I find it so poetic that Jasnah, being a veristitalian she strives for unbiased and factual "reconstructions" of past historical events in order to understand the present and be prepared for the future.
But you cant have unbiased accounts of history at least not completely. Because we as human beings cannot help but be biased. And I find it is so fitting for her character to try to remove this vital human aspect from history in the name of the greater good.
While Hoid, on the other hand, has spent the past ten thousand years spreading stories all across the universe, and all stories are, at their core, just really biased accounts of real historical events.
Hoid, unlike Jasnah, doesn't try to remove those vital human aspects of history but in fact adds to them so that the people of the present can learn from the mistakes of the past and build towards a better future.
They're doing the same exact thing but approaching it in such vastly different angels and It informs us so much about both of their respective characters and how they view the world. They're both such perfect foils of each other not just in this particular instance but in so many other facets too that it genuinely makes me want to go insane.
I love this and I'm trying to have a coherent thought about it ..
Jasnah is haunted by the time when she was a child when she was out of control, and that's spiralled into trying to have as much control as possible. She wants the best outcome for the most people, but she comes at it from the need to be in control of that outcome. She's using her Veristitalian training to search for the mathematical formula that drives history so she can KNOW with certainty that she's making the best decision for everyone.
Meanwhile Hoid made a choice with 16 other people to kill God when they felt they had no other option, and since then he's been driven to open up options for everyone else. He wants the best outcome for everyone but for him that means giving them the power of having more choices, to have the power to act according to their deepest values rather than predicting a specific outcome. Whenever he's telling his stories to support someone, they're at a crossroads, and he ends up helping them see an option they hadn't considered before the story. He doesn't push a particular choice, but he wants to ensure that people have the most choice possible. I'm sure he wishes he could go back in time and choose a different option.
I think Hoid's push for opening up options would at first intrigue Jasnah but ultimate frustrate her, because she is looking for the specific, perfect option that will give her the power to control the outcome. On the other hand Hoid would probably feel pity for Jasnah because he knows deep in his soul that even if you do something for the greater good, you can't ever really predict the outcome; rather, the best option is the one you can live with.
in the words of Vasher, “do whatever lets you sleep at night. That’s what I wish I would have done.”
