#I have a rand pov now: good. perrin is a part of it: bad.

[lanaevemashiara]

My thoughts on "The Dragon Reborn" by Robert Jordan as a first time reader:

I first want to start off by saying that this is currently my favorite book in TWOT series. I thought that the pacing of this book was a lot better than TEOTW and TGH and all of the plotlines wove together quite nicely in the end (though I definitely think it could have been better.) The stand out characters in this book were definitely Mat and Egwene. I've had a soft spot for Egwene but I'm quite surprised at how Robert Jordan was able to make Mat so likable in such short a time when he was very annoying and aggravating in the first two books (I'll give a pass since he WAS possessed.) Maybe I'm just not remembering correctly as it's been a while since I've read TEOTW but I don't remember Mat being as caring at the beginning of TEOTW as he is in TDR. I found his chapters to be the most entertaining, him and Thom were truly a duo I just loved. I'm super excited to see what becomes of his character.

I have A LOT of thoughts on Egwene. As I mentioned before, I've always found her to be quite enjoying (though a bit annoying sometimes) but this book really cemented her as one of favorites. I think her whole struggle with never wanting to feel powerless was so nicely done and it was heartbreaking to read about her getting captured by Black Ajah after being a slave to the Seanchan. That being said, I found it extremely confusing to see how she was treated by the other characters (mainly Nynaeve, Elayne and to some extent the Aes Sedai.) I did take a few short breaks when reading the book so maybe that hurt my reading of the book and kept me from being able to fully digest everything but the whole Nynaeve vs. Egwene subplot really came out of nowhere to me. Yes, Egwene has always had issues with Nynaeve babying her and always feeling the need to protect her but her animosity and constant need to fight against everything Nynaeve said seemed to come out of nowhere. Egwene is clearly struggling with what was done to her by the Seanchan and no one around her seems to even care about that. This girl was a LITERAL slave and like absolutely no one feels the need to I don't know??! HELP HER! Also Elayne slapping Egwene was very... interesting. While I do think that what she said was rude and unkind, I truly don't think that warranted a slap. I understand that it was one of those "snap out of it" slaps and it seemed to work on Egwene but the whole situation just left a bad taste in my mouth and made me feel bad for Egwene.

Now onto Nynaeve. She's been my favorite character for the last two books but I have to admit that she didn't do much for me in this book. Her treatment of Egwene felt bizarre. Egwene is meant to be someone very special to Nynaeve but for some reason she can't seem to see that the person she cares for is clearly struggling. Elayne was just there, she's a fine character but she didn't do much this time around.

Perrin is a character I have a love hate relationship with. I think he has the potential to be one of my favorite characters in the series but he's always being left out major plot moments. He's an okay character but I honestly found his whole plotline with faile to be very 'eh' though this is probably because I think she's a bit annoying. I enjoyed his chapters but that's partially due to the fact that Lan, Moraine and Loial (love him) where there as well.

I think Rand not having his standalone pov chapters was such a good decision on Robert Jordan's part. I loved that the few glimpses of him that we get, he seems like a completely different person. He's unhinged. I'm so interested in seeing how his character develops.

Moraine is another character I have a love hate relationship with. She's obviously a very important character but I find her vague responses to Perrin (and anyone else for that matter) to be incredibly irritating. It was fine for the first book since but now its starting to get very annoying. Like the people who you push around have a right to know what you know! Her relationship with Lan was definitely one of the highlights of her storyline. Speaking of Lan, I wish we got more of him.

[alectology-archive]

The approaching refugees would soon discover that they’d been marching toward danger. It was not surprising. Danger was in all directions. The only way to avoid walking toward it would be to stand still.

I'll be doing just fine and then bam if I actually start focusing on sanderson's prose I feel like banging my head against a wall because it's so utterly lacking any grace and style and is amateurish to the core. The only other thing that annoys me more is his sheer lack of subtlety - he just straight up bludgeons the readers on the head and tells them what they're supposed to feel instead of trying to construct a work that allows for different interpretations and lets the readers actually engage with the text in a meaningful way instead of spoon-feeding everything to them.

[queenofmalkier]

The Ongoing Egwene Exploration

If I’m gonna kick the hive, I might as well cite the books and clarify my meaning.

I’m going to preface this with, while Egwene is not my personal favorite character that doesn’t make her a bad character, a bad person, etc. I do stand by my statement that I find her to be arrogant to the point of being dangerous, and her motivations at time are not as pure as she suggests from her own POV chapters, but ultimately she is who needed to be in the role she played, and she is a vital part of the series.

This is going to be a multiple parter, because I truly wish to be fair about my perceptions. The rest will probably be in September because I’m going to be away on a trip. But who knows I might get squirrelly.

Basically, I’m going to skim through the books and only review mentions of Egwene that give insight to her character/how she is perceived by those who personally know her or her own POV chapters.

As an aside, I would argue that unlikable female characters are important. More important than the Moiraine’s (who also had her fair share of arrogance), more important than the stern-yet-soft-hearted Nynaeve’s. They’re the most important in fiction because we so often don’t get to see them.

Female characters are forced to be likeable or be Amy Dunne. Even their grey areas are carefully negotiated so they aren’t written off as a bitch.

They don’t get to be heroes that you sincerely hope you never have to be stuck in an elevator with.

They don’t get the depth and variety because it makes people uncomfortable.

I find that annoying on a good day, on a bad day it makes me want to burn half my library. Modern writers have developed much more nuanced characters, and we’re beginning to see “new” types of female characters that really are just based on living, breathing, real people, but the backlash and fear of it is often there too.

It’s very easy for people to hate a female character. Just look at any popular series and go to reddit. If by some miracle there’s more than one female character in the main cast, chances are there are individuals complaining about her.

Hell, they’ll complain even if she’s the only female character.

(The phrase Mary Sue will appear often. If it does not make you want to boil with rage at the outright hypocrisy when compared with every mainstream male character I invite you to walk into the ocean.)

Lastly, before we begin, this is solely about Egwene. I can just as easily get into every single character in the series and how they also display negative characteristics but then we’re going to be here for ten years. I specifically said Egwene when I kicked the hive and I’m going to see how well my argument is supported by the source material.

So, Egwene.

Why does she get under my skin? How is she any more arrogant than the other characters in the series? What about her do I find troubling and ultimately dangerous? Am I biased because she was mean to my poor little meow meow trash son Gawyn?

Let us start with our first introduction to Egwene, through the eyes of a very, very smitten Rand. (To be fair, I would also be smitten. Just because I don’t particularly like her doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be half in love with her in ten minutes.) We know through later POV’s that Egwene has admitted that he is easy to manipulate so it is difficult not to allow that to color this transaction now, but let us try.

She begins by mimicking Nynaeve, a figure of authority, perhaps to see the effect it has. This is a trait she carries on throughout the series until she no longer needs to mimic and instead becomes the one who is mimicked.

But she soon shifts focus to staring at Rand, unsettling him because he has a crush the size of a solar system and it’s so obvious Perrin and Mat leave him to his fate. They flirt a little before Egwene reveals her now braided hair.

This is a very calculated move, and it feels planned, on her part. A test. But what is she testing?

Being a young, unmarried man in a small village that definitely pushes traditional values, Rand senses a trap here but it’s not what he’s expecting. I think this gives us a very key piece of information about Egwene early on. We think this is her Hint Hint moment, only for her to pull the rug out and mention not only does she want to become a Wisdom, a woman who seldom marries, but that she’ll likely have to travel to a different village in order to do so because Nynaeve isn’t going to retire any time soon. Egwene is telling us that she wants more.

Queue Belle song.

We also see some of her arrogance here. “She says I have a talent, that I can learn to listen to the wind. Nynaeve says not all Wisdoms can, even if they say they do.” When Rand fails to be suitably impressed, we get the very word used that I have mentioned already: dangerous.

Again, we’re seeing character traits I originally brought up: manipulative, arrogant, dangerous. She strikes me very much as the type of person who plans encounters in her head before they happen. That isn’t a bad thing - as the most socially anxious person ever I do this as well as a way to ease my anxiety and plan for everything I can think of - I am simply making an observation. This does not feel like a casual, unplanned conversation on Egwene’s part.

(Manipulative behavior in and of itself also isn’t inherently negative, most human interaction is based on it.)

Yet this moment isn’t Egwene gently letting Rand down either is it? Because Rand - puppy that he is - mentions he’d never see her again and she’s back to vaguely suggesting it’s not like he cares. Because we only see it from his perspective, it’s hard to know if she shuts down ultimately because the conversation didn’t go how she’d planned, or if her temper really did get the better of her.

Was she angry he didn’t demand they wed? That didn’t demand she not become a Wisdom? What was her ultimate goal here? Did she have one? Because of her age, I highly doubt Egwene is some crazy, master manipulator of Hannibal Lecter proportions. She’s not even on level 1 of that crazy train; I doubt she even knows where the station is. Not yet.

My perception here is she’s likely conflicted and confused about what she wants, and angry that Rand isn’t giving her anything to act on. He isn’t saying no, so she can’t dig her heels in. He isn’t offering to marry her so she can’t react to that either. He’s simply saying he’d never see her again, and what’s she to do with that? Egwene very much is a character who wants to act, and right now she has nothing to fuel her to action.

We do get the idea that Egwene is sensitive, perhaps overly so. Does she feel the limitations of the Two Rivers? How small their world is? Do their recent visitors make her feel equally small and therefore her fuse is shorter than normal?

I do want to mention here that I do not want to dismiss Egwene’s cleverness, or her own abilities when it comes to gleaning information from others. Yes, she’s eavesdropping in this moment, but even before she was reading Rand and the others like braille, which is a skill that should not be undervalued.

Overall, I think for our initial introduction to Egwene, she’s very much a baby version of the woman she will become, and the chapter meets my memory and expectation of what I was going to find. (I’ve re-read The Eye of the World more than any of the other books for a variety of reasons so it’s the one I remember the best.)

[only-martha-knows]

The Dragon Reborn

This is about the book, btw, not the character. Though technically...

Wow I really flew through this one too. The storylines were really compelling to me, I can't think of any particular reason why, though. And the climax was just a masterpiece.

Spoilers below!

Perrin is actually one of the characters with the most compelling POV to me. I really enjoyed reading all of his parts, whether it was him getting angry at Moiraine for holding information or freeing Gaul (who I've heard is excellent and I'm really excited about) or when he accidentally told Zarine/Faile that Rand was the Dragon Reborn and Moiraine just turned around like what. did you just say. So, I really enjoyed his section of the storyline.

It was interesting to finally meet Faile. I've heard a lot of people on tumblr say they dislike her, but I've heard others say they thought she was fine, so I was curious to meet her and figure out my perspective. So far, at least, I think she just seems like a girl who has a crush on Perrin but is not very good at flirting. For example, she gives him nicknames (indication of flirting) but he really dislikes them (failure of flirting). Right now I don't really have an opinion of her as being good or bad. It was kind of interesting to see Perrin starting to fall for her, though, when I feel like they haven't really connected at all yet.

I really liked Perrin getting to see Hopper again and through the course of the book accept his wolf side a little more and hunt with him. The whole ending scene where he was looking for Faile in the Dreamworld Stone of Tear was pretty epic. RJ continues to impress with his prose.

Rand is freaking me out a bit at this point. I'm pretty sure he's like... learned to use balefire at this point, since when he vaporized those dogs like I talked about in the last review the description is the same as every time Moiraine uses balefire - "a bar of white light." So that's... a bit concerning.

Okay so when he literally just kills that merchant woman and her guards? When I first read the scene I immediately went Rand is mad already??? But on reread I see that he's talking about how he can't make a mistake, which leads me to believe he's not quite crazy, but he is trying to leave no traces behind him... which leads to him beheading some people. Not cool Rand.

But he also levitates them into a kneeling position and then says that's the way it's supposed to be so maybe he really is mad already. And I'm pretty sure he also killed a Gray Man in the confusion, which is very ta'veren of him.

MAT! Mat's storyline was definitely my favorite of all of them, because I have been waiting to hear from him!! His headspace is so interesting. The scene where he takes down Gawyn and Galad is truly iconic, and his constant trying to convince himself he's not as sick as he is, that's fascinating. I honestly think he's the funniest character to have a POV from, because his internal monologue is so opposite to how he truly is, and because he actually just is funny.

I read the first scene where Mat's luck was incredible and I was so wide-eyed with every word. I CANNOT believe that his gambling plan actually worked. And I loved when he got to Tear and figured out how his luck worked, with it being random to get to where he needed to go. That's such a unique idea for a character's powers. A mathy way of being ta'veren, I guess.

Mat's fireworks also KILLED me every time Thom freaked out over them. Poor Thom is just trying to be responsible for this 19 year old here. (How old are they? I can't remember.)

And last but not least, the Wondergirls. Is that an actual name for them from canon, or just the fandom name? In any case, they are so interesting in their interactions with each other, how their relationships shift within the group. For example, at the beginning of the book I still felt that Elayne was a bit on the outside to the pair of Nynaeve and Egwene, but by the end of TDR I felt that they were more a trio.

I loved their time in the White Tower, because (lol) it felt like a school AU, since they were technically being taught about the Power at Aes Sedai school. I do have to say though, and I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but I am so frustrated with Egwene's crush on Galad. Currently Galad is NOT in my top characters list. Maybe everyone thinks that though.

The only reason I'm annoyed with them right now is how they treated Mat after he came all that way to rescue them in the Stone, and how they were really reluctant to say thank you. Of course, Mat's not perfect in his interactions with the girls either, but it rubbed me the wrong way.

I gave this a 5/5 on Goodreads, and out of 10 I would say probably a 9/10! I'm really only rating it less than 10 because I know everyone says there are incredible books to come and I want to have room to rate those a 10, but I really, REALLY enjoyed and flew through The Dragon Reborn.

[hazelcephalopod]

The Great Hunt

Prologue and some

Really starts with a bang. A confusing bang. But a bang!

Disclaimer: this is my first read thru but I’ve watched all of the show thus far and been spoiled on some book things. So… I’m going to lean into that. Enjoy figuring out what I know, and what I think I know, and what I just don’t. Also s/x I add commentary when I edit.

Spoilers for the first and second book and all of season 1 under the cut. Potential spoilers for later books -idk if they’re light spoilers or not.

This is the continuation of my thoughts on the twot books. To find my thoughts on TEOTW see [#many thoughts on twot teotw]. The rest of the series will just be tagged [#series of many thoughts on twot].

Karaethon Cycle page

Oh so *this* is the prophecy! Pretty ominous for a chosen one.

Prologue: In the Shadow

Even the prologue has a title!

Wheel of time symbol

POV “Bors”

Whoever makes these clothes really has to be side eying ‘ah yes here is a list of money to make me clothing to hide my figure. Height included. I will pick them up at the witching hour next Wednesday. They are for normal activities. Don’t tell anyone I was here.’

… or there are a lot of dead tailors in this world. Which I doubt. You can only kill so many

Don’t like those servants

Yup. These are not the good guys. Disposing of servants? Those are people! Probably…

“Blank eyes. Empty eyes. A doll’s eyes. Eyes more dead than death.” -Bors looking into one of the servants eyes. Yup that’s the horror part and also something is wrong with these servants. Srsly wrong

… that’s how it works with allistics and eyes right? I mean dead does seem worse than ‘so full of life(?) soulless that it’s just too intense’ to me.

‘This may be an evil secret society meeting where we use fake names and hide or faces but I need to look good’ 1/4 the folks at this gathering

That’s your assumption dude. Maybe it’s misdirection huh?

A Traveling person?!

Yea he should get some gloves

Two Aes Sedai!

Well that’s a cult

Hey that’s a lot of red! Balzo? That you?

“One of the Forsaken, perhaps.”

“…rotting while they still lived.” -(Bors) on male channelers and the effects of the taint on saidin. So… that rotting part has been mentioned before. Is that literal body or like rotting of their sanity? (Editor me- or is they even true?)

Well fuck you very much Bors

Why does no one wear gloves?

It’s Balzo!

I’m sry. “He Whose Name Must Not Be Uttered” really? Well this really is the right series to replace that other one with someone called something very similar.

“Soon the Wheel of Time will be broken. Sun the Great Serpent will die, and with the power of that death, and death of Time itself…” -Ba’alzamon to the gathered Darkfriends is guessing. Yea. Well… that’s a lot! No thnx

But the rest just sounds like the Dark One gets to be in control of the pattern instead to whatever. Is that better actually? Cuz I don’t believe these promises. These guys call y’all worms and make you lay on the floor and chant stuff. That’s a cult. You aren’t getting shit

So. Mat. Perrin. Rand.

But don’t say which was the Dragon.

Wtf... mmmmmm…

Oh ok. Just getting orders.

Atha’an Miere = the Sea Folk. (More of the Old Tongue) [people sea; what does Tu mean? Does an mean the?]

So tethering oneself to the Dark One seems like a bad move.

Bors orders: 1) return to Tarabon and redouble efforts on good works. Whatever that means. 2) Watch out for the EF boys. 3) “…regarding those who have landed at Toman Head, and the Domani. Of this you will speak to no one.”

…and looking at the map. That’s a) Falme. On the western shore. And b… it’s the boat people! (I know their actual name but imma call them the Boat People, for now)

Oh this is a vision!

That’s a nightmare vision. I’m not sure that’s the best way to communicate information honestly. Terrifying sure.

… unless it’s like, mind control? Like seeding a command into Bors which he will know or be forced to do when it triggers.

“…the Blacksmith, the Swordsman, and the Trickster.” -(Bors) nicknames for the EF-b

So Balzo is willing to kill them now. That’s a good choice on his part. Bad for them

“Blue eyes could mean the nobility of Andor…” really?! Wow. Nice

Seals?

Oh his bags. Ok

Dome of Truth?

Almoth Plain? To the map! Oh it’s near Tarabon and Falme

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: Towers of Midnight prologue (part 1)

I’m back, with as much verbosity and discussion of identity as ever, this time featuring Lan and Perrin.

Loial gets the epigraph this time. Good for you, Loial. Live your dreams.

Prologue: Distinctions

Wait a second. Hold on. Is this… are we… am I being greeted, upon my return to this series after several months, by a Lan POV? Is this possible?

Mandarb’s hooves beat a familiar rhythm on broken ground as Lan Mandragoran rode toward his death.

Because of course. Of course we get Lan’s POV, for the first time in the series, when he is riding at last to his private war with the Blight, to avenge the country that died decades ago and whose death he has always seen as his own, only delayed. Of course we get his POV now, when he is riding to what he believes is, at last, his death.

This has always been his purpose. He is a sword, a weapon, an oath, a fallen nation. A weapon doesn’t get to have a voice. A dead nation doesn’t get to speak. A sword can’t tell its own story. Especially because, all that time, he was held back from this, which he has always seen as his purpose. His only purpose. He let himself be bonded all those years ago but he never really gave up that sense of… I was about to say identity, but it’s both identity and total lack thereof. Identity, but not as a person, not as someone with agency and a story to tell. Just a weapon, forged for a single purpose.

And so, riding to his death, this is the closest he comes in the main series to feeling alive. Now that he is fulfilling that purpose, now that he is following the one path he has always considered his own. This, here, this ride to his death, is his entire identity.

So yes. In that sense it is beautifully fitting that we open with his POV for the first time in the main series, now as it draws towards its end. Now that he is freed, such as it is, to at last meet what he believes is his end, and his beginning, and the task that defined his entire… well. ‘Life’ sounds rather ironic there, but it’s the best I can do.

Anyway, we’re one line in and I’ve already written several hundred words, so I guess even after a hiatus nothing’s changed.

Turns out the earth is apparently quite literally salted here. So that’s a good start.

He’d turned away from it twenty years ago, agreeing to follow Moiraine, but he’d always known he would return. This was what it meant to bear the name of his fathers, the sword on his hip, and the hadori on his head.

All three representative of something dead, something lost, something gone. Something he accepts as lost. He doesn’t ride to revive Malkier, he rides to bury it (though I’m sure he wouldn’t mind praising it along the way). His entire life and self have been defined by this, by death and the past. The wheel of time turns, and stories fade and must ultimately be left in order to find a future, but Lan, for all his wisdom in some areas, has never really understood that. Or, perhaps more accurately, never felt it could apply to him.

I think in some way he did understand it, in that he bound himself to Moiraine even when it meant leaving his burned past and his private war in order to fight for the future of the world, but even then, it was only… temporary. Ultimately, he accepts the past as having a hold on him, accepts the idea the has never had and never will have a future.

It is, in a way, a parallel to or slight variant on Rand, on a different scale. Rand struggled (at least I think it’s past tense at this point) for so long to figure out how to accept Lews Therin as a part of himself without the terror of being bound to his past life’s fate. And on top of that there’s his whole he belongs to the Pattern, and to history. Moiraine saw that as future history – something that is not yet but will be history, but is future from where we stand. But Rand – and Lan – end up with a slightly different view of that. Rand fights against the memory of a doomed past and relinquishes all sense of freedom or choice or agency (until he gets better), and Lan lets the past own him and define him and guide him and kill him, all without ever dreaming to have a life of his own.

Riding to his death didn’t pain him

And why should it? Defined by death as he is. If you never think of yourself as someone who gets to be a person and have a life, what fear would death hold? He was only ever a… placeholder? A delayed strike, a remnant, a part of something dead that just hasn’t got around to lying down and stopping yet.

But knowing she feared for him… that did hurt. Very badly.

There’s a slightly bitter part of me that can’t quite get over the disappointment that the first Lan POV we get in the main series isn’t written by Jordan. Because Jordan’s writing of Lan in New Spring was beautiful. Spare but surprisingly lovely, and yet all threaded through with the idea and mention and thought of death, not in a morbid or even grim way but just as a part of the lens through which the story is told… it was so perfectly suited to Lan, and this feels… less so. It’s not bad; it’s just. I feel like I have a sense of what it could be and it’s not quite that.

Then again we’re still only like two paragraphs in, Great Lord of the Dark Lia would you get on with it already.

He hadn’t seen another person in days.

Too soon for a self-isolation joke?

Oh look, the first of his army has arrived!

Because the Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai’don. Man, that scene.

This kid’s like ‘hi! I’m here! I brought things, and supplies, and I’m just so excited, and and and’ and Lan is like ‘okay but who the fuck are you’.

Come on, Wheel of Time, let Lan Mandragoran say ‘fuck’.

Bulen? That sounds familiar, and he looks familiar to Lan…he’s definitely from New Spring. He was the errand boy, wasn’t he? Well, three cheers for conservation of characters.

“But when word spread in the palace that the Golden Crane was raised, I knew what I had to do.”

Really, Bulen? Do you not remember what happened last time someone tried to raise the Golden Crane in Lan’s name? I mean I’m all for it and Nynaeve is certainly a long way from Edeyn and that scene of the Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai’don still gives me at least two-thirds of an emotion when I think about it, but you’d think the kid would have grown a sense of self-preservation after what went down twenty years ago. Then again, no one in this series has a sense of self-preservation, so why change that now?

El’Nynaeve! She gets her title! She once had to fight so hard for people to respect her as Wisdom, and then as Aes Sedai, and now people who have barely met her give her a royal title! Because she’s out there raising an army and a nation from its grave!

(Yeah, yeah, you could point out that she has to fight for all the titles she earns, while this is one given to her by virtue of her marriage to a man, but honestly I’m just going to enjoy hearing this random kid call her El’Nynaeve because he already thinks of her as his queen because she’s just that cool. And you can’t stop me.)

Well, if she could play games with the truth, then so could he. Lan had said he’d take anyone who wished to ride with him. This man was not mounted. Therefore, Lan could refuse him. A petty distinction, but twenty years with Aes Sedai had taught him a few things about how to watch one’s words.

I’m dying. Sure, the prose is Sanderson, but the sentiment it expresses? Is absolutely Lan. It’s a slightly more grown up and jaded version of New Spring Lan, and it’s pretty much exactly what I imagine Lan’s internal monologue throughout the entirety of The Eye of the World looking like. He and Moiraine are well-matched in that for all their extreme competence, and wisdom, and ability to set everything aside for the sake of the world… they are also capable of great pettiness coated in a fine veneer of dry humour and presented as Done With Your Shit.

Lan’s just like ‘nope, no cranes to see here, golden or paper or otherwise, just denial as far as the eye can see.’

Lan would not call anyone ‘son’. He has an epithet for everyone but that is not one of them.

“My father was Malkieri,” Bulen said from behind.

Lan continued on.

“He died when I was five,” Bulen called.

Yes, well, that’s something you have in common, give or take a few years.

Lan’s not here for anyone’s tragic backstory but his own.

Except Bulen, for all that he never learned self-preservation, apparently learned how to tug on the heartstrings.

“I would wear the hadori of my father,” Bulen called, voice growing louder. “But I have nobody to ask if I may.”

Damn it, this kid. Was that me or Lan speaking just now? We may never know.

Lan’s still trying to send him away, because Lan Mandragoran does not need to adopt any more wayward children who are only trying to find their way, and Bulen’s just trying every angle of attack he can possibly find and this kid sure has an arsenal.

“I hardly knew who you were, though I know you lost someone dear to you among us.”

Because if appealing to your tragic past doesn’t work, maybe appealing to his will. I have to admire Bulen’s determination to make a slightly nostalgic nuisance of himself until the Uncrowned King of Malkier finally gives him a sticker.

“I spent years cursing myself for not serving you better. I swore that I would stand with you someday.” He walked up beside Lan. “I ask you because I have no father. May I wear the hadori and fight at your side, al’Lan Mandragoran? My King?”

I’m fine. This is fine. Everything is fine and I do not feel emotions.

And Lan’s cursing Nynaeve for the oath she made him swear but what a conflict this must be for him: to be confronted with the life of his nation, when all he wants is to avenge its death. To have someone look to him not as a sword or a reminder of what is gone but as a father, a king, a leader, a symbol of something returning, something renewed.

It is, in a way, not entirely unlike his conflict in New Spring. Only he’s already learned to crush that hope before it even makes itself known, because it can only end in pain. And yet, it doesn’t stop finding him.

Nynaeve, when I next see you… But he would not see her again. He tried not to dwell upon that.

Don’t say that where Nynaeve can hear you. But really, I think I’ve said this before, but Lan is one of the characters whose survival I am most confident in, largely because of this. Because to let him die… sure, it wouldn’t really be surprising, and in a way it would fulfil the ending he wants, but it wouldn’t… move his story anywhere. Whereas to take a character so certain of and accepting of his death, someone who never believed he should even have a life at all, whose every waking moment has been in waiting of his end, the truly satisfying ending would be for him to get to live. Not just in the sense of surviving, but actually living.

Because again, it’s not unlike a part of Rand’s story, recently: the rediscovery of life. Of the purpose of it all. On Dragonmount he saw it two ways: once as meaningless, pointless, because victory just brings another battle and every lifetime is pain and he has no freedom and why not just end it. But then as another chance, the possibility of life and love and something better. And I think there’s an element of that threaded through the series as a whole. This idea that yes, things fade and die and are lost, and yes there is pain and duty and a Pattern woven, but in amidst all of that the point is to live. Not to just survive until you can die for the cause, but to actually live along the way. It’s that question of what are you fighting for, what is the purpose of all of this? Rand has, at last, found that. Lan… still needs to.

“We ride anonymously,” Lan said.

Sure. As anonymously as Rand riding into Tear, pretending gloves could hide his identity. Whatever you say, Lan.

“You tell nobody who I am.”

There’s a whole Thing here about erasing his own identity, which is almost ironic in that the fact that he has a POV at all is a way of showing him embracing that identity, except that the identity he is embracing is the denial of self to all intents and purposes in favour of a duty and a dead nation that defined him before he could ever define himself.

I mean. It’s just a throwaway line. But I’m me, and so it’s not.

***

Oh hello Perrin, what are you doing in a prologue? Shouldn’t you be off in a real chapter with all your friends? Run along now.

He seems to be at a forge, though, so that’s a good look.

Some people found the clang of metal against metal grating. Not Perrin. That sound was soothing.

I like this, because especially without the surrounding context it plays so well into one of the central dualities of Perrin’s character: that of the gentle, careful one who wants to build things and work a forge and know peace versus the side of him that is terrifying in battle and feels alive when fighting and runs with wolves. Metal on metal, in a forge or a battlefield.

Oh it’s a dream. That works too. Rand dreams of his sworn and fated enemy and sits with him by the fire as they both take a moment away from the tasks neither of them truly want but cannot relinquish, and Perrin dreams of a forge.

He was making something important.

A nation? A decision? A bed to replace the one he ‘lost’ in the bushes? Tell us, Perrin.

Understand the pieces, Perrin.

Ah, and there it is. Such a crucial task for the ta’veren whose power manifests largely in the forging of nations, in bringing people to him and together, in binding. But to do that, you have to know what you’re binding. Which requires not denying it, but I think perhaps Perrin has finally moved beyond that.

Hi Hopper. Want a belly rub?

What am I making? Perrin picked up the length of glowing iron with his tongs. The air warped around it.

Well that is the question, Perrin, is it not? Time to let yourself answer it. Time to move past instinct, or exceptional ability in emergencies that lapses into denial once they’re over. He’s so good in those situations, but he struggles with the times in between, the times when his thoughts catch up to him. And now… he needs to push past that, and be able to truly accept it all, to not just swing the hammer but to know what he’s making, to plan it, to be deliberate and purposeful – which is so much a part of him in some ways, but there are areas he avoids.

Hopper’s like okay okay but can we get our symbolism by chasing things or something fun? You humans and your hammers, I swear.

Master Luhhan would be ashamed to see such shoddy work. Perrin needed to discover what he was making soon

I mean, there’s really nothing for me to even add to that.

More hammering, but he’s angry now.

It should all be better now! But it isn’t. It seems worse somehow.

He continued pounding. He hated those rumours that the men in camp whispered about him.

There’s a pun here to be made about hammers and pounding and Berelain but I am an adult and therefore I shall refrain.

More to the point, though… he’s directing his anger at the rumours but I think it’s rather more about that first part. That things should be ‘better’ now, but they aren’t, and he still doesn’t know what he’s making. He was driven, focused (too driven, too focused) and he had a task and so he could pursue it with single-minded determination, but as soon as he completed it… he was back with his thoughts and a nation following him and a role he has partway accepted but still hasn’t quite come to terms with. He still doesn’t fully accept what he is, who he is, what he can do, what he will have to do.

And so he’s doing what he can, and trying to forge those bonds and face what’s coming but there’s a part of him still holding back, still uncertain of what that means, or still reluctant to face it.

It’s an interesting scene because the framing is so similar to Perrin at the forge in The Dragon Reborn, and yet the tone is so utterly different. That was meditative, deliberate, beautiful; Perrin in his element, creating something perhaps not beautiful but well-made, functional, perfectly suited to its purpose. That was Perrin as he saw himself then, when he knew who he was – or at least, who he wanted to be. This… the work is sloppy and Perrin doesn’t even know what he’s making (whereas then, he decided almost immediately but without urgency; it was just an ease and comfort in knowing what the metal would be) but he’s pressing ahead; this is his identity but he’s still forcing it, and so it all feels wrong.

Hopper’s like okay well why don’t you just, you know, not, and ah, we’re back to the wolf thing. Just because Rand has perhaps finally figured out how to balance the different aspects of himself doesn’t mean all the characters have.

Perrin wasn’t nearly as in control as he’d assumed. The wolf within him could still reign.

But, like with the forging, trying to force it isn’t really the answer. Accept, Perrin. Look at the pieces you actually have. Understand them. Understand the different parts of yourself, and take them as they are, and then you can forge them and fit them together. But you can’t do it by ignoring what they are and just trying to force them into what you think they should be. Especially if you don’t even have a clear idea of what that is.

Problems are not amusing, Young Bull, Hopper agreed. But you are climbing back and forth over the same wall.

At least it’s not that damn garden wall in Caemlyn.

But I like how directly this is acknowledged, first with Tam last book and now with Hopper, here. That Perrin keeps wavering over this same conflict, keeps taking two steps forward and one step back, keeps doubting himself and questioning himself and fearing this aspect of himself that he taps into at need but then runs from again.

I like it, as a way to play out a character arc in a way that isn’t just linear growth. Sure, it’s frustrating as all hell sometimes, but it feels real. Because sometimes we don’t Learn The Important Lesson and then move on with our lives never having to face that problem again. Sometimes you overcome your doubts or fear of something once, or find your way past an obstacle, only to find that when it comes up again, hey, turns out it’s still pretty difficult. Not everything is conquered the first time, or the second, or…

PERRIN DO NOT ASK HOW TO REVERSE YOUR WOLFPOWERS. EMBRACE THE WOLFPOWERS. YOU’VE ONLY GOT TWO BOOKS LEFT.

Ah, Perrin, so much self-doubt. But then, his timeline is a bit behind Rand’s, I believe, so he is rather due for a last moment of crisis before the storm breaks.

The quenching barrel is boiling and Perrin doesn’t know what he’s forging and all his movements are almost…clumsy. Rushed and uncareful and the exact opposite of the spare economy of motion from that first forging scene. Because he’s no longer moving with the comfort of surety in who he is and what he’s doing; he’s doubting himself and his task and his capacity and his purpose, unsure and afraid and trying to force some things and ignore others and it doesn’t work that way.

Oh, I like this.

The glow faded. The chunk was actually a small steel figurine in the shape of a tall, thin man with a sword tied to his back. Each line of the figure was detailed, the ruffles of the shirt, the leather bands on the hilt of the tiny sword. But the face was distorted, the mouth open in a twisted scream.

Aram, Perrin thought. His name was Aram.

That is excellent. And it reminds me so strongly, with the twisted scream and the naming, of that scene that absolutely ruins me in the Rhuidean sequence, where Lewin veils his face and the wind rises and he screams ‘I am Aiel’, as those who call themselves Aiel turn from him and name him lost.

And that Aram is forged from steel, from Perrin’s forge, because Perrin as he sees it made him what he became (took him from a life of peace to one of violence), and it’s a perfectly formed piece; it’s not like a misshapen lump of metal, but it’s still wrong. Not what it should be. Not what it should have been.

Why had he created such a thing?

Oh, Perrin.

What a question. Because of course he holds himself responsible. But… while he may have been a catalyst of sorts, this was Aram’s choice. But that doesn’t make it hurt less. A child of peace, who lost everything and came to Perrin for permission to learn the sword, to fight and kill, and who eventually lost even that and died for it. A follower of the Way of the Leaf, brought to a life and death of violence at Perrin’s side. Perrin, who for all he argued with the Tuatha’an about their pacifism still wished for a world in which it could be true, and, I think, wished a little bit that he could have known something like that for himself.

Aw, we left Malden, do we have to go back in the dreamscape?

Did Perrin really look that imposing?

Yes. Next question?

A squat fortress of a man

I am dying. What a phrase. Who needs a brick shithouse when you can have a squat fortress.

And he’s holding the axe again in his dream. He made that choice, but like so many other things, it still occasionally wavers. He is still not sure of who he is. That, he still hasn’t truly decided and accepted and understood, for all that he’s grasped pieces of it around the edges.

A horn or a hoof, Young Bull, does it matter which one you use to hunt? Hopper was sitting in the sunlit street beside him.

“Yes. It matters. It does to me.”

And yet you use them the same way.

I like this exchange because Hopper is right… but so is Perrin. Because perception is absolutely a part of it. Perception, and choices, and a… claiming, of sorts, of his identity. Yes, he uses the hammer to destroy, just as he uses the axe. But to him, the fact that the hammer can be used for another purpose matters. It makes a difference because he chooses to see it that way. Which is, in its way, just as important as Rand choosing to see his fate not as inevitability and despair but as another chance. The smallest shift in perception, looking at the same thing from a slightly different angle, and yet it makes all the difference in the world.

I just like things like that, where these ideas can be simultaneously so close together and so far apart. These infinitesimal distinctions that alter an entire worldview. One small shift and everything falls into place, even if from the outside you’d never understand that there was a difference.

When Perrin fought, he came close to becoming someone else. And that was dangerous.

But is it someone else? Or is this like Rand and Lews Therin, where he fought so hard to hold to the distinction, because he was too afraid of what it might mean to let Lews Therin be a part of him. Perrin is so afraid of what accepting the wolf aspect of his nature might mean, that he sees it as a different person. As someone else. As something he could lose himself to, rather than as something he needs to find within himself and embrace as part of who he is.

Ah, identity.

“Why are you making me dream this?”

Yeah, sorry Perrin, but no.

Though for some reason this reminds me of that dream Rand and Moridin shared and Moridin finally being like ‘okay so what are you doing here’ and Rand thinking Moridin had brought him into the dream and really, boys, do I need to get Egwene in here to teach the lot of you how to dream responsibly?

Except wait, no, Egwene dreams about Gawyn so she’s not responsible in that regard either. Damn.

Anyway.

So Perrin’s re-living Aram’s death in his dreams.

Perrin stepped back. He refused to fight the boy again.

The shadowy version of himself split off, leaving the real Perrin in his blacksmith’s clothing. The shadow exchanged blows with Aram.

Because Perrin is fighting himself: the blacksmith who wants peace, and the warrior who runs with wolves. But he doesn’t see how they can reconcile, how he could possibly be both.

Also everything about Aram’s story is still rather beautifully sad. A lonely branching of the Aiel’s ongoing story, an offshoot of the main Rhuidean sequence, truncated before it could go anywhere, lost with who knows how many others.

Right before Aram would have killed Perrin.

The horn, the hoof, or the tooth […] Does it matter? The dead are dead.

[…]

“I should have taken that fool sword from him the moment he picked it up. I should have sent him back to his family.”

Does not a cub deserve his fangs? Hopper asked, genuinely confused. Why would you pull them?

“It is a thing of men,” Perrin said.

Things of two-legs, of men. Always, it is a thing of men to you. What of things of wolves?

“I am not a wolf.”

This whole argument with Hopper is excellent because again, Hopper is right. But so is Perrin. And it’s so perfectly… it’s Perrin’s dream, and whether Hopper is actually there or not is almost irrelevant, because it’s essentially Perrin arguing with himself. At war between the two sides of his nature, and he goes around and around because until he accepts that he can be both, that he does not have to be defined as the man or the wolf, he won’t be able to find answers that make sense. Because it’s an argument where both sides are right, but he’s trying to pick only one. And so he can never win, never progress.

Perrin in his dream is literally forging figures of the people from the Two Rivers. Just like in reality he is forging them, binding them together, making them into what they must be to face the Last Battle with him. It’s not subtle, but it is rather lovely.

Though lines like this:

The figurine continued to glow, faintly reddish

Still give me flashbacks to last book, and Rand, and a certain ter’angreal of mass destruction.

But figurines like this wouldn’t be forged; they’d be cast. “What does it mean?”

Hey, at least you know enough of dreams to understand that Here There Be Symbolism, even if you don’t quite understand what of. We’ll call that a solid B+.

Hopper doesn’t think much of symbolism unless he can eat it. That’s fair.

Laughter in the distance? Moridin, are you fucking with people’s dreams again? Though he doesn’t seem like much of one for laughter these days.

Either way, dreamtime’s over. Good night, Perrin.

Next (ToM prologue pt. 2) Previous (TGS final thoughts)

[ivanaskye]

WoT reactions: book 4

Okay, I may be super tired, but I finished The Shadow Rising last night, and I HAVE A DUTY TO THE PEOPLE

(That duty is reaction posts.)

Once again, going character-by-character, because it’s a really convenient way to organize my thoughts in a series as sprawling as this.

[[MORE]]

Rand

Rand’s POV is BACK baby, and he has now ACCEPTED RESPONSIBILITY

But his next hurdle is comprehending the concept of trusting people

He does a pretty alright job in this book, using Lanfear’s suggestion as a jumping off point for both fucking with her and getting one of the Forsaken as a teacher

God I hope he tells SOMEONE that’s who his teacher is

Also really sad and ironic how he keeps thinking “if only I could trust Moiraine” when like, at this point, he totally could.

That’ll become ESPECIALLY true once news of the coup at the Tower reaches them; Moiraine literally cannot leash him to the Tower if the Tower is 100% full of people who want to kill him

Meanwhile, a lot of what he does this book has to do with the Aiel, and the big reveal about them—a ferocious warrior society!—actually being an offshoot of the super-pacifist Tuatha’an was fantastically well done, one of the best parts of the series so far. Each successive magical flashback giving you another moment in the slow change in these people. It was really good okay.

Also in those flashbacks: a hint at the Age Of Legends, which looks to be WAY cooler than I thought, and also there were tree people aparrently, but in more of a spirit way than an ent way, and man I want to learn more about THEM-

Anyway, as far as Rand goes, I remain fascinated.

Min

Awww yeah, our first scene was with Min this book, I was so happy to have her back

She doesn’t have a lot of chapters, I’m just putting her second because I love her

Also I love how her plotline went. The Tower falls. Siuan, the former leader of the Tower, is stilled (cut off from her magic permanently.) THEY ESCAPE WITH LOGAIN, A FORMER FALSE DRAGON ALSO CUT OFF FROM HIS MAGIC

Actually that brings me to

Siuan

Oh man I am so excited for where she is going from here

Formerly stately and poised magical leader now cut off from magic forever, likely to become some manner of vindictive avenger to stave off the intense depression that usually comes from being stilled? Count me in

I’m also really interested in where Logain is going but don’t know enough about him to give him his own section

Perrin

This is a BIG book for Perrin, whose ta’veren ability to pull things to him naturally lead to. Him organizing a defense against the trollocs AND WHITECLOAKS in the Two Rivers

Gets married to Faile literally on the eve of battle

Now he might be forced into the position of Being A Lord, lol

He never asked for this but he’s not bad at it either

Faile

Finds out about Perrin’s wolfy nature and is so into it

I wonder how many kinks she has, probably a lot

TRIUMPHANT return after Perrin attempts to send her away for her safety, (which he does right after marrying her LOL), now he will probably not attempt that again

It’s actually funny how much more uhhh un-sexist this series is (with the women fighting being one of the things that turn the tide, with it being narratively clear that Faile’s place is in HELPING THE WAR EFFORT, NOT IN SAFETY, etc) than a great deal of more recently written things lol

Egwene

Okay I’m calling it now, her arc is going to involve her eventually becoming the next Amyrlin Seat

(That was in one of her own visions of her future, and now something very similar in one of Perrin’s dreams, SO)

Mostly this book is her Learning How To Dreamwalk and also as usual Wanting To Know Everything, which is v relatable of her

The chances that she’s going to get with Galad have totally increased now that we know Gawyn is the evil one

Moiraine

What did she see in Rhuidean

I am so worried for her

Mat

He gets the cover image this book, and a weird and cool new weapon

Also a lot of interaction with outside-of-reality orange-and-blue morality... snake people? Who are probably also the Fae equivalent

I wanna know like, everything about this world

Also he thoroughly speaks the Old Tongue now

I’m not sure if he’s become a better person though lol

It took me embarrassingly long to realize that “daughter of the nine moons” as his future wife meant one of the Seanchan, lol.

Aviendha

Pooooossibly gonna be Rand’s third wife, which I don’t really like since I’m not that interested in her yet

Shrug

Elayne

RACHETED up to one of my favs IMMEDIATELY after having one of her first POVs in the series, I’m love her

Absolutely Has Braincells, Everyone Is Astonished

ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDS DIPLOMACY

Filled with competence

Definitely The Friendly One in her part of the plot. Speaking of that...

Egeanin

NEW FAV NEW FAV

Plots about unlearning bigotry are usually pretty boring to me, but hers moves fast and I am honestly feeling so invested right now

COMPLETELY accidentally becomes friends with Elayne and Nynaeve, realizes ability to channel =/= evil

Order-obsessed, stern and *fantastic* in combat. We have two combat-oriented non-channeling women now and I am LIVING

Nynaeve

“How DARE Egeanin make me like her! I hate her so much for the fact that I still like her!” Legendary.

FACES OFF AGAINST A FORSAKEN AND WINS

UNIMAGINABLE RAW POWER

Is now confirmed to only be able to channel when angry because of a mental block/fear of her own power, I am so excited for when that block finally comes crashing down

[cannoli-reader]

I would maybe think of it as atonement and/or manifestation of a tragic flaw.  I think as written by Jordan, there would be some sense of her traits of plunging ahead, damn the torpedoes catching up to her.  Like, she got away with pushing her Tel’Aran’Rhiod recuperation, so she never learned moderation, and now she goes too far, because she never learned the lesson.  I find it interesting that Sanderson maintains character traits of hers, but they have no narrative consummation.  For example, she is struck by the oddity of Aludra’s first priority upon her safe arrival after escaping Caemlyn, is seeing to her weapons and equipment before taking a break for much needed rest. But that is exactly the right habit and practice of A. anyone handling or operating dangerous substances or equipment, and B. anyone in the military with regard to their special equipment, from something as simple as a cavalryman with a horse, to a high-tech weapons system.  But it’s alien to Egwene.  Perrin would totally have got it.  So would Mat, or Elayne, whose stories focus on the detail work of their leadership roles.  But Egwene is more big picture and doesn’t think about that sort of thing.  

So the narrative sins I would say Egwene dies for would be her lucky streak of getting away with stuff that should have brought her down to earth at several earlier points in the series, suddenly ending at the last moment.  As for atonement, I think there is a lot of focus on her own ambition to the point that she embraces a bad cause.  Jordan didn’t just put in all those details about the buildings and furniture in Salidar falling apart or decaying because it would be realistic, it was to show what a poor genesis the whole movement has (in contrast to, say, the homes of the EF5 & Elayne).  They commissioned Bryne to begin building the army in the same novel where Rand’s first and last PoV appearances have him harping on the need for peace, and for humanity to stop fighting their own petty wars for power.  I think in RJ’s aMoL, Egwene was supposed to realize that Siuan has been leading her down a bad path of division, because Siuan is the other side of Elaida’s coin, blinded to their similarities and just as fixated on an old enmity, just as resentful over past wrongs.  Egwene was supposed to reject that path, and embrace unity among the Aes Sedai.  But Sanderson instead made it a personal rejection of Siuan for the rescue operation, because he doesn’t get that Salidar was doing something wrong, or his comprehension of Salidar’s wrongness is limited to their failure to hand the reins over to Egwene the day she was raised.  Her speech condemning the rebels at the end is completely accurate and a stunning piece of hypocrisy, considering she was the worst offender in the things for which she denounces them.  

But that’s also part of Egwene’s thing, is to leap from one mentor, institution or cause to another, advancing herself each time.  At some point, it has to catch up to her, or put her in a place where there are consequences to herself for that practice or to others, that she has to come to terms with. So I think her death should have been a conscious choice to sacrifice herself for the greater good, specifically in relation to how she got to the top, with some recognition that this is where she has to “pay for it” after a whole series of “take what you want,” and/or all her chickens coming home to roost, from the carelessness with which she moves for the next thing, or without putting in the time or service most people must to advance.  Allegorically, her status and position should be seen as a very high tower, that is not steady or strong, because she’s been building for height without worrying about a solid base, or that whole ‘burns bright and fast’ thing. Egwene’s doom is obvious in hindsight, depending on what aspect of her story you choose to focus on, but I get the feeling Sanderson just wrote her as dying because that was in RJ’s script and he didn’t feel like he could change the death of the most prominent character to fall.  I really don’t feel like the book does much to connect her death to her character.  So that’s what I mean by narrative sins. 

For the Aes Sedai as an institution, I think their deal was that they were on top and unchallenged.  The post TG world is going to be a whole other thing for them.  There will be the Black Tower for people to turn to, and Logain’s promised glory suggests it will not go quietly or meekly take second place to the White.  The Tower will have to compete with the Black Tower for their place in people’s hearts and minds, and there will be interactions with the Sea Folk and Wise Ones to keep them honest and the threat of the Seanchan to keep them in fighting trim.  Egwene’s role in that is, at most, to set an example with her death of either the end of their self-appointed supremacy, or of the sacrificial ideal the Servants of All should be aspiring to. She’s not really a builder type.  The change is going to come from the new initiates, who are sensible like Sharina or adventurous like Bode, and not put up with the old crap, and there are going to be a few old timers like Saerin (for my money, the one who came out of the Seanchan attack on the Tower most impressing with their leadership qualities) & Cadsuane to see just enough sense to not crush that out of them as would have been the case had either of them (or Egwene, for that matter) come to the Tower fifty years earlier.  And there is going to be Elayne, who will stand up to the Tower(s) regarding limits on the authority of channeling institutions, and Nynaeve, who will take Cadsuane’s place as the institutional gadfly, now that the original model has had her own narrative sins catch up to her and snare her in the political structure. 

What I mean: Egwene’s drive and ambition along with her sense of otherness in her hometown was really important for me to identify with growing up as a young teen in a conservative environment. Her choosing to set out on her goals and learning as much as she could resonated with me going into a STEM career as a woman. Seeing her carve out her own space and earn the respect of others was inspiring when I was often given the cold shoulder by my male counterparts for trying to participate in their traditionally masculine academic and recreational activities, even by those I would consider friends. While deaths were necessary in the Last Battle, having her die along with Siuan while others lived felt much like a narrative punishment for rising above her station, contrasting for example how Elayne’s position of power was secured through birthright and she survived. Overall she is my favourite character and very important to me, and while she is not perfect it’s hard to discuss her without others jumping to the worst conclusions.

What I say: haha ha Elayne bath ter’angreal goes brrrrr

[only-martha-knows]

The Great Hunt Progress

Wow. I am loving this so far. Right now I've finished chapter 26, but I'm getting tired of reading for the night so I'm putting the book down. I know tomorrow I'll be so excited to pick it back up. This is a bit long, but I have to let my thoughts out somehow.

General thoughts (and spoilers if you haven't blocked the #wot book spoilers tag):

like I posted earlier, Selene is giving me BAD VIBES. Anyone who's that hypnotizingly beautiful is bad news, I think. She seemed especially angry when Rand wouldn't open the Horn's case for her, and she seems unnecessarily cold to those "lesser," like when they were staying at the inn before she left Rand, Loial, and Hurin. Honestly, the thought ran through my brain that this is Lanfear, but I doubt it.

the scene with Nynaeve's three fears was interesting. I guess her first one was a more generic fear: any woman would be afraid of running naked through a maze with an evil man chasing her. But the second fear of her having abandoned her people to a cruel Wisdom was so poignant to me. And for the third fear, as sad as it was, the shipper in me was grinning so wide to get a Laneave kiss for the first time.

okay, I've had some spoilers, but Min saying Elayne will have to share her husband with two other women... uh oh.

it really caught me when just before they find the horn and Rand is thinking "I was happy, then, I think, running for my life. Playing the flute for my supper. I was too ignorant to know what was going on." He's referring, I think, to when he and Mat were on the road to Caemlyn, which actually was one of my favorite parts of EOTW. So that made me happy, but also Rand is my baby right now, I love him, he's so scared and that makes me so sad.

Rand knowing how to swordfight gives me life.

also Rand is really getting into the role of being a lord. I know he hates it but people definitely want to follow him. Foreshadowing for later when he's revealed to everyone as the Dragon?

THOM IS ALIVE!! I knew he was but it made me so happy to see him. I kind of wish he had caught that Rand was the Dragon. I want everyone to find out, right now. And also he has a girl? Go you, Thom! Was not expecting that!

the Great Game is bothering me. And I know it's supposed to bother the reader... so good job Robert Jordan I guess? I saw a post once that was talking about how Rand tries not to play the Game and by doing that everyone thinks he's being really devious which I totally see now. It's a bit hilarious.

lastly, I want to know if we'll get a Mat or Perrin POV while they're on the road looking for the Horn and the dagger before getting reunited with Rand. Mat is maybe my favorite character in the show (Rand is my favorite book character currently), but of course he's an idiot in the first few books right now, so he's not the greatest atm. But I still want his POV.

I think that's everything that's been rolling around in my brain... time to put on some of the Mandalorian and cross-stitch. :)

[hazelcephalopod]

The Eye of the World Ch 34-35

The Team bad Luck (Rand and Mat) whump continues! Then it some relief is finally found. Not a lot but some!

Longer one under the cut but probably not the longest so far.

Disclaimer: this is my first read thru but I’ve watched all of the show this far and been spoiled on some book things. So… I’m going to lean into that. Enjoy figuring out what I know, and what I think I know, and what I just don’t. Also s/x I add commentary when I edit.

Spoilers for the first book and up to the most recent episode under the cut. Potential spoilers for latter books.

Ch 34

Rand POV

…honestly I’m a bit worried about Egwene and Perrin

It’s only been three fucking days since that?!!

Yes. It feels like a year to me and I’m just readin it

Also in Carysford

Honestly the paranoia just not unfounded. Like unreliable narrator aside these kids have been chased, for what feels like weeks, by actual monsters. People. And plagued by nightmares which may also affect reality. Yup, some paranoia seems like a normal response to that

Shit river they got there

Huh. These kids really are from the middle of nowhere. Like it’s /Andor/ mostly wilderness. /technically Andor but everyone basically forgets that/

Early book: people are just people everywhere (hopeful). Mid book: People are just people everywhere (ominous).

Now it’s Mats turn to resume breaking down.

Rand and May are probably in the “danger of becoming unhealthily codependent” zone. But what are ya going to do?

Oof. Mats not even convinced they’ll get to Caemlyn

We really missed out on so much uh… sadness and sleeping in haystacks in the show. I’m not actually complaining, like a couple things would’ve been nice to see and I don’t mind reading this but it’s. It’s just pitiful. And long.

Like… this is two homeless teenagers hitchhiking through the States being wronged by adults at every other turn “bad times”

Rand trying to scratch his back having woken up sleeping in a hay stack- “It was while he had one hand down the back of his neck and the other tied up behind him that he became aware of the people.” That is horrifying.

I’m really starting to think the being watched stuff does in fact be settings some stuff up.

Luckily it’s outside on the road, not like around the haystack looking at them. Which I’d assumed by this point

Yea dragon watchers.

‘Haha yes that is why we go to Caemlyn. To see the.. the dragon.’

Ah we’ve reached the travelers are a nuisance part of the country

Everyone sucks!

Rand almost just lost an eye to a carriage drivers whip

Ah Karens

At least the guards do not care

Oh boy is there! At least there will be, not exclusively of course

Tingling again. The tingling is rarely good

Innkeeper- Raimun Holdwin

Almun Bunt, man in cart who noticed Holdwins of conversation too

Oh great. The old enemy, doing evil boringly. Spreading lies, placing bounties, etc.

Like a fox in the henhouse.

Elaida, some Aes Sedai advisor(?) to the Queen in Caemlyn

Yes the tradition, which sounds old is not a problem until right now when things start going badly. And like I’m for questioning tradition. But dude, really, you just don’t get or like Ses Sedai. We got it. Thnx for the ride, plz shut up

Wait… are these people important? So Queen(?) Morgase, Elaida Sedai, Lady Elayne -pretty sure I’ve heard of her uh elsewhere-, Lord Gawyn (familiar), the not Prince Luc (dead), Princess(?) Tigraine (vanished when she was supposed to take the throne). Taringail Damodred, husband of the last queen (?), but not Prince Consort(?) (dead).

Cairhein is the nation that the Aiel don’t like. Now.

Lol. No thought at all that maybe she can channel this Lady Elayne.

“The heron-marked sword lay on the table between them [Rand and Tam]…” -Rand’s dream.

“The queen is wed to the land, but the Dragon… the Dragon is one with the land, and the land is one with the Dragon.” -Rand’s dream, being told to him by juggling unconcerned dream!Thom

Then he sees a Fade with Moiraine and Lan’s heads hanging from its saddle and Mat, Perrin, and Egwene bound and being forced to follow it. “Not her!” -Rand. The Fade burns Egwene. Thom repeats: “The Dragon is one with the land, and the land is one with the Dragon.”

Then he seems to wake, but a raven tells him “You are mine.” And stabs him in the eye with its beak.

Bunt you are a strange man.

Ch 35

Rand POV

‘Yay a city! Ahhh a city, a massive bustling city!’

Caemlyn was built by Ogier? Neat!

How are you going to hide in a massive crowd of people? I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough. But it’s a roll of the dice at first

Rand sees it!

‘Caemlyn the city of dreams!’

Interesting that the main road in entering the city is indeed wide. Wonder if roads will get narrower further in?

“What they did not see, they could ignore; what they did not see was not really there.” -teotw (Rand) on the people in Caemlyn who appear to ignore the lack of spring this year so far.

Narrower side street! Still enough for a cart and more

Dude you’re asking this now? Isn’t ignorance bliss at this point? You’ve already take them this time if they are thieves it’s a bit late

See back to the old adage ‘I don’t know and I suppose I don’t want to; plz stay away from me. I have a family’

So the boys are sharing brain cells and immune system cells

Ya I doubt he’s gonna do that. Good advice tho

Did… Thom didn’t say anything about red and black Ajah outside Rand’s fever dream did he?

“Rand grabbed Mat’s collar in a fist that he was trying hard to keep from trembling. He needed Mat.” -after Mat (again) starts to doubt everything and express his hopelessness. (Wtf am I supposed to do with that I? /wearing shipping goggles/)

Who will win? The cursed anxious optimist or the cursed depressed pessimist? Both are very paranoid, traumatized, and stubborn but in many -but not all- opposite ways

“Please don’t let us be alone.” -Rand’s thoughts

Ok. “Queen’s men” is a phrase that keeps being used and I think it implies something bigger about the world or something. Idk what tho… civil war brewing maybe?

Tbh I’ve been wondering where the sex workers were. Like… they gotta exist still here right? I’m sry but they must

Relics of Logain? Really? The guy can not have been active more than, what? A year or two? No. That’s nothing; ignore that, I’m confident they at least know this and otherwise they don’t have money

Well Rand knew.

Plz just avoid the cursed Whitecloaks

Dude just do that yourself. You have the means, I’m sure, to cover the mark somehow. He’s gonna do that eventually isn’t he?

…Almost immediately did that.

So what does the red mean? And the white? Sure it means something… wait

Probably Mat. Probably

Mm yup. That tracks. Have to get the tension right and whatever

Dude. I’ve got news. They’ll always going to be more people in the cities.

The pattern ‘oh thank fuck he figured out to cover the mark. Finally! Now he can go to the inn’

Found- The Queen’s Blessing. Inkeeper Basal Gill (fat, thankfully)

Just believing Thoms dead now. Well… suppose that does track regrettable

“I’ll believe he’s dead when I see a corpse.” -Gill when informed of Thom’s death.

Lol Gill ‘it Aes Sedai bs isn’t it? Always is with Thom and young men.’ (There’s no good way to say that so there. Do whatever you like with that I guess)

Lol. Sure no channelers here Gill. None at all. /s

Dude giving them shit beds and shit food is a miracle at this point free or not. Now what do you want?

Finally. Someone whose like ‘Aes Sedai? Sure they suck but they are not the most pressing problem by far’

Huh. The state supports the Aes Sedai here. Interesting. Makes sense but interesting how many common people don’t -tho also makes sense.

Wtf did Thom do to upset the literal Queen?

Thom? Thom was famous across the lands? That guy?

He did mention the courtyard thing but not, like in the royal palace, I don’t think

Damn Thom. Really probably *knew* and then pissed off a queen and an Aes Sedai. Respect the loyalty to family tho

Ha! They remember (I quickly learn Gill agrees)

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: The Gathering Storm ch 10

Outsider POV is excellent, armies play musical chairs, and Ituralde manages to keep his brain from exploding

Chapter 10: The Last of the Tabac

Ituralde faintly worried those winds would blow over the entire building

You’re going to have to think bigger than that, Ituralde. The entire building? More like the entire world.

It seems to be a time for Contemplation, complete with a bunch of maps and the last wrinkled scrap of a note from the king. So you know this is Serious Soul-Searching time. Or just serious ‘welp, we’re fucked, how do I want to die?’ time.

[Rajabi] was completely bald now, and faintly resembled a large boulder. He tended to act like a boulder, too.

Well, that’s a character description. Also, did anyone else picture Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson here?

So the Seanchan are still pressing them, and the Taraboners are done helping, and Ituralde is not actually sure what to do here. Sounds like maybe not the worst time for, say, the Dragon Reborn to appear out of nowhere? Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Ituralde took a long, contemplative puff on his pipe. He’d chosen to finally use the Two Rivers tabac. This pipeful was the last in his store; he’d been saving it for months, now.

And it’s no doubt about to be surprisingly appropriate. But I suppose this and the chapter title allude to the notion that he’s sort of at the end of his bag of tricks, as far as fighting the Seanchan is concerned.

“We’ve beat large forces before. Look what we did at Darluna! You crushed them, Rodel!”

And doing so had required every bit of craftiness, skill and luck Ituralde could muster. Even then, he’d lost well over half his men. Now he ran, limping, before this second, larger force of Seanchan.

This time, they weren’t making any mistakes.

Yeah, it’s sounding like anything he does now will be more of a Last Stand than anything else. Last of the tabac, last of the plans. But that’s no reason not to go out well, with the best he has.

He’d figured he could keep it up for another four or five months. But those plans were useless now; they’d been made before Ituralde had discovered there was an entire bloody army of Aiel running around Arad Doman.

One of the random things I love in epic fantasy – well, in any genre, but epic fantasy lends itself better to this simply by virtue of having piles of characters and plotlines – is when characters who are more or less on the same side but not at all directly involved with each other end up spectacularly fucking up each other’s plans without realising it. Sometimes without realising there were any plans to fuck up. Rand sent the Aiel because, from where he’s standing, it seemed like the best way to restore order to a nation in chaos. Rodel Ituralde fought his guile war with the Seanchan because, from where he’s standing, it seemed like the best and perhaps only way to rid his homeland of invaders while still ostensibly following his king’s orders. And in doing so, he and Rand have each managed to frustrate the other, and to get completely in each other’s way.

I like it when antagonists do this to each other as well. Any time different Grand Schemes collide, with neither schemer actually aiming for such a collision, is fun.

The best he’d been able to do was retreat here, to this abandoned stedding.

He retreated to a stedding! I’m inordinately pleased with myself now for having vaguely considered this as a strategy, earlier. 

Though it isn’t enough to save him, really; he’s just buying himself some time at this point.

“Have you ever seen a master juggler, Rajabi?” Ituralde saw the bull-like man frown in confusion. 

“I’ve seen gleemen who—”

“No, not a gleeman. A master.”

Rajabi shook his head.

Ituralde puffed in thought before speaking. “I did, once. He was the court bard of Caemlyn.”

Ha. Of course. Thom’s networking abilities are truly admirable, I must say. Though his tendency towards regicide does put a slight damper on the opportunities to win friends and influence people.

“Soon he had ten balls going in the air, flying in a pattern so complex that I couldn’t track them. He had to strain to keep them going; he kept having to reach down and grab balls that he nearly missed. He was too lost in concentration to ask us if he should add another, but the crowd called for it. Eleven! Go for eleven! And so, his assistant tossed another ball into the mess.” Ituralde puffed. “He dropped them?” Rajabi asked. Rodel shook his head. “That last ‘ball’ wasn’t actually a ball at all. It was some kind of Illuminator’s trick; once it got halfway to the bard, it flashed and gave off a sudden burst of light and smoke. By the time our vision cleared, the bard was gone, and ten balls were lined up on the floor.”

Sounds like a classic Thom move. Also sounds like good strategic advice, in situations like…er…more or less this one. Also also sounds kind of like what Rand would wish for. He’s trying to hold everything together and it’s all on the verge of falling apart, and wouldn’t it be a relief if someone could toss him a way out, a distraction for long enough that he could set everything down carefully in order, and then…not be there anymore.

Ituralde tries a somewhat more direct explanation, in the form of King Alsalam’s letter.

“Yes, but I fight because of him,” Ituralde said. He was a king’s man; he always would be.

Who’s going to tell him?

He needed to make  a decision. Stay and fight, or flee for a worse location, but gain a little more time?

Or wait for the Dragon Reborn to turn up on his doorstep and tell him actually just forget the King’s orders, they’re not his in the first place and also it’s time for a truce and by the way Tarmon Gai’don is almost here. I’m not sure that really counts as a reprieve, as such, but…hey, live to fight another day, right?

Hardly the best location for a war camp, but one made soup with the spices on hand

*looks at spice drawer*

I mean…I’m not entirely sure about a soup made with cinnamon, clove, star anise, garam masala, cayenne, and nutmeg, but I guess it could double as a weapon if necessary…

Also wow I need to refill about half my spices. Right. Note to self.

He hated the thought of cutting down trees in a stedding. He’d known a few Ogier in his time, and respected them. These massive oaks probably held some lingering strength from the days when the Ogier had lived here. Cutting them down was a crime.

It’s fine, just call Davram Bashere and he’ll dig graves for them all. Twenty-three of them, anyway.

These men should have deserted. But they’d seen him win impossible battle after impossible battle, tossing ball after ball into the air to greater and greater applause. They thought he was unstoppable. They didn’t understand that when one tossed more balls into the air, it wasn’t just the show that became more spectacular.

The fall at the end grew more spectacular as well.

Indeed. And, once again, true for quite a number of characters, on various levels of ‘spectacular’.

So Ituralde gives a motivational speech, because that’s what he’s supposed to do. A ‘but it is not this day! This day we fight!’ because that is what they need to believe.

But Ituralde has pretty much accepted that this will be a Last Stand. And I’m almost sad that it won’t be, because in case I haven’t mentioned it enough, that’s one of my favourite tropes, but I’m not that sad because there are plenty of other opportunities setting themselves up.

I still love the buildup to it, though. That’s part of the beauty of the last stand; it isn’t necessarily about the fight itself but rather about the way it’s set up, and the way characters approach it, and the way the music changes and the focus widens – but pauses on a few faces – and the melancholy anticipation builds.

The young Ituralde had often dreamed of wars, of the glory of battle. The old Ituralde knew there was no such thing as glory to be had in battle.

… ‘Let me tell you what I wish I’d known / when I was young and dreamed of glory…’

And right on cue, someone is knocking at the door. So to speak.

Nope, not even bothering to knock on the door – Rand’s rather bad at that, after all, as Perrin and Faile discovered. He’s just walking straight into the stedding-turned-warcamp. As you do.

Whoever he was, he could hardly make their situation worse.

Er. Well…I mean…that rather depends on your definition of ‘worse’, I suppose. And the Pattern’s mood. Not to mention Rand’s. At best, it’s pretty much a ‘you’re not going to get killed by the Seanchan but I’m here to announce the end of the world’ sort of deal so uh.

“And he came alone?”

“Yes, sir.”

Brave man.

You have no idea.

Also I am already so delighted by this opportunity for a true outsider POV on Rand. We see him rather frequently these days through the eyes of other characters, but it’s usually characters who do already know him. Ituralde will be meeting him for the first time, so it’s an excellent chance to see how Rand comes across and what sort of first impression he makes at a point in his arc where he’s…to borrow Verin’s phrasing, interesting.

“Make sure he’s properly guarded”

Good luck with that. If a box and thirty-odd Aes Sedai couldn’t do it…

Four months ago, half of them would have killed him on sight for staying loyal to the king. Now they thought he could do the impossible. It was a pity; he was beginning to think he could have brought them back to Alsalam as loyalists.

He would be a good one to have around, with the Last Battle coming. He has an admirable and difficult-to-achieve combination of realism and determination in the face of what seem to be insurmountable odds. He’s not going to give up without a fight, and he’s going to make it a damn good fight, but he knows how it’s likely to end. And yet, even knowing that, he manages to inspire loyalty and courage in those who follow him, which may just be enough to tip the scales.

Not that it will come to that just yet, of course, because here’s Rand.

Introduced as if he’s an entirely new character because, to Ituralde, he is. Damn, I love these moments.

Ituralde’s a great captain with apparently decades of experience and few equals in the field, and he’s wary. There’s a kind of tension here that doesn’t just come from the plot or the characters themselves, but from the interplay between the reader’s familiarity with a character and the narrative’s presenting said character as a stranger, and it makes me happy.

Those eyes. Those were eyes which had seen death a number of times.

Seen and dealt it a number of times, yes. Not to mention experienced it once

Not just a young lord. A young general. Ituralde narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?”

The stranger met his eyes. “I am Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn. And I need you. You and your army.”

What a great introduction.

It’s so extra but also minimalist as these two stare each other down and don’t bother mincing words, and it delights me.

Rand doesn’t often say he needs people. He doesn’t want to be seen as needing anyone or anything, because it becomes a point of vulnerability or weakness. But here he doesn’t bother disguising it; it’s not an admission or even a request. It’s barely even a demand. It’s stronger than that; he simply states this fact as if it alone will be enough to make everyone else do his bidding. And he’s probably not wrong.

He’s not bothering with even a pretense at subtlety or tact or negotiation. He doesn’t have the time or the mental energy to spare for that. ‘Is there anything left to me but necessity?’ He thought it back in TFoH but now he really has reached a point where necessity is almost all that is left, all that is driving him. So he just walks into a war camp and straight up to its general and says ‘I need your army’.

The Dragon Reborn? This youth? He supposed it could be possible. Most rumours agreed that the Dragon Reborn was a young man with red hair. But, then, rumours also claimed he was ten feet tall, and still others said his eyes glowed in dim light.

Let’s hope not – on that last point, at least. He has enough links to Moridin/Ishamael as it is.

He seemed…older than he looked.

Well. There is a solid argument to be made that he’s at least a few hundred years older than he actually is. Damn you, Lews Therin, you make birthdays so complicated.

Only one such as the Dragon Reborn himself could stride into a war camp like this, completely alone, and expect to be obeyed.

It’s something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Only the Dragon Reborn would attempt to do such a thing, and the fact that he does attempt it likely much of what will ensure that he is believed and, eventually, obeyed.

It’s not bad advice, really; it fits in the overall folder of “if you act like you know what the fuck you’re doing, people will assume that you do, in fact, know what the fuck you’re doing, and also that you’re supposed to be doing it.”

Either this man was who he claimed to be or he was an utter lunatic.

Given the rumours, I’m surprised he considers that to be a dichotomy.

Rand is also happy to go outside of the stedding and channel and then drop an army of Aiel and Aes Sedai on the place to prove that he is who he syas he is. Who needs subtlety when you have half a continent?

“You are my concern […] You must make peace with the Seanchan. This war gains us nothing. I want you up on the Borderlands; I can’t spare men to guard the Blight, and the Borderlanders themselves have abandoned their duties.”

OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE. THIS IS THE WORST GAME OF MUSICAL CHAIRS I HAVE EVER SEEN.

Let me see if I’ve got this straight.

Rand al’Thor leaves the Borderlanders more or less alone, because he figures they can handle shit along the Blight and he has places to go, people to see, prophecies to fulfill, the usual.

Rand al’Thor proceeds to conquer various southern nations, crowns are tossed around, chaos ensues, other nations are afraid they’ll be next, etc.

The Borderlanders are annoyed at being ignored, but also the Borderlanders are worried that Rand al’Thor might stop ignoring them and decide to conquer them instead

Figure out which one it is, guys.

In a move that will help prevent exactly neither of these two possibilities, all four of the Borderland rulers leave the Borderlands, taking large contingents of their armies away from the Blight

So that they can…go tell Rand al’Thor that he needs to go pay attention to the Blight? And also tell him off for the whole conquering thing? Or something?

Because that makes perfect sense

So if he did decide to bag himself a few more nations, those nations would be without their rulers or major portions of their defences

Great plan, everyone

Rand al’Thor sees that the Borderlanders have left the Blight and wonders ‘what the fuck’

Lan Mandragoran sees that the Borderlanders have left the Blight, looks at Rand al’Thor, and wonders ‘what the fuck’

And then decides that the solution, rather than talking to Rand al’Thor, is to go up to the Blight himself, because reasons

Rand al’Thor looks around and wonders, once more and with emphasis, ‘what the fuck’

And decides to throw a different army at the Borderlands

Which will definitely not be seen as an invasion or anything…

I sit here and look at everyone and wonder ‘what the fuck’

And that’s not even getting into the part about how he brought in the Aiel to bring order to a land already invaded by one foreign army, and is now sending that land’s actual army to go fight in another country altogether, thus turning the guy who is ready to fight to the death against invaders into an invader himself.

I really hope the Borderlanders have some actual and as-yet-undisclosed reason for what they’re doing, basically, because otherwise WHAT. THE. FUCK.

“I’ve heard of you, Rodel Ituralde,” al’Thor said. “Men I trust, men I respect, trust and respect you. Rather than fleeing and hiding, you hunker down here to fight a battle you know will kill you. All because of your loyalty to your king. I commend that. But it is time to turn away and fight a battle that means something. One that means everything.”

As motivational speeches go, it could certainly be worse. A little harsh and very direct, but high praise, coming from Rand. Beyond that…it’s what needs to be said.

It’s time for the forces of the Light to stop fighting one another, and instead join together against the Shadow that threatens their entire continued existence. Tarmon Gai’don is coming, and it does mean everything. Next to the end of the world, what’s a single border? It’s time to move away from battles like Dumai’s Wells, or Rand’s campaign against the Seanchan, or Malden, or the seige of Caemlyn, or the division in the White Tower. (Or Rand’s own battle against himself, if only he could realise).

“Come with me, and I’ll give you the throne of Arad Doman.”

Damn it Rand, you were doing so well there for a minute.

“After commending my loyalty, you expect me to unseat my own king!” “Your king is dead,” al’Thor said. “Either that, or his mind has been melted like wax. More and more, I think Graendal has him.”

Well, I suppose there’s not much point beating around the bush.

“You speak of one of the Forsaken as if you’ve had her as a dinner guest.”

I wonder if Lews Therin did, before the drilling of the Bore, before she was Graendal.

Bloody ashes? I don’t remember seeing that variant before.

“Perhaps Alsalam lives,” al’Thor said as they waited. “If so, I can see that you would not want his throne. Would you like Amadicia?”

“Hi, your friend has likely been tortured to either death or insanity. Want a crown?” I’m not exactly known for my tact, but even I could phrase that better.

Having said that, I’m not really all that sure I would. And Rand…Rand is out of time, out of patience, out of energy, and nearly out of hope. He’s running on vapour and determination at this point. Tact and even sympathy are rather low on his list of priorities; he needs Ituralde and he needs him now. And he also needs someone to look after Amadicia, so as far as he’s concerned, this is a perfectly reasonable question. A generous one, even, because he’s made acknowledgment of Ituralde’s reluctance to take Alsalam’s throne. Ah, Rand. The world hasn’t spared a thought for his feelings for so long that he’s all but forgotten it’s a thing you’re supposed to do.

It just stands out more when seen from an outside perspective, especially one who doesn’t know him at all.

There was a way about this man, the way he discussed events like the Last Battle – events that mankind had been fearing for thousands of years – as if they were items on the daily camp report.

Well, for him, they are. That’s the thing. This has been his reality for over a year now. He doesn’t have the luxury of thinking about Tarmon Gai’don as some distant thing of dread. He has to get there, and get the entire world there, and if he doesn’t, the world dies. So the only thing left to do is to get on with it, and…well, this is what it’s doing to him. What it’s done to him.

And it’s chilling for everyone else to see, because it forces on them the notion that this is reality, that the Last Battle is actually coming, and soon. Which can’t be a comfortable thing to come to terms with. So while they’re still grappling with this news, and with the complete paradigm shift it causes in their thinking, they see this young man who speaks of it so casually…

He really is talking about huge-scale events and conflicts as if they’re mundane items on a to-do list. Given what he’s already done, it’s nothing surprising, but again from the outside it’s vaguely terrifying. Because to speak so offhandedly about ‘securing’ entire nations suggests an absurd level of power, and one that Rand seems, at least from the outside, to barely even think about, much less consider remarkable. There’s at least an order of magnitude between what Ituralde has been doing during his campaign against the Seanchan, and what Rand is so casually talking about doing. That’s not to disparage Ituralde, but it certainly highlights who and what Rand is, to the world.

Suddenly, al’Thor turned to Ituralde. “What could you do if I gave you a hundred men who could channel?”

“Madmen?”

“No, most of them are stable,” al’Thor said taking no apparent offence.

Have I mentioned how much I love this entire encounter?

The immediate and almost…bland response to Ituralde’s likely rhetorical question…Rand doesn’t have time for small talk, and at this point small talk encompasses everything that is not directly pertinent to the reaching of Tarmon Gai’don. So the question isn’t rhetorical, because a rhetorical question would be a waste of time. And it does have a pertinent interpretation and application, so he gives the relevant answer without pausing to take offence, or contradict the notion, or give the few lines of conversation that one might expect here to ease Ituralde into the new status quo. It’s all very efficient. And, to everyone involved, terrifying.

It’s also…Rand had to come to terms with the fact that he can channel saidin a long time ago. He knew from the beginning that it would drive him mad, and even now that the taint is gone, he worries about his own sanity. But that’s just another thing on top of everything else; there’s very little he can actually do, excpet try to hold himself together as best he can. So he doesn’t take offence here, because it’s…not something to be offended by. It’s reality, like the rest of it, and it’s a very real issue to be concerned with. For him and for the Asha’man. Most of them are stable, but some are not, and that’s just how it is. He knows this; he had to kill Fedwin Morr, after all.

“Whatever madness they incurred before I cleansed the taint is still there – removing the taint didn’t heal them – but few of them were fare gon. And they won’t get worse, now that saidin is clean.”

Saidin? Clean?

Ituralde is taking all of this very well, really, all things considered. It’s a lot to have dropped on your head all at once. And still Rand is almost frighteningly matter-of-fact in discussing world-changing events. He is – not entirely metaphorically – a veritable force of nature at this point.

So Ituralde just says that yep, he could definitely make use of Asha’man. No point being overwhelmed by everything he’s hearing; that won’t help anyone. He’s been around long enough, and he’s good enough at what he does, that even this doesn’t throw him completely. It’s a shock, sure, and it’ll probably take him some time to fully come to terms with everything, but he knows how to roll with the punches.

Rand makes a gatweay and Ituralde immediately starts thinking tactics. Yep, I like this guy.

“There is no time for squabbling. We have more important matters to be about.”

“Nothing is more important than my homeland,” Ituralde said.

Sorry, Ituralde, but Rand is right, here. The thing is…even though he’s right, for someone like Ituralde, who has dedicated his life to the service of his country and is only just learning of the whole apocalypse business, it can’t be an easy thing to accept. It’s hard to have your whole frame of reference suddenly made essentially redundant. “The world is ending, so none of this matters” is easy enough to say for someone who belongs to prophecy, or for a reader who sees everything from the scope of the epic, but in actuality people are rather attached to their own lives. Their own loves and hates and dreams – and to have someone say all of that is meaningless now, however true it may be, is bound to be hard to come to terms with.

“A promise, then,” al’Thor said. “I will see the Seanchan out of Arad Doman. I promise you this.”

That’s quite a thing to promise. But then, I suppose he has the whole ‘the north and the east must be as one. The west and the south must be as one’ as a bit of a prophetic guarantee on this promise. Still. He promises, because he must. But it’s yet another thing he then must do, another duty to add to all the rest, and not a small one.

“In exchange, you go to the Borderlands and protect against an invasion there.”

And also…be an invasion there…but we’ll just ignore that part, shall we?

“Hold back the Trollocs if they come”

You and whatever is left of Malkier.

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