However much everything else changed, Mat just never would.”
– Egwene al’Vere, The Shadow Rising, ch. 8
So is it just me, or is it pretty amusing that no one in The Shadow Rising (or any of the previous books in The Wheel of Time ) seems capable of observing how much Mat has changed since he left the Two Rivers? The guy carried a cursed dagger that took over his personality for a while, he’s developed a ta’veren-driven power of making chance literally work in his favor, he’s obtained the ability to speak and understand the Old Tongue, and he’s now the sounder of Horn of Valere. Oh, and he’s also made two trips into another plane of existence, and recently he’s had a bunch of memories from his past lives dumped into his brain.
But sure, Egwene, Mat will never change.
“Oh, burn me! I’ve one life to give away, don’t I? Why not like this?” Mat laughed nervously, and a bit wildly.
“Bloody Portal Stones! Light!”
– Mat, The Shadow Rising, ch. 22
I mean, I get it. Mat keeps his secrets close. He lied and said that he wasn’t able to ask any questions on his first trip through the redstone doorway, he’s only confided about his luck powers to Thom, and he’s constantly claiming that he’s going to run away from his friends and his responsibilities. But the thing is, he never does run away. And it’s not like Rand was particularly forthcoming about his experience beyond the redstone doorway, either. And Perrin has only ever confided his secret power—being a wolfbrother—to Moiraine, and only because he felt he had to have her advice.
Honestly, I think people are a bit prejudiced when it comes to Mat Cauthon. He was a prankster growing up, he’s fond of “frivolous things” like drinking and gambling, and he’s very good at turning on the charm when he wants, which can come off as disingenuous to people who watch him do it. Mat’s also fond of bluster to cover his worry and uncertainty, approaching dangerous situations with a cultivated devil-may-care, we’re-all-going-to die-someday attitude. Mat’s bluster is a cover (sometimes effective, sometimes not) for his fear, but it’s easy enough for other characters to mistake that bluster for Mat not taking things seriously.
Mat would as soon hit himself on the head with a hammer as go back to the Two Rivers. […] The difference between Mat and himself was that he was willing to accept that, even when he did not want to.
– Perrin, The Shadow Rising, ch. 14
And when Mat is being honest, people still don’t see his comments as sincere. When Perrin asks Mat to come back to the Two Rivers, Mat says that he wants to go, explains that he’s being prevented from even saying that he will go, but Perrin doesn’t really believe him. Perrin even acknowledges that he feels something holding him back, as Mat does, but dismisses it as only Rand and his ta’veren pull, as though being swayed by it is unjustified or easy to avoid.
Perrin is making an assumption here that Mat could choose to ignore Rand’s pull if he wanted to, and is using it as an excuse not to go to the Two Rivers. But how does Perrin know that the pull he feels isn’t weaker than the one Mat feels? How does he know that his own ta’veren power isn’t at work, giving him the edge he needs to get onto a different path? I think Perrin views himself as having a greater sense of duty than Mat—which is understandable, since Mat likes to insist that he doesn’t have that sense of obligation to Rand or anyone else—and so doesn’t take his words as being honestly true. But his premise, that Mat is irresponsible and following his own desires rather than what duty and the Pattern are driving him to, is faulty.
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And then Perrin escapes out of Tear under Moiraine’s nose, and she misses it because she never considers that Perrin might do something unpredictable. Perrin is supposed to be the staid one, who thinks before he acts, and I think Moiraine misses how Perrin is gearing up to take on more responsibility and leadership in his life. She is instead focused on Mat not changing, assuming that it is only her own watchfulness that keeps him tethered to his duty and to the unfolding events around the Dragon’s return.
So Mat was not trying to run away. That was a pleasant surprise; he had not seemed to believe in responsibility. But there was pain and worry in his voice. Mat never worried, or never let anyone see it if he did.
– Egwene, The Shadow Rising, ch. 8
Egwene’s own opinion on Mat fluctuates wildly within the course of a single encounter. When Mat comes to her in the Stone of Tear to ask her advice, she accuses him of caring more about games than his friends, never considering that there might be a more justified reason for his isolation. Mat is only in Tear because he came to save Egwene (and Elayne, and Nynaeve) after all, a fact that no one seems to want to acknowledge or appreciate. Egwene is also quite ready to assume that Mat’s aversion to Aes Sedai is the same generic prejudice he learned in the Two Rivers rather than a discomfort born out of his specific experiences. Those two things might not look very different to Egwene, but that doesn’t indicate that Mat hasn’t changed or grown.
He was not the only one to have been marked in some way in Rhuidean. Mat […] understood, since Rhuidean, though he did not appear to realize it.
– Rand, The Shadow Rising, ch. 34
Mat’s ability to hide how much he’s changed may be coming to an end, however. Rand, Egwene, Moiraine, and Lan all noticed that his comprehension of the Old Tongue has increased. He may still choose not to talk about his experience through the second redstone doorway, but he has been marked by it, both internally and externally, and he carries a weapon he only knows how to use because of the memories that have been granted to him. Oh and there’s the new hat too. Does anyone know if that wide-brimmed hat is supposed to look more like a gunslinger, or more like a wizard? Either way, it’s a new mark for Mat—perhaps not as distinctive as Rand’s herons and dragons, or Perrin’s yellow eyes, but a mark nonetheless—and however much he may claim he wants to run, he is now well on his journey to the man the Pattern intends him to become.
How much had he changed since leaving home? Himself, and Rand, and Mat? Not his eyes, and the wolves, or Rand’s channeling; he did not mean that. How much of what was inside remained unchanged? Mat was the only one who still seemed to be just himself, only more so.
– Perrin, The Shadow Rising, ch. 28
[Note: the comments below may contain spoilers for The Wheel of Time series as a whole. New readers or those wishing to avoid spoilers, be advised.]
Sylas K Barrett is a big believer of transformations, and knows that people often want to acknowledge the ways in which we all change. Sometimes it’s prejudiced, sometimes it just makes them feel safe. But no one ever stays the same, even when they want to.
Matt is becoming more himself, Perrin thinks. There’s definitely something to that. Son of Battles the Eelfinn call him, Trickster, Gambler, he has indeed always been these things. Way back in Two Rivers he expresses interest in hearing about battles. He has a reputation as a prankster, and of course he likes to make bets. Matt himself thinks he’s always been lucky but that quality has suddenly been turned up to the nines. Perrin’s hit it right on the nose, Matt is becoming more who he essentially is, making it a lot easier to miss the change.
Possibly my favorite meta joke in the entire series is the fact all of the other characters think Mat is irresponsible and Perrin dutiful when the exact opposite is true – Mat will always do what needs to be done even if he grumbles about it the entire time while Perrin steadfastly refuses to accept responsibility or his role and grumbles about it the whole time. The only character who nails Mat’s true nature immediately is Siuan Sanche, though Egwene comes close when he shows up in Salidar.
I find it amusing that Siuan is the one who has Mat perfectly.
SPOILER, just to be safe (sorry mods, don’t know the right way to do it)
Egwene grudgingly admits Mat’s competence at least at the end. She makes a statement about some incident where some girl was playing in the river and went under for fun. He panics and “saves” her, only to find that she was just messing around, and got a lot of teasing over it. He does the classic Mat line “Maybe next time, I’ll let ’em drown!”, and then some kid really does nearly drown and Mat was the only one to notice and act in time. She says “Mat’s usually wrong, but when he’s right, he saves lives”
What galls me about this is that the above event took place years previously. Just about everyone has a “Mat story” like this, but they still treat him like a kid. They have seen evidence that when the chips are down (pun DEFINITELY intended), Mat absolutely will come through. He broke into the Stone of @@@@@#$%ing Tear to rescue a childhood acquaintance, his old babysitter, and a stuck-up princess from certain horrible death. There are several times (won’t spoil for you Sylas!) where Mat handles an enemy that was a major threat to even the other ta’veren. He never gets credit for it, and I can think of one specifically that happened offscreen.
Guy gets no respect.
Gunslinger, I think.
I actually don’t think he’s changed very much at all, this is who he’s always been. You can see it from the very first (second?) chapter of The Eye of the World, when Tam and Rand arrive at Emond’s Field, and Tam asks him to help Rand unload the barrels he complains and says there’s no way, but what is he doing in the next scene?
@5 I missed that! His saying one thing and doing another does go way back. The others are just choosing to listen to the scene he makes about NOT Doing The Thing, and forget that once Mat’s done with his “tantrum”, he actually Does The Thing.
I think Rand, at least, has always understood Mat. From the book on he never really worries that Mat isn’t go to do whatever he asks of him the way everyone else seems to. It’s tough to really get into Perrin and Mat’s relationship as there is so little to go on unfortunately from this point on (or even previous to this point.
Siuan figures him out right away.
Moraine has mostly dealt with him while he was dagger influenced so probably doesn’t have a good read on him.
It’s mostly Egwene and Nyeave who continue to think that throughout the series. Elayne to a lesser extent, as she is influenced by the other two, but she comes around the quickest once she develops her own opinion of him.
Mat image is on purpose, the reason people don’t see he changed is cause he doesn’t want them to think he has. The main reason for that is if people think your irresponsible they’re less likely to ask you to do stuff. Be he knows he is responsible and if they need him he’ll come through and he hates that about himself. So he pretends to be the untrustworthy drinker and gambler he wishes to be and hope no one notices.
I don’t think Egwene is the best source for reliable character assessment for anyone, Matt obviously included. She seems to think she’s the only one who has any positive growth.
Mat is basically Han Solo, really – the one that claims he’s not ‘the good guy’, but comes through when the chips are down.
I am really interested to see how Sylas eventually responds to Tuon and their general dynamic.
You are going to get very irritated at Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne over their treatment of Mat over the next few books. It will help you to know that down the line they are finally forced to acknowledge exactly what he did for them in the Stone of Tear.
Mat beat Gawyn and Galad in Tar Valon with a quarterstaff before he went to Rhuidean. His father taught him to use it. The Ashandarei is a roughly similar weapon with a blade added. It’s not entirely fair to say “he carries a weapon he only knows how to use because of the memories that have been granted to him”
Rand’s line about how he knows Mat’s really hurting when he stops complaining is the key to understanding Mat. Mat is all setup in this book, really, but that one’s the icing on the cake.
His level-up next book is going to be so satisfying, and his character only continues to get better as he builds his bench of honored b-listers. Talmanes and Thom (and eventually Tuon) make such great foils.
I think I noted somewhere in the comments of the read that the people who don’t notice who Mat’s becoming are the people who grew up with him as the mischief-making kid and teenager. Those minor irresponsibilities and his deceptions both to himself and others about his motives and actions cloak the actual hero that Mat “No bloody hero” is.
The people who meet him afterwards are the ones who see him clearest, in general. Mat himself has the most distorted one — a trait not in short supply in the Wheel of Time, and especially not in the Two Rivers folk. This is not a series where know thyself is a common thing. The character’s thoughts, especially about themselves and how others view them, are shot through with lies from the word jump.
Which Sylas hasn’t, I think, really caught on to.
For example, I go back to Rand riding out from Tear: He’s thinking that he, the person at the head of the party, previously described by Elayne as a man who could dominate a room in rags, would be thought of as ‘just a groom’ and then when that rationalization failed, ‘but surely not the leader’. Sylas took that at face value, that Rand’s internal monologue was an accurate descriptor. I don’t.
And nobody’s more emblematic of that than Mat, who is even more self-blind than Nynaeve. He attacked, with one man he just met, the strongest fortress in the known world, to go to its dungeons, and rescue three channelers from there. And all he had was a box of fireworks and a quarterstaff against — and he knew this going in — Darkfriend Aes Sedai. On the list of ‘incredibly brave and ridiculously foolhardy’ things done in the series it is way, way up there, and the only things I can think of in contention are also things done by one Matrim Cauthon.
But the whole time he’s thinking of himself as ‘no hero’ and ‘that’s the last time’ and so on and so forth.
(As an aside: Mat’s literally assembling an army by stealing other people’s troops in the middle of an active battle reminds me, pretty strongly, of Miles Vorkosigan. The characters share a lot of similarities, most notably being the only person who would either get into their situations, or, having gotten into them, manage to get out.)
He never really changed. I was pretty surprised at this was a popular take, let alone the premise for an entire article.
There’s a ton of examples off the top of my head:
* Saved Elayne, Nynaeve, and Egwene from the Black Ajah / Forsaken coming all the way from Caemlyn
* Saving the precursors to the Band when leaving Rand in Cairhien
* Killing Couladin — despite trying to avoid fighting him per his own words to Daerid — when he saw the pikemen dropping like flies
* Blowing the Horn of Valere to save his friends despite not wanting anything to do with it
* saving the Aes Sedai and later the damane
* Returning Tuon to Altara with Farede
* Giving Teslyn a horse bc she thanked him
There’s a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to Mat, not just by characters in the books but by readers as well. Rand always knew who Mat was (I reckon Tam understands Mat quite well also, Mat is after all pretty much his fathers son), and he saw the changes. That’s clearly the closest of the friendships starting out. The girls are the most oblivious to his true nature/what change occurs in him. I don’t reckon Perrin has Mat all that wrong either, I think while Mat would rush back to save the Two Rivers if he could, Perrin is entirely correct that if there was no duty involved he’s the least likely to return home.
The thing nobody else has touched on here yet but that I like to point out is just how poorly understood Mat is by many readers. There’s this perception among a lot of readers that Mat is a comedian, except the narrative clearly tells us nobody really finds him funny. His pranks generally don’t work out all that well, but beyond that we do get instances of Mat trying to crack jokes early on, such as when they reach Taren Ferry and meet Master Hightower, which prompts this line:
Firstly, that’s a really weak joke about the mans height. Secondly, Rand clearly doesn’t find it funny. And thirdly, I bet none of you find it funny either. But that’s what Mat actually sounds like when he’s “cracking jokes”. He’s an unfunny guy trying to be funny, which would be terribly grating if that were at all his approach to most things. Luckily, as written by RJ Mat very rarely actually cracks jokes.
The humour of Mat is instead entirely in the incongruence of who he thinks he is, and who he actually is. He doesn’t just claim not to be the hero, he firmly believes he’s not the hero. He firmly believes he’s a simple man. And he keeps on telling others, and if they don’t pay too much attention then they may believe him. But for us as readers who can observe that juxtaposition of thought and action, that’s why we think of Mat as a comedic character. But Mat’s never in on the joke, at least not as written by RJ. Now Mat does over the course of the story come to terms with the fact that he is the hero he professes not to be, which in turn makes him irritated with himself. Although by that time he’s lying to himself about other things, so the nature of his “comedic relief” remains.
Just saying I love Mat and dislike Perrin. I recently did a Mat centric reread and it was fantastic. The man has everything.
Mods – may want to flag that the comments have significant spoilers for the entirety of the Wheel of Time series.
I enjoy Mat – at least after he blows the Horn of Valere – and I’m pleased Sylas prepared this thoughtful post. Agreed that Sylas missed Mat’s high existing skill level with the quarterstaff, so his new weapon – quarterstaff with power-wrought blade affixed to it – is well suited to his existing skill set and doesn’t require use of the memories added to him.
I’m always amused and amazed by the similarities and differences between Mat and Nyneave. Both keep running internal monologues in their minds that differ significantly from the heroic actions they take when called upon to act. Mat thinks of being irresponsible but is never irresponsible. Nyneave speaks in a prickly tone about everybody else’s deficiencies even though she knows that shares the same deficiencies and appears to be projecting.
Personally I think Nynaeve totally beats Mat in the un-self awareness stakes. She is HILARIOUSLY disconnected from reality in her narration.
@18 – “Agreed that Sylas missed Mat’s high existing skill level with the quarterstaff, so his new weapon – quarterstaff with power-wrought blade affixed to it – is well suited to his existing skill set and doesn’t require use of the memories added to him.”
But it does. Mat specifically thinks to himself that his memories of using the weapon lets him use it like he was born to it. A quarterstaff is NOT the same thing. Nobody trains in the quarterstaff to incorporate a long, bladed weapon at the end of it. Totally different moves. Mat would have been clumsily with it if he did not have the memories.
At this point all of the Odin references have been made pretty clear, but it’s interesting to consider the fact that, if Mat is an analog for Odin, that means he’s NOT Loki, who at surface level would appear to be far more appropriate.
Rand was my favorite character the first read thru. But Matrim grew on me, to the point where he is no my favorite character. Rand is this demigod, where Mat is this loveable scoundrel.
Always thought Mat’s hat was a sombrero. Why specify it is wide brimmed if it was just a cowboy hat?
Never liked Mat for one reason. He claims to be friends with Rand and Perrin but not once in the entire series does he act like it. He’s an jerk to them at every opportunity. Luckily the story takes them apart from each other so I don’t have to see how bad he treats his “friends”.
Of course Mat is Odin and Loki. Thom and Moiraine are both Merlin / Gandalf. RJ often has several characters corresponding to one (in both directions). Thom even talks about it with El on the ship. When stories are retold multiple characters get combined or one character is split into several.
@16 – Mat is actually funny sometimes, but Talmanes makes too good of a straight man to let him get away with anything sloppy. I agree with you that Mat isn’t supposed to be in on his own joke, leering his second-best smiles left and right, and I think a lot of the objection to Brandon’s first attempt at writing him was that he came across as too on-the-nose and self-aware in his schtick. Though I don’t honestly find it all that incongruous with the character…the man loves a good backtsory, and has a head full of some real barn-burners. Am a fan of the character through and through.
Mat and his hat – not gunslinger or wizard but old god. Wide brim hats existed long before the Old West in the US. Mat is my favourite character in the entire series, although I disliked how he was written in the last couple of books. In those he suddenly seemed to have changed his character from a likeable rogue who grumbled about having to do things he didn’t want to but still did them and ended up being in charge of things without really trying, to becoming a know-it-all who took power and control automatically.
@5 @6 — Even beyond saying one thing and doing another, several times in Mat’s POV we see him thinking one thing and doing another, his final golem encounter perhaps the best example. It occurs to me that this may be no quirk but instead part of his training from past lives, high level strategy designed to foil enemies that had the ability to get into his head and read his thoughts. Unlike some other great captains, Mat had a defense for this, even without or before he got his medallion.
Matt was a little bit slippery when the series started, but became my favorite towards the end of the series, especially his time with Tuon. I’m trying to not spoil anything for those who have not finished the series. He had his responsibilities to his men and to Rand – he just chose to not broadcast what he needed to do when it came to obligations. Many of the main characters in the series are of this mindset and it certainly adds to some confusion and misunderstandings along the waay.
@@@@@ 23 – I’m not sure this is fair. Mat doesn’t act super-friendly in the early books because he’s been tainted by the dagger. And afterwards, he’s off on his own thing and doesn’t really interact with them, except when traveling with Rand in the Waste.
And frankly, it’s hard not to commiserate with him a bit. Yes, Rand is his friend… but if you found out your friend was destined to go mad, and kill everyone he loves and then destroy the world, that might put a crimp in your relationship with him/her.
@29 Sure he was tainted by the dagger in the beginning and made him more of a jerk. I could let that slide except Rand never even noticed. Is there a section where Rand thinks Mats acting unusual? I don’t remember any, so I have to assume it was what Rand would expect from Mat.
Also no, if I had a friend come to me and confided that they had a mental illness I would absolutely not go “gee, guess I have to stay away from you.”
Since Egwene’s idea of responsibility is that everyone should do whatever she thinks is the right thing, and she’s never been able to bully Mat into anything (and neither has anyone else), she’s not the best person to look to regarding who is responsible and who isn’t.
@30, How about a friend able to kill you with his mind? Note Mat doesn’t actually leave. It’s not just the compulsion. When that releases him he’s still uneasy about leaving Rand.
I agree with Anthony Pero about Egwene. None of the women gave the men enough credit but I suppose that was all because of Tower-Conditioning! Mat was my favorite character (aside from Rand) from the very beginning to the very end. He did what he had to do in the way that only Mat could, and he escaped death while facing it head on. Yes Mat changed into the best of himself without losing himself.
I’m currently re-reading the series, just finished EoTW, and Mat was speaking the Old Tongue before he ever touched the cursed dagger. It’s explained that it’s because of the blood of Manetheren running in his veins. I loved reading Mat’s narrative, how he always does the right thing even if he grumbled about it. I think he did grow more than the other characters, and the deal at the end of the series where he was bossy and in control? I’ve seen movies where army leaders act the same way, in the heat of the moment, in the midst of a battle, you do what you can do. Mat happens to know military strategy and where to place troops and thats what he did. Loved reading his growth!
Definitely wizard. Well. Something very wizardlike. Matrim is heavily implied to be based on a particular myth – much in the same way Rand, Perrin and others all are – and his mythsake is muuuuch closer to wizard than gunslinger.
Who was it who called Mat Odin’s stunt double? Leigh?
I think Mat gets a very bad rap.
He changes a lot; would the Mat we see at the start of the series ever have made an honest attempt to get to know someone like Tuon? Lead men into battle with confidence and self-assurance? Be a father figure to an orphaned boy?
The big problem with Mat is that he wears his faults on his sleeve and his faults fall under the category of, “Socially Unacceptable”. He drinks, he gambles, and he’s a womanizer. In RandLand, that makes him a scoundrel and a rogue, (completing the Mage/Fighter/Rogue archtype of Rand, Perrin, and Mat.) Because those don’t really change, people think he isn’t changing.
But he becomes a leader of men, memories or not. He becomes a father figure to Olver, despite never wanting kids. He accepts that he might be married strictly for politics, but also accepts he could love a woman who never loves him back. Is that the same Mat we met at the start? Nope. And the fault usually lies with the people who knew him back in the day who can’t see past the drinking, the gambling, and the fact that he is still a shameless flirt.
The men who follow him do so not just because he wins, (though that is a major self-confessed part of it), but because they love him. It’s a different, more self-confident man who walked out of the Wastes than the one who walked in. The guy who left Rhuidean was looking to avoid his destiny at all costs, yet when men were in danger, he leaped in to help. He stuck his neck out for a group of total strangers doing the one thing he’d prayed he wouldn’t. And that bravery, that courage, and that willingness to be in the mud and blood won the hearts and minds of his men.
Mat changes, because unlike Rand and Perrin, people love him because his view goes outward. Perrin is introspective to a fault and solely obsessed on Faile most of the time. Rand is a 30,000 foot view thinker with too many pots on the stove and chooses to see humans as chess pieces for most of the series. But Mat sees people, and those people see that he sees them. (He doesn’t always see them accurately, but he looks outward much more often than most Emond’s fielders.) It’s one of his greatest, non-verbalized gifts. After Mat got healed at the Tower, he started onto a path of change that led some of his natural strengths to be cultivated into a man who wasn’t just out for himself, but was trying to look out for others… despite the intense desire to only look out for himself! He usually gets into trouble because he’s trying to help someone, which typically gets lost because the people around him who are judging him only see the drinking, gambling, and womanizing.
Mat really got the short end of the judgement stick; Rand can be so bloody arrogant and cocky that it leads him into unimaginable danger, Perrin can be so obsessed with Faile that he’s a danger to himself and anyone around him, but good ol’ Mat, who loves a card game, a smoke, a drink, and a pretty girl around, gets all the ire from everyone around him.
One thing that becomes clear is that the entire story takes place in around two years, and many of the main characters don’t have direct contact with each other for large chunks of that time, so it makes sense that some characters won’t accurately evaluate Matts growth.