All rise for the honorable Wheel of Time Reread Redux!
Today’s Redux post will cover Chapters 21 through 23 of The Dragon Reborn, originally reread in this post and this post.
All original posts are listed in The Wheel of Time Reread Index here, and all Redux posts will also be archived there as well. (The Wheel of Time Master Index, as always, is here, which has links to news, reviews, interviews, and all manner of information about the Wheel of Time in general on Tor.com.)
The Wheel of Time Reread is also available as an e-book series! Yay!
All Reread Redux posts will contain spoilers for the entire Wheel of Time series, so if you haven’t read, read at your own risk.
And now, the post!
Chapter 21: A World of Dreams
Redux Commentary
The ring certainly looked like stone, but it felt harder than steel and heavier than lead. And the circle of it was twisted. If she ran a finger along one edge, it would go around twice, inside as well as out; it only had one edge. She moved her finger along that edge twice, just to convince herself.
I often wondered why the (newly introduced here) dream ring icon looked like just concentric spirals rather than what was described in the text, which is obviously a Möbius strip. But then I stumbled across images of interlocked Möbius strips, so maybe that’s what the icon is intended to evoke. Maybe, but I have to say that it didn’t so much work for me. Shame.
What if Verin was Black Ajah herself? [Egwene] gave herself a shake. She had traveled all the way from Toman Head to Tar Valon with Verin, and she refused to believe this plump scholar could be a Darkfriend. “I trust you, Verin Sedai.” Can I, really?
The Aes Sedai blinked at her again, then dismissed whatever thought had come to her with a shake of her head.
Haha, this is all so much more delicious to read now that I know the truth.
That said, as I remarked in the original commentary, Verin is being super shady in this chapter, giving such a dangerous thing to an untested novice, while simultaneously withholding the closest thing to a training manual that exists for it. I still don’t really comprehend her reasoning on giving Egwene one without the other.
…Although one possibility is that if Corianin Nedeal was actually as shoddy a Dreamer as Verin thinks she was, then perhaps she also thought Nedeal’s notes might be more misleading than enlightening. Sort of like trying to figure out methods for safe open heart surgery using a primer written in the 1890s.
So, okay. But still, handing Egwene a gateway to the World Where Dreams Can Totally Kill You and letting her toddle off and jump into it willy-nilly seems like a less than brilliant move, objectively. However brilliant a move it might be from a narrative tension point of view, of course.
Chapter 22: The Price of the Ring
Redux Commentary
Ah, the famous Acceptatron™ ter’angreal (awesome nickname courtesy of ex-Usenetter David Chapman), we meet again.
Still sort of annoyed we never got to see Elayne’s Accepted test. However, Egwene’s Accepted test, particularly its third section, was probably quite enough to be going on with, and it became a subject of near-endless debate and speculation throughout the life of WOT fandom.
I think it’s quite fun that even now, with the story completed, it manages to be ambiguous in its possible interpretations. Even the second bit, where Rand begs Egwene to kill him in a ruined Caemlyn and which had been mostly dismissed as totally off the mark, now has a shade more predictive power in retrospect, considering what ended up happening to the city of Caemlyn in the Last Battle.
Interestingly, the third section ends up losing a bit of predictive accuracy now that the story is complete, most particularly in its supporting players. I still don’t know, for example, why Beldeine showed up later in the series, but then never once even crossed paths with Egwene, much less became her Keeper. (After the Cleansing and Eben’s death, Beldeine eventually bonds Karldin Manfor, and both of them die in the Last Battle.)
The total failure of a Red/Black sister named Gyldan to appear elsewhere in the series is more understandable, considering that the assertion of the test that Elaida is Black Ajah is also completely wrong, but the Beldeine thing is puzzling, to say the least.
But in general the third section is an utter mishmash of chronology even in the events it does correctly predict, like Elaida’s coup not happening until after both the (remarkably ineffective, apparently) Black Ajah Purge and Egwene becoming Amyrlin, so clearly it was more about laying out the general shape of future events than it was about pinpoint accuracy. Which is, I must say, a pretty clever way of getting prophetic foreshadowing into your story without having to commit to it in a way which might write you into a corner later.
Sheriam sighed, glanced at the other Aes Sedai again, then dropped her voice to a whisper and spoke swiftly. “This is something known only to a few, child, even in the Tower. You should not learn it now, if ever, but I will tell you. There is—a weakness in being able to channel. That we learn to open ourselves to the True Source means that we can be opened to other things.”
Verin’s reasonings behind her actions may be odd, but Sheriam’s motivations, now that we know she is Black Ajah, continue to make even less sense. Why on earth would she tell Egwene about the 13×13 trick? Why would a Darkfriend give away such critical information? I don’t get it.
Well, at least my former complaint about the 13×13 trick being an unfired Chekhov’s Gun is now extremely laid to rest, even if Egwene herself never had to deal with it directly. *waves to Androl and Pevara in the future*
That said, I can’t decide whether it annoys me or not that the number of Black Ajah who leave with Liandrin—thirteen—never ends up being more than a red herring.
Chapter 23: Sealed
Redux Commentary
It’s kind of funny to remember that until Alanna’s speech here, we really didn’t know about the functions of the various Ajahs, at least not in so many words. I mean, it wasn’t hard to figure out the general character of Browns, for example.
The Blue Ajah “function” is sort of hilariously vague, though, especially when compared to the other Ajahs’. I mean, “we meddle in causes” sounds ambiguous to the point of meaninglessness when stacked next to, say, “we hunt down and gentle men who can channel.” Say what you want about the Reds, but at least they knew how to craft a rock solid mission statement.
I’m pretty sure it was this chapter that really started the fad in the fandom of choosing which Ajah you would be. I’m also pretty sure I’ve made myself a liar on the subject over the years by flip-flopping back and forth between Blue and Green.
But I guess it doesn’t matter, since The Powers That Be have evidently decided I would have been a Maiden of the Spear anyway. Which… seems legit, so.
Most of the rest of this chapter is about throwing suspicion on Alanna of being Black, when we now know that she’s only (“only”) guilty of having no concept of personal boundaries whatsoever—to eventual infuriating effect. But that’s all long in the future as well.
And so this is where we stop, mine chirren! Come back next Tuesday for more Mat-y goodness! Whoo!
Hail Leeh!!
If Verin whispered a summons in passing, how did she have time to describe a tapestry in enough detail to be recognized?
It doesn’t make sense that nobody notices for three days that the Keeper cannot channel any more (and of course the Agelessness would have vanished).
Does no Brown or White ever wonder why women who are novices and Accepted for a long time don’t get the Agelessness until after they are raised to AS? Or why Wilders don’t have it?
Is Alanna’s request really that unusual? I thought even Amyrlins sometimes do penances.
Some random thoughts.
1) I do not think it is a coincidence in Egwene’s third trip, Eladia’s confidant is named Gyldan. While in Tarabon, Moghedien is masquerading as a servant named Gyldin. (I would also note that the first name of the head of the Red Ajah at this time began with the letter “G”.)
2) Leigh — I do not understand what Eben’s death has to do with Beldeine’s bonding Kanfor. Beldeine had not previously bonded Eben. That was Daigain.
3) What I found interesting was that in the first trip, Egwene’s daughter was the name of one of the Black Sisters who fled with Liandrin.
4) I think that Sheriam was never a die hard Black Ajah fanatic. She followed her orders but did not relish them like some others we saw during the series. She only sought out the Black Ajah as a means of advancing. I am not sure if she was a true believer. Thus, I do not think she looked at telling this information to Egwene as reveal of state secrets (so to speak).
5) What was foreshadowing in the third trip was Egwene becoming Amyrlin without swearing on the Oath Rod.
6) Since Alanna is in this scene, I think sometime after her Warder died in Two Rivers, Verin used her form of Compulsion on Alanna. It was that Compulsion that led Alanna to believe that bonding Rand would be the best way of tying him to the White Tower and keeping him alive until the Last Battle.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
Not really. One of the Forsaken’s (I’m guessing Ishamael, but maybe Bel’al?) plans of luring Rand to Tear and ambushing him there could very easily have been to shield him and then turn him using 13X13 if he didn’t turn willingly. Supergirls/Mat/Moiraine et.al. wrecked any plan involving Liandrin and co. pretty thoroughly, so not so much a red herring as a “what might have been scenario.”
It was nice to see little more of what the Ajahs are about in this chapter. We gradually move from: “Red bad, Blue good” in the earlier parts of the story to a more nuanced take, though it takes a long time for the Reds to move from the “bad” section of the gauge, if they ever really do.
I think this brings up an interesting criticism in fandom, the Ajahs, with the possible exception of the Red, White, & Blue (only because what they do is so vague), do not seem to do much in regard to their chosen mission statements. You don’t see Greens organizing themselves into platoons to go help out along the Blight in fighting the shadow, the Yellows are not setting up Healing centers around the continent, the Browns are not founding libraries, schools and centers of learning, etc.
I think the answer is that the various ‘purposes’ claimed by each faction is merely a philosophy in how they approach being Aes Sedai, and they view the politics of meddling in the world as the main purpose of the order and the White Tower as a whole. Over time, much like modern political parties, various issues and positions find themselves calcified into the Ajah ‘platform’ that are only tangentially related to their original purpose. Thus the Greens, though the ‘Battle Ajah’ dedicated to fighting the shadow, may view a zest for life and a just, prosperous society as a great counter point to the influences of the shadow than constantly getting their ‘hands dirty’ with battling Trollocs and the like. In this regard, perhaps the Blues are the most true to their purpose, both because their purpose is so nebulous and also because it is so close to what the ‘core mission’ of the White Tower has become over the centuries: meddle and manipulate behind the scenes.
If there was a True Purpose (and not just a numeric coincidence) behind the public defection/departure, it was most likely to serve as a Rand Turner in one form or another. Tear would have been the big man-trap, but then Moggy starts making moon-eyes at the Domination band found in…I want to say Tanchico? Been a bit. It would have had to be one of the other Forsaken that did this though, since Ishy would be adamantly opposed to such an action on any number of levels–breaking the Dragon via mundane methods is OK, but soul-surgery is probably out of bounds for the end game he’s looking to cause.
So the Gun in this case misfired, but they sent it back to the shop to get it upgraded to fully-automatic for the series finale.
Verin is great. And has a Trolloc skull in her study. And an interesting ancient book. Among other things
Egwene’s Acceptatron daughter has the same name as one of the Black Ajah sisters who just left the Tower and will later capture, and then be captured by, Egwene. One of the remarkably few times multiple WoT characters have the exact same firsf name.
“Why would anyone want to be Gray Ajah? Why not? Law, mediation, and political negotiations aren’t my thing, but plenty of people choose to do them in our world, and they evidently appeal to some Randlanders too.
I’m not sure how to properly get this to the attention of the right people, but:
The Reread Redux Part 8 appears to be indexed with the original Dragon Reborn Reread instead of the rest of them. I thought surely someone else would have noticed and fixed the links by now since it had me pretty confused when trying to navigate earlier, but evidently not.
Anyway, since this is also my first comment here, thanks to Leigh and Tor for this. It’s been great getting to see someone else’s thoughts on the series–twice!
@8 – Thanks for bringing this to our attention – it should be fixed now and show up in the right place on the index.
I always go between Brown and Yellow, although a touch of Gray as well (I like mediating, or at least the idea of it). Too bad those are all such unpleasant colors to wear ;)
The Acceptatron is such a great scene partially because it’s so nebulous and not everything about it was nicely tied up/foreshadowed. The weird ‘alternate’ universes were kind of eerie and it made for fun speculation.
@9 — You’re welcome! I see the links within each part are fixed now, but it’s still in the wrong section here: http://www.tor.com/series/wot-reread/
Er, never mind.
I think the relevance of the Ajahs depends on the Aes Sedai. Some are more Aes Sedai than they are a Blue or a Grey or a Green. Some are more dedicated to their Ajah than the general mission of th Tower. And actually, I think the Grey is one of the most practical sounding Ajahs. It’s like a little wannabe United Nations, or a group of lawyers. For all her faults and her great betrayal, I actually quite liked Beonin. She talked about traveling the world and deciding matters of law. She talked about giving justice to the meanest of hovels as well as palaces, and talked about how personal the crime of murder was to her. So some sisters do, in fact, travel about practicing the tenets of their Ajah. It just depends on the sister.
Heh. I would say I’d be Brown, duh…except that I’m also an activist. And an educator above all, but it sounds like there are few opportunities to do that outside the Tower. Humph.
Mind you, activism would be different in a place where climate change is magically induced by Satan Shai’tan, you are the religious fanatics’ prime target, fossil fuels don’t exist, and the invasive wildlife is, well…
Around book 6, I started saying the series was going to be 13 books long. I think rumors had it pegged for 10 at that point. I wasn’t on the internet and had no fandom connection.
Brown. No question.
But the Yellows not being a “doctors without borders” type group was a major disappointment.
Brown, if I were female.
AndrewHB @3
I have a vague reference in my notes about Gyldan being Moghedien.
Whatever happened to the rest of Liandrin’s crew anyway? Two or three of them were still running around at the end of the LB. The unnamed ones that Thom killed?
The Acceptatron™ was one of my favourite parts of the series. Just found it so fascinating. I didn’t realise the amount of foreshadowing present.
Ways @16
Only two unaccounted for are Berylla (the Blue) and Marillin (the Brown, cat lady). Rianna and Liandrin are also alive but Rianna got captured within a Stedding and Liandrin is still hanging out with the Seanchan.
I was honestly a little peeved by how unceremoniously some of them were forgotten. It would have been nice to know the individual missions that Moghedien assigned them since a point was made regarding some of their reactions.
Regarding why Sheriam would tell such piece of information to Egwene, maybe she was prospecting Egwene to see if she could be black? Sheriam didn’t know what happened in the Acceptatron, maybe she thought Egwene had the experience of becoming a Darkfriend through this proccess.
I think Sheriam, as a Black Ajah Mistress of Novices, must be responsible in the Black Ajah Hierarchy for prospecting new Black Ajah recruits. Egwene, as one of the most powerful Accepted to come in the last 1000 years, would seem a prize to the Black Ajah that would gain Sheriam status inside the Black Ajah hierarchy, and all Sheriam wanted inside the Black Ajah was more status and more power. She wasn’t really a true believer, just ambitious.
After reading the description of each Ajah, I think the one that I have the least respect for is the Yellow. If you are Healers then, by the Creator, go out and HEAL. There should have been hospitals in each major city, except Amador, obviously, and maybe Tear. Staffed by Yellow sisters, administered by a Blue or Grey, with warders and Greens as protection. Not random Aes Sedai roaming the countyside.
Imagine how many more girls they may have found to join the Tower, as well. How many who could learn dreamed of wearing the shawl but couldn’t afford the trip?
@19
That would require cooperation between the Ajahs, heh, but what a great mission for the WT.
What no one has pointed out is that Sheriam Sedai is one of the more influential of the Black-and-Blue Ajah. This we see most plainly on the way from Salidar to Tar Valon, (dis)courtesy of a rather more dedicated minion of the Dark One.
Aerona Greyjoy @7: Never mind the skull; the question that has been bugging me ever since I read the series for the very first time is how the hell did she learn to read Trolloc script?
Even if Coreanin Nedeal wasn’t a great dreamwalker, she still survived going into the very dangerous T’AR for several decades, so her notes couldn’t have been useless. Verin was a bit disparaging concerning her because it turned out that she used a ter’angreal, but lack of natural affinity and instincts for dreamwalking would have only made it an even greater accomplishment and Nedeal’s notes only more valuable. So, who knows? Maybe Verin had to balance her Black oaths and/or orders from a FS against discreetly helping the SGs and that was a compromise that she arrived at.
The Acceptatron chapters (Nyn’s in TGH too) are among my favourites in all of WoT, with only Rand in the crystal columns in TSR edging them out. It was all the more disappointing to see how lacklustre Test for the Shawl was in The New Spring, sigh.
Re: recruitment of Egwene for BA being a coup for Sheriam… I dunno. At least not retroactively, after the OP strength hierarchy was introduced into the series and it has been made clear that it also held sway in the BA. I mean, finding people who are going to outrank you and boss you around just barely makes sense for light-aligned AS, where pride in their Ajahs and their prestige, as well as genuine concern for the strengh of the WT could mitigate all the disadvantages somewhat. But with the BAs, who are supposed to be selfish and willing to get ahead no matter the cost?! Forget it. Only genuine DO fanatics would try to recruit somebody who would surpass them, which most BAs really weren’t.
Which is why, BTW, the OP strength hierarchy carrying over to the BA makes zero sense, as it removes the biggest carrot that going over to the Darkside offers other Darkfriends – escape from the power structure and strictures of normal society. And also, surely the kind of people who’d be ready to break all their AS conditioning anyway would not be stopped by a mere tradition.
Frankly, it still seems to me that Sheriam wasn’t initially conceived as a BA, but turned into one later in the series.
Finally, I strongly suspect that all the Ajahs very much used to fulfill their stated purpose in the world prior to WT’s clash with Hawkwing and resultant purge of the AS outside the White Tower. Those who were most rooted in the outside communities and most disposed to work for the benefit of mundanes were slaughtered and as a result the WT turned back onto itself, just like Ishy intended. This still doesn’t entirely explain the lack of at least semi-permanent presence of Greens and Yellows in the Borderlands, were the AS were worshipped, but if they had been there, then Rand’s actions at Tarwin’s Gap would have led to him being immediately recognized as a channeler, I guess? And/or would have made them look less dramatic? Still doesn’t make a lot of sense, IMHO, particularly since it was known in advance that the Trolloc incursion would be massive and genuinely dangerous to survival of Shienar, but whatever.
The concept of the WT educating non-channeling daughters of nobles, etc. was also dropped after TEoTW, more is the pity.
@22, MjF: I wonder that, too. She says in TGH that in the Borderlands, “too many have learned to read Trolloc script.” But that doesn’t explain how they do it, or why anyone but a scholar would want to. What do Trollocs write where humans can read it, aside from crime-scene graffiti?
Isilel @23: I would guess that the power hierarchy carried over into the BA to make it less likely that someone would slip up in public and give a clue that two women were ignoring the hierarchy. That might start people questioning about _why_ they were doing so.
I do agree with you that maintaining the hierarchy does seem to remove an incentive to join the BA.
Bad_platypus @25:
But run-of-the mill DFs seemed to cope with their secret hierarchies buckling the outer societal hierarchies quite well? All that stuff we have heard about a beggar being the most highly placed DF in some big city, I forget which. And the BAs only knew identities of a few of their fellows at a time anyway. Also, I imagine that not slipping on the issue of not really being bound by the Oaths would have been far more difficult.
Frankly, the whole strength hierarchy idea always seemed rather dumb to me and not really compatible with the political structure of the WT. What’s the point of all the manoeuvring and intrigue, if everybody comes with an in-built irrevocable glass ceiling and ingrained habit of deferring to those stronger than oneself?
And one of my greatest disappointments was that neither did this stupid and counter-productive system get overturned towards the end of the series, nor did we really see genuinely weaker AS (not downgraded powerhorses) contribute anything significant towards the plot, be it through their rare OP talents/skills, or intellectual talents, or spirit, etc. Evin Verin was among the upper 30% strength-wise. You’d think that weak channelers would have learned to weave very economically and thus could make ideal circle leaders, for instance, getting done more with equal or less power. Sigh.
Isilel @@@@@ 26: So true. With the very rare exception of Cadsuane valueing Daigian’s insights (which had nothing to do with her very low power level, of course), I can’t think of any examples of high power-types regarding lower power-types as anything but an underling to do the high power-type’s bidding. Among the Asha’man I suspect Androl may have been the only low power type who had a special talent. Of course, the WT AS have been a deeply flawed organization for thousands of years. I certainly retain the hope that Jordan would have fixed many of these flaws in the outrigger novels. The personal loss to Harriet and others is the greatest loss, of course, but not having RJ with us to continue his work ranks a close second to the rest of us.
So, for a chapter which mostly covers information we already know, I have to say there’s still some interesting philosophy in it and some unanswered questions!
The first bit is the piece from the book about Ishamael/Ba’alzamon. I can’t help thinking Verin made sure to be studying it, and to explain it to Egwene, because she wanted her to figure out Ba’alzamon’s true identity and pass it on to Rand (and Moiraine, as she does at the end of this book). Why? Because other than Mesaana (who must be out this early, since she is the one who sent out Liandrin and her coven in the previous book and she knew about Be’lal’s trap in Tear) and Alviarin, it is most likely Ishamael who was giving Verin her Black Ajah orders. So she’d not only know of him being out (and using the Ba’alzamon name), she’d consider it imperative to tell someone of the Light about it. Doing it this way, of course, doesn’t abrogate her Oaths to the Dark One. Sneaky Verin is sneaky!
Next we have the info on the World of Dreams, which as far as we know Verin is absolutely correct about. But if TAR is a constant like the Dark One and the Creator, that rather makes the fact it is being destroyed/compressing/dissolving in AMoL very unsettling indeed. This seems to suggest that even if the Dark One isn’t as powerful as the Creator, he at least has the power to do some of what he says, if he can cause the third constant of the universe to come apart by his touch/freedom/influence upon the Pattern.
The list of ter’angreals Liandrin and her coven stole: the majority of these had to do with either entering TAR or dreaming in general (the hedgehog). The amber plaque, iron disc, and silver ring are all recovered from Amico, Joiya, and Ispan respectively, and the glass bracelet is used by Temaile in WH and presumably recovered in KoD. In fact we can probably assume all the ter’angreal got recovered at the end of that book and then placed with the Ebou Dar stash (did that fall into enemy hands when Caemlyn did, or Elayne bring them with her to Merrilor?). And of course we know why the balefire rod was taken. But what in the world was the point of the dice ter’angreal, other than to be a red herring for Mat’s luck? Did the coven ever even actually use it? (Like to keep from being destroyed by the balefire rod, or to keep Elayne from knowing they were there at the house on Full Moon Street?)
And of course the ring. While we can assume Verin got away with revealing the truth about Liandrin and her coven by claiming she was betraying other Darkfriends to protect her own “true” allegiance, or because Mesaana and Be’lal wanted Rand lured to Tear and this info could help Egwene push Rand there as well, I have to wonder about the bit with Anaiya. Siuan later says she never ordered Verin to do any of this (or at least not the part about the ring), but Verin says she had spoken with Anaiya and learned Egwene was a Dreamer. Did she just put on her dippy act and get Anaiya talking so she could learn this info and then act on it? Or did Anaiya tell her on her own, and for some reason never tell Siuan she had done so? And could Verin have given Egwene the ring because she knew her Accepted test was coming, and she suspected it might resonate with the arches and give her true visions of the future? If so that was quite the risk considering Egwene almost died, but Verin is certainly one to take risks to save the world from the Dark One.
I also have to wonder: what happened to the ring in the end? I can’t recall it being mentioned after TGS/ToM. Egwene didn’t need it to go to TAR any more, did she? So did Siuan have it? Did she give it to Elayne? Or did Egwene somehow still have it with her? If she had it, it ended up sealed in crystal and probably destroyed. If Siuan had it, it would probably have been lost in the command tent after she was killed, unless she left it behind at her own tent. If Elayne had it, then it’s probably fine.
And then there is the bit about being injured in TAR and having scars remain. When Sheriam and the other Salidar Six train with Nynaeve and Siuan, the injuries they receive heal just fine without scars, but Perrin ends up with a scar like this after facing Slayer in ToM. This would seem to imply such injuries only occur if you are harmed by someone/thing that is in TAR in the flesh, as Slayer was. So…did Verin encounter Slayer (and that’s how she knew about the Dark Prophecy and who Luc was in TSR)? Or did Ishamael do something to her there, since we know he went into TAR in the flesh?
Much less far-reaching, but still rather important to an animal-lover like me: whatever happened to Verin’s owl? She had no real friends in the Tower, and both Siuan and Egwene end up dying. Maybe Leane took care of it? Or one of her fellow Browns?
I also have to applaud Leigh for her summation of how TAR’s chaos balances the Pattern’s order to create a stable reality. This also explains why the Creator would create the Dark One in the first place (as a being which embodies chaos is likely necessary to weave it into the actual structure of reality), even as he also sealed him in his prison to keep his chaos from overwhelming and taking over everything. And Leigh’s reference to TAR/the Pattern as “universe as Mobius strip” is perfect considering the dream ring is itself a Mobius strip. (How easy is it to show a Mobius strip in a two-dimensional image though? That could explain why the dream ring icon doesn’t look like one.)
LOL at Egwene thinking she trusts Verin (considering she later tells her in TGS she never did) and that she couldn’t be a Darkfriend. She wasn’t, and yet…no wonder Verin blinked and shook her head.
As for why Verin never gave her the notes: one possibility of course is that this was part of how she was able to justify herself to Ishamael/Alviarin, that she had to give the ring to Egwene to maintain her cover as a Lightfriend, but she withheld the notes so there’d be a good chance Egwene would be badly hurt or die. Although Nedeal being such a poor Dreamer her notes wouldn’t have helped or even been counterproductive, and the logic of letting Egwene learn her way alone so she could grow stronger/be more innovative, creative, and intuitive are also explanations with merit.
And then we have the Acceptatron visions. I have to say first off that while each one got successively more predictive and portentous (even taking into account what they got wrong), even the first vision showed signs of being more real than usual. Not only does Egwene almost remember why she shouldn’t be Rand’s wife, but we have their daughter being named Joiya, the same as one of the Black Ajah, and of course the references to the Seanchan which are as much part of Egwene’s past as Rand now.
Side note: still think Sheriam was a bitch for saying she hoped those who never came out of the arches, if it was because they wanted to stay in the lives they found there, were having unhappy lives. Considering she spoke about shirking responsibilities, and her Black status, that is especially rich. Also it seems Min and Elayne are not the only ones who tempt fate, what with Egwene’s “the next vision can’t be worse than the last.”
The second vision is indeed extremely prescient when it comes to what happens to Caemlyn. I also have to note how much these visions revolve around Rand, trying to protect or save him in some manner or other. While obviously things happen later which made some readers doubt her, it’s very clear at this point how much Rand still means to Egwene, even if she’s going to tell him she only sees him as a brother and gives her blessing to him and Elayne in TSR. So the groundwork is there for her to still care about him, want to work with him, and eventually even help him from beyond the grave in AMoL, despite the conflict over the seals.
The Turning trick: I admit it is very strange Sheriam would reveal this info to Egwene, but aside from the fact it appears Egwene’s knowledge shocked the confirmation out of her, and Rand’s ta’veren effect (or even Mat’s too, since he’s still in the Tower) could have made her do so since it would be very important for this info to be passed on, there is this: consider how Liandrin and her coven use the info to terrify the Supergirls when they capture them in Tear. This would not have worked if they hadn’t already known about it. So Mesaana or Alviarin may have ordered Sheriam to reveal it at some point as prep work for what the coven would do later, and her missing a step here is because she never expected an opportunity to turn up at that time, in that manner.
Still, I do agree that having her possess the knowledge because it had been done to her would probably cover this discrepancy better, and also explain Sheriam being Black. But considering what the process does to a channeler, Sheriam could not have remained herself, and everyone in the Tower but especially Siuan and Leane would have noticed the change. Granted we didn’t know that at this point, but assuming Jordan already had worked out what Turning does, he’d have known that couldn’t explain Sheriam’s allegiance without it being given away. So sadly, she really did choose of her own volition out of ambition, only to regret it when it was too late.
Also, while Liandrin and her coven being a red herring for the Turning is generally true, since as I just mentioned they do try to threaten the girls with it in Tear (and Be’lal claims he’s going to use it, first on them and then on Moiraine), it’s not a complete red herring. Just one that didn’t get fully taken advantage of, probably so that we’d be lulled into a false sense of security before it returned with a vengeance at the Black Tower.
And then we have the last vision. And first let me say that I agree with Leigh from way back when, while of course by this point I was already strongly invested in the series, this chapter made me sit up and take notice (more than Nynaeve’s testing did, for certain), seeing how it was not only pulse-pounding and dramatic and tragically emotional, but how it pulled the rug out from under us on what might be coming. Basically, telling us we couldn’t be complacent and things would get worse before they got better, even (and especially) for the Aes Sedai. So well done there.
As for the specifics: aside from what Leigh comments on that didn’t come true, and what we already know did, I have to note a few very interesting foreshadowings I don’t recall being pointed out before. 1) Elaida being foremost among the Red Sitters (something Jordan later revealed to us happened off-screen to explain how she got enough votes in the Hall to depose Siuan and become Amyrlin) 2) Beldeine being told to help take out Egwene if she had any “hope of getting the Power back”, which obviously foreshadows that a way to undo stilling will be discovered 3) the specific statement, after she guesses Elaida is now the Amyrlin: “But how could she make them accept her so quickly, with me not tried, not sentenced?”; this rather reflects the situation with Siuan and how Elaida becomes Amyrlin so quickly.
I can only assume the reason we didn’t see Elayne’s test, aside from issues of time and Egwene’s obviously being more important, is that like Nynaeve’s it wasn’t prophetic and thus not worth seeing. By her reaction I can imagine that her visions involved her having to leave/abandon Rand too, and possibly Gawyn, Galad, and her mother. I’d wonder if any of these latter visions might have foreshadowed what does end up happening with Morgase, but based on Elayne’s later thoughts and actions (i.e. lack of recognition), I guess not.
As for Beldeine showing up but not really doing anything and Gyldan not showing up at all, that’s probably just Jordan showing us that sometimes a cigar is still just a cigar. Or to show that even with the ring making the Acceptatron produce visions closer to true prophecy, there’s still going to be made-up/untrue elements as there were for Nynaeve’s test. (And I would also point out Gyldan is one letter away from Gyldin, Moghedien’s servant disguise among Liandrin and her coven and she was certainly quite the adversary and thorn in their sides. But then again she never told Nynaeve or Elayne about this, and they never learned that was Moghedien’s alias, so in the end it just acts as an Easter egg of sorts for the reader, I guess.) As to the Purge not being as effective in the vision as in reality…a good number of Blacks did still get away in reality (and Mesaana too), so if matters had gone differently I could see what almost happened to Egwene in the vision still happening.
Quick note: the fact that Siuan “sent them after thirteen Black Ajah but didn’t mention that was the number that could turn them to the Shadow” (because of course she probably didn’t know this) may provide right here another reason Sheriam told Egwene–to make her suspicious and distrustful of Siuan.
Not a whole lot to say about this chapter otherwise, since indeed it is mostly about making Alanna (and Elaida) look suspicious and explaining a bit more about the Ajahs, but I do admit this was where I started getting more approving of the Aes Sedai, at least in what they were meant to do/be and hoping they could again. Even if a lot of the Green didn’t perform well (at least during the Seanchan attack on the Tower), Alanna acquitted herself well in the Two Rivers and there were others who were pretty awesome during the Last Battle. And of course Egwene herself, who even if she never chose an Ajah and ended up being an Amyrlin of all and none was most certainly a quintessential Green (yes, right down to the arrogance and tendency to control and take over). Hence why she asked about it, after learning she must have been Green in her vision. No one could deny her Green-ness after the Seanchan attack!
I never really saw a problem with there being an Ajah dedicated to mediation. Aside from the fact that keeping the peace and maintaining diplomacy is a very large part of what the White Tower was doing when it wasn’t fighting Shadowspawn and trying (and apparently failing) to prepare for Tarmon Gai’don, there’s the simple fact a lot of people do in fact find value and meaning in defusing conflict and getting people to make agreements and treat one another fairly. For example, while I think I’d be a Blue or Green (if I weren’t a Brown, because I love knowledge), I definitely appreciate what the Gray does. I don’t think I have the temperament to be a mediator, but if it weren’t for that, I’d totally join the Gray.
I am curious if part of the reason the Blues’ mission statement is so vague is because their purpose by its very nature involves a lot of cutthroat dealing, political maneuvering, and clever plotting–i.e., Daes Dae’mar, which many believe the Aes Sedai invented to begin with. Basically, if you’re going to meddle in causes, you don’t want anyone to know too much of what you do, how you do it, or which exact causes you’re interested in, or they can counter you or otherwise be prepared for your involvement. Keeping it vague may help allow for more surprise/obfuscation/manipulation.
@2 birgit: Obviously the fact nobody noticed Beldeine couldn’t channel anymore, and the Agelessness not vanishing, like Egwene being Ageless despite not having sworn the Oaths, is more examples of Egwene’s knowledge and preconceptions coloring the vision. I do agree it is odd the Brown and White haven’t researched that. The only thing I can conclude is that either they did but no one else was interested in hearing their findings, or for some reason neither was willing to try unswearing the Oaths to see what would happen. The rest can be explained by there being no stilled women around to study (since they flee to die or make new lives for themselves), and Aes Sedai not being comfortable being around them themselves. That and the combination of there being less and less wilders over the years and the ones there are being snapped up by the Kin (who are not common knowledge in the Tower, and their non-Ageless members being similarly unavailable to the Tower).
As for Alanna’s request, while what you say is true, that sort of thing actually is unusual since it seems to be reserved for extremely recalcitrant Aes Sedai, or Amyrlins/Sitters who crossed major lines and caused too much trouble for the Tower. And since these mutinies and deposings are in the Thirteenth Depository, Siuan would not acknowledge Alanna’s request as being normal since this would give away knowledge she’s not supposed to share. It’s also a way to separate Siuan from Elaida later, who gives such punishments like it’s going out of style. (Teslyn, Joline, Shemerin.)
@3 AndrewHB: Oh my, so many thoughts paralleling my own! I love that we agree on 1) and 3), and your theory in point 6) is one I’ve believed for years and pretty much still do. As for 4), you could well be right, even taking into account my thoughts above on why she told. In fact with her not being a die-hard fanatic, her telling Egwene could even be a form of rebellion, warning Egwene so she could warn the rest of the Tower before it was too late. It may not have applied to her, but she could well have witnessed a ceremony to know it was real…
@@.-@ KalvinKingsley: It was indeed Be’lal. And as I pointed out, Liandrin and the coven threatened the Supergirls with it too, so it’s definitely a what-might-have-been that got derailed (and thus threw off the scent about it happening successfully and in large numbers later).
@5 gadget: Very interesting observations. I think you’re right on the money, especially about the Blues. This may be another reason why Jordan made Moiraine a Blue and had her be the first one we meet, since her Ajah’s mission, being closer to the Tower’s as a whole, made her a good way to introduce Aes Sedai and their role to the reader. (She’s been called a universal or quintessential Aes Sedai for good reason, after all.)
@6 hammerlock: Good point. Ishy wanted the world to end, and he believed (rightly, based on what Jordan tells us) that the only way this would happen is if the Dragon joined the Shadow and of his own free will. This could explain why he was arguing in TAR with Be’lal (because he wanted to Turn him) and why Moghedien and the coven were willing to try the Domination Band after Ishamael wasn’t around to stop them. He may have ended up allowing Mesaana and Be’lal to try it because by this point he was convinced Rand wasn’t going to join and him getting Callandor was something the Shadow absolutely did not want. If he hadn’t died, Ishy probably would have said something like “See? It won’t work, we have to get him with us willingly. Now kiss my boots and let’s get back to my plan.” (That and he would have punished Lanfear, since her aid to the Supergirls may well have contributed to the plan’s failure, considering they kept the coven occupied and them being there is why Mat broke into the Stone. Note one of the first things he did after coming back as Moridin was mindtrapping both Moghedien and Cyndane.)
@7 AeronaGreenjoy: Well said re: the Gray. I still think some of my favorite sisters in the series who weren’t Blue or Green were Gray. (Meidani comes to mind, and Merana was fairly likable too. There’s also Annoura, Tiana, and Yukiri.)
@13 GingerSnap: I forgot those details about Beonin. What she did in KoD may have been pretty infuriating, but kudos to her for all that. (And she did end up making the right choice in the end, helping to bring down Elaida.) I still think my favorite is Meidani though, I love her room in the Tower when Egwene goes to visit her there in TGS.
@15 Braid Tug: I agree about the Yellows. But I suspect that will finally start to change thanks to Nynaeve and Rosil. (And Elayne will encourage it as well, since she was totally in favor of Rand’s idea of schools for everyone and had already intended to use the Kin as a permanent hospital in Andor outside the Tower.)
@16 Ways, @17 Astus: More specifically, Falion is killed by Aviendha and Cadsuane’s group at Thakan’dar, and Jeaine Caide is killed by Thom, while Marillin Gemalphin was freed from prison by Mellar and never seen again. This last particularly bothers me since Jordan kept her around for so long, kept using the cats to identify her as being present, and then…nothing.
As for Berylla, I still agree with the theory she was the one disguised as the Shiny Dragon Man so as to manipulate and control Masema; as a former Blue she’d be quite good at that, Moghedien was right there in Ghealdan to know about the Prophet and would surely have wanted to take advantage of the chaos he caused, and Sanderson did tell us the Shiny Dragon Man was a woman. (It could have been Cyndane or Moghedien under orders from Moridin, particularly since he had been wanting the legs of the tripod taken out and the Shiny Dragon Man had ordered Masema to kill Perrin, but I got the impression he kept them close to his side until the last book and had them do his bidding via Darkfriends, like the one Cyndane was questioning when the Cleansing started. And the Aes Sedai seem more likely to be the ones using a Mirror of Mists.)
@18 Ryamano: That’s a very intriguing, and unnerving, thought!
@19 Cloric: Well said and agreed. I think Jordan agreed too and that’s why he had one of the most outspoken, powerful, activist characters be a Yellow, so that Nynaeve could make these changes. Heck, with Romanda dead and Sedore revealed to be Black, the only really high-level Yellow left is Suana, so Nynaeve would have even more clout in the Tower post-Tarmon Gai’don. At least enough to influence the creation of these hospitals.
@22 MjF: Good question. Dare we think she learned it after joining the Black? Or had examples of their script somehow been claimed during the Trolloc Wars and were in the Tower library for her to study?
@23 Isilel: Agreed on Verin likely having to compromise. You have a point about the strength hierarchy, although apparently the instinct to follow it is deeply-ingrained. Good point also about how the Aes Sedai likely to help mundanes and work outside the Tower were slaughtered by Hawkwing just as Ishy wanted.
I do also have to wonder why the Greens and Yellows didn’t have outposts in the Borderlands. The most likely reason to want to avoid this, the fear of something happening to them outside the Tower’s walls, doesn’t make sense, since outside of Tear the only people who would want to harm them are the Whitecloaks and I am not sure they were even allowed in the Borderlands–they were very much a southern thing what with their attempts to take over Illian and Altara, and were only wanting to expanding into Andor and Tarabon/Arad Doman. I can only assume the reason they didn’t try for Tear despite its anti-Aes Sedai sentiments (aside from Illian and Altara being in between) is how strong the military there was–the High Lords would not have wanted an autonomous military organization there any more than Morgase did in Andor.
So…yeah, not sure why they weren’t in the Borderlands. Maybe they used to have outposts there but this fell out of practice after the Aes Sedai became more insular/the Aes Sedai became complacent and thought the Blight wasn’t going to be causing as much trouble/the Borderlanders in their pride told them they could handle it themselves? Which would explain why none were on hand when Malkier fell and had to come from the Tower, but that very event would, you’d think, have told the Aes Sedai they needed to (re) create outposts. Then again, maybe the Black Ajah managed to blunt all such efforts/proposals in the Hall through various seemingly reasonable arguments.
@26 Isilel: It is sad, but again, we can only hope such things may change over time. I will say this, that while we don’t see the power-deferral system change, two big things which are left as Egwene’s legacy are Cadsuane becoming Amyrlin and the huge influx of new novices. The former was someone who did not dismiss someone for their weakness in the Power or even whether they had the Power at all (see how she treated Daigian and Min). And the latter group surely contains women of varying strengths who, thanks to having been a part of the regular world for so long, would not be inclined to defer easily to another just because of their strength in the Power and would have the cleverness/dexterity/think-outside-the-box mentality you describe as needed for circle leaders and such. So the combination of these things, plus the influence of Nynaeve and Elayne, and the Kin, and the new arrangement with the Windfinders and the Wise Ones who use different systems, could all help to eventually change things.
Why not? It’s not like Egwene would otherwise cheerfully hang out with 13 random Aes Sedai and their 13 Myrdraal friends if she didn’t know they could turn her. 13 Myrdraal showing up in one place for any reason would already be a red alert situation, knowing they can be used to turn someone doesn’t really make it any more alarming. So Sheriam gets to give super-secret knowledge to Egwene to further make herself look trustworthy, and loses nothing for it.