[OB] Intelligence: Jasnah contrasted to Mr. T, in OB

[Iarwainiel I Son of Honor]

I recently read the last part of OB and something occurred to me:

Taravangian on one of his smart days (not his "day of genius") might be around the same IQ as Jasnah, more or less ("exact" isn't the point here).

But consider the contrast between them:

• When he hears children singing that disrupts his concentration, his immediate impulse is to have them executed. Regarding Nohadon's story (that Dalinar tells him) about justice, it's obvious to him that you should kill all 4 accused, no matter if one of them was innocent.
• Jasnah's logical action was to kill Renarin when she saw his corrupted spren; instead, she hugged him and comforted him - she showed mercy and hope. "...the love of Jasnah Kholin did not fail." [That may not be an exact quote, but it's close.]

And that's the difference: Love.

Jasnah is crazy smart, but she is not a machine using cold logic alone: she adds emotion and intuition to her thinking.

I have a feeling that this difference between her brain and Mr. T's brain will be important to the plot at some point.

BTW, I know that the Jasnah we saw in Kharbranth in TWoK might not have been like this. All these characters fluctuate, like real people do. But I really think that Jasnah's strength is in her heart AND her head.

[Ryder House Lord]

Well part of the issue is that as Mr. T grows in intellect his ability to empathize decreases correspondingly (as I understand it).  I agree it is a really neat contrast though to see the difference between pure intellect, if you can call it that, and intelligence tempered with empathy.  Plus Jasnah can be pretty cold too.  She was willing to assassinate Aesudan, and assuming Renarin's predictions are usually correct she probably came pretty close to killing him!

[WhiteLeeopard Scadrian Waffle Cook]

19 minutes ago, Ryder said:

Well part of the issue is that as Mr. T grows in intellect his ability to empathize decreases correspondingly (as I understand it).  I agree it is a really neat contrast though to see the difference between pure intellect, if you can call it that, and intelligence tempered with empathy.  Plus Jasnah can be pretty cold too.  She was willing to assassinate Aesudan, and assuming Renarin's predictions are usually correct she probably came pretty close to killing him!

And as we see in OB that would have done everyone a huge favor...Jasnah isn't cold hearted, she is merely controlled in her emotions. However she won't do something that her heart tells her is completely wrong. Aesudan was such a completely morally wrong person that she barely felt twinges of guilt about killing her, and the only reason why she probably didn't was because her death after Gavilar's might have shaken the family. But Renarin was...Renarin. Killing the self-serving witch of the family is very different from killing the sweetheart.

[Calderis God Beyond]

I agree that Jasnah isn't cold. She seems so to those who don't know how to read her... But she's not. Just contained. 

I think she read Aesudan correctly, and I think what stayed her hand is that Elhokar truly loved her. 

[Angsos High Prelan]

Besides in non-battlefield situation would assassins have been able to get close enough to Yelig-nar? Rock did it because that was a battle and he had a shardbow.

Well compassion saved Middleearth so why shouldn't it save Roshar?