Arondell

My understanding of the "forgotten" is people nobody cares about while they live. The neglected and disdained that are usually overlooked by society. For the most part Dalinar's men who fall in battle don't really qualify. Just because we don't know who those faceless men were doesn't imply that they didn't have families or friends who cared about them. Kaladin specifically notes the many widows that were left in the wake of Sadea's betrayal. As for the prostitute in Sadea's war camp Adolin simply came across a situation and behaved in an honorable fashion. He didn't seek out the confrontation. In Kaladin's situation it was, again, a very honorable action to put himself into a jail cell as a gesture of solidarity but do you really see Kaladin as one of the "forgotten" at this point? Leaving aside Bridge Four there are about a thousand men under Kaladin's command that would disagree. Lift by contrast seems to go out of her way to look out for and associate herself with the lowliest in society. It is one of the reasons she comes along on the attempt to rob the palace. When she hears Gawx is captured she intends to help get him out of jail because she knows no one else will. Even Gawx's own family ultimately views him as expendable. When I start seeing Adolin hanging out in soup kitchens to aid the poor rather then wine houses or maybe taking particular interest in the living quarters of street beggars I'll see some Edgedancer potential. I think Adolin is a pretty decent guy. He might make a Radiant some day but as things stand at the moment I don't see him as an Edgedancer.

I'm skeptical of Adolin being an Edgedancer as well. The second oath of the Edgedancers are "I will remember those who are forgotten." When has Adolin helped or expressed an intention to help others who are forgotten? Lift did so on several occasions before she spoke the second oath. I feel remembering the dead doesn't count since you can't do anything to help them. Also I don't think the spren of the Edgedancers look for fighting ability as a primary characteristic. Lift after all is a thief and is about as far from the descriptions of Edgedancers that we have been given as is possible to be. I'm also skeptical of him (nahel)bonding the blade. From the word of Brandon I recall he kind of described the breaking of the Knights Oaths as effectively ripping something out of the mind of the spren making the damage involved very difficult to fix. The Cryptics apparently have tried and now think it might be possible if the sprens original Knights still lived. Based on these descriptions I find it improbable that simply behaving like a radiant candidate and talking to the blade is anywhere near enough to fix the problem. I would guess whatever part of the spren enabled the bond would have to be replaced before any bonding could happen. I would not put this down as impossible but it would require something extraordinary even by Radiant standards. (Nightwatcher intervention maybe?)

Personally I think the Windrunners would be ruled out based on a combination of the oaths and Sylphrena's reaction to killing. She seems to hate the idea of killing unless there is an immediate need. Even then she doesn't like it. It apparently "hurts" her in some fashion. Killing someone because on past deeds or because of likely future actions seems to be anathema to her. A Windrunner wants to protect and will only kill when there is no other option. I had the impression that is a big part of the reason Mr. Sanderson just changed the climax to the Words of Radiance.

Whether it was the morally right thing to do is a matter of opinion. Which is kind of the crux of the matter. Every order of the Knights have differing opinions on the issue. When trying to figure out if a particular order would or would not approve of a particular action we don't have a lot to go on but I would bet the oaths would be a pretty good guideline. e.g. I don't think light weavers would be particularly bothered as a whole by Adolin's actions. Skybreakers would disapprove because he broke the law. I think a Windwalker would first ask was he protecting someone when he did it.

From the prologue to Way of Kings during the assassination of king Gavilar.

There has been some speculation in the past that that passage might be referring to an unusual ability to craft fabrials. It is pretty clear, if Nalan is any example, that the Skybreakers were big on order. Now who else has also expressed a love of order? Navani. So add these together and it might be a hint that the Skybreakers had an unusual gift for fabrial construction. Something "for which no specific Surge of spren grants capacity." I thought it was an interesting speculation since it didn't require the surge. Just the right attitude towards order. As an aside Navani's thoughts on this plus a few other events has been seen as circumstantial evidence that Navani could be a potential Skybreaker candidate.(e.g. Her kneeling before the giant glyph of justice in WoK.)

I guess I'm just taking Mr. Sanderson's words at face value. I don't think in this new version Kaladin restrains himself out of a perceived sense of innocence on the part of Szeth.(Szeth isn't innocent. Taking an oath that you are fully aware might require you to unquestioningly kill people for no other reason then you were told to precludes innocence in my opinion.) I felt he restrained himself because he probably realized from Szeth's words and actions that Szeth would no longer be a threat. Being a Windrunner is about protection not vengeance or even justice. Szeth is apparently no longer a threat so killing him is no longer necessary.

I don't have the impression that Kaladin declined to kill Szeth in climax 2.0 because of a perception of innocence. Assuming no other textual tweeks happen then Kaladin still believes that Szeth never had to kill and he still accuses Szeth of cowardice.

Specifically the oath is “I will protect even those I hate so long as it is right.” So there is some room for personal opinion in the oath.

Her breathing in stormlight, shortly before Gavilar's death, during the apparent test by Ivory strongly implies the bond was already in place. I really doubt she could have done that without such a bond. That Azish looking individual that was likely Nalan certainly seemed to notice her in the prologue so I'm inclined to think whatever damage she suffered happened in her youth.

It seemed to me that most of the powerful spren that are discussed or seen are not really thought of as having a category. It is as if there level of power transcends normal categorization. They are unique and are simply cognitive shadows of very powerful unique entities. Trying to give them all a category beyond "unique" could even be misleading since they all represent different things. As for whether the Stormfather is actually a spren or not, I would fall on the side of "yes". Other entities of similar power have been referred to as spren so the Stormfather should also qualify as one. (e.g. Nightwatcher, Nergaoul)

Well given the number of spren available that could actually become bricks it would have to be a very small castle. It would probably not be an effective use of a very rare resource.

Well my definition of mobile would be to stay in physical form and move around. Nothing I've seen or heard so far indicates that a spren could take physical form and move themselves around while maintaining that form. The stop motion sounds like they would just be forming and dissipating really fast in a slightly different shape. Sure one could turn into a ball or something but it would still have to rely on other forces to move around.(e.g. gravity)

It is also been speculated that Navani might attract a highspren and become a skybreaker. A number of things hint at the possibility. Her love of order as well as drawing and then kneeling before the large glyph of justice are two of them. A few other hints scattered here or there.

I thought it at had been confirmed that something like shard rope might be possible. Although rope is supposed to be something flexible and is relatively homogenous in makeup. I doubt the rope could move itself any more then a spren shardblade could wield itself. So I'm guessing that a shard statue would be just that and likely not flexible. Absent further info I would bet that a spren could not take a solid, mobile, form.

The idea reminds me a little bit of The Vision of Escaflowne. Heck the magical mechs are even run by glowing stones that are the hearts of slain dragons.

Wait...Are you talking about the post where you claimed Teft didn't even know there were different orders? The one where you said that Teft thought Kaladin would have access to all the surges? I responded to that post with specific quotes, including page numbers, where he discusses that each of the ten orders followed the five ideals of which only the first was the same for each order. So he was dead right about that. Can you please give a specific quote where Teft says something about Radiants that is actually incorrect?

It was speculated some time back that one of Hesina's parents might be lighteyed.

Well the two points I "cherry picked" were the two occasions that people we have reason to believe know something about the bond and stormlight commented on this very issue. Everything else is supposition and speculation. Though for the most part well stated supposition and speculation. The one exception in your case being your opinion on Teft which seemed to be totally off as far as I can tell. Since I can't think of anything Teft has stated about the Radiants that was flat out wrong I don't see why we should doubt him here. Yes, he has gaps in his knowledge and some of it is, on occasion, vague. The other one is Syl who is an Honorspren which makes it highly unlikely she would lie about anything. Though it is possible that this might be a case of how she sees it from her point of view. Also of course we seem to have a Word of Brandon floating around which seems to have some bearing on this issue without outright resolving it. Fortunately I have some acquaintances in Boston who are going to try to get to Mr. Sanderson's book signing this week. If they get the chance I've requested they ask Mr. Sanderson about this specific subject. "Assuming all other things are the same what is Kaladin's skill level with the spear without the nahel bond?" It doesn't seem like the kind of question that would generate a RAFO so I'm hopeful that we can get a straight answer on the subject.

I should add something to perhaps clarify my position. I don't really believe in the concept of "natural talent." To the extent it does exist I don't think it is anything but a particular interest in specific subject. Basically someone finds something they find particularly interesting and end up practicing it a lot. Now if you intensively practice anything you enjoy doing for five years, particularly from a young age, your going to get pretty darn good at it. Given that Kaladin has been intensively training in the use of the spear for five years I would think it very odd that he would not be a very competent spearman with or without the bond. Everything we have heard about this in the story has made the point that it is the combination of Kaladin's skill and the bond that elevates him to his superhuman ability. In TWoK Teft's thoughts on how stormlight operates. Then in WoR we have Syl's opinion on the subject.(Despite my difference of opinion on the origin of talent.) Two very different sources within the story agree on this point. As things stand unless some other passage from the books contradicts Teft and/or Syl I'm going with their explanation.

My take on the scene where Kaladin was trying to practice was that his head "wasn't in the game" as it were. He was the exact opposite of "in the groove." We know Kaladin suffers from a seasonal depressive disorder. So he can barely walk and he is feeling generally depressed because of the weather. On top of this he is dealing with the fact that he just killed Syl who was essentially a part of his soul and he is dealing with conflicted feelings about the whole conspiracy to kill the king. I would point out once he made his decision to save the king(i.e. gained a little focus.) his spear work notably improved. Even with his severe wound he took out two guards before they could raise an alarm. Granted he took them by surprise but that is still kind of impressive given his physical condition. If he was as incompetent without the bond as your kind of implying then he should not have been able to do that.

For some reason I have a vague memory that the Elsecaller special ability was a perfect sense of direction. I can't remember where I read that though but Hoid does comment on Jasnah's sense of direction in the epilogue.

I feel your overstating this at least a little. If nothing else some comments he made in Words of Radiance makes it clear that he did at least understand that there were different orders. I don't recall any scene where he told Kaladin he would have access to every surge. I do recall a scene where he mentioned various powers the Radiants as a whole had. Edit : Digging around a bit more in in TWoK I found the section where Teft tells Kaladin of the Ideals. Including that the later four were different for each order. Your assertion that he didn't know there were different orders is directly contradicted by scenes in both WoK and WoR. He appears to know quite a bit more then your willing to give him credit for.

That is a bit of a catch-22. If you say your looking for stories where the bad guys win then anything someone suggests based on that criteria will kind of give away the ending. The interesting part isn't the ending. It is how you get there.

It isn't to all peoples tastes but S.M. Stirling's novel "Snowbrother" was along those lines. I'm not sure if it is still in print. Also look up his alternate history Draka series if you want intelligent, practical, vile and successful villains. I have heard that he had conflicts with Jim Baen over the issue of his letting bad guys be so successful before he jumped ship from Baen. Though from what little I have read of him in the past fifteen years he seems to have drifted away from that type of thing. Edit : I should mention that there were two versions of "Snowbrother." The second version toned down the evil significantly. As for the first version. Well here is a quote from one analysis I found on line. So yeah...Not nice.