#problematic fave Tuon

[toastandjamie]

You know as a Mat/Tuon enjoyer I can’t stress enough how much their relationship would never have occurred without the intervention of fate and the two of them knowing that they were destined to marry. Without the prophecy and the signet ring Tuon wouldn’t have given Mat a second thought. Mat wouldn’t have tried so hard to make her like him if he hadn’t already known they would get married. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy! Their relationship is like a liger, it can’t exist outside of captivity and only with outside interference.

And I love that about them

[highladyluck]

Do I have to come up with all the Tuon femslash ships around here or what

[veliseraptor]

brandon sanderson undoubtedly made mistakes with mat's characterization but making him a total wifeguy for tuon was not in my opinion one of them

[thesingersews]

I love my problematic fave, Tuon.

I love the Mat/Tuon enemies to lovers arc.

Can't help it, sorry.

[letsiuanstopmakingfishmetaphors]

I love Tuon and everything but hooooo boy does she still have some unlearning to do vis-a-vis leashing and “property”

[nerenda]

Wheel of time for the blorbo etc ask game!

(In reference to this)

Time to find out how many (or few) characters I can actually recall by name, as it's been a while since I read the books.

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most): Rand is my precious, how he goes through everything just moves me. If I think of wot in general I think of him first and foremost. Hard to ignore the dragon, after all.

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped): I don't know if he's cuteness aggression but I do absolutely love Perrin as a character even if his arc doesn't move me quite so much. I may not understand Faile well but she has good taste.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave): esp with the show Tigraine is up there, though I'm not sure how underrated she is. Woman had some serious guts and commitment. Gitara is definitely related in how pivotal she is, looming in the background of everything that happens.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week): whoever the farmer was who got to enjoy zen Rand's apple bounty. This may be more due to his spot in the story than himself, though. In general most less prominent characters have fallen from my brain by now, I'm afraid.

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave): wot tumblr sure is making me care about Moghedien a whole lot

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason): Semirhage. I doubt I'd be nearly creative enough to actually trouble her, but I like the irony.

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell): Cadsuane or Tuon (sorry, I know you're probably the number one Tuon apologist here, but I unfortunately have yet to warm up to her. Your propaganda might do the trick eventually, tho)

[wot-tidbits]

LightOne in 2019

It is time for my personal post about my WOT 2019 experience which isn’t something special as usual but I love talking about it despite nobody is listening to.

I will remember this year with the following points. 

1.Hello, Asshole, I missed you.

I am a person. I am not just piece of junk to be kicked around in the cultural war of “mah diversity”. I know it is easier to see a person in one light, to check them with one mark and put them in boxes, oh, these favourite boxes of “problematic” opinions.

What was my sin this time? Let me see, did I say how bad is the casting? Nope. Did I say how I want my lovely boys and girls to stay away from the SJWs progressive shit? Nope. Did I was mean towards the chosen actors? Uhmmm…. noooope. Blood and bloody ashes! What then?!? On what basis was the biggest controversy this year in our little fandom on Tumblr?

Just some appeal to one part of fans to acknowledge the actual criticism of other part of fans. Mother’s milk in a cup!

Yep, this seemed enough for people to unfollow/block in rage.

You have to love it when you are put in a box for just one case.

I don’t have problem my fave WOT female character to be Tuon. I don’t have problem with The Stormlight Archives to be my fave with Kholin’s family in charge. I have no problem with my new fave anime of 2019 Cannon Busters’ (check it out) for having a plenty of POC main characters, and so on. No one cares if you have 99 other faves with POC main characters as you don’t agree about one (1) case, then you are racist on the spot.  

2. Instagram is on the horizon!

This year I decided to expand my options and I created a profile on Instagram. I can confirm it’s worth your time! Instagram seems to attract a huge chunk of the fandom and there is the new place to post your art pieces. You can follow me on @lightone_wot. Who knows may be next year I will have Twitter account too!

3. A dream came true.

Since 2013, the moment I read that scene in A Memory of Light, I dreamt someone to be generous enough to draw it. But time passed and no sign of fulfillment of my dream has been seen. So I took the matter in my hands and made a gamble to commission the awesome @meeppodraws who took the project to her heart and made the impossible to amaze me and even did more than what I was expecting for result. She overachieved my expectations and for this I will be forever grateful. Thank you, meeppodraws, you are wonderful and you deserve more recognition for your fantastic skills! <3

 4. Publishing WoT articles

This year I had the luck to publish two WOT articles in my fave (and the best) Bulgarian online magazine for sci-fi and fantasy. One of them was about the upcoming TV series and was published in the summer before the casting announcements. As an anecdote I can tell how my editor noted me that the article put too big light on stuff like gender issues, POC Two Rivers, feminism and so on - with one word he thought the article was too woke than expected. Wow, watch this, I am on the progressive side for once! (For the record I just tried to explain what is trending, I didn’t bash on the subject or similar.) I was the one who prepared the unaware Bulgarian audience for that fateful casting in August and oh, boy, they weren’t happy about it.

5. Facebook admin

The wheel weaves as the wheel wills and this year its will was very weird as I have been promoted as an admin in both Bulgarian WOT groups on Facebook. Weird as I didn’t ask for it and I didn’t expect it at all. But oh, well, probably my constant work pays off sometimes. So far I didn’t get into trouble and I haven’t banned people for nothing (not like some other certain Facebook queen/tyrant). It is weird as I used to be a random guy in the mass but now I am running the Bulgarian community and publish articles in respectful magazines and being on the bloody spotlight. I don’t know if this speaks well or bad for the Bulgarian fandom.

6.WOT-memes and WOT-notes are doing great.

My side pojects are doing great this year. @wot-memes is flourishing on the rising glory of new and fresh WoT memes around the fandom. @wot-notes is also getting recognition as the good fellas who had access to Charleston’s notes were kind enough to reveal more material for you to read.

7.The Fandom archives

And on the top of all through the whole year I have run one very exhausting project – I brought back from the dusty archives almost all posts in my blog from the period of 2014-2016. For every single day. It took me hours and hours in preparing that content but I hope all that hard work paid off as there are so many awesome posts who deserve your love again and again. Next year I intend to continue the project for years 2017-2018 and I hope you will appreciate them again.

8. Reddit recognition. Probably. May be. A little bit.

In the midst of the casting drama and its heated discourse my blog was used on Reddit as a source with giving links and everything. Let that thought sink in your heads. My blog was used as a source. I bet some old folk around would give a chuckle on that irony or drop a tear, who knows. :D

Let the Light keep you safe.

LightOne

[aporeticelenchus]

THOUGHTS ON MAT & TUON - as separate characters, how they relate to each other, and in a relationship!!!!!! :D

Mat’s my favorite male character in the series! He starts out a little rocky (especially vis-à-vis women), but his story lines are really fun and he’s the one most consistently telling jokes. I appreciate that in a character. Tuon’s a bit of a problematic fave but I really enjoy her. She’s very much a product of her upbringing and her station, but she manages to change and adapt and see other people’s perspectives (albeit incompletely) and I’d be very interested to know more about where her character arc goes.

Mat and Tuon together are two of my favorites! Tuon seem to have a lot of genuine fun with Mat, which is something there clearly hasn’t been much of in her life. And Mat may be deeply confused about pretty much everything relating to Tuon, but watching him slowly realize he was in love with her was delightful and dangit he seemed to have a lot of fun around her too. They’re both strong and stubborn personalities; I’d be worried about Tuon overpowering a lot of other characters, but I think Mat is well-positioned to hold his own and be a genuine partner with her in a way that works for him. He grew a lot over the series - and so did she I think. They bring out good qualities in each other.

[toastandjamie]

Tuon @ Mat inbetween threatening to make him a cupbearer

[toastandjamie]

I need the show to keep Mat and Tuon’s first meeting exactly the same because the concept of show!Mat having such terrible mommy issues that a woman subtly critiquing his appearance and then offering to literally purchase him doesn’t even register as a red flag is pretty funny

[toastandjamie]

It’s the daily Tuon and Mat thoughts.

So at the end of Memory of Light we’re hot with the reveal that Tuon’s pregnant. And I mean, she’s always been pretty clear that Mat’s main role as consort is to give her heirs. Okay so like- Mat and Tuon’s kids right, let’s put aside the channeling conundrum for a minute and actually talk about them as parents. Specifically how wildly different their upbringings were and how that affects their parenting styles. Imperial Seanchen and the Two Rivers have very different takes on family and parenthood. The two rivers is a small tight knit community, “it takes a village” type place, with close families and attentive parents meanwhile the Seanchen imperial family is incredibly isolated from eachother, with Tuon rarely ever seeing her mother and her and her siblings actively encouraged to compete against each other and eventually kill each other.

From his interactions with Olver we already have a rough idea about how Mat takes the responsibility of caring for a child. He’s very responsible about it, even if he’s a bad influence at times, he prioritizes Olver’s safety and education even while they’re on the road. A core trait for Mat is his soft spot for kids, he likes being around them and does seem to enjoy the act of parenting though he’s loathe to admit it. I think it’s safe to assume that as a father he’d make sure to be very present in his kids lives and encourage a proper familial bond between the siblings. He’d be attentive and a bit doting. Though his behavior will probably be seen as spoiling by the Seanchen rather than just the bare minimum. Mat is a Two Rivers boy at heart and I think he’d find it difficult to hand off parenting responsibilities to nursemaids and da’covale shadows, especially given the high percentage of assassination attempts made on the imperial family. It’ll end up being his fear and paranoia that causes him some issues as a parent because he’ll likely end up becoming over-protective, trying to compensate for the constant dangers his children face by being over-bearing and sheltering.

Tuon conversely grew up with the expectation of self preservation, you either learn to be self sufficient or you die. She’s a lot harder to pinpoint in how she’ll take to motherhood than Mat, just because she has very little experience with kids in general. It’s possible that she’d follow her mothers footsteps and try to remain distant from her children and promote competition but it’s also just as likely that Mat’s influence could convince her to have a more personal relationship with her children. Her biggest issue is that she’ll have a hard time emotionally connecting to her children, especially if she believes that they won’t make it to adulthood. She might also be more neglectful towards those of her children that she doesn’t claim as her heir, though I think Mat would likely grow a bit agitated if he believed Tuon was playing favorites. As I think he’d also be upset by Tuon not really participating in parenting their children in general.

[toastandjamie]

Mat/Tuon coded

[highladyluck]

I’m so happy that with some of these AUs, the fandom is awakening to the absolutely explosive interim drama & compelling eventual tag-team of Tuon and Nyneave.

They’d accidentally have the same approach to an issue and then immediately both pick the reverse approach. They’d find they’ve both had the same experience and immediately deny it. They would leave the room the moment the other one showed up, but they would both try to save the other’s life if there was a sudden attack and then they’d both lie furiously about why they did it. Both of them believe Mat is best boy and that he can never know they think this.

I firmly believe in Nyneave’s ability to bring out Tuon’s brattiest responses and her most admirable ones, and I also firmly believe in Tuon’s admiration of competence & loyalty eventually winning out over her dislike of chaos & marath’damane.

[toastandjamie]

I don’t think we all talk about just how obsessed with Mat Tuon is. Name your favorite moment of Tuon being obsessed with her malewife. I’ll go first,

Tuon agreeing to Rand’s terms for an alliance/peace treaty because Mat gave her puppy dog eyes and hit her with the “please for me?”

[highladyluck]

It’s so important to me that we remix Tuon’s marriage prophecy to be about different characters.

We were given a powerful tool to make famously stubborn Tuon eventually acquiesce to any relationship, with all of its fascinating personal, sociopolitical, and plot-catalyzing implications.

Now, in these times of textual analysis through fanfiction and widespread interest in evil women, it is more crucial than ever before!

We must use the Seanchan arranged marriage trope, and Tuon’s ironclad adherence to prophecy, to make supremely unhinged crack pairings.

[highladyluck]

Mat: *thriving in Robert Jordan's kinky BDSM universe* Egwene: your beloved evil wife the universe insisted you marry is my personal horror movie