Seloun

Shallan seems to do a fair bit of drinking in WoR, in non-social settings: Her father seems to have a drinking problem (it's indicated that he takes highly intoxicating violet wine); Shallan kills her father at least partly through poisoning his wine (which he slams down without a thought). Jushu certainly has a drinking problem and Balat may also (though probably to a lesser degree). So there's definitely a family history for this. Adolin and Dalinar also drink a lot, but they're generally (if not always) drinking the non-intoxicating versions, and almost always in a social setting. The main thing here is that Shallan seems to drink even when alone, and even when she seems to recognize that it's not necessarily a good idea. That said, plenty of non-PoV characters seem to drink intoxicating wine, though again it's usually in a social setting (Lirin drinks violet wine in TWoK when depressed before the robbery attempt; Navani drinks violet wine while discussing Dalinar's visions in TWoK; Sadeas drinks a lot of violet wine, though he might not be the best role model). Overall though it feels like there's some foreshadowing going on here regarding a potential issue Shallan may have in the future.

This is more for a meta-narrative question than a strictly literal one; obviously the narrative itself offers a reason for Dalinar not to go meet Eshonai (security, et. all). However, this seems like a peculiar excuse. Dalinar goes out on the the plateaus without much concern in every other situation; now, those situations do involve having an army with him, but it's not like you can hide an army on the Plains; there's no cover for anything. The situation seems rather contrived. Dalinar has to communicate using a spanreed, so it's not strictly Dalinar's words or Eshonai's words that are being interrupted; it's just Dalinar never meets Eshonai. Eshonai also implies that she's met Dalinar before (though this might have been a reference to the feast, and it's also implied Eshonai might have been part of the first contact group). It's worth noting that only Adolin (of the main protagonists) meets Eshonai during the final battle of WoR, as well (in particular Dalinar does not see her). So, from a meta-narrative perspective, what could be being hidden by Dalinar not meeting with Eshonai? Of course, he dueled her during TWoK and didn't recognize anything special (though he was pretty dazed at the time). One possibility is that it's not Dalinar, but Kaladin that's being 'hidden' (Kaladin explicitly stays behind to protect Dalinar). I'm not sure how valid this is, because it seems like Kaladin could have been left behind even if Dalinar went onto the plateaus (covered by Skar or Moash and team). Shen/Rlain is part of Adolin's bodyguard team (specifically noted) but it's unclear that that has any bearing here. I'm not completely convinced that there is something hidden here, but when I read the scene it felt very peculiar; re-reading it still seems contrived why Dalinar can't go meet with Eshonai. Something related to his gift/curse from the Nightwatcher? It seems quite possible that Dalinar visited the Nightwatcher shortly after first contact with the Parshendi, as he has an interesting hesitation when he talks to Kaladin about why he wasn't around for the Roshone affair:

This is assuming Baxil's mistress is Shalash. BS seems to be extremely careful not to confirm any character is a Herald (people focus on Taln, but AFAIK not a single 'Herald' has been confirmed to really be the Herald).

I'd guess that Talat's hand should actually be Nalan's hand based on the [herald] [essence] pattern. Edit: Also a really common one, but not mentioned in the list: Damnation!

Well, that's the 'established drama'. It's just a matter of putting Jasnah and Szeth in a box that they have to work together to get out of. Basically the chasm scene with Kaladin and Shallan (people with externalities causing conflict, but are underlying very compatible) except even more intense. Especially if Szeth is repentant. I could see Szeth offering Jasnah her revenge in the right situation, but Jasnah being Jasnah will want to know why Szeth did the things he did, first. Jasnah is actually perhaps the best person to forgive him for what he did during his time as Truthless - Gavilar's murder is where Szeth really begins his fall into darkness, and Jasnah is probably the person most invested in Gavilar (Navani clearly had problems with Gavilar, and Elhokar is more jealous of his father than anything else; Dalinar seems to have always viewed Gavilar's death as _Dalinar's_ failure, and appears to have reconciled himself with that in WoR). If Jasnah is able to forgive (or at least empathize or understand), it would be a huge step in Szeth's recovery. None of this is necessarily indication of a romantic relationship, but there are clearly massive issues that will have to be worked out between the two, more than probably any of the other protagonists and Jasnah.

I don't see anything that really disproves this. Two possible things to note, however: 1) Szeth was her servant for a period of time. It doesn't sound like it was a long period of time, but if she had done anything that would indicate she might be a surgebinder in that time, Szeth would have freaked out. This isn't necessarily a big deal though since it would be pretty reasonable to think she'd be careful about hiding her abilities. 2) Darkness is at the feast. If she's a Surgebinder, it's hard to imagine she would have survived very long after that. As an assassin, she's almost certainly guilty of crimes, making her an easy target for Darkness. This does require him to find her, but it seems reasonable to speculate that Darkness has ways of locating or tracking Surgebinders given what we see him do. It's worth noting that 'unregistered' shards don't seem all that uncommon (considering how rare they are), especially with all of the secret societies running around. Among other things, Graves has an entire set, and there's no indication at all that anyone besides Moash and the plotters know about it. Dalinar's Shardblade was unregistered, too, and presumably the shardblades Darkness's followers are using are also unregistered.

Technically Syl doesn't have to be bonded to help kill people; she plays 'tricks' by sticking things together, which in the right circumstances could quite readily result in someone dying. I have a paranoid cracked theory that Syl somehow helped kill Tien; that's the event that ultimately results in Kaladin becoming a Windrunner.

Tvlakv's (now Shallan's, or abandoned) wagon. It carried both Kaladin and Shallan to the Shattered Plains and is currently somewhere in the wilderness, unaccounted for; I predict Szeth will somehow have to use the wagon for something (maybe protection from a storm) in Book 3.

From TWoK: Note no hyphenation. This quote anthropomorphizes Yelignar quite a lot; I'm not sure you'd refer to a storm as breaking into the chancery.

Keep in mind that in WoR, Kaladin himself says:

I'm not really sure that it's completely accurate to say that Kaladin doesn't truly make a decision. It appears that he does (but ends up regretting it basically the day after). In particular, the 'breaking' appears to occur in this scene: 'The room grew strangely still' seems likely the point where he's actually breaking his oaths (Note that 'Bridges' occurs almost immediately after this scene). Syl doesn't seem to be completely gone yet, but maybe there's some kind of ontological intertia or something. It's not a flashy or arguably particular significant action, but the action that Kaladin takes to break his oath is to tell Moash that he will do what the conspirators want him to do. Not just that, he gives Moash approval on the plan. Doing that is different than just equivocating with himself or even just making a decision internally, since it affects what Moash does (without this approval, it's unclear how the assassination attempt would have went down, or if it would have happened at the same time, or even at all with Moash's involvement). Now there are some problems with this interpretation. The main one is that Syl appears to be losing her sentience even before this point (she acts somewhat strangely while Kaladin is in the cell) which seems to imply that there's at least some kind of continuum of oath-breaking (or whatever that causes the bond to break). So it's not completely clear that it does actually take an action to break the bond, or if just enough time thinking bad thoughts is sufficient. However at least in this case, I think there is a specific point where the bond actually breaks, or at least degrades in a discrete manner.

I'm pretty sure Peter Pan was a Windrunner.

I'd actually consider this to be more of an indication it will happen than not (if everything aligns without conflict, there's no story). See Romeo and Juliet or any other story where the relationship is at odds with organizational conflict. This is actually exactly the sort of conflict you'd expect to see if you were expecting a Shallan/Kaladin relationship: the fundamental conflict is not intractable (Syl is willing to admit Cryptics are _probably_ not evil, just unpleasant) and overcoming it is an important plot point (clearly the Radiants are going to have to work together to save the day).

It's Miasal: Based on what Kaladin says, we know that Tarah was after Tien's death, but definitely during Kaladin's time in Amaram's army. It also sounds like whatever happened happened shortly after Tien's death, putting it about 4 years into the past (~5 years ago Kaladin and Tien join, less than 4 months later Tien dies). Probably not too much later than that, since Kaladin says she's the one who prevented him from burning out training due to Tien's death.

There's a much better quote about half a page down (em mine): which seems like an odd thing to say if he's not a Surgebinder. However, it's worth noting that the visions in general are at least partly suspect. They obviously cannot be strict recreations of the past (otherwise they couldn't react to Dalinar's actions) so they've clearly been modified at least slightly from what 'really' happened. And if modified slightly, who knows how else?

Taravangian says it at the end of TWoK:

I think the conclusion is a good one, though I'm not sure the quote about Lirin meeting Hesina's parents is necessarily indicative of anything. It's worth noting that that particular passage is about Lirin's pessimism; in particular, she's saying he was extremely pessimistic before meeting her parents. That seems to imply that the outcome was better than he was expressing, which in turn doesn't really sound like her parents were particularly disapproving. It sounded more joking than anything. It's also not really clear that Laral was rich herself; the wealth Roshone is interested in appears to be Sadeas's dowry: However, we do have other indications that Hesina's parents are of means: and Hesina is also the only one who can read in Hearthstone, and is clearly well educated. She's also probably from Kharbranth: So it's quite likely that Hesina is from a well-to-do family, though whether or not it's a noble family is still a question.

Well, a number of reasons: 1) Historical It's common in other cosmere stories for people to get paired up. Hardly a universal rule, but if you were to guess if a protagonist would be involved in a relationship by the end of the book (if not dead), you're generally better off betting 'yes'. Of the main protagonists identified so far, she's the one who probably has the least development in this area (neglecting the interlude protagonists) except perhaps Renarin. 2) Reflective Arguing about who fits best with Jasnah helps define her character. This can certainly be approached from other directions (e.g. comparing Jasnah as a scholar versus Shallan and Navani) but relationships end up being a common thematic element for almost any human character in any story. Saying 'she'll end up with no one' is a valid position, but ideally would be backed by evidence that provide some insights about her character, e.g. Jasnah is pretty single-minded, and as people have noted it's quite possible that she won't have any interest in a relationship until the series is effectively over because of that tenacity. 3) Navani's failure as a mother and matchmaker Navani is clearly really bad at figuring out relationships (it took her, what, 35 years to figure out Dalinar?). Jasnah obviously is going to need a lot of help. People are helpful (especially on this forum) => lots of interest in helping Jasnah. Or 'helping', as the case may be. How can anyone see her plight and not feel compelled to assist? One cannot. P.S. Jasnah is clearly the best scholar of the lot. I also hate Navani.

'Three Glyphs,' Ch 62, TWoK: 'Fear,' Ch 63, TWoK: Those are the 4 passages that refer to Tarah (by name, at least).

Szeth. They're basically the same age, they have drama already established, they're diametrically opposed KR Orders. I fully expect that we'll find out that Szeth was originally a Shin scholar with a lot of research regarding the KR/Desolations. I don't think his knowledge is common Shin knowledge. Szeth is also one of the few main male protagonists that can read and write. I'm not really a fan of the pairing, but that's the most natural one given the existing evidence.

The main problem I have with this theory is that I'm not sure why it matters. When nightmarish monsters are knocking down your door, are you going to spend a lot of time worrying about who has a better claim through lineage? Or are you going to back the guy that can fly with an army of glowing defenders? Ultimately the thing that won Taravangian the throne is less his lineage and more his actions during the civil war; I just don't think it really matters whether or not Shallan has a specific blood claim. Especially given that 'might makes right' has practically been the religion in the area for the last however many centuries.

We don't actually know this. All Taravangian thinks is that Shallan may have been trained (it's not specified in _what_; it can be easily read as being trained as an operative or in espionage) and that it might have been her brother who did it, if not Jasnah. There are at least two completely independent ways to read this that does not conclude Helaran is a Surgebinder: 1) You don't have to be a Surgebinder to train a Surgebinder. You just have to know something about the abilities that you're trying to teach. 2) It's not clear T even knows Shallan is a Surgebinder, period (suspect, yes). When Szeth mentions running into a Surgebinder in the Shattered Plains, T's immediate assumption is that it's Jasnah, not Shallan, despite knowing that Shallan is for certain at the camps and Jasnah is presumed dead. This implies that according to his thinking, the odds of Jasnah being alive * Jasnah being a Surgebinder is greater than the odds of Shallan being a Surgebinder. This makes is more likely that the 'training' he's referring to is not specifically Surgebinding.

Technically, it was, and the title change is arguably lampshaded: I don't think using in-world book names for the titles is particularly restrictive. The only real restriction (since obviously any necessary book can be written into the story) is that it can't make clearly fourth-wall breaking references. Even then, in most cases you can probably generate a false-friend type relationship (where the subject of the in-world book title is different from the subject of the title of the novel) without too much trouble.

Well, the 'Jez' glyph is associated with the section titles 'Above Silence' and 'Silence Above' (Part I and V of TWoK). Either word could potentially be associated with the glyph (this is assuming that there's any association at all - but the pattern is suggestive) but 'Above' sounds Windrunner-like, since they're strongly associated with flying around. In other cases, only one of the words are conserved. For example, for Beteb, it's 'Winds' Approach' and 'The Approach', which share the word 'Approach'. 'Approach' thematically seems to fit with Elsecallers, who are strongly associated with the Transportation surge and moving in general (Else - callers implies bringing someplace else to you, i.e. 'approaching'). Likewise 'Dying' is related to the theme of Decay that's associated with Dustcallers, while 'Alight' is thematically appropriate to Lightweavers. Storm's Illumination/Illuminating Storms sounds like lightning or a break in the clouds, which again seem to fit with 'Skybreakers'. As mentioned above, I can't really fit 'Deadly' to Willshapers, but we don't really know anything about Willshapers (or it is a clue...). It's not conclusive, but it seems very suggestive. It fits surprisingly closely if it's a coincidence.

Do you mean specifically from TWoK? If not: