"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again."

like she had such an opportunity to be a strong, independent, funny character through the earlier books. She has flawed arguments with aviendha and egwene, gets up to hijinks in tanchico, the circus pants arc, all her flirting with rand. But that was always just fun, a pause, a blip that she (maybe shouldnt have) taken.

Beautiful mentor quatuor, too good for this world, too pure

And by too pure I mean "Moiraine would slit Rand's throat if needed, Siuan would let Egwene be torn to shreds if it served the Light, Rand would have choked Moiraine if she pushed too hard at some point and Egwene would have let Siuan rot if she hadn't been of incredible value to her"

It's here! Popup shop opens this Saturday, May 16, 19:00 BST (i.e. 11:00 PDT, 14:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST) on my website:

A collection of my three Moiraine Damodred/Siuan Sanche fan comics, in chronological order.

Due to physical and time limitations on my part, there will be 12 copies available for purchase.

All proceeds after cost will be donated to the Khartoum Aid Kitchen in Sudan.

Even if you're not getting this zine please consider donating to them. Sudan is currently experiencing one of the worst man-made famines in modern history but there's barely any coverage about it. If you're able to, please consider donating.

Detailed info and photos under the cut:

every fat person you know for the most part probably has a story like this, of medical neglect. many of the stories i've heard personally are when the complaint or the doctor wasn't related at all, like being told to lose weight at the ear nose and throat doctor or at the dentist. it's straight up just bias. it's such a thing that in the show Shrill it's portrayed, when Aidy Bryant goes to the gynecologist and her doctor suggests she get gastric bypass.

the studies on health and fatness are simply not that black and white and there is basically no research that shows that more than an incredibly tiny minority of people can lose weight and keep it off for more than like 2 years. bodies have set points that they gravitate towards, it's not a personal failure. this also is how the weight loss industry succeeds so well - repeat customers.

some of the harm associated with fatness is also due to weight cycling, which is very hard on your body and is even worse if you get off a GLP1, which according to a recent study causes weight to be regained at a rate that is 4x faster than without taking a GLP1.

you don't have to hate yourself. you don't have to hate other people for their body type either. it makes me so sad to see the thinspo tag going around again in 2026 a lot like it was back in the day.

some resources to learn more here:

https://www.reuters.com/article/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/feeling-fat-may-be-worse-for-you-than-being-fat-idUSTON079061/

Semifinals

One of the central characters of the narrative in which case you must include a LENGTHY disclaimer on the various, possibly numerous in universe and out controversies that surround that character, to nip discourse in the bud.

One of the Problematic Good Guys, i.e the characters who are not explicitly heroes, or even protagonists, and who are definitely morally questionable at best, but whose problematicness makes them extremely memorable, and whose importance to the books makes them indispensable. For this one you better have a whole ass essay ready to defend your love of them, or be prepared to be roasted at the stake.

One of the villains, with the same result, but the added layer of having to insist it has nothing to do with being attracted to them, weather you are or are not, so you can maintain a scrap of respectability

One of the hundreds of secondary characters who may or may not have vanished half way through the series and who also may or may not have reappeared late in the series, the best case scenario here is a knowing nod of understanding, the worst case a devastating 'that person? why?', this one is the highest risk, highest reward

One of the thousands of extremely minor characters who none the less Jordan managed to imbue with just enough personality and depth that if you're paying attention it's crystal clear they've got their whole own thing going on. (This is the category into which I sort the likes of Emarin, Perival, Talaan, Lars, Sashelle and the like- characters who get no PoV but who by their sheer presence and implied backstories I would read whole ass novels about). This one is the safest, because the response is almost always going to be 'wait who?'

One day, we had what the Aussies called a bit of a brass-up. Just our ship alone, but we caught an NVA battalion crossing a river, and wonder of wonders, we got permission to fire before they finished. The gunner had a round explode in the chamber, jamming his 60, and the fool had left his barrel bag, with spares, back in the revetment.

So while he was frantically rummaging under my seat for my barrel bag, it was over to me, young and crazy, standing on the skid, singing something by the Stones at the of my lungs with the mike keyed so the others could listen in, and Lord, Lord, I rode that 60. 3000 rounds, an empty ammo box, and a smoking barrel that I had burned out because I didn't want to take the time to change. We got ordered out right after I went dry, so the artillery could open up, and of course, the arty took credit for every body recovered, but we could count how many bodies were floating in the river when we pulled out.

The next day in the orderly room an officer with a literary bent announced my entrance with "Behold, the Iceman cometh." For those of you unfamiliar with Eugene O'Neil, the Iceman was Death. I hated that name, but I couldn't shake it. And, to tell you the truth, by that time maybe it fit.

I have, or used to have, a photo of a young man sitting on a log eating C-rations with a pair of chopsticks. There are three dead NVA laid out in a line just beside him. He didn't kill them. He didn't choose to sit there because of the bodies. It was just the most convenient place to sit. The bodies don't bother him. He doesn't care. They're just part of the landscape.

The young man is glancing at the camera, and you know in one look that you aren't going to take this guy home to meet your parents. Back in the world, you wouldn't want him in your neighborhood, because he is cold, cold, cold. I strangled that SOB, drove a stake through his heart, and buried him face down under a crossroad outside Saigon before coming home, because I knew that guy wasn't made to survive in a civilian environment.

I think he's gone. All of him. I hope so. I much prefer being remembered as Ganesha, the Remover of Obstacles.

well said

I am of the somewhat controversial opinion that there is no such thing as a non-self insert character. All that you create is created from your language, your experiences, your point of view. Your soul is your palette, no matter what you imagine with it

or as I like to put it: I don't put myself into my writing, the writing claims it

I often think back to Harriet McDougal saying that Perrin is the character that most reminds her of Robert. But that's just one version of Robert, the Robert she knew, the one that lived in peace and wasn't burdened with having to survive through hellish circumstances

in war, the person he strived to be was someone that made problems go away, someone that through wit and resourcefulness made the impossible seem possible. That sounds like Ganesha the Remover of Obstacles, but it also kinda sounds like Mat

the person he hated, the person he had to become because he didn't have a choice, the person that was molded into callousness and almost stripped of humanity because that is the kind of person that wins a war, that is The Iceman, but it also kinda sounds like Rand

and then there is the person that didn't want to be either of those things, the person that would rather just have stayed at home, be at peace, and create and not destroy, that kinda sounds like Perrin, the person his wife came to know him as

Egwene al'Vere - Wheel of Time