You can find the summary here.
Trope
Our theme this time around is trope, as in a common motif or cliché. Starting right from the beginning, in The Eye of the World, The Wheel of Time has always had one foot firmly planted in well-established tropes but held the other slightly askew. This changing, remixing, and deconstructing of themes across the borders of time, space, and gender is, in itself, one of the primary motifs of the entire series. That this is built into the world itself, through the Pattern and the Wheel, sets The Wheel of Time apart from most pastiche and deconstruction: we’re not meant to merely accept the references for what they are, breaking the fourth wall by forcing us, as readers, to ignore the implausibility of IRL references showing up among characters who aren’t aware of them.
Instead, we’re meant to consider how even our own familiar references have been altered across the borders that separate us from other versions of these concepts. Mat is a reference to Odin, but he’s not Odin. Yet, Mat has more in common with old stories of Odin than, say, Marvel’s interpretation of the character. Mat is probably more like Odin than the modern popular image of Odin. With that in mind, is it even correct to say that Mat isn’t Odin? Or, perhaps we shouldn’t be asking whether Mat is Odin, but rather, will the legends of Mat within the world of The Wheel of Time be the same legends we have of Odin? Mat did not hang from a tree for nine days, as Odin did, but there are rumors of Mat doing this. Just as the legends of Mat have more in common with our legends of Odin than they do with Mat, perhaps the real inspirations for our concept of Odin have more in common with Mat than they do with our legends about them. “An Age yet to come, an Age long past.”
This relationship goes in both directions and we are, in fact, living in a single moment in the very real pattern of culture as it’s spun out, weaving together tropes from the past into new tropes for the future. You can’t just look Odin up and find the “original” inspiration for him. Neither can you predict how the character will continue to change in the future. Perhaps, over the next three thousand years, the name and history for the character will be lost, but people may still tell stories of a wanderer with uncommon luck, who never loses a fight or a wager. Perhaps he’ll step into death’s domain to challenge him and have his own death foretold to him. There are neither beginnings nor endings to this process.
In The Wheel of Time, the most pervasive altering of trope is probably the reversal of gender roles: the yang Flame of Tar Valon and the yin Dragon’s Fang are opposite from what we would expect. Throughout the world of The Wheel of Time, we repeatedly see women in dominant positions of authority and societies where men are subordinate to women. This isn’t presented as a futuristic world, one where the biological realities of sex have been reduced, by technology, into irrelevance. The Wheel of Time forces us to consider whether the biological realities of sex were ever as relevant as we assume. Why should we correlate men with the sun, rather than women? Amaterasu’s been asking this question since at least 712 CE.
My point is: The Wheel of Time is filled with tropes and references, presented both sincerely and critically. Robert Jordan didn’t just mess with his inspirations arbitrarily, for the sake of being different: he did so intentionally, deconstructing notions of gender, class, or even just our long-held assumptions about concepts we tend to swallow uncritically.
In Towers of Midnight, the tropes really get pushed to the next level. Let’s just list a few of the most obvious ones:
We have two damsels in distress, one of whom was suspended in a magic tower like a fairy tale. They both marry their low-born saviors. We have a messiah with a halo who saw the way to the promised land from the top of a mountain but won’t reach it himself. He also performs a miracle of feeding multitudes… twice. We have two instances of an old man, in Hopper’s case explicitly a mentor, sacrificing themselves heroically for the sake of young men. We have an instance of love at first sight between Berelain and Galad. Our blacksmith lord forges a mythical weapon. Multiple characters reveal their secret identities. Odin finally lost an eye. A character who died off-screen turned out to have miraculously survived.
I’ll get into the specifics in just a moment, as I think some of these are worth really digging into, but I’m bringing these all up now to demonstrate that the Towers of Midnight is not only filled with cliches, but, compared to the rest of the series, some of them are presented relatively straightforward, with little variation.
As we near the end of the series and the end of an Age, things are coming more and more into focus. As our characters complete their arcs, they grow to become less conflicted and more pure, more mythical – more like the heroic ideals we’re familiar with. The series could have just started like this! This could have been a simple story about a collection of heroes fighting a simple battle of good versus evil. Why bother showing more than one gender or class when it’s easier to just have wealthy men? Why show your larger-than-life heroes to have been fairly average kids? Ancient Egyptian artwork habitually omitted even the drivers of chariots, giving the impression of a single elite warrior somehow driving the chariot while firing a bow. We watched Rand found a school that invented steam engines.
This isn’t just true for ancient stories, it’s still true today. To be clear, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with presenting a simple, stylized story. Pallet Town from the first generation of Pokémon games was literally just three buildings, but I’ll always remember it as a small town. The important people in Warhammer 40k and Warcraft are literally larger and longer-lived than everyone else to the extent that an individual average person is completely meaningless. I don’t always want to consider how many people will die in the year after a battle is fought because their food stockpiles were stolen by soldiers, sometimes I just want to relish in the glory of that battle.
Even in The Wheel of Time, there’s a notable lack of religious diversity: there are differences in culture, even the culture of worship, but every person we’ve met so far believes in a single creator and a single great antagonist. The most serious oath anywhere is on the Light and on one’s hope of rebirth. There’s nothing wrong with this – polytheism and rival religions just weren’t part of the story Robert Jordan wanted to tell. In fact, this simplification serves to bring the Whitecloaks into greater focus. They don’t hate the Aes Sedai because they have a different religion, but a different interpretation of the same religion. We could argue that this is only sensible, given the more concrete touch the Creator and Shai’tan have on this world, or that it has something to do with schisms within Christianity, but sometimes it’s as simple as this: details are good, unless they’re unnecessary for the point you’re trying to make, and most details are unnecessary.
This extends to pretty much any form of artistic expression. I love my busy, cluttered office, but the austere, larger-than-life interior of a cathedral is vastly more awe-inspiring. A full choir can do a lot more than an individual, but arie solos can be more emotionally moving.
In The Wheel of Time, specifically, there’s also been a continual theme of disharmony in the world, with imbalance resulting in chaos and hardship. As the forces of good align against Shai’tan, it’s only natural that our protagonists resolve their internal conflicts, becoming pure, mythical figures in harmony with the archetypes they’re stepping into. The great thing about The Wheel of Time is that the complexity and depth is still there, in each character’s journey, but they still end up in the position of archetypal heroes.
Rand actually sort-of explains this early in the book, when he reassures Min that he’s still the same man she fell in love with. “I feel more like myself now than I have in months. I feel more like myself than I ever did as Lews Therin.” Here, Rand has awakened to the reality of reincarnation as a continual journey for the soul. He’s the person he is today because of everything that’s happened to him in this life and those that came before. His life as Lews Therin is no more important than his upbringing in the Two Rivers. Even his regrets, his mistakes, have shaped him into the mythical figure he is now. We still see the wrathful, hard-as-steel, violently passionate man when he defends Maradon, but we also see the sweet, confused boy who carried a delirious Tam to safety, anxious that his father might not really be his father, when he cries in Tam’s arms, standing a step below him, in public.
Seeing this, I think we’re meant to consider that all of our heroes and ideals are like this. You can strip away the complexity without losing the symbol, but you can’t realize this mythical ideal in a specific character without understanding the journey that forged them. The past is the present and the future even if our senses are limited to only the latest snapshot. We’re not wolves, after all.
So, of course we’re going to see more cliché as the series comes to an end. The path we took to get here is more important than the final destination we’re approaching; it’s what gives the ending meaning. Tension in art is only truly realized when it resolves, and that’s what we’re starting to see in Towers of Midnight.
Damsels in distress
Alright, the first trope I want to discuss is the one that felt like the greatest departure from the rest of the series: our damsels in distress.
Frankly, when I first read the scene with Morgase and Tallanvor in chapter 21, “An Open Gate,” I really didn’t know what to think about it. It’s probably the most melodramatic, cliched scene in the entire series. It’s not just what happens, but the wording. She doesn’t just find a pool, she finds a pool near a cleft with “tall rocks clustered around it like an ancient, broken throne built for a giant fifteen spans tall.” In her wistful reflection (near a pool of water, a literal reflective surface), Morgase is projecting her own feelings of having broken her kingdom and fallen from her own throne by seeing a giant’s broken throne in the rocks and dirt she walks by.
“Was there anything more hateful than being made the pawn of another? Of being forced to dance upon their strings like a wooden puppet?” She goes on to list the ways she’s been manipulated throughout her life. Again, the language is overly descriptive and poetic. “Footsteps on fallen twigs announced a visitor. The light from above dimmed, the thinner clouds moving on. The shafts of light faded, and the minnows scattered. The footsteps stopped beside her stone.” Then, Tallanvor speaks, announcing that he’s leaving to fight in the Last Battle.
It’s really over the top. The circumstances here stretch belief, even. I mean, in the exact moment when Morgase is despairing over how she’s been used and manipulated, Tallanvor finds her, jealous that, even now, Morgase has stronger feelings for Gaebril than for him. They explain their feelings openly, so openly that this feels like a scene from a play. Again, their emotions are so great that they spill into the scenery in visual metaphor. “‘You have made it amply clear that my attentions are not wanted. A queen and a simple guardsman. Pure foolishness.’ ‘A queen no longer,’ she said. ‘Not in name, Morgase. Just in mind.’ A leaf fell from above and struck the pool. With a lobed margin and verdant richness, it should have had a long life yet.”
I think the scene is meant to feel jarring. Recall that this bit is in the same chapter, immediately following, the scene where Ituralde makes ready for his last stand and is narrowly, unexpectedly saved by Bashere’s reinforcements. It reminds me of the transition, way back in The Great Hunt, from the horror of Rand using the portal stones to the girls sitting around in the White Tower talking about boys. Morgase and Tallanvor’s drama feels self indulgent when paired directly with Ituralde’s bloody, miserable stand against the Shadow. Yet, that juxtaposition also prepares us for the drama and heightens it. “My heart is a traitor. Perhaps some Trolloc will do me a favor and rip it free of my chest” isn’t a line well-served by looking at it coldly; it’s much better to come across a line like that still high from the adrenaline of Ituralde hearing the sound of boots just outside the door, ready to jump out and meet his end, then realizing that Trollocs don’t wear boots.
So, there’s another angle here. Bear in mind that, when she talks about being used by people like Taringail and the others who presumed to be the real power behind the throne, she’s talking about how she outmaneuvered all the houses in Andor to win the throne of a wealthy, powerful country and become the most powerful and respected queen on her continent (or what we’ve seen of it, anyways.) That doesn’t mean that she wasn’t used or that she didn’t hate the concessions she had to make – emotions don’t care that most people would still be envious of her position – but it does put things in perspective a bit.
As both Thom and Bryne have mentioned, Morgase – like her children – deals more in passion and intuition than on calm reason. She’s had a real rough year and she’s fallen a long way, so she’s dwelling on how she’s been used, but I don’t think it’s just being used that she’s upset by. It would be one thing if she mentioned only the people who have raped and manipulated her, but she even thinks of Thom and Bryne, saying that Thom only saw her as a beauty to be hunted and romanced and Gareth only saw her as a queen to be served. “None of them made me their entire life, their heart. I think Thom and Gareth loved me, but as something to be held and cared for, then released.”
That’s… that’s not an example of Morgase being used. If anything, it seems like she was the one using Thom and Bryne, or they were using each other, with Morgase in the more powerful position. Bryne is one of the greatest generals in the known world and he was fiercely loyal to her. Thom is one of the best spies and political manipulators and she had him chased out of the kingdom. Note that Thom could have taken what he knew of her and sold it to one of her rivals, but it doesn’t seem like he did. Same for Bryne. Lumping Thom and Bryne into the same category as Valda and Gaebril is telling.
When Morgase talks about how hateful it is to be used, I don’t think she’s only talking about how she’s been used, but about the transactional nature of all her relationships. Use and be used.
Like what she’s doing to Tallanvor.
Tallanvor’s frustration is key here. Let’s step back from Morgase a bit and really consider Tallanvor’s perspective, and try to keep an open mind, as… again, emotions aren’t concerned with what’s fair or reasonable, and Tallanvor definitely comes off as a bit juvenile here. Plus, opening up your mind a bit here will help in like half an hour when I talk about how important Gawyn is in Towers of Midnight.
Tallanvor really wanted to save Morgase. He would’ve wanted to save her even if she’d never been in any danger. It’s the fantasy of courtly love. Morgase was a queen and Tallanvor was just a guard. He wasn’t even a knight. The only reason someone like Morgase would ever even learn his name would be as a display of royal virtue and grace, as when Elayne tries to build connections with her lessers. It’s like a president shaking hands or kissing babies, it’s just a spectacle, at best.
Granted, Andor doesn’t have a taboo against the queen having relationships with lowborn men, so it was never strictly impossible, but still, how would a lowly guard ever catch her attention? Thom won Morgase’s affection for a while, but Thom’s not a simple guard.
But then, Morgase actually was in danger, and she lost the loyalty of her supporters. That was Tallanvor’s chance! It wasn’t just a fantasy anymore. But, then reality hit. He couldn’t do anything about Gaebril. He couldn’t do anything about Niall, Valda, Asunawa, or even the Shaido. I mean, Tallanvor certainly helped – Morgase couldn’t have made it this far without him – but in each case, Tallanvor wasn’t the hero: the hero didn’t care about Morgase at all. Rand killed Rahvin, the Seanchan freed her from Valda, and Perrin saved her from the Shaido. Galad, at least, put Valda to justice, but that doesn’t do Tallanvor any good, does it?
Rather than finding a way to lift himself up to Morgase’s level, Tallanvor just had to watch while Morgase was used up, raped, and reduced to a clumsy servant relying on the charity of lesser nobility. In his fantasies, I’m sure Tallanvor has saved Morgase a thousand times, heroically confronting Rahvin, dueling Valda, and leading Perrin’s armies against the Shaido at Malden. He wasn’t just one of multiple people helping her escape or a small piece in Perrin’s great victory.
From Tallanvor’s point of view, Morgase’s fall is basically a cuckold story, with Tallanvor forced to watch throughout it all, helpless. And here he finds her, still thinking of Gaebril. “‘Do you know the worst part of this?’ Tallanvor asked. ‘It’s the hope. The hope I let myself feel. Traveling with you, protecting you, I thought maybe you would see. Maybe you would care. And forget about him.” ‘Him?’ ‘Gaebril,’ Tallanvor snapped. ‘I can see that you still think of him. Even after what he did to you. I leave my heart here, but you left yours in Caemlyn.’ From the corner of her eye, she could see him turn away. ‘Whatever it is you saw in him, I don’t have it. I’m only a simple, common, idiot of a Guardsman who can’t say the right words. You fawned over Gaebril, and he all but ignored you. That’s how love is. Bloody ashes, I’ve all but done the same thing with you.'”
So, there we have it. Gaebril used Morgase and Morgase used Tallanvor, yet Morgase is still consumed by thoughts of Gaebril and Tallanvor of Morgase. Tallanvor sees that love and devotion are worthless, nothing but hooks for others to manipulate you.
Which is just what Morgase was despairing over. Not just of being used, but of having her feelings unreciprocated, used purely as tools to manipulate her, and doing the same to others in turn. They’re both unreasonably, obsessively passionate people with an overly idealized view of romance and they’re both frustrated at how foolish this makes them. Tallanvor can’t heroically ride in to save Morgase from a dragon. He isn’t her equal in title or reputation, but when it comes to love, Tallanvor is the only man Morgase has ever met who can truly return her passion with equal intensity.
Later, in chapter 44, Tallanvor apologized for having tried to leave. “You know that I will always be here, Morgase. I’ve promised it to you before, and I mean it. These days, I feel like a biteme in a world of eagles. But I have my sword and my heart, and both are yours. Forever.”
Here, Morgase has someone who loves her so deeply that he’ll stay with her even if his feelings go unreturned. Morgase knows how hateful it is to be used, but Tallanvor will suffer it willingly. More than anything, Morgase wants to give in to her passions even though she knows it’s not the best political play. She should get married to help Elayne secure the loyalty of one of the factions Morgase offended, as Tallanvor says. But Morgase has lived her whole life like that, sacrificing her passions for her career – and she hates it. Tallanvor couldn’t save her from the Forsaken, the Whitecloaks, or the Shaido, but he can save her from this passionless life she’s made for herself, and she can save him from the same. Together, they can free themselves of using and being used and just be happy.
Moiraine and Thom
Alright, let’s move on to our other damsel in distress: Moiraine.
I talked about Morgase and Tallanvor first because I think their romance was actually fairly complex. It both avoided and embraced cliché, depending on how you look at it. Moiraine and Thom actually adhere to the trope pretty closely. Moiraine is in trouble and needs saving: she cannot save herself. She’s held, weakened and unconscious, in a magical tower full of monsters. Thom heroically saves her, carrying her to safety. After the rescue, she immediately proposes. He saved the girl and won her heart in short order. It honestly reminded me of Mario and Peach or Link and Zelda in how simple it was.
Of course, this interpretation ignores the characters’ history. Thom didn’t “win” Moiraine’s heart by saving her, she was already interested in him. Thom tells us so.
Which… alright, I’ll admit, my first reaction was pretty much the same as Mat’s. When they first met, Thom hated Aes Sedai categorically. Then, they really didn’t interact much at all. Then, in chapter 10 of Knife of Dreams, we suddenly have her referring to Thom as “dearest Thom.” But, Thom told us that we just weren’t paying attention, so let’s see if he was right.
Pro tip, Calibre – the ebook reader I use when I’m not using my Kindle – has an excellent search function, supporting “nearby words” and regexes. For our purposes here, we don’t need a regex: “nearby words” with the phrase “Thom Moiraine” is sufficient to find any references of the two names in close proximity.
So, I mean, there were clues. We probably all noticed them… but, with one significant exception, they weren’t very overt.
On multiple occasions, Thom mentions liking Moiraine. In chapter 25 of The Great Hunt, Thom is disappointed that Moiraine isn’t with Rand, which surprises Rand. In chapter 31 of The Dragon Reborn, Thom mentions to Mat that Moiraine is “a fine-looking woman. A fine woman, if she were not Aes Sedai.”
But, Thom’s got a vigorous appetite, so it was easy to ignore that.
For Moiraine’s side, we really don’t get much evidence of her actually liking Thom. She seems to enjoy his knife tricks when Thom helps intimidate the ferryman at the Taren, but that’s about it as far as overt references go.
But, if we were paying very close attention, we actually did have a couple of pretty big hints that they’d get married. In chapter 45 of The Eye of the World, Moiraine is almost certain that Thom isn’t dead because of a vision from Min that she doesn’t go into. Then, in chapter 6 of The Shadow Rising, when Egwene asks Moiraine if she’s ever been in love, Moiraine responds “I could wager I know the face of the man I will marry better than either of you knows that of your future husband.”
…alright, actually looking at it, that’s still not very much. In retrospect, we can probably say that Min had a viewing that Moiraine would marry Thom way back in The Eye of the World, and there are some clues there, but – unless I’m missing something – these are really just interesting in hindsight. Of course, anyone could have called that they would wind up together early on in the series, but… I mean, given that Moiraine wasn’t married to Lan, Thom was basically the only option around.
Which, in fairness, actually does kind of matter when there are so many ta’veren around. Our characters have pretty much been pairing off as fast as they can. Normally, I’d find this annoying – like a sitcom just pairing off characters arbitrarily to generate some cheap drama – but it’s actually been well established that people just get married more often when Rand’s around. If Rand can just spend a night in a city and incidentally cause a wave of marriages, why wouldn’t his closest friends and allies pair off too? We might even speculate that Morgase and Tallanvor are partially due to Perrin’s presence. That Mat and Fortuona’s marriage was orchestrated by ta’veren warping of the Pattern is hardly even worth saying.
But, let’s not get hung up on whether there was much build-up to Moiraine and Thom getting together. While we’re at it, let’s also not say too much about the writing between “dearest Thom” and Moiraine, or how different Moiraine seems in this scene, or how rushed it felt. Let’s try to work with the text for a minute, rather than picking it apart.
I you watched my video on New Spring, you already listened to a pretty long rant about Moiraine and Siuan’s relationship in there. Fortunately for me, Moiraine and Thom getting together actually fits really well with my take that Moiraine is asexual-demiromantic. It still works if she’s bisexual, or even if her relationship with Siuan was just a phase, but bear with me for a minute here.
So, we’ve seen that Thom has a bit of a type. Sure, not every woman who catches his eye is beautiful, graceful, of noble birth, determined, and strong… but both Morgase and Moiraine are. Thom will probably never fully forgive the Aes Sedai for his nephew, but in Moiraine, he saw someone with a mission she was willing to put her full self into, and it was a good mission at that. Thom initially joins up to protect the boys from Moiraine, but after a while he sees that Moiraine is really protecting them too.
Thom likes passionate women, but if we compare Morgase with Moiraine… Moiraine has the passion, but she never lets it overrule her reason. You know, I don’t know if we’ll have time for it in A Memory of Light, but I kind of want to see Thom and Perrin talk about their wives and their secrets. I think a lot of what Thom liked in Moiraine wasn’t just her determination and beauty, but her wit and intelligence. Thom might actually be better at Daes Dae’mar than Moiraine, but it’s damn close. Thom has a real appreciation for talent and grace. Frankly, he’s kind of a snob sometimes. I’m not sure if even Morgase could keep up with him on that, but I bet Moiraine can.
We’ve also seen that Moiraine has a bit of a type: passionate spymasters. I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that Siuan managed the Blue’s eyes and ears while Thom did pretty much the same for Morgase and then for Rand.
That was really the closest they came to flirting: their interactions while spying for Rand. We didn’t get to see much of that – just some references that they were both spying for Rand and occasionally ran into the other’s schemes – but I could imagine the two of them passing sly glances or hidden messages while sneaking about Rand’s connections. To Moiraine, I think this sort of thrilling, high-stakes, covert contest is far more thrilling than a lewd glance or rough embrace.
Really, when you think about it, of course we barely saw Thom and Moiraine courting, half the fun of it for them was having it go above everyone else’s heads. If their flirting had been overt, it wouldn’t have done anything for Moiraine. And, really, though Thom’s definitely allosexual, I expect that he had more fun dancing about in the shadows with Moiraine than he ever had rolling about with a less subtle beauty.
On top of that, Moiraine saw early on that she can rely on Thom. Not just as a sword, but as an independent agent. I don’t think Moiraine is capable of doing anything without considering the practical gain, and Thom really does offer her something – even as a Warder – that even Lan couldn’t. Thom doesn’t know right from wrong because of any code and he isn’t successful because of training drills. When Thom sees something that needs doing, he’ll figure out how to do it. Sometimes that means charging a Myrddraal to let a couple of boys run to safety and sometimes it means helping a couple of girls who think they’re ready to take on the world because they can channel stay out of trouble. Basically, Thom’s a lot like Moiraine – he can even sub in for her when she needs to be in two places at once, as when she needs someone to watch the girls while she’s watching Rand – which is pretty high praise in Moiraine’s eyes.
So, yeah, I’m still not sure that I think “A Rabbit for Supper” was a good chapter, but this relationship actually makes a lot of sense. That it takes a little thinking to work it out feels right for Moiraine and Thom – why would their romance be any simpler than anything else they do?
Rand the prophet and messiah
Alright, I had a lot to say about our damsels in distress, but the tropes that stood out the most for me in Towers of Midnight were actually the biblical references in Rand’s story. Granted, much of Rand’s journey has been a reference to Jesus, Moses, and King Arthur – this is hardly new to us now – but it definitely felt like an escalation to me.
The first chapter really emphasizes how much Rand has changed. I mean, he has a literal halo – or, really, more of an aureole – around him now, in contrast to the aura of darkness he had before. His mannerisms feel more calm, knowing, and aloof. More spiritual.
But, in addition to his appearance and mannerisms, I want to focus on what actually happened on Dragonmount. I mean, he literally climbed a mountain where he saw the path to victory over Shai’tan – I’m gonna go ahead and just call that “the promised land” – but he also knows that he will not reach it. Of course, the idea that Rand would lead his people into the next Age but he wouldn’t make it himself has been core to the prophecies around him since the start of the series – not just the written prophecies, but also Min’s vision of him on a funeral bier with three women standing over him – but here, we add in him seeing the way forward from the top of a mountain… it’s clearly a reference to Deuteronomy 34, where Moses climbs Mount Nebo and the Lord shows him the promised land, but also explains that Moses will not go there.
If that isn’t enough, we also have multiple instances of Rand “feeding the multitude.” First, his presence causes the apple trees to bear fruit, telling Almen to gather them quickly. Later, at Bandar Eban, he tells the dockmaster that all of the unopened bags are unspoiled. It’s really this second example that felt like the most direct reference to Jesus feeding thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and some fish.
I really like how unphased Rand is by both of these miracles, which – again – feels like an intentional reference to how unphased Jesus is when he does the same. When feeding the five thousand, except for John, the Gospels agree that Jesus’s response to his disciples saying to send the crowd away so they can find food was to reply, simply, “You give them something to eat.” When they responded incredulously, he just told them to start organizing the distribution, and they found that there was easily enough food for everyone.
It’s not just this reference, either, but just how sure Rand is about what he’s doing. When a refugee recognizes him and Rand hears that he was a soldier, he immediately replies “Excellent. We need to restore this city, Captain.” “I need you to gather your soldiers.” In the matter of mere moments, Rand transforms a mob of starving refugees, overcome with despair, into a team of hopeful disciples. The first refugee, Captain Durnham, finds a razor, cleans himself up, and starts helping Rand not only by following orders but by giving them himself.
When Rand goes to inspect the spoiled food, he doesn’t let himself get dragged into an argument and he doesn’t make a big deal about it. When the people see that Rand found good food and ask what he did to fix it, he responds – again – simply: “Nothing. You merely opened the wrong sacks. The rest are all good.”
This attitude was really striking. The entirety of chapter 25 – Return to Bandar Eban – felt mythical to me. Rand moves so quickly and confidently, but he’s not emotionless: he feels guilt for having caused this mess and just wants to put it right quickly. He even insists that no soldiers are brought in. “Bandar Eban has suffered enough beneath the hands of outsides. Today, she will not know the hand of a conqueror.” Min notes that when the people obey, it’s not a form of Compulsion, but hope returning. It’s honestly just a really powerful, emotional chapter, particularly when compared to the last time Rand was here.
But, this is also The Wheel of Time, so this miracle doesn’t go unexplained. With the apples, it’s Rand’s presence warding off Shai’tan like some spell. In Tar Valon and Bandar Eban, it’s still clearly Rand’s presence that brings about the unspoiled food, but the magic is more in line with the Pattern: it just so happens that the food that hadn’t been checked is all fine, as though we’re seeing the result of the observer effect. Food you can see is either good or bad, but food you haven’t seen will – apparently – be as good as Rand’s emotional state when you look. I really liked this spin on the trope.
Perrin the smith
So, those are the two really big examples I wanted to talk about. I probably don’t need to go into detail on some of the other tropes. Hopper, Perrin’s mentor, sacrificing himself is pretty straightforward, and Noal does sort-of the same thing for Mat, though he wasn’t really a mentor so it doesn’t fit the trope as well. Same story for Berelain and Galad falling in love at first sight: cliched, sure, but kind of obvious. I mean, they’ve both been described as being so beautiful that they should be worshipped or that their mere presence is a cruel joke by the Creator to shame everyone else. They may as well pair off.
But, I do want to at least briefly touch on one other example that I just thought was neat. Perrin forging Mah’alleinir, “he who soars.”
On a whim, I checked TV Tropes to see if this scene shows up, and it’s literally the first example – for literature – of the “Forging Scene” trope listed. Well, technically they list the scene of Perrin working in The Dragon Reborn first.
This is just a fantastic scene. I really loved how we saw Perrin work through his personal issues while working on the hammer. It’s already well-established that Perrin thinks things through better when he’s got something to do with his hands. The way his thoughts on the hammer came together together was just perfect. The metaphor of understanding the pieces worked really well here: Perrin couldn’t find peace in himself until he understood himself as a husband, as a wolf, and as a leader, and he couldn’t make the hammer until he understood the haft, the head, and the capping bracket.
Though… okay, I do need to add that the actual design for this hammer doesn’t actually make sense. A solid metal haft on a four-foot long hammer meant to be used in battle? I get that it’s power-wrought, but still, the other power-wrought weapons we’ve seen haven’t had such impractical designs. We also saw, with Laman’s sword, that the hilt was separate from the blade, right? Why wouldn’t the hammer’s haft be made of wood? It’s not just that it’s too heavy but that the weight isn’t distributed correctly. Bear in mind that weapons are generally pretty light, just a few pounds, with the distribution set very deliberately. But, fine, it’s a magic hammer, I’ll let it go.
Anyways, I also wanted to mention Mah’alleinir because it reminded me strongly of the forging of Aegis-fang in The Crystal Shard, by R. A. Salvatore. I’ve mentioned the Drizzt books before, but I’ll say it again here: they’re really good books and you should go read them. They definitely lack the nuanced depth of Robert Jordan’s work, but they’re just fantastic adventure books.
I’ll restrain myself form putting in any huge quotes here – this video is going to be long enough as it is – but it’s a great chapter. Bruenor Battlehammer is a Dwarven king and an accomplished blacksmith. Like Perrin, the idea for this hammer comes to him in a dream. He works in a fervor to make the weapon, which he imbues with magical properties. Special care is also taken to describe the intricate engravings he makes on it. It’s a really cool scene, though Perrin’s scene here is definitely better, as it interweaves his personal plot really well.
What will the end look like?
Alright, that’s enough about tropes! Let’s get into some other stuff.
With the end in sight, I want to consider what’s actually at stake here and what the outcome might be. This is my last chance to talk about this stuff before I learn what the end of the series actually entails.
We first learned from Ba’alzamon, in chapter 51 of The Eye of the World, if we believe him, that this contest between Shai’tan and Rand, or Shai’tan and the Creator, or the Dragon and the Betrayer of Hope, or Elan Morin Tedronai and Lews Therin Telamon has happened many times and with different outcomes. We’ve seen, through the portal stones in The Great Hunt, that there are reflections of the world where humanity is gone. We heard from Artur Hawkwing that he and Lews Therin have fought both side-by-side and face-to-face.
We also had Herid Fel’s half-mad ramblings about the Wheel and the Pattern. In chapter 18 of Lord of Chaos, Fel tried to explain how Ages fit on the wheel to Rand. He shows how, at one point on the circle, Shai’tan’s prison is whole, then a hole is drilled in it, then it’s sealed up again, then the seals weaken. But, if you follow the circle all the way around, you eventually reach a point where the prison is whole, and then a point where a hole is drilled in it. He speculates that maybe they bored into a patch last time, but it would be ridiculous to think that the Creator made the prison with a patched hole in the first place. “No, it was whole in the beginning, and I think it will be whole again when the Third Age comes once more.” “Any Age where seals weaken must remember the Dark One eventually, because they will have to face him and wall him up again.”
We know that things repeat, and that includes the confrontation with Shai’tan. The “Last Battle” must just be the final battle against him in an Age then, right? “Unless the Dark One breaks free. To break the Wheel of Time and remake Time and the world in his own image.”
This realization is what drove Moridin, once Elan Morin, to the Shadow. If Rand wins the Last Battle, it only means that the world has survived one more turning of the Wheel, but if Shai’tan wins, then the Wheel is broken forever. As we discussed last time, that’s… kind of just how life works. Every day you wake up and you either survive or you don’t. Even if we didn’t grow old – even if death wasn’t inevitable, but just a ever-present threat – this struggle doesn’t make life pointless.
You might even argue that the struggle is what makes it so precious and exciting. An eternity of existence without any threat would be… well, it would be like being immortal but locked up in a prison by the Creator. Wouldn’t you try to escape, even if it meant the possibility of death? Is Moridin envious of Shai’tan’s imprisonment or do he and Shai’tan simply crave an escape from life? Does Shai’tan even care if he wins, or would anything – even death – be preferable to the prison – or the box, as Rand would see it? Is Shai’tan really such an alien perspective, or is he no different from the gholam, sent adrift in a void forever? What’s really puzzling me here is the nature of his game. (Is that too subtle of a reference?)
But… something seems off about this line of thinking. Why was it so important that Rand turn to the Shadow if he could also serve in death? As Ba’alzamon explains in The Eye of the World, he could have just sent more Trollocs to Emond’s Field. He could have killed Rand many times throughout the series, but he never did. Then, we have the wolves’ perspective. At Dragonmount, Perrin saw Rand consumed by Shadow until he found the Light. The wolves tried to convey what would have happened if Rand hadn’t found that light: “‘Nothing’ to the wolf meant a vacant den, all of the pups taken by trappers. A night sky empty of stars. The moon fading. The smell of old blood, dry, stale and flaked away.” We know that Rand was considering just bathing the world in balefire.
In the epilogue to Towers of Midnight, we get a snippet from The Prophecies of the Shadow. The prophecy foretells Shai’tan’s victory. The Lord of the Evening will come and take everything from everyone and bring about Darkness and destruction. But, there’s one particular line in here that seems a bit odd to me. “Once again, His glorious cloak shall smother the Pattern of all things.” and another line “There shall be none but Him, and those who have turned their eyes to His majesty.”
If Moridin is right, then Shai’tan aims to destroy everything and end the Pattern. Then, why would there be anyone left at all, even “those who have turned their eyes to His majesty.” If this is the end of the Pattern, then how can it happen “once again”? Is this referring to before the Pattern existed – did the Creator build the Pattern and the Wheel in what was originally a void of Shai’tan? Or, is this period of darkness cyclical. Does Shai’tan destroy almost all of the world once per turning of the Wheel, leaving only Darkfriends to repopulate and rebuild? Is the Last Battle nothing but a way of determining who survives to begin the next Age?
I’ve mentioned before how the Wheel seems to be heavily inspired by Hindu concepts of time, with each Age corresponding to a Yuga. It doesn’t line up perfectly: there should be four Yugas and even the last and shortest of them should last much longer than three thousand years, but the basic concept lines up pretty well. Each age is worse than the last as morals and wonder diminish. In the end of the fourth, last, and worst Yuga, prophesy foretells that the tenth and final incarnation of Vishnu – Kalki – will come to end the world, wielding a flaming sword, and usher in the first age once more. A very roughly similar concept comes up in a variety of religions, sometimes explicitly referring to the turning of the Kālacakra or Wheel of Time, but I’m not even close to being an expert in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sihki, or Jainism, so let’s just keep it simple.
Even this is just one example of this trope, but the idea of the world being destroyed and remade is pretty popular. Abrahamic religions generally hold that the Great Flood only happened once, but even the concept of a flood, in particular, is common well beyond these religions, often referencing a hero who represents life. Note how Rand isn’t merely fighting for what is right, but for love, and he basically has three wives – there’s a definite fertility aspect to his character. As he’s realized, he’s not a weapon. Mat can represent the Æsir, but Rand has more in common with the Vanir (well, he also has a lot in common with Týr, but this is starting to get off topic, and not much is known about Týr’s cults anyways.)
Anyways, is Shai’tan going to destroy the Wheel or just the world? Those might not be the same thing at all.
This brings us back to the end: what will happen if Rand wins the Last Battle? What happens if Shai’tan wins?
Why did Shai’tan want to win by turning Rand rather than in battle? Why not just have Ba’alzamon kill him as a child? It really seems like there’s a difference between Shai’tan winning the Last Battle and Shai’tan getting Rand to turn to his side willingly.
Frankly, I really don’t know for sure, but I get the feeling that Shai’tan’s ultimate victory is already impossible for him, at least in this revolution of the Wheel. If Rand had turned to the Shadow at the end of The Gathering Storm, I think the Wheel may have been broken forever and the Pattern destroyed, but I’m not sure that will happen if Rand merely loses the Last Battle. My guess, with the limited information we have now, is that even Rand’s failure at this point would simply result in the destruction of the world, followed by its rebirth.
Do note, by the way, that we really don’t know whether Rand will win or lose now. Min’s visions are glimpses of the Pattern, so they don’t hold if the Pattern is broken. Even limited use of balefire may affect them. Aviendha’s visions from the glass pillars are probably at least this limited, if not even more so.
I’ve also got to wonder, what will be different in the next age? If The Wheel of Time is meant to occur in the same universe as real life, then why can people channel in some Ages but not others? Perhaps each cycle starts with an age without channeling, where humanity doesn’t know about Shai’tan or the One Power. What might be lost, if temporarily, in the confrontation with Shai’tan? Or, looking at it another way, what might be gained? The ability to channel sounds wonderful, but it also seems to inevitably bring war and inequality. Then again, the invention of firearms might not be any better.
We should also wonder whether the cycle will be broken in the opposite direction, not with the destruction of the Pattern, but by the destruction of Shai’tan. We haven’t heard Rand’s thoughts on this since his awakening – perhaps it was just bluster when he thought that there could be a way to destroy Shai’tan forever. We’ve seen a lot of impossible things – things that were impossible even in the Age of Legends – become possible. Perhaps the Wheel won’t be broken, but changed for the better.
Or, and here I’m really starting to just take shots in the dark, but what if the Pattern always has a great antagonist, but it’s not always Shai’tan? Fain thinks he might kill Shai’tan after he kills Rand. As far as we’ve seen so far, Fain might actually be more powerful than Shai’tan: we really don’t know what Shai’tan’s power will be like, unleashed. So far we’ve just seen Shadowspawn – all invented by a Aginor – and Darkfriends. The only truly direct form of power we’ve seen from Shai’tan is the taint and the corrupting so-called True Power. Perhaps Shai’tan’s power is only in corrupting and manipulating people. That would certainly make sense, given the name and Shaitan’s role in the Islam.
Well, Fain has corrupting powers too. The dagger alone is corrupting. Fain can raise armies of Trollocs under his control. He can seemingly kill anything with his dagger. With time, could Fain come to replace Shai’tan? Or, could Fain be the one to end Shai’tan forever? Perhaps Rand can only continue the endless stalemate, but Fain can kill a Myrddraal with nothing but a touch now. If Shai’tan is freed and takes a form that Fain can slip his dagger into, what would happen? How close is the parallel between Gollum and Fain going to go? It sure seems like Fain still has a significant role to play, it’ll be kind of disappointing if he’s just a mid-boss before we get to Shai’tan or if he just shows up to kill Rand at the end.
Okay, so, I’m really reaching here, but what if this entire age is nothing but the trial necessary to force the awakening of one man – the divine completion of one soul? The graduation of one person from the world, not in sacrifice, but in apotheosis?
Or none of this is even close. Maybe it won’t be some crazy nonsense, but just what’s been foreshadowed. Rand will break the seals and there will be a great battle between the Light and the Shadow. Shai’tan will lose and be pushed back, weakened, into the prison. Using Callandor, Rand and Nynaeve and probably some other people will fix Shai’tan’s prison, not merely patching it, but using both saidar and saidin to make it as it was in the beginning, truly sealing Shai’tan away. Rand will die in the process, probably because of Fain. The First Age will begin without fear of Shai’tan. Then, thousands of years later, some jerks will discover the prison again, bore into it, and the whole thing will happen again.
I really need to finish this goddamn video so I can go find out! I really can’t express how hard it is not to just pick up the last book. Seriously, it took well over a week to write this script – it took much longer than usual. I’ve got to figure out a way to get these done quicker (T_T)
Characters who suck and some who don’t
Alright, let’s move on to talking about some characters.
Galad
First up, I want to talk about Galad. I feel like I haven’t really had many good opportunities to talk about Galad yet, which is a shame, because he’s a fascinating character.
Literally one of the first things Gawyn says to Rand is that “Galad always does the right thing, even when he should not.” That was when Galad ran to fetch the guards when Rand fell into the garden with Elayne and Gawyn. Elayne reiterated that point later when trying to hide from Galad, as she knew that he wouldn’t listen to her situation and make a real decision.
In Towers of Midnight, Morgase thinks to herself that she should’ve known that Galad would be attracted to the Whitecloaks for their black and white view of the world and she regrets that she didn’t prepare him better, by teaching him that the world is full of colors that don’t always fit into any spectrum of morality.
As a D&D player, it’s easy to just dismiss Galad as a “lawful stupid” paladin. That’s not necessarily wrong, but it’s a bit too reductive.
Throughout the series, I’ve generally been pretty harsh on the Whitecloaks, and with good reason. It’s easy to draw parallels between them and, say, injustice in America’s criminal justice system, but that’s working the metaphor in the wrong direction: they’re not bad because they’re like bad groups in real life. The Children of the Light also aren’t bad merely because they’re wrong or because they often find themselves opposite to our protagonists, as that could be incidental.
No, the Whitecloaks are bad because they’re stupid cowards. They’re so terrified of being victims or of feeling unsafe that they’re not willing to take on the risk of trust. That’s really the primary takeaway I think people should have for the Whitecloaks. The ability to channel makes a person powerful and it’s possible that this power could be abused. The Whitecloaks don’t have this power, so it’s evil. Never mind that the same is true of a sword or an army – they have those, so they’re fine. Thinking for yourself is risky, as someone might disagree. Wearing a uniform means that no one can pick on you without picking on your group. We see this in how desperately they chase Perrin for killing two of them. If they let one cop-killer escape then they risk sending the message that fighting back might not always be punished. For all their bluster, the Whitecloaks are terrified of a fair fight.
We can look to the Darkfriends in their ranks, “the man who called himself Bors” and Byar, but note how easily these few bad apples spoil the bunch. We see the same thing with the Red Ajah: if just a couple of bad people can lead the whole organization astray then the organization wasn’t all that good to begin with.
It’s not that every Whitecloak is trying to be evil, they don’t even realize what they’re doing. Their fear and want for power are hidden, even to themselves, behind codes of justice. As we saw with Bornhald, the desire for righteousness is real, the problem is that the Whitecloak’s methods aren’t an effective means of achieving it. Killing Byar to safe a man he hates is a truly righteous thing Bornhald did. It might be the most difficult thing he ever did, but did anything the Whitecloaks have to offer make it any easier? I have to wonder whether Bornhald would have been a great man, if only he wasn’t a Whitecloak.
But Galad is kind of unique. He had a rigid ethical code even before he joined the Children. That’s basically all we knew about him for most of the series. Our first impression of him is as a tattle-tale, and as the frustratingly “good” older step-sibling. He’s inhumanely beautiful, he’s noble born, and he has powerful friends and family. He didn’t need to join the Whitecloaks to find a group who would accept and support him. He’s also just ridiculously skilled in combat: he doesn’t need an army to protect him.
Yet, for all of Galad’s power and perfection, he was unique. That can be a good thing, but it can also be lonely, and it can make a person wonder whether they’re doing the right thing. We can see, from Morgase’s perspective, that she wanted Galad to feel as accepted as his step-siblings, but of course that isn’t how it was for him. He must have always been the odd one out. I can’t imagine that Galad had many real friends as a child or a young man.
He also likely didn’t know anyone who understood his worldview. How different is his worldview from that of the royalty he grew up with? Morgase can think to herself how she failed to teach Galad that ethics aren’t just black, white, and grey, but a spectrum of colors that defy explanation… but, that’s how she sees things. Galad’s worldview is stunted, for certain, but I have to wonder whether the worldviews of those Galad grew up with were, perhaps, a bit self-servingly permissive. We’ve seen how harsh and selfish Elayne’s judgement can be, and it seems to me that Morgase would find no problem with that. How much of Galad’s worldview and personality was formed from feeling a sense of wrongness with the injustice he saw around him?
I’ll get to Gawyn and Elayne in a bit, but for now, I can understand why someone growing up with siblings like those – and seeing that their behavior is considered right and good – might learn to overcompensate in the opposite direction. I think I can understand how wonderful the Children of the Light must have felt to Galad. They teach right and wrong in absolute, without allowing wiggle-room for themselves. The Lord Captain Commander is beholden to the same laws as the lowest initiate. That’s not how things worked in Caemlyn at all! Respect must be earned, not merely inherited, and it must be earned with good work and righteous behavior, not a pretty face.
For everything bad I’ve said about the Whitecloaks, don’t forget that I’m also harsh on the Aes Sedai and the various monarchs. The Children have some truly good characteristics. Sure, Valda was a monster, but Galad really was able to put him to justice. Tylin raped Mat and everyone thought it was funny. Elayne could have people assassinated daily and no one would even dream of challenging her to a duel, unless she happened to kill the wrong person. Sure, Morgase was a queen, but I don’t think that that mattered when Galad challenged Valda. If his mother had been a poor farmer’s wife, I think he could have made the same claim. The Whitecloaks don’t live up to their code, and their very organization has some inherent flaws, but to Galad, it must have felt like he finally found where he belonged.
As we see when he finally get a look inside Galad’s head, he is incredibly courageous. Not just Elayne’s suicidal certainty that she’ll make it, somehow, but a real courage to take risks no matter the cost. This is just overwhelmingly admirable to me. Honestly, it’s how I’d like to think I live my life. In my career, I often got in trouble for standing up and saying something I knew might get me fired. My friends sometimes say that I just don’t have a filter, but I’m surprised they can’t see my hands shaking or wonder why, immediately after doing something outrageous just because I naively thought it was worth taking on risk to do what’s right, I’m so quick to propose getting a drink. Or two.
Of course, arguing with senior management about contractor benefits or work-life balance for junior employees isn’t really comparable to challenging a blademaster to a Trial Beneath the Light, but hey, I find ways to relate to characters where I can.
The character growth we see for Galad in Towers of Midnight is just fantastic. The mere fact that he’s willing to entertain the idea that his worldview might be wrong is just huge. How often do we see any of our characters do this? Galad isn’t just considering whether he’s wrong about a specific question, he immediately sees that, if he’s wrong about Perrin, then he might be wrong about a lot more. He’s still got some more to think about, but knowing how methodical and introspective Galad is, I expect that he’ll find some good answers. As Lord Captain Commander, maybe he can spread them to the rest of the Children. Really, that’s a lesson in itself: no book of rules is a substitute for a wise leader. The Children under Nial, Valda, and Asunawa were evil, but the Children under Galad might actually become a true force for good.
Gawyn
Alright, while we’re at it, let’s talk about Gawyn a bit too.
I mentioned last time that Gawyn is sort of a genderbent Disney princess. He was raised for the sole purpose of assisting his sister’s rule and he trained as a Warder, taught to obey their Aes Sedai. He was never really taught to be a person or an individual, but a tool for a woman to use, unquestioningly. It’s hardly a wonder that Gawyn doesn’t really know how to make a decision for himself, or that he was basically just waiting for a woman to decide his life for him.
This time, I want to focus more on what Gawyn’s perspective adds to the series with relation to Rand. Sure, he has some character growth in deciding to support Egwene while still having his own perspective, neither a leader nor a slave, but that kind of speaks for itself. What I’m more interested in his role as a jealous perspective for our ta’veren.
That’s really a big part of Gawyn’s character. He’s jealous of Rand. He’s got other flaws too, but this is a big one, and it’s part of why he’s so unlikeable. But, it’s also a crucial perspective to have.
I mean, think about it. Of course he’s jealous of Rand. If anything, it’s kind of strange that we don’t meet more people who are jealous of Rand, Mat, and Perrin. We’ve seen how hard Rand’s life is, but we’re approaching Tarmon Gai’don. How many people are starving to death? How many have been eaten by Trollocs? Rand, Mat, and Perrin have hardly missed a meal. More importantly, they matter. If Rand dies facing Shai’tan, he’ll die a hero, likely to be remembered for an Age.
In chapter 1, Almen asks “Light! You’re him, aren’t you? The one they’re talking about?” Rand’s response is: “It is likely, Men are often speaking of me.”
That’s not just true in this Age, for Rand: it was true for Lews Therin as well. It’s probably been true for Rand throughout the Ages. This is a world with reincarnation, but Rand is seemingly always reborn as one of the greatest figures of the Age. That’s… well, that’s kind of bullshit, isn’t it? The average person can’t even hope to be reborn as an important figure in the future, the most important parts are already set aside.
Of course, Gawyn can’t see that, but he can see Rand’s journey this Age. When they first met, Gawyn was a relatively important person – not the hero of the Age, but he had a lot of potential – and Rand was just some stupid lost shepherd. Now everyone in the world is talking about Rand and Gawyn’s lucky to be the Amyrlin’s Warder.
We might not enjoy seeing Gawyn’s jealousy here, but it’s perfectly natural. Really, if we don’t feel any jealousy ourselves, it’s probably just because we’re self-inserting as the main characters. It’s worth considering how we’d feel if we were just people in the story. Really, it’s worth doing this historically as well. We wouldn’t all be lords and knights: most people throughout time have been unimportant to the great narratives we pass on. Gawyn’s not even a common person! He’s just a few steps down from Rand himself. I mean, he’s important enough to have his own section in this video.
So, it might not be pleasant, but I think it’s important to see things through Gawyn’s eyes, at least for a moment. Our main characters have their own challenges, but how many random nobodies have exploded into fire or vomited their guts out as beetles without us remembering anything more about them? Rand’s not having a harder time than most of the world at this point, but he’s the main character, so we care more. Gawyn never balefired a palace full of innocent people, why is he so much less likeable than Rand? Is he really any less decisive than Rand was? Less kind, or respectful, or patient? Was his romance any less frustrating than Rand’s multiple romances? It’s worth considering.
Oh, on the topic of Gawyn, I also want to point out that his response to Egwene, when he comes back to her, is that he “had to learn how to surrender.” I thought this was an interesting choice of words, given that learning to surrender is also how one learns to embrace saidar. It seems fitting that the Amyrlin’s Warder would have to learn that lesson, and it also feels like a nice part of Egwene and Gawyn’s romance – something for Egwene to empathize with.
Elanye and Egwene
Okay, I really do want to wrap this up soon so I can get started on A Memory of Light, but if I’m going to talk about Galad and Gawyn, I should probably also mention Elayne. Egwene too, but let’s take it one character at a time.
Towers of Midnight is a good reminder, in case we forgot, that Elayne really, really sucks. If I recall correct, I named Elayne the most insufferable character after Egwene started her character growth, and that really hasn’t changed much.
When I saw that Towers of Midnight was a good reminder of this, it’s not so much because of anything Elayne did as it is that we can now see what all of our other characters act like when they’re in positions of power. Everyone else has at the very least a moment where they realize that they’re thinking of their friends only as tools to use and they’re disgusted by it. Rand had this realization first, but at this point I think all of our main characters have had this thought. Most of our characters were also hesitant to step into a position of leadership. Even Egwene, who was pretty entitled and arrogant from the start, wasn’t sure that she was ready to become Amyrlin.
Elayne never has a moment like this. When Mat shows up, she jumps immediately to scheming about how to best utilize him for her aims. She even considers just stealing his foxhead amulet. She ultimately doesn’t, but even this seems less because she’s got a conscience and more that she’s trying to affect some sort of morality to impress Birgitte and Aviendha. She very nearly loses it in her blundering with the Black Ajah, never considering that – without it – Mat is dead.
When Mat brings the designs for the dragons, she immediately seizes on them as a tool to expand Andor’s power and borders. She even tries to press Mat into a contractual agreement which could be used to send the Band against the Two Rivers if necessary. None of our other characters would even consider something like this.
Now, we could say that this is only natural, given that she’s the queen… but, again, our other characters aren’t doing this. Rand and Egwene have both proven entirely willing to change the status quo for the better, even if it means relying a bit more on trust. Egwene still aims for Tower supremacy over women who can channel, but she’s willing to change things, even giving up some of that power, if it means forming an alliance with other women who can channel. Perrin isn’t even willing to force political marriages in the Two Rivers.
Which, yeah, speaking of Perrin, Elayne comes pretty close to having him executed. As I mentioned in the summary, I’m also suspicious that the specific wording of their agreement means that her children by Rand can take stewardship of the Two Rivers from Perrin. Again, as a queen, she’s in her “rights” to do this, but all of our other characters are seeing that, at the end of the Age, with the Last Battle on the horizon and Shai’tan’s touch visible on the world, it’s time for some bad traditions to end. Even Aviendha is learning this out in Rhuidean. Meanwhile, Elayne is mostly focused on seizing as much as she can for herself. She wants the Kin to serve Andor, the dragons, the Band, and Rand. She wants the Two Rivers back. When considering Cairhien, she thinks to herself “that throne would be hers.” She’s just ridiculously greedy.
It’s not hard to understand why, of course. Elayne was raised as the daughter-heir, under Morgase. Morgase is proud of Elayne for being this way. She’s acting like royalty should. But, when she’s paired up against our other characters, it really demonstrates just her terrible she is. Rand’s been pretty busy, but he’s still found time to expand peasant rights and feed the poor, and he didn’t worry about borders or person power along the way. Perrin was hesitant to become a leader at all. Again, even Egwene is giving up a little bit of her power for the greater good.
Egwene
Speaking of Egwene, let’s talk about her for just a moment. The last couple of books have been fantastic for Egwene. I’ve already talked about her at length in the last few videos, so I won’t repeat that here, but Towers of Midnight was a good reminder that, although Egwene has found herself in a perfect position, she hasn’t so much grown as she’s just found her niche.
Egwene is really good at being the main character, and she’s pretty terrible at being anything else.
I’m not saying that she should just let Rand destroy the seals without any question at all. I mean, her full title is literally “Watcher of the Seals. The Flame of Tar Valon. The Amyrlin Seat.” It’s literally part of her job to care about these seals, right?
But she’s just so damn condescending and certain about it. In chapter 56, she tells Gawyn: “he knows he shouldn’t break those seals. A part of him does, at least. Perhaps that’s why he told me-so I could gather resistance, so I could talk him out of it.” A moment later, she thinks to herself. “She didn’t want to think of what would happen if he forced her hand.”
I’m really trying to see this from her perspective. She has some good reasons to think that Rand is mad. But, she hasn’t been thinking about this stuff at all, she’s been focused on her training and on Aes Sedai politics. Min’s been focusing most of her attention on studying this and Rand’s been spending each moment he can spare. Egwene doesn’t know the details, but she has to be at least vaguely aware that Rand has been thinking about this. She’s not even interested in a discussion, she’s immediately certain that Rand is wrong and she’s right based entirely on her just thinking that she’s always right, particularly when the other party is a man.
Which, speaking of her misandry, her stance on Gawyn is a little suspect as well. “Gawyn nodded. No further complaint or argument. It was a wonder how he’d changed. He was as intense as ever, yet less abrasive. Ever since that night with the assassins, he had started doing as she asked. Not as a servant. As a partner dedicated to seeing her will done. It was a wonderful thing.”
I mean, he consented to it, and they both seem fine with it, but… yeah, that’s a servant. A partner who always obeys and is solely dedicated to seeing your will done isn’t a partner, it’s a servant. That’s pretty much what “servant” means. Gawyn can be a servant if he wants and Egwene can have one if she wants, that’s fine, but let’s not pretend it’s something else.
Egwene was definitely what the White Tower needed, but I am not at all confident that she’ll continue to be a positive force after the Last Battle. How are relations between the White and Black Towers going to go? I wonder how many more concessions Egwene will make to the Red Ajah for the goal of Tower unity.
Nynaeve
Okay, I don’t want to end the discussion on characters on a low note, so let’s briefly talk about Nynaeve.
Nynaeve’s character growth has been a really slow burn. That’s not to say that it hasn’t been happening, just that – unlike most of our other characters – she doesn’t ever get just one book where she grows a whole bunch and then nothing for a while, it’s always been gradual. Her growth started early, when she started trying to learn to give up control and be more understanding. She’s one of very few Aes Sedai who actually sees the Asha’man as people, which is – in itself – astounding growth, given her low opinion of men in general when we first met her.
In Towers of Midnight, we got to see some more from Nynaeve, and I really liked it. First, Rand gives her some advice – not to let the Aes Sedai ruin her – and she seems to actually consider it. Could Nynaeve have taken basically any advice from Rand back in the first few books? Particularly about something so intimate?
Then she goes on to accept being chastised by Egwene, not simply by being forced or shamed into it, but by practicing some real empathy, something Nynaeve has historically struggled with. She’s always been full of sympathy, wanting to help those in need, but now she’s learning empathy, how to imagine herself in someone else’s position. She sees that Egwene’s position is similar to her own when she was made Wisdom too young, and she decides to give Egwene the support she wishes she had received. That’s great!
Finally, she takes her test and, just as Rand advised, she doesn’t let them ruin her. In the trial, she decides that letting people suffer and die for selfish gain – to become Aes Sedai – isn’t worth it. “One should not demand calmness for the mere sake of calmness, and a prohibition on running when there are people you need to save is foolish.”
I actually think that Nynaeve is, in a small way, kind of an opposite to Galad. Nynaeve has always made her own rules and she had to learn to balance her own judgement against the judgements, expectations, and rules of others. Galad always relied on ethical codes and he had to learn to balance codes with a sense of personal judgement. But, whereas Galad is just starting to look for this balance, it seems as though Nynaeve has found hers. She’ll call Egwene “Mother” and she’ll try to obey, but if someone needs her help, she’s going to help.
There’s a bit of a reverse parallel with Gawyn as well. Gawyn had to learn who he was without Egwene, then fit her into it. Nynaeve had to learn that channeling is an inherent part of her, but Lan is more important to her than her Great Serpent ring. After her test, Nynaeve speaks with Egwene. “I wonder if we sometimes put the White Tower-as an institution-before the people we serve. I wonder if we let it become a goal in itself, instead of a means to help us achieve greater goals.” “Devotion is important, Nynaeve. The White Tower protects and guides the world.” “And yet, so many of us do it without families. Without love, without passion beyond our own particular interests. So even while we try to guide the world, we separate ourselves from it. We risk arrogance, Egwene. We always assume we know best, but risk making ourselves unable to fathom the people we claim to serve.”
It’s telling that Egwene’s response is to look troubled and tell Nynaeve not to voice those ideas too much. I expressed some worry that Egwene would become a problem after the Last Battle, but maybe Nynaeve can keep her on the right path.
It’s funny. Nynaeve started the series off as Wisdom, but she didn’t really seem to fit the title at all. After a long period of very slow growth, I think Nynaeve might have gotten there. Egwene was what the Tower needed in its schism, but Nynaeve might be what it needs for the future.
The defense of Maradon
Alright, this is getting to be far too long. I initially wanted to have a long section to dig through Ituralde’s sections slowly, but I’ll be brief.
Basically, I absolutely loved these sections. In particular, I liked how Ituralde’s expertise as a general was demonstrated. Sure, Ituralde has had a couple of fancy stratagems, which are always popular in fiction, but bear in mind that doing weird, unexpected, complicated things isn’t really what makes someone a good general. A good trick only really works once or twice before everyone catches on, and if the trick works even when it’s expected, then it stops being a trick and just becomes standard practice.
What we see in Towers of Midnight is how incredible Ituralde is at responding to changing circumstances. He holds the top of a hill, but the Trollocs launch Draghkar among corpses to chase them off the hill. If Ituralde was barely holding the top of the hill, then he’s sure not going to be able to hold the bottom, so he organizes a retreat. But he doesn’t just sound a full, unorganized retreat, he falls back very intentionally, guarding the retreat with two ranks of pikes, archers, and by holding back Asha’man to make a gap for the last ranks.
Then some idiot charges forward, making a hole in the line. Internally, Ituralde is pissed, and he knows this could be a disaster, but outwardly, he just rides in to close the gap. Then some dumb trumpeter sounds the retreat early. Again, Ituralde is pissed, but he does his best to hold things together even as everything falls to hell.
At several points during the battle, Ituralde internally thinks that they’re screwed. Rand’s late, if he’ll ever show, and even reinforcements might not help. But he doesn’t give up. That seems to be Ituralde’s definitive trait as a general: he just doesn’t stop, even when he knows they’re doomed. So far, every time he’s done this something has happened to bail him and the surviving men out at the last moment. Ituralde didn’t know that would happen, but if he had given up earlier, then it wouldn’t have helped when relief came.
He even starts burning the city. Now, normally, defenders really don’t like to do this, but this is Tarmon Blood Gai’don, the city is already mostly evacuated, and the Trollocs are probably going to trash it anyways. His block-by-block retreat through the city was just incredibly well-told, thrilling, and it did an excellent job of demonstrated why he’s considered a great general. Sure, he definitely likes a good ambush, but more importantly, he keeps a level head, keeps the men motivated, and just doesn’t give up, even when he’s backed into a corner.
Outro
Alright, that had better do it. Just going by the word count, this is going to be much longer than any of my other videos. I intended to talk more about the Tower of Ghenjei and the Wolf Dream, but frankly, those parts really kind of speak for themselves. Great stuff, but what else is there to say? “Cool.”
As you can see, I have a new office – a new house, really. I’m also trying out a different microphone today. I don’t love having to pay attention to where it is in relation to my face, but hopefully it’ll help the audio quality. I guess we’ll find out!
I know this video took a bit longer than usual to get out. Thanks for bearing with me, the move and renovations were a lot of work, but watching Radagast run around in our yard definitely makes it worth it.
I plan on starting A Memory of Light right away, so it shouldn’t take quite as much time for the next video to come out. Right now, I can’t imagine that the last video of the series will be longer than this one, but we’ll see what happens. I was a bit more detailed with the summary this time, but it felt necessary, given how complicated this book was. Let me know in the comments if the summary was too thorough or if you liked it.
Also continue to think about what you’d like me to cover next. I’m still pretty sure that I’ll do at least one more Wheel of Time video after covering the last book, once I can dig into some supplementary material without worrying about spoilers, but I do plan on moving on to something else eventually. My wife keeps telling me to read Mage Errant while my brother is telling me to read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant or Red Rising. If I just want to get more subs, I should probably just jump into the Cosmere, which might be fun, but I’m still leaning a bit more towards something different, like some William Gibson, some Norse myths, or maybe even a video game or a couple of video essays not tied directly to a single work, such as a video on literary theory.
I’m still not really sure at all, so some comments would definitely help me decide!
Anyways, I’m tired and I want to get to the last book, so let’s call things here. Thanks for watching – I hope everyone enjoyed the video!