Ripheus23 Posted October 23, 2018 Posted October 23, 2018 This is a meta-argument for there being something wrong with Adonalsium. The idea is that the two ultimate* literary examples of Sealed-Evil-in-a-Can are the Dark One from the WoT, and the Despiser from the Covenant novels. At least, they are prominent expressions of the trope. In the first case, the Evil is sealed outside of creation, and does not clearly seem able to affect God. In the second, the can is creation itself, which serves as a barrier between the Evil and God. So, I stipulate the possibility of a Sandersonian twist: the Evil is sealed INSIDE God. Or, rather, was. Now it is sealed in the Shards. (Guess-theory: the Evil of Threnody was the part of Adonalsium's darkness that was trapped inside of Ambition.) The second-order twist is that the Covenant series concluded with the Evil being sealed inside God (effectively speaking; Covenant at least assumed the "role" of Creator, by the end), so to invert the trope's application more, Sanderson has this fact be the precursor fact for the overarching scenario. (Of course, Sanderson was writing about the Cosmere well before the Covenant novels ended, and I doubt Donaldson told Sanderson the ending before it was published; but I digress: there is an IRL reason to think that ultimate evil is inside of the IRL God, but that is another story for some other time...) *Arguable, granted, but in my defense these are the two with which I am most familiar, and they are iconic enough, and WoT was finished by Sanderson, and... 1
Yezrien Posted October 23, 2018 Posted October 23, 2018 At this point, the cosmere even having a Shaitan-figure is an entirely unproven hypothesis. But I think you’ve proposed an interesting new theory for why Adonalsium was shattered: they were trying to release something that was trapped inside him.
Weltall Posted October 23, 2018 Posted October 23, 2018 (edited) Brandon has on several occasions cautioned readers against assuming that there is a Devil/Satan analogue in the Cosmere. Quote Eric In Secret History we learn the 16 Shards that Shattered Adonalsium. Was that done [on behalf of the anti-Adonalsium force]? Brandon Sanderson You’re focusing too much on this idea of an anti-Adonalsium. It—the original question I believe that was asked me was “is there a force that is opposed to Adonalsium” and it left me a lot of wiggle room. In other words, the people who killed Adonalsium, you could say were a force, any person who opposed Adonalsium... What they were trying to get was a “devil” but to do that you must assume Adonalsium was a more Christian-style God, and I haven’t confirmed any of that. source Just because Brandon worked on a series with a strong dualistic cosmology and there are other prominent examples out there in fantasy doesn't mean that the Cosmere has to follow the same pattern. Also, Tolkien called and would like to remind you that he was doing this sort of thing decades before Jordan or Donaldson. Edited October 23, 2018 by Weltall 1
Ripheus23 Posted October 24, 2018 Author Posted October 24, 2018 19 hours ago, Weltall said: Also, Tolkien called and would like to remind you that he was doing this sort of thing decades before Jordan or Donaldson. IDK if the Melkor/Sauron situations are quite "sealed in a can" scenarios. 19 hours ago, Weltall said: Brandon has on several occasions cautioned readers against assuming that there is a Devil/Satan analogue in the Cosmere. Well, I don't think the evil inside of Adonalsium was literally a separate being, more like the dark side of his personality. (Granted, that's technically the same proviso as concerns the Despiser, who was the Creator's shadow.) And as far as this evil's occurrent Cosmere role, I would say it's like an infection (maybe related to the fainlife...?) that is corrupting the Shards. (Since none of the Shards are good or evil as such per their Intents, it is rather that there is an evil form of all the Intents.)
Quantus he/him Posted October 25, 2018 Posted October 25, 2018 If you want to go really old school I think there is a third option in the old Zuvranism: Good and Evil were the twin sons of Time (Zuvran), and the short version is that Evil was given control of the Universe, and Good was a bit more like an Insurgent force who had been promised by Zuvran that he'd eventually (someday) get a chance to Rule too. Distinct in that 1) the barrier was not Good or Evil's doing but rather a neutral third, and 2) Evil is closer to the world that Good
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