Re-reading Terry Goodkind

[RikuoAmero]

So, I'm re-reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. Love the heck out of it, only this time, I'm taking my time and reading every word, instead of my usual method of just scanning a paragraph and getting the intended meaning out of it.
I finished Wizard's First Rule yesterday and a plot-hole jumped out at me. I'm surprised I never caught it before (I've read WFR about five or six times).
What the heck is Siddin doing in Tamarang?
So, let's lay out some context. Richard and Kahlan, our protagonists, go to the Mud People and have a spirit gathering. During the gathering, they are told by the spirits that Darken Rahl is outside the spirit house, killing people. He arrived there by riding on a red dragon. Afterward, Rahl takes the young boy Siddin with him, saying he's for a friend. This friend is Demmin Nass, who earlier was shown to be a serial child molester with a predilection for young boys. (Also, why does Rahl speak Mud People?)
When next I hear about Siddin, it's from the point of view of the young girl Rachel, in the castle at Tamarang, who thinks to herself about the odd looking young boy. Note, that she thinks about this several days BEFORE Darken Rahl is shown visiting the castle so as to obtain the last box of Orden.
So Rahl must have flown to Tamarang on his dragon and dropped off Siddin, even though Demmin Nass is not at Tamarang and doesn't think to get the box he needs. He flies off, apparently unnoticed by anyone because when he does arrive later in the middle of the feast the Queen holds, she's surprised, wondering why he's here early?

So guys, is this really a plot hole? It doesn't really change anything to the overall storyline - Siddin himself is completely superfluous, you could cut out his kidnapping and nothing would change in the story. Am I missing something?

 

[Queen Michael]

Haven't read that book myself, but yeah. Sounds like a plot hole.

 

[happyninja42]

Couldn't say, I purged the first book from memory, and didn't finish the 2nd one. In my opinion, his writing is terrible from top to bottom, so the idea that he has a plot hole, is perfectly natural to me, along with many other narrative flaws.

 

[Fox12]

Isn't he the one that idolized Atlus Shrugged? I tried reading the first one, but I couldn't get into it. My dad loved it. Anyway, yeah, it sounds like a minor plot hole. Even the best writers sometimes male mistakes.

 

[Kyrian007]

I noticed that, but I didn't think too much about it. I never really do about "plot holes" (which I maintain don't actually really exist in fiction.) In the case of that one, hand delivering a boy to his buddy the molester was just a job I assumed was kind of beneath Darken Rahl. My immediate assumption was he had some troops in the area that he handed the kid off to. They had messengers going to eventually get to Nass, headed past Tamarang... maybe even messengers Rahl told to mention to the Queen that he would be stopping by early... either way not really a detail important enough to spell it out really.

And that's the category where a large % of "plot holes" exist. Easily explained but boring and uninteresting detail not worth putting in the book. I've never encountered a "plot hole" in fiction that isn't easily explained, or an intentional dangling thread, or just a detail not worth explaining.

 

[McMarbles]

I read the first book. He seemed really into rape.

Can't really say I have a desire to read any more.

 

[DoPo]

Couldn't say, I purged the first book from memory, and didn't finish the 2nd one. In my opinion, his writing is terrible from top to bottom, so the idea that he has a plot hole, is perfectly natural to me, along with many other narrative flaws.

I've not read the books. I've watched the TV series based on the books. I found them really, really bad. I have a friend who I knew had read some of the books and when I suggested I "didn't really like" the TV series it turned out he "didn't really like" the books either. After a brief discussion, it turned out that both had the same fundamental problems. If anything, the books had more content which allowed for more flaws to show up.

 

[happyninja42]

Couldn't say, I purged the first book from memory, and didn't finish the 2nd one. In my opinion, his writing is terrible from top to bottom, so the idea that he has a plot hole, is perfectly natural to me, along with many other narrative flaws.

I've not read the books. I've watched the TV series based on the books. I found them really, really bad. I have a friend who I knew had read some of the books and when I suggested I "didn't really like" the TV series it turned out he "didn't really like" the books either. After a brief discussion, it turned out that both had the same fundamental problems. If anything, the books had more content which allowed for more flaws to show up.

I can't remember much of books 1&2, 1 especially. All I can remember of book 2 before I put it down, was the distinct feeling that I was reading a novelization of a D&D campaign. The hero sits in the Mud Village, basically just doing nothing, why? Because he doesn't feel like it. So then, a series of threats show up at the village, trying to force him to leave it and get on with The Adventure, but he keeps refusing. So the threats increase in size and lethality, I think even a dragon shows up at one point. And it all just felt like a frustrated GM trying to force his uncooperative players to leave the starting village and go follow his campaign!

And I remember thinking "this is shit. this is complete and utter shit writing, why am I reading this?" Put it down, never looked back at the series.

 

[RikuoAmero]

Couldn't say, I purged the first book from memory, and didn't finish the 2nd one. In my opinion, his writing is terrible from top to bottom, so the idea that he has a plot hole, is perfectly natural to me, along with many other narrative flaws.

I've not read the books. I've watched the TV series based on the books. I found them really, really bad. I have a friend who I knew had read some of the books and when I suggested I "didn't really like" the TV series it turned out he "didn't really like" the books either. After a brief discussion, it turned out that both had the same fundamental problems. If anything, the books had more content which allowed for more flaws to show up.

I can't remember much of books 1&2, 1 especially. All I can remember of book 2 before I put it down, was the distinct feeling that I was reading a novelization of a D&D campaign. The hero sits in the Mud Village, basically just doing nothing, why? Because he doesn't feel like it. So then, a series of threats show up at the village, trying to force him to leave it and get on with The Adventure, but he keeps refusing. So the threats increase in size and lethality, I think even a dragon shows up at one point. And it all just felt like a frustrated GM trying to force his uncooperative players to leave the starting village and go follow his campaign!

And I remember thinking "this is shit. this is complete and utter shit writing, why am I reading this?" Put it down, never looked back at the series.

You're mis-remembering book 2. There's no dragons that show up. Also, why wouldn't Richard stay at the Mud People village? From his point of view, he's there to marry Kahlan, to marry her as part of the Mud People tribe, it's sorta like a holiday for him since he's just defeated the Big Villain of Book 1.
As for him refusing, it's entirely in character. He doesn't like magic that early in the series, the three sorceresess that show up want him to put on a collar that will cause him pain. Given what happened to him in Book 1 with Denna the Mord Sith...

 

[Baffle]

I read some of those books a long time ago. They're shit, don't worry about plot holes, just move on. And they were tedious.