Top of the 2016 to ya, Tor dot commers! It’s been sort of a not-awesome year so far, but fortunately I have a lovely Wheel of Time Reread Redux to make it all better!
Today’s Redux post will cover Chapters 3 and 4 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 3: News from the Plain
Redux Commentary
“Was anyone hurt?”
“Only if you count bruises,” Min said grimly. “They were upset, all right, at first. Then they saw Moiraine staring off toward Rand’s hidey-hole, and decided it was his work. If the Dragon wants to shake the mountain down on our heads, then the Dragon must have a good reason for it. If he decided to make them take off their skins and dance in their bones, they would think it all right.” She snorted and rapped the spoon on the edge of the kettle.
It’s always sort of a coin toss whether the tendency of humans to put their leaders/authority figures on a pedestal is a good thing or not. On the one hand, obviously this can be used in a terrible way, to ignore or cover up the missteps, foibles, or outright crimes of those leaders. But on the other, given that (a) people are not perfect and (b) leaders are people and that therefore (c) inevitably they are going to fuck up in some way or other, sometimes it seems that that instinctive reverence for authority figures is the only reason anything ever gets done at all.
It gets a lot messier, naturally, when you toss religion/prophecy/metaphysical shit into the mix, because now you’re talking about divine respect as well as secular, and really, how are you gonna go up to a literal Messiah and be like, Dude, not cool? Nine times out of ten, people are just not going to do that, and from their viewpoint you can’t even really blame them.
It’s a conundrum, is what I’m saying. But in this particular case, it’s one in which I am naturally inclined to come down in favor of the authority figure, i.e. Rand, and be glad that this is a thing, because otherwise most of his supporters throughout the series would have been like “fuck this” and taken off long before anything even happened. Which, obviously, would have been less than optimal for that whole Good vs. Evil thing.
So, yay illogical social dynamics, I guess? Yay!
And, uh… well, I was kind of right the first time that there’s not much to say about this chapter. Oh well!
Chapter 4: Shadows Sleeping
Redux Commentary
So this was quite the complex infodump of a dream, wasn’t it?
Probably the most interesting aspect of it, in light of what happened in AMOL, was the Lanfear section. In the original commentary I kind of blew it off as “wow, she bugs all the Superboys, not just Rand”, but her interaction with Perrin here gains a lot more significance than that in retrospect. Especially when you consider that it sounds an awful lot like Perrin is fighting off Compulsion:
“Yes,” he whispered. Inside him, startlement fought with acceptance. He had no use for glory. But when she said it, he wanted nothing else. “I mean…” The murmuring sound dug at his skull. “No!” It was gone, and for a moment, so was acceptance. Almost. He put a hand to his head, touched the golden helmet, took it off. “I… I don’t think I want this. It is not mine.”
So it seems that Lanfear was laying the groundwork for her corruption of Perrin nearly from the beginning. Which is pretty cool, actually. I have to assume she thought of Perrin as her insurance policy against failing to seduce Rand/Lews Therin, since that’s more or less exactly what happened.
I was sort of overly dismissive and mocking of Lanfear in the original Reread a lot of times; in particular, I didn’t get why she would bother to be subtle about Compulsion when not being so would get her what she wanted a whole lot faster. But, in fact, her subtlety proved her to be the most effective villain of them all. Of all the attempts of the Shadow to subvert or destroy Rand, hers were the ones that came closest to succeeding – right down to the endgame. Her campaign for Evil ultimately knocked Ishy/Moridin’s into a cocked hat, in my opinion.
The man smiled, a cold smile. “You are a blacksmith, boy. And a good one, from what I hear. Your hands were made for a hammer, not an axe. Made to make things, not to kill. Go back to that before it is too late.”
I said in the original commentary that Ishy seemed surprisingly laid-back here, which is still true, but I also find it rather odd that he brings up the whole axe vs. hammer thing to Perrin. Of course, it’s in the context of trying to convince Perrin to go home and forget about being part of the Superboy Tripod of Fate, so perhaps it was actually inadvertent that he happened to contribute to the symbolic significance of the choice.
Speaking of fateful tripods:
“You will not have many chances,” the man said behind him in a hard voice. “Three threads woven together share one another’s doom. When one is cut, all are. Fate can kill you, if it does not do worse.”
That’s… interesting. I didn’t remember the suggestion that if one of the three boys dies, they all do. I remember the idea that they would fail if one of them dies, but this suggests that their literal survival is dependent on the other two’s.
Of course, Ishy could just be completely full of crap on this score, and saying things just to scare Perrin. And fortunately we never get to find out whether it is true anyway.
As for the rest, it’s just as hard now to get interested in the perambulations of Rahvin and Bel’al as it was in the first Reread, considering they are two of the very few Forsaken who not only died well before the halfway point, but stayed dead thereafter. Which makes me rather approve of them for that courtesy, but does not make me very concerned about what they could be arguing about here.
Though if I had to make a guess, I’d bet it was probably something along the lines of Rahvin being all could you NOT with the Callandor dreams up in everyone’s Kool-Aid, seriously. That’s what I would have said, anyway. Keep your phallic sword fantasies to yourself, brah!
And lastly and most irrelevantly, the fandom nicknaming of Callandor “the Sword That Ain’t” is still one of my favorite things ever.
And that’s the haps for now, y’all! Come back next Tuesday for Moar!
Speaking of The Sword that Ain’t, did we ever get the story on how that was made? Was it initially created by one of the Forsaken? If not, how did it get the properties it has?
Why do Ishy and Lanfear want to make Perrin drink something? Can’t they use channeling or dream control to do whatever they intend?
This time Perrin can’t hear what the Forsaken talk about, but at other times when the heroes eavesdrop on Forsaken conferences in TAR it is strange that they understand what they say. Shouldn’t the Forsaken be speaking the Old Tongue to each other? Do dreams allow understanding foreign languages?
Wow. Short chapters. I’d almost say that for terse ones like these you should cover several more, but it’s your re-re-read, your pace.
Rare moments of honey/carrots before the unrelenting orders of the sticks to put down any one of the triad. I think Ishy is taking a more classic “devil” stance here too, playing into pride. Vanity, probably a darkfriend’s favorite sin..It’s so basic. Self-love–the all-natural opiate.
I do not think Lanfear was laying the groundwork for a back up plan that she could execute if all else fails. I think she wanted to control Rand, Mat and Perrin. She was trying to compulse Perrin. It was his ta’vereness that allowed him to escape the compulsion this time: the Pattern did not want Lanfear to compulse Perrin.
If you remember, Lanfear reaches out to Mat after he is healed. She first tries to tempt him. When he does not seem to accept her temptation, she starts to actually compel Mat. However, she does not get very far as she senses an Aes Sedai (Leane) coming to check on Mat.
What I find interesting is that Lanfear and Ishy are the only two Forsaken who can find Perrin and Mat. The other Forsaken do not recognize them unless they are specifically pointed out to them. Despite Lanfear not receiving a 3rd name in the Age of Legends, she is still very powerful. More so than any other female channeler, I believe. Or at least that is how she is originally presented.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
I think Rahvin and Be’el are arguing about Be’el’s kind of half-hearted plan to lure Rand to Tear and get The Sword that Aint (TM). Rahvin doesn’t want Be’el messing up his plans, and worries that Be’el may use Elayne against his personal, self-claimed realm (Andor).
@1 Nick — in the Way-Back ter’angreal in Rhuidean we see that Callandor was made during the breaking, by female Aes Sedai and male Aes Sedai together, with the men already subject to the taint. I would imagine that the True Source properties of Callandor came from using tainted saidin to make it; no other male sa’angreal mentioned in the series was created after the source was tainted.
Be’lal is the only Foresaken we never get a POV from in the entire series, which always sort of made me frustrated. It would have been nice to know what he was thinking since he was obviously the least capable of all the Foresaken, going for the quickest score with basically no contingency plans. The Encyclopedia also says that he was the weakest male Foresaken in the power (which is weird, since I would have assumed that was Asmodean). It would have been nice to know what exactly was special enough about him to make him be elevated to the Foresaken.
I still say that, overall, I feel like Graendal is the most dangerous of the Forsaken.
She occupies a unique niche of being among the more powerful while still being free of most of the flaws that tend to undermine the others. She lacks Moghedien’s cowardice, for example, while still having some capacity for subtlety and planning. She doesn’t have the obsession that several of the others (Lanfear, Sammael, and Demandred most particularly) harbor towards Rand. She’s a unique blend of power, patience, and decisiveness that’d be much more scary if more of the series took place in Arad Doman.
I think Leigh makes a decent point about Lanfear being the closest to succeeding at her endgame, but the point that I disagree on is the last: Lanfear is probably the worst of all of the Forsaken when it comes to actually serving the cause of the Shadow as a whole, because from the very start the only endgame Lanfear ever cared about was her own. In a gathering of the very worst personalities the Age of Legends had to offer, she’s the worst team player out of all of them, and it took being mindtrapped, the metaphysical equivalent of a constant boot planted firmly on her neck at all times, to come anywhere near even the appearance of working toward the same end as the Shadow.
@@.-@ Andrew — Lanfear was the most powerful female channeler ever, matched only by Semirhage and Alivia. I’m assuming that she could find Mat and Perrin because she had the Talent of seeing ta’veren. It seems especially weird that Lanfear never received a third name since she was such a renowned researcher (being the one who actually drilled the hole in the Dark One’s prison, after all, along with Beidomon). The only Foresaken not to receive third names were Lanfear, Rahvin, Mesaana, Balthamel, and Moghedien, and all of those except Rahvin were specifically mentioned as being unsuccessful before the War of Power. Mesaana was deemed not sufficiently skilled for research and resented the establish for that; Balthamel was mentioned at being poor and resentful of that fact; Moghedien was a shady investment advisor. Perhaps Rahvin was too busy pursuing his carnal interests to pay much attention to career advancement. But there doesn’t seem to be any reason why Lanfear wouldn’t have earned a third name; she was prominent, succesful, and powerful in the Age of Legends.
The Myrddraal that Perrin fights in a couple more chapters says the same thing.
re “suggestion that if one of the three boys dies, they all do”: Perhaps, this is from a Dark Prophecy; the actual language of the prophecy itself not ever revealed to the reader.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
But not in the literal sense that the others would drop dead if one died, as Mat briefly did in TFoH before being un-killed with balefire.
I would’ve expected “phallic sword fantasies” from Rhavin, though not in relation to Callandor.
I’m amused by a Forsaken telling somebody to not become a killer, even if that makes sense in this context.
birgit @2
Always good questions, wish they got answers once in a while.
neverspeakawordagain @6
Callandor was created during the War of Power, before the bore was sealed, so no taint yet. It just had a flaw–no buffer–for some unexplained reason. Nifty theories abound, like one of the Forsaken helped make it while under cover, but there’s no evidence to support any of them. I was hoping the Companion would do some splainin’, Lucy, but nope. :-(
AeronaGreenjoy @11
Maybe inertia kept the Wheel from reacting to Mat’s brief death.
I do not see the one ta’veren dies, the other two shall fall as an imediate response. But in the grand scheme of things, if any of them dies, the other two will fail at defeating the Shadow at Tarmon Gaidon. Rand, of course, is needed, and if he dies, no one battles the Dark One and recreates its prison. If Perrin dies, no one is there to defend Rand from Slayer, Lanfear and darkhounds in the world of dreams. If Mat dies, the armies of Light would’ve been defeated and Demandred would come to Rand with a big army and with a sa’angreal. Also, Fain would get to Rand. Not to mention stuff that happens before that (like Perrin helping Rand survive his escape in Lord of Chaos).
@12 Ways — are you sure that Callandor was created during the War of Power? If I remember correctly — I don’t have my copy of The Shadow Rising on me, so I can’t check — the Aes Sedai who was planning the creation of the Eye of the World, during the Breaking, had Callandor on the table next to her and referenced that it was created “as well as it can be” or something to that effect. That would imply that it had been just finished.
Callandor is lying on the table. The AS only say “The sword must wait.” and set Someshta to guard the Eye.
Regarding the idolization, deference, etc. given to leaders, I think Joseph Campbell has it right: it is compensation for the (supposed) fact that those in a leadership position are no longer “private” people who merely can live for their own self-interest and gratification, but must now be “public” figures whose every act is done under scrutiny and which may influence (for good or ill) many others. Thus, “royalty” are taught (in an ideal world) from birth that they live for the state, that they must always carefully consider every action, from marriage down to temper tantrums, because the consequences are very different for them (royalty) compared to commoners.
So, Campbell says, such people have no private lives. And in some ancient societies, the king’s very life depended on weather and happenstance: crop failure, draught, plague could require the sacrifice of a king (a la Sir James Frazier’s accounts in THE GOLDEN BOUGH).
Of course, in fact, many kings ignored such obligations and used their status simply for their individual gratification, which Campbell says is, then, the betrayal of their office.
But the “theoretical” situation is the the leader “loses” something in having to “live for the state” and is compensated by being given honor, deference, material comfort, and adulation of the public.
I think Rand’s status in the WOT saga follows Campbell’s theory pretty closely.
Never… @14
Yeah, I checked the Companion b/c I don’t trust my aging memory.
birgit @15
And then one of the Forsaken sneaked into the room to put the whammy on the sword: presto-chango, Callandor, you can now channel the DO’s power. Honestly though, I don’t understand why a Forsaken would do such a thing…unless it was some serious forward planning. It failed miserably if that was the intent.
I can’t recall when in the original re-read Leigh first mentioned this, but the conversation Min has with Perrin is I think the first place a character outright states it in-universe: that being fated to be part of monumental events is rarely fun for those involved, but at the same time there will be compensations, reasons why you stay involved anyway. Min isn’t happy to be fated to love Rand, but at the same time she still loves him and wouldn’t have it any other way–if only because her enjoyment of it is part of the Pattern too. Similarly, while she doesn’t like being part of dangerous events like Rand channeling saidin, she still wouldn’t have it any other way because it lets her have something good, him and his love. So, not fun for her any more than any other aspect of fate, but “not all bad either.”
On a related note, interesting that as much as she hates seeing the future, always being right, and being unable to change it, Min is disturbed by the thought of a vision (the one about Leya) not coming true. Partly because they always had before, so she’s gotten in the habit of expecting it, gotten used to it, but also because if something as fundamental as this were to suddenly change, there’s no telling what the future might hold. As much as she hates her power, it’s more disturbing to her to not know, since that could indicate the Pattern is unraveling or the Shadow is changing things too much.
The Gray Men aren’t the most disturbing of Shadowspawn, but they’re certainly right up there. While part of me always wondered exactly what ritual they had to do to become one, and how it caused them to become “unnoticeable”, the rest of me is glad we never found out. I also have to commend Jordan not only for the concept, but the way he so unobtrusively slipped references to them into scenes so that the reader, just like the characters, missed them until it was almost too late. That takes talent.
As for looking to/respecting/trusting and obeying authority figures regardless what they do, I agree: a bad idea if the ones in question don’t know what they’re doing, or are doing them for the wrong reasons/to get something corrupt and selfish, but very good when it comes to making sure good leaders get the help and loyalty they need to accomplish good things. Though it is rather nonsensical for people to decide their leader must have a good reason for pulling a mountain down on them, people have made crazier and stupider claims to justify their leaders’ actions in real life. Not that this excuses it, but it does show the writing has verisimilitude.
Perrin’s TAR experience: a lot of very intriguing revelations and infodumping here. First I have to agree with both present and past Leigh–it’s very strange to see Ishamael being so relatively friendly and low-key. While some of it can be chalked up to his injury and him realizing he needs to try something new after how his confrontations in the past two books went, it’s still odd that one as crazy as he is is even able to recognize this and think of such a subtle plan, let alone actually carry it out. But looking ahead to what we see of him as Moridin, especially from TGS onward, I think this could be considered some of Elan Morin’s original self and personality reasserting themselves, since his attitude here is a lot like how he acts toward Rand near the end. And it can’t be denied that trying to convince Perrin to go home, be safe and peaceful as he longs to be, is far more effective a tactic than trying to scare, control, or dominate him into doing so. If you can’t kill your enemy, convincing him to give up, or that he isn’t even needed and can have the peace and happiness he desires, is even better! As for him mentioning the hammer/axe thing, not only has he probably read the Prophecies of the Dragon and thus would want to keep Perrin from truly becoming the Wolf King (i.e. go home and wield a regular hammer instead of a magical one), but as a philosopher he may just have known of the dichotomy regardless. Perhaps even thought about it and considered it important.
Also, the implication that the Superboys’ lives as well as their fates are tied together is indeed intriguing. I’d say it is indeed never really tested, except all the times when one of them could have died, another was always with them to save them (or in the case of the end of TFoH, bring them back from the dead). So maybe they are more tied together than it seems.
Lanfear’s temptation of Perrin certainly does fit her overall MO, not just with Mat but also Rand (“we could challenge the Creator”), and her own motivation in wanting to be the strongest and most powerful person in the world. But the big thing, of course, is how this foreshadows what she does with him in AMoL. And while it can easily be said that this was something retconned in or added by Sanderson and Team Jordan, I’m pretty sure considering how key Perrin and Lanfear’s relationship was to the final showdown at Shayol Ghul that it was planned by Jordan to end that way all along. In which case, wonderful Chekhov’s Gun. And yes, her subtle plans were both more interesting and more effective in the end than any of the other Forsaken’s; as Leigh herself said in the AMoL reread, she came the closest to succeeding, and if not for Perrin’s love of Faile (hah!) she would have won.
What is most unusual about this scene, and which is never really explained, is why Perrin keeps seeing the various Forsaken meeting in what is clearly the Ways. My theory about this is based on the fact everyone Perrin sees there, other than the brief glimpse of Lanfear, are male channelers. Aside from the fact the overall description given, plus there being running water, shows this is what the Ways were like before they darkened (and therefore it had to be Ishamael’s dreamshard since he’s the only one who was out of the Bore to know about the Ways at all, let alone when they were still pure), I would posit the notion that the reason he, Rahvin, Be’lal, and I believe Sammael meet there is because it feels natural and right. Why? Because the Ways were made with saidin, so naturally male channelers would be drawn to it. Or in Ishy’s case, would want to create a version of it that the others in turn would feel at home in. The fact of course this is just more showing off on Ishy’s part doesn’t hurt either.
As for the argument, yeah, I think the scenes we see later on with Rahvin sending Comar to keep Elayne from reaching Tear, and Be’lal’s plans for Rand, prove it was about Callandor. Be’lal wanted it (because it was shaped like a sword and, I imagine, because he was weaker in the Power than the other male Forsaken), and Rahvin didn’t want him to gain an edge over him. Keeping Elayne out of his plans killed two birds with one stone: since she was supposed to lure Rand to Tear, her absence could keep him from drawing Callandor for Be’lal, and as long as she stayed in Andor (or was dead) it’d be easier for Rahvin to control Morgase and keep the kingdom from leaving her/his rule. Ishy’s part in it is likely either because he didn’t want to risk Rand getting Callandor, because he wanted to face him himself, or because he obviously didn’t want Be’lal to gain a sa’angreal (or for Rahvin to destabilize himself by getting distracted with Elayne and Rand).
“Who wields me wields destiny.” Well, that certainly has a different and deeper meaning now, doesn’t it, knowing what we do about Callandor’s nature and how Rand ends up using it?
@1 Nick31: All we know is it was made during the Age of Legends (different sources say either during the War of Power or after it), by the Aes Sedai we saw with it in Rand’s ancestor memories. The prevailing theory is that it became a True Power sa’angreal because it was created in the very last days of the War of Power and thus at the same time as/just after the Strike at Shayol Ghul, so the men involved imprinted the True Power on it through the taint. Considering the scene in question in Rand’s memories mention maddened male channelers on their way there (so the counterstroke had already happened), and we don’t know how long before that scene Callandor was made…
@2 birgit: Huh. I’d not noticed that. Offhand maybe it’s just an aspect of the untainted Ways. Or maybe at first the Forsaken were being careful and protective of themselves, but by the later conversations they’ve become complacent and careless. As for the language, since we know by this point Be’lal and Rahvin have both integrated into modern nations, and of course so have Sammael, Graendal, Mesaana, and so forth, then they would already know the modern language. Why they’d be speaking in it in private, who knows, but since we know the modern language does descend from and have things in common with the Old Tongue, maybe it’s familiar enough to them that when combined with needing to speak it a lot of the time in the waking world, they are doing it out of habit.
@3 Hammerlock: Ironic, considering it was Lews Therin who had a title similar to Lucifer’s. :P
@@.-@ AndrewHB: You could be right, but notice Lanfear doesn’t go after Mat until after Perrin resists and rejects her here. So while she might like to control all the boys, I think she of course was focused mostly on Rand, and only moved on to the other boys as an afterthought/insurance policy. As to the fact she and Ishy were the only ones who could find/recognize them, it’s stated by Moridin that he can actually detect ta’veren and that’s how he finds them, so presumably Lanfear has the same Talent. The fact she’s the only other Forsaken with it does show how powerful she was, though–although despite the fact she and Ishamael were two of the most powerful channelers ever, it isn’t necessarily tied to being strong in the Power.
@6 neverspeakaword: Ah thanks for that tidbit. Seems I was right to surmise that’s why he wanted Callandor. I agree, a POV would have been nice (even Rahvin got one!). As for what made him special, I guess his cleverness/political scheming (as pathetic as that turned out to be against Rand and Moiraine), since the fact he reinvented swordfighting doesn’t seem that special considering how much better at it Demandred turned out to be.
@7 James Spangler: Good points re: Graendal. As for Lanfear, no one ever said she was the best servant of the Shadow, just the best evildoer. The difference is the evil she was good at doing was meant in the end to benefit her and her alone. She had the selfishness the Dark One wanted in his followers but to such an extreme she saw herself as more worthy of power than him and would do anything to supplant him. That’s what made her so dangerous, when her insanity and hubris didn’t get in the way.
@8 neverspeakaword: I concur, obviously. As for why no third name: maybe whoever was in charge of giving them out realized she was too ambitious/power-hungry and thus tried to hold her back?
@11 AeronaGreenjoy: It IS funny, but as you say it makes sense in context. And as I said, it’s certainly more effective than simply trying to scare/control Perrin.
@12 Ways: Despite what Team Jordan says, I don’t believe that as it makes no sense. Note what I said above, that in the scene in Rand’s ancestor memories where the Aes Sedai had Callandor, maddened male Aes Sedai are on their way there, proving the taint already exists. While we don’t know how long before that the sword was made, it could well have been after the Bore was sealed–since as long as there were still Shadowspawn and non-sealed Forsaken around, the War of Power could be said to still be going on before it became the full-on Breaking.
@14 neverspeakaword, @15 birgit: While the wording wasn’t what he remembered, saying “the sword must wait” implies it hasn’t been fully completed yet. Which means that since there are maddened men on the way, any finishing touches on it would be while the taint is around to influence it.
@16 Faculty Guy: Interesting, I’d not heard about that part of Campbell’s theories. It makes sense, and seems like it would be a good reason not only for people in the past giving such deference and loyalty to rulers, but why people (like Leigh and the rest of us) would keep reading fantasy stories with such feudal notions in them–because in an ideal fictional world, leaders really are like that and thus can be respected and given the benefit of the doubt. As you say, Rand’s journey certainly does reflect this.
Every once in a great while, I’m caught up enough to make a meaningful comment at a time when a post is relatively fresh. I’ve been following this off and on since 2009, but eventually have read every post and every comment. So being 15 days late is close by my standards!
@leighdb and @macster – I disagree that Ishamael was merely trying to get Perrin to go home by emphasizing the hammer vs. axe dichotomy, though I can see your points. I think though that Ishamael was more than familiar with the entire Karaethon Cycle, and that he was actively encouraging Perrin to take up the hammer sooner, to bring about the end sooner, due to Ishamael’s nihilism. The hammer is directly linked with the final days… and very possibly there was nothing in the prophecies about a *special* hammer, meaning he thought a regular one would do. c.f. “When the Wolf King carries the hammer, thus are the final days known. When the fox marries the raven, and the trumpets of battle are blown.” Thus in Ishy’s mind, the sooner Perrin carries the hammer, the sooner this can all be over and his physical and mental agony can end.
@macster, @Ways – I’m with Ways regarding Callandor. It wasn’t just Team Jordan saying that it was a manufacturing flaw… RJ himself said it (*see interview excerpt below, clipped from Theoryland’s Interview Database). Brandon later said he was of the opinion that Callandor was made as a deliberate trap for male Forsaken, but I trust RJ’s statement more. It also could have occurred as an accident and then been repurposed as a trap.
Also, there is nothing in the text from the Wayback Ter’angreal that indicated that Callandor was still in the process of being made during the scene we saw. “The sword must wait” should be looked at in context. The Aes Sedai were talking about sealing up the seal, the Dragon Banner, and the Horn in the Eye of the World, sacrificing all of themselves in the process. I always interpreted “The sword must wait” to mean that they could not seal it in the Eye and that they must wait to build the Stone of Tear to house Callandor, which would be a separate mammoth undertaking.
Love all the analysis from you guys, especially Randalator’s humor, Birgit’s excellent questions, and Macster’s walls of texts. Just chiming in when something is unaddressed.
*JASON WOLFBROTHER
Was Callandor constructed during the War of Power?
ROBERT JORDAN
Yes.
JASON WOLFBROTHER
Was it used in the War of Power?
ROBERT JORDAN
Yes, that is how the flaw was discovered.
JASON WOLFBROTHER
Why didn’t they ward/buffer Callandor?
ROBERT JORDAN
The flaw with Callandor is simply a manufacturing flaw. He went on to talk about how they were at the end of their tech age with only a few sho-wings and jo-cars left. A couple of shocklances were still around but they were not as prevalent as they had been. Anyway they had been mass producingter’angreal, angreal, and sa’angreal, and there are bound to be flaws with the products. The flaw with Callandor is simply one such flaw.
FOOTNOTE
This is specifically referring to the lack of a buffer.
That’s a very interesting thought, Fernandan. I’d forgotten the exact phrasing of the Wolf King bit was regarding the “final days” and that therefore that particular prophecy coming to pass would indicate the end (and therefore Ishy’s final rest) was very near. Makes sense to me!
As to Callandor, it’s not like Jordan hasn’t changed his mind before, been wrong, or misremembered/misstated something (the biggest to come to mind is the bit about Mat and where his memories came from). But even assuming we take it at face value, I still don’t see how it could be made a True Power sa’angreal let alone a Forsaken trap if the taint didn’t already exist. And that we know the actual end of the War of Power didn’t come with the sealing of the Bore but sometime later as the Breaking was happening, so that by Aes Sedai thinking, Callandor could have been made after the taint existed but still “during the War of Power”. And it makes sense to me that if the flaw was discovered when it was used in battle, then the only way this could occur and yet have no one (especially Ishy) know about it is if the Forsaken were already sealed at the time. In which case, regardless whether any Forsaken or Dreadlords still outside the Bore survived their encounters with the Light’s remaining forces, they would have had no way of telling Ishy or the others about it.
Not to mention, Callandor’s flaw/being a True Power sa’angreal, if it started as an accident that was repurposed into a trap, seems even more likely then to be something that happened because the Aes Sedai making it didn’t know about the taint until it was too late. Barring that, I don’t see how a flaw caused by being made in haste during the last days of the War of Power could have caused it to become a True Power sa’angreal. Unless lacking a buffer was somehow all that was needed to let the True Power in to attune Callandor to it, the first time it was used after the taint existed…
You are quite right though, I think, about the meaning of “the sword must wait”. I retract that theory.