Laurien's Journey through EotW

Veluene al'Myr

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I just wanted to say I have really enjoyed reading your thoughts and notes about each chapter. It has been over a decade since I read the first book thus reading your summaries has reminded me of things I had forgotten and reignited my desire to revisit the books sometime soon. :love
 

Arinna Katal

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I’m still. It sure if we saw Rand do anything that caused his odd behaviour/sickness on the Spray - the Baerlon incident with the Whitecloaks was from Healing Bela
When Rand, Mat, and Thom jumped onto the Spray (ch. 20 of TEotW), they were fighting with the Trollocs who chased them from Shadar Logoth. Rand was about to be killed by a Trolloc when the ship's boom suddenly swept the Trolloc into the water. Floran Gelb swore that he had secured the boom, but no one believed him. I thought the implication was that Rand had channeled to move the boom.
 

Laurien Achaur

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Yep! Exactly that :D
 

Toral Delvar

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Thanks. I’ll put that in the notes section (the spoilers bit) of the chapter summary
 

Aduiavas Ida

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That part with the ravens are so scary! I am actually glad that isn't in the TV series (yet anyway). I don't like birds, this chapter was hard for me to read.

Also, I like reading your thoughts as a first-time reader :)
 

Viktara Fen

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When Rand, Mat, and Thom jumped onto the Spray (ch. 20 of TEotW), they were fighting with the Trollocs who chased them from Shadar Logoth. Rand was about to be killed by a Trolloc when the ship's boom suddenly swept the Trolloc into the water. Floran Gelb swore that he had secured the boom, but no one believed him. I thought the implication was that Rand had channeled to move the boom.

That was another of the things, aside from the bit with Bela, that I noticed clearly once I knew what I was looking for. Younger me had once again totally missed it. XD

That part with the ravens are so scary! I am actually glad that isn't in the TV series (yet anyway). I don't like birds, this chapter was hard for me to read.

The stuff with the ravens, and what Perrin contemplates possibly having to do to be merciful, was something that I thought they might have been setting up for with some of the changes to his origin story in the TV show. That they didn't (or at least haven't yet) seemed to me to be a missed opportunity, but I suppose that's neither here nor there. That is a very tough to read sequence, regardless.
 

Satara al'Caelahn

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Somehow I missed this back in the day and was completely astounded when Rand turned out to be able to Do The Thing later on.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one. I was surprised by the end of the book, and then wondered how other people had caught on so fast. Then I did a re-read a few years later and facepalmed at myself for not seeing it sooner. :laugh:
 

Nadezhda al'Lanahrin

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To be honest, I never caught any of that being him channeling when I read through. I just thought either ta'veren or he was just lucky. Except for the lightning part, that seemed kinda obvious to me.
 

Alexr al'Petros

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To be honest, I never caught any of that being him channeling when I read through. I just thought either ta'veren or he was just lucky. Except for the lightning part, that seemed kinda obvious to me.

I agree, I thought the boom thing and the standing on the mast thing were ta'veren manifests. The one (boom) seems like a very concrete act that would require directed attention and the other so general (yet odd).
 

Laurien Achaur

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I think it's strongly implied that what Bela's lack of exhaustion and the mast are the result of Rand channeling. Moiraine confirms that Bela was her first clue that it was him later. I think the confrontation with the Whitecloaks and his antics on top of the mast were little glimpses of the madness that attends saidin. They could have to do with the ta'veren aspect of him, but I'm not sure that Moiraine would have been able to tell what happened with Bela otherwise; her lack of exhaustion came by a touch of the One Power, after all.
 

Toral Delvar

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Have you looked at the Chapter summaries in the library? We have tried hard to make them spoiler free (well, there are spoilers in the notes section, but they are hidden unless you expand). Some things are borderline - for example if something relates to a larger plotline, we would make a decision on if there is enough information already that something is going to be a plotline, or by saying something relates to an ongoing plotline, that counts as a spoiler about the general goings on in the world.
Of course, there is also the temptation once in any wiki to follow links
Plotlines
Band plot

Norbert mentions the Tambourine shortage in South Osslebania. Though this seems trivial and a throwaway line, it will later hinder Rand's attempts to disguise himself as a one man band*

*Note, this is neither a real spoiler, nor a real plotline
 

Laurien Achaur

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I haven't, mostly because I didn't want to risk getting more spoilered than necessary and so that I don't end up falling down those link-clinking rabbit holes :laugh:
 

Nadezhda al'Lanahrin

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The link-clicking rabbit hole really is a struggle lol
 

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Now I just want to know more about the tambourine shortage. :rofl
 

Nadezhda al'Lanahrin

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I mean Rand was basically a one-man band in Book 1, playing the flute in the Inns.
 

Laurien Achaur

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Chapter 35: Caemlyn

- Of course Rand's head just about explodes, because Real City :giggle
- I can completely empathize with Mat's dislike of the city noise, even if his is exacerbated by the dagger.
- Speaking of which...come on, Mat. Keep fighting that thing!
- Hmmm. Foreshadowing that Thom's coming back from the innkeeper, I'd say. Good!
- Thom was a bard, had an affair with Queen Morgase, and got himself kicked out of Caemlyn. I'm just sitting here thinking how very sterotypical of a D&D bard that is :laugh:

Chapter 36: Web of the Pattern

- This Master Gill is a good fellow. I wonder about his history a bit and how he got tangled with Thom.
- Good on Rand for not outright lying when telling Master Gill about their troubles.
- Okay, the wishing he had "Perrin's way with girls" thing is already old :tongue
- Mat's darkness is getting bad. I hope Moiraine comes across them soon. I don't blame Rand for giving up and just getting away from him for a while.
- An inn with a library? Almost as good as getting food there!
- Loial!!! :embarassed:mg
- I would have loved to have seen those expressive, tufted Ogier ears on Loial in the show :D3 There probably wasn't enough in the budget for animatronic ears, though.
- They used so many of Loial's book lines in the show. I'm so happy that I recognize them here.
- Alright, I think Loial is my new favorite character. I still like Lan a lot (show Lan more than book Lan), but I just want to go everywhere with this Ogier now.
- Good, good. Getting away from Mat for a bit was definitely the right call. Now Rand can spill his guts to someone trustworthy who can shed a bit of light on what he is as ta'veren.
 

Viktara Fen

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Thom is a total D&D bard. When the spouse first encountered him in the books, they told me that they could easily see him, if he were in the Realms, as having run afoul of the Powers That Be in Cormyr, being run out of that kingdom by the War Wizards, and then skulking around in the Dalelands as the world's most reluctant Harper.

As for Loial, I love Loial so much. He was fun in the show, and definitely had the spirit of Book-Loial, but I wanted to see those ear tufts and eyebrows, too. Still, they can only do so much, I think, without making him a fully CGI character or doing tons of animatronics. It says a lot for what they did show us on the screen, though, that I immediately knew who he was in the show even though he was in the "wrong" town and that he's equally easy for a show fan to spot in the books.

I feel like Loial serves as the chorus in many cases. He says what the reader might be thinking, or what a less adventurous person might say, and functions kind of as a foil to the main characters. In that regard he reminds me of Moonglum, one of Elric of Melnibone's companions in Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion books. Moorcock himself mentioned, IIRC in an interview about how he was able to write a book in three days, that he relied heavily on archetypes in his writing, and that the chorus or reluctant average guy archetype was one of those. I feel like if I hold forth too much on that opinion right now that I'm gonna start flirting dangerously with spoiling things, though, so I'll leave it there for now. :laugh:

Oh, and for your amusement: The spouse and I have joked that "ta'veren" is a swear word in Ogier. ;)
 

Laurien Achaur

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Chapter 37: The Long Chase

- Awww. Well at least Nynaeve can be nice to Aldieb.
- So that coin that Moiraine gave the boys is infused with the One Power, and when Perrin went into the stedding, she felt it disappear and then come back. Interesting.
- At least Nynaeve's snark toward Lan is just that and not malicious, like it is toward Moiraine.
- Girl's got good tactical sense, waiting to watch the patrol patterns as she does.
- Aaaand now she knows Egwene is here, too. Hi, Bela!

Chapter 38: Rescue

- There is no way Perrin is coming out of this the same after all that Byar's done to him.
- ...Giving them a way to go free? I don't see why Byar would be doing this if it didn't benefit him in some way.
- Oh good! Elyas is alright (so to speak).
- Lan was really about to run after Nynaeve and defy Moiraine to do it, hm?
- The difference just waiting a few minutes can make :giggle
- Poor Perrin :( He's had some trauma that's not going to be easy to shake.
- I wonder if Perrin's eye-color change is the result of maybe starting to accept the connection to the wolves, or just having communicated with them. Perhaps it's something else entirely. I'm just curious about what the exact catalyst was.
- I feel like Lan has said more in the last few chapters that anywhere else in the book combined :laugh:
 
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