PudgyNinja

That seems like quite a stretch. If Kaladin's father worked through the high storm math as a hobby, it's likely that it's been around prior to Shallan making up math problems for her brother.

Like most people, he's a little of both. He tried to protect his daughter and took a terrible burden on himself (heroic), but it overwhelmed him and he became abusive and cruel to his family and others (villainous). I don't think he has to be one or the other.

Well, clearly it works, since we saw Jasnah do it. Though it may be some combination of her two surges. I can see transportation allowing her to soulcast at range, whereas Shallan needs to be touching the object. That said, there are clearly some limitations. As we saw with Shallan's attempt with the stick, a strong sense of self-identity may provide resistance. Also, if I recall correctly, Jasnah drew enough stormlight during that episode that she cracked one or two of the gems she was using. That would definitely limit its use as a weapon.

I actually think that Szeth and Nightblood will be good for each other. Nightblood is brash and unrestrained. He basically wants to constantly act on his impulse to destroy. Szeth is all about impulse control and using his head instead of his heart. Sounds like a buddy movie if I ever heard one.

I'm never going to get the scene where Dalinar walks up to Sadeas with his squad of Windrunners in full plate and blade and says, "I have to say, you were right Sadeas. Trading these men for a Shardblade probably will be 'remembered as the most ridiculous decision ever made by an Alethi Highprince.'" I've been waiting for that comeuppance ever since I read that scene/line in WoK. Oh well, I guess I'll have to settle for a dagger in the eye.

One possible argument that shardplate comes from the nahel bond: The Stormfather tells Dalinar that he will not become a simple sword for him and that he will be a Radiant without Shards. Shards, plural. it's small, but it's something to think about.

I see the disconnect. You think that Shallan is progresing towards becoming a Radiant by dealing with past trauma. I don't think that's the case. She's become a Radiant by facing the truth. The truth about herself. She can still fall off the path if she stops being true to herself. If she starts lying to herself again. In life, we're constantly faced with new harsh truths to deal with. Think of it this way - Kaladin is bound to stay true to others. Shallan is bound to stay true to herself. Both can be difficult restrictions.

I don't support it. It goes against everything that Dalinar is trying to do with the Alethi. Did Sadeas deserve it? Sure. Should Adolin have done it? Absolutely not.

Stormform Eshonai is pestered by a spren that won't leave her alone at the same time she's dealing with the screaming from inside her. At one point, it causes her to gasp and a "cometlike spren" comes shooting out of her chest. It seems like there is another spren aside from the storm spren that is trying to bring back the old Eshonai.

Good point, re: the Thrill. Dalinar never really got that much into gemheart hunting. He only went on a couple hunts before he was betrayed by Sadeas and subsequently gave up his Shardblade. We know that Dalinar, in his youth, was a ruthless, bloody killer - the Blackthorn. A man who contemplated killing his brother to take away his throne and his bride. By sheer force of will, he was able to pull himself back from the brink. But does that Dalinar we see now strike you as the kind of man who would do those sorts of things? Even if he wasn't as strict with himself as he is? I almost like he's a completely different person. It's just a theory, but it feels right to me.

My mistake.

It's possible to explain away the way the plate sucked down so much of his stormlight. Full plate might not have had the same effect. We know that Plate can be regrown from even the smallest piece, as long as it is fed Stormlight (Dalinar mentions that the Parshendi might try to regenerate his Plate from the gauntlet he left behind). But it must take an enormous amount of stormlight to do so. Much more than simply repairing a couple segments of cracked plate that you might normally have to deal with. It's possible that because he was wearing that one piece of damaged armor, in addition to trying to repair itself with Kal's Stormlight, it was also trying to regrow the entire suit. That said, I don't think that Plate works with nahel-bond surges any better than it did with Honorblade surges. There's no reason to think that they work any differently. As far as Plate not screaming - I also think it's possible that it doesn't scream because it's not bonded the way Blades are. Bonding it to a human heartbeat forces the spren back to life, sort-of. Plate as we see it now doesn't have that bond.

I think the easiest answer here is that Sanderson changed his mind sometime between giving that answer and writing WoR. It's happened before, it'll happen again. That or it's simply a different kind of bond than one would make with a dead spren based blade.

Sorry, I feel like we're not communicating very well. Yes, if Shallan faces and accepts the harsh truths that she uncovers, she will maintain her bond. Similarly, if Kaladin keeps to the oaths he makes, that will maintain his bond with Syl. I'm just not clear on why you think they're so different.

If Shallan were to turn away from a painful truth. Denied it to herself, I imagine that would hurt the bond. Let's say that she starts investigating Sadeas' murder and find evidence that Adolin may be the culprit. But she avoids pursuing it. She goes into denial and starts making up excuses to herself why it couldn't be true. Even goes so far as to start believing the lie that she's telling herself. That's the kind of thing that I think Pattern would have trouble with. If confronting harsh truths is the way they strengthen their bond, then avoiding or ignoring them would surely hurt it.

Almost any ideal taken to an extreme can be dangerous.

I'm not sure what you're talking about here. I doubt Kaladin and Syl's bond would break if he failed to help someone in need (depending on the circumstances). Kaladin has failed to protect people on several occasions, and while it's upsetting to Syl (and him), their bond was unaffected. The thing that came between them was that he became an oathbreaker. Swearing to both protect the king and to help assassinate him.

Shallan probably isn't going to break her bond if she lies. After all, she's bonded to a liespren. But make no mistake, I'm certain that she could break the bond between her and Pattern. Pattern is very interested in lies and truth and the way they interact, the way one can become the other. Shallan could probably break her oath by denying the truth. Repressing the memories she recovered and not seeking the truth like she currently is.

I'm not sure what you mean. Each of the different branches have their own ideals. The only exception we're aware of right now is Lightweavers, who apparently trade in Truths instead of oaths.

If she had bonded with some strange spren, wouldn't her form have changed?

I think it's probably the nature of the Windrunners, more than anything else. The only other Radiant we've really seen progressing is Shallan and the Lightweavers seem to be about concealment, disguise, deception, etc. Doesn't really make sense for them to burst with white light in the middle of a high stress mission, the way it would a Windrunner. We also saw Dalinar take some oaths, but I think we can probably agree that the Stormfather seems to be approaching being bonded to a human differently from the others.

I think that it might. Even if they can't hear the screaming, bonding with a mostly-dead, probably angry and traumatized spren can't help but have some sort of effect. Speaking generally, the Alethi leadership, which has a large Shardbearing contingent, is pretty brutal. Specific examples: Sadeas, in WoK was a conniving, ruthless man willing to sacrifice thousands of innocents to cement his position in the Kingdom. But he still seemed committed to Gavilar’s memory and supporting Elkohar and, to his credit, at least he felt a little bit bad about murdering all of those people. At the end of the book he acquired a Shardblade. In the second book, now using the Blade regularly, he seems to have gone completely off the rails, planning to usurpe the throne and doesn’t even seem to care about killing any more. Adolin – when we first meet Adolin in WoK, he’s not on board with Dalinar’s ideas about leadership and responsibility. But we arrive in the book at a time when Adolin isn’t getting a chance to use his Shards very much. Dalinar has lost interest in hunting gemhearts and he’s restricted Adolin from engaging in dueling except in rare circumstances. After this long period of restricted use, Adolin suddenly has a revelation about the value of the Codes and what Dalinar is trying to accomplish. Then, in WoR, Adolin has his leash taken off re: dueling, and Dalinar’s new plan of assigning different groups to hunt the gemhearts means that Adolin is in the field much more, using his blade. Then after the biggest engagement of all – Adolin snaps and murders Sadeas. What do you guys think? Possible?

I would say that the bond between Syl and Kaladin had been significantly weakened by that point. He might have been trying to save Dalinar/Shallan in that moment, but the damage was already done. My reading was that Syl used the last of her strength to save Kaladin from the fall, but it weakened her and the bond to the point that Kaladin needed to speak the words and rededicate himself to being a protector.

Syl didn't split into windspren. Kaladin attracted a group of windspren and mistook one of them for Syl momentarily.

Catapults are primarily siege engines, to be used against castle walls and stationary structures. They're not really anti-personnel weapons. Kaladin's experiences were all in the open field.