Moghedien should really have been called the Wannabe or The Sponge instead of the Spider - Edit 2
Before modification by DomA at 20/04/2010 10:32:18 PM
She has very little originality of her own, it's like she had to copy the others to figure out how to appear evil. For the most part her characteristics are sub-par versions of her betters'
She enjoys punishing and inflicting pain too much and revel in "original punishments", but she doesn't hold a candle to Semirhage's skills and her "punishments" most often fail or backfire. She handles her grudge against Lanfear cowardly - she bitches and bitches in her corner but won't stand up as her enemy openly, the way Lanfear and Semirhage do. She imagines that she has a great aura of authority and inspire fear, but even a Black sister was so unimpressed that she tried to attack her, even knowing who she was. In comparison, even the Head of the Black Ajah was weak in the knees just thinking back on the visits of Ishamael, Be'lal, Lanfear or Graendal. Moghedien? Half her pawns disobeyed her and joined in Caemlyn, and one of them even attacked her. Cadsuane could probably have gotten more obedience from Liandrin's group just by staring them down...
She loves to teach and gives lessons like Mesaana, but Mesaana's object lessons are far more simple and efficient. Mesaana's done with making "a pupil" obedient while Moghedien's still spouting grand threats, living time to her victims to find ways out. In the end, her "pupils" ended up capturing her and forcing her to teach them as they wanted!!!
She considers herself the real Queen of the Night and master of tel'aran'rhiod, but Egwene escaped her traps, her grandiloquent threats to sever Birgitte forever from the Wheel and Gaidal obviously didn't work (we know from Min's vision she has plenty of lives with Gaidal as Heroes ahead of her) and can even be said to have backfired on her. She got herself captured by a girl barely trained at all in tel'aran'rhiod - who couldn't even enter it at will, and got caught by a basic trick with Will. Moghedien totally gave in to panic and lost all her means. She didn't even fight and deny the reality of the a'dam made and held real only by Nynaeve's will. I would like very much to see how things would have turned out had Nynaeve tried to pull the TAR a'dam trick on Egwene or Amys... or Lanfear. Of course, she doesn't hold a candle to Lanfear's self-created persona as "Queen of Dreams" - awe inspiring and exuding queenly authority if nothing else. She likely would have died if not for the sheer luck of having a Healer in the same mansion she slept in... died at the hand of a a) non-channeler and b) who didn't even use any TAR trick to wound her....
She is also the poor man's Graendal. She loves to rely on compulsion, but her skills are poor and her victims free themselves and come back to hunt and fight her. She also likes to make unoriginal, Graendal-copycat threats, like turning her victims into horses to ride, or stool to step on and so on. Graendal had a palace full of people made totally loyal to her, so far Moghedien's pets have ended up turning her into a pet.
By TFOH she had not even bothered to spy on Rand or even learn his name. It sounds like Tarabon fell apart around her before she even got to infiltrate the political circles, too busy playing the lady's maid to Black sisters and putting half-ass compulsion on girls.
So basically, Moghedien has not much at all going for her. All her villaneous traits she's stolen from the other female Forsaken, and she's doing a half-ass job at mimicking their characteristics or skills. For myself, after her various fiascos against Nynaeve and Birgitte and her failure with Egwene I would need much stronger evidence before I believe she's truly more skilled than Lanfear or Moridin in tel'aran'rhiod. Right now, she rather looks like no match for Amys, and Lanfear would probably finish her off three times while Moghedien is still pondering on what amazing web of TAR she would fold against her...
She enjoys punishing and inflicting pain too much and revel in "original punishments", but she doesn't hold a candle to Semirhage's skills and her "punishments" most often fail or backfire. She handles her grudge against Lanfear cowardly - she bitches and bitches in her corner but won't stand up as her enemy openly, the way Lanfear and Semirhage do. She imagines that she has a great aura of authority and inspire fear, but even a Black sister was so unimpressed that she tried to attack her, even knowing who she was. In comparison, even the Head of the Black Ajah was weak in the knees just thinking back on the visits of Ishamael, Be'lal, Lanfear or Graendal. Moghedien? Half her pawns disobeyed her and joined in Caemlyn, and one of them even attacked her. Cadsuane could probably have gotten more obedience from Liandrin's group just by staring them down...
She loves to teach and gives lessons like Mesaana, but Mesaana's object lessons are far more simple and efficient. Mesaana's done with making "a pupil" obedient while Moghedien's still spouting grand threats, living time to her victims to find ways out. In the end, her "pupils" ended up capturing her and forcing her to teach them as they wanted!!!
She considers herself the real Queen of the Night and master of tel'aran'rhiod, but Egwene escaped her traps, her grandiloquent threats to sever Birgitte forever from the Wheel and Gaidal obviously didn't work (we know from Min's vision she has plenty of lives with Gaidal as Heroes ahead of her) and can even be said to have backfired on her. She got herself captured by a girl barely trained at all in tel'aran'rhiod - who couldn't even enter it at will, and got caught by a basic trick with Will. Moghedien totally gave in to panic and lost all her means. She didn't even fight and deny the reality of the a'dam made and held real only by Nynaeve's will. I would like very much to see how things would have turned out had Nynaeve tried to pull the TAR a'dam trick on Egwene or Amys... or Lanfear. Of course, she doesn't hold a candle to Lanfear's self-created persona as "Queen of Dreams" - awe inspiring and exuding queenly authority if nothing else. She likely would have died if not for the sheer luck of having a Healer in the same mansion she slept in... died at the hand of a a) non-channeler and b) who didn't even use any TAR trick to wound her....
She is also the poor man's Graendal. She loves to rely on compulsion, but her skills are poor and her victims free themselves and come back to hunt and fight her. She also likes to make unoriginal, Graendal-copycat threats, like turning her victims into horses to ride, or stool to step on and so on. Graendal had a palace full of people made totally loyal to her, so far Moghedien's pets have ended up turning her into a pet.
By TFOH she had not even bothered to spy on Rand or even learn his name. It sounds like Tarabon fell apart around her before she even got to infiltrate the political circles, too busy playing the lady's maid to Black sisters and putting half-ass compulsion on girls.
So basically, Moghedien has not much at all going for her. All her villaneous traits she's stolen from the other female Forsaken, and she's doing a half-ass job at mimicking their characteristics or skills. For myself, after her various fiascos against Nynaeve and Birgitte and her failure with Egwene I would need much stronger evidence before I believe she's truly more skilled than Lanfear or Moridin in tel'aran'rhiod. Right now, she rather looks like no match for Amys, and Lanfear would probably finish her off three times while Moghedien is still pondering on what amazing web of TAR she would fold against her...