And I can buy that, which is why I'm surprised at how many claimed they were inaccurate. Seriously, - Edit 1
Before modification by newyorkersedai at 26/07/2011 02:04:09 AM
Marriage is an art. The Two Rivers women have it going on.
Because as much as I think that people are people, guess what? When a romantically-involved woman does something that involves sacrifice for you on her part, just f'ing accept. Trying to make things easy on her or take care of yourself will turn you into a bad guy.
Also: don't underestimate what a woman will forgive, or what she'll let pass by with less reaction that a man would, men often need to feel more important or in control than they are, and are often so proud/headstrong, that they will run themselves into the ground instead of taking advice or help.
In some ways, RJ's commentary on the sexes was focused more on what may seem like zingers on women's behavior. He says a lot of things about men too, and he really did a lot in the early books to give the women a share equal to the men's.
The characters he gave us were flawed in their own ways - Faile's high expectations and combination openness/secretiveness, Nynaeve's need for control, and Elayne's intellectual shallowness. I suppose that feminine aspects of them are put to the forefront, but they are all operating under their own baggage and imperfections.
The men, too, are far from ideal: in particular, Rand's a control-freak who tends to "handle" people (esp. women) that come into his life, while Perrin also gets caught up in his own thoughts, but more "passively." The guys are often brash despite their inexperience, prone to acting stupidly from anger or wounded pride, and tend to lack both solid decision-making skills and the ability to ask for help. And they also drop their guard completely when a woman (esp if she's attractive) asks for help.
Neither gender is free from fault, much less "prone-to" faults like the gender stereotyping that you can say occurs in WoT. If you ever played an rpg game, you know that "wizard" = physically weak, and "drawf" = "strong but slow." They're not always true, but... I tend not to take the imperfections of specific roles (Faile, Tallanvor) as part of Jordan's broader (and more direct) comments.
RJ had a lifetime of experience with women who were "free to be women" (growing up in an all-female household) and men who were "free to be men" (2-3 tours in Vietnam, attending the Citadel). He had ages to observe the sexes, individually and together. And please note that his interests including pool, pipe collecting, and reviewing ballet. This isn't Berlusconi that we're talking about; I think RJ's yin and yang were closely-aligned. I think it tends to show here, whatever the series' main protagonist.
Like saidin and saidar, or TP and OP, each side has predictable tendencies. Everyone has their own quirks and their own balance, it's true. I swear, tho, I'll warn my young nephews against letting a woman worry about you, then finding out it was nothing...