Arondell

I recall the letter in WoR saying that Hoid tended to tow chaos behind him like a corpse being dragged by one leg through the snow. Granted we can hardly blame Hoid for this but it is a consequence of his presence on Roshare.

Syl "forces" Kaladin in the same way a good friend or family member does. She advises and encourages. I believe there are several things she does not tell Kaladin because it could be considered temptation or coercion. For example she explicitly declines to tell Kaladin the origin of shard blades. This could be viewed as temptation and she doesn't want Kaladin to make choices because of a desire for power. She also doesn't tell him not to make opposing promises because it can damage the bond and potentially kill her. Telling him could be considered a form of coercion and she doesn't want him making choices based on that. The only thing I can, maybe, feel uncomfortable about is perhaps the situation. As with everyone in imperfect situations she can either never try or she can work with the tools available to her and hope for the best.

Meh...Personally I can see the resemblance if I squint a bit and stand on my head. Are there points of comparison? Yes. Is it a deliberate effort on the part of Mr. Sanderson? I doubt it.

I think the stick had an acting role in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Actually I've recently been inclined to question the accuracy of the quote about Ishi'Elin. Specifically I recalled the vision Dalinar had of Nohadon. Before that quote from the in world Words of Radiance came along I was under the assumption that Nohadon had somehow been responsible for the creation of the oaths. It certainly seems at the time the vision depicts that the oaths were not yet in play and no mention is made of the heralds trying create them. I'm somewhat suspicious that the part about Ishi'Elin demanding rules and precepts be applied to the Radiants might be a case of the inaccuracy that the books author cautions the reader about.

I can only hope Kaladin does not act in such a remarkably self-centered, callous, and unlikeable manner. I would prefer he act like someone bound to an honorspren.

Hard to say. It is specifically said that his failure with her wasn't like the others. Very ambiguous.

Well we also know that whatever relationship he had with Tarah he some how viewed it as a failure.

And a lot of that advancement goes towards finding better ways to heal, build, explore, and entertain. If your bound and determined to see only the darkness in us the world be a very bleak place.

Actually the continued advancement of technology and civilization in general would tend to refute that point. Yes, you can always point to examples of destructive behavior. Though if you just willing to look around you'll probably see a lot more examples of constructive behavior on both the individual and societal level. If we didn't have the positive tendencies as well as the negative ones we would still be running around hitting things with rocks.

I seem to recall that Mr. Sanderson said that he wanted one magic that would work anywhere in the Cosmere and that Hemalurgy was that magic. That being said I have also had the impression that Mr. Sanderson is not inclined to have any overt use of other world magic make an appearance in the Stormlight Archive. So I think were unlikely to see characters of any significance either using it or falling victim to it.

Laral saw almost nothing of Kaladin after Wistiow died. So far as I am aware the only time they had anything resembling a conversation after Wistiows death was when Kaladin accidentally encountered Rillir and Laral in the kitchen at Roshone's manor. At which point Laral managed to treat Kaladin fairly poorly. The way I see it for her to view it as Kaladin having abandoned her would require some kind of psychotic break. Though on the flip side I would guess after five or so years of marriage to Roshone she'll either be tough as nails or thoroughly cowed. Given her last appearance I'm betting on cowed. She seemed almost a non-entity when we last saw her. I'm actually very curious about what might have happened to her off stage.

I think that to actually use modern(i.e. 20th century) standards of law to judge Jasnah's actions is a bit anachronistic. At least from a legal perspective. While it is hard to peg it to a specific time period most of Roshare seems to be something I would expect to see around the late middle ages to late renaissance. If anyone knows how most legal systems of those time periods would handle this it would probably be more relevant. I suspect that legally by the standards of Kharbranth Jasnah would be totally in the clear. Especially since from out knowledge of the situation the local law enforcement might well have been bribed to ignore the situation and said law enforcement wouldn't want that coming out. That being said I would be fascinated to hear the answer if anyone were to ask Mr. Sanderson how a Skybreaker would have dealt with the situation.

It is difficult to say what legal steps could be taken against Roshone at this late date. We have been given only the most vague of ideas about how the legal justice system works in Alethkar. Based on a few casual comments by various people it seems that technically even the king cannot act in a completely arbitrary fashion. On the other hand such laws are fairly useless when there is no actual political entity to oppose the king or similar ranked noble should they attempt to sidestep or ignore such laws. Which is what seems to have happened with Moash's grandparents. Lirin mentioned an "inquest" if Roshone disputed the possession of the diamond bromes but we have no idea who would oversee such a procedure.

While Lirin did effectively rob from Laral's father it is an overstatement that he robbed Laral of her inheritance. Wistiow had far more money then a single goblet of diamond bromes. Being the city lord he had effective access to the revenues generated by the entire city and surrounding farm lands. After all Lirin had that goblet for years and Wistiow did just fine financially. Also while Laral obviously had access to privilege it seems equally obvious that she didn't really have any power. I suspect her panic when Rillir was killed by the whitespine might have been because she knew or suspected Roshone wouldn't want to give up on the connections she represented. More then enough to give a feeling of panic in my opinion. She was/is a small town noble lady with no real power to control even her own life. I don't particularly condemn her for her (in)actions. Just one more person made miserable by Roshone.

Alloy of Law Spoiler

I've been considering an hypothesis involving Moogle's second general possibility. From the information we have all potential knights must be broken in some way for there to be a chance of a bond. What if the Nahel spren somehow encourage this breaking to occur? Comments by Jasnah imply that it is possible for unbonded spren to manipulate situations in the physical realm. Regardless of moral outlook I can certainly imagine a universal outrage among the Knights if they discovered that their bonded spren somehow manipulated events in the physical realm to encourage the mental/spiritual damage that enabled the bond in the first place.

A bit delayed in the asking but has Mr Sanderson ever clarified his statement about the whole Horneaters having some Parshendi "blood" issue? The idea of two entirely different species with significantly different biochemistry being able to interbreed as matter of course has always grated on my sensibilities. I can accept deliberate genetic engineering and/or tinkering. Natural compatibility though just grates.

There are quite a few references to hogs hide in regards to shoes. In Ym's interlude. I believe Adolin's shoes are referred to as high quality hogs hide on at least one occasion. It also would not surprise me at all that hogs on Roshare don't resemble Earth hogs all that closely. Thousands of years of selective breeding in a significantly different environment and all that. They might not even be the same species at all just whatever they are calling "hogs" is the closest linguistic equivalent. A bit like the Rosharan concept of a season isn't really what we would call a season.

My take on Honors advice was that Dalinar and the radiants should try to convince Odium that unless Odium appoints a champion he will lose again. This does not require that an opposing champion exist. For some reason a champion, while powerful, is apparently also a risk of some sort. I have kind of gotten the impression that Honor chose to play the long game in the hopes that Odium will get impatient and slip up. As honor said though "...it is not certain."

Actually I don't think Honor does say "force him to choose a champion." I can only find two references to that. and To me at least it seems Tanavast is recommending that they try to maneuver the situation to get Odium to choose a champion. They can't force him. There is, I think, an implication that convincing Odium to appoint a champion opens up a potential avenue of attack. Also based on other Cosmere works being appointed a champion of a shard isn't simply an honorary title. Dalinar or anyone else can say <insert name here> is Honors champion all he wants. Unless he has the backing of the shard, which is shattered, it isn't going to mean a whole lot.

The question that immediately came to me is "Chosen by whom?" Tanavast/Honor is dead and the shard shattered. I'm guessing Cultivation could still choose a champion but it would be Cultivation's champion and there are some indications that Cultivation has become a bit indifferent to humanity since the death of Honor. Edit : Also I don't really see a particular need for their to be a singular champion to oppose any champion Odium might appoint.

It was my distinct impression that the Shin worship Cultivation. The glimpses we have had of their society certainly support that at least. Farms and farmers are considered holy. Warriors are the lowest status. Jasnah actually commented that those in western lands worshiped Cultivation.

At this point I'm not even sure if recovering the blade will even be on their top ten list of things to do. Given that it is going to be obvious to the Shin that the leadership made someone a truthless in error I think the leaders of the Shin are going to have more immediate problems to deal with. The Everstorm has arrived and with it the return of the void bringers. Whether they know it or not Szeth will shortly be back bringing some well deserved justice to the Shin leaders as well. Even if they know Szeth is no longer in possession of the honor blade and where the blade is how are they going to feel about having to reclaim the blade from an organization that they claimed no longer existed and would never return? It wouldn't surprise me if it will be a race between the shin people or Szeth who kills off the leaders first for being so horribly, unforgivably, wrong.

I have this amusing vision of the distant past when Devotion told Honor to shove off cause she called dibs on blue.