[OB] Question about szeth

[Juanaton he/him]

Spoiler

Is szeth a cognitive shadow at this point?

 

[Weltall]

Word of Brandon says: No, he isn't.

[KalaDANG he/him]

Along the same line though, I can't remember exactly what is said, but I think it heavily implies (Or states it outright) that Nale deliberately waited until after his death to revive him, rather than just heal him. I might have that wrong, but if I have it right, why do we think he would do that? And do we have any kind of explanation as to why he's out of sync with himself that way? I know it's caused by his resurrection, but what is the Cosmere/Realmatics/Investiture way to explain it?

[Weltall]

1 hour ago, KalaDANG said:

why do we think he would do that?

Possibly it was more for Szeth's benefit. If he was (mostly) dead it's easier for Szeth to cut his ties with his past and move forward since he can rationalize it as no longer being bound by the dictates of the Stone Shamans or his own sense of duty. Alternatively, Nale did it that way to make a point that he could restore someone who hadn't yet passed Beyond in order to impress upon Szeth that yes, he's a Herald and can do amazing things. Or he did it for reasons that only make sense in his head. Like all the Heralds, Nale is insane and Brandon has warned us not to trust anything they say completely.

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And do we have any kind of explanation as to why he's out of sync with himself that way? I know it's caused by his resurrection, but what is the Cosmere/Realmatics/Investiture way to explain it?

It may have to do with the method of his resurrection not being very good at that sort of healing (compare Nightblood to a typical Shardblade as an example of forcing one magic system to do something it wasn't 'intended' to do) or it may be that Nale didn't have enough Investiture to reconnect Szeth's spiritweb to his body perfectly, so the connection between the two operates on a slight delay. Realmatically this shouldn't be an issue since the spiritweb (as a Spiritual construct) isn't affected by location, so being slightly out of sync is just going to be disconcerting for anyone like Lift who looks at him, but not debilitating to Szeth himself.

Now I'm wondering what a certain Sovereign would look like if Lift were to look at him...

[KalaDANG he/him]

Awesome. That all sounds pretty solid. I wonder if the stone shamans are going to go after the honorblade in the next book or something. Szeth said in way of kings that if he was defeated, the shamans would retrieve the honorblade from the person who killed him. Was letting him die and then come back a way to get around that? I kind of hope not, because Vyre getting destroyed by a bunch of honorblade-wielding shin stone shamans sounds like an awesome fight scene. Nale probably at least has some base knowledge of shin customs and protocol relating to the honorblades, considering that they either gave him his honorblade or he had to steal it back from them at some point. By the way, I don't know if you've seen Ant-Man and the Wasp yet, but the villain has got some Quantum Decay going on, and they look exactly like what I always imagine Szeth's after image to look like.