Wheel of Time - Discuss the Books and the Canceled TV Show

Chapter 48: The Blight

Summary

The Fellowship head northwards from Fal Dara, with Lord Ingtar and 100 of his soldiers. Ingtar is quite displeased with having to escort Moraine and her group to the Blight while being disallowed from going any further with them than the border between Shienar and Malkier.

After making the fact that he is unhappy with assignment clear he departs, telling Lan “Peace favor your blade Dai Shan” to which Egwene asks why The Borderlanders use “Peace” as a goodbye and he responds “When you have never known something, it takes on a meaning beyond just a talisman”

The group goes further North into Malkier proper and the weather begins to change getting warmer until everyone begins to take off their cloaks and coats, and Loial even unbuttons his shirt enough for his chest to show.

Rand notices that the plant life is discolored and diseased looking and reaches to touch one but is chided by Lan who explains that everything in the Blight is dangerous, that even things like a stick can bite you and is deadly enough that if you are bit by a stick that unless you amputate the arm you will die painfully from the venom.

The effects of the Dark One become more pronounced as the group continues deeper into the Blight, Trees are twisted and sickly, plants seem to visibly grow and rot at the same time. The horses can’t take a step without stepping on a plant that squishes audibly and the smell becomes as bad as a garbage heap full of rotten fruit and meat.

Moraine decides that they shouldn’t go on too far past sundown because even Lan alone in the Blight at night would not survive, she also suggests a specific place for them to camp at. To which Lan agrees reluctantly.

As the sun sets they arrive at a Hill with a view of a series of lakes and 7 towers, The remnants of Malkier. The group sets up camp and chat a bit while eating dinner. Nyneave tells Egwene that she will go with her to Tar Valon because she needs to have someone who isn’t an Aes Sedai to get advice from. Egwene decides that Rand, Perrin and Mat should come as well and that Rand will be her Warder.

Afterwards the group goes to sleep, except Rand can’t quite sleep. He watches Lan sit guarding the camp. Nyneave also isn’t asleep, She takes tea over to Lan and offers it to him. She mentions how he was to be a king and Lan deflects. Nyneave pushes a bit further mentioning that she only wants “The Man” and not “The Kingdom” but he rebukes her completely.

Rand closes his eyes so that he does not see Nyneave crying.

Commentary

The Blight is an interesting concept. Mordor is kind of made and ruled by Sauron specifically, The Blight just seems to be a side effect of The Dark One’s power, further in we see that The Blasted lands and the area around The Bore is lifeless so The Dark One does turn things into a wasteland however I think that the Blight itself is kind of The Dark One and the Pattern Battling each other.

The Dark One is trying to Rot everything and the Pattern is trying to Balance the Dark One’s effect by making things Grow faster so at the edge of the Dark One’s reach you get a warped mixing of infinite growth and infinite rot.

Nyneave and Lan’s moment is a nice combination of advancing their plot but also having it be very clear that it will stall out at every point given that Lan is fully dedicated to the cause of protecting Moraine and fully intends to die defending her and even without that there Malkier and his oath to Avenge what he could not protect.

Chapter 49: The Dark One Stirs

The next morning The Fellowship heads deeper into The Blight, heading for the high passes where Moraine found The Eye of the world previously, part way through the day The Blight becomes alive, mutated beasts and animated trees attacking The Fellowship and each other.

The Bedlam makes progress through The Blight slow, The Group (sans Egwene and Nyneave since they don’t have real weapons) fight back against The Shadowspawn, Rand using his sword, Moraine using fireballs, Perrin finds his way to the front and uses his Battle Ax to slice through both Shadowspawn and Blighted Trees.

This continues until a high pitched whistle is heard in the distance, Lan explains that the sound is a Worm, something that can kill a Fade if the Fade isn’t lucky, several other whistles echo through the forest which means a pack of Worms are coming.

Lan intends on going to face the Worm Pack alone but Moraine reigns him in and the Fellowship heads towards the mountains, but the Worms are steadily getting closer and it is obvious that they won’t make it to the mountain paths and Rand begins to panic.

Then in a flash the Rotted Blight vanishes and is replaced by a meadow of Lush Green, Rand is confused about where they are until a voice calls out.

“This place is always where it is, what changes is where those who need it are”

A figure that towers over even Loial comes out of the Forest and announces himself as the Green Man, which is an apt name for he is a giant made of plants. He speaks to the various people, calling Perrin a Wolf Brother, and Confusing Rand for “A child of the dragon” and being confused by Moraine appearing again since a person can typically only find the Eye of the World once.

Moraine explains that they are here because “The need of the world itself” and that they are there to see the Eye.

The Green Man agrees and begins to lead them to the Eye of the World.

Commentary

This is another kind of action chapter that doesn’t have much to talk about.

We have more of Moraine spamming Fireballs, despite women being weak in fire.

It is obvious in retrospect that Rand is accidentally grasping at Saidin in his panic.

So The Green Man’s place has to be in some sort of Dream Shard or Isolated piece of Tel’aran’rhiod right?
 
I recall the Green Man giving out a bunch of spoilers. Children of the Dragon are another name for Aiel, so that Child of the Dragon comment is just him calling Rand an Aiel, although any first-time reader would assume he somehow knew Rand was the Dragon Reborn.
 
Desu Mountain said:
I recall the Green Man giving out a bunch of spoilers. Children of the Dragon are another name for Aiel, so that Child of the Dragon comment is just him calling Rand an Aiel, although any first-time reader would assume he somehow knew Rand was the Dragon Reborn.
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I think it is supposed to be foreshadowing to "The Aiel are the people of the Dragon" which was brought up in discussions about Logain earlier in the book.
 
Chapter 50: Meetings at the Eye

The Greenman leads the group to the Archway that leads to the Eye of the World, Along the way the tends to his garden, untwisting vines and branches, even helping seeds grow a little so that their roots reach the dirt before they die from being stuck on a stone.

When they arrive at the entrance to The Eye, The Greenman says he can go no further, when he attempts to go into the Cavern he can feel The Eye of the World Unmaking him, as if it and he were connected in a way, that when it is undone so will he.

Moraine leads everyone into the cavern and in the bottom is a pool of what looks like pure water, deep enough that the bottom can not be seen. Mat kicks a stone in and it seems to vanish. When Rand asks what it is Moraine explains.

“It is a pool of pure Saidin, the male half of the power, 100 Male and Female Aes Sedai of the Age of Legends worked together to make it and make it pure..for the worlds greatest need.”

The boys back to the wall of the Cavern, frightened by the very idea of the male half of the power, even if it is untainted and pure. Moraine leads the group back out, to prepare for what is to come and when they exit the cavern they are met by two men, who introduce themselves as Aginor and Balthamel, two of the thirteen Forsaken, Aes Sedai who pledged themselves to the Dark One.

Aginor make it clear that they were here for the Eye and Lan moves to attack and is flung back without either Forsaken making a move. Nyneave moves to attack and Balthamel grabs her by the face and lifts her up with ease.

Mat and Perrin go to attack, as does Egwene but Rand tackles Egwene to prevent her from getting flung back by Aginor like Lan, Mat and Perrin. Aginor implies that Balthamel is gonna rape Nyneave, but a voice Echos from the forest

“This shall not be”

The Greenman appears and picks up Balthamel, The Forsaken fights back burning The Greenman from within but the Greenman uses his connection with nature to cause the ancient forsaken to become overgrown with Plants that feed on dead bodies, as the Greenman falls so does Bathamel, and the Greenman uses the last bit of his energy to put his will into an acorn, which grows into a 100 year old tree in mere minutes.

Even Aginor is stunned by this but he recovers himself, however Moraine attempts to trap him in a wall of fire, but the Forsaken is unbothered and walks through the flames. Moraine tells the Two Rivers folk to run and they do.

Aginor moves to follow Egwene but Rand throws a rock at him, which turns to dust, spurring Rand to run even faster as Moraine begins to scream.

Commentary.

We finally arrive at the book’s namesake location and we meet two of the Forsaken for the flesh for the first time.

Aginor and Bathamel are pretty good starter villains, one takes the Legendary Greenman to kill and the other gets to fling Lan around like a rag doll which is a good way to sell that he is dangerous because nobody has been able to really match Lan at this point.

Also speaking of the Greenman, “THIS SHALL NOT BE” would have been as memetic as “YOU SHALL NOT PASS” had the show not fucked shit up.

The fact that Bathamel “remembers” the pleasures of the flesh is really..really weird given that him and Aginor were still aging a bit while sealed away since they were too close to the edge of the Bore, Aginor is described of making “Old Cenn Buy” look young and Balthamel must be worse given he is hiding his face. How the hell is he supposed to even get it up? That Plumbing fell off a long time ago.

Chapter 51: Against the Shadow

Aginor chases Rand through the forest, Rand runs until he encounters a steep cliff that can’t be climbed down. Aginor rants about how he shouldn’t have to serve Rand if Rand were to turn to the shadow while alive and that it doesn’t matter if Rand is alive or dead to the Dark One’s overall plans so Aginor is going to kill him.

While Aginor talks Rand notices a cord of light feeding into Aginor, empowering the Forsaken..seemingly making him younger and stronger, by the time Aginor is posed to kill Rand Aginor has reverted to his prime...then a sliver of the cord of light sheds off Aginor and touches Rand.

The Light Fills Rand like a torrent, a torrent of flame that did not burn but was warm. As Rand and Aginor fight over the cord of light as if it were a tug of war Rand thinks “I might be away” Aginor screams and his body explodes in flame as Rand..leaves to go somewhere else in a thought.

Rand finds himself in the middle of a battlefield..at Tarwin’s Gap. Trollics and Humans fight and kill each other while Rand watches, the Light filling him even more. The Armies part for a moment and begin to reform their lines.

Trollocs, Fades and Draghkar notice him, as do the Men in the army..all while heat begins to overwhelm Rand from within demanding to be let out.

Draghkar attempt to attack Rand but he unleashes the light and lightning from the clear sky blast the Dragkhar, Rand falls to his knees and the light overwhelms him even more, Rand grips at the trample grass and it ignites, Rand’s screams causing the fires to become walls of flame and flow towards the Trollocs. He slams his hands into the ground and it begins to ripple like water, towers of undulating earth falling upon the Shadowspawn line killing thousands.

Rand calls out to Ba’alzamon demanding that this must end and a voice answers.

“It is not here, I will take no part. Only the Chosen one can do what must be done. If he will”

Then the smoke and haze parts, and steps appear

“Not Here” the voice repeats

Rand take the steps and feels as if he is climbing the steps forever and for only moments. He climbs until he finds a familiar door, which he shatters with a touch.

Ba’alzamon awaits him beyond that door a black cord much like Rand’s cord of light. Ba’alzamon makes more claims about controlling everything, including attempting to convince Rand that he has his mother’s soul. Rand rebuffs him and uses a sword of light to free his mother’s soul and then strikes at the black cord connecting to Ba’alzamon’s soul.

Rand does not let up the attack even as the room around him began to disintegrate around him and Ba’alzamon. Rand unleashes the sword of light and it blasts Ba’alzamon until fire fills the room and Ba’alzamon withers to almost nothing..and the room, fire and everything else fades.

Rand falls and continues to fall until everything fades

Commentary

So this chapter 100% has to take place in the dream world. Everything here speaks to Rand being in the world of dreams.

Aginor growing younger as he gets more confidant, Rand shifting to the battlefield, the stairs in air. That is all things that are things that happen in the world of dreams, and this would not be the last time that the world of dreams kind of blends with the physical world.

I don’t buy for a second that Ba’alzamon has Kari Al’Thor’s actual soul here, it is more dream world shenanigans, which is why Egwene and Nyneave poof out of existence when Rand calls bullshit on them being there.

Lets see what old Leigh is up to.
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I don't really think this is a remotely fair summation of what happened, The Two Forsaken had control of the situation and really didn't need to kill anyone. I really fucking hate the "YOU HAVE TO KILL CHARACTERS FOR THERE TO BE TENSION" shit.

Also did..she forget the Green-Man sacrificed himself here? Leigh must be racist against Forest Elementals.

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Yeah I agree with her that the sequence of Rand in Tarwin's Gap was kind of funky, but Jordan does kind of set things up that explain it in retrospect later on with how The World of Dream functions and how the Dark One fucks with it a bit.
 
Chapter 52: There is neither beginning nor end.

Summary

Rand slowly regains consciousness, even memory returning to him slowly. His body aches and his limbs feel like water. He remembers his name, and Egwene’s name and that she is important to him. He clumsily makes his way back to the Entryway of the Eye of the World, driven by need to make sure Egwene is safe.

When he sees Nyneave and Moraine more memory comes back to him. The Group discusses what happened until Rand realizes that he channeled the male half of the One Power. Rand claims that he killed the Dark One during the fight and that everything is over.

Moraine debriefs Rand about the full extent of his confrontation with The Dark One. Moraine states that she realized that Rand that might be able to channel the night that they left the Two Rivers, as Bela did not need cleaned of exhaustion. Rand had reached to the One Power to allow Bella to keep up with the Stronger and Faster horses.

Afterwards Moraine reveals that the Eye of the World is gone, and that Lan, Mat, Perrin and Loial are exploring the cavern again to see what might be in it, also saying that Mat, Perrin and Loial do not know that Rand can channel yet. Rand demands to know why Moraine isn’t planning on gentling Rand like she should and Moraine tells him that he is Ta’veren and the pattern is not yet done with him.

The other group returns carrying 3 items. The first is a hard disk of Cuendillar, a nearly indestructible stone and one of the 7 Disks that are focuses for the Dark One’s seal. This one is somehow shattered and if all 7 are destroyed the Dark One can escape.
The Second is a Golden Horn, The Horn of Valere. Which can call the spirits of Legendary Heroes from beyond the grave when blown.
The third is a cloth banner, with a Crimson Serpent a banner which Moraine names as “The Banner of Lews Therin Telemon, the Banner of The Dragon”

Everyone is stunned by these items, including Lan. Moraine wonders if the Eye of the World were created to protect these instead of for what Rand used it for.

Moraine says they are done at the Eye and after a night of rest they must return to Fal Dara with the items they have found.

Commentary.

Honestly I think Moraine is missing the bigger picture about the Eye. It was used to destroy Aginor, to defeat Ba’alzamon, to hide the Horn and Banner..and I think that the Eye of the World did something to afford Rand some protection to the taint.

We will see some evidence of this later, and Yes Rand does go off the rails later on in the series but I can’t put that entirely to the taint because there is some shit that goes down that 100% had an effect on him that had nothing to do with the taint.

Chapter 53. The Wheel Turns.

Summary

When Rand awakes the Greenman’s Sanctuary is falling to the Blight, trees visibly losing their leaves as they wither and die. Flowers wilt as the group watches.

Before they leave Loial approaches the Tree that the Greenman grew with his last moments and insists that while the Sanctuary will fall, “Treebrother” will not and Loial performs a Treesong to protect the Greenman’s tree.

The Group depart south, and the Blight is quiet as if even it were wounded by Rand defeating Ba’alzamon, they stop at Malkier to camp again but all is quiet and not even the corrupted trees stir. The next day when they arrive at the Blightborder new untainted growth can be seen for miles.

Upon arriving at Fal Dara the group notices that there are celebrations. Ingtar tells them that the battle at Tarwin’s Gap was a complete rout for the forces of the Shadow, that the creator took a hand and brought down the mountains on the Trollocs and Myrddraal.

Moraine has them taken to Agelmar for a full report and the Lord of Fal Dara says much the same, but that he also noticed a man in the middle of the gap, and thought he was channeling. Moraine reveals the Horn to him and asks him to find a guard to take it south to Illian.

7 Days later Lan is training Rand in the sword and Rand tells Egwene he is leaving soon, somewhere far away where he can’t harm people, and in a garden down the tower..Moraine is spinning a blue gem on a golden chain on her finger.

Using it to focus the first trick she ever came up with using the power..to ease drop on people, and the Windblows from the tower.

Commentary.

For the end of the book there is not much to say. Agelmar gives something of a different account as to what happened at the Gap than Rand saw. When Rand left there was still an army of Trollocs instead of just the few Draghkar that Agelmar said remained.

I like the reveal of what the chain actually is for Moraine, and her having an ease dropping spell is fitting for where she came from.

Overall I still love this book, I think some of my viewpoints on the Rand/Mat alone arc were misplaced because it is nowhere near as long as I remember it being, just 2 chapters when I could have sworn it was like twice that length.

I still think the second chapter of that bit is eeeh though, but even with that bit it is an incredibly strong start to a series. The worst character is like Egwene and she is at most kind of annoying and worthy of getting pimp slapped.

So a couple of cleanup things before I start on Book 2 (I am gonna take a week break between books by the way)

One I kind of want to track the “Action” level of each main character as we go. One of my theories about why Wheel of Time works is that even as the cast expands there is basically always a “climax” for a character happening so outside of one book there is always plot advancement.

So we have had 2 POV characters in this book, Rand and Perrin.

I would honestly put Rand at a 2 at this point, he is just starting to come into his power, and we have Perrin, who is at a 1. Perrin has started his plot but Rand vs Ba’alzamon is basically the thing driving the action at the moment.

The other thing I kind of want input in, is should I ask a mod the move this over to the Literature subforum and make it a “Wheel of Time Griefing” Thread since effectively Wheel of Time doesn’t belong in Multimedia since the series got canceled?
 
Rand /pol/ said:
A few actors are brown? Who cares.
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Robert Jordan does a pretty good job describing every character worth talking about.

If you want browns and blacks in media create some original material. I’ve never heard anyone complain about Spawn being black and 99% of Spawn fans are White guys.
 
40 Year Old Boomer said:
Out of the main cast of the Emond's Field Crew, she does get her ass whupped the most on the girl side.
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She is for sure the worst of the Edmonds Field MCs, but I do enjoy her rise to Amyrlin when she's stuck in the White Tower trying to overthrow Elaida.

Nynaeve is the best female character IMO, though I didn't feel that way in my first read through.
 
idkcumiguess said:
She is for sure the worst of the Edmonds Field MCs, but I do enjoy her rise to Amyrlin when she's stuck in the White Tower trying to overthrow Elaida.
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She is the worst of the Two Rivers OGs...but also gets the worst fate.

Tard Wrangling a group of women who think they are all the hottest shit around.
 
idkcumiguess said:
Nynaeve is the best female character IMO, though I didn't feel that way in my first read through.
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Nynaeve was the only character I didn't like in the first few books and around the same time that I started disliking Egwene I started to enjoy Nynaeve's sections, and she wound up being my favorite female character (it helps she's basically only one of two to have a real character arc). IMO it gets a lot easier to read her sections when you realize they're at her expense instead of something just lifted from the sentiments of the Beauty Parlor.
 
PeruvianPerun said:
What's sad though, she also genuinely thinks she IS The hottest shit around.
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And what is a worse fate than dealing with Dozens of Herself, except the other ones didn't get some semblance of not-retard beat into them by the Aiel.

Another character I ended up liking more in rereads is Cadsuane, it becomes clear she has the best intentions in helping Rand and he eventually even comes to that realization after his "transformation" on Dragonmount. Also she's actually pretty funny from what I remember.
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Funny..I hate her more and more every re-read.

I hate her more than anyone else in the entire series and she is one of my most loathed characters in all of Fiction.
 
Honka Honka Burning Love said:
Funny..I hate her more and more every re-read.

I hate her more than anyone else in the entire series and she is one of my most loathed characters in all of Fiction.
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I can't think of any characters I really hare, I don't care for Faile but that's just because she really drags Perrin's story down at certain points.
 
Dante Alighieri said:
I have mixed feelings on Cadsuane. Definitely too heavy handed, and when Rand went Lews Therin "I am the oldest Aes Sedai" on her that was an epic slap down.
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To which she learned nothing because when we got a POV of her later she still called him "Boy" internally.

As a reminder..despite her flaws...Nyneave in BOOK FUCKING ONE corrected herself from calling the Ta'veren Trio "Boys" and started calling them "Men" because they were doing what had to be done and going into the Blight.

Rand went Lews Therin "I am the oldest Aes Sedai" on her that was an epic slap down.
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Second only to Tam shitting all over Cadsuane, which is the only thing that makes Cadsuane's continued existence after the Domination Band fiasco worthwhile because quite frankly Rand would have been justified in executing her right there and then.
 
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