I was looking at the post the other day about the relative strength of female forsaken compared to Nynaeve and I remember wondering why Semirhage still showed up on the list. With that as with this post, Semirhage is now irrelevant to me. I've liked the story all along as I've read it, but at this point I only care about the present and whatever the future might be.
Someone here said that the balefiring was irrelevant after the spanking. For me it's the opposite. The spanking is irrelevant due to the balefiring. She's done! And she ain't comin' back. In my mind her relative power strength now, for example, doesn't matter because she's not going to be doing anything else with it. And the fact that she got spanked before she died doesn't matter to me since she got zapped out of the pattern. Haven't thought about Be'lal or Rahvin since they bought it either. Moghedien was captured and temporarily humbled too, but that didn't bother me either. She escaped and, had she not become somebody's beeyotch in short order, would have been right back up to her old tricks, her humbling made irrelevant except for giving her a revenge motive. When Semi was freed, it wiped out the humbling for me, and when she was killed, it wiped it all out.
As for the scene itself, at the time I read it, I liked it. She was a puzzle for Cadsuane and there really was no way she was going to be broken by threats or pain or coercion, not by anyone. I was certain she'd be freed - Rand's no killing women rule was way too foreshadowy to not lead to another escape. She thought herself invulnerable, but everybody's got some kind of achilles heel and I liked that Cadsuane figured hers out, and that she never could have imagined being beaten like that. I will say that I felt she gave in rather quickly and started lapping up those beans unrealistically soon. But in terms of the outcome, I was fine with it. Each of the forsaken could be beaten by their weaknesses in some way and it's interesting to think about how to beat each.
But that quickly became irrelevant when the shadow once again freed a captive forsaken from the hapless good guys who didn't know what they were dealing with. She once again became a lethal loose cannon and almost enslaved our boy. But Shazam! Bye bye! I liked her sense of having been... wait for it... forsaken by the DO right there at the end. Won't try that again, will you, smartypants!
With all of that said, I understand what it's like to be annoyed at how a given plot thread gets resolved. I felt that way about Masema and Aram. I was like, "Wait...WHAT?! That's IT?! Boooo!" Semirhage's actual death was nice and dramatic and pivotal for the story (forcing Rand to channel the TP), enough to make the spanking a nonissue for me even if I hadn't liked it, but I hear you. It's like if Fain just decides to retire to a nice cottage somewhere in the Murandy countryside and sends Rand and Mat a no-hard-feelings-let's-have-tea-sometime letter. "Hey wait...!"
Someone here said that the balefiring was irrelevant after the spanking. For me it's the opposite. The spanking is irrelevant due to the balefiring. She's done! And she ain't comin' back. In my mind her relative power strength now, for example, doesn't matter because she's not going to be doing anything else with it. And the fact that she got spanked before she died doesn't matter to me since she got zapped out of the pattern. Haven't thought about Be'lal or Rahvin since they bought it either. Moghedien was captured and temporarily humbled too, but that didn't bother me either. She escaped and, had she not become somebody's beeyotch in short order, would have been right back up to her old tricks, her humbling made irrelevant except for giving her a revenge motive. When Semi was freed, it wiped out the humbling for me, and when she was killed, it wiped it all out.
As for the scene itself, at the time I read it, I liked it. She was a puzzle for Cadsuane and there really was no way she was going to be broken by threats or pain or coercion, not by anyone. I was certain she'd be freed - Rand's no killing women rule was way too foreshadowy to not lead to another escape. She thought herself invulnerable, but everybody's got some kind of achilles heel and I liked that Cadsuane figured hers out, and that she never could have imagined being beaten like that. I will say that I felt she gave in rather quickly and started lapping up those beans unrealistically soon. But in terms of the outcome, I was fine with it. Each of the forsaken could be beaten by their weaknesses in some way and it's interesting to think about how to beat each.
But that quickly became irrelevant when the shadow once again freed a captive forsaken from the hapless good guys who didn't know what they were dealing with. She once again became a lethal loose cannon and almost enslaved our boy. But Shazam! Bye bye! I liked her sense of having been... wait for it... forsaken by the DO right there at the end. Won't try that again, will you, smartypants!
With all of that said, I understand what it's like to be annoyed at how a given plot thread gets resolved. I felt that way about Masema and Aram. I was like, "Wait...WHAT?! That's IT?! Boooo!" Semirhage's actual death was nice and dramatic and pivotal for the story (forcing Rand to channel the TP), enough to make the spanking a nonissue for me even if I hadn't liked it, but I hear you. It's like if Fain just decides to retire to a nice cottage somewhere in the Murandy countryside and sends Rand and Mat a no-hard-feelings-let's-have-tea-sometime letter. "Hey wait...!"
This message last edited by Sandwich on 20/11/2009 at 12:33:26 AM
Semirhage vs Cadsuane - in Sanderson's words...
19/11/2009 09:58:19 PM
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The two of you are pathetic
19/11/2009 10:09:34 PM
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Your problem is...
19/11/2009 10:21:40 PM
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No.
20/11/2009 08:15:32 AM
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And now he's not "blind" anymore
20/11/2009 08:20:56 AM
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You know, I agree
19/11/2009 11:12:49 PM
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But she gave us a clue as to how she might be broken.
20/11/2009 08:17:04 AM
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I would love to see tSR and tFoH from Moiraine's perspective
20/11/2009 08:22:55 AM
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I imagine it took A LOT of frustration and anger management. *NM*
20/11/2009 08:27:13 AM
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I agree with Cannoli completely. (Did I just say that?)
19/11/2009 11:18:09 PM
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And I agree with Rand al'Thor.
19/11/2009 11:35:55 PM
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I didn't like it for the same reason I don't like the Aes Sedai much anymore
20/11/2009 07:40:31 AM
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WoT isn't pure fantasy - it's humans within a fantasy world
20/11/2009 08:20:23 AM
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Oh, totally- but humans can act in more than one way. "Real" humans can be terrifying, too!
20/11/2009 08:33:53 AM
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I'm pretty sure that AS are meant to be a parable for the government...
21/11/2009 06:20:14 PM
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Re: I didn't like it for the same reason I don't like the Aes Sedai much anymore
08/05/2010 12:46:31 AM
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Are you feeling all right? If you are, Cannoli is right, and you're pathetic.
19/11/2009 10:18:54 PM
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See my response to Cannoli. *NM*
19/11/2009 10:25:15 PM
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That was barely a response...
20/11/2009 12:43:07 AM
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There's always more than one way for a story to "logically" progress
20/11/2009 08:07:44 AM
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Evil IS cool! This is storytelling, not a morality play.
20/11/2009 08:01:17 AM
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Re: Evil IS cool! This is storytelling, not a morality play.
20/11/2009 10:50:07 PM
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Re: Evil IS cool! This is storytelling, not a morality play.
08/05/2010 01:17:07 AM
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Oh, they're quite good at killing people.
08/05/2010 06:47:35 AM
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Re: Oh, they're quite good at killing people.
09/05/2010 06:09:38 PM
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Actually, it's why they're still alive.
09/05/2010 06:32:22 PM
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Are they? Why are Mat, Perrin and the Wondergirls still alive?
13/05/2010 12:47:57 AM
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Nobody's even tried to kill them since Ishamael died, until he gave the order again in KoD.
13/05/2010 01:13:02 AM
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It'd be harder to kill them now as they have come into their own power
21/06/2010 01:18:31 AM
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I loved that scene - it's actually dog-eared because it's one of my favorites.
19/11/2009 10:37:33 PM
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Actually... what happened to Semirhage was BEAUTIFUL.
19/11/2009 11:28:29 PM
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I agree with your second half
20/11/2009 08:27:07 AM
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She is dead to me!
20/11/2009 12:25:42 AM
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I agree with Cannoli and Fionwe's on the best way to handle Semirhage
20/11/2009 04:17:41 AM
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So would you enjoy seeing Moridin pulled over Cadsuane's knee and spanked?
20/11/2009 07:48:45 AM
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You're upset about the spanking and have missed the reason for it.
20/11/2009 03:05:50 PM
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Don't avoid the question...
20/11/2009 03:27:23 PM
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20/11/2009 10:36:36 PM
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I'm not avoiding anything, just pointing out how silly this post is
20/11/2009 04:50:17 PM
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Re: I'm not avoiding anything, just pointing out how silly this post is
08/05/2010 01:07:13 AM
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Re: You're upset about the spanking and have missed the reason for it.
08/05/2010 12:58:52 AM
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Except that Demandred is the one Darksider who knows about Elayne
21/11/2009 06:30:26 PM
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Re: Except that Demandred is the one Darksider who knows about Elayne
22/11/2009 10:13:44 AM
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He was dispatched 'fairly easily' because he was betrayed by Moridin
.
22/11/2009 08:09:38 PM
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I think it was an excellent look at just how pathetic most of the Forsaken are and why they sold out
20/11/2009 04:21:36 AM
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The weird thing is, (or maybe not so weird), that I feel like she suffered the same way in tGS
20/11/2009 08:36:45 AM
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Re: I think it was an excellent look at just how pathetic most of the Forsaken are and
08/05/2010 12:13:20 AM
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How many people
08/05/2010 12:30:17 AM
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At least two.
10/05/2010 02:10:31 PM
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Re: At least two.
21/06/2010 01:24:53 AM
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Shame has traditionally been one of the greatest ways of enforcing public order
21/06/2010 02:55:54 AM
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