The (Potential) Salvation of Szeth (Theory)

[Trickonometry]

Probably one of my favorite characters in the books is Szeth because of how well Brandon has written him. Szeth has a profound dedication to (what I would call) a core belief in Knowledge, defined for these purposes as "the right and proven way." It seems this desire to do things the clearly CORRECT way is catalyzed by a sense of Justice, which I will define as "the fair and equitable share of knowledge" - in other words, the rules are the rules, everyone should know them, and everyone should follow them without compromise. This translates into an overwhelming compulsion to DO THE RIGHT THING and to NEVER SHARE FALSE INFORMATION. This dedication to Knowledge and Justice also tells us why, when Szeth being told by his former Shin masters that he was Truthless when he said the KR were returning, Szeth absolutely lost it - he was sharing false information, which violates his sense of Justice, and it was wrong knowledge. In this, Szeth's greatest fear is shown to be Ignorance. In fact, the places where we see Szeth most unhinged in parts of WoR are when he is least sure of the correctness of his Knowledge. I am actually careful to say Knowledge, not Truth, because as we've seen from Shallan's conversations with Pattern, Truth is subjective. It is about matters with black-and-white, right-or-wrong answers that Szeth is most concerned with.

So! That's a lot of text without a theory of Szeth's salvation - but it is necessary for the next part. As we've seen with Darkness/Nalan/Nin in Lift's chapter, an even more extreme example of a need for Justice, he will only kill when it is LEGAL to do so and will stop when he finds himself in the wrong for doing so. We know Szeth does this as well, and is in fact horrified to think that he was Ignorant of his non-Truthless-ness and having killed so many people needlessly. What I believe we will see, if Szeth is to see salvation, would be an extreme show of compassion from an authority that can show him the "good guy" version of what's right. Szeth will never be without a need for Justice and Knowledge, he simply needs new rules to go by. I'm of course worried about Nin showing him what's "right" with his Skybreaker training, but my guess is that this internal conflict will be the center of Stones Unhallowed.

Just my two cents, I'm curious to see yours!

[flyleaffan]

I definitely think we'll get some kind of Szeth redemption. For the most of the last 2 books, he has been doing all he did because he thought he was Truthless, but after finding out he had been correct, he really didn't have a chance to do anything about it. I think with his new life, he'll be able to redeem himself in some way. I could definitely see him teaming up with the new KR in the future or at least finding some redemption personally. Also can't wait for his past to be revealed in the next book. 

 

Side note: I remember Brandon saying he was planning on doing pasts of characters even if they had died. I find it funny that the same will be happening with Szeth, even though he is once again alive. 

[Peng the Just]

I also think it will be interesting how

warbreaker spoiler

szeth's sense of right and wrong will affect nightblood

[11thorderknight]

based on the way Words of Radiance ended, the logical arc for Szeth's story in book 3 would be for him to join Nalan's pseudo-Skybreakers, start to question what Nalan is doing, and then attract a spren and become a true Skybreaker. Note that if he ends up as a Skybreaker, all his training with gravitation as a Windrunner will still carry over, since that's the shared surge.