Who becomes Honor?

[Unhurried he/him]

Who becomes Honor? 

It feels like there's a couple names floating around, personally I'm favouring Kaladin but keen to hear what others think!

Edited October 6, 2024 by UnhurriedSleepless
Updated poll

[LewsTherinTelescope]

I think either Taravangian or Splintered.

Edit: That or Dalinar Ascends but is bound to serve Odium by his oath anyway.

Edited October 6, 2024 by LewsTherinTelescope

[Master Silver]

1 hour ago, LewsTherinTelescope said:

I think either Taravangian or Splintered.

Edit: That or Dalinar Ascends but is bound to serve Odium by his oath anyway.

Now THAT would be unexpected..............Oooooooo can I change my vote??? The night will reign, because the chose of Honor is life. I think that death rattle shows that Dalinar takes the Shard up. Kaladin then becomes the god of those who don't go to war by taking the place of the Wind. Everyone ends up a good guy. Go team Roshar!!

[logicless.bt]

Kaladin could become Honor -- it would neatly parallel Dalinar naming him his heir, assuming Dalinar falls in battle / loses the contest. Especially if Dalinar reforges Honor prior to or during the contest and manages to drop the Shard off with Kaladin somehow as a final storm-you to Odium after losing. I'd prefer his character arc end with him becoming king but I believe Wit when he says Kaladin might not return (+ the Fleet story is too closely foreshadowing the mission). This would shuffle some first-arc main characters out of the story as promised, with Dalinar dead/serving, Navani as the Tower's Bondsmith and possibly the only source of Light, and Kaladin as a Shard.

I think that Dalinar ascending but being bound to serve fits the direction of the Cosmere more neatly, though. If we want a true space war, either the Ghostbloods have to do something irrevocably evil to spawn a planet-wide revenge mission or Honor/Odium/War goes to war.

[Subvisual Haze]

Smooshed with Odium to form a shard of war.

[What's a Seawolf?]

I think there will be some kind of 'council' or group that ends up holding the combined Honor/Odium Shard.

Definitely Dalinar and Mr. T, probably Navani, maybe a couple others.

[Sedside she/her]

I'm not good with Realmatics at all, so I look it at from logical and philosophical standpoint.

I don't think Honor will be simply restored. Honor is dead for a reason. General impression I got from several rereads of all SA books is that Honor is not necessarily considered as some kind of ultimate good. I see that the book raises a discussion on this topic. There is an idea that blindly keeping oaths no matter what is not necessarily right. It is expressed mostly by Odium but it doesn't automatically mean it's wrong. We can imagine contradicting oaths, like whole point of Kaladin's kill/protect dilemma, we can imagine giving an oath to someone whose motives are evil but we were not aware of it or it had changed later. Szeth's Oathstone is probably the quintessence of anti-Honor arguments.

So I think something else is going to happen to Honor's Shard. Either it will be merged with Odium, or probably Splintered into other Shards or whatever, I don't know if it is possible Realmatically, so I just assume it is. I think I would probably like to see this outcome more, so I will let myself develop this idea a little. From what I understand about the concept of honor as a virtue, it is a combination of honesty and willpower. Honesty to remember and admit that you swore an oath, willpower to keep it even if you don't want to (protect even those I hate). Honesty is obviously related to the truth. Willpower is something that allows things to happen no matter what. The other thing that is often mentioned as 'no matter what' is the wind, as it won't stop blowing, so there is a possible association between the will and the wind. So what I've come up with is the formula: Honor = Will + Honesty = Wind + Truth. Something like that 

[alder24]

I think Dalinar at first, but Odium will win of force him to break the terms so Dalinar will Descend and later Kaladin will pick Honor up. 

[Atlas333]

My money is on Szeth, it's his book after all and I could see him getting a lot of development prepping him to ascend (similar to The Hero of Ages). But my second guess is that Honor isn't picked up but is merged with Odium and held by Taravangian.

[Unhurried he/him]

4 hours ago, alder24 said:

I think Dalinar at first, but Odium will win of force him to break the terms so Dalinar will Descend and later Kaladin will pick Honor up. 

I could see this happening, this would have parallels with the ending of Hero of Ages having multiple holders of Preservation/Harmony

[+Child of Hodor]

As Dalinar's heir Kaladin gets it after Dalinar. 

[Rainier]

Yesterday I would have said Kaladin, or Dalinar.

Today, I read the chapters, and Szeth refers to himself as Szeth-son-Honor.

It's staying in the family. It's Szeth.

[Nahema]

I think it will be taken by or given to a singer/listener. That would be the honourable thing to do.