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butterflydm · 2 years

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wot reread: the shadow rising (chap 46-chap 47)

spoilers through the end of the shadow rising,

1. Ah, and two paths collide, as Egeanin (who is trying to prove to her satisfaction that all sul’dam are capable of being held by the a’dam) realizes that a woman (who we know to be Nynaeve) is similar in description to one of the missing sul’dam, and so is about to be mistakenly kidnapped by the man she’s hired to find her sul’dam.

2. lol, Elayne’s veil keeps getting in her mouth because she tilts her head up too much. baby.

3. “She had strong suspicions about Faile, and if they were even half right, Faile would not settle for being a blacksmith’s wife.” As I said in the last section! Also, Elayne has noble!radar, lol. And she understands Faile much better than Perrin does, but in a way that’s a lot more delicately written than most of the “only women understand women; only men understand men” bits because it’s a personal understanding that one specific woman has about another (Nynaeve doesn’t get the same vibe, after all) and not a generalized commentary.

4. And now her meetings with Egwene in TAR are supervised by Amys, so I don’t blame Elayne for not trying to clarify the whole letter deal at that point.

5. Elayne makes the (honestly pretty reasonable) conclusion that this is a political kidnapping attempt. The fight, and Egeanin stepping in to help, is all a lot of fun tbh. Maybe because Elayne is finding it a bit exhilarating once she gets into it.

6. Egeanin is so shocked when she finds out that it’s possible for someone who does not have the spark to be able to learn how to channel. There’s so much good and interesting set-up here.

7. Thom trying to resist the urge to act fatherly towards Elayne. Aww. For some reason, I remembered only the unfortunate bits of this storyline and not the parts that are actually pretty sweet.

8. And here comes the compulsion -- Elayne and Nynaeve answer this... ah, mystery lady... all her questions, and then essentially forget about it. But they also hold onto enough of themselves that they DO only answer the questions that she asks, and don’t volunteer any information, so manage to keep several secrets. “An arrogant man who stank of piety and goodness” is her opinion of Rand (well, of Lews Therin; she finds out Rand’s name here).

9. Egeanin’s mind continues to expand as she grapples with the fact that she sat and had tea with two women who could channel and they were just... people.

10. Tower Coup time! I don’t know why I’m saying that like I’m so excited about it, it’s actually really depressing, lol.

11. Siuan trying to convince herself that Everything Is Going To Plan but actually inwardly fretting over the lack of news from Moiraine. Nothing since sending word that Rand had taken the Stone.

12. Oh, it’s tough to read all this. Not in a badly-written way. But it’s tough. And seeing Min realize that Gawyn didn’t tell her whose side he was on. That’s tough, too. Gawyn making the choice that he does here... *massive sigh*

13. Laras coming in clutch and helping Min break out Siuan and Leane. Nice.

14. The Younglings are putting heads in the front of the Tower (as a warning I assume). I... I feel like this tells us everything we need to know about the choices these young men have chosen to make. Those were their teachers. I do like here, how Min wants to run away but also knows she would never forgive herself for running away. We don’t get much Min in this book, but we see her strength. She has also talked herself into being hopelessly in love with Rand, and is so mad about it.

15. Honestly, I’m so curious about how Min’s viewings work, because she says ‘oh they just come true’ and yet she certainly seemed motivated to try to actively clear a path for herself to Rand (telling him that he had no future with Egwene; telling Elayne that she would need to share her husband). So. Yeah, I wonder sometimes. I do like that the show didn’t have her trying to break up Egwene and Rand. It gives me good vibes about how they will handle that relationship in the future.

16. Gawyn lets them go and then still goes back to continue helping Elaida. I will never understand him. He has this weird thing where he tried to stand exactly on the line between two sides and just ends up screwing both of them over? He’s like the worst and the most accidental double-agent in the world. That viewing Min has of him is just... honestly, sums him up. Like, I get that he’s traumatized but... what a baffling man.

17. Also, this is where I stole my idea for Mat having a flickering viewing for my ‘voice in the back of my head’ fic series, because honestly the idea is WAY TOO COOL for it to happen to Gawyn. sorry gawyn

18. I do love Siuan just straight-up lying to Gawyn’s face, now that she’s realized that she can probably lie again. Good for you.

19. And we add Logain to the crew, with a promise of revenge against the Red Ajah. I do wonder... hmm, I doubt they’ll do the whole ‘they look younger after being stilled’ in the show version, so I wonder if that’s part of why they had Liandrin do an in-the-field gentling of Logain, so that he could choose to go with Siuan knowing who she is, but wanting revenge against Liandrin and the Red Ajah.

#wot #wheel of time #wot reread #the shadow rising #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers

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highladyluck · 3 years

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WoT AU: Perrin’s Cursed Shadar Logoth Ax

Concept: WoT AU where Perrin is the dumbass who keeps a shiny cursed ax from Shadar Logoth, while Mat drops the dagger before leaving Shadar Logoth and ends up getting wolf powers instead, so they get each other's powers and story paths. Their personalities are the same.

What's really interesting about this is how much it highlights that the individual ta'veren struggles are actually at root the same; all of the boys struggle to accept both the responsibilities and the violence that the narrative pushes on them.

However, the boys don't struggle with the same issues to the same degree! So if you give responsibility-avoidant Mat the plotline that incentivizes responsibility, and violence-repulsed Perrin the plotline that incentivizes violence, they hit their growth points quicker and get over their internal conflicts faster. XD

I’ll put the plot and characterization details under the cut. Also, shout-out to @adurna0, ßætåñŵå£k€r ßùprëmê, and Pexitron for contributing enthusiasm, questions, and ideas to this nonsense.

Mat’s Path: Beloved Culture Hero With Daydreaming Superpowers

In the original universe Mat's internal struggle is to come to terms with responsibility (with his spelled-out fate as catalyst), and his external struggle is about leading battles and revolutionizing warfare. In the AU, he'd be put in a position of responsibility after saving everybody and he'd behave better because he was being appreciated and trusted, and the only struggle would be to stop him from using the Wolf Dream for literally everything, including battles somehow.

I think Mat would likely be kind of uneasy about the wolf powers at first, but he'd LOVE Tel'aran'rhiod, he's always daydreaming, and that's a place where your daydreams become real. He'd test out all of his fun wolf powers and Dreamwalking abilities immediately. Hopper would still be exasperated but for completely different reasons. Mat would also go back and rescue Emond's Field from Trollocs and Whitecloaks and turn it into a trading empire. At some point when Perrin returns from Rhuidean, Mat would go on a special mission to steal Perrin's hat, because frankly Perrin wouldn't keep wearing it after leaving the Waste anyway, and it looks better on Mat. This is my only concession to the original storyline’s aesthetics.

Unlike Perrin, Mat would not hesitate to rescue people from Masema, and he'd be good at the political stuff. He'd love being viewed as a hero, though he'd possibly have some of the same struggles Perrin did re: taking on leadership, because it implies responsibility. But with Mat, it's more that he'd pitch in during a crisis automatically and then bitch about it after, and I think after people started giving him positive attention for helping them, he'd act out and complain less.

He and Faile wouldn't be into each other but they'd be bros (a little like him and Birgitte in the original universe) and have a good working relationship; Faile would be his work wife (but not his actual wife) in his role as Lord of the Two Rivers. Mat's love interest in this situation is Berelain, but it's a very slow burn. (I can’t imagine anything but a slow burn romance for Mat, he’s just built for it.)

He'd be freaked out about Berelain at first (due to getting the Min advice about running from the most beautiful woman you've ever seen) but eventually he'd be like 'wait, hang on, I do not take advice' and he'd court Berelain and even more eventually succeed. Probably Berelain is the one who gets kidnapped by the Shaido in this version? Also, he would absolutely kick Lanfear's ass in Tel'aran'rhiod, with or without the power of love.

Perrin’s Path: Luckily, I’m Very Qualified For This Job

Ok, so on to Perrin. In the original universe, Perrin's internal struggle is to come to terms with his capacity for violence (with his wolfman destiny as catalyst), and his external struggle is about taking on political and social responsibility. In the AU, Perrin would now have actual stakes for the hammer vs ax issue, so it would get resolved sooner. Also, Perrin's issues with responsibility aren't 'I don't want to work hard', they're 'I'm not the right man for the job'. Once Perrin has the thought "The Pattern has specifically prepared me to be really good at killing people, that's my job now", he'd just go do his job.

Again, I like to think that Perrin still has the hammer vs ax dilemma, but now has rather different stakes, and Perrin might be a lot more concerned than Mat ever was about the lingering darkness in his soul. I think that's what prompts him to go through the stone doorway in the Stone of Tear, in this universe. Unlike Mat, he knew specifically what he was going to ask for in the Rhuidean doorway, so he asks for them directly (I haven't quite worked out what his accessories would be in this universe, but I bet one of them is a hammer. Maybe the ashandarai becomes a war hammer?)

His big internal bugaboo is whether all of his new battle memories make him a bad person and whether he’s tainted forever by the ax, so he spends way more time than Mat ever did feeling bad about being really good at war. However, once he decides, 'Well, I'm working for the light, this is clearly my job now, and I have the tools for it, so I should do my job and take pride in my work," he's fine.

I also think that, being a blacksmith, he would be more familiar than Mat is with metalworking and would invent cannon way earlier. He would invent cannon so early that I also think he would have time to invent guns. That's right, in this universe, Perrin has a gun. He probably forges a gun with the One Power. He'd also make it out of *Finnland earlier than Mat, and with all of his body parts, because a) Perrin would absolutely bring guns to fairyland, b) Perrin doesn't give a shit about the delicate rules of fae bargains and c) Perrin would have obsessed over the puzzle of the gift he didn't specifically ask for, and would have known before he entered *Finnland what it was for, so once he found Moiraine he'd be able to escape immediately.

Perrin and Tuon get married somehow, but there's no love there and by the end of the series they're both fully intending to kill each other. (Tuon doesn't trust him and is pretty sure he's going to be a huge threat to her rule; she doesn't flirt with him by threatening to kill him, because when Tuon wants you dead, you are just dead, she doesn't telegraph her intentions.) Perrin feels bad about having to kill his wife, but the Seanchan are evil and there's no way in hell Perrin's leading their armies after all this is over, so she's gotta die. Perrin might manage it first, since Tuon would wait till after the Last Battle, but then Selucia or literally any other Seanchan party would immediately kill Perrin. So. Hopefully everybody stays their hand till after the Last Battle, because otherwise the Light is screwed in this scenario.

#wheel of time #wheel of time au #wheel of time spoilers #wheel of time meta #mat cauthon #Perrin Aybara #ta'veren role reversal AU #honestly it's mostly a good universe unless you are an Original Universe Ta'veren Love Interest #and as long as Perrin can refrain from killing his wife until the rest of the world is saved #and as long as you don't mind that Mat can see your dreams which frankly I find very upsetting

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