WitSpren he/him Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 We know his Curse. And we know that he said it was a Great Shame to him. Just throwing out a half baked thought. What if the Shame was not going to the Nightwatcher or the (not completely) the loss of his wife memories. He has a thought in a recent chapter that about 10 years ago, he was nearly overcome by a desire to challenge his brother, because Galivier was the only one that he considered a real challenge for his skill. now obviously, this was not just in the contest of a friendly duel. He apparently considered overthrowing his brother. So maybe in a saner period, he resorted to the Old Magic (Nightwatcher) to force himself (Because he was loosing the internal battle of self control) to never cover his brothers throne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dovie Andi Se Tovya Sagain he/him Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 My theory on Dalinar's boon was to have Aidolin forget his mother and his curse was to forget her too... Not sure why he would do this, maybe he accidently killed her in front of Aidolin or something, but I kept having a hard time understanding why Aidolin couldnt remember his mother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cromptj he/him Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 If Mrs Dalinar (for want of a better name) died during childbirth while giving birth to Renarin, this might explain why Adolin does not remember her as he would have only been about 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dovie Andi Se Tovya Sagain he/him Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 thats not right... she died 10 years ago... but he 'remembers' her just like dalinar... with a blur and shhhhhhhhh for her name Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aleksiel Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 My theory on Dalinar's boon was to have Aidolin forget his mother and his curse was to forget her too... Not sure why he would do this, maybe he accidently killed her in front of Aidolin or something, but I kept having a hard time understanding why Aidolin couldnt remember his mother. But boon and curse are limited to the one asking as far as we've seen. but he 'remembers' her just like dalinar... with a blur and shhhhhhhhh for her name Which chapter is this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mad Reader she/her Posted February 23, 2014 Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 I thought the shhh was because we were reading the scene from Dalinar's perspective, and since he couldn't hear his wife's name we couldn't either. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke.spence Posted February 23, 2014 Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 I've always wondered about whether Adolin remembers his mother. He never really talks or thinks about her as far as I remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitSpren he/him Posted February 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 I thought the shhh was because we were reading the scene from Dalinar's perspective, and since he couldn't hear his wife's name we couldn't either. That is what I thought as well. Adolin did not mention her in his POV except to say "Mother's pendant" or something like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peet Posted February 23, 2014 Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 Renarin says in Chapter 61: Mother told me that story when I was a child. So we know she didn't die during his childbirth. Also we have Dalinar saying in Chapter 22 that his wife has been "dead these ten years." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AerionBFII he/him Posted February 23, 2014 Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 the curse was forgetting his wife...poor fella Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yalb Posted February 23, 2014 Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 Maybe his curse was also his boon? He could have been so overcome with grief at her death he asked the nightwatcher for help coping with her death. And this is what he got! Seems cryptic enough.....pun intended! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Aletus he/him Posted February 23, 2014 Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 Maybe his curse was also his boon? He could have been so overcome with grief at her death he asked the nightwatcher for help coping with her death. And this is what he got! Seems cryptic enough.....pun intended! I was thinking something along this line. Maybe his boon was to forget about her for some reason, such as a breach in his perfect looking honor? and the curse then was that he didn't remember why he wanted to forget her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asha'man Logain Posted February 24, 2014 Report Share Posted February 24, 2014 I still think that Dalinar believes his curse is renarin's health and his boon was forgetting his wife. However I think he is wrong. I think he asked for the life of his child, and lost the memories of his wife as the curse. However in forgetting his wife, he now believes he loved her and felt much the same about her as he did/does about Navani, the only comparison he can remember. The hole in this is that he somehow would have also had to forget he went to save renarin. Perhaps his curse was just "memory loss" and she took the mother for balance to save the childs life, and the memory of asking for his honor's sake? I dunno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Rose she/her Posted February 24, 2014 Report Share Posted February 24, 2014 Is there WOB or a quote that says forgetting his wife was the curse, it always seemed like his boon to me. I figured he asked the night watcher to remove the pain of losing his wife and to accomplish this all memory of her was lost. For his curse I thought it might be writing cryptic messages about the future in his sleep. He's pretty sure he wrote the 62 days message, and knows what his curse is. I've also always thought he felt too guilty about Gavilars death. If he had a similar message prior to that somehow indicating harm to his brother and then proceeded to ignore the warning his guilt makes more sense to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shash Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 I'm just going to chime in and say that, to our knowledge, a Boon and a Curse only affect those who have personally sought out the Nightwatcher. There is no reason to suspect that Renarin was directly affected by Dalinar's visit, though he was likely indirectly affected; in the same way that a large personality change would affect anyone's personal relationships. It's likely nothing more than Dalinar feeling guilty and ashamed that he can never speak to his sons about their mother. It's widely viewed as a taboo and and a poor decision to visit the Nightwatcher because you don't know what curse you'll receive along with your boon. If your visit could affect other people, the Nightwatcher would have to hire a few secretaries to manage her appointments. There'd be a line stretching 'down the block' so to speak. Imagine: A man with a terminal illness visits the Nightwatcher and asks for his son to have an unparalleled intellect, while taking the Curse for himself. Consider: A hopeless man willing to bear any curse to bring low the King who's policies have wronged him. Envision: A dejected lover who asks the Nightwatcher to make the one he loves unlovable to anyone but himself. If you could ask for the Nightwatcher to influence other peoples lives, it would completely undermine the Boon/Curse system. It really has to be self contained to make sense, and nothing we've seen in the books would indicate that this isn't true. As for what Dalinar's Curse and Boon are...I have two main hypotheses that are both fairly similar. First, his Boon was to be capable of directing his love for Navani towards a more appropriate woman, and his curse was that, once she died, she would be completely removed from his memory. The second hypothesis is that he did truly come to love this woman, and couldn't handle the pain of her passing and so asked the Nightwatcher to remove the pain her memory caused him. In this case, the Boon and the Curse are one in the same: the memory of his wife was removed. Not just removed, but he now lacks the capacity to even retain new memories concerning his wife. Personally, I like the second hypothesis more. On no basis whatsoever, I feel like, when at all possible, the Nightwatcher will grant Boons in such a way that they are also a Curse. You know, be careful what you wish for! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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