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So these are some half-formed thoughts I've been thinking through and I'm trying to get this down.  

I think that each radiant order has one or two ways of heroically inspiring others, and I don't really mean just the Ideals.  For example: 

Dalinar (Bondsmith) -- provides grand ideal that others aspire to, working to better themselves to reach said ideal.  

Jasnah (Elsecaller) -- "Society is unfair, I am changing it, argue with me at your peril"; targets structural inequalities of society, giving others the chance to dream.  

Kaladin (Windrunner) -- builds team out of the dregs of the warcamps, forging a unit bound together by choice.  

Shallan (Lightweaver) -- gives people the opportunity to dare to dream, the opportunity to dare themselves to be better.  

Lift (Edgedancer) -- even outside of refusing to give up on those others have, gives Nale a hug because she knows instinctively that he needs one.  

Adolin (not Radiant, unusual bond with Edgedancer-affiliated spren, others state that he would make a great Radiant) -- gives support to the above, especially Kaladin and Shallan, when they need it.  

suspect that each Order is basically manifesting two aspects of the traditional chivalric knight-errant, or the D&D paladin; e.g. Windrunners defend the weak and work as a team, Bondsmiths are a shining ideal for others and build grand coalitions, Lightweavers support personal growth and fight for truth, Elsecallers are all about fairness and responsibility, Edgedancers do small but essential-for-mental-health supportive acts and dramatic support for individuals who have been specifically wronged or abandoned.  

Taken together all of them are necessary for revitalizing a state or social system.  Adolin and Lift are basically rich people who dump a million bucks on a kid with cancer's GoFundMe or pay for the legal team for somebody who got taken advantage of by a crooked but connected businessman, Jasnah is the leftist philosopher writing academic articles about how society is unequal and how to fix it, Kaladin is the community activist building both a community advocacy group and an intersectional alliance of such groups to promote the rights of disadvantaged people, Shallan is the counselor going in to help kids in prison who don't see any good options, Dalinar is a high-level official working on internal and international political support for world peace and human rights, etc.  All of them are basically filling the gaps for at least one of the others so that none of them have to be perfect.  

This idea might be a bit of a reach but I it.  :)

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