#AddMatToThePolycule

[butterflydm]

wot reread: the fires of heaven (chapter 1)

spoilers for the fires of heaven, but I will try not to go beyond that.

1. Why DOES Siuan resist the idea of going to Tear? It seems like it would have been smart. And easier than searching through every village in hopes of finding rebels against Elaida. I hope we get an explanation from Siuan at some point, because Tear makes SO MUCH SENSE. Is it because she’s from there and doesn’t want to go back? Is this an Anakin Skywalker “I hate my home bc it sucked” thing?

2. Leane’s whole thing about how her stern persona was a mask to hide the softness inside that she couldn’t show because there was Work To Be Done... stealth foreshadowing for how Rand making himself ‘hard’ is actually toxic and bad for him and he needs to embrace the love/softness in his heart? It feels thematically relevant.

3. “I’m no bloody hero in a story.” The Min-Mat comparisons are real. (Min is a LOT more like Mat than Berelain is). Has anyone written a meta/essay on that? Apart from this ‘no hero’ bit, there’s also the similarity in their fated ‘romances’ (and how they approach them) and more.

4. Honestly, this sort of thing is part of why Mat feels like he does fit into the ideal polycule so well. It just feels like there’s something that connects him to each of the other members of the group, whether it be a narrative connection like here with Min, or the interesting tension in the scenes he’s shared with Elayne or Aviendha. And of course all that complicated emotional stuff he has with Rand (his relationship with Rand is just SO MUCH more complicated than Perrin’s is). Plus, just like each of the three women connects Rand with a different part of what he needs as TDR (prophecy, politics, his Aiel heritage), so does Mat.

5. Min is like, “whelp, an oath is an oath; guess I better resign myself to scrubbing pots for the rest of my life” meanwhile both Siuan and Leane are just like, “um, we have a Higher Duty, Min” The contrast is amusing.

6. Min has managed to talk herself into being absolutely hopelessly in love with Rand, despite barely knowing him and not having seen him since the start of The Dragon Reborn, when he ran off from Moiraine. Logically, I understand her motivation: she ‘knows’ that she’ll love him; she doesn’t ‘know’ if he’ll love her back, so she hurries her way to the first point so that she can get to work on trying to make the second one happen, too. Out of all the characters in the series, Min is the one who already believes that destiny is unchangeable, due to her gift, so if Fate says that She Will Love Rand, well, she doesn’t have a choice. I get it on an intellectual level, but I can’t really ship it based on that, lol. I find “fate said so” as much less compelling than “cute boy brained himself in my garden and was interesting” because one of them is just about external forces and the other is about actually liking the person involved.

7. In this entire segment, Min doesn’t name a single quality of Rand’s that she likes. He holds Min’s heart in his hands, Leane tells us! But, like, what about him as a person do you like, Min? We know that Elayne likes that he listens to her and treats her opinions as worthwhile and that she thinks he’s attractive and that she understands his pragmatism when it comes to how he has to behave as a head of state and that she finds him incredibly endearing when he tries and fails to do romantic things for her (keeping the feathers that Rand wanted to be a flower will live in my heart forever). What does Min like about Rand, at this point, apart from “Fate Says I Must”?

8. I really do need to write that compare-contrast Min-Mat essay when I get to the point when Mat’s version of this type of thing becomes relevant. Because, oh boy, do I see some similarities.

9. Aw, Logain is such a reliable traveling companion here! He snuck off so that at least one of them wouldn’t get caught and then waited around to break them loose again. A+ job.

10. Honestly, the motivation of going after the trio because he was bored AF after Morgase kicked him out of Caemlyn made perfect sense for Gareth. They didn’t need to inject romance into it.

11. “Ren somebody or other”. News travels slowly in a pre/post-industrial world.

12. Seeing the yank and pull of Morgase subconsciously trying to fight Gaebril’s compulsion is pretty heartbreaking. Some part of her refuses to surrender entirely -- she wears her serpent ring and she’s so proud of Elayne -- but he’s a very powerful channeler, so she keeps getting yanked back under. And then seeing Alteima fall under the compulsion as well. Ugh.

13. So Rahvin ends up getting all his info about Rand via one of the High Ladies of Tear that is so challenged by Rand’s changes to the laws of the country.

[butterflydm]

wot reread: the shadow rising (chap 34-chap 35)

spoilers through the end of the shadow rising

1. Even just reading the chapter title gives me goosebumps.

2. Rand really does know Mat so well. “Mat was a great complainer at small discomforts; if he was silent now, it meant he was in real pain.”

3. Rand wishes so much that he didn’t leave death and destruction behind him. oh bby. Rand thinks about how he wishes he could pay the price all himself, and spare others from paying along with him. He’s such a good person. He’s just... he’s really such a genuinely good person.

4. Even being kinda freaked out by the announcement of Rand as Car’a’carn, Mat still makes sure to share some water with him. #livecauthorupdates

5. Seriously, though, this is such a solid ship in this book. I have no clue why I thought that their book 1 roadtrip would be the highlight and that things would go downhill from there.Their relationship in TSR is actually incredibly intense (and given what we got in S1, I Have Hopes that Rafe will do justice to the Rhuidean roadtrip as well). They are Weird About Each Other, as the saying goes. Just comparing their friendship to either of their friendships with Perrin really makes it stand out how much more intense Rand & Mat are about each other. It’s funny how I forgot all this, but was left with a vague memory that Rand and Mat were definitely more important to each other than either was to/with Perrin. I mean, it’s true, but it’s also funny.

6. Rand is in such a panic over losing seven days to being in Rhuidean. He really feels like he constantly has to rush in order to outpace his enemies. It’s so stressful.

7. Rand is SO ANGRY that the Wise Ones can’t Heal Mat. I’m-

*wanders off into the desert*

8. Mat charms the Wise Ones while they’re helping patch him up the slow way. <3 Also, Rand noticing that Mat pronounces the Old Tongue words differently than the Aiel do. He also notices that Mat can translate the Old Tongue now, and he’s not confused by what he says anymore. Also: Rand worrying about Egwene noticing too -- he already thinks she’s spending too much time with the Aes Sedai (and thus begins losing trust in her), but I think she’s just worrying because of the talk she had with Mat back in Tear.

9. So the people who hear the story of Rand’s birth mom and dad (apart from Rand) are Egwene, Mat, and Lan. “I do not think she ever forgave herself for leaving the child.” Oh. Rand finding out he has a half-brother, somewhere out in the world. And he finds out that his birth dad was a charismatic peacemaker who mended feuds.

10. Putting aside Jordan’s gender essentialism nonsense, Mat is also the person who best comforts Rand after he learns about his parents. He sits with him in silence, which is what Rand wants right then, just the comfort of having another person there as support without talking about it yet. Mat stays there with him all day, even after everyone else has left, just existing in comfortable, comforting silence.

11. lol, Rand finds Aviendha’s dislike of him somewhat comforting because she dislikes him for person-to-person reasons, not Big Prophecy reasons. I understand, but also it’s funny. And he’s sad when he thinks that she’s seen the past in the glass columns and now hates him for the reasons that so many other people do. And Mat doing his best to look out for Rand and give him a warning. I am DELIGHTED by pretty much every Mat and Rand interaction in this book. 

12. Rand teasing Mat that he’ll be happy about what Rand plans to do next because it’ll mean breaking the rules and Mat just wants Rand to finally have something to eat and getting a little freaked out when Rand can’t stop laughing, THESE BOYS. Mat is just trying to take care of Rand, even when he’s still kinda freaked out by what some of Rand’s stuff means. He’s a such a sweetheart and deserves to be with someone who appreciates him as a person.

13. Ah, this meeting between Egwene and Elayne in TAR would have been... a good opportunity for Elayne to ask Egwene to clear some things up with Rand for her. But I’m guessing Elayne’s pride is still in the way. But she’s so happy when she thinks about how Rand send Juilin after her, to help her out, and then she just... doesn’t go the next step to ask Egwene to reassure Rand that she cares about him.

14. Honestly, letting Rand also meet with Elayne in TAR would fix so many issues people had about them not getting enough narrative time together.

I think this is also something that gets accentuated by how the series lengthened over time against Jordan’s original intentions, ending up in an uneven balance of page time concentrated in that late-middle portion.

15. lol, Elayne being amused about ‘Thom and Juilin’ not knowing where to look on the ship because of all the bare-chested Sea Folk women. We were in your PoV, Elayne. We know that you had far more issues with it than Thom did (though Juilin is a fair point).

16. Egwene tells Elayne literally everything that she heard, including about Rand’s birth parents. Didn’t... didn’t ask Rand’s permission first, I’m guessing. Egwene is Bad at Boundaries.

17. Elayne is so understanding and aware of the political world that Rand has to operate in now, even though Egwene is all but saying that Rand is acting like a terrible person because he’s thinking tactically about people. Elayne and Rand... they fit each other so well. Pls give them more screen time together, show. She just gets him, when the ‘oh no women and men don’t understand each other’ misunderstanding plotline isn’t being actively focused on.

18. Egwene realizing that Sea Folk and Aiel have both integrated their channelers into their society much better than the Tar Valon-surveyed area of the continent has done, and that they are also much more respected, without needing to take the Three Oaths.

For me, the White Tower is kind of the middle of the spectrum of how poorly channelers are treated. The Seanchan and their horrible treatment of the damane is on one side of the scale, while the Sea Folk and the Aiel, who have them fully integrated into their society as respected members who use their gifts for the good of all, being on the other side. And the WT is in the middle, feared and mistrusted by much of the population and, essentially, half-leashed by their own choice with the Three Oaths. The WT kinda reminds me of the Hayes Code, in a way, a group regulating itself because it fears that regulation by their greater society would be even harsher on them, but that can easily become its own trap.

If it were up to me, I’d dissolve both the damane system and the White Tower. Obviously, the damane system is so much worse, but the WT isn’t great and is often actively damaging.

19. Oh, no! I spoke too soon. Elayne actually does try to tell Egwene to let Rand know that she meant what she said in the first letter, but Egwene is pulled out by the Wise Ones before she can finish. She tried! Full points to Elayne, for trying.

20. Amys and Egwene’s conversation is pretty intense. Amys’ frustration is based very strongly on a. Egwene lying to her and breaking her word and b. Egwene doing things that could very likely get her killed while she’s Amys’s student. And we get here the reversal of the TR tradition -- braids meant being a woman in TR society and mean being a child among Aiel society. So I am once again curious about Egwene’s hair situation in upcoming seasons, since she hasn’t unbraided her hair in the show yet. Egwene does grow up later, at least in terms of keeping to her word, I think. Here, she clearly doesn’t believe that a promise is worth keeping and can be discarded whenever it becomes inconvenient, which is something that Amys finds both distasteful and childish.

21. And this is when Aviendha gets assigned to spy on Rand for the Wise Ones. She’s horrified by the idea and grasps onto the idea (offered by Egwene) that she’s doing it ‘for Elayne’ like a lifeline. Oh bby.