#.../does/ he know moiraine is cairhienin in the show?

[radiantmists]

okay i havent been keeping up with the s2 material v carefully so who knows if this is what happens but i have to say that if rand was running away from everyone he knew it was less than genius to go to cairhien, aka the one place outside the TR that he knows someone from

#.../does/ he know moiraine is cairhienin in the show? #i guess he might not #but im imagining him happening across moiraine and being like what are u doing here did you follow me? #and shes like... Im from here whats your excuse #that wheel do be weaving as it wills #wot on prime

[butterflydm]

wot deeper dive 2x4: daughter of the night

This specific post I am going to avoid any spoilers from the books! I will be doing another post later today that includes those spoilers and related thoughts.

I feel like I can safely call him 'Ishamael' now. The information is all there in the episodes.

I do like this initial 'calling' scene, though we got a lot of it teased to us before the season aired, so I've talked about it before. But we hear the word 'Lanfear' here, though it's followed by a lot of Old Tongue, so it might not have stood out too much to people who didn't already know that it's someone's name.

Given what we saw of the flashback last season "3000 years ago", I feel safe in saying... yeah, looks like Ishamael is among the ruins of that older civilization. Probably brings back some memories. Also, time-stamp note: it looks like he's wearing the black buttoned outfit that he wore last season, not the blue with the gold tie-clip-like design that he's been wearing this season.

3. The bloody woman! I wonder if she's bloody (and naked) because that's what she looked like when she got sealed up or if it's something that happened due to the process of unsealing. It looks like the seal was already partially damaged, so maybe that's why Lanfear was bloody when she woke up.

4. I loved Anveare's plotline through this episode. I really enjoy what the show is doing in showing us the downside of being a channeler -- outliving your friends and family, watching them grow old and die. Having children is a crapshoot -- if they're a girl, and they can channel, then it's a relatively normal parental relationship. But if they're a boy or if they're a girl who can't channel, then they will inevitably die before you. We're introduced to Anveare again by showing us her signs of aging -- she looks at the lines on her face and puts on an elaborately-styled wig to cover how white her real hair is.

5. Here's a question: given the age of her butler and how she talks later about needing to ask friends for food (and the general vibe of the manor house itself); it sounds like their house truly is fallen, as Moiraine mentioned in s1, and is having serious money issues (though in the way that nobility has money issues rather than the way that the people in the Foregate do -- she's not poor, she lacks funds) and Anveare seeks to fix the problems both of money and of her house's image by marrying her (unnamed for now) son to the Cairhienin queen (also unnamed for now). The interesting thing to me about this is that it means that her conversation with Rand in the last episode probably did have an element of genuine sympathy for the Foregaters in it -- it sounds like she's also felt like she could lose her home and her place in society. And it's implied that she's an artist! I really loved seeing the sketches and paintings in her study.

6. The conversation between Lady Anveare and Moiraine is so painful! Moiraine is NOT here to engage emotionally with her younger sister -- she is here to find Rand and to try to keep Lanfear away from him, and she has no time or patience for anything else (as we saw with her behavior with Lan as well). It's clear how frustrated Anveare is with Moiraine's behavior. I'm assuming that she guessed straight-away that Moiraine's appearance here had to do with the mysterious redheaded boy who visited Logain and made an appearance at a party (because it's also made clear in this episode that Logain being sent to Cairhien was not 'business as usual' with male channelers but an oddity, which means that Anveare has probably been keeping an eye on the sanatorium ever since he arrived) -- if Moiraine actually had been willing to slow down and take tea with her here, I wonder if Lady Anveare would have just told her about Rand. But Moiraine "my loyalty is to the Dragon Reborn and him alone" Sedai does not have the patience for such things. I like that we're really seeing the damage that Moiraine's singlemindedness has been doing to her relationships with the people around her. It's not targeted at Lan! It's everyone who gets in the way of what she thinks she must do! The way Moiraine sweeps back into the house and just immediately starts giving orders!

7. Guilty Rand and Selene ready to take advantage of it (twisting the knife by blaming herself for the fire when of course she knows how it really started). She's so manipulative! I love how effective she is as a villain here. She's good at finding weak spots and exploiting them without giving away that she's aware of what she's poking at. And the facial expressions are just... on point, always. But Rand is worried that he'll hurt anyone if he's around them, and the more he cares, the more he worries.

8. Poor Nynaeve. The Accepted testing really put her through the wringer. I like that we only hear the flashback here and that we don't actually flash back to the test. It just happened last episode! We can remember it fine. They did a good job of showing why Nynaeve is currently feeling more emotionally connected to Liandrin (who also has a child, like Nynaeve has the memory of having a child) than to Egwene, who has not experienced anything like what Nynaeve has gone through. And Nynaeve needing to take that moment to remember and go back to put her ring on. Egwene is trying to hard to connect with Nynaeve but Nynaeve just... she was essentially 'trained' by her time as a Wisdom not to want to burden 'the kids' with her troubles (we see that in the very first episode when she launches her Bel Tine lantern separate from the rest of the village, not letting them see her mourn the people she's lost).

Also: the Accepted rooms are a big upgrade from the novice rooms!

9. We transition from Nynaeve feeling out of place to Lan feeling out of place. He has his hair down, similarly to how he had it in her vision of her AU future, but the quiet happiness that was on his face in that future isn't here now. This is a slower-paced episode for Lan and he doesn't get a big reveal at the end of the episode like we get in most of the other plotlines but if I think of it as an Alanna-focused plotline rather than a Lan-focused plotline, there is a reveal -- the poem and, potentially, the worry that Lan and/or Moiraine might be Darkfriends (we'll maybe find out next week if that's where her thoughts went or if she instead assumes that Moiraine is hunting Darkfriends or something similar).

I mean, thinking about the information that Alanna has:

a. discovers this poem which references the Daughter of the Night -- she doesn't even want to believe that Lan knows who it's referring to! Because of the Implications.

b. talks about how Moiraine changed twenty years ago, very abruptly (this is also likely when Moiraine and Siuan had their very public falling-out) and became colder "like ice".

c. Moiraine was willing to use Alanna to threaten Lan with a forced bonding, which Alanna went along with because Moiraine is her friend, but she may now be thinking about that in a different way -- why would Moiraine want to push Lan away that hard? (this would be leaning into the idea that Moiraine is a Darkfriend and Lan isn't)

It's pretty suspicious, when you think about it! So... if I think of this plotline as less about the show trying to tell us about Lan and more about Alanna: Investigator (mirroring Moiraine: Investigator in Cairhien) in Cairhien, then I feel more patient about the slower pace. And Alanna: Investigator has two co-conspirators that she trusts absolutely, which is a big contrast to Moiraine, as is her relationship with her family! Where Moiraine is cold and pushes away her only relative that we meet, Alanna is warm and teasing and clearly has maintained strong bonds with her large and loving family.

We get three very distinct and different types of ways that Aes Sedai deal with being Aes Sedai and how that affects their family: you can be the cheerful guardian angel of your extended family, like Alanna is (and Maksim and Ihvon are clearly fully part of the family as well, and adored by the children); you can cut them off entirely, like Moiraine has; or you can keep them a secret so that your enemies can't use them against you, like Liandrin has.

10. Alanna always being hungry is such a great character choice. I think I may have read that it was initially the actress's idea? But they are definitely playing into it this season and it works so well, on so many levels. She is a woman of strong appetites, who isn't ashamed to show it. And, like she did with Egwene and sex in 2x1, she's assuming here that Lan also has large appetites (for food, in this case).

11. This scene with Alanna does feel like it gives us a lot of information -- Maksim and Ihvon are on suicide watch for Lan (suicide is a big theme in this episode, actually), but Alanna doesn't think that's the issue here. We learn that Alanna plans to return to the Tower the next day, and we get the info drop about Moiraine's abrupt change twenty years ago. We also have Alanna feeling Lan out about his current plans. Despite what other characters say, Alanna herself doesn't much behave like she's planning to bond Lan imo. She mentions Nynaeve to him here and presents Nynaeve as the potential new option for him. But Lan was just told in 2x2 by Moiraine that he failed her as a Warder and he felt that too -- he wasn't able to protect her just by himself and so he's doubting himself.

In... certain ways, what Moiraine did to Lan over the last few months is not dissimilar to what Liandrin did to Mat, in terms of making them doubt themselves as a person. Their motivations were different but the results appear somewhat similar -- both Lan and Mat are adrift and not certain which direction to turn. "Where would I go?" seems to be the question on both their minds. Lan doesn't feel he would be any use to Nynaeve, just as Mat doesn't feel he would be any use to Egwene.

12. Moiraine looking at all the little pieces of her youth -- the dollhouse, the mirror, the books, the music box, the... cigars? And I love her silhouette her in Cairhienin dress. It's so distinctive. She allows herself some softness here, when she's alone, that she doesn't allow when she's around Anveare. Moiraine: Investigator is now out on the town! This scene is even more interesting knowing that Celestin (head of the sanatorium) sends reports to Lady Anveare. I wonder if Lady Anveare has already guessed that the redheaded boy is a man who can channel, given who he was interested in meeting and that Moiraine went to speak with him too.

13. Loved Moiraine and Logain's scene but, wow, very sharp and intense. She tries to bribe him with the wine and fails, but she does successfully bribe him with the promise of being allowed to kill himself if he does want she asks (which really puts it into perspective how terrible it is to lose the One Power). We get our explanation here of why the gentled false dragon was in Cairhien instead of Tar Valon (bait for Rand) and it's so good! Definitely a joint venture between Siuan and Moiraine -- I imagine that Moiraine penned her a desperate message as soon as she was able to, after realizing at the Eye that she'd screwed up by letting Rand leave. I imagine they also probably made it very public gossip that the false dragon was in Cairhien, explaining how Rand found out about it in the first place.

14. It does sound here like Moiraine's current plan is to stay in Cairhien so that Rand can learn from Logain, but it's very possible that discovering Lanfear in bed with Rand at the end of the episode has changed her plans. We will see!

...also I love Moiraine's pockets.

15. Poor Egwene trying to sort through her feelings, while Elayne does her best to be supportive. Elayne is very sensible-head here, which I appreciate. This isn't a situation that Egwene can 'fix' for Nynaeve, no matter how much she wants to help. It's a lovely and sweet moment between the two of them that shows their growing friendship, and we also get to see them doing chores at the same time, which shows us that Elayne is settling with the White Tower routine. Egwene feeling small and useless in the Tower. Baby. *hugs*

16. And then we get the flipside of things and see Nynaeve's discomfort in the Tower and with being Accepted. She tries to go to the Warder's training ground to find Maksim and Ihvon, but only finds a friendly Warder-in-training who has heard the hot gossip about her skills and is interested in presenting himself as a potential bonding option for her. We do see here that it's the specific friendships that she'd formed already that she was seeking out in the earlier episode when she sparred with Maksim and Ihvon, and not simply sword training itself.

17. Liandrin spots this conversation and then receives a message. This is where we get our discussion between Liandrin and Leane about the invaders on the western coast. The conversation is very vague with Leane, but then when she talks to Nynaeve later, Liandrin suddenly has a bunch of information about a specific group that was captured by the Seanchan. Given that we do find out in this episode that Liandrin is working with Ishamael (from the Mat & Min plotline), it's easy to guess where she got her information about Perrin and Loial's capture.

I love Leane's little shoulder wrap thing. The fashion in this show just vibes with me. I enjoy it. We do learn here that sisters were sent to investigate the attacks in the west.

I am very curious about what explanation they'll give for where Siuan currently is. They've made it a mystery and pointed out twice now that it's a mystery (both here and in 2x1, in the conversation between Egwene and Nynaeve).

18. Aw, wolves! This scene is great. Perrin gets some answers from Elyas, we learn about how the wolfbrother business works, Perrin learns that he isn't a werewolf, and we meet Hopper! What a cutie! I really liked the visualizations and the sendings of the wolves. We also learn that the wolves have been seeing Perrin's dreams.

I love how Elyas clearly is trying to help Perrin but his idea of help is just kinda... off from what Perrin thinks of help as.

I really like how seriously the show has taken Perrin's grief over Laila.

19. Lan has been obsessing over the poem, and Maksim catches him putting it away (explaining how Maksim knew where to look in the later scene). So... if I'm thinking about this storyline in terms of Alanna: Investigator, then Maksim talking to Lan here is just as much about trying to get information out of Lan as it is about trying to 'help' Lan get over his 'broken' bond with Moiraine.

"Have you ever known a marriage that is exactly the same another?" I do like that they are establishing that Warder bonds can come in all different kinds of ways.

20. Now we are back with Moiraine: Investigator, who is trying to figure out where Rand might have gone after the inn that he was staying in burned down. (I assume this conversation was also reported to Lady Anveare, lol)

21. Lanfear admits a small lie to Rand here (to get him adjusted to the idea that she can lie to him and it's okay?), saying that her family never came here, that it was actually her and her ex. Lanfear constantly talking about her ex with Rand: haha, I understand why he's just ugh, "Ugh, idk he sounds boring [aka I don't want to talk about your ex-boyfriend 24/7]" especially since we know from the conversation later that Rand has caught feelings for 'Selene' even though he was trying his hardest not to. He's likely assuming that the ex was older and more sophisticated and it makes him feel young and unsophisticated in comparison when she keeps bringing said ex up.

The music here is so good.

22. Mat and Min! This is a cute interaction, though it's colored by the fact that the viewers know that Min is working with Liandrin. Mat is so so adorable here and I'm glad he was able to shed the coat for this scene. Also, Min paying the bartender to get Mat drunk (so that he'll sleep through her 'meeting' later).

23. This conversation with Nynaeve and Liandrin is so good and so manipulative. Liandrin is able to take the information that Nynaeve discovered (about her son) and use it for her own benefit. I do think there's a certain amount of regret for her that she's pulling the trigger on the plan that she was given to follow by Ishamael (from her apology later) but there's no hesitation. We know from the conversation with Min in a little bit that Ishamael makes promises. "I couldn't risk losing the only thing in this world that's truly mine." A reason to make a deal with Ishamael? And she offers the carrot here for Nynaeve to take -- people you love are in danger. She knows Nynaeve well enough to know that Nynaeve will take the bait, and likely assumes that Egwene will get swept along with Nynaeve (she saw how much Egwene cares about Nynaeve last episode).

It's only Elayne that was a 'complication'.

24. So, again, in the context of Alanna: Investigator... Ihvon trying to work out why Moiraine left Lan behind (and being the distraction), while Maksim and Alanna snoop in his stuff. We do also learn here that Alanna and her Warders all agree on their top priorities: the Light winning out over the Dark (and then dessert).

25. Genuinely enjoyed Anvaere successfully playing Moiraine. This is her city! She's the one who stayed! She knows the place and the people. And it's a good reminder to Moiraine that people who can't channel can be just as capable as those who can. She left Lan behind to protect him, but Lan is willing to risk his life for this, just as Moiraine is. Anvaere has been doing the hard work of re-establishing their house and family after their uncle did something that destroyed their reputations (unspecified). And Anvaere got what she was after from the beginning -- for her big sisters to sit down and have tea with her.

26. Elayne and Egwene's conversation here is very cute. Elayne has lived with duty all her life. She's just perfect in this scene (she's perfect).

Nynaeve not expecting Egwene to come with her has to be SUCH a blow for Egwene to hear. That Nynaeve has misunderstood her so badly, that she's believed that Egwene is after power for power's sake, rather because she wants to use that power to help people (and especially the people she loves).

And Elayne following them. So cute!

Of course, then Liandrin shows up. But it was very cute until then!

27. "No one escapes their fate. You know that better than anyone." This dream that Ishamael pushes on her, so that she'll be more receptive to his offer, really is so heartbreaking. No wonder she wanted to escape and travel and go as far away as she could. The show has done such a good job setting up believable emotional stakes for the characters.

The second that Min realizes who she really made a deal with, she wants to break it. And here is where we officially find out where Ishamael wants Mat to be led: to Cairhien.

Of course, Rand is in Cairhien. And Min had that viewing about Mat stabbing Rand. But she doesn't know that Rand is in Cairhien. Interesting puzzle pieces.

28. Once we know that Lanfear is a Forsaken, I feel like we can guess that she set up this entire scenario (ex. why are they sleeping outside? Selene said she wanted to, probably, to set up the scene properly) -- she brought the Fade here, she wanted Rand to use the One Power so that she could act out the part of Distressed Girlfriend Struggling With Learning Her Boyfriend Can Channel. She does such a good job, too. She really plays on his fears and how desperate he is to still feel like himself. You can really see how his heart his breaking when she pulls away from him.

Natasha and Josha are so good in this scene. There are so many levels. She also manages to continue to give surprisingly solid life advice, which is somehow incredibly hilarious to me. But I feel like Rand is, uh, probably going to believe all that advice is terrible now.

We also see that Rand is learning the sword but still isn't very good at it, as the Fade quickly disarms him and he needs to use the Power in order to protect himself and (probably more importantly to his mind) 'Selene'.

29. There is definitely a part of me that wishes that this had just been a romance scene. Rand getting tied up (and liking it)! 'Selene' literally thumbs open his mouth for their kiss! The way she kisses down his body and the expression on his face! It was a very very sensual scene, very well done. "You are the first woman who's seen me as a man" he tells her and I think he means that pretty precisely -- he loved Egwene but he still felt like a boy with her.

But instead of being a romance scene it's, you know, a deeply traumatic moment for Rand and will hamper his ability to engage in emotional intimacy (which will also potentially lead to other delicious angst in the future, though, I hope). We've definitely been getting a lot of trauma for our youngsters set up in recent episodes and we're only half-way through the season, so plenty of time for more trauma.

So far, we have:

a. Mat has been, essentially, emotionally sabotaged by months of Liandrin picking away at his brain; and we know that he's been set loose to follow a plan laid out by Ishamael which is not likely to lead to rainbows and puppies (I will have some theories in my later post with book spoilers).

b. Nynaeve suffered the trauma of the arches and now has been betrayed when she finally had come around to trusting and respecting Liandrin Sedai.

c. Perrin watching one of the men that he's been traveling with killed in an incredibly brutal way and being helpless to do anything about it. He also was told that what he is brings him closer to the Dark One.

d. Egwene has been the main target of all the 'fake-out deaths' in the show -- Nynaeve in episode 1 (which she believed until episode 6); Rand in the current season; and then Nynaeve again last episode.

e. After struggling with his identity all last season, and making the choice to abandon his friends for their own safety, Rand has built himself a new life but couldn't help himself from caring for the new people in it. Just as he'd given in to his emotions about Selene (who he has potentially been sleeping with for months at this point) and she appears to have accepted him as a male channeler! ...he learns that she's essentially a super-charged version of Dana (to simplify things). He literally gets covered in her blood while he watches helplessly, gets hit with incredibly distressing news that he can't question because he knows the person saying it can't lie, and then has to abandon this woman that he's come to love while she's lying dead on the floor and his sword still has her blood on it. Formative trauma centering around emotional intimacy and sexual engagement, table for one!

30. Alanna, Maksim, and Ihvon also realize here that one of the Forsaken is loose, which is gonna confirm their belief that the Last Battle is at hand. Alanna doesn't want to believe that Lan knows he's been carrying around a prophecy about one of the Forsaken, aww.

31. Lanfear reveal! This ending was so intense. Moiraine attacking Selene but explaining that she couldn't kill her and then that blink at the end. So good!

#butterfly watches wot #wot #wheel of time #wot on prime #wot show spoilers #wot prime spoilers #wot 2x4 spoilers #wot s2 spoilers #wheel of time s2 spoilers

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 31: On the Scent

If you're on the scent for spoilers, keep reading! If you don't want to know everything about The Wheel of Time, including the books, show, comics, and card game all compressed into like, a couple thousand words inexplicably, definitely don't keep reading. The second you click that button everything will be psychically uploaded to your brain. I mean uh... something on theme... scentically uploaded to your nose.

We have a rising sun chapter as we're still in Cairhien and Thom's not around.

He gave one abrupt shudder and stopped laughing; she left him to crouch over Hurin.

Another not subtle thing to be doing. It's a good thing these Cairhienien are so politically suspicious that they miss the much greater threat right in front of them.

He said he didn’t know it, but he had a smile that shouted ‘lie’ a mile off.

Perrin could probably smell the lies on the dude before he opened his mouth.

I couldn’t hear what she said, but I didn’t know whether his eyes were going to pop out of his head or he was going to swallow his tongue first.

I'm sure that Verin just did the usual Aes Sedai thing and that the specifics aren't important, but it amuses me to imagine that she just told the dude the truth straight out.

He heard gasps from the Cairhienin listening, but he did not care. They could play their Great Game if they wanted, but Ingtar had come, and he was finished with it at last.

This is called dramatic irony and also counting your chickens before they hatch and whatnot.

Rand glanced at Perrin—He’s a sniffer?—and found Perrin studying him in return. He thought Perrin muttered something. Shadowkiller?

Have you boys tried talking to each other about your-

Nope. Can't even pretend to ask with a straight face.

Everyone was watching now—not even Cuale gave any attention to his own burning inn—and Rand thought a little caution might not be amiss after all.

Exactly Rand. You're surrounded by strangers in an immediate sense and surrounded by Darkfriends in a metaphorical sense. No point celebrating being free just yet.

Suddenly he noticed that the others were looking at him, Verin and Ingtar, Mat and Perrin. He realized what he had been doing, and his face colored. “I am sorry, Ingtar. It’s just that I’ve become used to being in charge, I suppose. I’m not trying to take your place.”

It's fascinating, how this boy has to be dragged kicking and screaming into everything, but once he accepts it he just takes to it instantly. A couple weeks' leadership and the boy completely forgets Ingtar's even there.

You can see why Demandred, Sammael, and Etcetera'al got so pissy.

She’s Moiraine’s eyes watching me, Moiraine’s hand trying to pull my strings. But I have cut the strings.

If only Rand had tried to learn about politics while he was here. He might have realized that Verin knowing things doesn't at all mean she's on Moiraine's side.

I guess that would probably have only made him more suspicious.

Also I forgot to mention her directly when taking these notes but Tiedra's plump so we know she's a good innkeeper.

It almost seemed to him that she was in the room with him, that he could smell her perfume, so much so that he looked around, and laughed to find himself alone.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if she had popped in invisibly somehow.

It was him, he thought. Rand is the Shadowkiller. Light, what’s happening to all of us? His hands tightened into fists, large and square. These hands were meant for a smith’s hammer, not an axe.

The duality that Perrin will be grappling with rears its ugly head. At last he already knows the answer. Though that really just makes his plot arc all the more frustrating.

Also, points to Perrin for pulling off having Rand in his POV instead of what usually happens (thus far in the series) and Rand hogging the spotlight. This isn't the first time this has happened (Egwene did it back in Fal Dara), but it does show the transition this series is slowly undergoing.

One of Mat’s eggs hit the floor and cracked. He did not look at it, though. He was looking at Rand, and Ingtar had turned around.

Mat, the so-called idiot, irresponsible fool: Has a tell about Rand's situation but volunteers nothing and doesn't cause any trouble.

Perrin realized he was staring, too. “Well, he did not fly,” he said. “I don’t see any wings. Maybe he has more important things to tell us.” Verin shifted her attention to him, just for a moment. He managed to meet her eyes, but he was the first to look away.

Perrin, the so-called quiet, responsible kid: Tries to get in a fight with a woman several decades his senior over his friend's honor.

“Interesting,” the Aes Sedai said, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I would very much like to meet this girl. If she can use a Portal Stone. . . . Even that name is not very widely known.”

Verin must suspect. How panicked does this make her?

Rand asked the innkeeper if there were any more books, and she brought him The Travels of Jain Farstrider. Perrin liked that one, too, with its stories of adventures among the Sea Folk and journeys to the lands beyond the Aiel Waste, where silk came from.

Is this our first real Shara reference? I think it might be.

The Shienaran played with a slashing, daring style. Perrin had always played doggedly, giving ground reluctantly, but he found himself placing the stones with as much recklessness as Ingtar. Most of the games ended in a draw, but he managed to win as many as Ingtar did.

Ignore the terrible pun and focus on how Perrin is being shifted by his experiences as well. Perhaps this is why he talked back to Verin earlier.

“There are Darkfriends among the high as well as the low,” Verin said smoothly. “The mighty give their souls to the Shadow as often as the weak.” Ingtar scowled as if he did not want to think of that.

Frankly Verin, if there weren't so few Aes Sedai I'd argue the Tower's horrible percentages make the mighty even more frequent donaters. And indeed note that Ingtar isn't "as if" anything. It's exactly the case that he doesn't want to think about noble Darkfriends.

“I know little of Cairhienin,” Ingtar told him, “but I’ve heard enough of Galldrian. He would feast us and thank us for the glory we had brought to Cairhien. He would stuff our pockets with gold and heap honors on our heads. And if we tried to leave with the Horn, he’d cut our honored heads off without pausing to take a breath.”

It's mind-boggling how actively detrimental to the cause of existence most of the modern day royalty proves to be. Like obviously they need to be toppled from their thrones and all that but damn.

There was a dignity to him that Perrin did not remember; Rand was looking at the Aes Sedai and the Shienaran lord as equals.

Well he's found the Horn of Valere twice now, so he's worthy of being a legendary hero even ignoring all the stuff he hasn't done yet. Selene's flirting sadly helped.

It will also help if you remember the way you behaved before the Amyrlin. If you are that arrogant, they will believe you are a lord if you wear rags.

Lan's training paying off in a dozen ways. He'd be so proud if he were here.

“A sa’angreal.” She sounded as if it were really not very important, but Perrin suddenly had the feeling the two of them had entered a private conversation, saying things no one else could hear.

For example, she's basically telling Rand what tools are available to him.

One by itself is powerful enough, but I can think of few women strong enough to survive the flow through the one on Tremalking. The Amyrlin, of course. Moiraine, and Elaida. Perhaps one or two others. And three still in training.

I guess Verin must think Cadsuane dead, since Lelaine and Romanda would make three if she were being counted. How terrifying that at this very point the White Tower has a total of eight, kind of nine women capable of using the Choedan Kal. It should be so much more.

As for Logain, it would have taken all his strength simply to keep from being burned to a cinder, with nothing left for doing anything.

Unless the male statue is quite different and only ever meant for Lews to use, Verin is very mistaken here. Logain is only a step below Rand, and there's sixteen tiers in between him and Moiraine.

She was talking to Rand. Perrin knew it, and from the queasy look in Mat’s eye, he did, too. Even Loial shifted nervously in his chair.

Thank goodness the empath is the POV to confirm that Loial is not blind or stupid but has in fact put two and two together.

Watching Verin’s smile, small and mysterious, Perrin felt a chill. He did not think Rand knew half what he thought he did. Not half.

Perrin you don't even know half of how right you are.

But we'll get to that next time, when our company visits The Huge Toad Crouching in the Night: Lord Barthanes's Manor! (Disclaimer: Toads may be metaphorical or even simileical)

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #rand al'thor #verin mathwin #hurin #mat cauthon #loial #perrin aybara #ingtar shinowa #cuale #tiedra

[onaperduamedee]

The more I progress, the more I suspect Rand's status as Dragon Reborn is less crucial than the fact he is a ta'veren. From their importance in the pattern to their powers, down to the consequences on their mental health and how little we know of their characteristics, ta'veren cover more ground than Dragon Reborn. I'd argue it is the lesser interesting aspect of Rand, except I have crunchy thoughts about narratives and the title itself, but more on that later. In short, channeling provokes Rand’s sickness, not being the prophecized one, the same way the dagger affects Mat or being a Wolfbrother affects Perrin, so at that point in the story being the Chosen One is almost parenthetical.

I feel there is a reason Loial, the character who is explicitly a storyteller, repeats ta'veren the way one would point out devices in a narrative. The Dragon Reborn in itself is a title granted by stories, and more interestingly in WoT, by loss of History. He is someone people believe in, a myth, and there is no direct evidence beyond the Dark One or Forsaken naming him as such and they are hardly reliable. In truth, there is no way of having direct evidence, really : the Dragon Reborn as a title is an archaelogical artefact backed by textual and oral sources.

I've seen people argue that being the Dragon Reborn is A Bad Thing which is why this aspect of Jordan's writing is unique. I haven't finished the entire series yet, but I suspect by the end I will disagree with that notion: the Chosen One being unenviable is baked into the definition of tragic heroes (Oedipus, Phaedra, and all of Racine’s heroes basically), with the added prophesied element, to the extent one could argue the Chosen One is merely the tragic fantasy hero. However, being the incarnation of a device in a story is a heck a lot fascinating to me, which is what ta'veren are. 

And it’s also on that narrative level that the concept of the Dragon Reborn is most interesting to me.

More than his power, it's the people around Rand who make him the Dragon - the Wheel doesn't want anything, it's people who want - and the belief that he is their savior. The books don't leave any wiggle room as Rand gets proof he is the Dragon Reborn before meeting Moiraine, but wouldn't it have been fascinating if he hadn't been? Just a strong channeler whose sense of duty toward the world (as well as a diminutive indomitable Cairhienin Aes Sedai) pushed him to begrudgingly accept he was the savior of the world.

On an emotional, purely entertaining level, it’s so compelling: the Wheel may be uncaring, but people aren't. More than the Dragon Reborn, this book could have been called People of the Dragon due to the number of people who went out of their way to help the heroes - travelers, soldiers, thieves, even Aes Sedai. And yeah, Siuan, Moiraine and Verin risk everything to guide the EF, even imperfectly and with all the emotional stuntedness the White Tower drilled into them. People believe in Rand, though barely aware of what he is, what his power is. They are worried about him, are dreaming, hoping. He draws people to him and moves them, literally attracting every single main character to the Stone of Tear. 

And this intensity of emotions surrounding Rand is in stark contrast to Rand’s relative absence, the way he keeps being glimpsed by other characters, always an outsider, even pushing others from his dreams - he’s fleeing, rushing to the end in order to get rid of his role as the Dragon Reborn. This denial extends to another level, as he’s very much a no-show in the book, refusing to take his place in the narrative of the book named after him. For as long as he does not become the main character of this story, he cannot be the eponymous character and claim the title, right?

On a narrative level, it’s the story about the Dragon and the people telling that story that create the Dragon, even before he claims the title and truly becomes the Dragon in acts. Again, I find this extremely telling that the character who has the most clearly archetypal coming-of-age arc in TEotW, Loial, is also writing a story about his adventures and so far his comings and goings have followed Rand’s closely. Stories-within-stories fashioning the hero. As if the prophecy in itself as a trope is incidental compared to the text, the fabric of stories surrounding the Dragon.

I know that as the story progresses, the psychological element will almost certainly get the upper hand, if only because Rand will be accepted as Dragon Reborn and will occupy a precise role in the narrative due to his status, but I thought that was a fascinating aspect at that point.

#The wheel of time #rand al'thor #wot book spoilers #the dragon reborn #wot meta #meta #remblai #leftovers from the big TDR post that did not fit there #and yeah I am very much aware this is just my interpretation but hey #let's Barthes and Todorov our way through these books it's going to be fun #also umpteenth episode of me not knowing how English writes Greek names #I am proud I managed not to use metadiegetic once #in which I am yet again mostly fascinated by the books' relationship with History and stories

[markantonys]

diving into lord of chaos! the 3 terms i know from this book going in are The Box, dumai’s wells, and asha’man kill. what do they mean? i don’t know, but i know they’re iconic (and traumatic) and i will be keeping an eye out for them

the similar names are starting to get out of hand. took me a solid paragraph to remember demandred was a forsaken and not some cairhienin (since a lot of cairhienin names have the -dred ending). and every time i see “mazrim taim” i feel like mat and tam al’thor are making up fake names to get free trials of stuff

our first glimpse of shayol ghul and the dark one! very exciting. does the dark one have a corporeal form or is he just like a spirit entity? a deity of sorts? how will rand be able to battle and defeat him? (all rhetorical questions ofc)

i wonder if shayol ghul will exist at all in the show since they’ve changed the dark one’s prison to the eye of the world. now that i’m thinking about it i think that was a great decision bc a) shayol ghul feels like a lotr knockoff whereas the eye and the blight are more distinct and memorable b) what even is the point of the eye in the books? does it ever come up again after the first one? why did moiraine even need to take the kids there in the first place (i’m sure this was explained at the time but i completely forget)? why is there just a pool of untainted saidin chilling there? how is that possible? how can saidin be matter, i thought it was just some intangible force? why doesn’t rand think about going back to the eye to try and use this untainted saidin? all this to say that the show’s version of “the eye is the dark one’s prison and moiraine has to take the kids there to defeat him” is much more clear-cut. and c) older hardened rand going to the eye to battle the dark one in the series finale the same way little baby rand did in the s1 finale will be a beautiful full circle moment and WILL make me cry my eyes out

is it just me or is the aes sedai not letting elayne go to caemlyn very uhhhhh stupid? i understand they want her to finish her training but, political powerhouses as they supposedly are, you would think they’d realize that a huge country being in turmoil because they have no ruler MIGHT cause problems. “if rand has you and caemlyn he has andor” so you think the solution is to keep elayne away and let him have caemlyn all to himself? how is that not worse?

if elayne can make ter’angreal now, i think she should make a matching set of Fuck Hut-esque ter’angreals for all members of the polycule so that they can long-distance date more effectively

"min’s laugh had a huskiness to it; elayne supposed many men would find that attractive. and she was pretty, in a mischievous sort of way.” i swear to god elayne is the most bisexual straight character i’ve ever encountered. i can’t wait for the show to make bi elayne canon

“if [rand] learns about the viewing he might decide it isn’t what we want, only the pattern, or his being ta’veren. he could decide to be noble and save us by not letting either of us near him” elayne says, and she is bang on, but min replies “more likely, if he realizes we’ll both come running when he crooks a finger, he’ll crook it. he won’t be able to help himself.” doing rand a huge disservice and proving that elayne knows him WAY better than she does

“you and i will divide him up like a pie. maybe we’ll let the third have a bit of crust when she shows up.” ugh. min you are losing my esteem left right and center. i absolutely loved her the first 4 books, things took an abrupt nosedive in book 5, and book 6 is not off to a promising start. some of you guys have assured me that min/rand will get much better once they actually have screentime together (though others have said that it remained their least fav rand ship throughout), which i hope is the case bc at the current moment there’s a long ways to go before i will ship it. at this point i’m advocating for mat straight up taking her spot in the polycule rather than being added as a fifth jkdjfg

very fitting that the next scene opens with faile saying “a man is not a horse or a field, neither of you can own him” i do feel like she ought to take her own advice there lmfao but i’m glad to see her again!!! despite how much the tsr relationship drama pissed me off, i actually really love faile? i think that’s an unpopular opinion, but I Just Think She’s Neat

so it seems it’s perrin’s turn to experience the homoerotic ta’veren pull! very interesting how faile thinks about “sharing” perrin with rand with similar language as elayne and min do about sharing rand romantically with each other. if you wanna be my lover you gotta get with my fellow ta’veren to whom fate has inexorably linked me

tangent but i’m realizing that mat’s struggle with his fate-pull to rand is so fucking SIMILAR to min’s and aviendha’s. good GOD just put him in the polycule!

“why did the dragon reborn need perrin now, so strongly that perrin could feel it across however many hundred leagues lay between them?” fellas is it gay to need your buddy so strongly that he can feel it from hundreds of leagues away

i know we hate gawyn, but him thinking about swearing an oath to give his life for elayne’s when he was “barely tall enough to peer into elayne’s cradle” 🥺🥺 that got to me okay? and i can’t blame him for believing the rumors that rand killed morgase and elayne and now wanting to kill rand for it. “gawyn had chosen to stay because his mother had always supported the tower, because his sister wanted to be aes sedai” that was an aha! moment for me where i felt that i understood gawyn’s decision in the coup much better - he has no reason to disbelieve the charges against siuan (esp since he was already suspicious of her for concealing elayne’s whereabouts) and he truly thought that supporting elaida (who was his mother’s advisor for most of his life) meant supporting the tower, and therefore his mom and sister. i still have no strong opinion about gawyn either way, time will tell whether i join the ranks of gawyn haters or end up taking him under my wing as a problematic fav

sevanna mentions a small cube that a wetlander gave to her with instructions of what to do with it once she had rand. mesaana mentions something called a “stasis box.” could one or both of these things be THE box????

i am 65% sure osan’gar is ishamael brought back to life (we know he’s a male forsaken but not rahvin, and i don’t think any of the other dead ones are important enough to make a comeback), but i wonder who aran’gar could be

“stripped to the waist...sweat slicked his hair to his skull, rolled down his chest...figures like that on the white banner overhead twined around his forearms, glittering metallically red-and-gold” god bless, we continue our tradition of a sexy description of rand to kick off the book (post-prologue). i vividly remember tfoh opening with a sexy description of him lounging by a window in rhuidean, and i believe tgh began with him shirtlessly sparring with lan

“sometimes he was so sick of himself that he really was ready to die” 😭😭😭😭😭

“rand said nothing; mat’s secrets were his own” protective boyfriend! “he supposed mat had to have read a book sometime, somewhere, but mat did not have much interest in books” exasperated boyfriend!

bashere is so chill i love him. how he has a daughter who is Like That i have no idea. i hope we get to see him and faile interact sometime.

“he would welcome more men who could channel walking the earth unmolested. finally he would stop being a freak.” 😭😭😭😭 man that just shattered my heart. sometimes it really hits that rand is only a deeply lonely 20-year-old trying his best. also, rand’s channeling abilities as metaphor for queerness example #372456

“i’m going to build something, leave something behind. whatever happens, i will do that! i’ll defeat the dark one. and cleanse saidin, so men don’t have to fear going mad, and the world doesn’t have to fear men channeling” just copy in all my commentary from the previous bullet point, crying emojis included

lots of mentions of rand’s luck, and taim even says he has the dark one’s own luck. which as we know is a mat thing! leave me to grasp at what cauthor straws i can, ok? now that i mention it, i’m 90% sure that the very first instance of “time to toss the dice” was actually rand, when he was trying to take them all thru the portal stone in tgh

lews therin when rand yells at him to shut up: surprised pikachu.jpg. interesting that he may be an actual conscious (?) voice that rand can talk to, rather than just memories etc. but does this mean that lews therin will never truly get to rest in peace, if some part of him is still alive thru rand? that’s so sad :(

i feel that entrusting all these male channelers to the tutelage of some powerful and dangerous guy who just showed up who rand is getting bad vibes from right off the bat may not be the smartest idea, but poor rand is so overworked, he really doesn’t have many other options

“to the maidens, rand was all those children come back, the first child of a maiden ever to be known to everyone”

okay okay okay i’m fine moving on

“he had to stay away from [aviendha]. he carried death with him like a contagious disease; he was like a target, and people died near him” see? elayne was bang on

rand absolutely owning the maidens by telling a joke so bad even i can’t work out the punchline. i love him.

“tolmeran’s doubts centered on mat. despite what he had heard from cairhienin of mat’s skill in battle, tolmeran thought it flattery from fools for a country man who happened to be a friend of the dragon reborn” i just KNOW there are rumors that mat only got his job because he’s sleeping with rand, i just know it

“they were honest objections, and semaradrid’s even had validity” so rand thinks that tolmeran’s objections about mat are NOT valid. supportive boyfriend!

the maidens giving rand advice for how to get aviendha’s attention i’m crying they are his big sisters and moms!!! i love them!!!!

had to post this passage in full bc i’m hollering. i rest my case about there being rumors that mat is sleeping with rand. he is so anxious about anyone finding out rand teleported to his room for a pre-dawn bootycall (which, come on, rand, you can’t just teleport directly into someone’s room in the middle of the night, mat would’ve been well within his rights to stab you)

“how do you know you’re in love with a woman, mat?” “how in the pit of doom should i know?” mat has no time for your heteronormative assumptions rand

i feel like rand didn’t even need mat’s input on anything, he just came bc he wanted to talk to him 🥺 usually rand keeps his problems close to his chest, but he’s venting pretty freely to mat rn

rand saying “no man should have another man’s voice in his head” about his own problems and mat thinking he’s talking about HIS problems AAAAAAHHHH JUST FUCKIN TALK TO EACH OTHER YOU IDIOTS!!! YOU HAVE (SOME OF) THE SAME PROBLEMS!!! GIVE EACH OTHER THERAPY!!!!! GODDAMMIT

mat has adopted a child!! he really went “i’ve only had olver for a second and a half but if anything happens to him i’ll kill everyone in this town and then myself.” he is such a dad!!!! him kneeling down to talk to olver instead of talking about him over his head to another adult because he used to hate when adults did that to him 🥺🥺🥺 this will be all the more touching in the show with Dad Mat already established by his devotion to his sisters

i am so sooooo curious about the lands beyond the aiel waste and wonder if we’ll ever see more of them

#wot #wot book spoilers #oh i forget whereabouts this happened but i cracked up when rand was like 'uh oh i lost asmodean. oh well!' #poor asmodean really did get the most unceremonious offing

[oh-no-bummer]

Wheel of time book 5 Spoilers!!!!

Less than 100 pages left.

I think this might be my favourite book for now.

But

WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING WITH MOIRAINE?!!!!!!?????

I swear if something happens to her now...

Rand an her finally see eye to eye and she has been given more space, she cannot die now. She cannot.

I want to see her interact with Nynaeve and the other Aes Sedai. I want to hear her and Lan talk

Why did she give Rand a letter, I'm hoping it's because she thinks they won't see each other for a while. But I was actually really hoping that Lord of Chaos would be focusing more on them, that they'd finally become friends.

This book was weird on her, she wasn't strongly present, pheraps less than ' the shadow rising' but a lot happened around her. Her relationship with egwene and Rand changed and evolved drastically, especially in the last part of the book. The wise ones mentioned her too many times when talking to Nynaeve and Elayne, it was obviously to show the fact that now she and Rand are close and dare I say trust each other. But there's a part of me that thinks it was few lines on that and it was very rushed and pheraps a bit too rough and drastic.

But I have enjoyed their building dynamic, they way they have to learn to exist with each other and I would be incredibly sad if this was the extent to which it was explored. I have this impression that Robert Jordan goes for subtlety with friendship and most dynamic, but I think sometimes he exaggerates and misse them. He does this thing where he states how important people are to each other in an indirect way, through other characters'observstion or a short line or reflection in a pov. He is not very direct with dialogue, that's not how character explore their emotions and connection in his books. Which is s new style that I'm experiencing and pheraps I just have to get used to it. But I would hate it if because of that some things remained unexplored or only slightly talked about.

Plus Moiraine's letter to Thom...ugh... I don't how I feel about all that yet. Obvious I know that I'm not gonna get Siuraine like in the show, but I don't think I'll settle for their other romantic relationships instead.

I also feel like this book gave me a lot of Nynaeve and Elayne and I think I know both of their characters better now and I feel like I am able to appreciate them much more. Theirs is also a very fun dynamic and Birgitte only adds to it in a delightful way.

I have to say also, that pheraps the show spoiled me a bit with the importance places on the bond between a warder and an Aes Sedai. I really thought that this book would be at least addressing the problems within Lan and Moiraine. He almost left her for Nynaeve, she practically tied him to another Aes Sedai. In the show their relationship is immediate and big and important, pheraps because of the futuristic perspective of the writers. But in the books sometimes I've felt like if I didn't know they mattered to each other, I would miss it. Yes there are moments. But I'm hoping in something more detailed, honestly Verin and her warder felt closer in book 4 than them in the last two.

Rand has also evolved so much. I think after the sixth book I will have more to say about him individually, right now I'm still trying to wrap my head around him. I'm studying him like one of the cairhienin lord.

That's pretty much it for now, I don't know if any of it makes sense. Can't wait to finish this.

#part 4 of me rambling on the wheel of time #I'm really anxious #and bitter on some stuff #but I'm enjoying the books a lot #moiraine is a genius that deserves better #nynaeve al'meara #the wheel of time #wheel of time book 5 #siuanraine #siuraine #lan mandragoran #rand al'thor #the wheel of time spoilers #wheel of time on prime #wheel of time #moiraine damodred #moiraine sedai #does this make sense

[hazelcephalopod]

The Great Hunt Ch 19-20

Making decisions to fight and run really work better when you make the decisions!

Disclaimer: this is my first read thru but I’ve watched all of the show thus far and been spoiled on some book things. So… I’m going to lean into that. Enjoy figuring out what I know, and what I think I know, and what I just don’t. Also s/x I add commentary when I edit.

Spoilers for the first and second book and all of season 1 under the cut. Potential spoilers for later books -idk if they’re light spoilers or not.

Ch 19

Horn

POV Rand

…kinda surprised it’s not like Perrin or something

At least his sword isn’t stabbing him in his side this time. Guess he got better at sleeping with it

You poor sweet woolhead

…and it got real sad

Honesty it’s just hurt no comfort for a while now huh?

Wtf are you doing now Selene?

Woman in white standing in the moons shadows while Rand is in the ground wrapped in something huh…

Yea get the fuck rid of it!

…like it do believe Moiraine was trying to help but like, maybe a miscalculation

…tho he’s maybe being a bit paranoid. Idk. People really don’t like the Dragon and I’m not sure how much they know. Selene would. I’m pretty sure Selene already does tho

…we’ll get on with it.

The awkwardness is visceral

Wait… Lmao. Selene just, keeps getting cock blocked doesn’t she? That hilarity does make it, uh, better I’ll say

“Moonshadows veiled her face in mystery…” -(Rand) as Selene continues doing her weird seduction thing

She is for sure magic-ing them

Glory just sounds like way too much attention

“It means Brother, and is short for tia avende alantin. Brother to the Trees. Treebrother. It is very formal but then, I've heard the Cairhienin are formal. The nobe

Houses are, at least.” -Loial on what alantin means. It’s the Old Tongue

Idk if Saidin is trying to warn and help him there or the opposite

Oh btw they saw a fire and went to investigate. And it is in fact Fain and some Trollocs

…just Rand and Loial tho. Selene did convince Rand to take Loial (I soon learn that was actually a good and helpful idea)

Oh back to suspense! Thank all that is good (this is just good to read)

Ok. So the void stuff is cool but I will say, for the show, it would be difficult to translate to screen. I’m curious to see if and how it might be tho

Yea don’t touch that

Or… yea. Just grabbing it quickly works.

Oh… he really does just want to

Oh fuck. Just also grabbing the horn?!

And everyone is awake and starting to follow

Time to run!

Or to fight?!

Oh that’s good combat writing. Especially with resisting saidin at the same time.

Oh they got it

Lol. Yea g’luck with all that Selene

“Those Friends of the Dark…” - Selene. Interesting phrasing

Off he’s so repressed that her seduction is just a burden on trying to manipulate him. Lol. (I have to just find the humor in it)

…well she got him to go to Cairhien

Just only didn’t overplay her hand

Putting the dagger in the chest too (I soon learn that is a very good idea)

Ooo late POV shift, to Fain

I mean. He’s pissed. Wants his shit back and Rand dead

“You will pay for what was done to me, al’Thor! The world will pay!“ -Fain

Ch 20: Saidin

The Dragon’s Fang

POV Rand

Ya leaving in the night was wise

She really wants that Horn.

Haven’t had a skin tingle in a while

Oh good job Rand.

…I mean she’s so obvious tho. She must be using magic

Two times that regal-ness has been associated with Aes Sedai.

He is so young. Yes. She’s manipulating you. Anyone can

Good idea! Dunno if it will work

Umm. Sudden archeology dig?

Giant crystal sphere in the ground?!

I’m sorry a large statue of a bearded man holding a giant ass sphere? This is just that wizard meme

Yes! Domon did mention another one!

And immediately saidin called to him

Ahhh fuck that was good.

Can’t escape the power. It will call forever

Remembering what just happened or something else I wonder?

Village found: Tremonsien

Oh cool! Village built into the stone! Alongside buildings built from stone

Inn: The Nine Rings

…apparently named after one of Rand’s favorite adventure stories

He is like… so naturally good at just foiling peoples plans. It’s kinda great.

That was a short chapter!

#series of many thoughts on twot #< block or filter to stop seeing these posts #Tgh #tgh spoilers #the great hunt #the wheel of time #wheel of time #wot #wot book spoilers #twot book #twot book spoilers

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: The Gathering Storm ch 29

There are just so many different ways in which this could go so catastrophically wrong.

Chapter 29: Into Bandar Eban

Oh okay cool this is great we’re in Rand’s head for the first time since The Last That Could Be Done and not only are we in his POV but we’re actually right in one of his thoughts and that thought is:

Moiraine Damodred, who died because of my weakness.

So this is a good start.

I am actually genuinely excited to see Rand’s POV after…that. Because I like seeing characters tortured and I like seeing characters in pain and I also like seeing what happens when they’re pushed too far, and when all of that snaps. And this has been coming for so, so long.

The gates were said to be carved with the city’s seal, but swung open as they were, Rand couldn’t see them.

No gates, no barriers, nothing stands in his way anymore – at least, not that he can see, from where he stands now. He’s crossed the last threshold and so there is nothing to hold him back.

I have a weakness for this kind of not-quite-subtle double-meaning symbolism.

The list ran through his head. Almost a daily ritual now, the name of every woman who had died by his hand or because of his actions. The street inside the city was of packed earth, lined with ruts that crisscrossed at the intersections. The dirt was lighter here than he was used to.

Colavaere Saighan, who died because I made her a pauper.

I like how the description of the list and the descriptions of the city are alternated and placed side-by-side, without even so much as a paragraph break when we switch from one to another; it’s a juxtaposition that gives us a chilling insight into his mindset. It’s all just fact to him now, just observation of the state of things. Reported in the same emotionless tone, because nothing matters now. He has pushed through pain and into a void colder and more emotionless than what he knew before, a state of cuendillar, of unfeeling darkness and apathy deep enough to let him reach the True Source.

And then we go straight into the list itself, continuing in his mind beside all the rest, and still there is no shift in tone. It’s all just…chilling, apathetic monotone. The whole world nothing more than a set of observations and plain statements.

The list always began with Moiraine.

As his story does, in so many ways. She was there at the beginning; she heard the announcement of his birth and she led him from Emond’s Field. So I suppose it’s appropriate…but if it begins with her, and she is not truly dead, what does that mean for the list when he finds out she’s alive?

(What sort of data structure is this list, anyway?)

He hated himself for allowing her to sacrifice herself for him.

And still he doesn’t see the contradiction inherent in that sentence: if she sacrificed herself, he allowed nothing. The choice was hers. But that’s something he’s never quite learned – and I think in a way it ties into how he views his own fate. He tries to take responsibility for everything, but he also doesn’t believe he truly has any choices left; he doesn’t believe in his own agency, but he’s also desperately afraid of truly accepting his fate and his past in case it means sharing in Lews Therin’s doom. So there’s a whole mess here when it comes to recognising and even possessing agency, both for himself and for everyone around him.

A child stepped off the boardwalk and started to run out into the street, but his father caught him by the hand and hauled him back into the press of people. Some coughed and muttered, but most were silent. The sounds of Rand’s troops marching on the packed earth seemed a thunder by comparison.

This stands in excellent contrast to Rand first entering Cairhien after the battle, which began with a sense of wary silence as well but then broke into shouting, praise, gratitude, and a sense of salvation. People pressing in to touch him or to see. Here…there’s one flicker of movement towards him, but it is arrested; it’s almost a perfect opposite. Cairhien was initial despair and wariness breaking into a wave surging forwards; this is initial movement forwards halting and falling back into wary silence.

There were no cheers from the people on those boardwalks. Well, he had not come to liberate. He had come to do what must be done.

So he sees it too. The opposite of Cairhien, where he came to liberate and wanted so badly to not destroy further. But that was a long time ago. That was before Moiraine, and before…so much else.

It’s almost eerie how strongly this calls up the memory of that scene, though, from so many books ago.

Oddly, Lews Therin started to chant with him, reading off the names, a strange, echoing chant inside his head.

Is he passing this list across the barrier he’s still holding between them, the way he seems to have done with other things he can’t deal with, ever since the voice began to manifest? Initially it was Lews Therin’s memories themselves that Rand tried to push away, trying to restore a barrier that had begun to erode between his life now and his life before, but it sometimes seems like he’s pushed other things away as well and they’ve ended up on that side of this barrier he’s holding – so is he subconsciously doing the same with the list? Pushing it away, to the other side of that barrier along with everything else he can’t afford to feel or think or focus on, or anything else he can’t let himself accept or know?  He’s killed a woman now and won’t hold himself back anymore from doing so again, so he starts to shift the list away, across the barrier, along with everything else – like trust – that he’s left behind.

I suppose it’s fitting, in a way; I still tend to think Rand’s extreme aversion to killing women and his use of that as a final line in the sand comes in part from the fact that Lews Therin was pushed over his own breaking point by the realisation that he had killed Ilyena, so Rand giving this list ‘back’ in some ways brings it full circle. It’s also a sad moment of…unity, I suppose, between these sides of himself (‘so many parts of him, mind splintered in glittering shards, all screaming’), but I don’t think unity in the form of shared self-flagellation is really the solution here.

I do still very much want to see what happens to this barrier; Chapter 22 was very much a breaking point for Rand, but it doesn’t seem to have had any effect on the division in his mind, and that barrier just seems like another thing that is under so much pressure – a dam holding back everything he can’t think about, everything he can’t accept, so much that has the potential to break him – and what happens when it can’t hold? Or can he find a way to drop it himself? He’s let go or pushed away or torn off so many parts of himself; where else to start anew than by accepting some of them back; letting go of this fight against himself?

Though what could possibly incentivise him to do that, at this point, is anyone’s guess. That’s the problem with moral event horizons, especially when a character has set their own: once crossed, there’s little reason, in that character’s mind, to even try to turn back.

“I deliver to you the city of Bandar Eban. Order has been restored, as you commanded.”

“I asked you to restore order to the entire country, Dobraine,” Rand said softly. “Not just one city.”

It’s the ‘softly’ that makes this so chilling. We’ve seen Rand lose his temper, and we’ve seen him shout, but this just continues the same dispassionate, eerie calm that came with the True Power and hasn’t lifted.

On another note, Dobraine being the one to hand Rand Bandar Eban is rather fitting with how so much of this is an inverted echo of Rand’s entry into Cairhien. It’s a little thing, but it ties this first scene together well.

He had always been stalwart, but was that a ruse? […] Dared Rand trust anyone from Cairhien, with their games? 

Moiraine was Cairhienin. I trusted her. Mostly.

Trust has been thoroughly left behind at this point. Or passed across the barrier to Lews Therin, perhaps.

But that part about Moiraine…even if it ends in the rather ominous ‘mostly’, it suggest that there’s still a part of him, a small part, that recognises that he’s gone too far. A part of him that seems almost afraid, or at least uncertain of where he now stands and what he has become. It lets us hold on to that little bit of hope that he might be able to come back from this, that he can find a way up from this lowest of low points…but it also makes the whole thing even more horrifying, in a way. Because that means that some part of him this side of the barrier with Lews Therin can recognise that, and so is watching helpless as this plays out, almost the way Rand was trapped in his own mind, unable to do anything but watch in horror as he strangled Min.

Most of that, I think, has been pushed across to Lews Therin, but some remains. Perhaps.

Each name on Rand’s list pained him, but that pain was a strange, distant thing now. His feelings were…different since the day he had killed Semirhage. She had taught him how to bury his guilt and his heart. She had thought to chain him, but instead had given him strength.

Oh, Rand, no.

Now he’s echoing himself when he was released from the prison in Far Madding – when he smiled slightly but not in a way that showed any sort of warmth, and said Far Madding had taught him something valuable. He used his time there to flay himself with his list, to use it to try to harden himself, and saw the pain as a lesson and a forge. And now he’s thinking of Semirhage in the same way – thinking of an even more horrifying imprisonment as a lesson, as something he could almost be grateful to the way he claims to be grateful to Far Madding.

He added her name and Elza’s name to the list. They didn’t have any right to be on there. Semirhage was less a woman and more a monster. Elza had betrayed him, serving the Shadow all along. But he added the names.

Yeah that’s perfectly normal and healthy.

He fingered the object he carried in a pouch on his saddle. It was a smooth figurine.

Okay that is decidedly not healthy either for him or probably for anyone in the immediate vicinity. Or even the non-immediate vicinity. This can only end well…

So Cadsuane found a loophole in his sentence of exile. I don’t know whether this will end well or badly but I’m sort of glad she’s there, because she’s one of the few people with the guts to challenge him.

Though challenging an unfettered Rand while he’s holding the key to the Choedan Kal is roughly akin to challenging an unstable nuclear warhead, so. There’s that.

(Or maybe more like challenging an unstable leader with a finger on the nuclear button, but let’s just…back away from that analogy slowly and without making eye contact).

Death no longer worried him. Finally, he understood Lews Therin’s cries to let it end. Rand deserved to die. Was there a death so strong that a man would never have to be reborn?

Um.

I mean first of all, obviously, ow, but also are you sure that’s your own thought, Rand? Because thinking he deserves death sounds like him but that last bit…and even the first part…sounds a little more like something that follows out of ‘When you are victorious, it only leads to another battle. When he is victorious, all things will end. Can you not see that there is no hope for you?’ There is no hope, says the Betrayer of Hope, no way out, nothing but more fighting, again and again…and maybe Rand’s just reached a point where he believes that too, now; where he sees the only way out as an ending where he doesn’t have to return, even if in his mind it’s the Light victorious and not the Shadow. But also, they are linked, he and Moridin, and I wonder…

I suppose in a way it doesn’t matter where the thought originates, or rather, the confusion is itself part of the point: it’s no longer possible to tell Rand apart, in his thoughts, from the one who is supposedly his greatest enemy. It’s no longer possible to truly distinguish between the two sides, at least in their thoughts.

And while on the one hand that’s as terrifying as it’s meant to be, it also carries this feeling of great tragedy: that these two have been so utterly consumed by the forces they represent that there’s nothing left to them of themselves. That their own thoughts align because all they want, either of them, is a way for it to end, because that is the only freedom left to them.

I don’t know that either cares anymore, really, about their side winning. Rand is fighting for the Light but no longer for any purpose beyond necessity; he just wants to reach the Last Battle and then it can end (he can end). Moridin…if he believes truly in what he said, then there is no reason for him to want the Shadow’s triumph unless he wants that ending – the only way out that he can see.

And yet here they are, bringing Light and Shadow against each other for a great battle to define the future of the world, and yet neither cares anymore except as a way to make it all stop. But they can’t walk away – Rand because that would mean defeat of the Light and he is determined to see this through even if he no longer has anything to fight for and no longer believes he has a choice, and Moridin because…walking away would mean victory for the light, which he believes only leads to another battle, which means he has to do this again.

Not surprising then, I suppose, that they would then have similar thoughts about death and endings here. Especially given the link between them.

No don’t you dare put Min’s name on the list. She’s not dead, for one thing. Then again, neither is Moiraine…

There was no safety. If she died, he would add her to the list and suffer for it.

I don’t know that there’s any response beyond ‘yikes’ for something like that, so….yikes.

Rains came often here; Bandar Eban was the prime port city of the northwest. If it wasn’t a great city like those in the south, it was still impressive.

Oh, hello Seattle.

Rand was glad to find that the Sea Folk rakers had arrived – finally – with grain from the south. Hopefully, that would do as much to restore order as Dobraine and the Aiel had.

Also hopefully it will do something to reduce those signs of starvation you literally just mentioned…but Rand is far beyond thinking of the humanitarian reasons at this point. It’s all necessity and strategy and tactics. Before, he hated himself for even thinking of those things alongside the fact that it would help keep people from starving. Now, they’re the only things that make it into his thoughts at all.

A horse clopped up beside Rand. At first, he assumed it would be Min – but no, she was riding behind, with the Wise Ones. Did she look at him differently now, or was he just imagining it? Did she remember his fingers at her throat every time she saw his face?

This one hurts because, unlike some of his suspicion and paranoia (some but not all; when the embodiment of chaos and entropy is out to get you, you’re allowed a little wariness), it’s a very fair question. How could she not? It’s not his fault, and she knows that and she loves him, but it was his hands on her neck and his face over hers and that’s not an easy thing to just…dismiss.

Poor Min. Poor Rand. Such delicious pain.

“This exile, it is foolish, Rand al’Thor,” Merise said dismissively. Was she intentionally trying to rile him, perhaps to make him easier to bully? After months of dealing with Cadsuane herself, this woman’s pale imitation was almost amusing. 

“You should beg for her forgiveness,” Merise continued.

What’s interesting here is that it seems almost as if those around Rand don’t realise just how much he’s changed. Whereas the reader, watching this through his eyes, can tell that we’re worlds away from just a few chapters ago, and there’s this sense of ‘no, no, don’t say that; run away; this is not what you’re used to’ towards Merise. Everything has changed, but to the rest it may look like yet another small step, and they’ve seen those before. It’s interesting in particular because it’s an almost perfect inverse of how we’re often shown changes through outsider POV, or else through Rand’s POV but in his confusion at the changes in how people react to him, because he doesn’t recognise them in himself, or recognise the extent to which they’re visible andterrifying.

Here, though, he’s the one who has stepped over his own last line, into this new unfettered territory of apathy and emptiness, and it’s a change he recognises and makes use of, because he…defined it.

“Well?” Merise asked. 

Rand turned his head and looked Merise in the eyes. He had discovered something shocking during the last few hours. By bottling up the seething fury within him – by becoming cuendillar – he had gained an understanding that had long eluded him. 

People did not respond to anger. They did not respond to demands. Silence and questions, these were far more effective. Indeed, Merise – a fully trained Aes Sedai – wilted before that stare.

Everything is different for him now, and he’s very aware of that, in ways he hasn’t been before, and this time it’s everyone else who hasn’t fully realised. Who still thinks it’s more or less the previous status quo…until he turns that gaze on them.

So as the reader, sharing his head, you expect everyone to be keeping their distance, or to be approaching him very differently than before, if at all. Because it’s such a stark change – a much more immediate and striking change than the gradual, creeping ones we’ve seen in Rand before. Even his first POV after Dumai’s wells – surprising though expected in how much he had changed, how little trust was left to him – was less striking than this. And I think a lot of that is because of this…self-awareness. Rand knows he’s crossed that last line, knows exactly where he’s gone: past the point he set as a point of no return, into irredeemability and monstrosity where it no longer matters, so he is free to do whatever he deems necessary.

But it’s not yet clear to everyone else what that line was, and what it means that he’s crossed it. Merise  doesn’t realise that there’s been a massive paradigm shift here, and so ist’s unnerving to watch, much the same way – and yet opposite – that it was unnerving to watch Rand not realise why people looked at him differently at various points much earlier. Or even to watch others respond to Rand in their own POV in a way that contrasted so sharply with how he saw himself in his own thoughts. Only now it’s…flipped. He sees a change, and the rest of them don’t.

It’s very well done.

His rage, his anger, his passion – it was all still there, buried within. But he had surrounded it with ice, cold and immobilising. It was the ice of the place Semirhage had taught him to go, the place that was like the void, but far more dangerous.

Yeah, the place that is like the void but allows you to touch the True Power. The place that is like the Void but brings you to a point where you can access the Dark One’s own power. Where you can reach out to the very thing you’re trying to defeat, because you have reached a mindset that is compatible with it. Does this not seem like maybe a void you want to avoid?

(Okay sorry I’ll go sit over in the bad pun corner).

Merise still doesn’t seem to get it. It’s such an effective way of highlighting what’s going on here, and showing just how much has changed and how far Rand has gone, and how different that step was from the rest – no longer a building of all that tension but a step off the edge of a cliff – to show him interacting with someone who doesn’t see it, who doesn’t realise what exactly he’s done. Because it feels like an interaction that belongs to a different age entirely, to a different character…and yet it’s the difference of days. Of moments. And that highlights and emphasises the impact, and makes this whole thing all the more frightening.

“Do you think that failures should be unpunished?” Rand asked, voice still soft. Why had he lost his temper? These little annoyances were not worth his passion, his fury.

Merise is only beginning to see that things are Different Now, but to Rand…it’s a world apart. It’s a new perspective, one that feels enlightened but is so very much not, and it’s horrifying and chilling and excellent.

I have waited eleven books for this and I am savouring every moment.

If one bothered him too much, all he needed to do was snuff it out, like a candle.

And there’s nothing holding him back from that, now. That’s the thing about moral event horizons. They open up whole new realms of possibility because there’s no reason not to. Nothing worth saving in himself, because he’s already gone. So why hold back? Why have qualms? Annoyances suddenly seem trivial because dealing with them once was a challenge without the unfettered ability to kill anything that bothered him, but now? Why get irritated when you can just…make it stop? When you have godlike power in your hands and no scruples left?

Yeah. This Is Fine.

A dangerous thought. Had it been his? Had it been Lews Therin’s? Or…had the thought come from…elsewhere?

And what’s more worrying: that it came from elsewhere, or that you don’t know if it was yours or not, because there’s so little difference?

“Do you realise her mistake, Merise? Have you considered what could have happened? What should have happened?”

“I – ”

“The end of all things, Merise,” he whispered. “The Dark One with control of the Dragon Reborn. The two of us, fighting on the same side.”

Well, I mean…how far are you from that, now? That’s the point, isn’t it; it’s what Cadsuane herself said: if he goes to the Last Battle as he is, his victory could be as dark as his defeat. He has touched the power of the Shadow, has left all care for life and hope for light behind; all that’s left is the task of winning.

And now Merise gets it. Just about.

Oh cool and balconies full of people fall, and I sort of…doubt they’re balanced by random events of great fortune, this time. The balance is gone.

So about that whole fighting on the same side thing.

Could he be sure it wasn’t due to some interaction with the new force? That unseen yet tempting well of power Rand had tapped, used, and enjoyed? Lews Therin thought what happened should have been impossible.

The original reason mankind had bored into the Dark One’s prison had been power. A new source of energy for channelling, like the One Power, but different. Unknown and strange, and potentially vast. That source of power had turned out to be the Dark One himself.

Lews Therin whimpered.

Because Rand can’t let himself feel that fear; it can’t penetrate the ice he’s surrounded himself with, and so it gets pushed away to Lews Therin, and Rand is left with nothing but the dispassionate speculation about that power and its effects. There is worry there, and fear, but he can’t let them be his.

That other force called to him, sang to him, tempted him. So much power, so much divine wonder. But it terrified him. He didn’t dare touch it, not again.

It’s interesting that he admits ‘it terrified him’, but this is where I think he’s made a separation between actually feeling the full force of that fear and knowing in a sort of intellectual way that it’s something to fear, something he should not touch. He keeps the latter, but the former is left to Lews Therin.

Also the use of the word ‘divine’ is interesting; I don’t recall seeing that before, but I could be mistaken.

And so he carried the key. He was not certain which of the two sources of energy was more dangerous, but as long as both called to him, he was able to resist both.

Oh there’s no way this could possibly go wrong.

It’s fitting, though; he is at war against himself, divided against himself. Two wounds in his side, fighting each other as much as him. And now two opposing sources of devastating power, calling to him, so he pits those twin desires against each other. He is in so many ways divided, in so many ways at war. And it can’t hold.

Once, he hadn’t dared carry it for fear of what it offered. He no longer had room to indulge such weakness.

I wouldn’t consider not wanting to destroy the world a weakness…

(Then again look at how climate change advocates or environmentalists are regarded).

Anyway, this is exactly it: he can’t ‘indulge’ his fear anymore – fear is a restraining factor, after all, and he has let go of those, crossed all those lines – so he pushes it away. So Lews Therin cries, but Rand just pits two forces against each other and moves on.

Rand halted Tai’daishar, then surveyed his new home.

We have no home, Lews Therin whispered. We destroyed it. Burned it away, melted to slag, like sand in a fire.

The guy sure knows how to kill a conversation.

But there’s topiary, so everything’s fine.

That made him think of Aviendha. Wherehadshe gone, so suddenly? He could feel her through the bond, but it was faint – she was very far away. To the east. What business was there for her in the Waste?

RHUIDEAAAANNNNNNNNN.

Perhaps he would be able to keep himself from hurting her before death came.

That’s what he’s reduced to, now. That’s all he can even try to hope for. Once, he was determined not to use anyone. Not to use his friends. Not to hurt his friends. Not to lose himself completely. Not to…

His enemies didn’t know of her yet.

Uh, Rand? I think Lanfear, at least, is very awareof Aviendha’s existence.

He dismounted, plucking the statuette from its strap and sliding it into the oversized pocket of his coat, which had been quickly tailored to hold it.

I think I speak for anyone who wears clothing marketed to women when I say that I, too, would like to have my clothing quickly tailored to include large pockets whenever I need to hold something.

After living in several palaces, he was still impressed. And disgusted. The opulence he found beyond the manor’s front doors would never have indicated that the people of the city starved.

He’s still able to feel that;  he just can’t let it truly touch him anymore. He still has something of a functioning moral compass, it’s just that he has no limits anymore. We’re into pure ends-justify-the-means territory, where the ends have been reduced to ‘drag the world to Tarmon Gai’don and win at any cost’. There’s no reason, no end or aim or goal beyond that. There’s no cause to fight for; there’s just a fight to win, and it doesn’t matter what it takes to get there. Or, it does – he still hates himself for what he does and what he may have to do – but he’ll do any of it anyway, if necessary.

“Gather your armsmen. Narishma has been instructed to provide a gateway for you to Tear.”

“Tear, my Lord?” Dobraine asked, surprised.

‘Thanks for the country, now go get me that one.’ And I thought my boss was demanding.

When Lews Therin is telling you you need to be less suspicious of people, you know you have a problem. Then again, Lews Therin used to be the one screaming never to trust…he taks on whatever qualities Rand can’t let himself hold, which means there have been some…reversals…over the last several books.

He wasa good man. Rand knew he was.

Light, what is happening to me? Rand thought. I need to trust some people. Don’t I?

Trust…? Lews Therin whispered.Yes, perhaps we can trust him. He cannot channel. Light, the one we cannot trust at all is ourselves…

How many of you are you including in that?

But this is just it: Rand can see what he’s doing, can feel himself changing, can tell that some of it at least is too much, going too far, but he can’t stop it. And so Lews Therin, once the voice of madness and memories Rand couldn’t accept, becomes the voice of reason and restraint Rand can no longer allow.

“I need an audience chamber,” Rand said to the servants below, “and a throne. Quickly.”

Once, he would not have asked for the throne.

He hadn’t expected [Milisair Chadmar] to be so young, barely into her thirties.

It would be a shame to execute her.

Just one day, he thought to himself, and already I think of executing a woman for not agreeing to follow me. There was a time when I could barely stand to execute deserving criminals. But he would do what must be done.

That sums it all up, really. He knows what he’s doing, and hates himself for it, and knows how far he’s gone from who he once was. He doesn’t want to execute this woman, or anyone else. But none of that matters now. What he wants or doesn’t want, what he believes is right or wrong – none of it matters against what must be done. He’s been moving in that direction for a while, believing more and more that what he wants doesn’t matter, that the Pattern needs the Dragon Reborn, and he doesn’t get to want things or keep parts of himself that are demanded by that, but this is the final state of it, in a sense. Where it doesn’t matter at all what the shepherd named Rand al’Thor wants to do or desperately doesn’t want to do; where it doesn’t matter where his own moral compass points.

There’s an interesting irony in this, that I’ll try to put into coherent words. He’s reached a point where he no longer has anything holding him back, where he can do anything at all. Freedom, of a sort, to act as he will. And yet the way he has gained that ‘freedom’ is by giving up any last sense at all of his own free will or choice, his ability to want things or to act on those wants, to choose that he will notdo something simply because it hurts, or feels wrong to him, or might damn him. So he’s gained complete freedom by relinquishing all agency. Which is no freedom at all, of course.

Rand was neither subtle nor crafty. He was a sheepherder turned conqueror

That’s an excellent turn of phrase. A sheepherder turned conqueror. There’s something terrible in that, and it suits the tone of the rest of this chapter. Vast power held in dispassionate phrasing, in straightforward thought with no emotion, but a distant sense that something is terribly wrong.

“There is need to find Alsalam,” Rand said, “or at least discover what happened to him.”

Graendal. That’s what happened to him. So uh…good luck with that.

“We need to know his fate so that you can choose a new king. That is how it happens, correct?”

“I’m certain you can be crowned quickly, my Lord Dragon,” she said smoothly.

“I will not be king here,” Rand said.

So much power, handled so nonchalantly in so few words. It’s like a stripped-down version of the other cities or nations Rand has claimed in various capacities. He walks in, turns down the crown, and that’s that. Because he isa conqueror now, and one of such power that this is just a matter of course – there’s no point in them trying to resist him; there’s not much they could do. If he wanted the crown, he would take it. But he doesn’t, so he won’t. That’s all, next?

Rand caught a glimpse of Min standing outside with the Aiel, watching the merchant depart. He caught her eyes, and she looked troubled. Had she seen any viewings about Milisair?

Oh, Rand, it’s not Milisair who troubles her.

He sat back down. Min could wait.

Wow. That’s…a change. So much of this chapter is; it does a very, very good job of conveying just how far that step across that final line took him. And all through things like this, through these casual thoughts and the complete lack of emotion and only hints of an awareness that this is very very wrong, and the destructive potential he wields so lightly…

Before, we watched him change gradually – sometimes more sharply, sometimes less – over the course of eleven books. But now it’s a jolt – abrupt and jarring and perfect. The Last That Could Be Done was not just another step along a path. There was a finality there; something snapped rather than stretching, and so there’s no easing into a new mindset, no gradual hardening. This is it. We’re here, and this is the last that could be done, and there isn’t anywhere further to go. It may get darker in terms of deed, but in terms of mindset…there’s nothing more to let go of, is there?

He would see the people fed, restore order and gather the Council of Merchants. He would even see that a new king was chosen.

But hopefully not Chosen.

He’ll see out the bureaucracy of it; he’ll go through the motions and make sure people are fed, but that’s not the point. Again, it’s not about whether or not he has a sense of moral direction, but about whether or not there’s anything at all that can hold him back from doing anything at all that he deems necessary, whatever the cost.

But he would also find out where Alsalam had gone. For there, his instincts said, was the best place to find Graendal. It was his best lead

If he did find her, he would see that she died by balefire, just like Semirhage. He would do what must be done.

And how chilling is that? Because at this point, he’s not going to care about collateral damage. Or rather, he’ll accept it as necessary, if he deems it so. No limits, in achieving the necessary ends.

Next (TGS ch 30) Previous (TGS ch 28)

#great unfettered power is terrifying and I love it #wheel of time #neuxue liveblogs WoT #The Gathering Storm

[markantonys]

time for my end-of-tfoh post!! this one is LONG but i just had so many thoughts on the last few chapters

i LOVE nynaeve nerding out over healing and elayne over making angreal. they are so cute and powerful!! it’s nice especially to see elayne develop her Thing™ the way nynaeve has healing and egwene dreaming

min and elayne reunion! interesting to finally see 2 of rand’s gfs acknowledge to each other that they both like him. and good for them for not wanting it to affect their friendship and for trying to make the best of it, though elayne is understandably less than thrilled at the prospect of sharing rand (when as far as she knows she’s still the only one of the 3 who’s had any sort of actual relationship with him)

“i saw that you’d fall in love with him, i don’t know what he feels for you” wow min no need to make elayne feel more insecure than she already does. min is just not buttering my bread this book i have to say.

“who was the third woman? aviendha had better be keeping a close eye on him” that’s some delicious dramatic irony and my first reaction was to laugh, but also, it really hits home how scummy it was that aviendha and rand slept together. like, elayne has put so much trust in her! at least aviendha is very aware of the wrong done and plans to make amends for it, from her mention of having toh to elayne now. and elayne’s conflicting letters give rand juuuuust enough plausible deniability regarding her feelings and intentions towards him that it MAYBE doesn’t count as cheating. still, doesn’t sit right with me and my elayne-loving heart.

back to cairhien. poor rand, he’s got so many problems, and to top it all off everyone in cairhien (still) wants to fuck him. the show better have some cairhienin lords as well as ladies thirsting over rand or else it’s a coward

“moiraine smiled. ‘you learn quickly. you will do well.’ for a moment she looked almost fond.” MOMRAINE 😭

“[mat’s] green coat hung open, and his shirt was half unlaced, exposing the silver foxhead dangling on his sweaty chest” someone get rand a glass of water, he’s thirsty

rand intentionally letting mat be scared by the 3 aes sedai (well 2+aviendha) to make him more susceptible to what rand needs to order him to do 🗡️💔 1x06 rand “pulls a sword on moiraine to protect mat from her” al’thor would be horrified. oh it hurts to see who my sunshine boy is being forced to become

mat insulting elayne and in the same breath saying he’s glad she’s not here to hear the news of morgase’s death. matlayne rights!

i never believed even for a moment that she was really dead, but rand’s guilt over it hurts!!

mat straightaway advocating for finding elayne and putting her on the throne. matlayne rights!

“i will see you tonight or i will see you dead” rand you can’t just summon asmodean for a bootycall right in front of your girlfriend and your boyfriend and your ex-girlfriend and your mom

“you will never choose what risks i take, rand al’thor. never. know it now.” obsessed with this line, i want it tattooed on my brain

“‘i said, shut up!’ rand drove the foxhead against mat’s chest with a hard finger.” mat internally: [chanting] top me top me top me

“the stormy meeting with rand had gone on till the sun set” i wonder what happened in mat and rand’s fade-to-black stormy meeting that lasted until sunset 👀

melindhra is evil [pretends to be shocked] (i’d already been spoiled on it but i’m certain i would’ve been able to guess even if i hadn’t) poor mat is so traumatized from having to kill her :((((

“i am the car’a’carn, remember.” “you have shaving lather on your ear, rand al’thor.” they are so married

aviendha defending her brother-husband when asmodean suggests that mat killing melindhra is the reason the maidens are mad 🥰

“amazingly, [moiraine] gave mat a warm smile” MOMRAINE

“you have changed from the boy i first saw outside the winespring inn” MOMRAINE

lanfear really said If I Can’t Have Him No One Can

“he could end it. only, he could not. he was going to die, perhaps the world would die, but he could not make himself kill another woman.” interrupting my bullet list because only a picture can express my feelings about this:

thank god moiraine has a braincell and yeets lanfear through the ter’angreal

i’m 100% confident that moiraine is fine. no body no death! and i’ve heard about things she does that have not happened yet therefore she’s still alive

lan and rand’s reactions though 😭😭 but please lan, i know you’re Going Through It but please don’t give rand your terrible “you and i bring nothing but pain to the people we love, you should push everyone away” relationship advice as your parting words, the boy is emotionally fucked up enough already

moiraine’s letter to rand 😭😭😭 MOMRAINE!! and rand crying 😭😭😭😭

sulin’s verbal ear-boxing to rand over his dumb hangups over women in battle was much needed, but sadly it didn’t really change his opinion, only convinced him there was no point arguing with the maidens. rand’s concern for the maidens and valuing their safety over the other societies’ would be so touching if it came from a place of them being his Family and the aiel he’s closest to instead of just being because they’re women

“i thought maybe they were going to go in one at a time and kiss you out of your miseries” mat you’re projecting, i know you’re the one who wanted to go in and kiss rand out of his miseries

mat saying “i like canoodling as much as the next man but don’t you think there are a few too many people watching” when rand and aviendha are having a Moment jdkfjg he really said “are you serious? right in front of my salad?” and this from mat of all people who you would think wouldn’t give a shit about other people’s pda. he’s totally jealous

there are some sort of matrandlayne rights here in the fact that mat and rand are breaking into elayne’s palace together the same way they both did separately in the past

“now i find i truly like the sight of you on your knees” moghedien that’s gay

“nynaeve took hold of the silvery leash where it joined the collar and pulled the forsaken’s face close to hers” nynaeve that’s gay

fat little man angreal my beloved. if rand ever loses that little guy i’ll be devastated.

so rand can enter tel’aran’rhiod without a ter’angreal? and i believe mat will eventually reunite with elayne and nynaeve who have ter’angreals that can be used even by someone who can’t channel. are you thinking long-distance cauthor because i’m thinking long-distance cauthor! no i don’t care if nynaeve says rand loses part of himself by entering tel’aran’rhiod this way, how else is he supposed to call his boyfriend, nynaeve?

i was so convinced rand was gaslighting me when he kept insisting he’d entered tel’aran’rhiod back in tear because i had 0 memory of any such thing, but as i was typing out my complaint i remembered that must’ve been what he did in his final battle with ishamael lmao fuck man too much Stuff happens in these books, my memory cannot possibly retain it all. also that battle with ishamael was confusing as hell to me and i don’t think i realized that entering tel’aran’rhiod was what had happened, i was just kinda like “all right rand left this plane of existence somehow, cool, moving on”

nynaeve and rand’s reunion healed and hurt me at the same time. they’ve both changed so much since they last saw each other 😭😭

i already made a post weeping over rand reuniting with not-dead aviendha and mat but i simply must reiterate how much it made my heart swell!!!!!

also, certain book readers were seriously complaining about nynaeve’s “fakeout death” at the end of 1x08 when the entire ending of tfoh is the way that it is LMAOOOO possibly the best example yet of “turns out things book readers criticized the show for were already present in the books but so much worse” (not that i’m bothered by fakeout deaths personally, if i had it my way no characters i like would die ever) (the other biggest example is certain readers saying that the relationship drama in the show was petty and immature. how someone could say that with a straight face after reading the way LITERALLY EVERY RELATIONSHIP IN THE WHOLE BOOK SERIES is written is beyond me)

rand protectively watching over mat and aviendha chatting by the fountain together ❤️❤️❤️ randwich rights!

rand granting amnesty to male channelers and deciding to start a lil school! this is going to be a fun plotline

ASMODEAN!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

oh asmodean we barely knew ye. gone far too soon. rip king. i’m genuinely so pissed off about this actually, there is so much wasted potential!! he had the potential to be SUCH a fascinating character with SUCH a fascinating relationship with rand, but it was barely explored. URGH!!! curious to know who killed him tho, you would assume it was another forsaken but that almost seems too obvious............

#wot #wot book spoilers #i have next week off work so i am perfectly timed to start the longest book in the series! #my coworkers are invested in my progress they don't know what series i'm reading (i think i mentioned the name but no one recognized it) but #at our weekly team meeting we have to say our personal and professional best of the week #and every time i finish a wot book that is my personal best of that week #they were asking if i had plans for my week off and they were like 'are you gonna crank out another of those books?' lmao