ricree

I'm not even sure about a "push". The diagram isn't the product of careful study built up over many sessions of thought and understanding. It appeared ex nihilo one day on an occasion so strange that he can no longer recall any of the thought and reasoning that took place to create it. Until it gets contradicted, I'm still firmly of the belief that the diagram was a malign creation during what was a particularly vulnerable day. Whether that was Odium himself or some other malicious intermediary, I can't say, but I don't buy for a second that it was his own creation.

Did anyone else feel at least a little sorry for Ati? From the sources we have available, he seems almost as much a victim as anyone else was, and he did his best for as long as he could before the shard overwhelmed him. Then, when he's finally freed, his last moment before passing on consists of getting punched in the face.

I've always assumed that the Marsh pov was the closest thing we're going to get to a genuine Ati perspective during those final days. In them, I can easily see a "kind and generous man" who genuinely believed that it was right and proper to bring about the utter end of everything. In his every interaction, we see a kind of understanding, almost fond exasperation at how everyone struggles to avoid the inevitable end. He gets why they do, even as he knows the truth: that he is doing them, and the universe as a whole, a great kindness by breaking it all down to nothingness. Things could definitely be worse. There never seemed to be much malice in it, though he often made use of monstrous tools. Nor, for that matter, much inclination towards suffering or pain. Some still happened, a great deal, in fact, but I imagine he saw that as either an unavoidable but transient occurrence on the way to their final fate, or else something caused by their unfortunate struggle against what was right and proper.

I wonder if it cuts the other way, and surgebinders can draw from fully active plate as easily as they can feed it. If not, then they'd still need the gemstones to power themselves when they wanted to feed the plate. I don't remember the radiant scenes in WoK. Did the radiants there ever show signs of carrying around a bunch of gems?

Don't suppose there's any chance of a spring 2014 release, is there? No? Darn.

We don't know the timing of the interlude. Renarin might be attempt number two. I find it interesting that Ym's spren is just "the spren" in his interlude.

Congratulations Brandon and everyone else that worked on it. You guys put out an amazing book, and I'm glad to see that so many other people agree.

A sliver, at least by the wiki definition, has to have held a large percentage of a shade's power. Mistborn's Lord Ruler being the best example. More likely that he's something like an inquisitor, in that he's especially vulnerable to outside influence I don't think he was a splinter, but I do think that he was open to outside influence. The diagram is far too prophetic, even for his supposed level of intelligence. Even the best predictive function can only work with the inputs it is given, and I don't see the evidence of him having enough information to piece together what he did. Especially if the death rattle farming didn't start until afterwards. Given the sheer amount of death and chaos his plan has sowed, I'm currently suspecting that it's Odium rather than cultivation. But either way, I very much agree that the Diagram was created by an outsider.

My guess is that the providing the visions functions as the first step of a bond between Dalinar and the Stormfather.

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but "the volume seems incredibly elastic" doesn't make nearly as much sense to me in context as the hardcover version: "the vines seem incredibly elastic". Oh, and a possible typo in chapter 79, page 955 of the hardcover. "Dalinar had pushed the three armies into another day of marching." Did I miss two of the armies merging? Or one of them splitting off? There were four armies at the start: Dalinar, Roion, Sebarial, and Aladar.

The prevailing theory is that hoid swapped it out on the ride to the camps. Regarding the helmet, I seem to recall Kaladin taking a lot of shardblade hits on it. Probably enough to shatter a normal piece of plate. My understanding is that he was subconsciously feeding it stormlight in order to keep it intact. It's possible that he could have worked with the plate were he not forced to constantly repair it. Doesn't explain she the radiants used to be able to summon and dismiss plate, though.

It's in chapter 55, when Wit returns to the warcamps. Shallam hugs him, and Adolin isn't too thrilled about it, which brings up the "women his age" topic.

At the time, it's presented as a throwaway line meant to placate Szeth. But given what happens later, there's reason to believe the statement is true.

Did you mean didn't have? Because she explicitly had a different sort of spren than Shallan. "I had originally hoped we would have the same type of spren ... But of course, that would be too easy."

Personally, I side with those that claim stormlight is enough to explain her survival. Given that stormlight can replace oxygen enough to hold a single breath for fifteen - twenty minutes, it's completely plausible that a heart wound would not be fatal in the time it takes to heal.