What if Bridge 4 Joined the Parshendi?

[Trutharchivist he/him]

This is a weird idea I had. I recently watched a recording of the Dragonsteel Nexus panel on alternative Cosmeres, and while rereading tWoK I thought that while Kaladin never considered that, it could actually solve the problem of where can Bridge 4 run from Sadeas to. Sure, it's not too safe, but it could work. And at the point Kaladin is planning their escape, Rlain is already a part of Bridge 4, so he could guide them and vouch for them.

Now, problems with the premise: firstly, it requires Kaladin thinking this is a good idea. At this point, even though he plans on defecting from Sadeas' army, he still sees the whole Alethi-Parshendi thing as an Us vs Them, with the Alethi being the Us. He wouldn't consider joining the Parshendi at this point. Secondly, while this might be a great solution for Kaladin (on the short term), the Parshendi have no reason to want them. They're just random humans, and the Parshendi need no bridges. Thirdly, of course, the Parshendi numbers are dwindling. They might be interested in what little help a couple more warriors can give them, so this might answer the second question, but even so it won't be enough to protect them from the Alethi. Especially if this will annoy Sadeas enough to actually cooperate with Dalinar on wiping the Parshendi out.

I'm not completely sure I have answers to those questions, but I think this premise is intriguing. Anyone would like to add something?

[NameIess]

First problem could be solved by Rlain. If he'd revealed himself and offered to help Bridge 4 escape to the Parshendi I could see Kaladin considering it.

[Trutharchivist he/him]

Fair enough, though this raises the second question even stronger: Rlain's interests at the time are helping the Parshendi. He's a spy for them. 30 more people aren't enough for him to blow his cover to get. If the idea came from Kaladin first, I can maybe see the Parshendi agreeing to take them in. But unprompted? I'm not really sure, even if Rlain somehow found out that Kaladin is becoming a Knight Radiant. They need a reason to think Kaladin and Bridge 4 could help them.

Also, there's the question of how the rest of Bridge 4 will react to that, and would they agree to this plan.

[king of nowhere]

there was never a chance to try it in the first place. the parshendi would shoot humans on sight.

the only way it could have possibly had happened was rlain deciding to reveal himself, telling kaladin he was a spy and he could safely guide the bridgemen and vouch for them. then they'd need to sneak away from sadeas with the whole bridge, something they never managed to do until the final battle at the tower.

i mean, "going with the parshendi" was an answer to where to go after escaping. the first problem was how to escape, and it's entirely unrelated.

[Trutharchivist he/him]

Yes. That much is true. Rlain is necessary for any such thing to even begin to work - which means Kaladin can't use the Parshendi armor, lest he will completely alienate the Listeners - and Rlain specifically. I kind of imagined Kaladin's escape occuring at the battle of the Tower, but that's completely unfeasible for a number of reasons.

What might be possible is Rlain deciding to trust the humans to help sabotaging stuff from the inside. In theory, if they did that and then used a conjoined effort of Listeners and humans to bring them out... it could work. The problem is, of course, that the Listeners didn't have enough menpower to attack the warcamps in a while. And what possible purpose could they have for sabotaging anything from the inside? Only, we know that Eshonai wanted to talk to Dalinar. This is starting to be contrived, but if, with the help of a group of humans in Sadeas' warcamp, the Listeners could arrange for Dalinar to meet Eshonai, that might bring about intent and means for Bridge 4 to escape with the Listeners. Maybe.