Chrono

I would disagree on the first two. 1. This may have described Shallan in the first book, but she's since learned how to be confrontational and assertive. She doesn't fold when Kaladin challenges her, nor when Mraize makes some subtle threats concerning her family. She's rather grown in that regard. 2. She sure as Damnation hates Pattern at the end of Words of Radiance. And she hates Amaram, though that anger has significantly cooled. If the revelation that Kaladin killed Helaran is handled a certain way, she could easily hate Kaladin. Both of those hatreds aren't enough to kill the other person, but that doesn't mean that they aren't powerful. Also, as FeatherWriter so beautifully demonstrated in her Renarin write-up, an antagonist doesn't necessarily need any of those traits. Renarin doesn't have any of them, and yet he is still an antagonist. Antagonist is often confused with villain, so I can see the confusion there. Antagonist: Someone or something that prevents the protagonist from achieving his or her goal. Villain: a wicked or evil person who has morals that clash with the protagonist and prevent the protagonist from achieving his or her goal. Definitions from my own brain. Address or rip apart as needed. I find a great example of this schism from the anime Death Note. To give a very brief synopsis, the protagonist suddenly gains the ability to kill whoever he wants however he wants as long as he knows their name. The antagonists are a group of private investigators trying to stop him from basically killing every single bad person on the planet in a ruthless way to gain control and world order. The "protagonist" in this case is what we would call a villain. The antagonists are what we would call the heroes. It's all a matter of perspective.

Dalinar often doesn't know better. However, we can see that he's learning from his mistakes in Book One. For one, he trusts Adolin more: when Dalinar plans to meet Eshonai to discuss peace, he listens to Adolin's complaints (albeit sufferingly) and lets Adolin go in his place. As you mentioned, he sort of believes Kaladin when he claims that Amaram killed his men, instead of pushing it away. However, I think his current big issue is taking over things when he should just let the people in charge do their job. An argument can be made that Elhokar was an exemption case: he was legitimately a bad king and someone who knew what they were doing needed to step in to get the job done. However, that mentality is dangerous. If Dalinar is justified in taking control from Elhokar, who's to say that he can't take control from every Highprince and basically become a dictator of Alethkar? Dalinar needs to step back and delegate work. He can't just do everything by himself. However, considering how many people have outright told him that he's taking too much control and basically becoming a dictator, I think he will learn this lesson soon.

So old that's not even funny. But Sir Ian would make a great older Lord Ruler. Younger Lord Ruler, gonna go with Benedict Cumberbatch, mainly because of his very pale skin, dark hair, and eerie performance as Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Yes, I am well aware these two look nothing alike. That's what make-up is for! As for Kelsier, I'm personally in the Simon Baker/Nathan Fillion group.

With regards to Dalinar's backstory, I see him as a man struggling to find redemption for doing some truly horrible stuff. Doing those sorts of things, along with fighting so hard to try and reunify Alethkar, is probably what cracked him enough to become a Bondsmith. Does this mean he is a hypocrite? Yeah, but in that sense we're all hypocrites for trying to be better than what we are. I think you're also implying some things about Dalinar's sons that are false. Adolin, once he understood the meaning of the Codes and why they were so important, was happy to follow them. Renarin never complained at all. Dalinar's real problem there was that he just expected them to follow them without giving them the reason why. He did try to explain to them why it was important, but until Adolin had a personal experience, he didn't truly understand it. Once that was done, they were willing to follow the Codes. I also think that Dalinar definitely has some "Holier than thou" problems, as exemplified by him basically taking control over the kingdom. He thinks that he is the best one to solve the problem, so he takes over. I'm really hoping that one of his oaths is "I will let men choose for themselves the path of goodness, instead of me forcing them to do what I want because I know better." However, as Wit says, maybe a tyrant is what Alethkar needs right now. The Alethi have this mindset of force being a ruling pattern: since Dalinar openly became a military leader bigger than Elhokar, people now respect him and listen to him (except for Sadeas and his cronies, but that's another story). Believe it or not, Dalinar is very similar to Nohadon from ancient times. Nohadon unified the Silver Kingdoms by force, making them work together in order to face the Desolations. It was only after the danger had passed that he was able to peacefully unite them. I'm actually convinced that Nohadon was a Bondsmith, and that Dalinar is kind of repeating his history. Either way, Dalinar has a lot to learn still, which is kind of the point. We've still got three books of character growth for him, so I'm expecting great things for him to still happen. If he is still living by the end of the first part of the series.

Utah is definitely the same. We've gotten snow in July before. One year we got two feet of snow all winter, the next we had no snow at all. Either we're on Roshar secretly, or the gods of weather are bipolar when it comes to us.

Buy. He'll probably learn to see the good in lighteyes (he's starting along that path at the end of WoR, especially but he'll still be suspicious. Sort of how Vin mellowed out during the Mistborn trilogy. Tarah will never show up in the Stormlight Archive.

13256. Still fighting to get that win.

I will do what is right, even if I am hated for it. I will heal those who have been broken. I will bring peace to the hearts of men. I will devote my life to napping.

Mother of Crap, Feather. You just made me cry. Sometimes the best villains are the ones who we sympathize with, who we love, and who in the end do terrible things in the name of something wonderful. You just did that perfectly. It really didn't help that I was listening to this as I was reading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWkdZK2TVwU

That is a very well done essay! I love your comparisons to Brutus and Kaladin, and how you highlighted the symbolism of Syl dying and returning to Kaladin. Have my upvote!

Shallan as a villain? Piece of cake. Kaladin as a villain is oh-too-easy. Dalinar as a villain is harder. Adolin as a villain is very hard. Very hard indeed. But no one would ever think that small, insignificant, introverted Renarin would ever be a threat... But, because I think FeatherWriter would rip out my innards and eat them for breakfast if I ever wrote about Renarin as a villain, I will go with the obvious choice and choose Lopen. The Lopen watched as his cousins gathered around the drinking table, laughing at some joke that his Uncle, Chilinko, just made about a one armed Herdazian. The Lopen knew it was them they were talking about. It always was. Lopen tried to cover up his hurt by making the same jokes and laughing with them, but they didn't know. They just didn't know how much it hurt. Well, they would soon know. He looked at his sphere, a firemark. Part of his wages in the army. The Lopen stared at it, concentrated. The Light didn't move. He sighed, leaning back against the wall and listening as one of his cousins piped in with another joke about him. "And the stupid animal he lost his arm to?" Tepiko said, taking a swig of ale. "It was a chull! A stupid chull bit off his arm! How ridiculous is that?" Everyone laughed. Everyone except Lopen. The Lopen sucked in an angry breath, trying to keep his anger cool. He froze as the Light actually moved, spiraling out of the sphere and into his chest. How... How did I do it? he thought, grinning with joy. Then, a sharp prickly sensation jabbed in his arm. His stump of an arm! He looked down to see it growing, the Light no longer steaming off of him. He cheered as slowly it grew outwards, forming into a hand and fingers. The sensation was incredible. "Thank you, Captain Kaladin," he whispered, then stalked forward. "Hey, gon," he said, resting his new arm on Chilinko's shoulder. He froze as he saw the two arms, not just a stump of one. "How-" He cut off as Lopen's new arm grew hot. Very hot. Chilinko started screaming. All of the cousins turned in horror to see Chilinko's arm practically burn into ashes. Lopen smiled as he saw the fear in their expressions. "I don't think you guys should be telling any one-armed Herdazian jokes anymore," he said, a grim smile on his face. The bar was as empty as a Herdazian barn after a dance. The Lopen grinned as he moved towards the Kholin camp. Some of the members of Bridge Four had been telling one-armed Herdazian jokes. He would make them pay.

I doubt it. For one, the mountains on the west don't extend all the way, and they're not as tall or wide as the Misted Mountain Range (Why do I always think of LoTR when I see that?). The Everstorm seems to have the same strength as a highstorm, though when we first saw it, it was smashing into a highstorm. Also, I believe it will be stronger when it hits Shinovar due to my theory above: namely, the storm has more water to go over so it will build power.

I believe you meant to say Bondsmiths, unless I am mistaken.

Chainsaw Shardblade? I like.

You, sir, have won all the internets. Take my upvote!

Well, there isn't one way out, if you're a KR. Shallan is reasonably certain that she could survive a hundred foot fall, and she's survived at least a two hundred one. Pack enough Stormlight, and you can survive just about anything. Skybreakers and Windrunners could probably Lash you down, if you're a non-KR. But, I do see what you're saying. However, the best way to defend a location is to have limited access. There are numerous trade-offs, but only being able to teleport in if you're a KR is a huge advantage in a war. Also, I was ninja'd by Arondell on the whole "There's not only one way out, technically" thing. Dang.

The Dustbringers also had a bad reputation, going from Words of Radiance. In fact, they had such a bad rep, they were often compared to Voidbringers. Ouch. Given that Shallan is going to be busy pursuing the Ghostbloods, Kaladin's off in Hearthstone, Jasnah is floating around who knows where, and Renarin doesn't have the best social skills, I'm pretty sure that Dalinar's gonna be the face of the KR. He's already a world leader, people are starting to respect him again, and he's given up his Shards in order to bond the Stormfather. Pretty sure this means that he's going to be in charge of the PR.

It could be that Cryptics are direct Splinters of Cultivation, but I find this unlikely because Honorspren has the name of the Shard in the word. Of course, this is dubious grounds for disproving it, but I haven't really found evidence to prove it. Also, since spren have different concepts of material things (Syl still doesn't really know what 'life' is, and Pattern is terrible with abstract stuff) we don't really know what they rank themselves by. Also, when I saw your title post, I thought you were talking about Nobel Prizes.

There's a scene where Kaladin smashes Szeth with a hammer and it works just as well, perhaps better, than an actual hammer made out of iron, stone, or steel. One of the limitations of a giant ball and chain thing is that it's dang heavy and requires a lot of spinning and movement to get the momentum up to the point where it can kill someone. Because Shardweapons are so light, this problem is negated. TL;DR Blunt Shardweapons basically work the same way as a mundane one, except they're not nearly as heavy.

For some reason, this made me laugh so hard. I could just picture Kaladin holding a BS detector and when Shallan makes a joke, it makes a ding sound. Cue more snarking.

I suggest you take a long hard look at the Second Ideal of the Windrunners: I will protect those who cannot protect themselves. (Emphasis mine) A lot of people bring this bit up as evidence of the Shalladin ship not working, but I highly disagree. As noted by the bold point up there, the crucial part of that Ideal (besides protecting people, obviously) is that the people they protect cannot protect themselves. Shallan is perfectly capable of protecting herself, as noted in numerous scenes where she is in mortal danger (after TWoK). Also, if you have further doubt, Kaladin's tone while listening to Shallan's story is not one of pity or protection, but of awe. He never once thinks "This poor girl has been through too much. I think I'll just protect her and keep her safe from this cruel, cruel world." Instead, it's more along the lines of, "Damnation! She's been through so much and she can still smile after all of that? She's tough! I want to be like her!" Perhaps I've overly simplified that, but that's my interpretation of the scene. Off the top of my head, I've never seen Kaladin express one iota of desire for protecting Shallan except in one scene, and that was in passing along with an entire list of people who were going out to face an army of Parshendi. And it was more of a "Come back safe, okay? Please?" If this trend continues, Shallan and Kaladin will not be kept apart because he's too protecting. That's more of Adolin's problem, as expressed by the famous scene in WoR.

Another problem is that highstorms generally spawn out at sea, in a place that we don't know about. For the sake of my argument, let us say that it's in the middle of the ocean. The Everstorm starts at the Shattered Plains. It will lose some force as it has to go over land before it reaches the sea, but then it has a whole uninterrupted stretch of water to build up power and momentum. The Everstorm is going to be more powerful than any highstorm Roshar has had to encounter. However, even without the extra power, Shinovar and the other countries will still be destroyed. I wonder if Mr. T's diagram accounts for this? That would be an interesting problem.

Cool! Thanks, Kurk.

That was eloquent! I like your explanation for the frost, and this all seems very scientific. Stormlight Shock seems like murder to go through, though, what with your body being over-exerted by that. Perhaps another reason for the shock could be that the Stormlight runs out before it's done healing the over-exerted muscles, leaving some internal damage. (Note: I'm the furthest thing away from a doctor, so that's probably wrong)

Shard Ball and Chain. With the fact that Shardblades are pretty light, and that it can smash through anything, you have a weapon of mass destruction. It's unwieldy, but in the right hands, it's an absolute monster. Granted, my only experience with a ball and chain is playing video games, so I'm biased.