Quote Originally Posted by Gnoman View Post
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At least this is explicitly called out as a thing the non-Aiel, non-Seanchan countries are bad at, rather than the author not knowing any better.
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I'm actually in the middle of my reread and found it really hilarious when there was a conversation along the lines of:

Person 1: The Seanchan, they adapt. They're careful, they don't make the same mistake twice. If they lose, they go back, figure out what went wrong, and make sure they do better next time
Person 2: I know men like that, Gareth Bryne, Rodel Ituralde, even Pedron Niall
Person 1: Yes, the Great Captains. We have 4 of them. Every last one of the Seanchan is exactly as good!

It says a lot about the relative state of military study/strategy between the continents. I am actually curious how much work Ishmael put into pushing the world to develop that way. We know he was doing a lot of manipulation between the Breaking and Rand's rebirth, most notably the Trolloc Wars, but also I think he was the force behind Artur Hawking turning against the Aes Sedai and most likely a large influence on the Black Ajah. I think I recall it being implied he was behind the Aes Sedai's 3 Oaths as well. Anyway point is Ishmael was up to a bunch of shady stuff over thousands of years, is it possible he intentionally groomed a culture where war doctrine was practically non-existent to give the Shadow an edge in the last battle? /tinfoilhat

Also re:Team Magikarp

Egwene I actually like. This most recent reread I find myself liking her a bit less than previously, but overall she channels her stubbornness into telling a bunch of far more annoying characters to shut up and sit down, so I'm okay with that. Her arc while captured in the tower, realizing that being Amyrlin is more than just beating Elaida and instead needing to heal the rifts in the tower... that was all great.

On the other extreme there is Elayne. I am firmly in the camp that every protagonist would have been better off had Elayne managed to get gutted on a Seanchan spear or get a'damed in Falme, and never seen or heard from again. Just about her only saving grace is the Civil War in Caemlyn is only partially her fault, since Dyelin could have ended it in an instant by claiming the crown for herself. Elayne never really shows herself as particularly adept at politics, strategy, or leadership. The only thing she is really good at is charging headfirst into things without stopping to think about how many thousands of people will pay to clean up her mess later. The fact that her subplots also had the biggest focus on the Sea Folk is not a point in her favor, as they are overall the most worthless of the nations Rand binds to him, yet still have an enormous page count devoted to their bull****.

Nynaeve... I've read opinions from others saying that she is a character you identify more with the older you get, and I kind of see that. Reading the book the first time as a teenager she's the annoying adult who wants to stop the kids from having an adventure. Going back later you see a woman wholeheartedly dedicated to protecting those she sees as her own, and just wanting to stop these dumb kids from getting pulled in over their heads. A lot of her objections probably would have been a lot more true if we didn't have literally 3 ta'veren there saying "There's no getting off this train we're on". Also for all the talk of hitting people with her stick, outside of maybe the first few chapters of the first book I don't think I can recall Nynaeve ever actually hitting anyone. Though there is certainly a lot of unjustified anger from her (which I agree with an earlier poster that at least after she learns she can channel, and knows she has a block, is her either consciously or subconsciously forcing herself to get angry over minor things so she can channel. So of course once her block is broken, she mellows out a ton and becomes probably one of the most reasonable characters in the series





As far as non-spoiler stuff, on the topic of Aeil: I don't mind them. But I also don't care of AES decides to hate them. I suspect getting through some future books will be a huge slog for him if he doesn't lighten at least somewhat towards them, but hey you hate what you hate.