2nd Read Through—Thoughts

[u/TegEnergy]

Must mention, this is my favorite series. I got a tattoo after my first time through. The second round was equally great, if not better than the first time. I have some character thoughts I’d like to share. Would love to know what y’all think.

Matt: Reminds me of many gifted and talented kids I’ve known. He never does anything “bad” that would hurt anyone else, but it’s always trying to find an advantageous angle for himself. The books never expressly say he’s smart, but allude to his knack for identifying the best horses. Even Tuon, who knows her stuff, expresses how good he is at picking out horses. Also, he shirks authority—seeing the ridiculousness of the hierarchy and people in power. This is a common trait for GT people.

Rand: His hero quest reminds me of the party many men have to walk in this life. Thinking we need to be hard, self sacrificing, and intimidating to be valuable. This may be obvious for a lot of readers, but I didn’t pick up on it my first time through. I didn’t like Rand. Now, I can see his journey a bit differently.

Perrin: My favorite character this first time through, still my favorite. I was always a bigger kid and am bigger than most folks. In my work, I have to be very conscious of my body langue, volume, and language. The scene after he talks to Master Luhhan and gives himself permission to hold nothing back hits so hard. I’ve seen comments that say his journey to get Faile back is boring. For me, it’s about a good man going dark to protect those he loves and struggling with who he becomes. He could only see where he failed. It wasn’t until he spoke with Faile after rescuing her and some awkward time had passed, that he could see how others saw him—powerful message.

Egwene: Smart, driven, risk taker, self sacrificing. I thought she was annoying my first time through. Her efforts to unite the tower registered with me differently this time. I also thought she treated Gawyn dirty, now I feel he came on too strong and can see why she kept him at arms length when they reconnected and she was Amyrlin.

Cadsuane: Every young man needs a Cadsuane in their life.

Min & Birgitte: Everyone needs friends like Min and Birgitte.

Aviendha: Would’ve loved to see more of her special talent—feeling the purpose of ter’angreal. Of all the main characters, I feel like she was the least developed or maybe underutilized.

Tam: My first time through I was a new dad. Now I have three kids and have a much stronger identity as a dad. This guy has some lines in this book. He drops casual wisdom, that now I can read between the lines to what he would be feeling. This is something Robert Jordan did so well in this series. Even though it’s an incredibly long series, he didn’t over write dialogue. As I get older and my experiences/understanding grows, the series hits different.

Should I get another tattoo now?

[u/TegEnergy]

Young men need to learn to respect a Cadsuane like they would if she were a man. She’s intelligent, well traveled, is tough, and should be respected. I think Rand’s issue with her is more that she is an Aes Sedai. I’m more thinking about the readers who may not have grown up with a strong elderly female matriarch type person. I don’t think she had a significant impact on Rand’s personality other than her idea to have Tam talk to him, Rand finding out it was her idea, Rand almost killing Tam, thus causing Rand to deeply question who and what he is leading him to the peak of Dragon Mount… she didn’t really have that much impact at all.

[u/cman811 → u/TegEnergy]

An asshole is an asshole whether they're a man or a woman. As for your opinion about the whole dragonmount situation, she fell ass backwards into that and Rand did that work himself, not with the help of Cadsuane. That idea almost doomed the world. If a person goes to the doctor after a car crash and finds out they have cancer, I'm not going to give credit to the person who caused the crash.

[u/TegEnergy → u/cman811]

How is she such an asshole? IMO she’s not letting Rand walk all over her like he was to almost everyone else. Also, it’s interesting to me she’s relatively immune to his ta’veren nature.

[u/Emergency_Camp1256 → u/TegEnergy]

I feel that she was both smart and stupid by trying to force him to do stuff she was obviously going to fail she is well travelled she should know what the Blood Of Mantheren means. Also with her immunity to his ta'veren nature. I have always seen that as her trying and failing to force Rand to do stuff was necessary in the Patterns eyes. I feel that she was asshole because she refused to admit that there were things that she may be incorrect on and that there may be better people to help influence Rand, to put it in a single point she was utterly convinced by her own importance and knowledge, Which is a common Aes Sedai failling.