#this and chapter two are expositional but don't worry the pacing slows down and the plot diverges from disney's mulan p early on

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.228 thoughts

[Father Time Looks GNC AF]

(Topics: character analysis - Feng/Time/Yusai, thematic analysis - age/unity, predictions - Justice/War)

As I predicted, we've moved away from Gina vs. Change to focus on someone else's capstone; in this case, Shen and Mui's. Also as I predicted, Feng makes his reappearance to both get his own capstone and to provide narrative context for Shen's

The best part about this development, though, is that it didn't wrap up in one chapter! In fact, this chapter was almost entirely exposition, discussing the thematic relevance of each of the Master Rule's to God's game, with only a small portion of it furthering the cast's narratives

In other words, this chapter slowed down the pacing! I predicted that each Master Rule fight and their associated character developments would happen in one chapter each to time the ending for January, so if one of those fights is taking two or more chapters?

It's definitely possible that the Xiang family story is just taking priority over, say, Yusai's story, and every chapter that this one gets is being taken from another, but at the moment that's just pessimistic thinking and doesn't mesh with how much attention Tozuka is giving the individual fights. Admittedly, skipping straight to Phase 3 for Justice without seeing the rest of the fight is a bad sign for Yusai, but Tozuka did the same thing for Billy/Tella's fight with War, which he's definitely going to delve more into, so I'm not willing to give up on Yusai just yet

Plus, the mere fact that Justice made it to Phase 3 gives us a little insight into how the fight's been going so far

Make My Monster Grow

Generally, UMAs enter their next Phases by consuming their Rule: Spoil ate his spoiled zombies, Summer ate fuel for his fireworks, Beast absorbed the souls of animals, Language accumulated languages in her game. Yet somehow, it went over my head at first that Time was literally stealing Shen's time; as Shen aged, Time got younger

This also retroactively explained for me what happened to Change last week - her shape was changed by Gina cutting her in half, so she was able to take on and incorporate that change into herself. She basically said that herself, but again, it didn't quite sink in

In War's case, all we need to know is that the battle up to now was violent. Every attack, every bullet fired, every drop of blood spilled empowered War. We know that they're fighting, so we didn't really need to see the battle that led up to War powering up to understand why it happened or how that theme ties into Billy and Tella's characters once we get to their chapter(s)

Justice is pretty similar, in that all we need to understand is that Yusai is fighting with her own sense of justice. The more she does what she thinks is right, the more determined she is to uphold her honor, the stronger Justice becomes. Just like Yusai nearly allowed herself to starve to death to save her village when Undraw manifested, she allowed herself to come to harm by trapping Justice's blade in her body. For the greater good, Yusai is always willing to sacrifice herself - that is her justice. She may not have gotten a lot of analysis or depth so far, but that bit of characterization can easily be wrapped up in one more chapter

At the very least, justice has been such a major theme this whole time that I would be shocked if we don't get a full chapter dedicated to the fight, even if Julia or someone else comes in to back Yusai up and takes some of the spotlight

However, that's something we can worry about later - this week we're focusing on a different recurring theme

Doesn't Work Like it Used To

Once again, Tozuka is revisiting one of his old favorites: Age as Proof of a Life Lived

In this case, the progenitor of the very concept, Time, is espousing a very different take on the matter. As he says, even without killing them, time makes people ineffectual and necessitates that they let someone else take up their mantle. Indeed, no matter how much experience you accumulate, how many memories you make, your body will one day betray you, and what once came to you with ease will demand a great deal of effort and pain

Whereas the rest of the series has focused on the value of time, how every previous moment builds up and contributes to the present self, Time's philosophy is the opposite, that every previous moment was spent and lost on the way to the present. Where the rest of the cast would appreciate the wisdom of age, Time considers the aged to have run out of value, finite like sand in an hourglass

But like every other Rule so far, his thinking is hypocritical and stops short of the whole truth

Like a Fine Wine

While Time is right that a person's time is a limited resource, that they will one day lose the capacity to perform and need to step aside for younger generations to take their place, he's completely wrong about the elderly lacking purpose

He tells Shen and Mui to give up because they're aging, that soon they'll become elderly, but even by his metrics, they hadn't yet. They still had time left to make whatever difference they could. They weren't idling and wasting away the time they had left, they were fighting tooth and nail to defeat the enemy in front of them, and what did it get them?

It gave Feng enough time to figure out how to fight Time

In a blatant reversal of roles, the currently much younger Feng is being entrusted with the battle because Shen is no longer capable of fighting, and the lessons that came with Shen aging will be applied by Feng. The young learn from the old; that is the purpose of the elderly, not to stand aside for the young, but to teach them how to reach old age

And that is the truth that Feng has learned as well

A Garden You'll Never Get to See

Feng's character has always been centered around achieving peak individual strength; besting others with his own power, being objectively superior when compared to others, and continuously improving without ever stagnating or regressing. However, no matter how strong Feng became physically, there was always one factor that he was missing that would prevent him from becoming the strongest: strength of character

Feng is a man who's defined by fear and insecurity; the fear of becoming lesser, of being alone, of being forgotten. In L100, Feng lamented that he had lost his power in his age, that his finite sand had drained away and he'd become ineffectual, so he desperately searched for a way to refill the hourglass and regain what he'd lost. He didn't value the years he'd spent refining his art, he resented the toll that those years collected from his body; Feng's time was not an investment, it was a tax, and one he would see returned no matter what

L101 Feng, on the other hand, never paid that tax at all. Instead, he watched as everyone around him who he had once considered an equal paid it. He watched as they slowly faded away, replaced with new faces he didn't recognize. But the truly painful thing wasn't that the people he knew vanished: it was that the last thing he saw from each of them was a smile. The tax man came to collect, and they gave their time happily? Unfathomable. All of their efforts had amounted to nothing, none of them could compete with him anymore, and now they won't even last long enough to see their pupils possibly match him. What the hell do they have to be happy about?!

But that's exactly what they have to be happy about. They couldn't compete anymore, but they knew that their pupils could, and that even if they failed to prove a match for Feng, they would surely be able to raise the next generation to do so. They were aging, yes, but they used what time they had left to pass on everything they'd learned to the youth, investing their remaining value in someone else

And they could do that because they had the strength of character to accept their fate

They were unafraid of the future and secure in the knowledge that everything they had worked for would be passed on; that their legacies would only become greater, would be shared, would be remembered. Though their bodies may die, their souls would live on through their techniques passed down through the generations

Feng learned this lesson firsthand when he died fighting Language, that his eventual death would not simply be the cessation of his life, but the impetus for further growth in his legacy. The memory of Feng will have its own unique impact on Shin Hakkyoku's development, but that will never come to be so long as Feng himself lingers; if he doesn't entrust it to someone else, then just as he feared and just like his unaging body, his art will stagnate

Therefore, the key to strength is not found in the individual, but in the collective, which happens to also be the secret to winning God's game

Life is Not a Single Player Game

As Time says, all of the Master Rules past Death were created to incentivize individualism; Changing people to be different from each other, giving individuals greater or lesser Luck, giving individuals different senses of Justice, Wars over protecting self-interest, etc. Sun created all of these Rules to introduce hardship and strife among humanity, instructing each of them to use their Rules to make humanity suffer

In other words: when individuals act solely in their own interest, all of humanity suffers

The Rules force humanity to act as individuals, a house divided amongst itself, so that they will not band together and ruin Sun's fun

And Feng fell for it

In L100, elder Feng gave into the panic that Time induces and came to resent that his time had passed. In L101, young Feng panicked as he watched everyone else's time pass. In both cases, he clung desperately to his own strength, either to prove that he hadn't lost it or to justify that he was the only one who still had it. In both cases, he was willing to throw away everyone else, every connection he had, to hold onto the individuality he had built for himself, for once everyone else was gone, that individuality was all he had at all

But that's not how the game is played

The Quests have participant requirements for a reason. They incentivize the Negators to work together, to band together to stand against enemies and challenges they have no hope of defeating alone

Even the Rules don't exist in a vacuum. Every Rule is tied together, a delicate balancing act that literally helps the world turn, like Summer's heat and Winter's cold, and the same is true of Negators. Undead and Unluck synergize amazingly well; Unseen's true power comes from borrowing the eyes of friends; Unfair only exists in the context of others

Sun's side of the bet was that humanity could never reach the Gods, and to prove it he gave them every reason to squabble amongst themselves. Luna's side was that humanity could, and gave them the tools to come together and put aside their differences; to form a Union

Of all of the Negators we've met, only two have resisted that Union: Feng and Ruin. But even Ruin has Blood and Shadow; he never needed to learn the lesson of unity, he already had, he just applied it to the UMA instead of humanity. But Feng? He was the final holdout, the only one who still didn't want to believe that the path of the individual was wrong

But now he knows. Maybe he met the previous Unfades when he died and learned from them what kind of legacy he was hoarding for himself, or maybe Fuuko's words finally sank in after seeing Shen and Nico's respective growth. It doesn't really matter what prompted it, what matters is Feng has accepted the truth and has chosen to stop clinging to himself and start giving of himself to those next in line

And of course, the one he chooses to give his spot to is one he acknowledged as a worthy rival

Passing the Torch

You can actually see the moment when Mui inherits Unfade: as Shen and Mui declare that they will always protect each other, Mui's panel has the subtle but unmistakable black smoke that signals the manifestation of a Negator ability. From that point on, once we see that Shen has aged to a wrinkled and spindly-armed geriatric, we don't see Mui's face again until the reveal. This will probably carry over a little better in animated form, as Shen will likely be shown aging in real time, but that was the moment that Mui ceased to age

From a lore perspective, this moment is fascinating because not only does it show that one person can be granted a different Negator ability between Loops, but also that the holder of an ability doesn't need to die to pass it on! Some folks believe that Feng had actually already given Unfade to Mui when he died in the Language fight, but again, we literally see Mui manifest it during this fight, and Feng himself is established as one of the foremost masters of the soul, so it's not hard to imagine that he learned how to transfer that aspect of the soul into someone else

From a narrative perspective, this completes Feng's character arc, as not only has he finally embraced his age and allowed someone else to carry on his legacy, but he's also done so through someone he once tried to kill for the sake of his own growth. In L100, Feng tried to use Mui's death to inspire growth in Shen, which would in turn allow Feng to become stronger, but now it's the opposite. Now Feng is risking his own life to make Mui stronger, so that she and Shen can pass on the strength that Feng had cultivated together

Every facet of Feng's character that had once been so antithetical to all of UU's themes has now completely flipped. By giving Unfade to Mui, Feng ensures that she won't lose any more of the strength he saw in her, and knows that through her connection with Shen, the both of them will become stronger as a collective, which will allow them to overcome Time, Feng's true eternal enemy

Feng may or may not die during this fight, but either way, he is going to become old again, as he was always meant to. His time will be taken from him, and his body will fail him. But his sand is not simply flowing away, a tax paid for his own life; each grain is being laid carefully and thoughtfully in place to build upon the last, to create something bigger and better

Time views life as an hourglass, draining until empty, but as I said, Time is wrong. Life is not an hourglass, it's a sandcastle. It may not be pretty, and it won't last forever, but it will have been built all the same. So long as we enjoy building it, then even once it crumbles, the memories of how we built it and who we built it with will never fade

Until next time

Let's enjoy life

[hua-fei-hua]

orchid in bloom (ch. 1)

a/n: hey look it’s the todomomo mulan au that everyone seems to want from anyone but me. i didn’t realize that this was a popular thing in the tdmm community until after i pitched the “you fight good” scene to my friend haha.

i have never ever in my life ever posted one of my multi-chapter fics to tumblr. this is usually just stuff i put on ff.net and ao3 w/o telling tumblr. but i’m trying not to be shy in this fandom, so. *teenage boy voice* LET’S GOOOO.

ao3 | ff.net

summary: It was supposed to be simple: visit the matchmaker, meet future husband, and bring honor to the family. But when a cricket ruins Momo's chances of honoring the family with a good match, she decides to do it in the only other way she knows how: disguise herself as a boy and fight in the war against the Huns. Mulan AU.

chapter title: matchmaker

word count: 2,179

T’was a clear summer’s night, yet throughout the land, there was a sense of unease. For months now, there had been rumors of a Hun invasion.

It was on that night that those rumors came true.

A soldier lit fire to the signal.

“Now all of China knows you’re here,” he hissed at the chapped mess standing before him.

The villain leaned in close so that he and the soldier were eye to eye. His raggedy breath reeked of rot, and as he scratched his neck, flakes of dry skin fell to the ground. With wide and bloodshot eyes, he breathed one word that sent chills down the soldier’s spine.

“Good.”

Emperor Nezu paced the throne room floor restlessly. He had awoken in the middle of the night for reasons that even he did not know, and he could not fall asleep again. He feared for the worst, for he only awoke like that when something truly terrible had happened.

His chief advisor, Present Mic, rubbed his eyes and stared at Emperor Nezu with both irritation and exhaustion. “Your Majesty, are you sure that the Huns have arrived tonight? After all, the last time you were up like this, all that ended up happening was a three minute deviation from your normal breakfast time.”

Nezu folded his little paws behind his back and faced his advisor with a very grave expression. “Present Mic, you are my most trusted advisor. You have served me for many, many years. Ever since you were old enough to hold a brush, you have been a part of my palace staff, taking inventory and keeping scribe of all the ins and outs of all the little people in the home. And now, here you are, living up to your self-given name. You give commands—”

Fortunately, it was at that exact moment that the renowned general Endeavor burst into the room, effectively cutting off the emperor before he could really get into the groove of his ramblings. “Emperor Nezu!” he cried. “The Huns have managed to break through the North.”

The tiny, animalian ruler nodded his head. “So I feared.” For once, he did not meander with his words.

“There are no surviving witnesses yet, but it is assumed that they are being led by Shigaraki. I come only to tell you that I will be rallying my army and marching out at once to defeat him.”

At this, Emperor Nezu shook his head. “First, you must grow your numbers. I shall have draft notices posted throughout the land. Call up reserves and acquire as many new recruits as you possibly can. I fear that this fight will be more than we have anticipated. After all—”

“Forgive me, Your Majesty, but my army is one of your best! I’m sure that we will win without any trouble.”

“Only second best.” Nezu smiled, causing Endeavor’s blood to boil. “Besides, we shouldn’t be taking any chances. All who are able should fight.”

With a scowl, the hotheaded general left the room.

The emperor looked at his advisor and said, “His youngest son is old enough to lead a squadron now, is he not?”

Present Mic nodded. “I can only hope he does not turn out like his father.”

Nezu sighed. “I do too. By the way, that reminds me…”

Momo sighed and played with a single grain of rice out of the many in her bowl. She propped up her chin on her elbow and stared out her room window at the rising sun. Today was the day, the day she knew she was going to fuck up in one way or another.

Today was the day she was to present to the matchmaker and meet her future husband, if all went well. Then she would get married in a few months’ time, bring honor to her family, and live a normal life until she died.

She flicked away the grain of rice with her chopsticks. It wasn’t like she considered getting married and settling down to be a necessarily demeaning end, but it sounded so unfulfilling. She still had so much more to learn and do!

She turned her attention back to her rice bowl. After popping a tiny amount of rice into her mouth, she put the chopsticks down and left her room. The maid would get the rice while she was gone.

She walked over to the family shrine, where her father was praying to their ancestors. She helped him up when he was finished. He smiled at her and put his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about the matchmaker, my child. You are already a wonderful young lady. You will easily bring honor to the family.”

Momo smiled uneasily back at him. Despite being told that for the better part of the last few months, she still found it hard to believe that the matchmaker would be able to find her a husband. She was, at the end of the day, nothing special. What man would want her?

Her father patted her shoulder. “You should go now, otherwise you’ll be late.”

Momo Yaoyorozu truly seemed to be the ideal bride. She was pale and tall and obedient, and she was certainly very pretty. She carried herself with grace, and rarely did she ever speak out of turn. Her interest in the arts only brought out all her fine qualities. Indeed, many of the neighboring families agreed that she was a picture perfect daughter.

“Momo,” her mother said as she carefully brushed her daughter’s hair. “Are you ready for today?”

Momo herself sunk lower into the lukewarm bathwater. “No,” she truthfully said, causing her mother to laugh.

“Don’t worry, my child. You’re already such a wonderful young lady. Just do your best at the matchmaker’s, and you will surely bring honor to us all.”

Her grandmother burst into the room. “Futaba, what are you doing still brushing that girl’s hair? Her meeting with the ‘maker is in half an hour! Get her out of the tub right now or else she’ll be wrinklier than a prune!”

“Of course, mother!” Momo’s mother yelped, quickly detangling the last few snarls and helping Momo out of the tub.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Momo, your mother never was the best at time management,” Grandmother Yaoyorozu said as she helped Momo into her dress. “I’m so sorry that we have to rush you now, but don’t worry. If your mother was able to pass through the matchmaker’s hands into her husband’s, then surely you, the wonderful little blossom you are, will be able to do it without a problem. Even if you were rushed.” She patted her granddaughter’s cheek.

Momo could only nod as the older women put on her makeup and did her hair. A feeling of unease was rapidly growing in the pit of her stomach. Everyone was telling her she’d be able to bring honor to the family with both hands tied behind her back, but all that it was doing was making her nervous.

“Hey, hey now,” her grandmother said softly as she popped an apple into Momo’s mouth. “If it makes you feel any better, I found a cricket this morning, and something tells me it’s a lucky one.”

Momo nodded. Her mother gave her one final once-over as her grandmother tied the cricket cage to her waist.

“Oh! And one laaast thing,” her grandmother said, hurriedly fetching a calligraphy brush and ink stone. Momo winced at her grandmother’s terrifyingly strong old lady grip as the old woman very carefully, very beautifully wrote the characters for honor and prosperity on her forearm.

“There,” the old lady said with a smile. “Now you’re truly ready. Aoyama will love you.”

Momo inspected the wet characters drawn on her arm. A little shaky, but still beautiful. She only had to hope that it dried before she could accidentally soil her sleeves.

With smiles on their faces, both women sent her outside to join the other girls waiting to meet the matchmaker.

Momo silently prayed for luck, for honor, as she joined the train of brides-to-be.

The sun beat down upon Momo’s paper umbrella as she waited for what felt like hours before the matchmaker’s house to be called upon. She was going to be a bride. She was a perfect porcelain doll, seated upon a shop owner’s shelf, ready to be sold to whomever deemed her beautiful and affordable enough.

The door burst open, and the apparent matchmaker stepped out. Momo couldn’t see him, but he already sounded like the most extra person ever.

A scroll was snapped open in the most dramatic way possible. “Momo Yaoyorozu?” the matchmaker singsonged.

Without a word, she stood up, closed her umbrella, and walked up to the matchmaker, a strange, blond man who seemed to sparkle. Aoyama, was it? She bowed in greeting, and with a smug smile and a curt nod, he let her in.

“So, Miss Yaoyorozu,” Aoyama said as he whipped out a brush and scroll, “Please recite the final admonition.”

“Fulfill your duties calmly and respectfully,” Momo recited as she pulled out a fan, but in the process, she accidentally loosened the latch on the cricket cage. “Reflect before you act. These things shall bring you honor and glory.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the cricket take its chance and bounce away, but with the matchmaker’s eyes trained on her at all times, she didn’t want to take the risk of failing her exam by catching him.

“Veeeery good, Miss Yaoyorozu!” the blond man crooned, strutting around Momo in a circle, observing her from all angles. “It’s nice to know that you’re living up to my expectations.” With a pleased sigh, the blond man knelt down at a table and gestured to the teapot and teacups sitting upon it. “Now, be a dear and pour me some tea?” With a smile that looked more self-absorbed than anything else, the matchmaker rested his elbows upon the table and laced his fingers together, watching her intently.

Momo obediently knelt down and took the teapot.

“If you’re to impress your future in-laws, you must be able to show grace! Poise! And dignity! All while merely pouring a simple cup of tea.” With every word he said, Aoyama struck a different ridiculous and dramatic pose, to the point where Momo was so distracted that for a moment, she missed the teacup.

“Ahhh…” a teeny-tiny voice sighed, and she looked down at the teacup in alarm to find the lucky cricket relaxing in the scalding tea. Hurriedly, Momo filled the cup and gave it to herself, immediately starting on a fresh one for Aoyama when—

“Tsk, tsk, Miss Yaoyorozu! As the server, you should be the last person to receive your drink,” he reprimanded, reaching for the tea himself.

“My apologies, sir, but there’s—”

“Nope! No excuses, Miss Yaoyorozu. And how dare you talk back to me!” Aoyama exclaimed as he succeeded in getting the tea. He sniffed it delicately and sighed. Momo felt her stomach sink as he began to take a sip…

…and promptly spilled the whole thing on himself with a shriek upon seeing the cricket within. Momo covered her ears and got up. Just in time, too: the matchmaker scrambled to his feet and knocked over the table— fortunately, Momo managed to snatch the teapot before it hit the ground— causing formerly barely-alive coals to burst into flame on the floor.

“You dare put a cricket in my tea??” Aoyama demanded, taking a threatening step forward, only to step on the fire that he had somehow not noticed. He yelped in pain.

With no idea what to do, Momo whipped out her fan again and tried to blow it out, only to make it worse instead. Panicking, she snatched up the still-alive cricket and shoved him back into the cage and turned her attention back to the matchmaker.

He snatched the teapot from her hands and extinguished the flames with the remaining liquid inside. Fuming, he took a step towards Momo, and terrified, she took a step back.

“So not cute!” he cried as she crashed into the door. “Not only do you try to poison me with a nasty little insect in my drink—” he slammed open the door, and Momo took a further step outside, into everyone’s view. “But you also set fire to my home!” Everyone present winced.

Momo took one terrified look backwards, and her eyes met with her mother’s hurt ones. Guilt and shame immediately built up in her gut, but there was no time to think about it.

Aoyama snatched the fan out of her hand and threw it down in a rage. “You terrible little wretch! You may look like a bride, and it may seem that you act like one, but you will never, EVER be one!” Furious, he stormed away.

Faintly, Momo could hear him call for a Miss Itsuka Kendo, but she wasn’t truly listening. Her mother immediately put a protective arm around her daughter as the latter tried very hard not to cry.

[geek-and-destroy]

Wheel of Time - In for the long run

This is post 10 in The Wheel of Time Read - see the previous post - covering the prologue and chapters 10-17 of book 2.

A few days ago, I started reading The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan’s sprawling fantasy series. And because I have nothing better to do, I decided to post my thoughts on the internet, a few chapters at a time. Right now, I am at book two - The Great Hunt. This post talks about my first impressions of the book two chapters 10 (The Hunt Begins) through 17 (Choices). Chapter summaries can be found here (I’m not putting links to the individual chapters, I don’t want to venture too far into the wiki).

This is an interesting trend that comes with most speculative fiction, the trend of the sequel slowdown. It's a competitive world in the publishing industry, and even with books that are written with the full intention of writing the sequel(s), the author usually puts a faster-paced, more complete story with only a little left unexplained. Then, when the book proves popular and the sequels are secure, they take more time with the characters, the plotting, the pacing to slow down and tell their story at their pace.

Wheel of Time has entered secure sequel mode. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Jordan exploring his world more fully and with more freedom. Even in the last set of chapters, it could be seen most prominently in the expansion of Tar Valon lore - the first book only mentioned the Red, Blue and Black Ajahs. I can tell a richer, more diverse story being formed.

And we have yet another method of fast travel. I can't tell if the Portal Stones are less dangerous to get places or the Ways. I think on the whole the Ways are riskier, but wouldn't it be easy to get lost in the alternate dimensions? It's a few small stones scattered throughout the world apparently. Although maybe if you carry a stone around with you in the other dimension, maybe it's possible. Can you do that? Also, do all the stones lead to this same AU where the trollocs won? At least two do, but Selene did say there are many different worlds. Do time and distance work the same in all those worlds?

And in any case, I'm definitely not trusting Selene's word on anything.

Selene is obviously Lanfear from the Aes Sedai exposition, or I'm a Sasquatch. Even if they hadn't talked about her earlier, the 'you can be a legend' talk is a huge red flag pretty much always. The fact that she's a femme fatale with godly beauty kinda irks me a bit, but since the rest of the female cast is better, I'll give it a pass, maybe. I still want to see a fighting female, though. Soon, I hope.

Rand being thrust into a leadership role, while also grappling with his reality, ie saidin, is very well-done so far. It's good that his character transformation is being handled gradually. He's unsure of stuff, he makes bad decisions, He doesn't want it, but tries not to say it (looking at you, GoT!Jon Snow), it's great. Hurin is kind of a caricature so I'm not worried about him letting Rand's secret out anytime soon (until he decides to show off how cool 'his lord' is to other soldiers or some shit) and Loial has probably figured it out but he's wise enough not to say anything.

Meanwhile, three major Sedai have run off from the camp, leaving Egwene and Nynaeve in an almost entirely foreign environment at Tar Valon. If I know anything from the first book, there has to be some kind of incident there, though. My guess is, it'll be Egwene discovering some vital information vis a vis the Black Ajah. I guess a confrontation between Leandrin and the Emond's Fielders is for later (what we got in the tent was pretty brief). There is still Elaida to worry about, and Elayne to meet. Liandrin's probably off pursuing Moiraine, though there's a small chance she's doing something of her own. I still maintain she's not a Darkfriend, just a jerk, but again - don't trust my Darkfriend radar, I've been woefully wrong in the past. Moiraine, I have no idea where she is. She'll show up near the start of the third act probably, confronting Lanfear with or without Rand. As will Liandrin.

And that's it for this post. Sorry for being a bit slow with this. As I mentioned before, a sinister Darkfriend confronts me, calling itself Midsemester Exams. Also a bunch of assignments and other college stuff. So, yeah.

Tomorrow is the premiere of the Amazon Prime WoT show! Really excited for that.

Also, Verin best girl don't @ me.