Excerpt from Words of Radiance: Chapters Ten, Twelve, Fourteen and Interlude 1

[Delightful]

I accidentally down-voted this. Anyone care to rectify it?

Sure

[kkchaitu]

I accidentally down-voted this. Anyone care to rectify it?

Done.

[Duskshard he/him]

After completing my reread of "The way of kings" and then rereading "red carpet once white" I now believe that Shallan didn't kill anyone in that flashback. I think that the murderer and monster she refers to is her father and that she was just a witness to whatever happened.

 

If she had any part of that massacre then I just can't see her reacting to Jasnah the way she did when she killed those four murderers.

 

I think that the only person Shallan has killed is her father and that she did that in self defense, or protecting Nan Balat. 

Edited February 10, 2014 by Duskshard

[Delightful]

Why do you think it was protecting Nan Balat?

[Duskshard he/him]

Why do you think it was protecting Nan Balat?

 

It was just a hunch based on how brutally Shallans father treated his son's. When I was rereading his interlude where it says "Twenty-three tears old, he thought, and already a cripple." it just sounded to me like him becoming a cripple was something that happened recently and that his father could've been the cause and Shallan could of saved him before their father went too far and killed him.

 

But I just reread that interlude again a minute ago and noticed something that didn't register before. I thought that Shallans father abused all his sons and that it was only Shallan that was spared, but upon reading it again I realise it says in reference to their fathers brutal temper "Only Balat had escaped unscathed. Balat and Shallan" 

 

After reading that I no longer think it's likely that their father is responsible for Balat being a cripple, and so it no longer seems likely she killed him protecting her brother.

 

Maybe her father finally unleashed his temper on her and she killed him in self defense.