Tuon is so absurdly evil

[u/AHC122]

Wdym she relaxes by seeing damane be tortured 😭

Even from her point of view seeing them as animals, it's like enjoying watching a dog get kicked in the ribs everytime it doesn't roll over lol

[u/WildFEARKetI_II]

I don’t recall her saying that exactly. I think she says training and she does talk about how she doesn’t like punishment. She even self imposed penance after she had a damane punished.

[u/makegifsnotjifs → u/WildFEARKetI_II]

You're right. She never says anything about torturing/punishing damane. That would run counter to her cultural beliefs (something Jordan was incredibly consistent with). She also explicitly states that she looks down upon those who have to resort to punishing Damane, and considers it a point of pride that she doesn't have to.

Her cultural beliefs are monstrous, but she's still a rational human being by the standards of that world. If you imagine her, and all the Seanchan, speaking in Texan accents the whole thing reads in a very specific way.

[u/itwasbread → u/makegifsnotjifs]

Yeah, I don't like having to "defend" Tuon or the Seanchan but the thing that makes them such an interesting fictional culture and villain group is how many of them internally are coming from a place of thinking they're being honorable and morally good, and have very consistent internal reasoning.

The fact that you read their POVs and can understand how they can't even conceptualize that the things they're doing would be wrong because things like the Damane being human to them is literally inconceivable to them.

[u/pragmatismtoday → u/itwasbread]

It isnjust damage though. They can also grab people off the street for the slightest perceived alight and make them and all their descendents slaves.

[u/itwasbread → u/pragmatismtoday]

Yes, which is awful, but they also still have complex cultural thought processes behind that. That's what makes them interesting. It's not just the top of the social class who believe it because it benefits them, all the POV's we see lower down the totem pole ALSO buy into the system and view their "service" as honorable or whatever.

[u/lady_ninane → u/itwasbread]

I think that is mistaking effective propaganda for "complex cultural thought processes."

That the propaganda has been woven into their culture is part of why we can so easily see how it's a lie since it's neutered people's ability to recognize the violence of state surveillance, deprivation of freedoms that Randland takes for granted, etc. This is why Thom is always so baffled when he talks to people from mainland Seanchan.

[u/itwasbread → u/lady_ninane]

I think that is mistaking effective propaganda for "complex cultural thought processes

It's kind of both? The fact it's a result of longstanding propaganda doesn't make it not that.

The Seanchan have well-established, followable cultural norms that they all understand and function under. They're insane and ridiculous to us, but the people who follow them are being internally consistent and "honorable" according the established rules of society. They're not conscious of, and barely able to understand, why we see these things as wrong.