evaki

It's so funny how when your interested and entrenched in something comment like the one above make total sense. But if I showed that to my husband he would probably ask me if that was actually English. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] I'm just glad I got it.

Thanks also for the response about romantic angles. After beeing 1200+ pages in and seeing only glimmers, I was beginning to think my friend was confusing some other series she was reading with WoT. Glad to know I can look forward to it.

Anla

Warning for evaki - Comments on WH below:

So, on my rereading of WH, I have just gotten up to the part where the three girls all bond Rand. One of my favorite moments is when Rand tells the three of them that he is in love with them all equally, just because of Lan and Nynaeve's reactions. That was obviously not something they were expecting to hear from Rand. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] Plus, I really always liked the fact that Rand went to Nynaeve in this book when he needed help. It shows how much he trusts her, and Rand's reached a point in the story where unfortunately, he doesn't feel he can trust many people.

Asmodean

In my own personnel opinion the whole Rand with 3 girls thing bugs be a-lot!! Favourite part in Winters Heart
((((((((((((SPOILER WARNING))))))))))))
The last chapter, I waited so long for the Terangreal to be used, and finally, oh so finally I got to see it used. The descriptions were excellent describing the statue on the Sea Fold island on in Carhien!!
((((((((((((((End spoiler)))))))))))

Anla

WH and CoT Spoilers
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Yeah, the cleasing of the taint was probably the best part of WH (well, that and Mat's meeting with the Daughter of the Nine Moons [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] ). Not only was it good for the taint to be cleansed, but I appreciated finally getting all that information on who exactly was currently who among the Forsaken. I think there are only two who we don't currently have identified (and we have clues about them). So that was progress. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] I do wish we'd seen more of Rand in CoT - I'm concerned about the effects his imprisonment in Far Madding had on his already rather unstable emotional state. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

[ 01-13-2004: Message edited Anla ]

Asmodean

Rand is a very unstable person!!! I think too, that the lack of Forsaken'ness in COT was a disappointment. However it raises the question, when are we going to here more about them, and also the everpresent question, how many more books to go?? Still Rand is unstable!!!!!!!!

Anla

Yes, Rand has some serious emotional issues that need to be worked on. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] He's got all the pressure of being the Dragon Reborn yet having all these nations/nobility fighting him at every turn, the knowledge that he has to both save the world and try not to break it too badly this time around, the Taint driving him crazy, Lews Therin yammering on in his head, was stuck in a box and tortured for several days - he's had a lot to deal with. And his imprisonment in Far Madding did not help at all. He's trying to become so hard that he'll be able to hang on long enough to make it to the Last Battle, but that's going to be so terribly destructful to himself (and very possibly to the rest of the world). And there are so few people he can trust. Min's a good influence on him, but still, he needs to work out some of these issues before things get much worse. That's one of the reasons I wish that Moiraine would come back soon. Rand trusts her. And it would be nice if the next book included more than one scene with Rand in it, so that we know what the Dragon Reborn is actually up to (and it would also be nice if a few of the other plots got moved along a bit faster, as well [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] ).

[ 01-15-2004: Message edited Anla ]

PepperjackCandy

Anla -- How about Andreas Katsulas for Thom? The physical resemblance is lacking, but, primarily, we'd need an actor with a strong voice for Thom.

Anla

[img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] You know, I actually have absolutely no idea what the actor looks like without his G'Kar make-up. However, I could see him doing the whole wise, yet frequently abrupt and annoyed mentoring of the youngsters that Thom does. He would certainly be able to keep the audience riveted while telling Thom's stories. I'd love listening to them.
(I'm currently rewatching the Season 2 eps of Babylon 5. Just got the DVD set as a birthday present a few weeks ago. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] )

[ 01-27-2004: Message edited Anla ]

PepperjackCandy

Andreas Katsulas's Official Website

Oh, and I've got another Verin theory. I'm listening to TDR right now, and when Verin shows us the scar she got in Tel'aran'rhiod, it hit me. What if she wondered if the T'A'R Oath Rod worked the same as the real world one, and removed her oaths with that Oath Rod. We've seen how painful it is to remove one's oaths. Perhaps she didn't realize how much it'd hurt, injured herself falling down, and got the heck out of Dodge right afterwards, never going back to restore them?

She did, after all, get Anayia to Heal her, rather than a Yellow. Why else would she have done that, unless she was doing something she shouldn't?

AlexEvans

Well, I finally read CoT.

But... what happened?

Rand it out of touch with the Black Tower. We knew that. Didn't see nearly enough of him. And he has no way to strike at the Dark One right now. His only target is the Seanchan, who he'll have to fight sooner or later, so why not now? They want to "meet" with him. I bet he gets kidnapped. I won't have too much sympathy this time.

Egwene is besieging Tar Valon... but doesn't really do anything, until she makes that big mistake (and does anyone know why she did that?). The biggest development besides that is that they're talking about some sort of agreement with the Black Tower.

Matt... blah. Boring plot.

Elayne... not too bad. But still, a bit of a let-down with that mysterious army just being Andoran rebels, and not too much happened with her either.

Perrin... still no battle!

It was nice to touch base with most of the characters. A lot of stuff is getting set up. But CoT had a definite lack of action, of real change. At least, I think so so far... am I missing something?

[img]smilies/abduct.gif[/img] [img]smilies/read.gif[/img]

Anla

No, I don't think you missed anything. Not a great deal happened in CoT. It was strange - I enjoyed it while reading it, but afterwards, when I actually thought about it, I realized that not much happened (well, except for Egwene at the end, but even that was so very abrupt). I liked Mat flirting with Tuon, but that was about it. I'm hoping that this book was about moving the characters around and getting things ready for the next book. Supposedly there are only supposed to be another what? 2 or 3 books left in the series, so there is much to be dealt with and resolved.

And yeah, I'm pretty sure that Rand is going to be captured by the Seanchan. I mean, they're lying to him and setting him up to meet with some fake Daughter of the Nine Moons, which doesn't sound good. And there's one more time when Perrin has to be there to save Rand, correct? (I just can't remember if Mat also has to be there.) The Seanchan have to be dealt with, one way or another. I can understand why Rand wants to get things in order before the big Last Battle with the Dark One. All the fighting amongst the different nations is doing the Dark One's work for him. They need to unite in order to fight the bad guys - all this infighting is only going to help them be destroyed.

Why did Egwene go out there and make it so easy to get captured? Well, I'm not too impressed with Egwene's intelligence level of late, but I think she had some idea that she should take the same risks that everyone else does, or something like that. There are some theories that Egwene's head is being messed with by Halima, what with the headaches and all. I don't know - I'm going to try to reread CoT, and look for any signs of that.

[ 04-25-2004: Message edited Anla ]

AlexEvans

Thanks Anla, good to have it confirmed. I also enjoyed reading the book, I just felt very unfulfilled afterwards. Like eating a meal and finding it tasty, but being just as hungry afterwards.

I think it's just Perrin who needs to be there, I could be wrong. Of course, if Rand brought along a force of Asha'man, he wouldn't get captured in the first place, but that isn't going to happen.

I hope that you're right about Halima messing with Egwene's mind (and I think you probably are), because I have a lot of problems with how she's been acting.

[img]smilies/abduct.gif[/img] [img]smilies/read.gif[/img]

Anla

But that might actually require *gasp* communication among varying characters. And we can't have that, now can we? [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] I really think they should try implementing that Big Book of News idea we had on this thread a while back. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

Although maybe we're being too pessimistic about Rand's chances. Didn't Logain and his bunch of Asha'man show up at the end of the book? So maybe he and Rand will actually talk about the situation back at the Black Tower. I like the Asha'man, and that's a situation I would really like to see resolved.

As for Egwene, she hasn't been my favorite character for several books now. But still, I think that some of her behavior recently could be attributed to Halima's influence. I suppose Egwene had to be captured in order to fullfill the dream of Gawyn either saving her or not, but I do wish it had been in some other way.

AlexEvans

Communication? [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] They never talk to each other, I think they all swore that on an Oath Rod. Maybe they'll all learn Maiden hand-talk. Might be a loophole.

Good point about Logain... I'd really like to see the Black Tower unified, as Rand's main weapon. Plus I like the Asha'man. Cool name, cool insignia, cool concept.

Egwene has bugged me at times in the past - keeping Gawyn so much in the dark, for example, which led to Siuan Sanche being stilled. But nothing like she has lately, but I think we agree that most of her behavior lately, her paranoid suspicions regarding Rand, etc. are not her fault.

One thing I just noticed. Her boat was sunk or capsized through the One Power - which means the OP was used as a weapon. That almost certainly means the Black Ajah has her, not Elaida.

[img]smilies/abduct.gif[/img] [img]smilies/read.gif[/img]

Anla

Not necessarily, although I would agree with you that it's likely. But the Three Oaths seem to have so many loopholes and ways around them. If the Aes Sedai could convince herself that she didn't mean to use the One Power as a weapon, that she was simply trying to capture Egwene, then I think she could capsize the boat. But she'd have to manage to convince herself that there was no way it could lead to Egwene being killed (which, if I remember correctly, was the reason why Egwene didn't use the Power against the boats going in to Tar Valon - she couldn't do that). Perception is very important with regards to the Oaths.

But still, I think Black Ajah is a good guess.

The Taim situation is going to have to be dealt with, and preferably soon. I'm looking forward to the show-down between Taim and Logain. I'd like for Rand to be involved in it, too, if he's not too busy being captured or something at the time.

[ 04-29-2004: Message edited Anla ]