“A Crown of Swords” by Robert Jordan – A Christian (Re)reads The Wheel of Time

“The Wheel of Time” is a massive fantasy series by Robert Jordan (and, later, Brandon Sanderson) that is being developed into a television show for Amazon Prime. It’s cultural impact is huge, the series having sold more than 44 million copies. Here, we continue our look at the worldview in the series with Book 7, A Crown of Swords. There will be SPOILERS in this post for the series.

Evil Comes in Many Forms

It’s easy to see evil as being all of one sort. The childhood cry of “The Devil made me do it!” is a familiar trope. In The Wheel of Time universe, it’s easy to try to assign all evil to the Dark One or blame one of the Forsaken. It’s just as easy to assume any evil done by an Aes Sedai is due to their being part of the Black Ajah. But the truth is that evil comes in many forms. Evil can be like that of Elaida, who allows her zealousness to overcome her goodness, her thirst for power to overcome her caution. Evil can come from fundamental beliefs, pushed to their extremes.

Elaida is an absolute case study in this, as she starts to lose her grip and becomes controlled by the Black Ajah. Yes, some of her evil is due to that influence, but she’d never have accomplished what she did without her own striving and willingness to compromise justice for an ideal.

Changing Perspective

Viewing things from a different perspective is a theme that remains central to the series. Are men who channel a danger to everyone, or are they a potential way to thwart evil with the use of the Power? The notion of men who can channel faces numerous challenges depending upon one’s perspective in this book. It’s fascinating to see Jordan play with this theme. What applications might it have to our own experience today?

Stereotyping Sex

We continue to have Jordan using the characters to draw out stereotypes about sex. Nynaeve complains about men gossiping all the time to each other–a stereotype that runs opposite of common stereotypes today. Time and again, characters complain about “men” doing something, or how “women” always act in a certain way. I am still trying to discern for myself whether this is Jordan intentionally playing with stereotypes and turning them on their head, or whether Jordan means that there are inherent acts in men and women.

If the latter, that seems to go against reality. Behaviors are learned, and men and women are created equally in the image of God. To reduce their worth to stereotypes or their range of activity to certain assumptions is to do wrong.

Links

The Wheel of Time– Read all my posts on The Wheel of Time (scroll for more).

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SDG.

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