoW, but it could be so much more than it is. Large parts of it drag--not as badly as part 1 of RoW, but they drag. Kaladin-invents-psychotherapy was just silly, as he completes centuries of progress by hundreds or thousands of practitioners in our world, by himself in a few months. Only he's better than any real-world therapist could possibly be. It's as if Navani invented the light bulb and steam engine, and developed titanium alloys, all alone, just during the events of Rhythm of War. And built a flying laser-armed tank in WaT.

I think Syl is potentially the Stormfather's replacement. She has/had a strong Connection him, he's her father and literally made her. Also, when Kaladin needed an Honorblade/Honorspear to be a Herald, it was Syl who worked with him to make it. She's the "senior" Splinter of Honor remaining. (The Sibling might "contain" more Honor, but presumably has too much Cultivation to become the Honor megaspren.) Just to be confusing, if she becomes a megaspren like the Nightwatcher or the Tower, does that make Kaladin a Bondsmith? Mr. "Refuses to be a scholar"? Who is already a Fifth Oath Windrunner? He'd be the opposite of Ishar, I think. Did she go to Ashyn with Kaladin, or is she still on Roshar? When Kaladin Returns to Roshar, would their bond make Syl strong enough to replace the Highstorm with the "Motherstorm"? She actually says at one point that she'd make an excellent mother.

That's 100% correct. The other direction is what I was referring to. Note that training in low-oxygen environments seems to offer a real advantage by promoting the production of more erythrocytes in the athlete, increasing oxygen carrying capacity. Like anything in biology, it's complex.

Extra oxygen doesn't normally boost performance. That thing where athletic trainers give people oxygen on the sidelines to give them energy? Placebo. An athlete's oxygen saturation is almost always 98% or higher. More oxygen by mask doesn't change anything.

Folks do realize that the Command that created Nightblood, "Destroy evil," is literally ... retribution? Right? Combined with Ruin? And Nightblood is a person now? Nightblood eats both Sazed and Taravangian and becomes the Vessel of a 4-shard being, "Divine Justice." And that's my crack theory for the day.

When Adolin is fighting Abidi the Monarch as the first of the Unoathed, he crushes the Fused's gemheart. But ... did the Alethi know about Singer gemhearts? I thought it was something they were totally unaware of. And Yanagawm (whose point of view we're inhabiting) also seems to know. Am I just remembering wrong? Maybe Maya told him through their thoughtspeech, of course.

z The Night left ... and later went to Threnody, where he became the patron spren of the Night Brigade. That's my crack theory for the day.

I don't have a page number because reading from an ebook, but in chapter 135, Adolin recognizes the salute from dueling "fectbooks". I don't know that word, myself.

That could have been hilarious. Have Jasnah just casually Soulcast some air into a written document signed by Taravangian of Kharbranth, ordering that his (imaginary) ex-lover be executed for the crime of smiling at another man. Acknowledge that she just created it from thin air, and point out that she isn't even a god.

"Sense of place" is a pretty common phrase, in (literary) English.

The characters seem to believe that they're basically simulations, a la deepfakes. The characters are very often wrong, of course.

Let me invert my question: Why would Retribution not kill every single sleepless hordling in the Roshar system? You might say, he can't. And I might answer: why not? Yes, he seems to be respecting the "don't hurt mortals directly" thing, but why can't Taravangian send Fused with oil and torches to incinerate every last one of them? (Do the Sleepless count as mortal?)

Where could the Nightwatcher even survive on Roshar? She seems to be a wild plant-based being, and none of the (non-agricultural) Rosharan plants are going to survive except in the Tower and Azimir. No sunlight anywhere else. That could be an interesting plot thing. Does the Old Magic still exist, if the Nightwatcher survives? Would La Resistance seek it out to substitute for the lost Surgebinding? Will Lift have more trouble making Lifelight, if Cultivation is out of the Roshar system? I don't think so (Awakening and Allomancy don't seem to weaken when used on Roshar), but who knows? Apparently Surges do weaken if the spren and its human are separated.

Like I wrote, it isn't clear whether he can eat Towerlight. It apparently took him quite a while to learn to eat Stormlight. I think the narrative says it's possible, but I have to wonder if the Tower can recharge gemstones while the Sibling is in suspended animation. I was thinking he could steal Warlight. He's Vasher.

BTW, this whole "OK, he's dead, but I can still make him a character" thing with the Blackthorn is really off-putting to me. Brandon promised to let people be permadead, dammit. Up next: the Lord Ruler returns! And Gavilar!

I have my doubts. Taravanagian was so emphatic about these being the real, actual people that I'm assuming they're spren he made to fake his family and citizens. He's hugely dishonest with himself.

So, with the Highstorm and Stormlight over ... what is Vasher/Zahel going to eat to avoid consuming his Breath? Can he consume Towerlight? Can Lift learn to feed him Lifelight?

It would seem that I was just remembering wrong. Sorry.

I said "the Nohadon who Dalinar meets". I don't think that's the real Nohadon. He even coyly suggests that he isn't. Wind and Truth, chapter 142. It might be worth mentioning a Dragonsteel Prime spoiler:

Does anyone else think that the Nohadon who Dalinar meets in the vision is Frost? The story goes out of its way to remind us that dragons have human forms. He acts, looks, and even talks quite a bit like Frost from Dragonsteel Prime. And, just for fun, why did Brandon choose this book to canonize Dragonsteel in? Words of Brandon say that dragons have worshipers, who reach out to them for help with controlling their emotions. In a reading, Brandon let out a story fragment where Frost spends most of his time helping worshipers, in fact. This is also where temu keks get canonized, and Hoid is talking to a dragon repeatedly through this book. Thoughts? Came to me while typing this: Hoid's relationship with Valor is or was bad. Valor's Vessel is or was a dragon. Could Medalantorius, the original Vessel, be Frost's sister, and thus Starling be the child of Medalantorius and Midius? (She calls Frost "Uncle".) And they broke up? Hoid is admittedly bad at relationships. I believe there's a WoB that Hoid has children.

Like they just said on Shardcast, saving Kharbranth makes him a big old hypocrite. I find it interesting that Brandon made his love for his city and family less redeeming than it might have been, by having him memory-edit them all so they can't be aware of his terrible crimes.

Brandon had to do the Gavinor thing, after spending so long setting it up (e. g. with the death rattle). Was that the best choice decades (!) ago when Brandon plotted this? Hard for me to judge, because a different decision would have meant a significantly different book. I'm an old-time TTRPG player. My immediate thought was to name Taravangian as Honor's Champion. T would either have to let himself be killed (so Odium won, but he was gone) or win (and thus restrict himself). Unfortunately, the champions had to be willing.

Stormlight has to come back or be replaced, because the Back Five has to highlight five Radiant Orders that haven't had "their" books yet. In the Cosmere's Space Age, (spoiler warning):

So, no spoilers here (for non-Dragonsteel Prime stories) but ... holy sh!t. I was not expecting that.