[Sinisdar Toste]

Ain, on 27 December 2009 - 10:29 AM, said:

Hmm....is that why he killed those innocent Barghast at the end? There didn't seem to be a reason.

well, at least i think thats why. its sounds like a poetic kind of full circle thing when you say it doesn't it? a prophetic utterance to capture the plight of tool's soul

[Bauchelain the Evil]

I believe it was partly is all-consuming rage and partly he didn't recognise who the those Barghast were and took thaem as the rapers of his wife and the killers of his child( which are not dead but he doesn't know that)

[Hops]

Bauchelain you said "I believe it was partly is all-consuming rage and partly he didn't recognise who the those Barghast were and took thaem as the rapers of his wife and the killers of his child( which are not dead but he doesn't know that)" - Were not the Senan those responsible for the hobbling of Hetan and the attempted murder of Tool's children. It all began at the Senan Camp as soon as news of Tool's demise reched them.
This is the Justification for Tool's rage I guess.

As for Tool's suicide I agree it would have been better if he had of gone down fighting.... but mayhap's Tool had thought "Finally I have gotten through to some of these Barghast", the warriors with him had come to accept his leadership and his ideal that this was not "our war", he would have then thought "If they all die here then my message has been lost" of course his decision was rash and I believe that he did not completely grasp the implications of his death, if he had have maybe he wouldn't have driven that blade home.

Needless to say Tool's ideal obviously got through to some and they walked away from the battle and got wiped by Tool and the T'lan Imass instead.

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Well ,yes, the Senan were the ones who hobbled Hetan but Strahl and the rest had nothing to do with that and they sort of prooved it by deserting the other Barghasts in the battle against the Akrynai.

[Morgoth]

I approached DoD with Mal's curses at Tool's fate fresh in memory, and so expected a truly absurd change of character to be written into the first sword. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised at the portrayal of Tool as a mortal man.

Before I go there though, I wish to point a bit back in the series to Onrack, whom after being severed from the ritual is emotionally (if not physically) reborn as a mortal. Both he and Trull remark upon the change in the Imass. And it is clear from his inner monologues that he struggles with this new torrent of emotions. Imagine living only to kill for hundreds of thousands of years for then in a matter of days become as you were, starkly remembering all that you were in between.

Futility is a word often associated with the T'lann Imass. Tool certainly struggled with what he was and what had become of his race. In many ways I agree with HD. The T'lann Imass, though certainly tragic, are also in many ways evil as we would define it.

So then, back to Tool. Here he is, given a new chance as a mortal man. He's got a wife, children, a clan to lead and a clear purpose to follow. Yet, what happens when that purpose seems to lead him directly towards what he was. Leading the Barghast to war against another ancient enemy. How is that different from what he's been doing ever since the ritual? That is the tragedy I think, of Tools new life. So, when he's about to be attacked by a few thousand barghast, what can he do? Sure, he could fight and perhaps he'd defeat them all, but how then is he different? The choice he made; it gave him a chance to save his family through the hundred he brought with him. They tried after all, though they partially failed in the end.

One can say that a being who's been alive for longer than the existence of the human race should've been able to find a better solution. However, this long life of his was that of a mass murdering automaton, mechanically following a single, narrow minded purpose without relent. The T'lann Imass have lived for a long time, but apart from the occasional glimmer we've seen very little from them that resembles wisdom.

So no, I was quite impressed with Tools end. Both because it rang true, but also because it shows (yet again) that SE is not in the least bit worried about making choices that will both disappoint and anger. I remember all the threads about how awesome Tool would be now that he was again mortal. The undead KCCM were slower than their living counterparts, so how dangerous will Tool be now? And so on and so forth.

my two cents anyways.

[foolio]

forgive me, I am not very smart, and feel even dumber after finishing this book, but what enemy did the storm tell tool was on its way? I know he knew who it was and that he had no chance of winning but I still dont really know who it was....

[K'Chain Bull'shite]

the K'Chain Nah'ruk.

[foolio]

Bre, on 05 January 2010 - 03:28 PM, said:

the K'Chain Nah'ruk.

thanks. I didnt realize they were ever enemies of the Tlan Imass. i even thought at one point one of the Tlan thinks that they should have been the enemies instead of the jaghut...

[WhiskeyJackDaniels]

They don't need to have been enemies at one point for Tool to realize what they were and how dangerous they are.

[foolio]

I would have guessed that it was Draconus because the storm and how another storm destroyed the Akrinai(sp) and the barghast. Oh well.

[Agraba]

Ok I have no idea why people are saying Tool and the Senan had a chance to fight their way out of their predicament, they had zero chance. It's 4000 vs 100, and they blocked all exits. That kind of ratio can only hold in a very well fortified position (and rarely even then), not on a plains where the minority is surrounded. Who cares if Tool is on the order of skill of the Seguleh third, he's got four limbs. He would have only gotten 6 or 7 kills before getting completely surrounded and battered and tied up (or however they planned on capturing him, since he was to be kept alive). And most other Senan wouldn't have even got in a kill in because they would be engaged by two or more Barghast at once.

Being hundreds of thousands of years old, Tool is probably smart enough to have inferred the situation he was in. So the options were:

-Tool kills himself, saving a hundred lives, but allowing a horrible fate for his family

-Tool urges them to fight, getting all the Senan killed and managing to kill some of Eb's people (which is just more dead Barghast), but getting captured, castrated, and probably killed eventually, and allowing a horrible fate for his family

After all the speeches he made of how silly it is to allow people to get killed just for making a point, he obviously wasn't going to pick the latter option, which is the same results for himself and his family, but just with a lot more people dead.

[HoosierDaddy]

Tool sacrificed himself to get word to the Barghast about the Nah'ruk. They, including his family if they survived were all going to die if they didn't flee towards Lether.

As to the Nah'ruk and "enemies." They destroy everything in their path. It's why they fought the Bonehunters, as well.