Thursday, August 4, 2011

My Favorite Wheel of Time Character

If you haven't read the series yet, beware...there are some spoilers below!

One of my favorite things to listen to while I paint and work on my artwork is the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan on Audible. I am midway through the 4th book and am thoroughly enjoying the series. My favorite thing about the series is that there are so many characters in the book and they each have such unique powers and abilities.



While I think the male characters are all very interesting, I am of course drawn to the female characters. I really love the whole idea of Aes Sedai. In the stories, Aes Sedai are women with magical powers. Aes Sedai train in the White Tower and eventually choose an Ajah color. There are different Ajah colors and an Aes Sedai's Ajah color dictates their specialty. For instance, the brown Ajah are historians, yellow Ajah are healers and so on.

Moraine is the first Aes Sedai that we meet in the book and she is of the blue Ajah. The blue Ajah like to go abroad and become involved in political affairs and justice. I like that you can never fully trust Moraine's character. She seems like she is a good person, but is she really looking out for every one's best interests? It's hard to tell! But I think my favorite character so far is Nynaeve.

Nynaeve is a very stubborn, quick to anger type of person. But more than anything she cares about the well-being of everyone from her small village. She has the strongest potential out of any Aes Sedai in thousands of years, but she cannot yet wield her power consciously. She has to become angered to fully embrace her powers. She oftentimes makes herself angry on purpose so that she can channel her power. But when she is able to channel her power, she is unmatched in her abilities.

She is also interesting because she has been using her powers for almost her entire life as a wisdom in her village. A wisdom is like a village's wise-woman, adept at healing and can sometimes listen to the wind or predict the weather. Most women who use their powers without training end up killing or hurting themselves, but she has been able to use her powers unknowingly for years without being harmed. I am really looking forward to seeing how Nynaeve's character develops throughout the series. Will she ever be able to wield her power without becoming angry?

I am also at the part of the book where Nynaeve and Lan first start up their relationship. Lan is Moraine's warder which means he swore to protect Moraine until her death. Aes Sedai usually have one warder who is adept at sword fighting and can sense all evil spawned creatures. Lan is bound to protect Moraine even if his heart belongs to Nynaeve. Nynaeve has always hated Moraine since they first met, so the interplay between the three of them is quite intriguing. It's almost like a love triangle. It's hard to tell how Moraine feels about everything so far, but I can't wait to see how that situation develops as well.

Do you like the Wheel of Time series? If so, what is your favorite character? If you haven't yet read the Wheel of Time series and like fantasy books, I definitely suggest you give them a try!

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