I generally find myself on the opposite side of the fence from Cannoli... but in this case, I gotta agree with him completely.

What happened to Semirhage was BEAUTIFUL.

Her humiliation was the only thing that could possibly have had a meaningful, impactful resolution. It was sheer GENIUS. The woman was prepared to ignore torture, starvation, interrogation... she disrespected the Aes Sedai of this age and everyone around her, and was continuing in the pattern that resulted in her AoL captors smuggling her to freedom because of the fear she inspired in them as a captive.

This was the only way Semirhage could have been ended.

If Semi had died in battle, it would have been anti-climatic... this great torturer and sadist killed in something so mundane as battle or a duel? Total waste of a buildup. The way that this character was constructed as a diabolical terror required that THIS aspect of her character be dealt with before she was removed from the scene.

By dealing with Semirhage the way he did, Jordan attacked not her source of brute power, but her mystique - unarguably the most potent weapon she possessed. And in this arena, Semirhage was soundly defeated. It wasn't the mere 'lessening' of a great character... that spanking scene was actually her true defeat. The point where she (once freed) was balefired by Rand was almost incidental to her falling... at that point in time, her real power was already broken, she doubted herself (knowing her failure, as we saw when Shaidar Haran visited her), and causing her to act from weakness rather than strength.


In summary, that was just plain freaking awesome, and I hope my thoughts will help those who have disagreed to this point see that scene in a different light.