...While I am still carrying a 24 year grudge with her, Melanie Rawn is a great example of 80s/90s female gaze pioneering new aspects of the fantasy world.  Her Dragon Prince/Dragon Star series are mostly equal, but strong females exist, thrive, and often rule in the stories.  And her Exiles series was based in a matriarchial society.  However, while book 1 was well celebrated, book 2 suffered from the fact she hasn't finished the series and probably never will.

But, if you like to torture yourself, give that a try.  ?

On 9/5/2020 at 7:10 AM, Kalessin said:

 

I've just consulted my copy of "The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time", page 79, which is the only place where she is mentioned, and it merely gives her three names - Ilyena Moerelle Dalisar - so the conclusion I came to, was that she had earned her third name the way her husband, Lews Therin Telamon, earned his - through hard work and honourable service.

 

I'm more interested in why she chose to add Lews Therin's name to her own. The fragments of Age of Legend life we see, chiefly through Rand's eyes, do not give the impression that women had to take their husband's last name. Did anyone ask Robert Jordan that?

Another good question!  So far we've asked:

1. Can Ilyena channel?

2. Why was she born with 3 names?

• Are names handed down throughout generations?
• How long do those names last?
• Can a name be revoked?

3. Do only women take last names when marrying?  Or is it based on who has the most clout?

Anyone could earn a third name, as long as it was through great means.  Did Harriet ever address this?  Or Brandon at a Q&A or AMA?

But cloudberries are a real berry, here, in our time. (our slice of the Wheel, if you will)

On 2/23/2020 at 10:44 PM, Sabio said:

You missed the point with Gawyn.  His issue was it wasn't fair a simple sheep herder should be the Dragon Reborn.   With the power to raise or take down kings and such.  He thought it was something a prince or noble person should be doing not some commoner.  He was a prince, and like most the nobles you see in the series he has the belief that somehow that makes him better then the commoners.  Why is it hard to understand someone such as a noble might resent some sheep farmer suddenly being raised above them?

You know, that's a really good point.  I didn't consider that Gawyn was classist.  However, I do think he was able to examine that ignoble thought, especially right before he returned to Egwene.  I think a lot of this was that they didn't know what to do with the romance after a while.  The guy wallowed in a village for soooo many books.

It was addressed in the books.  The backside of the gateway looks misty, and when asked about what might happen if a person were to try and step through the gateway from behind Moggy was a bit distressed by the idea.

Pretty much your last sentence answers it.  If you can't get the answer that way, it was the True Power doing evil True Power things.

I'm on the rape side.  No matter what, this was coercion in the beginning.  Flip the genders around, and it's just as bad.  As said above, there are many unhealthy power dynamics in the books.  Morgase gave us some insights into someone who had been forced upon many times by multiple partners.

4 hours ago, jibJAB said:

Interesting, so would that mean that if you can be born with three names, you could inherit status?

Hey, that's a good question too! 

I went looking in the forums, and the search bar is not cooperating, so I will ask it here.  Could Ilyena channel?  Was it ever written in RJ's notes?  I cannot find anything for or against, but I was really curious about that.

On 10/12/2019 at 6:20 PM, Immortalrh said:

So, Rand gets sick just grabbing up the bags of books for Min a little after the mention of the other one, in the prelude to WH. 

Rand got sick because he was holding the One Power to form the portal for Traveling.  He pretended it was the books so not to worry Min who hadn't bonded him yet.

JJLXL, yes, while they can't be seen by others, I thought it'd be a better representation for TV/Film.  Thanks for pointing that out, I wasn't clear enough.

I hope they keep Min too, I really liked her.

3 hours ago, Nym said:

 

GREAT looking actress, pretty much what I could have hoped for.  I am furious, furious, that they put such a sad misspelling in the tweet!  It's "shone" not "shown"!!!!!

@imlad I agree; the Aiel should probably be a bit tall.  It was a defining factor for the entire nation of people.  I think the way you said it made a lot of sense and can agree. :)

I am awfully tired of people saying this person can't play X character for physical characteristics though! :)

1. Hopper is now a different species.  Yes he died in reality and the Wolf Dream.  Now his soul is inhabiting another creature.  Maybe a particularly noble bunny.

2. Rand actually planned that stuff to happen to the Black Tower as a red herring.

3. The TV series actors do NOT need to be the same height as their book counterparts. (Yeah.  I said it.  Tired of seeing that complaint.)

8 hours ago, Berta2 said:

On 6/12/2019 at 2:18 PM, Maedelin said:

Chernobyl is a real life event.  WoT is not, no matter how much we want to believe in the Wheel.

So, according to you, Robert Jordan was a racist, WOT is a racist series of books, because 95% of the characters are white?

And do not forget, 99.9% of the characters are heterosexual! This is so disgusting! 

My advice, do not read such bigot books at all!

...I...wait.  What?  I didn't say that.

My point is that Chernobyl is a real life event, and to change ethnicities of the people within would be an odd choice.  The Wheel of Time is a fictional series, and it's strange to try and put apples and oranges in comparison.

Are you going to be okay?  It seems to me like you're flying off some kind of handle.

Chernobyl is a real life event.  WoT is not, no matter how much we want to believe in the Wheel.

22 hours ago, DemandredFO said:

@MaedelinI don't know what that means except with all the punctuation you mean to be insulting so 

I wasn't trying to insult you.  I was quoting the line from The Big Lebowski.  It was meant as a joke and it wasn't taken that way.  I'm very sorry.

On 6/4/2019 at 4:42 PM, DemandredFO said:

You could probably have better known people for the recurring roles who don't appear that much to draw viewers. Also, if they're using the wolf brother stuff then you should have a better known to play Elyas to help the audience understand. Not saying Jeff Bridges but a name would help people suspend disbelief far enough for the wolfbrother stuff

Forgive me.  No one has said it yet:

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man...

xD

If anyone is looking for a metaphor, the best comparison is that Rand is going through the stages of grief.  He fluctuates through them throughout the books until he accepts that his death is inevitable. 

Tall with light skin and hair can be a Tarian, an Illianer, an Andoran, a Gheledan, or from Amador.  

IMO it's good not to beat a horse to death.  I would recommend using the fez only with mustaches, or the veil and mustaches.

On 5/2/2019 at 10:13 AM, solarz said:

 

I imagine that if Jordan left notes about something explicitly happening, it wasn't meant to be just an oblique, off-screen, reference.

 

Perrin was criminally underused in the LB. He fielded the largest army at Merrilor, yet had no part in the subsequent decisions and battles? He would have been a far better field leader than a heavily pregnant Elayne.

I completely agree with you regarding Perrin's role.  I felt that his entire arc was wasted with a torturous (mostly for the reader) time in Malden, and retreading the same tropes ad nauseum.  Perhaps his ascendancy to the throne of Saldaea when Lord and Lady Bashere bit the dust was to be a larger part of the Last Battle, but I have a feeling the same could be said about Moiraine, the discussion and signing of the Dragon's Peace, and yes, the Last Battle too.

However, I'm complaining about the hamburger I was served.  I am gonna eat it...

...but I'll be dreaming of the prime rib that could have been.

Perrin becomes a king when the Lords and Lady Bashere kick it in the final hours of the Last Battle.  It's oblique and no one really talks about it, but its's there.

12 hours ago, DemandredFO said:

Yes but if the wheel never changes and can never change, as I believe RJ or someone said, why would it need a backup plan?

That's a good question Demandred.  I think of it as: The Dragon has sided with tDO before, it was mentioned that it had happened in the past.  I believe it was Moridin that said that.  Since it has happened, the Wheel has had to course correct when it does.  Since that's the case, there are backups to make certain the Wheel always turns, even if it has to have a hiccup now and again.

This one might be a bit dark, but was not done with malice.  I was reflecting over my own trials with these very thoughts and wondered about how some people suffer from chronic depression...and then my mind went nutso with this thought:

12. Those who suffer from depression, anxiety, and the like, along with their increased suicide rate is because their souls were reborn in this a without a body that can access the Power.  They then act as if they were severed, and so to them, life seems to have far less meaning.  Their souls were just born at the wrong time.

I took from this the ideas about being gentled/stilled and how when Aran'gar/Osan'gar were put into those bodies.  As Osan'gar ruminated over their changes (Aran'gar was furious at that time if you recall) in these new bodies he specified that only certain vessels would do.  I took to interpret that as they needed bodies that could allow them to channel though as Lanfear said in AMoL that channeling is a thing of the soul.  

For whatever reason, thinking of my own diagnosis of depression, this helped me to feel better.

44 minutes ago, tkarrde421 said:

 

It's that very "innocence" that I'm worried might sink the show.  People who are trying to compare this to Game of Thrones are seriously delusional.  Many people joined the GoT band wagon only because of the sex and brutal violence.  I'm not in any way demeaning the actual content of the show (and books), but it's a different audience that will appreciate the almost-Romantic vision of Jordan's pre-industrialized world.  I think many of those people were tricked into liking a fantasy series (perhaps for the first time).  The brilliance of WoT lies in foregoing cheap "jump scares" and "overly mature themes" in favor of creating a living, breathing alt-reality with amazing new rules ... and then proceeds to show us how heroes/villains can cleverly break (or bend) those rules.  For this reason, I feel it's more Harry Potter than GoT.  I'm hoping that the show succeeds without sinking to artificially-darkening the series.

Well said, tkarrde. :)  We'll have to hope that the series will be able to balance all the requirements that fans want, and newcomers will expect.

I am tired of cheap titillations.  I was never too fond of the GoT series, though I did read the books and watch a few of the seasons.  I have never found it as deep or compelling as WoT did.  The world building, the explanations, and the perspective are all so very different.