*Spoilers for everything* I just finished books for the first time

[HeroOfTheCorn]

This post is going to be a long one I guess. Also noting that I read the books in my native language , so excuse me if I get a name or something wrong. For example I just found out Aram name , in my version they translated it to something like Eyram.

Last night I finished the books. Took me around 8 months to read through them. So there are so many stuff I want to discuss going in my head and I really don't have any friend that has read the series , so would like to make some topics here. I don't even know where to start because I have so many things and am making this sequences as I type.

So I will start with how I got into the books. I found out about the tv series. Decided to wait for few seasons to come out before picking it up. My girlfriend wanted us to watch it when season 2 came out , because she has seen season 1 before we met. So we watched both seasons. The series got me hooked hard. I've failed to find anything in the recent years that just keeps me attached and not wanting to check my phone or pause while watching it. The world , the costumes , the story it all felt amazing. So season 3 comes out and halfway through it I find out show is cancelled. Mind you I've read some things that show is butchered compared to books , but I haven't read the books and the show was entertaining to say the least. So I wanted to know how the story would unravel and finish and I decide it's time to pick up the books, even though 14 seems like a crazy number.

Reading through the first books I understood why book readers are angry. I just don't understand so many book - movie/series adaptations that decide to go rouge. You've been given something that has had success , if it didn't it wouldn't go to you. But you decided you know better and will make a whole lot of dumb unnecessary changes. Anyways still shout out to them because I wouldn't have picked up the books and would have just waited for the show to roll out for 15+ years?

Coming from the show I had the characters set up in this order:

Perrin - my favourite
Rand - coming in at second
Elayne - I fell in love with hills of Tanchico scene
Nynaeve - she was cool, had her ups and downs
Mat - show Mat was pain to watch , only towards season 3 I started getting to like him 
Egwene - her tv adaption was awful in my opinion 

Book versions however went quite quite different
Mat - by far my favourite, dude's been slaughtered by series
Egwene- I really liked her resilience, leadership , maybe the series would have gotten her to this point also if not cancelled , but still compared to show book Egwene is badass
Rand - I enjoyed his chapters , but can't really call him the best character, even though he is still on my positive side.
Elayne - I found her neutral at best. She's had some cool moments earlier in the series , but when she was in Caemlyn trying to win the succession war, oh my god I've never read something as boring as those chapters. I almost felt pain reading through those pages.
Perrin - He was still quite interesting and I remember when going back to Two rivers I coulnd't wait to get another chapter from him, he was my favourite still. But my oh my did that change , after Two rivers and Faile this dude has been a nightmare to read. He was a combination of Jon Snow - buh i dun wannit and Faile is everything , nothing else matter , who cares if the world is going to end, Faile this , Faile that. At least in the final moments of the final battle he went and helped Rand instead of going to search for Faile.
Nynaeve - This is the worst character for me by far. Saying that doesn't mean I didn't see her good side. Wanting to heal everyone and everything , being caring for her friends. However I found her awful, maybe if I didn't get her POV thoughts I wouldn't have hated her so much, but as it is I hated her.
Mind it I included only those 6 characters on purpose. Post is so long as it is and there are so many other things I want to discuss. 

Reading through the books I've heard of the slog and understood that this was enhanced by the wait time between books. The only book i've had troubles was Crossroads of Twilight . Thank god I was stuck at an airport + long flight I did get through half of that book in a day, but needed 3 weeks or 4 to get through the other half. The only book I felt like a chore to pick up and get through.

Overall I've felt the book very sexists. Both genders underestimated their opposite gender and were thinking they know best and the other gender are some caveman.

The other thing I felt is that we've got 14 books and in the same time they were too much and not enough. I would have liked to get a lot more POVs from the Forsaken, for the history of their youth, understand more about the dark one. I feel like there were so many unanswered questions , but I guess this is normal for such a lengthy series.

Usually I read through books and I don't even have time to think about them, because I finish them and I don't catch any foreshadowing. In this series I though I caught Mazrim Taim. First I was sure he must be a darkfriend because he said that he just don't feel the taint. I also didn't like moments when characters were dumbed down in order to get the story going. In this moment Rand didn't even though about him being connected to the dark one , even though it is the most logical though. There were many examples like this in the book were a POV character sees something obvious but is dumbed down. So after more reading I though I found the Holy Grail by connecting the dots and thinking Taim is Demandred. Only to get that he wasn't and I felt dumb. So obviously I searched this and found it Taim was Demandred it's just that the author decided to backdown, because it felt obvious...

I also couldn't say I can make a huge difference between Robert Jordan and Brian Sanderson beside that I've felt like Sanderson made the character curse more. People saying it is so obvious who wrote what make me feel dumb.

I didn't love the ending , maybe I liked it , but definitely didn't love it. I feel like a lot more of the good characters should have died. Also having Rand live and just disappearing into the sunset was soooo bad for me. The dude that spend 5+ books getting in a mental state that he has to die , just so Cadsuane to need to exist to get him out of it , he who beat himself with the women who died for him ( that was something that really agitated me , come on man have been dying for you too... ) to just whistle happily into the sunset, without letting know his father he is alive. Also if his 3 wives ( 3 is too much , should have been 2 in my opinion, I've never understood the point of foreseers like Min existing, if what she sees can't be changed , then what is the point if her existence and powers? Also Rand being with 2 women would have been better in my opinion , than 3 )  want to make it plausible the world to think he is dead... SHOW SOME GRIEVE , they were literally non-bothered to the fact their loved one is dead, and common people noticed it , but then they go and say "We must make sure people really believe he is dead" Not a good play.

Things I've felt like I needed and answer and didn't get one are:
Why did the dark one seals started to break/weaken just at this period of time, what caused it?
Why was there a dark one , but we never heard anything from the Creator? ( I understood that Nakomi is supposed to be the creator avatar , but that is far too little )
If the wheel keeps turning and the dragon keeps fighting the dark one, was there a dragon before Lews Therin or was he the first one? 
What was the song of the Tuatha'an they were searching for?
How did Rand go from crazy losing his mind, to totally perfect balanced Rand/Lewis and not a sight of craziness , without being healed by Nynaeve.
How the hell did the White tower had so much gold around the world? Like what is it they do that gets them gold? I remember Moraine getting into some city far from Tar'Valon and they just went and got gold like from a bank.

Last thing I've felt in the end of the book which is where my fan fiction would hit and still haven't checked online is:
I feel like Mat was Demandred before he turned to the Dark one. I've felt this vibe when the Heroes of the horn had the talk with him about every breath he takes is because of Rand.
So in my fanfiction mind the next fight of the Dragon reborn vs Dark one , Mat should be the leader of the dark side.
Anyways I've got so much more , but I don't think anyone would read through all of this mess.

To anyone who decided to read through all this and respond , you will be drafted in the Heroes of the horn. 

[Figs and Mice]

 Glad you enjoyed it , Hero ... and one plus for the TV show in that it brought you to the books.

 

Might have more comments on your queries later. But for now just to say I agree with you that Mat (my favourite character) was indeed done dirty by the show ; and that on the other hand I profoundly disagree about your summation of Nynaeve : she may have been a pain in the neck in the early books but she seemed to largely overcome (with a struggle) her less endearing characteristics as the story progressed ... ended up as my personal favourite female character so I am biased 😉

 

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