#this is my best attempt at furries im kinda proud of this

[yorufi]

bingles. friend-shaped

[ivanaskye]

WoT book 3 reactions!

So you may remember how I recently finished book 2. Now I’m done with book 3! It’s titled The Dragon Reborn, despite barely having a handful of Rand POV scenes.

Thematically, it serves as a reminder that there are two ta’veren—people who get shoved around by fate but also have a good chance of changing the world—OTHER than Rand here. Moiraine had almost forgotten how important they might become, distracted instead by Rand’s literal-chosen-one-ness, and so probably had the readers.

BUT NO LONGER!

Once again, I’m going character-by-character here under the cut (if tumblr can remember how to cut.)

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Perrin

The largest chuck of the book’s POV is him (though Egwene’s a close second), so we get to know him pretty well

He still Doesn’t Want To Be A Furry, though we finally get evidence that he might be right to be wary—he encounters someone else with his ability who has completely lost his connection to humanity in favor to being a wolf.

Although I’m pretty sure actively trying to walk that line is much safer than pushing it away only to be overwhelmed by it later, but Perrin only makes so many good decisions

See also: yelling in mixed company, RAND’S THE BLOODY DRAGON

despite this, he is typically the smartest of the three ta’veren boys.

He’s real cute when he gets into blacksmithing, I’m glad he has something that makes him happy

Also he just has a Dead Wolf Friend That Always Wanted To Fly But Can Now Fly In The Afterlife as his partner in prophetic, can-totally-kill-you, dreams?? Adorable.

He also absolutely has a girlfriend-to-be now, which was so obviously set up that it feels forced, but also I really like her and also they’re cute together and I ship it. I’m conflicted. Anyway, more about her later.

Egwene

The other MC for this book

I still love her?? How much more is there to say than that.

She’s ACTUALLY UNCOMFORTABLE HIDING THINGS, which is really big mood and also she’s a @sortinghatchats gryffindor secondary.

She’s showing more and more signs of actually being a Dreamer, maybe. Also she gets more vengeful and terrifying each book. IS she going to torture someone to death later in the series. (Don’t answer that, I wanna find out for myself.)

Mat

Oh my gods he’s so stupid

SO STUPID

Almost the first thing he does once he gets healed from the evil dagger, about 1/3 into the book, is think about how he can win a lot of money with His Dice

So I think, “oh, he has loaded dice”

Spoiler: he DOESNT

THEYRE JUST NORMAL DICE

HIS ENTIRE PLAN HINGES ON WINNING A LOT OF GAMBLING WITH COMPLETELY NORMAL DICE

Good thing that he suddenly came about magical good luck.... which he didn’t know about before he made this plan of course

The magical good luck might also have something to do with him being possessed by an ancient general of the country that used to exist in the same place as his hometown??? Though that could just be him in a past life—if people have multiple lives within the same Age, which I’m unclear about.

I think the one smart thing he does all book is think to himself “but when have I ever been sensible?” Self awareness is the first step!

Perrin yelling out to him in a dream “YOURE DICING WIITH BA’ALZAMON!!” has really big “oh god he has AirPods In HE CANT HEAR US” energy. Which is pretty much just the mood with Mat.

When he’s not denegrading all his supposed friends and annoyed that people aren’t grateful to him, anyway :x

Moiraine

It’s actually hitting me how Weird it is that I like her, because Characters Who Hide Things From Everyone are usually my least fav

But I think her POVs early in the series really, really helped—I know she’s doing her best

It’s just that her best does not include the skill of summary

“I can’t tell you because how could I ever condense a lifetime of information into one conversation???” its called cliffnotes Moiraine

Also she has balefire. Which she apparently only learned the last YEAR. When. Inquiring minds want to know!!

Nynaeve

Speaking of balefire, she can do that too

But, like all other channeling, only when she’s angry. Which means that in order to heal people from near-death, she has to rile herself up. “HOW DARE PEOPLE.... PUNCTURE FLESH!”

She’s also like, getting weirdly upset at Egwene for Everything, which, Hm. Don’t Like That

Elayne

IM PROUD TO ANNOUNCE.... A NEW CONFIRMED BRAINCELL!!!

The braincell was confirmed when she looked at the list of the Black Ajah who escaped and determined that its sheer patternlessness was unlikely to be random, and instead was probably *designed* to make it hard to discern any clues just by looking at who left

Mostly in this book she’s just playing the Friend Of Egwene role though

Faile

NEW FRIEND NEW FRIEND

What a legend. She just sees this really weird group of travelers and is like “ah... I treasure hunt (a particular treasure)... they are weird... I must join them to see what happens”

(Chased by literal demon dogs) “oh yeah I’m still sticking around, where will I find a better story than THIS”

“Also my name means falcon, I picked it myself”

Fills a role that was conspicuously empty before: non-channeling combat-oriented woman

Also totally Perrin’s gf now

I guess that’s what happens when you follow someone around on purpose and then he plunges himself into wakeless dreams just to rescue you!!! You kinda get invested!!!

Lan

He’s playing with the concept of having facial expressions now! I’m proud of him

Literally wants nothing more than to die before Moiraine

Again, why is Nynaeve so thirsty for him...?

Loial

Is still just There

Min

Where the heck did she go. I want her back.

Rand

I saved the best (and in this book, most mysterious) for last

Main POV character whom??? “What if... instead I totally lose it from the stress of being the chosen one and having too much magical power to control and basically being filled with everything at all times”

“And leave my friends to just attempt to chase after me for a whole book”

Honestly the early Perrin POV chapters about Rand made me ABSOLUTELY invested in him. The filled-with-power-ness. It’s so good.

His entire motivation this book is to either prove he’s actually the Dragon by getting The Magic Sword, or prove he’s not by dying, and he honestly looks like he might prefer the second option

He does not get the second option

Speaking of that, I had Callandor (the magic sword) pegged as totally-not-Excalibur, but I’m pretty sure Excalibur doesn’t glow like a supernova or warp the fabric of reality, so,

He keeps getting so convinced that he’s killed Satan THIS time, even though there’s 11 more books to go

And yes he doesn’t know how many books he’s in.... BUT he knows some of the prophecies, all of which say that what he just did is only the beginning

Chill on the wishful thinking Rand

You’re in for the long haul