Sort of hanging with the topic of Love in WoT - are homosexuals ever mentioned or talked about? It's seems like some of the Foresaken like to play fast and loose with gender and Graendal certainly seems like she could go either way but other then that, I don't recall any mention or description of any homosexual characters in WoT.

Suian and Moiraine were lovers as novices and accepted. That Seafolk Windfinder and the Cairheinen Lady that Rand tied up and left under the bed during the attack on the Sun Palace, they were having a lesbian relationship as seen from Shaolin's PoV later. Galina and Pevara while accepted, because Pevara thinks about Galina trying to start the same relationship back up after Pevara became AS, but Pevara rejected her because she prefers men. Several of Galina's PoV indicate the fact that she is much more attracted to women than men. As far as male homosexuality, it is not directly referred to between any specific characters, but it is not unknown in Randland.

Any time during the series you see the words "pillow friend" it refers to a relationship that is often sexual in nature. It is usually used in reference to lesbian relationships.

Here's a link to a good article that discusses the subject.

Bloody ashes! - Ninja-posted by Mark Grayson. Oh well, I agree with everything he said.

Hello! I've done a couple of quick google searches, and haven't found the answer anywhere yet.. Can anyone tell me if the ebook cover art for any/all of the WoT books is available for purchase?

 

Thanks :-)

Amazon sells the e-books, and they display the e-book cover art on the info page for the e-books. All you have to do is right-click on the picture and then choose the option for "Save Image as..." to save it to your computer. No purchase necessary.

This topic is one in which I think that those of us that have been reading the series for almost 20 years have an advantage.

On the one hand, for those that have come to the series relatively recently have the advantage of not having to wait between books, like we did. We had to wait almost 2 years between ACoS and TPoD then another 2 years for WH and another 2 years for CoT and 2 more for KoD. And some of those gaps we agonizingly long. Personally I remember the gap between WH and CoT especially well, because of the ending of WH (Rand Cleansing the OP, and the serious ownage of Forsaken that took place). So if you think you are frustrated by CoT (when you could put down one and then pick the next right up after), think about how we felt after waiting 26 months and then we get to send all that time reading about "tea drinking, bath taking, sniffing women...oh, you get the idea."

But at the same time, those 2 years gave us a hunger that someone who can read the series back-to-back doesn't necessarily have. I was unhappy with CoT on my first read through (because it was not giving me the info that I wanted when I wanted it), but I especially came to appreciate it while I was waiting for KoD to come out. Those two years in between books exposed me to so much really bad fantasy that I would go back and re-read the entire WoT series (including CoT) or reread one of the Eddings series, or Fiest's Riftwar. It was on those rereads that I came to appreciate CoT,

Because after all, bad WoT is still better than most good fantasy, and definitely better than other bad fantasy.

And I can say without a doubt that finishing the series will be worth it. Skip CoT if you must, but you may be a little lost in KoD if you do.

Padan Fain encountered Mordeth in Shadar Logoth. Mordeth needed a body to posses and found one with a soul already belonging to someone else - this is why there are still traces of Fain within. Matrim would not have devolved into a Mordeth type person, he would have become like one of the whitecloaks in the Two Rivers who followed Fain. Matrim's inner strength may very well have been what kept him sane this long, however in the end he would have become just like one of the citizens of Aridhol.

I agree that in the end Mat would have fallen under Mashadar's complete control. He was on the brink of it when Moraine found him, I was only commenting on why Mat did not infect Rand the way the Moraine thought that it would have by then, and why Mat had not already been consumed by it. I seems as though had it been anybody else that they would have fallen to the dagger's control long before Mor found them in Camelyn.

Well I think Moraine was right, as Mat actually had the dagger in his possession, whereas Rand was just in contact by association.

Yes, and Moraine was surprised it hadn't effected Rand yet. Or, am I mixing that up with her surprise they made it that far (with Fades and Dark-friends being irresistibly drawn to it- was that Tarveren or because Rand can channel/touch the OP), in which case I'm sorry.

To me, it seemed that Mat was the reason it had not affected Rand. Mor says that the dagger is contagious, and we saw DF attracted to it. We also know now that Padan Fain can infect others the way Mor described. To me the difference lays in Mat and his personality/TR-stubbornness. Mat was not presented as being of a suspicious or non-trusting nature. Prankster and trickster yes, but he was not even openly distrustful of Mor and Lan until it was revealed that she was AS and even then he showed no distrust of Lan (continuing to workout with him with weapons, etc). I would dare say that if he had not gained the dagger until TGS for example that it would have a much more profound effect on him and those around him.

But the Blood of Manetheren runs strongly in Mat, possibly more strongly that any of the other Tav'eren, since we see him spouting OT before he ever went to SL. And Manthere's were know as among the most stubborn (which can also be described as strength of will) among those of their Age. Aridhol's (and by extension Mordeth's) problem was suspicion. Suspicion of their friends, their neighbors, even their families and the lengths that those people were willing to go to to prove their suspicions. Mat fought that suspicion, constantly. We see from his comments to Rand that it is eating away at him, and that he hates it. Mat's own stubbornness might have been what contained the dagger's contagion. He trusted Rand completely. The one time that he seemed suspicious of Rand was around the time they got to Camelyn, and Mat apologized immediately. By the time Mor arrived, Mat had almost completely lost the battle to hold off the dagger's taint, and the stronger Mordeth became with in Mat then the more likely the taint would have been able to spread because Mat would have lost all of his trust of others. He would not have been Mat anymore.

So in my opinion, whatever force inhabits the dagger (call it Mordeth's spirit for easy reference) was bending all of it's energy to converting Mat into it's 'perfect vessel' that it had no strength to spare to spread the taint to those around Mat. It knew that once it won and possessed Mat then it could spread as far as it wanted, but taking over Mat was proving much more difficult than anyone (including Mor) had any reason to expect. Mor even seemed surprised that Mat had lasted as long as he did.

Just my opinion. But it is a theory that makes everyone in the books right and makes one of our 'Heroic Trio' seem even better than he was.

Unless I am mistaken, all swords in this series were made from steel. Steel melts from extreme heat.

Rand's sword was a Power-wrought weapon. They don't dull or break, so why should we expect them to react to heat like steel (whichever specific form of steel that happens to be)?

Maybe the inside of Ishamael's body was hot enough to melt the sword.

How does that work? We're talking temperatures of at least 1700K here, and that's for steel, not Power-wrought metal. The guy should have been insta-ash. It forces us to assume all sorts of things to explain how he could survive that, and with no real evidence in sight. If he were that physically tough, I don't even see how a mere sword would even inconvenience him.

I could be mistaken about the inside temperature.

If my speculation about Ishamael not being fully free was right, maybe the melting related to that.

"Ba'alzamon screamed. And the Dark behind him screamed. The world exploded in fire."

That's how the chapter/scene ends before we get switched to Min's PoV. To me, it seemed that the "exploded in fire" was a description of a weave, from either Ishy or the Dark (possibly of TP), that Rand blocked (subconciously, via LTT-memories/instinct) to protect himself. We see him later use a similar weave in the attack at the Sun Palace, when he claims that the shield he weaves is strong enough to keep out anything but balefire (including air which is why he dropped it then). While Rand had been able to shield himself from the fire blast from Ishy, he was unable to protect the sword because it was in Ishy at the time, but the fire that Ishy created was hot enough to melt power-wrought steel. That was my take on it, that it was not just a reaction to stabbing Ishy instead I feel that Ishy did something that ended with the sword destroyed.

I understand where you are coming from with this, and really the only way I can explain it is by pointing out that the Forsaken are not known for freely sharing information among themselves, and you have to remember that it was Ishy/Ba'alzamon that held that DF meeting and passed on the information to Bors and the rest. Rahvin had only been free for less than a year and all 3 ta'veren disappeared for 4 months during part of that (via Portal Stone) when Mat met him. No reason to think that Ishy would have passed on the info because he didn't want to share power. Also we see in TFoH that Rahvin considers Ishy "half-mad and less than half-human". Another time it is remarked that the other Forsaken thinks that Ishy believes that "he is the Great Lord". All the more reason for Ishy not to pass on to the other Forsaken the information he knows.

Best reasoning I can come up with.