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Finished and have a few questions probably "RAFO" is the answer...

#1 User is offline   BellaGrace 

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Posted 21 November 2014 - 11:48 PM

1. Quick Ben is much more powerful in this book - he basically takes down and kills three soletaken ascendants on his own (I realize he had help and one got away wounded). In a previous book when his ship was attacked by the Tiste Edur warlocks he was only able to hold them off with an illusion. Doesn't make sense to me - he wouldn't let the entire fleet and himself be destroyed just to hide his true power? So what's the deal, he suddenly got MUCH more powerful and it's unexplained (thus far).

1(a). The 3 sisters seem to die pretty easily and quickly considering they were soletaken ascendants - they were basically equal in power and parentage to Lady Envy and she carved a path through the entire Pannion Dominion without getting scratched. It feels inequitable to me.


2. What was the point of Redmask? I feel like that entire storyline could have been left out and we would have missed nothing except Toc's death. I'm guessing this might be a RAFO situation? Even if Tavore is headed to fight the Barghast invaders, the Awl storyline could have been left out.

3. Why does Silchas Ruin bother with swords at all (other than it's bad ass)- at the big fight scene when they come out of the gate he fights Trull with weapons and then uses magic on one of the others. Just wondering what's the point of getting up close and personal with a sword when you have the power to kill with magic (more like how QB fights).

4. Almost off topic, but is Hood a bad guy? Most of the time when he appears in this book he seems like a decent, fair god - except that I know he did something bad to Dassem's daughter.

5. Am I the only one that really wanted Samar Dev to get it on with Karsa :(

This post has been edited by BellaGrace: 21 November 2014 - 11:49 PM

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#2 User is offline   Andorion 

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Posted 22 November 2014 - 02:42 AM

View PostBellaGrace, on 21 November 2014 - 11:48 PM, said:

1. Quick Ben is much more powerful in this book - he basically takes down and kills three soletaken ascendants on his own (I realize he had help and one got away wounded). In a previous book when his ship was attacked by the Tiste Edur warlocks he was only able to hold them off with an illusion. Doesn't make sense to me - he wouldn't let the entire fleet and himself be destroyed just to hide his true power? So what's the deal, he suddenly got MUCH more powerful and it's unexplained (thus far).

1(a). The 3 sisters seem to die pretty easily and quickly considering they were soletaken ascendants - they were basically equal in power and parentage to Lady Envy and she carved a path through the entire Pannion Dominion without getting scratched. It feels inequitable to me.


2. What was the point of Redmask? I feel like that entire storyline could have been left out and we would have missed nothing except Toc's death. I'm guessing this might be a RAFO situation? Even if Tavore is headed to fight the Barghast invaders, the Awl storyline could have been left out.

3. Why does Silchas Ruin bother with swords at all (other than it's bad ass)- at the big fight scene when they come out of the gate he fights Trull with weapons and then uses magic on one of the others. Just wondering what's the point of getting up close and personal with a sword when you have the power to kill with magic (more like how QB fights).

4. Almost off topic, but is Hood a bad guy? Most of the time when he appears in this book he seems like a decent, fair god - except that I know he did something bad to Dassem's daughter.

5. Am I the only one that really wanted Samar Dev to get it on with Karsa :(


1. If you read the scene carefully, you will note QB didn't do as much as it seems. When the three were in flight, he didnt hit them with magic at all, he hit the ground, causing it to fountain up, first deflecting their own magic, and then causing them to collapse to the ground. His subsequent waves simply kept them entangled. Then Menandore and Sheltatha Lore turned on each other. One killed the other, while sustaining critical injuries, and Hedge finished that one with a cusser. A cusser inside a stomach can take out practically anything. As for Sukul Ankhadu, she was injured, veered back into Tiste form and facing two Imass Soletaken Bonecasters. Note they didnt kill easily, they both died as well. One very important element in this whole set up was that the three sisters consistently underestimated their opposition. They were taken by surprise. .
2. The importance of the Awl storyline is RAFO for DoD, TCG.
3. It may simply be a case of personal preference.
4. Good/bad gets hazy in Malazan. Remember, what little we know about Dassems daughter are from 2nd/3rd hand perspectives. It may not be as simple as it seems.
5. RAFO (Maybe, maybe not, maybe never)
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#3 User is offline   Jhag of spades 

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Posted 22 November 2014 - 01:14 PM

Regarding QB I'm fairly certain that it is stated, by himself, that he got a powerboost after his fight against Iccy. I think it's a result of him going all out during that fight, thus pushing his limits quite a bit to what we see him capable of in RG. Also it is QB we're talking about and we really have no idea about what he is truly capable of because of his preference for being sneaky instead of powerful. So while I personally don't think he would have been capable of taking on 3 soletaken Eleints before his Iccy fight, he might actually have been. Furthermore there is something about the stone he gives Menandore when she meets Qb and Hedge on the hill top, though I can't remember what it is right now but I'm sure some of the veterans in here can tell you.Posted Image

As for you example with QBs illusion on the ship in tBh you have to remember that the Edur are using the Holds while QB is using warrens and he probably knows that for the purpose of destroying fleets and wrecking unbelievable damage his warrens can't do that much. So when he sees that the Edur elder magic is almost ready he probably gets desperate and did the first thing he thought of, and having had succes with illusions before he settled for that. I think he states himself that he won't be able to counter the hold magic and thus as for the question of how powerful he is it is important to remember that he gets a lot of aid from the Eres'al.

I'm am myself on my first read of the series and little more than 700 pages into TTH so i might be wrong about some of the stuff.


As for the Hood question i agree with Andorion i think one of the important points in the series is that good and bad is a matter of perspective, also we often don't know the whole story.
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#4 User is offline   BellaGrace 

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Posted 22 November 2014 - 04:40 PM

View PostJhag of spades, on 22 November 2014 - 01:14 PM, said:

Regarding QB I'm fairly certain that it is stated, by himself, that he got a powerboost after his fight against Iccy. I think it's a result of him going all out during that fight, thus pushing his limits quite a bit to what we see him capable of in RG. Also it is QB we're talking about and we really have no idea about what he is truly capable of because of his preference for being sneaky instead of powerful. So while I personally don't think he would have been capable of taking on 3 soletaken Eleints before his Iccy fight, he might actually have been. Furthermore there is something about the stone he gives Menandore when she meets Qb and Hedge on the hill top, though I can't remember what it is right now but I'm sure some of the veterans in here can tell you.Posted Image

As for you example with QBs illusion on the ship in tBh you have to remember that the Edur are using the Holds while QB is using warrens and he probably knows that for the purpose of destroying fleets and wrecking unbelievable damage his warrens can't do that much. So when he sees that the Edur elder magic is almost ready he probably gets desperate and did the first thing he thought of, and having had succes with illusions before he settled for that. I think he states himself that he won't be able to counter the hold magic and thus as for the question of how powerful he is it is important to remember that he gets a lot of aid from the Eres'al.

I'm am myself on my first read of the series and little more than 700 pages into TTH so i might be wrong about some of the stuff.


As for the Hood question i agree with Andorion i think one of the important points in the series is that good and bad is a matter of perspective, also we often don't know the whole story.


About that stone... nothing ever came of it... he put it in her pocket but then shortly after that she came back and died. So if there's more to it, it must be explained in the next books?


EDIT @ Andorian - I figured there was a LOT more to the Dassem's daughter story!

This post has been edited by BellaGrace: 22 November 2014 - 04:41 PM

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#5 User is offline   BellaGrace 

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Posted 22 November 2014 - 04:53 PM

I was just looking over my notes and forgot to ask this.. (yes, I'm THAT nerdy that I write down things that I have questions about to make sure they get answered later in the book/s)....I really think you're going to say RAFO....but what the hell...

I don't understand the significance of Clip's rings. The book always uses the word "gates" when talking about them, but I don't understand how that's different than what any other mage or ascendant can do with opening a warren. It seems like he opened a way into Kurald Galain and maybe Starvald Demelain (I can't remember if they went into that one via Clip's rings). Either way - Rake and Ruin (and probably a lot of other Tiste Andii) are able to access and enter those warrens. I guess I'm just missing something because we've seen other Tiste Andii take people into Kurald Galain (like Korlat and WJ) - so what is the significance of Clip opening the warren portal instead of Ruin (who could have easily done the same)? Nimander said there was a prophecy about the rings/gates - I know I'll find out more about that later. It was just strange in the book that no one expected Ruin to take them via warren and instead waited until Clip decided to do it.


Oh, and another question I just thought of...

What was going on with Silchas Ruin being able to control the light inside Kurald Galain - that never really was explained - is that a RAFO?
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