- Admin
- #41
^also this
:rofl
:rofl
I visit this thread as often as you update it, and I love it so much, it's everything I thought it would be. I keep wanting to say things, but I have to bite it back and just... let you go on as you were. Thank you for this.
^ THIS.
Awww I'm glad you're all enjoying this! I'm certainly enjoying off-loading my thoughts here.^also this
:rofl
It's amusing at first, but I hope this isn't too much of a spoiler, we get a lot of this from both of them, and even occasionally from Mat, though he is more aware of how easily he charms women, so doesn't think "Rand/Perrin would know what to to, they are so good with girls" anywhere near as much as they doSo Perrin thinks Rand has an easy way with girls and thinks nothing of his own abilities...and Rand thinks the exact same thing about Perrin. Dorks
That said, from the parts of the show I saw, show Nynaeve was just as petty towards Moiraine at first. Maybe she grew out of it quicker
I am enjoying reading your initial impressions and experiences as you make your way through the book for the first time!
Particularly with Shadar Logoth, I feel like you, as a fellow D&D player, will understand what I mean when I say that if TEotW were a campaign, I'm convinced that Mat would 100% be That Player. "Don't do the thing," says the Very Important NPC, "and don't touch anything, either." And what does That Player immediately do? Any of us who've been playing any length of time know the answer. :rofl
That said, in my reread of this section and my spouse's initial read, we both remarked that the Shadar Logoth sequence, especially with Mordeth, felt so much like a D&D style encounter. Numerous places in TEotW do, but this one especially. I know RJ remarked in the foreword to the 3.x-era WoT RPG that he used to DM for his son and his son's friends, and every once in a while I wonder if that DM instinct doesn't show up on the page.
As for how angry and unlikable Nynaeve is at this point in the story, her vitriol isn't really excusable, IMO, but I feel like it might be explained somewhat by how thoroughly her life has been thrown into chaos and how she went from having a lot of authority and control (even if she was insecure about it, feared the criticism of her elders, and made up for that by being rude or excessively aggressive) to having very little control or authority and being adrift in an unfamiliar world. She's now no longer important, in charge, or special, and the world's a lot bigger and less friendly or tolerant than it seemed. I suspect that's why she's doubling down on the tactics she used to employ to get her way at home, and why she's so desperate to salvage a little control (or at least the illusion of it) by attacking a scapegoat (Moiraine) and being so quick to hide her fear and uncertainty behind those angry, braid-yanking tirades.
Partially I think. But she probably also feels a little guilty about having fun. While she wasn't a Wisdom who was expected to care for her people all the time, she did just lose her friends a couple of days before, and now she is dancing, partying and totally forgetting them.- Oh dear. Egwene is crying and Perrin is flummoxed. Is she feeling guilty for liking Aram when she has feelings for Rand, perhaps?
Partially I think. But she probably also feels a little guilty about having fun. While she wasn't a Wisdom who was expected to care for her people all the time, she did just lose her friends a couple of days before, and now she is dancing, partying and totally forgetting them.
Partially I think. But she probably also feels a little guilty about having fun. While she wasn't a Wisdom who was expected to care for her people all the time, she did just lose her friends a couple of days before, and now she is dancing, partying and totally forgetting them.
I agree with Toral Gaidin's assessment of Egwene here, and I'll add the following thoughts FWIW:
Egwene early in TEotW strikes me as fairly immature...or perhaps "innocent" is a better description? Neither seems to fit perfectly, but that's kind of the idea. She starts out acting like a kid who has never really had to worry about much of anything truly bad, and for whom everything has largely turned out as she wanted. She also seems to be fairly confident, but in the way that kids are when they're ignorant of the reality of a situation. As the story progresses, and as the "adventure" proves more and more deadly and awful the longer things go on, she begins to take on a more mature perspective. She deals with loss and with failure, as well as with doubts and creeping uncertainty.
The Tuatha'an camp sequence struck me as the first time that Egwene and Perrin have really had any respite since Winternight, and in her dancing and partyting and spending time with Aram, I see her as falling back on what was fun for her in the past. She's retreating back to what used to be fulfilling, comforting, or enjoyable. But reality keeps creeping back in, and she can't quite get away from it, no matter how much she tries.
I'd need to skim back over that chapter in particular, but it kind of reminds me of times in my own life when I've tried to cling to something that I'd outgrown and that just didn't work anymore. I could forget it for a while, but reality always seeped back in, eroding the illusion. I suspect Egwene is getting a taste of that here, perhaps.
Awww I'm glad you're all enjoying this! I'm certainly enjoying off-loading my thoughts here.
It's super cool to get such a deep view into the perspective of a reader who is new to the series
I'm not sure when I started reading. I think it was 90-91, but it might have been a couple of years later. I've read EotW probably over 20 times and I still pick upon things I hadn't noticed previouslyFor those of us who had our first read A While ago, we can't go back and read it for the first time again, but this comes close. We're all living vicariously through you right now, Laurien.
The matter of the blue flash is a very good question! I have my thoughts, but I'd love to hear yours!
As for Perrin's aversion to the wolves, I've often wondered whether it has to do with that ingrained folk belief among some people in the setting that wolves serve the Shadow. Perrin has evidence right in front of him that they don't, but even in the face of that kind of proof, it's hard to uproot beliefs you're raised with. That and his connection to the wolves is mysterious, frightening, and un-asked-for. It's just sort of thrust upon him, much like this whole "adventure" has been, and I suspect he's frightened and resentful of it.
Also, just as Egwene's been trying to fall back on past comforts to cope with everything, I wonder if Perrin might be attempting to cope through denial. The connection's there, Elyas and the wolves have confirmed it, and it's right in front of him, but it's one more thing he doesn't want, one more thing that changes his world forever and proves he can't ever quite go back to the way things were, so he fights it.
And I do agree that Perrin is trying to cope through denial; it's a common thread with all the EF5. I just find it baffling that he still wants to fight against it when it protects him from Ba'alzamon, who is so much worse! But when you're overwhelmed with your circumstances, I suppose that can be more difficult to see.