dgreene196

At no point must the Sibling agree to the bond. The bond isn't forced. They choose the bond. There is Intent behind their choice of Navani. She is definitely NOT their first choice. Rlain is the Sibling's first choice (though we do not know whether Rlain would have agreed to that particular bond). However, she makes a case to the Sibling, that is at least appealing to them - she proposes that Honor isn't truly dead, because his creations, his influence lives on. She's able to use the Anti-Voidlight tones to push back the Sibling's corruption. She makes a case the Sibling accepts. The Sibling is certainly under stress and lacks preferred options, but they still accept that relationship. As to power over the souls of everything? There's so much we don't know about Bondsmiths. We don't know what Navani and the Sibling will be capable of moving forward. She is not a Bondsmith unbound like Ishar, nor is the Sibling strengthened with Honor's cognitive shadow as is the Stormfather. She is her own variation of a Bondsmith, on a distinct path with the Sibling. I think it will be fascinating to see how it all plays out. But that is just my thoughts on the matter.

Rlain might have been a great Bondsmith for the Sibling. He just needed to be taught (by Navani) to perfection create Honor’s tone, harmonize with the Sibling to create Towerlight, be taught how to use the Sibling’s many disparate and complex fabrial constructs. I’m sure all of that could have been done easily within the context of the book...And, of, course, we all know that Rlain was happy to bond to any spren that wanted him. Or maybe Rlain is happy with his bond to a spren that carefully studied him for a protracted period of time, and wants him for his ability to bridge minds, his willingness to see the truth of things and share it. I think Rlain, bonded to a mistspren (though Awakened, by Sja-Anat), is perfect - I think that Singer Radiants make a certain amount of sense more closely aligned to Cultivation’s side of the Surges. As for Navani, it is absolutely true that the Sibling deemed her unworthy, but she makes a case for herself to the Sibling. Successfully. There is mortal danger for both of them, true. But she knows how to harmonize with the Sibling when it’s necessary. She knows how to vent away the Voidlight in the Sibling’s ‘veins.’ She has a learned, experienced understanding of the ways in which the Sibling integrates with Urithiru. And she does display attributes of a Bondsmith in this book. She advocates for the sharing of research, of discovery among the human alliance. She unites with a Fused leader in a common pursuit of knowledge, of discovery. Raboniel definitely views her as a friend by the end of their time together. When’s the last time a human and a Fused were friends? How many thousands of years? She does her best to protect the humans within Urithiru - leading them by surrendering when so many Alethi leaders might have fought to the last person. She grows so much in this book. Her relationship with the Sibling is precarious. We don’t know the extent to which the Sibling is fully recovered from the events that led them to sleep around the Recreance and the imprisonment of Ba-Ado-Mishram. But there is so much foundation that was laid in this book for Navani to progressed in the way that she did. And, for her, she needed to stand up for herself, for what she advocates for to the Sibling, in a way that she never stood up to Gavilar’s lack of faith in her. She is worthy.

Kaladin isn't well-practiced at Adhesion as a Physical Surge, but his natural abilities as a leader certainly suggest an affinity for Spiritual Adhesion/Connection. Definitely not like a Bondsmith, but it certainly seems that he's somewhat unique in that regard. - the Heavenly Ones, for instance, are completely fascinated with his accomplishments. And, given the praise directed toward Kaladin and Navani, I don't get the impression that the Fused have particularly high opinion of most mortals. And we know he's been close to the 4th Ideal for awhile (all the swirling Windspren and whatnot). I don't think the Sibling means that anyone at the 3rd Ideal can resist the Tower's suppression. They mean that someone really near saying the 4th Ideal could. And that may be unique to Windrunners because only one of their Surges is suppressed (which is why the Windrunners, in general, were less sedated than the other Orders).

My thinking on this was that I believed it referenced Moash's injury. His strong Connection to Odium and his possession of Jezrien's Honorblade at least made him a strong possibility as Odium's Champion (with some sort of Odium-gifted upgrade, at least). A key factor in Kaladin maybe not directly connecting to Odium in that scene was that we don't have any hint that his bond with Syl was disrupted. But, since we get that scene from an external perspective we don't really know. It certainly seems that, briefly, he received a significant upgrade in terms of his physical speed. And ripping an enemies head off with a Reverse Lashing isn't really Kaladin's MO.

I'm very ready for this book. The story, the world-building, the characters....really all of it. My favorite part of fantasy like this is that, because there's so much, there's opportunity to be re-engaged later in life. In my first read-through of Wheel of Time, Rand was the plot line I was most interested in, and some of the older characters (Nynaeve) weren't terribly interesting to me. But, rereading a decade later as the series was finally wrapping up, whose my favorite character? Nynaeve. The same is true for Stormlight Archive. As my life has changed, the parts of the books that stand out, that are relatable change. Whatever parts I'm not as excited about now, I suspect I may appreciate them all the more at some point in the future. Now, kindly bring it on!

I'm trying to think of another character I really want an update on, and it feels as though we've touched on just about every key character so far in the preview chapters. Relatively efficient. I guess it's time to see what Kaladin has decided, career-wise, through someone else's eyes? Perhaps his father's?

I could see Wit keeping his Investitures close to the vest, no matter how close he has become with Jasnah. Even with just his knowledge, he's a tremendous resource. And anyone who has spent time with Wit knows he's more mysterious and likely more powerful than he lets on. Not that power is something he's pursuing. I look forward, years from now, to finding out why Wit so doggedly pursues different kinds of Investiture and how it fits into his mysterious goals.

Other thoughts on the unusual modern Radiants: Venli - also worth noting that she can use Stormlight and Voidlight, which isn't normal - we'll have to see if they feel the same to her, or if there's some sort of difference. Renarin - he can't lightweave in the traditional way, but it certainly seems he can do, well, something. Hopefully, we get more insight into his interruption of Moash's hateful conversation with Kaladin. And the whole seeing the future thing. Kaladin - It definitely feels as though there are secrets to Kaladin we don't understand yet. The wind. The possibility that Syl isn't quite like other honorspren. And the fact that the shanay-im are fascinated by what he's done with the Windrunners in such a short time. I know the suspicion is that Cultivation may have a hand in setting the deck to get the humans a fighting chance, but I do wonder if Honor had a hand in this, as well. The spren fear that, without Honor, the Nahel bond could be more powerful. Maybe that's intentional. Honor clearly had time to prepare for his death, even if his own "death rattles" seemed to contribute to the Recreance. Perhaps his death was sacrificial, setting up a chance for Rosharans against Odium - hmm, that's going to need a better name and acronym...

This is something I've been thinking about for the past week, and I've got no ideas to which I'm strongly committed. Anyone have any good thoughts on Zahel/Vasher's Intent? Could it be as simple as he's drawn to conflict to try to end it? I'm sure lots of folks have much better thoughts, which I would appreciate.

If Adolin and Shallan take any of her squires (or Lightweaver underlings, if they've progressed that far) to Lasting Integrity, then it's definitely someone on that trip.

Except, aren't we pretty (mostly absolutely) sure that Endowment, the Shard on Nalthis is not only alive, but wrote Hoid a letter in Oathbringer? It's also the one planet we're aware of where everyone there is born with the potential to use the Invested magic system, so long as they can get sufficient Breath. I'm not sure that's true anywhere else (Sel may be an exception).

But it must not have been an active plan by the other 9. If something was done to the Oathpact, then Kalak wasn't aware of it until he met with Jezrien and the other 7 had already abandoned their Honorblades. Is it safe to presume that Ishar (as the creator of the Oathpact) was the one with the abilities need to put the full weight of the Oathpact on Taln? And the others, in their pain and torment and fear, agreed with that plan? Or perhaps even another proposed the idea?

If Raboniel's disease came from another planet, I suspect it wasn't Raboniel who directly acquired it. If Heralds and Surgebinders are too strongly Invested to leave the Rosharan system via Shadesmar, then it seems reasonable to say the Fused are also unable to leave the system. But, then, I also choose to believe, until we have more information, that Raboniel actually created the disease by Soulcasting (think of it as Surgebinding equivalent of the creation of Nightblood; it was just her convincing something to "Destroy humans" in the same way that Nighblood was Awakened to "Destroy Evil").

He's in Oathbringer. Just not for very long. In fact, I think that's the first time we see him interact with Dalinar. When the Shadesmar 6 leave the honorspren ship, Azure flat out tells Kaladin to tell Zahel she's looking for him. Since she's also told them she's not from Roshar and came looking for someone, they have an awful lot of evidence that Zahel isn't just a swordmaster ardent. Now, whether that's the most important thing they've had to deal with in the last year during the gap between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War? Very, very unlikely.

But her victims aren't alive still after the process, which the Nine are, which is what I was trying to get across. It's not even clear with the text if they're encased in stone are somehow merged into the stone columns. Jasnah has tremendous skill in Soulcasting (I believe there are references to her Soulcasting fire into her papers as a means of writing notes, and she cleansed Shallan of breakneck powder despite noting she's not good at blood Soulcasting), but I definitely don't think we've seen the limit of Soulcasting capabilities, and I suspect the Fused have some abilities the Soulcasting human Surgebinders haven't considered.