Remember, there is such a thing as the Wheel of Time Reread. (And it is definitely not the shortest distance between two points.)
Today’s entry covers Part 5 of Chapter 37 of A Memory of Light, in which Gawyn gets his superhero name, Rhuarc makes me incredibly sad and mad and feeling bad, and Rand should watch out for creepily coordinated children at play.
Previous reread entries are here. The Wheel of Time Master Index is here, which has links to news, reviews, interviews, and all manner of information about the Wheel of Time in general. The index for all things specifically related to the final novel in the series, A Memory of Light, is here.
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This reread post, and all posts henceforth, contain spoilers for the entire Wheel of Time series. If you haven’t read, continue at your own risk.
And now, the post!
Before we begin, Hopefully Self-Evident Scheduling Note: The holidays are once again upon us, my dumplings, and ergo your regularly scheduled Reread will be a bit irregularly scheduled for a bit. As both Christmas Eve (December 24th, duh) and New Year’s Eve (December 31st, duh) fall on a Tuesday this year, I trust that no one will be shocked when I say there will be no Reread posts on either of those days. Because there won’t be. Eggnog and champagne, respectively! Whoo!
Onward!
Chapter 37: The Last Battle [Part 5]
What Happens
After their escape from the incredibly powerful channeling attacks on the Heights, Androl and Pevara agree that it must have been Demandred, not Taim, behind it. Pevara Heals Emarin, and Theodrin Heals Jonneth, and Pevara remarks mentally to Androl that Theodrin will have Jonneth bonded before much longer.
What if he bonds her back? Androl sent.
Then we’ll see if what you and I have is unique or not. Pevara hesitated. We are stumbling upon things that have never been known.
He met her eyes. She was referring to what ever had happened during their linking this last time. She had opened a gateway, but had done it as he would have.
We’re going to need to try that again, he sent her.
Emarin Heals Pevara in turn, though Androl senses she still has reservations about it. He creates a tiny gateway to fill his cup with mountain spring water, and Pevara asks how he does that without even knowing the area first. Androl is baffled, and replies that it is his Talent. He is upset to realize he has lost his sword; Pevara points out he has better weapons, but Androl replies that it reminds him he is a soldier. He makes her tea from supplies back at his workshop, to Pevara’s delight, and he thinks of how long it’s been since he felt this way about a woman. Pevara partially senses his train of thought comparing her to seasoned leather, to his embarrassment and her amusement, and she confesses that she compares him to her family.
He was reminded, suddenly, of the empty fields below. The dead trees. The growling thunder. This was not a time for mirth, not a time for love. For some reason, though, he found himself clinging to both precisely because of that.
They discuss how to find Taim, and agree their current approach will only get them killed, and that they must use stealth instead. Androl wonders how they will do that, though.
“That depends. How crazy can you be, if the situation warrants?”
Rhuarc stalks through the smoke-filled valley of Thakan’dar with two other Aiel, Trask and Baelder. The battle broke down into chaos once the defensive line at the mouth of the pass was breached, and Rhuarc thinks that Rand al’Thor had better win his battle soon. The trio joins another group of Aiel fighting red-veils, and Trask goes down, though he takes a red-veil with him. After, the other three Aiel join Rhuarc and Baelder to check on the defenders at the path up to the mountain, who are mostly common farmers, unskilled in weapons.
They fought like cornered wolves against the Trollocs. Rhuarc shook his head. If the treekillers had fought so savagely, perhaps Laman would still have his throne.
A lightning bolt strikes, killing a swath of defenders, and Rhuarc marks the place it came from and moves stealthily toward the channeling red-veil who sent it. He doesn’t know why some channeling red-veils have teeth filed to points and others do not. He creeps up on the red-veil and slits his throat, then kills two Trollocs before retreating. He passes a group of wolves killing Trollocs, who let him pass unmolested. Rhuarc thinks to himself that he does not know how much longer their forces can hold.
Something hit him. He gasped, falling to his knees. He looked up, and someone beautiful stepped through the storm to inspect him. She had wonderful eyes, though the two were offset from one another. He’d never before realized how horribly balanced everyone else’s eyes were. Thinking of it nauseated him. And all other women had too much hair on their heads. This creature, with thinning hair, was far more marvelous.
The woman calls him her pet, and bids him join the others with her. Rhuarc growls jealously at them, which makes the woman laugh. She remarks that Moridin thought her face a punishment, but her pets don’t care, and soon no one including Moridin himself will think her anything but beautiful.
“Just like you, pet. Just like you.”
She patted Rhuarc. He joined her and the others and moved through the valley, leaving behind the men he had called brothers.
Rand steps onto the road leading to a beautiful and vibrant version of Emond’s Field amid throngs of happy, prosperous travelers. In this version of the Fourth Age Rand knows that the closest thing to “war” in years had wounded only three people and killed no one. Rand smiles and walks to the square, but when he sees familiar faces in the crowd, he turns away, his confidence in his creation suddenly shaken.
He knew the Last Battle wasn’t a failure. But people were dying. Did he think to stop all death, all pain?
This should be my fight, he thought. They shouldn’t have to die. Wasn’t his sacrifice enough?
So he’d asked time and time again.
The vision begins to collapse in on itself, and the Dark One taunts Rand that his dream is weak. Rand reasserts his will and the vision stabilizes. The Dark One tells him these people are his now, but Rand counters that darkness only prevails where light fails, and he will not fail.
“You cannot win so long as I bar your path, Shai’tan.”
WE SHALL SEE.
Rand walks to the school, in front of which Perrin and Faile’s granddaughter Lady Adora is giving a speech commemorating a hundred years of peace, and slips inside, admiring it, but the Dark One tells him his paradise is flawed, and that hunger and crime and corruption still happen in this version of the world. Rand protests it is still better, and the Dark One replies it is not enough, and that he is “THE ONLY HONESTY YOUR WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN.” He attacks, and tears the vision apart.
Silviana hurls Fire at the Sharans on the Heights as Chubain calls for the heavy cavalry to advance. She prepares to follow up with lightning, but Chubain draws her attention to Egwene, who is pale and trembling. Before Silviana can determine the problem, Sharan channelers attack from above, and she hastens to weave a gateway and get Egwene through it, with help from the Seanchan woman always shadowing the Amyrlin. Silviana assumes Demandred is attacking Egwene personally in some way, but Egwene tells her it is Gawyn.
“He’s been hurt. Badly. He’s dying, Silviana.”
Oh, Light, Silviana thought. Warders! She had feared something like this from the moment she’d seen that fool boy.
Egwene wants to go find him on the Heights, but Silviana points out that is madness. Then she urges Egwene to pass Gawyn’s bond to her before Gawyn dies. Egwene is shocked, and Silviana says Egwene knows his death could destroy her. Egwene says she will not give that pain to Silviana. Silviana points out that she is not the Amyrlin, but Egwene refuses still, and says that if Gawyn dies, she will survive it and keep fighting, and in the meantime they will fight their way up to Gawyn’s position by force. Silviana agrees, but inside she is furious.
Fool man! If he died, Egwene would have a very difficult time continuing to fight.
The Shadow didn’t need to fell the Amyrlin herself to stop her. It just had to kill one idiot boy.
Commentary
Preach it, Silviana. “Idiot boy” just about sums it up, doesn’t it? We will also accept “fool boy” and “Fool man,” but I like “Idiot Boy” best. Has that certain je ne sais quoi.
*rolls eyes*
Blurg.
But aside from what’s coming up with that storyline, I’m pretty sure what happened to Rhuarc here was one of the things that most deeply upset and/or pissed me off in the entire book. Seriously, I’m pretty sure I cursed out loud when I initially read it.
My feelings on Compulsion and its foulness—that it is equivalent to, or really, worse than rape in my estimation—are on record, and obviously no one on Team Light deserves to have it happen to them, but to me there was something especially disgusting about seeing it happen to Rhuarc in particular. It was so outrageous that it happened to him, in fact, that at first I couldn’t even believe it had happened.
Really, Team Jordan. Let him go down fighting, fine, but this? This is just… mean.
Sigh. However, we are moving into the backstretch of the Last Battle at this point, and we ain’t seen nothing yet when it comes to “mean,” so I guess I’d better shut up and buckle in.
(Why do some channeling red veils have filed teeth and others don’t? Do we ever find out? I have no idea why this is bugging me, since it’s ultimately completely unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but it is.)
Well, at least we have Androl and Pevara, who continue to be adorable, and just about the sole spot of brightness in the growing amount of mean going on in this chapter at this point. I mostly left out of the summary Androl’s hilariously ill-advised mental comparisons re: Pevara, but they were highly amusing.
Also, am I the only one who thought about what havoc a thieving type could wreak with Androl’s micro-gateway Talent? …Of course, any Traveling ability automatically makes one capable of being an unstoppable thief, now that I think about it, but Androl’s teeny gateways are sneaky. I’m just saying.
Do we ever see whether Theodrin and Jonneth (or anyone else) try and repeat Androl and Pevara’s doubled bond experiment? I can’t remember (which tends to make me think we never got to see it, though I could be wrong), but I would be extremely curious to see what happens if they did.
For one thing, if the effects are consistently the same, it would mean that Androl and Pevara have accidentally invented telepathy, which is kind of hilarious if you think about it. Not to mention the obvious tactical advantages for the bondees. Of course, many people may not be all that enthused about having their innermost thoughts and emotions constantly on display, even to just one person they trust absolutely.
I’m sort of on the fence about it myself. On the one hand, it would be nice to know that at least one person completely understands you, but on the other, I am very fond of my privacy, and that arrangement means none. What do you think? Would you go for the double bond if you had the option?
As for Rand’s scene, I don’t want to get too into this at this point because the issue at hand is just getting started and I don’t want to, er, blow my wad on it yet, but I will say that even before knowing what was coming, this entire project of Rand’s of creating “the perfect world” made me highly uneasy. And that’s because I read A Wrinkle in Time as a child, and I know what comes of that.
And that’s all for now, O my Peeps. Share and Enjoy, and I’ll see you next Tuesday!
Going to stick to this thought for the moment. This always reminded me of Nakor, and his bag of never-ending oranges. People always wanted Jordan to further explore what could be done with gateways. Then they complained when Brandon did more with gateways. ::sigh::
I’m not positive, but I seem to recall Slayer commenting on it when he was in “The Town.” I think it was the ones with the filed teetch were turned.
howz about eggnog WITH champagne?
Nevermind, sounds gross now that I think about it.
Fool boy is right and that’s all I’m saying about that today.
I really love Androl and Pevara and how they are discovering a new thing. We’ve seen a number of things not even known during the AOL in these books but I think this one may end up being the most important in the Fourth Age. A double warder bond that creates a gender neutral Aes Sedai combined tower. I think they need it.
As for Camazotz, Madeline L’Engle’s birthday was just the other day so a reference is highly appropriate.
A double bond and the accompanying telepathy would have avoided a whole lot wasted time in my first marriage.
I vaguely remember that when Androl assumes “the oneness” or the flame and the void, that Pevara can no longer sense him. So there is a small place for secrets between ?bondees?.
So we argued back and forth about “idiot” Gawyn. But here, Egwene has the chance to “temper” the effect of his death. And she (IMO rightly) refuses. – So why do those who accuse Gawyn, still ONLY blame Gawyn?
RE: filed teeth/not-filed teeth:
Filed-teeth channelers are Aielmen who went into the Waste and were Turned. The ones without filed teeth are ones born in “captivity.”
Oh no! Not Rhuarc you bitch! Graenhessalem compelling Rhuarc was definitely one of the biggest blows for me, maybe even more than Egwene (though Bella’s death is still the hardest to take). As for Gawyn…well, it only sucks that Egwene will undoubtedly die now because of him, but otherwise good riddence to a character who was promising when introduced, but sucked at every chance for the past 7 books or so.
Still love Pevandrol, they should have a sitcom centered around them once the Last Battle is over.
I think you are undersestimating the importance of what they discovered. I think they discovered what the people were searching for in the Age of Legends. A way for saidin and saidar to be worked with seamlessly.
Am I the only one who thought “thank goodness Gawyn finally got himself killed”?
I must admit the repeated attempts at Demandred came off as clunky and repetitive. The payoff was good, but I’ll save that for the time.
Also, Rhuarc, *sadface*
Leigh, you should post your thoughts on the Last Battle after consuming copious amounts of eggnog and/or champagne. I beleive that such a post would be most enlightening. I would do the same except for some minor issues: 1) a do not have a blog dedicated to WoT; 2) I do not like eggnog or champagne.
I hope the Encyclopedia answers the question of whether Theodrin bonds Jonneth after the Last Battle. When Androl, Pevara, and company trick the Dreadlords into the Stedding and are captured by the Ogier, Theodrin is not present. I assume she left to fight with the rest of the Aes Sedai (although I am not sure why she would have left Jonneth). Is it possible that Theodrin died during the Last Battle?
Speaking of Rhurac, did Amys survive the final fight with Graendal? I cannot remember.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewB
I’m not expecting posts on 12/24 or 12/31, but I would like to point out that I’ll be working (and it’s a normal 9-5 type job, not retail) on 12/24. I’m off 12/31, only because we’re closed for the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
Regarding Rhuarc – totally agree. In hindsight, one of the saddest moments in the book for me. No tears and no shock when I read it, though, since I knew he would come back safe and sound.
Have some issues with the nickname. I suspect any decision on my part to call a female character Dumb Girl would likely be met with derision.
As far as the QOTD – in a heartbeat (or ten), yes.
I have absolutely no interests in double bonds. Just take a minute to think about all the wretched, reprehensible, awful things that go on in your mind, sometimes unintentionally, I don’t want anyone anywhere close to that stuff. Also I am from the school of “ignorance is bliss”, there are some aspects of my lover I may not want to know.
Ah Rhuarc….of all the free spirits. He does come back to us, doesn’t he?
I also love the Androl/Pevara duo, and the double bonding does provide a seamless way for men and women to work together, sans circles. But to be useful in Peace time, I would want some way to block it when I wanted to. There are plenty of times one needs privacy, and there’s alot the other person doesn’t need to know, ever.
That said, that kind of communication could’ve shortened this series considerably, and prevented a lot of assumption and mis-communication!
And, bye Gawyn! I agree, Travyl@6….Egwene shows her emotional side here, instead of her Amyrlin side. She could’ve passed the bond to Sylviana, and saved herself to be the “general” of the AS, which is her duty. Perhaps she needed that emotionality to muster the strength needed to do what she does in the end, but here, it doesn’t seem sensible, or even responsible. She has a lot of people depending on her guidance.
Tek@14: Spoilers: Aviendha kills him :(
At least, his body…as she tells herself afterwards, he was dead the moment Graendal Compelled him.
Can’t say as the gateways for thieving really jumped there, as you said, the power alone does the job. In fact I think that was my first thought with gateways (I could rob banks on the otherside of the world after a security camera saw me go into a bathroom or some such, they could never actually convict me). Which is why Teleportation joined Mind control on the list of powers to never give me as I can’t be trusted with them.
As #2 said, The Filed Teeth were turned Aiel vs those born in the Village.
I think #9 hits a major point regarding this double bond’s ramifications.
As for other issues with the double bond. L.E. Modesitt dives headlong into the entire snafu that this causes even when it works out. Specifically in Towers of the Sunset, The Order War and Death of Chaos. Each book involves two people ending up in this type of mental link and does a very good job of diving into exactly what it would cause, what it would lead to, the type of reactions people would have, etc, etc. Specifically Towers deals with what happens for this type of bond when the two people involved aren’t willing and don’t like each other to start with.
Personally, I’d be willing to do this with my wife, not sure everyone would be nor would I blame anyone who refused.
yeah, I knew there would be a lot of death/tragedy but Rhuarc hit me in the feels.
That’s too funny. The feels. Good stuff.
Tektonica@14 I must say I strongly disagree with your supposition. It would be morally bankrupt for Egwene to pass her warder bond on to avoid the consequences of her Warder dieing (even if he is an idiot). No self-respecting AS would do such a thing. Warders live a life of sacrifice, and the bond is regarded as a sacred thing. Witness the skulduggery involved in passing on Lan’s bond to see how AS view such things. Egwene could hardly be seen as a leader to other AS when she ditches the bond the moment it becomes a liability. What of the other AS that have lost warders? What are they to think? Remember Ny’s conversation with the Sister who lost her Warder? How Ny wished she could heal the pain and the Sister saying that she wouldn’t have it any other way. She needed to be an example to the others, not a poster child for expediency. Silviana, as a red, doesn’t get it.
Rhuarc – ugh ugh.
Gawyn – ugh
Rand efforts to make a perfect world – ugh
Androl-Pevara – cute
Filed teeth question – interesting.
Turkey and stuffing – delicious.
re Rhuarc – the fact that he had to be killed and that it had to be done by Avi was extremely painful for me to read. I remember reading the whole compulsion scene the first time and completely disbelieving that this is how we were going to see the end of Rhuarc. But then again, I had a lot of those disbelieving moments with many of the other characters during my initial read of AMOL.
re Gawyn – poor guy just couldn’t come to grips that he would never be No. 1. He abandoned his sister long before he abandoned Egwene; I don’t remember Elayne being too fussed about his being AWOL during her ascension to the throne when they had their last meeting in Camelyn, which I found to be rather odd. I guess because she had Bridgett and didn’t really need him?
KakitaOCU @16 — you almost descibed the scene in Jumpers to a “T”. Certain people (like the main character) can instantly teleport anywhere in the world. You see the main character teleport into a vault and steal all of the money.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewB
Yep, also enjoyed that movie. And felt Anakin was stupid. He robbed a vault in the same city that he was staying in. He let the cameras see his face, he didn’t wear gloves.
Again, never give me teleportation as a super power. :)
I thought that Rhuarc’s situation was an extremely valuable plot point – this proves conclusively that Avi’s visions of the future are not fixed, because Rhuarc figured prominently in them.
Larry Niven wrote a short story or something on teleportation and it’s ramifications, including theft. Variations depended on whether a booth was needed to transmit, receive, neither, or both.
I’ll look for it.
Rand’s world- I did not trust Shai’tan insinuating that things would be “too” perfect without him. That was a subtle insurance against losing, which the DO must be used to by now.
WayForward @24
They were pretty much gone when the Aiel forced the Aiel Compromise on Rand’s Peace of the Dragon. It wasn’t there before, and the Aiel were free agents. Now they have a role as multinational peacekeepers.
I wonder if the method the Aes Sedai use to mask the bond would work to dampen the telepathy. Seems likely…
Gadget@19: Under normal circumstances, I would totally agree with you. Take responsibility for the Bond, and your warder, absolutely.
My only caveat here, is that Egwene’s duty is even bigger….to all the World, really, and certainly to the totality of the White Tower Aes Sedai. This is a battle to the death, of the World! Being in a position of supreme leadership, she needs to protect herself to a certain degree, just as generals usually don’t lead the charge into battle. They are the brains, the planners, who see the whole picture, and the army needs to protect that asset, just as Silviana realizes that she needs to protect Egwene. And kudos to her too! That was a generous and profound offer on Silviana’s part.
So sorry that Rhurarc has to get killed. (I’d forgotten that part! Thanks Rhandric.) It must have been especially hard for Avi to do the deed, but I agree with her. He died when Hessalam compelled him. Such a tragic ending for an honorable man.
Paperback out on December 31st, I believe^_^
Tek@28
Totally agree with your response to Gadget@19, precisely because it is indeed the “Fate of the World” at stake. Expediency rules in this case.
With that said, Egwene should have refused Silviana’s request and instead had one of the weakest novices in Mayenne take the bond. Silviana is too powerful a resource to damage.
Is what I’m suggesting repugnant? Of course! But it’s the fate of the friggin’ world (actually multiple worlds if Verin is correct) and there is no time for squeamishness.
—
Oh, BTW I don’t think Avienda realized it was Rhuarc until after she killed him. This was a very tough moment, with Amys nearby and we never found out how much Amys learned.
Leighdb
I’ll go even further and say it PO’d me the most in the entire series! I hated, hated, hated what happened to Rhuarc. And I give total credit to BWS/RJ for writing that and making me feel that revulsion on a deep level. Good writing will do that to you – but …. arrrgh! Rhuarc!
And oh yeah – When I read Leigh’s commentary I immediately thought of Nakor (for those who don’t recognize the reference, this was a Raymond Feist character from the Riftwar books who always seemed to be able to produce a fresh orange — turns out he had a tiny magic tunnel to a merchant’s bin and I guess the merchant never noticed the pilferage.)
Much to my surprise and delight, Freelancer had the same thought and even posted it @1.
Forkroot @@@@@ 30:
Choosing a weaker sister would’ve been morally repugnant to Egwene, but perhaps a “call for volunteers”?
Man-o@32
Nice point. A call for a volunteer makes a lot of sense.
While we’re still on the topic of Gawyn and the Bloodknive’s rings: Demandred recognized the weave but did not recognize that it came from a ter’angreal. We’ve already been told that the Seanchan only knew how to make a’dam – not any other ter’angreal.
The fact that Demandred didn’t recognize the rings makes it less likely that they were leftover AOL artifacts. So where did those rings come from? This has to rate as one of the mysteries I’m really hoping the Encyclopedia clears up.
Made during the breaking or not long after by AoL AS? Do we know where the Crystal Throne came from?
Rhuarc going out like that upset me, as well, though not as much as Bela. For me there is nothing worse tha animals and childred dying in my media (Damn you Pan’s Labryth!!!!!), that chokes me up more than anything else. I think it has to do with the fact that they both don’t realize what is going on, so they are innocent in it all. I don’t know, something like that, I guess.
Damn Gawyn! Boy had such potential, but not everyone can live up I suppose.
Forkroot…thanks for the backup, and also for naming Nakor in Feists’ books. I was desperately trying to place that character after Free mentioned the bag of endless oranges and couldn’t brint the character to the fore. Nakor! Feist! Of course!
Tektonica, Forkroot & Freelancer – I’ll ‘fess up… I knew Nakor sounded familiar but couldn’t place him, so… I went and looked him up on bing. *sigh* He was fun.
Oh, yeah – about Demandred recognizing the weave on Gawyn, combined with the absolute statement that the Seanchan only know how to make one ter’angreal. My first thought was that Semirhage made them. That’s still possible, maybe, but there’s a certain implication that the rings have been around the Empire for a long time. Is it possible that Ishamael figured out how to make them, and gave the Seanchan a quantity of them just to be ornery during one of his free times? It’s also possible that they were made by Team Dark during the War of Power, but Demandred hadn’t been paying attention, or even by Team Light before they figured out some of the side effects. Or, as suggested above, during the Breaking, though I’m not sure why they’d be worrying about assassins at that point. (Heh. Maybe the women created them as a way to sneak up on the madmen.)
I do wonder about the side effects, though. In rereading these bits, it sure sounds like something was adversely affecting Gawyn’s thought processes (which weren’t always the greatest to begin with). He’s always been fairly good at rationalizing his decisions, but this sounds like he’s under some additional not-so-benevolent influence. Did anyone else read it that way?
@37 Wet – I too found Gawyn to be compromised, I think we get from his POV that he found it harder to focus and was getting waves of exhaustion unless he put the rings on. I would assume the rings’ influence would have ultimately driven him mad and he would have started killing everyone around him. Didn’t the Seanchan woman mention to Gawyn in Camelyn that anyone who uses the rings eventually dies but not before they do some exceptional killing?
I also got the feeling from Demandred that he was able to see the weaves or even maybe see the “not-weaves” – maybe the space between – that the rings produced, but that not knowing they were ter’angreal he just assumed that Lews Therin had set Gawyn up with those particular weaves. I was surprised that he was able to recognize Gawyn when nobody else did.
Oh, and Bela – not sure what was worse, Bela or Lan’s sheathing of the sword… but we’ll come to that in due time!
Lady Adora, who is the granddaughter of Young Bull? That ain’t right.
From the BBoBA we hear that in Seanchan it was ruled by a whole lot of petty Aes Sedai kingdoms, fighting/backstabbing each other from the breaking on until Luthair Pendrag arrived, the AS that handed him the A’dam made it so he could ake control of the the country, though it took his descendants hundreds ofyears to complete it. but that still leaves about 1500 years from the breaking to when Luthair arrived in Seanchan for the AS there to create the ring ter’angreals. I would bet that they were created by one of the few surviving shadow aligned AS from the AoL so they could kill off their rivals and take over the country. It is easy to believe that the Seanchan could still have some of these things around without any knowledge of how to create them
@37
There is no magic.
thepupxpert @38
Agreed. Demandred recognized “Night’s Shade” around Gawyn. So the activation of one of those rings creates the weave. If you can see a weave, you can counter it. So, Gawyn is thinking he’s extra stealthy as well as quick and strong, but against Demandred it isn’t so. Who knew? Add in that he’d just sauntered past a camp full of trollocs who didn’t see him, and his preliminary reasoning of having good odds for this fight are understandable.
I cannot find that anyone from Team Jordan has definitively answered as to the original source of the rings. Given that no other ter’angreal have been invented on the Seanchan continent besides the a’dam, the great likelihood is that they are an artifact from the war of power, and probably not before. As you correctly point out, Demandred’s supposition that he was facing Lews Therin, and then that he was facing a substitute sent by Lews Therin, indicates that he believes the Night’s Shade to be a channeled weave, not induced by an object. But then again, we cannot rely on Demandred as a completely rational touchstone at this point; he is seeing the Dragon in everything happening around him, whether or not it is so.
Oh, and sorry about being obscure regarding Nakor, it wasn’t intentional. I just figure anyone who’d read Jordan would read Feist. It also may have to do with having recently picked up (and gotten signed) Magician’s End, the closing book of Feist’s Midkemia saga, which prompted me to re-read those early volumes. Nakor is a riot, and an odd admixture of sorcerer and nascent physicist.
It has been a long time since I’ve read Feist…so thanks, Free for bringing up Nakor, a favorite character. I remembered him, but not that it was Feist. I’ve still to read “the end”. I’ll put that on my “to do” list.
@40 – but what about their grandson Terra?
Edit – what, no one likes Terra-bull puns?
Seeing as there was so much talk of warders dying in this post, it raises the question of what happens if Androl or Pevara dies. Would the survivor go both berserk and weepy at once?
Rhuarc and Avi’s legs are the only two things that really bothered me here and that Rand was dumb enough to believe that evil and therefore choice and freedom in men is caused by some otherworldy figure, oh how nice to be absolved of responsibility.
I might have misread that last part though. This is the only book in the series I have read twice and will never read again. I don’t actually plan on going back to the series ever, the ending was so disappointing to me.
One thing I have not seen posited here is that Nightshade is the same weave used on Gray Men. It seems to have strikingly similar effects, with decreased chances of detection. Just food for thought for those who may know a little more than myself.
Gray Men are not operating with a continuous weave about them. The description given is that they sacrifice their souls for the enhanced abilities they possess, and are effectively a form of zombie. One confrontation with a Gray Man describes them as having lifeless eyes, not an attribute which is repeated with the Seanchan assassins. Also, with Gray Men, there is no thought that they have an extremely limited span of viability in this capacity, whereas the Bloodknife, once the ring is activated, is under a guaranteed death sentence with a fixed fuse, due to the effect on their blood from the ter’angreal.
@47 DougL
The issue wasn’t that an otherwordly figure was the cause of all evil and choice. You’re looking at it from a very simple idea of the Dark One and Creator somehow being actualy beings the way we think of them. the DO is a force. Like Gravity, or Temperature. He exerts force in the form of Chaos/”evil” if you will. The Creator likewise exerts Order/”Good”. By those two forces pushing against each other the human being contains both and thus has the capacity to choose one or the other in any given situation (Going very simple, obviously there’s more than an A-B choice).
Further, Rand even makes a point to state the the DO was never the enemy, could not be the enemy. That the “enemy” was humans making a choice one way or another. IE the true enemy is themselves, not an outside force.
This is one of the two arguements I keep seeing about the DO’s behavior and ending that really just stem from us placing human level assumptions on cosmic forces. The other being the idea that because we have lived through this over and over again with different incarnations that the DO has actually fought us multiple times. But the DO is outside of time, he doesn’t seem to even comprehend that Rand isnt’ Lews Therin isn’t whoever the dragon was before hand, etc. I think from the DO’s perspective he made a single attempt at the world and failed. Which goes a long way to explaining how such a powerful and knowledgeable being “keeps falling for the same tricks” so to speak.
Edit: @48 Jeecheroo.
They really aren’t the same, except in the basic description of “stealth” The Gray Man just isn’t important enough to notice. You see them and your mind dismisses them as not relevent or worthy of consideration, much like you don’t care about that random spot of the wall you glance at. Once you do notice them, they’re there though, there’s some talk about how you have to force yourself to look but you can see them.
The Bloodknive weave makes you a moving shadow. From what it reads it’s actually COMPLETELY obvious if you actually look at it, it’s just that they use it to hide where you don’t see it to begin with. And once you do you can only see that someone is there in a general way, you can’t focus on limbs or see specific movements. These ones you don’t see from stealth but once there you can look at them, just not focus on specific movements they make.
Fell behind again. Between my three-day, 1000-mile driving trip, Thanksgiving right after that, shopping, looking for work, and studying, there wasn’t much brain left to put to use writing about WoT. (Okay, I suppose I could have done without playing solitaire, but…)
Great post as usual, Leigh. Looks like you’re getting more rain than we are… I’m jealous!
Gawyn:
“Idiot Boy” is good, but I like “Colossal Doofus”. (YMMV)
Androl & Pevara:
Are a cute couple and totally awesome. Androl’s poor choice of analogy re: Pevara was pretty funny.
Rhuarc:
Graendal, you bitch… Taking pets is bad enough, but Rhuarc? One of the coolest Aiel in the whole series? SO NOT COOL, Team Jordan!!
The filed-teeth thing has already been sufficiently answered, so I’ll skip that. I might get to reading the comments later.
Bzzz™.
Bye, Rhuarc. I’ll miss you. *sigh*
Rancho Unicorno @12
I see what you did there.
thepupxpert @38 and others
Perhaps Demandred had a ter’angreal relic from the Breaking that somehow allowed him to sense the rings in use–like the specialized ones Cads and Ny have. His immediate detection of Gawyn’s approach went unexplained and still bothers me. I don’t buy that Demandred was on the lookout for hard-to-see shadows, in a reasonably dark setting, while waging a battle (ala detection of Bloodknives in the WT by Gawyn once he knew what to look for). But perhaps I’m underestimating Demandred.
Sam @41
A believable back-story, imo. But so are most of Wet’s @37. And I think it’s reasonable assumption that the rings cause a trace of mental instability in the user. Maybe even times 3 in Gawyn’s case.
An interesting quesiton to ponder: Is such a passed bond (i.e if Egwene had passed Gawyn’s) anywhere near as devastating to the new holder as it would be to her? Obviously, there’s the emotional attachment of being friends, and/or the protector/protectee relationship. But anyway, the reason this came up is that I was thinking, say Silviana got his bond, and he died pretty much right away. It’s hard to see it having anywhere near the same effect on her. I certainly couldn’t see her crying herself to sleep at night, for example.
Ben
But then again, I don’t know exactly how much of the effects of the death of the warder bond are the magical aspect, and how much goes to the actual relationship.
You all remember how Sammael warded an entire city and dominated the fight against Rand until Ishydin intervened? Not too hard to believe Demandred wouldn’t ward his HQ.
The weave would likely trigger an inverted sound weave (Swiper! No swiping! would work) near his ear that indicates which direction he is being approached by or channeled at. It would make him look pretty boss to his followers. Almost omniscient. Especially if they’re True Power weaves. Gawyn’s rings activated the Night Shade weave and laid it on him, but even if the Ter’Angreal laid inverted weaves, Demandred still could use a simple boundary weave at a reasonable distance from himself. Heck, even Team Light does that stuff around their camps before going to bed. Remember the bird chirps on TSR?
Did anybody purchase a 2014 Wheel of Time calendar through Ta’veren Tees? October has pictures what I think are the Forsaken. Yet there are 15 individuals. I can identify many, but not all. Below I will try to identify who I think I can. Perhaps others may be able to identify the rest.
The way the picture is set up, I think there are 3 rows. The first row (whose characters are closest to the bottom of the page) has 7 Forsaken; the middle row has 6 Forsaken; and the top row has 2 Forsaken (these two appear in the far background).
Front Row (from left to right)
1) Semirhage (she is the darker skinned woman with short black hair) [Note: I thought Semirhage should be taller);
2) Demandred (he is the black haired man whose hands are in front of him and to be starting a weave of fire) [Note: IIRC Mesaana’s description of him in LoC notes that he has a hooked nose — this depiction does not have a hooked nose];
3) Lanfear (she is the woman in a sliver dress with a belt of crescent moons and long black hair);
4) Moridin (he is the man in the center of the row with hair falling below his sholders) [Note: I do not remember Moridin described with long hair — that is something I would not have imagined];
5) Unknown (this woman has long, straight, black hair; I think she is either Mesaana or Moghedien) [Note: the brown dress would seem to suggest Mesaana, but ToM describes her with short hair and watery eyes];
6) Graendal (this woman has long blonde hair with lots of jewelry); and
7) Sammael (the blonde bearded man with the scar accross his face) [note: IIRC Sammael was described as short — in this picture, he appears too tall; also, I thought the scar was only on one side of his face — in this picture the scar goes diagonally across the front of his face).
Middle Row (from left to right)
1) Unkown (this woman’s right eye is pure white) [Note: I have no idea what the eye thing is about];
2) Osan’gar (this man has a silver sword on his left collar and a gold dragon on his right collar) [Note: IMO, the artist captured his expression very well — the books described him with a distant sort of expression];
3) Be’lal (this man has grey hair and a grey beard);
4) Rahvin (this man has balck hair with stearks of grey at the temples);
5) Asmodean (this man has an instrument) [Note: I thought he was a middle aged man in his Jasin Natael personna. This picture makes him as if he were in his late 20s]; and
6) Aran’gar (this woman has black hair and a very low cut dress).
Last row (from left to right)
1) M’Hael (this man has dragons on the sleaves of his robe); and
2) Unkown [Note: I have no idea who this man is. At first I thought it might be Fain. Except that Fain is not a Forsaken, so that could not be correct. The only other thought I had was Biff, the long lost Forsaken {this joke only makes sense if you read Christopher Moore’s ”
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal”}
Nothwithstanding my comments above, I thought the artist (Ariel Burgess) did an excellent job with her illustrations.
I do think that Ms. Burgess should have drawn Galad (March) so he was more handsome. The depiction of Egwene and M’Hael’s fight (May) is very interesting.
I thought is was appropriate that February was a picture of Aviendha, Elayne and Min (for Valentine’s Day); May was the picture of Egwene and M’Hael’s fight (for Mother’s Day); and June was a picture of Tam (for Father’s Day).
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewB
Ways @52
I just wanted to thank you. the mental instability times 3 comment made be think of the Grinch.
I like Gawyn and feel he made a rational choice, but this popped in my head and I had to share my insanity. Apologies to Dr Seuss.
He pondered and pondered for hours that day,
“Egwene and the AS can’t do anything, they say”
I’ll be sneaky, I’ll be sly, I’ll put on a ring, then I’ll put on all three,
up the great bluff from tree to tree.
he slithered and slunk his way to the top,
and from a quick attack, from his horse did Demandred drop.
He arose from the ground fast, and Gawyn new it would be his last.
his sword he moved from form to form, graceful power gave him a chance, but he was not the Sword. It was his last dance.
Some wondered why he thought he could win, tricks and shadows aren’t a sound plan. a thought came to some who for Gawyn felt only loathing, it doesn’t suprise us he ended up doing nothing. He was always an idiot, a fool of a child, we knew he would be defeated at the hands of the Wyld. Egwene was strong, she survived his dumb play, when the hole in Gawyns head grew three sizes that day.
Androl and Pevara continue to be a one man-woman comedy act (see what I did there? With the double-bond mixing them as one?) and I continue to be grateful for their presence; something truly had to offset all the death, loss, sorrow, suspense, and depression at this point in the story. I remember laughing so hard at Pevara reading Androl’s thoughts about the old leather, followed up by him misspeaking himself when comparing her to a tree, and I do every time I read it. For once instead of miscommunication and misunderstanding causing conflict and resentment between men and women, we get simple, wonderful humor. A very welcome change. And I laughed just as much at this:
“It was Demandred.”
“I purposefully brought us to a place far from where he was fighting.”
“Yes. How dare he move and interfere with the group of channelers attacking his forces?”
“You know, Pevara, you are unusually smart-lipped for an Aes Sedai.”
“You don’t know Aes Sedai nearly as well as you assume.”
LOL!
And no, no one else has tried the double-bonding that we’ve seen. In fact we only see Theodrin in a couple more scenes after this. Whether she dies or not we never know, but again I think we were told unless someone is explicitly stated as dead we can assume they lived.
The scene with Rhuarc…damn. I had a feeling he wasn’t going to make it through the Last Battle–he’d been in the series from so early on, had made it all this time alive and whole, had been such a great leader and friend, a rock for Rand to depend on, it seemed likely he (along with other named Aiel) would die. But his specific fate was far more horrible than I ever could have imagined, and who ends up putting him out of his misery is fitting and yet so very sad. I think it was at this point I stopped vicariously enjoying Graendal’s villainy and just wanted her to die like yesterday–despite the fact she killed Asmo and what she did to her Compelled victims, I guess it was a case of the A Million Is a Statistic factor, that it wasn’t until she Compelled someone I cared about that I could easily hate her. Before this, watching her manipulate Sammael, be catty with Lanfear, plot against Perrin, was a lot of fun. But now–no, she’s horrible and needs to go down. Which is why I enjoyed her deliciously karmic fate.
Yes, Lanfear explained it back in Chapter 25: the ones who were taken and Turned have the filed teeth, the ones who were born in the Town and thus joined the Shadow willingly do not.
I was never bothered about Rand’s vision of a peaceful world. In retrospect yes it is a bit ominous in how it points toward what he creates later, but by itself I found it to actually be quite heartwarming. Rather idealistic and hard to believe, but sweet and tender all the same. I especially liked Rand pointing out that even if the world wasn’t truly perfect, and never could be, it was far better than a world where the Dark One was free. And having Perrin and Faile’s granddaughter be named Adora after his sister made me tear up.
Lastly I have to agree–however much we may agree that Gawyn’s actions were idiotic even if his reasoning or motives were not, it was stupid and wrong of Silviana to make the statements she did about Gawyn. As much as she’s an example of a “good” Red, her Ajah truly colors her opinions and views, and thus we cannot trust her assessment of Gawyn or men in general. While it’s true that Warders dying hurts their Aes Sedai a great deal, the other Ajahs have not given up the practice however “logical” the Whites would find it or how the Reds’ prejudices would justify it. Because every Aes Sedai who takes a Warder knows the risk (as does the Warder), and they believe the benefits are worth the possible price. Having a protector and defender to keep them safe in battle, having a companion who knows and understands them and is loyal to them as no other is, is invaluable. They make each other stronger, they provide warriors for battle that keeps the Aes Sedai out of danger and able to use the Power longer, they just plain keep them alive longer (Gawyn himself was the one to make this point back in ToM, interestingly enough).
And since Aes Sedai clearly can survive losing their Warders, whether or not they ever take another, then trying to spare Egwene that pain to “keep her alive and functional” doesn’t really hold water, and suggesting passing the bond to another really was an incredibly insensitive gaffe on Silviana’s part. Even when the Aes Sedai doesn’t love their Warder, they have a personal relationship which feeds into the bond and vice versa–denying the Aes Sedai the chance to experience this, and thus honor their Warder’s life and memory when they die, is a case of the practical head overruling the emotional heart to the latter’s detriment. Even if it could be said that this specific case may be more fraught with pain and agony than most because of Egwene and Gawyn being in love, their youth, and their circumstances in the Last Battle, cavalierly suggesting that Warders are useless stumbling blocks who only bring harm to their Aes Sedai is just wrong on so many levels.
@9 DavidW: Wow…you’re absolutely right. That’s incredible.
@11 AndrewHB: As far as we know Amys survived. I believe the last time we see her is when she and the other Wise Ones are running around Thakan’dar with Cadsuane and Aviendha, just before the latter kills Rhuarc and then makes it through Graendal’s True Power gate. Since it was Graendal who was fighting Amys, I think we can assume she lived once the former disappeared; Cadsuane is alive later, as is Alivia, and they were fighting alongside her.
@19 gadget: Yes, precisely. As humane as it might seem to want to spare Aes Sedai that pain, the pain is what reminds them they are human and alive, it dignifies the Warder’s death, lets them honor and remember him, and acknowledges that someone who was very important to them was lost. No self-respecting psychiatrist today would recommend a process that skipped over all the stages of grief and didn’t allow the person to experience, deal with, and resolve their loved one’s loss, so why should we allow a magical way to do so? Foisting it onto another through the bond would be just as dangerous mentally and emotionally as any real-world means of avoiding suffering and thus not gaining strength from it.
@24 WayForward: Good point. I think someone may have brought this up before…
@28 Tektonica and 30 forkroot: You have a point about how important Egwene is, and I do admit it was brave and kind of Silviana to offer to take that pain on herself. But I still stand by what I said, that it was also insensitive of her, and a sign of her Red inability to understand the value of men or Warders. All she was thinking of was trying to spare Egwene pain, but what she missed was that because Egwene loved him, she would want to be bonded to him to the end, would need the bond to help her deal with the loss of the man she loved, and would need to go through it to become stronger and galvanize her for battle.
@33 forkroot: Maybe the rings were made after the Forsaken were trapped in the Bore but before the knowledge of how to make ter’angreal was lost. Such knowledge was still around during some of the Breaking, and there would be need for assassin-style artifacts what with maddened male channelers, Shadowspawn, and Forsaken who didn’t get sealed still running around.
@37 Wetlander: Yes, I did get that impression. While Gawyn made plenty of bad decisions on his own, they seemed to get worse after he started using the rings, and it was especially clear that they were driving him to act impulsively, to attack and kill above everything else. (“Once…he would have done this for the pride of the battle… That was not his heart now. His heart was the need.” “The rings…urged him forward. His limbs pulsed with strength, energy. Fight! Kill!“)
@38 thepupxpert: Way back in LoC, we got a scene where Demandred was watching Elayne in the TAR Caemlyn Palace, then opened a gate into the waking world, implying he was somewhere nearby. Originally this was used as evidence that he was Taim, since the Black Tower is near Caemlyn, but now that we know Demandred was the one who brought Taim to the Shadow, that explains his presence in Caemlyn. And while he was there he could have learned about Gawyn and his relationship to Elayne, even seen a portrait. It’s also possible he learned of Gawyn from Mesaana, who would have been aware of his part in the Tower coup.
@47 DougL: You did misread it. Rand’s conclusion was the exact opposite, that the enemy wasn’t the Dark One and never had been, that it was instead the “petty men” who in their pride and greed created the Bore. I.e., that evil did in fact come from choice and freedom. No absolving of responsibility.
@52 Ways: We knew that using three rings at once would hasten how quickly his blood tainting would kill him; it stands to reason if they also drive you mad/urge you to kill/make you unable to think properly about anything except attacking that this would also be intensified with three.
@55 CireNaes: Very good point. Demandred is knowledgeable enough, clever enough, and paranoid enough to do that.
@57 Samadai: LOL!
The Bloodrings were probably invented by the Seanchan AS rulers. They must have remembered how to make ter’angreal when the a’dam was invented. The collaring probably led to forgetting how to make other ter’angreal.