Ok, so I’m on a reread and have gotten to the point in RoW where T starts barely imagining becoming odium. It is beyond clear at this moment that he Is pulling an audible, that this was not the original plan. If you disagree with that and think the diagram is perfectly omniscient, then this isn’t for you. But if you see “become odium” as a last minute strategy shift, then I have a simple commentary: smart taravangian is actually dumber than the dumbest person you, dear reader, know.
his whole plan was to preserve some subset of humanity on Roshar (itself a pretty dumb goal) as a kind of bastion or duty free zone. Its specifically discussed how his strategy is based on certainty vs the small chance of a coalition victory. But that’s just short term thinking. If you are smart enough to see the value in surrender as an avenue to preserve your people, you should be smart enough to think in generational terms. But in those terms, it’s unbelivably obvious that odium will be able to isolate “free Roshar” such that it is willing to consent to surrender further rights for concessions. The very fact of a delta between odium‘s prefered state and free Roshar means there is room for “trade” of rights for benefits which will eventually end in conquest. T’s whole strategy is how to lose slowly. It’s actually just stupid, to the extent, which we have seen through first person accounts, that his strategy was to actually win.
Dalinar ends his life planning how to destroy odium. He has a strategy. It may be flawed but it is based on planning off all time tables. T is, at absolute best, planning tactically. Point being, and maybe I just hate him so I want to degrade him, he actually isn’t a genius. he actually is, at absolute beat, a mediocre mind with some foresight. And I kind of appreciate a story about how a bunch of middling minds given foresight could convince themselves they are a cult of geniuses, when data alone is actually pretty useless in the hands of lesser minds. IMO, based on what we have seen, T and the Diagram are actually pretty pathetic opponents, because from the beginning their whole ideology critically misapprehends what actual cleverness is. An Navani, the enemy they left alive, has it in spades,