My theory: Kal will swear his 5th oath as someone important dies to protect him (my guess is Adolin) . And will be smthing like: "I accept that I too need to be protected by those I love" then boom
I agree entirely with cultivation being the true final enemy. I think it’s even possible that Dalinar wins the contest of champions in book 5 dying in the process and cultivation taking over and or absorbing the shard of odium. We know that some of our current lead POvs take a backseat in the last 5 books but that doesn’t automatically mean they all die and or are removed from the story in another way. Could just mean that the enemy grows beyond their capabilities and the heralds need to be front and center to resolve the conflict.
Chana Davar is a super popular theory that has a lot of evidence going for it as well, such as similarities in looks, an alignment of timing when she dies vs when Shallan killed her mother, and more. Some of the evidence is in the pre-released chapters, however, so beware.
@@lightinmylibrary I believe it goes a level deeper, Shallan IS Chana. She killed her innocent non-Radiant real daughter Shallan (for walking in on her?) then in a panic killed her affair partner. She then lightwove herself to be Shallan and made the child body look like hers. Her dad witnessed it. She goes mute for 6 months, her dad turns to drinking. What's he gonna say? "My wife is my daughter, transformed using ancient magic." Shallan/Chana is the Davar Ghostblood connection. She was soulcasting the family wealth, not Luesh. It's also how she has Shardplate in Thayen Field. It's how she remembers Urithiru on first walkthrough. Cryptics love her because she is living hundreds of layers of lies. We know Heralds can bond spren because of Nale. We don't know if a Herald could bond a spren from a different Order, but I think they can when they are as tempting as "Shallan". She's gonna say "I killed Shallan," and Pattern might deadeye because that's who he bonded (this could reawaken Testament). They don't even care, it was worth the risk. An additional piece of this puzzle is that I think the Stormfather is wrong in the WaT prologue. No Herald died. He's assuming that because he felt the presence of Ulim - who was smuggled to Roshar. The Oathpact was circumvented by Axindweth. They just released Taln because it was already happening.
It has alwasy made me laugh when people attribute goodness or righteousness to certain Shards and evil to others. These beings are kind of beyond all of that. Also, good or evil according to whom? I guess if a Shard is trying to destroy the Cosmere and all life in it then you can say that's pretty bad. It just seems kind of silly to attribute any kind of morality to them for the most part.
I dont think Kaladin dies i think Kaladin will become the one to fix the Heralds by expanding his mental healing study he started in book 4, cause didn't Odium say Kaladin became more dangerous because he STOPPED fighting and became a doctor again? Protecting without fighting could be Kaladin's 5th Ideal, it fits Kaladin's Character Arc perfectly and all Ideals after the first differ for each Person.
Regarding Adolin, I think he will develop a new different bond, we now thanks to Tress of the emerald treee that other bonds exist like the Luhel bond, maybe Adolin forms a distinct bond and becomes a brand new “thing” never seen before, which does strike a similarity with Renarin and his weird bond too.
To me it doesn't make sense for book 5, the climax novel of the 1st arc, to have the arc 1 climax halfway through. Arc 1 can be described as "Honor vs Odium" the Contest of Champions is very clearly set up as putting a definitive end to this war one way or another. It would end the conflict of arc 1. At most I can see 100 maybe 200 pages dedicated to the aftermath and set up. For my out there theory, I think for vol 6+ we might see some Cultivation and/or Autonomy stuff, with Lift playing a significant role (that chicken is a chekhov's gun waiting to happen). Cultivation and Autonomy kinda have that YingYang stuff going on from what we've seen and we're pretty muxh entering an Autonomy Cosmere Arc after Wind and Truth with Elantris and Ghost Blood
Yeah it seems like the contest of champions will be the catalyst for all the action in book 5. Also it seems like Dalinar has to lose or draw or not do it or something. It would be weird if the book took place over 10 days considering some of the traveling we know has to happen. Also it would be really weird if Dalinar won the contest 10 days into the book.
I mean, I can see Brandon managing to stretch the entire book to ten days, however I just finished a re-read of Elantris and he kinda struggled with the believability imho in that book by leaving it to only three months so we'll see if he can do better with something like that now
I agree with the contest of champions not being the most important part of this book. The terms that were agreed to are pretty reasonable, and win or lose result in an end to the war.
Your talk of Cultivation solidified a theory I had been toying with. Firstly, I agree, I believe you are correct that Cultivation will be the primary antagonist. I think she was not only present when Tanavast was shattered, but was the architect of the plan to begin with. To add to this Taravangian as Odium : I do not believe he will continue with Odiums original plans. When he started the diagram, he set out with the goal to save humanity, he was able to save his kingdom with previous Odium. Now that he holds the shard, I believe he will work to further that goal now. I believe that Cultivation has a hatred of humans, where I'm not sure if it has ever been stated, but I think the singers were made by collaboration of Tanavast and Cultivation, (similar to what ruin and preservation did) and I think she became jealous when Honor shifted his favor to humans when they made it to Roshar. Great video, can't wait for Book 5, I am also abstaining from reading the preview chapters
There might be a WoB about the origins of the singers, but I don't remember for sure. Personally I believe they actually predate the shards, but with cultivation being a dragon, I think your theory still works. Her intent would make her more interested in seeing the growth of the Singers, since they are only found on this planet whereas it could easily be said that humans are a weed in the garden of the cosmere, to take the plant metaphor further.
Also, some background info I probably should have included in the video since it makes the theory even stronger, Taravangian wasn't always going to become Odium in the series outline. After book 4 Brandon said it was always a possibility, however he hadn't decided for sure to do it until after book 3. He did it just because after Odium's failure in book three Rasye lacked the necessary threat level in the reader's mind. That background info just makes Odium come off as even more of a red herring. I mean, if the character themselves can just be switched out without any issue for the overall plotting of the series than it calls into question if they are anything more than a misdirect.
I’ve also been thinking that Adolin might be Odium’s champion! And that it isn’t actually a child, but Dalinar seeing flashbacks to Adolin as a child and being unable to kill his son. I think Adolin has been built up as a dueller so much that it just makes so much sense for him to be a part of the contest of champions in some way
Great video! Some feedback that you can absolutely ignore: the sound balance going 3:30 could be a tiny bit worked out! Music was a little too loud compared to your voice. Content wise: you rule!
I also think Adolin will he Odiums Champion. As you said, he is very impulsive and his relationship with Dalinar isn't in a good place rn. In fact I predicted that Kaladin would actually drive a wedge between them, as Kaladin is more like Dalinar than Adolin is and Adolin insecurities about that relationship could push him to be more impulsive. Also none of my homies trust Cultivation.
Weird reading of the end of book 3. Dalinar was able to resist the thrill not because he had control of his urges but because he had confronted his trauma and memories. He says "you cannot have my pain" and that let's him deny the orb
I think the Unmade in Shinovar is Chemoarish, the Dustmother. This kinda fits with your theory about cultivation having more complex plans because she seems to be conflated with the Nightwatcher in the histories of Roshar(Oathrbinger ch.108.)
You got me wondering if Cultivation is going to be the main villain of the second 5 book series. Maybe book 5 does end with the Odium confrontation, but the aftermath sets up Cultivation as actually having been the bigger problem all along.. kind of an ominous ending, then we get the time skip to that starting to kick off ..? I really don't want Adolin to end up as Odium's champion though. He might have a tendency to snap and do violence but for the most part that lad is a golden retriever of a person. haha. I also really wanna see Maya come back fully, I keep hoping that theory is right.
hey great vid! im not going to tell anyone else how to enjoy the cosmere, but i would definitely recommend reading the WaT preveiw chapters. They are only going to be releasing the first 20 chapters, so it won't reveal too much, but what ive read so far in the first 6 chapters has completely upended alot of stuff from the first 4 books. Im rereading them all now and it made it much more interesting to see the foreshadowing.
I will not be doing that, because it ruins the experience of getting the physical book and opening to page one. There's nothing more disappointing than sitting down with a 1000+ page book and realizing you're 20% of the way through it without even cracking the spin. I've already been there done that with the sample chapters for several previous books.
Editor for the channel here: what device are you listening on? I had this same feedback on the last video and thought I had lowered the music significantly. I checked it on my computer and my phone before uploading and it seemed to be just fine ( and the levels in my editor indicated that as well). I’m wondering if it’s a device specific issue or if I’m just missing the mark for some other reason
Im pretty sure the suckling baby death rattle was a vision of the past. I think the vision of nales past that dalinar saw depicted that death rattle happening
You're the first person I've ever seen making that connection. I think it's honestly a pretty tenuous one if I'm being honest. The only thing we see there is that Nale is protecting a child. There's absolutely no indication that he had some reason to be conflicted about whether or not to kill that child.
If any of Dalinar's sons will be the champion, it should be Renarin , no? He is the one that sees the future and is bonded to a corrupted spren. But I am not super sure of this (of anything really lol), the first time I read that chapter of Dalinar's vision of Odium's champion I thought it was Eshonai!
There's the whole lift's gift from the night watcher being her becoming unchanging, she could be the champion because she's unaffected by odium'e corruption? That's something I thought of but I'm not sure.
I'm pretty sure that Renarin is just about the LAST choice of Odium for his Champion. Even assuming Renarin agrees, Renarin's involvement in the contest in such a central way would blind Odium's future sight regarding the outcome, and that doesn't sound like something Odium would be willing to give up.
Editor for the channel here: what device are you listening on? I had this same feedback on the last video and thought I had lowered the music significantly. I checked it on my computer and my phone before uploading and it seemed to be just fine ( and the levels in my editor indicated that as well). I’m wondering if it’s a device specific issue or if I’m just missing the mark for some other reason
6:11 The quote attributed to Rhythm of War was actually from Way of Kings chapter 75
Part of being a cultivator is pruning your crop.... Like a desolation
I honestly cannot believe I didn't come up with that, it just fits so perfectly!
Love this comment. I would have never thought of Eugenicist Cultivation, yet it makes total sense in hindsight.
I think Cultivation is the main villain of Books 6-10
My theory:
Kal will swear his 5th oath as someone important dies to protect him (my guess is Adolin) . And will be smthing like: "I accept that I too need to be protected by those I love" then boom
I actually like this theory
Cool video!
I’d recommend normalizing background audio to -24DB and your audio to -6 or -3DB
I agree entirely with cultivation being the true final enemy. I think it’s even possible that Dalinar wins the contest of champions in book 5 dying in the process and cultivation taking over and or absorbing the shard of odium. We know that some of our current lead POvs take a backseat in the last 5 books but that doesn’t automatically mean they all die and or are removed from the story in another way. Could just mean that the enemy grows beyond their capabilities and the heralds need to be front and center to resolve the conflict.
Chana Davar is a super popular theory that has a lot of evidence going for it as well, such as similarities in looks, an alignment of timing when she dies vs when Shallan killed her mother, and more. Some of the evidence is in the pre-released chapters, however, so beware.
I remembered the Chana theory literally minutes after posting the video, as it's been around since the WoB about how Taln never broke.
@@lightinmylibrary I believe it goes a level deeper, Shallan IS Chana. She killed her innocent non-Radiant real daughter Shallan (for walking in on her?) then in a panic killed her affair partner. She then lightwove herself to be Shallan and made the child body look like hers. Her dad witnessed it. She goes mute for 6 months, her dad turns to drinking. What's he gonna say? "My wife is my daughter, transformed using ancient magic." Shallan/Chana is the Davar Ghostblood connection. She was soulcasting the family wealth, not Luesh. It's also how she has Shardplate in Thayen Field. It's how she remembers Urithiru on first walkthrough. Cryptics love her because she is living hundreds of layers of lies.
We know Heralds can bond spren because of Nale. We don't know if a Herald could bond a spren from a different Order, but I think they can when they are as tempting as "Shallan". She's gonna say "I killed Shallan," and Pattern might deadeye because that's who he bonded (this could reawaken Testament). They don't even care, it was worth the risk.
An additional piece of this puzzle is that I think the Stormfather is wrong in the WaT prologue. No Herald died. He's assuming that because he felt the presence of Ulim - who was smuggled to Roshar. The Oathpact was circumvented by Axindweth. They just released Taln because it was already happening.
Odium will choose fire as his champion. You heard it here first folks.
Why would fire agree when it's more likely for fire to just choose to remain stick instead?
Bro is not the mad king 💀
Glad to hear other people are skeptical of Cultivation’s goals. As I like to say, raising hogs for the slaughter is an act of Cultivation.
That's a really good way of putting it!
It has alwasy made me laugh when people attribute goodness or righteousness to certain Shards and evil to others. These beings are kind of beyond all of that. Also, good or evil according to whom? I guess if a Shard is trying to destroy the Cosmere and all life in it then you can say that's pretty bad. It just seems kind of silly to attribute any kind of morality to them for the most part.
Cultivation is very sketchy. Hoid also seems to be very wary of her.
I dont think Kaladin dies i think Kaladin will become the one to fix the Heralds by expanding his mental healing study he started in book 4, cause didn't Odium say Kaladin became more dangerous because he STOPPED fighting and became a doctor again? Protecting without fighting could be Kaladin's 5th Ideal, it fits Kaladin's Character Arc perfectly and all Ideals after the first differ for each Person.
adolin almost strikes me as an elend-like character. have a feeling he's going to get a massive powerup that perfectly compliments his arc.
Child champion might be “popular” but it’s absolutely the most hated theory. Also I’m pretty sure this refers to El or Nale.
Regarding Adolin, I think he will develop a new different bond, we now thanks to Tress of the emerald treee that other bonds exist like the Luhel bond, maybe Adolin forms a distinct bond and becomes a brand new “thing” never seen before, which does strike a similarity with Renarin and his weird bond too.
To me it doesn't make sense for book 5, the climax novel of the 1st arc, to have the arc 1 climax halfway through. Arc 1 can be described as "Honor vs Odium" the Contest of Champions is very clearly set up as putting a definitive end to this war one way or another. It would end the conflict of arc 1. At most I can see 100 maybe 200 pages dedicated to the aftermath and set up.
For my out there theory, I think for vol 6+ we might see some Cultivation and/or Autonomy stuff, with Lift playing a significant role (that chicken is a chekhov's gun waiting to happen). Cultivation and Autonomy kinda have that YingYang stuff going on from what we've seen and we're pretty muxh entering an Autonomy Cosmere Arc after Wind and Truth with Elantris and Ghost Blood
Yeah it seems like the contest of champions will be the catalyst for all the action in book 5. Also it seems like Dalinar has to lose or draw or not do it or something. It would be weird if the book took place over 10 days considering some of the traveling we know has to happen. Also it would be really weird if Dalinar won the contest 10 days into the book.
I mean, I can see Brandon managing to stretch the entire book to ten days, however I just finished a re-read of Elantris and he kinda struggled with the believability imho in that book by leaving it to only three months so we'll see if he can do better with something like that now
I agree with the contest of champions not being the most important part of this book. The terms that were agreed to are pretty reasonable, and win or lose result in an end to the war.
Your talk of Cultivation solidified a theory I had been toying with. Firstly, I agree, I believe you are correct that Cultivation will be the primary antagonist. I think she was not only present when Tanavast was shattered, but was the architect of the plan to begin with. To add to this Taravangian as Odium : I do not believe he will continue with Odiums original plans. When he started the diagram, he set out with the goal to save humanity, he was able to save his kingdom with previous Odium. Now that he holds the shard, I believe he will work to further that goal now. I believe that Cultivation has a hatred of humans, where I'm not sure if it has ever been stated, but I think the singers were made by collaboration of Tanavast and Cultivation, (similar to what ruin and preservation did) and I think she became jealous when Honor shifted his favor to humans when they made it to Roshar.
Great video, can't wait for Book 5, I am also abstaining from reading the preview chapters
There might be a WoB about the origins of the singers, but I don't remember for sure. Personally I believe they actually predate the shards, but with cultivation being a dragon, I think your theory still works. Her intent would make her more interested in seeing the growth of the Singers, since they are only found on this planet whereas it could easily be said that humans are a weed in the garden of the cosmere, to take the plant metaphor further.
Also, some background info I probably should have included in the video since it makes the theory even stronger, Taravangian wasn't always going to become Odium in the series outline. After book 4 Brandon said it was always a possibility, however he hadn't decided for sure to do it until after book 3. He did it just because after Odium's failure in book three Rasye lacked the necessary threat level in the reader's mind. That background info just makes Odium come off as even more of a red herring. I mean, if the character themselves can just be switched out without any issue for the overall plotting of the series than it calls into question if they are anything more than a misdirect.
Pretty sure the singers were present before the Shards arrived iirc
I mean, WoB or it didn't happen, but yes I think that's also correct
I’ve also been thinking that Adolin might be Odium’s champion! And that it isn’t actually a child, but Dalinar seeing flashbacks to Adolin as a child and being unable to kill his son. I think Adolin has been built up as a dueller so much that it just makes so much sense for him to be a part of the contest of champions in some way
I think Maya will become a Radiant herself somehow.
Maya and Adolin bond but she's the Radiant and he becomes a sword in Shadesmar. Adolin would love being a sword.
I think that the lost shardblades that bond w/ their weilder will become more like a psuedo honor blade
All spren that take part in a Nahel Bond are Radiants. In The Sunlit Man, Auxiliary refers to himself as a Knight Radiant
Can’t focus on anything but that killer stache
Thanks!
In Oathbringer, Odium says, "We killed you!" (referring to Honor). Honor thought that just Odium had killed him.
Nice pickup.
Great video! Some feedback that you can absolutely ignore: the sound balance going 3:30 could be a tiny bit worked out! Music was a little too loud compared to your voice. Content wise: you rule!
Yeah we've gotten that feedback and it should be better for the next video. Thank you though!
2:50 I definitely believe that whatever bond Adolin makes will be wholly unique like Renarin's he will not be like other edgedancers
I also think Adolin will he Odiums Champion. As you said, he is very impulsive and his relationship with Dalinar isn't in a good place rn. In fact I predicted that Kaladin would actually drive a wedge between them, as Kaladin is more like Dalinar than Adolin is and Adolin insecurities about that relationship could push him to be more impulsive. Also none of my homies trust Cultivation.
Weird reading of the end of book 3. Dalinar was able to resist the thrill not because he had control of his urges but because he had confronted his trauma and memories. He says "you cannot have my pain" and that let's him deny the orb
I think the Unmade in Shinovar is Chemoarish, the Dustmother. This kinda fits with your theory about cultivation having more complex plans because she seems to be conflated with the Nightwatcher in the histories of Roshar(Oathrbinger ch.108.)
You got me wondering if Cultivation is going to be the main villain of the second 5 book series. Maybe book 5 does end with the Odium confrontation, but the aftermath sets up Cultivation as actually having been the bigger problem all along.. kind of an ominous ending, then we get the time skip to that starting to kick off ..? I really don't want Adolin to end up as Odium's champion though. He might have a tendency to snap and do violence but for the most part that lad is a golden retriever of a person. haha. I also really wanna see Maya come back fully, I keep hoping that theory is right.
HAHA!
Lyft is going to, accidentally, be Dalinar's champion!
hey great vid! im not going to tell anyone else how to enjoy the cosmere, but i would definitely recommend reading the WaT preveiw chapters. They are only going to be releasing the first 20 chapters, so it won't reveal too much, but what ive read so far in the first 6 chapters has completely upended alot of stuff from the first 4 books. Im rereading them all now and it made it much more interesting to see the foreshadowing.
I will not be doing that, because it ruins the experience of getting the physical book and opening to page one. There's nothing more disappointing than sitting down with a 1000+ page book and realizing you're 20% of the way through it without even cracking the spin. I've already been there done that with the sample chapters for several previous books.
I loved the video, thanks for making it! If I have one suggestion it would be to turn the background music down. Keep them coming 🎉
Passion and hatred, odium. Just my thoughts
Great video you deserve so many more subs!❤
Thank you! I'm working towards it!
Ishar is gonna be Todium's champ.
Todium will pretend to be Adolnasium.
Great review! Thanks!
Thanks man!
a little feedback your voice is lower than the music which overpowers it
Editor for the channel here: what device are you listening on? I had this same feedback on the last video and thought I had lowered the music significantly. I checked it on my computer and my phone before uploading and it seemed to be just fine ( and the levels in my editor indicated that as well). I’m wondering if it’s a device specific issue or if I’m just missing the mark for some other reason
@@lightinmylibrary Tried it on pc
Im pretty sure the suckling baby death rattle was a vision of the past. I think the vision of nales past that dalinar saw depicted that death rattle happening
You're the first person I've ever seen making that connection. I think it's honestly a pretty tenuous one if I'm being honest. The only thing we see there is that Nale is protecting a child. There's absolutely no indication that he had some reason to be conflicted about whether or not to kill that child.
BGM too loud bro! otherwise solid video
Thanks! I thought I had lowered it enough after getting comments on it last time, but now I know I need to lower it even more!
could you look at the camera while speaking lol
nah
Why is a music louder than your voice
If any of Dalinar's sons will be the champion, it should be Renarin , no? He is the one that sees the future and is bonded to a corrupted spren. But I am not super sure of this (of anything really lol), the first time I read that chapter of Dalinar's vision of Odium's champion I thought it was Eshonai!
That doesn't really work for me personally but I could see a world where it works
There's the whole lift's gift from the night watcher being her becoming unchanging, she could be the champion because she's unaffected by odium'e corruption? That's something I thought of but I'm not sure.
I'm pretty sure that Renarin is just about the LAST choice of Odium for his Champion. Even assuming Renarin agrees, Renarin's involvement in the contest in such a central way would blind Odium's future sight regarding the outcome, and that doesn't sound like something Odium would be willing to give up.
Music too load can't hear you talk
Editor for the channel here: what device are you listening on? I had this same feedback on the last video and thought I had lowered the music significantly. I checked it on my computer and my phone before uploading and it seemed to be just fine ( and the levels in my editor indicated that as well). I’m wondering if it’s a device specific issue or if I’m just missing the mark for some other reason
Wtf is this music