On when they run after Kaladin's lashing, it's possible they freak out because they pass down stories or legends about the radiants.
I agree. But the question is, do they act from fear, honor, reverence? At first they try to fight him, but then they just leave him be. Out of respect for his skills? Maybe. But what's with the chant then?
If they were voidbringers and evil beings, why wouldn't they try and kill him right then and there?
I'm still gonna go with fear just because if it was honor or reverence then why would they have let all of the other Parshendi attack him? If they were consciously saying that they didn't want to attack him, then they would at least try to tell the other guys not to attack him either. Versus, running out of fear fits because even bad guys feel fear, and it also can fit with the chant because they seem to just chant related to whatever they're doing; if it's the first time they feel fear in the battle, then it would make sense for it to be a new chant they weren't singing before.
The talking before death thing is because the Everdesolation or whatever (you know what I'm talking about, I hope) is about to come.
Yes. But Taravangian (and likely Jasnah) will link the coming of these occurrences with the meeting with the Parshendi. And likely they are linked... but in what way? Does the meeting signify that a war will come, or is the clashing of the two cultures a form of weakening the people that would stand against the voidbringers, or is it because Gavilar found that stone (perhaps he stole it from them?), or is it just coincidence?
The fact that there is overwhelming evidence for the Parshendi/Parshmen being the voidbringers, and the fact that the meeting of the two coincide with the onset of the Everstorm... it just seems fishy. Either there's some sort of major twist coming, or the Parshendi aren't the true threat of the voidbringers. I mean, all that evidence in book one feels way too convenient to me.
Yeah once I get my book back I'm definitely gonna go back and reread those chapter intros. I was thinking just something like supernatural stuff starts going crazy when the Everstorm is here.
More importantly, though, the question of Parshendi v voidbringer does keep coming up. However, the "We didn't kill them, we enslaved them," or whatever Jasnah said was so styled like a big reveal that it has to be at least pretty true. Also, the evidence is huge when you know about it, but I didn't really see it coming so you might have just got it faster than everyone.
The one thing that doesn't seem to match up, though, is that in that vision with (Nomahodon?) Dalinar is told that they are "never ready for it." This doesn't seem to make sense at all; if it is one enemy, and you've got like a thousand years in between to prepare, then how much more do you need to be ready? It's possible that they always wait until humanity begins to forget about them and then strike, but that doesn't make sense because the Knights Radiant stay there the whole time. I was thinking maybe like there different types of voidbringers attacking each time, or maybe different slaves rise up and betray them each time, but that's total speculation.
The main thing that really doesn't seem to add up with this, though, is that the Parshendi really aren't that strong. Fighting out on the plains, it's like, probably tilted in the Alethi favor. Unless they just come in like massive numbers, it seems either the Thunderclasts or some other species would have to be the main threat, or the Parshmen would have to be much more deadly than Parshendi, or when they really want to fight they must just be like way stronger.
It seemed like Parshendi were just Parshmen after they got set off.
I'm not sure what you mean by this.
I meant that, as I read it originally, there was something (i.e. command from Odium) that would launch Parshmen into attack mode, and this had just been applied to the Parshendi and not the Parshmen.
assassinating Gavilar didn't help the unification effort at all
-if anything, they are acting perfectly to prevent unification, because if the highprinces were at home then Dalinar could be conquering and Elhokar could be taking over, versus on the plains they stayed in the state of disarray for 6 years.
Maybe. But consider that Gavilar was the only one who believed in the Codes at the time. He would not have lasted long as king (and he didn't, now did he?). And Dalinar at the time thought that unity could come from conquering. I could go on, but for now let me just say that no, I don't think there's really any chance that there would have been unity with Gavilar on the throne. However, killing the new king and thus FORCING all the highprinces to go to war? Hm.
I'm not saying it makes much sense, I'm just trying to find a way to make the oddities of the Parshendi make some sort of sense. They're definitely not what they seem, and it just feels too easy to label them as voidbringers. I mean, the evidence is overwhelming, and I can't see how it's wrong at this point, but... I don't know. Sanderson is a tricky guy, and this smacks of trickery to me.
I think I'm going to have to disagree because Dalinar is presented as a total military expert, and when he is commenting on Elhokar's performance as king he points out that the kingdom is in the most dangerous phase of it's development, where the strong king around which the princes can unite is dead, and the kingdom is at its most vulnerable because it's all up to the second in line. Gavilar and Dalinar were the super combo that united all the Alethi highprinces and still had plenty of momentum left, and if BWS was going to take the angle that Gavilar wouldn't have been able to hold it together, then this line would have definitely been given to a character who wasn't an expert on it, if not removed entirely.
Although, definitely no argument on Sanderson being a tricky guy :p
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