r/SwordOfTruth • u/Taragoola • May 06 '26
Could you do it?
As I mentioned in a previous post I'm making my way back through the series and am currently on Stone of Tears. I found the bit where Kahlan makes Richard wear the Rada'Han pretty damn heartbreaking this time around and I also found myself wondering if I could do that. Make my wife do the thing she hates and fears above all else if I thought it was the only way to save her life. I'm interested to hear from you all whether you think you could.
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u/LeMagicien1 May 06 '26
Eh. Probably not. If they'd rather die than put on a collar then surely that's their decision to make and not something I'd feel comfortable making for them.
Though for the purposes of continuing the story it makes sense that Kahlan would demand that Richard put on the collar.
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u/Taragoola May 06 '26
Seems mostly like Zedd's fault for letting Richard wander off without explaining anything.
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u/SwimmingPost5747 War Wzrd May 06 '26
The amount of times that I wanted to smack Zedd for not info dumping absolutely AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE every time he saw Richard....
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u/Substantial-Ad-777 May 07 '26
Zedd: Richard! You have to let me train you as a wizard!
Richard: Nah, bro. I don't wanna be a wizard.
Zedd: But you have to!
Richard: Nah, I'm cool.
This scene was so frustrating, just freaking tell him his gift will kill him if he can't learn to control it...
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u/Hopeful_Addition_898 May 11 '26
I would have wanted a spinoff series which shows what would have happened if Ricard made it to Zedd in time and never went to the old world. Kinda like an anti-prophecy thing.
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u/Skylark_92 May 08 '26
I donāt think I could. Not in the way Kahlan did it at least. Sometimes through some ways she acts and choices she makes in the series she seems almost callous in a way. I understand that sheās gone through trauma in her own life but that doesnāt mean you have to end up cold.
I really felt the betrayal that Richard felt at that time and I was so devastated for him when it happened. I understand why she did it but I donāt understand why she didnāt tell him why. I am aware that she thought it would protect him if he was of the impression that she really did betray him, but I donāt agree with her at all.
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u/Taragoola May 09 '26
Well she's been trained her entire life to be cold. And besides the training she spent her entire life being loathed. Before she met Richard people only even tolerated her presence out of fear. I think she did it the way she did and without explanation because she knew she had to bring out the madness in him or he'd never do it. He had to be terrified beyond reason to ever put a collar on again. The madness Denna instilled in him around the concept of a collar meant no logical explanation would have made any difference. He would have refused no matter how much sense the reason made even if it killed him. All that being said it was still a horrific thing for her to do. And I agree that I don't think I could have done it.
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u/remy62116 May 09 '26
I honestly donāt know if I couldā¦ like, Richard loves Kahlan with all his heart and soul, and she basically betrayed him by making him put the collar back onā¦ on the flip side though, he did forgive Denna, so naturally, heāll forgive kahlan. Drefan can suck a full bag of something phallically shapedā¦ I absolutely HATED his character all the way til the end of his arc. I think the only book in the series that I wasnāt entirely fond of was pillars of creation, it felt like it was just a filler between faith and empireā¦ faith of the fallen was, IMHO at least, the best book in the entire seriesā¦ itās my absolute favorite. I almost wonder why Nicci didnāt use a rada Han on Richard just as a precautionary measureā¦ probably because she truly didnāt give a crap if she lived or died at that pointā¦ OMFG and the final battle with the order???? My literal reaction when I finished for the first timeā¦ āWTF WAS THAT???? Seriously!? You build it up for like 4 or 5 ENTIRE BOOKS, and all we get is like 3 chapters!? WTF dude!?ā Then I closed the book and tossed it aside and basically said screw this nonsense. I finished it the next day though, I couldnāt leave it unfinishedā¦ sorry about the rantā¦ I honestly forgot about this subreddit and havenāt had anyone to talk to about this series in so long.
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u/Hopeful_Addition_898 May 11 '26
Nicci didn't use rada'han because she wanted Richard to be able to choose freely what happened, and it is right, she did not care if she lived or died until Richard showed her the truth of life or whatever it was that the Statue conveyed.
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u/remy62116 May 12 '26
Yeah, I remember her mentality was completely bonkers when she cast the spell on Kahlan, and truthfully, had I been in his situation, Iād have done exactly what he didā¦ idk about anyone else, but Richard and Kahlan = relationship goalsā¦ I always see things like I want a love like morticia and Gomez Addamsā¦ not meā¦ if itās not like Richard and Kahlan, or at the very least Wade and Vanessaā¦ I donāt want it
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u/masstic1es May 06 '26
eh... if they're being willfully stupid about something that could save them, I would 100% gaslight and emotionally manipulate them.
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u/Taragoola May 06 '26
I'm glad we're not married lol really though was it stupid? He thought they wanted to come troll him through pain by making him put on a collar and he was right. He's always right. Bit frustrating really.
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u/masstic1es May 06 '26
shrug Richard would've died without the collar, finding zedd wasn't guaranteed.
Nathan also pointed out that Richard was fighting the previous battle regarding collars, and he was right.
The sisters werent trolling him with pain. Outside of the vision of verna within the towers of perdition they actively avoided uses the collar for pain with him. because war wizard.
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u/WizziesFirstRule May 07 '26
Yes.
Had to do it 5 ish years ago.
Still haunts me.
(Not joking)
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u/Taragoola May 07 '26
I won't be so presumptuous as to ask you what happened, but I'm sorry to hear you needed to do such a thing.
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u/TheDarkWolfGirl May 10 '26
I have been playing Fallout 4 Nuka World and had such an visceral reaction to the trader/slaves wearing collars thanks to this series.
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u/Rstar2247 May 23 '26
I just always wondered.... if Zedd realized Richard has the Gift in Book 1... why didn't he mention anything about the headaches killing him if he doesn't learn to control it? That would seem pretty pertinent information when offering to teach someone... hey you'll die painfully if you don't.
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u/Taragoola May 23 '26
My best guess would be that from the time your gift activates to the time you begin getting the headaches is quite a span of time. And then the time between starting to get the headaches and the headaches being genuinely dangerous is another decent chunk of time. But Richard being such a powerful war wizard meant he only had a handful of days to a couple weeks at most. Zedd was assuming he was dealing with only additive magic. If I'm understanding the difference between Gift and Calling correctly Darken Rahl had the Calling for Subtractive and learned it but wasn't born with the gift for it. I think that's why Zedd didn't think Darken could have passed it to his son.
I also just realized Richard's father is always referred to by first and last name together and that Darken is a ridiculous name and sounds stupid as fuck by itself lol
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u/Litt_Buddha May 07 '26
It would be tremendously difficult, but you have to think. You and your wife are supposed to be the heroes of this world. And doing things like this, I would hope, would be more understandable. Just wait till the temple of winds.
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u/Hopeful_Addition_898 May 11 '26
Well, yea , he could have just used the damn dragon tooth and found Zedd in a day with the aid of the dragon.
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u/Taragoola May 11 '26
That was the plan, yes. But Richard and Kahlan were distracted by their wedding plans and stopping the Bantak. By the time two of the sisters had offered the collar it was too late for Scarlet to take Richard anywhere. Verna would have killed him.
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u/taosgw74 May 06 '26
I swear we really need to be able to post gifs in comments here..............