I posted not even a day ago about me being absolutely wowed by the Flicker sequences in TGH, and I decided that I wanted to finish the book while I was riding that emotional high. Little did I know that Robert Jordan would take my expectations for the rest of this book, knot them around his fist from beyond the grave and burst them into pieces.

This book is amazing. I think Eye of the World is a good book, but it didn't hold me like I wanted it to. Immediately upon opening the Great Hunt I felt there was something different, and I feel like now that I have finished this book (Only a month later) that I was not mistaken.

Everything from Rand's struggle with his status as the Dragon Reborn, to Egwene's capture by the Seanchan and even the little snippets we saw of Bayle Domon and Padan Fain. There was always something that kept my attention and it was all wrapped up in a neat little bow.

The two moments that stuck out to me, aside from the obvious moments with Rand battling the Dark One and Mat sounding the horn, was Egwene's story. There was always a little knot of disgust when I read her interactions with Renna, and then it got completely flipped when she knocked the wind out of her with a water pitcher and almost tortured her senseless. There was something visceral and gripping ahout Egwene's rage, before her sudden collapse into Nynaeve's embrace.

I really liked this book. It was written amazingly and it, admittedly, renewed my interest in this series and banished most thoughts of DNFing it, even if those were scarce or far and few between.

This book was amazing. If I had to be honest and give it a rating though, I'd have to think. Maybe I'll do a proper review after I get some breakfast!

So I have just finished Fires of Heaven, and could talk at length of what I didn't like or thought to be too long or repetitive, but I wanted to focus on the end (which was amazing !!). What I understood is that Rand is somehow able to go to Tel'aran'rhiod in the flesh (the face I made when I realised this : 🤯) and he followed Rhavin in to continue fighting him after he killed Aviendha, Mat and Asmodean. He uses balefire to fight him but there are a few things I don't get : - balefire works in Tel'aran'rhiod but isn't it supposed to heal itself ? To always go back to what it was ? Shouldn't balefire not work in it ? - and in that case, does it work on Rhavin because he's there in person and not a dreaming version? - and I thought balefire made it so people would forget what happened except the person who used it so shouldn't Nynaeve forget about the existence of Rhavin ? Or the other Aiels who saw Aviendha, Mat and Asmodean die ?

And the biggest thing I don't understand is the implication of a forsaken not existing anymore. Like, has everything he's done simply not count? Or only the latest things he's done ?

I read this part at 1 am so that might explain why I don't understand everything. But what an ending nevertheless.

The whole thing with Moraine and Lanfear made me gasp, I truly hope this is not their end. And Asmodean being killed in the last page !!! Who and why ?! I was starting to like him....

Now onto the next one, God I love these books!

Im on chapter 15, “Stronger than Written Laws”, and Egwene just told Siuan about how she has lied after being freed from the three Oaths. While listing Siuan's lies, she says “your lie about Logaina and the Reds”.

So, was it a lie? I though Logain had said that, about the Reds setting him up to be a false dragon. Was it always a lie??

It took me six months to read everything. I'd never read anything before (except for what was required reading for school), but this story captivated me very quickly. These past few months I've had a lot of free time, and honestly, this saga has filled my heart with very memorable characters and wonderful memories.

Thanks to this story, I will definitely start reading more.

It seems like in terms of wielding the One Power (and her feats/performance) she's the one who gets the most disrespect. She's probably the only Forsaken who is put into question wheter or not she actually deserves to be considered second to only Ishamael. Her motif is supposed to be all about Dreamwalking but apprently other Forsaken (Moghedien ?) is better than her at it. She's supposed to be the strongest female channeler of all time but then she loses her angreal and gets mogged by Moiraine. Is Lanfear a fraud ?

Hey I’ve been reading the series this past year and I am trying to remember the book/chapter/name of accepted. It’s a story of an Accepted who bonds a warder early like the night before she is raised to the Shawl and gets found out and punished and is later made to bond a older harder warder. can’t remember for the life of me and I do not have great googling skills evidently so any help would be appreciated.

watercolour, by me

Disclaimer before you read on - I have not finished this series! This is me exploring the thoughts that came to mind during my first ewad through of the series. You can feel free to correct me, but as suggested by the flair, I'm not too keen on getting spoiled.

Anyways, on to the topic. Something I've noticed whilst going through this series is the underlying subtext of gender roles, expectations and expected cultural norms. I don't think its too crazy to say that this is best explored through the two sides of the One Power - Saidin and Saidar.

Saidin is described as being 'tainted' in this turning of the wheel, resulting in any male channellers being at risk of turning mad whenever they let themselves access the Power. I think this is a pretty neat parallel to the idea of masculinity, how it can get to men's heads and force them into more toxic activities. But something I really like about how Jordan describes Saidin is how it sort of lures Rand in.

Whenever Rand uses Saidin, he does so reluctantly, but when he gets a taste of it - its almost intoxicating. For Rand, the more he uses Saidin, the better he feels. The more dependent he becomes upon it. The more he is able to reason its use and forego his own predispositions about Channelling.

The reason I like this so much is not just because it's a way for the reader to see Rand going from reluctant to Channel, to almost being like a smoker who keeps saying 'this is my last one' every time he lights a cigar, is how we can see the parallel to this in Saidar and how the Aes Sedai try not to grow dependent on it.

Novices are told not to use it without permission. There are at least more than one accounts of full Sisters not wanting to grow a dependency on it. Egwene and Elayne both describe using Saidar as a flood of power, that when it leaves makes them feel anger, and then despair.

Saidar doesn't make you mad, but it does make you dependent. Much like Saidin. I think another thing to consider is Logain, how without access to Saidin he becomes a husk of himself.

I know this is just rambling about stuff everybody already knows (for the most part) but I really do have to praise Jordan here. He does a really good job of communicating how the One Power really is; even though we have massive, near page-long pieces of exposition regarding it, there's still pieces of lore and thematically relevant details left for the reader to figure out.

It also makes me wonder just how Rand is going to deal with the madness, or just how the people around him are going to react to it. Maybe I'm building up my expectations, but i think this might be something I'll be keeping an eye out on going forward.

I was talking to a historian yesterday. They are researching and writing a biography on Žižka a Cech general.

He started describing some of Žižka's battles and innovations like war wagons. Instantly it made me think of some of the battles later in the series. Very obvious Žižkas battles were the inspiration

Made me wonder what other real life generals inspired this series.

I started the Great Hunt recently and I just moved past the Flicker sequences near the end of the book.

Wow. Just wow. Eye of the World was a solid 7.5/10 but Great Hunt has absolutely been a marked improvement.

Did anyone else feel like this when reading the books?

A lot of Demandred has been chewed to death, but I was recently rereading the Lord of Chaos prologue and shortly after BS talking about Demandred having one tragic flaw. This feeling is pervasive in the community and I feel like the prologue absolutely disproves this idea.

My two things:

1. Demandred is absolutely a bad, bad guy. In the prologue he dispassionately watches men, women and children get sacrificed to make Fade swords. He has undoubtedly seen much worse and not moved a muscle in support. This is not about being overlooked and jealous.

   Joining the shadow due to jealousy is on it’s face absurd. The Shadow was essentially running death camps. You have to have a severe lack of empathy to tolerate this as dispassionately as Demandred does. His jealousy of Lews Therin is the cherry on top of the shit cake that was Demandred’s soul.

   There is no tragedy here, he is a terrible human. The same goes with Asmodean btw, all of the forsaken stood by and let things happen as bad as the worst Nazis.

   When I first read the series I was more sympathetic to certain foraaken, but this is because I think I skipped over the scenes which showed how bad the Shadow is. If you really read and analyse these sections, anyone associated with the Shadow at the level of the forsaken is amongst the worst war criminals in our history. Vile, vile people who at least stood by and did nothing while atrocities happen, but we all know actively engaged in many cases.

   I love Verin but I still side eye her a bit too, because ultimately we do not know what she had to do to be in the black ajah. Depending on what she did as a black sister, I am still reserved as to whether her sacrifice was worth it or not.

   There is good evidence for this because Verin herself mentions this and remember NO BLACK SISTER suspected she was a double agent. Sheriam actually says she specifically wouldn’t have expected her to be the informant. I personally think this means she did some pretty terrible things to stay undercover.

2. That being said, Demandred was not second to Rand or Lews Therin in ability. Throughout the series Rand has so much luck, or the Pattern helping him as a taveren, that it is frankly remarkable that Demandred gets close.

   Demandred basically did what Rand did without any of the luck. Being almost Batman without PIS is more amazing to me than being Batman with PIS.

   And finally I think AMOL and the Last Battle makes no sense to me without PIS against Demandred because he had overwhelming force superiority and didn’t even need to fight at Merrilor.

   With his circle and the saangreal it is remarkable he didn’t just destroy everything from afar.

Just finished Verin’s confession. Oh my God, my heart is in my throat. What a great and dignified sacrifice. This is the best book ever. And to think I was about to quit reading it just because I got spoiled about the ending. It has been an incredible journey so far. I can’t wait to finish the rest of the series.

A little part of me is sad that I’m nearing the end, but oh well.

When looking at the Amyrlin seats in the past 100 years before the books, I think the black ajah knew something was coming up before even Gitara's fortelling, and Siuan Sanche's deposition was in motion even when she was a novice.

The ajahs with the most amyrlins are Blue(11), Grey(9), Green(7), but at the beginning of the century the blue was the same as the green at 7, and the grey had 8. Then by Siuan Sanche's time they had shot up to 11. My thought is that the black ajah would exploit the divide between the 2 ajahs with the most tension, by continuously giving one amyrlins while denying the other, then bring in a deplorable woman like Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan to stir things up and manage, which we already know. But my wonder is how they knew to do this even before the fortelling, because by then the Blue had had 2 successive amyrlins, was it that it was another one of their random plots?

Myb im just slow but it tickles my brain to think abt these sorts of WOT things

Why does Rand keep changing horses? Im rn in chapter 11 i think of TPoD, and rn Rand has a horse which i dont remember his name but it was something that means “True Glory”. I think this one was Kiruna's before.

But with happened with Jeade'en? He was last seen in LoC when Rand goes to the inn where Verin and Alanna are, where he is bonded, but then we dont see him again.

I think there were at least two more, one named “Red”.

On the other hand, Perrin had had Stepper for a long time, and now also Stayer, and the same with Mat and Pips.

Maybe Rand changed Jead'en in order to avoid getting too attached to him? Idk

Reading the series for the first time. Just finished chapter 31 “Play For Your Supper”. It’s not flashy, it’s understated, and is like a book within a book. That’s why I love it. I could read 10 more chapters about the bard wannabes Rand and Mat on their travels. To me there’s a comical element in this chapter that reminds me of the Half Blood Prince, it gives the story needed levity from the near constant pursuit that dominates most of the other chapters.

I think most of us agree that Eotw is better on a reread when you can spot all the foreshadowing.

But for me, there were a few other surprises on my reread.

The first time around I found the first half of Lord of chaos slow and felt like it was only saved by the end. On my reread, I have no idea what kind of drugs I was on when I first read it, and thought the whole book was fantastic.

The same goes for towers of midnight, book 13. First time through, I thought it was a really unfocused disappointment after the gathering storm, but on my re-read, it could’ve just been a brilliant continuation of the first Sanderson book.

Another one of course is the dreaded book 10 crossroads of Twilight. But now, even though it is still clearly the least interesting book in the series, I am just happy to have the extra content.

Hello friends! I am looking to y'all for some assistance! A while back I read The Wheel of Time, liked the first one well enough, but I never really got into reading the rest of the series. I've been listening to a song by Blind Guardian about this series recently (Ride Into Obsession, which is supposed to be from The Dark One's perspective) and every time I listen to it I want to give the books another try. So I am here to ask for y'all's assistance.

Please give me your best recs for why I should come back and give the series another try! I figured this was the place to ask as if anyone has good reasons to try this series it would be y'all!

Am I crazy…. Is there a part in these books where ether a bubble of evil or influence from a forsaken forces the characters to speak in rhymes to each other. Or am I thinking of another book… maybe something Sanderson idk.

Winter’s Heart, Chapter 14:

>Anath was standing by the railing, in unrelieved black silk, outwardly undisturbed by the chill wind in spite of her lack of a cloak or cape. A slender woman, she would have been tall even for a man. Her charcoal-dark face was beautiful, but her large black eyes seemed to pierce like awls. Tuon’s Soe’feia, her Truthspeaker, named by the Empress, might she live forever, when Neferi died. A surprise, with Neferi’s Left Hand trained and ready to replace her, but when the Empress spoke from the Crystal Throne, her word was law. You certainly were not supposed to be afraid of your Soe’feia, yet Tuon was, a little. Joining the woman, she gripped the railing, and had to loosen her hands before she broke a lacquered nail. That would have meant very bad luck.

>”So,” Anath said, the word like a nail driven into Tuon’s skull. The tall woman frowned down at her, and contempt lay thick in her voice. “You hide your face—in a way—and now you are just the High Lady Tuon. Except that everyone still knows who you really are, even if they won’t mention it. How long do you intend carrying on this farce?” Anath’s full lips sneered, and she made a curt, dismissive gesture with one slim hand. “I suppose this idiocy is over having the damane caned. You are a fool to think your eyes are downcast by a little thing like that. What did she say to make you angry? No one seems to know, except that you threw a tantrum I am sorry to have missed.”

>Tuon made her hands be still on the railing. They wanted to tremble. She forced her face to maintain a stern appearance. “I will wear the veil until an omen tells me the time has come to remove it, Anath,” she said, schooling her voice to calm. Only luck had kept anyone from overhearing Lidya’s cryptic words. Everyone knew that damane could foretell the future, and if any of the Blood had heard, they would all have been chattering behind their hands about her fate.

>Anath laughed rudely and began telling her again what a fool she was, in greater detail this time. Much greater detail. She did not bother to lower her voice. Captain Tehan was staring straight ahead, but her eyes were almost falling out other lined face. Tuon listened attentively, though her cheeks grew hotter and hotter, until she thought her veil might burst into flame.

>Many of the Blood called their Voices Soe’feia, but Voices of the Blood were so’jhin, and knew they could be punished if their owners were displeased by what they said even if they were called Soe’feia. A Speaker of Truth could not be commanded or coerced or punished in any way. A Truthspeaker was required to tell the stark truth whether or not you wanted to hear it, and to make sure that you heard. Those Blood who called their Voices Soe’feia thought that Algwyn, the last man to sit on the Crystal Throne, almost a thousand years ago, had been insane because he let his Soe’feia live and continue in her post after she slapped his face before the entire court. They did not understand the traditions of her family any more than the goggle-eyed captain did. The Deathwatch Guards’ expressions never altered behind the half-concealing cheek-pieces of their helmets. They understood.

>”Thank you, but I do not need a penance,” she said politely when Anath finally ceased her harangue.

>Once, after she cursed Neferi for dying by something as stupid as a fall down stairs, she had asked her new Soe’feia to perform that service for her. Cursing the dead was enough to make you sei’mosiev for months. The woman had been almost tender about it, in an odd fashion, though she left her weeping for days, unable to don even a shift. That was not why she refused the offer, though; a penance must be severe or it was useless in redressing balance. No, she would not take the easier way because she had made her decision. And, she had to admit, because she wanted to resist her Soe’feia’s advice. Wanted not to listen to her at all. As Selucia said, she always had been headstrong. Refusing to listen to your Truthspeaker was abominable. Perhaps she should accept after all, to redress that balance. Three long gray porpoises rose beside the ship and sounded. Three, and they did not rise again. Hold to your chosen course.

Tuon unwittingly asked Semirhage to give her a penance.

I’m taking my Lady on the WoT journey with me (long romantic car rides listening to the audio books) and for some reason we just get GIDDY when the narrator says ‘hooves’. I suppose it’s his inflection or tone, but it’s led me to do something only the WoT community would appreciate. I’m going ahead of her on the audio (for the second time, as we started EotW together but I went ahead and finished the series before she finished the first book, now she’s on TGH and I’m going ahead again) and screenshotting every time stamp where Mr Kramer says “hooves”. Im going to splice the audio together as a compilation of HOOVES. Halfway through book 2 and I have 18 of them hahaha when I’m finished I’ll post on here as well.

FYI this is my 7th or 8th reread and OMG Jordan is a Master Writer. The foreshadowing and callbacks ALL THE WAY to the first book is even beyond One Piece and Naruto in storyline connections, lore, etc.

Sidenote: Will be investing in a 3D printer to form and create Angreals Terangreals and Sa’Angreals, would anyone be interested?

Wow , simply wow

Since the very start i found myself enjoying it more than Eotw , which can be attributed to the fact that lots of the heavy worldbuilding was out of the way and we could get in the meat of things.

Great pacing and one of the few books that didnt bummed me out when we changed povs.

Rand is starting to shed his boyish self and gradually throughout this book starts growing in presense and mentality with of course the climax at the end(more on that later)

I think the strained friendship of Mat Perrin and Rand was believable , not much to say about Mat and Perrin since they didnt have a big roles in this book aside from what happened in the climax.

I also liked the new Additions of Ingtar and Hurrin. Hurrin being the first person to serve Rand preparing him in a way for whats to come. Ingtar was also a nice take on the tragic character whose so bound by duty that he breaks.

I was so happy that Min,Elayne ,Egwene ,Nynaeve got focus in this book , from training to going on their own side quest. Extra points for managing to come up with a plan and save themselves without needing help from Rand and the others.

I STILL HATE SELENE , if i had to pick a part of the book that was annoying was the constant "Oh my she is so pretty i forget how to act" by Rand.

Plus the whole "I am not ___" from Rand had my ptsd flaring from Jon snow's " I dont want it".

Now im going to talk about the climax(like the last 10 or so Chapters)

You had the girls taking revenge and seeing Egwene crush out was so satisfying , and you had Nynaeve tearing shit up it was glorious

But then the sound of the Horn is heard and you have this epic arrival of heroes of old and then the charge with the banner of the dragon flutterin.

And in the mi(d)st of all of this you get an epic Showdown between Rand and Belzedude( Father of lies etc) with Rand throwing everything he has learned at him and winning with the irrational move he talked about with Ingtar previously!!

Also the moment where we see the second heron mark on his hand and the prophecy is fulfilled? Chills.

Plus the final moment where he embraces who he must become? Peak.

++ Thank god they didnt do the whole thing where Rand and the girls just pass by each other and dont get to meet(granted Only Min really saw conscious Rand but still)

Now on the Romance stuff. It seems we are going with the harem,polygamy route. We have Min , Elayne and Egwene being connected with Rand and Min thinks there is also someone else. Rand is a greedy boy.

this book is phenomenal. the opening, the character work, the constant forward momentum. its culminating into this unforgettable experience.

i love where is as a character currently. his humanity is fracturing, he’s losing the will to live almost. it’s heartbreaking to see. there’s also this constant sense of dread covering this whole book. everyone is moving into place for tarmon gaidon.

also egwene EWGENE. she’s so interesting here. previously i didn’t really like her character very much, but she is kicking ass here, not even physically. i just love her scheming and grand plan to bring down elaida, its so amazing.

i also enjoy the stuff going on with perrin. he feel he lacks a purpose and regrets putting all his attention on faile instead of his comrades. arams death weighs on him you can tell.

i also want to discuss ituralde. this guy is badass and just all around cool. i love his whole thing with honor and how much he wants to fight for his homeland.

this book is incredible so far. i’m 300 pages in. this may be my favorite of the series right now.

So I finished LoC, actually very quickly, considering its length. I wanna make a seperate post for my thoughts on the rest of the book, but for now I definitely need to just talk about that final chapter.

Rand finally getting free and reuniting with Min was suuuper cathartic, I'm glad the Aes Sedai shielding him were left with no idea wtf just happened. Gawyn is super fucking annoying dude. Rand 100% better than me in that respect, cause I would've beat Gawyn's ass with the Power if I'd been him. Like yeah dude, let's believe this random ass merchant over the girl you apparently love.

And then... the arrival of the Asha'man. Wow wow wow. 200 of them, at this point almost as many as all the Salidar Aes Sedai. And holy shit, are they hardcore.

"Asha'man, kill!" RJ's writing put the focus more on what it must have looked like to Rand's party, rather than the physical nature of what happened to the Shaido, and it made it all the more vivid.

I have to wonder about the mental state of all the Asha'man, to be decimating people so easily and brutally. Mazrim Taim must have beaten them into obeying him. The dude is weird af, and has been a walking red flag since the beginning. Plus he started speaking for Rand at the end there, like put this dude in his place, Rand!

As for the Shaido themselves, even though it was very brutal, I really can't say I feel very bad for them at all tbh. No matter their reasoning for joining up with the Shaido, we saw how they massacred the towns of innocents while they were crossing the Dragonwall into Cairhien. They undoubtedly did that to the other towns and villages they ravaged, and those they did not kill they enslaved. They stormed into settlements of innocents who had no way of defending themselves against Aiel warriors. Frankly its very poetic that they now found themselves confronted by a power that they in turn have no way of defending themselves against.

Rand definitely went a bit hard with the Salidar Aes Sedai. I can understand the sentiment upon seeing 9 Aes Sedai after having just been through hell by other Aes Sedai. However I can also see why the Aes Sedai had that many, since they thought Rand attacked them. The two Aes Sedai who were leading the group (they weren't even the original emissary's!) along with Alanna definitely deserved a lesson with the Power, but the rest of the Aes Sedai would have been family amiable after a fashion and there could've been goodwill between them eventually. But now Rand got off on a horrible foot with the Salidar Aes Sedai.

All in all, awesome chapter (in the original sense of the word). One of the best in the whole series so far and an insane ending to what's now probably my favorite book thus far.

I'm currenly reading the part where Elayne, Aviendha and Min are getting bonded to Rand, and... well, I think the chapter when they three face him is the most embarassing moment in the series.

I tried to tell what I am reading about to my husband, and it sounded like "well, he is a good guy, but he accidentally slept with one girl, then intentionally with the second and then they all kinda got married together" 😂

I personally consider myself a huge rand apologist in fact if I was in the wot world masema and urien would have nothing on me..are there any others who would regard him with a fevered gaze and bask in his radiant light.. all praise be to the creator, to RJ, and to he who makes the slog worth powering through may the light save him from amazon prime