Kevin's Watch

After the climatiic events of the rest of the Chronicles, (assuming Liand has some climatic events of his own) I expect Liand and Pahni to be the parents of a new generation of Land-loving folks.. Providing that the Land itself survives, and that Pahni and Liand also survive. Neither of which I am convinced of happening.

I do believe he'll have to decide between his own future and Linden, and he is quite familiar for Linden's capacity of Evil.. Perhaps TC will talk some sense into him.

Vain wrote:Yes. Maybe he is just a blundering idiot but I still think that Lord Foul controls him when he needs to and will make him mess things up. I'm not going to miss him - he grates me

I'm not going to miss Liand either. He's the most one dimensional character I've ever encountered in a SRD book.

Seems lifted straight out of some Anne McCaffrey dreck. Pretty sad.

The sooner Liand goes away the better. Preferably violently.

In the first book, Liand was relegated as a sidekick to Linden and Stave. Since he has the orcrest, his status has jumped to a supporting character.
He may develop into a Sunder like character by the end of the fourth book.

I like Liand! Thought he was a puppy in the first book, but learned to love him in the second!

Ur Dead wrote:He [Liand] may develop into a Sunder like character by the end of the fourth book.

Maybe Linden will do something to get his Ramen girlfriend killed and he'll skip right over Sunder-istic and go straight to Trell-ishness.

I think Liand is the future of the land like Sunder. He will guide the lands inhabitants in pursuit of earthpower and lore.

I did not get anywhere that he will be evil. I saw his transformation from a naive stonedowner to user of the orecrest kindalike the way Berek started with earthpower. Maybe he has a starring role in restoring health sense, since he has already done that several times, as well as the use of Earthpower to all the inhabitants of the land.

My problem with Liand is explained in a few words.

When he found the orcrest in Revelstone it was said it was new to him. Reading this I thought "wait a minute, didn't he held a piece of orcrest back in Mithil Stonedown and when Linden touched it and thus triggered white magic it showed him she was true?" But then I remembered that this was Sunder from TC2 .

To cut it short, Liand is like a weak copy of Sunder, a Sunder sans couilles (pardon me French). He is not original enough and lacks the deep sorrow and self doubt that made Sunder a character. He is the Sam Gamgee of the Land. A loyal but naive sidekick needed to make the hero look brighter than he or she actually is.

JD wrote:Also Linded should have been able to detect if he were controlled by Lord Foul once the Staff of Law was back in her possession.

Ummm. Did not Kevin HAVE the Staff of Law at all times and yet was unable to discern Foul himself, until it was too late?

SGuilfoyle1966 wrote:

JD wrote:Also Linded should have been able to detect if he were controlled by Lord Foul once the Staff of Law was back in her possession.

Ummm. Did not Kevin HAVE the Staff of Law at all times and yet was unable to discern Foul himself, until it was too late?

Well yes, but that was Foul, with his mastery of Subterfuge. Liand is not Foul, if he was a servant of Foul, he wouldn't be able to use Hurtloam, Eat Tressure Berries, HOLD the staff of law on more than one occation, and use the Orcrest.

When TC speaks through Anele at the Upland Plateau, he tells Liand, that he wishes he could be spare him, and tells him (in not so many words) to get the Orcrest.

Liand, is certainly the Land as far as I'm concerned. No doubt, Foul or a Raver may try to possess him, but as for right now, I doubt it. There were too many beings that are too wise to be fooled.
At the very least, the Mahdoubt would have known if he was a bad guy. She was the only one who knew the truth about Roger and the croyel, (other than Esmer)

If the people of the Land are not what they were under Kevin's Dirt, what is to say the prohibitions against eating aliantha, etc, are in full force?
But that is digression. My point was about Linden.
Why should she automatically be able to detect a Foul-servant or Foul himself once she gets hold of the staff, when Kevin, the master of Lore, couldn't detect Foul.
The point is about HER abilities.

Good point about Linden. She couldn't discern Roger, could she? How could we possibly assume she could discern Foul!

I bet you this becomes a factor in the story. I don't think Liand is Foul, not by a long shot. (In fact, Foul has spoken through Anele to Linden while Liand was present, has he not?) But I do think someone else will be Foul. Someone who did not enter the story until the last chapter of FR. Nudge nudge.

The whole experience with Roger in the first half of FR could be a mere prelude to other experiences, a prelude which establishes in all out minds the possibility of these experiences occurring.

wayfriend wrote:But I do think someone else will be Foul. Someone who did not enter the story until the last chapter of FR. Nudge nudge.

That would make sense, considering some of SRD's responses in the GI. The implications of Foul being that particular person would be quite interesting. But I bet it will not be that simple. I think Foul will be that person in a much more metaphysical sense, rather than simply possession (or whatever you want to call it).

Auleliel wrote:

wayfriend wrote:But I do think someone else will be Foul. Someone who did not enter the story until the last chapter of FR. Nudge nudge.

That would make sense, considering some of SRD's responses in the GI. The implications of Foul being that particular person would be quite interesting. But I bet it will not be that simple. I think Foul will be that person in a much more metaphysical sense, rather than simply possession (or whatever you want to call it).

It don't think it will be that simple, either.

But let's talk about Liand. Remember Liand? This is a topic about Liand.

I agree, but think his downfall will be somewhat slower than you appear to think. At the moment, I think he's just a bit too keen for power. At some point later on, I think it'll be his Achilles' Heel.

I don't necessarily think his downfall will be something so sexy as going to work for LF or anything. It might just be as prosaic as becoming so disgusted with himself that he becomes another Anele (or another not-a-Bloodguard-anymore, for an earlier metaphor).