Radiants and Pain

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As we learn more and more about the war between Radiants and Voidbringers, we begin to see a sort of parallel arms race type thing. Surgebinding vs Voidbinding, Fused vs Heralds, Shardblades vs Thunderclasts, the list of mirrored structures goes on. 

Now in Oathbringer, we learn about Odium's main campaign pitch. He can take away your pain. This offer made me think. In almost a religious sort of sense, followers of Odium are rewarded for their service with removal of their pain. What do followers of Honor receive? 

Let's get into Radiant oaths. There are five of them, no matter the order, and they're often viewed as a sort of ladder, a 5 step program to becoming whole. And why is this tempting? Radiants are, as a rule, broken people. They seek fulfillment in pursuit of a higher cause. However, this is not the same offer as Odium. In fact, I see it as the opposite. As Radiants further their oaths, they expose themselves to more pain. Swearing oaths has provided characters with answers, with solutions to problems. However, swearing oaths has never spared a Radiant from pain. Being a follower of Odium means you are set free from pain. Being a Knight Radiant means you push yourself deeper into it.

Now what do I mean by pain? I mean the guilt Dalinar faces as he relives The Rift. I mean the anguish in Kaladin's heart after seeing his men die. I mean the world-shattering trauma Shallan bears after murdering her parents. Becoming Radiant did not alleviate these pains, rather, it exacerbated them. Dalinar swore an oath to take responsibility for his war crimes, he must now face his actions with only himself to blame. Shallan has to confront herself about what she has done, living with her truth instead of suppressing it. And Kaladin. Kaladin is the strongest example of oaths bringing pain. It would have been easier to remain selfish, but Kaladin swore to protect others. It would have been simpler to allow for Elhokar to die, but Kaladin swore to protect even those he hates. And now, Kaladin is faced with the realization that he cannot protect everyone. If Kaladin swears his Fourth Ideal, he will not find peace. He will only find more sorrow. Sorrow in admitting to himself that even with all his abilities, he is not enough. The Fourth Ideal does not bring the peace of accepting you can't be infallible, it brings the guilt of knowing you're skills are insufficient to save the people you love. 

So why become a Radiant? The farther you go, the more pain you receive. You have to confront your darkest self, and once you're there, you don't move on, you don't get to forget. You must move forward, accepting more pain and more responsibility all while staring your darkest demons straight in the face. Being a Radiant makes the pain worse, but here's the thing-

"Ten spears go to battle, all but one shatter. Did the war forge the spear that remains? No. The war identified the spear that would not break"

Accept your pain, move forward, and you'll get stronger. With Odium, you can find peace, that's what makes his offer so potent. But swear an oath, become a Knight, and you'll become something new.

Through pain, you will become Radiant.

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[Hen]

I think this is relevant:

Quote

Spencer Walther

Lopen clearly states he doesn't consider himself a broken character, like all the other Knights. Do you consider him a broken character?

Brandon Sanderson

I do not. And, again, "broken" is a term with a lot of baggage, let's point that out. I would rather use the terminology that a given person is comfortable with, and let them put definitions on that themselves. Because the way I view it, I don't really view most people as "broken," even if they may use that terminology. What they might have is, they might have certain mental health issues that they haven't yet figured out how to work with that are integral to who they are. But not broken, just still practicing. And that's how I would define a lot of people, but I don't get to define it for those people, if that makes sense.

And one of the things I like to do is to have a variety of viewpoints in my stories, to make sure I'm kind of running the gamut on this, and I think some of the characters in my stories would say, "Yeah. Something in me's broken. You can talk about all the funny business you want, Brandon, about just needing to practice. Something in me's broken, and I need to learn to deal with that. Either fix it, or learn to not let it ruin me." And there are people that I've talked to, that that's how they've described it.

I've talked to other people who say, "No, I'm not broken. 'Broken' implies I'm a less valuable person, because of that phrasing." That is something that I never want to imply. And so it is a dangerous word to use. I let people in fiction use it, because people in real life use it. But just wanted you to be aware of that.

So, the idea that a person needs to be "broken" to be a Knight Radiant is a part of the world that a lot of people talk about. I actually intend Lopen to be a counterargument to that. But people in-world would disagree with me. They'd say, "No no no, he's got some of these things." But if Lopen has them, we all have them. So there are no not-broken people, which also makes the world "broken" just completely wrong phrase to use, if that makes sense.

So, that is how I view it. But I admit that some of my characters would disagree with me.

YouTube Livestream 7 (May 7, 2020)

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20 hours ago, Hentient said:

I think this is relevant:

I will retract my statement that all Radiants are broken. However I still think its really interesting that becoming a Knight is about accepting pain, and its often a much more difficult path.

[Hen]

I agree, growing takes pain. Living with your pain, accepting it, and learning from it. That’s a lot of the reason these books are so powerful to me, because they show that part of growth. They show the mistakes and the hurt and they make it real. And more importantly, they show that healing takes time. Kaladin has gotten better, and he’s gotten worse, and that’s okay. A lot of books I read skip past that part of the story.