Rand or Richard?

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trebuchet

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What with all the talk of heroes and superheroes on this forum lately, I cannot resist posing one of my own.

Who is the better character & why: Rand Al'thor or Richard Rahl?
 

brokenfingers

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I've partially read both series.

The Sword of Truth I stopped after about the third book. Wheel of Time I stopped after about the seventh(?).

But in both of them, I never really did it for these two characters anyway. Neither was very inspiring or exceptional in my eyes. The worlds themselves are what kept me intrigued - and the storyline. The discovering of new things and the thrill of unexpected developments kept me reading more than any concern for the protagonist.

Rand seemed a vanilla flavored sterotypical goody-two shoes hero to me. My favorite character was Mat - now him I could relate to! I even liked Perrin better than Rand.

And to be honest, I can't even remember much about the Sword of Truth books so I can't pinpoint any specific thing but obviously he didn't make much of an impression to me.

In my opinion, even though he's not listed, the better character is Jon Snow.
 

trebuchet

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brokenfingers said:
Rand seemed a vanilla flavored sterotypical goody-two shoes hero to me.

Precisely my reason for picking these two characters. I mean, they're both white bread goody-two shoes. Are they conflicted? Are they interesting? In and of themselves, I mean. How can such characters rate being the stars of interminable series?

Personally I can't stand Rand.

Richard is more interesting to me, mainly because of the things that happen to him. But at the end of the day, he's nothing more than a tool for his creator to prounounce his judgment upon the genre and upon the world with an utmost lack of subtlety.

But enough about his creator's master plan. What about him?
 

AnnaT

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trebuchet said:
What with all the talk of heroes and superheroes on this forum lately, I cannot resist posing one of my own.

Who is the better character & why: Rand Al'thor or Richard Rahl?

Heh, let's see.

I like Richard very much, but in the later books he's stopped thinking and started explaining. Of course I expect him to grow and learn, but please.

Rand is strange, because to me he suddenly got with it and fell right into the role thrust upon him...this didn't seem right to me. One day he's still scared to death of what's happening to him and the next he's got it together. I would have liked to read about how he psychologically got from one point to the next.

I like both characters better when they are still trying to figure out who they are, what they should do, etc.
 

dragonjax

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I only made it through part of the third book in the SoT series before I chucked it out a window; TWoT, sadly, I'm along for the ride. (Must be the Compulsion weave or something.) I never liked Richard, but that may have been squarely on the author's shoulders; the writing bothered me SO much that it was almost impossible for me to get past it to the characters. How many times could other characters tell Richard that he's "a rare one"?

Rand, I'll admit, I've always had a soft spot for. I love redheads, so that's an automatic plus. And any guy who has enough charisma to love three women completely, and have those three women okay with that, gets points for, well, something. Fulfilling the author's dream, perhaps. I guess Rand is more like Spider-Man to me than Richard is, so that's why I prefer him.

Frankly, I'll happily take Arutha over either of them. Or Jimmy the Hand.
 

brokenfingers

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trebuchet said:
Precisely my reason for picking these two characters. I mean, they're both white bread goody-two shoes. Are they conflicted? Are they interesting? In and of themselves, I mean. How can such characters rate being the stars of interminable series?
Hmmmm... I think this is a case where story trumps characterization. Kind of like DaVinci Code. Not much going as far as characterization goes but judging from sales, the story was good enough for people to buy it in droves.

Plus, I think those books, especially Wheel of Time series, are "milieu" books, meaning a large part of the allure is the world that's been created and readers love discovering the "rules" and customs and the differences between that world and this one.

For instance, even though Jordan's series has gotten kind of stale lately - I still plan on picking the series back up when he gets back to the main storyline, not just to find out what happens but also because he introduced the Seanchan, the descendants of Hawkwing's armies sent west, and I can't wait to discover that world.

Jordan may not be much on characterization (though you've gotta admit he does have a large cast so I guess I'll cut him some slack) but I think he is very adept at worldbuilding - and when it comes to fantasy, that's a large part of the game.
 

arodriguez

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they are both the same. personally, im a little sick of richard's self rightousness and kahlan is a sick perverted slut (temple of winds-she went down on strange guy who just had sex with her while she was on the rag)Rand has been acting a little erratic lately, where did he come up with the way to cleanse the taint? oh well, im still reading both so theres still time to swing both ways (no pun intended, Kahlan!)
 

trebuchet

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arodriguez said:
they are both the same. personally, im a little sick of richard's self rightousness and kahlan is a sick perverted slut (temple of winds-she went down on strange guy who just had sex with her while she was on the rag)Rand has been acting a little erratic lately, where did he come up with the way to cleanse the taint? oh well, im still reading both so theres still time to swing both ways (no pun intended, Kahlan!)

LOL!
 

dragonjax

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arodriguez said:
kahlan is a sick perverted slut (temple of winds-she went down on strange guy who just had sex with her while she was on the rag)
Proof to me that Terry Goodkind is a man. No woman I know would ever write a scene like this. Sex while menstruating? No flippin' way. Servicing a man while reciprocation is not possible (unless your lover is Lestat)? No flippin' way. Hmmm. Goodkind also was the one to introduce the dominatrix-magic-eaters, right? I'm thinking there's a woman/power issue at work here...((my two-cent psychology hard at work...))
 

arodriguez

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i changed my mind, after just reading Chainfire. wow, what an author. a great in depth well thought out idea with brilliant execution. richard can stay.
 

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I'm still on book one of Sword of Truth, and so far Rand seems way better.

Richard is introduced as never ever letting his anger getting the best of him. He's clam, patient, etc. Until he gets the sword.

Now he's the hulk. I don't like him when he's angry.

Talk about 1-dimensional.
 

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I've never read any Robert Jordan, but somebody recommended Wizard's First Rule to me and I promised to try it. I found it so screamingly boring that I couldn't get even a quarter of the way through it, and the mere thought of having to read any more had me almost in tears - "No, no, anything but that!"

So I'd have to assume Rand Al'thor was better on the grounds that there can hardly be two such boring writers in the bestseller list at any one time - surely? Even if his name is really just Randal Thor.
 

brinkett

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whitehound said:
I've never read any Robert Jordan, but somebody recommended Wizard's First Rule to me and I promised to try it. I found it so screamingly boring that I couldn't get even a quarter of the way through it, and the mere thought of having to read any more had me almost in tears - "No, no, anything but that!"
LOL. I haven't read Wizard's First Rule, but I have read Jordan. The first few books were great, but then the series deteriorated into a boring mess. However, I am very impressed with Jordan's ability to write 700 pages and hardly advance the plot. Can we say milking a cash cow, anyone? Once you hit book five or six, you'll almost be in tears again. I know I was.
 
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