r/Stormlight_Archive

So we all know the start of the Stormlight Archive and how it starts 3 times; the Prelude, the Prologue, and Chapter 1

It made me realize. Each beginning is representative of a Shard on Roshar

The Prelude is Cultivation, as it is cultivating the seeds for the story and world.

The Prologue is Odium, as Szeth works for the agents of Odium (both the Parshendi who hire him and ultimately for Taravangian who becomes Odium in the end of Rhythm of War)

Finally, Chapter 1 is Honor. Chapter 1 is a Kaladin flashback who is seen in a battle during a war as a squadleader after the events of the Prologue, where “honor” is used to justify said war. Kaladin ultimately becomes Herald of the Windrunners which bond honorspren.

Thought i’d share my thoughts as ive been stewing over the series since finishing it :)

I want to read this book because I’ve seen good reviews about it but idk. Is this a book where there’s barely any thing at stake and everyone lives? I know that sounds crazy but I like sad moments in books and setbacks.

So I'm a tad confused why taln would be angry at honor and cultivation for what happened on ashyn, odium was the shard on ashyn though. Taln was so angry and betrayed at what happened on ashyn, that he tries to kill cultivation. If the heralds were a, result of solving the problem with the fuse before the first desolation, why the heck would honor and cultivation have anything to do with ashyn when they were on roshar. Can someone smarter and with a better memory than me tell me why he would do this? I am up to date with all cosmere books but I have a gold fish memory.

I have been thinking about this for a while now and wanted to see if people came to similar conclusions.

I should preface with the fact I didn't grow up religious but knew quite a few Mormons growing up (very friendly)

Spoilers below!

I have been thinking of when Odium offered to take Dalinars pain and he refused. This was such a powerful scene, and i wondered if it was a rejection of the "confessions" done in catholicism (I should mention my ignorance here since I wasn't raised religious, this is just from observation and likely incorrect in some aspects).

God offers to take his pain but Dalinar rejects it, accepting the deeds he has done and that he was morally responsible for everything that he did, and therefore responsible for striving to be better. What do y'all think?

I know the signed versions of the leatherbounds were limited run, but are the unsigned ones? Im pretty sure they aren't since TWoK leatherbound isn't labeled as sold out half a decade after the initial release, but I just want to make sure.

I must RAFO why HP Amaram hasn't acknowledged Kaladin whatsoever since he successfully fought off the Assassin in White. Gossip spreads fast in Alethkar especially among Light Eyes. I would think Amaram would have made an attempt on Kaladin's life by now! I'm on Chapter 38 so I will RAFO!

Sanderson must enjoy keeping his readers on the edge of a cliff. While the Kingdom of Alethkar is in Defcon 1 as these spoiled Light Eyes remain casually oblivious, other than Dalinar. But even he seems distracted by Navani, typical Light Eyes behavior. Renarin is the only humble one of them all!

Is way of kings and way of kings prime same book or what???

I was really hoping that we were seeing the end of Taravangian. He was old, he was frail, he was wasting away in captivity... And Szeth comes. Fuck yes, here we go.

But wait, why have we seen so much about ol' Tarry? What is Brandon doing?

Oh, Odium is here. He'll gloat and be annoying and....

What. The. Fuck.

And then the dude fucks with Wit?! Ugh. Starting Winds and Truth soon. I am worried.

I figured W&T spoilers was safest. But why didn’t Ivory, Jasnah’s ink spren, notice Pattern or Testament in the Way of Kings? Also why didn’t Ivory see Shallan swap the soul casters?

😭😭😭
I Just finished chapter 7 and how is Jasna dead? She was one of my favorite characters!
I thought maybe there was hope somehow but then I read Navani’s journal entry! WTH Brandon?! I don’t know what I expected after Mistborn, I mean… I should expect this! But I didn’t 😭😭😭 How am I supposed to go to bed after this?

In the first couple books of Stromlight Archive, there are interludes where many rosharans observe the nature and behaviors of Sprens. With the emphasis that this aspects were discussed in the interlude chapters, it made me think that later books will have something direct to do with the results of these researches.

However, in the later books, I can not find any direct reference to the result of those researches. I have not done a reread of the series, So I may be wrong and mentions of the researches could have escaped my mind.

I am now curious were there any instances where the results or the existence of those researches directly alluded to or recalled in the later books?

What I mean is that Retrivangian may be better news for the Cosmere than Odium, Rayse or otherwise, could be. Hear me out:

Retrivangian's determination to conquer the Cosmere should not necessarily be taken with grave seriousness. Reason? The combined Shard was really new when he said that, the Intent hasn't probably completely overrun the motivations of the Vessel by then.

We know this will happen eventually, so let's see what it leaves us with when it does.

Odium was a force of pure chaos, divine wrath unconstrained. Honor, in turn, is a force of order, sometimes to a fault, however its focus is seeing whether one is true to their word predominantly (so I wonder whether it will even be interested in any other bad things people could do to deserve retribution).

As such, best case scenario is a god who hunts down oathbreakers. Too good to be true though, this would basically kill all the conflict.

What we're probably actually looking at now is a self-appointed judge, jury and executioner a-la Nale only on a cosmic scale.

Is this bad? Well, on one hand, imagine a world where everybody knows there's a divine force which will punish them for misdeeds, and not in afterlife, but some time soon after the misdeed happened. On the other, there's the question of who decides what constitutes a misdeed. Some kind of code? Retribution himself? The perpetrator themselves?

In any case, this judgement would probably lack nuance, for there's no Shard of Compassion or something in the combo, so yeah, still bad news. But so, so less bad than pure unchecked Odium.