Poll: Wheel of Time: The Ending (major spoilers)

[Korenith]

So I just finished Wheel of Time (I know, I know, but I had so much other stuff to read to and I'm caught up now which is what counts) and I was wondering. Where does a lot of the fan anger come from with the ending? I was, personally, pretty impressed with the whole thing. Sure it's not perfect, but it wraps up the major plot threads, the characters stay true to their arcs and it's all suitably epic in scope.

Sure the white tower/Seanchan antagonism could have moved closer to a resolution and some of the deaths in the final battle at seemed a little off-hand (Siuan's in particular) but these are minor gripes compared to what I think the series achieves as a whole.

So what did you all think of it and why?

 

[tippy2k2]

I did not know people hated the ending (though granted, I don't hear anyone talking about that book period so I don't have any clue how well the series was received outside of myself and my Dad, who told me to read it).

I thought the ending was fine. However, I don't know if I'd take my opinion of any value because unless they horribly horribly HORRIBLY botch it (Hey Dexter! Long time no see), I'm at the very least content with it for I am a "let the story be told the creator's way" kind of a fella.

Also, it was years ago so I don't really remember all that much except that the main guy fakes his own death at that end, right? I read too many freaking books so maybe I'm confusing it with another but Rand survives after faking his own death so that people don't fight over him, right?

Either way, I thought it was good. Wasn't great (otherwise I'd probably remember it better...) but I found it to be perfectly serviceable.

 

[WolfThomas]

It was pretty good. I like that there's no in depth explanation to what happened to everyone after the battle. The potential futures you see through Aviendha and Rand allow you to speculate on what might happened but differently.

 

[L. Declis]

There is the fact that the community was already divided by Sanderson; personally, there is a massive tone-shift in the series changing from the swirling tide of factions and politics, egos and characters and he kinda made it more character-driven and action-y rather than the old school fifteen pages of description about a leaf that Jordan and Tolkien did, so there is that.

There is also the fact that this massive show down between effectively Satan and Jesus was just really, really badly written. This "let's swap between other characters and Rand and use some kind of bastardisation of time-compression to explain it" just kinda tells you to flip to the end, they never quite manage to balance everyone involved (like the whole Guardian thing just kinda... finishes, Perrin is nowhere as useful as Matt who is nowhere as useful as Rand, the Aes Sedai do... stuff... the really charistmatic Forsaken are just... gotten rid of and no longer made interesting, the issue regarding Rand's various issues are just overcome with friendship, the waifu bits everyone kinda liked were just dropped and occasionally referenced), it's just a hot, bloody abortion on your comfortable shoes you've loved for years.

Sanderson did an acceptable job. But it is nowhere near what Jordan would have done with it, and I felt like he may as well have just polished up and published Jordan's notes for the depth he gets into.

 

[AlphaAscalon]

The more time that passes after I finished the last page of the last book, the easier it gets for me to admit that it was disappointing to me. It pains me in my heart to admit that. I love the Wheel of Time like no other books.

I'd really like to read Jordan's notes. Maybe then I'll get some closure on practically every major-minor and minor-minor character. Even if its just a few lines scribbled somewhere.

The tonal shift, the reduction in scope, the awkwardly written battles (imo ofc), I kinda like phrasing it how L.Declis did 'the waifu bits everyone kinda liked were dropped.'

There's more there that felt wrong or left out, much much more. I'm not sure I really want to dredge through my memories for all the things I'll never get closure on.

Taking a step back from those sad thoughts. There were some cool things. Like holy crap the mass compulsion string pulling. That felt genius! Shara being sprung on our heroes as a trump card was pretty cool too. It didn't feel like deus ex at the time of reading, still doesn't I guess. I haven't re-read the final book though.

 

[Queen Michael]

Seems like most people were disappointed. Or barely satisfied. At least nobody seems to find it great. So tell me. Is it worth reading the books despite the ending?

 

[NeutralDrow]

I loved the ending, though I guess it depends on what you're considering "the ending." If you mean the final moments and resolution, I liked it quite a bit. If you mean the last book, it was absolutely fantastic. I didn't even realize there was outright "anger" at the ending (some disappointment, perhaps, with things like the Samhain resolution, but anger?).

Sure, I'll need to re-read the last book (already read the previous ones between 2 and 5 times each), but I don't see that changing.

Seems like most people were disappointed. Or barely satisfied. At least nobody seems to find it great. So tell me. Is it worth reading the books despite the ending?

Not sure where you're getting that "most people" thing. Either way, if you haven't read the books and you get disappointed while doing so, it will be long before the ending. I recommend them.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I personally think they ended the way they should have. I'll grant I didn't like Perrin's arc a great deal, but saying that, Sanderson was working from Jordan's own notes. The end of the series was, by all accounts, very well documented and as such I for one genuinely believe the ending we got was what Jordan intended, if not in his own words.

There's no easy way to end a single story spanning more than a dozen, large novels. Ending a trilogy is hard and fans find themselves wanting more, having unanswered questions, not being satisfied and so on. The last couple of WoT books were heading towards Tarmon Gai'don. We all knew that would be the case, even from early on but as the books progressed it came ever closer. Plot threads and character arcs got tied up and everyone knew what was coming.

As for the battle itself, it was enthralling. I honestly think the battlefield was a fluid, organic thing and Matt's command was the natural progression here. All the different armies, the strategies, even switching to different Points of View all made for a real-time, visceral, end of the world struggle. Looking back at the fights with Demandred, I thought they were brilliant. When Lan came along it was an incredible moment in the series, if not the entire genre.

The Rand bit...perhaps because I've read it, but I cannot imagine how it could've gone any differently. TBH, the dream he had of "utopia" kinda sealed the deal with how everything would go. That's not to say there weren't surprises; there were. It was still great to read, if a little lacking in oomph. It was still better than Perrin's arc. And as for the end end, I liked it. Gladness tempered by loss, hope for the future, and the twist with Rand was great.

I didn't re-read much before the last novel came out, so I do have a complete read-thru to look forward to sometime in the future, the first time I'll have gone from start to finish. I suspect I'll enjoy being so immersed without year long breaks until the next novel, strange as it is to imagine. For so many years all the fans wondered if it would ever end, and now that it is complete it's still quite strange to get one's head around

 

[Drummodino]

I LOVED the ending. Brandon Sanderson was already my favourite author before the final novel, now he most certainly is. He was given an almost impossible task, wrapping up such a gargantuan series. I honestly expected it to be decent but not amazing.

Boy was I wrong. I tore through A Memory of Light and it is my favourite of the series now, just because it did such an amazing job of tying up all the loose ends and giving a great sendoff to such a large cast of characters. Kudos to Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson for a wonderful fantasy series.

 

[noobiemcfoob]

I fully loved 90% of the book, without question. The final bits with the Rand twist and others left me a little wanting, but I think that's because I like to understand what happened. It seemed the ending with Rand was mostly a "this kinda makes sense thematically, but I'm not explaining it!"

In general, I loved the series a lot more after Sanderson picked it up. No disrespect to Jordan at all as I was already a fan, but the last three books had so much more energy and focus. It's hard to say how much was Sanderson adding to the series or if it was simply the end of the series so of course interesting things are happening.

Having read a fair bit on the writing process and seen Sanderson speak on it a number of times, it really is difficult to pinpoint what parts of the final three books were Sanderson and which were Jordan. Jordan left extensive notes outlining everything and had already written a large portion. Entire chapters of the last three books are entirely Jordan's untouched writing. The WoT encyclopedia is supposed to be coming out soonish that is supposed to pinpoint exactly which parts were written by each.