So I have tried very hard to avoid spoilers and been told this series is a fantasy classic.

I'm enjoying it, the world building is great, the bs of men Vs women got tiring real quick but I can overlook.

Just hit winters heart and honestly I feel that at least 60% of what I have read so far could have been cut and not a single thing would have been lost.

I think my biggest gripe is the several hundred* characters that have had full introductions and have absolutely zero relevance to the story. The 50 odd aes sedia that are named and have a few scenes only to be replaced with other ones later, none of which actually contribute anything. The multitude of nobles that take up pages of description but again could just be cut to a couple of lines and lose nothing. The many aiel that are named and have interactions to just vanish into the background so some new people can be introduced and do nothing.

Even the main "bad guys" (trying not to introduce spoilers) just keeps added more and they don't really do anything and then "oh no, an even badder bad guy" who also then doesn't really do anything.

Does it get any better? At some point do more people stop getting introduced and we actually get some story going. Do all these people have a purpose in the end or was it all just filler?

Sorry if this is a common thing, like I said I'm trying really hard to avoid spoilers. I just wanted to have some hope that I might be able to get through the next 6 books and feel like it was worth it.

*Maybe not that many but probably pretty close.

(Side note: it's sort of fun trying to give somewhat meaningful titles with 0 spoiler content)

I'm on my Nth reread and it seems my memory of TGH is disturbingly patchy, so I'm asking the wholes in my memory to be filled.

Moriane has two comments when she is in Tifan's Well: one where she almost gets an answer to a question but forgets it, and one after the Draghkar attack:

“And will you find your answers where you are going?” Vandene asked. “I may already have found one I did not know I sought. I only hope I am not too late. I will need pen and parchment.

She's asking about the dark prophecy they get in Fal Dara, but what is the forgotten answer we get here? I think the reader is supposed to find out here that Selene is Lanfear, but I don't feel Moraine gets any smarter here.

And what is the answer she finds? She knows the Black Ajah exists already, so that can't be. Or that she specifically is hunted? Do we learn how they found her?

Bonus points if somebody knows what letters she writes.

for choice. It's so funny to me that you get to book 2 of the series, Min gets pulled back into the fold, and you can look at the principle characters and go "huh, there's 6 characters that are roughly the same age, half boys and half girls. I wonder if they're gonna pair off" and you don't even get through the rest of the chapter reintroducing Min before the story is blatantly like "NOPE. THESE ARE ALL RANDS GIRLFRIENDS." Hell, if RJ wasn't born in 1948, I wouldn't be surprised if Perrin and Mat wound up being Rands boyfriends too. This mf gets everyone. Even the evil lady, fuck it. Rand gets 6 love interests, why not. EDIT: To clarify, the 3 girls are Eg, Elayne and Min. Nynaeve is clearly for Lan, and more like a big sister to the rest of them

Just finished a memory of light and my head is spinning slightly....

Is there anywhere where I can get a good summary of what actually happened?

Like I get I can go back and re read the ending, but "WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!?!?"

I realized I don't quite understand how the entire plot of TGH could happen. When TGH starts the Horn is in Fal Dara, defended by some soldiers, 7 Aes Sedai and a couple of village goofs. At least 2 AS are black, the second in command of Fal Dara is a Darkfriend and Ishamael and Lanfear at least are completely free.

By this time they know who the Dragon Reborn is. I know they want to convert Rand to the shadow, so no touching him. But why not just pop in and capture his friends? Or just steal the Horn themselves instead of using Darkfriends and shadowspawn?

Lanfear can invert weaves and mask the ability to channel. Ishy would not even have to worry about that.

Why not scoop up the Emond Fielders and tell Rand it's eternal service or eternal pain for them?

Or later, why doesn't "Selene" depart with the Horn?

On currently on chapter 26, I'm confused as to what Rand sees is it his past lives or just the past as it relates to him as he is now?

RAND THE KING IS BACK

But seriously, Crossroads of twilight Rand had one pov or so. Kinda weird considering he is the main character. In this pov chapter, we learned the greatest thing that ever happens in this series: Jordan did not forget about Rand.

Thats what that chapter felt like: confirming Rand still exists. Not even in winter’s heart did he gave that many povs.

But here in knife of dreams, he has had 3(THREE!!!!!!) chapters dedicated to him! In a row!! And thats only so far. I turned the page and expected to see Perrin, Mat, Egwene. It certainly felt like this was the expected amount of action we would get. But no, he has another chapter.

I hope, i really hope, the rest of the books are about him most of all, and that he and mat and perrin meet up very soon

They went from living in the Space Age, with all the best foods imaginable to living in the middle ages/renaissance. Like just imagine having to go from burritos, pizza, fried chicken, Thai food to boiled meat with slop. I'd probably start killing people too.

So, as the title says I’m so frustrated by Perrin right now I get that he’s a simple farm boy and wants to stay that way despite what plans the Pattern has in store for him and his friends but if you have useful powers and you know people are after you, especially if Trollocs and Myrdraal are involved, then use your powers! The camp of the Dragon Reborn just got attacked and he didn’t know until it was too late because he was ignoring the call of the wolves. They warned him, helped him, and then ran off. After that he still wants to ignore them. I get it and what Jordan is doing, doesn’t mean I can’t be frustrated

I’m still not 100% sure this is the right subreddit to post art on since there is a WOT art subreddit, but everyone was so nice on the last post I don’t want leave…here is Egwene and Bela! She could probably be shaggier

I’ll start: Naen and Elenia,

Romanda and Lelaine

Seonid and Masuri

Grady and Neald

Lopin and Nerim

What else?

(Note spoilers-wise I've only read up to Lord of Chaos, and chose to read New Spring now)

This was a fun, short little story, relatively. I think Wheel of Time has warped my sense of what 'short' means 😆️

To see Moiraine being a troublemaking prankster with a temper (what does she have against embroidery in her dresses lol?), a slightly prudish streak, and a tendency to casually fling money around is hilarious and almost beyond belief 🤣️ She seemed so cool and collected in the main series! Serene and immovable! But no. "Fine, for being a good person, I suppose I won't assault you with wasps..."

Siuane was fun too; turning back into a sailor-mouth the instant she became Aes Sedai, as if to mock their efforts to manage her language 🤣️ And giggling about how her dress "Does attract men's eyes" and in the process scandalizing Moiraine. Also, being very tight-fisted with her money, which makes sense given her background.

Seeing the White Tower culture a bit more was neat too, though it makes me sorely wish I could make it so 'the heat and cold don't touch me', because for a long while it's been fucking freezing. There's some irony that during parts of reading earlier books, I was sweating in humid heat while reading about the characters also miserably cooked, and now that it's frosty, here I am reading about Moiraine being uncomfortably chilled. Don't remind me of my sufferings, book! 😢️

Elaida was horrifying, and feels mega petty. Turning against 'her' students and trying to fail them, just because she couldn't basically torture them in 'preparation'. Honestly, from the reading of it, the shawl test itself seemed much easier than the practice, though the buildup felt suitably terrifying to read, because it led me to think 'oh light she's so not ready yet'.

One element I wasn't a fan of was Lan. Nothing against him, but his whole archetype of honor and eagerness to fight and die...he just bored me a bit. His interactions with Moiraine were funny though.

The ending felt a bit hurried and odd, but it was okay, I guess.

Hello, I read all of wheel of time 10 years ago. My daughter's middle name is ACTUALLY Elayne. Here's all I can remember happened in this book series that defined me 10 years ago

Book zero: adventure lady. There's an aes sedai named Morrigan and she's looking for the special boy. Where could he be? Anyway, someone is trying to do bad things in the aes sedai tower and she's gonna stop her. She uses her mind powers to turn her stupid! Great job Morrigan.

Book one-three: 3 boys and a woman kill the devil Rand, Mat, and Joeseph are all having a good time in their village, and the woman from the previous book comes to tell them something bad is about to happen and they gotta get out of there. Run away, boys! The devil is gonna get you! But they get away. Rand learns that he has dirty magic inside him, and uses it to hurt bad people and himself.

Book 4: a guy named Lan has a dream where women aren't actually that powerful, and in the dream world the things you believe are just as important as the true things. Mat doesn't like Rand anymore but Rand still likes him

Books 5-10 Rand meets people from other countries and starts a polyamorous relationship with a tribal woman named Aquinnah, an aes sedai named Morrigan, childhood friend Elayne, and a snort lady. Turns out magical boys aren't so bad after all, but the most powerful magic comes from a heterosexual relationship. If only we could clean the taint. Foreign women like to keep collared slaves and the magical girl society enforces their will by spanking people. There's a man with a woman's body and he's the imposter among us. Elayne is in trouble at magic school but manages to be so great at school it overturns the entire corrupt system.

There's also a very old lady and her mental fishnets are stretchier than other women.

Books 11 and 12: Rand gets so much stronger and uses his harem powers to defeat anger. Turns out we need anger so he put it back.

"The wheel of time turns, and we go with it, and to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven"

From the diagram, 2nd drawer from the left, under a piece of paper marked "tug that braid"

I'm halfway through The Great Hunt. I got about halfway through New Spring before I realized you're supposed to read it super late instead of first, so my perspective may be skewed, but it really seems like Moiraine doesn't deserve 90% of the flak most of these characters are giving her. I know a lot of the mistrust the Emmonds Fielders have for her comes from rural prejudice, but it feels like personal experience should be starting to trump that by this point. If any other Aes Sedai found Rand, he would be much worse off. If Moiraine and Lan hadn't been in Emmonds Field, everyone would be dead to Trollocs. It feels like they've all(except Egwene) completely forgotten every good thing she's done for them. Mat is still being Mat, Rand has almost as much personal conflict with her as Nynaeve(it's most understandable for Rand now that Moiraine is the person that told him to his face he's TDR), Nynaeve is putting herself through Aes Sedai training specifically because she wants to beat the shit out of Moiraine so bad, and even Lan is giving her sass now because he's being too shortsighted to see she's clearly setting up for his bond to transfer to Nynaeve, the woman he's blatantly falling for. Even Perrin, who doesn't show it as much as the rest, blames Moiraine for himself becoming a Wolfbrother, which had nothing to do with her and he shouldn't see as a curse. How long until this band of morons pull their heads out of their asses and realize she's the best thing to ever happen to their little redneck village? Or is RJ really gonna surprise me and reveal Moiraine as Secretly Evil The Whole Time?

It’s absolutely beautiful and originally designed by the artist Jian Guo and then brought to life by Holdman Studios as stained glass. There’s a close up of it in the video but the bottom is obscured by a railing. I’m wondering if anyone has either an image of the original artwork by Jian Guo or a high quality picture of the stained glass work without any obscuring. I highly recommend giving Brandon Sanderson’s stained glass tour a watch.

Basically the title. I just love how deep the character feels and how in every chapter we see a thin new layer. Off course I love the world and all the aspects of it but I wonder what others like about the series.

So I'm almost done with Eye of the World and I'm just at the point that >!Nynaeve confesses her love to Lan!<???? So I know that >!Nynaeve!< is a bit older than the other Emond's Fielders but isn't >!Lan!< like, 20 years older than her? (I tried looking it up and that was a mistake, got a mild spoiler instead, who could've predicted that one.) I just couldn't continue reading without asking about this, I'm so confused I did not see this coming at all.

All are in pristine condition except for the Companion, which is not a huge deal. Got all of these for less than some of the EotW 1st ed. lots went for.

Maradon. I was listening to a companion podcast and the map has been mentioned twice and I have not seen it in my book. I have just finished chapter 21: An Open Gate which refers to the gate of Maradon itself.

I

Please no spoilers for book 8 onwards, but I need to know if I missed it in a previous book that Elayne never ONCE thinks of Gawyn... regardless of how annoying he can be, the man is your BROTHER. You cannot spare this man ONE thought in the past several books I have read?

Lmao, she even thinks in this book that her knowledge of men comes from Morgase and Lini... ERM, what??? I get that she probably misses her mum despite their strained relationship, which makes sense, but what about Gawyn, who you used to be so close to in book 1 and book 2...

and so much so that it made your open dislike for Galad actually jarring to read.

I'm someone who loves family and friends tropes over romance so I'm not to fussed about the strange romances in this series and also I'm getting good friendships here but have yet to see much family stuff apart from Perrin's grief over his family's death, which was heart-wrenching, to be fair.

Gawyn is clearly insane for his devotion to Egwene, that he lowkey prioritises her over Elayne (I have yet to read the other books, so I may need to start coming for Gawyn's neck about this real soon), but he still does love Elayne and needs her back as well as Egwene.

Argh!

I just hope we get some resolve about this in the later books because currently, in the books, I am getting annoyed by not a SINGLE thought about her own brother. She doesn't sound worried about him, with not even a simple sentence spared his way or if the Tower may use him to get to her. It's not realistic at all and actually pulls me out of the story because, apart from that, I think she is very well-written.

I still do like Elayne so far and hope this is just a coping mechanism. because GIRL

I’m not sure if anyone else felt this way ^(/s) but Perrin’s chapters were not the most engaging during books… eight through ten, let’s say. And while I agree BrandoSando missed the mark with Mat to a certain degree when he took over (up to the last book), I absolutely loved Perrin’s character progression and his chapters in Towers of Midnight.

So while we see The Golden Crane talked about, I wanted to give some love out to the chapter A Making. I cried through those pages. I felt the change in his character, the acceptance of who he was. And his love for all the people he gathered together, finally agreeing to fly the wolf’s banner… I found it one of the most satisfying payoffs in the series.

NOT TO MENTION the forging of his power-made hammer & naming it for Hopper, “He Who Soars”:

“It’s time for me to lead,” Perrin said. He looked one last time at his old hammer, and laid fingers on its haft. Then he hefted Mah’alleinir to his shoulder and strode away, feet crackling on drops of hardened steel.

The tool he left behind was the hammer of a simple blacksmith. That person would always be part of Perrin, but he could no longer afford to let him lead.

From now on, he would carry the hammer of a king.

I don’t know why this chapter had me so emotional but I’m crying a little even posting this. I think it’s beautiful.

Spoilers for LOC and bunch other stuff read at your peril

So I've been reading Matt related threads and have seen several discussions on the foxhead medallion. Specifically can it stop Saidin?

Arguments for generally amount to- there's no direct evidence it doesn't.

Arguments against generally amount to - Ravin fireball

I'm listening to LOC chapter 44- and viola!

Matt dances with Halimain Saldea. As he walks away the medallion goes cold and Halima looks at him oddly.

Hallmark is Aran'gar who is Balthamel and is a male aies sedi- that's how he/she avoids detection in Saladar.

The foxhead totally stops male channelers!!!

Edit- sorry I didn't realize this was settled. I have been reading threads questioning Saidin and the medallion and no one brought this example up that totally confirms it. Got too excited and posted when I heard it.

So I'm on B4/C2, and most of the characters are starting to annoy me. Matt, Perrin, and Rand were childhood friends and were treating him like everything was his fault. Also, the whole relationship stuff doesn't do anything for me at all. Also, the (MC)girls are irritating .All of this to say should I keep reading?

Ps: It's completely irrelevant, but the whole boy meets girl is literally as old as time, and I'm quite frankly tired of it nowadays I like to read stories where the MC doesn't get into relationships and feelings. I know it's probably due to the time these books were released, but this is my first time reading them b and i want to like them but....

Just finnished my first read through and I'm amazed. So glad that I kept reading through some of not as great books and greaful if Sanderson's ending of the series. It's great feeling but I really am going to miss the characters. All the characters had a wonderful character arc, even Elaine finished really well 😀. What I loved most about the series is that all the tiny mentions from previous books gets tied up so gently. Like ripples in the water finally reaching eachother.

While Perrin fights Grandael in aMoL, he imagines forkroot in her mouth, which made curious about the limits of what you can do in TAR. I read the whole series a while back, and on this "reread" I'm only reading books 12, 13, and 14 so sorry if this was made obvious in earlier books, but if Perrin can put forkroot in her mouth, what is stopping him from putting burning acid, or lava in there too?

What happens to the backs of gateways? During the confrontation with the Seanchan, Aviendha says that she moved to the back of the gateway and continued firing fireballs without a problem, which indicates that the back does lead to the front, but how would that work if two people go through at the same time, their matter would collidate on the other side of the gateway.

AND BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IT, YES, I DO HAVE A LOVE AFFAIR WITH A GERMAN SHEPERD.

Dummy friend seems to think "I just bought EOTW" meant "I am a seasoned reader of this entire series and am prepared to discuss seemingly crucial plot points from any part of the series with you at length."

I've never actually read the books, but have listened to the entire series at least 5 times on Audiobook. I drive a truck 70+ hours a week and there's nothing better then audiobooks!

The follow contains spoilers for the later half of TFoH and most of the series. Don't read ahead if you aren't that far in. You've been warned.

So, here's my thought :

When Rand and company storm Caemlyn to kill Rahvin, Mat gets "Killed" then later "resurrected" by Rand when he Balefire's Rahvin. At this point in the books, Mat is WELL aware of is luck and the fact that he can win almost anything that involves luck... So how the hell does he get hit by a random bolt of lightning? I am well aware of the Medallion/Lightning interaction. My point is : Getting hit like that is completely random and Mat is the king of chance.

My thought is that is luck/chance actually works AGAINST him this time. Fast Forward 9 books and 38 or 39 chapters and we get Olver sounding the Horn. Can't happen if Mat doesn't get it by that lightning.

So basically the pattern used Mat's luck or him being Ta'veren to kill him so he would be released from the Horn so that Olver could use it at the Last Battle.

Has this ever been brought up? Guess maybe I should have used the Search function but wasn't sure what to search for...

Do I make any sense?? A WoT fan!

On my third or fourth reread I remember I was very surprised that we meet almost all of the important cast, and that super defining moments already happen like Perrin and the wolves.

On my current reread I've been sort of looking out for this and I think that if you slap on the first few chapters of the Great Hunt we pretty much get everybody except the Aiel, Faile and Cadsuane. And those first few chapters are because of Siuan, Verin and Masema. Ok, we don't meet Mazrim Taim, but we hear of him.

Considering how long the series is I still find it a it surprising. Did I miss anyone of real import not showing up so early?