Mason Wheeler

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.

We don't actually know that that would happen. All we know is that the rhythm that is produced by the fusion of their two energies is identified by a Singer's inherent rhythm-identification-sense power as "the rhythm of war." (And that said singer is most likely somewhat insane, and talking to an enemy, and so not necessarily trustworthy on this point.) The Lights of Odium, Honor, and Cultivation are all called something different from their Shard names. The fusion of the powers of Honor and Cultivation produces something that gets referred to as "towerlight," because the main use for it that people know about is running the Tower of Urithiru, and Navani identifies its rhythm as "the rhythm of science," but we have no idea how reliable that is or how serious she was being. So at the moment we really have no solid reason to believe that the Intent of a combined Honor/Odium Shard would be War.

This. It seems like the natural MO of worldhoppers: once you can see the big picture, the concerns of "local politics" seem a lot less significant. Look at how Khriss talks about Roshar in her essay: "oh, BTW be careful visiting here because Odium is there."

Isn't it? Brandon has essentially made Taravangian into Satan, and he's made it pretty clear that he intends to use his power to affect the entire Cosmere.

I sorta thought so too. Like, "hey Koravellium, here's the weapon I promised you. I'm sure you'll figure out some way to get it to the target."

I always figured that was why Vasher ended up on Roshar and separated from the black sword. Endowment set it up that way so someone would end up being able to use it to kill Rayse. (I just didn't figure that would happen in book 4!)

When I read the description of the Highspren, I realized that it sounded a whole lot like a visual effect I figured out how to do last week. And the Cryptic's body is basically a low-poly model... so I fired up Blender and Unity (a fitting program to use, given Dalinar's claim to the title) and started putting together a showcase. Here's what I've got so far. Hopefully there will be more to come soon! This is still a very early WIP. The Cryptic's head needs a lot more complexity, for example! (Which I have every intention of adding as soon as I work out the math to make it look good while animating.) The inkspren needs a sword, and everyone's in a static pose. This will get better as I continue to work on it.

Given that the Pirate's Code is famously more like guidelines than hard rules, I don't think that would make for a good Skybreaker.

Yeah, that's kind of why I posted this. #4 has been such a big struggle for him, but now he's made it. He's got his armor, he's got (apparently) all his Surges, and he's even fixed his self-image enough that it made it possible for his slave brand scars to heal. He kind of feels complete at this point, and I'm sorta wondering what it is that can be next for him. Like, what have I missed?

We know that the Skybreakers' fifth Ideal -- the only 5th that we know of so far -- is to become the law. This works for the Order of Skybreakers, but not particularly well for others. Specifically, now that Kaladin has sworn the 4th Ideal where he admits he can't protect everyone, he can't contradict that for a 5th oath to be an omni-protector. So... what theories do people have as to what the Windrunners' highest oath is?

Things I thought were going to happen after reading the Part 1 preview chapters on Tor.com: While fighting off the raid, Kaladin would be put in another Really Bad Choice situation and have to recognize that he can't save everyone, thereby achieving the 4th ideal and getting his armor. Navani would become the Bondsmith of the Sibling and restore Urithiru to power. During the raid, Szeth would use Nightblood against a Fused, who would be killed permanently. Taravangian would turn on Dalinar and try to betray him, but lose easily because Dalinar would be prepared for it. Adolin would somehow manage to restore Maya and bond her. The Honorspren that Kaladin wanted to bond Rlain would not, but instead would end up bonding a bad guy. Shallan would finally admit the deep, dark secret about someone else she had killed/harmed, which she thinks is the worst thing of all but would somehow be anticlimactic from the reader's perspective compared to what we already know of her past. Additional prediction upon arriving at Lasting Integrity: Adolin would win his trial by fixing and bonding Maya, proving to everyone that humans can not only harm spren, but also help restore them. Things I never saw coming: Odivangian Everything related to the Ishar scene The Sibling was the person writing to Navani Kelek anti-Light Teft death