[OB] Rock was a Coward

[vikorr]

Alright, slightly controversial heading, but I was doing a reread of Oathbringer, and I came across this passage, where Rock's wife is speaking with him:

"What of Tifi and Sinaku'a?" She asked him.

"Dead." he whispered.

"They raised their weapons in vengeance."

She put her hand to her lips. She wore a glove on her safe-hand, in deference to silly Vorin traditions. "Then you__"

"I am a chef now," Lunamor said, firm.

"But--"

"I cook, Tuaka."

This conversation is in relation to Rock descending from the peaks with his master (whatever he was called) who challenged Sadeas in order to try and obtain shardplate. Of course in Rock's culture, only 4th Son's fight. And earlier in Oathbringer, Kaladin is talking to Rock about how his third brother died, saying words along the lines of "I know you had a third brother Rock. You were a soldier once, don't deny it", and Rock did not wish to speak any more of that. And of course we have previously seen Rock's skill with a bow.

The very strong inference from Rock's conversation with his wife though, is that she expected him to fight, and did not expect him to be 'just a cook' now.

 

 

P.S. I did a search of Rock (plus a few variables), and came up with 165 pages, so please excuse me if this has previously been posted.

[RShara]

Hah! Interesting title!  If I remember correctly, first, second and third sons are needed for growing food, ruling, etc. Only fourth+ sons are trained as fighters. So yes, Rock probably was trained as a fighter, but then his older brothers were killed. So more likely, rather than being a coward, he's no longer the fourth+ son, so no longer a fighter, and that's why he refused to fight.

I think her inference there is not that she expected him to fight, but that she expected him to rule. It seems likely to me that it was his older brother(s) that were killed by Sadeas, and that he is actually the clan leader now.

And of course, now that he has Shards, he should be King of the Horneater Peaks.

[vikorr]

Just prior to that conversation, Rock moroses over being broken, and wanting to die (when he was a bridgeman). Very shortly after that conversation, Rock thinks he is glad that the other bridgemen can't speak horneater, because then they would know of the lies he told them. The context for that entire passage is that he is very clearly ashamed.

Edited May 20, 2018 by vikorr

[Angsos]

I think he's ashamed because he knows he should be more. Also, he lied to people he now considers friends

[+robardin]

I think the "only 4th sons fight" is the thing Rock has lied to Bridge Four about. And knowing Rock, it's not an outright lie, but a lie of omission.

I'm thinking, the full truth is that only 4th+ sons and the nuatoma fight... And that the nuatoma is either the eldest son of the clan ruler, or a role that can devolve to anybody with the right blood claim and who acts to claim it, as by fighting. This would fit in with the seniority by birth order apparent in what Rock describes of his society, with his describing the relatives (clan members) of a nuatoma as being like his servants, as the Alethi are to their Brightlords, and of course with an Unkalaki nuatoma periodically coming down from the Peaks to challenge a Brightlord to duel for Shards.

In this interpretation, the two names his wife mentions, Tifi and Sinaku'a, were his two next older brothers, the eldest being the nuatoma in question who challenged Sadeas. In so doing they were not "breaking traditional roles" but essentially each in turn claiming the right of the eldest to be the nuatoma and to continue the fight for Sadeas' Shardplate.

Whether out of cowardice or some other reason, Rock deferred (despite likely being the most combat trained of his brothers, as Tifi and Sinak'a would not have been fighters?), and chose to become the chull dung cooking bridgeman we met in The Way of Kings.

But now, having picked up the Shardbow and used it to kill Amaram to save Kaladin (however he managed the draw), he has simultaneously claimed the role of nuatoma as well as become a full Shardbearer, the long-awaited High King of the Horneaters, or whatever the Unkalaki term for it would be. He bowed his head from the weight of the responsibility of it, and whatever unspoken reason there had been for him to have been dodging it all along.

 

Edited May 20, 2018 by robardin

[IllNsickly]

Refusing to accept responsibility may also be construed as cowardice.

I don't think your heading is untrue at all.

[+robardin]

29 minutes ago, IllNsickly said:

Refusing to accept responsibility may also be construed as cowardice.

I don't think Rock is a coward, as in afraid of death or even a challenge.

I think he may fundamentally disagree with the idea of there being a "king of the peaks", as he would more or less automatically become, as a Shardbearing nuatoma. He said they "have not had one for many years" - maybe there is an additional expectation that comes with being one. Kind of like how Eshonai and the other Listener elders sought to avoid the return of their "gods", maybe the only thing preventing the Unkalaki from getting together and doing something Rock doesn't want them to do is the lack of this king, and now he's become that king.

Edited May 20, 2018 by robardin

[Steeldancer]

Fascinating. I think Rock and the horneater peaks will be an important piece of book 4, so I bet if you are right we will see that then. 

[IllNsickly]

I am not disparaging Rock for it. Everything in the SA so far has been about Becoming. Becoming something new, different or someone Better. 

He has kept all of his, Stuff I guess, internal and no one has had any idea exactly what’s going on with him. We have just been given a glimpse of what is in his head, heart and soul. Part of his arc is going to be about learning to accept the responsibilities that are his to carry.

I absolutely agree that he is being a Coward with regards to his place on the Peaks. He is afraid of the responsibility he will have to take and he is afraid of not living up to his and the rest of the Horneaters expectations.

That’s what I think, but I am usually wrong.

[dvoraen]

While I'm not disagreeing with the title, I think there's much more to Rock.  I'm really reading between the lines regarding Rock's conversation with his wife, and I got the impression that Rock was forced to kill his older siblings (Sifi and Sinaku'a), and that was part of what made him want to give up and accept death by bridge-running.  In other words, I don't think he put poo in Sadeas's food as to why he became a bridgeman; he killed others in his envoy and then surrendered and was sent there.  Note that when I say forced to do so, I think that it was because Sifi and Sinaku'a wanted to take up arms in retribution, and that's a big no-no in Horneater culture, or at least Rock's family.  So to preserve at least his family's honor, he made a very very difficult choice, and couldn't bring himself to want to go back and confess that he had to do so, as it had all sorts of other consequences back home.

Edited May 21, 2018 by dvoraen

[Toaster Retribution]

25 minutes ago, dvoraen said:

While I'm not disagreeing with the title, I think there's much more to Rock.  I'm really reading between the lines regarding Rock's conversation with his wife, and I got the impression that Rock was forced to kill his older siblings (Sifi and Sinaku'a), and that was part of what made him want to give up and accept death by bridge-running.  In other words, I don't think he put poo in Sadeas's food as to why he became a bridgeman; he killed others in his envoy and then surrendered and was sent there.  Note that when I say forced to do so, I think that it was because Sifi and Sinaku'a wanted to take up arms in retribution, and that's a big no-no in Horneater culture, or at least Rock's family.  So to preserve at least his family's honor, he made a very very difficult choice, and couldn't bring himself to want to go back and confess that he had to do so, as it had all sorts of other consequences back home.

This would really make Rocks story a lot deeper and even more complex. I like it, though I’ll have to reread the conversation  before I’m entirely onboard with it.

[Llarimar]

18 hours ago, Steeldancer said:

Fascinating. I think Rock and the horneater peaks will be an important piece of book 4, so I bet if you are right we will see that then. 

Just a thought, perhaps we will see more of Azure as well, since she was heading to the Horneater Peaks to try and get into the Physical Realm through Cultivation's Perpendicularity.  Although the next book will take place a year after Oathbringer... so whether or not she made it through the Perpendicularity will probably already have been resolved.  

Either way, I'd definitely like to see more of Rock, and of the Horneater Peaks in the next book.  I think that they're very important to the worldbuilding of Roshar and the way that the three Realms interact on the planet. 

[IllNsickly]

We know almost nothing about who he really is.

from our 3rd person removed (or whichever) perspective, we KNOW that he lied to Kaladin and Teft and then to Bridge 4. 

Please understand that I am not passing Judgement on him, I am making an observation. He will have to overcome his refusal to accept the responsibilities that he has inherited. Regardless of how those responsibilities became his.

I am really looking forward to finally learning his whole story and reading the arc that his story takes.

[+robardin]

 

2 hours ago, dvoraen said:

While I'm not disagreeing with the title, I think there's much more to Rock.  I'm really reading between the lines regarding Rock's conversation with his wife, and I got the impression that Rock was forced to kill his older siblings (Sifi and Sinaku'a), and that was part of what made him want to give up and accept death by bridge-running.  In other words, I don't think he put poo in Sadeas's food as to why he became a bridgeman; he killed others in his envoy and then surrendered and was sent there.  Note that when I say forced to do so, I think that it was because Sifi and Sinaku'a wanted to take up arms in retribution, and that's a big no-no in Horneater culture, or at least Rock's family.  So to preserve at least his family's honor, he made a very very difficult choice, and couldn't bring himself to want to go back and confess that he had to do so, as it had all sorts of other consequences back home.

Whoa, that's far darker than what I was imagining (which I've already described).

But plausible. We only know that when his wife Song notes that "Kef'ha is dead [evidently the nuatoma who challenged Sadeas], but what happened to you?", then asks after Tifi and Sinaku'a, he says that they are dead after "raising weapons in vengeance," and she says in surprise (raising her hand to her lips), "Then you--"

Which could mean she realized maybe he killed them.

But, I think her surprise was more something about Rock's status or role in the wake of their deaths, because he immediately shuts down what she was about to say with a firm statement, "I am a chef now. ... I cook." As if to prevent her from saying what ELSE he maybe should or could be.

Then, his wife Song goes on to say:

Quote

 

"Lunamor, I have stories too. The Peaks, our home... something is wrong. Very wrong. ... I will explain when we're safe," she promised, picking up little Beautiful Song. "You are wise to usher us forward. Wise as ever."

"No, my love," he whispered. "I am a fool. I would blame the air, but I was a fool above too. A fool to ever let Kef'ha leave on this errand of stupidity".

 

It was only after saying that that he reflects on how had someone in Bridge Four understood Unkalaki, "they might have picked out the lies that he had told them..." Such as the subtle detail that even before, he was considered a wise leader, one who apparently had the authority to prevent Kef'ha from challenging Sadeas. And is the "us" that Song refers to him as "ushering" only his immediate family, or a wider population?

In other news: he was in the bridge crews and then Bridge Four for "almost a year", yet the "something is wrong" in the Peaks is news to him, so it happened recently. (Moelach?)

And finally: what can we tell about Horneater society from Rock's own family? He said "only the fourth son fights", as if only the Horneater males were fighters; but when they find Rock's family, it's his wife who's is defending a makeshift fortress. With a bow. And Lunamor (to use Rock's shortened name in Unkalaki) is not surprised by it, but proud.

His children, apparently in age order:

Fraternal boy/girl twins, Gift and Cord
The next son is "smaller Rock"
Third son is Star
Second daughter, Kuma'tiki ("kind of shell, you do not have here")
Last daughter, Beautiful Song

so, he has exactly three sons. But I don't think we see Gift or "smaller Rock" cooking, eh?

Edited May 21, 2018 by robardin

[+robardin]

Wait a minute.

Maybe Rock IS the nuatoma, the eldest, for who "fighting is beneath him"... And Kef'ha was his FOURTH brother, who would be the "fighter?"

Heck, how do we even know they do that counting in birth order. Maybe "first brother" means "most recently born brother", which would make a bit more sense as that would mean brothers numbered 4th and higher were actually the OLDEST ones. LOL.

 

[Stark]

@vikorr I had started theorizing along tangential lines to this over here.  I'm not sure he is a coward, he does seem to have principles that make violence abhorrent to him, and does seem to be in a position to be an unwilling king.  So there is a definite amount of responsibility dodging he is doing by being a bridge team cook rather than going home with his new power and possessions. 

 

 

[Bort]

15 hours ago, robardin said:

Heck, how do we even know they do that counting in birth order. Maybe "first brother" means "most recently born brother", which would make a bit more sense as that would mean brothers numbered 4th and higher were actually the OLDEST ones. LOL.

I don't think that is likely. It would mean every family member of that generation getting a new job every time a new sibling was born. Not to mention that if firstborns lead, then that would make the youngest the leader, to be dethroned every time another child is born.

[Stark]

29 minutes ago, Bort said:

I don't think that is likely. It would mean every family member of that generation getting a new job every time a new sibling was born. Not to mention that if firstborns lead, then that would make the youngest the leader, to be dethroned every time another child is born.

Have to agree with Bort on this one.  You always hear about firstborn, or about the youngest.  Never the "Only-considered-the-first-until-my-parents-get-busy-again"-born child.  It functionally makes no sense and is too chaotic.  You cannot plan a society around the upheaval that would come from every member of a given family getting a demotion each and every time someone new is born.  There is no stability in that model.

 

Far more sensible is the model where the first child leads, and the second child is taught a different task, but also given training in the case an accident befalls the first, and so-on and so-forth.  IT has the failing of your role being decieded at birth, not by individual merit, skill or desire.  And that is Rock's problem - his society is cast based from birth order.  The first son will never be a cook, the fourth son will not lead while the other three live.  If you have one son who is slated to be a soldier, but wants nothing more to be a cook, that is tough.  He has soldier training.  If then his older brother dies, it is terribly sad, but he gets to be a cook, and loves his role - he finds a semi-guilty happiness. 

 

But if then a few years down the line, the eldest commits suicide by shardbearer along with other brothers, this son who was a soldier turned cook is forced to take up a mantle of leadership that he has never wanted.  Especially if he won shards in combat.  There is an element of cowardice you can assign to him for dodging that responsibility and remaining a bridgeman.  But you can see in his chapter, when his family arrives, he is trying to enjoy the life he loves for as long as he can before he faces his responsibility, and as much as he misses his family, you can see that he knows he will have to face it sooner rather than later once they arrive - because they know.  It is harder for him to hide now.  And then he wins shards in combat.

 

He broke his commitment to non-violence, and likely became a king in doing so.  He must hate this.  This next year will not be pleasant for him, so I don't blame him for a little responsibility shirking.  Except, the world is marching towards doom.  He needs to Windrun, to lead, to protect, and help Dalinar unite Roshar.  So if by book four he has not stepped up, then I will agree with you, he is running away from responsibility when the world cannot afford to allow him to.  

 

So wait and see?

[hypatia]

Rock thinks about having lied to Bridge Four, he is happy no one is able to understand his language - for me this sounds like he really had told lies, that we can't trust him.

Are we sure this story about the sons is the truth?

Why would the Nuatoma go to a fight with non-combat trained sons - with farmers and cooks?

Was - if the social structure is not a lie - Rock even the fourth son?

Or was all of this a lie, because Rock sees himself responsible in a way for what had happened and just told this story so he won't have to kill anymore?

I'm not sure we can base the speculation on anything Rock had told - everything can be a lie.

In a way Rock reminds me of Kadash - a formerly willing fighter, who had experienced something, that led him on a pacifistic way. Just not religion, but cooking, nursing others, can also give peace.

[+robardin]

Heh, I was kidding about the birth order thing. Mostly. Just pointing out that all the information we have about Horneater society comes from Rock, who is definitely hiding something, and by his own admission to himself, has outright lied to Bridge Four. How much was true, how much was crem, and how much was left unsaid, we don't really know yet.

[Subvisual Haze]

On 5/20/2018 at 11:00 AM, robardin said:

I think the "only 4th sons fight" is the thing Rock has lied to Bridge Four about. And knowing Rock, it's not an outright lie, but a lie of omission.

I'm thinking, the full truth is that only 4th+ sons and the nuatoma fight... And that the nuatoma is either the eldest son of the clan ruler, or a role that can devolve to anybody with the right blood claim and who acts to claim it, as by fighting. This would fit in with the seniority by birth order apparent in what Rock describes of his society, with his describing the relatives (clan members) of a nuatoma as being like his servants, as the Alethi are to their Brightlords, and of course with an Unkalaki nuatoma periodically coming down from the Peaks to challenge a Brightlord to duel for Shards.

In this interpretation, the two names his wife mentions, Tifi and Sinaku'a, were his two next older brothers, the eldest being the nuatoma in question who challenged Sadeas. In so doing they were not "breaking traditional roles" but essentially each in turn claiming the right of the eldest to be the nuatoma and to continue the fight for Sadeas' Shardplate.

Whether out of cowardice or some other reason, Rock deferred (despite likely being the most combat trained of his brothers, as Tifi and Sinak'a would not have been fighters?), and chose to become the chull dung cooking bridgeman we met in The Way of Kings.

But now, having picked up the Shardbow and used it to kill Amaram to save Kaladin (however he managed the draw), he has simultaneously claimed the role of nuatoma as well as become a full Shardbearer, the long-awaited High King of the Horneaters, or whatever the Unkalaki term for it would be. He bowed his head from the weight of the responsibility of it, and whatever unspoken reason there had been for him to have been dodging it all along.

 

I think this is one very likely interpretation.  I would caution against placing too much emphasis on the social roles that the different brothers perform though.  Like any society, the Horneaters had to prepare for the possibilities of sudden deaths and changes in the succession.  Likely all the brothers were trained to perform the various roles if necessary (leadership, cooking, farming, fighting), but their society and honor results in them embracing their designated day-to-day role of Leader/Farmer/Cook/Warrior etc.  There's no reason a 4th son wouldn't know how to cook, it just wasn't his role in society to do so.  Same idea with a 2nd and 3rd son knowing how to fight.

I also wonder if his brothers somehow did a dishonorable thing.  Something about the phrasing of "They raised their weapons in vengeance", implies to me that they might have broken a social rule?  If so, Rock's family tragedy is exceptionally bitter.  His 2nd and 3rd brothers, who were not supposed to fight, ended up dishonoring themselves by pursuing vengeance, meanwhile he as the 4th brother who was supposed to fight instead resigned himself to the role of cook.

[ftl]

On 5/21/2018 at 11:23 AM, Llarimar said:

Just a thought, perhaps we will see more of Azure as well, since she was heading to the Horneater Peaks to try and get into the Physical Realm through Cultivation's Perpendicularity.  Although the next book will take place a year after Oathbringer... so whether or not she made it through the Perpendicularity will probably already have been resolved.  

I'm sure we'll see more of her. Her, and Zahel, and Hoid. Worldhoppers seem to consider what's going on on Roshar to be pretty important and will probably stick around until it's resolved. 

[Llarimar]

7 minutes ago, ftl said:

I'm sure we'll see more of her. Her, and Zahel, and Hoid. Worldhoppers seem to consider what's going on on Roshar to be pretty important and will probably stick around until it's resolved. 

Welcome to the Shard!  I'm pretty sure you've read Warbreaker since you knew that Azure and Zahel are Worldhoppers, but just in case...

Warbreaker spoilers:

Spoiler

I hope we see more of them for sure, especially because it may be awhile until we get a sequel for Warbreaker.  I wonder personally how the dynamic between the two of them has changed - it seemed to me that Vivenna was angry with Vasher for having brought Nightblood to Roshar, I can see there being a violent confrontation over that.  I don't know what Vasher's current goals are, but he seems to me to be just kind of lounging about on Roshar, whereas Vivenna is much more involved and proactive with the events of the world.  Perhaps Vasher has become become disillusioned and depressed.    

 

[vikorr]

Just a comment on a number of posts early in the thread – that assumed that the shame Rock felt was from Rock, as a shardbearer, avoiding his responsibility as a king. This is wrong – Rock did not (possibly) obtain shards until almost the end of Oathbringer. This conversation happened before the halfway mark.

So that conversation cannot be about Rock being ashamed of not assuming leadership after / because of having acquired a shardblade.

What we know, is that the shame must be directly related to the conversation he is having with Song. Here it is in it’s entirety (minus irrelevant general conversation).

 

“Your note was so terse. Kef’ha is dead, but what happneded to you? Why so long without word?”

He bowed his head. How could he explain this? The bridge runs, the cracks in his soul. How could he explain that the man she’d always said was so strong had wished to die? Had been a coward, had given up, near the end?

What of Tifi and Sinaku'a?" She asked him.

"Dead." he whispered.

"They raised their weapons in vengeance."

She put her hand to her lips. She wore a glove on her safe-hand, in deference to silly Vorin traditions. "Then you__"

"I am a chef now," Lunamor said, firm.

"But--"

"I cook, Tuaka."

…general conversation…

“You are wise to usher us forward. Wise as ever.”

“No, my love,” he whispered. “I am a fool. I would blame the air, but I was a foold above too. A fool to ever lef Kef’ha leave on this errand of stupidity.”

…(he was) Glad the other mind did not speak it. For if they did, they might have picked out the lies that he had told them.

 

That’s the entirety of the of the conversation that may:

-      Reveal what he was a shamed of; and

-       give away lies that Rock told.

The lies must at least be able to be implied from the conversation, because that is what Rock is worried about. That specific conversation giving away lies that he has told.

------

We should first rule out the lie(s) as being Rocks statements about the birth order of Sons determining occupation, as it is entirely unbelievable that he would make ‘that’ the lie. Other horneaters are uncommon, but not unknown, so such a lie would always come to be known.

And there also seems no point to making up such a lie. What does it benefit him, at all?

However, there slight lie, where despite your occupation, you are allowed to fight, if necessary (more on this later).

-----

The lies he told to Bridge 4 don’t appear to be related to leadership, as this does not explain the degree of shame he feels. Such a ‘lie’ would only be a lie of omission at worst – nothing particularly problematic to Bridge 4, and would be rather understandable to them, given the severe trauma involved in surviving as a bridgeman, and how they used to hide their pasts. Seriously, who here would hold such against a person who went through a nightmare like bridgerunning. And as a reminder, his possible acquisition of shards occurs after this conversation, so any leadership controversy must have already occurred before this conversation with his wife.

-----

We also know that Rock thought of himself as a soldier, rather than a leader.

 

Kaladin was wrong; Lunamor hadn't become a cook. He'd always been one, since he could toddle up the step-stool to the counter and stick his fingers in the sticky dough. Yes, he'd once trained with a bow. But soldiers needed to eat, and nuatoma guards each did several jobs, even guards with his particular heritage and blessings.

 

So Rock thinks of himself as a soldier – as a guard to the nuatoma (presumably the leader), who could cook. This was because guards needed to be multiskilled, not because his occupation was as a cook. So when Rock tells himself he was always a cook, he is playing word games (ie Lying). His always being a cook is true only as a technicality, rather than being culturally or occupationally true.

So none of this shouts at leadership.

However, we know that Rock thought he could prevent his Nuatoma from coming down ‘on this fools errand’. Some say this is because Rock, as a Soldier / guard of the Nuatoma, had more authority than the Nuatoma…which makes no apparent sense whatsoever. Would it not make more sense that Rock was good would words and felt he could prevent this ‘fools errand’ that way?

So again we have no strong argument for leadership.

However, we know that some of Rocks family who resisted, died in the attempt to duel Sadeas, and we know that two important people died seeking vengeance against Sadeas:

 

 “Lunamor had known what might happen when he chose to come down from the Peaks with Kef’ha. No nuatoma from the Peaks had ever yet won a Shardblade or Shardplate from the Alethi or Vedens they challenged. Still, Kaf’ha had determined the cost was wroth the risk. At worst he had thought he would end up dead, and his family would become servants to a wealthy lowlander.

They hadn’t anticipated the cruelty of Torol Sadeas, who had murdered Kef’ha without a proper duel, killed many of Lunamor’s family who resisted, and seized his property.

Lunamor roared, charging forward, and his skin started to glow…”

(note: from Rock roaring at this precise point, we can assume Rock feels great anger at this event, as he should)

----

What of Tifi and Sinaku'a?" She asked him.

"Dead." he whispered.

"They raised their weapons in vengeance."

 

And we know that Rock told Kaladin that his two brothers were alive:

 

Kaladin chuckled, handing Lunamor his cup. Then he leaned in. “What happened to your brother, Rock?”

“My two brothers are well, so far as I know.”

“And the third brother?” Kaladin said. “The one who died, moving you from fourth to third, and making you a cook instead of a solider? Don't deny it.”

 

Perhaps the Nuatoma was Rocks eldest brother, and the two others were his two elder brothers. The shame Rock felt would not be at not taking leadership. He had already known he may become property. And as mentioned previously, bridge 4 would certainly understand any lies he told about that, especially as it was so explainable (his nuatoma came down knowing he may lose and Rock become a slave).

So again, we run up against the issue, that the shame Rock feels can hardly be related to leadership.

However, things becomes very understandable if the shame Rock feels is viewed from the point of view of his actions or (more particularly) his in-actions during the slaying of his Nuatoma.

-  Why would Rock, as a guard of his Nuatoma, tolerate the murder of his Nuatoma?

-  Then, If Tifi and Sinaku'a were guards or important people, who themselves sought to avenge their Nuatoma’s murder - The question would have to be raised ‘why did Rock not follow their example?’

-  And yet, If Tifi and Sinaku’a were Rocks brothers, and sought vengeance, even though they weren’t solders, then the question would have to be asked ‘why would Rock, as the Soldier, not defend them?’ and after they were slaughters, why did Rock not avenge them?

Them being brothers brings other problems. If it were his brothers, why were they seeking vengeance through fighting, if they weren’t allowed? (perhaps a lie of omission – eg. All are allowed to fight, but their occupation is ####)

No matter which way you look at it, questions arise from Rocks lack of action, and just about everything he says about him being a cook (obviously a lie), and not allowed to fight (appears to be a lie), appears to ease his shame over not acting, and these are the lies that he does not wish Bridge 4 to find out about.

Rocks great shame, is that he was a coward.

 

P.S. I really like Rocks character. I just don't think that Brandon is trying to write a perfect world. I think that all characters are allowed to have flaws, and this is one of them - one that I'm not even particularly critical of - few of us would know, if we grew up in such a society, which way we would jump until the moment we faced such. I'm simply pointing out what seems obvious to me

Edited June 3, 2018 by vikorr