The Wheel of Time

Yeah, the explanation for Rand making the flowers bloom where he walked was pretty satisfying, even in it was kind of in a blink-and-you'll-miss it line. I kind of wish they'd done more with it.

Makes sense. Still kind of a funny image.

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

If I remember right, a couple of the long-standing questions and minor plot points in the series got answered in similar fashion, in little lines or sequences that you might miss entirely if you weren't paying attention. That can be a little aggravating, giving the length of the series and (if you read the books as they came out) the time between volumes.

Like the Asmodean thing?

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

Normally I'm not one for speculating about fancasts, but a friend and I got together a few weeks ago and spent half the day talking about Wheel of Time.

Here's a few of the ideas we came up with (keep in mind these disregard factors like budget, which would make it impossible.)

Jain Farstrider: Bernard Cribbins

Lanfear: Karen Gillan

And lastly, Galad: Chloë Grace Moretz

We couldn't think of a pretty enough actor to play him.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

Welp, finished this forever ago, but forgot to talk about it. Fresh impressions are gone, so I don't have anything much of interest to say, but I'm here. It was pretty good, overall, but I don't know if it's worth it. The highs are very high, but it doesn't exactly have low lows so much as vast swathes of tedious mediocrity in the middle. I don't regret having read it, but I don't know if I would recommend it to my past self.

Anyway, some thoughts. I loved the ending, was pretty much the best way to end it without having to tie it all in one neat smothering ribbon. My favorite character and general arc was Rand, who started out as the most painfully generic fantasy protagonist possible and went on to become an extremely intriguing and well-written protagonist. Mat is a second, of course, and Nynaeve is close behind — shame she didn't get much focus in the latter parts. Egwene I started disliking and never grew to actually like, but I respect her, in a way. She was just surrounded usually by way more obnoxious people, so she became the one to root for by default.

Cadsuane isn't my least favorite character, but only because Gawyn exists. He may be the closest to a useless character in the series — he added very little and was consistently obnoxious and unlikeable, and wasn't even especially useful in the end. As for Cadsuane, it seemed like the narrative teetered on whether to justify her (which, given Jordan's apparent fetish for, erm, strong-willed women, wouldn't be out of place) and showing the error of her ways. Tam best dad.

My favorite scene was Dumai's Wells, which marks a turning point in the story and is overall just extremely climactic and entertaining. Favorite book was Towers of Midnight, especially the "Zen Rand fixes everything" sections. Least favorite would be some of the indistinguishable plodding ones in the latter half — Crossroads of Twilight wasn't even the worst offender, in my opinion.

Favorite worldbuilding is the Seanchan empire in general, particularly the way they combine borderline alien morality and predictably self-centric worldview, justifying to themselves the horrific practice of the damane, with competent, fair and safe administration, especially as things get bleaker elsewhere. Least favorite is Altara, because even though gender dynamics in WOT in general are pretty fucked, Altara just makes my skin crawl (the Mat/Tylin subplot, ugh). At least Fal Dara was treated with some self-awareness.

Some other assorted thoughts, in no particular order. Demandred and his borderline deus ex machina Sharan army felt rather unearned in the last book. Ishamael is the best villain. Padan Fain was a hideous anticlimax and it feels like not even Sanderson could tie up that loose end satisfactorily. Galad got too much shit and it made Elayne feel unsympathetic at times. The Four Captains subplot in the last book was excellently written. Moiraine grew on me the most throughout the series. The "rescue Faile" arc was even more of a waste of time than Elayne's civil war, honorable mention to Masema and the Dragonsworn. Jordan relied wayyy too much on his catch-all mannerisms, but those have been mocked to death already. The weevils were not extraneous. The respawning village was a very cool addition, and its use in the final battle, though short, was hella smart. One of my favorite trends was the rediscovery and more importantly development of new uses of the Power, I'm a sucker for The Magic Comes Back (so to speak). The Black Tower subplot wa a bit rushed at the end, but I didn't hate Androl. Asmodean was taken from us too soon. Min best girl.

That's all I got for now.

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

I've never seen any WOG support for this.

But I really think had Robert Jordan not unfortunately died we probably would have seen Mat end up visiting the Seanchan empire sometime in books 12-14 (which I doubt wouldn't have been the end) once the Seanchan got a hold of Travelling.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

That people kept innovating new uses of the One Power was one of my favorite things about the series. Medieval Stasis is a trope that bugs the crap out of me, and coming up with magical tricks beyond what the lost golden age was capable of is a hell of a way to underscore that knowledge is advancing.

Oh, actually, there was some talk by Sanderson about Jordan's plans for Randland post main series. Basically Jordan was thinking about a few more prologue books, one more with Moiraine and Lan's pre-Emond's Field adventures, and one with Tam's story. Then there was going to be a sequel series, three to four books or so, about the Seanchan, but I think those were set a hundred years later or something. So no Mat+Tuon go to Seanchan, more like everyone's descendants dealing with leftover problems.

Tor has recently started a weekly "Reading The Wheel of Time" series by Kelsey Jefferson Barrett. Currently as two update so far.

It seems to be covering multiple chapters per week thus far.

edited 1st Mar '18 4:24:15 AM by 32ndfreeze

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

I always thought of Lanfear as someone like Jaime Murray, myself.

"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."

I just finished listening to the audiobook for EOTW.

A lot of people on the internet recommend them and I can see why.

The only downside for me was few pronunciation quibbles, and the fact I only have a small subsection of things to do which listening to an audiobook alongside really works.

As a result it took me 4 months to get thought it.

So I'm unsure if I'll move onto TGH in audio form or if I'll go back to physical books.

Since this was my first re-read/re-listen it was really interesting to see how inconsistent ending ending with EOTW is with, well, pretty much everything.

Especially that whole deal with the Sword of Light.

My pet theory to make it gel with everything else is that it was essentially a more advanced version of the flame sword trick Rand uses later, facilitated by the abundance of saidin available to him at that time and the significance Ishmael ascribes to it is a result of him being absolutely nuts at that point in time.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

Oh man, it's been ages since I touched Eye of the World. I forgot how damn weird that ending was in the context of every other book.

Your solution's probably best, yeah. Considering the expositor had spent the novel answering to one of the Dark One's names, he's not the most reliable narrator.

edited 14th Apr '18 8:15:28 PM by rikalous

If anyone in the US wants signed copies of Towers of Midnight or The Gathering Storm in the Tor hardback, Brandon Sanderson's store has them for 10 US.

I was going to buy them myself, but 80 USD to ship to Australia is a bit ludicrous.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

Looks like a new short story is coming out next year.

Given what Brandon Sanderson has said before, it looks like its going to be about the Cleansing of the Ways by Perrin. Apparently it was originally going to be in MOL, but it had to be taken out because it didn't work pacing wise. Or something. I wonder if this one will take place post series, or be a "deleted scene" from MOL.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

Ooh, that sounds interesting.

And as long as this is bumped, word on the internets is that the first script for a TV adaptation has been completed. Possibly picked up by Amazon, random stranger whose word you have no reason to trust source was less sure about that.

Rafe Judkins, the screenwriter for the potential Wheel of Time is having an AMA on Twitter in 11 hours time.

Given the small amount of WOT content on social media right now, any question you ask is pretty likely to be answered.

I personally would like to ask him a question, but its not until 2AM-3AM here, and that'd play havoc with getting up the next day.

EDIT: Takeaways from said AMA

He does seem to be a big fan of the books, so I'm hopeful the adaption will be decent.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Sep 12th 2018 at 9:59:46 PM

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

We have cast pics for the Emond's Field crew. Don't know any of these people but they seem solid lookswise.

Huh. I always pictured them as fantasy-standard "vaguely European", but ethnic groups in WOT have always been kinda iffy what with the blond desert ninjas and whatnot.

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

Believe those are specifically blond Plains Indians, with the counting coup and the sweat tents and the swordlessness and so forth, which really only reinforces your point.

It's got me kinda curious whether, say, Shienar is going to be ethnically Japanese or just have a lot of topknotted warriors taking public baths. Probably the former, but I could see it going either way.

Casting relative unknowns for the main Two River characters was a purposeful choice from what I've heard.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

Oh, neat. I don't really know actors in general so I didn't realize they were relative unknowns.

The thing about any Wheel of Time adaptation is that my mind always goes to wondering if they'll adapt the really WEIRD scenes that kind of make the series stand out for me.

Like, will we have Aviendha and Elayne willingly going through a magical unbirthing ritual to make them feel like twin sisters? Will we have Moghedien turning Nynaeve's clothes to dust and tying her up in bondage based on a carving she saw on Graendel's chair? Will we have Mat being forced to wear skintight leather and pink lace and become a queen's sex slave? Will we have the long subplot about Elayne needing to deal with the Chibi underaged lords while her city is under siege? Will we have Mat being horrified when he tries to psychically check on Rand's whereabouts only to accidentally witness Rand having sex with Min? Will we have Birgitte becoming debilitatingly aroused while on duty because her bond with Elayne is letting her experience the sex Elayne is having with Rand? Will we have Sammael handing out useless stone cubes to the Aiel with the word "fool" written on them because he's an asshole? Will we have Aviendha getting so distraught over Rand seeing her nude that she opens a portal across continents to the arctic and leaps through, sans any clothing, and ends up having sex with Rand in a makeshift igloo?

Edited by GNinja on Aug 16th 2019 at 1:02:33 PM

Kaze ni Nare!

Not just Birgitte-Min and Aviendha both got the deluxe, full package, filterless 5 sensory input with surround sound version of having sex with Rand via Elayne; feeling everything both of them were feeling at the same time, plus the reflected versions in each other. Basically the sex version of an infinite empathic funhouse mirror ouroboros; appropriate for the series, I think. Honestly, their brains probably would have melted if they had not knocked themselves unconscious with alcohol.

Edited by ViperMagnum357 on Aug 16th 2019 at 9:53:00 AM

The AMA linked upthread seems to indicate the showrunner's willing to tweak things, so I rather suspect there's going to be less of an exploration of Jordan's kinks. (And they better fucking take a hatchet to the Mat-Tylin subplot because boy.)

Sammael being an asshole, however, I think we can keep. Weren't they called foolcubes in Old Tongue rather than having writing on them, though? The things my brain holds onto.

Edited by rikalous on Aug 16th 2019 at 7:14:03 AM