Does Callandor -> Excalibur belong on the list? Information about Excalibur's etymology indicates it has historically been referred to by names that are similar to Callandor.

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Haven't gotten through the whole series yet -- still slogging my way through The Shadow Rising -- but it seems like Perrin has partially accepted his condition, but has some concerns. First and most obvious is that wolves are often regarded with fear, and he's worried about being judged by association. Second, in The Dragon Reborn, Perrin traveled through a village where another wolf-man lived, only this guy's wolf nature had taken over so completely that there wasn't anything human left in his mind. So I think Perrin is afraid of becoming similarly afflicted if he embraces his inner-wolf too readily. The thing that drives me nuts about Perrin so far is that he's constantly being treated as though he isn't a grown man, and he permits it. Most recently in my read-through, he's sneaking around the Stone of Tear silently praying that he won't run into Moiraine, as though he's worried she'll punish him if she finds out he's going to Two Rivers. And all I can think is, why the heck is he acting like he's five years old? And a short while later, Moiraine speaks of Rand "letting" Perrin leave. I hope Perrin eventually straightens his spine and becomes his own man.

That sense of "Wait, but why...?" was one of my biggest gripes about The Eye of the World as well. Readers spend the entire book wondering what The Eye of the World is until finally, around chapter 42, Moiraine starts talking about it. Only, she won't come right out and say what it is, and her grand plan is infuriatingly hand-wavey: Meanwhile, everyone in the group is content to follow her like lemmings through the Ways, and it isn't until chapter 50 when Mat finally asks what the Eye of the World is.

I think sprinkling books in between is going to be key for me. I got through New Spring, The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, and The Dragon Reborn back to back, then 15 chapters into The Shadow Rising and started feeling some burn-out. So I took a two-week break and read King Sorrow as a palette cleanser. Doing so actually helped me realize that Wheel of Time is something special. This is not to say I didn't enjoy King Sorrow -- I enjoyed it a lot -- but I tried writing about it the same way I write something about every Wheel of Time chapter I read, and I found I didn't have anything to say. I'm not sure what it is about Wheel of Time, but no matter how good or bad a chapter is, I can always come up with some satisfying commentary on it.

Having recently re-read the first three books, it was The Great Hunt that improved the most for me, between then and now. I think I am much better equipped to appreciate a good villain now than I used to be. I remember the Seanchan frightened and infuriated me when I read The Great Hunt as a teenager. But now that I've seen something of the world, the Seanchan had a lot more appeal. After being exposed to all of this metaphysical mumbo-jumbo with the Dark One, the Forsaken, and reincarnation, it felt refreshing to have a villain in the form of a society whose caste system has institutionalized slavery. Like finally, something that is grounded in relatable reality. It's like Jordan took some of the nastiest parts of recorded history and used them in world building.

That was a fun moment in The Great Hunt. And it was right next to another moment that is funny if you take a step back and notice the absurdity of the situation: Rand and company are chasing after the Horn of Valere, as Fain recently stole it back in Cairhien. They have reason to believe he's gone to Toman Head, and time is of the essence, so they decide to head to Stedding Tsofu to use the Ways to follow him there. And I guess it's -- I don't know -- polite or something to ask the elders for permission to use their Waygate, so they seek an audience. Remember, time is of the essence. Whoever blows the Horn first will be linked to it for as long as they live, so it's really important to get it back before Fain figures out how to open the box. But the elders insist on trotting this drooling husk of an Ogier out from a back room, and showing Rand's group what happened to the last of them to have gone into the Ways. Fain could be halfway to Toman Head tooting out a rendition of Yankee Doodle Dandy, but here we are receiving a PSA. This is your brain. This is your brain after the Ways. Are you sure you want to go? Gosh, I don't know, are you sure you want the good guys to win in the Last Battle? We've been in the Ways before, so we'll just be on our way. If you guys really want to protect people from the Ways, I hear there’s a Waygate up by Fal Dara that needs a new door!

I'm on maybe my third or fourth attempt. I got as far as Lord of Chaos before, and this around I also just started The Shadow Rising. I've discovered that even when I hate a chapter, I almost always have something to say about it -- sometimes the more I dislike it, the more I have to say about it. So that's my motivation this time around, because I often have way more fun writing about a chapter than I have reading it. Still early in The Shadow Rising, but I already had very similar thoughts about Faile. First she told Perrin: "This is a fine mess you’ve put me in." And then when she dropped the "if you don’t know, I am certainly not going to tell you," I broke the fourth wall and wrote: Wow, Perrin. A woman who quotes Oliver Hardy, and a passive-aggressive gaslighter to boot — this one’s a keeper! Good luck, and may you find your own motivation.

I thought of another one. And I will admit that this is fairly dark humor, so it definitely won't be everyone's thing. It's from New Spring. Recall that Moiraine has a list of Women Who Just Might Be The Mother of the Dragon Reborn, and she's traveling all over the place just to interview them, because this is her grand plan for finding the Dragon Reborn. In chapter 17, she's speaking with Jurine Najima, whose husband Josef recently died in a barn fire along with their three sons. One of the sons was the right age to potentially be the Dragon Reborn. This is the bit that got me laughing: Translation: Whoopsie daisy! Look on the bright side: at least the little tyke wasn’t the Dragon Reborn, amiright? Like I said, gallows humor, but finding these things and writing about them is the only thing that keeps me powering through the series.

Are you familiar with dramatic irony? If the humor in Moiraine's path of destruction doesn't come from dramatic irony, then it's something very close to it. The perspective held by all of the bystanders in the Wheel of Time universe is exactly what you just said. They're all saying, "Hey, this isn't funny! This witch steamrolled through the area -- she ruined Bel Tine, she destroyed the ferry, and because of her, the Stag and Lion burned to the ground." But we readers know better. Moiraine is doing what she needs to do because fate of the world hangs in the balance. We can laugh at how it must look to outsiders, particularly because Bel Tine wasn't really Moiraine's fault, and she made sure the ferryman and the owner of the Stag and Lion were well compensated for their trouble.

I started to read the series about 25 years ago, back when I was in high school. I got busy with college when I was on Lord of Chaos, and when I tried to go back to it, I had forgotten too much. But despite the gripes I have about every single one of the books I read, it has always been a regret that I never finished it. I was talking with a friend about the series earlier this year after the TV series got cancelled. He also had started the series and never finished. I proposed a buddy read in July, and we decided to start with New Spring. But it turns out that I have way more time to read than him, so here I am now starting on The Shadow Rising. To motivate myself to read the entire series this time, I decided to write my thoughts down about every single chapter I read. This works because even when the book hits a slump, I still want to push forward so I can write about the chapter and talk about everything that was wrong with it. Nynaeve's braid tugging in The Dragon Reborn, I'm looking at you!

I've been going through the series writing about all of the chapters, and there is plenty of humor to be found. For example, the wake of destruction Moiraine leaves in The Eye of the World is absurdly funny, when you think about it. First she shows up in Emond's Field and Bel Tine is ruined. Then there's the whole, "Oh no, your ferry" moment after they cross the Taren. When the Stag and Lion went up in flames, I couldn't help myself and imagined Moiraine checking items off her to-do list. Or how about how absurdly similar Mat behaves to Ferris Bueller when the group reaches Shadar Logoth? Within moments of the group arriving, Mat has concocted a plan to sneak out, play hooky from Moiraine and Lan, and strong-arm Rand and Perrin into exploring the city. He even wants to go up to the top of a tower and search for treasure. Also, The Dragon Reborn contains enough references to braid tugging that you can make a drinking game out of it.