Wheel of Time questions

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It's not just the personality, it's the repetition. Ok, in the first couple of books the characterisation was good, made them more real as you say, albeit a disliked character it was a solid one.

But by the ninth, and dare I say, tenth (which seemed to contain nothing else) they have become so ingratiating that one wants Rand to open up the Baelfire. Twice. Each.

 

Ok first of all @ Shura

I agree that they can be unbelivably annoying at times and are not exactly the everyday type of characters that you would meet outside of a soap opera like the young and the restless, (shudder) but can you honestly say that they have average everyday problems? as I look at it Egwene Nynaneve Rand and the others had perfectly happy lives until Moraine cam along and then they go into trouble from day one, neck deep in it so to speak. I consider the way they act to be their way of letting off steam and getting problems off their backs after all they go through, people can be very different in the way they handle things and I've known people that act worse then them when under a lot of pressure, I've also heard from a few misc. places that their are a lot of women who often act like that with each other in the real world (that's what I've heard at least) so why not in the book? I admit I'm only almost at the end of book two so I might change my mind later.


secondly @ ALL

(Book two) ok Rand defeating a few Trollocs, I can belive but a Blademaster? righto then whatever... Rand as far as I know is the Dragon reborn but I don't see so far anything that seperates him from the others excepts his seemingly godlike learning speed and his ability to channel which he did not use, it says in book one that it takes people something like what, 5-6 years to be that good? and Rand never used a sword in his life before that Trolloc he somehow killed (luck) and the story takes place over ten years and theirs 20 books so let's assume each one covers six months then, by book two he's practiced a year, so how does he kill a Bladmaster then when he's had 4-5+ years expirience? I don't care if he's the fastes learner with the best teacher in the world I don't see how it's possible and if it is why isn't Mat and Perrin as good since they are also Ta'avern (sp?)?

 

Well, not 4-5 years, more like 1-3 by that time, and he isn't always learning so much as remembering.

Don't worry, patience casey and all shall be revealed. The other two are very powerful in their own way....

Well, more powerful than anyone else, save a Chosen or Rand, or some of the more interseting nemesi you'll meet later on

 

Because as the dragon REBORN he gets inherited skills from the previous incarnation in thinking, channeling and swordskill. This will become more apparant in the next books of the series.

BTW I didn't find the women in the books to be that annoying except for the fact that they are stubbornly stupid at some points (but not all that much that it really becomes annoying).

 

What really pissed me off in this point was how easily Egwene abandoned Rand and her home, acting like a "female-dog" while doing so. Traitor.

 

What are you trying to say Virne? if this is something that happens after book two then please say no more though I think I've spoiled myself on a couple of things in the series before I'd rather read the details first hand for myself.

I may have read this already but I can't remember everything that's happened so far.

 

You should spare yourself the misery and stop reading after book 5, Casey. Beyond that, the main plot crawls to a standstill while at least seven thousand other subplots involving countless other minor characters who are impossible to keep track of spring up.

Pick up the series again about 15 years later when RJ finally decides to wrap up WOT and just read the last book. You won't be missing much.

Oh yes, and the feminine annoyance factor increases tenfold as the books go by. Have there been more obnoxious heroines in any other fiction before?

Mini-spoiler: As for Lan...well. Let's just put it as "most lame character development ever".

Books 1-6: Lan is awesome.
7 onwards: bleargh.

On the other hand, though, any WOT reader should check out RJ's "New Spring" short story. I would say that that was one of his best works ever.

 

There is no doubt about whether RJ can write or not, he is a great author. He has just run into a writers block the size of Jupiter but instead of stopping writing he just writes page after page of nothing.

 

Don't despair Shura There's still 10 books to go and I think he's just got writers block like Joacqin said, also I think Egwene and Rand would end up together at the end because they grew up together their entire lives, and near the end of book two that woman that Mat summons with the horn in "The grave is no bar to my call" (forgot the guys name) say's something vague about always picking the one that gives him trouble for all that vague bit of information is worth.

Edit: I'm not 100% on this but Egwene joins the Red Ajah (I spoiled myself reading someones fiction short story on the net) later on, it certainly looks like it's heading in that direction by the end of The Great Hunt, but it's only half finished and it's pure fantasy so someone like RJ could find a way if he wanted to imo

 

I do not think you should put too much stock in fan fiction. Slight evil spoiler: How can there be a Red Ajah when all Aes Sedai has to bow down to The Dragon reborn and pay him, a man who channels, homage?

 

@ Casey
I suggest you reread your last post again when you're some books farther in the series so you can see what big error you made by spoiling yourself with fanfiction and by assuming you can guess that early where RJ is going to take the story. At the point where you are the books haven't started to become predictable (although they become this abit later in the series )

 

@ Meatdog: Thank you I will do that. But how can you tell if it become predictable or not? how many people would agree and how do you know that your not just making educated guesses? again this will probably become obvious if I read on further but still I'd appreciate hearing your logic in this meatdog.

 

Because somwhere around book 4-5 I started having a very good idea of some events that were going to happen in the following books. And I was almost always right . That said I must admit I was never able to predict anything more than two books ahead because you can never predict what characters JR is going to add to the story.

This may be because I read ALOT of fantasy novels and some things just keep on coming back and being reused in fantasy novels. The only exceptions on this were George RR Martin and to some extent Robin Hobb (in case you wonder, this are fantasy authors). Another would be Pratchett but I don't really consider this fantasy, Discworld is a genre on it's own IMHO.

This said I really enjoyed WoT until now and I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in the series (which would be number ten for me, not counting the World of Wheel of Time). BTW, Casey, if you want to read this last book (TWoWoT) then wait until after book 9 or you would spoil yourself with alot of the story that has still to happen and some mayor events.

 

RJ's short story "A New Spring" is a must read for WOT readers. It's one of his finest pieces of writing yet.

Just a suggestion.

 

The fight scenes are described in great detail imo... or would be if I knew wtf all these defense/offence terms mean like Parting the silk, The dove takes flight and the Falling leaf. Are all these just a figment of RJ's imagination or can I find out from somewhere what all this undecipherable crap means? The names of these terms give some clue but you can't beat a detailed description along with some illustrations of the sword movements imho.

 

They were probably just inspired, name-wise, by moves from Drunken Boxing and Tai chi and what-have-you

 

I know this is an old topic now but it's better then starting a fresh one so whatever.

I finished book three and was wondering wtf it is with Egwene, Nynaeve and Elanye, or more specifically when they are together.

It's like they are hunting for the Black Ajah together and Egwene say's "left" Nynaeve then say's "right" and the Elayne say's "neither" and then it's "yes it is" and "no it isn't" etc and then Egwene who say's left then agree's it's right and then Nynaeve who say's right say's it's left and then they fall back into the old routine again.

So I was curious if anyone has any clue at all why they constantly change thier minds and never agree with each other, other then what I've thought of (thier been *****es) because I sure as hell am clueless, otherwise.

It's not that I find this annoying or anything but I am just completly confused by the whole situation of not agreeing about anything, but then again women's attitudes and decisions tend to leave me wondering "why" at times as well.

 

It's just that they have difficulty accepting the lead of the other two. But they do an effort and so end up being confusing to us outsiders.

 

I think it is Jordan's attempt to depict realistic women. What he ends up doing in my opinion is to depict women as scatterbrained, ignorant, arrogant idiots. I am sure there are women like that in the real world but of the women I know a great majority is nothing like that.