#rand and min (not a ship tag)

[markantonys]

i was rewatching s1 and thinking about how much chemistry the ef4 have with each other in the show, and i have come up with The Final Boss Polycule

(optional addition if desired: egwene x aviendha)

[sixth-light]

WoT 2x08 thoughts

WoT s2 really, I haven't got to blog the season like I would have wanted because (checks notes) everybody in this household has been sick for a month and counting (do not recommend). No order here, just things as I think of them, full series book spoilers possible:

They really did stick the landing on this season for me, as well as line everything up so neatly for next season. I think S2 is really going to reward a rewatch.

Particularly re:Lanfear. I literally choked when she walked up to Bayle Domon and started talking about the pieces of cuendillar she'd sold him. I know the Dark Prophecy is probably still legit because we flashed back to Ishamael reciting it as he released her BUT ALSO I am now imagining her lying on her bed surrounded by screwed-up drafts as she tries to make it sufficiently ominous.

The Forsaken shenanigans this season have just smashed it out of the park and we only had two of them. I presume we're going to highlight one or two a season for practical purposes (and ofc TSR/TFoH are the Moghedien-Nynaeve books) so I reckon next season we mostly get Moghedien and...I guess Asmodean if we're doing that plotline at all?

Man I so liked my "evil Seanchan/less evil Seanchan" theory but the way they ruthlessly killed off every named Seanchan character this episode (yes we didn't see Suroth and Alwhin's bodies, but that seemed pretty fatal, they explicitly did NOT show any ships getting away) says to me that they want to put that plotline on ice until the Corenne and Tuon arrive. It could still work but we'd have to introduce more Seanchan nobles to make it happen...or...they could make the whole Extremely Dysfunctional Imperial Family dynamic real by having one or more of Tuon's siblings tag along. That was a very tell-not-show element of the books and then rendered irrelevant by Semirhage murdering all of them at once.

Extremely out-there theory: the way they're focusing on Moghedien being 'insane' and having Lanfear refer to the rest of the Forsaken as 'the boys' and being visibly wary of Moggy...what if they merge Moghedien and Semirhage? After all, Moggy goes after the Sad Bracelets first even if Semirhage is the one who uses them...

THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP as that gifset going around demonstrates, this really was the theme of the season. I continue to love how much these kids love each other (and the lingering fear the show has planted that it won't matter, because look where Lews Therin and Ishamael and Lanfear ended up...). Totally bought that they would all just roll with running into each other like that when there was a clear and present threat.

Rand is still so much in his 'just trying to protect my friends' era, poor kiddo, we're going to see that get more and more worn away as the Pattern forces him into bigger and bigger confrontations.

MAT, goddamn, his story took a bit of time to get moving but looking back all the pieces are there. Everything about the knife-on-a-stick sequences was just. fjlkfsdjklfsadjlkfsd. Amazing foreshadowing AND a funny and effective piece of storytelling in the moment. Particularly enjoyed the use of the dagger to open the box with the Horn.

Re: Min's vision: I'm thinking that at some point next season someone will report back to her what actually happened and we're going to see an arc with her learning about her own power and realising that her visions can be partial or metaphorical.

Man I hope Egwene gets lots of nice things next season because this one has been (not unexpectedly) brutal. Completely on board with her killing Renna. I wonder if they're getting rid of the 'sparker/learner' distinction in the show, given what she said to Renna about sul'dam just being very weak in the Power. I also wonder what 'very weak' actually means coming from Egwene, who canonically in the show can hold up against a Forsaken for some length of time (another change I am fine with).

Fascinating to think about Perrin in 2x08, straight-up killing Geofram Bornhald for killing Hopper, vs Perrin in 1x08 deliberately choosing pacifism. I don't actually mind that they gave him some unquestionable culpability here; in the books it was always SO obvious he wasn't in the wrong that it felt silly.

Relatedly, I think what's going on with Nynaeve (to the extent that anything is, she certainly didn't suffer for screentime this season) is that like Perrin her PERSONAL plot actually stalls out around book 8-9 - they're slowburning her block storyline for the same reasons they're slowburning his Wolfbrother one, I reckon. I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't heal stilling until much later in the show than the equivalent of book 6.

I didn't even notice that we left all the White Tower-related plotlines behind entirely this episode until I got to writing this post. FASCINATED to see where we pick up with Verin, Alanna, Siuan, et al next season...not to mention Liandrin

I haven't even talked about Aviendha! She hasn't had a lot to do beyond be introduced/introduce the concept of the Maidens and the Car'a'carn but it was solid set-up for next season and in line with how much she actually had to do in TDR.

My one big lingering question for this season is whether Ingtar isn't a Darkfriend on the show or whether he IS and they decided that his verbal confession wouldn't happen/work in the show and left it as a subtextual easter egg for book readers. I think both positions are arguable from the text, I'm curious what the intent was.

[queenofmalkier]

Also at this point? I’m mad all over at people who write Min off as being nothing but a Rand tag-along.

Like. Yes, she has superglued herself to his side by the end of book 7 for the most part. BUT - and this is a big one! - she had a viewing that he would die without Moiraine. And Moiraine is dead.

So not only did she have to watch him be broken down and tortured, and is actively witnessing the fallout of that, she doesn’t think he has a chance and is terrified.

Does she have thoughts along the lines of ‘Damn he fine!’ YOU BETCHA! That’s a very normal, human response when you like somebody even if it’s the end of days. She’s also young and this is her first relationship, give a girl a break.

Regardless she’s doing what she can to support him in what she believes is a doomed endeavor. Because she’s seen what fighting him does firsthand - better to help and mitigate the damage than go against him.

Rand’s sent everybody he cares about away that he can. Every single person. He’s not even thinking about Tam anymore because it’s dangerous. Elayne he’s determined never to see again, same with Avi. Even Egwene to some extent. He’d send away Mat and Perrin forever if he could. He’d send the Maidens away if they’d stand for it so he settles for pretending he doesn’t care about them and keeps them around as a favor to them.

He’s isolating in a major way.

But Min isn’t just sitting there like a bump on a damn log.

1. She’s taken over reading after Fel got torn to bits. She’s not realized why exactly it’s important, but she’s the only person who even thought to read the books that got him killed. (Because why would the shadow kill him if he didn’t know something?)

2. She might have changed her appearance a little, but it’s on her terms. She’s still in her breeches and boots, they’re just more feminine, which very well could be her own preference - Min wasn’t exactly wealthy, and dressing as she did wasn’t safe unless she went the masculine route before. Now she has freedom to explore.

3. She befriended the Wise Ones and the Aiel, finally finding a group of people that doesn’t question her abilities or try and use them for their own gain. They just accept her.

4. She has spent enough time with Rand to know what he needs and, like any good partner, is trying to support him.

5. She’s honed her abilities with her daggers and remains armed at all times. Anybody around Rand can’t be defenseless. When they’re with Caraline & Co. she’s ready to protect him too. (When they try and blame Rand by focus on the negative things that are happening, she’s quick to cite ‘Balance’ and the positives.)

6. Staying by Rand’s side means she can advise him on possible viewings and what they mean - something she feels comfortable enough doing because he never asks for more than she tells him.

I guess I just don’t get why people dislike her so much. It’s probably a shipping thing, but she’s far from useless and reducing her to girl-on-Rand’s-arm has to be a willful refusal to look at her actual actions and instead focusing on her thoughts despite WOT being filled with unreliable narrators. We’re supposed to look beyond what she thinks to see what she does.

[duckprintspress]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better

Gonna yoink a tag from @profiterole-reads on this meme.

3 ships you like:

Hua Cheng/Xie Lian (Tian Guan Ci Fu)

Liu Tongyi/Jing Chengjun (The Imperial Uncle)

Mo Ran/Chu Wanning (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun)

First Ship Ever: uh I guess it depends on definitions, probably Min Farshaw/Rand al'Thor (Wheel of Time)? But they're canon so maybe that doesn't count. So, hmm... Lina Inverse/Gourry Gabriev (Slayers) or Yuuki Miaka/Nuriko (Fushigi Yuugi; tho really I just supported Miaka harem rights, she deserved all those bishies at once) are ones I can remember from high school that aren't canon (tho Lina/Gourry kinda sorta is? it's canon adjacent at least...)

Last Song You Heard: Honey Magnolia by Brian Fallon was the last song in my car yesterday afternoon. One of my favorite songs, the first year I heard it, it was my most-listened to track of the year.

Currently Reading:

Salad Days by Jing Shui Bian

Copper Coins by Mu Su Li

Currently Watching: Nirvana in Fire is the only thing I'm currently actively trying to carve out time to watch.

Currently Consuming: water is the only thing in reach.

Currently Craving: lunch, but it's a little early.

Tagging: I usually figure out who to tag from our notes, but right now our notes are a disaster because we have a couple posts exploding a bit, but here's some names in there I recognize... @qbdatabase @stjohnstarling @paintedpigeon1 @smehur @eastofakkala @faejilly and anyone else who wants to!

[owlbear33]

tagged by @highladyluck tag 9 people to get to know better

Three ships: funny thing is for all I talk with people all the time about shipping, I'm not a massive shipper, I'll echo Tuon/Mat cus like I guess the most recent fanfic I read was that, Anna Khouri/Illia Volyova (Revelation Space) cus why not, and then cus I'm thinking about it a lot right now the Gill/Agatha/Tarvek (Girl Genius)

first ever ship: uh idk, I guess the Rand/Min/Elayne/Aviendha, I read those books super young

Last Song: so far as I can tell probably The Merry Thoughts cover of Station to Station

Last Movie: uh I'm not sure either Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves or The Mummy(2017) the crappy one with Tom Cruise, don't know which I watched first it was a few weeks ago either way

currently reading: The Atrocity Archive by Charles Stross (rereading it - I have to say I'd forgotten how much Angleton is in this book)

currently consuming: nowt

currently craving: an End to Tory rule

no idea who likes doing these things, so 9 of you not quite at random, no pressure to actually do it: @amorphousfurrysnakething, @paint-lady, @howverychaotic, @ninjoc, @monstersqueen, @shiniesandqueershit, @wanderingchaos, @hell-creek-girl, @lovedthestars-toofondly,

[veliseraptor]

tagged by @agendratum and I think also maybe @thatswhatsushesaid ages ago and sure, enrichment in my enclosure and avoiding more data validation work

3 ships: (song)xuexiao, vegaspete, beefleaf, spot the similarities.

first ship: pretty sure it was rand/min from wheel of time but mat/tuon a close second

last song: the lion's roar by first aid kit

last movie: uhhhh genuinely do not remember the last movie I watched, it's probably been at least a couple months

currently reading: finishing the master and margarita today (thanks tumblr for helping me make a reading decision!) and then going to read the chaos machine to make myself depressed about social media

currently watching: nominally or actively? currently rewatching kinnporsche, kind of in the middle of a my country: the new age watch, in a stage of intending to watch a few other things but haven't yet committed to it

currently craving: to not be at work, next volume of mdzs/tgcf/erha, this formatting project to be going faster than it is, my wrists to stop hurting, the ability to decide what the fuck I'm going to eat for lunch. having a bit of a time at the moment fellas

I tag uhhh @majestictortoise, @lealhound, @ameliarating, @paradife-loft, @veilchenjaeger, and I have no idea how many people I'm supposed to be tagging. do it if you need some enrichment

[darkfeanix]

Big thanks to @kevin-sedai​ for tagging me for this.

Three ships: Hughie Campbell and Annie January (The Boys tv series; they’re adorable, Jack Quaid and Erin Moriarty have amazing chemistry), Quentin Coldwater and Eliot Waugh (The Magicians tv series; we could have had it alllll!), Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt (Interview with the Vampire tv series; they're so tragic and so toxic and I love them dearly)

Other ships:  Any variation/combination of Rand al'Thor, Min Farshaw, Elayne Trakand and Aviendha (The Wheel of Time book series), Julia Wicker and William "Penny" Adiyodi (The Magicians tv series), Korra and Asami Sato (Avatar: The Legend of Korra cartoon series)

First ever ship: Bastila Shan/Light Side Male Revan (Knights of the Old Republic video game)

Last song: The Wrecked and the Worried by Nathan Sharp (AKA NateWantsToBattle)

Last movie: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (so-so-so-so-good!)

Currently reading: The Eye of the World audiobook, read by Rosamund Pike (because why select something new from my TBR when WHEEL OF TIME)

Currently consuming: Scalloped potatoes

Currently craving: Leftover pizza (trying to leave it for lunch tomorrow)

Tagging: @defira85, @rederiswrites, and anyone else who would like to do it; no pressure, of course

[transkholins]

okay. episode six thoughts.

EGWENE.

look. the only wot book i’ve read in full since 2018-2019 was the eye of the world. when i think of wot i tend to think more of late-series wot. coincidentally, while early-series wot shows you first hand how awful the seanchan are, late-series wot veers hard into apologia/“negotiating and making concessions for the greater good.” i forgot how hard the egwene povs in the great hunt were to get through. this episode reminded me. in graphic detail.

madeleine madden did a fucking fantastic job and i cannot wait to see her in later seasons as egwene grows and develops as a character. her scenes were so tough to watch. she deserves an award.

i do love how the show is portraying the seanchan. all of the suroth and renna scenes were deeply uncomfortable and upsetting, which is really how the seanchan ought to make viewers feel. (right, brandon sanderson? right?). using loial’s treesinging like a party trick. the flowy/frilly da’covale outfits. renna saying “oh, i’m nicer than other sul’dam, i want to be your friend” but trying to break egwene down. ugh.

there’s also something in here about “southern hospitality” and the us’s history of slavery and rj being from the south but it’s too late at night for me to get into that.

also, like, not to be matbrained, but the sheer delicacy/fanciness of the da’covale clothing makes me very afraid for the extended tylin-tuon plotline. i’m sure that if the show does it they’ll do it well (the show has already done a lot of course-correcting), so it’s not that kind of afraid, but more I Know What’s Coming afraid.

every time they mention The Seanchan Empress i get filled with a little bit more dread. god, i hope they handle tuon’s Everything well.

and siuan’s back!! finally!! i’m hoping they don’t sideline her in these last few episodes, because god knows they’ve done her dirty this season.

i really love ishamael and lanfear’s clothing. like, ishamael’s looks have been so faux-corporate, and i’m obsessed with lanfear’s leather and lace-up boots. it really does feel like an extended/future version of modern (first age?) fashion. i like what they’ve done with the age of legends’s aesthetic in general.

knowing which characters turn out to be darkfriends makes literally everything funnier.

if we must have gawyn and galad in the show. i need them to have the same vibes as barthanes. golden boys who are so so so punchable. sycophantic, even.

mat and min friendship truthers, we continue to lose. i’m hopeful that they’ll get to be friends again eventually.

ugh. mat telling rand he’ll come with him because he needs someone to keep him from becoming an arrogant prick. through the lens of wotshow i catch glimpses of hit amol chapter older, more weathered.

if i had a nickel for every time this season they’ve had a shot in a character’s dream or vision of mat lying dead with his left eye cut out, i would have two nickels. which isn’t a lot but it’s kind of weird that it’s happened twice. evil smile.

rand monologuing about how he thought him going away would protect people at mat, who is generally acknowledged as the king of the whole "being away from rand will protect me" line of reasoning. i have to laugh.

“if you love him, stay away” “[mat stays away]” i hate it when the wheel of time on amazon prime makes me feel nostalgic for the period of time where i was super invested in cauthor. like, circa 2018-2019. do you guys remember when there were only two fics and they were both from like 2013. there are now (i just checked) one hundred and sixty-one. it is such a shame i don’t ship them anymore because it’s genuinely kind of fun to have gay subtext in the gay actual-text show.

but also like. a true testament to the power of casting homoerotic besties as two white men. a loss for me (draws them both as men of color).

relatedly, i am so pleased that the top relationship tag for both the books and the show is siuaraine. quite possibly the only time i’ve ever seen a series that isn’t near-exclusively female characters (madoka magica, the locked tomb, etc.) have an f/f ship at the top. and they’re even canon… i cannot wait to see them next week.

what can i say about the wondergirls that has not already been said. i love nynaeve forever and ever. i love elayne being super into ter’angreal. i love that they both love egwene. i love that they bicker with each other. wondergirls 5ever.

also like… nynaeve getting to hang out with a yellow sister a little bit… delightful.

i’ve said this before but i’m trying to put everything in one place. i think ryma and basan’s actress and actor did an excellent job. but it’s really disappointing that the show continues to veer into anti-Blackness and colorism in its casting. it’s a pattern in both seasons and it isn’t good.

anyways. the wheel of time. i don’t think i have anything more to say right now.

[butterflydm]

attempting to adjust min’s plotline to remove character arc contradictions

spoilers through Knife of Dreams

This is basically just me poking at one of the things in the second half of the series that bugs me and trying to figure out how to improve it.

Before I head into the Sanderson books, I was thinking again how utterly bizarre Rand and Min’s relationship is in context of all of the storylines that Jordan set up for Rand, because she manages to undermine so many of them:

Somehow, despite Rand firmly believing that being connected to him is a danger to everyone else that he cares about, it’s okay for everyone in Cairhien to know that Min is in his bed and we never really see him worry about things like her being called ~Lady Ta’veren~ by the Cairhienin nobles. Instead, there’s more focus on Min as a desirable object of lust and jealousy rather than any kind of implied danger she might be in from her position as his known lover.

Rand is supposed to be in a downward spiral about isolating himself away from his loved ones... except, of course, that Min is there 24/7 at this point and they are constantly having sex. I mean, I kinda agree that having Min there is basically like not having anyone there at all because of how she enables his paranoia, but the book series tries to balance the tightrope of Min clearly being useless at giving Rand emotional support but also telling us that, actually, she’s super-supportive and Best Girl (TM).

Rand struggles with the Seanchan and is out fighting against them, while Min withholds vital information about their forces (the sul’dam secret, which she learned in Falme along with Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne).

Rand struggles with the fear of Aes Sedai trying to control him, while Min hands his secrets over to one of the most controlling/bullying Aes Sedai that we’ve ever met (Cadsuane).

Just... this relationship makes NO narrative sense as written. And Rand’s story would have so much more punch in the later books if Min wasn’t there. Like, even if the main change were that he’d reconnected with Min in LoC and then freaked out about the Asha’man attack in TPoD and left her in Caemlyn along with Elayne and Aviendha after the bonding, his storyline would make so much more sense.

It is BIZARRE that his reactions with Min are somehow the exact opposite to his reactions when literally anyone else he cares about is in danger. And I’m not even talking about his other love interests alone here -- he also avoids spending time with the Two Rivers people who came along with Perrin in LoC for this reason.

And it is WILD how many times Min is directly in danger due to being around Rand and yet he DOESN’T send her away like we know he’s done in order to protect everyone else that he cares about - there’s the kidnapping in LoC; the Asha’man attack in TPoD; he directly brings her into incredibly dangerous situations TWICE in WH (traitor hunt & cleansing); he brings her into another dangerous situation in KoD -- was he TRYING to get her killed, lol? (this is another place where Min ends up feeling like a ‘desirable object’ rather than a character)

Just... Rand’s story with Min really makes zero sense in context with all of the rest of his storyline. What a weird, weird choice all this was on Jordan’s part.

And that’s not even getting into how lopsided the whole ‘fated three beautiful women romance’ thing ends up being, because I do think that’s more about how Jordan straight-up lost control of his narrative after TFoH and things just started sprawling wildly. If his pace had kept up, then it would have been a lot less uneven.

So, to expand on this idea to see how it would work, storywise:

“Like, even if the main change were that he’d reconnected with Min in LoC and then freaked out about the Asha’man attack in TPoD and left her in Caemlyn along with Elayne and Aviendha after the bonding“

This would have:

evened out the treatment of Rand’s relationships

meant that he actually WAS isolated during his self-isolation arc

given Min a chance to bond with co-girlfriends Elayne and (especially) Aviendha

meant that Min didn’t tell him about the Seanchan sul’dam secret because she literally never got the chance/had time after the Seanchan showed up again, instead of not telling him Because No One Tells Rand Anything

meant that instead of Min eagerly being Rand’s mood ring for Cadsuane and betraying his secrets to her, it could be non-lover Alanna instead who was sucking up to Cadsuane 24/7, which would make a lot more sense, because they’re both Aes Sedai and the power structure of the White Tower means that Alanna is supposed to submit to the much more powerful Cadsuane

So, how would that work, only changing that one main element.

LoC: Min arrives. Elayne & Aviendha go to Ebou Dar with Mat.

ACoS: Min and Rand sleep together for the first time, and then he basically runs away to conquer Illian (have him do this instead of moping in his quarters).

TPoD: Rand self-isolates during the assault against the Seanchan, fails against them. Returns to seek out Min for comfort and then, boom, there’s the Asha’man attack. This attack makes Rand react the usual way he reacts when people he cares about are in danger because they’re too close to him, and he wants Min to go somewhere safe, instead of the out-of-character “let’s keep throwing my girlfriend into danger because I’m “too weak” to protect her by sending her away” reaction he actually has in the books only with Min and with no one else that he cares about. (and I mean, I don’t even like Rand’s self-isolation protocol; I feel like it’s very unhealthy, but I would like the narrative to be consistent here in order for me to actually take Rand’s downward spiral seriously)

WH: Triple-bonding, but Rand leaves Min behind in Caemlyn. This means that Rand actually has a valid reason not to know that Elayne is pregnant (among other things), because Min stayed back in Caemlyn.

CoT/KoD: for the love of all that is holy, make this a single book. Anyway, Min-Elayne-Aviendha bond (emotionally) while Rand ACTUALLY self-isolates and gets hurt because of his self-isolation during the “Tuon” meeting (instead of getting hurt because of Min using sex to manipulate him into taking her to the meeting)

Much more balanced and it makes more narrative sense with Rand’s storyline. Min would get page-time with Rand much more equal with the other two women this way -- instead of playacting as Rand’s jealous wife, she would be spending time with Elayne & Aviendha for most of WH/CoT/KoD.

(side note: I was skimming through my reread for other reasons and found pretty much the exact moment when I stopped liking Min in my reread - chapter one of The Fires of Heaven is when she begins to be insufferable for me to read about, it looks like, when she’s whining about her fate even as she wants to race forward to complete it, which was also one of the things that annoys me about Mat in the Mat-Tuon relationship. If your fate makes you so miserable at least TRY to fight it. Don’t whine about its inevitability even while you are working your hardest to force it to happen; that just makes you annoying. I’m guessing this is bullshit “yes heterosexual marriage makes everyone miserable and constantly complain about their spouses But You Must Do It Anyway To Exist In Society” unhealthy marriage culture - being miserable is NOT a requirement in marriage and if your relationship makes you miserable that’s probably a sign it’s not a good relationship! But, yeah, it looks like my relationship with Min is all downhill from that point in the story)

[jaqobis]

miscellaneous a crown of swords thoughts!

okay i love mat and birgitte bro’ing out and getting drunk, that’s hilarious

also sharing their secrets!!! in general i’m a big fan of getting some early books material retold from mat’s pov

i’m less thrilled every time i remember i have more mat and tylin on the horizon, though,,,,

also i guess i’m this person with opinions on randmances now??? i knew i wasn’t going to like rand/min but, wow. i hate rand/min.

can’t believe i have 7 more books of this!!! i guess we’re supposed to believe them as a ship because she ‘knew’ him back when, and because of trauma bonding?

except they’re not even trauma bonding, because that would involve actual conversations about their emotional states. or conversations, at all.

also wow is min undercut as a character because all her time hanging out with PRETTY MUCH ANYONE? besides siuan and leanne and logain is basically handwaved off-screen

the way i constantly forget she technically chilled out with rand in the winter between books 2 and 3 and with elayne before being sent with the delegation to talk to rand pre-the box™

did i make a post of compiled points to hide my min criticism? maybe. i’m not going to tag posts that are just critical of a character though like lskdfjlsk at least my complaints can just be PART of a post also about other things

it is killing me to know lan is out there on his way to nynaeve, and she has no idea, and i have no idea when they’re going to be reunited...

at least avilayne is out here picking up the romance slack, AND BOY ARE THEY EVER.

it is also RIDICULOUS how well avirandlyane actually feels like it’d work as a polycule because they are all! into! each other!

i’ll admit that aviendha/rand is my personal favorite rand ship, probably because they have (imo) the best articulated romantic progression and i’m weak to a good enemies to lovers ship

it’s just. it actually is a fairly convincing polycule all things considered ?? ?? And Then There’s Min (sorry min fans)

i’m fascinated to meet cadsuane at last. i’m also [sighs] at the way she immediately treats rand, but i knew to expect that. and to keep...expecting...that....

(help him)

she’s an INTRIGUING character though, ready to see more of her

glad to finally get an idea of what sevanna’s box is!! also love me some forsaken squabbling

though i am super nervous about all this talk of COLLARS and CONTROLLING RAND and CONTROLLING AES SEDAI...............i know egeanin said she was going to toss the male a’dam into the sea but it DID NOT HAPPEN ONSCREEN and i just don’t trust like that !!!

also boy i am real sad that i’ve probably already read all the egwene content for this book!! the egwene as rebel amyrlin storyline is probably my favorite thing this series has done and i won’t be surprised if i finish the series with that being my favorite storyline. egwene’s arc in general is just really good and i adore her

[spectrum-color]

So since Min should be introduced soon on the show if she’s in Tar Valon (which I suspect she is because that’s an easy point to bring her in,) we really need a good ship name for her and Rand.

Unfortunately, the most logical portmanteau for it is Rin, which is a common Japanese name and there are so many real life people and popular characters named that (including the protagonist of the Poppy War trilogy in terms of fantasy) it would be a mess in the tags. Thorshaw is possible I guess but how obvious would it be/how strongly is Min associated with her last name? So we need something other than their names.

So I’m thinking some combination of their definining character traits. Dragon for Rand obviously, and something about being a prophet for Min. DragonSeer maybe? It sounds kind of clunky but better than DragonFortuneTeller or DragonPlotDevice. Please, someone more creative, suggest something!

ETA: the Ramin (pron ramen) suggestion is adorable!

[crunchy--milk]

Rules- tag 9 people you wanna be friends with or wanna know more about

Tagged by @avendesora-sedai

Top 3 ships- idk what is and isnt a ship so ill go with both cannon and not cannon? idk ive never really participated much in this part of fandom. anywho, john & martin, Min & Elayne, Rand & Min.

Last song I listened to- Electric Feel, its very stuck in my head

Last movie I watched- Dave Made a Maze

Reading- nothing right now :( not actively, although I am part way through Misery

Craving- hugs

tagging @old-hllywood @grabnok-destra @darling-toforeverandback @cuttoothed @avatarofthevast @flame-of-tar-valon @matrimcauthon @chibikanilia @i-am-not-anon and my goodness i feel like there’s a lot of other people i wanna get to know better but this is about as much as my poor frail anxious heart can handle

[neuxue]

I just started your blog and its hilarious and illuminating. It's hilarious when you are being funny on purpose and somehow MORE hilarious when you say things like "Elayne/Egwene/Rand as a COMPLETE CRACK!SHIP and I’m sticking to that and throwing Min in as well. No it’s never going to happen." Yeah! Look how wrong you were! Pfft. Egwene. As if. No way in hell she'd join a foursome. IDK how you could come up with something so absurd & far from possible in thyis series.

I’m putting ‘hilarious and illuminating’ on my business cards from now on.

(Do people even have business cards these days? I feel like I’m missing some crucial part of adulthood here).

And...yeah, that was a thing I said. I uh...take shipping very seriously, as I’m sure you can tell, and the scene where Elayne and Min and Egwene all meet in Tar Valon honestly read like fanfiction, and the fact that Egwene was not part of the eventual arrangement was, in the end, probably the least surprising turn of events as far as that whole thing was concerned, in comparison to the whole ‘why have jealousy when you can have polyamory instead’ which I really...just absolutely did not see coming. NOT THAT I’M COMPLAINING.

Other proud moments include me making fun of the boys for doing stupid things like climbing walls and playing with fireworks a few chapters before Mat decided to run the Tairen Ninja Warrior obstacle course with a whole pile of the things, and the time I was all arrogant in my certainty that Tam al’Thor was a dead man walking from Chapter 1, and of course my tags on the very first liveblog post, in which I said ‘I will probably become less verbose as things progress’.

Among others.

[only-martha-knows]

@weavesasitwills tags:

I know, right? I’m shipping show Egwene and Rand so hard, they’re so cute, while at the same time LOVING Rand/Min at this point in my reading.

Light, but a man could drown in those eyes and be happy doing it. Embarrassed, he cleared his throat. “Do they have sheep in Tar Valon? That’s all I know, herding sheep and growing tabac.” […] “There,” Egwene said as if it were settled. “I know. I will make you my Warder, when I’m an Aes Sedai. You would like being a Warder, wouldn’t you? My Warder?” She sounded sure, but he saw the question in her eyes. She wanted an answer, needed it. “I’d like being your Warder,” he said. She’s not for you, nor you for her. Why did Min have to tell me that? (The Eye of the World, chapter 48).

[duckprintspress]

"Get to Know Me" Tag Meme

Oh gosh, this is the first time we've ever been tagged for a meme! Thank you for thinking of us, @felinesomnambulist. I SUPPORT YOUR MICHELANGELO LOVE, he's the best turtle and April should see that.

I'm gonna fill this out based on me (@unforth) since I run this account (And, ya know, own the Press). :D

Three Ships: Hua Cheng/Xie Lian (Tian Guan Ci Fu by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu), Mo Ran/Chu Wanning (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat), Shen Qiao/Yan Wushi (Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi), are probably my three favorite ships right now.

First Ever Ship: oh god. if we're talking "first couple I remember getting really invested in," it's Min/Rand al'Thor from the Wheel of Time. If it's "the first ship I can remember being like 'I ship this' and it wasn't canon and it's queer and stuff" (though I have Opinions about Min and queerness, but that's a different conversation)...hmm...I wrote a little Nuriko/Yuki Miaka (Fushigi Yuugi by Yuu Watase) and Lina Inverse/Gourry Gabriev (Slayers). (Lina/Gourry isn't queer in canon, but there is no cis het explanation for Nuriko). I also had a ship for The Franchise By She Who I Wish Would Just Fucking Stop Being Awful but we don't speak of such things anymore. (I also, early, wrote a lot of self-insert OC x "my favorite character in each franchise" things, like in middle school I wrote a story with my OC x the son of Garion and C'Nedra from the Belgariad by David Eddings).

Last Song: Ateez - Deja Vu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlnMDttgTbk)

Currently Reading: Mo Du by Priest (https://edanglarstranslations.com/modu)

Currently Watching: I guess The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty? I watch things incredibly slowly, basically only when I'm packaging campaign merch, and we've only had the pin campaign recently so I haven't had much time in ages. I've also been watching TLT2 on and off. Counting things I'm watching with the kids, we're doing our second full watch-through of Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts (which by the way? super queer. y'all should check it out, it's great.)

Currently Consuming: Black cherry herbal tea

Currently Craving: at least one good night of sleep, god I'm tired (see also: why I'm doing a meme instead of editing, lmao).

Tag 9 people we want to get to know better! Um... @sarnakhwritesthings, @theleakypen, @scones-and-texting-and-murder, @jemariel, @deathbycoldopen, @wolffyluna, @faerytaleonfire, @foxofninetales, and @veronicasanders

[music-thestrongestformofmagic]

I posted 1,018 times in 2021

48 posts created (5%)

970 posts reblogged (95%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 20.2 posts.

I added 796 tags in 2021

#marvel - 110 posts

#funny posts - 98 posts

#loki - 85 posts

#loki series - 80 posts

#loki laufeyson - 77 posts

#public service announcement - 73 posts

#wheel of time - 71 posts

#sylki - 69 posts

#sylvie laufeydottir - 67 posts

#loki spoilers - 66 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#(and in a less positive note: i wish they had been as good as showing the concept of ta'veren as they were with the aes sedai warder bond)

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I love me a fandom without shipping wars :P

[Image description: Swords United meme. Uniting their swords: Lanaeve shippers, Sethom shippers, polygam Rand-Avi-Elayne-Min shippers, Lanfearand shippers, Perraile shippers, Siuraine shippers, Siureth shippers, Matuon shippers, polyam Rand-Avi-Elayne-Min shippers, Elaviendha shippers, Randgwene shippers, Mategianin shippers, Logainbrelle shippers, Egeayle shippers, Perelain shippers, Matelayne shippers, Permin shippers. In the circle made by the united swords: "Robert Jordan sucks at writing romance."]

55 notes • Posted 2021-11-24 15:52:55 GMT

#4

prayer circle, hope this works:

🕯 🕯

🕯 endgame 🕯

🕯 moiraine/siuan 🕯

🕯 in The Wheel 🕯

🕯 Of Time show 🕯

🕯 🕯

110 notes • Posted 2021-11-27 16:08:08 GMT

#3

Prayer circle, hope it works ✨

🕯 🕯

🕯 🕯

TRANSGENDER

🕯 AES SEDAI 🕯

IN THE WHEEL

🕯 OF TIME 🕯

🕯 🕯

120 notes • Posted 2021-12-04 01:22:16 GMT

#2

Man, just. The Wheel Of Time. THIS SHOW, MAN.

I’m about to go on a small ramble over episode 5 (’Blood Calls For Blood’) and there will be both show and book spoilers so be aware

But man. This show’s writers, directors, actors, crew, etc, they get it. They just GET IT. One might be a little dissatisfied that they’re coming up with too many scenes of their own, but I really can’t, because they GET IT.

The decision to change the Kerene and Stepin story, for example, in order to show the depth and implications of an Aes Sedai + Warder bond. In the books, we’re told many times that it’s profound, and well, it’s valid, it does its job, we get the memo. But here, we get a whole arc, and a heart-wrenching one at that, to demonstrate it. We’re drawn to these very likeable characters, get to care about them, and are slapped across the face with a brick with a tragedy.

In the books we barely know about those two, we just know Kerene was killed by Black Ajah and assume Stepin also was (it matters so little we don’t even actually know). So the show decided instead to pick that relationship and death and make it important, not only to show the power of Logain’s army and raise stakes, but to convey crucial information. And we book readers know this will have huge implications later on, especially with Moiraine explicitly considering undoing the bond with Lan. The tragedy gives a whole other weight to what’s going to happen later.

[Also, a brief mention of the funeral scenes because !!!!!!!! I think I haven’t seen them in the books, neither Aes Sedai or Warder ones, at least not yet (currently on book 10, Crossroads Of Twilight), and it was a *chef’s kiss* addition. Beautifully shot, beautifully acted, just bloody beautiful all over!]

But besides that. The whole thing with the rings. The ritual of melting and reuniting them with the rings of other fallen Aes Sedai. It’s just SO ON BLOODY THEMATIC POINT. The idea of the wheel, of nothing ending or beginning, of returning... Those are all themes and motifs so prevalent and important in the books, so crucial, and I was almost like “Wait what?! This sounds so fitting?! Are we sure Robert didn’t write that himself?!” but no. It was the show crew themselves, and with that explicit reasoning in mind:

[Image description: Tweet by ‘WoTonPrime’s Book Nerd’ @sarahenakamuraI, show consultant: “I really loved this idea of bringing a fallen sisters ring back to the Tower, so that it could be melted in the Flame and reunited with the gold of the rings of all Aes Sedai from the past.“

‘PerrinGoldeneyes’ @WoTPerrinGolden: “And new ones made from it?”

WoTonPrime’s Book Nerd @sarahenakamura: “That's the idea!!”]

Which just. Absolutely magnificent. It creates a physical unbroken link between the current living Aes Sedai and their predecessors and their future sisters as well.

And it even makes Valda and his collection of rings of Aes Sedai he killed even more heinous. He’s hindering with a group’s funeral rites, an almost holy rite of passage, something we’ve been shown to be very important (like, with Stepin utterly broken and gaunt, hanging on from the skin of his teeth, relapsing into drinking, barely holding himself together, but pushing himself to bring the rings back; and also with the absolute horrified reactions of the Tar Valon civilians seeing the return of the rings; just. GODS. THIS SHOW). By impeding the rings’ return, Valda interrupts a cycle of rebirth, he removes them from their source, from the Tower, from the fallen’s sisters.

Just. Man. I just have no words. These people just GET IT. They UNDERSTAND Robert Jordan’s series. They KNOW The Wheel Of Time. They know the themes, they know what the author intended and meant, and they’re not afraid neither of furthering the progressiveness Robert aimed for nor of adding upon the material.

THAT is how you make adaptations. A 1-1 reproduction of the original story scene by scene is way less important than a thorough understanding of the story’s goals, of what those scenes are actually supposed to mean and say, and of quality writing to introduce and show those concepts in a way that makes the consumer engage and invest emotionally in the plot.

129 notes • Posted 2021-12-04 18:56:48 GMT

#1

What are Sylkies if not Reylos persevering

170 notes • Posted 2021-07-08 14:45:56 GMT

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