chaplainchris wrote:Come now, Worm, that's overly cynical! Covenant's lesson certainly wasn't easily learned! Otherwise the 1st chronicles wouldn't have been so torturous. But Covenant did progress, and it changed how he lived for the next 10 years in the real world. And he grew again in the 2nd Chronicles, from the crazy "Never let him have it!" refusal to give up the fight, to acceptance - the grace to bear what must be borne.
Linden shows some regression, I must admit - her self-doubt, her dependence on Covenant, her repeated refusal to accept that the ring is hers - but she also continually points out that she's *not* the woman she was pre-Covenant. She's overcome the legacy of unlove and paralysis. And she does "not choose to be defeated!" Sunder grew, Foamfollower learned to forgive himself, even Mhoram learned to a) overcome his fear of trusting the other Lords with knowledge of Desecration, and b) his dependence on Kevin's Lore.
Heck, even Haruchai and Ranhyn can change. I might argue that only Foul truly fails to change.
Change? Yes of course, change makes the characters more interesting. But Foul has certainly changed over the millennia, and in the beginning of the Last Chrons he comes off as really carefree. (He knows that, thanks to his soulmate Linden Foul-wife, his gaol and torment are finally almost over.)
Of course Foul hasn't had a change of heart, the only kind of change that matters, because he has no heart. There is no fundamental spiritual change. Evil is evil, and Foul is the main representative of evil. Other beings in the Land's Earth are also iconic representatives. The Haruchai still consider weapons of power a threat, they've only changed their methods. The Ranyhyn can't change, they are animals.
Mhoram - the only true iconic representative of pure heroic greatness in the entire Chrons. Others have only behaved heroically now and then, but their inner core was often ambiguous and conflicted. (Donaldson, ever the existentialist, loves to produce that kind of character.) Mhoram, a very lovely iconic character (like Perseus) who possessed no inner Despiser, cannot progress because he was already "there" with his ever-present flawless moral character.
Characters have definitely progressed in a sense. Foul, whom you claim cannot change, has definitely made progress. But Linden, in the Last Chrons, is just the iconic mommy stereotype; every breath she takes while in the Land only serves to further Foul's ends, and she appears to have regressed as you say.
But character progression is weak. Covenant, at the end of the First Chrons, has not learned to love himself, he has only been given a reason to go on living, write more books, etc. That is more of a reconciliation with himself and his illness. He fought against his delusion in the Land, but it was mostly passive-aggression. In the end he did not even take up white gold against Foul, and in the final battle he was lucky to reach the Illearth Stone before Foul could physically stop him. (Elena's "strike a blow for me!" turned into merely laughing at Foul until he became an embryo again.) In this sense, the First Chrons will always remain dissatisfying, and the reader has to take gratification from the success of Mhoram and the lords.
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