Harmony's Alternate Name

[natc]

True, Sazed was not like that when we knew him as a person, but I feel 300 years of absolute power should have changed that in some manner. The warping is no doubt progressing, but even without it he has new responsibility to work with. He's in a position to change the world's future for the better or worse, and I think it would be irresponsible of him to stand by and watch as the worst scenario unfolds simply because his morals would not allow him to hurt a few people, even undeserving ones, in the process. He's no Windrunner, and frankly Scadrial is better off from it, as a Windrunner will protect an innocent life until the world finally turns to ash before his eyes because that innocent was sheltered.

 

Sazed isn't an omnipotent God-figure from an Abrahamic-style religion, or some superhero from a comic book who is just that awesome since he has contrived plot conveniences backing him. He is a mortal, who can only resolve problems through mundane methods and solutions like the rest of humankind, only given power to grasp the situation and apply those solutions on a drastically grander scale. He can basically do a lot (theoretically, without his intents stopping him anyway), but he cannot do the impossible. Whether through inaction or by his own hand, once a problem arises by the end of it all someone is guaranteed to have been screwed over. Not everyone can be saved; that is an unfortunate truth of the world as understood by humans, and as a half-Ruin shardholder he of all people should understand that.

 

(Rusts, why does this sound like an analysis of Fate/Zero?)

 

I kind of feel bad bad for him, because even as a human he never struck me as particularly skilled at the whole plan-making thing, yet fate has given him quite literally all the power in the world. And he knows he messes up a lot, as his remarks on making Elendel too fertile suggest. I think we can all agree that the "get wax home" plan probably could have gone much more smoothly than it did, but since it didn't go so well and suddenly he had a catastrophic incident on his hands, he had cleanup work to get through, and I feel he's probably done all he could think of to minimize damages. Wax is traumatized by soul-crushing regret, Paalm had much worse happen, and who knows how many faceless henchmen got shot and stabbed throughout all of this, but the "thousands are dead and society is in complete upheaval and chaos" ending was averted, and that ending would have been infinitely worse for many more people and still have been his fault if he did nothing to stop it.

 

I would not say he is ruining more than he is preserving, as doing nothing would probably the simplest way to do that in SoS. The lives and society preserved greatly outnumber those ruined, objectively. Cold-hearted way to see things but that's the limit human logic can reach. The problems arising from his actions are things I would imagine the Shard of Cultivation being able to cause all on her own just following her intent, honestly, and she's not 300 years old and severely limited in direct action.

[Unodus he/him]

In regards to "He shall defend their ways, yet shall violate them. He will be their savior, yet they shall call him heretic. His name will be Discord, yet they shall love him for it."    

 

Suppose Sazed will turn to discord if the lower class revolt? Perhaps foreshadowing to a civil war?

Just a thought :V

[Oversleep]

Yeah, civil war. Metalborn Registraction Act

[DreamEternal]

Yeah, civil war. Metalborn Registraction Act

Nah, that will be the plot for the next Era, with the mistborn serial killer as a side plot.

[Lightning he/him]

I think I might deserve an upvote or two for coming up with the "discord" theory over a year before Brandon's recent quote.  See: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/7245-sazeds-future/?hl=%2Bdiscord+%2Blightning#entry121385

[Yata he/him]

But something like "Balance" ? I mean "mantains a stable status also throught extreme method without caring about the Zen philosophy of Harmony"

[MistLord he/him]

Definitely Discord. Discord is the direct antonym of Harmony whilst having both attributes of Preservation and Ruin -- a truly fitting Sandersonian twist

[killersquirrel59 he/him]

Nice catch. I really like the Discord quote. I think this only lends further credence to my theory that the mystery metal was actually Sazedium (Harmonium if you must, though in this case if you insist on breaking the naming paradigm then Discordium would be used) and has nothing to do with either Autonomy or Odium.