tl; dr "Stylishly Horrific" Antagonists are excellent for a story, and Semi's sequence effectively got rid of the last of them in WoT

How satisfying would Superman have been if Lex Luthor suddenly went, "Hm. I'm the richest, smartest, most powerful man in the world. Maybe I should relax?"

How great would... would... (I can't believe I'm blanking on stories with villains- all I can think of is Firefly and Disney's Alladin)

Ah! Star Wars! Darth Vader. Badass supreme. Murders children, chops off hands, etc. True, he's eventually redeemed, but it's at the end of the series, and plays a significant plot point as a metaphor for the Light Side of the Force and blah blah blah.

Most vampires. Just look what happens when they become all... Twilight-y. And look at how badass Angel is when he becomes Angelus in season 2 of Buffy.

Sephiroth.

Oh! Xykon, from Order of the Stick (webcomic, for those not in the know). The strip would be vastly, vastly inferior without his brand of evil style.



Semirhage's humiliation only played a plot point of "The Forsaken are actually pretty lame." This isn't me being facetious- barring Moridin, I'd say it's pretty obvious that's one of the things we're supposed to take away from tGS.

With the defanging of the Forsaken, Rand isn't left with any "dread" worthy opponents. Moridin's almost an anti-villian at this point. The DO is a faceless evil. The Seancean are a distraction- one that can do damage, but not horror-inducing. The various minions and monsters are bad, but not antagonist-worthy.

There's pretty much just Fain, who hasn't been doing much scheming lately, and the 'Finns, who are more of a Mat-centric antagonist.


So, yeah, the series... I don't know if "demeaned" is the word, but it was definitely lessened by the Semirhage sequence.