#cause you know lanfear was up in her good dreams

[neuxue]

You ever pick them songs for characters? The most on-the-nose song I can think of for Rand is "Wayward Son" by Kansas. But "Wars" by Hurt kind of works too, with lines like "How many weapons did I help create? \ And how many lives will they devastate?" Always makes me think of Rand immediately after Drmai's Wells.

Yes! Well, sort of. I think I tend to associate lyrics rather than full songs with characters, a lot of the time. But yes. 

Though my taste in music is…questionable. Mostly because I just don’t go looking for music often beyond the classical/orchestral stuff I listen to at work, so I… don’t have a lot to choose from that I actually know well, beyond a limited selection of artists who fall into either ‘singer-songwriter with intricate lyrics’ or ‘painfully generic music that ten years ago might have qualified as almost hipster’. Or musicals.

But sure, let’s WoT a go. A random list off the top of my head:

Rand is difficult, probably because I don’t have the right genre. I’ve done Hamilton lyrics I associate with him (and Lews Therin)… oh and there was that time I abandoned dignity entirely and wrote a song for Rand, which still might be my most embarrassing contribution to this fandom…

Weirdly, perhaps, After All by Dar Williams comes to mind for him. Only pieces of it really fit, but there’s a mood it captures that feels like pre-Dragonmount Rand

once upon a time I had control / and reined my soul in tight / well the whole truth is like the story of a wave unfurled / but I held the evil of the world / so I stopped the tide / froze it up from inside / […] / and when I chose to live / there was no joy, it’s just a line I crossed / it wasn’t worth the pain my death would cost

Lanfear - Never Look Away by Vienna Teng 

You are made of nebulas and novas and night skies / you’re made of memories you bury or live by / and if you’re out there in the cold, I’ll cover you in moonlight / if you’re a stranger to your soul, I’ll bring you to your birthright / I want the storm inside you awoken now

(Or, alternatively, Blank Space by Taylor Swift. I’m sorry but I’m also not)

Elayne - The Life of a Princess by Antje Duvekot, mostly for the title and the contrast of a wistful sound with determined lyrics

and she pictures the dance, she imagines the song / and the stairs to her chamber have never seemed longer / and I will fight my battles in person / but I will not be crippled by dreams that have withered and died / when nobody was watching / no I will not be crippled by dreams

Morgase/Tallanvor - The Queen and the Soldier by Suzanne Vega (except for the last verse)

Oh the young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye / she said you won’t understand and you may as well not try / […] / and the sun, it was gold though the sky it was gray / and she wanted more than she ever could say / but she knew how it frightened her and she turned away

Mat - The Lucky One by Alison Krauss. No I will not be accepting constructive criticism at this time.

you’re the lucky one, so I’ve been told / as free as the wind blowing down the road / loved by many, hated by none / I’d say you’re lucky ‘cause I know what you’ve done / […] / give you a song and a one night stand / and you’ll be looking at a happy man / 'cause you’re the lucky one / […] / well you’re blessed I guess by never knowing which road you’re choosing / to you the next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing 

Moiraine + Lan - Laughter Lines by Bastille. It’s another one that isn’t an exact match but something about it feels very them to me

I’ll see you in the future when we’re older / and we are full of stories to be told / cross my heart and hope to die / I’ll see you with your laughter lines

Nynaeve - The Tower by Vienna Teng, perhaps. It also maybe works for Siuan, but I’m not sure how well it really works for either of them.

the one who survives by making the lives of others worthwhile / she’s coming apart right before my eyes / the one who depends on the services she renders to those who come knocking / […] / she says I need not to need / or else a love with intuition / someone who reaches out to my weakness and won’t let go / I need not to need / I’ve always been the tower / but now I feel like I’m the flower trying to bloom in snow

Egwene - I feel like I should have all kinds of songs for her but all that comes to mind at the moment is a single verse of Ballad of Fred Noonan by Antje Duvekot, though the rest of the song doesn’t fit at all (I just like it because of… reasons you may be able to guess if you’ve read this blog too closely)

your sustenance was fame / always starving for a thrill / not afraid of a thing / couldn’t you have wished upon a rainbow / just like everybody else / but you had to wish on lightning

Tam - Bring Him Home, from Les Miserables (not really but every fictional father with a doomed son gets this associated with him by default)

he is young, he’s afraid / let him rest, heaven blessed / bring him home, bring him home, bring him home / he’s like the son I might have known / if god had granted me a son / the summers die one by one / how soon they fly, on and on[…] / bring him peace, bring him joy / he is young, he is only a boy / you can take, you can give / let him be let him live

Like I said, no one ever accused me of good taste in music. 

I should have more (especially for the Forsaken) but, while I have a decent enemies-to-lovers playlist with a bit more variety of genres, none of the actual songs fit, annoyingly. And I don’t remember any of the songs from my symphonic metal phase well enough.

[ivanaskye]

WoT reactions: book 5

Oh gods, everything is happening absolutely all of the time.

So, like usual, I’m gonna yell about it character by character.

[[MORE]]

(Not that that readmore ever works...)

Rand

Oh, he is a mess.

Remember when Rand was kind of boring and ~just a guy~? Remember when he wasn’t ruling like three or four countries and having a hard time thinking about people in any light other than how he can use them? Remember that?

Because, boy, that Rand is gone

He is literally wanting to die by now

“I deserve death”

“Death would be better”

And this is only book 6 out of 14. Oh boy.

He still Can’t Kill Women tho

This is bad for everyone involved

Pls unlearn ur sexism Rand

Mat

The thing about Mat is that most of his personality traits are things I hate in a character, BUT his core trope is my favorite

He Knows His Past Lives

At least kinda

FORBIDDEN MYSTERIOUS KNOWLEDGE, he is all the other hims he once was

He’s still... Mat tho, desperately trying to run away

All he wants is gambling and casual sex

But NO he has near infinite battle tactics knowledge from 2000 years ago :| I’d feel sorry for him but also like. I do not.

Perrin

Literally not in this book lol, we’ll find out more about what he’s been up to next book

Egwene

Is going through character growth at 500 miles per hour and I’m here for it

That scene where she realized she was talking to Moiraine like an EQUAL. Aaa my heart.

Overrides Nynaeve’s temper with pure calmness

Oh boy I love her

Foreshadowing that she’s gonna be the Amyrlin has only gotten stronger. I feel this in my bones.

Moiraine

I was gonna try to go longer without talking about her, but....

....fuck you, Robert Jordan.

:(

:((

:(((

Okay, the last book and a half she has been displaying every death flag known to man and then some. So I’m not surprised BUT I do still want to cry.

Ofc she had that many flags bc she KNEW SHE WAS GONNA DIE

fucking

She is an archetype I usually HATE (keeps too many secrets) but I! Love her! She is (was) doing her best!

That all said, she might not actually be dead—Amys saying that Rand is a fool right after he says she’s dead + asmodean dying to a mysterious person who may just be Lanfear...

Cause how Moiraine died was tackling Lanfear through a mysterious portal

And now her presence “can’t be felt”

But maybe she’s just in some other reality? I hope?

:x

;-;

Elayne

There are exactly two brain cells left standing now that Moiraine is gone, and Elayne has one of them. (Egwene has the other)

She also uh. Does A Thing this book. But that’s better to talk about under another character’s heading-

Birgitte

Jfc I was NOT expecting what happened here

Tfw you’re in the True Dream World which also serves as an afterlife for perennially reincarnated heroes, which you are, and you’re not supposed to talk to alive people, but you do anyway, and then

Then you get killed, in the afterlife

And develop a fully formed body in the Alive World

And remember all of your past lives

But you’re like, dying

And maybe not in a returning-to-afterlife way

SO ELAYNE FREAKING BONDS YOU AS A WARDER.

Anyway I ship it

Nynaeve

If Egwene gets the award for fastest character development, Nynaeve gets... the opposite award

If anything, she’s getting MORE insufferable and also unselfaware with time

“It’s so great that people get to be around me, who is always calm and never yells at anyone at all!” she thinks. Multiple times.

I’m glad that with her and Elayne we finally got a bit of a Tel’aran’rhiod (True Dream World) training sequence—we hadn’t gotten to see that with Egwene

Meanwhile this book Nynaeve is the poster child for “how close to straight up torturing people are Our Heroes now”

(The answer: pretty close, by which I mean, yes definitely torture, but not the WORST torture. Yet.)

Egeanin

Where is she where is my child

Min

Spends most of the book Escaping with Siuan and Leane, plus giving the two of them a lot of weird looks

Her moment to shine is probably later

Siuan

Let me tell you, as of book 2 or 3 I did not expect her to outlive Moiraine

A Real Good Character

She may be stilled but she can still scheme and manipulate For The Side Of Good

Bonus side effect of not having magic: she is no longer bound by magical path to not lie!

“The Kid Gloves Are Off Motherfuckers” - Siuan Sanche, probably

Leane

Unlike Siuan, finds new purpose/reason not to commit suicide not in revenge but in. Flirting.

“Can’t want to kill myself if I wanna hone my seduction skills instead”

Real galaxy brain take there

I’m love her also

Aviendha

Ok I’m starting to like her now, mostly due to the Most Fanfic Sequence Of Events I Have Ever Read Including In A Fanfic

(That’s right: your fave fanfic could never)

To recap: Aviendha, sneaking into Rand’s to take a bath

Caught naked

Flips out, instinctively does something with the Power that almost no one alive knows how to

That thing being: MAKES A GODDAMN PORTAL

INTO A BLIZZARD

WHILE NAKED, MIND YOU, AND DRIPPING WET

Rand, being Very Concerned about this, grabs a bunch of blankets and follows her

She runs away

For a mile

In a blizzard

While naked

Gets to an iced-over river, FALLS IN

Rand, using the Power but also almost dying himself, pulls her out and wraps her in blankets

Makes a FREAKING HOUSE out of magic

Gets her inside

But That’s Not Enough Body Heat

Oh No He Has To Snuggle Her

Due to the powers of body heat, she retains consciousness

Then They Have Sex

Him, afterwards: oh fuck! We’re not even married! Fuck I guess we can quickly get married as soon as we come back!

Her: marriage whom

Also her, Who Has Just Had Sex With Him: also obviously I can’t marry you, you belong to Elayne

Functions? NO

Brain cells? ABSOLUTELY NOT

Thoughts? NOT EVEN ONCE

I love all these characters y’all