What actually made Syl break?

[The Count]

Having read WoR I am a little confused on this point.

 

I mean, I totally get that Syl was dying as a result of Kaladin being an emo douchbag for a while.

 

He was betraying his oath to protect and was going all ends justify the mean and so he was killing Syl.

 

I get that.

 

BUT... what did he do that actually cased her to break finally?

 

I mean wasn't he trying to protect Dalinar from the assassin when the bridge fell into the chasms? How is that against his oaths?

 

Maybe I need to read the scene again but this left me a little confused.

[name_here]

I think he pulled in more stormlight than his weakened bond could support surviving the fall, and Syl overstressed herself letting him access it.

[Argent]

It's not very clear what exactly happened, but most of us seem to believe that Kaladin forced Syl to grant him the ability to Surgebind as he was about to fall. If you reread the passage, the tone is very defiant and stubborn. So maybe he kind of drained her of life, even as he was trying to do the right thing. It's all a little muddy.

[tigvsben]

I interpreted the breaking point to be Kaladin's attempt to forcibly seize Stormlight to protect himself rather than the other people currently falling.  Theoretically if he'd had his head in the game and been prepared to honor his oath to protect others he could have drawn in Stormlight and used his lashings to save Shallan and the soldiers, but instead he only thought about himself, breaking the bond and killing Syl.

[PudgyNinja]

I would say that the bond between Syl and Kaladin had been significantly weakened by that point.  He might have been trying to save Dalinar/Shallan in that moment, but the damage was already done.  My reading was that Syl used the last of her strength to save Kaladin from the fall, but it weakened her and the bond to the point that Kaladin needed to speak the words and rededicate himself to being a protector.

[skavoovee]

I think a big part of it was also that even though he swore to protect those who couldn't protect himself, he agreed to go along with the plot to kill Elhokar.

 

I don't have the book handy, but at one point Kaladin mentions how, having made conflicting oaths, that maybe they are hampering his surgebinding abilities.

[straits]

It could be directly because of the oath he made, but I thought that Syl was losing sentience because Kaladin was actively going against what his morals dictate.

[DragonReborn]

His surgebinding wasn't working before the bridge collapsed. It stopped working during that march. And Syl was acting like a normal windspren instead of her usual self

 

I don't think it has anything to do with him trying to save himself when he was falling. If you are falling 200 feet you are going to be selfish, thats just a fact

[ChocolateRob]

I read it as Kaladin's behavior severely weakening their bond and the Stormfather somehow used that to pull her away from Kaladin in order to try and protect her. The Stormfather is then holding her apart from him until Kaladin reforges the bond by saying the third ideal.

 

I figure that in giving Kaladin more Stormlight than their bond could handle at that point, to save him from the fall, either distracted or weakened Syl enough for her overly protective dad to pounce. She was not as dead as the SF claimed (hence the crying), the scream was her realising what her dad was up to as he snatched her away.

[Mr Maker]

I thought the reason was the conflict between Kaladin's two promises. He had promised to obey and protect Dalinar etc (matching his oaths), and had agreed to let the king be killed (breaking his oaths).

 

Because of this conflict, Syl at this point reverted to being more like a windspren, removing Kaladin's ability to absorb stormlight.

 

Up until the point where he fell off the bridge, there was a chance that Kaladin may change his mind and tell Dalinar of the plot to kill the king. This would have allowed Syl to return earlier. She was waiting for this.

 

However as he didn't, and fell off the bridge (still in conflict with his oaths and therefore without stormlight to protect himself) Sly thought Kalidin would surely die or have no hope/chance to redeem himself and protect the king.

 

To Syl, this this used up Kaladin's final chance and caused complete/irreversible failure of his oaths (though this was not his intent at the time) and this caused her death scream.

 

Later when Kaladin was recovering, he decided that yes, he would let Moash kill the king, but as Syl was already dead at this point she wasn't there to scream.

 

Thats how I read it anyway - probably completely wrong ;-)

[Turos]

I just don't like the disconnection we get from Kaladin when he turns. It could have been portrayed better, alleving us of many of these questions. It just seemed like "What?", too much all-of-a-sudden-esque. I knew he was considering it, but the effect on him, how he felt, when he actually crossed that line, just wasn't shared enough.

 

That aside, the simplistic answer seems that a weakened Syl used her remaining strength to save him, or his threat-of-life kicked in and stole what was left.

[thejopen27]

I interpreted it as the Stormfather had forbidden Syl from helping Kaladin but Syl disobeyed him to save Kaladan.  I don't have the book but there was something going on there with the Stormfather and Syl defying him to come back to Kaladin to save him.  It seemed like the Stormfather has forbidden Syl from helping him anymore and she expended herself to save him and the Stormfather kept her away for defying him. 

 

It recalls how at the end of the book Syl is trying to get back to Kaladin and the Stormfather is trying to stop her but she can get close because Kaladin is very close to finding the 3rd ideal.  In order to keep Syl from being kept away Kaladin had to say the Ideal.