GOODKIND IV

[Zadok]

Ok, now, why does the nobility of human spirit thing make Richard want to kick a kid in the jaw while for khalan, it makes her want to prevent the said child to be kicked in the jaw? I fail to see the logic, unless they were pulling a good cop/bad cop type of interview and everything they said was bullshit.

This confused me at first as well but I think that Richard was just fucking with this blindfolded little kid and they both knew that he was a noble spirit(sort of) and not pure evil like the shattered jaw princess was. Of course this view is inconsistent with his later actions and words towards the peace protesters, but hell it's Goodkind.

Based on the peace protester slaughter Richard should've carved this little shit up, assumed control of the empire and ordered the people to war.

[14th Dragon]

There was wholesale slaughter of peace protesters? Wow, I knew I should have actually read the book.

Is there a particular reason for it, or was it just on a lark.

[Moosicus]

There was wholesale slaughter of peace protesters? Wow, I knew I should have actually read the book.

Is there a particular reason for it, or was it just on a lark.

They were trying to stop Richard from killing other people, so he had no choice put to carve them up.

[Hark]

<And the person that gives his live so other’s can live is…???>

Read WFR. The people who gives his/her life so that others can live is cowardly vermin. If he/she were truly noble, he/she would realise that by keeping him/herself alive, he/she would serve the people he/she wants to protect much better. "Selfishness is good". By the time you read Naked Empire, this basic truth should be firmly engrained.

[Brys]

Naked Empire is truly a gold mine, and so it wins out for the Terry Goodkind Quote of the Day.

Richard and Kahlan are in the Bandakaran Empire, which is full of pacifists, to get their help in fighting the Order. They are brought to the "Wise One" to plead their case.

There, sitting cross-legged on the pillow, was what appeared to be a boy in white robes, his hands resting prayerfully in his lap. He didn't look very old, maybe eight or ten at most. Just like Princess Violet A black scarf was tied around his head to cover his eyes.

"He's just a boy," Richard said. No he's not! He's a boy that's not a boy. Kick his teeth in!

At the interruption, one of the speakers shot Richard a murderous glare. Aren't they pacifists? "Only a child is innocent enough of the contamination of life to be free to touch true wisdom. As we grow older we layer our experiences over our once perfect insight, but we remember those once unadulterated connections and so we realize how only in a child can wisdom itself be so pure." Unless of course they get in Richard's way

Heads throughout the room bobbed knowingly.

Richard cast a sidelong glance at Kahlan.

One of the speakers knelt before the platform and bowed his bald head. "Wise One, we must ask your knowing guidance. Some of our men wish to begin a war."

"War solves nothing," the Wise One said in a pious voice.

"Perhaps you would like to hear his reasons."

"There are no valid reasons for fighting. War is never a solution. War is an admission of failure."

The people in the room shrank back, looking ill at ease to have brought such crude inquiries before the Wise One, inquiries he had no trouble untangling with simple wisdom that laid bare obvious immorality.

"Very wise. You have shown us wisdom in its true, simple perfection. All men would do well to heed such truth." The man bowed his head again. "We have tried to tell--"

"Why are you wearing a blindfold?" Richard asked, cutting off the speaker kneeling before the platform. Richard has a very short attention span, as you can tell

"I hear anger in your voice," the Wise One said. The thing began to rise up in him. Nothing could stop his hatred now "Nothing can be accomplished until you shed your hate. If you search with your heart, you can find the good in everyone."

<Richard goes on to argue with the boy for a while> "You already have on a blindfold. Why don't you plug your ears and hum a tune to yourself so you won't be thinking about anything"--Richard leaned in and lowered his voice dangerously--"and in your state of infinite wisdom, Wise One, just try to guess what I'm about to do to you."

The boy squealed in fright and scooted back.

<Kick him Richard!!! Kick his fucking face in!!!!>

Kahlan pushed her way between Richard and Anson and sat back on the platform. She put an arm around the terrified boy and pulled him close to comfort him. He pressed himself into her sheltering protection. <Read Boobs>

"Richard, you're scaring the poor boy. Look at him. He's shaking like a leaf." Shaking like a leaf? That is a great metaphor.

<Richard has that effect on children and hippies both>

<Blah blah blah, value of life, yada yada yada>

"Man is thoe only creature who willingly submits to the fangs of a predator. Only man, through continual indoctrination such as you've been given, will reject the values that sustain life. Yet, you instinctively did the right thing in going to my wife."

"I did?"

"Yes. Your ways couldn't protect you, so you acted on the chance that she might. If I really were someone intent on harming you, she would have fought to stop me."

He looked up into Kahlan's smile. "You would?"

"Yes, I would. I, too, believe in the nobility of life." <Jesus fucking Christ>

<and it goes on like that for quite a while.>

~Terry Goodkind, Naked Empire

Goodkind never fails to disappoint. I added a little commentary as well, but to be honest it speaks for itself.

Goodkind can't have read Asimov - he says he never reads fantasy. I'd thought Goodkind only read Ayn Rand, or possibly, Robert Jordan. Perhaps a friend of his (Mystar) had just read the Foundation trilogy and decided that it could add some variation in his style.

[Zadok]

Isn't one of the wizards rules that "passion rules reason"? Why then is Goodkind's hero a maniac that kills children and peace protesters when he gets mad? With a sword(and a thing) that only unleash their magic when the wielder is goaded into a rage. I mean surely the reader isn't meant to accept that Richard is acting reasonably in these situations? Please, someone tell me they're not.

[Moosicus]

I think Richard's status as a war wizard allows him to ignore that rule, since his power works on instinct. At least he's allowed to ignore it when the rule becomes inconvenient. Thats my take on it anyway. Where's Diablo? he should be here to put on a defense.

[Brys]

I just found that Wikiquote has a number of SoT quotations. This should be interesting.

When you are out numbered, and the situation is hopeless, you have no option-you must attack!

The worse you are at thinking, the better you are at drinking

I take it Terry's very good at drinking then. Well, at least he's got something to be proud of.

History is rarely made by reasonable men

Ah, that explains it. Richard isn't a reasonable man, as he so clearly demonstrates.

It's quite entertaining to see how many of these Goodkind steals from other people but makes them slightly less coherent and eloquent.

I am the bringer of death, I have named myself so

Ah, fully explained. He is the bringer of death to innocent peace protesters, little girls, and anyone else who gets in his way.

[Zadok]

Some great stuff on there

"There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil, least of all in people." -Zedd

Methinks Zedd is in league with a certain chicken that is not a chicken.

"Sometimes, in madness resides genius." - Richard

Indeed. I would guess this is especially applicable to Richard/Terry.

"I'll never look at an apple the same way again." -Richard

I don't want to know the context of this quote :sick:

[Moosicus]

I don't want to know the context of this quote :sick:

All red fruit is poisonous in the midlands. Because children like red fruit.

[Fanatic-Templar]

It annoys me that fantasy pacifists are always passive victims. I have to admire a people that has the courage to forgo any means of violence, but why don't they realise that they need to find some method of protecting themselves from those who will inevitable try to take advantage of them, simply because they can?

[Moosicus]

It annoys me that fantasy pacifists are always passive victims. I have to admire a people that has the courage to forgo any means of violence, but why don't they realise that they need to find some method of protecting themselves from those who will inevitable try to take advantage of them, simply because they can?

That would make too much sense, and then Richard wouldn't have any good excuse to kill them all.

[Merentha]

Well, normally when you are a pacifist protestor, you don't expect to be hacked to pieces by the Hero of the Midlands. Also, see the signature. Clearly, the protestors were evil.

[diabloblanco18]

Naked Empire is truly a gold mine, and so it wins out for the Terry Goodkind Quote of the Day.

Richard and Kahlan are in the Bandakaran Empire, which is full of pacifists, to get their help in fighting the Order. They are brought to the "Wise One" to plead their case.

There, sitting cross-legged on the pillow, was what appeared to be a boy in white robes, his hands resting prayerfully in his lap. He didn't look very old, maybe eight or ten at most. A black scarf was tied around his head to cover his eyes.

"He's just a boy," Richard said. <can't put anything past the Seeker>

At the interruption, one of the speakers shot Richard a murderous glare. "Only a child is innocent enough of the contamination of life to be free to touch true wisdom. As we grow older we layer our experiences over our once perfect insight, but we remember those once unadulterated connections and so we realize how only in a child can wisdom itself be so pure."

Heads throughout the room bobbed knowingly.

Richard cast a sidelong glance at Kahlan.

One of the speakers knelt before the platform and bowed his bald head. "Wise One, we must ask your knowing guidance. Some of our men wish to begin a war."

"War solves nothing," the Wise One said in a pious voice.

"Perhaps you would like to hear his reasons."

"There are no valid reasons for fighting. War is never a solution. War is an admission of failure."

The people in the room shrank back, looking ill at ease to have brought such crude inquiries before the Wise One, inquiries he had no trouble untangling with simple wisdom that laid bare obvious immorality.

"Very wise. You have shown us wisdom in its true, simple perfection. All men would do well to heed such truth." The man bowed his head again. "We have tried to tell--"

"Why are you wearing a blindfold?" Richard asked, cutting off the speaker kneeling before the platform.

"I hear anger in your voice," the Wise One said. "Nothing can be accomplished until you shed your hate. If you search with your heart, you can find the good in everyone."

<Richard goes on to argue with the boy for a while> "You already have on a blindfold. Why don't you plug your ears and hum a tune to yourself so you won't be thinking about anything"--Richard leaned in and lowered his voice dangerously--"and in your state of infinite wisdom, Wise One, just try to guess what I'm about to do to you."

The boy squealed in fright and scooted back.

<Kick him Richard!!! Kick his fucking face in!!!!>

Kahlan pushed her way between Richard and Anson and sat back on the platform. She put an arm around the terrified boy and pulled him close to comfort him. He pressed himself into her sheltering protection. <Read Boobs>

"Richard, you're scaring the poor boy. Look at him. He's shaking like a leaf."

<Richard has that effect on children and hippies both>

<Blah blah blah, value of life, yada yada yada>

"Man is thoe only creature who willingly submits to the fangs of a predator. Only man, through continual indoctrination such as you've been given, will reject the values that sustain life. Yet, you instinctively did the right thing in going to my wife."

"I did?"

"Yes. Your ways couldn't protect you, so you acted on the chance that she might. If I really were someone intent on harming you, she would have fought to stop me."

He looked up into Kahlan's smile. "You would?"

"Yes, I would. I, too, believe in the nobility of life." <Jesus fucking Christ>

<and it goes on like that for quite a while.>

~Terry Goodkind, Naked Empire

First off, I'd like to simply note that a pacifist empire is indeed possible. Cultural assimilation is as powerful a force as any army, and anyone who disagrees with me on this point clearly hasn't played Civilization IV.

As to the passage itself, though, I don't exactly understand the criticisms. It is true: the example of a pacifist state that Goodkind is using here is exaggerated. A real-world state like this would most likely see itself as incapable of corrupting its children, and therefore have no reverence for concepts like "innocence." This instance of hyperbole is hardly damning, though. Mr. Goodkind has stated or implied on numerous occasions that the focus of his novels is not their setting, but the characters moving through them. Dragons, world-destroying magic, and other "fantasy" cliches are all massive exaggerations of real-world ideas, but like this, they all play a secondary role to the cast.

On the other hand, Richard's interaction with the child here is nothing short of brilliant. Some of you may disdain his feigning violence to make his point, much as you scoffed at his treatment of Princess Violet in Wizard's First Rule, but this scene proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Richard's use of passion and violence are fully subject to his powers of reasoning. In most people - both in the real world and in Goodkind's imagined world - "passion rules reason," but Richard is a shining example of the opposite. Even his kicking in of Violet's jaw was a carefully reasoned moral judgment. The logic of this has already been discussed, so I won't go into it. But really, how can you dismiss Richard's treatment of the situation here? He was dealing with a group of people who had made the mistake of assuming that all people would deal with them reasonably, even the collectivist Imperial Order. Through a simple demonstration of apparently unreasoned violence and their subsequent reaction to it, he showed them that they were, and had always been, dependent on others for protection. Parasites, as it were. Not only that, he also implied to them that he was such a protector, a person who valued human life enough to fight for it. Suddenly, the pacifist "Naked Empire" is dependent on Richard and Kahlan for support. In this case, I would say that a little violence solved a great many things. Great stuff.

[Merentha]

Thats...scarily believable.

[The Red Wolf]

I have never accually read Goodkind. Or Jordan.

[Xray the Enforcer]

I have never accually read Goodkind. Or Jordan.

until now.

bow before the magic that is Tairy! and may the Yeard be with you.

[Larry.]

Praised be the Yeard! But now, we must rectify (huh, I said 'rectify') this situation and induct him into the Tairy Mystery Cult of the Yeard.

And then maybe reveal the power of the Synthese afterwards, sans black seed

[Knight of the Wineskin]

Bah. The black seed is a must!

[Xray the Enforcer]

And then maybe reveal the power of the Synthese afterwards, sans black seed

we can't be mixing our myths, dammit. blood flies for one, Synthese sex for the other.