#Graendal

[wot-tidbits]

Wheel of Time: Lanfear by Ammotu

Wheel of Time: Sammael by Ammotu

Wheel of Time: Moghedien by Ammotu

Wheel of Time: Rahvin by Ammotu

Wheel of Time: Graendal by Ammotu

Wheel of Time: Asmodean by Ammotu

[daughter-heir]

just had a vision. nicola coughlan as Graendal

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

Asmodean: I did it. I found Moghedien. Lanfear: Where is she? Asmodean: She's been hiding out in the hills of Tanchico. Lanfear: So she's with Graendal. I knew it. Asmodean: No, I mean the actual hills of Tanchico. Lanfear: Oh.

[fuel-prices]

oh hannah waddingham graendal we’re really in it now

[moghedien]

I know show onlys are like extra paranoid now about new characters being Forsaken and its extra funny to think of them being like paranoid that Graendal might be sneaking around or subtle

like no no no, you don't have to worry about that one. you'll know when Graendal is here

[kaiartx]

uh oh someones making propaganda (pls dont mind the faces ,,,, this was a quick sketch)

[queen-of-andor]

I'd like to see the forsaken isolated in a reality show, where everyone will try to make alliances but also betray everyone. And only one can win in the end.

[funnypages]

The real reason Semirhage and Graendal didn't show up in 3x03 Forsaken Meet Up, is they didn't want to spring too many evil dom mommies on us unawares

[wot-tidbits]

The Forsaken by watereline

[markantonys]

3x08 might reveal something that makes a fool of me for this prediction, but until then: since lord luc was kinda giving Just Cameo vibes this season rather than giving off the impression that he's a character to keep an eye on for a bigger role later, what if we've already seen the extent of him and he won't return again, and instead in s4, berelain=graendal=slayer?

say perrin gets brought to a city of some sort in advance of his trial, and once there, he meets a friendly noblewoman (berelain) who takes his side against the whitecloaks and offers some help in preparing for the trial. at the same time, perrin is getting involved in the wolf dream and there is a mysterious evil presence lurking around, who the wolves call slayer. eventually it all comes out that berelain is actually graendal, and she's the one who's been fucking around in TAR and killing wolves & antagonizing perrin there. this preserves the whole "slayer is actually somebody i already know in the waking world and have been hanging out with" vibe that luc-as-slayer had in TSR. (casting-wise, they could use just one actress and have perrin never quite catch a glimpse of slayer in TAR so that we don't realize it's berelain, or they could have a different actress for the berelain disguise which graendal permanently sheds after s4 once perrin has uncovered her, and in this scenario perrin fully sees Real Graendal in TAR but just doesn't know either that she's a forsaken or that she's "berelain" in the waking world.)

in the books, graendal and perrin are both involved in TAR shenanigans during the last battle, and a quick wiki check confirms to me that they even fight each other in TAR during the last battle, though they both end up getting away and moving on to do other stuff for the rest of the battle. in addition, graendal is pretty far-removed from any EF5 and from the main plot for the vast majority of the series, besides her brief beef with rand in TGS. likewise, perrin is far-removed from the main plot a lot of the time because he is so often off doing his own sidequests and because his main antagonist is slayer who has basically no relevance to any of the other main characters or storylines (besides the brief crossover with egwene in TOM and besides the family connections to rand & lan that go absolutely nowhere). therefore, turning graendal into perrin's Forsaken Archnemesis would be a great move for several reasons: it pits their TAR abilities against each other and could create a final showdown between them in the last battle, it gives graendal a bigger role in the story directly antagonizing one of the main characters, and it keeps perrin more connected with the main story by having him dealing with a forsaken just like everybody else is and puts his story on level footing with everyone else's if they're all dealing with forsaken instead of many of them dealing with forsaken while perrin's busy with Just Some Guy.

the berelain-graendal merger has been theorized for a long time, and it makes a lot of sense. both their MOs are basically "being really beautiful and trying to seduce people for their own ends" so it's easy to merge them because they are so similar in vibe, and perrin's pursuer being a forsaken rather than just some lady turns the whole situation from a pointless and petty love triangle that isn't a love triangle because perrin is not interested in berelain whatsoever into a truly scary and tense conflict with him being stalked by a forsaken. i'd say berelain either has to be cut or has to be graendal, because berelain as her own character just doesn't contribute enough to the story to justify having her there in this streamlined version.

so let's say "berelain" is included but is actually graendal. even in this scenario, a beautiful woman trying and failing to seduce perrin would have to be a short-term beat, they can't just keep on that for multiple seasons. so it would have to be going on for maybe one season, and then perrin and the audience finds out this is actually graendal. now what? that's where graendal-as-slayer comes in.

skimming the wiki, the main thing graendal is doing prior to the last battle is causing trouble in arad doman offscreen (until rand goes there for 1 book) and messing with ituralde and his efforts against the seanchan. i speculate that ituralde will be cut and mat will take over as the Great General leading a military campaign against the seanchan, and perhaps semirhage will be the main forsaken he's dealing with in that whole situation since she's attached to tuon. this would leave graendal without much to do, so rehoming her in perrin's notably forsaken-free storyline would work, and giving slayer's activities to her as her main role in perrin's story (once the jig is up with the berelain-esque seduction scheme) would also work because TAR fuckery is perfectly within her standard MO and abilities, and it keeps the heart of the slayer story intact while hugely simplifying the lore and fully cutting out the ABUNDANCE of explaining that slayer-luc-isam would require in order to be even remotely coherent (even if they axe the jekyll/hyde situation and make it just luc by himself, we still have to explain why This Random Guy is so skilled in TAR and his backstory with tigraine and family connection with rand and ideally we would make something out of that family connection so it doesn't feel like a random thread that goes nowhere etc etc etc, it's just a lot of information the audience needs to get in order for the character to function well in the story, and absolutely none of that is required for graendal-as-slayer because we already know that the forsaken are dangerous in TAR and love fucking around there, no further explanation needed).

when we first heard that luc would be in s3, i thought "oh interesting, luc/slayer seemed like a prime candidate for some cutting & merging since it's a thread that feels somewhat random and unrelated to the main story and main set of antagonists, but maybe they're planning to expand his role and make him feel connected to the rest of the story and also beef him up so that he's sufficiently on par with the other antagonists". however, the two rivers arc of s3 came and went and luc had about 3 lines the whole time and no particular attention was drawn to him, which is now leading me towards thinking maybe he's just a cameo as faile's hunter companion to lend credence to her being part of the hunt (instead of just showing up randomly all by herself), and maybe we won't ever see him again. glancing at the actor's imdb page, he tends towards 1-2 episode stints in a variety of shows and no long-term role in any, which would support the idea that his role in WOT was a short one and won't recur. plus, nothing about his show aesthetic seemed to indicate that they were setting up for a reveal that he's andoran royalty and related to rand (surely they would've made him a redhead or strawberry blond to set up for that, but he has dark hair in the show), so that's another point leading me to think he is Just Some Guy in the show and doesn't have book!luc's whole backstory or overall plot importance.

but i could be completely wrong! he does seem to be hanging out with the whitecloaks, which is where perrin will be in s4, so maybe they intend to do him as slayer next season and simply didn't have time to give him much setup in s3, and maybe my whole graendal theory will turn out to be silly. we shall see!

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

The thing about Wheel of Time is everyone in it is in an epic fantasy except the Forsaken, who are all in a workplace sitcom where everyone hates each other.

[dragon-of-the-soutn]

I love Graendal so much.

Genuinely suprise favourite Forsaken. Just, she really comes into her own in the later part of the series (I’ve just finished book 9) and the way she absolutely bodies Mogedian and Lanfear (at least I think it’s Lanfear?) is just awesome. I love how she manipulates people, I love how she’s the smartest person in the room because she understands the innerworkings of both her allies and enemies. I love how her plots and schemes are literally unmatched. Like she’s been running about being evil, hot and causing problems for almost seven books and no one can find her, no one knows what’s she’s plotting and they should be absolutely terrified because of that. Like she literally killed Asmodean and no one ever found out about it. I don’t think anyone else can claim that.

Most competent member of the lunitoons office drama that is the Forsaken.

She arguably get more terrifying the more we know about her because how the fuck are the EF5 and co going to defeat a woman who can both out think you and probably out Channel you? Like there is no answer to her! She’s that good!!!!

Basically the Dark One really missed a trick because I’m convinced that if she was named Nae’blis she would have this whole Dragon Reborn problem wrapped up in five minuets flat.

Just, love her. This is a Graendal stan account now I guess. Get them Queen.

[moghedien]

Graendal and Semirhage didn’t just show up to the Forsaken HR meeting unannounced because they’re too busy looking into the state of this era’s medical knowledge and reeling from what they’re dealing with

[kaiartx]

average forsaken meeting (featuring graendal, semirhage, rahvin, moghedien, ishamael, mesaana and lanfear <3)

[vorbarrsultana]

tier list of rand x various forsaken dynamics. one day i'll elaborate, i promise.

his other half (derogatory): rand & moridin (ishamael)

canonically great: rand & lanfear, rand & demandred, rand & asmodean

potentially great: rand & sammael, rand & semirhage

could be interesting: rand & graendal, rand & aginor

no, just no: rand & rahvin, rand & mesaana, rand & moghedien

be'lal: rand & be'lal, rand & balthamel

[asha-mage]

One of the things that delights me most about the Forsaken is that most of them so badly want to be more then human, and what drives that desire, that need to transcend mere mortality varies from Forskaken to Forsaken, from sheer pride (Lanfear), to fear of death (Asmodean), to a need to escape mortal weakness and pain (Graendal), to simple desire to be seen and to matter (Moghiden) but no matter how hard they run, no matter how much power they gather, what armies they command, what rules of reality they defy, they are still painfully inescapably human. Even cheating death dosen't change that.

They are still petty and caring and cruel by turns, Lanfear still loves Lews Therin in a way she can never deny, Moghiden still can't conquer the fear that controls her, Graendal can not bury her heartache deep enough, Asmodean can not undo the past, Demandred can never convince himself he is good enough, Semirhage can not satisfy her thirst for control, Messana can never convince herself she is brilliant enough to feel truly validated.

The Forsaken are caged by the humanity they want to reject. They imagine themselves as god kings in waiting, who will remake the world in their own image when the Dark One wins, but they are no more boiled down to the bones of who they are, then those they want to subjugate: just as flawed and just as painfully, overwhelmingly human as the heroes. The failure to realize that is what is their undoing.