You're Gonna Die Charlie

if rand, mat, and perrin have their "[x] is so much better with women than me, I don't know what I'm doing" then nynaeve, elayne, and aviendha have "[x] is so much braver than me, I'm such a coward"

And if I wrote a fanfic of Rodel Ituralde and Davram Bashere kissing…what then

there are so many moments in the wheel of time that I always thought were written to sort of intentionally subvert the readers desire to see karmic justice befall characters who are The Worst, where the idea of justice gets pushed so far that there's no real satisfaction in it, it's just horrifying. what happened to galina and elaida, even the battle of dumai's wells. you spend so long waiting for rand to be freed and for him to get revenge, but when you actually see it it's just sort of sad. like I never got the impression "asha'man, kill" was supposed to be a victory, I thought it was supposed to be sad and disturbing, and a reflection of how far rand has been pushed and broken down and what he's become willing to do. anyway it's been strange interacting with the wider WoT fan base and seeing how many people really do find these moments incredibly satisfying and celebrate how the characters finally got what they deserved. I don't know if I was misinterpreting what I assumed was authorial intent, or if it even really matters one way or another, but it's always been something that throws me off a bit

[one single bloodcurdling agonized scream] ok time to lock in