[OB] Odium's Contest of Champions

[+robardin]

On 9/10/2019 at 10:12 PM, Truthless of Shinovar said:

I should have clarified; I meant something traumatizing and dramatic, such as someone important to him dying, Shallan was the first to come to mind, or somebody else important, (maybe Renarin? An accidental death, similar to Dalinar and Evi?) dying, although I agree, more relationship development is needed.

I don't think one goes to Team Odium just over traumatic pain; that's not the kind of "pain" he takes away. It's the pain of guilt and remorse, made numb, and replaced with "passion" ("he will give it back to you when you need it").

The pain of Amaram, betraying his own ideals in murdering innocent men and branding/enslaving the man who saved his life in claiming the Shards that Kaladin won. "If you've given up that pain... Why do you still hurt?"

The pain of Moash, at betraying Kaladin, a man he owed everything. "[That numbness] would be fine, so long as he could forget the look of betrayal he'd seen in Kaladin's eyes." (Note that this look that haunts him isn't even the look Kaladin gave him when he was about to kill him to get to Elhokar back at the palace on the Shattered Plains, but from when he killed Elhokar in Kholinar and then gave the Bridge Four salute. Which Moash realizes must mean that up until that point, incredibly, Kaladin might have, could have forgiven him, at least on a personal level, for the palace attack.)

And the pain of Dalinar over Evi's death, and the massacre of innocents at the Rift. It's not just a case of "accidental death", but one that Dalinar blames himself for, in getting carried away with a rage and bloodlust that he could not then retract or control. Odium says to him, "I was there with you! I made you do it! It wasn't your fault!" And if Dalinar had agreed with that view, the way that Moash had done while laboring as a captive in the singers' attack on Kholinar (What happened at the Shattered Plains wasn't my fault... I was pushed into it. I can't be blamed... that was merely how men were in this debased age... He was a product of his culture...), he would have fallen under Odium's sway.

And the "passion" he replaces that pain with, when it suits him, is basically the Thrill.

If Adolin were in a position to be susceptible to Odium, he'd have to do something he truly, deeply is bothered by having done, something that gnaws on his mind. Killing Torol Sadeas is not on that list, nor is anything we've seen from his POV so far.

Edited September 12, 2019 by robardin

[Pathfinder]

So I am necroing this thread because I feel this is new information pertinent to the discussion. I believe this WoB strongly hints a champion has not yet been selected, and will be selected at a later date, so the contest is still very much on the table:

 

Questioner

At what point when writing Dalinar's character did you realize that he was going to become the <champion>?

Brandon Sanderson

Ah, I am not going to answer that, because you're answering about future books. Sneaky, sneaky. There you go, that's not confirmed yet.

DragonCon 2019 (Aug. 29, 2019)

[WindJogger]

I believe that Odium has already agreed to a contest of champions but that contests itself is unresolved. I was listening to e Odium Shardcast, and they were asking basically "what would prompt Odium to agree to it" first I think that they covered some key points from which the most relevant to me I believe it is the fact that going against two shards that are cooperating was extremely risky for him, and I also believe that Tanavast may have given himself impossible odds. I think that the original contest of champions had something to do with the Heralds. I am pretty new to Stormlight so the timelight is a bit fuzzy, but here is what I imagine happened.......Honor saw that keeping Odium trapped in Roshar was something of a sacrifice to protect the rest of the Cosmere which is an Honorable thing to do, so he made a sweet deal for Odium to take that was basically the Desolations in which Honor and Odium would choose Champions,  I am certain that Honor's were the Heralds, and maybe Odium's were the Unmade, but I am not sure on that second one. Anyways it was a fight to the Death, and would not be resolved until either group was destroyed. Since the Unmade are very hard to kill Odium jumped in on the deal, but then Honor went and did the Oathpact, essentially creating a loop of desolations that would essentially trap him. 

Then I think that in an attempt of tipping the scales Odium started creating the Fused, then Honor started the Heralds as a response. I think that after a while, Odium got frustrated and either went straight for tanavast, or just went straight for roshar which ended up on Tanavast's death and essentially leaving Odium trapped. 

On shardcast they also covered the fact that Odium recognizes that leaving Honor's splinters to freely roam around on Roshar wold be a problem for him on the future makes sense since he was unable to do anything else after killing Tanavast since he was and is still bound by the initial contest. I believe that this makes sense given what he is having Moash do by the end of OB. 

 

I realize that there may be a lot of flaws with what I just wrote, but that is kind of what I have imagined happened; I just find it easier for me to continue with the story if I have some sort of plausible explanation of why we got where were are on the books.