JustAnotherDarkEyes

Ok, maybe this is a bit far fetched but I’d love to know if anyone else suspected this while reading Wind and Truth: In the middle of the book I had the sudden suspicion that Sanderson was foreshadowing Elhokar’s return - that he in fact was not dead, was not actually killed at the battle for Kholinar, and is actually a Lightweaver. Here are my reasons: - the Storm Father said that Elhokar was “seeing Cryptics” during the time that he was at the height of suspicion that assassins were after him in book 1. This is exactly what happened to Shallan shortly before she started to manifest her lightweaver powers - Elhokar spoke truths - giving his cryptic Spren the words needed to advance his powers- think back to when Kaladin almost lost Syl as an accomplice to Moash’s plan to kill Elhokar. During that time, Elhokar sent for Kaladin and told him honestly the truth that he was wrong to send Kal to jail and that he was jealous of him. If this was truly one of the times Elhokar had spoken truths then that puts him at least at the first ideal before he even went on the mission to Kholinar with Shallan and Adolin - he’s a very good actor and completely unphased when he had to become another person during the infiltration of Kholinar: when Shallan tells him she is going to light weave Elhokar to look like a woman so they can infiltrate the city, he doesn’t bat an eye to Shallan’s surprise. And he turns out to be very convincing- almost like he’s done this before perhaps?? - he’s a good drawer - during the infiltration of Kholinar, Elhokar draws a map of the city that even has Shallan impressed. It parallels what Shallan had to do in order to produce her initial light weaving - Elhokar was healing and growing as a king by the time of his “death” - same thing that happened to Shallan after she had spoken truths - everyone “saw” Moash kill Elhokar, but was it truly confirmed? They couldn’t bring his body back because Adolin, Shallan, and Kaladin were all transported into Shadesmar before they could truly know for certain whether he was dead or not- they couldn’t even retrieve his body same as they couldn’t rescue the troops they left behind at the battle for Kholinar- imagine if Elhokar had been using l lightweaving powers during the battle for Kholinar- first of all, he could’ve made it look like he had died and then simply healed himself with stormlight after! - in Wind and Truth- Dalinar continues to think he can hear Elhokar or feel him through the bondsmith powers - while this suspicion is brushed off because Dalinar finds Gav in the spiritual realm, I don’t think that negates the idea that Elhokar was actually speaking to Gav and was still alive, somewhere. - while Navani is witnessing her son’s death in Kholinar in a vision in the spiritual realm, she doesn’t actually see the death take place. One wonders what she would have seen if she had lingered longer on that vision after Adolin, Shallan, and Kaladin had been transported into Shadesmar. Elhokar also acts strangely in that vision- he hugs Navani and accepts her presence there so casually (which may just be the vision adapting but it begs the question of that maybe actually being Elhokar?) - at the battle of champions between Dalinar and Odium, Odium says that Elhokar is inaccessible even for him. But he doesn’t say that Elhokar is dead! Just think about it! That key mentioning that he was seeing cryptics since the first book follows the same timeline as Shallan. There’s just too many parallels when presented with the idea that he was “seeing cryptics”. Elhokar could have been concealing light weaving abilities during the infiltration of Kholinar- which would fit his general suspicious personality of believing someone is always trying to assassinate him. He could’ve spoken multiple truths by the time he went on that mission and might have abilities that even surpassed Shallan’s or were at least comparable to hers. Imagine the implications of that! Elhokar could’ve secretly stayed in Kholinar - freed from the constant fear of being assassinated because everyone thought he was dead anyway- working to win back his kingdom from the inside out! Who knows what he has been able to accomplish living in secret all this time! Would love to hear thought on this!