Wheel Of Time Spoilers - Tumblr Posts

I’m gonna be posting my thoughts on the Wheel of Time books here before the series starts. Tune in for thoughts on the prologue and Chapter 1-4! Feel free to block some of my tags if you don’t wanna see future spoilers

kinda fucked up how egwene destroyed the confidence and social standing (between themselves) of a woman whom she trusted and respected, to the point that nynaeve has a massive crisis of self-confidence that may have contributed to her being beaten by moghedien, the whole deal with birgitte, and her decision to take the group to salidar and hand over her responsibilities and the threat of the forsaken in tel'aran'rhiod (though smart) in the hands of strange aei sedai who might not even support rand.

all so egwene can avoid punishment by the aiel for dreamwalking when she shouldn't be, because they would cease teaching her as per their threat, and rightly so. iirc she only ever decides that she needs to apologize for misleading them on being a full aei sedai (which is a pretty fucked up thing when everyone assumes everything you say is the whole truth, though the fact that egwene helped rand blow shit up at cairhien should've clued the aiel in that she's not bound by the three oaths like all tower trained aei sedai, and I am certain moraine must've brought that up at least once.) and only ever gets punished for her specific toh in that moment.

it is never reconciled, never apologized for, never explained, and egwene belittles nynaeve twice for almost revealing to the wise ones that she's dreamwalking. i don't think they see eachother again until egwene is in salidar and she is then raised to amyrlin seat, and then egwene places special emphasis on nynaeve not undermining her while she leads the rebel aei sedai.

worse still is how egwene's brow beating worked in preventing nynaeve from figuring out that egwene is hiding something from the aiel wise ones, especially after the blowup from egwene in front of amys, who egwene should really trust with anything said in tel'aran'rhiod, and nynaeve and elayne, who already know she's dreamwalking into elaida's study. its really emphasized a little later when nynaeve gets to salidar and shows that she's an incredibly smart person when she's not being rode over and bullied, and figures out the entire scheme between siuan and leane, something they're keeping from the salidar aei sedai so they can continue to manipulate them, practically instantly.

fucked up. sorry if anyone likes egwene particularly and is defensive regarding her, i like her too and she has many redeeming qualities and as many amazing accomplishments, but this is one of the many things that she's never apologized for. it shows more and more that her story is about a complete abandonment of emond's field to become the most aei sedai she can be, and she's certainly adopted bullying and brow beating to get her way in a topic she knew she shouldn't have gotten her way, but valued knowledge acquired through any means necessary over her personal relationships. the aiel aren't spared here either. she ferrets out their secrets, pushes dangerously far beyond what they've taught her and almost damages her relationship with them too when it becomes impossible to continue the lie.

she doesn't even reveal that she's an accepted until she's no longer going to be in the wise one's camp to learn from them, summoned to salidar, at which point there's no real punishment she can suffer from them, short of death, since she'll have learnt everything she can out of them and won't be able to learn anymore anyway, and despite all her talk of acting like an aiel and fulfilling her toh, I seriously doubt she would've calmly accepted death as her punishment if that was what the wise ones decided, even though any other aiel apprentice would have.

anyway, I know I'm not doing a liveblog, I'm just re-reading the wheel of time books and I'm almost finished with the fires of heaven (book 5). wanted to get this thought out there.

Lews Therin anytime Rand meets with Mazrim Taim:

Rand is like Courage the Cowardly Dog in the way he laughs hopelessly anytime he gets hurt:

like "Oh I just lost a hand to a fireball. Hahaha. It doesn't matter." and Min is clinically in shock from the second hand pain, weeping that he's suffering and he doesn't care about himself. that it's just nothing to him.

Wormblr, he's so Taylor coded it's unreal. Protagonist going through some unbelievable pain for no reason. Wotblr, do I have a scrimblo I could introduce you to. She loses the same arm twice and gets cut in half once. She doesn't laugh when she gets hurt though so it evens out.

Drop an anvil on all three of them and they'll come back stronger.

I'm at the Box.

Ominous enough for people without context but I'll go ahead anyway.

I made a joke that Rand laughs every time something horrible happens to him, and I was thinking that was hyperbole, that he was in so much pain and trying so hard to avoid crying out that he wasn't laughing this time.

But here he is, laughing in his box. How fucking ominous must that feel if you're one of the Aei Sedai watching him and his box? You've just bundled him in there for six days of travel, only taking him out to give him water at dawn and dusk, he's delirious from the heat and sweat, he's just killed two warders in a fit of rage over Min's capture and has been beaten for that so severely that he lost his vision temporarily and appears to have completely disassociated from his body, and you've just shown him off to the aiel who you're almost entirely certain will try to steal him from you. He must be utterly hopeless. Nobody's coming to save him. After this he will only be taken out of that box to be beaten by the other aei sedai.

And he's chuckling like a loon in his little box.

I honestly don't remember how he comes back from madness during Dumai's Wells on this re-read. If it were me, no Aei Sedai would be allowed into the same room as me except to pledge their total obedience and fidelity to me. The fact that Cadsuane, the most Aei Sedai of Aei Sedai to ever Aei Sedai, is introduced AFTER Dumai's Wells feels insane to me. AFTER he has been magically violated by Alanna, after the Salidar Aei Sedai did their silly little pageantry and subsequently grew to 13 members by accident (admittedly this was a manipulation by the Black Ajah). And obviously after Dumai's Wells and the Box, caused by the Tower Aei Sedai. There is no way that Rand has a drop of trust or friendliness for Aei Sedai left in him after all that. Cadsuane barging in and demanding to be treated with respect should've had her thrown out by a gang of Ashaman and Aiel.

How the hell did we get back a Rand who went back to trying to scare off women by channeling around them so he can intimidate Cadsuane, instead of what would be more realistic, a Rand who surrounds himself with Ashaman and obedient Aei Sedai and threatens to kill Cadsuane if she ever comes near him without bending the knee to him. I think I need to keep reading a little more to puzzle it out, but I think Robert Jordan wrote himself into a corner with the last chapter of Lord of Chaos here and just decided to walk back a bit of his character development because he realized he'd need an old Aei Sedai to advise Rand. Rand should be downright hostile to any Aei Sedai who come near him without his permission. Murderous even.

Also after Lord of Chaos we get into the swing with Mat and Ebu Dar. I fucking hate the Ebu Dar arc. Hate it so much for so many reasons.

God I fucking forgot how absolutely insane Dumai's Wells is.

Imagine being a Shaido Aiel. You've got barely any honour, but fuck the other Aiel. You're conquering shit with the rest of your clan. Sure you don't have a clan chief after some gambler cut off his head, and the most influential wise one of your clan can't channel and hasn't been to Rhuidean, but that's fine. Nobody has the right to tell you that you have no honour or pride. They don't understand. You are the only true Aiel. The only ones who haven't sold themselves to a wetlander king.

And now we get to take the so-called Car'a'carn for ourselves. We just need to take him from the Aei Sedai. The wise ones can handle them.

Then the fucking grass explodes into wolves, arrows punch into your backs from 300 paces, a huge cavalry charge slams into your flanks and fresh lightning and fire suddenly surround you, people's skulls just explode like ripe melons or burst into flames with zero impact at all. This was supposed to be easy. Some mad bearded fucker is hacking through you all with an axe, and a tinker of all things is swinging a sword at you. Then the chest at the center of the copse of trees explodes violently. A woman is screaming her soul out at the epicenter. The Dragon Reborn is free. Then the man to your left is split in half by a string of light that widens into a doorway, and out of that doorway steps a man who turns your whole body into shredded meat as soon as he looks at you.

You don't even have time to scream in pain.

Wheel of Time Book Club Eye of the World Prologue: Dragonmount

Let’s start at the beginning! (A very good place to start)

Full disclosure: my first read I didn’t finish the series. I got through a good chunk (a little over halfway) and then a friend spoiled the rest for me... extensively. I started doing my own research afterwards so that we could have actual conversations, but starting around book 8 or 9, it’ll sort of be and not be new territory for me. It’s definitely gotten to the point where I’m a little unsure what I’ve read and what I’ve not, so I might suddenly (in those books) say “oh! I don’t remember this!”.

In the meantime, let’s talk the prologue to the Eye of the World. I think I’ve decided on spoilers, because I want to discuss the foreshadowing in the series so SPOILER WARNING.

I think I ended up reading the prologue about three times because it’s just so good. I think it definitely exemplifies what I enjoy about Jordan’s writing and gives the reader a taste of what is to come. Not only does it set the tone with the descriptions (a very visceral tone), but it also introduces us to two major characters: Lews Therin Telamon and ‘Elan Morin Tedronai’.

I absolutely love their interactions and how we can juxtapose them with their interactions later in the series (technically?). It definitely sets up Lews Therin’s madness, not to mention it works really well with Rand’s own issues later and his fear of killing those he cares about and when he almost does. 

One thing that I didn’t notice before was the implication from Elan (since that is what he is referred to as, that is what I will call him here) that Lews Therin was named Dragon and did not embrace it, so it wasn’t a celebrated title even then. Maybe it was addressed later in the series than I read and was never discussed or maybe I just don’t remember that plot point. Either way, he was probably named such by his enemies instead of it being a title to show admiration for his power. Naturally, Elan starts listing off all of Lews Therin’s titles and accomplishments, which I’ll admit struck me as a bit of weird exposition first time around, but it fits with what we know of Elan’s personality, so it doesn’t bother me on reread. He’s so grandiose.

I love the early glimpse we get of Elan’s morality and what lead him to the dark. “This war has not lasted ten years, but since the beginning of time. You and I have fought a thousand battles with the turning of the Wheel, a thousand times a thousand, and we will fight until time dies and the Shadow is triumphant!” It definitely sounds like an evil “you may have won this round, but I’ll get you eventually,” but upon reread it’s more like he’s explaining his logic. 

Also just “What hand slew Ilyena Sunhair, Kinslayer? Not mine. Not mine. What hand struck down every life that bore a drop of your blood, everyone who loved you, everyone you loved? Not mine, Kinslayer. Not mine. Remember, and know the price of opposing Shai’tan!” Just. My heart. Especially with the awful way he responds. Then we have the creation of Dragonmount and two excerpts from texts from the fourth age (which is the age AFTER the series and thus would also reflect the knowledge gained in that time) discussing what happened afterwards. The two are The Breaking of the World (alternate title Aleth nin Taerin alta Camora) and The Cycle of the Dragon (Charal Drianaan te Calamon). If anyone remembers what those languages are supposed to be, please let me know. I’m curious.

Please leave replies or comments so that we can discuss this chapter or anything I missed, be it foreshadowing or small details that interest you. I have a friend that’s read the books, but there’s only so often/much that I can inflict my hyperfixation on her.

I had a very long conversation last week with a couple of friends that I play Call of Cthulu with (there’s literally just the three of us). One has read all of the books and the other has never touched them, but we explained the basics of the ajahs without book spoilers (while also trying to make the reds sound reasonable). We argued the non-book reader would be Red if it was just evil channelers, but otherwise would 100% be green. My friend who has read all of them would be white, blue, or brown, but we settled on blue. She’s far too passionate about causes for her to be content with white and far too angry about injustice to just do nerd stuff. The real argument began on whether or not I would be yellow, grey, or brown (and I felt really proud that it was an actual debate). I also put in white, but they both said I didn’t argue enough for it. By the end of it, we settled on grey, but we’re putting it to a vote with the larger group (although I’m pretty sure at this point it’s just yellow or grey).

\I’d like to be brown ajah, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna lose this.

Also I am aware that you pick your Ajahs, but we’re treating this as a “which one best fits your personality” thing.

A Brief Overview of the Ajahs

One of the long-term entertainments of WOT fandom is deciding which Ajah you’d be in (long before Hogwarts Houses were a glint in anybody’s eye) so, for the benefit of new show people, here is a brief summary of the seven Ajahs Aes Sedai can belong to, sans any other plot or character spoilers. However I guess by definition these are worldbuilding spoilers since we haven’t heard of all of them in the show yet. (This is, in case it’s not obvious, somewhat satirical but I hope not inaccurate in terms of ~vibes~.) 

Keep reading

SPOILERS FOR TV SHOW AND FOR THE BOOKS

Okay okay

So while I’m working on eating alone, Moiraine’s weird energy has taken me along for the ride. Forever ago I made a post about writing a Wheel of Time time travel fic, but since then the Wheel of Time tv show finished its season and I’m at a crossroads.

I decided that I wanted Moiraine to be the person to raise Rand in this fictional scenario, but I’m not sure how I want to go about this, because I need to decide on what flavor of Moiraine I want. So, my options are as follow (spoilers) and I am taking suggestions because all of these sound exceptionally fun. I also am debating about whether she goes alone or with others and who with

Fires of Heaven Moiraine that just tackled Lanfear and thinks she’s dead/dying

Shadows Raising/Fires of Heaven Moiraine that is so fucking lost about what to do next

TV finale Moiraine that suddenly finds herself in a place of raising the boy that she just figured out was the dragon reborn and can no longer channel

New Spring Moiraine as a newly minted Aes Sedai that suddenly has to raise prophecy child

EDIT: Note that there were two more on here, but I decided that they were less interesting. Pre and Post Last Battle Moiraine, while somewhat fun, makes her journey less interesting than the other four.

Two incredibly cursed things:

Today, I accidentally typed Rand Al’Thor as Rand Al’Thot and thought to myself “Well, it’s not exactly wrong.” Good for Rand.

My friend (who has only read the first three books bless her) apparently half jokingly/half seriously ships Rand and Gawyn. I.... don’t know how to feel about that. On one hand, just as much screen time as with Elayne and Gawyn does seem to have just as much immediate affection for Rand as Elayne. On the other, it’s Gawyn (my personal reread just brought be to THAT PART in Shadow Rising and ugh it begins).

Update: I am working (believe it or not) on my first book club thing. I think I have rewritten the first chapter notes about four or five times before I decided I wanted to do something a little different.  

WoT Reread New Spring Chapter 4

I forgot how long this chapter is. It is so long.

Leaving the Tower

Siuan and Moiraine leave the Tower and travel to the camp where they are going to begin taking down names.

·Description of a room for no narrative reason. Look, if he was trying to set a tone, it would be one thing. If the characters were going to be in a room, it would be one thing, if it was an important way to characterize a location, it would be one thing! But Moiraine’s room is none of those things. In all honestly, I find this charming, but I am amused that this room is getting so much description when it meets none of the previous criteria. My dude.

·I have misophonia and it hates KR’s ‘sl-p’ words above all else. The sheer amount of ‘sleep’, ‘slip’, and ‘slippers’ I’ve been hearing is driving my nerves insane.

·Despite the fact that this is supposed to be an out of the ordinary event and the inciting incident of the series, it is giving us a lot more of what regular life for Accepted in the Tower is like.

·Strangely, knowing all of the stuff that Moiraine packed that will not be mentioned in this chapter is helpful to me. It is also a good way for us to get to know Moiraine by learning what she thinks is important.

·Siuan is not a horse girl, and I love that.

·There is a lot of description of the city, but not in the same way that made me so frustrated with it earlier. Here, it feels like it is contrasting the city of Tar Valon with the tragedy going on outside as well as showing off how so many people from all over the continent mix together here. Also it feels in character for Moiraine to notice what she does.

·There’s a brief non-scuffle with the white cloaks that I had forgotten about that ultimately just let’s us know that they are here and they are definitely taking the opportunity to heckle Tar Valon while so close.

·Moiraine and Siuan taking every opportunity that they can to use the power so they have excuses if anyone catches them.

·So here, Siuan tries to convince a guardsman to see her way and it doesn’t work, but she does seem to be considering him afterwards. I wonder if this is just us seeing how Siuan eventually becomes the Amyrlin that she does. Small little moments of her attempting persuasion, deception, and other forms of manipulation are done so she can see how different people interact with them and adjust her approach accordingly. Moiraine talks about how Siuan sees puzzles and patterns, so this would make sense. In essence, while this looks like Siuan utterly failing at browbeating a guard, it actually is Siuan making a mistake, realizing it, analyzing what happened and what went wrong, and filing it away for the future while observing her mark to guess what alternate approaches would work. I’m pretty sure I’m not just making this up either. Moiraine comments on Siuan liking puzzles once more and says she’s looking at the guard as if he was one of her puzzles, and then Moiraine makes a statement about how Siuan sees patterns. I just wish we got more of this in her POVs.

·I also think this could be a good comparison with Egwene. This book came out between Crossroads of Twilight and Knife of Dreams, so it was there after Egwene got captured by the White Tower, but before we got to see her begin manipulating people and events in the Tower. A lot of the next few books involve Egwene using the skills she learned (many of which were with the help of Siuan) to beat the White Tower from the inside. We get to see the origin of those skills here.

·There’s just some more back and forth with Moiraine being a disaster bisexual and thinking about pretty guards and pretty Accepted. Good for Moiraine. The chapter ends with them getting set up at the new spot.

One thing my Siuan rant reminded me about is when I first read this book, I was just thinking of it as a Moiraine and Siuan story, but on this readthrough, I’m also thinking of it as a Moiraine and Siuan and Rand and Egwene story. In the rest of the series, I kind of think of Moiraine as Rand’s mentor and Siuan as Egwene’s mentor and the two of them are reflected a lot in their students. I joked with a friend once that sometimes you can really tell that Rand’s leadership style came from a spy and it shows up in some not great ways. I love Moiraine, but she is a spy, not a leader. And no, I’m not saying she messed up Rand’s leadership, he did that on his own bless him. I’m just saying that sometimes he’ll do something, like make sure he is surrounded by people that he knows want to hurt him because he knows their intentions for sure and having people mess each other up so they don’t think about rebelling against him, and my brain says, “that’s a spy move”. I also know that Siuan was also a spymaster and then became a leader (and Moiraine received training as a leader before becoming a spy), but I’m pretty sure that she pushes back against some of those tendencies with Egwene and she had experience as a leader by then. Plus, she comments on how her spy tendencies screwed her. Egwene still has plenty of sneaky spy in her, but I think there is a subtle difference in their motives and actions that is hard to explain. I’ll probably get more into it when the two actually come up as characters.  

WoT Reread New Spring Chapter 5: The Human Heart

·I just love this peek into young Moiraine’s character. She is so shocked at the idea of a noble person shouting. Scandalizing.

·Siuan is so quick to take charge. It’s in sharp contrast to earlier when she had trouble with it. She’s more in her element calming down a riot than convincing someone to go a certain way. I would worry that it only works because she’s shouting at women (and what that would say that she couldn’t convince a man but women listened to her) BUT it is stated that entire camp went quiet with her voice. This also speaks to Siuan’s strengths. She needs to learn how to be subtly persuasive, but her sheer presence is affecting. In a ttrpg (Chronicles of Darkness) I play, there is a separate ability stat for Manipulation and for Charisma (both are under the social tree). I think Siuan at this moment in time is a perfect illustration of the difference between these two and what it means to be high Charisma and low Manipulation. Furthermore, it also contrasts with where Siuan was in the story while this was published. As of the Crossroads of Twilight, Siuan is the opposite in that she’s learned to lessen her presence even among non-Aes Sedai. This is mostly through doing Bryne’s laundry which I have thoughts on. She’s learned to up her Manipulation in the intervening years between New Spring and Crossroads of Twilight, and relies on it then.

·Babes. I hate the word babes, and it is thanks to this series.

·This noble lady has so much Karen energy.

·Moiraine does not think this adventure is that great. She would like to file a complaint with the Pattern.

·Moiraine believes in not making others suffer for her bad day. My history in customer service thanks her greatly.

·One thing I do think that the Amyrlin (and Moiraine) did not consider was that the child could have been born Aiel. There is a lot of assumption going around that the child will be on this side of the Dragonwall. I mean, Rand is. That does not change my opinion though.

·There is a really sweet moment here that makes me think of Rand, Moiraine, and how they are at the beginning of their journey vs later. Look, I will always find parallels between Rand and Moiraine, because I think there are a lot and that they are good foils in what is the same vs what is different about them. Anyway. Moiraine enters a woman’s name down in the books because she sympathizes with her plight, and she gives her money to take her child to a healer. She and her child are going to starve if they don’t receive help and they aren’t going to get it from the people around them. Now, I don’t think older Moiraine would not do the same in this relatively harmless situation, but she does place an emphasis when she gets older on helping who you actually can but focusing on the greater good. I’m thinking of the inn that got burned down in Eye of the World that Nyneave yelled at her for. There, Moiraine says that she will have the White Tower send money, but if she went back to help the inn she would be putting people that are more important at present in danger. She has shades of it here because she initially wasn’t going to put down the names, but Siuan made her take a closer look. It’s definitely a show of there being a small sense of idealism early on and believing you can save every person you meet and then a more pragmatic viewing of saving the world later on.

·Ah yes. Here comes Elaida. I don’t remember the name of the Aes Sedai with her which means she is either a background character or dead. It’s an ‘m’ name, so probably dead. We are also getting hints of the Aes Sedai hierarchy here, so it’s likely she’s more powerful than Elaida. I don’t think there was anyone more powerful than Elaida, Moiraine, and Siuan already in the Tower when the series started, so dead then.

·It’s sweet that Siuan wanted to stay until the last possible moment so that they could get as many names down as they could.

· Moiraine being a supportive girlfriend.

·Is Katarina one of the darkfriend reds in the series or is that a Katarine? I don’t remember.

·Okay so I remember Merian (I’m sure I didn’t spell that right. I listened/am listening to these books, okay?) the Keeper of Novices was a darkfriend. I think. I may be completely wrong about that, but I remember when I first listened to the book SOMEONE that seemed really nice and important was secretly a darkfriend, but this was only revealed super late into the book after they got to the Borderlands.

·I love that Moiraine hears her uncles are dead and just goes, “Sure. Probably deserved it.” Not in so many words, but that was definitely the vibe that she had going. Merian has no clue, and I don’t blame Moiraine for not sharing. I also didn’t remember that she got told this early. I thought that they had at least another day of taking names and that she got told around the same time they decided they wanted her to be Queen of Cairhien.

·Siuan being a supportive girlfriend.

· It is not wrong to not feel bad for the deaths of horrible family members. Do not punish yourself for it.

·This was such a sweet moment between the two of them, comforting each other between nightmares. We of course know who and what the Dragon Reborn is, but I can see how it would scare them and it’s nice to get the perspective of someone that is afraid of Rand, but pragmatic about it, and also does not know him.

I don’t really have any extra thoughts about this chapter. I made sure to pause the audiobook so that I could get everything out as it was coming to me. Maybe part of the reason that I paid better attention was the fact that I’m in less of a brain fog now or the fact that it is roughly in this chapter where I was planning to start the fic. We’ll see.

Wot Reread New Spring Chapter 6: Surprises

·Is Tsesuko (sp?) one of the Kin? I feel like she was one of the Kin. I feel like she was one of the healing focused ones. During the descriptions of her we get the way the Tower operates with channeling and also hints of the Kin if you are in the know.

·Sheriam is a heavy sleeper. This is so funny to me.

·Poor Moiraine. Getting forced inside and away from her goal. Also Merian needs to learn not to take out her bad day on other people. Excuse her.

·Okay so I’m glad the story had Siuan explicitly tell Moiraine that she didn’t need to feel bad about the fact that her uncles were dead. Also love the fact that Moiraine had told Siuan about her uncles and personal life more than anyone else.

·Siuan’s plan backfired and now they both are stuck inside, but at least it’s doing something that does further their goal. Only problem is that the person who currently has the baby is unlikely to tell anyone. “Hello, I took this baby from a dead Aiel woman on Dragonmount. Can I get some money?”

·Laras! My queen!

·I wonder if the amount of people giving birth had something to do with the Pattern trying to hide where Rand was born, especially given the fact that it basically led the Black Ajah to occupy their time with the names on the lists.

·The way that comment was said makes me wonder if Martin is important in the series. I don’t remember if this was an important or present character in the main series of if the name was just added for flavor.

·There’s a lot here about them finding more names and being shocked at the amount as well as people being vague. Tamra tells Moiraine she can use the power and Moiraine advises Siuan on how to play the great game.

·Ah! Now we start getting Sisters bothering Moiraine about her becoming Queen. Moiraine seems like she knows it at least, much as she told Siuan otherwise. I also find it interesting that this was the first lie she had told Siuan.

·Ah yes! Moiraine’s running away from the throne of Cairhien. I mean, I don’t blame her. I would also like to not rule Cairhien, their political structure is a mess and a half.

There was a lot of plot moving forward in this chapter, but nothing I really felt like commenting on at present. We get the beginning of the Moiraine avoiding becoming Queen plot and more of her and Siuan’s relationship and the depth that it goes to. I really wish that RJ hadn’t made them romance other people and hope it doesn’t happen in the show. It just doesn’t feel right, and also it feels out of character for the people they end up romancing as well. At the very least, I would like Gareth Bryne more if everything about his romance with Siuan was gone. Thom’s romance with Moiraine feels so out of character and some of that is because by the time they get together, he’s a non-character. It’s just so weird. I don’t mind them being bisexual queens, but let’s keep them together shall we? There’s just so much more potential that way.

WoT Reread New Spring Chapter 7: The Itch

·The moment this chapter title popped up, I assumed it was about them putting itching powder in Elaida’s clothes and her getting back at them for it. I’m probably wrong, but that would be hilarious.

·Moiraine is definitely trying to think several steps ahead about this baby thing.

·I kind of wonder if it was this sort of experience that led Siuan to making the wonder girls her Black Ajah hunters. This is a random thought for this chapter, but here she thinks she’s perfectly capable of finding the Dragon Reborn and saving the world (or at least Moiraine does) as Accepted. Later, the two of them would have to deal with the Black Ajah as newly minted Aes Sedai, which might as well mean that they are Accepted. She probably saw their potential and decided that if she could do it, so could they.

·I’m just going to say this: making lists also help settle me. I’m sure Moiraine doesn’t actually mean it, but sometimes if I get antsy, I start organizing weird things (like finding out all of the stuff I need to gather for crafting every item in a video game, or trying to plan out a writing schedule or when I will play a video game in what order; a lot of it has to do with video games, I’ll admit). I won’t always follow through, but it settles me. If this is actually the case with Moiraine, we can bond over it.

·KERENE! I know you’re going to die, but I’m excited to see you!

·More reminding me that the Green Ajah don’t actually go to battle. Seriously, why not just say they help out in the Borderlands occasionally? I don’t think this is actually true, because the Borderlanders get so excited when Moiraine shows up in Eye of the World, and I recall believing that it meant Aes Sedai came by every now and then to help out. This is definitely one of those times where I like the tv show more, because (while I get the commentary on resting on laurels or a standing military that isn’t actually necessary means nothing) the fact that this organization is made up of exclusively women means that instead of equating it with the institution, it is equating it with women.

·It is also because of the above thing that I believe the Ajah best prepared for the Last Battle was the Red. They have the most experience in battle and fighting channelers. I’m not sure that I don’t believe it even in the show because Green still don’t fight against channelers, but at least the gap is smaller.

·Rena or Rina or Reena? Hafton is Elyas’s Aes Sedai! We know he still seems to be a warder in the book series so I’m trying to figure out if Rina is in the main series at all. It is possible that he was released and it is just not mentioned. It’s so strange that the beginning of the series made it sound like releasing the bond was practically impossible and then towards the end people just… do it. This is without having communicated it with someone that discovered it, which makes it more confusing.

·I’m guess the lacquer on the doors represents their ranks, since they seem to follow military ranks.

·Stepin! Narrow shoulders and sad brown eyes. That makes sense.

·Also, the implication of the items in the room is that Kerene has seen combat. Maybe it’s just not in battle. So much about the Green Ajah just doesn’t make sense.

·It felt like about halfway through the series itself, women were fainting and crying and vomiting left and right so it’s nice to see an Aes Sedai receive what is probably extremely terrifying news (about the Dragon being reborn) and remaining unflappable like they were presented at the beginning of the series.

·Okay so she wasn’t told about that but being told to visit the Amyrlin urgently is probably worrying.

·All of these people being sent to search are going to be killed and probably tortured by the Black Ajah.

·This Keeper is not going to be important. Why am I getting an extensive description of her clothing and jewelry.

·The itch being Moiraine’s curiosity is adorable.

Baby Moiraine is so tenacious and adorable. She is going to be trying to leave a lot sooner after Tamra dies and the next Amyrlin starts pushing for her to become Queen. I’m also wondering what Tamra thinks Siuan and Moiraine are doing and how she would deal with it if she knew or what would change if she didn’t. I’m pretty sure the Black Ajah are going to kill her any time now, so I’m kind of waiting for the next big plot point. It is either Tamra’s death or the Aes Sedai test. The order those two fall in will alter a lot of the framing of how my story goes depending on if I decide to follow New Spring’s timeline. A lot of this part of the story will be gone, since the search is gone, which is changing a lot more than I remember.

WoT Reread New Spring Chapter 8: Shreds of Serenity

·So based on the fact that it seems the searchers are the ones that are giving Moiraine lessons AND that they seemed focused on Artur Hawking (previous huge ta’veren that conquered the continent), ancient writing and philosophy, I think that they were planning on Moiraine hiding the Dragon Reborn. I’m serious! They were probably thinking of having Moiraine becoming Queen of Cairhien after attaining the shawl. She would then be extremely connected to the White Tower so Aes Sedai could come there frequently. Then, once they found the Dragon Reborn, they could drop him off there. His family could come as refugees or servants and if they didn’t want to keep the child, he could be her ward. From there, he would get the best lessons in politics in the place where it was the most ruthless. There would be the best education one could afford thanks to the resources a queen of Cairhien would have, not to mention that the Aes Sedai being welcome means that those that are helping protect or educate him could visit frequently to see how he was progressing. Once the Dragon Reborn would be unveiled to the world, he would have been a ward for the Queen of Cairhien (maybe they would have Moiraine step down and let him be King or just back him heavily) and have the strong alliance of one country already as well as a positive connection to the White Tower. Not to mention they wouldn’t have to keep this secret from Moiraine, because I doubt Tamra didn’t tell the searchers that Moiraine and Siuan were there at the foretelling… Now I wish I was writing this fic instead, but I really am attached to what I’ve got planned. Possibly something for another time.

·Moiraine is extremely bisexual in this moment admiring Elid.

·I’m kind of curious if there were any other foretellings done by Gitara Moroso that specifically foretold the birth of the Dragon Reborn. I don’t necessarily think that what she told to Tigraine counts. On that note, I wonder if Gitara told Tamra about that foretelling. If that was the case, you’d think she would be looking in the Aiel Waste instead.

·The sheer mention of Myrelle makes me angry. I don’t care how helpful she is to Moiraine; she’s an awful person.

·Ah yes. ‘beneath her breasts’. To be fair, this is Moiraine who is extremely bisexual and would notice such a thing.

·Also thank you Elaida for being creepy and unnecessary

·I can’t tell if this is supposed to be a reflection of how the military trains people to do things by instinct under immense pressure, a comment on how people generally underperform under pressure and don’t show their true capabilities, or both. I have no experience in the military and the people I do know don’t talk about it, so I have no confirmation of the former, and I am not inclined to treat Aes Sedai serenity as a concept favorably (I’m sure I will get more into this as the story continues, specifically in the Great Hunt, but also in this book).

·I think what makes me angriest about this whole plot line is the resolution. The simple fact that Elaida gets in trouble for showing favoritism and not for abusing Siuan and Moiraine (or that the White Tower is built in such a way that means this was considered helping by abusing them to the point where Elaida probably genuinely thought that’s what she was doing). Don’t get me wrong, I think it makes sense in context and points out that there are numerous flaws in how systems govern themselves. It makes me angry in a way where the story is unfair, not that the author is a bad author.

·Part of what makes me so angry is the fact that, despite the fact that there are laws within the White Tower to prevent people from being punished with the Power, they make it explicitly clear that people do not follow them. Furthermore, when Accepted complain about the abuse, they somehow suffer for it and if a Novice does it, it is explained to them that they must accept things as they are. I think it should be rather obvious why I dislike the White Tower as an organization.

“Oh Siuan! Aes Sedai do not go about harming one another,” said Moiraine to Siuan about Elaida. After book 10.

so grateful to the wot show casting on many levels

but especially in the Lanfear scenes because Rand is like ‘gee wow no thoughts head empty pretty woman’

and while normally i would judge this, I too would follow Natasha O’Keffe as lanfear off a cliff

Siuaraine : Je te laisserai des mots

What do you think is the story that I'm trying to tell ?