Crossroads of Twlight

[Pembie]

I’m generally shocked at Rand losing his hand how’s he to save the day in the last battle now?

[Andra]

18 minutes ago, Pembie said:

I’m generally shocked at Rand losing his hand how’s he to save the day in the last battle now?

Without using both hands.  ?

 

But seriously ...

Learning how to do what he needs with only one hand is a theme that repeats from here on out.  There's a memorable scene with him practicing the sword that comes later.

[Pembie]

With Perrin having sided with the Seanchan to take down the Shadio and hopefully get Faile back well that’s the plan 

 

And Matt going into battle with the Seanchan are we going to see Matt and Perrin clash against each other I’m wondering probably wrong here but it seems possible I’m also sure that something big will happen with the fork root that Perrin has poisoned the town maybe Faile dies  by mistake 

[Andra]

4 hours ago, Pembie said:

With Perrin having sided with the Seanchan to take down the Shadio and hopefully get Faile back well that’s the plan 

 

And Matt going into battle with the Seanchan are we going to see Matt and Perrin clash against each other I’m wondering probably wrong here but it seems possible I’m also sure that something big will happen with the fork root that Perrin has poisoned the town maybe Faile dies  by mistake 

I'm not sure if you've gotten this far or not, But I loved the scene when Perrin had his meeting with the Seanchan commanders.  Especially Tylee Khirgan.  If you haven't seen it yet, I hope you like it too.

 

And Mat isn't specifically going into battle with the Seanchan.  He's fighting with some "good" Seanchan on his side, against some "bad" Seanchan who aren't.  Specifically, he's allied with the ones who wanted to protect Tuon, fighting against the ones who wanted to kill her.

 

Both Perrin and Mat gain a HUGE amount of respect among the Seanchan as a result of their interactions.

 

I won't spoil the battle with the Shaido, but I just want to clarify that forkroot is not a "poison."  It's basically just an anesthetic that only affects Channelers.  No one else even notices it.

---

Out of curiosity, which General were you talking about on the previous page?

Edited March 13, 2022 by Andra

[Pembie]

I don’t know what General I meant Never the less Matt and Perrin didn’t have to fight each other in which I thought we were headed

 

Eyane has been caught by some dark sisters now though

[Andra]

21 hours ago, Pembie said:

I don’t know what General I meant Never the less Matt and Perrin didn’t have to fight each other in which I thought we were headed

 

Eyane has been caught by some dark sisters now though

Yes she has.  And some exciting events ensue.

 

You will be happy to know that the pace of things picks up substantially from now on.

[Pembie]

I feel like book 11 is really what I have been wanting this series to be like from the start 

Just a shame that Robert Jordan died when it starts to heat up But he did kind of write it even if it was from the way of his notes 

[Andra]

19 hours ago, Pembie said:

I feel like book 11 is really what I have been wanting this series to be like from the start 

Just a shame that Robert Jordan died when it starts to heat up But he did kind of write it even if it was from the way of his notes 

The story is his, even if the writing in the last 2-1/2 books wasn't.

Some people actually prefer Sanderson's part of it, as a more "entertaining" style.

[Pembie]

1 hour ago, Andra said:

The story is his, even if the writing in the last 2-1/2 books wasn't.

Some people actually prefer Sanderson's part of it, as a more "entertaining" style.

Do you like Sanderson books too?

[Andra]

2 hours ago, Pembie said:

Do you like Sanderson books too?

I haven't had the opportunity to read much of his stuff, aside from what he did here and some other short stories.  But I didn't have any problems with how he finished this huge story.  At least not in the quality of the writing.

There were some plot elements that seemed to come from left field, or that were expected to be important but just fizzled out.  I'm not sure any of that was avoidable, though.

 

I won't spoil those for you, but you'll see enough of them when you get there.

 

Aside from that, his writing did some things better than Jordan's did.  And some of the things he wrapped up were actually pretty brilliant.

 

I won't spoil those for you, either.

 

You'll find quite a few people on this site are fans of his series - like Mistborn and Stormlight.  His style is different from Jordan's, but that doesn't make it bad.  Considering some of the criticism you've brought up yourself, you could actually like it better.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Andra

[Asthereal]

On 3/16/2022 at 12:56 AM, Pembie said:

Do you like Sanderson books too?

 

I have a pile of Sanderson books, and read most of them before getting into WoT. He's one of my favorite authors for sure. He has a keen sense of pacing, which is rare in epic fantasy, and I enjoy his action very much.

 

I would say I'm in the camp Andra was referencing. I loved Sanderson's entries in WoT.

[Pembie]

I started gathering storm last night 

[Pembie]

I hadn’t heard of Sanderson before watching Mike reads on YouTube I would be interested in storm light and Missborn I think but want to have a rest from long series’s after wheel of time haha

[Andra]

4 hours ago, Pembie said:

I started gathering storm last night 

How do you feel about the pace of the story since the end of Crossroads of Twilight?

[Pembie]

Just now, Andra said:

How do you feel about the pace of the story since the end of Crossroads of Twilight?

Oh it’s been much better I don’t know maybe it was writers block that was getting in the way I still think that characters like Ian or Lolia are bit under used and Perrin for his story with wolves bit disappointing but we are heading to the last battle so those characters that haven’t done much will have to help out there I think 

[Pembie]

2 hours ago, Andra said:

How do you feel about the pace of the story since the end of Crossroads of Twilight?

Thanks for your help while reading these books

[Pembie]

Ok I don’t really understand the story with Masema Perrin was taking him back to Rand right but Perrin just seemed to let Masema wander around by himself I think Masema then thinks the Dragon Reborn tells him Perrin is a dark friend so he sends Aram after him Aram has always been loyal to Perrin but now his trying to kill him ok…

 

Then Masema has memory’s of not being called Masema and then Faile kills him saying don’t tell Perrin I would have thought Perrin would be glad his dead I don’t really understand why Perrin didn’t just kill Masema in first place 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Pembie

[Andra]

1 hour ago, Pembie said:

Thanks for your help while reading these books

My pleasure.

[Andra]

42 minutes ago, Pembie said:

Ok I don’t really understand the story with Masema Perrin was taking him back to Rand right but Perrin just seemed to let Masema wander around by himself I think Masema then thinks the Dragon Reborn tells him Perrin is a dark friend so he sends Aram after him Aram has always been loyal to Perrin but now his trying to kill him ok…

 

Then Masema has memory’s of not being called Masema and then Faile kills him saying don’t tell Perrin I would have thought Perrin would be glad his dead I don’t really understand why Perrin didn’t just kill Masema in first place 

Perrin didn't just kill Masema himself because he understood the danger his followers presented.

Once most of them were out of the picture, it was safe to take him out.

 

Unfortunately, that was only partly why Perrin didn't have him killed.  It was also partly because Rand had sent him to bring him in.  Perrin being who he is, that loyalty made him want to at least try to do what he'd agreed.  He wasn't just letting him wander around, he was trying not to start a war with his followers.

 

Aram was loyal to Perrin (if not even more to Faile) but his time spent with Masema destroyed the last of his sanity.  The result was to decide he was what Masema called pretty much everyone - a darkfriend.

[DojoToad]

On 3/11/2022 at 10:10 PM, Pembie said:

I’m generally shocked at Rand losing his hand how’s he to save the day in the last battle now?

Balefire would have fixed this.

[Pembie]

What his just going to balefire everything at the last battle 

Are none of these people scared of dying in the last battle 

[DojoToad]

11 hours ago, Pembie said:

What his just going to balefire everything at the last battle 

Are none of these people scared of dying in the last battle 

I'm not sure if the questions are related or not, but...

 

A tiny sliver of balefire would have permanently taken out a Forsaken and restored Rand's hand.  I don't see a negative here.  The overuse of balefire is extremely bad, but I think justified in this particular instance.

 

I don't think everyone is scared of dying - there are worse things.

[Asthereal]

27 minutes ago, DojoToad said:

A tiny sliver of balefire would have permanently taken out a Forsaken and restored Rand's hand.  I don't see a negative here.  The overuse of balefire is extremely bad, but I think justified in this particular instance.

 

This is explained in book 4, I believe, when balefire is used to kill the darkhounds attacking Mat. Balefire does turn back time a little bit, but only to a certain extent. That's why Mat almost died. Certain marks from the darkhounds were undone, but the saliva that had hit Mat was still having an effect, which could have killed him.

 

Semirhage was killed with balefire by Rand, but that was so long after he lost his hand that it couldn't undo that anymore.

 

But this bit isn't the most consistent bit in WoT. Rand uses balefire to kill Rahvin in book 5, but quite a few minutes after Rahvin had killed most of Rand's friends. This was undone, though, as Rand used a rather large beam of balefire. Moiraine's beam killing the darkhounds was indeed extremely narrow, undoing less, as we might expect, but there's no clear indication where the limitations are are what we can expect from which amount of balefire used.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Asthereal

[DojoToad]

1 hour ago, Asthereal said:

 

This is explained in book 4, I believe, when balefire is used to kill the darkhounds attacking Mat. Balefire does turn back time a little bit, but only to a certain extent. That's why Mat almost died. Certain marks from the darkhounds were undone, but the saliva that had hit Mat was still having an effect, which could have killed him.

 

Semirhage was killed with balefire by Rand, but that was so long after he lost his hand that it couldn't undo that anymore.

 

But this bit isn't the most consistent bit in WoT. Rand uses balefire to kill Rahvin in book 5, but quite a few minutes after Rahvin had killed most of Rand's friends. This was undone, though, as Rand used a rather large beam of balefire. Moiraine's beam killing the darkhounds was indeed extremely narrow, undoing less, as we might expect, but there's no clear indication where the limitations are are what we can expect from which amount of balefire used.

Right.  If Rand had balefired her right after losing his hand - he eliminates a dangerous adversary, regains his hand, and has very little impact on the pattern because he is not going back far in time.  WIN_WIN_WIN!!!

[Andra]

8 hours ago, DojoToad said:

Right.  If Rand had balefired her right after losing his hand - he eliminates a dangerous adversary, regains his hand, and has very little impact on the pattern because he is not going back far in time.  WIN_WIN_WIN!!!

The problem is that he hadn't made the logical leap needed in order to reject Cadsuane's slap and use it regularly against Forsaken.  And losing his hand lost him the Source, and knocked him unconscious.

 

If he had decided to kill two birds with one stone by the time he could, it would have literally meant committing murder.   And murdering women is a place Rand isn't at.  Yet.