WasingtheWhy

I think the numbers aren't really surprising, myself. I mean, think about it. You think that only a small number of the population of any country isn't broken emotionally in some way? We are all broken, at least a little bit. Not to get too philosophical here, but aren't we all searching for something? Trying to fill a hole in our hearts? I think that is the point that Brandon is trying to make, if he is even trying to make one at all. Everyone has gaps. We are all Radiant. Nobody is perfect.

Totally a big deal. And the fact that it was so casually passed over and hasn't been mentioned just made me think it was the start of something much bigger for Adolin than just becoming another Radiant. I was thinking about this recently. The whole bonding process begins with a spren basically taking interest in a human (or singer, let's be inclusive). Then the potential Radiant has to say the Words. That's two halves coming together. Reciprocated on both sides. Equal, right? But Maya is a deadeye. It started the opposite way, human choosing a spren. And she is regaining capacity. Slowly, yes, but still regaining it. Now, the honorspren are all slivers of Honor, essentially, right? But all the Radiants use Stormlight, which is Honor's Investiture. But in RoW, we learn of different types of light. We knew of Voidlight already, but then we have Lifelight, Towerlight, and the Rhythm of War. Maya is a cultivationspren. Which are Cultivation's children, kind of like the honorspren with Honor. (None of it is exact, as of course the Stormfather made some honorspren, too, but that part isn't what I am grabbing at here.) And now we know that Lift doesn't use Stormlight, she uses Lifelight directly. As far as any of us know, she can't breathe in Stormlight the way that the other Radiants do. It's never been spoken of directly, that I know of, but she always just eats and metabolizes Lifelight directly. I guess the point I am trying to figure out is what if Adolin is indeed already a Radiant, and just doesn't know it. He can't breathe in Stormlight, because that's not what he is. Maybe, just maybe, Lifelight is his jam, and his learning to use that Investiture is the real key to "healing" Maya? Adolin and Lift could be Radiants, but really something more. Something that they hadn't seen before. And because of Adolin's relationship to Maya and how he is "cultivating" it (see what I did, there?), at some point he will probably gain Cultivation's attention. Perhaps it is the first step is getting Cultivation to take a more direct hand in the events happening on Roshar. As it stand right now, she has just been a silent-silent partner. Being involved without being really involved. Anyway, I am rambling, but the whole Adolin thing really is one of my favorite parts about the story, and I love the implications involved with how Maya is changing.

I think you're probably onto something. The Shards need a Vessel to fully implement their power. But power corrupts, only not in a typical fashion here. The Shards influence their Vessels, but honestly we don't really know to what extent that is. I mean, most of the Vessels have been active for a not fully understood measure of time. After however many millennia with this mantle of power weighing you down, you're bound to change. In Brandon's Cosmere though, the power has rules, and breaking those rules seems very detrimental to the Vessel and the Shard itself. I don't consider the Shards themselves to have any kind of sentience, personally. Each time (that we have seen, anyway) that a Shard has been without a Vessel, someone has been right there to snatch it up. We don't really know firsthand what happens when the power is just... abandoned. Splintering, one would assume, because a few Shards have been Splintered. The Shards don't seem to act on their own though. It's like a symbiotic relationship. But I can see that if a Shard's nature were ignored or misused, then it would push its Vessel to do what it's nature demanded.

Oh good lord. I can't believe I mixed that up. Talk about a gaff. I have literally been reading Oathbringer recently, too. Still, the theory seems sound, as long as you take out my massive oops in terms of timeline.

It has been said before, though, that Cultivation sees the future better than the other Shards, though. It's true that Renarin is probably a blind spot for anyone with future sight, but she has been playing the long game for a while now. I think Brandon is considering Cultivation to have 3 plans. A plan, a backup plan, and an ace in the hole. Dalinar was plan one. She changed him first, before Gavilar's death. Taravangian was the backup plan. He was after Gavilar's death. Lift is the ace in the hole. We don't know exactly what her reasoning for changing Lift is, yet. It involves the fact that she metabolizes Lifelight directly from food, and doesn't actually use Stormlight to fuel her powers like we initially thought. Besides, you can't tell me that she didn't know what a piece of crap Taravangian was when she changed him. He made his motivations very clear. And we all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. She knew what kind of person Dalinar was when he went to her. She pretty much saw right through him. There is no way she didn't know how arrogant and narcissistic he was when he went to her and asked for the capacity to save the world. How arrogant a statement is that anyway? "Hi, give me the capacity to save the world." How do we know that her idea of the capacity to save the world isn't giving making him the direct enemy of Dalinar and the Radiants? Also, because of Odium's history with the other Shards, she just made him an enemy of any other Shards that may have a beef with Odium. Definitely genius. I don't disagree with the fact that Taravangian is a more dangerous vessel for the Shard. But the Shards influence their vessels, and we don't know how the Shard of Odium will change Taravangian. Cultivation is playing the long game. But like Hoid says, be wary of anyone who claims to be able to see the future.

Hard to say whether Nale would straight up commit murder to get his blade back, considering his whole Judge Dredd thing of "I am the law!". But it does make one wonder whether he would sneak in and steal it either. And it's been alluded to (I can't recall where, but I SWEAR I remember reading it somewhere) that the Honorblades have a lot more power than people think. So it's also possible that Nale was just able to summon it back to himself because it was gifted to him by Honor. The Shin also had Radiants in the past. But again, it's hard to say whether those were anomalies in the Shin culture. They could have bonded with spren against the wishes of their elders, or whoever, and then left. If it was okay to bond spren, though, then there might be Radiants in Shinovar already. Which will make it tougher on Szeth if he plans on going in there in a nerd rage. Which brings me to the stone shamans. How awesome must this group be? They've gotta be like trained from the get-go to be like if Jackie Chan and John Wick had a baby that was trained by Yoda on the edge of a volcano or something. Szeth, I am sure, is aware of their capabilities, but anyone he might bring with him won't be. As capable as Kaladin is, he will straight up underestimate the Shin, and get his tail handed to him. It should make for an interesting section of the book, to say the least.

Fair point. Like I said, I was a bit rusty on my Mistborn. Need to read those again once I finish my re-read of Stormlight. I guess my cackling Mistborn dreams must die unfulfilled.

Does anyone else think that Brandon might have watched that season 4 episode of Futurama Godfellas? Because Harmony kind of talks like the God in that episode, using a light touch, like a safecracker or pickpocket. That sounds like the kind of thing Kelsier would have said to Sazed.

I haven't done a reread of the Mistborn books in a while, so my remembrance of fine details is admittedly sketchy. But is it weird that they don't come across any full Mistborn during this era, or is that just me? You would think with the way the Set operates that there would be a couple of them, hemalurgically or not, that are full Mistborn. Or perhaps society at large tries to keep them secret, like the noble families did in Era 1? And with Twinborn out there, the possibilities of a full Mistborn with Feruchemical powers is a little bit terrifying. Or worse yet, a full Mistborn/Full Feruchemist like the Lord Ruler was. And with the newer metals like bendalloy, Mistborn are even more dangerous. It's something to expect for the final Wax and Wayne book, I suppose. I guess I am just picturing a crazed dual aluminum pistol wielding sociopath hopping through the streets of Elendel cursing Harmony's name while cackling like Vincent Price on a sugar high. But we all have dreams.

We know that Szeth wants to "cleanse" the Shin leaders, who falsely named him Truthless. (What a weird group of words) That's his Skybreaker quest. I guess my thoughts immediately go to, how many of the Honorblades do they still have? We know that they don't have Jezrien's, Nale's, or Ishar's for sure. Taln's could literally be anywhere. There are still a few Heralds unaccounted for. So if we assume that the Shin still have 6 Honorblades, Szeth might be in for a lot of trouble if he goes in there like a tempest. Granted, Nightblood gives him a huge advantage, and he will possibly have Kaladin with him, since Dalinar wants Kal to go meet with Ishar in Shinovar, but that could still mean a lot of trouble for our troubled heroes. Also, the Shin stone shamans are apparently hard cases of the highest order. Szeth mentioned that if he died wielding Jezrien's Honorblade, that the stone shamans would take it back. He seemed pretty confident about that. So we are talking, theoretically, that there is an entire order of people as martially capable as Szeth, trained in Surges (even if they don't have any, which they might), that are competent enough to possibly take on Radiants toe-to-toe. That is a very interesting concept. Am I alone in being suddenly very interested in Shinovar and what is going on with the Shin people?

When I read the sample chapters before RoW's release, I expected things to happen a little differently with Kaladin. After he was removed from the field and decided to work with his father again, I thought there might me an interlude or a few short chapters with Laral. Especially after hearing he had a short but doomed relationship with Lyn, I fully expected Kaladin to kind of reconnect with this girl of his youth and if not have a romantic relationship, at least a friendship that could help him learn to move forward. He reconnected with his family instead, most notably his father. That being said, I was very surprised that Laral was barely even mentioned in passing. I'm not disappointed, or pleased, but with the way that it seems (to me anyways) that Kaladin is at least in the market for a lady friend, I thought that this latest installment would have something of that for him. What did you expect? Were you right or wrong?

I personally think Adolin might go a long while without becoming a Radiant, if he ever does. Of all the characters, I think he would do the best as the lone figure without a nahel bond. He is a very important POV character, and his view of events without a spren I think will be important moving forward. I think there might be some kind of strange reverse-bond happening between him and Maya, which I have seen other people post about before, so it's not a new theory. But Adolin I think will fill a different role through the rest of the story as opposed to being another Radiant. I first started The Wheel of Time in 1994, when I was about 9. I remember reading those books and waiting eagerly for Jordan to release the next one. That was before I could troll the internet every day looking for news about release dates. Took me 20 years to finally reach the end of that one. As a side note, I actually had never heard of Brandon Sanderson until I found out he was going to finish The Wheel of Time. Then I read Mistborn. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Thaidakar was always a jerk. Even when he was trying to be a good guy he was hard to like. Not even really an anti-hero, more like just the hero of his own story. Even his motivations now are selfish. Granted, we don't know exactly what his master plan is (he always seems to have a contingency), but his obvious motivations and the fact that he runs the Ghostbloods as a shadowy group of killers really doesn't paint a very flattering picture. And the fact that he likes that people worship him... what an ego.

I think you could be right, in a way. Roshar is really the centerpiece of the cosmere at this point. The Shards have taken the heaviest hand in affecting the ecosystem, and investiture rides the very winds! They are so spoiled for investiture they use it for light! I honestly can't help but think that's the biggest reason that all worldhoppers are so interested in it. That being said, the technology difference would make for an interesting conflict. But I can't help but think about someone attempting to burn steel and Push on a Shardblade. They talk about Shardblades like they are metal, but are they really a metal that can be manipulated like that? Though, I do think that if the any peoples of Scadrial make any large-scale attempts to interfere that Harmony would be opposed to it. Plus that kind of conflict might be a long way down the road, considering Harmony has another god (Shard?) currently breathing down his neck. In terms of characters from Mistborn that I could see winding up on Roshar.. I want to say old Ironeyes could do it. Or perhaps TenSoon. Simply because they are pretty much immortal, and I personally am unsure of how the books line up chronologically. Scadrians are troublemakers, and boy would it be fun to see them make more trouble on Roshar. I can't picture a conversation between Kaladin and Kelsier without it ending it a bar room brawl. Edit: I just realized that you said Era 4, and that of course if a good ways off, so you didn't really need me repeating it like a dope.

I always kind of picture Rock as Conan O'Brien with mutton chops. But I think it's just because it makes me giggle.

It's hard saying whether or not it will be a true redemption arc for Moash. I just feel like he is a catalyst going forward. It might be less of a redemption arc, and more of a single action that he might take to tip the scales. (Maybe spoiler for some.)

Well, admittedly, he may not. His motivation's are very different from Rayse. But we don't know whether his wanting to kill the other Shards was a motivation of the Vessel, or of the Shard. Maybe Rayse hated all the other Vessels before Adonalsium was shattered, and the Odium Shard just reinforced his hatred? Or maybe the influence of the Shard itself is what drove him to have the whole "there can be only one" attitude. Either way, I don't think that Taravangian is going to play nice with the others.

I only have one. You can never have too many swords.

The Heralds madness isn't something that can be wholly blamed on their torture on Braize. (Though I am sure it was a large contributing factor.) I think that Taln's current state of mind is directly because of his millennia of torture, though both he and Ishar display moments of complete lucidity, which to me suggests that there might be an outside factor influencing their state of mind. I could be wrong, of course, but the moments of lucidity seem too deliberate to be just for effect. Even Kelek isn't as mad as he seems when Shallan finally confronts him. And there are still plenty of Heralds that haven't gotten any page time, so who knows how they are acting. The Stormfather says they are all mad, but we only have actually seen a few of them in action, so it is hard to guess on how it is that they have held up over the years. Though, personally, I think that being alive for thousands of years would drive just about anyone completely batty, but that's just one opinion.

Taravangian is clearly playing the long game. But I think that he is betting on Cultivation staying out of things, and based on her very precise manipulation of events, I don't see that she will. Lift is clearly very important to whatever plans she (Cultivation) has on Roshar, and it is unlikely that we will know the true purpose of Lift's powers until much later on. And let's not forget that the Shard of Odium is still bound to the Rosharan system. Whatever Honor did trapped him there. Kind of like the Wheel of Time. The Dragon sealed the Dark One's prison, limiting his influence. But Cultivation isn't trapped. I think that Hoid is counting on that. With all the worldhoppers seeming to end up on Roshar, it's only a matter of time until another Shard shows up. And considering he wants to destroy them all, it could me almost any of the ones still remaining. Taravangian I don't think is prepared for that.

I don't know if genocide is the right word, but it amounts to about the same thing, really. The spren chose to sacrifice themselves. It was agreed upon by both parties of the bond. Though from what I understand, Honor and Cultivation were on Roshar first. Then Odium came with the people from Ashyn when they screwed their planet up. They were gifted Shinovar as a place to rebuild, but then something happened and they either invaded because of Odium's feud with Honor and Cultivation, or for other reasons. How I personally imagine it playing out was that Honor went to the humans to try and get them away from Odium, and Odium used that to kind of sneakily get the singers to his side, painting himself as a great savior and the humans as the Big Bad Invaders. Even though the whole thing was probably that jerk Rayse's fault anyways. Then, as always, there is confusion, and fighting, and then eventually everyone forgets the reason they were fighting in the first place, and then the humans and singers both become pawns to the Shards. At that point, which species fought for which Shard probably became irrelevant anyway. I do think it would be interesting to know the exact chain of events that brought the singers to Odium's side.

I think that Moash is being primed for a redemption arc down the line. It is going to be interesting going forward with future books, since now that Taravangian has ascended, will we still get POV chapters and interludes from him? Aside from climactic points in other books, we don't see a lot of things from the eyes of a Shard Vessel. That being said, I've never been a huge fan of POV chapters of antagonists in other books, as sometimes they can seem like a lot of mustache twirling and foreshadowing. Mostly I feel that the next book is going to be spent showing just how dangerous Taravangian is now. Rayse was single minded in that he wanted to be the only Shard, and we know that Shards influence their Vessels a lot. It's about to get very Cosmere-heavy, so brace yourselves people!

I was actually thinking as well that some part of the story might culminate in Dalinar piecing together enough of the Splinters of Honor to pull the Shard back together, and then he would ascend to oppose Odium. Like how Preservation was taken up to battle Ruin.

This is my first posting here, and I am currently going through a re-read of Stormlight Archive. I have a tendency to devour new books and I have to go back through them to catch all the little things I missed the first time around. I completely missed the subtle reveal of who Thaidakar really is, for example. Anyway, on to my theory. Taravangian is quite possibly the most arrogant character in the entirety of the Cosmere works. (Hoid is right up there, of course.) But when he ascends to Odium's Shard, he thinks to himself about Cultivation "Oh you have no idea what you've done." Not a direct quote. That being said, throughout Stormlight, it is said that Cultivation sees the future better than any of the other Shards, and clearly she chose Taravangian for a reason. I guess my point I am trying to make is that Taravangian thinks he got the better of Cultivation and Hoid. My theory is that Cultivation will probably turn out to the the most important Shard as the series goes on. Taravangian is clearly more dangerous than Rayse was, and ultimately, I think that Cultivation was counting on Todium taking Hoid's memory breaths. I think that him gaining that knowledge is going to be his downfall.