I'd argue that Jordan did Mat dirty first. Marrying him to the person he ended up married to was always going to reduce his independence and his importance in the story. There was no way he couldn't end up being second fiddle to her.
My gripe, iirc, is that Sanderson essentially turned him fully into a comic-relief type character. Like, "oh what adventures is this rascal getting up to now" when we've already had 10 books of him maturing beyond his early prankster ways
You have a point, but again, I don't know if this is due to Sanderson not liking/not understanding his character, or if it was more that Sanderson was trying to give him something to do after his marriage to the strong-independent-black-woman-who-don't-need-no-man-cuz-she-a-kang-n-shieet basically diminished the importance of his character. Jordan really wrote Sanderson into a corner there.
It's been years since I read the books but I don't think Mat's actions would have been too influenced by his marriage tbh. Unless I'm forgetting a major chapter or two where he's absolutely pussywhipped.
He's definitely the type to go gallivanting off for whatever struck his fancy, the only difference is he'd be coming home to the wife. He has little respect for authority so royal blood wouldn't mean much to him
That's a fairly accurate reading of his Character. The byplay between him and Tuon is always entertaining because she tries so hard to whip him and he always dodges it. But he cannot just leave because he legitimately loves her--which is a relationship type I have witnessed in real life.
I'm not complaining that he's pussy-whipped, necessarily: That's Perrin. I'm just saying that Mat's role and his prominence as one of the three ta'veren who the whole story literally revolves around is severely diminished when his wife is the one who (SPOILER) ends up supplying half of the troops for the Light at the Last Battle.
I'd argue that Jordan did Mat dirty first. Marrying him to the person he ended up married to was always going to reduce his independence and his importance in the story. There was no way he couldn't end up being second fiddle to her.
My gripe, iirc, is that Sanderson essentially turned him fully into a comic-relief type character. Like, "oh what adventures is this rascal getting up to now" when we've already had 10 books of him maturing beyond his early prankster ways
You have a point, but again, I don't know if this is due to Sanderson not liking/not understanding his character, or if it was more that Sanderson was trying to give him something to do after his marriage to the strong-independent-black-woman-who-don't-need-no-man-cuz-she-a-kang-n-shieet basically diminished the importance of his character. Jordan really wrote Sanderson into a corner there.
It's been years since I read the books but I don't think Mat's actions would have been too influenced by his marriage tbh. Unless I'm forgetting a major chapter or two where he's absolutely pussywhipped.
He's definitely the type to go gallivanting off for whatever struck his fancy, the only difference is he'd be coming home to the wife. He has little respect for authority so royal blood wouldn't mean much to him
That's a fairly accurate reading of his Character. The byplay between him and Tuon is always entertaining because she tries so hard to whip him and he always dodges it. But he cannot just leave because he legitimately loves her--which is a relationship type I have witnessed in real life.
Agreed. Mat being who he was would have rolled the dice, and come out of it shining the way he wanted.
I think Sanderson did a good job leveling the books but that ending was no Dumai's Wells.
I'm not complaining that he's pussy-whipped, necessarily: That's Perrin. I'm just saying that Mat's role and his prominence as one of the three ta'veren who the whole story literally revolves around is severely diminished when his wife is the one who (SPOILER) ends up supplying half of the troops for the Light at the Last Battle.