You could also use this to point to some of the weaknesses of trollocs, as this would not necessarily give a competitive advantage to the bravest and strongest or most skilled, but the most self-serving, devious (and only devious in relation to be able to outwit the intellect of other trollocs), untrustworthy and cowardly. Having a one-on-one fight would nearly certainly mean the death of both trollocs as they winner would also likely be easy meat for the cooking pots, which could lead to an avoidance of anything but overwhelming odds and a reluctance to take the initiative.

I think lots of characters are doing great on screen. Lanfear gets plus points just for those boots, imagine how long would they take to lace up, lol. Elayne is a great spiritual fit though she appears more pretty and posh, than beautiful and regal (what the books created in my head), but it certainly works. Her moonshine operation is a great way to highlight her fascination with swearing and the like.

Sorry, my mistake, I forgot the smiley. Modeled after life? Ah, now much is clear. My mistake for venturing an opinion. I appear to be nothing but mistakes these days. How incredibly inept of me.

I understand that I am in the minority here, it's just, well, we could have been so happy together...

My point is that, to me, it feels very much unfinished. She had put in so much work into the various projects, and the idea that the Hall will now suddenly be a bunch of little Egwenes, implementing and improving on her vision seems hopelessly optimistic. And which Amyrlin will steer the tower through these changes, Cadsuane, the Phantom Spanker of Old Tar Valon Town? What could go possibly wrong? She has such a good relationship with the Sea Folk and she does not hold every sister complete contempt. Where is the sarcasm emoji? For me, in my personal take, this feels completely off. It feels like the arc of Egwene and the Tower was broken off for a poorly executed attempt of evoking emotion. Which for me it did not manage, it did not make me feel sad, just frustrated. But as I say, I am very happy that this does not appear to be common view, because Egwene was special and it is good to know that her character was not ruined for everyone. And no, it is not life. It is a story, so I don't quite follow your arguments about me needing to suck it up and deal with the grittiness of reality. I thought we were discussing a story line that someone chose. And I loved Egwene, I mean, I really... hmm, perhaps I said too much 😄

I think it does imply somewhere (Birgette talking about Gaidal, iirc) that once they disappear from TAN that there will immediately be an infant being fed by their mother. So, iirc then the soul transfer occurs at birth, not at conception or during gestation. So it would be possible. But likely? Couldn't comment.

As I remember it, things aren't going so well between Liandrin and Suroth, and the girls are bewildered. They come forward with the a'dam, which is chaotic but the real problem is that they only brought an a'dam for Nynaeve and Egwene but Elayne was there too, which Liandrin is blamed for and retorts that she cannot be held responsible for Suroth not being able to manage a few girls and they part on very bad terms.

Another point just occurred to me. One of the things I really enjoy about the books is interaction of the characters. ("Who is Elayne, Rand?" said Egwene totally not jealous, and not in anyway threatening Rand's health if he answers wrong. "Elayne is the Daughter-Heir of Andor." Was there another way I could have phrased that? "If you cannot be serious for one second!" I knew he was seeing someone!) And that interaction is much better with more of them together, as they all have their own dynamic and the more of them there are, the less likely they are to reach an impasse or go over the same situation again and again. And not that I have scientifically tested this, I think they are more often together in the early books... I think, though I am getting less certain of this as type...

When it protects children from their parents, yes it is. By the Light and my hope of rebirth, it most definitely is.

Yes, I've always wondered if I was just being slower than RJ expected for catching on sooner, or if it was meant to be like to show how steeped in the politics and dangers of the court life of Seanchan they were. I must admit I did generally come down on the feeling that I did not pick it up well enough or the scene did not quite come off as planned, but you could look it that it was definitely meant to be completely confusing until you saw the events as they developed and then it would make sense.

I am so happy that so many people appear to have been able to appreciate Egwene's contribution. And her story arc. Because I could not. It was dumb. It was rushed. It made no sense. It sapped my will to live. Egwene's arc was to be the greatest Amyrlin of all time. She was meant to mold the White Tower into something it had never been before, overcoming the pettiness, the suspicion, the unwillingness to work together. Instead she is a footnote. She was raised as a puppet for the rebels, took over the tower as Elaida was abducted by the Seanchan. She raised rebellion, her siege failed, she was captured and she was Amyrlin for what, a few months? Everything she was working for would be undone, or half-heartedly implemented by those who did not believe. Her death in the Last Battle makes her life a failure, at least as how it will appear to the history books. The youngest ever Amyrlin due to circumstances, died in the last battle, achieved nothing. Would Alexander the Great be as revered if he had died conquering Greece? Meh. And it was such a stupid death. Taim was not even a real Forsaken. He turned a few Asha'man who were taken by surprise and could not fight back. Oooo. They will be scaring kids for centuries with stories like that. Logain or Androl should have clocked his ticket. And she, in the moment of death, wove the opposite of balefire. You mean she reversed the positronic capacitors while transmogrifying (wait, that is a real word? are you fecking kidding me spellchecker?) the semi-valent downward flow shift? You should have thought of that earlier Scotty! And she named it? While dying? I call it the Egwene Maneuver, everyone will be doing it soon, even though I'll be dead in a few seconds. But no honestly in the middle of battle everyone will have learnt the weave, its not like there are any distractions or that it is unusual to be able to learn a weave from one viewing, and people aren't so exhausted that they can barely stand. It's all good, honestly. It's sad. I like to consider myself good with words, but no, I cannot express my disappointment adequately. I mean losing any of the main characters would suck, but Egwene had been through so much, had worked so hard, and had so much still to do. But as she was not part of Rand's harem, nor needed for the planned sequels, she is bumped off, in the most ridiculous manner. I really am glad that not everyone experienced it the same. I guess the idea was to have you weeping, but for me sorry, abject failure. "My husband rides to Tarwin's Gap. Will he ride alone?" That had me in tears, heck, I'm tearing up just typing it. Egwene dying makes me want to hurt someone.

But, but, but, the pattern is balance. If Rand was doing this, it could be messing about with powers that he has no concept of (does that sound ominous enough?). How would the pattern balance the lighting of his pipe out? Wait, you mean, all those time that my lighter did not work when I smoked, getting cramp from trying to cup my hand in some way that could shield the cigarette from 360 degrees in the Edinburgh wind... Rand, I hate you.

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I have never heard of anyone naming their kids after WoT, I had two Guinea Pigs called Esme and Nanny after Granny Esmerelda Weatherwax and Nanny Gytha Ogg. Closest I have gotten. Though I bet someone has, I met a guy online in a game once that when he heard that I was from Scotland says, completely deadpan, "Cool, one of my kids is called that", yup he had three kids called Scotland, Iceland and Norway. Seemed completely sincere. One of the things I like about the Netherlands is that when you name your kids it has to be approved by the government and they can totally refuse accept the registration on grounds of stupidity. No one born here gets called Peachielalagoogles. It is literally the law.

I never understood that scene either. I think maybe RJ was overestimating how well I could follow his thought processes. In hindsight, I would say it was Suroth's plan (though presumably working under one of the chosen, so probably Semirhage as this was her sphere) to inflame the army so that she could order the "imposter" killed on sight with no questions asked. Karede was obviously brighter than me and saw the purpose of it straight away, which is why he rushed off with his troops as he realised it was a race against time, and that Tuon must be free, or her enemies would not be creating a trap for her. But yes, first time through it felt like a page had fallen out of the book or something 🙂

It was the first books that caught me, and I still find them very satisfying. Though admittedly now they are old friends, and I cannot really compare books that I can almost recite with a new book anymore. Interestingly, my experience is quite different from everything else posted here. Personally I think that if you are reading a book and thinking "this is like xxx book", something is going wrong. For me, the first book was engaging enough that I was not thinking as literary critic, but I was living the story. The defining quality of the early books is how RJ gives you the background without it seeming like plot. In your standard fantasy novel, when you hear about the evil wizard that holds the princess captive, you can see the whole plot roll out in front of you. A lost sword that can kill the wizard? Will appear in the next scene. For me, tEotW, did not need any poetic license to accept the myths and stories as that, and then when the story starts to evolve, I felt the same amazement that the characters did as they met Aes Sedai and warders and found the fecking Horn of Valere. Maybe I'm just stupid and gullible, but no book ever has done that as well, no book's world has ever felt so real, Myrddraal were scary, the One Power was believable. It has always made me scratch my head when people hold up a story about Hobbits as the gold standard of fantasy. Not worth discussing here but I hate Hobbits and cannot understand how I am meant to relate to them. [Aside, but my favourite Fighting Fantasy was Creature of Havoc, where you wake up as a monster and at first cannot control your actions so have to roll a dice to decide everything, you gain more control quite quickly and go on to find out who you are etc,. but one thing you never gain control of is that you eat Hobbits on sight, even when they are about to tell you the way out of the dungeon. So satisfying.] Back to the early books, I thought they were just awesome. Even with their forced endings for each book to feel not to unfinished, with their channelers just doing things by instinct and feel and randomly succeeding against people with hundreds of years of experience. Even with continuity errors, like Myrddraal having powers that can overcome weak Aes Sedai, that only warders have protection from, and then, nah, every main character can take care of them easily. None of that mattered, because I was actually in that world, as dumb as it could be, rather than outside of it considering parallels with other books. And just weird that some many other people could barely finish them, but love the parts of the story where the characters are like, "Hey, we need to travel really far. The fate of the world is at stake!" "Will we Travel?" "No, I'll get a really slow wagon, and a bunch of people I find really irritating, and I'll make sure that they all think they should be in command, so we can argue about it every single day." "Great idea. Wait, would it not cool if you travelled three months in wrong direction just to see their faces when you tell them you need to turn around?" "Oh man, you kill me. Definitely." "And I'll make sure not to send you any messages, so you won't find out for months that the reason you are leaving is solved the after you leave, and you won't find out that your mother is not dead, is actually looking for you and may well be dead by the time you arrive where you are going, or who the bad guys are or where they are." "You think of everything. This is going to be awesome." And most of the conversations are about beans. Guess it would be boring if we all liked the same things.

OK, I'm months late, but this is such an astute observation. Anyone that does not have any martial arts training is instead given a bunch of knives, a ten minute talk with Thom Merrilin and it is exactly like an Action Hero handing their side kick a 9mm with a snarky aside asking if they know which end the bullet comes out of. And the conceit that somehow more knives are better, though that would imply that you could actually hit something with deadly force at a distance that stabbing them would not be easier. It is like trollocs look inside a farmhouse, "Who is in there?" "It is just a pair of women." "Yes! Are they armed?" "They have belt knives!" "Hahahahahaha!" "And knives up their sleeves! Arrggghh!" "Run!"

I can only concur the ending feels off. The end part from Rand's POV is just so egocentric, the mounds of dead at Merrilor, Egwene, Rhuarc (ok not at Merrilor, but still), Hurin, etc., but he got out of it, his harem is intact, and he is one jolly little roger. It just does not fit the book or the character that the cost of victory is not nearly unbearable, that he does not wish that he somehow could have protected them more, he was the Dragon, it was meant to be his blood at Shayol Ghul, it just feels wrong. Nope, I'll just light my cancer-giving pipe (who wants to live hundreds of years?), and toddle off into the sunset with a grin and my new powers that I did nothing to earn. All those dead people? Bunch of losers, good riddance. And those that survived? Light, I've put up with them long enough. Why couldn't they all have died? Am I overreacting? I think I might be...

Definitely Mat is something of the ultimate hero. Rand has a duty that he does not want, but tries his best to do the best for everyone. But if he could have not been the Dragon, he would have run. Understandable, but really he is trying to make the best of a bad situation. And the gleeful way that he shirks the you must die to save the world duty, still does not sit well with me. Now if he had ridden off on Bela, the symbol of the Emond's Field Six, the last minute addition to their quest at the behest of the pattern (Egwene was only coming to be buttocks on her saddle), a metaphor for the raising by Tam and the Manetheren sensibilities that was root of why Rand succeeded and Lews Therin failed, I think we could have had a nice coming back to the start again. OK, not riding, leading her pulling a cart with his stuff, juxtaposing the first chapter. But I digress again (as is my wont). Perrin is somewhat selfish (perhaps not the best way to put it), in a heroic way, but is always looking out for his wife, family, home. He is a hero, but things like rescuing Gaul he did because he wanted to. In many way Perrin is the weak link, as he himself is aware that he would let the Dark One win to save Faile, but he is saved from that possibility by his story lines taking so long there simply was not space in the books, not even WoT. Mat on the otherhand does a whole bunch of things that he doesn't want to do. Saves people who don't like him, battles shadowspawn assassins with only pendant to protect himself, has body parts cut out for other people. And he wears a hat, you always need a good hat if you want to be a hero. And though he tries to avoid these situations, as long as that house is burning with the kids inside, he is going to get them. He would not shirk off that duty if he could. This goes all the way back to the first book I think? Where Moiraine is comparing him to an uncle she had? Actually that does not seem like I am remembering that correctly, does not seem like a story out of the Cairhein royal palace, but sure it happens very early in the book, [thinking about it, it is a much more folky-story so probably Siuan or Leanne after the healing, so not quite the first book where to be fair Mat is fairly two-dimensional, and hasn't yet bought all his knives, had a crash training in throwing that everyone gets from Thom apparently, and remembered that he has quarterstaff, something suspiciously absent from the first book when they are setting out and despairing over not knowing how to use weapons outside of the bow] setting out Mat's character before we see it action, captured badgers notwithstanding. The taking of the damane I don't think goes against this. In the battle, he could have captured her or killed her. Capturing is the more humane option here. Afterwards, the lifelong enslavement with brutal torture, might not be a better option than a clean death, but I can only imagine that the whole damane issue was being left to the sequels, where all of this would have been dealt with, and Mat's personal damane would probably have featured large in this story line.

Thank you, your welcome is much appreciated 🙂

It seems difficult to imagine though what tower law they would be breaking specifically. We categorically see later on that the Ajahs and sisters do not have to pass on information that they don't want to, even regarding the Dragon. I suppose it could just be a vote of no confidence in their handling of the matter, but stilling seems slightly extreme unless it was a specific crime with a specific punishment. Of course, they could just be talking about the Black Ajah, as they have seen that all the Aes Sedai that knew about the coming of the dragon were tidily removed from the stones board, so it could be a combination of the other sisters being very unhappy which would leave even more vulnerable to the Black Ajah. But it is one of the weaknesses, I think, that the hierarchy in the White Tower is such an issue. We first hear, and repeatedly see in action throughout the books, that sisters can pretty much do whatever they feel like, and it is impolite to so much as enquire about someone else's activities. So we see each sister and Ajah as an independent island each on their own course in a splendid mixed metaphor. But then because we need a reason the young girls will actually be in charge, we see that a weaker Aes Sedai may not so much as sneeze or use the jakes without the stronger sister's permission. And it appears that one sister walking into the same room as a clearly stronger sister has essentially walked into permanent slavery until the stronger sister allows her to go her own way. Add in the powerlessness of the Hall to do anything useful, combined with Amyrlins and other sisters being terrified of what the Hall would do if they found out whatever (why?), and that the authority of the Amyrlin and the Hall does not seem to be constitutional but more ad hoc, it is a little bit of a mess. That does not even take into account the heads of the Ajahs and their attempt to take over the Tower. I think it best just to take it as complicated, and when the characters are talking about, they probably know more about than we do. Be trusting.

I thought it was outright stated that Ba'alzamon planted the whispers that come to the Emond's Field party in Caemlyn, which Moiraine takes as the pattern needing them to know. I took it as being up to reader to decide how much was the pattern requiring it, how much the prophecy (the Horn and everything was there for a reason, Tarwin's Gap, Falme) and how much it was actually the Dark One pulling the strings all along. Of course over the course of the books it seemed to me that the Shadow could not actually fight its way out of a wet paper bag, and all their schemes were singularly ineffective except in snarling up a different plan of the Shadow, but in these early days it you could not really tell. Maybe I misunderstood.

I would like to think that most readers understand that we all put so much into a book, and live with it for such a long time that there is no one right way experience it, the words on the page are only a seed. Unless of course, we are talking about the way I experience it, and then I'm right, you are all wrong, and I have my fingers in my ears "LALALA LAAA LAAA" and cannot hear you 😄 The arms folding I guess the male gaze in print. Like how pendants don't hang from people's necks, they nestle between breasts. I mean, it is great imagery, I cannot claim to be unaffected by such poetic words, but it is all from a low-key lecherous male view point. And yeah spankings, oh my aged grandmother. The pinnacle has to be Semirhage, how can we break this woman who will accept any pain, any torment, any torture, any reasoning... ah ha! The thing that is even worse than the ridiculous speed with which it is effective, is that Cadsuane comes to the idea by considering what would break herself. It is just is the solution to every problem in the books. They say that if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. What did RJ have that every solution is a spanking? Not sure I want to know...

If it annoyed you, then it could be a sign that it was overused. I think it is a great way to describe a fight between masters of the sword, but that does not mean that it cannot be used too often, or in situations where it detracts from the action instead of adding to it. I cannot say it ever felt too much like that to me (but perhaps I was making exceptions due to my admiration of the writing mechanic), not in the way that, for instance, I was ready to throw the book out the window if there was another character who was physically perfect except for an over-abundance of bosom, or if a main female character borrowed clothes that were tight around chest and loose around the hips, as they are obviously all so anatomically bizarre that they need specially tailored clothes.

Yes, in the story he simply can tell Wind is the best horse. And of course he is one the main characters in a story, how can you tell when he is being lucky and when just wearing plot armour? I mean, he is never going to fall down some stairs and break his neck. But I would certainly say it does seem like his luck is activated. Like in the Tower of Ghenji, he has to randomly choose directions. Why not just go any which way and that will be the right one? Or when he sees where Nynaeve and co are in Tear in the lightening strike (lucky!) but does not go there even though Thom has a cold (unlucky!). If you were always lucky, you would not have that kind of terrible bad luck, it nearly got them all killed! But of course, that did not happen because plot armour. I'd say when you think about, it becomes clear you just cannot look too deep into it as "luck" is not rational or objective, so you cannot have it perform in a rational way. You just have to accept it.