The Gathering Storm - Chapters 13-16

In this section, the heroes square off against the villains.

Gawyn is offered a chance to become a Warder. First a mock combat with a pair of Warders establishes that Gawyn is a far better swordsman than them. He has the power to turn the battle in his favour, but has yet to fully commit to a cause he is comfortable supporting. Such a cause is the rescue of Egwene, the love of his life. Had the offer to be a Warder not been there, his choice would have been even more obvious, but dangling that possibility before him makes his choice one of character and not circumstance. Readers need to see that he has more than one promising road ahead of him, or his choice will have less meaning.

Gawyn’s troubled conscience bothers him, but that effect is undermined when, in the same paragraph, you find the two following things he is wishing for, one far more strongly than the other. Even had they been separated by several pages, the strength of the second desire is out of place compared to the angst he is feeling. Gawyn clenched and unclenched his fist, stalking across the village center, wishing he could extend the peace and stillness of sword fighting to the rest of his life. The air was pungent with the scent of cows and dung from the barns; he would be glad to get back to a proper city. Dorlan’s size and remoteness might make it a good place to hide, but Gawyn strongly wished that Elaida had chosen a less odorous place to house the Younglings.

Cadsuane and Sorilea observe Semirhage’s pride and her contempt for lesser women. Cadsuane once again notes that Semirhage’s character is uncomfortably like her own. She is facing some dark version of herself. Similarly, in Tel’aran’rhiod, Moridin observes that he and Rand are somehow bonded, though he himself doesn’t understand how. Rand is meeting with the Seanchan, a culture with twisted views of channeling and rank. Egwene faces her antagonist, an Amyrlin who in many ways is her opposite. Each of the heroes is facing some twisted reflection of themselves, and that may be a clue as to the nature of the Last Battle.

Rand and Moridin’s discussion, as with their earliest interactions, is fraught with hidden meaning. Moridin still believes everything he says, and he reveals some possible clues about their inevitable final confrontation. “Why do you always whine that way? Just a dream. Do you not know that some dreams are more truthful than the waking world?” He has said this before, and it does fit in nicely with the theory that Shayol Ghul is itself in Tel’aran’rhiod, and the Dark One is somehow manipulating reality using the properties of that realm.

Rand questions whether Moridin’s own logic destroyed him: “That is why his victory is assured. I think it will be this Age, but if not then in another. When you are victorious, it only leads to another battle. When he is victorious, all things will end. Can you not see that there is no hope for you?” Moridin has surrendered to the inevitable, yet Rand never has, nor have his inspirations, such as in the tale of the people of Manetheren, or the Aiel, or several other heroes in the story.

Rand reveals his plan to slay the Dark One. Moridin replies “I doubt you can understand the magnitude of the stupidity in your statement.” He is not simply saying the Dark One is immortal, but touching on a truth that Rand has yet to discover. One possibility is that just as we have seen the heroes face antagonists who are evil or opposite to their morals, the Dark One himself is a force that cannot be destroyed, because he exists in the hearts of all men. Rand could hardly destroy part of himself and remain who he is. None of the characters could.   

Moridin reveals the manner in which the Dark One reincarnates his Forsaken. Left unrevealed is whether his powers go any further, whether he can resurrect anyone. The only limitation Moridin offers is balefire, which Rand latches onto, never realizing that using balefire serves the Dark One by weakening the Pattern. I was very pleased about this discussion, because Robert Jordan never answered the question I asked him about why Rand never thought any further on the stranger in Shadar Logoth. We’re left with questions about the limitations on the Dark One’s power, and whether the dead people we’ve seen brought back to life in The Eye of the World were fabrications or the real thing. Does the Dark One’s promises to bring Ilyena back refer to a Tel’aran’rhiod replica of her?  

For the fifth book in a row, Min’s research is pointed out to the reader, and she finally tells Rand he has to break the Seals, and he agrees. The idea that someone can just pick up some old books and find the answer to the greatest question is far-fetched, and the technique used to overcome disbelief is to show Min not only reading, but reading for a long time, studying, comparing texts, and becoming an expert. Five books earlier, she would have had little credibility, but now her answer is more easily accepted, especially when reinforced with a second learned opinion, that of Lews Therin himself.

After impressing several Sitters with her keen mind, and pointing out that surrendering would not Heal the White Tower, Egwene is set to labor instead of lessons. She turns down a chance to escape, recognizing that only from within can she demonstrate her refusal to surrender. Immediately after, she must serve Elaida at dinner with several Sitters, one from each Ajah, each of whom Elaida belittles. Inevitably, a confrontation with Elaida ensues, and Egwene pulls out the dirt she has on Elaida regarding an Oath of obedience, goading her into threatening Egwene so that she can point out Elaida’s bullying tactics. Elaida obliges, beating Egwene with weaves of air, which she is able to withstand thanks to the last ten days of continuous beatings from the Mistress of Novices. Egwene is sent to rot in a cell until she can be publicly beaten before all Aes Sedai, a strategy that is bound to fail by the evidence before Elaida, but once emotion takes over, logical thought is lost on her.

Elsewhere, I noticed some consistent use of weasel words in straightforward text, such as: seems, probably, maybe, may, could, looks like, etc. I had an idea that this was an artifact of Brandon Sanderson’s writing, possibly reflecting timidity at stating facts authoritatively, given that it is not his original story. I’m out of space for this post, so I’ll look for confirmation in later sections.

Writing Lessons:

Present two or more equally good choices, to force the characters to make choices based on their values, rather than the plot.

The Path of Daggers - Chapters 20-22

In this section, Elayne and Rand lead multinational groups and prepare for confrontations

Elayne spends an interlude chapter discovering that none of the women traveling with her will behave as expected. The Sea Folk finally declare their end of the bargain complete and begin drilling Merilille for all she can teach. The Kin see this as well as a Black Ajah being treated like a prisoner and begin to conclude that Aes Sedai are not that far above them after all. The people of Andor are not providing the expected support for the Daughter-Heir and Elayne realizes she has her work cut out for her.  When they run into money problems, Aviendha casually pulls out a handful of gemstones, which would seem contrived if she didn’t also subtly remind us how she acquired them from the scabbard she tried to give Rand.  By deflecting attention to their romantic relationship instead of Aviendha’s wealth, the sudden appearance of the jewels is amusing and interesting instead of unbelievable.

Elayne receives a warning to stay away from the rebels while Egwene deflects unwanted questions about how the bowl was used and the poor bargain made with the Sea Folk. This problem provides all the impetus needed to allow Elayne to focus on gaining the throne in the next few books, as well as keeping Nynaeve with other groups instead of amongst the rebels where she was of little value and of insufficient rank to be part of the action among the rebels.

As the battle against the Seanchan ramps up, I remember an earlier post where I discussed the reasons why using the Bowl of the Winds was included in this book, instead of chronologically in A Crown of Swords. It is obvious that in order to build up towards this battle, it is necessary to build up the opponent. By having a dire battle against the Seanchan to open the book, a lot of emotion and interest has been generated which benefits this battle immensely.

A key element of the battle is that Rand is leading men he cares nothing for, and there are some he actually hopes might meet their end. They are no more than tools for him to use. Nobles are too conspiratorial, Asha’man too dangerous, to be anything else. Rand knows the Shadow’s spies watch him closely, another reason to mistrust everyone close to him. A great deal of time is spent introducing the nobility, to humanize them before Rand begins making them pay his butcher’s bill. His logic to risk those who love him the least is darkly sound from his twisted point of view, but dangerous to his long-term goals.

The mood intensifies. We are eager to see the battle, eager to see Rand score a victory against his Seanchan opponents, and cognizant that even if things go poorly Rand is still not losing anyone but those who might have undermined him or betrayed him. To underscore that point, the man he pardoned a few hundred pages ago attempts to assassinate Rand. He not only provides justification for Rand’s actions, his actions imply that he is an agent Moridin was referring to, and the natural assumption a reader will make is that the assassination attempt has failed, that plot is over.

Lews Therin has several witty comments on Rand’s internal monologue, continuing to demonstrate that the voice in his head is more reliable than the people around him. Rand continually worries about when madness will take him or the Asha’man, and how he will be able to know. Rand’s predicament is neatly bundled in a contradictory sentence: “Mistrust of Gedwyn and Rochaid was simple sense, but was he coming down with what Nynaeve called the dreads? A kind of madness, a crippling suspicion of everyone and everything?”

Rand marches into battle, and we switch to a Seanchan point of view. This is an effort to humanize the enemy. Up until now the Seanchan we have met are either deliriously fervent in their loyalty, or are outright Darkfriends, with the exception of Egeanin. We don’t have a strong reaction to Bakuun, Nerith, or Tiras, other than awareness of their competence, which means Rand’s visions of an easy victory may be wrong. The illness affecting the damane adds uncertainty to the upcoming conflict. This should work to Rand’s advantage, but his lack of knowledge about it may also induce him to make mistakes.

Writing lessons:

Use strong personal reasons for your characters to choose where they are going, who they are going with and why they are doing it.   

Humanizing and dehumanizing people affects how readers view events and characters.

New Spring Chapters 4-6

We were introduced to the concept of Aes Sedai numbers dwindling, which is repeated frequently later in the story, and had just been remedied by Egwene in Crossroads of Twilight. Moiraine estimates 1269 Aes Sedai (423 in the Tower, twice as many out of it), 60 Accepted, and less than 100 novices, fewer than 20 of which will become Accepted. We are also introduced to a number of the current class of Accepted, a number of which will decide to join the Black Ajah in the next 20 years. We haven’t been told the Black Ajah exists yet, and won’t be for a while yet, but their names are in these chapters. Why do they join? Were they friends as Accepted with the top recruiter? How the Black Ajah recruits noobs has got to be tricky. Does everyone who joins just think back to the friends who shared their disgruntlement and pressure them to sign up? I’d be afraid the authority figure I hate and am trying to tear down is actually the head of the Black Ajah. Why else would she behave so destructively to our organization? Oops, real world interlude… sorry.

Speaking of Elaida, another universal experience we can identify with is that of the bully. Even bullies have been bullied, we’ve all been bullied. This is a different approach to how she was introduced in the Eye of the World, as the menace who might gentle Rand. You’re concerned about threats, you don’t despise them like you do with bullies. This is a great setup for her character and her later actions. I can see how my interpretation of the Splitting of the Tower and deposing of a certain Amyrlin will take on a more personal aspect. Funnily, Elaida is under virtually no Dark One influence at any time. The Pattern itself set her up as a bully to be despised so that events could unfold as needed. What a destiny. Thanks Pattern!

Writing Lessons:

How are you setting up your antagonists? Bullies, bosses, threats, minions, overlords and random monsters work because they are built up appropriately.