Fridge / The Stormlight Archive

WARNING: Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies to Fridge pages. All spoilers will be unmarked.

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• Fridge for The Cosmere as a whole can be found here
• Fridge for Mistborn: The Original Trilogy can be found here
• Fridge for Mistborn: Secret History can be found here
• Fridge for Wax and Wayne can be found here
• Fridge for Warbreaker can be found here

Fridge Brilliance

Series as a whole

• The word Stormlight having 10 letters. Similarily, Voidlight having 9.
• Alethi gender roles seem odd at first. Okay, so men are warriors...and shopkeepers? And diplomats? While women are artists and scholars? How do those go together? However, it makes perfect sense: The men are in charge of dealing with other people, while the women are in charge of the more internal roles. Or for the cynical, they get all the light, indoor work with no heavy lifting.
  • Wit actually points out the second part in Words of Radiance. And he's about as cynical as they get.
• The Vengeance Pact:
  • A war where the most powerful nation in the world reacts to a horrific act of violence by launching an invasion of a relatively distant land, fighting a numerically inferior foe in a harsh, difficult landscape. The foe uses innovative, insurgent tactics. The war causes deep stress on the homeland, extends for a great length of time, gets many people killed (often for no good reason) and those prosecuting the war lose their focus on what they're really out there to fight. Might not be intentional, but there are some striking parallels there....
  • Sanderson was asked about this very thing, and he pointed out that the Parshendi are not the extremists in this war. Really, there are four sides to the War of Reckoning: The Sons of Honor, the Alethi, the Parshendi, and the Voidbringers. The Parshendi assassinated a member of the Sons of Honor to prevent him from turning them into Voidbringers. Unfortunately he was the Alethi king, so they took that personally and declared war. The Voidbringers then used the desperate situation to turn the Parshendi into Voidbringers. There are political parallels through all that, but it's a little bit less clear-cut than it might seem at first.
• Sexism:
  • It is interesting to note the lack of sexism in Vorin-based societies, despite the gender role restrictions. In fact, Vorinism places some very strict roles on gender, and while possible to circumvent by being an ardent, it still divides the sexes into tasks that are oddly awkward at times. However, look at the roles that women fill: clerks, scientists, scribes, engineers, researchers, etc. Many of these roles, especially scribing and clerical work, are absolutely essential for any society to function. By requiring that specific roles essential for society to operate are locked to women, Vorinism ensures that women not only remain highly educated but also very powerful, effectively curbing the traditionally masculine society that would develop historically. This results in a society where sexism is virtually nonexistent. This exact notion of women's "power" is explicitly deconstructed, however, in Jasnah's writings.
    What is a woman's place in this modern world? I rebel against this question, though so many of my peers ask it. The inherent bias in the inquiry seems invisible to so many of them. They consider themselves progressive because they are willing to challenge many of the assumptions of the past. They ignore the greater assumption — that a "place" for women must be defined and set forth to begin with. Half of the population must somehow be reduced to the role arrived at by a single conversation. No matter how broad that role is, it will be — by nature — a reduction from the infinite variety that is womanhood. ... A woman's strength should not be in her role, whatever she chooses it to be, but in the power to choose that role.
  • Interestingly, tying in with what Jasnah has written, is that Shallan actually becomes more powerful the more she challenges her traditional role as a mere scholar. While she still applies her knowledge and research to her goals to stop the Last Desolation, she only truly achieves when she starts breaking out of the role itself - first by saving her brother while killing her father, then by taking up Pattern directly, approaching the Ghostbloods, and then completely casting aside any attempt to hide her Surgebinding and Shardblade.
  • There's also the fact that scholarship is devalued in Alethi society in much the same way domestic work is in ours—necessary, yes, but by no means as prestigious for this life or the next as being a warrior, and women are barred from positions of true power.
• The Alethi and the Parshendi actually have similar gender roles in one important respect: They are expected to pair off and act as a single unit. For the Alethi, the husband acts as the face of the pair while the wife does the book-keeping, but the Parshendi warpairs, matepairs, and scholarpairs aren't actually all that different.
• In the first book, Axies the Collector mentions that though he's been imprisoned many times, he's never seen captivityspren. In the second when Kaladin is imprisoned he starts seeing a new kind of spren, like thin taut wires. Those are likely captivityspren, and the reason Axies doesn't see them is because while he's imprisoned, he's hoping to see captivityspren, but they're only drawn to people who genuinely feel trapped.
• Sanderson likes hiding foreshadowing by appearing to refer to a single event when he's actually referring to multiple. Take the series tagline: "The Everstorm comes. The True Desolation. The Night of Sorrows." It sounds like one thing with multiple synonyms, but the Everstorm and the True Desolation (and presumably the Night of Sorrows) are actually different things. Likewise, Shallan often references her father's death and her Shardblade as if they are the same event, but they are only related in that she's suppressing both memories.
• A closer look at Roshar's environment lends credence to Syl's claim that the laws of physics are "an agreement between friends." In fact there are so many things off about Roshar as a planetoid that it begins to look like a "what's wrong with this picture" puzzle:
  • The year length is a round number (500 days between Weepings exactly) and the moons always go across the sky in the order of Salas, Nomon, Mishim. Given that Salas and Mishim are stated to be smaller than Nomon, this is unlikely to occur naturally.
  • The seasons are all over the place (Kaladin notes at one point that a fortnight of spring is unprecedented), which implies no axial tilt (which would focus the sun's rays onto specific parts of the globe at specific times of the year, causing "warm" and "cold" seasons as with Earth).
  • The main supercontinent is in the shape of a fractal - a mathematical diagram that would not change to suit the whims of any specific number system.
• Wit's insults:
  • Wit never insults Dalinar, only offering him simple nods whenever they meet. Because Dalinar already whips himself more than bloody enough on his own.
    Wit: Those who "deserve" my mockery are those who can benefit from it, Brightlord Dalinar.
  • In contrast, Wit always insults Kaladin. The only time he stops is when he decides that's not working and tells him a story instead. Kaladin is so selfishly depressed that even when Wit spells out the aesop explicitly, it takes Kaladin time to get it through his head.
  • If you pay close attention, the only people that Wit treats with kindness and respect in any way, even Kaladin, are those who are already Radiants, or able to become them. The reason? If you're going to become a Radiant, you need to already be broken. Wit loves to Break the Haughty, but every Radiant he meets has already been broken, otherwise their spren never would have come to them. Wit's not an evil man and he's not going to cruelly insult or mock the ones who are already broken.
• The name "spren." It seems like they could just call them spirits. But since the Spiritual Realm is an actual place and the spren are not from there, calling them spirits is imprecise at best. Even more imprecise, since in Oathbringer it is revealed that what people on Roshar call spren are actually parts of larger creatures that can partially shift between the two realms.
• The first part of the first Ideal of the Knights Radiant is "Life before death." To quote Teft: "The Radiant seeks to defend life, always. He never kills unnecessarily, and never risks his own life for frivolous reasons. Living is harder than dying. The Radiant's duty is to live." The part about not risking their own life seems odd. But when you consider that every single Radiant was a Broken Ace and thus heavily depressed, it makes more sense. Yes, they really do need an ironclad rule that boils down to "don't commit suicide."
• As noted on the main page, the properties of the ten Polestones seem to be determined by color. But since color is defined by what frequencies of light an object reflects, it does make some sense that a gem's color would effect how it channels Stormlight.
• Vorinism, and Alethi culture in particular, makes a lot of sense when you learn in Oathbringer that the humans of Roshar originally worshiped, and might even have been created by, Odium. Vorinism teaches that the meaning of life is to follow your Calling and achieve excellence in it, so that you will be able to better support the spiritual war effort in the afterlife. The Alethi go even further and turn everything into a contest to see who's stronger and better. Odium is the Shard of passion and unbridled emotion, particularly hatred. Finding the thing you most like to do and trying to surpass all others in it is exactly what he'd encourage people to do. At the same time, Alethkar also has some very rigid caste and gender roles, and old traditions like the Codes that argue for strict discipline. The humans eventually turned away from Odium and began worshiping Honor instead, and he likely tried to channel and control their passions by imposing rules on them in accordance with his own Intent. Which is the most noticeable offshoot from the church made to follow Honor? The Passions.
• Lashings, as explicitly noted in Oathbringer, let Surgebinders not so much fly as be forcefully pulled in different directions, as if they were yanked by an invisible line. In other words, fights in the books likely look exactly like the Wire Fu scenes in movies that they're inspired by.
• The different fighting stances used by Shardbearers (Vinestance, Smokestance, Stonestance, etc.) are named after each type of spren that the Knights Radiant bonded with. Oathbringer shows us ashspren, and cultivationspren are shown to be made up of vines.
• The Heralds are regarded by the Vorin faith as angelic quasi-divinities. And as it happens, the Greek word "angelos", which we usually transliterate into "angel", actually means "messenger" or "Herald".
• The fact that spheres with diamonds are the lowest denomination of monetary value actually makes sense, and not just because they are the least useful in terms of Soulcasting. In real life, diamonds are actually very abundant in the crust, and the reason why they are so expensive is that their supply is artificially limited to drive the price up. Without someone intentionally choking the supply, diamonds would naturally be the most common gemstone and thus be the least valuable.
• In real life, flying is sometimes jokingly called "falling to the ground and missing." However, that is literally what Windrunning involves: Lashing yourself in a direction other than toward the center of the planet, so you fall and miss the ground.
• In Way of King we learn Shin consider the stone sacred and no human may walk on it according to their religion, which doesn't make any sense when most of Roshar is bare stone. Then comes Oathbringer and suddenly it makes perfect sense: according to the pact with the Dawnsingers, human refugees were confined to the lands that later become Shinovar - the only place where stone was covered by soil. This prohibition is probably the only evidence of the original terms that were largely forgotten by humans.
• The first line of the oath all Radiants must speak is "Life before death." This is actually really important for the Radiants, because all of them are broken in some way so that they can form their Nahel bond. Many Radiants are like Kaladin, being pushed to the very edge of taking their own lives. "Life before death" isn't just a creed to live by and protect others, but a reminder that they need to keep on living rather than giving in to their pain and suffering and taking their own lives or seeking death.
• Wit/Hoid's story to Kaladin effectively shows the folly of letting one's actions be driven by blind, unconfirmed faith, which is a flaw that befalls multiple characters:
  • At first glance, it almost seems like a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, until one looks back over the setting itself. The tale shows what happens when people allow unconfirmed belief to rule their actions, and how people can do the most horrible of things because of belief in some greater power that excuses their actions. Three of the four main characters fall victim to this in their own way: Kaladin's inability to get over his own guilt and self-loathing, which convinces him that things are hopeless. Dalinar's belief in what the visions are showing him, which ultimately leads him into the trap during the battle on the Tower, as well as making the mistake of assuming The Way of Kings was applicable to all of life, and not the creation of a man who had been forced to unify the nations by force so he could implement his ideals. And most importantly, Szeth's strict adherence to Stone Shamanism and carrying out his assassinations at the order of whoever commands him, when all he would need to do to stop everything from happening would be to simply refuse to follow the orders of whoever holds his oathstone.
  • Becomes even more brilliant once we learn why Szeth was made Truthless. He tried to warn the Shin that the Desolation was coming. Because it obviously wasn't true, they branded him Truthless and forced him into slavery, and to bear the guilt of all the lives he claimed, and he went along with it, as he viewed it as the only punishment suitable. And then it turns out that he was right and the Shin were wrong. The desolation was coming. The Knights Radiant had returned. All of the deaths he caused were for nothing... because he believed the Shin over himself.
  • Going even further, the moral of Wit's story also applies to major villains of the series, especially Taravangian. Taravangian, and the Diagram as a whole, are driven by their faith in the incredibly complex document that he created. They don't fully understand everything about the Diagram, but they nonetheless still hold it up as a form of holy scripture directing their actions, even when it turns out that parts of it are incorrect or misinterpreted. The fact that the Diagram can be mistaken or its information be outdated is an incredibly dangerous prospect for a group who is trying to use it to save the world through causing destruction and chaos, but they still treat it as gospel.
  • Nalan is also shown to be falling victim to this, as his unyielding belief in law and in Ishar's wisdom have combined together to result in him executing numerous potential Radiants on the slim chance that doing so will save Roshar. His unwavering faith in a madman's theories on how to protect the world is so strong that he dismisses Szeth's own warnings, and it takes being confronted with the Everstorm itself to make him realize how wrong he was... and this in turn drives him to double down on his faith in the law, such that he sides with the Parshendi against humanity because they had a many thousand-year-old claim to the continent.
• Seeing the future is a taboo on Roshar, and is in almost all cases linked to Odium, with a strong message of "don't trust anyone who claims to see the future", causing a lot of distress for Renarin. The reason for that may be less sinister than we assume:
  • As we remember from the Mistborn series, Atium-induced future seeing can be countered by another person that also looks into the future, making previous predictions no longer valid.
  • Not all visions of the future are coming from the same source: they should not be trusted, because they can be countered by predictions coming from other sources, so expecting that X WILL happen may prove disastrous when someone else intervenes due to gaining a vision of the future from someone else.
  • We can even see that in the cases of Renarin and Taravangian: Renarin's vision of Dalinar becoming a puppet of Odium did not come to fruition because his powers come from spren corrupted by Sja-Anat (and by extension, Odium himself), so when Cultivation intervened by taking Dalinar's memories and allowing him to grow to be a better person, Odium's vision of the future was proven to be false.
  • What is more, Taraviangian's Diagram says that Renarin himself is a wild card, and his actions cannot be predicted - we must remember that the Diagram itself comes from Cultivation's gift to Taravangian, so Renarin, whose powers come in part from Odium, is not as predictable as other, uncorrupted Radiants.
• Shallan's first chapter headers are full of nested brilliance. Since the headers are done in black ink with no grayscale, it looks like an ocean at sunrise or sunset, which fits how she rode a boat to a port city. In Oathbringer, it turns out to be Jasnah's chapter header. The dark sky isn't because of sunset, that's Shadesmar. Shallan switching to Pattern could represent how she moves out of Jasnah's shadow, or how she's pretending to be an Elsecaller instead of a Lightweaver.
• The gender-restricted foods in Vorin kingdoms involves highly sweet foods for women and heavy, spicy foods with lot of meat for men. This makes a lot of sense for the men, since if they have to have restricted foods, it should be something heavy in carbohydrates and proteins, since men do a lot of the hard physical labor and fighting.
• Each order of the Knights Radiant swear the First Ideal, and it's the only Lightweaver oath, which means that when the last generation killed their spren during the Recreance, they all broke that vow. Whether they broke Life before Death or Strength before Weakness depends on your interpretation of the vows, but they definitely broke Journey before Destination by accepting that they would no longer fight or move forward.
• Even before Navani bonds with the Sibling, she does a lot of a Bondsmith's work of bringing people together.
  • She's the one who writes the essays that convinces the Azish to join.
  • When the nations begin to squabble, she organizes them by giving the Azish the job of regulating meetings, puting the Thaylens in charge of commerce, etc.
  • She kept the treaty feast afloat on the night of Gavilar's assassination; she listens to complaints and allocates resources on the fly, putting duty above pleasure when she finds an opportunity to speak with a famed artifabrian.
  • She and Raboniel worked together in scientific discovery, even though they were both enemies, uniting them rather than dividing.
• Why is the spren who is the tower of Urithiru called the Sibling? Because Big Brother is always watching.
• Every book in The Stormlight Archive is titled after an in-universe book, so within The Stormlight Archive, someone can put together every book in the Stormlight Archive and call it the Stormlight Archive.
  • In fact, Renarin discovered a cache of gemstones in Urithiru's library that when infused with Stormlight emit vibrations that encode text... an actual Stormlight Archive.
• "Taking the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal, he crawled up the steps crafted for Heralds, ten strides tall apiece, toward the grand temple above." This quote, particularly the bolded part, didn't make much sense when we already knew that Heralds are human and have human proportion. At most, it could be considered symbolic or be an exaggeration not unusual in stories. Come Dawnshard, we find out it is probably very literal and an early hint of who exactly guards the Dawnshard on Roshar.
• After "Rhythm of War", it becomes obvious that Taravangian's gift by Cultivation wasn't what he believed. It was obvious from the first book that he wasn't actually balancing intelligence and compassion, since even at his least intelligence he would not have stopped his plan, meaning he couldn't be that compassionate. The things that are in opposition, instead, are logical intelligence and emotional intelligence. Due to bias both in our own world and Roshar, the former is considered to be general intelligence and the latter is discounted and not noticed, and that's why Taravangian is mistaken to be simply "stupid" during those times (particularly since Taravangian is more focused on losing his logical skill and confusing him understanding the pain he causes with simple compassion to notice). The misunderstanding is intentional on Cultivation's part, though, since that's what leads Odium to seek Taravangian during those moments, believing he has the upper hand. However, Odium is first and foremost a being made of passion, which means that he is actually most vulnerable to Taravangian manipulation in that state, even more so since he is underestimating him. This ends up actually being Rayse's undoing.
• There are very strong indications that Shallan's mother is the Herald Chanaranach. Aside from the hair color, a big indicator is that she was fully aware of what Radiants were and recognized what Shallan was turning into. In addition, Shallan's mother was killed six years before the start of the story, which is around the time that the Parshendi made contact with the Alethi, Venli was contacted by the Voidspren, and the Parshendi were manipulated into assassinating Gavilar and starting the Vengeance War. If she was Chanaranach, then her death would have sent her back to Braize where she would have been tortured and quickly broken, allowing the Fused to return to Roshar. Lastly, Mraize mentions to Shallan in Words of Radiance that "Your family has a long history of involvement in these events." House Davar is a very minor noble house in Jah Keved, which makes little sense for a family that was so involved, but if he was talking about her mother's side of the family, that comment would make far more sense.
  • Which promptly comes back around to Fridge Horror and a truly terrible realization: that Shallan, by killing her mother in self-defense, is partly responsible for the Voidspren escaping and beginning of the Final Desolation.
  • And also, it crosses over to Fridge Sadness, if Chanaranach deliberately broke to go back and see her children again.

Death Rattles

The prophetic dying words sprinkled throughout the series (especially the epigraphs of Way of Kings) have a lot of brilliance to them, referencing events from multiple books in esoteric terms. Interpretations below.

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• "Ten orders. We were loved, once. Why have you forsaken us, Almighty! Shard of my soul, where have you gone?"
  • A reference to ten Orders of Radiants and, possibly, Honor's death.
• "A man stood on a Cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears."
  • Possibly a reference to Dalinar's first and final visions, where he stands on a cliffside with Honor and watches Kholinar crumble to nothing.
• "I'm dying, aren't I? Healer, why do you take my blood? Who is that beside you, with his head of lines? I can see a distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a black sky."
  • An early reference to the secret hospital. The "head of lines" is obviously a Cryptic, and the landscape described is Shadesmar. This might not even be a real Death Rattle.
• “They are aflame. They burn. They bring the darkness when they come, and so all you can see is that their skin is aflame. Burn, burn, burn... ”
  • Rather poetic description of Voidbringers and their abilities.
• "Victory! We stand atop the mount! We scatter them before us! Their homes become our dens, their lands are now our farms! And they shall burn, as we once did, in a place that is hollow and forlorn."
  • The humans conquering Roshar from the parsh, and sending them to Braize.
• "Ten people, with Shardblades alight, standing before a wall of black and white and red."
  • Battle of Thaylen Field, where ten Surgebinders ^note Dalinar, Lift, Szeth, Jasnah, Kaladin, Shallan, Renarin, Teft, Taln and Shalash fought against the Voidbringer army.
• "Three of sixteen ruled, but now the Broken One reigns."
  • An obvious reference to Honor, Cultivation, and Odium (three of the sixteen Shards of Andonalsium) collectively ruling Roshar. But with Honor's death, Cultivation appears to have gone into hiding, and Odium is essentially the sole Shard on the planet.
• "He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!"
  • The tower and crown are symbols of House Kholin and the fallen title likely refers to Radiants. It may be about Kaladin becoming the Captain of the Guard for the Kholins after his actions in Ways of Kings.
• "The burdens of nine become mine. Why must I carry the madness of them all? Oh, Almighty, release me."
  • Taln, being tortured in Damnation. In fact, this might be the exact moment where he gave up and the next Desolation officially began.
• "A woman sits and scratches out her own eyes. Daughter of kings and winds, the vandal."
  • A reference to the Herald Shalash (daughter of Jezrien, Herald of Kings and patron of the Windrunners) and her habit of destroying all art of herself.
• "The death is my life, the strength becomes my weakness, the journey has ended."
  • A dark inversion of the First Ideal of Radiants. Possibly in reference to how Odium can give people a void-powered version of the Surges.
• "Above the final void I hang, friends behind, friends before. The feast I must drink clings to their faces, and the words I must speak spark in my mind. The old oaths will be spoken anew."
  • This seems to be from Kaladin's perspective, of all things, as he leaps from the bridge in the climax of Way of Kings. The friends behind are Bridge Four, the friends before are the Parshendi (who he soon learns are more honorable than the Alethi who are his supposed allies), the feast is the Stormlight in their beards, and the words are of course the Second Oath of the Windrunners.
• "They come from the pit, two dead men, a heart in their hands, and I know that I have seen true glory."
  • A reference to an event in Words of Radiance when Kaladin and Shallan were thought dead in the chasms, only to return with a gemheart. The only odd part is referring to them as two men, but the Rattles have used stranger wording before. ^note "Men" can technically refer to human beings of either gender, in the same way that the human species is sometimes called "man." It's almost never used like that anymore, but it would fit the old-timey tone of the Death Rattles to employ the archaic usage of the word. The chapter where they come out of the chasms is even titled "True Glory."
• "I see them. They are the rocks. They are the vengeful spirits. Eyes of red."
  • An early reference to Thunderclasts.
• "That chanting, that singing, those rasping voices."
  • Possibly about the summoning of Everstorm.
• "They named it the Final Desolation, but they lied. Our gods lied. Oh, how they lied. The Everstorm comes. I hear its whispers, see its stormwall, know its heart."
  • After breaking the Oathpact, the Heralds told people that the Desolations have ended.
• "All is withdrawn for me. I stand against the one who saved my life. I protect the one who killed my promises. I raise my hand. The storm responds."
  • Another Kaladin one, this time when he is protecting Elhokar from Moash. Syl becomes a Shardblade for the first time. The chapter where Kaladin is in prison and hears about what Elhokar did with Roshone is called "The One Who Killed Promises."
  • It could also be a reference to Szeth, who in Oathbringer turns against Nale after they disagree on which law to follow, and protects Dalinar and Kaladin, who both "killed his promises."
• "They break the land itself! They want it, but in their rage they will destroy it. Like the jealous man burns his rich things rather than let them be taken by his enemies! They come!"
  • Humans, who destroy their homeworld by abusing destructive powers similar to surges (possibly the surges that Odium grants), coming to Roshar.
  • May also apply to the Fused who are willing to destroy Roshar to kill all the humans.
• "And all the world was shattered! The rocks trembled with their steps, and the stones reached toward the heavens. We die! We die!"
  • This either refers to the Everstorm clashing with a highstorm during the Battle of Narak (which destroyed some plateaus), or to whatever event created the Shattered Plains.
• "He watches! The black piper in the night. He holds us in his palm... playing a tune no man can hear!"
  • When Cenn dies in Kaladin's flashback. The "black piper" seems to be a reference to Wit/Hoid, who plays pipes in some of his appearances.
  • Alternately, this could also be referencing the rhythms of Roshar, which humans cannot hear and only singers and the Fused can detect normally.

The Way of Kings

• Taln's mentioned tendencies to die in unsurvivable fights during the Desolation make so much sense when held against the eventual refusal of the other Heralds to return to Braize. He's probably consciously choosing to keep fighting until he dies, removing the temptation to revolt against the Oathpact, which the other nine did end up doing. Another option is that he knows he will have to go back to Braize after the last battle, so there's no point in trying to preserve his life.
• It is mentioned several times that predicting the future is left to the Almighty. The final vision Dalinar sees shows him a possible future . . . and guess who that voice is that he's been hearing? And as it turns out, even the Almighty can't do it very well. Apparently the bearer of a shard called Cultivation is better. What is Cultivation all about? Planting and nurturing things that will come to fruition...in the future.
• Arrows have a habit of conveniently missing Kaladin just barely during bridge runs, hitting the wood near his hands and head instead. Keep in mind that he usually carries his money on his person during these runs, and that the spheres always seem to go dun a lot faster than they ought to. Now, how did Reverse Lashing work again?
• At one point, the King's Wit talks to Dalinar and mentions how gibberish words are often the sounds of other words. Doesn't seem too important. Then we find out that the "gibberish" that Dalinar speaks during his visions are actual words, only in an ancient dead language.
• In the epilogue Wit mentions that the system of lighteyed rule, despite seeming so bizarre, was created for perfectly logical reasons. Actual eye color is clearly as poor an indicator of intelligence and leadership qualities on Roshar as on Earth, but what probably happened, was that people remembered the Radiants having eyes that glowed, and are still deferential to bright eyes without remembering the reasons. Even more so, it's revealed that if you pick up a Shardblade, your eyes change hue to light. It's quite probable that all lighteyes are the descendants of Radiants and Shardbearers.
• There are ten point of view characters in the main story of The Way of Kings. (Kaladin, Dalinar, Adolin, Shallan, Szeth, Gaz, Navani, Cenn, Wit/Hoid, and Teft.) There are six others in the interlude, so add those and it becomes sixteen. And there's one more in the prelude, so seventeen. Brandon put in stealth references to the Arc Number of this series, the Arc Number of the entire Cosmere, and the Seventeenth Shard. Nice job.
• The Parshendi targeting the expendable and easily replaced bridgemen over other more worthwhile soldiers is a puzzle to the Alethi. But when you consider the Parshendi are shapechangers who move between different forms for specialized roles, it makes sense that they would consider targeting bridgemen worthwhile. The Parshendi don't really believe in cannon fodder, since any Parshendi can become any role. While they would likely grasp, intellectually, that humans don't shapechange, there would still be an innate belief that killing a human - any human - would remove a potential enemy soldier from the field, even if that combatant was a lowly bridgeman. As an added bonus, that's exactly what happens during the book: Bridge Four turns from being made of the lowliest of the bridgemen to a Badass Crew able to held its own in an actual battle. Notably, the first Radiant they face is a bridgeman. Not only that, but when Kaladin thinks about his Character Development in Oathbringer, it sounds a bit like he shifted through forms.
• There's a scene halfway through the book where Shallan is trying to figure out how to make Jasnah's Soulcaster work. One of the books she reads suggests humming is a key to making it work. Shortly after trying (and failing) this, Shallan is studying the patterns the Soulcast stone in the ceiling of her room when she first hears the spren talking to her. It's rather subtle, but Pattern is, well, made up of patterns, and he also likes to hum quite a bit. It's not really a coincidence that the first time he speaks to Shallan, it is after she tries humming to Soulcast, and starts studying patterns in her surroundings.
• Pattern and the other Cryptics appear in Shallans artwork at odd times. We are told later on though that Cryptics are attracted to lies. They appear in two pictures, one of Taravangian and one of Kabsal. Both of which are lying. Kabsal is misleading Shallan and Taravangian is feigning stupidity. The Cryptics then follow Shallan the biggest liar of all, due to her status as a Lightweaver and everything she has repressed in her memories.
• Taln is the Herald of War, and immediately following his resurrection appears at Kholinar. Kholinar is currently the capital of Alethkar, but it's also one of the Dawncities, and was the capital of Alethela, the Proud Warrior Race kingdom. No wonder he appeared there—it's the most logical place to start rallying soldiers.
• Dalinar's visions are like a video game. He can interact with the world, move about freely and make choices, but in the end the story is still on the rails, and it's going to head where it wants no matter what he does. The parts where the Almighty is speaking to him are non-interactive cutscenes. Even more so in Oathbringer, when he can have them any time, can bring other people in, and start examining the "coding" to find limits and even what could be considered easter eggs. The only reason he doesn't come to this realization sooner is that the very concept of a play or other live entertainment that the audience can't truly interact with doesn't exist yet in Roshar, especially since he's able to interact with characters in the visions earlier - he has no reason to think that the Almighty's messages at the end are non-interactive.
• Remember the scene where Dalinar uses his Shardplate to help some darkeyed workers perform construction, something that has others looking at him like he's crazy? Taken on its own, it's an Establishing Character Moment that shows Dalinar is willing to do the kind of work other Highprinces consider beneath their station. In Oathbringer we learn that the powers of a Bondsmith, which Dalinar becomes at the end of Words of Radiance, are particularly suited to this kind of thing, far more than they are for straight-up combat, which he demonstrates by helping the people of Thaylenah rebuild their wrecked city. Foreshadowing done two books and six real-world years early.
• Dalinar's abrupt revulsion at violence in the middle of the battle against the Parshendi makes a lot more sense when you realize that this is, for a brief moment, the resurgence of his pain and guilt over how he accidentally burned his wife to death ten years ago. He doesn't remember exactly why he feels horror and revulsion at the sight of the violence due to Cultivation taking the memory from him, but he's still instinctively reacting to such a horrifying memory.
• If Amaram's actions weren't horrible enough, they were entirely pointless if you believe his justifications. He told Kaladin that a Shardblade would be wasted on a darkeyes with no sword training, but he can use it to its full potential, he needs a spotless reputation, and a Shardblade in his hands would save Alethkar. The thing is, Kaladin willingly gave up the Shardblade to one of his men, who refused it. Amaram could have claimed it, and given his command of the rumor mill, let the rumor spread that his darkeyed soldiers admire him so much that they passed over nobility and willingly gave him a Shardblade. He'd have everything he said he'd want; destroying all the witnesses and claiming that he slew the Shardbearer isn't pragmatism, it's spite.
• More Amaram horribleness: Amaram claimed that being trained in mundane sword and plate made him a better choice for Shardbearer. In Words of Radiance, Zahel explains that Shardbearers need to unlearn everything they've been taught, because Shardblades and Shardplate are so different from the mundane version that the lessons don't transfer over at all. So, again, Amaram was completely wrong.
• Adolin is healing Maya, a Cultivationspren. Adolin is commonly associated with the sun, and Maya is a plant. And what do plants need?

Words of Radiance

• Shallan notes that with enough Stormlight, she could survive a spear to the chest without too much difficulty. That's how Jasnah survived the ambush. She was stabbed through the chest, Shallan Soulcast the ship to water, and Jasnah escaped to Shadesmar to heal.
• In the previous book, the Almighty told Dalinar "Odium has killed me." In this book, Syl dislikes Kaladin's raw hatred for Amaram and people like him, which eventually breaks the bond and kills her. Odium is a synonym for hatred. Not just hatred, but specifically hatred toward someone due to their actions. The root of Kaladin's hatred toward lighteyes is that lighteyes have consistently betrayed him and killed those he cared for. It's not just that Syl's afraid of Kaladin breaking his oaths and what might happen to her because of that, it's that while Kaladin's around lighteyes he's closer to attracting Odium's spren instead of honorspren.
• It is mentioned that Bondsmith Radiants are incredibly rare and powerful, with three members being a normal number for them. Given that Dalinar becomes one by bonding the Stormfather himself, this makes a lot more sense. And then we find out that they can't increase their numbers, since they only can be made by bonding the Stormfather and his two siblings.
• All along, Renarin seems to be trying to overcome physical disabilities through sheer force of will. Everyone applauds him for making the effort, but it doesn't actually matter, except for what it says about his character. The only remotely useful thing he does at any point is use his Shardblade to cut through stone. Then you get to the end and find out he's a Radiant. This means that handling the Shardblade is exactly as hard for him as it is for Kaladin. But he was still doing it anyway with just mild winces. Now that is a Handicapped Badass.
• Eshonai is determined to speak with Dalinar specifically. This makes sense given that the Parshendi have spies among the parshmen in the camps, but makes even more sense when you consider that one of those spies was assigned to Bridge Four. Rlain had a singularly good opportunity to find out just how fundamentally decent Dalinar was, and his reports were probably partially responsible for Eshonai's high opinion of him.
• Related, it's easy to miss, but Shen is with the group that guards "Dalinar" while he meets with Eshonai. That same night, Rlain leaves the camp, but can't tell Kaladin why. It's because he knew something was very wrong with Eshonai refusing to negotiate in even the slightest.
• A VERY subtle hint that Shardblades are spren very early on. Navani told Dalinar that early Shardbearers learned to do the hammerspace storage thing by slapping a gem on their Shardblades. In Adolin's duel however, when his opponent unbinds from his Shardblade, Adolin takes of the binding ruby and crushes it in his hands. There is no mention of a spren escaping, as there was when Eshonai broke HER gem when she changed form. As the narration mentioned doing that was unnecessary to actually taking someone's Shardblade, that means the gem was perfectly fine and he could have used it as it was, and the spren hadn't 'run out'. So... where was the spren that should have been paired with the gem to make it a functioning piece of magitek? IN THE BLADE. Real subtle Brandon...
• Small one: The reason Taravangian is not allowed to eat before taking his daily tests is because he has never eaten before taking his daily tests. It's a variable that could call into question the validity of the tests.
• Kaladin lost his respect for Amaram when the man stole his Shardblade and killed his men, while he gained his respect for Dalinar when the man gave up his Shardblade and saved his men. Furthermore, Dalinar began to doubt Amaram when Amaram, despite being armed with a Shardblade, refused to save Adolin and Renarin because it would affect his reputation—while Kaladin jumped into the arena with nothing but a spear and then threw away his reputation in a failed attempt to get justice on Amaram.
• It's often noted that Kaladin has essentially been adopted by Dalinar Kholin by this book. In addition to the fact that Dalinar treats him much the same way he does Adolin (trustworthy but occasionally needing a firm word or punishment when he does something stupid), Kaladin's name also fits the Theme Naming Dalinar used for his sons: Three syllables, with the last being in.
• The first two Highprinces to join Dalinar on his march to the center were Roion and Sebarial, the cowards. They are also the two Highprinces least likely to feel the Thrill, which drives Alethi to violence and infighting. Even better by Oathbringer, when you learn that the Thrill is actually an Unmade, an agent of Odium, who in turn is acting to bring back the Voidbringers. It's not just the infighting, it's preventing them from moving against its master.
• When it is first noticed that Jasnah is missing, Navani says that it's nothing unusual for her. She says her daughter has a tendency to appear somewhere other than where she was supposed to be going, and to be reluctant to explain what happened. Considering the kinds of enemies she has, it's probable that this isn't the first time she's had to teleport after narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt.
  • When Shallan goes into Jasnah's room after she is seen being stabbed, she doesn't find the body in the darkness, only bloodstains. Shallan assumes that the assassins took the body with them, but it's actually subtle foreshadowing that Jasnah slipped into Shadesmar while the assassins were distracted chasing Shallan's illusion.
• Kaladin expresses an irrational fear that if he reveals his abilities to Dalinar, then the lighteyes will try to steal his powers the way they've taken everything else from him that he's loved. And while his fears regarding Dalinar taking his powers are unfounded, he's right in the sense that there are Anti-Magic tools that can drain Stormlight from a Radiant and that spren like Syl could theoretically be captured in gemstones to sever his bond. He's also right in that a lighteyed person did take away his powers: Moash, who has started to become a lighteyes after getting his Shardblade and Plate, was the catalyst for Kaladin's Heroic BSoD that broke his oath and depowered him.
• Shallan's father gave her an aluminum necklace as a gift. Aluminum has strong Anti-Magic properties known on other worlds. The Ghostbloods are a worldhopper organization, so he could have learned about aluminum from them, and tried to protect her from her powers. If her powers don't work with it on, excellent consistency. If they do, then that's probably because nobody has seen Radiants in thousands of years and they haven't ironed out the kinks.
• Before accepting Bridge Four as students, Zahel tests them by ordering them to run laps, stopping them, and saying that he was checking their obedience. He points out that a lot of spoiled lighteyes fail this test. Kaladin wonders why, because they're soldiers used to doing as they're told, but Zahel has a point. Bridge Four is made up of freed slaves, and no longer need to go on hated bridge runs. Zahel's not testing if they're too spoiled to run, he's testing if they'd repeat the runs and give up a bit of their current freedom to improve themselves.
  • The scene also mirrors how Kaladin first started training Bridge Four. Even on his break week, he exercised to prevent cramps and exhaustion during real runs. Most of the bridgemen wondered why he'd give up his free time for more bridge runs, but they came around eventually.
• Kaladin and Shallan cannot get along, their every interaction is an argument. Why? She's a Lightweaver and he's a Windrunner. She's bound to a liespren, he to an honorspren. They're Headbutting Heroes incarnate.

Edgedancer

• It might seem weird that two Skybreakers, with their Surgebinding and Shardblades, would be killed by what is essentially a sentient horde of cremlings. But remember that Radiants are intended to fight human-sized foes and much more massive enemies like thunderclasts. The size of their Blades and their abilities are completely useless if they get suddenly swarmed by hundreds of tiny stinging and biting creatures, especially if they have no idea what's coming.
  • These are also apprentice Skybreakers, and have only sworn the first two Oaths. This means that they don't yet know how to use Division (which Skybreakers are only taught after their Third Oath), and probably don't yet have Shardblades (which also seem to come with the third Oath). On top of that, it's the middle of the Weeping, and it's a plot point later on that there are almost no infused gemstones around.

Oathbringer

• Dalinar has a vision of Odium's champion as someone he vaguely recognizes, with nine shadows. This foreshadows Dalinar himself being the champion (and the shadows being the Unmade), but after he refuses, he helps to defend Thaylen City with nine companions: Seven Knights Radiant whose powers are still shadows of what they could be, and two Heralds who are mere shadows of their former selves.
• Vorinism holds that the Heralds went on to fight the Voidbringers in the Tranquiline Halls, the Vorin version of Heaven, after the Last Desolation. In fact, this is at least partially true: whenever the Heralds died, they went back to Odium's world, where they would fight against the Voidspren until captured and tortured until they broke. However, Odium currently lives on Braize, also known as Damnation.
• Everyone is surprised when several Radiants turn out to be working against humanity, or at least at cross-purposes. However, they forget that in one of Dalinar's visions, Nohadon was talking about how the Desolation was so bad because a Surgebinder had caused a war shortly before the Voidbringers returned. "Not all spren are as discerning as honorspren." This was before the Knights Radiant were founded. In other words, without the structure and tradition of the Orders, the Knights of modern times are mostly just ordinary people with special powers, with all the problems and conflicting personalities that implies. The fact that in order to be a Surgebinder you pretty much have to have some kind of trauma or mental illness or both probably doesn't help.
• It seems odd that Shallan's mental problems would get worse in this book, after she spoke her Truth at the end of the previous one. However, because she spoke the Truth, she could no longer pretend she didn't kill her mother, but she still didn't want to truly confront that part of herself. So instead she loopholed around it by convincing herself that Shallan did it, but Shallan is just another false personality (which was an idea we saw earlier in Words, when she showed Pattern her "true" self). There are a few moments in the book that imply this loophole might be straining her bond, but for the moment, the result is the creation of split personalities.
• Shallan's third personality, Brightness Radiant, seems to appear a bit suddenly, even considering the fact that Shallan created her on purpose. However, we have seen her before: She was the personality we saw after Shallan killed her father and Tyn. The pragmatic and stone-cold killer who can command a scene and suffer any indignity to make sure her goals are met.
  • It also seems to be heavily based on Shallan's view of Jasnah and her efforts to be more like her. Although the name and personality switch happens suddenly, she has actually spent a great deal of time during the previous two books practicing this personality.
• While the singers and fused are usually red and dark/Voidlight, Odium himself is usually colored with white and gold, whether as a human or singer, and uses white and gold in visions where he isn't being violent. When Moash kills Jezrien, he did so with a gold and white knife. There is a high probability that this is our first glimpse of rayseium, Odium's godmetal. Likewise, the reason so much of Odium's stuff is red is because that is the color of one Shard using another's power—and Odium does so love corrupting things.
• In the final chapters when Lopen accidentally swears the Second Ideal, he asks why then and is informed that he wasn't ready when he attempted it before. What was different this time? He was cheering up wounded soldiers by doing magic tricks and telling them that there is still hope, "protecting" them from falling into despair when they couldn't do it themselves.
• Throughout the book, Shallan increasingly becomes just another personality occupying her own mind. There's a very good reason for that. Surgebinders become Surgebinders because they're Broken Aces, and Shallan was broken as a child. Now that she's grown up, she still hasn't gotten over that pain. That means that she still sees herself, possibly on a Spiritual level, as being a scared little girl. Her mind can't process her own Character Development, and so even though she's gained new skills and confidence, the only way she knows how to process that change is to create more lies; she's convinced herself that all Shallan can be is a coward. The reason she's not a scared little girl is also the very reason she thinks she is.
• On a meta level, Odium is a foil to Ruin, the only other Shard we've actively seen who's been in the forefront as a villain. While both employ prophecy, have empowered minions, and notably managed to kill the Shard they were sharing a territory with who opposed them, both differ wildly on implementation, with Odium primarily using methods based on the Cognitive Realm and Ruin being mostly based on the Physical realm.
  • Ruin's own use of prophecy mainly composed of altering existing prophecies to serve his ends, sometimes moment by moment to fit the situation. Odium is noted to be very good at making his own prophecies and sees very far into the future, to the point that predicting the future is actively taboo on Roshar due to how closely it is tied to Odium. They don't even play gambling games that rely on guessing the future result of, say dice rolls, because that smacks too much of prophecy, instead playing variants where they guess the numbers after dice have been rolled, since that makes it a past event.
  • In appearance, Odium tends towards gold and white colors, and appears as a gold and/or white clad member of the species he is appearing to. Ruin tends toward black and dark gray, and appears as someone the viewer knows. Odium tries to make the person he is talking to trust and surrender to him with a calming, Affably Evil demeanor, while Ruin takes advantage of already-established trust and subverts it to his own ends.
  • Both are a source of Investiture and use their Investiture to power and physically alter certain minions. In this, they are actually very alike, both utilizing corrupted versions of other Shards' Investiture, with many of their minions undergoing noticeable physical changes. With Odium, however, most of these changes are natural parts of his minions' biology stemming from changes to their Spiritual or Cognitive aspects that trickle down to the Physical Realm. Ruin actively alters and mutilates his minions in the Physical Realm with stolen bits of Spiritual data to alter and add to their Cognitive and Spiritual parts.
  • Speaking of minions, they're even opposed when it comes to their minions' sanity. Odium values sane, physically whole minions because they can act rationally, follow orders, and have sufficient initiative to do what he wants done. Ruin goes for insane minions, whether originally like that or induced to be so from contact with him, because they're easier to control with spikes and won't question doing what a voice in their head tells them to do. Notably, Odium's insane minions tend to be harmless and sit around doing nothing, while capable of fighting if ordered. Ruin's minions are always violently insane, and without his direct control rampage wildly.
  • Both utilize forms of mind control. Odium does it by implanting Physical beings with spren/Cognitive beings aligned to him, and Ruin does it by spiking them with Hemalurgical spikes, physically opening them up to his Cognitive tampering and control. Notably, all of Ruin's forces were in the Physical realm, with him being the only Cognitive presence, while Odium, while having a sizeable force on the Physical Realm, has a significantly more massive force in the Cognitive Realm, and is also able to corrupt and control Cognitive beings.
  • Speaking of mind control, Odium's acts of subversion tend toward deals and pacts that he is completely up front and honest about, and will actually go through with in both spirit and letter. This allows him to take control of populations and essentially conscript whole peoples to his side by subverting their leaders, with eventual trickle -down effects. Ruin, however, plays ALL sides. The leaders, the mooks, the rebels AND the heroes. By massive and subtle manipulations, everyone is unknowingly on Ruin's side even as they are impelled to try and destroy everyone else, and even when they think they're opposing him.
  • Before becoming a Shard, Ati, Ruin's holder, was noted as being a good man who was corrupted into being the crazy creep that came to destroy Scadrial, and being very honest about it. Rayse, Odium's holder, has apparently ALWAYS been an evil asshole, yet currently presents himself as a friendly, wise and relatable guy... when he's trying to con you into dealing away EVERYTHING to him.
    • This also explains their difference in methods. Ati wasn't evil, he succumbed to the shard's impulses, so Ruin was unable to hide them, and he used his powers to impose himself on others and strip their mind away, just like it happened to him. Rayse, however, wanted it, and got control on his shard, and this is reflected in his subtlety.
  • Notably, there is also their omnicidal end goals. While Odium primarily wants to destroy the heroes and the peoples of Roshar they're defending because accomplishing this gets him out of a pact that keeps him bound to Roshar so he can finally go and start killing other Shards, Ruin wants to commit omnicide as a means in itself, with the implication that after he's killed everyone on Scadrial, he's going to destroy the physical planet itself. While for Odium it is merely the means to an end, for Ruin it is the end in itself.
  • Specifically, Odium is trying to subvert, break, or betray the pact he is in to fulfill his personal desires rather than the intent of his shard, while Ruin wants to hold to the pact that he made even though it was subverted and betrayed, because he values his function above all else.
  • Finally, both Ruin and Odium are killed because of deliberate actions of the other Shard they share the planet with, who use their superior ability to see into the future to do it, using people the other that they thought they could subvert and control to deal the fatal blow, and both are replaced by a new bearer of the Shard. Notably, the change to a new bearer makes the Shard overall stronger. And while Ati’s soul might to the the beyond, since he’s only normal dead, Rayse is NIGHTBLOOD dead. The Investiture making up his soul has been EATEN. It’s unlikely anything of him went Beyond. While the new bearer of Ruin’s power is a good man who intends to be hands-off and use his power to affect the world as little as possible, taking the power on a new path, the new Odium intends to stay the course Rayse set, and is likely an even more capable and evil force than the previous one.
• Dalinar's flashback reveals another reason he was so adamant on trusting Sadeas back in the first book: he doubted his loyalty to the crown once already, and as a result he exposed himself to his enemies and unwillingly killed his wife. He didn't remember the details, but that surely left a mark.
• In this book, we get rough translations for the names of Dalinar and Evi's children. "Adolin" means "Born unto Light", and "Renarin" roughly means "Like one who was born unto himself". By the end of the book, Adolin looks to be on the path to Radiance (or something adjacent to it, at least), and whatever Renarin is going to become, it's clear that it's nothing that's ever existed before, and he will have to, so to speak, create himself.
• Kaladin's short speech to Amaram: "Ten spears go to battle, and nine shatter. Did that war forge the one that remained? No, Amaram. All the war did was identify the spear that would not break." It's intended as a counter to Amaram claiming he "created" Kaladin, but it's also a perfect summary of what happened to the Heralds and Taln. Note that Taln's Honorblade is extremely long and thin, almost like a spear.
• Adolin being the Badass Normal and only member of the main group without a spren bonded to him actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. He's pretty much the only one in his family, let alone the larger group, who hasn't undergone some horrible, life-breaking trauma that would let him bond with a spren. He's the most sane and stable part of the group and is essentially the rock that everyone else needs to keep themselves grounded. Even without a spren or Surgebinding, Adolin is crucial because he's sane.
• The Nahel bond requires a human who is "broken" and the damage in their mind to be filled in and healed by a spren. Adolin seems to be bonding with Maya, despite being the Only Sane Man in a whole pile of Dysfunction Junction that is the main cast. How can he be building that sort of bond despite being relatively sane and normal? Because there is a broken person involved in this bond: Maya. It's Adolin who is healing her. After all, it's not explicitly said that the mortal participant of the bond has to be the broken one.
• In retrospect, it's kind of obvious that the method that Cultivation used to heal Dalinar and make him mentally strong enough to stand up to Odium took nearly a decade to see fruition. She was literally cultivating that strength within Dalinar by cutting off his memories so that he could grow stronger through his trials and be able to finally process his own grief without being completely destroyed by it, and thus be able to stand up to Odium's corrupting influence.
• Mraize having a seemingly-random "chicken" on his shoulder while pretending to be a guard might seem strange at first, but it's actually really clever. If someone from the Ghostbloods recognized him, the attention they gave him might give away his disguise. However, the presence of the bird on his shoulder would handily excuse any odd looks someone like Shallan would give him.
• The Voidspren that Kaladin speaks to while among the Parshmen appears as a woman who walks on golden pillars of stone. Now, remember who has an aversion to walking on stone? The Shin. This type of Voidspren might very well be the origin of that taboo.
• Wit spends a lot of time around Shallan over the course of their time in Kholinar. Later on, at the end of the book, he is shown bonding with Elhokar's Cryptic and becoming a Lightweaver. But how did he start bonding so quickly? Well, he's spent a lot of time around an existing Lightweaver, and those who are close to a Radiant and spend enough time with them can become squires. Wit was able to bond with Elhokar's Cryptic and become a Lightweaver because he was essentially another of Shallan's squires.
  • In addition, Wit is already a Yolish Lightweaver, and Yolish and Rosharan Lightweaving work on very similar philosophical principles. So Wit has already had lifetimes of practice putting himself in the proper mindset to work with a Cryptic.
• Adolin mentions that one of his girlfriends claimed to have "womanly issues" four times in a single month. Given that Rosharan months are fifty days long, assuming Rosharan humans have the same roughly 28-day menstrual cycle as Earth humans it would actually be possible for a woman to have up to three periods more or less in a single month (the tail end of one at the very start of the month, one in the middle, and then one starting at the very end of the month).
• Azure coldly tells Kaladin that she's not going to help Dalinar because she has no reason to protect a man she's never met, no matter his reputation. Reasonable enough on its own, but it makes a lot more sense given what she went through in Warbreaker. Vivenna's companions tricked her into triggering a bloody revolution in a peaceful city because she was raised to hate that city, and because her companions only showed her one side of the story. Only after seeing everyone and everything with her own eyes does she do the right thing. Azure will protect people in immediate need, but she knows she can't see the big picture (knowing that hearsay is unreliable) and is likely wary of the consequences of her actions.

Rhythm of War

• Throughout the book, Navani believes that she's not a true scholar, but a patron of scholars. She's proven wrong when she discovers reverse Light, but even before she's shown tinkering, she's an important part of the process. In the prologue, she might not be the one cooking or setting out tables, but she's vital to the party because she coordinates. As the artifabrian who makes the flying glove shows, they know how to make fabrials, but they don't necessarily know how to use them or in what direction to optimize them.
  • Random historical trivia: the early computer ENIAC was built by two men, but its programmers were women who were tasked with programming it when no programming languages existed. The men got all the credit since people thought building the computer was the only hard part, but programming was an exacting task. If the artifabrians built the computer, Navani is the programmer. Also, the article mentions a magazine that said programming was perfect for women because it was like planning a dinner party.
• In Part 1, Shallan is afraid that anyone would discover that she's a murderer, including Pattern. Except by Words of Radiance, Pattern knows that she killed both of her parents, so there's no need to hide... until it turns out that she's not suppressing the memory of their murders, but her first spren.
• When Shallan is talking with her companions, she shifts her hair color to make it clear which persona (Shallan, Veil, or Radiant) is talking. In Shadesmar, however, she has to explicitly tell Adolin who she is when she's talking. This is because their reserves of Stormlight are very limited, so Shallan can't casually switch between hair colors when she switches personality.
• Mraize tells Shallan that the Seon in the box is extremely valuable. Even in Elantris, Seon are prized, but it makes more sense when you know that Sel is almost inaccessible through the Cognitive Realm.
• Also, the Seon is named Ala, the Aon for beauty/handsomeness. Shallan is named after Shalash, Herald of Beauty.
• The Parshendi's song of dullform mentions that in order to become one, the singer needs to "banish the cost." This sort of terminology fits how Moash/Vyre talks about giving up his emotions and the "cost" of being chained to humanity. During his perspective chapters, Vyre also mentions how he actively seeks out dull, basic, repetitive manual labor... which is exactly what parshmen did. Vyre has, for all intents and purposes, become a human version of a dullform parshman.
• The metals mentioned as being used in fabrial making cause fabrials to enact effects similar to what the metal is used for in Allomancy. Zinc in brass cause spren to manifest more or less strongly, and since spren have a strong emotional component, the fact that the metals that used in emotional Allomancy do this makes sense. Bronze, the metal used to detect allomantic pulses, is used in warning fabrials. Iron, which pulls on other metals, makes attractor fabrials.
• From a meta perspective, it seems odd that Shallan is not present during the climax of Adolin's trial. Her absence doesn't seem to have any obvious effect, and she doesn't even do anything while she's gone. However, there is one important thing to remember: As a Lightweaver, if something completely impossible happens around her, the obvious assumption is that she's using an illusion. With her out of the way and in the custody of the antagonists, they can't try to pass the whole thing off as a trick.
• It can seem bizarre that Shallan is so worried about people hating her if they learned she killed her spren, as it seems a lot less of a problem than the death of her parents. It being a bit of an overreaction is part of the point however. She herself couldn't remember what she had done but thought it must be something so bad that she didn't deserve love, because that's how she felt about herself. Her truth isn't that she killed her spren, her truth is about how she is deserving of being loved.
• What is Vasher doing when the Fused occupy Urithiru? The Fused only attack people who fight back. From what we see of him in Warbreaker, Vasher doesn't care who lives on whose land, as long as nobody's killing each other, and his goal for most of the book is preventing war. From Vasher's point of view, there's no imminent danger, so fighting is pointless.
• In Chapter 50, Jasnah and Hoid's takedown of Ruthar is only made possible by him repeatedly losing his temper: He said something derogatory to give Jasnah an excuse to unleash Wit against him, he challenged Wit to a duel in response to his insults, and then when Jasnah stood as Wit's champion he was so contemptuous as to cast his sword aside and refuse to fight her. Given that Jasnah had Renarin standing by, the proclamation forbidding dueling already drawn up, and Ruthar's heir ready to step into the highprince role the instant Ruthar was defeated, it's clear that she knew in advance that Ruthar would lose his temper exactly when and as he did. Now, those familiar with the deep lore of The Cosmere will know that by this point in the overarching story, Wit is a full Mistborn of exceptional power, with access to Soothing and Rioting. Ruthar didn't lose his temper of his own accord, Wit pushed him into breaking down exactly where and when he wanted.
• Crosses over with Fridge Horror: Why did Shallan stop speaking after the deaths of her parents? Because by saying the wrong words and breaking her oaths, she killed Testament.

Fridge Horror

Series as a whole

• Darkness was right to kill potential Radiants in order to prevent Desolations. The Return of the Parshendi's old gods happens because Kaladin takes a level in badass and defeats Eshonai to rescue Dalinar. If Eshonai and Dalinar could have talked about ending the war there on the Tower, they would have been able to join together against the Desolation.
• Early on in Way of Kings, Kaladin nearly kills himself in despair before Syl just barely stops him by returning in time. Later on, we learn that the Nahel bond needed to create Radiants requires people who are deeply broken in some manner. This leaves a worrisome question: just how many potential Radiants killed themselves because their spren wasn't able to find and save them?
• Yay, Wit bonds with a Cryptic! But he shows up in Wax and Wayne, which takes place in the ten-year timeskip between the fifth and sixth books (Word of God aside, Harmony's comments in Rhythm of War implies that it takes place before he started nudging Wax to be his champion). Since spren can't leave Roshar, he must have left Design behind. At best, he'll reduce her to a feral state, and at worst, he'll kill her.
• It's all but stated that Thaidakar is Kelsier. What happened to him? Kelsier was vicious, but at least he restricted himself to evil nobles and combatants, and was sympathetic to suffering. He even let Vin and Clubs leave when they didn't accept his job offer right away. The Ghostbloods kill innocents, and declare war on Shallan for leaving. Either he knows about this and approves, or he doesn't know about this, and is scheming for some terrible people...

The Way of Kings

• If Jasnah's research proves correct that the parshmen are docile Parshendi, and we know the Parshendi - and, by extension, the parshmen - have a Borg-style mind connection, all of Roshar is very fucked due to how used people have gotten to having parshmen servants around to do whatever chores and look after children. In the second book, Jasnah points out that they won't even have to violently rebel (although she assumes that's the plan). All they have to do is walk off the job, and every country's economy would be completely devastated. When the big reveal is made, Shallan notes that there are two parshmen standing literally within meters of them. That is just how commonplace the parshmen are. Made even better in Oathbringer where all most parshmen do is walk off the job.
• In Chapter 48, after cutting herself to mask that she had Soulcasted the contents of a goblet into blood, Shallan wakes up in a hospital. In Kharbranth. King Taravangian's hospital. The one that has patients slowly drained of blood so that they are in a state of dying, and speak the Death Rattles. Even if she wasn't at risk, both Shallan and Jasnah were that close to a very large conspiracy.
• By all appearances, Lin Davar's Soulcaster actually was a fabrial Soulcaster, not a prop to hide Surgebinding abilities like Jasnah's (it only seems to have been able to create stone, for one thing). And as we see in later books, using a fabrial Soulcaster gradually transmutes the user into the appropriate Essence. Every time Lin used his Soulcaster to get the money he needed for his schemes, he pushed himself a little closer to becoming stone.

Words of Radiance

• Shinovar has always been protected from the highstorms, so its people and wildlife never evolved to survive them. But in just a few days, the Everstorm is coming, and unlike highstorms, it comes from the west. The mountains will be no protection against it. Shinovar is going to be devastated. There's a smaller (but still pretty darn big) mountain range covering the entire western coast of Shinovar. The Everstorm won't hit them full force (but even a minor hit could do serious damage to a land with no fortifications).
• How long has Nalan been hunting down and murdering Radiants for whatever crimes he could find them guilty of? How many would-be Radiants who would be needed to fight the Voidbringers has he killed so far? How badly has his pursuit of Surgebinders crippled Roshar's ability to ultimately fight back?
• The smarter Taravangian becomes, the more fundamentally flawed the plans he creates are, such as it being a good idea if all the less intelligent people killed themselves. The Diagram was created when he was at his most intelligent - right from the beginning, his faction is gambling everything on a critically flawed course of action. Even if his exceptional level of intelligence allowed him to overcome this, he also becomes increasingly less compassionate as he grows smarter. The Diagram was created by him while he was incredibly brilliant, and monstrous.
• Considering the revelations about Gavilar's goals to bring back the Voidbringers and the Desolation, his line to Szeth claiming that the assassination was too late becomes much more disturbing in hindsight.
• When the Everstorm clashed with a highstorm, the two amplified each other's effects, creating a tempest powerful enough to shatter the stone ground of Roshar. And since the two storms are traveling in opposite directions and (as we later find out) at different speeds, they are going to keep clashing in various places across Roshar every nine days or thereabouts. Either storm on its own is survivable, but can any lait or architecture stand up to the fury of their collision?

Oathbringer

• Mraize's letter to Shallan mentions that the Skybreakers were killing those who were bonding to spren, and that "We have records showing the only member of Amaram's army to have bonded a spren was long since eliminated." But who could this be referring to? It is explicitly said that they didn't know Kaladin was bonding to Syl, otherwise they would have killed him too. However, Word of God is that Tien was bonding to a Cryptic when he was killed on the battlefield, and we are never shown precisely how Tien died. This leaves a sickening possibility: Nale killed Kaladin's brother.

Rhythm of War

• With the reveal of Kalak being Restares, we also now know he is the one to order the execution of Kaladin and his crew. Kaladin's own namesake tried to kill him and is the cause of his time as a slave.
• The gemstone opening the door to Kaladin's hideout ran out of Stormlight while Kaladin was unconscious. So if Venli hadn't freed Lift, he and Teft would have died alone in the darkness... exactly what Kaladin was so afraid of.
• It seems that Maya's recovery here is due at least in part to a kind of inverted Nahel bond, with Adolin filling in the cracks in Maya's soul in the same way that a spren normally fills in the cracks in their Radiant's soul. But if that's the case, what happens to Maya when Adolin dies? Maybe she'll have finished healing by that point, and she'll be as okay as any spren who's lost a bonded human can be, but more likely losing Adolin will cause her to revert to being a deadeye once again.

Fridge Logic

• On the Headscratchers page.

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