#shaido

[iliiuan]

The Shaido plotline gets a lot of flak, but I started thinking what the alternates would be. First, let's realize the setting:

Perrin is in Murandy/Amadicia with his odd assembly of armies. The Shaido are roaming around thanks to Sammael. The Seanchan are in Amadicia, pushing East and gathering forces for the assault on the White Tower. Galad's Whitecloak army is marching to Tarmon Gai'don. Masema is wreaking havoc with his (seriously misnamed) Dragonsworn.

Given all of this, an encounter with the Shaido was inevitable, perhaps especially when the ta'veren was off to visit Masema. (Now that I'm thinking about it, that actually justifies the timing.) So, what are the possible encounters and their likely outcomes?

A small group of Shaido comes across Perrin's army camps, leading to the death and capture of many, plus the dispersal of the rest.

A small group of Shaido comes across a small group of Perrin's allies, leading to their capture. (This is what happens in-story.)

A large group of Shaido comes across Perrin's army camps, leading to the capture or death of everyone.

A large group of Shaido comes across a small group of Perrin's allies, which triggers a scouting party who find the rest and now we have #1 with extra steps.

Perrin's scouts find evidence of Shaido and everyone goes into Very Careful Mode.

Some scenarios that wouldn't happen include Perrin's armies kicking Shaido ass on first encounter and the Shaido ignoring Perrin's group.

Now, Faile's capture forms the basis for both Perrin's and her character growth arcs. She transitions from being a spoiled brat runaway princess into an actual leader. Perrin finally grows into a leader of his people, accepting his role and filling his duties.

I understand where people are coming from when they criticize the plotline for placing Faile as a damsel in distress. If we look at it a different way, however, Faile is a prisoner of war. All of the things she endures are things that POWs endure. They are helpless, but we don't read their stories and think, wow, let's be angry because this strong character is helpless. Rather, we think, wow, that situation was shit. And yes, male POWs also have to deal with sexual harassment and rape.

Another aspect of the story as told involves Perrin making poor choices and over focusing on Faile's rescue. It's not just because she's his wife; she's the only family he has left. Even as he rescues her, he watches her take charge of the other prisoners and revels in her competence. Yes, someone had to rescue her, because that's the nature of being a POW, but it didn't rob her of awesome.

[rasberryclown]

I personally think that Misha and Jun should be able to kill Grassl and any ISU judge they want

[brutalhonesttruths]

The worst part abt Ilia getting the pcs he gets is that its unecessary. He would win on BV+GOE+consistency and has clearly been working on components but now instead of appreciating the good things we gotta react to his score as if he skates like grassl

[justnotkrikkit]

"the cup of china men's short went really well" chat do we all remember nhk

[rondocapri]

There’s no way in fucking hell im watching pairs it’s at 3 in the mornin

[birgittesilverbae]

tdr ch 39

loc ch 26

Dailin ends up on Rand's list despite having died before any of the Aiel ever met Rand -> Aviendha told him about her cousin dying in the search for him

[staledirt87]

I'm loving Mat and Rand's random battle and political knowledge from ages ago. Give me more

[iliiuan]

People: The Seanchan are evil slavers and I hate them.

Also People: The Shaido are just Confused.

Cannoli: No, assholes. The Shaido are also evil slavers. In fact, they're worse than the Seanchan. Get your heads out of your asses.

Me: What cannoli said. And also Mat didn't "lose his morals" by marrying Tuon. He is actively working towards freeing damane THE ENTIRE CIRCUS ARC. He is thinking DURING THE LAST BATTLE about how he might engage Tuon effectively to convince her to stop the damane program. But sure. Let's paint him as complicit in slavery. That totally makes sense.

Wait! Which man is Seanchan royalty?

[toastandjamie]

Things about the band of the red hand that I think about on the daily:

-all the nobles in the Band competing to be Mat’s Favorite Noble(the answer is Talmanes but no one tell them that)

-after the battle of Cairihan, Talmanes and Nalesian putting aside their differences to defend Mat’s honor from the perceived slight of him not getting a parade

-Talmanes clearly knowing Mat is trying to ditch them and proceeding to insist on going with Mat literally everywhere until Mat gave up

-every noble in the band preening over being on Mat’s short list of “tolerable nobles” they are very proud of this fact and will brag about the fact that Mat willingly interacts with them

-Mat, half delirious from pain, teaching the band Jak’o’shadows and immediately regretting it as the band begins to sing it at every given opportunity and adds an entirely new verse dedicated to him

-while Mat was stuck in Ebou Dar every member of the band that was not with him simultaneously feeling the Ta’veren pull like a Spiderman esque sixth sense for knowing their general is in trouble

-upon feeling the Ta’veren pull, Talmanes immediately guilting Egwene into telling him where Mat is

-the band collectively deciding that their Olver’s cool uncles and teaching him to gamble, flirt with women, use weapons, and steal horses. You know, like responsible adults.

-when Mat is at the tower of genji, Talmanes being left in charge of Olver like the worlds most reluctant babysitter

-after seeing Mat refuse Aes Sedai healing every single member of the band deciding that they to would heal the old fashioned way

-a large portion of the band going out and getting tattoos together after they officially became the Band of The Red Hand

-Mat making one off hand mention of the original Band of the Red Hand from Manethran and the Band deciding that that was now the name of their mercenary band despite Mat’s protests

-the band deciding that No, they will not serve the Dragon Reborn, instead they’ll enlist into the service of the guy who Does Not Want Them

-the band deciding that Mat was a lord on principle because he’s just that good at fighting battles

-not a single member of the band was ever revealed to be a dark friend, they all just genuinely wanted to follow Mat with no ulterior motives

-every member of the band being willing to die for Mat at any given moment

-when Mat initially showed up to warn the army that they were walking into a Shaido ambush, Talmanes calling Mat’s bluff and getting him to begrudgingly agree to leading a portion of the army

-Mat effectively death glaring the bands nobles into a meritocracy

[amemoryofwot]

The Melindhra angle is such a wild card in this. I’m supposing they want her in the scene before TFoH Shaido split sort of timeline, so if she’s still a Darkfriend perhaps they’re going for a multi season reveal. I can see for simplicity/budget a lot less of showing the Shaido (and having them be fully defeated at Dumai’s Wells) but the Shaido were still there outside of Rhuidean so why change clan? Especially with making her background not Aiel, and looking at Tigraine and Rand, are the Taardad being set up as the only clan receptive to outsiders?

With Malkier specifically being her background and Lan coming to the Waste, I’m guessing they’re trying to fill us in on the fall of Malkier without having Agelmar info dump at us? Although I’m curious how this is going to come up organically and not just an exposition dump. I would absolutely love for Lan to grapple more with the political machinations behind Malkier’s fall which I think is a glaring omission in the books and the cause of a lot of stagnation for his character. In New Spring he’s really dismissive of Malkieri that have had to adapt into other cultures to survive so perhaps seeing another Malkieri pushed into such extremes will help us see his conflict with what he thinks his duty is versus what others see it as.

[iliiuan]

My pick:

Hannah Waddingham as Sevanna of the Shaido Aiel.

[reploidbuddy]

Here are the major gods from my upcoming one-shot, in order of most powerful/older god to the "weakest". None of them are weak because as major gods they're the most powerful of all of them, but there's still an order.

Gods are wished into existence and grow their powers by mortals’ wishes and prayers. If a god cannot answer too many prayers due to a growing need, another god may be wished into existence to share the load.

Designs of the two main mortals (Espio and Silver) here

Details about each god under the cut <3

Banira was the first ever god and for the longest time, the only one. She is nature, weather, night and day, inner peace. At first, she was everything, but other gods came with time. She’s still the most known and widespread prayed god, though she is usually prayed to for gentle winters, plentiful hunts and gathers, and sometimes to help with inner turmoil, though the last one isn't quite widespread and only used in clans who mainly worship her.

Rozu is about all kinds of love and following one's heart. She's rarely if not never a tribe or clan's main god, but most if not all people have at least once prayed to her to solve a dispute, get the courage to talk to someone, to have a pregnancy go well, and all these prayers people don't quite admit to make her the second most powerful god.

Shiruba is the last of the four to have appeared, as a mix of all three existing gods (Shaido is the third oldest technically and also not, more on that later) with protection and justice. Wishing for a clan's survival in winter, for someone to fight off an illness while another goes to get their medicine, for someone lost in the forest to return safely, these used to be handled by other gods, but went into Shiruba's territory. He's surprisingly often a clan's main god, but usually more for the protection part than the justice. One could say he's the god of karma.

Shaido's case is rather unique, as his purpose has changed. He was "born" as the god of strength and power... But then he fell. A god can fall and become a mortal by accident when they go into the mortal realm directly to answer a prayer, and that's what happened to Shaido (it was the first time this happened). After thirty years in the mortal realm, tragedy hit, and as it triggered the return of Shaido’s godhood... Strenght and power felt like such useless things, his mind never considered these. And with his mortal years changing him and the tragedy hitting and making him know of such painful visceral emotion as loss and despair... He became the god of loss and grief. Disappearing for so long and changing his purpose kinda cancelled a lot of the power he had since he didn’t get the prayers and all, which made him weaker for a moment, but mortals sure know of loss, so it didn’t take long for him to become a major god again, though his purpose being "younger" and the slight reduction of the amount of prayers he gets keeps him as the fourth major god for now. He is prayed to at funeral ceremonies, and often after one's death, or just any situation where one needs to grieve. His connection to mortal emotions has made him a lot more empathetic, and he's the god that has gone into the mortal world for direct intervention the most, usually for someone so grief-striken they're unable to get better despite their best effort (the most well-known case of a mother who had lost her very young child). He cannot take the grief away, but sometimes his answers give the last boost needed to start the road to recovery. Anyone who has seen Shaido (and therefor had a direct intervention from him) report an overwhelming sense of comfort and warmth.

[megamuscle885-blog]

God I fucking forgot how absolutely insane Dumai's Wells is.

Imagine being a Shaido Aiel. You've got barely any honour, but fuck the other Aiel. You're conquering shit with the rest of your clan. Sure you don't have a clan chief after some gambler cut off his head, and the most influential wise one of your clan can't channel and hasn't been to Rhuidean, but that's fine. Nobody has the right to tell you that you have no honour or pride. They don't understand. You are the only true Aiel. The only ones who haven't sold themselves to a wetlander king.

And now we get to take the so-called Car'a'carn for ourselves. We just need to take him from the Aei Sedai. The wise ones can handle them.

Then the fucking grass explodes into wolves, arrows punch into your backs from 300 paces, a huge cavalry charge slams into your flanks and fresh lightning and fire suddenly surround you, people's skulls just explode like ripe melons or burst into flames with zero impact at all. This was supposed to be easy. Some mad bearded fucker is hacking through you all with an axe, and a tinker of all things is swinging a sword at you. Then the chest at the center of the copse of trees explodes violently. A woman is screaming her soul out at the epicenter. The Dragon Reborn is free. Then the man to your left is split in half by a string of light that widens into a doorway, and out of that doorway steps a man who turns your whole body into shredded meat as soon as he looks at you.

You don't even have time to scream in pain.

[markantonys]

Thoughts on the poster cause I am shaking! Spears! Dragon tattoos maybe? Rand carrying Moiraine so gently (that's his mom!) rather than Lan. Much to think about

perfect timing, i was just typing up a mini-speculation!! (actually, not so mini now that i type it out haha i managed to yap as always!) i also want to note that at first i thought you meant "rand carrying moiraine rather than rand carrying lan" and died laughing djkfjg

there was previously an alleged leak about moiraine having an incident with a powerful sa'angreal in rhuidean, and @butterflydm's eagle eyes spotted that moiraine appears to be holding something in the poster. rand also appears to have his dragon tattoos, like you say! and i saw a reader with a better memory than me say that the shaido throw spears in a circle around rand when he returns from rhuidean in TSR. so, i theorize that rand will emerge from the glass columns and find moiraine injured/unconscious in rhuidean from said sa'angreal incident, and what we're seeing is their return from rhuidean with rand carrying injured moiraine and moiraine carrying the sa'angreal (which may or may not be the choedan kal or an equivalent).

alas, this would seem to be a replacement of rand emerging from the glass columns and finding injured mat in rhuidean, but there is still hope for Cauthor CPR in another time and place! (first to note, there was the alleged leak a while back that mat would be in tanchico with the girls in s3, so if this new image is indeed the return from rhuidean, then mat very likely is not at rhuidean, which lends further credence to the mat-in-tanchico leak and also makes unlikely the theory that mat could go into a doorway in tanchico and get spit out in rhuidean. plus, donal was doing hadestown for all but a couple days of the south africa leg of filming, so based on that it seems unlikely he could be involved much or at all in the waste storyline.)

anyway, here's how Cauthor CPR can still win!

from a variety of vague cast/crew comments and just plain ol' narrative sense, we feel pretty confident that moiraine vs. lanfear mutual doorway yeeting will happen in the s3 finale. we also have had numerous comments pointing to the gang all being together still in 3x01. it makes sense to me that the gang could spend just about all of 3x01 together before splitting up on their respective roadtrips, because making the most of this precious Together Time feels in keeping with the show's emphasis on the bonds between all the characters. we can suspect from other comments that liandrin will be causing some major action at the white tower in 3x01, but we still need SOME kind of action in the gang's location too, it can't just be everybody hanging around talking for a whole episode (much as *i* would love that haha)

so, perfect time for a doorway trip! it could function as the Inciting Incident for mat; maybe he's feeling angsty and confused after the whole "found out he's a hero of the horn and then immediately stabbed his bestie" situation and goes through the doorway for answers (or potentially his Hero Memories wore off and he wants them back), whereupon they tell him he has to go to *tanchico* instead of rhuidean (maybe because he's fated to meet tuon there?), thus setting him in motion for the season. rand could also go through to get his book Q&A (which may remain secret from us until they're relevant, like in the books) and moiraine could go through - but maybe to get her information about her doorway fate HERE instead of in rhuidean, if they perhaps cut the silver rings and have moiraine doing that sa'angreal incident in rhuidean instead. this might again be kept secret from us until it's relevant, but it would set her in motion for the season. plus, having doorway stuff in 3x01 & 3x08 would make for very neat bookends to the season.

then, i don't see a huge purpose in having mat go through a second doorway later, so maybe he could get his Q&A AND his items AND his hanging all in one trip here. efficiency! mat's hanging was foreshadowed in his bad tea trip in s2, so i feel pretty confident it will still happen in the show (unless it was just a cruel easter egg) even if he isn't in rhuidean. and rand could return from his own Q&A and find mat dying and administer CPR, and this way we get to fit in a nice big emotional moment for mat-rand (which has been probably mat's most focal relationship so far in the show, so makes sense to squeeze in something nice for them) even though they'll be apart for most of the season.

oh! i forgot to add that s2 made a point of noting that turak is a collector of ancient artifacts and has a "room of curiosities" in falme (where he was storing the horn), so this could very easily be a place where the doorway could be hanging around, a la the tear storeroom. i believe that they didn't return to film in morocco for s3, so we don't know for sure if falme will be the gang's starting point, but totally possible that they could be in falme but just indoor scenes done in the studio without needing to go back to morocco for outdoor shots (and i do think that storywise it makes sense for them to all stay in falme taking a breather and figuring out their next moves, which they set out on at the end of the first episode).

another possibility is that mat does get 2 doorway trips like in the books and the second one is in tanchico and TUON gives him CPR, but that would make me feel so robbed i can't even think about the possibility jdkfjg

[asha-mage]

Robert Jordan finished WoT AU 😈

[Send me a potential AU and I'll answer with five things from that story!]

ahahaahahaha, you bait me so zorpi! This is more a 'things I reasonably can guess from my many read through the series' more then anything else, but-

Based on Perrin's portion of the Jordan written ending their was clearly meant to be a moment where Perrin had to choose between Faile's safety and the fulfillment of his duty- and choose his duty, trusting in Faile to protect herself and make her own choices. This is also pretty clearly what Malden and the battle with the Shaido was meant to set up: Perrin realizing that his obsessive desire to protect/love Faile was as much flaw as virtue, and that true love would be trusting her strength and courage. In Jordan's ending I would guess that this would likely have manifested having a choice between leaving the Two Rivers force at the front lines to go rescue Faile, who is carrying the Horn to Mat, or else stay with the Two Rivers Forces and trust Faile- choosing the later. Thus his racing through the battlefield in the aftermath, and finding Faile still alive in the carnage, would be his arc reaching it's conclusions, being rewarded for his trust and faith in her.

Mat was, I suspect, supposed to play a much larger role in the negotiations to get the Seanchan into the coalition against the Shadow, serving as leverage and pressure to get Tuon to the table and to agree to the terms- I also suspect based on his reticence regarding the Empire from when he and Tuon part in KoD, he was supposed to be a lot more reluctant/put off on the idea of commanding the Seanchan forces, and it was originally supposed to be Tuon's idea and/or part of her compromise- she'll join, but her army will follow Mat, not the Dragon appointed supreme commander.

I think we would have gotten a lot more Gabrelle, Toveine, and Logain as our Black Tower PoVs/the counter coup against Taim- Toveine was already being set up in this role in KoD and prior, and it would make sense as a means for her to 'redeem' herself of the Vileness, and it fits with Jordan's usual 'closing of the circle' that one of the Red Sister who helped with the slaughter of the men who could channel, would be one of the first and strongest converts to the Black Tower's cause.

I think we where supposed to also a get bit more thematic conflict/contrast between Graendal and Rand in Arad Doman. In general the political situatuion in Arad Doman feels very....off from how Jordan normally works politics. I think the broad beats (destruction of Natrin's Barrow, failure to stabilize the region, Rand abandoning Bandar Ebon to starve at his lowest moment) would be the same, but it feels very strange things like the merchant council politics and Graendal's broader parallels to Rand (especially in that moment- as she /also/ crumpled under impossible standards and failure to live up to perfection as Rand is currently inthe process of doing) would be far more dug into.

Finally, I think we would have had a least one major reunion scene with the original Emond's Field 5- I know this is something Sanderson wanted to do and tried very hard to manage but didn't quite fit in, which I think is sad. It really feels like their is a missing moment in there, where Mat, Perrin, Rand, Egwene and Nynaeve where all supposed to sit down and reflect on how far they've come and how before the final battle. It especially feels like something that would have been appropriate from either Nynaeve and Rand's perspective.

[rondocapri]

Guys i was reading fanfic and they gave a character, who has no canonical last name, the last name “shaidorov” ITS FATE 🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮