#and it WOULD be good to give gawyn more to do early on in the story...........no! i need to stop getting my hopes up!

[markantonys]

r/wotshow is evil for putting the idea of a Matwyn Roadtrip Subplot in my head and making me be devastated when it inevitably doesn't happen (since leaving the white tower pre-coup with knowledge of elayne's whereabouts would interfere too much with gawyn's arc)

[themonkeycabal]

The Wheel of Time Season 2!

There might be some book spoilers, but only small, nothing overt, more like talking about changes from the books to tv.

ANYWAY

Welcome back show!

After the dismal ending to last season (which I was able to forgive because I realized how fucked by covid they got ), it starts out strong. They wisely just take the key points from the finale and forget the rest of it ever happened.

During the first ep, the thing that struck me most was that the show feels more confident — or maybe less self-conscious? Less like they're trying to be a fantasy show and more just 'this is our world and our story in it'. If that makes sense? Everybody just seems more comfortable in their skin, even the show itself.

Like, even the costuming, which was good before, seems even better this season. I got caught noticing the textures of the fabrics - so often in sci-fi/fantasy the materials look like/are upholstery fabrics and they look stiff and awful. This stuff is handwoven (or a good facsimile) and looks like real clothes real people wear.

Also, again, PEOPLE WEARING COLOR! SO GREAT! The beautiful textures and patterns on the little girl's clothes at the Dark Friends Social Of Evil And Darkness. Adeleas and her "i've retired to Florida and have decided to wear every color at once" look. Even Moiraine's "I'm a French peasant laboring in the countryside" clothes have color and texture to them. And, of course, Rand's iconic and wonderfully over-the-top red coat. Perfection.

Lovely work everybody.

Assorted things as they come to me:

• Liandrin — she is stealing the show early this season. And thank God. She wasn't much of a character in the books, to be honest, which is weird given the point of her in the story. But Kate Fleetwood has given her so much depth and made her genuinely intriguing. And that's got to be the greatest trick to her — if you've read the books, you know her, and so how do you make her interesting in this show to book readers? How do you make her surprising or mysterious? I genuinely don't know what Liandrin is up to at any given moment, and that's fantastic. I'm so happy to not have one single clue.

I mean, she has a son? PLOT TWIST. And a tidy way to show the consequences of an Aes Sedai's longer life. I totally thought that was a put-on to manipulate Nynaeve, but, no, it really wasn't. She was genuinely pissed at being followed. And she seemed honestly upset when she thought Nynaeve was dead. She didn't even rub Mat's nose in it, and she could have — totally surprising.

I don't know what she's up to with Min and getting Mat away from the Tower. I love it. I'm interested in Liandrin and I never thought I would be.

• Mat — I liked Barney Harris as Mat, but there is a lightness to Dónal Finn that is more Mat to me. When he's ticking off the sounds Liandrin makes as she leaves, I said "oh there he is" that's Mat the trickster. The thing with Mat is he's not as cynical as he wants everybody to think he is, and I think Dónal conveys that really nicely. And he did a really nice job of carrying on the body language and speech rhythm Barney established. Smooth transition, A+.

Was kind of hoping we'd get to see him beat the snot out of Galad and Gawyn, but I'll get over my disappointment. Maybe it can happen later.

And now's about time for his luck to turn, so I'm super eager to see how they do that.

• Min — another character who's become actually interesting. She bored me to tears in the books. Please, give her something to do other than moon over a guy and wear boys clothes. Christ she was dull. There were moments where you almost might think RJ was going to do something with her and then they'd go away. This Min is much more interesting already, just by virtue of us not having to hear endlessly how wacky and weird she is for wearing trousers. Also, what's Liandrin got over her that she's been pressed into service to take Mat away from the Tower? Thrilled to not know.

Also, did not know I needed Mat and Min as disaster road-trip buddies, but now I desperately need that. The potential for chaos and mayhem with them together is just sky high. Please and thank you.

• Moiraine — sometimes I just think to myself "how on Earth did they get Rosamund Pike?" Like, amazing. Brilliant. A tremendous actress giving so much depth to a complicated character. She was so wholly Moiraine the second we first saw her.

One of my favorite things through season one is how she gets progressively more disheveled as things go. By the time they get to Fal Dara she's a sleep-deprived hot mess. She's pouring everything she has into what she thinks is that last push to drive off the Dark One once and for all, that thing she's given twenty years of her life to, and … it wasn't enough. Not only that, but she lost 'control' of Rand and lost the One Power. Sister is in a pure, desperate spiral at the start of season 2. And you just feel it every time you look at her.

And now she's being both self-flagellating and an unbelievable bitch. I feel sure that there's a well much closer to Verin and Adeleas's place, but no, she's got to go hiking halfway through the countryside to get her own bath water. Also that dig at Lan about having Tomas check her horse because she doesn't want her saddle to slip … damn. You really did that to him? He's more patient than she deserves. Of course, that's also got to be insanely frustrating for her because he just won't Go Away and leave her to her misery and obsessive hunt for whatever will make her feel more in control of The End of the World.

Moiraine is all about control and right now she is hanging on by her fingernails. Which are bloody and torn what with the lugging buckets of water halfway across Arafel every day. Really Moiraine? Where's Siuan to tell her to pull herself together already? And stop being cruel to Lan.

Poor guy. When she said you were never equals, Lan, she meant she was never equal to you! You're both big dummies and you need to stop being dummies right now. I did love Tomas, Adeleas, and Verin all being like "use your words, guys. could you please just actually use your words and talk to each other? light, you're both children'. Because, yes.

I imagine that, particularly after the fight with the Fades, she is feeling very helpless. She couldn't save Lan. She couldn't do anything. She had to watch him almost get killed and she was helpless. Oh, but, threatening to force the bond to Alanna, though, so low, Moiraine. So low. It was low in the books, too, but had the extra vicious twist here of being an active threat. Sure, it's understandable, she wasn't going to let him go off and get himself killed for no reason. She doesn't care if she dies, but she cares very much if he does. FRIENDSHIP IS THE BEST SHIP GUYS! But, still, it's a pretty crummy way to treat him.

• Lan -- bb I'm so sorry your bff is being mean to you. She's just going through some stuff. You should absolutely throw her in a lake again. IJS.

• Verin — fabulous casting. And it was a nice way to introduce her. Making her and Adeleas sisters and sort of compressing that little side quest of Moiraine's.

I don't want this show to be a shot for shot remake of the books. I'd actually hate that. There's a lot in the books that could have been trimmed or condensed. And in a show with finite space, it's absolutely a necessity. So, I find it interesting to see how they introduce things in the show. They seem to be hitting major beats, but sometimes moving around how they happen, or even creating events that maybe weren't in the books, but do the job of explaining something that took 500 pages of description or introspection. Perrin's wife, for example, which gives the character a good reason to be worried he might hurt somebody accidentally. Something beyond "he was big".

Anyway, in the books Moiraine goes to the two sisters to dig through their library. In the show she does the same, but one of the sisters is now Verin, because honestly, why introduce yet another character that you won't really see again when you can use the time to introduce one you will? Same with Alanna/Myrelle — blending them is a smart choice and serves several story beats instead of one.

And the casting, though! I didn't recognize her from her headshot (and I'm terrible with names), but when I heard her voice I knew who she was immediately. Meera Syal is so great. They're doing so amazing with casting. Good job everybody. Really good job.

I also liked Verin's little bit about how oaths have loopholes. They've been cagey about if Moiraine is actually stilled or just cut off. They're kind of acting like actually stilled, but I have to believe the vagueness is intentional. But, if she's been stilled, oaths are broken. Does Moiraine realize that yet, or suspect it?

• Elayne — finally, the Daughter Heir. And she's so freaking adorable, I can't stand it. I don't know what I expected, but her pure, shining cuteness is delightful. She's like season 1 Jemma Simmons (agents of shield) in a fantasy world. "You're my subject! Let's be best friends forever! I've made novice-cell hooch under my bed!" Heh.

I love her. I love that she took the stripes for whoever let her bring in her servants, I love that she stayed with Egwene in the room with the arches, I love that she's got a lot of understanding and even patience for the people around her. She's a good egg, that Elayne.

MILD BOOK SPOILER I told my roommate (who's only read a couple of the books and didn't like them at all) that there's a whole circus side quest in the books and she immediately said, "it was Elayne's idea, wasn't it?" Heh. Oh please, please keep this in the show. I beg whoever needs to be begged.

• Selene — Excellent casting again. I thought she'd be more difficult for me to buy into, but no, I get it.

Does Rand not think to ask how she gets him into a party full of nobility? Or is he just so hyperfixated on getting Logain his wine it doesn't occur to him? Yes, sure, she distracts him with sexy times, too. And, okay, Rand isn't always the most observant knife in the drawer, bless him, but still. Rand, you dummy.

I do hope we get the flicker worlds in some manner. Perhaps when Rand takes himself off to his next location.

• Logain — Nice, I like this choice. He's too good to put on the shelf for a whole season or two anyway. Better than having him mope in the Tower, besides. This was one of those scenes were my roommate asked if this was in the books and I said no, but after I stopped to think a second, I had to say that it kind of is. It's different, but hits points from the books.

Interesting he still thinks he might be the Dragon. Again, really nice to see character building outwards, even in little details, like the wine. There's not enough of that for secondary characters in the books. Of course, there's 9 million characters in the books, so that's less a complaint and more an observation.

• The Old Sword Master — I like this too. There was no way to really have Rand cool his heels in Fal Dara for long enough to have Lan teach him the sword. This is a good way to do it, and his time with the man speaks to Rand's compassion and gentleness.

• Rand — overall we're easing into his story. I don't have much to say extra. Pleased to see the red coat, obviously. Pleased to seem him get his first, very confused, taste of the Game. He might be a little thick, but he's trying his best, okay?

• Egwene — very into building her own character! Loving the chores! Probably not much different from back home, but the promise of doing Greater Things as an Aes Sedai. Not super a lot to say yet. As far as the Tower concerns, the first three eps were very much about Nynaeve. Oh, did enjoy that tiny taste of foreshadowing. Also enjoyed the look on her face when Elayne said Egwene was her subject.

• Nynaeve — a joy and a delight as ever. I love her and I don't care who knows it. Is she abrasive? Yes. Contrary? You bet. Ready to punch, kick, stab, and/or destroy at any given moment for any given reason? Absolutely. She's great.

Her accepted test was more brutal than I was expecting. The first two were understandable, but the last one, when she comes back and still has her hands up as if carrying her child? Man, harsh.

And, she's going to be sooo furious next time she sees Alanna. I can't wait.

Very curious as to what Liandrin has planned for her. I mean, I can guess, but I won't spoil anything here, and this is a new direction. Thrilled to not know about this as well.

• Perrin — he's always kind of been the least interesting of the Emond's Fielders to me. Sorry, guy. He has his moments, sure, but mostly in the books I find him just an awful lot of introspection and 'refusal of the call' to the point that it's all very circular and boring.

Giving him the visions as they track the dark friends is a nice twist. It's unclear if it's a wolf thing or a ta'veren thing. Like I don't think Elyas is having visions exactly like Perrin's, more that he can smell what happened. Like Hurin did. I loved Hurin but I get using Elyas instead. There's only so much room for so many characters, and Elyas has a purpose for Perrin, more than Hurin did.

Also liked Ishamael giving Perrin a real reason to fear the wolves. Spared 1000 pages of Perrin tortured introspection! Hurrah!

Fade on the door! Fade on the door! I forgot about that until that bit. That was awesome. Never stop being a creepy fuck, no-spoilers-person-who-nailed-a-Fade-to-a-door.

Things that could have been better:

• I was a little unclear on where Perrin and the Shienarans where and when they reached the coast I was surprised. They could be a little better at establishing locations. I think only the Fore Gate in Cairhien got a chyron. I know amazon has a little map in x-ray but I should need that to figure out where things are happening. I mean, I guess I could have figured it by doing the 'five months gone' math. But still, I shouldn't have to do math.

• I would like, overall, for the ta'veren to start feeling a little more ta'veren-y. Let's start seeing some random ass wtf-ery. They actually seem to have backed off the notion of ta'veren and I'd rather they didn't. That was sort of the point.

Alanna brings it up a little bit, that the Wheel is turning out weapons for the last battle and all, but a weapon is not the same thing as ta'veren. But I suppose it's early, Rand has not yet even begun to really mess with the pattern, so fingers crossed.

• Uno. Like. Come on. I don't even.

• Kind of wanted the Seanchan soldiers to look more buggy. They do look very horrible and terrifying, so there's that. I suppose it's a choice.

Also, it's going to be awfully hard to disguise oneself as a sul'dam, if one were to want to do such a thing.

• I don't really like the damane's pacifiers. I get the point of wanting to visually drive home the point that they've been entirely dehumanized, but I think it just looks stupid.

This is long and I'm sleepy and I guess I've said all the things I wanted to say. For now anyway.

Good start! Welcome back show! I am very pleased.

[butterflydm]

wot s2+ speculation

Excited to have the chance to bring you more wild speculation about the WoT show that will probably end up being wrong!

Anyway, based on previous interviews with Rafe, plus the new teaser trailer and Rafe’s AMA, here are my guesses (spoilers through book 3/4 in this section):

Rand goes to Cairhien after the end of S1. Shaves his head to look less Aiel (maybe after hearing that the Aiel aren’t well-liked in Cairhien?). Ends up in Foregate and this is when Min’s ‘carnivals’ prediction for him gets fulfilled.

Moiraine and Lan follow Rand to Cairhien. I’m kinda thinking that Rand, Moiraine, and Lan are one thread towards Falme, while Perrin, Verin & co are another, and then Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne & Min are a third. With Mat potentially joining any of those groups depending on how his storyline has fallen out, with one big meet-up at Falme at the end (where Egwene, Perrin & Nynaeve find out Rand is still alive?). Aviendha could get introduced in either Perrin or Egwene’s story threads (I would lean towards Egwene’s because that would introduce her to Elayne much sooner, but it depends on how early they are introducing her)

From what was said in an earlier interview, I’m guessing Rand will be solo for at least the first two episodes (maybe gets to meet Elayne? definitely has some depressing interactions with darkfriends and/or Forsaken) before he merges back in with Moiraine and Lan, which will kinda give us both his book 2 & book 3 plotlines. Egwene & Nynaeve in the Tower for several episodes (seeing Min again? getting introduced to Elayne?). I really do wonder if anyone will find out that Moiraine set the Red Ajah on Mat. That’s such a big change that I’m really wondering if it will butterfly anything, plotwise. It seems like it would be such a good reason/excuse for Rand to split off from Moiraine and trust her less, because he doesn’t really have the reasons anymore that he had in the books. She proved herself to him in a lot of ways at the EotW in this version.

This would give Moiraine and Lan a chance to teach Rand various skills of politics & swordfighting for a while. If Moiraine, Lan & Rand plus Verin, Perrin & Co are all going overland in the direction of Falme instead of taking shortcuts, this gives the girls several months to train in the White Tower (and then they are able to take The Ways shortcut at the end of the season) with Rand and Perrin both getting on-the-road training from their respective mentors. And Mat potentially in one of their plotlines or potentially in Tar Valon and going with that group through The Ways at the end of the season.

Thom could be brought in either in Mat’s plotline or Rand’s.

Kinda LOVING the idea of Elayne, Gawyn, & Galad (& Elaida) being in Cairhien for Rand, Moiraine, & Lan to meet; unsure of how well it meshes with us seeing the quarterstaff scene, since I’m not sure how much of the season is being shown in this teaser (unless that wasn’t The quarterstaff scene but simply A quarterstaff scene). But the idea of us actually getting to see Aunt Moiraine would be amazing. (plus I am still holding out hope for some version of the garden scene, but I am prepared to be Brave But Sad over her being introduced at the White Tower instead lol)

Mat is definitely the toughest to guess at. Sounds like we’re getting the quarterstaff & etc BEFORE he goes to Falme tho, maybe. We might also get him investigating fireworks at this point. Tar Valon is so close to Cairhien that I do wonder if he might not end up in Rand-Moiraine’s plotline, especially since he will/should be spending lots of time with them in S3/S4, at the very least.

I think Perrin is probably going to be the most like his book storyline, except with Elyas & Hopper subbed in for Hurin and Loial subbed in for Mat and maybe Faile & his other book3 plots being introduced a lot sooner. We’ll get Elyas doing his classic loredump in a more natural way than in the books lol.

Super bold guess -- “most of book3 except for large parts held for later” means that the Stone of Tear itself is being held back for the start of S3. Because it seems like most of the ‘character work’ of book3 will be happening in s2, which really just leaves the Stone of Tear, and that would make an epic opener for S3 and then S3 is Tear->Rhuidean pipeline. And Rand literally gets bannered across the sky in fire in Falme in the books, so there’s plenty of room there for ‘the epic Dragon reveal’ if they want it to be in the finale of S2.

Further out-there guesses based on Rafe’s ‘8 season’ ideal timeline, so full book spoilers through the end of the series after the cut, including AMoL:

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More on TSR/S3 - this is when the Tower schism happens. My guess is that we’ll follow Siuan, Leane, Logain, & Min to Salidar like in the books, and maybe introduce Seaine and Perava earlier in the Tower so that we’re seeing that side of the story told from more sympathetic eyes. Might also get more from Gawyn’s PoV as well in the Tower. I hope we get the Rhuidean stuff mostly intact (but cut out the bits where nudity is only for women -- either Moiraine & Aviendha get to keep their clothes on or Rand & Mat have to take theirs off). This is also when we find out how much of Mat’s later plot is being kept -- if we get the full DotNM prophecy, then we’re stuck with Tuon lol. Or Rafe might just tell us at some point. That might also happen, lol.

I feel like so much happens in TFoH that it could also be mostly its own season as S4. Especially if we also get some ‘Perrin in the Two Rivers’ expansion so that they aren’t cutting out a main character for a whole season. They also might want to move most of the Elayne & Nynaeve in Tanchico stuff forward to this season, so that they aren’t spending most of a season just wandering around looking for Salidar lol (which would give Elayne and Nynaeve more screen-time with Rand). Maybe end with the docks instead of heading to Caemlyn, saving Caemlyn for S5 opener?

LoC/ACoS could be folded together, with Rand’s kidnapping being the middle point (echoing Logain’s episode in S1) and beating Sammael/Seanchan invasion of (ugh) Ebou Dar being the finale of S5.

TPoD/WH/CoT could be folded together, probably KoD too, though I don’t remember it as well as CoT and haven’t gotten there in my reread. So that would be S6. Bowl of the Winds used at the very start of the season, the middle point being the cleansing, and ending with Mat handing Tuon back to her slaving crew (ugh I really hope they change some things about Mat’s later books plotlines) & Rand ‘meeting’ Semirhage, and Egwene back in the White Tower, & Elayne officially being Queen.

Gathering Storm/Towers of Midnight for S7. I feel like these were originally supposed to be one book anyway but ended up being too long? Because doesn’t Mat’s plot get split up into ToM for the most part? This would also mean only two seasons without Moiraine (and she could still be in dreams or flashback or even us getting to see that she’s trapped in the ‘Finn realm). And I really do vote/hope for Siuan to be part of the crew to save Moiraine.

A Memory of Light for S8. Depending on how we see Dumai’s Wells handled in idk s5 (I’m hoping for it being more than just Rand & Perrin), that would give us some guesses on whether or not we actually get Our Heroes actually all getting screentime together in the final season but my tentative guess would be ‘yes’ because Rafe seems more invested in the character work than Sanderson was. We might be stuck with the endings as given in the book epilogue, but I’m hoping for more nuance in Mat’s plotline, at least.

This would also give us a better/more equal timeline for Rand’s romances: he and Elayne get close in S3, then he and Aviendha get close in S4, he and Min get close in S5 (while Elayne and Aviendha are getting close), four-way bonding in S6, and then maybe the show actually gives him more equal screentime with all of them in S7/S8.

Things that I’m hoping they cut/change:

cut Mat-Tylin

cut Thom-Moiraine

cut Siuan-Gareth

please please please change Mat-Tuon to something... less awful. Either actually have a REASON for Mat to learn to like her (like her growing as a person and accepting the truth about herself and what it means for her culture’s dependence on slavery) or have it be a political arrangement without him softening his stance on slavery for her sake.

If they don’t get all 8 seasons and have to pare things down, I feel like they could essentially cut out the entire ACoS-KoD arcs for all the characters and maybe just keep a couple of beats like Rand & Nynaeve cleansing saidin. And could merge tGS/ToM/aMoL into a single season as well, which would give us 6 seasons total.

[wot-tidbits]

RJ’s notes Part 76 by Matt Hatch

SOURCE

THE EYE OF THE WORLD

OUTLINE/EXPANDED VERSION

Book One: The Eye of the World

(handwritten note: 3rd)

Box 20, Folder 2

File includes an early TEOTW concept from Beginning to end.

-         “The Two Rivers” is not a thing yet.

-         Tam dies. Moiraine is unable to heal him.

-         Moiraine convinces all men of a certain age from villages nearby they should go to Tar Valon to discover why this attack happened.

-         Nyneve and Eguene accompany them, and the party stays together. As every village they visit has been struck by misfortune. They are often attacked by Trollocs.

-         In Tar Valon, Rand meets Queen Morgase of the city-state of Caemlon, who is married to King Maric Damodred. She hopes that Moiraine finds the true Dragon Reborn so she can rule at his side (until he is gentled, of course)

While there in Tar Valon in this version of the story, they get word that the forsaken and the trollocs are moving through the northern Blight (there is more than one Blight). But the Great Northern Blight is the main one. And they are threating the Eye of the World. So they go rushed to the Blight to protect the Eye of the World from this invading army. And that is how they end up there.

The whole Ba’alzamon blindsiding the Eye of the World doesn’t come in until the next version of the story. Egwene is get raped by one of the Forsaken and then Rand has to heal her. And he does it like in his sleep or something. Or he thinks he is sleeping. And that he uses the power of the Eye of the World. And then Moiraine tells him he is the Dragon Reborn on the spot.

 THE EYE OF THE WORLD

OUTLINE/EXPANDED VERSION

Box 20, Folder 2, p.9

One of Morgase’s sons, Galad, who is also in Tar Valon, hates the way his mother flirts. As a reaction to his mother, he not only does not consort with women but has become a total ascetic, expounding on the need for complete purity of the flesh. Also he evinces a strong dislike for any man in whom Morgase shows interest. He goes out of his way to snub the village youths, and even tries to humiliate them.

The one man Galad does not dislike is Lan, who returns the friendship. Lan, co-incidentally, is one of the few men for whom Morgase apparently holds no attraction, and for whom she shows total disregard [NOTE: The last was not always so, for unknown to any but Lan and Morgase, Galad is Lan’s son. Morgase married Maric instead of Lan, and Lan has ignored her existence ever since. She reciprocates. Lan cares for his son a great deal, however, though he cannot reveal his fatherhood.]

 Eye of the World [Part One]

FILE: OUTLINE1

and

Book One: The Eye of the World

[Part Two]

FILE: OUTLINE2

Box 20, Folder 2

Highlights of some changes from the prior file:

-         The “Two Rivers” take shape including names like Mountains of Mist & Taren Ferry.

-         The pre-Festival trip to Emond’s Field takes shape in all its detail including the Fade.

-         The gleeman Thom Merilyn was brought down from Baerlan, and Edward White the peddler is in the village with his stories.

-         Tam still dies.

-         The party still goes to Tar Valon but includes an unspecified number of boys from only Emond’s Field. Nyneve goes with, Eguene followes them and joins in Taren.

-         This time the party splits, and some are driven to the land of the Ogyr near the Dragonwall, Rand befriends Jak Vladad, a young Ogyr, who joins the party.

-         Morgase is now the ruler of the city-state of Arranellon. Still married to Maric.

Padan Fain (Edward the White) met with the boys and tells the story of his escape in Tar Valon instead of Baerlone.

 Book One: The Eye of the World [Part Two]

FILE: OUTLINE2

Box 20, Folder 2, p.5

One of Morgase’s sons, Galad, who is also in Tar Valon, hates the way is mother flirts. As a reaction to his mother, he not only does not consort with women but become a total ascetic, expounding on the need for complete purity of the flesh. [NOTE: Galad will become a Power Wielder of great ability after Rand cleanses the male source of Power, but he will go over to Sha’tan] Also he evinces a strong dislike for any man in whom Morgase shows the slightest interest. He goes out of his way to snub the village youths, and even tries to humiliate them.

The one man Galad does not dislike is Lan, who returns the friendship warlmly despite Galad’s somewhat cold nature. Lan, co-indcidentally, is one of the few men for whom Morgase apparently holds no attraction, and for when she shows total disregard. [NOTE: This last was not always so, for unknown to any but Lan and Morgase, Galad is Lan’s son. Morgase married Maric instead of Lan, for Lan was already a Warder and Maric was powerful lord in his land. SEE NOTES AT END. Lan has ignored her existence ever since. She reciprocates. Lan cares for his son a great deal, however, though he cannot reveal his fatherhood.]

NOTES/BOOKS TWO – SIX

Notes on Books Two Through Six

Box 20, Folder 2, p.3

This is notes on books 2-6, but it is not clear that they follow the outline in previous files. Maybe written earlier?

-         In previous outlines, it may be that after the events at the Eye of the World. Rand flees his fate, ends up shipwrecked on the coast of a Blight, though Elyn/Arinel (earlier names for Elayne) is not with him as she was in TEOTW outlines when he fled.

-         The Aes Sedai are rulers of city-states in this land (like pre-a’dam Seanchan was in canon). He is captured and given to a woman and a general who is the daughter of one of those Aes Sedai rulers. They fall in love, but Sha’tan is moving there too and he reveals himself as a Power wielder and has to flee. The woman lets him go but her army takes Stair (Tear) for him later.

-         Rand spends some time with the Sea Folk.

-         Rand’s mother is Morgase’s sister in this version.

After Rand decides that he is indeed the Dragon his first ally will be Morgase, who becomes his lover for a time. This makes Galad his bitter opponent, and sends Galad over to Sha’tan.

 THE GREAT HUNT

Continuity #1

Box 45, Folder 1, pp.19-26

A few Highlights from this File

-         Galad overhears Nynaeve, Egwene, Elayne, and Min talking about Toman Head, insists on going with them because they won’t stay behind.

-         Jordan considers how much Galad hear about the Black Ajah, and maybe that convinces him he has to go.

-         Liandrin isn’t happy but accepts taking Galad along through the Ways.

Elaynes’ feelings about Galad. She despises him. All her life she has seen him doing good, doing the right thing no matter who was hurt. It is his lack of compassion, his lack of give for human weakness, that makes her sure he is a fraud in his goodness. She cannot trust him.

They travel the Ways (safely, despite Egwene’s/Nynaeve’s extreme nervousness about Machin Shin. Is Liandrin surprised at their knowledge of the Ways?), and on Toman Head Liandrin turns them over to the invaders, but Galad, Nynave and Min escape. (Galad causes this escape.) NOTE: Galad is alone, but Nynaeve and Elayne may be together. Nynaeve is angry enough to be able to channel, but she is foiled by the leashed channelers of the invaders. (?Does Liandrin take part in this? Some small confrontation between Liandrin and invaders?)

[This is part of Ba’alzamon’s plan. He intends to draw Rand to Toman Head and force him to fulfill one of the prophecies, namely proclaiming himself across the sky. Nyneave and Egwene, imprisoned and endangered, are meant to be keys to forcing him to use the Power. Foreshadowing in dream/not dream in pale land, when B speaks of what Rand (whom he calls Lews Therin, and Kinslayer) will do when those he loves and cares for are in danger and enslaved.] Galad takes up partisan activity. Has some contract with Bornhald, or at least with the Whitecloaks. He intends to rescue the women, especially Egwene and Elayne, for he does not know that Elayne and Nynave also escaped. Thinks he failed them. Small Galad POV for this?

NOTE1: considering that he sees Liandrin betray Elayne (if she goes) and Egwene, much less the others, he will certainly lose even the little trust of Aes Sedai that he has.

NOTE2: once he sees Rand in the sky, fighting as the Dragon, he will certainly see him as the worst danger possible. If Rand is the Dragon, he must be able to channel the Power and the evidence of it is certainly in his battle projected across the heavens. Such men are worse than merely dangerous; they must be killed or gentled (which last takes Aes Sedai, and he is not so hot on Aes Sedai, now.), therefore, Rand must be killed, in his view.

NOTE3: Note 1 and Note 2 make Galad a prime candidate for the Children of the Light.

 THE GREAT HUNT

Continuity #3

Box 45, Folder 2, p.7

Galad had been sent off to Kairhein as a child to be raised at the court there.

Box 45, Folder 2, p.8

Both Elayne and Gawyn have dichotomous feelings about Galad. He is their brother (half, sure, but they have grown up with him), but he is strange. He believes in doing what is right, and often does not seem to care who gets hurt by it. He professes to have no jealousy that he will not become the First Prince etc, and indeed has never showed any. He even saved Gawyn’s life despite the fact that Gawyn’s death would have made him next in line for that position.

But he has always seemed very conscious of differences between them, that they will be Queen and First Prince, although they have tried to make him feel there were no differences. He is always too protective toward them, and always tries to get them to do the right thing, to behave as they should, which means he has often been a spoilsport as they grew up. His view of good and right is absolute, untempered by mercy or humor.

 Continuity #3a

Box 45, Folder 1, p.6

NOTE: Galad did not, at first, intend to come to Tar Valon. Perhaps he felt that taking Warder training would seem as if he were attempting to challenge Gawyn’s place. It was his encounter with Rand in the garden that made him ask to go along, Elayne, as he sees it, needs someone to look after her.

 INDIVIDUALS

Box 46, Folder 1, p.22

Mat will leave Tar Valon (after making an enemy of Galad). He will end up in the Aiel Waste with Rand.

Knife of Dreams notes, undated

(Contains base notes on Egwene, Leane, the Loyalist Aes Sedai, the White Tower, Elaida, Alviarin, Seaine and Pevara.)

Box 61, Folder 8, p.90

Gawyn’s death. Galad is present. Galad promises to protect Egwene (and child?) Gawyn either tells him that Rand is his half-brother or starts him on the way of knowing or confirms something learned earlier. This comes after Gawyn married Egwene, and she is pregnant

 Memory of Light Outline

II. MAIN BODY [NOT NECESSARILY IN ORDER]

Box 44, Folder 2, pp 1-2, p.7

Egwene and Gawyn

[…]

5. Egwene becomes pregnant.

K. The Last Battle

[…]

12. Egwene is nearly killed and is saved by Egeanin.

13. Gawyn is mortally wounded, and, as dying, tells Galad about Rand being his half-brother.

(Handwritten note: “by Demandred/Lan then kills Demandred)

 Notes on Galad

Folder Unknown

Galad’s emotional connections to various women. He flirted with Nynaeve, and believed himself in love with Egwene, but once he learns she has become not only Aes Sedai but the rebel Amyrlin, the impossibility of it hits him. It may not be for quite some time that he does Berelain, maybe not until near the very end of it all, but that is when he is struck head over heels, and so is she.

[cannoli-reader]

Disability and rehabilitation pt. 2

So my last post about Jaime Lannister on this issue got a bit long, so I split them up.  This is going to be the Wheel of Time one. And should not be long, because the Wheel of Time character I was thinking of is not nearly as significant to the series as Jaime is to his. 

It’s Siuan. I know lots of people don’t see a redemption arc there, because a lot of them don’t think she needs one.  All over the fandom, I see people raving about Siuan and how she’s so strong and lost so much and she keeps going. Okay. That’s true.  But not all virtues are exclusive to good people.  Courage does not make you a good person, for instance.  Arguably, Sammael is pretty courageous.  And neither does perseverance or tenacity.  You have to apply those traits to something more than self-preservation or personal gain.  

What I think happens with Siuan is that we get too small a sample of her actions in the beginning of the series, and find out more about her later, except the imposition of her disability rehabilitates her in the readers’ eyes, which in turn affects the hindsight view of the early books.

At the outset of the story, Siuan has been Amyrlin for about a decade, and despite the hagiography from her friends, she was not a very good one.  Siuan is not a good leader, though she can be a very good advisor and would probably make a pretty competent bureaucrat.  She is unquestionably intelligent with a good analytical mind, but that does not make her a leader.  Off-setting these strengths is that she lacks vision.  She works much better under a leader who has ideas she can work to bring to fruition.  Unfortunately, she has an inordinate amount of pride as well. And when she rises far and fast, she ends up lacking any counter-balancing wisdom.  She gets named Amyrlin at a very young age as a compromise candidate, but rather than walk softly, she takes it and runs, by all accounts being forceful in her manner, and controlling as well. In reaction to the discover of the Horn of Valere, she goes to Fal Dara herself, wreaking havoc on the surrounding environment to expedite her journey, only to bring the Black Ajah, including Liandrin and Alviarin, into the fortress which expedites the theft of the Horn.

The odd thing about Siuan’s carelessness in this regard is that she has known since shortly after getting the shawl about the Black Ajah, and worse, she herself surmised that they are aware of the Dragon’s rebirth and are actively taking measures to get rid of him. In spite of this, she is unable to give up her need to be in control, even when her position and her alienation of the Ajahs means she can’t control her personnel. Once the Black Ajah comes relatively into the open and she has to deal with it, she lets her paranoia take the wheel and, not being able to trust any Aes Sedai, nor to accept that there is nothing she can do, she hands over the investigation to three of the newest initiates of the Tower. She remains obsessed with the Black Ajah and ends up with a tunnel vision focus, to the exclusion of properly managing Tower politics. 

Her absurd solution to the Black Ajah problem, of sending Accepted after them, helps bring her down. While in the case of sending Elayne into danger, she has provided herself with plausible deniability, at least her own satisfaction, she cannot control everyone’s interest in the Daughter-heir, including her brothers and Elaida.  Siuan herself articulated the prestige Elaida has gained from bringing Elayne to the Tower, and the Red sister’s interest in Andor has cost her the Amyrlin Seat Siuan is certain Elaida wanted desperately.  The flimsy excuses Siuan finds sufficient to foist off a mere queen who has historically been devoted to the Tower don’t hold up for her sons who are present all the time and are more loyal to their sister than the Aes Sedai, much less her own rival who is far more knowledgeable about Aes Sedai affairs. 

It is her discontent with the situation that inspires Elaida to begin the legwork to depose Siuan. It is his hostility to Siuan for being kept at arm’s length that motivates Gawyn to help foil her allies’ counter-coup.

And this is also characteristic of Siuan, that she focuses on the top-down approach to problems.  When she has a plan to unify Murandy under a strong king, and she anticipates her candidate’s habit of raiding into Andor could endanger the plan, she decides to keep Andor from fighting him. Her approach is to go to Morgase and force her to keep her troops away from the area of his depredations, to minimize the risk to him. Siuan grew up in a tyrannical nation that oppresses its people and then she moved to the hierarchy-obsessed White Tower, so to her way of thinking, all you have to do is give orders to your lessers, and that’s the end of it. She makes absolutely no accommodation to Morgase, does nothing to get her to buy in to Siuan’s program, offers her nothing that we know of in exchange for compelling her to commit an egregious dereliction of her duty to her subjects.

For all that she lays the blame for Morgase’s anger toward the Tower on Elayne leaving unexpectedly, maybe she would have accepted Elayne’s absence from Tar Valon, if she was not also dealing with the biggest headache of her reign, brought on by Siuan’s high-handed interference in her rule. The riots and demonstrations against Morgase and her relationship to Elaida and Tar Valon are blamed on the Whitecloaks stirring them up, but since when are they that competent?  Eamon Valda was the one left in command in Caemlyn after Geofram Bornhald was recalled to Amador.  Straight-arrow Galad runs rings around Valda in the PR game and we’re really supposed to believe he’s responsible for swaying public opinion in the capital against a beloved and long-reigning queen? But even if Bornhald got the ball rolling in the brief time he could have been in Caemlyn, there had to be some discontent for the Children to work off of, and Morgase abandoning her borders after a meeting with the Amyrlin Seat is the best reason we have to go off of.  And of course, the Tower’s standard MO means she would not have bothered to walk back her command and let Morgase resume defending her borders after Siuan’s candidate is killed by an ordinary farmer who objected to being robbed, no matter how central the thief was to Aes Sedai plans.

It’s a major weakness of Siuan, that she thinks all she has to do is give orders.  She really makes no allowance for differences of opinion, expecting those on her side to stay on her side and to accept her commands.  She does not expect compelling Morgase to have domestic blowback. She does not expect her handling of Elayne to anger her family or to turn Elaida, who has a clearly demonstrated long-term interest in Elayne and Andor, against her.  She does not expect her high-handed manner to incite sisters against her, or her secretive behavior to give credence to the arguments for deposing her, even though she knew being deposed was a possibility.

And part of that secrecy was kind of unnecessary. Siuan was the one who determined that the Black Ajah knew the Dragon was Reborn.  Once she was Amyrlin, there was no further reason for secrecy, since the only people who didn’t know about it were the good guys. What’s more, it was, like the Murandy operation, not just wrong, but futile.  The secrecy depended on no one being able to trace her to Rand, which in turn counted on people not remembering how close she had once been to the one sister who’d been with Rand at every turn. Even after Verin pointed out how obvious the whole setup was to anyone who had been paying attention, she still tried to maintain secrecy.  And you can’t fault the Hall’s annoyance at being kept in the dark about the imminent apocalypse or the hubris of an Amyrlin a fifth the age of many of them presuming to manage Tarmon Gaidon and the Dragon Reborn all by herself.  

And the problem here is that all this stuff is backstory. Some of it we don’t learn until after she is deposed, and some of it we only learn the full ramifications of once we have a better grounding in the political realities of the setting.  When Siuan is brought down in The Shadow Rising, our perspective is from her and Min. In Siuan’s mind, of course, she’s the put-upon hero, and her frustrations are reasonable feelings, certainly not an exhibition of entitled expectation that things will go her way. When Elaida reveals that the Hall has voted her out of office, Siuan’s retort is basically “How dare you use politics against me!”  Her indignation that Elaida chose a favorable ground for fighting, that she chose to acquire allies rather than taking on Siuan alone in a personal confrontation where Siuan has all the advantage is either so astoundingly naïve as to disqualify her from ever holding office or a breathtaking piece of hypocrisy given the extent to which Siuan stretches her authority and the rules which put her above other sisters. Not to mention the tactics she will later coach Egwene to employ against people who are her ideological allies.  But without the hindsight we get from seeing a greater pattern of Siuan’s behavior as well as a deeper look at the politics of the series, she seems like a frank and well-intentioned leader who has been brought down by treachery.  In Min’s chapters, we only have Siuan’s presentation of herself and her position, as Min, like the reader, lacks much personal experience of the Amyrlin to see beyond it.  And Siuan frames her actions as helping Rand.  Which, yeah, she thinks she is doing, but just because she thinks it does not make it true.  I’m pretty sure Min’s actions in Tar Valon would have been radically different if she could have been a fly on the wall in Fal Dara when Siuan told Rand that his purpose for existing is to be her tool.  

And then Siuan gets stilled, hence the disability, and redemption in the eyes of those readers who were rubbed the wrong way by her attitude. The journey to Salidar has her one of three women traveling alone and vulnerable to violence and danger, not to mention ending up facing a trial for stuff for which she and her friends were not responsible, and then she gets to Salidar and runs smack into the prejudice of Aes Sedai against those who are not. Her old friends treat her as a lesser being, her qualities that have nothing to do with her channeling, and which are thus unaffected by her disability, are suddenly dismissed and she is treated like some ignorant hick.  All of this makes her the sympathetic underdog, and from the reader’s simplistic binary view of “Elaida, bad: anti-Elaida, good,” Siuan looks good and the reluctance of the Aes Sedai to go to war against the Tower is inexcusable, so her deceptions and manipulations are seen to be for a good cause.

But what casual readers miss is that Siuan is still making the same mistakes. She still thinks, despite her awful track record to date that it’s right and good that she control the Tower’s agenda, as she plans to put a puppet on the Amyrlin Seat to be controlled by a council she herself can manipulate. What I have never seen anyone question is, if she thought Egwene was ignorant enough to be manipulated and controlled by the council and second-hand by her, why on earth did Siuan give her a blanket writ of authority and send her off to hunt Black sisters with only a blocked wilder to manage her? Also, Egwene’s state of mind, courtesy of her Seanchan captivity, evident in her actions outside of Tar Valon and her intractability in the short time she was in the Tower, made that a particularly bad choice.

Furthermore, the meta argument in favor of Salidar over Elaida is that Elaida will try to control Rand, and while the sisters in Salidar have a similar mindset, the protagonists of that arc (Nynaeve, Elayne, Egwene, and incredibly, Siuan) believe otherwise and will prevent it.  And yet, to get her foot in the door, and access to power in Salidar, Siuan trades knowledge Rand’s whereabouts to the ruling council.  Their response was to send the incredibly arrogant Kiruna and Bera to find Rand, with their only apparent selection criterion being the number of warders the pair could bring on a trip to the Aiel Waste.  Later on, she manipulates the choice of which of Rand’s friends to send with the embassy, sending Min whom she believes to be more under her thumb and willing to spy on Rand for her, instead of Elayne, which compounds Elayne’s political problems when she goes to take the throne.

Again, Siuan’s intentions get buried by the fact that she throws in with Egwene and honestly does her best to help, but it was not really her choice, or only her choice insofar as she decided to accept it as her own idea instead of fighting a futile battle. What actually happened was that she let a wilder with little regard for the Tower or Siuan personally see through her decoy tactic, because she still has not learned that when she pretends to not be collaborating with a long-time BFF, someone is going to realize the truth.  As a result, Nynaeve has both insight into Siuan’s activities in Salidar, and the willingness to use that knowledge against her, as well as having incurred a debt beyond repayment by restoring her channeling ability. Siuan cannot say ‘no’ to Nynaeve, and Elayne is politically shrewd enough that she’ll spot attempts to wiggle around her which Nynaeve won’t.  So Siuan’s chances of manipulating or controlling Egwene are pretty much nil with Nynaeve and Elayne at her back.  Her only hope for influence is to throw herself entirely into Egwene’s cause and reap the rewards.  Not unlike Asmodean with Rand or the Forsaken in general with the Dark One.

And what about her work with Egwene? While it’s true she provided indispensable political tutelage and strategy, it’s basically the inverse of her own tenure as Amyrlin, where her supposedly good agenda was derailed by her political failure.  In this case, the excellent performance she coaches Egwene to in the political sphere belies the fact that they have no good agenda.  For one thing, they completely ignore the outside world that both of them presume the Tower has the right to order and control.  When a course of action is proposed in the Hall regarding the Black Tower, a topic of not insignificant interest to Aes Sedai (especially Aes Sedai following a woman who publicly told a group of people concerned about the presence of male channelers in their lands “We got this, mind your own business”), Egwene sits mute through the session of the Hall, because neither her own views nor Siuan’s teaching account for a policy for the Black Tower.

The sole agenda for which Siuan and Egwene are engaging in all these political machinations among the rebels is a military campaign against the White Tower, which is utterly wrong, and probably an unjust war on its own. Egwene will even later repudiate the whole campaign and denounce the very act of marching against the White Tower and besieging Tar Valon…after she has had some time away from Siuan, and Siuan’s own actions have soured Egwene on her counsel.  So either Siuan primed and aimed Egwene to plan and execute a military rebellion against the Amyrlin Seat, or else Egwene had the idea on her own and Siuan blithely went along with it and actively abetted the plan instead of counseling against it or trying to moderate it. 

What it very much looks like is that Siuan leaned into revenge more than fixing a problem.  Starting a war within the White Tower cannot be a good way to reuniting it, as people note several times over the course of the conflict when the issue of pushing the fight to an extreme comes up, but it is a better way to make sure that Elaida goes down.  After all, if they are making war on Elaida personally, the end result of the war has to be Elaida’s downfall, and a declared war against her makes it much less likely Elaida will retain power under a negotiated settlement.  And that, more than anything is Siuan’s agenda.  Just as Elaida is really out for her own glorification when she thinks about saving the Tower, Siuan’s first priority is taking out Elaida.

If saving the Tower was the priority that could still be done within the system.  At the point when Siuan arrives in Salidar and a negotiated settlement is still on the table for the dissenters gathered there, Elaida has not been in a position to do much damage.  What she has begun doing is driving apart the coalition that brought her to the Amyrlin Seat.  If the rebels got some concessions in return for their coming back, there would be no external threat to the Tower to rally support to Elaida when her actions become more extreme under Alviarin’s direction.  There would be an opposition party in the Hall to vote against her more outrageous actions.  Once out of the Hall, Elaida can’t keep holding sittings with only her own faction present, and she has been wearing away that faction with her own Siuan-like behavior.

As it is, in the same book where Siuan reaches Salidar, Elaida has promulgated a blanket amnesty to any sisters who return, so the future issue of the punishments she decrees, such as abolishing the Blue Ajah, is not a factor. Those only become so when Siuan lies about Elaida and the Red Ajah, and begins spreading the story that they created false dragons.  And knowing it’s a lie, knowing the Tower’s tradition of covering for fellow sisters and presenting a united front to the world, of not airing their dirty laundry to outsiders, can you blame Elaida? The funny thing is, Siuan herself was outraged when Rand repeated the same story to her. How did she expect Elaida to react?  Just as she did.  Siuan provoked Elaida into the same indignant reaction she herself felt, for exactly the aim of getting her to lash out, and force the rebels to stay the course out of fear. And as with much of Siuan’s actions in Salidar, you have to say “Smart move. But how does it help?” Is provoking the Amyrlin Seat to acts of tyranny conducive to unifying humanity on the verge of Tarmon Gaidon? Is maintaining the division between sisters to the benefit of the Tower? Clearly not. The only one to benefit is someone who cares much less about those issues than she does about toppling from power the woman who bested her at Tower politics and whose teaching style she resents from when she was a novice and Accepted.

Other lovely advice Siuan gives Egwene is to murder Nicola and Areina for not being protagonists. Because pretty much everything Nicola pulls to try to get ahead is very similar to Egwene. And you can’t even say she’s wrong. She’s almost 25 years old. She had a job and a fiancé. This is a grown woman by any standard you care to name, and if she is willing to take the risks of being forced, she has the right to make that call for herself. Especially with Tarmon Gaidon just around the corner.  A considerably better option than sending away girls with enough strength to reach the shawl, just because they are too boy-crazy to make good Aes Sedai, as Siuan did with Else Grinwell.  I’m pretty sure Vandene’s assessment the book before she did so was that the Tower would need every novice capable of lighting a candle, as long as they weren’t too interested in good-looking men, right?

But because of mere political inconvenience, Siuan wants to murder Nicola, removing one of the strongest living initiates in the Tower, not to mention one who’s pretty clever, and capable of outmaneuvering sisters, on top of the sheer evil of the notion. And ethically, by assuming all authority over a novice’s actions and choices, by infantilizing her as the Tower does, treating them as literal children, the Tower has a responsibility to protect them as if they were children in truth.  Murdering Nicola is as profound a betrayal of the White Tower’s duties as the crime she slanders Elaida for committing.  

And speaking of slander, in a world where oaths are taken seriously, where they are sufficient grounds to alter the sentence of a convicted criminal, Siuan swore an oath never to tell a lie. And promptly broke it the moment she was physically capable of doing so. She did not put conditions on the Oaths when she swore them, there was no expiration date, no proviso that she would only live up to them so long as she held a certain status.  She not only broke her oath; she did so to abuse others’ trust because they thought that it still held.

As an example of her teaching Egwene how to be Amyrlin, not just what to do, there is the discussion after Moghedian escapes.  Egwene, in a moment of panic, commits an egregious violation of tradecraft to meet Siuan and Leane for no real practical gain, and demands they conduct an investigation that will further endanger their covers.  Ostensibly, the subject of the investigation is Egwene’s runaway servant, which just might cause people to start wondering at the attention the issue is getting. And there is nothing to be gained by it either. As Siuan points out, none of them know what the Forsaken look like and there is nothing that could be done with anything they do learn about whoever released Moghedian. Egwene slaps down Siuan, demanding to know if the mere reassurance she would get from having slightly more knowledge than she currently does is too much to ask. But it kind of is, considering how many stand to suffer if Egwene goes down.  If Egwene can reprimand Nynaeve & Elayne for endangering her (and by extension, her whole faction’s) political position by a bargain with the Sea Folk that is nonetheless a positive good for the world, how much more does she deserve a reprimand for something equally dangerous to that position with nothing to be gained by the risk? Okay, but she’s still learning.  Whose job is it to set her straight on that?  Siuan’s. And what does Siuan tell her? That she was right to flip out on Siuan, that no one may be impertinent to the Amyrlin Seat!

Before Siuan started filling Egwene’s head with nonsense like that, Egwene understood the need for people to treat rulers and leaders like normal human beings. That is was important for her friends to treat her like their friend, instead of their office. That rulers needed to be told the truth, even if they did not like it. We see in the same book where Siuan tells Egwene not to let anyone be rude to her, Cadsuane being deliberately rude to tell Rand things he needs to hear, because he’s not going to listen to people being deferential and obsequious. Leane tried respect on coming into the tent with “Mother, this is unwise,“ and Egwne’s response is IDGaF.  She needs to hear when she’s doing something stupid, but Siuan doubles down on the Amyrlin being above normal human interaction, not least because she’s defending her own track record of arrogance and entitlement.

Recall that when Anaiya brought up her behavior as Amyrlin when she first arrived in Salidar, stating that she abused her authority and forced people to do what she wanted, Siuan’s reaction is to scoff that the Amyrlin can’t treat every sister like a buddy.  Except that’s not what Anaiya was saying at all. Siuan was acting like respect and basic courtesy are special favors to close friends.  Her reaction is more like a child using a semantic digression rather than reflect on what they did wrong. Why does she think people listened to Elaida as they did not to all the other opponents of Amyrlins who wanted to depose one? Either all but two other Amyrlins who managed to not get deposed DID treat people like girlhood pals, or else Siuan’s behavior was considerably worse than merely failing to be besties.

Just about the only positive thing we know Siuan did as Amyrlin was create the title ‘Mistress of the Kitchens’. I suppose you could count raising the Wondergirls to Accepted, but that’s more of a Doylist good idea.  From the point of view of the White Tower and forming girls into proper Aes Sedai it was a tragic blunder, and Siuan had no intention of undermining the process or protecting the girls from being conditioned into obedient sisters. She just thought that her commands took precedence over 3,000 years’ institutional experience in indoctrination.

Siuan Sanche is a rude, petulant bully, who would destroy the White Tower or the authority of the Amyrlin Seat if she cannot hold them herself. She does a poor job teaching Egwene, who reaches her greatest heights after getting away from her teaching, and blames the Siuan-led rescue in defiance of her standing orders for her inability to reunite the Tower without a fight. Upon her triumph, Egwene publicly denounces and repudiates the course of action to which Siuan counseled her. When she held power herself, Siuan presided over a world going to the dogs, and engendered resentment against the Tower and its interference in others’ affairs. Her control-freak mentality and utter lack of subtlety or diplomacy gave the Shadow opportunities to steal the Horn of Valere and break the White Tower, and they were far and away the biggest fans of her efforts to exacerbate and prolong the division.

But to all-too-many WoT fans, Siuan is an amazing person for going on and keeping up the fight in spite of all she lost. Yes. Those are great qualities.  And Eamon Valda is a blademaster, with all the discipline, dedication and perseverance that achievement entails.  What matters most about skills and personal qualities is the use to which you put them. You don’t get a pass for putting skills to bad use, for striving for unworthy goals, just because you’ve suddenly lost an ability you once took for granted. Siuan learns nothing from her loss, other than perhaps some lessons about practical politics that might have helped her avoid the loss in the first place.  She continues barreling down her path in the assumption that she knows best and she has the right to do whatever she can get away with because she knows best.  All her disability really does is rehabilitate her in the eyes of the fandom, and cover over her many, many mistakes and the reasons why the Pattern removed her from power as its own champion was rising to fix the mess that was in part her doing.

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: Towers of Midnight ch 5

Gawyn tries his hand at a murder mystery and relationship negotiation, Graendal tries her hand at wolf-hunting, and Moridin is, as ever, a Situation.

Chapter 5: Writings

Gawyn? Must we? Though there’s a Forsaken chapter icon so I hold out some hope for this chapter.

And Sleete’s back, it would seem. And okay Gawyn your description of him is rather detailed and lingers lovingly on his ruggedness, grace, and cheekbones. Maybe you should ask him out and leave Egwene alone.

Oh, I see; we’re doing a murder mystery. Mesaana? Is that you?

“Do you really think you’ll find anything the sisters did not, Trakand?” Chubain asked, folding his arms.

“I’m looking for different things,” Gawyn said

Sorry Gawyn, but I don’t think you’ll find any critical thinking skills beneath that rug. You never know, though! Or maybe it’s hiding that sense of purpose you left behind in Andor?

Jokes aside, I think I know what’s going on here: we’re setting up a murder mystery so that Gawyn can solve it where no one else could and, in doing so, redeem himself in Egwene’s and I suppose theoretically the reader’s eyes as well.

Meh. It feels a little contrived, but that might just be because my patience with Gawyn ran out a book or two ago.

Or maybe because he was actually more interesting to me, in a kind of character-study sense, when he was falling, and I’m just not that interested in watching him rise.

[The guards] weren’t as antagonistic towards [Sleete] as they tended to be towards Gawyn. He still hadn’t figured out why they were like that with him.

Wow, Gawyn, I wonder why that could possibly be. Maybe because Sleete’s a Warder and also doesn’t go about antagonising the Amyrlin Seat and demanding to be let into places and annoying everyone within earshot? And also changing sides several times – and okay, yes, Gawyn picked the ‘right’ side in the end, but from the perspective of the guards… really, Gawyn? You can’t think why they might not like you?

At least he can figure out that this is probably not the Black Ajah’s work.

Why did nobody sense channelling from the places where the women were killed?

So this still fits with it being Mesaana but it reminds me of something that I’ve wondered about a few times: if Mesaana is masquerading as an Aes Sedai, how does no one notice her strength, if she’s not hiding her ability, or the fact that she apparently can’t channel, if she is? Or is it possible to partially mask the ability to channel?

When Egwene had told Gawyn he could visit the scenes of the murders if he wished, he’d asked if he could bring Sleete with him.

Good first date ideas: visit a murder scene!

(To be fair that’s basically the plot of most crime dramas, so)

True, he didn’t know much about gateways yet, and people could reportedly make them hang above the ground so they didn’t cut anything. But why would the Black Ajah care about that?

Because not all villains like to chew scenery? It’s awfully gristly, you know.

Also to avoid leaving evidence and make forensics harder. Come on, Gawyn, you’re going to have to step up your detective game a little bit here.

I am with Gawyn, though, on feeling itchy at the thought of setting up a desk that seats you with your back towards the door. How are you supposed to tab away from the embarrassing fanfic you’re writing on the shared family computer in time when someone can just walk in and see your screen? Clearly this Aes Sedai did not grow up in the early 2000s.

Aes Sedai, for all their cunning, sometimes seemed to have remarkably underdeveloped senses of self-preservation.

Gawyn. Please. No one in this series has a functioning sense of self-preservation, with the possible exception of Moghedien.

“But why kill with a knife?” Gawyn said. All four had been killed that way.

Ah. Not Mesaana, then; sounds more like one of the Seanchan bloodknives has thus far avoided notice or death. So we are setting up a victory for Gawyn. Fine. If we must.

Sleete thus far actually seems better at thinking things through and generally playing the detective game, but no doubt Gawyn’s going to get by on instinct and ‘it just doesn’t feel right’. Yes, I am probably being too hard on him. No I don’t care.

A part of him thought that if he could aid Egwene in this, maybe she would soften towards him. Perhaps forgive him for rescuing her from the Tower during the Seanchan attack.

Well, you’re in luck, Gawyn; that seems to be exactly what this narrative arc is being set up for.

Chubain really doesn’t like him. Shame, Chubain; he thinks you’re handsome.

Insufferable man! Gawyn thought. Does he have to be so dismissive towards me? I should—

No. Gawyn forced himself to keep his temper. Once, that hadn’t been nearly so hard.

Why was Chubain so hostile towards him? Gawyn found himself wondering how his mother would have handled such a man as this.

Character growth!

Seriously, though, this is a step in the right direction for Gawyn. To be able to think past that sense of anger and…entitlement, I suppose. To take a step back and think about the situation from another perspective, and think about how best to handle it, rather than just pressing forward with his first instinct. And to consider the wisdom of others who have experience in dealing with things like this, and learn from them.

Though he segues straight into blind rage over Rand al’Thor, Dragon Reborn and murderer extraordinaire, so we’ve still got a little ways to go.

In his heart, Gawyn wanted to meet al’Thor with sword in hand and ram steel through him

Pretty sure that’s not a euphemism.

Also, Ishamael tried that once. Didn’t work out too well for him. Not sure you’d fare any better.

Light! Gawyn thought as Chubain shot him a hostile glance. He thinks I’m trying to take his position.

The triumph of critical thinking! Okay okay, I give Gawyn a lot of shit, but this is the sort of thing he’s not actually bad at, when he takes half a second to do it. It’s just that for the majority of the last several books he’s been jumping to premature conclusions and acting on them without a second thought, assuming he knows best, refusing to listen to others or consider their perspectives, and trying to play his role as he thinks it should be, rather than as it is.

Gawyn’s reasonably clever and reasonably perceptive and generally reasonably competent; his downfall is that he thought he knew his place in the world, and the world didn’t comply. He was the fairytale prince, the noble hero, brother to a future queen and loyal to his oaths and son of a great nation and he knew how all of that fit together, knew his place in it, understood and embraced it.

Only this isn’t his story, and the world went ‘nope, fuck you’ and he’s spent the last several books scrambling to find his footing and not quite understanding that the world isn’t reading from the same script he was handed at age four.

(I think I’ve said elsewhere that it’s like he’s reading, say, Romeo’s lines in a production of The Tempest, and not understanding why nothing makes sense).

Gawyn could have been First Prince of the Sword—should have been First Prince of the Sword—leader of Andor’s armies and protector of the Queen.

And yet, you’re not. How lightly you take that broken oath, Gawyn.

Also, he thinks that makes it laughable that he would want Chubain’s position, but let’s continue to look at it from someone else’s perspective. The man who should have been First Prince of the Sword for some reason isn’t, and you have no idea why, and now he’s here doing some kind of independent investigation and trying to talk to the Amyrlin at every opportunity, having deserted an opposing force that he was commanding. Wouldn’t you be a little confused as to what he actually wants? He clearly doesn’t want the role you assumed he’d hold, so who’s to say he doesn’t want yours?

To give him credit, though, he handles the ensuing conversation with Chubain rather well. Keeps his temper, makes it clear without shaming Chubain that he’s not interested in usurping his role, and thanks Chubain graciously as a way of basically saying ‘I submit to your authority here, or at least I will recognise it and not challenge it’. Well done.

“I don’t think this is the work of the Black Ajah,” Gawyn said. “I think it might be a Grey Man, or some other kind of assassin.”

Yeah I think you’re actually right. Or close, anyway. My money’s on Bloodknives.

Especially now that Sleete’s found a scrap of black silk. What is this, Cluedo?

“I think this is more proof. I mean, it seems odd that nobody has actually seen these Black sisters. We’re making a lot of assumptions.”

Since when has that ever stopped you?

Egwene’s clearly still giving Gawyn something of the cold shoulder, and Gawyn’s being somewhat petulant about it and no, Gawyn, letting Hattori bond you in order to make Egwene jealous is probably not a wise move, but you know that.

It had not been easy to decide to give up Andor—not to mention the Younglings—for her. Yet she still refused to bond him.

Yeah, funny thing about choosing to make sacrifices for someone: if they haven’t asked it of you, it doesn’t actually entitle you to anything in return. A measure of respect or thanks, perhaps, but beyond that, they were your choices, Gawyn, and that’s kind of the point here.

Silviana’s clearly running interference for Egwene, telling Gawyn to wait while she writes a letter which probably means trying to teach him patience and what it actually means to date the Amyrlin.

Egwene saw him. She kept her face Aes Sedai serene—she’d grown good at that so quickly—and he found himself feeling awkward.

Good. You should.

Gawyn’s pursuit of Egwene just makes me want to hit my head against a wall repeatedly, in no small part because I’ve been on the receiving end of something similar and it is Not Fun.

Then again Egwene actually likes Gawyn, which… Egwene you could do so much better. But fine. Sure. Whatever. Sigh.

“Burn me, Egwene. Do you have to show me the Amyrlin every time we speak? Once in a while, can’t I see Egwene?”

“I show you the Amyrlin,” Egwene said, “because you refuse to accept her. Once you do so, perhaps we can move beyond that.”

YES. DRAG HIM.

But, my delight in this aside, this is exactly the point Gawyn needs to get through his head. She is the Amyrlin, and he has to actually understand that, and right now he still… doesn’t. I mean okay, being in a relationship with someone like a head of state is probably not exactly easy, but this is important water to be able to navigate. She is the Amyrlin, and he has to understand that sometimes that’s who she needs to be, and that he doesn’t get to ignore that just because he also knows Egwene. He needs to understand where those boundaries are between Egwene and Amyrlin, public and private, lines he can cross and lines he can’t, and when and how and where. Is that fair? Eh, maybe, maybe not. But it’s the reality, and if he can’t deal with it then maybe dating the Amyrlin Seat is not for him.

“Light! You’ve learned to talk like one of them.”

“That’s because I am one of them,” she said.

He still doesn’t get it. This isn’t just an act she’s putting on for fun, or something she can drop whenever she pleases. He doesn’t get all-hours access to Egwene al’Vere of Emond’s Field, because her role means she can’t be that all the time. She isn’t just that anymore. That’s what she’s trying to tell him here: just as Rand is both himself and Lews Therin, shepherd and Dragon Reborn, both and not separate, she is Egwene al’Vere the girl he first met but also the Amyrlin Seat, innkeeper’s daughter and Aes Sedai. That’s a part of her now, not just decoration (and not a distinct personality she can toggle on and off).

Gawyn sees her as playing a role, when in reality she is that role. And you know what they say: if you love someone you have to accept them for who they are. Or something like that. I wouldn’t know.

“I accept you,” Gawyn said. “I do, Egwene.”

Oh, if saying it made it so.

“But isn’t it important to have people who know you for yourself and not the title?”

Yes. Critically so. But you’re still missing a key part of that: it’s important to have people who know her for herself, but who also understand the title, and understand the necessity of it, and what it means for her.

Like Nynaeve and Elayne: they accept her authority as Amyrlin, and know that when she gives them commands as Amrylin to Aes Sedai, it doesn’t impinge on their friendship. And they also know that there are times to be her friend, and times not to be.

It’s about balance: the point of having people who know her for herself is to have an anchor, a steadying force. But Gawyn doesn’t see the balance; he’s just looking at a single part of her and trying to make that into the whole.

And again: it’s not easy! This is not going to be a simple relationship to navigate! But it’s not going to work if he can’t respect her day job that actually demands quite a lot of her and is sort of a little bit important and sometimes means he’s going to have to take a step back and let her be Amyrlin.

Right now, though, he’s still acting as if… as if he knows better. Which has kind of been the tone of their relationship all along, and is probably part of why it grates on me so much. He listens when he wants to, but as soon as he thinks he knows better he just ignores her. And so even this point he makes comes across as a form of entitlement: ‘play at Amyrlin, but I Know Better, so you should keep me around’.

(Also, how much does he really know her for herself? For one thing they never actually spent much time together, and for another he continually underestimates her, questions her judgement, sides against her because he doesn’t realise she’s not just a helpless child caught up in politics…I could go on).

Anyway. Point being: you still have to accept the title.

Her face softened. “You aren’t ready yet, Gawyn. I’m sorry.”

He set his jaw. Don’t overreact, he told himself. “Very well. Then, about the assassinations.”

Okay, credit where it’s due: this is exactly the right response.

Because this is, in effect, treating her like the Amyrlin. This is listening to her, much as he doesn’t like what he hears. Rather than pushing back again with hollow claims of accepting her, rather than saying ‘I am too ready’, he accepts, however grudgingly, the chastisement and also the framing of the conversation. She is speaking to him as Amyrlin, and so he pushes everything else aside and responds in kind.

Which is exactly the point she’s been trying to make, so… we’ll go ahead and call it progress.

And now he’s rewarded narratively by getting to make a point she apparently hasn’t considered: that there aren’t enough Warders given they’re heading into the Last Battle.

“The choosing and keeping of a Warder is a very personal and intimate decision. No woman should be forced to it.”

“Well,” Gawyn said, refusing to be intimidated, “the choice to go to war is very ‘personal’ and ‘intimate’ as well—yet all across the land, men are called into it. Sometimes, feelings aren’t as important as survival.”

I have…very mixed feelings on this particular argument, and kind of don’t want to go into that right now because I know a can of worms when I see one, but it sets my teeth on edge a bit.

I also don’t want Gawyn to get to score any points right now just because he managed to react the right way one time, but I can accept that this is, in fact, petty of me.

Egwene is less petty than I am and says she’ll consider it.

And I have to say, the two of them are actually navigating this whole conversation rather well. Gawyn’s trying his best to interact with her as the Amyrlin Seat, and Egwene, probably because of that, is answering his questions as much as she can. They’re establishing a working relationship, basically; they can work on their personal one next.

“You’re keeping secrets,” he said. “Not just from me. From the entire Tower.”

“Secrets are needed sometimes, Gawyn.”

“Can’t you trust me with them?” He hesitated. “I’m worried that the assassin will come for you, Egwene.”

Okay that’s toeing the line a bit, but again, he at least asks for her trust here now, rather than demanding it. Expresses his concerns, but in a way that feels more like open communication than like ‘I know best’.

And that earns him a measure of that trust, moments later:

“One of the Forsaken is in the White Tower.”

True, but I actually think Egwene is perhaps mistaken about her being the assassin. Which again annoys me because I’m petty and don’t want Gawyn to be right where she’s wrong, but hey at least I acknowledge it, right?

Point being, Gawyn, that you have to earn the trust you’re asking for, but you’re on the right track, and so you get a part of it.

And she even explains a bit of why she’s keeping it secret. This is the most openly and honestly these two have communicated with each other in… uh… ever. Round of applause.

Light, a Forsaken in the Tower seemed more plausible than Egwene being the Amyrlin Seat!

Damn it Gawyn, you were doing so well. This is the kind of thinking you need to train yourself out of. This is exactly what Egwene is referring to when she says you don’t accept her as Amyrlin. Yes, she was an unlikely appointee to that seat. Yes, she’s young and wasn’t even Aes Sedai when she was raised. Yes, it’s hard to believe. But you need to get past that now, because this just comes across as… incredibly condescending, honestly.

“For now, there is something I need of you.”

“If it is within my power, Egwene.” He took a step towards her. “You know that.”

“Is that so?” she asked dryly. “Very well. I want you to stop guarding my door at night.”

“What? Egwene, no!”

She shook her head. “You see? Your first reaction is to challenge me.”

“It  is the duty of a Warder to offer challenge, in private, where his Aes Sedai is concerned!” Hammar had taught him that.

“You are not my Warder, Gawyn.”

That brought him up short.

YES. GOOD.

It is… a rather excellent demonstration of her point. They’ve made some progress here, but this… she makes an open request and he immediately promises anything in his power. But then, Gawyn’s made other promises before, and doesn’t exactly have a perfect track record of keeping them, when it comes down to it.

What he means is: ‘if it is within my power, and if I want to’.

His challenging of her request is almost secondary; the real issue here is that he says one thing (‘if it is within my power’) but immediately shows that he doesn’t actually mean it. Just as he says he accepts her as Amyrlin, but when it comes down to it, he still doesn’t. And that’s the part that erodes trust; that’s the part that means he’s not ready.

A challenge to that request—or perhaps a question as to why she’s asking it—is not completely out of line here. Like, leaving aside the question of whether or not Egwene needs a guard, or of whether he should get to guard her door when she hasn’t actually asked him to, if he hadn’t promised blindly to do whatever she asks, it would be more or less fair to ask why, before agreeing.

But he doesn’t. He makes that empty promise—so like his empty words that he does accept her as Amyrlin, really, I swear—and then immediately goes back on it. Shows that he’ll only actually listen to her when it suits him, and that he still thinks he’s free to do whatever the fuck he wants when he thinks He Knows Better. That he doesn’t actually trust her, or listen to her, when he doesn’t want to.

Turns out Egwene is literally setting herself up as bait, hence not wanting a guard. And again, challenging her on that is, I think, fair. It’s a pretty big risk! It is arguably kind of reckless! And that’s the sort of thing he could and should be able to do as someone who (supposedly) knows her as more than just Amyrlin: say ‘are you sure’ and ‘I don’t like this’.

That’s not the problem. The problem is that he doesn’t approach it that way at all: he approaches it with a blank-cheque promise that he then pulls back as soon as he realises what she’s actually asking, because in his view he only needs to listen to her when he wants to.

It's not a good look, Gawyn.

“Exposing myself is only one of my plans—and you are right, it is dangerous. But my precautions have been extensive.”

“I don’t like it at all.”

“Your approval is not required.” She eyed him. “You will have to trust me.”

“I do trust you,” he said.

“All I ask is that you show it for once.”

That’s pretty much it. It’s easy to say ‘I trust you’ or ‘I accept you’ or ‘anything within my power’. But those words have to mean something, and unfortunately he’s shown that they don’t. And so in this case she needs to see that he can obey her as Amyrlin, because this is a plan she is making as Amyrlin.

And Gawyn, you’d probably be better able to protect her if you demonstrated that trust once in a while, because then she’d know she can let you in on her plans without worrying about you going rogue and doing something against them. Then she’d know she can actually rely on you. Then your challenges – if you’re no longer challenging everything she says – would probably carry more weight, because she’d know they’re not just coming from a place of ‘I know better and I’m not listening’.

Well. They’ll get there. Maybe.

***

Over to Egwene now, which means I have to deal with the fact that she does actually like him and feels emotions and things when he’s around. Why, Egwene? Why?

That passion of his was entrancing

Trust me, it’s vastly overrated.

And it was important that she have people she could rely upon to contradict her, in private. People who knew her as Egwene, rather than the Amyrlin.

But Gawyn was too loose, too untrusting, yet.

That’s kind of what I was getting at. Because it is sort of ironic: he wants to be let into her confidence and be able to protect her and challenge her—and they’re both right that she needs people to do that! But she has to be able to trust him, and has to know that he understands her and her role, in order for him to be able to do that in a meaningful way. She has to know that it’s not just him refusing to listen, or not understanding what her role as Amyrlin actually demands of her. And has to know that she can trust his judgement when it comes down to it, and weigh up how he feels for her as Egwene vs what she needs as Amyrlin.

She looked over her letter to the new King of Tear, explaining that Rand was threatening to break the seals. Her plan to stop him would depend on her gathering support from people he trusted.

Ha. Speaking of trust. I am certain the placement of this is entirely intentional.

I’m still rather uneasy about this, but I also think there’s a decent chance that it’s not so far from what Rand actually expects or even wants. Because even if her intention right now is to ‘stop’ him, if she can get all the rulers behind her and get everyone to the right place at the right time…

But it could also go so badly. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those razor-edge kinds of moments, where the world hangs in the balance and the thing that will tip it one way or another is whether or not Egwene and Rand can in the end trust one another.

***

Oh hey it’s Graendal! Is this my reward for putting up with Gawyn? (For a certain definition of ‘putting up with’…)

Poor Graendal, having to make due with a mere cavern, in which she’s still managing to lounge on a silk chaise. I weep for you, really, I do.

Moridin stood inside his black stone palace.

YES! GOOD! MORIDIN!

Er. I mean. Oh no, scary, evil, bad. Listen, I love him.

“Aran’gar is dead, lost to us—and after the Great Lord transmigrated her soul the last time. One might think you are making a habit of this sort of thing, Graendal.”

THE CHOSEN DWINDLE, DEMANDRED. BECAUSE GRAENDAL FOUND A SNIPER RIFLE.

Anyway, whatever Moridin is here for, it’s not to play Graendal’s games. Sorry, Graendal; you’re good but he’s kind of… quite literally operating on an entirely different level here.

He’s a bit more…direct here than he usually is, and I can’t tell if that’s just Sanderson or if it’s because he’s bored of these petty games he has to play with the others and impatient with them and it’s time to move things into position for the ending so he doesn’t have time to deal with their bullshit. Probably a bit of both.

“Moridin, don’t you see? How will Lews Therin react to what he has done? Destroying an entire fortress, a miniature city of its own, with hundreds of occupants? Killing innocents to reach his goal? Will that sit easily within him?”

Moridin hesitated. No, he had not considered that.

But I wonder: did he?

Graendal is…not wrong, here, in what Natrin’s Barrow very nearly did to Rand. Did do, really; he was so close to the edge there at the end, repressing everything because if he allowed himself to feel the reality of it, it would break him. And so it drove him, ultimately, to Dragonmount, and nearly to destroying the world.

Graendal and Semirhage did their parts very, very well in that regard, even if Graendal is er… playing up how intentional it was on her side. It’s just that, at the last, Rand understood something deeper.

But how much of that whole process did Moridin himself feel? He and Rand are linked, after all, and I’m all but certain some of his existential despair crossed that link to Rand, so could he feel Rand’s suppression of emotions, and his anger and despair and everything else that threatened to overwhelm him? (Or is Moridin all too familiar with that, or simply too practiced at his own form of apathy, to even feel it as a difference?)

‘He must know pain of heart’, Moridin said; I don’t think he is as naïve here as Graendal seems to believe.

And still, I have to wonder if he felt anything, anything at all, of Rand’s remembrance of hope on Dragonmount. Or if, as the Betrayer of Hope, that is too far lost to him.

She could vaguely remember what it had been like, taking those first few steps towards the Shadow. Had she ever felt that foolish pain? Yes, unfortunately.

DAMN IT you can’t just TEASE me with things like this! That’s rude! It’s unfair! I need this story now! This is where I live! Turning points and the pain of them and your logic destroyed you, didn’t it and crossing thresholds that lead too far and losing yourself along the way but reforging something else until that loss no longer hurts and and and

But others of them had taken different paths to the Shadow, including Ishamael.

YOUR LOGIC DESTROYED YOU, DIDN’T IT.

CALLED FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF EVERYTHING.

BETRAYER OF HOPE.

(Did you betray hope or did it betray you).

I’m fine.

She could see the memories, so distant, in Moridin’s eyes. Once, she had not been sure who this man was, but now she was. The face was different, but the soul the same. Yes, he knew exactly what al’Thor was feeling.

Yeah. That. He… very much does, I think, and maybe even more so than you realise. (But if he can know the anguish why can he not know the hope—).

Also the face was different, but the soul the same is pretty and reminds me of men wear many names, many faces; different faces yet always the same man except that in this context there’s a sadness to it: as if that soul, that self, is something he cannot escape. Which, of course, seems to be exactly what Moridin himself believes: that so long as the Wheel turns, this is his fate. To be the Betrayer, the Shadow’s Champion, the one whose role is always to fight, always to oppose, and always to fall. The one for whom there is no hope except nothingness, and so that is his goal.

And it’s so close to Rand’s thoughts, there on Dragonmount just before that moment of epiphany. Why keep fighting, if all it means is another fight? What does it matter? It will only demand his soul and his self and his life over and over, and the Light’s victory only means another battle and the Shadow’s victory means annihilation so why even try?

Rand, in the end, has love and enough light to draw him back. The hint of a promise of a future that will come, even if he does not live to see it this time around. He has something – though he has had to struggle to see it – that he is fighting for. What is Moridin (Ishamael, Elan) fighting for? What does he have left to fight for? Nothing – for him there is nothing but darkness and despair and perhaps, if he is lucky, the nothingness of oblivion. For him there is no promise – and perhaps not even a memory – of Light. This is how he sees it, this is his role, and he does not see an alternative.

And so once again I have to wonder if he felt anything at all when Rand stood on Dragonmount and remembered the hope that Elan once betrayed. Perhaps not.

Sorry. I just. This is where I live and Moridin is a Situation for me and we all just have to accept that.

Anyway, Moridin may or may not be able to communicate – or at least be communicated to – directly by the Great Lord, so that’s a thing.

And Graendal’s going after Perrin now. Everyone’s set on a Perrin Aybara collision course this book, it would seem. Better get your levelling up done quickly, Perrin; she’s not exactly an easy opponent.

“He’s important,” Graendal said. “The prophecies—”

“I know the prophecies,” Moridin said softly.

Oh, and how. Knows them, knows—or certainly knows what he believes to be—his own role in them. And sees in them no way out, except the annihilation of everything.

Moridin’s not too confident in Graendal’s ability to take down Perrin.

And also has an entire storage unit full of objects of Power. That’s…interesting and terrifying, and I am keeping careful track of the mentioned inventory.

A dreamspike? That sounds…ominous, and also very much like something suited to a Perrin-centric storyline. So that should be fun.

It also comes with a very clear warning to not use it against Moridin or the others, and I’d recommend sticking to that advice, Graendal, because he will destroy you.

Then again, if he gets his way and you all achieve your victory, that will destroy you too. So, you know. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Oh and Slayer as well! Buy one object of power, get one wildcard villain free!

That voice of his… it sounded, just faintly, like that of the Great Lord.

Are his eyes on fire yet though?

But it would seem both Champions have well and truly been chosen, and invested with their power now. Rand can make crops grow with a thought and warp the air to light around him and hold a room in thrall; Moridin can speak with and almost as the Great Lord and wield the True Power and orchestrate annihilation.

“If you do succeed, the Great Lord will be pleased. Very pleased. That which has been granted you in sparseness will be heaped upon you in glory.”

She licked her dry lips. In front of her, Moridin’s expression grew distant.

Distant as those promises are empty, for I don’t think there will be any rewards or glory in the aftermath of a true success for the Great Lord. All that will remain is chaos, forever. And still, none of the Chosen but Moridin seem to quite…get that. Selfishness, Verin said, and it blinds them here.

(Which is not to say Moridin is free of that selfishness; I just think what he wants is…different).

Oh hey dark prophecies.

“They have long been known to me,” Moridin said softly, still studying the book. “But not to many others, not even the Chosen. The women and men who spoke these were isolated and held alone. The Light must never know of these words. We know of their prophecies, but they will never know all of ours.”

(But what do these prophecies say of you, Moridin? Or what do they demand?)

Interesting to have these referenced now, though, especially when we don’t actually get any of the actual text of them. Where do these come from? Are the like the Prophecies of the Light: true, but not always in the way they seem to mean, and not a guarantee but merely a possibility?

“But this…” she said, rereading the passage. “This says Aybara will die!”

“There can be many interpretations of any prophecy,” Moridin said. “But yes. This Foretelling promises that Aybara will die by our hand.”

Hm. Which of course immediately makes me think it absolutely does not promise that, but it’s a little annoying to have this as a kind of… supposed-to-be-ominous foreshadowing without actually having anything of the wording there to pick apart and see what it might really mean. That’s where the fun of a lot of the other prophecies and fortellings and viewings lies: in knowing it doesn’t always mean what the characters think it does, and trying to look at it from another angle.

Whereas here, all I can really say is ‘okay Perrin’s probably not going to die by their hand’ but I don’t get to have any reasoning or justification or ‘oh, maybe it means this’ other than ‘that doesn’t feel like where the story is going’.

Meh, oh well.

Next (ToM ch 6) Previous (ToM ch 4)

[nedstarkswhatever]

The Dragon Reborn

I actually finished this book yesterday after an all day readathon.  Spoilers below!

There’s a lot to unpack with this.  The thing that always strikes me the most is how few PoV chapters we get from Rand in a book that’s named after him.  It works really, really well for a bunch of reasons.  After two books that have largely been through the eyes of Rand, switching to a book where his presence is more felt than directly seen is amazing.  Especially during the middle of the book where he’s fleeing Ba’alzamon constantly, probably sleep deprived and of questionable sanity.  The few scenes we do get of him -- almost attacking Egwene, actually attacking Perrin, snarling as he fights of darkhounds, and taking premature action against a likely group of dark friends -- are wonderful.  And then there’s the ending.  The Sword That Is Not A Sword is such an amazing name.  I always love it when it’s used.

His and Moiraine’s relationship continues to degrade, of course.  It’s always really interesting to me that he’s fully aware that she’s right, but he chafes against it.  In a lot of ways, Egwene’s tension with Nynaeve mirrors that... but I think it’s less effective.  There’s a couple of reasons for this: Rand’s conflict with Moiraine eventually leads to him trusting his instincts and pursuing Callandor, but Egwene’s conflict with Nynaeve doesn’t really lead to anything interesting in this book.  There’s a certain sense to Rand’s distrust of Moiraine, too: she’s very explicitly said that she would kill him to keep Shai’tan from getting what he desires.  It’s a sensible, pragmatic statement, but I think it’s one of those things that seeds the distrust between them.  With Egwene... part of the problem, imo, is that we very rarely see an instance where she clashes with Nynaeve and is on the right side.  This is interesting, because it’s very much within her character, but also frustrating and probably pretty unavoidable since she has the same overall background as Nynaeve, but is younger and less experienced with the world.  I think things would probably be different if they spent more time in the Tower, since throwing herself at things with everything she has is totally Egwene’s speed.

It sometimes shocks me how little time Nynaeve, Elayne, and Egwene actually have in the tower before the events of next book come to pass.  They spend three months there during The Great Hunt and their time there this book is essentially a stopover between two big adventures.  Siuan is such an amazing character in her own right.  I really wish we’d gotten more time with her as Amyrlin.  The scene that stands out to me the most here is Egwene’s Accepted Test.  Nynaeve is my all time favorite, so her test leaves more of an impression on me, but Egwene’s accepted test is a beautiful sequence.  She’s so wonderfully loyal and it breaks my heart to feel how much all three of her tests hurt her.

There’s another scene I think is really beautiful and it’s Perrin’s scene where he’s working as a blacksmith.  Some people probably don’t like the symbolism of the axe and the hammer, but there’s something really breathtaking about how RJ describes Perrin’s actions and the art of crafting metal.  It puts the constant comments from others about him being a blacksmith into a whole different light.  This is a pretty good book for Perrin in general, actually, considering that we see him begin to push back against Moiraine after so much weary resignation.  And then there’s Faile.  I’m of mixed opinion on RJ’s romances.  The major ones, I think, always have that seed that makes them appealing to me, but I think the way they’re executed could have been improved upon.  Some of this is probably due to the uncertainty of whether there would be a next book for some of these early books, but I will say that I think Perrin and Faile’s romance this book is actually pretty well paced?  We’re in Perrin’s head relatively often and his thoughts and feelings about Faile pretty much dominate every chapter they’re together in.  I have some problems with it in later books, but I think it flows pretty well this book.

This is also the first book where we have a Mat POV!  And thank goodness.  For the first two books, Mat is essentially a main character that’s left to the side.  He’s introduced as the least mature of #teamwoolhead, he quickly falls under the influence of a magically tainted dagger, he’s seemingly the one that pushes Perrin to stay away from Rand during the Rand Al’Thor friend fuck up last book, and then reacts relatively poorly to the revelation that Rand can channel.  Not a great way to introduce a character... but that’s more than made up for the almost jaunty tone of Mat’s chapters.  He’s just so delightfully into his own personal narrative of “I’m Mat bloody Cauthon and everyone else is crazy” that it cracks me up.  With things growing increasingly darker, the humor his chapters inject thanks to his lack of self-awareness is super enjoyable.  Plus?  It’s delightful fun to see him trounce Gawyn and Galad with his quarter staff.

The one thing that’s really unfortunate is how under-appreciated Moiraine is by the people around her.  She’s the best of the Aes Sedai.  There is some arrogance to her, as there is with all Aes Sedai, but she’s also deeply grounded.  She has no issues with bawdy tavern songs and tosses some delightful shade.  I think most of the Two Rivers folks don’t really appreciate exactly how much she’s given up, though.  Unlike the majority of Aes Sedai, her life is spent on the ground.  She’s spent her life traveling and searching out the Dragon Reborn: she hasn’t been connected to the White Tower in the way the rest of the Aes Sedai seem to be.  Oh, she studied there, but ever since being raised to the shawl, she’s traveled and search and spent her life meeting people from all walks of life.  There are others, like Elaida, who are separate from the Tower, but... I think they still fit within the tower hierarchy in a way that Moiraine just doesn’t.  She’s given that up for her cause.  It’s no wonder so many of her sisters are prepared to give her over to the Red Ajah for penance in The Great Hunt.  She can’t know many of her sisters, especially not the ones that have been raised in the past twenty years.  She is the best of the Aes Sedai, but the least appreciated of any of them.

[pink-writer-girl]

Am I a Knight? Or am I a Fool?

Chapter 1

The moon shined providing the only light through the dense dark forest, a taravan of soldiers walked ethier on the ground or sat in on top of an old carriage was being pulled by a horse...though this wasn't any ordinary carriage....no this held a prisoner....an enemy to their Lords...an enemy who was dangerous not only for his crimes but for his  non-human nature.

*tck!* It took forever to capture this freaking dweller!" Knight Gawyn said with a scowl.

Dweller...it was the name of the race the creature they had captured...well more of derogatory term for them ...their true name was Dweldilin...though there are very few who call their race by their actual name...the creatures who dwell below the surface...the female wasn't proud to admit that this race was treated horribly by her own kind for what they are.. along with many other human races...she couldn't help but take a glance back at the prisoner in the back of the carriage...like true to his name he stayed out view clothed in darkness...he was hunched over with his hair in his face… his clothing was ripped and dirty, he was covered in bruises and slashes...he definitely put up a fight as they said...he refused to give up...the only reason they were able to capture him was because he was weak at the time.

"Relax Gawyn, we caught the beast now will receive great rewards and praise *haha*" Knight Berthelemy laughed.

"  *haha* knowing you Berthelemy the Heartbreaker you'll probably ask for women as a reward!" Gawyn said now laughing too.

Both laugh grotesque.

The only female knight Elysande couldn't help but wince in slight disgust  at what these too were implying as she turned her head back towards the front but tried to keep a serious straight face the whole time ... sometimes she wondered how these disgusting excuse of men became knights... though she knew better then to speak out against them do to them having seniority and because she was a woman….

Yes she passed the brutal training and was knighted much to the shock of most of the men in her class...but that didn't mean that they accepted her worth... and she still dealt with much harassment and scrutiny... 

" Ahhh look I think you making Lady Knight here uncomfortable" Gawyn Teased. 

Berthelemy snickers cruelly at this" She's probably just jealous that I'm  talking about other woman in front of her," he said as he leered at her. 

Elysande just kept her straight face not letting him get to her...the was a reason the called him Berthelemy the Heartbreaker because of all the brothels he would busted and all the broken hearts he left behind...she was surprised he hadn't contracted syphilis yet... Elysande did admit there where so features of him that women could find attractive about him with his golden curls of blonde hair muscular body and very extravagant armor but other then that the female found him repulsive.

" Alright both you shut up" the third knight said sternly.

Both men turn to look at their commanding officer Ives the Undefeated who was sitting next to Elysande on the carriage, he frowned at the men.

" You both are Knights of Shea Grein...act like it" Ives told the firmly.

Both the men nodded and turned their attention back to the road not wanting to upset the their commander not even Gawyn the Brute who lived to his name for his loud personality, huge his stature and and his brutality on the battlefield didn't dare go against him...the bald man knew just how strong and fierce their Raven haired commander was...Ives the Undefeated was master swordsman not with one but two swords at once...no had been able to beat him in their country...no one exempt the mysterious person who took his eye and refuse to mention till this day…not only was he strong he was very calculating and wise... Elysande could help but admire him because unlike the others he actually stood for what a true Knight is...not to mention he was quite attractive, there where many women back in their country who had great desire to be his wife or just to lay with him once, even Elysande had a slight crush on him even though he was 15 years her senior...the older man noticed the that she was staring at him making his one blue eye stare at her coldly.

 "Is there something wrong Elysande?" He asked her.

She turns red slight and brings her gaze back to the front

" No, nothing's wrong" she replied.

He frowned at her for a bit before turning his back as well.

" You better stay focus too Elysande, I know women get easily distracted but you knight first and foremost" He told her firmly but cruelly...yes Ives was a better man then the two here but that didn't mean he didn't hold prejudice that at a woman being a knight...it made her depressed when he treated like this.

" Yes sir…" she replied Meekly

It wasn't long before the saw light from a small village, the village had many cottages, with much much grass and texture to the structures and few people walking about due to being due being so late, it was small but comfortable. They decided to pull and wait for the rest of the night and get up early the next morning.

Berthelemy wince insulted that they had to stay in a such " low class" In once he caught sight of it but did speak up knowing Ives had already reprimanded him, The Heartbreaker came from a noble family so he had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

" Great I hope they have gin*haha* Gaywn chuckled.

Ives gave him a look" just don't over do it." 

Ives looked back into the carriage to make sure that their prisoner was still restrained, Elysande couldn't help but take a peak curiously but by then Ives had already closed and locked the door, they went inside to see an In with wooden walls, chairs, table a cozy fireplace with a bear rug in front of it, some paintings on the walks and a check in desk in the back, it was very homey.

At the desk what appeared to be a kindly old innkeeper with a white hair, beard with a tan button down shirt and brown vest greeted them with a warm smile.

" Hello travelers, how long will you be staying in our town?" The Innkeeper greeted them.

"  Just room and board for a night for the four of us and then we go the next morning" Ives said simply.

The innkeeper nodded as he went to grab some keys and handed them to Ives

" that will be 6 pieces of silver* he said with a smile.

Both Gawyn and Berthellemy looked appalled at this while Elysande looked at them like they were over privilege idiots...6 silvers was actually a decent price.

Gawyn wrapped his huge arm around the poor keeper acting like all friendly but the young woman knew it was to intimate him.

 Now now my good man when are Knights of Shea Grein on important mission from our Lord's, do you think it's right to make important men to pay for there stay on suck a mission" Gawyn said as he got close to his face.

Elysande couldn't help but be appalled by this behavior.. The man became very nervous….

" I-I-I.." the Innkeeper stuttered.

Before Elysande say anything Ives had already yanked the huge man off him making Gawyn hiss and rub his shoulder at the rough treatment.

Ives takes out his coin bag and handed the silvers to the man.

" I'm sorry about this, here take the 6 and here's a little extra for the trouble we've caused" he apologized.

The man nodded in thanks in surprise to have now 12 silvers I'm his hand. A warm feeling went through out Elysande body seeing her commander noble nature yet again. An hour passed and the knights were called down to meal that was prepared for them after they settled in there rooms, the meal appeared to be beef stew and smelled very fresh and good.

The young woman couldn't help but glance outside... curious about the prisoner...she them turned to see Berthelemy trying to use sweet words to woe the barmaid serving them making Elysande scoff lightly before getting up and taking out a bowl of stew.

Ives raised a brow as he watched her.

" where are you going?" He asked her

"  he needs to be alive to face his crimes, that means he needs to eat…" Elysande responded.

Gawyn laughed loudly" that beast rather wish for death then face what the Lords has prepared for him" he said cruelly.

By then Elysande was outside walking towards the door of the prison carriage slowly...she sighed deeply before unlocking it and stepping in...her figure shielding the light of the torches in the village...she could see the make Dweldilin eyes slightly glow in the darkness as he opened them and stare at him emotionlessly.

*******

Art by: BrinBrin(ghost)

We've been working on short story for contest :)

[markantonys]

lord of chaos chapter 41-end: part 2

“that golden hair nestled about [elayne’s] shoulders, framing a face to make any man stare, and the moonlight softened her arrogance. if she had been anything but what she was...and [mat] did not mean just aes sedai, nor even that she belonged to rand.”📣📣📣📣 ATTENTION MATRANDLAYNE TRUTHERS!!! lots to unpack here. 1) mat 100% wants to bang elayne, and it’s not her being aes sedai that bothers him (which you’d think it would bc of all his issues with aes sedai!) nor the fact that she’s dating rand, it’s only that she’s annoying. 2) mat wanting to bang elayne and not minding that she’s dating rand is ONE step away from being chill with sharing elayne with rand. which is a few steps away from wanting to bang elayne AND rand. i’ll die on this hill.

why does elayne keep calling him master cauthon lmao i’m pretty sure she just called him mat back in tdr

“yes, i remember the stone. a fine time we all had there. do you remember something in the stone that gives you a right to make demands of me? i don’t.” 1) we DID all have a fine time in the stone, that was the one time everyone was all together and i miss it and set half my fics during it and consider it my Happy Place of the series. 2) this gives me vibes of like, mat and elayne had an ill-advised hookup in the stone and agreed to pretend it never happened and now mat is just DARING her to bring it up

“aviendha told [mat] that he had no honor, of all things, and if he could not show more respect to elayne, she herself would undertake to teach him respect.” protective girlfriend! after fighting over rand, now aviendha and mat are fighting over elayne. i want that rivals to sibling-spouses arc.

“elayne [demanded thom and juilin’s attention] sometimes, just to keep them away from [mat], he was sure, though he could not fathom the why.” mat’s like “every single thing elayne does is specifically intended to torment me” he wants to fuck her so bad it makes him look stupid. literally the enemies to lovers potential here is SO GOOD dammit! like, it’s so similar to the early days of rand and aviendha’s dynamic!

“if [mat] did not put a stop to it now, [elayne] would have him knuckling his forehead” mat and rand shaking hands meme on wanting elayne to top them

in terms of scenery description, i think ebou dar is my fav location so far. it sounds so beautiful! renaissance venice vibes!

it seems that mat deciding to stay at an inn instead of the palace in ebou dar was a key decision for his future............i’m scared

elayne scolding mat for letting olver be around drunk men. she is so ready to coparent!

our first intro to tylin.......................😒

back to rand. “i will use anybody i must. you said it yourself; i am who i am. and i’m using myself up, perrin, because i have to. just like i’ll use anybody i have to. we don’t have a choice anymore. not me, not you, not anybody!” oh my boys 😭😭

“the restrictions stand. and one more requirement of my own. from now on i expect to see the respect i deserve from you. i am the dragon reborn.” 😳 daddy? sorry. daddy? call me faile because my man pulling rank gets me all hot and bothered

“at last rand pushed saidin away, and with that he realized how wearied he had been by the struggle. loial had to carry him to his rooms in the sun palace” baby boy 😭😭 (a contrast to the previous bullet.....duality of man)

rand found his flute again and is playing it i’m going to cry!!!!!!!!!!!

“rand also asked gawyn to visit. he had only met elayne’s brother once, but he liked the man. gawyn never came, though, and he never replied. sadly, rand concluded that gawyn believed the stories about his mother. that was hardly the sort of thing you could just ask a man to stop believing. it put him in such a gray humor whenever he thought of it that even min seemed to despair of cheering him; neither perrin nor loial would stay around him when he was like that.” rand just wants a friend so bad 😭😭😭😭😭😭

that inventor guy’s note about the seals on the dark one’s prison “have to clear rubble before you can build” maybe rather than restoring them, they have to break all the seals so that they can build a new, stronger prison? jumping ahead to the epilogue, this guy gets killed before he can tell rand whatever he found out on the subject, so it must’ve been important

“berelain swept in, as beautiful as ever, in a soft blue dress cut as deeply as ever - and her eyes fell on min, in her pale rose coat and breeches. for several long moments rand might as well not have existed. berelain openly eyed min up and down. min forgot about the sitting room; she put her hands on her hips and stood there with one knee bent, studying berelain just as openly. they smiled at each other” now THIS is a ship i can get behind!!! this would actually be so good though......berelain who’s always tried to seduce men for political purposes ending up falling in real love with a woman.......min who’s always looked down on stereotypically feminine things ending up with a high femme gf..........they’re probably never gonna interact again but i’m into this!

and now berelain is back to stalking and harassing perrin, so my goodwill towards her has lessened again

rand is so paranoid about the salidar aes sedai that he underestimates the tower aes sedai and gets shielded and kidnapped!! “eat, or you will be fed” oh what a delicious parallel to “kneel, or you will be knelt” at the end of the book

rand is desperately hoping people will notice he’s missing and the wise ones will walk past and sense channeling happening inside the house, and they DO but they think nothing of it 😭😭😭😭 it is so heartbreaking that people are so set on the idea of rand being stubborn, doing as he pleases, and being about to go mad if not mad already that when he’s missing for DAYS they just think “ugh classic rand running off alone with no explanation” instead of realizing that something bad happened to him

“[mat] had to speak to the boy. he could not just grin like that at every woman he saw. and telling a woman she had beautiful eyes! at his age! mat did not know where olver got it.” MAT..........

on the girls’ mysterious disappearances from the palace: “mat knew what was going on. they were doing it just to spite him.” he is so obsessed with elayne!!!

“to [elayne’s] surprise, she realized she had not thought of [mat] in days.” elayne is not obsessed with mat lmao (but when she DID used to think about mat all the time, i’m sure it was only because of the ter’angreal. i’m sure that was the only reason.)

egwene lets logain escape! i wonder if he will indeed go to the asha’man

egwene mentioning mat is the moment elayne realizes she dreamed herself wearing a marriage knife and gets embarrassed 👀

melaine promising to name her twins min and egwene 🥺

egwene saying that rand, perrin, faile, loial, and min are together and then “all it needs is mat and the three of us [her, elayne, and nynaeve]” shut up i want that so bad i want that more than i’ve ever wanted anything and i know i will never get it shut UP 😭😭

“‘they have taken him!’ sulin wailed suddenly, shockingly. head thrown back, eyes squeezed shut, she moaned at the ceiling, and the sound of her voice was enough to make perrin shiver. ‘they have taken my first-brother!’ her cheeks glistened with tears.” 😭😭😭😭😭😭 the maidens’ love for rand is everything to me

perrin charging off to rescue rand, so romantic :’)

rand and the box. it hurts so much. it hurts so much!!!!! not much else to say about it. you all understand the pain! imagine how hard this will hit in the show. books don’t really ever make me cry, but seeing this onscreen i’m going to be sobbing like a goddamn baby i already know it

“we could work together, lews therin.” “together? together. whoever you are.” this is weirdly wholesome 🥺 i am so trusting of rand’s pov that i’m always like of COURSE lews therin is really there, of COURSE it’s not a figment of the madness! so i will be interested to see if it’s ever made clear one way or the other what’s going on

turns out sevanna’s mysterious cube was not The Box (nor was the forsaken’s stasis cube. can’t believe The Box really was just a normal box), but she’s still up to something which i suppose won’t be revealed until next book. who cares, she’s just been lurking in the background for 3 books being vaguely ominous but not actually doing anything.

perrin thinking that rhuarc and berelain smell like father and daughter aww

“rand’s need seethed beneath [perrin’s] skin” first of all the ta’veren pull is so gay all the time, second of all i wish mat had felt it too and come to help perrin save rand! i was thinking, i don’t know enough about future plotlines yet to say if this would fuck them up beyond repair, but in the show it would be neat if the whole gang ended up at dumai’s wells since it’s such an iconic moment in the series, and in this chunk of the book mat/elayne/nynaeve/aviendha/egwene aren’t really doing anything but getting into place for their next book plotline. since the girls are ta’veren too in the show, maybe all 4 of them feel rand needs them and they all go, with elayne and aviendha of course accompanying mat and nynaeve. then after they can all just Travel back to wherever they need to be for their next book plotlines. just pitching some ideas if you’re reading this amazon

gawyn is being angsty and conflicted and i can’t deny it anymore, he is my problematic fav. i am knife cat meme in a sea of gawyn haters. angsty and conflicted characters who flip flop about what side to take has always been my biggest blorbo archetype, this was inevitable! gawyn hates rand and wants to kill him, but he was not involved in rand’s capture and was stunned to learn of it, and what the aes sedai are doing to rand sickens him, and yet he won’t help rand (not that there’s anything he could do against all these aes sedai even if he did want to).

rand escapes the box!!!! and goes on a much-deserved rampage

during the battle there’s a tense moment where rand and gawyn come across each other. rand hopes he won’t have to hurt gawyn, and gawyn says “one day i will see you die” but leaves without hurting rand, presumably due to both his promise to egwene and min’s reminding him that elayne loves rand. and then an asha’man tries to kill gawyn as he’s riding off but rand saves him! i have to say it, you can excommunicate me from the fandom for it, but rand/gawyn would be SUCH a good angsty ship. like what if it was the two of them who fell in love in the caemlyn garden instead of rand and elayne, and then maybe they spend more time together later somehow and develop a lil romance, but then they’re apart for a while and gawyn thinks rand killed his mom and it gets so angsty and then all this stuff happens. oh boy that would be delicious!

“perrin sighed in relief, of all things. had he thought rand would let his own people be slaughtered? but loial sighed too. light, what did they think of him?” 💔💔💔

and i finally reach the iconic “asha’man, kill!” moment. chilling. oof i’m not looking forward to this in the show, i am so bad with gore

and the iconic “kneel or you will be knelt” both taim lines which surprised me, i was expecting them both to be rand

“i forget nothing, aes sedai. i said six could come, but i count nine. i said you would be on equal footing with the tower emissaries, and for bringing nine, you will be. they are on their knees, aes sedai. kneel!” do i miss sweet baby rand? yes. but does hard commanding rand get me riled up? oh boy yes 😳

i bet egwene will be pissed at rand when this news reaches her, bc rand’s trauma being misinterpreted as arrogance has been an ongoing thread for many characters but for egwene most of all, as has the growing divide between them as egwene becomes more aes sedai and rand more distrustful of aes sedai

moghedien escapes, yikes!

overall, i think this might be my favorite book in the series! it’s the longest one but i tore through the whole thing in a week and a half (granted i was on vacation for a week so i had lots more time for reading). i loved mat’s and the girls’ stuff in book 3 but the lack of rand made me sad, the waste stuff (and cauthor content!) in book 4 was top notch but the perrin plotline dragged the whole book down for me, the book 5 rand & co plotline was great (esp the ending sequence) but elayne and nynaeve didn’t have much to do and i found the min/siuan/gareth plotline boring, but book 6 didn’t have any plotlines that dragged and there were so many jaw-dropping moments! and sad as i was about the small amount of cauthor and their splitting up until book 14, so many other characters reunited with each other and it made me very happy ❤️