#separating Perrin from Rand

[cannoli-reader]

What did Rand know that Perrin would not? He was quite vocal about Fain's threat and his own intention to answer the challenge in tGH. Maybe he just assumes Perrin would not have let the passage of time, a new girlfriend, advances from Berelain, and powers with a certain degree of danger, make him forget a threat to their home, when he doesn't have on top of the above issues, any nations to rule, or Aes Sedai scrutiny to evade, and a definite and literal deadline to get everything.

Perrin suspected the latter, and that Slayer was the one who had shot the hawk for no reason. It was another complication he could do without, on top of the Children of the Light.

Poor Perrin. He still doesn't know the larger complication, which Rand forgot to mention. And he will, unfortunately, have to deal with multiple things at once.

[butterflydm]

Wheel of Time 3x05 - Tel'aran'rhiod

Spoilers through 3x05 of the show and through roughly Winter's Heart in the books.

Holy shit, they straight-up killed Natti Cauthon! And Bode is confirmed to be able to channel. The Perrin stuff was intense this episode! He and Faile went through a massive bonding experience together, saving Mat's sisters. Alanna and Maksim's storyline was also really good.

I am kinda feeling some death knells because of how much Moiraine and Siuan got to reconcile in that scene together, but hopefully they are wrong and Siuan will not die. But that was a lot of closure.

Cockblocked on my Randgwene breakup for yet another week but surely it has to happen next week. Even Egwene can't brush off what she just saw and pretend everything is fine and chill with Rand.

Okay, so going back to the things that I enjoyed (because the continued Randgwene is basically my only frustration with the show because I am so done with them but the show keeps dragging the corpse of their relationship out for yet another week).

I did really enjoy pretty much everything else.

I called it that Rand is convinced He Can Fix Her after seeing Mierin Sedai in the columns, and I also feel like the show made it pretty obvious that this is their first kiss in the dreams.

Ugh, Rand is in a weird place where he obviously should have broken up with Egwene a long time ago but believes he owes it to Egwene to stick with her because of all she's done for him and suffered because of him and... yeah. Ugly situation. But hopefully it resolves next week.

Rand in Cold Rocks Hold was lovely. Rand learns about polyamory! Rand gets to spend time with a kid and smile and be happy among the Aiel! Cute cute cute!

The Sea Folk ship material was amazing. The weaves looked like the Northern Lights! So pretty! And we did get a tiny reminder of Elayne liking Aviendha in her dream (that Egwene popped into -- that is very book-canon behavior from Egwene).

Mat and Elayne had a very amusing dynamic (probably not helped by the close quarters for 14 days on a ship!), and I am definitely intrigued to see where it goes.

Min had pretty much zero reaction to seeing Elayne. She was pretty much 100% focused on Mat. So that was interesting.

Speaking of! Mat mentioned the Rand thing this episode! And, yeah, so it's made him think that Min's viewings are not all they are cracked up to be, because Rand didn't die. So that scene worked really well for me (and the glimpse of his dreams was so sweet and heartbreaking! All the dreams were very sweet. And then there was the Randfear dream that Egwene walked into, oops).

Aviendha double-checking with Rand that wetlanders definitely don't share lovers, yeah there's no ulterior motive there. She's so mad at the fact that she finds him attractive. She is so mad about it.

Bair continuing her "please just break up" campaign with Randgwene by separating them as much as possible which, yeah, my god, I am there with you, Bair.

Yeah, I should get to sleep soon, so those are my thoughts.

I really do hope that Randgwene can break up for good soon so that I can look back at their relationship with a more objective eye, where I'm not just constantly going, "Why are you still together! You broke up in 1x01!" at the screen.

[markantonys]

window architectural style analysis time! these windows look to be a match judging by the snippet of upper window we can see in the second image. so, the cuts on mat's neck might be from the spears. however, he does look genuinely shaken/upset in the second image and idk if maiden's kiss would upset him THAT much, so perhaps a bubble of evil strikes later on during this scene, echoing him being hit with it during Late-Night Party Time in TSR. will be interesting to see if bain, chiad, loial, and possibly perrin (in the other angle of this shot there's a bearded figure behind mat) are still around for a big ol' joint bubble of evil, or if some or all of them have left by then and mat and perrin have separate bubbles of evil. ooh, and could egwene and nynaeve get bubbles of evil too since they're ta'veren in showverse?

meanwhile, rand's bubble of evil window is a different window (obviously since it's a bedroom rather than a bar), but seems to be somewhat similar with that wobbly-edged square diamond shape that the bar window has. and it does make the most sense for this scene to be taking place in rand's room at the same inn the gang is hanging out at anyway, so i'll say these windows belong to the same building.

also! is that an andoran lion i spot in the bar window? i believe that per season 1, basel gill and the queen's blessing (renamed the light's blessing) are in tar valon in showverse, so maybe it's that same inn again in 3x01 and the windows are a little easter egg nod to the innkeeper's book andoran heritage and loyalty to morgase.

[sandalwoodbox]

TL;DR: I enjoyed S03 and will still be recommending WoT as the best fantasy series I've seen. I hope it gets renewed for season 4 (and beyond!) And I hope they can course-correct in terms of how they treat characters of color.

I feel like I've seen enough reactions to S03E08 at this point that I'm fairly well convinced that they could have handled Siuan's death better somehow. I don't know exactly what the best solution would have been; I've seen people suggesting letting her live longer, or that the death would have been more palatable if they had framed it differently in the episode, or shot it in a less graphic/shocking way.

Killing Loial, Valda, and Siuan all in quick succession was also absolutely a lot of major characters of color to lose all at once. Of course lots of people are going to need to die in the series, especially since they're condensing everything so strongly. And of course the fact that there are so many main characters of color (compared to, say, Game of Thrones) makes it more likely that main characters of color will die. But at the same time, there's flexibility in terms of how those characters are treated on-screen and how their deaths are portrayed.

As a Lanfear enjoyer and a Moiraine enjoyer, I also frankly felt like we spent a slightly disproportionate amount of time on them this season. (Although part of that was them being wrapped up in both Rand's plotline and Egwene's plotline, and Lanfear also being tied into Liandrin's plotline.)

Personally, I was pretty ambivalent about the finale when I watched it. Like, it was fine, we wrapped some stuff up and set up for doing some serious Mat & Min stuff in Season 4. It didn't leave me frothing at the mouth like S03E07, but it doesn't have to.

Since there are so many characters in Wheel of Time, I hope we get a season renewal, and that we get a bunch of great new actors of color joining the show, and that their roles are handled well. I expect Moiraine and/or Lanfear will also die shortly, which will be sad but should free up a lot of screen time. I also expect us to focus more on Egwene's storyline (which I think will separate from Rand's) and see a lot more of Nynaeve. And of course Perrin!

This show has been doing so much with so little time. I truly wonder what more we would have gotten if there had been even 10 episodes instead of 8.

All that being rambled, though, again: I really enjoyed this season – this is absolutely the best fantasy TV show I've seen in my life – and I hope we get more! People absolutely have a right to be angry and want better treatment of characters of color, and I hope we get that too!

[stregoniconiconii]

It's been three thousand years since saidin was tainted. That is a very long time, even with the extended life spans of those who can channel. It's known that countless amounts of knowledge was lost after the breaking of the world. It could very well be possible that some of that knowledge was the ability to channel both saidin and saidar, which could potentially do away with the gendered aspect of the power system. If it's an ability that can be trained, regardless of gender, then the idea that it is gendered was constructed at some point. Maybe there is some truth to a majority of male channelers having a natural affinity to saidin and majority of female channelers having a natural affinity to saidar--but the idea that a male channeler can never channel saidar and a female channeler can never channel saidin could very well be untrue. There are always exceptions to binary rules.

We haven't really seen any exceptions yet in the show canon, but in book canon there's Aran'gar, who was originally a man but who's soul was placed in a woman's body by the Dark One. On the wiki, this is described as reincarnation. However, it is an unnatural one; these bodies have been hijacked by a foreign soul, seemingly kicking out or subduing the original soul that would have belonged to the body (something that I wonder will be explored in the show?). Either way, Aran'gar's ability to channel saidin in a female body indicates that the ability to channel either or maybe even both parts of the one power is tied to the soul. If you truly tie the ability to channel saidin to maleness then gender is based on the soul rather than the body--something that is actually contradicted in show canon. In season 1, we are told that it is possible that Egwene could be the Dragon Reborn due to reincarnation and that this would be ideal as she would not be subjected to the taint of madness on saidin as a channeler of saidar--or this is what Moiraine and Siuan believe, at the very least. This actually makes the show more bioessentialist than the books, as it implies the soul to be genderless and the body to be gendered, tying the ability to channel each part of the one power to the body rather than to the soul. Which is... food for thought.

Curiously, another exception appears to be Rand himself. According to the wiki, in the final battle he uses a combination of saidin, saidar, and the true power to subdue the Dark One. I haven't read this far so I don't know how this is described but we know the true power to not be connected to gender and Rand is a known channeler of saidin... so how is he able to also use saidar? Does the gender of his soul change? Is there some other way it is explained, like through the use of an object of power or using someone else's saidar-powered weave? I don't know, but the fact that Rand showcases this ability to use all three powers at once implies that this can be something learned, allowing other characters to also have this ability. Or maybe even implies that Rand himself is non-binary or intersex, depending on if we're going the soul or the body is gendered routes, which also means that other characters who are non-binary or intersex and can channel can have the ability to channel both saidin and saidar.

I think it's also prudent to look into other magic systems in WoT--the ones that are "outside the binary" of saidin and saidar. Two examples come to mind first, both representing non-conformity in some way. First is Min, whose ability to see into the future is not due to any ability to channel, and who is notably gender non-conforming. Second is Perrin, who is wolfkin, an ability that is older than and separate from the one power, and struggles with choosing to reject humanity and become fully wolf, as his mentor Elyas had done. It interests me that you can interpret both of these characters through non-conformity of social roles, although Min's is less salient since there is a fairly wide range of gender expression amongst the female characters (she is not the only female character on the show who is kind of butch basically) and Perrin's is not necessarily through gender but society and humanity as a whole. There are other abilities outside of the one power mentioned in the books that we do not yet know if they are gendered, like the sniffing out danger thing. I think we also don't know if Min's visions are a gendered ability but seems unlikely. Although I suspect any men with visions were not treated kindly.

What I wish for mostly in the show is the chance for the binary of saidin and saidar to be challenged. I want to see a female channeler succumbing to the madness because she channeled saidin and it being furiously hidden by the Aes Sedai because they can't afford any mistrust in them. I want to see a male channeler surviving because they channeled saidar or maybe dying still because it's not believed that he could be channeling saidar even with all the evidence for it and he is stilled. I want someone to realise that the Aes Sedai libraries have wiped out all knowledge about different genders channeling saidin and saidar. What if the reason Nynaeve struggles so much with channeling saidar is because she has a natural affinity for saidin? What if she learns how to cure her own madness? What if there were, like, any trans characters? Imagine there was a small fringe society of trans and gender non-conforming people who can channel. Not accepted by the Aes Sedai because they refuse to conform but having to largely be self-taught. I believe we've seen in the latest episode to air (3.05) that the Aes Sedai way to channel is not the only way, there are the seafarers (?)--been seeing the quote "there is more than one way to be a woman" so I'd like to see that explored more fully. I'm imagining a society where there is an acknowledged "third gender" as there is in our world across many different cultures. Maybe when or if they have Aran'gar on the show they could be from a society like that, exploring how that strict binary could push someone to the dark while not making it a rule or a specific punishment/joke for a man to be in a woman's body. I'm curious about the land the Seanchean conquered, were there already inhabitants there? Did they have to suppress or maybe even totally genocide the indigenous culture? Could these cultures have a more complex idea of gender than the cultures on the main land mass that we're exposed to? I'll need to brush up on what I know about the Seanchean because I don't remember much about them besides those nails and their slavery system and they haven't shown up much in s3 yet. There just is room for trans readings or for questioning the binary even with such a strict power system.

[asha-mage]

Would love to hear five fun facts about an AU where one of the other Two Rivers boys is the Dragon Reborn - Mat or Perrin, the choice is yours.

[Send me a potential AU and I'll answer with five things from that story!]

Going with Mat here-

Since I have such a hard time separating the idea of Rand from the idea of the Dragon, as both mythological figure and for LTT reasons, I'd probably approach this from the angle that Mat is the 'champion of the light' in this specific turning, i.e still the Gambler/Son of Battles archetype, but whose past life resulted in the Breaking of the World, and who must now redeem himself through defeating the Dark One in the present era, and re-sealing the Bore. I would keep the trickster fox symbolism, but mix in heavy elements of Loki (in particular the bits surrounding the death of Balder, and the murder of his sons Nari and Vali as punishment/use to bind him). I would also replaced Callandor (which is an OG exaclibur refrence) with Lævateinn, one of Loki's mythological weapons, an draw heavy parallels with both Gungir and the arrow crafted to slay Balder of mistletoe.

Mat struggles a lot more then Rand with certain aspects of being the savior, less so with others. He's far, far more resistant to accepting his fate especially in the begging, and the story would need to force him into a position where he had the illusion of choice. Rand could be compelled by duty and compassion to accept he is The Dragon- Mat would defiantly refuse just to spite fate.

I would keep the idea that Mat was born outside the Two Rivers, but not make him Aiel born. Instead I'd probably make him Seanchan born- instead of the Aiel War twenty years ago, it was the First Seanchan invasion, with them being beaten back at the Bloodsnows instead, in a decisive (but costly) Westlands victory. Instead of Maiden of the Spear, Mat's biological mother would have been a Deathwatch Guard, likely someone also originally from the Westlands, with a parallel story to Shaiel'sl. His father would have been an Imperial Prince (an adoptive brother of Radhanan's/potential threat to her power) placed in charge of the invasion as a suicide mission/punishment for disgrace.

Conversely it is the Seanchan that Mat has to bind to aid him rather then the Aiel- something he struggles with a lot more then Rand did with the Aiel, though he also feels a lot less guilty about upending their culture and social order then Rand did. This also means he spends TSR/TFOH journeying to, then having to directly confront the Court of the Nine Moons et all, where has to reveal the secret lies of which the Empire predicates it's strength. This leaves Tuon in Couladin's approximate role: the rallying point of Imperial opposition, attempting to pry loose Mat's grip on power.

Because I am, in my heart of hearts a filthy Cauthor shipper- I would have Rand remain at Mat's side as confidant and guardian through to the bitter end. In my head he ends up taking up the dagger in order to protect Mat from Mordeth, and almost consumed by it in a similar way before breaking free/being healed. Though I wouldn't have him Aiel born, I probably would give him an parallel Aiel Training Arc to both help get over Dagger Withdrawal Syndrome and find his niche (assuming he can't channel in this turning).

[agardenandlibrary]

Lord of Chaos: The Prologue

As always, the prologue sets up what’s going on in the wider world. Someone (it was uhhhh @iliiuan shout out to a real one) told me that the prologues were published as separate stories before the novels themselves! Why did none of the rest of you tell me that! That’s so interesting!

I investigated a little more and it seems to be the case for the later books in the series that the prologue was released first. And indeed, the prologue for Eye of the World was like. A normal prologue. It’s only as the world and story get more elaborate that the prologues get longer and longer. I think if these books were being published now, what we call the prologue would have been published as a separate novella. (especially once we get to the later books and the several hundred(?) page prologues)

In Dark One News:

The Forsaken are continuing to argue about who is Satan’s favorite. Turns out Satan does have a favorite and it’s a Myrdraal named Shaidar Haran. As always, we’ll worry about that later.

A couple of the Forsaken have been resurrected, the ‘gar twins or whatever. I know one of the Forsaken gets resurrected as a different gender but I ain’t googling to find out which one, so I don’t remember if I’ve met them already.

The Forsaken are told to “LET CHAOS REIGN”.

Stuff going on with Andor

Morgase is in Amadicia trying to get help to take back Andor. Pedron Niall is like, the king won’t help you, but you know who has two thumbs, believes himself to be the savior of the world, and has a lot of soldiers? THIS GUY.

Stuff going on in the Two Rivers

Faile is trying to teach these people how to have a lord, given that it’s been 7 generations or something since they were beholden to any ruler. I believe in you, babe. Perrin is feeling the call of the wild the ta’veren and plans to abandon all responsibility in order to go to Rand.

Tower Schism News

Elaida’s Tower is working with the Aiel who hate Rand. Gawyn is still here. He hears from a random guy that Rand maybe killed both Morgase and Elayne. I saw a shitpost about this. Can’t wait to see more from Gawyn (sarcasm).

And also

I did think it was funny for Nynaeve to be like “I wanted Moiraine to suffer for what she did to us (took us out of the Two Rivers and changed our lives in ways we are still struggling to accept (let’s not talk about the fact that Nynaeve chose to follow them LMAO, girl, you could’ve stayed home)) but now that she’s dead I kinda feel like there’s a hole in my life.” Big hater energy from Nynaeve. Don’t worry, girlie, you’ll find someone else to hate with a burning passion I am sure.

[squirrelwrangler]

You know, even before the show adaptation started, I was predicting Cauthor being a popular ship and resenting it.

And I predicted it because it was the important younger male characters - and the two white actors. Fandom will always find the only two white guys to ship. Even though Mat and Perrin also had lovely bonding scenes in season one.

And not only was I right, but that one of the few complaints about Episode 4 that isn't just Bookcloaks being Bookcloaks is not having Rand rescue Mat is only making me hate that ship more. Mat's inclusion in the Waste plot-line and especially the Rhuidean chapters weakened and muddled the themes and impact of those sequences. Mat is better served as a character by staying with the girls. It would mean so much more if Nynaeve is the one to cut him down and save him from hanging and I bet you anything she (and Min) will be the ones to do it in the show. As not only because of all their bonding in the previous episodes, that Mat and Nynaeve are so similar, how it reflectes his Ebou Dar plot-lines and that his later book plots do not interact at all with Rand (whereas Perrin will) but that Mat is tied closely to Elayne, the Rebel Aes Sedai, the non-Aiel warriors and Westland nations, and the Seanchan. How this would make Nynaeve heal something close to death. This she can do for him. The only thing Mat does in the vicinity of Rand's plot lines until the Last Battle (and even then he's not on Rand's strike team but Elayne and Egwene's) is be around to kill Couladin and create the Band of the Red Hand - which is an army that barely stays any time with Rand's forces and quickly separates away.

[toastandjamie]

Been thinking about Mat Cauthon again, not an abnormal occurrence, but here’s an essay about him.

I have to cut this up because of the word limit, so here’s part 1

Part 1: How To Traumatize Your Comedic Relief

So like, Mat’s paranoia and trust issues stem entirely from the events of the first book regarding the Shadar Logoth dagger. But like- I wanna talk meta about Mat’s story and the concepts of loss of innocence, the evils of man, and fear of being powerless and how that relates to his character arc and relationships in the story. So let’s put aside the lore explanation of “evil dagger doing evil dagger things”

So when we first meet not just Mat, but all three Ta’veren boys there’s this element of childlike innocence to them. Despite the fact that all three are eighteen at the start of the series, Emmonds Field is so isolated, safe and peaceful that the boys are actively noted as being exceptionally naive to the outside world. They’re practically toddlers being left alone in a grocery store when they get separated from the actual experienced adults. This is a feature not a bug mind you, when it comes to having protagonists to introduce a world to an audience with. Not to mention that sets up all of the Emmonds Fields kids(this is specifically barring Nynaeve) to have a “Loss of Innocence” character arc, and they all do, but what’s interesting is how each character handles this loss and how long it takes for them to accept this reality. Mat is actually the first of them to really experience the effects of this loss of innocence, due to previously mentioned dagger problems, but let’s ignore the curse and talk about what exactly happened in Shadar Logoth that shook Mat’s worldview so badly. Mat does not start the story as the cynical and sarcastic character we all know and love, he’s introduced to us as being genuinely kindhearted and trusting, like I know it’s easy to forget given EVERYTHING Mat does in the later books, but of the three Ta’veren boys he’s the one who trusts Morraine the most in the beginning. He doesn’t question her motives nor does he seem to have any innate hostility towards her being Aes Sedai like Rand does(though his hostility stems from a place of jealousy and protectiveness of Egwene rather than genuine prejudice). The same goes for Thom as well, Mat doesn’t know anything about this person but he trusts these seemingly well intentioned adults intrinsically. The only person Mat seems to even have the slightest hesitation about is Lan and that’s solely because he’s aloof and doesn’t show much emotion, something that Mat finds extremely off-putting as the type of person who always has Big Feelings, and takes a lot of self esteem in his ability to make others laugh. This makes sense, because at this point they’ve not encountered any darkfriends(that they knew of) so currently the only Evil they encountered has been literal shadowspawn monsters. The Emmonds Field kids have never met a person who had genuinely bad intentions, I’ll-tempered like Cenn Buie, or a bit disreputable like the Coplins and Congars but even these people were at their cores Good People. So why WOULD they distrust these people who say they have their best interests at heart. That’s when we get to Shadar Logoth, and Mat as the ADHD icon he is, immediately gets bored and wants to explore the abandoned city. Rand and Perrin, as the two more mature ones both rightfully call this a bad idea since they were told NOT to go exploring by themselves, but Mat only heard “Trolloks can’t come in here so it’s safe” and nothing else so he decides to go anyways. Rand and Perrin tag along mostly to make sure Mat doesn’t get hurt. And who do they meet except the most suspicious man ever who lures them into his white van- I mean treasure room with the promise of candy-I mean treasure. These boys have never heard of stranger danger in there lives and automatically trust this random man who lurks in alleyways. And wouldn’t you know it, but this guy was not trustworthy at all and tries to kill them resulting in the group getting separated.

Here’s the thing, this is the first time in Mat’s life that he’s ever experienced true man made evil. This wasn’t the dark ones doing, Mordreth was just a guy who had genuinely malicious intentions and took advantage of Mat and his friends. This alone is enough to make him cautious but then throughout their entire road trip to Camlyn they are constantly ambushed by dark friends, in fact after Whitebridge they don’t get any direct encounters with Shadowspawn, they see a few myrrdraal hunting them but they avoid them pretty easily, it’s the People that consistently hurt them; and they are EVERYWHERE. Darkfriends are practically popping up at every street corner and they could be literally anyone. Mat tells Rand at one point that he feels like everyone is out to get them and Rand assures him that not everyone is a darkfriend, but at the same time, I can SEE why Mat would come to that conclusion. I mean is it really paranoia if they actually are out to get you? It wasn’t even just darkfriends, which makes it’s objectively worse, throughout their road-trip May and Rand are constantly met with people who are selfish, greedy, rude and sometimes even outright cruel and a lot of them weren’t darkfriends. They interact with Whitecloaks who are supposed to be righteous and good but are just bullies in shiny armor and carrying around swords. They interact with merchants on the road who take active pleasure in nearly taking out Rand’s eye with whip because the two of them walked a little too close to a cart. An innkeeper who purposefully locked them in a small storage closet so that he could rob them in the middle of the night. Rand remains optimistic but by the time they reach Camlyn Mat had become completely pessimistic and despondent. He didn’t trust anyone, he believed wholeheartedly that everyone wanted to hurt him, everyone except of course Rand.

[agent-of-sam]

My Big Rambling List of Perrin Thoughts

@toastandjamie asked for thoughts on Perrin's arc and the subsequent essay felt too big to be a comment so I made my own post.

Note it's not really an essay and more just a jumbled list of impressions from someone who tried and failed to complete a re read of the series.

The Gentle Giant thing is technically true but I think it's a misleading place to start with Perrin. The term feels more accurate for Loial who is both physically larger and less inclined to violence. And I do think there's some deliberate paralleling between the two as Loial spends a fair amount of time in Perrin's storyline. As an Ogier Loial is Pure Nature and Pure Creation, while Perrin's Wolfbrother connection is…something something, Primal Man, domestication of wolves as the man's first step towards civilization, something something idk.

In terms of personality, Perrin is deliberate and pragmatic. He's a good problem-solver, able to break things down into logical steps and can often surprise people by seeing to the core of an issue or by approaching it from an unexpected direction. But like all the Emond's Fielders this comes with a unique set of blind spots, biases, and hypocrisies. Perrin, in particular, feels like a very linear thinker who thus struggles with problems that don't have clear answers. (waves vaguely at his entire relationship with Faile). Thematically, as other people have said, I think Perrin's "arc" isn't a distinct line. It's a journey towards acceptance both about himself and about how the world works. Am I a Wolf or Man? Both. Am I Peaceful or Violent? Both. Is it Wrong to Kill? Yes but sometimes you have to do it anyway. How will I know when it's Right? You won't but you'll have to make a decision and follow through. How will I know when to Stop? When it feels right.

He's a character who fundamentally wants clear rules and structured morality and demonstrable cause and effect and the world won't line up the way he wants.

I think he's the character who holds on longest to his old life and his old identity, at least among the guys. Like, Rand is never "happy" about being the Dragon Reborn but once it's proven he commits to it, hell or high water. Mat is famous for loudly proclaiming he's something other than what he clearly is. Perrin choosing to leave Rand in Tear and go back to the Two Rivers is described as a physical tearing as he resists the pull of Ta'veren. He insists he's a simple blacksmith even as people are calling him Lord Goldeneyes and waving his banner and the Two Rivers is literally changing and modernizing around him. -I think there's something about acceptance as a theme in all the characters. Pushing against Fate and the Pattern and the world telling them who they are, trying to change them. Except, the Pattern didn't change them. They were always who they were, they just didn't know it until the journey revealed it to them. Whether they like the revelation or not is irrelevant. Rand was always going to channel eventually. So were Egwene and Nynaeve, probably. The Wolves were always going to find Perrin. Most of them eventually come to a sort of subconscious realization that they, ironically, have the most agency when they choose to go with the flow instead of trying to swim upstream. I think Perrin, with his specific brand of quit stubbornness, takes the longest to actually reach that turning point.

This next part might all be projection but In terms of writing style, I think there's something to the idea the Perrin operates with a certain separation from his own emotions. Rand angsts, he pushes down his feelings but he stills feels them. Mat's got his whole comedic irony thing going on. I think Perrin straight-up doesn't register his emotions 90% of the time. Which doesn't mean they aren't there, he's just kind of blind to them until something big happens and then suddenly it's a tidal wave. It tracks for someone who's like, "To figure out this situation I must be direct and logical. First step is to put my personal feeling into a box because they aren't relevant right now." And it works so you do that for every problem. And over a lifetime you kind of just…lose the ability to regulate. Your emotional responses become Nothing or Way Too Much. Everything in the box gets mushed together into a big soup.

I think he's got anger issues, but in that specific way where he's an exploder. "I'm fine. Everything's fine. No big deal. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. It's fine. Oh, look an Aiel Man in a cage. I don't like that." Then things get a bit blurry and suddenly he's got a bloody axe and there's a bunch of dead White Cloaks all around.

And for that kind of person the sort of primal, instinctual sensations he gets from the wolves is euphoric and terrifying.

For Perrin emotions literally become sensations at some point? The wolves communicate by psychically bombarding each other with images and scents and emotions. Then he gets his scent powers and Faile's jealousy is a hot spiky feeling that stabs at his nose and Aram's growing resentment and fanaticism is this itchy, alien smell that Perrin finds literally repulsive. But he can't smell himself so it's always this intrusive, upsetting sensory overload?

Anyway, it's a writing approach that I think fundamentally doesn't appeal to some people because there's less to grab onto and also what's there is simultaneously very big but also very direct and kind of "exactly what it says on the tin". Because Jordan can be a very subtle writer when he wants to be but, conversely, he can also be incredibly blunt sometimes. And I think he's at his most blunt when writing Perrin. Probably because that's just who Perrin is. Perrin's not a metaphor guy and he's not a philosophy guy. For Perrin a thing is a thing or it's not and if it's not then it's not worth thinking about. Or so he tells himself.

It also falls into Jordan's gender stuff where it's leans into a very Plain-Spoken Salt-of-the-Earth Man Does not Understand Complicated Thing Like Women or Human Emotions. I think, like a lot of Jordan's Gender and specifically Masculinity stuff, if you look at the series as a whole it's a functional critique showing the pitfalls and drawbacks of those kinds of mentalities both on a societal level and on a personal level. But it also takes 12 books to get there and, while it's hard to say exactly how various character arcs would have ended if Jordan had lived to finish the series himself, I think as a writer he favored slowly sliding people into place rather than big epiphany moments. And there is a large modern audience that either doesn't have the patience or just fundamentally isn't interested in that kind of story. Which is fair, I guess.

But I love Perrin. He's my guy. That's it, that's my essay.

[hxans]

Fallen a bit behind on my rewatch. I had hoped to get through more than 2 eps a day, but me and binging are not simpatico. I might manage to finish both seasons before the new one drops, but I'm not going to manage before the special screening of S3 ep 1. Got through S1 ep 5 yesterday and 6 today anyway.

-I love the casual world-building through the funeral rites and characters from various cultures sharing their philosophies. Even when I dislike or despise them (Valda) it helps them feel very real to me.

-a stab to the heart at Stepin's words to Lan about how he would face losing Moiraine

-once upon a time Aes Sedai machinations and politics bored me to tears. Now, I'm eatingpopcorn.gif at the drama of it all

-amused at Alanna eating all the time

-watching the way Moiraine speaks to the various e5ers and doesn't lie but sure evades, yet more drama

-I like Loial. He has a very soothing voice.

-I wonder if Moiraine and Lan were around for Elyas, or heard stories about him, to be cautious speaking about Perrin's condition

-I was not paying attention or straight up forgot that Siuan channeled because her father is down a hand. They lose the house and he gives her the boat, does not give me high hopes on his survival or seeing him again.

-will Tear be safe for her to come home once certain events occur?

-I'm getting nitpicky here, and idk if it ties in with the reshoots/rewrites at all, but it strikes me as weird that the group arrivals at the waygate are Loial with Perrin and Egwene, Lan with Nynaeve, Rand & Mat. I would have expected Lan to collect the girls and then Perrin, while Loial would fetch the other boys

-the renunion stuff is precious and I wish they all had more time together/Moiraine hadn't kept them separated but that's not going to further the plot, that's just my wishes for more low stakes banter

-I know it was down to hasty rewrites, but I do wish Mat's exit could have been smoother, like him gathering the horses (mr horse trader) and then noping out of there. I will forgive the jankyness.

[evilphrog]

Watching Wheel of Time without reading the books: Season 2, episode 2

I am going to have to post this as half a review again. I had a lot of feelings, and I am never going to get around to watching the rest of the episodes if I don't just post what I have. I still haven't covered the Moiraine or Perrin plotlines, but believe me when I say I adore them also. You can read about the rest of them below.

We finally get to see what Rand has been up to all this time: having nightmares about hurting everyone he loves, and whoring himself out for room and board. It’s like he got separated from the group and immediately thought “What would Mat do in this situation?” He is also working as an orderly in a mental hospital. Ah yes, I see. He needs to prove the intrusive thoughts wrong, by being extra caring and kind. Someone should let him know that command hallucinations are not a predictor of violence on their own, and one of the best protective factors is having a robust support network that keeps you grounded in reality. In other words, he should be doing the opposite of what he has done. But that’s Rand. His head has never contained any thoughts except “Gee I sure love my friends and family” so it was the perfect place for Nancy Reagan to move right in. Just a big house with five bedrooms, cathedral ceilings, and only two cardboard boxes stuffed in one corner of the garage. The first was labeled “willingness to do anything for my loved ones” and the other was labeled “nuance.” The second box was empty. This will not go well for him.

He’s been caring for a man who survived the Aiel wars, and got some serious PTSD from it. He’s a sword master, and has been teaching Rand some proper forms. Too bad some absolute caricature of a douchebag working at the hospital likes to pick on him for no reason. Rand responds in the way every mental health worker witnessing an abusive staff member dreams of. He calms the patient, finishes out his shift, then follows him home and beats the shit out of him. But whoops, he underestimated his Manneler strength and maybe killed the guy instead. It’s hard to know for sure, since Rand has some major hallucinations going on most of the time. I feel for him here. In Rand’s mind, he was standing up to a bully as his equal. But Rand has no equals. He is quickly realizing that no fight involving him will ever be fair.

Douchebag fails to show up for work, so Rand gets promoted to the garden, where all the famous patients hang out. And his first patient of the day is Logain, the false dragon. Dun dun DUN!

Meanwhile, at the White Tower, Nynaeve is busy being wooed by an increasingly desperate JK Rowling. Unfortunately, her main selling points are gender supremacy and pre-crime. The fascism isn’t even thinly veiled, she just comes out and says it. Nynaeve isn’t interested. JK needs to change her sales pitch. To cope with the rejection, she goes and torments her pet Mat for a bit. He tolerates it, and as soon as she is gone, continues his Shawshank Redemption plan. He eventually succeeds in tunneling through his wall, only to discover another cell. At least this one comes with company in the form of Min, the psychic who bailed on the final battle. Once in the presence of another human, Mat’s charm immediately returns. Thank the Light. I like New Mat after all. He wants to know how Min ended up in Aes Sedai Jail (because she’s a girl), but Min has no clear answers for him. She does have wine, though, so now he has a drinking buddy. He offers to also be an orgasm buddy, but she has a vision of him stabbing Rand with the cursed dagger, which is a major lady boner killer. The rags and prison smell are probably also a factor.

A new girl has moved in to Novice school. Obnoxiously, with all her furniture blocking the hall. Egwene goes up to yell at her, and I get to meet Elayne, the girl everyone has been screaming about since the promo photos dropped. First impressions of Elayne: I want to hate her, but I just can’t. She is naive, but earnest. She’s very excited to be “just like everyone else” but can’t help mentioning that she’s the princess three times per conversation. I have to hand it to the actor. This character could very easily be played as condescending and out of touch. But instead, her sincerity bursts out of her with such force that I can’t help but like her. She latches onto Egwene like a lovestruck koala and never lets go. She propositions her in the first conversation, and says she hopes they become soulmates. Egwene is redheaded channeler catnip.

JK’s new sales pitch is apparently accidentally-on-purpose getting caught caring for her son, who is dying of old age. Or maybe it was a genuine accident. It is hard to tell with her. Nynaeve shows concern in the only way she can, by helpfully pointing out a mistake JK made, and telling her how to fix it. That earns her a slap in the face, which was pretty much what she expected, but JK does take her advice.

Meanwhile, Egwene figures out that Elayne is making up excuses to spend time with her. Good. She really needed this, because she has finally fallen into Gifted Kid burnout. She cries to Elayne about how Nynaeve gets all the praise without even trying, and meanwhile, she struggles to even get noticed. Elayne tells her jealousy isn’t a good look on her, in a voice that strongly implies she thinks nearly anything at all would be a good look on Egwene. I told Husband that Elayne is going to leave her morning whippings and run straight to Egwene to rub soothing lotion all over her. He said that’s actually canon.

Sadly, Nynaeve overheard this conversation. The thing that upset her wasn’t any kind of insult or character assassination. She is hurt that Egwene feels abandoned. She pretty clearly only joined Novice school so she could watch over Egwene and protect her. She is being harangued every day by the people she hates most, and now she’s being accused of ENJOYING it? Oh no! I hate miscommunication as a plot device, but I like this show’s spin on it. Another show might have Nynaeve walk away with the impression that Egwene has upgraded her best friend to the princess of the kingdom, and no longer needs the peasant from the two rivers. That was what I was worried would happen. But once again, the soul of the show is the way these five all love each other so much and know each other so well. I now have more hope that Mat isn’t as fooled by JK’s cursed dagger behavior as he is pretending.

JK interrupts Nynaeve’s angst to come extremely close to apologizing, and even closer to saying thank you. But her evil plan to force Nynaeve into an acceptance speedrun has already started, so there’s no turning back now. Nynaeve must walk through the arches and face her biggest fears, in order to become a full Jedi master Aes Sedai. Dun dun DUN!

Other episode reviews

[butterflydm]

Scattered WoT rewatch thoughts (1x01-1x04)

This includes spoilers for s3, because my rewatch is adding some context to my thoughts for season three and the spoilers we know so far and book spoilers through Lord of Chaos:

1x01

I do think it's likely that Egwene's Accepted Test is going to mirror the scene with Liandrin gentling the man from the cold open, but Rand being in a river ties it more to Egwene and the Two Rivers. Egwene has been very associated with water so far, from needing to trust the river in s1 to undergo the rite to officially become a woman, to a jug of water being the symbol of the battle of wills that she has with Renna in 2x06.

We have been watching Egwene's and Rand's paths diverge from each other from their very first scene together - the first time we see them kiss (and have implied fade-to-black sex) basically is a play from Rand to buy himself a little more time with Egwene before she breaks things off with him. Afterwards, she tells him that their futures aren't going to be aligned with each other. We even see her reject his symbolic romantic gesture of giving her a berry, which he used to give her when they were younger.

Rand will later say that Selene is the first woman to see him as a man and it does feel like his relationship with Egwene is very tied up to his boyhood.

So, s1 has an ep1 post-coital scene where Egwene's abilities separate her from the possibility of a future with Rand, so we may see this mirrored (if you'll pardon my choice of words) in 3x01.

First Finn foreshadowing for Mat: the tiny noose-like bits of thread on Fain's wagon.

The Rand & Egwene on a cliffside rock scene is another one that we know gets echoed in s3, with Lanfear taking Egwene's place and changing the narrative.

I really like that Nynaeve's feelings about the Two Rivers are grounded in her personal relationships (Rand has also been hearing a lot of things about the AS to make him wary, going by what Tam says about them).

Mat provides gambling, alcohol, and fostering emotional sharing in the relationship between the three boys. And we see them showing care and concern back to him.

I really do love how the show took the concept of Bel Tine and tied it into the world mythology of the Wheel and reincarnation. Very good philosophical setup for the future. Wheel keeps turning and we keep trying to do better than the last time.

We also see Nynaeve's loneliness in the Bel Tine scene, which is what Rand talked about when he was talking about what Egwene choosing to be a Wisdom would mean - no family of her own.

Overall, the show does such good job of showing how this mountain village has held onto the old ways without even realizing the depth of what those ways mean.

The battle is so well done. The fear and panic of the villagers at first, and how Moiraine helps them. I am also going to stand up and say that i think that having (and killing) Laila was a good choice! It shows us the cost of the Trolloc attack, it sets up Perrin's fear over his own battlerage, it sets up Perrin's overprotectiveness over his love interest without making wild overprotectiveness just a Two Rivers trait. And it really made all the show-only reactors that I watched sympathize with Perrin instantly. It was a solid change.

Rand undergoes the first of many "my parents weren't what I thought" when he sees how well Tam fights with a sword.

I love that we see our EF5's courage so strongly but in different ways.

Our first glimpse of weaves and of Aes Sedai working together with their Warders! And we see how effective they can be together. We're going to see the limitations of Warders in s3, I think, because they don't help much in a Power vs Power battle, but for most trouble that an Aes Sedai has been able to get into before now, they were very useful!

Also: Egwene is wearing a bracer on her left wrist here that is very much like the one she wears in s3 (and that does kinda echo the sul'dam bracer).

Rand mentions earlier that stories say a single Aes Sedai is said to be able to turn the tide of a battle and we get to see that here when Moiraine pulls down the Winespring Inn to hurl the stones at the Trollocs.

Poor in-denial Rand here, who does not want to believe what his dad confessed to him on their journey to the village.

Rand, Egwene, Moiraine, and Laila all in blue here, in the aftermath of the attack. Both Rand & Egwene cover up their blue shirts with brown sheepskin coats for their journey out of the Two Rivers. Mirrors!! Foils! Following parallel but separate paths, which is part of why they can't be together.

Rand knows that this about him but he can't admit it to himself. I love it when stories continue to add depth on a rewatch.

1x02

We saw the danger of the Shadow in the last episode, now we set up the danger of the Whitecloaks. Another scene that gains depth on rewatch, as show-onlys will later realize that the Whitecloaks are murdering a healer here, once they find out more about the Aes Sedai. They are zealots.

"Sometimes brutality is the only path to mercy." Yikes!

This episode also brings in the evil of Shadar Logoth, a more ancient example of purely human evil that is not driven by the Shadow or Darkfriends. The city that ate itself alive out of paranoia and self-isolation from the world. A cautionary tale for what the Two Rivers could have become.

We get first lessons in Aes Sedai Oaths here, both their limitations and the ways to find loopholes around them. We also see that Rand confronts Moiraine publicly while Egwene also confronts her, but privately (because Moiraine is also clearly more comfortable having private confabs with Egwene over any of the boys - she's no Red but still has a wariness about men could channel).

Is this Egwene and Mat's only conversation? (And they are quickly joined by all the others)

We see Mat trying to lighten the mood, while Rand begins to show hints of leadership, wanting them to form a plan in case Moiraine turns on one of them.

I like the change that the show made in the Three Oaths, giving them a solid origin based in history - and tying it to Hawkwing also ties it to the Seanchan. The White Tower chose to leash itself to specific rules, while the women in Seanchan were forcibly leashed by their government.

Moiraine must feel so hopeful when she realizes that Egwene can channel and so the world might get a Dragon who can't go mad from saidin.

Genuinely, it is so baffling to me how some people watching the show were calling Rand clingy and trying to hold onto a dead relationship when it's literally Egwene sending the mixed signals and trying to cuddle up to Rand here, the episode after she broke things off with him.

Rand and Moiraine's first fight! We're going to get more of this in s3 as well, I believe. Moiraine trying to direct and control them, while Rand wants to actually know the endgame and what her plans are.

Poor Mat & Perrin forced to witness the fight afterwards between Rand & Egwene.

Mat is so good at defusing emotional conflict. He is the one who gets Rand to level out after the disagreements with Moiraine & Egwene.

We are shown the division in the Whitecloaks here - the Questioners being the true zealots, with the regular Children being willing to bend on matters of Aes Sedai.

Rand is gonna glare a hole in Moiraine's back.

The ruined bridge! Love all the old ruins in the Two Rivers area.

Mat again shows his emotional intelligence by starting the sing-along to boost spirits among the group. And we get a little history lesson. Fingers crossed for Mat singing again in s3!

Also: this scene made me cry during this rewatch.

We're briefly told here that they've been traveling for days, before the night when they go into Shadar Logoth.

Rand and Egwene work through a bit and come to better terms over the course of this episode but their main conflict of being on fundamentally different paths is not resolved. I'm guessing this will get echoed in s3 but they will actually fully accept and come to terms with their separate paths.

Perrin's first wolf encounter! ❤️

Once again, we see Mat reaching out to one of his friends to help them process - Perrin in this case, offering him a dagger that Laila had made for Mat and returning it to Perrin. I hope we get to see some of that in s3 with his friends in ep1. Mat is so sweet to his friends.

S1 - Rand goes to a dead city with Moiraine & Egwene; s3 - Rand goes to a dead city with Moiraine & Aviendha (based on the trailers).

Mat getting drawn to the dagger. Man, that is gonna fuck him up. My poor sad wet cat.

Our first plot-mandated split up - I do understand why we don't get a second Cauthor road trip since they did get all this time and focus together in s1, but I am definitely hoping that the change means we'll get them together again later on the series, hopefully spending time with each other in s4 (if we get it, etc). And I hope for a couple of good scenes before they part ways in s3.

1x03

We learn more about Nynaeve's grit and cleverness in the opener, as well as revealing that Trollocs will cannibalize their injured companions.

Nynaeve is such a badass here. 💖

I love this credits sequence so much. I understand wanting to spend every moment of the episode runtime but it's just so lovely.

Lan being impressed by Nynaeve tracking them. 💖

The Great Cauthor Roadtrip has begun!

"They say all roads lead there." "That's not how roads work." I love them so much.

Perrin & Egwene's roadtrip also begins. I do quite enjoy their scenes together even if I'm not getting the shippy buzz from them. But Perrin & Egwene both trying to light the same fire and not being certain who did it in the end... I hope we get a continued connection between them in the future (iykyk).

This episode is where we can clearly see Nynaeve's healer yellow under her warrior green. Perfect, no notes. All the scenes between Lan & Nynaeve in this episode are pure gold.

We can also see more clearly how Lan has a fancy pattern on the shoulders of his outfit.

Ishamael trying to suss out which of the ta'veren is the Dragon via dreams. Perrin dreams of Ishy here but Egwene doesn't seem to. The wolves herding them to safety in the scariest way possible lol I love them. They are probably trying to talk to Perrin but he can't see their visions yet.

Our first glimpse of an Aiel (dead in a cage). It really sets the tone for the town as a whole.

Hello, Thom! And Dana has her eye on the boys from the beginning. I do love Thom's song here and, of course, what it implies about Thom's sympathies towards men who can channel. I'm hoping for at least one good convo about Rand between Mat & Thom in s3.

Mat's keen emotional intelligence in display in previous episodes gets turned like a knife against Rand in this one and it hurts a lot.

"Someplace new, you can be anything you want. And no one's gonna know the dirt you were born in." We'll see Mat indulging in this idea a bit at the start of s3, I think.

Our first hints of Perrin's overprotectiveness post-Laila's death, and Egwene pushing back and offering compassion that Perrin doesn't feel like he deserves, and refusing to let him risk himself for her sake - they go together.

I think we got Aram confirmed for s3, so looking forward to his reunion with Perrin and how they might interact.

Egwene getting covered with the shawl of many colors.

Dana is such a good compilation of "every darkfriend on the road" that Mat & Rand encounter on the road.

Lol at Rand being so snippy over Mat when we know he actually thinks extremely highly of Mat. He's just mad at him right now because Mat is being an asshole for what seems to be no reason.

Our first hint that Siuan and Moiraine got a relationship upgrade comes when Moiraine whispers a pained "Siuan" when she's really out of it. Also they did a great job of making Moiraine look on the edge of death.

We get to see more of Thom's compassion when Mat encounters him at the dead Aiel's cage. Love our little lesson about Aiel here - and our first open hint about Rand's heritage, as Thom tells us red hair is rare outside the Aiel Waste.

"If you're going to take from the dead, the least you can do is bury them."

First mention of the Stone of Tear and the Lion Throne of Caemlyn.

Dana going for the kiss - start of a pattern there, the Shadow trying (and succeeding in s2) to deceive their way into Rand's bed. And she genuinely likes Rand too, but is still willing to betray him.

Our first hint of Rand using the Power, when he breaks the reinforced door.

I really like that they used Dana to give us Ishamael's philosophy. Break the Wheel to stop the pain of the world. I like that Mat encounters this again with Ishy at the end of s2 and we see him reject it.

Okay, Thom never openly tells either of the boys that he thinks they're the Dragon but he overhears their conversation with Dana and also assumes right away that it's the madness troubling Mat in the next episode.

Hi, Logain! I like how both Nynaeve and Logain are used to create doubt in Moiraine's mind over the accuracy of the prophecies.

1x04

Logain does a good job showing us all the scary foreshadowing for what the Dragon will be capable of. What Logain does to one country, Rand is supposed to do to the world, essentially. We see both the power and the madness here.

"What does a crown mean to the Dragon Reborn?"

Logain knows and believes in the prophecies and believes that he is truly the Dragon, with the voices in his head urging him on.

We do see Logain fighting and winning against the corruption here, healing the king instead of killing him.

I love what they've done with Logain so far in the story. I don't think we've seen any spoilers about him in s3 yet but I would not be surprised to see him.

We get to learn a lot about Aes Sedai in this episode, with Nynaeve as our main vehicle for learning the lore, which is great because of her prickly relationship with Moiraine.

The war party to capture Logain is comprised of Green & Red sisters and this is an authorized operation that we can directly compare to the unauthorized operation that Liandrin and her fellow Reds carried out in ep1. Logain is captured and shielded, not gentled on the spot. Then he is meant to be taken back to the White Tower for trial - I'm guessing this is actually meant to determine if he's the real Dragon Reborn. False Dragons get gentled and the true Dragon stays shielded until the Last Battle, to keep him from using the Power and going mad from the corruption.

Liandrin is so snippy and petty with Moiraine. I kinda do feel like she tried a flirtation with Moiraine in the past and got shot down.

I really love how the show gave the Warders their own subculture and community. We did not get enough of that in the books at all. A+ improvement.

We find out here how secretive Moiraine & Lan are around other Aes Sedai & Warders. We also learn that Liandrin is pushing against the Amyrlin's decrees and that there are rumors spreading about the unsanctioned gentlings.

Aram is lovely and charming. The show also did a really good job making the Tuatha'an endearing.

Rand and Mat bonding over their mutual paranoia towards the rest of the world: oh dear.

"I always knew women couldn't see men's weaves..." setting out right here that there is a distinction between the two Powers.

I like Alanna & Moiraine's friendship. And Alanna does a good job setting out the Green Ajah mission statement - the Battle Ajah, to prepare for the Last Battle.

Alanna worrying that the current Tower policy about the Dragon is too aggressive and might lead to the Tower gentling the Dragon Reborn and dooming the world.

Liandrin starts her work on trying to get to Nynaeve. Not sure if she already knows anything about the Two Rivers ta'veren or if she's just looking to subverting someone traveling with Moiraine.

Rand taking charge of the situation to de-escalate, while Mat continues to slip.

Lol at Liandrin being the one to tell us the Blues are ~just spies~ and then to give us the official line on the Red Ajah philosophy - the magic cops, basically.

Liandrin also makes it clear here that men are not welcome under the Red Ajah's tent.

Tying the Way of the Leaf into the reincarnation cycle of the Wheel makes so much sense and rally solidifies it and grounds it into the world.

Rand starts to worry that something is really wrong with Mat here. The little girl offering Mat the Birgitte doll is so sweet.

Rand trying to rationalize what's happening with Mat, and Thom tries to gently led him to the idea that Mat can channel. Very good conversation, because Rand is torn between not wanting to believe it of himself but part of him knowing that it's him, and his worries over Mat. Rand hears about the consequences of being gentled here, and then sees both gentling and mental illness up close in s2.

"Nothing is more dangerous than a man who knows the past." Appropriate for both Rand & Mat!

Having Nynaeve hang out with the Warders so that we can learn more about them is so good.

And our first poly relationship hints!

I like that we get to see Moiriane doubting herself and her path, questioning the prophecies. And Lan reassuring her that they're on the correct path, reminding her of the dreams and the Trollocs, that Logain doesn't fit what they know about how old the Dragon should be.

This story that Ila tells is going to echo in s3 as well, as we see the Aiel come up against this choice and the split between them happens as some of them pick up a spear while the others do not, choose to stay true to their original culture instead.

"Have you lost him?" "No. No, I would know if I had." Egwene still thinking about Rand, as Rand was thinking about her last episode.

Rand waking up and making that promise to Mat. Awww. "No matter what happens, I'm here."

The show really has set out such a strong foundation for Mat & Rand's friendship, so while them not being together in s3 isn't my favorite adaptation choices (though I do think I will probably love Mat in Tanchico) they do have a very solid foundation of relationship work already put into them.

We got Perrin's Ishy dream, now we get Rand. Perrin is hammering away (at Laila's body?), Mat is wandering around with a bloody red hand, and Egwene is yoinked away by Ishy. And Rand wakes up from that into a waking nightmare of seeing Mat surrounded by a murdered family and then leaving Thom behind to save Mat & himself. Genuinely, not having a good day.

Thom was already ride-or-die (or believe them to have murdered a family under the influence of the corruption but still be willing to help) for the boys here.

I imagine the pitch Liandrin is giving Kerene here is the same slippery slope that the Reds went down originally - these men are too dangerous for us to risk carting them all the way back to the Tower.

Nynaeve and Lan bonding over lost family. Very sweet moment. Cried a bit here too.

I do think this fight is serving as big foreshadowing for Dumai's Wells. The Dragon captured by the Tower, his forces rallying to free him, him breaking out to join the fight. We'll just be on the other side of the battle that time, as Perrin (and hopefully Mat, in this version, fingers crossed, come on, let him actually be Rand's general for more than ten seconds!) fight to free him from the Tower embassy, while Rand fights to escape.

In addition to Kerene's death, we see a Red sister shot up with arrows too, though maybe she lives.

Nynaeve's AoE heal that probably made Moiraine less inclined to believe that Egwene could be the Dragon, because of how strong Nynaeve is.

[markantonys]

Do you think they are going to make Dumai Wells an all cast event like Falme?

[mat voice] light, i really hope so!

i think it depends on what season they do it in. my guess is that the tanchico crew is headed off to tear to find rand and that they will spend the majority of s4 in the same location/storyline as the waste crew. so if dumai's wells is the s4 finale, that would give us just about every character participating, and i'm sure perrin could conclude his whitecloak captivity storyline partway through the season and then wind up part of dumai's wells as he is in the books. in this scenario, i would hazard a guess at egwene being the only one not to participate, since she likely would be off in salidar becoming amyrlin. (on the other hand, egwene witnessing dumai's wells and seeing rand act kinda mad on the battlefield and force aes sedai to kneel to him could be a good way to further her worries about his sanity and deepen the wedge between them, but back on the first hand, if egwene is at dumai's wells then she would likely also know about the captivity rand suffered which surely would put her pretty firmly on his side since she has collaring trauma too, so they might want to follow the books in saving this piece of info as something she doesn't find out until late in the series and it helps her start to bridge the gap and understand & sympathize better with rand.)

but if dumai's wells isn't until s5, then i'm not sure how many people could be involved. mat might be with rand for most/all of s4 doing his Dragon's General plotline, but by s5, i feel like he would have to move on to do something new, such as his appointment with the seanchan, and he therefore wouldn't be around for dumai's wells. similarly, if elayne retakes caemlyn as the s4 finale, then for s5 she'd likely be stuck in her succession plotline and unable to leave to participate in dumai's wells, and the same might hold true for aviendha and nynaeve if they're linked to elayne's storyline at this stage (though i'm not sure, tbh avi & nynaeve don't really do a whole lot in the second half of the series, so there's flexibility for what they might be up to in future seasons).

i think that at minimum having mat and perrin BOTH go to rescue rand together would be really special, so i hope so badly that's what will happen! it's unclear if perrin is really set up to have a significant two rivers army at his disposal the way he does in the books (the fighting force in 3x07 wasn't THAT big, and he's been separated from them now anyway and may not have them following him everywhere for the immediate future), so a combo of mat bringing the band as the main army + perrin bringing the wolves would work quite nicely for show!dumai's wells, i think, and rand+asha'man (channeling), mat+band (military generaling), perrin+wolves (wolfbrothering) would be thematically nice for hitting on each wonderboy's Main Special Power all in one battle. but it's tough to say where perrin might end up since his storyline is about to deviate; maybe there will be a pretty big two rivers army in play by the time of dumai's wells, or maybe he'll have gotten the whitecloaks to ally with him and they'll come with him to fight.

[highladyluck]

Season 2, Episode 8 Post-blog:

So I did not liveblog this episode since I had friends over to do a watch party, but here's everything I remembered that I wanted to talk about!

As far as I can tell, the two Seanchan sul'dam that got collared are not going to be found with the collar on them. (Not sure if Renna is dead or if Egwene chose to uncollar her, but either way she's not chained up in a basement with the collar on waiting to be discovered by her peers.) I was thinking at first that this had major implications for the rest of the Seanchan storyline. But really, it only has implications for Suroth, since in the books Suroth (and Alwhin, who is already her Voice in the show) sit on the information until Egeanin discovers it separately. Egeanin can still be the first Seanchan to know and do anything about it. I do think this lack of a dangling thread, Suroth's ship being blown up, and the way it's hard to get actors to come back seasons later make it more likely we've seen the last of Suroth. I would be happy to eat my words, though! Also, Egwene, Nyneave, and Elayne all know you can collar a sul'dam, and possibly Mat, Rand, and Perrin will soon as well if anyone remembers to communicate this information, so any one of them could spill the beans.

Major props to whoever hypothesized that Uno would be a Hero of the Horn; not sure if he's implied to be Gaidal Cain or not (possibly not? there was a blink-and-I-missed it moment of PDA between Birgitte and somebody but I am not sure if it was Uno or not).

I did not anticipate Mat making an ashandarai out of household objects and the dagger and I am EXTREMELY PROUD of him. Also proud of him for escaping traps! My boy is really coming into his own! I also really appreciate the classic blunder of doing the same thing to Mat again but worse- the Dark does not understand that my boy thrives when you do that. He solves his problems by escalating them in intensity or magnitude. You can only put him in a room with drugs once, if you put him in a room with drugs again he will use them in an unconventional manner to escape and also destroy his enemies.

Also props to whoever guessed that the Horn would trigger memories for Mat- I'm intrigued by where they are going with this. I hope it's not precluding the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, but given all the hanging foreshadowing, the makeshift ashandarai, and Lanfear yeeting Moiraine out of the waygate doorway, I don't really think they'd cut the Eelfinn. It's the Aelfinn that seem slightly less like a sure thing, and I'm going to be a little on edge until Mat gets the DotNM prophecy somehow. I don't think they'd cut the problematic fave; it's a juicy part, idk what Mat would even do if he weren't babysitting the Seanchan in the later plot, and they've been doing great with the 'you're wrong but I see where you're coming from' characters. But they've either cut or significantly changed the Moiraine/Thom relationship in the show, and the two relationships are kind of linked in my head for thematic reasons. I'm probably overthinking it though.

HOPPER T_T

Dain looked like a boy band member who fell off the stage and got trampled in the mosh pit.

Loved that Egwene got to face off against Ishamael! Loved Egwene all the time forever actually. I was also entertained that Egwene had like one semester of Magic College and used it to school the Seanchan on linking mechanics. She's right that the sul'dam don't know how to link properly and are weak little babies when it comes to channeling, and she should say it.

Nyneave and Elayne were great, as usual- very impressed with Elayne, who is finally living all her Battle Queen fantasies and is being very brave about how much they suck, actually. Nyneave is in for some self-loathing next season though, I'm afraid. I love that Rand and Elayne still get to have a meet-cute when she's treating his wounds. :P

I was very happy for Tumblr User Moghedien that we got to see Forsaken Moghedien. She's offputting and very gay, just like I imagined!

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Dragon Reborn! Chapter 10: Secrets

Secrets come in a variety of forms, and one can argue that the later parts of a story are secrets from everyone who hasn't read that part of the story yet, or at least looked them up on a fan wiki. If you don't want those kind of secrets when it comes to The Wheel of Time series, from book 1 to book 14 plus a prequel, don't keep reading.

This chapter starts with a Whitecloak symbol because they're going to cause Egwene grief.

I will never be collared again! She pushed the thought away, but it came back turned end about. I will never lose my freedom again!

So, as we can see, Egwene has not magically recovered from her months of trauma after months off freedom. Indeed, she will never fully recover and frankly I expect that even if she'd survived the book series she'd have issues for the rest of her life.

Anaiya would be there. And Galad, too, perhaps. She blushed in spite of herself, and banished him from her mind entirely.

Jordan was probably still laying groundwork for the finale that didn't happen with her and Galad pairing off after Gawyn's death. I'm not quite sure when that ending plan would have gone away.

“I swear I will never wear gray again, Bela,” she told her shaggy mount, patting the mare’s neck. Not that I’ll have much choice once we’re back in the White Tower, she thought. In the Tower, all novices wore white.

And of course she'll soon be wearing the seven-colored stole of the Amyrlin, which represents the Gray Ajah as much as the others.

“Do you wonder how Moiraine is treating Lan?” she asked sweetly, and had a moment of pleasure at the sharp jerk Nynaeve gave her braid.

Egwene thinks that wounding remarks don't come naturally to her, but I don't believe that at all. She's quite sharp-tongued when she wants to be, which is often (she's a Jordan woman after all). That said, I think speaking back to Nynaeve is something newer to her; back in Emond's Field Nynaeve was a respected authority and Egwene's mentor.

Six people, Egwene thought, and how many secrets? They all shared more than one, secrets that would have to be kept, perhaps, even in the White Tower.

Amusingly, one of the secrets in this party that Egwene doesn't know about will be revealed to her much, much later in the Tower.

Nynaeve had always been able to foretell the weather. Listening to the wind, it was called, and the Wisdom of every village was expected to do it, though many really could not. Yet since leaving Emond’s Field, Nynaeve’s ability had grown, or changed. The storms she felt sometimes had to do with men rather than wind, now.

It's rather interesting to me how all the members of the EF5 have their styles of divination (Perrin and Egwene have T'A'R, Mat gets the dice, and Rand has a whole book of prophecies written just about him) and yet they're all very indirect when Elaida-style Foretelling exists. I suppose it's not very dramatic to get prophecies as straightforward as hers was on a regular basis.

She was of the Brown Ajah, and the Brown sisters usually cared more for seeking out knowledge than for anything in the world around them. Egwene was not so sure of Verin’s detachment, though. Verin had put herself hip-deep in the affairs of the world by being with them.

Egwene's ability to see how people don't fit the stereotypes of their affiliation is one of the things that sets her up to be a good leader for the Aes Sedai.

Years of experience seemed to have given him some talent at sniffing out wrongdoers, especially those who had done violence.

Poor Egwene is not actually in the loop about Hurin though. Kinda funny that we can see the truth distorting at a single degree of separation.

Egwene thought he might be uneasy at being alone, for all practical purposes, with an Aes Sedai and three women in training for sisterhood. Some men found facing a fight easier than facing Aes Sedai.

She's not entirely wrong, though her ignorance of his talent means she's not quite understanding his motivation.

“The One Power won’t do you much good if somebody kills you before you can use it,” Hurin said, addressing the tall pommel of his saddle.

Damn Hurin, that's a pretty ballsy thing to say to a bunch of would-be Aes Sedai, even if you can't quite look them in the eyes to say it.

“I wish I had some idea how much she does know. Egwene, I don’t know if my mother could help me if the Amyrlin found out, much less help the pair of you. Or even whether she would try.”

Naturally, Morgase does in fact try to help Elayne when she thinks the Tower is doing her wrong, though she is unable to do much. How much of that is Rahvin's fault I'm not sure.

“I will do what must be done,” Nynaeve said sharply, “if there is anything to be done, and you two will run, if need be. The White Tower may be all abuzz with your potential, but don’t think they will not still you both if the Amyrlin Seat or the Hall of the Tower decides it is necessary.”

The benefit of Nynaeve being unable to be humble is that she treats the other girls as her responsibility and thus would destroy her life for their well-being. Of course, all three of them are being dramatic and would not be remotely in trouble for actual self-defense.

I was Healing before I ever thought of going to Tar Valon, even if I didn’t know I was. But it seems I need my medicines to make it work for me.

Nynaeve has quite a few blocks, doesn't she? I don't quite remember when this one goes away.

“Let me do all the talking, children,” the Aes Sedai said placidly, pushing her cowl back to reveal gray in her hair. Egwene was not sure how old Verin was; she thought old enough to be a grandmother, but the gray streaks were the Aes Sedai’s only signs of age.

At present, Verin is about 150 years old, meaning that she could have a 10 year old great-great-great-great-great-grandchild assuming 20 year generations. She has no children and boy did the White Tower screw themselves over implementing those policies.

“Two Tar Valon witches, unless I miss my guess, yes?” he said with a tight smile that pinched his narrow face.

Dain Bornhald does in fact miss his guess, as he misses most everything.

Verin opened her mouth as if for idle conversation, but before she could speak, Elayne jumped in, voice ringing with command. “I am Elayne, Daughter-Heir of Andor. If you do not move aside at once, you will have Queen Morgase to answer to, Whitecloak!”

This is possibly Elayne's biggest moment of stupidity derived from being a sheltered princess in the whole series. Other moments like the veil are more laughable and of course she makes some other big mistakes at points, but she just went from "unremarkable passerby who was going to be harrassed but unharmed" to "high-priority target" and all because she couldn't obey a simple instruction not to talk.

There’s no more time to wait, Egwene thought. I will not be chained again!

And meanwhile Egwene's trauma is so ingrained that the possibility of violence (the Whitecloaks haven't *actually* done anything yet) immediately sets her off. Poor Egwene.

She fought to keep from being overwhelmed, and focused on the ground in front of the Whitecloak officer’s horse. A small patch of ground; she did not want to kill anyone.

At least she isn't completely gone, because seriously after the Seanchan you'd hardly blame her for still being in "kill kill kill" mode at the moment.

Verin was wide-eyed with astonishment and anger. Her mouth worked furiously, but whatever she might be saying was lost in the thunder.

Verin does not get paid enough for this crap.

“What you have done is an abomination. An abomination! An Aes Sedai does not use the Power as a weapon except against Shadowspawn, or in the last extreme to defend her life. The Three Oaths—”

The Three Oaths don't apply to anyone having this conversation. But this still is slowly setting up the Oaths and the many attitudes that Egwene will have about them going forward. Here they're only an annoyance.

“It . . . it was not really using the Power as a weapon, Verin Sedai.” Elayne held her chin high, but her voice shook. “We did not hurt anyone, or even try to hurt anyone. Surely—”

The scary thing is, this justification, if believed, would let many Aes Sedai sidestep that particular Oath. No wonder Verin tries to shut it down hard.

He was only trying to bully us, child. He knew very well he could not make us go where we did not want, not without more trouble than he was willing to accept. Not here, not in sight of Tar Valon. I could have talked us past him, with a little time and a little patience. Oh, he might well have tried to kill us if he could have done it from hiding, but no Whitecloak with the brains of a goat will try harming an Aes Sedai who knows he is there.

And now, after two books of very straightforward good guys vs bad guys, we finally get some of the complications that will run through the rest of the books. Not in the straightforward shades of gray (the Whitecloaks might not be Darkfriends but they're still dangerous assholes), but through Verin pointing out that they're so utterly outmatched that using the Power against them is just fucked.

“We have come a long way,” Egwene went on, “all the way from Toman Head, and if I weren’t so tired, I would never have—”

Egwene, never content to let someone else be number one, makes a bold play to be the person with the biggest mouth in the party.

“My name is Dain Bornhald! Remember it, Darkfriends! I will make you fear my name! Remember my name!”

None of these people will ever see you again, Dain, let alone have any reason to fear you. Dude is like an angry dog barking at everyone outside the fence

“What did he mean about my mother?” Elayne said suddenly. “He must have been lying. She would never turn against Tar Valon.”

That was before they lost her daughter for four months, Elayne, and also before Gaebril, though really I expect that a normal Morgase would still have had issues with Tar Valon over the incident.

“Now you must truly be on your guard,” Verin told them. “Now the real danger begins.”

Verin's not wrong, since everyone in the White Tower is far more dangerous to the girls than most people outside it. And also the Black Ajah is headquartered here. Not that Verin, the world's least suspicious woman, would know anything about that.

Next time: The chapter that contains our first map of Vagina Island!