2015 Re-Readalong: Eye of the World and The Great Hunt

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Are all of the Seanchan dark-skinned? I always assumed that they were a bit of an amalgamation, since they were descendants of a handful of people in Hawkwing's army. Also, aren't the Sea Folk super dark-skinned?

No, they are quite mixed, depending on where the come from. Like Egeanin would pass as White, while nice Banner General Tylee Khirgan is black. Sorry, I dön't know or can't remember about the sea Folk. In general, Jordan downplays skin color and makes other characteristics relevant.
 
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Rhed al'Tere

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

I've always seen the Sea Folk as very dark skinned. And Tairans as dark skinned, as well.


Chapter 12!

  • Moiraine explains her tactic with the fog to Thom when he questions it, but berates Mat for asking about sinking the ferry.
  • This may be the first time we see her using her growing taller illusion. (Did she use it in the Two Rivers when talking about Manetheren? I don't think she did, she just had the glowing staff.)
  • Thom stops Rand from interfering with Moiraine teaching Egwene.
Moiraine to Egwene said:
You are one of a bare handful for whom there is no need to learn. [...] The old blood is strong in Emond's Field, and the old blood sings.
  • I wish I could see Moiraine's face when she sees just how many women Egwene finds who can learn. :laugh:


Chapter 13!
  • We see Moiraine addressing Egwene's wish for adventure. She's speaking from her own experience here -- in New Spring she's so eager to get out of the Tower and see the world. :giggle
  • Moiraine makes a sideways reference to the Black Ajah, when she warns Egwene that Aes Sedai are human just like anyone.
  • Moiraine keeps trying to prepare the boys for the long journey ahead, and to warn them that they may never go back to the Two Rivers (though not in so many words).
  • Everyone has such contempt for the Whitecloaks -- why would anyone join up with them? Some for the power, I suppose, and some like Galad because they truly think it's right. But: ugh.
  • The gatekeeper sneers a bit at downcountry folk. Where does he think his food comes from? And his tabac? And the wool to make his clothes? :tug
  • When People of the Dragon are mentioned, I wonder how much Moiraine was freaking out inside.


Chapter 14!!
  • Yay Min!
  • In the bathroom, Ara mostly ignores the men as they're bathing, but then stands up and starts talking all of a sudden. Are we seeing ta'veren at work? Or did his curiosity just get the best of him? Or is he a Darkfriend?
  • Min is tiny! Like Moiraine (just a little taller than Moiraine).
  • Lan almost sounds as if he knows Logain. Does he?
  • Who's leading the Whitecloaks in Baerlon? Bornhald? Is he (or the leader) one of the Darkfriends there by the Dark One's orders?
  • The dreams. There are bits of truth, about the White Tower (ok, really it was the Red Ajah) using false Dragons, and especially about them using Logain. But there are also lies in there that set Rand's doubts and make him mistrust Aes Sedai. So much of the first part of the series is about him running from Aes Sedai so he's not made to be a puppet. Maybe he's right to, as Moiraine and Suian do plan on training him and trying to "help" him.


Chapter 15.
  • I laughed a little when Rand pretends to be searching his pockets when Master Fitch and Sara are fighting and he finds a piece of string that he kept because he thought it might be useful.
  • I think of Nynaeve travelling all that way alone with no one to guide her or help her. Girl's got guts.
  • The scents of Baerlon have Rand rubbing his nose. When do Perrin's senses get enhanced? Probably not till after he meets Elyas.
Min said:
That's almost enough to make me believe anything.
  • She's seeing crazy stuff around the group. Seeing the heron marked blade on a sheepherder is what convinces her it could all be true. :laugh:
  • I love the description she's heard of Two Rivers folk:
Min said:
The ones who know say you walk around all smiles and politeness, just as meek and soft as butter. On the surface, anyway. Underneath, they say, you're all as tough as old oak roots. Prod too hard, the say, and you dig up stone. But the stone isn't buried very deep in you, or in your friends. It's as if a storm has scoured away almost all the covering. Moiraine didn't tell me everything, but I see what I see.
  • Min's viewings.
  • This initial core of people is the group most essential to the Last Battle -- especially after Nynaeve shows up.
  • Egwene: "She won't refuse it."
  • Thom: Man juggling fire (?). White Tower (maybe Moiraine? Maybe his gentled nephew?).
  • Perrin: Wolf (obvious). Broken crown (reference to bringing back Manetheren? Something to do with Faile and Saldaea?). Trees flowering around him (when he visits his family's graves, the trees are in bloom).
  • Mat: Red eagle (his army later, right?). Eye on balance scale (whenever it is that he loses an eye -- rescuing Moiraine?). Dagger with ruby (coming soon!). Horn (uh, yeah. And Thom was just telling the Great Hunt for the Horn in the common room.). Laughing face (whose?).
  • Rand: Sword that's not a sword (Callandor). Gold crown of laurel leaves (Laurel Crown of Illian). Beggar's staff (what's this?). Pouring water on sand (no idea). Bloody hand and white hot iron (losing his hand? What's the iron, then? Maybe that's the best way she can describe balefire?). Three women at his funeral bier (Last Battle, of course. Of all the things she sees, this is the one that persists throughout the series.). Black rock wet with blood (Last Battle again). Lightning (lots of things this could apply to, I think). She and Rand will meet again (she also sees love there, but doesn't say anything, just looks confused).



  • Is Fain from Illian? He has a bare trace of Illianer speak. He's terrified of the Aes Sedai -- though rightfully so, the nasty little worm.
  • The scene with the Whitecloaks -- Rand starts feeling ill and he and Mat head back to the inn, then he channels. Was the illness him going through the taint to the Power? In the future, it's always simultaneous, the gut churning of the taint with the joy of the Power.
  • Bornhald is in the city and eventually comes back into the story. (He's the guy who hates Perrin so much.) Not a Darkfriend.

Chapter 16...
  • Min pulls Rand aside and Thom assumes it's for :waggle
  • Nynaeve is also tiny! She's shorter than Min, though probably taller than Moiraine.
  • Nynaeve is a tracking badass!
  • Aaaawww: She blushes when Lan compliments her tracking. :pleased-1:
 

Toral Delvar

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Sending Trollocs to scare the boys seems a big risk. There was a Myrddraal to control them, but it would only take one accident for them to die- as Tam, and Paet al'Caar's son would have if not for Moiraine. Same with sending them into Shadar Logoth later
 

Toral Delvar

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Also, the third of the prequels was originally going to tell how Moiraine and Lan arrived just in time
So there is probably some very basic information, maybe enough to go in the Companion, but not for a whole book
 
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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

I've always seen the Sea Folk as very dark skinned. And Tairans as dark skinned, as well.

I'm pretty certain the Sea Folk are described as dark skinned. And I personally always imagined the people of Tear to be Italian looking. :look:

The scents of Baerlon have Rand rubbing his nose. When do Perrin's senses get enhanced? Probably not till after he meets Elyas.

Yes, it isn't until then that his wolf senses start tingling.

  • Min's viewings.
  • Thom: Man juggling fire (?). White Tower (maybe Moiraine? Maybe his gentled nephew?).
  • Perrin: Wolf (obvious). Broken crown (reference to bringing back Manetheren? Something to do with Faile and Saldaea?). Trees flowering around him (when he visits his family's graves, the trees are in bloom).
  • Mat: Red eagle (his army later, right?). Eye on balance scale (whenever it is that he loses an eye -- rescuing Moiraine?). Dagger with ruby (coming soon!). Horn (uh, yeah. And Thom was just telling the Great Hunt for the Horn in the common room.). Laughing face (whose?).
  • Rand: Sword that's not a sword (Callandor). Gold crown of laurel leaves (Laurel Crown of Illian). Beggar's staff (what's this?). Pouring water on sand (no idea). Bloody hand and white hot iron (losing his hand? What's the iron, then? Maybe that's the best way she can describe balefire?). Three women at his funeral bier (Last Battle, of course. Of all the things she sees, this is the one that persists throughout the series.). Black rock wet with blood (Last Battle again). Lightning (lots of things this could apply to, I think). She and Rand will meet again (she also sees love there, but doesn't say anything, just looks confused).

Thom: I'd also like to know what the man juggling fire represents. I assume that the White Tower is his connection to Moiraine.
Perrin: I think the broken crown in a reference to Manetheren. I'm not sure about the trees flowering around him, but I don't have a better suggestion than the one you provided.
Mat: The eye on the scale is from when he rescues Moiraine from the snake/fox people.
Rand: I don't know what the beggar's staff represents either. The image of Rand pouring water on sand is when he bring flowing water back to Rhuidean.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a slightly different topic, after the many MANY years I've been raving about this series and reading and rereading it, my husband finally decided to give it a try. He didn't really WANT to, but he was trying to do something nice for me. He started listening to the audio book and COULD NOT turn it off. :laugh: He went through 18 hours in 3 days. :D It has been so much fun hearing his first impressions of the characters and events. :pleased-1:
 

Imzadi Hopewind

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

trans.gif
Min's viewings.
s not a sword (Callandor). Gold crown of laurel leaves (Laurel Crown of Illian). Beggar's staff (what's this?). Pouring water on sand (no idea). Bloody hand and white hot iron (losing his hand? What's the iron, then? Maybe that's the best way she can describe balefire?). Three women at his funeral bier (Last Battle, of course. Of all the things she sees, this is the one that persists throughout the series.). Black rock wet with blood (Last Battle again). Lightning (lots of things this could apply to, I think). She and Rand will meet again (she also sees love there, but doesn't say anything, just looks confused).

I think the pouring water on sand means when he make the water come out in the Waste land? (or Rhuidean as Mai says)

Beggar's staff; Rand had to walk at the roads with Mat and beg for food and shelter, perhaps it's it?

:facepalm the boards are weird now.

Mai: :laugh: That's awsome! 18 hours in one? :brown-blink:
 

Toral Delvar

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Min's viewings are supposed to be about things of future importance - so the man juggling fire for Thom isn't Owyn. The Broken Crown is Saldaea. I still don't know what trees flowering is, that seems more of a Rand thing.
White hot iron could be balefire, but the hand wasn't bloody. It might depend on how literal her visions have to be
 

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

I always thought the beggars staff is from when he wandered in TGS trying to decide whether to destroy the Seanchan or not :look: But it could also be from when he and Mat traveled the Caemlyn Road.
Or it could be the ending, where he just walks away :look:
 

Imzadi Hopewind

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Rand meet Fain in Baerlon, and it's already there where he shows the weird him, both "I'm nothing, I'm just a bug" and "I'm the king of the world, obey me". And I was like "nooooo, you didn't tell Fain where you guys stayed :facepalm "
 

Rhed al'Tere

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Imzadi, I was the same way. :laugh:
 

Ashlyn Sindal

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Man, I always forget how awesome Min is in the first couple books. Rereading these chapters is making me extra bitter about how horribly her character was handled in later books.

Min's viewings are supposed to be about things of future importance - so the man juggling fire for Thom isn't Owyn.

I disagree. I think that Min's viewings include past events that have an impact on the person's future. Otherwise, what would Lan's seven broken towers signify? And what happened to Owyn definitely influences Thom's decisions for some time to come.
 

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

So, I didn't notice this during my last reread... but this time it nearly jumped out at me and smacked me in the face...

Chapter 18, pg. 267 in my paperback
This is right after the battle with the Trollocs that chased them off the Caemlyn Road.
For a wonder, Mat was the only one who had been unhorsed. Rand trotted toward him, but Mat tossed a noose away from him with a shudder, gathered his bow, and scrambled into his saddle unaided, though rubbing at his throat.
 

Imzadi Hopewind

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

So, I didn't notice this during my last reread... but this time it nearly jumped out at me and smacked me in the face...

Chapter 18, pg. 267 in my paperback
This is right after the battle with the Trollocs that chased them off the Caemlyn Road.

Sorry, I'm slow, but why did you jump because of this?
 

Sabriane Diamodred

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Man, I always forget how awesome Min is in the first couple books. Rereading these chapters is making me extra bitter about how horribly her character was handled in later books.

What bit in particular? The whole 'I don't want to change for a man' then *totally changes for a man* thing really bugged me. But I saw something where Brandon Sanderson said there are parts of WoT where we're SUPPOSED to be frustrated with the characters. Still, that one particular aspect made me a bit ugh.
 

Toral Delvar

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

I disagree. I think that Min's viewings include past events that have an impact on the person's future. Otherwise, what would Lan's seven broken towers signify? And what happened to Owyn definitely influences Thom's decisions for some time to come.
That would make more sense, but this was something I remember Robert Jordan writing or saying. It was apparently from an interview for Glimmers, but I don't know more than that
 

Rhed al'Tere

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Roh: Me too! That's one of the bits I wrote down to mention here. :D

Im: Because Mat gets hanged later. Rubbing his neck now...foreshadowing his hanging.
 

Ealandrelle Melyma

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

I've always seen the Sea Folk as very dark skinned. And Tairans as dark skinned, as well.

I tend to see the Tairens as being somewhat Asian in colouring - anywhere from Indian to Chinese. Not sure why!



In the bathroom, Ara mostly ignores the men as they're bathing, but then stands up and starts talking all of a sudden. Are we seeing ta'veren at work? Or did his curiosity just get the best of him? Or is he a Darkfriend?

I felt like this was ta'veren pulling. There's some comment about how Ara seems almost surprised to be talking.


The scents of Baerlon have Rand rubbing his nose. When do Perrin's senses get enhanced? Probably not till after he meets Elyas.

It's after he meets Elyas. Quite a while, after, really. It only becomes a "thing" during "The Great Hunt".

Thom: Man juggling fire (?). White Tower (maybe Moiraine? Maybe his gentled nephew?).

I take the man juggling fire to be his nephew (as that is what motivates him to keep helping Rand et al). The White Tower could either refer to his vendetta against the Reds who gentled his nephew, or his coming bond to Moiraine.

Mat: Red eagle (his army later, right?). Eye on balance scale (whenever it is that he loses an eye -- rescuing Moiraine?). Dagger with ruby (coming soon!). Horn (uh, yeah. And Thom was just telling the Great Hunt for the Horn in the common room.). Laughing face (whose?).

I think the laughing face might be a reference to his gambler/trickster nature?

Rand: Sword that's not a sword (Callandor). Gold crown of laurel leaves (Laurel Crown of Illian). Beggar's staff (what's this?). Pouring water on sand (no idea). Bloody hand and white hot iron (losing his hand? What's the iron, then? Maybe that's the best way she can describe balefire?). Three women at his funeral bier (Last Battle, of course. Of all the things she sees, this is the one that persists throughout the series.). Black rock wet with blood (Last Battle again). Lightning (lots of things this could apply to, I think). She and Rand will meet again (she also sees love there, but doesn't say anything, just looks confused).

The water on sand I took as a reference to the Aiel waste - on the surface, how he brings water to Rhuidean. Perhaps more in-depth, how he will change their very way of life. The lightning I think refers to his channelling.


[*]Is Fain from Illian? He has a bare trace of Illianer speak. He's terrified of the Aes Sedai -- though rightfully so, the nasty little worm.

I think he's meant to be from Lugard... but we're never really sure, are we?

The scene with the Whitecloaks -- Rand starts feeling ill and he and Mat head back to the inn, then he channels. Was the illness him going through the taint to the Power? In the future, it's always simultaneous, the gut churning of the taint with the joy of the Power.

I don't think Rand channels in Baerlon. The barrels fall over because Mat knocks away the stake holding them with his sling. Rand's reaction to them though, is his reaction to using the Power a few days before (when he made Bela run).

Moiraine explains this (inadvertently, when talking to Nynaeve later). She says initially the reaction may come several days after touching the Power. As the number of uses increases, the reaction appears closer to the use of the Power. So in this case, it's been about 6 days or so since he channelled at Bela. Next time I think is on the Spray (when the boom knocks Gelb over), and then it's 2 or 3 days later he goes a bit nuts and becomes an acrobat. Then when he channels to escape that Inn, the reaction is much sooner again. I remember on listening to the book, I half wondered if he channels in Caemlyn to run from Fain, then his climbing of the wall is the reaction to that.

I don't think he really becomes aware of the taint before book 2, when he starts trying to channel.
 

Rhed al'Tere

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Re: 2015 Re-Readalong: EoTW, Chapter 14 - Chapter 20

Water on sand = Rhuidean totally makes sense.

Ah, so I read the Baerlon scene wrong. I knew Mat had knocked over the barrels, I just assumed Rand's fearlessness of the Whitecloaks came from being full of the power.
 
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