I've been reading this series faithfully for 22 years starting with the paperback release of EotW. Judging by your tone and vocabulary, that was before you were born. I've had plenty of years between volumes to re-read, re-analyze, and theorize. If you mean that I haven't immersed myself neck deep in the online fandom, well, no, I haven't. If anything I think that makes my analysis more relevant, not less.



Sure, lots of casual readers don't complain about how he's ruined Mat's character from a consistency point of view. They don't complain about all the fan service in AMoL. They miss a lot of things. It doesn't seem to bother them that AMoL reads a majority of the time like a Civil War re-enactment plan instead of a character driven fantasy story, which I can't help but think RJ would not have done. Still...



I'm fully able to recognize the dramatic shift in tone and style in the last few volumes. I generally suspect that I can tell when I'm reading RJ and when I'm reading Brandon, and when I'm reading an RJ-Brandon hybrid.

Despite that, because I'm not an autist, I can also recognize that this is a work of fiction, that RJ is dead, that RJ said himself that there were red herrings and twists coming up, and I can give Brandon the benefit of the doubt regarding at least some of his changes in that RJ might have been planning similar twists and rule changes for the End of the World. Even if the story was "hijacked" into a completely different story and plan, I can accept that this is the official canon and I have sufficient imagination (even though I honestly don't think much is required) to weld the two and come out with a satisfying continuity.

Again, because I'm not autistic and this is a fantasy story about wizards and orcs, not an historical record that needs the pedantic and unforgiving attention of a monk/clerk with a personality to match.