[Discussion] Your Favorite Forsaken

[lolguy26]

The Forsaken were channelers who served the side of the Shadow in the War of Power. They were known to followers of the Shadow as "Those Chosen To Rule The World Forever," or simply the Chosen. Among the Atha'an Shadar (Seanchan Darkfriends) they are known formally as Da'concion, or "the Chosen Ones". The Aiel call them the Shadowsouled.

A well known catechism about the Forsaken is as follows: "The Dark One and all the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Ghul, bound by the Creator at the moment of Creation, bound until the end of time," or a similar variant. This is incorrect, of course, as the Forsaken were not even born until the Age of Legends, and it is unclear if there even was an original "moment of Creation"—nor is the imprisonment forever. Due to the general weakening of the Seven Seals, some, perhaps all thirteen, had escaped by 997 NE, and all were certainly free by 998 NE.As time passed, The Forsaken came to mean the thirteen most powerful of the Forsaken, who were caught in the sealing of the Bore and imprisoned with the Dark One. The horrific deeds of each were remembered long after their disappearance. In the Third Age, these thirteen were such symbols of the Shadow that mothers would use stories of their exploits to frighten children.

 

 

Left to right, by row:

1. Demandred, Rahvin
2. Aginor, Asmodean, Ishamael,Lanfear, Semirhage
3. Mesaana, Balthamel
4. Be'lal, Moghedien
5. Sammael, Graendal

 

 

Now that we have a simple introduction of the origin of the chosen and their names across the different nation in randland.

 

The forsaken are all (imo) the different personalities of how one would define "evil darklord, you have the coward "Asmodean", you have the one who fights for revenge "sammael", you have the manipulator "Graendal" and so on.

 

If i had to pick one of the forsaken, id go with Lanfear/Ishamael, both of them were one of the first forsaken that manipulated the trio without trying to kill them.

 

Who's your favorite? and why??

 

NO AMOL SPOILERS ALLOWED

[dapianoplay3r]

I'm all about Graendal

[WWWwombat]

Moghedien. She is one of the only ones who doesn't let her pride blind her. What others call cowardice is actually caution and pragmatism. She takes it a bit too far sometimes, but it's a refreshing change from the hubris of the other Chosen.

[dapianoplay3r]

Except she kinda fails and sucks at what she does

It's a real pity cos she had potential as you say

[_CLOUD]

AMoL (can we discuss that book?) changed my view on some of the Forsaken I liked the most. Having said that, I really like Ishamael for his past and his connection with Lews Therin and Rand. I also find Asmodean and Lanfear to be great characters. I think my favorite Forsaken for the majority of the books is Graendal though, but at the end I was really disappointed how her character turned up.

[dapianoplay3r]

AMOl is still under spoiler protection so no talking about it

[WolfbrotherKronos]

Asmodean FTW

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

moridin

 

he's hot. and smart. and has chosen evil in wisdom and with deep reflection.

 

and he's got he crazy eyes.

 

[lolguy26]

moridin

 

he's hot. and smart. and has chosen evil in wisdom and with deep reflection.

 

and he's got he crazy eyes.

 

 

how you doin  

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

 

moridin

he's hot. and smart. and has chosen evil in wisdom and with deep reflection.

and he's got he crazy eyes.

 

 

how you doin

you're gonna be irresistible in 3, 4,000 years, hon

[lolguy26]

 

 

moridin

he's hot. and smart. and has chosen evil in wisdom and with deep reflection.

and he's got he crazy eyes.

 

how you doin

you're gonna be irresistible in 3, 4,000 years, hon

 

are you saying that im not now?!      

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

 

 

 

moridin

he's hot. and smart. and has chosen evil in wisdom and with deep reflection.

and he's got he crazy eyes.

 

 

how you doin

you're gonna be irresistible in 3, 4,000 years, hon

are you saying that im not now?!      

in some ways, yeah.

 

not evil tho.

 

work on that :)

[lolguy26]

But my version of evil is nice and yet mean 

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

heh.

 

yeah.

[lolguy26]

so you dont like any of the other forsaken?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

loved asmodean. really annoyed at his lameo death.

 

sweet guy. on of the few interesting bads in WoT.

[John E. Kelley]

Ishmael.

 

Duh.

[Maurelle]

I actually kinda like Semirhage and not just because she is my chosen forsaken. I like the whole exploration of the mind and breaking people. It's a lot like my fascination with crime and why criminals do what they do. I think she's actually like an amoral version of the profilers from criminal minds, or a fictional version of Mengele.

 

I just hated how easily she broke. It was like, ugh, so much potential wasted (all the villains were kinda that way for me, but that had more to do with Jordan's insistence on a PG13 rating than anything else to me).

 

edit: I can types the words...

[Vambram]

As a reminder of what is sometimes the little things that can make a person go evil, I feel like Demandred is my favorite forsaken. He became one of the Chosen because of something Lews Therin said to him. I won't go into specifics because I don't want to post any spoilers. 

[Panchi]

Moridin. For almost the same reason as cindy and tone down the hot part...nevermind . I liked him from the first scene where he was in charge of Moghedien's punishment. Then there is a reflective person who chose Shadow because of his philosophy and not for personal gain(well not that much gain as others). Saving Rand in Shadar Lagoth and the Rand-Moridin scene in tGS are my favourites and they put Moridin higher on the list of my favorite characters.

 

Graendal- There was one thought that she thinks in ToM that made her my favorite "Being predictable allows you to do the unpredictable"

[dapianoplay3r]

I base most of my mafia off her lol

[WWWwombat]

Graendal is a boring and overrated hype machine. She's always talking about how clever she is by pretending to be obtuse, but she never does anything. Is a mask really a mask if you never take it off?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

that's a twilight zone epi, innit?

[Niniel]

Moridin. For almost the same reason as cindy and tone down the hot part...nevermind . I liked him from the first scene where he was in charge of Moghedien's punishment. Then there is a reflective person who chose Shadow because of his philosophy and not for personal gain(well not that much gain as others). Saving Rand in Shadar Lagoth and the Rand-Moridin scene in tGS are my favourites and they put Moridin higher on the list of my favorite characters.

 

Graendal- There was one thought that she thinks in ToM that made her my favorite "Being predictable allows you to do the unpredictable"

 

I agree with everything except for the "tone down the hot" part. :D  Moridin is my favourite with Graendal as a close second. 

[Moon Sedai]

There's a reason I'm DM's Mesaana.

I can sympathize with her. 

 

She had these lofty dreams, and was only allowed to teach.

 

I hold the lofty dream of teaching, and am only allowed to to do retail.