QuantumAce

This is how I read it. There is a level of natural arrogance shared by adolescents and deities, but also a type of fragility and pain avoidance. They don't always react well when presented with logically sound evidence that conflicts with their own feelings. Kind of a "I SHOULDNT HAVE TO FEEL PAIN" type of thing. It makes more sense if you have every tried to get a sick child to cooperate. The Sibling also woke up to a pretty traumatic situation, which got progressively worse as they were forced to cooperate with humans.

A sufficiently advanced Radiant may be better than a Stone Shaman, but I'm not sure we have seen an Honorblade wielded to its maximum potential. The Shin learned how to use the honorblades on their own, but its possible they missed some features.

Given Sanderson's emphasis on the importance of limitations, I believe it is safe to assume the "right circumstances" would be difficult to achieve. That could involves more requirements than just a source investiture, or by making any source of investiture difficult to reach and utilize. The WOB established Nomad's capacity for investiture is greater than Susebron, but nothing past that. A "near Shardic level" of investiture would be dominant, but that is an ambitious assumption. I can't really argue if you are devoted to such a theory.

My take is that Wax is the best shot we have seen in the Cosmere, while Taln may have the potential to be better. But if we are judging based on pure potential, my money would be on Rashek. Fullborn with peak allomantic strength provides an extensive degree of control. I am disqualifying Hoid based on him being Hoid.

I would end up constantly flipping between tapping and storing as a fidget, and there is a 100% chance I would accidentally self immolate within a week.

While technically true, the circumstances required to create them could be specific enough as to make it virtually impossible. As you note, the dynamic of Sazed holding multiple shards is evolving. What if the bands were created in a window that only occurred 10-15 years after ascending? Trying to re-create a specific set of circumstances could be like trying to un-bake a cake. You can do all sorts of fun and wacky things with that cake, but you will never be able to re-create the exact state it was in 2 minutes before the center was completely set. While it is possible another vessel could come along and take up Ruin and Preservation and try to control them the exact same way Sazed did, its unlikely. Fullborns are not coming back unless Sanderson has a very compelling reason, and I feel 100% confident in saying not without significant limitations. It doesnt hurt to mention them as a possibility, but I wouldnt count on them as a significant factor.

Gestures broadly at Sanderson's character outline for Kaladin.

Yeah, but just imagine how fun it would be to dump that on Kaladin, right after he finds a way to deal with his depression.

So all we have to do is assume pure atium can be used to insta gain deep realmatic knowledge and how to apply it, and that we already have a lot of realmatic knowledge and experience applying it. Seems simple enough.

It was fair though. My post came out a little more "rain on your parade" than I intended. Kaladin's resilience is one of his greatest strengths. Seeing how he comes back each time adds tremendous depth to his character. Its more than the generic "get beat down, get stronger, rinse and repeat". It's just not what I enjoy as much as others, which makes it harder for me to rank him higher in my personal favorites.

While I enjoy Kaladin as a character, I have a hard time ranking him with the all time greats. I think my perception has him stuck (unfairly) in some sort of limbo between support character and main character. As a main character he is overshadowed by Dalinar in terms of epic scale. Kal bonds the oldest Honorspren, the type closest to Honor! Dalinar bonds the splinter of Honor that created her. Kal drags his crew halfway across Shadesmar and almost gets them killed to save Dalinar! Then Dalinar has to save them while defending a city and capturing an Unmade. Kal turns a bunch of misfits into the first new radiant order! Then leads them into stagnation because he can't progress in his oaths and gets demoted by Dalinar (who is now running the free world). Even Navani bigfoots him in the Tower. Kal fights a crazy one dimensional Fused (and his own mind), then gets his plate. Navani fights the cleverest, most dangerous Fused we have met so far, bonds the freaking tower itself, then tosses Moash out like a rag doll. Oh, then there was time time he tried to save Adolin's ditzy girlfriend, and she's like "do you need to borrow one of my shardblades while I lead us out of here?" My man cannot catch a break. On the other side, we get too much of his POV for him to be the mysterious badass who shows up to save the day when all hope is gone.

Correct. It may not have a direct impact on this conversation, but the connection popped into my head as I was replying. Currently in the middle of a Mistborn re-read so it was fresh on my mind.

Lurg, for the pranks. Sneaking a whitespine into someone's bath is just a lot more effort.

I agree it is doubtful they will be reproducing in forms outside of slave and mate form, but it is a stretch to assume it is also impossible. Asexual but potentially fertile achieves virtually the same effect, but leaves the door open if Brandon wants to get creative later.

There may be influence that persists as more of a tendency after the direct shardic intent fades. Rashek and Kelsier were both influenced by Ruin on top of holding the power of Preservation. That could cause any level of hand wavy/yet to be defined weirdness.