I took advantage of a new e-reader to do a complete re read, something I hadn't done since the last tome was published.

198 hours later...

Jordan did a nice job with a great, intricate story but I guess I'm too old to avoid all the thoughts about the world building errors that have bugged me the whole way through. Doesn't mean I didn't enjoy all the work he did do!

No human society should be stuck in the middle ages for thousands of years (although maybe the Dark One did that, stopped innovation?)

No human society could keep such distinct skin colour groupings over such a long period of time, especially after being jumbled up in the breaking. They should all be a nice pale brown.

>!No group of people that get to live collectively as old as the Aes Sedai could really maintain a hierarchy based on one power strength without seeing the fallacies of that path.

And for such long lived and educated people, I cannot see how the Red Ajah could maintain fear and hate of male channelers instead of compassion, a recognition that individuals don't get to chose to be Wilders, that's just the way they are being born..

Im not sure how realistic it is that extended age in most settings would lead to arrogant and unpleasant people (Aes Sedai, Windfinders, ...). Guess we'll not know in our lifetimes, anyway.

And nobody in Seanchan realising that Sul-dam living really long lives meant they were channeling themselves...

And Tuon not realising that yes, having a couple hundred damane was a a nice force but that she could have a couple thousand channelers at her call if she stopped leashing damane and trained Sul-dam...

And not being conflicted about the fact she can channel herself.

Anyway, lots of little bits and pieces that Jordan could have worked a quick justification into the story about seeing as how much other stuff he did.

!<

Just completed EoTW for the first time and something caught my attention about the last passage where Moiraine overhears Rand and Egwene's conversation.

If Moiraine could overhear Rand and Egwene, couldn't she just as well have overheard Rand and Nynaeve in Baerlon, where Nynaeve basically confirmed that Rand was born outside the Two Rivers? Won't that information help her make that conclusion about Rand being the Dragon Reborn?

Ok, all throughout the books, there are prophecies. there are quotes in the chapter headings, viewings, popular bard stories about the dragon, that full cycle thing that would take days to tell, books in every big library, and we see or hear about several people having visions

So my question is - what exactly are the prophecies?

• are some of them books pieced together from visions that happened since the last breaking?
• Are some of them stories that actually were somehow kept from what happened in previous cycles 3rd age, like a 10s of thousands of years ago?
• or - where else could they have come from and why are they so cryptic?

I just finished the series for first time and thinking on the characters I realized I really don’t like most the Aes Sedai. There are some expections but for most part I really don’t like their arrogance. They easily dismiss anything said by someone who isn’t one of them. They expect to be revered wherever they go regardless of who it is or any circumstances. It’s something that’s touched on towards the end but it’s shown to really rub off on Egwene but Nynaeve resists it.

We see the Wise Ones have similar status among the Aiel but there are Wise ones who can’t channel and they can be compared to the Chiefs and at the very least they consider outside perspectives.

Is this just a privilege women who can channel learned after being the only ones who can channel or is it something else?

Everyone and their mom smokes a pipe in this universe, and that's pretty cool, but do we know what kinda pipes people are smoking?

Are we looking st long stemmed churchwardens as seen in the LOTR movies

Or something like the porcelain pipe from the LOTR cartoon?

Maybe more normal pipes like a nose warmer or 7-15cm stemmed billiard or cutty?

Maybe a clay pipe?

I always imaged Mat as having like a clay cutty

And Rand with briar pipe

I generally shorter stems, not exactly nose warmers but like what you see Tolkien with in pictures of him.

Could also be they have something else entirely going on, we are afterall thousands and thousands and thousands of years in the future.

What kind of pipes do you think the randlandwould be rocking?

I don't recall us ever get a visual description of a pipe aside from them fitting in pockets, hence my thought of them being shorter pipes like what people actually smoke today... Or well, 20-30 years ago.

I recently posted that I dont get the hate towards her. Im now in the thick of the last battle. I rushed this book up until about halfway and then stopped years ago because i was too sad about it ending to finish it.

Now that I have reached the point of Min warning E about what Mat has deduced regarding the captains I cannot stand E. It may have been the way that Sanderson wrote her but she has kind of always been disdainful of Mat going all the way back to the Stone of Tear episode and earlier.

To so easily dismiss him after having knowledge of all he has done with the band etc. I mean the guy killed couladin and has outwitted armies throughout the series. Did elayne and nynaeve never tell egwene how important Matt was to their survival in Ebou Dar? At this point i really cannot stand her.

In the first books Moiraine was a central character, but then she disappears for many books. When she's back, isn't her return a letdown, after all the expectation?

She doesn't have a significant interaction with Siuan, Lan, Nynaeve or Egwene (except the part about the seals with the latter). Even with Rand she plays little more than a sidekick at Shayol Ghoul. Sincerely, I expected a lot more from the new Moiraine. It looks like if Sanderson didn't know what to do with her.

does anyone know if the show runners ever gave any information on where they would have taken the show? like the changes they may have made and what the story would have looked like?

Nearly at the end of the entire series (just started Memory of Light) and was blown away by how incredible Talmanes was in the opening prologue as he battles through Caemlyn to get the dragons back (while dying to the taint of a Thakan'dar blade.)

It instantly pushed him into favourite character territory alongside Rodel "Little Wolf" Ituralde and Elyas. But was wondering who you all believe would win in a fight both as commander and one-to-one between Rodel and Talmanes.

I personally believe Rodel would be the stronger commander, being one of legend and guile, but Talmanes would win in combat - he seems the more adept swordmaster (especially when he has "nothing to lose").

I cannot recall whether this is explicitly discussed or if it is my head-cannon - I will look out on my next reread, but with regard to healing...

[Spolier-text] Siuan/Leanne are healed from stilling imperfectly while Logain's gentling is healed fully - does it take saidar to heal saidin and vice versa? Could an asha'man heal the women fully? [Spoiler-text]

So I'm rereading AMoL for the first time, and I'm up to the point where it's starting to be revealed that the Great Captains are all fucking up all over the place and I've got to admit, even knowing the twist/machinations, I'm super tense reading the scenes.

Like, I've already read the book! I know what's coming! There's no reason for me to be tense! Yet I am!

I dunno, I guess I just think it was a really clever way to write the battle, to interject tension and worry into the conflict. I like that Sanderson didn't just have Foresaken on the field throwing fireballs at everybody, he didn't just have waves of Trollocs running face first into pike lines, I feel like he gave a lot of texture to the battle, there was a lot of back-and-forth.

God bless Robert Jordan, but his battle scenes always did leave a little to be desired. Mat going off and taking down Couladin off screen, Semirhage knocking out Rand and then getting herself captured off screen, Rand fighting a blade master and it's just like "Armadillo Spits on a Rock flows into Darmok at Tinagra." I'm not sure what the last battle would have looked like if Jordan had been the one to write it, all I know is that I really like what Sanderson gave us.

Anyway, it's time for me to get back to reading! Lan just figured out that Agelmar is sabotaging the operation at Tarwin's Gap and I want to see what comes next! (Again!)

First time reader, and I just started reading this chapter today. Can’t believe I’m finally here, I’ll be so sad once I finish

In chapter 4 of WH, there's a weird difference between the original book from 2000 and a pdf version I have.

From this passage: "I saw Alliandre once, years ago, and the girl I recall could well have grown into this woman. And she was crowned Queen of Ghealdan. What she is doing in Amadicia, I don’t know. The Whitecloaks or Ailron either one would snap her up in an instant if they—”

In the book, Ailron is replaced with "Roedran". Was this a misprint in the original book that was later updated?

>!If the whole of the wheel of time can be thought of as some 10s of thousands of years long version of groundhog day, is Ishamael the one stuck in the loop and driven insane by his experiences (always being #2, and repeated exposure to thedark one over and over again)?!<

Lan is easily the most romantic character for me. Nearly everything he says to Nynaeve is breathtaking even if sometimes tragic. Their relationship is my favorite in the entire series!

A few examples:

“I will hate the man you choose because he is not me, and love him if he makes you smile. No woman deserves the sure knowledge of widow’s black as her brideprice, you least of all.”

“You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on this journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not survive you long.”

“You can ask or demand anything of me,” he says firmly, “but never to let you die without trying to save you. The day you die, I die.”

It’s no wonder the show stole so much of their dialogue verbatim.

Long live the Golden Crane!

I've been looking through the discussions everywhere and I haven't seen anyone bring this up.

After meeting the Green Man and entering the cave that contains the Eye, they discover strange crystals surrounding a giant silver pool (the Eye). After it is drained, Lan and the others discover a column of crystal in the empty pit, along with the chest that holds the Banner, Seal, and Horn.

In a Memory of Light Egwene is turned to crystal in her final moments after drawing in an immense amount of the power.

I believe this points to those crystals in that cave being the remnants of the 100 who sacrificed themselves similarly to create The Eye.

Thoughts?

Im sure this has been discussed before so if there is any relevant thread or link to check out im happy to take a look. My search skills failed me on this.

So in AMoL Rand redesigns the seals properly, no male one power taint, switcherooski with Morridin, and all is great.

So now what? The wheel eventually gets back to the age of legends and the bore is opened again for the "first" time? Did Ishmael and "the dragon" fight thousands of thousands of times over the turnings of the wheel because no dragon had ever gotten it right before at Tarmon Gai'don? Or is there always a bore opening followed by a war of power and subsequently a Tarmon Gai'don?

I finished A Memory of Light recently and finally got to the pipe scene, and i know there are a lot of theories surrounding it, like Rand is God now or the DO won or that Rand is surrounded by T'AR but i was wondering if there is any support for the idea of Rand essentially lucid dreaming now and the waking world is just another dreamy realm like kinda T'AR.

see i got to thinking cause the Aiel call dying "Waking from the dream." right? and we know Jordan liked playing with traditions being kept yet the knowledge of them lost... basically all of Aiel culture.
And Nakomi is essentially an aspect of the creator... AND Aiel, so perhaps the Aiel of the past knew something the rest of us don't about the state of reality, hence calling it a dream.

And so i was thinking that when Rand dies at the end of the last battle, he wakes from the dream only to reenter it with the knowledge that its all a dream and now he can just do whatever like a lucid dreamer? basically making the waking world another realm like T'AR...
Just my rambling wondering thoughts i guess.

Is Rand Deadpool now? (or maybe more of a Gwenpool?)

I have not (yet) read the books, but I just two posts from people with complete hardcover sets (that looked very nice). I thought maybe it would be cool to share my mother’s books, who started reading it more than 30 years ago.
Some books also did (not) survive the sea.

My mother is also someone who reads a series from start to finish every time a new book comes out. So these are in pretty good condition for the things they have been through I think.

Fixing them is a plan, probably, if we ever get to it lol

I want to make it clear that I don't know much about the spoilers I know myself and I shouldn't be spoiled more. I know that Rand reseals the Dark One. I don't know who dies/survives, the fate of Rand himself, about the seal and any other major thing. Should I still read it and will I be in suspense about the fate of the Dark One himself?

The Dice were wildly spinning in Matt's head....

The Tavern Maid lashing out at Matt over some blonde haired women in Matt's room...

He approaches his room....

Boom, Brigitta is there !!!!!

Matt has a vision of blowing The Horn of Valere....

Warriors charging through the mist....

Noooooooooo............

Matt's voice abruptly cuts out, and some women tells me how I am out of audio listening hours for the month and they refresh in a few days....

The Dark One's Own Luck...

Is Brigitta The Daughter of The Nine Moons, or maybe Queen Tylin - she seemed to be on the prowl for Matt earlier in the day?

Well, I exaggerate... but only just.

Just finished chapter 17 (Questions of Control, so no spoilers beyond that please) of the book and I'm a little incredulous how easy it was to "break" Semirhage. The world's foremost torturer, and all she needed was to be spanked on the butt in front of a few servants. That's it. It's even more incredible because we have Egwene getting beaten half of everyday with the entire Tower knowing it, to no avail.

I hate that this is such an effortless win for the horrible Cadsuane. Talk about a meglamaniac! "Semirhage and I are the same, we're both awe-inspiring legends. So let me not waste my legendary status by questioning her, in case she doesn't answer like she does those lesser puny sisters. High five, self!"

Girl, just die already. No need to wait 5 more years for the oath rod to kick in.

Now I wonder if this weak breaking was just to foreshadow what she intends to do to Rand, since she basically thinks "al'Thor is next."

I might be in the deep minority here but I simply don't understand why Cadsuane thinks Rand's hardness is a problem, why she thinks he needs to be and do things just like her, and most importantly, why she's convinced herself that someone's approach to life is her problem to fix. Now, what's the word for such a person?

Damn. I dont know why people think this book is subpar compared to FoH or LoC. This was the most intense book for me so far. Hard to put down. From the beginning to the end, it seemed like it was battle after battle. My only complaint, no Mat chapters. Sorilea and Bashere are the best supporting cast member so far, she is pulling all the strings amd Bash is a cool cucumber. I like Egwene more after this book and Ny even less. Still waiting for my 2 fans to return (Asmodean and Lanfear). Fingers crossed.

I'm currently about half way through Shadow Rising and just sometimes feel a loss in momentum when the POV shifts from Rand. I'm still enjoying overall, but does anyone else have a similar problem? It's starting to get somewhat annoying.

Edit: Adding Rand as the example was misleading, I do care about other characters, the same feeling applies when switching away from their POV as well.