KKC Theory Wiki

The Chandrian Are the Good Guys and the Amyr the Real Villains

plausible motive · popularity 761 · 3 source threads

The series may be building to a moral inversion: the Chandrian serve a protective purpose while the Amyr are the true antagonists.

About: The Chandrian, The Amyr

Also involves: Arliden, Cinder, Denna, Encanis, The Fae, Felurian, Folly, Haliax, Kvothe, Arliden's Lanre Song, Myr Tariniel, Selitos, Shaping, Tarbean, Tehlu

The theory§

This theory holds that the first two books are an elaborate setup for a moral inversion in which the Chandrian serve a protective or necessary purpose and the Amyr are the true antagonists. Its strongest threads are the Encanis-like figure who saves Kvothe in Tarbean, Denna's 'Song of Seven Sorrows', which casts Lanre as a wronged hero and Selitos as a monster and is drawn from a story locked away in a private library and so possibly spared the censorship that altered public records, and a pattern of Amyr-aligned institutions suppressing historical truth behind a 'greater good' justification, exemplified by the Duke of Gibea's vivisections. It also rests on a memory discrepancy: in the chapter 'Hope', where Kvothe's parents are killed, there is no blood on Cinder's pale sword, yet every later recollection shows blood dripping from it, implying his emotional memory has demonised the Chandrian. A related claim insists Kvothe neither is nor can become a Chandrian, since the Seven are a fixed ancient group named in Shehyn's story. The more defensible reading is not a clean reversal but that both factions commit atrocities while each believes it serves the greater good.

Evidence§

  • Both books are an extraordinarily careful setup for a big subversion of expectations...the Amyr are the bad guys and the Chandrian are the good guys
    OP's core thesis: a deliberate moral inversion of the two factions — u/bluesy22
  • Denna's "Song of Seven Sorrows" portrays Lanre (later Haliax) as a misunderstood hero and Selitos (first of the Amyr) as a monster. The song is based on a story Denna found locked away in someone's personal library. Meaning it might have escaped the censorship crusade
    Denna's song from an uncensored private source flips the heroes and villains — u/bluesy22
  • Take the Amyr’s iconography with the bloody hands and forearms - their bloody visage does not exactly fit the quintessential good-guy look
    Amyr's bloody-handed imagery undercuts their good-guy reputation — u/Taitenger
  • What if it's the Amyr that are eradicating the knowledge of the Chandrian, what if the bloody-handed Amyr are the ones slaughtering people
    Proposes the Amyr, not the Chandrian, are the censoring killers — u/monskervator
  • Every time in the narrative Kvothe recalls the memory of his parents' death, there is blood dripping from Cinder's sword. But in the chapter Hope, where the actual death occurs, there is no blood on Cinder's sword
    Memory discrepancy suggests Kvothe demonised the Chandrian after the fact — u/YodaJosh81
  • The Amyr Baron who did terrible vivasections, autopsies, and medical experiments who cause so much suffering and death? He work saved ten thousand of lives through his research
    Gibea vivisections show Amyr atrocities justified by greater good — u/thatsnotmybutter
  • the Big Reveal is not that we have them reversed, but that they're opposite sides of the same coin
    Refines theory: not a clean flip, both serve their own greater good — u/LNinefingers
  • the Chandrian are mass murderers and terrorists, who've commited probably thousands of atrocities over the years
    CounterCounter: Chandrian's documented massacres are too much to excuse — u/aerojockey
  • kills entire troupe of people for saying their name
    CounterCounter: slaughter of Kvothe's troupe contradicts a good-guy reading — u/Sarothis

Book refs: NOTW, WMF

Tier reasoning§

merged 1 dupe: both assert Amyr-villain moral inversion

Contributors§

Source threads§