#i want the tuatha'an back :'(

[reformedmoth]

This morning I'm still perplexed by Moiraine and Rand's god awful plan to recruit Lanfear to their cause. Perhaps this is foreshadowing the future atrocities they will commit in the name of their cause. But what is there to foreshadow? Right now they are complicit in fire-bombing the most vulnerable and disenfranchised of the Foregate. They are in active collusion with a forsaken, they are darkfriend adjacent. Remember when Anvaere Damodred said earlier in the episode that Moiraine knew right from wrong? This was dramatic irony. How do Rand and Moiraine have so many allies and this was the best plan they could come up with? Was it like this in the books? I bet the books worked up to having the heroes do warcrimes so that there was a more hefty emotional pay off. Anyway, I don't mind character motivations like this but I get to judge them for what they are - certainly not heroic and bloody awful.

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch 1x4: the dragon reborn

spoilers for s1 of the show plus the s2 teasers and trailers, plus through The Dragon Reborn ish in the books. And one casting spoiler for S3.

I really do love the cold opens. This one tells us so much! We're introduced to Logain but we're also introduced to the corruption on saidin, to how much power can be wielded by users of the One Power, and to how the corruption can both influence someone but Logain still has the choice of whether or not to listen to the voices talking to him.

We see the madness in Logain but also his own strength of character and ability to show mercy even when he's hearing whispers that he should just kill those opposed to him. Great preview of the future for Rand. Especially since Moiraine is going to later on believe that Logain hearing the voices of 'the previous Dragon' to be a sign that he isn't the Dragon Reborn, but it's another thing that she's got her wishful thinking goggles on for.

"There's a place for anyone at my side, even my enemies." ; "The last Dragon broke the world; I plan to bind it." I feel like we're seeing the seeds of some of the choices that Rand will also make in the future here, already being set up (the benefits of being able to tell the story knowing the ending). Logain understands the assignment... he's just not the actual rebirth of the last Dragon.

So we go from Logain at the height of his strength to Nynaeve looking over the camp where he's captured. Having the Greens join the Reds on this hunt makes a lot of sense -- we know that this specific one was requested for by the White Tower, and we can see the difference between this approved hunt to take down a false Dragon (where he gets shielded and put in a cage to stand trial back in Tar Valon) vs the Red-only "gentle ASAP" approach from the cold open of the first episode. Authorized vs unauthorized hunts.

It makes a ton of logistical sense for them to scale down the number of people required to hold the shield on Logain. Just from a 'how many characters we're going to have in this scene' standpoint. Jordan could have as many characters in a scene as he wanted, because he didn't need to have any actors playing them. Plus, this way, we can focus more on the characters that do exist and really get to know them better.

So we already have two factions set up -- Kerene supporting the Amyrlin and Tower Law, and Liandrin arguing that they have the right to administer 'field justice'. Will the fault line of the coup fall along similar lines? I also think it was a good idea to have the Vileness currently happening rather than having happened in the past.

I love all the insights we get in these episodes about Warders, and Warders having their own subculture within the White Tower. And the fun confirmation that Moiraine and Lan are Just Like That and are closed off even to other Aes Sedai and Warders.

Also love all the Lan & Nynaeve build-up that we get as well. <3 a lot of good bonding time and banter and I love that she just clicks with the Warders.

The time that Egwene and Perrin spend with Aram & co is very lovely and charming. Removing Elyas from the equation and putting the hesitation on Perrin was a good move, because it lets the Tuatha'an explain themselves rather than having them explained by an outsider who disapproves of their ways.

Everything about Rand and Mat's roadtrip with Thom is so great. 10/10 would have loved another episode of it but since Amazon didn't let them have one, I do think they did a great job of boiling the trip down to both the narrative and emotional essentials. It really does make me curious about how Thom will be weaved back into the story because he only has connections to three characters now (I'm assuming the backstory with Elayne is intact), rather than knowing the whole troupe, so it feels like it needs to be Rand or Mat that bring him back into the story, but we'll have passed the canon moments when that happens.

There is so much useful lore information in Alanna and Moiraine's convo that show haters just flat-out ignored because it didn't fit their narratives - Alanna straight-up talks about not being able to see Logain's weaves!

Protective!Rand really begins to peek out in this episode, even here at the start with the farmer but more and more as Mat gets worse. Also poor Rand and Mat are covered in mud.

13. Mat and bonding with little girls! If we do get Olver, I hope we get a young girl instead of a boy, to keep on theme. And Birgitte namedrop, still exciting to hear.

14. Last episode, Thom bonded with Mat and, this episode, he bonds with Rand (over concern about Mat). Thom also helpfully puts the idea into Rand's head that Mat has 'all the signs' of being a male channeler, accidentally enabling Rand's massive case of denial that lasts until Moiraine heals Mat and tells them it was the dagger causing his issues. Oh, Thom's story is so heartbreaking here. And Thom promises here to try to keep the two of them safe, and away from Aes Sedai. Really really curious how this setup will play out when Thom returns in s3.

15. Nynaeve getting through her moment of poly confusion now is a great little moment of setup for the viewers too -- showing that this can be acknowledged as a valid relationship in this world. And we will maybe get a hint about Aiel culture next season as well.

16. Poor Moiraine and her pangs of uncertainty over Logain. Uncertainty that will only grow once Nynaeve's power is revealed.

17. Last episode, it was Rand's turn to remind us about his relationship with Egwene -- this episode, it's Egwene's turn, during her private conversation with Aram. I do love Egwene falling into a new culture and immediately finding things about it to love and appreciate. And Perrin is taking the Tuatha'an more seriously than in the books, because it's so much more grounded in the reality and the faith of their world and culture.

18. Rand trying to comfort and reassure Mat, I'm fine. Totally fine. Not emotional at all. And even before they know that the Fade is there in the farmhouse, Thom and Rand are just wanting to get Mat out and safe. Thom is ride or die for these kids after knowing them for a handful of days.

19. Nynaeve is SO curious about Lan and so hesitant to admit to it. You are not intruding! He already has a big crush on you! It's such a lovely moment between them.

20. Moiraine taking advantage of the attack to interrogate Logain... Lirandrin taking advantage of the battle as a reason to justify gentling Logain... they get to be shadows and mirrors of each other too. (Did Liandrin let her part of the shield drop to try to manufacture an excuse, once she realized that his army was attacking or was it just her genuinely taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity once she's able? If Liandrin is being sincere then that lends weight to the speculation that she isn't Black Ajah yet and we'll see her wooed into it over the early parts of S2)

21. I do think it was, again, very smart of the show to actually show us the effects of an Aes Sedai and Warder's bond being severed before it happens to any main characters. And we actually get to see Greens being the Battle Ajah here too.

22. Nynaeve's power burst here really creates another point of uncertainty for Moiraine about the identity of the Dragon Reborn. If Nynaeve is stronger than Egwene, then Egwene cannot be the Dragon. But Nynaeve is too old to fit the prophecy. So now Moiraine has some thinking to do.

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 2 - Saidin

(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.)

(Dragon fang icon) In which someone's not doing so well.

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin guides Leya to Moiraine’s rough hut. She goes there immediately, and Perrin moves closer to the cookfires. Min says that Leya is going to die soon. She wishes she saw more happy things, but all happy futures seem to have gone away. There's some discussion, and she remarks that it's odd how Perrin cares so much about the Tuatha'an, they're utterly peaceful but she always sees violence around them.(1)

Loial finally hears them over his focus on his book and asks about the Tuatha'an. Min tells Loial about Leya's arrival, and what she sees. He gives another lecture about ta'veren and how they shape the Pattern around them, and they're privileged to get to stay with three ta'veren even if Mat's in Tar Valon by now. Min grumbles that it's not like she had a choice.

Rand exits Moiraine's hut, and the Shienarans all bow, but he disappears into the woods. Perrin says he'd better go talk to him. Perrin finds Rand in the same spot he's sulked for months, muttering the "twice and twice shall he be marked" part of the Dragon prophecies. Perrin just sits nearby until Rand asks if he thinks Mat's alright. Perrin says they must be in Tar Valon by now, and asks if Rand wishes he were still a sheepherder. Rand says he has a duty, and there's nobody else who can do it. People are declaring for the Dragon, and they're fighting, and searching, and dying, and praying for the man who should be leading them, but here he sits, safe in the mountains, all winter. Moiraine is right that if he joins any one small group, they'll be overrun by Whitecloaks or Domani or Taraboner armies in an instant, but he still feels guilty.(2)

Perrin asks why he argues with Moiraine if he knows she's right, and Rand says he has to do something or he'd explode. Do what? Perrin asks. Rand explains that Moiraine says he'll know what to do next, the Pattern will force him to it, but she never says how he'll know.

Rand gets so angry that the earth starts to quake beneath them, until Perrin snaps him out of it. Perrin's like, wtf, dude? And Rand says sometimes he can't help but to reach for saidin, even as sick as the taint makes him feel. But sometimes he reaches out and it's like catching air... what if that happens during the Last Battle?(3)

Perrin asks him what he did this time, then, and Rand says he didn't mean to do this, he just had to send the power somewhere before it burned him up. Perrin says there are enough people out there trying to kill him without him doing the job for them. Now, come on, it'll be dark soon.

Rand says he wants to be alone, but stops Perrin once more to ask if he dreams when he sleeps. Perrin says he doesn't remember much of what he dreams anymore. Rand says the dreams are always there, and wonders if they sometimes tell true things.(4) Then he falls silent, and Perrin goes back to camp.

=====

(1) I bet he'd say they invite it by being such eager victims, given the chance and the vocabulary to do so. Do you think the narrative agrees? Do YOU agree? (2) I think a certain sense of responsibility toward the people who would declare for you like that is healthy, but I also think overburdening yourself with guilt over other people's actions and choices hurts you both. (3) Is it just me, or does it seem like more is going on with Rand here? It's interesting, because whenever he's been conscious to this point, we've generally only seen him from inside his own head. Now, we can only see what Perrin sees. How much does that affect how we interpret his behaviour? (4) Egwene's dreams seemed to be telling truths. Why not Rand's? Whether or not he's being played by one of the Forsaken again.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 27: Shelter from the Storm

It's that time to warn people about spoilers again! My reread has spoilers for the whole damn series and if you don't want to know all the cool secrets, you should go be somewhere else. I try to make this paragraph long enough to hide everything under the "expand this post" thing, but also hopefully you'll just block spoiler posts already jeez!

This chapter once again has the leaves on a vine icon, which as I said before just reflects the Tuatha'an among other things. Perrin and Egwene are traveling with them so this all checks out. Not much to discuss.

Any suggestion that they might go further, or more quickly, was met with laughter, or perhaps, “Ah, but would you make the poor horses work so hard?”

Werthead of the Atlas of Ice and Fire wordpress did a series on Wheel, and one thing he concluded that always stuck with me is that judging by the distances and the timeline, the caravan is actually traveling pretty damn fast! Perrin must just not be good at judging the distances covered on the Caralain Grass.

But Perrin had learned that hidden beneath the surface was the wariness of a half-tame deer. Something deep lay behind the smiles directed at the Emond’s Fielders, something that wondered if they were safe, something that faded only slightly over the days. With Elyas the wariness was strong, like deep summer heat shimmering in the air, and it did not fade.

Perrin seems to be gaining his empathetic powers of Wolfbrotherhood. He does describe the ways any person might notice, but based on the speed of his thoughts so far I'm going to assume he figured that stuff out after getting the supernatural push. Like Rand, he's got a lot of denial.

“Something tells me it’s important to wait. A few more days. I don’t get feelings like this often, but when I do, I’ve learned to trust them. They’ve saved my life in the past. This time it’s different, somehow, but it’s important. That’s clear. You want to run on, then run on. Not me.”

Perrin wants to leave, but his own ta'veren-ness won't let him. It's good that Jordan was planting the seeds for this, since we'll be getting to it in a few more chapters.

“Three Girls in the Meadow,” for instance, the Tinkers named “Pretty Maids Dancing,” and they said “The Wind From the North” was called “Hard Rain Falling” in some lands and “Berin’s Retreat” in others. When he asked, not thinking, for “The Tinker Has My Pots,” they fell all over themselves laughing. They knew it, but as “Toss the Feathers.”

I absolutely love this particular bit of worldbuilding and will probably quote it every time it happens even though I have absolutely nothing to add to it.

“I have to thank you,” Elyas told him, his tone sober and solemn. “It’s different with you young fellows, but at my age it takes more than a fire to warm my bones.” Perrin scowled. There was something about Elyas’s back as he walked away that said even if nothing showed, he was laughing inside.

Perrin really hates sexuality. If he weren't trapped in a narrative where all men coming of age had to get married as quickly as possible, he'd be aggressively asexual. It makes the whole "becoming a werewolf" thing mesh all the more poorly with his character, since raw instinct and wild abandon are things that he never, ever becomes comfortable with.

Then Aram held out his hand to her, and she darted to him, already laughing again. As they ran away to where fiddles sang, Aram flashed a triumphant grin over his shoulder at Perrin as if to say, she is not yours, but she will be mine.

Honestly, as much as I despised the bizarre love triangle angle the show brought in to things, between this and the fact that Perrin's fight with Egwene never mentions her sort-of relationship with Rand, it may not be as entirely out of left field as I thought. Perrin is just extra shitty this chapter.

Sometimes he wanted to shout at them. There were Trollocs in the world, and Fades. There were those who would cut down every leaf. The Dark One was out there, and the Way of the Leaf would burn in Ba’alzamon’s eyes.

I mean, if you talked to them about it, you might either convince some of them or at least hear about the justifications their culture, which is nearly as old as the Trollocs, has come up with? Surely there's answers you could find? Especially without shouting? Come on bro.

Hopper was a scarred and grizzled fighter, impassive with the knowledge of years, with guile that more than made up for anything of which age might have robbed him. For humans he cared nothing, but Dapple wished this thing done, and Hopper would wait as she waited and run as she ran.

And he's going to spend his afterlife being Perrin's babysitter. Not gonna lie, I refuse to believe he's gone-gone as of the end of the series, just because bro deserves something better.

He crooked a finger, and the wolf howled as fire burst out of its eyes and ears and mouth, out of its skin. The stench of burning meat and hair filled the kitchen. Alsbet Luhhan lifted the lid on a pot and stirred with a wooden spoon.

Props to Ish for managing to make Perrin's absolutely normal dream seem so much more terrifying. Just absolutely terrifying.

Beyond the trees where the wagons lay, the wolves howled, one sharp cry from three throats. He shared their sensations. Fire. Pain. Fire. Hate. Hate! Kill!

It's interesting to me that Ish's dream raven seems to have accelerated Perrin's powers developing. Obviously he didn't mean to do that at all, but the stress probably helped open his mind even more. And here Ish thinks he's done this a trillion trillion times before but he's still making rookie villain mistakes.

Egwene did not notice the regretful, sidelong looks Ila gave her. She asked what was going on, and Perrin prepared himself for her to say she wanted to stay with the Tuatha’an, but when Elyas explained she only nodded thoughtfully and hurried back into the wagon to gather her things.

Perrin has absolutely no idea what's going on in Egwene's head, Wolfbrother powers or no. Of course she doesn't wanna stay forever, dummy! She's just been enjoying not spending every other night being chased by demons. If it's time to go, it's time to go so she can get to Tar Valon, the thing she actually gives a fuck about.

Why the hell is Perrin the people person ta'veren when the other two could be dead and Perrin would still be the least socially aware? Rand displays martial and political aptitude from the beginning. Mat's got martial and trickster qualities from the start too, he just gets a bit screwed up by the dagger. But while Perrin is a good fighter, he has absolutely no qualities that explain why people might follow him without reality literally rewriting their minds. I think this is why his arc is the worst of the three boys: he doesn't follow their structure so he wouldn't have had anywhere to go even if Jordan did have content for him.

“Peace be on you always,” Elyas replied, “and on all the People.” He hesitated, then added, “I will find the song, or another will find the song, but the song will be sung, this year or in a year to come. As it once was, so shall it be again, world without end.”

And here's Perrin's ta'veren again, making Elyas be more socially aware (again: Perrin is the people ta'veren even though he's the worst at this stuff) and kind. It's clearly pretty out of character since Elyas bitches about it once they're out of earshot, but it's a kindness that helps bind him more to the group, which would be nice if he ever saw them again. Sadly, I don't think he does, though I feel that if Jordan had lived to write the ending that Perrin would have folded at least some of the Tuatha'an into his group in a better way than what he pulled with Aram.

Perrin did not want to think about his dream. He had thought that the wolves made them safe. Not complete. Accept. Full heart. Full mind. You still struggle. Only complete when you accept. He forced the wolves out of his head, and blinked in surprise. He had not known he could do that. He determined not to let them back in again.

It's also very difficult to accept that Perrin is supposed to be the smart one when upon hearing, "Your dreams could be safe if you were more comfortable with this," is to go, "Fuck no get the hell out!" It's just... Damn. If it were specifically some psychic side effect of the dream raven or something, that might be one thing, but Ishamael never mentions any such thing and the reasons to avoid wolfiness just multiply. The character arc that has the most potential for Perrin is the one where Jordan makes damn sure he never tries and apparently I'm just going to be frustrated as all hell about it this whole reread. Alas.

“Ila was giving me advice on being a woman,” Egwene replied absently. He began laughing, and she gave him a hooded, dangerous look that he failed to see. “Advice! Nobody tells us how to be men. We just are.” “That,” Egwene said, “is probably why you make such a bad job of it.” Up ahead, Elyas cackled loudly.

On the plus side, while my love of Perrin POVs has diminished since middle school, I can safely say that this exchange is just as funny now as it was then. See y'all next time!

[iviarelleblr]

This is gonna be a big one, but I have Big Thoughts about Perrin's arc exploring the false dichotomies between creation and destruction, and violence and peace.

So, when the story starts, Perrin is a blacksmith's apprentice, but he takes the waraxe for the adventure because a hammer isn't a weapon for a story, it isn't the weapon to defend yourself with. On his way, he learns to hate the axe, because of what it symbolizes, what a waraxe makes all too easy to do: destroy. It's a pure tool of war, there's nothing redeeming about it unless you turn it from its purpose and use it to chop wood. He meets the Tuatha'an, who offer an alternate solution: if you never raise a hand, then the violence can't hurt you in any way that matters. This sticks with him.

A little later, in Tear, Perrin has been on the road for over a year and he's tired and homesick and he asks a smith for some work to do just to keep himself sharp and feel like he might be back home again for an hour or two. He takes such comfort in creation that he doesn't even notice Faile sneaking up to watch him work.

Then he goes home, and infuriating irresistible Faile goes too, and the only way he can save her and everyone he loves who still breathes is to take up the waraxe, to take up violence and its tools. A lot of people feel like he reached the peak of his arc here and the rest of the books had to stretch out the denouement, but I think that ignores what comes next! Also, worth noting, the Tuatha'an are here too, and worse, Perrin has more or less inspired Aram to follow his lead instead of the Way of the Leaf, and Perrin feels immense guilt because he still values the pacifism of it all, he still wants peace and creation for himself and he feels so badly that his influence is what caused Aram to feel like he had to abandon it.

He gets his honeymoon book off, and when we return, he's mostly just being pulled around for a few books, placed where it's convenient, right up until he loses Faile again. And, now, he's been holding that axe for so long, close to two whole years, that tool of only violence, it's the only way he knows anymore.

Violence and the need for vengeance is what drives him to march his army in pursuit, and destruction is his goal. He has no time to think of anything but getting her back from them and wiping them from the face of the planet.

But on the way, he sees what it's doing to himself. He sees what he's become and he knows, in a moment of clarity, that he can't face Faile again in good conscience if he's still that man of violence and destruction. He might not even be able to face himself in the mirror over it.

So, in one of the most poignant and memorable scenes (IMO) of the PLOD, Perrin slams the waraxe, the violence, the destruction, into a tree so deeply nobody could probably get it back out again without chopping the whole tree down. He says he will not be that man who can only tear apart what he touches. And he walks away from it.

It's only when Perrin has chosen to leave pure violence, pure destruction behind, that he can start to face his future. He finds his wife, they make amends. He faces the truth about himself in the Whitecloak trial. He denies no truth, and he comes out the other side penitant.

And then he creates.

He sets up at a forge, and with Powered help, he creates the first Power-wrought weapon of the Third Age.

Only, it's not a weapon.

Mjollnir-- er, Mah'alleinir, is a smith's tool. It can destroy, yes, but it also creates. It can do violence, but with the right hand, it can also bring peace. It balances. It's both extremes and all it needs to be to get him home again. Perrin never needed to choose, because there was never really a choice if he wanted to be able to sleep at night. The blacksmith must be able to destroy the failed project, to salvage the iron, and also to work it into something newer, something better.

Perrin's arc has less pure, measurable plot events than the other main characters, in a lot of ways. A lot of it was stretched way too thin across way too many books and suffers for it in every way. But, in a lot of ways it mirrors part of the arc Rand goes through. Rand has to learn how to destroy, to salvage, and to create anew to restore the Dark One's prison to a perfect state until the next turning of the Wheel. Perrin's range of consequence is much smaller, he's only destroying what was once the Two Rivers to become a new Manetheren, and taking the scraps of his old self to become someone better.

So like, can someone explain Perrin to me? Like, don’t get me wrong I love Perrin! Love him to death but I just do not understand him or his character arc. Here’s the thing, I’m currently writing a meta essay on the Ta’veren boys story archetypes and how they relate and effect the modern fantasy genre. It was going smoothly until I reached Perrin and I just drew a complete blank on what to write. I settled on the gentle giant archetype but when I compared it to what I had written for Mat and Rand it felt decidedly lackluster and shallow. I’ve never really understood Perrin’s character, like with Mat and Rand I feel like I have a good grasp on what RJ was trying to say with them, how they work in the story and how they think and feel. I feel like I understand them in a way that I just never could with Perrin. Anytime I try to write about Perrin it feels like I’m just staring at big blob of nothing and trying to shape it into a coherent analysis. I really want to dig in and understand Perrin better, I’ve tried combing through the myths of Thor and looking into the mythological roots of lycanthropy but none of it has really helped me with his overall character

[myidlethinkings]

So my girlfriend has been trying to have me read the Wheel of Time series since when she was just my best friend. I picked back up the second book recently but it's been a while since I read the first and she went on this massive "YOU WON'T REMEMBER EVERYTHING FROM THE FIRST BOOK, LET ME TELL YOU"

This led to her Wheel of Time in 5 Minutes ™ lecture/rant and... I had to share this with the world. Enjoy.

Obviously every spoiler for the first book. You've been warned.

_______

k, eye of the world in 5 mins.

begins in the two rivers, emonds field, is gonna be bel tine and everyones all excited. rand lives further afield with his father and theyre bringing in brandy for the inn. rands all omg someones watching me as theyre getting in, tams all i cant see anything, rands all mustv imagined it. they get there. they hear theres going to be a gleeman. meets up with his bestie perrin and LOVER mat I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP who are both like yeah we totes saw the figure too. they go we'll tell the mayor tomorrow.

they see the gleeman thom and theyre all omg a gleeman, omg. then the two strangers, moiraine, who is the best character ever to character in any universe fucking fight me on that and lan, who are asking questions about the area and people and moiraines like oh hi child to nynaeve the wisdom whose like im the fucking wisdom bitch who the fuck are you. she then says to the boys hey here have this coin which is totally a normal coin cuz i might have errands and shit and theyre like holy shit anything you want.

then he sees egwene and hes all like omg the love of my life will you dance with me tomorrow at bel tine and shes all yeah sure in the afternoon cuz i got shit to do in the morning and hes all like wut? and shes all GETTIN MAH HAIR BRAIDED YO and hes all like holy shit that means shes marriagable, holy shit man.

then the peddler paidan fain rocks up and gets everyone in a frenzy over war wherever and false dragons and logain or whoever else.

rand and tam go back to the farm overnight before the festivities begin. shit goes down. trollocs smash in, rands all OMG TROLLOCS ARENT REAL THO LIKE WUT and tams all, fly you fool and rand runs into the woods. but then hes all, i cant fucken leave my father so he creeps back and in the shadows he sees tam creeping around with a sword and rands like DAFUQ why does he have a sword, fighting ensues, tam gets hurt, is dying, rand manages to get him back to emonds field with a figure trailing them.

tams delirious, starts talking about rands dead mother and then starts talking about a battle and how they all poured over the dragonwall and that it was snowing but it was so hot, battle is always hot and she was a warrior even though she was pregnant and she gave birth and died and how he took the baby and rand was all WUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. im gonna ignore that shit.

gets to emonds field. everything is in ruins. trollocs wrecked the shit there too. nynaeve is all like sorry dude, your dads gonna die. hes all fuck that, gets back to the inn where the gleemans like hey that ladys an aes sedai, she could heal him but i totally wouldnt because you never know what they ask for in price and rands all i dont care because HE IS MY FATHER. MY FATHER. HEEEEE. ISSSS. MYYYY. FATHERRRRR. thoms all, holy shit dude calm down hes your father. moiraine, the best character in the universe, heals tam, then shes all like look, you three boys need to come with me and rands all, well shit she makes sense and they go but then egwenes hiding too and shes all bitch im adventuring too and rands all AHHHH and moiraines all huh the wheel weaves what the wheel wills, whatevs, and they go on, with thom whose also like this place is boring asf, im coming on.

they head out, dragkhar fly overhead, moiraine like a mofo destroys them, they get to tarren ferry, cross on the ferry, then coincidentally theres a whirlpool and the ferrys destroyed when theyre on the other side and egwenes like HOLY SHIT YOU DID THAT and moiraines all cuz im fucking awesome and nobody can follow us now so stfu and they head on.

rand interrupts a lesson with moiraine teaching egwene the true source cuz egwenes got it. rands all FUCKING WTF and thoms all dude, leave it, you cant do a thing about it. Shes gone now. Why don’t you bang mat instead. I mean the mat comment never happened but I will ship them till my dying breath. moiraines all to egwene youll die if i dont teach you, there was another back in emonds who also had it but she managed to survive/channel in her own way.

egwene starts to unbraid her hair. rand has a crying fit. egwenes all fuck off man, i do what i want. mydraal and shit attack them, they get to baerlon safely. where the gatekeepers like the children of the light are around but they cant cause much trouble cuz the city watch hate them and the whitecloaks are little bitches. they get to baerlon. mat and rand walk around. they see a few of the whitecloaks, dane bornhold a young man leading the small group. mats like lol, watch this, enters a shop, climbs up the top and hurls a rock at them, loosening barels. rand has started to feel feverish and when the barrels nearly knock them over, rand stands there and doesnt hide and rands like lol and danes like dafuq are you looking at and rands like im looking at you what are YOU looking at and hes feeling really odd and reckless and danes like are you a darkfriend and steps forward but then the city guards turn up who hates the whitecloaks and they face each other off and mat hauls rand off all are you fucking insane, you faced him off and rands recklessness leaves him and he freaks out and they flee.

throughout this time and through the book all three have dreams but i cant be bothered to get into those, theyre basically all the dark one figuring out who is who, and they wake up after rats backs were broken in the dream to be all oh hey it was just dreams though, to find rats dead all over the place and other stuff. Moiraine told them early on to go to her if they have dreams and the boys talk about it and theyre like we should probably tell her but nah, she saes sedai and like, its just dreams yo, yeah a few rats end up dead but cool, its fine, we’re fine.

oh baerlons also where he meets min who can see things around them, like with him a sword that is not a sword and three women on his funeral pyre weeping and with perrin she sees wolves and mat dice and with lan seven broken towers and a baby in a cradle with a sword and blah blah. And she says she can see he loves egwene and egwene loves him too but theyre not for each other, at least not in the way they want to be.

then he returns and nynaeve is there and she is PISSED and is all like we're going home now and moiraine manages to convince her they are in trouble and nynaeves like ..... i dont trust you, but fine. and lans all how did you find us and shes all i tracked you bitches and hes all like, huh.

rand says to her later about MY FATHER HE IS MY FATHERRRR and nynaeves all awkwardly like er yeah totally, i totally dont remember when your father returned after adventuring with an outlander wife, that totally explains your red hair, er yea sure. but that above all they loved him as much as they wouldv loved any baby.

oh a bunch of times during the book people startle at him and him being so tall with red hair and grey eyes and say he resembles an aiel. oh, theyre also ta'veren, so extra special they draw people into doing stuff with their lives, they effect the pattern. moiraine also says the two rivers used to be manetheran, a fabled kingdom. that night shit happens and they run off. they run, fight, attack, fight, as they battle mat starts yelling out things in an old language he doesnt know, that moiraine says was a manetheran war cry and the old blood still sings.

theyre going to get outrun in battle and against moiraines judgement lan takes them to an old crumbling city shadar logoth which fell to the darkness and even trollocs and mydraal dont like entering it.

oh also tam gave rand the sword which is a heron marked blade and lans all like er only blademasters have these why did your father have one and rands all HES MAHHH FATHERRRRRR and lans all yeah but how and rands all he bought it from a merchant years before and lans all yeah that sounds totally legit.

they go into shadar logoth, the boys sneak off, meet mordeth whose all like lol here take the treasure and mats like cool but rands like holy shit he doesnt have a shadow and then mordeth goes all rahhhh and the three manage to escape and they return and ramble about what happened and moiraines like DID HE GIVE YOU ANYTHING and theyre all like no and mats like er totally didnt and moiraines like we have to move and they leave but then this shadow thing that can kill them separates them and theyre all separated and perrin and egwene fall into a river together, and nynaeve finds moiraine and lan and is all like I will cut you aes sedai for what you’ve done to all of us and moiraine is all lol, and rand and mat with thom end up on a ship, the spray, with bayle domon and theyre worried he’ll throw them overboard cuz of the trollocs that chased them but domon seems to think theyre after him.

moiraines like with the coins i can track them, but two of them have lost their coins (paying for passage on domons ship). perrin and egwene roam around a lot, finally meet up with a man elyas who can communicate with wolves. aes sedai once tried to gentle him because of it but it has nothing to do with the one power so it didnt do anything. theres hints he used to be a warder, but now he hangs out in the wilderness. he says perrin has the same thing, perrin freaks out. elyas is like ill take you to the next city cuz you guys are lost. they then meet up with the tuatha'an, the tinkers, who roam around and dont harm anyone even if theyre to be harmed. perrin cant reconcile that, hes all how can you defeat evil by that, but in turn they pity him as hes such a young, sad, violent man with his axe. his eyes start turning gold like elyas' and he starts to communicate with wolves like hopper and a bunch of them though he tries to deny it.

egwene dances with aram, one of the tinkers and perrins all wow what about rand and they eventually leave, though aram is restless for a tinker.

the leader asks elyas if hes found the song which is their formalities, elyas is all no we havent. the leader then tells him of a story he heard, of an aiel who crossed the waste and died, to tell them that leafblighter means to blind the eye of the world. then she died. they leave and then they then meet afoul of the whitecloaks who are fighting whatever and bornhold - danes father – and byar catches them. through the ordeal perrin kills two of the whitecloaks while hes being all half wolf in the battle and they take them in to be questioned.

nynaeve and moiraine/lan end up finding them, releasing them, the wolves assist, nynaeve gets left behind, lans all about to get her, moiraine reminds him of his oaths, nynaeve turns back up.

meanwhile rand/mat are at whitebridge and mats starting to get sick and suspicious. he had a dagger from shadar logoth. a mydraal finds them, thom hurtles his flute and harp at them, says to go, to leave. hes saving them because he once had a nephew who could channel and the red ajah gentled him, while thom was having an affair with the queen morgase of andor when he was a court bard and by the time he got to owen it was too late and hed not survived, which he always regretted and then because he left morgase the way he did she was pissed at him too. rand and mat run for it, rand sobbing that thom is dead.

they go from village to village to village, mat getting sicker and sicker, a young woman who ends up being a darkfriend tries to kill them, they escape. rand keeps thinking he sees padan fain the peddlar from home, whose actually a darkfriend.

moiraine tells nynaeve she has the power too, nynaeve has a mini breakdown. moiraine said it would have begun with a doing something she desperately needed then a few days later collapsing really ill and the illness disappearing quickly. nynaeve once said egwene had gotten sick as a child and shed healed her not knowing how, then gotten sick. moiraine says thats also how she found them to begin with, in the city, she could sense egwene.

rand and mat go to a poor inn, they try to rob them by locking them in the back. mats getting sick and even more paranoid. rand is terrified when he realises theyre going to sell them to a darkfriend and he prowls and prowls till the room theyre in explodes, the wall crumbling. rand doesnt know how but he thinks he did it himself. mat becomes blinded from it and starts sobbing.

they escape. on the run again. as mat is blind, rand takes care of him and mat in his illness is worried that rand will abandon him which rand would never do because mat is the LOVE OF HIS LIFE, rand ends up really sick, paralleling what moiraine said what happened to nynaeve.

they end up hitching a ride to caemlyn where they expect moiraine to find them, if shes still alive. the buggy driver talks about the queen. how elayne is the daughter heir and her brother is the first prince of the sword. its been tradition forever that the daughter heirs go to tar valon to train and the princes go be taught by warders. he mentioned tigraine who was the queen before morgaise, who disappeared mysteriously nearly twenty years ago, who left behind a son galad. morgaise married the husband and became queen and while she had elayne and gawyn, galad lives with them too, now the husband is dead. oh, also logain the false dragon is being presented to the queen as prisoner before the aes sedai take him to tar valon to gentle him.

they get to caemlyn, mats REALLY sick. rand leaves him at an inn, tries to go see the false dragon being brought in. he meets loial an ogier whose nice, whose like 90 but really young for an ogier to have left his stedding without permission. rand ends up thinking he sees paidan, but doesnt have a good feeling, tries to run off, falls into a castle garden. meets elayne the daughter heir who might actually be the most annoying character to exist, her brother gawyn. theyre like omg you look like an aiel. elayne then talks about gareth bryne the guard captain dude she ships hard with her mother. galad MY MOST PURE CHARACTER WHO I LOVE FUCK ELAYNE (not a spoiler, his name is of the most pure camelot round table knight) rocks up, is all, holy you broke into the palace. elayne whose a bitch is like how DARE YOU YOURE NOT MY BROTHERRRR and galads all we are siblings and my duty is to protect you and shes all you wont do anything with this rand ill invoke protection, then galad goes and tells the guards because theres literally a false dragon being brought in and tension is on the rise in caemlyn and hes taken to see morgase.

the red ajah elaida is freaked out by him, knows hes taveren, has a bit of a prophecy but it doesnt really mean much and morgaise is all look, we cant just arrest everyone, let him go.

he then races back to the inn, moiraine and everyones there, they all hug, then hes all like oh yeah mats sick btw. moiraine goes up and mats not just sick hes now tainted. she does the best she can but is all like he needs to get to tar valon to have the bond between him and the dagger properly severed. then moiraine meets loial who randomly talks about an event concerning the eye of the world. perrins all oh yeah thats like the dead aiel girl the tinkers spoke about. that changes the plans once moiraine realises the dark ones trying to get to the eye and shes like we cant get to tar valon yet we gotta leave now. they use the ways which loail knows how to use cuz ogier and male aes sedai made them together centuries before but now the ways are tainted.

theyre like the worlds between the worlds, can get to places quicker but it has the black wind thatll kill you. blah blah blah they use the ways, nearly die, but get to fal dara/shienar, which is sort of where lan is from. nynaeve confesses her love, lans all no i cannot, i cannot offer anything. it ends up that his parents had the throne but his ... there was scheming. His uncles wife wrecked everything, she escaped with her baby into the blight, lans cousin, nobodys seen or heard of them, moiraine suspects isam might be alive but GASP keeps it from lan. the seven towers crumbled, lan has a death wish, he believes hes the only one left so must die.

lord agelmar wishes lan would rise up the banner of the golden crane because everything about the blight is crumbling, lans like no, i have a new oath now with moiraine. lord ingtar is a fight me soldier who fanboys after lan. theres a battle going on in tarwins gap they desperately need help for, but lan says he cant. lord agelmar orders ingtar to accompany them to the blight and leave them cuz moiraines like we cant have anyone else come with us.

Paidan fain by this point has rocked up to shienar and tried to wheedle his way into the good graces of lord agelmar but hes all wtf you look like a creeper and throws him in a cell. Moiraines like I need to question him at some point.

moiraine then takes them into the blight to find the green man who can take them to the eye of the world. the green man rocks up, hes made of vines and flowers, takes them to the eye. two forsaken rock up. moiraine tries to fight, is knocked out, nynaeve and lan get knocked out, the boys run. the green man is destroyed by the forsaken. rand ends up destroying the forsaken, goes into the eye, channels the male source in there, realises he can channel, has a fight with the dark one - whose still bound under the seals, but rand believes he ended the dark one and its done. comes out, the others are recovering. brings out an old banner from the eye thats the dragons banner, broken seals from the dark ones prison, and the horn of valere. moiraine is all, we need to take these to tar valon. rands all, you do that, but im done with aes sedai, im not going to tar valon. im done. the dark ones dead and im going to do my own thing. he turns to egwene who backs away from him when he said he channeled, then she bursts into tears and hugs him and says shes sorry.

they return to shienar, fal dara, where there was a miracle in tarwins gap where they believed they saw the creator and that the light took on flesh - they saw an apparition of a man they didnt know as rand fighting the battle he fought. ingtars flipping his shit because he missed the battle while accompanying them, and then not even being able to accompany them the entire way. After all of his talking about going after a week rand is still there, finishing his sword practice with Lan in Agelmar's private garden and meets up with Egwene. He tells her that he will go away. Egwene asks him to come to Tar Valon with her and Nynaeve, itll totes be fun, I mean theres the red ajah and shit wholl attack him if they know but hey itll be fun, but Rand refuses. He says he'll never channel again. When she asks him if he'll be going home, he tells her that he'll never go home.

Moiraine is underneath Agelmar's private garden. She uses her blue teardrop thing she wears on her forehead to focus her eavesdropping on Rand and Egwene. Using it to eavesdrop was the first use of the One Power she had learned as a young girl in the royal palaces of Cairhieren.

Smiling, she says, "The Prophecies will be fulfilled. The Dragon is Reborn."

the end.

[wheelofshenanigans]

Episode 4 has arrived, and I can't wait to get into it:

Episode 4 - The Dragon Reborn

If the last episode left me wanting, this one made me want so much more! Right from the beginning with Logain through to the end, I was spellbound. The show truly hit its stride here, and anything that felt like it was missing from the last episode arrives in this one.

10/10

This origin tale is pretty simple; the brown sister returns to teach novices about the difference between saidin and saidar. Some useful descriptions of what each half is like, the kind of thing that was plentiful in the books but can be a bit too much exposition in the show.

This episode so firmly leans into the possibility that it's Nynaeve who could be the Dragon that I haven't bothered analysing any of the other characters this time.

longer review and book spoilers below cut:

The whole beginning scene I LOVED so much! The manifestation of Logain's madness was especially interesting to see as it shows how it might later progress in Rand! I'm thinking that it starts with voices, then with the oily shadow figures, and then finally fully real hallucinations, like the one the man in the beginning of ep1 saw. It's also interesting that both that man and Logain are urged to aggression with the power by the manifestations, and both decided against it.

The scene where Moiraine takes over half of Logain's shield from Liandrin was interesting, as well. Liandrin mentions weaves of air, and hopefully we'll see more specific visuals of the five elements later on.

The tinkers are more colourful this episode! Maybe it was just the murky fog that sapped their colour last episode, because they definitely felt more like the tuatha'an from the books this time.

Liandrin comes in looking down on Nynaeve, and as soon as she realises Nynaeve's not a fan of Moiraine, she immediately attempts digging in her own claws to turn Nynaeve against her. Liandrin thinks she's so smooth and I find it almost funny. Lan and Nynaeve's interactions are starting to feel a little flirty around the edges!

While reading the books, I was never really interested in the way of the leaf other than as an interesting viewpoint, but the show really sells me on it with Ila's perspective; peace being the ultimate act of violence against violence. Not to mention, with the wheel turning souls back into the pattern being a bigger thing in the show, it absolutely makes sense that you'd want to build a better world for you and your loved ones to eventually live in, in another life. There are some touching scenes with Egwene, Perrin and the tinkers this episode, and I really enjoyed them. While the scene with Ila and Perrin is emotional, I actually think the more important moment for me is when Aram is telling Egwene about the Song they're searching for, how when they find it the world will live in happiness - and Egwene gestures around, pointing out that the tuatha'an already seem to be doing just that and maybe they have found the song. It feels to me that Aram is only really following the way because it's the only thing he's known, and he mentions at one point to Egwene about how they leave their wagons to experience life outside the way when they're 20. I think Aram has no real faith in the way, and is kind of reaching out to Egwene, hinting that he might like to leave the wagons with her, but she's pointing out the things he's taken for granted and overlooked, letting him see them in a different light. Maybe it's a little too involved for just a couple of scenes, but that's what I was feeling from them.

Mat sees a little girl and immediately goes into Big Brother Mode tm, even right after throwing up some of the mashadar shadow. Thom tells Rand all about his nephew Owyn, thinking that Mat is showing the signs of being a male channeler. Thom assures Rand he'll stick with them and keep them safe, away from Aes Sedai who'd gentle Mat and reduce him to barely living. Rand later assures Mat that no matter what, he's there for him, though Mat doesn't respond. Part of the first book I loved the most was the relationship between the two, especially when they were travelling all on their own, and I feel like these little scenes here - and hopefully scenes in the next episode - keep that spirit for the show. Side note here: we get to see Birgitte! In doll form, and though the little girl gives it to Mat he loses it in their flight from the farm later on, which was unfortunate. I think it might have been better for him to hang onto it, remembering his sisters when he's troubled.

We get to hear about warders as Nynaeve joins them around the fire, and even see that Alanna's warders are much closer than the others, as well as with her - our first hint of polyamory in the show! I thought they might only be showing it when it comes to the Aiel, so this was a pleasant surprise. We also again see Moiraine and Lan interacting closely yet platonically, which I hope won't change.

Rand has another dream with ba'alzamon, woken by Thom, and together they find Mat standing alone in the house among the dead family, holding the dagger. There's a soul-wrenching few moments where the audience is lead to believe that Mat's the killer, as mashadar creeps across his face, but then he points the dagger up and we all breathe a collective sigh of relief as it turns out there's a Fade in the house. Not a great thing, really , but better than Mat becoming some corrupted killer like this. I've seen a few people who weren't sure and felt like they'd been left hanging on whether or not he actually was the killer, but I feel it's pretty clear-cut on who the killer is:

the deaths left corpses that weren't clumps of ash

Mat's dagger is clean when he points it at the fade

the Fade's blade is bloody when it attacks

And, so soon after Thom joins us, he leaves us again. Hopefully we'll see him again in season 2 with Rand visiting Cairhien, and then later Mat'll pick him up from Tar Valon - or however the show ends up doing it.

Ghealdan's king comes back for his False Dragon, and we see a nice bit of destruction with the one power. This whole battle, especially as the dragonsworn got closer in and Nynaeve herself was attacked, I was hoping she'd finally explode out in rage with the one power - but when she finally does, kneeling over Lan bleeding out in a cave full of injured Aes Sedai and warders, she heals everyone in a much more fitting example of who she is. One minor issue I have... the cgi blood. It looked SO weirdly fake squirting out of Lan's neck like that.

Logain sees Nynaeve's aoe rage-heal and sees her as the 'raging sun' that Moiraine told him he's a pinprick of candlelight against. In the books, it's mentioned Logain can see ta'veren, so maybe it's Nynaeve who's supposed to be the fourth ta'veren in the series? Logain is then in short order gentled by the Aes Sedai, in a circle lead by Liandrin, and weeps.

[swordshapedleaves]

I like the Tuatha'an. Could be gaudier. When I first encountered them in the books, I was a child living with a violent guardian. I couldn't fight back, and the idea that pacifism could be a noble calling appealed to me. I wasn't helpless if I was choosing to be non violent. But as an adult, all I can think is that this philosophy is very convenient for anyone who wants to hurt you. And even if every human being in the world became a follower of the way of the leaf, they'd all end up eaten by Trollocs.

Episode 4! I'm really binging this thing.

I'm really enjoying this closer look at Logain. He wasn't a perspective character as far as I recall, and was very unsettling and enigmatic. He still his here, but also I trust him? He seems like a good person despite the madness and the conquering.

[butterflydm]

wot reread: the gathering storm (chap 38-42)

spoilers through the gathering storm

Siuan and Egwene talk in TAR. Or, well, Siuan basically begs Egwene to please let them rescue her.

2. Yeah, tbh, I feel like Egwene is falling prey to the idea that bending at all is the same as breaking. Disappearing from captivity after you've stunningly made your point to everyone is actually extremely impressive! I don't think it would undermine her the way that she believes -- it would show everyone at the White Tower that she was there by CHOICE, that she could have left at ANY TIME but chose to stay with them as long as she could be helpful. But Egwene says that Siuan doesn't have permission to rescue her unless Elaida literally schedules her for execution. Siuan points out that Elaida might not put much time between the scheduling and the action, and Egwene says that such a rush to kill her would make her death a victory too. EGWENE! You are more helpful alive, bb. I do think it makes sense that Egwene wants to keep trying to press on with the strategy that has gotten her success so far, but that her Two Rivers stubbornness might be getting in the way of admitting that she already made her point. The rebel camp has been without their leader for a long time now!

3. I haven't gotten there yet but I almost wonder if Siuan is deliberately NOT reassuring Gawyn because she's hoping that he WILL do something rash so that Egwene can be saved without Siuan needing to disobey her.

4. Interestingly, right after I think about Gawyn, Siuan mentions to Egwene that he's shown up in the rebel camp! Ah, it sounds like Siuan is actually really out of the loop on the Gawyn situation and doesn't know where his head is at -- this does make a lot of sense, when I think about it. Siuan is Egwene's secret advisor and she doesn't have much power or influence when Egwene isn't around. Egwene notes that it seems bad that Romanda and Lelaine are gaining so much influence and Siuan begins to point out that this is possible because of Egwene's absence but stops herself part-way through (she's right though).

5. Egwene (who has learned about Rand's kidnapping by the White Tower Aes Sedai) is able to directly compare her current situation to what Rand must have gone through, noting that his would have been worse -- because he was even more closely confined and didn't have the option that Egwene does of knowing that he could call for a rescue at any moment.

6. Egwene briefly considers the idea of tapping against Elayne's dreams to ask for a meeting but decides against it. Alone, studying the rebel camp and noting how the tents are beginning to show the division that Siuan mentions, clumping together to one side or the other, she considers the idea that Siuan may be right. It may be time for her to come back to the rebel camp to heal the rifts that are developing there. But she worries that this would mean choosing to actively have TWO White Towers operating at the same time, sowing confusion among the women they would want to bring into the fold.

7. She uses need to direct herself in TAR and finds herself in a Tuatha'an camp. She wonders what the Tuatha'an are doing, in this time of war. Sadly, we know from KoD that they are throwing their lot in with the Seanchan, and with slavery. Or at least some of them are. But Egwene doesn't know this, and thinks back to the time she spent among the Tuatha'an -- with Aram, Raen, and Ila. Dancing with Aram while Perrin scowled disapprovingly. Though Aram is dead (which she doesn't know, of course) the memory of spending time in this camp, and with him, reminds Egwene of the importance of actually enjoying her life and not only burying herself in duty, which brings her thoughts to Gawyn (where we kinda do come back to the idea of choosing Green Ajah because it means you are 'allowed' to marry your Warder -- not being Green didn't stop Nynaeve, Egwene!).

8. "Those desires of her heart were less important than the fate of the world, true, but they were still important." So she was able to get some perspective by coming to the Tuatha'an camp. This stance in general is definitely the one that I would say is the most emotionally healthy (as opposed to Rand believing that he needs to be alone to be strong, or Perrin believing that letting the world burn is okay as long as he gets to kiss Faile while they both die together).

9. Egwene wakes up, and her condition in the real world is ROUGH. She's still wearing the bloody novice dress that she was wearing the night of Elaida's dinner (literally bloody, not the swear word, lol), she aches from her beatings (they no longer heal her in between), and she probably smells pretty bad at this point, since they don't even allow her enough water not to feel parched, let alone to bathe.

10. Egwene is pulled out of her cell and told that Silviana is going to be punished for her misbehavior now, since as the Mistress of Novices, she should have been able to keep Egwene from ~acting out~ and that Katerine (who is one of the Reds who was with the embassy to Rand that kidnapped him and who then escaped from the battle of Dumai's Wells) is the new Mistress of Novices and it's now her job to ~teach Egwene her place~ aka break her. But for Egwene, this change makes her feel pretty great (relatively speaking) because it makes her feel like she won this round against Elaida.

11. Ah, we find out that this was not truly Elaida's decision: Silviana stood up against Elaida's new punishments against Egwene in front of the Hall, demanding her release. Elaida declared that she was stripped of being Aes Sedai and to put on a novice dress, and Silviana refused, so now Elaida is ordering her stilled and executed (sounds like it hasn't happened yet). The woman telling Egwene is, Saerin of the Brown Ajah, mentions that Elaida is overstepping so much that she wouldn't be surprised if all this ends with the Red Ajah being dissolved, which Egwene protests against strenuously, saying that all Ajahs and all Aes Sedai are going to be needed.

12. Egwene suggests dosing her with forkroot tea so that shielding her isn't needed and the Red Sisters can go investigate this situation, and the Sisters eventually agree. And then we see that Verin has come to the Tower (I'm assuming she Traveled from Caemlyn & Mat's plotline that we'll see next book) and wants to have a private conversation with Egwene. We get such a great line here where Verin casually lies about the color of Egwene's dress, revealing that she is not under the Oaths.

13. Egwene tries to fumble for other potential explanations for why Verin might not have taken the Oaths, but Verin calmly tells her that she's Black Ajah. (this is a very good scene and, side note, also one of the scenes that are confirmed to have been pre-written by Jordan -- the Egwene plotline was one of the few things that was good about CoT/KoD, so I'm not surprised that this is a good scene). We get some great revelations here -- that Verin is Black Ajah, but that she had to swear the Oaths to the Dark One because her curiosity led her to uncover the Black Ajah and it was swear or die, so she's spent her life compiling information that points out as many Black Ajah members of the White Tower as she has been able to figure out over the decades. Also, that she can tell Egwene all this now because she's taken poisoned tea (on purpose) and is going to die within the hour, which gives her a loophole around the Oath that she swore to the Dark One. I like the parallel between Verin taking poisoned tea to accomplish her goals and Egwene volunteering to take forkroot tea so that she can be alone to work on her own goals as well. And I love Verin working that loophole in her Oaths here, like we've seen so many Aes Sedai work loopholes around the 'honesty' Oath.

14. Awww, Verin's little moment of worrying over ~fiery~ "young al'Thor". She was sympathetic and concerned about him during her conversation with Mat too. She's genuinely been such a behind-the-scene ally for Rand the entire book series too, always doing her best to poke things into place so that they would work out for him. Sometimes I imagine the world where Jordan had decided to make VERIN Rand's late-game Aes Sedai mentor instead of trying to shoehorn Cadsuane into the role. They're both from Far Madding! They're both Aes Sedai with secrets and agendas of their own. But Verin is so much more interesting than Cadsuane and it would have been really neat to see her occupy a semi-advisor role with Rand (like we got a preview of in TGH). I much prefer a sneak over a bully, lol.

15. Verin has also figured out that the key elements that the Forsaken/Chosen and most Darkfriends have in common is SELFISHNESS (it really is a shame that the Dark One didn't try to turn Perrin during his Nothing But Faile Matters arc, though buddying up with slavers would have been enough of a moral equivalent IF Jordan hadn't decided to focus so strongly on allying with the slavers in both Rand & Mat's plots as well). "It's easy to determine what they want: power over the other children. Proof that they are the most important."

16. "A tool that you can depend upon to act as expected is far more valuable than one you cannot understand." My brain continues to make so many comparisons between TDO and the Seanchan but... this is where little miss slaver empress fails with Mat (and I expect Jordan WAS planning to explore this in the outriggers? because otherwise what on earth would the plot even have been?).

Mat is NOT a dependable tool and is NOT predictable (because he is, generally, despite his protests, NOT selfish). The empress previously known as Tuon has underestimated him several times in the series so far and does not have a reliable read on him, because she keeps trying to define him (and everyone else she meets) only by the terms of her own society. She doesn't understand him. This has been made clear several times in the series so far. This is really why it feels like it would be so easy to have a long-con Mat situation, or a "Mat betrays his current wife after she pushes him too far" situation, because by the rules of Seanchan society there is NOTHING that the Empress can do that is "too far", so she won't see it coming if she crosses the line and switches Mat from thinking about her as "prophecy wife who I must protect and defend" to "aggressor who I need to defend and protect others from" (especially if he does some creative thinking about how she isn't the ~Daughter of the Nine Moons~ anymore and thus is no longer his fated wife). She can order any humiliation, punishment, or degradation on someone and expects it to be enacted immediately. And that was not the sort of thing that EotW-WH!Mat found acceptable.

And Westlanders are already having an influence on Seanchan who are getting the chance to see that you ARE allowed to have personal boundaries. That you don't have to just accept humiliation with a smile because it was done by someone higher than you in the hierarchy. In CoT/KoD, this was pretty much entirely confined to the secondary characters' storyline (Leilwin nee Egeanin & the sul'dam) because Jordan had decided to hold off on it for Tuon, but... that house of cards is wobbling. And Mat is an agent of chaos, even if Jordan inexplicably decided to ignore that for two books (any post-canon theories that don't hinge on Mat being an agent of chaos are nonsense, imo). Anyway, that's kinda where my vibe is so far, but we'll see where ~the artist formerly known as Tuon~ goes in the last two books, in terms of potential character growth.

17. Tomas really is our only example (after Ingtar dies) of a Darkfriend who turns things around and claws their way back out (since Verin was never a true Darkfriend). It really did feel like we didn't get enough examples of that tbh. Especially since we don't spend much time with Tomas himself and really only hear about him through Verin. He dies off-screen here, btw.

18. What Verin says here about the goal of Brown Sisters, essentially to create a lasting legacy, really reminds me of Rand's goals to try to keep something intact after the Last Battle and preserve knowledge, preventing another Breaking of the World. Rand as Brown Ajah. I think it could fit pretty well, actually. "The other Ajahs worry about making today better; we yearn to make tomorrow better." That's SO Rand. Verin's own legacy is taking the cloak of secrecy off the Black Ajah and revealing them to Egwene, who will have the power to do something about it. A very good legacy. <3

19. Also, this bookmark ter'angreal that hides books (page 840 in my version) is pretty awesome. But then Verin dies, which is so sad. What a great character!

20. Egwene learns that Elaida skated through her own trial with a three-month censure but is still Amyrlin. During all this, Verin is lying dead in Egwene's bed, so that's a thing. Oh and the text sort of sideways has Egwene think of Nicola as the one who betrayed her to the Tower? Which was kinda my assumption. Egwene doesn't hold it against her though. Verin's body does finally get removed here, by Meidani through a Gateway, so Egwene does get to... um. Sleep in the bed that a dead body was in for several hours. She doesn't really want to think about that too deeply. Can't blame her.

21. Egwene thinks about Sheriam being Black Ajah and what that implies about her tenure of Mistress of Novices, wondering if she'd used her position to "bully" other sisters. I stare off into the middle distance, thinking of how beating is a commonplace ~punishment~ to the point of several instruments of beating being hung up in the Mistress of Novice's office, but how that's not related at all to being Black Ajah because Jordan appears to have believed that violence was a natural part of the teacher-student dynamic, just as he seems to have believed domestic violence was an inevitable part of the majority of romantic relationships.

22. While Egwene begins to talk to Siuan of how she plans to deal with the Black Ajah, the totally not antagonist attack from the not villainous Seanchan has arrived, to engage in the very peaceful and not aggressive choice of invading Tar Valon in order to enslave and murder the residents, as ordered by the definitely-not-a-villain fanatical leader of the slavery-based empire that has invaded the continent with plans to subdue, enslave, and dominate it.

23. Once she realizes that the Seanchan have invaded, Siuan resolves that it's time to rescue Egwene, despite the promise that she'd made. Bryne refuses to help her so Siuan goes to seek out Gawyn, who will.

24. Egwene realizes that this isn't a full-scale attack but a raid to kidnap women to enslave, which flips her "fuck no" button and she dives into a full-hearted defense of the Tower. Once again, we get an INTENSE look here at how damaging the damane system is for the women who get enslaved, with Egwene thinking how part of her, even now, feels a disgusted guilt over failing to serve her owner.

No seriously: "Egwene shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself. The cool, seamless metal. The nausea, the degradation, the panic, despair, and - shamefully - guilt at not serving her mistress to the best of her abilities. She remembered the haunted look of an Aes Sedai as she was broken. Most of all, she remembered her own terror. The terror of realizing that she would be like the others, eventually. Just another slave, happy to serve."

25. I do NOT understand how anyone can find Jordan's character assassination of Mat in CoT & KoD to be forgivable. I don't get it! It's genuinely one of the biggest (unintentional) tragedies of the entire damn series to me. The characterization change from WH to CoT is so glaring (one of the first things we learn about pod!Mat in CoT is that he is forcing the former slaves to share a wagon with the former slavers who had been torturing them less than a week ago, and that's BEFORE we get into any Tuon-related issues; and that really sets the tone for who Mat is as a character in CoT & KoD). Jordan turns Mat into the sort of person who brushes off the idea of prophecy wife doing exactly what she's doing right now, despite Mat having friends, allies, and family among the people that his wife would happily destroy.

I am just... so baffled that Jordan didn't realize how badly he was wrecking Mat when he decided that Tuon didn't need any character growth in order for Mat to decide that he was chill with being married to her and then sending her back to Ebou Dar to allow her to continue her invasion. The deaths and enslavements that happen in this book's climax ARE partly on CoT/KoD!Mat's head, because he knew what kind of person Tuon was (she told him!), but he protected her, defended her, and then sent her back to her people to let her commit more atrocities. He is complicit.

I think back to what Siuan said about Mat in book 3, comparing him to her uncle who went back into the fire to save children; what Nestelle said in book 9, calling him a "great and good man" for risking himself to free her and... yeah. I really hate that Jordan threw that guy away and gave us pod!Mat in his place for books 10 & 11. Sanderson's Mat is... something of a melding of pod!Mat and EotW-WH!Mat, with less and less of pod!Mat as this particular book has gone on, but there's still too much spineless pod!Mat in there for my own personal comfort.

And the thing is... I don't mind this kind of weaselly characterization when it's who the character is. I like quite a lot of characters who don't have strong moral backbones. Even just in this book series, I have a deep affection for Asmodean and Moghedien, who, uh, yeah, definitely don't have much in the way of a moral backbone. But this is NOT who Mat was in Winter's Heart or any of the previous books, and that's why the Mat in CoT & KoD bothers me so much. I may have mentioned this before but it's essentially the same thing that Birgitte talks about when she complains about the way Nynaeve is acting around her during their early circus days -- if Nynaeve WERE milk-hearted (or however she put it) then she would just accept that as who Nynaeve is, but that is NOT who Nynaeve is, so her acting that way pissed Birgitte off. That's how I feel about CoT/KoD!Mat. Many of the various other issues that I have with Jordan's writing tend to be things where he let his personal beliefs about the world get treated as universal truths, and it's easier for me to understand why he didn't see where that was happening. Most authors have their issues there (I'm sure that I do as well). But... but this is a writing issue and a characterization issue, so I feel like he (or Team Jordan, or Harriet) should have noticed it. And cared. I wish that he'd cared.

It just sucks to love a character so much and then have what essentially feels like an empty shell of them being puppeted lifelessly around on the page. And that's what I felt like I got in CoT & KoD -- an empty shell of Mat, with all the parts of him that I loved hollowed out and missing.

26. I do love this scene where Egwene gets to face her fears and protect her people, though. Shame she didn't get to crush the assault force entirely, but what we do get is powerful. What the Dark One and the Forsaken are to Rand -- the architects of his misery and destiny -- the Seanchan have been to Egwene since the ending of TGH. For Egwene, it's the SEANCHAN who have been the lurking doom that's been hunting her, seeking to turn her into a servant of their cause rather than a person with free will. So I'm glad that she does get to actually fight them here, and protect who she can protect. We get to witness her saving one of the Aes Sedai from being taken by the Seanchan. Again, we are seeing first-hand the cruelty of their invasion! This whole scene is very intense and really displays the horror of the Seanchan... and yet we're supposed to be fine with Mat being married to the current creator of these horrors? Baffling. Egwene's heroism here is such a stark contrast against what a coward Mat was in every conversation he had with Tuon in CoT & KoD.

27. "The grounds were littered with the dead and the wounded." Gawyn notices, as he sneaked into Tar Valon with Siuan, Bryne, and a bunch of soldiers, on their way to save Egwene. Honestly, I'm trying to figured out why the fandom narrative on Gawyn is that Egwene's ~rescue~ here was in any way his fault (or, honestly, a bad thing at all)? He actually waited until he got word from Siuan that Egwene was in immediate danger, and he is far from being alone in going in after her. I feel like I must have breezed over this section in my original read of the books, because this all seems pretty legit and aboveboard. It honestly would have been pretty ridiculous for all the rebel Aes Sedai to just sit and watch while this assault happened, so I'm glad that Siuan IS doing something. And Gawyn following Siuan's lead and trusting her to help him find Egwene feels like a neat closed loop from their rupture in TSR, where he only barely lets her go after the coup and doesn't trust her. Siuan is much more the mastermind of Egwene's rescue than Gawyn is!

28. I don't know if we ever get the butcher's bill on the Seanchan side of things for this raid, but I sincerely hope that they lost many more sul'dam and (more regrettably) damane than they gained in kidnap victims. We know that Egwene is able to down many of their raken and to'raken. Part of the issue is that Jordan never really made it clear exactly HOW massive the Seanchan invasion force was, just that it was indescribably massive. But many of those are supposed to be settlers and not soldiers. idk, it kinda feels like the Shaido problem all over again, where the non-Shadow enemy is just so much more numerous than the people standing against them, even when it feels like that doesn't... make all that much sense. Why are the Shaido larger than most of the other Aiel clans put together? Why are the Seanchan so numerous that they can field this massive invasion force without leaving their main continent completely hollowed out? How many ships did they have that were ENTIRELY filled with food, in order to survive the journey across the sea? Goes under the category of 'just bugs me', I guess. But I love this energy that Egwene has, where she wants this raid to cost the Seanchan so badly in terms of lost resources that they will flinch at the idea of trying another assault.

29. Aw, Siuan name-dropped Moiraine. Just in passing but it made me have feelings. They also find out about the assassins that Tuon personally sent to stay in the Tower to murder as many Aes Sedai as they could manage, when Bryne uses his newfound Warder senses and reflexes to kill one of them. Just. You know. To remind you about the dedicated assassins that were personally blessed by ~the empress~ to carry out their slaughter of as many women as they could get their hands on -- the Bloodknives, I think they were called. But, you know, per Mat, she's ~not one of the bad nobles~, lol. She sends assassins against innocent people, engages in slavery, enjoys torture (damane training is torturing people until their mind/spirit breaks, we were just reminded about that in these chapters, and Tuon enjoys training damane), and treats most people like trash/property but... NOT one of the bad nobles. lol, got it.

30. Egwene is exhausted in the aftermath of the battle and is depressed when she thinks about how more to'raken escaped than were killed. Damn, that does suck. But she's relieved to hear Gawyn's voice, even as she thinks about how no one should be here to rescue her. Anyway, apparently Gawyn is guilty of the crime of not being able to read Egwene's mind while she's half-delirious from exhaustion! Because of the super-strong sa'angreal that Egwene has been using, Siuan is able to bamf them all back to the rebel camp. Honestly, don't see how this rescue in any possible way harms Egwene's standing as the true Amrylin? Even if Elaida HADN'T been abducted by the Seanchan, so many Sisters and novices, etc. saw how strongly Egwene was fighting on their behalf.

31. Speaking of Elaida... yeah, she deserved better. There is not a single person who deserves to be enslaved by the Seanchan, and we know that the slave-breaking used for the damane is particularly horrific (and were just reminded of that, in Egwene's flashbacks & ptsd reactions). I hope that she's freed someday, post-canon, as I wish for all the slaves under Seanchan rule. Ugh, poor Elaida.

32. Rand is fighting a whole war with Lews Therin in his head and Min picks up on... none of it through the bond? She just accepts it when he says that he's fine? Honestly, I kinda feel like Jordan shot his wad way too soon with the triple-bonding, because it really hasn't mattered much at all. Alanna's bonding of Rand has been far more relevant than the actual love-related bonding. Rand's relationships with the three women post-WH would make MORE sense if he weren't bonded to them yet -- in this book alone, Min's insecurities would make more sense, Aviendha not running to Rand's room when he was attacked by Semirhage would make more sense, Nynaeve not thinking of going to Elayne in the aftermath of the balefire incident would make so more sense if she hadn't seen the love confessions. The confessions/triple-bonding really shouldn't have happened until the narrative was willing to let it actually affect Rand's storyline and close the gap between Rand's storyline and Elayne's storyline. As it is, the bonding really hasn't mattered at all, except that Min gets to be Cadsuane's mood-ring/tracking device for Rand instead of it being Alanna (despite Alanna making a lot more sense as the person who tells Cadsuane everything because of how the Aes Sedai hierarchy works and since Min keeps claiming she loves Rand so much). Like, I love the bonding scene... but it happened too early in the story. After the bonding, everyone involved just slots right back into the dynamic that was at play pre-bonding, with Aviendha and Elayne separated from Rand and Min. It should have marked a change.

(and I'm kinda feeling the same way about Nynaeve going over to Rand's plotline in WH tbh - I think Jordan shouldn't have done that until he was actually at the point of plotline mergers, because it's led to this weird situation where Nynaeve is withholding so much vital information from Rand and yet the narrative is trying to tell us that HE'S the paranoid one for not fully trusting her)

33. Rand is incredibly disheartened by his failure in Arad Doman. Though Graendal is dead, the nation is tattered enough that it seems inevitable that it will be crushed between the Seanchan to the south and the Trollocs to the north, because Rand was unable to force a peace to happen between himself and ~the tiny Seanchan empress~. So he's already depressed as fuck, and then he finds out that ALL the saved up food for the refugees has spoiled. He leaves for Tear anyway, doing his best not to think about the devastation and pain that will soon occur in Arad Doman once the city realizes that there's nothing to eat. Going from the starving people of Arad Doman to the cheering crowds of Tear strikes a deeply sour note in Rand's heart, knowing how little he deserves that praise at the moment.

34. Rand does feel, rather despairingly, that he has abandoned several nations to being swallowed up by the Seanchan, perhaps as far north as Andor itself, because the Last Battle is coming and he MUST prioritize that, even if it means allowing the Seanchan to attack the cities to the south. Heartbreaking. Wow, it sure would be nice if he... could have some advice... from a fellow ruler. Maybe even from one who is incredibly invested in keeping the Seanchan at bay because she herself is a channeler who is at risk if they invade northward. Just a thought! But, yeah, Rand has been so relatable in this book, for the most part? I know he's ~on a dark path~ but he's so full of pain over how much he desperately wants to help all these people, and even though his ta'verenness is all darkness and lashing out, his kind heart is actually extremely visible.

35. ...why did we make Darlin a King again? I know that Min had a viewing about it and all but... why on earth did Tear need a King instead of going back to a council? It rubs me wrong the same way that the Two Rivers getting a Lord rubs me wrong, I guess. And it happens the same way too, where a group of people there demand that they really really want one person to be ruling over them. Just another reoccurring Jordan theme that kinda makes me go ??? Obviously, not a fan of going back to the High Lord & High Lady oligarchy either but... I feel like having a KING isn't exactly moving things forward, lol.

36. You know, changing authors has meant that I'm not constantly being reminded of how big various women's bosoms are. (I realized this because Rand notices how pretty a woman is in passing but he doesn't think about her breasts at all). The women are no longer breasting boobily everywhere. I feel like it does still get mentioned sometimes, but that the rate is much less. Actually. Let me check. brb.

37. Okay, here are the numbers:

So Jordan was REALLY popping off in KoD. No wonder it stood out to me so much in my memory, since that was the most recent of his full-length books that I've done in my reread. There was a LOT of bosom in KoD, comparatively-speaking. Sanderson, otoh, is running about where Jordan was during EotW/TGH era, or a little bit higher.

Of course, the books do vary in length, so here's another chart, taking that into account:

So we can see that, when taking book length into account, New Spring has around the same amount that Jordan was writing on average. And here Winter's Heart is the... winner? which didn't show up before because it's nearly 300 pages shorter than Knife of Dreams.

38. Rand announces to his people here in Tear that it's time to start booking it for Shayol Ghul, because there's nothing he can do for Arad Doman. Also, he feels Alanna's sorrow through their bond, even as he doesn't look at her.

Ah, I feel like this post has gotten long enough that I'm going to wrap it up now. I did charts and everything, lol. So I will do chapters 43-epilogue next time.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 25: The Traveling People

It's time for another chapter in my reread, and that means spoilers. Spoilers here, spoilers there, spoilers everywhere. Hell, let's have a spoiler for my post: we're going to be talking about slurs at some point this chapter! If you don't know why that is, go read the books. If you do know why that is but you haven't read the whole series, go read the books. Or just stick around if you like spoilers. Anyway.

This chapter starts with the leaves on the vine icon because this chapter introduces us to the way of the leaf. As such, the Tuatha'an will remain associated with it going forward; just about any chapter where they're a big deal will have them!

Perrin was sure she was hunting for the rest of the pack, though she denied it angrily when he suggested as much, denied being afraid of the wolves that paced them, denied worrying about the rest of the pack or what it was up to. She denied, and went right on looking, tight-eyed and wetting her lips uneasily.

Note to self: Remember that as far as Egwene is concerned, these last three days have been spent in constant terror of the wolfpack deciding she's the next meal.

She took a deep breath, and Perrin was wondering if she would succeed in bullying Elyas the way she did him, when he realized she was standing there with her mouth open, not saying a word. Elyas was looking at her, just looking, with those yellow wolf’s eyes. Egwene stepped back from the raw-boned man, and licked her lips, and stepped back again. Before Elyas turned away, she had backed all the way to Bela and scrambled up onto the mare’s back. 

Yeah, she is genuinely not having a good time. And frankly, Elyas doesn't want her to, so that's kinda shitty of him. This is really the first part of the adventure where Egwene's living in the kind of discomfort that the boys were with Moiraine after she destroyed the ferry.

In every dream he remembered there was a point where he straightened from Master Luhhan’s forge to wipe the sweat from his face, or turned from dancing with the village girls on the Green, or lifted his head from a book in front of the fireplace, and whether he was outside or under a roof, there was a wolf close to hand.

Frankly, I cannot imagine a scenario where I was suddenly capable of communing with animals, learning from a dude who had all their badass reflexes, and getting protected from the forces of darkness in my dreams and not immediately jump at the chance for more. Am I crazy or is Perrin?

Still patting the dogs, Elyas studied the stand of trees. “There’ll be Tuatha’an here. The Traveling People.” They stared at him blankly, and he added, “Tinkers.”

Hoo boy. So uh... Hmm. Jordan's Tuatha'an are based on a lot of real people, and that's good. Further, they're stereotyped in ways that the real people are but demonstrate that these aren't accurate or cool. That's also pretty nice. People use slurs against them, and that's not nice but it is accurate. Too accurate, since the term used is not some fantasy term Jordan made up but one that real haters use against real Irish Travellers, the Mincéirs. It's admittedly a far cry from say, having everyone describe the Sharans with the n-word or something, but it's still just... not awesome. It's been like ten thousand years, why are we using the same old slurs? I'm gonna call the Tuatha'an just that, and occasionally the Traveling People if I feel the need to mix it up. Won't change the quotations though; that shit's not cool.

Oh also, while Perrin's just the ignorant country boy who drops non-PC terms, Egwene is the gal who relishes the stereotypes. I can finally stop smacking him with a rolled-up newspaper and move on to her. Bad Egwene!

The Traveling People were going about work that was disappointingly everyday, cooking, sewing, tending children, mending harness, but their clothes were even more colorful than the wagons—and seemingly chosen at random; sometimes coat and breeches, or dress and shawl, went together in a way that hurt his eyes. They looked like butterflies in a field of wildflowers.

You know what's funny? For all of the genre's obsession for having everyone run around wearing brown leather outfits or gray fur coats, actual medieval Europeans were gaudy as all hell. We just don't see it in movies because the average viewer would find such portrayals of "the dark ages" unrealistic. The Tuatha'an having a real world aesthetic that we should be seeing more often is very nice.

“Then we seek still,” the gray-haired man intoned. “As it was, so shall it be, if we but remember, seek, and find.”

Sadly, the Tuatha'an will only do one of those three. They don't remember what the song was and they've idealized it to the point that they'll never actually find it, even when the Dragon Reborn is singing it to bring green back to the land.

“They don’t even know what the song is; they claim they’ll know it when they find it. They don’t know how it’s supposed to bring paradise, either, but they’ve been looking near to three thousand years, ever since the Breaking. I expect they’ll be looking until the Wheel stops turning.”

There's a really interesting... misconception? heresy? IDK... that a lot of the common folk of the setting have that everything good about the AoL is genuinely lost forever, even though they live in a cyclical universe. At some point, whatever inspired the song would be found again and the question is whether or not their people will still exist in a recognizable form by then (since the various Roma, Mincéirs, etc. don't seem to be on an epic quest for a song here five ages later, the answer is sadly "No"). Saying people will be looking forever for history is needlessly hateful.

Or do some people genuinely think that the Dragon and/or the Dark One broke cyclical time and that linearity will reign supreme? Is that where the belief comes from?

After a minute Perrin knew who the fellow reminded him of. Wil al’Seen, who had all the girls staring and whispering behind his back whenever he came up from Deven Ride to Emond’s Field. Wil courted every girl in sight, and managed to convince every one of them that he was just being polite to all the others.

Sadly Perrin, you're not Miss Marple, so your conclusion that this complete stranger is actually just of the same archetype as somebody from your beloved little village life is nowhere near accurate. You're just jealous no one ever looks at you this way. Also, your arc would be a lot more interesting if you did have Miss Marple's superpower.

Dammit Perrin I'm supposed to be giving Egwene shit this time.

Aram’s smile slipped, but when he looked at Perrin it came back again, even more sure than before. “They will not harm you. They make a show to frighten away danger, and warn us, but they are trained according to the Way of the Leaf.”

But Elyas just said the dogs would have tried to bite the gang under some circumstances Aram, and I'm sorry but he's the dog whisperer. I doubt very much y'all can actually train dogs not to attack at all. It's the same kind of delusion that makes certain kinds of vegans think they can convert carnivores.

Least it matches with Aram's inevitable descent into madness and fanaticism.

“It means that no man should harm another for any reason whatsoever.” The Seeker’s eyes flickered to Elyas. “There is no excuse for violence. None. Not ever.” “What if somebody attacks you?” Perrin insisted. “What if somebody hits you, or tries to rob you, or kill you?”

It's nice that Perrin starts out dismissive of the Way of the Leaf since he'll be the one most tempted to convert to it. It's another thing that kinda feels left by the wayside: while he throws the axe away after mutilating someone, he ends up selling his enemies into slavery (which is definitely a kind of violence) and then 1v1ing his nemesis and killing Lanfear. It feels like he should have picked up another approach after all his prevaricating.

“You try telling that to some farm wife who’s just found out her son or daughter has run off with you Tinkers,” Elyas said wryly. 

I might trust his dog-related opinions, but not the rest. People run off with the Tuatha'an because they offer some kind of hope and purpose in a world that is rapidly approaching a critical point of decay. The Way of the Leaf may be a weird philosophy in a world being invaded by the forces of darkness, but like the Whitecloak philosophies or the promise of becoming an Aes Sedai or a Warder, it's something. Gives those people who feel like they have spiritual needs something to focus on, which they're sorely lacking in a world with no organized faith. (I'll rant about that later though.)

Perrin sat back down slowly, still feeling awkward. “What happens to somebody who can’t follow the Way?” he asked. “A Tinker, I mean.” Raen and Ila exchanged a worried look, and Raen said, “They leave us. The Lost go to live in the villages.”

Having worked with Jehovah's Witnesses and heard one of them talk lovingly about his adult son except with the occasional mention of the fact that he was apostate and thus they were never going to be associates again, I have absolutely nothing but contempt for this kind of behavior. It's realistic, but... argh. It's fucked up and evil. Literally the worst part of the Tuatha'an.

Perrin’s eyes shot open. “The Waste? The Aiel Waste? They were crossing the Aiel Waste?” “Some people can enter the Waste without being bothered,” Elyas said. “Gleemen. Peddlers, if they’re honest. The Tuatha’an cross the Waste all the time. Merchants from Cairhien used to, before the Tree, and the Aiel War.”

This is actually also a weird detail, really. Peddlers and Cairhienen merchants had reason to (silk), and gleemen might at least be able to profit off of entertaining Sharans or coming back with exotic tales or performances. But the Tuatha'an don't have much to get out of boiling in the desert for weeks or months on end to visit the trader towns and the Sharans certainly don't want their kids being recruited. I guess the Sharans hadn't been particularly developed at this point in the story and Jordan didn't notice the oddity he'd created when he got to them.

Elyas sat up, his pipe almost falling from between his teeth. “A hundred miles into the Waste? Impossible! Djevik K’Shar, that’s what Trollocs call the Waste. The Dying Ground. They wouldn’t go a hundred miles into the Waste if all the Myrddraal in the Blight were driving them.”

They would if a Forsaken was driving them, and that's what he was doing. I always forget that Ishamael was active two years before the main story; it feels like it should be much more recent. That said, I suppose even he needed time to narrow down the candidates.

He sighed heavily. “She called us the Lost. I never knew before how much they loathe us.” 

I don't think they have much feeling for you one way or another, to be honest. They just have some historical facts, and... since she was a Maiden of the Spear, she wouldn't even have the full story. More early installment weirdness? Or do the Clan Chiefs and Wise Ones let the rest of the Aiel know a little of what's up to justify why they never interact? (Also not super cool of them for enforcing apostasy after this many generations, just saying.)

He was trying to imagine what Aiel girls were like—going into the Blight, where only Warders went that he had ever heard

Yeah that story hasn't been accurate in the last thousand years or more.

Awkwardly he patted her hair. Rand would know what to do, he thought. Rand had an easy way with girls. Not like him, who never knew what to do or say.

Bro, she spent the last three days assuming she was wolf food and the night before that thinking she was going to die in a city of the damned after spending that day being chased by the armies of darkness. You should at least be able to work out that her crying has something to do with that and that her motivation to dance with a pretty boy is mostly an attempt to have something normal happen. Since she's crying specifically with worry about Rand and Mat (no that's cool Egwene, don't name your former mentor specifically), it would still be an inaccurate assumption, but like... Something.

He took a deep breath and looked around uncertainly. “They are alive,” he said finally. “Good.” She scrubbed at her cheeks with quick fingers. “That is what I wanted to hear. Good night, Perrin. Sleep well.” Standing on tiptoe, she brushed a kiss across his cheek and hurried past him before he could speak.

This though... I can't help but feel that she's stopped crying almost on cue and that makes the whole thing feel weird and borderline manipulative on her part. I don't think that's the mood Jordan was going for really because her motivations have been pretty understandable so far. I'm gonna guess that she stopped actually crying before she asked Perrin to say they were alive and his voice is deep enough to seem comforting even though his behavior doesn't seem to reflect that at all? Egwene is definitely reeling, so my plan to give her more shit this chapter didn't really pan out. Oh well, there's always next time - but of course, before we get to that, we'll be seeing Rand and company again in Whitebridge. See you then!

[iviarellereads]

Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on EOTW 24-28

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

GHENJEI! It's right there! I love that the ebook cover chose to depict this moment. And the sa'angreal at Tremalking… fuck. I always get really fucked up over what happens there. The museum at Tanchico with the skeletons but Domon has no way of knowing the sad bracelets on another shelf are going to be so much more important to us and to himself.

Given what we learn later and how Aram ends up, I'm… not entirely sure the Tuatha'an are really to be given all that much credit as far as respectful portrayals, when it all shakes out. Like, I love that pure pacifism is an option in this world, and a respectable enough one at that, for all that the people are subject to a similar antiziganist sentiment as our world has. But, the only person we see from that culture who picks up a weapon is Aram, who ends up a zealot who would murder his own best friend. I mean, technically, we also see the people who go on to become the modern Aiel, but… sigh. We'll have so much time to talk about them later. For now, as with so many things, I just… want to think that RJ tried and that the effort at least makes him stand out from his contemporaries.

Also, I genuinely (though I am once again unqualified to do so authoritatively) like how they're handled better in the TV show so far, for two reasons. For one, they explicitly accept people with violent pasts, as long as they are willing to take up the Way of the Leaf, and I think that's something RJ overlooked a bit. He does mention that people run away to join the Tuatha'an, but not… not with the same depth, you know? It may go against their portrayal as real-life Romani and adjacent people, I have no idea, but I find comfort in the idea of being able to give up my anger and my fear and live with a people so brave as them. For two, Ila's discussion with Perrin in the show will stick with me forever as a better explanation of the Tuatha'an philosophy, of the Way of the Leaf, than anything I remember the books doing. "What better revenge against death, than life?" I am currently tearing up a bit just thinking about it. MDK, one of my many queens, I'm so glad I was wrong about her playing Elaida.

So, we're all in more or less agreement that the Song is a misinterpreted fragment of lore passed down along, right? The closest thing still to it is what the Ogier do in tree singing, but it was never the source of the peace. It couldn't save Jaric Mondoran in TSR 26 from the madness of the Taint, that much is certain. (Yes I looked up the name, but I remembered the chapter number, because 25/26 are one of the major fulcrum points of the series.)

I know some people will probably take issue with me pointing out the connections to Tam's fever rambling in chapter 6, but I stand by what I said in my analysis and in my spoiler post back then: all the information is RIGHT. THERE. If you could potentially remember the detail, it's fair game. That's what this blog journey is all about.

Elyas's "something" feeling about needing to wait a few more days… he hates the Wolf Dream, if I recall, but do you think this could be a TAR prediction, the way Perrin gets some later? And he's just handwaving the specifics to keep from terrifying Perrin further with wolfbrotherhood.

Egg's desire to learn everything she can to assimilate into whatever culture she falls into is one of her greatest strengths. She never forgets who she is, but she wants to know, to relate, to be a part of something bigger than herself. And, learning more about the world prepared her beautifully to help negotiate the exchange program and the Kin alliance. It really is too bad something happened in the decision making process and left fucking Cadsuane Amyrlin after AMOL. (I may very well die angry about it. I love that Egwene's arc completes the way it does, but PEVARA. WAS. RIGHT. THERE.)

[iviarellereads]

Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on EOTW Prologue through chapter 4

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space. (Check out my project explainers here and here)

Gotta say, didn't expect to see the Song allusion in the prologue. This is probably my tenth time reading EOTW, my paperback is so battered, even though a lot of those rereads I quit a few books in. And even now, there's always, always some new detail. I love the story of the Song with the Tuatha'an, and how tragic it is that they're searching for something misinterpreted through several generations of storytelling.

Ishy already using the True Power in the prologue, another thing I never noticed before, or if I did, I'd forgotten since then.

MAT AND THE BADGER! I still can't believe Sanderson (or was it RJ, in the notes?) brought this back in book fucking 13.

The irony of Mat thinking the fade might have been Aginor is not lost on me.

And not just the badger, the ghost hounds! My goodness, the setup starts at page 1 and never stops in these books.

Do we believe that Moiraine was using a little Compulsion to get them to keep their coins? I mean, I know, our fave would NEVER, but… wouldn't she though?

Gotta admit, my line about Perrin's fans in chapter 3 is absolutely a reference to how much you have to love him to make it all the way through to Malden without wanting to throw him in the sea. Faile deserves better than a man with no empathy ethics, but she loves him so he can stay.

The layers, the LAYERS in accusing the Aes Sedai of breaking the world. In one way it's true, all the men were Aes Sedai. And, in some ways, it's absolutely true that the White Tower's meddling and power plays have left the world worse off. Yet in other ways, they were all that stopped it from being worse.

The first of so many "he couldn't talk to women, not like [other guy in the trio]" lines. I saw someone, somewhere, once observe that they drop off after the lads start actually having semi-serious relationships. I wonder if this is something I'll remember to track, or if it's already done been tracked somewhere I just haven't seen yet.

[butterflydm]

wot reread: the shadow rising (chap 40- chap 45)

spoilers through the end of the shadow rising

1. Perrin and Faile are starting off this section separated, so I Have Hopes that Perrin will get to do cool things as a character instead of being trapped in a romance melodrama.

2. Perrin gives us a role-call of all the newly dead Aybaras that didn’t exist before this book. I feel like this sort of thing happens later, too, where Jordan expected the reader to be attached to people who were never really introduced on-screen until they were already dead and was surprised that people weren’t as upset about their deaths as they were about the characters we were already invested in.

3. Ah, never mind my first point. Faile almost immediately shows up, so we are probably going to have more melodrama after all. We do get a recap of what Perrin was doing before though.

4. Again, so sad that Perrin just brushes by his childhood memories with half a sentence, while Mat would have told us a full story about it. That’s one of the reasons that Mat’s narrative is so engaging, I think.

5. Perrin is so bizarrely petty about Wil al’Seen here. The guy is literally following you and treating you as his leader, and you’re having thoughts about how ‘haha, he’s not so pretty now that he’s been sleeping rough for a while’. ??? Perrin was super-petty about Laila in the last stretch of chapters he was in, too. Maybe I should just accept that Perrin is kinda petty and judgemental?

6. “I trust you [Faile] and my bow and my axe.”

7. “My father says a general can care for the living or weep for the dead, but not both.” A sentence that feels like it fits a different character (or characters) more than Perrin but I guess they learn it on their own. Also: “the worst sin a general can commit... ...is to abandon the men who depend on him.”

8. Faile is finally honest with Perrin about her past. Perrin is also honest with her about the wolf-thing here, which I hadn’t remembered being so early on. Yay for honesty. Shame that the honesty here didn’t prevent their communication issues later on.

9. Perrin gets petty about Aram, too, and here it’s pretty clearly a jealousy that he isn’t able to name. I think that may be the difference -- Perrin does seem to get jealous a LOT more than either Mat or Rand and he never seems to realize that it’s jealousy that he’s feeling (at least he hasn’t so far) so he falls back on weird petty things like “ugh I hate it when MEN SMILE, how DARE THEY’.

10. Wolf dream! ...I have to admit, I’m not sure why Perrin wants the axe over the hammer so much in his dreams. Is it a desire not to ‘taint’ the hammer with blood?

11. “and she loved a simple blacksmith.” ...awkward. Faile actually made it pretty clear in the last chapter that part of why she loves him is because she absolutely DOES NOT see him as a simple blacksmith, but instead as a lord or king in waiting. But that doesn’t fit Perrin’s self-image, so he just elides it away.

12. Okay, so it’s ‘wild’ animals that live in TAR, while domesticated ones don’t, I think, is the implication that we get, so whenever we find out what does or doesn’t show up is always an interesting expression of what Jordan thought about that animal. Chickens still count as wild animals for him.

13. Ooooh, we find out here from Slayer that Fain is not in control of the Trollocs after all (I’m assuming he’s the ‘renegade’), which is interesting. So it actually is two factions, Fain’s Whitecloaks against Slayer’s Trollocs.

14. I really didn’t remember how often Perrin gets jealous of other guys (and not even just over Faile; he also gets jealous of them getting kisses and hugs from the Tuatha'an women). I wonder if he’d have these kinds of petty thoughts about Rand & Mat, if he spent more time around them, or it they’re past a friend-threshold that would mean he didn’t get jealous of them like that.

15. Everyone in the Two Rivers being so thirsty to have a Lord over them kinda does bug me, tbh. Like, I get they’ve been having a rough time but... idk, it bugs me. Maybe I’ll be able to articulate it better as I go further along.

16. Oh, and Perrin’s first kiss was with a girl named Cilia Cole. He was the person back in the Two Rivers who was getting all the action, between thinking he might marry Laila and now kissing Cilia being mentioned. Rand was still stammering at the idea of doing so much as asking Egwene to dance, back in EotW, while Perrin apparently already had two brief teen flirtations under his belt. And I don’t think we’ve had any mentions of Mat doing anything until after he was healed in Tar Valon. Perrin was the early Casanova of the trio, it would seem.

17. Dav and Elam were other friends of Perrin’s, from back home. Dav was mentioned in EotW as someone that Mat did pranks with sometimes, but didn’t seem a particular friend of Rand’s, iirc. I don’t think Rand or Mat have ever mentioned Elam, so he may be a Perrin-only friend. Perrin, Dav, and Elam did hunting and fishing together.

18. Perrin notices that Verin and Alanna are trying to set him up as a general and a lord but doesn’t know why, so doesn’t trust it. At this point in time, very reasonable.

19. Given that Aram picking up the sword happens in the same book as us hearing the history of the Aiel, I feel like his storyline is treated oddly considering he’s doing basically the exact same thing as those first non-Way of the Leaf Aiel. Maybe the difference is because we see it through Perrin’s eyes instead of Rand’s. Rand doesn’t have a personal relationship with the Tuatha’an or the Way of the Leaf, and he doesn’t have Perrin’s internal conflict about violence (I mean, Rand has plenty of conflict but it’s not really the same as Perrin’s).

20. I honestly do feel like most of the issues with Perrin are relatively fixable in the show, though.