Talk:Daud/@comment-16533050-20190215111624/@comment-39275023-20190429163226

Here's the thing - people have been discussing Daud as though he's a completely rational actor, one that can see all ends and outcomes, and who has a great sense of the bigger picture. However, this simply isn't how human beings function.

People do not act rationally - we are victims to our emotions, to our inherent irrationality. Nothing we do is ever done with a clear mind and a clear heart, and no-one short of a literal omnibenevolent god could possibly view the world otherwise.

Daud's characterisation in DotO is interesting because it captures his myoptic view of justice and morality to a T - his life as an assassin essentially stunted his mental development and caused him to see the world in a very different light, where people are neither good nor evil, they simply are. Thus, when he begins to try and redeem himself in TKoD, he fixates on Delilah as some sort of ultimate evil, and stops at nothing to take her down, not because he cares about doing the right thing, but because he believes that it will somehow save him.

This comes to a head in DotO - Daud wants to perform one last heroic act, one last act that will bring him peace and let him die a happy man, and what better target than the one that, in his mind, started everything? He doesn't care about the consequences of his actions or the fact that it is the bearers of the Mark that determine whether their powers are used for good or evil - he simply wants to go on one last job and do something with the time he has left.

I completely understand why people dislike this characterisation - it certainly isn't covered or explored well in the expansion. But I like it because it shows Daud as what he is: human. And that, for me at least, is very compelling.