Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
If you’ve followed me for a reasonable amount of time, you’ll know that I adore plenty of characters who I consider to be terrible people. I love Szeth and Nale, but I have no problem with criticizing them and pointing out their flaws and mercilessly bullying them into the ground for fun. You’ll also know that I have never taken that attitude with Moash. I’ve never been #moashdidnothingwrong, and conversely I’m happy to make good lighthearted fun of him or even criticize his actions, but when it comes down to it I’ve always defended him as a character. It’s partially because I feel he gets so much undeserved vitriol from the fandom. (Although I should state that I don’t mind if you dislike him. So long as your take is more nuanced than blanket #fuckmoash, I’ll trust you have your reasons.) But it’s also that I have deeper criticisms of how Moash is treated by the narrative as well fans. I’ve alluded to that before, but never really explained myself. So here it is. My explanation as to why I stand by him.
I feel I should state that I don’t judge characters exclusively by their actions. Their actions are important, but they aren’t the only thing that’s important. After all, none of them are real people making their own choices, the characters and their decisions were all ultimately decided by an outside force in order to craft a narrative. So I feel it’s important as well to judge characters by the themes they serve and to look at their narrative purpose.
When I say that characters don’t make their own choices, here’s what I mean. If Sanderson wished, he could write next chapter so that Kaladin suddenly becomes a serial killer and burns down a bunch of villages for fun. I have enough faith in his writing and enough tropic knowledge that I seriously doubt that’s going to happen, but if that’s the direction Sanderson wanted to take the story, he would be capable of doing so. If the story did take this sudden turn, a character’s actions are still important and so it would probably be natural to like Kaladin less. At the same time, we wouldn’t have been wrong for liking the character as he was written until that point, and we would be fair to criticize the direction he’s taken in.
Whenever I talk about Moash’s circumstances and motivations, I tend to get the response “yes I understand that, but it doesn’t excuse doing bad things, and I judge him based on his actions.” First, I want to say that that is a totally valid way to look at people and characters, and it’s one I’m sympathetic to. Totally cool if you feel that way. I do have two counter arguments. The first, and my most common one, is: were Moash’s actions really that bad, all things considered, especially when compared to analogous actions of main characters? Then we can discuss the morality of specific things he did, which is always controversial but nonetheless fun for everyone. Of course then, I get people saying “I don’t hate him for his actions, my problem is with his outlook and philosophy” and then the cycle can begin again. Ah, the struggle of justifying both a characters’ means and ends. Then there’s another, much more controversial argument that I haven’t really made before but that I’m going to now, which is that in the case of Moash and Vyre, I don’t actually think it is entirely fair to judge him for his actions.
Please bear with me. I promise I’m not saying “Moash shouldn’t be written to do bad things.” I don’t believe that, I don’t want that, and that’s not the point I am trying to make. I’m saying that I think Sanderson wants to convey a certain set of themes with Moash and will therefore have him develop into a character who’s a better vehicle for those themes, i.e. having him make choices that will result in him being that person. That’s not a problem, that’s what you’re supposed to do. But when I’m judging characters by their themes, I’m more willing to let certain actions slide.
When I say that I judge a character by their themes, here’s what I mean. I’m going to use Shallan as an example, because I’ve seen a lot of criticism of her for her casually racist and classist tendencies. I think that such criticisms are great, and I think they’re completely fair, and I also don’t judge Shallan for them as much as I would, were she a real person. That’s because her storyline isn’t about those things, it’s about a person trying to discover herself while coming to terms with her trauma, and her background was chosen as the best origin to tell such a story from. That’s not to say it’s a good thing for said tendencies to go unaddressed, but they’re not the point of her character. This is actually an issue that I find most of the main cast run into at various points, because most of them are nobility and war profiteers. Whenever I try to really dissect any of them, I find them hopelessly problematic. But these are books about themes of honor and personal growth and emotion, so I think I have to embrace the characters from those angles if I’m going to enjoy these books at all. My favorite character is Dalinar, and from a purely objective level I don’t think I can say he’s a great person. Even throwing out all of his past actions as the Blackthorn, when we first see him in Way of Kings he’s trying to honorably unite everyone…so they can more effectively wipe out the Parshendi. I think you can see well enough where I’m going with that that I don’t need to fully analyse all the reasons Why Dalinar Is A Bad Person on this post about Moash. He’s my favorite character because in spite of all that, I find his themes of redemption and honor to be great, and I think the character that comes out of all that, contradictions and all, is truly wonderful.
When I talk about narrative purposes, here’s what I mean. Characters in stories are written to be heroes or villains or parables or expositors, etc. There are lots of different roles a character can play. If the author wants a character to be a hero, they will make the character do good things and if they want the character to be a villain, they will make the character do bad things. None of this is news to anyone, but if I’m trying to remove any ambiguity as to what the hell I’m talking about.
When all of this is applied to Moash it’s a bit tricky because Sanderson and I seem to be in disagreement as to what his themes are.
Clearly I can’t read Sanderson’s mind and I don’t care to trawl his interviews or internet presence, so if I say something that seems blatantly wrong here, go ahead and let me know. But I’ll try to lay out what I think he intends for Moash’s themes to be, purely from the text.
The first is betrayal. He was elevated from his terrible life by Kaladin and later Dalinar by extension. He could have had a happy life there with Kaladin as a member of Bridge Four, but no, he bit the hand that fed him: he sided with the Diagram and helped them assassinate the king. And that was A Bad Thing that put him in a bad place and it’s all his fault. His first chapter in Oathbringer is him lamenting how bad that was, even going so far as to say he was just like other lighteyes. And then he truly defected to the singers, and he killed his king, and that was Another Bad Thing. Last time he shouldn’t have done it, but at least no harm, no foul right? But this time, he has irrevocably turned traitor to his people. Moash is an example of what not to do, unlike the other characters who stand by their oaths. It makes sense right? In a book about honor, woe betide the traitor; it shall ultimately be his downfall and he will have been his own undoing.
(Yes, I’m over-simplifying this, and I do apologize, but do you want this post to be even longer?)
That brings us to Sanderson’s second theme, personal responsibility. We have just acknowledged that Moash does Bad Things, yes? Ah but wait, one might say, so does Dalinar, ergo, is there not a chance for this Bad Person to be redeemed? Our answer is that perhaps he could be, but in order to find a path of redemption, one must first face their actions, and Moash is in denial, claiming that his situation isn’t his fault, externalizing responsibility, and lamenting his lot in life even though it’s a direct result of his own actions. If he’d never betrayed Kaladin and the Kholins, he’d still be a happy, loved member of Bridge Four. He could have focused on healing rather than vengeance. Instead he’s miserable, and instead of picking himself up and trying to change, he blames other people or other forces. In a book about personal growth and journeys here we have someone who’s stagnant or perhaps even regressive. It’s not just that he’s a Bad Person. He’s not even trying to be better!
I mentioned earlier three main themes of these books, which I have named as honor, personal growth, and emotion. (Gee I wonder why I’m so fixated on those themes in particular. I even included Odium in the party!) We’ve just related Moash to the inverse of two, let’s see if we can tie him to the third as well. Oh look, yes we can. We’ve just gone over two big reasons why Moash is Bad. Of course he hates himself. He should. But it’s all too much for him, he can’t face himself or his actions, so gives up his pain to Odium and he numbs himself into someone ruthless and emotionless (sort of).
And thus we have Vyre, the cold and deadly conclusion to his character. (As a semi-quick aside. I prefer referring to him post-Oathbringer as Vyre, as that was the name on his chapter heading at the end of the book. It strikes me as a significant enough name change alongside the line “Moash is dead,“ that Sanderson must be intentionally separating this current character from the Moash of the past. I’m not quite sure why yet.) This is what I think Sanderson was trying to do with Moash. He took a character who we already knew and understood, and he made him the perfect antithesis to all of these core themes. That’s why he has to be a villain. It’s not that he’s committed more and bigger atrocities than anyone else, it’s that in a story that focuses so heavily on personal development, Moash seems to actively push back against it. When presented with opportunities to be and do better, he turns and walks away. He has no feeling, no honor.
There we have it, a perfect thematic antagonist for our story. And look, Kaladin still cares about him so we can get some extra angst out of that before he’s killed. And just in case anyone is still sympathetic to him, we can have him kick the dog a few times to really hammer in that he’s an evil villain.
Alright, I could be completely misrepresenting yours or Sanderson’s views on him, but I like to think of all that as a fairly nuanced take on Moash’s character. (Again, I grant it could be more nuanced, but seriously, do you really want this post any longer than it is?) Not to mention that while it’s a bit snarky, it’s nonetheless kind of a scathing indictment of him. And also I was the one who wrote all that. So why the hell am I defending him?
Moash has not always been a villain in the story. Whether or not he was a good person, I don’t know, but I’d consider his transition from a chaotic force of complication to a fully-fledged villain to have happened at the end of Oathbringer. For the purposes of this discussion so that I don’t have to put timeline qualifiers on him every time I say his name, I’m going to refer to him pre-transition and post-transition differently. Let’s keep calling the original Moash and let’s call the latter one Vyre. My, this is convenient.
That’s not to say that Moash and Vyre are distinct from each other, or that one can’t be held accountable for the choices of the other. There is a fluid arc linking the two of them, and in it the explicit statement that if you are a Moash and that if you make all the choices that Moash makes, you will ultimately become a Vyre.
I mentioned before that Sanderson and I seem to differ in opinion over what Moash’s themes are. I’ve laid out as best as I can what I interpret his opinion to be. Let’s talk about mine now.
What do we know about Moash? For starters, he’s a member of a marginalized racial caste. He was raised by his grandparents in a city, but as a kid he was always considered to be a bit too big and a bit too free-thinking for a darkeyes, so he had to leave and work on travelling caravans in order to stay out of trouble. His grandparents were incarcerated and died in prison, courtesy of Roshone and Elhokar, and while we later learn that Dalinar did enforce consequences for the two of them (although I’d argue that the punishments didn’t exactly match the crime), Moash himself never saw any form of justice or reparation. He went out to the shattered plains to enlist and he was subsequently enslaved and sent out to die as a part of a bridge crew.
We’ve already addressed all the later stuff, so I’m going to stop here for now. The biggest themes that I associate with Moash are all about the racism and marginalization he experienced. He’s someone who has been betrayed time and time again throughout his life by his society and by various authority figures. And I don’t think Moash is unique for that. I mean just look at Kaladin and his family. All darkeyes are put through hell the moment they or their families become inconvenient for someone with power, and they aren’t given any legitimate avenues of recourse or justice. Moash and Kaladin’s situations are just two examples in an entire country of racial oppression. They’re the only two cases that we really get to know, as the rest of the main cast is primarily made up of nobility and aristocracy, so if Sanderson wants to comment on this system of institutional racism he’s created, he’s going to have to do so through the two of them.
Don’t get me wrong, there are other darkeyed characters, but none who are both as important as them and whose backstories and themes are so closely tied to their marginalization. Plus there’s one thing that Moash does that no other darkeyes in the series does. He actually rejects this system.
After Dalinar frees the bridge crews, Kaladin, Moash, and the others are given new, well-respected jobs. This is typically heralded as Moash’s second chance, which he inevitably threw away because he’s the worst and he ruins everything. Let’s pretend he didn’t for a bit. Kaladin and his team have succeeded at getting better lives because the Kholins gave them better lives. Aren’t they nice! Plus now that all their lighteyed guards are dead, they have to include darkeyes in their inner circle. That leaves Kaladin perfectly placed to form relationships and to teach them that racism is bad. There we go, everything’s better now, problem solved; until Kaladin speaks out of turn at a duel? They all live happily ever after so long as they continue to stay in their–albeit elevated–places? A few darkeyes have made it in life, so this little “institutionalized racism” subplot is resolved, not to mention that the family protecting them is only in power because of said system? Or is it that now that the Kholins are the kings of everything, should we expect them to use that power to fix everything? Oh look, our country’s leadership happened to be going through a self-discovery quest when we got here and Dalinar is really into honor right now for some reason, what great timing to ask him to end racism.
Listen, I love the Kholins, Dalinar is my favorite stormlight character and I adore Adolin to death. But in my opinion “the oppressors learn the error of their ways because they made one darkeyed friend, and all was well” kind of sucks as a resolution to the story’s racial themes, especially as Kaladin is considered lighteyed by the end of Words of Radiance and especially if the underlying institutions that their entire society is built upon are never questioned or addressed. If there is to be resolution, I would like to see how it looks from the perspective of the characters who have been most harmed by these systems. That would be Kaladin and Moash.
Kaladin, as great as he is, is given freedom and autonomy and with it he chooses to serve an aristocrat. So does every other member of Bridge Four. Once again, I don’t think that’s a bad decision within this narrative, I think Dalinar’s fantastic and I think Kaladin made the right choice to best protect his people, but I don’t think any of them should have to serve the Kholins in order to be allowed to live their lives.
There is a single darkeyed character in this story who’s broken rank, the single character who said “fuck this, I don’t want to serve lighteyes.” That’s Moash. He left. And he was instantly labeled a traitor and made a villain for it.
Was it more complicated than that? Yes. Was there more going on? Absolutely. Are there more nuanced reasons that Moash became Vyre that are more about the bad choices he makes and less that he just quit his job? Yes, and I’ve already outlined them. Here’s why none of that holds any water for me.
As stated, his country and aristocracy have never cared for him until Dalinar deigned to grant him his humanity. I personally wouldn’t call his rejection of all that much of a betrayal. That was never really his side to begin with. If he was working for them, then it’s because he was working for Kaladin (who incidentally had supported his initial Words of Radiance betrayal right up until the last second.) Sure! He defected! He turned traitor! Why is that a bad thing? Because Dalinar and Kaladin are bastions of objective goodness? Because the other side is evil and Odium is evil and the singers are evil? (We’ll get to them.) I really can’t buy either of those.
To this, I have heard the counter-argument, “he’s bad because of the rest of his outlook/actions, not specifically because he left the Kholins” I can respect that point of view from a fellow reader, but that is simply now how the narrative is written. That’s not to say that both can’t be true, but specifically having betrayed the Kholins is portrayed as a key element in his downfall. I don’t want to go digging for quotes right now, but Sanderson bases all of Moash’s self-loathing, from the beginning of Oathbringer and onward, from his betrayals. And all of his old friends apparently hate him for that too. And most fundamentally to me, if we look at the the Rhythm of War chapter, Moash’s “ideal self” was wearing Kholin blue. What else could that possibly be saying? For all my love of Dalinar, I’m pretty uncomfortable with him as a moral center from which the goodness of a character is determined by how closely aligned they are with him. I’m particularly uncomfortable with that rationale applied to a marginalized person who’s directly suffered under his family’s rule. Like. He’s done bad things, sure, but I don’t think that turning traitor was inherently one of them.
But what about all that other bad stuff Moash did? What about willingly becoming a killer for Odium, I have been told that that’s still a bad thing and I can’t just write away with his past. And sure, I can’t. But I can be critical that when Sanderson chose a character to become his Vyre, he chose Moash, and then he explicitly made one of his primary catalysts for the change being fed up with racism. Honestly it might have been enough for me if Sanderson had included any other independent darkeyes characters who won’t stay in their place (I just went over why Kaladin doesn’t count), but he didn’t and so I’m critical of what he makes this one into.
It’s even more unfortunate for me because he really didn’t have to go this way. Throughout most of his time in Oathbringer, his character was driven by a lot of other stuff as well, primarily by genuine compassion for the suffering of a group of singers, who he risked his life to help and protect. Moash’s story could have been about a human who empathized with the enemy and learned that there was legitimacy to their struggles, and decided to help them build themselves up. Heck, it’s not that he could have been that character, he was that character. That’s what he was doing until he became an assassin. Again, why have only one character who bothers to help the singers in such a way and then immediately turn him evil? (I feel like Lirin in the latest book addresses some of my concerns in that respect, and I like Lirin a lot. He’s not as proactive a character as Moash is however, and he very much “stays in his place.” Also I’m trying not to talk too much about the singers because otherwise this will double in length.)
What about all that stuff with giving up his agency and emotions and all that? Not taking responsibility for his actions? I’d be fine with that as a fatal flaw if it began later on when he actually did bad stuff, but instead it’s what led him to these bad things in the first place. He can’t find redemption and grow as a person until he’s faced his actions and overcome them. Sure. In this case, the action he’s supposed to face is his betrayal. That’s the source of his self loathing. Okay, I’m no longer on board because of everything I just said. Furthermore, I don’t hate him for what his mind has become, I think he needs help. And I certainly don’t blame him. Here’s my abridged take. 1) in Oathbringer he did not originally choose to be attacked by singers, 2) after he was, he was made a slave and couldn’t really make his own choices unless he wanted to go out in a suicidal blaze of ultimately meaningless glory, 3) once again he was a slave and I think he’s allowed to have whatever coping mechanisms he’d like in order to get through the day, 4) all the while he was like this, he was still helping people, what more do you want from him, 5) once he gained his freedom he immediately went back to making big choices for himself, until 6) apparently betraying Kaladin and Elhokar again reinvigorated his self-loathing to such a point where he had to give up everything, irrevocably becoming Vyre.
At which point, we’ve decided that Vyre is a villain so Vyre will kill people and do bad things and you’re not supposed to like him.
What did Moash do? He left his people and helped a different downtrodden group. Why does that lead him to becoming a Vyre? Ultimately, because the author says so, and again, I’m not saying that I’m upset this character does bad things. I’m upset because it reads to me as if being a person who does bad things is just the natural conclusion of his actions. From the end of Words of Radiance, any character could have been developed into Vyre. My problem isn’t that a character I like developed into a worse person, it’s that he was already so deeply entrenched in all these other really interesting themes, and I think this character direction negates anything he could have added to them.
To reiterate, the crux of my problem is this. To me, Moash is the most important character in the books insofar as his relationship to the racism and caste system that exists within them. To Sanderson, Moash is the character who eventually becomes Vyre. I don’t think that fully does him, nor the very complex, very real issues he represents, their full justice.
I don’t know where Vyre/Moash’s story is going at the moment, and even though I don’t expect much to change for him, I’m very open to being surprised. With that being said, I think he deserves a second look regardless.
That’s all for now! Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to like, share, subscribe, and comment below. Thanks!
gamechangershow
andulkaphoto
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
areudirty
pixelskylines
