How do, Tor.commers! How about you just ease into a fresh new Wheel of Time Reread Redux? That’s what I thought you said!
Today’s Redux post will cover Chapters 41 and 42 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!
Chapter 41: A Hunter’s Oath
Redux Commentary
I didn’t identify the trope per se in my original commentary complaining about it, so I might as well now when I clarify: I think the Masochism Tango romantic dynamic has a place in fiction, a legit one—if for no other reason than that this is a thing that a startling number of people apparently choose to put up with in real life—but that I feel like it was a trope that got rather overrepresented in WOT, cumulatively.
By which I mean, sometimes I feel like every romantic relationship in WOT is an excessively combative one, even if that’s not strictly true. And thus Perrin and Faile, representing as they do the apex of that trope, became far more wearing on my patience than they might otherwise have been, had their bullshit been an isolated phenomenon instead of the most extreme example in a long succession of them in the series.
“You believe you know what an Aes Sedai will not do, do you?” [Moiraine] said more softly than before. Her smile was not pleasant. “If you wish to go with us, this is what you must do.” Lan’s eyelids flickered in surprise; the two women stared at each other like falcon and mouse, but Zarine was not the falcon, now. “You will swear by your Hunter’s oath to do as I say, to heed me, and not to leave us. Once you know more than you should of what we do, I will not allow you to fall into the wrong hands. Know that for truth, girl. You will swear to act as one of us, and do nothing that will endanger our purpose. You will ask no questions of where we go or why: you will be satisfied with what I choose to tell you. All of this you will swear, or you will remain here in Illian. And you will not leave this marsh until I return to release you, if it takes the rest of your life. That I swear.”
It’s interesting, now that I look at it, that Moiraine more or less ensured here that Faile would absolutely take her offer and become part of their group. Because, it would have been one thing had Moiraine said, “swear to me you’ll do all this and come with us, or else leave and promise not to follow us”, or something to that effect, but that’s not what she said. Instead, she basically threatened to make Faile a prisoner unless she agreed to Moiraine’s terms. In a city-wide prison, maybe, but still. That would have been unappealing enough to any random person, but to someone who had become a Hunter, whose entire raison d’être was to travel around looking for the Horn, there really was no worse fate.
So for all her alleged ire over Faile’s intrusion into their party, it seems that Moiraine still stacked the deck in favor of having Faile join them. Which makes sense, really; it’s a lot easier to control unpredictable elements if you keep them in close proximity. Plus, Moiraine may not have had total faith in the reliability of Min’s visions, but she obviously had enough to take them very seriously, which was undoubtedly also a factor in her decision.
That said, to then turn around and dump her on Perrin, in a way that she had to know would bring out the absolute worst reaction in both of them, was a total, utter dick move on Moiraine’s part. Which, while kind of terrible, is also very much in character. Moiraine is many things, but “above petty revenge” is definitely not one of them. As Lan and a cold pond from New Spring could attest.
And speaking of Lan and Moiraine’s dick moves:
A few days earlier Perrin had heard Moiraine ask Lan, in a voice like ice, whether he saw something to laugh at. “I would never laugh at you, Moiraine Sedai,” he had replied calmly, “but if you truly intend to send me to Myrelle, I must become used to smiling. I hear that Myrelle tells her Warders jokes. Gaidin must smile at their bond-holder’s quips; you have often given me quips to laugh at, have you not? Perhaps you would rather I stay with you after all.”
OH SNAP, Lan Mandragoran. You tell her how it is! (Because the Myrelle thing? Still total bullshit.)
Chapter 42: Easing the Badger
Redux Commentary
Ah, Easing the Badger. One of the longest-running in-jokes in WOT—both of the series itself and of the fandom.
The Wheel of Time Companion notes that “even [the innkeeper] didn’t know what the name of her inn meant”, but that certainly didn’t stop the fans from gleefully attributing every possible kind of innuendo to the phrase, with wildly varying degrees of cleverness and/or ridiculousness. I don’t know if there is a specific term for “phrase that cannot be logically construed to refer to a sexual act, yet irresistibly suggests a sexual connotation to everyone who hears it”, but whatever that is, “easing the badger” is it.
I have no idea where or how Jordan came up with the name (perhaps it was an in-joke of his own), but it’s possibly one of the most memorable and oddly beloved (albeit with much giggling) turns of phrase in the entire series. Funny how things like that happen.
(Still can’t decide whether I’m tickled or annoyed by the “explanation” of the phrase that showed up in AMOL. It was funny, but it was maybe more fun when we didn’t have an answer.)
Sammael’s influence on the mood of the people of Illian is one of (I think) the last lingering traces of the more metaphorical side of WOT cosmology. By which I mean, while the forcible dreamsharing mentioned here has an in-world logical explanation for it (Moiraine explained it/set it up at the beginning of TDR), the phenomenon of “people becoming more evil just because they’re in proximity to a seriously evil dude” really doesn’t have one. Except, as I said, in a metaphorical sense.
That kind of thing featured much more in the earlier books, but had more or less disappeared by the midpoint of the series, in favor of a more practically defined set of worldbuilding rules—or as practical as you can get when building a fictional magic system, of course. Although, both Jordan and Sanderson have proved that actually, you can get pretty darn practical with a magic system if you try hard enough. As writers, it’s probably their strongest point of commonality, in fact, and likely had a lot to do with why Brandon was chosen to take over the series after Jordan passed away.
And as a general rule, I don’t mind that practicality. I do feel, though, that sometimes the loss of the softer side of WOT metaphysics was not always to the later books’ benefit. Sometimes you just like a good inexplicable metaphor in your fantasy, you know?
Or maybe that’s just me. Anyway.
As for the end of the chapter, I said in the original commentary:
I’m bemused by Moiraine’s instructions to Lan to take Perrin back to the Tower to help Siuan affect the course of events, like her own personal ta’veren Pattern-altering battery. Does she really think that would work?
To answer my own question, yes, she absolutely did think it would work, because Moiraine (and Siuan) are still laboring under the impression at this point that dealing with ta’veren should be like riding unruly but bridled horses, when actually it’s going to turn out to be more like this.
Silly Aes Sedai.
And that’s what I got for this one, y’all! Have a lovely mid-May week, and I’ll see you next Tuesday!
IMO, Perrin’s needling of Faile in this chapter is beneath his character at this point. He was never one to needle or make fun of somebody. When reading the interaction between Faile and Perrin in these two chapters, I thought I was reading a script of Degrassi High.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
Hail is frozen water falling from the sky, too. Has Nieda never seen hail, either?
Hah, I can see how having one relationship where they’re always fighting would be funny. Like Dr. Cox and Jordan on Scrubs or Fred and Ethel Mertz. Everybody’s looking at the ground awkward and Perrin and Faile are screaming at each other.
I can see the whole dream proximity-induced “evil” being driven more by a biological rather than magical mechanism. Think about it, if your dreams are constantly being invaded by evil dudes committing evil deeds, you’re probably not sleeping all that well. Ergo, you wake up pissy and cranky and hating all the things. I think there’s a reference somewhere in the series of Lanfear terrorizing people in their dreams, leading to a high suicide rate in the towns she conquered. In comparison to that, the resting bitch face outbreak in Illian isn’t actually all that bad.
I agree with @@.-@ Amaryce about the “evil” being a product of a biological loss of good sleep. People in the city aren’t (all) angry – many are simply defeated, listless, and hopeless.
As for your bull-riding clip, I think you’re giving the Aes Sedai trying to handle a Ta’vern too much credit/control even there. I’d more liken it to the fable of the girl who wanted to ride a lion so she did without realizing she could never get off or it would eat her.
Mph. I find most fictional romances (and real ones, for that matter) annoyingly enviable. Combative ones are less enviable, but more puzzling to me, and thus remain annoying. Still, I don’t exceptionally hate Perrin/Faile.
@@.-@ Amaryce: That reference about Lanfear is in the Big White Book. I don’t remember if it’s also elsewhere.
@@.-@
Sounds like a reasonable explanation to me.
I’m not so enthralled with Moiraine–at this point in the series–this time through. Too much end-justifies-the-means attitude, maybe. YMMV.
People tend to be less moral if they’re tired or outside their normal sleep/wake patterns. So it’s not beyond reason that poor sleep negatively impacts a city’s ethical stability.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/10/are-mornings-for-morality-night-owls-might-disagree/
I will second/third/fourth the idea that lack of good sleep is making people cranky!
@7 – agreed regarding Moiraine – probably intentional, but I think she starts off as this idealized character in the start of the story (at least to readers’ explanations) but as it progresses she is just as flawed, and sometimes clueless, as anybody else can be. Such as her petty revenges, ha.
@@.-@ I’ve got to disagree, as the influence of the dreams varies noticeably between the cities. In one of them everyone’s acting depressed and defeated (I think that’s in Tear – Nynaeve berates someone and notices the lack of reaction). In another they’re all on edge, a moment away from a fight. There are subtle differences which can’t be accounted for by an identical root cause (lack of sleep). The different Forsaken are influencing their immediate environment in different ways.
This is completely off topic but it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately. Is there any possibility that a writer, like Brandon Sanderson for example, to continue the Wheel of Time series? With Harriet McDougal’s blessing of course.
There is so much untapped potential in the WoT universe. There is the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, 5 other Ages that haven’t been explored, the Portal Stones, the Heroes from the Horn of Valere, Cadsuane’s adventures, and whatever else I can’t think of off hand.
Brandon Sanderson is not interested; he has several series of his own he is working on and I think also feels it would be a bit disrespectful to continue on in his name. It’s one thing to finish his notes and unfinished work and another to try to write new stories.
I think Harriet has said more or less that the other prequels/outriggers are simply not going to happen. Who knows if in 50 years that will be the case (don’t know if eventually Jordan’s work will move into public domain or not) but for now, I wouldn’t bank on it.
Of course, I spent about two days arguing with people that it was a hoax when George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney so….I could totally be wrong, haha.
Mat & Tuon in Seanchan would be worth revisiting
Very much agree. As for relationships…RJ really seemed to push a “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” type of philosophy with his relationships (in fairness, he is not the first or most forceful Fantasy author to do so, see David Eddings), and seemed to manifest it most by stressing (or over stressing) differences through conflict. It kind of goes along with the philosophical underpinnings of of WOT: the male and female half of the True Source push against each other and this friction cause the Wheel of Time to turn; the parallel being that a healthy friction between the man & woman in a relationship helps drive the relationship and make it go. At least, that is the way I choose to read RJ’s take. But that does not make it any less tiresome and immature to read at times. And I don’t put most of Perrin and Fail’s friction in the ‘healthy’ category, even if they end up in good place at the end.
I must also compliment RJ on writing Moiraine in this book in particular. As you said, moving from the wise counselor role into of genre expectation to a more human and flawed approach is great. The rising tension and conflict between her and the superboys (mainly Perrin in this book) is masterful, and it is a testament to the skill of the author that I have been on various ‘sides’ each time I have re-read the books as I age. In a book or two this particular tension and dichotomy will dissipate as Moiraine move toward her exit and Rand gets more and more crazypants, never to be really replaced by other Aes Sedai who step in to fill the void. Perhaps it is meant to be filled by the Supergirls vs Superboys tension, but it never quite rises to this level, IMHO.
@13 & 4..
I think the Mat & Tuon relationship is a Game, and always will be a game to both of them. With Mat’s obvious lack of female knowledge & Tuon’s case of “Queen Elizabeth” syndrome (I am the Queen & Nothing else matters but Me & Country) even though later on she does admit to maybe loving Mat, that game between them is Highly Amusing
As of Faile & Perrin, that is just pure adolescence. I like you so I will slap you on the arm thing.
Now Rand & Min & Elayne & Aviendha, that is just a “Whorlling Clusterf***” Elayne is Starstruck, Min is Befuddled, & Aviendha is in Denial for a long time until she comes to her senses and embraces being a Wise One.
So in conclusion, Relationships are Humbug and just better off being read in books. LOL
birgit @2
Illian is supposed to be tropical, lying along the southern edge of the continent. Hailstorms are less common in the tropics. They’re also more common in the continental interior and therefore by extension less common along the seaboard.
JonathanLevy @10
This is where content of the dreams can be factored in. Certain kinds of content can foster a tendency towards violent behavior, while other types of content can just foster depression.
Ah, Moiraine, still unable to countenance the idea of things (or people) being out of her control. (I’m referring of course to her being indignant that Faile knows everything she does, and that Perrin knew this and didn’t tell her. I love you, Moiraine, but how’s that humble pie tasting? Not as much fun when you’re the one being kept in the dark, is it?) Of course the irony is, she thinks she’s losing control now? Wait till she gets to the next book!
I always laughed at Lan’s rejoinder about Myrelle, because as I said at that point in the reread, it was a beautiful bit of payback for Moiriane’s bitchiness when they were leaving the Mountains of Mist. Still wondering why Moiraine did that…but for now all I’ll add is, is it just me, or considering what we know of Myrelle and how she saves Warders, does Lan’s comment about “getting used to smiling” actually mean something completely different than a reaction to jokes? As in, that he’d be smiling after having been taken to her bed? If so, then rape undertones aside, it seems Moiraine isn’t the only one willing to tease about such things. Not sure if having this come from both sides makes it more fair, or more appalling. :/
Re: Perrin and Faile. I can’t exactly explain it, but I do admit to a certain…I wouldn’t say love, but definitely vicarious enjoyment of watching/reading about couples with Belligerent Sexual Tension. I think this is because I am well aware from my own relationships as well as others I’ve witnessed that IRL, things are rarely ever as lovey-dovey, pacific, or basking in love and adoration as society would like us to pretend to believe is true of romance. Life is messy, people have personality conflicts or habits or what-have-you that annoy others and drive them up the wall, and strong wills/stubbornness definitely come into play. Obviously you can go too far with this, and after a certain point it becomes clear there isn’t really love involved–or if there is, the conflicts and differences and frustrations are so prevalent and overwhelming they aren’t worth it in the end.
But at the same time, when the love is there, and when it is worth it, then I think this sort of relationship testifies to something so many couples recite by rote in their wedding vows but rarely seem to understand or put into practice in everyday life–“for better or for worse.” Namely, life often sucks, relationships are difficult. So it comes down to, how much is this person and their love worth to you? How hard are you willing to work with them? How open are you to the possibility that just because you won’t always see eye-to-eye, will often argue and have conflicts, doesn’t mean you can’t still love someone deeply? Basically, the Masochism Tango, when it’s done right, is about weathering the adversities of life, knowing things will rarely be easy, that you have to work for a “happy ending” (whatever you consider that to be), and when you do get there and earn it, it’ll feel that much more rewarding.
That said, I do agree that having so many relationships like this in WOT, and having Perrin/Faile be the quintessential/most extreme version of it, is a big part of why people often didn’t like them, or WOT in general. I will admit, however, that at least some of the other examples in the book have explanations beyond “this is just how men and women are”–Rand/Aviendha is a result of Aiel culture plus Aviendha’s guilt toward Elayne and what she saw in the rings; Egwene/Gawyn is aggravated by his being royalty, Egwene being Aes Sedai, and both of them being on opposite sides of a political conflict; Morgase/Tallanvor has both the royalty angle again and what both Rahvin and Valda did to her; and Nynaeve/Lan has just how forceful a personality she has coupled with her constantly trying to get through his stoic martyr complex. Still, when added all together…
One side note though: while believing their future together will be smooth clear sailing with nothing but blue skies and puffy clouds ahead is ridiculous, I think that after Malden and their Shanna’har, it does seem that Faile and Perrin will, if not be “positively sappy in wuv”, at least be able to clear up their misunderstandings much more painlessly in the future.
As for Moiraine and the oath she extracts from Faile…I didn’t think about it before–maybe I didn’t even catch she was essentially saying that if she didn’t swear, she had to stay in Illian and never leave; I think I was under the impression she just couldn’t leave until after Moiraine and the others had left, so that anything Faile might reveal about them would stay behind too and not affect the road ahead. But taking that into account, it does rather seem Moiraine insured Faile would be coming with them. Some of this may have been practicality; after their first encounter with her and how stubbornly she has continued to follow/accompany them, I think Moiraine realized nothing she could do (within the bounds of the Three Oaths) would make Faile go away, at least not without attracting more attention. So she might as well get something out of it by keeping her close, under control, and useful if possible. This could also explain the rather vengeful way she dumps Faile on Perrin; I can definitely see Moiraine as being annoyed she couldn’t get rid of Faile no matter what she tried. (Which makes her whole “I tried to discourage her” bit rather rich, and a textbook example of Aes Sedai doublespeak–she did, technically, but not very hard, and phrased in a way that would demand someone of Faile’s temperament swear so she could keep traveling and adventuring.)
I also agree another part of why she did this was because of Min’s vision. She may not have complete faith in them, or know why Faile is necessary to the Pattern, but if the Wheel says she is, it’d do better not to fight it–instead keep her around until the reason manifests itself.
LOL at Easing the Badger…it’s odd, but I can’t recall any more what I first thought when I read the name of this inn. All I remember now is discovering everyone in the WOT fandom going on about it with sly, prurient suggestiveness, and now I just can’t un-see it. Wherever Jordan got it from, it’s definitely priceless, and I can see why people have latched onto it, even with fondness–particularly since it’s been with us for so long, dating back to TGH. And obviously Jordan clearly meant it to have naughty connotations, right down to having the innkeeper not know what the name meant. I can only assume the revelation of its “real” meaning in ToM was something from the notes, since I don’t think Sanderson and Team Jordan would have made it up otherwise. But I bet he got a lot of laughs out of watching everyone’s reactions to it.
While I think it’s most likely the Forsaken not bothering to shield their dreams, so they get impressed on the populace of the cities they’ve taken over, is meant to be a sign of how arrogant and dismissive they are toward the non-channelers, part of me has to wonder if some of it might not have been deliberate. Rahvin, being a master of Compulsion, would probably love to have influence over a whole city at large, especially something unconscious like this that wouldn’t require his direct attention so he could keep focusing on Morgase. Be’lal, a (supposed) master manipulator, would almost certainly want to influence the Tairens (and we know he was, in fact, based on the way Captain Mallia talked about him “carrying a man beyond his own beliefs”, as I pointed out a few entries ago). And even Sammael, for all that he’s a military sort, would see the benefit of putting all of Illian under his sway, at least to the point that no one would question him so he could have unfettered access to the army; note how Nieda talks about how easily he swayed the other Council members into naming him head of the Nine. With direct influences like these, having one’s dreams affect the populace too would just seem like a further extension of their rule.
That said, I do agree that this phenomenon is a rather metaphysical one indeed, particularly in how it’s noted by Perrin that the people have expressions of anger and hatred on their faces but don’t even seem to realize it.
The bit with the Gray Men has always been one of my favorites–mostly for how badass Perrin is (still love that he throws the cheese platter at them!), but also because it’s one of the best examples in the series of how good Jordan was at hiding the nondescript assassins as seemingly random, uninteresting background characters you would easily overlook.
*snickers* Love the image you chose for dealing with ta’veren, Leigh. I also can’t help noting, when Rand speaks to Moiraine in TFoH (during the scene where she swears to obey him) that he can’t bring himself to trust her because she has always been “handling him like a puppet”, she laughingly said it was more like wrestling a bear. Not too different from bull-riding! The irony of course is that the lack of control implied by these metaphors doesn’t actually mean the original intent in using a ta’veren as a Pattern-altering battery wouldn’t work. Any of the three absolutely do alter the Pattern wherever they’re at. The key difference, of course, is that there’s no way to control how they alter it, let alone in the way Siuan and Moiraine want. It’s understandable they want to try, for the sake of the world and to prevent a Second Breaking, but yes…silly Aes Sedai indeed (though I say that more as a sympathetic lament, not teasing mockery).
@1 AndrewHB: Agreed, although I think we’re meant to believe Perrin is acting this way out of desperation to get rid of her, either because of him not knowing what Min’s vision meant or simply because he doesn’t understand her and can’t handle how she’s making him feel.
@2 birgit: Probably not; Illian is described as having a very warm climate (if not actually tropical) so I don’t know if they’d ever have any kind of frozen precipitation. (And I see alreadymad covered this too.)
@@.-@ Amaryce: Hah, good point. Although that explanation doesn’t cover why the emotions the people are experiencing are different–in Caemlyn they were paranoia and mistrust, while in Tear they are despair and hopelessness. Though I suppose not getting enough sleep could cause paranoia and despair too at the very least, especially if other things in the atmosphere (like Compulsion or the general nature of each Forsaken’s thoughts) further influenced them to shape their emotions.
@5 KalvinKingsley: Interesting choice of metaphor, considering at different times both Mat and Rand are compared to lions.
@9 Lisamarie: Agreed. So whether one can forgive her her flaws comes down to whether getting into her head and seeing her good intentions makes up for her arrogance and mistakes.
@10 JonathanLevy: Glad I wasn’t the only one to point this out! And I think the differences relate directly to the Forsaken in question–it makes sense that one who excelled at Compulsion and thus could make people say and do things they didn’t want to and couldn’t explain would result in a lot of paranoia and mistrust; Sammael, being a general (and one more about force of arms and overwhelming numbers than strategy and tactics) would be prone to anger and hatred (look at not only his attitude toward Lews Therin but how easily he tends to lose his temper); and Be’lal, ever the manipulator, would appreciate how filling people with despair and hopelessness would make them more readily pliable. Of course it’s unknown whether they had any direct effect over the emotions they generated or if it was an involuntary thing radiating out from their dreams.
Still, I imagine having one’s sleep disturbed wouldn’t help mental stability in general and could explain why the people were susceptible to further emotional manipulation.
@14 gagdet: Interesting interpretation! I mean, I think it’s obvious that the way Jordan wrote the relationships was meant to reflect saidin/saidar (or more accurately, vice versa), but your specific use of the “friction causes the Wheel to turn” language and how healthy friction is needed in relationships is a great and unique way of putting it. :)
@16 alreadymad: Exactly re: the dreams. As I said, we don’t know if the Forsaken can consciously influence the effects of their dreams, but if they can, this influence could be what causes the specific results, with the dreams disturbing sleep patterns being the mechanism for making people susceptible. Though it could also be something unconscious in their own personalities, as I suggested.
Aw, that bull was tame compared to some of the rides I’ve seen. Dude lasted the whole 10 seconds.