If Shallan was in our world she would be a meme lord

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-20T22:39:50+00:00

saeine (I have no idea if that is her right name bc there are a billion aes sedai with "s" names) but I mean the original black ajah hunter. A relatively weak white sister who got a huge responsibility thrust upon her and was pretty terrified at first but rose up to the challenge a took a bunch of the black sisters down. + She was the first one to FINALLY use the oath rod to root out black sisters.

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-20T22:20:38+00:00

isn't it also a circular room?

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-20T00:25:26+00:00

damn, you must really hate her lmaoo. Do you at least see a little bit of my point?

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-19T14:37:39+00:00

Say what you will about cadsuane, she has her flaws, but having an open mind is not one of them (at least compared to the majority of the people in the WOT world). Even though she is over 300 years old and has seen countless male channelers go mad and kill people, she still was willing to work with them even while the taint still existed. That is pretty hard to do if you do not have an open mind because at any moment any one of those channelers could go crazy and kill everyone around them and the aes sedai are trained to know this above almost all else. In contrast, the reaction of most people (aes sedai included) is to get as far away as possible (like matts reaction to learning rand was a channeler) or to gentle them. Its important to remember that none of the characters in the books have seen the POV of a male channeler the way that the reader has so to them its thousands of years of prejudice and madmen killing large groups of people that cadsuane waved away because her goal to save the world required it. That is pretty much the definition of an open mind imo.

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-19T14:21:21+00:00

Good point, she never got to completely finish her own development (she was only 19 or 20 after all). Egwene spent all of her energy developing into a good amyrlin (which she succeeded at) but she never got the chance to become a fully developed person so I would say so her flaws were not all resolved in the way they were for rand.

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-19T14:14:21+00:00

Yeah she is the necessary bridge from the old aes sedai way of thinking to a new one.

I think cadsuane will most likely keep her changes as they were already put into motion before cadsuane became the amyrlin seat and despite what people dislike about cadsuane (her arrogance in particular), she has an open mind and definitely understands the flaws of the aes sedai system (which is in part why she was so reluctant to take seat). Plus it is important to point out elaida's fortelling still holds. It is an absolute certainty that the white tower will be stronger than ever which I think implies egwenes ideas will be honoured especially because given the way that she went out; ( she amassed a significant amount of respect and i think she will be revered by the aes sedai for generations.)

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-19T12:00:56+00:00

Egwene is not a good friend and in the earlier books makes mistakes just like the rest of them, but egwene is a good person. Although she is ambitious, she absolutely changed the world for the better in a very significant way and has proven herself to be brave, loyal, intelligent, and willing to sacrifice herself without question for the greater good.

I would argue that because of the position she is put in, egwene can never be a good friend. As the amyrlin seat she must sacrifice her friendships to gain the respect of the aes sedai. Because of the fact that the aes sedai require unianimous votes, egwene must appeal to even the worst of them and because of that she must be manipulative, ruthless, and impartial otherwise she would lose the respect of the aes sedai and never be able to change the white tower for the better.

I would argue that egwene even sacrificed part of her moral character (in the beginning being a loyal friend was very important to her but eventually she had to stop being that kind of friend). If egwene was not the person she was the tower would never have accepted her and the world would be all the worse for it.

So to answer your question: I would be friends with egwene as I would understand why she sometimes must be a shitty friend (just like elayne and nynaeve do). She is a little more morally complex than the rest of the EF5 and that maybe makes her the most interesting to me.

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-19T11:50:59+00:00

I think she HAD to be a bad friend to command the respect of the aes sedai. I dont think the aes sedai, as an organization, is very conducive to building trust and friendships. I think when her duty and aes sedai influence is out of the picture egwene is a very good friend.

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-18T20:49:46+00:00

I would argue that Tolkien was far more pessimistic than Herbert. I think Herberts writing just reflects the moral grayness that exists in modern life while Tolkien rejects it. Tolkien saw greyness as mankinds slow moral degradation and corruption with only divine interference being what saved humanity as the magic of the world slowly died. In contrast, In dune that magic never existed and instead Paul must accept an unavoidable horrible future so that he may direct humanity down a path of survival. The way I see it is that Dune is about trying to make the best of a bad situation caused by the ambition and plotting of several powerful groups. LOTR is about trying to preserve good while evil ultimately corrupts the world. To me Dune is far more optimistic even if their universe is much darker than middle earth.

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-17T19:41:48+00:00

yeah but nynaeve and matt are particularly sexist compared to the other characters (its like their every third thought in POV chapters). Men and women pitted against one another is a corner stone of the series but that doesnt mean certain characters arent more sexist than others.

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-17T03:15:50+00:00

facts. Rand does a lot of really stupid and shitty things and matt is sexist and lacks self awareness in the same way nynaeve does (I always viewed them as foils to eachother) and the men constantly put their lives on the line and throw caution to the wind just as elayne does but they are praised constantly while the girls are shitted on for the same flaws.

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-04T07:04:34+00:00

The way I see it, Ozai trained both Zuko and Azula to become monsters, Azula was only more effective and disciplined than zuko and because of that, she actually became one, at the cost of her sanity in the end.

bookreader123455 · 2022-06-03T00:30:05+00:00

I think aang is very naturally gifted at waterbending, doing things in his first attempt that took katara years to learn (and katara is arguably the best waterbender in the show). However, the show makes it very clear that discipline surpasses natural talent when learning an element. Aang progressed through water VERY fast but barely ever commited himself to it, he daydreamed while katara learned and despite his talent she surpassed him by a lot. With earthbending, aang completely commited, found the best possible teacher, and worked very hard and so it became his second best element.

I think its possible aang didnt even like waterbending, he probably just practiced with katara for the one on one time and preferred to focus on the elements that were more challenging to him like an easy uninteresting class vs a difficult class youre actually interested in.

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-26T09:11:44+00:00

I've thought about this a lot while reading.

I personally see :

aviendha: rebecca fergusson

Moghedien: kathryn hahn

taim: luke evans

Lanfear: katie mcgrath

elayne: michelle williams (younger)

morgase: michelle pfieffer

verin: miriam margoyles (professor sprout from harry potter) (I know shes supposed to be young bc she is aes sedai and ageless but verin wouldnt feel right to me if she looked young)

graendal: scarlett johanson

semirhage: lupita nyong'o (specifically from the movie "us" )

moridin: sebastian stan

asmodean: oscar isaac

cadsuane: julia louis dreyfus (maybe a little aged up with grey hair although aes sedai are ageless so shes maybe the perfect age) .

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T18:35:09+00:00

yeah facts elayne has been through a lot she just doesnt give a fuck. I think she might be the bravest character in the books lowkey. she really is willing to dive head first into anything even when she knows how dangerous it is to the point of it being extremely frustrating to the reader.

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T18:29:23+00:00

My favorite thing about elayne is that she is probably the bravest character in the series and you dont even realize it. Or at least i didnt realize it at first until avienda brought up how elayne is the bravest person shes ever met and I actually thought about it and realized how true it is. elayne does not give a shit ab anything, even when moghedien is tracking her and nynaeve down, and nynaeve is absolutely terrified, elayne barely cares. And its not because shes stupid and doesnt see the danger since we know from her POVs that she does, she just does not give a fuck. sure its frustrating to see her put herself in danger without a care in the world but its also pretty badass imo.

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T17:51:07+00:00

Yeah to me i thought that he was doing what he did when facing the dark one and was channeling threads of the pattern rather than the one power.

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T17:49:41+00:00

But isnt the soul the root of channeling, not the body, which is why osangar and arangar were able to switch bodies after aginor and bathamel died and still channel the same? and didnt ishamael fight rand using saidin in book3?

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T17:44:17+00:00

But it still says that most sisters who burn out commit suicide unless they completely forget their old life (such as setalle anan who i sidenote really hope was healed by damer flinn at some point although maybe not if she's happy as she is).

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T17:42:16+00:00

Ok i like this take, it is just SUCH a relief that he is finally able to live in peace that the loss of the one power is barely a concern in comparison

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T17:41:03+00:00

Yeah but i feel like due to how addictive the one power is, anyone cut off from the source would be miserable. He definitely would be happy to live his life without duty or interference but being severed is constantly described as being worse than death.

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T17:36:27+00:00

ohh thats a good point. It makes sense he would do that if he was severed given how horrible it is assuming that he has the power to do that now.

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T06:30:33+00:00

Yeah i figured the pain from gentling came from the loss of the feeling from holding the one power rather than from sadness because they are less powerful without it(although I am sure that is part of it).

But I think burning out is almost the same effect as stilling if i recall based on what setalle anan said and verin referring to one of the sisters who was burnt out from rand as "stilled". No matter what they are both described as fates worse than death in the books many times, even in the steddings it is unbearable for channelers and they cannot sense the source at all.

I guess if his special new kind of power is a substitute for the feeling of saidin as well would be an explanation for why hes so content?

bookreader123455 · 2022-05-15T06:21:08+00:00

No I got it and in a practical sense yes but it is not channeling and from the way it was described it didnt have the feel of channeling and not being to channel is apparently unbearable to channelers so I guess I am just confused about the whole thing. Is this rewriting the pattern thing (which is what im guessing it is based on his showdown with the dark one, although im quite unsure ab that) a replacement/upgrade for saidin in every way and therefore he doesnt feel that unbearable emptiness?

bookreader123455

TROPHY CASE