Favorite Forsaken Fights

[True Source Creator]

Please excuse my use of alliteration.

 

Anyways, a lot of fights occur between the Forsaken and other characters in the novels. Some of them seem rather ridiculous and have made the Forsaken seem weaker, but today as I was re-reading The Shadow Rising, I came upon Asmodean versus Rand in Rhuidean and found it to be an intensely exciting fight, and it got me pondering what fights with the Forsaken are best or fan favorites in the series. Also, if you could remind me of all the fights between characters and Forsaken. I will list the ones I can recall.

 

I know there's these fights, and you guys can discuss your feelings on them:

 

1. Rand versus Aginor (Eye of the World): Pretty short, but it's the first we see of a Forsaken's destructiveness, and it's pretty cool when Aginor is floating over fire. However, the fight is brief and not really that interesting, and Aginor is made out to be a very forgettable Forsaken, much like Balthamel.

 

2. Rand versus Ishamael/Ba'alzamon (Eye of the World): I wouldn't really consider this a fight. Rand just severs the a cord pretty much, thinking he kills Shaiton.

 

3. Rand versus Ishamael/Ba'alzamon (The Great Hunt): Now this is a bit more interesting, but it too is pretty brief. However, the whole sky battle thing makes it rather neat. But again the briefness of it detracts from what could have been a more awesome fight.

 

4. Rand and Moiraine versus Be'lal (The Dragon Reborn): Eh, not good really. Be'lal was such an underdeveloped character that he is by far my least favorite of the Forsaken. Plus he was so easily wiped out (of course it was a surprise, though) that it wasn't interesting at all, minus the fact that we saw the effects of balefire for one of the first times. But the fight was overshadowed by the next one on the list.

 

5. Rand versus Ishamael/Ba'alzamon Act III (The Dragon Reborn): Finally a more compelling fight between the two. It takes them through the Stone of Tear and it ends in an interesting way: Ba'alzamon is killed and revealed to be Ishamael. This is my favorite confrontation between Rand and Ishamael, but it's not that glorious an ending for the supposedly most powerful Forsaken...although he comes back later as Moridin, and I expect some grand showdown (perhaps) in AMoL

 

6. Rand versus Lanfear (The Shadow Rising): First time we see how powerful a female Forsaken can be. She's just toying with Rand though and we know she's not trying to kill him. All this while Trollocs are raiding the Stone and fighting against each other. The interesting thing about it is we see Lanfear reveal herself to Rand for the first time, but overall not a true "fight".

 

7. Nynaeve versus Moghedian (The Shadow Rising): Occurs in the Panarch's Palace. It is also pretty brief and too showy at first because Moghedian just has to chat on and on about her mission like some cheesy villainous. Plus it makes her appear very weak (or maybe Nynaeve just appears very strong, or both) when she is so quickly captured. I'm not much a fan of this fight.

 

8. Rand versus Asmodean (The Shadow Rising): Now this was, up until this point, my favorite of the Forsaken fights. The two seemed pretty equally matched, and it's the first time Rand uses Traveling. The descriptions are vivid and exciting. And Lanfear being badass and just handing Asmodean over to Rand as he suffers after Rand cut off his connection to the Dark One is fantastic.

 

That's how far I've gotten in my re-read, but I remember most of the other fights from later books. If I'm missing any, fill them in:

 

9. Nynaeve versus Moghedian Part Dos (The Fires of Heaven): Occurs in TAR. I remember Moghedian being wounded with an arrow by Birgitte, but Birgitte is also wounded. Later Nynaeve captures Moghedian. I don't think it's really one fight but a series of confrontations throughout the book.

 

10. Lanfear Bitch Mode (The Fires of Heaven): Awesome, just cause I love Lanfear and seeing her pissed off was fantastic...but I was disappointed she "died" there. She's not been the same as Cyndane since. Moiraine was also pretty awesome here.

 

11. Rand versus Rahvin (The Fires of Heaven): Perhaps the best one-on-one fight between a main character and a Forsaken in the whole series. It's very good. Rahvin kills Mat, Aviendha, and Asmodean then goes into TAR with Rand pursuing. Nynaeve and Moghedian can only watch in terror. Quite a tremendous fight.

 

12. Rand versus Sammael (A Crown of Swords): Also a pretty good fight. Starts in Illian and culminates in a showdown in Shaidar Logoth, where Sammael gets gobbled up by Mashadar.

 

13. Cleansing of Saidin (Winter's Heart): If it was fleshed out a bit more this would probably be the best fight in the whole series (but Dumai's Wells holds that title), but it is a good show of the Forsaken's many talents...kind of. It's just not long enough, but we get several Forsaken fighting various characters: Cyndane, Demandred, Aran'gar, Osan'gar...Moghedian's there too, and Semirhage is but she's not seen.

 

14. Rand versus Semirhage (Knife of Dreams): Very quick so not that glorious a fight, but Semirhage does take off Rand's hand so she was pretty badass. Plus she's scary as all get out.

 

15. Rand versus Semirhage (The Gathering Storm): Semirhage gets too cocky so I didn't like that. She pushes Rand too far. She was a good Forsaken but she got too confident, and that made me annoyed with her. However Rand going Dark Rand was pretty interesting.

 

16. Egwene versus Mesaana (The Towers of Midnight): I've liked Mesaana for a long time, but I didn't like her end. Too talky and Egwene beating her like that was...eh, I guess. But the whole battle itself inside TAR was interesting.

[Durinax]

I personally liked the Asmo battle, it had a kind of desparation and intrigue to it that the others seemed to lack

[RandA lThor]

Cleansing of saidin was my favorite battle in the whole book, since it showed so well how fighting amongst channelers would work, but with awesome people, while awesome things were happening, amazing scene.

[1Brotherbill]

 

7. Nynaeve versus Moghedian (The Shadow Rising): Occurs in the Panarch's Palace. It is also pretty brief and too showy at first because Moghedian just has to chat on and on about her mission like some cheesy villainous. Plus it makes her appear very weak (or maybe Nynaeve just appears very strong, or both) when she is so quickly captured. I'm not much a fan of this fight.

 

8. Rand versus Asmodean (The Shadow Rising): Now this was, up until this point, my favorite of the Forsaken fights. The two seemed pretty equally matched, and it's the first time Rand uses Traveling. The descriptions are vivid and exciting. And Lanfear being badass and just handing Asmodean over to Rand as he suffers after Rand cut off his connection to the Dark One is fantastic.

 

11. Rand versus Rahvin (The Fires of Heaven): Perhaps the best one-on-one fight between a main character and a Forsaken in the whole series. It's very good. Rahvin kills Mat, Aviendha, and Asmodean then goes into TAR with Rand pursuing. Nynaeve and Moghedian can only watch in terror. Quite a tremendous fight.

 

These three are the best in my mind. Nye and Mog in the Palace when I first read that it was rather entertaining. Rand and Asm rolling around struggling to get there hands on the statue. Rand vs Rav. Rand opened a gateway and stepped through and was death. Nice play at words.

 

I know this isn't a Forsaken fight but Perrin and Slayer fighting in the last book. Now that was great. For some reason I remembered the opening sequence from X-Men 2 where Nightcrawler goes nuts in the white house. Swing at Slayer, blink to a new location, swing again, over and over through the streets of Tar Valon.

 

All in all the Forsaken fights have been kind of bland. They are pretty much just chase scenes with Rand killing someone at the end.

[Terez]

I saw the thread title, and Someshta vs Balthamel immediately came to mind as my favorite. But you didn't list it.

[Barid Bel Medar]

I also liked Nynaeve's Aginor battle in her accepted test, it was pretty awesome.

 

My favourites would have to be

 

Lanfear v Everyone : She was pissed off and smacked around everyone 3 decent strength women channellers and Rand with a bit of training, until Moiraine managed to tackle her through a ter'angreal. Win for her.

 

tDR Rand v Ishamael: I don't understand why people think Ishamael failed with this one. The two other defeats were kind of lame, but Rand DID have Callandor and starts deflecting balefire and all. I would be running like hell too. It also has some very interesting implications that may play out in aMoL, as well as a bit of TAR knowledge.

 

What I would have loved to have seen "on-sceen" is Lanfear v Alivia : Alivia with angreal, a few hundred years of being used as a weapon and Lanfear burns her arm up and escapes, would be interesting to see.

[spoke]

The best by far was not listed.

 

Rand vs. Graendal. forget the go into battle, just wipe your enemy of the face of the earth with a giant beam of balefire. That was just pure awesomeness.

[Niel an' Tyomn]

Not really a Battle but in ToM when Mat Tom Moiraine and Jain Farstrider R.I.P. survive with Jain in memory only though...

[Terez]

Not really involving a Forsaken, either...

[Plato]

For me, the cleansing of Saidin Battle, and Lanfear in bitch mode are both my favorite. In both cases I couldn't put the book down. The other battles, aka how will Rand win this time, were forgettable to me.

[OptimusPrime]

Rahvin gets my vote, seems like the most personal of Rands big fights. Plus he not only killed Mat, but he was wiping the floor with Rand big time. I like that he took the battle to T'A'R. Thinking about it I think Rahvin is the only dead Forsaken I actually miss.

[Luckers]

I saw the thread title, and Someshta vs Balthamel immediately came to mind as my favorite. But you didn't list it.

 

That's exactly what I thought of too.

[Aulduron]

The Cleansing and Egwene V Mesaana.

[RandA lThor]

Oh yeah, Egwene vs. mesaana was also good, all the ones where there were a lot of other people involved and channeling was a big factor.

[jsbrads]

The best by far was not listed.

 

Rand vs. Graendal. forget the go into battle, just wipe your enemy of the face of the earth with a giant beam of balefire. That was just pure awesomeness.

 

liked this too

 

also, isn't Sammael still alive

[Oort]

Sammael's toast

[SuperFade]

Rand vs. Rahvin. It helps that the latter actually put up a fight worthy of the name 'Forsaken' and that Rand was only saved by pure chance.

[Cybertrolloc]

LANFEAR SMASH in Carhien. Not only an interesting chapter in lots of ways, but one of the few times we see what a channeler should be able to do: just walk out with no planning, nuke a bunch of red-shirts absent-mindedly, etc...

 

Missed Sammael v. some (This Place, This Day) in FoH. It's not really on screen but does have some interesting reveals.

[Halleck]

I liked the Asmodean fight the best, but that is probably just because I loved Asmodean. He was my favorite Forsaken. Never seemed that bad, he just wanted to play some music and make love.

 

Other than that I would say the Rahvin fight was the best. I enjoyed seeing Rand getting his ass kicked for once. I understand that he is all powerful but every once in a while it is good to see that the Forsaken can actually get things done.

[True Source Creator]

Yeah, and technically Rahvin actually did accomplish something none of the other Forsaken have: he killed off some of the main characters (Mat and Aviendha, and Asmodean).