I was thinking about this anyway but it does play quite well with my post about allegory, so: this is the line Brennan says directed at Thaisha in episode 3, about Vaelus.
You look across at what can only be described as one dedicated to the memory of a Shaper that took the world of nature for her own and bent it to her will, and you look across, and in this moment, know that doom will befall your world if you cannot find her spirit in your own and she yours.
It's phrased very prettily but it's an incredibly simple and obvious sentiment; you must find meaningful and profound common ground with someone very unlike yourself - even, perhaps, someone who holds beliefs in opposition to your deeply held beliefs- or you and everything you love will die.
And really, I think this is a main theme of Campaign 4: finding what is good and true in the lies of the Candescent Creed; finding out who Thjazi really was from a wide range of how different people related to him; finding out how killing the Shapers changed the world and society for both good and ill. It is, and I'm probably calling this shot far too early but I'm going to anyway, a desperate plea against polarization. You cannot dismiss people on the basis of who they are, or even who they were, only on the basis of their choices in the current moment. You can't just write off characters for being soldiers in the literal sense nor in the sense of the table because that word makes you personally feel bad because that leaves you with almost no one. You do need to try to understand every single significant character and where they are coming from, despite any initial impulses you may have.
The line says that Thaisha and Vaelus must find something - not that it must be found, but that this is a task placed upon each of these women. This is an undertaking that involves effort; and finding usually requires a search that takes some time, not a quick glance. It is going to be a process, and it's not going to be easy. and it's going to challenge both of them. It's also not going to be easy to navigate as a viewer, especially as most viewers are, very understandably and myself very much included, going to see a lot more obvious rightness in Thaisha's position. But extending that compassion to Vaelus is necessary. And the same goes for characters who challenge one's personal projections of very fraught subjects like religion, or power, and on the whole, a simple binary good/bad will never be the answer. Even clear villains of the arc like Casimir Gavendale are given a great deal of humanity; even future villains like Univere and Doset are going to require our curiosity and patience; and again, people like Aranessa are going to require us extending not just general compassion, but a compassion that is textual (and contextual).
It's a story that says "what if the right answer was still really messy and complicated and created new problems, and the work is never truly finished, and it requires a good deal of grace to make progress," and I think our interpretations must adhere to that, if nothing else.
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