I would like it to be a book primarily following Logain as he struggles to legitimize the Asha’man in the eyes of the people and build amidst the growing threat from Seanchan. Fortuna had yet to return to the continent to consolidate her power and so it’s reasonable to assume that the greater Seanchan Empire could reject the Dragon’s Peace entirely. This could see Matt perhaps as an antagonist as he’s caught between his loyalties to old friends and his new wife.

Also there could be an incursion from another world as the books have shown that there are, in fact, other realms/dimensions out there in the cosmos. This could serve as the greater, looming threat kind of like the White Walkers in ASOIAF that maybe another new protagonist, perhaps a young Brown, keeps urging the people to focus on while not being listened to with everything else going on.

This could lead to the Brown going to the other world(s) much like Jon Snow goes beyond the Wall and provide us with completely new kinds of magic and all new species.

This is of course just my own fan speculations, but what do you guys think?

I'm a first time reader and I know some of the Forsaken became so because of their evil deeds, but is there an actual process of them being named so? How does it work? What theories are there?

I don't mind spoilers btw, so speak freely. Thanks!

So, I may be crazy, but I just finished Winter’s Heart and noticed that Aviendha hasn’t had much to for a few books now. Like, Elayne is doing her kingdom takeover. Min is actually making the Dragon smile. But Aviendha…is kind of just stuck as Elayne’s hanger on recently. Even the cooler moments she’s had (first sister ceremony, bonding Rand) have been shared with Elayne (and Min). I do hope things start to pick up for her soon.

I’m on book eleven and at this point I can’t remember who is who, besides the central characters. I can usually figure out how people fit into the storyline or what their role in the overall story is, but sometimes you go chapters without getting a glimpse of a character whose name you aren’t sure you are even pronouncing correctly!

I wish that I had kept a spreadsheet with notes of each character, though I suppose I could easily just look them up on the wiki, but how have people handled this?

Like I’ll read a name like Yukiri and recognize that I have read that name and know she is Aes Sedai, but can’t tell you her Ajah right away or how she fits into the story.

For those who have gotten far or completed the books, how did you deal with the vast amount of named characters?

I'm now reading The Great Hunt and I think I may have an unpopular opinion. Robert Jordan forgets that he has other characters in the book and just solely concentrates on a couple of characters for around 200 pages and then goes back to the forgotten characters creating a sense of disconnect.

For example, when he starts writing about Rand especially in the book The Great Hunt, Perrin and Mat disappears around 100 pages into the book and he comes back to Perrin/Mat at around page 400. From page 100-400 we only see Rand/Loail and sometimes Egwene/Nynaeve and do not see Perrin/Mat at all.

Does this only happen in this book or is this the style of Robert Jordan's writing?

She’s talented, paid some dues, has ideas about feminism but to a certain extent, feuds w other women constantly, gets hung up on how unfair it is that men get treated different, is powerful and viewed at skeptically, etc.

(I know this will get downvoted into oblivion. It’s ok)

My favorite interactions in the series are from these two. I would pay for a spin-off series just about those two going on adventures.

For me it was Jur Grady. The man the myth the moustache an absolute legend. When he mentioned he had a wife and kids and was exciting to see them I thought for certain his fate was sealed.

I am 44 chapters into The Fires of Heaven and am super confused by Rand's obsession with not putting a woman in danger (including maidens), not killing a female (including forsaken).

Is there something more to it, or is it just a sign of the times when the book was written?

Did anybody else feel the same way? I just finished CoS for the first time and the way the fight with Sammael turned out felt so contrived to me. First off, for some reason Rand doesn’t grab Callandor even though he can Travel and it’d take him less time than it would for most people to grab a knife from their kitchen or gun from their bedroom, but that’s not my biggest issue

Somehow Liah managed to survive in fucking Shadar Logoth for weeks without getting killed by Mashadar, and, after nearly 2 dozen aiel searching for hours didn’t manage to find her when she got lost, bumps into Rand twice in the dark. The second time she just so happens to bump into him, she gets killed by Mashadar after weeks of surviving it and it’s right as he’s about to kill sammael. And then, Rand, the man who couldn’t bring himself to kill Lanfear even though she’s one of the Forsaken and was torturing and killing two women he loved right infront of him because she’s a woman, decides in an instant to fucking vaporize a Maiden cause he wants to make her death easier. Never mind he could just hit her with balefire after sammael and it’d have the same effect. And I don’t believe for a second Sammael is dead, he almost certainly used the True Source to make a gateway or pulled some other sort of fuckery.

The number of insanely unlikely events that had to take place and Rand doing something very out of character at the worst possible moment make the whole fight feel contrived to keep Sammael alive because Jordan wasn’t ready to kill him off yet. It was a good book overall but the ending left a very bad taste in my mouth

I am on the beginning of second season now and I thought the actress that plays Nynaeve would improve but it doesn’t seem like the case. Her outbursts are too out of space is this how the character like in the books? Or are we watching a woman who can’t act whatsoever?

SPOILER

How did he end up at Liandrin's? We saw him entering Shadar Logoth, and next thing I know, she holds him captive. Did I miss an entire episode or something?

Hello everyone, I’m on my first read through of the series and I’m about 70% through Lord of Chaos (Min is seeing Rand for the first time). And I’m like kind of annoyed. I’m assuming this is just Robert Jordan’s writing but how he portrays their “love” makes me mad. It’s like Aviendha and Rand are always rude/mean to each other or ignore each other but Aviendha “loves” him. And Min right before she sees Rand she’s talking about how much she loves him and then gives him snappy remarks. It’s like that’s not how that works and don’t get me started on Elayne. But I just was wondering do they actually have like normal relationships or is it just like this weird we can’t show we love him but I’ll tell everyone else my feelings. I don’t know just venting because no one I know reads the books and it just is one thing that’s annoying to me.

Update: thanks for all the replies and perspectives. I really didn’t want to spoil anything by googling.

I am almost done listening to the audiobook for path of daggers and I have been wondering if it ever mentions whether Rand is a voice that Lews in fact hears in his head while he was living. It would make sense since time is a wheel. Also I can’t believe people say this book is part of “the slog”. It’s been very exciting so far!

Currently about halfway through Winter's Heart, first read so no spoilers beyond that please.

I'm loving the series, but am I crazy for thinking this Mat/Tylin situation is really not handled well by RJ? She straight up raped him in CoS, now I come to find he's trapped in Ebou Dar because she won't let him go, and is continually forcing herself on him and has been for months?

Besides the fact that the situation itself is severely messed up, I'm even more disturbed by Mat's response to it, or lack thereof. He sees her as an inconvenience and isn't processing what happened at all, and I don't get the sense that he's blocking a trauma response either -- his disregard feels genuine.

When you add that to a male MC with three beautiful women who are so in love with him that they'll share him, and a world full of women who are primarily concerned with how they look to men (I mean ffs, Faile was kidnapped and stripped and her first thought was why her captor didn't seem to be attracted to her), that makes this just come off as RJ playing out another male fantasy in the form of Tylin being a dominant woman with authority who wants to have her way with Mat, and aw shucks, it's another one of Mat's crazy hijinks, how will he ever get out this time.

It's kind of disturbing to me that young boys read this and could think that that's how they should react if anything like this happened to them. That it's nothing, or it's a joke, or that it's a desirable thing.

Idk, just interested to hear how others feel about this, I'm sure I can't be alone in this.

Been re-reading the series on kindle and always enjoyed looking at the maps to see where things were happening.

Stumbled on this website and it’s pretty dope, shows the paths the characters take and some summaries of the chapters events in those areas.

Just figured I’d share for anyone who might enjoy it as well

https://wheeloftimelines.com/map

When I read the Sword of Truth series, one major thing which irritated me was that Terry Goodkind kept referring back to the plot other books in case you had forgotten some of the plot or hadn't read all of the previous books in order (one of the books mid series kept doing this until about a third of the way through). Does this also happen in Wheel of Time, or is there a short synopsis of everything so far at the beginning, or nothing as they assume you are reading it all in order?

Also, I just finished the Eye of the World last night - I was determined to finish it and didn't realise it would take me so long and struggled to stay awake reading, so sorry if this is a stupid question. Both Rand and Mat (and maybe Perrin, I've forgotten) back away from the Eye of the World. Rand especially, who it turns out has been touching the source without realising. Was he backing away as he unconsciously realised it was the source and it had an effect on him before at other points in the book? Also, he has just drained the Eye of the World when defeating Trollocs, fades, Ba'alzamon, super important thing guarded by the Green Man, yes?

Trying to be vague to avoid spoilers. When Egwene was talking to Morraine about her and Nynaeve finding out Elaida's new position she mentions having a dream about Perrin and the tinker in the coat behind him. Shouldn't she have recognised who this man was because she actually knew him?

No spoilers past Winter's Heart please! I'm not finished yet... But I will post some spoilers through about halfway of WH... Also. Apologies if I mispell anything. I listen on audible.

OK. There have been two lingering questions that have been bugging me. I know it's a RAFO situation, so I've been patiently/eagerly waiting to see if these get addressed/ what direction it'll go.

1. This has been bugging me since The Shadow Rising. Why the actual fuck did Nyaneve and Elayne think it do be wise to give the male A'dam to a flipping Sanchean!!? I don't care that they liked each other. A few adventures and bonding activities do not erase a lifetime of being Sanchean. Even if Egeanin DID plan to drop it into the sea for a little while, the chance of their ship being intercepted was a huge risk. If I were Nyaneve, I wouldn't have ever let that A'dam out of my possession. Let alone give it to the fucking enemy. And now here we are, in WH and guess who's back. And guess who didn't drop the damn thing into the sea. Well, I still need to read more to find out what happens with that. I wonder if Suroth gives it to the Shaido. That's my guess. That thing that Sevanna keeps saying she has that can control Rand? Maybe the A'dam? Especially since we now know from Faille that the Sanchean and Shaido are talking.

Okay #2- I've been getting the creepiest and most unsettling vibes from Taim. Even though he's come through in battle (i.e. dumais well), I still have just never trusted him. Kind of like the vibes of Selene before we knew she was lanfere. IDK if Taim is a Forsaken, probably not, but we did just find out that he (along with moridin and demondred) ordered the ashaman to murder Rand. Ooooh shit's about to get real. Rand doesn't know. Yet. Can't wait to unfold that situation more.

Anyone else have a similar experience on their first read through? I'm curious if Taim's character will be more complex, like more twists and turns. But I'll have to RAFO. don't tell me lol.

Wow what an ending! A few days ago I felt it was dragging but then suddenly everything exploded. SPOILER ALERT from now on:

How many women are described as absolutely stunningly beautiful? Off the top of my head - lanfear, morgase, berelian, the girl who gets her head shaved by the Aiel then killed… but the one Jordan seemed horniest for: Aviendha. Multiple descriptions of her hard muscles and soft parts.

What Naenave does to Mogedhien towards the end was delightful. I wanted her to get revenge on Liandrin, I guess that could still happen but this was a delicious twist

No I don’t believe Lanfear or Moiraine are dead

Lots of worry about the final battle and dark one busting loose but these forsaken can’t get along.

Is the madness that Rand is so worried about just that he’s hearing the voice of Lews? Did Lews hear voices too?

A little break before lord of chaos

Is there any app or website for reference of characters, paths, concepts. Whatever.

It’ll be difficult to recollect Google search gives the spoiler in the first line itself

Take a shot every time a main character thinks "women/men are so confusing/aggravating"

Just kidding, you'll die within an hour

No but seriously I'm almost finished with book four and it feels like there isn't a single character who doesn't express confusion/aggravation at the opposite sex in almost every chapter and it's getting really tiresome. Does it ever let up?

I woke up this morning with a question that's been nagging me: in either the second or third book of the series, whenever Rand and his companions attempt to use the Ways, they consistently encounter the Black Wind (Machin Shin) at the entrance. This strikes me as quite unusual, and I can't wrap my head around the reason for this.

Does anyone have any insights or theories on why the Black Wind specifically targets Rand and his friends at various Waygates? Also, if there are any passages in the books that explain this phenomenon, could you please share them? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

My favorite chapter is Dumai's Wells, but my favorite part of the story was when Rand and Mat go to Rhuidean. There are so many good moments though! Like Maradon, Natrin's Barrow, and so many more.

I also liked the Menagerie in TFoH. Not my favorite part, but I see it get a lot of hate so I wanted to stick up for it.

Just finished the 10th book, knife of dreams, but saw someone say it was the worst by far in the series, why is that? I felt it was just as slow as 6-9 and if anything was maybe abit better with the romance between Mat and Tuon that I enjoyed a lot. What are peoples issues with it? Why is it so bad? If anything I found the 7th much worse, with too much dithering and not enough emphasis on what was actually important. I also got the sense in the 7th/8th that Jordan really was just writing to fill pages at points, and although that doesn’t disappear completely in the 10th it dies down a hell of a lot. Again I will ask, why is the 10th (KoD) so frowned upon?

Hi all!

This is kind of a hybrid question, about the books and show.

I was curious about starting season 1 as I like to have visuals to help my reading experience a bit, and I was wondering how far in season 1 I can go without spoiling anything for myself. I will finish The Great Hunt tonight.

Thank you in advance!

For me, I can’t figure out this shaved and powdered foreheads thing. Even when I look at pictures, I say “ohhh yeah got it” and then the second it’s mentioned again in the books my mind conjures up something completely strange and wrong.

Anyways. Anyone else get stuck on something? Mustaches?

I know this sounds really weird but I cannot think of a time in which Thom gave bad advice or took action that was detrimental than others.

I’m certain him and Julian got up to some shenanigans when they were traveling with Elayne and Nyanaeve but I can’t remember the specifics

Just starting the series now. I understand Book 1 is supposedly slow and cliche, but books 2 and 3 are meant to be really good. Either way, since the series spans so many books I’d be curious to hear what peoples’ favorite three in the series are, and their least favorite three. No major spoilers please, but feel free to give some insight into why!