What does Mama's Boy have to do with this?



I'm actually surprised you thought Semirhage was a worthy villain before the spanking scene. I know I considered her a complete joke after Knife of Dreams, having gone through with what is presumably the absolute dumbest Forsaken plot to date. Her plan was so ridiculous that people were trying to preserve her image as a competent Forsaken by suggesting she meant to get captured.

Her humiliation in The Gathering Storm is completely appropriate. In the end, the heroes triumph over the villains, and how do you defeat a villain who is nothing more than an image? I mean, Semirhage had demonstrated her utter incompetence already, as I mentioned, all she had left was this delusion of adequacy. What was needed to complete the heroes' victory over her was to shatter that delusion and reveal the pathetic creature hiding behind the mask.

This doesn't reduce the value of Semirhage, such as it was, but only shows how awesome the protagonists were, that they could take on whatever obstacle Semirhage offered.