Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

"I loved the character reversal that took place with Vivian and Siri..." and actually I'm enjoying that at the moment "...did you come up with that idea- was that an early idea in your planning or did it emerge as a result of the story writing itself?"

That's a good question, for most of those they were early ideas, my- I had two main themes for myself when writing Warbreaker, one was character reversals I wanted to play with the idea of reversed roles, you see it from the very beginning when the two sisters are forced to reverse roles and also the role reversal between Vasher and Denth.

The other big thing was I wanted to work on my humor and try and approach new ways of being, of having humor in a book and seeing what different types of character humor I could use. It was really me delving into a lot of Shakespeare at the time and seeing the way he pulled reversals and the way he used multiple levels of humor and I wanted to play with that concept in fantasy novels, so a lot of those were planned. Some of them were not, some of them came spontaneously, as you're writing the book, you always come up with great ideas for books while you're working on them so you kind of see the evolution of a few of them.

Warbreaker is posted for free on my website, the complete draft of it and I actually posted the first draft all the way through to the last draft and so you can actually take and compare the first draft to the very last draft and even the chapters as I wrote them you can see how some things were evolving and coming to be and I was realizing certain things while I was doing it and other things were, were very well foreshadowed from the beginning.

Mythwalker

How did Vin and Elend change during the course of the story?

This story, the series is about them, it’s about progression. I talk about the plot for books, for instance, the Mistborn series is about a group of thieves taking out a Dark Lord, but books, for me, are about character. Action is only as interesting as it happens to people you care about, in my opinion, and a setting is only as fascinating as characters’ ability to interact with it. The progression, who characters become, is really where I think fiction can shine. In a different medium, you just don’t have the time to do what we do, and we can show across a span of years how someone starts as a street urchin and ends up as a queen. You can show this and you can show the internal changes, and the struggles inside of them that leads to this.

The story, about, for Vin and Elend is the story of them coming to accept each other’s different worlds. Vin starts as a street urchin, and she understands that life. Elend starts off as a nobleman, and he understands that life. As they start to interact and begin to have romantic interest in one another, their two worlds sort of collide and start sucking each other into each other’s worlds. Vin’s progress is learning that there is a part of her that can survive in this world of nobility, and of balls, and of political intrigue. But Elend, just as much, needs to understand that there’s a need to be able to survive “on the street,” a need to be able to take care of yourself rather than being pampered. It’s a role-reversal for the two of them, how it works as the series progresses.

Hero of Ages is the third and final book of the Mistborn Trilogy. One of the things I love about this book is that it is the ending. I like to end things. I don’t want to leave people hanging. I like my stories to come to a conclusion. I promised people at the beginning, when I was writing this series, that it would be three books: and I would give them a dramatic, powerful ending. Endings are my favorite part, honestly, of novels. In a given novel, I love telling you the ending, and Book 3 is kind of a book that is an ending itself. The entire book is an ending. It’s a big climax: it’s exciting, and it’s powerful, and it fulfills things that have been building in the series for three books now. I was able to write the trilogy straight through when I was preparing, and so I had Book 3 drafted before Book 1 even went to press, which allowed me to really make these three novels cohesive. I have seeds in the very first few paragraphs of Book 1 to things that become climactic powerful moments in the end of book 3. Book 3 is just an overload of action and excitement and character climaxes and just an amazing, just, romp through this series. I’m really excited about people being able to finally read it because I’ve been waiting for quite a while to make good on the promises I made at the beginning.

The great thing about Book 3 is that I'm introducing a completely new magic system. Each book has had its own. We'll start talking about Hemalurgy, and Steel Inquisitors, and where they come from. A lot of the origins of things that people have been wondering about since Book 1. The last 200 pages are just some of my favorite writing that I’ve ever been able to write because I was able to bring things to a head and to a close. I hope you enjoy it.

Well, I think the obvious is: Which parts of the final book were your, and which were Jordan's?

Mine, personally, is why did Egwene not have to experience a fall?

All of the other characters have to confront and learn hard lessons about their own character faults. Except for Egwene.

Let's see.... Isam in the Waste (prologue scene) RJ. Field of Merrilor: Mostly RJ. Epilogue: RJ except for one character.

I believe those are the three scenes actually written, or heavily outlined, by RJ. Many other scenes are mentioned in the notes, but were not outlined. (And many character fates are detailed, but the methodology is not given.)

Personally, I believe that Egwene learned her hard lessons earlier in the series. Her faults and flaws were made very manifest during her time with the Aiel, and I feel she learned the last bits during her captivity. She was the first of the characters to arrive at the place she needed to be.

Now, you may be annoyed that she was very Aes Sedai in where she arrived—but if, indeed, this is a flaw, it is endemic to the society of the White Tower and not Egwene as an individual. In the end, if she had one final issue, it had to do with the person she loved. That came to a resolution in this book.

cornballin (1 October 2014)

Rand, Elayne, and Egwene have parallel character arcs. They are all thrust into leadership position long before they're ready. And initially they all make the same mistake: they try to be the leader that other people expect.

Light, he tried so hard to be iron, to be what he thought the Dragon Reborn must

But then something happens for Elayne and Rand: they realize that they've been put in these positions for a reason, and that's to be themselves.

How had becoming Queen made Elayne less high-and-mighty? Had he missed something? She actually seemed agreeable now!

Lord Rand had come to him, making apologies. To him! Well, Hurin would do him proud. The Dragon Reborn did not need the forgiveness of a little thief-taker, but Hurin still felt as if the world had righted itself. Lord Rand was Lord Rand again.

Egwene ... doesn't ever learn that lesson that I can see.

Brandon Sanderson (1 October 2014)

I see Egwene having something different. She pretends to be Aes Sedai before she is ready, the Wise Ones find out, and then she is beaten down before it gets too far. Rand and Elayne were, by that point, both in positions of power where nobody could really 'teach' them lessons, and so they had to learn later on—when the lesson had to be more dramatic.

Egwene had to learn during her apprentice days. Then, in a reversal from the other two, she is MADE a leader by the other Aes Sedai before she really wants to be. This is different from Rand's taking power or Elayne's being raised to power.

I see Egwene growing into the role she was given more easily because of early lessons mixed with being handed her throne and being left to rise to the occasion. She didn't become the person she THOUGHT she needed to be—she became the person the Aes Sedai as a whole thought she needed to be, even if some of them didn't want it of her.

This is my personal read on it as a fan, with only a little of the author mixed in. Not trying to argue, just explain why I think RJ felt her story arc was complete, at least in regards to this issue. (Egwene was the one that Robert Jordan finished the most work on of all the characters, and his notes indicated to me the sense that she was the farthest along.) Note that she DID still have a lesson to learn at the Field of Merrilor during her confrontation there with Rand and the arrival of the surprise guest.

Feel free to consider her to have not learned the lesson, and instead take another view on it. I think there is a rational argument that she never had to learn a lesson that she SHOULD have learned because of the way the Aes Sedai enabled her through their culture of leadership.