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WATCHED C3e99 DOWNFALL PART 1 AND UHHH I HAVENT DRAWN FAN ART IN YEARS BUT THE MUSE REALLY SPOKE TO ME THIS TIME
Step 2 figure out how the Emissary actually looks
#I VOTE WE JUST CALL HIM APPLES#my sibling and I were watching together and I was like noshir STILL hasn't come in yet I bet he's in the fucking crate#and then#Apples <3#BE APPLES#I've solely been referring to the emissary as Apples in all of our conversations okay I love him#im big in love with Asha tho I am very excited to see what the rest of downfall brings us#I feel like my brain was going 7000 mph the whole episode trying to remember every scrap of lore I could remember#idk maybe more art to come I guess???#everyone thank my good buddy P who can not see this post as it will be spoiler tagged for them but they somehow unlocked my art block#by introducing a What If Ashton Draws As A Coping Mechanism AU and I went slightly feral over it <33#critical role#exu downfall#critical role campaign 3#god my tagging system has gone to shit there is so much goin on#bells hells#it's not BH but that's what all the rest of the C3 stuff is tagged with so im just gonna do that for my own searching purposes I guess#sams art#cr downfall
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1x69 // 1x89 or; keyleth and percy and "i need you"
#keyleth#percy de rolo#critical role#vox machina#criticalroleedit#marisha ray#taliesin jaffe#cr#cr1#my edits#percy and kiki#sorry i have diseases. i put the last 2 gifs next to each other and teared u]p#'i need you. but we're not all going to make it' . god. top 5 things percy has said that make me mentally ill#ALSO. THE FACT THAT CHARISMA IS KEYLETH'S WORST STAT. SHE HAS A +0 TO THAT. AND SHE ROLLED A 19#these gifs are so crusty i love them so much tho#if you're seeing this on mobile i am sorry the alt tag is covering like half of the percy dialogue text </3 just click on th gifs to see it#rohan don't look#<- this gifset doesnt have overt spoilers but in case ur seeing this. block that tag for the future lol
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I have to check but like? Nana said to Orym that his jobs not over yet?? Which means letters death DID get him out of the deal???
Because if she counted their lunar interlude as "everyone made it back" then he wouldn't have his powers still, right?
But if everyone making it back extends till the end of the mission, then Nana already faulted on her end of the bargain. Not everyone made it back. Letters literally died on the moon.
Idk I think Nana is going to say something along the lines of "normally I would have ended our little deal when you all stepped foot back on exandria. In that spooky little town in Eiselcross. But since you're such good friends with my fearne, consider it, the friends and family discount"
#silver sending stones#orym of the air ashari#cr spoilers#cr 3 107#im p sure it was 107#anyways#i think she'll be like “you and dorian will just have to come visit me”#which. fair.#but idk what nana os going to do#shes a fey#she makes deals and expects to collect.#so 🤷🏻#maybe orym will be trimming the emissary's leaves one day
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I only just started the new Downfall episode, and I've reached the hard cut where everyone breathes for the first time in 15 minutes, and I simply have to say that time and again, the things Brennan Lee Mulligan can do with his voice, by simply just talking, by sitting there and speaking words and just occasionally asking his players a question or having them make a quick decision about something, the tension that he weaves, to a point where you're held completely spellbound and transfixed by what he's doing for minutes, a half-hour at a time, feeling immersed in the events that are unfolding and in the danger and the strangeness of it to a degree that I have never experienced in my entire life, oh my god. He's phenomenal. This is absolutely on another level, if there is any kind of pinnacle of storytelling I'm sure that whatever Brennan is doing in these episodes, that must be it.
#ALSO DID WE JUST WITNESS SOME GODS BEING BORN???#critical role#cr spoilers#downfall#p#like truly. truly.#every time i am just blown away
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The gm has used emotionally impactful taunt. It's super effective.
#ffxiv#Ninira Nira#Estinien Varlineau#Aymeric de Borel#Hanami#Haurchefant#Ysayle Dangoulain#Lucia Junius#Hilda Ware#Handeloup#Tabletop AU#Another render of an old CR sketch because it's fun and makes me happy#with bonus closeups bc I like how the render came out on them specifically#and also bc the dimension for this is like the opposite of good for tumblr#'where's the close up of Hilda and Haurchefant?'#we don't talk about how they came out...#posts art at a terrible time of day and walks out the room backwards ✌️#art: mine#H A N D E L O U P!!! PLEASE IT'S HANDELOUP!!!!!!
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Anyways the human names I gave for Caramel Arrow Cookie and Crunchy Chip Cookie are Chae-Ara Toka and Chung-hee Chi
#che-ara sounded really pretty and same initials as Caramel Arrow#toka is a form of toko and came from TapiOCA bcuz i thought it sounded similar enough#Chung-hee sounds like Crunchy#and Chi is just chip without the P#also Carrow is Koreon and Crunchy chip is Korean/Mongolian#i dont make the rules man 🤷♂️#Crunchy chip cookie#caramel arrow cookie#cookie run kingdom#cr kingdom#crk#crk headcanons#cookie run headcanons
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"it would be a kindness to put the two of them together, at least a little bit"
"i'll take really good care of him"
"it would make her so much more powerful"
"did you love gloamglut more than her"
"clearly"
"i mean, you spent more time with them, it's okay"
"guys, let the painting answer."
#i feel like it's p rare for bh to bully someone they're interrogating like this. vm and m9 made hobbies out of it#2h33m c3e108#text#critical role#cr3#cr lb#cr spoilers#r: bells hells#athion zathuda#gloamglut cr
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So I've been watching OP strictly on Netflix until this point bc they have all the seasons up until the timeskip. So you know. It was convenient! But what I DIDN'T realize (and kinda noticed earlier but only thought it was weird and didn't question it) is that they've been like. Stacking the intro songs? Like there will be a new opening and it'll be the same song as the last intro. So I've been missing all these BANGER intro songs bc Netflix decided they were gonna slap Jungle P over every single opening after Thriller Bark. WHADDA HELL
#Listening to Share the World for the first time and going YOOO THIS IS FIRE???#WHY WOULD THEY KEEP THAT FROM ME.#Anyway I'm watching it on Crunchyroll now bc CR actually has ALL the seasons#And hopefully they don't screw up the intros like Netflix did lmao#One Piece#Shima speaks#Listen. Jungle P is a GREAT song. But the fact that I had to hear that opening for like 100 episodes. BRO.
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what do you think of the theory that Vincent is a death god now?
Hey Anon! Well, I used to be pretty against it, but nowadays I think it all depends on what we currently know about Shinigamis, which is to say not much.
What I mean is that, in ch105, Yana revealed that Shinigamis are former humans who killed themselves...
...however, we do not know if that's the only way for a human to become a Shinigami.
Remember, Yana could hold onto some additional truth that we have yet to figure out, especially considering that since ch105, Sensei strongly hinted several times that the Shinigamis' higher ups are super sketchy. [x][x][x]
In other words, there is possibly a real gap between what Shinigamis themselves believe to be the truth whereas the actual truth is hidden by the higher-ups.
Additionally, that's just my opinion but, seeing as UT (and the possible other deserters he works with) is very anti higher-ups, I wonder if editing the records (to make dead people into BD) is not an idea he got from finding out some truths about Shinigamis, which led to his desertion. [x]
For example, maybe all Shinigamis had their records altered in order to become Shinigamis ? And if that's the case, then maybe some altered memories (read: lies) were put to their records, making them all believe that they're overworked slaves "because of suicide" when none of it is true? Just like the redemption reward is also probably a lie.
All that to say that I believe UT's BD project is a hint to a big and terrible truth that we have yet to fully grasp (take it as a rebellion towards the Shinigamis' higher-ups, on top of UT missing the dead Phantomhives) so, for now, I think it's important to be very careful about the "truth" we were told about the Shinigami Organization.
Back to Vincent: for now, I believe that he was definitely murdered.
Meaning that if suicide is really the only way for a man to become a Shinigami, then he did not become a Shinigami. However, if becoming a Shinigami is not just about suicide, but about several other factors, then it's not impossible that Vincent became a Shinigami after he died. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In my opinion, Yana-sensei made sure not to rule out the possibility in canon, as in, she left a few hints that could be red herrings, just like they could be used to interpret that Vincent is not really "dead". Those hints are
1) ch107.5, because, even though he's supposedly dead, he wears gloves and a suit that could resemble that of a Shinigami's.
Additionally, even if the rosette power thing was just for comical effect, it's interesting that he showed up at all even though UT said he cannot be brought back as a bizarre doll.
2) the state of his body, that UT mentions in ch105.
After all, if it's burnt so badly, that means his cinematic record can't be read and thus altered to turn him into a BD, so how certain are we that they buried Vincent's body?
3) the fact that he constantly breaks the 4th wall despite "being dead" (ch107.5, short story "with Father", etc), which so far has no explanation in canon.
All of these could be nothing important, because Yana's simply playing around with us, just like they could be significant on some aspects.
The point is : the more the story goes, the less we have a reason to believe that what Sascha explained in ch105 is entirely true. Not with UT and possibly other deserters actively working against the higher-ups, without a real explanation from their side so far.
TL;DR the possibility of Vincent having become a Shinigami can't be entirely ruled out and won't be, until we have found out the entire truth about the Shinigami Organization.
Is the key to their fate really suicide ? Or are there other actions in life that will turn someone into a Shinigami post mortem? Until a deserter, UT or somebody else, tells their version of the truth, I will not trust the information we've had in canon so far about Shinigamis.
(Personally I'd rather he's truly and definitely dead, but if him becoming a Shinigami furthers the very important plot thread of the Shinigamis' higher ups being absolute assholes who need to be taken down, then I'll be okay with it.)
Sorry if it's a bit confusing, but there's no way to be sure of anything on that topic. Have a good day Anon!
#kuroshitsuji#vincent phantomhive#undertaker#shinigamis#kuro105#kuro107.5#tw: suicide mention#kuroshitsuji theory#anon#answers#my analysis#demons can play make-believe with humans so who's to say that shinigami higher ups don't have an equivalent method that has to do with CR#do you imagine the potential of altered memories in the cinematic records for the plot?#higher ups using this method to control & threaten people or influence world scale events ?#the shinigami organization brainwashes its slaves: you can't change my mind#and even if UT's reasons for starting the BD project are mostly related to the P family#it's likely that it also ties with why he deserted and if not him then other deserters are bound to be actively against the higher ups too#UT is pro freedom so it's possible that he dislikes the watchdog duty so much because it killed Claudia and Vincent#but also because that collar the Phantomhives have on reminds him about his fate as a shinigami#especially if the Watchdog duty was given to the P family because of their lineage#UT needs to mourn better but I don't think that's all there's to him which is why he's so interesting and so relevant to the plot#also why Sensei said “he's not exactly a villain”
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day 10109203 of wishing bells hells had a deeply religious character in the party, especially one with a positive relationship to the religion/god.. like i know its not 100% perfect and healthy, because like.. thats god, but man .. especially since all bells hells hear is that the gods are cold and distant and uncaring. but like with tmn we saw cad and fjord be gently held by the wildmother when they needed her (not literally, but that was the imagery.. warm breezes and earth and being held and a soft mother voice) .. and then cad talked a lot about how the wildmother is everything around them. she's the sea for fjord and the forest for cad and all the plants and dirt and fungi. thats so cool and i love the idea of this huge god, who entirely is nature, holding her children (her clay T_T) in her hands. like , i wish bells hells had that point of view, because obviously they know what ludinus is doing is massively dangerous and has hurt people, but they dont have the same connection there, like Knowing that some of these gods cant really be disconnected from exandria
(also theres the absolute shenanigans of jester sort of, creating a god out of artagan, which would be vry interesting. .i wanna see whats going on there tbh)
(but also!! i do think fcg's desperation ?? in finding a purpose via a god when he was made to oppose them is interesting. and also frida's aeor mentality of the gods being totally pointless too. interesting perspectives but , to me its missing something)
#kiddo say#sorry this is a ramble and sorry i talk about cr2 characters sm in regards to cr3. its cr's fault for getting them involved /hj#like now i want to know whats going on.. . .....#thats kinda. a problem with overlapping campaigns i guess ..#i just want the drama of a character who's entire life is existing for god to have to face the possibility of god being eaten ok#for fun and sillies :P
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FEARNE’S DAD????
#BITCH WTH ARE YOU DOING HERE???#TO PAY YOUR CHILD SUPPORT I H O P E#I almost said ‘Ashley’s dad’#like I’m too invested in this at this point lmao#critical role#criticalrole#critrole#crit role#cr spoilers#critical role spoilers
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Public accountability post!!!!!
So I don't waste the entire day writing four paragraphs of fanfiction again.
Grocery shop- must (being sick and having the worst period ever made my eating shit. I want chicken caeser wraps damn it!)
Cook!!! Food!!!!
Laundry (wash sheets??)
Dishes/counters/clean fridge
Fold up floor bed
Sweep
Lesson plan Mon/Tues/Preschool (and kindergarten if you have time/feel like it)
Prep character info for mini-vtm thingie AND send out time information
Dnd stuff- name, character sheet, backstory retype
Miles meta- i need these Thoughts™️ OUT of my head!!!!!! Finish the rough draft AND mark sources needed
Technically most of this stuff just needs to happen over the next two days but i need to do at least some of it today so tomorrow doesn't suck.
#p#grocery shopping HAS to be done i have no food!!!!#as does lesson planning i hate doing that shit the day before#and this is the last week of class so no excuses its just games!!!#the miles meta should also really take some sort of priority so my brain can be empty again#feels like a snowglobe thats been shaken too hard#i can watch cr and start the relisten of ashville as entertainment during said chores#i also need to think about an ikea trip/delivery#also buy a fucking drying rack today jfc stop procrastinating on that
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k imma gonna say it some men rather summing a god eater that go to therapy? WAIT DID LAUDNA PAY TRIBUTE TO F.C.G!
DJ PLAY THAT BOT THERE SWAN SONG!
youtube
look i know kg fucked up but this song still slaps
#cr spoilers#live blogging#bells hells#campaign 3#critical role#ludinus da'leth#this half elf needs therapy#r i p F.C.G#laudna be like#whens the ship back up and running y'all#Youtube
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Ilyena - an analysis of The Wheel of Time’s Lost Lenore
Part One - Who was Ilyena and why does she matter?
I’ve loved Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series for over twenty-five years for many reasons, and it’s famous for its vast range of characters. But increasingly I keep being drawn back to one minor character who many could dismiss as a cliché, even if she wasn’t the perfect example of a Lost Lenore. So I’ve decided to write a meta on Ilyena Moerelle Dalisar/ Ilyena Therin Moerelle to explore her often overlooked significance and why other major writing decisions in the books likely led to her ambiguous place in the narrative and in fans’ reception of her.
Spoilers for the whole series abound.
Ilyena was the beloved wife of Lews Therin Telamon - the primary hero/destroyer figure of the previous Age. She was murdered by him, along with all their family and friends, as a result of the madness inflicted on him after his infamous Sealing of the Dark One’s Prison. This event occurs in the series’ very first prologue, and not only heralds the terrible transformation the world of the books undergoes for the next three thousand years, but it also haunts Lews Therin’s reincarnation - the Dragon Reborn - for most of the current story in various ways.
Despite Ilyena being a very minor character, I think I love her partly because Lews Therin - our tragic hero - does, and her harrowing death at the hands of her beloved (along with her children and loved ones) is what starts off this incredible tale. This tragedy permeates through the series - not just in the horror that the Dragon and his reincarnation invoke in people because of this act, but because it sets the tone for the fate of all channelling men - if you channel saidin you will go mad, and likely kill all you love before you die rotting.
And the Shadow fell upon the Land, and the World was riven stone from stone. The oceans fled, and the mountains were swallowed up, and the nations were scattered to the eight corners of the World. The moon was as blood, and the sun was as ashes. The seas boiled, and the living envied the dead. All was shattered, and all but memory lost, and one memory above all others, of him who brought the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon. (from Aleth nin Taerin alta Camora, The Breaking of the World. Author unknown, the Fourth Age)
The Hook
I know it sounds crazy (pardon the pun), but it’s this grim fate that is such a continuing hook for me - a hero is needed to save the world, but is destined to repeat this terrible, unjust price as a consequence. It’s the juxtaposition of power and glory mixed with madness and death that’s always fascinated me with The Wheel of Time over all other series, especially as Jordan is able to convey the horror without gratuitousness and with a sense of potential hope. The fact that, as someone said on a forum years ago, the Dragon Reborn and his Asha’man must face this fate to do their duty, makes their resolve to so truly heroic. As a plot device and a magic system consequence, it gives instant high emotional stakes, especially combined with the seductive, addictive power of saidin thatmakes madness inevitable. What sacrifices did these unfortunate men and their families make over three thousand years because they couldn’t stop channelling? How is our protagonist Rand going to overcome this? What will happen now that channelling men trained as weapons are once again being unleashed on the world? And so on…
But also what’s compelling is the nature of reincarnation in these books - the very nature of reality means you might have a destiny, your fate could be bound together with your loved ones and, critically, that there may be second chances to put things right. Ironically, this last part is central to Ilyena and the theme of the whole series, but how it’s executed is a whole other matter. But more on that later…
Restorative Justice
And partly I’m fascinated with Ilyena because we know so little about her. I always want to give female characters their due and in a lot of ways The Wheel of Time does this, but not so much with Ilyena. She’s critical to our hero and the story - both as a dire warning and as an agonising guilt - but we never even hear her speak. This is despite the fact her husband (and murderer) becomes a constant voice in Rand’s head, literally driving him insane with memories and whimperings about her. We don’t know what Ilyena did for a living or even in text if she was Aes Sedai. She’s a classic example of both the ‘Stuffed in the Fridge’ trope and the ‘Lost Lenore’ trope, and it infuriates me that she means so much to a saga that has huge numbers of developed female characters with agency, achievements and backstory, yet we never get to hear hers. Everything we know about Ilyena is used to reinforce Lews Therin’s (and therefore Rand’s) pain in the narrative. She is a tragic figure, a mere cipher for suffering, yet she has so much potential.
So far, so very much like many older fantasy series with male authors, yet as previously stated, this isn’t usual for Jordan, which is one of the reasons I fell in love with the books to begin with.
Yet in a series that is founded on reincarnation, destiny and foreshadowing, Ilyena is never explicitly reincarnated and reunited with her love Lews Therin nor is her vaguely alluded to past with major villains Mierin/Lanfear and Barid Bel Medar/Demandred ever elaborated upon. Her children too are never really discussed; the series is instead diluted by an ever-widening array of characters and their petty politics (in my view). It’s widely considered that from Books 7/8 onwards the series’ loses its focus, with fans divided on whether it regains this in Book 11, in the Sanderson co-written final three, or at all. Author Robert Jordan was suffering with illness and pressure and also wanted to explore themes like miscommunication and myriad POVs on the end-times. It’s his series and I have to respect that, but I can’t help feeling that the books I fell in love with - a series with Ilyena and her tragedy at its heart - would have been better served by a tighter focus and a better resolution for her and the event that sparked everything. I also think Jordan’s insistence on Rand’s three lovers derailed Ilyena’s significance in the story in ways I’ll discuss later.
What We Know
So what do we actually know about Ilyena? Below I’ll bullet-point everything I’ve been able to tease about her from the main series, adjacent books like The Wheel of Time Companion, The World of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time and The Origins of the Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan’s notes, and his answers recorded on the Theoryland site.
Name. Her full maiden name was Ilyena Moerelle Dalisar. There isn’t an Old Tongue meaning given, although someone once suggested ‘Dalisar’ could mean ‘woman of clocks’ (aka something to do with time) from ‘dali’ - clock and ‘sar’ - she/woman.
Married Name. Her name was changed upon marriage to Ilyena Therin Moerelle, which seems like a weird anachronism for the egalitarian Age of Legends, especially as her husband’s surname seems to replace her prized Third Name. Some fans have reasoned that ‘Moerelle’ is therefore her Third Name, but that would go against the naming format Jordan used since he confirmed that ‘Telamon’ is Lews Therin’s Third Name. Therefore, it stands to reason ‘Dalisar’ is Ilyena’s. I personally think this is a slip-up from Jordan’s unconscious, old fashioned views, so I always call her by her maiden name.
Career/Social Status. She was brilliant and devoted enough to have gained the vaunted Third Name - the Second Age’s highest honour. Third Names were bestowed as a recognition for an individual’s exemplary service to wider society and, although very difficult to achieve, could be gained in many fields.
Appearance. Her description varies a little as she is often described as ‘golden-haired’ or, more derogatorily, as a ‘pale-haired milksop’ or ‘yellow-haired trollop’ by her rival Lanfear. But Rand via Lews Therin’s memories recalls she had ‘…a pretty face, skin like cream, golden hair exactly the shade of Elayne’s’, meaning she had red-gold hair (whatever that means!).
‘Sunhair’. Ilyena’s hair is considered so beautiful it earns her a common epithet ‘Sunhair’, which even arch-villain Ishamael uses.
Milksop? Lanfear’s insult of ‘milksop’, although it can’t be taken as accurate due to her bias, could also indicate an emotional softness or compassion. ‘Milksop’ is an old fashioned insult that implies weakness or frailness
Beauty. She is often described as pretty or beautiful and occasionally linked to Elayne in those terms.
Romantic Muse. Ilyena’s charms were enough to make two of the most acclaimed men of the Second Age fall for her. Lews Therin is so deeply in love with her that he utters phrases like ‘I will never forget Ilyena, not if all the world burns!’ and ‘Not even for Ilyena? I would burn the world and use my soul for tinder to hear her laugh again.’ He also angrily asserts that Demandred (formerly Barid Bel Medar) wanted Ilyena.
Love Triangle. Unfortunately (like everything to do with Ilyena) we learn next to nothing about this love triangle. It could just be a literary device to underline poor Barid Bel losing out to his rival yet again. We don’t know if Ilyena felt anything for the man who was ‘almost’ her husband’s equal in every way, and one of his foremost generals before defecting. Demandred’s only thought on the matter comes from Brandon Sanderson’s interpretation, so we don’t know how accurate that is to Jordan’s original vision. However, Demandred reflects that ‘Lews Therin had taken Ilyena’ as the final point in Lews Therin’s list of accomplishments over him. This implies that both men had been in competition over her affections, and possibly that Barid Bel had known Ilyena before Lews Therin and had even been romantically involved with her. Or possibly that is just how the entitled Forsaken viewed it, thinking of her as a possession worthy of him that his rival ‘stole’, similar to Lanfear with Ilyena’s husband. In Sanderson’s more tragic depiction, this event is partially implied to have damaged Barid Bel’s capacity for romantic love, despite finding himself drawn to the beautiful Shendla. But this new affection doesn’t stop him from threatening to enslave and assault Rand’s lovers for revenge - a promise he tells Leane to deliver to Rand in the final book A Memory of Light. We can imagine he might have longed to subject Ilyena to this fate had he ever captured her in the War of Power, especially given his history of horrifically over-reacting to imagined slights.
Aes Sedai? We don’t know what occupation Ilyena had either during the Age of Legends or the War of Power, or in text that she could channel. But we can infer that she was Aes Sedai because, as per The World of the Wheel of Time book, Lews Therin and she had a relationship for at least sixty years before her death and she isn’t described as showing any signs of age at her death. Even with the longer life spans of ordinary citizens during that time, that would still mean she would have met him when she was very young and he into his third century, which seems creepy and inappropriate. I wasn’t sure if she was Aes Sedai, but it seems very likely and would make her a better match as a life partner for Lews Therin. There is also a possible confirmation from RJ at a North Virginia signing that she was, which is also noted on Theoryland - https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan/c/DrJxMGi4LF8/m/Ww1QBLHn8F4J.
Meeting her soulmate. Lews Therin met her long after his break-up with the ambitious Mierin/Lanfear, counter to Lanfear’s claim that Ilyena ‘stole’ him. Lanfear continues to blame Ilyena for her ‘loss’, and transfers her jealousy on to any woman that appears to be a love rival. Her possessiveness reaches murderous levels as she kills innocent bystanders, as well as trying to kill Rand and Aviendha in the current timeline. It’s unclear what Ilyena herself made of all of this in her own time.
Marriage and Rivalry. Lews Therin and Ilyena married about fifty years into the Collapse and approximately fifty years before the true War of Power. Lanfear made several blatant public approaches, and likely a number of secret ones, to regain Lews Therin’s affections during this time. She also tried to disrupt their wedding ceremony.
Temper. Lews Therin said that ‘Ilyena never flashed her temper at me when she was angry with herself. When she gave me the rough side of her tongue, it was because she…’ implying that, while Ilyena could become angry or feisty, she wasn’t unjust or childish about it like Egwene was being when this memory surfaced. In the first prologue, he also mentioned to Ishamael that she will give him [Lews Therin] ‘the rough side of her tongue’ if she thinks he is keeping a guest from her.
Woman Trouble? The Heroes of the Horn in Book 2 imply that Lews Therin (the Dragon Soul) always chooses women who cause him trouble in some way. Given that they call him Lews Therin and Ilyena was Lews Therin’s true love in that lifetime, we might wonder what trouble she caused him. Was their courtship difficult? Was she captured like Egwene was at one point? Was she actually as feisty as someone like Aviendha or Nynaeve? Perhaps someone as arrogant as Lews Therin was known to be needed a woman that brought him down to earth?
Motherhood. She had at least four children (boys and girls) with her husband before her death and some were young enough to still be playing with toys at the time of their unfortunate demise. It seems a little strange that this couple would have young children given they were fighting an apocalyptic war with ultimate evil, but this could be one of those writing conflicts one has when world-building concepts hit plot logic. Either that or it could indicate Ilyena and Lews Therin wanted to be parents and continued to have hope in their world enough to do so.
Social Savy. Lews Therin remarks even in his madness to Ishamael that Ilyena loves conversation and often asks people many questions about themselves. He also says that she will get angry with him if she thinks he is hiding a guest from her. This indicates a warm, gregarious personality that enjoys company and entertaining, and also someone that is curious about people and the world in general.
The Voice? Lews Therin asks Ishamael if he has the Voice (i.e the Songs of Growing), that it will soon be time for the Singing and that in his and Ilyena’s home everyone is invited to take part. This could just be ‘first book syndrome’, but we get subtle hints through the series (and discussed further on The Thirteen Depository blog) that the Singing might be more more sacred that just Tree Singing ( i.e food production) and it’s tied up with the Dragon’s role as Champion of the Light and being ‘One with the Land’. I surmise that the Singing is about affirming the Pattern and the Light as well as growing food and Ilyena is implied to have the Voice, although that is just conjecture on my part. The mention of it does link with her and Lews Therin running a welcoming, life-affirming home, however.
Palatial Living. She and Lews Therin live in a sumptuous palace filled with masterworks of art and furniture inlaid with ivory and gold. It’s described both in the prologue to The Eye of the World and in a brief comparison to Caemlyn’s palace in Book 5.
True and Enduring Love. She and her husband had a loving marriage shown both by tragic quotes like: ’And time after time he [Rand/Lews Therin] faced a beautiful golden-haired woman, watched love turn to terror on her face. Part of him knew her. Part of him wanted to save her, from the Dark One, from any harm, from what he himself was about to do…’ Their love is also demonstrated by the depths of mourning, suicidal yearnings and apocalyptic tendencies the Lews Therin aspect of Rand expresses in his head at her loss. Even under a life threatening attack from Lanfear in The Fires of Heaven ‘Lews Therin’ affirms to Lanfear ‘“I was never yours, Mierin. I will always belong to Ilyena”’ and moments later on the point of near death ‘Ilyena, ever and always my heart.’
Never Forgotten/Source of Agony. Ilyena’s name appears on Rand’s ‘List of Women’ who have died for him, and her murder is very likely the reason for its existence, along with his Two Rivers upbringing. This list is moral ‘red line’ Rand cleaves to for his humanity, but also serves as a terrible tool he uses to harrow and harden himself emotionally as his burdens increase.
History Repeats Itself. Rand being forced to strangle his lover Min by the Forsaken Semirhage is a direct echo of Ilyena’s murder, worsened this time by their Warder bond and he being (mostly) sane, but enslaved.
Reborn again? The major turning point in Rand’s later character arc, when he is at his lowest point and contemplating destroying the world with the male Choedan Kal, comes when he realises that Ilyena (like himself) might also be reborn. His sin of killing her and all his other mistakes might be made right by the repeated opportunities offered by the turnings of the Wheel. The chapter in The Gathering Storm is called ‘Veins of Gold’ which refers both to the bonds of love he feels for his three lovers and the realisation that love and the opportunity to do better is the reason the world and the Wheel exist. With this, he is able to integrate Lews Therin’s memories/alter personality at last, and come to terms with Ilyena’s death and with his role as saviour/destroyer.
First Love. According to Sanderson’s version, Lews Therin ‘“…did not know what love was. Centuries of life, and I never discovered it until I met her [Ilyena].”’
Cherished Memory. After his epiphany, Rand/Lews Therin now sees his love for Ilyena ‘like a glowing crystal, set upon a shelf and admired.’
Mythical Roots. The excellent fan scholar Linda Taglieri in the Thirteen Depository blog says: ‘Ilyena is similar to the Greek personal name Iliana, a variant of Helen, meaning ‘bright’ or ‘shining light’. Ilyena was known as Sunhair. Golden-haired Elayne’s name is also a variant of Helen, and is a hint that she may be Ilyena reborn. Morelle is a surname and Dalisar is in Afghanistan.’
The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships. I’d add that the ‘shining light’ could refer to Ilyena’s famous hair or her sunny personality. The name Helen also links to the Illiad’s famous Helen of Troy - ‘the face that launched a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ilium’, and who was a part of notable love battles such as between her husband King Menelaus and Prince Paris of Troy. Ilyena, of course, was caught between the bitter rivalry of Lews Therin and Barid Bel Medar whose armies ripped apart vast areas of the world. Jordan also used the city/country of Ilian as a reference to Troy (along with Cairhien’s topless towers) whose name is Greek is Ilion and in Latin ‘Ilium’), both of which sound like Ilyena.
Manner of Death. Ilyena and her family’s deaths are inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Heracles (Roman name ‘Hercules’) who was driven mad by his jealous step-mother Hera - Queen of the Gods. In his madness, Heracles kills his wife and children and in some versions of the story must accomplish his famous Labours to atone for the crime.
Links with a Goddess. In the new book The Origins of the Wheel of Time, author and academic Michael Livingston says Ilyena’s name comes from the Mesopotamian goddess of fertility and power Inanna, who was also associated with the planet Venus, the morning star (linking to Lews Therin whose mythological references include Lucifer as the Morning star and Lightbringer.) I’m not sure whether Livingston, who has access to Jordan’s notes, gleaned this information from them or from his own surmises about Jordan’s mythological inspirations. Inanna is famous for her descent into the Underworld in a way like Ilyena is (in)famous for her own descent into death.
And this is about all (as far as my obsessed fan gleanings can divine) that we get! If anyone can add more, please let me know in the comments/notes.
So here we have a picture of a what is essentially a traditionally ‘perfect’ woman - she’s beautiful, talented, loving, sociable and a good homemaker. She also seems innocent and pure, especially compared to the dangerously seductive Lanfear (invoking the Betty vs Veronica trope), but Lews Therin mentions ‘the rough side of her tongue’ twice and Jordan rarely wrote heroines that weren’t feisty and independent. Whether we see Ilyena as the ‘perfect’ woman or not doesn’t really matter, especially as that is subjective; what interests me most (aside from her mystery) is the love between her and her husband that is at the core of their bond. That, and the horror and trauma that resounds throughout the story as a result of that love’s betrayal and loss.
But for me and others, this central theme is not satisfactorily resolved. The main question about Ilyena on fan sites like Reddit and Dragonmount is whether she was reincarnated, and, if so, who is she? There’s a common theory her soul was ‘split’ by the trauma of her demise, essentially so she could be Rand’s three lovers. This has confirmed not to be true, although interestingly in Jordan’s early notes Rand would have to undergo trials in another realm to reconstitute his lover’s mind, body and soul after an assault/torment at the hands of one of the Forsaken. There is also a common consensus that Elayne is Ilyena reborn given their superficial similarities: lovers of the Dragon soul with golden/red-gold hair, pale skin and blue eyes and a similar name. But this is never confirmed either in story or by the writing/editorial team. Aviendha and Elmindreda (Min) also sound similar (ish) to Ilyena, and Rand himself is noted by Lanfear to look nothing like his previous incarnation except his height. This indicates that a similar body gives little true indication to the soul within.
To me, these repeated fan questions highlight a latent dissatisfaction with what we are given. Fans shouldn’t be asking who Ilyena is reborn as, after fourteen doorstopper books on a series whose main theme is reincarnation and second chances. It also saddens me that this leads to some fans being resigned to Ilyena’s irrelevance in this turning of the Wheel, saying that she was ‘just’ the Dragon’s love in the previous life. The kind of true love someone like Lews Therin/the Dragon has, the kind we and Rand have to hear about across nine books, strikes me as a love of many lifetimes, not just one. Writing about it this way certainly sets up a narrative promise that that is the case. I might be a complete romantic, but the subject of the line ‘I will never forget Ilyena, not if all the world burns!’ deserves a little better resolution than ‘If I live again, then she might as well!’
So instead of true lovers torn apart by fate and reunited once more, who did Jordan replace Ilyena with and how might this have affected how we view her and the story in retrospect? Find out in Part Two!
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Image Credits: 1st Image is my art of Ilyena, 2nd, 3rd and final images comes from the Eye of the World graphic novel adapted by Chuck Nixon and illustrated by Chase Conley (and well worth checking out, especially for an adorable Rand and a handsome yet unhinged Ishamael, even if he is lacking in thigh-high boots), the Demandred painting is by Ariel Burgess, the photos of red-gold hair from a Wella blog, the Horn of Valere icon comes from RJ's books and the painting of Helen of Troy is by Pre-Raphaelite artist Everlyn De Morgan.
#ilyena#ilyena moerelle dalisar#ilyena therin moerelle#wot#wheel of time#my writing#my meta#female characters#robert jordan#lews therin telamon#demandred#barid bel medar#helen of troy#I've had most of this written since the start of last year#I literally cannot get this woman out of my head like LTT#ILYENAAAAAAAAAA!#she is like Mito from Naruto or Lyanna from ASOIAF#prequel ladies who get kinda fridged and who deserved better#also wanted to write this cos I've come across cr@p about her and those clown can just stfu
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Y'ALL TYSM OMFG -Owner 1
#500 likes#tumblr milestone#thank you#the6dragonsaskblog#crob#ask blog#cr kingdom#ask box open#cr ovenbreak#cookie run#tysm <3#500 likes milestone#ilysm/p
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God I adore the Vox Machina Origins comics!! I just got the newest volume and I could happily read the entirety of their story told in exactly this form with EXACTLY this art style! It looks SO good!!
#like i'm FINE with the lovm style i guess but. but have you SEEN the origins comics designs?? have you SEEN THEM??#vox machina origins#vox machina comics#cr comics#..i forgot my tag#p
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