I came up with this post after I labeled the Wheel of Time as my favorite "Sword and Sorcery" series.
Some rules: I stuck with characters I thought got enough page time. One of WoT's strength is that there are so many awesome characters including sides ones (I mean, think about how many of the horses are named and have arcs!). There is one Aes Sedai who is defined by her twist (and it's so awesome I bet anyone who's read the full series knows exactly who and what I'm talking about), but that one twist (no matter how awesome) isn't enough to promote her to my favorites (though maybe on a reread now that I know what she's up to...). I thought Hurin was a neat character...he doesn't show up enough. I thought the old warder that helped Lan kill the to'raken that attacked Moiraine was cool.....doesn't show up enough. Hopper was only around for a short time, but his death in book 1 was so memorable....but he can't make this list either do to lack of page time.
I feel like I could have made a Top 20 characters for this series (and maybe even Top 30). Hooray for the Wheel of Time!
I tried to avoid characters I thought had to be packaged as a team. Androl and Pevara for instance. Androl is cool enough on his own (even though he only comes in at the very end), but the nature of the bond between the two is really interesting ("You bonded me! Oh yeah? Well, I'll bond you right back!"). So, no Androl/Pevara!
Also - These rankings are based on the full series. My feelings on different characters changed tremendously over the course of all the books. The biggest character who didn't make my list is Perrin Aybara. He was in contention for number one for probably the first three books. He lost a lot of ground after Faile (which I always pronounce "Fail"). He wouldn't have hit my top 20 in the middle books. Learning more about Faile and her culture made her more understandable later on which helped since she's always around Perrin. Perrin manned up more himself and raised his rankings a little in my estimation towards the end, as well. There were two fantastic scenes that I don't know if Sanderson or Jordan wrote (one involving forging a hammer and the other in The Dream).
Some of my top characters started on an opposite arc of Perrin. I didn't like them anywhere near as much in the beginning, but they just kept growing. A couple had really strong finishes. I waffled heavily on all the middle characters moving people up, then down, and then up again as I walked through the moments I could recall.
Oh! I also avoided an villains. Lanfear is a great baddie and Sanderson's reveal that she's still alive at then end was awesome and made a lot of sense. Asmodean had some fun lines, too, but I stuck with people I considered good enough.
The Short List
10. Logaine Ablar
9. The Aiel
8. Birgitte
7. Thom Merrilin
6. Moiranne
5. Lan and Nynaeve
4. Siuan Sanche
3. Egwene
2. Rand Al'Thor
1. Matrim Cauthon
The Long List
10. Logaine Ablar - Logaine's not necessarily here, because I love him the person. He's here because I think his story arc is incredible. He starts the book as a False Dragon. His existence allows for a ton of world-building. The Red Ajah capture him and that serves as an introduction to them and then he gets stilled. Logaine is not so much of an individual character here as he is a vehicle for Jordan to build the world, build characters, and show the stakes.
Yet, Jordan wasn't done with Logaine. He ends up running all over with Min, Siuan, and Leanne as a shadow of himself, helps set up the "Little Tower" with his false confession, and gets healed by Nynaeve.
Logain then goes through a whole new arc with his power restored as he joins the Asha'man! He participates in the battle of the Black Tower and leads it in the The Final Battle.
Logain is the only character I know of who spends books as a background set piece, tags along with 'more main characters' as a useful NPC for several more books, and then becomes a major player for the final books. The healed Logaine can be a pridefulI think that's really cool.
9. The Aiel - I love the Aiel. I was fascinated from the beginning. There are so many cool things about the Aiel and I love many of their characters, but I would argue narratively a lot of them are pushed more into roles than allowed to have huge fun arcs. I love how the Maidens of the Spear adopt Rand as "the one who came back." They decide to be his honor guard and no one can dissuade them from it (and they heckle him mercilessly!). The handtalk is fun. Bani and Chiad teasing Gual always amused me, as well. Speaking of Gual, he's another small character I really liked (He made Perrin arcs that much better!). Rhuarc and Amys serve advisory roles to Rand for much of the book and help reveal more Aiel culture. Aviendha is my favorite of 'the three' who are tied to rand. Her banter with Rand and being forced to give up the spear to be trained as a Wise One were all interesting arcs that showed more Aiel. Couladin was a scary bad guy (taken out by Mat!) and Melindhra being a Darkfriend was a twist of the knife (devastating for Mat!). The red-veiled Aiel were a terrifying master stroke. "Our men who can channel go off North alone to fight." Whoa, I thought, That's tragic and yet bad-ass! Then, many books later, you meet the red-veiled Aiel. "You know those tragic warriors? Did you forget them? RJ didn't and he's doubling-down on the tragedy! The Dark One has been capturing and converting them all along. Now, they're here to kill you" WHOA! Even the dark future hinted at in Aviendha's second vision was interesting.
Again, I loved the Aiel. I am a total fan boy and that's why they're on the list. They were by far my favorite culture introduced in the Wheel of Time. I loved hearing about their origins, to their aversion to the Tuatha'an, to the recurring "Aiel humor" jokes. I even read about Zulu history and their battles against the British when I learned that they were a source of inspiration for the Aiel's design. There were so many named Aiel, but they weren't (in my opinion) allowed enough page time to fully grow and showcase their awesomeness. I couldn't pick one, so I picked them all.
8. Thom Merrilin - Everyone's happy to see a gleeman. Especially when they serve as a mentor figure! Thom was a great POV for noticing social dynamics and plotting. He had history with a queen, could provide insightful exposition into history or The Game of Houses, and throw a mean knife! His motivation to help the boys originally was understandable even outside of them being ta'veren (The Red Ajah stilling his nephew). He was a great, well meaning mentor who's distrust of the Aes Sedai made sense and contributed to the tension of the early books. His much younger love interest was a little odd, but Thom reentered the plot with a vengeance afterward! I love how he argues with Mat and how they switched to playing Stones when Thom figured out playing Mat in anything involving chance was a sure way to lose!
7. Moiraine Damodred - Moiraine has bounced all over this list. She's sat at 5 for a while, dropped, went back up to 6, and then settled here. I saw her once described as a subversion of Gandalf in that she is powerful, shows up to help the heroes, and has a plan but you aren't sure what it is. She can't lie, but can you trust her? In the end, she's 100% trustworthy and dies for Rand, but that aura of mistrust created by the Dark One is a recurring theme/tension in the series. Moiraine is the perfect character for that. She falls down the list, because of her death. It was powerful and impactful, but it cut her page time down. You can't have the Wheel of Time without Moiraine. The prequel did a wonderful job showing her background and even a hidden, impish nature (All the bugs she had attack Lan, ha!). However, I really didn't see the relationship with her and Thom developing at all. That part felt forced to me, but maybe that comes down to me being oblivious. Maybe that's what moved her down in the rankings a little. Sanderson was writing when Moiraine returned to the series, so maybe there was some nuance lost without RJ at the helm? If I re-read the series hints of the budding respect/relationship are something I'm going to be on the lookout for (right alongside Verin!).
6. Birgitte Silverbow - I love Birgitte's arc from beginning to end. A hero of old being tragically pulled from the dream after helping the heroes? She's slowly losing her memory? And she's afraid the cycle of rebirth where she's always born near the love of her life Gaidal Cain is forever borked!? For so long, I thought Oliver might be Gaidal Cain reborn. When Birgitte died and came back to save him at the end was epic. The blowing of the Horn subverted my expectations masterfully (and that of all the characters, too!). Those two moments alone put Birgitte on the list, but she was a ton of fun in between. I wasn't a huge fan of a lot of Elayne arcs. Birgitte made them more tolerable. I loved how she used to joke with Mat and point out women for him as long as he pointed out men for her (and Mat always commented how she liked them ugly! Ha!). Birgitte was a loyal friend, crack shot, and I'm sure I've mispronounced her name a million times.
5. Lan and Nynaeve - I cheated a little bit here. I love both of these characters. Lan started off strong and, ironically, one of the only things I didn't get about him early on was "Why her? She's half your age and prickly as a cactus!" Lan continued to be a classic, self-denying hero. You'd think someone was a good fighter until Lan quietly showed up and put them in their place.
Then there's Nynaeve. She and her braid tugging were a little annoying at first. She became one of my favorite, flawed characters over time. Her misunderstanding and misreading situations in ways that made sense to her character made for a great POV. She could be insufferable when she thought she was being magnanimous while acting selfishly, but I ended up really enjoying that point of view. It felt real even when you wanted to reach into the book and tell her she was being foolish. Her always being told she was young and her battle to always prove herself explain the attitude well. She feels like a more real person to me. Her greatest desire was to be a healer and yet she ended up battling and becoming Moghedien's nemesis.
And then the two come together as Warder and Aes Sedai. Right before then Nynaeve almost dies and finally gives up trying to wrest control of Saidin to going along with the flow. Lan comes back a shadow of himself from Moiraine's death to help her and that begins another arc ending with them being married by Sea Folk tradition (One the master in Public and the other in Private, ha!).
I love the ending arc where Nynaeve drops Lan off way farther off than he'd like, and it looks like a betrayal of his trust or move to protect him. But then Nynaeve goes and spreads word of Lan's coming. As he marches to Tarmon Gai'don more and more gather to his banner, and I honestly just had a small set of goosebumps thinking about it.
At one point, I put these two in 3rd. I thought it was cheating, because there were two of them, so I dropped them to 8th....and then I kept thinking about it and I couldn't put them lower than 5th.
And such the Wheel turns and rankings come and pass leaving memories that become legend.
4. Siuan Sanche - When I say think of Siuan I immediately think of fish metaphors. It's an obvious/uncomplicated technique, but her use of aquatic analogies based on her childhood really did help give her a unique voice compared to so many of characters. I love that she had a unique voice so that the RJ didn't immediately need to say "Siuan said" for you to know it's her all the time (Provided they don't do it with heavy misspellings to be an accent - That normally annoys me). Siuan started off as someone I liked. Her wheeling and dealing in the tower and support of Moiraine was a lot of fun...and then she was deposed. Stilled and powerless she had to manage to survive. She ran afoul of Gareth and eventually was healed, but her connection to the Saidin was so much weaker she had to reinvent herself. I like competent characters. Siuan was competent and confident even as she had to deal with going from a heavy hitter magically to relying more on her wits and social graces by the end. I liked her and Gareth's relationship most, too. They were definitely combative longer than they needed to be, but I felt like there was a real love there at the end.
3. Egwene Al'vere - Egwene is yet another character who didn't start off on my favorites list. I didn't initially dislike her like some, but it's her ascension to the Amyrlin Seat and final arcs that made her awesome. I felt like she was one of the characters that Sanderson nailed. Her arc of being nominated as a potential puppet Amyrlin, to taking charge at the Little Tower, to being captured, and then becoming the True Amyrlin is what I'll remember her for. She definitely made some hair-brained choices along the way (with Gawyn rating high up there, IMO), but the way she ended the book was incredible. When the Tower captured her (book 12? 13?), I loved how she persevered and took charge while being held captive with an unbreakable spirit. The daily spankings were meant to shame and break her (not my kink), but she ended up breaking the person who administered them. The "Do what you must, but only because I allow it" attitude/aura of command and purpose Egwene demonstrated marked her as the True Amyrlin...and it upset Elaida. Elaida is one of the characters I hated the most in the whole series, so that was also a ton of fun! I've always enjoyed Tel'aran'rhiod, too. Egwene got to spend a lot of time there and the Battle for the Tower was an epic moment. In Tarmon Gai'dan, Egwene went out and figured out the opposite weave to baalfire to ice M'Hael (Mazrim Taim...who was another character I eagerly awaited the demise of!). I'd say I probably liked but didn't love Egwene as a character until those final three books. I don't know how much of that is, because of Sanderson's taking over writing or if Egwene would have still been a super-star if RJ had wrote thos books. As it is, she's the top Aes Sedai in the Tower and on this list.
2. Rand Al'Thor - I liked Rand from the beginning. Perrin (and Hopper) were fighting him for top spot in the first couple of books and Mat wasn't even in the discussion. Rand disappeared as a point of view, though, as he made his way towards The Stone. I really wanted to read more of him, but it makes sense why RJ made that choice. Rand's battle with madness and coming to terms with who he is ("The Chosen One") made for great reading. There were times he was too dark and moody, but the poor guy went through so much (I mean...locked in a box!?). And even when he was being borderline insufferable, there were characters like The Maidens, Min, Moiraine, and Cadsuane to guarantee interesting things happened. Sometimes, the main characters in shows/books/games/animes are a little blander to try and give them an everyman appeal. Rand is rand. He might start that way, but as the madness creeps in he becomes something else entirely! He was a worthy main character and enemy of The Dark One (and The Dark One trying to make him go mad and choose evil helps explain why he had to go through so much). I loved the scene on the top of Dragonmount when Rand finally came to terms. I love so many scenes he was in, that mentioning that one scene makes me want to start rattling off a list (and I don't have all day to write this!). Evan Rand's adoptive dad, Tam Al'Thor was awesome, and they end up having a good relationship (No unnecessary parent drama which I appreciate as a dad myself!). There were definitely times Rand annoyed me, but I ended up placing him at #2 on my list. Clearly, I love the character and even his decision to allow Aliva to hang out "and help him die."
1. Matrim Cauthon - I started off not liking Mat. To be fair, his initial arc is he gets his spirit poisoned/corrupted by the knife and descends into gibbering paranoia throughout book 1 and 2. He doesn't even remember that time well later on! Mat just kept growing and becoming more awesome, though. The ability to see the memories of past lives? Fascinating! I loved the scene where people were discussing a historical character only for Mat to have a vision where the guy kills one of his predecessors. I thought the ability was really cool and gave a reasonable explanation for why he could be so competent at so many things without needing long training arcs. RJ moves on to describe Mat as a gambler and war/battle as a huge gambit. Mat brings curiosity and a chaos to the plotline. The scene where Mat is too curious to find out what inside a firework and risks blowing himself up just to see what was inside was hilarious and totally in character.
One of the things I love about Mat the most, though, is how RJ used him to be an imperfect narrator. Sometimes it was laziness, willful ignorance, or being distracted by other priorities, but Mat has some of the best misunderstandings in the novel. One of my favorite scenes is when he walks into the Little Tower and sees Egwene as Amyrlin for the first time. The reader has seen this happening (for hundreds of pages), so it's easy to forget that Mat has not. He freaks out. He thinks she's faking it and put his boot so far down his throat it's hysterical. It was a laugh out loud, roll around on the bed, memorable moment for me that helped seal Mat as the best character/POV in the series. In some ways, he's the least powerful of the main three, so there's a real sense of danger when he's slipping out of dangerous spots by wit, guile, and chance. His visit to Hinderstrap could have been a stand alone short story, but then Mat hasn't forgotten them when it comes time for him to guide the forces of light at Tarmon Gai'dan (that was such an awesome callback).
Mat is my runaway favorite. There was no mistaking where he'd end up in the rankings. I could have done without all his womanizing, but no one's perfect. He could have finished the series even better, but Sanderson had trouble writing him. For all RJ's flaws, he somehow had a magic touch with Mat.
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