* CargoShip: A somewhat complicated InUniverse example--Jewels never stopped loving [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Arsteel]]... Yes, we mean it in ''[[{{Squick}} that]]'' way.
%%* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Blushweaver's murder.]] (ZCE and Natter).
* NightmareFuel:
** This little exchange:
--->Vasher [quietly]: Torturing me won't bring her back.
--->[[spoiler:Denth]] [turning, the moonlight glinting on his blade]: No. It won't.
** Vivenna's [[spoiler:time in the streets and the descriptions of her utter desperation, her starvation and filth, and the way her body and mind are slowly shutting down from lack of food]] -- especially knowing that [[spoiler:the mercs]] are hunting her and ''will torture her'' if they find her. Thankfully, this culminates in her being picked up by [[spoiler:Vasher]]. However, while the ''reader'' knows this is probably the best possible thing that could happen to Vivenna at this point, [[spoiler:Vivenna's previous meeting with Vasher involved kidnapping and threats of murder]]. So when she wakes and sees who's in the room with her, her first question -- upon realizing that she's been bathed and is wearing [[UndressingTheUnconscious different clothes]] -- is to quietly ask [[spoiler:Vasher]] if he raped her. The nightmare fuel is the way she's so calm about asking; after all she's been through, she seems resigned to the idea that another trauma might have been just heaped on her to top off all the rest.
* SignatureScene: Vivenna returning to the hideout after Vasher kidnaps her, and [[spoiler:discovering that the mercenaries killed the guards the king sent after her]].
* {{Squick}}: Per WordOfGod, Clod the Lifeless was once Arsteel. Denth's teammate [[DarkActionGirl Jewels]] was once in love with Arsteel. Now that he's a Lifeless, she still sometimes sleeps with him. [[spoiler:Yeah, Denth's team all have issues.]]
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Early on in the book, it's established that you can make Awakenings cheaper by making the object you are Awakening shaped like a human, or by putting a bit of your own body (hair or such) on the item to be Awakened as a focus. This never really comes up again, because the protagonists have access to so many Breaths that they don't need to bother with such crutches. Creator/BrandonSanderson has mentioned in the Annotations that he hopes to make more use of these concepts in the sequel
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