Neon Reads The Wheel of Time

[The cheeseman Sola Scriptora]

Imo, Crossroads of Twilight is the worst of the slog. Which version of the series sre you getting?

[Dunkum he/him]

2 hours ago, The cheeseman said:

Imo, Crossroads of Twilight is the worst of the slog. Which version of the series sre you getting?

FWIW: i've seen this opinion before and I always disagree. primarily because we get a lot more Mat in Crossroads, which, to me at least, makes it a much easier read than say Path of Daggers.

[aneonfoxtribute]

3 hours ago, The cheeseman said:

Imo, Crossroads of Twilight is the worst of the slog. Which version of the series sre you getting?

This is the version I'm getting. The only version of this book Barnes had was the tiny mass market paperback version, and I hate those. They're way too small and the ink smudges a lot easier. 

[The cheeseman Sola Scriptora]

14 minutes ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

This is the version I'm getting. The only version of this book Barnes had was the tiny mass market paperback version, and I hate those. They're way too small and the ink smudges a lot easier. 

That's the one I have!

[aneonfoxtribute]

Just now, The cheeseman said:

That's the one I have!

I have three versions of these books, but the majority of them I own are that version. I also own the mass market paperback for Eye of the World (because I had that copy for a long time, someone at my house bought it when I was very young), and I own the new small paperback for Crown of Swords (which I don't like because it's really fat so it takes up a ton of space and the plastic covering started peeling)

[aneonfoxtribute]

Alright finally finished the prologue. Some very interesting things are happening. Valda is still around and still plotting, seeming to be ready to march on the Tower. Logain has arrived at Cairhein for reasons unknown, but I hope he's still around when Rand comes back because I NEED them to talk to each other, Gawyn is being summoned by Elaida, not knowing that Egwene is so close, and Dobraine almost died but made a miraculous recovery. I will now read CH 1 because Mat

[The cheeseman Sola Scriptora]

MAT! MAT THE MAGNIFICENT!

[Dunkum he/him]

55 minutes ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

I will now read CH 1 because Mat

its easy to stop before a Rand or Nynaeve chapter, but you always have to read on if its Mat.

[aneonfoxtribute]

"Six nights ago death had walked across the water here, the One Power killing men and women and ships in darkness split by silver lightnings and hurtling bolts of fire" 

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THAT'S A DOSE OF K A R M A

 

God I love Mat, he literally stayed in Ebou Dar just to count how many people he saved.

(i meant to post this last night i forgot im sorry)

Edited August 23, 2023 by aneonfoxtribute

[The cheeseman Sola Scriptora]

7 minutes ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

God I love Mat, he literally stayed in Ebou Dar just to count how many people he saved.

"I'm no bloody hero!"

-Mat in every book, just before doing something heroic.

7 minutes ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

"Six nights ago death had walked across the water here, the One Power killing men and women and ships in darkness split by silver lightnings and hurtling bolts of fire" 

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THAT'S A DOSE OF K A R M A

Yeah, that's about everyone's reaction to that chapter. Storm the Seanchan.

[aneonfoxtribute]

TYLIN IS DEAD! THE EVIL IS DEFEATED! What, what do you mean the Dark One is still alive?

H E R H E A D W A S T O R N O F F W H A T

 

"And he could not help wondering, what had Rand been doing when the dice stopped?"

Good line

[aneonfoxtribute]

"You would think she had never seen someone bite a bone in two before"

LMFAO

 

Also some thoughts I was musing in the Discord

Its kind of funny how the Aes Sedai are kinda shaping up to be the butt monkey of the channeling groups. They just sorta get disrespected by everyone. They're even getting disrespected by the Kin at this point lmao. Its such an interesting turn of events considering they're undoubtedly the ones with the most influence, renown, and respect. Except every other group of channeler treats them all like absolute garbage with a few specific exceptions, almost all of whom are main characters.

Its very interesting how the Aes Sedai always get knocked down by like 20 pegs, but the Wise Ones and Windfinders are generally about as arrogant and cocksure as Aes Sedai but they never get knocked down at all except where Seanchan are concerned (and as I recall, there hasn't been a Wise One made damane yet so they don't even have that) (not saying that they should be made damane obviously but people ahould be calling out their nonsense just like they do with Aes Sedai because nonsense they have). Part of this is very much because I find the Windfinders (at least the ones we've met as named characters traveling with our protagonists) unbearable and want Rand or Nynaeve or Elayne or ANYONE to call them out and actually have it stick

[aneonfoxtribute]

Do note I'm still reading at a good clip, just haven't had a lot to say

[aneonfoxtribute]

Reading this book, I do understand why people say it's the worst of the slog, but I'm not feeling it. My enjoyment isn't absolutely dead like it was from Fires of Heaven through Crown of Swords (or at least most of those books, they all still had their peak standout moments obviously). While yes, far less is happening in this book than any of the other books, I feel it's still an important book. It's mostly just serving to touch base with the characters, see where they're standing, etc. There's almost nothing changing the status quo but they're each very much building up to major events.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Oddly one of the things I'm most excited for when I go back to Rand is getting more Alivia, because thay scene where Lanfear shows up and Alivia just walks up on her own while everyone else is fighting is a group lives rent free in my head and I love her. There is the obvious "yeah Saidin's cleaned now cool" but I just want more Alivia. Im sorry for making fun of her for that one line where they said she was stronger than Nynaeve, she's actually based

[Briar King]

Oh hell I’ve been reading 10 since Feb.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Alright so. Egwene is trying to make peace with the Black Tower, and is trying to start negotiations with the White Tower (which is mostly a way to buy time). The Sitters in the White Tower are ALSO trying to start negotiations with the rebels. Alviarin's title as Keeper has been removed, Alviarin believes Shaidar Haran is the Dark One (interested if this is true), and Shaidar is influential enough to punish a Forsaken whenever he wants (idk if we knew that before but we do now). If he IS the Dark One, then that makes sense. If he isn't, then what in the good god damn. If he isn't the Dark One himself, I wonder if him or Moridin is higher up on the food chain. Additionally, Pevara and Tarna know that Saidin is cleansed and intend to take the Black Tower as Warders (very interesting that they had the same idea as the Aes Sedai with Rand, I wonder what the deal is with that). Hopefully Elaida actually believes this, she can't be that dumb (she is absolutely that dumb (elaida is gonna ruin everything my god)). Cadsuane has Verin seemingly hiding from some people, including other Aes Sedai like Alanna. That's interesting. Something else interesting is that Cadsuane believes there's a connection between Rand and Alivia. I'm not sure what to make of that, but if it means Alivia is more important I'll be happy with it. I have rarely grown to love a side character as much as this in such a short time. Apparently the events at Shadar Logoth made Rand HARDER.

Gonna finish tomorrow. Saw that the chapter after Cadsuane's chapter is a Rand chapter, so I'm definitely gonna stop for now and also binge tomorrow. 

[Dunkum he/him]

7 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Alviarin believes Shaidar Haran is the Dark One (interested if this is true), and Shaidar is influential enough to punish a Forsaken whenever he wants (idk if we knew that before but we do now). If he IS the Dark One, then that makes sense. If he isn't, then what in the good god damn. If he isn't the Dark One himself, I wonder if him or Moridin is higher up on the food chain.

He isn't - if the Dark One were out and able to physically manifest and walk round, EVERYONE would know. I don't think we ever get much more information about him.

 

7 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

very interesting that they had the same idea as the Aes Sedai with Rand, I wonder what the deal is with that

Aes Sedai gonna Aes Sedi. if they can't control things one way they will try to ontrol them another and the Warder Bond (Usually) provides for a lot of control

 

7 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

elaida is gonna ruin everything my god

she's very good at that.

 

7 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Cadsuane believes there's a connection between Rand and Alivia

Believe this is due to one of Min's visions. I don't think Cadsuane was round when she had it, btu I do believe she got to spend some one-on-one time with Min and extracted A LOT of information from her by sheer force of will

[aneonfoxtribute]

3 hours ago, Dunkum said:

He isn't - if the Dark One were out and able to physically manifest and walk round, EVERYONE would know. I don't think we ever get much more information about him.

To be fair, if Shaidar Haran WAS the Dark One, it'd be pretty obviously a heavily weakened state if he has to manifest as a god damn Myrdraal. Not exactly the peak of threatening at this point.

 

3 hours ago, Dunkum said:

Believe this is due to one of Min's visions. I don't think Cadsuane was round when she had it, btu I do believe she got to spend some one-on-one time with Min and extracted A LOT of information from her by sheer force of will

Ohhhh right, I forgot that vision. It was like Alivia is going to be related to Rand's death right? Cadsuane didn't bring up the viewing in her narration though. She did get a lot of information out of Min, hell she learned that she bonded Rand, but I'm not sure that was one of them. Her narration was like "there's a connection there based on how they look at each other", instead of "there's a connection there because that girl will be the death of him". And if it was related to the vision, then I'm not sure what the "Alivia's gaze was filled with determination, and Rand's with hope" would be about. 

Oh also I forgot to mention this, Egwene had some dreams. Mat's gonna probably kill a lot of people, no surprise there. A Seanchan is going to save Egwene, and the Seanchan are going to attack the Tower. The latter is pretty obvious, that's probably gonna be the final battle the Seanchan are in if I had to guess (or at least the final battle they're a villainous force in, maybe after that point the worst people will be dead and Tuon will take over the remnants of the army and have them fight for Rand after having Epic Character Development thanks to Mat). The former is interesting, Egwene is having a hard time reconciling with it but I think to the reader it's pretty obvious that it's just a Seanchan who defected, there's plenty of those at the moment. I'm not sure who exactly it could be, there's a lot of options. Alivia is the first option that comes to mind and it'd be a fun one. Bethamin is probably the most interesting option, considering how she was the one who collared Egwene. Tuon is possible and maybe it's the point that marks her character as developed, where she chooses to free a marath'damane (assuming the threat is that she's collared, and not that she's in mortal peril). Lot of options. Lot of things I'm thinking. Egwene doesn't know about Egeanin right? Did Elayne and Nynaeve tell her about that?

[aneonfoxtribute]

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh should I be nervous that a Perrin chapter has the Seanchan symbol, I'm gonna be nervous

Edited September 10, 2023 by aneonfoxtribute

[Dunkum he/him]

4 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Ohhhh right, I forgot that vision. It was like Alivia is going to be related to Rand's death right? Cadsuane didn't bring up the viewing in her narration though. She did get a lot of information out of Min, hell she learned that she bonded Rand, but I'm not sure that was one of them. Her narration was like "there's a connection there based on how they look at each other", instead of "there's a connection there because that girl will be the death of him". And if it was related to the vision, then I'm not sure what the "Alivia's gaze was filled with determination, and Rand's with hope" would be about. 

It's been a while but I think Alivia is going to "Help him die" and yea it sounds like Cadsuane doesn't know that specific thing, but Rand certainly does and it makes sense that it would carry in his body language.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Just now, Dunkum said:

It's been a while but I think Alivia is going to "Help him die" and yea it sounds like Cadsuane doesn't know that specific thing, but Rand certainly does and it makes sense that it would carry in his body language.

I just don't get the hope thing. I don't think Rand hopes to die even after Tarmon Gai'don, not unless he does go mad which is less likely now than ever

[Dunkum he/him]

31 minutes ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

I just don't get the hope thing. I don't think Rand hopes to die even after Tarmon Gai'don, not unless he does go mad which is less likely now than ever

best guess: part of one of his answers from the Aelfinn was "To live, you must die." so probably its related to that

[aneonfoxtribute]

What in the good god damn is happening in So Habor. It feels like Fain's work but the dead walking is new. I love it when Wheel of Time just has random horror elements that just aren't explained. I half hope this is just never explained, like Mordeth and Shadar Logoth. It makes it more fun that way. That there's just a random village that went insane and started seeing ghosts with zero explanation

[aneonfoxtribute]

Oh my god. Perrin considering asking for help from Seanchan. What must be done indeed.