OB: Part Five: New Unity (Chapters 114-122, Epilogue) - Full Spoilers

[Geoff]

Part Five: New Unity

Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events up to and including Chapters 114-122, Epilogue. Full spoilers allowed!!

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Please do not discuss events from later sections/books. Referring back to events from a previous section/book is fine.

[Geoff]

How do you even sum that up? Chapter 119 was mindblowing to me.

Kaladin – Despite having some great scenes and a great fight with Amaram, he doesn’t say his 4th ideal. Maybe Brandon was trying to keep him from getting too far ahead of anyone else.

Moash – Gone fully darkside, kills a herald but still slaves away in a mine. But now he has the stolen Bridge 4 honorblade.

Jasnah – Complete badass at the battle. And now she’s queen.

Szeth – Sworn to uphold Dalinar’s laws, interesting plot twist for Szeth.

Lift – Still awesome

Renarin – As far as I can tell, he bonded a corrupted spren and became a Radiant that way. Weird. And he gets to be hero for a bit in the battle.

Shallan/Adolin – I’m still a little concerned with her multiple identities but Adolin seems to be able to keep her in check. To take a term from Lost (the tv show), he’s her constant. Adolin admits that he killed Sadeas, and generally gets away with it. And they get married, as it should be.

Dalinar – He united the physical, cognitive & spiritual realms temporarily. That was impressive.

Bridge 4 – These guys are all great. They’re going to need all the windrunners they can find.

Venli – Kind of the opposite of Renarin, I think she bonded a ‘normal’ spren and is a Radiant. And I guess I was wrong about Eshonai. She appears to be dead.

Odium/Taravangian – Odium is going to be a worthy villain going forward. I don’t understand Taravangian. Was he going to bargain for the entire world with Odium. And now that bargain only covers Kharbranth. He messed up big time. Taravangian is going to continue to be a thorn in Dalinar’s side.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

So I made the "mistake" of starting part 5 last night intending to finish today. Instead I stayed up late to finish the book.

I think this is my least favorite of the series so far, but it's still an easy 5 star read to me. This last section was especially great.

So much happened here, I'll probably forget to bring it all up.

My favorite part was easily Lift, Szeth and Nightblood. Really though anytime Lift is there is fun. I loved her calling Dalinar Grandpa.

I was really hoping that Szeth would join with Dalinar. Interesting that Nin just accepted it and left. He also promised to teach Szeth Division. Even though they are now on opposite sides.

It's funny how Azure didn't go with Kalladin, etc and missed Nightblood. I assume we'll be seeing her again.

Am I wrong, or was the homeless man in the flashbacks that Dalinar shared drinks with the same that Moash killed to end Jezrien. I'm also confused because his death seemed to effect Ash and Taln. Too many names, I can't keep the heralds straight.

I really like how Adolin's shardblade helped him in Shadesmer. He seems to be talking to her and knows her name. I hope he can somehow restore her, without becoming a Radiant himself. I don't want all the main characters to be Radiants. I'm also glad he turned down being king.

It's cool they chose Jansah to rule. She still has way too many secrets though. Seeing her fight was awesome. I loved how she used soulcasting.

Teft and Lopen are now full Radiants. Poor Rock is struggling with killing Arlman to save Kalladin's life. I hope he can recover. And the two bridge 4 left behind in Kholinar are still alive and have Shallan's men and Elhokar's son are with them. That was a nice thing to learn.

I'm a little disappointed in Kalladin's story. Sanderson teased us with the 4th ideal, and then held it back. I know this is Dalinar's book, it seems like he's ready for it.

I'm SO HAPPY that the possible love triangle is over before it really started. I'm glad Shallan took control and opened up to Andolin. I'll be curious to see how she deals with her multiple aspects moving forward.

Learning Dalinar's past was tough, but he a huge amount of character development in this book as a result and I like him even more now than before. We finally see him lose his memory. It turns out Nightwatcher is to Cultivation like Stormfather was to Honor. It sounds like Odium has one too, but Stormfather says it's asleep.

The uniting of the three realms was awesome and the way he captured the Spren that was causing the Thrill. I guess that explains why they were after that huge Ruby.

I'm disappointed that Moash is taking the path that he is, but I suppose we need to have some well developed villains. I hate cartoon villains so it's good to see him do this, even if it's not how I'd like it to go.

Speaking of, I had been holding out hope that Taravangian would redeem himself. Instead he's made everything way worse. He was behind the stealing of the honorblade from bridge 4 and he let the Voidbringers into Urithiru. Did we previously know his condition was from Nightwatcher?

Finally, I was going to RIOT if Renarin was made a villain. I'm glad the time between the reveal that he bonded a voidspren and Jansah staying her hand was fairly short. I'll be curious to see what we learn about his bond moving forward.

[Geoff]

I also started part 5 yesterday and ended up reading right to the end. Its mostly one big scene, so it was hard to stop.

Rob wrote: "Am I wrong, or was the homeless man in the flashbacks that Dalinar shared drinks with the same that Moash killed to end Jezrien. "

Maybe. I assumed the homeless man was a herald and Moash certainly killed a herald. So its not a huge logic jump to think they are the same. And yes, the heralds have too many names.

Rob wrote: " Did we previously know his condition was from Nightwatcher?"

Yeah, he asked for the capacity to do what must be done. But it made him compassionate & stupid OR genius & harsh. He made the Diagram in a fit of genius.

Rob wrote: "I hope he can somehow restore her, without becoming a Radiant himself. I don't want all the main characters to be Radiants"

I get what you mean. But it seems they need all the radiants they can find. I'd say they came away with a narrow victory at the end of this book. Some of their allies are traitors, some of their allies either left or wary of the alliance, and they lost Kholinar (& other territories). If Adolin somehow is able to revive his shardblade and it makes sense, I wouldn't mind if he became a Radiant.

[Daniel]

The homeless guy Dalinar drinks with is indeed Jezrien. Szeth also encounters him in TWoK, in the prologue, when he passes through the Beggar's Feast (I believe this is the same location as where Dalinar goes to drink with him). That is indeed the Herald that Moash kills.

Taln and Ash (AKA Shalash, who Shallan is named after) can sense his death because all of the Heralds have a bond to each other. I think that it probably has something in common with the bond between Radiant and spren. They were able to share the pain of torture in Damnation between Desolations, but they did not sense Taln's pain during those 4,500 years that he held out on his own. Something about the way the Oathpact sealed the Voidbringers out also blocked the Heralds on Roshar from being able to feel his pain.

[Sky]

I really only have one question... did Shallan seriously not sketch the gatekeeper spren from the oathgate?

[Daniel]

I'm pretty sure that she did. The picture of them is drawn in the style of other pages from her sketchbook.

[Lindsay]

I didn’t even think about the beggars feast. Good catch!!