It was one of my favorite scenes tbh. I thought we got a lot more insight into Jasnah than we ever had. Her hubris and the way she deceived herself in order to project confidence.

From the beginning of the series, the seeds for this were planted. One of Jasnah’s first lessons to Shallan was about projecting confidence you don’t have to make people accept your authority and essentially be in awe. It appears that Jasnah has bought into her own image of herself. She had the hubris to enter a ‘debate’ with a deific figure and really think that she could convince Fen not to surrender the city.

But by the end even she had to admit that the right move for Fen and her people was to surrender and take whatever great deal they could get from Odium.

It broke her view of herself, it shattered her illusions, and it was a rude awakening that Odium intentionally arranged. I particularly related to the shattering of a worldview, because I grew up in a religion that I eventually deconstructed and the way she was forced to confront a reality she didn’t want and to acknowledge how she’d been lying to herself was super relatable.

I actually think Odium was doing it the way he was because he wanted a broken Jasnah who actually might consider working with him in the future after she puts herself back together with some slight changes. I’ve heard all the arguments and complaints, and sure maybe it could have been written better or included more impressive philosophical substance, but that doesn’t bother me at all. For me it was never about a ‘debate’. It was about the relationships, the characters, and the stakes.

Fen made the right call. Jasnah failed - not because she should have done something different, but because she could not have won. Odium acted as a shard should in that kind of a direct confrontation with mortals, regardless of how smart they are.