dalinar's boon

[taveren he/him]

i don't know if anyone has thought of this before but i found it odd that dalinar already knew the second oath to give to become a bondsmith. so i'm thinking he went to see the nightwatcher and he asked to know what the most important words a man can say are and she told him the oaths for the order he would fit best in to. He probably didn't know that it was an oath for the knights at first and just thought that it was what he was supposed to do by uniting  alethkar. after he talked to kaladin and learned about the oaths he figured it out and then went to talk to the stormfather where he said he didn't need to be told the oaths. it could also have helped spur him on to change after his brother died.

[Cayden]

Not really sure here, I suspect that he went to the Nightwatcher years before Galivar died, his wife around 3-4 years before the assassination and the way he looks guiltily at Renarin makes me wonder.

 

What if he asked for Renarin to be capable of being a warrior? I dont think he asked for his health to improve as that doesnt quite feel right.

 

Originally I thought that he asked for aid in getting over his grief, but I think that it is somehow linked to Renarin, we just havent got enough information to go on. 

[taveren he/him]

i remember him feeling guilty but i don't remember what exactly was going on in that scene. but i remember thinking the guilt was from not being able to remember his wife

[Numb]

It seems if you are worthy of being a Knight you just know the words instinctively. 

[Dalinaut]

My girlfriend and I have debate going about this topic.  The question is:

 

Is it Dalinars curse or boon to not remember his wife? 

 

I said curse, as that would kinda suck, but she thinks he did it as his boon, to forget the pain of her loss.

 

Thoughts??

[Wyrmhero he/him]

We haven't seen anything else that would definitely apply as his boon, at the moment. But then, it is possible he forgot his wife as a boon. But then, what would be his curse? He is also reluctant to speak of his curse and his boon. Interestingly, the times he refuses to say what they are, Renarin is in the room each time, and Dalinar looks at him the second time.

 

I think Renarin reminded Dalinar of his wife in some ways. We know that Adolin and Renarin both get their blond streaks of hair from their mother, but Adolin is by far the more masucline of the pair. Adolin reminds Dalinar of himself. Renarin, by contrast, is the less fighting-oriented, and is probably more like his mother than he is his father.

 

So my guess is this: His boon was to save Renarin's life. Renarin has always been at least a little sickly, notably with his epilepsy. I would not be surprised if he became deathly ill in his past, and Dalinar went to the Nightwatcher out of desparation, not just to save Renarin's life, but also because in watching Renarin die, he was watching his wife die again. While Renarin was saved from death, such a thing would obviously take a toll on the poor boy anyway.

 

It's also notable that in Lift's section, her spren says she has been touched by the 'Old Magic'. If Renarin's spren is of Cultivation, which seems far more likely than it being of Honour, this would be a notable time for Renarin to be touched by it as well. Perhaps Renarin's life was saved by Cultivation giving him the ability to use Regrowth, healing away the illness as best he could when he had no idea how to. This of course would also give us the time, roughly, when he gets his spren, explaining his odd behaviour from a young age. This would also explain why Dalinar hasn't got a spren of Cultivation despite using Old Magic - He used it for a selfless reason (an Honourable reason at that) and wasn't affected positively by the Nightwatcher himself.

 

As such, Dalinar's curse was that while he was able to save Renarin's life, to save the last reminder he had of his wife, the Nightwatcher did the ironic thing and made it so he couldn't remember her at all anyway. Dalinar considers this to be a fair trade for the life of his son, which is why he hasn't sought out information about his wife. Perhaps he fears that if he finds more out about her, the Nightwatcher would take his son's life away for breaking the deal.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Wyrmhero

[11thorderknight]

I cant' remember where it was, but I'm pretty sure somewhere in Way of Kings there's a line that forgetting his wife was actually his boon. Also, the Nightwatcher isn't really like a genie that grants wishes; you ask her for stuff, and she may or may not give you what you ask for, but both the boon and the curse are ultimately chosen by her. And so far, from what we've seen, all her effects are neurologic in nature and affect the individual doing the asking. 

 

Which begs the question - did Renarin visit her as well?

[taveren he/him]

renarin has the same spren as ym so i would guess after ym was killed the spren went to the next best candidate Renarin. granted we don't know exactly when the ym interlude was but its probably safe to assume it wasn't far in to the past.

 

its unlikely that his boon was forgetting his wife since if he had asked for that it probably wouldn't work like he wanted. none of her other boons seem to do quite what was asked for

Edited March 14, 2014 by taveren

[Awesomeness Summoned he/him]

Seems to me forgetting his wife could be the boon and the curse.

 

"I'd like to not feel the pain of losing my wife."

 

"Shazam! You won't feel the pain anymore because you don't remember her at all."

 

As for knowing the 2nd ideal, I'd agree that aspiring KR's seem to inherently know them once they get to a certain point but there is also the fact that Dalinar essentially has the WoK memorized and the ideals are listed in there.

[taveren he/him]

he might have said the third also since it is two sentences skipping all the way to the third makes it suspicious. it is listed as  two different oaths in the wiki

[Chlehrma]

I wonder what else he forgot. For instance, in the last chapter he speaks of the familiarity with how using stormlight feels and ponders where he has felt it before.

[Awesomeness Summoned he/him]

I wonder what else he forgot. For instance, in the last chapter he speaks of the familiarity with how using stormlight feels and ponders where he has felt it before.

Perhaps on a sunny afternoon when preventing a chasemfiend's foot from stomping a king into a gooey pulp?