I just finished book #10 of Robert Jordan's stupid series.

Mat seems a shorthand sketch at this point - trying to get laid, trying to get money, and trying to get away from those who use the power, in that order. He and Nynaeve (had to copy that from upthread - I don't know any of the spelling!) have the worst internal monologues. I swear they are just cut and pasted from book to book.

Yeah, later on he turns into a human being but he is so obviously a placeholder at the beginning of the series it's kind of comical.

(At least Nynaeve had Lan to humanize her somewhat early on.)

The Lan thing is good so far, but her "pull braid, I don't snore, in the dreamworld I can't control myself" shtick is poor characterization. Of course, I'm listening to them because I like the world, the way the power works, and the plot, not for the mostly wooden protagonists.

A slight peeve: by book 5, is anyone reading it that hasn't read the first 4? Do you need to continue to recap each characters quirks and foibles? You could cut hundreds of pages from this series just by doing that little bit of editing.

mat is great, his development as a character wasn't entirely out of nowhere (it is hinted at early on - his visit with the aelfin was in book 1, wasn't it? also his struggle with the cursed dagger [although at the time it seemed a really blatant frodo/the one ring ripoff]), but especially in the last half of the series he has become one of the more interesting characters, and at least one of the most fun to read being the only character besides maybe thom merillin to have a sense of humor whatsoever.

rand losing his hand is exactly the WOT equivalent of fonzi jumping the shark though imo

I'm not disputing that the seeds for Mat's characterization aren't sown early on; I'm saying Jordan put them there and then said "now let me spend 7000 pages writing about everyone else before going back and making Mat tolerable".

absolutely...one of the reasons perrin has been such an interesting character is that his story has developed at a fair pace (except book 6 or 7? which left him out entirely), unlike pretty much anyone else in the series; the wolfbrother stuff earlier in the series, his return to the two rivers (highlight of wot for me), his marriage to faile, also didn't he make some kind of deal with the seanchan in 11?

matt didnt fuck w/ the door ter'angreal until book 4 ~~~ first two books dude is just a plot contrivance just a way to get rand doing shit. matt didnt even get a pov until book 3 and hes not really interesting until he starts sleepen with that queen in like book 7

Rand is pretty great but I like Lews Therin more. I see this as a big flaw with Rand.

no way, the turnaround in the mat storyline was definitely when he came out of the eelfin ter'angreal with all those old dead dude's memories

xpost i was sort of under the impression that rand's 'relationship' with lews therin would change when he cleansed saidin but i guess that didn't happen did it

rand is the inverse of matt he starts out reasonably interesting and slowly become more and more of a total joke and non-entity

nick yah i guess the battle where he 1st shows off his skillz as a general is a big turning point he has to face being tied to rand and the pattern no matter what he does but that not until the end of book 5 and hes not really in book 6 much

They're hinting that the Rand/Lews Therin thing is more related to whatever the deep ancient power that saidir and saidin are pale reflections of.

Mat didn't start getting interesting until after he met Tuon; there were all of these things that should have been interesting about him but the character was too busy going "LOOK AT ME, I AM A MASSIVE TOOL" to capitalize on them.

mat will always be more compelling than rand imho.

rand is the inverse of matt he starts out reasonably interesting and slowly become more and more of a total joke and non-entity

This is pretty OTM.

Perrin got pretty annoying in the last few books i thought, the storyline with him chasing the Shaido seemed to go on forever

tell me you guys are talking about dennis perrin

while its true that dennis perrin is a werewolf no we r not

best ta'veren is probably egwene as mentioned upthread

oh shit forgot she's also ta'veren...is nynaeve also?

OH big question here: can't remember for sure but isn't thom merilin actually elayne's father??

implied but not confirmed iirc

i dont think its verified but thats the cw xp

egwene isnt really ta'veren shes just my favorite EF character. of the three mat's probably my pick

do u guys have a favorite angreal in the story i am partial to the weird doorway (obvs) and the balefire rod but i am curious as to your more invested opinions.

not really angreal but the whole portal stone thing was a++++ and one of my favorite things in the series

the protective get-ups the nynaeve and the other powerful AS has are pretty cool

protective get ups? maybe i didn't read that far or have forgotten. i liked the rings that make them go to the dreamworld too cuz dream worlds are A++

foxhead medallion pretty punk too.

cadsuane! thats the other one. have u got the cleansing yet? i think thats really the first time they're mentioned

nynaeves is a set of rings connected to a bracelet and a belt i think that has a well and can null the power like mat's foxhead and detect channeling and is also an angreal. might do other things.

cadsuanes is a set of charms connected to like a headband and each of the charms does something similar to nynaeve's jewelery

bowl of the winds!

dreamworld rings
the Seanchan collars
the bowl(?) they used to change the weather

ha i could c+p that to the taco hot dog thread and it would be relavent.

xp

holy shit i forgot all about the collars!!!!!

seanchan collars are fuuuccccked. like when the darkfriends have them on people and they just fuckin em up. bowl of the winds was awesome yes.

i did get to the cleansing but srsly haven't picked up these books for years and years so i'm forgetting things.

i keep poking around for a copy of the eye of the world. i always see it at thrift stores around here. must.. begin.. re-read..

those collars made the largest impression on me of all of them tbh

bowl of winds was ~shrug~ but when elayne unravels a gateway and basically napalms the seanchan was sick

Who (besides Rand) has killed the most people?

Padan Fain likes the odd massacre doesn't he?

Yeah, but a whole bunch of them (heroes and villains) are pretty bloodthirsty.

didn't mat blowing the horn result in like thousands of dead seanchan?

elayne killed a few thousand seanchan + all those soliders died @ caemlyn on her behalf (dont know if that counts)

Shaido forces

* 100,000 Shaido led by Sevanna of the Jumai sept.
* 400+ Wise Ones capable of channelling, led by Thevara.
* 25-30,000 other Aiel forces (presumed to be Shaido) to the west of Malden.
* 40,000 other Aiel forces (presumed to be Shaido) to the east of Malden.

[edit] Allied forces

* 15,000 Seanchan led by Banner-General Tylee Khirgan and Captain Bakayar Mishima.
* 12 Seanchan damane.
* 20,000 Dragonsworn under Masema Dagar.
* 900 Winged Guards of Mayene under Lord-Captain Bertain Gallenne.
* 1,000 Legion of the Wall of Ghealdan under First Captain Gerard Arganda.
* 3,000-4,000 Two Rivers bowmen under First Captain Tam al'Thor.
* 20+ Cha Faile, mostly Cairhienin, under Selande Darengil.
* 20 Aiel Maidens of the Spear under Sulin.
* 6 Wise Ones under Edarra of the Shiande Aiel.
* 3 Aes Sedai.
* 2 Asha'man.

[edit] Casualties

* 400 Shaido Wise Ones taken as damane.
* Other Shaido casualties unknown but likely tens of thousands killed or captured.
* Approximately 19,800 Dragonsworn killed.
* Total casualties among the other Allies: approximately 100 killed.

wot.wikia.com is my new timekiller.

Why did I type Nynaeve into GIS

^^^ lol @ u

http://linuxmafia.com/~garrett/jordan/pics/jordan/art/be_nynaeve.jpg

I can't wait to create all of these characters in the Sims, though

2009
exterior, smoking area, northern virginia office park (somebody has mentioned robert jordan)
el tomboto:
magic is bad for you unless you have tits!!
coworker who put "sweat equity" into his wife's WoW main for an anniversary present:
not anymore, they fixed it in like, book seven

wot fan art is our dark century's brightest beacon of hope imo

that and the fact that govt tech nerds are keeping the plot on track

easily in my top five coworkers of all time btw

list thread?

more like cheetos equity rite???