#imagine if we had cauthor together for season 4 AND part of season 5!!!! the joy that would bring me!!!!

[markantonys]

rotating potential Mat Show Structures in my brain...........assuming that ebou dar is cut (which feels likely if mat is indeed already having a southwestern coastal roadtrip with elayne and nynaeve in s3), what if:

s3: gets his marriage prophecy, tanchico trip with the girls, meets tuon (without knowing she's Prophecy Wife) but they go their separate ways by the end of the season

s4: returns to rand's side, forms the band, leads the band as part of the dumai's wells rescue mission because dumai's wells needs to involve as many main characters as possible goddammit (and because i need the romance of mat helping rescue rand)

s5: leads a campaign against the seanchan with rand and/or on rand's behalf (depending on what else rand has going on this season), reencounters tuon and kidnaps her (but may or may not yet know she's Prophecy Wife; either way, kidnapping motive is instead something calculating like taking a high-ranking seanchan as a prisoner of war, or something morally righteous like rescuing her from her own people's assassins and taking her off with him to keep her safe)

this would be adding mat into rand's TPOD storyline, of course, but at the same time it would ALSO be mat absorbing ituralde's storyline from the next few books. i remember talking once with @butterflydm about how ituralde is basically Knockoff Mat in that he's getting a whole spotlit Clever General storyline while mat, who's supposed to be our main Clever General, is off fucking around in the circus.

so i feel like involving mat in the seanchan campaigns could be an elegant solution all around. mat actually gets to fulfill his narrative role of leading armies on rand's behalf, the seanchan campaign storyline is in the hands of a main character (vs. rand doing it only briefly and then ituralde taking over the bulk of it), mat gets involved with the seanchan in a manner more organic than "author drops a wall on him to force him to encounter them", and it lends a huge amount of much-needed enemies-to-lovers narrative tension to the mat/tuon relationship if he is actively leading military campaigns against her forces (like he did for about.......5 pages in the books).

now wandering off into very-hypothetical ship-related territory thinking of what mat/tuon would look like in this scenario.

i'm thinking mat never finds out during s3 that tuon is a high-ranking seanchan and thinks she's just His Good Buddy Tuon (because she's disguised and undercover). but as the s3 finale stinger, the audience finds out that tuon is mat's Prophecy Wife AND is the heir to the seanchan throne, so we've got some tasty dramatic irony. s4 has tuon doing a solo storyline of seanchan political intrigue, either still in the western westlands or back in the actual court in seanchan (the latter would be sooooo cool, but it depends on how many times they want her zipping back and forth between continents). but her time spent with mat, elayne, and nynaeve (two marath'damane who are in fact people!) in s3 has got the gears turning, and in s4 we get to see tuon in her natural habitat but we also see that she's starting to question and doubt some Seanchan Ways because our kids have expanded her worldview.

in s5, tuon is tasked with heading up the next wave of military efforts in the westlands. so when mat crosses her path again, she is decked out in full seanchan regalia and he realizes that His Good Buddy Tuon is a high-ranking seanchan and must have been using him in s3 when she acted like his friend, so he's all hurt and betrayed (alternately, this reveal could happen as their final scene in s3 and mat is still feeling betrayed when they reunite in s5), but tuon genuinely did like him in s3 so she's hurt that he now hates her but she also can't reveal any of this weakness because he's the enemy general and her people would think she's a traitor if she shows any hints of non-hostile feelings towards him, and despite his anger mat can't help holding onto some non-hostile feelings for her which makes him even more angry with himself, and it's all very delicious.

kidnapping happens, and for s6 they embark on a roadtrip back across the continent (maybe with mat intending to deliver tuon as a hostage to rand; we could even mix the 2 motives i brainstormed, where he impulsively saves her life out of feelings but Then justifies it as taking her with him as a hostage), and all this prior development means several good things for the show being able to sell their relationship as a bona fide romance (and tuon as a dynamic, complex character).

1) tuon having spent time with westlanders and free channelers already in s3 and having spent s4-5 questioning Seanchan Ways on her own means she is now primed for a final push over the edge of unlearning seanchan conditioning and admitting that slavery is wrong (which she has to do IF the show wants mat/tuon to be a bona fide romance rather than a political marriage; a political marriage with an unrepentant tuon would also be a viable route, but show!mat would never ever ever fall in love with an unrepentant slaver so if it's going to be a bona fide romance then she has to repent) and ideally admitting that she herself can channel (feat. tasty scene early in the season of her accidentally channeling for the first time to protect mat). now tuon is a complex character who grows and develops over the course of the story, and it does not defy all reason, credibility, and established characterization that mat could fall for her. improvement!

2) if mat is feeling angry and betrayed by the discovery of tuon's seanchan identity, and if tuon is hurt by this because she genuinely likes him and wasn't faking friendship in s3 and wishes he would believe her, now mat has the "upper hand" in their roadtrip dynamic, so to speak, and tuon is in the position of needing to work to earn mat's trust. so rather than mat nonsensically handing over his loyalty and protectiveness at the drop of a hat to tuon who's used to being worshipped and takes mat doing so as her due and walks all over him with no pushback, now it's a more equal dynamic and a better power balance because tuon has to work hard to give mat (and the audience) a reason to believe she's Better Than Other Seanchan. improvement!

imagine how hard the "you're not my enemy, but your empire is" line would go in this context!

and i haven't even thought about when mat would find out tuon is Prophecy Wife in this structure. i would love for it to be not until after he's already falling for her naturally, but if he's fighting against a seanchan army that she's leading in s5, he might not be able to go very long without hearing the "daughter of the nine moons" title. idk! even if he does find out fairly early, i know that show!mat would not let this information immediately remove his spine from his body, so i have faith either way.