Yosharian
Arcane
This book—particularly the first three stories—irritated me. I found its wizards to be contemptible creatures, morally inferior products of a degenerate age, capable only of memorizing a few detailed spells and casting them by rote (“Vancian Magic,” which later became a key element of “Dungeons and Dragons”). I was also appalled by their sexism: even the best try to fashion ideal women from scratch, while the majority desire only to catch women, cage them and rape them—the real reason for all their pathetic little spells. In addition, the book's prose—particularly the wizards' speeches—is grandiloquent and eccentric, harsh and grating, and crammed full of hard words. Such words—I remember thinking to myself—remind me of what Shakespeare's Angus says of Macbeth's titles: they “hang loose about him, like a giant's robe/ Upon a dwarfish thief.”If only someone had ever written a series of stories about a far-future dying earth in which magic is essentially mathematics, and if only that had influenced the magic system of Dungeons & Dragons.
Based
It's the manner I'm talking about. In my experience women aren't so blustery and vocal about their revenge - well, at least not until the actual kill shot. They're more passive aggressive and seething. That's why Dame Aylin's blustery manner seems off, whereas it's quite suitable for Ser Aylin.
