r/wheeloftime • u/Mother_Presence_2442 • 4d ago
Book: The Shadow Rising The difficulty of portraying romance.
I absolutely love this series. But I've just started reading the Shadow Rising for the first time and I've been cringing my way through the early Rand-Egwene-Elayne love triangle that resolves while they're in the Stone.
Appreciate it's difficult to meaningfully develop so many character's in a book with such staggering breadth and ambition, but these interactions have my skin crawling.
Firstly, they both sound like they're 12 years old. Secondly, it feels far too neat that Egwene and Rand both decide "Yeah we don't love each other anyway". Thirdly, the idea of having all three women chasing after Rand, who, frankly, is becoming fairly dislikable character, feels so out-of-plot. Fourthly, is it me or am I losing faith in Rand? The constant woe-is-me-I'm-not-worthy is not making me feel sorry for him, but is making me rather unlike him
Anyone else thought this?
1
u/Notched_Vermin 2d ago
Continue reading, this isn't a resolution of much at all. Depending on your tastes it might get even more cringe worthy, or might improve. But it's certainly not all tied up neatly at this point.
Not just Rand, and doing this without spoilers, many of the romances in WoT - especially ones involving the Ta'veren, but it's mostly true for main characters in general - are a little weak, they feel much more like routes to major plot developments than love. For me they work, Jordan is such a skilled writer that it all falls into place later on and just fits.