WoT 8 - The Path of Daggers
Apr. 17th, 2020 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primeidealYou will notice this does not (yet) come with a fic for 7. That's because my Lan and Birgitte idea didn't really fit--Elayne's plotline is mostly clustered at the beginning of this book, but has snippets near the end as well. So if I do a fic about those two, it'll probably be in here. (Maybe several little snippets for 8 instead of a longish one?)
Prologue:
The first words out of Lord Baldhere's mouth, on page 3, are "I don't like hiding who I am." Which is amusing in retrospect, because this is the guy Sanderson chooses to be like "oh yeah, some men are gay too, let's make a note of that" and puts in the line about "he and the queen were more like brother and sister, he's not into men."
The Borderlanders so far are only doing an oath to make them blood brothers and sisters, basically, not (as far as I know) preparing for trivia night with Rand.
Verin summarizes the fact that she swore the fealty oaths as "it might have happened to me one time in 10000 and then ta'veren effect took over" (ie, ta'veren wouldn't matter if she would have done it zero times n 10000). Like Cadsuane, she is from Far Madding, although I don't know if that ever comes up.
The Fisher (the game piece Moridin plays with) wears a bandage around his eyes. Maybe that was to fulfill that part of Min's early viewing about Rand after Jordan decided not to literally blind him?
2. Egwene was "forced" and that's how she reached her potential so quickly. Is that more to do with her time in the a'dam or recent lessons from Siuan? The last book isn't clear.
3. Elayne notes that Aviendha doesn't really know anything about flirting or romance with men. (*cough* maybe she should go for Egwene *cough*)
5. Elayne wishes Thom was her real father. I guess this doesn't really go anywhere.
8. Why is Balwer helping out Morgase and her gang? Like, "my boss got murdered, welp, I'm out of here?"
Lini is always quoting proverbs, I wonder if there's some in-universe lore document they're from? Does she just make them up?
9. Perrin was annoyed when his mother or Mistress Luhhan tried to tell him he needed new boots. Relatable.
12. Aginor says that the Myrddraal are "out of phase with time and reality." Is that like the Ogier, who maybe come from a parallel universe?
Egwene is the one teaching the Wise Ones about linking and travelling, which they eventually teach Cadsuane. (The "Encyclopaedia" site is very good for this kind of thing, see below...)
13. Lol, wait a minute. Sammael used to be in charge of Illian. Does that mean he had to do that fake "do be do be do be" accent all the time?? Please say yes.
14. I complain about how everyone is the special-est so nobody can be special when it comes to the Power, but it also has to do with height. How many people have we seen described as "a woman who was taller than most men" or "tall by any standards except the Aiel"???
16. Collusion is bad m'kay.
Siuan begins her conspiracy theory about "the mysteriously young Sitters." Which leads me to the old FAQ page which was quite good. Except some forks of that are down, some say "redirect here" but are also down, and then a few old ones are up. The Encyclopedia is good at footnotes (in this case, it mentions that that issue sort of was resolved in book 12, the Ajahs were sort of trying to forge unity among the warring factions, but I don't recall it as being very dramatic). So that's a good resource but it's not up-to-date with the last book either. We need an archival site of "this is what we had conspiracy theories about then and this is how it was resolved."
22. Haha, so there's this dialect quiz that tries to identify where in the US you're from. One of the questions is "do you have a name for rain on a sunny day"? In my dialect, I do not. Apparently in some parts of the US, this is called "the devil beating his wife." (Also worldwide.) In the Westlands, it's "the Dark One is beating Semirhage"!!
It also feels like there are more our-world phrases this book than usual ("six of one, half a dozen of the other." "or as we say, what you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabouts!" "the what?" "never mind, it's a Saldaea thing.")
24. It's hard to fight with the One Power near Ebou Dar because of the Bowl of the Winds, good illustration of Siuan's law of nintended consequences. Apparently Rand also is having trouble because Callandor isn't buffered.
Jahar Narishma was kind of a big deal when the series was in progress because of the prophecy about "he who draws it shall follow after." Rand is just like "buddy get my big sword, I need it to drive off these invaders" "okay boss" and then what does he do? Just...not betray Rand? Pretty low bar. I also liked him because he shared his name with an Animorphs character. Which leads into the crossover I'm definitely not writing.
25. Elaida basically thinking about gaslighting and fake news, "it's pretty hard to tell people something's not happening when it's literally happening." Even for a despot. Which is what Alviarin wants her to do. Sigh...
How is Elaida, a confirmed Foreteller, so non-genre savvy at interpreting her own prophecies? Like, in a group that puts a lot of important on literal truth versus getting around the Three Oaths, you would think she would actually sit down and go word-for-word through what she said and notice that none of it actually demanded her triumph. Kind of lazy.
26. So I thought that Logain/Taim shippers were mostly just limited to the fanfic world of "two sexy might-have-beens! Let's ship 'em!" But nope: Vinchova is like "Taim will let you get away with anything, Logain, because you two are so...close." And Logain's like "uh...I don't think you understand." WELL THEN.
Logain manipulates Toveine by kissing her as he bonds her to compel her obedience. Yikes.
27. Min is a trendsetter because she inspires the Cairhien women to wear pants. First ji'e'toh and now pants, what a time to be alive. Go Min!
One of the terms of the Sea Folk treaty is that Rand will obey a summons from the Mistress of the Ships if called for. What if that continues even after his fake death. Do you think she could just be like "I want the Dragon Reborn, too bad he's not around" and Rand will have to crawl back in years after the series? I want that fic.
Terrible stealth pun from Cadsuane. "I've paddled the bottoms of two reigning kings and three queens. Not sitting rulers, you understand, once I was done with them..." Yeah, Jordan's corporal punishment kink is weird, but I appreciate the commitment to humor here.
29. Min says that Sarene, the White Ajah poet we met a few books ago, is going to have a tempestuous love affair! With her Warder maybe?
Encyclopedia points out that the swearing fealty (sigh) is probably the fallout of Verin's not-Compulsion from the prologue, good catch.
Fedwin's death is so close to what my id wants and yet so far. Like, he's too crazy to know he's dying, so it's still...murder.
Potential fic ideas: Lan and Birgitte, Egwene and Takima (the Brown who quotes the war law), Vinchova misunderstanding the nature of Taim and Logain's "relationship." Maybe just a few short ficlets? There are people who will get annoyed if you post a bunch of little ficlets and people who get annoyed if you try to combine them, sigh.
Prologue:
The first words out of Lord Baldhere's mouth, on page 3, are "I don't like hiding who I am." Which is amusing in retrospect, because this is the guy Sanderson chooses to be like "oh yeah, some men are gay too, let's make a note of that" and puts in the line about "he and the queen were more like brother and sister, he's not into men."
The Borderlanders so far are only doing an oath to make them blood brothers and sisters, basically, not (as far as I know) preparing for trivia night with Rand.
Verin summarizes the fact that she swore the fealty oaths as "it might have happened to me one time in 10000 and then ta'veren effect took over" (ie, ta'veren wouldn't matter if she would have done it zero times n 10000). Like Cadsuane, she is from Far Madding, although I don't know if that ever comes up.
The Fisher (the game piece Moridin plays with) wears a bandage around his eyes. Maybe that was to fulfill that part of Min's early viewing about Rand after Jordan decided not to literally blind him?
2. Egwene was "forced" and that's how she reached her potential so quickly. Is that more to do with her time in the a'dam or recent lessons from Siuan? The last book isn't clear.
3. Elayne notes that Aviendha doesn't really know anything about flirting or romance with men. (*cough* maybe she should go for Egwene *cough*)
5. Elayne wishes Thom was her real father. I guess this doesn't really go anywhere.
8. Why is Balwer helping out Morgase and her gang? Like, "my boss got murdered, welp, I'm out of here?"
Lini is always quoting proverbs, I wonder if there's some in-universe lore document they're from? Does she just make them up?
9. Perrin was annoyed when his mother or Mistress Luhhan tried to tell him he needed new boots. Relatable.
12. Aginor says that the Myrddraal are "out of phase with time and reality." Is that like the Ogier, who maybe come from a parallel universe?
Egwene is the one teaching the Wise Ones about linking and travelling, which they eventually teach Cadsuane. (The "Encyclopaedia" site is very good for this kind of thing, see below...)
13. Lol, wait a minute. Sammael used to be in charge of Illian. Does that mean he had to do that fake "do be do be do be" accent all the time?? Please say yes.
14. I complain about how everyone is the special-est so nobody can be special when it comes to the Power, but it also has to do with height. How many people have we seen described as "a woman who was taller than most men" or "tall by any standards except the Aiel"???
16. Collusion is bad m'kay.
Siuan begins her conspiracy theory about "the mysteriously young Sitters." Which leads me to the old FAQ page which was quite good. Except some forks of that are down, some say "redirect here" but are also down, and then a few old ones are up. The Encyclopedia is good at footnotes (in this case, it mentions that that issue sort of was resolved in book 12, the Ajahs were sort of trying to forge unity among the warring factions, but I don't recall it as being very dramatic). So that's a good resource but it's not up-to-date with the last book either. We need an archival site of "this is what we had conspiracy theories about then and this is how it was resolved."
22. Haha, so there's this dialect quiz that tries to identify where in the US you're from. One of the questions is "do you have a name for rain on a sunny day"? In my dialect, I do not. Apparently in some parts of the US, this is called "the devil beating his wife." (Also worldwide.) In the Westlands, it's "the Dark One is beating Semirhage"!!
It also feels like there are more our-world phrases this book than usual ("six of one, half a dozen of the other." "or as we say, what you gain on the swings you lose on the roundabouts!" "the what?" "never mind, it's a Saldaea thing.")
24. It's hard to fight with the One Power near Ebou Dar because of the Bowl of the Winds, good illustration of Siuan's law of nintended consequences. Apparently Rand also is having trouble because Callandor isn't buffered.
Jahar Narishma was kind of a big deal when the series was in progress because of the prophecy about "he who draws it shall follow after." Rand is just like "buddy get my big sword, I need it to drive off these invaders" "okay boss" and then what does he do? Just...not betray Rand? Pretty low bar. I also liked him because he shared his name with an Animorphs character. Which leads into the crossover I'm definitely not writing.
25. Elaida basically thinking about gaslighting and fake news, "it's pretty hard to tell people something's not happening when it's literally happening." Even for a despot. Which is what Alviarin wants her to do. Sigh...
How is Elaida, a confirmed Foreteller, so non-genre savvy at interpreting her own prophecies? Like, in a group that puts a lot of important on literal truth versus getting around the Three Oaths, you would think she would actually sit down and go word-for-word through what she said and notice that none of it actually demanded her triumph. Kind of lazy.
26. So I thought that Logain/Taim shippers were mostly just limited to the fanfic world of "two sexy might-have-beens! Let's ship 'em!" But nope: Vinchova is like "Taim will let you get away with anything, Logain, because you two are so...close." And Logain's like "uh...I don't think you understand." WELL THEN.
Logain manipulates Toveine by kissing her as he bonds her to compel her obedience. Yikes.
27. Min is a trendsetter because she inspires the Cairhien women to wear pants. First ji'e'toh and now pants, what a time to be alive. Go Min!
One of the terms of the Sea Folk treaty is that Rand will obey a summons from the Mistress of the Ships if called for. What if that continues even after his fake death. Do you think she could just be like "I want the Dragon Reborn, too bad he's not around" and Rand will have to crawl back in years after the series? I want that fic.
Terrible stealth pun from Cadsuane. "I've paddled the bottoms of two reigning kings and three queens. Not sitting rulers, you understand, once I was done with them..." Yeah, Jordan's corporal punishment kink is weird, but I appreciate the commitment to humor here.
29. Min says that Sarene, the White Ajah poet we met a few books ago, is going to have a tempestuous love affair! With her Warder maybe?
Encyclopedia points out that the swearing fealty (sigh) is probably the fallout of Verin's not-Compulsion from the prologue, good catch.
Fedwin's death is so close to what my id wants and yet so far. Like, he's too crazy to know he's dying, so it's still...murder.
Potential fic ideas: Lan and Birgitte, Egwene and Takima (the Brown who quotes the war law), Vinchova misunderstanding the nature of Taim and Logain's "relationship." Maybe just a few short ficlets? There are people who will get annoyed if you post a bunch of little ficlets and people who get annoyed if you try to combine them, sigh.
