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straits

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  1. To add to those already listed, the scene where windspren rush around Kaladin to help him push back a part of the highstorm and rescue human refugees in OB. I think there's a significance in Kaladin standing up to a force of nature to save lives. Also - Shallan's presentation of the girl climbing the wall and her breakdown in the Tower as she admitted to herself what happened with her father.
  2. The tools that you use to break a system (violent revolution) and the tools that you use to build a state (economics, diplomacy, etc) are not necessarily facilitated by the same parties. Nor is the slave required to plan for a positive, organized and egalitarian society after the revolution - the slave does not have the tools nor the network to do so, and is only interested in breaking the chains and killing the masters. And if breaking the chains happens to be inconvenient for the masters at that second, so what? Perhaps the master should have thought about liberating the slave before the house was lit on fire. You can hardly start attacking the elites during peacetime and economic prosperity. That's when they're strongest. Your anecdote is somewhat consequentialist, which I don't fully oppose. Maybe the anarchy that comes after the revolution will be overall worse for everyone. But this is the price of discontent in a racist and classist society. And the moral failing is not that of the slave, but of the master. As a side point: Kaladin post-duel is a prime example of why peacefully airing your grievances to the elites does not work. He won the favour of the lighteyes crowd, and held the confidence of Dalinar after putting his life on the line for his highborn sons. When he verbally and publicly accused Amaram of the wrongs he committed, he was thrown in prison despite all of his achievements and it took all of Dalinar's clout not to have him executed for daring to step up to the supremacist masters.
  3. Yes, you can say it is treason as dictated by the law. However, the same constitution(s) that define this treason, also allow lighteyes to own darkeyes as slaves and hold them several social classes below them. In that sense I argue that the law is immoral, and breaking it is righteous - and it is even morally imperative to do so. The "rule of law" is less a moral compass and more a system designed to maintain the status quo, no matter how bad the status quo may be. As an aside - this is why despite his many failings, I don't hold Moash's murder of Elhokar as a crime worth lamenting. He did many things wrong, and killing a king is nowhere near the worst.
  4. That doesn't actually surprise me very much, given that the newly minted bridgeman units don't really have oversight from anyone other than Kaladin (who is probably the only "visible" person to the lighteyes). I don't really remember where Moash got the shards from though... Kaladin handed those to him after he got them as a reward, right?
  5. I actually hope he continues to provide social commentary on lighteyes in Alethi society and that he doesn't lose distrust and dislike of the caste system. Kaladin should be wary of being allowed to "succeed" as a Brightlord within this society, because the title itself holds the connotations of a slavemaster. Moash was briefly a good vehicle for this analysis. He saw it in the prison camps of the Parshendi - how lighteyes reinforce the racist Alethi status quo, with lighteyes taking an excess of food and resources while an old darkeyed woman (and child?) starves outside of their quarters. I think Sanderson put that scene in for a reason. What saddens me is that the way Moash has been radicalized against the Alethi elite has been tainted by his own nihilism. I hope that the validity of Moash's grievances against the Alethi class system does not get lost in his transformation into a villain. I don't fully understand this claim of treason, but mostly because I don't classify an attack on the ruling elite lighteyes (the king), by disenfranchised darkeyes, as treason. It may not be entirely well-timed given the looming world war, but absolutely understandable in its motivations.
  6. Hey, the guy was the kingiest of kings thousands of years ago. But yeah, I was half-kidding. I still don't think his apathy necessarily means he's a super-villain, though.
  7. That's not in the spirit of Windrunners at all. Vengeance is not a component of their ideology.
  8. Maybe, with a metallic spin on blonde hair. But with somewhat Asiatic eyes? Actually, that sounds a bit like east Finland/Karelia.
  9. Agreed. Their People's Revolution has been hijacked by malignant extraterrestrial interest
  10. The brilliant thing about Sanderson's series is that he demonstrates the humanity (or sapience) of the Parshmen. It is the humans who committed cultural and literal genocide upon the Parshmen. Which leads us to the question - is humanity in this case something good and noble? Or should Moash align himself with the victims of the original sin on Roshar? Interesting food for thought, in a fantasy series of course
  11. That makes perfect sense. I kind of imagined the Alethi to be of Arab complexion, with east-Asiatic eyes and bone structure of something in between. Of course, no 1:1 mapping between them and our world. What puzzles me is the Iriali. Metallic golden hair, yellow eyes, but what do their faces look like really?
  12. I read it as the sardonic, malicious salute of someone who fulfilled his original goal. Calling it cowardice is appealing to a component of fair play that didn't exist in the war the Kholins waged to get their throne. I don't see why Moash should have waited to kill an enemy combatant until some kind of chance for an honorable duel presented itself. I understand the sentiment in the bolded sentence and I don't claim Moash is a good person. But your last phrase about his humanity, I find to be hyperbolic, his transformation notwithstanding. This may be whataboutism, but the readership here generally holds Dalinar in high esteem. This is someone who waged an aggressor's war (read: the Kholinar brothers caused the war, they weren't defending themselves) and left thousands if not more innocent civilians dead in his wake. And this murderous adventurism is supposed to be forgiven because Dalinar took the Sweet Forgetfulness pill and is now a better man? No. He has yet to answer for these crimes. But if a man like Dalinar can redeem himself, why can't Moash at some point?
  13. Hear hear. He lived the reality of the bridges and the chasms. The experiences down there are part of what led him to killing a king, and to becoming who he is today. He has the right to that salute. He might be distasteful as a person, but as several other posters have said, he is not a supervillain for his deeds up to this point. Whether he might become that later in the books, is up for debate. And to echo @Ookla the Obtuse, the salute was an incredible literary moment. It hurt to read.
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