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Sympathy for Morathi

Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:40 pm
by Barking Agatha
Have you read the lore in the new Battletome: Daughters of Khaine? I find that I have a lot of sympathy for Morathi. She's my favourite protagonist now and I'm definitely on her side.

Basically, she has suffered beyond the imagining of it, and everyone is a jerk to her. She spent thousands of years being tortured in the belly of Slaanesh, managed to escape through nothing but her own sheer will, lost her memory, wandered lonely and desperate for ages, and then when she finally met the new gods who she used to know, including her own son... they snub her and reject her. You might argue that she isn't good and noble enough for their company, but keep in mind that this is a pantheon that cheerfully accepts Nagash, Gork, and Mork, even when they keep getting betrayed by them.

Then of course they need Morathi's help, and she gives it, in fact it's indispensable. And what does she get in return? More rejection and humiliation. Then they need her help again, and so on. It's true that she uses lies, murder, and manipulation to achieve her ends, but what other choice have they left her? Accept inferiority? Be a good servant? None of them would accept that, so why should she?

The Lords of Order drip with hypocrisy. They love having the Daughters of Khaine around when it comes to fighting Chaos, but then they get the conniptions at the sight of their blood rites. This from elite immortals who are happy to slaughter entire populations in the name of fighting corruption. It's hard not to think that they don't mind the killing, they just don't like them being *unladylike* about it!

Even the narration of her own book goes out of its way to be unfair to Morathi. For example, 'Bitter were Morathi's tears, for vanity had ever been her greatest failing.' Vanity, really? We're not talking a few crow's feet around the eyes here. Am I supposed to believe that the good and noble Sigmar wouldn't mind at all if he found himself with the body of a duck? 'For Justice and Honour, <quack>!' But if it's Morathi, then it's vanity... well, okay. It may be that she needs to come to terms with her new form, which I think is quite pretty in its own way, but come on, give her a break!

The truth of it is that Morathi is cast as a 'bad girl', and bad girls aren't supposed to get a break. Well I'm going to be very motivated playing my DoK now (when they're done!), and I sincerely hope that Morathi gets the power that she craves and gives them all the finger, including Slaanesh, Nagash, and the Lords of Order, those prissy, smug, self-righteous jerks!

Re: Sympathy for Morathi

Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 11:34 pm
by cultofkhaine
Well said!

Re: Sympathy for Morathi

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 3:03 am
by Red...
Sounds a bit like Hilary Clinton to me :twisted:

(not a comment meant to be taken too seriously)

Re: Sympathy for Morathi

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:54 am
by Shadowspite
Morathi isn't really a character so much as she is a mishmash of sexist stereotypes. So in that respect she is indeed much like right-wing Americans' mental image of Clinton. ;)

Seriously, though, I don't think GW intends you to sympathise with Morathi at all. Every bad thing that has happened to her is a result of her own selfish actions. Morathi isn't a victim of Sigmar's hypocrisy or anything like that. She's just a victim of GW's inability to write nuanced female villains. She is the generic sexy, vain, manipulative, power-hungry sorceress who always gets what's coming to her because that satisfies the mostly male target audience's unconscious desire to see the hot girl that spurned them in school get humiliated.

Re: Sympathy for Morathi

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 5:27 pm
by Red...
Seriously, though, I don't think GW intends you to sympathise with Morathi at all. Every bad thing that has happened to her is a result of her own selfish actions. Morathi isn't a victim of Sigmar's hypocrisy or anything like that. She's just a victim of GW's inability to write nuanced female villains.
I think you hit the nail on the head Shadowspite.

She is the generic sexy, vain, manipulative, power-hungry sorceress
Yes. There's also the strong incest / Oedipus theme of her having wanted (or so they so often used to allude) to have sex with her own son, which then ties further into the whole easy "she deserves to be punished" theme that they push.

Re: Sympathy for Morathi

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 5:27 pm
by Red...
Seriously, though, I don't think GW intends you to sympathise with Morathi at all. Every bad thing that has happened to her is a result of her own selfish actions. Morathi isn't a victim of Sigmar's hypocrisy or anything like that. She's just a victim of GW's inability to write nuanced female villains.
I think you hit the nail on the head Shadowspite.

She is the generic sexy, vain, manipulative, power-hungry sorceress
Yes. There's also the strong incest / Oedipus theme of her having wanted (or so they so often used to allude) to have sex with her own son, which then ties further into the whole easy "she deserves to be punished" theme that they push.

Re: Sympathy for Morathi

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 9:49 am
by Darkspear
Morathi have sex with anything. Even monsters or magical being conjured.

That said I am rooting for her. Her story and her fluff have roots traced all the way back to the old Warhammer World. Her faction is the most "Druchii" of the Battletome factions and I doubt any future faction will be close.