Schneeente

Wow, interesting. And I agree, Szeth is a great choice if you want to learn something about right and wrong. Sword-nimi can learn a lot from that one, if it doesn't eat him I predict a moral dilemma when the woman (forgot her name) who is looking for that sword comes into contact with him and attempts to kill him. I presume he doesn't want to kill her to protect the sword... And when she tells him the story of how the sword doesn't belong to him... will he give it away? Prooobably not?

I think Adolin is a good fit for Shallan because while she doesn't even know who she is herself he knows exactly who he is. He has a stable personality, especially in comparison with Shallan. And claiming that Adolin cannot help her facing her "internal problems" is... well.. not grounded in facts. Having someone at your side who answers you - after you just asked him which person he prefers you to be - "I want the real Shallan, you don't need to disguise yourself for me" (I'm paraphrasing here) ... I think no psychiatrist could offer more. Isn't that a strong incentive to be yourself? At least when you are with that person? And wouldn't that be a first, healthy step? I think Adolin has such a stable personality despite the killing of Sadeas. I'd go so far and say that this murder underlines his pragmatic nature: It just was the best way to get rid of a major threat. That guy was a freaking mass murderer. And a traitor! He helped the enemy with whom he was at war with and killed thousands of his own countrymen. If someone deserved to die, it is him. And he did it on purpose. And was fine with it. Compare that to Szeth who killed maybe a few hundreds and didn't even do it on his own accords... well, what I wanted to say is, that killing Sadeas was necessary and Adolin sacrificed his good name and conscience for the greater good. Totally stable personality. No irony or sarcasm involved. And I am sure he'll help Shallan to "find herself" and accept the things she has done!

Hey guys and girls, I just read the Stormlight Archives for the second time and in doing so I realized a lot of things that escaped my attention the first time. The major "revelation" I had which I am incapable of "explaining away" is the following: We all know that old Tavangian is forbidden to do policy changes when he becomes too dumb or intelligent. Because they have realized that he more intelligent he becomes the less compassionate he gets. I think he wanted to neuter half the population so that only the intelligent half of the population can share their genes. And while you probably would reach the goal of making your population smarter it's deeply ... morally wrong. Another instance was when he was at the tower and had the choir of children singing for him. He was pretty intelligent at that moment (he himself judged him to be a prophet, not a god to the Diagram) and he wanted to kill the children after they served their purpose. For no reason whatsoever. Just because he was suddenly annoyed by their singing iirc. My point is, if he and his advisors recognize the danger of having someone without a shred of compassion making long term and wide reaching decisions, how can they follow The Diagram at all? Since when he created it he was at his most intelligent "point" and therefore had even less compassion than when he wanted to kill the choir or kids or wanted to neuter half the population. So if they follow their own logic, they should not follow a being utterly devoid of compassion. Second point: I hope so much that the ultra intelligent version of Tavangian had the destruction of Odium in his mind when he created The Diagram. That would be a goal worthy of that intellect, merely saving a fraction of humankind would be ... pathetic. Just sayin' Third point: Directly contradicting the hope I expressed earlier. When Tavangian asked the Nightwatcher for the "capacity" to save humanity it would be soo fitting if his "stupid self" would actually contribute more than his intelligent self. Maybe his privy advisory get killed and he has to make a decision on a "bad day".. Fourth point: I admit that being super intelligent enables you to do lots of stuff. Buuut I am not sure that raw human intellect let's you rediscover what the Unmades are and where they are. You need to have a lot of knowledge beforehand, and only then he can find coherences. Maybe you could explain the "knowledge growth" by saying that Tavangian read a looot of books in his life and his godlike-intelligent-self deducted tons of new information out of it... maaaaybe. Looking forward to your replies, this forum seems to be very active and I love reading the already existing threads. For example without this forum I would have never realized that it was not Wit who got killed by Moash in the end.