#lan al'mandragoran

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 10: Leavetaking

I feel like saying "Hello" at the start of these is silly, but I don't know what else to do to start up each section of this reread! This reread is filled with more spoilers than a Cliff's Notes Omnibus, so if you're trying to avoid them you should avoid this post too. Run away like the gang is skipping town!

This chapter has Moiraine's staff for its icon and I think it's just because she's taking charge of everyone's fates now, or trying to. The Wheel's gonna weave though, whether she likes it or not.

“I looked,” Perrin replied. “There’s nobody here but us. Why would anybody hide—”

Why would anybody try to destroy your hometown, Perrin? I think people think you're slow because of stupid questions like this.

Rand thought about flourishing the sword, but Lan being there stopped him. The Warder was not even looking in his direction, but he was sure the man was aware of everything that went on around him.

Rand's constant need for Lan's approval in all things is wonderful and I'm going to point it out every time it happens. If you don't like it, join the people afraid of spoilers.

“Master Luhhan made it about two years ago, for a wool-buyer’s guard. But when it was done the fellow wouldn’t pay what he had agreed, and Master Luhhan would not take less. He gave it to me when”—he cleared his throat, then shot Rand the same warning frown he’d given Mat—“when he found me practicing with it. He said I might as well have it since he couldn’t make anything useful from it.”

A DIscord buddy of mine said that Perrin is basically what happens when King Arthur grows up next to Crystal Dragon Jesus, and boy is he desperate to prove it, since he also has a weapon inherited from a father figure but it's nowhere near as cool as Rand's Bladed Certificate of Badassery.

Anything can be a weapon, if the man or woman who holds it has the nerve and will to make it so.

Lan, meanwhile, once accepted a challenge to defeat a rampaging Trolloc army by using all the items in an abandoned Borderlander farm once each. Kind of a shame that we end up sticking mostly to traditional weapons and magic as the series goes on; stuff like Rand boiling the Trolloc with the kettle always has an extra fun element.

“We left notes,” Mat said. “For our families. They’ll find them in the morning. Rand, my mother thinks Tar Valon is the next thing to Shayol Ghul.” He gave a little laugh to show he did not share her opinion. It was not very convincing. “She’d try to lock me in the cellar if she believed I was even thinking of going there.”

Frankly Mat, I think that as long as you weren't being dragged off in irons, your mother would be quite happy to have you out of the house for a few months to grow up and not cause trouble.

Also, it's really weird that Perrin only mentions the Luhhans and not his own family. I'm aware that as Perrin is an apprentice he needs his teacher's approval to do things, but you'd think his parents would have a problem with this too. I hope Perrin actually left them a note too instead of just Luhahan; it would really suck if he missed this opportunity to say goodbye what with their imminent demise.

“Not without me.” Egwene slipped into the stable, a shawl-wrapped bundle in her arms. Rand nearly fell over his own feet.

One of my favorite things about the story is that our young lady is jumping at the chance for adventure and taking every opportunity to get while our young gents are being painfully dragged towards their doom. Egwene's not a ta'veren because the Pattern doesn't need to drag her around by the heels like it does with the layabouts; she's probably already planning on becoming Amyriln and she doesn't even know she can channel yet.

Do you think you three are the only ones who want to see what’s outside? I’ve dreamed about it as long as you have, and I don’t intend to miss this chance.

Sadly though, she does have a tendency to project. Absolutely none of the boys are leaving out of curiosity about the outside world; camping trips to the mountains are as far as they're interested in going.

A startled expression darted across Lan’s face. It was gone in an instant, leaving him outwardly calm, but furious words erupted from him. “No, Moiraine!”

It may seem a bit strange for stoic Lan to be having this outburst, but I stand by my fake dialogue from several chapters ago: dude is (rightly) convinced that Rand is the real deal and (wrongly) convinced that the others are just a waste of time. Now Moiraine's not even adding plausible candidates to their entourage, and who gets to hide all of their tracks? Lan. Dude might be loving the idea of becoming the Dragon Reborn's personal sword sensei, but babysitting the rest of these idiots is making him long to just go die in the Blight like he was going to twenty years ago.

“That will not be possible,” came Thom Merrilin’s resonant voice from the hayloft. Lan’s sword left its sheath this time, and he did not put it back as he stared up at the gleeman.

If this chapter was from Lan's POV, this is the point where his internal monologue would be lots of funny Borderland swears. And jeez Perrin, you "didn't think" of looking in the loft? That's like the most obvious hiding place!

Thom put his feet on the stable floor and turned from the ladder, brushing straw from his patch-covered cloak. “In fact,” he said in more normal tones, “you might say that I insist on traveling in company. I have given many hours over many mugs of ale to thinking of how I might end my days. A Trolloc’s cookpot was not one of the thoughts.”

Also, Thom may be using the Trollocs and lure of Tar Valon (not quoted but mentioned earlier) as excuses, but they're both BS. He knows damn well that he's not a target and that Moiraine's party is, so joining them only increases his risk. Further, he has no reason to go to Tar Valon unless he's ready to die by trying to off whatever Red Ajah witches killed his nephew, and right now he doesn't even know their names. He's just worried that one of the boys - all of the boys - might have the ability to channel and that they're being led to their doom, and he's willing to put up with a lot to save them if that's the case. Nobody in this stable is a paragon of morality, but they all have the hearts of heroes. As far as I'm concerned, all of them EXCEPT Mat (who doesn't wanna be) are bound to the Horn and this is just one hell of a crossover episode.

“Bela,” Rand said, getting a look from Lan that made him wish he had kept silent. But he knew he could not dissuade Egwene; the only thing left was to help.

Speaking of good hearts, I love the way that the EF5 are almost incapable of getting along but will still assist each other at nearly every opportunity.

The only horse left riderless was Cloud, a tall gray with a black mane and tail that belonged to Jon Thane, or had. 

Rand started this story with Bela and now that he's realized he's eight or nine years overdue for a properly mid-life crisis, he's traded her in for a racing model. Boy is gonna go through a lot of horses before this is over. Current horse count: 2

(There is no way I will remember this count by the time we get to the third horse, let alone the finale.)

“Wolves!” Perrin exclaimed, and the Warder favored him with a flat stare.

Foreshadowing! Boy deserves some since he hasn't really had much yet.

“Two Dha’vol Trollocs would have them all for breakfast,” Lan muttered when the sound of their boots had faded, “but they have eyes and ears.” He turned his stallion back. “Come.”

We don't know much about the Trolloc bands, but we can probably gather from this that the Dha'vols (guess the etymology!) are some of the least threatening.

Rand peered at the high-peaked houses in the dark, trying to impress them on his memory. A fine adventurer I am, he thought. He was not even out of the village yet, and already he was homesick. But he did not stop looking.

Don't be too hard on yourself, Rand. You're not coming back, not in this lifetime, and maybe even not in the next. Also your home is several miles away so you're further off than all the others.

A black shape flew slowly across the silvery ball of the moon. Rand’s involuntary jerk on the reins halted the gray. A bat, he thought weakly, but he knew it was not.

Meet the draghkar. I'm not quite certain where their name comes from (it seems to be a dragon variant), but they're pretty obviously (suc/in)cubi with hints of siren or vampire. Like the other variants of Shadowspawn seen thus far, draghkar are made from human beings, which makes me wonder: is there some sort of Fade equivalent to them, like what Trollocs have? Or is the genetic manipulation severe enough that the channeler gene doesn't exist in them, so no such throwbacks occur? Both options are frightening in different ways.

Also note that despite being potentially really effective threats against our heroes (one almost takes out Moiraine in book two after all), they pretty much drop off the face of the earth after book five or so. Sanderson brings them back for the Last Battle though, but sadly not in a way that really lets them shine. It might have just been too hard for either author to keep coming up with organic ways to include them that didn't end too much like previous encounters or with the readers going, "Yeah that person should be dead now." Or maybe the gholam ended up filling the same sort of niche too well.

It was Thom Merrilin who answered her hoarsely. “In the war that ended the Age of Legends, worse than Trollocs and Halfmen were created.” Moiraine’s head jerked toward him as he spoke. Not even the dark could hide the sharpness of her look.

Moiraine was born eons too late-early to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, but if she could see it, like me she would absolutely hate it when Picard asks the away team what's happening and Riker answers, "Trouble" or something else that is only an answer in the most useless sense of the word. She really doesn't appreciate it coming from someone who knows they need to be quiet and whose contributions are doing nothing but scaring the children she's trying to kidnap. Thom, meanwhile, really doesn't appreciate it when women are Aes Sedai in his presence. Naturally, Jordan thinks they're soul mates.

But that's an unsatisfying romance for another book, and we're closing out another chapter, bringing us closer to the somewhat unsatisfying romance in this book! Next time: The Road to Taren Ferry!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #rand al'thor #mat cauthon #lan al'mandragoran #perrin aybara #moiraine damodred #egwene al'vere #thom merrilin

[worldhopper10]

Watch "The Wheel Of Time – Official Teaser Trailer | Prime Video" on YouTube

One of the longest series I've read. The culprit of one my broken phones. Ladies and Gentlemen, the long wait for the trailer is over yet the wheel of time still turns!

This would be a long torturous journey! But the path to greatness is paved with Daggers!!

#wheel of time #moiraine damodred #Lan al'mandragoran #Rand #perrin #Mat #Dance of Jak'o shadows #the wheel of time series #Robert Jordan #Brandon Sanderson #The freaking 15 books that wracked my brain #tested my patience and downright frustrates me but I still loved it #I have just one complaint #Robert Jordan sucks at writing love stories #Amazon trailer #amazon series #amazon #Youtube

[quinntamsin]

Merry Yule to everyone, taking a break from Witcher Season 2, to do my WoT finale review!

Spoilers ahead!

*Rends the earth at her feet Delphine dances at her side, sword flashing between the enemy.*

“The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.”

Season 1 Finale, Episode 8, “Eye of the World.”

WE open to Lews Therin Telamon speaking to Latra Posae Decume, the current Tamyrlin Seat of the Aes Sedai. It is the age of Legends before Lews went mad, and the Dark One ruined it all. Before the Bore was destroyed in search of the “True Power”. It’s all conducted in Old Tongue, which really shows they budget went into expanding the bits and bobs from the books.

Fast forward to Rand and Moiraine, they are in the blight. A thicket of rotting fungal growth and dead grasping vines. We see the former body of a dead Borderlander Boy, overtaken by fungal rot. A view of the Seven Towers of Malkier and it all comes home, this truly is a Broken world. Flashing back between the Blight and Fal Dara we first see Egwene consoling her grief with Perrin. Another scene featuring Lan and Nynaeve, we see how she is dealing with the grief of one of her friends. She has finally accepted she will got to Tar Valon so she can be with Lan.

Back to Rand, and the Blight has started to take him, the moss itself creeping over him. And yes we finally meet Ba’alzamon, Ishmael, Elin Morin Teldronai, worse of the Forsaken. The one who stood with Lews Therin when he had his moment of lucidity, and the actor chosen to play him is rightfully menacing (Fares Fares). A sa’angreal is finally revealed, awesome, we get a name for it, and we an image of Tarwin’s Gap.

And finally, we learn of Moiraine’s backstory and how an older Aes Sedai beat her, abused her, to learn how to channel. This is a point which drives home to Rand, that yes he will channel.

“The Gap will not hold.”

Lady Amalisa Jagad

Further into the Blight...

Trollocs are preparing to pour out of the Blight, Lan tracks the pair, and Lord Angelmar Jagad prepares for battle. His sister, Amalisa, tries to convince him to remain. Tarmon Gai’don, is almost here, but it is not today. The small salute, the right palm tapping the left breast fits well with the arm pounding we saw at Stepin’s funeral. Suddenly, we are in the Hall of Servants mayhap? Memories come colliding into Rand’s mind as he is now back in the Two Rivers. A trick of the Dark One as he sees his son with Egwene.

Moiraine is confronted by Ishmael, yes, the power of a Forsaken is revealed. I love it. The cacophany of the ongoming horde of trollocs as well. yes, the budget in the past hasn’t always shown the best, but now yes, now it all comes to a head. The men riding for Tarwin Gap as the women defend Fal Dara. Blessed is the Light, yeah, this fighting scene is so fucking good. Not Battle of the Bastard’s Good, but damn it’s fun!

Alright, I got suuuuper pulled into the episode so I kind of didn’t keep track. But let’s get back to brass tax. The scene witht he Trollocs, the graphics were definitely a little wonky, but hey, what do you expect from a series that had to slog through fucking covid. Rand is breaking through the compulsion and lies that Ishmael has placed him in. The temptation by the Father of Lies to twist Rand, and free himself. I wonder if they will differentiate him from the Dark One soon, or if he will just be the Dark One.

Padan Fain has broken in with Two Fades, and the Trollocs are coming. The Horn of Valere is revealed (yup we’re setting up season 2). And holy shit the storm casting by Aes Sedai and how it killed the Malkier woman is saddening. I’m happy Amalisa was able to push back the trollocs. And then Rand kicks the Dark ONe’s ass, for now, and let’s get onto PERRIN. He is confronting Pada Fain who has arrived to make it all worse. Will the season end with us thinking everyone is dead? And Moiraine is stilled? Ah yes, the first step in the coming of Tarmon Gai’don is here. A solid ending, and of course NYNAEVE ISN’T DEAD!

Fucking best healer of a generation and yeah she’s going to survive.

And yes, we get a little ending scene introducing the MOTHER FUCKING SEANCHAN! YES MY FAVORITE SECONDARY BADDIES ARE COMING! ANd holy shit do I love the hair and the design of the Damane!

Conclusion:

Wow, so it looks like we are getting 1 book per season roughly. I’m okay with this, and especially with how everying has looked. From the armor design to the simple clothes they all wear. I’ve seen a lot of bitching about the costuming and whatever, costumes don’t need to be pretty. What matters was the story!

Overall, this series is at the same level of strength as Witcher S1, and I’m perfectly happy with that. Fuck yes, let’s here for season 2!

Hottakes:

Amalisa in her father’s armor is fucking awesome. Reminds me a lot of armor I saw in Red Cliff mixed with elvish armor.

Angelmar’s death was definitely a n ice touch, it shows he should have listened to his sister. He just had to wear “his” armor.

Fares Fares was a good casting call for Mishmael, all my fucking god love it.

Heh, Seanchan Empire is coming!

#lgbt #queer #transgender #gnc #fantasy #lesbian #gay #nonbinary #nerd #wheel of time tv show #science fiction #wheel of time #wot tv series #wot tv #wot spoilers #lan al'mandragoran #nynaeve x lan #nynaeve x egwene #nynaeve al'meara #rand al'thor #matrin cauthon #perrin aybara #egwene al'vere #moiraine #moiraine damodred #moiraine sedai #aes sedai #shienar #malkier #seanchan

[elnynaevetialmearamandragoran]

I think I've decided. My favorites are: Nynaeve, Mat, Min, Perrin, Elayne, Aviendha, Lan, Loial, Faile, Egwene & Moiraine

#wheel of time #nynaeve al'meara #matrim cauthon #min farshaw #perrin aybara #elayne trakand #aviendha #lan al'mandragoran #loial #faile bashere #egwene al'vere #moiraine damodred #so #everyone #can't imagine who I could be missing

[inprometheanfire-archive]

🐆 ( give us more ideas lmao

we have so many children 😅

text version for copy/paste reasons idk why but everyone else is doing it so... :::

lucrezia borgia - rience

anakin skywalker - donovan

sam wilson - rust cohle

marcel gerard - rollo sigurdsson

the darkling - cheryl blossom

lucrezia borgia - finan

laszlo kreizler - empress theodora

marcus isaacson - andy of scythia

ethan chandler - maximus decimus meridius

kaz brekker - glenn rhee

lucrezia borgia - anne bonny

laszlo kreizler - adewale

louis xiv - finan

aviendha - francesco de'pazzi

nell crain - samuel sullivan

nell crain - milady de winter

francis de valois - leonardo da vinci

rodrigo borgia - billy brown

lan al'mandragoran - edward "blackbeard" teach

elijah mikaelson - kai parker

#dude #this couldve gone on forever #tothedevilsshow #answered; meme

[destroyer-drax]

AAAHHHHHHH LAN

seriously this is why i love him

still throws jabs at the Dragon Reborn IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAST BATTLE

and Rand wasn't even there to hear it

just

i feel like he's underappreciated

now all he needs is Nynaeve with him 

and for Moraine to reveal herself to him

#AMOL #Lan al'mandragoran #seriously love this character

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 20: Dust on the Wind

The spoilers have nearly claimed that poor horse! Will those of you who haven't finished reading the entire series be next? Only way to be safe is to go somewhere else! This is your one and only warning for this post. There'll be more for later posts though, just to be safe.

This chapter has the Trolloc triptych again, which is a reference to their being hunted by them in Shadar Logoth. You almost feel bad for the hideous abominations again, since they definitely don't want to be here. Go ahead, give one a pet. Just be advised: it won't purr, it'll eat you. I'm not in charge of them.

Rand looked up warily at the buildings they passed, looming now in the night with their empty windows like eye sockets. Shadows seemed to move. Occasionally there was a clatter—rubble toppled by the wind. At least the eyes are gone. His relief was momentary. Why are they gone?

It's totally not the wind, and the eyes are probably no longer staring at you in particular because they're staring at the Trollocs. I suggested last chapter that Mashadar might be the result of AoL ter'angreal, and I really do think that some kind of surveillance mechanism from that era - presumably designed during the War - has been put to an incredibly twisted use as part of whatever's happening here.

Lan and Moiraine rode slowly toward the fog, grown to as big around as a leg, stopping on the other side, well back. The Aes Sedai studied the branch of mist that separated them. Rand shrugged at a sudden itch of fear between his shoulder blades. A faint light accompanied the fog, growing as the foggy tentacle became fatter, but still only a little more than the moonlight.

That said, Mashadar proper can't be connected to the surveillance directly, or if it is the surveillance isn't visual but pings solely to the corruption of the Shadow. Moiraine calls it unseeing and aimless, though as we'll see this is only partly true. This again feels like it could well be based on some device from the Age of Legends, quite possibly a hideous creation built by someone working for the Shadow or just too ethically awful to be a good guy. A kill cloud like this would be a terrific weapon of war in the etymological sense of the word. Of course, it's certainly something more now.

Keep on toward that star, and it will bring you to the river. Whatever happens, keep moving toward the river.

But it's in the eastern sky and this story takes place on Earth, which spins in that direction! In just a couple hours it'll be overhead and by the end of the night it'll be in the west or even set! Moiraine, did you fail your astronomy class in the Tower? Is this why everyone stays separated this chapter?

(Also, if it's Mars that she's pointing at, which it well might be if the star is just generally east and not precisely due east at that very moment, then the astrological implications of telling the Dragon Reborn to go to war are absolutely fascinating.)

When Rand looked up from the thick trunk of opaque mist, the Warder and the Aes Sedai were gone. He licked his lips and met his companions’ eyes. They were as nervous as he was. And something worse: they all seemed to be waiting for someone else to move first. 

Note that Thom is just as much out of his comfort zone as the rest of the gang is. Sure he's an assassin and a queen's fuckboi and all sorts of other things, but this is way more metaphysical evil than he's ever had to deal with.

Two Trollocs stepped into the street before them, not ten spans away. For an instant the humans and the Trollocs just stared at one another, each more surprised than the other.

You might think this is the most comical thing on this page, but you'd be wrong.

Another pair of Trollocs appeared, and another, and another, colliding with the ones in front, folding into a shocked mass at the sight of the humans. 

Another contender, just the next sentence even, but nope.

“This way!” he shouted, but he heard the same cry from five throats. A hasty glance over his shoulder showed him his companions disappearing in as many directions, Trollocs pursuing them all.

This is just absolutely perfect. Literally each and every one of these idiots thinks they're a leader and somehow manages to pick a different direction. In an orderly, well-planned city like this one you wouldn't even think it's possible to pick more than four directions, one of which should be blocked off by the Trollocs, but these idiots put their collective brain cell to use and find a way.

The thickening tentacles of fog swung uncertainly for a moment, then struck like vipers. At least two latched to each Trolloc, bathing them in gray light; muzzled heads went back to scream, but fog rolled over open mouths, and in, eating the howls. Four leg-thick tentacles whipped around the Fade, and the Halfman and its black horse twitched as if dancing, till the cowl fell back, baring that pale, eyeless face. The Fade shrieked.

Yeah, Mashadar is not entirely unaware, it just has preferred prey and incidental prey.

Mat swallowed hard before pulling himself awkwardly back into his saddle. “I . . . I. . . . Just Trollocs.” He put a hand to his throat, and licked his lips. “Just Trollocs. You?”

What aren't you telling us, Mat? Was the Trolloc encounter just that terrifying? Did the city show you more of its ghosts? Is the dagger already corrupting your mind?

Listening for the slightest sound, Rand kept the red star dead ahead. Suddenly Thom galloped by from behind, slowing only long enough to shout, “Ride, you fools!” A moment later hunting cries and crashes in the brush behind him announced the presence of Trollocs on his trail.

I feel like Rand wasn't listening very well based on how Thom and the Trollocs all sneak up on him. Just saying.

Perrin sat his horse in the shadows, watching the open gateway, some little distance off yet, and absently ran his thumb along the blade of his axe. It seemed to be a clear way out of the ruined city, but he had sat there for five minutes studying it.

Well look at that, folks. For the first time since the Prologue we're getting a non-Rand POV. This book series ends up with way too many POVs, but at the moment it almost feels like we're overdue.

On the downside, it's Perrin, who apparently doesn't know how to use a gate without someone helping him. It won't get better either. Not only will he be assigned a helper for such tasks, but he'll still spend all of book 13 struggling with them.

“Rand?” came a soft, hesitant call.

Aw, she really does love him best. We're only allowed to know this when we aren't Rand though, because it's Perrin who's good with girls. ;)

A Trolloc horn sounded somewhere behind them, quick, wailing blasts, urging the hunters to hurry, hurry. Then thick, half-human howls rose on their trail, spurred on by the horn. Howls that grew sharper as they caught the human scent.

I'm going to guess that this is the horn Rand heard that was outside Shadar Logoth, and that its proximity to the horn inside the city was a lucky coincidence to keep him on his toes. If so, the first one was for Thom.

Doggedly, he set out swimming for the far bank.

Geddit?

At least, he tried to keep his head out of the water; it was not easy. Even without the cloak, his coat and boots each seemed to weigh as much as he did. And the axe dragged at his waist, threatening to roll him over if it did not pull him under.

I think that is to some degree based on Jordan's real experiences. Obviously he wouldn't have Perrin's style of clothing or weaponry though.

When he had his breath again, he called their names again and again. Faint shouts from the far side answered him; even at that distance he could make out the harsh voices of Trollocs. His friends did not answer, though.

Perrin, you are even worse at this than Rand! Let's blame the hypothermia that should be setting in after you swam across a river in supernatural winter and are still running around in your soaked clothing. So yeah, Perrin dies in the night, we never see him again, back to Rand.

“I still say it’s over there,” Mat said, gesturing off to his right. “We were going north at the end, and that means east is that way.” “There it is,” Thom said abruptly. He pointed through the tangled branches to their left, straight at the red star. Mat mumbled something under his breath.

Don't feel bad, Mat. At this point, the star is no longer low in the sky and Thom is actually pointing at a different star altogether, because that's how the night sky works and you all should know that because light pollution hasn't existed for thousands of years and none of you had anything else to do at night but watch the sky!

Suddenly Thom’s gelding galloped out of the night, hard behind the Trollocs. The Trollocs had only time enough to look back in surprise before the gleeman’s hands whipped back and then forward. Moonlight flashed off steel. One Trolloc tumbled forward, rolling over and over before landing in a heap, while a second dropped to its knees with a scream, clawing at its back with both hands. The third snarled, baring a muzzleful of sharp teeth, but as its companions toppled it whirled away into the darkness. Thom’s hand made the whip-like motion again, and the Trolloc shrieked, but the shrieks faded into the distance as it ran.

It's been years since Thom's been a killer of royals, but he's still really good at it!

Somewhere away from the river a Trolloc horn brayed, sharp, quick, and urgent in the darkness. It was the first sound from the horns since they had left the ruins. Rand wondered if it meant some of the others had been captured.

Hmm, maybe this is the horn for chasing Perrin and Egwene. Hard to say.

“But Moiraine and the others could be anywhere,” Mat protested. “Any way we choose could just take us further away.” “So it could.” Clucking to his gelding, Thom turned downriver, heading along the bank. “So it could.” Rand looked at Mat, who shrugged, and they turned after him.

Silly Mat, if you picked the direction, you'd find them immediately. That said, Thom is determined to lose Moiraine at this point. Frankly, he gets them to the boat so quickly you'd think he'd been reading the shipping forecasts in Baerlon.

The man Rand had stepped on scrabbled away from him on hands and knees, then flung up his hands when he saw Rand looking at him. “Spare me!” he cried. “Take whatever you want, take the boat, take everything, but spare me!”

I forgot just how much of a coward that Gelb is.

Suddenly the ship lurched, and a boom swung out of the shadows to catch the Trolloc across the chest with a crunch of breaking bones, sweeping it over the side.

Rand's second channeling attempt, triggered only when he's seconds from death. He assumes it's luck, which is silly because I've already mentioned that's Mat's thing.

“Gelb!” he bellowed. “Fortune! Where do you be, Gelb?” He spoke so fast, with all the words running together, that Rand could barely understand him. “You can no hide from me on my own ship! Get Floran Gelb out here!”

Lots of people complain about Jordan's world only having a single language, but considering what the Illianers have for an accent, I invite you all to instead be grateful we never had to hear a foreigner struggle with the modern tongue or Rand struggle with Aiel or whatever.

Also, Bayle Domon! <3

“These Trollocs do be following me. Why will they no leave me be? Why?”

Rand is too busy being exhausted from channeling to notice this comment, but you should! Bayle is being followed by the Shadow and its spawn because he has one of the seven seals on his ship.

“And then where the wind takes us,” Thom interrupted smoothly. “That’s how gleemen travel, like dust on the wind. I am a gleeman, you understand, Thom Merrilin by name.” He shifted his cloak so the multihued patches stirred, as if the captain could have missed them. “These two country louts want to become my apprentices, though I am not yet sure I want them.” Rand looked at Mat, who grinned.

Good to know that some twisted memory of Kansas survives after all this time! Also thanks Thom, this is twice you've saved Rand and Mat's asses this chapter.

“Alas, what little we managed to carry away was with our horses, which bolted when those last Trollocs appeared. All I have left are my flute and my harp, a few coppers, and the clothes on my back. But believe me, you want no part of that treasure. It has the taint of the Dark One. Best to leave it to the ruins and the Trollocs.”

Oh yeah, RIP Cloud. The Wiki says the horse is alive but let's be real: those Trollocs were hungry and winter sucked. Their horses are fucking dead.

Reluctantly Rand emptied his pocket. There was not much, a few coppers and the silver coin Moiraine had given him. He held it out to the captain. After a second, Mat sighed and did the same. Thom glared, but a smile replaced it so quickly that Rand was not sure it had been there at all.

Thom is smart enough to realize that the only reason these two hicks have silver coins is Moiraine, and educated enough to know how awesome it is they're getting rid of her influence over them. Well, that's how he'd put it, roughly. This is really only going to cause no end of grief.

This winter past, though, there be farms burning every night. Aye, and whole villages, too, betimes. They even came right up to the city walls. And if that no be bad enough, the people be all saying it meant the Dark One be stirring, that the Last Days be come.

One of the reasons Tenobia has so much free time to go gallavanting after Rand's attention in the later books is of course that she doesn't need to rule anyone anymore. They clearly all died in these attacks, so she's not a bad ruler at all!

No wait that doesn't make sense and neither does the Borderland nonsense. Frankly this kind of stuff should be making it all the more important that they stay at home and reinforce their borders.

Once they were on deck Thom looked around quickly to make sure he would not be overheard, then growled, “I could have gotten us passage for a few songs and stories if you two hadn’t been so quick to show silver.”

Sorry Thom, I think you're wrong here. Maybe most voyages you coulda pulled this off, but not this one. Even if Domon weren't ferrying around one of the cosmic keystones, even if he weren't justifiably suspicious as all hell, Rand had to lose his coin to make the Pattern happy.

“I told her I’d take care of her. I should have tried harder.” The creak of the sweeps and the hum of the rigging in the wind made a mournful tune. “I should have tried harder,” he whispered.

Egwene's death was not planned at this point, but you have to admit Rand's worry over her right now makes good bookends with it. Shame it takes him so long to be okay with everyone else having agency.

Next time: More wind references! A new POV! Another example of why you never split the party!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #rand al'thor #perrin aybara #lan al'mandragoran #thom merrilin #egwene al'vere #nynaeve al'meara #mat cauthon #moiraine damodred #bayle domon

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Dragon Reborn! Chapter 3: News from the Plain

Another day, another chapter, another generic image because we're off the visual map! Come one, come all, get your Wheel of Time impressions here. Unless you don't want spoilers. Then bloody stay away.

This chapter has a Wheel icon because... Moiraine talks about the weaving of the Wheel a lot, I guess.

Someday, perhaps, he could bring himself to ask her what she knew. An Aes Sedai must know more of it than he did. But this was not the time. There never seemed to be a time.

Perrin, you've had like four months, plus the month you spent with her in Fal Dara. You are never going to ask her anything at this rate.

“An accident,” she said in a flat voice, then shook her head and vanished back inside the hut. The door banged shut a little loudly.

I suspect Moiraine thinks that this was a deliberate act to try and fuck up her meeting to punish her for not having a plan beyond "Wait". And since the temper tantrum is about that, she's not exactly wrong, just assigning more motivation to Rand than is fully there.

“If something goes wrong with it, it isn’t my fault. Rand spilled half of it on the fire with his. . . . What right does he have to bounce us around like sacks of grain?”

Trust me Min, when Rand wants to be bouncing you around like a sack of grain, you will be enthusiastically consenting.

“Min, maybe you had better go. First thing in the morning. I have some silver I can let you have, and I’m sure Moiraine would give you enough to take passage with a merchant’s train out of Ghealdan. You could be back in Baerlon before you know it.”

Perrin doesn't quite seem to understand that Min is going to inevitably see horrible shit no matter where she goes, short of becoming a hermit. It is a kind offer though.

“Just because fate has chosen something for you instead of you choosing it for yourself doesn’t mean it has to be bad. Even if it’s something you are sure you would never have chosen in a hundred years. ‘Better ten days of love than years of regretting,’ ” she quoted.

It's a little funny that Min has a deep understanding of the existentialism necessary to function in her present times but has absolutely nothing to do with Rand coming to understand it himself.

He thought he had said that too softly for her to hear, but the look she gave him was full of sympathy. And agreement.

Min probably knows that even when Perrin goes home it won't be home anymore. Perhaps she even sees his parents' grave at this point. Maybe even his sisters', though perhaps they haven't been retconned into existence by the Pattern yet.

Careless. He had grown so used to the Shienarans knowing how well he could see—in daylight at least; they did not know about the night—that he was beginning to slip about other things. Carelessness might kill me yet.

Yeah, you definitely don't want to confide about your awful extrasensory perception to Min. She wouldn't know anything about that and hates anyone with magical talents they shouldn't have. She'd totally turn Perrin into the Whitecloaks if she knew he was a freak.

Min sounded so troubled that Perrin was surprised for a moment. Then he nodded to himself. She did not really like doing what she did, but it was a part of her; she thought she knew how it worked, or some of it, at least. If she was wrong, it would almost be like finding out she did not know how to use her own hands.

See what I mean? They have absolutely nothing in common. I can only assume that there was a glitch in the Pattern this winter and that all the friendship that Perrin should be feeling towards Min got assigned to Mat accidentally instead (see book 14).

Perrin made an involuntary sound in his throat. Light, did I sound like that? I won’t let a death matter that little to me. As if he had spoken aloud, Moiraine looked at him.

It's rather funny to see early!Perrin on the other side of the "I understand your emotions better than you're trying to let on to me" exchange.

Perrin shifted—the Horn was where no Hunter on Almoth Plain would find it; where he hoped no Hunter ever would find it—and she gave him a cool look before continuing.

Seriously, Perrin apparently learned one hell of a lesson from Moiraine. And it's good to see the Hunters of the Horn aren't all total idiots. They should have arrived ages back.

“Or the first part of it. The Children have announced that their purpose is to bring peace, which is not unusual for them. What is unusual is that while they are trying to force the Taraboners and the Domani back across their respective borders, they have not moved in any force against those who have declared for the Dragon.”

Lan suspects this is a Whitecloak plot, but it's probably Carridin trying to thread the needles of his orders. By always letting Dragonsworn get away, he can seem to both being trying to kill them and not.

“One died by poison, two by the knife. Each in circumstances where no one should have been able to come close unseen, but that is how it happened.” She peered into the flames. “All three young men were taller than most, and had light-colored eyes. Light eyes are uncommon on Almoth Plain, but I think it is very unlucky right now to be a tall young man with light eyes there.”

These are the victims of Grey Men presumably deployed by the Forsaken who actively hate Rand, or perhaps Moghedien who is vaguely in the area. Striking unseen is very much her MO. Again though, the Dark One doesn't want Rand dead so it's not the official plan.

“So nothing has changed,” Perrin said glumly. “Not really. We cannot go down to the plain, and the Dark One wants us dead.” “Everything changes,” Moiraine said calmly, “and the Pattern takes it all in. We must ride on the Pattern, not on the changes of a moment.”

Moiraine, I've given Perrin a lot of shit so far this book so now it's your turn. He's accurately summarized the situation as it stands: your current plans aren't changing. You're just muttering a bunch of nonsense to seem mystical.

Since it is not possible to set two kinds of warding at once, I leave the scouts and the guards—and Lan—to defend us, and use the one warding that may do some good.

I don't recall if this comes up again. If not, I bet that one of the things the bright new minds of the Fourth Age will come up with is creating new ward weaves that are effectively combos while still obeying the one weave rule. Though obviously they won't be worrying about Shadowspawn at that point.

He had a hut to himself, a small thing of logs barely tall enough to stand in, the chinks filled with dried mud. A rough bed, padded with pine boughs beneath a blanket, took up nearly half of it. Whoever had unsaddled his horse had also propped his bow just inside the door.

Where Rand and Mat are equal parts panicked and embarrassed over being treated like nobility, Perrin is not really good enough with people to even find it worthy of comment that for some reason he gets his own hut. He probably just assumes he should for the same reason that Loial and Min probably do, even though there'd be different reasons for each.

Ah well, we can only hope that at some point, perhaps ten to sixty years after Tarmon Gaidon, Perrin will be just a wee bit better at social cues.

Next time: A dream sequence!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #perrin aybara #moiraine damodred #min farshaw #lan al'mandragoran #rand al'thor #uno nomesta #loial

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 8: A Place of Safety

Hello and welcome to another chapter of an incredibly long reread of The Wheel of Time, complete with spoilers. For example, the last book's title is "A Memory of Light". Spoilers! Run away! Or just block the tags. You know, whatever makes you happy. Or miserable, if that's what you're into. I won't judge until your back is turned.

This chapter icon is of Moiraine's staff, and it's used in chapters that are about her. As this is the chapter where she heals Tam, it's a lot clearer what it means than the last chapter icon was!

While he was still coming through the door Rand’s eyes went to his father—his father no matter what anyone said.

It's really very nice that Rand refuses to see Tam as anything other than his father, even when he does stop living in denial. This was a bit before the trend of stories that really went out of their way to normalize the concept; in fantasy in particular there was a lot more, "Oh thank fuck these assholes aren't my real family, my real family are magical royalty and I never have to look back".

“I do not like that man. There is something about him I don’t trust. I did not see a hair of him last night.”\ “He was there,” Bran said, watching Moiraine uncertainly. “He must have been. His cloak did not get singed in front of the fireplace.”

--

The fact that Lan is mistaken about Thom's whereabouts is high praise to the gleeman, though Lan is kinda right to be suspicious between Thom's immediately ducking out of the inn when they show up and also his whole backstory.

Her eyes traveled slowly from Tam’s feet to his head, but Rand had the prickly feeling that she was looking beyond him in some fashion.

Rand also has a prickly feeling because one of the gender asymmetries in channeling is that men can tell when women have embraced the source, even if they can't see what they're up to with it.

“That is a fine weapon you wear. Is there by chance a heron on the blade, as well?”

Lan is of course very miffed that someone's already given his soon to be protege a sword, because that was going to be his thing.

“Strange thing for a sheepherder to buy.” Rand spared a sidelong look for Lan. For a stranger to wonder about the sword was prying. For a Warder to do it. . . .

It's still prying, Rand. But at the same time, Lan is doing something so few people in this series do and actually giving Rand information. It's terse, but straightforward, though sadly it's not too useful because Tam's backstory is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I almost wonder if Tam was supposed to be a bigger part of the series going forward, or if all the mysteries of his past were just Jordan being loathe to throw away his ideas for an older, singular Dragon character.

A question of his own popped into his head then, one he did not want to ask, one he needed an answer to.

And Rand communicates, a little more obliquely but still, in turn! He freely provides information about the Fade to Lan because of his desperate desire to be re-adopted, or just because Lan has shown himself to be trustworthy. Maybe both. Shame Moiraine takes forever to realize how easy Rand is to handle by just being straightforward.

Had I known when I left Tar Valon that I would find Trollocs and Myrddraal here, I would have brought half a dozen of them, a dozen, if I had to drag them by the scruffs of their necks.

While obviously Rand and to a lesser but noticable extent the Wondergirls blow the expected power scale out of the water, I am going to try and pay attention to how the regulars scale with basic Shadowspawn, in no small part because both the conclusions of the book and the first season are irksome in just how pathetic they make the enemy forces seem comppared to our heroes.

(Also please someone write a fic where Moiraine finds this out early and does indeed drag a dozen Aes Sedai after her. Any dozen. Hilarity will ensue.)

“Carrion eaters.” Lan’s mouth twisted in distaste. “The Dark One’s minions often find spies among creatures that feed on death. Ravens and crows, mainly. Rats, in the cities, sometimes.”

So, as a corvid lover, what frustrates me about this particular association is that carrion eaters and rot and all the other "bad" stuff is exactly the sort of behavior that a fully cyclical system needs to be able to keep popping up the parts we humans actually enjoy. It doesn't seem fair that they'd end up being closer to evil when they're just as important a part of the system.

On the other hand, I can already hear people arguing that the Shadow serves the same moral purpose so I am just gonna hafta deal with it, huh?

Trolloc weapons are made at forges in the valley called Thakan’dar, on the very slopes of Shayol Ghul itself. Some of them take a taint from that place, a stain of evil in the metal.

Since people propose that the Two Rivers is radioactive, why not Thakan'dar? It's not elemental evil, it's polonium poisoning!

So few remain, the Amyrlin Seat almost did not allow me to take this one. It is well for Emond’s Field, and for your father, that she did give her permission.

I'm really more surprised that Siuan had the slightest difficulty in saying no, under the circumstances. Like, who could possibly have better reason for taking an angreal than the woman hunting the DR? Seal that shit to the flame and move on, Siuan.

Also, AoL folk really loved making angreal and sa'angreal in the shape of people, huh? Is that just what survived, is there a design reason, or was that just the art they were into at the time?

Fades are Trolloc spawn, throwbacks almost to the human stock the Dreadlords used to make the Trollocs.

Is it odd to anyone else that this particular detail survived? I suppose it too is a little wrong (Aginor made the Trollocs, not a collective of Dreadlords), which means this chapter has two new counterexamples of magic things being wrong (the other being Fade height), so I guess my earlier claim was nonsense, but anyway.

Point is, knowing where Trollocs come from is one of the least important parts of actually dealing with them or Fades, so it doesn't seem like information that would survive the Breaking, let alone the Trolloc Wars.

Halfmen have the Dark One’s own luck.

If you're curious as to why and how the Dark One is lucky, it's because as the personification of entropy his desired outcome is the most likely one on the table.

Lan’s head jerked up; his eyes were blue stones. “You talked to a Trolloc?”

Lan is surprised because Trollocs can't speak, but Rand can understand their tongue because he has a bit of Morid- wait no, wrong franchise and wronger sequence of events.

Still though, Lan's reaction here is how I feel about the whole exchange in hindsight. Again, Trollocs are not conversationalists.

Lan’s face softened slightly, if rock could be said to soften.

Lan is very, very excited that he and Moiraine are going to be kidnapping Rand soon, now that their target is a Trolloc killer.

There are far fewer of us now. Some talents are all but gone, and many that remain seem weaker.

The White Tower is so decayed as an institution that Moiraine doesn't even know how much she's underselling the crisis, and she's actually pretty knowledgeable. Shit's not just all but gone, quite a few things are vanished entirely.

“Anything. As long as it does not hurt the village, or my friends.”

Too late for that, Rand. You said anything before and didn't have any conditionals. Now take this knife and go ritually sacrifice Perrin before he gets married.

“Did you know,” Lan said suddenly, “that some homes were not attacked?”

Again, Moiraine just tries to tell Rand what to do while it's Lan who actually gives him reasons to behave. Right now it's of course because everyone's exhausted and no one's communicating efffectively as a result but later this disconnect will become more and more of a problem.

“My age?” Rand’s voice shook, and he did not care. “Light! Mat. What about Perrin?” “Alive and well,” Moiraine assured him, “if a trifle sooty.”

Sadly, his sisters are now in a bizarre superposition wherein they're both alive and yet have never been born at all, and they probably won't make it to another Bel Tine.

“I told you I asked questions. And I also said young men of a certain age. You and your two friends are within weeks of one another. It was you three the Myrddraal sought, and none others.”

Since those other boys - and so far as we know, no one else - did see the Fade, I would guess that Fain gave a general guesstimate into ages but didn't care to be that accurate because he's a dick (or wasn't told). The Fades, being smarter or more informed, were able to suss out who was who.

I could send to Tar Valon for some of my sisters; they might have time to make the journey before we need them. The Myrddraal knows I am here, too, and it probably will not attack—not openly, at least—lacking reinforcements, more Myrddraal and more Trollocs.

Sadly, Moiraine is quite mistaken. Since they're traveling through the Ways, the Shadow forces will be able to overwhelm her far faster than word would even get to Tar Valon. Hell, they'd be doomed before word got to Whitebridge. If they stay, things go to shit very quickly.

A journey all the way to Tar Valon was almost beyond thinking. A journey to a place where he would be surrounded by Aes Sedai.

Sadly, for Rand this would not be a place of safety (Moiraine makes a title drop!). Even if the Red Ajah didn't just lobotomize him, even if the Black Ajah didn't kidnap him and toss him into the Ways overnight, he'd still be part of sixteen different political schemes in about as many minutes. Every time Moiraine tries to make a Big Plan about Rand, it's the sort of thing that would be disastrous if it ever actually happened.

“How long will my father sleep?” he asked at last. “I . . . I have to tell him. He shouldn’t just wake and find me gone.” He thought he heard Lan give a sigh of relief.

Lan's just like, "Oh good, we got him."

She did not press hard, but it was an iron grip that held him as surely as a forked stick held a snake.

Probably not any kind of Compulsion, probably just mundane manipulation.

“You just leave me to worry about that. She and I had a long talk. And keep your voice down. If you wake Tam, you’ll have to answer to me and Moiraine Sedai.”

This is extremely Southern, but not in a "I'm going to call out Jordan for not understanding his experiences aren't universal" way. Just in a good-spirited and hilarious way.

Abell Cauthon’s house flared up—odd that; it’s nearly in the middle of the village.

al'Vere is so close to noticing that something's up that I wonder if he put two and two together once Moiraine ran off with all the boys whose homes were attacked. Or did Egwene's leaving too muddle the issue for him? Probably that; probably another reason the Pattern needed her to leave, to confuse any other villagers who would be smart enough to notice the pattern and potentially muddle things up.

Tam was his father, and nobody could tell him what to say or not say to his father. He just had to stay awake until Tam woke up. He just had to. . . .

Another ironic ending, though this one immediately clear to even the first-time reader. Jordan really liked them, I guess. But on the plus side, Rand is finally ready to pack, so we are going to be taking leave of Emond's Field here soon; just as soon as our boy wakes up. Til then, sleep tight. Don't let the Trollocs bite!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #the eye of the world #rand al'thor #moiraine damodred #lan al'mandragoran #thom merrilin

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 2: Strangers

Hello and welcome back to the madness that is me. As usual (three times in a row totally counts), I am rereading The Eye of the World and I am spoiling the crap out of everything so you should run away if you're not into that. Thanks and have a good one!

To the rest of you, thanks for staying, let's get started. This chapter begins with the raven icon, which is often used to symbolize those allied with the Shadow or the Seanchan, which is really such a glowing review of them, isn't it? Here it's being used to refer to the evildoers Moiraine and-- Wait no that's Whitecloak talk. It's being used to refer to the dear, sweet, innocent raven whose only crime was watching Rand and refusing to be killed for it.

At that time of the busy day before Festival, Rand expected to find the common room empty except for Bran and his father and the cat, but four more members of the Village Council, including Cenn, sat in high-backed chairs in front of the fire, mugs in hand and blue-gray pipesmoke wreathing their heads.

I wonder now about how the Village Council gets chosen and how Cenn Buie keeps his seat if it's anything other than "life positions for certain families".

though who knew what Taren Ferry folk really thought about anything?

I'm glad Jordan put in so much effort to make Rand so incredibly provincial when in about ten chapters we'll be past Taren Ferry and he'll never get a chance to look back.

“It’s old Luhhan,” Mat said, peering past Rand’s shoulder into the common room. “I think he suspects I was the one who—”

Dammit Mat just confess to your crimes so I can laugh at you for them!

She was one of the few married women in the area who never tried to play matchmaker with Tam.

Yeah, if she gets him married, then when Tam dies of old age Rand and Egwene have to take care of the new widow al'Thor!

If she occasionally looked at him as if she wanted to do more, at least she took it no further than looks, for which he was deeply grateful.

Rand, you and Egwene are basically already promised to each other according to the retcons, of course she's not putting in effort. She thinks she's already won.

"Nothing, really. I told Adan al’Caar and some of his snot-nosed friends—Ewin Finngar and Dag Coplin—that some farmers had seen ghost hounds, breathing fire and running through the woods."

I guess this is the local name for Darkhounds, or Jordan was gonna straight up go with ghosts at the time. Were they supposed to be literal ghosts, or just the third age interpretation of whatever modifications Aginor made?

“I hear she chased old Luhhan and the dogs, all three, out of the house with a broom.”

Poor Luhhan, getting blamed for shit he had nothing to do with. I wonder if Perrin tries to model his marriage after this, where he assumes Faile is acting like Alsbet and gets to be hot-tempered and low-key violent but he is supposed to go with it. Really both of these couples should try and model their relationships off of some healthier couple, preferably in an entirely different story.

The years separating Rand and Mat from Ewin, only fourteen, were usually more than enough for them to give short shrift to anything he had to say.

Ah okay so the boys are definitely MEANT to be 16, probably more, but they really don't feel like they could be older than 16 so *shrug*.

Maybe southern boys are hella immature for their age or were in Jordan's childhood. *insert completely unfounded rant about the toxicity of 'boys will be boys' based entirely on this supposition without the slightest bit of research done because I'm an expert on everything by default*

“Of course I could see his face. And his cloak is green. Or maybe gray. It changes. It seems to fade into wherever he’s standing. Sometimes you don’t see him even when you look right at him, not unless he moves. And hers is blue, like the sky, and ten times fancier than any feastday clothes I ever saw. She’s ten times prettier than anybody I ever saw, too. She’s a high-born lady, like in the stories. She must be.”

Oh thank fuck, the grown-ups are here! Lan and Moiraine are not the perfect mentors that they sometimes get mistaken as, but they try twice as hard as most and that goes a long way. Shame about the whole "beauty equals nobility" thing going on, but since Ewin said it and not the narration I'll assume he's rightfully crushing on her.

“They arrived last evening,”

So they got here before Thom and were traveling at decent hours. Was he trying to follow them? Doesn't seem quite right, does it? Was he trying to AVOID them?

It was a good five years since the last time a real stranger appeared in Emond’s Field, and he had been trying to hide from some sort of trouble up in Baerlon that nobody in the village understood.

I wonder what the guy did. Or was he a channeler trying to hide from himself?

“She asked the Wisdom for directions this morning,” Ewin said, “and called her ‘child.’ ”

Poor Moiraine, sticking her foot right into it. Didn't even mean to, of course, but that's the problem with having a standard mode of address for unimportant young'ins: when they become important, there's no good way to tell, is there? Almost like you should treat everyone respectfully regardless of perceived differences, but what do I know?

When Cenn Buie called her a child last year, she thumped him on the head with her stick, and he’s on the Village Council, and old enough to be her grandfather, besides.

Yes but even hyper-violent Nynaeve knows you can't just beat the shit out of guests Rand. She's not axe-crazy; that's Perrin.

Then something led him to turn around, to raise his eyes. On the edge of the inn’s tile roof perched a large raven, swaying a little in the gusting wind from the mountains. Its head was cocked to one side, and one beady, black eye was focused . . . on him, he thought.

I don't think we see ravens pulling much crap after this book, do we? It's hard to view them as a serious threat when the protagonists are capable of doing more than missing with thrown stones and when even Trollocs rapidly become cannon fodder.

Fancier than any feastday clothes, Ewin had said, and he was right. No one ever dressed like that in the Two Rivers. Not ever.

Frankly I doubt the whole Two Rivers could combine their net worth for the clothes, let alone the jewelry.

Ewin leaped forward before either of the others could speak.

If it weren't for the fact that it isn't how it works, I'd assume she was trying to compel the boys and Ewin somehow got caught in the cross-fire. But again, the weave doesn't really work like that.

Then again, it's the first book, and the boys seem to "wake up" later like they're all being compelled... Guess she hit Ewin on purpose not to leave him out, and he was hit hardest.

Rand had been wondering if he should do something of the sort, the way men did in stories, but with Mat’s example, he merely spoke his name. At least he did not stumble over his own tongue this time.

The Wheel makes sure that the king of the world doesn't bow, I suppose.

“You cannot be expected to work for nothing. Consider this a token, and keep it with you, so you will remember that you have agreed to come to me when I ask it. There is a bond between us now.”

I feel like this is another early bookism, though an easily dismissed one - I think Jordan intended this wording and the boys' acceptance to be part of making the bond spell work, though going forward such things are much less necessary.

Her smile did fade then, slowly, as if something had been recalled to her. For a moment she merely looked at him. “I am a student of history,” she said at last, “a collector of old stories. This place you call the Two Rivers has always interested me. Sometimes I study the stories of what happened here long ago, here and at other places.”

This isn't Moiraine's first half-truth to dodge the lie restriction (telling Ewin "We'll see" after his invite is a half-truth so common even non-Aes Sedai use it), but it is a big one and an interesting one. She likely did have to study history both in Cairhien and the Tower, so that explains her student claim. Studying the DR means she's probably looked over the Karatheon Cycle and many similar documents, hence collector.

But has she always been interested in the Two Rivers? Obviously this can't be LITERALLY true (or can it? Did a very young Moiraine wonder about the place that all the grown-up men in her life said had the best tobacco?), so when did her eyes turn to it? When she learned about Manetheren? It's exactly the kind of story the Jedi would teach her.

Men wear many names, many faces. Different faces, but always the same man.

And here she almost outright tells them what's up! She's getting hit hard by Rand and Mat's combined ta'verening.

It was as if he were weighing them in his mind, and there was no sign on his face of what the scales told him.

Two minutes later:

Lan: So it's the Aiel kid.

Moiraine: Maybe.

Lan: It's obviously the Aiel kid. Explains why your list didn't find him twenty years ago: no one wrote down that some Aiel gal had a baby.

Moiraine: What if he's a decoy?

Lan: Why would there even be a decoy?

Moiraine: The Wheel weaves, Lan.

Lan: If you say that to me one more time I'm just gonna go kidnap the Aiel kid myself and take him to the Amyrlin.

Moiraine: The spring on the green is probably quite chilly in this unnatural winter. It would sure be awful if someone magically relocated it on top of you.

Lan: ...

Lan: It's still the Aiel kid. Think I'll teach him how to use swords. That would be funny to see.

Anyway, Warders have swords and armor covered in gold and jewels, and spend all their time up north, in the Great Blight, fighting evil and Trollocs and such.

Statistically, most Warders spend all their time down south, fighting lady bits and pubic hair and such. With their tongues.

If it weren't for the Yellows I'd call Greens the greatest failure of an Ajah since Mat very accurately describes what they SHOULD be doing. In fact, while with the text as written it's obviously one of those "truth becomes fiction in the retelling" things that pops up a lot, I suspect that it was intended to be an accurate description that fell by the wayside as Aes Sedai politics were defined.

He did not recognize the fat silver coin with the raised image of a woman balancing a single flame on her upturned hand

Y'all really are provincial hicks if you get coins that so obviously scream "The Official Currency of the Witch-Papal Queendom" and don't even speculate it might be from the region, if nothing else.

Strangers and a gleeman, fireworks and a peddler. It was going to be the best Bel Tine ever.

Spoiler alert: It was going to be the worst Bel Tine ever.

And that's another chapter! I would like to rewatch more of episode 1 and comment on the differences in the introductions of Lan and Moiraine, but my Fire Cube is having some hilarious technical difficulties where it's playing the episode at a rate of one frame a second right now, even though it plays the episode PREVIEW (and Futurama on Hulu) properly, so I can't go too in-depth, which means I only have one thought to give and it's sadly negative:

Nynaeve, you massive idiot (shhhh not you Zoë Robins, it's the script writers' fault and probably the Amazon execs for forcing so much cut time, you're doing great though, keep it up), inns are exactly where reputable strangers are supposed to show up! Be more like your book incarnation and have a tiny inclination against threatening out of towners!

Episode 1 is going to be rough to get through even if I do get it working at the proper frame rate.

#let's read #wheel of time #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #wot reread #rand al'thor #mat cauthon #moiraine damodred #lan al'mandragoran #wot on prime #amazon why won't you work

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapters 49: What Was Meant to Be & 50: After

If this is your first time seeing one of my posts, you might assume that it's safe to read this post if you've finished the first couple of books of The Wheel of Time. This is a very foolish assumption. My reread is for the whole damn series, so don't keep going unless you like spoilers for everything!

Both of these chapters have the Wheel icon as we're closing out the story.

His memory came in flashes and patches. Old things he could remember, but the last few days seemed like bits of broken mirror, spinning through his mind, showing glimpses that were gone before he could see them clearly.

And this explains why Rand doesn't retain all of his character development going forward: he forgets it all. Dammit Rand.

“Nynaeve? Elayne? How? You were all in Falme?”

Note that these questions go unanswered. Rand presumably gets filled in offscreen in between this book and the next, but we're starting our trend of him being kept out of the loop by the others.

“They are gone,” she said. “Saying ‘no’ won’t change it.”

Min is really not demonstrating herself as a fated love interest to Rand here. She doesn't understand what he's talking about, she's frustrated he's upset he didn't get to see Egwene, and she's only bringing a little emotional support here. The best she's got is trying to buffer him and Moiraine and obviously that's not gonna work. I'm not saying these are bad choices; they barely know each other, why should they act like perfect soulmates? But it's a shocking transition after Min's certainty and Lanfear's gloating.

“I wish you weren’t here,” he told the Aes Sedai. “As far as I am concerned, you can go back to wherever you’ve been hiding and stay there.”

Yeah, Moiraine pulling a Gandalf doesn't really work with her because she's not anywhere near established enough of a figure in this world. I don't blame Rand at all for calling her out, and frankly I'm not impressed with whatever it was she was doing offscreen, which has amounted to nothing practical.

What resulted was neither Padan Fain nor Mordeth, but something far more evil, a blend of the two. Fain—let us call him that—is more dangerous than you can believe.

Indeed, he's especially dangerous because the two forces should annihilate on contact but apparently preserve themselves through his flesh, which seems like a particularly unstable arrangement.

“Your battle took place across the sky, in full view of every soul in Falme. Perhaps in other towns on Toman Head, too, if half what I hear is to be believed.”

An inexplicable miracle. I still don't think there's any real guess as to what might have caused it. I guess the Wheel was just desperate to make things work.

He remembered being called Lews Therin; not only by Ba’alzamon, but by Artur Hawkwing. “I won’t. Light, the Dragon is supposed to Break the World again, to tear everything apart. I will not be the Dragon.”

Two books in and Rand is still trying to refuse the call. But can you really blame him, considering what the Dragon stands for in popular iconography? Any man who'd want to be the Dragon Reborn would be a horrible choice.

When all seven are broken, perhaps even before, the patch men put over the hole they drilled into the prison the Creator made will be torn asunder, and the Dark One will once more be able to put his hand through that hole and touch the world.

Indeed the Dark One's touch is only going to get more extreme, especially once the fourth seal is broken. Let's keep our eyes open next book for any other signs of their weakening besides the rest of the Forsaken being freed no later than this point.

But it did not change the way he felt about Tam, and Emond’s Field was the only home he had ever known. Fain is the important thing. I have one duty left. Stopping him.

Which is why Rand will flee cross country past the Two Rivers and straight to Tear. I don't think it's a disconnect in the story though; we'll see why he becomes more focused on the latter mission later.

“Why would I not stay?” Loial said. “You are even more ta’veren than I believed, true, but you are still my friend. I hope you are still my friend.”

Loial is one hell of a friend. Plenty of people could have run off at this point and I wouldn't blame them.

“It is said,” the one-eyed man said carefully, “that when the Dragon is Reborn, he will break all oaths, shatter all ties. Nothing holds us, now. We would give our oaths to you.”

Note that Rand doesn't demand they break their oaths but rather they interpret his presence as being reason enough to supersede them.

Masema, who hated him. Masema, who looked at him as if seeing a vision of the Light.

Even now Masema is clearly too turbulent to be a good ally.

They were all watching him, all waiting. Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain. He made his decision.

Fake cliffhanger! You know there's really no chance of things going the one way.

—from Charal Drianaan te Calamon, The Cycle of the Dragon, Author unknown, the Fourth Age

Spoilers, geez! Though technically you could argue that perhaps this is from the last fourth age. It's not actually specific enough to be any Fourth Age for certain. Note as well further evidence of translation convention in effect: Calamon is clearly the word for "Dragon" and an obvious corruption of Telamon.

In any event, that's book two! I'm going to be taking another break; supposed to be getting a new laptop soon and think I'm going to start using it as my reading machine because I'm just getting annoyed doing it on a tablet. Until next time folks.

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #rand al'thor #min farshaw #moiraine damodred #loial #perrin aybara #lan al'mandragoran #uno nomesta #masema dagar

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 28: Footprints in Air

Yup, we're back to Whitebridge and I'm up to my old tricks. This reread is going to have spoilers for everything in the whole damn series and if you don't like that, you should skip this post. And maybe block the spoiler tags.

For everyone else, let's talk chapter icons! We've got Moiraine's staff again, and it might as well be her magnifying glass because she is playing detective this time around. She also plays off of Nynaeve, our POV, this time around (and really any time she and Nynaeve are in the same room).

Another legend, and they don’t even seem to notice. She resolved not to stare where they could see. They’ll laugh if they see me gaping like a country bumpkin.

Nynaeve is really good at getting in the way of her own happiness. Moiraine is way too busy contemplating the singular purpose to which she's dedicated her life to at the exclusion of all else like some kind of 90s anti-hero and her statue of a Warder would probably start gushing at Nynaeve about every cool relic he'd ever seen if he thought it would make her smile. While part of Nynaeve's attitude is just about spiting Moiraine, I think her insecurities come from the same kind of logic that Rand observed in how Wisdoms wouldn't possibly be allowed to dance at festivals: she's not allowed to have emotion or she's even worse at her job than everyone treats her already.

The scowl made her feel like a girl who had been caught acting the fool by someone in the Women’s Circle. That was a feeling Nynaeve was not used to, and the calm smile on Moiraine’s face only made it worse.

See what I mean? Nynaeve hasn't let herself be imperfect in a long, long time.

If only there was some way to get rid of the woman. Lan would be better by himself—a Warder should be able to handle what was needed, she told herself hastily, feeling a sudden flush; no other reason—but one meant the other.

"Their romance comes out of nowhere!" - people who clearly didn't read this sentence closely.

It weighed on Moiraine and Lan, too, as outwardly unperturbable as they were. She soon realized that, beneath their calm surfaces, hour by hour they wound tighter and tighter, like clocksprings being forced to the breaking point. Moiraine seemed to listen to things that were not there, and what she heard put a crease in her forehead. Lan watched the forest and the river as if the leafless trees and wide, slow water carried the signs of traps and ambushes waiting ahead.

They spent the last two weeks assuming that they were finally done looking and could get onto the much easier part of their job of fleeing to Tar Valon. Their POVs right now would be absolutely hysterical and full of exciting expletives, most of which Moiraine learned from Siuan.

Then, contradicting what he had just said, he added, “You should go back to your Two Rivers when we reach Whitebridge, and the Caemlyn Road. It’s too dangerous here. Nothing will try to stop you going back, though.” It was the longest speech he made all that day.

Much like Rand, Lan wants to keep his loved ones out of danger. If they were flirting any more strongly, Moiraine would have to look away for decency's sake.

Around the square at the foot of the White Bridge piles of blackened timbers, still leaking smoky threads, replaced half a dozen buildings. Men in poorly fitting red uniforms and tarnished armor patrolled the streets, but they marched quickly, as if afraid of finding anything, and they looked over their shoulders as they went. Townspeople—the few who were out—almost ran, shoulders hunched, as though something were chasing them.

Western Andor really isn't going to recover from Rand's recent tour for years, is it? And Elayne really has her work cut out for her; Whitebridge isn't anywhere near as far away from Caemlyn as Baerlon. It is a distance, but the books have already noted that this is one of the only river crossings anywhere in the continent.

Of course, maintaining the bridge is a complete non-issue because it's magic and not repairable even if it did start breaking anyway. If anything happened they'd have to just scrap it and start all the way over. So the crown would have no strong reason to worry about this place and without any serious military threats (*points and laughs at Altara and Murandy*), funding is quite possibly lower to this place than it is to Baerlon, whose mining territories aren't supernatural so far as we know.

So I guess the worldbuilding for the near collapse of Andorian territory actually checks out in a lot of ways!

The truth of the matter was there was a man somewhere in the town meddling with the One Power. It was time to have the Aes Sedai in; past time, was the way they saw it, no matter what the men said about Tar Valon. Let the Red Ajah settle matters. One man claimed it had been an attack by bandits, and another said a riot by Darkfriends. “Those ones going to see the false Dragon, you know,” he confided darkly. “They’re all over the place. Darkfriends, every one.” Still others spoke of some kind of trouble—they were vague about exactly what kind—that had come downriver on a boat.

This is a rare moment in the series where the rumors are more right than wrong. There was a male channeler in town (even though they couldn't have known that, because Rand did nothing), the Fade attack is basically a Darkfriend, and the trouble did indeed come downriver on a boat. Poor Bayle, being driven off for something that wasn't his fault. On the plus side, it may have saved him from further problems.

He seemed resplendent to Nynaeve, in his peaked helmet and burnished breastplate, until he took a pose just inside the door, with a hand resting on the hilt of his sword and a stern look on his face, and used a finger to ease his too-tight collar. It made her think of Cenn Buie trying to act the way a Village Councilor should.

By the end of the series, quite a few people will have put on costumes they never thought they'd wear. Maybe even this militia guy will have the benefit of growing into his role. He's certainly just a dick now though. What kind of asshole tries to kick Nynaeve out of town?

The Aes Sedai studied the tabletop for a moment before raising her eyes to Nynaeve’s, and when she did, Nynaeve started back from a flash of anger that almost seemed to make Moiraine’s eyes glow. Then her back stiffened, her own anger rising, but before she could say a word, the Aes Sedai spoke coldly.

It's incredible that Moiraine spent years being trained to modulate her emotions, first in the crazy political schemes of Cairhien and then by the White Tower itself, and Nynaeve gets her to be openly angry in just two weeks! She could make anyone break.

And that's a wrap on another short chapter. See ya next time for another Perrin POV!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #nynaeve al'meara #lan al'mandragoran #moiraine damodred

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 18: The Caemlyn Road

If you don't want spoilers, go away. Spoilers include the chapter icon: It's a doozy! Specifically, it's a triptych: the central panel is a Trolloc skull, the left is a trident, the right a gauntlet or clawed hand held in a fist. When this chapter icon shows up, it means Trollocs are in our heroes' future.

“Flatwort tea and andilay root,” Nynaeve was saying to Moiraine, “are best for fatigue. They clear the head and dim the burn in tired muscles.” “I am sure they do,” the Aes Sedai murmured, giving Nynaeve a sidelong glance.

Now, we all know that Moiraine balefired any chance of her and Nynaeve being besties way back in Emond's Field, but both of them are doing a fine job ensuring they won't even be neutral associates. Nynaeve is giving unsolicited advice in a tense and exhausting situation and Moiraine is ignoring Nynaeve's expertise.

“No tea!” Lan said sharply to Egwene.

That said, the real "We'll never like each other" pair goes mostly under the radar, but Lan's snapping at Egwene for wanting tea is of course because he still resents her being there and is also exhausted.

“Have you seen a farm this morning?” Lan asked. “Or even the smoke from a chimney? You haven’t, because it’s all wilderness from Baerlon to Whitebridge, and Whitebridge is where we must cross the Arinelle. That is the only bridge spanning the Arinelle south of Maradon, in Saldaea.”

Elayne should have been ecstatic at the chance to trade off the Two Rivers while getting Caemlyn. Whitebridge would have been on her side of the border, and as it would be one of the only three roads leading east out of Perrin's kingdom that don't lead into Seanchan Altara (the other two going out of Maradon to Kandor and to Tar Valon), the bridge tolls she could enact would pay for the whole rest of the kingdom.

Thom snorted and blew out his mustaches. “What is to stop them from having someone, something, at Whitebridge already?”

Foreshadowing!

Last Lord of the Seven Towers, she had called [Lan]. He wondered what that meant. He had not thought anyone besides himself had heard, but Thom was chewing the ends of his mustaches, and he had a speculative frown on his face. The gleeman seemed to know a great many things.

Funny that Rand doesn't remember Min's words from just a couple days ago, but I guess he has been more sleep deprived than usual lately.

Meanwhile Thom is just going, "What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck?" and wondering if he can trust the farm kids to not be royalty or Rand's going to announce he's really the son of an Aiel clan chief and Egwene or Nynaeve is going to proclaim themselves firstborn daughter of Tigraine and rightful ruler of Andor. The idea that Rand might have both these heritages won't occur to him though.

“He was not seen.” Nynaeve drew herself up as everyone looked at her. “I have followed his trail, remember.”

Nynaeve will not tolerate your Lan slander, Egwene.

Half to herself, the Aes Sedai said, “If they had that many before, why were they not used at Emond’s Field? If they did not, how did they come here since?”

It's the Ways, Moiraine! One wonders where the nearest Waygate is though.

“There is a place the Trollocs will not go,” Lan said, but Moiraine’s head whipped around sharply. “No!” She motioned to the Warder, and he put his head close to hers so their talk could not be overheard.

I've seen people complain that in the show, Shadar Logoth is all Lan's fault to give Moiraine a glow-up because she's played by a producer, but it's his idea in the books first and Moiraine still doesn't approve. Also not too sure that Moiraine not being able to make decisions at this point because she's passed out is really the character beatification some think it is.

Scattered stands of evergreens provided the only real cover, but Rand tried to peer in every direction at once, his imagination turning gray tree trunks caught out of the corner of his eye into Trollocs. The horns were closer, too. And directly behind them. He was sure of it. Behind and coming closer.

I really enjoy the sense of terror that this whole chapter conveys, with the group well aware that the Trollocs gaining on them are probably only scouts and that even if they survive that there's way more to worry about.

But Mat shouted, “Carai an Caldazar! Carai an Ellisande! Al Ellisande!”

So this ends up being something of a case of early book weirdness because once Mat's memories get weird, this pretty much disappears. That said, I don't think it's entirely incompatible with the mechanics of the series as a whole. We know from Rand that past life memories are buried but can bleed through under the right circumstances, so I'm going to argue that that's what's happening to Mat here. His being so heavily inbred means that a past life from Manetheren bleeds through the easiest, probably King Aemon himself, who was also a master strategist leading the Band of the Red Hand. When he lost his memories, I think it wasn't just memories from this life but a damage so severe it changed how Aemon's influence on him manifested (it's not completely gone; he slips into the Old Tongue without realizing it even while meeting the Finn for the first time) and this too was made more subtle by all the memories that the Finn gave him, which would have filled over this subconscious damage as well.

The only flaw I can think of with this theory is that it means that Mat was once Egwene's husband-warder and that doesn't seem their style. Of course, once she becomes something like royalty, he does get hella pissed that no one's respecting her...

Digging his heels in ruthlessly, Rand forced the gray on regardless, swinging his sword with little of the skill Lan had tried to impart, hacking as if hewing wood. Egwene! Desperately he searched for her as he kicked the gray onward, slashing a path through the hairy bodies as though chopping undergrowth.

Unlike some of Rand's later obsessions with protecting women, this isn't unmerited. Only weapon she has - Nynaeve too, thanks for caring Rand - is a knife. I'm surprised Lan didn't get her something - anything - in Baerlon when he had a chance to shop. Even just a wood-cutting axe would be more helpful for letting her have reach. Egwene really needs more channeling lessons from Moiraine, but I guess it's unfair to ask her to add that to her grueling schedule.

Cloud swung around; for an instant Rand saw Perrin, half out of his saddle, struggling to wrest his axe away from three Trollocs. They had him by one arm and both legs. 

Of course, axes aren't everything. Miracle none of them died.

Around the humans Trollocs fell writhing to the ground, tearing at their hair, clawing their own faces. All of the Trollocs. Biting at the ground, snapping at nothing, howling, howling, howling. Then Rand saw the Myrddraal. Still upright in the saddle of its madly dancing horse, black sword still flailing, it had no head.

And by "miracle", I mean "Lan hit the weak point for massive damage". I already mentioned how deeply disturbing the Shadow's answer to how to integrate channelers into society manages to be, but here we can see it in action. I almost feel bad for the Trollocs.

The ground trembled beneath Cloud’s hooves. This was Aes Sedai work like the stories told about; Rand wished he were a hundred miles away. The tremble became a shaking that set the trees around them quivering. The gray stumbled and nearly fell. Even Mandarb and riderless Aldieb staggered as if drunk, and those who rode had to cling to reins and manes, to anything, to keep their seats.

It's interesting how this event - Aes Sedai work like the stories - ends up a pale imitation of the sheer hellscapes that damane and asha'man will weave with the power later. Like yeah it's terrifying to be in, but despite this being a feat that probably hasn't been accomplished on this continent in hundreds of years it's going to be a footnote.

Again, the Problem of Channelers is really important and it's a shame we have no idea what approach the Black Tower is going to take to prevent sane but evil dudes from attempting another Breaking to seize power, or what women freed from the Oath Rod by retirement might attempt to show they're capable of. Nynaeve can't beat everyone with sticks forever.

Moiraine lifted her staff, and the earth stilled, but she was not done. She pointed to the hollow between the hills, and flame gouted from the ground, a fountain twenty feet high.

Speaking of comparing Moiraine to asha'man, let's all point and laugh at Androl for his whole "oh we can't possibly use lava unless there are portals all the way to Dragonmount's interior involved!" schtick when Moiraine is perfectly happy to just get the rock out of her way to kill some Shadowspawn.

“Blood and ashes,” Mat said faintly. Rand nodded numbly.

Sorry boys, but women are allowed to commit war crimes too! You'll get your turns.

Nynaeve rode foward beside the Aes Sedai, steadying her with a hand. For a time as the party went on across the hills the two women whispered, then the Wisdom delved into her cloak and handed a small packet to Moiraine. Moiraine unfolded it and swallowed the contents.

Thank you, Moiraine. I'm sure you're only accepting medicine from Nynaeve now that you are positive she understands that poisoning you is a mistake, but it's important that you're using every tool at your disposal.

“And we have a right,” Perrin added thoughtfully. “Moiraine says we’re all descended from those Manetheren people. They fought the Dark One, and we’re fighting the Dark One. That gives us a right.” Egwene sniffed as if to show what she thought of that. “I wasn’t talking about that. What . . . what was it you were shouting, Mat?”

Perrin: STOP JUDGING US FOR LARPING!

Egwene: It was honestly so embarrassing that I didn't even notice.

“Carai an Caldazar,” Moiraine said. They all twisted to stare at her. “Carai an Ellisande. Al Ellisande. For the honor of the Red Eagle. For the honor of the Rose of the Sun. The Rose of the Sun. The ancient warcry of Manetheren, and the warcry of its last king. Eldrene was called the Rose of the Sun.” Moiraine’s smile took in Egwene and Mat both, though her gaze may have rested a moment longer on him than on her.

See, the subtext is very clear that Moiraine agrees with my reincarnation theories.

“They have passed the fire,” Lan said calmly. He turned to Moiraine. “You are not strong enough for what you intend, not yet, not without rest. And neither Myrddraal nor Trolloc will enter that place.” Moiraine raised a hand as if to cut him off, then sighed and let it fall instead. “Very well,” she said irritably. “You are right, I suppose, but I would rather there was any other choice.”

Again, it's part of the record that book Moiraine would not have gone to Shadar Logoth if there had been any other option. Show Moiraine was just a little extra miffed about it because she was unconscious for the "there's no choice" part.

Moiraine made a clicking sound. “I have told you, child, things do not have power. The One Power comes from the True Source, and only a living mind can wield it. This is not even an angreal,merely an aid to concentration.”

And after this book, no Aes Sedai would be caught dead using a concentration aid. Shame that, it would be cool if they all had cool staffs for waving around and beating idiots over the head with.

“And without any people,” Perrin said. When they looked at him, he pointed to the wall. “Would people let vines grow over everything like that? You know how creepers can tear down a wall. Look how it’s fallen.”

Rand and Mat are staring at Perrin because they never made this connection (nor listened when Lan said that no one lives between Baerlon and Whitebridge) and are momentarily confused as they reorient themselves. Everyone else is staring at Perrin because they're surprised that someone they've written off as an idiot is making a good, if slightly obvious, point.

Moiraine answered as they rode into the city. “Shadar Logoth,” she said. “It is called Shadar Logoth.”

Shadow's Waiting - and so are you, for the next chapter, which comes tomorrow! Or the next day even, from my perspective. See ya!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #rand al'thor #lan al'mandragoran #egwene al'vere #nynaeve al'meara #moiraine damodred #perrin aybara #mat cauthon #thom merrilin

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 13: Choices

It's that time again, folks! The sun has pretended to dip below the horizon and I am setting up another post for y'all to enjoy in 11 hours. You all aren't allowed to give me spoilers about what's going to happen then, but I'll be damned if y'all can stop me from giving you The Wheel of Time spoilers, so your only hope is to run away if you don't want those. We good? Good.

Today's chapter starts with the Moiraine's staff icon, which is probably a reference to her relieving everyone's weariness at the beginning of the chapter and her next lesson with Egwene.

Thom jerked away from the Aes Sedai’s hands, but she seized his gray head with a look that allowed no nonsense. The gleeman scowled through the entire thing. She smiled mockingly once she took her hands away. His frown deepened, but he did look refreshed.

Twu wuv!

Seriously, I saw the foreshadowing coming a mile away even in my first read (though it's in book four so why am I talking about it now), but I don't understand what these two see in each other. Nearly every other couple in this series has more chemistry!

(Also, if Moiraine's removing weariness is only subjective, why bother when they're all about to sleep? If it's not subjective for humans, what's the difference between them and horses? Is she doing it to cover guarding their dreams?)

“In a month or two, we’ll be back,” Perrin said in a strained voice. “Think what we’ll have to tell.”

Of the four, Perrin's the only one who does come back and it still takes him months. It's possible Rand or Mat might work their way back now that the books are done, but if not for T'A'R, the previous chapters would have been the last time Egwene saw home.

With himself and his stallion, Mandarb—he said it meant “Blade” in the Old Tongue—he was not so sparing.

Let's all just appreciate how Lan hasn't grown mentally since he was a teenager and try very hard to dismiss any thought about why that might be, since it would ruin the mood. Meanwhile, Moiraine's horse's name is a reflection of her quest: the spring rains come with Rand.

“It’s no different from back home,” Perrin said, frowning at the distant buildings, barely visible through the trees. People moved around the farmyard, as yet unaware of the travelers. “Of course it is,” Mat said. “We’re just not close enough to see.”

It's funny, that of course one's cosmopolitan instincts are to side with Perrin over Mat, that farms in the same general part of the world are in fact much the same and that the big picture is identical. Yet in a world all about individual threads making the big picture, Mat's statement is less stupid than it seems: whoever lives there is going to be quite different than the Two Rivers folk they know, even if they are also much the same.

At their first stop, before the sun sank, Lan began teaching the boys what to do with the weapons they carried. He started with the bow. After watching Mat put three arrows into a knot the size of a man’s head, on the fissured trunk of a dead leatherleaf, at a hundred paces, he told the others to take their turns.

I'm not an archer, but I do believe that this is a genuinely impressive bit of marksmanship. Though Lan's brutal take down of the boys is quite funny too. Let's quote it for fun.

“Now if you all had bows,” the Warder said dryly when they started grinning, “and if the Trollocs agreed not to come so close you couldn’t use them. . . .”

Never offer your students praise, Lan. They might start to feel good about themselves.

Rand stared at him. “The flame and the void,” he said wonderingly. “That’s what you mean, isn’t it? My father taught me about that.” The Warder gave him an unreadable look in return.

Once again, Lan is very upset that Rand has hit all the cool milestones way before he could show them off.

“What are you doing?” She gave him a sidelong look without answering. It was the first time he had spoken to her in two days, he realized, since the night in the log shelter on the bank of the Taren, but he did not let that stop him. “All your life you’ve waited to wear your hair in a braid, and now you’re giving it up? Why? Because she doesn’t braid hers?”

Rand, you are traveling with six other people. How the hell have you gone two days without saying a word to one of them? And to break the silence you go with berating her? Bro.

Warily, Rand looked around the camp. Everybody was looking at him, not just the Warder. Mat and Perrin, with their faces white. Thom, tensed as if ready to run or fight. Moiraine. The Aes Sedai’s face was expressionless, but her eyes seemed to bore into his head. Desperately, he tried to recall exactly what he had said, about Aes Sedai and Darkfriends.

Lan, as stated by the text, just really wants Rand to not to call the Trollocs down on them.

Mat and Perrin are wondering why he's trying to antagonize the scary witch who seems to be the only thing between them and a Trolloc's cookpot.

Thom is ready to throw sand in Moiraine's face and get stabbed by Lan as long as it takes for Rand to get away and hopefully not be gentled.

Moiraine really couldn't give less of a fuck what he thinks as long as he does what he's told and is trying to intimidate him into shouting to get Trolloc attention a little less.

Mat lay there on his back, his mouth still open, staring at her. Moiraine’s eyes caught the light like dark, polished stones. Abruptly Rand wondered how long she had been standing there.

Moiraine's reaction is quite different in this chat two days later because Mat wants to fuck off to Illian. She doesn't even mind them going there after Tar Valon (although it may not be place #1 on her itinerary until after this book and the Horn is recovered), but he's talking about not doing what he's told and that must be shut down.

“The Dark One is after you three, one or all, and if I let you go running off wherever you want to go, he will take you. Whatever the Dark One wants, I oppose, so hear this and know it true. Before I let the Dark One have you, I will destroy you myself.”

Unfortunately, she goes with this particular tactic, which really only cements for the three boys that she can't be trusted as far as they can throw her. (Sure, she's small, but also Lan would kill them if they tried.) Death threats are a terrible way of instilling loyalty, as most villains find out when their minions inevitably have enough. Before her time as the group mentor is over, Rand and Perrin will have each taken a turn running away while Mat will have gone full Gollum out of spite.

“The Five Powers,” Egwene said slowly. “Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Spirit. It doesn’t seem fair that men should have been strongest in wielding Earth and Fire. Why should they have had the strongest Powers?”

Per Brown v. Board of Education, this whole magic system isn't fair at all. But funnily enough, Egwene (while unusually well-rounded for any channeler) actually leans stronger into Earth and Fire than Wind and Water.

Egwene was silent for a time, digging her toe into the forest floor. “They . . . they were the ones who . . . who tried to free the Dark One and the Forsaken, weren’t they? The male Aes Sedai?” She took a deep breath and picked up speed. “The women were not part of it. It was the men who went mad and broke the world.”

No Egwene, freeing the Dark One was a group project; it's only the sealing that the women had nothing to do with. Not that this was a bad thing overall. Moiraine very clearly does not answer her question directly and this is because she's well-researched enough to know that the the truth won't make Egwene comfortable.

In the shadows, Rand shifted. A twig snapped under his foot. He froze instantly, sweating and holding his breath, but neither of the women looked around.

Moiraine doesn't need to; Lan would be freaking out if anyone who wasn't one of them were about.

Egwene drew a heavy breath. “I suppose I was afraid of that, that I’d be changed by the Power. That and the Trollocs. And the Fade. And. . . . Moiraine Sedai, in the name of the Light, why did the Trollocs come to Emond’s Field?”

Since Moiraine shoos Rand away with a glance at this point, we don't get her answer to Egwene. That won't stop me from speculating wildly! Ready for some crazy theories? Prepare yourself!

Are you sure?

She told Egwene exactly what she's been telling the boys all this time: that the Dark One is after one or more of the boys and that she can't be certain for exactly what purpose but that it's enough to oppose the Dark One in all things.

I know, I know, this sort of thinking is likely too wild for some of you.

When finally sleep came, it was fitful and filled with sweaty dreams where all the men in Emond’s Field-

Ooooh!

-claimed to be the Dragon Reborn and all the women had blue stones in their hair like the one Moiraine wore. He did not try to overhear Moiraine and Egwene again.

Oh. Well, we can certainly deduce that this dream shows how deeply in denial Rand is. His subconscious knows very well what's up, but he won't acknowledge it awake because it would freak him out way too much.

The Aes Sedai might have begun acting as if Egwene were in charge of the Emond’s Fielders...

Rand is so hilariously bitter about this, as if he weren't screaming for everyone in Andor to hear about how all Aes Sedai are Darkfriends, as if Mat hadn't tried to turn their flight for their lives into a bro's road trip, and as if literally everyone in Perrin's own home town besides Rand and Mat didn't assume that he was too stupid to walk and talk at the same time. She's not putting Egwene in charge because she's unfairly valuing women or would-be Aes Sedai but because the girl who worships the nearest authority figure at all times is, against all odds, the best candidate for getting the rest of you to put your shoes on in the morning so you can flee for your lives.

“Hey, Rand,” Mat called, “I can juggle four!” Rand waved in reply without looking around. “I told you I’d get to four before you. I—

I'm also not a juggler, but my gut's telling me that Thom's a really good teacher if Mat can juggle four stones while riding a horse after six days' practice. Then again, we'll see in one of these books that Thom is literally superhuman in his juggling skills.

“You have further to go yet,” Moiraine said. “Much further. But there is no other choice, except to run and hide and run again for the rest of your lives. And short lives they would be. You must remember that, when the journey becomes hard. You have no choice.”

It really can't be helping Moiraine's motivational speeches that the closest things she ever had to a mentor were whatever scheming tutors she got before escaping to the Tower and then Elaida. That's what I have to keep reminding myself because otherwise her speeches in this chapter are just fucking terrible. When she doesn't get to talk about dead nations and cool Aes Sedai she's just got no charisma.

“We must attract as little attention as possible.” Lan was exchanging his cloak of shifting grays and greens for one of dark brown, more ordinary, though of fine cut and weave.

I also just love that attracting attention was not remotely a concern in Emond's Field, apparently. She must have really thought she was ahead of the game for once for her and Lan to be wearing such easily identifiable attire that any smart Darkfriend asking questions would recognize right away. This whole jaunt must be a hell of a slap in the face about her own overconfidence.

“What’s all this, eh? It’s too late in the day to be opening this gate. Too late, I say. Go around to the Whitebridge Gate if you want to—”

It's not really discussed, but it's certainly too late to get to the Whitebridge Gate before it's actually closing time, so any downcountry folk who actually do come up this way (or more likely, peddlers like Fain), are just SOL. Avin's a lazy, corrupt jerk, and Rand's very lucky for that.

They say they’re here because of what’s going on down in Ghealdan. The Dragon, you know—well, him as calls himself Dragon. They say the fellow’s stirring up evil—which I expect he is—and they’re here to stamp it out, only he’s down there in Ghealdan, not here. Just an excuse to meddle in other people’s business, is what I figure.

It is just an excuse, and it's hella meddlesome at that. The Whitecloaks are engaging in quite a substantial campaign to overthrow Morgase, the ruler of the subcontinent's largest nation and the one friendliest to the White Tower. If any of her enemies came to power afterward, they might be friendly enough to help the Whitecloaks finally gain more power in Ghealdan, one of the nations bordering them, much like they want to re-establish the kingdom of Almoth to establish pincers around Tarabon. This is all part of Pedron Niall's scheme to unite the west in preparation for the Last Battle, which he is smart enough to see coming and stupid enough to think he'll be the star of.

Likely the specific hopes of the Baerlon campaign are to increase unrest enough to tear Andor in two even if Morgase keeps the throne, with the plans of then marching down through the Two Rivers to try and fuck up Ghealdan that way. Military history would show why that plan isn't really going to work, but I think Niall's pride would convince him he'd be able to pull off what hadn't been done since Manetheren (I doubt even Hawkwing conquered across the mountains instead of just taking both regions via different campaigns).

“Names mean little,” Moiraine said calmly. If anything she had heard disturbed her, she gave no outward sign of it now. “You could call your mule People of the Dragon, if you wanted.”

Moiraine does seem to have some insight into Logain's general plan of forcing the prophecy and having any edges smoothed over later by general opinion. It helps that she knows damn well he's not the Dragon.

“Tear is the greatest port on the Sea of Storms, and the Stone of Tear is the fortress that guards it. The Stone is said to be the first fortress built after the Breaking of the World, and in all this time it has never fallen, though more than one army has tried. One of the Prophecies says that the Stone of Tear will never fall until the People of the Dragon come to the Stone. Another says the Stone will never fall till the Sword That Cannot Be Touched is wielded by the Dragon’s hand.” Thom grimaced. “The fall of the Stone will be one of the major proofs that the Dragon has been reborn. May the Stone stand till I am dust.”

And here is our first bit of Dragon prophecy. We never get the whole of the Karatheon Cycle, which is just as well because Jordan probably could have made into a trilogy. This particular prophecy is straightforward and anyway secondhand, so there's not much to discuss. It is nice that there's a seeming contradiction that would prevent it from being fulfilled though, with the order being Sword and THEN Stone. Really though you'd expect most non-sheepherders to get the gist of how it's supposed to go down.

Lan’s hand went to his purse again, but even as it did another man, as big around as Master al’Vere, came hurrying out of the inn. Puffs of hair stuck out above his ears, and his sparkling white apron was as good as a sign proclaiming him the innkeeper.

Two is too early to call a pattern, but I don't have much else to say on this chapter so let's call it anyway. You can always tell a Darkfriend innkeeper by the fact that they're thin.

Anyway, it's now to the point when this post is only ten hours from being posted, so I'm off to bed. Next time: The Stag and Lion! (Lion I get, but where's the Stag come from?)

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #rand al'thor #moiraine damodred #lan al'mandragoran #egwene al'vere #mat cauthon #perrin aybara #thom merrilin

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 11: The Road to Taren Ferry

Welcome back to my Wheel of Time reread! Since the pic's a little small today, I should note that the artist is Arsenije Kojic; it might be hard to make out the signature. What's not hard to make out is that this reread is about 33% spoilers for the entirety of the series, so if you're still reading the books you should read them first before coming here.

Once again, the chapter icon is the barren tree in front of the moon; once again, our heroes are traveling at night.

Lan led the way, black horse and shadow-clad rider all but invisible in the cold night. Moiraine’s white mare, matching the stallion stride for stride, was a pale dart speeding through the dark.

You just know Lan's been begging Moiraine to get a less conspicuous horse for years and she refuses on the grounds that she didn't have a emo phase as a teenager and she's not going to start now.

If Trollocs appeared behind, or the Fade on its silent horse, or that flying creature, the Draghkar, it would be up to Rand to sound an alarm.

Lan is testing his new son.

Rand had to keep a firm hand on the reins to hold him back. Cloud lunged against his restraint as if the gray thought this were a race, fighting him for mastery with every stride. Rand clung to saddle and reins with every muscle taut. Fervently he hoped his mount did not detect how uneasy he was. If Cloud did, he would lose the one real edge he held, however precariously.

I think one of the reasons Rand channeled tonight and not last night is that the horseback riding he's having to do is so similar to channeling saidin that he was put in the right headspace by circumstances.

With all his heart and desperation he silently shouted at Bela to run like the wind, silently tried to will strength into her. Run! His skin prickled, and his bones felt as if they were freezing, ready to split open. The Light help her, run! And Bela ran.

And here it is, his first definite channeling (though possibly not his first incident if Shadowspawn detection requires touching the source first). Note that it's Aine 9 / March 24, in a couple chapters we'll be seeing the backlash.

He looked for Egwene. She was leaning against Bela, slumped with weariness. The others were climbing down as well, with many a sigh and much stretching of aching muscles.

Rand may well be the least wearied of the non-bonded crew since he got to have a midday nap. The other kids spent much of the day plotting and counter-plotting and who knows what rest Thom got, if any.

“But the horses,” Rand protested. “We’ll run them to death if we try to go any further tonight. Moiraine Sedai, surely you—”

Another bit of Jordan's skill over some other fantasy writers: his horses are not furry motorcycles but living beings with their own needs and limitations. I think this cliche is mostly dying out at this point, but for awhile it was rampant in fantasy.

“You were right about your Bela, Rand,” Moiraine said from where she stood by the mare. “She has a good heart, and as much stubbornness as the rest of you Two Rivers folk. Strange as it seems, she may be the least weary of all.”

Quick correction to my above point: least wearied of the HUMAN non-bonded crew. Anyway, Moiraine now has another data point for "Rand is clearly the DR," but thankfully for existence she's not tossing away the other candidates just yet.

With a start Rand realized that instead of trying to mount Cloud he had been standing there staring at the sky in a vain attempt to locate the source of those vile shrieks. More, all unaware, he had drawn Tam’s sword as if to fight the flying thing.

Probably when LTT heard draghkar shrieking he did exactly the same thing. If Rand knew who he was, he'd probably be less embarrassed and more horrified and ranting to himself about it. Without the full knowledge of himself, he has no reason to reject it and just assumes he's being a dumbass.

Stout Bela ran with neck outstretched and tail and mane streaming in the wind of her running, matching the larger horses’ every stride. The Aes Sedai must have done something more than simply ridding her of fatigue.

No Rand, she didn't have time. You told Bela to run and she is going to run. This isn't denial though like some of his other reactions; he just isn't thinking straight under the pressure and doesn't know all the rules anyway.

Fog enveloped the riders for a brief moment and was gone, came again and vanished behind. The icy mist left a chill dampness on Rand’s face and hands. Then a wall of pale gray loomed before them, and they were suddenly enshrouded. 

Another bit of Rand not really understanding what's happening: he's getting the shivers because Moiraine is channeling, not because of the results of her channeling.

Lan encouraged them to keep close, now, to stay where each could see the outlines of others in that damp, frosty grayness. Yet the Warder still did not slacken his stallion’s dead run. Side by side, Lan and Moiraine led the way through the fog as if they could see clearly what lay ahead. The rest could only trust and follow. And hope.

I wonder how this is working exactly. Can they still see what's ahead of them? That's not really how these sorts of things work in the series as a whole; Moiraine's weave here has to be a real fog and not just an illusion that somehow effects Shadowspawn she can't even se. The bond doesn't provide any sensory bonuses that I can recall either, so that's out.

Early book weirdness I guess!

One and all, Taren Ferry folk had a reputation for slyness and trickery. If you shook hands with a Taren Ferry man, people said, you counted your fingers afterwards.

Who doesn't have a reputation for trickery in this world? Everyone is trying to screw over everyone else, from Shara to Seanchan, and not by way of the Morenal Ocean. Y'all are suspicious mofos who don't talk to anyone.

“Master Hightower,” Lan said. “Just the man I need. We want to cross over on your ferry.”

Oh, and on the Lord of the Rings rip-off front, this whole sequence is an echo of the Buckleberry Ferry bit, though quite a few things make this rather different in the end.

Gold glinted in the lamplight as the Warder counted out coins one by one into the other’s palm. Hightower licked his lips as the coins clinked, and by inches his head moved closer to his hand, as if he could not believe what he was seeing.

This bit of bribery seems rather less generous when you consider what's going to happen to the ferry next chapter. It's really just preemptive damages. But that's next chapter, and just because we're at the end of this one is no reason to get into the next one. That can wait for tomorrow. See you then! :)

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #rand al'thor #lan al'mandragoran #moiraine damodred #thom merrilin #egwene al'vere #mat cauthon #perrin aybara

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World! Chapter 4: The Gleeman

Welcome back, my pretties. Sorry for not posting yesterday. It was a day. Today is trying to be in the same mold but we'll see what happens. Anyway, this is a very spoiler-heavy reread of the series, so if you don't want spoilers, now is your time to flee!

[The cloak] was really quite thick, Rand saw, despite what Master al’Vere had said, with the patches merely sewn on like decorations.

This is of course a hint that Thom is not a regular gleeman but a former court bard and isn't just self-aggrandizing when he says as much later. When you consider that he hasn't had such a lofty title nearly the entirety of Rand's life though, the good quality of his cloak is a bit more impressive.

He wondered if there was a place where nobody had dark eyes. Maybe Lan comes from there, too.

Rand's only seen Lan for thirty seconds and he's already desperate to be adopted by him. Poor Tam, getting tossed aside so quickly for the edgier Blademaster with the even cooler Aiel War-related backstory. I'm sure Rand'll come crawling back eventually Tam, but only once he's been internalized some horrible lessons.

The yokels in that village on the hill tell me I can get here before dark, neglecting to say that that was only if I left well before noon.

Oh. My feelings that something significant was going on with this were completely silly. Thom just got punked. LOL.

Egwene’s face was a study, her goggle-eyed amaze at a gleeman in the flesh marred by a desire to defend Nynaeve. “Your pardon, Master Gleeman,” Rand said. He knew he was grinning foolishly, himself. “That was our Wisdom, and—”

Interesting that Rand doesn't appreciate that he and Egwene are having literally the exact same reaction, only Egwene is passive and he's active.

“So. I thought I recognized Padan Fain in there.” His voice was still deep, but the resonance had gone, replaced by scorn. “Fain was always one to carry bad news quickly, and the worse, the faster. There’s more raven in him than man.”

Jordan is usually quite good at making the world feel large and expansive, but this particular detail makes it feel rather small.

Egwene was glaring at him, and he had not even smiled.

Because your silence at your friends' bad behavior (they're not wrong that Thom's just playing her, but jeez) is douchey and implies you agree that it's laughable she might be very pretty.

“But the war,” Mat began eagerly, only to be cut off by Master Merrilin.

It's no surprise Mat ended up being the general and strategist, since he really does love the idea of it long before he gets super powers.

Not with your full growth on you yet, but I doubt there’s another man in the district with your height.

There isn't, but why do you all keep calling the region a district? It implies an administrative perspective that this region is utterly lacking. And of course, two sentences later we get our first actual instance of someone saying Rand looks Aiel.

“Well, now. Made-up creatures from my stories. Is that what they are? You lads are widely traveled, then, it seems.”

It's a rather interesting thing about this series that rumors about mundane or at least relatively mundane things are almost invariably so distorted as to be completely wrong, while nearly everything said about magical things is perfectly true.

[Egwene] broke off, her cheeks turning pink, and the look she gave Thom Merrilin was not as friendly as it had been. “It is not right to make. . . . It isn’t. . . .” Her face went redder, and she fell silent.

Since I pointed out last chapter that Egwene isn't a super awesome friend on average, I will give her a small amount of points here for standing up for the village shitheads who laugh at her.

Tales of great wars and great heroes, for the men and boys.

More of Jordan's unconscious sexism. His world has plenty of women who are heroes, and you'd think there'd be plenty of gals who want to hear about them, and farmboys who wouldn't mind hearing a rags to riches story of some strapping young cowherder winning the heart of a noblewoman and spending the rest of his days in luxury.

The Thousand Tales of Anla, the Wise Counselor.

You might think it's unlikely that Third Agers would remember Ann Landers, defunct newspaper personality, but OBVIOUSLY what happened was is that some microfiche in a library basement archive survived the nuclear war and since it was the most complete relic of the old days the early channelers and they preserved it very well through their age. You all must feel pretty silly for not being able to extract the UNQUESTIONABLE canon from this single sentence.

She had never liked stories about adventures and long journeys. Her favorites were always the funny ones, or stories about women outwitting people who were supposed to be smarter than everyone else. He was sure she had asked for tales about Lenn and Salya to put a burr under his shirt.

Or maybe because she's planning on going on some travels of her own she's looking for reassurance? Like, whatever happens to John Glenn and Sally Ride in the stories has to be a thousand times worse than any reasonable event that might happen to Egwene on the friendly country roads.

Ages when men ruled the heavens and the stars, and Ages when man roamed as brother to the animals. Ages of wonder, and Ages of horror. Ages ended by fire raining from the skies, and Ages doomed by snow and ice covering land and sea.

Silly Thom, even if I take you seriously I suspect that you're not going back any further than the late seventh age, when humanity was paleolithic and the climate was icy.

Oh and right after this he lists a bunch of other first age tales. If you can't recognize these you're even sillier than I feared.

For a moment Thom looked at Moiraine sideways, his face and body still except for making the balls disappear into his capacious coat sleeves. Then he bowed to her, holding his cloak wide. “Your pardon, but you are surely not from this district?”

"Dammit kids, I just told you I don't do Aes Sedai! Why didn't you tell me that there was one visiting?"

Suddenly Rand wondered what sort of entertainment a lady like her might be offered in a city like Baerlon, or Caemlyn. Surely it could not be anything better than a gleeman.

Rand clearly wasn't listening, or more likely not believing, when Thom told him outright he used to be a court bard.

“I assure you, none of my stories will displease. All will please and entertain. And you do me too much honor. I am a simple gleeman; that and nothing more.”

Rand is of course missing that Thom and Moiraine are having two or possibly three simultaneous conversations (at least one where they're making damn sure neither outs the other and possibly another I'm too thick to suss out on top of that), though he does recognize what Thom feels about the situation.

“Is he supposed to be a gleeman or a king?” Cenn Buie asked in annoyed tones. “A waste of good money, if you ask me.” Bran al’Vere half turned after the gleeman, then shook his head. “That man may be more trouble than he’s worth.”

Y'all haven't let him have a smoke and a drink and you're bitching? I can see why you don't get gleemen very often. They probably come the once, see how unfriendly you lot are, and realize they should never return.

Rand knew there must be some way to stop her from leaving the Two Rivers, but the only way he could think of was not one he was prepared to take, even if she was willing.

Good thing Rand's not book OR show Perrin, or he'd have an entirely different idea of how to stop Egwene from leaving.

“I’ve never seen Master al’Vere so mad,” was the first thing Rand said, getting him a disgusted look from Mat.

Mat sees him this mad about two or three times a month and is deeply disappointed that Rand doesn't dedicate himself to the art of pranking like Mat does.

“Battles interest me,” Mat said, and Perrin added, “What did he say about them?”

More good Mat foreshadowing. Not a whole lot going on with Perrin - I feel like Luhhan being the guy who can make Buie see reason is supposed to nod towards the kind of guy Perrin is meant to become, but he never becomes that guy so that's a moot point, innit?

The war is in Ghealdan, and the Aes Sedai are the Light knows where, but none of it is here. The man in the black cloak is, or have you forgotten him already?

The war is about a False Dragon (and the real one is here). An Aes Sedai showed up yesterday evening. And while Rand is right that the Shadowspawn are the real problem, at this point he's a little silly for not worrying that the rider is the false Dragon on the run, using saidin to appear and disappear at will. So he's right and wrong on every count; quite an achievement.

He could already hear Master al’Vere laughing. More witnesses certainly could not hurt. And if three of them had seen the fellow, others had to have, too. They must have.

This doesn't necessarily follow, but lucky for Rand in this particular case it does.

The peddler’s team munched their oats in eight stalls, and Master al’Vere’s massive Dhurrans, the team he hired out when farmers had hauling beyond the abilities of their own horses, filled six more, but only three others were occupied.

ONLY seventeen stalls occupied. This inn and stable are REALLY old if "only seventeen" is the way of phrasing things. They must have expected quite a few more horses back in the day.

“Father,” he said finally, “I don’t understand why the Council had to question Padan Fain.”

It's a good thing he's not a corrupting nightmare yet, or the whole of Emond's FIeld would be screwed.

They chose us for the Village Council because they trust we can reason things out in the best way for everybody. They trust our opinions. Even Cenn’s, which doesn’t say much for the rest of us, I suppose. At any rate, they will hear there isn’t anything to worry about, and they’ll believe it.

Here's some Perrin foreshadowing: in three books the mindless sheep of the Two Rivers will be looking to him and him alone for their opinions instead of the elected officials. Joy!

(Shame the timeline doesn't work to blame Fain for everyone's collectively throwing away their brains the way Elaida did.)

When Haral Luhhan mentioned Perrin jumping shadows, though, it all came out. Jon Thane’s oldest son saw him, too, and so did Samel Crawe’s boy, Bandry.

Moiraine might be behind the Shadow in narrowing down the region, but she is way ahead in narrowing down the candidates. Myrdraal don't seem to be as smart as they should be.

There was nothing the black-cloaked horseman could do that the people of Emond’s Field could not handle together.

Oh sweet, innocent Rand you naive little lamb. You gormless ray of sunshine. You absolute Ann Perkins. Your town is about to get FUCKED.

But that's next chapter. See you then!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #wot reread #robert jordan #wot spoilers #wheel of time spoilers #rand al'thor #mat cauthon #perrin aybara #egwene al'vere #thom merrilin #moiraine damodred #lan al'mandragoran #nynaeve al'meara #tam al'thor