cannoli-reader

[cannoli-reader]

Have...have you ever met an adult, mature, grown-up pregnant woman?

This is what they say out loud. All the time. Elayne is only thinking it. And she does take responsibility. She is constantly thinking about what she needs to do to protect and care for the children. In fact, it will later turn out that she is letting people, including her subordinates, put her through an awful lot of bullshit in the name of her children's welfare. Elayne, more than any other character (except maybe her kids' father) is all about responsibility and conscientious about discharging hers. She even admits to herself that these thoughts are illogical. But feelings don't have to make sense, nor do private thoughts. What matters is her actions and Elayne always acts on her values and conscience, rather than her impulses and desires.

This is the source of her frustration, that all these women, some of whom are her subjects or employees, and others, like the woman whose overly familiar and unwarranted commentary on her pregnancy, are not close friends or family or have enough of a relationship with her to offer this sort of unsolicited input.

Elayne is also a person who understands propriety and boundaries and rules, and people are trampling all over personal boundaries to interject their two cents into her personal life, in a way that it gratuitous and insulting. Her entire life is about her duties. What she thinks of as a break, or recreation, is a research project for one of her jobs, in moments stolen from another one. Elayne knows what she needs to do, she does whatever is required of her, and meets her obligations and duties. But all of a sudden everyone in the world feels like they can remind her or boss her around like a disobedient child.

And at this point in the story, she's been putting up with this nonsense for weeks, when under normal circumstances, she would only just now be becoming aware of the possibility of her pregnancy, and deciding whom she will tell and how and when. She would not have been subjected to a prenatal health regimen drawn from old wise tales. The only choice Elayne got regarding her pregnancy was to engage in the act of conception. She did not get a choice about sharing the news, or who was allowed to know, she did not get a choice about how to deal with it, all of which are essential components of privacy and body autonomy.

So yeah, Elayne has a lot of good reasons to be annoyed and frustrated and even to feel a bit violated. And she isn't lashing out at the people who are intruding themselves into her personal space and lifestyle, but what she does do, is focus on Rand as a coping mechanism. Rand not present, so there is no temptation to lash out at him, and given her feelings for him, she's more likely to forgive him or let it slide when they are reunited.

And we've seen something like this before, with the issue of Rand saying he'd give her the Lion Throne, and causing all sorts of problems for her in Caemlyn, with the implications that statement had for the issue of sovereignty. She had all sorts of annoyance and irritation in her head directed at Rand for causing those problems. She also blamed Rand for her ordeal in apologizing to Mat, in order to keep Aviendha's respect. Where was any of that when they met? Did she call him to account for any of the things for which she blamed him? Did she fault him for his involving her in a polygamous relationship? Nope.

It's all just a mental distraction she uses to remind herself that she is in a relationship with Rand, that the thing she most wanted but felt the least power to effect, is real and they are together. Her problems are Rand's problems and vice versa. Asserting Rand's culpability is a reminder of the happy aspect of her current ordeal - she might be wading through a ton of bullshit, but the only reason this is the case, is because she and Rand are together.

When she is saying "Rand did this to me," she is reminding herself, "At least I have Rand to do this to me." And quite possibly, "Whatever, bitches, I get the Dragon Scepter!"

“Oh, how [Elayne] wished Rand were near enough to share the full effect of her bond with him. That would teach him to get her with child so carelessly. Of course, she could have drunk the heartleaf tea before lying with him—she pushed that thought away firmly. This was all Rand’s fault, and that was that.”

—

I cannot express how tired I am of Elayne. I want to enjoy and be interested in her fight for the throne, but good fucking god. I am sick of this mentality. I am sick of her not taking responsibility for these kids. I am sick of seeing her act so childish.

She WANTED Rand’s babies. She WANTED sexytimes. She DIDN’T drink the tea. Yet here she is AGAIN refusing responsibility and throwing it all on Rand.

THERE ARE TWO CONSENTING PARTIES IN THIS ACT, IT’S NOT RAND’S “FAULT” THAT SHE’S PREGNANT.

This after she outright screamed in the middle of the hall. I get hormones and stress, and I cannot imagine what it takes to do all this and want to mourn your mother. But I feel I am still REALLY waiting to see Elayne grow the hell up.

(via page537)

[cannoli-reader]

He wears socks & boots, he's not a filthy hobbit.

Ive been listening to Wheel of Time and finished the first book. I wanted to do a rough sketch of Loial. I might come back and actually design something, I kinda went with first idea ive been imagining when I listened to the book but not necessarily the final design Id go with.

[cannoli-reader]

"Modern retelling" and it's a blatant misinterpretation of the original text

[cannoli-reader]

It's also similar to a chapter title in LoC, Chapter 8 "The Storm Gathers."

I disagree that it suits the story. What exactly was happening for the prior 11 books & two years? The storm is only now gathering (actually, RJ thought it was gathering halfway back)? Maybe "The Breaking Storm" would be a better one.

Personal note, after the title was announced, I posted a review of "The Gathering Storm" (by Churchill) on a Wheel of Time message board. It was taken down by the mods not long after. I thought it was funny.

I like The Gathering Storm’s title. It suits the story and it also sounds like a WOT book. If the scale from the least literal title to the the most literal goes from Knife of Dreams to The Great Hunt, TGS falls somewhere in the middle.

However, The Gathering Storm certainly seems to be the least unique of all the WOT titles. It’s also the title of a film featuring a popular actor, a volume about WWII by Winston Churchill, several novels and a fan film. 

I’m sure it isn’t the only WOT book to share it’s title with other things, but I’m not used to them turning up in, let alone dominating, search results…

[cannoli-reader]

Robert Jordan admitted that the bearded man statue is his self-insert cameo.

But more importantly AVIENDHA CAN READ TER’ANGREAL

The e-book ter’angreal is the COOLEST damn thing.

(Think it has Wheel of Time? :D So meta)

[cannoli-reader]

This is what I always think of when people talk about the kids being more adult on the show. They are less intelligent, less sophisticated, and less emotionally adept at coping with situations, generally responding to any given issue in a petty, selfish or self-gratifying way. But they have sex, so they are more adult.

One of the few places where they elided a conflict, rather than invent things for them to fight over, is when Perrin expresses gratitude for the fire Egwene channels to make after escaping Shadar Logoth. It's good, because you see, a Man ain't Holding No Strong Woman Back! He's being supportive, he's being a good Ally. Because like so many shallow writers, they are incapable of servicing more than one character at once. Perrin & Egwene fighting over her channeling to light a fire illustrates important things about BOTH characters. Egwene is always pushing forward, and trying to climb the ladder, striving for more power and agency, and resisting anything that smacks of restraint. Perrin is all about care and caution and not doing inadvertent harm, with his size, his strength or his dangerous job handling fire and iron and heavy tools. These traits are fundamental to both their natures and will inform choices they make for the rest of the series. It's not about who is right (Perrin) or wrong (Egwene), it's about their respective points of view.

Interestingly, Egwene & Perrin remain friends despite this fight. Perrin defends her to Elyas when Elyas suspects Perrin sees her as a liability, and later, back home, dealing with the Aes Sedai who have come, he relies on Egwene's assessment of Alanna, and also, we see that Egwene has talked about the Aes Sedai to Perrin. What's the better relationship, which one is more adult - where they have no disputes and agree on everything and later on, we discover that the supportive male friend has a crush on her, or where they disagree on a course of action, because they have very strong beliefs about action and power, and in spite of that disagreement, are still able to work together, and trust one another in the future?

What was the point of keeping rand/egwene romantically? having them sleep together to make them more 'adult' (idk how that makes someone more adult but ok) when they're obviously not keeping it. did we really need to spend SO MUCH TIME of two seasons putting them at the forefront as a romantic leading couple when it's just not going to be there anymore? (sure it's in the book but they changed just about everything else anyways?) and then they put Perrin and Egwene? like wtf? for what? Why do we need that when we ARE confirmed for Perrin & Faile? Makes no sense? (besides that literally makes Perrin...kind of an asshole? everyone's always shitting on him in the book - for some reason - when he's literally the worst to his wife in the show?

[cannoli-reader]

You fools! Why did you not do as I did and purchase each book the very day it came out, starting with Book 6? Waiting outside the bookstore for it to open from Book 7 on (stopped at Book 13, Sanderson wasn't worth getting up that early for, but still acquired on Day of...). Unfortunately, tFoH & LoC came out in November and my family has A Rule about making significant purchases for yourself from November until after Christmas (because my birthday is in the first week of January, I actually have to wait even longer - fortunately, I got both books for Christmas those years). I had to content myself with sneaking peaks at them in the bookstore, through November and December. I made it halfway through the prologue of LoC on two different trips.

Anyway, needless to say, no one spoiled any WoT books for me, thanks to my following this simple method.

Lmfao so on the Wheel of Time Subreddit and someone asks the question “What spoilers did you encounter before you finished the series?“ (obvious spoilers for all books) and I’m just scrolling down, feeling bad for people’s misfortune, and then

(/u/mistborn is Brandon Sanderson)

[cannoli-reader]

The concept of "haunting" in our Age, is the memory, altered by turnings of the Wheel, of this set of events.

TIDBITS AND FUN № 227

LORD OF CHAOS

Barthanes’s manor (where he was killed by a gholam in The Great Hunt) gets turned into a school by Rand in Lord Of Chaos, after which Herid Fel (a researcher at the school) also gets killed by a gholam in the same building.

[cannoli-reader]

She's also the stand-in for every victim of the arch-villains. She is taken advantage of, poorly served and neglected by her Aes Sedai allies after decades of loyalty, abused & controlled by the Forsaken, held as a political hostage by the Children of the Light, tortured and raped by a crooked leader & the Questioners, ended up a refugee on the road, gets hunted by the Prophet's lunatics and enslaved by the Shaido. How many millions of nameless & faceless people in WoT ended up in one of those situations? Morgase is the face of all of them, and her survival, her providing the critical help to save her party at the very end, in the final crisis, before her identity is revealed, is how the series shows us that these people matter, and give the mass of them a win. Two different villains are slain to avenge Morgase's death (neither of whom killed her, or wanted her dead), resulting in a positive change of power, as an example of how people can matter. She loves her children and so they love her, and because of those relationships, Rahvin & Valda go down, in one of WoT's many thematic examples of love overcoming miscommunication and bad information. You could take her out of the story or kill her at Rahvin's hands instead of having him send her to her room, and most of the major battles and political conflicts would not be changed, but WoT would not be the same story without her.

Morgase is one of my favorite minor characters in the books. I find her so interesting, both as a subversion of the dead-parent trope, an example of a character finding strength when everything has been taken from them, and also as a case study in how even just a little bit of the one power can greatly affect a person, but also how her relationship with the Tower is complicated as a monarch, a former novice, and mother to a future Aes Sedai who has gone missing. I think she is such an interesting character and emblematic of how Robert Jordan gives so much humanity and depth to minor characters who would be written off or one dimensional in other series.

[cannoli-reader]

Wheel of Time just can't be translated properly into Bulgarian, because it was written by a man who lived in a state and a country whose capitals were named after men. Bulgaria's capital is a woman's name.

A fish cannot teach a bird to fly, nor a bird teach a fish to swim.

remember that one time rand tried to tell a joke

[cannoli-reader]

I think it might be that the way her hair is gathered back into her braid makes it look like she has pointy ears. She's also holding the arrow improperly, but I wouldn't gig any artist over finger positionings, until I can draw hands, period.

Another datum is that she is left-handed in this picture, and no hero is left-handed, nor would such a person be chosen by the Pattern to fight the Shadow. Left-handers are the only Shadowspawn still remaining from when the Dark One was defeated how many Ages ago.

Also, Birgitte shows off cleavage, because she's a woman, and proud of it. She does NOT show off her calves, because she's not a slut.

Birgitte Silverbow from Wheel of time. There is something wonky with it.. not sure why. 

[cannoli-reader]

And they are the two Emond's Field characters most prone to quoting or recalling their parents' teaching or guidance.

TIDBITS AND FUN № 224

Mat never shared any “on-page” time with his father, mother or sisters in the entire series. Same for Egwene and her family.

[cannoli-reader]

Without judgement against any of these suggestions, I would just like to point out that the initial protagonist of "The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan, is a 19 year old man. The series expands to include as leads, two other men his age, a woman in her mid twenties and two more women in their late teens. It sold 90 million copies and is one of the greatest series of speculative fiction.

It was adapted into a streaming show, in which they transferred the focus of the story to a 42 year old woman. It is a steaming dumpster fire of incoherent dialogue, inconsistent settings, plot contrivances and spectacle supplanting characterization.

The kids have more going for them than just hot bods.

For the love of all that’s holy, can anyone give me book recs for fantasy/paranormal/sci-fi books where the woman protagonist is over 35?!? Over 40 would be even better. I am so GAWD DAMN tired of every book I come scrolling across is some 17-22 yr old. Holy fuck.

[cannoli-reader]

Where are these problems Morgase is having with captivity?

"Unlike Alliandre, the golden-haired woman had grown tougher by the day since their capture. She was no less desperate, but she seemed to focus it all into determination. She always had a presence that belonged more to a queen..."

In case the OP has forgotten, Maighdin is actually Morgase. Immediately after being punished by Therava, the most fearsome of the Wise Ones, she is still clear-headed, and keeping focused on the issue of their conspiracy being exposed, counting her own sufferings as a minor detail next to the fact that her purpose had not been discovered. Then she goes on to ask Galina about the Cleansing, without bothered with honorifics.

If Morgase had still been a queen and was captured alongside people she was responsible for... she might have shown a different side of herself while a captive.

What would that different side be, exactly?

Coping with Captivity

I’ve been thinking about why Faile seems to cope much better with being captured by the Shaido than Alliandre and Morgase do. They’re all nobility, members of their ruling family of their respective countries - yet Faile is the one who is planning their escape attempt and having people swear allegiance to her! But I’ve decided that this is makes a lot of sense.

1. Faile is young and innocent - comparatively speaking. The other two women have more experience, but this has taught them that life can be harsh. They’ve fallen from great heights. (I can’t remember enough about the political situation in Ghealdan to know if Alliandre’s throne is retrievable but Morgase’s certainly isn’t. Rahvin forced her to burn too many bridges.) Morgase has had a very traumatic time at the hands of Rahvin, and Alliandre has been assaulted once in the Shaido camp. On top of that, neither of them have a clue how to be a servant and so they’re frequently punished for being amongst those who least pleased Sevanna.  Consequently, they’re a lot more fragile emotionally and physically than Faile. Faile has been more fortunate and that makes it easier to be optimistic - to be convinced that she will escape. It’s her certainty and optimism that others respond to.

Keep reading

[cannoli-reader]

My favorite bit in tGH is where she is actually helping Rand in his audience with the Amyrlin.

"Her words trailed off and she became flustered. Moiraine and the Amyrlin were staring at her without expression.

"Rand took the interruption to try to regain some control of himself."

It's the only thing she says when he is in the room, but it gives him a break from the psychological assault the other two are hammering him with.

She speaks up again after he leaves, starting to speculate about gentling him before 'suddenly' realizing that they can't gentle him, because he has to fulfil the prophecies, just in case you two idiot children forgot that.

When they are all reunited in Cairhien, too, she is much more subtly helpful to Rand, encouraging him to take the lead and to act the way he did with the Amyrlin, saying if he's that arrogant, he'll pass as a lord no matter what he's wearing. Moiraine and most other Aes Sedai would be taking point on the operation, but when Mat complains about being a servant, she points out how much more freedom he will have being ignored by the nobles. Giving away trade secrets, Verin? And nearly every other sister would be making a dig at least about his being arrogant and trying to correct that wrt Aes Sedai at least. Even Egwene has that mindset. But Verin cites his arrogant conduct in an approving context.

She also not-so-subtly drops hints to Rand about channeling and the power, such as her little briefing on the Choedan Kal and rambling speculations about how the damane might be able to sense a man channeling in Falme. And of course, is pushing to fit everything into the Prophecies as well, with her cutting off the party going into Falme at five, like Vandene quoted to Moiraine earlier in the book for the readers' edification.

She does a lot of the same stuff in Emond's Field, such as the wolf banner, or when she asks Perrin when he's going to fulfil the prophecy the Seanchan will later quote to him in KoD. And this comes right after saying she wished she could split up and follow each of the three ta'veren around, in response to Perrin teasing her about missing the main act with Rand. Saying that Mat & Perrin are just as interesting as Rand, and then jumping immediately to the question about the hammer when Perrin mentions his marriage ... she was absolutely thinking of the couplet about the fox marrying the raven and the wolf king carrying a hammer. And knows to whom they are referring. And of course, her "interesting" reaction to the Trollocs shouting "Isam." She quoted the lines about Luc & Isam in tGH and asked Lord Luc if he was from the Borderlands (because we ever see ANY redheads among Borderlanders?).

She knows everything and she is 100% on Team Ta'veren. Moiraine & Siuan are pawns in her game. Which in turn explains her absolute best line of the series.

So. Moiraine dead, Siuan dead, the White Tower broken and Rand possibly on the edge of madness. Verin tsked irritably.

From that moment on, absolutely everything Verin does is aimed at interfering with any Aes Sedai plans to control Rand. She encourages the embassy to challenge him, despite her experience with Rand. She is pissed about the Aes Sedai bringing him to the Tower, and Compels all the captive loyalists to swear to him. Apparently, there was a lot of discussion among the initial party to swear which resulted in them all agreeing they were bound by the Oaths. I wonder who guided them to that conclusion? And then, when Cadsuane shows up in Cairhien, Verin obtains some sleeping medicine from the Wise Ones and is about to fatally dose Cadsuane, until the other woman states that she has no intention of stopping Rand from doing whatever he wants, in fact, that she doesn't care what he does as long as he lets Cadsuane stay close enough to teach him laughter and tears.

She is almost literally Rand's guardian angel in dealing with the Aes Sedai. Whatever she told Moiraine & Siuan (I tend to think she is telling the truth about the Trolloc prophecies), it was for the purpose of shaping their intentions with Rand & the others.

Verin skirting her vows while relaying the dark prophecies to Siuan and Moiraine is pure gold. "Oh, I can't say that these are prophecies. Could be anything really. Let me recite them line by line. Now I will interpret each line for you, but with lots of qualifying doubt markers. You have to draw your own conclusions, you see. Could just be poetry after all."

Pure comedy gold. I love Verin so much.

[cannoli-reader]

Maybe not, but it seems to be the only relief from an extant system of government, which is basically an elite oligarchy, that strictly oppresses the population, depriving them of basic civil rights and setting the various working class neighborhoods against one another to maintain their own power.

I love how people use that "no basis for a system of government" joke to mock relatively benevolent heroes coming to power in a world of brutal aristocratic domination, as if these magic-sword-indicated leaders are interfering in the development of a constitutional republic or townhall democracy.

King Arthur made a round table paying lip service to the idea of equality among an organization of people nominally selected for merit as well as birth or rank, and Rand al'Thor made the aristocracy liable for crimes against the common folk and cut the taxes they imposed on the working class.

Magic swords work better than a ballot box.

[cannoli-reader]

And the thing with Charn is that Lanfear is simply not a good enough actor to fake something like "not being evil" for more than a few minutes of exposure.

I don't think though, that she was willing to let it go. I would bet that in the back of her head, part of her was thinking "Wait until I present my paper on/demonstrate this new power men and women can both wield. Lews Therin will know he picked the wrong woman!"

I really wonder if Mierin was just a mostly normal woman, who was disappointed about losing a long-term relationship but was willing to let it go....and then she opened the Bore and got a facefull of pure evil, which dug into her deepest vulnerability and turned her into the bizzaro jealous, power-hungry freak we encounter in the books.