The Importance of Shadow in Malazan... This isn't just about Compassion

I haven't fully formed my thoughts on this yet, so I thought I would talk through an idea that I am playing with, and that is the importance of Shadow as 'change' in the Malazan works. This goes to the Malazan place in the genre, the aspects of the storyworld, and the narrative events that occur, as well as norms and tropes that the series attempts to subvert, question, or undercut, and, in essence, destabilize the 'norms' we often associate with the genre, while still engaging with them.