Heavy Spoilers for Oathbringer, third book of The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Tread lightly if you’re currently reading that series, otherwise maybe this post will persuade you to give it a try!
What does it mean to be a good person? Why does progress so often feel torturous? Can there be such a thing as forgiveness in today’s world?
Brandon Sanderson (a fantasy author I love) is known for his skill and speed at writing, his odd ability to write great queer subtext - if only unintentionally - and the ‘Sanderson Avalanche’: his books take time to build momentum before culminating in astonishing fashion, often with different narrative arcs coming together for the first time.
There are many great examples - The Way of Kings is perhaps the most emotional for me - but the ending of Oathbringer stands in a league of its own for its stakes and the lessons that can be taken away from it.
Dalinar amidst the Sanderson Avalanche, by Rixt Heerschop
I won’t try to do justice to Dalinar’s story in Oathbringer (a 454,440 word-long book, and third of a planned 10 book series), but hopefully this will help:
Dalinar is a deeply troubled man who has spent the novel recovering memories of his past as a violent drunk, a failed father, and a literal war criminal. There was some outside influence, enabling and pushing him to drown out his pain with vice and violence, but the decisions were his own. He is also - wait for it - the de facto leader of the protagonists in the current day, and has spent years pushing for Honour and empathy in his corrupt, war-centered society.
The climax of Oathbringer sees the heroes facing overwhelming odds on multiple fronts. The enemy - led by a ‘god’ named Odium - is utterly prepared for them, and Dalinar is to be the coup de grace. Odium has planned to return all of Dalinar’s shameful, disturbing memories to him at once: breaking him utterly before offering to take on Dalinar’s pain in exchange for numb servitude.
Suffice to say, that would have been the game; for the heroes, their families, their cities, countries, and world. Sanderson’s Cosmere novels are interconnected, meaning that the beloved worlds of Elantris and Mistborn could also have to eventually contend with a victorious Odium and his Dalinar-led armies.
Dalinar summoning his shardblade - by Randy Vargas
But as I mentioned earlier, Dalinar was gradually recovering his memories and had been allowed to process and grow (some gods are a little subtler than the one defined by passion and hate).
“I will take responsibility for what I have done", Dalinar whispered. "If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.”
How many times have we all been there? It is fucking tough to accept responsibility for even small things, compared to the ease of escaping our pain.
“A journey will have pain and failure. It is not only the steps forward that we must accept. It is the stumbles. The trials. The knowledge that we will fail. That we will hurt those around us. But if we stop, if we accept the person we are when we fail, the journey ends. That failure becomes our destination.”
The Stormlight Archive is about a lot of deeply broken people. It’s meaningful that part of their first step to redemption are the words: ‘’Journey before Destination.’ The path to our goals will always be more meaningful than the end result - and exponentially so if we resign ourselves to failure.
“Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing.”
Another bombshell in our ‘one-strike-and-out’ culture. Oathbringer depicts a literal war criminal trying his best to atone for his past actions, and saving the universe on the back of his moral convictions. Granted, true remorse can be hard to come by in our world - and most of our war criminals never got a lick of punishment.
Dalinar on the edge, by Tara Spruit
“But merely being tradition does not make something worthy, Kadash. We can’t just assume that because something is old it is right.”
This quote comes from earlier in the novel than the rest, but I think it fits in its own way. Having fostered change and growth within himself, Dalinar spends the first four books of the series encouraging the same in the people and systems around him. Another simple yet necessary lesson for our world, too.
“The most important step a man can take. It's not the first one, is it? It's the next one.”
One of my favourite morals from all the fiction I’ve read. Relevant to my struggles with both anxiety and ADHD and reminiscent of another favourite quote of mine, it feels like a fundamentally helpful way to approach life.
“The most important words a man can say are, ‘I will do better.’”
Together, these quotes present a thesis statement for Dalinar’s character and even The Stormlight Archive up to this point. In Oathbringer, this was enough to win the day in truly awesome fashion. In the upcoming fifth book Wind and Truth, I imagine these moral principles will prove ineffective when faced with overwhelming societal and cosmic corruption.
Official artwork by Petar Penev of Dalinar in Stormlight 5: Wind and Truth
After all, you and I focusing on being better people won’t change the state of the world.
But maybe it’s a step in the right direction; and the next step is the most important one we can take.
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