Moash - Tumblr Posts
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.
kaladin and moash drawn 4 a friend art trade 😵💫👍
Spoilers for Stormlight Archives books two and beyond. Ye've been warned.
I find it greatly amusing that Brandon Sanderson named Moash (in part) after his editor. Like just imagine.
"Hey, you've really been great to me so I thought I'd name a character after you."
"Oh, that's nice of you! What's he like?"
"He betrays everyone and everything he cared about in a quest for vengeance. He swears fealty to an evil god, and urges his best friend to kill himself."
"..."
God I love them. They are just such complicated and well written characters. Like, I despise moash for everything that he has done, but he’s such a good villain and such a complicated person that I can see the nuance and depth in his actions. Thanks for coming to my TED talk
Kaladin and Moash from Stormlight Archives series commission for @theknightartorias
I am SO sorry in advance, part of a stormlight pin up calendar I made for my friend
xoxo, moash