Moment that made you LOL

[Gathering Storman Norman]

I love:

>> Mat's half marriage to Tuon "Your bloody Daughter of the Nine Moons is my wife!"

 

And of course Tuon excepting that proposal in almost the same exact words. And reminding Mat that is how he worded the first part of the mirage ceremony.

[kght22]

rand, in a room with nynaeve and lan with elayne, min and aviendah admitting their love. for me there were tears in my eyes, but a giant grin and lots of laughs.

[kght22]

I didn't think the letter was funny. It captured the spirit of Mat maybe, since he doesn't much care about acting "proper" with queens, but it made Mat seem like an idiot, with all those mispellings. It would have been more funny if BS had left out the numerous mispelled words. Just because Mat was a farmboy doesn't mean he's illiterate. His mother would have taught him his letters.

 

i'll have you know that it is lucky that mat can read or write at all, as well as with the other two. sorry but his little letter showed his memories, mattrim by himself likely would have a hard time spelling the word "no"

[ShenAnCalhar]

Since Mat is fluent in the old tongue due to his memories, we know that linguistic skills carry over, and this includes the common tongue. It's safe to wager that of all the guys' memories he received, some percentage of them spoke and wrote the old tongue, but a larger percentage spoke and wrote the common tongue (since his memories are more recent than when the old tongue was widespread). Writing letters and orders is a large part of warfare, so we can also safely assume that he has memories of writing thousands of those. Also, remember him writing a letter once before?

 

I followed a Darkfriend to the palace Jaichim Carridin is renting. She tried to kill me once, and maybe Rand as well. She was greeted like an old friend of the house.

 

Be sensible. If you have to go traipsing about, let me send a few men along with you to keep you from having your heads split open. Anyway, isn't it about time I took you back to Egwene? There's nothing here but heat and flies and we can find plenty of those in Caemlyn.

 

Well written, with the slight obnoxiousness of Mat we all love. So the Elayne letter never jived with me - I found it jarring, and another of Brandon's overdoing of the Mat humor.

[David Selig]

Since Mat is fluent in the old tongue due to his memories, we know that linguistic skills carry over, and this includes the common tongue. It's safe to wager that of all the guys' memories he received, some percentage of them spoke and wrote the old tongue, but a larger percentage spoke and wrote the common tongue (since his memories are more recent than when the old tongue was widespread). Writing letters and orders is a large part of warfare, so we can also safely assume that he has memories of writing thousands of those. Also, remember him writing a letter once before?

Weren't the most recent of his Finn memories something like 500 years ago? That's more than enough time for the spelling to change enough to make those memories not helpful at all.

 

From what we know of Mat (excluding the note), it's far more likely his spelling was terrible. He didn't like reading at all and never had any kind of formal education.

 

More importantly, the letter was funny, which justifies minor inconsisties. Rule of Funny, as TV Tropes put it.

[Bob T Dwarf]

Since Mat is fluent in the old tongue due to his memories, we know that linguistic skills carry over, and this includes the common tongue. It's safe to wager that of all the guys' memories he received, some percentage of them spoke and wrote the old tongue, but a larger percentage spoke and wrote the common tongue (since his memories are more recent than when the old tongue was widespread). Writing letters and orders is a large part of warfare, so we can also safely assume that he has memories of writing thousands of those. Also, remember him writing a letter once before?

 

I followed a Darkfriend to the palace Jaichim Carridin is renting. She tried to kill me once, and maybe Rand as well. She was greeted like an old friend of the house.

 

Be sensible. If you have to go traipsing about, let me send a few men along with you to keep you from having your heads split open. Anyway, isn't it about time I took you back to Egwene? There's nothing here but heat and flies and we can find plenty of those in Caemlyn.

 

Well written, with the slight obnoxiousness of Mat we all love. So the Elayne letter never jived with me - I found it jarring, and another of Brandon's overdoing of the Mat humor.

 

Of course Mat can write properly when he wants to. The whole subtext in the way the letter was written was that he was sufficiently stifled by the bureaucracy surrounding Elayne that he no longer had the time to be "proper."

 

And, it worked. Not only did it get her attention, it convinced her in a way that nothing else could, that Mat really did write that letter.

 

Sometimes the proper and correct and polite thing to do is to bow and scrape and say, "Please." and "Thank you." But sometimes the proper and correct and polite thing to do is to punch the other person in the nose.

 

Remember that Sanderson has access to all of Jordan's notes, both of Jordan's assistants, and Jordan's wife and editor. He's far more intimately aware of who Mat is and how he is supposed to be written than any of us. If what you see on the page doesn't agree with your own private fantasy about Mat, it's entirely because you've built somebody other than who Robert Jordan created.

[ShenAnCalhar]

The fact that Brandon has access to more inside info on the character hardly means he's more capable or writing the character, as evidenced by the large amount of readers who now find his manner of conversation and humor obvious and forced (and no longer funny). He's writing the first letter I referenced in front of a strange queen who definitely makes him wary, if not nervous. Yet this is a single draft, and there are no cross-outs, misspellings, explanations of what words mean, etc. despite the fact that he's writing to Elayne (same person) and Nynaeve whom, if not queens, were at least Aes Sedai at the time (not that either title impresses Mat much). So perhaps your "fantasy" that Sanderson can do no wrong when writing a character that isn't his is misguided. Being "stifled by the bureaucracy" doesn't make you forget how to spell.

 

But to be somewhat on topic, when Mat first refers to Tuon with her new name: "Precious. You have a pet name for me, so I thought I should have one for you, Precious." Ahh, Knife of Dreams - the pinnacle of Mat humor.

[Suttree]

Remember that Sanderson has access to all of Jordan's notes, both of Jordan's assistants, and Jordan's wife and editor. He's far more intimately aware of who Mat is and how he is supposed to be written than any of us. If what you see on the page doesn't agree with your own private fantasy about Mat, it's entirely because you've built somebody other than who Robert Jordan created.

 

 

Except for the fact that such a huge portion of the fandom magically had the exact same "private fantasy" about the character. It was significant enough that BS felt the need to address it and acknowledge the issues with Mat after TGS...

 

As for funny I always love the LTT dialogue in tPoD around "A Time for Iron". All the sly digs and then...

 

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

[aball]

When Mat meets Rhuarc's other wife in The Shadow Rising:

 

"Both of them!? Burn me! Light, two! He is either the luckiest man in the world or the biggest fool since creation!"

[Mordaunt]

Also, both parts of my signature made/make me LOL when I read them.

[a figg]

Bashere describing the crazy general who once had a grove of oak trees chopped down and then decided that his soldiers needed to bury them.

[FarShainMael]

“What 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!

 

 

“I told you we should leave,” Talmanes noted, looking over his shoulder, riding at Mat's left. “But you had to stay for one more toss.”

 

Mat didn't look back. “Not my fault, Talmanes. How was I to know that staying would cause them all to start tearing each other's throats out?”

 

“What?” Talmanes asked, glancing at him. “Isn't this usually how people react when you tell them you're going to spend the night?”

[garry1209]

Bashere describing the crazy general who once had a grove of oak trees chopped down and then decided that his soldiers needed to bury them.

 

 

“What 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!

 

 

“I told you we should leave,” Talmanes noted, looking over his shoulder, riding at Mat's left. “But you had to stay for one more toss.”

 

Mat didn't look back. “Not my fault, Talmanes. How was I to know that staying would cause them all to start tearing each other's throats out?”

 

“What?” Talmanes asked, glancing at him. “Isn't this usually how people react when you tell them you're going to spend the night?”

[master]

rand aqnd his three loves revealing their effections in front of nyneave.

[XXX]

When 19 year old Egwene is asked advise on warders by a century old AS with experience in handling warders.

[Mordaunt]

Egwene being infuriated by Elaida suggesting an Oath of obedience when she herself has half a dozen Aes Sedai with oaths sworn directly to her.

[Guest PiotrekS]

Mat: "She is not a woman, Talmanes, she is an Aes Sedai. Don't think of her as a woman!"

Talmanes: "I'm trying Mat. But it's hard!"

[Leyrann]

Egwene being infuriated by Elaida suggesting an Oath of obedience when she herself has half a dozen Aes Sedai with oaths sworn directly to her.

 

Maybe this should be put in the Egwene thread (I'm sure it still lives), but an important difference is that Egwene didn't use the Oath Rod. And Elaida did it for power, where she only wanted to destroy the Salidar AS and capture Rand, and Egwene needed power to solve the White Tower, which was needed before she could help Rand. And yes, I think she will be very valuable at FoM.

[Ingunn_d@hotmail.com]

Some of my top funny moments:

1. Aviendha telling Elayne that she slept with Rand

2. Mat being a sex-slave

3. Rand getting spanked by the Maidens

[Nyanna al'Meara]

Nynaeve waking Elayne with an icicle as revenge for a comment made the previous evening. "Elayne's screams could be heard all through the camp" LOL!!!

[FarShainMael]

"..we've got a whole load of nightflowers." He tapped the sack beside his chair with the edge of his foot.

 

"You brought them?" Thom asked.

 

"I wanted to keep them close," Mat said. "And she only gave them to me today. They're not going to explode by accident, Thom. That doesn't happen very often."

 

"Well at least move them back from the hearth!" Thom said. He glanced at his pipe and cursed, then scooted his chair a few inches from Mat.

 

Then there's that scene in ToM23 where Elayne weaves the Mirror of Mists to disguise herself to try and scare info out of Chesmal and Eldrith, and looks like 'a thunderhead given life' - with pink silk slippers

[Carn Rhuarc]

My favorite lol is when Mat is talking to Verin and tells her he thought she "Saidared" the picture.

[FarShainMael]

Mat has a sympathiser when it comes to boots...

 

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

 

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

 

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

 

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

[FarShainMael]

"Light, Mat.. It seems like it's been forever!"

 

"A lifetime," Mat said. "Maybe two. I lose count."

[Sid]

Mat and Thom in TDR

 

“Oh, I will come, boy.” As Thom pushed himself to his feet, he did not seem as unsteady as

he had been. “You wait here - and try not to eat the table - while I get my things and say some

goodbyes.” He limped away, not staggering once.

and later

 

Mat glanced at him and laughed. “Stop shaking, Thom. There’s no need to be afraid. I know

what is inside them, now. At least, I know what it looks like, but . . . . Don’t say it. I will not be

cutting any more open, Thom. It is more fun to set them off, anyway.”

“I am not afraid, you mud-footed swineherd,” Thom said with elaborate dignity. “I am

shaking with rage because I’m traveling with a goat-brained lout who might kill the pair of us

because he cannot think past his own - ”

Mat with Juilan at the Stone

 

“Can you make it past me, thief-catcher?” Mat called, careful not to take his eyes off the man

waiting for him with blade poised to strike. Sandar had insisted irritably on “thief-catcher,” not

“thief-taker,” though Mat could not see any difference.

“I cannot,” Sandar called from behind him. “If you move to let me by, you will lose room to

swing that oar you call a staff, and he will spit you like a grunt.”

Like a what? “Well, think of something, Tairen. This ragamuffin is grating my nerves.”

The man in the gold-striped coat sneered. “You will be honored to die on the blade of the

High Lord Darlin, peasant, if I allow it so.” It was the first time he had deigned to speak.

“Instead, I think I will have the pair of you hung by the heels, and watch while the skin is

stripped from your bodies - ”

“I do not think I’d like that,” Mat said.