The Gathering Storm Re-Readalong: To the End!

[Kassina Tendar]

The Gathering Storm 49 – I don't think Rand's plan here is exactly the smartest thing. Balefire a Forsaken? Sure that is a good plan however I think normal Lightning, Fire and Tornados would be far better.

Except Rand is super paranoid and has decided that balefire is the only way to take out the Forsaken for good. He had his revelation that "Oh crap, the Dark One can just revive them unless they're erased from the Pattern!" so he's determined to balefire every Forsaken he finds... and even though he's crazy paranoid Rand right now, I can definitely see his PoV here. He doesn't know if there are any limitations to Dark One's ability to revive dead Forsaken, so any Forsaken he balefires is guaranteed one fewer he has to fight in the Last Battle...while if he kills them thorugh ordinary means, he might not have accomplished anything.

 

[Ryu Shadowborn]

Kassina Sedai, I agree that balefire on The Forsaken is quite needed as it is the only way to be 100% sure, however in Chapter 49 he is in Ebou Dar and considering plans to attack the Seanchan.

 

[Kassina Tendar]

Ohh, misunderstood! I thought you were talking about his plan to balefire the Forsaken.

 

[Rhed al'Tere]

I just finished this book. A couple new things I saw:

Egwene (obviously) still has issues with the Seanchan. Possibly PTSD. I noticed her thinking about how it still feels wrong, sometimes, to not wear a collar and to be able to move about so freely.

Early in the book, someone scoffs at the idea of the weather being connected to how one feels -- that is, that the way one feels can't make weather. And yet, that's exactly what was happening with Rand.

 

[Rhed al'Tere]

Oh, also, I'd forgotten how bad Brandon was at writing Mat. It's better in Towers of Midnight (thank goodness), but Gathering Storm...I wanted to skim all the Mat sections. :\ I know he's recognized that he didn't do well with Mat, but ... wow. Just. Yeah.

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

I thought it was discovered that it was Jordan that wrote much of the Mat sections?

 

[Rhed al'Tere]

It can't be. The style is so so different from previous sections.

I found a couple blog posts from Brandon about writing Mat. He says himself that he got Mat wrong in Gathering Storm, because he based his Mat on books 1-2 Mat rather than factoring in all the growth Mat had in the later books. Mat was a scamp, to Brandon, and a fairly one-dimensional one at that (imo).
https://brandonsanderson.com/the-wheel-of-time-retrospective-the-gathering-storm-what-i-learned/
https://brandonsanderson.com/the-wheel-of-time-retrospective-towers-of-midnight-writing-process/

I've noticed that Mat, in Towers of Midnight, is much more like Jordan's Mat. Part of this is because Jordan wrote a lot of Mat's plot, but also because Brandon went back to study the writing of Mat to see where he'd gone wrong in GS. And he does a much better job. Mat doesn't feel cartoonish in ToM, where he did in GS.

 

[Kassina Tendar]

Yeah, the Mat chapters are quite jarring in Gathering Storm.

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

Well, it was just something I heard, way back when the books were published It may be related to ToM instead of GS...

I am sure you are correct Mother :curtsey