Blood Intermission

Intermission – Blood of the Fold
For this intermission I thought I'd examine the roles the two main characters play – both how they're presented, and how they actually appear.
Richard: The Seeker
Richard Rahl is the Seeker, wielder of the legendary Sword of Truth, empowered to . . . um . . . I mean, he fulfills his ancient and noble office by . . . that is, like Seekers before him, he . . . 
Well, this is awkward. We have no idea what a Seeker does, despite Zedd spending several pages in Book 1 “explaining” it. A Seeker seeks. What he seeks, why, and how, are unimportant. The only qualifications seem to be possession of the Sword of the Homicidal Hobo and severe anger issues. Terry Goodkind clearly meant the position of Seeker to be meaningful – Seekers are apparently supposed to wield some level of authority, and answer to no one – but this is never explained; or rather, it's explained in a poor and confusing manner.
Characters that Richard encounters, from dragons to random innkeepers, repeatedly recognize him for a Seeker and act in such a way as to imply that the post is an important one, and having a “true Seeker” is cause for celebration. In this regard, the Seeker seems to be something like a knight-protector, a righter of wrongs and protector of the innocent. This, however, has no relation to what Zedd described.
I'm honestly not certain why Richard needed to be the Seeker at all. What does being a Seeker do for him that he couldn't do as a plain ol' Fantasy Hero? The Sword of the Homicidal Hobo has nothing to do with the post as it stands, except for being a shiny, sword-shaped Get Out Of Responsibility Free card. It might be interesting if the duties of a Seeker conflicted with what Richard wanted to do, but the position seems to have been designed so as to have absolutely no duties whatsoever! It's like a position invented by a 10-year-old.
You know what would have been a better Seeker?
This guy – a fourteen-year-old, two-foot-tall raccoon-person. Quentyn of Freeman Downs is the hero of Tales of the Questor, a webcomic found here. A Questor, as we find out, is a sort of official village hero – the post exists for when someone needs to act decisively to prevent disaster, and the usual authorities either cannot or will not take action. 
This is exactly what the post of Seeker should have been: a legitimate post which people – the common folk in particular – see as someone to turn to in time of need. A hero with a badge, not a crazy man with a sword. Of course, giving the Seeker a legitimate, defined role and duties means curtailing the freedom “crazy man with a sword” has . . . but limitations often lead to better writing and more interesting stories.
Kahlan: The Confessor
Kahlan Amnell is the Mother Confessor, leader of the all-female cadre of Confessors. Unlike the Seeker, we know what Confessors are supposed to do; alas, their office has four or five self-contradictory meanings. However, for purposes of this analysis we shall ignore those duties specific to the Mother Confessor and examine the Confessors as a class.
We're told that the ancient wizards created the Confessors because they “hated lies.” This is the sort of explanation a five-year-old might give, but it suggests their true purpose: to ferret out deception, ensure that the guilty are punished and the innocent protected, and uphold the ideal of justice. Such a pity, then, that they are so totally ill-equipped to perform their functions.
Confessors can mindrape other by touch, which admittedly does enable them to extract confessions . . . but in a manner so brutal and horrific that the trauma renders the victim (innocent or guilty; it makes no difference) utterly unable to function in society. Someone who survives a Confessor's touch can look forward to either a life of brainwashed slavery, or a physical transformation into a wild animal, never again able to have contact with their friends or loved ones, their former skills useless, thrust into a world and society they are unequipped to deal with.
And this is the best result!
Furthermore, a Confessor's results are only as valid as the Confessor herself, and while Terry Goodkind assures us that all Confessors are honest, high-minded, altruistic servants of Good and Justice, I find myself rather more cynical. When someone has the power to crush another's will and utterly dominate them . . . well, the phrase “power corrupts” comes to mind. An evil Confessor – or even merely a selfish one – would be far, far worse than a corrupt politician or police officer, able to prove the rightness of her actions by coerced confessions, which her mindraped victims would be only too happy to provide. Further, it would be easy for her to build an army of dominated slaves, all eager to serve the Mistress in any way possible, including killing, dying, and undertaking suicide missions on her behalf.
This isn't even touching on the Con Dar, the Blood Rage Sue-power that seemingly exists for no reason other than to give Kahlan the ability to break her own rules, or the absolute idiocy of the “Confessors can't cut their own hair” rule.
None of this seems very suited to upholding truth or justice. 
All Confessors needed to perform their function is one thing: the ability to tell truth from lies. That's all. No mindrape, no Con Dar; just a lowly discern lies spell. If a Confessor can tell when someone is lying – or, better, if a Confessor can magically prevent someone from lying – they become peerless arbiters of truth without the need to mentally annihilate innocent victims. A Confessor's personal morality becomes irrelevant, because their power can only compel truth. A Confessor should be a mandatory part of every major trial, and the wrongly-accused should demand the services of a Confessor as their right.
Of course, discern lies is not very useful as an offensive power, but why do Confessors need an offensive power? They traditionally travel with a wizard bodyguard, and as lawful agents of justice, there's no reason they couldn't have a few mundane bodyguards as well. This would require rewriting Kahlan as a character, but that's no bad thing. 
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