Naked Empire
Joseph Clark
Talga Vassternich
¨Deserve Victory¨
Deserve Victory
In this book there were multiple places that showed this theme.
- Even when outnumbered severely, the troops holding off the passes continued to fight back, and eventually lasting through winter and forcing the Imperial Order to go around the mountains causing a severe delay for them.
- When captured, Zed and Adie fought the Imperial Order until they were able to escape. They were fighting for the good of the entire midlands, and so they deserved victory.
- Once poisoned Richard battled Nicolas the Slide to recover the antidote. He killed the invincible, lived longer than any other man who had been poisoned, all to be with the woman he loved.
All these showed this theme because they all deserved victory. The Imperial Order did not deserve victory because they were following a false leader, they did things they knew weren't true. In the long run, if you deserve victory you shall win.
You Cannot Deny Violence
¨Those who live pretending that violence does not exist, are slaves to those willing to use it to take advantage of them.¨
Richard Rahl
You Cannot Deny Violence
Throughout this story this was shown in multiple ways.
- The Bandakar believe that violence is an allusion. They believe that pain and suffering isn't real. This leads to them being enslaved by the Imperial Order. They work for them doing whatever they ask just so they go back to what they were before. They don't know that they will never have what they had before.
- Owen from the Bandakar Empire poisons Richard, and claims that Richard isn't in danger because violence doesn't exist. (Which of course isn't true.) Richard must then trust that he is telling the truth when he says he will give him the antidote if he helps them.
- When Nicolas the Slide takes many members of the Bandakar to perform his sick experiments, they believe that even though the other people never came back, they will. They deny that they will get hurt, they deny that the others were hurt. This leads to them being killed.
Interaction
Bandakar and Imperial Order
By denying that violence existed, the Bandakar were believing in something that was false. Therefore they did not deserve victory. That is why the Imperial Order took over them. They knew they couldn't lose, and they had everything to gain from taking over them. The Bandakar were at mercy to the violence of the Imperial Order, because they believed it was all an allusion.
Richard and Nicolas the Slide
Once poisoned Richard did not stand a chance, Nicolas had destroyed the last vial of the antidote. But Richard continued to fight against Nicolas. He killed the entire army he had in Bandakar. He persisted through everything Nicolas sent at him. Even after he knew that he was going to die, he continued to fight for the people that poisoned him. In doing what was right, he did not deny that violence wasn't going to affect him, and he deserved victory.