[Agraba]

Is it me, or is this girl one of the most powerful, and yet unexplained powers to walk the Malazan world? If I recall DoD correctly, she fought off a bunch of pure Forkrul Assail with their own freaking warren. I don't have a copy of DoD on hand - were they pures? Was it one pure and a bunch of watered? Was it only watered?

Then, in tCG, by uttering the words of jewelry (which I'm a little confused by), she was able to call a god to basically shove itself down a FA's throat and out its ass, killing it. I don't know if she simply called the god itself and let it act on its own out of vengeance against its old followers, but she pretty much mentioned that she could call it back to kill everyone if she wanted, which leads me to believe that she's commanding the god with a power that Forkrul Assail can only use to command humans. (I was actually a little disappointed with this scene, because in DoD there was so much awesome in the words she wove to push the Assail back - no amount of "I am rubber you are glue" could have countered that, yet all she said in tCG was "opals gems diamonds and shards", or something along those lines.)

So why can a 7 year old human girl use Akhrast Korvalain, and with such effectiveness? And am I reading it wrong, or does she have the power to topple the pantheon?

Also, this is irrelevant but I secretly thought that the poem she said she had for Tavore, that she later forgot about, would have been recalled at a critical moment, and her delivering it during a battle would have transformed Tavore into a super crushing He-Man ascendant killer smasher that kills 500 people with a sword, but I guess that would have been pretty corny.

[bsb150]

DoD, Book 4, Chapter 19, page 603
"Inquisitor Sevor stood looking down on the body of Brother Beleague... on her left was Brother Adroit... to her right was Sister Rail... Sister Scorn had collected Beleague's staff... Scorn was the last Adjudicator among them."

"When they had set out... they number twelve... no, not one Inquisitor could have anticipated this terrible will to survive. It was understood... that no human was an equal to the Forkrul Assail."

So I think it's safe to say that they were Pures, and on the following couple of pages, Badalle rips them a new one. She refers to them as The Quitters in the pages leading up to this as well.

[Aptorian]

In DG Fiddler asks Icarium if there can be power in words. Icarium answers "power to make a god kneel" or something to that effect.

[Illuyankas]

MAGICAL RAP BATTLE

[worry]

It's explained in her DoD poem where she groups herself with Grub and Sinn (Rutt Not-Rutt, Held Not-Held, etc.). She is using the Icarium-warrens version of Akhrast Korvalain, which explains why it's uber-powerful.

This post has been edited by worrywort: 25 April 2011 - 08:39 PM

[Midnight]

The snake is also referred to as a manifestation of D'rek - Tavore and Ruthan speculate that the children must have travelled through warren at one point. It's possible that part of Badalle's power came from D'rek.

Although to be honest, I'm not really sure what being a manifestation of D'rek means or what the point of it was...still one of my favourite plots though

[Studlock]

I think the reason she was saying "opals gems diamonds and shards" had something to do with the Shards which turned out to be the god of the FA.

[Sinisdar Toste]

badalle ends up talking to icarium in the end of DoD, calling him god, asking him to save the children in his warrens. i'm thinking that she might represent a way of creating memories - through poems, remembered by saddic. and we know icariums warrens are oriented toward memory, because that's why he made them.

[Blend]

Badalle spends most of the Snake scenes making up new words for things... There's a whole monologue / inner thought process in DoD, I think, where she talks about that. How because of the hardships they've gone through, the children of the Snake had forgotten the words for many things, so she had to create new ones in order to communicate about them. So, Opals, Gems, Shards and Diamonds are her new words for the bugs that make up the FA god D'Ivers, or at least that's how I read it.

[Ceda Cicero]

This was touched on upthread, but for my part, I tend to read Badalle on re-reads now as a literary device, and a damned good one at that. Her purpose in the story of the Snake, and the arc of the whole series, is to show (as Apt hinted at with the awesomely placed Icarium quote from DG) how incredibly powerful words can be even in the hands of a destitute child. Her words and her poetry are not only potent weapons against threats and foes (as she demonstrates with the FAs she takes down between DoD and tCG) but also as having the potential to reconstitute the existence/reality of the Snake. I think this is why she's given such a place of prominence in the Snake hierarchy - in a world devoid of purpose, meaning and direction for these children, where they have no authorities to consult or social structures to shape them and give them guidance/instruction, they cleave to Badalle's words and poetry as the singular means of making sense of their world.

It makes the whole thing with the toys even more heartbreaking. Badalle is forced to come up with names (opals, diamonds, gems, shards) and substance to all these things that they have to struggle against for survival, but they have no names or points of reference for something so trivial as toys.

This post has been edited by Neocount Cicero: 26 April 2011 - 09:13 PM

[dawnkiller]

I think Badalle's use of words to combat Akhrast Korvawhatsis is comparable to, say, Tellann vs. Thyr. AK is Elder, and thus strong and brute, but whatever Badalle used is more refined -- like the warrens that came from K'rul's imposition of order. AK is used by the simple issuing of orders; Badalle's power takes the form of poetry and song. The former acknowledges only absolutes, while the latter leaves room for metaphor, shades of grey, and so on -- which pretty much encompasses the FA's philosophy vs. the human philosophy. One thing I noticed about the FA dialogue (as opposed to that seen among any of the other races) is that it was all very literal -- there were no digressions, no musings, nothing like that. Their dialogue came off flat for it, and I think that was intentional.

I geekily enjoyed that language basically turned out to be one of the Elder Holds. IIRC this was foreshadowed by the Imass in the SD pocket, and also Absi's babbling back in DoD (in that the sounds of the primative language evoked a curious reaction). Language is in itself a way of defining boundaries; once something is named it can be, to an extent, controlled, all 1984-like. Thus it makes sense it's associated specifically with Order. And Badalle did, in a sense, gain control of the FA god by recognizing it as (and naming it) "shards" -- this isn't much different than Brys invoking the power of the forgotten gods by carrying their names around, no?

Finally, I found the Snake being the manifestation of D'rek to be very clever. In a place where no magic could survive, D'rek managed to sneak herself in there by manifesting herself within a train of refugees. Since she represents decay, you could argue she needs no ambiant magic to operate: whatever lives is her host. And, like Mael with the Blood for Water miracle, she was being paid daily in death.

[Abey1245]

I think Badalle is watered or at least a descendant of the FA, she is tall and pale with very blonde hair. Her power is in words and is quoted at one point in TCG as "awakening her voice" just like the FA do. I agree that she is using an Icarium modified version of AK as a warren, perhaps she is also a high priestess or other representative of D'rek. This girl seems to have it all, including foretelling the future, where she says Fisher will find Saddic and help compile the stories of "The Fallen". Such a mystery!!

[Malinor]

I just felt the need to express how much I enjoyed that character and her role in the story. And above all, I just love the word play of her name in regards to her power (Badalle ==> ballade).

I also believe that she is a watered FA. And I really wanted to hear her Poem for Tavore. Though it fits into grand picture of Tavore's fate (no card, no poem, unwitnessed, etc.).

[Archeokat]

I don't think Badalle was FA, but rather just a mage who was using the only form of magic she knew, which was the Voice of the FA, which she had seen used before. Back in BH, I was a bit confused by Sinn, and how no one had noticed before that she was a kick ass mage. In that instance, it took great stress to bring out the magic in her, so I assumed it was the same with Badalle. That the trauma and stress of the Snake just drove her to the edge and exposed her to her own potential as a mage. There was also something a bit demi-cult about the Snake. Three people occupy the top positions: a wise girl, a strong leader and a collector. Destriant, Mortal Sword and Shield Anvil?

Either way, I've heard complaints about the Snake storyline as pointless but I thought it was a really good literary device to demonstrate the magnitude of what the FA had done, and also a good introduction to the potential of their power.

This post has been edited by D'ivers Lizardkat: 20 July 2012 - 09:53 AM

[Kanese S's]

And it got D'rek into the action at the end. Nice observation about mortal sword, destriant, and shield anvil.