Characters you picture(d) incorrectly

[Alric]

I'm sure a lot of people pictured characters incorrectly, at least on their first read. I know I did, when I started reading the series at 16. I'd like to know the "mistakes" you made and any funny/interesting insights into why you made them? And was it hard to correct them?

 

 

Elayne: I keep imagining her as small to average height, gorgeous, curvy (but not quite chubby), with blond wavy hair and still looking 16-ish. I know that she is taller than average and with red-golden hair... but this is one I just can't correct. I think it might be connected to her first appearance where she kind of appeared like a stereotypical spoiled princess age 16. And parts of that personality still sticks to her character so that's where she's "stuck" for me. I like and enjoy my version of Elayne though, and it kind of fits with her spirit which is still adventurous and playful, and with Aviendha joking about her love of sweets, and her pregnancy. (Interestingly it seems that many people who draw her agree with me).

 

Nynaeve: On my first read I pictured her with blondish hair (no idea why). I also pictured her taller than Elayne and Egwene, while she definitely is not taller than Elayne, and probably the same-ish height as Egwene. I think that part had to do with her age, I probably figured older=taller which is a mistake I still sometimes make.

 

Siuan: Dark red hair (no idea). I corrected that quite early. Getting her to grow younger to look 25-ish took a good amount of mental work though.

 

Loial: This one is surely wrong. I can hardly describe how I imagine Ogier. Big and furry and kind of cartoonish. Looks nothing like any drawings I've seen, but those vary greatly too.

[fuzz1717]

Maybe this is just me, but I always pictured Min as being super young (like 15) just because of how she talked to Rand in TEotW. Managed to correct this by the time Rand and her hooked up in ACoS, thankfully

[shortkut]

i picture loial like lynx from chrono cross

[roocifer]

Definitely pictured Thom to be a LOT older than he was supposed to be. Too late to change that now. The image is stuck in my mind. Still made me have trouble with events at the end of ToM though

[shortkut]

forgot to say that tam is liam neison in my mind

[Alric]

Definitely pictured Thom to be a LOT older than he was supposed to be. Too late to change that now. The image is stuck in my mind.

I believe he is in his mid (maybe late) 60's though. Not that I'm saying that is very old, but he could look quite old still.

[Colin al'Caar]

I'm not sure you can imagine a character's appearance incorrectly. Sure, the author does provide basic stuff like body, hair color, etc but what makes reading so much better than movies or tv is that part of the story becomes a construct of your own mind. Your imagination creates the world based on a set of rules set down by the author. No reader imagines Elayne exactly the same as RJ did. This is also why I hope they never decide to make a WoT movie.

[fuzz1717]

I'm not sure you can imagine a character's appearance incorrectly. Sure, the author does provide basic stuff like body, hair color, etc but what makes reading so much better than movies or tv is that part of the story becomes a construct of your own mind. Your imagination creates the world based on a set of rules set down by the author. I'm no reader imagines Elayne exactly the same as RJ did. This is also why I hope they never decide to make a WoT movie.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like they are making an Eye of the World movie scheduled to come out in 2013. I hope it isn't a flop like Eragon or Avatar the Last Airbender was.

[Alric]

Your imagination creates the world based on a set of rules set down by the author. I'm no reader imagines Elayne exactly the same as RJ did. This is also why I hope they never decide to make a WoT movie.

 

I definitely agree on the last part. As for appearances, I'm just curious of the instances where people clearly have the wrong idea (and why).

[thisguy]

I'm not sure you can imagine a character's appearance incorrectly. Sure, the author does provide basic stuff like body, hair color, etc but what makes reading so much better than movies or tv is that part of the story becomes a construct of your own mind. Your imagination creates the world based on a set of rules set down by the author. I'm no reader imagines Elayne exactly the same as RJ did. This is also why I hope they never decide to make a WoT movie.

I get what you're saying but when I went for the reread and came to Nyn for some reason she was blonde in my head and then Jordan's writing about her thick dark braid and I was like, what?

[Colin al'Caar]

I'm not sure you can imagine a character's appearance incorrectly. Sure, the author does provide basic stuff like body, hair color, etc but what makes reading so much better than movies or tv is that part of the story becomes a construct of your own mind. Your imagination creates the world based on a set of rules set down by the author. I'm no reader imagines Elayne exactly the same as RJ did. This is also why I hope they never decide to make a WoT movie.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like they are making an Eye of the World movie scheduled to come out in 2013. I hope it isn't a flop like Eragon or Avatar the Last Airbender was.

 

disappointing news...funny thing is, even though I'll rant about it now.....I'll probably see it anyway

[Colin al'Caar]

I suspect I have imagined more blond hair on my Elayne than RJ describes. I do recall having to reconstruct her image in my mind whenever RJ mentioned the hair. I'm getting to start a series re-read in anticipation of the final volume...guess I'll put the theory to the test.

[thisguy]

I suspect I have imagined more blond hair on my Elayne than RJ describes. I do recall having to reconstruct her image in my mind whenever RJ mentioned the hair. I'm getting to start a series re-read in anticipation of the final volume...guess I'll put the theory to the test.

To be fair, I think the descriptions vary a bit between red, blonde and red-blonde.

[driedraspberry]

I pictured Elayne shorter and curvier too. And with straight hair. I take red-gold hair to mean she has strawberry blond.

 

I thought Nynaeve and Egwene were olive skinned with mediterranean/middle eastern facial features, possibly because the first description Rand gives us about them is they're dark aside from being petite and pretty. Perrin too.

 

I pictured Lan as a blond. I know his hair is described as dark, but I could never wrap my head around his real hair.

 

Min I thought was more along the lines of 28-9. Nynaeve too.

 

Did Brandon Sanderson also make a similar mistake? RJ always described Rand's hair color as red-brown, as far as I can remember. Now I get to tGS and suddenly he has red-gold hair?

[TristanWebb]

Tuon being really black. I must of missed it the first time or I am just racist :(

[bcspeer]

for some reason I pictured Rand as the shortest out of him, Mat, and Perrin. I also didn't picture Tuon as black, I don't know how I missed that description but after my first read through it was stuck. I always picture Siuan as this tall, dominating woman when she is Amyrlin and then she becomes this really young adult after she is stilled and it's like she is a completely different woman. I always picture Lan as being somewhat attractive despite all the references to his ugly stone face. When I read the first book, I pictured Nynaeve as the tallest of the Two Rivers gang because of her station and because she was older. When I did my first re-read, I paid more attention to the descriptions and it was like reading about new characters

[Clouded]

On my first read through, I pictured Suian with dark skin. I think its because I picked it up from Juilin, and transferred it to all Tairens. Also, I just found out on my reread of TSR that Egeanin has dark hair, not blonde.

[mike hunt's here]

I swear I saw something that said Jordan would never sell the rights to make a movie. Or maybe it was he furiously objected to making a movie?

 

I googled this movie and its in Preproduction...meaning its only being pitched out there, no writer, director, or even a studio, so no worries yet.

[thisguy]

I pictured Elayne shorter and curvier too. And with straight hair. I take red-gold hair to mean she has strawberry blond.

 

I thought Nynaeve and Egwene were olive skinned with mediterranean/middle eastern facial features, possibly because the first description Rand gives us about them is they're dark aside from being petite and pretty. Perrin too.

 

I pictured Lan as a blond. I know his hair is described as dark, but I could never wrap my head around his real hair.

 

Min I thought was more along the lines of 28-9. Nynaeve too.

 

Did Brandon Sanderson also make a similar mistake? RJ always described Rand's hair color as red-brown, as far as I can remember. Now I get to tGS and suddenly he has red-gold hair?

Rand's been suntanning a lot and putting a bit of lemon juice in his hair. He has to relax somehow.

 

You're right - red brown.

[Colin al'Caar]

This is why I won't see a movie unless I've read the book first...even then reluctantly. I don't even like looking at book covers...especially the U.S. version of WoT (just because they are horrible). I want to form my own image of each character without the subconscious interferance from outside sources.

[Alanna]

I suspect I have imagined more blond hair on my Elayne than RJ describes. I do recall having to reconstruct her image in my mind whenever RJ mentioned the hair. I'm getting to start a series re-read in anticipation of the final volume...guess I'll put the theory to the test.

 

Yeah, Elayne's hair is weird...I think I sometimes picture her as more blond and sometimes as more redheaded. Actually, weirdly enough, I think in the earlier books I picture her with redder hair, and then in later book, when she's becoming queen, I picture her blonder. Not sure why.

 

The only one I can really think of is Leane, I pictured her with blond hair for some reason. I think because my aunt's name is Le Ann and she's blond. Lol.

 

I'm sure there were more the first time I read the book, but the last time I reread the series (a couple of years ago), I tried to pay as much attention to every detail in the books, so a lot of the character's appearance "fixed" themselves in my brain lol.

[A Rant Lord]

Verin I always pictured her to be tall and skinny.

Allana I always pictured her as the small chubby one.

[capuga]

I'm not sure you can imagine a character's appearance incorrectly. Sure, the author does provide basic stuff like body, hair color, etc but what makes reading so much better than movies or tv is that part of the story becomes a construct of your own mind. Your imagination creates the world based on a set of rules set down by the author. I'm no reader imagines Elayne exactly the same as RJ did. This is also why I hope they never decide to make a WoT movie.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like they are making an Eye of the World movie scheduled to come out in 2013. I hope it isn't a flop like Eragon or Avatar the Last Airbender was.

 

For a movie to come out next year it would need to be filming now. Since there has been no news of this and no casting done and no word that a script has been agreed on I would say it safe to assume this movie won't be happening for awhile.

[Vardar]

Tuon being really black. I must of missed it the first time or I am just racist :(

 

HAHAHAHAHA!

 

Tuon is the same color as me, and apparently I'm racist too, because my best friend pointed me out to me. (He's "white"). But on the same note, I was the one who pointed out that Hurin was described as "Black" (Aged wood).

 

I never pictured Eggy as so short. I thought Ny was the only really short one and Eggy was Elayne's hieght, taller than average, but not Aiel tall. \

 

And yes Rand's hair goes from Reddish Brown to Flaming Red at some point. Not quite sure where.

[A Rant Lord]

Rand's hair turning more blond is just him being supersaiyan flameboy