#and then if you look at some of gawyn's behavior it's SO similar to how rand behaves

[markantonys]

i have spilled so much ink about gawyn but really i only need 2 passages to explain why he is Like That

1. My blood shed before hers; my life given before hers...That was the oath he had taken when barely tall enough to peer into Elayne's cradle. ... Gareth Bryne had had to explain to him what it meant, but even then he had known he had to keep that oath if he failed at everything else in his life. (LOC prologue)

2. From Morgase, Queen of Andor, to her beloved son, Gawyn. May he be a living sword for his sister and Andor. (ACOS prologue)

like yeah, no wonder he does what he does in AMOL. people will be like "gawyn is so stupid for not thinking about the fact that his death would hurt egwene" as if he's being maliciously stupid and careless, when in fact, he has such little self-worth that he genuinely does not consider himself a valuable human being whose loss would impact anyone or anything. his life given before hers. a living sword. this has been his mindset since toddlerhood and nobody ever noticed it enough to try and counteract it. gawyn is exactly what rand would have been like at the last battle if he hadn't had a mental health intervention.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Dragon Reborn! Chapter 16: Hunters Three

Another day

Another chapter

Another spoiler warning for the whole Wheel of Time series

This chapter has the lion of Andor icon because we're dealing with the modern generation of the royal family!

Elayne stood in front of the fireplace, arms crossed beneath her breasts and eyes red at least partly from anger.

Lemme get this over with and then I'll probably ignore it unless I don't: where else is she going to put her arms, Mr. Jordan? Above her breasts? Alongside them?

She flushed furiously and banished the image from her mind, willed him to look away from her face.

Really at this point Galad probably at least subconsciously avoids looking at women who are too flustered around him, if he isn't very much aware of what their motivations are and is deliberately avoiding their eye out of kindness.

And after what we went through just to be here, we deserve some explanation of where you’ve been. I would rather let Galad thump me all over the practice yard all day than face Mother again for a single minute.

It's a shame that none of what Morgase must have said about Prince of the Sword and protecting Elayne on the throne and all that must have stuck in the slightest because if it had we all could have been spared a great deal of grief.

The White Tower has become a dangerous place. There have been deaths—murders—with no real explanations. Even some Aes Sedai have been killed, though they have tried to keep that quiet. And I have heard rumors of the Black Ajah, spoken in the Tower itself.

Reading their literature is of course the major reason why Galad joins the Whitecloaks, but I think another part of it is his very simplistic morality being so shaken up by his time in the Tower. Arriving when the place is at its closest to the viper's den the Whitecloaks accuse it of being has to leave a terrible influence on a person.

“You owe her that much, Elayne. You owe me that much. Burn me, you’re being as stubborn as stone. You’ve been gone for months, and all I know about it is that you’ve run afoul of Sheriam. And the only reasons I know that much are because you’ve been crying and you won’t sit down.” Elayne’s indignant stare said he had squandered whatever momentary advantage he might have had.

Gawyn is I think trying to be a good brother but he really can't help but act in that immature kiddy way. Morgase's focus on raising Elayne correctly for the throne seems to have left her boys both ill-equipped for the real world. Another nice flip on gender norms.

Nynaeve returned his smile. “One,” she said.

Oh Nynaeve why are you the best?

“Egwene,” Galad said, “you know that you, especially, can call on me at any time, for anything. I hope you know that.”

Again I think this is setting up for the ending that got discarded along the way because at no point does Egwene ever call in this favor and it feels like she was meant to.

Elayne, if you wish, I can make a salve that will soothe you.

I think this is probably the first time Nynaeve has offered to do such a thing. It's almost certainly because she doesn't think their being punished is remotely fair.

“Of course not, you fool, the way you stare at Galad until your eyes look ready to fall out of your face.” Egwene’s cheeks felt hot, but she was afraid it might well be true.

It's definitely true, Egwene. And hilarious.

“I would rather not talk about that,” Egwene said awkwardly. She did not like lying to Elayne. “She did not say anything that was pleasant.”

Note how Egwene's behavior in this instance is similar to the stuff about Galad that Elayne can't stand. She very much doesn't want to disobey the Amyrlin, won't lie to Elayne about it, and freaks out when Nynaeve wants to.

We need someone with us who they do not know about, and if she isn’t known to the Amyrlin, either, so much the better. I am not sure we can trust the Amyrlin much further than the Black Ajah. She means to use us for her own ends. I mean to see she doesn’t use us up. Can you understand that?

It's a good notion Nynaeve, but I feel like Elayne - the girl everyone now associates with you two, BA or not, is perhaps not the best choice for this secrecy thing? Of course, there really isn't anyone else you can trust.

Seven hundred years ago, at the Battle of Cuallin Dhen, the Andormen were being routed when Queen Modrellein rode, alone and unarmed, carrying the Lion banner into the midst of the Tairen army. The Andormen rallied and attacked once more, to save her, and won the battle. That is the kind of courage expected of the Queen of Andor.

For all of the absolute stupidity of Elayne running around with a weapon in the Last Battle, Queen Modrellein's tactic seems far more stupid. If you're going to ride into battle, learn some kind of weapon! Don't use suicide maneuvers for points!

“There is something else, too,” Nynaeve said. “I am afraid the Amyrlin may mean to let Mat die.”

Real great work on inspiring your allies, Siuan. Just imagine now what might have happened if they had legitimately tried to save Mat and failed - Nynaeve would never forgive any of them. Mesaana wouldn't have time to tear the tower apart.

Mat is just a tool, in the Amyrlin’s eyes. So are we. She will use us to hunt the Black Ajah, but if you break a tool so it cannot be fixed, you don’t weep over it. You just get another one. Both of you had best remember that.

It's an especially important lesson for Egwene, since the high-ranking Aes Sedai want her to be their tool later on... and to a degree, Siuan does too at that point.

“Oh, if we are going to do it,” Elayne said, climbing off the bed, “let’s do it. The longer we talk of it, the more frightened I will become. Mat is in the guest rooms. I do not know which one, but Sheriam told me that much.”

"Yeah we could all three of us die or burn each other out or get corrupted by the metaphysically complex evil of Shadar Logoth, but if we stay in this room another second Elaida might show up and that would be wor- Ah crap here she is."

Next time: No seriously, here she is!

[cannoli-reader]

The Problem with Egwene, pt 3

Just a couple of things to wrap up The Eye of the World. 

9. When Egwene rejoins Rand in Caemlyn, she is back with Moiraine and has experienced some dangers and tends to be on better behavior from here on out, with a couple of exceptions that wouldn’t make the list except for the context of her earlier behavior. 

First, Rand relates his recent encounter with the Andoran royal family in the context of explaining how he has come to Elaida’s attention. His dialogue in its entirety is thus:

“(Elaida) wanted to throw me in prison”...”All I wanted was a look at Logain, but she wouldn’t believe I was in the palace gardens with Elayne and Gawyn just by chance.”... “Queen Morgase let me go. She said there was no proof I meant any harm and she was going to uphold the law no matter what Elaida suspected.”...”She’s beautiful, like the queens in stories. So is Elayne. And Gawyn...you’d like Gawyn, Perrin. Perrin? Mat?”...”Blood and ashes, I just climbed up on the wall for a look at the false Dragon. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Egwene’s takeaway from all of this is that he met an attractive person named Elayne, and her only response is to demand to know who Elayne is.  And after considerably more discussion about the Pattern, the Shadow and their next destination, and the inevitability of their fates, she brings the subject up again.  So Rand tells her that Elayne is the Daughter-Heir of Andor. Remember, he has already discussed meeting the Queen and Elaida, her Aes Sedai advisor, and the more knowledgable members of the group believe him. Adding on that he met the Daughter-Heir to boot, is not a very impressive embellishment worth taking the trouble to make up.

Egwene’s response is to accuse him of not being serious. This is not the first time in this book she has accused him of making up stories or joking around, saying something similar about his encounter with the Myrdraal and his claim that the Trollocs came looking for him, Mat & Perrin. Both of those have proven true, and once more, the other details of his story have been judged credible. We never see Rand tease anyone with made-up tales.  There isn’t even any explicable motive for him to do so, unless Egwene is assuming he is trying to make her feel stupid or pretend to some advantage. 

Later, on the trip to Fal Dara, when Mat, the far least credible of the Two Rivers youths, the one with an actual history of telling tales, asserts that Min was interested in Rand, Egwene’s reaction is not casual. She is either playing along with Mat’s teasing, which is mildly hypocritical after getting on his case about his own alleged teasing, or she has the temerity to be even more hypocritically jealous.  Her reaction to Perrin bringing up Aram strongly suggests the latter, and there is a clear case of guilt.

When she does address the issue of Aram, note that she does not apologize to Rand, either for giving him a hard time about Elayne or Min or Else, or for her behavior with Aram, rather she demands that he not hold dancing with Aram against her, since they are never going to see each other again.  She’s not presenting a case for her innocence, she is simply prevailing upon his affections for her to make him acknowledge her lack of fault.  Aside from being manipulative, it is, as usual, privileging her own enjoyment and need for validation over his own feelings.  Egwene wanted to enjoy herself and now she wants to not feel guilt or accept blame, but Rand’s feelings about her cavalier treatment of their relationship do not matter, Egwene demands he renounce them for her own comfort. 

Her reaction to the story the boys tell of their dream encounters with Ba’alzamon is of a kind. She is mentioned as weeping, while Nynaeve comforts her.  Normally, you would assume that she is upset on behalf of her friends, but there is also the fact that it gets Egwene attention. It isn’t Rand or Mat or Perrin, who have been tormented by Ba’alzamon, who receive a comforting embrace, but Egwene, who has just experienced nothing worse than a scary story. 

That’s how things just so happen to work out for Egwene.  When she does something ostensibly nice for her friends, she happens to be the one who benefits.

Degree: Not yet evil, but definitely a pattern of putting herself and her desires above her friends.

Flaws: Hypocrisy, Double standards, Jealousy (which is something many characters experience, but very few others actually give their signicant others a hard time over it), Emotional selfishness.  

10. Finally, when confronting Aginor, Egwene, who thinks it is interesting to meet someone who doesn’t think his muscles can solve all his problems, tries to fight Aginor, in spite of all the clearly demonstrated reasons not to, namely all of their companions getting curb-stomped. And Rand is the one who has to shake her out of it, Rand is the one to tell her and their friends that it’s a helpless fight, and in the future, Rand will be the one criticized for jumping into fights or taking foolish risks or chances.  Not a few of those criticisms will be from the woman he has to bodily drag away from her arrogant attempt to duel Aginor.

Degree: Minor, because the impulse is good, but when there are people who are all but psychologically conditioned to protect you and take a bullet for you, you have to be more careful.

Flaws: Stupid recklessness, probably resulting from arrogant over-estimation of her own ability.