An honest assessment of WOT?

[PetrusOctavianus]

What's frustrating about WOT is, like Malazan, the unfulfilled potential. Jordan *could* write exciting and good prose, but his obession with needless detaile and the same sentences over and over again ruins it. Arya's 20 chewings in ASOIAF is endearing, but Jordan's braid tucking and crossing of hands beneath breasts gets annying very soon.

I found the 4 or 5 books very entertaining, but at some point the amount of needless details combined with slow moving plot and increasingly annoying characters killed the interest for me.

[Perin Stone]

Was it ever explained where Callandor came from? Was it created before the Stone of Tear, or after? Who set the wards so only TDR could touch it, and how?

[Shryke]

Was it ever explained where Callandor came from? Was it created before the Stone of Tear, or after? Who set the wards so only TDR could touch it, and how?

It'd largely explained in TSR.

[Werthead]

Was it ever explained where Callandor came from? Was it created before the Stone of Tear, or after? Who set the wards so only TDR could touch it, and how?

Deindre and the other cabal of Aes Sedai who had the Fortellings that formed the basis for the Prophecies of the Dragon apparently created (or completed) Callandor inbetween the strike on Shayol Ghul and the evacuation of Paaran Disen. A group of Aes Sedai resolved to take Callandor somewhere safe and place it where, in accordance with their Foretellings, only the Dragon Reborn could claim it.

That fits in with other (somewhat garbled, probably deliberately by Jordan to replicate the ambiguity of real history) reports that the Stone of Tear was actually built before the Breaking of the World fully ended, and the Aes Sedai knew where to build it thanks to the Foretellings.

Oh yeah, Tom Doherty said that Jordan had completed about 50,000 words for all three final books, which whilst a decent amount is about one-eighteenth what Sanderson has written for them, and is definitely a lot less than 700 MS pages. Still, the other news is very promising.

[Jaerv]

Ouch, that is worse than most Fantasy females not having a menstruation at all.

Hmm, male masturbation is usually also not described in Fantasy, despite being extremely frequent according to Kinsey and other researchers.

I am not sure whether I really need to know how and when the hero jacks off. Same with menstruation.

[Galactus]

Deindre and the other cabal of Aes Sedai who had the Fortellings that formed the basis for the Prophecies of the Dragon apparently created (or completed) Callandor inbetween the strike on Shayol Ghul and the evacuation of Paaran Disen. A group of Aes Sedai resolved to take Callandor somewhere safe and place it where, in accordance with their Foretellings, only the Dragon Reborn could claim it.

I think it was hinted somewhere (not sure) that the reason Callandor is flawed is that they didn't have access to any male channelers (not enough male channelers?) or some such.

[Shryke]

I think it was hinted somewhere (not sure) that the reason Callandor is flawed is that they didn't have access to any male channelers (not enough male channelers?) or some such.

Or the Taint.

I think it mentions they DID use a male chaneller, but that he was going insane while they did it.

[Poobah]

I thought it was something along the lines of "created in the middle of an apocalypse -> shoddy craftsmanship".

I do recall them using a load of pretty sane young male Aes Sedai to create The Eye (and die in the process), and they almost certainly used men as well as women to create the stone of tear (I can't buy even 13 of the strongest women being able to channel a small mountain without some serious Angreal and probably not even then - creating the Stone seems on the same level as some of the stuff Rand was doing when linked with half of the male Choedan Kal during his fight with Asmo) and definitely used both to make the wards surrounding Callandor, so I can certainly buy men being used in the creation of Callandor.

That said, my pet theory has always been that Saidin is used to make Angreal which multiply Saidar and Saidar for Saidin magnifying Angreal. It just seems to make sense given how the two seem to repel one another, how you need Saidin to fully heal a Saidar channeller's link to the source and how the two interacted during the Cleansing.

-Poobs

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

Edit - double post...

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

Or the Taint.

I think it mentions they DID use a male chaneller, but that he was going insane while they did it.

I believe the male channelers that the AS in that scene discuss are the ones who are going to help them create the Eye. If it's the scene I'm thinking of...

SPOILER: TSR Aiel stuff

When Rand's ancestor is given the task of leading the Aiel out of Paaren Disen and keeping their things safe

... then the Green Man is there, and so is Callandor, already made and already flawed - I don't remember anything specific about the flaw except that it existed from the beginning. The implication of the scene, to me, is that the sane male AS are going to be the ones helping them create the Eye.

That said, my pet theory has always been that Saidin is used to make Angreal which multiply Saidar and Saidar for Saidin magnifying Angreal. It just seems to make sense given how the two seem to repel one another, how you need Saidin to fully heal a Saidar channeller's link to the source and how the two interacted during the Cleansing.

-Poobs

I definitely think you're right about this. If you look at the evidence later in the series:

SPOILER: not really central-plot related but later twists

Nynaeve can restore a Gentled man to full strength, but not a woman; Grinn (??? I think that's the wrong name but I can't think of the name of Rand's Asha'man healing badass) can apparently restore a woman to full power, and presumably not a man.

Add to that:

SPOILER: Why do I bother to spoiler-tag these things?

Elayne's failure to replicate an angreal. Maybe the reason for her failure isn't that she's not good enough, but rather that she isn't capable of creating one attuned to women, and she wouldn't have access to one designed for men.