#but elayne is still an amazing person

[iliiuan]

Elayne is an amazing character who I would absolutely hate in real life.

Just like… every time someone points out how Elayne makes bad decisions and is often kind of a shitty person I want to be like ‘yes and it makes me weirdly fond of her’.

I love that Elayne is Team Analyze The Evil Artifact To Figure Out How It Works. I love that Elayne makes increasingly questionable decisions because she knows she has Plot Armor. I love that Elayne is arrogant and clueless a lot of the time and doesn’t even notice it.

Elayne is flawed and I think her flaws are realistic and interesting. YMMV! It’s just that as I spend more and more time thinking about the obviously morally grey characters in WoT (and there are… many) I realize that the ta'veren and the supergirls are really not exempt from moral greyness either. Everybody in the series is making (often) bad decisions with (often) incomplete information and they’re all kind of terrible at one point or another, sometimes in ways the narrative highlights and sometimes in ways that are more idiosyncratic to the reader.

[mashithamel]

I was as frustrated as any every Nynaeve fan in 2x08 when Elayne had to prompt her to remember she was a Wisdom and could heal people without the One Power. Book Nynaeve doesn’t struggle with that, and it felt like the back half of the season just kept working to make Nynaeve look bad.

But then I started thinking about her overall arc, and about how eventually she’s in a cave, unable to use the One Power, and has to save a woman’s life to keep the world from literally ending if she doesn’t. This season, this episode, and this moment in particular could be a fabulous parallel/contrast to season 8 Nynaeve (willing it into being!!).

Season 2 Nynaeve is afraid of the power she could wield and doesn’t have a clue how she fits into the world any more. Like Moiraine said in 1x05, she can’t go back to who she was before, and she won’t be able to relate to the people she knew before in the same way. But she still hasn’t learned to appreciate it for the gift it is. Everyone has been telling her how special she is, but she hasn’t been able to demonstrate any actual results yet. In the arches she watches as everyone she loves is killed or lost because she’s unable to save them, with or without magic. And then in the back half of the season she trusts the wong person and gets betrayed, gets her best friend tortured and enslaved, accidentally exposes Ryma and she gets enslaved, and can’t seem to get back on the right foot from the moment she heads for Falme. Plus the bloody Daughter Heir of Andor got dragged along and gives her zero respect. She’s learned she really doesn’t know anything of this world and that it’s so much bigger than she thought. So when she’s faced with death and injury on the battlefield she’s paralyzed. She’s forgotten what’s she capable of, she’s afraid of failure, and she’s lost her confidence.

But season 8 Nynaeve will have mastered her powers, done the impossible more than once. She will have traveled the world and experienced so much of it. She will have been humbled by powerful women, and humbled powerful women herself. She will have earned her place in the world. And this time, when faced with the literal end of the world she will know that she is more than her magic powers and she won’t doubt or be paralyzed, she will be able to just act. And she’ll be amazing.

So, as a Nynaeve fan season 2 was disappointing in some ways. But I really, really hope that in the context of a full 8 seasons (it’s gonna happen!) it’ll make a lot of sense and make her growth believable. If that’s the way it goes, it’ll be so much more rewatchable and I might come to appreciate it.

[megamuscle885-blog]

kinda fucked up how egwene destroyed the confidence and social standing (between themselves) of a woman whom she trusted and respected, to the point that nynaeve has a massive crisis of self-confidence that may have contributed to her being beaten by moghedien, the whole deal with birgitte, and her decision to take the group to salidar and hand over her responsibilities and the threat of the forsaken in tel'aran'rhiod (though smart) in the hands of strange aei sedai who might not even support rand.

all so egwene can avoid punishment by the aiel for dreamwalking when she shouldn't be, because they would cease teaching her as per their threat, and rightly so. iirc she only ever decides that she needs to apologize for misleading them on being a full aei sedai (which is a pretty fucked up thing when everyone assumes everything you say is the whole truth, though the fact that egwene helped rand blow shit up at cairhien should've clued the aiel in that she's not bound by the three oaths like all tower trained aei sedai, and I am certain moraine must've brought that up at least once.) and only ever gets punished for her specific toh in that moment.

it is never reconciled, never apologized for, never explained, and egwene belittles nynaeve twice for almost revealing to the wise ones that she's dreamwalking. i don't think they see eachother again until egwene is in salidar and she is then raised to amyrlin seat, and then egwene places special emphasis on nynaeve not undermining her while she leads the rebel aei sedai.

worse still is how egwene's brow beating worked in preventing nynaeve from figuring out that egwene is hiding something from the aiel wise ones, especially after the blowup from egwene in front of amys, who egwene should really trust with anything said in tel'aran'rhiod, and nynaeve and elayne, who already know she's dreamwalking into elaida's study. its really emphasized a little later when nynaeve gets to salidar and shows that she's an incredibly smart person when she's not being rode over and bullied, and figures out the entire scheme between siuan and leane, something they're keeping from the salidar aei sedai so they can continue to manipulate them, practically instantly.

fucked up. sorry if anyone likes egwene particularly and is defensive regarding her, i like her too and she has many redeeming qualities and as many amazing accomplishments, but this is one of the many things that she's never apologized for. it shows more and more that her story is about a complete abandonment of emond's field to become the most aei sedai she can be, and she's certainly adopted bullying and brow beating to get her way in a topic she knew she shouldn't have gotten her way, but valued knowledge acquired through any means necessary over her personal relationships. the aiel aren't spared here either. she ferrets out their secrets, pushes dangerously far beyond what they've taught her and almost damages her relationship with them too when it becomes impossible to continue the lie.

she doesn't even reveal that she's an accepted until she's no longer going to be in the wise one's camp to learn from them, summoned to salidar, at which point there's no real punishment she can suffer from them, short of death, since she'll have learnt everything she can out of them and won't be able to learn anymore anyway, and despite all her talk of acting like an aiel and fulfilling her toh, I seriously doubt she would've calmly accepted death as her punishment if that was what the wise ones decided, even though any other aiel apprentice would have.

anyway, I know I'm not doing a liveblog, I'm just re-reading the wheel of time books and I'm almost finished with the fires of heaven (book 5). wanted to get this thought out there.

[iviarellereads]

The Eye of the World, Chapter 40 - The Web Tightens

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Flame icon)(1) In which we see a new Talent.

Rand has a dream, first of Logain and Moiraine on opposite sides of a table with him, and then of Ballsy.(2) With a jerk, he wakes and sits up, and immediately wants to lay back down again with nausea, and a sticky spot in his hair. He fell inside the wall, and here's the girl who spoke to him. A velvet cloak lined with pale fur, a silver circlet holding her red-gold curls matching silver jewellery all over her, an embroidered blue silk dress smudged with tree bark: this girl has money and rank to throw away a dress like that.(3)

He's so worried about whether he's gotten himself into trouble that it takes him a minute to realize just how beautiful she is. She's totally different from Egwene in every way, except age, but just as beautiful. He feels a little guilty for the comparison, but he can't deny what his eyes see.

A moment later a boy falls out of the tree behind her, and his resemblance marks him as her close kin, and his embroidery even more elaborate than hers, for a young man. Rand gets even more anxious: the only time any normal person wears clothes like that is on one of the Feastdays. This can't be a public park, and these can't be average people.

The boy, Gawyn, tells the girl, Elayne, that they were supposed to stay in their rooms, but she just HAD to get a look at Logain, and now look at what's dropped in on them. She tells him to hush, and asks Rand if he's alright. He says he's fine, he'll just climb back over the wall-

He's so dizzy, she puts a hand on his shoulder and it's enough to keep him on the ground. She notes that he probably hit his head on the way down, and he's lucky if he only split his scalp on this old tree.

“You’ll get blood on your hands,” he said, drawing back. Firmly she pulled his head back to where she could get at it. “Hold still.” She did not speak sharply, but again there was that note in her voice as if she expected to be obeyed. “It does not look too bad, thank the Light.” From pockets on the inside of her cloak she began taking out an array of tiny vials and twisted packets of paper, finishing with a handful of wadded bandage. He stared at the collection in amazement. It was the sort of thing he would have expected a Wisdom to carry, not someone dressed as she was. She had gotten blood on her fingers, he saw, but it did not seem to bother her. “Give me your water flask, Gawyn,” she said. “I need to wash this.”

Gawyn does so, and tells Rand that Elayne is always finding injured animals, strays, but he's the first human she's worked on. Elayne presses some bandage to his head, and wraps it with a silk scarf, blue and cream and gold. He protests that she can't use that and she just carries on. Rand asks if she always expects people to do what she says, and Gawyn looks amused as he says yes, and most of the time, they do.

She catches sight of his hands, and cleans and treats the scrapes from his climb, as Gawyn says their mother doesn't do what she says, nor Elaida, nor their nurse, Lini. And not Gareth, nobody gives commands to him, not even their mother. Elayne says their mother should just marry Gareth and get it over with, they both want to, but Gawyn says one of them has to bend first, their mother can't and Gareth won't.

Abruptly they turned to stare at Rand. He had the feeling they had forgotten he was there. “Who . . . ?” He had to stop to wet his lips. “Who is your mother?” Elayne’s eyes widened in surprise, but Gawyn spoke in an ordinary tone that made his words all the more jarring. “Morgase, by the Grace of the Light, Queen of Andor, Defender of the Realm, Protector of the People, High Seat of the House Trakand.”

Here's Rand trying to avoid any attention, and he falls clear into the Daughter-Heir's lap in her own palace garden. He stands up abruptly and says he'll just climb back over that wall, and Elayne remarks, startled, that he really didn't know where he was. He bows shortly to both of them and tries to excuse himself, but Gawyn points out that he hasn't even given his own name. He sounds like an Andorman, though not from Caemlyn, and he looks like…(4) well, he knows their names, it's only polite to share his.

Rand gives his name and his home, the Two Rivers. Gawyn sounds surprised for a moment that he's from so far west, but he knows of the area.

“Tabac and wool,” Gawyn said. “I have to know the principal products of every part of the Realm. Of every land, for that matter. Part of my training. Principal products and crafts, and what the people are like. Their customs, their strengths and weaknesses. It’s said Two Rivers people are stubborn. They can be led, if they think you are worthy, but the harder you try to push them, the harder they dig in. Elayne ought to choose her husband from there. It’ll take a man with a will like stone to keep from being trampled by her.” Rand stared at him. Elayne was staring, too. Gawyn looked as much under control as ever, but he was babbling. Why?

They're all interrupted as another young man comes on the scene, the handsomest man Rand has ever seen, almost too handsome for masculinity, tall and thin.(5) He tells Gawyn and Elayne to stay away from this intruder, and Elayne says she'll do no such thing, naming him Galad.

Rand remembers that Galadedrid Damodred is their half-brother, born to Tigraine, the former would-be-queen, and Taringail, the father they all share. He's reasonably well liked by red and white factions alike.

Elayne says Rand is under her protection, and Galad is unmoved. He tries to enlist Gawyn to change Elayne's mind, but Elayne yells at him that he has no control over her actions and to leave her presence. Galad quietly bows and leaves, quickly.

“I hate him,” Elayne breathed. “He is vile and full of envy.” “There you go too far, Elayne,” Gawyn said. “Galad does not know the meaning of envy. Twice he has saved my life, with none to know if he held his hand. If he had not, he would be your First Prince of the Sword in my place.” “Never, Gawyn. I would choose anyone before Galad. Anyone. The lowest stableboy.” Suddenly she smiled and gave her brother a mock-stern look. “You say I am fond of giving orders. Well, I command you to let nothing happen to you. I command you to be my First Prince of the Sword when I take the throne—the light send that day is far off!—and to lead the armies of Andor with the sort of honor Galad cannot dream of.” “As you command, my Lady.” Gawyn laughed, his bow a parody of Galad’s. Elayne gave Rand a thoughtful frown. “Now we must get you out of here quickly.”

Gawyn explains that Galad always does the correct thing, even if he shouldn't, and he's definitely on his way to notify the palace guards. They're found by those guards so quickly, Galad must have run as soon as they wouldn't hear him doing so.

The guards quickly draw bows, and the two royals put themselves between the guards and Rand. One of the soldiers tells them to get down, and Elayne puts on her regal face and berates him for bringing naked steel into her presence. Only a few of the bows lower, but the one who spoke previously, Tallanvor, says that Galad reported a dirty peasant in the garden.

“I doubt very much if Galad reported anything of the kind,” Elayne said. “Galad does not lie.” “Sometimes I wish he would,” Gawyn said softly, for Rand’s ear. “Just once. It might make living with him easier.”

Elayne reiterates that Rand is her guest, and Tallanvor says that word has already been sent to her Majesty that there's an intruder, under her own standing orders as regard intruders on palace grounds. Tallanvor looks a little smug, like he's glad to be able to refuse an improper order from Elayne this once.

Gawyn whispers to Rand that the orders mean prison, just for a few days, it'll be clear he means no harm, if he's not lying. Then Elayne demands that they all be led to her mother, or all to a cell, they will not be separated. Gawyn grins, and Elayne looks downright triumphant. Gawyn explains that Morgase is viewing Logain, and even if she weren't, Tallanvor wouldn't dare to drag them in front of her as if they were under suspicion of something.

Another guard runs up, and Tallanvor steals the triumphant moment. Morgase has demanded that the intruder be brought to her at any rate. As they walk, Rand despairs at his intention of not being noticed today.

On the way, Rand finally notices what's unsettled him about the garden. It's GREEN! Everything, green, while everything outside is still dead. Gawyn says it's Elaida's work, and Elayne says it's not right that they have flowers while their people don't have enough to eat.

They get to one of the smaller halls, are announced, and enter. Rand hastily mimics the other men in the room as they all bow, and Tallanvor glares at him sidelong as if he's doing something wrong.

The queen is seated on a dais, with a blocky man to her right, Gareth Bryne. Behind the throne and to the other side is a woman knitting something, and Rand has trouble putting an age to her. Her needles are the only sound in the room.

Morgase herself has her daughter's beauty, matured and ripened. She tells them they can rise. She notes Elayne's treebark stained dress, and tells Gawyn he should be guarding her against disaster, something she hopes he'll learn at Tar Valon. Elayne protests that everyone in the city was closer than they were, and Morgase says that even caged and under Aes Sedai guard every minute, he's still as dangerous as a wolf. On the journey north, they won't be allowed within a hundred paces of him and if she didn't know how hard the lessons would be, she'd send their nurse to make sure they obey.

Elaida adds that Elayne has the potential to be the greatest queen in Andor's history, but she needs to be shaped first. Rand is suddenly glad he didn't come to her for help, she's scary-stern.

Morgase turns to the issue of Rand, and Elayne relays the events, and says that she's learned much from him, and she would ask that Morgase not misuse a loyal subject of the throne. Morgase says the Two Rivers probably doesn't even think of themselves as Andoran, and Rand shifts uncomfortably, knowing that's very true.

Elaida had put down her knitting, Rand realized, and was studying him. She rose from her stool and slowly came down from the dais to stand before him. “From the Two Rivers?” she said. She reached a hand toward his head; he pulled away from her touch, and she let her hand drop. “With that red in his hair, and gray eyes? Two Rivers people are dark of hair and eye, and they seldom have such height.” Her hand darted out to push back his coat sleeve, exposing lighter skin the sun had not reached so often. “Or such skin.”(6)

He says that his mother was an outlander, that's where his eyes come from, but he's a farmer and shepherd, like his father. Elaida reaches for his sword, and feels it through the wrapping. A shepherd with a heron-mark sword?

Those last few words acted on the chamber as if she had announced the Dark One. Leather and metal creaked behind Rand, boots scuffling on the marble tiles. From the corner of his eye he could see Tallanvor and another of the guardsmen backing away from him to gain room, hands on their swords, prepared to draw and, from their faces, prepared to die. In two quick strides Gareth Bryne was at the front of the dais, between Rand and the Queen. Even Gawyn put himself in front of Elayne, a worried look on his face and a hand on his dagger. Elayne herself looked at him as if she were seeing him for the first time. Morgase did not change expression, but her hands tightened on the gilded arms of her throne.

Morgase remarks that he's much too young to have earned it, but Bryne says it belongs with him, though he doesn't know how he knows. The way he stands, the look in his eyes, and the way the sword suits him somehow.(7) Elaida asks how he came by the blade, and he says his father gave it to him, thought he'd need a sword out in the world. He lies, though, about when he arrived in Caemlyn, and where he's staying.

Elaida asks what the chances are of this young man coming into town on the same day as Logain,(8) right before the Daughter-Heir leaves for Tar Valon, entering the palace grounds with a story all but calculated to intrigue Elayne, bearing a heron-mark blade, and nothing to mark his allegiance, just a wrap to hide the sword. Elayne protests that he was trying to leave, if they hadn't stopped him he'd have left back over the wall. Elaida says he's dangerous, and Morgase asks if this is a Foretelling, a reading of the Pattern.

“This I Foretell,” Elaida replied, “and swear under the Light that I can say no clearer. From this day Andor marches toward pain and division. The Shadow has yet to darken to its blackest, and I cannot see if the Light will come after. Where the world has wept one tear, it will weep thousands. This I Foretell.” A pall of silence clung to the room, broken only by Morgase expelling her breath as if it were her last. Elaida continued to stare into Rand’s eyes. She spoke again, barely moving her lips, so softly that he could barely hear her less than an arm’s length away. “This, too, I Foretell. Pain and division come to the whole world, and this man stands at the heart of it. I obey the Queen,” she whispered, “and speak it clearly.”

Morgase asks Bryne's opinion, and he says anyone can see things will get worse before better. He thinks the boy's just here by chance, though his own bad luck. Put him in a cell until the kids are on the road, unless Elaida has more to add. Elaida just says a few weeks in a cell will give her time maybe to learn more about him.

“Suspicion is smothering Caemlyn, perhaps all of Andor. Fear and black suspicion. Women denounce their neighbors for Darkfriends. Men scrawl the Dragon’s Fang on the doors of people they have known for years. I will not become part of it.”

Morgase swears she will not become part of it. She asks Rand to swear that his father gave him the blade, that he only climbed the wall to see Logain, and that he means no harm to her children. He swears all these, particularly the last.

“I mean no harm to anyone, my Queen. To you and yours least of all.”

Morgase gives three reasons for letting him go. First, she heard the Two Rivers accent when she was young,(9) and he has the sound of it, if not the look. Second, nobody who looks like him would say he was from the Two Rivers unless it was true, and his father giving him the sword is too preposterous to be a lie. And third, the voice that whispers that the best lie is often one too ridiculous to be taken for a lie . . . that voice is not proof.

She dismisses Rand, asking Tallanvor to escort him out of the palace. Elayne and Gawyn go along with them, but Rand just thinks to himself that he doesn't have the look of the Two Rivers, and he stands at the heart of something terrible. He's so distracted that he doesn't realize when they're at the palace entrance.

Elayne says it's the custom not to watch a guest leave, because it's their company that should be remembered. Rand says it's Two Rivers custom to bring a gift when you go visiting, but he has nothing to give but what he's taught her. Elayne gives him a dazzling smile and says if she'd mentioned that she thinks he's handsome, her mother definitely would have locked him up. Then she leaves before he can think of another reply.

Rand asks Gawyn what he meant by Rand not having the look of the Two Rivers. He hesitates, then says, if Rand wrapped a shoufa around his head, he'd be the image of an Aielman.(10) Odd, since Morgase believes him about the Two Rivers. Gawyn wishes aloud that they could have gotten to know each other, then leaves as well.

Rand is stunned by this, until Tallanvor coughs impatiently at him to gtfo. He ducks through the open sallyport door, which nearly hits him in the heels as it closes. Everyone's gone from the plaza now, and he realizes if Elaida wanted to find him, he's fully visible here. He walks, then trots, and by the time he gets to the newer part of the city, he's at a full run.

=====

(1) Likely for Elaida's involvement, as an Aes Sedai. (2) Do you think this little dream has any meaning, or is Rand's unconscious just freaking out? (3) Once we work past the "SIGH not royalty in fantasy again" (which, fair, but this one's not the worst of the lot) I'd also like to point out how much we can guess of her character from this chapter. After climbing a tree to defy her mother's order, she tends Rand's wounds and offers the very bounds of her protection when they've known each other five minutes. Elayne might be a princess, and she takes her duty very seriously, but she's also kind and seems to push at the boundary of the expectations set upon her. She likes her silk dress and luxe cloak but they're plainer than Gawyn's, she'll mostly obey her mother and show up where she's commanded to, but she also wants to climb trees, maybe get into a little good-natured trouble, understand some of what normal people do. She's sheltered but not afraid of the world, privileged but not selfish. She wants Elaida to stop using her magic on the garden and use it to feed the people. It's not just ta'veren that has her protecting Rand in this very first meeting: she wants to know her people and believe the best of them just as she wants to be the best she can be for them. (4) He looks like an Aielman, as Loial said, and Gawyn will again shortly. Even if he weren't the tallest man around, his features mark him out. (5) We get a mega dose of Arthuriana in Caemlyn-Camelot. In Galad-Galahad, the prettiest man to ever walk the earth, who always does the right thing even when it makes things worse. He's only half-brother to the other two, and there's clearly a bit of a distance there emotionally.

(6) Ah, here's where we definitely find out that Andor's very brown, typically. Rand's skin where the sun doesn't get very often is too pale to pass for a real Andorman. When Elaida pulls up his sleeve, it totally outs him. Which, not cool, Elaida, but also, it's nice to have on-page confirmation in the book that hey, the author actually thought about it and rejected the idea that his main country had to be fantasy-England. Not only a fantasy version of England, but also the fantasy of England as being white and only white. (7) Funny that Gareth Bryne, who presumably carries or owns his own heron-marked blade or has known enough men who do, says that the sword just suits Rand, that he carries it like he was born to it. We know well enough by now that Rand is the Dragon, but reincarnation implies a division between lives. (8) A poor choice of date, on Rand's part. He could've said he arrived longer ago. (9) It would be rather fascinating, wouldn't it, if Tam was the one she'd met, since he's the only one we know of who's left and seen the world? (10) And when Gawyn explains, Rand finally has confirmation that it's not just ancient Ogier legend, he really looks Aiel, like modern Aiel. Welp. That's a way to leave off the day.

[butterflydm]

wot reread: crossroads of twilight (chap 10 - chap 20)

spoilers through crossroads of twilight

1. Oh thank goodness, it’s Elayne. Please do something to save this narrative, Elayne. I’ve been so bored and infuriated during the last few sections. Elayne hasn’t been sleeping well. It sounds like it’s been a week or two since our last PoV chapter with Elayne, so she is a month pregnant at most (and likely only two weeks). I am going to be keeping a firm eye out for people being controlling with her on this pregnancy.

2. She’s visiting various Houses that are bound to House Trakand by blood or oath, to drum up support. The maid who was helping her dress lets out a shriek and tells Elayne that she saw a ghost -- she saw a figure of the dead Lady Nelein, who had a terrible temper that she liked to take out on the people around her. Elayne reassures her that the dead can’t harm the living.

3. Aviendha goes with her on these trips to other houses, but they can’t share a room/bed on these trips because the lords and ladies don’t understand about their relationship and think they’re implying something bad about the hospitality on offer. 💕 at the reminder that Aviendha and Elayne share a bed whenever possible.

4. Alas, Elayne thinks that Aviendha is “even taller” than she is but doesn’t give us the actual height difference. We know that Aviendha and Mat are both “a head shorter” than Rand, but we don’t know exactly how much shorter Elayne is than the two of them. I want the details, Elayne! lol. It does sound like maybe it isn’t too much of a height difference. It is confirmed that Aviendha’s a year older than Elayne (we might have already known).

5. We are reminded of Min’s Loose Lips here, when Elayne tells us that Min was telling the entire palace that Elayne was off getting pregnant while the act was still taking place (since we know Min & Rand bounced right after). Yet somehow did not also blurt out that Elayne is having twins? Though I guess I’m happy about that because it means that Elayne gets to find out on her own, when she’s checking in on her health, and not through the palace grapevine because Min doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut.

6. But, yeah, literally every one of the “she’s barely pregnant, stop acting like she could pop at any moment!” annoyances can be laid directly at Min’s feet. I do not understand why Jordan decided to make Min a character who literally can ONLY keep secrets from the man we’re told that she’s in love with but must immediately spill everything to literally any stranger on the street (or palace hallway, as it were). It really does show the lie to Min’s persistent claim that she Hates Sharing Viewings, especially if it’s not to the person that the viewing is about, because she shared Elayne’s viewing with TONS of non-Elayne people but not with Elayne personally. Min is just as self-deceiving as most of the other characters, despite not having a reputation for it (Perrin and Min both lie to themselves about their character just as much as Mat does -- Perrin believes that he isn’t hasty and doesn’t have a temper; Min believes that she doesn’t like to share viewings and that she isn’t one of those women that she hates who throws away her brains for the sake of a man).

7. Though, speaking of that, Min really must have been telling a lot of viewings in Caemlyn for everyone to just straight-up believe her when she was all “lol queen-to-be is out getting impregnated RIGHT THIS MOMENT omg” and not attribute it to a drunk girl talking out of her ass (oh and that’s the narrative’s excuse for why she hasn’t told Rand, I guess; she’s Too Drunk To Remember, even though she had not been drinking yet). Amazing how Min can continue to annoy me in scenes where she isn’t even present lol. okay, another random confusion: why are people wondering who the potential father is? Elayne closested herself in her room with Illusion!Rand, so why wouldn’t she just make it clear that the dude Rand was pretending to be was the dad-to-be? She was in there with him for a night and a day, all while Min was telling everyone and their sister that she was getting herself pregnant. There was no need to pretend that baby-daddy was potentially Mellar? And just, in general, this whole thing where “every woman she knew believed that pregnancy made her brainless”. WHY? Seriously, makes no sense.

8. Thinking about the baby does make her think about Rand, and we get a little thought about her checking in on the bond -- he’s far to the west, far enough away that she can only truly say that he’s alive, though she believes that she would know if he were badly hurt. “He was going to die on her all too soon -- men who could channel always died of it -- but she wanted so very much to keep him alive as long as possible”. And Aviendha can literally tell in a glance that Elayne is thinking about Rand and immediately reassures her that he’s well.

9. We once again, here, very much get the whole Elayne/Rand/Aviendha vibe... and, oh yeah, there’s Min too. It really does feel like someone (whether it be Jordan or someone else, but I kinda lean in Jordan’s direction because it doesn’t... really feel like these recent books of the series were strongly edited lol) was just too nervous to actually go Full Poly, so Elayne and Aviendha are allowed to talk freely about loving Rand together and sharing him perhaps BECAUSE they aren’t physically with him, but in the actual narrative space, we spend all our time with Rand with him playacting at being married to Min, with barely any mention of the fact that he’s also in love with Elayne and Aviendha. This is, haha, not to beat my #PutMatInThePolycule drum again, but this is another place where Mat would have made everything feel so much more poly than Min does, because he was strongly attracted to Elayne, somewhat attracted to Aviendha, and had a deep emotional connection with Rand. Whereas Min’s connections to Elayne and especially Aviendha are just so much more flimsy. She’s literally “oh, and Min too”  to Elayne and I don’t think Aviendha ever thinks about her at all lol. Aviendha adores Rand and Elayne and tolerates Min. But we know that Aviendha respects Mat and also thinks he’s funny. Aw, Elayne: “She loved Aviendha every bit as much as she did Rand.” 💕

10. “A ruler, or one who sought to rule, was not allowed the slightest suggestion of weakness or tears, not in public”. Again goes back to Rand’s storyline, right? Except the big difference is that Elayne is allowed (by the narrative) to let her guard down in private around Aviendha, while Rand doesn’t even let his guard down around Min. Elayne would be able to teach Rand so many HEALTHY ways to bear the burden of leadership. Unfortunately, I think that’s precisely why she isn’t allowed to spend time with Rand, and why Rand only spends time with his one love interest who isn’t at all helpful this way: because Jordan is writing a downward spiral and didn’t know how to do that without isolating Rand away from everyone who was capable of helping and supporting him. So many people love Rand and want to help him and actually have tools that COULD help him, but Jordan doesn’t allow any of those people to spend time with Rand, instead forcing him to spend his time around people who either bully him or who allow and encourage others to bully him (literally EVERYONE with Rand in Far Madding was constantly telling him to just give in and give Cadsuane whatever she wants).

11. I enjoy hearing about the political interplay of Andor -- it is more delicate than the Game of Houses in Cairhien or the White Tower, in a lot of ways, but also more straight-forward in other ways. Elayne using people’s sexism against them in how she uses the Queen’s Guard is clever but, wow, the basic premise really makes no sense in Randland. Women with weapons SHOULDN’T be routinely underestimated in this world. But since they are, I’m glad Elayne is taking advantage of it.

12. Aviendha (carefully and quietly) asks Elayne what the point of going around to these manors is, when all of the lords have already set out with their soldiers and Elayne is basically just gathering up some young men who were considered too young before, and Elayne explains about the importance of her being visibly out and among the people to make her claim. She needs to have Andor behind her as a single strong unit as quickly as possible because the Last Battle is coming. Eyes on the prize, like I said. Elayne hasn’t forgotten or dismissed what matters. SHE hasn’t abandoned her duty to chase after some romantic interest. She has neither faltered nor strayed. She is doing her duty even when it breaks her heart and I respect her so much for it. Very “ I could not love thee (Dear) so much, Lov’d I not Honour more.” (To Lucasta, Going to the Wars by Richard Lovelace) I love characters like this so much. This is also essentially the angle that Rafe took with Siuan and Moiraine in the show, so I have Hopes that we will get to see this aspect of Rand & Elayne focused on as well, since we know he likes that vibe in a relationship.

13. Then Aviendha makes Elayne blush with a compliment, which Elayne desperately tries to blame on pregnancy hormones or on Rand lol. These two are so sweet together. I’m glad that I have one ship that’s actually good together on screen right now, because Perrin-Faile, Mat-Tuon, and Rand-Min all annoy me, for their own individual reasons.

14. Elayne is very aware that Andor has enemies on either side -- the Shadow to the north and the Seanchan to the south. Then she feels the blazing beacon of enormous amounts of saidar being used and is terrified for Rand, of course, since he inexplicably did NOT tell his other two loves about planning to go and cleanse saidin. But it means that we actively get to see her struggle heart vs duty, which I do love to see. She wants desperately to go to him, to try to help him. But Aviendha reminds her of her duty; that she and Rand have separate duties that they must each fulfill and that going to Rand now might very well put him in more danger by distracting him.

15. “Every woman in the world who could channel must be able to sense this”. Wow, that IS really strong. haha imagine every damane and sul’dam in Seanchan going into a panic at the same time over feeling this incredibly distant and incredibly powerful burst of saidar!

16. But yes, I do love how Elayne and Aviendha support and reassure each other and basically get to be each other’s pillars of strength. It’s such a healthy relationship, in contrast with pretty much every m/f relationship in the series. Maybe it only gets to be healthy because it’s a romantic friendship, rather than an explicit romance. If Jordan were actively trying to write a romance, I wonder if we would have gotten one of them being violent towards the other one, since he seemed to associate violence with romance so strongly.

17. How Aviendha describes the experience of the silver rings -- seeing every possible version of your life and only having a few images and thoughts survive the experience -- really does feel like it conflicts with Min’s general “no way to stop or change it” style of viewings. CAN the future be changed or can’t it? Or do Min’s viewings ‘lock’ the future into place somehow when the future would have been more fluid before she had a viewing? It’s interesting because we know that Rand views the Prophecies of the Dragon as, essentially, the road map to defeating the Dark One -- as necessary to do for that goal but not sufficient in itself -- but just because that’s Rand’s view of things, does that mean it’s accurate?

18. Elayne returns to Caemlyn and doesn’t sense any women currently channeling in the palace, even though there are 150 women capable of channeling present. Thank you for some firm numbers, Elayne. She thinks that it’s almost certainly because of that enormous beacon of saidar out to the West. “She felt like an ant that had just become aware of mountains”.

19. So, the thing is, people give Elayne guff about her trusting Min’s viewings enough not to worry overmuch about her personal safety, but Rand also trusts Min’s viewings way too much and puts himself in dangerous or unhealthy situations because of her viewings, and I don’t see nearly as much criticism about that (in places other than tumblr; I’ve seen more of it here). Min’s viewings are a plot coupon and I don’t blame Elayne for trying to cash it in.

20. Ah-ha! Height update. Birgitte is only taller than Elayne because of her ‘heeled boots’ and those boots make her Aviendha’s height. So Elayne is a couple of inches or maybe a few inches shorter than Aviendha. So much of how Birgitte is behaving in this chapter is giving me acute memories of Mat. Was she always so much like Mat or is it standing out more because Mat ISN’T acting like Mat?

21. Elayne thinks again about what nonsense the whole “the strongest in the Power leads” rule among the Aes Sedai is. You and me both, sister. I’m guessing at least part of the reason that it exists, though, is to justify how Egwene can be CHOSEN to lead the Aes Sedai -- Rand is, let’s admit it, essentially a conquering warlord, but Egwene needed to lead the Aes Sedai because at least some of them were willing to pick her to do it, and her incredible strength in the Power gives them a reason to choose her, with her youth then being seen as a potential bonus of making her easy to lead (lol).

22. I actually do appreciate that Elayne gets to take a bath here because this is another example of Elayne understanding how to do self care! These are skills that someone should have been teaching Rand! Elayne knows that after a hard journey of doing rulership things, being able to relax in the company of people that you trust is a very important life skill! It would not FIX what is bothering Rand, obviously, but not getting enough sleep and being constantly on edge are certainly not HELPING him (and that just makes me sadly remember how the last bit of care that Rand got from the Maidens before they ~ceded him to Min was actually a bath too, and how much I MISS Rand’s relationship with the Maidens).

23. And even while she lets the hot water soothe her, Elayne is still partly working, as Birgitte updates her on the recent news in the city. Interesting update: before, Elayne was really only hoping for news of Gawyn, but now Birgitte knows to tell her news or Gaywn OR Galad before any other news. Elayne thinks her that part of her dislike for Galad growing up was her own certainty that he must resent her and resent her brother for displacing him as potential First Prince of the Sword. “News of him would have been nearly as welcome as news of Gawyn. That surprised her, but it was true.” She has a great deal of sympathy for both Gawyn and Galad’s choices at this moment in time. idk how people can hate Elayne’s bath when we’re getting so much character development.

24. I wish so much that Elayne knew about Dumai’s Wells. Min can tell Cadsuane about Rand’s trauma at the hands of the Aes Sedai, but not Elayne? Because Elayne thinking here that she doesn’t worry about Rand with Aes Sedai and thinks the only trouble would come from him being too stubborn around them... she would not be thinking that way if she knew about Rand’s kidnapping and Dumai’s Wells. But I also wonder why learning about Alanna force-bonding Rand hasn’t impacted Elayne’s view of Rand vs Aes Sedai? It feels more like a writing hole than a characterization hole tbh, imo Jordan just kept giving Rand too much trauma and couldn’t really keep track of it anymore.

25. Then we have to deal with Atha’an Miere nonsense for 12 pages. Maybe two or three were necessary, to give us the information about Ebou Dar (something that should have made Elayne worry about Mat btw, but she doesn’t think about him here. Jordan really did just have everyone completely write Mat off as an excuse to keep him trapped in his subplot from hell). Why did Jordan decide to make the Atha’an Miere so annoying? They were so interesting in the early books! I do feel bad about all the Atha’an Miere in Ebou Dar. They got dealt a raw hand.

26. But on the plus side, the Atha’an Miere are leaving Elayne’s story! Elayne is disappointed because they’ve been useful for creating Gateways but the cost, Elayne, what about the cost? Anyway, she ends up being able to keep nine Windfinders to help her, plus they will actually be under her command this time and not Zaida. I wish Zaida much luck in the future, far away from anything that I actually need to read! Oh, and the big burst of saidar is still going. It lasts quite a while, I think, the cleansing.

27. Dyelin returns with the heads of four Houses: Mantear (hey, that’s Rand’s relatives!), Haevin, Gilyard and Northan. Aww, Aviendha agrees to dress up in silks to match along with Elayne when they meet them, even though Elayne was only gently teasing her. Oh, and she chooses a dress that has colors that matches what Elayne is wearing. 💕 I am so glad we are getting all this Avilayne, because both Perrin and Mat’s storyline make me want to chew rocks. Aviendha blushes when Elayne tells her how pretty she looks. 💕 Elayne believes it is a FACT that Aviendha is beautiful. 💕 💕

28. To Elayne’s surprise, the four High Seats of Houses that Dyelin has brought back to stand with her are all ‘children’. Ah, she’s not surprised by them being young but by the fact that none of them have brought advisors or guardians with them. That makes more sense. I think Conail is the oldest, at sixteen. But Elayne tbh fits right in with them. She’s only eighteen herself, as of the end of LoC, and it’s only been three or four months since then, I think. I rather like the kids of the High Seats tbh. They feel a lot more like genuine young people (albeit saddled with responsibility) than Olver did in the last book.

29. Aviendha is, apparently, particularly talented with the anti-eavesdropping weave (Aviendha is always particularly talented at whatever random thing is needed lol). The reason that Elayne is having a ward be put up is because she is getting a ~spy report~ from her head clerks. Elayne’s storyline is so interesting compared to Perrin and Mat’s, I have to say. Perrin is dealing with the remnants of old plot elements that everyone has basically been ignoring (Masema from book TWO and the Shaido) and obsessing over his wife; Mat’s plotline has completely gone off the rails that were set up in Winter’s Heart and is just wallowing in a weird vaguely pro-slavery space (or at least a slavery-tolerant space). Elayne is dealing with SIEGES and ARMIES and SPIES and POLITICS. Right now, we’re learning there has been a pattern of arson that her first clerk is sure is being deliberately done by a single person or group, and not part of any kind of general unrest.

30. Elayne thinks of Mat here, in passing, “Tracing that gold back... ... would require Mat Cauthon’s luck” but nothing about how he got left behind in Ebou Dar. I really hate that the characters basically are acting at this point like they know Mat Has Another Plot and so they’ve just stopped worrying about him. The Seanchan INVADED EBOU DAR. Elayne left behind someone who SAVED HER LIFE. We were told at the start of last book that she PRAYS DAILY for his safety. But now that Mat is firmly in his Other Plot, any hint of concern over his safety has completely vanished. This is bad writing. The characters are all acting on author-knowledge and not their own knowledge. Also, I thought we’d been told at an earlier point that Elayne wasn’t really aware of Mat being particularly lucky (Birgitte mentioned his luck last book maybe and Elayne was ??? over it) so this seems like another instance of author-character knowledge seepage. Jordan knows Mat is lucky, so now does Elayne. Jordan knows Mat is doing his Assigned Plot and so Elayne isn’t worrying about him anymore.

31. Elayne worries over the Black Tower but knows she can’t do anything about it for now. Why DID Rand set up the Black Tower in Andor, anyway? He knew that he was going to step away from Andor once Elayne could be found to put in her claim and he was planning to avoid Caemlyn once Elayne was there, so why did he pick there to place the Black Tower and not in Cairhien, which he’s held for longer or in Tear, which has been his for the longest amount of time?

32. Monaelle, the Wise One who presided over Elayne and Aviendha’s first-sister ceremony, has come to Caemlyn to basically do a prenatal check for Elayne. While she’s here, she tells Aviendha that she’s going to be spending every third day and night in the Aiel camps and doesn’t get to sleep with Elayne every night anymore. We’re reminded that Aviendha is seen as a ‘binding cord’ between the Aiel and the Westlands, which was previously something that was being expressed in her relationship with Rand but is now centered on her relationship with Elayne. Monaelle also knows about the bonding and about Rand being the father. It kinda does feel like Elayne has sorta... completely replaced Rand in this storyline? While Rand is off avoiding the Maidens and the Aiel, and playacting at being married to Min, Elayne is the one who has formed a genuine relationship with the Wise Ones that seems to have mutual trust and who has the ceremonial alliance with Aviendha that is functionally working much like a marriage alliance would.

Which kinda makes me think about what wildly different experiences Elayne and Min have been having with the Aiel recently -- Min has been beaten by the Wise Ones for information on Rand and has watched the Maidens beat on Rand (including kicking her in the stomach, I think) and generally watched Rand avoid the Aiel as much as possible; while Elayne has basically had the hearts-and-flowers Aiel experience, with Aviendha adoring her to pieces, and getting to undergo intimate Aiel ceremonies, etc. It’s funny, back in LoC/ACoS, it looked like Min was getting weird special treatment from the Aiel (the Maidens letting her make the moves on Rand & the Wise Ones accepting her as one of their own) but then that just kinda vanished/got reversed in TPoD -- maybe because they were being harsher on RAND, so they were also being harsher on someone they saw as an extension of Rand? idk idk. It’s weird to think about how the way Min was treated by the Aiel basically completely flipped between ACoS & TPoD (essentially, during the time period when Rand was off on his campaign against the Seanchan and Min was ‘alone’ with the Aiel in Cairhien).

33. I’m glad that Rand still appreciates Nynaeve, because apparently no one else does anymore. That is kinda the problem of introducing all these later-stage Super Powerful hidden people -- then you overshadow the main characters that the books have spent, well, BOOKS, investing in. Characters just blithely going oh ~Sumeko is so much better at healing than Nynaeve is; oh, ~Alicia is so much stronger than Nynaeve is. And, of course, the reason Jordan is doing that is BECAUSE Nynaeve was the upper limit for female characters on the side of good for so long but... yeah, I’m never gonna be as emotionally attached to Sumeko or Alivia as I am to Nynaeve.

34. Monaelle tells Elayne that she’s having twins. While Aviendha is practicing the weave that is used for the prenatal check, the beacon finally ends, so how long it lasted in these chapters with Elayne gives us a good idea of how long it lasted in everyone’s PoVs as well. Elayne can tell Rand is still alive, of course, so she’s relieved and happy. ...Elayne randomly thinks about how big Sumeko’s breasts are. Did Jordan intentionally write Elayne as attracted to women or was it a by-product of HIM always focusing on how big any female character’s breasts are at any given time? Yeah, it is kinda confirmed here that Aviendha does still tell the Wise Ones literally everything about Rand and her relationship with him (I mean, not that they get to HAVE much of a relationship right now).

35. Merilille has run off with one of the Atha’an Miere apprentices. I’m guessing Talaan, who was basically begging Nynaeve to let her become Aes Sedai in the last book. Elayne thinks about the unfortunate political ramifications, but honestly... good for her. The Atha’an Miere philosophy of how they treat (’shorebound’) teachers is downright abusive. I wish Merilille well and hope she doesn’t get caught.

36. Oh, god, I don’t care about Elenia’s PoV (she’s in the camp of Elayne’s rival, Arymilla). Is there anything important in this chapter? Her ‘alliance’ with Arymilla is shaky and she’s still plotting to end up on the throne herself. Pretty sure Elayne had guessed that much already. And then we move into Hanlon/Mellar’s PoV. No. I don’t care. I already know he’s a Darkfriend, obviously he’s going to have sinister plans. I don’t need 18 pages of wallowing in this man’s head. Both of these sections also seem to be an excuse to have gross men pawing at women, with implied off-screen rape.

37. Okay, we are in Egwene’s PoV! We spent all of last book mostly catching up to and then overlapping her but now we should get to do The Siege of Tar Valon! ...I really do feel like maybe Jordan should have stretched out the timeline of the EARLER books for even longer because Egwene thinking of the White Tower as ‘home’ just feels odd, because she really hasn’t spent THAT much time there. I’m pretty sure she spent more time training with the Wise Ones than she spent in the White Tower.

Actually, let me go check the numbers. Okay, she first enters the White Tower on Amadaine 13 998 NE, which is June 20th. Liandrin tricks them into leaving the White Tower Choren 23, which is September 23rd. So that’s three months and three days. She returns to the White Tower again on Aine 24 999 NE, which is April 8th, leaves again on their mission to hunt the Black Ajah literally three days later, on Aine 27, or April 11th. That is... much shorter than I thought it was. So she’s spent a total of three months and six days in the White Tower. ...looking at that timeline really makes me feel zero issue about Egwene & Nynaeve (probably) only spending one stint in the White Tower in the TV show because, wow, they really ONLY stop in for Egwene & Elayne’s Accepted tests and then immediately bounce again, so having Egwene & Elayne raised to Accepted in S2 would honestly make a lot more sense than not doing it. Egwene starts learning from the Wise Ones on Amadaine 1 999 NE (June 8th) and leaves their training to go to Salidar on Nesan 28 (Nov 23) so she spent five and a half months training with the Wise Ones and living among the Aiel.

38. They’ve been outside Tar Valon for five days now. Since Egwene met with Elayne in TAR back in Winter’s Heart and that was the night before they were about to come to Tar Valon, that means that the cleansing should be happening soon and will anchor us in time.

39. Elaida is building up her defensive force each day that Egwene & Co don’t actually do anything, Gareth points out to Egwene, who is hesitating now that she’s on the cusp of the siege. “Every day you wait only adds to the butcher’s bill we’ll have to pay sooner or later”. But Egwene really is a True Believer in the White Tower -- “If the White Tower dies, hope dies” -- and isn’t ready to commit yet. She is being confronted here with a situation where she doesn’t really have any good choices, as she notes. Another thing that she has in common with Rand these days!

40. Delana has come to speak with Egwene privately (and we know Delana is Black Ajah). She says she’s here to ‘warn’ Egwene that her advisors are spies but it seems like a fishing trip to me, trying to feel out Egwene’s opinions, etc. She also ‘warns’ Egwene that some of the Sitters for the Hall want to open negotiations with Elaida (another thing that will get worse and worse as time passes and people wonder if it might not be easier to cave just so they can go home). Egwene gives permission for one of the Salidar Six, Beonin (Gray Ajah) to begin negotiations with the Sitters in the Tower - the terms she gives her to take to them are: Elaida must resign and go into exile. Beonin is rather less enthused about the prospect of negotiation at that point. I like the way this scene builds up to Egwene first appearing to support the idea and then overturning it.

41. Ah! I was wrong on the timeline earlier. We actually don’t get Egwene’s on-page reaction to the cleansing. It happened “half a week ago” and has been all the Sisters have talked about for days. Yesterday, they sent a small exploratory group off to investigate the site where it happened; I assume Rand is long gone.

42. Egwene here thinks about oaths of fealty and how if they are forced on someone, then that person is likely to become quite adept at wiggling through the cracks of said oaths. And that even someone who is genuinely loyal can hurt you by doing something that they BELIEVE to be in your best interest but actually isn’t. Actually quite a relevant commentary for a number of storylines! We have, of course, Egwene’s oathsworn Sisters but we also have RAND’S oathsworn Sisters as well, plus we have the oaths that the Seanchan force everyone to take, which Mat noted back in Winter’s Heart that he does not consider binding because they were taken under duress.

43. Aran’gar/Halima is still spending most of her nights in Egwene’s tent. I wonder if part of the reason Jordan skipped past the day of the cleansing in Egwene’s storyline is because he would have needed to have Egwene notice that 'Halima’ was missing for the entire time that the big long burst of saidar was happening but if he talks about it all in retrospect, he can just not mention it, so it’s less noticeable that Egwene missed A Clue. I mean, I also doubt that Egwene had a headache that day, since Aran’gar is DEFINITELY the one causing her headaches.

44. Okay, here’s the timeline correction: we’ve been here ‘two weeks’ now, so ‘five days’ must just be how long Elaida has been shipping extra soldiers into the city. No wonder Gareth is starting to worry that Egwene has lost her nerve! This timeline feels a bit squishy though. *pokes at the timeline*

45. Egwene KNOWS that the plan they were hoping for (sinking ships to blockage the harbor) won’t work, because of her talks with Gareth, so the siege is doomed to fail, but she’s also unwilling to launch an assault, so what IS her plan here? She’s just wasting time at this point. She knew that her original plan wouldn’t work back when they were in Murandy, we learn, because Gareth was originally going to seize ships as they march north but taking a shortcut Traveling made that impossible. Gareth is right -- they should probably have acted just as soon as they arrived, Traveling into the Tower with soldiers and taking it by surprise (note: because I’ve read this before, I know why Jordan doesn’t have Egwene do that but it really is very baffling to me, character-wise, that she doesn’t. They are leaning HARD on the ‘White Tower must be whole’ rhetoric but then what was Egwene even thinking about back for that month resting up in Murandy? They’ve just been hanging out for two weeks at this point, with no actual plan).

46. I feel like so much of these last two chapters should have been snipped so that we could get to the part where she actually DOES think about her plan. People sitting around with their thumbs up their asses does not make for a riveting narrative. I felt the same way about all of Mat’s chapters earlier this book and in parts of Winter’s Heart. These chapters should have been condensed down. Not as bad at Mat’s earlier chapters in this CoT, when literally nothing happened, but about as bad as Mat’s section of four chapters at the end of Winter’s Heart, which should have been two chapters and shorter ones.

47. This is when we learn that food is starting to go bad even when they surround it with a Keeping of saidar. Changing the weather doesn’t stop this part of the Dark One’s touch breaking through.

48. oh my GOD, the hilarious hypocrisy of Egwene thinking about how hard it is to keep novices from rushing too fast with the training. Genuinely amusing moment where she completely Does Not Remember that she was the worst novice of any kind when it came to that sort of thing. Amazing. ilu Egwene

49. Ah-ha, we finally get to something that will move the plot forward, as Egwene checks in on a class of people making cuendillar (which is something Egwene apparently figured out from something Moghedien said before Aran’gar helped her escape). This part is interesting, though I again am a bit sad that apparently there are now three other sisters who have been discovered to make ter’angreal. It’s not really practical, for Elayne to be the only sister who can make ter’angreal, but it does make me a bit sad anyway, same as I mentioned about being sad about Nynaeve being displaced as ‘best healer’ and ‘most powerful female channeler’. Nynaeve and Elayne are both important in their own rights, of course, and not just because of their strengths in the One Power but. It’s just a bit sad. Anyway, right now, they’re using it to make small items to potentially sell for money to pay the army.

50. We do get a hint here that Egwene DOES have a plan that relates to the cuendillar. Yeah, I feel like we probably should have started Egwene’s section about halfway through this chapter and not spent so much time focusing on what she WASN’T going to do. There’s just way too much time spent on dithering around and on plans that aren’t going to work in the last couple of books. I have to admit, Jordan also sometimes does this thing in his writing where he has his PoV characters obliquely think about their plans in a weirdly vague way to keep said plans from the reader and it does kinda get annoying after a while? I want to be In On The Plan with the heroes! (especially if it’s a plan that’s going to end up going sideways anyway! Let me experience the anticipation and the highs and lows of the plan with Our Hero!)

50. We get reminded that Bode (Mat’s sister, though this is not mentioned in the narrative) is here, along with the other Two Rivers’ girls, and she’s one of the women who is capable of making cuendillar. And Nicola and Ariena are still poking their noses into everything and causing trouble. Egwene is startled and horrified at herself when she realizes she’s feeling a bit of regret that she didn’t let Siuan order the two of them killed. Ah, Sharina is another person ‘more powerful than Nynaeve’.

51. There is so much WEIRDNESS about how ‘Halima’ behaves around Egwene and Egwene always just notes and then dismisses it. It MUST be Compulsion. Oh, also, I forgot to mention, two books ago, Aran’gar killed two of Egwene’s maids -- but not Chesa, which immediately makes me assume she’s a Darkfriend tbh. I don’t remember if she is or not, but Aran’gar leaving her alive makes me feel like it’s likely. But Egwene KNOWS that Delena is weird and sketchy and always making bizarre suggestions but none of her feelings about Delena ever fall on ‘Halima’, Delena’s ‘secretary’.

52. Egwene is depressed to hear that the people under Seanchan rule are beginning to accept their new rulers. We once again hear they are “no worse rulers than any other and better than some -- as long as you were not a woman who could channel” but that’s objectively untrue. We KNOW that ‘normal’ people also get turned into property and broken. Anyone who refuses the oaths is forced into manual labor and PRETTY people who refuse the oaths are turned into da’covale and are forced to be objects for the Blood, holding poses or being cupbearers, etc. And we know some portion of those people get sexually abused by the Blood or non-slaves, because Tuon was trying to check if Mat was one of those abusers last book. Living under Seanchan rule means keeping your head down at all times. We know all this from Winter’s Heart. It was only last book! Saying this is only a ‘female channeler’ problem is ignoring a lot of other people that we know for a fact are also being hurt by the Seanchan invasion. But Egwene does also note that almost no news makes it past the Seanchan borders which is... well, very symptomatic of an oppressive authoritarian rule.

53.  Egwene and Siuan talk over the various issues that might come out of what has happened in Caemlyn -- that Elayne is the one in charge of the Aes Sedai there, that the Atha’an Miere are being taught by Aes Sedai, and the Seanchan prisoners. We do learn that apparently the Seanchan are now beginning a siege of Tear in addition to Illian. It must be by sea? I am looking at the map and feeling confused that the Seanchan are able to lay a siege to Tear tbh. I also really am annoyed that ALL of Rand’s proxy leaders are men (we find out here that his proxy in Illian is a Lord Gregorin). Berelain being Steward of Cairhien instead of Dobraine would help even things out there. #BerelainDeservedBetter

54. Ooooh, okay, Darlin is being beseiged by nobles who don’t like Rand, not by the Seanchan. That makes more sense. And is also HILARIOUS because he WAS the main noble who didn’t like Rand a couple of books ago. It’s so funny that he ended up Rand’s proxy ruler in Tear, considering. Oh! Merana is in Tear - she was seen going in and out of the Stone. The Grays are very intrigued at what may come out of Tear (and possibly wondering why she isn’t sending them news directly?). I really like Merana. She might be one of my favorite teriary characters. She’s another of those characters, like Selende, who had an interesting story that was more in the background of other stories (though Merana did have a couple of PoVs, I think), but we kinda saw her rise and fall and then rise again, in terms of her status and feelings of self-worth. She’s been interesting. And she’s stood toe-to-toe against Rand during one of his rages and actually made him blink and stand down and admit that she was correct, so she has a strong spine as well. I approve of Merana. Rand NEEDS people who are willing to stand up against him (without trying to assault him or bully him).

55. Ah, they have figured out that Merana is working for Rand. Or, as Siuan puts it, “she’s the Dragon Reborn’s creature” (rude!). Anyway, we are now about to actually find out which rumors it was that made Egwene ominously tell Elayne that she wouldn’t let Rand turn Aes Sedai into damane. It started with hearing that Aes Sedai were allowed to freely go in and out of the Sun Palace while the Dragon Reborn was in residence. Okay, here’s a thing - Egwene KNOWS that Rand is incredibly strongly ta’veren yet she doesn’t to consider that a possibility here at all, only worries that he’s using Compulsion. It kinda reminds me of how Elayne and Nynaeve didn’t think of taking advantage of Mat being ta’veren at all until Aviendha suggested it. Also, Rand and Egwene did basically the exact same thing, which was have Aes Sedai be oathsworn to them personally.

56. Hilariously, I’m pretty sure that Rand does NOT, in fact, actually know Compulsion at all? (Egwene does, we find out here -- she learned it from Moghedien and kinda wishes that she hadn’t) Siuan thinks that Rand - “needs to be dealt with eventually and maybe taught a lesson”. He rules three nations plus the Aiel! What is with this obsession with treating him like a naughty toddler? I guess this is part of what the White Tower teaches -- it’s the same mindset that Moiraine started with and that Cadsuane has now.

57. Egwene notes that ruling by edict has its disadvantages. Another point where her story is now mirroring the issues that Rand has been facing -- the fact that he’s basically had to rule by brute force has caused him any number of issues over the course of the books. She also notes that it’s “addictive” having people jump to obey you when you speak. It’s a shame that Rand and Egwene aren’t allowed by the narrative to commiserate with each other on their now quite-similar ruling woes.

58. It’s time for the report on the weird beacon of saidar. The thing is... technically, we are getting different stuff with each of these main PoVs that are reacting to Rand’s final segment of Winter’s Heart but it gets dragged out way too much. I’m nearly at 600 pages into the book and we are still primarily reacting to the end of Winter’s Heart. But we do all have different reactions:

Mat notes it internally, definitely knows it’s Rand, and tells no one (yet, anyway; I will note if he tells anyone later)

Perrin realizes it’s Rand and Nynaeve, and tells his allies

Elayne and Aviendha can feel that it’s Rand via the bond and struggle with heart vs duty

Egwene, who is the emotionally furthest away from Rand right now, has no special ‘feeling’ that Rand and Nynaeve were the ones who created the burst of Power and worries that it was the Forsaken, sending a team to investigate the site a couple of days post-event

59. If I were restructuring this book... ugh, that’s tough. This book is a mess. Assuming we cut down Winter’s Heart by at least 30% (absolutely doable imo, especially if we’ve bumped back Elayne’s section of the prologue into the ending of TPoD), then I would put the reactions to Rand cleansing saidin in THAT book instead. Cut out the Far Madding detour, trim down the other sections, then have Rand cleanse saidin, and the last third of Winter’s Heart is reacting to the cleansing. The remainder of what is left of CoT would then get bumped forward into Knife of Dreams and CoT just wouldn’t exist. I’ll see if I can spot a good ‘ending point’ for this new version of Winter’s Heart that’s in my head.

60. The way being Amrylin is described here also reminds me of how Rand’s position as Car’a’carn was described in earlier books -- not a monarch but the ‘first among equals’.

61. Anyway! The report: they found a huge circular hole in the ground where Shadar Logoth used to be; the city is entirely gone. Three miles wide and a mile and a half deep. Wow! That’s pretty impressive, Rand and Nynaeve! The bottom is covered with water and ice, so they believe it will likely become a lake, in time. They could read the ‘residue’ and tell that saidin was used also, so much saidin as to make the amount of saidar used look like a foothill next to Dragonmount. An appropriate comparison, though she doesn’t know it! The weave itself that was used made no sense to her. They all (Egwene included) are certain that the Forsaken are the ones who did it.

62. The suggestion that the sisters who are working together make is unlike anything Egwene was expecting -- Moria suggests sending to the Black Tower and finding Asha’man to link with so that they can make their circles bigger. This creates an enormous shouting match in the Hall, as most of the Sitters recoil against the idea. It really is a very bold suggestion, considering that none of the people present have any idea that saidin was just cleansed of the Dark One’s touch. Moria tells them that they have to admit that there are too many Asha’man for them to just ‘take care of them later’; they have to deal with the fact that they are a power to rival the White Tower (especially divided as it is). This whole section here is pretty intense and good. Though the people arguing against allying with the Black Tower are very passionate, when it comes time for the vote, the lesser consensus stands in favor of the idea of reaching out for an alliance, and the motion passes. Honestly, that actually would probably make for a good ending for my re-imagined version of Winter’s Heart. It’s really the last big reverberation of the cleansing, and then Egwene’s next chapter kinda undercuts the tension of that moment by being a TAR meeting with Aviendha in a way that wouldn’t work for the ending of a book.

63. I do like this hashing-out afterwards scene, though, in the next chapter. It feels like real politics. Good scene and it cuts through the potential boring parts nicely. The scene takes several hours for the characters involved but I don’t feel like I’VE been forced to take part in an hours-long meeting. We needed more scenes like this in CoT tbh.

64. Character growth moment! Egwene has stopped trying to hurtle herself at Rand’s dreams and break into them! 🥳 It sounds like it’s less about respecting his privacy and more about being worried that he might figure out that she’s been trying to do that for months, but I’m happy anyway.

65. Oh, ick, wow. Egwene is tempted to “put the fear of the Light” into Nynaeve’s dreams. Yikes. Egwene giveth and Egwene taketh away.

66. Anyway, she brushed a thought against Elayne’s dreams to say they should meet but Aviendha is the one who shows up. Egwene knows that Elayne is pregnant with Rand’s kids? I guess Elayne really did tell Egwene literally everything except about the actual bond itself. Also, Jordan forgot that Egwene was actually HILARIOUSLY BAD at picking up the Rand x Aviendha subtext literally the entire time the three of them were all in the same place, as she now retroactively believes that Aviendha has feelings for Rand too when before she absolutely believed that Aviendha was only looking out for Rand ‘for Elayne’. MAT was the one who picked up on Rand and Aviendha’s feelings for each other. But Aviendha is a super-cute wife here, talking about Elayne, and Elayne and Rand’s future babies. Honestly, I feel like we got robbed out of such a large potential amount of adorable Rand/Elayne/Aviendha interactions.

67. Oh! I deeply apologize to my dearest Elayne. She did NOT tell Egwene that Rand is the dad. Egwene is just assuming that because she knows about Elayne’s feelings and just straight up doesn’t believe that Elayne would sleep with anyone else. My sincerest apologies, Elayne! I should have known better. You are not Min. I am also glad that Egwene realizes she’s being wildly overjudgmental about Elayne having a child ~out of wedlock~ and tones it down.

68. Egwene asks after Rand and Nynaeve. Aviendha tells her that they haven’t talked (which is true but misleading -- Aviendha surely knows that Egwene wants to know what Rand’s up to and Aviendha DOES know the answer to that, at least in broad strokes of “he was the center of that burst of power earlier”... but Egwene isn’t a Wise One apprentice anymore; she’s Aes Sedai, and more than that, not an Aes Sedai who has an agreement with Rand). Oh, and very interesting, she is briefly in Maidens’ cadin’sor when Egwene tells her about what happened in the Hall and the plans to send an embassy to the Black Tower and the reaction to all that Power being used. A Maidens’ heart for protecting Rand, with his gift to her being the only thing that isn’t part of a Maiden’s garb. Ugh, why can’t I get a Rand and Aviendha scene? I desperately want one now. I can’t believe they didn’t even get a separate conversation to themselves back in Winter’s Heart.

69. Egwene thinks that none of her prophetic dreams have ever been useful to her but I don’t think we’ve ever seen her act on them either yet so... maybe they WOULD be useful. She really is an interesting contrasting case study against Min though, who shares her viewings constantly and causes more trouble than she gives aid, most of the time. So maybe Egwene has the right idea here.

70. Oh, my goodness. Thank you, Aviendha. Anyway, Aviendha points out here that Aes Sedai (including Egwene) assume men are fools when they often are not. This kinda reminds me of when she pointed out to Elayne and Nynaeve that Mat could actually be USEFUL in Ebou Dar and maybe they shouldn’t just avoid him all the time. Aviendha: doing her best to get men and women to stop acting like they belong to two separate species.

71. Prophetic dream time:

Mat bowls on a village green, but the pins are mens’ lives. Every one of the pins represents thousands of lives and an Illuminator is involved. Egwene notes that Mat has met an Illuminator before... how does she know that? I assume she’s talking about Mat meeting Aludra during TDR but I do not remember him mentioning this to her in TSR. And the characters are, in general, so terrible at communicating to each other that I am absolutely not going to assume that two characters actually communicated useful information to each other ‘off-screen’.

Egwene struggles up a narrow cliff, nearly falls off, and is saved by a Seanchan woman, who tells her they can reach the top together.

Then she has a dream of the Seanchan attacking the White Tower (in metaphor form, but she understands it).

Interestingly, Egwene thinks here that her ‘true dreams’ are possibilities and not certainties. Once again, we have this contrast between prophecies that are considered certainties (Foretellings and Min’s Viewings) vs ones that are about possible futures (Egwene’s dreams and the silver rings in Rhuidean). And, of course, Egwene doesn’t bother worrying about Mat in this book, because she knows that he’s been Assigned Another Plot.

72. Anaiya Sedai and her Warder have been found dead. Nisao tested the place where they were killed and found saidin residue. Ah, that would be where ‘Halima’ was last night, I assume. Trying to make it so that the rebels won’t reach out to the Black Tower, maybe?

Mat is mentioned by:

Elayne x1

Egwene x6 (prophetic dream)

Unnecessary scenes:

no one should even KNOW Elayne is pregnant yet, let alone bother her about it all the time: 1 (2 pages) , 1 (2 pages), 1 (1 page)

annoying Atha’an Miere nonsense: 1 (2 pages), 1 (10 pages)

random PoVs that I have no patience to care about: 1 (21 pages), 1 (18 pages)

waiting around doing nothing: 1 (18 pages), 1 (11 pages)

sitter ‘mystery’: 1 (1 page), 1 (3 pages)

[fedonciadale]

So, just watched episode 7 and I loved it! The actors are all so good and really 'channel' the characters.

Cold open was amazing! The choreography of the fighting was very good and I think we got a good idea of how Aiel fight.

I guess they had to do something with the actor of Mat leaving and I think it was a good idea to have some tension in the group because of that. They are all stressed out and that leads people to lash out against each other, even people they love. Not sure I'm sold on the idea that Perrin holds a torch for Egwene. In hindsight some of the scenes could be understood that way.

The ways were creepy and I loved them. They gave me the feeling of cobble stone pavement that had gone completely wrong.

Loved how Machin Shin was done, visually and with the self-doubt voices. That was a good idea to show some of the conflicts of the characters.

And another bad-ass Nynaeve moment with ragged weaves instead of Aes Sedai orderly weaves! Nynaeve!

What can I even say to Lan / Nynaeve? That was well done. Loved that Lan basically introduced her to his family. Loved that Nynaeve was the bold one. She was also the bold one to talk about feelings first in the books!

I think that Moiraine still had no idea who the Dragon was and that she thought the person themselves might know. So she tried to instigate a reveal. Or she wanted to prepare everyone for possible death?

I don't know why she set the Red Ajah on Mat? Does she want to tie up lose ends? In case he is the Dragon he must be gentled? Or did she want to teach him a lesson?

I think the visuals for Min's viewings were great. I really dislike the character so I'm a bit wary but the scenes fit well.

I loved how they did the reveal. Rand must have realized in the ways at the latest. The black wind plays into fears that are already there, so he must have thought about that for some time. In hindsight that makes his conversations with Mat and Thom even more interesting. And the acting was top notch. The arrows that struck in the bull's eye with each puzzle piece was well done.

And Moiraine and Rand leaving together is so much in character!

I guess the rest of the team will decide to follow them next week. So much for self- sacrifice. 🤣

*book spoilers below *

I never thought of Perrin and Egwene as a couple - and I thought about many possible pairings because of my general dissatisfaction with the canon pairings. Lol. We'll see where this will lead. As of now I don't really see what the change adds to the story?

I have no idea what Min's viewing of Rand with the baby means. I'm intrigued about that.

She viewed three beautiful women. So I guess we'll get that awkward male fantasy of three beautiful women (a dark haired, a redhead and a blonde 🙄🙄🙄) falling in love at first sight with a man just because the pattern wants it. Here's to hoping that Min will do more than stalk Rand and that Elayne will not behave so ridiculous (I always thought that her love was the least believable because she basically doesn't know the man, like at all). Here's to hoping that they will at least give Aviendha and Elayne a wlw relationship in addition. That would at least tone down the whole male fantasy part. (Be still my heart, you knew you wouldn't get Mat/Elayne. 😭)

I like that Rand just accepts he is the Dragon. His reluctance to accept that was almost a bit annoying in the books (I always wanted to scream at him: you basically channeled the biggest amount of saidin that was ever collected, the dragon banner was found at the Eye. How could you not be it?) It was a good decision they let Moiraine be open about the fact that she looks for the dragon.

I liked the little world building at the side with Lady Amalisa who didn't get past accepted (and has no stone in her ring)

Also I liked the proud Borderlanders. Their fight against the shadow is such an important part of their identity that I didn't mind that Agelmar was unfriendly towards Moiraine.

And we got Lan's back story! And Lanaeve really sped forward. I guess Lan will have a bad conscience about Moiraine leaving without him and it will possibly put their blossoming relationship under strain.

I really like that book readers cannot be sure what happens. I'm ready to get surprises on the way. 😃

[avarogers021]

Updated List 2021 For Netflix Cancelled & Renewed Shows

Platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime are watched by a number of people all over the world. Both of these platforms telecast movies, shows, and series which are related to different genres. From thriller to action, anime, mystery, documentaries, history, and more, everything can be seen on these platforms.

Before getting started let us first talk about the shows/series you like to watch? Friends, Riverdale, Game Of Thrones? Well, all of them has a huge fan following. I personally can never get enough of watching Riverdale and Friends. Whether I am back home after work or I wanted to spend some time, Netflix has always been a savior. However, lately I got a news and it just felt like the end of the world.

Were you aware of the fact that some of the Netflix shows have been going off air and cancelled real soon? Yes, you are reading this right. The reasons behind the cancellation of various reasons bring together a plethora of reasons. Of course some shows like Dear White People and Dead To Me have a huge fan following and will be missed for sure. However, since we know that sooner or later good things do make their way, all these shows also came to an end soon.

Have you been wondering which shows got canceled? This is the piece which is apt for you. You will be able to find out all of them here itself. Hence, let’s get started without any further ado.

Netflix shows that have been renewed and cancelled in the year 2021Below mentioned is a list of the top twenty shows that have been canceled this year. Check them out to find the reasons behind the big decision. In addition to this, you will also find out if they are coming back anytime soon.

Ozark: This one has been renewed for season four. The famous television series is coming to an end in 2021. You could find this series on Netflix. Even after gaining so much of popularity, the show is gong off air this year. The show did receive a number of nominations of awards and has also won numerou titles. Some of them are the Guild award, and Emmy award. To people who have watched this series, the fourth season has divided into two different categories. Each category consists of seven episodes. However, at present the director wanted to take a break and made sure that the series is remembered by the fans.

Cast of Ozark

Jason Bateman

Alik Bateman

Andrew Bernstein

Ellen Kuras

Daniel Sackheim

Amanda Marsalis

Benjamin Semanoff

Phil Abraham

Cherien Dabis

Dead To Me: This one has been renewed for season three. The series is known to end in the year 2021. However, the series finale is a big hit and funny. But, this one did not gain too much attention. Time changes, and so does the audience. This is why it is now time to bid adieu to this series, Jenny and Judy. Even though the series was loved by some of them till date, it is finally coming to an end yet not off air.

Cast of Dead To Me

Kat Coiro

Geeta V. Patel

Minkie Spiro

Abe Sylvia

Amy York Rubin

Tamra Davis

Jennifer Getzinger

Liza Johnson

Silver Tree

Elizabeth Allen

Lucifer: The series is renewed for season six. Another fantastic which is coming to an end is Lucifer. The series premiered on 25 January 2016. With time the first season received mixed reviews from critics. A number of them praised certain characters and Elli’s performance was no exception. With time more and more seasons were released. However, they did not gain much popularity. Platforms like Netflix also cancelled the pick up of the third season.

Cast Of Lucifer

Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar

Lauren German

Kevin Alejandro

D B. Woodside as Amenadiel

Lesley as Ann Branch

Scarlett Estevez as Beatrice

Rachael Harris

Kevin Rankin

Tricia Helfer as Mum

Tom Welling as Lieutenant Marcus Pierce

Inbar Lavi as Eve

You: This one got renewed for season three. There are only very few Netflix series that have grabbed the attention of people. However unfortunately, this famous thriller series has come to an end now. However, a statement was made by the director where he said that the series will be ending with a season three. The series is based on a novel which was written by Caroline Kepnes. The main role was played by Penn Badgley who was a bookseller. During the second season, the seller was a movie from New York to LA. Even though this is an irresistible show, the fans may not get to watch it anymore.

Cast of You

Penn Badgley

Victoria Pedretti

Ambyr Childers

Elizabeth Lail

Luca Padovan

Jenna Ortega

Zach Cherry

James Scully

Carmeta Zumbado

Nicole Kang

Shalita Grant

Scott Speedman

Travis Van Winkle

Atypical: This show has been renewed for season four. With the season finale, this show is going off air in 2021. However, it will still remain in the hearts of so many of them. No reasons have been found as to why the show is going off air. However, some of them are saying that the reason is because the show is very underrated.

Cast of Atypical

Keir Gilchrist

Brigette Lundy-Paine

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Michael Rapaport

Nik Dodani

Amy Okuda

Jenna Boyd

Graham Rogers

Fivel Stewart

Nina Ameri

Raúl Castillo

Ariela Barer

Graham Phillips

Sara Gilbert

Rachel Redleaf

Allie Rae Treharne

Eric McCormack

Casey Wilson

Angel Laketa Moore

Christina Offley

Kimia Behpoornia

Karl T. Wright

Major Curda

Marietta Melrose

On My Block: There is no official announcement related to the renewal of On My Block. However, it is going to end in 2021 mainly because of the pandemic. The show gained popularity but is still ending. Centered in Los Angeles, this one was based on high school teens who face different challenges.

Cast of On My Block

Diego Tinoco

Sierra Capri

Jason Genao

Brett Gray

Jessica Marie Garcia

Julio Macias

Ronni Hawk

Peggy Blow

Jahking Guillory

Paula Garcés

Danny Ramirez

Reggie Austin

Eric Neil Gutierrez

Eme Ikwuakor

Emilio Rivera

Lisa Marcos

Angela Elayne Gibbs

Ada Luz Pla

Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson

Shoshana Bush

Rob Murat

Mallory James Mahoney

Raushanah Simmons

Gilberto Ortiz

Dear White People: This series is renewed for season four. This one is coming to an end in 2021. The final episodes will show you the nest conversational end.

Cast of Dear White People

Logan Browning

Antoinette Robertson

Brandon P. Bell

Ashley Blaine Featherson

Marque Richardson

DeRon Horton

John Patrick Amedori

Giancarlo Esposito

Tyler James Williams

Caitlin Carver

Jeremy Tardy

Obba Babatundé

Brandon Black

Sheridan Pierce

Nia Long

Ally Maki

Quei Tann

Brant Daugherty

Wendy Raquel Robinson

John Rubinstein

Jeff Larson

Alex Alcheh

Francia Raisa

Rome Flynn

Luke O’Sullivan

Taylor Foster

John Paul Jones II

Tessa Thompson

Ratched: This series is renewed for season two but is going off air very soon. The series is about a nurse Ratched and is based on a real story. As of now it is twisted and ended with a superb episode.

Cast of Ratched

Sarah Paulson

Cynthia Nixon

Finn Wittrock

Sharon Stone

Judy Davis

Jon Jon Briones

Charlie Carver

Amanda Plummer

Corey Stoll

Alice Englert

Sophie Okonedo

Vincent D’Onofrio

Hunter Parrish

Brandon Flynn

Harriet Sansom Harris

Rosanna Arquette

Jermaine Williams

Michael Benjamin Washington

Don Cheadle

Linda Bisesti

Annie Starke

Teo Briones

Emily Mest

Liz Femi

Jeff B. Davis

Robert Curtis Brown

Kirk Bovill

Grasie Mercedes

Siaka Massaquoi

Ben Crowley

Elinor Gunn

Clayton Farris

Aaron Jay Rome

Patrick Duke Conboy

Zabeth Russell

Albert Malafronte

Jake McDermott

Heather McPhaul

Lita Lopez

Lucas Barker

Greg Ballora

Alfred Rubin Thompson

Germain Arroyo

Kristin Charney

Fred Maske

Casey James Knight

Glow: This one is straightaway cancelled. A very famous wrestling drama, this had to be cancelled because of the pandemic.

Cast of Glow

Alison Brie

Betty Gilpin

Marc Maron

Kate Nash

Jackie Tohn

Sydelle Noel

Sunita Mani

Britney Young

Gayle Rankin

Awesome Kong

Britt Baron

Ellen Wong

Chris Lowell

Kimmy Gatewood

Rebekka Johnson

Marianna Palka

Shakira Barrera

Rich Sommer

Bashir Salahuddin

Geena Davis

Victor Quinaz

Ursula Hayden

Alex Rich

Andrew Friedman

Elizabeth Perkins

Annabella Sciorra

Brooke Hogan

Breeda Wool

Kevin Cahoon

Horatio Sanz

Wyatt Nash

Joey Ryan

Toby Huss

Paul Fitzgerald (actor)

Eli Goree

Marc Evan Jackson

Phoebe Strole

Amy Farrington

Ravil Isyanov

Messiah: The series was cancelled because it had to go through ups and downs. However, for the year 2021, this high class show has been canceled. The reason behind this is the dropping popularity.

Cast of Messiah

Mehdi Dehbi

Michelle Monaghan

Stefania LaVie Owen

Rona-Lee Shimon

Sayyid El Alami

Melinda Page Hamilton

Wil Traval

John Ortiz

Fares Landoulsi

Jane Adams

Beau Bridges

Philip Baker Hall

Dermot Mulroney

Teenage Bounty Hunters: This one got cancelled too. Even though this was considered as one of the best teen comedy series, it came to an end. The series received amazing reviews from the critics and the jury.Sadly, the first season of this show fails to draw the attention of the audience. This is one major reason why the series ended.

Cast of Teenage Bounty Hunters

Maddie Phillips

Anjelica Bette Fellini

Devon Hales

Kadeem Hardison

Virginia Williams

Spencer House

Mackenzie Astin

Myles Evans

Charity Cervantes

Method Man

Eric Graise

Given Sharp

Shirley Rumierk

Randy Havens

Jacob Rhodes

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: The series got cancelled even after umpteen gigs and comedy episodes.

Cast of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

Anya Taylor-Joy

Taron Egerton

Nathalie Emmanuel

Mark Hamill

Simon Pegg

Jason Isaacs

Helena Bonham Carter

Andy Samberg

Natalie Dormer

Keegan-Michael Key

Caitriona Balfe

Alicia Vikander

Gugu Mbatha-Raw

Mark Strong

Harvey Fierstein

Theo James

Toby Jones

Awkwafina

Lena Headey

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

Shazad Latif

Donna Kimball

Harris Dickinson

Benedict Wong

Sigourney Weaver

Hannah John-Kamen

Neil Sterenberg

Louise Gold

Beccy Henderson

Kevin Clash

Dave Chapman

Warrick Brownlow-Pike

Helena Smee

Bill Hader

Theo Ogundipe

Kemi-Bo Jacobs

Dave Goelz

Eddie Izzard

Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj; This American show has grabbed the attention of so many of them during the lockdown. However, the show is now cancelled and no reasons behind the same have been found out yet.

Cast of Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj

Hasan Minhaj

Joyelle Johnson

Arnab Goswami

Andrew Yang

Cory Booker

Maeve Higgins

Adi Ash

Michelle C Bonilla

Rahm Braslaw

Julian Zane Chawdhary

Sean Hartman

Alexis Landry

James Adam Tucker

Rayan Zaim-Sassi

Emily Grace Buck

Vava

Vinod Chaproo

Joan Dickson

Michael Eric Dyson

Jann Ellis

Sonia

Lori Hammel

Smith Harrison

John Hodgman

Siraj Huda

Jacob Dylan

Aurea Jolly

Kevin

The Summary

These are some of the famous Netflix series and shows that got cancelled in the year 2021. As mentioned above, the reasons behind the cancellation differ from series to series. However, you need not lose hope. Netflix still have amazing series coming up. Whatever genre you prefer, keep that in mind and start searching for them. This way you will surely end up finding the ones that will be suitable for you. If not Netflix, then you can check out IMDB. This is a platform where you can search for various shows and movies. While doing do, what you can do is check out the ratings. This way you will find out whether or not the show should be watched or not. IMDB shows new series ans shows that are released every week or month. Search for the one you want to watch and get started without any further ado.

We hope this piece has helped in understanding which and why the shows got cancelled. However, you need not worry about anything. There are a plethora of shows you will come across on this platform, and something or the other will surely be worth watching. Thus, do not wait further and make use of the time this lockdown. Do not let the cancellation and lockdown spoil your mood. Your mood will be cherished and who knows you find out facts you never thought could happen? Also, exploring various genres never goes waste. So, why not make use of this wonderful opportunity?

Syndicate Content:

https://www.exposework.com/netflix-cancelled-renewed-shows/​

[wicxedxcharming]

@newlestrange sent an ask! (what does your character pretend or try to care about? ( all your muses ! ) )

Oh God, all my muses...I went and counted how many muses I was going to do this for and it wasn’t as much as I thought it was going to be! Still...twenty three muses, I tried to give a little explanation but if you want really in depth info, let me know!

AURADON MUSES

Benny: Fashion trends. As a princess, she knows she’s supposed to care a little but and she actually does care a bit but not as much as most royals in Auradon. She throws on whatever is in her closet, only really worries about if it matches, and fakes interest if anyone asks

Dahlia: Gardening. She tried, she really tried caring about gardening but she couldn’t. She doesn’t have the green thumb to support the hobby and she’s fine never having to take care of Aunt Snow White’s orchard.

Priscilla: Tea! She likes coffee. She is an ice coffee fiend but the only people who know that are Ben, Kurtis, Pippa, and Audrey. She keeps her love for coffee a secret because everyone drinks tea and she doesn’t understand why!

Kurtis: Tourney. He loves R.O.A.R. so he could never really get into tourney. He tries to act excited, mostly for Chad and Ben’s sake but really? He doesn’t really know how the game even works and he doesn’t know how people haven’t found him out yet.

Sophia: Chess. People expect her to like chess because it’s a strategy game and yes, she isn’t bad at it, but it’s so boring to her. She would rather play poker then chess but she acts like it’s interesting so that it avoids the whole ‘oh but your mom would be good at the game’ talk.

ISLE MUSES

Honey: The Gangs. She really doesn’t care. She lives in this middle ground where people wouldn’t bother her either way so why should she care about who’s in who’s gang? As long as she doesn’t get killed getting tea at the Heart’s shop, she’s fine. She acts interested when people talk about it, not wanting to seem rude.

Genevieve: Drinking. People expect, because she’s a barmaid, to know about what drinks to get but in all honest? She has never really paid attention and she’s pretty sure no one has noticed. She pours everyone ale, even when they didn’t ask for it, and no one has noticed.

Marianne: Sewing. She isn’t the worst sewer, she isn’t the best either though. It’s a craft she never got the hang of but her mother wanted her to be good at. So she fakes it whenever her mother is around, even when she doesn’t actually care about what she’s sewing. She can never finish anyways, since there isn’t enough yarn on the Isle.

Elayne (Tremaine): Hair Dye. She works at a salon and she has to dye people’s hair almost everyday but she doesn’t actually care for it. She lets Dizzy dye her hair when the days are slow but she likes her black hair, doesn’t really care to change it but has to act like she will to convince people to dye their hair.

Lettice: Swords. She has a good one and she cares for it deeply but, she doesn’t care about others. She tried to care about different ones but in her opinion? As long as it’s able to cut you and it’s a good weight? What more do you want from a sword!

Mélanie: Math. She tried, she wanted to be good at something that wasn’t just reading. She really tried but she couldn’t get the hang of it, she’s terrible in math. She actually pretends to be good at it so people don’t think she’s totally clueless. But she is terrible at it.

Petros: The Underworld. He understands that it’s supposed to be his home but he has more connection with the earth at this point. He has spent most of his life above ground so why would he be interested in the Underworld? Humans weren’t that bad either...but since he’s a demon, he has to act like he cares

Asmodeus: Actual Sex. He’s a lust demon but lust comes from so many different things. Things were different before he was actually stuck in this small Isle where sex just kept happening. He enjoys, far more, corrupting humans into giving into their lustful urges, even if he isn’t involved in that

NARNIA MUSES

Cordelia: Sailing. That was her father’s big thing, going on ships and sailing to different lands. But she has never really had a big affinity towards the water. She rather stay on dry land, but she knows enough about sailing that she could fool anyone into believing that she liked it.

Mildred: Archery. Her mother was known for her bow and arrow, King Caspian gave Mildred the bow when she arrived to Narnia...but wow she was terrible at it. She could never really get the arrow to land in the target. Anywhere near the target. She was expected to be amazing but she so isn’t

JATP MUSES

Flynn: Raves. DJs go to raves, Flynn understood that. And would she make appearances to expand her brand? Totally! But going to raves for pleasure? That wasn’t really her thing. Parties, she could handle, but raves were a whole different thing and she tried to avoid them if it was possible

Carrie: Instruments. Her father played the guitar, she was an amazing singer and dancer, she had to know how to play an instrument right? Nope...she didn’t. She really didn’t. She couldn’t play the triangle if you asked her. She will never admit to this fault of hers but it’s there.

HARRY POTTER MUSES

Rose: Potions. Rose really tried to be interested in Potions, she thought she was going to be amazing at it like she was in every subject. But she wasn’t. She was passable, she would probably get an E on her O.W.L.S in potions and that still haunts Rose because Albus got an O and she’s still bitter about it.

Albus: DADA. He’s Albus Severus Potter...defeating the Dark Arts should be in his blood...but no. He’s actually really good at Potions but dueling? Defense spells? Not so much, but he does try. Like with learning magic, he does try to be decent at it. He would...survive at least.

MISC MUSES

Elayne (Telcontra): Muffins. She’s an amazing baker, she can bake you anything...but muffins are her least favorite thing in the world. She just doesn’t understand them, why would you want a muffin when you can have a cupcake? She will die on this hill.

Nevaeh: Twitter. She has such a big social media presence everywhere, that’s her job after all...but she could never get Twitter. She just doesn’t understand the appeal and posts only once a month, while her Instagram gets a post a week and weekly Instagram Story posts. She just doesn’t get Twitter

Lila: Guns. She has powers (even though they mean nothing without the Umbrella Academy around), she can fight, why does she need a gun? She finds them too bulky and hard to carry when there are so many other ways to kill a person, much more creative ways.

Maria: The Color Red. Everyone has just associated that with her since her affair with Alexander. She was wearing a red dress when they first met but that was a one time thing! Maybe it’s because she’s a scarlet woman but that isn’t creative. Her favorite color is green so she doesn’t know where that came from.

[ivanaskye]

WoT Reactions: Book 13, Towers of Midnight

Ohhh god oh god. This was the second to last book. I just fiinished the second to last book. Am I ready for the end of this? NOT AT ALL. Will I be able to uhh ‘do things other than frantically read to the end’ over the next few days? Probably not. Oh god. I’ve been reading this series the entire time I’ve lived in this apartment. I read so fast that I have probably never spent this long reading ANYTHING. I can’t handle this I’m so worried for what’s going to happen and how do I even say goodbye to these characters—

(Coughs.) Well, anyways. On with it.

[[MORE]]

Aviendha

She only had like three chapters in this book but I’m starting with her anyway because those chapters have me Shook

Her visions of the future? More viscerally horrifying than most horror

Oh god

It can’t happen that way. It can’t. The Seanchan can’t win. No. Fuck-

Thankfully Aviendha will be doing her best to prevent it now. Godspeed.

Rand

I’m... not sure I’ve ever seen a character more obviously and intensely Attain Enlightenment

Actually he may just about have the most satisfying character arc I’ve ever read

His memories of his past life are his now, he is everything he is, he is whole

I’m losing it guys this series is too much

Perrin

This is a very Perrin-heavy book, and he’s finally getting himself together

Tbh is everyone gonna be enlightened at the end of this thing

He’s... a good person. He made it folks

Also accidentally re invented the art of making Power-enhanced weapons lol

MADE FRIENDS W A WHITECLOAK

Imagine, a sense of honor that isn’t dangerously rigid. An honor from inside of himself and also a commitment to not putting it ahead of the whole entire world

This series is wrecking me

My DREAMS have been exclusively wheel of time for like the past three nights

I’m losing it guys

Anyway-

He knows how to balance wolf and man, now- how to accept everything he is

Egwene

She did a lot last book, so she does less this book

“Less” still meaning destroying an entire Forsaken uh

She’s also bonded Gawyn now, who had a character arc this book of Discovering How Not To Be An Idiot

She’s wrong about the seals, though. Rand almost certainly does have to do it.

Also her brief meeting with Rand? After they haven’t seen each other since uh uh uh I don’t even know??? That was good

Morgase

Shook by overhearing that Gaebril was a forsaken

And then by meeting her stepson Galad

Thus revealing who she is

And now she’s reunited with all her kids yay

Mat

FINALLY rescues Moiraine

But does not open Verin’s letter

Which turns out to be a bad idea because uhhhh that letter would have told him how to prevent Caemlyn from being completely under attack uh! Uh!!!

Moiraine

Mat’s right- she does feel legendary now, after such a long absence that cast such an incredible shadow

She might end up part of handling Callandor hmmm

Also sudden relationship with Thom which is.... uh...... one of the weirder Sudden Hetero Adventures of the series

Lan

Successfully coerced into not being Completely suicidal. Amazing.

Elayne

While You Were Becoming Enlightened, I Secured Cairhien

Also like almost dies after a botched interrogstion involving disguising herself as a Forsaken

Lanfear

Near confirmation in the epilogue that she indeed is not completely evil

We’ll see where this goes

Graendal

Surprise! Wasn’t dead

(You’re walking in the woods, Graendal surprise, actual Forsaken Graendal-)

However she has now failed one too many times soooo her higher ups are gonna... uh... it’s gonna be bad

Other news in the forsaken

Moridin (Ishamael) has control over Moghedien and Lanfear, as we know

Possibly also Graendal now

Graendal killed Aran’gar

The other ‘gar (I forget his exact name) is still out there somwhere I think

Demandred is very much out there, SOMEWHERE, with some kind of army

Semirhage is very dead, Mesaana is arguably worse than dead

And we still don’t fully understand what it really means that Moridin has access to the True Power (read: the power of the dark one)

And the Last Battle is next book and from the table of contents it looks to be 200 pages and-

(Cutting off here before I dissolve into more wordless screaming)

[sxilingthegalaxy]

BLOG RATINGSend ‘ Ⓡ ’ and I will rate your blog based on the following:

Blog Rating Send ‘ Ⓡ ’ and I will rate your blog based on the following:

URL: ★★★★☆ / 5 THEME: ★★★★☆ / 5 MUSE: ★★★★★ / 5 MUN: Infinity Stars. I’m breaking the scale! / 5 MY FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOUR BLOG: I think my favorite thing about your blog, aside from you, is how many verses and AUs and ideas you have. Every single verse you have comes with a ton of world buildings and it’s really amazing just to read about. We don’t have a thread in every single world you have but I still love reading about every verse you make. Usually my ideas are like ‘well....I’ll make Elayne a hunter now’ and that’s it but your attention to detail and the way you write is just amazing! MY FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOUR MUSE: I think I have written with a lot of your muses at this point but since our main ship is Elayne and Ivar, I’ll talk about him, I do like his depth as a muse because reading about him, it would be easy to write him off as a cold and terrible person, but that isn’t all he is. Elayne and I know this well that while he can be distant at times, while you are important to him, he cares a lot. And I think that’s my favorite thing about him, it’s that he’s not this one dimensional villain like character and while he can be tough, that’s only one side of him OVERALL: Overall, your blog is amazing and I just adore you as a person. You’re easy to talk to and so fun to role-play with and it’s been just a treat getting to know you and even just seeing you on my dashboard. I think everyone should just follow you!

[naughtyxstories]

7,13, 22

7. What is the one trend you miss the most that’s no longer popular or seen as much as it was before?

I miss good biography rpgs. Ones where you read the bios and you have such a feel for the character that you are absolutely dying to see how it comes out on paper. When I started rping, they were all like that and now, most of the rpgs are appless. I don’t object to them completely but I find that people are less committed to getting the rpg going if they don’t have to invest anything into the character before they even start.

13. Are you interested in creating an oc and roleplaying as them?

I love OCs. Almost all of my rping experience is OCs, with the exception of Glee and Vikings. Even then, I’m pretty sure my Vikings muses are not as good or as true to the original as they should be. So they are basically OCs if we are being honest.

22. If you could recommend at least five blogs to your followers, who would they be?

OOH …. this is a tough one because I follow so many wonderful blogs.

For fiction fun, I recommend @honestsycrets because I always enjoy her writing as well as her commentary on the community. Low drama and very supportive of other writers. Mad respect. 

I also recommend @youbloodymadgenius because they are just the nicest person ever. I enjoy the posts because the blogger just always has something positive to say. It is like reading a giant hug every day. I love it. 

@happydaysandersen doesn’t post as much anymore because life is a real thing but she is super sweet and nice to chat with OOC and posts yummy thirst trap photos of my boy, Ivar. 

@queenprattwrites is another blog I enjoy following. More political but she knows what she is about. She is also funny as heck and a totally lovely human being. Has a fun smut blog to write with, although we are tragically rarely on at the same time so our threads take forever but still, just plain awesome-sauce.

As for writing blogs, I could legit say something nice about all the people I write with but here are a few thoughts about some of the people you’ll see a lot on my bloggie:

@rosesxandxthorns - Has fun muses with distinct personalities. She will go with any universe, which is so much fun for me because you know me and weird universes. Tends to respond quickly but don’t let that throw you, she never pressures for replies. Will suggest threads and then boop right on up a fabulous starter to get you going.

@sxilingthegalaxy - Her Elayne is a really strong personality but yet the writer has the gift of being able to toss her into all my weird universes without somehow diminishing that??? Amazing. So fun. We have an Elayne and Ivar in nearly every world/universe/plot idea and it is delightful.

@emeryfleming / @emilybrooksrpworld because she is will go with all my dark and fucked up shit and I love it. (evil giggles).

@wintercolourss. Admittedly not usually my darker threads but such sweet muses that my terrible boys want to claim them all and do wicked things to them….

@bruisedxpetals - the writer responsible for my passionate love for this FC (Eleanor Tomlinson). She is a lovely writer and well worth taking the time to get to know and write with. She is wonderfully kind and always open to ideas. Lots of fun if you enjoy juicy and lengthy replies (which I do).

@strawberryxwrites. Because Berry never fails to make me laugh and she is an rper that doesn’t get the attention she deserves. She has pretty men and pretty, pretty girls. One of the few with model fcs that don’t bore me to tears (sorry everyone but they do usually). 

@untamedgoodoleboys. Because the man is basically a hug in rp form. Excellent writer but tends to take a minute with replies. If you don’t mind the wait (which I do not), an rper worth following. 

Okay …. this is now getting long because I could just keep going and going and going and one day I should write a proper love letter to all my fellow rpers because I adore you all so much. You have helped me through some tough days recently and I appreciate you all immensely.

[lizziestudieshistory]

Books of 2020 - February

It hasn’t really shown in the number of books I read this month, but I’ve been struggling with a reading slump for the last two weeks... I’m not sure what brought it on but it’s sucked and I’ve ended up reading 5 or 6 books simultaneously. However, I did manage to push through on a book so hopefully it won’t affect my March reading too much! (Apologies for the Robin Hobb rant at the end, I hope it’s coherent! i also haven’t proof read, again...)

The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn Era 1 #2)

This book was so much better than The Final Empire, in my opinion at least. I was a bit aprehensive going into it as a lot of people dislike WoA (at least in comparison to TFE) and I was worried about a dip in quality. However, I really enjoyed reading this one, and the twist at the end has got me so excited to read Hero of Ages!

A big reason why I loved this book is that it falls more in line with the type of fantasy story I love. There was much more focus on the politics of Scadriel and we saw the misfit band of theives step up into responsiblity. The style of story fell much more in line with Stormlight Archive (if no where near in scope) and it felt like a return to form in this book, so much so that it actually improved my opinion of TFE. I’m excited to see where this series goes, although I have had the ending spoilt, and finally understand why everyone loves this series so much. I was starting to get it with this book, but it’s come nowhere near my beloved Stormlight...

The Golden Fool - Robin Hobb (Tawny Man Trilogy #2; Realm of the Elderlings #8)

The Golden Fool had the distinct disadvantage of following the book that almost destroyed me and my favourite Hobb novel to date - Fool’s Errand. As such I was probably being a little harsh on this novel in hindsight when I wrote my indepth Goodreads review. However, this book just couldn’t compete with the intense emotional whirlwind Fool’s Errand left me with - I still cry a little bit whenever I think of THAT character death at the end. Hobb is a master at writing real characters, human or otherwise, and each character feels alive in her books, which means when a character feels loss and grief I do to, for a long time. It also means it was probably too soon to pick up the sequel and do the book justice.

Nevertheless, I really did enjoy The Golden Fool. The pacing from the end of Fool’s Errand slowed down and we got a real character study for Fitz, the Fool, and in places Prince Dutiful. Relationships grow and come into their own, Dutiful and Fitz really bond and we start to see his relationships with Nettle and Hap grow. However, the shining heart of this series is always Fitz and the Fool, we see their childhood friendship really mature and grow into something new. This whole series is their lovestory at the end of the day and this book is full of all the love they have and the pain they cause each other. 

For me the only let down was the plot - I actually don’t love the whole arc for the Tawny Man Trilogy, which is one of the reasons it’s not my favourite series within the Realm of the Elderlings. Personally, I couldn’t care less about the Piebalds, Outislands, and Pale Woman. I love the series for the characters, and Fitz and the Fool are why I keep coming back to Hobb’s world.

When a Scot Ties the Knot - Tessa Dare

I still don’t know why I read a romance novel... This was my first ever romance, and it will probably be my only one for quite a long time. It was an interesting experience, but not one I’m in a hurry to have again. Saying this for what it was it was enjoyable, but I am not well read enough in the genre to have a serious opinion on the characters, plot, or quality of the book in comparison to other romances. 

Beowulf - Anoymous

I’ve been meanign to read Beowulf for a while, but have only just managed to get aorund to doing it. I didn’t love the epic as much as I have other epics in the past (nothing has yet surpassed my beloved Iliad), however, I do think it was a problem with the translation rather than the poem itself. I adore epic poetry, and I think they are always a triumph of the culture that produced them. But the modern translation by Michael Alexander was dry and over written. Read aloud it probably would have sounded better, but on the page it was often confusing and a bit dull at times (how anyone makes a battle with a dragon dull I don’t know!) I’d be eager to read another version of Beowulf in the near future (I have my eye on Tolkien’s version), and I’d highly recommend reading Beowulf if you haven’t, just not this sepcific translation into modern English. It was an exciting tale told poorly, which was a disappointment. 

Fool’s Fate - Robin Hobb (Tawny Man Trilogy #3; Realm of the Elderings #9)

I cried. For quite a long time. Not as much as Fool’d Errand, but it was a lot.

I’m not going to talk about the series as a whole, I haven’t processed it enough yet as I only finished it last night and I like to sit on it for a few days/weeks. Also, I’ve gushed about Hobb for a long time at this point. But I will discuss the conclusion...

SPOILERS, obviously

Hobb finished this series with a lot more finess than she did the Farseer Trilogy, but not quite as well as Liveships, however, I think this is because Hobb wasn’t sure if she was finished with Fitz and the Fool or not (spoilers, she’s not!) Fool’s Fate does have a satisfying plot conclusion, in fact almost too much, everything PLOT wise is tied up with a nice little bow and everything looks life it’s going to be peachy.

However, what left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth was the lack of conclusion to the story, particularly the story of Fitz and the Fool. We spend the entire series with these two characters. It’s their story - it’s Dutiful and Elliania’s too, but we as readers see it as the story of Fitz and the Fool. For me the whole Realm of the Elderlings story is about Fitz and his relationship with the Fool - how their love story changes the world. And if Hobb was finished with them here it would have been one of the most unsatisfying endings I’ve ever read.

We see the growth of their relationship throughout the books. We see them mature, grow, and depend on each other for the entire series. But in the final 100-150 pages we see the Fool leave Fitz (for VERY good reasons), and it’s a good decision for both of them, they need to learn who they are apart from each other and process the trauma they both have by the end of the novel. However, Fitz returns to his old life, almost. He has relationships Patience, Chade, and Kettricken agian, he mends his rift with Burrich before his death, and to top it all of he marries Molly and it’s framed as Fitz getting the ‘love’ of his life back. I don’t begrudge Ftiz his happiness, God knows he’s earned it!

Yet the ending feels forced and contrived, to me, because it’s not the ending to the story we’re being told. Personally, I don’t like Molly - which doesn’t help. However, the steroetypical fantasy conclusion doesn’t fit with Hobb’s unique story and I wouldn’t be content (as Fitz apparently is) with this ending for the two main characters. To me it feels like another pause in the true story Hobb is telling, which we know in hindsight, but as the narrative is framed it’s the end of Fitz’ adventures. We get an immensly more satisfying conclusion in the Fitz and the Fool trilogy - one that makes so much more sense with the rest of the narrative - and I can’t wait to get to it. 

Currently Reading

The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive #1)

Annual re-read and my (very early) preparation for Rhythm of War... However, I have struggled to get through it at the moment with my reading slump, so I might set it aside for a couple of weeks.

Winter’s Heart - Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #9)

This is on a slight pause for no apparent reason... Although I really did hate the Perrin/Faile opening couple of chapters... Loving Elayne in Caemlyn though!

The Fellowship of the Ring - JRR Tolkien (Lord of the Rings #1)

My annotation re-read! I’m loving doing this and really taking in the whole world Tolkien created VERY slowly

The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion - Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull

I’m using this to supplement my re-read and it’s amazing! I wouldn’t recommend it for a causal fan but if you’re slightly obsessed with Middle Earth then I would highly recommend getting your hands on it for your next re-read.

[crunchy--milk]

What’re your thoughts on what each country has as a memorial to the Dragon Reborn? I bet even Fortuona wishes to remember him somehow, at least because he was Mat’s best friend. Tam probably has a simple painting with a candle he lights each day. Elayne probably has a huge painting. Aviendha probably has held onto his gift for...well, forever. Min probably learned to use his sword.

i could see it being a large variety across the world. As each nation has its own specific culture, and its own way of celebrating important people, i think that the way they remember rand will be similar as the ways the remember old kings and people who are practically of lore these days. Such as, I think Elayne would hesitate to make a public memorial for Rand in Andor or Camelyn after the way he treated the people while ruling there, but would definitely have her own personal memorial until she felt that it was appropriate to make a public one. On the other hand, though, i think Illian or Tear would create one for him as soon as possible, not just for him defeating the dark one but for stabilizing their economy and creating more equality among the classes and the general way he was amazing to them when ruling. and I think it would stay that varied across their world, with some nations thinking that upholding The Dragons Peace would be the most fitting memorial for him, and others wanting to create statues or holidays for him (be it his birthday or the day that the 3rd age ended or the day he died, so on). I do think that the two rivers and the aiel will be the most determined in keeping his name however they all see fit. in Seanchan specifically, though, will definitely have a statue for him because between Mats friendship and Tuons respect (among the respect of the others in the high blood) will want something to commemorate him. and then thats not even going all the specific people he touched in his life that may still be recovering from being drawn in by a Ta’veren, who may be thrown by the pattern to become anyone and do anything and may result in some large scale change or memorial for him on its own that i oculdn’t even predict. and along with all these ideas, that isn’t even going over what Rand himself may do to influence it as himself. But even without all that, Rand did create his own memorial, and i doubt that his schools will be going away anytime within the 4th age.

and all of that isn’t even going over what new countries will be made where the blight and Shayoul Ghul was, i would even consider those nations and cities to be memorials in themselves on just how much Rand did for the world.sorry if it was a bigger answer than you expected lmfao

[nedstarkswhatever]

The Shadow Rising

Another Wheel of Time book bites the dust!  Spoilers beneath the cut.

So... what a book, right?  The Shadow Rising is a major shift in the story as a whole.  It’s the first book where Rand has really and truly accepted that he’s the Dragon Reborn... and it’s also the first book where the world has undeniable proof and has had a chance to react to that.  I’m going to leave my thoughts on Rand until the end because I have a lot of them.

This book is essentially divided into three major plot lines with the White Tower stuff being a minor one that pops up now and again.  Siuan’s deposition is such a world-changing event, but we won’t get to see the ripples of it until the next book... which is pretty common, all things considering, with how these books go.  The Black Ajah has done it’s work exceedingly well, considering.  I actually wonder how much of the overall reputation of Aes Sedai is due to machinations by Ba’alzamon, Darkfriends, and the Black Ajah over the past couple of thousand years.  Being fractured certainly doesn’t help matters.

I had forgotten how emotionally moving the conclusion to Perrin’s storyline is in this book.  The Battle of Emond’s Field is emotionally satisfying in all the right ways.  Of all the characters, I think Perrin has the most definitive arc in this book.  There’s some very real growth that’s reminiscent of Rand’s growth in The Great Hunt, but done in a very different way.  The only unfortunate thing is that I have some issues with how the Faile and Perrin relationship was written while they were still in Tear.  Some of that is fully because of the newness of their relationship while Perrin is dealing with the news of Whitecloaks in the Two Rivers.  They both make some pretty bad decisions at that point and while they do rebound, I remember being distinctly uncomfortable with the relationship at that point.  I think it gets better once they’re in Emond’s Field, though, and ends on a high note, just like the rest of that storyline.

One of the other things that bothers me in this book is the way that Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, et al react to Berelain.  It’s definitely a cultural thing combined with Berelain being not at all restrained in pursuing Rand and Perrin, but the attitudes they exhibit made me side eye them pretty hard.

Nynaeve and Elayne have an interesting journey to Tanchico as well.   It’s really unfortunate that the next time the Seafolk become a notable part of the story, they’re depicted much more antagonistically than they are in this book.  I really loved the interactions between Jorin and Elayne while they were going by boat.  Egeanin also played an amazing supporting role, as did Thom, Julin, and Bayle.  The Illian accents are one of my favorite things and the addition of an actual Seanchan viewpoint, specifically one that was discovering things that went against her culture’s beliefs, was amazing.  I also have a deep, deep appreciation for Nynaeve’s reaction to discovering she was Seanchan?  Nynaeve is so used to having to be assertive and angry to deal with people that it makes total sense that she would be furious that she can’t stop liking this person that she knows she should dislike for Egwene’s sake.  And her duel with Moghedien?  Utterly amazing.

And then we come to Rand.  I still remember reading these books for the first time a couple of years ago.  The Shadow Rising was the book that sold me on Rand as a protagonist.  There are a lot of reasons for it, but I think the one that stands out the most is just how clever he actually is.  It’s masked in the books before this.  He’s the one that’s always questioning, sure, but he’s also a country lad out in the world for the first time, so he’s often flat out wrong about things or surprised or just plain unknowledgeable... but then we get to this book and he crafts a plan to capture one of the Forsaken and use him as a teacher.  It’s glorious pay off to see that come to fruition.  There’s so much else I like about him and his chapters: the way he’s trying to harden himself because that’s the only way he knows how to do the things he’ll have to do, how he’s sought knowledge by reading all the various translations of the Prophecies of the Dragons, how he’s already becoming tainted in slight ways by his use of Saidin... there’s so much in this book that elevates him upwards as a character.  It’s not quite an arc on it’s own, in my mind, but... it’s a transformative thing where the Rand in this book is a much different person than the Rand from previous books.   

There’s so much else that I could talk about: I love how Mat’s propensity to just do things continues to get him into trouble, the Aiel form a culture that’s fascinating in so many ways, and Rand’s Rhuidean chapters are utterly gorgeous and one of my favorite pieces of storytelling ever.  There’s so much, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

[woohooligancomics]

Artist Spotlight: Yes, it’s Amy P. Jordan, But Why?

Welcome to the Laugh It Forward Kickstarter Artist Spotlight! Every day you'll meet new cool artists doing amazing things, so check her out!

Today I'd like to introduce you to Amy P. Jordan!

Amy Jordan is the producer and host of Yes But Why Podcast, an interview series featuring improvisers, standup comedians, sketch comedy writers and musicians across the country.

Amy has been working in live theater for over 20 years. From stage manager to standup to improviser to producer, she has worked in all aspects of theater and its production. She is currently the director, head writer and executive producer of The Neighborhood Sketch Comedy Show, a monthly show that has been running in downtown Austin since 2010.

Sam: I used to make the mistake most artists make when asked about my work, and get into the details like characters, plot and story elements. Those are important in telling stories, but I learned they don't really draw people in. So I'm going to ask you to tell us a short story about the more important question:

why do you create your art?

Amy: I have been doing theater since I was 15. I always wanted to be part of creating productions and I was always a ham. So I set my mind to working in theater, no matter how hard it was. I went to college, got a theater degree and moved almost immediately to NYC to work as a stage manager. After that, I moved around the country following theater jobs until I finally settled in Austin. When I got here, I started doing improv and that opened my eyes to all the different kinds of performers and all the different kinds of shows there could be.

Sam: I guess it's true what they say. If you can make it in New York, you can make it in a small town in Texas. Unless it's nuclear weapons -- the UN frowns on that.

My second question is who or what has most inspired your work? If I compared you to someone, what names would you be most flattered to hear?

Amy: To be honest, the person who inspires me the most is my uncle Joe Pacheco. He is an actor in LA and he has been doing live theater and films since I was born. I always wanted to be like him, a working actor. And though my path has been different and I do more behind the scenes stuff than he, I think we’re pretty similar. Also, when I was a kid, I watched SNL and other standup all the time.

I am almost 40 so when I was a kid, cable was a big deal and my parents got HBO, not realizing it was probably not appropriate for me. I watched all the comedy specials and everything they had to offer and I was HOOKED.

Sam: Yeah, I remember stand-up really had its golden age on cable in the 80s. It's certainly still on TV, but not with nearly the prominence of An Evening At the Improv or a Night At the Apollo in the 80s.

I remember absolutely loving Elayne Boosler's Broadway Baby show, and then she got weirdly publicly shamed for doing a Dry Idea, "never let them see you sweat" commercial just as the 80s standup boom was winding down, and she's not been really prominent since. Never let them see you sweat, but I guess also, never let them see you do endorsements.

Last question. What have you learned from your work, and what's your advice for younger creators?

Amy: My advice is to STICK WITH IT. More than anything else in the creative world, more than good looks or talent, the most important thing is consistency. Keep doing it. Keep adding jobs to your resume. It doesn’t matter what they are, just KEEP DOING IT. Lots of people let one lull in success (or fun) convince them to stop pursuing their creativity and it just breaks my heart. Also, other thing – SHOW PEOPLE YOUR WORK. There is a whole internet out there and probably a live theater or two in the town where you live. Get out there and show people your talent. They will be happy you did. You might even inspire someone.

Sam: Persistence is so important... I think more people know the quote from Calvin Coolidge than know he was our President. :P

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."

It turns out not to actually originate with Coolidge, so I guess you can also never underestimate the value of being misquoted. :P

And on a more practical note, I now always recommend publishing a weekly email newsletter for anyone building a creative career. It's a great way to follow-up with people who maybe found you on social media and connect with them in a deeper way.

Thanks for taking the time for this interview, Amy, it's been a pleasure.

To see more of Amy's awesome work, check out her website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, YouTube, Spreaker, and Soundcloud. If you're in the Austin area, check out Amy's monthly sketch comedy show, The Neighbordhood, and most importantly, if you enjoy her work, share this interview!

p.s. If you are also an artist and are planning a Kickstarter, you might find my Six Tips to Kickstarter Success helpful, plus links to other helpful resources. Also thanks to Andrea Demonakos who's handling the bulk of our rewards fulfillment to help our Laugh It Forward project go smoothly!

[butterflydm]

wot reread: the shadow rising (chap 36- chap 39)

spoilers through the end of the shadow rising.

1. So, I’m guessing that a lot of these ‘jagged’ and unnatural mountains in the Waste are actually going to be the remains of skyscrapers and such, like we already saw in S1. I did not pick up on that in my earlier reads, but it feels kinda obvious this time around.

2. Aviendha just straight-up talking about how pretty Elayne is to Rand, in front of Mat and all the Aiel traveling with them, all while staring daggers at Rand. Amazing. She goes into so much detail.

3. Honestly, Rand should just do a dramatic reading of Elayne’s two letters, so that everyone else understands why he’s so confused over them. (he never would because he’s a Good Person who Respects Elayne’s Privacy... but he should)

4. Mat thinks Aviendha is “more than just pretty”. There’s so much set-up here for #PutMatInThePolycule. (in fairness, Mat thinks lots of women are pretty. which you know. true)

5. “He could [go] if Rand was not still pulling at him, holding him.”

What am I supposed to do with all this, RJ?

6. Ah, Mat’s Feelings about Rand continue to be Very Complicated, I see. Rand is basically just “protect him” whenever he’s around Mat, but Mat’s feelings are always laced with that uncertainty about the future and what will happen to Rand.

7. Like here, Rand is trying to (somewhat obliquely) warn Mat about the peddlers (while playing to his crowd), but Mat is so worried about whether or not Rand has fallen over the edge into madness that he doesn’t pick up on what Rand is trying to tell him.

8. From the perspective of a reread, it’s actually really clear what Rand is saying and doing here and it all makes perfect logical sense. But wow, it IS confusing if you don’t already know what’s going on, so I don’t blame our PoV character, Mat, for being confused. RJ would often jump out of Rand’s PoV and into someone else’s when Rand is doing something particularly clever or sneaky, so that the audience would end up surprised by his plan and maybe even think (along with the characters) that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

9. I really do appreciate Aviendha being the Worst Spy Ever. She doesn’t want to be here, she’s not gonna be a pretty ornament that listens in on Rand’s conversations, she’s just gonna be loudly miserable at every moment of the day. It’s a joy, tbh.

10. Ah, Mat starts mentally upgrading a crossbow in his mind while looking at one that the peddlers are trying to sell. Memories, icu.

11. And we get the big reveal about his memories here! This is such a cool worldbuilding thing. I’ve always been fascinating by the way Mat’s memories work.

12. We get the return of RJ’s “likely attractive to women” writing tic. Introduced to the gleeman Jasin Nateal who is super interested in Rhiudean and gets Mat to tell him all about it.

13. Literally the first thing Rand does after the Trolloc attack is come to check on Mat and see if he’s okay. Like, he’s still got his power-summoned weapon in hand and he’s coming over to make sure Mat’s okay before he does anything else. 🥺🥺🥺

14. Egeanin is introduced (she may have been introduced as a Random Named Seanchan character in Bk 2 but I don’t remember). It... occurs to me that if they wanted to fix a certain flaw in the end-run of the books, one way they could do it would be by merging/giving Egeanin’s character arc with another Seanchan character from further down the line. I can’t really go into details without massive late books spoilers but... it would be one way to improve a certain aspect of the books. It would also introduce an important late-book character a lot earlier.

Anyway, this chapter reveals that some of the Forerunners ended up in Tanchico (aka where Elayne and Nynaeve are headed) after the initial invasion wave was turned back in book 2.

15. Wow, Carridin is still searching for Rand (to kill him) all the way over on the west side of the continent and is based in Tanchico. Good luck with that, bro! You’d think his Forsaken boss would let him know that he’s looking in the wrong... ah, but it was Ishamael, wasn’t it? Who is dead. Carridin failed his mission hard.

16. Liandrin is a horrible person, but Carridin is also a horrible person. But, wow, he caves to her so quickly once he realizes she’s Black Ajah.

17. Oh hi, Glydin!

18. I think this is the first time we learn that both Deathwatch Guards and Seekers are considered ‘Imperial property’.

19. And we find out that Egeanin has been holding a sul’dam captive all this time, willing to keep her a secret even from the Seeker who just visited, because she serves as proof that all sul’dam are capable of being damane as well. This secret rocks Egeanin down to her core, and it’s implied that it would also rock the Seanchan empire to its foundations. *checks watch*

20. This character arc of Egeanin is SO GOOD, how we can see the process of her starting to break through her cultural brainwashing and realize that what she was taught was WRONG and actually kinda EVIL, but we also see how slow and painful it is for her to confront these ideas, because she grew up believing some very specific things! She’s defying her culture programing, piece by piece and it’s so well done. And I love that it actually starts here, before she meets any of Our Protagonists.

Anyway, she’s probably the best Seanchan character we ever get, so I’m glad to see her here and look forward to the next time I see her.

21. Jorin does the kissing ritual with Elayne that is only done between close family members or lovers. Elayne and the Windfinders was a good combo.

22. Elayne is shocked -- shocked! -- that Doman is now doing smuggling. Bless her.

23. Nynaeve and Elayne really do make a very good team. As Doman says, the stick and the honey.

24. It seems like a lot of Elayne’s pain and confusion here comes from wanting a certain kind of stable family structure that she didn’t get. She had vague memories of Thom, then he disappeared one day and it doesn’t sound like anyone explained to her why. There was Gareth Bryne, but even though she was pretty sure her mother was sleeping with him, it was never anything official. And now there’s another man that she’s never heard of before that is apparently her mother’s lover, and it’s emotionally confusing for Elayne to deal with. This is actually less second-hand embarrassment-y than I remember, which is nice. Her motivations and feelings are pretty clear here.

25. Nynaeve getting a warning from Birgitte in TAR! Birgitte really is playing a dangerous game by trying to help them out so much. She sees people in trouble and simply MUST help, no matter what the rules say.