Blend, on 25 March 2014 - 06:56 PM, said:
To those questioning Jasnah's powers, it's stated early on that she shares Soulcasting with Shallan, but that she doesn't have the Lightweaving ability, so where Shallan is a Lightweaver, Jasnah is not. In the last chapter when she reappears, Wit says she was Elsecalling, so I'm assuming she's going to be an Elsecaller.
So far we've seen a Surgebinder (Kaladin), a Lightweaver (Shallan), an Elsecaller (Jasnah), a Bondsmith (Dalinar), and then whatever the cobbler and the little girl are - they have the overlapping regrowth ability, but I don't think we get official names for what kind of Radiants they are. There's also Renarin, but I'm worried about him because his ability apparently is to 'see,' which to me implies he's going to have visions of the future, and we've been told throughout the book that seeing the future is of the Voidbringers.
I'm excited to see what kind of Radiant Lopen is going to be, as well as the other Bridgemen who were hinted at having powers (someone mentioned offhand that they saw some bridgemen glowing during the big final battle).
Dalinar being a Radiant was hinted throughout the book, but for me, it was made very clear when he was in the hospital tent during the last battle and the person checking his cut comments on how many scars he has and how he should, by all rights, not be able to even use his arm anymore. Seems to me like that means that he's got something healing him, which must mean stormlight. I'm certainly interested to see what it means to be a Bondsmith.
Re: the Parshendi who did not want to take on Stormform - Thude basically took off with them, and they went down into the chasms. I think they're going to pop back up later, though whether they end up on the Alethi side or not is going to be interesting. I have a feeling that Rlain will end up bringing them into the fold to fight the Voidbringers. I certainly think the Voidbringers and the Everstorm are going to be a little more complex than 'all Parshmen/Parshendi will become Voidbringers as soon as an Everstorm passes.'
Re: Taravangian and the Diagram - I really enjoy the idea that they've become somewhat of a religious order. I get the impression that the Ghostbloods are part of this group, but I'm not sure whether I read that correctly or not. It's certainly piqued my interest, and I look forward to that story developing more.
Then there's Amaram's crew, which tied to Gavilar, and they were trying to bring on a Desolation (or something close to a Desolation) in order to bring the Heralds back. I'm interested to see where that's going, but their motives are still pretty murky to me. I mean, why risk a Desolation just to bring the Heralds back? What do they expect having the Heralds back will do?
Re: Szeth at the end - I haven't read Warbreaker, so I don't know about Szeth's sword, which you all seem to think is the sword from that novel. When I read that, what with the sword being black and glowing with dark energy, I assumed that this was an Odiumblade. It's been mentioned, I'm pretty sure from an interview with Brandon Sanderson, that there are Honorblades, Shardblades and Odiumblades, and that we had seen all three types in Way of Kings, though it wasn't spelled out for us. I did not get a good feeling from what was going on with the guy with the Crescent-shaped scar on his cheek that claims to be the Herald of Justice (Rin?). The guy spent the whole book going around and killing potential Radiants (the cobbler guy, and he tried to kill Lift too). I think that he's likely been corrupted by Odium, and that although he's going to have Szeth believing that what they're doing is good, it's going to turn out to be evil evil evil (poor Szeth)!
Another thing that I'm interested in are these Ancient Spren, like the Stormfather, the Nightwatcher, and the other two that Taravangian mentions (the one that makes people say things when they die, and the one that gives people the Thrill). It seems like Taravangian is interested in the two that seem most evil - both Dalinar and Adolin say they feel sickened by the Thrill eventually, and the death utterings seem similar to visions of the future, and seeing the future is of the Voidbringers.
That's all the commentary that I can think of right now!
Lift is an