A New Curse Theory.

[Aeshdan]

1. Adolin has blond hair.

2. Renarin does not (as far as we know).

3. Dalinar has no memories of his wife, or of interacting with her.

4. Therefore, I propound the following thoughts.

5. Adolin's father is not Dalinar. Or his mother is not *Ssshh*.

6. Dalinar knew that Adolin was illegitimate, but covered it up to save face.

7. Dalinar and *Ssshh* had no children.

8. Dalinar asked the Nightwatcher for an heir.

9. The Nightwatcher created Renarin.

10. And then wiped Dalinar's memory as the cost.

11. And that is why Renarin has the blood weakness. (the Nightwatcher wasn't powerful enough to do the job properly.)

12. That's also why Dalinar doesn't want to tell Renarin what his curse and boon were.

[Wispsy]

Edit: Nvm just gone and found it written ages ago :/

Edited December 14, 2011 by Wispsy

[happyman]

...Once again, this doesn't seem like the kind of thing the Nightwatcher would either be capable of or willing to do.

[dj26792]

Im just putting it out there, the nightwatcher is either powerful enough to make a proper person without a blood weakness or not powerful enough to make Renarin and this still as happyman has already stated, doesnt seem like something the Nightwatcher would do.

[Argent]

If Adolin is blond, and both Dalinar and Renarin are not, it makes sense to assume that Dalinar's wife was (is?) blond too. Anything beyond that... madness, I tell you, madness! I think it's much safer to assume that Dalinar's boon was something along the lines of "to become the greatest warrior alive," since he visited the Nightwatcher when he was still young and battle was pretty much the only thing the Blackthorn wished for. So he gains battle prowess and the potential to become a Radiant (or the Nightwatcher changes his character in such a way that allows him grow more honorable and therefore Radiant-likely).

[Wispsy]

I think it was more gavilars death that changed him and set him on the path to honour

[fiveAM]

If Adolin is blond, and both Dalinar and Renarin are not, it makes sense to assume that Dalinar's wife was (is?) blond too. Anything beyond that... madness, I tell you, madness! I think it's much safer to assume that Dalinar's boon was something along the lines of "to become the greatest warrior alive," since he visited the Nightwatcher when he was still young and battle was pretty much the only thing the Blackthorn wished for. So he gains battle prowess and the potential to become a Radiant (or the Nightwatcher changes his character in such a way that allows him grow more honorable and therefore Radiant-likely).

Dalinar's boon/curse or at least what he asked for seems to have something to do with Renarin however. In the scene where Navani presses Dalinar about his visit to the Nightwatcher, Daliner has trouble meeting Renarin's eyes and says something along the lines of, "how does he feel, does he blame me? is losing the memories of my wife not curse enough?". It appears the losing of the memories is the curse, so it appears Renarin must have something to do with the boon (probably something to do with his blood-sickness). Considering that, it seems unlikely that Dalinar asked to be the greatest warrior alive.

On a side note, i'm not exactly sure of the timeline but I've always assumed Dalinar had been on a bunch of campaigns and established, at least the beginnings, of his reputation as the Black Thorne before he even met his wife, but i could easily be wrong on this.

[CrazyRioter]

Dalinar was in his 40s when his wife died and he went to the Nightwatcher, it was only a few years before Galivar died.

[Zarepath]

I've always been of the opinion that Dalinar actually requested to lose the memories of his wife -- that his loss of memory was actually the boon, not the curse. The memories were just too painful for him.

The reason that he wonders what Renarin would think of this is that the curse was Renarin's bad health.

It seems like the kind of twist that Brandon would write.

[hoser]

This is great!

I had just been cluelessly wondering about it. I have two thoughts to offer.

First, the Nightwatcher seems to only act on the person who sees her. So there may be something involving Renarin, and protecting Renarin may be part of Dalinar's motivation, but I don't see the Nightwatcher giving Renarin an illness when Dalinar is the one who went to see her.

Second, Dalinar could be ashamed of any or all of visiting the Nightwatcher, the nature of the boon and the nature of the curse. Which might explain his concern about Renarin's thoughts (although, actually, I like the idea that it does involve Renarin and am eager to hear what y'all come up with).

[Cheese Ninja]

At first I wondered if the loss of memories was the boon, but I think it is far more likely that it is the curse. If we look at our other two examples of curses: upside vision and no feeling in the hands, we start seeing a pattern. Specific neurons have been disabled. Due to the lenses of our eyes, images are actually upside down when they hit the light-sensing cells in the back of our eyeballs. The Nightwatcher merely turned off righting mechanism we all have, like she disabled the neurons responsible for transmitting from the hands, and I assume she disabled the neurons responsible for retrieving information of Dalinar's wife or in fact interpreting any information regarding her at all.

[CrazyRioter]

I always thought he was just worried it would upset Renarin if he knew Dalinar doesn't remember Renarin's mom anymore.

[fiveAM]

Concerning the boon. the guy in the interlude mentions that you ask a boon of the Nightwatcher but the Nighwatcher only gives what he/she(?) thinks you deserve, along with a curse to boot. So it's possible that what Dalinar asked for and what he actually got are different.

[Verb]

Maybe Dalinar's boon was saving the life of Renarin and his curse was losing the memories of his wife?

Could it also be possible that by saving Renarin's life his wife's life was taken and memories wiped in its place?

Edited March 25, 2012 by Verb

[anthonydraco]

I think Dalinar had self-control enough not to inflict a curse on his son or take a deal like that. Even though he had been combative, youthful, and loved power, he had changed enough. When Navani broke his heart, he had enough self-control not to destroy Gavilar, and decided to severe the ties to Navani completely by trying not to interact with her at all. I don't think he would do anything bad to Renarin. And I personally think that he traded his wife's memory to make Renarin survived infancy or illness that would otherwise kill him since his childhood.

Edited March 27, 2012 by anthonydraco

[Aeshdan]

I think Dalinar had self-control enough not to inflict a curse on his son or take a deal like that.

Well, i don't think he knew about the blood weakness when he made the bargain, and obviously you can't take back a bargain.

[Zas678]

A problem with the OP theory- if Dalinar was worried about having a legitimate heir, who has the right hair (hehe), why isn't anyone else?

And you can't really loose your memory of a person who is still alive, because it would become obvious to a lot of people, and because you would notice the gaps of memory you jave when your with that person. Which means that Dalinar's wife has to be dead, which makes it rather hard to then have a kid. And if the Nightwatcher just somehow magically creates a child, then everyone knows that it's NOT legitimate, because Dalinar's wife is dead.

[jury_875]

Adolin has blond hair. I may have missread the book but It say blonde not black with blond streaks If (I'm wrong sorry for posting) but Alethi black always breads true in proportion to your blood so Alethi carn't be Alethi and carn't be Dalinar's son no one points this out that make me think i'm wrong but the other portability is that no one noticing might be his boon

[Satsuoni]

Dalinar smiled, looking at his son. Adolin was shorter than Dalinar, and his hair was blond mixed with black. The blond was an inheritance from his mother, or so Dalinar had been told. Dalinar himself remembered nothing of the woman. She had been excised from his memory, leaving strange gaps and foggy areas.