An Enemy Spy Reads The Wheel of Time! *golf clap*

[dps]

With regard to gender issues:

Spoiler

Show

There is definitely stuff I dislike in there. Some of the characters express views about gender complementarity that I strongly disagree with, the descriptions of differences in channeling by men and women annoy me (so women invariably gain power by surrendering and men by dominating, do they? I see...), gay men are essentially invisible while lesbian relationships generally aren't treated as real romantic bonds, most of the women-dominated organizations seem to have nudity somewhere in their rituals, and as aforementioned there is That Plotline where it's not actually clear if Jordan was engaging in (female-perpetrator male-victim) rape apology or subtly satirizing rape apology.

(Similarly, I like to think that the similarity between the internal monologues of men and women in Wheel of Time - especially as both mentally bemoan how the other gender is mysterious and makes no sense - are intended to make fun of the idea of deep-seated differences between the genders. That's certainly how I read it, the first time through. But I realize that may not have been what the author intended.)

I kind of viewed it as

Spoiler

Show

just more evidence that most of the characters are actually pretty much stupid, inane, self-centered people.

Spoiler

Show

But I don't agree with the criticism some people have that all the female characters are unrealistic and/or horrible people - yes, they can be jerks, but the same women who are being childish or acting like jerks at one point will at other points behave with immense dignity and courage. This seems fully realistic to me (pretty much every awesome person I've ever known has also had their bad moments), the male characters have their moments of being unreasonable jerks as well, and in both cases they usually get called on it. I've had at least one close friend who was so eerily similar to Egwene that it was a running joke in our friendship group (at the time the series was up to about Book 7, I think, so calibrated to Egwene at that point). I don't find the female characters in WoT unlikeable in general, although there are certainly moments where they make me facepalm (and exactly the same sentence is true for the male characters). I think Perrin provoked more facepalms than any other character in the series, due to the Malden arc, but he definitely had some competition.

Well,

Spoiler

Show

speaking as one of those who thinks that almost all of the female characters are more-or-less horrible people, I'll point out that I hold that the same thing is true about almost all of the male characters. And even the ones that I don't find to be despicable I don't find relatable. In fact, the only character that I find even remotely relatable is Thom, and I'm pretty sure he's not supposed to be a character that the audience is supposed to particularly identify with--heck IIRC (it's been a while since I read them) he disappears from the story for several of the middle books.

Spoiler

Show

Moving away from the major characters, yeah, most of the Aes Sedai are quite arrogant. But I don't read this as being a commentary on their gender, but as what happens if you isolate people from normal humanity for a few hundred years while telling them they're better and wiser than everyone else and giving them immense power to back it up.

Spoiler

Show

Yes, I agree. It's actually pretty realistic that they are as arrogant as they are, but it doesn't make them any less unlikable for it. Nor does it help that while they do have the immense power, they certainly aren't any wiser than everybody else.