Perrin and Faile find the halls of the Stone surprisingly busy with both off-duty Defenders as well as servants making their way to and fro. Perrin keeps his head down unless he is right in the light of a torch, not wanting people to observe his eyes glowing gold in the dim parts of the hall. No one has mentioned his eyes, of course, not now as servants bow as they pass or at other times—not even Faile has asked him about them—but Perrin still feels uneasy whenever someone seems to notice his golden gaze, and when they don’t say anything, it reminds him of how apart he is from other people.
The Defenders mostly bow when Perrin and Faile pass, but they also start or give them suspicious looks before hurrying away as if they are afraid of Perrin, which puts him on edge. He wonders aloud to Faile why all these people aren’t in bed.
Her arm twined through his, Faile glanced at him. “I would say the guards are not supposed to be in this part of the Stone unless they are on duty. A good time to cuddle a maid on a lord’s chair, and maybe pretend they are the lord and lady, while lord and lady are asleep. They are probably worried that you might report them. And servants do most of their work at night. Who would want them underfoot, sweeping and dusting and polishing, in daylight?”
Perrin doubtfully supposes that Faile must know what she is talking about, having grown up in a merchants house, she must have had servants about, and perhaps her father even had guards to protect his property and wares. Perrin is glad at least to see that none of these people have experienced what he just experienced, but that leaves in his mind the questions of why he was singled out, and this thought occupies him as they pass through the corridors and up a winding staircase.
Stepping out into the corridor, he finds himself directly behind a High Lord and two of his personal guards. All three are standing and watching the door to the rooms Rand is occupying, and all three have swords at their hips, even though only Defenders are allowed to go armed inside the Stone.
One of the bodyguards notices Perrin suddenly and whirls around, drawing his sword partly from his sheath and catching the attention of the other two men. All three smell of fear, but the Lord keeps his tightly controlled as he bids them a good evening.
Perrin did not really care for the man’s tone, but the way Torean looked Faile up and down, with a sort of casual interest, clenched his fists. He managed to keep his voice level, though. “The Light illumine you, High Lord Torean. I am glad to see you helping keep watch over the Lord Dragon. Some men in your place might resent him being here.”
Torean’s thin eyebrows twitched. “Prophecy has been fulfilled, and Tear has fulfilled its place in that prophecy. Perhaps the Dragon Reborn will lead Tear to a still greater destiny. What man could resent that? But it is late. A good night to you.” He eyed Faile again, pursing his lips, and walked off down the hall just a bit too briskly, away from the anteroom’s lights. His bodyguards heeled him like well-trained dogs.
Faile tells Perrin off for being rude, and points out that she can defend herself from men like that, but she doesn’t seem entirely displeased at his desire to defend her. Perrin observes that the Lord’s men kept their hands on their swords until they were well clear of Perrin and Faile, and wonders if being the Dragon’s friend is going to remain as much protection as it used to be. Faile looks like she is thinking of asking him to leave again, but she doesn’t.
They encounter Berelain at the end of the hall, exiting the antechamber to Rand’s room, almost at a run. Perrin, trying to prove to Faile that he can be courteous, gives her a deep bow, but she ignores both of them, dashing past and drawing Perrin’s attention with how very badly she smells of fear. As he turns to look after her, Faile accuses him of “filling his eyes.”
Intent on Berelain, wondering what had driven her so near the brink, he spoke without thinking. “She smelled of—”
Far down the corridor, Torean suddenly stepped out of a side hallway to seize Berelain’s arm. He was talking a torrent, but Perrin could not make out more than a handful of scattered words, something about her overstepping herself in her pride, and something else that seemed to be Torean offering her his protection. Her reply was short, sharp, and even more inaudible, delivered with lifted chin. Pulling herself free roughly, the First of Mayene walked away, back straight and seemingly more in command of herself. On the point of following, Torean saw Perrin watching. Dabbing at his nose with his handkerchief, the High Lord vanished back into the crossing corridor.
“I do not care if she smelled of the Essence of Dawn,” Faile said darkly. “That one is not interested in hunting a bear, however fine his hide would look stretched on a wall. She hunts the sun.”
Perrin doesn’t follow her meaning, but Faile merely tells him to go on by himself, and that she is going to go off to bed. She says she is not especially eager to meet the Dragon Reborn after avoiding him for so long, and no doubt they will have a pleasant talk without her.
“You don’t make any sense,” he muttered, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “If you want to go to bed, then fine, but I wish you would say something I understand.”
For a long moment she studied his face, then suddenly bit her lip. He thought she was trying not to laugh. “Oh, Perrin, sometimes I believe it is your innocence I enjoy most of all.” Sure enough, traces of laughter silvered her voice. “You go on to… to your friend and tell me of it in the morning. As much as you want to.” She pulled his head down to brush his lips with a kiss and, as quick as the kiss, ran back down the hallway.
Perrin heads into the anteroom Berelain just left, to find the huge space filled with a ring of fifty Defenders, standing guard against threats to the current Lord of the Stone. They smell of fear and uncertainty, however straight they stand, and how every self-important their commander looks. Perrin strides by them without waiting to be challenged; they know who he is, and they know that Rand’s real guards are standing at the other end of the room.
The Aiel women are so still beside the columns that they almost fade into the stone. One puts herself in front of Perrin, baring his path, and tells him that she can’t let him in. The Dragon doesn’t want to see anyone tonight.
“I am going in, Bain.” Ignoring her spears, he took her by the upper arms. That was when it became impossible to ignore the spears, since she had managed to get a spearpoint hard against the side of his throat. For that matter, a somewhat blonder woman named Chiad suddenly had one of her spears at the other side, as if the two were intended to meet somewhere in the middle of his neck. The other women only watched, confident that Bain and Chiad could handle whatever had to be done. Still, he did his best. “I don’t have time to argue with you. Not that you listen to people who argue with you, as I remember. I am going in.” As gently as he could, he picked Bain up and set her out of his way.
Chiad’s spear only needed her to breathe on it to draw blood, but after one startled widening of dark blue eyes, Bain abruptly took hers away and grinned. “Would you like to learn a game called Maidens’ Kiss, Perrin? You might play well, I think. At the very least you would learn something.” One of the others laughed aloud. Chiad’s spearpoint left his neck.
Perrin declines politely, hoping they can’t see how tense he was under the threat of their spears, and not understanding the way they all chuckle as though sharing a joke.
As he reached for a door handle in the shape of a rearing golden lion, Bain added, “On your head be it. He has already chased out what most men would consider better company by far than you.”
Of course, he thought, pulling open the door, Berelain. She was coming from here. Tonight, everything is revolving around—”
When Perrin sees the state of Rand’s room, covered in glass with the furniture overturned or destroyed, and Rand sitting at the foot of the bed covered in blood, he forgets all about Berelain. He snaps at the Aiel to get Moiraine, which causes Rand to stir and tell Perrin, softly, to shut the door.
The Aiel move back at Rand’s command, and Perrin goes over to his friend, tearing a bit of the sheet to press against the bleeding wound in Rand’s side. He asks what Rand did, pointing out that it looks like he nearly killed himself, and that he nearly killed Perrin too. But Rand says that it wasn’t him at all, that it was one of the Forsaken, which prompts a new wave of anxiety for Perrin. And then he worries about Mat’s safety as well. If what happened to Perrin and Rand also happened to Mat, he’d also have come to yell at Rand, unless he was too injured to come. Or if he was dead.
“Or on a horse and halfway to the city gates.” Rand struggled to sit erect. Drying blood smears cracked, and fresh trickles started on his chest and shoulders. “If he is dead, Perrin, you had best get as far from me as you can. I think you and Loial are right about that.” He paused, studying Perrin. “You and Mat must wish I had never been born. Or at least that you’d never seen me.”
There was no point in going to check; if anything had happened to Mat, it was over and done now. And he had a feeling that his makeshift bandage pressed against Rand’s side might be what would keep him alive long enough for Moiraine to get there. “You don’t seem to care if he has gone off. Burn me, he’s important, too. What are you going to do if he’s gone? Or dead, the Light send it not so.”
“What they least expect.” Rand’s eyes looked like morning mist covering the dawn, blue-gray with a feverish glow seeping through. His voice had a knife edge. “That is what I have to do in any case. What everyone least expects.”
When Perrin asks what that is, Rand reiterates that he only knows that he must catch everyone by surprise.
Rhuarc arrives, and as he comes in Perrin catches sight of the Tairen officer arguing with the Maidens. Rhuarc informs them that the officer has sent word to his commander that something has happened, and that rumors are spreading throughout the Stone, everything from stories that the White Tower is trying to kill Rand to claims that the Last Battle is being fought right there in Rand’s room. But Rhuarc ran into Berelain on his way, and what he sees in the room seems to confirm her story.
Rand laughs, remarking that he told her to keep quiet, but apparently even the Lord Dragon “doesn’t rule Mayene.” Rhuarc is confident, however, that she doesn’t intend to tell anyone else, and would probably like to forget it ever happened. Then Moiraine arrives, followed by Lan and demanding to know what, exactly, did happen.
As always when they met, Lan’s and Rhuarc’s icy blue stares nearly struck sparks. A braided leather cord held Lan’s dark hair, gray-streaked at the temples. His face looked to have been carved from rock, all hard planes and angles, and his sword rode his hip like part of his body. Perrin was not sure which of the two men was more deadly, but he thought a mouse could starve on the difference.
The Warder’s eyes swung to Rand. “I thought you were old enough to shave without someone to guide your hand.”
Rhuarc smiled, a slight smile but the first Perrin had ever seen from him in Lan’s presence. “He is young yet. He will learn.”
Lan glanced back at the Aielman, then returned the smile, just as slightly.
Moiraine glances at the two of them and then goes about surveying the room, picking her way across the glass shards covering the floor until she reaches Rand. She looks over his injuries, although she seems to think better of lifting the cloth from Rand’s side, and then instructs Rand to touch the True Source, explaining that much of the strength from Healing comes from the one being Healed, and that if Rand is holding the True Source, the Power can replace the strength that he is losing. Otherwise he’ll be basically incapacitated for a day or two. She tells him to use Callandor if he needs to.
Rand moved the sword from under her hand. “Simply hold it, you say.” He sounded about to “laugh out loud. “Very well.”
Nothing happened that Perrin could see, not that he expected to. Rand sat there like the survivor of a lost battle, looking at Moiraine. She hardly blinked. Twice she scrubbed her fingers against her palms as if unaware.
After a time Rand sighed. “I cannot even reach the Void. I can’t seem to concentrate.” A quick grin cracked the blood drying on his face. “I do not understand why.” A thick red thread snaked its way down past his left eye.
“Then I will do it as I always have,” Moiraine said, and took Rand’s head in her hands, careless of the blood that ran over her fingers.
Rand arches and cries out, his muscles knotting and his entire body shaking. Perrin has seen Healing done before, and other uses of the One Power, but he still feels chilled at the sight of seeing it used. He can smell unease on Rhuarc, too.
It takes only a moment for Moiraine finish, and then Rand slumps, holding himself up by the bedpost. Moiraine tries to take the sword from him but he clings stubbornly to it, so she contents herself with peeling away the cloth at his side and using it to dab away some of the blood. The wound there is a new, tender scar again, while the rest of Rand’s injuries are gone.
Moiraine frowned. “It still does not respond,” she murmured, half to herself. “It will not heal completely.”
“That is the one that will kill me, isn’t it?” [Rand] asked her softly, then quoted, “‘His blood on the rocks of Shayol Ghul, washing away the Shadow, sacrifice for man’s salvation.’”
“You read too much,” she said sharply, “and understand too little.”
“Do you understand more? If you do, then tell me.”
“He is only trying to find his way,” Lan said suddenly. “No man likes to run forward blindly when he knows there is a cliff somewhere ahead.”
Perrin is surprised; Lan almost never disagrees with Moiraine. Still, he and Rand have been spending a fair amount of time together in sword practice.
Moiraine replies that Rand needs to be in bed, and tells to Lan fetch washwater and to have a new bedchamber prepared. But Rand insists that he will stay in the room he has, that he won’t be chased anymore, not even out of a bed.
“Tai’ shar Manetheren,” Lan murmured.
This time even Rhuarc looked startled, but if Moiraine heard the Warder compliment Rand, she gave no sign of it. She was staring at Rand, her face smooth but thunderheads in her eyes. Rand wore a quizzical little smile, as if wondering what she would try next.
Perrin tries to sneak out, not wanting to hang around if Moiraine and Rand are going to fight, and Rhuarc looks ready to do the same, but Moiraine catches them and orders them to stay, then commands Rand to tell her what happened. She suggests that, while she can’t teach him, she might be able to tell him what he did wrong. She reminds him that he must learn to control his ability before it kills him, prompting defensiveness from Rand.
“I did nothing except survive,” he said in a dry voice. She opened her mouth, but he went on. “Do you think I could channel and not know it? I didn’t do it in my sleep. This happened awake.” He wavered, and caught himself on the sword.
“Even you could not channel anything but Spirit asleep,” Moiraine said coolly, “and this was never done with Spirit. I was about to ask what did happen.”
Rand tells the tale, chilling Perrin to the bone, and finishes by suggesting that it must have been one of the Forsaken, perhaps Sammael, since he is in Illian, or else there is one in Illian. But Moiraine tells them that even if he had Callandor, Sammael could never reach the Stone from so far away. He is only a man, after all, not the Dark One himself.
Only a man? Not a very good description, Perrin thought. A man who could channel, but who somehow had not gone mad; at least, not yet, not that anyone knew. A man perhaps as strong as Rand, but where Rand was trying to learn, Sammael knew every trick of his talents already. A man who had spent three thousand years trapped in the Dark One’s prison, a man who had gone over to the Shadow of his own choice. No. “Only a man” did not begin to describe Sammael, or any of the Forsaken, male or female.
Rand decides that means that one of the Forsaken is in Tear, and declares his intention to find him or her, and not to be chased anymore. Moiraine interrupts, however, saying that she does not think this was one of the Forsaken at all. It is both “too simple” and “too complex.”
Rand calmly asks her what that riddle means, and after a moment of hesitation, Moirane explains.
“As the seals holding the Dark One’s prison weaken,” she said after a time, “it may be inevitable that a … miasma … will escape even while he is still held. Like bubbles rising from the things rotting on the bottom of a pond. But these bubbles will drift through the Pattern until they attach to a thread and burst.”
“Light!” It slipped out before Perrin could stop it. Moiraine’s eyes turned to him. “You mean what happened to … to Rand is going to start happening to everybody?”
“Not to everyone. Not yet, at least. In the beginning I think there will only be a few bubbles, slipping through cracks the Dark One can reach through. Later, who can say? And just as ta’veren bend the other threads in the Pattern around them, I think perhaps ta’veren will tend to attract these bubbles more powerfully than others do.” Her eyes said she knew Rand was not the only one to have had a waking nightmare. A brief touch of a smile, there and gone almost before he saw it, said he could keep silent if he wished to hold it secret from others. But she knew. “Yet in the months to come—the years, should we be lucky enough to have that long—I fear a good many people will see things to give them white hairs, if they survive.”
Perrin immediately brings up Mat, and although Moiraine offers a typically Aes Sedai answers that whatever happened to him is already over, and they’ll find out soon enough whether he is alive or dead, Rhuarc pipes up that he saw Mat on his way to Rand’s rooms.
“Going where?” Moiraine said with an edge in her voice.
“He looked to be heading for the servants’ quarters,” the Aielman told her. He knew that the three were ta’veren, if not as much else as he thought he did, and he knew Mat well enough to add, “Not the stables, Aes Sedai. The other way, toward the river. And there are no boats at the Stone’s docks.” He did not stumble over words like “boat” and “dock” the way most of the Aiel did, although in the Waste such things existed only in stories.
She nodded as if she had expected nothing else. Perrin shook his head; she was so used to hiding her real thoughts, she seemed to veil them out of habit.
Bain and Chiad come in, carrying towels and hot water, as the servant who had brought them refused to come in. Moiraine points out to Rand that the Tairens are becoming used to him, and urges him to make a decision soon about what he is going to do next, before a Forsaken does strike out at him, or another bubble forms in the Pattern. But Rand tells her he will not run for her either. Moiraine demands that he tell her when he makes his decision, this time, and urges that he should accept her knowledge to help him.
“Your help?” Rand said wearily. “I’ll take your help. But I will decide, not you.” He looked at Perrin as if trying to tell him something without words, something he did not want the others to hear. Perrin had not a clue what it was. After a moment Rand sighed; his head sank a little. “I want to sleep. All of you, go away. Please. We will talk tomorrow.” His eyes flickered to Perrin again, underscoring the words for him.
Moiraine goes to speak to Bain and Chiad, and Perrin knows that she is using the Power to muffle their conversation, as he can’t hear anything of it save for a low buzzing.
Moiraine agrees to go, only after reiterating again that they will talk, and that Rand must make a choice. She leaves before he can answer, and Rand only says quietly that they all do what they have to do.
Perrin and Rhuarc follow Moiraine and Lan out of the room, and Perrin hears Rand trying, unsuccessfully, to get the Maidens to stop trying to wash him and leave too. Outside, he addresses Rhuarc.
“You do not treat him the way the Tairens do,” Perrin said quietly. “No bowing and scraping. I don’t think I have heard one of you call him Lord Dragon.”
“The Dragon Reborn is a wetlander prophecy,” Rhuarc said. “Ours is He Who Comes With the Dawn.”
“I thought they were the same. Else why did you come to the Stone? Burn me, Rhuarc, you Aiel are the People of the Dragon, just as the Prophecies say. You’ve as good as admitted it, even if you won’t say it out loud.”
Rhuarc ignored the last part. “In your Prophecies of the Dragon, the fall of the Stone and the taking of Callandor proclaim that the Dragon has been Reborn. Our prophecy says only that the Stone must fall before He Who Comes With the Dawn appears to take us back to what was ours. They may be one man, but I doubt even the Wise Ones could say for sure. If Rand is the one, there are things he must do yet to prove it.”
“What?” Perrin demanded.
“If he is the one, he will know, and do them. If he does not, then our search still goes on.”
Something unreadable in the Aielman’s voice pricked Perrin’s ears. “And if he isn’t the one you search for? What then, Rhuarc?”
“Sleep well and safely, Perrin.” Rhuarc’s soft boots made no sound on the black marble as he walked away.
Perrin looks at the face of the Tairen officer, who is still trying to see what is going on in Rand’s room, and who smells of fear and cannot mask the anger and hatred he is feeling. Perrin doesn’t like the thought of what might happen if the Maidens weren’t standing between this man and Rand, and decides that he must make sure Faile leaves the Stone, and without Perrin.
Okay, I was fairly certain that it wasn’t one of the Forsaken attacking the boys, but I did not expect the answer to be evil bubbles in the Pattern. I mean, come on, they don’t have enough Shadowspawn and Darkfriends coming after them, now our three ta’veren have to worry about gaseous emissions from the Dark One, too? I mean, fart jokes aside, that’s just not fair. They’re going to be wishing for the days of Trollocs and Myrddraal soon, at this rate.
I do like how this fits with my theory about the boys’ own anger and hatreds fueling the manifestations they experienced. It seems to me that the Dark One’s power, even in this nebulous, non-targeted form, would use your own weaknesses and foibles against you. Ishamael employed much the same tactic, alternately promising things he thought Rand might want (power, immortality, freeing his mother from afterlife slavery) and playing upon his fears, trying to drive Rand to give in to him, either from greed or from despair. There’s no doubt in my mind Ishamael learned that trick from his master, I mean, he was basically trying to be the Dark One. And now these bits, this essence of the Dark One, are latching onto the same kinds of things.
Moiraine has questioned more than once whether or not the Dark One has become able to touch the Pattern and influence the threads. So far those fears don’t seem to have come to pass, but if these little bits of the Dark are starting to emerge, one can imagine that a more conscious, direct form of contact might not be far behind.
Getting back to the beginning of the chapter, however, I’m curious how much of Perrin’s observations are foreshadowing—the presence of so many off-duty Defenders, for example—and how much is merely Jordan adding texture to the scene. It’s easy to be suspicious of the Tairen, and Perrin certainly is. As far as High Lord Torean is concerned, I cycled through several different suspicions of him before deciding that I didn’t have enough information to know what that guy is up to. At first I thought perhaps he had come near Rand’s room because there had been some commotion or the news of Rand’s fight had gotten out. Then I thought perhaps it was a member of the Forsaken behind the attacks, and Torean was that Forsaken, but even if we hadn’t learned the truth about the miasma, that conclusion feels a little too on the nose.
My next supposition was that he was working with Berelain somehow, that maybe he had put her up to trying to get information out of Rand. But I don’t think Berelain would let herself get used that way, and it seems more likely that he just caught her coming out tried to influence her then. Perhaps he was one of the High Lords responsible for imprisoning her in the Stone in the first place, and is trying to regain some of that control. In any case, it’s weird to think that he was lingering outside Rand’s room with no specific objective in mind. Then again, maybe he was just hoping for an opportunity to learn something that either gives him an in with the Dragon Reborn, or gives him an edge against Rand.
Perrin’s back and forth with Faile here made me a little annoyed, but I’m glad she at least realized that he had no designs on Berelain. If Faile is going to keep priding herself on being the smart one, she needs to not always assume the worst of Perrin, even if that’s what she is used to. I was also interested in the fact that she hasn’t asked Perrin about his unusual eyes, given her nosiness about other aspects of his character and background. She apparently thinks it just has something to do with his association with an Aes Sedai? Even though none of Moiraine’s other companions have had any such effects. Maybe it’s just too weird, and Faile would prefer not to know? She had some of that reaction when she heard about the Darkhounds and about the Forsaken being loose, but she doesn’t seem the type to shy away from interesting questions, generally speaking, and this is her Perrin we’re talking about.
I was amused at the Maidens asking Perrin if he wanted to play Maidens’ Kiss. It was a compliment, too, I think; Bain was impressed with Perrin’s nerve under the pressure of all of those spears. Generally speaking, it’s been fun getting to know the Aiel better, and I’m quite fond of Rhuarc already. His rapport with Lan is fun, and I wonder if Rhuarc will become a similar mentor figure to Rand. After all, Rand is of Aiel descent, so storytelling demands that at some point he’ll have to travel there and learn their ways. And when he does, he’ll need another Lan-type to teach him. It hadn’t occurred to me that He Who Comes With the Dawn might not be the Dragon, but someone else. It doesn’t seem very likely, but I suppose it’s possible. Either way, however the Aiel are still the people of the Dragon, and Rand clearly has Aiel blood.
And Lan has been taking Rand’s side a bit more, as he does in this chapter when he points out to Moiraine that Rand is only trying to find his way, and with the Old Tongue compliment “True Blood of Manetheren” when Rand determines to stay in his room and refuse to be driven from it by anyone. It speaks, I think, to Lan recognizing the inevitability that I’ve commented on before, that sooner or later Rand will surpass Moiraine in power and knowledge of what must be done to fight the Shadow. Moiraine does not like to let go of control, and while she may still be right in this moment, someday she will have to let Rand make his own choices. Some day she may even find herself following his orders.
When they were discussing the possibility of the attacks coming from the Forsaken, it occurred to me to wonder something that I haven’t thought of in a bit; whether there are any other female forsaken besides Lanfear. We have yet to hear of any, as far as I can remember, and although the names of the Forsaken seem to be fairly well known, I don’t recall anyone ever mentioning any women besides Lanfear. Here, however, both Perrin and Rand make a point of thinking/saying man or woman, he or she, which implies that they are aware of other female members of the Forsaken. And indeed, given that men and women wield different parts of the One Power, a group of even the most powerful Darkfriends would be incomplete without at least a vague gender balance.
I felt deeply for Rand in this scene. The way that he constantly harps on the idea of being chased reminds us that, even though we spent little time with him in The Dragon Reborn, he spent most of that book on the run, and the experience has clearly left a mark. And then there is this insistence on doing something that nobody expects. Rand has, from the first moment that Trollocs attacked Emond’s Field and Moiraine revealed herself to be Aes Sedai, been pushed along by events he can’t control and doesn’t understand. He’s had her telling him who and what he is, he’s had Ishamael chasing him, both in the real world and in his dreams, telling him that he is a worm, that he knows nothing, that he has failed a thousand times. I think Lan is right, Rand just wants to have some knowledge of his own, some plan that doesn’t rely on Aes Sedai he doesn’t entirely trust, that isn’t just a reaction to the dangers and torments of the Darkfriends chasing him.
The question is, is this desire only his trauma speaking, or is Rand right in thinking that this is the only way to take his place in the Pattern, to step forward and shape the world as the Dragon Reborn is prophecized to do? He obviously has to eventually, but Moiraine seems to think that he’s making the choice too soon.
I suppose only time will tell.
Next week we will cover Chapter 4 and 5, and catch up with Thom as well as Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve. After all, Moiraine has more than one upstart Two River’s channeler to give her a headache.
Sylas K Barrett still doesn’t understand why all the Aiel are redheads, but he thinks Anson Mount would make a good Rhuarc.
moderator — a few typos, if you’re interested in correcting them:
(1) “doesn’t rule Mayne” should be Mayene
(2) “Moirine and Rand” should be Moiraine
(3) similarly, for “Moiriain catches them”
“Perrin’s back and forth with Faile here made me a little annoyed, but I’m glad she at least realized that he had no designs on Berelain. If Faile is going to keep priding herself on being the smart one, she needs to not always assume the worst of Perrin, even if that’s what she is used to.”
Oh boy, do I have a plotline for you.
Hahaha, oh yeah, Faile is so smart when it comes to Berelain.
@2 – the really jarring part of that entire shitshow for me was that Perrin and Faile spent the better part of a year nowhere near Berelain and then when they meet again it’s just right back into the fray. Made zero sense.
There goes Sylas again, predicting the entire stinking plot of the book, with some minor deviations
Someone can correct me, but I am almost completely sure Sylas is incorrectly using ”True Source’. Right now both Saidin and Saidar are referred to as the ‘One Source’. The ‘True Source’ is first seen with Moridin and that’s the reason for the Saa in his eyes. I think Sylas might get confused later on if he keeps using that incorrectly.
@1 – Corrected, thanks!
If Perrin had managed to get out his full sentence here–that Berelain smelled of “fear”, specifically, not perfume–I could see a lot of future misunderstandings avoided.
@6: No, the correct terms are True Source/One Power for saidin and saidar, and True Power for the Dark One’s power.
And so the fight between Berelain and Faile begins with Perrin in the middle and he and the reader are clueless as to what is happening. More than the PLOD, more than braid tugging or folding arms below breasts, more than Perrin or Mat or Rand knowing how to to talk to girls better, this particular recurring fight/plot/scene is my least favorite thing in WoT. One short conversation would clear it up. Faile explaining that her honor requires that Berelain publicly lose the contest of wills. Perrin knowing what the contest is about so he can help his wife. Or better yet, give Berelain, who is supposed to be a savvy political creature, something better to do than try to break up a marriage for 10 books. Sheep swallop and bloody buttered onions!
@@.-@:
You’ve had a much different experience with 17 year old girls than I had growing up.
Faile and Nynaeve are the most realistically portrayed characters in this series, and I love them both to death for it, struggles and insecurities and all.
@10 you’re right, one conversation would clear this up. So would Faile allowing Perrin to finish his sentence. But Faile being who she is, and how she was raised, she’s not going to do either of those.
Really, the entire PLOD is her fault. The whole thing could have been nipped in the bud right here, right now, if it wasn’t for Faile’s hubris.
I feel your pain on the “bubbles of evil.”. Not the concept (foul essence of the Dark One seeping through the cracks of his prison warping reality is a fair hazard, and fits with future influences), but the name.
Bubbles of Evil. It is hard to take bubbles seriously, even if they are full of the antithesis of creation.
At least Jordan didn’t go with Evil Ripple.
The ice cream flavor that looks enticing but actually just tastes like Denatonium.
@11 – Berelain is not a 17 year old girl, and it is her insistence on re-igniting the fight that causes most of the problems. Obviously it’s rational for Faile to tell her to fuck away off. Berelain should be, and in all other aspects of the series is, much smarter.
@10 – I completely agree with you. I don’t actually mind the PLoD itself , even if it does take a bit too long to get resolved, along with some of the other plotlines in those future books (in fact, I think Faile’s ordeal during captivity and the compromises she has to consider making makes for some interesting character development/exploration) but OMG I hate the entire aspect of it surrounding Berelain and to me that is what makes it so incredibly frustrating. Yes, Faile is in some part responsible, but it also doesn’t remove the fact that we have a grown-ass supposedly politically savvy woman who doesn’t understand basic consent and can’t take no for an answer, and then turns it into a petty pissing contest and tries to break up his marriage out so she can ‘win’.
God, I hate Berelain. Just in case I haven’t mentioned that, lol. Even more than Elaida. Tylin is also high up on my shit list, but we’ll get there. I think what really gets me is that she’s also a Karma houdini – Rhuarc inexplicably loves her, and then she gets ‘rewarded’ with Galad, and I know people have mixed emotions on Galad (yeah, he’s also annoying, but at least he shows some growth), but he doesn’t deserve that, lol. I honestly don’t recall if Berelain ever shows any self-perception or remorse for her behavior (if she did, then I will retract that).
@2 oh god, i just realized we are on the wrong end of the plotline of doom
@16 “we have a grown-ass supposedly politically savvy woman who doesn’t understand basic consent and can’t take no for an answer, and then turns it into a petty pissing contest and tries to break up his marriage out so she can ‘win’.”
The problem is, you have just described most of the monarchies in our history. So really, Berelain isn’t acting out of character either.
@18 Nevermind the fact that if Perrin was playing by her rules, he’d be asking Rand to annex Mayene to Tear just to have her demoted and removed his environs as a non-entity.
I’m a bit confused by the insistence here that one conversation could have prevented all of the later tension, because Faile never truly believes that Perrin likes Berelain. She’s not jealous of Berelain but rather of the fact that, in her cultural view and by her upbringing and traditions, Perrin treats Berelain as if she is strong and treats Faile as if she is weak. To her, he acts as if he’s a piece in a game between them. There are three people involved in this problem, and yet all. of. the. hate. goes toward Faile.
Berelain’s problem is that the idea that marriage could be anything else than a political move is completely foreign to her (at least before meeting Galad).
The PLOD isn’t really that long, it is just spread over too many books. Do people who didn’t have to wait for the next book hate it, too?
@20 Yes exactly! It’s not that Faile is obnoxious or ignoring truth it’s that her entire culture and upbringing has a very different view of relationships. Perrin (without realizing it) treats her like she’s weak and his “respect” to Berelain (in Faile’s eyes) treats her like she’s stronger than Faile. And a lot of the problems in their relationship come from Perrin’s singleminded focus to the exclusion of everything else, yet SOMEHOW it’s always Faile that gets all the hate!
Faile comes from a society with very strong cultural traditions.
Faile believes that their relationship should proceed according to her society’s traditions, despite the fact that Perrin is from a different culture with different rules. If she ever bothered to care about Perrin’s culture, she wouldn’t be constantly offended by his refusal to behave according to the rules of her people, which he doesn’t share.
Berelain is as stuck in her ways as Faile is. The problem both of them have is that they want to court Perrin in the traditions of their societies, while he is a farm boy from the Two Rivers who doesn’t want to be a lord or play the Game of Houses.
@22 hought54
If Faile wants Perrin to understand her culture’s beliefs about strength and weakness, she should explain those beliefs to him from the start. Otherwise, she’s judging him for failing to adhere to a code he doesn’t know and never agreed to follow.
All three parties are acting within the norms of their own society, without the benefit of the internet to soften the cultural conflict at work in this triangle.
We all seem to forget how much the internet has impacted cultural clashes in the last 30 years.
@20, I only put 25% of the blame on Faile, myself. 25% for Perrin, and 50% for Berelain. Yes, each of them is acting according to their own culture, so they all share the blame. But for me, Berelain has the most blame, because she is trying to break up an established relationship. Even if Perrin and Faile aren’t that close, even if Berelain won in the end, it doesn’t matter. IMO, breaking up an established couple is something that you simply. do. not. do.
@16 The funny thing is that Berelain is self-aware enough to avoid any entanglements with Mat. I believe that while originally Berelain attached herself to Perrin for self-conservation, later on it became a game for her to have fun and distract herself on Faile’s and Perrin’s expense. Notice that whenever things became serious, she would drop any kind of pretense and back-up both Faile and Perrin full hilt. Its Faile’s cultural differences and character and inability to compromise and understand others side is what made the whole tPoD possible. I noticed that while Faile is great on physical adaptation to circumstances but she refuses to adjust for other cultural differences and imposes those weird Saldean customs and perceptions on Perrin and his hometown of Two Rivers.
Yes, both Faile and Perrin are being stubborn in their own ways, as well as refusing to look past their own traditions (and Faile at least gets a bit more blame than Perrin for that as she is presumably a royal’s daughter who would need to understand this), but again, Berelain is an adult and ruler who should theoretically be able to understand that other cultures have other traditions. And even if she is acting like ‘every other monarch’, so what? It’s still crappy behavior.
Not to mention that I think for her it went beyond just the political game. Even if for her marriage is strictly political, don’t tell me that she can’t comprehend the fact that for Perrin it’s not. Just…back the eff off. Not to mention that she undermines Perrin’s respect with his own subjects. Gaaaah!
@20 and 22 – it seems like most of the hate – is actually directed toward Berelain, at least in this comment thread. And I agree that she is primary. I would do similar to @25 caddan with the modification that I put it at 50 -B, 35 – F, and 15 – P. I feel like Perrin has the least expectation of realizing the games happening around him, and thus the least blame. But Faile does shoulder more blame because she does know what’s happening and refuses to teach Perrin until so much later.
@21 Birgit – for me, yes, even though I read all the books straight through the first time, I hated the PLOD. The only other plotline I disliked as much was the Camelyn power struggle. Basically everything from Crown of Swords to Crossroads of Twilight (Path of Daggers being the low point for me) was a lot of drag with moments of awesome sprinkled in. As opposed to the other books that were mostly awesome with moments of drag/”why?!” sprinkled in.
My biggest problem with Faile is her forcing him to be a Dom. That sort of Dom/Sub relationship has to be mutual. You can’t just force someone into it. On top of that, she never bothers to even clue Perrin in to that part of her culture. It’s like she just overlooks the fact that he wasn’t raised in Saldea. HE DOESN’T UNDERSTAND YOU, FAILE!
The funniest thing about the triangle is that it really only takes place over a couple of weeks. Other than the one interaction coming up in a few chapters, Perrin and Faile don’t run into Berelain until late books six/early seven and Faile is captured at the end of book 8. Very little time actually takes place in this period. By the time Faile is rescued they are all pretty much over the triangle and trying to look for a way to resolve it.
I agree that Berelain deserves most of the blame. But I think Perrin deserves almost none of it. He has obligations outside of his marriage and pissing off the leader of a country, small though it may be, is not an option in his eyes. Also, he knows his motives are pure and is hurt that Faile seems to not agree. Faile should have explained to Perrin what was happening, should have explained that she needs him to defend her in public, forcefully if necessary, should have explained that in her culture the husband role is to be in charge and enforce his decisions with physical punishment if necessary and the wife will defend herself but expects that the husband is strong enough to overcome her resistance verbally and physically. Perrin is absolutely unwilling to do that because of his reluctance to hurt people. He is quiet and gentle until provoked. Then the volcano explodes (spanking in the Ways, screaming at her a few times) which gets her all hot and bothered. She loves him, he is best friends with the Dragon Reborn who already the ruler of Tear, and a hero. If he would only act right in their interactions, he would be perfect in her eyes. But she doesn’t take the step of explaining what she wants or who she is. She leaves her identity reveal to her father. One short conversation about expectations would fix all of this. Berelain can’t win if Faile and Perrin don’t play the game. If Perrin knew the rules, he could have shut it down in the Saldean way.
So, Berelain – 75%, Faile 23%, Perrin 2% in my book.
The reason I give Perrin 25% is because he doesn’t tell Faile about his wolfbrother connection. He’s reacting to things that he smells, and she has no clue that he can do this. So some of his reactions look to her like he is playing some sort of game, albeit not with the same rules as hers. If he would tell her about his heightened senses, and she would tell him about her culture, the PLOD probably never would have happened.
@20 – that one conversation could have resolved a lot of the problem with Perrin and Faile’s relationship because Faile doesn’t realize that Perrin can smell her emotions. Here’s a really good breakdown of the entire phenomenon. For those who don’t want to read the whole thing, the gist is that Perrin isn’t reacting to Faile’s behavior, he’s reacting to her emotions even when she doesn’t display them.
Is it really that easy to verbalize your implicit cultural expectations? Faile knows that Perrin doesn’t behave the way she expects a man to behave, but maybe she can’t really explain it. Modern scientists develop ways to make cultural assumptions explicit, but a teenager from a nonscientific world probably isn’t used to thinking that way. She can only tell that he is doing it wrong, but it isn’t a rule she learned as a verbal law, it’s just something you know as long as you don’t have to explain it.
I just finished AMoL. This.
@34 – Her father explains it to Perrin. So yes.
Faile, like many people, doesn’t think her expectations of gender behavior are cultural but laws of nature. As Aunty Leigh pointed out in her reread Faile also doesn’t know Perrin can basically read her mind by smell. She thinks she’s hiding her hurt and confusion from him.
This is a very astute observation. The trouble is, that day has already come, though Moiraine does not know or realize it yet. And while Rand has not surpassed Moiraine in knowledge or skils per se, Moiraine does not know as much as she thinks she does and falls into the trap of thinking that her general greater knowledge and experience is what is the most relevant here; and to a degree it is very helpful, it’s just that it can’t be used to force decisions only the DR can make and implement. As for Power, Rand has already far, far surpassed her, though his lack of training, control and consistency does not make that terribly apparent. The next few chapters will show this in dramatic fashion.
Oh man. If Sylas is going to be analyzing the goals and motivations of the likes of High Lord Torean Andiama — who is notable, as far as I can remember, solely for being rich and being the father of Estean Andiama, a/k/a “the other officer in the Band of the Red Hand who isn’t Talmanes or Nalesean or Daerid or Edorion” — we’re going to be in for a long ride. I can literally name 500 characters in the series more important than Torean (although they start getting blurry when I get into all the different members of all the Aes Sedai factions whose names all begin with the letter “s”).
I’m curious why so much blame is being apportioned to Berelain.
This is a 50-50 problem that Faile & Perrin create & exacerbate for themselves, by disregarding their own observations, deductions and conclusions in favour of what is low & petty in their nature.
For Faile, that is jealousy. Don’t forget how Min assesses & explains her to Rand when they first meet.
For Perrin it is continually mistrusting both his instinctive AND analytical conclusions about what seems to work best in his interactions with Faile. His ‘Surely that’s not it!’ incredulity, when ‘it’ is exactly what it is, in terms of his personal interactions, jags perpendicularly to his reluctant acceptance of the ‘it’ he perceives in his professional interactions, as a Lord & Leader.
Berelain did instigate the problem but it is Perrin & Faile both who create & propagate PLOD by ignoring their own conclusions, in favour of self-doubt & jealousy respectively- the least/weakest part of their natures.
grl
@@@@@ 39 When I read your comment, I thought that Torean was a dark friend but I can’t seem to find any support for that so maybe he was just one of the characters that we were meant to question if they were or not. So that it is not just obvious when a character is working for the dark, just because they are unpleasant. And to raise questions about who the dark friend high lord is so it isn’t just obvious that it is Weiramon.
So I actually think questioning his goals and motivations is actually the entire point of the character :)
@12, @32, @40 – PLOD refers to Faile’s capture by the Shaido and Perrin’s attempts to rescue her. The Berelain/Perrin/Faile love triangle is not the same as the PLOD.
This a very strange debate. The “fault” for the PLOD lies to 100% percent with Robert Jordan. He obviously thought, that people would find this plotline amusing and possibly romantic. Perhaps there are even people who do. But to most people it seems to be simply annoying and boring. Even IF this behaviour was realistic for these characters it still wouldnt make sense to drag it out in all this detail for so many pages. Personally I think that Jordans tendency to overemphasize the flaws in his characters has carried him to far in – at least – this case and that is why so few people enjoy this part of the books…
@Sylas – I was surprised when you sai that we hadn’t seen mention of any other female forsaken up to this point, so I did a search and sure enough none aside from Lanfear are mentioned until later in this book! Weird. I guess all of those offhand references from the first few book about the forsaken coming for boys and girls who didn’t do their chores used male forsaken names.
@42 But…Berelain’s efforts to create the impression of an affair with Perrin, causing harm to his peace of mind and his reputation among his Duopotamian troops during an important mission, is a large and painful piece of the PLOD – one for which Berelain is exclusively and inexcusably responsible.
@43 Part of the problem RJ faced is that Perrin’s character arc was basically done halfway through the series. But he was a Major Protagonist so one couldn’t just drop him from the books only to show up for the Last Battle.
@43
Well obviously the author is responsible for the text of his novels. However, within the text characters are given motivations, actions, and thoughts. What I, and I assume most other readers, do is try to sort through that. Great books make that interesting. They also make discussing it with others fun. So while you are absolutely right, you are also missing the point.
For me, the PLOD doesn’t start until Faile gets captured by the Shaido. And as a reader from 1992, I was very much in the camp of “the PLOD won’t ever end”. But, the rivalry of Faile and Berelain with Perrin as the prize begins here. Parts of that rivalry are in the PLOD, but not all of it.
@45 Yep. You summarized it perfectly.
@44: it’s also been made clear that Sylas doesn’t read the glossaries, where a lot of key information is dropped – including, I believe, the identities of the Forsaken.
Another big problem with the love triangle is that Perrin and Faile get married when they do. Once that happened reintroducing Berelain into it just never seemed believable as an alternative to them ending up together. Love triangles only ever work if you can at least buy into the possibility of the person ending up with the other person. Also, Min viewing Berelain with the man in white made it pretty obvious who she would end up with, further cementing it all being a waste of pages.
@49: A very good point. Had Jordan waited a few books before having Perrin and Faile tie the knot, that plot thread would have been narratively justified, and their romance would have received the appropriate build-up necessary to make it work.
Also, on the subject of Faile vs. Berelain, I’m reminded of Kissinger’s comments about the Iran/Iraq War: “It’s a shame they can’t both lose.”
@49-50 – as written, Berelain values her Book 4 Ogier’s Oath to capture Perrin over Perrin’s marriage, Perrin’s mission, her mission, and her smarter play to lie low, be supportive and achieve her goal in the very possible event that Faile couldn’t be recovered from the Shaido. In the immortal words of Auntie Leigh, “headdesk, headdesk, headdesk….!”
@21: I only have a sample size of one for People Who Never Had To Wait For Books…but when I got my spouse to read WoT, they didn’t dislike the PLoD to anything like the normal extent. And thought it was interesting.
They didn’t get normally mad at CoT either. Some long-standing bits of WoT fan misery may really be 90% the 15-to-20-year real-time waiting game we lived through. ;)
@52
This is absolutely true.
Frustration is exacerbated by lack of forward progress. I know it was that way for me… I really appreciated every moment of the Series leading up to Rand’s underwhelming & nebulous confrontation with Sammael at the end of Crown of Swords.
From there, waiting longer & longer for book releases combined with lack of plot progression & the gimmicky Pause Button that was CoT just exponentiated the bad will that was building.
When you have all the books at hand, these issues mostly disappear, or are reduced to momentary nuisances.
The problem with PLOD for me was that it covered retrospectively over a dozen years in Real Time, with very little payoff and added frustration at the lack of character progression. Not to mention contributing overwhelmingly to In-World plot roadblocks from Books 7-11.
Put simply, if everything that happened after Perrin & Faile are reunited in CoS until Perrin takes the stage in The Gathering Storm/Towers of Midnight, is excised, I wouldn’t miss it.
Come to think of it, if everything involving Elayne’s quest to consolidate her claim to the Throne of Andor disappeared, that would work for me as well.
But having the ability to grind through that as a reader at my own pace, makes it more a blip than the endurance trial it was originally.
Austin@34:
Her father mansplains women to Perrin from the masculine point of view. I highly doubt women in her society would explain it in the same way, or that Perrin would understand it if they did, lol.
@54 Anthony Pero
Perrin never gets a chance to understand Faile’s explanation because she never gives him one.
Faile’s father makes a good faith effort to tell Perrin about how he thinks their society works; Faile just expects him to act the part of a Saldean nobleman despite the fact that he’s a farm boy from the TWo Rivers, and she gets angry when he refuses to live up to her unexplained expectations.
Robert Jordan was bad at writing relationships. Faile and Perrin are hilariously dysfunctional, Rand gets together with his wives because of “fate”, which is just bad writing, and the less said about Mat’s relationships, the better.
Nynaeve is the only one whose relationship makes sense without relying on “destiny”.
@53 The Elayne throne consolidation plotline just feels so unnecessary when there’s only one possible outcome. The competition for the throne makes no sense when sure Rand is respecting Elayne’s wishes and staying out of it for now, but it’s not like he’s going to not step in if someone he doesn’t want on the throne gets it. (Especially prior to his epiphany on Dragonmount)
@49, @50:
The Wheel of Time is not a Romance. The Happily Ever After ending is only a required genre convention in Romance. Faile and Perrin’s wedding in no way ends their story. And Berelain wasn’t meant to be viewed as a real temptation to Perrin. She was a test of Faile’s character, not Perrin’s.
@55:
Literally half of all real relationships are like this. Completely inexplicable to those outside of them. That’s not bad writing, lol. I grew up in a family where my parents had been remarried a combined six times. And that was grown-ass adults. We are talking about teenagers here.
@58 Anthony Pero
Good point about half of all relationships being inexplicable and strange, but where are the other half?
Rand’s relationships are all about “destiny” and “fate”, Faile and Perrin are a dumpster fire of bad communication and ridiculous expectations, and Mat marries a hilariously evil character who tries to enforce cultural expectations that make Faile’s demands upon Perrin look positively reasonable.
Where are the couples who actually make sense to balance the couples where you just have to stare in bafflement?
@59:
1. Stable is fairly boring. Statistically, you are more likely to have chaotic relationships in a story because story is about conflict.
2. I repeat, we are talking about people between the ages of 16-22. Faile is the youngest of these kids. These are teens having their first relationships. Relationships in that age range will also skew heavily to chaotic and unhealthy. That’s why old people roll their eyes at teenage love.
24. Anthony Pero
<i> without the benefit of the internet to soften the cultural conflict at work in this triangle.</i>
Has it been your experience that the internet softens cultural conflict? I’m imagining Faile tweeting “OMG, that B—- just made a pass at muh Man!” and getting 50K retweets from her fanbase in Saldaea, suggesting where in Berelain’s body she should plant the daggers. Not conducive to a quick chat over biscuits and tea to straighten out the misunderstanding. :)
29. Austin
The conceptualization of that relationship as Dom/Sub is a recent western idea. In fact, the conception of cultural habits as something distinct from the individual, and which should be modified on an ad-hoc basis after mutual negotiation, is also a relatively recent western idea. There were – and are – cultures in which cultural habits were considered in-bred and unalterable.
33. olethros6
That’s a great thread, which you posted.
34. birgit
Agreed. I’d state it even more strongly: She’s learned that this is how men are. Not “the small subset of men who live in Saldaea”. A lot of people here are offering advice which amounts to “they should talk about it”, without considering the possibility that there might be cultures in which certain things are simply not talked about. And then there’s that other problem – many times, if you have to be told to do something, then it makes doing-that-thing worthless.
36. Austin
Her father is 50 years old, and has been married for about 30. He’s got some perspective, which she lacks.
46. noblehunter
Interesting idea. But there was also the element of reconciling with the whitecloaks. Perhaps that could have been done in CoT instead of the PLOD?
59. dptullos
Bain and Chiad?
43. Kah-thurak
49. John
Anthony Pero
A couple of years ago I got the notion in my head that the PLOD would have been much more satisfying if Faile had gotten kidnapped in a manner which convinces Perrin – and everyone else – that she’s dead. He grieves, and Berelain comforts him in a moment of weakness. He defeats the Shaido quickly (by TPoD or something like that?) and gets Faile back.
At that stage, the conflict between the three is much more keen. Faile hates Berelain and mistrusts Perrin; Perrin is gnawed by guilt at an actual deed, not at the scent of his wife’s suspicion; Berelain got her hands on him legitimately, and is loth to give him up, especially since it’s not clear if Faile is going to take him back.
Perrin would choose to resolve the conflict by proving to himself – and to everyone else – how devoted he is to Faile, which would build up just as nicely towards the finale, where his devotion to Faile lets him shake off Lanfear’s compulsion in TAR, just before he breaks her neck.
JL@61:
Let’s just say that the internet, and mass communication in general, has made us all more aware and more open to different cultural experiences, by exposing us to them in a way we had never been exposed previously. Stupid, hurtful people will obviously remain stupid and hurtful.
I can’t see Perrin actually allowing himself to be comforted in that way by Berelain. Mat and Rand? Maybe. Perrin a) never expresses any interest in Berelain, b) knows from his sense of smell that Berelain isn’t actually that in to him, more into what he represents, and c) is too deliberate in his actions and choices to just jump into bed with Berelain for any reason whatsoever that soon after his wife’s “death”. After all, the entire PLOD only takes place over 55 days. She is captured less than two months. I can’t see Perrin taking comfort in the arms of any woman over that time period.
@Jonathan Levy
No, I think the narrative way out here would have been to have done with the Shaido after Dumai Wells… but in my personal opinion you need to cut about 40-50% from the Wheel of Time as a whole to get a really excellent series.
62. Anthony Pero
Granted, it wouldn’t come as easily to Perrin as to Mat. But if you’re changing Perrin this much, you could also tweak other characters. Make Berelain come to admire Perrin early (which she does eventually), and find that she is, in fact, attracted to him. Let Perrin recognize this. Make Perrin a little less puppily-devoted to Faile pre-PLOD, and a bit more frustrated with her Saldaeanity. And you already have a scene in which Perrin wakes up naked in Berelain’s bed. Just have him wake up a few hours earlier, when she’s still in it. He’s 18, she’s totally hot, it’s a lot easier to explain that kind of mistake that to explain how Perrin fell in love with Faile in the first place.
Mind you, I’m not saying it would be high-quality characterization. I’m saying it would make the PLOD more readable, and Perrin’s character arc more satisfying, and having a scene in which Perrin acts out of character is a small price to pay for that. A lot of people act out of character once in their lives, especially when a beautiful woman is involved. Perrin is infuriatingly consistent. And as the text stands, having Perrin remain faithful to Faile while everyone around him is sure he cheated on her was also just a bit contrived.
63. Kah-thurak
Yeah, that was probably Jordan’s plan while he was writing TDR, and thought it would only take another trilogy to finish. Could have given Perrin some Song/Tu’atha’an-related task to keep him busy between LOC and Tarmon Gai’don, to fulfill the vision of the flowering trees which Min saw.
the entire PLOD only takes place over 55 days
Holy crap. I think I knew that, sort of, but to see it stated so plainly is astonishing.
@64 – And you could have Faile sleeping with Roland (which almost happened). She and Perrin ultimately forgive each other’s actions and have a stronger relationship for it. Heck, Perrin pretty much assumed something happened between Faile and Roland and he instantly forgave her in his head. There could be some good symmetry there in the re-imagined scenario.
@66:
Those situations are not remotely symmetrical in my mind. And I don’t think they would be in Perrin’s mind, either. They certainly wouldn’t be in Faile’s, lol.
Faile was doing what she had to do to literally survive her captivity and get back to Perrin. That would not have been Perrin’s motivation in the situation @61 brings up. Perrin can survive 55 days without sex.
3 years late, dont expect to ever get an answer! Still trying…
„He looked at Perrin as if trying to tell him something without words, something he did not want the others to hear“
What do you make out of this?