[blackzoid]

Ruin doesn't seem to have the skill level of Rake but he's got 2 swords and probably would not be planning ti get killed like Rake was in his fight.
Plus Dassem is a broken man now.
I'd say the only thing keeping Dassem from commiting sucide anyway,is the fact that in his mind, Hood may still be waiting for him to do it so he could gloat.

[caladanbrood]

polishgenius;355889 said:

That's what a few people have said, but they're still... there. For all intents and purposes they might as well be alive, seeing as they're showing up and functioning in the plot.

I didn't have a problem with Itkovian's "return". I thought I would have, because he was by far my favourite character when alive, and the way he went out was perfect. But it made sense, with such a huge sacrifice that he made, that he would be reveared, even unto godhood.

I was a bit put off that 3 of the best commanders in history would be Whiskeyjack, Toc/Anaster and Brukhalian, though...

[Wry]

caladanbrood;355983 said:

I was a bit put off that 3 of the best commanders in history would be Whiskeyjack, Toc/Anaster and Brukhalian, though...

Agreed, but does say they were 3 of the best commanders? I prefer to think they're there because of the 'value' of their death. i mean it makes sense that the people who died under poignant or powerful circumstances would have more power in the world of death no?

alternatively these are people Hood took a personal interest in when they died, maybe this is the reason for that interest... or his way of redressing the tradgedy of their dying. "ok you died in a crappy way, but i've a job that will make it worth it" kind of thing

[Terez]

Isn't Whiskeyjack ascended? And Hood came personally for Brukhalian, didn't he?

[caladanbrood]

Hood did come to collect Brukhalian personally, yes. I guess the value of those three is that they were leaders of elite groups - Bridgeburners and Old/New Grey Swords, but still...this world is insanely old, I refuse to believe that all (well, 3 out of 4 or 5) of the best ones or even the most poignant would have died in the previous 10 or whatever years...

[Tapper]

My personal 'solution' is that the longer you're dead, the more you forget of the skills you had mastered while alive. Aside from the Seguleh, the Grey Swords and the BBs, there were no elites in the army of death... pretty weird for a world that featured a few hundred thousand years of rising and falling empires with top notch militaries each - what of the First Empire (of man) for example? The only way this is possible is if the memory and skill of a soul in Hood's realm somehow decays, and what goes for a horde of nameless soldiers would go for commanders, too.
So, WJ and Brukhalian would simply be the sharpest tools in the shed due to being dead for a fairly short time.

[Pig Iron]

Optimus Prime;352978 said:

God damn I just finished this book and.....wow.

The bit about the mother and son being together....weird. Rake seems to be even more legendary and epic now, in the world of Burn, than before. Didn't think that was possible.

Wonder what a Freudian would have to say about Rake destroying his "sword" to get back to a symbiosis with his formerly absent mother. Actually, the Gate in the wagon was a hole to the dark ...

[Skywalker]

Pig Iron;356254 said:

Wonder what a Freudian would have to say about Rake destroying his "sword" to get back to a symbiosis with his formerly absent mother. Actually, the Gate in the wagon was a hole to the dark ...

And that sir, gets you rep for astuteness LOL :shocked: