Wheel of Time Books

I've been wondering for quite a while about the difference in male and female reader perspective/empathy for the male and female characters in WoT. Obviously, one of the major themes of this work is the dichotomy of the male and female halves of a whole. It seems to me, RJ (and Brandon to a slightly lesser extent) did a wonderful job illustrating this theme. Both male and female viewpoints seem perfectly reasonable to the one holding them...however, I find myself agreeing with one and finding the other contemptuous. I wonder if this is the case among other fans, too. As a man, I find myself more often than not empathizing with the male characters in the story whil…

Seanchan prophecy states that the Dragon Reborn will kneel (submit) to the Crystal Throne but the Karaethon Cycle states that Rand will bind the Court of Nine Moons to him (paraphrase)... How will these conflicting prophecies be reconciled in aMoL??? My theory is that the Seanchan will capture Egwene (again) and that Rand will travel to the Crystal Throne and parley with Fortuona. Rand will agree to a token submission, but will not surrender any real power or allow the Seanchan Empress to be the Supreme Commander of the Forces of the Light. Rand's Ta'veren wasn't strong enough to overcome Tuon's stubbornness at the first meeting; perhaps if Mat accompanied him a…

I'm enjoying Leigh Butler's re-reads, but finding it a hard slog to get through on-screen. Tried printing it all off from the tor.com site but it is soooo tedious. Has she published her re-reads of WoT books or am I stuck printing?

In ToM, Min sees a vision of two dead men on the ground, surrounded by ranks and ranks of Trollocs and a pipe with smoke curling from it. Any good ideas on what this could mean and who the two men are? The pipe is more than likely symbolic of who one of the two men are.

The 'new' red-veiled Aiel that were featured in one of the last chapters of ToM are of particular interest to me. We all have our own speculation on the subject, ranging from the exotic and off-screen Sharrans or Madmen to the slightly more mundane explanation of Aiel channelers in the Blight. Given the apparently limited number of solid theories presented on the subject, I'm going to weight in with my $0.02 by giving more substance to my own views. I'm firmly in the camp of "Aiel Channelers" and since the field is has so few candidates to explain the red-veiled men, I'll start off with some comments on why I prefer focusing on the Aiel. Why not the Sharrans or the Ma…

does anyone know any good RJ quotes that he said at a signing or told you personally or whatever? I never got to meet the man since I didn't start reading the series until right after TGS came out but I've read some interviews by him and seen a few quotes and he's had some interesting ones. Post some of your favorites if you have any

I'm on another re-read of the series, and I just finished the chapter in which Egwene is chosen as Amyrlin by the WT AS, and the rebel AS had to apologize for their 'transgressions'. Why did she accepted the new vote? The Tower AS were in no position to demand anything from her, but by doing this, she lost all her work so far. She tried to prove to everybody that Elaida had acquired her shawl with the help of the BA, that her decisions were wrong, that she is the real Amyrlin, etc. For almost half the series, she was the Amyrlin of the Salidar AS, but by deciding to jump ship and be selected by the WT AS as well, she validated Elaida's rule and all her wron…

So... I just started Winter's Heart. I had already heard that Faile was going to get kidnapped and that it drags on for books and adds nothing to the story. Admittedly, I've already skipped chapters upon chapters in the earlier books that had no bearing on the story. Thoughts?

Ive been discussing the Wheel of Time with a friend while they read through them, and I realized I couldnt find any reason for the Aiel to attack the stone of tear. I havent been able to find anything, scanning through that area of the book again. It seems like the most reasonable explanation is that they somehow found out Rand would be trying to infiltrate the stone and also attacked, but theres no mention of that anywhere. It seems like they just decided to attack it... From the chapter where Mat enters through the arrow slit it seems like it was all planned. One Aiel says 'it is time', possibly like they were going according to a plan, or it just seemed like a goo…

Just had a thought while posting on another thread and don't know if it has been hashed out before or debunked so forgive me 'cause I'm feeling a bit lazy tonight... Elza only killed Dashiva with Fire (albeit a massive amount of it through Callandor). Could he come back to haunt the Lightside?

im seriously considering getting a tattoo to commemorate 20 + years of living and breathing this series. i already have 4 all with secific special meaning in my life. I think i want the actual wheel symbol, with a saying from the books. the first 2 that come to mind for me are "the wheel weaves as the wheel wills" which would signify to me that life is in "fates" hands. and "its time to roll the dice" which i would have done in the old tongue obviously lol but would signify needing to take chances in life. but i was just wondering what everyone elses favorite sayings are in the books and perhaps why its your favorite. maybe reading others will inspire me to get a differ…

I think Nynaeve used to have the most entertaining ones in earlier books and Mat's were a close second, here are a few examples: Nyn meeting Masema and being likened to the "Lord Dragon's" mother... Nyn constantly reminding herself how reasonable and patient she was being despite everyone else getting excited... Nyn's thoughts about Valan Luca's vanity, thriftiness, and marriage proposal... Nyn realizing that recruiting both Galad and Masema to find a riverboat wasn't one of her most brilliant ideas... Various Nyn thoughts about Birgitte, Thom, Julien, and Elayne during their long journey from Tarabon to Salidar. Nyn resigns herself to Birgitte's "revenge" during…

Has the man gone partially mad? Did he only go mad for a little? Or one day will he weep again?

When Fain breaks out of Fal Dara keep, Mat and Ewgene are found knocked out on the floor. Its my understanding that he hates all the TR boys, after all his rage was so great he killed all of Perrins family. He had Mat at his mercey. He was helpless but fain still had time to write a message to Rand, but never finished Mat of. Why?

How many of you guys listen to the series on audio format? I for one don't have tons of time to sit down and read like i used too so while i commute and sometimes during work, I make use of my ipod. I also feel that the narrators do a wonderful job expressing the emotions throughout the entire books. How about you guys?

I inferred from Aringar, that souls are neither male nor female, but rather the lives they inhabit are. That being said, i wonder if there has ever been a female dragon Anyone care to seculate?

The Order The first issue here is that the order was not obeyed because the man who ordered it looked like Sammael, it was obeyed because the one who gave the order had the Chosen Mark. For clarity, the Chosen Mark is a sort of imprint the Dark One puts on the souls of his high chosen. RJ describes it thus. Moridin's point is clear--despite the fact that he looked like Sammael, the fact that he was obeyed means he was one of the Chosen (and thus had the mark). Had he not had the mark, even looking like Sammael would not have helped. But What of Fain? We’ve seen Fain command Myrdraal in the past, without the Mark, so couldn’t he have used …

For awhile now, I've had a thought floating around my head concerning the complete decimation of the Forsaken by Our Heroes. Right now, eight of the thirteen Forsaken are dead and all but Aginor can not come back (or, to put it another way to incorporate Asmodean, there's no way in hell the Dark One will bring them back). If the Wheel is cyclical (which really isn't up for debate) and all the Forsaken came from Age Numba 2, doesn't that mean the DO is going to choose some folks from the current crew and convert them? All of the Forsaken were part of the Good Guys at the beginning, and while there are a lot more Darkfriends now than in the Second Age, it would still make s…

New to the boards, so be gentle with me :) Apologies if this has been gone over elsewhere! One of the major themes in WoT is duality - male/female, light/dark, saidar/saidin... The One Power/The True Power. Seeing as how The One Power is split (saidar/saidin)and split again (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Spirit) has led me to muse upon The True Power having it's sub-divisions. Especially since Rand used it and instead of going cuckoo it was a trigger for his metamorphosis. Either 1)the Great Lor ...*cough*, Dark One's permission isn't needed or 2)we get to play with why did he grant the Dragon that favor? The One Power and True Power share the "addictive" quality, …

First - thank you to to Jordan, his Estate and heirs, Sanderson, and the fans. The vision, the love, the dedication. Second - How can anything possibly live up to my expectations :D Since I 1st picked up The Eye of the World in the early 90's I've gotten married, had kids, pets, cars and houses, gotten divorced had a couple of girlfriends, attended funerals ... I'm 45 and this series has been part of my life since I was 25 or so. Tolkien and Zelazny might have come first but WOW :D I almost - almost don't want it to end - kind of like one doesn't want great sex to end lol I look forward to the climax, anticipate the afterglow and dread the loneliness that wil…

I'm not asking for a GRRM style book where someone seemingly important dies every 3rd chapter.. but so far the only person to die has been Verin, and really she was a minor player. Moiraine dying would've been a big thing if there wasn't books worth of foreshadowing that she was alive.

As we know from ToM, Logain has gone missing and no one knows where he is. Something that has me wondering though is, why isn't Taim worried? Someone who is as strong as Logain goes missing with some people, is more than likely communicating with Rand (which we know he has but Taim prob doesn't know)and hasn't exactly been best friends with Taim. Does anyone else find it strange that Taim doesn't have Asha'men out looking for Logain and his rebels? We can assume he's planning a large scale attack on the BT so you'd think Taim would have something up his sleeve more than just turning people.

Hey everyone, not sure who here is familiar with me. I'm the front page theory blogger for DM, and I've greatly enjoyed the opportunity I've had to expouse all my various ideas and concepts. I lurk here a lot, used to post here a lot more before my blog, but now I like to save my best tidbits for my blog lol. Anyhoo I am actually particularly proud of this week's blog, it took a lot out of me just to write, but I think it brings up some interesting questions and I wanted to see what everyone who hasn't had a chance to check it out yet thought. To read the entry, please click here. Enjoy, comment here or there, tell me what you think Adios!

do you anticipate withdrawel periods? Are you preparing for that time? How? What will you fill the gap with? Seriously, after 10+ years of theorizing on WOT plotlines and whatnot, that's going to be a major life twisting event. What will you do???

Just out of interest... Personally I'd like Elayne to die so Cairhien can go to someone else, because it doesn't seem in her personality to give it up otherwise. Not sure I can see her dying though either. I've got a feeling it will end up with someone else ruling it, but as I said I think it will be out of character if Elayne just gives it up.

In my last re-read of WOT, I came across this in the prologue of TGS: Notice that at first she said not just a broken White Tower, but an entire brood of channelers (or in other words), other channelers in addition to the White Tower. The other channeling groups (apart from the White Tower) are limited to the following: Sea folk Wind Finders, Seanchan, Kin, White Tower, White Tower rebels, Black Tower, Ayaad, and Wise Ones. These all are known channeling groups: Seanchan at this time were being influenced by Semirage so we can eliminate this group. White Tower Rebels were being influenced by Aran'gar sw we can eliminate this group. The Kin are see…

So I just started to reread all the books again in a pseudo-anticipation of aMoL twelve+ months off and something interesting popped up in the very first prologue. If you go back and read the description of LTT making this forum's namesake, it reads like a person summoning a giant bar of balefire. My theory, albeit one that has had very few days to mature, is that LTT summoned a bar so large that it erased the land's history back to the days of Randland being created, where volcanoes were prominent (assuming Randland's early days were similar to Earth's, which, considering the parallels, seems likely). First, here's the passage that made me think of balefire: Tha…

A lot of the things in these books are just odd descriptions of common world things and legends. Example: Razor -- Zebra Drakgar -- vampire grey men - zombies Elayne and Nynaeve conjour up a unicorn while in TAR (a horse with a single horn on it's head) 12 trolloc clans include Deamons, Devils, efreeti, Genies (djinni), etc... Noal (aka Jain) Charin tells stories from Shara about giants with bellies on their faces. I cannot seem to figure out what real world legend these are based on. Any Ideas?

Mysterious Aiel pops up in the three fold land and whispers doubts to our rather silly heroine{who is not that disturbed about the whole thingamajig,she goes to sleep feeling troubled lol}. How convenient. Since we{and I fully include myself}at Dragonmount are conspiracy theorists extraordinaire , who exactly was our mystery tipper with the oh-so altruistic motives {and killer timing}and what exactly was she about ?

It seems to me that the three oaths are destined to disappear. Assuming that Egwene's plan to retire Aes Sedai to the Kin works. In 100-200 years, all the eldest, most experienced, powerful channelers will of the Kin and not Aes Sedai(!) Whatever they do, as time passes, the Kin will become more and more influential and Aes Sedai still bound by oath will be the "inexperienced young ones". Also, it's safe to assume that the Asha'man, with numerous bondings, are on their way to become part of Aes Sedai and not a separate institute. And I can't see Asha'man accepting oaths like Aes Sedai. What will happen when Asha'man start to out-live Aes Sedai? When warders sta…