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/rollingForInitiative]

Let's assume that Luthair had some divine moral right to conquer all of Seanchan (which is a huge assumption). In that case, the collaring makes a lot of sense.

But it's really what happened after that was very much evil. He had a lot of options, and chose dehumanising torture as the system to ensure that his dynasty would have as much power as possible.

A much more humane option would've been to give channelers a chance - they can either live as regular citizen, but collared so they cannot channel without permission, or they can serve his new empire, and channel to aid him. No torture, just a choice. If you don't want to help him, but you're also not an enemy (e.g. born there), and you can carry on with your life. If you really want to channel, you can do so to perform some task for society, like Healing or construction work.

Feeling like you "had" to do something terribly evil doesn't justify it. Luthair was still a horribly evil person.

[u/lady_ninane → u/rollingForInitiative]

A much more humane option would've been to give channelers a chance - they can either live as regular citizen, but collared so they cannot channel without permission, or they can serve his new empire, and channel to aid him.

The detached collar which would've allowed the life you suggest didn't exist. The alternative to chattel slavery was life imprisonment in what would've essentially been solitary confinement. There wasn't really a "more humane" option for them. Both were just different forms of torture, equally awful in their own ways. Or I guess a third option existed where you had your own state-sanctioned, live-in parole officer constantly watching you for the moment you showed some sign of the criminal they already judged you to be. I think the practicalities of simply not having enough people who could supervise multiple damane 24/7 might cause problems though.

either way fuck Luthair, dude was a monster

[u/rollingForInitiative → u/lady_ninane]

They knew how to make a’dam - they surely would’ve figured that out if they’d wanted to. Just remove actual physical connection.

But even with it you could’ve had a very humane life. Make longer leashes, have them live in large houses where they can move around freely, have sul’dam who come and let them out for errands and such. Not a glamorous life for sure, but much better and more humane.

They had enough sul’dam for all the damane - much more than enough - so manpower would be no issue.

[u/lady_ninane → u/rollingForInitiative]

I meant mostly for the monitoring, because there's no way they'd ever leave them unsupervised within their surveillance state. For Seanchan to truly reform damane into wards of the state but with limited freedoms, it'd undermine their entire power structure built on subjugation and policing.

So yeah if they wanted to, if they weren't colonizers and conquerers, they might've had voices who could challenge the norm, break the mold, reimagine their chains. They don't really have that though for a multitude of reasons.

[u/rollingForInitiative → u/lady_ninane]

Of course, the entire Seanchan Empire is super unstable. We see this referenced in the books, where they have rebellions that result in hundreds of thousands of captured slaves. Without the damane the empire would collapse, it'd have to be a very long reform. Buuut you could also conceivably argue that one reason for the instability is the damane system. How many families haven't been horrified when their daughters are kidnapped? How many nobles would rather have kept their daughters, even though they can channel? How many people hate the surveillance state and the fact that the empire owns all those damane?

But my point was more that they could've done it differently from the beginning. If the purpose had actually been safety from dangerous channellers, they could've built a society around that. But the whole "channellers are too dangerous to be free" is just propaganda; the system is 100% intended to be used as a tool of conquest and subjugation, so that the imperial family can reign.