[Morgoth]

Apsalar was possessed by the perhaps single most gifted assassin on Wu. An assassin who also happend to be a god. Apsalar was also protected by the last sacrifice of a witch and it would seem as if she's naturaly talented as well.. Then she's been with the bridgeburners, traveling with Crokus and so on and so forth.. An easy process you think?

So the malazan empire could hardly be able to replicate the process leading to Apsalar's ascension. I fail to see how your critizism on this point is valid at all.

Also, one azlan demon eradictaed an entire camp of soldiers in what seemed like seconds. The hounds of shadow are much more powerfull than an azlan, and Apsalar held five hounds of shadow at bay at once. I hardly see her dispatching of the claw as strange.

When that is said, I also agree to an extent that Kalam was too powerfull on malaz isle, but it didn't really bugg me much.

[Ivan the terrible]

Regarding that witch and her influence on Apsalar i think it should be noted that it is the witch i n my oppinion responsable for the needless creulty Sorry evinces. And indeed some of the out of character remarks that sorry herslef makes. Not sure if this has been brought up before. But i thought it should be noted that this witch burned ppl in candles

[Dolorous Menhir]

The witch was there to help. Do you not remember how Mallet behaved when he worked out what was going on in Sorry's head? He was shocked that someone would sacrifice themselves in such a way - Riggalai acted as a shield, she protected the identity of girl-who-became-Apsalar during the possession. It was benevolent.

I seriously doubt she had an active role in the Sorry's behaviour. If she had, then Cotillion would have known of the rival possessor. It must have been passive, in order to have worked.

What Sorry did, that was all Cotillion. Though I'm not really sure about the candles, it wasn't clear to me if she killed people and took their souls (which I doubt) or gathered the soul candles in some other, less horribly evil, way.

[Ivan the terrible]

Even Cotillion is at times disturbed by the girls attitude i have just re read GOTM, next time carefully read it, Yes the intent was benevolent but the possesor was a bitter angry at the world old woman, this had to rub off some way

[fan_83]

the witch trapped souls of lesser creature in order to communicate with its dead family i think.. and the witch is not bitter, it was sad.. it saw sorrys future and chose to protect her like she couldn;t protect her own family.. the cruelty is entirely sorry's own due to her anger of being possessed i believe..
i doubt that cott is paying attention every single moment for the 2 years that sorry was possessed..

[Dark Mac]

The cruelty is a natural tendency of Apsalar's, IMO. We really don't know much about her life before being possessed. Perhaps she was the kind of girl who enjoyed skinning other little girls just for fun.

[tiam]

she seemed like an innocent naive girl until the possession so i doubt her life before hand consisted of many hardships beyond the normal of the peasantry

[Whelp]

Imho, Sorry's cruelty is Dancer/Cotillion's amorality rubbing off on her. Plus, she might have a weak spot for Kalam (admiring his prowess, as Dancer did Surly's).

[Aptorian]

Come on people, she's been killing people for a couple of years now since the possesion. You don't become a nice, flowergirl if you spend you teenage years stabbing people.

I think Cotillion had a large effect on her, but like Dark mac said, it could just be her nature. SE likes to point out the potential for cruelty in the human being.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

tiam said:

Kalam IMO is the best Knife fighter in the empire. Also his ability to completely outclass all Claws is due to a number of fcators.
.

kalam is pretty nasty with the knives, but apsalar could take him apart without breaking a sweat. Beyond that though, I agree with you. Cutter could probably hang with him for a minute before Kalam picked him up and dropped him on his head. He's a good enough fighter that he inspired an entirely new type of recruiting in the Claw.

[tiam]

actually apsalar wasnt even broguht up when i made that post. Also even apsalar states she may not walk away from a fight with kalam. Furthermrore when i made that statement i was reffering to non ascendents

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

That's the problem with having so many superhuman type characters. There are at least 10 people in these books who seem like they could never lose a fight. Unless they ever actually get down to scrapping amongst themselves, it's all just speculation, even amongst the characters themselves. Apsalar doesn't know if she can take Kalem, who knows if she's right? Karsa is convinced he can defeat Icarium, until it happens we can only guess how it will turn out.

[tiam]

not to get off topic but i believe that iccy would destroy karsa but it would only take a bit longer than normal. Also i agree that the likes of rake and such could never lose unless they fight one of the other top 10.