u/Coloin_ilyad

so i started reading winter's heart and i had struggled throughout the whole series about power unbalance among male and female ,truly it felt (and is) overly unrealistic... specially at the places where one power's influence wasn't evident (like far maddening, or seanchen where one power is despised).

But as most fabs had stated, that power imbalance was the cause of breaking... even after 3000 years people didn't forget that it were males who went mad and spread destruction throughout the world.

At first it felt unrealistic that even after 3000 years males are blamed for ehat their ancestors did, after the influence of dark one.. not their own.

but as i recall, i heard many times , religious people blaming women , because they claim it was Eva who had convinced Adam to eat the fruit and as a result they wete banished from heaven.

another religious group claims that women were created after the men, from their ribcage, because men felt alone... they claim that women are inferior because they were created by ribcage.

As unrealistic as these claims sounds... we have to accept that a very large group of people accepts these claims for more than 3000 years.

But i am still certain that jorden went overboard while reversing the gender power based roles. It's very irritating while living through far maddening.

pata hai aaj kya hua? I was at my maternal grandmothers home. Late night I had craving to eat something.

so i sneaked in the kitchen, only to find my little cousin on the way.

kitchen was already occupied by my sister so we consider it as coincidence and she got out.

i was rummaging through needle boxes when 2 more cousins came in the same way... sneaking around.

As it turned out , aside from our parents all of us were secretly awake.

I know it's not THAT much interesting to you... but it was such a hilarious moment... me in (banyan) rummaging through boxes and suddenly my sister and cosin entered in same way, hands in the packets...

What happened to Fedwin Morr. He wasn't mad or this childish. Maybe I'm dimwitted, but he seemed to be okay when rand had handed min to him.

The from mins pov we found out that his mind was of a boy or kid.

And did rand poised him aat the end?

Why? he himself had said his village wisdom can cure him.

TLDR;

After Book 6 s epic ending, this one slows down hard. Rand is Hard, politics in Cairhien. and Cadsuane feels repetitive (too many bossy women treating him like a toy).

Mat's chapters were still my favourite , but Tylin rapes him, and Elayne and everyone treats it like a joke. Zero respect.Is this serious novel or comedy?

How broken is this world?

Bridge book with some good moments (Nynaeve's breakthrough, I thought she would do that at the last book, Rand vs Sammael) but not my favourite.

Also when will Ege headache suspense would be revealed?

Also how did that maiden survived in that cursed city this long? and immediately got killed in minor screen time of hers.

QUESTION... UNRELATED TO THIS BOOK.

I know it's not part of this book, but did Rand banish Berelain because she had hidden an Aes Sedai from him? He hasn't really brought it up with her directly, right?

In their conversation he said she knew the reason for her banishment, then referred to it as her carelessness about her own security. Curious if I missed something there.

............................................................................

First of all...

This book felt like a big slowdown after the insane ending of Book 6.

It covers only a few days but has a lot of politics and side stuff. means, a lot of names and boring stuff. Rand's pov was okay but not the most exciting at the start. He is now fully "hard Rand" colder after all that happened to him.

A side from repetitive bossy woman, Cat is interesting, a strong personality .

But it feels repeating. Almost in every book there is a new or old powerful female near Rand who bosses him around or plays with him like a toy. I am getting a bit tired of this pattern now.

Egwene's parts were good at least. She is acting more mature as the new Amyrlin Seat.I won't say she act's good towards her friends though but still. She handles the Hall, gets oaths from people, deals with blackmail, and does smart political moves. She is somewhat adapting to the seat.

But the biggest part of the book is the long Ebou Dar storyline with Mat, Elayne, Nynaeve, Aviendha and others searching for the Bowl of the Winds. They find the Kin, deal with Sea Folk, Black Ajah and a scary golam.

Worldbuilding is nice here. Even when it's slow as snail.

Now coming to Matt's situation...

Matts pov chapters were again my favorite. I LOVED MATTS CHAPTERS.

He is still the most relatable character. But what happens to him in this book is just too much.

Queen Tylin basically rapes him. There is no other way to say it. It is part of the plot and fits the gender flipped world Jordan created, but the way everyone treats it is shocking.

Elayne and Nynaeve show him tiny respect and not even for the reasons I like. They treat the whole thing almost like a joke. All his friends laugh it off or tease him about it.

Elayne even went on like "Taste of his own medicine" girl? Did you ever saw matt raping a girl he liked?

Narrative doesn't treat him fairly again. Is this a serious novel series or suddenly a joke?

How much broken is this world when even the "good guys" dismiss male suffering like this?

I get that it's part of a theme that all important position aside from protagonists are held by females and they abuse their power verbally as much as they want. but this?

Nynaeve had finally broke her block, which was good. I had thought that she would break that at the end of series .

Rand’s final fight with Sammael in Illian was exciting and had some crazy moments that cursed city. I don't understand why was liah so important in those narrative, or how she survived.

All in all, the book has important setup and some actually good parts, but the pacing is slow in the middle and the handling of Matt’s trauma feels off.

It is a OKAY book ,not my favourite so far but still okay.

If u read this far... sorry and thank you.

i know this is messy but what came to mind to me.

I would request to please use spoiler syntax for information beyond chapter 15(What can be learned in dreams).

Just read the chapter where Egewene had turned the table in 'who is superior dynamics'.

I had gotten a clue that there would be a thing done by ege which would make me dislike her character more.

And when i was reading the part where ege had summoned 2 brutes on Nynaeve i had thought...

"It isn't too bad... like... Ege didn't actually let them do something to Nyn... she just wanted her friend to be cautious", since Nyn was really getting hot headed here.

she took risk of investigating the tower just because one of the wised ones had told her not to...

But till now it was okay.

Forcing Nyn to drink the bitter thing as a punishment was getting overboard... but it was okay since ege didn't actually forced her to drink it.

But here is the catch.

when pov shifted to ege.. Egewene actually enjoyed it... there wasn't even a hint of guilt on gwr side that she had assaulted her friend (even as a lesson) , or then later forced her to admit things.

Worst of all she regretted that She didn't pushed hard enough, if she had, Nynaeve would have drank the concoction.

{"I think she’d actually have drunk, if I had pressed her."}

Here is the thing.

The lesson taught to Nynaeve, by Egewene, were in grey areas.

The first lesson was actually necessary since Nynaeve was getting in her head about being in charge... excessive when with Elayne.

For the second lesson it was kinda payback, like she had to accept what she taught.

she had punished Egewene for lying in same way so it was accepted in a way, for Egewene to do the same to her.

Since Egewene was learning the Aiel's hard ways of learning... it maybe had affected this.

But what makes me dislike Egewene's character, is that she actually enjoyed all of this.Forget her being regretting, If she hadn't felt anything at about this... it may have been okay. (For the second time, Dislike doesn't imply i hate her.)

But enjoying it? Bad.... Egewene Bad. I hate how she treats Rand. Thus i dislike her character.

She's just like Eleda or Lindrin, Only she's on Good guy's side.

Edit: I think i didn't emphasizes correctly. It wasn't bad when nyn was almost got graped, because I was talking through ege's pov.

If it looked through readers or Nyn's pov it actually very worst.

Intentions matters. I heard this in most of novels as well as in RL. In the graping assault Egewene intention was less on " She isn't understanding the danger of dream world I must teach her lesson " And was more on "Finally i got the chance and power to dominate over nynaeve".

So yes Egewene more Bad....

Completed book 4 of WOT.

Thankfully i don't have any complaints.

I loved this vook the most. It was full of action or interesting plot or something happening.

I just have a few questions.

1. Will Elayne letters will be revealed later or is it just thrown to readers imagination?

2. What Perin had done to Falcon when she had slapped him multiple times in Way gate.

It was shown that he snapped and then... the scene just shifted... Was it revealed later? please tell me what had he done?

Had he kissed her? Or threw her? or tacked her?

3. What was actually plan of Rand? He was becoming mysterious so i thought it would be revealed later.

But i think i didn't understand what happened exactly. Like, Rand had suspected that forsaken ones were following him, but i don't understand what Trap he had layed.

What was he planning to do and what he is playing to do now?

4. It's plot related question, which may be answered with RAFO, but i still ask...

Is lanfear wants Rand to convert AND LOVE him, or just Love him.

What i understand now that is that she is trying to keep Rand safe from other forsaken ones till he learn to channel.

But will she change sides or what I don't understand.

5)What did, exactly Rand did to Elayne?

like the girls group was behaving as of he had slapped or rejected her, but neither Rand nor I understand what was his crime. What i understand is that he didn't asked her to stop ans stay with him.. did he said something harsh along the line? (like how fool blacksmith had trated the falcon)

And at last thank you for reading.

Edit: And , i forgot to write earlier, but as much as i dislike Egewenes character (please remember dislike doesn't mean i hate her), it still bothers me that Egewene has 50 percent chance that she'll die, from Min's vision.