WoTaLong (Wheel of Time Readalong) discussion

Remember these are spoilery discussions - so stay away unless you've finished this section! Also, please keep spoilers to the things we know in this section of the book.

What are your thoughts on this section of New Spring?

Happy reading!

This is rather a general question/comment about New spring, but I place it in week 4 just to be sure.

I was a bit puzzled by the revelation of the ages of quite a lot of the Aes Sedai that feature dominantly in the later books.

New spring takes place at Rand's Birth and the weeks and months afterwards, which allows us to place it quite firmly in the timeline. Assuming that Rand is around 20 (or at least not older) in the Eye of the World, we can use this to calculate the ages (or more importantly how long they already had the shawl) of many of the Aes sedai.
We learn that both Moraine and Siuan only gained the Shawl 20 years before the story begins...which is a very short time. I know it was mentioned several times that Siuan was very young for an Amyrlin...but that young?
And it's not just the two of them. Elaida only got the shawl a few years before Moraine and the same is true for Leane. Sheriam, Alanna, Katharin,Meidani...they alle are still accepted after Moraine got the Shawl.
For example, how did Sheriam get to be the mistress of novices with only a mere 20 years of being an Aes Sedai? Why does Elaida seem so powerful and well connected and is raised to be the next Amyrlin, again being very "young".
At some point in the main series Siuan and Egwene make a point about how extraordinarily and strange it is that many of the new sitters have been Aes Sedai for less than a 100years...and are therefore very unexperienced.
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It somehow does not add up, that so many of the influential Aes Sedai are so young, even though it is again and again mentioned that while strength with the power is the most important part, experience also seems to play a role. In New spring Cadsuane and also some sisters in the Blue Ajah quarters do not hide what they think about Aes Sedai that only just got the Shawl recently, they seem mere Accepted in their eyes, because there is so much they still have to learn.

What are your thoughts on this?

edit: eliminated some typos

I totally agree other places make it seem like you have to a full sister for many many decades to have any power but new spring paints a different light

I suspect that Jordan just wanted to include many familiar faces in New Spring, and to achieve that he might have been a bit loose with the ages. The book overall felt unnecessary (and I don't mean that in a negative way at all) and more like fanservice, giving as a glimpse into the life in the White Tower and more information about Moiraine and Suian ( two of my favourite characters, so I'm definitely not complaining). I enjoyed the book very much.

I have to admit though that I expected a bit more from the parts about Lan. They kind of fell flat to me (and a tad boring). I always thought something very special had to have happened between him and Moiraine and that they'd formed a deep (platonic) bond before he became her warder. I just expected something more. Him accepting her offer at the end seemed rather a consequence of him having lost everything else, than actually wanting to serve as her Warder. I mean I kind of do understand it, after what they had seen/done together, but it still seemed less profound than what I expected (especially from his side).