I´m not agree for a shorter series, but there is some parts that maybe could be a little diferent, like the Elayne/Nynaeve´s travel across Ghealdam (there are many readers that complains for that part, not only in this forum). For example, maybe they two could be the ones who fight against masema or the whitecloaks instead Perrin (he was enought with Shaido´s army, i think)

Other change could be do not kill to Asmodean so soon. I really liked that forced alliance between he and Rand, or also confront Mat with one of the forsaken in a more directly way (Mat never fight against none of them!  is there any other main character that never fight whit at least one? Even Min almost killed Moghedien in AMoL)

I know that this is a little out of the topic, but i wanted to share my opinion.

 

I'd be down with all of that, but short of an adaption or some kind of fan rewrite, I don't see most of it happening.

As for just cutting unneeded content, I could definitely get behind that too, but the problem is that while almost everyone agrees that the series is bloated, nobody can agree on which subplots and side characters should and shouldn't be cut. You'd need a customizable version where you can tick off different subplots to be minimized depending on your preference.

Haha. That would have pissed off more people than the Sopranos ending.

Second answer: change the spelling of Tanchico to Tanchino. I've been spelling it that way and saying it that way in my head for 15 years, only to find out I was getting it wrong when I was reading the wiki, and even then I had to confirm it by checking in my copies of the books. No idea how I mis-read that single word for 15 years.

I think we should get back on topic now, cheers. 

Yeahhhhhh... I'm down with that.

And they are supposed to be more or less good-looking,according to the encyclopedia (described as "coldly handsome").

 

Maybe in terms of facial features, but anyone attracted to something with slug-like skin, blank eye sockets and an emanating aura of fear needs some therapy :p

*points to previous answer*

 

Which one? You mean Shaidar Haran? It's pretty explicitly stated that he's an avatar for the dark one to physically explore the world, he's not a myrdraal at all, he just took on a myrdraal form.

How it is creepy?)

 

Because they're possibly the freakiest looking creatures in a world full of freaky looking creatures and live to do nothing but kill, rape and torture? If you think that's "hot" then I never want to meet you in a dark alley.

I didn't like How Aviendha became such a minor character in books 6-11. She was pretty much just one of Elayne's sidekicks. That's one thing that definitely got better in the last 3 books, even though her appearances are limited in tGS and ToM, she felt like a main character again to me. She was one of my favorite characters in tSR and tFoH and her relationship with Rand in those two books was one of my favorite plotlines.

Aviendha has the perfect personality for a sidekick, imo - that is, none. She's defined entirely by her cultural identity, her role as an ex-maiden/Wise One (Apprentice) and being Rand's lover. I'm fully convinced she exists only because RJ wanted Rand to have an Aiel lover to cement his connection to his genetic background and to round out the "three women" as a mythological reference (and I'm convinced that "that" only exists because he couldn't decide on what type of person Rand's lover should be, so he just went with his 3 best choices to make Arthurian allusions).

 

 

More myrddraal.Less Forsaken.

 

Why Myrdraal? They're just mass produced, homebrand Ringwraiths.

Cause I have hots for them, and they needed more development.Won't believe they are literally that identical,when different ones are specifically mentioned as having different personalities.

 

Where?

Oh, and creepy :|

More myrddraal.Less Forsaken.

Why Myrdraal? They're just mass produced, homebrand Ringwraiths.

Though speaking of Shadowspawn, I always wanted to know what the "things which live in the high passes" were, the ones which even the Worms were afraid of. In fact, more of the Blight in general would have been cool. There's this big buildup to it over the first book and then we barely see it again for the rest of the series.

Kill Rand instead of Egwene.

Call it even at Nynaeve?

I definitely agree that killing Egwene was a bad move. I know there's a need for POV characters to die during the climax to create tension and what not, but Egwene was one of the few characters who really worked for her development, as well as playing a huge role in the transition into the 4th age vis a vis restructuring the organization of channelers, and killing her off feels like it cheapens and weakens a lot of that. I have a really hard time imagining Cadsuane revamping the White Tower into what it needs to be the way Egwene would have continued to do so if she had survived, Cadsuane is a lot of things, but she's not a revolutionary. I get that there's a certain mythic appeal in Egwene's rapid rise to power followed by dying to take down a major bad guy, the idea that she'll go down through history etc etc. but I still think the ending would have been more satisfying with her alive, someone running the Aes Sedai side of things who isn't mired down in the old mindset. I also think having Logain take down Taim would have been a much more satisfying closure to the whole Black Tower plotline.

I disagree. Enjoyment will be different for different people (although I've yet to meet anyone who can tell me with a straight face that they enjoyed the whole Circus subplot, or the various others like it), but relevance and meaning aren't arbitrary. If I come home and sit down to tell my partner a story about how I was in a car crash and nearly died that day and then go off on a 20 minute tangent describing in vivid detail the shops lining the street on which the crash took place and what random thoughts were going through my head during the 5 minutes leading up to the crash as I drove down the road, then wrap it up with a five minute description of the crash itself, the injuries I suffered and how I crawled out of the car just before it exploded into a fireball, hollywood style, then that 20 minute tangent was neither meaningful nor relevant to the story I started telling. The new sign the Pharmacy put up or the fact that I was thinking about how much of an asshole my boss was that day and weighing up whether I wanted to stop off at Subway or eat at home before it happened have absolutely nothing to do with the crash itself, the event I originally sat down to describe, and dropping 20 minutes of random conversation about them in the middle of a dramatic tale serves only to delay the story which I originally sat down to tell and frustrate the listener.

Even if the crash had happened because I swerved to avoid the crew putting the new Pharmacy sign up, or because I was distracted weighing up my dinner options, there's no need for a vivid description of the exact color, layout and font of the sign, or for a play by play of my mental agonizing over why my boss is a douche and whether the leftovers in the fridge are still fresh. Maybe there's someone out there who enjoys the sound of my voice enough to listen to me no matter what I'm droning on about, but that doesn't change the fact that those details have no real connection to the story I sat down to tell, and that the vast majority of people would eventually tell me to shut up and get to the interesting part.

Cut out so much of the pointless meandering descriptions of stuff that isn't relevant to the greater story.

The example that comes straight to mind because I'm doing a reread atm is the Nynaeve/Elayne plotline in FOH. Together their POV's make up 33% of the book, and most of that content is boring descriptions of travelling, random scenery and villages and inns, their mode of travelling, what they're wearing, meaningless side characters, constant puerile teenage drama/catfights/hypocritical whining between Nynaeve/Elayne/Birgitte, or Nynaeve/Elayne talking down to everyone around them and treating them horribly while depending on those people to survive.

The core story - Nyn/Elayne travel from Tanchino to Salidar with Thom and Juilin, interact with Galad and Masema (and get a bunch of people killed with Nyn's stupidity) showdown with Moghedian a few times, and Birgitte is brought into the real world - all could have been compressed into half as many chapters with no loss of anything important, cutting out a lot of the droning descriptions of things that don't matter (as well as a lot of awful behavior that makes the characters thoroughly unlikable and unrelatable, the whole chain of events with the Circus comes to mind here), and creating room for content that would have been genuinely interesting.

Imagine if he'd cut the Nyn/Elayne storyline in half by removing the meaningless filler content and devoted that time to things like Rand's interaction with Asmodean (some of the most interesting interaction in the series, and a huge opportunity to provide the reader with more insight into the nature of Saidin and male channeling training, the Forsaken, the AoL and more, all completely wasted), or his lessons with Moiraine on politics and leadership, or his interactions with the Aiel factions, or more on Egwene/Aviendha's training with the Wise Ones (I'd love some insight into how the Wise Ones teach channelling compared to the Aes Sedai, how their philosophy/perspective/knowledge of the One Power differs), or Mat's new memories and insight into military matters, or more Forsaken POV. There are a dozen things more interesting than Nynaeve and Elayne's snide catfighting at a travelling Circus, yet we're stuck with droning descriptions of Nynaeve's hypocritical arrogance, or why she's fighting with Elayne on any particular day, or what dress she's wearing, or who among the circus troupe we'll never see again is doing what with who, and on and on and on.

Anyway, you get the picture. That's just the example which comes to mind because I'm reading FOH atm, but over the whole series (especially, as is commonly noted, from book 7 onwards, where it just gets worse), there's so much cool stuff that could have been included if RJ had dedicated less time to boring and pointless descriptions of things which don't matter and side characters/sub plots which don't play out into anything meaningful and more time to moving the core story on at a decent pace, describing events which are actually interesting and exploring the aspects of the world which make it so engaging.

Do we know who the male channeler(s) working for the shadow at the siege of Maradon in ToM were? One of the Forsaken, or are they recruiting new channelers to fight for them?

Again, the point is that Perrin stood up for these women prisoners then went around and delivered 200+ women channelers to a life of slavery and inhumane treatment (for those women unbound by the oath rod, that is a century or three of damane life!).

Wait, are you referring to the Shaido Wise Ones? After what they've done (even putting Perrin's rage over Faile aside), it's hardly more than they deserve.

i dare anyone to try to change them and end up with the same story as it stands right now.

I'm not sure about changing them and keeping the same story, but I'm fairly sure you could change them and get a better one :p

I'm curious, is there anyone who actually seriously enjoys Perrin as a character? Forget all the analysis and literary commentary, does anyone actually turn the page when reading WOT and go 'awesome, a Perrin chapter!'?

I'm gonna agree with Elan, when Perrin went back to TR I expected great things, the Rebirth of Manetheren, etc, instead we got a lot of bitching about how people treat him and then a long and pointless (to the plot) chase after Faile. Perrin is just a filler character who doesn't do a whole lot of anything, and it shows in the disdain people have for him.

Has there been any evidence for the Moridin theory other than the fact that the sickness popped up after Rand fought Sammael?

Seems like the most likely option, but I guess we'll have to wait for AMOL to find out.

How can there be a One Power when there are apparently more than one? (I'm referring to the True Power here). I can't say why, but this has been nagging at me lately.

it's the 'one power' that drives creation. The true power stems from a source outside of creation (aka The Dark One).

Or it's just a name.

Isn't it stated somewhere that they killed her accidently by draining her ability to channel too fast?

Sadly people don't go from hating and fearing a certain group to accepting them overnight, the legitimacy of that hate and fear is pretty irrelevant. Having everybody take his word that Saidin is clean would be more than a tad unrealistic.

 

And this is what I meant by those who resent the female-dominated institutions of political power written about in the Wheel of Time. People who will go to any lengths to deny that the White Tower really has been, and will continue to be after the Dragon's death, the greatest political power in the Westlands, who undermine their legitimacy as such a political authority when it can no longer really be denied, and who heap upon Egwene the exact same crimes of which they accuse the Aes Sedai.

I don't think people resent Aes Sedai because they're female. They resent them because they're arrogant, power hungry, manipulative, deceitful, absurdly entitled and basically treat the rest of the world like it should get on the ground, lick their feet and be grateful that they're allowed to.

All that 'no other groups of channelers are allowed?' 'We own everything to do with the one power automatically,' 'go against rulers if they don't put their own will second to that of Aes Sedai,' the obsession with manipulation and control, the certainty that they always no best, no matter what the situation, the way they bully everyone around them, and lose their temper at anyone who doesn't treat them as the next best thing to a goddess?

You gotta admit, the Aes Sedai don't exactly treat the rest of the world's population very well. The only reason they get away with it is because they're so much more powerful than everyone else.

That tangent aside, I actually like Egwene as a character. She's a bit bland, but much nicer than most of the female channelers in WOT.