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butterflydm · 2 years

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wot reread: new spring (chapter 5-12)

spoilers through knife of dreams/new spring

1. During Moiraine and Siuan’s turn at taking names, we have Moiraine hesitating over how to calm the unruly crowd of women, while Siuan immediately takes charge and gets them to behave themselves. Siuan future leader vibes, for sure (which we also got earlier, with Moiraine noting how some might find it surprising that, out of the two of them, Siuan was the one who led and Moiraine the one who followed).

2. Despite being a noble, Horsegirl!Moiraine has watched horse breeding and helped during foaling (another thing she and Rand could have bonded over!). She can’t help being a horsegirl. But she is baffled at trying to guess the age of the human babies in front of her. Could be a few days! Could be two months! Who knows, really! lol

3. We get a moment here of Siuan and Moiraine balancing the line between extending sympathy and care to people who need it (giving the 100 gold bounty to a woman whose child is several months old but the woman is clearly starving and whose husband died early in the war) while not letting people who are simply greedy take advantage of them. It makes Moiraine smile when Siuan compliments her over how she handles the situation (moment #12).

4. After the break for lunch, we get the arrival of two Aes Sedai: a woman named Meilyn Arganya, who is very respected, and, to Moiraine’s shock, she is accompanied by Elaida. Elaida hasn’t been entirely gone from the Tower the last three years -- she has visited from time to time to confer with the Amrylin. Hmm, I wonder if Tamra knew about Elaida’s Foretelling about the Royal House of Andor being key in the Last Battle? Elaida does seem genuinely invested in Moiraine and Siuan. She’s just, you know, an awful person and thus shows her interest in ways that dismay and horrify said objects of her interest.

5. When Elaida sniffs at the idea of Warders, her companion (White Ajah) points out that, logically, given their lifestyle Red Sisters would find Warders MORE useful than most other Sisters. So true (and really points out how bizarre it is that we’re supposed to be believe that no Red Sister has attempted to bond a woman in all the time since the Warder bond was invented. That would, honestly, have made so much sense in Jordan’s worldbuilding - if Red Ajah Sisters all had female Warders).

6. We are reminded that corporal punishment is a big thing in the Tower, because Jordan clearly believed very strongly in it. People do persistently like to believe that people in positions of power hitting vulnerable people under their care builds character despite all the evidence stating that it does not, in fact, work (I’ve got a fairly comprehensive study buried somewhere in my queue about how when a country bans spanking, it reduces youth violence, among other things: shockingly enough, using violence to ‘teach’ people mostly just teaches them that violence is how you’re supposed to communicate). The Mistress of Novices has a cabinet with a strap, a switch, and a slipper. I feel like this is part of the White Tower that will not make it to the show.

7. But that’s not why Moiraine was summoned. She’s actually here to learn that her uncles (King Laman and his two brothers) were killed yesterday. Moiraine didn’t like her extended family much, though, so she isn’t exactly grieved by their deaths (we do learn here that her own father was a scholar who married a scholar, and thus was somewhat looked down on by his more ambitious family). Aww, when Moiraine gets back to her room, the lamps have been lit and there’s a fire in the fireplace, which she attributes to Siuan (moment #13).

8. Moiraine has a nightmare about a faceless infant in the snow who calls down lightning. After she wakes up from the nightmare, she banks the coals and goes to Siuan’s room, not wanting to sleep alone (moment #14). Siuan has also been having nightmares about the Dragon Reborn and welcomes her into the bed. Siuan wonders what they’re even going to do if they do find the Dragon. Moiraine says he can be brought to the Tower to be protected and educated in the ways of politics, war, and history. “Verin Sedai said that most mistakes made by rulers came from not knowing history; they acted in ignorance of the mistakes others had made before them.” (this is the exact thing that makes Mat the Greatest General - he has the ultimate ability to learn from other people’s mistakes in war, due to his memories) And, most importantly, the Dragon can be guided by them, “to make sure he made the right decisions”. Fascinating that VERIN is apparently the one who taught Moiraine and Siuan about the whole “women can’t teach men because it’s like fish and birds” thing when she’s the one who will undercut that very point years later by mentioning birds that dive for food & flying fish.

9. When they’re awoken in the morning, Moiraine gives Siuan a last hug before heading back to her own room (moment #15). Another mention of an Aes Sedai who will become damane -- Ryma is mentioned here. She is forcibly renamed Pura by the Seanchan at Falme and desperately asked Egwene to remember her real name for her, because she was losing hold of herself. I just... I really hate the Seanchan. I... again express my bafflement that Jordan decided to make his two of main male characters willing to accept the brutal slavery enacted by the Seanchan and have warm feelings for the slavers. wtf, dude? (and I will say that it’s bizarre that Rand doesn’t emotionally identify more with the damane, given how many of his own fears center around being leashed and used. but Jordan doesn’t even let him identify with the Asha’man so I guess that’s par for the course.)

10. “She had never been as close to anyone as she was to Siuan. Or loved anyone as much.” (moment #16)

11. In the aftermath of Laman’s death, Moiraine gets questioned by several Sitters about Cairhienin politics and realizes, to her dismay, that they are angling for her to take the Sun Throne now that Laman is dead. She worries that her only means of escaping such a fate would be to essentially flee the White Tower as soon as she gets the shawl and stay away as much as possible. Moiraine would probably have gotten further with Rand if she’d tried to bond with him over not wanting the responsibility that her heritage could have granted her, imo.

12. Moiraine realizes on the fourth day of copying baby names that no woman is ACTUALLY going to describe her kid as being “born on the slopes of Dragonmount” because the Prophecies of the Dragon are too well known - though many “common” people know inaccurate versions of the prophecies, even the most incorrect versions mention Dragonmount. Tamra comes in to Moiraine and Siuan, to give Moiraine a sealed letter to deliver to Kerene (ah, the Aes Sedai from episode 4).

13. Kerene is Green Ajah, so we get reminded that the Green Ajah’s actual PURPOSE is supposed to be to stay prepared to fight in the Last Battle. But, over time, it’s mostly just become the Ajah for people who want lots of Warders (Elayne believes that she HAS to choose Green because she wants Rand for a Warder after already having Birgitte, and only Greens would EVER have more than one Warder - despite “being prepared to fight the Last Battle” actually being something that Elayne wants to do and would have been a much better reason for her to want to be Green). We get a brief mention of Elyas here -- he’s still a Warder at the moment.

14. Moiraine’s point here about how, when a Sister lives long enough, her immediate family will all die and fade into memory, while only the Tower remains, does a much better job of showing why the Aes Sedai ARE so attached to the institution of the White Tower than anything in the main series does, imo. (of course, part of the problem there is that our main leads are all young enough that they DO still have immediate family/loved ones who are still living outside the White Tower, so they haven’t experienced that yet, but are as devoted to the White Tower as Sisters who have lived there hundreds of years. so it just feels slightly weird that they’re so attached tbh).

15. Stepin mention! Hi, Stepin. Kerene has another Warder here too, who didn’t make the show - Karile. Hi, Kerene! And it’s implied that she might have more Warders too. Moiraine made a huge point in her narration earlier about how Elaida just DRAPES herself in bright-bright red at all times to shout out her Ajah, but literally every Sister that Moiraine mentions is also wearing her Ajah’s colors, lol. As she leaves and reunites with Siuan, she learns that Siuan gave a similar message to Aisha Sedai, who is Gray Ajah. Moiraine guesses that Tamra is trying to assemble a trusted search party to look for ~the boychild~ who is the Dragon Reborn. And that Tamra doesn’t trust the Red Ajah with news of his birth at all. That Tamra’s plan is not to bring the boy to the White Tower, but to send him into hiding with trusted teachers to raise him safely AWAY from the White Tower. Yeah, that probably would be a better idea.

16. We learn that there’s a rumor in the Tower that Gitara had another Foretelling earlier that the Last Battle would come in the lifetimes of sisters now breathing. Which means two-three hundred years, so much less than the pinpoint accuracy of the Foretelling that Siuan and Moiraine overheard. This makes Moiraine suspect that there were other Foretellings as well, known only to Tamra now that Gitara is dead. Elaida visits while Moiraine is practicing for the Aes Sedai test with Siuan and Myrelle, and proceeds to be an abusive teacher. I’m guessing the story that she told Rand the last episode of season one is taking the place of this sort of more Tower-sanctioned beating.

17. And this is extremely abusive behavior on Elaida’s part. The weird thing is that Jordan seems half-aware that violence isn’t actually a good teaching method; it often fails to actually impart lessons to the ‘students’ of the violence -- yet he persists in making every single culture in WoT that we spend time with one that is based around the idea of beating knowledge into your students. Maybe he was just unaware that it was POSSIBLE to even have a teaching culture that lacked violence? So he knew it didn’t really work but also thought there was no other method that existed? It’s like with Cadsuane -- she persistently bullies Rand, it always puts his back up and he doesn’t engage with her at all and despises her as a person and can’t imagine what he might learn from her, and yet we’re told via Min’s mystical Always Right BS Viewings that Cadsuane is going to Teach Him A Valuable Lesson. Jordan kept trying to force that square block through that round hole, over and over, despite smashing his fingers on it every time.

18. One of the other Accepted, Ellid, notes (after Elaida leaves) that it’s against Tower law to use the Power to punish initiates and Siuan says that it’s a law that is broken near-constantly by teachers. Ellid says that they should report Elaida’s actions to the Mistress of Novices but Moiraine says that an Accepted officially complaining about being treated poorly will ‘pay’ for it. Um. Yikes. *gestures back up to the point I just made* Why were you like this, Jordan*? “They were required to learn endurance as much as history or the One Power.”

*I mean, I read that article about the bullying/hazing culture of The Citadel, where he went to college, so I guess I know why he was like that. But yikes all the same.

19. The beatings do stop when someone reports Elaida’s behavior to the Mistress of Novices, but Elaida was reprimanded not for beating students nightly until they wept, but for ‘helping them cheat’ in practicing for the test. Once more, I offer a hearty “WTF”. The nightly beatings, which were actually making them do worse and worse each time Elaida did it to them, constituted her cheating in their favor, apparently. That is such a contradictory narrative (again, like Cadsuane or, for that matter, Mat and Tylin). We can see in how the characters respond that it’s awful and isn’t helping at all, but then the narrative informs us that Actually It’s Such A Good Thing and was Helping A Lot. ???? wtf. Moiraine and Siuan are told to “accept [Elaida’s] gift in the spirit it was given”. And Elaida now had a major grudge against the two women (Moiraine assumes that Elaida thinks they went to the Mistress of Novices themselves to report her). I do like Siuan speaking out against the idea that Elaida was helping them and saying that she won’t allow Elaida to retaliate against her.

20. A week (ten days) after Gitara’s Foretelling, the snow on Dragonmount melts. Since the child crying in the snow was a key part of the Foretelling, Moiraine now feels safe in believing that the child must have been born in that ten-day span of time.

21. Moiraine is summoned to her testing for the shawl, but makes sure to give Siuan a quick hug before she leaves for it. Moiraine is certain that she’s going to fail the test, so she starts coming up with a backup plan -- even if she gets put out of the Tower, she could still look for the child, after all. She would have the ability to use the Power (discreetly) and would have the funds from the Damodred estates. Moiraine realizes that even if she doesn’t become Aes Sedai, she can still have a purpose, and that comforts her (a little).

22. lol, Moiraine has to be naked, of course. It wouldn’t be a Robert Jordan ritual without a woman needing to take her clothes off. Moiraine notes that Elaida is one of the women watching over her testing and wishes that she weren’t. The test itself is interesting, but her being naked for it really is so gratuitous. It’s similar to the Accepted test that we saw with Nynaeve & Egwene in the earlier books, in that you forget your original purpose once you’re inside, but in this case, the goal is to hit your mark and do the one-hundred weaves in perfect calm.

23. The goal of being able to achieve perfect calm whenever needed DOES make sense for Aes Sedai, of course, due to how they are required to ‘surrender’ in order to reach saidar. So in terms of how Jordan set up the magic system, this test makes sense. An Aes Sedai needs to be calm in order to fully access their magic. But I do find myself so so curious about what the original purpose of this ter’angreal was, back when it was created, because I doubt it was for this.

24. Luckily, we do skip from weave number three to weave number ninety-nine. But this really does sound like an incredibly long and grueling testing. No wonder many Accepted fail and then are put out of the Tower (...and then join the Kin). Her first test was enduring humiliation, then there was a lot that involved fear and pain (and at least one with sexual assault), and now, for the last one, she has to walk past her father telling her that her mother is dying and asking for her (both are dead in real life). It also seems that the tests are shaped and chosen in part by the women who are on the outside of the ter’angreal, controlling it.

25. Once Myrelle and Sheriam find out that Moiraine passed the test, there’s an instant distance between them. “Friendship was at an end, until they also gained the shawl.” That’s so fucking weird. It reminds me of how Siuan was treated as a lesser person after she was stilled. She was no longer Aes Sedai and thus no longer an equal. But, yeah, this is especially weird because they’re SO EXCITED about the idea of a friend going for their test, but then if the friend passes the test, the friendship is over (and if she’d failed, it would also be over, because she would be booted from the White Tower).

26. Moiraine stays up, even though she’s exhausted, because if Siuan fails the test, then she’ll only be allowed to stay at the White Tower long enough to gather her things and say a quick goodbye (moment #17, with a tinge of sadness). She tries to keep herself awake by reading one of her & Siuan’s favorite books, Hearts of Flame. When Siuan returns triumphant, they dance hand in hand (moment #18). Moiraine is saddened when she thinks about how she and Siuan aren’t allowed to talk to each other about what was in their testing - they’ve shared everything with each other these past years. “Even here, the shawl brought separations.” Tomorrow, they will be raised Aes Sedai but Siuan decides (and Moiraine agrees) that they will pull one last prank together as Accepted: they will put mice in Elaida’s bed.

27. “Breach of the proprieties or not, they intended to do everything together this morning insofar as possible.” (moment #19) “Hand in hand, they entered. Together.” Moiraine is so happy that the Amyrlin is indulging their desire to be raised as Sisters together that she thinks she could kiss her (moment #20). “Siuan had the heart of a lion.” (moment #21)

28. So, in the books as said here, the Official Duty of the Blue Ajah is “righting wrongs” (or Seekers after Causes, as Verin puts it). It’s never really defined in a satisfying way, tbh. I’m kinda glad that the show went with a different angle (the spy Ajah!) because that’s kinda what it seems like the Blue Ajah actually does. I guess they’re supposed to be the... activist Ajah? Anyway, both Moiraine and Siuan pick Blue and can’t imagine picking anything else. Once it’s obvious that Moiraine & Siuan are headed for the Blue Ajah Sisters, everyone else leaves the chamber as they get their official blue-fringed shawls.

29. Wow, for once, this ritual DOESN’T require gratuitous nudity... anymore. But apparently it used to. Wishing I could go back in time to send Jordan a note letting him know that women do occasionally do things with their clothes on. We do learn here that all the Ajah have their own customs and traditions that the Sisters must learn once they’ve gained their shawl. The actual bit where they’re greeted by their Ajah is sweet.

30. Moiraine hugs Siuan and thinks “She had truly come home. They had come home.” (moment #22). Ah, and the apartments that Moiraine and Siuan have been given are side by side.

31. Moiraine notices one of the Blue Sisters acting deferential to everyone else, including her and Siuan. Ah, this is Cabriana, who gets tortured and killed by Semirhage. Now I’m sad. Also, Cabriana appears to be the Aes Sedai who is being used (by the narrative) to show Moiraine and Siuan that strength in the One Power is how the hierarchy is done among full Aes Sedai, because that’s something that they don’t learn until they achieve the shawl (which is why the Kin don’t do it that way and use age instead; they never learned the silly silly method that the Aes Sedai use -- out of all the various groups, the Aiel Wise Ones seem to be the most sensible when it comes to figuring out who leads imo, though they do have their own issues as well). Also of note (and Moiraine notices this in her internal narration too) is that once they are alone among their Ajah, the Sisters are more free showing their feelings and aren’t always just radiating serenity at all times.

32. Moiraine can now dress in blue instead of white (it’s noted that she’s provided with “four plain blue dresses” - yes, the Ajahs DO color-code themselves in their clothing, lol) and she can put her kesiera back on (the blue gem that rests on her forehead).

33. They are officially told now that instead of ignoring their strength in the Power compared to everyone else, they must now be absolutely aware of it, because it determines where they stand in the hierarchy of the Tower. “If another Sister stands higher than you in the Power, whatever her Ajah, you must defer to her. The higher she stands above you, the greater your deference.” ...every time we get reminded of this system, I feel again what a terrible, terrible system it is. No wonder they wait until the women are locked into place before telling them about it. A woman weak in the Power would probably be more willing to balk at the final test and go off on her own, rather than constantly be under everyone else’s thumb for the rest of her life.

34. That does also delineate why Cadsuane being such an awful bully of a person makes sense under the system that Jordan created. Until Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve came along, Cadsuane had been the strongest woman in the Tower for literal centuries, with everyone deferring to her whims. It’s a system that is designed to create bullies, minions, and victims. (...I’m going to blame the Black Ajah). Both Rand and Egwene think at various points how addictive it can be to have people jump to obey your every whim.

35. Moiraine is grateful that she and Siuan are near-identical in strength. “It would have seemed unnatural if Siuan had been forced to defer to her.” (moment #23) At this point in time, Moiraine is thinking that she and Siuan will leave the Tower together (to hunt for the baby Dragon) and “she for one did not intend to return until she was at her full strength”. It occurs to me... if Egwene and Nynaeve had been raised to the shawl in the normal manner, all of this would have come as a horrible crushing disappointment to Egwene? During their time as Accepted, Egwene fights so hard to feel like/be seen as Nynaeve’s equal (even tipping over to being cruel at times in her struggle), so being raised to Aes Sedai Sister and learning that she was now expected to show Nynaeve deference again (for the rest of the time they were Sisters!) would have probably been a pretty nasty surprise. Luckily for Egwene, she gets to bypass that and jump straight to the top, lol.

36. We are in Siuan’s perspective now, where we learn she has been volun-told into a job position inside the White Tower that she VERY much does not want and yet is not allowed to say ‘no’ to because she is ‘good at puzzles’ and someone who is currently stronger than her in the Power wants her help. So now she had to tell Moiraine that she will be searching alone. Despite her anger, she thinks, “The sight of Moiraine always made her smile. Cetalia had been wrong in one particular. She was not a pretty little porcelain doll; she was a beautiful little porcelain doll.” But more than that, Siuan also thinks, “Moiraine had turned out to be as tough as she herself, if not tougher”. (moment #24)

37. Siuan is relieved that, now that she’s Aes Sedai, she can swear again without worrying about being assigned a penance for it. Siuan pours herself a cup of tea without asking Moiraine’s permission, because they’re close enough that she doesn’t need it (moment #25).

38. Moiraine confesses to Siuan that she believes that the White Tower means to place her on the Sun Throne. Siuan says she can understand why and that she believes Moiraine would make a wonderful queen. Moiraine is almost in tears when she explains the legacy that her ancestors have left behind in order to rule Cairhien and “I am caught like a fox in a trap, and I cannot even chew off my own foot to escape”. Siuan reassures her that they WILL figure a way out.

39. “Siuan could have kissed her. In fact, she did.” (moment #26)

40. Oh, hi, Lan! It’s been quite a long time! They’re watching as the Aiel go back over the Spine of the World. The ‘war’ is over. At his teacher’s request, Lan agrees to wait four months before going north to pursue his own personal war against the Blight. And... bye, Lan! See you again sometime!

#wot #wheel of time #wot reread #new spring #moiraine damodred #lan mandragoran #siuan sanche #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #siuanraine #siuraine #the wheel of time

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