RefusesToElaborate

Aaaaaah its fine. Let's look at Jasnah. Her oaths are intact.

Before anyone else comes up with something inferior.

After Stormfather dies, Syls clothes shift to something more regal, and Kaladin sees a little storm in her eyes. This has two fun implications for me. Firstly, Syl inherited her father's position. Yay. Second, could she now be a Bondsmith spren? She does seem to want Kaladin to speak more words. She does make him an Honourspear, she is potentially the largest remaining fragment of Honour. Would Kaladin recieve his lashings from the Spear but also recieve adhesion and tension from Syl?

Fair

Book is out, book is read, and I just remembered this post. WAT Spoilers

Sisko made the trip from Bajor to Cardassia in a wooden ship he built by hand, so...

I thought this Ketek was meant to be read, not as individual lines adding up, but as a whole. "Dying storms illuminate the silence above" in WAT is getting.... weird.

Syl murdered by Moash. Kaladins retirement as a Radiant is pretty clearly foreshadowed, he will take a back seat as King of Urithiru, and a surgeon. I have a pretty strong confidence on this.

Valour hides herself from Odium, yet Harmony was able to contact them despite and implores Hoid do the same? I call shenanigans. Two theories, firstly, this is Sanderson hiding the name of the survival shard in the full print book. My evidence for this is Todium could only sense one shard missing. Second, Valour was receptive to Hoids message, as Harmony suggested, and she's hiding herself because she's on her way.

Spoilers for the Elric Saga Brandon has said Nightblood can be sated and become full, Stormbringer has overeaten in the Elric saga and mid-battle became heavy in Elrics hands where he would usually do most of the fighting for Elric. Now of course they have separate powers, Nightblood saps the investiture from all things around it, though Stormbringer can cut a hole in reality for portal goodness. Has Sabderson said anything about Nightblood and Stormbringer?

Briefly, no. Kaladin has had romantic interests in the past, in childhood he felt it for Laral, as a slave with an as-of-yet unseen woman named Tarah, and with Windrunner Lyn in the time skip between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War. Now these relationships fell apart for various reasons, with Laral it was circumstance, with Tarah I fear it was him spiralling after Tiens death and with Lyn I certainly hope it was because they both realised it was rusting unprofessional for a leader to date a subordinate. Though we know it was Lyn who broke it off. I don't understand why people think of Kaladin as aromantic, we do know he is dense when it comes to female attention, but so am I. I am most assuredly not aromantic. He does prioritise his work over his love life, but again that's not being aromantic that's having a different set of priorities. His relationships fall apart not because he doesn't want them, but as someone who has struggled with depression can tell you, and my soon to be wife can attest, it makes you difficult to be around until you can find a mechanism to deal with it thst doesn't suck someone else down with you. Now that we're leading into a new Kaladin who has found a way to cope, that may be different. To think he's aromantic... it's not bad. Different people read different things in a character, however it does ignore his behaviours and backstory.

Probably the same amount of things that make you think he will. Personally I believe that what Szeth and Kaladin are doing is gonna take the whole ten days and bring them back about just in time to witness the contest.

I think Szeth is pretty strongly earmarked for death in the near future.

Yeah well that's just your opinion man, so- - oh... Your first point I don't really want to adress, not because it's right or wrong but because how Adolin feels about Dalinars actions doesn't really have any bearing in their morality. Adolin could think it's hilarious Dalinar killed Evi and the morality wouldn't change. I'm not a utilitarian, I don't think suffering is a valid metric to judge morals. They could talk it out for years, Adolin could forgive Dalinar. None of this changes what Dalinar did and why, and therefore the moral value of the action is fixed. As for your second point. An action isn't good just because the King says so. Same for evil. Do we justify Sadeas treating the Bridgemen the way he does because they're his property? Or do we recognise that a wring is a wrong regardless of the law? This also goes for correct actions. There are some parts of the real world where if you save someone's life by administering CPR, but you break their ribs while you do it (incredibly common to break ribs during CPR) they can sue you for causing injury despite you saving their life. These would be laws that I think could be more moral than they already are. 1. For an action to be moral, it needs to be based on a maxim that is universally applied. The destruction of an entire city, through fire -one of the most painful ways for a person to die- as a response to what seems to be a minor uprising in a young kingdom cannot be justifiable as a universal maxim. Generals making examples of rebels is a thing that has happened historically, and it's always been wrong, but Dalinar made all them look like amatuers. The level of death and destruction dalinar wrought, if it were something acceptable on a moral level, would destroy any society that didn't have perfect political hegemony. 2. Second, people are ends in themselves, not means to an end. In this case, Dalinar, under orders, made an entire city and its inhabitants a mere tool for achieving Gavilar’s political goals. Even if Gavilar ordered him to “make an example” of the city, treating human lives as expendable for a broader political objective would be inherently wrong. The lives of the people in the Rift would have to be respected as having intrinsic worth, not as a way to send a message to others for purposes of intimidation. 3. Just because Gavilar gave Dalinar an order does not absolve Dalinar of his moral responsibility. Even in war, there are duties that surpass mere obedience, such as the duty to respect human life. If Dalinar knew his actions were excessively violent, it would have been his moral duty to refuse to carry out such extreme measures, regardless of what Gavilar instructed. "Just following orders" is not an excuse. 4. Intent is important irrespective of consequence unless you can predict the outcome of your actions with 100% certainty. What was Dalinar trying to do? I think he was so gripped by the thrill his intent was wanton destruction. Even if Dalinar’s actions led to what some might view as justified results (securing political power or ending a conflict), what matters morally is his motivation. His intent in burning the Rift was driven by a desire to instill fear, exact revenge, and demonstrate his power, rather than acting from a sense of moral duty or justice, his actions would be immoral. Even though Dalinar tried to resolve the situation peacefully initially, the shift to such extreme violence after being thwarted suggests his motivation may have shifted from achieving peace to asserting dominance and punishing resistance. If the underlying intention was not morally pure but was instead about using terror as a tool, I would argue that the act cannot be ethically justified, regardless of whether it followed orders.

I think you're right that he does have another trick. There is a loophole that gets Odium out of the deal and binding on roshar entirely, if you pay attention. Though, it does require him winning the contest. The contest of champions is a lose/lose for Odium regardless of outcome, so long as the Radiant team upholds their end of the contract. I propose that Odiums only way to eke out the win he wants is to force the opposition to violate the contract. From memory the terms are two willung champions meet atop Urithuru to fight to the death. Should Odiums win, Odium is bound to roshar for a millennium and gets control of Roshar and Dalinar as a fused warrior. Should Dalinars champion win, Odium is bound to Braize and does not attain control. Either way, this is a lose as both Odiums want to be free on the cosmic scale. As such the only true win, the win that Taravodium wants, the one that gets him out of the binding, is one that forces Dalinar to violate the contract, freeing Odium from it. A contract is just an agreement and agreements go both ways. People have told me I'm wrong because "Brandon Sanderson wouldn't end the series like this" I say we aren't looking at Return of the Jedi here, we're looking at Empire Strikes Back. Here is the only loophole I see that breaks the contract without harming Odium. Odium wins the contest of champions. How? I feel it in my bones that he will be giving someone Yelig Nar and making the contest necessitate access to all surges. Which is where Szeth comes in who had already been trained on all Honorblades. Szeth being Szeth, he loses. Who could possibly see that coming? /s Dalinar will be a fused Warrior. So far the contract is upheld. Odium immediately whisks Dalianr away to Rathalas and orders him to piss on the ashes. Or something. The point is, Odium puts Dalinar through an order so heinous that Dalinar refuses. When Dalinar refuses, the contract is broken. When the contract is broken, Odium is freed. I put it to you, that if this isn't odiums plan, then the terms Odium and Dalinar have agreed on personally are of 0 consequence to the series plotline. It is the only outcome that breaks the contract, and therefore the binding.

Oh, neat... I like Bone Phone better.

I'm not quite as cosmere aware as I thought, it seems. What is the Bone Phone? What planet and magic system spawned the Bone Phone? Is it a Bone or does it just look like one, cause I seem to remember Yolen having white trees for some reason.

Your theory is valid and your words are accepted. I too feel as though symmetry is not merely an aesthetic mark on the religion of Rosharm I believe that symmetry is something baked into the world of roshar and the themes of The Stormlight Archive. I'm not 100% sure on this aspect however. I don't believe we can predict a symmetry based merely on the first half of the series. Sando has said the end of book 5 is gonna feel more like the end of an anime arc than the end of a series. If your idea has the legs to stand on I feel it's gonna mirror from 1-10 rather than 1-5/5-10.

Good point but not so good. Alethi men can dictate books.

I thought opening a door with iron or steel would be dumb because you can't really aim pushes and pulls. I thought they were toward or away from centre of mass. But I know investiture likes to obey intent. Like you can't aim a steel push in a curve, you gotta aim it in straight lines or be moving yourself to put a spin on whatever you're moving. But once again, I'm thinking tapping iron and then pulling on something is a great way to lose teeth.

Alternatively, he's just passed into the fourth ideal. And before that a beautiful Elantrian thought Kal was heavily, heavily invested.

I know it's already been said but I'll say it again. Iron would suck, dude. I can make myself heavier and pull things toward me under the force of my bodyweight? I see many, many broken bones resulting from this.

This is interesting but let's not overlook something. The lights of roshar are investiture in gas. Preservation already has gaseous investiture, the mist. I think a mist infused gem may be within the realm of possibility. However this begs the question, would it give off a light? There's also the danger of mixing the investiture of Ruin and Preservation. They want to separate. Harmonium is highly reactive, much like potassium, cesium or lithium. So reactive even the moisture secreted by your skin can cause a huge explosion. How dangerous could they be as a gas, forced into the same tiny, tiny object. And then we have to ask how many tiny tiny shards of gemstones are you willing to pick out of your hypodermis?

I don't think the touching between Syl and Kal is necessarily romantic. Their relationship is about as intimate as it could possibly be. I kind of picture it like imagine your skeleton is interlocked with someone else's by your ribcage. That's how I imagine the Nahel Bond on a spiritual level. The souls ribcages woven together. It makes sense that there'd be not so many boundaries between them. And that doesn't always mean romance. It could be because the bond forces them to spend literally all their time together.

Not a fan of this idea. Kaladin is showing some PTSD symptoms here, an auditory hallucination is a rare symptom of PTSD. However I do recall being told at one point (I don't have a source, it was revealed to me in a vision from the Almighty) that PTSD sufferers are more likely to experience auditory hallucinations of *what* traumatised them. If it were the voice of Amaram or Moash or The Defeated One, maybe. More than that, plenty SLA characters are experiencing auditory hallucination already. Szeth hears the screams, Dalinar did too, Shallan has conversations with her auditory hallucinations. Repeating this idea on another character might be... not great.