[Tatterdemalion]

It's not that people FORGET this, it is that at no point in the actual books do you really see evidence of his competance. When it is from his perspective, he's an idiot. His military actions are in no way greatly successful, unable to or too stupidly confident to beat Coltaine. Let alone RotCG. We don't know about the end of HoC, but in the end he's just a powerful fool. He's gotten far through intimidation and bloodthirst, but up against ACTUAL badasses he loses EVERY time. Thus, he's nothing special when it comes to the epic world of the Books, while perhaps appearing powerful in-world to citizens and various characters. He may have lead the Bridgeburners, but they also hated most of their captains and most of them had short life expectancies, if I recall from GotM. No one is doubting his pedigree, just its value. Think Pormqual.

[D'rek]

Tatterdemalion, on 10 November 2010 - 04:40 AM, said:

It's not that people FORGET this, it is that at no point in the actual books do you really see evidence of his competance. When it is from his perspective, he's an idiot. His military actions are in no way greatly successful, unable to or too stupidly confident to beat Coltaine. Let alone RotCG. We don't know about the end of HoC, but in the end he's just a powerful fool. He's gotten far through intimidation and bloodthirst, but up against ACTUAL badasses he loses EVERY time. Thus, he's nothing special when it comes to the epic world of the Books, while perhaps appearing powerful in-world to citizens and various characters. He may have lead the Bridgeburners, but they also hated most of their captains and most of them had short life expectancies, if I recall from GotM. No one is doubting his pedigree, just its value. Think Pormqual.

Except for, you know, in HoC when the 14th arrives at Raraku and the veterans look down and see how horrifically screwed they will be trying to fight Korbolo's expert arrangement of his forces. L'oric can prattle on about the historical statistics of vague notions of personality, and Leoman can sit on his ass pretending to be high, it's hard to argue with

Quote

'Those ramps will see the death of us all,' Keneb muttered. 'Korbolo's prepared for this, as any competent, Malazan-trained commander would. He wants us crowded and struggling uphill, beneath an endless hail of arrows, quarrels and ballista, not to mention sorcery. Look at how smooth he's made those ramp surfaces, Fist. The cobbles, when slick with streaming blood, will be like grease underfoot. We'll find no purchase-'

Quote

'Tell me, Fist Gamet, how confident do you imagine Korbolo Dom feels right now?'
[...]
'I would think, Adjunct, that his measure of confidence is wilting.'
'Wilting. Why?'
'Because it all looks too easy. Too overwhelmingly in his favour, Adjunct.'

That.. Bearing in mind that his plan isn't even to kill all the 14th. His plan is to send his own personal Talon cadre to assassinate the assortment of high mages and commanders in the camp, as well as the Whirlwind Goddess herself, then turn back to the Malazans as a hero. He doesn't even need to fight the 14th, just has to make a showy enough defence that they'll wait a day to attack. If that's his preparations for a pretend defence, and he's developed his own guild of assassins capable of taking out a goddess, what exactly do you find lacking in his planning? Comparing him to Promqual is laughable.

[HiddenOne]

I think both arguments are pretty good. The book gives Dom plenty of credit, but the examples we see are scattered. He arrays his forces well, but its "competent" not "genius" using the terrain to his advantage. And his POV is less than awe-inspring, but I agree with Drek that his frustration w/ Coltaine has ruined him.

So I think the real issue is that he's such a flaming butthole that everybody needs to hate him, and not see him in any positive light.