muco

Windrunners and skybreakers have huge advantage with the ability to "fall". Other's although very powerful can not get around the mobility these two have in battle. Their secondary powers, adhesion and division, though individually powerful, comes down to how talented warriors the individuals are. Would a skybreaker get within ten feet of Kaladin with his spear? Or would Adhesion affect a skybreaker where in he is unable to fly? How would shard plate react to adhesion and division? Lot of intangibles. Still, it all depend on the quality of the warrior.

Kaladin will be away from shallan for majority of book 3. She will be at Urithru and Kaladin will be a long distance away. Book 3 at least will have lot of Adolin & Shallan interaction. On top of everything Kaladin killed Shallan's brother. Not sure how one can get around that fact. How would romance between them work?

Could be. BUT In WOR, there are a lot of references to Dalinar realizing the futility of trying to "change" Sadeas. The instance when Amaram tells Dalinar to trust Sadeas and getting rejected by him is telling. Dalinar had made his peace with Sadeas being what he is. In fact Dalinar made his own plan to kill him. Yes, killing is wrong but killing Sadeas is anything but wrong. In fact if Dalinar or KR holds to their oaths, not killing Sadeas would be worse. Sadeas has done things and intended to do things that can not be quantified as anything but despicable.

I think it was clear to all parties involved that Sadeas tried to kill them. The treachery part of the whole thing makes it worse rather than better. Point I am trying to make is that Dalinar would be pissed at Adolin. There is no reason for that, especially considering their history. It was not like Adolin killed an honourable person or unfairly. Again, what Adolin did was perfectly in tune with the Alethi way. He saw and opportunity and took advantage of it. Repercussions would be there but not from Dalinar. I really doubt Dalinar is going to go to town on Adolin for offing Sadeas.

Agreed, until now stormlight has indeed played a key role and I am sure it will too. To be fair, the enemies the "radiants" faced until now were just too "weak", relatively. Even Szeth who was portrayed as a bogeyman was in reality no match for heralds. And heralds lost their lives during desolations. So, the enemy Kaladin and the rest of the radiants would be facing would make szeth look like some sort of a kid. Facing such enemy, stormlight would be a crutch for radiants for sure. And just think on how many gems Kaladin went through to rush to his village from Urithru! The other side of the argument is that having Stormlight at their disposal constantly would make killing a radiant almost impossible..... Now I am ranting

There is a lot of foreshadowing of Elhokar becoming a radiant, at this point, Brandom seems to hint at him being a radiant than any other character. The only other theory I have is Elhokar becoming a Knight under Kaladin. After all by the end of WOR, Elhokar more or less seems to think very highly of Kaladin, it was almost as if Elhokar was in awe and was almost into hero worshipping him. Now that he is a radiant, one who saved his life would expand on this I guess...... But him being a king and a knight to a former slave would be ironical....

I have a different take on this... Sadeas used perfect opportunity to try and kill Dalinar and his son AND this was perfectly acceptable by Alethi standards. So, why would Adolin using a perfect opportunity to kill Sadeas be looked down? Isn't what Adolin did was using an opportune moment to kill a rival, i.e, the perfect Alethi way of doing things? Oh, I can see personal turmoil in Adolin but are we imagining too much in thinking Dalinar would be angry? After all, the original plan of the whole duels part of WOR was to lure Sadeas and kill him anyway....So, what has changed now? It was fair fight between Adolin and Sadeas and the person who lost the fight, lost his life... I can see repercussions from Sadeas family without any doubt though...

So, the question I have at this point is, do heralds need gems to access Stormlight? If they don't, how would it work? Is it possible that Radiants after certain level do not need gems to access Stormlight? It's a bit silly to imagine a radiant becoming useless in middle of battle because he ran out of gems!

Regarding discussion on the "need" for more kickAss warriors besides Kaladin, well, there are many. In fact Kaladin is NOT the best warrior by a long shot currently on the planet. There are those that can chew him out in an instant. And all these powerful warriors will have a role to play. The arcs we are seeing for these characters is a journey in which they become something more than what they are now in their roles. And no, just because some one can fly does not make them a great warrior. People like Szeth and Kaladin have put in the hours to become great warriors, i.e, they are great warriors even without their powers, like Dalinar... So, it makes little sense for character that has shown little aptitude for weapons or martial arts until now to suddenly turn into great warrior because they are radiants. Having said that, being radiants itself means they are in a different league and could probably kill most non radiant warriors, even the best of them with ease. Anyone wanna bet on Shallan kicking Adolin with ease?

Last chapter of WOR was a curveball. I remember Jashnah saying that the desolation is not happening like it used to. It implies that the Spren has kept detailed records of how things happened previously. This time around, it's more or less a fresh slate. With not all heralds not returning, the desolation happening quite differently, there is bound to be a lot of unexpected things that will be new to everyone who think they know how things will turn out.

Not all radiants are warriors. Shallan is not one and yet she still kicks serious chull. Similar with Renarin. His thing is not to be Kaladin 2.0, which he clearly is not. He will do incredible things but just not with a sword or on battle field. And remember Kaladin and Renarin are almost similar age.

Even with 15 year gap between the arcs, likes of Kaladin, Shallan & Co, the younger ones will be in their thirties, a prime warrior age if any, perfect balance between strength & experience. Not sure culling of people in their prime just to bring in younger ones makes sense. Oh some of these people might not make it but I doubt the intention of second arc is to get fresh characters. I guess the gap would be to further the story than any other reason, especially when you consider it's just 15 years...

My thinking is that Heralds before they became one were already very powerful. It wouldn't surprise me if these heralds before they became one were more powerful than KR's.

I have read that scene many times but the chasm scene is anything but romantic. There are couple of snippets in the books which shows that Kaladin is jealous of what Adolin & Shallan have. It could be a longing of having something similar or longing for Shallan. We get quite a few POV of Kaladin and if he was serious about Shallan, it would have been apparent. Looking at the compatibility as well, there is no way Kaladin can get around with all the lying Shallan needs to do.

Jasnah & Kaladin!! why not?

If Kaladin dies who would be the other windrunner? I remember reading a passage where Syl says she is the only one among her kind who made it to the other side or something to that effect!

Jasnah is the modern equivalent of a feminist. Reading the books, I get the impression that she was very into challenging the existing norms. The small flash back in WOR at the start does imply something might happened to Jasnah when she was younger that resulted in some of her thoughts on men and marriage. Highly doubt she is gay. Hating men and marriage is not the sure sign of being gay. It is the attraction to her own sex, which I have not seen in the books. May be she is gay but nothing in the books point to that. Since Kaladin and Jasnah would meet and probably interact with each other a lot in book 3. Would be interesting to see how the dynamic develops.

Good arguments all around. Let me put it this way. kaladin is developed as character for a 'reason'. The development we are seeing for Kaladin is very different to some one like Adolin for very obvious reasons. Until 'reason' for Kaladin's development is revealed, it does not make sense to kill him. I am not saying it won't happen like you said it would, it very well might. As a reader, all I am seeing is Kaladin's development. If he is killed, I will be left thinking 'why was developed for?' Any development arc shows in books must lead to after development acts and finally the end, which could be death. What is the after-development act for Kaladin?

If I am reader, I would be quite disappointed if Kaladin dies in book 4 or 5. Some are saying his arc is finished and I am left thinking, HOW? How is Kaladin's arc finished? He has come into his full radiant powers yet. Let us assume Kaladin comes into his whole powers in book 3, does that mean his arc is finished? Becoming radiant is a pre-requisite, it's not the end. It's like reaching lax level in a MMO, after which the real game starts. kaladin reaching his full radiant powers is not the end of his arc, it is in fact the START of his arc.

Dalinar giving up Shardblade for Kaladin. Scene leading up to Kaladin and Adolin fighting the 4 shard bearers.

Kaladin's arc is just starting. To be honest we are not even exposed to the 'plot' of the series. All we saw in 2 books are personal developments of few characters and events that are a prelude to the main storm that is coming. What the storm is any ones guess at this point. The point is, Kaladin as a character was invested heavily in both the books by author. And going by the tid bits from book 3, it looks like Kaladin will again have loads of POV's. That obviously makes him the prime focus of the series, at least up to this point. Unless BS does a George Martin or Steven Erikson, I think we may be looking at Kaladin a lot.

Dalinar at one point thought of killing his brother for personal gain but supressed it. Was it out of honour or love? looking at how Dalinar protects his extended family, he loved his brother, deeply. And somehow I doubt Dalinar was simply a tool for his brother. He was no simpleton. He definitely understood what was happening, knew what was needed and went about it in the most efficient matter. The point about Gavilar using Dalinar sounds about right but I am sure there is much more to the Dalinar and Gavilar dynamic than that. I always go back to why Dalinar loved his brother so much. It can't have been one way street. Even in his limited POV, Gavilar seemed to love and trust his brother. His last dying message was not for his wife or kids but for his brother. The other interesting information we will probably learn in this book is about Gavilar and Sadeas. We will get first hand information of their journeys as well, which is much needed I guess.

I am more exited about reading the flashbacks than the story arc in book 3!! Dalinar was the norm of the times he lived in. Remember that he was one of the architects of uniting the Alethi. If the current generation of Alethi like Adolin were to do something similar, I am sure they would have as brutal and efficient. Besides, there is no doubt Dalinar and Adolin are no where similar. Dalinar has the nasties but it looks to be aimed at a purpose. Comparison to older Sadias may be a bit far fetched when the blackthorn was more about action than the back channel dealings Sadias is expert at.

Kaladin feels like the main protagonist of these books. We do get POV of other characters but it is Kaladin who is the current focus of the series. I highly doubt BS would invest so much in a character in first couple of books to just leave him out later on. As an author, it would not make any sense. Only Malazan and SOF series are contrary to the norm of having a main protagonist. Doubt BS is going that way though. I would be very surprised if Kaladin's story arc does not run parallel to story arc of these books. Remember, Kaladin is the only active fighter among the known radiants as of now and in most fantasy books they tend to rule the book time

Just one observation. At the end of WOR, the interaction between Hoid and Jashna points to things being different this time around. The desolation this time is different in some way to the other ones. Wouldn't that make any cyclic behaviour & pattern redundant?