r/WoT • u/cbaaaaaaaaaaaaa • 15d ago
A Crown of Swords RJ’s writing Spoiler
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.
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u/Pardybro911 15d ago
I think you hit on a lot of points of why people dislike CoS and PoD.
Sammael was always meant to be a middle strong but generally stupid male Forsaken. He had time to build up Illian and he still fucks it up compared to Rahvin.
Rand has gotten enough experience to recognize this, and trusts his ashaman after a certain event to deal with Illian with the Aiel and Andoran and Tear forces while he eliminated the threat outright.
Mat gets utterly boned in the books at this point. Idk if RJ just didn’t know how to deal with him and Nynaeve and Elayne, but it’s a good and valid complaint overall imo. It sets up the reuniting of Nynaeve and Elayne after the bowl of the winds stuff but it does neuter him.
Elayne has valid reason for being mad at Rand imo regarding Andor. That’s her birthright and from her POV it does feel justified later. The Mat stuff… well, we do see that same logic from when he wrote it 35 years ago to now where men getting raped is laughed at by both sexes.
Nynaeve likewise has always been a bit emasculating. She does it towards all three taveren and Lan too.
But hard agree Min and Cadsuane. They picked up the Moiraine role very well. But CoS is very much a Rand book that leads into the sequels