[OB] Malata's purpose?

[Randall Thor]

What was Malata's purpose? At one point Taravangian mentions that neither she nor her spren have any issue doing the Diagram's dirty work, but was it mentioned what she was up to?

I'd assumed she'd been the one somehow destroying Dalinar's block from his old memories/connection to Cultivation with her Dustbringer Surges, in order to position Taravangian as the new head of the coalition – but doesn't Dalinar state at the end that it was Cultivation's plan to restore his memories all along?

Does Malata have any role in OB except to smile unnervingly at people and operate the Oathgate?

[treblkickd]

Well, so far she also serves the purpose of aggressively taunting us as to what it looks like when a Dustbringer cuts loose.

[Wyndleblade]

Malata was Taravangian's inside informant. Her Ashspren helped find Dalinar's secrets that caused the collapse of the coalition. She was also the one who unlocked the Urithiru/Kholinar Oathgate letting singers in. 

[Matt Snow]

I feel like everyone forgot about her existence? I know she was working for Taravangian, but Dalinar sorta let's her be, despite being more involved with other Radiants and giving them resources to develop their powers he kinda just ignores her. I'd say it's some of his "repressed tyrannical leanings" showing, trying to keep the Radiants he controls stronger, but he pays attention to Lift and she is ostensibly (as far as he knows) under the control of the Azish.

Idk, maybe there was something more going on there but I don't get why she was ignored so completely.

[Wyndleblade]

From the beginning Malata seemed a shifty character to Dalinar and Navani. On her first visit to Urithiru, Dalinar confides to Navani, "I don't like her smile" and questions if she has an honor blade instead of a spren (which is false). Because of how she acted they never trusted her with more than opening the Oathgates (although even that trust was a mistake). There are also stereotypes surrounding Dustbringers as their main surge of destruction is commonly associated with Voidbringers.

Edited November 29, 2017 by Wyndleblade

[Randall Thor]

@Wyndleblade was it ever stated that Spark was the one who found out about Dalinar meeting with Odium?

@Matt Snow I agree completely. I think she will be getting some attention in the next book, now that it's been revealed that spren can be corrupted and all Radiants aren't to be trusted (Renarin), but they basically let a mysterious stranger into their tactically imperative fortress and ignored her, while she acted mysteriously.

[Wyndleblade]

@Randall ThorIt was not stated but Taravangian mentions using Malata's spren to spy on Dalinar in order to find secrets.

[+Bliev]

I think she will serve as an important reminder that the spren have also chosen sides, even if they’re not corrupted. I actually think that’s why she’s there. Yes, it was implied that it might be her order that’s making the others uncomfortable, but Malata’s convo with T, and the others’ trip through Shadesmar, gave us a teaser of spren politics that I hope we learn more of in book 4. Even Timbre alluding to her choice of Listener over Human because of betrayal is interesting here. I’m excited to see how they use her for this, and whether it goes in the direction I expect.

[Randall Thor]

@Wyndleblade you're right, I do remember that now. But it happened so quickly, it makes me wonder: did Malata have a bigger role, maybe even a POV, that was cut from OB when he shaved off 50,000 words? Probably not, but her presence does seem a bit clipped.

@Bliev I'm curious as to what Malata will do as well. We now have "neutral," or at least unpredictable, Radiants and "neutral" Listeners. Will Spark use Malata to tear apart the Radiants from the inside? What does Malata want out of this? Is Spark corrupted like Glys, or simply vengeful? Or are Ashspren just more volatile, as you mentioned we saw in Shadesmar?

[+Bliev]

@Randall Thor I’m of the mind that Maya will be paramount to unlocking this mystery, if she can be revived. We might find that spren land has labored under misconceptions about the Recreance as much as the humans have. Or maybe not...

[Arch]

I'm hoping that Malata betrays Mr.T later on. She doesn't seem to be all that interested in what the Diagram is doing and it seems to me like she's just looking out for herself. She also describes the whole situation as ''fun'' so maybe she's a bit of a thrill seeker aswell.
 

Quote

Hearing her own language so suddenly was strange to Shallan, and her mind took a moment to sort through the words. “People,” Shallan said, closing her drawing pad. “I enjoy figure drawing. You’re the one who came with Taravangian. His Surgebinder.”
“Malata,” she said. “Though I am not his. I came to him for convenience, as Spark suggested we might look to Urithiru, now that it has been rediscovered.”

she could just be trying to trick Shallan here, but they never speak again (on screen at least) so I feel like Brandon put this scene here for a reason. who knows...

Oh and on why Dalinar doesnt give her orders... The only active deputy the radiants seem to have at the moment is operating the oathgates, which she seems to be taking on the most along with Renarin. Besides that what would he even have her do? Practive with stormlight? Also Dalinar can't just order anyone around; he's not her highprince.

[Watchcry]

2 hours ago, Randall Thor said:

@Wyndleblade was it ever stated that Spark was the one who found out about Dalinar meeting with Odium?

@Matt Snow I agree completely. I think she will be getting some attention in the next book, now that it's been revealed that spren can be corrupted and all Radiants aren't to be trusted (Renarin), but they basically let a mysterious stranger into their tactically imperative fortress and ignored her, while she acted mysteriously.

It should be a solution moving forward that to trust a Radiant they should take an initial step to demonstrate their spren is normal for their order. 

[avus]

Malaya mentions that Spark's just happy if he gets to break things. That's pretty much what Odium seems to be all about, ya know? She seems mega sketchy in the Honor/Odium side choosing thing.

 

[avus]

Also, on the demonstration of the normal spren for the order. Kinda hard to do with the Light Weavers I would think.

[Randall Thor]

33 minutes ago, Watchcry said:

It should be a solution moving forward that to trust a Radiant they should take an initial step to demonstrate their spren is normal for their order. 

But that won't necessarily mean anything. Glys is corrupted by Sja-Anat, and though he is "of Odium" now, he's not working against the Radiants. And Sja-anat may be an ally – which seems like it could be another one of Odium's 4D chess ploys, but for now I'll believe she's somewhat neutral.

Then we have Spark, who we don't know for sure is corrupted, or really much about at all, but has a vendetta against the Knights Radiant. As @avus mentioned, Spark just likes to breaks things, which is reminiscent of Odium but also gives us the same bias as the old Radiants: conflating Dustbringers with Voidbringers. I'd hazard a guess that Spark isn't corrupted in the same way as Glys, but his type of highspren may be emotionally distinct from what we've seen in other spren so far.

[XenosHg]

Come on, if you were able to cut things apart, create decay and destruction on a massive scale and probably create explosions with a click of you finger, tell me you wouldn't enjoy it.

[kingbirdy]

10 hours ago, Arch said:

I'm hoping that Malata betrays Mr.T later on. She doesn't seem to be all that interested in what the Diagram is doing and it seems to me like she's just looking out for herself. She also describes the whole situation as ''fun'' so maybe she's a bit of a thrill seeker aswell.
 

she could just be trying to trick Shallan here, but they never speak again (on screen at least) so I feel like Brandon put this scene here for a reason. who knows...

This is definitely a mislead - we see in one of Mr T's  POVs that Malata had been working for the Diagram before she became Radiant.

[Watchcry]

9 hours ago, Randall Thor said:

But that won't necessarily mean anything. Glys is corrupted by Sja-Anat, and though he is "of Odium" now, he's not working against the Radiants. And Sja-anat may be an ally – which seems like it could be another one of Odium's 4D chess ploys, but for now I'll believe she's somewhat neutral.

Then we have Spark, who we don't know for sure is corrupted, or really much about at all, but has a vendetta against the Knights Radiant. As @avus mentioned, Spark just likes to breaks things, which is reminiscent of Odium but also gives us the same bias as the old Radiants: conflating Dustbringers with Voidbringers. I'd hazard a guess that Spark isn't corrupted in the same way as Glys, but his type of highspren may be emotionally distinct from what we've seen in other spren so far.

I was referring to a starting point. So there's no surprises. I want suggesting it was a black and white line. I got what you're saying. 

[thegatorgirl00]

13 hours ago, Bliev said:

@Randall Thor I’m of the mind that Maya will be paramount to unlocking this mystery, if she can be revived. We might find that spren land has labored under misconceptions about the Recreance as much as the humans have. Or maybe not...

The more I think about this, the more likely it seems the spren got things wrong. Entire civilizations were nearly destroyed, with mostly children surviving. It seems unlikely the survivors would get everything right. 

The main issue with this is that the Stormfather and highspren should have some idea of the truth. Although neither party seems willing to talk about the Recreance, and there are a lot of things that could've happened that they would want to hide. If, for example, a lot of spren ended up agreeing that the Recreance was necessary, they would both want to protect other spren by not spreading that knowledge. 

[+Bliev]

17 minutes ago, thegatorgirl00 said:

The main issue with this is that the Stormfather and highspren should have some idea of the truth. Although neither party seems willing to talk about the Recreance, and there are a lot of things that could've happened that they would want to hide. If, for example, a lot of spren ended up agreeing that the Recreance was necessary, they would both want to protect other spren by not spreading that knowledge. 

Maybe so. This is a wrench in the theory. Though, the Stormfather does say:

Quote

DURING THESE DAYS, HONOR STILL LIVED. I WAS NOT YET FULLY MYSELF. MORE OF A STORM. LESS INTERESTED IN MEN. HIS DEATH CHANGED ME. MY MEMORY OF THAT TIME IS DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN. BUT IF YOU WOULD SEE PARSHMEN, YOU NEED BUT LOOK ACROSS THAT FIELD.

When in a vision with Dalinar and Navani, meaning there are obviously things missing from his knowledge of that time. Maybe it was Honor’s will. Or a quirk. Or Odium’s doing. Or they do know and they’re right about the recreance. So many options. Gah 

[shawnhargreaves]

Stormfather also at one point mentioned that he didn't remember something up until the very moment when Dalinar asked about it.  His memories are incomplete and unreliable.

To the original topic, Malata had three purposes in OB:

1. She added weight to Taravangian as a real threat.

2. Provided a counter example to the "all Radiants must be inherently good and trustworthy in order to have attracted a spren" line of reasoning.  Without her we'd see all present day Radiants getting along and being closely aligned in goals, which would undermine belief in the conflicts within KR that seem an important part of history.

3.  Teased our desire to learn more about Division.

[bo.montier]

1 hour ago, shawnhargreaves said:

Stormfather also at one point mentioned that he didn't remember something up until the very moment when Dalinar asked about it.  His memories are incomplete and unreliable.

To the original topic, Malata had three purposes in OB:

1. She added weight to Taravangian as a real threat.

2. Provided a counter example to the "all Radiants must be inherently good and trustworthy in order to have attracted a spren" line of reasoning.  Without her we'd see all present day Radiants getting along and being closely aligned in goals, which would undermine belief in the conflicts within KR that seem an important part of history.

3.  Teased our desire to learn more about Division.

While the spren often have incomplete memories, they haven't been wrong about anything they've said "This is so" thus far, I'm still inclined to trust them when they make factual statements (look at Syl & the voidspren in part 1, lots of people thought she was wrong about that, turns out she wasn't...). 
 

I largely agree with your analysis of Malata's purpose, I also think it continues to set up that there is going to be an internecine struggle among Knights Radiant. Clearly most Skybreakers will be on the Parsh's side, and it looks like the Dustbringers will as well, if only because that's the best way to get back at humans.

I am still largely confused as to why the spren would side with the people most influenced by Odium, but we'll have to learn more about that.

[WhiteLeeopard]

13 minutes ago, bo.montier said:

While the spren often have incomplete memories, they haven't been wrong about anything they've said "This is so" thus far, I'm still inclined to trust them when they make factual statements (look at Syl & the voidspren in part 1, lots of people thought she was wrong about that, turns out she wasn't...).

Syl and the voidspren in part 1 are both very old spren, (pre-Recreance), so it makes sense what they say they know, they are right about it as they saw it personally. 

I don't think all Dustbringers or even all Skybreakers will side with Odium, I'd like to see those orders splinter into both sides. Thing is, so far I respect the Skybreakers. They make dumb choices but they stand by them, no shady deals or backstabbing there, what you are told is what happens. They also clearly respect other choices, as seen when Szeth sides with the KR and Nale says they will keep training him.

Malata

Purpose in the book: be an annoyance, be a T pawn, be a small wrench on the KR side

Purpose in world: operate Oathgates because Dalinar instinctively doesn't trust her with more (good call back to WoR Dalinar accepting Kaladin's instincts with no more arguments required to make a decision) and get Dalinar secrets for T

Hobby: break stuff because either her spren or T tells her to

Reasoning: why not

Future expectations: small annoyance, but not anything that our heroes can't overcome

[Toaster Retribution]

I doubt Malata will be major. She might get to fight a main character if the KR ever gets into a fight with the Diagram. Other than that, she seems to be Taravangians muscle, and the character introduced for opening the Oathgate when Renarin or Shallan are required by plot to be elsewhere. I wouldn't be surprised to see Malata die in Book 4, especially since Brandon went on a killing spree in OB.