What did you think about the real-world parallels?

[Faroresdragn]

Obviously, Jordan pulls alot from realworld religion and mythology for these books. Sometimes it's pretty cool, like how Rand is kind of a Christ figure, and theres alot of talk of rebirth and cycles and things like that.

 

But sometimes I feel like it's a little too on the head if that makes any sense. Like how Rand has to literally "take the sword from the stone". or how tomatos and corn in the old tongue are t'mat and zemai (which is maize rearranged). like they dont even have "english" names, but the old tongue names are so close to realworld names, as if we couldnt tell from the description what it was. But then the cotton in the wise one's blouses gets a cool name like agolde, but all that made me think was "well why didnt you just call it c'tonn?". oosquai is also obviously supposed to be whiskey too.

 

And then there are other ones that kinda make me smile, like how they grow lemons in Ebou Dar, and Mat takes a bite out of one, adn because of how sour and gross it is he refuses Juilins offer of lemonade even though he comments that its good to drink in the heat.

 

So I dont know. were there any ways Jordan referenced or brought realworld things into the world of the books that you liked or that bugged you?

[DojoToad]

Like the reference to the Mercedes hood ornament in the museum.

[Faroresdragn]

Like the reference to the Mercedes hood ornament in the museum.

like in the panarchs place? where Nynaeve fights Moghedien for the first time? I must have missed that