Oratus albinus

Lirin is a self-absorbed narcissist. As someone who's had the singular pleasure of growing up with a narcissistic parent, I can tell you that you learn to see the signs a mile away. Lirin demonstrates all the signs and behaviors to an uncanny degree. People excuse him because of the persona he presents to as this virtuous pacifist, or that his relationship with Kaladin is a result of his other son dying. The problem with the latter is easy enough to dismiss when you see in flashbacks that he had been like that well before his youngest died. His narcissism doesn't become as glaring until ROW though. As for his supposed virtue, it's a well constructed mask. He may respect life, but has very little for the people who are actually living them, if any at all. His lessons to Kaladin to remain detached from emotions when dealing with patients is an example of painting the bullseye around the arrow. The reality is that this behavior comes natural to him because he has no empathy for other people. Not for his patients that he may or may not know, not for his son and not for his wife. He's so domineering with Kaladin because he doesn't see Kaladin as a separate person with his own plans for life and his own agency. Like most narcissists and all psychopaths, he looks at his children as merely extensions of himself, and as such he cannot suffer them having any independence. It's not only important that Kaladin becomes a surgeon like him, he also has to look at the world the same way he does and hold the same opinions. His whole disgusting and self-absorbed tantrum in his rooms after Kaladin kills the regal is REALLY where the his mask fell for me. It wasn't only his refusal to look beyond his own narrow and rigid worldview to see the situation for what it was. His "how dare you," & "my son has turned into a monster," is just Lirin being Lirin. It's all about HIM, it's all about how it makes him look, it's how his son won't do exactly as he commands. THAT'S the monster he's referring to; not a killer but a son that refuses to play the role that he's been created for him by Lirin. Kaladin is similar in his respect for life, but he's the polar opposite as him when it comes to his view of what those lives are. Lirin's is purely academic. When someone dies in his presence his regret isn't that they died, but that he couldn't save them. Kaladin on the other hand might kill an enemy in battle, but his interest in keeping people alive isn't academic, he doesn't look at life as some binary score keeping device. Lirin thinks about saving the life, Kaladin thinks about saving the person. These are two VERY different things with very different implications. His contrived sanctimonious series is shown for the act they it is with the theft of the spears. Kaladin kills because he has to, Lirin stole the spheres in order to maintain his standards of living, and to be and to pay for Kaladin to go to school, again in order for Kaladin to go down the path Lirin laid out for him. I have no sympathy for him whatsoever, and I imagine anyone who's grown up with or married a narcissist would either. He's not really a good man, he's not a good husband and he's certainly not a good parent.

This is way off. Kaladin deserves very little sympathy in this book. Firstly, yes he saved them, and was rewarded FAR above what any other group out on those plains would received . These are wars, and in wars risking yourself for people on your own side is part of it. If they had been soldiers they would have been given commendations and maybe a medal, the Bridge crews were given freedom, status and a whole new life. Men do not go on expecting everything to be handed to them because of something they did in the past, even something heroic. Big grand gestures in combat are easy, soldiers put themselves in danger to save comrades all the time. Carrying out orders and your duty on a daily basis, especially when they might not be something that you personally want to do is difficult, and Kaladin failed at that at every corner. When you're part of an army (which they are) you're only as good as the last battle. IMO Kaladin's behavior throughout most of that book was selfish, immature and reprehensible. He behaves like a child. He gets mad because what? Dalinar becausedidn't pull out his sword and take on everyone when the king ordered his arrest? Give me a break. He stews over the fact that Dalinar told him he is expected to follow orders: guess what, so is everyone else in that army. He thinks himself noble and virtuous, but like most of the other things he tells himself through WOR, but his actions show that these are just things he's telling himself. He talks about how much he cares for that bridge crews, and how he "has to save them." The reality is that as soon as he discovered that Moash tried to kill the king and he didn't arrest him, he betrayed the Bridge crews. Even worse, he betrayed them for Moash. Moash is a piece of rust that deserves nothing but scorn. As soon as Moash did that, he put the entire bridge crew in danger. By knowing and keeping silent, Kaladin made himself complicit in that crime, and by extension made the bridge crews complicit, at the very least Bridge Four. If he had been caught every one of them would have been implicated regardless of their involvement. They had no choice in the matter because Moash wanted to feed his petty desire for vengeance. Kaladin's hypocrisy showed even more after Dalinar explained to Kaladin that what happened wasn't as cut as dry as it seems, Kaladin brushed it off and still held a grudge because Dalinar didn't do more. This after he discovered one of his men took part in a treasonous plot to kill the king…and Kaladin did nothing. Then if that wasn't bad enough, he decided to become actively involved in the plan, and hands Moash Shard plate and blade. Not because removing the King was the right thing like he told himself, but because he was angry at him and wanted to lash out. If they had been caught before, they would have been executed and the bridge crews disbanded. They certainly couldn't be trusted to guard anyone, they would have been contaminated by the actions of their comrade and leader. If they had been successful in killing the kind and found out, what do you think would have happen then? Everything Kaladin did was for self-centered, bigoted and spiteful reasons. His whole statement in the chasm that "everytime a Lighteyes does something to a darkeye you're all guilty, even indirectly," is a better look to what resides in his heart then any assertion of his virtues are. His sense of entitlement permeates his entire character throughout the book. He was treated more than fairly, considering everything that happened. You can't rely on the fact that he saved Dalinar as a get out of jail card forever after. He was paid back several times over. His expectations of what "he deserved," were unrealistic, sounded like some 16 year old overly entitled douchebag on Twitter than the expectations of a soldier. He was given authority, respect, position and power; far more power and authority than almost every lighteye in Dalinar's army. He couldn't order any Lighteyes that were of higher rank, but neither could they order him, and as a thank you he spit in Dalinar's face. He ruined all the plans Dalinar had laid out, plans that actually WERE for the greater good, and he did it for himself. All of his pain, as the song says, was self chosen. He's quick to blame everyone else when his life takes a bad turn, but gives no credit for people who lift him up. Instead he believes that it's all deserved. It's no coincidence that his internal narrative changes when he finally decides not to be such douche. It's not that people suddenly starting treating him better, it's just that he was no longer looking for every slight either real or imagined, and most of those slights were perceived. He had been trusted and admired by most people in Dalinar's circle, especially the army. Yet all he saw were phantoms.