Is Lopen a Surgebinder?

[stonedshaman]

Are you saying that lightweavers can soulcast their illusions into reality?

[ChickenPlague he/him]

Are you saying that lightweavers can soulcast their illusions into reality?

They have soulcasting don't they? Lopen also convinces his cousins to join a bridge crew which is simmilar to what Shallan did with the deserters(kind of).

[Mr. Fluffy he/him]

Kaladin's abilities: You point out Teft saying a thing, and then follow it up with a simple, "This is corroborated." Is it? I do not believe it is. Nowhere in either book is there evidence that Kaladin's skill is wholly natural, and there is a ton of evidence that it is not. Do you have any of this corroborating evidence? We all already knew that Teft claims to be an expert; the question now is, is he? Teft's own self-assessment is not, I think, an unbiased source.

 

The final passage, about Radiants having every power... note at the end, Teft is cut off. I notice you don't include the next few lines, wherein Kaladin says, "That's can't be true, why would someone both flying if they can just teleport?" To which Teft replies first with silence, and then, "i don't know."

 

The statement is NOT true in and of itself, because it's obvious Teft believes every Radiant had every Surge, and we know that's false. If Teft knew that different Orders had different abilities, presumably he would have said that, instead of saying he didn't know how his obviously contradictory statement could be true. I'm not talking about it invalidating everything else he says; my argument is not, "Teft doesn't know literally anything about the Radiants," my argument is, we cannot accept something as true just because Teft says it is. The fact that he has a few details right, but others wrong, is evidence that he cannot be trusted blindly when he tells us things we don't yet know are true.

 

For the other two points... those are vague, and incredibly minor. in fact, for one of them, I'm not actually going to accept that "a large organization made up of people had a bit of internal conflict" is a "fact" that Teft is special for knowing. So basically, I'm conceding that Teft was aware the that Knights swore oaths.

 

Compare this to him being wrong on Kaladin's skill, him being wrong on every Radiant having every Surge, him having no idea how a Radiant Invests... The original contention, which I disagreed with, is that if Teft says something is so, we should accept it as likely until proven false. He's been wrong more often than he's been right. If he says something about the Radiants, I'm prepared to accept that it might contain some small measure of truth, once separated from the chaff of his misunderstandings and false convictions. I am not willing to believe it is simply true.

 

And it's worth pointing out, from the quote above, the whole "squire" thing isn't even based on anything Teft knows by being an "expert". He admits, he's only saying it because he's been hearing about Dalinar's visions. This isn't even Envisager lore! Literally anyone who has read the same text knows as much as Teft does.

 

To restate, I actually do agree that the Bridgemen are almost certainly Squires, and almost certainly Kaladin's Squires. I also do believe the Lopen is a Squire, though I'm less positive, and that he's Kaladin's Squire, although wouldn't it be cool if he were Shallan's? I just don't think that Teft saying it should weigh the argument in either direction very strongly.

 

Finally, I'm a little miffed that you cut off your quote when you did. You must've read the next few lines and realized it cut your argument to shreds. The fact that you included it anyway, trimmed to erase context, is poor form.

 

EDIT: Where arguments have failed to sway me, an anonymous downvote has done the job. I have changed my mind, and officially concede that Teft is, in fast, an expert in all things Surgebinding.

Don't change your mind because of the downvote man, take an upvote for you work. You did well, and I concur with your statement.

[DreamEternal]

Don't change your mind because of the downvote man, take an upvote for you work. You did well, and I concur with your statement.

That was sarchasm.