primeideal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
primeideal) wrote2020-05-18 07:21 pm
primeideal) wrote2020-05-18 07:21 pm
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Wheel of Time 13: Towers of Midnight
The end approaches.
The pre-Prologue stuff is Loial giving his speech to the Stump which convinces them to stay put. (The Ogier have ghosts haunting them, too!) I guess we already heard his arguments, but all the same, that would have been nice to see "on screen" as it were, for longer than an epigraph.
Galad looks to Asunawa's officers to back him up in his arguments. Parallels with Egwene and the way she tried to appeal to the different Ajahs. Asunawa accuses him of being a Darkfriend...does he think Galad was channelling in the fight? We had that "flame and the void" stuff but it's interesting to hear this argument from Asunawa.
4. Was there a meteor in Andor!
5. I got excited when hero-of-another-story Sleete was back. But then, the White Tower is unified by now, so I guess it's not a surprise to see him here.
People are wondering "what do we do with the beginning of a palace Elaida was going to build for herself?" I wonder if it could wind up being a residence for families of Aes Sedai, sort of like what the Black Tower already has. So they can be a little less isolated and more "of the world" if they want to.
7. Callbacks to New Spring (which I didn't recognize until looking at some annotations; the "Hero of Salmarna" is Lan's old friend Bukama).
13. Min, looking at Rand, \has a vision of "two dead men surrounded by hordes of Trollocs." What is this? Rand and Moridin? Lan and Demandred? (If the latter that gives a little more credence to the "Lan was actually dead and Rand resurrected him" theory.)
Rand describes himself as having toh to the Aiel
Awkward "introduction' between Tam and Min, who of course have already been hanging out this whole time, haha.
19. Mat is annoyed at Olver's potty mouth, I got that right in the fic unintentionally :)
"Just because I married someone doesn't mean I become nobility" "Well, actually, that's exactly how it works" "shut up"
Legends about Mat, some true, some exaggerated
20. Nynaeve takes the Aes Sedai test which she's overqualified for. This is what I wanted to write a little ficlet about way back in book 1.
22. Men can be hanged for stealing trees now. Mat thinks this is ridiculous but hey, would have been a good idea in Laman's day.
More legends about Mat.
Aludra wanted to come to the Tower of Ghenjei and it was hard talking her out of it. Maybe a fic there.
Birgitte thinks this whole "theater" nonsense is dumb.
"...if you died, how did the legend ever get out?" Mat is genre-savvy.
23. "Captain-General Birgitte took Matrim into custody" "...that means they're having drinks."
24. The Borderlander who let Ituralde's men into the city is like "well I disobeyed orders, now I must have myself executed." Honor before reason.
27. Egwene with some sass. "I'm assuming you've all read the Law of War by now."
"The real win here wasn't me getting to negotiate with Rand, it's closing that loophole, it protects anyone in my position." Aww Egwene the farsighted.
28. Asha'man deny that the evil channellers are also "Asha'man." I feel like the Aes Sedai just did something similar with the Black Ajah but I can't remember where.
Ituralde's game plan at the end of this chapter is basically "Stay alive until this horror show is past/We're gonna fly a lot of flags half-mast."
30. Faile: "What an odd coincidence to see you here." Two Rivers guy: "Uh...it's not a coincidence, you asked me to come." Her: "okay, look, if Perrin asks, it's a coincidence, get it?"
31: Tricks with gateways get the gholam killed/teleported into nothingness. Mat is "avenging" Tylin, eurgh. And almost loses the spear in the process!
32: A Darkfriend was in charge of Maradon, which makes the "you are forbidden to shelter this army being overwhelmed by Trollocs, on pain of death" slightly more...reasonable.
King Alsalam lives! In context of the "who the heck is Ituralde and why should we care," this was a d'awww.
34. Perrin gets drawn into someone's nightmare but thinks sharks are just a mythical beast, haha
34. Someone's crushing on Aravine! She's one of the cool minor characters.
37. The motif of stargazing is repeated with Gawyn, we've seen this with Galad a couple times.
*somewhere in here* Nicola dies. I would put her with Reanne in the "easy to forget her if you're waiting years between volumes" deaths but she was cool. Just wanted to learn fast and be like Egwene, RIP in pieces.
38. Both Egwene and Rand have "quiet voices" representing their true selves and directing them.
The Tel'aran'rhiod fight. Ugh. Like, the way it pans out winds up cheapening the effects of book 5 a lot. Because Rand went and balefired Rahvin, retroactively saving Mat, Aviendha, and Asmodean (and that un-death was important because it broke Mat's link to the Horn!) Now Perrin is just saying "well, uh, it's a weave, you can ignore it." I understand that it's setting up the "Flame of Tar Valon" next book, but the "actually whoever has the most willpower wins" is kind of a kludge.
41. "I assume that you expect saving our lives to factor into my judgment of you?" "It had better!" "...well, that's some refreshing honesty" Galad expects Perrin to be a noble goody-goody guy who acts with zero thought of his own reward but he's not quite that either, this was a part that amused me the first time and still does.
42. "I am not forming an army, I am riding alone." "Oh sure. Can I ride alone with you?"
44. Is even Galad getting Verin-mail? What is Verin putting in all these letters.
45. Birgitte is holding a sword now, is that bad? Like, is that one of the things she "never" does in her past lives?
46. Androl's block was leather working.
Children can come to terms with change quickly, they don't realize how or why saidin would be a bad thing. Ties into the conclusion of Logain's arc.
47. "We are not going to have our children engaged from birth, my children will marry whoever they want." Perrin refreshingly modern for a lord, but also, the Two Rivers aren't necessarily that open-minded; I mean, the whole thing with Rand and Egwene was in part that everyone just assumed they'd get married even though they never really stopped to talk about it.
Tuon is surprised that Beslan doesn't even think about assassinating her, he's not that kind of guy.
Bringing Elaida back for this scene kind of takes away from the last mini-scene with her in the last book, which was horrifying but also a clever comeuppance. I guess it prevents making up yet another random new Aes Sedai to demonstrate travelling, but...
Tuon is planning yet another strike on the Tower? I assume this just gets cancelled because of Tarmon Gai'don, I didn't remember this part.
48. In two of the different future visions we get "the Aiel wear beards" and "the Aiel don't wear beards." We also have "swords are bad luck," some last lingering influence of the Way of the Leaf era.
49. Rhuarc's son Ronam mentions having met Rand--this would have been when Rand came to Cold Rocks Hold the first time. (Ronam is probably 9 or 10 now, so maybe 8-ish when he saw Rand).
Who is the "Pact of the Griffin"? Do any countries have Griffins on their flags?
50. Elayne demotes nobility, like Rand did, and this is horrifying! It's also the Game of Houses.
53. "You can't roll a 1 on 2d6" "yes I can, watch"
57. "who's gonna marry you? it's not gonna be me" "I can see why the Seanchan woman had to have you." another part that was very funny then and now
Epilogue: the merchant who gets killed by the red-veiled Aiel was the one mentioned travelling to that tower at the end of the prologue :(
Fic ideas? Nynaeve snippet, Aludra maybe (and/or Olver? Just Mat having to talk everyone out of the plan), maybe an expansion on the Tam+Min scene into various parallels.
The pre-Prologue stuff is Loial giving his speech to the Stump which convinces them to stay put. (The Ogier have ghosts haunting them, too!) I guess we already heard his arguments, but all the same, that would have been nice to see "on screen" as it were, for longer than an epigraph.
Galad looks to Asunawa's officers to back him up in his arguments. Parallels with Egwene and the way she tried to appeal to the different Ajahs. Asunawa accuses him of being a Darkfriend...does he think Galad was channelling in the fight? We had that "flame and the void" stuff but it's interesting to hear this argument from Asunawa.
4. Was there a meteor in Andor!
5. I got excited when hero-of-another-story Sleete was back. But then, the White Tower is unified by now, so I guess it's not a surprise to see him here.
People are wondering "what do we do with the beginning of a palace Elaida was going to build for herself?" I wonder if it could wind up being a residence for families of Aes Sedai, sort of like what the Black Tower already has. So they can be a little less isolated and more "of the world" if they want to.
7. Callbacks to New Spring (which I didn't recognize until looking at some annotations; the "Hero of Salmarna" is Lan's old friend Bukama).
13. Min, looking at Rand, \has a vision of "two dead men surrounded by hordes of Trollocs." What is this? Rand and Moridin? Lan and Demandred? (If the latter that gives a little more credence to the "Lan was actually dead and Rand resurrected him" theory.)
Rand describes himself as having toh to the Aiel
Awkward "introduction' between Tam and Min, who of course have already been hanging out this whole time, haha.
19. Mat is annoyed at Olver's potty mouth, I got that right in the fic unintentionally :)
"Just because I married someone doesn't mean I become nobility" "Well, actually, that's exactly how it works" "shut up"
Legends about Mat, some true, some exaggerated
20. Nynaeve takes the Aes Sedai test which she's overqualified for. This is what I wanted to write a little ficlet about way back in book 1.
22. Men can be hanged for stealing trees now. Mat thinks this is ridiculous but hey, would have been a good idea in Laman's day.
More legends about Mat.
Aludra wanted to come to the Tower of Ghenjei and it was hard talking her out of it. Maybe a fic there.
Birgitte thinks this whole "theater" nonsense is dumb.
"...if you died, how did the legend ever get out?" Mat is genre-savvy.
23. "Captain-General Birgitte took Matrim into custody" "...that means they're having drinks."
24. The Borderlander who let Ituralde's men into the city is like "well I disobeyed orders, now I must have myself executed." Honor before reason.
27. Egwene with some sass. "I'm assuming you've all read the Law of War by now."
"The real win here wasn't me getting to negotiate with Rand, it's closing that loophole, it protects anyone in my position." Aww Egwene the farsighted.
28. Asha'man deny that the evil channellers are also "Asha'man." I feel like the Aes Sedai just did something similar with the Black Ajah but I can't remember where.
Ituralde's game plan at the end of this chapter is basically "Stay alive until this horror show is past/We're gonna fly a lot of flags half-mast."
30. Faile: "What an odd coincidence to see you here." Two Rivers guy: "Uh...it's not a coincidence, you asked me to come." Her: "okay, look, if Perrin asks, it's a coincidence, get it?"
31: Tricks with gateways get the gholam killed/teleported into nothingness. Mat is "avenging" Tylin, eurgh. And almost loses the spear in the process!
32: A Darkfriend was in charge of Maradon, which makes the "you are forbidden to shelter this army being overwhelmed by Trollocs, on pain of death" slightly more...reasonable.
King Alsalam lives! In context of the "who the heck is Ituralde and why should we care," this was a d'awww.
34. Perrin gets drawn into someone's nightmare but thinks sharks are just a mythical beast, haha
34. Someone's crushing on Aravine! She's one of the cool minor characters.
37. The motif of stargazing is repeated with Gawyn, we've seen this with Galad a couple times.
*somewhere in here* Nicola dies. I would put her with Reanne in the "easy to forget her if you're waiting years between volumes" deaths but she was cool. Just wanted to learn fast and be like Egwene, RIP in pieces.
38. Both Egwene and Rand have "quiet voices" representing their true selves and directing them.
The Tel'aran'rhiod fight. Ugh. Like, the way it pans out winds up cheapening the effects of book 5 a lot. Because Rand went and balefired Rahvin, retroactively saving Mat, Aviendha, and Asmodean (and that un-death was important because it broke Mat's link to the Horn!) Now Perrin is just saying "well, uh, it's a weave, you can ignore it." I understand that it's setting up the "Flame of Tar Valon" next book, but the "actually whoever has the most willpower wins" is kind of a kludge.
41. "I assume that you expect saving our lives to factor into my judgment of you?" "It had better!" "...well, that's some refreshing honesty" Galad expects Perrin to be a noble goody-goody guy who acts with zero thought of his own reward but he's not quite that either, this was a part that amused me the first time and still does.
42. "I am not forming an army, I am riding alone." "Oh sure. Can I ride alone with you?"
44. Is even Galad getting Verin-mail? What is Verin putting in all these letters.
45. Birgitte is holding a sword now, is that bad? Like, is that one of the things she "never" does in her past lives?
46. Androl's block was leather working.
Children can come to terms with change quickly, they don't realize how or why saidin would be a bad thing. Ties into the conclusion of Logain's arc.
47. "We are not going to have our children engaged from birth, my children will marry whoever they want." Perrin refreshingly modern for a lord, but also, the Two Rivers aren't necessarily that open-minded; I mean, the whole thing with Rand and Egwene was in part that everyone just assumed they'd get married even though they never really stopped to talk about it.
Tuon is surprised that Beslan doesn't even think about assassinating her, he's not that kind of guy.
Bringing Elaida back for this scene kind of takes away from the last mini-scene with her in the last book, which was horrifying but also a clever comeuppance. I guess it prevents making up yet another random new Aes Sedai to demonstrate travelling, but...
Tuon is planning yet another strike on the Tower? I assume this just gets cancelled because of Tarmon Gai'don, I didn't remember this part.
48. In two of the different future visions we get "the Aiel wear beards" and "the Aiel don't wear beards." We also have "swords are bad luck," some last lingering influence of the Way of the Leaf era.
49. Rhuarc's son Ronam mentions having met Rand--this would have been when Rand came to Cold Rocks Hold the first time. (Ronam is probably 9 or 10 now, so maybe 8-ish when he saw Rand).
Who is the "Pact of the Griffin"? Do any countries have Griffins on their flags?
50. Elayne demotes nobility, like Rand did, and this is horrifying! It's also the Game of Houses.
53. "You can't roll a 1 on 2d6" "yes I can, watch"
57. "who's gonna marry you? it's not gonna be me" "I can see why the Seanchan woman had to have you." another part that was very funny then and now
Epilogue: the merchant who gets killed by the red-veiled Aiel was the one mentioned travelling to that tower at the end of the prologue :(
Fic ideas? Nynaeve snippet, Aludra maybe (and/or Olver? Just Mat having to talk everyone out of the plan), maybe an expansion on the Tam+Min scene into various parallels.