Best Internal Dialogues

[Winespring Patron]

I think Nynaeve used to have the most entertaining ones in earlier books and Mat's were a close second, here are a few examples:

 

Nyn meeting Masema and being likened to the "Lord Dragon's" mother...

Nyn constantly reminding herself how reasonable and patient she was being despite everyone else getting excited...

Nyn's thoughts about Valan Luca's vanity, thriftiness, and marriage proposal...

Nyn realizing that recruiting both Galad and Masema to find a riverboat wasn't one of her most brilliant ideas...

Various Nyn thoughts about Birgitte, Thom, Julien, and Elayne during their long journey from Tarabon to Salidar.

Nyn resigns herself to Birgitte's "revenge" during their arrow shooting act.

Nyn finally realizing that Min's viewing of Rand being intimate with 3 women was about to be fulfilled...

Nyn in Ebou Dar when she finally realized the connection with the Aes Sedai "slowing" and "ageless" face...

Nyn vowing never to apologize to that awful and vexing Mat...

Nyn having apoplexy while not calling Mat names or being demeaning...

 

She just hasn't been as "passionate" since becoming unblocked and getting married. I am hoping BS will allow her one outburst in aMoL just for old times sake?

[David Selig]

Nynaeve in TFOH is hilarious throughout, her thoughts make the circus parts great for me:

 

"Men always seemed to think violence could solve anything. If she had had a stout stick, she would have thumped all three of them about the shoulders until they saw reason."

Surprisingly, his eyes remained on hers. Maybe he was ill. He had never avoided looking at her bosom before, and if Valan Luca was not interested in bosoms or gold..."

"It was her opinion, putting this and that together, that nearly all of Areina’s troubles came from having too free a tongue, telling people exactly what she thought. It could hardly be coincidence that she was harried out of one village so quickly she had to leave her horse behind after calling the mayor a pie-faced loon and telling some village women that dry-bones kitchen sweepers had no right to question why she was on the road alone. That was what she admitted to saying. Nynaeve thought a few days of herself for example would do Areina worlds of good. "

 

 

Elayne's is not nearly so funny most of the time, but she also have some priceless moments:

 

"Catalyn demanded. Her red dress, embroidered with broad bands of gold at the hem and on the sleeves, did not suit her coloring, especially when her plump cheeks were crimson with anger. Her chin was raised. Perhaps she wore that large enameled pin bearing Haevin’s Blue Bear where she did so she would be forced to keep her chin high and look down her nose at everyone. "

"As long as they had been in Bellon, Nynaeve had acted the perfect lady’s maid in public. In private was another matter. Elayne wished the woman would just revert to herself instead of bludgeoning her with a lady’s maid from the Blight. "

[Kadere]

The best internal dialogue is obviously Rand and Lews Therin. There's just no comparison.

[AshaShan]

The best internal dialogue is obviously Rand and Lews Therin. There's just no comparison.

 

This. "I would not mind you in my head, you know. If you were not so clearly mad."

 

It's nice that Rand's all sane(er) now but I have to admit, I'm gonna miss he and Lews Therin's wacky chats with themselves.

[Feral]

Nynaeve and Mat. Best comics in the books.

[Tyzack]

The best internal dialogue is obviously Rand and Lews Therin. There's just no comparison.

 

This. "I would not mind you in my head, you know. If you were not so clearly mad."

 

It's nice that Rand's all sane(er) now but I have to admit, I'm gonna miss he and Lews Therin's wacky chats with themselves.

 

I loved those "conversations" esp how Lews uses "we."

 

"We are in the box again!"

[Winespring Patron]

Nynaeve in TFOH is hilarious throughout, her thoughts make the circus parts great for me:

 

"Men always seemed to think violence could solve anything. If she had had a stout stick, she would have thumped all three of them about the shoulders until they saw reason."

I remember that one and her having a similar thought:

 

"I can be patient, and I will slap anyone who says differently" (paraphrase)

 

Nynaeve's thoughts during her infamous TAR catfight (all decorum went out the window) with Siuan are very amusing. She gets so carried away with pummeling the former Amyrlin that she forgets she had always condemned and punished such behavior when she was Wisdom...

 

Elayne had some funny POV's after bonding Birgitte and realizing that the bond didn't prevent her Warder from mocking her.

[SylvanFox]

Mat's thoughts, WH

 

...Surlivan Sarat, a good fellow, always ready with a quip and possessing a fine eye for horses....

 

"Have you been in another fight, my Lord? She will go up like a waterspout when she sees you."

 

....Mat bristled. Ready with quip? Come to think on it, the sun-dark man had a tongue like a rasp. And his eye for horses was not all that fine, either.

 

He thinks similar things in other POVs.

[Mandro]

Perrin forging Mjolinr

[GB]

nynaeve , after hugging rand just before she leaves for the WT.

[OptimusPrime]

Rands my favorite. Pre-ToM Rand anyway. The whole madness arc, I miss it. The paranoia, the living weapon philosophies, the wild mind moments, the whole Lews Therin thing, Dark Rand...

[Alric]

Elayne's internal dialogue is very funny when she is in ass kicking mode. When she takes charge of the Aes Sedai in Ebou Dar in aCoS, her dialogue is quite dramatic, somewhat sarcastic and extremely amusing. I'll see if I can find the quotes when I have the book around.

[Luckers]

I love Cadsuane's internal dialogue, especially during her confrontation with Harine.

[MasterAblar]

Mat in regard to Vanin:

 

"Where was this?" Joline demanded of Vanin "You've finally determined where we are?"

 

"Bloody well have," Vanin said, then unabashedly scratched himself. Good man, Vanin. Mat smiled. Treated all people the same, Vanin did. Aes Sedai and all.

 

Joline stared Vanin straight in the eyes, looming like a gargoyle atop some lord's mansion stonework. Vanin actually cringed, then wilted, then finally looked downward, abashed. "I mean, I have indeed, Joline Sedai."

 

Mat felt his smile fade. Burn it all Vanin!

[damandred]

I think Tuon in KoD (as if the world were fog) is great. Here's a little bit.

 

"Thank you" she told him politely. "I think I've heard enough." Ta'veren. Ridiculous. These people and their endless superstitions! A small brown bird, surely a finch, flew out of a tall oak and circled widdershins three times above Toy's head before flying on. She had found her omen. Stay close to Toy.

 

And when she found out that Mat was more than he appeared, that for me was very satisfying.

 

Tuon looked at him, squatting there by the map, moving his fingers over its surface, and suddenly she saw him in a new light. A bufoon? No. A lion stuffed into a horse-stall might look like a peculiar joke, but a lion on the high plains was something very different. Toy was loose on the high plains, now. She felt a chill. What sort of man had she entangled herself with? After all this time, she realized, she had hardly a clue.

 

 

Not the most witty I know, but after seeing her bully Mat for 1 and a half books, it was good to see her reconize he wasn't the fool she thought him.

[Suttree]

Lews Therin in the tPoD "Time for Iron" chapter is brilliant. Just a few...

 

I would not mind you in my head, Lews Therin said, sounding almost sane, if you were not so clearly mad.

 

Who knows a woman’s heart?Lews Therin chuckled wryly. He sounded in one of his saner moods. Most women will shrug off what a man would kill you for, and kill you for what a man would shrug off.

 

Madness waits for some, Lews Therin whispered. It creeps up on others.

 

Do you have the Horn of Valere hidden in your pocket this time? Lews Therin asked slyly.

 

Suddenly, Lews Therin raged up inside him, sly digs forgotten. I’ve never been defeated, he snarled. I am the Lord of the Morning!No one can defeat me!

[OptimusPrime]

Suddenly, Lews Therin raged up inside him, sly digs forgotten. I’ve never been defeated, he snarled. I am the Lord of the Morning!No one can defeat me!

 

One of my favorite quotes. Is it when Rand fights the Seanchan with Callandor?

 

"You would strike at me? I am the Dragon Reborn!"

[damandred]

"We'll take about it" Min told him.

LTT says in his head "one of the worst things a woman can say short of I'm going to kill you"

 

Not exactly I'm on a train. But the gist.

[Luckers]

Here we go... on Cadsuane...

 

So far, Lord Dobraine had remained quiet about her holding Caraline Damodred and Darlin Sisnera—she saw no better way to keep them from going on with their mischief than keeping them in a firm grip—but Dobraine might begin to fuss over that if she pushed beyond what he considered proper. He was too close to the boy for her to want to force him, and faithful to his oaths. She could look back on her life and recall failures, some bitterly regretted, and mistakes that had cost lives, but she could not afford mistakes or failure here. Most definitely not failure. Light, she wanted to bite someone!

 

"Your sister is assisting us in learning what happened on the unfortunate day," Cadsuane said smoothly, and somewhat absently. Taking a swallow of her own spiced wine, she waited, uncaring whether they saw her impatience. No matter how Dobraine grumbled about how impossible it was to meet the terms of that incredible bargain Rafela and Merana had made on behalf of the al'Thor boy, he still might have handled the Sea Folk himself. She could hardly give them half of her mind. Probably that was just as well for them. If she focused on the Atha'an Miere, she would be hard-pressed not to swat them like bitemes, though they were not the real source of her exasperation.

 

"My Windfrnder is not subject to your authority, Aes Sedai," Harine said sharply, as if denying the blood connection. "Shalon must and will be returned to me at once." Derah nodded curt agreement. Cadsuane thought the Sailmistress might do the same if Harine ordered her to jump from a cliff. In the Atha'an Miere's hierarchy, Derah stood a long distance below Harine. And that was almost as much as Cadsuane knew of them. The Sea Folk might prove useful or might not, but she could find a way to get a grip on them in any case.

 

"This is an Aes Sedai inquiry," she replied blandly. "We must follow Tower law." Loosely interpreted, to be sure. She had always believed the spirit of the law was far more important than the letter. Harine puffed up like an adder and began yet another harangue listing her rights and demands, but Cadsuane listened with half an ear.

 

Harine leaned forward out of her chair and gave Cadsuane's cheek a sharp tap with her fingers! "You are not listening to me," she said harshly. Her face was a thunderhead, and that of her Sailmistress scarcely less stormy. "You will listen!"

 

Cadsuane put her hands together and regarded the woman over her fingertips. No. She would not stand the Wavemistress on her head here and now. She would not send the woman back to her apartments weeping. She would be as diplomatic as Coiren could wish. Hastily she scanned through what she had heard. "You speak for the Mistress of the Ships to the Atha'an Miere, with all of her authority, which is more than I can imagine," she said mildly. "If your Windfinder is not returned to you within the hour, you will see that the Coramoor punishes me severely. You require an apology for your Windfinder's imprisonment. And you require me to make Lord Dobraine set aside the land promised by the Coramoor immediately. I believe that covers the essential points." Except for the one about having her flogged!

 

"Good," Harine said, leaning back comfortably, in command now. Her smile was sickeningly selfsatisfied. "You will learn that—"

 

"I do not care a fig for your Coramoor," Cadsuane continued, her voice still mild. All the figs in the world for the Dragon Reborn, but not one for the Coramoor. She did not alter her tone by a hair. "If you ever touch me again without permission, I will have you stripped, striped, bound and carried back to

your rooms in a sack." Well, diplomacy had never been her strongest point. "If you do not cease pestering me about your sister. . . . Well, I might actually grow angry." Standing, she ignored the Sea Folk woman's indignant puffing and gaping and raised her voice to be heard at the end of the room.

 

This scene here, incidently, is why I hold every scene Brandon has written about Cadsuane as wrong--and for the precise purpose of this thread--internal dialogue. What Cadsuane does and what she thinks are distinctly different. A difference Brandon has missed.

[David Selig]

To each his own I guess, those quotes only make me feel justified in my dislike of Cadsuane. I even pity the Sea Folk woman (and I usually dislike all of them except those in TSR) in this scene for having to deal with Cadsuane lies (what does Tower Law have to do with this matter in Cairhien?) and rudeness. She arrested her sister on no authority, kept her for days and gave no explanation. And on top of that is threatening Harine to bat her up if she as much as touch her again...

[Aleator77]

Mat at the end of TDR

 

The Aes Sedai turned that cool gaze on Mat. “And you thought it was done? You are ta’veren, Mat, a thread more crucial to the Pattern than most,

and the sounder of the Horn of Valere. Nothing is done for you, yet.”

They were all looking at him. Nynaeve sadly, Egwene as though she had never seen him before, Elayne

as if she expected him to change into someone else. Rhuarc had a certain respect

in his eyes, though Mat would just as soon have done without it, all things considered.

“Well, of course,” he told them. Burn me! “I understand.” I wonder how soon Thom will be

fit to travel? Time to run. Maybe Perrin will come with us. “You can count on me.” [/Quote]

 

Easily my favorite moment in the whole series.

[Darksister]

I hav to say Mat whenever he is describing leilwin. In TOM for instance- "if her horse threw a shoe on the way to Tar valon,she would probably sling the animal over her back and carry it the rest of the way"

[Kaznen]

Mat with Tuon in The White Ring inn.