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Nynaeve is the best character. I thought she was stupid when I first read these books a decade ago, when I was just getting out of high school. In a reread, nothing about the impression one gets from her has changed in the slightest, yet she seems tremendously more compelling, even relatable in some kind of "oh god" way. And she just keeps getting better as the story goes.
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Jan 13, 2012 19:33
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 08:54 |
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I'd be reading along too, except I just hit book seven on my own.  Since this read-through started a couple years ago, though, I'll be following the thread anyway. It's amazing how much you can forget about. This series has many flaws, but it's still profoundly compelling.Prison Warden posted:I agree that my appreciation for Nynaeve has grown a lot as I have read the books, though I'm not that much older than when I started, Book Eleven was just about to be released when I first got EoTW, and she still does tend to have some character traits that annoy me tug braid tug braid woolhead tug braid tug braid men are dumb tug braid tug braid. Her personality develops a lot as the story goes on too. Nynaeve has those annoying traits--and man, are they annoying, sometimes--but they're sort of mitigated by the fact that not only are other characters are constantly calling her out for them, the narrative itself feels very much aware. Nynaeve's reactions to things tend to make up a great deal of the little priceless moments scattered throughout. Mat's also pretty great. The guy's entire angle can be summed up in "does not know what the gently caress" taken to increasingly enormous scales. Without saying too much in advance, I recall Egwene hitting two major jumps in terms of her development, one in book 2, the other in book 6. You may have been thinking of those. There may be more later, but previously I never read past 10, so I dunno.
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Jan 14, 2012 01:24
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Jordan loves vowels. If you ever speak with someone else about the series in person, those pronunciation guides will be a godsend. While we're on the subject: it's MWA-rain, not MOY-rain (though as the guide will tell you, the inflection is MoiRAINE), and a-YEEL, not ALE. We had to keep one open back when we did the old Wheel of Time RPG that came out way back when (i was a Red Ajah  ), but no one, no one got "Cairhien" right for more than one sentence.
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Jan 25, 2012 21:33
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Sniffs. Eyebrows raised. Skirts adjusted. No seriously, this is everywhere. I guess you could go overboard with those, but I'm a bit morbidly curious to see just what the final tally is. Wheel of Time girls are very idiosyncratic. As hard as it may be sometimes, try not to think of them all being the exact same character. I mean, there's at least one of them that isn't! Good key for pronouncing Egwene: Remember that her full name is basically Guinevere with a couple extra letters. That's entirely intentional, as are almost all of the other name references. When they get to the bits about the Heroes of the Horn, they have a drat field day with this.
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Jan 26, 2012 10:26
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Lascivious Sloth posted:I thought there was a drinking game board where you win if you cross off 4 in a row, but looking for it I found this: http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Drinking_game Just in case, you may want to spoil out one of those names (the one with the sex tips god drat isn't she just the best  )
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Jan 26, 2012 15:01
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It never quite does, but a good thing to bear in mind is that the idea behind this story is a true end-of-an-aeon conflict that's supposed to involve the whole world, and though it does center around a fairly well-established group of characters, a great deal of WoT is spent very carefully, very deliberately drawing everything into the mix. "Ambitious" is a bit of an understatement when it comes to the heights it reaches, but it's up to the individual reader to determine whether or not the whole thing works, but it's a judgment best cast in hindsight, I think--as much of a slog as it can become, the moments of payoff are extremely worth it. On a completely unrelated note: Whenever Rand, Mat, and especially Perrin is the point-of-view, try to picture everything they say and do without their internal monologues. Particularly if you're re-reading. Something rather interesting happens.
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Feb 3, 2012 13:38
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Kruller posted:Since I re-read the entire series just a bit before this idea came up, could you maybe sum up what happens? I don't think I can read another 7000 pages that soon. It's kind of nuanced, but to sum it up, their internal monologues are a massive part of what defines them to the audience, and it casts them is a very specific light--which is all well and good, since that's how they're written to be, how we're meant to see them. But, when you remove that factor, it's easier to put yourself in the shoes of those around him. It's simplest to do this with Rand, because a lot of his big moments are seen through the eyes of others anyway--how he comes off as genuinely dangerous and erratic, particularly after book 3, which in my opinion is when Rand starts getting good--and perhaps the least amount of change is with Mat (at least that I've noticed thus far) but I think Perrin's is the biggest contrast. His thoughts are very emotional, a lot of "why me", kind of angsty, particularly where Faile is involved, but when you put that aside you can see why people around him regard him as this kind of quiet-but-dangerous force who commands respect. Depending on how you read, it's entirely possible that this is just stating the obvious, but it's one of the biggest differences that I myself have noticed, having gone about ten years without touching the books and coming back to them within the past few.
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Feb 3, 2012 14:46
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Try not to dismiss any character. If they have a name, you can be reasonably certain they'll turn up again somehow. Some as just cameos, others thrust clear into the path of the plot in the most unexpected and bizarre way possible. Hiya doin', Birgitte.
Mazed fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Feb 3, 2012 |
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Feb 3, 2012 20:34
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Siuan is another one of those characters to watch. She's funny, in a lot of the same way that Nynaeve is funny. Only instead of braid-tugging, you can tell how angry she is by how much nautical jargon she tries to cram into her sentences.
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Feb 10, 2012 16:06
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cumsitter posted:Nah I was just being cute. Mother's milk in a cup. Flaming goat-kisser. I'm up to the last book. This approach to foul language is decidedly odd, though it does sort of lend the story a distinct...cadence, I guess you could say. You could have Mat yelling fuckword after fuckword, but instead we get stuff like, "sheep-swallop and bloody buttered onions!"
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Feb 10, 2012 20:59
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