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Re: I think she's a weak villain Sidious Send a noteboard - 17/06/2010 09:03:47 PM
Lanfear is formed of root words meaning daughter (of the) night, and this compound word itself appears to be a poetic name for the Moon in the OT. That's most likely not the common name for "moon".

There's nothing pejorative in the name itself, it's not a scron name, Mierin made it up herself.



She's such a drama queen


What's especially hilarious about Lanfear is that even serving the Shadow, she managed to find a way to be in the spotlight. In all the concepts of darkness, shadow, night etc. she chose one of the two things luminous (stars and moon) and settled from the biggest brightest one of the two (she wouldn't settle for small distant lights!). The whole irony is that unlike the small stars, the Moon has no light of her own to cast, she only reflects the sun's - and I'm pretty sure that didn't occur to Lanfear when she chose the name.

Lanfear's sigil shows the Moon as the Queen among the smaller stars. They're also between the pincers of the crescent, as if she controls them and can crush them. Of course, as the moon waxes, those stars would disappear.

She sure has a high opinion of herself. She sees herself as the Light coming out of darkness. In truth, she just reflects the daylight from the sun on the other side of the earth. When the sun's not around, she's complete darkness.

It's also funny how the lunar cycle reflects well her "I love LTT/I hate LTT" phases.

I have a suspicion that if "twice dawns the day" involve an eclipse, the scene with Rand during this eclipse will likely involve Cyndane somehow as well (or else Egwene... Egwene sort of became the moon after Lanfear fell.. she too is heavily Moon Goddess based, going back and forth between warrior/maiden/queen as Amyrlin/Accepted-novice/damane and even lunar berserker shooting stuff out of the night sky as in TGS ) .


I'm not sure this went through her mind, or would go through anyone's mind really. When she decided to go over to the Shadow she probably decided to invest heavily in her Talent for TAR, and thus chose the moon and stars as a sigil. The moon looks bigger to the human eye, so it makes sense its bigger on her sigil.

For someone who caused such horror through the world of dreams, I can't think of anything more appropriate than a woman called 'Daughter of the Night' with a moon and stars sigil.


Sure she terrorized common people in TAR, like the Freddy Kruger of the AoL, but overall she was much less impressive than Graendal, Semirhage, Ishamael, Demandred or Sammael IMO. No evidence that she did anything the others didn't in TAR.

We certainly saw Ishamael do far more in TAR early in the series than anything we've seen Lanfear do ... in fact, I don't recall seeing Lanfear do anything particularly impressive in TAR other and simply claiming it as "her world".

Face it, like everything else about her, this too was a carefully calculated move to make her seem more impressive than she really was. Lanfear was pretty much an OP strength powerhouse and little else.

Maybe now that she's a slave she'll show us something more impressive


There's no point trying to diminish Lanfear. Nothing in the series ever suggested that she was anything less than one of the most proficient Forsaken during the War of Power. RJ included her in his list of the top Forsaken. The BWB says that TAR was her domain, and goes into details regarding her atrocities.

I also don't agree that Lanfear is merely a powerhouse. I think she's a highly intelligent villain. Rahvin said she was a notorious and dangerous backstabber, and even Semirhage said she caused devastation wherever she went and meddled in others plans. She snared Asmodean, and was on the verge of possibly killing Sammael and perhaps Rahvin and Graendal in her little plot to capture Rand. Of course then she fell to her flaw, and met Rand at the Docks.


See my response to Etzle above. I think you guys have created a whole myth around what Lanfear was, but if RJ wanted her to be truly impressive we'd see more of Cyndane getting herself free.


A lot of Lanfear was a myth, but you place undue credit on other Forsaken like Graendal and Semirhage. Both of those Forsaken have amounted to nothing either. The Lady of Pain turned out to be an impotent villain, who in the whole third Age, only managed to break one Cabriana Mecandes.
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Forsaken translations - 17/06/2010 09:16:36 AM 2633 Views
Yeah... - 17/06/2010 09:31:15 AM 1884 Views
Semirhage is named as "The Lady of Pain" in KoD, by Rand... - 17/06/2010 11:14:56 AM 2246 Views
You are right... - 17/06/2010 11:31:05 AM 1787 Views
Do Semirhage & Bel'al actually mean those things or are they other nicknames? - 17/06/2010 11:38:18 AM 1722 Views
On Be'lal - 17/06/2010 11:42:31 AM 1572 Views
Nice ideas! - 17/06/2010 02:10:43 PM 1698 Views
Gai'shain = those sworn to peace in battle - 17/06/2010 09:22:02 PM 1529 Views
Gaidin = Brother to Battle ... which is what I think the OP meant to use - 17/06/2010 09:32:20 PM 1486 Views
Presumably he meant "Dai Shan", or "Battle Lord", as he said. - 17/06/2010 10:37:07 PM 1546 Views
or that *NM* - 17/06/2010 10:45:49 PM 881 Views
About Aginor - 17/06/2010 12:50:04 PM 2002 Views
Great! - 17/06/2010 02:11:47 PM 1674 Views
Some Old Tongue translations - 17/06/2010 01:34:18 PM 1582 Views
ah Thanks! *NM* - 17/06/2010 02:12:00 PM 866 Views
Good luck with that - 17/06/2010 02:36:36 PM 1657 Views
Re: Good luck with that - 17/06/2010 03:24:52 PM 1475 Views
Very interesting! - 17/06/2010 08:34:36 PM 1638 Views
As always, - 20/06/2010 02:25:07 PM 1458 Views
I always thought Lanfear probably translated to something closer to a Moon translation - 17/06/2010 02:43:04 PM 1794 Views
it's the other way around... - 17/06/2010 02:58:33 PM 1537 Views
good point - 17/06/2010 03:13:17 PM 1514 Views
Re: good point - 17/06/2010 04:05:50 PM 1575 Views
Not to mention she STILL hasn't earned a 3rd (or in 4th) name - 17/06/2010 04:16:57 PM 1548 Views
What about Cyndane - 17/06/2010 04:48:03 PM 1450 Views
It must be her favorite one, since it's the only one she actually earned *NM* - 17/06/2010 05:43:41 PM 798 Views
Well she earned Mierin *NM* - 17/06/2010 08:27:05 PM 912 Views
how so? I figured mom and dad gave that one too her *NM* - 17/06/2010 08:36:24 PM 821 Views
she earned it by being born... ha! gotcha *NM* - 17/06/2010 08:39:10 PM 784 Views
HA! But technically I think her mother earned that *NM* - 17/06/2010 08:58:30 PM 709 Views
well she earned Eronaile by virtue of her genetics *NM* - 17/06/2010 09:04:36 PM 791 Views
Tee hee ... I'd credit her father on that one *NM* - 17/06/2010 09:31:19 PM 835 Views
Re: good point - 17/06/2010 04:47:01 PM 1616 Views
Again, a self-proclaimed ownership aimed at making her seem more impressive - 17/06/2010 05:55:12 PM 1540 Views
I disagree - 17/06/2010 06:20:08 PM 1584 Views
Personally I think that order was off the cuff - 17/06/2010 08:55:28 PM 1705 Views
Re: Personally I think that order was off the cuff - 17/06/2010 09:02:06 PM 1651 Views
Disagree - 17/06/2010 09:28:51 PM 1569 Views
Re: Disagree - 17/06/2010 09:41:23 PM 1528 Views
I'm not being very clear - 17/06/2010 10:14:10 PM 1539 Views
Re: I'm not being very clear - 18/06/2010 08:06:56 AM 3998 Views
Re: I'm not being very clear - 18/06/2010 03:33:12 PM 1543 Views
Re: I'm not being very clear - 18/06/2010 04:35:12 PM 1405 Views
The point isn't if Lanfear has the skill, it's that it was poorly shown. - 18/06/2010 05:31:11 PM 1562 Views
I think it's shown well - 18/06/2010 06:10:55 PM 1726 Views
your own examples show only OP prowess though! - 18/06/2010 06:54:38 PM 1658 Views
How can you say Semirhage didn't achieve anything? - 18/06/2010 01:59:44 AM 1590 Views
I'm partial to Sammael myself. - 18/06/2010 02:24:49 AM 1421 Views
The statement makes clear that those 6 were all quite impressive - 17/06/2010 10:51:49 PM 1354 Views
I don't see that bearing out in the text at all - 17/06/2010 10:57:36 PM 1558 Views
Well, with this point I don't disagree.. *NM* - 17/06/2010 11:10:34 PM 1463 Views
- 17/06/2010 11:12:58 PM 1588 Views
Lanfear's motives were never Shadow-driven - 20/06/2010 06:47:22 PM 1604 Views
not ballsy, just psycho - 20/06/2010 07:25:46 PM 1559 Views
Like Etzel I don't agree - 17/06/2010 08:30:37 PM 1456 Views
I think she's a weak villain - 17/06/2010 08:58:01 PM 1420 Views
Re: I think she's a weak villain - 17/06/2010 09:03:47 PM 1518 Views
Semirhage has done more than anyone since Ishy destroyed the Ten Nations - 18/06/2010 02:06:30 AM 1528 Views
Regarding "Demandred" ... - 17/06/2010 04:51:43 PM 1541 Views
I always thought it was a coincidence - 17/06/2010 08:32:39 PM 1683 Views
Lan/Lanfear isn't a coincidence... - 18/06/2010 12:19:58 AM 1514 Views
Wow. I'm not quite sure where this came from... *NM* - 18/06/2010 05:24:25 PM 768 Views
Re: Lan/Lanfear isn't a coincidence... - 20/06/2010 07:01:55 PM 1607 Views
No, it was supposed to be a joke. - 20/06/2010 07:23:19 PM 1558 Views
Re: No, it was supposed to be a joke. - 21/06/2010 06:36:44 AM 1556 Views
Re: I always thought it was a coincidence - 18/06/2010 05:20:11 PM 1579 Views
Perhaps Lan-fear meaning Night-Daughter would make more sense - 17/06/2010 06:00:35 PM 1573 Views
Interesting *NM* - 17/06/2010 08:33:03 PM 869 Views
Re: Perhaps Lan-fear meaning Night-Daughter would make more sense - 18/06/2010 04:23:38 PM 1776 Views
Regarding "Far Dareis Mai" ... - 18/06/2010 05:28:41 PM 1460 Views
We also have din in Mera'din/Brotherless and far in Far Madding - 18/06/2010 08:16:14 PM 1565 Views
Re: Regarding "Far Dareis Mai" ... - 20/06/2010 03:56:38 AM 1744 Views
And Dragon translations... - 17/06/2010 10:53:02 PM 1681 Views
Re: And Dragon translations... - 17/06/2010 11:01:25 PM 1491 Views
But of course the NT word for Dragon isn't Dragon - 18/06/2010 05:45:34 PM 1721 Views
Ah yes, that sounds reasonable. *NM* - 18/06/2010 08:28:54 PM 826 Views
If "aman" is the Old Tongue name for Dragon, maybe "DEMANdred" contains a reference to Dragon too... - 20/06/2010 08:13:35 PM 1737 Views
"Dragon Wannabe" *NM* - 20/06/2010 09:23:09 PM 672 Views
Lizard? *NM* - 20/06/2010 10:04:21 PM 863 Views
"Scaled Worm"... though I doubt he'd take that name up in pride . *NM* - 22/06/2010 01:23:03 AM 756 Views
It's probably too much to attempt to guess at the meanings of words... - 17/06/2010 10:58:06 PM 1296 Views
A nice article about the Old Tongue and my ramblings - 18/06/2010 11:14:24 AM 7720 Views

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