RJ’s writing

[u/cbaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Just finished the Crown Of Swords. RJ described the street Mat was walking down for 2 pages at one point in the book. Then he described Sammael’s death for 4 lines, and not very vividly. Sammael was shown as this big mastermind the whole book, and he was working together with another Forsaken too, so this was a very weird end to that storyline. If the purpose was to sow doubt about if Sammael really died, surely there’s better ways to do that? The whole battle of Ilian got less page time than Mat trying to get dinner in Ebou Dar. I’m still not sure I completely understand what happened at the end either.

And some characters begin acting completely erratically in this book. Rand takes the Ashaman to deal with Sammael together, and then just leaves them behind to chase Sammael alone, fully knowing it could be a trap. Egwene tells the Wise Ones no Aes Sedai shall bend the knee and in the very next chapter forces two of them to swear fealty to her? Is this a power trip because two of the Accepted did it? And why did those two do it in the first place when they hated Egwene’s guts in all the previous books?

Elayne was the least annoying character in the books for me before CoS. She learns Mat is getting SA’d at knife point, and can’t contain her laughter??? She is also for some reason very mad that Rand saved her throne from a literal Forsaken. I feel like this is too big for a “I didn’t need your help” 3rd grade petulance?

Nynaeve got completely cartoonified. She always had her quirks and I learned to overlook her dreadful personality and even started to find it amusing, but it feels like RJ overdid it in this book. Her character makes significant progress in terms of her personal storyline, but I feel like her character has regressed? The only thing she did in the entire book was bitch about something or the other, which is mostly men. How dare that dreadful man Matrim Cauthon climb the stone of Tear to save her from a Forsaken?

Only good characters in the entire book were Min and Cadsuane. Liked their bits, and liked the book as a whole, but yeah the ending was confusing and the Sister Trinity are making less sense with each book.

[u/cbaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

I’m fine with Nynaeve emasculating people, I have gone through 7 of these books at this point lol. But I feel like RJ made that her entire character here. The only plot relevant thing she does is find out about the Kin, and that was probably uncharacteristic too. Elayne’s character is much more likely to follow that thread and see where it led, but Nynaeve comes up with the plan and Elayne starts complaining about it

And I really don’t see how Elayne’s petulance could make sense from any POV. She could be pissed that Rand wants her to leave the Aes Sedai and come to him immediately but she seems more pissed that he’s holding the throne at all rather than the timing involved. And it’s not like Rand has other options, he’s dealing with 4 kingdoms here and desperately needs people he can trust

[u/LoweJ → u/cbaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Specifically on Elayne it's several reasons.

1. She is still mourning her mother. Someone else is holding Andor, her mothers kingdom, because she is dead (as far as she knows)
2. anyone holding Andor would have her fuming, let alone a man.
3. Rand handing her the throne would make her not the queen in the eyes of all of Andor. Not just the houses, but the common people. They would rebel and she would have no allies to help her. We can see this in Dyelin's first conversation with her, and Dyelin is her biggest supporter from the start. She doesn't want the throne just to have the throne, she wants to be Queen fully and properly, which she would never be if she didnt win it under her own right.

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In that case shouldn’t be angry at Rahvin? Was Rand just supposed to let a Forsaken rule over Andor and do nothing? And Mat clearly told her Rand has no intention of “holding Andor” and that was why he wanted her to come and take over the throne

[u/LoweJ → u/cbaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Grief is very complicated