Aleksiel

Headcanon accepted.

I've wondered about that, too Good thing their father has a trusted tailor to create an appropriate wardrobe Joke aside, I think it will be just two colored hair - black from Adolin's alethi side (the blond isn't that dominant iri gold hair, so I think it will lose genetically) and red from Shallan.

Casually stopping by without reading much, but I saw baby being mentioned. Without discussing whether it would be good or not for Shallan, I think it's the natural course unless she and Adolin decided to not have one during Desolation. She has already wondered what their children's hair would look like, so I wouldn't be too surprised to see a child next book. May be a girl we'll ship with Oroden in the second five

No mating! Mating? No, wrong word. Mating… No… Negativity. Negativity! No negativity! This is word I wanted. Drat, good puns are impossible for those with poor vocabulary. There are some negative threads about Shallan and I thought it would be nice to have a positive one to balance things. She deserves this. So let’s follow Shallan’s example and forget the things that bother us about her for a while. Lighten up and make bad jokes to express you appreciation of her character or write a whole essay Jasnah would be proud of! I’ll go first She’s persistent – she followed Jasnah for months, and then relentlessly pursued the cause of finding Urithiru. She loves her family. No matter what became of them. Her art is an amazing addition to the books, and in-world it inspires people to be better. She always gets involved with very interesting people. And Unmade. How does she find those? Don’t ask. She is one of the few characters to make the Blackthorn tear. That is quite the accomplishment. I mean, the guy intimidates the forces nature… So thank you Shallan for being here to show us a girl can marry the handsome prince and also save the world. It’s all about that work-life balance, folks.

The core of the coalition is Dalinar, it's too new and a blow to his reputation is a nail in the coalition's coffin. Kaladin has high reputation with the Kholins and may be alethi in general. For now Urithiru is still more akin to an alethi colony than an actual international place.

It has higher density

Kaladin has no reputation or authority outside Alethkar. I don't see why non-alethi would see him as something more than Dalinar's extension.

Dalinar should hire whoever was fixing Amaram's reputation to run his PR campaign, too. Or Olivia Pope.

@SomeRandomPeasant you are right characters need flaws to be fleshed out. However, sometimes it depends upon the reader whether something is a flaw or not - for example Adolin's tendency to do as Dalinar wishes, to allow himself to be molded by other people's expectations. He also acts more stupid than he is with people he isn't close to like on his first date with Shallan she had him admit he wasn't as dense and unable to follow her explanation as he pretended. Adolin is a hothead, who explodes easily and has trouble restraining himself as seen in his interaction with Sadeas. He started yelling at Dalinar for everyone to hear. Adolin also has trouble romantically, but his relationship with Shallan mostly resolved this. He has no friendship outside his family, although that kind of changed with Kal, however it's not exactly deep heartfelt friendship yet. I think one reason Brandon didn't explore his darker side or give him more flaws and internal conflict for now is because otherwise everyone would have died in Kholinar, Adolin was basically the one who kept them together and focused towards the end. We needed someone to just soldier on. I think he has potential to grow, just not in this book.

They are sentient, but not so much in the PR without bond, and while one or several may fall for the trap, it's unlikely to continue. How do you keep trapping them? Note Vargo says those spren might have 'blessed a KR', so I don't think he's talking about radiantspren as those 'bless' regular people.

I doubt it would be gravity because there were no honorspren to trap until recently and highspren seem to stick to those close to SB and act together, so those trapped spren should be from radiant types that wander on their own. Lightspren went searching for human just recently, so it's not them. Wyndle and the Circle along with Cryptics who also stick together and plan... But if I go by this logic I eliminate the Orders we've seen and shouldn't those we haven't be less likely to be trapped by Vargo as they do not wander in PR? But may be 'blessed a KR' is a hint to another direction - if it was about radiantspren, they wouldn't bless KR, but regular people. So lesser spren associated with certain Orders? Those seem abundant.

I don't know how I forgot this. Renarin being crushed by the thunderclast and brushing it off makes you wonder how bad Desolations without everstorm blowing the wrong way really were when thousands of Radiants were around. Add Shardplate to our heroes and they are near immortal. Good thing they are fighting immortal enemy whose main problem is running out of bodies to posses. I thought headshot would kill a Radiant, so after Shallan surviving a bolt to the head, I wonder if it missed vital spots and didn't kill her brain instantly, because the way I see it Radiants can recover from anything so long as their brain functions and there is stormlight.

Khriss talks about pockets of civilization on Ashyn in the Arcanum Unbound. I wonder if those are the people that will come from the origin according the legends mentioned in the book.

Shallan only managed to soulcast when the appropriate gems was there. The need for corresponding gems even for surgebinders is mentioned in coppermind. @Bacon Brandon confirmed Dalinar said only one ideal, but it was confusing, I agree.

On the topic of brokenness, I'd like to point out Pattern said Shallan 'didn't break, just cracked', which isn't how most read her. I think people tend to underestimate what Adolin has been through because he grew up in a rich household and doesn't openly complain about more than being unfashionable. Part of the Maylaran topic revolves around that if anyone is interested. editing the link to start at the appropriate page the subject was brought up for convenience.

Welcome to the forum! We don't know yet, however Ash is much older than Sazed, who now as Harmony knows more than he did as human (one of the letters is from him). Tanavast (the now dead holder of the Shard Honor) is one of those who shattered Adonalsium, so he could have shared with his Heralds or they could be from time and place where there was more knowledge on Adonalsium.

I think Kal started using his second surge. Soulcasting is nerfed by the fact it requires certain gems not just stormlight. Yes, Jasnah was almost like an avenging angle. I suspect she'll be the best at this and others with the same surge won't be as good as her. Otherwise EC would single handedly end a Desolation I was bothered by the sudden change of scope of Shallan's illusions - last book she couldn't even make them stay if she wasn't looking or attached them to Pattern. I know she said a new Truth at the end of WoR, but still... I don't think Dalinar will able to replicate what he did, it feels too powerful to be frequently used, although this would mean there's a need for a in-world explanation why it can't happen regularly. Something I had a problem with was Amaram suddenly becoming super powerful. I don't think the whole swallowing a sphere to merge/bond/whatever with Unmade was handled well, it felt like a plot device. Yes, we saw the queen do it, but it just didn't work for me.

Which goes against Teft's interpretation that doesn't allow for the end to be more important than the means to achieve it. Yet this is acceptable interpretation for some of the Radiants. Exactly, the oath is about interpretation - both from the surgebinder and their spren. I fail to see why we are arguing since we seem to agree there are variations of how oaths are interpreted. Though I'd hazard most of one Order will have similar take on it, so while it will vary among individuals, we would also be able to have certain expectations based on Order's archetypes. So in the light of that I don't understand why you say you oppose the theory on the first Ideal being more open to interpretation than Teft's view allows for. This is a point you yourself are making in this post in my opinion.

And we have this WoB here: I agree some people tend to take the extreme examples of brokenness and use it as the average bar one has to pass for Radianthood. However, I'd say our perspective on brokenness and judgement on one's spiritweb cracks based on their behavior is imperfect and things are more complicated than it seems at face value. For example there's another WoB saying being too happy can also cause a character to snap. Weighting one's potential for nahel bond based on how they've handled past events emotionally on the surface, and whether those were traumatic enough in comparison to what other surgebinders went through and how they handled it, is not something I agree with. edit: on second thought I decided to include the whole WoB, not just the second fragment.

Sometimes characters start low and go high like Kaladin, but that is by no means the only way a character's arc can go and be entertaining. Adolin strifes all his life to be perfect, to be a man his father and house will be proud of. He didn't want to be a soldier, but he does a superb job of it. He kept Shallan focused and Kaladin from staring in one point after the Kholinar disaster. It's true he was mainly the comic relief there, but even the point his tailor is also his most trusted person in the city hints to his issues with establishing close relationship with his peers. He has anger issues and he either explodes or takes himself out of the situation completely. He can be very insensitive at times like when he told Shallan Kaladin killed Helaran, but he can also be one of the very few people to notice those who need help and step in like he did for the prostitute. He stayed in prison to support Kal and believed him about Amaram. He wasn't pushed away by Kaladin's initial hostility and insults after that and they are basically bros now. Adolin is very loving and supportive of his brother. Some of you may consider this should be a given, but note Renarin's condition prevented him from having a similarly respected position in the alethi society, a very conservative society with strict roles one must conform to in order to be respected and accepted. Yet Adolin never shuns Renarin or dissociate with him, never says a mean word to him or think he wished his brother was different. He stood by his father's side when everyone laughed at Dalinar and thought him crazy, even when Adolin himself thought his father was crazy. He is very supportive of the people he loves. He pointed out the need to have Vathah and his men do a job they could take pride in, the whole little speech about not failing the people you command was such a nice moment. He is kind and cares for people in general. He reflected on the Codes and finally agreed with Dalinar why they were necessary. He never grew bitter those close to him became Radiants. Adolin has a heart of gold and I love him for that. We need more people like him in the world. While I wanted to explore Adolin's darker side, it could have been too much for many readers. There is a need for PoV characters without severe issues so we can have a breath of fresh air from time to time and lighten up.

Point taken, I did not mean it shouldn't be quoted, I intended it as meaning this isn't the one and only interpretation that invalided all others possible. The only way that Teft's interpretation and WoB about Machiavellian's and some Orders being fine with Adolin murdering Sadeas both hold true, is if there isn't only one possible angle to the first Ideal. Malata is a Diagramist - she supports Vargo in his quest to sacrifice some for the ultimate survival of humanity. Teft's interpretation doesn't allow for this as he claims Radiants wouldn't sacrifice even one for the sake of the many. Lopen said the first Ideal before and since nothing special seems to happen when WR swear it either of us can be right. He may have been ready for it before, just not for the second or he may not have been ready for either of them to be accepted before that moment. Agreed, this is foreshadowing for future Lopen/Lift conflict

I agree with you, I didn't like the previously mentioned wording, because I think it expresses a different idea than the one here. That being said, I also want to acknowledge my wording wasn't proper either. Simplistic characters can be liked when they have little screen time like Lopen for example.

He isn't universally liked (and let's not hijack the discussion in the direction whether he's simplistic character or not). There are a bunch of people who dislike him including you. Roshone is simplistic character and mostly disliked or ignored by people.

It looks like you changed 'other' to Adolin, which I think is unfair since people who chose this option commented also about Lift and Vargo, may be someone was thinking of another character, but didn't comment. I'm not saying it's unlikely 10 people dislike Adolin most, just pointing out it would be better to leave other as an option and allow people to change their votes now that you added 3 more characters.

Great, now we only need to figure out why SF waited for Dalinar to finish his speech before accepting the Words - something he hasn't done before and he isn't exactly the type to wait tactfully for a convenient moment. However, I like the Oath, this was the most obvious choice if it was just one Ideal.