PrestigiousOwl

One other small note: we do have to see what Sanderson decides he wants to do with Gavinor now. If this is everything Gavinor is used for, I do agree it was a meh choice. Might land a little better for folks who hadnt already spent 10 years anticipating the twist, but it definitely wasn't the cleanest. At the same time, he may become a more important character in the back half and have a bit of a redemption arc, in which case I think this is arguably not as bad

I guess this is my issue: is she just a horrible manipulator? Conspicuously, literally every time she tries to convince T of something, he comes away from the conversation thinking the opposite or more entrenched in his beliefs. Its possible she's just really bad at her job. But I guess it feels like its ALSO possible she was INTENTIONALLY pushing him down the path he went on

I definitely think one of two things here. Either a) Its just the "royal We" being used by Odium, or generously referring to Rayse & the power of Odium as a plural self. or b) in that moment, Dalinar tapped into something beyond Honor, as others have mentioned. Odium had a vision in that moment of not Honor but Adonalsium, and thats who was killed by a group that he was part of

As others have said, this may be him taking something that was basically "out of universe, this is how I'm thinking about this issue" and changing his mind once he started writing (just slightly different than actually retconning something that was in the text). More broadly though, it feels complex, mostly because the Skybreakers are so damn strange. Aside from possibly having MULTIPLE sets of Oaths, possibly, it was also discussed a lot that his 4th Oath was extremely nebulous (i.e. "what counts as completing his crusade?"). Kaladin reacts to Szeth skipping an oath, but TECHNICALLY we don't know if that is really what happened (its possible it treated it as him completing his 4th oath AND him reaching the 5th).

Overall, I really enjoyed this, and I think some of the early reviews felt too harsh - whether thats because people who hard binged had specific expectations or what, I dont know. I think it is important to remember that this still isn't the "end" and so while some things absolutely CAN be criticized, I think others probably shouldn't be. Like, not enjoying pacing, etc is fair. But the folks saying "the efforts to find and free BAM felt like they weren't important" - I get the impression she's going to be relevant in the back half, so we'll get there. Similarly, folks thinking "Cultivation stormed up with Todium/Cultivation could have just told Dalinar everything" are also ASSUMING this didn't go how she wanted. Maybe this was bad for her. But it also seems like the Dragon of Long-Term Gradual Plans might, possibly, be playing a bigger game - and until we KNOW, I wouldn't call this a plot hole. Likewise, for folks saying "oh, it seemed like this was a last minute addition with ____ (people talk about the "Old Magic/Gods" alot for example)", its not likely they're doing much of a Deus Ex Machina with these. They're just being introduced to be used later. I know some other moments didnt land for some people, like not getting to see Taln's rampage. For me, I thought having that offscreen was great for preserving the "awe" around the Heralds - especially since we're set up to get so much of them, seemingly, in the back half. For me, overall, this was good. Felt like as much of an effective wrap up as we could reasonably expect here. We get stability, but there's clearly a lot that'll need to be resolved. I laugh a bit because lots of folks described this as "Endgame" but to use the Marvel metaphor, it really wasn't: it was Infinity War. And Dalinar's ultimate play was basically Dr. Strange saying "alright boys we're entering the endgame now"

It does seem most logical to start from the idea that the four groupings are the same as the Dawnshards, even if you don't think the actual "super-groups" are the Shards themselves. I.e. even in OP's theory, Adonalsium is broken into four aspects, theyre too big, so each aspect is broken into four more. But each of those original four Vessels was intended to wield one of the Dawnshards, and therefore relatively aligned to it. I think the best evidence for this is trying to apply it to what we know. We know two Dawnshards: Change & Exist. We can definitely find certain shards that clearly correlate with these. Change: Cultivation, Ruin, Invention all fit really well. I could probably see Ambition as the 4th here (changing one's position) or Endowment (changing others through gift?) Exist: 3 fit super well. Preservation is super obvious. Mercy (as VERY similar to Hoid's "thou shalt not harm"). Honor ("i.e. do not break your agreements and oaths"). If I had to fit a 4th here, I could see this being Devotion - again, the idea of long term commitment to shelter and protection. Interestingly, the Change and Exist shards also seem to fit into a clear opposition with one another. That could be the same for the remaining two, though it might not be (we know something is different about one of the 4 shards, though we also don't know what - it might not have to do with that shards Command). If the above is broadly correct, that leaves us with 7 shards with no clear home (plus one of the maybe's from above). Dominion, Autonomy, Reason, Odium, Whimsy, Virtuosity, Valor I personally don't take much from looking at this batch. I do feel like there's kind of a "self/virtues" theme and a "relationship to others" theme, not totally different from the "relational/personality" categories, but I'm putting very different things in there compared to OP. That might look like: Virtues/Personality: Reason, Whimsy, Valor, Virtuosity Relations: Dominion, Odium, Autonomy, Endowment/Ambition (whichever isn't above - Ambition fits more with them all seeming kinda villianous, while Endowment is nice for switching things up)