#perrins cool too i guess

[microwave-core]

I'm conflicted between writing blurbs for Carmine and Perrin now or waiting until the second half of the DLC and do all of the characters then

[pcktknife]

Did irida get a decendant.....

not that we know of and if she did then they either may not be of much importance since perrin was the one that got an intro card or just havent been showcased

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

So, now that the DLC is out, I was wondering if I could request a part two to the pokepasta trainer reader? Like them and their team meeting Carmine, Kieran, and Perrin?

Oooo yeah!! I'm guessing you meant this post (being part 1). I'm honestly impressed by the notes ghshghsh but I'm glad ya'll love the pokepasta!reader <333

Gonna format these as hcs if that's okay

.........

Carmine

She's seen tourists bring in weird Pokémon, but you brought the scariest ones she's ever seen in her life.

She sends out her Poochyena to do battle, thinking she can intimidate you....and she SCREAMS when your Freakachu comes out to play.

It's loud enough for all to hear and for the caretaker to arrive and prematurely end the fight.

Well, at least she finally got off your back before things could get too heated.

Kieran was shocked though bc his sister was usually so brave.

During your time in Kitakami, she's just going to,,,,stare at your Pokémon team, especially when you introduce her to Purin and Disabled (she definitely thinks they're some weird gray regional variants and nothing more)

She's extremely confused as to why you named your Wigglytuff after a status move.

And Missingno.....is something she can't even begin to wrap her brain around, but she buys the story of it being from a really old Kantonian myth. That's something she can 100% believe.

After meeting Ogerpon and learning she's been misunderstood all along, Carmine slowly realizes she may have treated your Pokémon the same way.

They've been through some horrible things, and she was quick to judge them, so she apologizes for that.

Although Freakachu's smiles still creep her out..she's friendlier towards Purin and Disabled (not that she'll ever admit this, ofc).

Kieran

Like Carmine, he's gonna be pretty spooked by how your Pokémon team looks, at first.

But considering he never thought the Ogre was scary. he's nowhere near as judgmental.

During your walks together and at dinner, you explained where your 'mons came from--or at least the short and least terrifying versions of those tales so you didn't freak him out too much..

He's just fascinated that you've gone out of your way to help them despite their reputations as "monsters".

He hopes to one day have a strong bond like that with his team, or Ogerpon.

Tbh he found it really sweet when you purchased a Pikachu mask for Freakachu to wear so he could visit the festival of masks without scaring anybody.

Missingno was, understandably, the most bizarre Pokémon Kieran has ever seen, but once you explained how it's an old Kantonian myth...he's like "wowzers..that's so cool!!"

He genuinely believes you and him have a lot in common: being outcasts and adoring Pokémon most people were afraid of.

So it's even more heartbreaking for him when Ogerpon ultimately chooses to go with you instead of him.

Despite your team being utterly terrifying, she felt more comfortable being by their side...and it doesn't make sense to him at all.

It just doesn't seem fair.

He envies how your Missingno can pretty much give you whatever items you wanted--and an infinite number of them, too.

You warned him that it's not something you messed around with (plus, it corrupted an old friend of yours long ago), but he didn't care about any of that.

He wanted to know how to harness that power.

Maybe when he becomes even stronger, he'll challenge you again...

And the winner got to keep Missingno.

Perrin

She thought the Bloodmoon Beast was a terrifying and ominous force to be reckoned with, especially in the photograph she obtained.

But what you had on your team was nothing short of both amazing...and downright horrifying.

She assumes Freakachu, Purin, and Disabled are some Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and Wigglytuff variants she's never heard about or have gone extinct.

Maybe like Bloodmoon Ursaluna, they were from a distant land or some time period.

So she keeps an open mind and convinces them to do some cool poses (despite her Hisuian Growlithe always hiding behind her, tail tucked between its legs, and being certain that Purin's stare is gonna haunt her dreams now).

The only one she's heard of before was Missingno, having once believed it to be a myth from Kanto...and now she can see that it's real! And it's in your possession!

She wants a photo of it. Not for any sort of recognition or accolade, but as proof in the books that it's legit.

Unfortunately, while she can see it glitching, changing forms, spawning items for you, etc. right before her very eyes...it never shows up on camera.

Every photo she attempts to take gets corrupted or lost in the developing process.

You politely have to ask Perrin to stop before she breaks her camera.

She is, however, free to photograph your other Pokémon as they are in their natural state (aka acting like their normal counterparts and not creatures that really should've been dead long ago).

[theoraclej]

THAT SEASON FINALE!

light, where to begin, a disjointed ramble of things I observed:

Dovie’andi se tovya sagain! - Mat said the words, he said the words!

And he made his own ashandarei! I hope he gets the raven-inlaid one though because I’m sure no one wants him running around with that dagger

And I know he’s going to get a massive S3 glow-up because he sees himself as MORE, now. Yay Mat!

RAND exploding the shit out of the Seanchan including Turak; nice way around his general lack of swordtraining which I’m sure will be remedied

Once the Heron, to set his path!

The interplay between Rand (and Lews Therin before him), Lanfear, Ishamael - they were besties in the Age of Legends, lmao!

I had expected the intro to be a high society polyam party they were attending, not the Sealing of Ishamael, 🤭

The Warder bond was beautiful, flowing, intimate, just what I imagined when reading these books some 25 years ago

I knew Moiraine was gonna say Lan was her better!

I’m so glad they’re back together though, legendary qpp

Nice to see the S1 intro sequence with the gorgeously woven Aes Sedai tapestry

I was a bit sad Nynaeve didn’t heal Elayne OR Rand but she DID swear to make Seta’s mother curse the first kiss her father ever gave her and THAT was cool

Hopper, my beloved! 😩 I would be chopping Whitecloaks too!

It was so satisfying to see Perrin obey his wolfly instincts already!

Elayne being the one to heal Rand’s wound was an interesting choice, and you can tell he was dazzled by her!

Book lines, book lines, book lines making me have conniptions every time one was uttered

“From birth to death I serve the Blood.”

UNO I KNEW YOU WERE COMING YA SHEEP-GUTTED MILK DRINKER

“For the Light, and Shinowa!” still gave me chills even without an expanded story behind it for Ingtar

Egwene al’Vere. I hope she earns a title of “the Unbroken” someday. Remember, Nynaeve even said that about her when Egwene was captured by Whitecloaks in S1!

Egwene, spitting out the damane gag and refusing to rain down fire on innocents, ah my girl, that’s that Two Rivers steel

Egwene, collaring Renna and choking her to death, being stronger than Renna, being able to withstand the pain of that because that’s exactly what Renna taught her

Egwene later, with that amazing shield against Ishamael to protect her friends!

Lanfear pushing Lan and Moiraine out of the ocean Waygate was very unexpected but totally within Lanfear’s lane, just to keep Moiraine away from Rand

Lanfear working to sell the Seals to Bayle Domon, which was so lmao also, and it really enhanced her utter shock when she entered the room later with the Seals all broken.

M O G H E D I E N 🕷️

She is perfectly creepy, perfect in every way. I can’t wait to see her tear shit up, or to see how she will be used in S3 and beyond

Never expected her to cage Lanfear in her webs, either, dang. Lillen Moiral wasn’t near so strong as Mierin. But we know some things are just Talents, and Moghedien is better in Tel’aran’rhiod than Lanfear

Did you notice Rand’s wound swirling with evil bits throughout the healed part? Really cool effect if you catch it

Aviendha, Bain, and Chiad showing they can fight just as well in close quarters in a city as in the Three-Fold Land; and then later acknowledging Rand as Car’a’carn

Though I’d hoped we’d get some good old He Who Comes With The Dawn in here too

Moiraine’s outstanding torpedo weaves that fucked up the Seanchan boats! And she understands the stakes - if the Dragon is gentled, or harmed, or captured, everyone’s life is in danger and that includes her and Lan

Anyhow fuck the Seanchan

Did it look like Suroth got blown up too? Does that mean she’s dead? I guess we’ll see who gathers in the scattered remnants of the Hailene!

The first “I’m not Lews Therin” from Rand

Mat taking a moment to mention Rand’s “shit hair” to Perrin while they were in the mix, lmao

That shadow ashandarei is really scary, it is a laser knife (lightsaber?) on a stick

I can’t wait for Perrin and Hopper to meet again in the Wolfdream

Speaking of which, I think Perrin’s eyes are permanently golden now

I cried at the coming of the Heroes of the Horn, I’m sure many of you did too 😭

Cool Hero fighting effects, I liked those

BIRGITTE SILVERBOW MY LOVELY

I figured Min’s vision of Mat “killing” Rand would be something like this, an accident, not an intentional thing

His blood on the rocks of Shayol Ghul…

AL’LAN MANDRAGORAN, the Uncrowned King, Sworn to the Flame, bonded again, fighting as he was meant to, just slicing through armies, snatching arrows out of the air and stabbing people with them, chef’s kiss

I wonder if Nynaeve’s “failures” and inability to channel at these vital moments will give her the drive to break her block

Ishamael’s channeling at the end was really impressive, a testament to how much more he knows than Rand

I hope that’s not the last we see of Fares Fares, he was remarkable as Ishamael and a truly enjoyable villain

And since they didn’t have the Dragon banner of Lews Therin Telamon found with the Horn like in the books, Moiraine saw to it that he was heralded with literal fire

This I can imagine many people seeing from far away, and of course rumor travels further

The Falmen sure seem to appreciate it and of course the Seanchan are gone for now

Lanfear asking the LIGHT to protect Rand at the end is something interesting and NOT LOST ON ME

I REALLY ENJOYED IT and am looking forward to a full rewatch of S1 and S2!

Proclaimed across the sky in fire 🔥🐲

[jadeazora]

A bit of review/overall thoughts for the Teal Mask.

Overall, a much better attempt compared to DLC1 of SwSh. The Isle of Armor was pretty cool, but the storyline was pretty bland overall. I found the story much more engaging here, especially when we get the true story of what happened between the "Loyal" Three and Ogerpon.

Speaking of the new Legendaries, the L3 are interesting with how much intelligence they show (from knowing how valuable the masks are and traveling across regions to get to Kitakami to clearly planning their revenge on Ogerpon right in front of you and Carmine) and how they might have been corrupted by the Toxic Chain. Ogerpon is also really cute with how much personality she shows. I feel SV really did a great job with bonding us with our Legendary partners overall.

Also with the Loyal Three, there's a number of interesting guesses about how they came back to life. My initial assumption was that it was something like them feeding on Kieran's anger and resentment to reawaken themselves, but there's also the theories that he was possessed by the Toxic Chain (we do see a purple glow travel up his arm during the scene if you pay very close attention, so it's possible this is where he would be possessed) and the rumors of the crystals from the Crystal Pool possibly bringing the dead back to life, since Carmine mentions a rumor where people have met those who have passed away there, and Kieran was hanging around with the Mask that had been imbued with those crystals.

(As an aside, SV has very much of a corrupted wishes vibe, from the Professor and their vision of a utopia would cause an ecological disaster to Paldea, to the Loyal Three wishing for beauty/power/intelligence when they made contact with the Toxic Chain at the possible cost of their morality, and how Kieran wishes to become stronger than the player but falls into his obsession at the end.)

Honestly, Kieran's launched himself into being one of my favorite rivals with the game seemingly building him up as a problem for the Indigo Disk storyline, but it's neat how the siblings undergo a complete reversal with how they view the protagonist. He's also a pretty decent challenge, with a fully-evolved team of six in the low-mid Lv70s all packing held items. (If you're doing this after you completed the main story of SV.) He puts up a much better fight than Geeta does, for sure, and I hope he gets to meet your base-game rivals in the next storyline.

Carmine is also really fun, especially when she starts warming up to us, but I do hope she gets called out for her earlier treatment of her brother, and how she started this whole mess by lying to him. Like, I don't think he would have felt left out by us just randomly running into Ogerpon. We thought it was a child until it dropped its mask, we could have just explained that to him. We're the new kid, how would we know any better or what the ogre looks like? I guess she might have been worried that two little kids would just climb up this dangerous mountain at night, but it still lead to more problems.

I loved Perrin's sidequest too, and hope we see her again in the Indigo Disk! Bloodmoon Ursaluna is so cool (already one of my fave Gen9 Pokemon and regional variants), and can actually give you a pretty fierce battle if you go in with a new team.

Kitakami still feels a little empty imo, just like the base game, but there's a good amount of small caves that sometimes have rare Pokemon inside, and places like the Chilling Waterhead that I wouldn't even know was there if not for Fezandipiti. Some other areas are also visually cool, like the Crystal Pool (interesting to see those crystals from Area Zero are showing up in other regions as well) and the Fellhorn Gorge.

I'm really excited for the Indigo Disk now, like full-on brainrot mode rn, and feel the Teal Mask really does a pretty good job of building up the second part of the DLC with all the little teasers we get. (In comparison, SwSh's DLC felt more separate between the two halves.) I feel they haven't shown much of the story aside (from the BB League/battling stuff), so things are probably going to get pretty crazy, especially with certain things the datamine has given us, in Pt2, and I really can't wait to see what happens next!

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch 1x8: the eye of the world

I made it before the new season started! <3

spoilers for the first season of WoT and for most of the s2 teasers that we've gotten. For the books... um... honestly mostly stuff from Eye of the World that didn't end up in the show, lol. Oh, and for New Spring, I guess.

@apocalypticavolition mentioned that Perrin's original plot was probably helping Lan track Moiraine - that makes a lot of sense! It would have given Perrin a chance to flex his heightened senses and it might have even given Lan a chance to name-drop Elyas.

Okay, wow, yay! Our Completely Old Tongue scene from Age of Legends. When this first opened and they were just... talking in the Old Tongue... I was so blown away. I was not expecting it. I think they've hinted that we might get more Old Tongue scenes in s2 as well, which would be fantastic.

I'm glad that I read The Strike on Shayol Ghul short story -- they really did pull a lot of the info from that story for this scene, so that was very cool to see.

There is definitely a lot more focus on "Dragon as father" here than in the books (and I wonder if the tragedy of him murdering his family is going to focus more on killing his kids and not solely about killing his wife, once we get into that)

And the reveal at the end that '3000 years ago' was actually futuristic and we're living in a post-apocalyptic landscape, which is a great reframing for anyone who didn't already know.

Love all our Moiraine & Rand ~bonding time~ here (for various values of bonding time, lol). Definitely curious about where that relationship is going to go over the course of s2.

Egwene and Perrin checking in with each other is a sweet moment. Yeah, things Got Weird last episode due to stress and Nynaeve accidentally telling a secret that wasn't hers, but it hasn't wrecked their friendship.

And if Perrin is the one helping Lan here (supernaturally), then Lan and Nynaeve's scene would have just been the romantic goodbye.

Ishamael notes here that he didn't think that Rand was the Dragon Reborn. It sounds like he was expecting Rand to look more like LTT did. I really do love him calling Rand "Lews Therin", poor Rand. The identity issues are only going to get worse, bb. Love that Rand starts their conversation with an arrow to the face.

"Ever since the day I channeled, I hear nothing [from the wind]" is our first allusion to Nynaeve's block, I believe.

Moiraine tapdancing around the truth as hard as possible so that she doesn't have to admit that she physically can't teach Rand channeling. She's even willing to share one of her traumas with Rand in order to avoid admitting it! Also, I do think that Elaida's willingness to turn to violence is going to stand out a lot more in a world where teaching isn't always accompanied by brutality, as it is in the books.

haha, I totally forgot about this scene with Min and the others. Maybe because it doesn't really tell us anything we aren't going to learn immediately even without her (a nod to how pointless Min's viewings mostly are in the books? lol) but it does prompt Min to get out of the city on the wagons, I'm guessing.

Apologies to all the people who worked hard on the battle scenes but I don't ever have much to say about things like that.

Rand already getting memories (and Moiraine seeing him remember) plus Rand trying to protect people from getting hurt because they're standing next to him. (and Rand trying to give an order that Moiraine immediately ignores lol)

yeah if Lan had a companion (like Perrin) then his scenes here would have actually had some dialogue - they may have even given Rand the line about Malkier because they wanted to get the info out but it was originally supposed to come out in dialogue between Lan and Perrin.

Aww, family moment between the Agelmars. It's sweet. I honestly barely remember the Agelmars from the books, so this was an improvement. "Buy enough time to stand a chance" is going to be a big theme, too.

We also kinda get confirmation here that Darkfriends have been more effective in the show-verse than they were in the books-verse (it seems like more knowledge has been destroyed).

18. So, given what we've seen in the teasers of Ishy getting Lanfear from a seal, it seems like this specific spot is where LTT sealed Ishamael in particular (half-sealed?) and he released Ishamael fully when he cracked the seal. Before this, we only see Ishy working in people's dreams and then, in s2, he gets to actually exist in the waking world.

19. While I do see the effects of the covid shutdown and new rules in the battle scenes (and am looking forward to seeing them pop off without those setbacks in s2!); the scenes with Rand in the dream and Rand against Ishamael are perfect and I will hear no arguments against them. Rand is, ultimately, a philosophical hero and not a battle hero. He gets that wrong a lot in the books! But things tend to backfire on him when he tries to force himself into the battle hero position.

20. And we have ~the temptation~ here, with Egwene and little Joiya (and the mention of Mat, which was fascinating at the time and remains utterly fascinating; that fake!Egwene makes a point of mentioning Mat in Rand's temptation dreamworld).

21. The imagery for what Ishamael does to Moiraine is pretty much exactly like the shielding on Logain and not anything like when Logain was severed later in the episode, so I will (one last time before the new season lol) put my bet in that she was shielded. Ishamael is just able to do a lot faster than the Aes Sedai. Also when Moiraine is right behind Rand like this, you can really see how similar their shirts really are in color.

22. Min is jetting out of Fal Dara as fast as she can -- show!Min actually seems aware that she's not a fighter. #goodforher

23. But they did use needing to have Perrin in Fal Dara to give him a nice little scene with Loial that fed into the violence vs peace conflict.

24. Ishy really put in the work here (I'm assuming that it must have all been drawn from Rand's memories which, again, makes Egwene mentioning that Mat is saying he's going to make Joiya a lantern just incredibly fascinating). Ishamael waits until Rand falls for the trap to reveal to Rand what's going on (sorta). And both Ishy and Rand are working the angles here -- Ishy pretends that he wants Rand to pick the dream world and... you know, that would be useful but... he still wins if Rand fights him because that surge of Power will break his seal. And Rand pretends that he's falling for the temptation but actually is looking for Ishy to give him some clues on how to access the Power on purpose.

25. Ah, s2 setup is happening: Perrin learns that the Dragon needs the Horn at the Last Battle; and Fain was given the password to get into the fortress, which means there's a Darkfriend who knows the passwords.

26. I 100% approve of the show making joining a circle dangerous. In the books, circles are so completely underused and it feels silly because they are very low risk. People should be in circles all the time; especially when things get dangerous.

27. Lots of emphasis on fatherhood this season -- Rand's struggle about Tam being his father; Rand's desire to be a father (expressed both in ep1 and here with Joiya). We also had Siuan's relationship with her father being a key element of her character.

28. Rand loves Egwene enough to know that their paths have diverged and it would be wrong to try to force her onto the same path as him just because he loves her.

29. Very cute that Rand thinks he just defeated the Dark One. I want to give him a pet on his fluffy (currently sweaty lol) head).

30. Perrin gets the infodump from Fain instead of it being Mat. It's a good infodump, from someone who definitely, obviously has an agenda.

31. Rand thinks he's succeeded, so he leaves on his own so that he won't hurt the ones he loved. Baby. Off he goes, into the big world of Making Bad Life Choices, bless him.

32. And the poor little girl who, at least, probably died quickly? The show did such a good job with the Seanchan. Both here and in what we've seen so far in the teasers for s2. They are gonna be extremely creepy and heartbreaking and scary. You can definitely see tear-tracks on the face of one of the damane here.

[pillowfriends]

my thoughts on the WoT characters after book 5

before I start posting Lord of Chaos thoughts, I wanted to sum up what I think of the characters after The Fires of Heaven (and New Spring) so I can look back on it later. I’m sure I’m missing some, just listing everyone I have thoughts on.

Alanna: I have my eye on her after those sus forced bonding comments… time will tell but I don’t trust her at all. I like her though, she’s fun.

Asmodean: he was funny as hell, what a pathetic guy, and had objectively the most hilarious death in the series so far.

Aviendha: this is probably the character I have the least complicated feelings about. I just like her. she’s funny, she’s badass, her relationship with Rand is great.

Birgitte: a hot bicon. every word that comes out of her mouth is gold. she’s such a bro.

Egeanin: standout side character to me I love her so much. yes girl unlearn your cultural biases! and be unhinged and horny on main!! she better come back!!

Egwene: girl I want to like you but you're making it so hard 😭 as a character she's great. as a person I'm struggling with her dumbassery and her superiority complex and the way she's treating Nynaeve.

Elaida: she’s cringe and bad at her job but I kind of stan. she’s doing her best and it is absolutely not good enough and she’s being puppeted by the Black Ajah and only succeeded at deposing Siuan because a bunch of teenage boys stabbed people for her. I can’t even be angry at her tbh.

Elayne: book 5 was so great for Elayne. she's maturing a lot and she really shot up the list for me. her interpersonal relationships are so funny and I love how excited she is about making ter'angreal.

Faile: maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder but I miss her and want her back. she was so silly but also loved Perrin so much and I’m such a hopeless romantic that I loved the sappy parts.

Gareth Bryne: this man is a CREEP!! Siuan get AWAY from him! ugh ugh ugh. and I know it’s only going to get worse.

Galad: unfortunately this man is one of my favorite character archetypes. I didn’t vibe with him at first but now I really do.

Gawyn: I want to put him in a paper shredder. I am so angry at this man even after a full book to cool down post-coup. please let me deck him. I do think my feelings will change but right now I’m still angry as shit.

Graendal: problematic queen. do I think RJ will do anything interesting with her, probably not, but am I intrigued, yes.

Lan: THIS MAN BREAKS MY HEART DAILY. ohhhhh my god. not normal about him.

Lanfear: hmmm complicated feelings about book Lanfear. I found her introduction painful and annoying - it’s way too obvious - but she improved and I do love how crazy she is. it didn’t really sink in for me until her conversation with Rand in Tear that she’s delusional and obsessed with LTT to the point of being completely out of touch with reality, and therefore v scary. TLDR I love her now. RIP gone too soon.

Leane: I have no idea what’s cooking with her, I just have to RAFO. I’m either going to think she’s an icon or get angry at RJ for being sexist and I don’t know which.

Liandrin: the balls on this woman are actually insane, trying to Compel Moggy. she’s way too cartoonishly evil to be really interesting though. but she makes so many sexually charged dog references which I love tbh.

Logain: he’s fine I guess. hard to tell where his story is heading and he kind of hasn’t done anything.

Loial: he has never done anything wrong in his entire life, he's perfect and I love him.

Mat: I've come around and I like him now. his memory stuff is really interesting and so is the way he interacts with fate/the Pattern.

Melaine: best Wise One I love her so much.

Min: she’s never clicked with me as a character and I think her motivation is kind of dumb and repetitive. I also really dislike how salty and disrespectful she is towards Siuan but that has to do with my personal issues about the Siuan plotline so I can’t totally blame her for that.

Moghedien: I NEED to put her in a petri dish and poke her with a stick. girl you are not subtle about your petplay kink. somehow she’s scary and pathetic at the same time and I just love her a lot.

Moiraine: I can’t even put it into words. she’s my everything.

Morgase: I feel so fucking bad for her, her POVs were horrific, what a survivor. I'm excited for when she gets a bigger plotline.

Nynaeve: my favorite character who’s on page at present. first of all she has a Forsaken collared. second of all she’s so angry and I love angry women. also she has no self awareness which makes her POVs very amusing, but also sometimes devastating — I love her struggling with fear and her perceived cowardice in TFOH.

Perrin: I constantly forget he exists. not in a bad way but not really in a good way either - he’s just bland to me.

Rand: he is my idiot baby boy. go insane faster please it’s interesting.

Rahvin: good riddance you creepy fuck. not even awful in a compelling way to me, just awful. good as a character, well-written, but AAAA.

Siuan: her arc after being stilled is distressing to me and I don’t like reading it - her loss of power and influence, the way the other Aes Sedai all treat her, the sexual harassment… so I have a hard time separating that out from Siuan herself. I’m… torn. I love some of her scenes and some feel very out of left field. we’ll RAFO again.

Suroth: GIVE ME MORE. her POV was fascinating and she’s so awful.

Thom: against my best wishes, I actually like him now. he’s so dad coded and protective of Nynaeve and Elayne, and a badass, and has a good sense of humor.

Verin: what an icon!! favorite Aes Sedai bar none now that Moiraine is gone.

[inevitably there will be a part 2 when I realize I forgot some really obvious people]

[killldeer]

daughter of the night liveblog

(books spoilers inside!)

- i really like the elegance and huge size of this weave ishamael does with absolute ease. once again the channeling effects are so much better this season

- ANVAERE MOIRAINE MOMENT???

- i was extremely apprehensive about the moiraine-in-cairhien subplot that we knew was coming, because i am not the biggest fan of the show pushing moiraine as bigger and more important than the EF5 just because of rosamund pike’s starpower, but i have to admit that i am really enjoying this so far

- alanna replacing myrelle is a possibility that scares the shit out of me but that i would wholeheartedly support if the show did it

- hm this is a cool and fucked up way to familiarize the audience with the whole concept of what gentling/stilling does to you!

- i am also extremely intrigued at the way the show is giving logain a large piece of the job that belongs to asmodean in the books, down to being a teacher with essentially no access to saidin

- oh i LOVE this mantle leane is wearing

- “the west is always under attack – usually from itself. I’ve sent sisters to investigate.” cool so those people are all going to end up damane then

- “you know, if she falls, you’ll fall with her.” HELLO??? WHY DID SHE SAY THAT

- okay i am becoming EXTREMELY nervous that the show is planning to cut elaida and give her job to liandrin. like to the point where the only thing keeping me from wholeheartedly believing it is the fact that the writing team has book consultants who should know very well that liandrin being a darkfriend and elaida not being one makes them fundamentally non-interchangeable. egwene’s eventual foil needs to be not of active evil but of selfishness and lack of caring for the tower. it is so vitally important to me that the show does not fuck this up

- “does wolfbrother mean–? am i going to turn into–??” honestly i love that perrin asks if he’s going to become a literal werewolf, both for the audience’s benefit and because it is VERY funny

- first mention of the wolf dream???

- HOPPER!!!

- interesting how obvious and straightforward moiraine’s being asking around about rand

- selene blatantly describing LTT to rand is so so funny

- MAT GAMBLING!!!

- “…was any of it real?” nynaeve :(

- liandrin, maneuvering nynaeve “rash decisions only” al’meara: hey if i tell you something absolutely wild do you promise not to make a rash decision about it :)

- hm so the blatant asking questions wasn’t moiraine playing at daes dae’mar or whatever, it was a setup for us to see anvaere maneuvering her instead. that’s fine too i guess

- ROADTRIP FROM HELL SETUP

- ELAYNE!!!!!

- “egwene wouldn’t hurt me, and you can’t even embrace the source.” i love her so fucking much

- oh god here we go

- i genuinely like this implied background for min so much more than what rj gave her in the books

- not sure what to make of this visit with ishamael but I’m digging it!!

- someone give lanfear a goddamn oscar for the acting she’s doing here

- oh my god this is the funniest way to do this reveal

- THE FINAL SHOT OF LANFEAR WITH THE SAA IN HER EYES!!!!! FUCK YEAH!!!!!!

[wexpyke]

last week i finally picked up the fires of heaven again and i’m proud to say i’ve now finished it. i have some thoughts and they will be scattered, but here they are:

god i love mat cauthon

i also love aviendha and moiraine and elayne so much. and egwene, too, though she wasn’t as present in this book i felt like

the older far dareis mai caring for rand… so special to me

i miss perrin… where was perrin this entire book?! his arc in the previous book was SOOO good (i love him and faile sm)

the couladin/shaido plot was quite boring, iwl. though that ending with mat was cool, i guess

i am so, so tired of the “women are from venus, men are from mars” argument that’s so pervasive ALL THE TIME. like at least twice a chapter. i am SO tired

also nynaeve… girl… i really cba with her most of the time. i want to like her so badly but she’s so infuriating, oh my god

robert jordan will catch these hands beyond the grave for how poorly he writes female characters most of the time

he will also catch my hands for the fucking three wives thing. feels like wish fulfilment and just makes me feel icky. i really hope the show (if it gets that far) skips it, because… 💀

AND FOR THE ELAYNE AND THOM THING?! that was so grim. freud would be happy, probably, but i’m fairly certain he’d be the only one. i’m glad they moved on from that, because fuck me

the world-building is good, i enjoy the bigger storyline, even if i’m sad at the way rand is changing - but the pacing… it’s so slow sometimes, god

WHOOOO ELSE WAS IN CAEMLYN?! damn. i actually kind of liked asmodean. and i was expecting lanfear to be around longer tbh…

i will not speak about moiraine. i cannot speak about moiraine. as soon as my bf came home from work i started crying about it lmao

confused about lan. would’ve appreciated a reminder, seeing as whatever oath moiraine made him make was… 1,000 pages ago if not more, in a different book, but all right

[roxannarambles]

Title: The Bloodmoon Graves (Part 1/7)

Ship: Juliana/Nemona

Rating: T/PG-13 (for Spooky Scary)

Summary: Nemona learns about the rumors of a fabled "Bloodmoon Beast" and decides they should all go for a camping trip out in the Timeless Woods to search for it. They end up finding a bit more than they bargained for.

Tags: Action/Adventure, Horror, Romance, Established Relationship, Halloween Special

Warning Tags: Blood/Injury, Body Horror, Claustrophobia, Pokemon attacking humans/humans attacking pokemon

Chapters: Ch 1 - Ch 2 - Ch 3 - Ch 4 - Ch 5 - Ch 6 - Epilogue

Notes: Okay look. I know it's December but look. I just really wanted to try writing a horror story, so here's your Halloween special. 🎃There's a bit of Julinemo fluff in here too as a treat but this is mostly a horror story. So. I hope somebody reads it despite it not being super ship-focused lol

This is technically a sequel to my Teal Mask fix-it fic but that's not required reading. Just know the Paldean Pals joined Juliana on her trip to Kitakami. As it should be.

“Penny! Hey, Penny! You gotta hear this!”

Penny glanced up from her laptop, sighing. She had been hiding out in the Community Center, playing games, but seemed she’d been discovered. Nemona and Juliana bounded up to her.

“So this is where you’ve been hiding. You been avoiding us?” Juliana teased. Penny answered,

“No. Not avoiding. Just . . . taking a break.”

“From what?”

Penny shrugged,

“I dunno, all the majestic nature and junk, I guess. Some of us aren’t as outdoorsey as others, you know.”

“Oh, okay, I thought you were gonna say you were taking a break from us.”

“Well, that too.”

Juliana opened her mouth to protest, but Nemona impatiently cut her off, waving her hands,

“Nevermind all that! Penny, Jules and I just heard something awesome! There’s rumors of this super-powerful, super-rare Pokemon that lives in Kitakami, and we’ve been talking to the townspeople about it, and it’s been living out in the Timeless Woods for like ages and everyone’s scared of it but it’s really reclusive and mysterious and only shows up on really foggy late nights when it’s all spooky, isn’t that cool?!”

Nemona had her hands curled into fists, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Penny blinked at her.

“Uh . . . I . . . guess so?”

“And get this– it’s an Ursaluna! That’s already a super rare Pokemon, but this one’s a special Ursaluna, it doesn’t look like the others at all!”

Juliana cut in,

“Tell her what the townspeople call it.”

“Oh right, right! Hehehe, get this Penny, the townspeople call it– The Bloodmoon Beast! Isn’t that awesome?!”

“They say the mark on its head glows blood-red like the moon during an eclipse!” Juliana added, pointing at her forehead. Nemona agreed,

“Yeah! And on those nights, the Beast’s blood boils and it goes mad with fury, seeking to avenge its fallen fellow Ursaluna!! Or that’s what some kid told me, anyway.”

“Uh-huh. If you guys say so,” Penny said flatly, looking back at her laptop.

“Hey, it’s real! Probably,” Juliana replied.

“Yeah, it’s definitely real! Some famous photographer got some photos of it not too long ago. Gimme a sec,” Nemona said, flicking through her phone. She pulled up the photos posted to some website and angled the phone at Penny, cycling through them. Most were very blurry, depicting a hulking figure in the fog, but the bright-red mark on the blurry figure’s forehead was very noticeable.

“I guess that’s probably a pokemon,” Penny conceded. Nemona nodded,

“Yeah, this photographer lady is legit, I think her name was Perrin? She posted a firsthand account, so we know it’s real! She went out camping in the Timeless Woods to spot it. She only had her Growlithe though, so she barely escaped with her life, apparently, after she took those pictures.”

Penny had pulled up an article on her laptop with impressive speed and hummed,

“Mmm-hmm . . . Perrin Kongōseki, 26, multi-award-winning photographer of international fame, recently has released controversial photos about the folklegend ‘Bloodmoon Beast’ from rural Kitakami. While locals have hailed her as a hero, critics have argued it to be a transparent grab for media attention, as the once highly-popular photographer’s reputation has slipped in recent years . . .”

Juliana scowled and crossed her arms. “Oh, c’mon Penny, why do you gotta try and suck the fun outta this?”

“I’m not, I was just curious! Sorry. I agree it’s probably a real Pokemon, though maybe not anywhere near as impressive as these stories claim . . .”

“Well that’s why we’re gonna go find out!” Nemona said, beaming. In a tone that suggested mild concern, Penny asked,

“And how’re you planning on doing that?”

Nemona grinned,

“We’re all gonna go camp out in the Timeless Woods tonight and look for it!”

Her concern quickly increasing, Penny said,

“Wait, all of us? I don’t recall volunteering for this–”

“Weren’t you just doubting the Beast is even all that scary?” Juliana asked her quickly. Penny frowned, grumbling,

“Well I– it’s not that, it’s just– l-look, I’m not real big on camping out, you guys–”

Nemona said,

“Aww, it’ll be fun, Penny! When’s the next time you’ll get a chance like this? The Caretaker said we’re supposed to explore Kitakami while we’re here, remember?”

“Yeah. I was hoping he wouldn’t notice I wasn’t doing that,” Penny mumbled. 

Juliana chuckled. She said,

“I know camping isn’t your favorite, Penny, but one night of camping can’t be too bad, right? Arven’s got everything planned out for us, and we’d hate for you not to be included.”

Penny’s brows lifted.

“He does? I’m kinda surprised he wanted in on this too.”

“Well, I think mostly he wants to do it because he enjoys hiking and camping, he’s a bit indifferent about the Bloodmoon Beast, but still. Even if we don’t find a super rare pokemon, it should be a fun time.”

“Yeah! And if we DO find the Beast, we can fight it and maybe even catch it! It’s a win-win,” Nemona agreed with enthusiasm. Both girls looked at Penny expectantly.

Penny sighed.

“All right, fine . . . I guess I’ll go.”

Nemona cheered,

“All right! This is gonna be the best!”

“You should get packed and ready, then. We’re leaving in an hour.”

“But it’s only like, two o’clock. I thought you wanted to look for this ‘beast’ at night?”

Juliana nodded.

“Yep. But the Timeless Woods is a three-hour hike, plus we wanna do some exploring before it gets dark, y’know?”

“Three hours?”

“Eh, three, three-and-a-half, something like that. We’ll meet you in front of Peachy’s, okay?”

“Wait, wait–”

Penny groaned as her friends bounded away from her, too excited about the trip to notice Penny’s protests. She was regretting this already.

~

The hike out to the Timeless Woods was indeed a long one. There actually were two different routes they could have taken, and the path through Fellhorn Gorge was technically much shorter, but it was also far more rugged. Thus, they opted for the longer but flatter path through the Wistful Fields, then past the Paradise Barrens, and on through the Kitakami Wilds. Arven and Juliana carried the heavier packs that included the tents, as they both had more experience with backpacking. Of course, things would have been much easier if they had brought Koraidon along, but the oversized lizard had been particularly lazy that day; besides, Arven had encouraged them all to not rely on their ride pokemon too much when it came to hiking. Juliana eventually let Nemona and Penny switch off riding her Tauros anyway once they were tired enough.

Their trek took a little longer than expected due to the number of breaks they took– it was summer and the weather was pretty sweltering during the day– but once they arrived at the gorgeous old-growth forest that was tucked away in a valley like a special little secret, it was far, far more comfortable. They took a little time to dip their feet and splash around the idyllic little pond there, just relaxing and unwinding from the hike. However, before long, Arven was up and telling everyone it was time to set their campsite up.

“Arven, we just got here! Sunset’s still a few hours from now, what’s the rush?”

Arven put his hands on his hips.

“Yeah, and we need to get everything set up well before it starts getting dark. C’mon guys, work first, play later.”

“Unnnghh,” Nemona groaned, leaning against Juliana where they lay in the grass, making no move to get up. Her feet dangling in the water, Penny stared at her cellphone and pretended she didn’t hear Arven.

“Guys, c’mon, I’m serious.”

When still nobody moved, he scowled and said,

“All right, if nobody helps then I won’t be making dinner or setting the tents up. Or building a campfire. Did I mention it cools down a lot at night? Enjoy your cold trail mix and sleeping in 4 degree weather without shelter.”

Everyone grumbled and reluctantly got up.

“That’s more like it. All right, we’re starting with the tents. Everyone help me scope out a nice flat spot over on the high ground this way.”

Once they chose a good site, they cleared the ground, unpacked and pitched the two tents, while Arven explained to the camping novices how to put things together. When Juliana and Nemona finished, they tried to leave, but Arven stopped them.

“Where are you two going? You need to finish your tent.”

“It’s finished! See?”

Arven shook his head,

“You haven’t put the rainfly up yet.”

“Arven, it’s not going to rain!”

“There’s a 20% chance of precipitation tonight.”

“Oh my god Arven–”

“Better safe than sorry. Put it up.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“It doesn’t take that long, and it’s good practice. Just do it.”

Juliana grumbled and they returned to the tent.

“Is he always this bossy about camping?” Nemona asked.

Juliana sighed.

“Yeah, unfortunately. Let’s just get this finished, he gets bent out of shape if things aren’t done right.”

After they futzed about with the rainfly and eventually got it into place, Arven doled out more tasks to help prepare the campfire and cooking equipment. Everyone dutifully did their chores, unpacking equipment and arranging some seating. Penny was then sent out into the woods with the joyous task of establishing a bathroom site, and Nemona and Juliana were tasked with clearing an area for a campfire.

The moment Arven turned his back, though, Juliana grabbed Nemona’s hand, holding a finger to her lips and grinning. They snuck away quickly before he noticed; eventually Arven realized what was going on and he shouted after them, so they broke into a run, laughing.

~

It seemed Arven soon gave up on pursuing them, and the two were able to wander the forest in peace. Juliana let Ogerpon out of her ball; the pokemon was thrilled to be back in the Timeless Woods, hopping up and down in excitement and trilling happily. They spent the time just meandering and exploring, letting Ogerpon choose the direction. When they spotted a little pink Gligar skulking through the underbrush, they gave chase for a while, trying to catch it. Alas, the pokemon proved to be too illusive for them, somehow sneaking off and giving them the slip. However, the sting of disappointment was soon forgotten when the two girls stumbled across a cave entrance they’d never seen before. Hopeful for some excitement, they ducked low and poked inside. Ogerpon followed after, chirping curiously.

“Oof. It’s dark. Dunno what I expected though, I guess that makes sense,” Nemona giggled.

“Yeah. I wish we had a . . . oh wait sec, we do. Where is that . . .”

Juliana fiddled around with her bag until she located the headlamp Arven had given her. Sticking the strap to her head, she flicked it on.

“Oh, much better!”

Juliana aimed the light around. The cave was rather bare, a few Spinarak on a web in one corner, and a dozing Munchlax in another. It didn’t take them long to walk the length of the little cave, which sadly didn’t turn up much beyond rocks, dirt, more cobwebs and a lone Dunsparce.

“Aw, man. I was hoping for something really cool,” Nemona sighed, sitting down on a large rock. Juliana nodded.

“Yeah . . . me too. I guess Kitakami caves aren’t as exciting as Paldean ones.”

Ogerpon had been wandering about the cave, apparently very much at ease in such a setting– likely due to how much time she’d spent in one. Nemona and Juliana took a few minutes to rest, sipping from their canteens and chatting about one of Juliana’s camping trips with Arven when they’d been hunting the Titan pokemon.

“. . . and he sounds like a Snorlax when he sleeps! I could hear him half a mile away, I swear.”

Ogerpon began to chatter excitedly, but the girls didn’t notice at first.

“Ahahah, oh my god! How did you deal with it?”

“Well I got my own tent, but I still could hear him, so I had to pitch my tent further and further away from him– Ogerpon, what’s up?”

The excited pokemon had vanished from sight, which worried Juliana. Both girls got up and went to the corner of the cave.

“Oh, Ogerpon, be careful– I don’t think you should go in there!”

The little pokemon had located a small gap, very well hidden, near the floor in the darkest corner of the cave. She had crawled inside and was climbing deeper and deeper into the secret tunnel.

“Ogerpon! Come back, wait! Ugh. Well . . . there she goes.”

They could no longer see her, but they could hear her further in the cave, making her excited, happy cries. At least they knew she was all right for the moment. 

“Right, well, better give me that light, Jules, I’ll go after her.”

Juliana frowned as Nemona plucked the headlamp off her.

“We could just call for her to come back? She’s bound to get bored in a few minutes.”

“No, no, we gotta follow. She could be in danger! Lost and scared!”

Opergon’s giggles echoed from deeper in the cave. Juliana raised a brow.

“. . . if you wanna explore the creepy secret tunnel you could just say so.”

Sticking the light’s strap to her head, Nemona clasped her hands together and said excitedly,

“Okay, yeah, I really wanna explore the creepy secret tunnel!”

Juliana laughed.

“I mean, I do too, honestly.”

“I thought you were claustrophobic?”

Juliana took a moment to consider the gap Ogerpon had disappeared into; it was definitely pretty small and would probably require a human to get down on their hands and knees, a thought that made Juliana’s chest squeeze a little. It wasn’t so much the tight space itself as the thought of it caving in and burying them alive. Which was admittedly unlikely.

She answered,

“Y-yeah, I am a little bit, but sometimes my curiosity wins out over that.”

“Well, okay, but I don’t want you doing anything that makes you too uncomfortable . . .”

Juliana was poking into Nemona’s bag.

“Nah, it’s okay. If I start feeling too anxious I’ll back out. I think there’s– yeah, here it is.”

She took the second light from her friend’s bag.

“Oh, I had one too? I didn’t even realize.”

“Arven passes them out right away before camping. Safety and all that. He can be kinda annoying but I admit it does come in handy sometimes, too.”

After getting their headlamps properly attached, they squatted by the tiny tunnel entrance.

“You want me to go first or you?”

“Take point, my fearless leader!”

Nemona laughed.

“All right then. Let’s go!”

Nemona began to crawl into the tunnel, Juliana watching her progress for a bit. It actually didn’t look so bad; yes, she was on her hands and knees but it still looked pretty roomy, as far as creepy secret tunnels went. Juliana got down and started climbing in after her. The ground was a bit damp and muddy and it was a little hard on her knees but she felt okay. Of course, it helped that she had Nemona with her.

“Ooh, I can see the cave gets bigger just a little further ahead! Almost there!”

After a pretty short crawl, they both emerged into a larger cave, one that dropped in elevation at a fairly steep angle but was still easily walkable. They looked around the space, casting their lights about and taking it all in. Nemona said,

“Yeah, there’s a whole hidden section to the cave here! That’s so cool. And look, I think it opens up even more that way!”

“Yeah, looks like it.”

They stepped along the declined ground, careful not to slip, daring to explore further and further into the cavern. After ducking under an especially low portion, the two girls gasped at what they came upon.

The pocket of cave they had found opened up before them, and it was full of shimmering, glittering light– the light of their flashlights being bounced back at them by hundreds and thousands of crystal formations. They were the same exact rainbow-colored crystals of the Area Zero caverns.

Nemona turned to Juliana, saying,

“Oh my god, Jules!!”

She squealed back,

“I know!!”

They rushed in to explore the crystal-encrusted cave, admiring all the formations, in awe of their discovery. Nemona exclaimed,

“It’s exactly like Area Zero! You think this is why the pokemon in the Kitakami region can terastallize? I mean, this looks even more concentrated than the crystal pool’s formations are, there’s gotta be a ton of energy here.”

“Probably! Although the water from the crystal pool feeds down into the river, and I noticed the water was all glowy from the tera energy, so that probably does a lot too! One thing’s for sure, Paldea isn’t the only place on the planet to have this phenomenon. Kitakami is loaded with this energy.”

Nemona nodded.

“Definitely. This is so wild.”

The cave also appeared home to some Pokemon; mainly Carbink, although the girls woke up some Noibat snoozing from the ceiling and a few Geodude rolled about underfoot. Juliana watched the Carbink slowly drifting their way over to them, their glittering eyes curious. She then realized that there were some Glimmets floating among them. That made sense; Juliana had really only seen Glimmets and Glimmora in the presence of these tera crystals. 

Outloud, Juliana mused,

“So . . . I always thought maybe the reason for the tera crystals in Area Zero was because the meteorite that caused the crater was carrying something special. But there’s no craters here. I bet there’s nothing special about that crater after all– it just happened to expose the deep caverns where the crystals were already growing! And some caves just grow them naturally, ya know? Like here and the crystal pool. Carmine told me the crystal pool has a cave attached to it, and the water itself seeps up from an underground cavern.”

Nemona angled her headlamp away so it wouldn’t blind her friend and enthused,

“Ooh, I didn’t know that! That makes sense, though. You should totally tell Mrs. Briar your ideas, I bet she’d love them. Oh man, if you could help her figure out how tera energy works, we could bring tera battles to other regions! Imagine!”

Juliana grinned at the thought. 

“That would be pretty incredible.”

Nemona bounced a little and said,

“Oh, oh, and we should go explore the crystal pool’s cave too! We gotta remember to do that!”

Juliana laughed,

“Okay, but we should probably finish exploring this one first, don’t you think?”

Nemona grabbed onto her and giggled,

“I knowwwww, I’m just excited and planning ahead!”

Juliana felt a wave of affection for the wonderfully silly girl holding onto her. She tilted her head back and nuzzled against Nemona a moment, then placed a soft little kiss to her lips. 

“You’re cute.”

Their relationship still brand-new, Nemona was flustered by the casual compliment. She squirmed and glanced away, mumbling with a smile,

“No’m not.”

Juliana grinned at how easily she was flustered. She leaned in again and pressed her lips against Nemona’s ear and murmured to her,

“You are unbearably adorable.”

Nemona squirmed harder and made a delightfully embarassed noise that only confirmed the truth of Juliana’s statement; Juliana squeezed her and they both giggled.

The familiar cry of Ogerpon brought them out of their antics, reminding them of why they were there.

“Whoops. We better go find her.”

“Right.”

Once they ventured a little further in, they easily located Ogerpon, who had been busy chasing the Carbink and Glimmets with a gleeful smile. Apparently she liked how they sparkled. It was a relief to see that Ogerpon was fine, although they hadn’t been too concerned to begin with– Ogerpon had proven she was very good at taking care of herself. Albeit, she did have a tendency to wander. Juliana leaned down.

“Try not to wander off without telling us, Ogerpon, okay? We don’t want you getting hurt. I admit you did lead us to a pretty awesome cave, though.”

“Jules, look! I think there’s an underground pool here!”

Juliana glanced to where Nemona was headed– the ground slanted downwards as the cave continued deeper into the earth. Quickly, Juliana and Ogerpon followed her.

When they’d gone deeper, they found it was indeed an underground pool . . . just not the sort they’d expected. Juliana had envisioned crystal-clear, cool waters, bathed in the light of beautiful columns of tera crystals. 

Instead, the pool contained a thick, goopy, pitch-black substance. Steam was rising from the pool, and sticky, viscous bubbles slowly formed and popped in the pool.

“What the heck?”

Nemona ventured closer, staring down into the strange mess.

“What is this stuff?”

Juliana hazarded a guess.

“It looks like . . . tar?”

As she came up beside Nemona, her face wrinkled.

“Euugh. Smells like tar, too.”

“Tar? Why the heck would there be a pool of tar here? Who’d do that??”

Juliana shook her head,

“No, I think– well, it’s naturally occurring sometimes. Uncommon, but not unheard of. There’s some pretty famous tar pits back in Unova. They study them because lots of ancient pokemon fell inside so there’s lots of fossils in there.”

Nemona looked thoughtful.

“Huh. That’s wild. So this could be an important scientific discovery?”

“Yeah, it might be, if nobody else knows about this!”

Nemona laughed and patted Ogerpon’s head.

“You could be famous, Ogerpon! If they discover any new pokemon fossils here, they’ll have to name them after you!”

Ogerpon chirped, not understanding but happy for the attention. Juliana stared down into the dark bog. She mused,

“It looks like it’s pretty hot, too. I wonder how hot it is? And how deep it is?”

“Hey, I think I see something poking out in the middle there.”

“Where?”

Nemona leaned against a large column of crystal growing from the ground along the pool’s edge, pointing towards the pool’s center.

“There, sorta around the middle but a bit further back, it looks like–”

“Careful, Nemona.”

“--might just be a stick but it could be a bone–”

There was a cracking sound and the crystal Nemona had leaned against started to fracture. Eyes wide, Juliana grabbed onto Nemona and pulled her back, the huge column of crystal giving way soon after and tumbling down into the tar pit, making a huge ‘gloppp’ noise and splashing tar about before slowly sinking into the black. They watched it vanish into nothing, the foul stench of tar the only thing remaining.

The girls looked at each other. Nemona laughed nervously.

“Ahahaha . . . maybe we should stop messing around near the tar pit.”

“Yyyyeah . . . why don’t we head back to camp?”

“Sounds good.”

The three quickly retraced their steps and exited the cave. Had they remained just a little while longer, they might have heard a strange rumble coming from the tar pit, bubbles forming much more rapidly than before and the surface of the pool roiling in strange shapes . . .

[fierykitten2]

Continuing the whole “what if the Proto Beasts and Neo Swords joined UNITE?” conversation, some ideas

Fire, Boulder, Bolt and Crown’s UNITE moves reflect the rumours Perrin’s heard of them (she’s right, Boulder is built. I don’t tend to use that kind of slang and probably don’t know what it means I just know she’s right) - Fire roars and magma erupts around it, Boulder charges its combined weapon with power and plows through opponents (maybe similar to Revenant Rend), Bolt covers the sky with clouds and creates a thunderstorm and Crown shoots an attack (me avoiding using the word “energy” so it doesn’t get mixed up with how the EXs use their Aeos Energy) from its horns that go through opponents to attack them (so basically if Ceruledge was a special fighter). I guess Wake and Leaves just get the usual “pick one of their types and just do that” but I think Leaves should use its blades given Boulder and Crown are using theirs

Roles: Fire is a Defender, Boulder is a Speedster, Wake, Leaves, Bolt and Crown are either Attackers or All-Rounders (I think I sorta thought Wake and Leaves would be Attackers while Bolt and Crown are All-Rounders)

Damage type: Wake, Bolt and Crown are special, Leaves, Fire and Boulder are physical

Attack type: Wake and Bolt are ranged, Leaves and Boulder are melee. I’m honestly not sure about Fire and Crown. I just don’t think Fire works as a ranged attacker but I guess that’s just me not really knowing what it takes to make a physical fighter ranged. Unless it’s archery, that makes sense. Or fiery footballs. Or because they’re actually a special fighter that randomly got changed to physical for UNITE. Crown could probably work as either if needed. To be fair, I think with the way Leaves, Fire and Boulder attack I think it would be cool if one of them was ranged and there’s nothing saying the other three can’t be melee just because they deal special damage

Basic attacks: the Proto Beasts just launch a burst of their primary type at the opponent although I guess Fire should instead scratch the opponent while the Neo Swords slash the opponent with their blades though I guess Crown should instead launch some small Steel-type energy at the opponent. Yeah I seem to have accidentally based the Neo Swords’ movesets around just using their signature moves over and over again just with different intensities

Abilities: well obviously the Proto Beasts have to have Protosynthesis and the Neo Swords have to have Quark Drive the question here is how do they work and that’s not gonna be an easy question to answer, especially given different instances of the same ability can work very differently to each other in UNITE, for example Eevee!Glaceon’s Run Away works more like Glaceon’s Snow Cloak than Eevee!Leafeon’s Run Away. I think at least one of the Neo Swords gets a buff when Miraidon’s either nearby or on the team. At least one of the Proto Beasts can have a similar buff with Koraidon instead of Miraidon if it’s true that Koraidon’s coming (apparently it was leaked at the same time as Palafin and Armarouge so that’s cool. I’ll admit I would’ve preferred Quaquaval to Palafin but I’m sure they’ll find a cool way to implement Palafin’s gimmick please add Quaquaval before you add Skeledirge UNITE’s for the furries don’t ruin that by adding the definitive anti-furry option I don’t care you seem to be allergic to adding the unpopular starters from unpopular trios given you haven’t added Chesnaught or Rillaboom yet I hate that ugly crocodile also if you’ve added my Violet starter, Fire Knight and ride (Meowscarada, Ceruledge and Miraidon) and you’re about to add my Scarlet Fire Knight and ride (Armarouge and Koraidon) you might as well add my Scarlet starter too (Quaquaval))

Attacks I want them to have: okay all six of them get their signature moves. Fire also gets Flame Charge because I love using it as Cinderace, Ceruledge and Delphox. I don’t necessarily want any of them to have this but at least one of the Neo Swords is probably getting Sacred Sword. As a bonus the Proto Beasts could get Sunny Day and the Neo Swords could probably get Electric Terrain just to boost their stats a bit. Also Boulder and Crown get Psycho Cut and Zen Headbutt while Leaves gets Solar Blade and Leaf Blade. Scald also makes sense on Wake

[mashithamel]

Full spoilery reactions to S2E1 below the cut

- The Xray says this is TAR. How does someone bring their child to TAR? Why would someone bring their child to TAR? Or maybe she just dreamed herself there somehow and it’s not actually her mom?

- A while back I saw a really cool theory that it was in Amadicia and it was her house. It was based on the house being star shaped, and the map of cultures inspiring costumes for the Westlands.

- I miss the opening credits so much.

- I do not think I could be adequately motivated to take a bath if I had to haul that much water that far. Sponge baths only for me! She doesn’t really do this every day, right? Like, how would she get anything else done?

- I love the bath scene from S1E1 so much; this is such a sad parallel to that relatively happy scene.

- Rafe knows what his audience wants. Daniel does such a nice job showing how Lan is handling this without a word.

- Adeleas is all of us.

- I like that Moiraine is getting her visitors from TDR. And we actually get to have an idea of just what information they are bringing.

- Bayle Doman! I saw someone was unhappy he didn’t have the book facial hair. I didn’t think anyone would be disappointed in much of RJ’s hairstyle ideas being avoided. At the very least the Cairheinin and Maidens of the Spear are upgraded.

- This is not subtle Egwene foreshadowing with the Amyrlin dress.

- “I have enough character.” Yes you do, girl!

- I’ve seen plenty of people comment that learning a weave to decontaminate water is so much more useful for girls who may never advance beyond novices than juggling balls of light, but it’s so true it deserves yet another mention.

- I love that Nynaeve has no ability to meditate on a flower bud opening. I don’t think I could either.

- Interesting Nynaeve hasn’t channeled at all. She’s never been mad enough? Find that hard to believe.

- Nynaeve is my QUEEN. Don’t let those Aes Sedai boss you around.

- I wonder if Liandrin was the one who beat Moiraine, instead of Elaida like I assumed? Is that how a Novice died under her?

- Sheriam’s hair swirl on her chignon is amazing.

- Perrin’s clothes are definitely a step up.

- I fully support swapping in Elayas for Hurin. It works with canon and is a great way to introduce him.

- Yes, make the audience love Uno. This definitely will not come back to bite us later.

- I don’t see the fuss about Masema being hot. But the religious undertones are spot on.

- I love how they are visually showing us Perrin’s wolf-sense with the ability to see recent events. Also how he has to learn to not react to them.

- Does this mean the girl is still alive? Will we see her again? Will we have a child Darkfriend???

- I love how Lan bites off “she’s afraid,” as if even admitting to another Warder that his Aes Sedai is ever afraid is a betrayal, and he regrets the words slipping out. Daniel and Rosamund just get their characters so well.

- Is that how you pronounce Adeleas?

- Is it cool to say you’re available to be Warder for another Warder’s Aes Sedai’s? It seems like that would be super rude.

- A moon dial outside Cairhein, you say???

- That was a cool/cold move, Moiraine! At least she follows up her bargaining with genuine concern and just passes him ten marks like it’s nothing.

- How many takes did Rosamund need to say “The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills” that fast?

- I like Nynaeve with the Warders. She actually has some friends of her own in the Tower, unlike in the books. I love that they seem to care about her too.

- This Alanna scene is hilarious. Maddie playing up Egwene’s awkwardness and discomfort so physically is terrific.

- Egwene is wearing her hair like the other Novice’s do. It makes Nynaeve stand out more with her braid that she’s refusing to adapt, rather than that Egwene so readily adapts to whatever culture she is in. Or both, I guess.

- Kate Fleetwood kills in this kitchen scene. A very nice change from Suiane doing this to Liandrin. Ups the intensity because Linadrin is the more threatening one currently. Her distain for Warders—what great line delivery. But insult/threaten Lan and you (finally) provoke Nynaeve enough to make her channel.

- She saw it once and copied it!

- Nynaeve shielded is reacting an awful lot like Moiraine last season. Further support for the inverted weave shield theory! (I think it’s going to unravel on it’s own, like Asmodean’s, instead of Rand or Nynaeve fixing it. But I’m terrible at predicting the show.)

- “I want to see you become so powerful that no man, no woman will ever be able to take that away from you.” Such a great motivation. Probably not the right one for Nynaeve, but I think Linadrin really wants Nynaeve to succeed.

- “Why are you doing this for him?” “All men deserve a proper burial…Does it bother you that I’ve bestowed this small mercy on him?…Anger won’t bring my men back.” Random other fandom thought: this makes me think of the end of The Black Cauldron—it’s easy to judge good and evil unmixed.

- More Perrin struggling with his rage and violence.

- “Perhaps Fain had a reason for doing what he did.” What’s that Intar? Taking this conversation a bit personally, perhaps?

- Dang, Moiraine is cold. Couldn’t she, like, make up a mission to send Lan away on? Instead of trying to be so mean he leaves on his own?

- “Make it yourself. And have it wherever you want.” That would be a really cool line to storm out on if you didn’t immediately follow it up by making her a plate.

- How is it Bel Tine already?

- Perrin may not talk much, but the man can write a good letter.

- Liandrin just straight up lied here, right?

- Oh, my poor Mat. It’ll get better!

- I’m glad Perrin keeps his ring. And that he has a lantern for Rand.

- What, is it pick on Lan night? I mean asking them to wait is annoying. And he has kept trying to throw himself pity parties. But Moiraine is making it really personal for him! He’s justified in being frustrated and angry.

- “I think that’s the first time in my life someone’s told me I need to be quiet.”

- I want some na’an bread.

- Can Lan not sense the Fades because he doesn’t have the bond? Or were they shielded like the Drakhar like in the book?

- I was annoyed that Lan couldn’t take on two Fades, but then a read a thread of Fade encounters and two at once is a lot even for Lan. One at a time is doable but not guaranteed in canon.

- “Wing flutter” in the captions made me think maybe we’d get a Drakhar anyway.

- “What aren’t you telling me?” is a pretty heartbreaking way to end this scene.

[aceofthegreenajah]

Wheel of time Season 2 Episode 5 Liveblog - no spoilers edition! Will make a reblog with spoilers in it.

Nice. Good of them to show more of Seanchan, that there is a hierarchy where Suroth is pretty high but NOT at the top.

You couldn't have bought out the horn before Suroth was disgraced Ishamael? That is not how you win loyalty from your subordinates.

Just take the horse with you!!! Dammit. I hate animal death. Also why would Lanfear take a horse anyway? See, there she gets another one it was useless anyway.

Yeah give my unhinged girl a hovercar if you won't let her travel by magic!

They are his pack edmond field 5 FOREVAH (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ) Also Elyas lying to him is not cool

No more Elyas?? :(

Will hopper follow/go with?

Oo clever of Moiraine and Rand

Yeah Rand has a lot to deal with

See! Hopper! Good boy! He is so cute *★,°*:.☆(￣▽￣)/$:*.°★* 。

Why a seanchan in a cage?

AVIIIIII Damn her cage is too small to fit her gigantic personality in it

WHO IS THIS? Dain! That makes more sense than my first quess

Valda hello beloathed hey please let Avi out you'll deserve anything that happens after

Almost black over red on Liandrin. They keep being so clever.

Did Ishamael give Liandrin a time limit to convert Nynaeve? And not we're on to plan B? That would make sense of her actions and expressions! Love this for us.

I don't know what people are complaining about eyebrows or no Suroth is so pretty

Suroth Are you stupid he isn't of the blood BECAUSE HE IS OVER 2000 YEARS OLDER THAN YOUR BLOODLINE OBSESSION

Yeah Perrin save the living first

Someone loves their shaky cam in this show WHY

Aviendha is SO COOL damn this fight is good. She's unarmed and kicking ass!

'He gave you water' is such a good line here

Aww poor Uno left behind but I get it

Barthanes? Is that you? It is. He looks nothing like I imagined but you know what, I like it!

Galladran is in the show, ok.

'my liege' good try at distraction!

That was unnecessary detail on that 'on the switch' stuff Verin says, but on the other hand, little rebel Verin is a cute enough thought that I'll forgive it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sheriam's life flashing before her eyes here

Good on you Verin!

Gawyn namedrop, compulsion loredrop. Compulsion was one of my guesses on what Lanfear was starting to do to Rand at the end of e4, but on the other hand, it doesn't quite fit...

Detective Verin ❤❤❤

Our master - good good everything becoming clear

YEAH I was waiting for Liandrin to do something! She was primed to! She likes Nynaeve and they built up their relationship so well, she hates Suroth and the Seanchan and everything they stand for, and Ishamael was away so he wasn't here to catch her in the act!

Love Avi's costume. She is so pretty. She is so perfect.

'It is not a lover, wetlander' is so good, and I hate a little how she continued. You just met him! Like good that she's not prudish and maidens are, well, so I guess I'll take it.

Avi and Verin and forsaken I am so blessed.

Who is this guy watching Elayne and Nynaeve?

Nynaeve and Elayne clashing is canon but I hate it. Nynaeve PLEASE I know you're panicking but she's Egwene's friend too and she's keeping a cool head!

More head trauma for our girls. Couldn't have handled that any other way?

Liandrin being smart and thinking ahead with her alibi.

Ah here comes the homoerotic Ishamael/Rand stuff I was expecting. I am cackling here.

OO Ishy+Lanfear hanging out?

Ah he's trying to drive Moiraine to the dark.

Lanfear backstory now???

I dig the collar design. Such a small innocious thing when not in use, grows into this huge thing. And leash of power + an actual leash!

Oh this makes sense. They can't avoid sleep forever anyway so might as well see what Lanfear wants and not weaken themselves unnecessarily.

Lanfear you so dramatic.

[highladyluck]

Wifeswap AU: Mat/Faile and Perrin/Tuon

I kind of covered this in Perrin's Cursed Shadar Logoth Ax AU, in that I think Coyote Cauthon would end up with Berelain, and Faile would be his Birgitte-style galpal, and Gun!Perrin/Tuon is a hideous disaster that hopefully doesn't have all its shit hit the fan until after the Last Battle.

2. BUT. Someone on here (and I need to look up who) had a theory that the two birds fighting over a ta'veren were originally supposed to be Tuon and Berelain, and the ensuing choice would have been between allying with the invading descendants of Hawkwing vs the local descendants of Hawkwing. Part of the idea was that this would have tied into the Old Blood thing that Mat had early on, and Mat would have had the raising Manetheren plotline. 3. Aside from the bird thing as it currently is being kind of gross and thematically not super interesting, and the Mat's Old Blood plotline mostly ending up as Early Installment Weirdness instead of tying into the raising of Manetheren, I think there's evidence for this in the fact that Tuon and Faile have a lot of strange little similarities.

4. But keeping the setting and plot the same, and just trying to make it work personality wise... I could maybe see Mat doing like a slowburn friends to lovers thing with Faile? They've got the knife kink going for them & Mat loves a competent violent lady. Mat's a little bit in love with almost every woman, so the trick to getting Mat to fall hard in love is some combination of him being emotionally ready, and also kinda frog-boiling him in slightly escalating feelings that he doesn't notice until it's too late for him to escape. For her part, Faile seems very firmly not into twinks, but otoh that'll help; this is not going to work if Faile comes on too strong too fast. Faile admires competency but also wants a fixer-upper, and Mat does fit the bill.

5. I have to go with a variation on the Gunk Premise for Perrin/Tuon; Perrin has just killed Faile or someone else he loves sincerely, goes off the rails because he can't trust himself anymore, and ends up doing wetwork for Tuon because he wants to be punished, used, and eventually discarded by a professional. Tuon makes him a Seeker and loves him in the way she loves her tools, and I guess if Mat isn't in the picture and she needs to make an alliance she might marry him, but it's pretty unlikely to get healthier or more equal. UNLESS she gets made damane, and Perrin rescues her, and then probably someone else entirely gets them therapy and teaches them both how to be functional people somehow, and they have some sort of hint of a real relationship in the aftermath. Which would actually be kind of cool, but is not something I'm equipped to write, that's like several levels of whump beyond my skill or interest level.

[alectology-archive]

ACoS chapters 5, 6, 18 partly, 27:

(since those are the chapters where Faile and Berelain makes appearances)

Me before starting the reread: I’ll try to approach this with an unbiased opinion (<- lying liar who lies because she read the title “A broken crown” and thought that was a very cool chapter name for Rand’s POV and then realised it was actually Perrin’s POV and decided that Perrin is very melodramatic and annoying)

I went ahead and made a wholeass gif just because he was annoying me that much, if you were wondering how well this reread went. 

I guess this counts more as reading the interesting things that other characters have to do or say since I sort of skimmed the chapters more than rereading it because I’m not sure I could survive that.

- I’d managed to find a soft spot for Min this past month or so but she’s... still wincing after dumai’s wells?? why didn’t you let an aes sedai heal you, girl. I’m aware this is probably not her fault. I don’t feel particularly rational now because I’m annoyed by how she exists to make Rand feel Guilty and serves no narrative purpose as a character besides Damsel in Distress. ugh.

Perrin’s first (1) opinion is already setting my teeth on edge. shut the fuck up, Perrin. I know the books and fandom like to poke at Mat acting indignant about being a lord and developing a taste for finery - I mean, he can afford it so I don’t see what the problem with indulgences are - but he’s a very empathetic person and always treats servants and soldiers with a lot of respect! He understands the motivations which guide them and never begrudges them for acting based on fear! Not everybody can survive standing by their principles - and sometimes they just don’t have the power to do so. I think I’m particularly annoyed by the fact that this observation follows his notice of servants choosing to wear a certain house’s colours while not really making a similar or more critical remark about the nobles who also accepted Colavaere’s rule.

I also just hate the way Perrin’s inner monologue sounds. Not my cup of tea. It’s not just the whining - it’s even the sort of vocabulary, he uses. I get the impression RJ is trying to push for the “he’s just a humble blacksmith” angle with it, but Perrin... very much has a taste for receiving respect that he thinks he deserves. He lords his power over the more capable women in his plotline and prevents them from doing anything Actually Useful, so. 

Rand was so sexy for this. Brandon Sanderson wanted this for him when he wrote the gathering storm. His downspiral was done okay, but it failed to hit the mark because he was too afraid to really push Rand’s buttons or isolate him from Min in any meaningful manner because he clearly loved her best out of Rand’s girlfriends. And liked the idea of him having sex with her (which is also an RJ problem, let’s be clear).

Like, again. RJ sets the mood so well. He knows how to make you feel the sort of dark vibes radiating off Rand when he’s slipping into Dragon Reborn Mode. 

- goddamn, can Perrin learn to think about anything except Faile. 

- Perrin: *notices details like the asha’man not sweating only because he has his wolf powers*. Also Perrin: why don’t the people in the hall realise the men are channelers?

Yeah, this paragraph fundamentally highlights my issues with Perrin and Min as characters. Min is always trying to insert herself into situations that would undermine Rand’s image and always tries to make everything about her (not pictured here, but it’s fully what she does in WH-KoD). She doesn’t have the political acumen or mind necessary to survive being Rand’s girlfriend and does nothing to try and remedy that - I was never sold on her interest in philosophy, and it didn’t help matters that she always behaves like a fourteen year old. On a similar note, Perrin is self-absorbed, has no sense for politics and doesn’t have to apply himself to learning the intricacies of taking care of people or navigating Daes Dae’mar the way Rand does. Sure, Rand got away with a bunch of silly Daes Dae’mar moves in TGH - but that was partly for comedic effect and he eventually learns the necessary skills! Unlike Perrin! Who only scrapes by because of the girls politicking on his behalf! Ugh.

I am so, so sad that randlayne didn’t get the screentime it deserved :/

- Perrin is the kind of guy who essentially treats Rand with a “You’re depressed? You could just stop being depressed!” attitude that I really loathe. Compare and contrast this with Mat patiently listening to Rand ramble about his duties in chapter 5 of lord of chaos. Perrin could never!!!! Mat really is the better friend of the pair but gets the worser reputation for having the unreliable narrator thing going on more strongly than any of the other characters.

- Have I mentioned that I love Annoura? I love Annoura. Rand’s relationship with Annoura and Merana are definitely some of my favourite Rand/Aes Sedai dynamics. Also Annoura and Berelain have romantic history because I say so.

Once again... why does Perrin generally talk about women like this, lol. It always sounds like he’s pleasantly surprised to discover that women have brains. 

Unlike Perrin, I would choose to appreciate Faile for her political ability instead of her beauty after she helped Rand corner Colavaere into admitting her crimes. It seems Perrin is only capable of appreciating her beauty and pretty much hates everything else about her (why did he marry her, then?)

- To stop myself from making 10 more notes about how RJ Writes Rand I’m going on record to say I love how RJ writes Rand in this chapter. The parts where he’s talking to Lews Therin... the one where he breaks and remakes the crown... this scene is iconic from beginning to end. It might have been one of my favourites if Colavaere’s plot wasn’t bogged down by Rand’s inability to kill women, but that unfortunately affects my enjoyment of it to a great degree.

The little nuances and subtleties and wording choices make all the difference! Which is why Sanderson’s writing is so severely lacking - the very arrangement of his words in a sentence grates on my nerves, lol. I think this is also my cue to mention that Rand is one of those characters who’s extremely enjoyable to read from another person’s perspective even if you don’t like his POVs, specifically. 

This is so funny. I would have loved to see a proper Faile/Rand conversation in the books.

I, as a person, lie constantly and all the time and just for fun sometimes so Perrin should shut up. I’ll probably use this gif whenever he annoys me henceforth.

Reasons I love Mat: he’s a “women who are dangerous and can probably kill me” appreciator

Reasons I hate Perrin: he barely qualifies as a feminist

- the language of fans that Saldaeans have going on seems so random tbh, sdjfdfgdf. 

- I hate how clingy Min is. She’s always physically attached to Rand in a way literally no other female character is with their love interests.

- Perrin has learnt a little bit of the language of fans? I find that hard to believe. He literally refused to take lessons in Daes Dae’mar at one point, I think? Maybe it helps that it’s a cultural thing and not a Manipulating People thing although I disagree with the books that he’s a good leader.

- Wheel of Time insults are so bad, and I’m always periodically reminded of this fact. Why are they so bad. 

- I... do think RJ is trying to do something with Perrin’s character and his paranoia for Faile’s safety specifically because Elayne and Min don’t get the same treatment - but I don’t quite understand why or what. The show’s introduction of Laila made sense, in that context, but is also one of its This Shouldn’t Be A Thing In the First Place choice (the unnecessary Perrin/Egwene/Rand love triangle which doesn’t serve any real narrative purpose, for instance, which fully made me cringe a bit because it gave me war flashbacks to some of the terrible YA books I’ve read - and it really does Laila dirty in the process too). The show should’ve just entirely done away with Perrin’s overprotectiveness because I don’t care for that sort of thing when it’s done in such a heterosexual manner - I would’ve vibed more with it even if it had been a Rand/Elayne thing because Elayne and Ilyena are supposed to look slightly similar.

you literally did not give Berelain a proper no. Is there some commentary about sexual harassment here? I don’t know, but all three ta’veren definitely face varying degrees of harassment at different points in the series. I would have to do a proper reread to really dissect my feelings on whether Berelain respects Perrin’s boundaries or feels Perrin is encouraging her, but I’ll hopefully get a vague idea about what direction my feelings skew towards as I continue to read. RJ was probably just pulling the sexy woman trope and trying to get Perrin to pick between really applying himself to his duties and dithering around because he disliked the idea of married life and its constraints (answering the call, more thematically speaking, I suppose), but that’s just me guessing at this point.

(which are again major Mat themes but somehow the fandom seems to have decided that Mat disliking the idea of marriage is bad but Perrin being involved in a disastrous one and Rand not marrying the literal person he got pregnant is not a big deal. what.)

I just know faile and berelain had hate sex.

(although I definitely don’t vibe with Faile’s insults for Perrin - they always really made me uncomfortable. This paired with Perrin getting violent enough to scare Faile into locking herself into a room... idk what RJ was doing.)

- The sentiment of Perrin wanting to lie down and die on Faile’s grave if something happened to her would’ve been really romantic if it had been applied to any couple except literally them.

- Faile is now asking Perrin to mourn her for a decent period of time if she were to die and then instructs him to take a new wife. Perrin is able to smell that this is the truth but says that he doesn’t believe her anyway. There is absolutely no winning with him, wow. 

Rand saying “I need to know” twice. He desperately needs friends and allies he can rely on and he’s afraid he’ll get a rejection and is starting to equate it with an ending of friendships :/

- On principle I agree with Perrin asking Rand to not treat the Aes Sedai the way he does - and it’s good that it’s explicitly challenged, especially for the men reading the series, since a lot of them don’t have the reading comprehension necessary to pick out that what Rand did to the Aes Sedai was not being framed as a good thing. But I’m also very annoyed that Perrin practically has no concern for Rand and doesn’t comprehend the fact that his choices stem from his traumatic experiences! He’s severely lacking in the empathy department.

This is technically from chapter 7, but I need to keep a track of the number of ‘cutting Rand’s hand’ jokes RJ pulls the same way he makes several strangulation jokes with Mat. I think my eotw count for strangulation jokes was 3 before I paused my reread?

- Rand blushes a lot in the books even post-book 4, lol. I’m kind of surprised by the frequency - but again, RJ is fully writing a comedy as much as a fantasy. 

- And Berelain’s angry confrontation of Rand after being asked to leave is the last we see of her in Cairhien! I’m devastated! I loved all the politicking and governance she did in Cairhien and her relationship with the Wise Ones was so sweet in lord of chaos. I really miss this era of her character. Having reread the throne room scene where Rand confronts Colavaere, Berelain’s dismissal was fully contrived - RJ wanted it to happen, so it happened! Dobraine is the first and only noble who speaks out against Colavaere which is what prompts Rand to really appoint him as Berelain’s replacement - and while I like him, the fact that Berelain is the one being displaced because of him makes me really mad. This is fully operating on the same levels of I Need X Plot To Happen as Mat being conveniently replaced by Bashere in lord of chaos, too. And all the girls conveniently forgetting to tell Rand that Mat was trapped in Ebou Dar - while I was reading the series I thought Rand waged a war on the Seanchan because he learnt that Mat was trapped there - so it was sort of baffling to see Mat’s absence never being brought up again. 

- Anyway, onto chapter 27. “To be alone” is once again a title that would’ve made me very sad if it was one of Rand’s POVs - but it’s Perrin’s.

Again, Perrin/Faile is written in such a bafflingly convoluted manner. I would think RJ was trying to discuss domestic abuse - except I’m pretty sure he definitely wasn’t.

- Sulin leaving Rand to accompany Perrin is also one of the silliest things to happen in the books, wtf.

- Oh hello! Seonid! Edarra! Masuri! Selande & co! 

- Why do the asha’man do salutes? lol. I suppose RJ is trying to indicate that they’re more of a military institution than the White Tower is.

???? why does he talk like that all the time? 

But I’m... done with his sections of the book! It was very short, all things considered - especially because I skipped the first few chapters where Faile and Berelain didn’t make an appearance and skimmed the passages where he was monologuing to himself. But I didn’t quite find the chapters where Berelain was actively pursuing him - I thought those chapters were in ACoS but I’m assuming they’re probably in LoC. I might try to pick it up tomorrow and figure out how I feel about the whole Perrin/Berelain situation.

[black-ajah-hq]

WoT S1E2 Retrospective Pt 1

Full series spoilers!

From what I remember, episode 2 is probably one of my least favorite of the season. Althoughhh it does lay some good groundwork for Moiraine’s character and has some juicy bits of foreshadowing. 

^ You have got to be kidding me. *vomits* *mouth starts hurting just by looking at it* Any person who eats this is a psychopath

^ I can’t tell if its his blood or juice. Either way I’m grossed out and i want no part in this.

^ Ermmm that is graphic all right. o.O   The pettiness of Valda to be CAMPING and insist that his servants make one of the most odd gourmet dishes of all time, when he should be having a pot of chili -__- 

^ I like this cold open, though I do think they were a little too heavy handed with the characterization of Valda as a villain. The dude has 0 redeeming qualities besides his creepily charismatic demeanor. 

^ WoT’s title sequence is a MASTERPIECE and is everything I’ve ever wanted

^ the Shadowspawn (especially myrdraal) looked sooo good here! ugh if only it was consistent in the later episodes

^ Moiraine was so cold for this but it’s such a good way of “showing, not telling” who her character is! The EF4 here looked so freaked out (especially Rand which i guess foreshadows his outburst later on in this episode)

^ Again, I’m obsessed with the scenery

^ Seeing her heal the horses’ fatigue with the One Power...a small but memorable detail from the books.

^ “They need their strength. So do you.” AGH their friendship is everythingggg

^ “If Nynaeve was here...” Mat knows her so well!!!

^ Oh Perrin :(  

^ Rand: “They say the last Dragon broke the world, but the next one will save it.” Ehhh Not sure if i like how “positive” the Dragon prophesies are...wish the showrunners would have painted the prophecies in a more negative or ambiguous light. I feel like the consensus here should have been “the last Dragon broke the world, and this time we’re not sure if they will break it again or save it” 

^ Later on i hope to god that Mat has a close encounter with a raken and makes another joke about this LMAO

^ I was about to say that she might have suspected that Nynaeve could channel as well, but Moiraine isn’t here to recruit Aes Sedai, she’s looking for the Dragon Reborn...and also everyone thinks Nyn is dead 

^ Of course, it’s Moiraine’s blue head jewel

^ The fact that Eggy is saying this >.<  No but I think she really is trying to be realistic here, plus there’s some part of her that doesn’t want to go back. 

^ I did not expect horror-movie-esque stuff like this but I actually think it’s so cool. my friend immediately commented on this scene “so that’s how covid started?” 

Anyways, I didn’t realize it on my first watch until after Mat mentioned his dream but this scene is SO SYMBOLIC... HES LITERALLY PULLING THE EVIL THING OUT OF HIMSELF *screams*

And then when Mat says “their necks just...snapped” I GASPEDDDD. Leave it to Ishy to be cruel and vaguely prophetic with these dreams. I kinda wish Eggy and Perrin got to tell us what their dream were.  

^ so dramatic ... *rolls eyes*

ok next part coming later!