Lyn: Oh my storms, Cosmere Chickens… we’ve come to it at last. The chapter we’ve all been dreading. (Warning: Spoilers!)
Yes… that’s right. Teft’s death.
Paige: The moment that, for some, was the final act of Moash’s villainy they could stand. Many in the fandom hated Moash as soon as he tried to kill Kaladin in Words of Radiance, but there were some who despite that, despite Elhokar’s death, and despite Jezrien’s death, still held out hope that Moash would be redeemable. Teft’s death changed that for some.
L: I’d go so far as to say that this changed that for most of the remaining holdouts. For me, it was when he made the decision to try to drive Kal to suicide. But let’s delve into his villainy below, shall we? (And then take long showers to rinse all the crem off our souls.)
Reminder: We’ll be discussing spoilers for the entirety of the series up until now. If you haven’t read ALL of the published entries of The Stormlight Archive (this includes Edgedancer and Dawnshard as well as the entirety of Rhythm of War), best to wait to join us until you’re done.
You are safe from Cosmere spoilers in this chapter of the reread.
Heralds:
- Chana, (Chanarach), Herald of the Common Man. Dustbringers (Division, Abrasion). Brave/Obedient. Role: Guard.
- Nalan (Nale), Herald of Justice. Skybreakers (Gravitation, Division). Just/Confident. Role: Judge.
L: It seems pretty obvious that Chana is representative of Teft; the common man, the brave guard. And of course, that makes Nalan Moash, who believes that he’s bringing justice and peace to the world.
Icon: Bridge Four.
Epigraph:
Humans are a poem. A song.
—Musings of El, on the first of the Final Ten Days
Chapter Recap
WHO: Rlain, Kaladin, Venli, Teft
WHEN: 1175.4.10.4
WHERE: Urithiru (still)
(Note: For the “when” notations, we are using this wonderful timeline provided by the folks at The 17th Shard.)
RECAP: On their way down to find The Sibling, Rlain and Dabbid are intercepted by a group of singer guards and brought to check if they’re allowed to bring water to prisoners. Meanwhile, Kaladin delivers one heck of a speech to an increasingly panicked Pursuer while Venli attempts to figure out how to help him. Teft has a stand-off with Moash over the surviving Radiants, but Moash kills Phendorana… and then Teft himself.
Chapter Chat — Death
L: I have to say… what rotten timing this is, that I have to work on this chapter the day after unexpectedly losing a friend who was only 33 years old…::deep, shuddering sigh:: I suppose it will make the events therein all the more relatable. If I should seem to be more emotionally invested than I should be in this article, this is why.
P: Our deepest condolences on your loss, my friend. May he shelter in the Creator’s palm; the last embrace of the mother welcome him home.
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The Lost Metal
L: He would have loved that sentiment. Though as a Discworld fan, he probably had a much funnier mental image of Death, one that SPEAKS ALL IN CAPS LOCK!
“You’ve never faced death.” …
“I’ve faced it every day of my life!” Kaladin shouted, rolling on top of the Fused. “You wonder why I don’t fear you? I’ve lived with the knowledge that death is hounding me. You’re nothing new.” …
“But I’m something you have never known,” Kaladin shouted, slamming the Pursuer down by his shoulders. “Thousands of years of life can’t prepare you for something you’ve never met before, Defeated One! It can’t prepare you for someone who does not fear you!” …
“I am death itself, Defeated One,” Kaladin said. “And I’ve finally caught up to you.”
L: Just putting this out here; Kaladin is the king of kickass stirring speeches. He’s not only inspiring all those who are watching, but bolstering his own confidence while simultaneously crushing his opponent’s. Masterful.
P: If you don’t get a shiver reading this scene, then you have some kind of a dead heart. The way Kaladin boosts his own confidence as he’s verbally destroying the Defeated One is inspiring. The way his boasting infuriates Lezian is such a great strategy. During the scene, he’s again becoming Highmarshal Kaladin Stormblessed, someone we haven’t seen since the rescue of Hearthstone. It does my sappy little heart such good to see Kaladin like this.
Moash, however, casually turned and slashed his Shardblade through the face of a Radiant beneath him. The unconscious woman’s eyes burned.
L: And that’s really all you need to see to know how monstrous he’s become. Killing not only an unarmed prisoner of war, but one who’s unconscious… pretty sure that’s considered a war crime (per the Geneva Conventions) in our world. I know that in battlefields in the past it was common practice to walk the field and kill the wounded, but that doesn’t make it morally right. Moash likes to posture and say that he’s got the moral high ground, but he keeps proving that false every time it’s put to the test.
P: He’s loathsome. Utterly beyond redemption in my mind, in my heart. As if what he did to Lift wasn’t enough? To get Teft to fight him he murders an unconscious woman and threatens Lift’s very life? A child? And some fans think he’s redeemable? I can’t wrap my mind around it.
“I’m not here for Kaladin, Teft,” Moash said softly. “And I’m not here for your surrender.”
L: Of course you’d hold to a “take no prisoners” approach, you…
P: …no good piece of crem. Trying to keep it PG but I always want to storming swear when I talk about this betrayer to Bridge Four’s ideals.
L: It’s ok, I’m your co-author now, and if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s being a bad influence in regards to swearing!
“But you know what?” Moash said, standing over him. “There was always a part of me that resented how you were so eager to follow him. Right from the start, his little axehound. Licking his feet. He loves you. I thought I’d have to use his father. But I am… satisfied to have found something better.”
“You are a monster,” Teft whispered.
L: Thank you, Teft, for saying it. Not only was Moash trying to push Kaladin to suicide… he was planning on using his own FAMILY, an innocent medical professional, in order to do so. Monster’s too light of a term for him.
P: Nothing’s too abhorrent for Moash to do to try to get Kaladin to kill himself. Nothing. And you know he wouldn’t have stopped at killing Kaladin’s father, he would have taken out the whole family without even blinking.
L: You’re not wrong, and I hate him all the more for it.
“I am no monster. I am merely silence. The quiet that eventually takes all men.”
L: You know… I do think that Moash believes that of himself. I think he’s told himself that long enough now that he can’t see the truth any longer. And this is what makes him such a great villain. The best villains are those who think their actions are 100% justified.
I still hate his guts though.
P: It’s a testament to Brandon’s writing that he’s skilled enough to create both characters we love and characters we hate with equal vehemence.
“Tell yourself that lie, Moash,” Teft growled, gripping the hand that held him, his own hand clawlike from the horrible pain. “But know this. You can kill me, but you can’t have what I have. You can never have it. Because I die knowing I’m loved.”
L: Storms yes, Teft. You let him have it. Not that I think that Moash will actually listen or be affected by it, of course, but you let him have it regardless.
P: No, Moash won’t be affected by it, but readers will be.
Confident, and somehow still full of hope, Teft died.
L: ::sigh:: On the one hand… should we all be so lucky as to pass from this world to the next full of hope. On the other, storm it, Moash. After all Teft had been through. He didn’t deserve to die.
P: He absolutely deserved to live. Rest well, Sergeant.
L: To borrow a beautiful phrase from another of my favorite books… May he find peace in the clearing at the end of the path.
Spren and Shadesmar
Teft leaped for her, howling, watching in horror as she shrank, writhing as Moash’s dagger pinned her to the floor. Her essence burned, flaring outward like an explosion. Something ripped inside Teft. Something deeper than his own heart. A part of his soul, his being, was torn away.
L: This one hurts so badly. Not only did Moash kill Teft, he tore away that incredibly strong connection first. If he destroyed Phendorana, which it certainly looks like he did, then that’s a permanent destruction. No peaceful transition of her soul from one plane to another. Not even a life spent in Shadesmar with scratched out eyes, wandering from place to place. No. Utter and complete destruction, body and soul. The monster.
P: Yes what he and, ultimately, Raboniel did to Phendorana is unconscionable.
Singers/Fused
“Let the human do that kind of work, friend. You are meant for greater things.” …
“Who assigned axehounds’ work to a singer?” she demanded. “Come with me. You strike an imposing figure in warform. I’ll teach you the sword. We’re recruiting for our squad.”
L: I mean… I get it. They’ve spent so long enslaved that it must be nice to turn the tables. Still… you’d think that they’d have learned how awful racism and slavery feel, and not buy into it themselves. And yet… here we are.
P: Here we are, indeed. The singers even let the Fused enslave them again.
“That’s what I realized about you, Defeated One.”
L: I love how Kaladin just straight-up renamed him. Paige pointed this out last week, but it bears repeating because good lord the balls on Kaladin.
P: It’s AMAZING! Kaladin went into this fight looking for blood and he got the first hit in the last chapter by renaming Lezian. And he just drives it in further and further. It’s glorious!
She found, as she searched, that she genuinely wanted to. Not because Timbre was pushing her, and not because this was merely the path she was on. But because of the songs of the stones. And the whispers of those who had come before her.
L: It’s about time Venli had her face turn.
P: And she grows ever closer to having her words accepted.
Humans
“Never known a man to turn traitor as hard as you did,” Teft called to Moash. “What was it that got you? What made you willing to kill your own?”
“Peace,” Moash said, halting in the middle of the room. “It was peace, Teft.”
L: Here we are again with Moash really believing he’s the good guy. Gods know people have done some terrible things in the name of peace. But it’s hard to see Moash’s aim as anything but posturing and attempts to justify his own monstrosity by any means possible.
P: He’s really put the blinders on his own eyes here. By giving his pain and his hate, his guilt and his love to Odium, by abandoning all emotion and completely dissociating, he truly thinks he’s in the right. He’s pathetic.
L: It would be sad if he weren’t so utterly loathsome.
Brilliant Buttresses
L: Hooboy. After that gut punch, I think we could all use a few chuckles. And thankfully Teft gave us a couple good zingers in this chapter to close out on…
“Every good sergeant is a coward! And proud of it! Someone needs to talk sense to the officers!”
“Fight me! I’ll show you who the better man is!”
Moash landed beside the body and walked straight toward Teft. “We both know who the better warrior is, Teft.”
“I didn’t say better warrior, you idiot,” Teft said.
P: Honor love you, Teft.
We’ll be leaving further speculation and discussion to you in the comments, and hope to join you there! Next week, we’ll be back with chapter 105, in which the battle for Urithiru continues (this is getting worse than a series arc of Dragonball Z).
Paige resides in New Mexico, of course. She very much misses baseball and is counting the days until Spring Training. Links to her other writing are available in her profile.
Lyndsey will miss her friend Joshua dearly. If you’d like to listen to some of his beautiful music or watch some silly videos, check out his TikTok here. He’d have loved nothing more than to bring a smile to some of your faces, and after this chapter, that may be much needed.
FYI, you missed Vedel in the chapter icons.
I always find the discussion about whether Moash ‘deserves’ redemption a little peculiar. For one thing, a person sort of has to have done terrible things in order for redemption to be on the table. If Moash had tied Elhokar’s shoelaces together and told Kaladin his new hat makes him look silly, ‘redemption’ wouldn’t even be part of the table. It’s his sins that he’d be seeking redemption for.
It’s also always discussed almost as something that would be imposed on the character – “Will Moash get a redemption arc?”. If it’s a plot Sanderson’s interested in pursuing for the character, it’ll come out of growing regret for and discomfort with his actions. Exactly like Venli, who has been selfish, tried to evade the responsibility for her actions, been lead into terrible, dark places as a tool of Odium and is now uncertainly struggling with her nascent conscience.
I also don’t think, in the event Sanderson chooses to move Moash in that direction, we’d be expected to forget about the character’s past actions. We’re constantly reminded of Dalinar’s blood soaked past, his appalling brutality and the way the public knowledge of his war crimes makes his job as a diplomatic leader more difficult. What makes the character powerful, what currently separates him from Moash is his desire to shoulder the responsibility for the terrible things he’s done.
Even Kaladin is motivated not by pure goodness, but a desire to make up for his perceived failings.
I’ve mentioned before how Moash is constructed as sort of the perfect villain for Alethi society. Producing Moashes is a good argument for not having a rigidly classbound, corrupt system that’s tilted into total war. Whether Sanderson wants to maintain Moash as a villain or open a crack of self awareness in his armour, the character’s poised to go interesting places in future books. Or book at least.
I’m sorry for your loss, Lyndsey.
Oof, this chapter.
I’ve read it twice and it made me cry both times. I love that last line so much – and that Teft found peace and knew he was loved.
And Phendorana, man.
Thanks y’all! I look forward to next week’s installment.
Lyndsey. Sorry for your loss.
I would like to see the reaction of the Honorspren who believed remaining neutral or even siding with Odium was the right decision after learning that the Fused developed a means to permanently kill spren. Of course, once they learn that Navani had come up with the theory (even in an effort to use it against the Fused), I am sure those will blame humans rather than Fused.
Will this weaponization of anti-Stomlight cause the Highspren to go back to Honor’s forces and fight against Odium?
I like how Kaladin gets under the caprice of Lezian by giving him a new name; a name the sticks with Lezian for the rest of his existence (however brief it was). My favorite use of the Defeated One moniker is by El in a later chapter. Here we have someone who was not even present at the fight calling him the Defeated One.
I’m sorry about your friend, Lindsay.
I still can’t see how Moash is worse than Dalinar and Venli, aside from being in the middle of his villainy rather than already in the redemption arc. Dalinar massacred an entire city, including many children. Venli obliterated her whole culture out of sheer narcissism.
My condolences, Lindsey.
On my first read of this chapter, I was too busy worrying about Lift to focus much on what was happening with Teft. So the latter is worse to reread, especially Phendorana’s complete annihilation. A character can complete their plot arc *without* subsequently dying, but apparently not in this case.
I do blame Raboniel for arming and instructong Moash in this task, though he did it for his own gratification. Raboniel got on my “probably-unforgivable villain” list when we learned of the time when she created and unleashed a disease pandemic to wipe out humanity despite knowing it would kill multitudes of her own people. (Being *in* a real-world pandemic made the deed rather less abstract to me.) She has turned out to be unexpectedly nuanced, possibly why she gets far less reader hate than I expected.
As an innovative source of gruesome but printable descriptions, I offer the Lovecraft Insult Generator: https://www.wyrmworld.com/interactive/lovecraft/lovecraft.html
Rather than being redeemed, I believe Moash is more likely to be a character that accomplishes something good despite his best efforts not to, ala Gollum or Ishmael (I see quite a bit of parallel between Sanderson’s Moash and Jordan/Sanderson’s Ishmael, they are both nihilists, for one thing)
I agree, if all we saw of Dalinar was the Blackthorn then he would be hated too. But timing is everything, and Moash is not showing even a tiny bit of regret. He is feeling justified and better for it.
To another point someone made; well of course the characters are Brandon’s creations. He gives them their words and actions and if he is a good writer, then we respond as he intends. He will grant redemption or depravity as the story grows.
In words of Jessica Rabbit “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way”.
Sorry for your loss, Lindsey.
Based on how Sanderson wrote the other character I disliked almost as much as Moash, this little crem will end up a Vessel to a Shard of Adonalsium.
With Moash, I’m reminded of what Kaladin said to Amaram at the end of Rhythm of War, when Amaram (paraphrasing) was telling Kal how much better he was now that he’s given all his emotions to Odium, and Kaladin asks “why do you still hurt?”
Moash still hurts. He just lies to himself that he doesn’t. And he only exists to bring Kal down to his level. I don’t want to see Moash redeemed, just annihilated, but I can’t even imagine how his redemption arc would begin. Any speculations?
I’m sorry to hear about your friend, Lyndsey.
This chapter was so sad–Teft’s death is one of the few passages in a book to make me cry.
Moash killing Phendorana made me so mad! We didn’t see nearly as much of her as we did of Syl, and for whatever reason, I always had the image of her as kind of “stuffy.” But she fought so hard to protect Teft here! And she saw his potential and his worthiness to be loved at a time when he couldn’t believe those things about himself. One of the tear-inducing lines in this chapter, for me, was from her POV: “Teft was forgiven. And he was close.”
@Brent, after reading your message I was thinking, “The Biblical Ishmael? No, that makes no sense. The protagonist of Moby Dick? No, still makes no sense.”
I tried to read the first WoT book and bounced right off. Never looked back. There are too many books I actually like out there.
It’s been so long since I read this book, but I do remember there were parts that made me cry. This scene wasn’t actually one of them (it’s still coming up, and Raboniel and Navani singing together also made me tear up) but Teft dying knowing he was loved was such a triumph, and I am pretty sure it primed the pump for the scene that DOES make me cry (it’s got to be close now). I remember being pretty specifically affected by his arc in Oathbringer.
That said, his words to Moash are actually a low blow if spoken to anybody else!
I’ll echo what others have said, that Moash isn’t uniquely irredeemable (I do not think, from a narrative perspective, he is likely to be redeemed, because he does not at this point seem to have any sense of regret about his actions, and for me the desire to drive Kaladin to suicide is one of the most insidious things he’s done, even moreso than killing in the name of whatever cause he thinks is right. He wants to bring others to his level of despair and darkness). I guarantee you that Dalinar killed people – probably personally – that were loved by NPCs just as much as our characters (and we) loved Teft.
Kaladin getting one over on The Defeated One is fantastic – using his own image and pride against him. I love it :)
@8
I can definitely see that. And wouldn’t that be a wonderful kick in the teeth, for him to accomplish something wonderful despite his every effort not to?