Am I just paranoid, or is this yet another Wheel of Time Reread Redux? No reason it can’t be both! Today’s Redux post will cover Chapter 3 of The Great Hunt, 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: Friends and Enemies
Redux Commentary
“Maybe I don’t want you two going with me, always hanging around, falling into trouble and expecting me to pull you out. You ever think of that? Burn me, did it ever occur to you I might be tired of always having you there whenever I turn around? Always there, and I’m tired of it.” The hurt on Perrin’s face cut him like a knife, but he pushed on relentlessly. “There are some here think I’m a lord. A lord. Maybe I like that. But look at you, dicing with stablehands. When I go, I go by myself. You two can go to Tar Valon or go hang yourselves, but I leave here alone.”
Yep, I hated this conceit then and I still hate it now. I think my beef with it is not that it isn’t an effective way of generating character conflict, because it obviously is a very effective one, actually; my problem with it is that, unlike many other forms of character conflict, this particular trope never feels genuine to me.
At least not in these circumstances. It’s one thing to pull this kind of crap with allies who have not known the protagonist for very long, or whose relationship has been fraught with trust issues from the beginning, but I find it much harder to swallow in situations where the characters involved have all known (and liked) each other for their whole lives. Like, why wouldn’t you call bullshit on that, Mat or Perrin? C’mon.
“So there you are. Mat and Perrin told me what you did. And Loial. I know what you’re trying to do, Rand, and it is plain foolish.”
But then, Egwene does call bullshit on it, so there’s that at least. I awarded her a general “fail” grade in the original commentary because of her idiocy re: Fain, but really, before that bit she’s the only one in this chapter exhibiting any sense re: Rand’s martyr complex, so that really does need to be counted in her favor. Not to mention how this whole bit is much more indicative (and foreshadowing) of their future adversarial-yet-allied relationship in the Last Battle than the awkward-and-doomed mooning over each other they’ve done up to this point.
Speaking of complexes, Rand spends a lot of the time in this chapter he’s not spending being an idiot on feeling like there are eyes on him, watching him, and also wondering whether this means he’s already going crazy. In hindsight we can assure him that as far as “crazy” goes he ain’t seen nothin’ yet, but it’s great, I think, that Jordan always keeps it kind of ambiguous.
Because, does Rand actually have eyes on him? After all, it’s perfectly possible that he does—those of Ingtar if nothing else, or it could be an effect of being in the general vicinity of Fain, or it could even be Lan’s assertion on the tower after the wind thing that weird things just happen near the Blight (though that always smacked to me of being a way to get around saying “I have no idea what the hell just happened,” rather than any kind of definitive statement). But on the other hand, feeling that someone is watching you all the time is the harbinger of any number of real-life mental disorders (including the big classic, paranoid schizophrenia), and pretty much any reader living in our post-Freudian world (i.e. all of us) would recognize that immediately.
It’s not a hundred percent ironclad correlation, but the best speculative fiction tends to be the stories which can be seen as an allegory for real world events or situations. As far as being a one-to-one allegory for real world events, WOT jumps the rail on that pretty much immediately, taken as a whole, but there are (obviously) a veritable passel of elements within the overall story that can definitely be read as allegorical metaphors, and Rand’s mental status throughout the series is one of the best examples.
Because, of course, everything that happens in Rand’s brain over the course of the series has a perfectly mundane psychiatric explanation: the aforementioned martyr complex, paranoid schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, delusions of grandeur (oh, you’re the savior of the world, are you?) megalomania, depression, and even claustrophobia (although if you ask me, anyone who doesn’t have claustrophobia after being locked in a trunk for days is the crazy one, but anyway). But on the other hand, all of his “real-world” symptoms are also perfectly ascribable to magical and/or supernatural causes. (Except maybe the claustrophobia, because again, really, who wouldn’t be.) So that’s a fun dichotomy to play with, and additionally gives the whole situation a veneer of realism which greatly helps with the reader’s suspension of disbelief in an almost subconscious way.
Masema had never made a joke in his hearing, nor laughed at one. Most of the men at Fal Dara accepted Rand; he trained with Lan, and Lord Agelmar had him at table, and most important of all, he had arrived at Fal Dara in company with Moiraine, an Aes Sedai. Some seemed unable to forget his being an outlander, though, barely saying two words to him, and then only if they had to. Masema was the worst of those.
And here we have a stellar example of “I’d’ve never thought there’d be a day when…” in action. In the sense of, I’d’ve never thought there’d be a day when I would have rooted for a character to keep being xenophobic, but I am. Because there’s no denying that all our lives (including Masema’s, ultimately) would have been a whole lot better if Masema had never found Jesus the Dragon, and just kept being the suspicious and intolerant jerkass he was. Sigh. Oh well.
I can’t remember if I twigged to the significance of Fain’s jailers and co-inmates getting meaner and meaner over time on my first read, but it certainly freaks me out now, sort of in the same way watching people in outbreak disaster movies walk into infectious disease environments freaks me out. It’s like No! Don’t go in there! Are you CRAZY, why would you do that, no.
Except this is even worse, because at least you know Ebola won’t make you involuntarily evil. I mean, it might kill you, sure, but at least you’ll die still you.
I used to wonder if we’re supposed to infer or be worried over whether Egwene herself got some of Fain’s ickiness on her soul, but then I remembered that, according to Moiraine’s information, as a channeler she has more protection from that kind of thing than ordinary folk do. So that’s okay at least. But still: I might be immunized for measles, but that doesn’t mean if someone brings me to a measle farm I’m gonna go rolling around in the measle mud, you know? COMMON SENSE, Egwene. It’s a thing, you should get some.
Fain’s laughing whisper came through the black shadows. “The battle’s never done, al’Thor. Mordeth knows.”
You’d think Rand would have a bit more of a reaction to this, considering Mordeth had introduced himself to the Superboys by name in Shadar Logoth in TEOTW. Shouldn’t he wonder why Fain is mentioning the name of the ghost-thing that tried to eat him not too long ago?
But, hey, maybe he forgot; it’s not like a whole shit-ton of stuff hasn’t happened between then and now. I mean, hell, I sometimes forget people’s names five minutes after meeting them, and I don’t even have the excuse of having had a life-altering encounter with a maybe-God-like figger in between. So, sure.
And, randomly:
In spite of everything, Rand found himself grinning. Loial often had that effect on him.
He has that effect on all of us, honey.
Aaaand here’s where we stop, my darlings. I was gonna go one more, but then I decided I really wanted to have all the early Aes Sedai shenanigans in one post, so Moiraine’s POV will have to wait till next time, Gadget, next time! MWAHAHA! See you next Tuesday!
I think that I sort of caught on to how Fain had that effect on his jailers, but it didn’t really sink in until the fourth book when he REALLY had that same effect on his personal group of Whitecloaks when he joined Bornhold/Byer at Two Rivers. Since we’d basically gotten that Whitecloaks were all about their clean, white look and image and his guys were lacking on things like clean uniforms and being freshly shaved and all that stuff.
And I do agree with you on your stance concerning Rand’s comments towards Perrin and Mat. It kind of seemed more like a clumsy way to set up a sense of dislike/conflict between he and Mat that lasted for about an eternity than anything else. Because Mat did NOT forget that slight and made sure Rand never forgot about how high and mighty he was for a looooong time after this chapter.
I can’t say whether I caught it on my first (and up till now, only) read through, but this time around, the second that Egwene started mentioning that everyone in the dungeon was getting meaner the more time passed, I was like “oooo, Padan Fain’s messing with them something fierce.”
And this is the second time in as many books where I’ve had to scratch my head and say, “Well, I guess he showed up a lot earlier than I thought.” First Thom crops up in the first couple chapters of TEOTW, and now Masema is already introduced (albeit in far less flamboyant fashion). I have a sneaking suspicion that that feeling will be in abundance throughout these early books.
I have never hid the fact that I like Egwene as a character. She is one of my favorite characters. I know that a number of readers on this re-read do not like her. They find her false and a hypocrite. Is Egwene perfect throughout the series? No. Has she made some mistakes. Yes. Nevertheless, you cannot take away from her good accomplishments and her positive characteristics. Here, we have one of them. Egwene is usually a good judge of character and can accurately read people. I think that is able to call Rand on the reasons he lashes out at the others. True, she knows that Rand can channel whereas Mat, Perrin and Loial do not. Maybe Egwene’s attitude toward Rand in this chapter would have been different if she did not know he could channel. However, I suspect not. IMO I think she would have tried to get the answer out of Rand as to why he was being such a jerk. She would have hounded him until he broke down and told her. Egwene would then have agreed to help hide Rand because in her mind, no matter what else Rand is (i.e. a male channeler), at his core Rand is still Rand.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
What the….. my entire comment just disappeared! Lost! Dang it! And I was about ready to post, too. I need to remember to save as I type along……
It took several minutes for the ReRead to come up on my end. Not sure why.
To be honest it didn’t occur to me Fain was adversely affecting those people in the dungeon, even though Egwene mentioned the people were getting ruder and meaner every day whether they were the guards or the other prisoners. It wasn’t until Fain had his own troop of White Cloaks that I realized he was behind their fall from grace and eventual demise. Somehow he must funnel their life force into his own bringing out whatever minute evil they originally had in them to become something far worse than a random asshole bad guy. It honestly makes me shudder to think about it. Fain was the ISIS of his day.
I seriously doubt in real life friends who had known each other since toddlers would turn tail on a single comment. In a real-life situation Mat would probably have looked at Rand with a questioning face, reached up to Rand’s forehead to check for a fever then ask, “what the hell, bro? What is up with you?” I don’t think his first reaction would be to turn around thinking “whatev.. do whatever you want ’cause I’m outa’ here!” On the other hand, Egwene chasing Rand down, tackling him and sitting on him was quite hilarious to picture in my mind. You go girl!!!!
As for the wind, I took Lan at his word that weird things happen in the blight. When Rand thought there were eyes on him all the time I thought that perhaps he was a bit paranoid. I still don’t quite get just who was supposed to be doing the watching, or if Rand WAS getting paranoid.
Masema as a character didn’t have much staying power in my brain until he left Rand after confirming he was the “real” Dragon then showed up later as a force to be reckoned with. An evil force thinking he was some sort of knight in shining armor kinda’ guy, a person who should be avoided at all costs, but a force none-the-less. Masema was a smelly, creepy, slimy guy who coveted power for himself and killed anyone who didn’t agree with him. On the ReRead, I’ll probably skim his parts. I like to read at night and I don’t wanna have nightmares!
Why did Tor get rid of the fancy CSS? I still haven’t gotten used to the new format. Even when typing a comment I keep hitting the return twice when the return now automatically clicks down two lines.
I wish I could say I caught on to the Fain-disease (Fainthrax?) in the first reading, but I don’t think so. Like others, I did not pick up on it until the White Cloaks. It seems obvious in retrospect (and creepy – keep that stuff away from me!). So well done, RJ; poorly done, me.
@3 – Andrew HB, I agree with you on Egwene in this chapter. I’m not a huge Egwene fan, but I don’t dislike her. She has many, many awesome moments in the series, and a few highly annoying ones. But her apparently instantaneous deduction of Rand’s motives was actually pretty awesome, and her sitting on Rand was funny. I also love the fact that she immediately offered to help.
I agree with Leigh 100% that this ‘drive away your friends’ conceit it awful. It actually sours the book quite a bit for me. Also agree there’s a big problem on the believability scale. In particular, the scene in which Rand apologizes to Perrin while Mat is in sick bay, but then confirms that he still wants to leave without the other two, and Perrin storms off. As Leigh and WDWParksGal point out, these guys have been best buds for years. I find it out of character that Perrin wouldn’t demand a better explanation. Mat storming off would make more sense. This conceit also bothers me because Mat’s reaction was highly annoying. It’s particularly annoying now, knowing as I do that Mat kicks copious amount of hind quarters, to see him overreacting to the point of jerk-itude. Plus, I think we can all agree that being mean to Loial is just plain sucky.
As for the eyes on Rand, I always assumed that was the Grey Man. Did we ever get any confirmation on this?
Finally, I think Leigh raises a good point about Fain / Mordeth. I think this ought to have provoked some reaction in Rand: “Wait, why is one evil guy, Fain, mentioning this other, super evil guy? And what the heck does Mordeth know?” Seems like this should have caused Rand a little more angst. Even though Rand has had a FEW things going on, I doubt he would forget Mordeth’s name.
There are times, starting in this book, where instead of “Rand thought” we get “a voice said in his head”. Honestly, I’m thinking that the eyes are the beginnings of Lews Therin.
RE: Driving away your friends
I find it an acceptable plot development that Mat believes Rand’s ploy. He is dagger-addled Donchaknow. Perrin now…thats tricky. He is one who is known to take the time to think things through, so I can see him taking Rand at face value at first, until hes had time to analyze things properly. He is also the type who doesn’t enjoy arguing, which is why he didn’t call BullSh*t. So, while I will admit that it may seem a tad clunky as a plot device, I don’t think its entirely unbelievable in context.
As far as the “Fain infecting people with evil” thing goes, I’ve been doing a reread lately and have noticed that like 90% of the “Rand being a total dick” thing that happens later in the series starts IMMEDIATELY after Rand and Ishamael have their crossing-balefire-streams thing and start their mental connection. It had never registered before, but Rand goes from being all giddy and joyful while charming Caroline Damodred to sulky and peevish when fighting the Seanchan, basically, overnight. So Rand gets Moridin’s personality rubbing off on him as well as his True Power abilities.
Likening Egwene to Danaerys re: unnecessary exposure to contagious nastiness?
On my first read, I much approved of her talking with Fain because I’m a pushover for villains and people who show kindness to / interest in them. In hindsight, it was clearly Very Unwise of her.
I think that the eyes rand is feeling is Isam/Luc. We learn an Isam point of view that he was the one that fired the arrow at Rand during the send off. It was just a lucky thing that Rand moved at the right moment to avoid getting hit. I think the eyes Rand feel are Isam stalking him before he tries a very public murder that can be blamed on an attempt on Suian’s life.
Thanks, Leigh.
(measle mud–heh, heh)
I think that it’s easy to forget the these kids are squarely at an age they they are their most irrational because of raging hormones, and have the their own independent external factors, wolfiness and the dagger of evil, influencing them.
At that age I had fallouts with lifelong friends after less intense confrontations
@6 I also assumed that Rand was beginning to hear/sens Lews Therin.
The eyes are probably Fain, but even if Rand can feel evil, how does he hear the laughter?
It is strange that Mat is the one defending AS.
How does Rand know what prisoners eat? Eg might know if she talked to the guards, but Rand seems to be in the prison for the first time.
Masema dislikes Rand because he looks like an Aiel.
A Grey Man shot Siuan/Rand, not Slayer.
I never read that whole spiel from Rand as conceit. I read it as a poor attempt to drive away his friends because he’s terrified that he’s going to hurt someone because he knows he can channel and it’s freaking him right the hell out. He loves them, so he wants them to go away. Maybe I’m off base, but it never rang false for me at all.
I think you’re all right. The “eyes” Rand feels are Fain, Lews Therin, Isam, Grey men, Ingtar, and more. And it’s his paranoia. But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get you.
Yep. The feeble attempt to drive his friends off was totally fake. And lame.
Lord Monch @12:
It’s easy to forget that despite constantly being referred to as kids, the three are nineteen going on twenty. Older even than Egwene.
@15 I agree. I think what leigh is getting at is that it should not have worked. I mean they are life long friends and should have called him on it/seen through it as Egwene did.
@12 I kind of agree. Even though they are older teens and others scoff at the immaturity of the superboys compared to our jaundiced and cynical viewpoint, I could kind of see it.
As for Fain, I don’t remember how much I cottoned on to in the first reading, but It was definitely creepy, and obvious given the abilities he displays later in the books. Also, I thought that Mo. explained the whole ‘merged with Mordreith’ thing near the end of the last book after she interrogates Fain; so there is no cat to let of the bag by Fain mentioning that name.
There is a lot going on here that is subtle and unexplained: the “eyes” following Rand, the confusion about who gave the order to close the gates and when the order was given (thus preventing Rand from fleeing), who shot at Rand/Suen in the next couple of chapters. I remember that RJ explained it all in a Q&A somewhere, but the details escape me. It was a Grey Man that Igntar let in that shot at Rand; it was either a Grey Man or Fain’s special “Randar” that are the ‘Eyes’ (later in the book Fain muses to himself that Rand sometimes goes ‘off grid’ to him, presumably when he assumes the void); It may even be Lanfear, as all the Forsaken are pretty much free at this point; Igntar gives the order to close the gate before the real ‘lockdown’ order is given?
@18 Gadget – I have been thinking a little more about Rand’s attempt to drive off his friends, and whether it is believable that it worked. For a long time I did not buy it (and posted as much, above @5), but now I’m wondering if maybe it worked because of the two people on whom it worked: Mat and Perrin. In each case, there might be an explanation for why they bought this lame scheme. Mat is still tainted to some extent by the dagger. Perhaps that taint allows him to believe the Rand really has turned into a jerk. It’s more difficult to believe for Perrin, but he’s going through his own crisis with the golden eyes and the wolves, so it might be that he’s fragile enough to accept a story that would ordinarily ring loud on his BS meter.
Can you blame someone for having a martyr complex when they have been told they are destined to be a martyr?
I think that the scene with Rand saying all those mean things to try and make Mat and Perrin angry with him works well. I think that we, as readers, are supposed to see it the way that Leigh explains above. We are supposed to be like “What the hell, guys? Why are you not calling him on this bull?” I believe that the fact that they don’t tells us just how much this whole trip has cost them at this point…
Oh god, the old “protecting loved ones by alienating them with hurtful jerkass behaviour” trope. There are no words for how much I hate this trope. Or for how stupid and contrived I think it is. This trope can’t die soon enough.
And I call bullshit on Perrin falling for that. Mat get’s a pass because he’s got daggeritis, but Perrin? What the fuck, dude? You used to be smart. Don’t go all Herp Derp on us before you meet Faile. There’s only so much we can take…
re: Fainbola
Caught that the first time around (thinking about rephrasing that). Wanted to smack Egwene in the back of the head. Girl, you’re mighty smart but your sense of self preservation needs help. You don’t work on that it’s gonna get you kil- oh.
@17 alreadymadwithlameness:
They are older than they are made to seem, which always rubbed me the wrong way for a lot of the early books. Even in Emond’s Field they’re treated like young boys when they’re 19, which is very much not how age worked in pre-industrial societies. I don’t know if it was modern sensibility or a purposeful choice, but it jarred me very much in the early books how people who on Earth would have been considered full blown men and full members of the community were treated like thirteen year olds. Later on when there are people reflecting on what they’ve done and thinking how young they are didn’t bother me, because they still aren’t old by any means, but I kept gnashing my teeth when they’d be treated like little kids.
If it was a purposeful choice then maybe I could get behind it as Jordan poking holes in the idea of people in the Middle Ages/pre-industrial having lifespans of thirty years. I’d actually really groove to it if that’s what Jordan was doing, because it’s a demonstrably wrong assumption that always drives me crazy–those numbers are with infant and child mortality factored in, versus the numbers which show that someone in pre-Industrial England in 1300 who lived to be 20 had an average life expectancy of 64. And there do seem to be a lot of old people even in harder professions (farmers, smiths, etc.) in Randland. So I may have just talked myself in to it as a statement against cliches in medieval lifespan.
That being said, 19 is plenty young enough to ruin perfectly good friendships with dumb-ness.
My opinion of the bad trope situation is that had Mat not been exposed to the Shadar Lagoth dagger, leaving his judgement compromised, he would not have bought Rand’s Idiocy. Perrin basically followed May’s lead on this occasion and never really bought it despite Rand’s abuse. Perrin was hurt, but he wouldn’t have left Rand then if hadn’t been pressed by Mat.
What Rand didn’t really count on was his ruse working so well. He even mused about how easy it was (Ta’veren? ). But I didn’t feel that it wasn’t realistic. Given the past to that point, the clothes he was wearing etc. , I felt it went pretty much as it should have except that I felt that what he said wasn’t bad enough. Maybe I have thicker skin.
Z
@17 alreadymad, @23 mpark6288
re: age
I think the average lifespan of Randlanders is significantly longer than we’d expect from real pre-industrial societies. RJ never drew attention to it, but there’s subtle hints all over the place. Right from the start we get Cenn Buie who is older than dirt but still works as a thatcher. And no one sees anything unusual in that.
I’d go as far as saying that as a leftover of the Age of Legends Randlanders actually have a life expectancy a couple of years longer than we do, and with less ailments later in life.
You know, it never was explained who ordered the gate shut before Agelmar did. Rand assumes Moiraine, I am guessing it was Ingtar? Which means he must have sworn the guards not to tell who had ordered them. I can see them obeying when it came to Rand, but surely they would have told Agelmar. Lucky for Ingtar Agelmar was busy with the Amyrlin, wasn’t it?
*sighs* Hells yes do I hate that trope. In superhero comics it’s essentially a form of It’s Not Me, It’s My Enemies. Usually that just applies to the hero telling his friends/family/loved ones he can’t be near them (or shown to care for them) lest the bad guys target them (which they inevitably do anyway, either due to them having proximity anyway or just the randomness of endangering innocent “strangers”. But it can also be when the hero deliberately tries to drive his loved ones away to protect them. (Then it’s called Break Their Heart to Save Them.) And no it never works, just creates more resentful feelings. I am puzzled why writers keep resorting to this, aside from the false conflict it creates. Since when is this a realistic tactic? Then again…some people are just that nasty, or that desperate…
Egwene sitting on Rand is still hilarious, though. :P
I suspect Rand suddenly feeling eyes on him, and the correlation with those who are going mad or have psychological disorders, happens here for the same reason as Rand seeming more and more mad in TDR: Jordan thinking the series would be shorter than it was, and so he rushed the onset of madness (the better to get Rand closer to his Dragonmount moment), and the first three books acting as more of a three-part novel probably also factors into it appearing now. Notice the watching disappears along with Rand’s crazy actions and words from TDR (other than a brief bit when we see Rand with Kadere from Mat’s POV), and we don’t really see that return until he starts hearing Lews Therin and getting his memories in books five and six. Still, it makes sense to appear here and not just for the reasons Leigh enumerated: after being told all his life that men who channel will go mad, and then discovering he can channel, there’s likely to a significant amount of self-fulfilling prophecy/placebo effect–because he expects to go mad he does, or at least starts experiencing what he believes are classic symptoms.
More miscommunication, although this actually gets cleared up fairly quickly: Rand thinks Masema doesn’t like him simply because he’s an outlander, but it’s actually because he specifically thinks he’s an Aiel. Which Rand would originally have laughed off, but by the time this is revealed he’s already learned he was found on the slopes of Dragonmount during the Aiel War, and Gawyn of course had said he looked Aiel, as did Loial and the Green Man (by implication) so it must have gotten him thinking, long before going to Rhuidean and hearing the tale. But yeah…too bad indeed that Masema got his “calling.” Though I guess it had to happen, if Faile was to be kidnapped, Perrin accept his mantle of leader and wolfbrother, the hammer be made, and the Whitecloaks join the fold, so.
I remember noticing right away the unusualness of the jailers and other prisoners becoming nasty. But I had no idea of the cause, other than a vague sense Fain might be behind it somehow. That isn’t enough reason for Egwene to refuse to visit him in the dungeon. It’s also important to note at this point that she probably still can’t see him as anything but the harmless old peddler he used to be, and she was the one who showed the most shock at Moiraine’s tale to Agelmar and seemed least disposed to believe ill of him. So she probably thought visiting him was both the kind thing to do and a way to bring him back to the Light, if they could. As for him affecting her, I know a lot of people tried to suggest it, but considering the fact we don’t truly see him start affecting people until Niall in the next book and the other Whitecloaks in the Two Rivers in TSR, I don’t think he was strong enough now, even aside from Egwene’s channeler protection. Plus of course all the questionable things she did were long after this scene.
As to why Rand didn’t catch or react to Fain saying Mordeth’s name, he probably placed no importance on it because he thought Fain was just rambling insanely (which of course he actually was). Though it is odd he didn’t even reflect briefly on it.
The bit with Rand grinning because of Loial is as awesome as Mat and his dicing. I do wonder who Fain was looking at when he kept looking up to the ceiling. Mat and the dagger?
@3 AndrewHB: Well said.
@5 TaiSharNedStark: The Gray Man makes sense, though I think the laughter had to be Ba’alzamon. On the other hand Liandrin feels it too, so unless that’s Fain…then again I imagine Ishy was keeping eyes on her too, what with her plan that leads Egwene and the other Supergirls to the Seanchan, which he surely commanded of her (and gave her the path through the Ways–he’s the only one who’s been out of the Bore long enough to know of them).
@6 RoyanRannedos: That’s a brilliant idea.
@7 WhiteVoodoo: Well argued.
@8 neverspeakaword: I believe others noticed this before, and Leigh might even have mentioned it in TPOD, but it’s nice to see it stated outright so clearly.
@9 AeronaGreenjoy: Another good point.
@10 makloony: Um no, it was a Gray Man who fired the arrow.
@15 PJ455789: I agree, it makes perfect sense Rand would feel this way; it’s just hard to stomach when we know how it backfires on him and doesn’t even end up working. The false part is thinking Mat and Perrin would believe him and abandon him just like that, not him wanting to try this sort of gambit to protect them, but based on reasoning made above I’m not sure if their reactions are unbelievable either. Still hurts though.
@18 gadget: No, Moiraine only knew he’d gone into Shadar Logoth; he held back from her the encounter with Mordeth. That’s why she’s still researching Shadar Logoth when she visits Vandene and Adeleas; it’s the end of this book she’s put it together and informs everyone. Also I’m not sure if all the Forsaken are free in this book; we know Rahvin, Sammael, and Be’lal are free in TDR, and Mesaana too since she had something to do with Be’lal’s trap, but the rest we don’t know for sure until TSR/TFOH. Otherwise, spot on.
@19 TaiSharNedStark: Well, during the trip to Caemlyn Mat remained true to Rand despite the dagger, because Rand kept standing by him and refusing to leave him. So maybe once Rand dropped that to try and drive him away, that removed the one impediment that was keeping the dagger from turning him against Rand?
@22 Randalator: Oh indeed.
@23 mpark: Interesting insights!
I know this is a bit late, but I think that Rand’s paranoia was partly madness, partly Fain. There’s one point where he seems to argue with a voice in his head, then the voice ends up laughing at him. I think this was RJ starting the madness train early. However, Fain also shows that he can see Rand, so I think the eyes are Fain, and maybe it’s built to add to the effect of paranoia. The reader starts to see these signs of Rand going mad from the outside. On another note, I definitely think that if RJ had planned initially for a 14 book series then these parts would wait until later.
White Fang!