Wheel of Time Discussion - Spoilers(with book spoilers)

[Parmandur]

Right. @Bolares you've heard Moiraine mention that the protagonists are Ta'veren, but she didn't explain what that meant. You've also heard mention of the wheel and maybe the pattern. In the books we get a much better explanation of those things. The wheel is something like sewing wheel and the pattern is the reality that is woven by it. Each person, object and creature in existence is a thread.

If you take a shirt and the threads in it, sometimes a thread can move around or even be plucked out and next to nothing will happen to the shirt. Other threads are critical and if you remove them you lose a button or a sleeve falls off. Ta'veren are those critically important threads.

For purposes of the story, the minor threads have more latitude to alter their lives and change their circumstances. The Ta'veren, through, are much more tightly woven into the pattern. Their importance actually swirls the threads of others around them and creates great alterations to the pattern, but while the destines of others get changed, the destines of the Ta'veren are pretty set in stone. It's an interesting contrast that Jordan set up.

I wonder how they plan to handle Mat's memory issues: the only thing that I can imagine that would work might be flashbacks...?

 

[Maxperson]

I wonder how they plan to handle Mat's memory issues: the only thing that I can imagine that would work might be flashbacks...?

That's how it worked in the books. I don't see why they wouldn't do that in the show. Some flashbacks(because too many would be costly), and then once established he can just say he remembers something and apply it.

 

[Parmandur]

That's how it worked in the books. I don't see why they wouldn't do that in the show. Some flashbacks(because too many would be costly), and then once established he can just say he remembers something and apply it.

Yeah, easier to do in the book: I'm just curious to see how they weave it into cinematic language.

 

[Parmandur]

Come to think of it, just breaking out in speaking in tongues periodically will probably be more effective on screen than on the page.

 

[Bolares]

Right. @Bolares you've heard Moiraine mention that the protagonists are Ta'veren, but she didn't explain what that meant. You've also heard mention of the wheel and maybe the pattern. In the books we get a much better explanation of those things. The wheel is something like sewing wheel and the pattern is the reality that is woven by it. Each person, object and creature in existence is a thread.

If you take a shirt and the threads in it, sometimes a thread can move around or even be plucked out and next to nothing will happen to the shirt. Other threads are critical and if you remove them you lose a button or a sleeve falls off. Ta'veren are those critically important threads.

For purposes of the story, the minor threads have more latitude to alter their lives and change their circumstances. The Ta'veren, through, are much more tightly woven into the pattern. Their importance actually swirls the threads of others around them and creates great alterations to the pattern, but while the destines of others get changed, the destines of the Ta'veren are pretty set in stone. It's an interesting contrast that Jordan set up.

I got some of that... but wow, that sounds GREAT. I may get book 1 on kindle after I finish the first season. I really want to try and get my first impressions of the story through the series first this time.

About them all being important, they give clear signs that Rand is the Dragon, but they are mostly meta signs. He fits the bill of the usual protagonist. In the story, until now he is the least likelly to be the dragon, as he has nothing "special" going for him. I think this is really cool, and drives the interest in the story of the other four a lot. I got the feeling they were all gonna be important to this world and were all really special from the start, even if only one of them is the Dragon.

 

[Maxperson]

I got some of that... but wow, that sounds GREAT. I may get book 1 on kindle after I finish the first season. I really want to try and get my first impressions of the story through the series first this time.

About them all being important, they give clear signs that Rand is the Dragon, but they are mostly meta signs. He fits the bill of the usual protagonist. In the story, until now he is the least likelly to be the dragon, as he has nothing "special" going for him. I think this is really cool, and drives the interest in the story of the other four a lot. I got the feeling they were all gonna be important to this world and were all really special from the start, even if only one of them is the Dragon.

Yeah. In the books only Matt, Perrin and Rand were Ta'veren, but Egwene and Nynaeve did things every bit as great and world affecting as the guys did, so I never really understood why they weren't Ta'veren as well.

 

[Bolares]

Yeah. In the books only Matt, Perrin and Rand were Ta'veren, but Egwene and Nynaeve did things every bit as great and world affecting as the guys did, so I never really understood why they weren't Ta'veren as well.

well... they are dudes written by a dude.

 

[Parmandur]

I got some of that... but wow, that sounds GREAT. I may get book 1 on kindle after I finish the first season. I really want to try and get my first impressions of the story through the series first this time.

About them all being important, they give clear signs that Rand is the Dragon, but they are mostly meta signs. He fits the bill of the usual protagonist. In the story, until now he is the least likelly to be the dragon, as he has nothing "special" going for him. I think this is really cool, and drives the interest in the story of the other four a lot. I got the feeling they were all gonna be important to this world and were all really special from the start, even if only one of them is the Dragon.

I've said this upthread, but trying book 1 and seeing if the style suits you is definitely worth the time. The series gets a bit sluggish, or maybe languid is a better word, but gosh does it get somewhere in the end.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah. In the books only Matt, Perrin and Rand were Ta'veren, but Egwene and Nynaeve did things every bit as great and world affecting as the guys did, so I never really understood why they weren't Ta'veren as well.

It probably has to do with the three guys being united in a triad (Tyr-Odin-Thor, according to Jordan), tied across lifetimes.

 

[Parmandur]

well... they are dudes written by a dude.

Well, Nyneave and Egwene end up as totally awesome and mythic figures, they just don't get called out as being notably kinks in the Pattern: Egwene especially, given what she does, that seems an odd omission still.