Can Shardic intent become self defeating or contradictory?

[Sir Nil]

Not asking in regards to any current shard holder, but I was wondering if theoretically a shard holder, or the shard itself, can potentially change or interpret their intent in a way that is self defeating to it. For example, maybe a holder of Autonomy realises that the Autonomy shard is infringing on their Autonomy by forcing the intent of Autonomy onto them, (bit of a stretch) or in a less confusing example a holder of Ruin figures that the concept of Ruin has been around for an awfully long time, or Odium is redirected to deific self hate, or Honour's holder being a dude who constantly lies and never upholds oaths, which is itself a consistent 'order' if it is done enough. 

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

Trying to invert a Shard's Intent?

I don't think this would be possible, Kelsier in Secret History found out firsthand with Preservation as how to hard it is to make a Shard act opposite to it's intent. Basically impossible.

You'd get a bit of leeway if you were a new Vessel but you wouldn't be able to act completely contradictory for very long or to the extent that the very Intent of the Shard would flip on it's head.

The Shard uses the Vessel almost as much as the Vessel uses the Shard is what I'm saying.

[Frustration he/him]

Shards don't seem to apply their intents to themselves.

Spoiler

Chaos

It's a little odd that Preservation would inherently give up its power to fuel Allomancy, because you'd think he would preserve himself, you know? Does that make sense?

Brandon Sanderson

Preservation, as a Shard, is about preserving life, people, and the like. Not about self. No more than Ruin is about destroying self, or Cultivation is about growing herself.

/r/fantasy AMA 2011 (Aug. 31, 2011)

 

[Adamkarma he/him]

I think that can happen, but it would take tremendously long time. Like you were the shard Amity for example, you wouldn't become Abhorrence over night, what is plausible to happen is that the shard would change Vessels A LOT, and each Vessel's Intent must be close to Amity, but not Amity, perhaps closer to Love for example, the next one is Liking, Neutrality Disliking, Hatred, and then finally Abhorrence. And each time the Shard will became a little less stable, till it's as unstable as Harmony. That's my opinion.

[alder24]

Inverting the intent is too much. Intent stays the same, there is a little room to different interpretations (like what Odium is doing with Passion) but the intent is still there.

Quote

Questioner

I was just wondering if a Shard's intent can change over time without changing holders?

Brandon Sanderson

Without changing holders? The holder can have a slight effect on how the-- a big effect on how the intent is interpreted, but what the intent is stays the same. So it's gonna be filtered. The way it manifests can change, and you'll see that happening, but it is the same intent. When it was broken off, it took a certain thing with it.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/127/#e5094

 

 

 

If the Vessel of Autonomy realized that Autonomy is bad, then he would most likely give up the shard - like when Kelsier with Preservation shard wanted to act destructively and shard opposed him, to the point of almost slipping from Kelsier's hands.

[StanLemon]

Inverting it is too much, but self defeating? That's entirely possible. Exhibit A. Preservation, or at least the (mostly dead) Preservation that we see in Secret History. Fuzz couldn't bring himself to harm Elend even if the end result was going to be Ruin. Had Kelsier's ploy worked, Vin would have healed Elend, so he would have been Preserved and the cage would have been Preserved. Whereas Ruin had no problem going against his Intent in the short term as long as the long term lead to Ruin.