#mat/dagger

[catboyloghain]

[casualavocados]

#5-min diy crafts to avoid touching an evil possessive dagger by mat cauthon

THE WHEEL OF TIME 2.08 | What Was Meant To Be

[aotearoa20]

Liandrin: there is very fine line between genius and stupidity

Liandrin: watching Mat burrow through the walls

Liandrin: Matrim Cauthon appears to use that line as a fucking jump rope

[shitpostingkats]

On the heights, all paths are paved with memes.

[gl00mytuesday]

a wheel of time collage of my loves

[toastandjamie]

Hey so… in Great Hunt when Fain broke out of Fal-Dara what actually happened there. We don’t ever get an explanation about how Fain or whatever/whoever knocked both Egwene and Mat unconscious. Neither of them were actually injured just unconscious which would indicate they were knocked out through unconventional means. Which then leads to the “Why not just kill them” question, but perhaps it would just be too time consuming. Then there’s the dagger of it all, why take the dagger, Fain was unlikely to have actually known what the dagger was or what it did. Perhaps he Did know that it was at least something Mat found valuable and in turn the others would also likely feel so. A back up plan in case the horn wasn’t good enough to lure Rand and the others after him?

On that note I also want to talk about Perrin’s monologue about the whole thing. Perrin and Rand have a lot in common including how personally responsible they both feel for the others safety, specifically Mat and Egwene. In general both of them seem to be under this impression that Egwene and Mat aren’t capable of protecting themselves- for various reasons, Mat because of his immaturity and Egwene because she’s a young woman. This lessens as time goes on and the group are forced apart and reunited with each intermittently after receiving enough experience and character development that it’s hard to keep arguing that any of them are vulnerable. The difference between them is that Perrin is able to talk himself down from his guilt, he can accept the fact that he realistically could have done anything to protect them in this situation- where as Rand tends to fully take on responsibility for any bad thing that happens. Rand isn’t able to differentiate what is and isn’t in his control whereas Perrin and is uniquely aware of his own limits. In Great Hunt Perrin repeatedly checks on Mat while he’s unconscious and notes to the audience that he feels guilty for not having been with Mat when Egwene had asked him to check on Fain with her- though he notes that he likely would’ve ended up unconscious like the other two. Then when Rand asks him about how Mat is doing, Perrin of course snaps at him to check on him himself if he’s worried, though after Rand apologizes more thoroughly to Perrin for their fight earlier Perrin does recognize that Rand’s worry is genuine and tells him. Though Rand accidentally ruins it by implying that Aes Sedai were only looking for him, further enforcing Mat and Perrin’s earlier quarrel of “Rand thinking he’s better and more important than us.”. I could say more about Perrin in this book but I’ll digress for now.

[wot-tidbits]

The Bowl of Winds by u/acactis21

[daveyfvckingjacobs]

*vibrating at immense speeds* so I’m chill about the finale

[dragon-of-the-soutn]

Someone please free my man Mat from Ebou Dar! He had such an awful time in the last book! Please, a building fell on him and if he isn’t the main pov in the next book I will cry!

Rand your bestie/boyfriend is in fact not ok I hope your road trip with Min is to go rescue Mat. Or at the very least I’m freed of Perrin in the next book. I think I deserve it for being in Mat withdrawal.

[reverseblt]

#Heroes don't go it alone. Join me for the epic #season2 #finale of #TheWheelOfTime, and let all who have ears to hear and eyes to see know that the #Dragon has been #reborn! Season 3 can't arrive soon enough!

[luckhissoul]

i rarely post ooc on here but here's my long winded rambling about something that i keep seeing in regards to the show. like i've seen these different takes that somehow in the show mat's been given more layers and depth. but like i can't see where or how tbh all the show's given me so far is

his "gritty" backstory. supposedly to "explain" why he's the way he is. even though in the show he's not at all the way he is supposed to be ---

his disloyalty. abandoning his friends to possible death, abandoning egwene in the tower. they took one of his biggest driving points and just erased it entirely. this is not the mat that chased an assassin all the way to tear to save the wondergirls. this is not the mat that turned back towards a literal war when he had never fought in one before.

his innate darkness that drew him to the dagger. no mat couldn't just want gold, he couldn't even be greedy. he needs to have a darkness that made moiraine so sure he'd choose the dark. and apparently ishamael saying he belonged to him since birth ? like uhm did i hear that right?

these are literally the only traits he's been given. -- how does one do a more complex mat than the one robert jordan wrote anyways? he's confusing af - no one understands what's going on with him not even himself. like i always see sando getting flack about how he wrote mat. like he did better than anything the shows done so far tbh.

but this leads me to the whole 'the show did it better than the books' or that "the show fixed things" about every single little or major change that the show makes.  like prefer one over the other, love one hate the other. cool nbd. but -- i've never seen the source material of an adaptation so -- idk hated by the fandom? it confuses me how much flack robert jordan gets for writing a certain thing or a certain character but the show gets praised for a basically hollowed out poorly done adaptation. like i can enjoy the show, there are good things ( hello josha ) and there are bad ( the over the top age drops of the aes sedai. alanna's lowkey creepy with much young warders - they do know they don't get the same life span right? - and moiraine didn't give up her life for the search for the dragon. how long did she live before his birth ?? etc etc ). but i don't know how one could "understand" the characters or world better than the person that wrote it. i don't get how anyone could be interested in a world or characters from a book series that they seemingly hate ? by an author they basically hate, too? that's just my take i guess. i for one love the books. so ---

i'll go crawl back into my corner now ---

[wheelwheelwheel]

Idk what Mat is going to do this season but to me it makes sense that Loial would get his whole “needs to be reunited with the dagger to be healed” storyline after getting stabbed like that

[amemoryofwot]

For all Perrin’s “trying to be gentle with his size” he’s sure hitting Mat a lot

[theuncannybookdragon]

Spoilers for WoT s2 ep. 1

"Happy Bel Tine, Mat" my ass, burn you Liandrin!

The fact that she also specifically left out the part of the letter where Perrin mentioned him, my GOD

[slizzdoeswot]

okay, gonna use this during my Wheel of Time read through for my faves whenever i have one of these thoughts about: my sweet lil baby Matrim Cauthon, my #1 forsaken Moghedien, and our trauma king Rand al’Thor..... do we count Rand and Lews Therin as one for having the same body or do they each get their own for the dif levels of unhinged 🤔

Uh so I made a character bingo if anyone wants to try it (:

[iviarellereads]

The Great Hunt, Chapter 46 - To Come Out of the Shadow

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

(Dagger icon) In which I have a few complex feelings.

PERSPECTIVE: Nynaeve passes through the crowds easily in the sul'dam dress with a "damane" on a leash. She even passes another sul'dam and damane, hardly looking at them except to be sure the damane isn't Egwene, and nobody raises any alarm.

Min guides them up to Egwene's room, and Egwene says she knows she's not dreaming, because in a dream they'd be Rand and Galad on stallions.(1) She notices Seta and says she'd like to put her in a pot of boiling water. Elayne asks what they did to her, to make her want that. Egwene says that was her punishment of choice, to make her feel like she was neck-deep in it. Seta is one of the most hateful.

Egg asks if they can take the collar off. Nynaeve is angry enough at all of this to have no problem doing so. Elayne unbundles Nyn’s dress and coat, and Nyn says they can walk out and nobody will look twice. As Egg dresses, Nynaeve asks why she didn't just pick up the bracelet and go. Egg explains how doing it makes a damane sick, and touching the clasp makes her hand cramp uselessly.

Nynaeve decides she can't bear the bracelet anymore, and takes it off, telling Seta that this doesn't mean she can't punish her if she calls out. Seta begs her not to leave her here.

Egg says she's been giving this a lot of thought, and seeing Seta confirms it. Seta won't call for help, because she knows the secret now. A'dam only work on women who can channel, and the Seanchan test villages regularly to find any young woman who can already channel, since existing trained damane can sense them, but they're all the wilders, like Nynaeve and Egwene and Elayne, people who would have channeled regardless. But every girl gets a chance to put on a bracelet, and those who can control them are trained as sul'dam. They're the ones who have the potential to learn to channel, with guidance. And after a few years of channelling through damane, some women do develop the ability to channel for themselves.(2)

Renna bursts in, starts saying she didn't approve of any visitors, nor for anyone to link with her Tuli... then realizes Seta is the one on the leash, and Egwene, with no collar around her throat, is in another dress.

Before anyone else could move, Egwene snatched the pitcher from her washstand and smashed it into Renna’s midriff. The pitcher shattered, and the sul’dam lost all her breath in a gurgling gasp and doubled over. As she fell, Egwene leaped on her with a snarl, shoving her flat, grabbing for the collar she had worn where it still lay on the floor, snapping it around the other woman’s neck. With one jerk on the silver leash, Egwene pulled the bracelet from the peg and fitted it to her own wrist. Her lips were pulled back from her teeth, her eyes fixed on Renna’s face with a terrible concentration. Kneeling on the sul’dam’s shoulders, she pressed both hands over the woman’s mouth. Renna gave a tremendous convulsion, and her eyes bulged in her face; hoarse sounds came from her throat, screams held back by Egwene’s hands; her heels drummed on the floor.

Nynaeve grabs Egg's shoulders and tries to stop her, and Egg starts crying into Nyn's chest, saying she hates them for hurting her and she hates them because she couldn't stop them from forcing her to do what they wanted. Nyn says it's alright to hate, but it's not alright to let them make her into what they are.(3) Egg says she's not like them, but she wishes she could kill them. Min adds that they'd deserve it. Elayne, steeling herself against something, says that Rand would kill anyone who did something like what these sul'dam do.(4)

Nynaeve says perhaps they deserve it, and perhaps Rand would, but men often mistake killing for justice. She's had to give justice with the Women's Circle, and it's not pretty. She says she wishes she could free every woman here, and destroy all the a'dam, but since she can't... she slips Renna's bracelet over the same peg as Seta's, and tells them if they're quiet, they may be left alone long enough to remove the collars. If the Wheel allows it, maybe they'll be allowed to remove them. If not, they'll be found, and someone will be asking questions before the collars are removed. Perhaps justice in this case is learning what it is to feel what they've done to others. They leave the room, and there's no more fuss on the way out than there was on the way in. Nynaeve supposes it's the dress, but she can't wait to change into anything else.

Egwene says she knows the stable where they took Bela, but they might not be able to get to her. Nynaeve says Bela will have to stay here, they've arranged a ship. It's only then that they notice the street is empty, except for Seanchan patrols approaching from several directions. Nynaeve says they'll walk right past them, and Egwene says she won't go back, she'll die first, and go down using what they taught her. She blasts the earth in front of one patrol, before Nyn can stop her.(5)

They dodge a fireball, and run toward the docks. If Domon doesn't have that ship waiting...

PERSPECTIVE: Domon, witnessing several acts of damane destruction and Seanchan reaction. One of the crew tries to cut one of the mooring lines, but Domon grabs his arm first. Domon hopes, in his thoughts, that the women hurry themselves up.

PERSPECTIVE: Geofram Bornhald, ignoring lightning bolts over Falme. Some flying creature is dodging the bolts, but it's surely just one of the Seanchan beasts.(6) Bornhald commands Byar to draw back and watch the upcoming confrontation, as ordered previously. Then, the rest of the legion approaches Falme.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand, ducking away from the Seanchan pursuers. He mutters that Egwene is in danger, he can almost feel the pieces of his life, and she's in danger.

Ingtar says one man could hold fifty in this alley. Not a bad way to die. Rand says there's no need for that kind of talk, but Ingtar goes on. He didn't know what the pale little man would do,(7) but he was commanded to take him inside Fal Dara, and he had no choice. He still doesn't know if it was meant for Rand or the Amyrlin. Rand feels a chill and asks what Ingtar is saying.

Studying his blade, Ingtar did not seem to hear. “Humankind is being swept away everywhere. Nations fail and vanish. Darkfriends are everywhere, and none of these southlanders seem to notice or care. We fight to hold the Borderlands, to keep them safe in their houses, and every year, despite all we can do, the Blight advances. And these southlanders think Trollocs are myths, and Myrddraal a gleeman’s tale.” He frowned and shook his head. “It seemed the only way. We would be destroyed for nothing, defending people who do not even know, or care. It seemed logical. Why should we be destroyed for them, when we could make our own peace? Better the Shadow, I thought, than useless oblivion, like Caralain, or Hardan, or. . . . It seemed so logical, then.”(8)

Rand says he's not making any sense, though he thinks more that he can't mean what he's saying. Ingtar finally looks Rand in the eye, his own brimming with tears. He says Rand is a better man than he. The prophecy attached to the Horn says  ‘Let who sounds me think not of glory, but only salvation.’ Ingtar thought he was thinking of the salvation of himself, of his country, of the world. Surely it would have been enough to wash away the crimes he's done. No man can walk so long in the Shadow that he can't come back to the Light, right? Rand realizes what's going on, and says he thinks wanting is enough. Ingtar says that in the other lives, in the Portal Stone, he tried to escape what he'd become, but he never did. There was always something required of him, worse than the last, until he was all but gone. Sometimes he held the Horn, but he never blew it, and Rand was ready to give it all up to save a friend.

Ingtar says there's always a price, for redemption. Maybe he can pay it here, in this alley, saving the rest of them. It's every man's right to choose when to die.

Hurin comes back and updates them on the position of the Seanchan at the other end of the alley. Ingtar tells Rand to take the rest of them and the Horn, and get away. He knew the Amyrlin should have given Rand the command, but Ingtar wanted to save Shienar, keep them from being swept away and forgotten, like some of the places they passed through on the way south.

Rand says the ritual words for Shienaran deaths, and a tension leaves Ingtar. Rand turns to Hurin and says it's time to go. Lord Ingtar is doing what he has to, and they must leave.(9)

=====

(1) Quite the vivid dreamer, this one. (2) At long last, a proper explanation… or at least, one character's theory about it. Do you see any holes in the theory, or does it feel sound? Taking it on its own merit, it's an interesting setup. A demonstration of how those who "pass" for the dominant group can be roped into the oppression of a minority they belong to at least in part. (Very much speaking from my place as a white-passing Indigenous person who has done my best to NOT become this but seen the effects of it firsthand.) (3) I don't know if I want to take all the time needed to unpack this one. Nynaeve is instinctively a healer, she will move heaven and earth to fix a problem she sees a solution to… but I don't know that "you can never be violent to those who have done violence to you" is a one-size-fits-all solution. (As I write this, we are over two years into watching Russia's siege on Ukraine, well over 6 months into Israel's war on Palestine, and countless months and years into countless more wars and civil unrest. I'm not particularly impressed at people calling for pacifism in response to aggression.) (4) GIRL what do you even KNOW about this farm boy? You met him for like one hour and then ran into some of his friends. What do you know of what he would do? Or are you just hoping that he's the same kind of Good Person you believe yourself to be because of your crush on him and Min's hints on top of Gawyn's curious comment back in book 1? (5) Ya girl has been through a bit of a trauma and is gonna have some seemingly disproportionate responses. Recall that RJ served in Vietnam. If anyone understands trauma and PTSD from the inside… it's probably him. (6) Have we been told about any flying beasts yet? There was that one mention… (7) So Ingtar freed Fain from Fal Dara's dungeon… but, no, this was the next day. Does that description sound like Fain at all? Someone you hardly notice? Definitely not... so who or what tried to kill someone that day? (8) So, Ingtar was a Darkfriend all along. And his logic is so… reasonable, and insidious. So many countries have risen, withered, and died. Just look at Malkier. And nobody ever helped, nobody saved them, they just pillaged the useful bits and ignored what was no use at all. Just look at that village where they talked about how neither Cairhien nor Shienar would send support against incursions, because it wasn't valuable. He didn't want Shienar to fade… so he joined the Dark, because the Light showed no sign of stopping that process. But whatever he saw in the Portal Stone, he realized it was the wrong answer, and here he pledges the ultimate sacrifice in penance, in hopes of walking in the Light again, of finally doing the one true right thing. It's an incredibly moving passage. (9) Five ride forth, and four return. Did you expect it to be for redemption or defeat?