shadowsong26 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shadowsong26) wrote2013-04-09 09:42 pm
shadowsong26) wrote2013-04-09 09:42 pm
Quick (not really) AMoL rant
I finished A Memory of Light and I have a full retrospective/reaction to the series coming, but my reactions to one particular character/arc were expansive/passionate enough to warrant their own post, so here we are.
Bear in mind that I've only read the last two books recently, lacking the time and patience for a full series reread, so some of this may be irrelevant based on earlier appearances/information.
Fucking Mazrim Taim.
Fucking Mazrim. Taim.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
He was so fucking UNDERUSED and ILL-USED and POORLY EXPLAINED and BORING when he could have been FUCKING. AWESOME.
Okay. Deep breaths. Lemme 'splain.
So, we have this guy. False Dragon, oodles of power, oodles of ambition and skill in other areas. Turns out he's Evil with a capital E. Fine. I can live with that.
Turns out he's always been Evil with a capital E, Demandred's henchman, with no motivations or serious POV sections until he's fighting with Egwene in the climax (which climax was, I'll admit, possibly the best part of the final book other than Mat and Tuon fightflirting, which I'll get to in my full retrospective).
This? This I cannot live with.
Because here's the thing. Taim? M'Hael, whatever you wanna call him? He's a parallel to fucking everyone. Apart from the obvious parallels with Rand and Logain, he parallels all three Amyrlins, he parallels Nynaeve in being HOLY SHITFUCK WHERE DID SOMEONE THIS AWESOME COME FROM, he parallels some of the original Forsaken in what little we do get of his motives/POV...and all of that? Wasted. Wasted on a hand-waved cop-out 'he was Demandred's ambitious little puppy-man.'
Fuck. That. Noise.
See, just based on the framework we have for Taim, with all his parallels and antagonisting and whatever? I can come up with MANY different ways that would have been vastly, vastly more awesome than that bullshit. For example:
1) Make him a Verin parallel. Turned for whatever reason--ambition, lack of fulfillment, he was threatened, he got an orgy with all the hot Forsaken, whatever. But he started having doubts, and regrets, and turned into a mole. Hell, he could even be raised to the Forsaken on this pathway, because he's just that awesome, until Androl or Logain gets clued in, and he links with Egwene to deliver a curb-stomp battle in the climax and they go to their crystal towers in the sky or whatever. Or he has a Redemption Equals Death thing where he frees Logain after he's gotten in too deep to do anything else, similar to Verin's suicide. Either way--MUCH AWESOMER
2) Make him a Galad parallel. Seriously. Think about it. Galad believes firmly in "There is Right and there is Wrong and there is No Wiggle Room Whatsoever." Sure, he unbends some, but...wouldn't it be awesome if there were an example of that kind of person, but with the skewed morality that views the Dark One as the ultimate Right? Sort of like Moridin's nihilism, I guess, only from a perspective of a modern False Dragon, who had had both everything and nothing in his life?--MORE AWESOMER
3) Make him backtracking after failing to Take a Third Option. Whether from ambition or hatred of Rand warring with his inner Goodness, Taim walked a fine line between Light and Dark for a long time. Eventually, though, he had to choose--and because Demandred offered him a better deal and Rand's plan to kill the dark one was fucking nuts, he chooses evil.--EVEN AWESOMER
4) Make it Rand's fault. I mean, Rand is a fucking dick--or he was until he became a particularly boring Jesus. Say Taim wanted to find some fulfillment in his life--he knows he can channel, he knows the fate that awaits him. He raises the standard, declares himself Dragon, because he wants it to mean something. And, hell, he's a fucking Nynaeve-powerful genius. He'd be a damn good Dragon, and he knows it. So, he tries, and fails, crashes and burns. But survives. And then Rand is the true Dragon, and he says--well, fuck. I can adjust my expectations. Every Big Good needs a 2IC, I could be that 2IC, I'm a fucking powerful genius, I'd be a damn good 2IC. Except then he meets Rand. Who is a jackass. And shits on Taim (metaphorically) every step of the way. And then he meets Demandred, who's like--y'know? I get it. You're awesome. I respect that. I respect you. I'll give you the credit and validation and advancement you deserve. So Taim listens, and begins to sway, and finally gives himself over fully. And maybe that's what actually happened, thwarted ambition and being shat on by Rand leading to becoming M'Hael, the new Forsaken. Maybe we'll get that in River of Souls, from Demandred's point of view. I can hope.--MUCH MORE AWESOMER
The next few will not keep Taim evil, but are still better than how he was handled in canon.
5) Start with Option 4. Only he managed to stay true to the Light--possibly through Logain's friendship, possibly through something else. He and Egwene have their crystal towers in the sky ending, and he maybe even managed to get some intel to Mat before that happened--FABULOUS
6) He was a mole, from the beginning, but he was Rand's mole, not Demandred's. He had a task, he accomplished it. Crystal tower heaven, intel to Mat, world saved.--MORE FABULOUS
7) Heighten the parallels to Siuan and Elaida--with Logain as Siuan and Taim as a (competent) Elaida. Because if there's one thing these books have been good at--between what Elaida thought she was, and what some of the Whitecloaks are, and the Seanchan...you don't have to be Evil with a Capital E to fuck things up for the Heroes. So, Taim thinks he's doing the right thing, and he's very very good at what he thinks is the right thing, but he's wrong, and Logain, who actually does have the right idea, suffers immeasurably for it, and Taim eventually gets his commeuppance.--EVEN MORE FABULOUS
And, since seven is a significant number in the series, I'll leave it there. But seriously. Taim was underused, underexplained, and, as a result, became a boring antagonist when he could have been one of the best characters in the series. Especially as a new Forsaken, when a lot of the original Forsaken became such after difficulties with Lews Therin. Wasting that history, wasting that angle, fucking sucks and, for me at least, took something away from the finale and the series, which I overall love. Then again, I say this as a person who grows strongly attached to anti-heroes/anti-villains, and I'll admit that there are bigger problems with the series than the way this one character was handled, but...it really bothers me, when so much more could have come from him, and so many other characters at various points on the spectrum of Good vs. Evil have reasons and better explanations than Just Because.
I mean, the primary parallels for Taim are Rand and Logain. And both Rand and Logain slide around from Well-Intentioned but doing a lot of terrible shit to Genuinely Good to Fuck Everything and many other points in between. To have Taim, the Evil Counterpart to our two Good Is Not Nice major male channelers, be just...Because...it falls flat to me. It's a wasted opportunity, and a major disappointment.
Blah. Full response post coming after I get away from this for a while, probably by the end of the week. Thank you for your patience <3
Bear in mind that I've only read the last two books recently, lacking the time and patience for a full series reread, so some of this may be irrelevant based on earlier appearances/information.
Fucking Mazrim Taim.
Fucking Mazrim. Taim.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
He was so fucking UNDERUSED and ILL-USED and POORLY EXPLAINED and BORING when he could have been FUCKING. AWESOME.
Okay. Deep breaths. Lemme 'splain.
So, we have this guy. False Dragon, oodles of power, oodles of ambition and skill in other areas. Turns out he's Evil with a capital E. Fine. I can live with that.
Turns out he's always been Evil with a capital E, Demandred's henchman, with no motivations or serious POV sections until he's fighting with Egwene in the climax (which climax was, I'll admit, possibly the best part of the final book other than Mat and Tuon fightflirting, which I'll get to in my full retrospective).
This? This I cannot live with.
Because here's the thing. Taim? M'Hael, whatever you wanna call him? He's a parallel to fucking everyone. Apart from the obvious parallels with Rand and Logain, he parallels all three Amyrlins, he parallels Nynaeve in being HOLY SHITFUCK WHERE DID SOMEONE THIS AWESOME COME FROM, he parallels some of the original Forsaken in what little we do get of his motives/POV...and all of that? Wasted. Wasted on a hand-waved cop-out 'he was Demandred's ambitious little puppy-man.'
Fuck. That. Noise.
See, just based on the framework we have for Taim, with all his parallels and antagonisting and whatever? I can come up with MANY different ways that would have been vastly, vastly more awesome than that bullshit. For example:
1) Make him a Verin parallel. Turned for whatever reason--ambition, lack of fulfillment, he was threatened, he got an orgy with all the hot Forsaken, whatever. But he started having doubts, and regrets, and turned into a mole. Hell, he could even be raised to the Forsaken on this pathway, because he's just that awesome, until Androl or Logain gets clued in, and he links with Egwene to deliver a curb-stomp battle in the climax and they go to their crystal towers in the sky or whatever. Or he has a Redemption Equals Death thing where he frees Logain after he's gotten in too deep to do anything else, similar to Verin's suicide. Either way--MUCH AWESOMER
2) Make him a Galad parallel. Seriously. Think about it. Galad believes firmly in "There is Right and there is Wrong and there is No Wiggle Room Whatsoever." Sure, he unbends some, but...wouldn't it be awesome if there were an example of that kind of person, but with the skewed morality that views the Dark One as the ultimate Right? Sort of like Moridin's nihilism, I guess, only from a perspective of a modern False Dragon, who had had both everything and nothing in his life?--MORE AWESOMER
3) Make him backtracking after failing to Take a Third Option. Whether from ambition or hatred of Rand warring with his inner Goodness, Taim walked a fine line between Light and Dark for a long time. Eventually, though, he had to choose--and because Demandred offered him a better deal and Rand's plan to kill the dark one was fucking nuts, he chooses evil.--EVEN AWESOMER
4) Make it Rand's fault. I mean, Rand is a fucking dick--or he was until he became a particularly boring Jesus. Say Taim wanted to find some fulfillment in his life--he knows he can channel, he knows the fate that awaits him. He raises the standard, declares himself Dragon, because he wants it to mean something. And, hell, he's a fucking Nynaeve-powerful genius. He'd be a damn good Dragon, and he knows it. So, he tries, and fails, crashes and burns. But survives. And then Rand is the true Dragon, and he says--well, fuck. I can adjust my expectations. Every Big Good needs a 2IC, I could be that 2IC, I'm a fucking powerful genius, I'd be a damn good 2IC. Except then he meets Rand. Who is a jackass. And shits on Taim (metaphorically) every step of the way. And then he meets Demandred, who's like--y'know? I get it. You're awesome. I respect that. I respect you. I'll give you the credit and validation and advancement you deserve. So Taim listens, and begins to sway, and finally gives himself over fully. And maybe that's what actually happened, thwarted ambition and being shat on by Rand leading to becoming M'Hael, the new Forsaken. Maybe we'll get that in River of Souls, from Demandred's point of view. I can hope.--MUCH MORE AWESOMER
The next few will not keep Taim evil, but are still better than how he was handled in canon.
5) Start with Option 4. Only he managed to stay true to the Light--possibly through Logain's friendship, possibly through something else. He and Egwene have their crystal towers in the sky ending, and he maybe even managed to get some intel to Mat before that happened--FABULOUS
6) He was a mole, from the beginning, but he was Rand's mole, not Demandred's. He had a task, he accomplished it. Crystal tower heaven, intel to Mat, world saved.--MORE FABULOUS
7) Heighten the parallels to Siuan and Elaida--with Logain as Siuan and Taim as a (competent) Elaida. Because if there's one thing these books have been good at--between what Elaida thought she was, and what some of the Whitecloaks are, and the Seanchan...you don't have to be Evil with a Capital E to fuck things up for the Heroes. So, Taim thinks he's doing the right thing, and he's very very good at what he thinks is the right thing, but he's wrong, and Logain, who actually does have the right idea, suffers immeasurably for it, and Taim eventually gets his commeuppance.--EVEN MORE FABULOUS
And, since seven is a significant number in the series, I'll leave it there. But seriously. Taim was underused, underexplained, and, as a result, became a boring antagonist when he could have been one of the best characters in the series. Especially as a new Forsaken, when a lot of the original Forsaken became such after difficulties with Lews Therin. Wasting that history, wasting that angle, fucking sucks and, for me at least, took something away from the finale and the series, which I overall love. Then again, I say this as a person who grows strongly attached to anti-heroes/anti-villains, and I'll admit that there are bigger problems with the series than the way this one character was handled, but...it really bothers me, when so much more could have come from him, and so many other characters at various points on the spectrum of Good vs. Evil have reasons and better explanations than Just Because.
I mean, the primary parallels for Taim are Rand and Logain. And both Rand and Logain slide around from Well-Intentioned but doing a lot of terrible shit to Genuinely Good to Fuck Everything and many other points in between. To have Taim, the Evil Counterpart to our two Good Is Not Nice major male channelers, be just...Because...it falls flat to me. It's a wasted opportunity, and a major disappointment.
Blah. Full response post coming after I get away from this for a while, probably by the end of the week. Thank you for your patience <3