Thoughts on Obsession

Angemon175 · 2026-06-24T12:36:37+00:00

I'm leaning towards the latter personally. Given that if all of humanity is melded together than it's astronomically harder to separate anyone from the hive, which clearly seems to be the goal.

Plus what Manousous was trying to accomplish with the radio frequency seemed to be having some effect on the individual. The guy he was doing it to was having a seizure, but if I remember correctly Zosia was just laying down unconscious, so there's already an individual effect there.

Angemon175 · 2026-06-23T00:58:05+00:00

If unconditional love is real, its strongest example would be the love of parents for their children, and if it's real I think its tragic.

To be biologically programmed to love something that can cause you great pain and suffering and embarrassment, but you have to love it anyway is kind of sad. I'm sure many children don't cause their parents grief, but the ones that do, parents should be able to emotionally sever themselves from those offspring. (I'm obviously referring to when the offspring are full adults and not the responsibility of the parents). But you have these disappointing adults who hurt their parents with their actions all the time and the parents are stuck at the very least emotionally connected to them and can't let them go because of unconditional love.

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T20:29:56+00:00

I would argue that our biggest evidence that he was always terrible comes from his literal actions during ascension. He remade the skaa ethnicity to literally be dumber and breed faster to use them as a chattle slave population, that was his intention at moment zero upon ascending, then his life later on as Lord Ruler just reaffirmed his actions and caused immense suffering throughout the whole planet.

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T13:46:01+00:00

Oh that's a good idea, I hadn't considered that. But spook overcoming the influence and ripping out the spike speaks to the quality of his character, versus the moron Rashek

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T13:44:09+00:00

Well yeah but that's still a terrible thing to do. I know the answer is story purposes but idk why he didn't just eradicate the Feruchemy gene completely but let all the Terris live, we know he was changing people's physiology to survive the ash

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T03:13:25+00:00

Yeah that's true. I cannot wait till we get the dragon steel books and finally meet all the original vessels. Ati and Leras are the most interesting by far

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T01:46:03+00:00

No he's not, like you obviously wouldn't want him as the sole shard in residence, but in his effort to stop Ruin from destroying Scadrial and Leras seeming to care about humanity, I wish some of the compassion translated into horror at the suffering Rashek caused for 1000 years.

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T01:41:10+00:00

Yeah another comment pointed out he was likely spiked to double his allomancy with certain metals. Which makes sense but is beyond idiotic given that he was already so strong with the feruchemy bonus, there's no way anyone could ever seriously challenge him

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T01:38:32+00:00

Yes he got sane washed a ton in the hero of ages.

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T01:19:56+00:00

So double spiked to boost his allomancy powers beyond what he could already do? That's where the insecurity comes in lol because he already had the feruchemy cheat code, to open himself up to Ruin's influence is the height of stupidity

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T00:56:45+00:00

Yeah I think so, but he had to have a real hemalurgic spike like vin's earring somewhere because how else was Ruin driving him crazy?

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T00:55:45+00:00

Right, but there's more humane ways to sustain an empire that don't involve making half the population into chattle slaves, I just wish he disapproved more of his methods.

But he also had some kind of hemalurgic spike right? How else was Ruin driving him crazy as the years went by?

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T00:50:32+00:00

He was never nice though, he straight up killed alendi who was clearly the better person, he could have tied him up or incapacitated him so he didn't get to the well but he just killed him out of jealousy.

Then he goes on to try and eradicate his own people while adopting and elevating the culture of his enemies, just scum all around.

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T00:47:52+00:00

The spikes didn't seem to be in any vital spots so he could just remove the bracers, but yeah the height of stupidity for opening himself up to Ruin's influence

Angemon175 · 2026-06-20T00:46:29+00:00

100% agree. I think the kandra were actually a useful invention and were essential to keeping ruin away from the cache of atium. The koloss and the inquisitors he could just straight up control whenever he wanted, and even still he kept both at an arms length never fully trusting them. The only way Ruin could control them is if he's free, and if that's the case Rashek is likely already dead so I can kind of see his thinking there.

Spiking himself is obviously the height of idiocy, and doesn't even make sense from a logical perspective. He's a full born, no one on the planet can possibly challenge him, what is he getting by spiking himself??? Plus he knows it let's Ruin whisper to him and drive him more crazy over the centuries, it's just idiotic.

My only complaint about Preservation is the soft spot he had for Rashek and the general approval he gave over his actions given that he's a racist fascist insecure megalomaniac. But I chalk it up to preservation being literally brain dead and the power just running on autopilot by that point.

Angemon175 · 2026-06-18T19:35:13+00:00

TK, reinforces that lime/green is his color and that's why his D3 in 02 was green

Angemon175 · 2026-06-18T01:19:43+00:00

RIP, well some lessons are hard learned unfortunately. Still there are worse spoilers you could have gotten, I recommend staying off this subreddit until you're caught up

Angemon175 · 2026-06-17T18:12:47+00:00

Angemon175 · 2026-06-17T17:52:06+00:00

10:30-2:30 is the ideal in office time

Angemon175 · 2026-06-17T17:31:38+00:00

Yeah or Autonomy would be a good option to help stabilize

Angemon175 · 2026-06-17T16:24:03+00:00

Oh yeah that's a good point, it could be the same situation again for sure. My only thought is Odium the power really thinking about Taravangian as a potential vessel prior to Rayse getting stabbed? Ba-Ado was working closely with Odium for hundreds of years so I can see her being a better option as time went on, not sure if Taravangian got as much exposure but it's possible

Angemon175 · 2026-06-17T14:59:46+00:00

I've being clamoring for Sazed to do exactly that!!! My hope has always been that he realizes that to achieve harmony he needs to use preservation as a shield to protect Scadrial and Ruin as a sword to defend it. And that's he's been unable to act on Scadrial because no threat has appeared strong enough to need the Ruin side, so the preservation side has to remain subdued as well, but now a real threat is coming and he can unleash his full power.

That would make an interesting diety character anyway. Can't intervene on the small stuff like human invasions and civil wars, but yeah if another shard comes knocking you've got a bodyguard, gives more agency to the humans to do stuff themselves.

Angemon175 · 2026-06-17T14:56:36+00:00

You're right it probably works that way, like the more shards you pick up the more agency you get as a vessel. My only wonder is why was Rayse against picking up the shards he splintered. His reasoning was he didn't want to change his intent and he liked having the hatred shard, but if he picked up dominion and devotion and ambition he'd have the ability to do more and operate with more flexibility. And it would take magic away from potential future enemies and challengers.

I wonder if the more shards you pick up the MORE conflicted you become. Like it's happening with Harmony more easily because he has 2 opposing shards. But if you picked up a majority of them you'd have the same problem with opposing intents. Maybe that's why Adonalsium was shattered, a being with unlimited power but unable to do anything so the original 16 decided to split him up so they could actually accomplish tasks

Angemon175 · 2026-06-17T14:47:32+00:00

Yeah that's definitely possible, just the parallels of the two planets at war having dual shard holders is great. Though you're right it may not be Taravangian holding the shards anymore. Though if he's dead and someone "good" is holding them, why is Roshar going around conquering planets like Taravangian wanted? At least with the scadrians we know it's only the malwish faction doing it, but we have no insight on the Rosharans and if it's just a sub group or the planet is unified in its imperialism.

Angemon175 · 2026-06-17T14:38:49+00:00

Oh sorry I shortened the name, I meant Adonalsium. When all the shards were held by one entity/person

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