Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-27460754-20160402002043/@comment-27460754-20161022013558

Something I've noticed about how the other Shard bearers work and how others have reacted to Simon's method of incorporating the Shard's power...I don't think any of them actually "dominated" the shard. Cause if you remember the talk with Esthera about her taking her Shard, it involved not only sacrificing a part of herself to the Shard but that she more or less "gave herself to it." in exchange for the massive power boost and changes it wrought.

To me, that sounds like she and the others are submitting to the Shards and if that's the case...Ginasta is absolutely right in her conversations with SImon and the others. If the Shard is a driving and dominant force in the Shard-bearers, then she's right about how much they'll grow more affected by it. The AoA is a perfect example in how he's literally ruled by his appetites and childish impulses.

If that's the case, where the Shards are dominating the Shard Bearers, then Simon is perhaps the first person to truly do the reverse. By not giving himself over to the corruption of the Shard in exchange for easy power, it can be argued that he is in fact dominating it and in so doing may have started a process nobody could have forseen or prepared for. Simon's very character is defined by the concept of control and deliberated action, which is from what we've seen at the Gathering and other points in the game so far, is the opposite of how the other Shard bearers opperate.

So Ginasta actually has my respect for her determination to her principles and were this any other character...I'd agree with her completely with what she's said, on the other hand, Simon is different and he is doing too much good to really be someone Ginasta can afford to take out even if she's paladin level blind and apathetic to the consquences, which she's shown as not being. She does come across as sheltered/new to social interaction and being able to read the motivations of other people like at the Summit, but that lends credence to the idea that she's more or less put all her life and time into training.