The sword thing is just one of many..and no, there is no hint that Asmodean was a swordsman either.. - Edit 2
Before modification by Shannow at 01/02/2013 02:28:19 PM
Why won't you let this Demandred-sword thing go?
By all accounts, the sword was a game practiced widely in the AOL. Be'lal hinted as much, until they turned it into a lethal sport during the Collapse. It may even have been an elite sport practiced by all the snobs of the day, much like polo or croquet in our world. It seems Tcheran was another such game that people were required to play to be popular, though Moridin was excellent and Semirhage was not.
Be'lal was a lawyer, Asmodean was a musician, Demandred/LTT were statesmen and Sammael was a sportman. All were good at swordsmanship. There is nothing to hint that it was some sort of olympic sport that only Sammael excelled at. From what we've seen, Moridin may be skilled too. The only Forsaken who we know sucked was Osan'gar whom Rand said looked ridiculous and clumsy with a sword.
The heron mark may be from the AOL. It's not a third age practice Brandon put foolishly onto Demandred... Be'lal himself had a heron mark blade.
I do think Demandred could have killed the men with channeling, but its part of his arrogant persona... To beat a man at his own game, to prove that he is the best in all things.
By all accounts, the sword was a game practiced widely in the AOL. Be'lal hinted as much, until they turned it into a lethal sport during the Collapse. It may even have been an elite sport practiced by all the snobs of the day, much like polo or croquet in our world. It seems Tcheran was another such game that people were required to play to be popular, though Moridin was excellent and Semirhage was not.
Be'lal was a lawyer, Asmodean was a musician, Demandred/LTT were statesmen and Sammael was a sportman. All were good at swordsmanship. There is nothing to hint that it was some sort of olympic sport that only Sammael excelled at. From what we've seen, Moridin may be skilled too. The only Forsaken who we know sucked was Osan'gar whom Rand said looked ridiculous and clumsy with a sword.
The heron mark may be from the AOL. It's not a third age practice Brandon put foolishly onto Demandred... Be'lal himself had a heron mark blade.
I do think Demandred could have killed the men with channeling, but its part of his arrogant persona... To beat a man at his own game, to prove that he is the best in all things.
Do you think that an Aes Sedai can spin three flows simultaneously and shield two full Ashaman at the same time?
Do you think that Taim can resist a shielding attempt from Vora's sa'angreal?
Do you think that Logain can engage in even a 10 second One Power duel against a Forsaken with a Callandor level sa'angreal?
Do you think Demandred would "first seek to eliminate the threat" of Logain's attempted shield of Spirit, when Demandred is wielding a Callandor level sa'angreal, and with Logain having split his flows to spin a gateway at the same time as the fake shield?
Let me repeat: Logain uses part of his unaided strength to spin a shield of Spirit, and Demandred - wielding a massive sa'angreal - tries to eliminate the "threat" of this puny shield, allowing Logain time to dive through his simultaneously spun gateway to safety.
This when it is very hard to even shield someone of similar strength to yourself, let along a dozen or a hundred times stronger.
In fact, I seem to recall Brandon referring to this very fact when the damane try to shield a powerful sa'angreal wielding channeler, but are unable to because they cannot link. So how on earth can any single channeler then be a threat to Demandred wielding a Sa'angreal?
You find it unlikely that the out of place swordfighting sequence are Branfiction, while all of the above obviously was utterly made up?
Brandon tried to make Demandred into some kind of Vaderlike Dark Lord of the Sith. The final scene just HAD to involve swordfighting as well as dazzling power displays. Might as well replace his heron marked sword with a purple lightsabre.
That's simply not how RJ portrayed it.