Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Phaz on April 03, 2010, 04:30:51 AM
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If anyone has been following the Suvudu Cage Match (http://www.suvudu.com/cagematch.html?ref=TextLink_Top) it's down to the final two putting Rand Al'Thor vs Jaime Lannister. I was really hoping that Kvothe beat out Jaime but he just couldn't quite do it.
George R. R. Martin proposed an interesting idea on his blog (http://grrm.livejournal.com/144572.html). He said the fight should be "Trial of Seven" from Westeros Tradition, where the heroes will fight along side 6 of their pals each. He suggested he could take any six from his works and stories, and Rand be given a choice of 6 allies from the group of Jordan's and Brandon's works. Kind of a fun idea.
That being said, which 6 would you pair up with Rand?
This would be my choice:
Sazed - Post HoA Sazed has to be a force to reckon with IMO
Vin - If she can be the same as the last time we saw her (end of HoA) then she could probably almost do this fight herself
Lord Ruler - This guy didn't survive so long because he was easy to kill
Vasher - With his collect of Breath's and his sword of course
Alcatraz - Chances are GRRM's picks would rely on a couple 'unbreakable' magical artifacts.
Matt - Can't lose with the dark one's own luck
I had a couple that almost made my list. They were:
Lews Therin - Might as well have him and Rand. All Rand's abilities and potential but he knows how to use 'em
Lightsong - I really don't think this fight would be in the bag and all 6 wouldn't be needed, might as well bring along some comic relief to make the fight more fun to watch.
I know people on the forum like this kind of thing, so who would you pick?
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I probably wouldnt have put the Lord Ruler up there. Definitely Perrin. You gots to have the trio - with all that Taver'an at work they couldnt lose. Actually...you would probably only need them, they could take any number of GRRM's characters. Everyone else is perfect though, I especially like Vasher up there - with all the trappings of course.
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Hmmm... is Rand allowed to channel? Is magic in general allowed? If it is, then end of HOA Vin, the Lord Ruler, end of HOA Sazed and some of the others mentioned would be overkill. May as well bring in Ruin to make sure the job gets done. If not, it becomes a much more difficult fight. Rand can fight without magic, but Vin, the Lord Ruler, and Sazed I'm not so sure about - I think they can, but each seems to rely on their magical abilities more than their pure physical.
Mat. Definitely Mat. His luck can turn the tide, and he's a skilled strategist. Add in the reach provided by his ashandarei and his cool hat...
Perrin, because you can't have Rand and Mat without Perrin. He can smell what the opponents are feeling, and his other senses are just as highly attuned. All three Ta'veren in one place...
Vasher. Knows how to handle a sword, even if it's not his sentient blade. No certain how much use Breath would be, but if can use it, it can't hurt too much.
Aviendha can fight with weapons and without, and is strong in the One Power if channeling is allowed. Having her there, and in potential danger, would make Rand fight harder (is this an all-on-all brawl, or seven individual matches?)
Despite what I said above, I'm gonna pick Vin as well. She's tough, scrappy, and her size could prove an advantage against larger opponents. She's ten times as valuable if she can use Allomancy, but even without I think she's proven herself intelligent, capable, and resourceful.
The last spot is hard to pick... I want to go with another Sanderson original, to make it 3 from Jordan and 3 from Sanderson, but my gut is telling me to go with Gareth Bryne. He's a blademaster, one of the Five Great Captains, and he has the Warder bond enhancing him now. He's experienced, intelligent, and dedicated. The Warder bond is the only thing close to magic he has, and honestly I don't think he'd even need that. Just give him a sword.
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technically it could be
Rand
The Dark one
Lews Therin
God
Min
Ishamael
But that wouldn't be much fun.
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If magic is allowable, I don't see how GRRM's cast has a chance, regardless of whether or not you allow the inclusion of Shard Universe characters from Brandon's side.
Balefire = end of show.
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If Balefire is allowed, I'd ask that Rand challanges Richard Rahl to a side duell in the hopes that Rand uses a beam strong enough to burn all but the first two Sword of truth books out of the pattern....
Back to topic, I don't know all of GRRMs works, but I don't see how he could stand a chance against Vin, Mat, Elend, Perrin, Raoden and Lightsong (doing the commenting at the sideline, he won't be needed to fight)
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The Rand vs. Jamie thing must just be them in a straight sword fight. Rand by himself with channeling could easily take over the entire Song of Ice and Fire world . . . and it wouldn't even take long.
If it wasn't for the girl with the 3 dragons I'd say that someone like 2nd book Vin could even do it. Hell, Vin could probably kill the 3 dragons too.
The contest would have to be without magic. I mean, Rand with his magic vs. Jamie Lannister??? That's like Bruce Lee vs. Superman. It's a little one sided . . .
But even without magic I'm thinking Rand would beat the snot out of Jamie.
*****SPOILER ALERT***********
(Highlight below to read)
I think the main reason to compare them is because both Rand and Jamie lose their weapon hand. So the question is: which cripple would win.
My money would still be on Rand.
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Yeah, the highlighting is totally not how to do spoilers. Still can't read it. Well, yeah I could, but it was way to hard.
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Yeah, the highlighting is totally not how to do spoilers. Still can't read it. Well, yeah I could, but it was way to hard.
I had to change the colour of my highlighting to read it... :P
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Good, then I didn't accidentally spoil things for you. :D
And don't try to ruin all the hard work I did to find out the exact color I needed so that the text couldn't be read. >:(
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The comments on GRRM's blog are interesting.
Very few of them mention Brandon's characters and most are just pulling characters from ASOIAF for the other side. I'd say about 30% of them at least say "Just fight in a stedding and..."
That's pretty amusing. Basically they are just saying "Take away all the advantages the other side has and then our side stands a chance"
I really hope Rand wins this. GRRM has a huge dedicated following but WoT has so many fan sites to tap for votes.
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Rand
Jearom - Bestest Swordman ever!
Mat - Lucky
Lanfear - Evil
Perrin - Just along for the ride
Sazed - Well....he's kind of a God now isn't he?
Lord Ruler - Hard to kill
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Oh come on?! No votes for Conan? You have to have Conan, especially if they pull that stedding crap. If that were the case (no magic), here's my list:
Vasher (resourceful and deadly)
Mat (lucky)
Perrin (merciless)
Conan (for brutality purposes)
Lan (a little finesse)
Paddan Fain (with dagger of course)
**edit**
I might be tempted to toss in Birget for a little ranged damage.
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Conan was already balefired out of existence.
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my fun lineup
Rand
Hoid
Vasher
Kelsier
Narg
Shaidar Haran
TLR
essential the fight goes like this:
Rand looks at his opponents, and freezes them in Air, eats lunch, and shakes them up and down until they die. His teammates didn't need to do anything.
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I'm pretty disapointed by the write up at Suvudu for this match. (And not just because Rand loses)
They obviously aren't that familiar with Rand's abilities/world. He wouldn't of played into the trap so easily and certainly would of summoned a gateway once it came (or a number of other things that would of protected him from it).
I hope Jaime gets owned in Brandon's writeup (IMO it should be from Hoid's perspective as from what i understand that would somewhat almost fit).
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I'm pretty disapointed by the write up at Suvudu for this match. (And not just because Rand loses)
They obviously aren't that familiar with Rand's abilities/world. He wouldn't of played into the trap so easily and certainly would of summoned a gateway once it came (or a number of other things that would of protected him from it).
I hope Jaime gets owned in Brandon's writeup (IMO it should be from Hoid's perspective as from what i understand that would somewhat almost fit).
Voting ain't over yet. There's still five days to turn it around: http://www.suvudu.com/2010/04/cage-match-2010-championship-5-rand-althor-versus-15-jaime-lannister.html?ref=Widget_Bracket
And their write-ups usually suck. The whole thing is a popularity contest - how else could Jaime Lannister beat Temeraire or Cthulhu? Or even Kvothe, really? Let me repeat that. Jaime Lannister, a swordsman with one hand, powered by fanboys, beat both a dragon and one of the Great Old Ones, the first of whom should have eaten him alive and the second not even acknowledged his existence.
I don't want to see that write-up become final, though. I hate Jaime, and would like to read something where he dies. So people.... get there and vote.
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At the moment, Rand has about 50 more votes than Jaime... which puts them at the same percentage. :-\ Here's hoping for Rand!
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I don't do links, but as someone who (gasp) has never read wheel of time (I came here because of Elantris and mistborn; new spring is waiting to be read on my bookshelf), and someone who likes ASoIaF, I have to say, George R. R. Martin's write-up was admittedly excellent. He found a way for Jaime to win.
Anyone with allomancy however could have torn Jaime to pieces.
But hey, the fights over Rand won, and Bradon did a pretty awesome reworking of the ending on his blog.
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I don't do links, but as someone who (gasp) has never read wheel of time (I came here because of Elantris and mistborn; new spring is waiting to be read on my bookshelf), and someone who likes ASoIaF, I have to say, George R. R. Martin's write-up was admittedly excellent. He found a way for Jaime to win.
Anyone with allomancy however could have torn Jaime to pieces.
But hey, the fights over Rand won, and Bradon did a pretty awesome reworking of the ending on his blog.
First, if your starting the Wheel of Time, don't start with New Spring. It's a prequel novel, but it's best read after book... eight or so, I think. Start with The Eye of the World. New Spring will spoil too much from the other books.
Second, what I liked most about Martin's write-up was not that he found a convincing way for Jaime to win, but he also allowed Rand to live. His world needs him, and as Tyrion said (paraphrasing) if Rand isn't there to face down the Dark One, who knows when the Dark One might come knocking in Westeros.
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Martin's write up was just awesome. After I read it I almost went to another computer and voted for Jaime after reading it
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Having never read anything by GRRM (I'm waiting for him to finish the series so I don't get caught waiting like everyone else), I couldn't really get into this. I also don't usually go in for these sort of "Whose bettar SAMUS or MASTER CHEIF LOL" arguments. But I've gotta admit, Brandon's final writeup was pretty funny.
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I thought that might be the case, but I chose new spring, because I was hoping it would be more of a stand alone than the first book in the series. I know (especially on this forum) that there are many fans who will vouch for it's quality, but I'd like to make sure it fits my personal preferences before commiting to read such a long series.
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I thought that might be the case, but I chose new spring, because I was hoping it would be more of a stand alone than the first book in the series. I know (especially on this forum) that there are many fans who will vouch for it's quality, but I'd like to make sure it fits my personal preferences before commiting to read such a long series.
New Spring sets up a lot of what happens in the later novels, and I would strongly recommend reading Eye of the World first. It works rather well as a standalone, I think, despite there being a whole series that follows. New Spring, as mentioned, is better to read after you've read several of the other books, specifically because it deals with things that will have more meaning and make more sense if you if you've read the others (I would recommend reading up to book seven, then New Spring.)
I understand your reasoning, though - The Wheel of Time is a major commitment to make, and will likely take more than a few months. I hope you consider the recommendation, but in the end it's up to you. Either way, I hope you enjoy the books (and if you end up reading New Spring first, then the others and realize how right I am, I promise not to say 'I told you so' :P )
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I'm with Shiver. It makes sense when you look at the history of the books.
Believe it or not, the WoT was originally pitched as a trilogy. However, as is so often the case with pitching trilogies, the strategy was to sell TEotW first as a novel that could stand alone, then to see if TOR could be convinced to pick up the rest of the series.
Clearly the series would have been tremendously different as a trilogy. I can't quite wrap my mind around the idea, personally. That said, TEotW has a reasonably satisfying ending and stands on its own better than any of the others, including New Spring.
See, New Spring ends at a beginning—the beginning of the series. (Well, a fair number of years before it, but we can infer rather well what transpires in that time.) You won't find it satisfying at all if you think you might want to stop at one.
And if all that didn't convince you, here's another fact about TEotW: it's fairly slow. There's a section in the middle that drags on. (You could apply that assessment to the series in general, too, but I digress.) If you make it to the end of The Eye of the World, you can be fairly certain you'll enjoy the entire series, because the end is great and very much worth slogging through the doldrums to reach.