#the character was unbearably awful and had no resemblance to book Sasna

[jackoshadows]

Looking through the 2023 WoTCon panels and...

Really? Do we really need this ‘eternal fandom debate’ regurgitated in 2023? Why is it Min Farshaw alone that perennially gets this treatment? Where is the ‘Damn, he’s a sexy Lamp’ analysis for Gawyn Trakand, who is just around to complain about Rand?

Even to the extend that when the TV show was being cast, fans were speculating that Min would be cut or combined with Elayne, horrifying even Rafe Judkins!

Q: Are you going to merge Min and Elayne?

A: Hell no 

Q: Will min, elayne, and avienda have to be combined into a single character?

A: Girl you crazy. I’m not going to combine huge characters like that.  Maybe sometimes a minor character folded into a more major one to make  better use of our cast but nothing nutso

Can’t female characters play different kinds of important roles without being leaders, Queens, Amyrlins and warriors anymore? If one female character plays a supporting role to a male character she’s reduced to being a ‘sexy lamp’?

I can understand this critique if Min Farshaw was the sole, lead female character in the series. However, in a series where the female characters are the most powerful, most pro-active, comprise most of the leaders of this world, make the rules, why is it that Min Farshaw is always picked out for simply supporting the man she loves?

And given how important Rand’s mental health is to the survival of the world, isn’t Min’s emotional strength and support to this person she loves dearly also an important narrative plot?

Min - ‘I love this person, he needs my help, others are doing their part to save the world, I am saving the person who is essential to saving the world’

Fandom - ‘Is Min a sexy Lamp, simply there for decor. Let’s continue to have this eternal debate!’

And if the criticism is about problematic or sexist writing for the character in terms of fashion and dressing etc. then there’s a lot of problematic writing and tropes for ALL the female characters in they way Jordan uses stereotypes and leans hard into the gender divide of ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’, the spankings and nudity etc. 

Min trying to find allies to support Rand, her visions, her friendships with Far Dareis Mai, her sticking by him when he suffers from PTSD from the box when all his friends are afraid of him, think him mad or think to control him...Without Min Farshaw, Rand al’Thor would be a different, much darker, more lonely character who has absolutely no one by his side.

In a book series where characters fall in love in a few seconds because of the pattern and then spend the rest of the series apart, Rand and Min is that rare relationship where they spend time with each other and support each other.

I love Min Farshaw and I hope the TV show does not change the book character too much and turn her into a mini Egwene/Elayne/Aviendha because of this idea that female characters cannot be different things and have different roles and parts to play in a story or be secondary/tertiary characters and in supporting roles. We get a wide variety of male characters in the books, let’s want and hope for the same with it’s female characters.