Dalinar's Soul (With New Factor of Mr. T) [Discuss]

[S. Stormy]

So this part intrigues me:

Quote

"Yes," Odium said, eyes shining golden. "You will have. And you will give your soul to me. You, Dalinar, will join the Fused. You will become immortal, and will personally serve me. Bound by your oaths. You will be the one I send to the stars to serve my interests in the cosmere."

Not You will be the one who does what I want and makes me smoothies and spanks the people I don't like.

"Send to the stars and serve my interests in the cosmere."

Does he mean trying to kill other Shards? Trying to gather all of Adonalsium? Something else? What does he want?

And it's no longer Rayse. So what does Taravangian want of the Cosmere? Will he still want Dalinar's soul? Because if he wants to retain any semblance of "I'm a good guy!", he might let Dalinar free.

I also wonder... to what extent does Dalinar have to obey the commands? Because he could do the commands, but only to the minimum usefulness, or rebel in some other way.

There's my thoughts! Theorize, agree, disagree, whatever!

[Odiumiumium]

Well, Taravangian is still bound by the oaths the former Vessel made. Whether this counts as an "oath", that's up to interpretation. However, he did agree to a contest of champions, and Taravangian must follow through. Whatever Rayse wanted, he probably wanted to continue Splintering Shards.

[cometaryorbit]

I think Rayse-Odium wanted him as a superpowered warlord for his expected "greater war of the Cosmere". He can't leave Roshar personally, but he can send agents.

Dalinar with the martial skills of his Blackthorn days (+restored youth) plus Surgebinding plus immortality would be a really terrifying being. Probably less powerful, strictly, than his current Bondsmith abilities - but more destructive. Especially since if he's intended to be a champion/warlord he'd probably get one of the best battle Surges - maybe Gravitation or Division.

T-Odium though... who knows what he'd do with Dalinar, we don't know his goals. We see him struggling between his own plot-and-plan-for-control, calculated tendencies vs the raw rage of the Shard.

EDIT: I don't think T-Odium would simply free Dalinar though, or that he now cares if anyone on Roshar sees him as good. His calculated, planning side (vs the raw Shard rage) still sees his goals as genuinely better for the cosmere overall (he thinks that it is ruled over by "broken gods" and that he could do better) but I think he's now powerful enough he doesn't need political allies.

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by cometaryorbit

[Quantus]

4 minutes ago, cometaryorbit said:

I think Rayse-Odium wanted him as a superpowered warlord for his expected "greater war of the Cosmere". He can't leave Roshar personally, but he can send agents.

Dalinar with the martial skills of his Blackthorn days (+restored youth) plus Surgebinding plus immortality would be a really terrifying being. Probably less powerful, strictly, than his current Bondsmith abilities - but more destructive. Especially since if he's intended to be a champion/warlord he'd probably get one of the best battle Surges - maybe Gravitation or Division.

T-Odium though... who knows what he'd do with Dalinar, we don't know his goals. We see him struggling between his own plot-and-plan-for-control, calculated tendencies vs the raw rage of the Shard.

 

I think Dalinar's role would more or less be the same, even of the two Vessel's goals would have been different.  He is to be Odium's Fused Agent, an immortal bound to and sustained by Odium's investiture.  He may or may not require a Singer host body, as it might still be more like a Herald than a Fused despite the terms used.  

Rayse wanted to be Top Dog, to be the most powerful being around by virtue of Shattering all the others, so Dalinar would have been used to undermine their worlds and prepare them for Shattering by Shard(s) fighting or however it actually looks these days.  

Taravangian saw a bunch of Shards that were idiots playing games and is setting out to "Save The Cosmere".  Which could span the whole spectrum from horrific to benevolent depending on how it plays out (and your own philosophic bent).    Dalinar might find himself doing a lot more varied things if he is to be the agent of That, but in a perfect world it would also give him infinite time to engage MrT in philosophic Debate and bring him around to a benevolent side of things.  

Either way, I think he will be part of a small cast of world "Champions" (using the term as loosely as possible) along with Kelsier, Vasher, and Marsh, that will survive to the endgame war. 

[Odiumiumium]

27 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Either way, I think he will be part of a small cast of world "Champions" (using the term as loosely as possible) along with Kelsier, Vasher, and Marsh, that will survive to the endgame war. 

And Hoid, Frost, and probably a bunch of current Worldhoppers. While maybe not all of them, a good amount seem clever and powerful enough to survive. And Nightblood, seeing as he is indestructible as far as we know. 

 

[S. Stormy]

7 hours ago, Quantus said:

Either way, I think he will be part of a small cast of world "Champions" (using the term as loosely as possible) along with Kelsier, Vasher, and Marsh, that will survive to the endgame war. 

And potentially

(Elantris)

Spoiler

Galladon.

And Shallan? That ones kind of guesswork. but it says something like, "Shallan had kept her head down long enough. Now it was time to soar."

 And that's after she finds a map with the labeled planets on it... so...?

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Shallan Stormblessed
Adding spoiler

[+hwiles]

On 7/6/2022 at 0:43 PM, Shallan Stormblessed said:

So this part intrigues me:

Not You will be the one who does what I want and makes me smoothies and spanks the people I don't like.

"Send to the stars and serve my interests in the cosmere."

Does he mean trying to kill other Shards? Trying to gather all of Adonalsium? Something else? What does he want?

I know you meant it in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way, but...yeah, I think you spelled out exactly what Rayse wanted: Dalinar to smooth his problems away and punish the people he didn't like...lol.

Shatter the Shards? Yeah...that would probably be step-1....

Long term though, I would expect Odium's Intent to errode any cooperative relationship, since he is hate for all things, including the self and one's own creations. So...best guess, Odiums goal was to destroy everything everywhere by dragging everyone everywhere into a fight that can't be won or stopped, and he was trying to make Dalinar the first general in what would have been a many-sided war of the worlds.

Maybe Taravangian is different...?