I'll start by saying...please be nice, I'm a newbie to this site/forum and am admittedly overwhelmed by the whole cosmere and am in awe of Brandon and his ability to have conceived of such a concept! LOVED THIS BOOK and all of his others too!
Ok, on to the Shallan relationship topic. I apologize if this was mentioned elsewhere. I tried a search and didn't see anything specifically related to this, but may have not used the right keywords, or it may have been added after I read through all these posts.
In terms of romantic relationship, at this point I have to say I'm rooting for Adolin/Shallan. Not sure if her romantic interests will change in future books or not, but we shall see
HOWEVER, I also believe that she and Kal have/will have a very significant relationship as well. While we have the answer on where shardblades/shardspears (YAY!) come from, we are still left with a big gaping hole when it comes to shardPLATE. Granted, all you super uber fans on this site might know where there is a discussion around this, I haven't seen one yet in terms of the Shallan/Kaladin relationship.
This, I guess, is more of a theory, so this may not be the right place/thread for my comments, but I believe that the KR will ultimately be paired up somehow, with the relationship and/or bonds between the spren and their KR creating the shardplate, similar to the shardblades. I'll use the Shallan/Kal relationship for further exploration into this topic.
We've seen a pattern (ha-ha!) particularly in WoR regarding opposites and pairings i.e. splitting of gemstones creating opposite effects, shattered plains being reflections of the same plateaus/shapes, parshendi are often paired in battle and more, but am drawing a blank at the moment for more specific examples...maybe more coffee will help
Anywho...if we look at the amazing chart that was put together and is posted elsewhere on this forum, we see that Lightweavers and Windrunners are diagonal opposites (and we know that the Cryptics and Honorspren are at odds). Even though their spren are choosing to somewhat ignore one another, Kal and Shallan get along swimmingly! This of course may change once Shallan figures out that Kal killed Heleran, but we shall see. I think that either Kal/Shallan and their currently at odds spren will form another, more significant bond, allowing for the spren to evolve, or split, or maybe even allow Kal/Shallan to bond ANOTHER spren (each others) to create a link which would then form the shardplate. Not sure how plausible this is in terms of the "rules of the cosmere", but that's my current going theory.
My other thought is that if this other/additional/uber bond is not formed between Kal/Shallan/Cryptics/Honorspren, then it will be between Shallan/Renarin due to the fact that they share a surge (illumination if I read the chart right).
I'm not saying that these are concrete, since technically, if we look at Shallan as a Lightweaver, she could form this bond with a Stoneward, but that just doesn't feel right to me for some reason. I see the relationships forming more in this way:
lightweavers/windrunners
elsecallers/skybreakers
willshapers/dustbringers
stonewards/edgedancers
bondsmiths/truthwatchers (YAY! Dalinar and Renarin!)
-OR- using the other theory about shared surges/abilities
elsecallers/lightweavers/truthwatcher
elsecallers/willshapers/stonewards
stonewards/bondsmiths/windrunners
etc.etc. going around the circle
But again, based on the current Shallan/Kal relationship, I'm going with a brother/sister/protective relationship for them in the future vs. a romantic one.
I can see the argument, however, that if they DO end up being able to "bond" in some way, that they would ultimately be a romantic couple. So, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
I'm also attaching a copy of the picture I referenced above just so you don't have to go hunting for it.
