Your least favorite romantic subplot?

[Demon_AS]

 

I hand-wave it away via three assumptions.

 

Firstly, that Elayne is Ilyena reborn, and there's a certain level of recognition of souls happening.

 

I've been wondering about this as a possibility as well, considering Elayne is also described as having sun-colored hair. Still wish that there was something more to it than just the Pattern though *grumble*

I've often entertained the idea that Min, Aviendha and Elayne combined together would turn into Ilyena. I don't think they WILL be combined (that seems like a fairly ridiculous way to end the story) but as an explanation of why he needs all three of them, maybe they all represent the different facets of Ilyena Therin Moerelle.

[anotherfingolfin]

I honestly think this was one of the weaker elements in the series. To me, many don't make sense, and many are underdeveloped. Most grating though are those that are just plain unnecessary. Like Berelain and Galad. It's there just cuz. Oh everybody else has a boyfriend/girlfriend, so let them not feel left out. Thom and Moiraine is another totally senseless pairing. The ONLY purpose it serves, is providing an impetus to rescue her, but I am sure RJ could have come up with an alternate, better one.

 

With regards to Rand's three- Well I liked the build up of the Aviendha relationship, thought it was believable and well done. Though it makes less and less sense as time goes on. The Min relationship on the other hand, I didn't think built up well, I didn't get where it came from at all. (Honestly, I disliked Min untill maybe late in TGS. Nevertheless, it has come to become the most normal/healthy relationship. ELayne, well I had initally thought that that would be his big relationship, but it made no sense, has had no development, that I get the feeling that it totally fell by the wayside when the story started getting outta hand.

[True Source Creator]

Judging by the responses in this thread, wouldn't it be simpler to have a thread for you "favorite" romantic subplot?

[brolie]

or even pros and cons of romantic subplots seeing as that is what this discussion has turned into

[Vimak_the_Great]

To provide some context on my POV - I am on the 10th book (read 1 - 9 2x over a 10 year period). I haven't read all of the posts for fear of spoilers, so don't flog me for missing something or repeating too much please

 

Anywho, with respect to the topic - I agree with what seemed to be a fair number of people in that it is a toss-up for me between the Elayne-Rand relationship and the Egwene-Gawyn one. My favorite probably being Min-Rand as I personally would love to have a girl like Min.

 

Elayne-Rand: to me is too forced. It's more of a booty call than a relationship. They've seen each other maybe 3 or 4 times, the only time anything outside of small talk or sex seemed to occur was when Rand took the Stone. Even then it was all about sneaking away for some snogging. So to me, I don't see why Rand loves the girl and, as I'm not a girl, I can't understand why she likes Rand. Also, in speaking on Rand's female interests, most guys I know don't have such a wide variety of interests. Min the down to earth petite brunette, Aviendha the fiery redhead, and Elayne the dumb blonde. To me, I can get the Min and Aviendha attractions, but Elayne is so different from the other two it makes no sense.

 

 

Egwene-Gawyn: Their relationship, at least where I am in the book, makes no sense at all. They have barely seen each other and they believe they are in love. I can understand having wet dreams about each other, that just requires physical attraction. However, Egwene managed to switch from Rand to Gawyn mighty quickly and they don't really seem to share a whole lot of common interests asides from each other (which, despite the whole opposites attract saying, most people know doesn't work long-term).

 

 

 

Of course, as a side note, I am fairly anti-Elayne in the whole series and so that probably affects my liking of anything she does a bit. Though, my favorite characters, hands down, are Mat and Min, so its not as though I'm too concerned with the going-ons of Rand.

[True Source Creator]

I was originally a Rand-Egwene shipper. Mostly because of Egwene's vision when in the testing for Accepted. They all concerned Rand. In one, he goes mad in Edmond's Field. In another, he's in Caemlyn dying and I believe there was a Myddraal coming. I don't remember what the other one had been. But it made me realize how much Egwene cared for Rand, even then, yet they've so gone away now.