#ty birgitte! <3

[tethered-heartstrings]

[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.

[neuxue]

On the issue of Lan's agency, I could see Moiraine's Myrelle thing to save his life if she died unexpectedly, but she KNEW way in advance what was coming. She could have released him that night and left him tied up in his rooms so he does not interfere with HER agency and maybe put a PS in her note to Rand to let him out. Also Drama Queen Verin could have had someone still her so "so I can write it up for a paper" and then share her list & live. She spends 3 books with both severing-Healers FFS!

The Myrelle thing is... complicated. Which, while my initial reaction to it was pretty much yikes! (I think largely because I just wasn’t expecting it), is part of what actually makes it kind of interesting to me. I like situations that play with the question of what is justified (to save a life, to save the world, to achieve some end) without necessarily answering that question. 

And nonconsensual bonding, oddly enough, ends up being something WoT chooses to use in that way: we get several different examples of and angles on it, in various circumstances and for various reasons. Moiraine setting Lan’s bond up to pass to Myrelle as a precaution, Elayne bonding Birgitte to save her life, Alanna bonding Rand to tie a thread to the Dragon Reborn, several Asha’man perhaps being blackmailed into accepting a bond, others being compelled via a treaty, several Aes Sedai being bonded as prisoners of war... 

So it sets up all these edge-case scenarios that basically ask is this justified? What about this? Is it a question of intent, or of outcome, or of something else? Or is it a truly unforgivable line to cross, no matter the circumstances? And you’re left, to some extent, to decide that for yourself.

Which works for me because, while I like thinking about some of these moral/ethical quandaries, and very much enjoy them when they’re used as a source of in-story conflict, I don’t feel particularly compelled to try to find a definitive answer outside of the story. It’s more fun (for me! definitely not for everyone!) to just... look at the central questions posed through the various different lenses provided by these different scenarios, and think about it, and watch characters respond.

More specifically to Lan, and Moiraine, and the alternatives you suggest, I’m really not sure that would have worked. For one, she didn’t know at the time she made the arrangements that she was going to die/vanish into another dimension (she learns that in book 4; she arranges for Lan’s bond to be passed... I’m pretty sure prior to the start of the series, but certainly before TGH chapter 22).

Tying him up and leaving him a note also would almost certainly not have worked as a long-term solution. Before being bonded by Moiraine in New Spring, Lan was riding to the Blight to die avenging his nation, at last fulfilling the oath sworn in his name before he was old enough to remember. His entire life, he has believed this to be his purpose; it’s pretty strongly implied that he’s been functionally suicidal for at least his entire adult life, and that Moiraine’s bond is one of the very few things keeping him from seeking that death. 

It’s also strongly implied (to the point of being stated almost outright) that the breaking of a Warder bond causes extreme depression and/or suicidal tendencies. And when Lan shows up in Salidar, Myrelle is afraid she won’t be able to keep him alive, even with the bond. So tying him up? Sure, it would keep him away from the fight with Lanfear, but he doesn’t really interfere there anyway, and it wouldn’t keep him from riding straight to the Blight as soon as he was released. Or finding some way to try to avenge her and die in the process. Hell, even with the bond he ends up riding to the Blight, because Nynaeve can see how strong that pull is for him. So... was Moiraine’s decision ethically questionable? Oh hell yes. But I do think it’s pretty much the only reason he lives past book 5. Does that justify what she did? That’s up to you!

***

On Verin: yeah that probably would have worked, and while the Doylist explanation is just ‘it makes for a more dramatic reveal this way’, I do think there are two potential in-story explanations.

Firstly, Verin may not know that stilling nullifies oaths sworn on the Oath Rod. Siuan didn’t know that until it happened, and she’s keeping that secret very close to her chest, and it’s uncertain whether any of the three who were stilled at Dumai’s Wells would have told Verin about that particular aftereffect. So she may not have known it was even an option.

Secondly, even if she did know that being stilled would allow her to reveal what she knew, getting someone to agree to still her without playing her hand or running up against her oaths? I mean, it’s Verin so I suppose I shouldn’t put it past her, but that would require one hell of a persuasion check, is all I’m saying.