I don't think it is something that can be answered. For example, Mat tried to resist the pull of the ta'veren repeatedly, yet was unable. Perrin at the same point in the Age Lace, successfully did break free. So is that Perrin exercising his free will, and Mat failing to do so, or was it fated before time? Was every struggle of Mat preordained or could he wriggle as he chose as long as he ended up in Rhuidean on time? Or was every move he made on the Stones' board against Thom written in stone? There isn't anyway to separate chance from fated. Admittedly, Min and Foretelling does mean it isn't completely random, but it doesn't answer the degree of freewill that anyone has - not least as those prophecies were fated to happen for those exact circumstances in the "no free will" scenario, but it says nothing for other circumstances. What happens if Min turns a different corner and sees someone else and has a different vision? Would visions she didn't have still come true?

Aside from the general start of the story being incredibly Tolkien-esque, to say the particulars of the story do not match up - the female only magic wielders living in a great white tower on an island, the militant pseudo-religious order in white, etc, etc, - is twisting the facts completely. Many people don't like the changes, fair enough. But to represent their opinions as actual objective fact and to claim that all "true" fans agree with them, including the Jordan estate, his widow, Sanderson, etc, all secretly agree with them whatever they say in public is just wrong. The fact is that with airtime allotted to the show, no matter how faithful to the story it had tried to be, it was never going to be able to do so, especially not with the standards that some want to hold it to.

While that could definitely play a role, the book makes clear that age at least doesn't determine how they treat him. I think it explicitly uses examples of young who treat him like a son and old who treat him like a brother. But yes it definitely makes sense that those that gave a baby up for adoption would be more inclined to see him a representative of all those children given up.

I mean no matter what you think of the changes made to the story, I don't see how any adaptation would be possible of the books with only 8 short episodes per season. Sadly I'd say that decision is the part that is too different from the books and nothing, particularly from a purist's point of view for the plot could be done to save the original story, or any embellishments.

I tell you, Mother, he is the most disobedient dog I've ever had. It's like he doesn't even understand English! And telling him to say cheese was disaster. Hasn't stopped miaowing since.

In the early Lan scenes I think he is quite specific about why he won't raise the Golden Crane and won't lead anyone into the Blight. It is quite clearly framed I think through Moiraine's pov that he has a war with the blight and the shadow, one that he knows he cannot win and he cannot quit. He is just pausing it to help Moiraine as it is something that would hurt the shadow more than anything else. So for me the ending is that he can finally see past that paradox of being in a war he cannot win, cannot get out of, cannot ask for help. Though it is not much of an arc in the end as what else would he think the Final Battle was? Surely he could see the end coming even if he did not expect to survive it. I always thought the visions were about his past, though now you point it out, that doesn't make a lot of sense compared to all her other visions. *Shrugs*

I'd say it is more that his role as leader of his people had always been to lead them to their deaths, for them to die for his battle. Now he gets to protect them and nourish them, admitting his birth right and flying the Golden Crane no longer means that people will die and he does not have to refuse the duty to live his life. Now his duty is to love and love and be with his family and countrymen. I don't think he ever wanted free, not like Mat did, he just wanted more to offer those around him. And now he is a King, that is a pretty big change.

I think it is a bit of the uncrowned King cliche, he cannot really walk away from that, he doesn't have anyone to pass it onto. Outside of the over-used trope, I think it was that he had his battle with the Blight that he couldn't win, one that he swore to fight alone. Then he met Moiraine and realized her fight was even more important. Then he has has something similar to Rand where he accepts he cannot make decisions for others and raises the Golden Crane because it needs to be done. And he wins his war that cannot be won. He finally has something more than a widow's mourning clothes to offer. His country is back, the Blight defeated, Moiraine's battle won and her need for him over. He can finally live the life his parents wanted for him. I mean yeah, it's a bit twee but I think the arc works more or less. One of the few bits of the end that did not irritate the goat's left stone out of me 😄

I made the kaf! I ground the beans and everything, Mother. I'm just having a few issues at this end with things in the cup.

The Aztecs did invent the wheel, it just wasn't used - unless I am very much mistaken we have extant children's toys with wheels from Meso America. Yes, progress is messy, but it does progress. The timescales are dodgy - yes there is a certain amount of in-story justification, enough I'd say for poetic license. But it is a conceit of the genre that things remain stable for centuries. Like the Game of Thrones I believe some of the houses have been ruling for 8,000 years? That's dumb. A comparison can be made with David Gemmell's Rigante series, following a fictional Scottish/Briton state from fending off the Stone Empire (Rome) to Jacobean/Napoleonic rebellions. The technology changes a lot obviously over that shorter time period, and by implication also the farmers aren't just doing the same thing generation after generation, or any other craft. Progress is messy, yes, but it never goes backwards. It just takes some detours.

Peas

Hi Loki 🙂

The problem is that as the books have been finished for more than ten years now there is no longer a spoiler policy about the books. So all threads potentially contain spoilers for the whole story. That would make it difficult to join in any book discussions ongoing. It would be best to start your own threads with very clear spoiler instructions if you want to discuss aspects of the book. We all hate spoilers so will do our best to not spoil anything for you. On Discord there is a spoilers and no-spoilers chatroom, and some people started threads, I think they are called, detailing their own reading journey though I'm not sure how many people kept them up to date. For you, perhaps the transient nature of Discord could be a plus.

Overthinking