#talker32332post

So what’s wrong with this?

1. The biggest thing here - this is a such a brutal example of Sanderson’s complete lack of subtlety as a writer and storyteller. This is a massive underlying theme of Rand’s arc and what Jordan was building up to saying about the struggle against evil both in the real world and in this series. This is the Wheel of Time’s big demonstration of the common theme of “evil defeats itself” (to put it most straightforwardly). This is something that I feel Jordan had set up to be most effectively realized by readers when ruminating on Rand’s relationship to channeling, and to madness and to the Dark One. It fits perfectly with his themes of the fundamental ineffectiveness of evil and the wheel weaving as it wills - things may turn out to have a purpose in the grand tapestry of the universe that individuals cannot see. I think it’s supposed to be this big coming together of a lot of the themes of this series all at once, for readers who have spent 14 odd books with this story, and that’s what makes it so well set up and so rewarding. And Sanderson just…comes out and states it. And then-

2. How he states it. If it had been done with any gravitas I may not have been so annoyed by this. But it’s not enough for him to have Rand explicitly state one of the main underlying subtle points of his arc, no, he has him say it out loud as though we should all be so IMPRESSED. Isn’t this so CRAZY? Aren’t I so CLEVER? This isn’t the culmination of a carefully constructed 14 book long arc and story, no, it’s a fun little connection Rand and I made!

3. The cherry on top - Perrin’s reaction, in universe, of whistling like an idiot because even HE is oh so impressed with this. Since when is Perrin so impressed by stuff like this anyway?