Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive

He was absolutely a shit to his kids. The flashbacks show that he barely even bothered to remember Renarin’s name until Renarin was close to his teens (just thought of him as “the invalid”), he criticized Adolin for anything that was so much as a minor deviation from the Alethi macho standard (such as his interest in fashion), and when he wrote Oathbringer he didn’t even have the decency to tell his sons about Evi’s death to their faces, or talk to them about it at all - he had an ardent read that section to them. (The last is from one of Brandon’s interviews.)

I think there are two reasons people think Dalinar was a decent father: First, he could have been so much worse. When he was drifting farther and farther from his wife, becoming more violent, and then finally becoming a violent alcoholic, he was still never actually abusive. He was sure as hell neglectful, but considering that path explicitly ended with him becoming a murderous warmonger who killed his own nephew for the throne, "not abusive" is still worth noting.

Second, during all that time when he was neglecting his sons, Evi was painting a very rosy picture of him for them. So instead of growing up thinking they had a jackass warlord for a father (which they did), they grew up with the unshakeable belief that he was the best of men, busy leading soldiers to glory as the shining example of the Alethi masculine ideal.

And then when they finally started spending more time with him? He had just gotten pruned by Cultivation, so he was much closer to what Evi had told them than he had originally been.

Plus, it's just a fact that in a society without planes and cars and the like, the life of a military commander is going to involve lots of time spent away.

While Warlord!Dalinar was obviously much happier out on the battlefield than back home with his family, I don't know that Reformed!Dalinar would necessarily be spending much more time with Renarin and Adolin if they weren't now old enough to accompany him on campaign.

Also even when he was a violent alcoholic, it was due to remorse. That's very important. Genuine contrition is the first step to redemption. To use another big Christian fantasy work, Boromir genuinely felt ashamed for his moment of weakness and so he died a hero, whereas Saruman only ever thought of himself, even when his loyalties wavered.

I always remember Dalinar thinking "dear god, I've started to hate my own sons!"

He 100% could have been worse. I think that's what Evi saw in him. Even as a bloodthirsty warlord, there was a spark of goodness in Dalinar. He might not have been the man she told her son about but he could be, much moreso than any other Alethi.

I suppose this is part of what makes Odium so insidious. Dalinar, Marsh, even Amaram were not "pure" evil men. They all had weaknesses and regrets because of a spark of goodness in them. Odium helps drown it out.

Edited by Nikkolas on Aug 20th 2021 at 12:05:28 PM

So three weeks or so back a friend convinced me to start this series (and the Cosmere in general), and as of this morning I have completed up through Dawnshard with just Ro W to go.

Then off to Mistborn lol

Wow. So, rough estimate, you're clocking in about 200 pages a day?

Something like that during weekdays, more on weekends

Doublepost, but just wrapped Rhythm of War the other day. Life stuff made me take a bit more time with it than the rest, and now I must wait.

Don't know that I really have anything to say that others haven't already said a hundred times, so I'll simply say, with all my heart:

Fuck Moash

I think the Knights Radiant may add that as a new Ideal.

Honestly, the way the Windrunner's Ideals work, 'fuck the haters, but that guy specifically' might actually be valid.

Windrunner ideals are about the opposite of that, protecting people who need help rather than punishing people for doing evil. I'm not actually sure if any of the Orders have "punishing evil" as an ideal, though Skybreakers come close since a lot of law is retributive.

When we learn more about them, we might see ways that Dustbringers can find their way around to that outlook, too.

So far, what little we know about Dustbringers suggests that their Ideals are focused on understanding and control. They like to take things apart to figure out how they work, and they pride themselves on precision and mastery of skills. That doesn't mesh super well with "destroy evil" as an Ideal.

Maybe. It's been implied in a few places that they were the executioners/living weapons of the Knights, which is why their Ideals are all about self-control. I don't know if that makes it more or less likely that they'd have an oath about retribution.

Sanderson said that one of the Orders would approve of Adolin executing Sadeas, but I don't think we ever got a final answer on which one.

Well to be fair, that’s more Nightblood’s Ideal :p

And on that note, Sadeas being, well, Sadeas, probably more than one Order could give Adolin a thumbs up. Skybreakers could call it justice for plotting a coup / civil war / attempted assassinations; Windrunners could call it preventive medicine.

Adolin literally murdered him; neither the Windrunners nor the Skybreakers would approve of that. The Lightweavers (who don't have any problems with duplicity or treachery) probably wouldn't be overly fussed about it, and the Elsecallers seem to be about rationality and could easily welcome it as the most logical solution (at least if Jasnah is anything to go by, given that she's the only Elsecaller we've seen).

...actually, I just remembered that the Second Ideal for the Willshapers is "I will seek freedom for those in bondage." That strikes me as making them a pretty good candidate for both "fuck Moash" and "fuck Saedas", though I don't think Adolin would be a particularly good fit for them otherwise.

So a few short videos have been released over the last month giving some more details about each of the orders:

We seem to get a new one every Wednesday.

I can't watched the videos. Anything new?

Mostly insights into the kind of personalities that are typical of a given order, and little tidbits into how the people of Roshar see them.

Lightweavers this week: