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forzalando · 3 months

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Orange Theory

Charles Leclerc x best friend!reader (female reader)

summary: charles and his best friend do countless nice things for each other, but they're just behaving like any good friend would. right? wc: 2.5k author's note: ok guys so this is not the Charles fic i promised (she is still a WIP and i will finish her eventually. probably will have to be a multi-part fic with how long it's getting), but i hope you enjoy this one in the meantime! special thanks to @scuderiahoney for encouragement and inspiration. special thanks to @sof1shticated for reading and assuring me this doesn't suck. if you haven't read their fics, both Lee and Mel have some gems that i adore. HIGHLY recommend checking out their masterlists! warnings: none!

You loved summer break – Charles was home for at least a few weeks, days spent on a yacht, every afternoon and evening spent with friends either at dinner or out at some club until someone got too drunk to carry on.

Today was, in your humble opinion, the perfect day. All of your friends, courtesy of Charles, were sprawled out on the sun deck of a rented boat or splashing around in the water below. You could feel the heat radiating off of Lando as he laid next to you and whispered about how McLaren was making insane upgrades – according to him, they might just have a race-winning car in the second half of the season.

“Are you boring my best friend to tears, Norris?” The brutal sun disappeared behind Charles’ body as he stood above you – as if on instinct, he shifted slightly so that you could look up at him and not be blinded by its rays.

“She’s hanging on my every word, right, Y/N? In fact, she asked me how I’m feeling about Zandvoort and the rest of the season.”

“And?” Charles asked, a small smile on his face.

“Like I would tell you what’s going on with the car! I know Y/N can keep a secret, she would never betray me to a prancing horse. She bleeds papaya.”

You laughed along with Lando – the one point of contention that had always existed in your friendship with Charles. Of course, you became a Ferrari fan because of him, but you’d always been a McLaren and Mercedes loyalist. It was something that Lando, Oscar, and George relished in.

“Alright, alright, no need to rub it in, Norris,” you giggled. “What can I do for you, Charlie?”

“I just came to give you this.”

Within seconds, a perfectly peeled orange dropped in your lap. Lando’s eyes grew wide for a moment but a swift glare from Charles had his face back to normal in no time. You missed the interaction, jumping up from your seat in excitement.

“Aw, Charlie! You are the best friend a girl could ask for,” you chirped as you started separating the wedges of fruit.

“Ah, don’t mention it,” he sighed, waving his citrus-scented hand in the air. “There’s more in the cooler if you want! Freshly peeled!”

“Thank you, mon cher ami.” You quickly kissed his cheek, noticing as you pulled away just how red it was, along with his neck and the tips of his ears. “Charles! How many times do I have to tell you to put on sunscreen? Your face and neck are fried!”

“I don’t think it’s from the sun,” Lando mumbled, his eyes trained on the fruit in your hands. With Charles insisting he was fine, you could barely hear what he had said.

“What did you say, Lan?” You asked, turning your attention away from Charles for a moment.

Once again, Lando was met with a menacing glare and he laughed awkwardly before moving his gaze to the horizon.

“Nothing, nothing, Y/N. Just thinking out loud.”

Shrugging your shoulders, you turned back to Charles and handed him the orange he had just given to you. With your now free hands, you rifled through your beach bag until you found the SPF 50 face cream you had packed that morning with Charles in mind.

“Here, I packed this for you. Please put some on so I don’t have to worry about you getting sun poisoning,” you pleaded with your best puppy dog eyes.

Charles stared without answering for far too long – anything you wanted, all you had to do was ask him and he’d do it. Even without you gazing at him with your wide, siren eyes, he would give you the world if you so desired it.

He shook his head slightly, pulling himself out of the daze caused by your pleading eyes. “Oui, ma fleur, I will put on the sun cream. Je promets.”

You smiled in triumph, taking the orange back from Charles and bidding him a “see you later” before laying back down in your lounger. Popping an orange slice into your mouth, you let out a contented sigh. Somehow, whether Charles was magic or he had some serious connections in the produce world, the fruit he picked out and gave to you always tasted better than anything you bought yourself.

“He peels your oranges for you?”

You hummed and turned to Lando – “what, Lan?”

“Does Charles always peel your oranges for you?”

“Well, no, obviously not always. Why?”

Before Lando could answer, Lily plopped down next to you and stole an orange slice from your hand.

“I swear,” she huffed, “Alex and George are competitive to begin with, but when they get together, it’s unbearable. They’ve been having a “who can hold their breath the longest” contest for the past thirty minutes! Rematch after rematch after rematch, I called in my favor with Oscar to get out of judging their little competition.”

“As if either of them could beat me, they probably didn’t ask me to join because they’re scared,” Lando bragged. “I’ll leave you ladies to chat, go show them how it’s done.”

As Lando walked towards the edge of the boat, you and Lily turned towards one another.

“Men,” you scoffed in unison, following it up with belly laughs and lingering giggles.

As the laughter died down, Lily ate the orange slice she had stolen from you and practically moaned in delight. “Where did you get this orange? It might be the best I’ve ever had!”

“It’s from Charles! I was just thinking about this, I don’t know how he does it but he always has the best fruit. Every time he brings me any I am both ecstatic and pissed off – my fruit is never as good as his and we shop at the same grocery store!”

“Well, does he have any more oranges? I could eat 20 of these.”

“He said he left me more in his cooler, let me grab them.”

A few moments later, you walked back to Lily with a bag of peeled oranges in your right hand and two bottles of water in your left.

“Are you a professional orange peeler? You were only gone for two minutes.”

“Oh no,” you giggled, “Charles peeled them for me. He knows I don’t like peeling them so when he can, he always does it for me.”

“Y/N,” Lily looked at you suspiciously, “do you know what the orange peel theory is?”

You wracked your brain but came up empty. “No, what is it?”

Lily went into a brief explanation – something about how it became a viral tik tok challenge, people asking their partners if they would peel an orange for them and how it was an indicator of true love, soulmates, a healthy relationship, and everything in between. “Well, that’s just silly,” you mumbled through chews, orange juice dribbling down your chin. “I think it just means someone is a good person – Charlie and I aren’t anything more than friends and he peels my oranges, among other things, because he has a good heart.”

“Among other things?” Lily pressed you, her eyes gleaming with something you couldn’t quite place.

“He slices my apples because I have never been able to master the apple corer contraption! And he takes all my grapes off the stems when he’s at my place because I never do – it’s too tedious.”

“What else?”

“Oh, when we go out to breakfast, he always brings me a tea when he picks me up. He’s an early riser and I take forever to get ready. He knows I never have time to make it myself when we have plans before 10am.”

Lily was smirking at you, no, smiling at you. It was a little unnerving, the way she was entirely amused at the information you were giving her. However, the moment was briefly interrupted by the arrival of Alex.

“What are we talking about, ladies?” He spoke cheerfully, a broad smile on his face which meant that he was most likely declared the best breath holder of the 2019 rookies.

“Y/N was just telling me about all the sweet things Charles does for her,” Lily gushed.

“Oh god, when is he not doing things for her? Did you see him buttering her bread for her at dinner last week?”

Lily burst out laughing while you playfully punched Alex’s arm. “I’m indecisive! He butters it for me while I read the menu since it takes me so long to figure out what I want to order. It saves time!”

“He does that on a regular basis?” Alex asked incredulously, looking at Lily with wide eyes. “My god, that man is head over heels.”

“Alex,” you protested, “Charles is not in love with me. We’ve been friends for six years, I think I would know by now.”

“You’re both impossible,” Alex groaned. “Come on, Lily, I just came over to get you so we could play water polo with George and Carmen.”

Lily sighed in defeat, though she had a smile on her face at the thought of spending time with Alex even if it meant another competition. “I’ll see you, later, yeah?” She called over her shoulder, waving goodbye as you teased her by dramatically eating another slice of orange and settling back in your chair. At the front of the boat, Charles was laughing with Pierre and almost as if he felt you looking, he turned around and met your gaze.

Even though you had just wholly denied anything more than friendship between you and him, you couldn’t help but think about your interactions with Lily and Alex.

Sure, Charles sometimes did things that were out of the ordinary for ‘just friends’, but he had the sweetest soul of anyone you’d ever met. He always sacrificed his umbrella or jacket for you, made sure you had fresh tulips in your apartment when he was home in between races, had your favorite meal delivered to you when you were having a rough day while he was away and you missed him.

You did things for him too – cleaned his apartment when you knew he was on his way back to Monaco, left him plenty of sticky notes with words of encouragement if he was coming back from a bad race, stocked his fridge full of his favorite things. Recently, you’d been gifting him annotated books because he mentioned he wanted to read more and always enjoyed listening to you talk about your favorite novels. Since you spent most of the year apart, you decided he could at least read your thoughts.

When you could come to races, unfortunately a rare occurrence due to your graduate classes and work schedule, he made sure Ferrari hospitality had your favorite flavor of sparkling water on hand. Anytime you saw a cute dog video, you would send it to him because they always made him smile.

You’d do anything to make him smile, just as he would for you, which is what a good friend would do. A best friend, it’s what a best friend would do.

But best friends didn’t linger in doorways and stare at each other’s lips when bidding each other goodnight. They didn’t cuddle close and fall asleep in each other’s arms on a couch while watching whatever movie you had chosen because he always let you choose.

They didn’t look at one another the way Charles was looking at you now – his sunglasses pushed up on top of his head and a dopey smile on his face. He waved to you and dramatically blew you a kiss, something he always did when he caught your eye across a room, no matter who was around.

You practically launched yourself to your feet, the last remaining orange slices in your lap falling to the lounger and staining the seat with juice. It was only seconds until you were standing in front of Charles but the walk over felt like an eternity with the way the world around you disappeared and your heart pounded in your chest.

“Est-ce que tu maimes, Charles?”

The question came out in one breath, your chest heaving in anticipation for his response.

“Of course, I love you, ma fleur,” he laughed. “What’s gotten into you?”

“No,” you panted. “Do you love me, Charlie? Est-ce que tu maimes?”

“Of course, I love you,” he answered again, his eyes shining and a small smile on his face that told you everything you needed to know. “Every time I think of you, I love you. Every time I breathe, I love you.”

“Every time you peel my oranges?” You whispered, holding up your orange juice-stained fingertips. He took your right hand in his and held it up to his face to kiss your palm, his eyelashes fluttering against you gently.

“Especially when I peel your oranges. Did you know that I hate doing it too? Like, really hate it. I don’t even peel them for myself.”

You gasped in shock, watching as he threw his head back and laughed jovially.

“I’d do anything for you, ma fleur. Mon soleil. Mon cœur.”

“Would you kiss me?”

“Maybe if Pierre would leave and stop gawking at us.”

This time you threw your head back to laugh, Charles soon joining you as Pierre protested the accusation.

“No, no,” he shouted, “you didn’t even give me a chance to leave. Just started declaring your love before I knew what was happening. Which, by the way, was so obvious it was starting to get annoying. We’ve all tried dropping hints to both of you so I don’t know who got through to you, Y/N, but – ”

“Pierre!” You shouted, eyes wide and arm gesturing him away from the two of you.

“Ah, désolé, I’m leaving,” he grumbled, almost tripping over his own feet to get away as quickly as possible.

You giggled again and Charles gripped your chin softly, pulling your eyes away from Pierre and back to face him.

He leaned in gently, as if he was afraid you would back away and regret taking the leap to go from friends to something so much more.

He tasted like salt water, smelled like sweet fruit and sunscreen – you smiled into the kiss knowing that he had listened to you and put it on, even though you knew he hated the way it felt on his skin.

His fingers gripped your waist and yours trailed up his chest – both of you slightly sticky from the citrus juices and sweat from the sun.

You pulled away and nudged his nose with yours, breathing him in and wishing that this moment would never end. Charles lowered you both to the sun deck, adjusting until you were sitting between his legs and his arms were wrapped firmly around you, the two of you facing the sunset and open sea.

After a few moments, you broke the shared silence. “You know, I would have happily peeled an orange for you if you had ever asked me,” you asserted.

Charles’ hold on you softened at your admission, the thinly veiled meaning not at all lost on him as he pressed his lips to your cheek.

“I love you too, Y/N.”

#charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc fluff #charles leclerc #formula 1 #formula one #formula one fanfic #formula 1 fanfic #f1 x reader #forzalando #f1 fanfic #f1 fic

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markantonys · 1 month

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fuck it, proposing an s3 episode-by-episode structure even though we barely have any info to go off of, because i'm bored and yearning for s3 news. can't wait to see how wrong this ends up being! i can't emphasize enough how much this is just me completely inventing structure ideas because, for real, we barely know ANYTHING yet, so do not latch onto anything i say here.

we know 4 episode titles so far, so i've included those.

3x01: to race the shadow

A-plot: the gang in falme

lots of relationship-building between various dynamics, especially rand & elayne (just friendship with Crush Hints for now) and nynaeve & lan (ring scene maybe)

rand and egwene's final breakup

mat's luck established during a gambling scene

mat goes through the doorway in turak's room of curiosities, is told to go to tanchico, gets his marriage prophecy & medallion & ashandarei, and gets cpr from rand

elayne and nynaeve learn something about liandrin that points them towards tanchico

rand decides to go to the waste and egwene does too after speaking with amys in her dreams, and perrin goes with them because he has no other plans as of yet

B-plot: aes sedai politics, catch up with siuan, catch up with liandrin

3x02: a question of crimson

i'd always hoped this would be a caemlyn episode, and the title points to that imo!! perfect title for elaida's intro episode, and red is andor's color as well.

so, A-plot: rand, egwene, perrin, et al pass through caemlyn on their way to the waste

egwene has been tasked by elayne with delivering a letter to her family; rand insists on coming with her; they trespass in the caemlyn palace and meet gawyn, galad, morgase, and elaida

i don't expect a forsaken here just yet, i think it's important to see Normal Morgase and Normal Caemlyn first so that we have a contrast later once they ARE under forsaken control.

perrin hears rumors of trouble in the two rivers and decides to split off from the group to investigate, with loial, bain, and chiad accompanying him

the rest of the group reaches the waste at the end of the episode

B-plot: nynaeve, elayne, and mat arrive in tanchico (they split off from the others in falme and go straight there, no caemlyn trip for them)

C-plot: more white tower stuff

3x03

A-plot: rand in rhuidean + general intro to the waste (rand's focal episode)

B-plot: perrin arrives in the two rivers and gets situated

C-plot: continued tanchico shenanigans, maybe they run into thom and/or min and/or tuon (who is undercover for reasons) if they didn't already in 3x02. my guess is min has been kidnapped out of cairhien by liandrin, who knows min figured out she's black ajah and doesn't want her to snitch, so maybe at some point in the early episodes there's a plotline of mat, elayne, and nynaeve rescuing min from the black ajah, and after that point min joins their scooby gang (because she's got a personal vendetta against liandrin now and also she wants to re-earn mat's trust and prove herself).

an alleged leak puts mat, thom, and min all in tanchico, so that's why i have them in this plotline. it's also why i have tuon in this plotline, as i can't think of a strong reason to move mat from the waste to tanchico if not to incorporate elements of the ebou dar trip and have him meet tuon who is filling an egeanin-type role.

3x04

A-plot: nynaeve encounters moghedien in TAR and almost dies but is saved by birgitte, whom elayne saves by bonding her as a warder (this whole sequence is the midseason climax at the end of the episode)

mat gets into some kind of shenanigan with tuon and they grow closer, but neither knows the other's true identity

B-plot: elaida, gawyn, and galad reach the white tower and start investigating elayne's disappearance and clashing with siuan

C-plots: the waste gang doing their thing, learning about aiel ways, developing avirand, etc; perrin doing his thing in the two rivers, meeting faile if he hasn't already

i could also easily switch 3x03 and 3x04 so that 3x04 is the rhuidean episode. just depends if they throw rand right into it like TSR does or if we get a General Waste Intro episode before sending him off to rhuidean. but based on a combination of leaks, we do just about know that the glass columns visions are during block 2 (eps3/4).

3x05

A-plot: perrin in the two rivers, maybe digging more into the whitecloaks, padan fain, laila trauma, luc/slayer, wolves & TAR, relationship with faile, etc. (potentially his focal episode)

B-plot: cold rocks hold stuff for the waste gang

C-plot: continued tanchico shenanigans; continued white tower politics

3x06

A-plot: alcair dal, asmodean identity reveal & capture

B-plot: some kind of tanchico conclusion. maybe this is when tuon finds out some of her new buddies can channel (and possibly even that sul'dam, and she herself, can channel) and heads back to the seanchan with Much To Think About. maybe the black ajah make their exit from the season to shift full focus onto Final Boss Moggy.

C-plots: perrin prepping for battle; continued white tower politics

3x07: goldeneyes

A-plot: perrin defending the two rivers (perrin's focal episode, unless it's instead an earlier one that's less about a major battle and more about his internal life as a character)

B-plot: tower coup? i'm very unsure where in the season to place this, i could see it at any point in episodes 6, 7, or 8. kinda doubt it would happen earlier than ep6 because i'm not sure if that would allow us enough time to build up to it, especially since major coup players like elaida and gawyn are being introduced for the very first time this season so we need decent time with them before shit goes down (plus, it just naturally feels like a Late Season Climactic Event). the head writer of 1x06 & 2x07 (aes-sedai-heavy episodes) being the head writer of 3x08 could potentially indicate that the coup happens in 3x08, but she is also an executive producer so it's not like aes sedai politics is The Only Thing she knows about.

C-plots: the waste gang travels back to the wetlands, rand learns from asmodean; tanchico crew takes a sea folk ship to the eastern part of the continent (same city where waste gang is headed)

3x08: he who comes with the dawn

A-plot: the climax of the waste crew's plotline, potentially a battle in cairhien or tear, but that may cause Battle Fatigue if 3x07 has just had a big battle. maybe this could point towards their destination being tear and them taking the stone in somewhat more of an infiltration operation like in TDR, as opposed to the more traditional battle for cairhien in TFOH? just to mix things up a bit with perrin's traditional battle in the prior episode.

okay yeah i'm leaning towards tear, plus there was the leaked alleged sammael audition script (i trust no audition scripts after the phony gawyn one from s2 lmao) where the person he's talking to is demanding to know where "it" is. so my vision is that sammael's sitting comfy in tear, rand & co launch an infiltration operation to take the stone, rand finds sammael and demands to know callandor's whereabouts, and sammael ultimately flees to continue causing trouble in a new location in s4.

A-plot part 2: the tanchico crew gets involved with the infiltration operation, and nynaeve battles & defeats moghedien AND breaks her block (if she hasn't already, that could be a good Early Win to include around ep5-6 ish)

after all this stuff is done, there is a Final Final confrontation with moiraine and lanfear getting yeeted through the doorway; nynaeve bonds lan straightaway rather than his bond going on a noncon detour to alanna

post-battle checkin with perrin, but not a ton of time with him in this episode

final stinger: our buddy tuon from tanchico is shown dressed to the seanchan nines and being addressed as the daughter of the nine moons. gasp, mat's fated wife is our buddy tuon from tanchico, who is in fact a high-ranking seanchan noble! dun dun dun!!!!!

elephant in the room: "emily, why are you having rand in the wetlands for 3x08 when an episode called 'he who comes with the dawn' would obviously be about alcair dal?" listen, i know, but i typed up this whole post before i found out about that episode title and was too attached to it to change it lmao plus, i genuinely can't think of enough for rand & co to do in the waste for 6 entire episodes. i could see an argument that they chose this episode title as a general "yeah that's a baller title for a season finale about rand coming into his own in a big moment" rather than as a specific "this episode focuses on rand coming into his own in a strictly-aiel-related way" (see: 2x07 just being about general political shenanigans rather than literal daes dae'mar). rand pulling callandor from the stone while surrounded by his aiel followers could still be a "he who comes with the dawn" moment, okay!

so i will leave this post as is, but if indeed 3x08 only takes us up to alcair dal (and the moiraine & lanfear yeeting which i think will be this episode no matter what), that actually doesn't change my structure too much. basically it'd just be slowing down both the waste & tanchico crew's plotlines and having their climaxes be still in the waste & tanchico respectively, and then we can do a travel timeskip between seasons and have s4 open with the waste crew taking tear or cairhien and the tanchico crew meeting up with them there. i do strongly believe that mat, elayne, and nynaeve will join up with rand & co for s4 and skip their whole salidar/ebou dar detours, because that positions mat to form the band and have his Dragon's General storyline in s4, positions elayne to spend time with rand and aviendha and potentially join rand in retaking caemlyn and then just stay there to start her succession, and positions nynaeve to spend time with lan in the immediate aftermath of moiraine's "death" and then join up with elayne's or rand's future storyline. for these 3, salidar & ebou dar are filler sidequests rather than Main Story storylines imo and it could be quite efficient to cut those out and just distribute the handful of Main Story elements from them into other Main Story storylines.

#wot #wot book spoilers #wot show spoilers #half the fun of speculation is being able to see how completely wrong i was once the season actually comes out jkfgh

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beyourselfchulanmaria · 7 months

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其實，心中一旦有座橋，只能自己找方法走過，就算有好朋友在一旁，你甚至無法說給任何人聽，即便是她，那座橋就好比人生。

(In fact, once there is a bridge in your heart, you can only find a way to cross it by yourself. Even if you have a good friend beside you, you can't even tell anyone, even her. That bridge is like life.) Lan~*

#nice lyrics #laura bretan #after the rain #amy and lan #strong friendship #chu lan #fine craft artist #朱蘭皮藝 #leather art artist #beautiful life #taiwan artist city life

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elperegrinodedios · 3 months

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Da sempre il mondo giudica la gelosia come una cosa assai negativa. Beh, io non cammino come vuole il mondo e, viaggiando a ritroso nel tempo ricordo di essere stato follemente innamorato in sole due occasioni e la verità è che seppure non davo a vederlo ero più che geloso, ohh se lo ero! Per me a dispetto di quel che pensa il mondo, la gelosia è una prova d'amore nei riguardi di chi la provoca. Parlo di gelosia, non di possesso, nè di divieti, parlo di un sentimento naturale e innato, basato sempre sul rispetto e sulla libertà ma che sorge spontaneo nel cuore dell'uomo ma anche della donna... e pure di Dio: "perchè io il Signore, il tuo Dio, sono un Dio geloso". (Esodo 20:5) Ma quanto ci hai amato e quanto ci ami Signore? E tutto questo nonostante i continui tradimenti e tutte le nostre innumerevoli disobbedienze.

Si sono stato pazzamente innamorato e si pure geloso. Innamorato da morire, geloso da vivere. Da vivere si, perchè il meglio mi è arrivato dopo.

lan ✍️

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amethyst-noir · 10 months

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Wei Wuxian doesn't dwell on what ifs and might have beens during his first life. He has no time and no energy for it and life has taught him that it's useless anyway. Things happen, no matter what he wants or hopes for. Sometimes there's a fleeting thought or wish (often when he's in Lan Zhan's company, funny how that works) but he never dwells in them for too long. Only in his second life, removed from the hardships and the pain, sheltered in a place he can call home and supported with endless amounts of unconditional love, he begins to untangle his past piece by piece but he never gets too deep.

It's the past, it's gone never to return, and it's useless to dwell too much on it. It's better to concentrate on the present and the pleasures and joy it brings. Slowly, and for the first time ever, he begins to truly imagine a future for himself, apart from outside expectations of him.

Lan Wangji, on the other hand, has been living inside of a broken future for almost all of his life. Regrets and might have beens have been his constant companion ever since his mother died. Despite the rules and the knowledge that it's useless he has envisioned how their (he doesn't forget about his brother, ever, no matter what) lives might have gone if she had lived. If both of their parents had been there for them. What might have been if he had not only realized but accepted the feelings Wei Ying awoke in him when they were both young. What if he hadn't been blinded and bound by duty and rules. What if...

For a time after Nightless City those thoughts and the comfort they brought (it could have gone differently, if only...) were almost all that he had. Before he managed to piece his world together and start over once more.

He has stopped doing that now. With Wei Ying at his side he's learning to live in the present, to enjoy what's actually happening instead of wishing for impossible things.

After all, the most impossible thing has already happened. He has no use for what if's anymore.

#wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #amy imagines #random ruminations fuelled by misheard lyrics #they don't fit into a story so a post it is

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angstymdzsthoughts · 1 year

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I think tumblr ate this ask because I have send some after and they have already been posted. Apologies if not.

Deity!au. Wei Wuxian ascends after passing, and Lan Wangji dies from the disciple whip after getting A-Yuan from the burial mounds.

They meet in the heavenly capital

LWJ is not on his right mind, and dazed. He only responds to WWXand it's either "Wei Ying" or "It hurts"

WWX was intending to keep a low profile but now he has to figure out what happened!

LWJ follows him holding onto his waist all the time

He catches the Lans in some kind of ceremony, he didn't quite realize it was a funeral

He hears someone speak about the thirthy-three lashes and boils with anger

He shows himself. LQR spits blood. The others are frightened. The only one who shows amy kind of respect is LXC.

He destroys their cores, sparing only LXC, and threathens to burn down CR and kill everyone on it if the disciple whip is ever used again

WWX, grabbing the disciple whip: I'm confiscating this until you can play nice.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #character death #im always down for god wwx

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butterflydm · 1 year

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wot reread: towers of midnight (chap 14-19)

spoilers for towers of midnight

1. Egwene has gone into TAR to attend some important dream meetings; first up is meeting with the Wise Ones. She lets them know that Elaida was abducted by the Seanchan and Egwene has been raised as full Amrylin.

2. She asks them about how Rand is doing and they tell her that he’s doing better. Yeah, I feel like there would be so much more tension in this plotline if Rand hadn’t yet had his epiphany and we were still dealing with ruthless!Rand, and so the Wise Ones weren’t able to reassure Egwene here about his state of mind. It would be better if the audience were also unsure about the wisdom of his plan.

3. Egwene does make a tentative arrangement that they can send Accepted to train with the Wise Ones for a time, but Amys and Bair make it clear that the Wise Ones have no interest in becoming Aes Sedai (Egwene hopes that, in time, she can change their minds; I deem this possibility Extremely Unlikely).

4. Her next meeting, after the Wise Ones leave, is with Nynaeve. Egwene puts Nynaeve, Rand, and Gawyn all in the same category of people who frustrate her because she feels like they don’t trust her/show her loyalty. She thinks here on how she hasn’t seen Nynaeve for ‘months’ - I guess the last time they saw each other was pre-ACoS, because I remember Nynaeve asking Egwene about Lan, I think? But Nynaeve was deliberately avoiding meeting Egwene in the dream for months because of the way that Egwene had traumatized her (back in... TFoH?).

5. Nynaeve finds out here that the Seanchan attacked the White Tower! I wonder if she’ll tell Rand. I really am trying to keep track of Who Knows What when it comes to the various Seanchan-related crimes. Egwene notes how uncomfortable Nynaeve is while talking to her and decides that instead of berating or scolding Nynaeve for avoiding meeting with her, she will ask her advice on being a young leader. Also, just to note another Egwene & Rand similarity: she notes how it feels like she has to do everything herself because people will stop obeying her once she’s out of sight. This is the same thing Rand was lamenting back when he was trying to get grain handed out in Arad Doman.

6. Egwene then uses the advice that Nynaeve gives her as a way of leading into telling Nynaeve that she needs to begin truly treating her as Amrylin and to call her ‘Mother’ instead of ‘Egwene’. Then Elayne arrives, all sparkling and chipper over the White Tower’s reunification.

7. They begin discussing Rand. Egwene wonders here (just in her head) if Elayne has bonded Rand, and if that’s the secret that she feels like Elayne is keeping from her. Much as the Wise Ones did, Elayne and Nynaeve both tell Egwene that Rand has changed recently and is doing much better than before.

8. Nynaeve notices that Elayne is pregnant here. Is she... is she going to tell Rand when she wakes up? There are now five things that Nynaeve could tell Rand:

a. the sul’dam secret (key to any war effort against the Seanchan)

b. that Mat was left behind in Ebou Dar during the Seanchan invasion (would explain to Rand why ~Fortuona~ knew who Mat was)

c. that it was the Wondergirls and not the Dark One who changed the weather (would ease his mind somewhat)

d. that Elayne is pregnant (important emotional news!)

e. that the Seanchan attacked the White Tower (key to knowing how far the Seanchan have been willing to go, and that they now likely have access to Traveling; while Rand would have seen that the White Tower was damaged, it would have been easy for him to assume it happened when the rebels took the Tower, since he has no idea of anything that was happening in Egwene’s plotline)

WILL she tell him any of these things? I guess we’ll find out. So far, the only time she’s been willing to tell him anything (what happened with Lan) was when he basically already knew that something had happened and hounded her about it until she gave in. At this point, I feel like we can safely say that Nynaeve is more secretive with Rand than Moiraine ever was.

9. Note that Nynaeve does realize instantly that Rand is the dad, so all her ~omg Rand and Min need to get married~ ~omg Min is THE ONE who shares Rand’s heart~ ~omg we should talk to CADSUANE, why would I think of trying to talk to Elayne about Rand~ is all in the context of her apparently NOT having taken a blow to the head off-screen and forgotten about the love confessions, and forgotten about RandxElayne in general. She just bafflingly hasn’t thought about Elayne at all when interacting with Min and Rand x Min for no discernible reason. And, here, Nynaeve doesn’t appear to think of Min at all. She’s just instantly “oh Rand is definitely the daddy, don’t be coy with me, Elayne”. So when Nynaeve is around Min, she’s 100% RandxMin but when she’s around Elayne, she’s 100% RandxElayne. I guess if she ever spent time around Aviendha, she would probably be 100% RandxAviendha, lol.

10. Both Elayne and Nynaeve are way more noncommittal than Egwene expected on the whole “Rand has lost it in thinking that he needs to break the seals” deal that Egwene is selling. She blames Nynaeve’s reaction on her being ~influenced~ by Rand being ta’veren. I really do think that everything about this Egwene plotline would make more sense if Rand were still ruthless!Rand tbh. Egwene tells Nynaeve and Elayne that they need to come to the Tower to swear the oaths, but Elayne wiggles out of it because “we don’t know what it might do to the babies!” lol, it’s funny that Egwene is so 100% that everyone MUST take the Oaths but she’s all “eeeh, idk if it matters” when it comes to the Testing for being Aes Sedai. Anyway, Nynaeve says that if she’s going to do it, then she’ll do it right and take the Testing. Egwene says it will happen the next day then, and Nynaeve is startled at how soon Egwene expects her to come.

11. Oh, Egwene (very casually) mentions “before the Seanchan attack” here when Elayne is in the room, and she’s about to talk about the Black Ajah purge, when they get attacked by a two Black Ajah Sisters. Ah, that’s not really enough for Elayne to know what/when all that happened, especially since the attack happened so soon after. It’s Alviarin and... Talva? idk who Talva is, lol. I think this might be her first mention. After the attack, there’s a brief mention that Egwene tells about ~about what they missed~ but the narrative doesn’t go into detail, so we’ll only know how much she told Nynaeve and Elayne if they happen to think about it in their own narration. I wonder how much she told Elayne (and if any of that information will filter through to Mat).

My theory here is that Mat is going to be kept out of the loop of information about how much Tuon/the Seanchan have acted against his friends, to make it slightly less disgusting for the reader that Mat continues to fawn over an active danger to his loved ones who has, in the time since she left him, already assaulted his people once (meanwhile he’s been pushed into an emotional place where he felt guilty talking about standing up against her invasion -- another yikes pieces of characterization left to us by Jordan and another way the Mat x Tuon relationship is painfully lopsided; Tuon clearly feels no guilt about attacking MAT’S people).

12. Nynaeve has an Asha’man guard, Naeff, who... I think has not been mentioned before? He seems to be here as an illustration that though saidin is cleansed, any damage that the taint did to the men’s minds before it was cleansed remains intact (implying that the same is true for Rand). While she’s waiting for Rand to return (so she does plan to say goodbye before she leaves), she and Naeff are investigating a bubble of evil that turned a part of the city (people included) into dust. There’s no life left there. Things are getting Real Bad.

13. Feeling frustrated at her failure to help any of the people who were turned to dust, Nynaeve asks Naeff if she can take a look at him, and she attempts to heal the wounds that the taint left on his mind. She finds a darkness, with thorns poking into his mind. She pries the thorns free one-by-one and heals each small wound left behind. And it works, and his feeling that he is always being watched by Fades vanishes. This reminds Nynaeve not to give into despair and believe that the situation is hopeless.

14. Rand returns and he and Nynaeve talk. He thanks her for helping the Tairens and blames himself for things getting so bad, because of how he has delayed. He and Nynaeve talk a bit about Rand’s plan and it does seem pretty clear that Nynaeve sees his point about not waiting until the seals break by themselves. Better to break them and attack before the world gets worse. She tells him that she has to go back to the White Tower, and he asks her not to let them ‘ruin’ her. The most interesting thing to me here is that zen!Rand is WAY more like the Aes Sedai (in general) than ruthless!Rand, but Rand THINKS that how he previously was is like them -- forcing himself to be cold and uncaring to stay in control.

So... it is condescending for Rand to be saying this but it’s more interesting to me that he’s just flat-out WRONG (at the start of the book, when he arrived in the White Tower as zen!Rand, the people there were saying he was coming across as ‘Aes Sedai’ in vibe). But I think it makes sense (from Rand’s various Aes Sedai traumas) that he might think this -- the main Aes Sedai that he’s been around for the last several books has been Cadsuane, who is a bully and a hypocrite. Before that, he was literally tortured by a group of Aes Sedai, not all of whom were Black Ajah, some of whom were definitely using him to work out their anger issues. So I actually get why he might feel this way? But he’s incorrect. Aes Sedai are not constantly battling the taint the way that he was, so their need for control over saidar is profoundly different than Rand’s. That being said, idk if the text realizes that he’s incorrect, because Nynaeve agrees with him here (but otoh, there were the onlookers in the White Tower who straight-up said he was acting like an Aes Sedai). Rand does mention here that MOIRAINE always cared passionately but this was not something that he saw in her during the first four-ish books or so. It wasn’t until TFoH that he really began to see that in her.

I think the main thing is that Rand doesn’t have enough experience with “the average modern Aes Sedai” or “accepted White Tower training” in order to actually talk with authority.

15. Also, no. Nynaeve tells him none of the five big secrets that she is currently keeping from him, lol. She does not even CONSIDER telling him that he knocked up Elayne and she should know that he doesn’t know because they literally left Caemlyn TOGETHER back in Winter’s Heart. Being as communicative with Rand as she is with Elayne or Egwene isn’t even an option that she considers, even though she’s very fond of Rand.

16. On the plus side, she does examine his brain and we find out that his own taint-thorns are being held back by a coating of Light, which is interesting. Rand also says that he’d like it if she came back again once she’d able. Rand does mention here potentially having Elayne or Aviendha as the other woman in the circle with him if he uses Callandor with Nynaeve. We get no thoughts from Nynaeve re: the love confessions when Rand mentions Elayne and Aviendha. She also doesn’t think at all about how Elayne is pregnant when Elayne is brought up by Rand. I mean, at least she does plan to Heal Narishma and Flinn before she leaves but... jfc, she just Will Not Ever tell Rand anything, will she?

17. Faile and Perrin are finally having that big talk in private. Faile tells Perrin that he’s a good leader, and Perrin says he’s worried about how callous he’s become and that sometimes he wishes that he hadn’t gone with Rand on that night back at the start of TEotW (of course, they didn’t know that Rand was TDR at that point, so Moiraine never would have let that happen anyway lol). After that, Faile and Perrin have a meal for their one-year anniversary, their shanna’har. So that tells us how long it’s been since the battle of the Two Rivers. We then spend nearly two whole pages on reassuring Perrin that he’s a Great Leader (TM).

18. So, the thing is... Perrin’s fear about what killing those two Whitecloaks means for him as a person... that it makes him a monster and a killer, we saw a similar reflection in Rand, when he went to Falme in the last book. He thought about how that was where he first killed someone, how that was where he learned he could be dangerous to those around him. But Rand seemed to have more perspective about the situation that it occurred in. The first person Rand killed happened to be a Seanchan Lord but that doesn’t lead Rand to believe that morally he should to prostrate himself in front of ~self-proclaimed empress Fortuona~ to ask her to judge him, because Rand is capable enough of self-reflection to see both that he dislikes that he is capable of killing but also that he was in a situation where the other person was fully capable of killing him back.

But the actual connection here between Faile and Perrin is sweet, even if Perrin continues to frustrate and annoy me.

19. It’s fascinating/heartbreaking how Mat and Aludra’s relationship has changed into her treating him as an “unruly messenger boy”. It’s yet another relationship that got destroyed by Mat hooking up with Tuon. That’s one of the parts of the Mat x Tuon relationship that make it so unpleasant for me to read -- the fact that it is so inherently destructive to so many of Mat’s other relationships, leaving him much more isolated and vulnerable. And it’s just so lopsided! Mat loses/gives up so much due to the Tuon relationship and Tuon gives up nothing at all. How unbalanced the relationship is between the two of them is definitely one of the major reasons that I personally can’t get into it at all. That is not my vibe, lol.

20. Juilin comes over to talk to Mat to tell him that he plans to leave with the Aes Sedai to go to the White Tower. Very interesting that Juilin frames things in terms of Mat “giving permission” to the Aes Sedai to leave (which makes Mat wince). Juilin also hesitates before shaking Mat’s hand goodbye (and he mentions that the reason he’s not going back to Tear is because of the Seanchan). So, yeah, yikes. Looks like that’s another relationship that Mat torched by marrying Tuon.

21. Seta and Bethamin ALSO see Mat as “allowing” the Aes Sedai to leave and are somewhat surprised that it’s happening. So it kinda seems like the anti-slavery crew was unsure whether or not Mat would betray them and throw them back into the collars of the Seanchan (or basically were considering him the unofficial ‘owner’ of the three Aes Sedai Sisters). Yikes either way. And Mat winces here at being called “Highness” but doesn’t realize the deeper issue at hand. When Seta talks about how she wonders if it might not be better to die rather than to live as proof of the Empire’s lies, Mat tells them... that maybe someday after they learn to channel, the two of them (Seta and Bethamin) can convince Tuon that she’s wrong. Bro, she would stick them in a collar in a heartbeat. You KNOW this. Mark another tally in the “Mat in Willful Denial” column. This is also where he says the line, “Help me find a way to fix this without causing the Empire to collapse” and the line isn’t as awful in context as it is in isolation, because he’s clearly trying to find a way to make Seta feel less suicidal (and Seta cares deeply about the Empire). And the implication is that he means “fix this” in terms of fixing how fucked-up the damane system is, because of who his audience is (an ex-sul’dam who is scared of what it means to be able to channel).

The problem is that Mat is in such willful denial about Tuon’s character, because he wants to believe he isn’t married to a horrible person (like there are some great evil4evil pairings out there but it seems clear that is not the situation here and Mat is entering into this relationship with an “I can Fix Her” mentality, which rarely goes well -- though it does make the show’s change in his background painfully appropriate). Also, it seems clear that Mat believes that convincing Tuon that she herself is a channeler is THE key element to her having a breakthrough that would make her lead the charge to fix the damane system but... again, he deeply underestimates her ability to be a hypocrite, imo. Mat really really wants to believe that he’s married to a person who is fundamentally good but is just mistaken in her beliefs. Like I said above, I think that the narrative is going to deliberately keep information from Mat in order to let him continue to choose to believe that (if he knew that Tuon had sent assassins after the Aes Sedai, who include Egwene and his sister Bode, one would hope that he would have second thoughts about forcing himself to believe that Tuon must be fundamentally good underneath her toxic cultural beliefs).

In general, going into a relationship with the goal of changing the other person is... not such a great idea. For me, Jordan really botched the execution of the 'courtship' in CoT & KoD but when I try to not think about that part and just take what Sanderson was given, I do understand why he took this approach -- if we take it as a given that Mat has given up fighting his fate, Mat needing to justify WHY he’s gotten stuck him with Tuon makes a lot of sense. "The Pattern must have forced me into this marriage to convince Tuon that she can channel and that this doesn't make her evil, thus leading to her realizing that the damane system is trash" is a rationalization that makes sense for him to decide to believe, if we've already accepted that Mat has given up fighting.

22. Huh. Okay, that’s interesting. Mat explicitly compares the ex-sul’dam to RAND here, in terms of how terrified they are by the idea of channeling. *tilts head* I’ve talk a little bit about how Tuon is essentially a ~funhouse mirror~ of the Dragon Reborn (basically all the bad parts, lol, but she gets rewarded for it) but now I’m wondering how much MAT is projecting his feelings about Rand onto Tuon? Because Rand forced himself to be cold and in control in order to survive his destiny; Rand chases after prophecy like Tuon chases omens. But while Tuon might have a lot in common with the shell of the Dragon Reborn, we haven’t seen any evidence that there’s a good person inside that shell. In her own PoVs, she seems to be a hollow suit of armor.

I hadn’t remembered that Mat directly compared sul’dam (and thus by implication, Tuon) to Rand in the actual text of the book. Because Mat’s train of thought here goes from sul’dam to Tuon back to sul’dam and then to Rand very quickly. I still dislike that Jordan decided to have Mat’s sympathies swap from the oppressed in WH to the oppressors in CoT, but this is a very interesting justification in the text for that characterization change (one that did not appear at all in CoT or KoD, lol, so this may be an example of Sanderson trying to make sense out of the characterization change). Mat knows that there’s a good person who is frightened of what they’re capable of becoming underneath Rand’s cold shell, so he’s projecting that onto Tuon.

23. Doman and Leilwin née Egeanin are leaving to go to the White Tower too. So the entire “disapproves of the Seanchan” crew is heading to the White Tower in what feels like a fairly direct refutation of Mat’s choices (except Aludra, who is staying in Caemlyn for War Effort reasons). Oh! What Leilwin née Egeanin says to Mat when she’s leaving! “I don’t envy the place you’ve put yourself in. In some ways, I think the winds that carry you may actually be rougher than the ones which have buffeted me, recently.” Leilwin née Egeanin speaks nothing but the truth.

And the only person who wants to stay with Mat is also the one who flipped the most soundly over to the pro-slaver side: Setalle Anan, who Tuon had trained to fetch and carry for her by the end of the circus journey, and who amused Tuon by being willing to ~civilly debate~ over other people’s rights without trying to make Tuon feel bad for thinking that some people are less than human. The person most willing to coddle Tuon, in other words. That’s the only person who actually wants to stick around Mat after he’s thrown in his lot with the slavers.

(and Thom, of course, who needs Mat if he wants to save Moiraine; and Noal who is basically just a plot device)

24. Mat’s goodbye prank to Joline is... very childish (though tbh I feel like she could probably fix that with some minor channeling? I feel like this might be an annoyance to her for a handful of minutes at most). But it’s interesting here that Mat compares the ~predatory look~ in Joline’s eyes to Tylin’s even as he is desperately thinking that he needs to find some way to keep Tuon from enslaving him as da’covale (he’s “half-convinced” that she plans to enslave him at some point, though he once again tries to dress it up as ‘servant’ and not ‘slave’, just like he constantly did with Selucia back during CoT/KoD, where he kept insisting on thinking of her as a ‘ladies’ maid’ even though he knew damn well that she was a slave).

So, in the text, Mat is still operating under the deep fear that his wife is going to enslave him. Hmm. One of the other weird things that I noted happening during the circus journey is that it often seemed like Mat sublimated the anger/fear that he felt he couldn’t express towards Tuon and redirected it towards the Aes Sedai instead. In some ways, Joline was almost used as Tuon’s whipping boy during the circus journey, though I don’t know if that was intentional on Jordan’s part. Joline was the person that Mat was “allowed” to be angry at, essentially, even as Tuon behaved much more poorly.

Mat feeling wary and disliking that Joline is reminding him of how predatory Tylin was towards him -- Very Interesting. I will note that for later.

Also #JolineDeservedBetter.

25. Mat is very aware here of the connection that was formed between Setalle Anan and Tuon, and thinks that he wishes Tuon was here to distract Setalle Anan from trying to be the manager of his camp’s cooks. Strike seven-point-one. Mat notes Setalle Anan’s “plunging neckline” and how it works particularly well on “buxom” women like Setalle Anan. Not that he noticed. (the ‘not that he noticed’ is literally in the text, lol) And, once again, it is full breasts that Mat is trying to convince himself that he’s not noticing here, once again bringing attention to the lie he told himself a few chapters ago about preferring women with flatter chests these days. That’s at least three different women where it’s been the breasts in particular that grabbed Mat’s attention and that he lied to himself about. Mat is full-on trying to gaslight himself about his preferences in women’s appearances to convince himself that he’s more attracted to Tuon now than he is to anyone else Because Wife.

26. We’re reminded here that Setalle Anan knows about Mat’s protective medallion ter’angreal. She does NOT tell Mat that she told Tuon about the medallion, just regrets that she asked to look at it because that life is lost to her now. The fact that she so completely betrayed Mat to Tuon is really the thing that sticks out to me the most, of course. Setalle Anan was the one person who actually heard Tuon’s pro-slavery arguments (the reader certainly didn’t get to) and yet she gave away personal secrets to Tuon anyway. She’s the one person who should have the least amount of illusions about how deeply buried in Empire propaganda Tuon is, and yet (but she’s operating under Mat’s same delusion belief that she can ~reasonably debate~ Tuon into wanting to end slavery).

Apart from Mat himself, Setalle Anan is the character who got screwed over the most by whatever changed in Jordan’s ideas about the Seanchan story arc between Winter’s Heart and Crossroads of Twilight, going from being gutsy enough to hide an Aes Sedai in her cellar even as there were Seanchan in her very own inn... into being Tuon’s willing lacky and betraying the secrets of her former comrades. And as a result of that, Setalle Anan does feel like the most obvious evidence that Tuon is likely ta’veren.

27. Elayne strolls the Sunrise Gardens (which are on the roof of a building) and thinks about meeting Rand for the first time down in the lower gardens. We learn that her pregnancy is just beginning to show. It sounds like Elayne is getting an echo effect of Rand’s ~anti-Dark One~ bubble? The flowers bloom more around her and the little stream in this garden only runs when Elayne visits (apparently Perrin is also creating an “anti-food rotting” field as well, in his own chapters; I haven’t mentioned it because I didn’t really care, lol).

28. Oh, the deal that Elayne sets up here with the Kinswomen. I love Elayne so much. Seeking to create a place in Caemlyn where anyone who is hurt or ill can travel to be Healed free of any cost, in a lower-stakes environment than going to the White Tower. Elayne has such a good heart. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

And, of course, there are political and military considerations as well, because our girl is SMART. Having the Kin stationed in Caemlyn gives her a firm base to hold firm against the Seanchan, especially now that she knows they likely know Traveling. It is... fascinating actually, the post-War setup we have here of how much Elayne clearly plans to prepare in case of a potential Seanchan invasion post-The Last Battle, because Elayne and Tuon are on a post-canon collision course and I’m not sure how much any potential temporary truce will hold. That is a powderkeg.

Tuon is also Elayne’s foil in a lot of ways (I was talking about this with @markantonys in the comments of my last post).

They have many things in common:

we meet them both as heirs to a throne (who literally have “daughter” in their official title)

watch them ascend to power due to the reported death of their mother

they’re both capable of channeling

both are involved in love-based prophecies with ta’veren

they both have roses in their imagery (rose crown of Andor vs the raven & roses)

that one AMoL Spoiler Thing that they will have in common in the future

But there are also some strong contrasts that show the differences between them:

Tuon married without loving her husband while Elayne loves Rand but is not married to him

Elayne embraces being a channeler while Tuon rejects the idea

Tuon is the main slaver while Elayne has been the main person helping the freed slaves in the narrative

Tuon plans to force Mat to be ~full Seanchan~ while Elayne is incredibly selfless as a lover and has never tried to force Rand into being something else for her sake

Tuon uses other women as slaves, while Elayne is probably the female character who has the most connections to other women as friends and allies in a wide variety of different groups

while they both ‘claim’ lands outside their homeland that belong to them because of their ancestors’ blood, Elayne’s waiting country (Cairhien) actually IS prepared to have her as their ruler and has literally been waiting for her, while the Seanchan’s claims on the Westlands were pure propaganda on the Empire’s part based on an extremely distant past

A minor AMoL spoiler on this side too. I’ll try to point out the two spoiler-based things when I get to them in AMoL.

idk it’s interesting.

Elayne also wonders here if laying claim to the Black Tower (which IS on Andoran soil) would give her the post-Last Battle edge against the Seanchan that she would need.

29. ...Sanderson points out a massive plot hole from the Faile kidnapping arc -- that Perrin never considered using the wolfdream to scout out Malden. Yeah, that was pretty foolish of you, Perrin. It’s almost like you’re not a good leader and you don’t know how to use the advantages that you’ve been given. Bad Leader Perrin is such a hilarious contrast to Good Leader Elayne that we literally just had last chapter. I mean. On a certain level, sure, Perrin has had no training. I can’t expect him to be as good as Elayne. But on the other hand -- people (in the story) keep trying to tell me that he IS a good leader, because he makes Tough Decisions. Oddly enough, when RAND makes scorched earth Tough Decisions, the narrative understands that this is maybe not such a good thing; and part of Egwene’s whole leadership plotline was her putting her own skin on the line to AVOID doing a scorched earth approach. But Perrin doing scorched earth Tough Decisions is a-okay. For some reason.

30. ...I feel like this is the third or fourth time that Perrin has told Hopper that he’s ready to learn since we opened TGS. I think he can stop saying it, lol. Anyway, Perrin gets a lesson in keeping himself in the wolfdream even when someone is trying to force him out of it. They also run across a violet wall of energy in the dream that they cannot cross. Then Sanderson rids us of the terrible Berelain love triangle nonsense in this scene with Berelain and Faile, where they come to terms and decide that they will pretend to be friends in order to convince everyone that Berelain didn’t sleep with Perrin. Thanks for finally killing that subplot.

31. The Band of the Red Hand has been bragging to all the mercenary groups that they are led by a personal friend of the Dragon Reborn. That does track with how Talmanes behaved when he caught up with Mat in KoD.

32. Mat hears about the rumors about him -- one of them is that he “never loses at dice or love and his spear never misses his target” and he says that he wishes the second two were true. So he, uh. Doesn’t feel like he won in love. He also wishes that he’d dressed a little more fancy to see Elayne.

33. Oh, wow. Before he goes in to see Elayne, his hands are shaking. And his description of her is SO glowing. “His eyes found Elayne immediately”; “Radiant in a gown of deep red and gold”; “Beautiful, full red lips that Mat would not have minded kissing”; “Her red-gold hair seemed to shimmer in the hearthlight and her cheeks were full of color”; “She was a pretty thing.” She’s distracting.

Strike strike strike! Mat forcibly interjects Tuon/his married status into his gushing thoughts over Elayne twice here which only makes the gushing stand out more.

lol, the comparison to how he reacts to seeing Birgitte again is so telling:

“She looked the same. Always did, with that golden braid and high boots, like the hero from the bloody stories." lol, amazing. go girl give us nothing. The contrast between his gushing over Elayne’s appearance vs Just The Facts about Birgitte is hilarious. Mat is so attuned to Elayne’s appearance that he’s picked up on her barely-showing pregnancy weight (though he doesn’t realize it’s due to pregnancy) and with Birgitte he’s just like “eh I guess she’s Birgitte-shaped idk”.

Strike seven-point-two (and the third time he’s had Thoughts about Elayne so far in this book).

And Mat is expecting her to be an asshole noble (like Tuon is) and he’s bracing himself against that... and is completely taken off guard when she is warm instead, thanking him for returning Thom to Andor. She tells him that he doesn’t have to call her “Your Majesty” in private! Of course not! But it would be good to do it in public for appearances’ sake, and Mat readily agrees. I do think Sanderson missed a beat here -- if Jordan were writing this, Mat definitely would have mentioned Elayne’s dimple. Jordan’s Mat was OBSESSED with Elayne’s dimple.

34. Thom mentions Elayne’s future children and Mat is just gobsmacked that Elayne is pregnant (and that it’s Rand’s kids -- I mean, Mat has been watching Rand bang Min against every available surface for the past few months in his rainbow visions so... can’t blame him for being somewhat confused since he DOESN’T know about the love confessions). Mat also thinks in some befuddlement that Elayne is agreeable now (...and then admits that she could be agreeable before too sometimes).

Interesting here -- Thom tells the story of their escape and “capture” of Tuon, and somehow manages to make Mat sound like a hero in the story (focusing on Mat saving the Aes Sedai and helping the Atha’an Miere escape, maybe? the WH stuff before CoT destroyed Mat’s character?). And then Mat cuts him off before he gets to Tuon saying the marriage words (or, for that matter, before he gets to Mat handing Tuon back to the Seanchan Empire to continue her invasion of their continent). Given... Elayne’s understandably strong feelings about the Seanchan, I am EXTREMELY CURIOUS about how Thom managed to relay this story in a way that was amusing rather than disturbing. Though I guess some of the worse bits were things that Thom didn’t see.

35. Okay, Mat deliberately trying to make sure that Elayne doesn’t know he’s married to Tuon is... hmm. Is it because he’s so attracted to Elayne and doesn’t want to have Thom remind her that he’s married or is it because something in his hindbrain is telling him not to let Elayne know that he’s married to someone who enslaves women like her? Given the uncertainty here, I won’t give this a strike point. But, yeah, he and Elayne are getting on so well right now, that even discounting his attraction to her, I can see why he wouldn’t want to mention that he’s now married to a slaver, specifically.

36. “[Elayne] laughed, the pretty sound ringing in the room. He felt himself blushing.” OKAY! Strike seven-point-three. Mat is so fucking gone over Elayne, wow. I am so deeply curious if anything about this was in Jordan’s notes or if Sanderson was just going off of his own vibes of Mat & Elayne from ACoS. Mat is coming across as having a massive MASSIVE crush on Elayne. And when Elayne realizes the gravity of the offer that Mat is bringing with Aludra and her dragons, she declares, “Mat, I could kiss you!” and Mat blue-screens for a moment.

If Elayne HAD kissed Mat here, he would have 100% kissed her back. Like, I have zero doubt in my mind. Wow, that crush can be seen from orbit.

37. Haha, after all that getting along, Elayne and Mat do run into some conflict when Mat realizes that Elayne is planning to have Aludra build the dragons for Andor and not for the Band. To make it so that they are one and the same, Elayne offers for the Band to be an official part of Andor. And Mat is tempted. But he’s stuck with Tuon so...

“He did not think Elayne would be happy to have him in her realm once she knew of his relationship with the Seanchan.” and “He had no intention of giving the Seanchan access to these dragons.” So Mat has maintained an awareness that the Seanchan are, in fact, hostile and also that he would likely not be able to maintain his friendship with Elayne once she knows that he’s married to a slaver. Sanderson also has Mat focus on how he wants to clear up the uncertainly over how Tuon views him -- everything with Mat & Tuon really is tainted by the prophecy, of course, because how much of Mat’s desire to ~find out the truth of Tuon’s feelings~ is a genuine desire, and how much of it is because he believes that he’s trapped with Tuon regardless?

They do come to terms -- the Band will sign a contract with Andor for now. Andor gets 3/4 of the dragons and the Band gets 1/4. And, in order to sweeten the deal, Mat offers to lend his medallion to Elayne for one day, to do whatever she wants with it. Man, the give-and-take and the general... equality of the relationship. My brain is currently constructing a fantasy of THIS being Mat’s noble romance instead of the trash ones that we got stuck with. *sigh*

They bargain some more, with Elayne getting the medallion for three days and Mat getting a new serving man (MAT’S suggestion, which is key). After we had Tylin forcing fancy clothes on Mat against his will, that Mat wants and trusts Elayne to pick out someone to help him care for his clothing just... wow, that really gets to me.

38. He learns that the reason that Elayne wants the medallion is to make copies -- he finds that worrisome for a moment, but then finds himself settling on being relieved and intrigued by her plans. He also tells Elayne about the gholam. Communication! Mat learns that Elayne wants to use the Band to secure Cairhien and he’s absolutely fine with it, just as long as the Band is free for the Last Battle, “however Rand wants”. The little exchange that Elayne and Mat have here:

Mat: “I’ll do what’s right.”

Elayne: “What you see as being right.”

Mat: “Every man should have that option.”

Elayne: “Few men use it wisely.”

That is probably a conversation that will ring in Elayne’s ears in the future, once she DOES find out what really happened at the end of Thom’s story, and learns that Mat considers “marrying a slaver” in the realm of “what’s right”.

Also, Elayne spits in her hand and shake Mat’s, to copy him. Another (much more minor) mirroring moment between Elayne x Mat and Tuon x Mat.

39. Elayne mentions that she wants the FULL story at dinner that night, including what Mat meant about being a “married man” and wow, the regret that Mat feels over putting that in his letter. He notes here that he dropped it in to hopefully make her curious enough to actually meet with him, which tracks with my speculation. Mat says here, to Thom on the way out, that he wonders if maybe Elayne can give him a pardon too (after finding out that Elayne has given Thom one). It’s interesting, again, in terms of what I was wondering about re: whether or not Thom actually still likes Mat, that Thom is finding the idea of Elayne learning that Mat is married to a Seanchan slaver to be amusing. That doesn’t seem like the reaction of a friend. And, of course, Mat feeling that he might need a pardon speaks to an interesting level of guilty awareness on Mat’s part that he doesn’t want to admit to.

40. I had so much to say about Mat! And about Mat and Elayne! But that was all fascinating, especially how flustered Mat was over talking with Elayne. And it’s also interesting that, even as attracted to Elayne as Mat was, he was capable of dealing with her as an equal when it came to his people. But Mat is also very very aware that all this warmth and trust that Elayne is currently extending to him could vanish in a heartbeat if she found about “his relationship with the Seanchan”.

I do wonder how much of Mat’s reactions to Elayne are based on a (subconscious and unintentional on Mat’s part) comparison to Tuon. That maybe Elayne’s behavior is a pleasant surprise partly because of how much better she’s treating him than Tuon does.

#wot reread #towers of midnight #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #mat cauthon #elayne trakand #matlayne #wot #wheel of time #egwene al'vere #nynaeve al'meara #the wheel of time

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