Hi, salt! Hi, pepper! (Seasons’ Greetings!)
…Yes, I know, I am a terrible, terrible person. Here, have the last Wheel of Time Reread Redux post of the year as my apology!
Today’s Redux post will cover Chapters 1 and 2 of The Dragon Reborn, originally reread in 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!
Before we begin, Scheduling Note: I was gonna try and get in another post before the end of the year, but it turns out that’s not happening. So, there is no post next Tuesday, December 29th; the Reread Redux will resume on January 5th.
Onward!
Chapter 1: Waiting
Redux Commentary
I complained in the original commentary that it’s never explained how Moiraine’s women “just know” where to go, “like the coin thing”.
Well, the coin thing, as it turns out, does eventually get an explanation (if one I felt was a little squirrelly), but this thing never does. At least not as far as I recall. Nor does Moiraine’s apparent ability to have nebulous psychic connections to people get a reuse later, which seems like a serious waste of resources on Moiraine’s part, considering she spends 95% of TDR trying to figure out where the hell Rand is.
I know, I know, it probably doesn’t work that way. But my point is, it’s solely speculation on how the thing works, because it seems (to me, anyway) to be totally outside how the Power seems to work for almost everyone else.
Except possibly Rand himself, but that’s attributable to general Messiah-ness on his part. So what’s Moiraine’s excuse?
Aaaand I just mentioned this to a friend who’s read the books, and she shrugged and answered, “She’s Gandalf.”
…well. Okay, fine. WHATEVER.
Perrin’s confusion about why the Shienarans defer to him is adorable. I mean, he’s actually correct at this point about his youth and greenness, but he also clearly has no clue whatsoever about how intimidating a picture he no doubt presents. Big musclebound dude with a giant scary axe and a giant scary bow and scary gold eyes that can see twice as far as regular people’s eyes, who hangs out with the Dragon Reborn? Yeah.
Though I would give a lot to know what theories or explanations the Shienarans have among themselves to explain Perrin’s eyes. It is rather surprising that such a deviation from the norm doesn’t have a more negative connotation to people who are constantly fighting literal monsters. But then, these particular Shienarans have known Perrin for quite a while now, so I guess they’ve decided to let it go. Good for them, not succumbing to easy prejudices. You go, Shienarans!
“It is possible to oppose evil without doing violence.” Her voice held the simplicity of someone stating an obvious truth.
Perrin grunted sourly, then immediately muttered an apology. “Would it were as you say, Mistress Leya.”
Oh yeah, this again. I’m pretty sure I’ve already gone down the merry lane of the pacifism debate re: the Tinkers—probably multiple times—so I’m not going to rehash it again, except to basically agree with Perrin: would that the world worked that way, indeed.
Re: ravens, I get the precaution, but man, seems really unfair on ravens. Do you know they’re some of the only birds who play?
Chapter 2: Saidin
Redux Commentary
“I am sorry, Min. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I did not mean to hurt you.”
She gave him a surprised look. “You didn’t hurt me. Blessed few people want to know what I see. The Light knows, I would not, if it were someone else who could do it.”
I dunno. If I knew that there was a reliable, non-bullshit way to know my own fate? I probably wouldn’t want to know, but at the same time I really would. Morbid fascination, I suppose. Even if I was fairly sure I would regret it, I don’t know that I would be able to resist asking anyway.
Min tossed, her head. “I just wish they didn’t have to be so… so bloody ta’veren all the time. Ta’veren tugging on one side, and Aes Sedai meddling on the other. What chance does a woman have?”
Loial shrugged. “Very little, I suppose, as long as she stays close to ta’veren.”
But again, would you be able to resist sticking around just to see what happens? Loial certainly can’t.
But then, that’s more of a chicken and egg question: does he want to stick around because ta’veren are fascinating, or are ta’veren fascinating because they want Loial to stick around?
Speaking of poultry:
“The Light burn me, she is right. They are all split up into little groups all over the plain, all across Tarabon and Arad Doman. If I join any one of them, the Whitecloaks and the Domani army and the Taraboners will be on top of them like a duck on a beetle.”
TIL that ducks do indeed eat beetles. And also, apparently, really shouldn’t be fed bread. Oops. I have fed a lot of bread to a lot of ducks in my life. Sorry, ducks!
But as to the actual relevant part of that quote: okay, Moiraine probably is right that joining a random band of Dragonsworn isn’t the smart move, but why not go back to Fal Dara, for example, and starting building up something there? Why just hole up in the ass-end of nowhere all this time?
I get that Moiraine is trying to gain more information before she makes a move, hence all her mystically-GPSed informants, but surely she has to see that just sitting there and doing nothing is making a literal pressure cooker out of Rand. I mean, even someone not staring down the barrel of involuntary insanity would be going stir-crazy in this situation, let alone Rand.
Unless that’s what she intended, of course, but I rather doubt that, considering her reaction to when Rand eventually does explode in a random direction.
I mentioned in the original commentary that Rand seems “visibly nuttier” here than he does in TGH, but I don’t know that I agree with that assessment right at this point. Later on in TDR, sure, but in this chapter his behavior seems… well, not normal (whatever “normal” means), but consisting of quite understandable reactions to stress, enforced boredom, and cabin fever.
There’s something about being stressed out in combination with being forced to do nothing that is enough to make even the world’s sanest person want to tear their hair out. God knows I would be climbing the walls at this point if I were Rand. At least if you’re frantically busy while being stressed out you have something to concentrate on. You’d think Moiraine would know that, too.
I do have to applaud, again, Perrin’s relative calm in facing Rand’s worryingly pressurized demeanor. (I said it was understandable, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t also worrying.) It’s shown over and over again throughout the story that the only things which keep Rand from completely losing his shit (up until TGS, anyway) are the people who treat him like he’s a person first and a possibly-loony Messiah figure second. And Perrin is one of the few male characters who actually succeeds at this to any extent; whether by accident or design, the women in Rand’s life are almost universally better at doing this than the men are.
(With the exception of Cadsuane, of course, who goes too far in the other direction. But that’s a rant for a much later book!)
Lan and Bashere are two of the other men I can think of offhand who also pull it off. Mat, of course, is total crap at treating Rand like a person first, which was about 90% of the reason I disliked him so much in the early books, and why I was likely quite relieved to learn he had left for Tar Valon.
Of course, now I’m relieved to learn he’s left for Tar Valon because now I know it means we’re getting to the part where Mat stops being annoying and starts being awesome. Yay!
But that time is not yet, my dears! In the meantime, have a delightful holiday season in whatever way you choose to celebrate it, and I’ll see you back here in the new year! Cheers!
The first chapters are mainly a recap and filling in what happened since the end of the last book. Later books no longer try to recap (there probably are just too many plotlines to make it feasible).
I’m not sure I would be able to resist the temptation to ask either. Then again, maybe I would, because I wouldn’t want to spend my life constantly wondering if/when something was going to happen or trying to overanalyze every single thing. I do that enough already.
One interesting thing is that Cadsuane and Egwene are polar opposites in how they treat Rand. Cadsuane forces him to the be savior he needs to be, playing mental games with him and minimizing his humanity, while Egwene constantly attributes (mostly incorrect) motivations and actions to him, as if she is trying to force him to stay inside the box of the shepherd that she knew (apparently not that well, since she’s constantly wrong about him).
I believe that one of the reasons that the Shienarans do not make an issue of Perrin’s eyes is that he is a member of their “team.” When Rand found out he was second in command of the hunt to retrieve the Horn, Rand was in disbelief. But Ingtar told Rand that in a Shienaran campaign, everybody knows the chain of command — down to the lowest soldier. Perrin was probably included in that command chain. Thus, they have no problem associating with him. Also, I think he proved himself to them when he took over Hurin’s role.
Thanks for reading my musings,
AndrewHB
p.s. A happy Christmas to all those who celebrate it and a happy New Year to everybody
I’ve been going through the AMoL reread posts recently, and the pacifism argument here makes me think about Rand/LTT’s thoughts on returning the world to AoL-style peace and pacifism (plus the fact that Rand basically sings the Song to Tuon and Mat) but also how the arrogance of peace and prosperity in the last age led to the Bore and the Forsaken.
I’m not sure I have a point, but I do kinda wish that we had gotten a Tinker’s perspective on the Dragon’s Peace (compared to the Seanchan’s peace). Not that there was any room for that in AMoL, and the Tinkers had pretty much been dropped after book 4, but still. Would have been an interesting thread to pick back up in the midst of 900 pages of battles.
Borderlanders don’t share the same prejudice regarding wolves as the southerners do. Even in the first book, Lan tells the Emond Fielders that it would be better if the howling they heard was from wolves, as they hate Shadowspawn.
Um, what, Min? Someone can be immersed in violence — unwillingly, in Perrin’s case — and still “care about” pacifists.
michael_hicks @5
Somebody–I don’t recall whom at the moment–ran into Raen and Ila on a battlefield as the LB was winding down. Would have been a good spot for some reflection on the peace topic. Would that it were.
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays all.
Wow. Coffee must be working slow this morning because it took me the whole post to get the “Lanfear is the Balrog” joke. Wakey wakey eggs and bac-y.
Cadsuane: Yeah, I got ahead of the re-read during a trip to South Africa for a cruise and I’m now on Crown of Swords. I hadn’t remembered exactly when she shows up. so I was extremely unhappy when she did and wanted to just stop reading right there.
As for Moiraine here, I still don’t totally get her reasoning but the Wheel weaves… Even with her change of heart in the next book, does she ever admit to herself that Rand kind of knows what he’s doing? Yes, she has a lot of good information to pass to him but still. She does give him an “attaboy” just before her scene with the balrog…Lanfear…and that was nice. Of course, the balrog actually died and Lanfear comes back later to cause more trouble.
Re: The Shienarans and Perrin — there’s also the fact that he faced two of the Forsaken and, if he didn’t personally best them, he lived to tell the tale. The boy is building some major street cred, as the kids say these days.
@10, if memory serves, Moiraine does later admit that she should not have tried to “guide” Rand so vigorously and let the prophecies fulfill themselves. I believe it is in Fires of Heaven. I could be wrong.
So yeah, not a lot happened in these chapters but they are still interesting character pieces for getting into Perrin’s head–and oddly, Rand’s, despite him not being a POV character, since as Leigh is often fond of, getting to see him from the outside via Perrin tells us plenty about him.
I have a possible theory about Moiraine and the women which I never thought of till now, when Leigh mentioned it seeming to have nothing to do with the Power: what if it’s one of the special secret weaves of the Blue, or even of Moiraine herself? This would explain why we never see it from anyone else. As to why she used it now but never again, several possibilities: it requires time to work, to draw the people to her, time she didn’t have in most of the situations following this but especially when trying to keep up with Rand; it only works in certain situations or with certain kinds of information; or after seeing the chaos caused by ta’veren effect, particularly how strong Rand’s is, she gives up because she thinks the way he’s twisting the Pattern will prevent her from finding the people with the information at all, or in time. Just a theory, but otherwise, no clues.
So strange seeing Perrin and Masema getting along so well here, compared to where they are in TPoD and onward, but then (in an odd but fitting parallel to Rand) he isn’t as crazy now as he is later. This also makes me wonder even more about Graendal’s connection to Masema. We know thanks to the Companion that she was indeed the one to use Compulsion on Jain Farstrider, then send him to Sammael and Ebou Dar, and of course she Compelled Byar (possibly while he was on his way back to Amador, and that’s why Fain was able to get there first?). So perhaps she was the Shiny Dragon Man (though that seems a bit ostentatious for her, I still bet it was either Moghedien or Cyndane), and even more likely it was her more subtle Compulsion that sped Masema’s insanity up…
I imagine that Ingtar telling them Perrin was a sniffer contributes a lot to the Shienarans accepting him as easily as they did. Also, if they associate his eyes with wolves, they wouldn’t have a problem with him because they would know how much wolves hate and fight the Shadow.
I wonder about the constant thread of Perrin being torn between the paths of creation and destruction, peace and violence. I mean it obviously plays to his own nature, being a good and gentle man but also having the strength and inner bloodlust to enjoy and be good at fighting. But what was its purpose in the end? His character arc reaches its peak when he accepts his mantle of leadership, and he saves the lives of the Whitecloaks, but at the Last Battle he spends most of his time fighting Slayer and then his final act is to kill Lanfear. I seem to recall him thinking this would be his last time having to fight and kill, so perhaps Perrin’s struggle is meant to reflect that he would have to do first one, then the other. Fight and kill in order to protect the world and those he loved from evil, then afterward he gets to settle down as a peaceful Lord of the Two Rivers with Faile.
I always thought it unfortunate we didn’t get to see much more interaction between Min and Perrin after these early chapters. They don’t interact again until LoC when Perrin returns to Caemlyn, but after they part in ACoS I don’t think they ever meet again, not even at Merrilor. I always thought they got along great, and the fact they were the two best at keeping Rand human and humble makes even more sense in that regard. And of course I also agree that as tempting as it might be to know your future, Min probably has the right of it in not knowing.
And I always thought it interesting that only Aes Sedai and Warders have images around them all the time…this makes sense, since Aes Sedai being channelers and Warders bonded to them means they are more likely to affect the Pattern than other people. And since ta’veren also obviously affect the Pattern, it makes sense Min would always see images around them. But…while Rand is a channeler, Mat and Perrin are not, yet we later learn from Min that when Siuan gets stilled she has no more images around her. So I guess that means the images aren’t tied to channeling ability (since Mat and Perrin have them), but that taking away Siuan’s channeling made her less able to affect the Pattern, hence the absent images? Hmm.
Moiraine’s plan: as much as Fal Dara would have been a safe and strong base, I suspect she felt a place so close to the Blight (and for that matter the Tower) was not good for the Dragon Reborn to set up shop. At the same time we know that she originally intended to have Rand take the Horn to Illian and win its allegiance. Obviously that plan would no longer work once Mat was linked to it, so that’s why she sent it back with him to hide it while he was Healed. But I suspect that she might have had him go to Illian anyway, since the idea of him uniting Cairhien or Altara is unlikely, and she thought it wasn’t time for him to go to Tear yet. Or maybe, once she learned Elaida had left Caemlyn, she would have wanted Rand to go to Andor so he could win Elayne and Morgase’s support? If so, it’s even better than he went to Tear, since he couldn’t have faced Rahvin at this point.
I wonder if Moiraine simply didn’t trust Rand/was convinced her way was best, or if she thought he wouldn’t listen to her or trust her if she told him what she planned. If the latter, it’s her own fault for how she treated him in Fal Dara. And even if he wouldn’t have listened or agreed (at least not right away), knowing what she was contemplating and having goals to work toward would have been better than flailing in the dark and stewing for months. Moiraine really should have gotten Lan’s advice in Far Madding in WH: “You can never know everything, and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyway.” If she hadn’t waited so long to try and know as much as she could before acting, things would have turned out very differently. But then since Rand stopping Be’lal and Ishamael and getting Callandor needed to happen when they did…
I have to agree though, seeing Perrin stand by Rand here is very heartwarming. Particularly in light of Rand being a douche to try and drive him and Mat away in the previous book; while Mat took it to heart and never let it go for much of the series (aided by the dagger, of course), Perrin understood what was going on and forgave him eventually. We saw some of this in the previous book, but it’s here I think where we really get to see Perrin still cares and is loyal. And that never goes away, really. There may be moments of doubt in TSR and LoC, but overall he stands by him, only leaving when the Two Rivers is in danger and when Rand sends him to Ghealdan. I always loved that Perrin was his friend to the end, since it really fit his character and Rand absolutely needed that. Of course he gets Tam back later, but that’s long after Perrin was there for him first, and never would have happened without Perrin.
It makes sense we’d see this from Perrin now anyway, since this book, even more than the previous, is when we get into his head and learn more of what makes him tick, as well as setting up for what will come in TSR. His devotion to Rand and determination to do the right thing are terribly important, and it’s good to see that set up here, at the start of the book when we’re going to be seeing much more of how he views the world.
@5 michael_hicks: That is interesting. I’d like to think they would appreciate the Peace, or at least the motivation behind it since it had still had to be enforced by the Aiel using threat of violence. But it depends on how much they appreciated the Seanchan’s orderliness, and whether what the Seanchan did to channelers would fall under violence in their minds.
@8 Ways: No one ran into them, we just saw them while Morgase (and Mellar and his men) were in the background. And good point, though in a way peace did still get brought up: the majority of the scene was about Raen and Ila coming to terms with how they treated Aram, and that they might not have lost him if they hadn’t rejected him for wanting to fight to keep the peace. If they had realized that it might not be wrong to allow others to fight, then that just might mean they’d be okay with the Dragon’s Peace, since ideally the only ones fighting because of it would be the Aiel. Still, more direct thoughts on the matter would have been welcome.
I always assumed that Moiraine’s deal with the women didn’t have anything to do with the one power. I’d assumed that she’d told one of the Blue’s network of agents where she was going to be, roughly, and it got passed through the appropriate channels to her informants.
If they had magical GPS, then they wouldn’t have needed to put Perrin and the Shinerians out on watch for them. They’d just walk into camp.
I know we don’t find out about the Blue network and Siuane’s control over it till later, but I knew she obviously had agents, because they were showing up and assumed something along those lines.
She obviously had a spot pretty much picked out already. Maybe not that exact valley, but you don’t leave a city and just randomly wander into the mountains till you come up with a plan. That’s what I always thought anyway.
re Perrin’s eyes – The Shienarans are definitely more used to unique things living up near the Shadow, and they know that wolves are their friends. I think there is a bit of self-serving pride in that a “Wolfbrother” is among them and on their team. They may not know exactly what he is, but they do know wolves = Light.
@14 macster – I like the idea of a secret weave that is Moiraine’s own, and maybe would expound on that to include that it requires the consent of the person being bound for it to work its best. Which may explain why it is not used as the storyline progresses, no time to find the right person to bond with.