Yes you need the Skybreakers - Radiance and Morality in the Stormlight Archive
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ม.ค. 2021
- A breakdown of the way the honor and morality of the Windrunner, Skybreaker, and Bondsmith Radiant orders come together to make the soul of nationhood. And yes, why the Skybreakers are important too. This time delivered straight from my face holes!
I'm working on another drawn and animated Stormlight Archive explainer video, which will probably be a bit. If you liked this one, let me know and I might do more thematics ramblings--I like doing the big videos but these ones are for sure easier to produce.
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#stormlightarchive #brandonsanderson #windrunner #skybreaker #bondsmith
The 5th Ideal of Skybreakers, states that he Radiant becomes the Law. Which implies to me that they don't actually have to hold up to external legal codes. But instead find their justice in accordance to their logic. So I feel they probably won't have to necessarily follow/enforce a country's laws but the ones they themselves make or chose .
If I recall, it's generally a point of contention amongst the Skybreakers whether "become the law" means "rise above it and establish an ideal form of it" or "follow all of it to the letter." I actually think both to some extent inform the judicial understanding of Skybreakers--I'm American, so I think of living document vs strict originalist philosophies for dealing with constitutional law. Justices who believe either should enforce the law to the best of their ability, but they'll apply the law in different ways depending on how literal they're being and how much they're thinking about the moral consequences of the precedent they're setting for the future.
@@AllisonPaley yeah. Hopefully we will get a clarification on the what 5th ideal is exactly, given that it is going to be Szeth's book. Also, the whole 4th ideal of Crusade is a big freaking red flag if I have ever seen one. None of this helped by the fact that we don't exactly know how the Skybreakers worked pre-Recreance.
@@AllisonPaley I think the trajectory of the ideals points to the 5th ideal Skybreakers becoming lawmakers. With just the 2nd ideal the Radiant has no morality of his own, he can only enforce laws as they are written. The third ideal offers his first real choice of system of morality, but it is still external, be it a philosophy or a person. For the 4th ideal the radiant sets his own quest and his or her spren becomes the judge of whether or not the goal has been achieved. The Skybreaker is now allowed to enact his own morality on the world, if only just in a specific aspect of it. And once the 5th ideal is sworn the Radiant is now capable of changing the law as a judge or lawmaker in his own right.
@@AllisonPaley can you make another video please? i need more cosmere knowledge :)
That always rubbed me the wrong way. Honestly all the Skybreaker Ideals we've seen so far seem pretty wishy-washy. Everything seems to be "I'll follow this particular code... until I disagree with it" and that feels like the entire opposite point of being a Skybreaker. Like, they're supposed to be saying, I can't trust my own judgement, that's why I'm obeying a higher authority. If you just stop any time you disagree with it, what's the point?
And I really hope "I am the Law" doesn't just mean, I'm now innately moral enough and I can just do absolutely anything I want. I mean Nale has sworn that Oath and he still can only kill people by following the proper procedures, so I have hope that that's not what it means.
Also love seeing a take on Stormlight that understands that self-improvment and self-reflection dosen;t exactly excuse war crimes and genocide
Reminds me of the short where it's japan acting all "kawaii" and someone is trying to get them to acknowledge their actions. Just makes the thought of wok dalinar interacting with the high princes even funnier in hindsight
I always love thematic analysis of starlight. There is not enough of it, at least that I am aware of.
Stormlight. Spellcheck's fault.
Arrived from the Cosmere Basics video and this one is just as good.
You have a really incredible talent of explaining your points in a digestible, easy to understand way.
Really hope you get more attention, because for the quality of your videos, you are criminally unknown.
This is a very well-argued video. Surprised it doesn't have more views. Good work
A very nuanced take on the orders of the knights radiant and their place in society. I think many of these problem were nonexistent during the days of the desolations, because there was basically constant war and nobody could focus on ways to improve society. I would figure these problems startet cropping up after the recreance.
This is ridiculously good analysis. More please. Breakdown some character’s morality
This is a really excellent video, I would love to see your analysis of how the Edgedancers fit into all of this. They don't share a surge, but they absolutely do have oaths relating to remembering the little guy in a way that no one except maybe Windrunners understand.
Great video! Your point about Jasah being the most moral character is especially interesting. When thinking of her morality I think mostly of Jasnah and Kaladin in Oathbringer during the strategic planning meeting (chapter 39). While reading it, I sided more with Kaladin, but in real life my morality lines up much more closely with Jasnah's. Brandon has said Jasnah is not exactly utilitarian, which is what I consider myself to be, but she seems very close, more than willing to commit genocide or condemn someone to eternal torture if she believes it will do more harm than good. I suspect part of the reason I so readily sided with Kaladin is because I was unable to completely detach myself from the knowledge of the fictionality of the situation, and thus believed a "happy" ending was somewhat inevitable so such extreme sacrifices for the "greater good" were not necessary. Also, Kaladin is just my boy. However, to make a legitimate point out of this, I think my meta-textual belief that everything would work out highlights that Jasnah's utilitarian philosophy limits the total goodness (or utility) possible of the outcome. Kaladin's more optimistic view that war and death could be avoided because he felt a connection to the Parshmen, if enacted into strategy, would have a much higher ceiling for possible goodness than Jasnah's genocide/war, but also a lower probability of producing a good outcome (good in this sentence again being used in the utilitarian sense). Jasnah's philosophy presupposes knowledge of the future, which, to be fair to her, she has spent her life trying to achieve, but her knowledge will never be perfect. I suppose this is another example of multiple types of morality being required: Kaladin's optimism can mix with Jasnah's practicality to create a solution with room for upside in the messiness of the future.
i don't know how hard it would be but i would love for you to do something similar to the rest of the orders cus this is fascinating
Regarding 7:45 fragment - well, unnecessary and unprovoked Regicide during signing of a peace treaty may bring peoples to their (genocidal) extremes. Also, he just swore to protect those who could not protect themselves, and in that precise situation that WAS the Kholin forces in general and Dalinar/Adolin in particular, not the Parshendi.
Yes. The reason why fights alongside Dalinar is because he swore to protect Dalinar and the little guy who needs protection. Kaladin chose to be on Dalinar's side because he felt that was the way to protect Bridge 4 (and other bridge crews). He doesn't directly fight Parshendi in WoR, only Szeth who came to kill Dalinar. In OB again, he doesn't kill the singers who he could have killed very easily. In Kholinar he fights to protects a city under siege, and to rescue people trapped in the palace. He fights Amaram and the Fused to protect Dalinar and a city under attack. So there you have it. (Even in RoW, he fights only to protect. He doesn't really care about some great war or generational conflict. That's not his prerogative.)
@MrKenilles I wanted to take a little time to think about this one, because I have complicated feelings about it and wanted to articulate well? I think I'm there now, so. Here's my thoughts and you can tell me if you think I'm full of it?
Re: Regicide - I agree an unnecessary and unprovoked regicide absolutely should be followed by a swift and harsh response. It needs to--you can't look weak, other people will get ideas! That one's basic power politics. However, there is an important distinction between retaliating against a foreign government and wiping out a nation or people in their entirety. The former is justified. A war may be justified. But genocide is not. Wiping out another people is not. Dalinar himself lamented that they didn't do more to pursue other courses of action at the same time as he was trying to gather the highprinces to finish the war once and for all. Even as he was aware his action was disproportionate and tragic, uniting his people was still worth it.
Re: Kaladin - In the first moment when he saved Dalinar, I agree. I don't want that concession dampened by what I'm about to go on and say, that's a really good catch.
I DO think his behavior AFTER he's saved Dalinar is indicative of exactly the idea I brought up later about Windrunners being kinda shit at big picture morality. Kaladin takes a job and consistently places himself in positions where the people in his immediate viscinity who will need defense will be a) Bridge Four and b) the Kholins. He doesn't really think about the big picture or the fact that he's defending the aristocracy as opposed to the people being genocided on the plains. He's not gunning for power that would let him defend the oppressed of his own society at large, in fact he's deeply uncomfortable and throws it away every time it lands in his lap. Kaladin absolutely FOLLOWS his oath to protect those who can't protect themselves, I don't want to say he fails at that at all! But I think the way he thinks about the world limits his ability to think about that in a bigger picture sense, beyond his specific people and specific situation.
Your point does also bring up the weird friggin question of whether a Windrunner is always obligated to side with the losing side of any martial conflict, which is... janky enough that I don't even know it's a useful question, but there is SOMETHING there in terms of people choosing their priorities?
Anyway. None of this should be taken as me disliking Kaladin. I love Kaladin! As I say in the video, it's really important to have a Kaladin who can look out for you specifically when you're in the shit. I think most of the Kaladins of the world are really admirable people! Kal just isn't well suited to addressing big picture morality.
Sorry for the text wall, I hope that all makes sense, and let me know if you think I'm off base with any of this!
@Ashlin Mario Hopefully my other response covers some of this--I don't think we're actually disagreeing with one another? I agree Kal picks his battles to protect the people he cares about, and in general I agree that's a good thing. I do think he makes choices about who to care about, and I think making those choices without considering the broader picture is a moral failing, but like. All moral codes have moral failings. I just spent a whole video talking about how three very valid and important kinds of morality need each other around to cover for one another's moral failings. So. Yes! Agreed! Kaladin is not breaking his oaths! He's just not applying them on a big picture scale.
@@AllisonPaley As far as the Parshendi being wiped out. I don't think Dalinar really wanted them to be 100% wiped out. When Rlain came back, that's the only point when he decided to wipe them (stormforms) all out, because he figured that these were the Void bringers and not the common listeners they were fighting previously (according to Rlain's report). He also tells Rlain iirc, that he would protect any non combatants if he did find them. The way I see it the original mission wasn't about genociding them but rather attacking their base to make them capitulate and surrender. He really wanted the war to end and also try and figure out why they killed Gavilar, because they didn't really give them a proper reason at all.
Another caveat to this is that, the Alethi never really saw the Parshendi as people, they considered them as savages not much better than parshmen. So to them it was like going on a hunt, they never really bothered to think about whether their attempts to kill them would even qualify as genocide. I think that speaks more to just Alethi culture and not necessarily any particular order of Radiants (kind of like how a lot of native peoples were eliminated during the days of colonialism). Also, the Stormfather was asked by Honor to simply pass on the visions. It doesn't necessarily mean that Gavilar was a budding Radiant. Even with Dalinar he wasn't really planning on bonding with him and did so only begrudgingly.
About Kaladin, the whole situation from when he arrives has gone completely tits up. And the immediate threat at hand to deal with was Szeth. So I don't think there was much in the way to think about picking sides there anyway. As far as killing the Parshendi goes, he brings it up with Syl as well. From what I could gauge from Syl's response, it seems like the Honorspren instinctively don't like the singers for historical reasons, and they see to it that the Windrunners also do the same. That being said Kaladin still questions her, that their ideals are just a matter of perception and nothing more. And for the most part he has retained his stance, he almost always avoids fighting and killing common Singers. Instead we have seen him helping them, aka the third ideal.
Kaladin (and I guess the Windrunners and seemingly even the Heavenly Ones on the Fused side) care more about the immediate stuff. They aren't into digging up the past, but dealing with the present and what's in front of them. Which honestly is the best take of them all. Dredging up the past all the time isn't benefiting anyone right now to be honest. Protect what you can have and move forward. The so called big picture of justice and morality has only perpetuated the conflict and has done nothing to solve it. For the ones who care about the big picture, are either dead or have gone mad over the centuries. Amidst all this craziness the common folk suffer and the Windrunners (perhaps even Edgedancers, Willshapers, & Stonewards but that's off topic) are the only ones who care about helping them.
@@Haxerous I'd need to go get the book and go back through it to find each of these scenes individually, which I won't be able to do for the next couple weeks. I may return later, but for the time being I lack textual evidence to debate your points and will concede most of them (though "Kaladin is better at inclusive morality than most people" is also a thing I think we agree on already?) unless you hear from me again in a couple weeks.
That being said, the one thing I think I want to debate is the idea that "big picture morality" is "dredging up the past"--It is not. I, too, believe that killing each other forever over past wrongs is bad. However, "the Parshendi are being pushed to the brink of extinction by your government, maybe push your aristocrats to knock it off or actively step in" and "most of your society is made out of an oppressed underclass, maybe accept the power people keep trying to give you so that you have the power to work against that without someone quietly murdering you" are both choices that are based in big picture morality. See the big picture, understand its implications, do uncomfortable things now so you can change it and make it better for a larger number of people. That's what big picture morality is. It's the one Jasnah tries to do all the time (and to be clear--she makes mistakes, including big ones, but at least she tries very hard all the time).
It's really important to me that we understand "big picture morality" as the question of "what accomplishes our definition of moral good for the largest number of people" and not as "that icky mire of stuff that complicates the lives of good, honest people" because I think it's of paramount importance that we ask anyone with power to think mostly in those terms and don't get mad at them when they do.
Thank you for talking, as is the general vibe, feel free to clarify if I've misinterpreted you. Also as is the general vibe, I like analyzing and finding the flaws in things I like, please don't interpret any of this as disliking Kal/Dalinar/etc.
I've always had this problem with other fans of the series that people mistake honor for morality, and fail to see the problems with both the intent of Honor (and Cultivation to a lesser extent) and the moral systems that are associated with this intent. The Journey Before Destination mind set means that results are devalued compared to the process, and all three orders you mentioned suffer from this. There is a difference between protecting people and making sure they are safe, between applying the law and establishing justice, between uniting society and making that society good. Even if all the orders worked together, the oaths themselves do not have all the ingredients for a utopian civilization because they only have 1/8th of a god informing those oaths.
These videos are great. I love how you take concepts from the book and then apply them to real world examples. Very well done!
Just watched two of your Cosmere videos + they’re SO GOOD. This should have so many more views.
I love your voice and the way you present stuff is so relaxed and chill.
Please come back and make more videos. I just found your cosmere basics video.. now this one.. I could listen to these all day. Very well though out. Youre on another level here.
I really like your analysis, definitely something I love about the knights radiant is how is not only like the "what main characteristics you like" trope that is so common in ya novels, but is a source of conflict within each character nature, their ideals tho summarized are intertwined and that allow for interpretation
I'm astounded at the depth of thought that you put into what is essentially a world and society that only exists entirely in Sanderson's head.
Dalinar wanted to talk to eshonia though we also aren't sure what gavilar was doing exactly either
I really love your videos on the Cosmere! I hope you keep making videos!
This was so amazingly brilliant, thank you very much. I've never seen such deep thoughts about radiant orders and their ideals
Wait, what, I just watched this awesome video then went to your channel and this is the last upload. :(
Unfortunately I have acquired health problems, so at least in the near future more videos aren't in the cards. But I do want to do video again at some point. We will just have to see see if health ever allows it.
@@AllisonPaley oh, I am sorry. I wish you well. Thank you for the great video and I hope you get healthy enough to start again.
I'm not even halfway through but I'm super impressed with your analysis.
Very good thought out video, I thoroughly enjoyed this! ☺️
Super cool video, I hope you keep making content because I can't wait to hear what else you have to say!
Really appreciate this analysis. Very well thought out and articulated.
Please keep making these videos. Love the content!
Really enjoyed your Cosmere Basics video and was not disappointed with this video. You should do more... if you want.
I definitely will! Just got back from another state and getting working on the next big one now!
This new found knowledge will be perfect in building my army, and learning the possible sects capabilities.
You shall be greatly rewarded upon success.
YOU'RE FRICKING AWESOME! Keep making videos :)
I know that this an old video, but I love it. Excellent and insightful analysis.
This was super interesting. I would love more videos
Loved your point of view. Great video ☺️
Good info and great video!
Great video. Please make more. Not a lot of stormlight archive content out there.
That was a really awesome perspective. Do the light weavers next 😆
Amazing video. Thank you very much!
This is a great video. Do you have any plans to come back because I really want more intellectual discussions of the cosmere
Nicely done video and a great comparison between the three groups. Personally I've always felt a bit uneasy about bondsmiths as they seem more likely to fall into these problems than these others seeing as they can only have 3 at a time, not to mention that their own goal and the abilities we've seen them display means that they're pretty much always going to come from or rise to a high position of power.
I do however wonder to what extent some of the other types of radiants have in keeping the balance of the orders. Especially when you have the willshapers(focus on freedom) and edgedancers (focus on remembering the overlooked).
Great video.
One of the biggest issues when people are talking about the Skybreakers (especially so when they're arguing against them) is that the only real notions we have about them come from the time after the recreance that which Nale is leading them.
If a Herald who, like all the other ones, has shifted into a state where he's the antithesis of who he once was is leading an Order of Radiants, I'm not so certain that it sets the best precedent. Given how wishy-washy the Oaths are and just how strange the bonding process is, I'm not entirely certain that the Skybreakers are following their oaths correctly. Every other Order we've seen has established a bond at the first oath rather than the third and it just seems like the modern Skybreakers are filling in forgotten and false oaths with squirehood to get past it.
This is a very good video. I'd be interested if you could do any analysis of the other groupings of Knights, though I think the others would be harder as we know arguably the most of the ones in this video.
Are you from Idaho by any chance? You have almost my exact accent. Excellent video!
Haha I am not! I'm from Northern California, I don't think I've ever been to Idaho. It's kinda cool to know the accents are similar though!
Good video.
MOAR PLEASE!!!
5th ideal of the Skybreakers,
Judge Dredd personified.
"I AM the LAW."
Amazing
I hope you have more cosmere videos in the works
One bit I think you miss with Kaladin and Elhokar; a big part of is it, Kaladin had specifically given his oath to protect Elhokar. So agreeing with the assassination plan was a betrayal of that.
Yes, a large part of Windrunner honor is to protect people who need to be protected. But that's not all of it, and at least in Kaladin's case, he believes he besmirches his honor if he betrays a promise. And that's a thing he was doing.
You're overall making it sound like you think Kaladin was mostly justified in trying to kill Elhokar... but the whole point of the book is, he wasn't. Long before it came time to actually do it, even well before he fell into the chasm and formally lost his Bond, it was weakening, because this was not acceptable.
good video :)
Switch out the stormlight fantasy titles and you could swap this in at any college leadership symposium! Well done.
Wow great video, sadly the last but really good video
Sky breakers in the right like a few books back when singers weren't just odium pawns. I get that it seems very late to the party
Bondsmiths: I think you're generalizing a bit based on one example. I think that the Stormsmith and the Nightsmith, for example, will have wildly different ideas about how to bring "unity". And I also think it'll turn out that Dalinar isn't necessarily exactly like what previous Stormsmiths might have been.
Seems almost like:
Windrunners: Spirit of the law
Skybreakers: Letter of the law
Bondsmiths: The mediating force of the two to a grand scale
The emotionally-derived morality is a very dangerous idea.
Great video! Can you plese make a video about your thought on the epilouge of RoW (it still hunts me)
Unfortunately I felt pretty substantively failed by the A plot of RoW to the point that I've somewhat lost faith that the story is going to handle the themes it's tackling in ways that don't make me feel kind of icky. I've thought about making a video about *that,* but I don't really want to be a killjoy, so. Unless I like book 5 a lot, what you've seen is probably it from me on Stormlight. I don't regret the projects I've done, but I don't foresee making more.
@@AllisonPaley ok, thank you for your reply😊
Rlain is the best (as in character concept and as in good person) main(ish) character in Stormlight period. And i hate seeing him criminally underused
Where did you go??? Why aren’t you making more videos?
Your mind is really attractive
+1 suscribe
Jasnah and Relaine?
Don't know what happened to her but I hope she comes back.
I'm still alive, I just got hand problems pretty bad. Maybe I will come back someday if I can fix that and have a good video idea.
Jasnah is the most honorable. I was shook whenever Dalinar was so upset with Jasnah for wanting to end chattel slavery.
Like, excuse me sir? Give me a real legitimate reason why slavery should still be legal that doesn't make you sound like a tyrant. I'll wait.
I blame elhokar on the vengeance pact he wanted genocide, all dalinar did was like we already doing this if we get this done we can get out of here
RoW spoilers: I acknowledge that the Vengeance Pact was a genocide of both Listeners and Chasm Fiends. However I can think of three Fused who have voiced their intention to commit genocide on humanity. First is the Fused Moash spoke with when he said they needed to enslave humans to farm. The Fused said he disagreed and thinks Singers will never be safe while once human lives on Roshar. Second is Raboniel who not only supports genocide now but actively tried during the last Desolation. And finally the mysterious Fused leader who killed The Defeated One spoke of genocide. The humans are not the genocidal aggressors anymore.
I wouldn't call Vyre 1.0 (that was his name before he lost it and became Moash's sloppy seconds) A leader considering his status
Didn't Jasnah berate Kaladin when he tried to speak on behalf of Khen and the parsh? I'm down with Rlain but not Jasnah. That's not a very wide net she casted
She's literally the only person in the entire series (other than Wit) who is currently advocating the abolishment of slavery.
She's also the only person advocating the abolishment of monarchy.
Not even Kaladin has voiced either of those opinions.
Kaladin cares about stopping the suffering he sees. Jasnah cares about stopping all potential suffering the current system has the potential to inflict.
Sometimes, you need to allow some temporary suffering to alleviate greater suffering in the future. Revolutions are rarely bloodless.
@@Ruminations09 Jasnah is willing to assassinate to get what she wants done. So.... I don’t think she is as honorable as Rlain. Yes she wants to change things and do the right thing and strives to do so, but her problem is that she is willing to do the morally questionable thing rather than the strictly honorable thing. I love her as a character, but cannot say she is the most honorable.
@@adeyemioyemade1631 I think the alley scene with Jasnah shows just how messed up her morality can be and her scheming and manipulating people to orchestrate scenarios where she in the right
Definitely an ap Gov student
Kaladin didn't think it was right he thought that it was a necessary evil there's a difference
Thanks so much!
Sooo...
Windrunners are Chaotic Good.
Skybreakers are Lawful Good.
Bondsmiths are Neutral Good.
🧚🏻♀️
Does that sound right? I’m not really a D&D player.
Haha, I mean I think they're all different versions of Lawful Good, which is why comparing the ways is interesting. Lots of different ways to be lawful! Lightweavers feel much more the chaotic good end of things and, funny enough, they're directly opposite Windrunners on the fun Radiant Order wheel!
@@AllisonPaley What about Edgedancers? Do you think they qualify as chaotic good or neutral good?
Each of the Radiant Orders serves as a vital role in society. The Windrunner mindset is that of a King. The Windrunner must be an active leader, able to give orders and lead people. As part of this, it is assumed they are of an upstanding character to be abel to give good orders and not betray those who follow them.
The Skybreaker is the Judge. The Judge must be able to lay aside personal morality and simply enforce the social order as it is. Other people have the duty to ensure the Law as it stands is moral, but the Skybreaker cannot be the one to do that. They simply enforce the law.
The Bondsmith is the Priest, and is the moral compass for the other Orders. The Bondsmith is a mystic of sorts, and should be able to provide guidance to the King who makes the laws that the Judge then enforces.
A Stoneward is obviously the Soldier, more so than the Windrunner.
Willshapers are difficult to pin down in an archetypal title that fits appropriately. The Liberator doesn't quite work, but is the closest I can think of.
The Elsecaller is the Scholar. The Scholar differs from the Philosopher (Truthwatcher) in that the Elsecaller is interested in material knowledge whereas the Philosopher is concerned with Spiritual Truth).
The Lightweaver is the Artist. Not necessarily limited to traditional arts like sculpture, drawing, or music, but any discipline of self expression that requires great degrees of skill to master, the Artist provides Spiritual healing to complement what the Healer (Edgedancer) does for the body.
The Truthwatcher is the Philosopher, dealing with the complex questions of Truth and morality. The Philosopher might find himself at odds with the Priest, due to the similarities between their interests, but the different nature of their foci. The Philosopher would often have grand ideas to govern society by, but the priest would see the impossibility of a utopian idea and the two would naturally come to odds.
The Edgedancer is simultaneously the Healer and the Advocate, the one who deals with the consequences of the King's orders. The Healer must repair the people who will always get broken by the King's orders, and Advocate for the common man.
Dustbringers are not well known enough to fit in an archetype well, but from the little information there is, I'd guess their role would be the Executioner or some other similarly rigidly controlled force of destruction.
I kind of dislike this kind of archetypal thinking because I feel like it undermines our ability to think critically about things? You say for example that the Windrunner mindset is that of a king, but is it? What do we think goes into being a good king? Each Radiant order has its own set of values, and we can look at those values and decide what social roles we think they apply well to, but claiming that each has a pre-set social role makes it harder to discuss what their values mean when given different roles.
I personally think Windrunner morality would make for a dumpster fire of a king or president or any other executive power! You can disagree with me if Windrunner values are the ones you want your governmental leaders to have! But I do think we should be thinking about Radiant orders as being about values instead of specific duties. It both feels more accurate (especially since a million Windrunners are not all going to be kings at once) and invites more interesting discussion.
@@AllisonPaley Not necessarily arquetypes but a similar idea is the lynchpin of the entire video, the belief that they serve specific roles in a society, which from waht I undestand you set as Windrunner-Activist, Bondsmith-Leader and Skybreaker-Judge
Fantastic video BTW, I would love to see more from you :)
This is a really awesome breakdown of the honor themes we see explored throughout!! HOWEVER, Jasnah stabbing that dude in the throat was pretty, uhh,,,not honorable and abusive of her powers imo, not a good look for sure
I'm a big proponent of leaders primarily looking at big picture outcome based ethics, which Jasnah is consistently the voice of in Stormlight. A truer utilitarian as opposed to Taravangian's weird self centered version of the philosophy. Definitely not going to call her morally unimpeachable and perfect though. No one is, and more power means more severe consequences when you fuck up.
@@AllisonPaley I highly expect if we see the Sky breakers fall more inline with their expected less corrupt role that Jasnah may have some explaining to do, but she certainly is still the most progressive big picture player. Maybe it's Hoids fault she's down for the torture.
:)
why did you stop making videos 😭
Nasty repetitive strain injury stuff which I'm currently getting help fixing. If I ever fully get better I may return, but right now writing scripts and editing video is a cool fast track to pain.
@@AllisonPaley Sorry that had to happen to you. Hope you get well soon, take care.
Why aren't you making new videos?
RSI problems, mostly. I haven't been drawing much lately either for the same reason.
But the Windrunner oath is to protect "those who cannot protect themselves". Not to protect people in general. To kill as a Windrunner you do not need to identify your enemy as not human. It is enough to see them as bad and aggressive.
Correct, but the less you identify your enemy as human easier it is to see them as bad and the more you can categorize all problematic behavior as behavior worth killing over. Dehumanization excuses you from needing to think about how aggression may stem from unmet needs or systems of oppression and allows you to go to quicker, easier, more violent solutions. Non-people certainly don't need consideration as a "who" that might not be able to protect themselves.
This also kinda ends up in the "is a Windrunner is always obligated to side with the losing side of any martial conflict" territory. Like. Objectively that's always eventually gonna be "those who cannot protect themselves" but there's clearly more to it. Values do clearly play a role in the uneven application of protection.
Skybreakers derive their morality from the law, but not any equalitarian. If the laws says "X race is our slave race", then Skybreakers will enforce that. After all, who are they to doubt the law?
As for the Bondsmiths - this is why it's important they listen to Edgedancers. And at the very least give due consideration to what they say.
Taking the actions from one person to judge a whole group?
Like taking Elokhar and saying that all humans are bad? Not smart. :)
This is science not law bro.