#Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander

[tbookblurbs]

Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind

TW/CW for rape, SA

0/5 - I'd give this negative stars if I could. Poorly written, weirdly rape-y for the ENTIRE book, misogynistic, derivative, unimaginative magic system, 15-20 pages dedicated to BDSM sexual assault? Save yourself the time, energy, and brain cells.

Where to start? Ah, I know! Let's start with the fact that this book is a blatant rip-off of the Wheel of Time (I just read Eye of the World, so I can confirm). Even if it weren't following the plot beat-by-beat, its unimaginative at best. Everything you read here has been done better by someone else. The parts that aren't lifted from Eye of the World are poor copies of Tolkien's work (which WoT is also guilty of ... but that's for a later post).

Goodkind's writing style seems to consist mostly of just narrating. There is minimal dialogue. There is technically action. But mostly, there's the author telling you exactly how the characters are feeling and why they might make the decisions they'll make with no evidence to WHY that might be true. You don't get to experience any of this for yourself. Richard and Kahlan allegedly fall in love within 24 hours of meeting each other, but without the author telling you this every other page, you'd never know based on how they act with each other. I saw them as colleagues at best, despite the professions of love at the end. Personally, I'm convinced Goodkind has never been friends with a woman.

Beyond this, Kahlan spends ALL of her time bemoaning the fact that she can't be in love with a man properly without forcing him to fall in orgasmic love with her. I'm being 100% serious here, that's the beginning, middle, and end of her magical powers. She rarely talks about having friends or family, and when she does, that singular friend is the main character of an anecdote about sexual assault. Lovely.

Richard, on the other hand, doesn't ever seem to BE thinking. Goodkind tells you that he is the most special boy to ever live and that also, twist! he's the product of rape. His power is *waves hand* Truth and no, that is never explained.

This is all without even TOUCHING the BDSM plotline which, frankly, does a disservice to anyone who has ever engaged in kink. It's all hot women in leather who are torturing our protagonist to feel pain and the men (yes, it's always men) usually die from the experience. But Richard, being the most special boy to ever live, is different. He has this experiences, sleeps with his mistress under dubiously consesual circumstances, and defeats her with the power of falling in love with her, because she was actually just a nice girl with issues this whole time. Oh, also a key point of these women is that they're tortured into becoming torturers. The whole plotline is absolutely miserable and that still leaves about 30% of the book left. I almost quit right then.

One of the few joys of this book was Zedd, but honestly, if you've read one whimsical wizard, you've met him already. He doesn't hold a candle to Gandalf or Yoda or any other quirky magical mentor.

To conclude! I hated this book, will never read another one of Goodkind's book, and I hope and pray that none of you will ever be subjected to his writing.

#words truly cannot express the face of disgust I had on for MOST of the time spent reading this book #terry goodkind #wizard's first rule #richard cypher #kahlan amnell #zedd #zeddicus z'ul zorander #sword of truth series #tw sa #tw sa mention #fantasy #high fantasy

[technoturian]

Ranking Magical Mentors

(a completely incomplete and objectively biased analysis, don’t @ me)

Shazam (Shazam!) Score: -~.5/10

Shazam gets -1 point for every year he spent looking for a hero who will receive phenomenal cosmic powers while not having "fully matured brain" as one of the hard requirements of the job. The exact number of years isn't specified; he said he'd been looking for "centuries" but is in fact from Ancient Egypt or before then, so being bad at math subtracts another .5 from his score.

Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter Series) Score: 0/10

Written by a transphobe, fell in love with a nazi, gave a kid to abusive relatives, categorizes some children as evil and then punishes them for it. No points to Dumbledore.

The Ancient One (Doctor Strange) Score: 1/10

Whitewashing and Orientalism disguised as feminist, post-racial open-mindedness. You can’t just throw a bald Tilda Swinton at the problem and expect it to do the work for you.

Glinda the Good Witch (The Wizard of Oz) Score: 2/10

Glinda purposely manipulates an ignorant farm girl and sends her on a path to kill the Wicked Witch of the West even though Dorothy had the tools to get home the entire time. So -5 for being a terrible mentor but +5 for being a girlboss. Depending on what source material you consider canon she is possibly working out some blended family trauma, possibly a figment of Dorothy's psyche? She ends up at a 2/10 for being incredibly patronizing and giving off church lady energy by not only unironically deigning herself "Good" but also making that a huge part of her identity.

Brom (Eragon) Score: 3/10

This was definitely a guy who existed and was in a movie I've seen. Not actually magic?

Gaius (Merlin) Score: 5/10

The magical mentor of the original magical mentor himself. Set up to be wise but in hindsight gave Merlin a lot of very bad advice, chiefly in not advising him to tell Arthur the truth a long, long time ago. Best “sweet old man” vibes on this list though.

Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander (Legend of the Seeker) Score: 7/10

Zed is a wise old wizard who actually survived his protege's call to action, but he was also constantly being written out of fights to counterbalance that. Negative points for reducing the found family aspect of being a magical mentor by, y'know, actually being related to his charge. Gains points again for constantly hyping every new type of magic as "P O W E R F U L  M A G I C" and because Bruce Spence’s scenery chewing and Sam Raimi's sense of humor are a match made in cheesy TV heaven. When magic turned him young again he looked a bit like James Spader, but I’m not sure how to score that.

Dishonorable Mention: Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander (Sword of Truth Series) Score: -10/10

I haven't read it, but I've heard this book series described as "Ayn Rand high fantasy". The true Randian ideal is pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and having a magical mentor at all sounds too much like filthy communism to me. Why can’t you teach yourself magic, Richard?

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars) Score: 9/10

He may be from sci-fi but he's a classic magical mentor. He loses some of the mystique he presented in the original trilogy by having his entire background gone over with a fine tooth comb in prequels, expanded universe novels and television. Dramatic b*tch and a bit of a troll, especially as a ghost. Dinging him one point for lack of prerequisite wisdom with regard to some of his life choices.

Moiraine Damodred (Wheel of Time) Score: 10/10

A perfect score for absolute perfection. She's not dead (yet? no book spoilers!) so that puts her ahead of a lot of people on this list, she is also the only magical mentor with enough foresight to invest in a bodyguard. Great judge of character and knowledgeable about a lot of things while still being much younger than your average magic mentor, which highlights her hustle and work ethic. Moiraine takes on multiple possible Chosen Ones at once, proving herself the modern solution to magical mentorship (as well as a perfect representation of the overloaded modern worker being forced to do multiple jobs at once).

Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings Series) Score: 100/10

Gandalf is wise, powerful, frustratingly vague, disappears at inopportune times so the hero has to solve his own problems... This guy has it all going for him, including some of the best lines in the series. Died at the appropriate moment to drive the hero's journey and then walked it off. Somehow manages to seem cool and virtuous even though he's a senior citizen who hangs around small "innocents" while smoking copious amounts of weed and setting off fireworks. Looked better in gray, but what can you do. A true icon.

Granny Weatherwax (The Discworld Series) Score: ↑/~

Granny doesn't hold with all of this numbers and ranks business. She can't be having that kind of thing. However if you must know, she is definitely up there near the top. Has been the magical mentor of at least four young witches and hasn't been murdered yet. Excellent references.

#High Fantasy #Granny Weatherwax #Gandalf #Moiraine Damodred #Obi-Wan Kenobi #Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander #you'll be happy to know two different people have informed me it's not weed #if I missed someone important I'm very sorry that I'm not at all sorry

[shionnes-imeris]

BRUCE SPENCE AS ZEDDICUS Z’UL ZORANDER IN LEGEND OF THE SEEKER (SEASON ONE)

#legend of the seeker #lotsedit #tvedit #zeddicus z'ul zorander #gifs #mine #mine: lots #long post #everyone's favourite secretive grandpa

[lornashores]

And more than magic he has thousands of soldiers under his command.

#lotsedit #lotsdaily #legendoftheseekeredit #legend of the seeker #richard cypher #kahlan amnell #zeddicus z'ul zorander #**

[onlydevilsleft]

200: Dragons or wizards?

{{ 200. okay, lemme preface this by saying i really love dragons. been a fan since i was a kid. i'm also a dragon in the chinese zodiac because of my birthday! you know what made me fall in love with dragons? Dragonheart. it's an amazing older feature and y'all should look it up if you haven't ever seen it. it's about a dragon that gives half his heart to a young prince who is dying, at the behest of his mother the queen and his teacher, a knight of the old code. they are trying to raise the young prince right despite his father, the king, being a cruel and terrible power. alas, things do not go well... but in the end the dragon finds his redemption and saves the people, even though the crime, the shame, was never his. he bore a guilt so great for the actions of someone else...and he ended up paying a cost that wasn't owed by him... UGH. however, despite the fact that movie is probably my favorite of all time, i have to choose wizards. i, too, have a very long history with loving wizards. from the harry potter books as a younger teen, then upward to the lord of the rings and the hobbit, and then i discovered the world of terry goodkind in the sword of truth series. it's pretty much got the way i got into adult stories about wizards and magic and, yeah... wizards are the wisest and often the last stand of defense - along with whoever stands with them - against evil and darkness falling forever. Dumbledore and Harry, Snape and Lupin and Sirius... Gandalf and Radaghast... Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander, Barracus and Merrit... Just to name a few of the souls that helped shape my life along the way so far. }}

#ooc #out of blood #⸶ mother forgive us for our sins ;; we know not what we do ⸷ | asks #writer fc || amanda schull

[tukuhnikivats]

Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander Reid crossed the rainbow bridge today at the age of nearly 11 years old. He was with his Daddy whom he loved more than anything. Thank you to Elko vet clinic for letting me and Poe say goodbye. (at Elko Veterinary Clinic) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDFf8m0lvFQ/?igshid=17x3nt0j5y0vs

[alphabooks]

“Z is for Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander” by Jessica Vanderpol

Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind www.jessicavanderpol.com

tanya56.deviantart.com

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who survived 26 weeks of artistry! It's been fun seeing great talent and imagination--I look forward to the next challenge. Until next time! -Jessica

#Books #Jessica Vanderpol #Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander #Terry Goodkind #Sword of Truth #submission

[selkies-song]

"There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil, least of all in people. In the best of us there are thoughts or deeds that are wicked, and in the worst of us, at least some virtue. An adversary is not one who does loathsome acts for their own sake. He always has a reason that to him is justification. My cat eats mice. Does that make him bad? I don't think so, and the cat doesn't think so, but I would bet the mice have a different opinion." -Zedd

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind, Chapter 10

#sword of truth #zedd #zeddicus z'ul zorander #quotes #evil #good #cat #mice #mouse #cats

[gypsyfatale]

The fact that Legend of the Seeker shows how one can make bad decisions in an instant without necessarily being a bad person overall gives me greater reason to enjoy the show.

#Legend of the Seeker #Cara Mason #Kahlan Amnell #Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander #Richard Cypher

[msalene]

#legend of the seeker #Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander

[shionnes-imeris]

Bonus:

#legend of the seeker #lotsedit #kahlan amnell #richard cypher #kahlan x richard #zeddicus z'ul zorander #rachel #gifs #mine #mine: lots #in which i am rachel #the bonus gif is because the awkward smile is precious and it didn't fit in the full set

[apathbetweenthestars]

30 Day Character Challenge

Day 10: A character who taught you something about real life.

Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series (this pic is Zed from the TV show adaption, Legend of the Seeker). Zed taught me lots about life. He's a philosopher, comedian, and just a good man over all. His best lesson was in the first book. Wizard's First Rule: People are stupid.

#30 Day Character Challenge #Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander #Terry Goodkind #Sword of Truth #Day 10

[tukuhnikivats]

Happy 10th birthday to Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander Reid! AKA Zedd. Please disregard his being shaved. That groomer was fired with extreme prejudice. #newfie #newfiesofinstagram #newfoundland #newfoundlandpuppy #newfoundlanddog #bigdog #bigdogs #swordoftruth #zedd #zeddicuszulzorander #terrygoodkind https://www.instagram.com/p/B2x1dLJl6uH/?igshid=xrpqxya46nje

#newfie #newfiesofinstagram #newfoundland #newfoundlandpuppy #newfoundlanddog #bigdog #bigdogs #swordoftruth #zedd #zeddicuszulzorander #terrygoodkind

[stylishbutillegaljamie-blog]

Zedd could hear the muffled laughter from down in the dining room. Merry music seemed to ooze up through the elegant, richly colored carpets. A bard was singing a bawdy tale about a princess masquerading as a serving wench. Her father and king had pledged her to a prince she loathed. After having exposed the suitor as a scoundrel and greedy opportunist, she found that, despite having to endure her bottom being pinched, she preferred the occupation of serving wench to that of princess, and went on to live a life of singing and dancing. The crowd roared their approval, thumping their mugs in time with the tune.

Terry Goodkind, Stone Of Tears

#legend of the seeker #sword of truth #terry goodkind #zedd #Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander