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Brandon Sanderson / Character's representations in The Gathering Storm (WoT)...spoilers
« on: November 15, 2009, 02:12:39 AM »
First I want to say that I LOVED The Gathering Storm. Definitely one of the best books in the series (and this was as much how the story was told than the plot advancement). BS did a wonderful job telling RJ's story through his own words, which I think was why it was so successful. After the first few chapters, I began to forget that the book was written by a different author (or for that matter that the book was written in a much different style)
That being said, I think the thing that caught my attention the most was the differences in the feel of some of the characters. With the vast array of characters BS had inherited it would be ridiculous to think they would be represented in the exact same manner that RJ portrayed them. Some portrayals were better, some were not in my opinion. I wanted to express my feelings towards some of the differences I notice (and how I thought these different representation contributed to the book overall), and was curious to see how many people agreed/disagreed with me
Characters whose representations were better than what I expected
Egwene - She seemed much more likable in general than in the other books. To be fair towards the end of KoD she had become much more likable, but I was still having a hard time seeing her as the true Amyrlin. I was not able to see why all of the characters had been blown away by Egwene until The Gathering Storm. Her actions were much more admirable in this book than in the past
Cadsuane well in fact ALL the Aes Sedai - I am a little biased here. I thought Cadsuane was the worst character in the series. She came out of nowhere and was supposed to be this all-knowing Aes Sedai, but we instead we were forced to read hundreds of pages of her schemes and dialog that did absolutely NOTHING for the plot and only made Rand mad? I had to skip over conversations in previous books because Aes Sedai in general would just annoy and bore me to death at times. While BS maintained their arrogance and a little of their obnoxiousness, he did so in a way that allowed room for you to actually respect these figures that were supposed to have earned respect across the land. PHAW!
Telemanes - Was such a minor character that I'm not sure if I spelled his name correctly. However, I think this is one of the characters that BS was able to make his own. The dialog between him and Matt felt a lot like the dialog in some of BS's other books.
Characters whose representations were worse than what I expected
Elaida - Probably the character who was portrayed the worst IMO. During previous books, Elaida would make me so mad, I had to put the book down. However, in this book I think she came off as a little TOO messed up and arrogant.. I ended up just thinking her as crazy, rather than plain arrogant and I couldn't really hate her for it. I didn't even crack a smile when she was captured by the Seanchan
Min - WTF on this one. After the strangulation incident, I did not see her coming to fear and avoid Rand. Calling out "Please Stop Rand" when Semirhage was forcing him to strangle her still bothers me about her character. She seemed so ready to support Rand no matter what in the other books, then instantly it felt like she had forsaken him. Too much of a 180 for me
Characters I thought were portrayed almost exactly as expected
All of the Aiel - I don't know why but whether it was the wise ones/clan chiefs / Aviendha I never thought twice about these characters.
Gawyn - Will he ever be likable? Doubtful, but at least BS did a good job continuing his character. I'm glad that the perfect love story between him and Egwene was called into question. Seriously, had they said more than 10 sentences to each other before they figured out they were in love.?
Tuon and the Seanchan - Loved the Seanchan parts. Had wished there were more chapters with Tuon, or more development on her recent marriage to Matt (The meeting between her and Rand was a tease)
I'm not going to argue either way for the differences I noticed in Rand, Faile, and Matt. RJ's representation of Rand would be impossible to guess with the plot advancements but I thought it was spot on. Faile did seem different, but this was after her imprisonment and she had far too small of a role in this book. Matt was Tuon-less of the first time so I was kind of curious to see how he was going to behave in general. There wasn't much reason to include him into the book now that I think about it though...
Like I said I'm just curious, if everyone is going to agree with me or disagree with me.
Can't wait till the next book!
That being said, I think the thing that caught my attention the most was the differences in the feel of some of the characters. With the vast array of characters BS had inherited it would be ridiculous to think they would be represented in the exact same manner that RJ portrayed them. Some portrayals were better, some were not in my opinion. I wanted to express my feelings towards some of the differences I notice (and how I thought these different representation contributed to the book overall), and was curious to see how many people agreed/disagreed with me
Characters whose representations were better than what I expected
Egwene - She seemed much more likable in general than in the other books. To be fair towards the end of KoD she had become much more likable, but I was still having a hard time seeing her as the true Amyrlin. I was not able to see why all of the characters had been blown away by Egwene until The Gathering Storm. Her actions were much more admirable in this book than in the past
Cadsuane well in fact ALL the Aes Sedai - I am a little biased here. I thought Cadsuane was the worst character in the series. She came out of nowhere and was supposed to be this all-knowing Aes Sedai, but we instead we were forced to read hundreds of pages of her schemes and dialog that did absolutely NOTHING for the plot and only made Rand mad? I had to skip over conversations in previous books because Aes Sedai in general would just annoy and bore me to death at times. While BS maintained their arrogance and a little of their obnoxiousness, he did so in a way that allowed room for you to actually respect these figures that were supposed to have earned respect across the land. PHAW!
Telemanes - Was such a minor character that I'm not sure if I spelled his name correctly. However, I think this is one of the characters that BS was able to make his own. The dialog between him and Matt felt a lot like the dialog in some of BS's other books.
Characters whose representations were worse than what I expected
Elaida - Probably the character who was portrayed the worst IMO. During previous books, Elaida would make me so mad, I had to put the book down. However, in this book I think she came off as a little TOO messed up and arrogant.. I ended up just thinking her as crazy, rather than plain arrogant and I couldn't really hate her for it. I didn't even crack a smile when she was captured by the Seanchan
Min - WTF on this one. After the strangulation incident, I did not see her coming to fear and avoid Rand. Calling out "Please Stop Rand" when Semirhage was forcing him to strangle her still bothers me about her character. She seemed so ready to support Rand no matter what in the other books, then instantly it felt like she had forsaken him. Too much of a 180 for me
Characters I thought were portrayed almost exactly as expected
All of the Aiel - I don't know why but whether it was the wise ones/clan chiefs / Aviendha I never thought twice about these characters.
Gawyn - Will he ever be likable? Doubtful, but at least BS did a good job continuing his character. I'm glad that the perfect love story between him and Egwene was called into question. Seriously, had they said more than 10 sentences to each other before they figured out they were in love.?
Tuon and the Seanchan - Loved the Seanchan parts. Had wished there were more chapters with Tuon, or more development on her recent marriage to Matt (The meeting between her and Rand was a tease)
I'm not going to argue either way for the differences I noticed in Rand, Faile, and Matt. RJ's representation of Rand would be impossible to guess with the plot advancements but I thought it was spot on. Faile did seem different, but this was after her imprisonment and she had far too small of a role in this book. Matt was Tuon-less of the first time so I was kind of curious to see how he was going to behave in general. There wasn't much reason to include him into the book now that I think about it though...
Like I said I'm just curious, if everyone is going to agree with me or disagree with me.
Can't wait till the next book!