Does It Bother Anyone Else As Hugely The Absurd Brevity Of The Series Time Line?

[The Fisher King]

This has bothered me for a long, long time. Alot.

 

Not just because the series itself in REAL Time is now a series that has been published over a stretch of 19 years now. I can deal with that - One is the real world, one is the fictional universe within the books.

 

See, we have been told by Jordan, Harriet, Sanderson, etc several times that as of the end of Winter's Heart until The Great Storm (an incredible book, imo) very little time passed. In fact, parts of later books, such as the first several dozen chapters of COT were spent ''Catching up/Crossing Over'' in relation to the time line.

 

But. The MAIN thing that bugs me is that, to date, (TGS) the overal lengeth of time from The boys leaving the Two Rivers in the first book unitl now is ''About'' two years.

 

I find that preposterous. And, again, not just because the time of publication is now 8 and 1/2 times that.

 

I find it preposterous because of all that has happened in the books with these people, and the distances crossed (not, of course, times aided by 'Travelling'').

 

These are events that take LIFETIMES to occur in someone's life.

 

We have seen Empires rise and fall, religions rise and fall, characters fall in and out of love, Wars fought, hundreds of leagues travelled on horseback...characters delve into insanity and back...All in approximately 24 Months???

 

Yeaaaaaaaaah...

 

Preposterous.

 

I demand realism.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

Fish

[Sylvia]

It's fiction dude.

[Muad Cheade]

Sylvia is right. Complete fiction. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was over the same span and there's no problem with it.

 

However, on a historical note, Alexander the Great conquered the majority of the Persian Empire (the most powerful nation in centuries) in two years, so...

[The Fisher King]

Sylvia,

 

Youre right, its fiction.

 

And, Ill remind YOU of that next time YOU have a criticism of a plot-element or character's actions within the books. ;)

 

You and I are talking about the Saaaaaame thing, Sylvia...saaaaaaaaame thing.

 

 

 

Fish.

[The Fisher King]

Muade Cheade,

 

Since you sade almost the same exact response as Sylvia, ill give you the same reply ;)

 

Youre right, its fiction.

 

And, Ill remind YOU of that next time YOU have a criticism of a plot-element or character's actions within the books.

 

You and I are talking about the Saaaaaame thing, MC...saaaaaaaaame thing.

 

 

Although, you do have a point about one thing...crazy things CAN happen in a blink...like they say, Rome fell in a single day...

 

Still...Jordan compressed it sooooooo much!

 

JMO - I love the books and am just trying to have a discussion about something I think about them.

 

 

 

Fish.

 

 

 

 

[Balefire to da face!]

Just seems like more because there are so many different perspectives.

 

When you are dealing with a dozen different countries and thousands of characters a small amount for each of them will seem like a hell of a lot to us.

 

World War II happened in roughly 5 years. Dive into a study of everything that happened in every city in Europe and every island in the Pacific and WoT will start to feel pretty small.

[Mad_Scientist]

"Religions rise and fall"

 

Uh... what religions rose or fell?

 

Anyways, I think the timeline is fairly reasonable. In real life, some pretty major events have happened fairly quickly. It can take very little time for an empire to fall. Rising, a bit more, but we haven't really seen any brand new empires rise, unless you count Rand's forces, but most of those came from getting already existing nations to follow him.

[The Fisher King]

Balefire To Da Face ... and ... Mad Scientist:

 

 

Just seems like more because there are so many different perspectives.

 

When you are dealing with a dozen different countries and thousands of characters a small amount for each of them will seem like a hell of a lot to us.

 

... Wow. Mr Balefire To Da Face...That is an amazing point. I hadn't really thought about the scope of how many different POV/Storylines we are seeing happen SIMULTANEOUSLY...Great point man.

 

 

 

Mad_Scientist: What religions:

 

Uhhhhhhhh...How bout DRAGON SWORN??? (That is basically a religion of its own sworn to The Dragon Reborn. ... As for them 'Rising and Falling' ...just look at Masema or The White Tower/Aes Sedai as we see them by the end of Knife of Dreams.

 

Book 1 they are this mythical awe-inspiring group who lived in seclusion...and I mean they ALL lived in exclusion except for the Blues, Reds, Whites, Greens and Yellows. Look at how in Book 1 they intimidated not just three farm boys, but kings and rulers. Look at the end of KOD how they have fallen and been humbled...and even...GASP!!! - Warded to Men who can Channel!!!

 

I think Im safe in saying it gives us all something to think about...

 

 

 

Fish

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

[Balefire to da face!]

Well thank you, I thought so ;)

 

 

Edit: No TGS comments whatsoever on this board.

[The Fisher King]

Balefire To Da Face:

 

Actually, that DOES bug me, alot actually. But, I can cognitively deal with that because that is just a real world reality that its been 19 years since the publication of TEOTW and I shook Mr Rigney's hand with my mother. Thats just real life, so, yeah, it is weird to me too, but you just deal because its reality.

 

But, yeah - you are correct that I was referring to the amount of Epic Events that have seemingly occured in such a short amount of time.

 

I think one thing for there were three things that seemed to draaaaaaaaaaaag on forever (even though I mostly enjoyed them) were the storylines concerning:

 

1 Mat in Ebu Daur

 

2 Mat's time with Valan Luca's Travelling Show of Great Wonders

 

3 Perrin's searc to rescue Faile

 

*edit for TGS spoiler*

 

 

 

Fish

[bjclinton]

don't quote me on this (or ask for evidence  ;) ) but i seem to remember seeing a time-line that had this series between 3-4 years (not counting TSR since NO TSR TALK SHOULD BE mentioned here (Points to 'Balefire to the Face' as a reminder)

 

That might make you feel better if it is in fact true.

 

 

[Agitel]

What else would one expect when the Dragon rides on the wings of time?

[The Fisher King]

bjclinton and Agitel...

 

bjclinton...if it were 3-4 years, to me, that would make a BIG difference. 4 years is almost double the amount of time that 2 years is. But, its been sorta repeated alot by The Powers That Be that its been about 2 years...

 

Agitel...Good Point!!! Who are WE to judge how The Wheel of Time Turns LOL??! ;)

 

 

 

 

Fish

[Majsju]

(not counting TSR since NO TSR TALK SHOULD BE mentioned here

 

 

Talking TSR here is perfectly ok ;)

[matrulz]

Balefire To Da Face ... and ... Mad Scientist:

 

 

 

 

 

Mad_Scientist: What religions:

 

Uhhhhhhhh...How bout DRAGON SWORN??? (That is basically a religion of its own sworn to The Dragon Reborn. ... As for them 'Rising and Falling' ...just look at Masema or The White Tower/Aes Sedai as we see them by the end of Knife of Dreams.

 

Book 1 they are this mythical awe-inspiring group who lived in seclusion...and I mean they ALL lived in exclusion except for the Blues, Reds, Whites, Greens and Yellows. Look at how in Book 1 they intimidated not just three farm boys, but kings and rulers. Look at the end of KOD how they have fallen and been humbled...and even...GASP!!! - Warded to Men who can Channel!!!

 

I think Im safe in saying it gives us all something to think about...

 

 

 

Fish

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

well its 3:00am where im at and its been a long day...so this could just be me ???

i think the whole masema/dragonsworn is more of a cult of power than a religion...but what im confused about is the next bit....all the aes sedai were in seclution "exept" five out of seven ajahs? to be intimidating to rulers, and everybody really, they had to be out in the world, pulling strings and all. again im sorry if im missing something here...its really late and im tired...but i just dont even get that.

 

oh and just to mess with your timeline a little, didnt rand, mat and perrin lose a few months traveling by portal stone to falme in tGH? that would put "most" everything they did into something like 20ish months ;D

[Bob T Dwarf]

Steven Cooper's Timeline, which has had a lot of effort put into it, and is one many of us use, has it being 766 days from the beginning of The Eye of the World to Tuon's return to Ebou Dar at the end of Knife of Dreams.

[Balefire to da face!]

I'm very sorry about that guys.

 

It completely slipped my mind.

 

I am quite harsh to people when they spoil or ruin anyhing for me, and I hope you guys don't feel like I just did for you. Seriously, very sorry.

[Vulgir]

Seals on the dark ones prison is breaking, the entire series Rand says, i dont have enough time, The events u speak of are engaged and carried out by the Forsaken, who have incredible knowlege and power, and not to mention manipulation and ways of making people just say yes.

 

There is nothing wrong with the timeline "The Wheel Weaves as the Wheel Wills" Your statement is fundimentally flawed.

[bjclinton]

(not counting TSR since NO TSR TALK SHOULD BE mentioned here

 

 

Talking TSR here is perfectly ok ;)

 

LOL

 

I thought he meant TGS, but if thats not the case, my appologies BF!!!

[bjclinton]

I'm very sorry about that guys.

 

It completely slipped my mind.

 

I am quite harsh to people when they spoil or ruin anyhing for me, and I hope you guys don't feel like I just did for you. Seriously, very sorry.

 

Thanks BF :)

[Sylvia]

Sylvia,

 

Youre right, its fiction.

 

And, Ill remind YOU of that next time YOU have a criticism of a plot-element or character's actions within the books. ;)

 

You and I are talking about the Saaaaaame thing, Sylvia...saaaaaaaaame thing.

 

Feel free dude. I usually don't have a problem acepting the fact that IT'S FICTION!!!!!!!

 

But seriously, it IS fiction. If RJ wanted the whole thing to happen in a day, he could make it happen in a day.

 

Granted, I do agree on the point of the armies traveling such long distances so quickly, but really dude, crazy things do happen in real life.

[Nae Bliss]

2 and a half years? it was a year and a half in tGH when rand met with suain when she was in Fal Dara. You sure it's only 2 and a half years?

[Mr. Dragon]

2 and a half years? it was a year and a half in tGH when rand met with suain when she was in Fal Dara. You sure it's only 2 and a half years?

 

No it wasn't, it was a few months at most, we know this because at the beginning of the series it was late winter - early spring, when Rand and co return from the EotW, it was late spring early summer, they stayed at Fal Dara for a few weeks before Suin arrived. We know it can't be longer than a year becuase it isn't deep winter at any stage between the said events.

[Sylvia]

But didn't the weather start screwing up?

[Arkelias]

I'm taking the risk and posting even though I know that within a few hours Mr. Ares will appear and do a line by line dissection of my post.  Afterwards I'll do the same, and within a few days this thread will be 19 pages long, 17 of which are he and I sniping at each other.

 

Ok, now that my disclaimer is out of the way I wanted to put in my two cents about the short length of time the novels take place in.  By and large this is fairly realistic, and many people in this thread have explained why.

 

However, there is one thing about the brevity of the WoT that bugs the heck out of me.  If you look at Rand he becomes a blademaster in a startlingly short amount of time, but this makes sense because Lews Therin is floating around in his head.  So, I can buy how quickly he learns.

 

What about people like Gawyn or Galad?  I can almost swallow Galad as RJ made such a huge point about how much potential he had, and how quickly he learned.  Yet when the younglings go to battle to stop Hammar from freeing Suian it is Gawyn that kills him, not Galad.

 

How did Gawyn become such a master swordsman in such a short span of time?  Every time we see him he's more dangerous, but when you break the timeline down at best it's been a bit over a year and a half since he first arrived at the White Tower.  

 

Later, Galad bests a swordmaster with years and years of experience.  Despite having only used the sword for a few years.  Rand, Mat and Perrin all become consumate badasses who can take down fades, blademasters, Aiel or any other military threat.

 

Egwene, Elayne and Nyneave become some of the most powerful women in the white tower, even though its supposed to take years to pass Accepted and gain the shawl, then another 50-100 years as an Aes Sedai before you're considered experienced.

 

Warders spend decades getting stronger.  Swordmasters spend years training.  In the short span of the books why is it that all of our characters became so skilled so quickly?  It really doesn't make sense.

 

I know its a minor gripe, but one that has bothered me.  It's definitely a lack of realism, but as Sylvia said its fiction so I guess I should be more forgiving.