Wheel of Time 10: Crossroads of Twilight
Apr. 29th, 2020 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primeidealBetween various flash exchange nonsense I have a lot of fic being posted, some backdated, that I probably won't get around to linking here, if you want to see it (WoT or otherwise) it's on Ao3 in the usual location.
Prologue:
Ituralde says if he died, his wife has promised to come after him, in what would be the first case of the living haunting the dead. Haha.
Mishraile and his friends are still taking "special lessons" from Taim. Wink wink.
Loial: in the north, there are auroras and ice fishing! Nice.
2: Mat: if there's trouble, maybe Noal can help Olver escape. Awwwww.
3: this is the scene about Seanchan age I was thinking of. Tuon is fourteen measured by the "true-name" system, but she's actually 19 in our terms.
Some of Mat's memories are of dying, so how did he get them? The internet says that the Aelfinn/Eelfinn are beyond linear time, so when they are stealing/copying people's memories they're also seeing those people's futures (so how they could tell Mat's fate, for instance) and then they gave those to him as well.
5. Perrin is done with the Aiel imitator kids. "May you always find water and shade" Perrin (to himself): we have...plenty of water and shade.
This is more of a previous-book thing, but one of the things about Perrin's arc is that the whole love triangle with Berelain mostly comes up after he's happily married. Like, I could imagine in book 2 or 3 or something if Berelain and Faile both showed up and fought over him while he's like "I'm just here to help my friends, leave me alone," but no, he and Faile have a relatively good (healthy, non-predetermined) romance going. And then Berelain shows up and is like "well, your wife has been kidnapped, so I'm just going to make everyone think that we're sleeping together now." Perrin: ...?
9. Sevanna, in contrast, is adopting a bunch of "wetlander" ways in fashion, wanting to be a hereditary queen. She's kind of the reverse of the Cairhienin youth who are adapting Aiel culture!
10. Ghosts start showing up, okay
More talk about Elayne and them specifically wanting to marry Rand, not just bond him
It sounds as if the Tremalking sa'angreal can't be used except through the access keys. What if a woman were actually on Tremalking, though? Couldn't she just reach out and use it? Or are the access keys also buffers that make it safe to draw that much saidar?
Aviendha: "um we can't go teleport to Rand right now because...it would be a bad idea, I saw it in those three rings." Prophecy as convenient plot device again, sigh.
12. The Sea Folk are always barefoot? Like, on boat decks and everything? I missed this before.
15. Hanlon is such a creep; "last woman I got pregnant I threw down a well." And then Shiaine is offhandedly like "yep, her name was Catrelle Mosenain, and you split her head open with a rock first." Hanlon: *how does she know her name, I didn't even remember that*. Big yikes.
16: Egwene would surrender if it meant saving the Tower
18: Egwene: I can't let every migraine stop me. Relatable.
Leane has girly handwriting, haha. I guess both in the Westlands and in our world people are like "yeah, I don't know how this is girly handwriting, it just...is."
19. The Red Ajah is still represented in the rebels' decorations, trying to make it clear that they're the "good guys"
Shadar Logoth might turn into a lake now. Like Rhuidean?
20. Aviendha warns Egwene to beware of Taim.
Foreshadowy dream about Egeanin
21. Alviarin has visited Tremalking. Why? Are people dying there already?
The math library!! Let's be real, for all I might say "yeah I'd like to be an Aiel and live with ji'e'toh" or "I'd like to be Arafellin because bells," the place I would really live in WoT world is the tiny math library that no one ever visits. The stacks!!
Who has access to the secret thirteenth depository? Just the librarians? Amyrlins? (Internet says all the Sitters do, but most of them don't bother.)
Alviarin wants an elevator in the tower. Again, relatable.
Is Shaidar Haran actually becoming the Dark One when he talks to Alviarin? Is she imagining it because he's so much more powerful than the other Myrddraal?
23. Alivia seems determined when she looks at Rand. Does she know about the viewing?
Rand: The Seanchan are good at war because they analyze their mistakes after battles and learn from them! What an amazing strategy! Too bad only four or five people on this continent are that smart!
24: Another of the Rand-Egwene parallels that occasionally shows up: they're both dealing with magically-induced chronic pain. (Rand knows his side is a holdover from fighting Ishamael and Fain; Egwene does not know that Halima is actually causing her headaches.)
Loial is annoyed because you don't get to hear about the Stump until you're old enough to grow a beard. Is that just his metaphor? What do the women do?
I'm curious about timing; the last Great Stump was about a thousand years ago, but the Third Age is "only" three thousand years old. How many have there been? Ogier didn't need steddings in the Age of Legends.\
More talk about marriage as distinct from the bond.
The Seals get mentioned again, they've kind of been forgotten about for a while.
Rand gets sidetracked thinking about "yeah the Creator wouldn't just step in and heal saidin, there can't be a god looking out for us and doing miracles because the world sucks...wait, is that Lews Therin talking"? I don't think we're supposed to consider this the author's POV, but the shift is weird.
26: spooooky haunted city
27: Perrin has really never heard of the greatest good for the greatest number? Like, I know we're not supposed to sympathize with him torturing prisoners or trying to make an alliance with the Shaido, but "my wiiiiiiiife" gets tiresome. Again, I guess this is why they call this part the slog.
29: Latelle Luca trains bears. Mat: maybe because the bears are afraid she'll bite them. Haha.
Whoa, this is something I certainly didn't catch before (this is probably one of the books I didn't reread before the end because I never owned it). Renna was Egwene's sul'dam (read: enslaver and torturer) in book 2. Here, she tries to murder Egeanin and almost succeeds. Who does Egwene team up with at the end, to her great astonishment? Egeanin!! Posting this one on reddit too.
If it wasn't for the prophecy stuff, Juilin is right; this is definitely the time when Mat should just turn Tuon loose here.
30: Egwene falling on her sword to save Bode :( I have so many Egwene feelings!
Epilogue: The poem at the end is attributed to Rand. Did he write poetry?? What about post-AMoL? Who really wrote it?
Not a lot of characters' storylines progress much between the first page and the last, so fic will be worldbuilding-centric.
Prologue:
Ituralde says if he died, his wife has promised to come after him, in what would be the first case of the living haunting the dead. Haha.
Mishraile and his friends are still taking "special lessons" from Taim. Wink wink.
Loial: in the north, there are auroras and ice fishing! Nice.
2: Mat: if there's trouble, maybe Noal can help Olver escape. Awwwww.
3: this is the scene about Seanchan age I was thinking of. Tuon is fourteen measured by the "true-name" system, but she's actually 19 in our terms.
Some of Mat's memories are of dying, so how did he get them? The internet says that the Aelfinn/Eelfinn are beyond linear time, so when they are stealing/copying people's memories they're also seeing those people's futures (so how they could tell Mat's fate, for instance) and then they gave those to him as well.
5. Perrin is done with the Aiel imitator kids. "May you always find water and shade" Perrin (to himself): we have...plenty of water and shade.
This is more of a previous-book thing, but one of the things about Perrin's arc is that the whole love triangle with Berelain mostly comes up after he's happily married. Like, I could imagine in book 2 or 3 or something if Berelain and Faile both showed up and fought over him while he's like "I'm just here to help my friends, leave me alone," but no, he and Faile have a relatively good (healthy, non-predetermined) romance going. And then Berelain shows up and is like "well, your wife has been kidnapped, so I'm just going to make everyone think that we're sleeping together now." Perrin: ...?
9. Sevanna, in contrast, is adopting a bunch of "wetlander" ways in fashion, wanting to be a hereditary queen. She's kind of the reverse of the Cairhienin youth who are adapting Aiel culture!
10. Ghosts start showing up, okay
More talk about Elayne and them specifically wanting to marry Rand, not just bond him
It sounds as if the Tremalking sa'angreal can't be used except through the access keys. What if a woman were actually on Tremalking, though? Couldn't she just reach out and use it? Or are the access keys also buffers that make it safe to draw that much saidar?
Aviendha: "um we can't go teleport to Rand right now because...it would be a bad idea, I saw it in those three rings." Prophecy as convenient plot device again, sigh.
12. The Sea Folk are always barefoot? Like, on boat decks and everything? I missed this before.
15. Hanlon is such a creep; "last woman I got pregnant I threw down a well." And then Shiaine is offhandedly like "yep, her name was Catrelle Mosenain, and you split her head open with a rock first." Hanlon: *how does she know her name, I didn't even remember that*. Big yikes.
16: Egwene would surrender if it meant saving the Tower
18: Egwene: I can't let every migraine stop me. Relatable.
Leane has girly handwriting, haha. I guess both in the Westlands and in our world people are like "yeah, I don't know how this is girly handwriting, it just...is."
19. The Red Ajah is still represented in the rebels' decorations, trying to make it clear that they're the "good guys"
Shadar Logoth might turn into a lake now. Like Rhuidean?
20. Aviendha warns Egwene to beware of Taim.
Foreshadowy dream about Egeanin
21. Alviarin has visited Tremalking. Why? Are people dying there already?
The math library!! Let's be real, for all I might say "yeah I'd like to be an Aiel and live with ji'e'toh" or "I'd like to be Arafellin because bells," the place I would really live in WoT world is the tiny math library that no one ever visits. The stacks!!
Who has access to the secret thirteenth depository? Just the librarians? Amyrlins? (Internet says all the Sitters do, but most of them don't bother.)
Alviarin wants an elevator in the tower. Again, relatable.
Is Shaidar Haran actually becoming the Dark One when he talks to Alviarin? Is she imagining it because he's so much more powerful than the other Myrddraal?
23. Alivia seems determined when she looks at Rand. Does she know about the viewing?
Rand: The Seanchan are good at war because they analyze their mistakes after battles and learn from them! What an amazing strategy! Too bad only four or five people on this continent are that smart!
24: Another of the Rand-Egwene parallels that occasionally shows up: they're both dealing with magically-induced chronic pain. (Rand knows his side is a holdover from fighting Ishamael and Fain; Egwene does not know that Halima is actually causing her headaches.)
Loial is annoyed because you don't get to hear about the Stump until you're old enough to grow a beard. Is that just his metaphor? What do the women do?
I'm curious about timing; the last Great Stump was about a thousand years ago, but the Third Age is "only" three thousand years old. How many have there been? Ogier didn't need steddings in the Age of Legends.\
More talk about marriage as distinct from the bond.
The Seals get mentioned again, they've kind of been forgotten about for a while.
Rand gets sidetracked thinking about "yeah the Creator wouldn't just step in and heal saidin, there can't be a god looking out for us and doing miracles because the world sucks...wait, is that Lews Therin talking"? I don't think we're supposed to consider this the author's POV, but the shift is weird.
26: spooooky haunted city
27: Perrin has really never heard of the greatest good for the greatest number? Like, I know we're not supposed to sympathize with him torturing prisoners or trying to make an alliance with the Shaido, but "my wiiiiiiiife" gets tiresome. Again, I guess this is why they call this part the slog.
29: Latelle Luca trains bears. Mat: maybe because the bears are afraid she'll bite them. Haha.
Whoa, this is something I certainly didn't catch before (this is probably one of the books I didn't reread before the end because I never owned it). Renna was Egwene's sul'dam (read: enslaver and torturer) in book 2. Here, she tries to murder Egeanin and almost succeeds. Who does Egwene team up with at the end, to her great astonishment? Egeanin!! Posting this one on reddit too.
If it wasn't for the prophecy stuff, Juilin is right; this is definitely the time when Mat should just turn Tuon loose here.
30: Egwene falling on her sword to save Bode :( I have so many Egwene feelings!
Epilogue: The poem at the end is attributed to Rand. Did he write poetry?? What about post-AMoL? Who really wrote it?
Not a lot of characters' storylines progress much between the first page and the last, so fic will be worldbuilding-centric.
