"World of Wheel of Time" or "Wheel of Time Companion?"

[Stedding Tofu]

51 minutes ago, SinisterDeath said:

Where did I say he was the reincarnation of Aginor? That doesn't even make sense because Aginor was literally alive at the Eye of the World for like 6 seconds.

 

I think @DojoToad is just pointing out that Aginor is the storied geneticist who conducted all kinds of experiments and altered or created a number of life forms, none of them with good intentions or outcomes.  Rand wills Bela to run because he's worried about Egwene and has no idea what he's doing (indeed that he's doing anything) let alone the secrets of DNA recombination and gene editing for superior stamina, survivability, enhanced recovery from apparently mortal wounds, etc...  If Rand could do that to a horse there are troubling implications.

 

We can go with the idea that Bela is something special and The Companion confirms this or with the idea that it's just a meme played on for the audience's amusement.  I find the latter much more plausible with Bela's death on page clear (in my opinion) and the tongue in cheek entry in The Companion about her having miraculously survived, being alive years later and having reared two foals just a humorous Easter egg for The Companion Reader.

[SinisterDeath]

Just now, Stedding Tofu said:

I think @DojoToad is just pointing out that Aginor is the storied geneticist who conducted all kinds of experiments and altered or created a number of life forms, none of them with good intentions or outcomes.  Rand wills Bela to run because he's worried about Egwene and has no idea what he's doing (indeed that he's doing anything) let alone the secrets of DNA recombination and gene editing for superior stamina, survivability, enhanced recovery from apparently mortal wounds, etc...  If Rand could do that to a horse there are troubling implications.

Rand can reshape reality. He doesn't need to know how dna works, to alter her to the genetic level.

[DojoToad]

1 hour ago, SinisterDeath said:

Where did I say he was the reincarnation of Aginor? That doesn't even make sense because Aginor was literally alive at the Eye of the World for like 6 seconds.

 

When you said this:

3 hours ago, SinisterDeath said:

Rand enhanced Bela down to her very genetics in book 1.

 

Aginor created the trollocs, likely through genetic manipulation.  You didn't say it outright, but all the pieces were there.  😉

[DojoToad]

47 minutes ago, SinisterDeath said:

Rand can reshape reality. He doesn't need to know how dna works, to alter her to the genetic level.

Dang.  I thought you were kidding about the genetic level.  Rand certainly didn't know what he was doing, but Moiraine apparently did.  But maybe she didn't as she is not AoL.  Much was lost...

[Stedding Tofu]

19 hours ago, SinisterDeath said:

Rand can reshape reality. He doesn't need to know how dna works, to alter her to the genetic level.

 

Now that's a stretch.  Rand wills Bela to keep up in the early part of the first book.  His use of the power is unconscious and unknowing, just as when he frees the boom on The Spray to clatter the Trolloc about to spit him or latches on to a lightning bolt in a thunder storm to break out of the cellar he and Mat are trapped in by Howel Gode (I think).  I'm with him having used the technique Moiraine uses to take away their and their horses' fatigue or something very similar to it.  Bela is still recognisably Bela afterwards: a poor rider like Siuan commandeers her because of her placid nature and gentle pace.

 

Rand isn't the creator, and particularly in the first book his use of the power is limited and accidental.  No willing Bela into a superequine being just because he wishes it so, at least not for me.  The problems of that line of thinking or that power are obvious: what and who else might Rand alter either accidentally or deliberately and for the worse as well as the better?  Why not will it so that the Trollocs chasing them become slow and clumsy or turn the fades leading them into mushrooms?

[Sabio]

Rj said the World of the Wheel of Time book aka the Big White Book, was meant to be written from a scholar/historian POV.  There are some intentional mistakes (as if a historian makes some guesses, assumptions or misinterprets some information) and some unintentional mistakes in the book.  It would have been nice had a new book of been made towards the end of the series also.

[DojoToad]

It’s okay. Some good stuff. 

[slynese]

I will go with world of robert jordan rather than the companion.

[CaddySedai]

Honestly, own them all. Read them all. Content is good - and from a historian perspective why ignore ANY source? *nodnod* 

[Sabio]

The thing to remember about the World of Wheel of Time (or the Big White Book) was meant to be written from the point of view of a researcher/Historian.  There are some intentional mistakes in it and a few unintentional mistakes,  

Edited March 7, 2023 by Sabio

[WheelofJuke]

I have The World of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time (original version). 

Can confirm the bad art. 

Never found it useful, personally. I got it around the time I hadn't quite gotten past book 4, so it was full of spoilers I wanted to avoid. Once I finished the series, it didn't contain a lot of the information from the latter 2/3rds that I was really interested in revisiting in that sort of format. So it's sat collecting dust in my book collection for the last 20 some years plus. 🙂

 

[DojoToad]

It is probably redundant after the Companion, but I already own so I'll probably peruse the World again at some point.