I kind of meant one that is in line with the books where you play as the characters, the long long periods of no action kind of makes it weird to play as them.
Also from what I know of this game it is kind of weird..in that you play an Aes Sedai so weak in the power you couldn't really be an Aes Sedai.
The show did get better by season 3
I think season 3 was the best of the lot..but it was so divorced by the books by that time the books no longer mattered.
I wish I had a filter to let me do clown voice so that I could have done a live reaction to that scene because I legitimately called him making a hammer out of his cane as soon as I saw it and laughed my ass off when he actually did it, it was legitimately the funniest shit I have never seen.
The cast, well, it wasn't all bad. I thought the race-swapping was a bad idea because there is canonically a lot of ethnic diversity in the world already.
I don't care about it beyond being very obvious what they are doing, and it being kind of unneeded because there are cool black people later on, like The Seanchan are evil but Tuon is legitimately awesome a lot of the time she is around and her Romance with Mat is probably the best in the series.
hopefully before Honka finishes his recaps.
I am going to be here for a long long time, especially as the books and chapters get longer and more dense, I already have two other files of notes aside from the chapters themselves just for individual characters that I can't quite speak on because it is spoilers.
Chapter 8: The Dragon Reborn
Summary
Rand nervously follows Lan towards the Amyrlin Seat’s room, the Shienarans are all still on edge from the attack, men walking around the keep armed.
They pass by Ingtar who looks troubled, and then another Shienaran guard who looks at Rand and Lan and proclaims “Tai’Shar Malkier! Tai’Shar Manetheran” True Blood of Malkier, True blood of Manetheran”
They arrive at the Amyrlin’s apartment and are met by Leane who Rand impresses slightly by maintaining a clam demeanor while following Lan’s instructions, as Rand enters Lan whispers to Rand “Tai’Shar Manetheran”
Within the room Moraine, Verin and Siuan sit, Rand gives the traditional Warder greeting to the Amyrlin, kneeling like he had learned to do in his meeting with Queen Morgaise. He refuses his seat also in the traditional Warder way, which seems to outright annoy Siuan.
They discuss Rand’s sword being a Heron Marked Blade, and Moraine explains that Tam Al’thor left the Two Rivers and rose to become a Blademaster in the Army of Illian, Siuan questions if the sword is real and tells Verin to take it for testing, to which Rand responds “My father gave me this sword, nobody is taking it away.”
Siuan is impressed that Rand has enough fire in him to stand up to Aes Sedai, and Rand’s response makes Siuan groan a bit because it is something Lan would say.
“Lan has been at you”
Siuan explains that Ingtar and Mat are going to search for the dagger and that Rand can go with them if he pleases, to which Rand says yes, then Siuan kicks Rand in the face.
“With that taken care of lets get down to business, I know you can Channel boy”
Rand panics a bit saying that he does not want to Channel, but Siuan says he can’t help it and he better learn to, and that the knowledge of Rand being a Channeler is not going to leave this room because Rand is the Dragon Reborn.
Rand rebuffs Siuan saying that he will not “Be a tame False Dragon on a Tar Valon leash” to which Siuan responds by having Moraine tell of the night that Rand was born.
In Tar Valon, as the Aiel War ended Siuan and Moraine, just “Accepted” students in the White Tower at the time were attending the Amyrlin Seat at that time. The Amyrlin’s keeper Gitara Moroso at the time suddenly stood up and proclaimed “He is Born again, I feel him. The Dragon takes his first breath on the slope of Dragonmount”
Rand’s memories of Tam’s ranting in the west wood during winter night intrude as he listens to the story.
Moraine tells of having to pour over the prophecy and connect the dots from one rumor “A man who found a baby after a battle” taking each clue until she found 3 Ta’veren in the Two Rivers..where the Old Blood of Manetheran is still strong and pure.
“He will be of the Ancient blood, Raised by the Old blood” an Aiel a people who have lasted since the Breaking of the World, and raised by the blood of Manetheran which was almost stamped out a thousand years ago
Rand continues to deny it but Siuan makes it clear that they believe he is the Dragon and he will be free to go help his friends find the dagger, but that he needs to be careful because not everyone believes the prophecies of the dragon and will try to gentile him or kill him if they find out.
Rand asks to leave and exits when given permission.
We switch to Moraine’s POV as Rand leaves.
The Three have a short conversation about the meeting, indicating that after Rand defeats the Dark One and wins the Last Battle they will gentile him.
Meanwhile Nyneave looks for Rand in the hallways of the keep, having heard that Rand had a meeting with the Amyrlin, her weather sense is telling her that a Storm is coming..however there is nothing indicating bad weather, however instead of finding Rand..she runs into Lan.
Lan notices her and the pair talk for a few moments, Lan giving Nyneave a heavy ring with a Golden Crane on it
“If you ever need shelter in the borderlands show this ring and they will give it to you, show it to a warder and they will take a message to me, send it to me and I will find you”
Lan walks off and Moraine appears behind Nyneave saying that “She only heard what she needed to” Moraine goes off and Nyneave seethes to herself and returns to her and Egwene’s apartments.
Egwene and Nyneave speak about going to the tower, until one of the maids enters and says that “Lord Rand” is causing an uproar by attempting to enter the Women’s apartments, Egwene is taken to Rand who is getting a talking to by Agelmar and some other Shienaran soldiers.
She takes Rand off to talk in private, and the pair say goodbye because Egwene is going to the Tower and Rand is going after the Horn so they will never..ever..ever see each other again.
Commentary
Verin apparently brought up the Idea of putting Rand off balance and then slapping him with the big news like she did to Siuan in the previous chapter.
Tam’s comments from the last book coming back to corroborate Moraine’s story about the end of the Aiel war is a good touch, basic storytelling but always fun to read because Rand’s doubts about where he came from are being applied from without and within simultaneously, which is important for later bits.
Make note of the name Gitara Moroso, it is a minor name but her foretelling ability comes up again as something that sets plots in motion, for a character that never really appears on screen she has an inordinate amount of effect on the story.
Also while going into the wiki to double check how many things she affected I found this.
BAD WIKI DO NOT CALL THE 300 OLD GRANDMA LADY HOT!
Now I imagine Padan Fain as Nelson for the rest of this re-read appearing out of the ways and saying "HA-HA" at Rand every time something bad happens.
I forgot how the early part of this book had so many end of chapter POV hops to minor events, I am not saying it is a bad thing..and I do remember all of the events but it is just weird that we end the chapter with Rand finding out “Hey dipshit you are the Savior” with random Nyneave and Egwene POVs.
Chapter 9: Leavetakings.
Summary
The Courtyard is in chaos again as Ingtar and his 20 Lances (the Shienaran army typically uses Calvary with Lances) prepare to leave, as well as Siuan and her procession prepare to leave soon after Ingtar departs, as well as Loial who is apparently joining the mission.
Rand apologizes to Loial for his earlier actions, and attempts to apologize to Perrin and Mat who ignore him, then Lan appears to speak with Rand.
Lan explains to Rand about a sword technique called “Sheething the Sword” where you allow an enemy to hit you in order to be able to strike back at them, a sacrificial play in order achieve a goal that is more important to you than your own life.
Siuan comes out into the courtyard and Rand looks over to her then looks back to Lan who is already gone, Loial returns and comments on how good Lan is at vanishing.
Siuan comes over and blesses Ingtar and his group, telling them the importance of their mission because the Heroes of the Horn are not bound by the Light and will fight for the Shadow if a Darkfriend blows the Horn.
Rand feels someone watching him and begins to look around, shifting his body just as a crossbow bolt flies by him, his movement having saved his life, the Bolt grazes the Amyrlin and hits a civilian behind her.
Agelmar demands that the assassin be found, Siuan is unphased by the assassination attempt..it being a fairly common event for her when out in public, wanting Ingtar’s group to not be delayed because each moment of delay means that Fain’s group is further away.
Ingtar commands his squad onwards and they exit the keep, along the roads of Fal Dara an extra member joins the group. Hurin a “Sniffer” who somehow has gained the ability to smell violence the worse the violence the more pungent the smell and the longer it lasts.
Trollocs and Myrddraal are violent enough that their stench takes a long time to fade so Hurin is the perfect sort to be able to track Fain’s group. However he mentions something that smells even “worse” than the Myrddraal with the group.
Far to the south, Bayle Domon captain of the Spray walks around the City of Illian at night, on his way to an Inn called “Easing the Badger” for a meeting with a prospective client.
The meeting goes as he expects, he is asked to go to Mayene to transport someone from Mayene to Illian, being given a large sack of gold to do so. Bayle has had 3 similar offers all of which seem like traps.
He takes the gold, saying that he will leave in the morning and once the 3 are gone he opens it, noticing that the gold is all from Tar Valon obviously to make it seem like he is working for Aes Sedai. Bayle’s second in command enters and tells him that another one of his crew is dead and that the second in command’s room has been broken into and robbed..though they left the silver belt buckle with gems in it that was sitting out.
Bayle orders the Second in command to gather the crew and that they are leaving ASAP..going west instead of east to Mayene.
As the crew is brought on board and prepares to leave Bayle goes to his cabin and breaks open the letter that he was given.
“The Holder of this parchment is a Darkfriend, have him executed post haste, his belongings are forfeit to the one who finds this letter, except what will be taken by an envoy” signed by the King of Cairhein
Bayle opens his secret compartment trying to figure out why people are after him so personally but he has no idea. He puts everything back in the compartment, including a piece of Cuendillar..shaped in a disk half white and half black.
Commentary
The Plot has officially begun also Hurin joined the party, who has to have one of the worst superpowers in all of fiction. Imagine being able to smell violence and people who do it in a country that is perpetually at war with monsters who are made to do nothing but violence and will likely genocide each other if they run out of humans to kill.
Lan proves that he is the most badass Normal Human in the setting by performing Batman stunts without trying, also in Wheel of Time fandom “Sheething the Sword” is called “Ending the book” which is a funny accusation it is only ever used that way once, the other time the concept comes up it is like 2/3s into the book.
We have another random jump to another POV at the end of the chapter, but this one is someone we haven’t seen in half a book. It’s Bayle! Random Ship captain is back..and he has what we now know are one of the Seals to the Dark One’s prison.
That explains the Trollocs chasing him..I wonder how many people were surprised he returned to the plot when this first came out, I remember being like “Oh its that guy..this is a weird thing to focus on” until we got to the bit with the Seal.
Also double checking my spelling on Mayene I found this
Wheel of Time Wiki..why are you calling Grandma Aes Sedai Voluptuous but not one of the Hottest Women in the setting?
