Somehow, I Actually Hate Faile MORE Now - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 14/01/2013 12:16:39 PM
Everytime she is in mortal danger she miraculously escapes at the cost of a character I actually LIKE. With Rolan I could tolerate it a bit because he was a new and minor character, and his unrequited love (or at least desire) could really only go one way once Perrin showed up with his stupid knotted cord to rescue her. Raging protagonist vs. restrained minor character; not hard to anticipate how THAT conflict ends. Sure, that was what made me actively DISLIKE a character who had previously just been annoying (albeit from the very start,) but I could at least understand.
Then she and rest of Perrins army (and that the detestable F--KING AVATARs Knights Templar) were rescued from the dreamspike trap at the cost of Hopper dying AGAIN, this time PERMANENTLY; no rebirth, nothing: Just gone forever and irrevocably.
The final volume was the capper though: Faile "rescues" the Horn by carrying into the Dark Ones backyard for Mat (who is not even there, as she well knows, and no longer bound to it anyway,) promptly losing it, then entrusting it to a child she sends off on Bela, the sweet, underappreciated overperforming little mare who has carried every helpless "hero" from danger since the series began, with each of them thinking her slow and useless every time. Standard Bela scene, like we have seen ever since Moiraine led her adolescent champions out of the Two Rivers in the first chapters of TEotW—except this time, after saying flat out Bela can outrun racehorses (and having Olver complain at her one last time,) she gets cut down in screaming agony and slaughtered by Trollocs. Faile, of course, is miraculously saved just before death when Perrin happens to find her dreaming her dying self into Tel'aran'rhiod (even though we are repeatedly told throughout the series normal humans rarely go there, and never for more than a few seconds.)
Seriously, did Jordan have any pets? That is, "beloved animal family members" not "vivisection subjects." Faile is like TWoT Wesley Crusher, except not only do the writers refuse to kill arguably the least popular Lightsider even when the narrative calls for it, they torture an innocent, loyal and lovable animal to death in her place. By the end of the series I half expected him to incidentally mention a passing random coach in the Two Rivers had run over Scratch, then heard the pathetic mewling and backed up to finish the job. When Farstrider showed up astride a horse to save Olver (who is pretty annoying in his own right, and therefore inviolate) I had some faint hope it would somehow turn out to be a PONY bound to the Horn, but, no, screw that; she is just some stupid slow mare: Save the homely, lecherous and bratty Aiel-bigot.
Then she and rest of Perrins army (and that the detestable F--KING AVATARs Knights Templar) were rescued from the dreamspike trap at the cost of Hopper dying AGAIN, this time PERMANENTLY; no rebirth, nothing: Just gone forever and irrevocably.
The final volume was the capper though: Faile "rescues" the Horn by carrying into the Dark Ones backyard for Mat (who is not even there, as she well knows, and no longer bound to it anyway,) promptly losing it, then entrusting it to a child she sends off on Bela, the sweet, underappreciated overperforming little mare who has carried every helpless "hero" from danger since the series began, with each of them thinking her slow and useless every time. Standard Bela scene, like we have seen ever since Moiraine led her adolescent champions out of the Two Rivers in the first chapters of TEotW—except this time, after saying flat out Bela can outrun racehorses (and having Olver complain at her one last time,) she gets cut down in screaming agony and slaughtered by Trollocs. Faile, of course, is miraculously saved just before death when Perrin happens to find her dreaming her dying self into Tel'aran'rhiod (even though we are repeatedly told throughout the series normal humans rarely go there, and never for more than a few seconds.)
Seriously, did Jordan have any pets? That is, "beloved animal family members" not "vivisection subjects." Faile is like TWoT Wesley Crusher, except not only do the writers refuse to kill arguably the least popular Lightsider even when the narrative calls for it, they torture an innocent, loyal and lovable animal to death in her place. By the end of the series I half expected him to incidentally mention a passing random coach in the Two Rivers had run over Scratch, then heard the pathetic mewling and backed up to finish the job. When Farstrider showed up astride a horse to save Olver (who is pretty annoying in his own right, and therefore inviolate) I had some faint hope it would somehow turn out to be a PONY bound to the Horn, but, no, screw that; she is just some stupid slow mare: Save the homely, lecherous and bratty Aiel-bigot.