QuantumAce

Nobody beats you over the head with a dead horse like Robert Jordan.

Exactly, there were very few witnesses to Gavinor's actions. Everyone knew Dalinar was there to face Odium's champion, and everyone can see that he failed to win. Nobody expected Gavinor to show up 20 years older, and very few witnessed it. I know Renarin has been told, but I don't think it is widespread knowledge at this point. That's what an Alethi leader may do. You cropped off the key point, Dalinar is no longer there to enforce his will. The Alethi would hate the fact he gave up power and chose to forfeit, but he might have been able to maintain control through his power and strength of will. Unfortunately, the evil men do lives after them while the good is soulcast with their bones. Treason, or reclaiming his rightful throne? Just spit balling here, but maybe something along the lines of: Dalinar personally beat Elhokar into submission, got Elhokar killed on a secret mission, then moved the entire Alethi power structure to his personal kingdom. He lost the Alethi homeland, then forfeited the chance to reclaim it. Gavinor was trying to save his people from the broken old man who was running them into the ground. There are plenty of ways to spin it, but the point it there is a plausible redemption path for Gavinor. He could also make a solid villain. Either way, I hope we see his character fleshed out a little more.

They can be mostly neutral in any area that has been universally agreed upon as a grey area, but that would be boring. Fortunately there a multitude of other scenarios where groups of Skybreakers could have different interpretations of who is at fault for violating the peace treaty, or even whether specific conflicts are a violation of the treaty. Brandon left plenty of room to position the Skybreakers in multiple groups on either side of the conflict, but I expect to see the alignment of the dissenters as a significant plot point.

I don't even have a problem with the language, but I agree the implementation doesn't feel natural. I tend to power through books on the first read through, and it take a lot to pull me out when I am in the zone. I would think it was strange if Kaladin noticed Dorthy and Toto zip past in a highstorm, but one line wouldnt pull me out of the story. There were multiple points where the language did feel unnatural enough to completely pull me out. It didnt make the book less enjoyable, but it was noticeable. I do have a feeling it will be less significant on my next read through, when it will be one of the points I am actively looking out for.

In the end, Dalinar gave up the power, he refused to kill one person in order to win the contest, he chose to to forfeit. Losing to a more powerful enemy might be understood, but choosing to give up goes against Alethi culture. People followed Dalinar because he forced them to. He is gone now. Justifying Gavinor's actions and rehabbbing his image would be far easier than for Dalinar.

Dalinar is universally viewed as a power hungry despot, even by those who love him. Many people already had a problem with him challenging a god for the fate of their planet. Even his strongest allies viewed his quest to seize the power of a god as somewhat problematic. Now he manages to seize the power of a god, then chooses to forfeit while giving up that power to the enemy. You really think that is more forgivable than being brainwashed by a god from the age of 5? Highly doubtful.

He was actively a traitor for all of 30 seconds, and like most of your other examples, only a handful of in world characters are aware of it. People can also care about something without it having a major impact on the plot. Roshar is going through a lot right now, and sometimes otherwise significant events just get bigfooted by the local apocalypse suddenly exploding to threaten the rest of the universe.

I am now going to add the qualifier "fully clothed" to all of my thoughts on Taln. "Could Taln, at the sixth heightening, fully clothed, with an aviar, beat a fullborn?"

The end of a war does not end all conflict. I It may be on a far smaller scale, but I expect to see ongoing clashes between the forces of retribution and Urithiru. We also have territories neither side directly controlled at the time of the conflict, and could see the rise of previously unaffiliated groups. Even in times of peace, a group of people that can fly and destroy tor degrade matter are pretty useful.

Some of the Kaladin and Szeth interactions seemed somewhat contrived to me. I felt like some of Kaladin's character depth was sacrificed for the sake of narrative convenience.

Those are great points for evaluating a story, but tone and writing style are also significant components of a book. Periodically slipping into a more of a modern YA style didn't necessarily detracted my my enjoyment of the book, but it is something that definitely stood out.

That could make the classic JR call come true GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY! THEY KILLED HIM. AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, HE IS BROKEN IN HALF.

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.