Thursday, January 31, 2013

An Ending: Miscellaneous

This post contains spoilers for A Memory of Light

Read at your own peril.  

I am so sorry, you guys, about posting this a week late. Work has been crazy. But that's not what you came here to read about. You came to read about my thoughts on the Wheel of Time

I've already covered  most of the major players of A Memory of Light: Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Demandred, Tuon, Rand's Ladies, and Androl & Pevara. But those are just the players I had major reactions too or the ones I had a lot to say about. There are other big players that fall into one of two categories: (1) though they were big players in the Wheel of Time over all, they didn't play a big part in A Memory of Light or (2) I didn't have strong reactions because they pretty much did what I expected. 

Well, without further ado let's talk about my reactions to some of the miscellaneous characters of A Memory of Light.

Nynaeve & Lan

Both of these characters actually had pretty big roles to play, but my reactions pretty much are as follows:
  • Lan == The Man. Do not mess with al'Lan Mandragoran.
  • Nynaeve: Take that, healers who think learning non-magical healing is stupid. Nynaeve not only powns you all when it comes to magical healing, but she also saves the world without magic. Bam. 
  • THEY SURVIVE! *tears of happiness* I mean, if there was anyone I was sure was going to die it was going to be Lan. They prepared us for that from Book 1. But they survived, and now Lan is like the leader of the entire Borderlands. They can both live happily ever after in a brand-new shiny Malkier and I'm so freakin' happy for these two fictional characters. If anyone deserved to survive it was Lan and Nynaeve. And they did. 
Thom 

Is there really anything that sums up Thom Merrilin more than "exquisite"?  I mean sitting there composing a ballad and killing the darkfriends who tries to get into the cavern? That was perfect. Perfect. Thom rocks.

Graendal

That tricksey hobbit! Seriously, her campaign against the Four Generals in this book is probably the smartest plan the Forsaken ever came up with. Mad props, Graendal, for finally being a smart villain. 

Alanna

Oh hey, Alanna! I totally forgot you existed. And now here you are, trying to die and derail our boy.  Not cool, Alanna. Not cool.

So I have decided that Alanna must be a darkfriend. You're welcome to disagree but nothing else makes sense to me. She bonded Rand upon prompting from Verin (who was a darkfriend). It makes sense that Verin was one of the three other Black Ajah she knew. If she wasn't Black Ajah, why didn't she get rid of her bond to Rand as soon as she realized Moridin was going to try to use it against Rand? Nothing else makes sense! But feel free to post your own thoughts in the comments.

Tam al'Thor

I think Rand says it best when he makes that comment that the biggest difference between this life and his last one was that he was better raised this time. Tam al'Thor is an amazing father. And he is the man. The scene with him and Rand sparring one handed? Beautiful.

But my favorite scene was probably the one with Tam and Lan during the Last Battle. Tam is Rand's actual father, but in many ways Lan has been a second father to Rand. But Lan never usurped Tam's place in Rand's life, he just helped Rand grow into a man that is capable of ruling the known world. And to see these two men meet, and Lan to give this mere farmer such respect is beauitful. Because Tam deserves all the respect in the world. He deserves everyone bringing him flowers and undying thanks, because without Tam's amazing guidance as a father, Rand would not been the humble, good man he was at his core.

Tam raised Rand not to be a great leader or a king but to be a good man. And that was why Rand succeeded when Lews Therin failed.

Moridin

I feel for Moridin. He's a bad guy. A really bad guy. But at his core, he's just a man tired of living, tired of fighting. He just wants it all to be over. Too bad the Dark One is never really going to give him what he wants.

I wonder if Moridin got to die or if his soul somehow got trapped with the Dark One. Because that would be the worst punishment. Eternal existence as the sole toy of the Dark One, the only person he has access to in his prison. And the exact opposite of what he wanted.

I'm not sure which end I hope for him. On the one hand, he deserves to be punished for all the truly terrible things he did. On the other hand, I sort of hope he just got blotted out of existence, as he wanted.

Well guys, that's all I got! What other characters do you have comments about? That you had strong reactions too? Or do you have a different theory regarding Alanna? Let me know in the comments!
 

7 comments:

  1. Wow, your Alanna theory was the only one that made actual sense of all the wot theories that I have read lying around the internet. All others were just a bunch of stupid nonsense, maybe everybody started to develop logic-ing like Ishamael lol

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    1. I'm glad you think it makes sense! I'm generally not a very good WoT theorist, but to me Alanna being a darkfriend is the only thing that makes sense. :)

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    2. just finished last book and found this site, like all your WoT ending comments.

      just wanted to say i totally agree with you here (even though it never occurred to me until i read it here) about alanna. she had to be a darkfriend because she wanted to release the bond (like she ended up doing) but could only do it in the "hour of her death" just like varin.

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  2. I agree that the scene with Rand and Tam, the one that ends in the sparring, is brilliant. Heartfelt and sincere. It's fitting that it's Tam who finally helps Rand with his last emotional baggage: the loss of his hand. It's beautiful and cathartic, but not at all sappy. (Kudos to both Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson!) Tam is just all-around awesome, and I'm glad he stayed that way.

    Graendal's work with the generals was astoundingly brilliant. The way she worked so subtly with each of them . . . It really might have worked. It certainly came close!

    Speaking of Graendal brings me to one of my favorite pairs: Siuan Sanche and Gareth Bryne. I really wanted a happily ever after! When I started getting hints that there was something wrong with the four generals, I hoped against hope that Gareth would be immune because of his Warder bond, or that whatever it was would at least be tempered. Failing that, I hoped that Siuan would at least be able to detect that something was really wrong.

    I'll admit, I had basically forgotten about Min's warning. I think most of us assumed it was fulfilled the day they rescued Egwene, and therefore no longer relevant.

    I'm with you on the almost-sympathy for Moridin. If he had ever been repentant, I would really be sorry for him. But being sealed away with the Dark One, alone, as his toy? No one deserves that, not even the Forsaken. I hope he is finally, irrevocably, dead.

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  3. I know this comment is really, really late, but yes, I do have a character you missed out on.

    Padan freaking Fain.

    Yes, you touched on him in your summary of Mat, but I feel there is so much more to be explored where his character came in. He shows up in Thakan'dar with Mashadar in tow, wreaks havoc for all of five seconds, and then suddenly Mat is there to save the day.

    Well, good for Mat.

    My issue is, Fain wasn't Mat's counterpart; as you said, he was not the equivalent of Slayer to Perrin. And that's something that has bugged me since I finished the book: Where is Fain' moment?

    In the beginning of the series, Fain was the main antagonist, and his ties to Rand were akin to Moridin's later on. Fain was Rand's Slayer, he was the epitome of fear and betrayal in Rand's mind.

    It's just too bad that didn't play out. I felt that Padan Fain could have had a much more profound role in the series, particularly the Last Battle (or, alternatively, being knocked out of the race like the Forsaken were initially, one by one). He was what Rand had to overcome. With Rand's acceptance of everything else in the end, there was one thing our beautiful hero forgot: how he ended up in this position. Yes, Rand reflects on Winternight many times, but Padan Fain is eerily left out of the ending of the series. After giving Rand the second scar, he's mentioned maybe one or two times before Tarmon Gai'don.

    In the end, I think there were a lot of enemies that seemed personal to Rand, but were left out for his battle with Elan/Ishamael/Moridin. This can be seen in Lanfear as well. When it really comes down to it, though, I believe it was closed out decently enough--both Lanfear and Fain were enemies Rand could never bring himself to let go of, and when he couldn't be strong, Mat and Perrin stepped up for him. I think he had too many enemies. I think other authors would have gone with a more traditional, one-rival-per-character approach, but this really was something that made Jordan's writing so unique.

    It certainly wasn't the ending I wanted, or even necessarily liked, but because of the way the series shaped out, it was cleaned up the best and only way it possibly could have been.

    (Also, let's get a conversation started about Lease. That was a unique storyline in itself.)

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  4. Since we talk about other characters; Lanfear fooled me, I was sure she was having second though about her loyalty. She helped Perrin steal that thing that prevent gateways,gave him advises in the wolfdream, she helped Perrin understands Graeandal was messing with the 4 generals and she healed Perrin and Gaul.
    I was thinking, hell yeah there is hope for her, maybe 1 forsaken will change side before the end(well asmodean was somehow forced to).
    Well nope she just wanted to mess with every other forsaken's plans and gain all the glory by herself.
    I was even starting to think Berlain was redhearing all along and Lanfear was Perrin's hawk. Stupid me.

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