#renna wot

[alverelover]

[nicnacsnonsense]

The thing about Renna Wheel of Time is, yes, being a sul’dam makes her a bad person, but what you have to keep in mind is she’s also really bad at being a sul’dam. Not in any kind of way that makes her a better person, or even just a less bad one, just in a way that makes her ineffective at her job. She sucks on every axis, is what I’m saying.

[nat111love]

You were afraid so you wanted armor. Uncontrolled thoughts are troublesome in the Dream World. Control them.

[moghedien]

the way I'm pretty sure this was her only line this entire episode but it was all she fucking needed

[halcyon-autumn]

Wheel of Time s2 Finale + Reductress Headlines

[helenafreakgan]

[reformedmoth]

DAES DAE'MAR | The Wheel of Time 2x7

[asha-mage]

I know I've gushed about it before, but genuinely, all of the effects this season and this last episode in particular have been knock down amazing.

From the way Ryma killed with the One Power- tearing apart the muscles of her enemies, scorching skin into blisters and boils- reflecting that blink and you'll miss it lore that outright killing with the One Power- not hurling fire or lighting but stopping a heart or boiling blood, is closely linked to Healing-

To the way Siuan summons up an invisible halo of daggers, ready to fling at the person who opens the door, a way to strike even in all her regalia, in a way that someone attacking her wont expect or be ready to counter in the heat of the moment, something we know again from the books she favors (her 'burst into flame' box trap)-

To the way Lanfear pulls breath out of Liandrin's son with Air, a small act of mercy and yet cruel too, the way she does it slowly, air swirling in a way that Liandrin could cut if she really wanted to-

To that tiny thread of Spirit, linking the a'dam bracelet to the collar, from the base of the neck, right at the spinal cord, to the sul'dam's wrist-

To the way Rand is almost lost in the shine of his own strength, the glow of his own power because that's how much he can draw, how much he can pull on if truly is willing to seize it-

God it's all just. So good.

[mashithamel]

Aww

[ofthebrownajah]

[illusions-in-octarine]

On the list of people I would never have been interested in, Renna's near the top. Yet Xelia Mendes-Jones brought it. I am So Invested. This is what one woman has become in her native Seanchan culture. Power-hungry and mentoring and tempermental and brutal, all in the service of breaking another human. She's been trained for this. You can tell. She's good at it and she's proud of that and I have never felt prouder of Egwene than when even Renna cracked - when her pride was damaged by Egwene's steel.

This isn't the face of a woman who feels like she's won. This is the face of a woman who's angry she couldn't conquer the other person sooner.

Egwene may have broken for a single cup of water. But Renna broke her calm for it too.

[storiesconsumemysoul]

I don't know how to articulate this perfectly but I'm so happy for how the show is portraying Renna's desire for an emotional "connection" with Egwene as genuine because it highlights, to me, a crucial underlying aspect of Egwene's psyche going forward. A particular allergic reaction she'll develop let's say. The Seanchan are messing her up in about a thousand different ways but one of the more prominent ones is that it completely F U C K S with her relationship to power/authority. Especially within the context of a personal relationship.

Egwene is absolutely the embodiment of the "I'm going to get a good grade in ________, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve" meme. Which initially, while very strong-headed and singularly motivated, does make her quite amenable to being governed. She's a Grade A+ Student(TM) with a healthy dose of "respect authority" and "give benefit of doubt to the system and its enforcers" that generally comes with that. The only real conflict for her then was whose authority and which hierarchy of knowledge she was acquiescing to, Nynaeve/The Wisdom or Moiraine/The Aes Sedai.

Then she's made into a Damane. With all the horror that that entails. An absolute governing of every aspect of her being, a ruthless domination of her body, a weaponization of her mind against her. A complete stripping of personhood and agency while in the same breath exalting her power that is being put to "proper use". Now all of that is already enough to severely break her amenability to authority and people having power over her ever again. But it's more than that.

The horror is encased in intimacy. This forced intimacy that invades her body both on a physical level (all the ways in which her body is literally controlled directly by Renna) and magical level (the high/rush of touching the One Power even when done forcibly and against her will that is facilitated only through a connection with Renna). And Renna wants to have a third in genuine emotional intimacy. Renna sincerely wants to be close to her. She genuinely feels good and exhilarant when they're "connected". She offers, what are in her eyes, kindness, consideration, and thoughtfulness to this person who is, surely, resisting and defying merely out of stubbornness and spite. She is legitimately seeking a companion in Egwene to face the Last Battle with and make a stand for the greater good. Renna knows she is right and she wants nothing more than for Egwene to truly see that too. Why can't she see what is good for her?

If only ... she'd just ... submit. To being loved and held and ruled in the right way. For her own good.

To me, every interpersonal conflict that Egwene finds herself in, in one way or another, is tainted by this aspect of her time as a Damane. Renna poisoned her ability to navigate an interpersonal conflict as anything but an existential power struggle that she MUST win. No matter how much true love and care each party holds for the other, no matter which of them is right or wrong. Her sense of identity cannot survive anything else. Especially when it's with someone who does legitimately, in one way or another, have power over her and isn't afraid to exercise it.

I just ... I really love Egwene and I think her effed up relationship to power is really really interesting and heartbreaking actually. And this doesn't even scratch the surface of the lasting damage the Seanchan deal her.

[nat111love]

THE WHEEL OF TIME ↳ Season 2 ↳ Episode Seven |  Daes Dae'Mar

I…realized why you fight me. It's because no one's told you why we are here.The Seanchan Empress has one charge, and one alone. To unite every person on this planet under the Light. The Last Battle is coming. And we will only be able to fight it if we stand together, all of us. Including you and me.

[halcyon-autumn]

Wheel of Time Season 2 + Disco Elysium

[reformedmoth]

RENNA | The Wheel of Time 2x6

[asha-mage]

“She hurt me, Nynaeve. She hurt me. They all did. They hurt me, and hurt me, until I did what they wanted. I hate them. I hate them for hurting me, and I hate them because I couldn’t stop them from making me do what they wanted.” “I know,” Nynaeve said gently. She smoothed Egwene’s hair. “It is all right to hate them, Egwene. It is. They deserve it. But it isn’t all right to let them make you like they are.” Seta's hands where pressed to her face. Renna touched the collar at her throat disbelievingly, with a shaking hand. Egwene straightened, brushing her tears away quickly. "I'm not. I am not like them." She clawed the bracelet of her wrist and threw it down. "I'm not. But I wish I could kill them." "They deserve it." Min was staring grimly at the two sul'dam. "Rand would kill someone who did a thing like that." Elayne said. She seemed to be steeling herself. "I am sure he would." "Perhaps they do." Nynaeve said, "and perhaps he would. But men often mistake revenge and killing for justice. They seldom have the stomach for true justice." She had often sat in judgement with the Women's Circle. Sometimes men came before them, thinking women might give them a better hearing than the men of the Village Council, but men always thought they could sway the decision with eloquence, or pleas for mercy. The Women's Circle gave mercy where it was deserved, but justice always, and it was the Wisdom who pronounced it. She picked up the bracelet Egwene had discarded and closed it. "I would free every woman here if I could, and destroy every last one of these. But since I cannot..." She slipped the bracelet over the same beg that held the other one, then addressed herself to the sul'dam. Not leash holders any longer, she told herself. "Perhaps if you are very quiet, you will be left alone here long enough to manage to remove the collars. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and it may be that you've done enough good to counterbalance the evil yo have done, enough that you will be allowed to remove them. If not, you will be found, eventually. And I think whoever finds you will ask a great man questions before they remove those collars. I think perhaps you will earn first hand the life you have given to other women. That is justice." She added to the others. Renna wore a fixed stare of horror. Seta's shoulders shook as she sobbed into her hands. Nynaeve hardened her heart- is it justice, she told herself, it is- and herded the others out of the room.

This probably my favorite moment in The Great Hunt, maybe my favorite Nynaeve moment overall, which is saying something since she has a truly impressive number of amazing moments. It's easy to forget sometimes that as a Wisdom Nynaeve wasn't just a healer and guide to her people, but also a judge, an arbiter, a leader. This is a woman who has to sit in judgement, to weigh the lives of men and women, to give justice and know that when she spoke it, it would be as law. The stakes might not be has a high as they are for say, Morgase, yet that doesn't mean her choices matter less, especially to those she presided over.

And her insight here: about how men often mistake killing and revenge for justice, and instead lack the stomach for real justice, rings both true to real life, and true to Nynaeve's character. What she does this in this moment, leaving Renna and Seta at the mercy of their fellow sul'dam, and their own twisted culture, facing the very real possibility that they might be chained, might suffer, in the way they have chained other women, made other women suffer, is a lot more harsh then simply killing the women, especially in light of what we as readers and Nynaeve as a character know from first hand knowledge of Egwene's experience as damane. Killing them would likely be more merciful given the bleak existence they are now faced with.

Maybe worst of all, she gives them an unlikely sliver of hope. Maybe fate will allow them to go free, maybe the Wheel will have mercy on them, as unlikely as that seems.

And maybe more interestingly the Wheel does give them mercy, but not because they deserve it, but rather to offer them a chance to attone for their deeds many books later. They both live, but suffer in the mean time, prisoners of Suroth, having lost all their status and power within the sul'dam. And when Mat has need of aid to save three Aes Sedai from captivity in Ebu Dar, Renna and Seta get the chance to aid in the escpae and perform some small measure of atonement for what they did to Egwene. (And when Renna rejects that chance at redemption and tries to flee back to the Empire, to her old life, she dies for it, killed before she can ever sight the Seanchan army again).

Anyways Nynaeve great, and Jordan's themes of what justice means, what balance means, are still awesome.