In the first book you're probably right about Moiraine. I don't remember a lot of those details. I'll avoid spoilers but basically Nynaeve gets more a lot screen time than Moiraine does as the series goes on, so that's why I dislike her more.

 

There should be a thread called, "Lord Raine's Killer Quotes"

 

Oh yeah, I even save his paragraphs about morality.

 

I didn't claim this was a feminist series. I said that it was interesting because it attempted to change the dynamic of power between genders, and at no point did I claim it was the focus of the story. It's just one detail in a huge setting.

These smugly sanctimonious rants are more than a little hypocritical when you fail to read the posts you're responding to.

 

The electricity goes out and the internet drops and suddenly everyone thinks it's the end of the world.

Meanwhile, I'm just over here lighting candles and reading books, because I'm not some sort of pleb who doesn't know how to be comfy.

Speaking of, shit has gone down holy fuck.

Hearing you say Nynaeve gets a lot more screen time than Moiraine does as the series goes on like that reminds me of the time I was playing Sleeping Dogs, and I commented to a friend that Winston seemed like a huge asshole, but I was surprised on how he was growing on me.

His exact words were "yeah, he calms down a lot after he gets married."

I can only hope and pray that Moiraine gets a similar treatment.

If I seem to be siding with Nynaeve more, it's less because I like her, because she's a huge bitch too. It's more the sort of thing where, I hate Aes Sedai and Moiraine in particular. Nynaeve ALSO hates Aes Sedai, and Moiraine in particular.

Seeing how everyone else with a vagina is queuing up to get Asshole Jedi training, I sort of get the feeling it's just me and Nynaeve in a pillow fort with a 'No Aes Sedai Allowed' sign hanging outside.

I'm sure that will change eventually, but that's how it feels right now.

Bitch you can't be serious. You don't even know what the fuck you're doing. Literally every time someone talks about the One Power or uses it, it's shown or mentioned how incredibly fucking dangerous it is. The first time we saw it used, somebody blew themselves and an entire mountain range the fuck up using it to cock-slap reality so hard the entire universe tilted out of kilter in a manner that it may not be possible to fix.

Perrin has been using his axe for years. You've been able to attempt to start a fire for less than three days. And you've fucked it up twice that we know of.

I almost hope you blow off a hand or burn down half the forest. Anything to teach you that you aren't the infallible Queen Bitch of the Universe.

The further away we get from Two Rivers, the more I'm missing that background tertiary female character who was concerned about Rand and his father living alone but didn't want to meddle because she respected their opinions and choices.

This motherfucker is Beorn. For real. It's fucking Beorn. I'm positive it's Beorn. Wild man, yellow eyes, lives alone in the wilderness. He's going to turn into a bear any NOPE. WOLVES. FUCKING WOLVES. EVEN BETTER. HE IS BEORN BUT WITH WOLVES. HOLY SHIT YES. THIS IS WATERSHIP DOWN OUT OF TEN.

Perrin's a fucking boss and he's getting more boss as time goes on. I'm not just going to sit here and listen to you insult him for trying to save you from making the biggest mistake of your life.

I'm literally sad you walked, you stupid whore. Staying behind to become the baby factory of some smug socialist gypsy hipster is about your speed.

I can only hope and pray that the psychic waif with five levels in Rogue was right. You don't deserve to ever touch Rand again, or anyone else that's decent.

You're god damned right the two of you being together isn't in the Weave.

Also, Perrin and Elyas join the Anti-Aes Sedai brigade, thereby proving they are both truly based.

Look at that Flying Colossal Swarm. It's like I'm watching the exact point where Dungeons & Dragons rules were being written.

Mat.

Mat.

Goddamnit Mat.

Mat this is the kind of shit I'm talking about. I'm trying to like you, like super fucking hard. I know Rogues gonna Rogue, I know. And I get that.

But dumb Rogues don't live very long.

AND THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T KEEP PIECES OF ACCURSED TREASURE. I WILL LITERALLY EAT THIS PAPERBACK IF IT ISN'T THE TREASURE TWISTING YOUR MIND.

That shit was bad news going backwards and forwards. Why you ever thought grabbing some was a good idea, I'll never know.

Seeing how everyone seems to be getting powers, abilities, and mentors queued up, maybe you'll get Hungry Mist Tendril powers out of it or the ability to control shadows or something, I don't know. It just seems like a really bad idea.

Like, a REALLY BAD idea.

So they're Freman, is what you're saying.

Seeing how Dune came out forty years before WoT, I feel it's probably safe to say this, at least, is an example of Wheel of Time referencing something else, as opposed to Wheel of Time being the thing that was referenced.

Also, calling it now: the Aielman and the Travelers were once the same people before the world broke, and someone we know is going to reunite them before this is all said and done.

Look at her going all crazy psycho bitch the moment Nynaeve brings up the fact that they're abandoning Egwene on nothing more than a guess. You're trying real hard there to win the hearts and minds.

Maybe there's a reason the rest of the world thinks you're in league with Satan, you self-righteous cunt.

Please stop blushing every time you look at Lan. It's getting creepy.

Sincerely,

Everyone


And of course, I can't go on without making mention of one other thing.

Thom.

When I first met you, I thought something was fishy. It was obvious you were hiding something, and for a short period of time, I entertained the idea that you were a traitor in the ranks, a betrayer waiting for their chance to pull a Judas.

That notion vanished when it became clear that you had been in several positions in which you could have done so, but instead chose to remain true, for reasons I did not fully understand. I still felt you were hiding something. I still believe you are.

You are not a Grey Wizard. I do not expect I will ever be seeing you again, on the first light of the fifth day.

That being said, you died punching a Nazgul in the face and half the city burned to the ground as a consequence. And if you're going to go out, that's not a half bad way to go.

You were hiding secrets. You still are hiding secrets. What awaits Rand and Mat in the city of Gleemen? What did your nephew do to get in trouble with the Red Adja, the Aes Sedai? Was he one of the fallen Dragons from years past? What were you doing that you could not go to his aid?

Considering the name of the second book, I don't suspect they'll be secrets for long.

And I suppose if Mat ends up joining the Gleeman Freemasonry in the process, that'll just be a bonus, huh?

I can pay you no higher compliment than this. From now on, I think my bards will be a little less of what they were, and a little more of you. Because it's not wizards alone who can keep secrets.

To Thom, the Gleeman.

 

That was glorious.

 

Reading your reviews nearly motivates me enough to try and read those books again but then I read how many characters/ideas you (will come to) hate and I remember why I stopped after the fifth book.

Oh well it will be probably more amusing to hear you raging when the true bullshit begins to happen.

 

Something has become very, very clear to me after reading through this thread.

To me, Wheel of Time is Fantasy. More then Lord of the Rings, more then any of the other classics, WoT is the quintessential story in fantasy literature. Just going through this thread is bringing back so many memories, both good and bad.

The memories are spoiler tagged for Raine's sake.

Spoiler

The Snakes and Foxes. The goddamn Snakes and Foxes.

Brigid Silverbow. She was amazing, maybe one of my favorite characters in any story.

Mat only getting more and more bad ass. Time to toss the dice indeed.

Perrin getting fucking great, then spending four books chasing his wife, then getting fucking great again.

Me wanting to punch Galad so bad, but doing a complete turnaround on him by Knife of Dreams.

The Asha'man. I loved the Asha'man so much.

WoT hit me at a real good age. I was in high school and stumbled across Eye of the World in my school library. I tore through it, but I didn't understand around half of it. But I reread it, and I got more of it and decided that it would be worth finding the next book.

So I got the Great Hunt. That was also good, but just ok good. But I was bored, so I grabbed the Dragon Reborn.

From that book on, I was hooked. I read them all as fast as I could get my hands on them. I remember picking up Lord of Chaos and Crown of Swords (still criminally underrated by others, IMO) at the same time, sitting down, and powering through them both in a weekend.

Then came the books 8-10 slump. Path of Daggers was a snore, and I can't tell you one thing that happened in it today. Winter's Heart was much better, but not as good as the ones that came before. And the less said about Crossroads of Twilight, the better.

Then Knife of Dreams happened, and we were back on. And then Sanderson took over, and I love his stuff, so I was thrilled. And when I closed Memory of Light, I was so sad and so happy at the same time.

So to me, like I said, WoT is fantasy. And always will be, no matter how bad the bad parts were, and how much some characters just sucked.

I never liked Nynaeve, for the record.

And now that I've written this, and had everything that I remember flash before my eyes as I type, I'm going to go do a reread.

Thanks for eating up the next three months of my life, Raine.

 

Agreed with Vesvius. Lord of the Rings gets so much praise as being the defining book in the fantasy genre, but I think it only explores the ideas on a very broad level. Wheel of Time was the series that refined all those things that LotR talked about. Going into excruciating detail. I daresay, without WoT, we would not have Kingkiller, Song of Ice and Fire, or any other modern fantasy books we have now come to call classics.

 

God damn I love the Children of the Light.

Also, to be fair, the Lord of the Rings actually knew how to do badass women. Though there was a truly excessive amount of scenery porn rambling.

 

I wonder if this has ever been said before.

 

I like them for the same reason I like Snape and Umbrige.

They're good villains. I like that, and I appreciate it when it happens. They're exactly what I want to see in a group of bad guys. If you just have a bunch of James Bond villains like Goldfinger running around, that's one thing, but after the fifth lich who wants to conquer the world with an undead army or the twentieth noble who cut a deal with a demonic power, that shit gets repetetive.

We need Marxist schoolteachers, humongous abusive assholes, and zealous self-righteous hypocrites pretending to be paladins. It keeps things interesting.

I love to hate a good villain. Everybody does. That's why I like the Children of the Light. I curse their sudden but inevitable decision that every person involved with Edmond's Field is a Darkfriend, and I anticipate laughing and possibly touching myself in slightly inappropiate places when they are inevitably blown the fuck out.

Hopefully it won't happen in this book. People with Asshole-Fu this strong need to be left to ferment for a little while before being dealt with. You can't come to take them seriously as a threat if they get their shit wrecked the moment the good guys wander into their bullshit.