#Winter's Heart

[butterflydm]

Biggest Wheel of Time 'Oh That Explains Some Things' about Jordan's background:

To expand on these further:

If you look up the Citadel (where Jordan went to university), so many of the ways that Jordan writes all teachers and places of learning seem based in what is reported out of this school: brutal hazing, breaking people to teach them duty and discipline, the symbol of graduation is even a special ring (though that's not uncommon), faux-military atmosphere.

Rand comes across as weirdly passive in his love life because Jordan was passive in his own -- when he was dating two women at once, they made all the decisions about when he would be seeing which girl.

Jordan has talked about how uniquely scarring it was for him to kill a woman during his military service, and this was adopted wholesale for Rand (and Mat at various points) despite their background not matching Jordan's.

[bgmoth]

elayne trakand, establishing intimate soulbonds with women left and right, yearning for said women to be close, surrounding herself with women warriors at first chance

robert jordan: she's so heterosexual you guys

[ancalagonthegolden]

... but he knew he was no beauty, no matter what Tylin said.

It’s the first time Mat thinks he’s no beauty. Before, it was never a problem for him.

Tylin makes him feel so small about himself.

[wot-tidbits]

Chekhov's statue

[melaan]

robert jordan i absolutely love you i love that you name the birds characters hear. blue tits are native to the two rivers <3 perrin notices them

[kaiartx]

i think my favorite WoT book so far is Winter's Heart, im loving it sooo much

[orbit-of-eternity]

Rand: I would have all three of you if I could!

Nynaeve: *prays to Randland Jesus*

Lan: ...this bowl is rather interesting.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Wheel of Time: Winter's Heart Cover Art by Darrel K. Sweet

[lovequotesandcoffee]

A man who trusts everyone is a fool and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools if we live long enough.

Robert Jordan, Winter's Heart.

[headlesssamurai]

[butterflydm]

new s3 timeline thoughts

I never would have thought of starting our mains in Tar Valon in order to untangle the potential time-crunch for this season! If it does turn out to be the case (and it sounds like it is a distinct possibility: see @markantonys's post here: a few more tidbits), what a brilliant way to solve the Wondergirls continental yo-yo problem!

Because that's a huge part of why I doubted that we would see the Wondergirls in the White Tower this season, because I couldn't see how we would find the time for it. But if everyone goes back to Tar Valon via the Ways (to warn the Amyrlin about Liandrin being a Darkfriend), then we've re-centered everyone and they can go back out into their own plotlines more sensibly distributed. If the "two episodes in the wetlands before Rand goes to the Waste" is the same two episodes as "the Wondergirls go to the White Tower", then the time-crunch problem is solved.

Okay, the thoughts below contain spoilers for the new trailer, the reports of the new clips, and any other random spoilers like interview spoilers that might be floating around. Some of my speculation definitely overlaps with @markantonys

In the con-exclusive scenes that were aired, one of them was about Liandrin being publicly revealed as a Darkfriend and her escape from the White Tower. Briefly, this scene then cuts to Moiraine and Rand in the streets of a city. If this is the shot of Moiraine in the rain from the trailer, then they're in Tar Valon. This is supported by the interview at the recent con saying that our kiddos start out the season together.

So, I won't worry about the reasoning behind them all going back to Tar Valon right now, and I'll just do some thoughts based on the 'what if'.

It means they're likely saving the bulk of Rand learning politics until after he's already gone through everything with Rhuidean and the Waste (aka until s4 which, if it follows the pattern of s2 & s3, would have two focal episodes for our mains, and it would be Mat and Elayne's turn to have one each, which could really work for their respective arcs) and (since Moiraine is still wearing the clothes from the end of s2), they are going to be rushing away from Falme as quickly as they rushed there, and we are probably going to first see them in Tar Valon (or potentially in the Ways, but that can probably just be assumed, since Loial is with them).

Moiraine is leaning back into the plan that she wants to believe she can still make happen, the one that she made with Siuan back in the day -- where she finds and trains the Dragon while Siuan gets the White Tower ready to work with him (as opposed to imprisoning him). Now that Moiraine knows that Liandrin is a Darkfriend, she can take that information to Siuan (along with the info about the Seanchan) and prove to Siuan that she did not lose her way, that their original plan can still work. They damaged each other's trust in s2 but now she wants to rebuild it.

So, episode one is the reunion in Tar Valon, and the reveal of Liandrin as Black Ajah. Maybe this is also where Egwene and Elayne get rushed through their Accepted Tests by Siuan. Moiraine and Siuan get their romantic reunion. We might get our bubbles of evil here -- Rand destroying the mirror selves is I think what's in trailer when he has that burst of power. Maybe Lanfear making her offer to Rand to find him a teacher comes in here?

Episode two is where I think the rest of our Andorans will come in -- a cold open in Andor, introducing us to the royal family & to Elaida, and Galad and Gawyn coming to train as Warders in the White Tower aka to be Morgase's eyes to make sure her daughter doesn't disappear again (which she will). And Elaida becomes our Red Sister in the White Tower as Liandrin has left.

It seems likely that this will be our trigger point for our team to split up -- Perrin hears the rumors about the Two Rivers, and Nynaeve, Elayne, & Egwene guess that Liandrin is heading to Tanchico, while Rand decides that he needs to go to the Aiel Waste. Why doesn't Mat go with Rand? This is where I wonder if we get our doorway, and the questions, but he gets pointed towards Tanchico instead of the Waste, maybe? TSR is such a strong book for the Mat-Rand relationship, so I really hope we get some of that in the season.

Now, it may be that we have two episodes with the gang together before separation... or we might get three. In the books, Rand does pretty much get tossed into Rhuidean the second he arrives, and we know that Rhuidean is happening in episode four. So maybe they get three episodes together before the split.

Episode three may be when we get Egwene (originally planning to go with Nynaeve and Elayne to chase Liandrin) and Mat (originally planning to go to the Waste with Rand; or to the Two Rivers with Perrin) swapping paths. Mat gets information that points him towards Tanchico (this is based on earlier spoilers that place him there with Nynaeve, Elayne, Min and Thom), while Egwene meets Amys in TAR and decides she needs to go with Rand to the Waste.

At some point during these three episodes, I do suspect that Rand and Egwene will sort out the status of their relationship officially, and I do think we'll get some hints of potential feelings between Rand and Elayne.

Other book-based events we might get in this block of episodes:

Egwene and Elayne trying to 'teach' Rand channeling and failing, thus continuing to remind us all that Rand needs a proper teacher of some kind.

We're definitely getting Rand's bubble of evil. We might get Perrin's, since he picked up an axe last season to kill Daddy Bornhald. And we might get Mat's, giving us a chance to see Mat out and about in Tar Valon (having a streak of good luck?).

Since Galad and Gawyn are both (likely) going to be in the White Tower, this is our only chance to get Mat facing off against them, two on one.

Egwene meeting the brothers and feelings of some kind sparking.

We could get Elaida's prophecy about Rand, and the two of them meeting.

We know we're getting Lan & Nynaeve scenes, because Daniel has already talked them up a lot, saying that they need to catch up and go past where the characters were at during this time of the books (which would be Tear-era).

If we get any kind of indicator of blossoming feelings between Rand and Elayne, maybe we'll get the feathers scene (I would love that so much. I am so fond of the feathers scene and how Elayne keeps the feathers as something precious because Rand wanted to make them into flowers).

I do hope that some of the stuff from the Waste for Mat & Rand can somehow be transposed to these three episodes, since spoilers indicate that Mat will go to Tanchico instead of the Waste.

Episode four is Rhuidean -- Rand sees the past, while Moiraine sees the future. In the side plots, Perrin arrives in the Two Rivers, while Elayne, Nynaeve & Mat arrive in Tanchico (we might even skip them entirely and pick up with those two groups in ep5). A lot of what we saw in the trailer is probably coming from this episode. Rafe mentioned that Rand, Moiraine, and Egwene would all be in their own separate world for a whole episode, so I'll speculate that the episode c plot is Egwene doing Dreamwalker training while Rand and Moiraine are in Rhuidean.

Episodes five & six will probably give us more about the Two Rivers and Tanchico. We might get the coup in here, though that might be saved for the end of the season.

Book events we're possibly going to see:

We'll meet Lord Luc. We may see Brigitte and Uno in TAR as well.

Aviendha being assigned as the person to teach Rand the ways of the Aiel, and him accidentally flirting with her via regard gifts.

Either Egeanin, or Tuon taking on Egeanin's role in the storyline (which would be a good reason for Mat to go to Tanchico instead of the Waste!).

Episode seven is going to be the Battle of the Two Rivers, and probably Perrin's focus episode. If Rand and Moiraine's story climaxes happen in ep8, then we might get the Tanchico storyline climaxing here with Nynaeve's confrontation with Moghedien.

Episode eight is probably going to be Al Cair Dal, and the splitting of the Aiel into the faction following Rand, and the faction following Couladin, but I do think likely the second climax of the episode and the climax of the season as a whole will be Moiraine and Lanfear's confrontation over Rand's future, stealing that bit of TFoH for this season but saving the rest for when Mat comes back into Rand's story in s4. Basically both Moiraine and Lanfear being taken out of the picture so that Rand is going to have to travel the paths between light and shadow without either of them trying to influence him. Our end of season teaser might be the reveal that Asmodean placed the dragons on Couladin's arms.

(yes, this is me letting go of my 'reunion at the end of s3 hopes' lol. at least for now)

This leaves chasing down Couladin for the start of season 4, which would be an appropriate place to bring Mat back into Rand's story to kill Couladin and form the Band of the Red Hand. This is also when Elayne and Thom can come back into Rand's life to help teach him wetlander politics (with Moiraine gone). Given the pattern of the focus episodes, Mat and Elayne seem likely to get theirs in s4, because they're the only members of the core six not to get them yet.

[bgmoth]

“A taste of the strap will set you right, and clear your head of nonsense,” the tall woman went on in a voice like ice. “Ask for it and be done.”

- Anath out of context

[ancalagonthegolden]

Hmm… Mat, are you trying to use Rand and Perrin as examples?

“You could get yourself in deep trouble talking to women that way,” Mat told him [Olver]. “Women like a man to be quiet, and well-mannered. And reserved. Reserved, and maybe a little shy. Cultivate those qualities, and you’ll do well.”

To Mat, Rand "I am the storm!" and Perrin "My blood is fire!" are reserved.

[wot-tidbits]

[melaan]

winter's heart is good so far on reread because I've been skipping the Perrin chapters <3 god bles

[highladyluck]

It's very funny re-reading Winter's Heart with full awareness of the rest of the series.

Five hundred men of the Deathwatch Guards had come off the ships and remained in Ebou Dar for some reason.

Tuon, Mat. It's because Tuon's there.

The ordinary sort of crime expected in any large city had fallen off dramatically under the Seanchan, but the Guards took to patrolling the streets as if they expected cutpurses, bullyboys and maybe fully armed bands of brigands to spring out of the pavement.

Indeed, Mat. I'm sure this increased police activity has nothing at all to do with you meeting the new management last chapter while looking like you'd been attacked in the street (because you were).