u/egometry

Three posts in a row like this and I'm just joining in

I've been a Drafthouse stan since '06. Honestly, it's the only brand I ever had any loyalty to. And for the past 2 years its been fraying

Anyways: I'm done now. I'm using every red cent of gift cards I've been given asap and now I'm literally an AMC girlie

Because fuck, if th Alamo isnt gonna stand up against phone users and mouth users and aren't gonna give us decent Queso halfway across the country... what matters anymore?

(almost flaired "austin" because of where I started. But it's been over a decade since then and I literally only moved to places with a local Alamo. Very betrayed.)

So! Most people find CoT to be the weakest. I skip a lot of it and I'm on my 6th full re-read

My wife is on her first go. And I decided to do something that I read about here years ago with her: we skipped the Cleansing of Saidin at the end of Winter's Heart and read Crossroads up until the first Cadsuane Chapter, then flipped back

This had all the intended effect: all the CoT buildup mystery is about "The Beacon" and the anticipation of "omfg what could it be" led to a huge pay-off

It just doesn't hit as hard in the normal read order. Everyone's speculation is boring when you already know what it is. The rebel Aes Sedai counsel about it specifically becomes a wildly cool chapter in CoT without having the other half (although it was already one of the strongest imo)

Anyways: it was great

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For the curious, the specific order I went with was:

Finish chapter 31 of Winter's Heart - What the Aelfinn Said (strong ending to that "book"; you're my bloody wife)

Skip to the beginning of Crossroads of Twilight, read through the end of Chapter 22 - One Answer

Go BACK to Winter's Heart chapter 32 - A Portion of Wisdom. This gets you a warm-up of the Far Madding council breaking... and then The Cleansing

Continue with Crossroads of Twilight chapter 23 - Ornaments, and then read the rest of the series as normal