There's An Interesting Parallel Between Kaladin Vs Szeth And Lift Vs Nale: Both Of Them, In A Climactic

There's an interesting parallel between Kaladin vs Szeth and Lift vs Nale: Both of them, in a climactic moment, swear the third ideal and summon their blade right before fighting either Szeth or Nale as the everstorm approaches. Szeth and Nale both make a very similar comment like "You mean to fight me? You are new to this" right before Szeth gets beaten by Kaladin and Nale fails to kill Lift. Anyway from this we can conclude that if the fight had continued and Nale hadn't realized he was wrong and stopped fighting, Lift was about to kill him.

I don't get why everyone thinks if we're picking children for the contest of champions they would choose Gavinor; he could definitely beat Oroden in a fight but I think Lift could beat either of them.

I see a lot of discussion arguing about whether Moash or other characters are redeemable, or complaining about the ways that characters like Amaram became less ambiguous and more evil, and I think this misses the themes of the series.

A big theme of the series is that a good person is one who is simply trying to do better - improving themselves and trying to be better each day than they were the last day. A lot of the series seems to support this reading: the progression of oaths, Kaladin's decision at the Honor Chasm, Dalinar's "Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing". Dalinar's "You will not have my pain!" speech basically spells this out, with him discussing the need to accept his past actions so that he can do better.

Throughout the story, characters like Kaladin, who attempt to improve themselves are the heroes. Even characters who've done horrifying things, like Dalinar and Szeth, are redeemable if they choose redemption. According to the morality of the Stormlight Archive, these are the heroes. Even Elhokar becomes a hero once he begins to try to improve himself, though this journey is cut short.

But this has a converse. Characters like Sadeas and Amaram, who are repeatedly given chances to do the right thing, but always choose the wrong thing. This, more than anything else, is what makes them the villains in the morality of the Stormlight Archives. These choices stack up worse and worse, and so, eventually, you end up the way they did, where there is nothing morally grey or defensible about either of them. That's why, by the end, Amaram is a monster bonding an Unmade and Sadeas is a mustache twirling villain. The morality of the Stormlight Archive will not allow them to stick around like the people we met early on.

Moash, right now, is headed down that path. He has had plenty of chances to choose to be less evil, but whenever given the option, seems to choose the worst option.

This does not mean he is irredeemable. No character in Stormlight is irredeemable, but they have to choose redemption. Whether or not he is redeemable does not depend on his past, or his motivations, merely whether he chooses redemption or not.

I think Gavilar should have read the entirety of Way of Kings aloud and attained radiance in the middle of a random paragraph <3

Szeth’s Oathstone was a Hordeling?!

Sleepless spotted?

ETA: Or maybe Tien’s cool rock that changes colors when wet?

Why do good morning, good afternoon, and good evening mean hello while good night means bye?