#just post series for tdr

[zorilleerrant]

"Is it okay?" Tim asks, "if I'm Robin?" He won't look at Bernard. He won't look anywhere but the wall, blank off white with nothing on it, gaze steady like he's trying to find every flaw in the paint.

"What does that even mean?" Bernard asks, crossing his arms. Uncrossing them. He's not sure how to sit, anymore, and maybe it's better that Tim steadfastly refuses to meet his gaze. Doing this almost but not quite face to face is easier. He still wants to get up and rummage through his pans and start cooking something.

Tim glances back in surprise, just for a second, just enough that Bernard can watch him look guilty before hiding his face again. "I'm. You know I'm Robin, right? I'm not just friends with him, I'm him. I thought you knew that." And Bernard wants to scream at the top of his lungs, because he doesn't know how many times they can do this song and dance.

So he says it, outright this time, just to be clear there aren't any misunderstandings. "Yeah, Timmy. A few too many superheroes on your boat for me not to notice. For, uh, maybe more than just me, I don't know. I think everyone might know." People were making comments, after the rescue. They were both a little too stressed to pay attention, but probably there was stuff in there about Tim and Robin. A few knowing winks, at least.

"I hope everyone doesn't know. What a mess." There's a long pause, and then Tim takes a deep breath, and scooches over to Bernard, and wraps him in a hug, going boneless against him and breathing against his neck. Bernard's never sure whether Tim is trying to smell his aftershave or just sighing at the closeness, but his breathing changes. "You'll let me do it? Be Robin, I mean."

"Let you? It's not my business," Bernard says, and when Tim tenses against him, amends it to, "I mean, obviously I care, and I worry and stuff, but I'm not in charge of whether you're Robin. Batman is, right? Or maybe he isn't, considering what everyone else gets up to." He relaxes when Tim starts laughing.

"I wanted to tell you," Tim says, quietly. And Bernard thinks did you? but doesn't say it, because he's being a supportive boyfriend, and that's kind of a bitchy thing to say in the middle of what might be a heart to heart if they can actually get to that part of it without one of them chickening out. "I didn't want to tell you. I don't know. I don't want to put you in danger."

"Babe, I walk around with arms full of knives trying not to touch burning things all day," Bernard says, adding nothing about the streets of Gotham. Tim has enough to worry about without reminding him it's never possible to keep everyone safe, that there's always something unpredictable around the next corner. "Yesterday I got hot sauce on my dick."

"You what?" Tim says, tensing again, but this time it's clear from his stuttering breaths that he's trying to hold in laughter. Which is rich, because Bernard saw what Robin was doing last night. Some enterprising Riddler goon uploaded video proof that the suit only comes with a soft cup, and Riddler's cane works well as a bludgeoning weapon. So it's not like Bernard was the only reason they weren't having sex yesterday.

"Sometimes," Bernard says, with a long suffering sigh, "you chop hot peppers, and you simmer the sauce, and it smells amazing, and then you have to pee. And you forget to wash your hands until after." He winces, of course, but he was already wincing at remembering the video, which is also kind of hard not to laugh at. It's an awkward feeling. Kind of like talking through the Robin thing.

"I can get you a comm," Tim says, curling into his chest, speaking just a little too softly to hear completely, but what he means is coming through loud and clear. Bernard strokes Tim's hair and rests a cheek against his back. Tim words reverberate against him. "You can listen in whenever you want. Make sure I'm safe."

[alectology-archive]

I saw that post about tgh/tdr being adapted and like. yeah, rand has very fundamentally different journeys in the two books in ways that are very clever and dear to me but it’s alright for television as a medium to condense stuff. that’s just how adaptations work. and yes, the two endings are repetitive - to a close enough degree that although I prefer reading them as two separate books, I’m not sure it would work as an adaptation. (I think thematic explorations and narrative points that are very good on pay offs for readers but not necessarily well-translatable to the screen can tend to be a wider category than people realise.)

[markantonys]

thoughts on the people of falme cheering over learning that the dragon has been reborn

1) their city was just getting blown up and now it's not. they're happy about this.

2) their city had been occupied by the seanchan for weeks (months?) and now it's not. they're happy about this.

3) the average layperson may not even recognize the dragon symbol; maybe they're just thinking someone's putting on a nice fireworks show to celebrate the attack being over.

4) but assuming they do recognize it, this is not unlike the immediate reaction to rand declaring himself in the stone in TDR. all the onlookers kneel before him and take up chanting "the dragon has been reborn!" it's not a celebratory moment, exactly, but it's far from a fearful one. it's only in the little coda afterwards that mat tells us the news is being met with both awe and fright as it's being spread; in the immediate moment, "awe" is definitely the main emotion.

5) there is book precedent for rand being welcomed into a city for whom he did a good deed, rather than being met with hatred or fear (illian). maybe the people of falme, in this immediate post-battle moment, care less about the vague future notion of the last battle and more about the fact that whoever's up on that tower did them a solid by helping get rid of the seanchan and the whitecloaks.

6) elayne noted that the people of falme act like they've been seanchan all their lives. perhaps their cheering for the dragon reborn who's just conquered their conquerors is meant to show a Series Theme about how the average layperson doesn't care about who's in charge or about what's going on in the world at large as long as their own individual life isn't affected too badly.

7) in the books, the idea that the general populace is afraid of rand/the dragon reborn really doesn't emerge strongly until TSR, after he's been publicly out as the dragon for more than 5 seconds. no reason to assume the show will never get to this idea just because it hasn't yet. this series has 1 million Themes and not all of them can fit in the first 2 seasons of the show. since everybody was going to be split up for most of this season, they chose "the vulnerability of isolation vs. the strength of togtherness" as the Focal Theme for the season and the big moment of togetherness in the final scene is the conclusion of this Theme. (and this was all necessitated in part by barney's departure; rafe said that the changes to mat's story are what made them decide to double down on the isolation theme for season 2.)

8) simple storytelling and Making Emotionally Satisfying Television reasons. season 2 was a very heavy season of isolation, despair, and loss (and i saw more than one mid-season critic review & show-only comment begging for some light because things had been so painful for so long). thus, they wanted to end the season on a note of unity, hope, and triumph, to give the audience some much-needed positive catharsis. the final scene being everybody screaming in horror and recoiling in terror from rand would've been, you know, kind of a downer.

9) even if the people are celebrating, rand himself is CLEARLY not happy. rest assured that the show is aware of the "it sucks to be the chosen one" Theme and is not going to make being the dragon reborn any less of a burden for rand than it is in the books (just in case the whole thing where he spent the entire season hating himself and having nightmares about killing everyone he loves didn't already give you that impression).

plus, just like in TGH&TDR, this season rand's inner struggle was only about being a male channeler because he had no idea his dragon reborn duties weren't over until the last few episodes. only now that he has officially taken up the mantle of the dragon reborn will it be time for us to see how much being the chosen one weighs on him. so, just the same timing as it was in the books. (and frankly, i think season 1's emphasis on rand having concrete plans for a future in emond's field which he now has to abandon already sold this idea more than the first 2 or 3 books alone did; as a show-only for s1 i was so upset about rand not getting to be a stay-at-home cottagecore dad, my show-only mom was so upset about it, and i've seen plenty of other show-onlys being upset about it too.)

[corneliushickey]

12 + 13?

12. list three ships you currently love

beetlejuice/lydia has occupied the whole of my brain heart and dick for two months now i am 10k into the ROUGH DRAFT of what was supposed to be a quick little oneshot pwp to post for halloween timothy burton you deranged fucking lunatic how did you manage to make me angrier than i have ever been in my entire life while also making my fucking dreams come true drop dead i mean it and also i owe you my life

sue/elisabeth from the substance but not in a traditional sense i guess!! there are people in the tag writing very sweet may/december sapphic age gap fix it fics and i spent a month writing about elisabeth molesting sue's dead body because i have never seen such a captivating, painful, horrific portrayal of self hatred on film it changed me for real

baby/otis because i just rewatched TDR with my friend and kept being like "oh my god did you see how in love they looked in that 0.2 second shot 🥹🥺" and it just made me remember again how in love they are in every 0.2 second shot... they really portray such a realistic bickering sibling relationship and then the sexual electricity with which baby says "or is my 𝓫𝓲𝓰 𝓫𝓻𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 gonna have to knock your fuckin' teeth outta yer head?" could start an irl chemical fire in your room if you aren't careful as could otis' "hoss, are you... staring at my 𝓼𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻 and thinkin' bad thoughts? well, why not? you a faggot?"

13. list 5 OTPs from past fandoms

hannigram 5ever i'm extremely burnt out on the fandom and tend to experience a very specific type of source creep where i only remember the trash shit fanon version of will that exists on tumblr so i have to rewatch the show to remember that he is a dour, curt, cold, rude, isolated man who deserves every last ounce of hannibal's attention

joe/people eater/kalishnikov from mad max i am VERY serious about the warlord polycule that was and is real... the amount of lore i dreamed up for them in 2015 you would not believe the kind of work i was putting in

i'm gonna include a 3-for-one here but quark/odo garak/bashir kira/jadzia from ds9 which i genuinely do think are canon in a way that is fundamental to the series

on that note q/picard from tng which i also believe genuinely was canon and which from my unserstanding was like for real cemented as actual explicit canon in the picard series because all i do is win

house/wilson dude that fucking ship broke something deep within me at an extremely young and impressionable age i know this entire site went through its little house md renaissance and everyone loves to use the phrase "gay and homophobic" but unless you were an overtly dykey twelve year old living in a 24/7 fox news tea party household while that fucking thing was on air i need you to sit down and shut up because you would NOT get it

[iviarellereads]

Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on TDR 40-End

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.

"She always had a temper like lightning, but she always had a soft heart, too, for anyone poor or hungry." Well, we can see why Elayne cares so much, if her mother always has, too. But, what could have changed?

Aludra, my queen. Yes, I have a lot of queens in this series, shush. Oh, your matches will light so many fires and still be the least of your accomplishments by the end.

I'm already tired of the falcon-hawk thing, and Faile and Berelain won't even meet this book. Oh boy this is gonna be a fun read.

SAMMY! The second most insecure of all the men who couldn't handle being Brian. (Yes, it's the Pythons' weakest film, but it's a good landmark for comparison since, isn't it basically every male Forsaken that joins the Dark because they weren't as good as LTT?

Rahvin… [disgusted face]

Egg's dreams in chapter 48 are some of the most pointedly accurate so far, once you know the whole tale. Zoinks! The Luhhans being used for bait for Perrin, the axe and the hammer, all the living Forsaken following Rand, Rand getting the Dragon tattoos, the faceoffs between him and Egg in book 13/14, like, DANG.

Comar makes to fight because he's under a Compulsion, like as not. Not like Rahvin would leave anything, even loyalty, to chance. (gagging noises)

Poor Be'lal, The Netweaver, The Envious, and now The Forgotten in the fandom.

Nynaeve's signature move, the right hook, will never not be hilarious.

"Just because I am shielded here does not mean I am shielded in the World of Dreams." It's just a weave. See also: Rand splitting the balefire around himself with Callandor.

At least this time Rand's mostly right about defeating Ishy. He had to be brought back in a new body after this one.

I obviously couldn't put it into the post, but I do find it fascinating how the Arthuriana first seems like "oh, sure, you read a book, well done" and then gets woven into the core of the narrative with the Seanchan and all, and I don't remember the details but I remember a fun little interaction with Berelain at one point about it. Just, so much thought and planning making this series stand the test of time, right alongside all the unplanned/changed elements keeping us on our toes.

[taemcains]

I have no idea how Boris got popular lately. I thought he's only popular in Russia but I guess rc redditors love him too. I only found 1 post about not wanting Boris to be a LI. I'm tired with players forcing authors to make branches with side characters they liked. The only additional branch I think was executed perfectly was Alexandre from VfV. And I don't want the male-to-female LIs ratio in HSR to be 4:1. Too many male LIs, I'm tired of it. It could've been 3:2 but y'know it's RC we're talking 🤷‍♀️. TDR got 6 male LIs and 2 female LI (you can get an ending with Caro if you didn't romance anyone). HS main series have 7 LIs in total and ONLY Mimi as female LI. ABH got 5:1 male-to-female LIs ratio. It's redundant, retire that ratio already 🙄.

and its always for a mediocre white man like pack it pleaseeee. i doubt boris will be an li, 4:1 is alr insane but three white men? and only one poc li in total...

hs is diabolical. we could take 2/3 of the horsemen for a ride but plague is where alice drew the line? the way her character was handled too just reeks of misogyny. why do the other horsemen have a human side to them but she was crazy w/ no motives other than pushing the plot forward 😭

malek could've been a sexy offputting woman but god forbid 🙄

it's so depressing that sapphic players don't have a choice other than picking the only female li in the book ://

[amemoryofwot]

Awww yissss it’s Dragon time! Blacklist #tdr re read if you don’t wanna see my posts regarding but why are you following a WoT blog if you don’t want to see WoT posts amirite. Genuinely one of my faves in the series. Hot discussion topics will include Egwene’s PTSD, Perrin’s complicated feelings around leadership while he’s still a tolerable character, and just what is Mat’s deal right now.

[asha-mage]

Spoiler Tagging Guide For Filtering This Blog

I tag all my Wheel of Time posts either #WoT (for the book series) or #WoT On Prime (for the show).

I use #WoT Book Spoilers to cover anything the show has not reached yet, but I ALSO tag for specific books to the best of my ability, using the initals of that book. The Great Hunt spoilers are tagged #TGH Spoilers, The Dragon Reborn spoilers, #TDR Spoilers and so on.

I always use the most advanced book as a reference point. A post that contains spoilers for both TGH and AMOL will have #AMOL Spoilers, just to be on the safe side.

I tag the most recent season to denote spoilers for that i.e 'wot s2'.is my tag for Season 2 spoilers.

I have tags for, Fanart, Musing, Meta posts, Memes, and shitposts, all written WoT Fanart, WoT Musing, and so on. I do my best to tag these with which medium they are from (book or show) as well as with spoiler tags.

[birgittesilverbae]

@hush-pup-py

just off the top of my head because I don't have the energy to dig back into the books again

show: Liandrin's 'swords are useless' scene

excerpts from Siuan's 'swords are useless' scene (I'm not gonna screenshot the entire scene but it's fairly beat for beat what they gave Liandrin), TGH ch 18:

show: Moiraine reacts to Verin knowing more than she should during an infodump

excerpt from Moiraine and Siuan reacting to Verin knowing more than she should during an infodump, TGH ch7:

show: Liandrin confining Mat in the wake of his healing

excerpt from Siuan confining Mat in the wake of his healing, TDR ch 20:

show: Nynaeve gets no welcome beyond the two other Wondergirls post-Accepted test

excerpt from Siuan welcoming Nynaeve on her return from the arches, TGH ch 23:

show: Nynaeve's the fastest to be raised to Accepted since Cadsuane

books: Siuan/Moiraine/Elaida are the fastest ever through Novice training until Nynaeve

show: Moiraine manipulates Logain in order to use him as a means to an end

excerpt of Siuan manipulating Logain in order to use him as a means to an end, TSR ch 47:

but the real big kick in the teeth?

show: Moiraine copes with her loss of power and having to work from a place of weakness after (what she perceives as) being stilled

books: Siuan spends the back half of the series coping with her loss of power and working from a place of weakness after actually being stilled

as of 2x04 there's one (1) TGH Siuan scene remaining that hasn't been re-assigned or covered in s1 (the convo with Rand), and her remaining TDR scenes are made irrelevant by her not being in the Tower with the Wondergirls, which is a WHOLE other thing, given how important it is for future plotlines for her to establish a relationship with them

still pretty fucked that the wot team took core character establishing scenes/themes from a protagonist they cast as a woman of colour and gave them wholesale to a protagonist and antagonist they cast as white women

[butterflydm]

Hi, fun recap as always. Just a FYI, everyone seems to forget Bk2 ended in fall, Bk 3 starts in spring. So Rand & Min & Perrin & Loial had 3-5 months chilling together between books. That's when Min fell for him (she was crying when he left for Tear w/o them and later admitted to Perrin that she was in love with him) and became buds with Perrin & Loial. It's why she made enough of an impression to be on Rand's mind & confuse him about his feelings for E&A.

Anon, I'm not trying to be rude but I do feel like you're the third or fourth anon to tell me this exact thing. I know they were all together between books 2&3! I've talked about it before, about how part of my problem with the Min & Rand relationship is that they did spend time together back then but barely seem to know a thing about each other. Here is a place I talk about it: https://butterflydm.tumblr.com/post/693158362478706688/enjoying-your-series-recaps-just-on-thing-wrt-min

Just spending time in the same general area as someone doesn't make you friends. But just for you, anon, I did go through and check back over the beginning of TDR. This seems like the most relevant quote:

[Rand] kept to himself now. Too much to himself, to Perrin's thinking.

We know that he's been arguing a lot with Moiraine (he feels guilty about 'abandoning' all the bands of Dragonsworn on the Plains) and that he keeps a hut to himself, away from everyone else. And Min is still struggling with the idea that she's going to fall in love with someone that she didn't choose for herself ("some of us feel as if we're being danced about like puppets by these ta'veren").

Obviously, the beginning of this book is from Perrin's PoV, but Rand really sounds like he's self-isolating hard, even before he takes off on the road by himself (Perrin notes that he even tends to skip meals to go hide in his hut away from everyone else), so it's difficult to see how this was a wintertime of growing feelings, especially since Min is still very much in "I don't want this but don't have a choice" mode. And the main emotion that we see Rand show during these early chapters is frustration and self-loathing and worry. And, after the battle, Min notes that Rand was snapping at everyone (herself included) and only Perrin is able to actually get him to talk about what happened.

I agree that Min and Perrin DO seem like genuine friends at the start of TDR - she's telling him all her viewings about random people (that thing that she keeps insisting that she hates doing) and he knows her whole backstory, but the narration notes that Min doesn't share her viewings with Loial, so they aren't quite that close at this point. Min and Loial talk a bit but they don't seem entirely on the same page (Min still is at odds with the idea of being jerked around by ta'veren while Loial finds it exciting). Min & Loial come across as acquaintances to me.

[thatcartoonnetworkblog]

Cartoon Network Hotel Review

WHAT TIME IS IT????

If you don’t find yourself screaming this when you get here, even just in your head, then you’re in the wrong place.

But after a nice drive through Amish Country, the Cartoon Network Hotel is nice and visible right outside of Dutch Wonderland. Coming in, you see images of some of your favorite characters, right before Finn and Jake welcome you at the front.

Granted, it looks like I came off season- with fall and school just starting, Dutch Wonderland is only open on the weekends, and the hotel wasn’t exactly packed from what I can see. Which made for a good time for the indoor pool to be under renovation, so I sadly didn’t get to check that out. But hey, the outdoor pool was running just fine, although it was mostly empty, just myself and a family.

I didn’t take any pictures of the pool, since I didn’t have my phone (but a couple of Ice King’s penguins are playing life guard duty, alongside a pretty cute girl), but I did snap a photo of the Powerpuff sprinklers! They look pretty cool, right?

But that’s jumping ahead. Anyway, as mentioned, today it didn’t seem so busy, so despite arriving a couple of hours before 4 PM check-in, I was able to get a room right away. It must have been busy enough that I didn’t get the Gumball room I asked for, but instead I got my second choice, Steven Universe.

But I mean, look at this. I can’t complain. I was just thinking that I wanted the SU room instead, anyway.

The rooms are themed to one of six shows/franchises, the other four being Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10, Adventure Time and We Bare Bears. The former two seem to be primarily inspired by their recent series however, not their classics, so your mileage will vary there. I asked a receptionist which show tends to be the most popular choice, and she says that it rotates. Apparently PPG does get picked often by those who grew up with it, which makes sense, although those aren’t my Powerpuff Girls.

So, some things of note- there are four exclusive channels to the Hotel. Gumball and Teen Titans Go get their own 24/7 channels, which seems redundant since they’re basically all CN shows anyway. But they also have a FanFavs channel, which shows various episodes from various series, and New Shows, which I’m not sure if it shows currently unaired episodes or not. I couldn’t get that one active for long, but I did see part of a Victor & Valentino episode. I did have FanFavs on a bit as background noise, and they seem to mostly show:

Adventure Time

Regular Show

Steven Universe

Ben 10 (2016)

Mao Mao

Thundercats Roar (seriously...)

It seems like they mostly rotate from those shows, but I’d like to believe there’s more. Griz is on the cover bar for it when you connect to wifi, and you’d think they’d also show at least the 2016 PPG show as well, as that’s all over the resort.

They also do showings of cartoons in the kitchen at 3 and 9 PM, as the kitchen is closed during those times. My flight was very early, so I missed the 9 showing, as well as the Summer Camp Island-inspired bonfire that happened before, but I caught the 3 o’clock cartoons. They played episodes of Craig of the Creek, Total Dramarama, Teen Titans Go, and Gumball. Pretty cool, although these are basically the only four shows the channel plays anyway, The intro they use for the screenings shows clips from classic Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and Scooby-Doo cartoons, but none of those were shown today. Maybe they’ll throw one in at another time? Probably not Scooby... or maybe just a movie, since they apparently play movies as well sometimes.

I didn’t stick around for most of the TDR cartoon though, as I was participating in the Craig of the Creek scavenger hunt. They hunt various CN characters around the lobby vicinity, and you try to find them in the right spot.

This is what you get if you win- a COTC pin and a Hershey bar. But hey, you can’t argue with results, and this is about it for Craig merch.

The gift shop almost exclusively focuses on the six shows with featured rooms, and a lot of merch isn’t exclusive. I did get a couple of things though.

The beach towel is based on the designs you see all over the hotel and has a couple of series not otherwise represented in terms of merch, like OK KO, Summer Camp Island, and the aforementioned COTC. Oh, and Clarence! Almost missed him in the bottom.

I got the stickers because there are more COTC characters, and again, the designs are nice. The SU pin was cool, and if there was a similar one for AT or Gumball, I would have got that as well. And I got the Anais keychain because Gumball merch is strangely rare despite its popularity, especially for her. There were also some pencils, notebooks, a couple of T-shirts and a hoodie. I almost got some pencils.

There’s also an arcade and an activity center, but those do seem mostly for kids, plus you have to pay for most of the crafts. I think the coloring is free at least, and there are a couple of nods to classic shows I found that I’ll share on another post.

Just as there are some nods to classics around the place, primarily the elevator and kitchen, but the people who want to see Dexter and Johnny and the Eds aren’t the target audience for this resort. Which is unfortunate, but the thing is, besides the fact that we’re getting old and today’s kids need their own shows, Cartoon Network has become a big deal internationally over the past decade, moreso than during their supposed heyday in the late 90′s-early 00′s. The six shows featured aren’t just picked for being the most popular, they’re all big draws overseas. We Bare Bears sells a LOT of merch in Asia and parts of Europe, even if it doesn’t seem that big of a draw stateside. Hopefully they can make this a tourist spot.

That said, I do hope that they consistently update things in the years to come. Part of the problem with the Nickelodeon Hotel over in Orlando was how stuck it was in the mid-2000′s. Sure, SpongeBob has remained a big draw over the years since, but when I visited the place around 2010 (didn’t stay, but took a tour), it was apparent that if your kids weren’t big fans of Rugrats or Jimmy Neutron, and they probably weren’t around that place until its last days, there wasn’t much reason to stay over.

I do think that Craig deserves his own themed room, and it may be time to swap out Powerpuff for it. Let’s admit that the 2016 reboot was a failure and move on. Or maybe just double down and replace the reboot designs with their classic look.

But hey, my final thoughts on the Cartoon Network Hotel? I had a lot of fun, and got the best sleep I had in ages. I’m not sure if I’d go again, though. At least unless it changes things up a little. Part of the thing is that this is really for the kids who love today’s new shows. And I do really love three of the six shows heavily featured here- four if you count the original Powerpuff. But I’m just not the right age for this place.

If you love any of these shows and/or Cartoon Network’s brand as a whole, I recommend checking this place out, but only if you’re near the area. Don’t make it a pilgrimage. Unless you have enough friends to make grouping up on the Steven Universe Dream Suite worth it.

That said, look at these Bear macrons. So damn cute, and tasty, too!

[alectology-archive]

This covers chapters 6, 7 & 20 mostly, and in a very small measure chapter 5, too:

I lightly skimmed the egwene pov - I definitely remember why I got such gay vibes from her and avi.

also I was definitely not misremembering why I enjoyed the series so much for all its flaws - I really didn’t vibe at all with sanderson’s writing style and his priorities - which are on the opposite spectrum of RJ’s priorities (and my priorities!). every dialogue exchange is purposeful and pulls its weight with characterisation and character development; RJ also manages to do a shit ton of worldbuilding in every other passage, and does such a great job of immersing you in the setting and the culture he’s currently writing about. I really missed his writing style - but the joy the books brought definitely wavered while I was reading CoT, I think, because you could tell that the series was starting to really drag at that point. I was thinking of rereading the series only up to book 8* next year, maybe, but I’ll probably try to extend it up to book 11 because I don’t remember those last 2 books very well.

*in another post I said I’d advice people to stop reading the series at book 12 - but that’s still a very long way to go so I think book 8 feels like the better stopping point since it’s midway through the series. I mostly say that because it ends on a high point for every character except mat, but mat doesn’t have any high points after book 8 until book 9/11 anyway. rand understandably faces the consequences for ignoring the black tower at the end of the book and I feel kind of bad about negating his accomplishment at the ending of book 9, but getting into book 9 would mean immersing yourself in new plot angles for elayne, egwene (off-screen) and mat. (book 7 is also a valid cutting off point but TPOD is short, so. you could as well read it anyway, tbh.)

anyway. back to the book.

Striding to the center of the room, he planted himself atop the mosaic there, the ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai, ten feet across. It was an apt place. “Under this sign will he conquer.” That was what the Prophecy of Rhuidean said of him. He stood straddling the sinuous dividing line, one boot on the black teardrop that was now called the Dragon’s Fang and used to represent evil, the other on the white now called the Flame of Tar Valon. Some men said it stood for the Light. An appropriate place to meet this attack, between Light and darkness.

rand fully has a thing for theatre and performance and silly little symbolisms that matter to him alone - we also see it when he picks jeade’en’s name, puts callandor back in the stone of tear, starts carrying around the seanchan spear to remind himself of the threat they pose, etc. his middle name is drama, and I love it that he chooses to do some of these things purely for himself. it’s such an interesting character thing. he’s also a nerd (affectionate).

darkhounds are as big as ponies???

oh he’s channeled balefire before? I’ve forgotten the details, but I somehow thought he first used the weave in TFOH - was it in TSR/TDR then? Hm, I don’t think so - I’m inclined to believe it was lews therin’s memory making him misremember stuff because I remember rand using balefire and its consequence and benefits being a major theme in TFOH.

from rand’s POV there’s definitely a lot more affection and concern for mat than it seemed like there was in mat’s POV! he also seems a lot more boyish than he did from mat’s perspective, obviously - and once again I’m delighted by how RJ does POVs so well. the problem is, rand is growing colder & more distant and mat is increasingly finding it difficult to parse out his friend in the midst of everything - mat’s question to rand, constantly, in this book is, “Won’t you stop me from leaving? Won’t you ask me to stay? Will you just be sorry to see me go and not do anything about it?” and rand’s answer is, “I want you to have a chance at not being trapped by fate like I am so I’m not going to stop you from doing what you want.” He doesn’t realise just how subtle and reserved mat is with his affections. I think mat is generally very embarrassed by the thought of being affectionate with people he actually really cares for - but he doesn’t mind being easygoing with random strangers - and I relate to that, lol. I get it. But rand has very demi vibes for a reason - he needs people to be more communicative because he never makes the first move + he also has that “I’m the dragon reborn and it’s better for everyone if they don’t want to be friends with me even if I’ll miss them” thing going on.

I was also maybe wrong about rand seeming cold and distant in mat’s POV because he probably mostly sees the leader in him, the more I think about it. I think rand seems cold because he’s consciously choosing to front an emotionless part of him even in front of mat. the same thing happened with moiraine and egwene - and I’m honestly blown away by the number of times we see rand try to maintain an expressionless face/remain cool/look calm and composed/try to give away as few emotions as a rock etc. it’s a lot!

Not only a friend. Another ta’veren, and perhaps a key to victory in Tarmon Gai’don; anyone who wanted to strike at Rand had reason to strike at Mat, as well. But Mat always tried to deny both things.

so…. yeahhh. the loops and holes mat jumps through to hide his personality and feelings really does a number on the people around him.

“You watch your tongue with me,” Moiraine told Mat, getting up, “or I will find Nynaeve and put her in charge of you.” But her heart was not in it; she could have been talking in her sleep. She was trying not to stare at the foxhead as Mat hung it back around his neck. “You will need rest,” she said absently. “Stay in bed tomorrow, if you feel like it.”

Mom! antagonistic mom-son relationship! also further confirmation that moiraine likes nynaeve even if the latter dislikes her - I just really hated nynaeve’s weirdness around lan and her trying to get him to choose between her and moiraine while reading the books? a platonic warder relationship shouldn’t count as competition with a romantic relationship. I’ll see how I feel when I reread those stuff next year - as much as I love the wondergirls, I think egwene’s character suffered because of her romance-heavy plot & nynaeve’s hate of moiraine seemed to descend into caricature levels of weird in the first few books. I’m not sure how RJ went from writing such a great platonic relationship between moiraine and lan to feeling the need to insist that romantic relationships should necessarily involve warder bonds.

rand asks the maidens to give mat some space and also admonishes them about essentially not respecting their boundaries - fair! but also he’s fully referring to how the baby him indirectly. let them baby you, rand.

“Maybe I’ll ask if I can borrow it from him.” He turned away from her. There was still one he had to check on, though one way or another the urgency was gone; the Darkhounds would have done what they intended by now.

I didn’t get it then, and I don’t get it now - if I were rand I’d be anxious to figure out if the only person capable of teaching me to channel was dead! maybe the logic here is that rand doesn’t mind if one of the forsaken dies, but also… this passage just goes such a long way in showing us rand’s true priorities - he really, really cares for mat. I miss the road trip and I hate that I didn’t finish rereading it before I stop my teotw reread.

(like obviously, a best friend is always a greater priority than a useful enemy, but that shouldn’t have stopped him from immediately checking on asmodean anyway)

[Moiraine to Rand] “I have given my entire life to the search for you, to find you and help you.”

Yeah, this was the line that fucked me up while reading the books! moiraine really did sell her life away to finding and guiding the dragon reborn, at great personal risk. in the end, siuan paid the price for their scheming. plus moiraine didn’t hesitate at all to sacrifice herself to kill lanfear to save rand even if she had good reason to suspect that 1. he was consorting with at least one of the forsaken behind her back 2. he was starting to go mad. at the end of the day, for all her complaints, I think she trusts his heart and for him to do the right thing.

this is unrelated but moiraine is the one who approves of balefire, rand using asmodean as a teacher and generally utilising questionable methods of achieving your goals that would horrify other aes sedai - cadsuane is notably stuck up about such stuff, and therefore, in my view, doesn’t make a good advisor, tbh. I think RJ even knew that - I don’t get what he was trying to do when he was criticising how old-fashioned she was while simultaneously worshipping the ground she walked on.

The White Tower forbids us even to learn it. In the War of Power, the Forsaken and the Shadowsworn themselves used it only reluctantly.

#ReasonsIHateAMOL - the forsaken are tossing around balefire everywhere for some reason! what the fuck. This is why I don’t vibe with egwene’s death or that stupid flame of tar valon weave - it’s lacking any sort of creativity or nuance and tears up established canon.

“That sounds just fine to me,” he told her. “Mat’s alive because of it.”

it means SO much to me that rand listens to moiraine list out all the reasons why balefire is dangerous and then follows it up with that response.

rand makes sure to protect mat here - he makes moiraine promise he won’t take mat’s ter’angreal away. I really like that, but I also think RJ sometimes went too far with making aes sedai so territorial about ter’angreal to the point where they act like they naturally have a claim over another person’s belongings? anyway.

Moving close to the bead curtain, he peered through the doorway. Moonshadows filled the room, but one of them was Asmodean, tossing in his blankets. Wrapped in the Void, Rand could hear his heartbeat, smell the sweat of troubled dreams.

this is what I meant about their relationship being so sensual - there’s something so illicit about the whole thing. rand visits him in the night, looks at him through a curtain, and notes that he’s sweating and having troubled dreams! these are all very intimate details to note about another person. somebody really needed to introduce him to the concept of queerness.

The male figure could link him to a huge replica of itself, the most powerful male sa’angreal ever made, even if he were on the other side of the Aryth Ocean from it. It had only been finished after the Dark One’s prison was resealed—How do I know that?—and hidden before any of the male Aes Sedai going mad could find it. The female figure could do the same for a woman, joining her to the female equivalent of the great statue he hoped was still almost completely buried in Cairhien.

huh, the strike at shayol ghul said that the access keys were located in a territory controlled by one of the forsaken at one point during the war and couldn’t be retrieved? Oh! and the wiki says that these are just two access keys among several others and that egwene discovered a damaged one in tanchico when she went dreamwalking! obsessed. maybe the access keys were unfinished at that point? or rj maybe forgot what he’d written, lol.

rand is still thinking of impractical things like healing death with sa’angreal. some arrogance, there, maybe, but at its heart it’s a very pure kind of desire. he does get to reverse death at the end of the book though - mat and avi with balefire! - I suppose rj manages to wrap up that particular plot point by giving him a workaround for healing death. I love it.

I love that rand admits that he can’t be trusted with the vast amount of power various sa’angreal grant him. I love him, and I love egwene for trying to poke at the boundaries of what’s considered abuse of power and what is not - they’re both such fascinating characters to read about. they’ve both come into power having never expected such a thing, grapple with what it means to be responsible for so many people, and slowly come to realise that even if it’s a burden, it allows them to do good things.

also as a random thought, elayne haters don’t deserve rand because rand would hate them for hating elayne. and so would mat, actually.

I just remembered how annoying lanfear could be with her nonsense about loving lews therin. I love the idea of one of the forsaken being a very close friend/lover/companion of lews therin’s and having complex feelings about killing and/or allying with rand but lanfear was not it.

anyway, it didn’t make sense to me in the beginning that she would try to ally with rand when she knew he’d potentially betray her (although right now, I do think it’s very stupid of lanfear to believe that rand is allied with her and dreams of achieving power with her when he hasn’t ever done anything to prove he’d like that) but I think it’s a good idea that she’s a renegade and doesn’t really care about the dark one - she did create the bore. of course she’d try to replace him.

He dreams of you triumphing over the Great Lord and putting him up beside you on high.

yeah, even asmodean is weirdly obsessed with rand!

[Rand] He pushed away a sudden memory of this woman [Lanfear] in his arms, both of them young and just learning what they could do with the Power.

help, did lanfear and lews therin use the one power during sex? is that what this is implying?

sex jokes aside rand is struggling SO hard with lews therin’s memories. I didn’t remember it being this bad. I think him sort of growing used to lews therin later is what makes this really go hard? his only safe space is his head - he had to eventually ward his dreams to keep the wise ones out - so the fact that he isn’t allowed even that to himself is very tragic! in general, rand is just continuously having his body violated in several different ways. and because I can’t help paralleling rand and egwene, it’s interesting how loss of agency marks such a major point in both their arcs - it’s being made a damane for egwene, and dumai’s wells for rand. it doesn’t make them stronger people, and it leads them to commit questionable acts sometimes and act irrationally but that’s okay. that’s how trauma works. unfortunately, rand learns zero coping mechanisms while egwene has a healthier arc because of her training sequence with the wise ones.

speaking of rand and egwene, I don’t know exactly what I feel about the relationship they have. I didn’t see it before, but I do understand why people were saying they’re like siblings - and I don’t know if I ship them exactly (I mean, it could have been incredibly romantic if they’d sort of fallen apart and fallen in love again at the end of everything - I think that idea just really stuck with me while I was still reading the early books - egwene choosing rand over the aes sedai in the early TGH chapters made me very weepy) but a sort of soulmate bond that transcends romance and friendship is something I probably vibe more with. the latra/egwene parallels have me in a chokehold - and now that I think of it… it would’ve been thematically such a great thing if egwene had joined rand in shayol ghul? or if she’d at least broken the seals herself? insert obligatory AMOL hate post, I guess. I’ve read very few books in my life that managed to make me as angry as it did - I think it even manages to beat ACOSF for the Bad Books title (I think I made 160 posts when I was live-blogging it and had zero complimentary things to say about it).

I don’t get criticisms about mat struggling to come to terms with rand’s ability to channel? even egwene has a very hard time reconciling the two. it’s natural and expected - it’s a common legend and belief in the westlands that TDR and male channelers are people you should fear! the belief is as instinctual as the need to breathe. how can RJ say it more blatantly than with this line:

Growing up, she had been taught that only the Dark One was more to be feared than a man who could channel.

moiraine is just *obligatory siuan mention* whenever we get her POVs. she is so gay.

on a cliff at jangai pass there seems to be a symbol of a snake curled around a staff carved onto it - this brings to mind the rod of asclepius? I don’t know if it’s not meant to be analysed a lot - I don’t think it is. but on the other side of the pass there’s a dock and a couple of ships. this makes me wonder if it was a hospital? would a hospital from the age of legend use the same sort of symbols used in the first age? if not a hospital, I’d guess that it’s some outpost of sorts. rand is guessing that the waste could have been under the ocean before.

there was a ‘silk path’ from shara to taien! yeah, I get why I thought shara was an asia analogue even silks and elephants aside. I can’t say anything about how race was handled - we don’t nearly see enough of the sharans to pass judgement on RJ’s handling of them, and from what I recall they’re not really any better or worse than the seanchan. the seanchan are probably slightly worse because of the slavery culture they have going on, but shara also treats its channelers like animals to be put in a pen so, uh. they also have this weird practice of killing their rulers every cycle or something too? anyway, I don’t like that vibe. I also don’t like the vibe of “asian culture analogue being brainwashed by a forsaken so that he can use them as fodder to fight alongside literal monsters against the side of the Light”. I blame that on sanderson, though - I think he didn’t think through the implications of how he introduced and handled sharans. I still wouldn’t have been opposed to seeing more of them if we’d had characters like Egeanin (and I did kind of like that one sharan guy we met in KoD).

rand is now reminding himself of the prophecy that says he’d conquer under the ancient sign of the aes sedai and is making asmodean carry it. I love it when he purposely tries to make prophecies work in his favour, and I love all of RJ’s interesting takes on prophecy - I need to find that post I’d compiled and rb it again. I think I last updated it with rand asking cadsuane if the pattern would kill her if he willed it in book 12 - not exactly prophecy, but prophecy adjacent and that counts to me.

rand is being very protective of egwene and avi right now, as of chapter 20.

How long now had he been doing what was necessary instead of what was right? In a fair world, they would be one and the same. That made him laugh, a hoarse wheeze. He was far from the village boy he had been, but sometimes that boy sneaked up on him.

Nothing to note about this, really, but I remember reading and rereading this specific passage when I first read TFOH - I think it definitely makes a point of highlighting how rand’s motivations work in the latter half of the series, especially maybe his choice to treat with the seanchan instead of defeating them on the battlefield because he needs their support in defeating the dark one.

as a parting note, I think mat should stop sleeping in his fine clothes. it sounds very uncomfortable.

[cannoli-reader]

Other instances include:

EotW: Rand & Man trapped in the inn in Four Kings, Rand being arrested in the Royal Palace in Caemlyn and from an outside point of view, the whole group are kidnapped by Moiraine and Nynaeve is riding to the rescue.

tGH: Rand is trapped in Fal Dara, and let's also not forget Min is nominally a prisoner of the Seanchan, and so is Bayle Domon.

tDR: Much more significantly than Faile is Nynaeve, Elayne and Egwene being captured by the bandits in Cairhien and later, imprisoned in the Stone by the Black Ajah, and Mat is being held in the White Tower

tSR: Since Siuan is arguably an antagonist, it's rather more fitting to the trope that the Luhans and Cauthons are imprisoned in the Two Rivers, and Nynaeve & Elayne's quest in Tanchico becomes literally rescuing a princess.

tFoH: The book starts out with Min & company literally imprisoned by Gareth Bryne, Nynaeve & Elayne get captured by Ronde Macura and Nynaeve is briefly captured by Moghedian

LoC: Min is also a prisoner, and Nynaeve starts to view herself as being held in Salidar against her will

aCoS: Lan is a captive of Myrelle

aCoS - WH: Mat with Tyelin

WH: Rand (and Lan) getting captured in Far Madding

Alivia being freed of the a'dam

CoT-KoD: Tuon is Mat's captive, for all intents and purposes

ToM: Basel Gill & company being captured

Each of these, in addition to those listed in the prior post, are all different and unique in their own way and shows how ridiculous the current mode of analysis-by-trope-identification actually is. You might as well enumerate examples of the trope of "character growth through conflict".

Another thing to keep in mind when bringing up tropes like the damsel in distress is that The Wheel of Time is written with deconstructive motivations and intentions. Jordan makes it plain at the outset that he's going to be exploring familiar stories and concepts in new ways, and examining them to understand them. So it's not exactly insightful or a "gotcha" to point out that the trope appears in WoT, when you aren't bothering to discuss how and why it is used. As the second post points out, under Jordan these people are not being reduced to objects or McGuffins for others to rescue.

The examples of someone flat-out rescuing another character are often the result of the victim's prior work. Egwene has an out from her captivity with the Children, that she refuses to take. Perrin has to use his brain when offered an escape and avoid it. They can't save themselves, because that's the point of their situation, that they have a long way to go from victim status to heroes. Perrin also is captured by the Children because of things he did that were objectively wrong. Egwene is captured by the Seanchan largely through her own stupidity, and it's not as simple has her being an object, because Min is her own damsel in distress, being held hostage to her own cooperation, who, in turn facilitates Nynaeve's rescue attempt, and is able to do so, because Egwene fought to spare her life when they were both captured.

Faile's encounter with the hedgehog ter'angreal is less about Perrin's accomplishment in rescuing her, as in coming to terms with both his interest in her, which he had previously denied and resisted, and with his wolf-brother nature, which was necessary. It was also there to illustrate Moiraine's priorities, and Faile's own impulsiveness. Perrin rescuing Faile is not getting the girl, she was always there for the getting, it merely opens the door to a relationship where they both have a lot of growth to undergo. The one clear example of rescuing the girl to get her in the whole series is just making the point that you don't "win" a relationship this way. Likewise, Perrin & Faile getting married in the same book where they are first in their relationship does not happily wrap that up, but only begins their arc together, as they have to learn who and what they both are and how to make their relationship work.

Faile's entrapment with the hedgehod is the consequence of her continuous disregard for personal boundaries. The Black sisters set the trap for Moiraine and emplaced the ter'angreal where they believed no one would dare trespass against an Aes Sedai. But Faile DGAF, and she'll barge right into Moiraine's rooms without waiting for their resident, because she's still thinking she is the hero of the saga of The Blade Falcon and the Horn, and the others are her supporting cast. But because she isn't the hero, Moiraine's reaction is "Eh, too bad. Now I can take advantage of this to get the real job done!" If Moiraine doesn't behave as she does here, maybe Perrin would have gone to her for advice on the Two Rivers situation a book later. If Faile learns to respect boundaries (or Perrin takes in the lesson, secondhand) they don't have the misunderstandings that plague them in the early part of the next book.

Mat is able to rescue the Wondergirls in the Stone, because they gave him the writ to escape Tar Valon and sent him to Caemlyn where he discovered the danger to them. He knew where they had been taken, because his luck led him to a sympathetic ally whom Nynaeve had recruited in the city. And pre-medallion, he would not have had a chance of getting them out of a cell guarded by a sister if they had not taken steps there themselves.

Each use of the so-called trope is there to deconstruct it, and put new spins on it. The trope is not a crutch to spare Jordan the trouble of creating original plots, it's a challenge to find ways of getting through without relying on cliches, and to use to develop characterization.

I just watched this video on the damsel in distress trope, and it made me realize just how often Robert Jordan uses it. There’s the infamous example of Faile, which I actually don’t think is that bad because (like the video talks about as a risk of the trope) she never stops being Faile to become simply a damsel. But Egwene in book two is as well, and Rand in the box, and there’s a few other examples as well. It’s strange because I just hadn’t thought about it that much (especially in terms of Rand). I feel like I could probably write an essay on the various ways Jordan uses damseling and when it works and when it doesn’t… Maybe when it isn’t the middle of the night.

[markantonys]

Oh well now that you’ve told me we get more Elayne content as the series goes on I’m definitely still excited to read the later books!

Gawyn! I’ve seen so very little of him so far but from what I have he seems like a sweetheart. I love a good sibling relationship and how he and Elayne team up against Galad is great to see, keeping an eye on that one… Very frustrating for Egwene to be fawning over the wrong brother though smh

Haha poor Mat! I’m definitely warming to him more, I’m nearly finished TDR and he’s just put a flower in his hair while sneaking into the palace 😭 Which speaking of new locations and characters, that will be SO exciting to see. I know book fans have been complaining about the changes to the show but it makes sense for them to have saved Caemlyn for s3, there’s just so much going on!

Yeah, I’m looking forward to being on the other side! I think this is preferable bc honestly, based on my taste, I think the show is on the whole making changes for the better (the women getting more spotlight from the off, actually making queer coded relationships canon lol) so having the show to look forward to after reading the books is so much fun.

*the books are obviously the source material and fantastic please don’t shoot me book fans

first of all, congratulations on having the most correct and relatable takes on everything in the series so far djdkjf right down to anxiously adding "please don't shoot me book fans" after daring to express that you think the show is good and perhaps even better. keep us updated as you go along, i love hearing your thoughts! as always, to my reader followers, please do not mention any book spoilers past TDR in replies/reblogs on this post. we must keep this anon pure! anon, i will be tagging this post as book spoilers for the sake of show-onlys since we're discussing some s3 stuff, but rest assured i haven't included any spoilers past where you are (bar vague stuff like "X character has a big storyline in Y portion of the series").

gawyn is MY BOY. he's like a son to me, and you can't imagine the sheer serotonin boost i got when he was unexpectedly namedropped in s2 just when i was starting to worry he might be cut or merged with galad (neither of which would make sense to do, but other readers kept predicting that baselessly and i couldn't help worrying). he's definitely a slow-burner character with his biggest storylines occurring late in the series (another thing to look forward to in the later books!), but both brothers become more prominent in the book 4-6 era, so i will be interested to see what you think of that since they're definitely Just Kinda There giving us nothing in the first 3 books haha

and this is exactly why the show was wise to hold off on caemlyn, gawyn, galad, morgase, and elaida until s3! while i would've loved to see them earlier and while the EOTW caemlyn sequence is dear to my heart, in the medium of TV where the need to build sets and hire actors constrains what you can include when, it makes way more sense to hold off on introducing major locations & characters until such time as they are truly needed in the story, which for the Caemlyn Crew is season 3 since they don't get up to very much in the first few books. going to all that casting & set-building trouble for a single scene in season 1 or casting gawyn & galad just to bop around not doing much at the white tower in season 2 wouldn't have been practical. not to mention that there's been so much else going on, like you say! better to save this crew until we have enough space in a season to spend proper time with them.

and i love the show's approach of introducing elayne first and getting her into our hearts, then introducing the rest of her family in the next season when we're primed to be interested in meeting them, having already spent a whole season with her and having come to love her, and having heard intriguing little tidbits about her family and upbringing. caemlyn is my favorite location in the books and the trakands are my favorite family, so i can't wait to see them next season!!!! i'm so curious to see what kind of aesthetic they'll go for with caemlyn, and noble andoran fashion too. and given what a great damodred family backstory they crafted out of almost nothing in the books, i suspect we'll be in for a treat with some meatier family dynamics among the trakands (who do already have great dynamics in the books, but i bet there's more that can be done!)

mat putting a flower in his hair!! 😭😭 he's a baby! man that reminds me of the green man in EOTW and when he only gave flower crowns to the girls and not the boys, that made me so mad djkjfjg whenever i see anyone be sad that the green man didn't make the show, i'm like "nah FUCK that guy, he didn't give the boys flower crowns!"

and i am COMPLETELY on the same page as you with still preferring the show even after having read the books because the changes it makes are in line with my personal taste and improve aspects of the books i didn't like. the aes sedai are one of the most unique elements of the series, and i love how much focus the show has given to them early on! i love that egwene and nynaeve get to be ta'veren too! i love that moiraine and siuan are in a canonical present-day relationship instead of relegated to "being gay is just a phase in college"! i love alanna's polycule! i love that the male characters are allowed to be sensitive and vulnerable and to openly express emotions and affection! i love that the friendships and romances and enmities are all deeper and more emotional across the board! i love that the show focuses on the emotional impacts of the plot on the characters! and the show also really excels at picking out a smaller number of supporting characters and beefing them up (like liandrin and alanna) instead of including a fuckton of supporting characters, none of whom are very distinct or well-developed. the show always chooses to whole-ass one thing rather than half-ass two things, and that's another thing i love! the ability to distill these very long-winded books down into a more streamlined version of the story while keeping its core intact was crucial for an adaptation to work well, and rafe & co are so good at that.

anyway, i know that some readers like to tout the narrative that reading the books will make you like the show less because you'll see how much better and more detailed the books are, but that could not have been less true for me. it just made me love and appreciate the show even more, and look forward to seeing how my least favorite book stuff might be improved and how my favorite book stuff might be changed or given a fresh spin or made even better! and i'm glad to hear i'm not the only show-to-book person who feels that way <3

[azarathianscribbles]

I have thoughts about Fang Kesegi

*Spoilers for the Poppy War trilogy, including The Burning God*

I know that Kesegi is a minor character throughout the series, especially in TBG, and with the sheer amount of content, he’s even less important, but I can’t help thinking about him. 

The bittersweet reunion between Rin and Kesegi in TDR really stuck out to me. So when the book ended with Rin realizing she shouldn’t have tried to reject southern Nikan and deciding that she would return there, I developed one of my biggest hopes for The Burning God: a rebuilding of the bond between Rin and Kesegi, since he would no longer be just part of her ‘shameful’ southern heritage.

As we all know, that DID NOT happen. Rin effectively abandoning Kesegi to be Nezha’s captive was one of the most painful parts of Part One for me, though I don’t know if I can fully articulate why. Not only Rin’s allies, but also her enemies, assumed Kesegi would be more important to her than he was in reality. Rin’s insistence that Kesegi is only her foster brother as a justification for abandoning him is also painful: she insists on associating him with his parents, who abused her, despite the fact that she was more of a guardian and caretaker to him than they ever were. Even when Rin comes to value southern Nikan, she doesn’t accept Kesegi as her family, and spends her visit to Tikany in TBG mourning Tutor Feyrik without even considering Kesegi. 

Like I said, I was upset with Rin’s choice to abandon Kesegi. (side note: I do believe Nezha did actually capture him, even if we don’t have a way of knowing for sure. His love for Mingzha probably influenced him to believe that Rin would have a similar devotion to her brother, which would make him a valuable hostage) As I continued in TBG, though, it became obvious that her disregard for him was a side effect/consequence of Rin’s character arc. 

Throughout the trilogy, Rin is driven by desire to improve her circumstances. Over time, that desire warps from something innocent to a hunger for ultimate power. Alongside that, she becomes more willing to make sacrifices. Even in TPW, Rin doesn’t really think of Kesegi at all while attending Sinegard, and that lack of attachment sets her apart from her classmates. It makes sense to me that this lack of attachment culminates with her effectively leaving Kesegi to die at the hands of the Dragon Republic.

What we don’t know is what became of Kesegi. Perhaps Vaisra and/or Nezha killed him. Perhaps he died during the siege on Arlong, or starved to death. But maybe he didn’t. And the possibilities for Kesegi’s life post-TBG fascinate me. What is the role he plays in rebuilding Nikan? Does he blame Rin for destroying the south? Regardless of the lack of relationship between them, he shares General Fang’s name: does that make him a unifying figure or put him at risk? Do people assume he’ll continue her legacy? Probably both. Does he feel obligated to continue her legacy?

There’s also his relationships with the other survivors. Between his love for Rin and guilt over imprisoning him, Nezha probably feels obligated to make sure Kesegi survives the rebuilding process. And however it plays out, whether or not Kesegi accepts Nezha’s help, that relationship has to be ridiculously complicated. Even without considering that Kesegi was Nezha’s prisoner, they both have tangled feelings about Rin, which could bring them together or put them at odds.

The other potential relationship I can’t help but wonder about is Lianhua. Both of them hold pieces of Rin’s legacy, but in completely different ways. In particular, I think it would be hard for Kesegi to be around her: Rin sought Lianhua and trained her to be a shaman for the army, but she left Kesegi behind in Tikany, and again in Arlong. Linhua’s connection to General Fang feels more substantial than Kesegi’s memories of a sister who tried to bury that part of her life. 

If I ever meet R.F. Kuang, I’ll ask her about him. There’s so much more I’d love to know, but at the moment, Kesegi is on my mind, for better or worse.

In conclusion: Fang Kesegi

[transkholins]

hey uh, throwback to 2019 when i made a rand fanmix. posting it because it can't hurt, but note that the track descriptions and song choices are all unedited.

. BLACKOUT — frank turner

but it’s not enough anymore

we can’t turn just around and close the door on the world

it’s asking uneasy questions

this one’s for winternight and the eye of the world. it’s the start of the world going to hell and being overwhelmed by the shadow (“are you afraid of the darkness?”), and it’s essentially rand against the world. he can’t just walk away from it— his house is attacked by trollocs, and the only option he has is to go with moiraine. he doesn’t really know what he’s up against, only that he’s up against something bad.

. HERO — family of the year

let me go

I don’t wanna be your hero

I don’t wanna be a big man

I just wanna fight with everyone else

this song’s all about not wanting to be a part of something big, just wanting a simple and easy life. at the beginning of the great hunt, rand really does not want to be the dragon reborn— I mean, who would? but it’s a role that he’s forced into, nonetheless. at his heart, he’s just a farmboy who wants to go home. moiraine kind of forces his destiny on him, not letting him postpone it or shove it aside. but at this point, he just doesn’t want to be a hero. the song itself is very soft (and acoustic to boot), which I think nicely represents the simple life that rand wants.

. UNUSUAL — typhoon

get your pitchforks out

the crowd is coming and they’ve named you

why, gentle mother, must you wring your hands and weep?

tide brings you a sword, sword will cut you free

dead demands a tribute in the hour of our need

blood be the river to wash the ledgers clean

oh, it took so much self-restraint to not put more than two songs from this album on this playlist. offerings is just so good AND highly existential, so if you’re wanting more sad rand hours, go listen to it. I think this song best fits rand’s start of really being the dragon reborn, around (you guessed it) the dragon reborn. the world is kind of a mess, and he doesn’t really know what to do, so he just does what he thinks he should do. he’s chosen by the pattern— the world demanded a dragon to save the world, and he was the unlucky soul born on the slopes of dragonmount. you know, his blood on the rocks of shayol ghul and all that. this song, like the one preceding it, is softer— rand hasn’t hardened himself like he will in later books. however, around halfway through, it gets louder and brings in more drums. tdr is the start of rand’s transition from farmboy to dragon reborn, in both good ways and bad.

. KIDS — mgmt

we like to watch you laughing

picking insects off of plants

no time to think of consequences

this song focuses a lot on the idea of self-control/self-restraint— not doing more than you have to, good or bad. it reminds me a lot of rand’s earlier experiences with channeling and being ta’veren. saidin is dangerous, what with the taint and all, and drawing too much of either half of the one power has severe consequences. he’s not as in control of his ta’veren-ness as he will be in later books— like his channelling, it’s a bit all over the place. the quote at the beginning of the music video (it’s friedrich nietzsche, not mark twain, but whatever) also ties in with this idea— if you’re not careful, you can become the very thing you were fighting against.

. LOUDER THAN EVER — cold war kids

I was carrying my cheek

I was digging my strange

I was taking you for granted

you were holding the reins

but I can hear you louder than ever

whisper to me, help me remember

I can’t see you but we’re still together

I can hear you louder than ever

moiraine’s “death” is a tipping point for rand— he feels like he could’ve prevented it, even though moiraine literally tells him that he couldn’t, and that what happened was the best possible outcome. after she passes through the portal, rand realizes that he took her presence for granted. her advice was good, if often unwelcome, and after her death rand just ends up going off the rails in so many different ways. when she returns in a memory of light, he realizes how helpful she was to him.

. SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT WITH ME — cold war kids

something is not right with me!

something is not right with me!

something is not right with me!

I’m trying not to let it show

the taint on saidin is just really like that, huh? rand can tell that something’s wrong, with lews therin’s voice in his head. the thing is, he doesn’t let anyone know because he’s 1) scared of showing weakness and 2) sane people don’t normally hear voices. this song is fast, but not in an upbeat way— it feels chaotic, panicked, and just barely in control. the singer is almost shouting the lyrics instead of singing them, contributing to that feeling. I think it embodies most male channellers’ experiences with the taint— it isn’t smooth or calm like saidar, it’s a raging river of fire.

. DREAMS OF CANNIBALISM — typhoon

unhand me, I am not a criminal

but I’ve played a guilty part

in the modern sense that one pretends their life is original

I wrote a book and I will call it something cynical

the story’s slow, the hero does not change

and if he can, then he won’t anyway

instead his foes and lovers all become identical

this song ends with the line “soon enough you will be dancing at my funeral,” and I can’t come up with something that encompasses rand-as-the-dragon more. people are terrified of him— hell, even he’s terrified of him. the world doesn’t want a dragon, but they got one anyways. the second set of verses above is a more textual examination of rand at this point— a crown of swords through crossroads of twilight is incredibly slow, and rand doesn’t change much throughout those books (hence why this song covers 4 books). he could make a change in his life if he tried, but he doesn’t, since he thinks he needs to shut others out to protect them. the whole song seems to be conveying the idea of being stuck and not going anywhere, but running from yourself, which, to be fair, is very close to what rand experiences in his own head in these books.

. GHOSTS THAT WE KNEW — mumford and sons

so lead me back

turn south from that place

and close my eyes to my recent disgrace

so give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light

’cause oh, that gave me such a fright

but I will hold on as long as you like

just promise me we’ll be alright

I picked a soft song for the softer scene in the gathering storm where min and rand are talking about how cold he’s become. he realizes that he doesn’t have to fake an uncaring and unemotional nature— to be human is to feel, and it’s not bad to be human. the song is about going through something that’s wearing you down (a common interpretation is depression), and knowing that you have someone helping you through it. min sticks with rand during almost everything that happens from lord of chaos to the end of the series. she’s a support for him, and too stubborn to ever leave him, no matter what.

. DARKER — typhoon

I tried, you know, just to toe the line

love all the neighbors and live in the light

sure, I stumbled sometimes

self-contained; a convenient lie

every source of pain, every sting of pride

had to come from the outside

you won’t even fight me fair

wait for the darkness, catch me unaware

yeah, you pull me close

then you twist the knife

of course, that happy, warm feeling can’t last, because that scene is followed by semirhage being sadistic and deciding that now is the perfect time to use this new torture device. because of that, rand ends up shutting himself off even more than before. he’s suspicious and cruel, and thinks only for himself. it’s scary, frankly. darker, like all the songs on the album that it’s from, is very existential, though this song is, fittingly, darker than the others. it’s filled with the sense of impending death and strong suspicion that characterizes rand at this point in his life. he tried to open up, and look where it got him. this quick change is mirrored by the sharp musical contrast between the quiet, acoustic ‘ghosts that we knew’ and and the more drum-heavy, electric, and distorted ‘darker.’

. MOUNTAIN AT MY GATES — foals

I see a mountain in my way

it’s looming larger by the day

I see a darkness in my fate

I’ll drive my car without the brakes

through lanes and stone rows

black granite, wind blows

fire lake and far flame

go now but come again

dark clouds gather ’round

will I run or stand my ground

oh, when I come to climb

show me the mountain so far behind

yeah, it’s farther away

its shadow gets smaller day after day

the obvious scene for this song is the events leading up to rand’s epiphany on dragonmount. I mean, ‘mountain’ is in the song’s name. I think that this song works well to represent the weight and lack of direction he feels in the days building up to that. something that works especially well about this song is how it builds, both lyrically and musically. the song starts with a hopeless and dark tone to the lyrics, and stays that way for a while. the bridge (second set of lyrics above) is where the tone starts to change. the bridge also uses a lot of imagery that one can tie to the buildup— the streets of ebou dar, the rocky and windy peak of dragonmount, the belly of fire in the mountain itself and tar valon, the city that the peak looks over. the song then crescendos into its final segment, where the singer sings “give me my way/give me my love/give me my choice/give me my fate/give me my lungs/give me my voice.” to me, these represent rand’s realization that the reason the wheel keeps turning is so that people can live again and love again.

. COLORFUL — jukebox the ghost

we're just getting started

take your fears and let them go

for the lovers and the broken-hearted

I! love! this! song! I haven’t found another song that captures that feeling of hope in darkness: when everything around you has gone to hell, but you keep going because the darkness isn’t all there is. that’s how veins of gold ends— with rand realizing that there’s something worth fighting and living for. the gathering storm literally ends with rand laughing without bitterness for the first time in months, if not years— he’s finally looking on the bright side of life again.

. BEAUTIFUL LIFE — the collection

you do not have to be good

even the best of us have been misunderstood

so get up onto your feet

the sun is shining repentance through the leaves

its rays will wash you clean

this one’s for the end of a memory of light, when rand decides to leave and live the rest of his life on his terms. he wants to explore the world, without the pressure of his past and who he was weighing on him. he has a chance to slow down and appreciate this “beautiful life,” instead of rushing through it towards tarmon gai’don. and that’s what this song is about, i think. it’s not super peppy, and neither is rand at this point. it’s more of a quiet and peaceful acceptance.

. ALL THESE THINGS THAT I’VE DONE — the killers

I wanna stand up, I wanna let go

you know, you know, no, you don’t, you don’t

I wanna shine on in the hearts of men

I want a meaning from the back of my broken hand

over and in, last call for sin

while everyone’s lost, the battle is won

with all these things that I’ve done

first of all, the wheel of time series takes place over the span of two years, and rand does so much within that time. within this playlist, I don’t think of this song as an ending, rather a summary of rand’s life through the books. I specifically want to talk about the iconic refrain of “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier.” it serves as a bookend to rand’s arc as a character— initially he refuses his role as the dragon reborn (even though he’s suited for it, due to his heritage and upbringing) because he doesn’t want to fight in that way. during the bulk of the series, he embraces a role as a fighter, even though he doesn’t have the soul for it. and finally, he realizes that he isn’t a weapon, and that he never was. on another note, the line “these changes ain’t changing me/that cold-hearted boy I used to be” hits a bit too close to his character.