Happy Tuesday, Tor.com! Time for another Wheel of Time Reread Redux, yes? Yes!
Today’s Redux post will cover Chapter 16 and Chapter 26 of The Fires of Heaven, originally reread in this post and this post, respectively.
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, a reminder that the format of the Reread Redux has changed: from now on I am only going to be commenting on chapters in which my reaction has changed significantly from before, based on the knowledge I had at the time.
What we missed from last time: Nynaeve, Elayne, Juilin and Thom embark on their Trip Which Eventually Turns Into That Time They Ran Away And Joined The Circus, in which Nynaeve is unintentionally hilarious and Elayne makes a giant fool of herself pseudo-crushing on Thom. They enter Amadicia, and meet Aes Sedai informant-turned-channeler-drugger Ronde Macura, who almost manages to ship a forkrooted Elayne and Nynaeve back to Elaida before Juilin and Thom show up to threaten her with figs and mice, like you do. Siuan finds out that the anti-Elaida sisters are holing up in Salidar, and Elayne and Nynaeve meet Valan Luca. Egwene and Nynaeve have a power balance realignment in Tel’aran’rhiod, and also discover Siuan is no longer Amyrlin.
Onward!
Chapter 16: An Unexpected Offer
[In this chapter: Nynaeve and Elayne run into Galad, and ogle his prettiness for almost two minutes before realizing he is now a Whitecloak. Elayne promptly has them all run for the hills before Galad decides to turn them in, and finally remembers where she knows Thom from.]
At the time I wrote the original commentary, I was wavering between whether to headdesk at Galad’s decision to become a Whitecloak, or cheer that it led him to being able to execute his mother’s rapist in KOD, but I didn’t really consider the ramifications of it beyond that.
Now that the whole story is complete, of course, it’s extremely obvious how necessary it was for someone from the non-insane Light side of things to gain control of one of the larger military forces in Randland before the Last Battle. Granted, awarding the title of “non-insane Light side” to Galad is maybe stretching things a bit, but then I suppose sending someone totally rational to take control of a bunch of militant fanatics probably wouldn’t have worked out all that well anyway.
My point being, my total indignance at Galad’s Whitecloak-izing was pretty firmly misplaced, in retrospect. Galad was placed exactly where he needed to be to do the most amount of good he could, and it was obviously something Jordan had had planned from the moment we first met the character back in TEOTW. Cool, huh?
[Aaand then we skip ten chapters, in which Rand chases Couladin into Cairhien while Aviendha gets increasingly stressed about her crush on him, Nynaeve and Elayne join the circus and are hilarious, Moghedien takes control of Liandrin and Co. and is using them to hunt Nynaeve down, stupid Fain gets his stupid dagger back and leaves stupid Tar Valon, and Morgase finally realizes her relationship with Gaebril is seriously creepybadwrong and flees Caemlyn.]
Chapter 26: Sallie Daera
[In this chapter: Siuan, Min, Leane and Logain finally find Salidar, along with a less than enthused reception from the Tower in exile.]
Basically the main purpose of this chapter is to have Min have a whole mess o’ viewings about various Aes Sedai (and Logain), all of which eventually came to fruition, but some in… surprising ways.
Logain was destined for glory such as few men had dreamed of.
Not that one, though. That one came true in pretty much exactly the way we all expected it to, in the general sense if not in the specific, in that he ends up leading the Asha’man once Taim is ousted. Though probably the real meaning of the viewing is the part we couldn’t have guessed, which is that Logain is the one who breaks the remaining Seals during the Last Battle, allowing Rand to reimprison the Dark One and close the Bore like new. Which is pretty darn glory-worthy, all things considered.
[Edesina:] […] a silvery collar suddenly appeared, snug around the woman’s neck, and as suddenly seemed to shatter. Min shivered. She did not like viewings connected to the Seanchan. At least Edesina would escape somehow.
This one, of course, is totally straightforward, and happened pretty much exactly the way you’d think.
Sheriam’s tilted green eyes fixed immediately on Min’s face. Rays of silver and blue flashed about her fiery hair, and a soft golden light; Min could not say what it meant.
This one, though, has been pretty controversial. I’m still not sure what to make of what seems like a positive viewing being sort of shoehorned into representing her eventual execution for being Black Ajah. Okay, the axe was “silvery” and she was… wearing a blue dress. Um. Sure, I guess.
[Carlinya:] For an instant Min saw an image of a raven floating beside her dark hair; more a drawing of the bird than the bird itself. She thought it was a tattoo, but she did not know its meaning.
This one is also interesting. Most fans assumed this viewing meant that Carlinya would eventually become a Seanchan slave, as raven tattoos were put on those serving the Seanchan empress, but in fact Carlinya never goes near the Seanchan, and dies in Tel’aran’rhiod during the Black Ajah assault on the Tower during the Last Battle.
Team Jordan has apparently said that the raven was symbol of the Drak One, and the viewing meant that she would die at the hands of those who served him. No word on why Min thought it was a tattoo, then, though.
Basically what it leads me to conclude is that both Sheriam and Carlinya may be some of the few characters for whom the authors may have changed direction on in mid-stream—or, possibly, forgot about their respective Min viewings altogether.
However, considering the sheer volume of characters and prophecies that had to be kept track of in WOT, it’s probably pretty impressive that these two were practically the only real gaffes on that front. At least as far as I remember right now. There may have been more, but nevertheless, my point stands.
And that’s what I got for today, O My Peeps. Have a lovely spring-ish week, since it’s all official and stuff now, and I’ll see you next time!
