#i'm curious to see how you'll feel about shallan's sections in the row chapters

[basket-of-radiants]

Another take: Veil is kind of a manifestation of Shallan's disdain for herself. She actively devalues everything Shallan likes or finds comfort in. She has and will happily use Shallan's skills but devalues everything it took to learn them, and her disdain for Shallan's upbringing and mannerisms is matched only by her disdain for Shallan's feelings. Veil is all ABOUT image, but actively devalues the substance behind it because acknowledging it would undermine her pretended expertise. 1/2

Ultimately Veil results from Shallan's failures of self-empathy. She is built as a coping mechanism to avoid processing feelings. But Shallan sucks at perceiving herself accurately, as is confronted in her meeting with Hoid in OB, and as a result Veil sees Shallan in her entirety as Shallan sees herself when she's most frustrated while ratcheting up more severe character flaws (judgemental, shallow, skating by on talent, etc) by throwing out feelings that challenge her self-confidence. 2/2