[airheadgreg]

Thinking on it, Smile's becoming an uber killer would kinda ruin the unique-ness of Kalam, sooo...maybe she just ends up doing something ace like kill someone who would be a real pain to someone like Fid but then dies?

-Greg

[mmdw45]

Veilside;189920 said:

He blessed the dead ones entombed in MoI.

IIRC, he blessed the Bridgeburners, "one and all." From Fiddler's experience with the song in HoC I'm guessing that includes the ones still alive.

-Max

[Abyss]

ALL Malazan marines who were typically enlisted (ie: not Corabb) have been trained in some form or another, by Braven Tooth or otherwise. That they had skills before, or continue to drill after only makes sense.

I don't remember the exact quoet form Fid's look into Smiles, beyond the 'savaged herself' line. Could be many things - we know from TB and RG that she's pretty messed up. Hell, the 'snarl like a dog and cut off the Chancellor's hands' thing makes that clear if the turned on by Koryk killing didn't.

The likeness between her and Sorry in GotM is a point of interest, not copycat - Sorry was a teenaged girl possessed by an assassin god. Smiles just comes from a fncked up family who were nice enuf to sacrifice her twin sister to some god or other, yet she turned out just as nasty WITHOUT a god's interference.

- Abyss, weeps for humanity. Or maybe that's just cuz i stubbed my toe.

[kaf09]

airheadgreg;191381 said:

Thinking on it, Smile's becoming an uber killer would kinda ruin the unique-ness of Kalam, sooo...maybe she just ends up doing something ace like kill someone who would be a real pain to someone like Fid but then dies?

-Greg

While not in Fiddler's squad, there is also Throatslitter, arguably a member of the old Talon (and cannily named by Braven Tooth). There is no shortage of skilled killers.

[airheadgreg]

kaf09;192588 said:

While not in Fiddler's squad, there is also Throatslitter, arguably a member of the old Talon (and cannily named by Braven Tooth). There is no shortage of skilled killers.

Yeah, that is true, but i think the fact that we've been forced to get to know Smiles and with SE's more detailed look into her mind set in RG suggests that she's either going to do something memorable or have a terrific demise. Basically a BridgeBurner-esk finale in BlackC, so she's either going to save people with her own life or being cut down by some seemingly impossible creature.

But then again, thinking on it, SE would also be able to turn her into a power hungry marine with aspirations to rule. So if Throatslitter was confirmed to be an ex-Talon then Smiles would en devour to control him or maybe gets seduced by some power. Although SE has done this before at it could become tedious...

-Greg

[Terez]

"Reaper, on Book 4, Chapter 22, p. 755-6", said:

Everything glowed, as if lit from fires within. The once-black stubble of crops blazed back into fierce life. Stones shone like precious gems. Incandescence raged on all sides. Fiddler saw his soldiers and he could see through, in pulsing flashes, to their very bones, the organs huddled within their cages. He saw, along one entire side of Koryk, old fractures on the ribs, the left arm, the shoulder blade, the hip. He saw three knuckle-sized dents on Cuttle's skull beneath the now translucent helm - a rap he had taken when still a babe, soft-boned and vulnerable. He saw the damage between Smiles' legs from all the times she savaged herself. He saw in Corabb Bhilan Thenu'alas the coursing blood that held in it the power to destroy every cancer that struck him, and he was a man under seige from that disease, but it would never kill. Would not even sicken him.

That's all.

[drinksinbars]

jeez you lot are so nuts and obsessive about everything.

smiles is just a great character. if you didnt notice, the bridge burners while a notorious bunch have been quoted by whiskeyjack as being quite civilised in their engagements. the bonehunters on the other hand are a nasty bunch, and thats being pleasant about it. even fiddler mentions how generally fucked up they are. the scene with stormy stamping on one of his squads fingers until they break springs to mind. and the soldier just gets up and cracks them back into place. the bonehunters as a general rule are hard bastards. In MT we are made to think the edur and the letherii are strong armies fighting a determined and grizzly war, but the malazans are a tier above everyone else.

this has nought to do with gods, but mroe to do with superior training and equipment. After yghatan, and the anger of aren, the bonehunters have just got nastier and nastier. The marines carve a bloody path from the transports the entire way to the capital.

smiles is just like all the others. She is a crazy woman and damned scary, but i dont think she has any greater destiny than say detoran did in the bridgeburners.

throatslitter as well is most certainly a talon, in the scene where tavore arrives on the isle and questions shurq about being undead he is musing about being a talon..

about kalam, kalam is a beast of a man, big and burly with lightening reflexes. Smiles would last all of a second against him. Its nothing to do with gods or anything, he may be near ascension, but that is because the path is one of experience. The man was a chosen assassin of a falahdan, and after reading night of knives you could argue that he was granted certain advantages via this route. Much like sergin?? or any of the holy city champions that dasseem kills.

also one thing about that i noticed was the similarity between the ascension of kellenved and dancer throught the deadhouse and kalams arrival in the deadhouse. Was there a shadow moon that night in bonehunters, i doubt it, but something was going on thats for sure. i wouldnt be surprised if kalam came back in some other form, a true knight of shadow.

[Abyss]

It was suggested in TB by QB that Tavore might want Kalam to assemble her own team of assassins, but nothing came of it then.

I could see Smiles and Throatslitter (who does NOT, btw, explicitly state he's a Talon - it's just a well founded theory) as part of this, possibly even Lostara, who has an assassin related history even tho she became more of a soldier via the Red Blades and BHs.

Fundamentally, she's a messed up kid, who is borderline psychotic due to a rough personal history, who's good with knives and likes to fight.

Interestingly, Beak's Big White Sheild may have healed some of the damage to her that Fid was noticing, altho the scene with the Chancellor's hands sort of suggests it didn't.

There's all kinds of potential for when she can go from RG, but nothing we've seen suggested much more than 'normal human marine' as of the end of the book.

- Abyss, dated a girl like that once... ouch.