[OB] Theory about Gavilar and Dalinar and Odium's interest in Dalinar

[the-artifabrian]

So we know that Both Gavilar and Dalinar were on the Bondsmith path for a long time, Gavilar longer than Dalinar. In Oathbringer, we see Dalinar nearly killing Gavilar under the influence of the Thrill.

Did Odium know that Gavilar was going to take on Bondsmith powers and deliberately tried to drive Dalinar to get rid of him?

Also, it's confirmed that Dalinar was also on the Bondsmith path for "a long time", and I'm not sure that the couple of years between Gavilar's death and Dalinar bonding the Stormfather qualify. If both of them were meant to bond with the Stormfather, that suggests Gavilar somehow fell off the path before then, but what we know about Gavilar's last years and his fixation on keeping Alethkar united makes that unlikely.

The other possibility is that Gavilar and Dalinar were meant to bond to different spren. We know that there are three Bondsmith sprens, and I'm seeing people theorize that each might correspond to a different Shard. Maybe Gavilar was supposed to bond to a spren other than the Stormfather, but he had a serious Honor aesthetic going on with the Sons of Honor and whatnot. But the possibility that seems most interesting is: what if Gavilar was on the path to bond to the Stormfather, Honor's Bondsmith spren, and Dalinar was originally meant to bond with Odium's?

 

[SpeakoftheDeval]

I really like the idea that Odium made Dalinar try and kill Gavilar perhaps knowing that the one filled with bloodlust would be a better champion than the one who emotionlessly politicked.

Personally I'm more of the opinion that the third bondsmith spren isn't a voidspren- which theory for what it actually is that I like better I can't decide. It could just as equally be pure honour (nightwatcher is pure cultivation and the stormfather when last bonded, before merging with honour could have been pure adonalsium as the rider of storms) or it could be a spren born of perfectly equal resonance between honour and cultivation that the shards saw as their (eldest) child seeing as they were lovers and lovers tend to want children. Yes, I'm torn but maybe leaning towards the second one 

[IndigoAjah he/him]

I personally think Gavilar was way off the path at the end. Still get super villain vibes from him in every flashback since WOR inclusive 

[shawnhargreaves he/him]

I doubt Odium had enough direct control over the Thrill to specifically make Dalinar attack Gavilar.  Nergaoul is described as being mindless, equally affecting all sides in whatever fighting is going on around him.

[dvoraen]

26 minutes ago, shawnhargreaves said:

I doubt Odium had enough direct control over the Thrill to specifically make Dalinar attack Gavilar.  Nergaoul is described as being mindless, equally affecting all sides in whatever fighting is going on around him.

This is my assessment too, as it sounds like Odium is largely barred from tampering with the world when the Oathpact is still in force and preventing the Fused and more from unleashing on the world.

That said, Odium does seem to have some control over the Unmade, which makes sense as they're Splinters of his Shard and the Vessel is Cognitively intact.  I don't think he micromanages who is affected by the Thrill (since it goes for everything from the looks of it), but there is evidence Odium can nudge the Unmade to do things:

• Sja-anat states she was "compelled" to touch/Enlighten the spren of the Kholinar Oathgate.  She seems to be mostly in control of her actions, and even lies to Odium from the sound of it (or lies about lying for her own ends), but she still corrupted the Oathgate all the same.
• Nergaoul's and Yelig-nar's presence at Thaylen City was a bit too coincidental, to say nothing of Nergaoul being yanked fully into the Physical Realm and going straight for the Alethi troops to open them to being bonded-and-controlled.

Edited November 21, 2017 by dvoraen