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It was a fairly bad execution of some good ideas DomA Send a noteboard - 31/01/2013 05:01:59 PM
It was a badly indulging story arc. It centered the whole BT resolution on this character that was "given" to Brandon to do wish as he pleased.

He turned him into a main secondary player, robbing the real secondary cast way too much of their screen time. Alviarin was our main BA villain, and she's barely had a role in Brandon's version of the finale (TGS/TOM included). He killed her whole arc doing this.. she'll be very boring to follow in re read, knowing it peters out to absolutely nothing shortly before the BA hunt reach its conclusion.

And that's only one example of an important secondary player vanishing to make place for the likes of Naeff, Androl, more directly at the expanse of Logain/Gabrelle and Teslyn, Flinn, Narishma.

Many of the ideas behind the BT story line were great, but they were very badly written. Way too many "epîsodes", way too much silliness in what was Jordan's most gruesome/vile story line. It should have continued in the chilling tone set by the KOD epilogue with the Pevara/Taim scene. Instead, it became a bloated excuse to build up a big background for Androl, was out of place in TOM when the early arc belonged in TGS, and rife with Brandon's trademark and always badly timed "comic relief", as badly timed as Jar-Jar Binks'. Slapstick, overused running gags with that Domani and his tall tales, the whole "inn" stuff.., the whole "whoops.. we bonded each other and now it's inconvient... and a good source for some more "you're in my head, beware what you think" jokes. It totally ruined the ominous tone of the story arc, made it way too "light hearted" and silly, when RJ was heading straight for a Nazi death camp atmosphere by KOD. Logain entered the arc much too late, this all belonged in TGS and pre-Merrilor. Brandon wrote the whole thing way too much with a step-by-step approach, and before the end the only surprise was Perrin-Lanfear, as you had seen all the rest coming by then. Then Brandon went and deprived us of the pay-off... showing nothing at all of the reconquest of the BT... to preserve the surprise of Logain's... sorry...ANDROL's arrival in Cairhien.

Then, Androl and Pevra outshined every Asha'man stuff in the LB and took way, way too much place, trivializing Logain's role. He was the one with the interesting arc, his struggle with his near turning, mirroring Rand's descent into darkness. It was barely developed, to leave room for bloody Androl to shine.

So yeah, there was interesting stuff in that storyline, and it offered good resolution to the Reds vs. male channelers theme. But it was for the most part annoying because overused, overdeveloped at the expanse of more important things, with way too many scenes to preserve suspense, and badly resolved, without the pay-off. Then it became ridiculous, with Androl becoming the real leader and doing all the important stuff in TG, often very Brandonish stuff that would fit well in his books, but not so well in WOT... and the worse is that they turned into "one time tricks". If you can destroy an army with lava, why not do it again, or drown them etc.? Why wasn't Androl given the lead of a huge circle to "do his thing"?

In TGS, Brandon had done something similar by making Naeff all of a sudden the go-to Asha'man Rand trusted most. Bloody Naeff was everywhere! It had left a bad impression that Brandon was too lazy to research exissting minor players like Flinn, Narishma, Logain to continue their arcs, or that he didn't like them, and instead created "his Asha'man" to steal RJ's thunder.

But yeah, Pevara/Androl had their moments through it. It wasn't 100% bad, and in another context or series could have been good.

I didn't like much his Pevara, though. Brandon can't write old characters. They read like a 14 y.o.'s vision of old people. Nearly all his Aes Sedai sucked. Pevara was another character altogether than Jordan's, but at times she was good.



This message last edited by DomA on 31/01/2013 at 05:09:28 PM
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So, am I the only one who kind of liked the whole Androl/Pevara plot? - 31/01/2013 02:30:15 PM 2248 Views
It was extremely irritating... - 31/01/2013 02:34:32 PM 1290 Views
Re: It was extremely irritating... - 31/01/2013 02:47:46 PM 1414 Views
It felt like a plot tacked on as a vanity by Sanderson - 31/01/2013 02:49:09 PM 1069 Views
Indeed... - 31/01/2013 02:58:50 PM 1100 Views
Re: Indeed... - 31/01/2013 03:05:44 PM 1206 Views
I kind of always thought RJ intended the minor characters to be bland - 03/02/2013 12:00:33 AM 919 Views
I'd say more like Mistborn than Harry Potter *NM* - 01/02/2013 02:53:30 PM 489 Views
No I loved it too. *NM* - 31/01/2013 02:43:31 PM 468 Views
I liked it. Most of the whining about is hilarious. - 31/01/2013 03:01:10 PM 1056 Views
I hated it because it reeked of sanderson pandering to "internet humour" for lack of a better term. - 31/01/2013 04:47:54 PM 1007 Views
Yep. I know what you mean, though it's hard to exactly quantify. - 31/01/2013 04:49:12 PM 970 Views
I could really use an example here - 01/02/2013 02:56:50 PM 953 Views
I enjoyed it - 31/01/2013 04:37:42 PM 841 Views
It was a fairly bad execution of some good ideas - 31/01/2013 05:01:59 PM 1459 Views
He probably didn't have enough time to learn the characters completely - 01/02/2013 01:45:11 PM 1017 Views
Re: He probably didn't have enough time to learn the characters completely - 02/02/2013 04:48:45 PM 1166 Views
Well said... I would have waited for a better end product *NM* - 02/02/2013 05:50:16 PM 469 Views
I 100% agree with everything you said here! *NM* - 01/02/2013 02:16:56 PM 456 Views
Pretty much. But I think significant blame should be laid at Jordan's feet for his abysmal pacing. - 02/02/2013 10:48:06 AM 1027 Views
Yeah, yeah.. it's the f*cking silk washing's scene's fault - 02/02/2013 05:59:30 PM 1300 Views
Damn you are on a roll ... Nicely said. *NM* - 03/02/2013 12:46:57 AM 556 Views
Its true, but RJ should get some blame - 05/02/2013 03:56:20 PM 1016 Views
i enjoyed this subplot - 05/02/2013 05:41:23 PM 1282 Views
Not the only one..I really enjoyed reading their story. *NM* - 01/02/2013 02:05:21 PM 541 Views
It was my favourite subplot *NM* - 01/02/2013 02:17:26 PM 728 Views
I really liked this plot-line! *NM* - 03/02/2013 07:23:48 AM 451 Views
I liked it, but that's because... - 10/02/2013 09:14:44 AM 1096 Views

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