Ranking all 13 of the Forsaken from the Wheel of Time, from worst to best

6. Rahvin

Rhavin takes control of Elayne’s mother Morgase, the greatest queen alive, gaining in a single stroke the resources of Andor, one of the largest nations in The Wheel of Time. While he corrupts Andor from within and sends off the queen’s men to conquer foreign lands, he beds Morgase and makes her whip and estrange her closest friends and allies. Posing as the queen’s lover, he humiliates her openly by keeping half a dozen other lovers within her palace and sending his men out to find more.

Defending his capital with an intricate series of traps, Rhavin ambushes Rand when he arrives and engages Rand in one of the most epic battles of the series, dueling with him across the Andoran capital and the World of Dreams.

5. Semirhaage

Easily the scariest of the Forsaken, Semirhaage works on the periphery of the main plot lines for the first half of the series before emerging in all her dark glory. A sadist without equal, Semirhaage once tortured an entire city by having its residents break each other’s wills one at a time just to prove she had the power to do so. Later, she impersonates a high-ranking Seanchan official, thereby gaining a position of influence in the greatest empire in the world. When the Dark One demands that his minions create chaos, Semirhaage obeys in spectacularly over-the-top fashion, murdering the Seanchan royal family and half the imperial court and leaving their bodies in the throne room. She even (beware huge spoiler!) manages to put a collar on Rand and gain control of him until she is betrayed by one of her peers.

If Semirhage is cut from the show, the only excuse is that they don’t want to portray some of her darker scenes.