The Wheel of Time Reread Redux: <em>The Eye of the World</em>, Part 27

Someshta is such a sad figure…even knowing so little about him, and not learning of the Nym until later, his sorrow over the loss of the Age of Legends, at being forced to stay at the Eye alone for centuries, was always palpable. And once Aginor said he was the last of his kind, he became even more tragic. What happens to him is the final touch, and while obviously he went out by his own choice (after the initial burning), he was the one who chose to intervene, and what he became was absolutely perfect, beautiful, and fitting, it was still quite sad. Still…what a way to go, and how awesome at him taking Balthamel out that way. I agree: most unique death ever. And I love that the creepy letch turned into creeping fungus (though I always wondered what was up with the mask that could form expressions *shudders*).

I’m surprised you didn’t get the reference, Leigh, since you brought up the Bible: the Word is what the Gospel of John called Jesus, and it was more generally speaking associated with Creation (“let there be light”). So it makes perfect sense to me that a being associated with plants and growing things, and thus creation, would have a name that actually means “name” or “word”–it’s like an embodiment of the Creator’s will, the utterance of “Be!” given a living form.

Of course the fun bit about the Tree of Life here is that it also plays into Jordan’s idea of cyclical time and mutable legend, since even as it’s a combination of so many myths and archetypes from our world, the Randlanders have themselves gotten the story wrong: thinking the Tree was at the Eye just because supposedly the Green Man guarded it, when it’s actually in Rhuidean, and mistakenly believing there was only one such tree.

While it is very likely true that the channelers who created the Eye did something similar to what Rand and Nynaneve did at the Cleansing, it obviously couldn’t have been identical, since not only was the taint not gotten rid of altogether, but they had no anti-taint (Mashadar) to destroy it with. Which then makes me wonder how it was they managed it…apparently the fact they had nothing to destroy the taint with is why they all died making it, but how did they draw it out?? I guess we’ll never know.

And on a related note, of course, always fun (and gets that little shiver of meaning and mystery) to see Aginor say he and Balthamel were drawn to them by Mat’s dagger (so either they were very close by already, since Moiraine said for anyone to get close enough to feel it they’d have to be right on top of them already, or the Forsaken are so strong in the Shadow that her ward couldn’t block them–likely the latter)…and also say it’s an old thing, an old friend, an old enemy.

As much as this underscores the importance of Shadar Logoth and justifies it appearing in the rest of the series, it remains rather inexplicable–since Shadar Logoth (and before it Aridhol) didn’t exist until the Trolloc Wars, during which time Aginor was sealed in the Bore and couldn’t have learned of it, this implies whatever power(s) Mordeth discovered had appeared in previous Ages and always been opposed to the Dark One even as it/they remained another brand of evil. Which of course fits the cycle of the Ages as Jordan described it to us (and shows that even if what Fain became was an aberration, the power he bore was not new or unusual), but begs the question…what form did this evil take in previous Ages…?

The lack of sudden death for the pitiful Heroes: it may be a thing of the genre, but I really do think it’s justified here. We’re talking about Forsaken, who looked down on Lews Therin himself, let alone the ‘pitiful’ Third Agers. As far as they’re concerned at this point, everyone facing them is a weak and unimportant Normal, and one lowly Aes Sedai and her Warder isn’t enough of a threat for them to bring out the big guns. They just got free of the Bore, so they’d be reveling in their renewed connection to the Power (“So long without”) and in their arrogance wouldn’t even use much of it against three backwoods farmboys, one Ogier, and two untrained village women. They probably thought it was fun toying with them, letting them throw themselves with their silly daggers and axes and swords at them, while they waited until they had worn themselves out to take out what they deemed the only threat (Moiraine), claim the Eye, and then torture everyone for information/accolades from Ishamael and the Dark One. By the time they realized they needed to stop playing with their food, the Green Man had already shown up and taken out Balthamel, and it was too late for Aginor to stop Rand from drawing on the Eye. Not to mention, after having been sealed for so long, it’s entirely possible they were still a bit rusty with their channeling so needed time to acclimatize.

Side note: I had completely forgotten Balthamel was clearly considering raping Nynaeve, or at least assaulting her in some sexual manner (probably with the Power, since I doubt his body could, ah, perform). “The pleasures of the flesh…Balthamel remembers much.” Sick sick sick. Also also: how awesome is it to see that even at this point, Mat was trying to save Nynaeve? Would have been interesting to see what the dagger would have done to Balthamel. *dark chuckle*

Aginor’s comment about being given new flesh: I love how this is another example of Jordan’s subtlety. At the time, of course, this just seemed like typical evil gloating. It isn’t until later with hindsight that we see he was being literally honest about the Dark One’s powers and what he had promised his Chosen. Well done.

So, the battle with Aginor and everything that followed. I admit to being puzzled how the untainted Eye could suddenly cause Aginor to grow younger–was he being given back the channeling-induced slow aging he would have had if he’d not been in the Bore? Or was it a combination of so much purified Power with the Dark One’s taint protection also allowing the Dark One to start granting him the immortality he promised?

What doesn’t puzzle me is what Rand did next and how. Let’s follow the bouncing ball. If we accept as the first premise that the area where the Eye is found is part of TAR, perhaps even a dreamshard created by the Aes Sedai who made the Eye which would thus allow it to intersect the real world the way some of Ishamael’s did with Rand, then it all falls into place. Rand, we know, is a dreamwalker. He’s just been granted an enormous amount of purified Power. He’s in some piece of TAR. He’s constantly thinking “away, away.” Add it all up and the answer is: Rand unconsciously, unknowingly, took control of the Eye’s dreamshard enough to open a gateway to the real world (like the ones he and Ishamael used in the Stone in TDR) and flung himself out it into Tarwin’s Gap. (Why there? Let’s just say the Pattern.) Which explains how he could physically be there.

Everything he did next may have broken the rules of saidin, but aside from the Eye’s power, there’s the fact Rand didn’t know there were rules or what they were. When you’re still operating in a dreamshard and thus drawing on a realm where the power of belief and imagination fuels everything, it’d be as easy to circumvent or even break those rules as it was for characters in the old Looney Tunes to defy gravity simply because they didn’t know about it yet. And speaking of the Eye’s power, I am still convinced that the sheer amount of it as well as its purity is why Rand could do the things he did: it basically forced Rand, opening him up to a massive amount of his channeling potential in one go, and it did it without exposing him to a comparable amount of taint and madness thanks to being purified. That is why the Eye was needed, and probably also why Ishamael wasn’t too upset about Aginor’s demise and Rand drawing it–because the only way for the Dark One to win would be for Rand to join the Shadow of his own free will, something that can’t happen if he rots away or goes mad too soon.

Moving on: I have no idea why Rand’s cry caused the Creator to speak to him (maybe because he was calling a name that was associated with the Dark One despite really being Ishamael, and in a place close to Shayol Ghul, the Creator thought the Dark One might actually accept the challenge?), but it seemed clear to me that the “it” he referred to was Tarmon Gai’don itself, or at least the portion of it that was his champion vs. the Dark One. After that the steps were likely Rand manipulating the dreamshard again–recall that after Rand and Ishamael opened gates to TAR in the Stone, they perfectly matched the real world because what they showed was a reflection of reality. Ergo, a gate could have been in the Gap the whole time and we’d never know it because it wouldn’t look like a regular Traveling gate. The fact the steps lead right to Ishamael’s lair which we know is in a dreamshard further support this theory.

And then? Well. I think it comes back to the dreamshard again. We know Ishamael, as its creator, can manipulate it however he likes–which means he can not only create illusions of people Rand knows, but he can do so even when said people walk in the Light and are thus outside the Dark One’s control. Kari being here doesn’t mean she was a Darkfriend any more than it meant Egwene and Nynaeve were–she was an image created in a dreamshard so Ishamael could do whatever he wanted to her.

As to why she acted the way she did, and prayed to the Light with her final breath, two possibilities. One, Ishamael realized in a shocking bit of genre savviness that it’d be easier to persuade Rand if he made Kari act as she did in life (or as Rand believed she did), since seeing and hearing a good and kind woman be tortured by Shadowspawn would be far more effective than the evil versions of the Supergirls who taunt him later in TDR. (Also, if he didn’t know via Fain that Kari was dead, Rand blurted it out, but either way this made it more believable for Ishamael to change his dreamshard Kari–everyone knows the Dark One is Lord of the Grave, so it’d be more believable to Rand that someone who was dead could be manipulated or corrupted than ones he knew to be alive.) The second option, of course, is that Rand unconsciously took control of the dreamshard again (or still) and thus made Kari act and speak in the way he believed she would and should. Yes, it’s supposed to be very hard to control another’s dreamshard, but again, it’s Rand, and souped-up-on-the-Eye Rand to boot.

So, that’s my theory. Can’t be proven, but it makes as much sense as anything else.

@Lisamarie: It makes the most sense, as it explains everything I addressed above, plus how need could help them find it. If it’s not a dreamshard specifically (and by that I mean the area around it, the Green Man’s garden, not the Eye itself) it at least has to have some connection with TAR to move the way it does.

@thepupxpert: *grins* Did you also check out the related Sliding Scale of Villain Threat?