#talker32332post

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Turns out this post is about how many Aes Sedai are evil but I fully thought this was about to be a discussion of how many are gay lmao

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- Robert Jordan

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Something I love so much about team RWBY, aside from the fact that they are all best friends and basically literal soulmates, is that they’ve all seen each other at their absolute worst. Ruby when she finally snapped and broke down in volume 9. Weiss throughout volume 1 when she was still being kind of a bitch and hadn’t gotten past her learned prejudices about the Faunus. Blake for a long time when she was closed off and kept running away and was unwilling to just talk to her team (for understandable reasons, from her perspective). Yang when she was angry and impulsive and kept acting without thinking, especially after she lost her arm. They’ve all seen each other throughout all this and never loved any of the others any less. That’s what makes them so special to me

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I am 7 books into the wheel of time, so I am aware that there is a lot of time for things to change. However one of the dynamics that I find most fascinating, most funny, most real, and so often makes me want to tear my hair out in this series so far is how the people consistently putting in the MOST work against the Light are never actually Darkfriends - it’s always the people who think they’re doing things for the forces of the Light themselves.

My man Jaichim Carridin has been at the scene of the crime for like, 4 separate books now (??) and has YET to get a single W against Rand and homies. Meanwhile Pedron Niall sending hordes of fake “Dragonsworn” to terrorize the southwest has done as much to destabilize things as arguably any Forsaken! And this is the guy who is ostensibly leading the defense against the Shadow! It’s just great commentary on how intentions are not always what matters at the end of the day - just because we think we are doing good doesn’t mean that we are, as human beings with all our flaws.

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(AMOL and full wot series spoilers ahead!)

I’ve seen a lot of discussion about Sanderson Complaints since I finished the series, but I’ve yet to see discussion about one of the bits he wrote that most bugged me. It’s a minor thing comparably, but it’s this passage (detailed discussion beneath cut):

So what’s wrong with this?

1. The biggest thing here - this is a such a brutal example of Sanderson’s complete lack of subtlety as a writer and storyteller. This is a massive underlying theme of Rand’s arc and what Jordan was building up to saying about the struggle against evil both in the real world and in this series. This is the Wheel of Time’s big demonstration of the common theme of “evil defeats itself” (to put it most straightforwardly). This is something that I feel Jordan had set up to be most effectively realized by readers when ruminating on Rand’s relationship to channeling, and to madness and to the Dark One. It fits perfectly with his themes of the fundamental ineffectiveness of evil and the wheel weaving as it wills - things may turn out to have a purpose in the grand tapestry of the universe that individuals cannot see. I think it’s supposed to be this big coming together of a lot of the themes of this series all at once, for readers who have spent 14 odd books with this story, and that’s what makes it so well set up and so rewarding. And Sanderson just…comes out and states it. And then-

2. How he states it. If it had been done with any gravitas I may not have been so annoyed by this. But it’s not enough for him to have Rand explicitly state one of the main underlying subtle points of his arc, no, he has him say it out loud as though we should all be so IMPRESSED. Isn’t this so CRAZY? Aren’t I so CLEVER? This isn’t the culmination of a carefully constructed 14 book long arc and story, no, it’s a fun little connection Rand and I made!

3. The cherry on top - Perrin’s reaction, in universe, of whistling like an idiot because even HE is oh so impressed with this. Since when is Perrin so impressed by stuff like this anyway?

Robert Jordan trusted his readers and I never quite felt Sanderson did, and in not doing so, he reduces the writing’s effectiveness. This is just my least favorite example of it. It’s my biggest complaint with him as an author and clashes terribly with the wheel of time, a series so predicated on subtlety and trusting your audience to pick up on it.

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Rand al’Thor for 5 books:

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What if we were childhood friends/crushes turned respectively powerful narrative foils/reflections of each other haha…unless…

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The concept of Ituralde and Bashere reuniting after the Last Battle and sharing in the experience of being Compelled. Both admitting to each other that they have a hard time sleeping or trusting their decision making or relinquishing control in any way because what if their minds somehow still aren’t their own? Can they ever lead armies again or be of service in the same way? The discussing of the fact that at the most important time in history for their skills to be useful they weren’t able to be…the undeserved guilt they both must feel. The two of them being the only ones who can understand the fear and bonding deeply over it…..if nobody writes it I may have to