Kahlan Amnell: Strong, Independent Rapist Who's Nothing Without Her Man

"Love me or I'll make you!"

Buckle up, gang, 'cause this is gonna be barf city. This character is worse than Richard. She may very well qualify as the worst character in all fantasy lit.

The female lead of this series, and Richard's One True Love, Kahlan Amnell is introduced to us at the end of the first chapter of Wizard's First Rule, a nameless woman walking through the forest in a white dress, unaware that she's about to be attacked by four men following her through the brush. Richard sees her and from his vantage point also sees the men, and rushes to warn her of the attack.

He then immediately falls in love with her. No, I'm serious. The wording in the chapter of his reaction upon first seeing her is instant love.

"Her brown hair was full, lush, and long, complimenting the contours of her body. She was tall, almost as tall as he, and about the same age. The dress she wore was like none he had ever seen: almost white, cut square at the neck, interrupted only by a small, tan leather waist pouch. The wave of the fabric was fine and smooth, almost glistening, and bore none of the lace or frills he was used to seeing, no prints or colours to distract from the way it caressed her form. The dress was elegant in its simplicity. She halted, and long graceful folds regally trailing her gathered about her legs.
...
Her eyebrows had the graceful arch of a raptor’s wings in flight...
...
The connection was so intense that it threatened to drain his sense of self. He felt that he had always known her, that she had always been a part of him, that her needs were his needs. She held him with her gaze, as surely as a grip of iron would, searching his eyes as if searching his soul, seeking an answer to something. I am here to help you, he said in his mind. He meant it more than any thought he had ever had.
...
In her eyes, he saw something that attracted him more than anything else. Intelligence. He saw it flaring there, burning in her, and through it all he felt an overriding sense of her integrity."

I mean...I just...he hasn't shared a single word with her yet! Not to mention that in this scene, it becomes immediately clear that Kahlan is not very intelligent, whatever Richard sees in her eyes, or she wouldn't be wandering in strange woods with no weapons wearing a dress that makes her stand out all the more and by all rights should be so filthy that its original color is unrecognizable.

But this isn't by any stretch the worst aspect of this character. We're just getting started.

Let's first focus on Kahlan as a character. Kahlan is strong, fiercely independent, able to lead armies and give orders...and she spends a majority of each book pining for Richard and, when she's in his presence, constantly seeking his protection because she's far too timid and weak to protect herself.

No, I'm serious. Her personality is all or nothing. Throughout the books, whenever she and Richard are apart, she alternates between being one of the most vicious, bloodthirsty generals any army has ever seen (the only way Goodkind knows to make her appear strong), or she's a sobbing mess because she needs her man. When they're together, she lets Richard essentially take over. They have token disagreements here and there, usually very minor, before she lets Richard make all the decisions, and worse yet, she is usually shown to be so dependent on his protection that it's a wonder she made it as far as she did before she met him. Also, remember how I said that Richard is so dumb that he can only be made to look smart by having everyone around him be dumber than he is? Kahlan is number one in that regard. Probably the biggest example I can give happens in the second book, in which Kahlan is tasked with journeying to Aydindril to warn Zedd that the Keeper of the Underworld is about to break through to the mortal plain, and essentially end the world, as you normally see in a non-fantasy book that focuses on important human themes of deep philosophical reach. It's a mission of major importance, and timing is of the essence, so what does Kahlan do? She ends up finding the remnants of an army that's planning a suicidally stupid attack on a much larger force. And stays to help them win. It takes weeks, and ultimately means very little because the entire freaking world is still in danger. Let's not even get started on her idiotic plan to defeat the invading army. Which works, because Goodkind wanted it to work. Yeah, she's nearly as much a Sue as Richard himself. In other books, her stupidity mainly manifests itself in how she can't seem to ever be concerned about much else than Richard and his continued presence in her life.

Now, I know it's very tough to write women characters in period literature when you're not a woman. Every decision you make is going to piss someone off, and I don't mean that you run the risk of pissing off either feminists or MRA's, I mean you run the risk of pissing off different groups of feminists and/or misandrists. I've seen various authors praised and lambasted for exactly the same reasons. You can't write a female character and not have someone complain that you did it wrong. But Goodkind takes that a step further; he truly believes he's written a strong, powerful woman and repeatedly refers to her as such (like Richard, she's supposed to be a living standard of all that is true and good) but what he's created is actually a pretty misogynistic character, and I don't just mean her own portrayal, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Let's talk about Kahlan's bloodthirst. She may actually be more tyrannical than Richard, even if she's perfectly okay letting him rule. But due to her position in the Midlands (which we're coming to), and later due to her position as Richard's betrothed who can speak on his behalf, she often finds herself in the main leadership role. Invariably, she becomes a brutal tyrant who orders peoples' deaths for no reason except they might present a threat to Richard or because she has a really odd definition of "treason", which boils down to "something you said or did upsets me".

One chief example again has to do with that army. See, Kahlan's position is essentially the ruler of the Midlands. There's some dissent among the people about the unopposed rule of the Mother Confessor (her title, and yes, we're getting there) but there's been no official toppling of her regime, nor is being ruled by a woman something unheard of in her nation. But the thing about misogynists who don't realize they're misogynists is that they have to write straw-misogynist characters in order to create a faux conflict. In this case, a small contingent of this army decides they won't take orders from a woman. Kahlan tells anyone who doesn't want to be commanded by a woman that they may go. After they leave, she tells the captain to take some of his remaining troops and follow the others and kill them at the first opportunity. For treason. And because once a person has committed treason, they'll likely do so again. It turns out that she was right, because Goodkind is writing her story and he's as dumb and bloodthirsty as she is, but seriously, a man whose only beef was taking orders from a woman has decided to go over to the enemy as a result? Later she has her own half-brother declared mad simply because he doesn't see the Confessors as pure and good (and once you're done reading this you'll probably agree with him). When a young woman from Richard's home town shows up in the fourth book, she very seriously entertains the thought of killing this woman just because she has a feeling that this young woman is a threat to Richard. When Richard does decide at the end of the fifth novel to leave a city state to suffer the consequences of their choice, Kahlan's all for the wholesale slaughter of the entire populace. At one point she does remove all protection from another city state, leaving them vulnerable to the same invading army as I mentioned above, all because they didn't want to swear total fealty to Richard and Kahlan. In all fairness, this is a decision Richard makes, but on her advice, as I recall.

Continuing on the misogyny theme, I have mentioned before how rape-happy Goodkind seems to be, and it's never more grossly represented than whenever Kahlan encounters any man who is on opposite sides from her. The number of times she's threatened with rape or nearly raped is almost uncountable. While this sort of thing isn't by itself wrong or sexist, Goodkind abuses the situation, sucking it dry of its significance and importance by sheer overuse. Contrary to Goodkind's belief, most men aren't ready to rape all women they see merely because she's defenseless, even if they're not on the hero's side. And if they are that ready to rape, they usually want to make sure they're not being watched. Like I said, everyone knows how evil and wrong rape is, even those who commit it. Not in Goodkind's world, though.

Twice that I recall, and likely more times that I don't, or haven't read, a character reveals themselves to have been evil all along. And in both cases, the first thing they do is try to rape Kahlan. I mean, really, they've been able to control themselves up to this point, but now that they've revealed their true nature, they can't stop themselves from goin' to town on our pure, incorruptible heroine.

At one point, Kahlan is tossed into a pit of criminals, who, naturally, are all jostling for the position of who can rape her first. As if this isn't skin-crawling enough, Kahlan decides the best way out for her is the use of her power (which, for once, is true). Her power is expelled through touch, so she selects the strongest man there and...and...ugh, sorry, I'm struggling to write this without screaming...gives him instructions on how best to rape her.

I just...nope.

But this leads me to discussing Kahlan's power, and the position she holds because of it. She's a Confessor. If this sounds like a Catholic nun to you, you're way off. Basically, the Confessors were created a long time ago by wizards because wizards "hated lies". Yeah. So this powerful woman is only powerful because men gave her that power. She and the other Confessors rule absolutely in the Midlands, and the Mother Confessor rules them. That's Kahlan. She's a strong independent woman because of a power given to her by men and a position created for her by men.

But let's continue. Here's how a Confessor prevents "lies": her power allows her to touch a man and place him under her complete control. Forever.

As she describes it: ”Once touched by it, you are no longer the person you were. You are changed forever. Forevermore you are devoted to the one who touches you, to the exclusion of all else. What you wanted, what you were, who you were, no longer means anything to you. You would do anything for the one who touches you. Your life is no longer yours, it is hers. Your soul is no longer yours, it is hers. The person you were no longer exists.”

That sounds...evil. It sounds more evil than anything Darken Rahl ever does in this book, or the other villains do in books that follow. What it is, plain and simple, is mind rape. You cease to be the person you once were, because your mind has been hollowed out and replaced with nothing more than a mindless, slavish devotion to the Confessor who bewitched you. It's mind rape, full stop. It's not a wonderful or fearsome power. It's doesn't make Kahlan powerful because she has it. It makes her a mind rapist and it's a vile, hateful power that only a vile, hateful person would ever willingly use (as Kahlan does repeatedly and without remorse).

But it gets worse. She describes it as "the power of love". Um. What?

Love is a powerful emotion, sure, and it does create feelings of devotion in a person toward another person, assuming it's true love and not lust. I'm a married man. I have children. I love my wife and kids with a strong devotion that means their well-being, their safety, their happiness, is more important than my own. But I'm still me. I am still able to think about other things than my love for my wife and kids. Even when I'm with them, I'm able to function without my every thought being on whether my actions are what my family wishes me to do. I'm even able to disagree with my wife, and discipline my kids, often by simply not doing what they want me to, and still love them. The hopes and dreams I had before getting married and becoming a father are still there, and I would only ever sacrifice one of those dreams by conscious choice because I personally decided my family was more important. I may love them sacrificially, but it's my love for them that makes me choose to be sacrificial for their needs, not compulsion that leaves me unable to think any other way.

What Kahlan describes is not love. It's not even lust. It's just pure and simple mental enslavement. It's rape.

But why are they called Confessors, and what does their power have to do with lies? Well, the primary purpose of a Confessor is to get the truth from people charged with crimes. Often, people who are accused but innocent ask for a Confessor, which right there should prove them innocent because who would want to be Confessed? But there's a solution to when a person has been Confessed and turns out to actually be innocent; they're turned into animals. Yep. Because animals' feelings are different, the devotion one feels to their Confessor lessens somewhat once they've been transfigured by a wizard. We meet a wolf who was once a man confessed by Kahlan and he describes what being Confessed felt like:

”Pain. I remember the pain. It was exquisite, beyond anything you could imagine. The first thing I remember after the pain is fear. Overpowering fear I might be breathing wrong, and it would somehow displease her. I almost died from fear that I would displease her. And then when she told me what she wanted to know, it was a flush of the greatest joy I had ever known. Joy, because then I knew what I could do to please her. I was overjoyed that she had made a request of me, that there was something I could do to satisfy her. That’s what I remember the most, the desperate, frantic need to do what she wanted, to satisfy her, and to make her happy. Nothing else was in my mind, only to please her. To be in her presence was beyond bliss. The pleasure of being in her presence made me cry with elation.”

Again, that sounds absolutely horrifying. Moreover, besides being rape, it's the ultimate subjugation of a person to another person's will. Richard, we'll discover, can't abide the idea of any one person being forced under the will of another (unless it's his own, of course, because he's Richard and the rules don't apply to him), yet he takes this whole thing in stride, even calling the power "good" because it's part of Kahlan.

But! It gets worse!

One creates new Confessors the way one creates any new human, but Confessors can't just marry someone they love and raise little Confessors together, oh no. Because, you see, Confessors will lose control of their powers in moments of great distress or great delight (I won't bore you by listing all the times Kahlan is shown in great distress yet has full control over her powers) and thus can never have sex with anyone who isn't already Confessed because she'll lose control and enslave them. She could never do that to anyone she really loves (meaning she doesn't give a s#!t about people she isn't in love with) so that means she'll be Forever Alone. Sob. How do Confessors reproduce, then? Well, the old-fashioned way, but they choose a mate like one chooses a horse, and because they're the power in the Midlands, no one can deny them. She literally just decides "I like this guy. He'll make a good husband." And then she Confesses him against his will, and he spends the rest of his life as the Confessor's sex slave. His family, if he had one? They're given money but they're robbed of a loving husband and father. And there's nothing they can do about it, because the Confessors hold literally all the power. People are deathly afraid of Confessors due to this, among other things.

In other words, they reproduce by mentally and then physically raping men. So, the caveat I've heard people use in meager defense of these books that no matter how bad the heroes are, the villains are worse because they're all rapists...yeah, so are the g*dd*mned heroes! Why doesn't Goodkind recognize this? Probably because he thinks men can't be raped.

But! IT GETS F@CKING WORSE.

Why are there no male Confessors? Because a male Confessor would be way more powerful than a female one, because reasons. Same reasons why men are much more powerful at magic in general than women are in this world (see, there's that misogyny Goodkind insists he doesn't have). He'd be so powerful the power would drive him insane. When a Confessor gives birth to a son, she and her husband perform a ritual murder. I'm not describing it, because I can't hardly stand to think of it.

And the worst thing of all? We're supposed to be on the Confessors' side. Not just Kahlan, the very idea of Confessors. Now, spoilers, but at the beginning of the story all Confessors but Kahlan have been murdered by Darken Rahl's men, and we're supposed to be sad about this and think Rahl is even worse because of it. To me, it makes him sympathetic, but all good characters just luuuuuuv the Confessors and they're meant to stand for all that's right. Under their horrifying rule, the Midlands are supposed to be better off than if Darken Rahl takes over. Kahlan might angst over her powers a bit (okay, a lot), but not because of what she does with it each time she expends her power, not because she's ruining lives including those of innocent people, but because the power makes people hate and fear her, and because her power means she'll be Forever Alone. Just shut up, Kahlan, I don't care. You damn well deserve it and you know it, but we're supposed to feel bad for poor widdle you that the people you rape and abuse are hateful toward you for it. Like I said earlier, when her half-brother expresses his very valid and correct opinion that the Confessors don't deserve to remain in power, she denounces him as mad and sentences him to be executed. And we're supposed to think this is a good thing!

This happens in the fourth book, but by this time we've seen her order so many deaths and shown such a callous disregard for any lives but her own and Richard's that it barely registers. After all, this is the same book in which she's literally planning on killing a young woman from Richard's village. Kahlan is such a monster that I'm not sure how Goodkind's readers don't see this. I've seen Kahlan praised as an example of a strong fantasy heroine, and even seen some people suggest that one of the reason she's disliked by people like me is that we're threatened by strong female protagonists. I think you know my answer to that one. I've even seen people talk about the Confessor's power as being really cool. It reminds me of the mindset I was in when I read the first book; don't think about it too much. If I had only applied more thought then to what I was reading, I think I would have put the book down early. Certainly after learning what Confessors do.

Now, remember how she described her power as the power of love? Remember how that's not at all what her power really is? Well, let's talk about the scene where she actually does use her power on Richard, as the prophecy foretold.

The thing is, at this point Richard is under a spell that makes him look like Darken Rahl, and translates everything he says into the language High D'Haran, so Kahlan really thinks he is Darken Rahl and he can't tell her different. She expends her power into him, and the spell drops, and she realizes she's just Confessed Richard. And...

....he remains unchanged. He's unaffected by her power because, get this...he already is that deeply in love with her. So this means that this terrible mind-raping power she has actually is what Goodkind thinks love is! Or, no, it isn't, because Richard never behaves like a confessed person after this. Goodkind knows that a Confessed person isn't in love but possessed and subsumed by the power, but in Richard's case, he's back to calling it "love". It's like he can call the power "love" and then get away with her power not changing Richard because he's already as in love with her as he can be and he expects we'll forget about how other Confessed people have behaved. Read how Kahlan describes it above, how Brophy the wolf describes it feeling. Does any of it apply to Richard and how he feels and behaves toward Kahlan, before that point or any after? No, it doesn't. He acts toward her like any man would to his wife. There's no question he loves her (even if it's incredibly unrealistic how fast that happens) but he clearly hasn't been mind-raped like all of Kahlan's other victims. Goodkind just needed a reason why Kahlan's power doesn't work on Richard, so he called it "the power of love" and wrote around it. This is how a hack would get around that issue.

So, as an example of a strong female protagonist, in fantasy or in literature in general, Kahlan fails. As a heroine, she fails. As a person, she fails. She's just about a worse failure than even Richard, and that is truly saying something.

But we're not done. The next two character studies will reveal still more bats#!t insanity.