#tarvalon talks

[wheelofbrainrot]

Listen to Thad, Doll, and I talk about Wheel of Time season 2 episode 2 on TarValon Talks from TarValon.net

[toastandjamie]

Do you ever think about how after a few decades into the fourth age new novices will enter the white tower, and they’ll hear stories of the Battle Armylin, the woman who reforged a broken tower, protected them from Seanchen enslavement, and was key to leading and winning the Last Battle. They won’t know her, they’ll have never met her since she died before they were born. But the novices will reach nineteen years old and learn that the woman who bore the heaviest burden of any Armylin was the same age as them when she reversed baelfire and turned an entire army to Crystal. She was their age when her very body was turned into a beacon of light that destroyed one of the forsaken and helped give the armies of light a chance at victory. Do you think the white tower erected statues in her honor? Or a stained glass window? Or a portrait? Or is the only reminder of her quiet whispered stories in Novice and Accepted quarters, and a stained glass window of a rose behind the Armylin Seat filling a wound left on the tower from a distant memory of an attack on the heart of Tarvalon? Do the Aes Sedai who lived past that day call her Egwene Sedai? Mother? Egwene Al’vere? Do Novices beg Nynaeve Sedai to tell them stories of the Battle Armylin? Do Elayne’s children ask their mother about her in the same breath that they ask about their father the Dragon Reborn? Do the Al’vere’s keep a picture of her up in the common room of the Winespring that remains there long after her parents pass? Does Emmonds Field still talk about the girl from their village who became Armylin at nineteen and saved the White Tower? Is she only the Battle Armylin to them, or is she still that girl from the Two Rivers?

[wheelofbrainrot]

Another day, another podcast episode. In this one I'm talking with cohosts Doll and Thad about Michael Livingston's The Origins of the Wheel of Time

[wheelofbrainrot]

A new Tar Valon Talks podcast episode dropped today! This one is all about The Slog™️

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1NBYRjdwU0wfjJT1IFvs8Z?si=-rdT5wb-T7WTbaej9uZA1A&utm_source=copy-link

[toastandjamie]

So an AU where Mat isn’t Ta’veren and becomes our POV in the Black Tower.

Now the first dilemma I faced was how much Mat should be integrated into the main plot, especially given that the Black Tower isn’t created until book five. So here’s what I got so far input for what this goofy little guy should get up to is welcome.

So after Winter Night, Perrin, Rand, and Egwene go with Morraine and Lan leaving our non-Ta’veren ordinary guy Mat behind. Now Mat, not knowing the details, is quite upset because as far as he knows his two best friends just ditched him to go on an adventure without him. When Nynaeve goes after them Mat tries to tag along but Nynaeve very firmly sends him back home. However, Ta’veren or not this is still Mat Cauthon we’re talking about so he goes after them himself. He spends the rest of Eye of The World having narrow misses with the plot, running into Thom at Whitebridge after the Myrdraal incident and drags that poor man all the way to Camlyn only to discover that he once again missed his friends and now has no idea where they’ve gone.

In The Great Hunt we find Mat traveling with Thom and Dana as an apprentice Gleeman, until they meet up with Rand in Cairihan. Rand tells him about the the horn but leaves out the whole, he’s the dragon reborn bit. Now this version of Mat doesn’t believe he’s a hero but he also has yet to discover Consequences so he really wants to be one, so he immediately insists on joining Rand to find the horn of Valere. Rand tries the tried and true method of being the worst to your loved ones to drive them away for their own good but while it DOES upset Mat, you aren’t shaking him that easily especially since he’s already invited to that party Rand and friends needs to break into. Things end up going relatively the same from their and they all go to Falme, Mat gets a late reveal there that Rand is the Dragon Reborn, we have Seanchen problems and Mat is still the one to blow the horn of Valere.

The Dragon Reborn baby, in order to try and keep Mat safely out of the plot Rand convinces him to escort the girls back to Tarvalon. Now no one but Rand and Perrin know he blew the horn of Valere and at their urging Mat decides to keep it that way, but he quickly finds that when your a man and not Ta’veren or the known sounder of the horn of Valere you very quickly get bored of the White Tower. After spending some time gambling at every tavern in Tarvalon and training a bit with the warders and Gawyn and Galad, the girls give him the letter for Morgause and send him on his way no Armylin permission slip required. Things go pretty similarly as they do in the book, Mat picks up a depressed Thom, discovers a plot to kill the girl’s, gets some fireworks and breaks into the Stone, though he is now slightly less effective without his supernatural luck.

The Shadow Rising finds our boy Mat feeling severely put out and a bit helpless. The girls as usual were less then grateful for the rescue and Rand and Perrin are too busy to talk to him. He still goes to Egwene for advice and hears about the Red Stone Door and still goes through it, though this time he actually gets to ask his three questions before getting kicked out since there’s now only One Ta’veren in there. Mat’s still contemplating what his confusing answers mean when Rand pops out, and things continue from there as planned. This time however Mat does not go to the Wastes and instead joins Thom and Julin as unwanted bodyguards for Nynaeve and Elayne. Hilarity ensues. More importantly however during the Tanchico arc Mat starts considering the possibility of learning to channel. After all, the girls aren’t wrong about him not being much help against the black ajah without channeling. So using the scraps of information he has he tries to teach himself how to channel. But it’s not going so well. However once they reach Salidar he finds a certain someone who might be able to help with that…

In Fires of Heaven and onwards we get more of Mat feeling helpless to protect his friends and using his most powerful weapon, his puppy dog eyes, he gets Logain to grudgingly agree to help teach him though one problem is that Logain is gentled but Mat won’t let that stop him. Egwene shows up, Logain is de-gentled and Mat get’s the bright idea to take the bow healed Logain and head to the Black Tower. Mat proceeds to get tangled up in both the Black Tower sub plot and Elayne’s Succession plot line. He also finds Olver at some point. That’s all I got so far

[wheelofbrainrot]

Remember how I'm on a Wheel of Time podcast? Well, it's back and we're talking about season 2 of the show!

Listen to Doll, Thad, and me dissect s2 ep 1 of Wheel of Time on Prime:

(full spoilers for the show through s2 ep 3 and the books)

[wheelofbrainrot]

I've joined a podcast devoted to talking about all things Wheel of Time! Come check me out on Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts):

There are spoilers for anything past Book 1 in the final 3rd of the episode (as noted in the show notes).

I hope y'all enjoy!!

[wheelofbrainrot]

This is LATE but...

Recorded a postcast about the NYCC panel. I may be more than slightly unhinged during this recording.

[wheelofbrainrot]

Come listen to me on episode 2 of TarValon Talks!

This episode is an author interview with Michael Livingston, the author of Wheel of Time: Origins. There's only one book spoiler at around the 50' mark.

Let me know what you think! Enjoy!