Mason Wheeler

A bunch of people are saying Taravodium will be somehow less bad than Rayse. I don't agree. You don't cast a character in the role of Satan if they're intended to be a good influence on the world. Not to mention the foreshadowing we got from this book's Letter, where Sazed says that having Rayse get replaced by someone who the power is a better fit for would be the worst-case scenario!

Or something very right. We've got a WoB saying that there's a reason that the Stormfather calls him "Child of Tanavast."

I know what would overturn a lot of expectations: failing to revive Maya in book 5. Because honestly, who here wasn't expecting that to happen in book 4? And then it didn't, but their kindasorta fledgling bond grew that much stronger, and now we all know it's going to happen in book 5. ...unless it doesn't, for whatever reason.

Nope. Read page 1190 carefully.

We kindasorta got a bit of a resolution in this, where someone (Lirin?) mentioned that the new "plague" they'd been hearing about previously turned out to be a fairly mild disease afterall. (As mentioned above, it was the common cold, brought in by worldhoppers. This has been established by WoB for many years now.) I doubt it will turn out to be anything particularly significant in the 5th book; just a bit of background info. What would be truly interesting is if someone were to accidentally carry an Ashyn disease to another world!

Several years ago in a Q&A, Brandon said, Now we've got the body of another dead Vessel... and they have no idea. Everyone thinks it's the withered remains of Taravangian after Nightblood got through with him. There are indications that Renarin might have some clue as to what's really going on, though. Will we finally find out what's so "useful" about the body of a dead Vessel in book 5?

Have we been told that will be the initials of the next book or something?

...and that El lives through it. (Which is no longer a certain thing, even for Fused.) I would not be at all surprised to see that that's the title of Stormlight book 5, in fact. It just feels like the sort of thing Brandon would do.

Does Dalinar (or anyone other than Kaladin and possibly Hoid) actually know enough about Zahel to suspect he'd be a good candidate, though?

"Disrespectful" or no, I did notice that the quality of the story improved markedly when Brandon took over. Not necessarily the quality of the writing -- Brandon was still relatively inexperienced at this point -- but the downright maddening drumbeat of everything screwing up because nobody talks to each other about anything seemed to evaporate the second Brandon took the helm, and it was easily the best thing that happened to the series since Suddenly people were being effective and competent and actually getting stuff done, and I loved it! Call it disrespectful if you want, but Brandon improved the series by being an order of magnitude better at writing interpersonal relationships than Robert Jordan ever was.

One problem with the "refuse to fight and then Dalinar dies of old age" theory is that the terms specify one other thing: the duel must occur on top of the tower of Urithiru. If Dalinar refuses to fight and tries to go on with his life, I'm pretty sure that it could be argued that leaving the top of the tower counts as a forefeit.

Yes, it would be a shame if something in this series -- in which we have heavy political intrigue and plotting between multiple factions, magical devices whose powers are influenced by specific metals, an entire human-adjacent species being hijacked to serve as pawns to an evil god of destruction, principal characters ascending to pick up the powers of Shards whose Vessels have died, solid material falling from the sky on a regular basis which needs to be cleaned away so it doesn't build up, and a backstory involving people using magic so powerful it can influence entire planets for the worse -- were to show up that resembles some element from Mistborn!

I'm not familiar with the term. Context?

"I destroyed a really big evil!"

My biggest thought on the subject is, what exactly are Honorblades made of, that a direct strike from Nightblood, which is capable of slaying a Vessel, only leaves it slightly chipped?!?

Have you ever listened to Writing Excuses? Brandon & co. have talked in the past about the difference between an epic hero and an iconic hero: an epic hero is the standard kind of character who has to grow and overcome personal challenges in their arc, while an iconic hero is one who has very little need to change. They're already exactly who the plot needs them to be from the beginning, so their "arc" is about influencing the people around them and helping to bring change to them. From James Bond to Nancy Drew to Sergeant Schlock, iconic heroes abound in fiction, and it kinda feels like Adolin is being deliberately written as one.

OK, so who do you think the last two Shards should be? I'll start: You know how it's common to refer to one's spouse as "my better half"? Clearly Valor's husband is the Vessel of Discretion...

You missed the fifth option: Taln. Confirmed by the Stormfather to be the best fighter of the Heralds, and on Team Honor's side. If only he wasn't so... well... "cata-taln-ic." If only Team Honor had a therapist who's developing techniques for treating mental illness effectively!

Yeah, this was really the only interesting thing that happened in the flashbacks for this book. Agreed. We've seen enough Eshonai POV already, that these flashbacks didn't really tell us very much we didn't already know. Looking forward to Szeth flashbacks in the next book, though!

Didn't the Scholars do that already?

Except for the minor problem of him fighting for the enemy...

Thanks! I just hope the rest of the community likes it...

And who does Team Honor have who's known as a great fighter with a history of winning against impossible odds but dying in the process?

Now he just needs some way to rouse the Herald from his unresponsive (catatalnic?) state. Therapist!Kaladin to the rescue!

This is why Starsight irritates me. Not only was it not particularly good by Brandon's standards, it's what robbed us of the opportunity to get TLM on schedule.