The Androl Problem
So! Something Iâve been meaning to get around to for a while.
Androl original appeared in Winterâs Heart with a few lines, reporting to Logain. Toveine had a point of view where she looks at him, thinking about for all heâs wearing a signet ring (traditionally something on nobles do) he looks more like heâs an apprentice who shaved off his mustache. Itâs during a scene where the men loyal to Logain are reporting to him on things. Thatâs the only time we see him before Towers of Midnight. And easy enough moment to miss.
Excluding that moment heâd been named, everything else was a creation of Sandersonâs.Â
So, you may be staring at me. Then whatâs the problem?
The problem is Sanderson quite literally gave Androl too much to do.Â
Androl was the result (in part) of Sanderson wanting to do something with a character who actually was, for lack of better term, a true teleporter. Someone who actually took full advantage of how to use Traveling. So Sanderson took a canon Ashaâman (Androl) whoâd had limited screen time and could serve as a blank slate for his writing purposes. Which is exactly what he did.Â
Okay, neat, great. Honestly gotta agree a character like that needed to exist because wow. Was Traveling underutilized when it came down to it. Taking advantage of named character who had limited affect on the previous storyline to do that made sense.Â
The thing with Androl is that in many ways Sanderson used him to fill in basically any hanging plot threads that Jordan hadnât given to a previous character. So things like the fight for the Black Tower, he used Androl to lead that. He used Androl to save the Andoran forces. He used Androl to get the seals. He used Androl to do the double bond shit with Pevera.
Androl, Androl, Androl.Â
Androl, a character who basically had no previous affect on the plotline now has an absolutely massive one. And we know, per Sandersonâs own words, that Androl and everything he does is his own creation, though he is filling in the blanks for certain plot threads that remained from Jordanâs writing, such as the Black Tower stuff. So yeah, Sanderson deciding to use whatâs basically his OC to fill some of that makes sense.Â
Whatâs aggravating is how much that then meant Androl overshadowed previously introduced Ashaâman, such as Narishma. Itâs heavily hinted early on that Narishma is going to be important in the future (heâs fucking mentioned in the Prophesies of the Dragon), but during the Last Battle we see him maybe twice, and he doesnât do anything distinct beyond heal Lan post his fight with Demandred. On the other hand, Androl seems to have his hand in everything *but* the fighting at Shayol Ghul. Yes, thatâs an exaggeration, but not as bit of one as it really should be.
Seriously. I understand the desire to have your OC do things, but you canât over do it.
The other thing is, that in Androlâs âbackstoryâ, Sanderson also had him have too many adventures. Seriously though, it seemed every time he and Pevera spoke, he brought up a different thing he did and none of them where anywhere near each other. She does too, but sheâs also a hundred plus year old Aes Sedai, so sheâs had the time to do a lot of shit. The issue there is, per Toveineâs point of view in Winters Heart, Androl should be only in his twenties. Based on her mental description of him (looking like he could be an apprentice), it means he looked young. Almost every apprentice who appears on page is implied to be under thirty. But if you donât remember Androlâs original appearance, based on all the things he tells Pevera it would be fair to think he was closer to his late thirties, early forties. And men generally start channeling on the later side of things, so he shouldnât even be slowing that soon (I think Androl may even have been specified as not starting to channel on his own but needing to be taugh, in contrast to Logain or Taim).
On top of that was a pretty common issue of Sandersonâs; namely, his habit of dropping and adding random character aspects (hello the fact apparently Mat canât fucking write a letter that isnât full of grammar and spelling errors, even though weâve seen him write on-page before and it was just fine; obviously this is a major pet peeve of mine). Like, a really interesting thing he could have done with the original bits? Explain why Androl was wearing a signet ring, especially with the explanation that apparently he was a leatherworker. Was he pretending to be a noble? Was he actually a noble? Who the hell knows because Sanderson never followed up on that detail.Â
I would have much preferred it if Sanderson had actually allowed the previous appearing Ashaâman to play more major roles during the Last Battle rather than over using Androl (and he was overused). Narishima, again, should have played a bigger role. We never get an explanation for the âhe will follow afterâ stuff; is that supposed to hint heâd eventually lead the Ashaâman after Logaine? Again, who knows since Sanderson never wrote anything about that.
(And before someone asks, at some point I will be doing meta about Sandersonâs penchant for dropping character traits/apparently forgetting certain plot threads. Like it wouldnât be so aggravating for me if I didnât like Mat so much and found Sanderson to just not be very good at writing him.)














