Happy Cinco de Mayo, mis amigos! Have a completely unrelated Wheel of Time Reread Redux post to celebrate! Today’s Redux post will cover Chapter 52 to the end of The Eye of the World, originally reread in this post.
All original posts are listed in The Wheel of Time Reread Index here, and all Redux posts will also be archived there as well. (The Wheel of Time Master Index, as always, is here, which has links to news, reviews, interviews, and all manner of information about the Wheel of Time in general on Tor.com.) The Wheel of Time Reread is also available as an e-book series! Yay!
All Reread Redux posts will contain spoilers for the entire Wheel of Time series, so if you haven’t read, read at your own risk. And now, the post!
Before we start, apparently in the original commentary I had not yet started the last-post tradition of commenting on the cover art, so for completeness’s sake I guess I should do it here, since I can’t actually remember whether I ever said anything about TEOTW’s art specifically or not.
This is the cover that tends to get the most love from fans, and certainly it’s striking, especially the gorgeous blue color of the background, which I remember definitely made it stand out attractively on the shelf in the bookstore. Which is exactly what you want cover art to do, so well done there. I had noticed TEOTW’s cover quite a lot, actually, in my time browsing the science fiction/fantasy shelves, long before that fateful day in Texas when I was finally convinced to pick it up.
But honestly, unlike many other fans, the cover art was also one of the reasons I didn’t pick it up for so long. The much bigger reason was that I was resisting starting a series I had figured out hadn’t been finished yet (HAHAHA), but the fact that the lady on the cover looked so disproportionately tiny next to the giant dude on the warhorse next to her always kind of threw me.
This was back when I was young and stupid and still judging books by their covers… okay, no, I can’t claim that with a straight face, I still do that. I try not to, but I do, even though I know it means I’m missing out on some awesome stuff. (Case in point: Cordelia’s Honor is now one of my favorite books in one of my favorite series ever, but my friend Noell had to practically duct tape me to a copy of the paperback to get me to read it the first time, because I was so put off by the horrendous cover art.)
But I think I am something of an outlier in this regard. Not in how I think the WOT covers as a general rule have great backgrounds and horrible foregrounds, because I know there are a whole lot of folks who agree with me on that, but in how much I let it influence my opinion on whether to read the thing or not in the first place. Most other SFF fans, I think, have long since accepted that occasionally highly dubious cover art is a feature of the genre and not a bug, and are much better at not letting it keep them away from a good story.
For the purposes of fun trivia: this is also the cover of the infamous “extra person”, where if you look at the complete wraparound art of the cover (and also the art on the inside cover), you can count that there are nine people depicted in the party, where there are only eight in the story (including Nynaeve). This is because, we’ve been told, Jordan originally had a fourth boy from the Two Rivers coming along on the journey, and by the time Harriet had convinced Jordan that the fourth boy was completely extraneous and needed to be cut, the art had already been commissioned and it was too late to change it. Apparently the fourth boy was meant to be Dannil Lewin, who later becomes Perrin’s right hand man in TSR and onward, but personally I prefer my old friend Mike Hoye’s assertion that it was actually Harry Potter, because LOL.
So, yeah. And now let’s finish this one up, shall we?
Chapter 52: Neither Beginning Nor End
Redux Commentary
In the original commentary to this chapter I talked about whether the end of TEOTW was a deliberate subversion of the One Ring Central Magical Thingamajig trope, or not, considering how the Eye is the Macguffin our heroes spend the entire book chasing down, and yet after this book it’s pretty much never mentioned again.
I still think that query is valid, but there’s another way to look at it that (depending on your point of view) will cast the situation in either a more forgiving light or a much harsher one. Basically TEOTW in the aggregate strikes me as being constructed much more like a TV pilot shot on spec than anything else. Or alternately, like a movie that’s intended to be the beginning of a franchise, when there is a possibility that the sequels may never get greenlit.
It’s a very specific kind of narrative problem, really. Some might find it a tad déclassé, with its perceived kowtowing to commercial considerations, but personally, as both a realist and someone who appreciates interesting narrative tricks, I think it’s an impressive accomplishment if pulled off correctly. You want your inaugural movie/pilot/book to set up your larger story and intrigue your audience into wanting to read/see more, you see, but you also have to provide enough of a sense of closure in that inaugural work that, if the wherewithal for its sequels never materializes, the work can still stand on its own. There’s a balancing act required there which is fairly unique, I think.
Now, this was not actually the case for TEOTW—sort of. Most WOT fans are more than familiar with Jordan’s initial (and now infamous) claim to Tom Doherty of Tor Books back in the 1980s that the series would only be six books, and as I understand it Jordan signed a six-book contract on the strength of the TEOTW manuscript. So in that sense the sequels for this particular inaugural work were technically already paid for.
However, that said, “a six-book contract” is not necessarily the same thing as “a contract to write six Wheel of Time books,” and I’ve definitely gotten the impression from various interviews and such over the years that whether Tor would publish more books in the series was contingent on how TEOTW performed in sales. Which only makes sense, after all; it’s not exactly a fiscally sound plan to publish sequels to a book no one is interested in reading.
Fortunately for Jordan and WOT (and us), that turned out to be massively not the case, and here we all are, but at the time, I imagine, that wasn’t anything like a foregone conclusion. So it is, I theorize, that TEOTW (and to some extent TGH) have a much more self-contained air to them, as compared to the rest of the novels in the series, because Jordan had to take into account the possibility that they might be the only part of the story he would be allowed to tell.
The Eye of the World in TEOTW was not meant to be the Central Magical Thingamajig of Jordan’s story—but it was meant to stand in for one if necessary.
Of course, it’s probably funny that I’m talking about this in the commentary for a chapter that is basically nothing but set-up for The Ongoing Saga, but I stand by the statement. The harbingers and foreshadowings of this chapter and the next are set-up for the larger story, but they can also be taken as atmosphere to assure the reader that the world in the novel extends beyond the boundaries of the story we’re given. It would not have been entirely satisfying to leave the story here, I don’t think, but nor is it the kind of deliberately dangling end we’re given in, say, TDR, by the publication of which there was (I think) no doubt anymore about whether Jordan was going to get to tell the whole story.
Or at least that’s what I think. Others may disagree, obviously.
“I begin to wonder,” Moiraine said. “The Eye of the World was made against the greatest need the world would ever face, but was it made for the use to which… we… put it, or to guard these things?”
I do kind of love the perhaps deliberate irony that the story got rid of one MacGuffin, only to reveal that it had been hiding three more MacGuffins inside it. Passing the torch, you might say, ha.
And before you quibble with me over terminology, the items found inside the Eye may not be MacGuffins in a strictly traditional Hitchcockian sense, but not everyone agrees with Hitchcock that MacGuffins must be pointless or irrelevant in and of themselves. And the Horn of Valere was absolutely a MacGuffin, in TGH and again in AMOL, so nyah.
The seal and the Dragon banner are not as obviously so, but they are certainly symbolic of larger, very MacGuffin-like pursuits over the course of the series. The quest to find all the seals before they’re broken is clearly a MacGuffin-style quest, if you ask me. And one can argue that the banner represents a sort of reverse MacGuffin, one that the protagonist spends a great deal of time and effort running away from, rather than one he’s pursuing. In terms of plot devices it comes to much the same thing, in the end.
Chapter 53: The Wheel Turns
Redux Commentary
I wonder if Loial’s work to save Someshta’s grave held all the way through to the end of the Blight. For the sake of warm fuzzies, I’m going to assume that it totally did.
And Rand starts running away (or trying to, at least) from his reverse MacGuffin pretty much immediately, too. With the benefit of knowing the rest of the story (and really, probably even before any of us knew the rest of the story), his attempt to convince himself and Moiraine and Egwene that he just won’t do anything with the terrible gift he’s had dumped in his lap comes off as delusional and pathetic, but I can’t honestly claim I wouldn’t be just as tempted to stick my head in the sand for as long as possible either.
Jordan once said somewhere (and I’ve definitely mentioned this before too, but it bears repeating) that part of his big idea behind this whole WOT thing was the idea of asking what would it be like if one day someone came up to you out of nowhere and was like, hey, guess what? You get to be the Savior of the World! SUCK IT, BRAH.
(Though I am relatively certain that that is not quite how Jordan originally phrased it. Thbbt.)
My point is, that sucks, a whole lot. All Hero’s Journeys suck, objectively speaking, but I’m prepared to argue that Rand’s suckage level was above the average. So his denial for umpteen books that he is the Dragon Reborn was frustrating, but not actually unbelievable at all.
(I do not, however, believe I would be so delusional and arrogant as to believe I’d actually offed the Dark One. Maybe just because I’m way too genre savvy to suppose that my first boss fight would also be my final boss fight, but even without that, c’mon, man. Get real.)
“We won, Lord Agelmar. We won, and the land freed from winter is the proof, but I fear the last battle has not yet been fought.” Rand stirred, but the Aes Sedai gave him a sharp look and he stood still again.
Yeah, that pretty much sums up what I’ve been saying about the ending of this book, I think. I’ve been trying to think if, post-AMOL, I feel any differently about TEOTW overall than I did before, but I think mostly I’ve felt the same, except to wryly note that the end of the very first book is the only one that really felt very much like the end of the very last book, owing to the way it’s the only other one with a real ending, mostly. So that’s nice, in a bookend-y kind of way.
I feel like I should have more to say here… but I really don’t. I said in the original commentary that TEOTW is maybe one of the best first books in a series ever, and I still think that. It sure hooked me like a fish. What more is there to say?
Well, maybe this (from the original commentary):
“So, an ending. Not the ending, for there are many endings in the Wheel of Time. And beginnings. And middles. And also, wind. Very windy in WOT.
“What?”
*snort* Well, it made me laugh, anyway.
And thus we come, once again, to the end of the beginning of the Wheel of Time! Join me next week as we plunge straight into The Great Hunt Redux! Whoo!
Harry Potter, no doubt. ;-)
I have the same problem with cover art swaying my opinion on content. Bad me.
Thanks for reduxing, Leigh!
My only real issue with the cover art is spending too much time wondering how Lan’s hat doesn’t fall forward over his face ALL THE TIME.
Is Rand’s glimpse of the Seven Towers happening in TAR where parallel worlds can show up?
How did fighting some Forsaken break the DO’s winter?
Moiraine should have talked to Rand now that he is willing to listen to advice, instead of ignoring him. Later he will no longer be willing to listen when she wants to advise him.
The discussion of cover art is so funny- it was the art that made me first pick up this book a million years ago– because it had horses on it, and maybe they were part of the story too! And then of course I fell in love with it, so while I hated some of the later covers, I still rushed out to buy each one :D
@3. There’s no definite explanation that I’m aware of. The closest explanation I can think of is that this event somehow began a process of Rand embracing himself as the Dragon, which comes with Fisher King like qualities of being one with the land and all that…
I also found the cover art to be kind of cheesy, but as I hadn’t actually ever seen it before my German teacher lent me the book, I didn’t have time to really make a judgment. The prologue is still the greatest!
Hah, I remember at this point I still totally thought Rand and Egwene would get together.
It was the cover to The Eye of the World that made me pick up the series. Say what you will about Darrell K. Sweet’s covers, I look at them and they make me want to read the book. Baen, on the other hand, puts out some truly atrocious covers.
I think the ends of books 2 and 3 could have been fairly easily worked into satisfying series conclusions. The complete lack of closure at the end of book 4 really threw me for a loop the first time I read it.
I would argue that the three first books all have a definitive “ending” quality to them – that is, if the series had flopped and no more books were forthcoming, the series “could have” ended there. Especially TDR – the Aiel and Tairens both stopping their fight because they realize the true savior has come has a feeling of “Ending in case I don’t get to write any more of this.”
Especially considering how Jordan semi-retconned the Aiel falling to their knees and shouting “The Dragon!” since in the next book they are a bit more like “Dragon shmagon, whatevs. We’re more interested in Chief o’ Chiefs, yo.” Pretty sure that’s exactly how Rhuarc phrased it.
@3 @5, And maybe the Dragon channeling so much broke the Shadow’s hold for a bit? That was probably the biggest use of the OP in a thousand years or more, plus it was the Dragon doing it. Given that he defeated the entire Shadowspawn army without knowing what he was doing and killed Ishy, I have no problem thinking that had some residual favorable effects just from his unconscious will trying to make his surroundings less awful.
@9 hm, TGH yes, and I do see what you’re saying with the ending of TDR. But I think that would’ve been tremendously unsatisfying for me, since Rand’s barely in that one, and then all of a sudden he’s there and bang, here’s your savior, the end. I don’t know if anti-climactic is quite the word, but soemthing like that. But for sure the books after that have even less of possible stopping place.
(oh, and the idea of Rhuarc saying “yo” – lol)
Leigh said: “Basically TEOTW in the aggregate strikes me as being constructed much more like a TV pilot shot on spec than anything else.” I think this sentence takes on a whole other meaning after seeing the Wheel of Time “TV pilot” a few months ago.
Did we ever get an explanation of what the land where the Green Man watched over the entrance to the Eye of the World. Was that a dreamshard that became fixed in Randland? Or was it a type of vacule (sp?) that one of the Foresaken discuss later in the series?
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewB
Rand only thought he killed Ishy. He finally managed that at the end of the third book, the first two tries only injured Ishy.
@9 Very well said and completely agree. I’m not sure if that was exactly the case by the time book 3 came out, but it does have that certain, this-is-kind-of-a-wrap-up feel to the ending that is common to all of the first three books. Plus Rand fights Ishy at the end of each, so there is that parrallel as well.
Leigh, there have been posts where I have agreed with many points you’ve made, but I don’t think there was ever been a re-read post where I am so completely with you on every mark. I too avoided tEotW for so long because of what a percieved to be a really lame cover. I mean, a giant samurai guy (really look at the helmet) with swords strapped to his back riding with a tiny lady leading a bunch of people (? I mean it is hard to tell who exactly is behind them) on horse back. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: D. S. should have been doing Louie L’Amour covers, because that is the impression his art work gives me (especially since all his male characters tend to have a strong craggy resemblance to Tom Berenger)
But, fantasy has a long tradition of wierd cover art, particularly from the ’60s through the ’80s; some of those The Lord of the Rings covers from back in the day? Not exactly inspiring, unless you find someone’s acid trip inspiring. So I should just shut up and get over it I guess.
Perhaps Ishamael was influencing the weather, and when he was defeated his work was undone.
Or perhaps there were weaves of saidin maintaining or extending the blight, and when Rand channeled crazy amounts they got flushed away.
I know it’s vague, but that’s the best rationalization I can come up with. The literary explanation is more convincing: TEOTW is a lot more mystical, and contains hand-wavery and artifacts as far as the OP is concerned because Jordan hadn’t worked out his system in all its detail yet.
@3, @5: An alternate idea on “How did this break the weather hold”:
With all 7 seals in place, the DO’s ability to touch the world directly is pretty limited. Ishy has been the DO’s primary Conduit of Evil for centuries at this point. Whether the DO is using Ishy to affect the weather or doing it directly, this is a pretty major god-level effect being maintained with a fraction of his powers. I could see the combination of Rand severing Ishy’s DO link and the shattering of the first seal as suffciently disruptive events to interrupt what passes for concentration from an entity like the DO.
Even letting it slip for a short time may have made it easier to let it go for the time just to catch it on the mid-summer heat side, when he’s got more power to work with.
The Wheel of Time (and the Internet and its obsessive fandom) may also be partially responsible for an increased openness by publishers and readers to very long, single stories (but sadly not for Hugo voters). Jordan sort of eases you into it with the first three books. Sanderson, one the other hand, just throws you in the deep end in The Way of Kings.
Leigh, since I follow your Read of Ice and Fire, I’ve naturally become interested in these posts and have read a few of them. I became interested enough to want to read them and have just bought the first half, which I’ll start reading pretty soon.
In the meantime (my main intent with this post), I’ve been thinking about this song, one that I hope will become the theme song to the Wheel of Time. I mean, haven’t any of you wondered what song would best fit the Wheel of Time, as much as to perhaps even become its theme song? Well, I’ve thought this song might fit, and it’s not only because I like it, but because this song is about travelling and a certain sense of sorrow, not to mention that it also mentions a wheel. Actually, I think this may be not only the best-fitting song to the WoT, but also one of the (if not the) songs that best describe Fantasy.
Anyway, here it is:
Heaven sent the promised land
Looks alright from where I stand
‘Cause I’m the man on the outside looking in
Waiting on the first step
Show me where the key is kept
Point me down the right line ’cause it’s time
To let me in from the cold
Turn my lead into gold
‘Cause there’s a chill wind
Blowing in my soul
And I think I’m growing old
Flash… the readies… wot’s… uh the deal
Got to make it to the next meal
Try to keep up with the turning of the wheel*
Mile after mile, stone after stone
You turn to speak but you’re alone
Million of miles from home, you’re on your own
So let me in from the cold
Turn my lead into gold
‘Cause there’s a chill wind
Blowing in my soul
And I think I’m growing old
(solo)
Fire bright by candle light
With her by my side
If she prefers we need never stir again
Someone sent the promised land
Well I grabbed it with both hands
Now I’m the man on the inside looking out
Hear me shout “come on in
What’s the news, where you’ve been”
‘Cause there’s no wind left in my soul
And I’ve grown old.
*this may have to be capitalized, don’t you think?
Well, there you have it. What do you think? Do you think this song is the perfect one for the Wheel of Time? If not, what would you think it would be? If this song doesn’t exactly fit well to WoT, then to what series it does? Do you also think this song describes well the genre of Fantasy? If not, then what song do you reccomend for Theme Song to Fantasy?
@17- I’ve often thought the same about that song (“The Gold It’s In The…” by Pink Floyd)
I still wonder why Lan is pictured here with two swords. Always liked the cover, thiugh, even if the giant moon gives a touch of unrealisticness.
Great Hunt, my WoT favorite, yaaay! Will you be reposting the dungeon-wall prophesy, or a link to it, for people who forgotten its full text and don’t have the book?
AeronaGreenjoy @19- just enter
blood “dark prophecy”
into your search engine.
I disliked the cover- but DKS has had a lot of covers I disliked on a lot of books I really like.
Leigh- the items hidden by the Eye are more like plot coupons than MacGiffins.
I generally hate MacGuffins- to a lesser extent the glowy briefcase in Pulp Fiction, and to a greater extent the flash drive whatever in Mission Impossible 3.
One down! how many to go?
@19, I loved the Great Hunt when I was younger. I used to re-read all the books whenever a new one came out back then but I also re-read The Great Hunt by itself many times. I even lent it out to people who hadn’t read The Eye of the World (I have no idea if it made any sense to them).
What a great first book! I was well and truly hooked. Someone must have recommended it to me, because that cover totally put me off. The proportions are all wrong! Color was nice.
I’m so glad you’re doing the rereread!
For me, I think it was the cover art that actually drew me in in the first place. It was actually the first chapter that would always fail to draw me into the story… I remember taking this book from the library several times. I would always start reading but was never drawn into the story in that first chapter. I always ended up returning it with out reading much of it. I don’t remember up to what point I had to read it before it really drew me in. After that, I devoured every other book published in the series… So, I guess what I am saying is that yeah, the art is kinda weird but it is the reason that I kept being drawn to this book and I love it for that… :)
I don’t think Macguffin is quite the term either. By definition it makes no difference what the macguffin is, nor does it do anything, it’s just what the plot revolves around. The seals are Plot Coupons (and Cosmic Keystones) that the heroes have to collect them all for the resolution. The banner is, um, Really Royal Regalia, maybe? It has a use, and it’s never lost so it’s not a Macguffin. It’s like Callandor in that it’s purpose is to reveal the coming of the Dragon Reborn that only he could get to, it’s just not a sword. And once it’s found, it becomes a symbol of Rand’s ‘rule’.
And, in possibly related news, Tvtropes ate my lunch hour. whoops.
@20: Thanks!!
I am so glad y’all ^^ are sharing the results of your trips into Tvtropes!
tEotW glossary
That has been changed later. Alanna uses the bond to find Rand at Dumai’s Wells, and the girls can always tell in what direction Rand is and have some idea how far away he is.
@17 and 18 – funny you would bring up Pink Floyd, as the song Brain Damage always reminded me a little bit of WoT:
“The lunatic is in my head.
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me ’til I’m sane.
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There’s someone in my head but it’s not me.”
Harry Potter. I love that, it’s especially funny to me since finishing my umpteenth WOT re-read I arbitrarily decided to go back and do yet another re-read of Books 5-7. Haha!
I’ve always agreed that this book was set up to be a solo book if it needed to be. If no one had been interested and no one had wanted more books, then TEOTW ends on the note it should. An apocalyptic battle has been fought, evil has been vanquished, but it is not completely the end–as is appropriate for the Wheel of Time.
And I don’t judge it as crass or commercial for Jordan to have done it, because everyone does. Star Wars, while Lucas had plans for more, ends perfectly. If it ends there then the Death Star is blown up (spoilers), Darth Vader is presumed dead, and Luke has started to become a Jedi. A complete story has been told, and while it leaves the door open for more it doesn’t require more.
That’s what the first book, first movie, or even first TV pilot episode do, unless the writer is really arrogant, already signed for more books, or is particularly dense.
re: six-book deal
This gets even more funny because RJ tried to sell it as a TRILOGY. Tom Doherty was the one who made it into six.
Other than that I agree. TEotW was very much set up to work as a standalone novel.
@16 Herb7226
At least Sanderson acknowledges it. He’s said many times that for a new or aspiring writer Stormlight Archive’s structure would be a very, very bad mistake and that he only get’s away with it (or managed to get it published) because he has become a household name with a huge fanbase and can count on the trust from both.
It’s most definetely not a let’s-see-what-the-fuss-about-this-Sanderson-guy-is-all-about kinda book.
It’s more of a comprehensive things-not-to-do-if-you-want-to-become-a-writer textbook.
On the cover: I really don’t understand what people have gone on about it. Granted, I am not an artist or art critic, nor do I play one online, but it seems to me it’s not only one of the least problematic of Darrell Sweet’s WOT covers, I don’t see the thing people complain about with it. Part of this could be because I was already used to Sweet’s depiction of people and their proportions from his Xanth covers, but I also think it’s because once I read in the actual book that Moiraine was a very small woman, the size difference between her and Lan on the cover made perfect sense to me. Granted probably exaggerated a bit, but even so it was clear to me this was one of the few covers where Sweet got details right from the text. (And even if the samurai armor Lan is wearing isn’t accurate, it still looks pretty badass.) So all in all I have to say TEotW has one of the better covers in the series, and it certainly attracted my eye in the bookstore.
Side note: I had never looked closely enough to realize there were nine people in the party, and some of them are so small it’s hard to see them clearly, so I wasn’t even aware of Dannil having originally gone with them until later. That’s kind of funny though, a What If (though I agree, aside from the number of characters being so big already, what was there really for him to do that the others couldn’t?).
Details of the chapter first, then commentary. (Though there is a slight connection at first.) The way Rand is so out of it, unaware of his identity (or anyone else’s) and has to keep reminding himself of everyone’s names, is I think a fairly obvious result of channeling so much saidin untrained–even though it was pure and untainted, he was still new to channeling, and the combination of the amount channeled and how far along he was in the channeling-acquisition-power syndrome meant he suffered the side effects immediately…which rather resemble the madness he gets later, particularly how often he has moments when he has to remind himself (particularly once “Lews Therin” shows up) that he is Rand al’Thor. So this manages to be both foreshadowing of his later identity crisis and a way to include it this early in the game due to his channeling sickness, just in case the book wasn’t successful and the sequels didn’t get published.
I can only assume, after having listed out all the false Dragons the Tower had gotten rid of over the years, that the reason Rand didn’t immediately put two and two together and realize Moiraine would only allow him to run free, ungentled, if he was the actual Dragon Reborn, was because such a thing was something his mind couldn’t face; he was already barely able to handle being a channeler at all, or ta’veren. Still, it was nice of her to reassure and soothe him as much as she could.
Though I question why she would mislead him, at the end of the chapter, that they had done what was needed and he could “sleep, and dream of home” when she knew damn well that wasn’t in the cards for him–even apart from the Tower and her own plans, his role in the Pattern simply wouldn’t let that happen yet, if ever. True, she did use Aes Sedai speech to say “you won’t be able to go home until the Pattern is done with you”, but to what end? If it was more reassurance, that’s nice, but once he found out she wasn’t telling the full truth it would just make him more inclined to distrust and disobey her later–which he does. I don’t know…seems like too much of a cost later for only a small return in the present (Rand being reassured). Particularly when she already knew he’d be less inclined to obey her simply because of his Two Rivers/Manetheren stubbornness.
The scene where they bring out the items in the Eye: who carries what has always interested me. The first instinct would be to have Mat carry the chest, so to avoid that was a nice misdirect on Jordan’s part that kept us from realizing his role until the end of book two. It still works for Loial to carry it, since he’s a purveyor of knowledge and specifically knows so much about the past, and by the end proves as much a hero as anyone else. The seal, meanwhile, is interesting since it’s heartstone, and the quality and trustworthiness of Mat’s heart was for a long time dubious–and eventually proven to be almost as unyielding. At the time its association with the Shadow points to Mat’s continued vulnerability and his connection to the dagger. As for the banner, not only is Perrin the one to carry it in battle at Falme, but he was always one of Rand’s strongest supporters, and aside from metaphorically carrying it for Rand when he’s in the Two Rivers and Ghealdan (along with the actual physical banners for himself and Manetheren), it’s his support for Rand at Merrilor and the Pit of Doom that saves the day.
What was always cool to me was, as little as we know about the Horn at this point, the few tidbits we were told plus the reaction of Lan (and Nynaeve) were enough to make me really feel the impact of this discovery. At the same time I had to be startled that something so important to the Last Battle would be found at the very start of the series–granted, its appearance is one of many opening moves required to start the world down the path to said battle, but in most fantasy series, such magical items aren’t found until the very end, or at least the midpoint. So nice subversion there.
Of course this could be seen as another artifact of WOT possibly being a stillborn series (if there were to be no more books, at least we’d end this one knowing the world had the big magical item it needed to win), and having the Horn immediately get stolen in the next book subverted this a bit. But even once they got it back, it languished in the Tower until the end of the series, so it still counts as a twist on the powerful Magical MacGuffin.
As for this possibly being an ending itself…even setting aside everything we know comes later and how important and awesome a lot of it was, I can sort of see how this might be an ending (though TGH or TDR works much better). Sure, a lot is left unexplained, especially if you assume (based on what Moiraine says to Agelmar in the next chapter, and the genre savviness that that was far too easy an end for the Ultimate Evil) that Ba’alzamon was not the true Dark One, but at the same time we’re left with things in a fairly good place. Perrin, other than talking to wolves, gets to go home; you can assume Mat will get cleansed of the dagger’s taint fairly readily; Nynaeve and Egwene will go on to learn the Power; a major bad guy has been defeated, as well as a big army, thus setting back the forces of evil for a while; and even though it’s unlikely things will be clear sailing for Rand (either as the Dragon Reborn or a male channeler), for now at least you can assume that eventually he’ll find the way to get all the good guys together and stop the Dark One. Naive, but based on fantasy tropes, you can assume it will happen in the end.
Of course the more you think about the unresolved plot threads (Elaida’s Foretelling about Rand springs to mind first, but obviously there’s a lot more than that), the more you realize this could never be the end. But right now, flush with the victory at the Eye and Tarwin’s Gap, and with those other plot points more distant to the reader’s memory, the ending could be at least accepted initially. Thankfully, of course, we got much more than this!
Amusing indeed to think of a MacGuffin containing three more MacGuffins–the gift that keeps on giving! But it makes sense that if a MacGuffin exists to propel a narrative, but then you find you have more narrative(s) to tell after the first one, you’ll need more MacGuffins for that. And what better way to connect the narratives together than by doing the same with the MacGuffins, matryoshka doll-style? Also, interesting symbolism on the non-Horn items, I hadn’t thought of that.
I absolutely believe Loial’s Song kept the tree in existence. If for no other reason than the theory of the Eye’s locale being a dreamshard–Loial may not have known that, or had any TAR abilities, but in a place like that, his simple but unwavering belief that he had preserved the Green Man’s tree would make it reality, there. On a related note, while we could assume it was Someshta’s death that made the dreamshard dissolve because he was the one maintaining it, I don’t think Nym, as constructs, can affect TAR. So it’s more likely that the Aes Sedai who created it somehow tied him into its existence. Therefore, once he was dead, and with them no longer there to maintain it, it dissolved.
Maybe it’s just me and my tendency to connect fantasy series together (helped by the end of winter/return of spring trope which is referenced here), but I couldn’t help but read the part with the weakened Moiraine on her litter and think of the Lady (and the Hunting of the Wren) in Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising at the end of book two. But there may be a connection after all, since at this point Moiraine is in as much of a Big Good role as WOT ever has, and Jordan drew on so many myths and legends (including Celtic and British ones) that I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew of some of the same ones Cooper used.
As for the weather change itself, while it’s true the first book was more mystical than the rest, it never seemed odd to me, even without the history of this trope in fantasy or even Rand’s Fisher King role. Because we were told, way back at the start of the book, that spring was late, and the land overall seemed dimmer, colder, and more under the Shadow. So it stands to reason such a state of affairs would need to be broken, or at least mitigated in some way, by the end of the book–that is, if the heroes are to have any chance to win at all. Also, with the seal on the Dark One’s prison being mostly intact at this point, it makes sense to me that a) affecting the weather would be one of the few things he could do at this point, even before bubbles of evil–not as if he didn’t try it again later with the endless summer–and b) all the things which happened in this Big Ass Ending would have an effect on what he had been doing.
You’ve got Rand getting a huge power-up from the Eye, sans taint, to jumpstart his Dragon process; the defeat of a huge army of Shadowspawn; the breaking of a seal; and not only the deaths of the only two previously-sealed Forsaken to get free, but a major defeat of his greatest servant that broke his power for a good while. With all of that going on, it stands to reason he’d lose his hold on the prolonged winter, especially if you assume that hold to be spiritually-based (as a way to break the will of the Borderlanders and send them into despair, like Ingtar) and what they did at the Eye (and the Gap) being both incredibly spiritual and a huge morale booster. I.e., even if the victory itself didn’t accomplish much concretely (aside from preventing a preemptive new Trolloc War), the fact it happened greatly swayed everyone’s belief in the Light and its cause, and belief often makes things real in fantasy. Rand’s vision of the Seven Towers of Malkier rising again plays right into this (as well as foreshadowing)–such a victory and the belief it engendered made such a future possible when it wasn’t before.
Amusing tidbit: Egwene mentions Perrin wants to see Tar Valon. He finally does get to…in ToM, when fighting Slayer, and schooling Egwene on TAR.
That ending: even if it confirms what most of us were suspecting about Rand all along (if not from when Ba’alzamon first started taunting him about being like the false Dragons, then from when we figured out he could channel and Elaida’s Foretelling), it still made my breath catch when I read it, and even now I get that sensawunda from it, from everything it sets up for that comes next.
Also: love how Jordan casually reveals Moiraine can eavesdrop through her head jewel, something that is both so unlike what we’ve been made to think Aes Sedai are like and explains so much from earlier in the book, when she seemed to “just know” things she shouldn’t. It also proves that as much as Jordan seemed to abandon the idea of props for focusing the Power (like her staff), he did retain it in at least one way, since she claims the jewel has no power but is just another focusing aid, and it’s still around and in use up to book five.
@3 birgit: Good question. I assumed it was just symbolic, something he saw because of the Light’s victory at the Gap and Eye, but if they were still partly in the dreamshard (or if he was making one without knowing it), it could have been a TAR effect.
@11 AndrewHB: I’m positive it was a dreamshard. That’s the only way to explain need being used to find it (nothing like that is mentioned with vacuoles), and while what is in the vacuole can be changed by the one who trapped you there, Rand being able to will himself to the Gap and then to Ishy’s fortress would only work if it were a dreamshard he was unconsciously manipulating.
@14 JonathanLevy: Considering Ishamael was aware of what the Dark One was doing to summer, and may even have been helping him, it stands to reason he was involved with the winter too. And since at this point the Dark One wasn’t able to touch the world as well as he was in TFoH/LOC/ACOS, the possibility of Ishy actually being the one controlling the weather this early on is rather high.
@23 MarielaB: Funny, one of my roommates had the same problem, except he kept rereading the first eight or so chapters and then quitting and coming back to it again; somehow, despite Winternight, it kept not hooking him. Eventually though he made it past the departure from Emond’s Field and from there he was hooked.
@24 Ellisande: The Horn would be a Plot Device: it has the same function as a MacGuffin (making the characters act in response to what happens to it), but also actually does something important.
@30 mpark: Well said.
macster @32:
Wasn’t this trick of Moiraine’s one of those “wilder” tricks that the Tower tried so hard to stamp out? IIRC, it was something she figured out before coming to the Tower, and she learned it using the gem. Since that was how she learned to do it, the gem became part of the weave for her. So you’re correct in saying that “Jordan seemed to abandon the idea of props for focusing the Power”, but in this case he folded it into the “first way you learn a weave is the easiest” idea.
Hi all,
Owing to a family emergency and the (related) fact that I have just spent most of this past night in an ER waiting room, there is no post today. Luckily, my family member is going to be okay, but it was a little scary there for a bit. Keep us in your thoughts if you would, and I’ll be back with the start of TGH next week. Cheers!
Leigh, it’s good that your family member is going to be ok, this is the most important thing, of course. All the best!
Hi, Leigh…
Glad they’re gonna be ok (had a scace like that couple of months back). Hang in there, and hope to read you next week!
Oops, that should have been “scare”! Anyway read you next week!
Oh, that is the worst place to have to be! Hope there is a smooth recovery!
Late to the party. Just thought of this:
Why should the gang think of the Eye of the World again?
It held:
1) The Dragon Banner – They took it with them
2) A seal for the DO prison – They took it with them
3) A pool of clean Sadin – Rand used it up
4) The last living Greenman – He died. :-(
There was no reason for the group to go back or think of it again. Except for Loial who would think on if his tree singing was still holding. And he probably did, we just were not in his head for those thoughts.
Just read your update Leigh.
Glad family member will be okay! Hope the recovery goes well and you get some sleep yourself.
I just realized that there is no mention of the “oily taint” from using saidin when Rand uses the power in this book. Any reason why? I remember it in other books, but I’m not sure when it became a part of using saidin for Rand in particular.
Also, I’m convinced that the symptoms Rand displays after using saidin here are the result of the sickness kind of thing that all power users experience on first using the power that they have; not the taint.
It’s just something that hit me up the head for no reason whatsoever.
Thanks!
Leigh, I hope all is well with you and yours. Will check in next week, same time, same website.
I had never heard of a MacGuffin, so had to look it up. Not sure how I missed the reference all these years, especially considering it came up on the word list as I was typing on my Kindle.
@41Tina Nabors
The saidin was a pure source, so that probably meant it was untainted. I agree that Rand’s sickness would be caused by using saidin as a newbie and not from a taint of any kind.
In “Guardians of the Galaxy” when Groot protected his team members by “growing” around them, thus sealing his own fate, his doing so reminded me of The Green Man”. A noble sacrifice by them both.
@41TinaNabors
I thought it was fairly explicitly the last clean pool of Saidin. I always assumed that the sickness was as WDWParksGal said–he used to much juju juice, and it left him nauseous–rather than there being taint on it.
RE: Rediculous Cover Art
I’ve said it before, I’ll probably say it again, and I’ll say it RIGHT NOW:
I very much despise pretty much all the cover art in the WoT series EXCEPT for the e-books.
I hope Tor is taking notes, because I get the distinct impression from WoT and a slew of other Sci-Fi and Fantasy books that the artists never bother to read the books or even the physical descriptions of the characters and objects they are depicting. Its either unprofessional or careless, or both.
RE: Everyone who says thats just a feature of the genre
Just because thats the way something IS, doesn’t make it right or acceptable.
@44: Tor book covers are 1000% better than every Baen cover. That company has not left the 1940s. In a really bad way.
They have some great authors and stories. Horrible art.
I really like tDR’s cover art. That is my favorite of the original.
@41 Tina Nabors, 42, 43: I get the impression she wasn’t just talking about here at the end, when Rand used the Eye, but also any time he channeled or tried to throughout the book. If so, my answer would be that the reason we were never made aware of the taint is because Rand didn’t know what he was doing, so he didn’t know enough to sense the taint. It’s not until after facing Aginor and Ishy that he realized he was a channeler. To go back to my analogy from a previous post, that Rand could do crazy things with the Power because a) he didn’t know he couldn’t (the same way Looney Tunes characters can defy gravity because they don’t know it exists) and b) he was in a dreamshard where anything is possible if you believe in it, Rand couldn’t feel the taint because he didn’t know he was channeling. But the minute he understands he is one, all the knowledge he has of male channelers going mad from tainted saidin comes into play and so he senses the taint every time he tries to channel in TGH and thereafter. There’s also the fact his first two uses, removing Bela’s fatigue and moving the boom, were such small uses there might not have been much taint to sense anyway. The lightning at Four Kings was bigger, but Rand was already so sick with worry and fear and confused by what was going on he might not have realized what he was sensing anyway.
Of course the OOC reason there was no description of it was because Jordan didn’t want to give away Rand was the channeler among the boys–not only would including the description make us pay more attention when weird things happened around Rand, but the way Moiraine described what the taint might do to saidar in the Ways, and what happened to her staff (and the fire she used to cut the gate), would have been too similar to ignore.