um…did I miss something?
Okay, okay, there’s a few similarities. Hey, no one claimed Robert Jordan’s a great author. Or even an adequate one. The question is how the first book or two got to be good enough to ensnare so many people into reading all this subsequent crap.
He knows how to end a book.
- Tarwin’s Gap
- The Grave is no Bar to My Call/The Sky over Falme
- The Stone Stands
- Alcair Dail/ Emond’s Field
- Redstone Doorway/Battle of Caemlyn
- Dumai’s Wells (perhaps the greatest ending in Fantasy history)
- Blademaster/ Healing/ Battle for Ilian/ Mashiara/ Promises to keep (Mat vs. gholam)
- Rogue Asha’Man
- The Choedan’Kal (close behind Dumai’s Wells)
10)…um…you get the idea.
Just a little theory I have. I’ve presented it here before, to admittedly little effect.
Just the same shit Alessan whips out pretty much every time.
You can check for any threads involving his name, my name, and Robert Jordan for the last time he got beaten down on this subject.
-Joe
Have to look that one up. First I’m hearing that Jordan is a Nazi.
Whats interesting to me is the number of folks on this board who seem to hate the WoT series…yet read it anyway. 
Myself, though occationally I get annoyed with the straightening skirts thing, I guess I’m just more tolerant. Even the books considered ‘bad’ have interesting and even vital plot points in them. Admittedly actually listening to these things in a book on tape unabridged format (except for book 8 which is impossible to get for some odd reason) has helped a lot on me 2 hour a day each way drive into work.
-XT
Oh, please. I just brought it up once, and I freely admitted that I didn’t have enough real evidence to back my claim - just noted a series of odd coincidences. Disagree? Ignore me. It’s no biggie.
Anyway, it’s all because his writing went downhill after I invested the time and money to read seven thick books. Even if Jordan is a vicious anti-semite, I still love the first three and tolerate nos. 4 and 5, and if someday someone manages to convince me that the last two are as good as the first too, I’ll read the whole series from beginning to end, including the crappy books.
It’s a fun read if you want to see him flailing to defend a piss-poor theory, but I know you get enough of that already. 
Basically, two negative potrayals of merchants (Fain and Kadere) mean he’s anti-semitic.
The positive potrayals of what are obviously a bunch of Nazis (the Whitecloaks) show his Nazi leanings.
Now, as soon as someone can find me a scene where the Whitecloaks are acting in anything other than a really negative way, well, it doesn’t matter because you won’t.
-Joe
You had to go and do that, didn’t you. You couldn’t just let a small, throwaway comment pass you by. No, you had to start talking trash. Do you WANT this thread to end up in the Pit? Do ya?
Not merchants, peddlers. Peddlers, like moneylenders, are code for Jew. And not only are the only peddlers in the series all evil, they’re evil and pathetic - maybe the most pathetic characters Jordan wrote.
They’re not Nazis, they’re Klansmen. And while their approach is totally wrong, their enemy - the Dark One - is real; they’re merely misguided. Like the KKK attacking blacks instead of Jews.
And what about the flag? How do you explain THAT?
Look, I said it’s not a perfect theory, or even a wel-though-out one. But it’s my theory, and I’m running with it.
Why are merchants not peddlers? Why is peddler a ‘code word’ for Jew (I get ‘moneylenders’)? I always thought peddler was a ‘code word’ for gypsy…if it was a ‘code word’ at all.
The peddlers or merchants or whatever are certainly evil in the books, though just the specific ones who are minor charcters in the books…others in the same profession aren’t equally demonized, in fact don’t the Aiel respect them and let them pass through the wastes, unlike most other? But they don’t seem especially ‘Jew-like’ to me…unless one equates worship of the dark one with Jewish worship of Yahweh (God), which I don’t see.
Definitely don’t agree with you here. They don’t seem to me to be either Nazi’s or Klansmen, more like the Blood of the Fold from Goodkinds saga. Certainly they are evil and twisted and I don’t see Jordan making them positive in any way…until perhaps the next book when they may be redeemed I suppose. They hate women who can channel and live in such a totalitarian world that I always saw them more as the counterpoint to the Red Sisters…or perhaps the communist thought police, willing to burn down 99 innocents to get lucky and get one guilty person. If Jordan is a secret Nazi (or Klansman) I’d think he’d want to make them seem a bit less evil. Even if they are redeemed in the next book its by a guy who is obviously NOT a raving fanatic willing and even eager to kill the innocent to get to the guilty.
BTW, what about the flag?
Sorry if this is all a hijack but this is the first time I’ve ever seen such a theory and was interested enough to want to draw you out. Hopefully you won’t be too offended or pissed off.
lol. No worries, we all have our pet theories.
-XT
Speaking of, I still think Min has Aelfinn blood in her.
You think she is snakelike (unless I’m mixing my types)? I would have said more Eelfinn…she seems like a ‘fox’ to me anyway.
-XT
Wow. It’s been so long since the last one (and so very little happened in the last one) that I honestly don’t remember what all is going on. I remember liking Mat the most, I think. Should I start reading them over from the beginning or can I start from like book 8 or so?
You brought it up. If you don’t want your theory discussed, don’t mention it.
No, but when Mat was getting his fate read in Rhuidean, the Aelfinn seemed to look at the air around his head before answering anything. Sounds an awful lot like what Min does. It’s my favorite crazy theory, and probably will never be addressed, but I just like to think about it.
I’m willing to discuss it. Politely.
Now, xtisme, as to that flag (not the generic dragon banner - the other one, the one from Dumai Wells)… work with me here.
Close your eyes and think of a flag. Imagine a simple, bright red field. In the very center, imagine a circle. The circle is in black and white. It depicts something very similar to an East Asian religious symbol.
Now picture the symbol. Is it a ying-yang without the dots?
Or is it a swastika?
Ah, hadn’t thought of that to be honest. I see where you are going though and thats an interesting observation. I wonder just how may of these subplots and plot points he will manage to tie up in just two more books. Can’t wait for THIS book to come out to see how the story moves forward.
-XT
Well…I’d have to go with yin and yang symbol, since he’s talked about it so often, with the white Flame of Tar Valon representing women who can channel and the Dragons Fang representing the men. And its right there on the book after all that you linked too. I have to admit it doesn’t look anything like a swastika to me on the book cover, nor did I envision it as such. Now, if you want to try and get REALLY deep, you could say that the swastika was originally an Indian (I believe) symbol that represented the Wheel of Life (again, from memory), and that the Yin/Yang symbology is similar, and that Jordan is…well, ok, I can’t make any further connection myself, but it was going there for a bit.
-XT
…the hell does that mean? It must be one of those new-age fancy schmancy redesigned swastikas, with “a sinuous line dividing the white from black,” a description that’s used over and over.
Unless you’re trying to propose that Jordan’s use of the yin/yang symbol is some sort of “code” for a swastika, which makes even less sense than the idea that “peddler” is code for “Jew”.
What I was saying is that to me, the One Power flag bears a strong resenblence to the Nazi flag, both visually (black and white circle on a red field) and symbolically (Asian religious symbol). Nothing more.
In fact, ignore the symbols. Just think black-white-red. In my mind, that’s an evil color sceme.