[Folken]

I’ve been around here for a year now, and have found very few, if not perhaps 2, people that actually liked her. I for one was deeply touched by the total transformation she goes through from the sweet girl, we were only given a hint of in Gardens of the Moon to the, according to most of you, “b***hy” character in HoC. Lets be honest, the stuff she went through would’ve driven anyone mad and she used the only means of survival she could get her hands on easily, which truth be told drove her mad. Nonetheless her experiences shaped her into the person she became and one cannot hate her that much for that.
Perhaps it’s just the older brother in me talking when I say I was touched by her story, but I just don’t see why most of you hate her so much.

Oh and if you’re going to post a reply, don’t give me something like “I hate her cause she’s a slut” that’s not valid.

[Trotts]

i dont hate her at all, quite frankly shes one of the characters who developed the most throughout the series. seeing her innocence shattered, and her harden, and then see her consumed,

Spoiler

especially seeing her die by the sword of tavore who had sent agents out to actually find her

[Folken]

Aye that scence brought me close to tears. I put the book down and just had to wait for it to all sink in. But thats exactly what I'm talking about. How can one hate such a tragic character, her plight in DG to me was more painful to read about than that of the Chain of Dogs.

[Matrim]

I don't hate her, she just annoyed me in DHG. I could understand why she did the things that she did but that doesn't mean I have to like her, right? And the scene mentioned above is probably the best one in HoC.

[Hume]

Yeh my opinion is pretty much the same right now. ^

Though Erikson being the master writer he did make me change that opnion constantly through the books.

[Ijon Tichy]

I personally think Felisin is the best developed character in the series.

I like her and her storyline more and more with each reread/

[garden_rake]

Jen said:

Oh and if you’re going to post a reply, don’t give me something like “I hate her cause she’s a slut” that’s not valid.

maybe its just me but i liked her more for that

i agree mostly with jenny, felisin has been an integral character so far, and maybe even in the future?

[Agraba]

You're supposed to hate Felisin when you read Deadhouse Gates; it's Erickson's intention. But I can tell you with certainty that the reason people hate Felisin from DHG is not because she's a b*tch. Think about it: many female villains are loved as characters, and they're much worse than Felisin, because... well, they just want doom for humanity and stuff. But the true, and subconscious reason for most people hating Felisin is the fact that she turns extremely bitter against the world for completely insufficient reasons. You can see that the way she thinks in that books is like a hundred year old veteran of the most horrific scenes to have ever faced the world in wars of terror beyond imagination. It just pisses people off when characters have barely been through anything, and already they start thinking that they're the ultimate veterans of the true face of despair. Ganoes Paran was like that in the beginning of Gardens of the Moon. But now he's completely justified in his gloominess, so people like him now.

Of course, she really settled down from that attitude in House of Chains. Although she's Sha'ik, it seems like she becomes more and more like the frail sensitive child she is. Look at her reaction when she finds out Ganoes is alive. She sobs in Heboric's arms. And look at her last thought. "Why didn't you love me, Tavore?"

[Folken]

How was Felisin's anger towards the world unjistified? She was thrown into a hell hole for no apparent reason and that also by her own sister and not some random person.

[Tiste Simeon]

Jen said:

How was Felisin's anger towards the world unjistified? She was thrown into a hell hole for no apparent reason and that also by her own sister and not some random person.

Yeah but I think what was meant was that the fact that she was a psycho annoying b***h to the people who were supposed to be helping her, and a doped up slut whore junkie cow on top of that, when all they were trying to do was get her out, I think that was unjustified... sure she would have been mad, but she should have really tried to stick with Baudin and Heboric, as they were her way out. If I were them, I would have left her to be killed by the mob, or killed her myself...

[Darkwatch]

Its understanable for her to be mad since she hadn't pictured this in her future. This wasn't her choice to be thrown to the wolves as a child. A solider in the Malaz army is usually a volounteer, and even then you know you've been recruited for war. Everyones heard how horrible war is in a world like that. But Felisin most likely never heard about what happens in the Malaz penal mines, and so had no concept of what was about to happen. Add to the fact that as a child of nobility she never had a rough peasant life to prepare her. Besides as a solider you have other people who are you're comrades who are not usually out to get you and abuse when you show up, unlike in prison where the prisoners arent any kind of fraternity. Might I also remind that she sold herself to keep Heboric from being exploited so that he would survive.
When she became Sha'ik she became gradually possesed so we no longer see Felisin but rather that insane Imass woman, but when she has her connection severed in Heboric's tent we see that she is genuinely concerned for her adopted daughter and nearly freaks out.

She is definately one of the best developped charcaters in the entire series. I found that it was realistic, most people would do what she did, she was never a warrior, nor a soldier like a lot of the characters so far. She is a normal person who like most of us would crack, nay shatter under that kind of pressure and in that respect she is probably one of the characters we can best relate to.

[Folken]

nicely put Darkwatch, very nicely put.
Completely agree with you. That is exactly the reason why I feel so strongly about her. Just imagining yourself in such a situation, worse yet, my own sister is totally unbearable.

[Trotts]

felt so terrible about her getting used, especially when she thinks that giving herself to beneth is helping heboric and baudin, but it turns out thats not the case.

but ya, darkwatch summed it up pretty well. she was the youngest daughter of a noble house, she never had a single worry in her life, and suddenly shes tossed down to the very bottom.

(offtopic, but i felt the same way about seren pedac, and the emotional traumas she had to experience)

[Blind]

I agree that Felisin is a very interesting character. Her reaction to what was done to her is understandable, as Darkwatch said.

While reading DG, I had a lot of sympathy for her. But at the same time, her treatment of Heboric and Baudin made me lose most of that sympathy - having so little consideration for the ones who helped her. Hating the world was the way she reacted, and it's understandable, if not likable.

On a reread of GotM, Tavore's line about Felisin ('she's too soft for this world') is quite moving in the light of what happens later. Felisin created an armor around her, with the drug and with her coldness, but it all fell apart in the end.

[Tiste Simeon]

I think Felisin would have been better had she made an effort to stick with Baudin and Heboric, and be nice to them. By the time she realised it, it was too late.

[Ijon Tichy]

Quote

You're supposed to hate Felisin when you read Deadhouse Gates; it's Erickson's intention. But I can tell you with certainty that the reason people hate Felisin from DHG is not because she's a b*tch. Think about it: many female villains are loved as characters, and they're much worse than Felisin, because... well, they just want doom for humanity and stuff. But the true, and subconscious reason for most people hating Felisin is the fact that she turns extremely bitter against the world for completely insufficient reasons. You can see that the way she thinks in that books is like a hundred year old veteran of the most horrific scenes to have ever faced the world in wars of terror beyond imagination. It just pisses people off when characters have barely been through anything, and already they start thinking that they're the ultimate veterans of the true face of despair.

I don't think it's Erikson's intention for the readers to hate Felisin in DHG, he said exactly the opposite in an interview.

And "insufficient reasons"? You got to be kidding me! Her own sister sent her to a horrible slave camp (in which even the strongest men rarely last very long) where she's forced to sell her body to survive. And she's only 15 years old from a noble family, she had led a sheltered life before that. Add tot hat the fact that she's done nothing wrong except being born into a noble family.

It's completely understandable that she's extremely bitter towards the whole world.