I've always thought of Loial writing his book as one of the more wholesome running details in the series. But I was thinking about what happens AFTER he finishes it, and now I'm convinced the poor guy is accidentally creating a political nightmare.

Think about who gets to tell the story of the Dragon Reborn.

The White Tower has a very particular idea of its own importance. The Seanchan will absolutely want history to remember that the Empress fought alongside the Dragon, preferably without dwelling too much on the damane situation. The Aiel have their own understanding of the Car'a'carn. And every nation that fought in the Last Battle has a ruler who would probably appreciate being remembered favorably.

Then there's Loial, who actually knew Rand when he was just a frightened young man trying to figure out why the world had suddenly gone insane.

And unlike most historians, Loial could still be around a century later to personally argue with people who are getting the story wrong.

That's the part I find fascinating. An Ogier's lifespan means the Fourth Age might have living eyewitnesses contradicting its official histories long after the human participants are dead.

But Loial isn't exactly objective either. He loves Rand. He has a deeply ingrained respect for Aes Sedai. He wasn't present for huge portions of the story, and the people he interviews will have their own rather creative interpretations of events.

Imagine him trying to get Mat to give an accurate account of commanding the Last Battle.

So you could end up with a book that's completely sincere, painstakingly researched, and still full of enormous gaps and personal biases.

Which feels very appropriate for a series where nearly every major historical event has been distorted by the time anyone learns about it.

I wonder whether Loial's book would actually preserve the truth about Rand or become the very first version of the legend that eventually replaces him.

And I'd genuinely love to know what he'd do if an Amyrlin or an Empress demanded that he change something.

I refuse to believe the Elaida we met at the beginning is the same woman who ran the White Tower. Elaida's incompetence made Egwene's arc less interesting, I didn’t like the “obvious choice” thing. Especially since her ruthlessness was so inconsistent.

Who else thought Elaida would be more of a big deal than the disappointment she ended up being?
I mean I remember the first time she was introduced, she had this badass/evil/sinister aura. She could also tell prophecies, I believe she whispered some things for Rand’s ears only. We saw how Moiraine was quick to skip town after hearing of her. She was properly set up to be a force.

Now, after she displaced Siuan, everything she did from there on was such a let down it almost felt like they were two different characters or RJ changed his mind about who he intended her to be. And I think this was disappointing as a lot more nuance would’ve been given to Egwene’s arc of story if Elaida had been genuinely competent and was just being blackmailed or compelled in her sleep by the BA or forsaken.

This would make a lot of sense since she had abit of legality to stilling Siuan, she never should’ve just disbanded the blues. It should’ve just been Siuan and leane’s execution that drove the blues away. This was we can see her at least pretend to want to unite the tower, not sow discord or just treat the sisters at the tower with such disrespect, atleast if that were to be done it shouldn’t be due to her narcissism, but maybe alviarin’s influence.

I think this would make for a more compelling arc with Egwene as we see her atleast consider giving up power or maybe her unwillingness to do so says something to Egwene’s own character in line with the whole “those who don’t want the crown are better suited”. I just didn’t like the whole Elaida is 💯 incompetent, so we need Egwene.

I do like the fact that she misunderstands her prophecies a lot. I like that she’s proud. But I hate that she lacked common sense. I mean the way she handled Rand could still be forgiven out of what she’d deemed necessity, but building monuments for herself? Not checking on other nations? Not trying to infiltrate the rebels? Not executing her rival in Egwene on the spot? Not believing in Seanchan? nah, nah. It got to a point i wondered. Her names seems to be the most interesting thing about her to be frank

How did Siuan lose to that idiot. How?

Hey everyone,
I started my journey through The Wheel of Time 3.5 years ago, and I finally closed the book on A Memory of Light in bed last night. I was awake for hours afterward, just staring at the ceiling.
For the whole journey, I was so excited and hyped to reach the Last Battle and see how it all ends. But now that it's actually over... I just feel completely empty. It genuinely feels like I've lost close friends. That has literally never happened to me with a book or a TV show before.
I know New Spring is out there. Is it a good idea to dive into that now as a soft landing, or will it just make the withdrawal worse?
How did you guys handle the void after finishing the series? I could really use some fellow channelers right now.

I have re-read this series more times than I would like to admit, yet this is the 1st time I picked up on something on this line:

"Blue eyes could mean the nobility of Andor - unlikely in those clothes - and there were Borderlanders with light eyes, as well as some Tairens, not to mention a few from Ghealdan, and, of course...No, no help there."

I never connected it before but he was going to say the Aiel. Also funny the nobility of Andor mention.

Before anyone jumps down my throat, I loved the book. But I went into Dumai's Wells expecting this triumphant, fist-pumping "hell yeah" moment because people on teh internet always meme about "kneel or you will be knelt" like it’s an epic superhero entrance.

Instead, I closed the book feeling completely hollow and gross.

Watching the Ashaman literally turn people into meat paste in front of everyone wasnt cool or badass—it felt like watching a horrific slaughter. And seeing what being locked in that box did to Rand’s mind... god, it genuinely broke my heart. The paranoia, the whispering, Lews Therin taking over. He isn't some glorious hero asserting his power, he's a severely traumatized nineteen-year-old kid who just cracked wide open.

maybe I’m just overthinking this because it’s late and my brain is fried, but I was expecting to feel victorious and now I just want to sit in a dark room for an hour. Did anyone else get that exact feeling on their first read, or am I just ridiculously soft?

Im on book 4 up to where Perrin has arrived in Emond Fields and is rallying the villagers and everyone is looking up to him

Im wondering how much of being a ta'veren is magical abilities or is it natural qualities like good leadership, strength of character, honor, kindness etc. What is causing their ta'veren effect on the people around them?

Im just on book 4 thus far.

First time reader, overall loving it and frequently reading posts here.

Chapter 29 of Towers of Midnight, more than halfway through the book, and Tam tells Perrin that he needs to go see Rand, presumably for the events leading up to the climax of TGS…has there ever been an instance of chronologically concurrent events being further flung across the series?

The simple answer is that Perrin’s chapters should have been pushed back into TGS or…just cut down a lot..? Is the Perrin plot just slower paced as a whole or am I biased? I’m not the biggest fan of his based on his chronically reluctant leader complex.

Working through logistics for my business made me notice something I missed before. The series has plenty of people running complex operations under pressure, and half of them are genuinely terrible at it. Perrin keeping the Two Rivers fed and organized while everything falls apart deserves more credit. He runs supply lines, coordinates defense, and keeps production moving with no formal training. Compare that to the White Tower falling apart because nobody could figure out how to share information between Ajahs. Mat lucks his way into functional systems, but at least he recognizes when something is broken. Rand creates chaos and expects everyone else to figure out the details. The Aiel make it look easy, but they have generations of systems built around survival. I deal with inventory headaches and vendor delays on a smaller scale, and some days it feels like managing the Dragon Reborn's logistics would be a nightmare. Thom could probably run circles around most of them just by knowing who to talk to and what they actually need. Curious which characters others think would survive a logistics role versus which ones would burn out in a week.

I must admit that this volume came as a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect the change in author to be so seamless. I haven’t ranked the individual volumes, but this one might well be in my top three. I think only *The Fires of Heaven* stands out as indisputably better.

As for the various plot threads, I was very glad that Elayne was absent. Her storyline in volumes 10 and 11 wore me out completely, so I welcomed the chance to take a break from her character.

There wasn’t much of Perrin, but that’s fine; he also needed a breather from the main plot—especially since Sanderson is clearly setting something up for him in the thirteenth volume. The Whitecloaks? Galad? Given that Morgase is with Faile, this seems like a logical connection, particularly since Perrin still has unfinished business with the Whitecloaks.

Mat didn’t get much screen time either, but his arc was solid. Sanderson focused more on his dynamic with Talmanes, which actually worked out for the best. It’s just a shame that his storyline will inevitably lead back to Tuon at some point. I still don’t like her.

Nynaeve... she remained solid and served as one of the few anchors for Rand. I especially liked the conversation between her and Rand toward the end of Chapter 33, though that was largely thanks to Rand rather than Nynaeve. There was a certain... elevated emotional resonance to that exchange.

Overall, I think I prefer the non-romantic dynamics in this series over the romantic ones.

In this volume, there were two clear stars among the characters: Rand and Egwene. I’ll start with Rand. I really enjoyed his arc, and the way his darker side added tension to various scenes—like his confrontation with Tuon, for instance. My only regret is that his dynamic with Moridin wasn’t explored more deeply. The author will likely address this in volumes 13 and 14, but it still feels like a missed opportunity. It would have been even better if Moridin had engaged with Rand during his moments of greatest mental collapse...

Regardless, Rand’s journey in this volume was very compelling and reached a solid conclusion. I mean, sure, I would have preferred for him to destroy the Seanchan, but since he couldn’t wipe them all out at once—and doing so would have killed many innocent civilians—I can accept that the Seanchan couldn’t simply be annihilated.

By the way, was it just me, or did Rand in this volume feel a bit like Kaladin from *The Stormlight Archive*? I sensed a similar gravity and a profound feeling of hopelessness surrounding him.

Egwene handled herself well in this volume. I still don’t like her, but I’m becoming more neutral toward her; I may not care for her personally, but the events involving her are quite interesting.

It’s just a shame that the Seanchan intervened right as she was on the path to triumphing over Elaida. I really dislike the trope of getting rid of female antagonists in this fashion.

Especially since removing Elaida this way robs Egwene of some of her glory. I mean, Egwene spent all that time working to defeat Elaida—only for Elaida to end up captured, leaving the throne empty for Egwene to take? Was there no way to depose Elaida other than having the Seanchan kidnap her? It feels lazy and unfair to all the effort Egwene put in; she deserved to see a deposed Elaida standing before her at the moment of her triumph.

As for where Egwene’s storyline goes from here—I’m not sure, but I hope it involves taking a stand against the Seanchan. If they can’t be destroyed, their actions toward channelers at least need to be reined in.

In the next volume, the dynamic between Egwene and Gawyn will surely be a focus, but honestly, I’m not excited about it. I don’t particularly dislike either character, but I’m just not emotionally invested in Egwene, and Gawyn is boring—I simply have no interest in him.

It’s good that Siuan and Gareth Bryne have finally acknowledged their feelings, but the fact that they’re putting off the wedding... that’s a major red flag. Authors have a habit of ending storylines like this in a frustrating way—by killing off one of the lovers.

Don’t you dare, Sanderson. Just because this frustrating trope is used often doesn’t mean you should use it here.

What else... Oh, and I don’t buy that Graendal is dead. This series has had its share of anticlimactic villain deaths, but let’s not go overboard.

The moments where Rand nearly killed Min and nearly killed Tam were intense. Cadsuane should have foreseen that exerting too much control over a conversation between a father and his son was bound to have tragic consequences. She very nearly ruined everything. But, of course, the presumably changed Rand will likely rescind her exile. Great...

Also, I have to admit that, despite the predictable conclusion to this particular plot thread, I felt sorry for Sheriam. She was the only member of the Black Ajah whose identity we knew who wasn't cartoonishly evil. That was refreshing. Besides, I just have a natural soft spot for redheaded characters.

Finally, my 10 favorite characters at the moment:

1. Mat

2. Nynaeve

3. Siuan

4. Thom

5. Rand

6. Lanfear/Cyndane

7. Perrin

8. Berelain

9. Logain

10. Leane

All in all, the plan is to read Volume 13 in November and Volume 14 in December. For now, I’m taking a break to read at least one other book—maybe more. I’m fairly confident that I’ll finish the series this year.

I want to give a eulogy for egwene sedai. She is my girlfriend's favorite character and her story is one that deserves to be properly celebrated. Do you guys have specific achievements of hers you'd put into a speech like this?

I just finished Towers of Midnight and really enjoyed it, but it raised some questions about Rand's power scaling relative to Lews Therin, the Forsaken, and other male channelers. Not including his Chosen One of the Light abilities that he seems to have now (which I think are very cool, btw)

This is all in reference to Chapter 32: A Storm of Light

#1: Did the "merge" with Lews Therin make Rand more powerful beyond just knowledge and technical skill?

• I know that he now has access to all the weaves that were known in the Age of Legends due to having the memory of both lives, and that increases his power indirectly, but is this one-man-army feat one that Lews Therin could have matched? Idk if this is even a question that gets answered, or if it has an answer.
• Rand seems to claim later in the book that he is currently in a more "complete/true" form or state of existence/mind, even when compared to when he lived as Lews Therin. He doesn't necessarily reference strength, but I got the gist of what he meant, though maybe not all the exact details. Is he stronger?

#2: Aganor claims something along the lines of "I faced Lews Therin in the Hall of the Servants itself. I threw my might against the Lord of the Morning and met him stroke for stroke." - Is this just straight bullshit?

• Aganor is primarily a researcher, no? Idk, but in my head he gets instantly cooked, even without taking Balefire into account, and just dies. The only ones I can see with this level of power are Demandred and Moridin, and I believe Moridin is handily stronger because of narrative elements and The True Power. Even Moridin (Who is in my top 5 characters list), I don't think has this level of power.

#3: We are told that Logain is almost as powerful as Rand in The Power.

• Is this just not true at this point in the story? Or is Logain an actual demon, and I will eat my words when reading A Memory of Light?

Word counts for the entire 14 book series:
.
Breasts = 273
Bosom = 166
Spank = 25
Switch = 156
Paddle = 19

Edits:
tugged = 387
sniffed = 303
lace = 359
skirt > 500
smoothed > 500
gaped = 334
bulged = 153

In case you missed the title, this is a post on book 12 ToM. Consider this your spoiler warning.

After my first completion of ToM, I am sharing my thoughts in several posts. Beside this and the next (centering on my 2 favorite characters) the posts won't follow any particular order of the book.

...

Give Up Half the Light of the World

Wow. Mat's eye! When I first heard the prophecy I thought the light here meant the One Power, so half the light of the world must have  something to do with one side of the OP. Boy, was I wrong. Poor Mat. Truly the best character in this series.

The only thing bad about Mat is that horrible woman Tuon or whatever she wants to call herself now. It especially sucks because she's going to be tied to my 2 favorite characters in this series: Mat and Egwene, who I think will have to come to some arrangement with her, per her true dream.

Verin completely misunderstood Mat, thinking he'd be too curious to resist opening her letter. I know she didn't have many options given her dark oaths, but this is a terrible miscalculation on her part. Mat's curiosity takes a back seat to his distrustfulness of anything to do with  Aes Sedai. Thoughts and prayers to Caemlyn and those dragons.

If the only 2 witnesses to an event die, how can the details (factual or fictionalized) of that event be known? I doubt the snake and fox people were walking around spreading word of Birgitte and Gaidal Cane's time in their realm. This was pushed so much (several times by Birgitte and several times by Mat) that I thought Sanderson was going to find a clever way to explain how word got out. He didn't.

Thom/Moiraine

This is another Nynaeve/Lan situation. I just reread the entirety of chapter 17 - "Deceptions" - in The Shadow Rising, the only chapter of the series that these 2 are alone. I would copy and pase it here, but it would be too long. That chapter does not read like a dialogue between 2 lovers. Now Moiraine, out of nowhere, is asking Thom to marry her and be her warder? And he agrees? Sure, Thom was thinking that she's pretty in his mind. But that doesn't jump to marriage after seeing each other again over 1 year later. I know RJ was bad at romance, but is BS bad, too? Or was this directly from RJ's notes?

Well, I finished Crossroads, and it wasn’t as painful as I expected. Here are a few ways in which the plot advanced.

Perrin abandons his axe at So Harbor, but not before using it to chop off the hand of a Shaido spear attempting to extract intelligence about Faile’s location.

Mat courts Tuon. At one point, she smiles and the dice stop rolling. “I’ve changed my mind, Toy,” she murmured, placing the white stone carefully on the intersection of two lines near the center of the board. “You play very well.” Mat blinked. Could she know what he was up to? . . . Of course not. She was talking about stones. If she even suspected his real game, she would toss him out on his ear. Any woman would. It had to be the stones.

Elayne negotiates with the high seats of four noble houses, tipping the balance in favor of her political succession.

Rand sends Logain and Bashere to negotiate a truce with the Seanchan. Suroth agrees to the truce on condition that Rand meet with the Daughter of the Nine Moons.

Finally, Egwene is taken by the White Tower in the act of converting Tar Valon’s massive harbor chains to cuendillar, commencing one of the most interesting plot lines of the series.

The more I think about Lan's ending, the less it feels like "the lost kingdom gets its king back" and the more it feels like he's been handed a problem nobody can solve with a sword.

Malkier has been gone for decades. The people who survived aren't all sitting around waiting to return. They've made lives in other countries. Their children grew up there. Some of those children probably have children of their own.

And even if the Blight is receding, that doesn't mean there are suddenly farms, roads, houses, or anything resembling a functioning kingdom waiting for them.

Imagine being Lan and having to ask people to leave the homes they've built to start over in a place they mostly know through stories.

The man spent his entire life treating his birthright as a respectable way to get himself killed. Then Nynaeve went around gathering people who absolutely refused to let him make that decision for them. He survives the Last Battle, and suddenly there's an actual future to think about.

I keep picturing him sitting through an argument about where to build a road, listening to three Malkieri families dispute ownership of a field that hasn't been farmed in forty years. All while someone asks him how they're supposed to feed everyone through the first winter.

Honestly, I think helping people build a country they can live in might be a much harder test for Lan than dying for one.

Does anyone else picture the restoration of Malkier as a long, messy process rather than an immediate happy ending? Because the more I think about it, the more I wish we'd gotten to see just a little of that.

Wow, Knife of Dreams starts of hard and gritty, I Love It !!!

In thinking back on my journey, the Dark One wanted Rand found, but not killed

Any Forsaken could have immediately traveled to Rand and killed him

Mesaana is trying to break The White Tower, which is pretty successful

I just learned that Semirhage was trying to create Chaos and break the Seachan Empire, which seems like it is pretty successful

I still remember some quote to the ring of Let Chaos Rule

So many instances of The Dark One wanting Chaos, as opposing to an Immediate Win

Then there is the Pattern, the Ages, the Turning of The Wheel

The rebirth of Brigitta, likely some equivalent of "The Dragon Reborn" across each turn (maybe each Age), The Dark One locked up for all the turnings of the wheel....

Are there the equivalent of "Forsaken" each turn Age or Turning, maybe the same Forsaken like Brigitta...

What IS the end goal of the Dark One - just to cause a ton of Chaos for the last battle, and then entre into the next Age hopefully in a better position than the last turning - does the Dark One know that he will always get locked back up, or does he hope for a different outcome, or just likes to make as much chaos as possible

The Dark One also likes the Forsaken "battling" each other for the top spot, as opposed to a focused immediate win...

Then, there are some Ages without war from what I think I heard

So, what is The End Game of The Dark One?

I just got to where Egwane has been captured and brought into the White Tower - my mind is spinning with a bazillion questions..

Wow, I Just Love The Wheel of Time - what a memorable journey !!!

Assume that you can get Logain's attention, and show him the functioning steam engine locomotive that Rand endowed the research for.

Your request: 20 low ranked Asha'man for a couple of months. Soldiers or Dedicated. You have a mad plan: a railroad from Andor into Cairhien.

What are the issues?

Wow, I’ve just finished the Great Hunt and I have to admit that I’m fully immersed in this world now.

I loved the various point of views we got in this book, and how every single one of them paid off by the climax. I especially loved the limited number of Bayle Domon POVs, and the humor in them.

Every character had something to do, I’ve developed a liking for Rand and Egwene especially. But I still feel I want to spend more time with Perrin and Mat, they were in the background for most of the book but I loved their roles in the climactic battle.

The portal stone was simply incredible, I loved going through those alternate versions of lives and how much it affected Rand. The climax was by far my favourite part, I’ve always loved ensemble battles, though this was a very short one, and it was a great experience reading the pay off at the end.

This book was somehow a major improvement upon book one, and I look forward to book 3 now, which just got delivered :)

Rating : 4.5/5

(You can go through my previous posts for my thoughts on the previous books🫡)

Scroll to the bottom for my predictions!

REVIEW

I just finished the prologue of FoH, after recently having finished the shadow rising.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly, though I was a bit let down with the battle of the two rivers. I think perrin finding out his family is dead and him dealing with it was the highlight of his story.

I loved rands povs and story and the nyneave and elayne+thom,julian,bayle domon story. I also finally have started to like Tel ahran rhiod and the wolf dreams. The aiel culture has also been great to learn about. Also Rand and aviendha's "friendship" has been fun to see develop, she is quite tsundere.

Also circling back to nyneave and elayne I think they had a lot of agency and moments in this book. I loved the nyneave dream sequences and her fight with moghdiean.

I love lanfear (my goat) and her entire character and how she behaves and the massive reveal that she dug the bore. When I first read the final chapter I was amazed but I now realise the weight of what happened,

We heard Rand say that he must bind the aiel and break them, he also seemed much more hardened and suspicious of everyone in this book emotionally and he finally was proactive about doing what he wants and not doing what moiraine or the wise ones or the clan chiefs told him.

"There are no customs to cover me".

Also Avendesora on fire 💀 wtf, it's on fire apprently

I'm not going to speak much on chapter 24,25 since I assume my opinion is similar to most people (I do think I will like it even more on reread)

CRITICISM

1)Perrin's story I found great untill the end. I was really surprised how involved tam, abel and the emonds field cast was when we basically hadn't heard or bran al'vere and the others for 3 books. (Also is mat ever going to return lmao, I had this thought when his sisters when fighting in the battle)

I loved the backdrop of slayer,lord luc, trollocs the white cloaks and most importantly alanna and verin mathwin in the two rivers also the thinkers. I thought it started out great but in my humble opinion the ending fell flat and anticlimactic

2)Mat being passive , I wrote a post about this before and I still do believe some of it but I am not longer that harsh on him. But he basically took a significant back seat in this book

3)The peddlers being the forsaken- obvious, the chapter symbol and references to kielles voice not matching her face or her walking lighter than she should and her "jealously" with aviendha. This made the plot feel very linear to me after the glass columns sequence onwards.

4) Asmodean didn't feel like a big threat, or moghediean for that matter. They felt like small fry compared to lanfear

FAVOURITE CHAPTERS

Refelctions

Playing with fire

The stone stands

Out of the stone

Road to the spear

The dedicated

Whirlpools of the pattern

The truth of a viewing

Need

Into the palace

Homecoming

Beyond the oak

Traps

The traps of Ruhidean

(I think I liked the first half of this book more )

PREDICTIONS

1) I think this might be a recency thing but I feel like there will be a rift in the relationship of egwene and rand.

I say this because of the last chapter where ran says egwene was aes sesai now (he didn't say like, or almost)

2)moiraine will be more proactive now, I think she will accept that she can't control him and will instead try to either help him from the shadows or try to independently do something.

Also I think him hiding asmodean from her and the lanfear deal will cause some conflict

3) I think nyneave is going to have a big arc now, I'm also saying this based on her last chapter because she apprently wants to return back to the tower and deal with lan

4) mat will have more "screen time"

5) min finally reunits with rand

6) we stay in the waste for atleast half of this book

7) I think another side plot will be introduced with padan fain

8) It's been a while since we have seen the alternate dimensions of the portal stones

9) Thom will have a bigger role, I feel like jordan was setting something up with him and elayne

10) egeanin joins the wonder girls for good

11) I think book 4 we learnt another forsaken name damandred, I think there will be some reveals about what he is up to

12) I feel like we will visit some part of the map we haven't yet

13) Adelin and the maidens become permanent side characters maybe even with povs

14) Birgitte meets rand as he trys to explore the dream world more

15) I feel like one or the wise ones (Idk why I'm feeling Maliene (excuse the spelling) ) will betray rand or maybe eb a darkfriend

16) I don't think we will hear from the sea folk in this book atleast

17) I don't think we will go back to tear this soon

18) I think Perrin tells the two rivers people the truth about rand

19) I think Rhuarc takes the role that lan had in the earlier books except that they are on more equal terms

Please let me know your thoughts!

I had the Amazon special paperback books, but I like hardcovers and realized I could get the original artwork sleeves on hardcovers. So I'm in the process of getting those. I got the last 6 books of the series since that's what I have left to read and prefer to read out of a hardcover. Anyway, Towers of Midnight is much smaller compared to the other hardcovers I've gotten. Like it's a good 2-3 inches shorter. It makes the bookshelf look weird and makes my OCD flair. Anyone have any reason for this? Do I need to order a specific edition or something? Amazon says that all books are around 9.5 inches tall but this Towers of Midnight is only about 6.5 or 7 inches.

I know it's silly, but I like my bookshelves to look neat and was just curious if there was anything I should look for when ordering the rest so I don't end up with a jumble of book sizes. TIA!

Hey guys I know this is probably gonna turn into a little bit of an Art Contest, but the artistic side of my brain that involves drawing is dead, I do ok with story telling and I do really good with numbers and programming but couldn't draw a stick figure to save my life. So im doing an unimaginable thing with my lack of art skills, designing a video game. Now my ideas is too get the whole series into something that resembles an snes era rpg. I've got things like battle mechanics story and dialogue locked down but could really use some help designing fitting sprites, currently using Ai placeholders (yuck) so I can test the game but no way I'd let others see it like this. So if you like to draw and maybe have a favorite character you'd like to draw a sprite of please drop the result off here if you want me to use tour reddit screen name in the credits when im done and if you want your real name message me with the sprites, and no worries even though im building this for fun as more of a selfish project I will share with you guys when im done

Isn't the Towers of Midnight a Seanchan thing? Like book 3 - The Dragon Reborn, the name of this book has very little to do with what's going on in it. At least Path of Daggers, taken from a Seanchan saying, has a lot to do with the Seanchan.

Anyway, finally, I get to do this. I read most of it except for the last couple chapters and then went on vacation. Not a great way to read, would not recommend! Instead of writing one long post, I'll ask my questions and share my thoughts in a few shorter posts. Again, I am grateful that Brandon Sanderson finished this epic story after Robert Jordan's death. That said, this book felt much more like the writing of someone other than RJ than The Gathering Storm, my first exposure to BS's style. I posted about some of the uncharacteristic changes before, so I'll just add a couple:

• Graendal using the terms “Light” and “Dark One”
• Forsaken saying weaves instead of web

I can tell that Perrin is Sanderson's favorite character. Not just for the blacksmith’s puzzle in the back of the book, but how he writes Perrin, very OP and suddenly sure of himself. He even seems much more ta'veren than the other two. Rand can expect to get his way a lot of the time by virtue of being the Dragon Reborn. Mat has his luck and memories. There's nothing obviously compelling about Perrin... until his overclocked ta'verenness.

Wait, Graendal killed Asmodean? That seems random and completely out of left field. Did we get clues to this before? Also, Graendal was an ascetic before she went to the Shadow? This must be the biggest Shadow character 180 ever!

I have read WoT 4 times over by now. Yet everytime I read, i fall in love with character of Matrim Cauthon everytime.

However, a few days ago, I realised maybe this is due to the fact that I have so much bad luck myself in my life that a character with so much good luck, and enjoying his life to the fullest (whereas I am stuck in overthinking and working hard) naturally becomes so fascinating for me.

Am I thinking wrong and the protagonist is actually entertaining and some people other than me also loves this character?