primeideal

I've had this account and Tumblr for a while but I don't think I publically posted about the end of WoT when it came out. Maybe I was embarrassed in myself for being disappointed. That's a thing I would do. Anyway, just a warning that especially for AMoL I'll probably be doing more rambling rather than point-by-point analyses. For this one, I might just ramble about the various characters' plotlines separately, both the stuff that stuck out this time and the stuff that I remember from before as (not) working for me.

Rodel Ituralde is like the poster guy for why the middle books were slow-going. All you really need to know about him is this: He is a talented general from the northwestern nation of Arad Doman and basically a good guy. He does not like the Seanchan invaders and will fight them, even if he thinks he has no chance. Also, he is very loyal to his king, which would be admirable, except his king is completely under the thumb of Graendal the Forsaken.

That's it! And yet, when we were waiting years between books, and the glossaries in the back weren't consistent on who was important enough to remind you of, there was just so much "who is this guy, why do we care, is he the same person as two books ago? Where are our heroes?" Ditto the Sitter clique (Seaine is the leader; Pevara is an old friend of hers, and the latter winds up being important as Androl's partner). When you plough through them back-to-back as I have, it's not so bad, but otherwise...eesh. Poor Ituralde, you're a nice guy ICly.

Anyway, he has a chapter where he mercy-kills a defeated Seanchan general. This comes closer to being Relevant To Iddy Interests than the Fedwin Morr scene

Moridin's left hand hurt because Rand lost his.

Aviendha mentions "carbon" in the steel. Do they know what carbon is? (Now I'm imagining the Mistborn elemental chart, but just the normal elements.)
She gets defensive about Rand, talking back to the Wise Ones when they otherwise cow her. I feel like there was another pairing where someone mumbles and doesn't really speak up for themselves, but if you talk smack about their partner they leap to the defensive. Rand/Min? ...I think Vin/Elend are also this, but I'm looking for a WoT couple.
Another digression about marriage as something different from the existing bond. Aviendha doesn't want to marry Rand while she's still an apprentice, but Min's viewings technically did not imply that they would marry him.
There's a line about "why do these people complain about the weird clouds? Shade is important!" Which is a nice callback to Perrin thinking literally about the "find water and shade" greeting. (And yes, we get it, The Storm That Is Not A Literal Storm is coming, you don't need to berate the point.) That leads into an aside about "why do wetlanders always complain about everything, the weather, the heat." Maybe I'm just projecting, but it reminded me of the "why do neurotypicals always dump their problems on everyone" conversations I've had with myself.
The Wise Ones' "you passed because you got mad at us and decided you were our equal" reminds me in some ways of Noren and the Scholars from "Children of the Star."

Nynaeve wants to reform the Aes Sedai hierarchy where people defer to each other based on strength (but never talk about it). Seems like this could be one of the many reforms that evolve in the wake of the series.

Gareth likes to read in the dark, even though other people think it's bad for his eyesight. I'm with you, Gareth! So is my academic advisor.

Perrin:
-Tam calls him out on the Manetheren thing from last book! He's like "yeah, you shouldn't re-conquer all of the previous Manetheren, but...people want to march beneath your Two Rivers banner, you should probably let them."
-"Don't call me Goldeneyes, I like my last name, especially now that I'm basically the only one who can pass it down, thanks Trollocs." Haha.
-Masema was the point of this entire trip (which started in book 8) and now he's dead, oops.
-Faile and the others have a memorial for the Brotherless who helped them. I agree that that plotline took way too long, but this scene was actually kind of sweet?
-Rand's visions of Perrin flash-forward to when he's with Galad. (I guess the characters' relative plotlines get shifted around between this book and the next, that was one of the criticisms people had at the time, I didn't think it was that big a problem.)

Gawyn's section features an aside about "one of the Warders who escaped from Dumai's Wells had this epic quest to return, for a Warder it's just another day in the life." Interesting self-awareness, but yeah, that's totally a potential "we don't need to write this story. But we could!"

Mat:
-Thom notes that the road they're walking on is ancient, and knows some songs by a queen from the era of Aridhol who visited there. Mat is like oh yeah, I remember seeing her. Does he have any memories of being a woman? With Birgitte wandering around the Tower of Ghenjei in one of her adventures, you'd think he would.
-A lot of people say that Mat in this book isn't written very well because Sanderson took over and wasn't sure how to handle the humor. Not something I'd noticed previously, but this time I was kind of watching for it, going, "is that a Sanderson-ism"? None of it seemed bad or not-Mat, but maybe some of the humor was different/witty in a more modern way. (Verin: "how do you think I got this picture?" Mat: "I don't know, I assumed you saidar-ed it." Verin: "Saidar-ed it?" Mat: *shrug*)
-Verin and Mat also have an amusing conversation about "cleansing the taint sounds like a big deal, but maybe it's more like a pebble in the water. It takes a while for the ripples to spread." "A pebble? How about...a boulder? Or a mountain?"

Egwene (and company)
In case I haven't mentioned this lately (I have) I love Egwene al'Vere. (A few reasons!) The reason I underscore this is not because I feel like I have a favorite character more strongly than I did on previous readthroughs, although it's true, but because she's a very, hmm, divisive character in online fandom. At the risk of overgeneralizing, some of the takes I've seen on her in "dudebro" fandom are kind of...wut. Like, she's ambitious? She leaves the Two Rivers because she wants to be part of the narrative and not because prophecy compels her. When she's appointed to the Amyrlin Seat (which wasn't even on her radar, she thought she was being arrested for pretending to be Aes Sedai), she tries to be the best Amyrlin she can be rather than be a puppet. I don't think either of these are character flaws.

She's not at her best (or most free-will) in matters of romance. Fair. Neither is anybody else in this series. Also, she manipulates and scares Nynaeve in Tel'aran'rhiod, but I think the point of that is trying to protect Nynaeve by showing her that she's in too deep--if Nynaeve had been savvy enough to overcome Egwene's force of will, she would have been strong enough to explore the dream world on her own. Again, compare her to Rand! Rand can be just as creepy when he wants to be, but she stays in a box not because she has to but because she chooses to.

Anyway. Moving on.
Chapter 2: Elaida makes fun of my dreams, how would she feel if she was collared? Ohohohoho.
We get a follow-up from Bennae, who's been asking questions about the Thirteenth Depository! Egwene is just like "you, I mean, your friend, should tell your bosses that you can be trusted, and that their colleagues weren't the ones who blabbed to you." Also a nice scene with the Sitter cabal, where she calls them out on the extra "fourth oath" (despite having people sworn to her, she knows it's a bad idea. Hypocritical, maybe a little, but she's in the right here.) She also makes an intuitive leap and realizes that Elaida isn't even a legitimate Amyrlin; the coup had the minimum number of members, one of whom was Black Ajah! (I loved this line on my first readthrough.)
Then the dinner scene where Egwene not-so-subtly uses all the skills of the different Ajahs against Elaida. (The different Ajahs bringing different skills to the table, even the Red, comes up again at the end.) Egwene alludes to the case of "Renala Merlon" (who? Encyclopedia is also curious.)

There's a weird line that I'm wondering if it was a proofreading error or something. "the Red...complained to her about Rubinde, a Sitter from the Green." Rubinde is at the meeting, she's already been identified. Is Elaida talking smack about her when she's right there? And is Elaida "the Red" now? There's a previous line about "maybe she thinks of herself as still a Red even though she shouldn't."

Siuan: "Sharina is almost seventy years old, but unlike an Aes Sedai, she had actually lived for seventy years." Eeeeurgh, do not want. Like, Aes Sedai should be able to marry and have kids and have "normal" vocations too if they want. But implying that a woman choosing a solitary, scholarly life is not really living is...nope nope nope.

Shemerin, like Siuan, got on Elaida's bad side and now has to do laundry. Fic prompt there, I think.
Verin: "a Whitecloak would marry an Aes Sedai before Laras turns to the dark side." Was Sanderson keeping the Galad/Egwene option open at this stage?
"Someday, it would be known what she had suffered and what she had accomplished. But not for a time yet."
This is Egwene thinking about Verin, and it's a good sentiment. But, uh, it could also be said for Egwene. And expanding on it, I want to say maaaaaybe Rand? Like, someday people (ie his family and friends!!) will know everything he accomplished. But not yet. That's my theory anyway and I'm sticking with it.
The scene where the Ajah heads are like "whom shall we appoint now? I know...someone. Yes. Someone who would be an unorthodox but good fit" bugged me the first time around because it's not remotely ambiguous, we know they mean Egwene, there's no need to avoid saying her name. This time around, it's also an anticlimax, like, Siuan had this big conspiracy theory about the Sitters. And...turns out the Ajahs were talking with each other and picking Sitters in both Towers. Great. Too bad they couldn't work together on, like, actually keeping the Tower together.
Anyway I love Egwene and we get two more books of her adventures before, IDK, fix-its.

Rand
"They just dug up this ancient sword, but it fit him very well. Interestingly, he remembered it, not Lews Therin but himself." This is a little unclear, but it's referencing Artur Hawkwing's sword--Rand saw it (but didn't hold it) when Hawkwing and the Heroes of the Horn showed up in book 2.
Rand owes Harine an answer to a question, we don't get a follow-up on this.
When he's stuck in the dream with Moridin, he's like "think back, how did I get here" to see if he can remember showing up. The Inception trick!
So Elza really was Compulsed by Verin? Yikes.
Rand: "I can't visit the Two Rivers because the Shadow will know I care about those people," trope of heroes not wanting their loved ones to be used against them. So, after the Shadow is defeated, he'll be free to visit, right?
"He named you friend. Do not abandon him." -Rand's internal monologue re: Lan. This reminded me of Spook and Kelsier's interaction in Mistborn 3. ("I named you friend, isn't that enough?" Something like that.) Maybe another Sandersonism.
So my take on the end (the first time through) was like...we had this with Harry Potter and Dumbledore in book 6. Why do we fight if it's not for prophecy? Because we choose to protect the ones we care about? Blah blah blah. I mean, it's better than nothing, but like...The cyclical setup of WoT kind of makes it feel like an "evil only has to win once" genre. So between that and all the prophecies, I can't really empathize with Rand's change of heart. Other than, you know, being grateful for it for the world's sake.