Dissapointing Towers of Midnight Plot

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

So, I just finished Book 13, the Towers of Midnight and I generally liked the Book but I was a bit Dissapointed by the Tower of Ghenji.

Like that was set up for multiple books by this Point, Birgitte even tells them how she spend Months inside the Tower, and Mat Thom manage to Rescue Moiraine within less than a Day, it felt dissapointing to me how fast all of this was and the Death of Noal/Jain was entirelly pointless.

[Returned he/him]

I thought that the Tower of Ghenji sequence was OK, at least in that Mat's luck was what made the difference for them-- no mortal preparation nor planning that would work in the the "regular" world is enough to navigate it, which is how Birgitte's attempt failed so badly. I agree that events there felt too condensed, and that Noal's death (and decisive revelation as Jain) felt rushed. I also felt like most of the strangeness of that realm had already been covered and there wasn't a whole lot new about it despite the characters seeing and experiencing more of it. I guess it's hard to keep the bizarre, otherworldly feel while also demonstrating a lot of it.

Definitely it was not worthy of the buildup, since Mat's luck was the only really important element and that had already been very well established and solved a lot of problems.

[Wahrheitswächter He/Him]

6 hours ago, Returned said:

I thought that the Tower of Ghenji sequence was OK, at least in that Mat's luck was what made the difference for them-- no mortal preparation nor planning that would work in the the "regular" world is enough to navigate it, which is how Birgitte's attempt failed so badly. I agree that events there felt too condensed, and that Noal's death (and decisive revelation as Jain) felt rushed. I also felt like most of the strangeness of that realm had already been covered and there wasn't a whole lot new about it despite the characters seeing and experiencing more of it. I guess it's hard to keep the bizarre, otherworldly feel while also demonstrating a lot of it.

Definitely it was not worthy of the buildup, since Mat's luck was the only really important element and that had already been very well established and solved a lot of problems.

I think I would have been better if Mats Luck didnt feel like it Trivialized the Travel in the tower so much.

And I thing the Bizarness could have been better conveyed it was more than just strange Geometry, if there were some obstacles on the way which show the Bizarness of the Realm.

With Noal Jain I think it would have been a better if there were something more for him to so than sacrifice himself that somehow connect to his real identity and if his Death didnt feel so meaningless.

[Returned he/him]

12 hours ago, Wahrheitswächter said:

I think I would have been better if Mats Luck didnt feel like it Trivialized the Travel in the tower so much.

And I thing the Bizarness could have been better conveyed it was more than just strange Geometry, if there were some obstacles on the way which show the Bizarness of the Realm.

With Noal Jain I think it would have been a better if there were something more for him to so than sacrifice himself that somehow connect to his real identity and if his Death didnt feel so meaningless.

I won't go into a ton of detail to avoid spoilers for the last book, but I agree that much of the tower was rushed and shortchanged. Many of the events of the final books felt rushed to me. I always felt that Noal was neglected as a character, and his end continued that.

Some of what you describe is thematic, I think. A mundane obstacle is less important than the extradimensional rules that humans can't understand nor account for, and detailing things that don't work like a human would expect they should seems like it could get old pretty quickly. There is only so much strangeness that can be described before that alien quality starts getting lost. But a maze that fundamentally can't be solved does feel like an underwhelming gimmick.