I think I've fallen out of love with the Wheel of Time

[Marie 73]

For ten years my love for Moiraine was enough for me to overlook any of WoT's faults, that and Jordan's wonderfully way of words, but now? Well. My dislike bordering on pure hatred for Elayne Trakand is enough to overshadow even Moiraine. It's to the point where if Moiraine is a-ok with Elayne as Cairhien's queen (which I suspect she will be) my respect for the future Mrs. Merrilin will plummet. I seriously would prefer anyone, even Elayne's own mother, on that throne than the Dragon's #2 ho.

 

There are of course other things at play for my disinterest in the series. I am very much unexcited about the next tome. I can't even bring myself to care about what Moiraine will be doing in the next book, because, well, what else is there to do? Rand's laughed, he's cried, he's made peace with himself. She's just another solider on the roster.

 

/rant

[Olivia 26]

(Wow, I didn't realize you hated Elayne that much, Marie. ) Do go on, I like reading your /rants.

 

TBH, I wasn't overly excited for Moiraine's return pre-ToM. I agree with you that there's not too much left for her to do. I feel her best parts have already been played out. We've seen her as the mentor, the manipulator, the badass, the hero who sacrificed herself to save the person she dedicated her life to helping. And we have NS to see her younger self. To me, I would almost have preferred she died defeating Lanfear. I wanted to cut her character line off at the climax rather than watch the falling action. It's always more epic when heroes die valiantly than when they survive, as they can never top their greatest achievement and just kinda slowly fizzle away into old age. Sure, it's more realistic, but less epic fantasy-ish. (That's why I'll be disappointed if, say, Verin comes back, as it would take away from the significance of her death scene.) On the one hand I can understand the ppl who say it's good to see the more down-to-earth Moiraine interested in normal-person things like getting married, but, well, I liked when Moiraine was not normal.

 

I don't think I will ever fall truly out of love with WoT, despite it's faults (and you are all totally right that it does have serious faults). It's still my favorite fantasy series. In a way, I see 1-11 as the "real" WoT and 12-14 as "secondary canon" not quite as valid as RJ's novels. So I will continue to enjoy Sanderson's way of writing WoT without letting it damage my view of RJ's WoT.

 

I've never read the Dune series, but they had a similar issue where the original author died before he could finish the series. Others continued it, but many fans didn't accept the later books as canon & instead pulled a quote from the books: "Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife — chopping off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now it's complete because it's ended here.'" ... I think the same can be applied to WoT.

 

Sorry for TL;DR.

Edited December 14, 2010 by Olivia

[Vertex 23]

Moiraine could get pregnant! That'd be fun for me anyhow. I don't really care lots about the politics in WoT or soldiering...so I guess there are better books to read for me

[Sivart Reborn 7]

To be honest, I fell out of love with WoT shortly after finishing Lord of Chaos. Up until recently, other than cleansing the Male Half of the Source, those books had so little of real import (yes, subplots abound, but I lost track of those back in The Dragon Reborn) that I read them more out of my obsession with finishing series that I began. RJ had a marvelous method with words, but I think he lingered on some things too long (and this is coming from a Tolkien fan who acknowledges the man's long-windedness). I do enjoy the book, I bought them all, and I probably will reread them all someday in sequence. But they are no where near my favorites. Too much too long.

 

But fantasy series seem to have a habit of being too long. If you storyline hits double digit novels, you've taken too long in my opinion.

[Sam 19]

I think you should just ignore the "fans" out there trying to crush your Queen Moiraine dreams. Keep the dream alive and you'll be happier!

[Kaitlin 22]

For a while I've only cared about Moiraine (ok, I admit a passing interest in some others ). This has not changed. I've decided to look forward to the MWers here writing all of your epic fantasy series or whatever you're all going to write. We have some talented people here (someone who's published a series, someones who are working on theirs that I have read some great parts of, and some of you who haven't but... I know you could do it!)

 

So, yeah, basically I'm a lazy fantasy whore with low expectations of wot. But, I do think RJ found something special when he wrote Moiraine. She's an archetypal character from way back who hasn't gotten a chance to be in much modern storytelling. And RJ made her believable and human. So, I'm glad she's there even though the story's gone downhill. I feel the same about a couple of his other chars, but Mo just happens to be my favorite.

Edited January 1, 2011 by ~Romanda~