#emond's field five

[casualavocados]

It made me think of us. All of us. And how together we face the impossible. (insp by @markantonys)

THE WHEEL OF TIME 2.01 A Taste Of Solitude | 2.08 What Was Meant To Be

[molasseslord]

[Image ID: Art of Moiraine and Lan (as adults) and the Emond's Field Five (as toddlers) from WoT on Prime. Moiraine has the EF5 on kiddie leashes, she's trying to keep them all under control. Nynaeve is punching one of Moiraine's leg while Egwene is hugging her other leg. Rand is collapsed on the ground, like a cat that refuses to move when leashed. Mat is crawling on all fours trying to reach the ruby dagger that's just out of reach. Perrin is toddling away from Moiraine. Lan is in the background holding up a phone recording all of this, he says "you're doing amazing sweetie." End ID.]

wot s1 basically <3 (click image for optimal quality)

available as print here ! available on redbubble !

[cassandrablah]

So I'm about halfway through book three of the wheel of time right now, and I'm just thinking about the parents back at Emond's Field. Because (spoilers) Mat and Rand's fathers BOTH took a very long and harsh journey all the way to Tar Valon to see if their sons were alive or if any of the other kids were okay, only to be told that they had no idea where they were. I mean think about it.

These people woke up one morning to FIVE of their kids missing after a terrifying raid in the middle of the night, and the only way they were told that they left on their own free will was because at least one of them (I think it was Egwene) left a note. They go through the spring, summer, fall and then the winter and hear nothing. All they know is that their children has been taken by an Aei Sedai and there's a good chance that they won't be coming back. But they still have hope.

So now I imagine all the townspeople having a meeting thinking about what they should do, if they should do anything. Eventually they either decided to send Master Cauthon and Tam out, or they decided to do it themselves. They're farmers. They have no money and Tar Valon is very far. There are Trollocs and dark friends everywhere. They know this because they saw them with their own eyes. But they go anyway because they need to know if their children are okay. We have no idea (at this point) if they ever got into any trouble, or how they were doing on money and food. What we do know is that they got to Tar Valon, saw the Amrilyn Seat, and were told that they had no idea where their sons or the children of their friends were. Can you imagine having to walk away after that?

I know that if I had gone to those lengths, risked everything out of fear for my child, and spent at least a year and a half wondering if they were dead somewhere or brainwashed by these witches, I would have lost my mind. My heart would have broke and I don't think I would have been able to put it back together. Because not only does no one know where they are, but one of the strongest influences in the continent don't know.

I feel so bad for the Emond Fielder's. They just want things to go back to the way they were.

[wexpyke]

happy early valentine’s day from the Emond’s Field Five (and a bonus Mat)

[maarigolds]

Since yall liked the first one I made more

bonus: emond's field five + possibly being the dragon reborn

[iliiuan]

Moiraine was in Emond's Field for five minutes and clocked the Village Council as useless, the Women's Circle as the true political power of the place.

[asha-mage]

Robert Jordan finished WoT AU 😈

[Send me a potential AU and I'll answer with five things from that story!]

ahahaahahaha, you bait me so zorpi! This is more a 'things I reasonably can guess from my many read through the series' more then anything else, but-

Based on Perrin's portion of the Jordan written ending their was clearly meant to be a moment where Perrin had to choose between Faile's safety and the fulfillment of his duty- and choose his duty, trusting in Faile to protect herself and make her own choices. This is also pretty clearly what Malden and the battle with the Shaido was meant to set up: Perrin realizing that his obsessive desire to protect/love Faile was as much flaw as virtue, and that true love would be trusting her strength and courage. In Jordan's ending I would guess that this would likely have manifested having a choice between leaving the Two Rivers force at the front lines to go rescue Faile, who is carrying the Horn to Mat, or else stay with the Two Rivers Forces and trust Faile- choosing the later. Thus his racing through the battlefield in the aftermath, and finding Faile still alive in the carnage, would be his arc reaching it's conclusions, being rewarded for his trust and faith in her.

Mat was, I suspect, supposed to play a much larger role in the negotiations to get the Seanchan into the coalition against the Shadow, serving as leverage and pressure to get Tuon to the table and to agree to the terms- I also suspect based on his reticence regarding the Empire from when he and Tuon part in KoD, he was supposed to be a lot more reluctant/put off on the idea of commanding the Seanchan forces, and it was originally supposed to be Tuon's idea and/or part of her compromise- she'll join, but her army will follow Mat, not the Dragon appointed supreme commander.

I think we would have gotten a lot more Gabrelle, Toveine, and Logain as our Black Tower PoVs/the counter coup against Taim- Toveine was already being set up in this role in KoD and prior, and it would make sense as a means for her to 'redeem' herself of the Vileness, and it fits with Jordan's usual 'closing of the circle' that one of the Red Sister who helped with the slaughter of the men who could channel, would be one of the first and strongest converts to the Black Tower's cause.

I think we where supposed to also a get bit more thematic conflict/contrast between Graendal and Rand in Arad Doman. In general the political situatuion in Arad Doman feels very....off from how Jordan normally works politics. I think the broad beats (destruction of Natrin's Barrow, failure to stabilize the region, Rand abandoning Bandar Ebon to starve at his lowest moment) would be the same, but it feels very strange things like the merchant council politics and Graendal's broader parallels to Rand (especially in that moment- as she /also/ crumpled under impossible standards and failure to live up to perfection as Rand is currently inthe process of doing) would be far more dug into.

Finally, I think we would have had a least one major reunion scene with the original Emond's Field 5- I know this is something Sanderson wanted to do and tried very hard to manage but didn't quite fit in, which I think is sad. It really feels like their is a missing moment in there, where Mat, Perrin, Rand, Egwene and Nynaeve where all supposed to sit down and reflect on how far they've come and how before the final battle. It especially feels like something that would have been appropriate from either Nynaeve and Rand's perspective.

[markantonys]

Wheel of Time S2 Countdown

Day 5: Favorite Dynamic → the Emond's Field Five We don't need the Aes Sedai. We're Two Rivers folk. I'll heal what I can, and when Egwene and Perrin arrive, we'll sort out the rest. Together.

[veliseraptor]

i find it really interesting that of all the emond's field five mat is the only one who doesn't get a pov all the way up until book three. it just...distances the reader from him, particularly because he's a character with some major dissonance between his persona/performance and his internal experience, and by deferring access to that internal experience the series denies the opportunity to know that until later, when the reader might think they already know who he is.

i'm not sure what to make of it as a writing choice, but it is one that i noticed this time and, thinking about the way jordan uses different povs in wheel of time as a whole, it stands out to me.

[daughter-heir]

since the show is making the Emond’s field five (and co) actually friends I hope we get some big tel’aran’rhiod meet ups in later seasons

[thejuliettecai]

wheel of time season two finale spoilers!

the avengers? no the Emond's field five!!!!!!!! (yes I know this five increases to six because of more people!)

instead of saying wow they look like the avengers im going to start saying wow they look like the Emond's Field Five

lol

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 23 - The Testing

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Flame icon) In which we read one of my favourite chapters together, how exciting.

PERSPECTIVE: Nynaeve is wary of this chamber, far below the Tower. Sheriam Sedai has dragged her to a domed room carved out of the bedrock of the island, and under the dome three arches, tall enough to walk under, sitting on a ring, all one single grand piece of silver. One Aes Sedai sits at each corner where the arches connect with the ring, and a fourth stands nearby at a table with three silver chalices full of clear water. All five are wearing their Ajah shawls, all five a different colour. Nynaeve is still wearing a dress from Fal Dara.

She asks Sheriam what this is, and she replies that it's a ter'angreal. That tells Nynaeve nothing, what does it do?(1)

“Ter’angreal do many things, child. Like angreal and sa’angreal, they are remnants of the Age of Legends that use the One Power, though they are not quite so rare as the other two. While some ter’angreal must be made to work by Aes Sedai, as this one must, others will do what they do simply with the presence of any woman who can channel. There are even supposed to be some that will function for anyone at all. Unlike angreal and sa’angreal, they were made to do specific things. One other we have in the Tower makes oaths binding. When you are raised to full sisterhood, you will take your final vows holding that ter’angreal. To speak no word that is not true. To make no weapon for one man to kill another. Never to use the One Power as a weapon except against Darkfriends or Shadowspawn, or in the last extreme of defending your own life, that of your Warder, or that of another sister.”(2) Nynaeve shook her head. It sounded either like too much to swear or too little, and she said so.

Once, Aes Sedai were trusted, and didn't have to swear the Oaths, but times have changed. Now, the Oaths allow nations to deal with them without fear of the One Power.(3) But, Nynaeve can't learn in a night what novices take years to learn before this point. This ter'angreal is safe enough, though some are not, and will make her face her greatest fears. She walks through one arch, then the next, then the third, and it's done, and she becomes Accepted. That's all you can know before the trial. Two more things, can she know now:

Firstly, that once it starts, she must see it through to the end. If at any point she refuses to go on, she will be put out of the Tower with enough money to last a year, and she will never be able to return. Second, to seek is to know danger. Some women have entered and never come back out. When the ter'angreal was allowed to grow quiet, they were not there, and they were never seen again. If you want to survive, you must be steadfast. Nynaeve is given one more chance to say no, and have her name marked in the Novice book. She can have two more chances, but a third refusal will have her put out of the Tower. Many do refuse, the first time. It's a lot to take in. Sheriam herself declined on the first attempt.

Nynaeve thinks about all she has to learn, particularly to make Moiraine pay for what she's done to Emond's Field. She is ready. Sheriam guides her into the chamber.

There's a short formal greeting, and then Sheriam reminds Nynaeve of something else she'd told her on the way down here. She must go through this all naked. She strips, placing her dress and stockings in a neat pile, with Lan's ring hidden inside it.

“The first time,” Sheriam said, “is for what was. The way back will come but once. Be steadfast.” Nynaeve hesitated. Then she stepped forward, through the arch and into the glow. It surrounded her, as if the air itself were shining, as if she were drowning in light. The light was everywhere. The light was everything.

Nynaeve stands in a giant stone maze. She wonders how she got here, and a voice in her head repeats, “The way out will come but once.” She remembers playing mazes on paper as a child, there was a trick to them, but she can't bring it to mind. Her memory seems distant. She makes some turnings, sure there has to be a trick to the maze, but keeps getting lost in dead ends.

She finally uses a trick, going left at the first fork, right at the next, and makes it through a dozen turns before she starts seeing something in the corner of her eye. Eventually a man steps out in front of her, older than old. Aginor. He says she's a pretty one, he'll enjoy her. She realizes she's still naked, and flees, angry and embarrassed. Instinctively, she reaches for the Power, and manages to throw fireballs at him. He does something himself, and lightning leaps from a cloud, directly toward Nynaeve’s heart.

It seemed to her, just for a heartbeat, as if time had suddenly slowed, as though that heartbeat took forever. She felt the flow inside her—saidar, came a distant thought—felt the answering flow in the lightning. And she altered the direction of the flow. Time leaped forward. With a crash, the bolt shattered stone above Aginor’s head. The Forsaken’s sunken eyes widened, and he tottered back. “You cannot! It cannot be!” He leaped away as lightning struck where he had stood, stone erupting in a fountain of shards. Grimly Nynaeve started toward him. And Aginor fled.

The ground is rumbling under her feet, saidar racing through her, and she can feel Aginor doing something, too, though she can't understand it. Something gleams to her right, uncovered by the collapsing walls. She knows that if she lets Aginor go now, he'll chase after her stronger than before, believing she's too weak to defeat him after all. A silver arch radiates softly, where a wall had been. The way back will come but once. Aginor disappears behind a mound of stone. It will take time to find him again.

She turns back, and is relieved to see the arch still there. She considers how quickly she might find Aginor, but rushes toward the arch, and swears that whoever is responsible for putting her there, she'll make them wish they got what Aginor got from her. She steps through...

...and remembers what she's doing, back in the Tower sub-sub-basement room. Memory is like a physical bow, rushing back to her.

The Red sister raised one of the silver chalices high and poured a stream of cool, clear water over Nynaeve’s head. “You are washed clean of what sin you may have done,” the Aes Sedai intoned, “and of those done against you. You are washed clean of what crime you may have committed, and of those committed against you. You come to us washed clean and pure, in heart and soul.”(4) Nynaeve shivered as the water ran down her body, dripping on the floor.

Sheriam looks relieved, and leads her to another arch. Nynaeve asks if it was real, and Sheriam replies that no-one knows. Some bear the wounds taken inside when they come out, some are cut to the bone and show no injury when they step back out.

Nynaeve mentions remembering how to channel, and Sheriam is surprised. You shouldn't be able to remember how to channel inside. This ter'angreal was found during the Trolloc Wars. The first Aes Sedai to enter it was warded, and remembered how to channel, and her abilities burned to nothing, she couldn't even sense the True Source afterward.

Sheriam tells Nynaeve that she must not channel, if she can try to remember that, as they get to the second arch.

“The second time is for what is. The way back will come but once. Be steadfast.” Nynaeve stared at the shining silver arch. What is in there this time? The others were waiting, watching. She stepped firmly through into the light.

Nynaeve is wearing a plain brown dress. The way back will come but once.

She's on the village green in Emond's Field, and she smiles until she sees the inn, which has fallen vastly into disrepair. Cenn Buie comes out of it, remarks that she's back, and tells her she should leave again, spitting at her feet. She enters the inn, and finds Marin al'Vere wiping a table, looking years older than Nyn remembers. When she sees Nyn, she asks if she's brought Egwene back. No, Nyn can hardly remember, but she hasn't brought her back, that much is sure.

Bran is dead. The new Wisdom, Malena, is a bully who’s been using poison to solve her problems. Cenn’s no doubt gone to find her to deal with Nyn, if he saw her. There's more to the terrible things Malena might be doing. The way back will come but once. Nynaeve tells Marin the Women's Circle should unite against her. Marin says maybe... maybe Corin Ayellin will help. Nynaeve manages to get Marin halfway to Corin's house, when they come across Malena, slashing the heads off weeds with a willow switch.

Nyn looks over her shoulder and sees the silver arch between two houses. The way back will come but once. Marin screams softly that Malena’s seen them. She’s walking toward them now, smiling cruelly. Marin tells Nyn they have to run, but Nyn remembers that the arch is important. She tells herself it’s not real, unclear if that’s about the village or the arch. Nyn tears her arm free of Marin’s grip, and abandons her to Malena’s cruelty as Nyn plunges into the arch.

The glow envelops her, and she staggers out of the arch, barely aware of the chamber or the Aes Sedai.

She did not flinch when cold water was suddenly poured over her head. “You are washed clean of false pride. You are washed clean of false ambition. You come to us washed clean, in heart and soul.” As the Red Aes Sedai stepped back, Sheriam came to take Nynaeve’s arm. Nynaeve gave a start, then realized who it was. She seized the collar of Sheriam’s dress in both hands. “Tell me it was not real. Tell me!” “Bad?” Sheriam pried her hands loose as if she were used to this reaction. “It is always worse, and the third is the worst of all.”

When Nyn says she left her people in danger to come back, Sheriam explains further. There is always some reason not to come back, something to prevent or distract. It weaves traps for your own mind. That is why it is used as a test. You have to want to be Aes Sedai more than anything else in the world, they cannot accept less.(5)

“The third time,” Sheriam intoned formally, “is for what will be. The way back will come but once. Be steadfast.” Nynaeve threw herself at the arch in a run.

Nynaeve laughs and frolics in a hilltop meadow. Below the hill, the Thousand Lakes spread through the city of Malkier. The city has a thousand gardens, but she prefers this hilltop. The way back will come but once.

She turns at hoofbeats, and Lan jumps off his horse and kisses her.

She gaped at him, taken by surprise when he gathered her into his arms and kissed her. For a moment she clung to him, lost, kissing him back. Her feet dangled a foot in the air, and she did not care. Suddenly she pushed at him, pulled her face back. “No.” She pushed harder. “Let me go. Put me down.” Puzzled, he lowered her until her feet touched ground; she backed away from him. “Not this,” she said. “I cannot face this. Anything but this.” Please, let me face Aginor again. Memory swirled. Aginor? She did not know where that thought had come from. Memory lurched and tilted, shifting fragments like broken ice on a flooding river. She clawed for the pieces, clawed for something to hang on to. “Are you well, my love?” Lan asked worriedly. “Do not call me that! I am not your love! I cannot marry you!” He startled her by throwing back his head and roaring with laughter. “Your implication that we are not married might upset our children, wife. And how are you not my love? I have no other, and will have no other.” “I must go back.” Desperately she looked for the arch, found only meadow and sky. Harder than steel and more deadly than poison. Lan. Lan’s babies. Light, help me! “I must go back now.”

Slowly, Nynaeve starts to fall into the temptation and the memory failure of the ter'angreal, then fights back out, looking for the arch. She sees it, behind him, but can’t make her feet move. Lan gives more details of the life they have here together. He says he doesn’t know what’s bothering her, but he will try to set it right. She says he’s the best of husbands, and remembers their life together. The joy and the tears, the arguments and the making up. They grow the more she lets herself think them. But the way back will come but once.

Lan says he feels he’s losing her lately, and he can’t bear it. He begs her to stay with him, always. She wants to… but when she opens her eyes again, the arch is gone. She yells that this isn’t real, startling Lan. Then, she realizes she could stay there, but nothing has changed. Egwene alone in the Tower, Rand will channel the Power and go mad, and Perrin and Mat... And Moiraine, who tore up their lives, walks free.

“I must go back,” she whispered. Unable to bear the pain on his face, she pulled free of him. Deliberately she formed a flower bud in her mind, a white bud on a blackthorn branch. She made the thorns sharp and cruel, wishing they could pierce her flesh, feeling as if she already hung in the blackthorn’s branches. Sheriam Sedai’s voice danced just out of hearing, telling her it was dangerous to attempt to channel the Power. The bud opened, and saidar filled her with light. “Nynaeve, tell me what is the matter.” Lan’s voice slid across her concentration; she refused to let herself hear it. There had to be a way back still. Staring at where the silver arch had been, she tried to find some trace of it. There was nothing. “Nynaeve . . .” She tried to picture the arch in her mind, to shape it and form it to the last detail, curve of gleaming metal filled with a glow like snowy fire. It seemed to waver there, in front of her, first there between her and the trees, then not, then there. “. . . I love you . . .” She drew at saidar, drinking in the flow of the One Power till she thought she would burst. The radiance filling her, shining around her, hurt her own eyes. The heat seemed to consume her. The flickering arch firmed, steadied, stood whole before her. Fire and pain seemed to fill her; her bones felt as if they were burning; her skull seemed a roaring furnace. “. . . with all my heart.” She ran toward the silver curve, not letting herself look back. She had been sure the bitterest thing she would ever hear was Marin al’Vere’s cry for help as Nynaeve abandoned her, but that was honey beside the sound of Lan’s anguished voice pursuing her. “Nynaeve, please don’t leave me.”(6) The white glow consumed her.

Nynaeve staggers through the arch, falling to her knees, crying as hard as she ever has in her life. She yells that she hates them, all Aes Sedai. Sheriam says that almost every woman who endures this says much the same.

Sheriam suddenly turns Nynaeve's hands over, and there are two great blackthorns stuck in her, one in each palm, centered.(7)

Sheriam frowned. “There shouldn’t be any scarring. And how did you only get two, and both placed so precisely? If you tangled yourself in a blackthorn bush, you should be covered with scratches and thorns.” “I should,” Nynaeve agreed bitterly. “Maybe I thought I had already paid enough.” “There is always a price,” the Aes Sedai agreed. “Come, now. You have paid the first price. Take what you have paid for.” She gave Nynaeve a slight push forward. Nynaeve realized there were more Aes Sedai in the chamber. The Amyrlin in her striped stole was there, with a shawled sister from each Ajah ranged to either side of her, all of them watching Nynaeve. Remembering Sheriam’s instruction, Nynaeve tottered forward and knelt before the Amyrlin. It was she who held the last chalice, and she tipped it slowly over Nynaeve’s head. “You are washed clean of Nynaeve al'Meara from Emond’s Field. You are washed clean of all ties that bind you to the world. You come to us washed clean, in heart and soul. You are Nynaeve al’Meara, Accepted of the White Tower.” Handing the chalice to one of the sisters, the Amyrlin drew Nynaeve to her feet. “You are sealed to us, now.” The Amyrlin’s eyes seemed to hold a dark glow. Nynaeve’s shiver had nothing to do with being naked and wet.(8)

=====

(1) This is the sort of thing she'd have learned, if she'd gone through the normal process of being a novice before raising, as Sheriam says in a few pages. Still, it's interesting to start the chapter with Nynaeve's ignorance about the world she's entering. (2) Finally, we get the Oaths in something approaching their proper phrasing. Humour me now, take a minute, and think about these. How many loopholes can you see? To speak no word that is not true? Well, unless you believe it to be true, or unless you don't purport it to be truth. "Here I am known as Alys, and Lan as Andra." All it takes is "You may call me Mistress Alys." That's not a lie, you can call her anything, her name isn't required. No wonder Tam and Thom went on about Aes Sedai's words not being the truth you think you hear. To make no weapon with which one man can kill another? That doesn't say anything about women's weapons or things to kill Darkspawn, unless you get each and every Aes Sedai firmly into the mindset that any weapon could be picked up by a man and could be used against another man. And use of the Power itself as a weapon? Well, you could put yourself into danger and open a pretty big loophole, or if you convince yourself the person you're using it against is a Darkfriend whether they are or not. Any others? (3) Which makes sense. Even if you can see loopholes in the phrasing, limits on the ability to lie and use the Power against others are some insurance against your fears that those with power will only seek to use it against you. (4) You can see the "high church" inspiration from RJ's life in the rituals like these. Formal greetings and purifications. Why does the first arch stand for what was, why does Nynaeve need to be purified of crimes committed against her before she can gain membership? Just because that's the way it's always been. But before we start ranting about the farcical shallowness of it… consider whether RJ is setting up to make a point in that direction, and whether I'd be 15 years deep in this fandom if it didn't do something more complex and interesting with each and every detail of its worldbuilding. (5) How odd that they have a ter'angreal from an entirely different age with different social mores, that nevertheless they've shaped into this ritual because it suits their needs so perfectly. (6) My poor girl. (7) My poor girl picked up STIGMATA WOUNDS for her trouble. Good gracious. (8) Yeah, that's not ominous at all. She's part of them now, for better or worse.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 42: Remembrance of Dreams

Rest easy, child. Moiraine is keeping you safe from the spoilers. This post is filled with spoilers for the whole of The Wheel of Time series and I am trying to get them stabbed into you, but you can avoid your fate! Just block the tags! Leave this post! Read the damn books or whatever! And don't blame me if you see spoilers from here on out.

This chapter's icon is the ravens, a way of representing the Shadow that the gang is desperately trying to find a way to escape. Luckily, there's nothing really going on to threaten them in this chapter.

He took five steps into the library before he realized that everyone else had stopped, crowded together in the doorway, openmouthed and goggling. A brisk blaze crackled in the fireplace, and Loial was sprawled on the long couch, reading, a small black cat with white feet curled and half asleep on his stomach. When they entered he closed the book with a huge finger marking his place and gently set the cat on the floor, then stood to bow formally.

Aww, Loial snuggles with kitties too. This book doesn't have enough kitty snuggles, there should have been one in literally every chapter.

(Also it's cute that Rand forgets how unusual Ogiers are from everyone else's perspective because he's just that buddy-buddy with Loial already. Rand's a good friend.)

Loial liked to talk, and talk at length when he had the slightest chance, though he usually seemed to think a story needed two or three hundred years of background to make it understood. His sense of time was very strange; to him three hundred years seemed a reasonable length of time for a story or explanation to cover.

To an Ogier, this is only providing a decade or so of context, which isn't anywhere near as much.

“You always were crazy,” Perrin said, and for a moment he, too, sounded as of old. “No,” Nynaeve said. Tears made her eyes bright, but she was smiling. “None of us blames you.”

Dammit people, more hugs! Hug Mat! Hug Moiraine! Hug Loial especially and then tell me how fluffy it was.

“Yes,” Moiraine said quietly, “he still has the dagger.” The laughter and talk was still going on among the rest of the Emond’s Field folk, but she had noticed his sudden intake of breath and had seen what had caused it. She moved closer to his chair, where she did not have to raise her voice for him to hear clearly.

Rand again shows he's the overall cleverest of the group in that he notices what's up right away, and Moiraine briefly flirts with being the kind of assistant to Rand that she should be by telling him the facts straight out. See how well you two get along in this conversation, Moiraine? All of your conversations could have been like that!

Rand made a sound, and Moiraine raised an eyebrow at him. “I thought they were looking for Mat and me,” he said.

Rand's reacting to Moiraine's infodumping, which again shows just how great a team they are when Moiraine is providing all the facts instead of trying to manipulate them! This sequence is really good in the trust she offers to everyone and it's a shame she reverts to her old habits again by the second book. I blame Siuan showing up, it made her feel young again.

“That’s what I always say,” Mat said blandly, though he was suddenly grinning hard, and Egwene asked in a decidedly neutral voice, “Who’s Elayne?”

Egwene, you spent several weeks dancing with the hottest boy you could find. You don't get to be pissy about Rand interacting with another girl. It's just annoyingly hypocritical and we are leaving the part of the book where romantic misunderstandings are fun.

I met some Tuatha’an a few years back, and they wanted to learn the songs we sing to trees. Actually, the trees won’t listen to very many anymore, and so not many Ogier learn the songs. I have a scrap of that Talent, so Elder Arent insisted I learn. I taught the Tuatha’an what they could learn, but the trees never listen to humans. For the Traveling People they were only songs, and just as well received for that, since none was the song they seek.

Please internalize this, WoT fandom. The Tuatha'an aren't stupid, they're well aware of the Ogier songs, and the Ogier songs aren't what they're looking for. No song is actually what they're looking for, but the Ogier songs can't even be sung properly by people so there's no match here at all.

“That’s what the Tinkers told us,” Perrin said. “Yes,” Egwene said, “the Aiel story.” Moiraine turned her head slowly. No other part of her moved. “What story?”

See what it feels like when people won't communicate useful information, Moiraine?

(Also I am 90% certain that it was only the Three Oaths that kept Perrin and Egwene alive through this exchange, and also Mat and Rand once the dream info comes out.)

Had I known after the first such, I might have been able to. . . . There has not been a Dreamwalker in Tar Valon for nearly a thousand years, but I could have tried.

I'm pretty sure that the real reason the boys don't tell Moiraien, Pattern-wise, is that she would have worn herself out trying to help. She sadly cannot.

He can still send Halfmen against you, and Trollocs, and Draghkar, and other things, but he cannot make you his unless you let him.

I'm mostly quoting this bit to show that Moiraine and Lan are in definite philosophical disagreement here. She's way more hopeful about the task at hand than he is, though these Two Rivers folk are probably making her less optimistic by the millisecond.

Out of the mass of humanity, the Dark One can touch an individual only by chance, unless that person seeks it. But for a time, at least, you three are central to the Pattern.

Also of course, the boys aren't being touched by the Dark One. They're instead being influenced by Ishamael, who is now free enough to do whatever he pleases.

“The Father of Lies is a good name for the Dark One,” Moiraine replied. “It was always his way to seed the worm of doubt wherever he could. It eats at men’s minds like a canker. When you believe the Father of Lies, it is the first step toward surrender. Remember, if you surrender to the Dark One, he will make you his.”

And this is the part where Moiraine loses the trust again. She could have told Rand the truth, but she sidesteps so blatantly instead that he has no choice but to distrust her.

“The Pattern presents a crisis, and at the same time a way to surmount it. If I did not know it was impossible, I could almost believe the Creator is taking a hand. There is a way.”

I wonder if Robert Jordan read much of Asimov's Foundation. In those stories, a man had deduced a way to predict the future in broad strokes and had established the titular Foundation to avert the 30,000 years of barbarism he foresaw. As the project would still take a thousand years, he left behind recordings identifying various turning points and leaving hints for the Foundation's members to use to swing events the proper way - they were referred to in-universe as "Seldon crises".

Much like Wheel of Time, Asimov died with this story unfinished and had later authors revisit the series, though sadly they only did a prequel trilogy instead of resolving the cliffhanger of the final chronological novel. It also is getting adapted these days and attracting a lot of alt-right rage for having women and people of color in the cast instead of the series of interchangeable white dudes - and hopefully Amazon's Wheel adaptation will continue the parallels by having a much stronger second season after a shakier first one.

Anyway I dunno why this notion struck me here, it's just something about the way Moiraine said it. Fun fact: the Creator can intervene and we'll be seeing that before the book ends, though he won't be doing much useful.

“No!” Loial said, an emphatic rumble like thunder. Everyone turned to look at him and he blinked under the attention, but there was nothing hesitant about his words. “If we enter the Ways, we will all die—or be swallowed by the Shadow.”

Oh yeah, this is probably another thing that the chapter icon was referencing. But we'll see more about that soon. Next chapter: more bad dreams!

[fishalthor]

rewatching before friday and seeing lan and moraine interact with the emonds field five in s1 is soo funny they like ".......these fuckin hicks dont even know what manetheren is......."

right??? like, we should have gotten a whole scene with this. in the show we should have gotten something like AFTER the 'weep for manetheren' scene and they're sitting around the fire and the kids are like "did you hear that? what does manetheren have to do with us?" and Lan and Moiraine are just sitting there staring DAGGERS at them lol and Lan is SO tempted to just leave these kids.

MOIRAINE, NONE OF THESE KIDS CAN BE THE DRAGON. THEY'RE JUST STUPID HICKS

[droughtofapathy]

The Gilded Age's Broadway Divas: Clara Barton (Linda Emond)

Based on the real-life historical figure, Clara Barton spends half of season one drumming up money to get her field hospital operational. Presumably she is off doing important work during season two while all the ladies piddle, twiddle, and resolve about the opera.

I will be honest. I know Linda Emond primarily for her straight play work, so I was wholly unfamiliar with her singing until making this series. And now that I'm listening to it, I'm a little in love. As is often the case for me. But I digress.

Linda Emond is a three-time Tony nominee for her work in Death of a Salesman (Linda Loman), Cabaret (Fraulein Schneider), and Life (x) 3 (Inez). The 2014 Cabaret revival did not receive a cast album (probably owing to Alan Cumming reprising his role) so there is no recording of Linda singing "So What?" and I'm furious about it.

#1: "Yours, Yours, Yours," & "Compliments," 1776 (1997)

Linda Emond made her Broadway debut as Abigail Adams in the 1997 revival of 1776. As one of two female characters in the show, Abigail appears sporadically, writing letters to her husband and generally being an encouraging wife to this founding father. Eventually, Linda was replaced by Carolee Carmello (who, according to a Facebook comment, couldn't even get an audition for Gilded Age, and that's a crime unto itself).

Another Gilded Age actress who has placed Abigail Adams, though not in 1776, is Donna Murphy, who voiced this character on the Liberty Kids show we all know and love.

#2: "He Always Comes Homes to Me," John Kander – Hidden Treasures, 1950-2015 (2015)

I need you to understand what a deep cut this is. The Kander Hidden Treasures album features nearly fifty tracks, most consisting of demos with Kander himself laying down the songs. It is a marvel of a CD set for those of us who love the theatre, and includes a 64-page booklet with detailed notes about each song. In it, a select few songs have been newly recorded. Linda Emond appears on one from a show called All About Us.

And now I need to go on a tangent about this show. A musical based on Thorton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, it held its first workshop in 1996 with Debra Monk (hello, Miss Armstrong) and Bernadette Peters in the cast, and later moved to staging in 1999 with Linda Emond, and Bebe Neuwirth as Sabina (a role originated in the play by Tallulah Bankhead). However, shortly before it opened, Bebe was fired and replaced by Sherie Rene Scott. I have no details about why or how or what they were thinking, but back in those days, people only saw her as the "frigid" Lilith on Cheers, and I need to stop before poor Linda Emond's post becomes just a five paragraph tirade in defense of Bebe Neuwirth.

At any rate, the musical was abandoned in 2004 following Fred Ebb's death, and though it had a brief resurgence in 2007 with Eartha Kitt and Karen Ziemba, it has since largely disappeared. But thanks to this recording, we have at least some of the music.

LINK TO MASTERPOST

[ankh-morporkianpostalworker]

Now that I've finished The Path of Daggers and Winter's Heart, we're gonna update the Most Based Wheel of Time Character List:

10 - Min: While I don't mind Aviendha, Aviendha is also the sworn sister of the nost cringe character in the series, making her cringe by association. Min not being totally cringe (and her really cool power and supporting Rand without trying to control him) gets her the number 10 spot.

9 - Perrin: It's not Perrin's fault he got burdened with a filler arc. Saving his wife is a worthy goal that shows loyalty and caring for her, but reading the parts where he's just tracking her down in Winter's Heart, coming off the high of his performance in The Path of Daggers, really lost him some points.

8 - Lan: As much as Lan is a Wife Guy, he's also willing to help summarily execute people who tried to kill the man who was, for a time, his friend. He also stands up to The Dragon Reborn despite knowing what he can do, which shows courage, a based property.

7 - Davram Bashere: One of Rand's best men, Bashere is also willing to call Rand out when he does something deplorable, like his use of Callandor resulting in the wanton slaughter of Rand's own men. Rand trusts him completely, and such loyalty is pretty based. He'd cracked the top five no problem if it weren't for the fierce competition he faces.

6: Lews Therin: The Original Dragon. His moments of increasing lucidity provide some of the most interesting lines in the series thus far. The fact that he's growing more and more aware of Rand, and thinks Rand is a madman (including the line "I would not mind you in my head, if you were not so clearly mad") add an absolutely fascinating aspect to the series, and I'm excited to see what happens next.

5 - Birgette: She's a badass, despite being bonded to the most cringe character in the franchise. She also acts as said character's moral compass.

4 - Nynaeve: Of the Emond's Field Folk who left in the first book, she's the only one who has kept her eyes on the prize. Her original goals were to 1) protect Rand, Perrin, Mat, and Egwene, and she has continued to do so in one way or another for most of the series (being forcibly separated from Mat after being the only person to treat him with empathy at the climax of A Crown of Swords doesn't count against her). Of all the Aes Sedai in the world, Rand trusts only her to link with him to cleanse said saidin, a moment of extreme vulnerability. Her other goal, to learn to Heal with saidar, has been accomplished, along with her secondary goal of marrying Lan.

3 - Rand: Rand being willing to sacrifice his own life to cleanse saidin, and pulling it off, was pretty based. While his descent into madness isn't great, he's also an absolute badass who takes so much punishment throught the series that when he's bonded to Min, Aviendha, and Elayne they all gasp in astonishment at the pain he constantly carries with him. Also, him telling Alanna to fuck off was enormously rewarding, especially when he tells her what everyone else has been thinking about her forcibly bonding him.

2 - Moiraine: Has she been dead for thousands of pages? Yes. Did she teach Rand most of what he knows about politics? Yes. Did she Gandalf one of the Foresaken? Yes. Is she the first person on Rand's list of women who's deaths are on him, one he chants like a litany, showing that her mourns her death? Yes. The first three make her based and the last shows her impact on Rand.

1 - Matrim fucking Cauthon: He's got the loyalty of his men, even when he's away from them. He almost died saving his adopted son. He engineers a plan to escape an occupied city in a way that prioritizes said son's safety. He escapes his relationship with his abuser. All cement his place at the top of his list, making him tbe reigning champion and most based character.