Belated thanks! I'm thinking of doing a little research project in which I analyze the indexes of the five most popular nonfiction, non-instructional books about computing. My hypothesis is that Ayn Rand gets more recognition than any other woman.

And I'm still behind, but I think the finale of S1 explains Cara's situation? If you haven't seen it? As for the torture-happy sexybadness of Darken Rahl--yes, not so much a kink here, either; more like, I wish someone would make a vid about His Darken-ness to Devo's "Whip It." It's just that funny, in a not-quite-parodic, still-a-bit-true way.

In fact, one of the things that's so interesting to me about LotS in general is the way it finds that balance where you're (by which I mean "I'm") giggling madly at how over the top it all is, while another partition has the "Hm, that might actually be kind of intense, in a way" process going on.

Like, to take another example, the scene in that ep where Kahlan and Richard are locked up (it's complicated) and Kahlan's trying to seduce the manly guard, and it turns out the guard wants Richard instead, and Richard goes "Huh? Oh," and goes into his "I'm so sexy" bit. It's genuinely funny, not because he's acting the cliche homophobe stereotype or because we're supposed to think "Richard" and "mansex" are, like, a ridiculous idea that would never happen omg, though it glances at both of those things sort of knowingly.

Huh. I obviously have no idea how to describe what I think I'm seeing. It probably all depends on one's particular narrative sensitivities anyway: kinks, in a general way. The way LotS does it is new to me, is all.