[Dragnipurake]

I think rhulad was written incredibly well in RG; a hateful character that was okay to read about.

[panic]

Bottle;196014 said:

I can't see how it's possible to not love Hellian, she's such a good character. The only character I've disliked reading so far was Hedge. Not very fond of Karsa either.

Because Hellian has no right to survive. She is a dumbass. She is in ways more lucky than Corabb but she doesn't deserve it. I don't find her all that amusing. She is horrible for a leader. But I like the fact thatwe have another 14th soldier's perspective. Btw, I wish we would see more from Urb.

[Brys Beddict]

The Errant - gave someone a lil push and that someone ended up shanking one of my favourite characters in the book. SO not happy with that.

The Mhybe - She bored me, didn't like the parts of her story.

Mallick Rel - He's trashing Coltaine something fierce.

[Blind]

The characters that I dislike the most (in the sense that I hate reading about them) :

Udinaas - In MT, entire chapters were devoted to his endless boring introspections about how unfair it was to be a slave, and how everything was doomed... In RG, his attitude becomes extremely annoying, with his cynicism and mysterious airs.

Feather Witch - no comment

The Errant - in RG particularly when he really started acting in a despicable manner.

Apart from them , the usual characters from the rest of the series : Mallick Rel, Korbolo Dom, Silverfox (for her childish behavior). OTOH, I will not count Kallor, because I like reading about him being evil.

[Aptorian]

I can't believe that no one has mentioned that, up untill the end, completely useless SOB that back-stabbed Trull?!

I can't remember his name but that cowards sneak attack on poor Trull was the one thing in the book that made me scream in disbelief and throw the book at the wall.

[Brys Beddict]

Sirryn. Yeah, kinda mentioned him in my post above. More than a lil pissed with that guy. Least Hood chucked him into some terrible eternal torment. Also nearly threw my book.

[Veilside]

The Mhybe and Feather Witch, I mean, sticking a severed finger up yourself is probably a sign that something in your head isn't working quite right.

[Gem Windcaster]

The Errant, Errant, Errant, I tell you! *shakes fist* Arrrr!!! *makes piratey grimaces*

[Bottle]

I'm actually strangely attracted to Hellian, especially in Reaper's Gale. Oh well
She's probably my first Malazan crush (: not quite sure what that says about me though! (Other then I have impeccable taste of course!)

Yeah I didn't like Trull's death one bit either, just thought SE wrote it really badly.

[PAN]

Udinas- annoying

Clip- so mad when he killed fear i was hoping for a family reunion

Silchas Ruin- man i was soooo mad when he killed kettle all i was thinking was what a giant asshole

cripled god- suck it up

[Veilside]

PAN;196564 said:

Udinas- annoying

Clip- so mad when he killed fear i was hoping for a family reunion

Silchas Ruin- man i was soooo mad when he killed kettle all i was thinking was what a giant asshole

cripled god- suck it up

Read RG again, she knows she's going to die at the end, as do a couple other characters.

[Shryval]

I don't hate characters that act or think in despicable ways or a manner that, if they were real and you met them, would make you want to run screaming or eviscerate them. For me, it's these characters that SE does his best writing with: Kallor, the Crippled God, Clip, Lasseen, the Errant. I may not like their characteristics, but I like the characters, if that makes any sense.

There are ones i simply haven't enjoyed reading about - something about their story either bores or nauseates me: The Grey Swords (yes all of 'em) Hellian, Heboric, The Trygalle Guild, Korbolo Dom, Shurq Ellale, Hull Beddict, The Mhybe, Silverfox, Cutter/Crokus.

There are some characters who read inconsistent for me. Silchas Ruin for example seemed wise and almost altruistic in TBH, now comes across as a repugnant and selfish asshole. Udinaas seems to have buried his compassion beneath the desire to be prickly and sly. Midway through RG as I am, they are proving difficult to read.

And though this will get me lynched, Icarium for me is not the ubercool wonder character that others regard him as. I much prefer Mappo!

[Gem Windcaster]

Bottle;196562 said:

Yeah I didn't like Trull's death one bit either, just thought SE wrote it really badly.

Really? I thought it was a great piece of writing. It was a but unexpected, but that's the way it should be written. Can't see anything wrong with it - sure it's sad and I'll hate the Errant for it - but bad writing? Sorry, can't just see it.

And I like Hellian too. She's a great character. Just like any other character in these books. Some characters may be annoying, but they are not badly written. I don't like it when character don't move some part of me - then I think they are boring and badly written. LOL

[Abyss]

Veilside;196595 said:

Read RG again, she knows she's going to die at the end, as do a couple other characters.

What are you ref'ing? Wither and Udinaas have a brief conversation about this, but i don't recall a specific acknowledgement from Kettle, and in the end, knowing this, Udi even tried to save her.

- Abyss, curious...

[Gem Windcaster]

Abyss, if you read the parts with Kettle again, you'll notice a certain...feeling...that she does know what is going to happen. I don't wanna ruin anything for you. Re-read FTW!

[Abyss]

Gem Windcaster;196660 said:

Abyss, if you read the parts with Kettle again, you'll notice a certain...feeling...that she does know what is going to happen. I don't wanna ruin anything for you. Re-read FTW!

Yep. Reread upcoming, but starting back around MT (unless i feel like going all the way back to GotM again... wheeeee!).

Still, iirc, it's nothing more than hints - no explicit statement from Kettle that at some point Silch is going to use her as a pincushion. In fact, i thought the relative lack of Kettle viewpoint and focus (as opposed to her status as a viewpoint character in MT) was so the reader wasn't too freaked out when the supposed ten year old child is throttled, broken and stabbed by a (more-or-less) hero of the story. (checking for Kettle thread or starting one, since we're going OT here).

- Abyss, gets stupidly high value for dollar from these books.

[Gem Windcaster]

Well, these hints are pretty much as close to explicit as they can be - coupled with the rest of Kettles actions. Though, that doesn't have to mean she'd know exactly what or how everything would happen. Besides, we don't know everything about what it means to be Kettle.

[Bottle]

I've posted my thoughts on Trull's death elsewhere, but just to be brief (so not to move this off-topic) I enjoyed the circumstances for Trull's death. I felt cheated that he didn't get to meet Rhulad, but I understand that's how SE wanted us to feel. He wanted us to feel how Hedge and QB felt, and his does that successfully.

My beef is that it's over too quickly. A lot of scenes don't get much "air-time" and this is one of them. For a character such as Trull, who had such brilliant characterization, I really wanted more on what was going through his head in those last moments. The feelings of regret, of all that had passed. The lost chance of redemption and forgiveness. I just think if SE and added a few more paragraphs of Trull monologue to the scene it would have been much more moving, far more sad, and much more satisfying.

[williamjm]

In RG I'd say that the characters I disliked most were Feather Witch, Clip and Tribnan Gnol. Gnol is particularly bad because he's such a cliche, was it really necessary to make him a paedophile just to show how EVIL he was?

As for the rest of the series there are a few characters I dislike - mostly the usual suspects like Mallick Rel or Kallor. One of the heroes of the story that tends to annoy me when I read about him is Ganoes Paran. I don't know if I'd quite say I hated him, but for such a major character I just don't find him interesting or entertaining to read about and some of his actions seems to lack proper motivation (for example, in the first book when he goes to considerable effort trying to free the Hound, I don't find the reasons given for his actions to be convincing).

[xhentil]

williamjm;196813 said:

One of the heroes of the story that tends to annoy me when I read about him is Ganoes Paran. I don't know if I'd quite say I hated him, but for such a major character I just don't find him interesting or entertaining to read about and some of his actions seems to lack proper motivation (for example, in the first book when he goes to considerable effort trying to free the Hound, I don't find the reasons given for his actions to be convincing).

In GotM he definately annoyed me. Stupid kid, arrogant at times, stupid at others. Noble. All that. But I like where his character was in BH. He finally stopped being a baby like in MoI with his position in the deck, and in BH he started kickin people [gods] around. I've liked Erikson's character development in general, but with Paran, for me, it's been pretty noticeable.

As for the Hounds... I relate to that a bit. Sometimes I've done things in a moment that I never thought about... i just did it cause it seemed to need doing. Not really any answer, but it works for me .