On 6/24/2022 at 11:47 PM, Gypsum said:

Even with wars, I can't think of anywhere in our world which has been in total stasis for a few thousand years. Arguably, wars drive tech development.

I can think of several locations which remained in the Stone Age right up until the Western world crashed in on them. Starting in the Kalahari Desert - remember The Gods Must Be Crazy?

Then going around the world to Australia, New Guinea, Siberia, the Americas North and South. And that is not forgetting that the Americas had some quite prolonged periods of intensive urbanization prior to contact - they were just not evenly spread. So the Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, Cherokee, had cities, while a few hundreds miles away, people were still living in small villages.

And until they were outcompeted, Homo Neandertalensis were in technological stasis for up to several hundred thousand years. So it's not impossible. Just unlikely when you have large populations of specialized workers, a high volume of trade, and a spirit of intense competition. Plus writing, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel all the time.

The hardened cynic in me wants to inform you that the mysterious Aiel woman aka Nakomi, was none other than James T. Kirk - in disguise of course. The even more hardened cynic at the very core of my being disagrees and claims it is none other than James Bond, very, very heavily disguised ...

No, speaking facetiously, it's neither James T. Kirk nor James Bond.

I would think it's probably one of the Jenn Aiel, with her Channeling ability shielded, but in some way sent out of the time flow for a time - 3000 years or so - so she can pass some vital information on to a very, very distant relation, who needs that information at that moment. (A Jenn Aiel version of the Heroes of the Horn, perhaps?)

We shouldn't forget the devastating impact the Trolloc Wars had on the re-establishment of society in the millenium following the Breaking. There was this established, quarrelsome but developing society, and suddenly they are face with three hundred years of devastation. Similar - but shorter wars - in Europe had the effect of slowing down certain societies, the Thirty Years War in the Holy Roman Empire (that Voltaire famously pointed out, was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire) which took a while to recover from, and that was with suitable trade partners in Europe who didn't suffer a similar devastation.

As far as the survival of Second Age technology goes, the Breaking itself would've had a devastating effect. If as one US First Lady was fond of saying, it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a civilization to maintain a technological level. As well as that, a certain level of population. You need a certain number of motor mechanics to make a motor industry viable; you need a certain number of aircraft mechanics to make an aircraft industry viable. And to get those, you need a certain number of skilled craftsmen to be able to turn out the cars and aircraft to a satisfactory standard.

If at any point, you lose those technicians, and you lose the information, and you have no way to recover that information, you've lost that technology. I estimate the world's population at the end of the Second Age plunged by at least fifty per cent, if not more. They would not have been able to fix jo-cars let alone sho-wings, even if such things were not buried under the rubble of the cities.

As far as romance goes, read Harriet's intro to Warrior of the Altai'i on RJ's great strengths as a romance novelist, which involved writing a draft of a love scene that included a duck. I went and re-read entire Wheel of Time after reading Warrior of the Altai'i for the first time a couple of years ago, but tragically you will find no ducks intruding on anything even approximating to a love scene in WOT, thus they cannot be termed RJ Love Scenes. Thus there is no romance in WOT, from beginning to end. Sorry to disappoint you, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. 🙂

3 hours ago, Dagon Thyne said:

The Dark One doesn't want to destroy the world he's just lonely.  Rand becomes his roomate, which sets up Rafe's next series, a sitcom.  

Rand becomes his roo-mate, that is, he transforms, courtesy of the One Power, into a giant carnivorous kangaroo, and the sitcom is known as Rand the Randy Roo. And when he calms down, and dives deep into the River Erinin during the early stages of a dry spell, he becomes Rand the Goo-Roo.

Keeping with the theme of heraldic animals becoming scare or even (gasp!!!) extinct; the Seven Seals have been replaced by Seven (rather irate) Walruses, none of which is exactly pleased at being told they are to be broken at the Last Battle. Even worse, they flat-out refuse to perform, even for oysters, much less for mere fish!!!

Lews Therin did his level best, but having the Seven Walruses go on strike is far too, too much, even for him. He threatened to bring in the Seven Sealions, but they refused to even consider it, so he had to go with the bad-tempered Walruses.

That's what I thought as well.

We got introduced to some of the major characters' current status, saw what they were doing, and saw their arcs for the next few books get established. Then we visited one Rand al'Thor in the palace at Caemlyn, and met Mazrim Taim for the first time.

That's why the prologue is  as long as it is, though not as long as some others.

I have suggested Hilda The Hippo from Meet The Feebles before:

https://www.horor-web.cz/storage/201208/n201208132222_meet-the-feebles-4.jpg

as she is so very badass when she is angry; though considering in Lanfear we have the ultimate social climber, perhaps Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances would be better?

https://cdn.quotesgram.com/small/75/43/1596795280-0643b8b4192706b640eb9cfff22034ca.jpg

Actually, now I go back and look at The Eye of the World, the Waterclosets oops the Whitecloaks record 9 WC deaths from the wolves' attempts to drive them away.

Quote

"Nine men dead, my Lord Captain, and twenty-three injured, seven seriously. All can ride, though. Thirty horses had to be put down. They were hamstrung!" [Byar] emphasized that in his emotionless voice, as if what had happened to the horses were worse than the deaths and injuries to men.

So the wolves had gotten physical in their desperation.

I hadn't really thought of it, but I find, now I've put some thought to it, that I'd pictured them somewhat like the Black Mountain Tower in Canberra. Australia:

https://the-riotact.com/canberra-black-mountain-tower-birthday-celebrations-this-weekend/203135

https://www.dronestagr.am/telstra-tower-canberra-australia/

and the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand:

http://5-five-5.blogspot.com/2015/04/sky-tower-auckland-new-zealand.html?spref=pi

 combined with the descriptions of the towers elsewhere, such as the defense towers in Shienar and Kandor. FWVVLIW ?

What is worse, a Portal Stone malfunction links Randland to the world of the Children of the Perverse (Richard Calder) and history suffers a few ... hiccups along the way, with the Trollop Wars destroying Manetheren and the Compact of the Ten Nations. Lilim, accompanied by their Elohim companions, sweep south from the Blight in an all-out quest for the ultimate in accessories and lingerie, burning villages and massacring villagers en masse when they can't find the latest Versace or Cartier or Gucci or whatever ... some time later, the Lilim and the Elohim return, as Malignos and other suchlike ...

On 1/28/2022 at 7:37 AM, EmreY said:

I think Lanfear is closer to Inanna than to Mary.  And her consort was Dumuzid, who was a shepherd. ?

 

 

I hadn't thought of it in that way. It does make sense, though as Ninsinanna, she was the Morning and Evening Star (Venus), which Rand is (as Lord of the Morning) in WOT. And the wolves name Lanfear Moonhunter ...

(This is going to sound somewhat Marian, for those of the Catholic religious persuasion.) But Atha'an Miere means Sea People, and Do Miere Avron means Watchers over the Waves. Lanfear's name initially is Mierin, so ... Seagirl? Seawoman? Mermaid?

Her assumed name in the Hunt for the Horn and until she unveils herself to Rand, is Selene, which by some strange coincidence, happens to be derived from the name for the ancient Greek Moon Goddess.

The name she chose for herself is Lanfear, Daughter of the Night in the Old Tongue. And her colours are all moon-related. Until she is demoted by Moridin, all her names have to do with either the sea or the moon. It's as if she was an anti-Mary Queen of Heaven, Star of the Sea.

I'm of the opinion it may have been one or more Gray Men, sizing up which of three is the preferred target.

I never had any particular problems with the idea of polygamy - marriage to more than one person; a lot of cultures have it, and if it is usually one male to more than one female, there are several reasons for that, among them the unhappy fact that childbirth is not a particularly safe experience, and for the higher-ranking males in a given community, an extra wife is a back-up for the first wife in case she dies during childbirth.

So ignoring that - and the fact that at least one Wise One seems to have practiced serial polygamy, burying two or three husbands when they've conked out of old age ... I think RJ was laying with various tropes in this. You have the Queen, the symbol of sexual fascination to males, and an inevitable source of lurid tales: ask Mary Queen of Scots, or Semiramis, or Cleopatra - unless you're The Good Queen Bess, who some consider to this day to have been a boy in drag ... You have the Seer, pretty much a no-go for males, except for the horrible tales about the Witches in Western Europe not so long ago. Then you have the Amazon, the female warrior, again, a symbol of sexual fascination for many males. Two of them jump him - the Seer, so much for the Seer's sexual abstention and the Amazon, again, so much for the Amazon's disdain for the male ... only one bothers to ask him, Daughter-Heir Elayne, and even then she's in a frenzy to get it on.

Rating them? Elayne's not really a person until later on, more of hauteur-in-training, so I tend not to rate her highly. I've always liked Min, because she's approachable, and it's only the serious consequences of her talent that keep her quiet. Aviendha would be a bully if she wasn't so concerned about ji'e'toh, so I was a little disappointed when they made the beast-with-two-backs; it's her acceptance of her duty as an apprentice Wise One that makes her tolerable in my mind.

Actually, the shortage of heraldic animals has reached - dare I say it - epic proportions, due to an unfortunate accident with some Questioners - err, CIA staffers. Apparently a CIA staffer was underperforming, overpaid, and overweight, so his station manager and the rest of his station took him to Yosemite and threw him to the wolves. Who promptly all died of massive cholesterol poisoning, (a la the last inhabitant of the planet Poghril) much to the outrage of the Yosemite Park rangers. Even worse than that, this massive cholesterol poisoning, proved to be both quantum entangled and transmissible, so that every last wolf on the planet died of massive cholesterol poisoning.

Amazon have decided that Perrin Aybara is to be King of the Chihuahuas instead. They're easier to manage, and far, far cheaper to feed.

(The Questioner - err CIA station manager in question? Well, his station staff couldn't and wouldn't throw him to the Yosemite Park rangers, because whatever the dietary prescriptions are for Park Rangers, CIA station managers are definitely not permitted on their menu. So his staffers threw him under a bus - which promptly died of massive cholesterol poisoning. So far this cholesterol poisoning of the bus hasn't proved either quantum entangled or transmissible, so buses for the moment are safe from summary extinction. For the moment. )

22 hours ago, Guire said:

Plutonium Pelicans would just be Seanchan Corlm right? Lan is a enemy plant ?

  However the New Orleans Pelicans basketball team being the result of global nuclear warfare does explain some things.

Well, for a time there they thought they would have to rely on Helium Herons, but Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium on the planet Barsoom (known to us as Mars) put her foot down (and thus raised her voice a couple of octaves) protested quite strongly, saying that Helium Herons were sacred to the citizens of Helium, and thus they could not be used to represent a mere Earth human. ? Tragic, really.

Owing to an unexpected dearth, heraldic animals are in short supply, so the series has had to improvise.

We see this with Elayne's counter-attack in Tanchico, where she is heard shouting, "Forward the Pink Panthers!" The Pink Panthers of Andor turn up later, replacing the White Lions of Andor ....

Meanwhile, maritime pollution has cut drastically into the numbers of Golden Cranes, so Lan will ride into battle as the Uncrowned King of Malkier, flying the Plutonium Pelican banner. (Plutonium Pelicans were an unexpected and somewhat embarrassing result of Mosk and Merk battling with their world-encircling spears of fire. Both giants admit culpability and apologize for the inconvenience.)

If you want to see a fantasy adaption that leaves very little of the original story intact, you must see the film of The Dark Tower. That's right - it's one film, and covers most of The Wolves of the Calla, and very little else. Certainly very little of the The Gunslinger; and it's only got Roland and Jake; Eddie Dean and Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker are conspicuous by their absence.

On 12/17/2021 at 8:01 AM, Yojimbo said:

Lanfear...

 

No!!! Hilda the Hippo!

I'd love to see Peter Jackson cast as Halwin Norry - you do remember seeing him in Bad Taste? As both Derek - Dereks never run - and as Robert? Derek gets to torture Robert ....

On 12/20/2021 at 10:37 PM, Ralph said:

 

But which is it... 

That's for you to know, and me to find out ... ?

On 12/21/2021 at 11:03 AM, Sabio said:

Who doesn't want Ishy to chop off Rand's hand then shout "I am your father"!!!!!!

Me. I want Shaidar Haran to do that, and then shout, "I am your mother!"

In addition, one secret that the Aiel Wise Ones have kept hidden from everybody except of course the Aiel Clan Chiefs - long ago, about the time of the building of Rhuidean, the Aes Sedai who assisted in its building passed on a very useful piece of web spinning to the Jenn Aiel Wise Ones, who then passed it on to the Aiel Wise Ones. This web spinning was the same one used for Someshta and his ilk, except it was used on midden heaps as there was insufficient organic material in the Waste. These are known as the Middens of the Sphere, and they head north to the Blight to fight Trollocs and Myrddraal. They roll up parts of themselves into spheres to throw at Trollocs, and when such a sphere hits a Trolloc, it rots away instantly - and so does the rest of its fist and the controlling Myrddraal if they are linked to one.

Owing to a mishearing (and a drunk Clan Chief, or maybe it was a not-so-wise tipsy Wise One) some Aiel have been wondering if He Who Comes With The Dawn would be born of a Maiden of the Spear or a Midden of the Sphere. Rand is absurdly grateful it is one and not the other!!! ?