No, just the most heinous criminals imaginable - Edit 1
Before modification by Sidious at 21/09/2009 12:45:33 PM
No. All that is needed for success as a criminal is the absence of intelligence on the part of the law.
Which means that the mind of the criminal in that situation is superior.
Of the vast number of successful criminals in this world, few are genius super crooks, who lay subtle, twenty year long plans to confound the genius police forces (which rarely exist).
According to who? You? A crime kingpin has to actually be pretty clever to avoid jail over a long period of time. It's all the idiots who get caught.
The quote above seems appropriate for some Agatha Christie novel, where the detectives are so clever, that only the master crooks can almost beat them. Crime in reality is more a competition of lower stupidity than greater genius.
The relative concept is what's important, not the true value. In the Forsaken's case, Rand is not a genius. It seems that the best from the AOL were rather mediocre indeed if a farmer can outsmart them.
Their score is 500 to 0? In which book series? You make the mistake of measuring their success by the body count of a gang of 15 people! You ignore the vast suffering, the major wars and the sheer chaos they have spread to the common man.
Maybe that is RJ's greatest flaw. That he failed to show us how Graendal's actions affected the common Domani, how Semirhage's actions have wrought unspeakable suffering in a huge continent, how Sammael, Asmodean and Rhavin sent thousands to deaths. Because we can only appreciate these in a cerebral fashion, too many people tend to write off the evil of these characters.
Maybe that is RJ's greatest flaw. That he failed to show us how Graendal's actions affected the common Domani, how Semirhage's actions have wrought unspeakable suffering in a huge continent, how Sammael, Asmodean and Rhavin sent thousands to deaths. Because we can only appreciate these in a cerebral fashion, too many people tend to write off the evil of these characters.
Even the Forsaken don't care about these things despite the fact that they are atrocities. They don't speak about how profound the chaos is in Ilian or Seanchan. All they care about is Rand - and they've caused him minimal inconvenience. Of all the Forsaken. Asmodean has done the most damage by firing up Couladin as a potential Car'acarn, which seriously diverted Rand for a prolonged period. Elayne basically walked into an undamaged Andor despite the 'destruction' of Rahvin - she'll get the place cleaned up in a few months. The same can be said of Ilian and Tear despite the two male Forsaken's best efforts. Semirhage caused true chaos and plunged Seanchan into anarchy - but that actually helped the Dragon Reborn more than anything else.
Imagine writing off Hitler as one of humanities greatest evils because he never won a duel and in the end shot himself. Imagine writing off all the deaths of the millions of Jews because Hitler was a moron whose idiotic policies saw the most brilliant minds rush to America to help in the construction of an atom bomb. Imagine writing off the instigator of the most destructive war human kind has seen because he was paranoid and a megalomaniac who failed to use his best generals out of fear.
Because that's what you're doing here.
Because that's what you're doing here.
If Hitler's only goal was to kill Churchill, my point would be entirely appropriate. The Forsaken are not there to perform atrocities, they are there to defeat the Light, which means that they only have to kill Rand al'Thor and they've won. Not only can they not kill him, they can't even kill his friends. Not even one.