Mat is hopelessly misogynistic? Care to elaborate on that?
No problem. His views of women of power seems to be annoyance that he is not allowed to decide what they should do. The Aes Sedai he traveled with for a long time were probably 100+ years (Teslyn at least was a Sitter, Joline too, I seem to remember), but he seemed to think they should shut up and do what he -- 20 years old -- thought was best. Even in small things, and in things they would likely be much better than him in. I am not going to go into any psychoanalytic approach to his distrust for Aes Sedai in general, though I see a path to their being physically stronger than him so he is unsure around them. But that is a bit speculative. But he is generally disrespectful to powerful women, even Tuon, and other women he judges purely on their skill to please him (Verin=traveling, Aludra=firepower, etc) or pure looks, particularly "bosoms" and "bottoms." Women, in his world view, are things to fondle or things to annoy, or sometimes okay as tools if they shut up and does what he wants. To compare that to his relationship with men, like Thom and Perrin and Lan which surpasses these traits... well, it is not a good trait. But I might be unfair to the poor bloke. He just stepped on my toes early on... Joline et al. have no power over Mat. It's him who saves them and him who pays for their travel from his own pocket, IIRC. He didn't have to do any of this. If they don't want to travel with him they are perfectly welcome to go on their own. And most AS might be old but they often behave very childishly. They have even less right of bossing Mat around than him them, yet that doesn't stop them from trying again and again. Are they men-haters then?
Also, Mat Mat doesn't respect any nobles, not just the female ones and Aes Sedai. You can call him rude but misogynistic? He is a friend to Birgitte, the three Aes Sedai he saves come to like him by the time they part ways, he respects Elayne enough to offer her and not Rand the plans for the dragons, he bows down to Egwene to help her gain political capital, heck he even ended up liking Tylin, even though she practically raped him. As for his closest friends - both in real life and in WoT most people's best friends are from their own gender. Might as well claim Perrin is misogynist and Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve are misandrists, then, if a lack of friends fro mthe opposite sex is an indication.
As for Galad - he hasn't given any indication he wants to step down from his position as a leader of the Whitecloaks, so this is all a moot point. Not to mention his strict morality will most likely earn him a dagger in the back in the political climate in Cairhien...
Serious ramblings about WOT
- 09/12/2010 04:10:05 AM
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Re: Serious ramblings about WOT
- 09/12/2010 04:26:52 AM
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Re: Serious ramblings about WOT
- 09/12/2010 04:44:47 AM
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Re: Serious ramblings about WOT
- 09/12/2010 05:15:12 AM
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Very interesting.
- 09/12/2010 05:50:23 AM
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Oddly enough, I'd say that the WOMEN all seem to be cut from the same cloth
- 09/12/2010 03:10:43 PM
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Oh, and a note on Sanderson: I think his WoT stuff isn't as good as his original works
- 09/12/2010 03:34:27 PM
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Re: Oh, and a note on Sanderson: I think his WoT stuff isn't as good as his original works
- 09/12/2010 03:47:37 PM
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Hm... I'm not sure if "simpler" is the right word for Sanderson's magic systems
- 09/12/2010 04:40:30 PM
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