Odium's role in the overall Cosmere?

[Cosmernaut]

Odium seems to play a bigger part in the Cosmere than most of the other Shards. He knows how to kill other Shards, he's directly responsible for how Elantris turned out, he and Hoid (arguably the Cosmere's main character) were friends before something happened that made them enemies, and he wrecked Threnody. There's also some theories that he might be Trell, but take that for what you will. Basically, a lot of importance has been built around him and his actions. It just seems to me that he's being set up as the final Cosmere villain. If he is, what does everyone else think of this idea? Love it? Hate it? And why?

[Calderis he/him]

He's been portrayed as the biggest big bad in the Cosmere so far yes... But I think he's the SA villain and only that. 

SA is meant to be self contained. It's supposed to be a to be read by itself without having to read the rest of the Cosmere. 

With that in mind... Odium needs to be dealt with in this series. If he's not, I see no way Brandon can maintain what he's said and not let down readers who only wish to read Stormlight. 

[Calderis he/him]

11 hours ago, Cosmernaut said:

The reason why I'm leaning more towards Odium is because Rayse seems more malicious and active in his attacks. I can't help seeing him as Hoid-like where he's had an impact on the larger Cosmere while remaining a minor background element for most of the books. Then he gets a larger role on Roshar while still staying mostly in the background, similar to Hoid on Roshar coming to the forefront as Wit yet staying an ambiguous character, though Rayse of course is more prominent than Hoid here.

These are the main reasons I feel like it won't be Odium. He's been built up to much and he's the obvious choice. 

[Dunkum he/him]

4 minutes ago, Calderis said:

He's been portrayed as the biggest big bad in the Cosmere so far yes... But I think he's the SA villain and only that. 

SA is meant to be self contained. It's supposed to be a to be read by itself without having to read the rest of the Cosmere. 

With that in mind... Odium needs to be dealt with in this series. If he's not, I see no way Brandon can maintain what he's said and not let down readers who only wish to read Stormlight. 

Dealt with doesn't have to mean killed though.  I think there are satisfactory ways for SA to end that involve driving Odium out of the system entirely, for instance, in which case he could presumably go menace the rest of the cosmere.

[Grishhammer]

I would assume that if Odium is defeated on Roshar, he would find some way to retreat until he can try something again. Either going someplace else to wreck havoc there, or laying low until he has another go at Cultivation (if she's still around)

I've thought that Odium would be inclined to try something on Scadrial. Since his goal appears to be becoming the most powerful being the cosmere (without taking up any more shards), he can't be too happy about Sazed holding both Ruin and Preservation.

[Cosmernaut]

16 minutes ago, Grishhammer said:

I would assume that if Odium is defeated on Roshar, he would find some way to retreat until he can try something again. Either going someplace else to wreck havoc there, or laying low until he has another go at Cultivation (if she's still around)

I've thought that Odium would be inclined to try something on Scadrial. Since his goal appears to be becoming the most powerful being the cosmere (without taking up any more shards), he can't be too happy about Sazed holding both Ruin and Preservation.

Yeah. The Sazed thing is another reason why I'm inclined to think of Odium as the big bad. It looks like he and Harmony are heading towards some sort of confrontation, but I don't see Brandon bringing Scadrial into the Stormlight Archive. All in all, it looks to me like Odium will survive SA and head into Mistborn Era 4 since that's the one with the crossover.

[Sol Invictus he/him]

I think Autonomy is going to the final Big Bad. Odium is the Big Bad on Roshar, but I find it odd that Autonomy has been revealed to have ‘an empire’ among Shardworlds and Splinterworlds.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Sol Invictus

[Cosmernaut]

@Sol Invictus Honestly? I can see this too. Brandon's been setting up Autonomy to be a pretty big deal, and he's also fond of Bavadin. I would say that Autonomy is the only other Shard I can think of as having as far a reach as Odium.

The reason why I'm leaning more towards Odium is because Rayse seems more malicious and active in his attacks. I can't help seeing him as Hoid-like where he's had an impact on the larger Cosmere while remaining a minor background element for most of the books. Then he gets a larger role on Roshar while still staying mostly in the background, similar to Hoid on Roshar coming to the forefront as Wit yet staying an ambiguous character, though Rayse of course is more prominent than Hoid here.

[+Brassweaver he/him]

I think Odiums is definitely going to be the ultimate bad guy, but in regards to Trell I think its more likely to be Autonomy. Two reasons: 1, we know that Autonomy is going all over the Cosmere creating avatars of herself which would fit with her leaving a "Trell" avatar on Scadrial, and 2, Odium is still, supposedly, trapped on Roshar by Cultivation and Brandon has said that "Odium is scared of Harmony," so he would probably stay away from Scradrial. 

https://wob.coppermind.net/adv_search/?query=odium+harmony

[Scion of the Mists]

7 hours ago, Brassweaver19 said:

Odium is still, supposedly, trapped on Roshar by Cultivation

IIRC, Odium is trapped primarily by an agreement with Honor, not Cultivation (although she did "help").  

[anna she/her]

On 3/21/2018 at 0:34 PM, Sol Invictus said:

I think Autonomy is going to the final Big Bad. Odium is the Big Bad on Roshar, but I find it odd that Autonomy has been revealed to have ‘an empire’ among Shardworlds and Splinterworlds.

We know how Odium feels about picking up other shards, but do we know anything about Autonomy's feelings?  What if Rayse gets killed by the end of Stormlight Archive, but Autonomy swoops in and picks up Odium to create another dual shard?

[Quickbronze he/him]

1 hour ago, anna said:

We know how Odium feels about picking up other shards, but do we know anything about Autonomy's feelings?  What if Rayse gets killed by the end of Stormlight Archive, but Autonomy swoops in and picks up Odium to create another dual shard?

That would be terrifying. Even worse, such a dual shard would probably be able to 1v1 Harmony, since Passion and Autonomy don't contradict like Ruin and Preservation do, along with the Passion shard's memories of defeating other Shards. That would then leave Bavadin as the practically-uncontested most powerful being in the cosmere. Of course, Bavadin is kinda splintered isn't she, due to all those aspects?

Edited March 23, 2018 by Quickbronze

[Calderis he/him]

1 hour ago, Quickbronze said:

That would be terrifying. Even worse, such a dual shard would probably be able to 1v1 Harmony, since Passion and Autonomy don't contradict like Ruin and Preservation do, along with the Passion shard's memories of defeating other Shards. That would then leave Bavadin as the practically-uncontested most powerful being in the cosmere. Of course, Bavadin is kinda splintered isn't she, due to all those aspects?

We don't know how the aspect/avatar thing goes works, but Autonomy is not splintered. 

As to the ability to take out Harmony... Odium doesn't need another shard for that. 

Quote

Questioner

Does Odium actually present a real threat to Harmony, because he-- *interrupted*

Brandon Sanderson

So Harmony is vastly more powerful than Odium.

Questioner

Yeah. 

Brandon Sanderson

Elend was vastly more powerful than Vin. Who would win in a fight?

Questioner

Vin.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, there's your answer.

source

 

[Quickbronze he/him]

That's... interesting 

Makes me wonder whether Odium has something more than skill on his side in shard-on-shard combat. After all, he's splintered a lot of other Shards. 

Or perhaps Harmony's contradicting Intents are just more crippling than I assumed.