This week in Reading The Wheel of Time, I am covering Chapter 47, which contains a civil war in the White Tower, a battle of wills between Siuan, Min, and Gawyn, and some unexpected allies for the newly-deposed former Amyrlin. I have a lot of thoughts this week, so buckle up my dear readers. We are off into The Truth of a Viewing.
The chapter opens in the Amyrlin’s study, where Siuan is going through a list of kitchen purchases and a mason’s report on the addition the Tower is putting on their library. It is her custom to check a few accounts at random each day, but she is finding it difficult to concentrate on the mundane, even when she finds errors. Frustrated, she opens her little warded box, leafing through reports that she thinks probably don’t need to be in there, and yet she replaces them anyway. Reports about the disappearance of both Sahra and the farmer who had been watching over her, reports about a Shienaran, Masema, preaching in Ghealdan about the return of the the Dragon, Rand al’Thor. Reports that Mazrim Taim still hasn’t been recaptured.
She is thinking about how the Tower had reacted to her news about the Dragon having Callandor exactly as she had expected and hoped, and worrying over the fact that Moiraine still hasn’t sent any new word about Rand’s movements, when the door to her study bursts open and Elaida, accompanied by some red sisters as well as a few women from other Ajahs, including Alviarin, strides into the room. Siuan tells them off for entering without permission, but although a few seem anxious, none of them respond to her authority.
Elaida pulls the striped stole of the Amyrlin from Siuan’s shoulders. She is shocked to realize that she has been blocked from the True Source. Elaida wraps her in wards of Air, and Alviarin begins to look through Siuan’s desk and papers. The box bursts into flame when Alviarin opens it, reducing it and its contents to ash, but Elaida promises that Siuan will tell her every word that burned.
Elaida’s tiny smile did not touch her eyes. “The Hall convened not an hour ago—enough Sitters to meet our laws—and by unanimous vote, as required, you are no longer Amyrlin. It is done, and we are here to see it enforced.”
Siuan is shocked, but manages not to let on how worried she is that they know all her secrets. She keeps up a brave face, even managing to throw some of the other women off their guard, but Elaida is unfazed, and slaps Siuan across the face hard enough for her to see stars. They take her into the outer room, where she is shocked to see her Warder, Alric, has been killed by a knife in his back. Leane is also there, bound and gagged with Air. Siuan promises revenge upon Elaida, but Elaida’s cold promises of torture and extraction of the truth are much more frightening.
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Meanwhile, Min, in her guise of Elmindreda, is returning to the Tower after buying some bolts of blue silk that Laras sent her to fetch—and gave her the money for. She is perplexed by the fact that the guards at the gates seem to be missing, but doesn’t initially register the sounds of weapons on weapons as anything more than the Warders training until she runs into a group of young men—those who were in Tar Valon studying with the Warders—and Gawyn at their head. He stops and warns her to get out of the grounds, explaining after she insists that the Amyrlin has been deposed. She tries to find out why but the other men urge Gawyn to hurry.
“I have no time,” he told her urgently. “There’s fighting everywhere. They say Hammar is trying to break Siuan Sanche free. I have to go to the Tower, Min. Leave! Please!”
He turned and set out at a run toward the Tower. The others followed, bristling with upraised weapons, some still shouting, “Gawyn! The White Boar! Gawyn! Forward the Younglings!”
Min watches him go, thinking of how Gawyn didn’t say which side he is on. She knows that the smartest thing, the safest thing, to do would be to get out of Tar Valon while she has the chance, but she also knows that if she leaves she might never be able to get back in. And she could do no good outside. Asking herself what good she can do inside, she hurries off into the trees, looking for a place to hide. She doesn’t think that anyone would try to kill “Elmindreda,” but there’s no point in taking chances.
Siuan wakes in a pitch black cell, naked and covered in the welts and bruises she received under Elaida’s torture. She remembers telling them almost everything, eventually, holding back only a few scraps in order to feel the triumph of denying them. She wraps her arms around herself and reminds herself that she isn’t dead, that she must remain calm and remember that she is not dead.
She hears Leane calling out to her, and apologizes for getting Leane caught up in all of this. But she also reminds Leane that she is not the Amyrlin anymore, should not be called “Mother” but simply “Siuan.”
They hear a key grating in the rusty lock, and Siuan urges Leane to stand up, although Leane doesn’t think it makes any difference.
“At least they won’t find us huddling on the floor and weeping.” [Siuan] tried to make her voice firm. “We can fight, Leane. As long as we are alive, we can fight.” Oh, Light, they stilled me! They stilled me!
Forcing her mind to blankness, she clenched her fists, and tried to dig her toes into the uneven stone floor. She wished the noise in her throat did not sound so much like a whimper.
On the other side of the door, Min is struggling to turn the key in the rusty old lock, as Laras holds a lantern for her and keeps watch. Min ran into Laras while sneaking back into her room for riding clothes and other odds and ends, and found Laras in “a tizzy of worry about Elmindreda.” She had wanted to drag Min off and lock her away someplace safe until everything was over, and had also somehow got Min to tell her what she intended to do. Min was shocked that Laras reluctantly agreed to help, and grateful too, as she can’t imagine she would have been able to ready everything she needed for the escape. And more than that, before running into Laras, Min had felt herself starting to chicken out, and knows that she would never have been able to forgive herself for abandoning Siuan.
The key finally gives, and she discovered two women in the cell that she for a moment doesn’t even recognize. Their bruised bodies are the correct height and coloring for Siuan and Leane, and their faces look almost right. Min should have been certain, and yet…
… But the agelessness that marked Aes Sedai seemed to have melted away; she would have had no hesitation at all in thinking these women were just six or seven years older than herself at most, and not Aes Sedai at all. Her face heated with embarrassment at the thought. She saw no images, no auras, around either; there were always images and auras around Aes Sedai. Stop that, she told herself.
Siuan asks where they got the key, prompting Laras to also recognize her. She tells Min to hurry, and Min puts aside her questions to focus on the task at hand. She shoves two bundles of clothes at the other women, instructing them to dress quickly. She distracted the guard while Laras snuck up behind him and struck him with a rolling pin, but she doesn’t know how long he’ll be unconscious.
Dressed in plain brown, Min expects all three of them may be able to pass as farm women or other petitioners who have been caught—as many were—inside the Tower when the fighting began.
Siuan remarks that it’s odd that there was only one guard, and that it’s nice that at least Laras doesn’t believe the charges against her.
The stout woman frowned and lowered her chins, giving herself a fourth. “I am loyal to the Tower,” she said sternly. “Such matters are not for me. I am only a cook. This foolish girl has had me remembering too much of being a foolish girl myself. I think—Seeing you—It is time for me to remember I am not a willowy girl any longer.” She pushed the lantern into Min’s hands.
Min worries that Laras might change her mind and give them away, but the cook fondly promises that she will not. But she also reminds Min that she must live in the Tower, and gives them a deadline after which she will send someone to bring wine to the guard. If no one discovers him before then, they will have more than an hour to escape. She also threatens Siuan and Leane that, if they get Min caught, she will make them suffer for it.
The smile popped back onto her face, and she pinched Min’s cheek. “You hurry them along, child. Oh, I am going to miss dressing you. Such a pretty child.” With a last vigorous pinch, she waddled out of the cell at a near trot.
Min rubs her cheek, wondering bemusedly about Laras’s youth, and her claims to have lived so wildly and adventurously.
Leane is upset that Laras would speak to Siuan in such a way, but Siuan reminds her that she is no longer Amyrlin. She also informs Min, hesitantly but with strength, that they have both been stilled. Min admits that she knows, keeping any sympathy out of her voice, and that it was announced in every square in the city.
They follow Min out of the dungeons and into the main hallways of the Tower, encountering a few people—Aes Sedai, or Warders, or servants—but none pay them any heed. Things are going smoothly until they encounter some areas of the floor that are stained with blood, and Min is forced to explain that there was fighting in the Tower that began the day before, right after Siuan and Leane were taken, and has only just ended. Not just Warders, but guardsmen and others too—a group of men claiming to be masons attacked and seized the Tower just after Siuan’s arrest.
Siuan realizes that some discrepancies she saw earlier, in the pay for masons working on the library, were not a careless error by an absent-minded Brown sister but a part of the plot too.
Siuan scowled. “Danelle! I should have realized there was more to it than not paying attention.” Her face twisted more, until Min thought she might begin crying. “Artur Hawkwing could not do it, but we did it ourselves.” Edge of tears or not, her voice was fierce. “The Light help us, we have broken the Tower.” Her long sigh seemed to empty her of breath, and anger, too. “I suppose,” she said sadly after a moment, “I should be glad that some of the Tower supported me, but I almost wish they had not.” Min tried to keep her face expressionless, but those sharp blue eyes seemed to interpret every flicker of an eyelash. “Or did they support me, Min?”
Min hedges, explaining that Elaida didn’t wait to see if the Blue Ajah would support Siuan or not, and that there are no Blues left in the Tower, and few Greens. The other Ajahs split, except for the Reds who mostly remain. Hesitantly, she tells them that they have been charged with arranging Mazrim Taim’s escape, and as Logain also got away during the fighting, that has been pinned on them as well. Elaida has not said it outright, but she has heavily implied that they are Darkfriends.
“Darkfriends?” Leane murmured in bewilderment. “They named us… ?”
“Why would they not?” Siuan breathed. “What would they not dare, when they dared so much?”
They hunched their shoulders in their cloaks and let Min lead them as she would. She just wished their faces did not look so hopeless.
They have nearly reached a door that will lead them outside when they encounter Elaida, followed by Alviarin wearing the stole of the Keeper of the Chronicles and some other Aes Sedai, mostly Reds, as well as six Warders. Min drops heavily to her knees and bows her head, and so do the other two.
“Very few women have been stilled,” Siuan said, as if to herself, “and none have survived long, but it is said that one way to survive is to find something you want as much as you wanted to channel.” That lost look was gone from her eyes. “At first I thought I wanted to gut Elaida and hang her in the sun to dry. Now I know I want nothing—nothing!—so much as the day I can tell that leech of a woman that she’ll live a long life showing others what happens to anyone who claims I am a Darkfriend!”
“And Alviarin,” Leane said in a tight voice. “And Alviarin!”
Siuan adds that there are some advantages to being stilled, as Elaida could not sense her now, and tells Leane’s shocked face that they must use every advantage they can find, wherever it comes from.
Once it is safe, they hurry on, out to the woods where they find the three saddled horses that Min and Laras had left there. Siuan, explaining that she has always been a poor rider, selects the short, shaggy mare that seems to have an easy temperament, and Min is just about to explain that Bela belongs to Egwene when another voice cuts her off.
Gawyn emerges from the trees, his face streaked with blood in exactly the way it had been in Min’s viewing on her first day back in Tar Valon. Despite the blood in his hair and glazed look in his eyes, he stalks toward them, cutting off Min’s explanation by placing his sword to Siuan’s throat.
Gawyn studied Siuan’s face, then slowly nodded. “It is you. I was not sure, but it is. This… disguise cannot—” He did not appear to move, but a sudden widening of Siuan’s eyes spoke of a keen edge pressing harder. “Where are my sister and Egwene? What have you done with them?” Most frightening to Min, with that blood-masked face and half-glazed eyes, with his body tensed almost to quivering and his hand upflung as if he had forgotten it, he never raised his voice or put any emotion into it. He only sounded tired, more tired than she had ever heard anyone sound in her life.
Siuan tries to dissemble, but Gawyn insists that she speak, plainly and quickly, so that he knows that she is not lying. Siuan answers at once that the two girls are in Illian, studying with an Aes Sedai named Mara Tomanes. And that they should still be there.
“Not Tear,” he murmured. For a moment he appeared to think that over. Abruptly, he said, “They say you are a Darkfriend. Black Ajah, that would be, would it not?”
“If you really believe that,” Siuan said calmly, “then strike off my head.”
Min interrupts, carefully reminding Gawyn that he knows that Min would never help the Black Ajah, reminding him that Elayne supports Siuan, that Egwene believes in her too. Gawyn asks for a reason not to drag Siuan back by the scruff of her neck, and Siuan offers that being reduced from being the most powerful woman in the world to one whose best hope is to beg for a place on a farm where she might earn her keep in the fields is as fitting a punishment as he could wish. Gawyn is not convinced by that, but decides that he will let her go for fear that Elaida will take her head. And he needs that head to be available to him in the future.
Min asks him to come with them, thinking that his aid would be helpful and offering the bait of having Siuan close to hand, but Gawyn tells her that he cannot do that, and warns her that Elaida is looking for her, and has ordered her arrest, too. After threatening to do to Siuan whatever bad things happen to Elayne and Egwene, he talks off to stand apart from them.
Siuan observes that she has forgotten what it is like not to have the upper hand with the Power, and they discuss the changes to her and Leane’s face from their stilling. Siuan observes the changes in Leane’s face and how they both seem to have lost a good fifteen years from their looks. Their “disguises” as Gawyn called them, are another advantage, as is the fact she is once again able to lie.
Then Gawyn interrupts them to ask if they are leaving or not, and as they follow him through the trees he begins to be joined by other young men. Siuan and Leane observe that these men, who call themselves the Younglings, are little more than children, and Min chooses not to tell them that Warders from the Green and Blue Ajahs had tried to mount a rescue, and might have succeeded if Gawyn hadn’t led the Younglings against them.
They reach the guardhouse, and the guards are not about to let anyone through until Gawyn tells them who he is, and declares his intention to either see the women leave, or their officer dead. The officer observes that Gawyn was the one who killed Hammar and Coulin, and after a moment’s hesitation has the writing materials that Gawyn asked for brought to him.
“You killed Coulin?” Siuan said in a cold tone fitting her former office. “And Hammar?”
Min’s heart sank. Be quiet, Siuan! Remember who you are now, and be quiet!
Gawyn spun to face the three women, his eyes like blue fire. “Yes,” he grated. “They were my friends, and I respected them, but they sided with… with Siuan Sanche, and I had to—” Abruptly he shoved the paper he had sealed into Min’s hand. “Go! Go, before I change my mind!” He slapped her mare, then darted to slap the other two as Min’s horse leaped through the open gates. “Go!”
They cross the plaza at a trot. Min observes as they ride that the paper Gawyn gave them merely gives permission to leave, and that they could take a boat instead of the bridges. But Siuan wants to find the other Aes Sedai. She may not be able to lead them anymore, but she can gather them up and help equip them for the future, help them choose someone new who is strong in the Power and sees things “the right way.”
“Then you mean to go on aiding this… this Dragon!” Leane snapped.
“What else would you have me do? Curl up and die?”
Leane falls silent as they ride through the empty streets, until at last she asks what else they can do, and says she feels so empty. Siuan tells her that she must find something to fill the emptiness, and that she means to ensure that Elaida doesn’t get away with what she has done. Siuan knows that Elaida has always been covetous of Siuan’s position, and that her motivation was as much that as it was protecting the Tower, and that Siuan means to pull her down for it. This is what fills her, drives her. This and the need to make sure Rand doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Leane seems doubtful, but she straightens and begins to consider what they can do. Siuan demands that Min tell her exactly what Gawyn’s permission says, and after establishing that it mentions only “bearers” sends her horse forward to corner a man that Min had noticed before, scuttling about the empty streets. He asks them to let him go, saying that he just wants to find someplace quiet to die, but that even though no one recognizes him he can’t get over any of the bridges.
Min tries to urge them on, worrying about getting caught. But Siuan tells him that she is the only woman who can take him out of Tar Valon, the only one who can offer him revenge on those Red Ajah who captured him. He agrees to come with them, that he is her man.
Leane looks flummoxed, and Min cannot possibly imagine what use Siuan has for this “man of doubtful sanity who had once falsely proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn” besides possibly being attacked and robbed by him. But suddenly she sees that viewing again, a flaring gold and blue halo around Logain’s head that speaks of glory.
She glanced over her shoulder toward the Tower, the thick white shaft dominating the city, whole and straight, yet broken as surely as if it lay in ruins. For a moment she let herself think of the images she had glimpsed, just for a moment, flickering around Gawyn’s head. Gawyn kneeling at Egwene’s feet with his head bowed, and Gawyn breaking Egwene’s neck, first one then the other, as if either could be the future.
Rarely were her visions so clear, and never before had she seen two images fluttering back and forth as if the future is yet to be decided. And even more alarming, Min has the feeling that her actions have turned Gawyn towards those two possibilities.
They turn their horses towards the river, Logain striding with them, and Min considers that what is done is done. She just hopes it will be worth it.
I have been thinking a lot about zealotry in The Wheel of Time, especially in the last few weeks. From the single-minded blindness of Byar to Masema’s weird pivot to declaring himself a Prophet of the Dragon, we’ve seen a lot of fanatical devotion from characters lately. And the Children of the Light in general have a dogmatic and bigoted approach to their cause and actions, as does the culture of Shienar. Even characters like Bornhald and Ordeith, who aren’t zealots exactly, exhibit fanatical focus on a single person or concept to the exclusion of everything else.
And now we have Elaida’s covetous obsession over the Amyrlin Seat coming to a head, with disastrous consequences for our protagonists. I was pleased to have Siuan so specifically name Elaida’s jealousy over Siuan being raised—it feels important that she is aware of what we, the reader, also know to be true. Back in Chapter 1 we encountered the fact that Elaida is obsessed with Elayne because of a Foretelling she had about the ruling family of Andor being the key to defeating the Dark One in the Last Battle. She resents Siuan for pulling Elayne out from under her, so to speak, and ruining all her years of hard work and sacrifice, but she also resents Siuan because if she hadn’t been busy with Morgase, Elaida feels she might have been raised to Amyrlin herself.
Elaida even slips up when she’s talking to Siuan in her study, letting a bit of her personal grudge show.
“You are finished,” Elaida said. “Did you think I—we—would allow you to destroy the Tower? Bring her!”
This jealousy, this ambition that seems largely untempered by concern for others or for the greater good, is the aspect of Elaida’s person that soured me most on her, as it seems to have for Siuan. (And I love the way that she repeated again and again that she could have almost forgiven Elaida. Almost, almost.) Elaida’s treatment of the Blue sisters and the fact that she wasn’t merely prepared to face violent opposition but actively chose to instigate violence says a lot about her as a character.
So far we have only gotten to know two Red sisters, Elaida and Liandrin, but they both seem to share this trait of ambitious jealousy. It led Liandrin to become a Darkfriend, and while I do not believe Elaida is one as well, her actions have weakened the Tower in a moment in which it really needed strength, and have deprived the Aes Sedai of some of its best weapons against the Dark. Some of these weapons Elaida doesn’t know about, but there are some she can see and know, including the possibly needless death or exile of so many Aes Sedai at a time when there have never been fewer full sisters. She seems to have very little regard for any of it.
I do wonder what things it was that Siuan kept back during her torture. Did she tell Elaida about Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve’s mission? Certainly Elayne’s whereabouts would have been one of the most pressing questions for Elaida, so it’s hard to imagine that she didn’t get that information out of Siuan, or that she would have stopped the torture before gaining it. It’s unclear to me whether or not Siuan and Leane were stilled before or after their torture, but one would assume it happened before, since that would weaken them both physically and mentally. If that’s the case then technically Siuan would have had the ability to tell a lie, even if it was just to obfuscate or change one detail about what she sent the three off to do. Would Elaida and the others have known that stilling would remove the control of the Oath Rod? Would Siuan have even thought to try, in the midst of torture and the despair of being stilled? I feel like there are a lot of questions not yet answered, and since even the Aes Sedai themselves don’t know much about what happens to someone who has been stilled, a lot of them may remain unanswered for a while.
There was a comment from Siuan that I also found confusing. When Min explains that Siuan and Leane have been all but named Darkfriends, Siuan comments; “They won’t even admit the truth… that they mean to do exactly what they pulled me down for.” We never heard the exact charges that were brought to Siuan by the Hall of the Tower, so perhaps that is a reveal that is coming later. Or perhaps I am missing something.
With all this talk of zealotry and being narrow-minded, I really expected Galad to be the person who decided to stand with Elaida and her followers, given that the Hall of the Tower has (at least by official appearances) sided with and supports her. Galad is the character that has been presented as always doing the “right” thing, i.e. the lawful thing, whereas Gawyn has always appeared to be much more flexible. Of course his reasons make perfect sense: His dislike of Siuan has been bordering on hatred the entire book, and it isn’t much of a leap for him to believe Elaida and her followers. He was already convinced that Siuan was hiding Egwene and Elayne and lying about their whereabouts, probably for nefarious purposes. When confronted with the claim that Siuan had also snuck Mazrim Taim out of the Tower, when confronted with the evidence that other Aes Sedai see her as a dangerous threat, it would have completely agreed with his own view on the matter. It makes sense, then, that he would choose sides against her.
But learning that he killed both Hammar and Coulin was still a shock. We know that Hammar was a Blademaster and carried a heron-marked sword, and Coulin, as weaponsmaster, was probably nearly equal to Hammar, if not a Blademaster in his own right. This shows that Gawyn has intense skill, but it also shows that he believes so strongly in his choice to uphold Elaida’s takeover that he was willing to kill his teachers, people he himself names as friends. It wasn’t a spur of the moment decision, either, since it was his choice to rally the Younglings and lead them against Hammar and his rescue attempt.
I believe that it has been mentioned that one way to become a Blademaster is to defeat another, which may mean that Gawyn is now a Blademaster himself. Thus, Min’s viewing of a heron-marked blade over Gawyn’s head probably refers to this confrontation—Min couldn’t tell whether the sword belonged to Gawyn or threatened him, but it could also have referenced both at once. That same viewing also told Min that he would be hurt worse than just the blood indicated, which could be about the mental anguish he’s suffered in turning against friends, or even in his struggle to decide what to do about Siuan.
But getting back to Galad for a moment, where was he in all this? Which side did he choose? Or was he outside the Tower or away when it happened? I’m so curious to learn his view on what has happened; he scarcely has more love for Siuan than Gawyn does, but perhaps his takeaway will be different. He doesn’t have to support Elaida just because he disagrees with Siuan, and given that he was already talking with Whitecloaks and reading their literature, perhaps the disorder in the Tower will be the final push that has him joining the Children of the Light. I’ve been pretty sure for a while that this is where he is headed, and now seems the time.
Single-mindedness is not always a bad trait, however, as we see from Siuan’s determination to keep on living and fighting in the face of her removal from office and her stilling. That fight in her, the ability to hone in on her purpose and tune out all other things, is clearly something that has served her well all her life. In point of fact, in the same way that Elaida would have tried to become Amyrlin if she hadn’t been led in another direction by her Foretelling, it’s possible that Siuan might have chosen a different path if not for Gitara’s Foretelling.
Granted, Siuan clearly has an ambitious nature, but every choice she and Moiraine have made since they were raised to full Aes Sedai has been in service of finding the Dragon and securing the world’s future. And so, even though Siuan has lost a great deal of her identity over the course of a single day, this part remains. She is filling the hole where channeling used to be with desire for revenge on Elaida, but she has never lost this primary motivation. She just needs to find a new way to serve it.
Siuan’s conviction in this is so strong that she’s even been able to inspire a little something in Leane, and in Logain. Until this chapter, Logain is the only person we have seen who has had their ability to channel forcibly removed. Since we didn’t meet him until he was in the Tower, we don’t have a pre-gentling personality to compare his current state to. However, we do know he was an ambitious person who declared himself the Dragon Reborn and who now wants nothing more than to be allowed to die in peace; while he was in the Tower he always had an Accepted with him to ensure that he didn’t try to harm himself. Now, Siuan has offered him revenge, and that seems to have sparked something in him, and Min’s viewing of future glory gives us a bit of a sense as to how much that spark may grow.
An aside: The one other example we have of stilling is Amico, who lost her ability to channel though whatever Nynaeve did to break her shield over Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne. She appeared very deferential, frightened, and eager to please, though it is possible that this was somewhat her personality already.
But if I’m honest, the motivation I find most intriguing of all is not Siuan’s or Elaida’s or even Gawyn’s—it’s Laras’s. I’m going to be talking more about Laras in a separate essay later this week, but I would like to touch for a moment on how beautifully this character was established throughout The Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising. Although I have some issues with how the narration talks about her physically, Jordan lays the groundwork for her character from the moment we meet her. She is shrewd, fair-minded, and strong in both body and spirit. What’s more, the story is consistent in the way that characters underestimate her.
First it was Nynaeve, who voiced out her ire against Laras and called her a lump of lard, only to learn that Laras objected to how harsh the Amyrlin’s punishments were and to find out when they would be lifted. Next we have Min, who has had to endure unwanted affection and doting from Laras over “Elmindreda,” and who resented the attentions because she has no actual interest in clothes, sewing, or her appearance, and now that devotion Laras showed has saved Siuan, Leane, and Min herself. It seems likely to me that Elaida will overlook Laras’s possible involvement with Siuan’s escape, too—for all she knew Min’s true identity, I doubt she would deign to notice Laras’s fondness for the girl, except perhaps with a sense of Elaida’s own superiority over knowing the truth. Elaida seems to see most people who are not Aes Sedai, indeed most people who are not Red Ajah, as beneath her, after all.
And finally, I just want to touch on the dialogue Min has with herself when she is returning to the Tower, before she notices that something is amiss. She is considering how annoying it is to play Elmindreda—to be fawned over by Laras with beauty hints and talk of boys, to play a “brainless chit” girl while Gawyn teases her and Galad is all handsome and gallant around her—and her thoughts quickly run to Rand and to the question of whether that is how he would like her, wearing dresses and “simpering” at him. In the space of three thoughts she goes from thinking that she won’t wear a dress for any man to thinking that she could look better in a plunging neckline like the women in Tear that she imagines him staring at.
He has no right to expect it, she thought furiously. It was all his fault. She would not be there now, wearing a fool dress and smiling like an idiot, if not for him. I wear coat and breeches, and that is that! Maybe I’ll wear a dress once in a while—maybe!—but not to make some man look at me! I wager he’s staring at some Tairen woman with half her bosom exposed right this minute. I can wear a dress like that. Let’s see what he thinks when he sees me in this blue silk. I’ll have a neckline down to—What was she thinking? The man had robbed her of her wits! The Amyrlin Seat was keeping her here, useless, and Rand al’Thor was addling her brain! Burn him! Burn him for doing this to me!
Love can make us all foolish, and Min, like Aviendha, is dealing with feelings that are developing after she’s been told by some outside force that she is going to fall in love with him. It’s enough to “addle” any brain, as she puts it. But although I noted the similarities between Min’s resentments and Aviendha’s, and appreciated her frustration at being trapped and away from him, I’m also put in mind of Nynaeve’s choice to wear impractical silk dresses while wandering the dangerous streets of Tanchico.
It makes perfect sense to me that Nynaeve has come to like pretty dresses and nice things, and of course she would want to look beautiful for Lan in the same way that she was trying to learn to cook for him in Tear. But it struck me as out of character for her to not choose practicality in her dangerous situation, especially because it isn’t like Lan’s around for her to impress him. And in the same way, this monologue strikes me as out of character for Min.
It’s not out of character she would be jealous of the other women who held Rand’s attention, but it does feel out of character that her jealousy creates a desire to look like them and be ogled in the same way. Min has never before suggested that she might wear a dress occasionally when she felt like it, or that she sometimes does enjoy being more traditionally feminine and pretty on her own terms. By having this moment of jealousy and desire for Rand be the first time such a thought comes up, it suggests that it changes fundamentally how she feels, rather than just bringing out a different side of her that was already there.
Why should she not, instead, spend her time thinking about how she wants Rand to see her as attractive and desirable as she is, and as she prefers to be? Dressing in a coat and breeches is not about Min needing to be taken for a smart and serious woman—there are plenty of smart and serious women in The Wheel of Time who wear dresses, even nice dresses. Min wears the clothes she does because they feel right for her and make her happy. I would have much preferred if this thought process had focused on that, on wanting to be appreciated by Rand for her looks in clothes she likes, rather than in taking on a look that we have been given no indication she would ever have considered for her own sake.
And now I’m thinking of Aviendha again, and the symbolism of being forced to give up the cadin’sor for the Wise One’s bulky blouses and skirts. The change of outfit is a mark of her change in status, and although a Wise One is above a Maiden or Aiel warrior in status, there is a burden that comes with the new job as well, and it is clearly embodied for Aviendha in being forced to dress in “women’s clothes.”
Women’s clothes—heavy dresses that have to be altered to do something as simply as riding, which have to be done away with all together if one wishes to be a warrior with anything except the One Power—are a burden that the female characters have to deal with in this story. Each moment when we are presented with alternative options, and their limitations, is worth noting. For example, Sea Folk women dress in trousers and go shirtless like their men, but are constrained by the customs of other cultures to wear blouses while at port. Aiel Maidens wear the cadin’sor, the same clothing worn by all Aiel men, but there are strict rules surrounding their ability to remain Far Dareis Mai, including rules about their identities as women: Men are allowed to have families at home, but Maidens who bear children must either give them up, or give up the spear—which also involves giving up the cadin’sor.
With Min, we now have a suggestion that being attracted to a man changes the way she chooses to dress and to express her identity, changes the way that she feels about it. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with that; all people grow and change, especially young people. But when Min is the only person grappling with such a choice, the only representative of a woman who prefers to wear pants instead of skirts, it accidentally becomes a statement about all women. And the statement that all women decide they want silk dresses and plunging necklines the second they fall for a man, and that this is the only way they feel sexy, is a problematic one.
Oh, but that’s right, the Maidens also prefer to wear pants. And Aviendha has just had the right to that choice forcibly stripped from her.
I am sure I will have more musings on this, and the latest round of female nudity, in the future, but for now I think I am going to call it a day and release you all out into the world. Stay safe out there, my friends, and as long as you’re wearing a mask whenever you’re within six feet of another human, please wear whatever you feel most comfortable in. I support you, and anyone who loves you should do the same.
Sylas K Barrett is rooting for Siuan Sanche, and always has been. Even if she uses way to many fishing metaphors.
I can’t help but feel the rumination on dresses and addled minds is a bit of an stretch. Many people, across genders have the natural reaction of trying to change themselves (and their physical appearance) to what they think the object of their affection will find attractive. Seeing as I’ve been through this sort of neurosis myself, it felt pretty believable. As did the rapid mental jumps. Is changing for someone emotionally healthy? Probably not, but it is very human and believable, and offers Min a point to start her personal growth.
But also, I have the benefit of having RAFO where this particular line goes. Min doesn’t give up pants, Elayne tries them, and a from what I remember Min actually influences a large number of other women to begin wearing pants. And of course at some point Min realizes she doesn’t have to change who she is for Rand.
Also… first Mesaana hint!
@1. Yes! After the reveal I couldn’t believe I had completely missed this. In retrospect it was a Mesaana giveaway.
It’s not like there are entire industries built around the idea that people want to try to look attractive to people they’re attracted to, right?
This might be the most charitable interpretation of Gawyn’s actions that I’ve ever seen, maybe because it’s not biased by his future stupidity. Also, good call on Galad, though I don’t know if he realizes where that’s ultimately headed. The complete reversal of Gawyn and Galad in terms of good/bad actions is really a remarkable feat.
In bringing to note Min’s changing desires regarding dress, it might also be worth noting that she’s having these thoughts because she thinks that’s how Rand would like her better. That’s what will make Rand notice her. This isn’t Jordan making an unconscious statement about what makes a woman attractive, this is Min making an unconscious statement about what women in her culture think men find attractive.
And it’s not the first time we’ve had those thoughts from Min. All the way back in the Eye of the World, I believe, she was telling Rand about her aunts who always wanted her to dress more like a girl. She rebelled against it. These thoughts are an extension of that. Were they right? Am I wrong for wanting to be different? Will anyone ever love me the way I am? That’s essentially what we are seeing here, from Min’s subconscious.
And no, I’m not giving Jordan too much credit for subtlety. Because everything Min is saying here is based on her assumption that Rand wouldn’t notice her or find her attractive unless she dresses that way, and how unfair that is.
Except we already know that Rand has noticed Min, and does find her attractive. Just. As. She. Is. Rand has had sexy times dreams of Min. Just. As. She. Is. Rand wants to think of her as just a friend, but that’s not because of the way she dresses, that’s because he grew up in a conservative backwater and feels guilty for being attracted to more than one woman.
So, while I understand the general direction Sylas’s thoughts have taken, and I appreciate that there was no jump to a conclusion, I hope that deeper reflection (and more story) will show that the concern is unwarranted in this case.
@3:
This is pretty consistent with my view of Gawyn. His actions make perfect sense from his own viewpoint right up until he lets them go. That’s when you realize he has been deeply emotionally disturbed by this entire situation, and he doesn’t have the emotional and mental fortitude to deal with crisis at this level. He’s allowed his mandate as the future First Prince of the Sword to become his one and only guiding principle, and doesn’t have anything to fall back on in this situation.
That is likely a product of his parenting, as is Galad’s obsession with Lawful Good.
“Alric had been [Siuan’s] Warder for close to twenty years.” Evidently they bonded pretty soon after New Spring. I wonder how they met.
If Min did end up wearing dresses, Sylas would be on to something here, but since we have the benefit of foresight (I don’t recall Min ever wearing dresses after this, nor Rand ever finding her less than attractive because of it) I think we can see this as Min’s own insecurity (which I think is normal, even for people that are generally secure) about not fitting in to standards, as opposed to the narrative making some kind of statement. Basically she has the thought, and the thought is disproven.
I TOTALLY forgot about Danelle being mentioned here!
Sylas probably doesn’t have the background to know that killing a warder has extraordinary physical impacts on the AS partner, making this even worse. It is particularly outrageous the the warders were killed outright rather than shielded and imprisoned.
I agree with the other commenters, this particular line of musing ends up bearing little fruit. Min DOES change how she dresses, though – just not from trousers to dresses. Her breeches change from “something a boy would wear” to “snug-fitting” – in my mind she switches from baggy jeans/sweatpants to yoga pants. And the coats she wears no longer cover her bottom but are cut short, revealing much more than they previously did.
And the fact that she does this in Cairhein, inspiring many other young women in that famously conservative (aside from Festival time) land to “show more of their wares” is a neat detail that doesn’t really affect the plot as far as I can recall.
If anything, a compare/contrast of how Rand was “forced” into new clothing with his new role (tGH) and how Aviendha is similarly forced to wear different clothing for her new role might have been more interesting. Rand’s new clothes were forced on him out of Moiraine’s plotting – burn his old “country-bumpkin” clothing and give him the choice of “Lord” clothing or nothing at all. Aviendha’s was more forceful and direct – “Strip, run naked to Rhuidean, and when/if you come back we’ll have new clothing for you.” The difference matches up directly with the people behind the change – Moiraine with the subtle-but-very-effective-for-Rand (who would balk and go whatever direction Moiraine DIDN’T want him to go if given a choice) maneuver vs. the Wise Ones saying “This is how it is. Get over it.”
I don’t see what’s wrong with thinking about changing something about ourselves (specially something as superfluous as clothes) to please someone we care about, particularly if you think you like said person. I think it’s a very human thing wanting to please the ones we like. And as long as we don’t change our identities over that, I don’t think it harms anyone. I guess, in the end, we all come to the conclusion that we are beautiful in the eyes of those who reall like us, no matter what we’re wearing, and that our appearance doesn’t matter as much as our well-being to them. But it still makes us feel good when we feel like they think we are beautiful or when we realise they did something to please us.
Perhaps Min prefers wearing pants because she’s more comfortable, but thinks she actually is prettier in dresses, even if overall she’d still wear pants. Anyway, I think the idea was to highlight how Min seems to be conflicted about liking Rand and not so much how she does or doesn’t want to wear dresses. But then again, I’m just a first time reader, I don’t really know that much about Min…
Wouldn’t Siuan have realized the instant her warder was killed? And how did he get stabbed in the back?
Jordan wouldn’t know of course but women dress to impress other women or in accordance with their image of themselves. Dressing for men is fairly pointless since few notice or appreciate fashion. They will notice one ‘looks nice’ but will be quite unable to analyze why. And of course they notice parts that aren’t covered.
Min has built her identity around not being a girly girl. She feels comfortable in her rough boy’s clothes and they suit her self image. She doesn’t like dresses and doesn’t feel comfortable in them but even more discomforting she’s found she rather likes being pretty and feminine. She’s noticed men looking appreciatively at ‘Elmindreda’ and she wants Rand to look at her like that. But she doesn’t want to go on being Elmindreda, she wants to be Min – but a feminine, desirable Min. Happily she will find a way to be a desirable Min in her breeches and jackets by using brighter colors, finer materials and pretty embellishments.
Gawyn and Galad are a pair of angry, frustrated young men. Siuan has done something with their sister and liege lady, not to mention the girl both are attracted to, and she’s lying like a rug about it. Ignoring these two young men and dismissing their completely understandable concern for Elayne and Egwene’s well weing is one of Siuan’s worst mistakes.
Galad goes over to the White Cloaks because his trust for the AS had been abused and destroyed. Gawyn sides with Elaida because Siuan has been jerking him around and he believes Elaida shares his concern about Elayne and will rescue her from whatever Siuan has gotten his sister into. Once Gawyn has chosen a side he has to follow through on that decision.
Hey mods, last few paragraphs of the recap, starting around here:
*I* know that’s Logain and everybody reading this recap should know it’s Logain, but maybe his name should be used before the end of the third paragraph he’s in?
I think Jordan strikes a pretty realistic balance on how the women dress and how they see themselves as dressing, as well as who they are dressing for. Nynaeve isn’t dressing for Lan, any time she has the freedom to do so (from well before this point in the story, and basically with the sole exception of her upcoming and relatively brief time as Accepted again) she’s dressed in the fanciest silks she can get her hands on. She very much does it for herself. And the fact that Min not only never wears a dress again but inspires (along with the arrival of the Aiel) a fashion movement that spreads from Cairhienin nobility across the world does seem to negate any of the concerns presented here. She literally puts pants on an entire continent’s worth of young women. Also think her development along those lines comes across as more natural once we see her interact more with Leane and Leane’s development over the next book or so.
@11
RJ said that the shock of being shielded and deposed basically overloaded Siuan’s inputs for a brief moment when Alric was stabbed (which was not until a moment before Siuan was led out of the study into the anteroom). I’ve interpreted that to mean that Alric either was not there at first when Elaida and co showed up and he ran in aggressively later, or he was first restrained physically and then moved to try to free Siuan. Either way he was stabbed in the back in the process, I assume by another Warder.
gomiller @11: fernadan @15 has RJ’s explanation, but I (and many other people) believe he just messed up and was retroactively trying to clean it up. I’ve never seen a really satisfactory explanation for this.
Whenever I read this chapter (also some others from WoT), I start quietly singing from the second song in Carmina Burana:
Fortune rota volvitur:
descendo minoratus;
alter in altum tollitur;
nimis exaltatus
The Wheel of Fortune turns;
I am brought down, demeaned;
another is raised up;
far too high up
Randland doesn’t really use this concept of the Wheel of Fortune, but we do see it in action. We see high characters brought low (Siuan, Morgase, Jaichim Carridin), low characters raised up (the Superboys and Supergirls), and some raised only for another plunge (Elaida, Amathera, Sevanna).
Also, this chapter marks the first real appearance of Gawyn the Poopyhead.
@16
That’s a fair assessment. I gave him the benefit of the doubt on this one, though I still look askance at the subsequent revelation that being stilled suppressed the pain of losing the warder. Are we to take from that that the bond only functions if the bonder is a channeler? How does that square with the bond between Rand and Min later on? Would she be protected from the negative effects as a non-channeler?
Min’s bond includes parts of the Aiel sister bond, it might work differently than a normal Warder bond.
@16 @18
RJ stated that the warder bond is dependent on the ability to channel in the one who forms the bond. Min could not have bonded Rand on her own and instead the connection between Elayne, Aviendha, Min and Rand is facilitated by Elayne’s access to the one power. Reducing that access to the one power also mutes the bond, i.e. when shielded. This is why Siuan doesn’t notice what happens to Alric, because when the input is muted her own current state overwhelms any information she is receiving through the bond (and as implied, Alric only dies after Siuan has been shielded, possibly after noticing the bond becoming muted and trying to make his way to her as he assumes she’s in danger).
Iirc it’s also stated that Steddings do not mute the warder bond, implying something about how Steddings operate. Rather than restricting the One Power’s access to the channeler, it is the Channelers awareness of the One Power which is cut off. In theory then you could still channel inside a Stedding (indeed the existence of wells confirms this), but it is simply impossible to access the existing link to the One Power because you can’t see or feel it.
Ok. I have clearly missed something on previous re-reads. It will probably hit me like a brick on this one (currently reading Crossroads of Twilight). What is the Mesaana hint?
@21 It’s revealed much later, but Mesaana was impersonating Danelle of the Brown Ajah, the same as was responsible for getting the soldiers into the White Tower under the guise of being masons for the Tower Library repairs.
@21 – Danelle, the “absent-minded brown” who let in all those stonemason/mercenaries, is more than meets the eye.
And so we have the crucial moment where Gawyn goes from goofy, besotted teenage prince of privilege to his long, steady descent into becoming the correctly most hated character in the series. In the immortal words of the great bard: “What a putz.”
@1
And there’s the minor tidbit that for seemingly all the young important characters in this series, whatever relationship they get into during the course of things, it is the first actual important one they were in during the course of their lives (with Mat really being the only one who has any amount of playing around before meeting his partner). Even the Rand/Egwene deal from the beginning comes off as some small-town provincial deal where, despite being at least 18+, they’re essentially friends who are expected to get together at some future time when they get considered adults.
So, you have a lot of young people getting their first actual taste of love, desire, infatuation, etc. and, therefore, you have a lot of little incidents where a person has what could be considered “out of character” thoughts where they’re obsessing over their partner or future partner. Since I’m re-reading the series and have gotten near the end of the sixth book due to the whole “read more than a chapter or two most weeks” pace I can set due to not having to write thoughts on what I read for a scheduled blog, I’m probably at the stage where a person could write a book on those little moments. You know, little things like how Rand’s governance entering the sixth book seems to be based on “be wherever I’m farthest from Avi because I’m confused and scared” or how Egwene’s “gonna spy around Elaida’s Sedai group” turns into “gonna hook up with Gawyn at an inn regularly and if I forget to ask him any questions, oh well” or how this book’s Battle of Two Rivers feels like it’s 50% battle and 50% Perrin angsting about Faile and how she at least will get away while he dies. Which, for the latter is, I guess, a great preview of Perrin for many, many books.
But, in general, it’s young people in love where their common sense goes out the door and they get obsessed over the other (others in Rand’s case) and are constantly fixated on them to the degree that if that stuff was taken out, the series would be about 5 books long. If Min thinking about changing her appearance for Rand bothers someone, man, I feel for that person when they get to go through hundreds of pages of Rand’s “I’M SO UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THIS….but i kinda like it…NO I’M UNCOMFORTABLE!!!!!!” inner monologues about being in close proximity to Avi.
fernandan @18: And even worse, that the feelings were restored once channeling ability was restored. I could definitely believe that if the Warder died while she was stilled, she wouldn’t feel anything at the time, but it makes no sense to me that those feelings would suddenly reappear after being Healed (even if the death had been pre-stilling).
@26
The warder bond requires a connection to the True Source. When she’s severed from the True Source, she’s severed from the effects of Alric’s death. When the connection to the True Source is restored, so is the bond, as it effectively never went away she just couldn’t access it without a connection to the True Source. This is all consistent with how the bond is described throughout the series and by RJ in interviews.
After 20 years with the Wheel I am also (pleasantly) shocked to see Danelle’s name here and to realise just now that it has been mentioned. Jordan again did it….!!
I don’t think the commentary on women by Sylas is at all a stretch. Women are constrained in many ways men are not in the series and in our world.
But of course we know he’s wrong. Min is simply having some thoughts of what she thinks Rand wants based on what she has seen other men wanting. And for a moment she considers changing to fit that view. Haven’t we all struggled to balance what we think our love interests want with who we actually are? I have. But we get to know she decided to wear what she wants in the end (even if her breeches get rather snug).
sun_tzu @27: Given that Siuan’s situation is absolutely unique in the books as far as we know—Leane’s Warder had died 15 years previously and she had recovered from the grief, Sashelle was Red and therefore didn’t have a Warder, it’s never said (as far as I can tell) whether Ronaille (White Ajah) had a Warder or not, and Irgain’s Warders were killed when/immediately after she was stilled—there’s really no reason to say it’s “consistent” with anything.
Now, if you want to make an argument based on the hypothetical “If a channeler had tied off a weave and then got stilled, what would happen to the weave?”, then that might work; I could certainly buy that a tied-off weave would remain in place for some amount of time (perhaps indefinitely, perhaps not), and since Siuan is Healed 146 days after being stilled, if somehow the grief is inherently tied into the bond, the bond still exists, and restoring it gives her access, then it could make sense.
Moderators, in the paragraph that starts: “With all this talk of zealotry and being narrow-minded…” The second to last sentence mentions Mazrim Taim being snuck out of the tower. That should be Logain, not Mazrim. Siuan was accused of sneaking Logain out of the tower and allowing Mazrim Taim to escape from Aes Sedai custody while being transported to the tower, but Taim hadn’t made it to the tower yet.
Also agreeing with others that through my multiple readings/listening of the books, this is the first time realizing that Mesaana was outed so early in the series. Just shocked.
“But it struck me as out of character for her to not choose practicality in her dangerous situation, especially because it isn’t like Lan’s around for her to impress him. “
Nynaeve wears those clothes because she likes them.
Well that particular Danelle-shaped brick just hit me over the head. Talk about planting a clue that takes so long to come to fruition. Robert Jordan certainly knew what he was doing.
I don’t think it’s entirely fair to characterize what Aveindha is going through as negative as Sylas does. Yes, she’s being “forced” into “women’s clothing” but, as he kind of mentions and then ignores, this is a massive jump in social position. As well say that a woman being forced to wear an army uniform, that was originally designed for me, when they join up is being discriminated against. Aiel culture is so focused on ji’e’toh that wearing an outwardly visible sign of your position is important so you aren’t mistaken for a potential combatant. As much for the sake of the honor of the other person as yourself. And the very specific materials and colors that the Wise Ones wear… well, Aviendha may rage against this, but it comes across as fairly reasonable. If you aren’t a warrior you don’t get to dress like one, because that leads to lots of potential problems their society isn’t equipped to deal with.