Hero of the Rev

Yeah, the moral relativism argument isn't going to win me over. For one thing, apartheid and slavery are simply never justified. Second, it's not nonfiction. It's a fantasy novel meant to be consumed by modern audiences. There's an expectation that we'll read characters through our own moral lens rather than through a fictional system of morality. Your second point is fair enough and valid. Moash's blind pursuit of vengeance over justice leads to his own fall. Perhaps that's the difference between Kaladin and Moash. However, contra Moash, I'd like to see Kaladin work to change the system from within in that case. As it is, I worry a bit he's come to accept his new place in the hierarchy a little too readily, though there's obviously a great deal of anxiety there. That he's unable to choose and ends up breaking down rather than simply picking a side when Moash and the parshmen surround Elhokar and the Wall Guard because he saw that everyone was justified in some way is probably the best indication that Kaladin is the best person in the series, even if it nearly cost him his life.

It wasn't just the "government" that was corrupt. It's an apartheid racial hierarchy. It's a deeply and fundamentally unjust society. There is a strict division between lighteyes and darkeyes, and the lowest lighteyes is always above the highest darkeyes. Somehow worse, until the Everstorm arrives, there's a slave caste of parshmen who are owned as property. There is no free parshman in all of Alethkar. It's apartheid South Africa and the antebellum American South all in one, with a healthy heaping of feudalism on top of it. In a perfect world, Elhokar would have been deposed without the need to kill him, but rarely do monarchs or the unjust societies they lead go quietly. The Kholins are not good guys. They're just as morally ambiguous as all the rest. That some are starting to realize that, or that they are playing in a role against the Big Bad in Odium, doesn't excuse their position in Vorin society.

But the thing about absolute monarchies like Alethkar is that the king is the government. There is no way to change that absent constraining his power through constitution or deposing the ruler. In this case, Elhokar rules over an apartheid slave state. Whether he was a nice guy or not doesn't really matter. Moash was in the right. I'll be curious to see how this is handled. Will characters decide that the inequality of Alethi society or the treatment of the Parshmen are the lesser of evils in the face of Odium? Is it really winning if you only win by forcing your enemy into centuries of slavery? It's an inverse of the questions asked in Mistborn, where the Lord Ruler could have easily been viewed as the "lesser of evils" because he kept Ruin at bay despite ruling over an oppressive caste society and self-inflicted environmental apocalypse. One thing this debate shows is how easy it is to be manipulated by whose point of view a story is told from. Stormlight has, to this point, been mostly told through the eyes of the Kholins, the ruling family of Alethkar. That most of them are characters we're rooting for doesn't change the fact that they're the beneficiaries and enforcers of a deeply unjust society. Are the Radiants really a shining force of morality if they're being used to bolster that kind of society and exterminate the listeners? Would we have a different view of Mistborn if it had been told from the point of view of the Lord Ruler? (I recommend Kirill Eskov's The Last Ringbearer for a real thorough examination of point of view in fantasy. It's Lord of the Rings from the point of view of Sauron - here a liberalizing, industrializing ruler of a multicultural state facing off against the deeply reactionary, racist elves and their unwitting puppets.) I have faith that Brandon will twist this trope well. The revelation that humans were the original Voidbringers and the Listeners were the ones defending their homes was great because it throws some moral ambiguity on the humanity-good, listeners-bad narrative that had been established through the first couple books.

It's worth noting that Moash isn't wrong and he isn't evil nor even a villain. The Alethi caste system is criminal. And that's even before we get into enslavement of the Parshmen. Vorin civilization in particular is pretty heinous - it's a chauvinistic, militaristic, caste-based slave society. Frankly, Elhokar deserved what he got. The Parshmen may be tools of Odium but that hardly justifies their enslavement. This is one of the things that bothers me most about Stormlight. We're supposed to cheer Kaladin putting aside his pursuit of justice to fulfill his oath to protect a crown. Part of this is that most of the POV characters are themselves Vorin lighteyes - Dalinar, Jasnah, Navani, Adolin, and Shallan. It's the story of a ruling family who have benefited from that caste system most of all and Kaladin, who's now their loyal retainer. I hope there will be some sort of twist on this trope later in the series.

Got Windrunner in that quiz. Seems right.

My theory is that the Fourth Ideal will be along the lines of what most have put forward in this thread, that he will learn to recognize his limitations and swear to protect or save those he can and not feel guilty over those he can't. I think the "sacrifice the one to save the many" formulation some have put forth is a bit too utilitarian, though. Spitballing here, but I suspect the Words will come in a standoff with Moash-Vyre. Kaladin will recognize that Moash made his own choices — decisions that Kaladin could have made (and nearly did) — and that he can't save his best friend from the choices he made because Moash had no desire to change himself. I'm not certain what the exact formulation will be, but that would mean finally refusing to allow his guilt over his perceived failures to his friends to rule him — including, most notably, over Tien. It fits with Moash being the reflection of Kaladin, who Kaladin would have been had he made a different choice at the end of WoR.

Yeah, the Bridge Four salute was clearly a "this is a symbol of darkeye resistance to lighteyes" thing. Moash is Kaladin if Kaladin had made a different choice at the end of WoR. Moash also gives himself up to the honorblade and to become Fused in the end. He's dead, for all intents and purposes, though I imagine his "body" will face off with Kaladin in a later novel.