Windrunner's Third Ideal

[Rainier]

I think, now that we've seen two more examples, that we should try to generalize what the Third Ideal is. We know the first is the same. The second is protecting the vulnerable.

The third is about protecting your blind spots.

Kaladin pledges to protects people he hates from other people. He was not otherwise protecting other people because he hated them.

Teft pledges to protect himself from himself. He was not protecting himself because he hated himself.

Lopen pledges to protect other people from himself. He was not protecting other people because he hated himself.

What is common in all of them is that they each refused to see the need for protection, and so in each case actively hurt those he should have been protecting. Kaladin sought to kill Elhokar. Teft succumbed to his addictions, self-destructing. Lopen mocks others relentlessly, and excuses it by mocking himself.

The person they're not protecting is the person the Windrunner hates and is harming. Lopen hates other people. He was, and is, hurt, by the way the world treated him when he had one arm. Now that he's regrown his arm and surpassed everyone that's ever doubted him, he finally realizes that he's been hurting other people, and trying to hurt them, just like Kaladin was trying to hurt Elhokar, and Teft was trying to hurt himself.

[Nathrangking]

Q10fanatic

So, the third ideal of the Windrunners. Is it about protecting those you hate or is it more broadly about going against your instincts/wants in order to protect others better?

Brandon Sanderson

For most people, it's going to go along the hatred lines--but it extends all the way to what you're implying. Mostly, I think of it as, "I'll get rid of my caveats about those I'll protect."

You're likely to see the more extreme examples as I write out the oaths for others, particularly in-scene, as I don't want it to feel too repetitive. But you can assume that for most of the original members of Bridge Four (who are slowly hitting this ideal) that it had to do with agreeing to protect a group that they in some way dislike. (So long as it's right to do so, as defined by themselves and their spren, of course.)

Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 6, 2020)