[Abyss]

The 'this WoT character irritated me' thing has always amused me because it's so polarizing, so many people seem to hate one of two characters for the entire series to the point of ignoring, or not giving any credit, to either author for the character growth along the way.

Fair to say most of the cast bugged me at some point - oddly enough never Nynaeve - but not right through, and i'd argue when they did that was because they were supposed to. I don't think we're supposed to adore Faile when she first shows up, which makes the story of

Spoiler

her falling for Perrin, winning him over, then taking over all the crap in his life that he's so bad at so he can actually be good at something

that much better. Elayne does dumb shit. She's a 17ish year old girl who

Spoiler

suddenly becomes a wizard and a queen and falls in love and her mom shags an agent of evil... of course she fucks up spectacularly... so when she pulls it all together and leads

, it is awesome. Rand... Rand is inherently likeable and sympathetic to start to series, so

Spoiler

his shift into 'i am a big stupid rock that kills stuff' is wildly frustrating. It also makes the glimpses of the original kid borderline precious and the hints that he's actually trying not to die

that much more interesting.

Point being i've never found the characters so static that they 'deserve' the level of perpetual hate/dislike/irritation some seem to place on them.

[worry]

Abyss, on 19 December 2023 - 03:23 PM, said:

The 'this WoT character irritated me' thing has always amused me because it's so polarizing, so many people seem to hate one of two characters for the entire series to the point of ignoring, or not giving any credit, to either author for the character growth along the way.

Haha you're quite right. I didn't mind any of these characters -- I mean up to a point, since every character can be kinda annoying, so I just accepted that early.

But the only one who would be nails on a chalkboard to me was Mat.

[Macros]

Ivd decided to hurt myself and reread

[Tiste Simeon]

Macros, on 02 January 2024 - 07:38 PM, said:

Ivd decided to hurt myself and reread

Yes we can suffer together!

[Macros]

Starting with new spring though, have never actually read it

[Macros]

New Spring actually wasn't too bad, overly flowery description of clothes wnd the bizarre fascination on women showing any part of their flesh aside.
25% in eye of the world and I sort of recall why I enjoyed the start of series.
It sets up well and gets things moving at a right clip, and the opening with Lews insanity is actually well done

[Macros]

so,

eye of the world.

Its actually a solid enough story, characters annoyance is dialled way back and believable, aloof Aes Sedai and jolted farmer youngsters.
Padan Fain and the children of light come across much more solid this time for me, possibly because I know more of them?

on to the great hunt

[Tiste Simeon]

Are you reading them one straight after the other? I can't do it I need things in between...

[Macros]

Eh

I'd say I'll break it into groups of 3 or 4

The Great Hunt was solid enough, a bit of the annoying character traits starting to surface.
A lot more noticeable in the Dragon reborn, about 30% into it.

A lot stuff is hand waved away due to ta'veren but a lot of stuff is just blatant stupidity causing problems that makes me break the suspension of disbelief some times.

And of course all women are enigmas and men wool headed idiots

Nyneave tugged her braid

[Tiste Simeon]

I'm coming up to the end of what I'm currently reading and I must say I'm not that enthralled about getting back into this series. I'm going to go ahead with The Shadow Raising because I want to keep at it but this is the longest one I think so we shall see if I can endure.

[Macros]

We have a Faile!

[Macros]

I don't recall rand going bananas this early though

[Abyss]

Macros, on 15 January 2024 - 07:52 PM, said:

I don't recall rand going bananas this early though

He's just a little bananas to start. We only get full fruit loops around book 5.

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah I never quite got the "Rand was here so everyone got married" or "Rand was here and now everyone is dead" or whatever happened in those villages. I guess the taint of the source?

[Cyphon]

It's more supposed to be his extreme Ta'vern-Ness stretching possibility to extreme positions.

He doesn't really get his Ta'verness working for him directly for a little while.

[Macros]

The dark side really are just cartoon villainous dumb sometimes with their pointless scheming
80% in and they could have the south wrapped up already if they weren't such dickheads.

[Abyss]

Macros, on 16 January 2024 - 07:57 AM, said:

The dark side really are just cartoon villainous dumb sometimes with their pointless scheming
80% in and they could have the south wrapped up already if they weren't such dickheads.

The scheming is kind of the point. If they weren't wrapped up in competing w each other for Daddy Dark One's Favorite they would have done exactly that. Half of them were even scheming against the DO. The story needed a subplot to explain why they ever lost.

[Macros]

Finished book 3

The first 3 books all had great wrap ups, the last 15% of basically all 3 is page turning stuff, the girls not thanking Mat for saving still just jars so badly at piss poor characterisation and is part of the highlight reel of "oh stupid men" and "oh I don't understand women" that plagues the series.
Faile is a douche, you should have let her sleep Perrin.

Morainnes a bad ass, Nyneave can tug her braid all she wants the silly tart.

Aiel are over powered in this one, the Aiel war would have been over in a month given that they dish out damage literally 10 to 1 in close combat and Aes Sedai only offered up healing.

Overall, the first 3 books offer up a solid, if tired in places, Trilogy, had the held off with the dump trucks of cash and Jordan had rattled the series out in 3 tight trilogies or 2 bumpers it could be held up as a great, alas, I know what is coming.

On to Shadow Rising


its like reaching for Siadin, the taint is there.....

[Macros]

I'll spoiler from here on out, I can se me holding through straight until book 6 then taking a break

[Abyss]

For what it's worth i suspect that if the gaps between books had been shorter the 6-20 slog would not have been nearly as infuriating.

Read without a forced pause i would guess and have heard that it's not nearly as bad.