The Wheel of Time

You're on book 5, i.e "one book before Rand's first meltdown."

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I believe that earlier on it was mainly anger that all those nobles and Aes Sedai where plotting at a time when the fate of the world was at stake. However, yes, The taint and pressure will make Rand go down a dark path.

Ah. Well, fair enough then.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

Actually sorta in keeping with Rand's status as a quasi-Buddha figure, mirroring Siddharta's initial extreme reactions to the misery around him.

Or just him going full Zeus.

edited 31st Oct '14 2:55:43 PM by math792d

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He's still my favorite character at this point (3/4 through A Crown of Swords), but he's starting to slip. Man, I do not care for Cadsuane. And as of last book, the Asha'man were a nice counter to the Aes Sedai, but they're appearing to have their heads nearly if not quite as much up their asses.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Of course their leader totally isn't evil.

Like, there's no way a guy that smug, moustachio-twirling and clearly out of his mind could possibly be a bad guy, right? Right?

Cadsuane grew on me personally, mostly because she's one of the few people who ends up realizing that Rand is messed up and needs help. Even if she completely fucks up actually changing him.

And the general Hat of the Asha'man is that they're much more practical than the Aes Sedai. In all the horrifying ways, too (see: Dumai's Wells.)

edited 31st Oct '14 3:37:36 PM by math792d

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Cadsuane is definitely my least favorite character. Not only is she annoyingly sexist but the way she goes about achieving her plan is utterly idiotic. As for the Asha'man, that is one aspect of the series I felt we could have seen more of. In any case, you will eventually get an Asha'man POV character that is made of all of the Win.

edited 31st Oct '14 3:40:48 PM by GrieverVIII

Dumai's Wells was kind of a Mustang versus Envy moment for me, in that it was supposed to be horrifying, but it was so cathartic I just found it awesome. (Then again, I felt that way about the Ghoul Scene in White Night, so I'm not sure what that says about me.)

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

I personally found it really terrifying because we got a taste of what the Aes Sedai are capable of with the Shadowspawn, and now it's being turned on actual flesh-and-blood human beings.

And the fact that all of these farmers, soldiers, cobblers, people from all walks of life, could create that much destruction with just Asha'man, kill! is fucking terrifying.

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Cadsuane got a lot less irritating to me when I decided that I probably wasn't supposed to agree with her about the odorless nature of her shit.

Given the size of the cast, you should be able to find someone you like by the end.

Well, I'm liking what I see of Birgette so far, and Elayne is mostly okay. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, 'cause I" keep hearing kinda bad things about her?

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

Kinda like Egwene but less grating.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Birgitte and Elayne make a really good team. Aviendha's pretty cool as well.

Egwene grates on me as well, but I get the idea. She's meant to be Rand's contrast. He brute forces his way through his alliances, makes (for the most part) the obvious moves and the grand gestures and statements while she's a lot more subtle in her working towards securing her place.

Well, you know, besides the giant fuck-you-and-fuck-the-Tower army she's running around with in books 8 and onwards, but, you know.

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Hey, the army wasn't her idea. It just kind of...happened to her. It's an Emond's Fielder thing.

Birgitte is cool. Aviendha too, once you get past the annoying Aiel superiority.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

See, the real question is, is ji'e'toh of the Lethani?

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Oh Christ, don't remind me of the Adem. They're like the Aiel minus any in-universe flaw.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

Except they're not. You just have to:

1) Read between the lines.

2) Ignore Kvothe's feelings on the Adem.

3) Actually look at their culture.

Also, one thing that the Aiel and the Adem both get right: It's nice to have the race of 'obvious cases of culture shock' in fantasy not be provided by a race of what is essentially the token not-white folks, and having the people of color (usually) be a lot culturally closer to the protagonists.

The reason the Adem seem so skilled is because the people Kvothe gets to compare them to are caravan guards and other (effectively) low-rent mercenaries.

edited 1st Nov '14 1:16:52 PM by math792d

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That I do, it's why I don't like them. But I'm looking at how the story portrays them, which, given it's a first-person narration, is hard to divorce from how the narrator character does. Given that there's never any contradiction or objection to his perspective, I default to assume that the narrator's perspective is the story's.

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

I can't read a sentence like that anymore without mentally finishing it with "or by the Dragon?" Mastema Deled has very strong feelings on the matter.

Also, the idea that any meeting with a culture (especially when it's as brief as Kvothe staying with the Adem) having some kind of implicit "culture must be X levels of shit" requirement never really flew with me.

With the Aiel it would have annoyed me since Rand spends a lot of time with them.

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When you say "X levels of shit", you mean...?

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

I mean that usually the first avenue of criticism is "well, this culture doesn't have X amount of problems with it so obviously it's a complete Mary Sue-topia."

The old criticism of "well there isn't being presented any fault with the culture!" when in reality it's just because it isn't close to a familiar cultural framework where we can fill in the blanks ourselves.

edited 1st Nov '14 3:14:05 PM by math792d

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I'm saying that there's the case of a culture that's presented as absolutely and implausibly superior to any other one in-universe or in real life. What cultural framework would expose how it isn't overly perfect?

Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.

From what I recall, there are hints that his perception (and thus description) may not be perfectly reliable—recall Bast's appraisal of Denna's appearance, contrasted with Kvothe's. On top of that, considering the focus on in-universe examples of inaccurate storytelling (the stories told about Kvothe, and those regarding the Chandrian, for example) I'm not sure that we're not supposed to take Kvothe's perspective as infallible.

edited 1st Nov '14 6:45:07 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

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