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apocalypticavolition · 4 months

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Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 24: New Friends and Old Enemies

Spoiler alert: I don't know who made this. Eugene de Blaas definitely did most of the work, but I found this as a reblog of a now-dead account "laurientius" so... yeah. Also spoiler alert: My reread has spoilers for the entirety of the series. Don't keep reading if that's going to be a problem.

A second chapter in a row with the Flame of Tar Valon, which again is a reflection of us exploring the White Tower.

Egwene curtsied, then stuck out her tongue at the Accepted’s retreating back.

Egwene has a weird problem with authority sometimes. I suppose Pedra must have an unpleasantness in her voice, though we know from later on that she's not really that unpleasant.

“My name is Elayne,” she said. She tilted her head, studying Egwene. “And you are Egwene. From Emond’s Field, in the Two Rivers.” She said it as if it had some significance, but went right on anyway.

The significance is of course primarily that she's already met someone from the Two Rivers and not specifically that Egwene is her subject. Elayne's not awful like that.

Also: yay! Elayne!

From now on, you will be at training at this hour every day, as a matter of fact. From breakfast until High, then again from dinner to Trine. If you are especially quick or especially slow, they may take you from supper to Full, as well, but that is usually for more chores.

All the chores and training sounds like a particularly grueling schedule, though I suppose the average gal in this setting would probably find it relaxing since they'd be working all day at the farm or store anyway.

“You saw it around me?” she said excitedly. “I saw it around you. Sheriam Sedai said I would, eventually. This was the first time. For you, too?”

How can they not be fated to be bestest buds at this point? In a more sapphic novel this is the part where they'd kiss. Well, think about it anyway.

Abruptly Egwene found herself remembering a tale Rand had told, a tale she had not believed, about falling off a wall into a garden and meeting. . . . “You’re the Daughter-Heir of Andor,” she gasped.

Shoulda believed that poor boy.

“She keeps a willow switch on her desk. She says if you can’t learn to follow the rules in a civilized way, she will teach you another way. There are so many rules for novices, it is very hard not to break some of them,” she finished.

Elayne probably hasn't been spanked much before this. Considering the schoolgirl approach to the Tower training, the switch being present is probably some of the least eyebrow raising physical punishment we see in the series, but again it's important to note these things so we can discuss the more egregious examples later on.

But we are children. The Aes Sedai, the full sisters, are the grown women. The Accepted are the young women, old enough to be trusted without someone looking over their shoulders every moment. And novices are the children, to be protected and cared for, guided in the way they should go, and punished when they do what they should not.

In fairness to the Aes Sedai way of thinking here, novices are unlikely to be a tenth of the way through their natural lifespan at this point and Accepted only barely past that. The long life makes for longer periods of initiation.

Egwene, there are only forty novices in the Tower. Only forty, and no more than seven or eight will become Accepted.

Yeah those numbers are outright atrocious. Without change, the White Tower won't be able to last as an institution past the current number. By the time they've died of old age, there won't be enough Aes Sedai left just to train the new generation.

But the Tower will not . . . cannot . . . lower its standards.

Elayne is correcting herself here to be diplomatic, but she was right the first time, as Egwene shows. There's plenty of ways the Tower could have high standards without doing all the crap it does. And Sheriam badmouthing the current state of affairs is just so perfect. As a Black she's encouraging novices and accepted to despair at the current state of affairs while seeming to be arguing for something that would only hinder the Blacks and thus keep her above suspicion.

Elayne paused, and then said, “Is Rand well?” Egwene felt a sudden stab of jealousy—Elayne was very pretty—but over it came a stronger stab of fear.

Egwene just ain't used yet to Rand being off the table, but her heart's in the right place.

Anyway, I’ve not seen her since the day we arrived, with Whitecloaks dogging our trail. They are still camped on the Dragonmount side.

What delightful foreshadowing.

“Men,” Egwene muttered. “I dance a few dances with a nice boy, and Rand goes around looking like a dog with a sore tooth, but he—”

But he didn't dance with anyone and barely flirted except with Elayne. Calm down girl. Hypocrisy is your worst look.

The man rumbled a bitter laugh. “With two or three of you watching my every move? You’re just afraid I’ll find a knife.” At the look in the Accepted’s eyes, he laughed again. “For myself, woman. For myself. Lead me to your garden, and your watching eyes.”

Poor Logain. Elayne's quite wrong. At the moment he's less dangerous than most other men.

“Do they always have to be gentled?” she asked. Elayne stared at her, mouth agape, and she quickly added, “It is just that I’d think the Aes Sedai would find some other way to deal with them. Anaiya and Moiraine both said the greatest feats of the Age of Legends required men and women working together with the Power. I just thought they’d try to find a way.”

Good cover, Egwene. And honestly the kind of question that, even though you are asking it as a ruse, shows your potential and keen mind.

“I know you,” Egwene said. “You worked at the inn in Baerlon.” A light breeze riffled the water beneath the bridge, and graywings warbled in the trees of the garden.

You can see why people think Egwene should be ta'veren, though I'd say all these meetings are more about her being at the place that is the current fulcrum of the world than anything inherent to her.

She said I’d have to share my husband with two other women, and I’d never put up with that. She just laughs, and says it was never her idea of how to run things, either.

It's a little bit of a shame from a drama perspective that there's never any real fallout when Elayne realizes that Min knew she was one of the other two women all along. It's also sad for Min that it's quite clear she dislikes her destiny and never comes to terms with it.

“A white flame, and. . . . Oh, all sorts of things. I don’t know what it means.”

The White Flame is obviously the Amyrlin Seat itself - surprising no one makes this connection early. I expect she sees the lights she saw last book, more swallowed up now that Egwene is comparatively alone (though Elayne may be another person who has this image). She probably sees something about Gawyn in specific that she doesn't want to share in front of Elayne.

“One of the things she said she saw looking at me was a severed hand. Not mine, she says. She claims she does not know what it means, either.”

This would have been Rand's severed hand back when he was going to lose it by royal decree but I have no clue what it's about now. Maybe it's got something to do with the Band of the Red Hand?

She tried to settle herself, to think of Rand. He’s so . . . beautiful. She gave a jump, half afraid she had spoken aloud.

Galad's getting extra attention in this first meeting is probably an artifact of when he would have ended up with Egwene after Gawyn died. Still kinda works to subvert the first meeting of fated lovers kinda thing though.

I have met all sorts of people, and they’ve met Rand al’Thor. Some do not even know his name, but the description could not be anyone else, and he’s shifted every one of their lives. There was an old farmer who came to Caemlyn just to see Logain, when Logain was brought through on his way here; yet the farmer stayed to stand for Mother when the riots started. Because of a young man off to see the world, who made him think there was more to life than his farm.

We're going to hear a lot more about the lives Rand changes. It's funny that it's Gawyn who first really highlights it, considering how negative his obsession ends up being.

“We three are tied together,” Min said, “and we cannot let any man get in the way of that. Not even him.”

Min, when after this book is the next time you even see Egwene? Maybe in Caemlyn for a bit? You and she have almost less time together than you and Mat and that's saying an alarming amount.

“In Caemlyn, child, I am councilor to the Queen your mother, but this is the White Tower, and you, a novice.”

I mean yeah Elaida's being a bit stuck up here but is she wrong? I bet if Sheriam overheard Elayne not say "Sedai" to Elaida she'd have her horsewhipped before Elaida could get two words in. The whole point is to leave old connections behind, even if the Tower is hypocritical and wants the princesses it teaches to rise to power.

Behind them, Egwene heard the Aes Sedai begin, “I am given to understand, girl, that you were brought here by Moiraine Sedai.”

Does Min see the White Flame around Elaida? Does she see Fain? The vanity tower? The Black Ajah hunters? The a'dam?

She looked over her shoulder to make sure the Aes Sedai was not following her, but Elaida was nowhere in sight.

Dammit narrative I want my questions answered and here you are cutting in only when it's too late! It's frankly a bizarre choice at this point, as Min gets only the tiniest bit of POV and only to establish that she's pissed at Moiraine too. That could have been done in Egwene's perspective I think.

Next time: The House of the Rising Sun!

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #egwene al'vere #pedra #elayne trakand #logain ablar #min farshaw #galad damodred #gawyn trakand #elaida do avriny a'roihan

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freeshephoun · 17 days

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Hi! I saw your eggsona design, Pedra!

IT IS REALLY THE CUTEST!!!! Your art is just incredible!

I would love to know more about her! So if you have any little things about them, please tell me, I love it!!

Have a great day:D

OHMY GOD OH GOD YES YES THANK YOU !!!!!!!! i would love to share everything with you :33c shes more of an egg oc than anything else that i made because i wanted to give the new german member one and thats how she kind of came to be

everything else around her and her relation to others came to be based on the people hugo interacted with majorly :3c

there is a bunch of stuff on how exactly she came to be that i wont share with the public but if you want to know i can def share that part with you in dms !!

basically main origin is federation wants to recreate the dragon eggs and use various dna samples to do so. one of the results is pedra. but they abandon this project due to certain risks they cant take. this break off of the project results in a lot of pedras features being underdeveloped aka she is disabled.

she was left trapped underground in the small side facility where she always had been until 2 players (hugo and mike) accidentally stumbled upon it and found her. they rescued her and took her firstly to mikes home (because hugos was yet to be finished so it wouldnt be good to have her stay there) and they kind of ended up as pedras main parental figures.

that is kind of the idea of how they came to be and stuff.

a few things she found a liking for over time is machinery, biochemistry aswell as overall pvp. she learned a lot about pvp and fihting from hugo and both of them often sat together to figure out tactics that would work for pedra in a fight

fighting also is kind of an escape for her. she sometimes struggles with putting what she feels into words so instead pedra sometimes goes out to just fight against mobs and put those feelings into her swings instead of words since that is way easier for her.

at the very beginning she was very reserved and easily scared of others. couldnt handle anyone with too much energy too well around her. it would overwhelmed her but with time that kind of changed as she became more adjusted to everything around her aswell as other people. while still more quiet if someone new is there, she has an easier time adjusting and if with people that she already knows and likes, she can be quite a handful !! :3c

i have sooooo much more i love pedra dearly she means everything to me

#pedra

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