I kind of agree. The white tower isnt big enough to man the entire border if you consider the fact that the other things they do are actually important, especially since most of the time there really isnt a threat of the whole of Randland being swarmed by Shadowspawn. 

Things like that huge invasion at Tarwins Gap was a huge outlier, especially before Trolloc activity started to heat up with the approaching of Tarmon Gaidon. The borderlanders obviously have to deal with way more trollocs than the average countries, but it wasnt like they were fighting full on WWII Dday constantly. There wouldnt even be a way for the people to reproduce fast enough for the borderlands to exist if that were the case, seeing as theyve been there for more than a thousand years. 

I do agree that it is a legitimate plot hole, especially considering how much the borderlanders respect Aes Sedai, and how the white tower can spare a sister as an advisor for every royal family, and the fact they have an entire Ajah (one of the biggest), entirely dedicated to killing shadowspawn, that even after thousands of years they hadnt made it custom to have like two green sisters stationed at each main borderland city.

I mean really if they could spare Elaida just as a counsel to Morgase, I think they could spare a green sister as a warrior in Fal Dara. Plus why would you join the green Ajah if you werent willing to take a job where you spent your 200 year life blowing up evil monsters with your magic? yet we see many green sisters just sitting in the white tower all day "waiting for the last battle" as 1. they had any way of knowing if that would come in their lifetime, or 2. they couldnt do something productive with their battle skills while they were waiting.

I thought many times about how many green Aes Sedai just died of old age waiting for TG, when they could have spent centuries saving lives up north.

Im really not good with names so Im not even going to try here:

I think Rand, looks alright, though not stellar.

Im really happy with the other two Taveren. Mat is IMO the most spot on casting they made, and Perrin is pretty great too, though, no offence to the guy, I really hope they make him hit the gym to bulk up before they start filming. That guys arms are waaaayy to thin to play a blacksmith who wields a giant axe or a hammer,

No super big concerns, though I do think its weird (Im sure this has been discussed elsewhere) that the two rivers, which is like 99% descended from Manetheren, and has been essentially geographically isolated for thousands of years, is so diverse. I mean it doesnt matter what skin tone it is but I figured even if Manetheren was originally more diverse, everyone in Emons Field (other than Rand obviously) would have "evened out" skintone wise from a thousand years of marrying only themselves. I couldnt see those thousand years producing both mat and egwene at the same time.

But thats a really small issue, and its mostly a headcanon argument.

I also really think Lans Actor fits perfectly with how I envisioned him, though Im not familiar with any of his other work. Overall Im optimistic with the choices.

Im still holding out for Sam Elliot as Thom though lol.

I think with the describing, the issue is that he describes things like siadin and siadar like 1000 times, which is something that is so critical to the story that if you don't understand by book 10 what have you been doing.

But then he'll bring in some character named Soirinin in book 11 and I'm supposed to remember that she was involved in some black ajah sub plot in book 3 with no description. A very strange system.

4 hours ago, OlwenaSedai said:

@Faroresdragn

You are forgetting that the AOL is in our future. A hyper-modern world. Sure, they relied on magic, but they had cars, planes, tall buildings, you name it, things that show they understood the laws of physics. The Randland in the book is equal to the middle ages, but the age the Forsaken left when the Bore was drilled, was a futuristic one. 

Right, but like I said, they had so much at their disposal, they never thought to use gateways for more than their immediate practical use, which was travel. They had become blinded by their progress. They mentioned it many times in the books that one of the main reasons for the corruption of many of the Forsaken (specifically aginor and Lanfear) were because they had done so many things with the power they believed there was literally no more discoveries to be made, which led them to wanting to experiment with the TP. So it is very understandable they would just think "if there was something else to be done with gateways, someone would have done it already."

I forget what they were talking about specifically, but I remember a few instances where channels did things that the forsaken thought were impossible, and dismissed them out of hand when their cronies tell them about it. They were blinded by arrogance. Which should have made them wonder how much more they could have achieved in the age of legends if they had just approached things with an open mind.

Well you have to realize that they don't understand the world the way we do. Or even if we understand their world the way we think we do. 

If we assume that the sun in Randland is a star in the same way it is in real life, there's no way that they would understand it's nature. There's no way that people who wonder at the idea of a steam engine would understand the sun is actually a flaming ball of gas millions of miles away. It shows in the last book how there is a solar eclipse and everyone basically loses their shit, so they obviously dont have a super good understanding of space and the bodies in it. In order to make a gateway, they have to have a good understanding of the place they are trying to build a gateway to, and I doubt even androl could actually comprehend the millions of miles from here to the sun to make a gateway there. Even if he understood it enough to even comprehend weaponizing it, there's just no way that's plausible.

And you also mention using things like the pressure and forces in the mantle. And it should be evident by androl making his gateway to the inside if dragonmount, the one active volcano anyone knows about, that they don't understand that there is magma in the earth or any pressure to be utilized there. I mean they are in the middle ages essentially. I think androl thinking to utilize the lava at all shows he's pretty clever, you can't really fault them for not thinking of travelling to the damn sun. 

I also agree with the idea that since the forsaken has SO MANY tricks at their disposal, like compulsion, and balefire, which literally erases anything from existance, all their terangreal, not to mention semirahges 1001 ways to torture people, they they really took gateways for granted and never saw their potential. I mean if you already knew how to shoot lazers that made any knows substance (basically) get whiped from spacetime, you dont exactly need to think "hmm. What i really need is a more effective weapon." I think seeing as the Channelers of Randland had gateways for about one year after thinking it was fantasy for 3k years, the amount of innovation they DID manage to come up with for them was pretty impressive. 

616 pm and I am trying to divide my time between doing this, watching south park, and looking for a job.

I liked the perrin/faile relationship when they were actually together. I really liked that Faile expected Perrin to challenge her and treat her like an equal and not treat her like a delicate flower, even if they did seem to pound that concept into the dirt just a little bit. I felt like it was the most realistic or at lease relatable of all the romantic relationships, because it didnt involve either side falling helplessly smitten with the other at first sight and melting at the thought of them like in most of the other ones besides Mat and Tuon, which I also liked. 

I found the relationship between them (at least the parts not related to going into a parallel wolf-spirit dimension) to be comparable/relatable to my own relationship with my wife. Although I did not like the parts where Perrin and Faile were separated, specifically how god. damn. long it went on, I could see myself feeling the same way Perrin did if something were to happen to my wife, and I have often felt the same pride in a relationship where we both see eachother as competent and able to stand on our own even as we draw strength from each other. They definitely have the most healthy and functional relationship in the series in my opinion, and one that was actually based on a love for eachother as people rather than a fantasy infatuation that wouldn't last in real life.

Well, olver will always be gaidal in my head-cannon.

And is Grady's son so more likely to be gaidal than any other baby? Other than the fact that he's mentioned at the right moment?

So is it ever confirmed anywhere (like in the companion or something) that Olver is Gaidal Cain reborn? Or is that just something that's obviously true that's just a wink-wink moment between the author and the reader?

Also, on the topic of reborn heroes, what WAS the horn of Valere? Like, was it a ter'angreal from the age of legends? Was it something that aes sedai actually created for some reason, even though there was no way in the AOL, or was it some ter'angreal that was created specifically for the dragons prophecies to be fulfilled, like the eye of the world, and Calandor? Or whas it some mystical object that operated outside of the OP, like dreamwalkers or mins viewings?

I'm guessing that it's the last option, because Birgitte always talks about how she's tied to the pattern and bound to the wheel and how the wheel chooses what heroes get added to the bunch and when they are reborn to be heroes again, and I can't see even the AOL aes sedai coming up with something THAT complex. Seems like it would take something like compulsion on the wheel of time itself to accomplish. So I'm guessing it's just some naturally occurring thing made by the pattern itself.

If THATS true, should there not be like a TON more heroes? Isn't there not supposed to be any beginnings to the wheel? So you're telling me there's only been a few hundred people worthy to be heroes of the horn since the beginning of endless time? When Noal just earned a place himself? They always mention that All legends fade away as the age that gave them birth comes again. So if Mat KNOWS who birgitte silverbow and gaidal Cain and all those other guys are, then they must be from this age, or maybe the AOL if they were awesome enough for their story to survive the breaking. So I'm guessing that eventually these "immortal" heros will eventually die off and be replaced by new ones? Or will those same spirits be reborn to fill the same roles in the next 3rd age? Like has hawkwing (the exact same guy reborn) taken over the world a bunch of times? I would think that would make sense within the story's lore, but birgitte mentions that she can remember her FIRST life. There's no way her memory could be THAT vast if she was born like 100 3rd ages ago.

Sorry for the long post. This has just been bothering me for some time now. Like usually they find some object that does a cool thing and they at least offhandedly describe what it is, like "f*ck it, this must be a ter'angreal" or "the viewings didn't use the one power. No one knew how they worked." or the occasional "even the AS in the AOL didn't understand how the portal stones worked", but the horn, the most important thing short of Calandor, we get no explaination on whatsoever.

With as powerful as the Seanchan were made out to be, I don't see how anyone can stand up to the,. I think RJ and BS made them out to be too powerful.

The idea behind the seanchan being so powerful was that not only did they have weponized channelers. The damane were literally channelers turned into guns. The aes sedai not only couldn't attack outside of self defense, they didn't train to fight, and were shocked at the weaves many of the damane knew because they were so violent. And really nothing in rand land can stand up against weaponized channelers. They mentioned that about every 2 pages during the last battle, and that would be why the black tower would have outlasted the white, because they are trained to fight and actually able to attack.

In addition to that, seanchan is literally a CONTINENT sized army. They started as luthair hawkwings army, who systematically conquered and assimilated the entire continent of seanchan into their militiant culture. They're all super disciplined, based around rank, etc. their entire culture has been entered on power and conquest for the last 1000 years. And they have one unified government for their entire continent. That makes for not only a very well trained army, but a f*cking huge one. Add to that their weird animals like raken, and weaponized channelers, and yeah that's gonna be a pretty serious army. They know nothing better than they know war.

Well the male channeler thing makes sense. Remember semirage gave that male Adam to the seanchan, and they're assumed to be able to make copies of that since the seanchan have people who can replicate terangreal. So the seanchan would begin collaring male channelers, with male suldam. Someone in avihendas vision mentions that the black tower held out long after the base itself was destroyed, and after the white tower fell, assumedly because the seanchan would take a while to get used to get used to capturing male channelers.

Something that's been bothering me for the last few books as I'm finally getting through AMoL: the whole "resting a hand on their sword" thing.

They seem to talk about that as if it makes them intimidating, as if they're saying "I could draw this right now, or at least I'm thinking about it." They even say this explicitly in ToM where they mention that guy showing his kandori commander respect by resting his hand on his sword, because it showed that he considered his commander worthy enough to be a threat. And when that one borderlander king was asking rand the important question at Far Madding, he has his hand resting on his sword, and it said something to the effect that from that position he could have decapitated rand in a second.

Am I the only one who has a hard time picturing this? You typicallywould keep any sword on the opposite side of your dominant hand, so you can draw it out across your body. If your full length sword is hanging on your left side, you can't just draw it out with your left arm, or else you'd have a very hard time if it, and you'd be holding it upside down.

So if this gesture or stance or whatever you want to call it is supposed to suggest they can draw blades quickly, as the incident in far madding clearly says it does, does that mean whenever they say this, the characters are reaching their right hand across their body and holding the hilt of their sword as if they're literally about to draw? Because it seemed like the move was described as more subtle than that. How did you guys picture it?

Sorry for talking about basically the most insignificant stuff. This is what troubles me as I get towards he end of this awesome series. This really hit me when in the field of merrilor, it mentions rand resting his hand on his sword, which made me think, wait what? He has no left hand, but he's right handed so he keeps his sword on his left side, so he either started carrying his sword on his right making it impossible for him to draw (not that he needs to use it but still) or he's reaching all the way across his body to accomplish this, while looking threatening as all hell.

I finished ToM last week. And something hit me as it was all sinking in.

While Avihenda is going through her vision about the aiel (which is the best part of the book), she talks about the seanchan building a path for their special carriages that moved on their own, made of big metal pieces too big to pry up using big nails. Took me a little while, but she was obviously talking about a railroad. A railroad across the waste. And I thought that was pretty cool, since that guy in camelyn in modern times was just on the breakthrough of steam engine tech. This would be a natural step forward in any world...

...except one with magic. And raken. Please explain to me how a steam train provides ANY useful service in a world where Traveling exists? Especially since the seanchan are the conquerors of this world, and have no qualms using channelers like cattle? Even if they had to do it one crate at a time, (or one person at a time) there's no way that train travel wouldn't add WEEKS to transporting people and goods when traveling is available. Building a railroad across the waste would be a complete waste of time and energy and resources.

Was it just me that thought that? I'm not really sure why I typed that all out. Guess I just needed to vent about it. Is there some benefit to having trains when you already can teleport from place to place for free? Cause if there is I don't see it.

 

I always took it as a cross between the Aiel "sister" bonding and the AS warder bonding.

I did as well, especially since right around this time Avi and Elayne and the wise ones bond as sisters.

 

I dont think it was the sister bonding, since Elayne mentions at least once that she cant feel Avihenda nearly as well as she can feel rand. She cant feel her emotions in as detailed a way as she can rand, and I dont think she can tell her location either. Rand and his girls seem to have something much closer to the warder bond since they describe it the same way nynayve, suian, etc describe the bonds with their warders.

 the only time someone has been able to create a Warder bond between two people that aren't themselves.

 

Well Myrelle only has warders with bonds that she didnt create herself. She passed Lans bond to nynayve with little ceremony. that part of it didnt seem that weird to me.

You know how Min can feel Rand inside her head?

Yeah, that space doesn't exist in her mind. Because if it did, the adam should work to allow a woman who can't be trained to feel a damane, without allowing her the ability to do other stuff like punish or control the damane's Channeling.

The bond with an adam isnt exactly the same as the warder bond, since it makes the damane feel things, and it apparently kills any man who is subjected to it, or at least makes them go mad. They describe it more as forcing the woman into a circle, and seizing control, which is something that can explicitly only be done when everyone involved can channel. so its different.

ALSO, 50% of everyone involved in warder bonds cant channel (excluding the occasional aes sedai/ashaman combo). And it always talks about how warders can feel their aes sedai, whether to tell if their in danger (feeling their emotions) or feeling their pain directly, along with orientation. And we get explicit proof of this from both Birgitte and Gareth bryne, who describe how they as non-channelers can feel elayne/suians emotions and what not. 

SO, the warder bond definitely would allow a non-channeler to feel the emotions of their bonded partner, but since the adam is akin to linking in a circle, it would make sense for that not to work with non-channeling women.

The taint flaw was revealed in book 8 after he almost destroyed everything. The woman element was revealed in 9.

 

AHHHH. That explains it completely. My issue was i KNEW she didnt mention the women element in 8 when she talked about the taint. I must have just missed the second separate time she talked about calendor. thanks. 

@faroresdragn,

Forget about callandor,did you finish veins of gold?

You mean the last chapter of TGS? yeah, what about it?

haha you dont like rand? I honestly started liking him around the end of book two, but hes more of a character you have to grow towards. great character development over the course of the entire series. 

I almost started typing the answer until I remembered about your spoiler request. All I can say is that your question will be answered by the books. The characters haven't figured it out just yet either. Calandor is unique and the flaw isn't necessarily a flaw.

Well I figured it was unique, and I feel like I can postulate what it means, but that's not my question.

At this point in TGS Rand says multiple times while conversing with himself/Lewis therin that he knows Calandor requires him to be in a circle with two women and be subject to their will. My question is, how did rand get this information, because I swear it's the first I've ever heard about it.

I distinctly remember cadsuane telling rand that the reason Calandor failed him against the seanchan was that it was flawed with regard to the taint, and that it exposed him to the taint in the same increased factor that it exposed him to siadin, which is why he couldn't control it. did cadsuane really mention that thing about being in a circle with two women? Or did he hear about that from someone else like one of the forsaken?

Perrin is one of my favorite characters too. If you like him now, just wait till you read the next two books, particularly number 4.

LAN is great as well, and I also love Rand and avihenda, who youbhave yet to meet. Hope you enjoy it here.

So I'm reading the last few pages of TGS, and I can't get over how rand keeps saying that Calandor can't be used properly without him being at the will of a woman or something like that. Saying that the sword is "just another box". But where the hell did that come from? I remember Cadsuane telling him that the sword was flawed, because it didn't put any barrier between the user and the taint on siadin, whereas the choedan Karl would shield rand from touching the taint when he used it. I don't EVER remember anyone saying ANYTHING in relation to Calandor and a woman. Not to mention rand uses Calandor several times with no women involved, and the only flaw seemed to be involving the taint, which is gone now.

So how does the sword have a flaw now that siadin is cleansed, and who told rand about this random, woman-based flaw? And is it possible to answer those questions without spoiling anything in TOM or AMOL?

So I'm reading the last few pages of TGS, and I can't get over how rand keeps saying that Calandor can't be used properly without him being at the will of a woman or something like that. Saying that the sword is "just another box". But where the hell did that come from? I remember Cadsuane telling him that the sword was flawed, because it didn't put any barrier between the user and the taint on siadin, whereas the choedan Karl would shield rand from touching the taint when he used it. I don't EVER remember anyone saying ANYTHING in relation to Calandor and a woman. Not to mention rand uses Calandor several times with no women involved, and the only flaw seemed to be involving the taint, which is gone now.

So how does the sword have a flaw now that siadin is cleansed, and who told rand about this random, woman-based flaw? And is it possible to answer those questions without spoiling anything in TOM or AMOL?

Welcome! Hopefully Ill have a kid on the way in a year or two, and I hope Im lucky enough to have one thats open to reading my favorite books. I already have thought out lists of what books I can read to them at what age to make sure theyre exposed to the good stuff before they get their first iphone 25 or whatever.

But enough about me. Im interested to hear your favorite character as well. Hopefully it's Bela just like everyone else. 

Was it anyone else's headcannon that the official name of the True Power was siadoom? I couldn't have been the only one right?

Can someone give examples of the wot references in dragon age? I played the first dragon age, but it was before I read eye of the world so obviously those references slipped by me. But like three people said there were a bunch of them so I'm really interested now to hear what they were.

Im pretty sure shes a little too old for you buddy.

*read as "shade of my heart"*

I dont know why I found this so amusing.