#OH. his name is actually perrin.

[tragedia]

i've been overthinking dwarves these days and an old blorbo i've wanted to write has resurfaced (pun intended). a dwarf on the surface that calls himself cat's eye. he's a rogue of ambiguous origin and ambiguous character, but has a particular set of skills that can be purchased through a very rigid price-list that's definitely too low, and only on very specific days. he's good for a number of things: checking validity of gems, or the stability of your secret lair, or having a side hustle as a character sketch artist, but prefers to be a good for nothing, poor hustler.

in reality, this was once a young dwarf from a warrior caste in orzammar, whose family were loyalists and caste truthers to a point of obsession. he possessed diligence, strong stone sense, passion for architecture, and at that, a great love for his family, but his father, who often acted more like a drill sergeant, was too obsessed with rigid caste rules to allow him to pursue his passions, despite shaperate's real interest in him. he was essentially banished and erased from the family tree as a teenager, some years before the 5th blight and the bhelen / harrowmont conflict.

[markantonys]

episode 5 thoughts!

heartbroken by no mat, but i was expecting it since min wasn't credited for this episode on imdb, and there was so much other amazing stuff going on, so i can cope. i do think they must be gearing up for a mat-heavy episode soon because his content has been so sparse thus far! we also didn't have lan this episode, which i'm good with since he got so much last week.

(minor imdb casting spoiler: ayoola isn't listed for ep6, so i'm guessing we may have no perrin next week. they definitely do have a lot of different groups to juggle! but IF mat & lan soon join the cairhien crew, we could condense things)

also sad at not much elayne, but again, the remaining episodes will probably be pretty big for her! same with egwene, that storyline didn't progress as fast as i'd thought it would in this episode, but OOF the preview for next week looks like A Lot!!

back to the beginning! falme looks SO COOL!!! and the opening scene with the seanchan was fantastic, it showed off so many different aspects of their culture in just a few minutes (namely their various Ceremonial Things and ideas of who's allowed to speak to whom)

lanfear just whispering "bitch" the second she revives killed me djkfjg what an icon. and we get confirmation that it is indeed the True Power that she used to revive herself.

Lanfear Unleashed is SO much fun oh my god, i love seeing her in full forsaken mode

moiraine telling rand that he can't sleep because lanfear will get him, girl don't tell him that he's going to internalize it and not sleep for the next 6 seasons. this season is really Wheel Of Time Origins: Rand's Various Emotional, Mental, and Physical Health Problems

elyas saying the ef5 aren't perrin's pack HOW DARE!!! i feel like they're making elyas even more standoffish/human-averse than he was in the books, which makes for an interesting dynamic and contributes to perrin's sense that his human & wolf sides can't coexist.

but hopper follows perrin!!!! the goodest boy!!!!!

AVIENDHA IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHE'S EVERYTHING!!!!! although ngl her fake accent does sound a bit Fake to me lmao but i'm sure i'll get used to it after a few more scenes

hot dain bornhald is also here! he kinda compels me and i'm furious about it. if whitecloak why hot? in all seriousness, i can see already from his intro episode + the basics of his book story that he has the potential to be quite an interesting character if fleshed out more and given more screentime compared to what he had in the books, sort of a liandrin-and-alanna-like Main Secondary Whitecloak for us to follow

also he totally wants to fuck perrin you can't change my mind. buying him drinks and giving him a Cute Nickname, boy you ain't subtle! and then aviendha briefly hits on perrin later and also perrin stops her from killing dain. wake up babe, insane new WOT polycule just dropped djkfjfg

OB!!!! FREAKING!!!! SESSED!!!!!!!! with verin's detective subplot!!!! it is SO much fun, it delivers a ton of great exposition (namely about the black ajah), and it gives us a bigger peek into the brown ajah than the books ever did. i love this squad!! also katie leung was probably my first Girl Crush (not that i was aware of it) when i was like 8 so i was thrilled to see her show up here, god bless

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, IT GAVE US CONFIRMATION THAT GAWYN EXISTS IN SHOWVERSE!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH when i tell you i came extremely close both to screaming and to falling off my bed!!!! i'd been hoping for a gawyn namedrop all season but having it here was SO unexpected! my current theory is that he'll be introduced in caemlyn next season along with elaida and galad, and all 3 of them will head to tar valon to look for elayne because they're worried after not hearing from her for a long time.

also now i want a fic where the wondergirls actually do get special permission from mommy morgase to leave the tower just so that they can attend gawyn's birthday party

anyway, someday gawyn and egwene are going to kiss with tongue onscreen and haters can die mad about it <3 oooh now i have a brand-new meetcute for them to look forward to since they didn't meet at the tower!

liandrin & nynaeve's convo in the ways was so good! they continue to do amazing work with that relationship and liandrin's character. AND WHEN SHE SUBTLY FREED THE GIRLS RIGHT BEFORE LEAVING HOLY SHIT i gasped!!!!! the LAYERS they have given this character!!! because yes she serves the dark BUT she still feels loyalty to her sisters (as seen in s1 too when she appeared genuinely upset over kerene's death) and can't stomach the thought of any of them, even the light-serving ones, being collared!

suroth saying with her whole chest "oh sure you're a forsaken but you're not even of the blood soooooo" god grant me her confidence. also another great illustration of the insane heights to which seanchan high blood take their superiority complexes. good god, what's tuon gonna be like?!

avi's fight scene was just as amazing as i'd been hoping and expecting!! 10/10 no notes. can't wait to see what she can do when she has weapons at her disposal!

and later avi tells us that she is out in the wetlands Looking For Her Man (that she doesn't yet know is Her Man) <33

moiraine saying "get rand some nice new clothes" and barthanes immediately offering to dress him, Sugar Baby Rand lives on! also, anvaere and barthanes definitely thought rand was moiraine's sugar baby after they cleared the warder possibility, you can't change my mind

also also, barthanes is so surprisingly sweet! i wonder if he'll still be a darkfriend, or if anvaere will be instead

lanfear making ishy dream about caressing rand's face in bed is something i will go insane thinking about every day until i die. like oh my god i don't even know where to START with unpacking that, so i won't even try djfkjg

like for real, they ALL BUT made it explicitly canon that ishy had/has a crush on LTT/rand LMAO it's what we deserve

and we get forsaken namedrops! moghedien, graendal, and "the boys." it could be that semirhage did still make it and lanfear just chose not to go on and on listing every single one (slash the writers wanted to give themselves some leeway in specifically naming forsaken in case they don't get enough seasons to deal with all of them), or it could be that one of the statues from last season was actually a man and/or stepin's statues aren't accurate, and we've got 5 men instead of 4 (in which case i'd imagine ishy, asmodean, sammael, demandred, and rahvin)

i'm gonna have to watch this ishy & lanfear scene again to pick up more because i was FAR too distracted by the initial homoeroticism to keep focusing lmao

aww i'm kinda sad not to get elayne & nynaeve hiding out in falme completely on their own, but for their sakes it's nice they've found (been found by) some Real Adults to help!

LANFEAR'S OUTFIT IN THE END SCENE LMAO this season really just went off the WALLS with horniness and kinkiness, and i am here for it. it's what rj would've wanted

now that moiraine and rand are indeed staying in cairhien after all, i really think we might get a cauthor reunion next episode!!!! fingers crossed!!!!

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch 1x8: the eye of the world

I made it before the new season started! <3

spoilers for the first season of WoT and for most of the s2 teasers that we've gotten. For the books... um... honestly mostly stuff from Eye of the World that didn't end up in the show, lol. Oh, and for New Spring, I guess.

@apocalypticavolition mentioned that Perrin's original plot was probably helping Lan track Moiraine - that makes a lot of sense! It would have given Perrin a chance to flex his heightened senses and it might have even given Lan a chance to name-drop Elyas.

Okay, wow, yay! Our Completely Old Tongue scene from Age of Legends. When this first opened and they were just... talking in the Old Tongue... I was so blown away. I was not expecting it. I think they've hinted that we might get more Old Tongue scenes in s2 as well, which would be fantastic.

I'm glad that I read The Strike on Shayol Ghul short story -- they really did pull a lot of the info from that story for this scene, so that was very cool to see.

There is definitely a lot more focus on "Dragon as father" here than in the books (and I wonder if the tragedy of him murdering his family is going to focus more on killing his kids and not solely about killing his wife, once we get into that)

And the reveal at the end that '3000 years ago' was actually futuristic and we're living in a post-apocalyptic landscape, which is a great reframing for anyone who didn't already know.

Love all our Moiraine & Rand ~bonding time~ here (for various values of bonding time, lol). Definitely curious about where that relationship is going to go over the course of s2.

Egwene and Perrin checking in with each other is a sweet moment. Yeah, things Got Weird last episode due to stress and Nynaeve accidentally telling a secret that wasn't hers, but it hasn't wrecked their friendship.

And if Perrin is the one helping Lan here (supernaturally), then Lan and Nynaeve's scene would have just been the romantic goodbye.

Ishamael notes here that he didn't think that Rand was the Dragon Reborn. It sounds like he was expecting Rand to look more like LTT did. I really do love him calling Rand "Lews Therin", poor Rand. The identity issues are only going to get worse, bb. Love that Rand starts their conversation with an arrow to the face.

"Ever since the day I channeled, I hear nothing [from the wind]" is our first allusion to Nynaeve's block, I believe.

Moiraine tapdancing around the truth as hard as possible so that she doesn't have to admit that she physically can't teach Rand channeling. She's even willing to share one of her traumas with Rand in order to avoid admitting it! Also, I do think that Elaida's willingness to turn to violence is going to stand out a lot more in a world where teaching isn't always accompanied by brutality, as it is in the books.

haha, I totally forgot about this scene with Min and the others. Maybe because it doesn't really tell us anything we aren't going to learn immediately even without her (a nod to how pointless Min's viewings mostly are in the books? lol) but it does prompt Min to get out of the city on the wagons, I'm guessing.

Apologies to all the people who worked hard on the battle scenes but I don't ever have much to say about things like that.

Rand already getting memories (and Moiraine seeing him remember) plus Rand trying to protect people from getting hurt because they're standing next to him. (and Rand trying to give an order that Moiraine immediately ignores lol)

yeah if Lan had a companion (like Perrin) then his scenes here would have actually had some dialogue - they may have even given Rand the line about Malkier because they wanted to get the info out but it was originally supposed to come out in dialogue between Lan and Perrin.

Aww, family moment between the Agelmars. It's sweet. I honestly barely remember the Agelmars from the books, so this was an improvement. "Buy enough time to stand a chance" is going to be a big theme, too.

We also kinda get confirmation here that Darkfriends have been more effective in the show-verse than they were in the books-verse (it seems like more knowledge has been destroyed).

18. So, given what we've seen in the teasers of Ishy getting Lanfear from a seal, it seems like this specific spot is where LTT sealed Ishamael in particular (half-sealed?) and he released Ishamael fully when he cracked the seal. Before this, we only see Ishy working in people's dreams and then, in s2, he gets to actually exist in the waking world.

19. While I do see the effects of the covid shutdown and new rules in the battle scenes (and am looking forward to seeing them pop off without those setbacks in s2!); the scenes with Rand in the dream and Rand against Ishamael are perfect and I will hear no arguments against them. Rand is, ultimately, a philosophical hero and not a battle hero. He gets that wrong a lot in the books! But things tend to backfire on him when he tries to force himself into the battle hero position.

20. And we have ~the temptation~ here, with Egwene and little Joiya (and the mention of Mat, which was fascinating at the time and remains utterly fascinating; that fake!Egwene makes a point of mentioning Mat in Rand's temptation dreamworld).

21. The imagery for what Ishamael does to Moiraine is pretty much exactly like the shielding on Logain and not anything like when Logain was severed later in the episode, so I will (one last time before the new season lol) put my bet in that she was shielded. Ishamael is just able to do a lot faster than the Aes Sedai. Also when Moiraine is right behind Rand like this, you can really see how similar their shirts really are in color.

22. Min is jetting out of Fal Dara as fast as she can -- show!Min actually seems aware that she's not a fighter. #goodforher

23. But they did use needing to have Perrin in Fal Dara to give him a nice little scene with Loial that fed into the violence vs peace conflict.

24. Ishy really put in the work here (I'm assuming that it must have all been drawn from Rand's memories which, again, makes Egwene mentioning that Mat is saying he's going to make Joiya a lantern just incredibly fascinating). Ishamael waits until Rand falls for the trap to reveal to Rand what's going on (sorta). And both Ishy and Rand are working the angles here -- Ishy pretends that he wants Rand to pick the dream world and... you know, that would be useful but... he still wins if Rand fights him because that surge of Power will break his seal. And Rand pretends that he's falling for the temptation but actually is looking for Ishy to give him some clues on how to access the Power on purpose.

25. Ah, s2 setup is happening: Perrin learns that the Dragon needs the Horn at the Last Battle; and Fain was given the password to get into the fortress, which means there's a Darkfriend who knows the passwords.

26. I 100% approve of the show making joining a circle dangerous. In the books, circles are so completely underused and it feels silly because they are very low risk. People should be in circles all the time; especially when things get dangerous.

27. Lots of emphasis on fatherhood this season -- Rand's struggle about Tam being his father; Rand's desire to be a father (expressed both in ep1 and here with Joiya). We also had Siuan's relationship with her father being a key element of her character.

28. Rand loves Egwene enough to know that their paths have diverged and it would be wrong to try to force her onto the same path as him just because he loves her.

29. Very cute that Rand thinks he just defeated the Dark One. I want to give him a pet on his fluffy (currently sweaty lol) head).

30. Perrin gets the infodump from Fain instead of it being Mat. It's a good infodump, from someone who definitely, obviously has an agenda.

31. Rand thinks he's succeeded, so he leaves on his own so that he won't hurt the ones he loved. Baby. Off he goes, into the big world of Making Bad Life Choices, bless him.

32. And the poor little girl who, at least, probably died quickly? The show did such a good job with the Seanchan. Both here and in what we've seen so far in the teasers for s2. They are gonna be extremely creepy and heartbreaking and scary. You can definitely see tear-tracks on the face of one of the damane here.

[b-a-l-a-n-c-3]

DLC rambles so DNI of you’re dodging spoilers

But oh my god I hate and love this DLC.

For one, I feel like Kieran’s emotional trauma surrounding the player was built up pretty well, but fell flat in resolution at the end. I feel like there should have been more to his redemption than what there actually was.

But OH MY GOD THE KIERAN CATCHING TERAPAGOS SCENE WAS PERFECT- it perfectly symbolized how angry he was that we got everything and that no matter how hard he tried, he wouldn’t be enough. Him screaming “YOU’RE MINE!” and chucking the master ball at Terapagos before it came to us was the best part. He wasn’t going to let the Ogerpon situation happen again.

Another letdown was with Briar. She had such great obsessive buildup, all for her to just…let go of it? Like I get that it put the kids in so much danger but I feel like that shouldn’t have fully snapped her out of it. Either way she had such villain potential…

I’ve only finished the main part of the DLC storyline (just up to where Amarys gives our ride the flight ability and Briar gives us her book) so I don’t know what to do next besides finish the Pokédex and do Perrin’s quest. I’ve (unfortunately) seen glimpses of stuff with the professors but idk how to get that yet :/ And I still have to get the paradox and final peach legendary.

Overall, story was pretty great, had some holes and…didn’t really explain much about how Terra crystals connect to the Time Machine (again, I’ve only beaten the main plot so maybe the hinted professor thing tells us more?) and what Terapagos really is.

Anyways I caught mine in a beast ball and named it Amaterasu (heavenly shining).

[highladyluck]

Season 2, Episode 5 Liveblog

“Finished pouting?” Never. Suroth has never finished pouting in her life

Egwene says “These colors don’t run!”

I’m sorry but I laughed at Lanfear’s outfit

Grolm time! I love the Seanchan theme it’s so creepy

We have handtalk!

Ahahahahahaha damn they are really going for the Whitecloak and Rand parallels (uniting everyone under our banner to fight the shadow)

Interesting scarification(?) on Turak’s bald head- are they coding him as imperial family? I forgot what his canonical relationship to the throne was

It's manicure time for Suroth's coke nails

Oh hai, it’s our buddy Fain

I forgot that Turak knew the box code (as did book!Lanfear) and that reports of him having the Horn would have gone back to Seanchan

True Power is very useful here

Oh my god you have horse girl Moiraine killing horses (like that’ll stop Lanfear)

I like how she vaporized his head

Omg I love Lanfear’s utter disdain

Perrin is very mad right now, love to see it

“You can’t run from what you are” but the boys are all sure as hell are going to try lmao

Moiraine like ‘it’s time for very bad news, are you keeping moving? good good’

‘If they’re all released we’re doomed’ (Look I’m gonna tell you a secret, they kinda suck, you guys will probably do ok)

Hopper is like ‘I’m on babysitting duty, I have no choice’

I hope we get Gaul but I will take… holy shit that is a smoking hot Aviendha

Omg omg is that Dain Bornhald? ill-met by moonlight

Perrin’s like ‘I do not understand and I am now officially in jailbreak mode, please leave any friendly warnings with my wolf’

It’s not a coincidence that there are Aiel and Seanchan, it’s the plot lmao (also the apocalypse)

I love Lanfear talking to herself so so much! Eat that scenery, Lanfear! Eat it for the woman and the man who no longer can eat things because you sewed their mouth shut and popped their head like a pimple, respectively

Browns Browns Browns

In the Ways again…

Liandrin, are you gonna try to recruit Nyneave? Let me rephrase that. Do you think you will SUCCEED in recruiting Nyneave?

Huh, tying the oaths to Artur Hawkwing, I kinda like that

Nihilism, baby!!! Oh I love Nyneave so much

Suroth is not having a good day

“Finished pouting?” Never. Suroth has never finished pouting in her life

“And plunge the Empire into civil war?” 👀👀👀 It’s fine they have spares

Lmao Suroth in a power struggle with Ishy is very fun

If you keep calling the last battle early, no one is going to believe you when it really is the last battle, Ishy

“People shouldn’t be in cages” that’s a book line!

She is so hot help

Ooooh I love the Aiel theme

The music this season is so good!!!

Dain with his big axe and Perrin with his hammer

The camera on the battle scenes is characteristic by now- feels very ‘in it’

Lanfear like ‘ah my Tel'Aran'Rhiod propaganda is working’

Congrats Moiraine now everyone in your family thinks Rand is your boytoy

Queen Galldrian and baby boy Barthanes!

Verin is like ‘oh hi! Did you know you have massive problems? :D’

It’s important to cross-check

Verin introducing Compulsion

Liandrin I think you don’t have a ton of leg to stand on criticizing the system when you’re about to feed these girls into it

Awww look she gave Nyneave a fighting chance

Egwene says “These colors don’t run!”

Avi like ‘wow you don’t even know what toh is, hoo boy’

I like their carpet mantles

Lmao Elayne’s priorities “They’re occupiers!” vs Nyneave “who cares, we need to get the fuck out of here” al’Meara

Verin is Columboing her way through the usual suspects

Omg Moiraine is actually being honest as well as truthful

And her sister is honest back

Rand needs protection! And he needs you because you’re his magic mom who gives him complexes

UM [this is Ishy cuddling up to Rand]

Subtlety thy name is not Lanfear

HUH (re Moiraine desperation)

Because you’re King Nihilist

MOGGY MENTION

TITS OUT FOR GRAENDAL

“The Boys” I disagree with Lanfear’s assessment of the girls (insane & vain/stupid) but she’s right about the boys, and it does set up the 'everyone in this office hates everyone else' vibes

See I told you, he’s King Nihilist

Booooooooooooo Mat’s not yours

Oh you have not seen anything yet re: breaking Rand

Oooooooooh Ishy prompted the omens for the Return?

Court of the Nine Moons mention! It's interesting having this be the first time we hear about it. Won't change things that much narratively unless certain other characters hear about it prior to the next season or so, though.

YES WE HAVE YELLOW AJAH I love it

Oh man this is going to hurt

Collars and leashes confirmed

Moiraine is correct that Lanfear probably won’t hurt him physically. However, she can absolutely hurt him emotionally so I don't think he's gonna be, uh, safe

Hmmmmm I don’t think I like the lack of mystery about why Lanfear turned, but otoh no living Aes Sedai is a reliable narrator about the Age of Legends, so I’m filing this under ‘reasonable but there might be a more interesting story later’

Staking Rand out like sexy sexy bait

Oooooh it’s symbolism time

I’m sorry but I laughed at Lanfear’s outfit

Oh episode 6 is going to be very hard to watch

[neuxue]

what about our lord and savior rand al'thor?

this one's hard mostly because it depends on when in the series you're looking at him. but up to and including early in Towers of Midnight because that's as far as I've got (do not @ me)

notes:

'lia his intensity should be off the charts' you say and I don't disagree with you but this is a series-wide average and intensity is not the same as stubbornness.

tragic backstory really just depends how far back you go :)

he really is just some guy but unfortunately he is the pattern-mandated protagonist of life, so. that's rough buddy.

whether he's good or terrible company depends on a set of factors complex enough that asmodean spent a book and a half trying and failing to work it out and resorted to musical therapy instead. RIP.

weapons or tools? this is more a perrin question but it really just depends when in the series you're asking him. either way, he is one.

enemy of god/at peace with life... see: dragonmount

he actually at one point announces that he plans to 'break the rules' but when you are the pattern-mandated protagonist of life who can literally bend the fabric of reality to your will mood, not to mention the de-facto ruler of multiple nations, the rules are kind of whatever you decide them to be. for better or worse. the only reason he's not farther to that side of things is the balefire habit.

the romance. oh, the romance. I love all the characters individually, I really do! But I am on record (extensively) as not being a fan of the romance in this series in general, and as much as I enjoy Rand interacting with and caring for and being cared for by his girlfriends, the romantic element of it almost always feels forced to me.

different sex is mostly because he and asmodean should have fucked at least once. i'm not sorry.

he gets my classic 'a better time' + 'a worse time' combination. His life sucks and everything hurts and I want him to heal and know peace and get to remember the shepherd named Rand al'Thor but I also want to watch him walk through agony and inferno, patiently forging his soul in the fires of pain. The duality of man.

He probably inspires the most godawful takes known to mankind BUT due to avoiding any and all WoT content until I finish the liveblog I can live in blissful ignorance.

I have not actually drawn any absentminded doodles on tabletops but I did write a song so I think that counts

meta-posting on main: do not @ me

[samuelroukin]

I'm not like writing it, at the moment anyway, but when I saw you posted the ask this just kinda. Fell out. 

"He likes it, Perrin," Mat says, sprawled on the couch and staring at the intricate ceiling. Burn bloody Tear, where everything is pretty atop and awful underneath. Perrin snorts, the wolf in him close to the surface, agitated and pawing since he walked in on- well what he walked in on. If he didn't know better, looking at how he sits, he'd say Mat was a bored, spoilt little lordling. Liked it, fat fucking chance, burning bloody ashes he did. But he can tell Mat's tense, looking away to avoid a fight, going loose and unthreatening,  trying to be honest the way he only manages sometimes. It doesn't help that the bruise Perrin gave him is blooming delicately on his cheekbone. It won't look so soft tomorrow. Rand probably won't either, because as soon as Perrin’s knuckles had made contact Rand's channeling had flared so bright it was a miracle they hadn't torn the city down to cinders. He's hiding himself somewhere, curled up and licking his wounds, and the turn of phrase turns over uncomfortably in Perrin's gut. "Liked it, did he? Just like he liked you putting frogs in his shirt, or stealing his clothes when we went swimming-" "Light Perrin! We were just boys then, this isn't like that-" "He can't say no to you! He's never been able to, and he was..." He wasn't, actually, saying no. In fact, it's been haunting Perrin, a little, the way he was holding his trembling thighs open while Mat ground the ball of his foot into- He shakes his head to clear it. It's the shock, it's all. They’re his oldest friends and if he ever thought of them fucking at all, which he hadn't, he wouldn't have imagined them doing it together, must less doing something like- Perrin shakes his head harder, knowing it makes him look like a dog from the aborted laugh Mat sucks in. If he's that cautious, trying to not upset him further, things are in fact proper fucked, and not in the fun way. "Perrin..." Mat tries again, licking his lips, being careful with his words. Not spewing filth like he was, earlier, looking down at Rand. "It's. I think it's more than just liking it, for him. If you could see him, Perrin, the way he..." "Oh so you're just being charitable then?" Perrin snaps, irritated. He did see some of it. He doesn't want to keep seeing it, in his mind's eye. Can't seem to stop. "No," Mat snorts, because it is patently ridiculous. "I like it plenty, me. But Rand... Perrin, I can't say it'll stop because. I can't. If you saw him, you'd know that." Perrin doesn't want that. Stops him cold to think of Rand, broken open, tear streaked, wet mouthed, begging for things he won’t name. "At least promise me you'll tell him you don't hate him, Perrin. Please. Be angry at me all you like but it'll kill him if-" "Of course I don't!" Perrin says, indignant, snapping at the suggestion that he might. "I'm not angry at you, either. Not really," Perrin says, scrubbing a hand over his face and wondering, for the first time, why he is this upset.

aw he's so concerned for rand <3 sweet boy

[pillowfriends]

The Shadow Rising new reader thoughts: chapters 31-35

(Full disclosure: as I write these, I am on chapter 42. I got way behind in writing up my reactions)

Chapter 31: Assurances

Alanna is a bit scary. Her talk about forcing a bond on the ta'veren boys was... uh... concerning. Verin remains my favorite Aes Sedai after Moiraine, and probably my favorite side character overall. She's so quietly sassy. "An easy manner?" Verin said, blinking. "Moiraine? I never noticed." I love her so much. RIP Owein aka Maksim.

The conversations between Perrin, Tam and Abell were nice. Wholesome dad behavior.

Fucking Whitecloaks again. Also I JUST learned that Padan Fain merged his soul with the Shadar Logoth guy. IN BOOK ONE. Who was going to tell me this???? I had to get it explained and I still don't really understand, but oh well.

Chapter 32: Questions to Be Asked

I have approximately zero thoughts about this chapter. I just don't find the Two Rivers reunions all that compelling. It's funny that Perrin still isn't suspicious of Faile's backstory even though the narrative has a blinking neon sign going "SHE'S SECRETLY A NOBLE."

Chapter 33: A New Weave in the Pattern

Lord Luc is 1) tall and 2) has red hair. Who does that sound like? RAND. I really can't be bothered to figure out that family tree, though. The book will tell me when it tells me.

Intrigue! Verin says to watch out for Alanna... I think there's at least a 30% chance Alanna tries to force-bond Perrin by the end of this book. I hope that doesn't happen because I like Alanna but at this point the possibility has been mentioned too many times for it to be nothing.

Every time I read the name Lewin, my brain just goes to Lews Therin and it's extremely unhelpful.

Chapter 34: He Who Comes with the Dawn

"Mat was a great complainer at small discomforts..." This is the most I've ever related to Mat. "Great complainer at small discomforts" should be my tagline.

This chapter actually fucks hard. The description of Rand's dragon tattoos was badass, and we got a lot of exposition on Rand's biological parents. Shaiel is a cool name for a cool woman, and I'm pretty sure Janduin was ta'veren.

MOIRAINE LAN CONTENT - Lan being worried for Moiraine in the arches, and then running down to scoop her up as soon as she came back! We got three whole paragraphs, I'm living. [Also then I read this missing scene fanfiction by that's very good.]

Chapter 35: Sharp Lessons

This chapter title is so good. Also Egwene seeing Elayne shirtless in Tel'aran'rhiod is very sapphic.

I want to slap Egwene at the end of this chapter. She's like "Oh, Moiraine looks upset from what happened in Rhuidean, I should check on her." Then when she checks on her and Moiraine spouts some frankly concerning sentiments about the Pattern and her life, Egwene is like "Wow what a bitch."

“The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and we are only the thread of the Pattern. I have given my life to finding the Dragon Reborn, finding Rand, and seeing him ready to face the Last Battle. I will see that done, whatever it requires. Nothing and no one can be more important than that.” Shivering despite her sweat, Egwene closed her eyes. The Aes Sedai did not want comforting. She was a lump of ice, not a woman.

This is fascinating because what Egwene hears is that Moiraine would sacrifice anything to help the Dragon's cause, but she completely skips over hearing that Moiraine has already sacrificed her entire life and everything she holds dear. This happens again and again with different characters and I feel feral every time I think about it. But I'm always feral about Moiraine so what else is new.

< last | next >

[hislopchino]

HIGNFY's Guest Webterview: David Mitchell

During this interview, David Mitchell crashed and rebooted himself several times for no identifiable reason.

Q1. The Radio Times recently named you "The Best Comedy Panel Show Guest". What do you think you do well? And what do you personally get out of appearing on them?

It's not for me to say. I enjoy doing panel shows because it's fun and off the cuff and you get to say whatever pops into your head and when it's funny it gets in the programme and when it's not they cut it out. The main shows I do - Peep Show and the sketch show for BBC2 - take a lot of time to prepare. You write for weeks and weeks and then you film it all very slowly and it's cold and it's long days. I do like doing that sort of thing, but it's very nice also to do something where it's like a fun chat in the evening.

Q2. You're most famous for your work with Robert Webb, but do you think you could have made it on your own? Would you have wanted to?

It's been great working with Rob as we get on very well and we have the same sense of humour. Writing as a partnership is a lot easier and I think when we perform together we're kind of greater than the sum of our parts, so I'm very grateful to that. I think we're better as a double act than we would have been singularly, and also having someone else there who's going through the same crisis of 'Is this going to work out? Is it not?' really helps.

Q3. Peep Show is now firmly established as one of the finest sitcoms of recent times, but if you could have played any role in any sitcom ever made, which one would you go for?

I think I'd quite like to have been CJ in the Fall and Rise or Reginald Perrin. I think that's a great part. I did some sketches actually in the show that's coming out next year which were basically like a spoof of a seventies sitcom where I got to play this sort of irascible boss character. I hasten to add it was a spoof of a much less good seventies sitcom than the Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin was, but I really enjoyed playing that kind of angry boss who's never satisfied his employees efforts in that very 70s, regimented business way.

Q4. You and Robert came under some criticism for your roles in the Mac vs. PC adverts, including accusations of selling out and betrayal. Why do you think people take their comedy and comedians so seriously? Do you think any of the criticism was justified?

I think there's plenty of justification in taking comedy seriously. God knows I do. I think people, particularly in this country, really care about comedy and that's why when they don't like a new show it gets absolutely ripped to shreds in the press, rather than people going 'Oh never mind. You had a go. Didn't work out'. It can be very demoralizing for people that make a comedy show that doesn't work and see such waves of hatred in the media and on the internet. But at the same time there's a plus side to that which is that I think people accept in this country that when a comedy show does work, it's the best show. It's better than when a drama works out. It's better than the best cookery programme or documentary. So the stakes are higher in comedy. I think people care about it more and so they get angry when they don't like it, and consequently they get angry when comedians from shows they like do things they don't think they should have done. I think the accusation of selling out is absurd. I mean our services were always for sale: we were paid to do Peep Show; we were paid to the adverts; and I don't think in any way by doing Peep Show we implied that we wouldn't have been up for a totally legitimate advertising campaign which is what we did, and which is what dozens of comedians have done for decades. So I don't remotely accept the criticism, but I think the intensity of it derives from the extent to which the British cherish comedy.

Q5. How do you think your style of comedy fits in with the general British 'scene'? Do you think you offer something different?

I hope Rob and I do things that are different, but we're not consciously groundbreaking - we want to be funny rather than different, but you have to be original or you won't be funny. In a weird way, although I'm very proud to do Peep Show, I think it's more of a trendy, zeitgeisty show than I ever imagined myself doing, and perhaps a lot of that comes from the writing which Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong do so brilliantly. But I like to think of being part of a classic British comedy tradition rather than a smash up the smash up the rule book? Rip up the rule book. Smash up the china shop of rules.

Q6. What is next?

Rob and I have got to write a book - coming out next Christmas - that's our next job because apparently to get a book out in time for Christmas you have to finish it in March. You'd think you'd just have to press 'print', but it seems it's more complicated than that. We've just finished a new series of the sketch show and that will be out in February on BBC2, we're doing Peep Show again next year, and we're working on the pilot of a sitcom Rob and I have written, so all being well we'll be shooting that next year as well.

[startgamc]

"Where did you get that?" It came across as more of a statement than a question as he pointed down towards Perrin's Growlithe, staring at it with wide eyes. "It looks..." He paused, doing his best to find the right words. It looked like a Growlithe, but also not. It was probably a regional variant, but certainly not one that he'd ever heard of before. Instead of finishing the statement he'd already started, he opted to ask another question entirely. "What type is it?" If it was anything like other variants, it was probably more than just a fire type.

( hope u feel better soon, tabs, here's a lanky gremlin and ill b back to bother other muses soon probably )

Perrin was a bit taken back at first. She'd been engrossed in what she was doing that she hadn't noticed the man approach until he startled her with his questions. "Huh?" She blinked, looking between him and her Growlithe. "Oh well..." By the time her brain caught up with what he was initially asking, he'd moved onto his next question.

"Ah he's Fire/Rock type." She lowered her camera, putting a hand on her hip.

"This variant is actually one that's practically nonexistent these days. It comes from ancient Hisui — or Sinnoh before its name changed. At least that's what my family says. We've been raising them for generations."

[zahri-melitor]

Ok, documenting this, so that I can come back and laugh at myself later.

My comments on The Eye of the World (having just finished it):

I am so glad I’d already seen the show, it’s given me a better handle on characters to help me push through.

Yeah I can see how I bounced off a previous attempt I think I made at reading this.

It’s such a Tolkien pastiche. We are Doing a Fellowship. Down to the beats of events. For instance: Watching the show - the Ways felt like a fast travel point. In the book, and I’m nodding along going “so this is ripped beat by beat from Moria, right” from the doors onwards.

Rand is far less annoying in the book though. I’m less aggravated by his life decisions here, even if he still is an incredibly Campbell Farmboy. Sweet naive boy needs to get with the plan soon though as naive why me stage gets irritating fast.

Balanced with that, can confirm, aside from Rand and Perrin, everyone else has less character development in this book than they pack in during the show. Maybe also Loial. Perrin’s about even I feel? And Rand’s better established than in the show.

Thom Merrilin’s intro in the show? I went “hello Strider”. Book is not disabusing me of this in any way.

Highly amused how much of Book!Moiraine’s plan is hinging on expecting three young adults to hang onto a fancy coin a mysterious lady gave them.

Turns out they are all very bad at hanging onto the coins. Who would have thought. Props to Perrin though, given he only lost his when CAPTURED BY WHITECLOAKS, unlike the other two who spent theirs at the first moment offered.

Speaking of the Whitecloaks, they really do just sort of show up and complain a lot, don’t they. “Everything is Dark. Aes Sedai are dark. Animals are dark. People running away are dark. Not answering my questions is definitely dark.”

So Loial is a baby Treebeard apparently. Huh.

OUTRAGED to discover that one of my motivations for reading the books, which was “finding out more details about what happened to the Aes Sedai rings Egwene stole back from the Whitecloaks” is a Sir Not Appearing In This Text event. That was a glorious moment! Maybe we get it later.

Honestly both Nynaeve and Egwene have far more purpose in the show. I hear that’s coming. I’m excited. They really aren’t getting much material yet.

Apparently everyone in the royal family of Andor are named after King Arthur legends. I await to find out if this is just Jordan amusing himself or if this is Character Foreshadowing.

However judging by the complicated explanation of Queen Morga(u)se’s marriage and husband, and the spoilers I’ve heard about the Damodred Family, it appears we are definitely in “hello welcome to Arthuriana” storylines.

Mild spoilers have spoiled me on the real reason Moiraine is going nowhere near that palace and it’s adorable that the innkeeper was trying. “You’ll be more comfortable at the palace surely” he says as Moiraine is like “my interest in being under the same roof as Elaida and some relatives is negative 1000”.

Speaking of Elaida, was HUGELY AMUSED to see her playing “oh I’m not paying attention, I have to knit, a thing that famously takes all my attention” games while that scene was going on, even as I was knitting while reading. “Didn’t look old enough to be knitting” Rand? YOU ARE A SHEPHERD surely every spare set of hands in your village is either spinning or knitting.

Actually honestly being spoiled enough to appreciate that the whole palace scene setup is going to be hilariously “oh duh” in hindsight is not a bad thing. Can already feel how misinterpreted everything was. Can’t wait to find out the exact fiddly details of it all.

Padan Fain is GOLLUM??? Ok I hope we get around to subverting this. I uh like how far more confident characterisation in the show better than what I assume is currently cringing and fawning to disabuse others of paying attention.

I cannot reiterate how hilarious it is that the Ways are just Moria. Like. Every time I thought we might take a moment to subvert something, Jordan just went for it harder.

“The Mountains of Dhoom”. You’re kidding me. You are KIDDING me. Jordan.

Ok so there does appear to be a bit of a “stop for tea” trope going on, but given my resilience to the amount of tea drank in Sharon Green’s The Blending, this is nothing. This is purely boiling water for comfort. Highly amused at Lan just having a normal camping stove setup is called out for special attention - they travel a LOT, a small fuel stove is smart instead of building fires for little tasks, people.

Still mildly convinced this book is Jordan’s answer to the “but why didn’t the Eagles fly straight to Mt Doom” question. It has that FEEL.

In any case, yeah the show helped me push through this, excited to see the women get to do more. I think, after reading, definitely agree the show was a stronger adaption? Feels like a bunch of wandering around got compressed, things that took a lot of on page writing were shown faster visually, characters got more to do, and cyphers actually got personality shown.

Anyway glad to get past the early instalment weirdness I hear is present.

[markantonys]

AMOL prologue-chapter 8 (note that i mention in this post a huge spoiler from the end of the book that i’m not supposed to know yet but do and i’ve put a warning in that bullet point, although i’m pretty sure 90% of my audience is people who’ve already read the whole series anyway jkfg)

some guy called isam is apparently in a jekyll-and-hyde situation with luc??? what is going on here on this day???? he’s in some creepy town and talking about stuff called Talentless and samma n’sei. to all of this, i say: NO! it is the last goddamn book, and i do NOT want to receive any new information unless it’s about how rand will be able to defeat the dark one and survive the last battle! and i CERTAINLY do not want to be introduced to any new characters, cultures, or lore! i am handing sanderson/rj’s notes a flowchart that reads: is this stuff vital information? if yes, you should’ve established it in an earlier book! if no, throw it in the trash and put me back into the actual important plotlines!

i do love how perrin is the most boring and useless of the main protagonists and his Archnemesis is the most boring and useless of the main antagonists (if slayer can even be considered a main antagonist, which i don’t think he can be). match made in heaven.

“my people live with a grave misconception of the world, bayle. in doing so, they create injustice.” good for egeanin, but why THE FUCK did this arc go to her and not tuon. MINDBOGGLING.

“something had to be done. and yet, in doing it, did she risk causing the entire empire to collapse?” unfortunately egeanin’s still on her “i’ll always be seanchan, must preserve the empire” bullshit for the moment but at least she’s made SOME real and good progress, unlike TUON.

“honestly, the way you lot [sleete and other warders] have been hovering over me lately makes me think of a mother bird who has lost an egg.” “lan is important to many of us, nynaeve sedai.” omg 🥺🥺 one of the books’ only glimpses at Warders As Community, i love it!

nynaeve rips egeanin a new one for letting the seanchan get the male a’dam and says she’s taking her to the amyrlin, and egeanin decides that she’s now da’covale to the amyrlin. the seanchan woman who will help egwene maybe??? i did predict it would be either egeanin or tuon since they’re the only 2 important seanchan women.

talmanes is going to die from a poisoned wound. oh no! anyway.

jkfjg i’m gonna say it.............talmanes was massively overhyped! i don’t dislike him at all, he’s fine and has had a couple fun moments, but i do not understand why people love him so much. i saw his name eeeeeeverywhere before i started the books! and then i kept going “maybe this will be the book when talmanes becomes my beloved” and it never happened. maybe THIS will finally be the book when talmanes becomes my beloved, but also my Becoming My Beloved doors closed around book 5 or 6 so i doubt it. i also don’t understand why people ship him with mat - it’s a perfectly fine ship that i have no issue with, it’s simply that every time the two of them interact i get such strong Heterosexual Bros vibes lmao in my eyes that dynamic is just so devoid of homoeroticism compared to mat and rand, for example (and rand and every male forsaken, for another example). they just remind me of the dril tweet “me n the boys eating messy sandwiches sneaking around with big binoculars looking for girls and letting every one know who runs this tj maxx”

actually maybe i do have a little issue with the ship, and it is that in some ways it takes the place of cauthor in mat’s life and does a worse/less compelling job of filling that role (as is the case with countless “brand new side character coming in after the first 5/6 books to fill a role that used to belong to main character and do a worse job” situations), and that makes me bitter.

aww aviendha’s in a sweat tent and misses wetlander baths! she is going to thrive in the avirandlayne throuple raising their six (6) babies in caemlyn endgame! even if it SHOULD only be two (2) babies since the quadruplets are cursed.

"why would the columns show a despair that cannot change? no. i refuse to believe it. rhuidean has always shown us what we needed to see. to help us, not destroy us. this vision must have a purpose as well.” bair giving me some much-needed hope!!!

“‘the car’a’carn has a...fondness for dramatic presentations,’ bair said, her tone itself fond. ‘he’s like a crockobur who has toiled all night making a nest so that he can sing of it in the morning to all who will listen.’” WHY IS THIS THE MOST WHOLESOME THING I’VE EVER READ 😭 let rand be a stay-at-home papa bird and spend his time making nests and singing about them to all who will listen 2k22! also it’s throwing me back to egwene’s TSR line about “a boy with a lamb nestled inside his coat, proud as a rooster because he had driven off the wolf that tried to take it” which gave me insane emotional damage that to this day i have not recovered from.

okay, so now aviendha is ALSO at merrilor and both rand/avi AND rand/elayne have not bothered to go say hello to each other yet! i mean i guess avi had to talk to the wise ones urgently about rhuidean, but still!! she could’ve spared 5 seconds for kissing rand (and elayne)! he could’ve burst into the sweat tent to be like “hey i just sensed that my girlfriend whom i haven’t talked to in ages is in here”!

“‘her task was not just to teach him,’ amys said. ‘what i wouldn’t give to know that he was safely under the watchful eyes of a good woman.’ she looked at aviendha, face laden with meaning.” amys really said fuck min huh jkjdfg i’m howling!!!!

amys, after an entire month+ in arad doman watching min be plastered to rand’s side and sleep in his room every night: boy i sure wish rand had a good girlfriend min: um amys: is someone speaking?

it’s honestly crazy (and hilarious) how COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT min/rand is to EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER except the two of them and cadsuane. there are SO many people who have SEEN them together and KNOW they’re dating but STILL assume that rand/avi or rand/elayne is the relationship that matters. as they should! crazy and hilarious but also frustrating, since it proves time and time again how totally narratively unnecessary romantic min/rand was. they could’ve remained platonic friends and nothing about the story would be different, except for the many things that would be better!

“‘he will be mine,’ aviendha said, firmly. but not for you, amys, or for our people. she was shocked at the strength of that sentiment within her. she was aiel. her people meant everything to her. but this choice was not their choice. this choice was hers.” ❤️❤️❤️ we LOVE the contrast with min always complaining that loving rand was the pattern’s choice rather than her own (which eventually is intended to be romantic in a “fate itself wanted us together we couldn’t have resisted if we’d tried” sort of way, but i for one have always been firmly in the “the inherent romance of love being a choice” camp).

also, it’s so bizarre how common a take “rand/elayne and rand/aviendha only happened because the pattern made them both be into rand because he needed political things from them in order to defeat the dark one, while rand/min is the genuine relationship that would’ve happened on its own anyway” when “the pattern (slash prophetic knowledge thereof) forced it and they never would have looked twice at each other otherwise” is literally genuinely EXACTLY what happened with rand/min, while elayne and avi both fell for rand naturally rather than forcing feelings Because Fate Said So as min did. and rand is very much attracted to both elayne and avi before they show interest in him, whereas min’s just kind of an “oh, and min” afterthought way waaaaaaay in the back of his mind until she’s literally sitting in his lap kissing him and making him go “huh maybe i do want to kiss her” like he never would’ve had anything more than a subconscious fleeting interest in her if she hadn’t pursued him so aggressively, and she wouldn’t have pursued him if she hadn’t had a viewing that they would fall in love someday. whereas randlayne and avirand happened 100% organically on both sides! but sure, those are the two that the pattern forced and min/rand is the organic one.

haha the audiobook said “[kymer’s] uncle han” but when i went to the print book to type up my quotes i saw it says “her sister-father han” fascinating! the book i have does appear to be the original first publication hardcover version, so maybe that was a last-minute edit after they’d already given the book over to the audiobook narrators to record.

bair advises avi to change the names of one of her kids (from the names that she learned in the vision) in hopes that that will help avert the bad future. or she could just NOT GET PREGNANT WITH THE KIDS AT ALL, BAIR like oh my god this is such an obvious solution! i’d be totally fine if they brought it up but dismissed it as infeasible/undesirable for whatever reason (maybe they point out that heartleaf tea isn’t 100% effective, or maybe aviendha really wants to have kids and isn’t willing to make that sacrifice, though given her characterization i would find that hard to believe), but it’s just so weird to not even ADDRESS this completely obvious thing that they could EASILY control in order to prevent those future visions from coming to pass. again, it would’ve been a MUCH different situation if aviendha was already pregnant when she saw the visions. but of course, that would’ve required rand to speak more than 2 words to her between LOC-AMOL which was obviously impossible to achieve 🙄 like, they could’ve fucked in arad doman and then avi finds out she’s pregnant immediately after she sees the visions and is like “oh shit that future’s already happening” that would’ve been very emotional!

also it’s wack (wack narratively speaking, that is - ofc these things do happen irl and in-world it could simply be that min’s always drinking heartleaf tea and elayne and avi didn’t) that rand knocks up elayne after 1 time having sex with her and avi after 2 times (i assume, as they fuck for the second time later in this chapter chunk), yet he’s fucking min constantly and she never gets pregnant. really does lend weight to @butterflydm’s depressing theory that rj (whether consciously or not) wanted rand’s live-in sex-providing girlfriend to ~maintain her figure~ and be super hot and unencumbered by negative pregnancy side effects and thus available for sex at all times while the 2 sidepieces he never sees are given the job of being his baby machines.

it turns out that the weird stuff going on at the black tower is channelers being forcibly turned to the shadow by that 13 channeler-and-fade combination (or whatever the combo is, it said it somewhere in androl’s section but i already forget and don’t care enough to skim through it again looking for the sentence). huh i forgot that that was a thing. back in TGH i thought that channelers being forcibly turned to the shadow was gonna be a much bigger problem than it ended up being lmao i don’t envy sanderson having to at the eleventh hour bring back and wrap up all these plot threads that rj forgot about/ignored for 10 books and annoying the reader (or THIS reader anyway) by getting into whole new sideplots on the eve of the last battle.

also forgot moghedien is still alive. she’s been horribly punished for her failures, as has lanfear, as has graendal (who was resurrected into a super ugly body). female villains getting endlessly tortured while male villains get a nice clean death is so real.

“demandred wants only one thing. al’thor.” demandred that’s gay. and also relatable.

my man demandred shows up to the meeting, hello king! maybe we’ll see you for more than 5 pages in this book.

moghedien’s all “graendal’s only weapon was her looks so now that she’s ugly she’ll be helpless” this is exactly what graendal, who is secretly the biggest brained forsaken, wanted the others to think! i’m sure a bad bitch won’t let this ugly new body stop her.

taim is made a forsaken, whoa didn’t know you could do that! so now there’s 5 left: taim, moridin, demandred, moghedien, and graendal.

if taim was gonna become a forsaken anyway, why the fuck couldn’t he have just been demandred?? what has demandred been doing this whole time that he couldn’t have been taim? we need to condense some plotlines and characters here, people! on the other hand, demandred is sexy and taim is not sexy so i wouldn’t want them to be the same person. can’t explain that any further, it’s just their respective vibes.

“‘just remember my requirement: i face al’thor on the field of battle. his blood is mine, and no one else’s.’ ...you will have competition with [taim], demandred, moghedien thought. he wants al’thor nearly as much as you do.” everyone wants rand carnally!!!! “demandred had been changing lately. once, he wouldn’t have cared who killed lews therin - so long as the man died. what made demandred insist on doing the deed himself?” he wants to fuck rand so bad it makes him look stupid. also, moghedien, you don’t have any room to judge other people’s antagonistic homoerotic obsessions jkjfg

moridin says that this is the end, so “if you have plots, bring them to completion” a nice little bit of fourth wall breaking lmao

and i have finished my last WOT prologue ever thank fuck!!

rand and perrin are in rand’s tent together catching up and laughing awww! but where the fuck is mat!!!!

rand is spying on elayne and suspects that she’s also spying on him. he hears that elayne has been wakened late at night, suspects she’s receiving urgent news, and............sends spies to find out what it is instead of just going to ask her himself??? what the fuck???? what is this absolute batshit insanity????? that is your GIRLFRIEND rand???? to whom you’re literally soulbonded???? why the fuck are you guys spying on each other rather than going to ask each other what your plans are????? i can’t. i can’t!!!!

“‘she’ll have someone [spying on us], balwer,’ rand said with a smile. ‘she all but taught me how to do this, after all.’” okay that IS cute. but it still makes no sense that they would go to all the effort of setting up spies in each other’s camps instead of just talking to each other!!!! i love a sexy machiavellian relationship of two political powerhouse partners spying on and mistrusting each other as much as the next person, but that has never been the vibe of *rand and elayne’s* relationship.

rand has finally found out about the babies............OFFSCREEN and seemingly from hearsay rather than from elayne or one of his friends, what the fuck!!! why couldn’t we see the moment of him finding out! why the hell did elayne not find him immediately at merrilor to tell him! why the everloving FUCK did rand not find HER immediately to talk to her when he heard the news through the grapevine! more absolute batshit insanity. a few pages in and the amount of suspension of disbelief being asked of me vis-a-vis randlayne’s relationship is already cracking my skull in half.

“pregnant. pregnant with his children. light! he had only just learned of it. why hadn’t she been the one to tell him?” i don’t know maybe because you DIPPED ON HER WHILE SHE WAS SLEEPING AND NEVER BOTHERED TO STAY IN CONTACT WITH HER OR TRAVEL BACK TO SEE HER DESPITE AN ABUNDANCE OF OPPORTUNITIES TO DO SO, RAND. at least he does go on to acknowledge “he hadn’t exactly made himself easy to find” so okay. but he also thinks that she wouldn’t have told him because she would’ve felt his emotions while he was in The Bad Place and “wouldn’t have wanted to confront him with a pregnancy when he’d been in such a state” which is a) absolutely not true, elayne never once had a thought along those lines and b) totally unfair to elayne, to say that while rand’s in a bad state she would consider being his partner and fellow parent of their kids Too Hard and would just opt not to tell him. avoiding rand when being his partner gets hard is a min move, not an elayne move.

“still, it was a shock. i’m going to be a father, he thought, not for the first time. yes, lews therin had had children, and rand could remember them and his love for them. it wasn’t the same. he, rand al’thor, would be a father. assuming he won the last battle.” baby boy!!!! and these are the only thoughts we get from rand on the subject for now, smh i’ve been waiting for BOOKS for him to find out about the babies, i need more reaction and emotions than this!!! i expect nothing and i’m still let down!!!

sidenote: since the show’s beefed up dad!rand (and dad!LTT judging by the fact that his first and thus far only scene showcased him as a dad rather than as a husband) i hope they’ll dwell more on the tragedy of LTT killing his own kids instead of solely ilyena, as it is in the books.

"i [perrin] have people close to elayne. people who keep watch on things for me.” “let’s go talk to them. i have a great deal to do tonight, but...yes, i can’t let this slip.” RAND??? JUST GO???? TALK TO ELAYNE DIRECTLY??????? jesus christ i’m having a fucking aneurysm over this djfgkj IT’S ABSOLUTE BATSHIT INSANITY!!!!!

when gawyn tells elayne that she needs rest: “thank you very much for the advice, which i will ignore, as i ignored birgitte when she said the same thing.” JSKDFJG GO OFF!!! absolute icon. Good For Her.jpg

now elayne is once again arguing that they should let rand break the seals, which is what she said when egwene first shared the news but then in her povs in the second half of TOM she was thinking that it was crazy and they couldn’t let rand do something so stupid. make up your mind, sanderson!

when egwene refers to “one of rand’s crackbrained schemes”: “elayne smiled fondly. light, but she was smitten.” (this is egwene pov calling her smitten not elayne calling herself smitten lmao) and then later “‘he has a fair bit of gleeman in him,’ elayne said, again fondly.” matrandlayne is the ideal throuple because they all adore crackbrained schemes and gleeman-like dramatic showmanship! and avi is the ideal fourth polycule member because she can kick some sense and dignity into them.

guybon brings news to elayne of the attack on caemlyn and when she praises him for his actions, he says “give your reward to the men of the band, your majesty. it was their work.” yeah now i AM retroactively glad that mat and the band weren’t involved in elayne claiming the throne in canon (tho i adore it in fics) because it would’ve turned into this same sort of “mat/talmanes and the band being the heroes of the day and getting all the credit” lmao

“‘here, let us link. i’ll lend you my strength.’ nynaeve looked shocked. ‘mother?’ ‘you are better at healing than i.’ egwene smiled. ‘i may be amyrlin, nynaeve, but i am still aes sedai. servant of all.’” ❤️❤️ egwene is The Best, Truest Aes Sedai, and The Best, Truest Amyrlin. she embodies everything they are supposed to be, as opposed to cadsuane who embodies everything that's wrong/broken with the system. i sure am glad that it’s egwene and not cadsuane who’s amyrlin. i SURE AM glad. sob.

perrin says that in blacksmith-ing if something shatters it’s better to start again than try to fix it, and rand uses the same thing to talk about the seals. “rand, that’s the most reasonable thing anyone has said on this topic. have you explained it that way to egwene?” “she’s not a blacksmith, my friend.” “she’s smart, rand. smarter than either of us. she’ll understand if you explain it the right way.” thank you perrin!!!!! this whole time rand’s been like “ugh why won’t egwene see REASON” it’s because you literally didn’t explain shit to her, you just showed up at the tower and said “i’m gonna break the seals, see you in a month” and left again immediately.

rand learns about caemlyn and once again, bafflingly, talks to perrin about how they can’t let elayne leave rather than going to talk to elayne herself

“rand could feel [elayne], of course, through the bond. her spike of alarm let him know that she’d received this information. should he go to her? perhaps he could send min.” ??????????????????????????? you just learned that your girlfriend’s HOME has FALLEN TO TROLLOCS and you think of sending your other girlfriend to go talk to her in your place because you’re too busy to check on her and see if she’s okay or needs anything?????? i hate to say it but Deadbeat Dad Rand IS becoming tragically real, christ

and rand now suddenly feels avi arrive at merrilor, so this must take place slightly before avi’s prologue scene. i can report that he, of course, has no thought of going to find her and say hello or anything.

“the attack might unnerve elayne, make her more eager to act. perhaps this will make her more vulnerable to agreeing with my plan. this could be a good thing.” WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK RAND!!!! why is randlayne being done so FILTHILY in this chapter!!!! at least perrin frowns at this statement and rand thinks “how quickly i’ve learned to use others” so at least he’s being narratively called out for being a shithead here, BUT STILL this is crazy. genuinely from this chapter alone, bar the lines explicitly stating that elayne is pregnant with rand’s babies, i would have no idea that he cares about her at ALL let alone that she’s his COMMITTED SOULBONDED GIRLFRIEND i hate it here!!! my sole consolation is that min has been asleep offscreen the whole chapter and rand’s had no significant thoughts about her, so at least i don’t have to have min/rand rubbed in my face while randlayne is dragged through the mud.

rand also says “i thought she had that thing guarded!” about the caemlyn waygate, so not only is he a) not bothering to see if elayne’s okay after her home was attacked and b) thinking that her being upset and vulnerable over this could be a good thing for his plans, he is now c) blaming her for the attack happening.

“of all those to turn to the shadow, demandred’s betrayal seemed the most tragic. the man could have been a hero. should have been a hero. i’m to blame for that, too, rand thought. if i’d offered a hand instead of a smirk, if i’d congratulated instead of competed. if i’d been the man then that i am now...” oh.............OH! that is some good good tragic doomed lovers to enemies shit!!! (but also, what sort of man ARE you now, rand? the kind who doesn’t bother to find his partner to say hello and talk about their babies after not having seen her in months and not having known she was pregnant until just now? the kind who doesn’t spare a single thought for how his partner must feel about tragic news from her home except to think that it would be super helpful to him if she were vulnerable about it?)

okay rand FINALLY thinks that he’s going to send to elayne and also send help to evacuate the city, fucking finally, rand! but he’s still just Sending To her rather than sending HIMSELF to her, of course.

moving on from bullying rand (for the moment). 2 chapters in and this is already my mood:

IT’S THE LAST DAMN BOOK!!! STOP WASTING MY TIME WITH RANDOS I DON’T CARE ABOUT!!!!!! you guys know very well how much i’ve always hated side character plotlines, so you can imagine how enraged i am about this kjfg like man, call me rand because the amount i DO NOT CARE about what’s happening at the black tower is ASTRONOMICAL (okay maybe i’m not done bullying rand)

thankfully, next we get avilayne reunion!!! 🥰🥰

as soon as aviendha hears about the attack on caemlyn she goes right to find elayne to talk to her about it. rand take notes.

“[elayne] looked very much in control, very strong, her red-gold hair practically glowing in the lamplight...aviendha was pleased to se the fire in her first-sister’s eyes.” proud and awestruck wife aviendha!!! convenient source of light that makes elayne’s hair glow!!! also, reminds me of the matlayne reunion when mat was describing how radiant elayne looked and how her hair glowed in the firelight. this is elayne’s harem, we’re all just living in it!

then when elayne insists to the lords upon the hard but necessary course of not trying to retake caemlyn: “her face was a mask, her voice as cold as good steel.” rand parallels!! insert my usual ranting about how we were robbed of rand and elayne dealing with the burdens of leadership etc together.

aviendha thinks that elayne always knows “the most interesting curses” aviendha is the little spiderman to elayne’s medium spiderman to mat’s big spiderman when it comes to swearing jkfjg my loves! that’s what a polycule should be all about.

as SOON as she realizes avi is there, elayne sends every single person out of the tent to leave the two of them in private. so that she can kiss her wife!

“i’ve reached the point in my pregnancy where i can channel again reliably” that seems like awfully convenient timing for the last battle lmao was it mentioned initially that channeling would be reliable again in the second trimester? i think i remember monaelle saying it would just get worse and worse as the pregnancy progressed. overall this was just a totally useless thing that didn’t end up affecting the plot in any significant way - there were many times when drama and danger could have been heightened by elayne finding herself unable to grasp the source, but they were never taken and the source was always there when she TRULY needed it.

elayne receives a LETTER from rand rather than rand just walking 10 feet into her camp to talk to her in person, christ almighty. “he insists that i return to caemlyn to see to my people...light, this is clever. he’s obviously trying to bully me into staying. there’s a touch of daes dae’mar in this.” “you seem proud. yet i gather this letter is only one step away from being insulting!” “i am proud. and angry at him. but proud because he knew to make me angry like that. light! we’ll make a king out of you yet, rand.” again, this is cute and funny on the one hand but on the other hand is the sort of Machiavellian Relationship that does not fit with randlayne’s established vibes.

“a fire still burned behind those eyes of hers. elayne was a warrior, as true a one as aviendha had ever known.” ❤️❤️

avi asks elayne for permission to fuck rand tonight since they may not get another chance. elayne gives it and asks if avi’s spent time with min, to which avi replies “not enough, and under other circumstances i would remedy that lack immediately. there is no time...i do think she feels better about me. she did me a great honor in helping me understand the last step to becoming a wise one. it may be appropriate to bend some of the customs.” ugh it’s always been so annoying how min just.......gets to be an exception to the first-sister thing. aviendha was so staunch that she couldn’t be with rand until she and elayne were first-sisters, yet min is basically a STRANGER to her, and a stranger who has demonstrably no interest in learning about or respecting aiel ways let alone participating in them, or even in sharing rand with the two of them at all, but gets to have avi going “eh it’s fine we can make an exception.” min hasn’t earned that!!! and her “great honor” of helping avi with the wise ones was a complete accident lmao all she did was embarrass avi so much by asking why she was doing pointless punishments (which she would’ve known was a shaming question if she’d had any interest in learning about aiel ways) that avi snapped at the wise ones. min had no intention of helping her and never even realized that she did help her!

for real, elayne broke her goddamn back to make this whole polycule work and gets 0 time with rand, while min didn’t put in an ounce of effort (and actively dislikes that she has to let elayne and avi take part in the relationship) and gets to be with him all by herself for over half the series.

it’s very hard to think about the concept of min being likable to me when i’ve been so deep in the trenches of book!min sucking for so long now, but if i try to think objectively then there are some very easy fixes the show can make. 1) don’t make her change her style and personality for rand (and it’s 100% guaranteed the show will indeed not do this, seeing as it’s 2022 and nobody in their right mind would think that shit is acceptable), 2) make her eventual giving in to falling in love with rand feel natural and as a result of getting to know and like him as a person rather than just a random decision she makes while miles away from him Because Fate Said So, 3) get rid of the whole “hunting rand down and seducing him into a relationship” grossness that characterized TFOH and LOC, 4) get rid of her reluctance to share him and make her equally as on board with a poly relationship as elayne and avi are, 5) make her actually spend time with elayne and especially avi and form meaningful relationships with them. and possibly 6) don’t give her such a disproportionately large amount of exclusive screentime with rand while avi and elayne get shafted, but this would not bother me AS much if fixes 4 and 5 had been made, because it COULD actually feel wholesome, like min taking care of rand on elayne and avi’s behalfs while they aren’t able to be with him (and how wonderful would it be if min and rand actually TALKED about elayne and avi during this time, and did so fondly and lovingly!), rather than like she’s trying to hog him all to herself and prove that she’s his One Real Partner.

me: it’s so easy to fix min [gives a whole list of fixes that require completely overhauling her character and relationship with rand]

anyway, elayne and avi plan to talk to min before sending avi to fuck rand, and we later find out that they did so offscreen. just like with the convo about the decision to bond him, we don’t get to actually see the 3 of them sitting down together and talking about rand and their shared feelings for and relationships with him. it’s so weird!! such a wasted opportunity!! i don’t fucking care about androl and pevara, can i please see elayne, avi, and min having a scene all together for ONCE???

once again so so so so grateful for rafe’s commitment to interpersonal relationships in the show, this shit would NEVER happen there! nor would any of the Randlayne Batshit Insanity i’ve been complaining about in this post.

i have read 13 books. i have slogged through thousands of pages and read or listened to every single word, even if i wasn’t always paying super close attention. but androl and pevara’s plotline has for the first time made me resort to skipping scenes and reading summaries instead. no regrets! congratulations, androl and pevara, you’ve finally broken me when not even perrin’s plotlines could. i’m not going to read a single one of their scenes for the rest of the book, i’ve decided. i just want to be done with this series jkdjfg not that i haven’t enjoyed reading it (during certain books and plotlines, anyway), but good god i just want to be done.

“it was still hard to get used to the idea of tam being there, just one camp over. rand had dined with him earlier. it had been awkward, but no more so than expected for a king inviting his father from a rural village to ‘dine.’ they had laughed about it, which had made him feel much better.” 🥺

but also, i see how it is, rand has the time to invite tam over for dinner and perrin over to hang out from a different camp, but not elayne or aviendha 😤 what a perfect opportunity to introduce his dad to his other two girlfriends that he’s just not taking. i bet MIN was invited to family dinner.

avi arrives to see rand thank god!! but his reaction is so baffling. “how have i taken you from [the maidens]?” he says as if he does not know full well that they got into a committed relationship in WH. “light. she was beautiful. but so was elayne...and so was min...and...he was a fool. a light-blinded fool. ‘aviendha,’ he said. ‘i love you, i truly do. but that’s a problem, burn it! i love all three of you. i don’t think i could accept this and choose-’” like literally what the FUCK is happening???? rand!!! do you not remember the ENTIRE CONVERSATION the four of you had where you said you loved all of them and felt bad about it, and they reassured you that they all loved you and were happy to share you, and then they all bonded you as their warder and avi and min gave their blessing for you to fuck elayne?? what the fuck is happening right now!!!! that WH scene truly had ZERO impact on rand and it’s so absolutely absurd. this is beyond asking me to suspend disbelief, it’s straight up trying to gaslight me into thinking that that WH scene never happened!

but the good news is that “she was beautiful, but so was elayne, and so was min, and..................” gives me room to interpret that he’s subconsciously thinking “and so is mat” jdkfjg

also, interesting that rand is fretting that sleeping with avi now would be A Decision when he’s been sleeping with min for months...............implying perhaps that min has always been just sex to him and not A Decision about which of the three he loves 👀

“‘we are first-sisters, rand al’thor, elayne and i. when we get to know her better, min will join us. we three will share in all things.’ first-sisters? he should have suspected, following that odd bonding. he raised a hand to his head. we will share you, they had said to him.” WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK THAT CONVERSATION WAS ABOUT, RAND???? JESUS CHRIST currently saying with my whole chest that every time WOT women complain about men being stupid and unobservant is 100% justified. jesus christ.

for my own sanity, i must assume that this is all a result of sanderson Just Not Getting the polycule or at least avirand specifically (since their relationship is by far the worst in terms of “suddenly experienced a total reset in TGS and acted like WH never happened”) and that it would’ve been much different if rj had written it. i don’t like to lean on “this would’ve been better if rj had written it” too much because most of the time the things i’m annoyed about are things he’d already established that sanderson had to run with and claiming that it’s a Sanderson Problem is just using him as a scapegoat for rj’s own bad storytelling decisions, but in this instance i do think it’s true. even as little as avirand and randlayne got in LOC-KOD, i do remember noticing a marked decrease in rand thinking/caring about avi and elayne in TGS which got even worse in TOM since we didn’t have any rand pov.

“is this so terrible a thing to consider, being with the three of us?” “i want it, aviendha. i should hide myself because i do. but the pain...” “you have embraced it, have you not?” “it is not my pain i fear. it is yours.” “are we so weak, then, that we cannot bear what you can?” 👏👏👏 “of course not. but how can i hope for pain in those i love?” “the pain is ours to accept.” 👏👏👏

god rand NEEDED this kind of “yes you might die, and it will hurt us, but that’s our choice to make and we’ll bear that pain” outlook from a partner SO MANY BOOKS AGO instead of min’s constant insistences that she Won’t Let Him die at tarmon gai’don. not saying it isn’t admirable to keep up that kind of optimism or that it isn’t helpful to rand for his partners to have hope for a future with him, but he really needed avi’s different perspective as well to balance it out.

“be warned; it is all three of us, or none of us. we will not let you come between us.” good on you avi but i am 100% certain that min would gladly let it come between you if rand wanted only her lmaooo

also, this seems like the kind of convo they should all 4 be having together (since it APPARENTLY didn’t stick for rand the first time they had it in WH). this brings me to my other point, that the whole “the 3 women discuss who gets to fuck rand today and send that person to him” (which we also kinda saw in WH tho at least they did all talk to him first even if the women had pre-agreed to leave elayne alone with him after) is SO AWKWARD. HUGE harem vibes. like please just have an orgy all together, for fuck’s sake.

i don’t feel strongly about min having romantic relationships with elayne and avi in the show like i do about elayne and avi having one with each other, and in fact it WOULD be kinda cool to see at least one platonic sibling-spouse dynamic, but if all 4 are all dating each other it would remove so much weirdness when it comes to sex lmao especially when you also add in the fact that the warder bonds allow them to feel each other fucking rand! maybe we could do rand dating all 3, elayne dating all 3, and avi-min sibling-spouses, because it would be easier to make min/elayne happen than min/avi since they spend a lot of time together early in the series and establish a close bond early on that could be given more screentime later by including min in more of elayne’s plotlines instead of exclusively rand’s (also, show!min gives off immense queer vibes, whereas Straight Male Gaze Serving book!min could never), and it would still preserve a sibling-spouse dynamic which IS a unique dynamic that i really love and would love much more if it didn’t feel like such a big No Homo the way it does in the books, which would be accomplished by showing that women can be each other’s wives too and aren’t strictly limited to sister-wives (overall i am so so excited for the show to give us a more explicitly queer version of aiel culture as well as brother-husbands in addition to sister-wives! they haven’t actually said they’ll do that but i’ll eat my hat if they don’t.) okay where was i. oh it would also be good because avi and min being bona fide first-sisters would give them their own unique and meaningful relationship with each other, which is sorely needed. ofc i’d prefer the show just do avirandlayne throuple and keep min/rand as platonic friends because that is so much easier and more natural and works so much better in all respects, but given the “3 beautiful women” viewing and the fact that fans would riot if their beloved Rand Girlfriend didn’t get to bang him in the show, i know that won’t happen.

and so, overall, i hate min and min/rand but i really WANT the show to make me able to like them, for my own sanity if nothing else because it was bad enough having to read so many books heavily featuring a ship i hate and i don’t want to go through that again in the show jdkjfg i’m hoping by the time min/rand begins in the show in earnest it’ll be long enough since i’ve read the books that my “flying into a rage every time i so much as hear min’s name” fight or flight instinct will no longer be so strong.

and kinda same with tuon and mat/tuon, actually. villain redemption arcs (especially when Tough Childhoods and Toxic Families are involved) and hero/villain ships are my bread and goddamn butter and i was so disappointed by the teeeeeeerrible execution in the books because i think tuon could have emerged as one of my favorite characters/character arcs and mat/tuon as one of my favorite canon ships if it had been done in a way that fulfilled the fantastic potential of all the godtier tropes that form the basis of it.

okay i’ve gotten SO off track, but all the s2 stuff from nycc has me hyped up and in show mode! back to the book.

i remember somebody reblogged a post of mine a while back and were saying that aviendha doesn’t know what consent is (i think the original post was an ask where we were discussing avi and birgitte’s terrible reactions to seeing tylin harass mat at the end of ACOS) because the first time she had sex with rand, she took advantage of him while he was half-dead from hypothermia, and the second time, she forced him to have sex with her by bringing maidens to surround the tent and kill him if he refused. that interpretation of their first time i knew straightaway was bullshit bc i’d already read TFOH (they were BOTH half-dead from hypothermia and in fact avi was in WAY worse shape than rand was, which was why he got naked to warm her up in the first place) but i was like “i’m also skeptical of the second one but will reserve judgment until i read it for myself.” i can now say that yes, it’s bullshit lmao i don’t even know how that person could POSSIBLY have come to that conclusion. the maidens arrive of their own accord and avi is kinda embarrassed that they did so, and they’re just yelling and not making ANY attempt whatsoever to threaten rand in ANY way (okay there is “several were screaming about what they’d do to certain parts of his body when they caught him” but avi explains right away that they don’t mean it and the whole thing is just a symbolic practice, and besides, they’re yelling at him for taking avi away from them, not yelling at him to try and force him to sleep with her). and rand and avi do have a little exchange wherein it appears avi is calling the shots and rand just has to do what she says, but it’s clearly just flirty banter that our subby boy rand is very much into (and he’s actually the one who first initiates physical intimacy by pulling her close). you know who DID explicitly think that she would bring the maidens in to kill rand if he tried to not have sex with her? MIN during their first time in ACOS.

“aviendha sniffed. ‘enough talk. you will bed me now.’ ‘light!’ he said. ‘a little forward, aren’t you? is that the aiel way of doing things?’ ‘no,’ she said, blushing again. ‘i just...i am not very skilled with this.’ ...he laughed and pulled her close. she was stiff, initially, but then melted against him. ‘so, do i go fight them first?’ he nodded toward the maidens.” like that’s all so cute! doesn’t read at all nonconsensual to me, it’s just how they flirt! and rand is 100% onboard!

the only thing i didn’t care for was “you three decided this, didn’t you? which of you came to me?” and “i’m never going to get to choose, am i?” to both of which aviendha shakes her head, because while i can see the gender role reversal rj was going for with the 3 women deciding everything about rand between them and he just has to go along with it, it has always annoyed me. but after the second head shake is when rand laughs and pulls avi close, so i guess HE has no problem with it, which is what matters! still, defs looking forward to the show making this not only a true polycule rather than a harem, but a polycule between 4 equal partners rather than rand never being involved in conversations or decisions about his own relationship.

moridin meets rand in a dreamshard and says “i knew that if i created this place, you would join me in it. you can’t keep away from me. the pattern won’t allow it. we are drawn together, you and i. time after time after time. two ships moored on the same beach, beating against one another with each new tide.” oh my god. FELLAS. lines that would 100% fit into a romantic relationship (if a rather toxic one) with no alterations needed! this has gotta be his gayest line to rand yet, which is saying something.

moridin says he’ll kill “you, and the golden-haired one, and the aiel woman, and the little dark-haired-” and gets cut off before specifying woman, so i can interpret that he’s referring to mat as rand’s little dark-haired partner 😌 which serves both my #PutMatInThePolycule AND my #ShortKingMat agendas.

“he was reminded, in passing, of mornings during his youth, rising before dawn to milk the cow, which would need milking twice a day. eyes closed, he remembered the sounds of tam - already up - cutting new fence posts in the barn. remembering the chilly air, stomping his feet into his boots, washing his face with water left to warm beside the stove.” 😭😭😭

“‘light, aviendha! why do you need to sneak up on me in the first place?’ ‘for this,’ she said, then jumped forward, snatching his head and kissing him, her body pressed against his. he relaxed, letting the kiss linger.” 🥺🥺🥺 early morning kisses and then rand brings back showers from the AOL and they take a shower together! weeping over this tiny snippet of domestic avirand!!!! now if only elayne was there too (and mat)

“if i am going to live in the wetlands, then i will adopt some wetlander customs.” avirandlayne throuple raising their six (6) babies in (rebuilt) caemlyn endgame is so real y’all!!!! yes!!!

rand remarks that avi no longer seems bothered by a man channeling, but i don’t think she was ever bothered by it? didn’t he say back in TSR or TFOH that the aiel didn’t seem to care about him being a male channeler and the dragon reborn because they only care about him being the car’a’carn?

rand describes the rough calluses of avi’s hands (and how much he likes them) in a passage highly reminiscent of mat describing the rough heron brand on rand’s hand in TFOH, nice.

and we get to the big meeting of all the rulers! way too much going on in this scene for me to break down thoroughly but i’ll reskim to try and remember some specific things i wanted to note.

elayne tells egwene that she spoke to avi about her night with rand but rand didn’t tell avi his intentions for the meeting. the hoops sanderson is jumping through to avoid making elayne and rand just talk to each other directly! what’s the point? why couldn’t elayne have gone to talk to rand WITH avi for a while and then left to give them privacy to fuck? why couldn’t she have and why WOULDN’T she have? it makes no sense.

the king of murandy is a dick, so egwene makes him think the white tower has been pulling strings in murandy (by saying that she’s heard his rule is consolidating nicely and then saying “you’re welcome,” smiling, and riding away). jkjfg queen shit! “‘egwene,’ gawyn said softly, trotting his horse beside hers, ‘did you really just do that?’ ‘does he look troubled?’ gawyn glanced over his shoulder. ‘very.’ ‘excellent.’ gawyn continued riding for a moment, then broke into a deep grin. ‘that was positively evil.’” DJFKGJ i love them your honor! gawyn loves watching egwene get people’s asses as much as i do, bless him! that’s his wife! that’s OUR wife! (also, ARE they literally married yet? they said they were going to but idk if they have.)

“min stood at his side, one hand on his arm.” min showing up to a serious political meeting with rulers of the whole continent and going “i MUST plaster myself to rand to make sure everyone knows i’m his girlfriend” very inappropriate time for physical intimacy, min! especially since elayne and avi are also at the meeting and are not afforded the luxury of flaunting their relationships with rand (although elayne does tell rand she loves him in front of everyone, so they must be wondering what’s going on jkfg “i see what you’re trying to do and i love you for it, but [objection]” is soooomewhat offhand as telling people you love them goes, but still!)

“elayne swept in, the sorrow on her face lightening as rand smiled warmly at her.” ❤️❤️❤️ finally a randlayne crumb!!!!

“the wool-headed woman was still impressed with rand, pleased with how he’d managed to bully everyone into coming here. elayne considered it a matter of pride when he did well.” ❤️❤️❤️ this push-and-pull tension between elayne disagreeing with rand as a fellow leader but being proud of him as a partner (and vice versa) would have been SUCH an interesting thing to explore in detail across the whole series. sigh.

“and you don’t feel a small measure of pride? egwene asked herself. rand al’thor, once a simple village boy and your near-betrothed, now the most powerful man in the world? you don’t feel proud of what he’s done? perhaps a little.” oh my god my HEART 🥺🥺

and we also finally get a bit of randlayne political conflict! but given that elayne’s just one of many rulers voicing the same opinions and she and rand don’t talk directly to each other that much (most of his argument is with egwene while the monarchs are fussing amongst themselves), and that the narrative frames it as “rand wants a peace treaty but all the monarchs including elayne are too selfish and power-hungry to agree,” overall i’m not very satisfied with it. i do think his peace treaty is a great idea and am on his side about it, but i just wish elayne hadn’t been lumped in with the other monarchs. she’s Not Like Other Monarchs, dammit! or i would’ve loved to see rand’s initial treaty be less Good And Righteous than it is, or to see part of this scene from elayne’s pov to see her actual thoughts about the treaty rather than egwene's assumptions about what she thinks, or to have seen her and rand discuss the treaty privately and workshop ways to improve it before bringing it to the full group - because elayne DOES point out some real flaws in the treaty and propose solutions for them, which i loved to see!

“i am [the seals’] watcher.” “in name only. they were only just discovered, and i possess them. it is out of respect for your traditional title that i approached you about them first.” “approached me? you didn’t make a request. you didn’t make a demand. you came, told me what you were going to do, and walked away.” get his ass egwene!! this is exactly what i was saying earlier!

“is this what it’s about? you want saidin to be tainted again. you aes sedai...you’re threatened by the idea of men who can channel, undermining your authority!” ah, now i see where the batshit take of *****MASSIVE SPOILER FOR THE END OF THE BOOK THAT I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW YET BUT DO***** “it was better for egwene to go out in a blaze of glory in the last battle because she would’ve hated living in a world where saidin is untainted and men who can channel are treated as equals and aes sedai aren’t on top of the world anymore” came from: an obviously ridiculous and paranoia-induced assumption of rand’s that Certain Readers took as inarguable fact about egwene! love that 🙄

“light, egwene. you can still do it, like the sister i never had - tie my mind in knots and have me raving at you and loving you at the same time.” 🥺

“rand looked hesitant, and for a moment, he seemed the child she’d once caught sneaking bites of mistress cauthon’s pies with mat.” cauthor crumb!

rand’s plan is to KILL THE DARK ONE okay damn. given that the whole series is about balance and how light can’t exist without shadow and vice versa, i’m 95% sure that will turn out to be a bad and/or impossible idea and that it will turn out egwene is right in this particular argument and rand will just imprison him again after all. i hope so, i want egwene to win one of their arguments lmao since moiraine comes in and basically calls her out and embarrasses her in front of all the rulers for trying to disagree with rand about the seals.

“for all his complaints about aes sedai, for all of his insistence that he wouldn’t be controlled by them, he was acting more and more like one of them himself.” exactly!!! glad to see that little bit of hypocrisy acknowledged outright by the narrative and not just by me in my own head.

moiraine returns!!!!! and for some reason we are put into perrin’s pov for this scene instead of rand’s or staying in egwene’s. although various channelers flicking the annoying murandian king with the power and perrin being able to tell who it was by them smelling smug WAS hilarious, i’ll admit.

“where had mat gotten to now? why hadn’t he come back with moiraine?” YEAH FOR REAL WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU MAT??????? literally EVERY other character is here, where are you??????? you are RUINING all my hopes and dreams of ef5 reunions!!!! which i always knew would never happen, but they COULD have if mat had gone with moiraine instead of fucking off to wherever he is currently!!! honestly what the hell!!!

“[rand] hesitantly reached out and touched her face. ‘by my mother’s grave,’ rand whispered, then fell to his knees before her. ‘how?’ moiraine smiled, resting a hand on his shoulder. ‘the wheel weaves as the wheel wills, rand. have you forgotten that?’” MOMRAINE!!!

also cracking up at rand: how are you alive? moiraine: the wheel weaves as the wheel wills mat: am i a joke to you?

“‘moiraine,’ egwene said, stepping forward. ‘the white tower welcomes you back with open arms. your service has not been forgotten.’ ‘hmmm,’ moiraine said. ‘yes, i should think that having discovered a future amyrlin would reflect well upon me.’” MOMRAINE!!!

“she passed perrin, and gave him a squeeze on the arm, eyes twinkling.” MOMRAINE!!!

“nynaeve enfolded moiraine in a powerful embrace. moiraine stood for a moment, smelling distinctly shocked, hands out to the sides. finally, she returned the embrace in a somewhat maternal way, patting nynaeve on the back.” MOMRAINE!!! LITERALLY!!!

“nynaeve released her, pulling back, then wiped a tear from her eye. ‘don’t you dare tell lan about this,’ she growled. ‘i would not dream of it,’ moiraine said... ‘insufferable woman,’ nynaeve grumbled as she wiped a tear from the other eye.” MY HEART IS SO FULL

“[elayne was] still staring daggers at rand...oddly, she smelled proud. strange woman.” i love her jkjfg i love Them!!

faile: “if rand persuades [the seanchan to sign the treaty], does that allow them to keep the countries they have now? the women who are damane? are they allowed to slap one of those collars on any woman who passes their border?” THANK you queen faile!!!!

lmao it’s hilarious how every single major character present in this scene is saying stuff and playing an important role in the negotiations.............except for min who has not said a single word and has done nothing but touch rand’s arm twice. she is soooo narratively useless!!! actually, we’re almost 200 pages in and min hasn’t had a single word of dialogue at all or even been present except for in the way background of this one scene. love that for me!

rand gives elayne total control over all the armies at the last battle!!!! that is fucking ROMANCE, baby!!!!! “elayne trakand is a leader to her core; she taught me much of what i know about leadership.” ❤️❤️

rand says he will “try” to “persuade” the seanchan to release the damane and the lands they’ve stolen and go back across the ocean, but aviendha says that they can’t fight the seanchan because they’ll lose. so rand says, “they have done horrible things, but so far, the lands they have taken have benefited from strong leadership.” HATE THIS LATE-SERIES NARRATIVE THAT DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS WHAT WE SAW IN FALME “if forced to it, i am content to allow them the lands they have, so long as they do not spread further. as for the women...what is done is done.” UGH!!!!! i cannot believe i just had to read that load of GARBAGE with my OWN TWO EYES!!!! what the FUCK rand!!!!!! at least he adds “let us worry about the world itself first, then do what we can for those held captive” so MAYBE he’ll try to do SOMETHING, but christ!!! after avi’s visions i feared that “make peace with the seanchan and let them stay, in part because things are ~So Much Better~ under their rule!” would be the “resolution” here, and lo and be fucking hold!!! i’m so mad!!!!!!! rand, go google “appeasement” and rethink your stance here!!!!!

anyway, this tarwin’s gap sequence with lan is sooooo good, i teared up!!! (also, huge spartan 300 vibes which me and my classics degree loved!)

“al chalidholara malkier. for my sweet land malkier. it was the oath a malkieri soldier took during their first posting to the border. lan had never spoken it. he did so now in his heart.” 😭😭😭

“[morgase banishing bryne] hadn’t been elayne’s fault, but she could read the breached trust in bryne’s face.” so bryne is standoffish with elayne because of what her mom did???? fuck that guy. he does later compliment her on her leadership skills and say he doesn’t hold morgase’s actions against her, but still. fuck that guy.

“you will do as you are told.” 😳😳 we may have lost Daddy Rand, but we still have Mommy Elayne!

sidenote while we’re on the subject: baffles me that most people think aviendha tops. did you all read all those scenes of her rushing to do whatever elayne asks and turning into a blushing mess when elayne compliments her?? wake up america. elayne tops always. avilayne, elayne tops. randlayne, elayne tops. matlayne, elayne tops even if mat would never admit it.

anyway. loial returns!!! 🥰 “i am married to erith, though, you see. she’s just over there. did you hear her singing? isn’t her song beautiful? being married is not so bad, perrin. why didn’t you tell me it was not so bad? i think i am rather fond of it.” awwww, warm welcome for loial into the WOT Wifeguy club! also in the club: gawyn, perrin, lan, rand, bashere

“rand needs me.” “rand needs us all.” “he needs me more.” perrin and elayne fighting over their boyfriend jkfg perrin justifies his ummm wild and rude claim that rand needs him more than elayne with min’s viewing that rand will die if perrin isn’t with him at the last battle. now, if only she’d had the same viewing about mat...........

who we learn is IN EBOU DAR????? according to perrin’s color visions. WHAT THE FUCK MAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE???? EVERYBODY ELSE IS OVER HERE GET YOUR ASS HERE NOW!!!! “that man is never where he needs to be.” christ elayne i KNOW!! man.

“the seanchan are the enemy. mat doesn’t seem to understand that, considering what he’s done.” GET HIS ASS ELAYNE!!!!!! TEAR THE BITCH APART!!! it’s still unclear whether she’s aware he’s married to the seanchan empress, but this line implies she might be since idk what else she might mean by What He’s Done

“apparently, rand had specifically told [bashere] to watch over [elayne, while they’re in caemlyn].” another one for the Romantic Or Condescending? debate lmao i’m going to say condescending because rand has time to tell bashere to watch over elayne but doesn’t have time to fucking talk to elayne directly STILL???? they were in the same place for 200 pages and didn’t exchange a word besides as leaders at the big meeting!

tam is part of the contingent who went to caemlyn with elayne, but i’m sure that having an interaction between the two of them will be too much to ask for

elayne notes that bashere doesn’t talk to her “the way a man should a queen” which is absolutely not something rj’s elayne would’ve ever thought, because she was only misinterpreted by others as being a Spoiled Princess but was never actually one.

pregnancy update: the babies are kicking and moving around frequently!!! 🥺🥺 i would like a timeline update because i really didn’t think elayne was far enough into her pregnancy to feel the babies moving THIS strongly and often, and the size of her belly has also lately been described as seemingly much bigger than i would’ve thought it would be (tho that i can excuse as twins making her bigger sooner than a single baby would). google says you typically start feeling movements between 16 and 24 weeks and that they become more regular between 24 and 28 weeks, which would mean elayne’s ~6 months pregnant now, and no way in hell was WH 6 months ago. that was midwinter and we’re still only in spring, i’m pretty sure.

elayne asks bashere if he thinks it’s a mistake for her to go into battle while pregnant and he says no - king shit! then he tells her that she should tell everyone she’s carrying the dragon reborn’s children because it would make them fight harder - opposite of king shit! as we all know, elayne is simply a vessel for rand’s babies and people would care more about fighting for them than for her 🙄

elayne quite rightly points out that this is neither any of bashere’s business nor any of the army’s business, but he says that the heir to the realm is the business of its subjects. yeah, and it’s only their business that that heir is the queen’s kid, the babydaddy is not their business!

“perhaps it will remind them that not everything in this world is dying.” can you believe that rand and elayne’s babies are being used to give a greater emotional impact and sense of hope to an army of randos than to rand? insanity.

“farmers burned their fields in the spring to prepare them for new life. maybe that was what andor was suffering now.” a sense of hope being given to me as well, thank you elayne!

but bashere does tell elayne that she reminds him of faile ❤️❤️ so he earns a few points back. i want to see elayne-faile friendship so bad! they HAVE had a couple fun interactions in this book and the previous one.

elayne does come around and tell birgitte to spread the word that the babies are rand’s. bashere, this is colossally stupid! he claims that she doesn’t have to worry about it making them any greater targets than they already are because she’s already important enough (as high commander of the armies of the light) to make them targets, which on the surface is Hell Yeah Elayne’s Special On Her Own, but if you actually think about it, it’s colossally stupid because rand IS more of a target than elayne. not only in the eyes of the shadow, but in the eyes of regular people and politicians etc. the dragon reborn is hated and feared in so many places, and elayne herself was worried last book about the potential of a Dragon Empire forming after rand’s death with the lands he holds. even were rand to defeat the shadow and die at the last battle, he would still have a dangerous and threatening posthumous legacy among non-shadow people - TONS of people would want to see his kids dead to make sure they couldn’t rise to inherit all the power and thrones and influence he left behind. COLOSSALLY STUPID for bashere to tell elayne she should publicize that he’s her babies’ dad! maybe it’ll make her soldiers fight harder right now, but what about after the last battle, huh? it will cause so many problems for her then! you’ve gotta be thinking long term here!

a shortish chunk of chapters, but the post is getting long and there’s a wonderful wonderful randlayne scene next chapter FINALLY that i know i will have many words about, so i better cut this one off here

[butterflydm]

wot reread: towers of midnight (chap 50-end)

spoilers for towers of midnight (suicide cw; body horror cw)

Oh, this Elayne PoV opens with an interesting echo of a Rand scene. Here, Elayne strips lands and titles from her former rivals to the throne, knowing that the shame of it would likely lead them to commit suicide rather than live as commoners. Back in ACoS, Rand stripped the lands and title from Colaveare in an attempt to NOT kill her, because he was unaware that her own pride almost certainly lead to her killing herself rather than living with being a commoner. It illustrates some key similarities between Rand and Elayne but also a key difference, in that Elayne is aware of the consequences of her political choices in a way that Rand was not always aware. And she's doing so knowing that one of the people most affected by Colaveare's loss of power (a Cairhienin noble named Bertome) would arrive just in time to witness this.

2. She is using all this as a political lead-in to making her claim to the Sun Throne by giving Cairhienin nobles some power in Caemlyn, by offering the estates that she just stripped from her previous rivals. And... she then offers mercy to the nobles that she just stripped of lands here in Caemlyn, by mentioning that new lands and titles can be found for them in Cairhien. Basically binding the two nations closer together even before she officially takes the Sun Throne.

idk how much we needed the scene afterwards explaining Elayne's brilliance to the reader (but maybe it was helpful to the readers who were inclined to dislike Elayne?). Birgitte does still feel somewhat 'off' here from the character that she used to be.

3. It remains so baffling to me that Min is the central 'researcher' into all things Callandor. Makes no sense. But Elayne and Aviendha (both more logical choices) are off actually having their own independent storylines that aren't related to Rand so... Min it is, I guess.

Min warns him that the sword is more dangerous than they'd believed before and he's basically like, "nah, I know, it's chill." lol, despite the book's efforts to convince me that Min's role here is super-vital, it just... really is not.

4. Instead of going himself, Rand sends an Asha'man off to infiltrate and investigate the Black Tower. I really hate that such an important plotline got relegated to tertiary characters!

5. lol, I do like the scene here with Rand and Cadsuane; now that she's too baffled by him to keep bullying him, their interactions are kinda funny most of the time. He also, relatively casually, reveals here how far back his own memories go. Once again though... I really wish this were in Rand's PoV and not Min's.

Because here, Min is 'troubled' by Rand casually sharing his memories from four hundred years ago and Rand is like, "pat pat, calm down, silly mortal girlfriend, I am not a scary monster anymore, I promise" but like... what is going on in his brain? One of the main reasons that Rand's descent into madness worked so well for the reader is because we got to see it internally, and it feels like we're being cheated when we don't get to see how he deals with realizing that LTT's memories were not all due to madness, and this is part of him and he needs to process it. Getting it all second-hand through Min is just... not enough.

I am glad that Rand doesn't give all the credit of making it through to this point to Min (like so much of the fandom likes to do) but credits many of the people who have cared for him: his father, Mat, Perrin, Elayne, Aviendha, Nynaeve, Moiraine (He doesn't mention Egwene here, though, and he should). It is really frustrating how parts of fandom like to act as if Min is the only person who cares about Rand. Circumstances have pulled away most of the people he cares about and who care about him, but that doesn't make the affection disappear and it doesn't make the help they've given him meaningless.

6. Thousands of Borderlander soldiers down here, even as the Blightborder collapses and their people are overrun in the north. Such a frustrating plotline! Anyway, they slap Rand and ask him a question about a death during the Age of Legends and now things are good and they'll actually fight in the Last Battle.

lol, Min's viewings that she has here are so useless to Rand -- 'they'll probably be in a fight soon but whether that means the Last Battle or fighting against you right now, idk'. Thanks for that complete lack of information, Min.

I feel like this entire thing could have easily been used to show the folly of trusting prophecy over your own good sense? The Borderlanders acted as they did because they believed "better a dead Dragon than a Dragon who will destroy the world" but... they didn't really have any way to fix that problem anyway, lol, so their secret prophecy was just as useless as most of Min's viewings are and the only thing it accomplished was leaving their borders less guarded than they should be. Rand points out to them that, while he may have given them his original ultimatum in an asshole way, it remains the truth -- given how far they are from their own lands, he is the only path remaining to them if they want to fight in the Last Battle.

But, yeah, this is just a subplot that felt like it went on way too long and then died with a whimper and not a bang.

7. Hmm, Elayne points out that Birgitte has been getting more and more irritable, which implies that her change in characterization was deliberate (meant to illustrate how her emotional stability is slipping alongside her memory loss maybe?). Elayne basically calls Birgitte the Fun Police here, saying, "You don't like anything, lately." Anyway, Elayne is making her move for Cairhien here. I would have much rather spent this book on Elayne Secures Cairhien than Perrin's Whitecloak Trial. Instead, we mostly just skim over it, and Cairhien accepts Elayne fairly quickly. After she's claimed Cairhien, she sets in motion: a. sending the current army to Merrilor to meet Rand; b. mobilizing any additional men and women who want to fight in the Last Battle and training them; and c. getting all the city's bellfounders to start working on more dragons.

8. The first paragraph of being back in Mat's PoV and he is wistfully thinking of serving girls sitting on his knee. Strike twelve-point-three.

We also, here, have Mat choosing a red scarf to ~dedicate~ to the memory of Tylin and the others who died to the gholam, briefly considering making it pink (he does emphasis that he considered this very briefly). Ew, gross.

I was just talking in my last post, during the Aviendha's vision section, about how easy it is to make saints of the dead. It really feels like this is a perfect illustration of this: Tylin is dead and can't physically hurt Mat anymore, so it's 'safe' to consider honoring her, in a way that it wouldn't be if she were still alive. Dead sainted Tylin happening so soon after dead sainted Tuon in Aviendha's Rhuidean vision definitely makes me go ~hmm.

9. Mat thinks here that he believes that ~the new empress~ is going to surprise the Seanchan. Not sure what he's basing that belief on, lol. But, just like Fortuona was Making Lies Up In Her Head to justify her decisions, so is Mat, I guess. He wants to believe that Tuon is Different From The Other Seanchan, so he's convinced himself that she is, despite having literally zero favorable evidence (and the reader was just recently in her head, so we know for a fact that Mat is absolutely incorrect that Tuon has surprised the Seanchan in any way -- she has done exactly as expected of her, because she's just a bog-standard High Blood Seanchan)

(side note: I actually do not have any objection to Tuon just being another Seanchan, in terms of her moral code. The weird part about the way it is written in the books is the way that some Westlands characters behave as if she's better in some way, when we've never seen her do anything exceptional, in terms of ethics or morality. I get that the Seanchan are brainwashed to think the Imperial family & the Empress are special, but when Westlands characters act that way, it makes me raise my eyebrows. I talked about this back in CoT & KoD too -- how sometimes Mat behaved as if Tuon had undergone an entire character arc despite that... you know, not happening and her being just as awful (in terms of ethics) at the end of KoD as she was in her intro in WH. It's not Tuon being awful that I object to -- it makes sense that she's awful, given what we know of her culture and that she's the top dog in that culture -- it's Westlands characters inexplicably behaving as if she's A Special One Who Isn't Like Other Nobles that triggers my bullshit meter, like Mat thinking in KoD that's it's ~right and good~ for Olver to bow to her and make much of her despite that going completely against the way Mat normally approaches nobility; hits my bs meter hard).

The reports on the Seanchan that he's reading come from Elayne, btw. Also, he HAS officially signed the Band over to Elayne's employment. So, again, we have this tension where Mat has been set up as the tug o'war rope between ~Fortuona~ and Elayne. Or, more accurately, Mat is setting himself up as the rope. And setting himself up to eventually have his nose rubbed into the crimes of the Seanchan (including Tuon) in a way that he won't be able to deny (post-canon, I assume). Elayne did not give him any reports on the Seanchan attacking the White Tower, it sounds like, which makes sense -- the official White Tower position on weakness is: we don't have any. He notes that there are rumors of the Sea Folk allied with the Seanchan and dismisses THOSE as nonsense started by the Seanchan capturing Sea Folk vessels. Hey. Hey, Mat. What do they do to the people on the vessels? I know that you know the answer.

10. One of the spy reports makes him think of Rand, and we are reminded that Mat has to banish those colors "over and over". Funny how Perrin doesn't have that problem. Perrin finds dismissing the colors super easy. Mat also thinks about how "at least Rand was wearing clothes this time", which is a reminder of how frequently Mat apparently thinks about Rand around bedtime. Again, not a problem that Perrin has ever had.

11. Hmm, a conversation between the two people who seemed to most desperately want to believe that Tuon can learn to be a better person, and the two people who had the biggest changes in characterization between Winter's Heart and Crossroads of Twilight: Setalle Anan has come over to talk to Mat.

Strike twelve-point-four, as Mat tries to pretend he isn't thinking about Setalle Anan's 'ample bosom' (it's the second time he's had thoughts of attraction towards her since his marriage, so I'm not double-counting her as a full point, just like I'm not double-counting Elayne).

When Setalle Anan wonders if he truly knows the Andoran queen, Mat says that she's a "nice enough girl", because (at least in this part of the storyline) Mat has grown enough to see that his original assumptions about Elayne were incorrect.

12. Setalle Anan says that she's trying to work out the puzzle of Mat, and Mat being so close to the queen (who is Aes Sedai) is another piece of the puzzle. She mentions getting a letter from Joline, who has arrived safely at the White Tower and who has asked after Mat, to check in that he's okay, which completely baffled Mat. I wonder if Joline and Teslyn have had some long conversations off-screen about Mat, because Mat has been such an asshole to Joline on-screen that her respecting him so much really is somewhat baffling. But, yeah, the whole "friendly with some Aes Sedai but married to a slaver who wanted to enslave all Aes Sedai" is definitely... well, 'puzzle' is a kind way of wording what Mat currently is (especially to anyone who doesn't know about the prophecy... which is everyone).

Mat asks Setalle Anan what it was like to lose the One Power and no longer be Aes Sedai. She explains that she's happy for those who can still channel but is envious and misses it. The way she talks about it really reminds me of the way how Mat seems to feel his marriage has locked him away from acting on his attraction to other women and it's an interesting comparison to think about, now that it comes to mind. She burnt herself out, she wasn't stilled, so she accidentally did this to herself (just like Mat accidentally married Tuon). She is envious of those who can still channel but happy for them that they have the ability (and Mat keeps checking out women 'for' other men around him... though he never actually tells those other men about the women). She also kept herself in contact with the Kin all those years, essentially punishing herself by reminding herself over and over what she no longer had. Hmm.

Then she asks Mat why he hates Aes Sedai. And Mat essentially... completely sidesteps the question, though he does say that he doesn't hate Aes Sedai. But he immediately changes the question to "what bothers me about WOMEN" and away from "what bothers me about Aes Sedai" and then almost as swiftly, the conversation turns to "what bothers me about NOBLES". I wonder if his mental conflation of Aes Sedai=all women=all nobles is part of what causes some of his odd thinking.

13. This is where we get his ~boots~ argument against nobility, which comes across to me like he's saying that, nobles have so much excess that it makes him uncomfortable, though Setalle Anan believed that he's talking about the complexity of leadership. Mat denies that the conversation is a metaphor in any possible way, which is very Mat of him. I will note that he says that your 'best' pair of shoes should be your walking/working shoes, which are your most important pair.

If you were wondering: no, Setalle Anan doesn't tell him that she betrayed him and told Tuon about his protective medallion. Tuon actually doesn't openly come up a single time in the conversation, which is somewhat interesting, considering how much of the discussion feels like it's half a step away from Tuon.

After Anan leaves, Mat tosses aside Verin's letter, deciding that he will never know what's in it.

14. I genuinely like Pevara but... yeah, sucks that Nynaeve isn't the one headlining the Black Tower story arc. Apparently the White Tower 'embassy' to the Black Tower has just been chilling inside for... weeks? And now they are trapped inside, and gateways don't work. (another dreamspike? I do not recall)

15. Perrin gets to say a special goodbye to Mat. The buffing up of the Mat-Perrin friendship definitely feels like the biggest marker so far of Check Out Sanderson's Bestest Favorite Boy, yeah, lol. Thom twits Mat about his marriage by poking at the sore spot of how it makes Mat a noble now. Grady opens a Gateway to send them to the Tower of Ghenjei, and will open a return Gateway every day at the same time. They leave from Perrin's camp, which is just outside Whitebridge. Then Perrin & co all head to Merrilor.

16. Noal has managed to acquire a fancy outfit and a fancy new walking staff. ...? I hope again that plot device Noal gets replaced by someone more interesting in the show version (if they should get this far). My dream team is, of course, Mat with Siuan (as Moiraine's love interest) and Birgitte (for historical knowledge and to fill Noal's, ah, other role and, much like Noal wants to redeem himself for his failures, Birgitte may want to succeed at saving someone from the Tower where she has failed before).

17. They are able to open a doorway into the Tower by etching the opening symbol for the game of snakes & foxes into the Tower with a bronze knife. The inside of the Tower itself doesn't look like either the Aelfinn or the Eelfinn's bargaining places, Mat notes in dismay. Whatever script is used on the walls here, it isn't the Old Tongue, because Mat doesn't recognize it. Mat realizes this time, as he didn't fully realize before, that the world of the 'finn is a completely different world to their own. Interesting that even now, after Mat has ~gotten hitched~ to his prophecy girl, he still feels like the snakes gave him "no useful answers".

18. One of the Eelfinn appears, to try to tempt them into leaving their tools of protection behind and when Mat realizes that he's feeling swayed by the argument, he asks Thom to play music to break the spell. And the music puts the Eelfinn to sleep. Mat realizes that trying to make a map of the place is useless -- they need to rely on his luck. So he starts rolling dice to decide which direction to go. After another confrontation with multiple Eelfinn where he loses his dice, he begins spinning around to dizzy himself and then picking a direction at random. He then follows that direction no matter how many side corridors appear to tempt them, and he leads them to the room where Moiraine is waiting.

19. Seeing Moiraine again brings up a lot of complicated emotions in Mat: frustration and anger, but also gratitude and awe. He feels like he understands her motivations for her choices now, but still dislikes some of the actions that she took. Thom yanks her out of her prison, even after they find that whatever she's being held in is hot to the touch, and Mat marvels over how tiny she is, compared to his larger-than-life memory of her.

20. After Moiraine is pulled from her prison, eight of the Eelfinn are in the room, on the tall pedestals, dressed in white. Mat warns everyone against saying anything that sounds like a bargain. So Mat is the one to make the bargain, with the terms that the Aelfinn had already given him -- his price would be "half the light of the world" (aka his eye). Mat wonders if being willing to pay this price to save the world makes him "a hero, after all". One of the Eelfinn rips Mat's eye out of his socket with his bare hand.

21. Mat thinks here that he had assumed that Thom was here for the same reason as Mat -- because it was something that needed to be done (aka it was the right thing to do) -- but the way that Thom is clutching onto Moiraine's unconscious body is making him wonder. Noal realizes a hole in the bargain that Mat had made -- he'd said that the foxes weren't allowed to attack them, but had said nothing about the snakes. And so now the chase is on.

22. After a tense chase, where Mat is throwing around fireworks to keep the Aelfinn at bay, and they've long since strayed from the direct path that would lead to their exit, Noal sacrifices himself so that the others can continue escaping, serving his plot device duty and 'dying clean' (does Mat ever actually tell any of the Malkieri about this? I will try to remember to keep a watch out in AMoL). Mat thinks that once he would have thought dying with honor was pointless, but honor has mattered to too many of the memories in his head for him to dismiss it.

23. Hmm, when Thom mentions the idea of maybe getting some Aelfinn answers for himself, Mat tells him that he doesn't want them. "They aren't answers. They're threats. Promises." Talking about what just happened with his eye, or talking about Tuon? (I mean, likely both. It's definitely been something that I've noticed that Mat does not at all seem happy or grateful to the Aelfinn for shackling him to Fortuona, despite how he keeps desperately trying to convince himself that he trusts her and that he finds her super-attractive)

24. Mat thinks back to his time with the Eelfinn, his exact words, and realizes that he asked for a way back and that his ashandarei is the one thing he has that is not explained by them answering his other boons. That it's his key to leaving. He didn't ask them for a weapon, he asked them for a way out. And he is able to cut it to cut their way out of the Tower and back into their own world.

25. My narration here doesn't really cover how much I enjoyed this sequence but it was a lot of fun! I do think that this moment, like some others, would probably feel more impactful if it happened before Rand had his epiphany. Rand having his big moment at the end of TGS kinda... trivializes almost everything in ToM, honestly. Because... well, we already know that Rand has decided not to destroy time and the universe. So, if I had been structuring the last three books, I would have placed Rand's epiphany right here, after Mat & co. make their successful escape from the Tower of Ghenjei (and after Perrin and Egwene have helped each other in TAR). That way, even before they all go to Merrilor, it feels like Moiraine's return is symbolic of Rand's turning point, if they're paired in the narrative like that.

26. We get the counterpart of Gawyn's relief at having Egwene's emotions in his head by learning here that Egwene also finds it a comfort to have his emotions in her head and feel his devotion first-hard in a way that makes her unable to doubt it. So, yeah, Egwene and Gawyn are really on the same page in a way that the majority of romantic relationships in the series never manage. They want the same things out of life and neither of them is forcing themselves to live a life that makes them unhappy for the sake of catering to the other person (examples of this kind of relationship: Rand & Min, where Min forces herself into a poly relationship that makes her feel possessive and jealous all the time; Perrin & Faile, where they both have vastly different ideas about their 'ideal life' and the solution was for Perrin to give up his own ideas and pick Faile's; Mat and Fortuona, who both want to fundamentally change their partner into someone unrecognizable from who they currently are)

27. Mat is thrilled that he managed to survive the Tower of Ghenjei, now that they are safely out (and Moiraine is slowly regaining consciousness). Mat also realizes here that Thom knew all along (or at least for a while) that Noal was Jain Farstrider but never told Mat. It's in a semi-joking way that he wonders what kind of friend Thom is, but, yeah, I've been wondering about Mat and Thom's 'friendship' for a bit now, and this is another interesting piece of evidence about how Thom is not particularly open with Mat.

28. Um, strike thirteen-point-four as Mat thinks about how fetching Moiraine looks, with her flushed cheeks and her hair tumbling about her face. haha, he does feel kinda awkward about finding her attractive, much as Rand felt awkward about finding Caraline Damodred attractive even realizing how much she looked like Moiraine.

29. Mat refusing to let Moiraine heal his eye (not even just to take the pain away, which is all she believes she can manage now) does feel weirdly symbolic of his self-destructive behavior as of late -- he risks his life to save Moiraine, gives up his eye to save her, and then shies away at the idea of her healing him. Much as I once wondered if the Aelfinn devised Tuon as a punishment for Mat, I now have to wonder... is Mat punishing himself? Because that is wildly self-destructive. He could get an infection in his FACE. I'm sure he has countless memories of battle wounds going bad and killing soldiers post-battle. Passing up being healed just seems like he's actively self-harming here.

(I guess the question I'm asking is: how much does Mat subconsciously hate himself right now, that he would do this to himself? Again, we have the contrast in this same book of Galad realizing how nonsensical it is to have Aes Sedai as your allies and then refuse to allow them to heal you, which feels like a direct and deliberate reference point to show us that Mat is not acting rationally here -- either punishing himself or feeling like he doesn't deserve healing? Kinda amounts to the same thing, I suppose)

30. lol, Mat tries to downplay his affection for Rand, yet again, but Thom calls him out on it by mentioning how Mat 'keeps saying' that Rand deserves a festival in his honor for cleansing saidin. Honestly, the case of Rand vs Fortuona does feel so illustrative at this point re: Mat's constant lying to himself -- Mat tries so hard to force himself NOT to feel loyal and affectionate towards Rand and TO feel loyal towards Fortuona, but then his mind keeps betraying him (he keeps thinking of Rand, over and over, in much greater detail than Perrin does; and, conversely, he keeps thinking of all the attractive women in the world that he's Not Allowed to think about due to his marriage to Fortuona).

31. Thom tells Moiraine that Mat married "the Empress of the Seanchan" and Mat cringes at the info being shared (he hunches down and tries to cover his face with his hat and 'forces a chuckle'). Moiraine is startled, but when Mat says it was 'accidentally' because the Seanchan have 'odd customs', she goes, "ah, ta'veren". Mat doesn't think of his reaction here as 'shame' but, yeah, it vibes hard as shame. Moiraine says she needs to go seek out Rand, and Mat agrees that she should, but says he has things that he needs to do in Caemlyn. And then he thinks of Rand (again) and blushes.

32. While I've seen Sanderson get blamed for it -- the Thom & Moiraine engagement scene was written by Jordan, as confirmed by Sanderson's retrospective (Sanderson is one of the fans who did not at all pick up on Jordan's murder-mystery style way of setting up Thom and Moiraine's 'romance' in the earlier books which, you know. Me too, lol). And 'abruptly making a life commitment out of nowhere with barely any lead-up' is also classic Jordan romance writing, lol.

Direct quote from Sanderson: "I will note, by the way, that Verin’s interaction with Egwene in The Gathering Storm was my biggest surprise from the notes. My second biggest was the Thom/Moiraine engagement. Robert Jordan wrote that scene, and I was surprised to read it."

So, yeah, the whole "I would give up being Aes Sedai for you" offer was all Jordan.

That being said, knowing that this scene was written by Jordan also makes me wonder how much of the previous scene that leads into it (Mat blushing over how much he's thinking about Rand and his clear shame over being married to the Empress of the Seanchan) was also written by Jordan. Moiraine actually IS one of the few characters in the Jordan books who occasionally slung around the name 'Matrim', so her using it here isn't a Sanderson 'tell' the way that it is for many other characters. I also wonder if the paragraph of admiration and Mat thinking of Moiraine as 'fetching' was written by Jordan because, if so, that might be the germ of the idea that led to all of the other moments when Mat has been distracted by how pretty all the women he's Not Allowed to admire are Because Wife.

33. When Mat reacts like a cat fallen into a bath at the idea of being bonded (though, hilariously, he does specify that he doesn't want to be bonded to a woman), Thom points out that "your Tuon" is capable of channeling, which is information that Mat has been trying to actively suppress from his memory (and he almost immediately does so again here, very quickly after Thom reminds him of it), another example of Thom bringing up Mat's marriage to specifically twit him about the parts of it that will make him unhappy (like how earlier, he brought up how it makes Mat a noble). But this conversation is kinda the first time that Mat has confirmed to other people that his marriage was 'accidental' due to 'Seanchan customs', I think? Which is information that Moiraine & Thom could theoretically share with other people (like, for example, Elayne, who is already aware that Mat is willing to self-destructively make himself miserable in order to keep a promise, from her experiences with him in Ebou Dar). Also, Moiraine now knows that the Empress of the Seanchan is capable of learning to channel.

34. Mat's missing eye is still throbbing in pain, but he doesn't give a thought to asking Moiraine to heal him. Either deep fear, like Moiraine suggested, or deep hate... for himself, I think (certainly not for Moiraine, as he's surprised himself in this scene with how much affection he's been feeling for her). I'm leaning towards 'self-hate' because Mat doesn't even consider asking THOM to help him clean and dress the wound using normal non-Power means, so it feels very much like Mat has given himself a painful punishment.

He also wonders what Tuon might think of a husband 'unable to defend himself', so, yeah, I think he's also very aware that she is not a supportive and caring life partner. He actually comes across as genuinely scared of her reaction here (he describes himself as 'trembling' at the thought). You're in an abusive relationship, buddy.

35. Olver opens the letter from Verin and gives it to Talmanes -- Verin was trying to warn Mat about the Waygate in Caemlyn being left unguarded and a huge force of Shadowspawn coming through the Ways to attack the city. Talmanes curses and heads off to defend the city, but then we see that it's already under attack. Congrats, Mat! Your stubborn determination not to ever listen to Aes Sedai has helped lead to an attack on Caemlyn.

36. For the first time in this entire book, we get a Rand PoV. In the epilogue. And it's only two pages long. *sigh*

Rand sits in a dream and thinks about what will come in the morning, when he speaks to Egwene and the monarchs of the world. We don't get ANY reflection on the events of the past book or any of his feelings about anything.

He hears distant screams of pain and follows them, and he sees 'Mierin' aka Lanfear, who tells him that she is being tortured by the Dark One and needs his help.

I'm so frustrated that this is the only Rand PoV that we got in this entire book! Why would you do that! What a terrible narrative choice!

37. Lan arrives at Tarwin's Gap -- "he was home again. For the last time." And he and his forces charge towards the Shadowspawn.

38. The very ending of the book is a quote from the 'prophecies of the Shadow' (the ones that Moridin is relying on but have already failed Graendal). We get a mention of "Midnight Towers" here but I have NO clue what it's meant to refer to, since it clearly isn't talking about the Seanchan Towers of Midnight. So, yeah, ????

The title of this book remains such a baffling choice.

How ready are we for the Last Battle?

Rand: organizing; basically ready

Egwene: organizing; basically ready

Mat: finally got his ass in gear. Managed to be the fault point for the Caemlyn invasion, so he was accidentally helping the Shadow there by being stubborn for no good reason. Kinda mirrors him helping the Seanchan by protecting Tuon during CoT & KoD. First he fails his friends through action (protecting a slaver) and then he fails them through inaction (not reading Verin's letter). But he also helps his friends (bringing Aludra to Caemlyn; rescuing Moiraine) so Mat has been a double-edged sword recently, useful and harmful at the same time.

In terms of his marriage: shame, repression, and denial seem to be the main emotions that Mat is bringing to the table. That's a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. The clash of values between Mat and Fortuona feels inevitable, once the immediate stress of the Last Battle and its aftermath has passed.

I am interested (this may or may not be the correct word, lol) on if Mat will become pod!person Mat from CoT & KoD once he's actually in Fortuona's orbit again. So far he's done his best to maintain the illusion in his head that "Tuon" and "the Seanchan Empire" are separate entities and he can help one of them while being opposed to the other one, but obviously that illusion will take a pretty hard hit once he's around Actual (Westlands Territories Only) Seanchan Empress Fortuona 'Slavery Is My Game' Paendrag again. I've genuinely enjoyed a lot of the Mat scenes in ToM but how much of that is because I haven't been forced to endure Mat & Tuon interacting? I guess I'm about to find out!

Elayne: she’s BEEN ready.

Perrin: went through wolf boot camp; basically ready. The wolf-related plotline Perrin does in these two books should have been in his plot during The Slog; Sanderson basically rewinds us to LoC!Perrin and goes from there, giving Perrin character development that should have been happening all along.

The Whitecloak-related plotline was... meh? The most I can give it is 'meh'. It solved a problem that I didn't care about and ignored the problems that I did care about, essentially.

Nynaeve: We don't get enough Nynaeve but what we do get is good, except for her massive communication issues, lol. She should have done the Black Tower plotline in this book rather than it being given to tertiary characters. It's an important enough plotline that it should have happened within the main cast.

Series ranking:

Hmm, this one was somewhat tough to rank because I mostly loved all the Mat & Elayne related scenes, and the Egwene and Nynaeve scenes were also good but I was very frustrated with almost all the Rand-related scenes being someone else's PoV and Perrin was. Not interesting to me unless he was in the wolfdream. So. Better than WH but not as good as EotW. Too Much Perrin, lol (you wouldn't necessarily know this from my reread posts because I was zooming through the Perrin chapters and then spending ages on the other ones, but trust me. There was A Lot of Perrin).

The Fires of Heaven (😍)

The Shadow Rising (😘)

The Dragon Reborn (😘)

The Path of Daggers (😘)

New Spring (😘)

The Great Hunt (😄)

The Gathering Storm (😄)

Lord of Chaos (😄)

...

A Crown of Swords (🙂)

The Eye of the World (🙂)

Towers of Midnight (🙂)

Winter’s Heart (🙂)

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Crossroads of Twilight (😒)

Knife of Dreams (😒)

[n7viper]

Warframe Asks

I saw this ask game from derelicthorror earlier this morning and wanted to run through it. I don't know that I have any Warframe players that follow me, but I thought this would be a fun thing to answer anyway. I am not actively playing right now, but I've been around for about 9 years now.

There are a lot of questions, so they're under the cut.

1. Which primary weapon is your favorite? Secondary? Melee weapon?

Tenet Arca Plasmor has been a recent favourite for me. As far as being fun to use, I used to main with a Kohm, lol. I have not found a Kuva Kohm yet, unfortunately.  I am still a big fan of the Synoid Gammacor, despite being nerfed many years ago. I also like the chain secondaries - kuva nukor and tenet cycron. My old main used to also be the rakta ballistica! I do not have a ballistica prime, sadly :(  Melee weapon has always been the tonbo <3 I love it so so much and was lucky enough to get a riven from my friend.  I tend to skew towards weapons that are fun to use, rather than being meta. Sometimes there is overlap, but not always.

2. Do you prefer long-range combat or are you a frontliner?

Oh baby, I still spin-to-win even if it’s not the meta anymore. I prefer melee combat by far. 

3. If you could naturally inflict any kind of damage, what kind would it be (i.e. heat, radiation, cold, magnetic)?

Radiation is just fun, but that might be the Mesa Main speaking. I do enjoy murdering my friends with friendly fire. 

4. Who was your starter frame?

Mag!! My baby

5. Favorite NPC?

Teshin Teshin Teshin Teshin

6. Least favorite NPC?

Simaris, lol H U N T E R R R R R R R R R

7. Which faction has your favorite aesthetic/architectural design?

I am a Corpus hoe, though obviously orokin stuff looks cool as hell with the gold. 

8. What’s your favorite piece of Warframe lore?

I don't really know that I have one. I feel like the lore is a bit confusing most of the time. Things get retconned, etc. I play the game with blinders on when it comes to the lore and always have.

9. What’s your favorite Operator accessory?

I love the umbra scarf when it’s open. I still use my operator because of the accessories tbh

10. Favorite ephemera?

Gloriana or Peach Blossom

11. Least favorite ephemera?

Out of the ones I own, either the Nyctalus or Eros Wings. Just too big. And the disappearing thing never works as well as I'd like, so I just avoid them.

12. Who is your favorite Cephalon?

Cy

13. What volume do you have Ordis set to?

Zero. I have personally not ever loved Ordis. After 8 years, I just cannot anymore. It did make doing New War a little funny though because his volume slider, of course, works for quests too. I think I did temporarily turn up his volume for the quest. 

14. Which quest is your favorite?

The Second Dream will always hold a special place in my heart. 

15. Which syndicate(s) are you allied with?

PERRIN SEQUENCE BABY Also Red Veil and New Loka

16. What is your Railjack named?

SSV Normandy, of course :) 

17. Kubrow or kavat?

MOAs, even if they’re just a pale imitation of true MOAs.  But to answer the actual question, Kavats if the DNA wasn’t a pain in the ass to get. I used to heavily breed kubrows so I’m burnt out on them. 

18. What’s your favorite track in the OST?

March of the MOA of course. I was super stuck on For Narmer after New War, though. 

19. Who comes to mind first at the phrase “Space Dad”?

Teshin, because apparently that’s what people call him? He can’t be my dad, though, I wanna do him nasty. 

20. Which faction do you hate fighting the most?

Orokin, because you get the worst of all the factions. Ancients, bombards, nullifiers, etc. 

21. What was your first Prime build?

Jeez, it’s been too long. I’m almost sure my first prime was Mag though. 

22. Do your operator and Warframe wear matching colors?

It depends! Mostly, yes. All of my frames and my operator have a pink/white/black/gold default. I have a few other “default” palettes I use for some frames, like neon pink/green/blue and black. When I use the alternates, I don’t change my operator. 

23. Which Warframe would you take grocery shopping?

Mag because I love her. 

24. Are you Sun, Moon, or neutrally aligned?

I think I’m Moon? I don’t even remember what this shit does. Have they fully explained it? All I know is that you can’t change it. I logged in earlier to look at my crew members but forgot to look at this.

25. Which planet is your favorite to run missions on?

Anything but Europa lol

26. Cetus, Fortuna, or the Necralisk?

Fortuna, hands down. I don’t like the melt though :( give me back the snow

27. What are your Railjack crewmembers’ names?

Xapp Fahkk (my first Lich, who I accidentally converted), Aeloeth, and Orukk Jiss lol I also have some cool friends like Naz Ner, Spelm, and Probate Akitiorikaidoj.  I actually logged in just to see what their names were, and while I was already online, figured I’d go see what Ticker had today. Which means I adopted Brian for the low low price of a million credits (worth it).

28. Which Warframe is the most attractive?

I have always been hot for Mag. And Mesa Prime, of course. 

29. What’s a Warframe headcanon you have?

I'm not sure I have anything super thrilling, I've been out too long. I do remember that my clanmates and I used to make jokes about us all living in our dojo with our pet MOAs. Which was before pet MOAs were actually a thing and before operator reveals.

30. Do you play public or solo?

SOLO. I hate pubs. 

31. Which color palette is your favorite?

Metisse, of course. 

32. What’s your favorite floof?

The ostia vasca kavat floofs and their little red eyes. Adorable!

33. Business, Son, or Master Teasonai?

None, tbh, but I can deal with Biz most. 

34. What’s a line of dialogue that stuck with you?

They come to this place when they know they are not pure. Tenno use the keys, but they are mere trespassers. Only I, Vor, know the true power of the Void. I was cut in half, destroyed, but through its Janus Key, the Void called to me. It brought me here and here I was reborn. We cannot blame these creatures, they are being led by a false prophet, an impostor who knows not the secrets of the Void. Behold the Tenno, come to scavenge and desecrate this sacred realm. My brothers, did I not tell of this day? Did I not prophesize this moment? Now, I will stop them. Now I am changed, reborn through the energy of the Janus Key. Forever bound to the Void. Let it be known, if the Tenno want true salvation, they will lay down their arms, and wait for the baptism of my Janus key. It is time. I will teach these trespassers the redemptive power of my Janus key. They will learn its simple truth. The Tenno are lost, and they will resist. But I, Vor, will cleanse this place of their impurity.

35. Does your Operator have a name? What is it?

I hadn’t ever considered, tbh. I suppose just ‘Viper’!

36. Who is your comfort Warframe?

Mag Mag Mag

[primeideal]

Wheel of Time Episode 8: The Eye of the World

Okay well...that was certainly...an episode that happened. (Book spoilers, though hopefully not major.)

Old Tongue scene! Props to the conlangers, who are they? Jordan left behind a pretty extensive glossary for the Old Tongue afaik that made it into one of the new encyclopedias, but not much in the way of grammar/syntax. Is there an equivalent of David Peterson and Dothraki out there? (Nerd cred, I don't really care about Game of Thrones, but I've met Peterson in person and he is just as delightful as his internet persona would indicate.) Huh, I got the impression that the baby was Latra's because she was saying "I can't condone the risk of attacking," with a subtext of "I've got a future to live for, we can't destroy the world." But no, it's Lews'. Lews and Latra aren't together in this timeline, are they? That would kind of undercut the "men and women need to work together platonically sometimes!" vibes. Lews is the "Dragon Reborn," not just the "Dragon." How far back does this name/identity go? Flying cars and cool architecture! Love this Age of Legends glimpse. "Don't touch anything here" How well did that work for you last time, Moiraine? Yesss, we got the Lan/Nynaeve scene! Although I feel like even Lan is smart enough to realize that Nynaeve specifically wants him even if she goes to the White Tower? Dream within a dream, creepy. And Ba'alzamon's face is a squick :( "Burn their goat-kissing hides" It's Uno, hello Uno! Or is he not supposed to be part of the cast until season two? If so, who's the one-eyed potty mouth dude? How has Lan never picked up on Moiraine's tell in 20 years? (I get that he's not looking, but still.) Lan and the seven towers, awww. Parallel universe scene! This isn't how things go down in EotW, but it ties into enough cool "now we are looking at what things could be like in a parallel universe" scenes in the books that I don't mind. Where are the Emond's Field people when this battle stuff is going down? ...oh here they are (a few moments later) "I'm standing" :D Loial! Moiraine with her knife at Rand's throat ayyyyy that's our girl, and by our girl I mean our adult independent magic woman, but still, characterization win! The Horn of Bloody Valere is buried under the throne of Fal Dara to be used at the Last Battle which, based on the Shienarans' limited knowledge, this probably is!!! Hahaha, I had wondered when they started digging, but this is a fun twist. Rand using Egwene's autonomy and respect for her own decisions to recognize the illusion! Is this...character development for our boy??? Padan Fain holding the Horn and monologuing to Perrin makes me wonder if Perrin is going to get some of Mat's book plotlines. Five ta'veren? Um...so...that happened. I actually think the changes to Rand's plotline, while a departure from the books, make sense. Like, the Dark One trying to lure him into a trap via a parallel universe, and Rand recognizing the limitations of the parallel universe via other people's agency, is covering a lot of ground thematically, but it works for Rand.  Also, the fact that the baby is named "Joiya" is the kind of detail that would have been so easy to do whatever, put in the prop designer's name because she's awesome--the fact that Judkins and co. picked that out shows that they do have an attention to detail and are fans doing a labor of love. 

But. With everything else, I'm a little underwhelmed, and share some of the cynicism expressed on Reddit. Lan miraculously finds Moiraine just because Nynaeve showed him how? Perrin just watches Padan Fain run away with the Horn and is so easily taunted out of fighting back because violence bad? Egwene being able to miraculously resurrect Nynaeve would make no sense in terms of power creep for future stuff, but I'll give the writers some credit and assume that Nynaeve just tried to sacrifice herself but her magic was just that strong that she wasn't completely dead and bounced back, tbh, from Nynaeve, I'd buy it. But like...how are any of these people getting back together next season? And then "meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, war was beginning"? Like, if I wasn't a book fan, I think I'd be pretty annoyed at that ending.

[madraleen]

The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan 3,5/5 stars

More stars, jot-it-down-as-it happens commentary, and the character that I stubbornly want to love.

Eye: of the World. Rand: My sweet bumbling boy/5 Perrin: My wolf boy/5 Mat: I AM DETERMINED TO LOVE HIM/5 Egwene: Okay/5 Nynaeve: Feisty queen/5 Moiraine: Sorry, WHO are you?/5 Lan: Iiiinteresting/5 Character evolution: Honey, where are you?/5 Plot: Fine/5 Stakes: Eh/5 Epicness: Out of the charts/5 Magic system: I am compelled!/5 World: Big/5 Lore: Unevenly offered/5 Questions: Never asked, rarely answered/5

Commentary: -Okay, but straight off I’d be inclined to like anyone named “Prince of the Morning” and “Lord of the Dawn.” I have a feeling that over the series I'll cry for this person. -The writing FEELS epic, it gives me chills without knowing why. -The Wheel of Time is the last place I’d have expected to read the line “let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding,” but here we are. -Aw, Rand is so sweet, in a fumbling, clumsy, pure youngster way. -I love the “Light!” “Light shine on me!” “Light above” etc exclamations. -I haven’t had honeycakes but damn if I don’t want to find a recipe now. -Let’s take a moment to rejoice at Rand, the first protagonist I’ve seen who actually thinks “who ever remembered the exact words they heard?” -As I’m reading, I keep wondering, will I care for these people one day? Will I cry for them, grin with them, share their inside jokes, find comfort in their domestic moments? Reading a long series when you’re already familiar with the experience makes it all so meta. -Shadar Logoth is my aesthetic. -I kinda really like Nynaeve. -Part of me wants to bitchslap Mat, but part of me likes his pureness so much. -Mat’s holding a dagger you say. Hmmmmmmmm. -You ARE hinting that Rand channels the One Power, right? -I know I’m supposed to root for Rand/Egwene, but Perrin/Egwene sounds sweet tbh. -Oof, Rand on the mast speaks to my ship-stories heart. -“Rand would know what to do/Rand had an easy way with girls” ??? Perrin, my man, are you alright. -Undulated <3. -Hahaha, and Rand thinks Perrin knows how to act around girls, that’s adorable. -Oh hello, Rand’s sick after that ~fortuitous lightning, who would have thunk. -I can’t figure out if Mat will have a hero’s arc or a corruption arc. I like it. -Oh, but shut up, Rand is so tender with Mat. -Ah, shut up, Mat is gentle with Rand too, I hate them both (that’s a fair first step for me to soon be saying I love them). -Chapters 32 and 33 are legit my favorites, I love them. -I have an odd pull towards Mat, I could either adore him or hate him. For now, I’m cautiously doting. -I feel like Rand is the kind of guy whose every second word would be a variation of “fuck.” Not for any particular emotion, not even while raising his voice. Lost? Fuck. Bumbling? Fuck. Chased? Fuck. Idling? Fuck. -Yes, that’s exactly Rand and Mat, “sly” and “vicious” /sarcasm. -Mat sure is testing my patience. Rand is so patient and forgiving. All this time he hasn’t had one genuinely mean thought about Mat. -The stinginess of information pertinent to the story bugs me. Sometimes there’s no reason at all to delay the explanation, it’s not like it’s being held for a revelation or a twist. -Rand is so damn nice. So patient, so slow to anger, and when he speaks sharply he doesn’t mean to, he’s so n i c e. -I also wish you to travel with us, Loial. -Are you setting up Nynaeve/Lan? Is that what’s happening? -The Wheel weaves what the Wheel wills. -Lan, crownless king, let me introduce you to Aragorn. -Perrin is so “this might as well happen” that it’s actually endearing. -Just for once I’d like to know what these people are constantly muttering to themselves. -Good man, Mat, shooting things with your bow in the Blight. You’ve been so wearisome that now I believe in you out of spite. Congrats. -Okay, Rand is the one male Aes Sedai, Perrin communicates with the wolves. What’s Mat’s deal? Or was it the whole dagger thing? -See, that’s the thing. Mat and Perrin – and in their eyes, Rand, too – should be refusing to take a step further until Moiraine explains wth they did there, how they dealt a blow to the Dark One, why they can now leave as they wish. Not asking questions is believable for only so long. -If the last line of the book isn’t the last line of the first season of the show, they’re missing out. -What about Logain? Will we see more of Logain? That wasn’t all for nothing, right?