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.
That's true, though considering Semirhage is the master of physical torture and Graendal the master of mental torture, there's not much left for everyone else. I do think her punishment for Liandrin was among the worst in the series.
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.
Then again, she can't really. Lanfear and Semirhage are both more skilled and powerful. She wouldn't stand a chance. Even if she wasn't a coward, she is the weakest of the 13.
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...
Well this isn't quite fair. Moghedien managed to humble all the black sisters which was quite a feat. She did it individually, true, but only Lanfear would have been stupid enough to attack all of them at the same time. I thought her display with Liandrin and friends was rather impressive.
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!!!
True.
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....
It's possible that the a'dam short-circuits TAR as much as it does with channelers in the real world, meaning that Moghedien couldn't escape. She couldn't make it disappear in the hours that followed after all. Egwene is also a very powerful dreamwalker - more powerful than all the Wise Ones according to Amys. We know for a fact that she's better than Lanfear, but her confidence issues make her a distant tenth place.
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.
Agreed. Moghedien wants to be worshipped, which is why she leans towards Compulsion. Unfortunately she has an average Talent at best, which frustrates her.
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.
Indeed.
Even as an errand girl for Moridin, Cyndane has three time the panache and is a hundred times as feisty as Moghedien.
Agreed. There isn't much place for covert Forsaken in the 3rd Age. It's all very military and not very subtle.
Even in her days as a con-woman she was apparently not good enough not to get caught over and over and "reprimanded".. Reprimanded as a pathetic white collar wannabe criminal. Even her pitiful schemes and frauds were not bad enough to get her properly bound as a criminal.
LOL
Impressive, very impressive.
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...
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...
There's not much doubt - Moghedien has been a disgrace in the 3rd Age. However, I think she was deadly in the War of Power. She claims to have destroyed far more powerful foes, and other Forsaken have mentioned her as a threat. Even Birgitte warns against underestimating her.
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Some similarities between Semirhage and Moghedien
- 20/04/2010 04:17:27 PM
1747 Views
Oops, my mistake.
- 20/04/2010 04:57:47 PM
1165 Views
I was under the impression that Semirhage was quite feared among the Forsaken?
- 20/04/2010 07:25:45 PM
1053 Views
Yes and in tGS Graendal thought she might be leading the triumForsakenate
- 20/04/2010 07:33:31 PM
908 Views
I was talking about Moghedien and Mesaana. Didn't read through the whole post lol *NM*
- 20/04/2010 09:17:56 PM
494 Views
Not even the title? 
*NM*
- 21/04/2010 12:16:40 AM
469 Views
*NM*
- 21/04/2010 12:16:40 AM
469 Views
15. Both have 9-letter names (plus some lesser-known similarities) ...
- 20/04/2010 08:15:46 PM
1045 Views
Re: 15. Both have 9-letter names (plus some lesser-known similarities) ...
- 20/04/2010 09:21:18 PM
962 Views
Re: 15. Both have 9-letter names (plus some lesser-known similarities) ...
- 21/04/2010 01:23:09 AM
939 Views
Re: 15. Both have 9-letter names (plus some lesser-known similarities) ...
- 21/04/2010 04:43:10 PM
958 Views
Re: 15. Both have 9-letter names (plus some lesser-known similarities) ...
- 22/04/2010 06:38:28 PM
917 Views
Re: 15. Both have 9-letter names (plus some lesser-known similarities) ...
- 21/04/2010 02:30:10 PM
885 Views
Moghedien should really have been called the Wannabe or The Sponge instead of the Spider
- 20/04/2010 10:23:33 PM
1076 Views
Lanfear: How'd you get so good at navigating TAR? Moghedien: I absorbed it.
- 20/04/2010 10:32:41 PM
989 Views
Ouch... little harsh there
- 21/04/2010 06:59:58 PM
971 Views
- 21/04/2010 06:59:58 PM
971 Views
Re: Some similarities between Semirhage and Moghedien
- 21/04/2010 01:35:08 AM
834 Views
Semi was at the Cleansing. You are mixing it up with the Forsaken Coffee Hour.
- 23/04/2010 02:15:44 PM
969 Views
When did Semirhage try to capture Nynaeve? I can't remenber that. *NM*
- 21/04/2010 06:31:39 PM
567 Views
Nynaeve insinuates an attack in KoD when Semirhage is captured *NM*
- 21/04/2010 07:01:42 PM
463 Views