The Wheel of Time Re-read (currently reading - Lord of Chaos)

[Morgana Arakos]

Nynaeve channeled balefire spontaneously earlier in The Dragon Reborn, so maybe the same happened with Moiraine?

"Their screams dug at Egwene's spine and something shot out from Nynaeve's hands — a thin bar of white light that made noonday sun seem dark, a bar of fire that made molten metal seem cold, connecting her hands to the Myrddraal. And they ceased to exist as if they had never been."

I'm not sure I remember anyone learning weaves from books, though.

It still seems so interesting that she learned it so recently. It makes me wonder if she had some sort of encounter where it emerged that we aren't aware of, or learned it from someone else. My only other theory is that she learned it from Vandene and Adeleas. I feel like there's a story there, and I wish we knew it!

 

[Laralelle Susandrea]

I actually wondered if she may have learned it from Vandene and Adeleas, or maybe learned it in a book they had somewhere.

Yep, someone needs to write that story...

 

[Hal Bahalla]

I’m so excited to start the next book… must wait another week…

 

[Laralelle Susandrea]

Why?

 

[Hal Bahalla]

To stick with the schedule… I’m totally a rule follower

 

[Ilverin Matriam]

Chapter 33
What killed Rand’s horse? Was this wolves? They are in awe of him, so seems unlikely, but sending Darkhounds to kill it is also strange. Or was it mauled after death?

Rand kills another darkhound in a later chapter as far as I can remember, so he knows of them. I believe the horse was attacked and killed by the darkhounds and Rand somehow has escaped.


So I am a bit behind and trying to catch up. I am around the 30s chapters and I stumbled across something that I was wonderin about:
1. Chapter 33 - "There had been more reasons than bad dreams not to sleep well. They had found other signs left by Rand's passage. Between Jarra and the River Eldar there had been none Perrin could see, but when they crossed the Eldar by a stone bridge arching from one fiftyfoot river cliff to another, they had left behind a town called Sidon all in ashes. Every building. Only a few stone walls and chimneys still stood among the ruins."
So this is the passage in my Kindle edition book and it says river Eldar (my Bulgarian version also has the river Eldar writte), but the audio book I am listening to says river Boern. Is the river Boern correct here?

2. Chapter 34 - “I could almost suspect he had learned to Travel,” Moiraine said with a small frown, “except that if he had, he would have gone straight to Tear. No, he has the blood of long walkers and strong runners in him. But we may take the river anyway. If I cannot catch him, I will be in Tear close behind him. Or waiting for him.”
Moiraine says Rand has the blood of long walkers and strong runners, but which blood does she mean? Then she should know that he is from the Aiel blood, but dismisses the Aiel almost constantly and it never comes to mind to connect them to the prophecies in any way? I don't get it :scratch

3. Chapter 34 at the end: The Warder grabbed Perrin's coat sleeve and gave him a push toward the inn. “I saw a girl running, but I thought... No matter."
Lan saw Faile run past him after she saw what Perrin and Gaul did. What did he think? Did he recognise her? I have wondered that before, does he know how Zarine Bashere look like? Does he recognize her as a Saldean noble? (obviously he knows she is saldean, because of her features) Lan and Moiraine say nothing in the next chapters about her or her lineage, we find out in the Shadow Rising that she is a cousin to the queen.

and to continue that thought... does Faile realize Lan is Malkieri? Surely she should know more about his hadori, but she never mentions it I think...

 

[Toral Delvar]

Lan does seem very well known in the Borderlands, but Faile doesn’t seem shy about revealing what she knows - if she recognised him, I think she’d say

 

[Laralelle Susandrea]

I agree Torval. Unless maybe she was told not to at some point, but even then, I figure she’d tell Perrin after they were married.

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

Remember that there are at least one, maybe two generations between Lan and Faile... She may have heard OF him, but that doesn't mean she would recognize him. Especially since he hasn't been in the Borderlands much in the last 20 years or so...

 

[Ilverin Matriam]

I was just thinking that she would recognize his hadori and at least mention that he is Malkieri... but anyway

Thanks to details like this and when Moiraine took off from Fal Dara mysteriously near the same time as the Darkfriend meeting at Shayol Ghul, I am halfway convinced that Jordan originally intended for Moiraine to either be Black Ajah, or somehow compromised between EotW and TGH, and then changed his mind.

This is an interesting theory. However, her disappearance in Illian makes more sense now that I read what she tells Lan. It seems she doesn't want to risk them also going with her and dying, that way no one will be able to tell what had actually happened in Illian and also one of the ta'veren might also die and that would be a huge loss

 

[Ilverin Matriam]

How is everyone doing? Next week is the last week of the Dragon Reborn and the Shadow Rising starts imediately after :joy I am very excited for the Shadow Rising, one of my favorite books!

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

I'm listening to chapter 53 atm, and everything is moving fast towards the big finish :joy

 

[Toral Delvar]

I was thinking we were getting close to the end, but couldn't quite believe it - there is so much yet to happen. I think more happens in the next 10 or so chapters than half a book or more later in the series

 

[Toral Delvar]

Really, compared to the later glacial pace of the books, we are absolutely zooming along here
Chapter 46
The girls have left the boat already, but Rahvin’s man doesn’t know where they are – it seems they were probably not the ones who wanted them kidnapped
I don’t like Tallanvor
Mat sees Tallanvor bow, but doesn’t try to copy – he decides a bow is good enough. Rand I think, tried to copy it
Rahvin asks Mat what he knows,but doesn’t think this worth using Compulsion to get the truth
Is ‘I miss the quiet talks with Sheriam in her study” a code? What for? As Suian has only been Amyrlin10 years, Sheriam wasn’t MoN while Morgase was there, but it’s a weird attempt to passa a secret message..
Rahvin is pushing Morgase to go for the throne of Cairhien – he thinks she has a claim through marriage.
Chapter 47
We knew something was likely to send Mat to Tear, and we see what it is – he wants to rescue the girls. If he doesn’t start to think of himself as heroic soon, that will be a very deep level of denial
When Basel is telling Mat about Gaebril, Mat tells him he is including too much politics – a little impatient here
Basel thinks it is clear that Dyelin is Morgase’s closest relative - how does this work anyway? Why weas it really unclear 25 years earlier, but is obvious now?
Thom says he left Caemlyn 15 years before,so Elayne would have been 1 or 2. 15 is probably just a rough estimate
Chapter 48
Elayne knows of hummingbirds – are they native to Andor, or does Elaida import them for her gardens?
Egwene has been seeing more visions in Tel’aran’rhiod – including it being important that Perrin chooses between the axe and the hammer. Why was this important? Because it led to the re-discovery of power forged weapons?
She sees Ba’alzamon as one of six men and five women, but doesn’t work out these are the remaining Forsaken (or, as always that Ba’alzamon is one of them)
One of the visions is Rand confronting her and the women with her, and one of them was a Seanchan – Did this happen? Rand confronted her twice I think, in the Tower and just before Tarmon Gaidon, but I don’t believe there was a Seanchan there either time
Egwene and nynaeve are constantly bickering, much to Elayne’s annoyance
Nynaeve named her horse Gaidin. I don’t think I noticed that before
Tairens think of listening to the Wind as being related to the One Power. Oddly, they also think of it as a Sea Folk Windfinder thing – do they assume windfinders channel?
The “Who knows about herbs” competion between Nynaeve and Mother Guenna is amusing, as is the “how to stop two women from arguing”. Elayne finds this very amusing – I actually find myself liking here here, but it is downhill pretty quickly.
They do well I think to stick to the Three Oaths when saying why they had to come to Tear
Mother Guenna is another one to recognise their speech as Andoran. I guess that the difference between Two Rives and other parts of Andor is not as much as the first book suggested, and that it only seemed that way because they had little to compare it with
Fangfish?
Elayne slaps Egwene

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

‘I miss the quiet talks with Sheriam in her study”

That is a strange thing. I hadn't thought about that. Do we know how many years it was since Morgase went to the Tower? It was before she was Queen, so it was before Elayne was born... It may have just been a mistake, we haven't heard any details about her or how the Tower works yet...

Egwene and nynaeve are constantly bickering, much to Elayne’s annoyance

Yeah, I understand Egwene's annoyance when Nynaeve makes decisions like this, but she takes it too far here. I am glad that Elayne talks some sense into her. And it does seem that they all get along better after this book...

 

[Ilverin Matriam]

Is ‘I miss the quiet talks with Sheriam in her study” a code? What for? As Suian has only been Amyrlin10 years, Sheriam wasn’t MoN while Morgase was there, but it’s a weird attempt to passa a secret message..

I also considered it might actually be a coded mesage this time too. Tallanvor thought it might be and then I was like... it does sound a bit like a coded message yes... I wonder if Elayne would've done something with that information, since Morgase says "Tell her that I said that". I guess Mat didn't bring it up with her afterwards in the Stone :P

One of the visions is Rand confronting her and the women with her, and one of them was a Seanchan – Did this happen? Rand confronted her twice I think, in the Tower and just before Tarmon Gaidon, but I don’t believe there was a Seanchan there either time

I was wondering which Seanchan woman this was refering to... was it Alivia ? Or Egeanin? Those are the two Seanchan women that go on "their side" and are there when Egwene is Amyrlin even though Alivia is technically on Rand's side and is not one of "the women with Egwene"... but then she could channel, so?? ... so I dunno where I am going with this, we just don't know if this was fulfilled I guess

 

[Laralelle Susandrea]

Mother Guenna is another one to recognise their speech as Andoran. I guess that the difference between Two Rives and other parts of Andor is not as much as the first book suggested, and that it only seemed that way because they had little to compare it with

I kind of assumed it was the difference between Mississippi Southern Accent vs. Arkansas or Georgia Southern Accent. You know they're southern, but the nuances are quite different and obvious to those who live there.

 

[Toral Delvar]

I started the last batch
Really, a lot is going to happen. Egwene and Co get captured, Mat learns where they are and goes to rescue them, Juilin joins him, Faile gets trapped in Tel'aran'rhiod and Perrin goes in to rescue him, Egwene and co almost free themselves, but Mat manages it, Rand and the Aiel take the Stone, he kills Ba'alzamon

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

He FINALLY kills Ba'alzamon, he has only done that twice already
Third time is the charm? :P

 

[Toral Delvar]

Well, this time he leaves a body. And still thinks it is the Dark One until Moiraine points out that doesn't make any sense