Nogo

Wow! I didn't think about that. Rashek can probably maximize shooting beyond what any non-shard entity could. With all 16 metals plus compounding... Rashek could expand maximum range of a weapon far beyond its natural distance using a push. Plus, he could calculate exactly where that bullet would land by tapping his mental acuity (which is basically unlimited because of compounding). So do that, plus add mass amounts of fortune when he shoots... plus pewter to stabilize, duraluminum steel push on the bullet (which his brain already takes into account for). Yeah, I agree Rashek's potential is king. The dude could probably hit the head of a needle with a pistol from 10 miles away. ADD tangent... edgedancers would probably make great shooters as well as they could take friction off of the bullets and completely avoid wind resistance. They can make objects awesome... right? The fuzed did with the Drop in OB didn't they? I think Hoid probably gets disqualified at every opportunity anyone can find

I'm not surprised that Wax has the majority of the votes. I, however, went out on a limb with Taln. I can't really back up my vote a lot because we don't really know his skills... but I imagine the best of the best of the heralds would be pretty amazing. Especially considering the whooping the middle of the road herald gave some pretty good fighters. However, who knows if he ever even shot anything ever... I just don't know. But I wouldn't bet against him. There's my two cents.

Ok, so this whole thread makes me feel really old... that being said what about the old guys??? I'd have to go with Dalinar and Taravangian but only because the toxicity is funny to me. But they already have--maybe had-- a bromance (ish).

I disagree almost completely. I see Moash and Dalinar as vastly different. Dalinar never denied his own actions until Cultivation took the memories from him. Also, he did not intentionally burn his Evi--he intentionally burned the "hiding area." Moash intentionally did everything he has done. As for the city itself, Dalinar burned the Rift in a rage. Moash never did his actions in the spur of the moment, but rather after cool INTENTIONAL thought. Intent is key... wait, I think I have heard that before.... I can see how you can draw some similarities between Dalinar and Moash, but I don't agree that they are comparable creatures. Dalinar, for the most part, always thought he was doing the right thing. He and Szeth are much more similar than him and Moash. Moash knows that he's doing wrong. He just does it anyways.

I absolutely LOVE the Dalinar flashbacks in OB. He reminds me of my young days being a soldier and just doing the job regardless of the humanity involved. And yes, his recruitment of Teleb is very meaningful IMO. It shows that he has honor even then... but an honor based on perspective. But he's also ruthless which kind of puts a black mark *giggles* on that. Keep enjoying Oathbringer. It is my personal favorite SA book (though Way of Kings is a very VERY close 2nd).

Random thought here. Is it possible that the capturing of BAM interrupted/distorted/made more diffcult the spren ability to transfer from CR to PR to seek a bond. And then the dead-eyes were sent back to CR during the Recreance. If Adolin brings Maya to the PR the old fashioned way (and Shallan with Testament!), maybe once in the PR they can really get that bond going. I'm glass half full (maybe empty) about the reverse bond. @alder24I see what you're saying, but also the bond is supposed to be symbiotic and I don't see how it could really be reversed. I have read many of your previous posts in this regard, and like I say I agree in a lot of ways, (and I see a future headache coming here) but I don't see how the bond could be reversed, or inverted or anything like that. Anyways, gotta get to work.

I like this thought and definitely got a very personal vibe out of the Elia Stele vs a large encompassing historical document. This makes sense... but we do know that the fuzed were created at generally all the same time. If the fuzed were really the "lighteyes" of singer civilization... I think the border war theory would be too small to fill the ranks of the fuzed. Honestly, I don't think you're wrong with your theory here... it seems weird to have the huge continent of Roshar all fighting (pre-oathgates) within a couple generations of the Ashyn migration. Idk, I'm having a hard time meshing the information we have on hand right now. There are a lot of fuzed and it seems unlikely they were just a small section of signer society 7000 years ago. Or maybe that makes sense and the fuzed are the survivors of the first tribes of singers that humans bulldozed over on in their ever expanding sense of worldly entitlement... So my overall thesis here is... idk, but I like these ideas and thinkings.

I am also very excited for the trip to Shinovar. I dunno about doling out justice... but I'm just excited to see pissed off Szeth, Nightblood, and Kaladin rampaging around Shinovar. Like throwing a torch into a powder keg. No way that story is less than amazing. Plus, like you say, we FINALLY might get some answers about Shinovar and the Shin. We know nothing!

Well, many people say "carpe diem" before they do something rash. I guess now days we say YOLO... but he was a carpe diem guy. Actually, a "carp diem" guy with his fish joke on the heals of it. I'd wager a whole lot that he was thinking it when he stepped through the portal to come to the new dimension. So, when his memory was blanked in the process the only remaining think in his brain's RAM was fish... from his silly play on words he liked to say. That's my take on it at least.

I have noticed this phenomenon as well and like pretty much everything written above. Really digging the connection comments between Nightblood and its holder as well as the whole intent thing which, in Szeth's case, is potentially super scary if fully unleashed (Shinovar... you poor poor people, maybe). I really do miss Nightblood's banter from Warbreaker. Yeah, its SA banter still makes me giggle sometimes and the like, but its just not as good. If you sit and think about it though, Vasher is a deep thinking scholarly individual who is (until he Monks out) constantly on the move trying to achieve huge, planet altering ends. Szeth, on the other hand, has spent his time with Nightblood doing very little on a day to day basis. So even though there has been some things to discuss (Nale, becoming a Skybreaker, a couple battles) Nightblood has not been part of any strategic things. Even the whole Taravangian thing was done without Szeth or Nightblood being involved intellectually. I really think that, because of Szeth's quiet, stoic nature (at least now days) Nightblood has devolved somewhat to match and we, the reader, get shorter, less involved narrative from Nightblood. I imagine that when we have an independent Szeth (something we haven't ever seen) joined up with Kaladin, Nightblood might just perk up and be more like its old pre-Rosharian self. Especially is Kaladin is involved with the conversations like Vivienna was for the last half of Warbreaker.

But you still make my head hurt. You answered that question like a research paper! Really well said. I am curious about the Glys thing tho. Sanderson said in one of the quotes "not going to have a third one in them" referencing metals in shardblades. But that was 2018 before we had too much of a concept Glys and Glys like phenomena. That's a big rabbit hole of guessing that I'm not jumping down.

It seems that your AI is singer; it wrote them both in the singer form. (or at least that's how I interpreted the different kateks) Good fun with the AI poems tho! Thanks for sharing

I just finished rereading RoW again and was looking at Moash carefully. My very solid "no" vote above is wavering (just a little). I notice a trend in Moash now that I hadn't before. I see Moash and his Odium addiction much like Teft and his moss addiction. I still hold true to my other posts earlier too... but I think that the Odium addiction is very much culpable for a good portion of what Moash does in RoW. And I think that leaves some wiggle room for a redemption arc. Now, me personally, I can't think of a way out of it for him. Lucky for everyone that Sanderson is way freakin smarter than I am.

Perfect! And that sir, is why I am far from the expert. Pretty much wraps it up as far as I'm concerned! Nice little bow and everything.

I haven't seen any sapient spren who did not have a name. So it would be out of character for then to not have names. Stormfather answers to Dalinar when he curses... I really think they are their names. Even if the name "Sibling" could leave more to be desired. :/

That makes a whole lot of sense. Especially since investiture comes from the SR so the different rhythms/tones would then be a spiritual connection. Here's my weird tangent thought on this... Have we "heard" investiture on in any other system? I can't think of one, but I'm no expert. That begs the question of "why not?" Does Roshar itself do something that brings the tones out? Why are there pure tones of Roshar but none of Scandrial or Nalthis or wherever? or are there but no one (that has spoken up in a book yet) can "hear" them? Or do you think we've stayed too far off topic... probably but whatever.

All this. And most likely the Honorblades were bestowed before the Oathpact. My reasoning here is that the Heralds claim that they were not Radiant (and by the I make the presumption that they never bonded spren, Nale's future notwithstanding) but yet Ishar could make the Oathpact. That leads me to think that the Heralds were granted Honorblades to fight the OG war against the singers. Which then makes me wonder if perhaps more people had Honorblades but they were mortal and their blades disappeared after their deaths.... random brain wandering, sorry. I just finished up RoW again and throughout the story there are tangent references to Ashyn and the "Gods" etc etc. But they are all based on perception. There's no real solid statement in there (at least that I saw) that wasn't biased or at least very potentially biased in such a way that we could find the real truth. Even when Odium claims to be the human's god on Ashyn... there is nothing to say that our above general consensus of Odium providing power but not being worshipped isn't the case. RoW has so much cosmere stuff floating around in it. It's a lot to sort through.

I am going to guess that the bias is "Adhesion is not a true surge" and that it actually is a true surge regardless of Honor or not. Which makes a lot of sense actually. Argent's comment at the end "I mean, as much as these things make sense, yes." Is hilarious btw. Seems like the consensus is that Honor was not there on Ashyn. Also seems like when people imply as such in WoB he shuts that down (obliquely) pretty well. My remaining question/concern about this is.... where did the investiture come from on Ashyn?

Ok, so I found another anomaly dealing with this subject at hand. First, just as an appetizer, I want to highlight Raboniel's discussion about surges with Venli. She highlights that all surges are functional from Honor and Cultivation and that the human's 10th surge isn't a true surge because that is only of Honor. Main Course: "Radiants of the high oaths might be able to access their powers. And Honor’s Truest Surge, the Surge of Binding and Oaths, could still work." RoW pg 507. This is Sibling talking to Navani just after the tower first gets corrupted. If this surge is Honor and Honor's alone according to two separate and ancient sources... Wouldn't it seem like Honor was involved with Ishar's initial Bondsmith powers on Ashyn. I'm not an expert, but I believe that to make connections a Bondsmith has to use Adhesion and if Adhesion is only of Honor... then Honor was involved with humans on Ashyn. That's my logic train. My head hurts again ~

OMG! I can't believe I never made that connection before. It's so obvious, duh. And yeah, I agree that Lift is special and being groomed for something more. Maybe like you say Cultivation doesn't want the burden of the Shard anymore and wants to pass it off to someone.

I have done this with the Shards on my own quite a bit... just thinking and debating with myself what the actual full meaning / intent of each shard is. The ones we know, we can handle pretty well based on the name and their actions. What I have also been doing is looking up their definition online (nerdy, I know) and then also using a thesaurus to look at their synonyms and antonyms. Sanderson has a specific idea for each Shard... and has given us clues with the name but also a lot of leeway with how the Shard actually interacts. Recently I have been trying to group Shards together in push/pull and physical/mental/temporal/enhancement groupings like the metals on Scandrial. In doing so all I have really accomplished is coming up with guesses for the missing two Shards. I'll share for kicks and giggles. The first, as has been theorized already online, I'm guessing is Prudence (push/pull with Valor in my little chart). Some people have said wisdom, but I like the Prudence better. The other I came up with winds up being the push/pull of Cultivation which made me guess at some variation of Ignorance or Neglect. Seriously though, when I'm deep in thought about these things, the thesaurus really helps me expand on the nuances of the words more than the actual definition.

I see this happening with Shallan more than anyone. Maybe Pattern and Testament will get married! "No Mating!" The way I see it with Lift is she just has a non-standard way of procuring investiture. Her method is more like an allomancer than a radiant. Maybe that's the norm for lifelight though.

I like this theory too!!! Though thinking about Kelsier watching people leaving in the CR and comments made by Preservation about not knowing where they go after... makes me think that the spiritual realm connection isn't the case. But I still don't rule it out. That's just my "hmmmm, maybe not" possible reasoning. Like you say, there's no time there. Which, again, makes my head hurt.

I like your analogy between the two situations. They're not identical in any way, but definitely a good connection. I also agree. Earlier I wrote "Just because" and by this I meant before Odium and them had not yet decided to attack Kaladin's mental state as a weapon to keep him out of the fight. Yes, Moash wants Kaladin to relent and accept Odium's "peace" to help justify his actions (and I think he wanted a friend). And yet he intentionally makes Kaladin's pain worse trying to get him there. Moash has some crazy going on upstairs. Not Shallan crazy, but "railroad tracks don't go anywhere" crazy. You know, I have called him a sociopath a lot (and I think he is) but he's also a narcissist. Everything right/wrong/in between is 100% from Moash's perspective. Every other perspective has no meaning to him.

I love your thinking. I think, like @alder24 says above that your BAM theory is fun but I don't buy it. I'm down with your Cultivation/dream theory. That's a distinct possibility. So is Nohadan having had a Dawnshard. Hopefully we will find out the real answer soon (like book 5 not book 9). I like your thinking about Lift, I just don't agree. She's an Edgedancer. Just an extra weird one. I mean, I guess maybe she could be somehow Cultivation (aka nightwatcher's) Bondsmith and made a connection to her Cultivation Spren so that she looks like a Edgedancer... but I personally don't think so. Could be, tho. Who knows. As for BAM... I was thinking that he could be the Herald that Taln took over for. Taln wasn't supposed to be a Herald so there's some sort of story behind that. Maybe BAM defected to the Singer side during the OG desolation which left an opening that Taln took. I'm not sure what the process would be for him to become unmade, but Odium obviously was well versed in that since he did it to 9 different beings/entities/things....