Aerosmith47

@Shiver: Hear hear! I'm still trying to figure out where the last almost 14 months have gone since my son was born. Feels like only a couple months, but it's been much longer than that. Makes me definetley regret my young years when I thought I had all the time in the world, but not enough to do, as to now, never having enough time and way too much to do. I have very little clue as to how you guys do some of the things you do in your posts, like the spoiler button, and I "think" I figured out how to do the quote one, but I'll find out for sure after I post if it actually worked or not. LOL

Well, I finished EotW a couple days ago, and I agree with many others' posts that the feelings you had on the first read, and the feelings you have now on whatever # reread you may be on, has changed not only your affection and annimosity towards certain characters, but also the plot and scenes in general. I remember feeling for the boys, dealing with, as I saw it as a young boy, an overbearing and sometimes quite mean Aes Sedai and her cold warder who had uprooted them. A childhood friend, that I liked (Egwene), even tho she treated them as imbeciles who couldn't do anything right. Even when they fixed HER mistakes. Not to mention a very petty bully of a Wisdom with no patience and a bad attitude. All the while, fleeing for their lives. Now, many years and experiences later, I commiserate for Moiraine. She who put upon herself a daunting task of making sure the worlds' champion was found and survived the plots she knew the Shadow were hatching, fighting a battle to keep one of the best agents of the Light from getting himself killed in a wasteful death for vengeance with nothing to show for it, and maintaining a calm composure with the fate of the world on her shoulders and dealing with a bunch of unruly, uppity, backwards teenage farmers. LOL.. Egwene, I now see as the petty, beligerant, holier-than-thou, spoiled little girl who expects to be heard, followed, and told how good she is, even if she is wrong. Nynaeve, I have a deep and remourseful pang for. Thrown into a position of authority over her friends, neighbors and elders, often ridiculed and put under a microscope, because of what others in her village were saying. "Was she given this position too young? Will she be able to handle the pressure? Will she show favoritism?" Etcetera.. But the biggest, most important, we are our own worst critics, and with no one to go to with her problems due to her position, I can totally see why she acted and behaved as she did toward the others. Almost like Rand, when he treats the others as less than himself, only in order to further himself from them so he doesn't hurt them. As for the discussions, just my $0.02 worth. 1) The mind twisting line, I chalk up to being the taint on Saidin is what ignores peripheral things. Such as when LTT is stepping over the body of his beloved, who he is at the time calling out for. 2) I feel the weaving Mo put on the coins eventually feeds off onto the individuals in question (ta'veren) the longer they are in contact with it, forming a bond of sorts. For example, kind of like how Nyn was able to find the party in the inn, because of her affinity to Egwene, after healing her when they were younger. 3) The blow to the dark that heals the world and the black cord "thingy". Well, as we learn later in the series, the cord is the connection to the DO that allows him to affect the world at large and allows the male Forsaken to channel Saidin safely, without being affected by the taint. Also, in the prologue, LTT channels and Travels. Simply put. When Ishy follows, he basically "ripped" a hole in the pattern, because he was not channeling Saidin, but something else, because he does not use Saidin, but the other power exclusively. Which in retrospect, by cutting off his connection to the DO, did not do much really, other than send him running for the hills because his connection to the DO had manifested, along with his insanity, to bring him very close to a 'Hitler "I am God"' type nutso. That, with the death of the other 2 Forsaken at the Eye and the Dragon being revealed as to who and what he was in culmination with one another, diminished the effect the DO therefore had on the world, bringing back spring. Ranting now over, and I'm getting my butt in gear on finishing TGH.

@Voldy I totally can comiscerate with you there, though it did give great reasons to have to read the series over, and over, and over... LOL Kind of like the Energizer bunny, if you think about it. @Shiver Thanks for the welcome! I've been more of a member "lurker", I suppose you could say. Although, this gave me a great reason to finally post something. I am nothing of an artist myself imho, so I can imagine it must be at least twice as hard for someone like you to have to look at some of those... attempts, I will say. Totally agree with you that they should take there time and do it right if they do it again. Personally, I think it would be a great idea to either incorporate some art into the Encyclopedia that Harriet will be doing, or better yet, if they have enough artists and pieces of work after completing the layout of the encyclopedia, they should consider doing an art book solely dedicated to the WoT. Now that would be sweet.

Sounds like a plan! I had planned to start my re-read before now, but before I could, I acquired a copy of what most WoT fans "affectionately" call the 'Big Book of Bad Art', better known as, 'The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time'. I must say, other than the maps, I would have to whole heartedly agree with them, but the information within the text is just downright jaw dropping, to say the least, and more than makes up for the.. ahem.. terrible artwork. Anyway, I digress.. I am just about done pouring over the previously mentioned text and all I can say is... I am down with the reread, so count me in, too. On a side note, Shivertongue, you and I got into the series at about the exact same time and also nearly age. LOL.. I was 11, in the sixth grade, and the paperback for Lord of Chaos had been recently released. After annoying my older brother for one of his huge books, not to mention a huge fiasco a few years earlier at the private school I was attending at the time for reading The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King, deemed by them as unfit reading material, he decided to play it safe, especially with our mother, and try me out on Epic fantasy, knowing I had a fondness for fantasy in general. That's when he handed me the doorstop he had finished reading, and it was Lord of Chaos. It was the only one he had at the time, and so I went to my local library a few days later to reserve the other five books in the series. That was almost 17 years ago. He is also the guilty one that gave me a copy of Mistborn: the Final Empire that sent me running, instead of walking, down this road of obsession with the rest of you. Go figure, right? LOL..

Now this contest is the way to end a great year.. LOL.. Talk about going out with a banger of a contest, eh? Heh heh heh..

Sweet.. I always wondered if getting a couple of spikes the hard way from an Inquisitor would actually be painful or not.. Merry Christmas to me!! Mwahahahahaha... wait, prizes? ::sigh:: ..Well, those are pretty cool too, but I've really been wanting those spikes for a while now... Oh well, hopefully sooner or later I'll get my super awesome Hemalurgic spikes....

Wow.. Now this is one of the best giveaways I have ever seen... Count me in! If it has something to do with any of Brandons' books, I'll be more than happy to give it a home! ..I'd even take a koloss, though I do wonder where the :bleep: I would put it... Perhaps at my worst enemies' house.. Mwahahahahahaha!!!!