Rage Reads The Dragon Reborn (Wheel of Time #3)

Hello! It’s been a while since you last heard from me, and that is because work stuff got in the way and I became very busy for a while. It took me two months to finish reading this book.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on The Dragon Reborn. Warning for spoilers ahead.

Rand is a stranger

Rand is unrecognizable in this book. He has become a stranger in his own story. I do not know this guy whatsoever.

There is very little of his POV scattered across the chapters of The Dragon Reborn, so we don’t really get to see much of what is happening inside his head. But I think Rand has a one-track mind and he is dead-focused on Callandor since he started dreaming about it. He is also very suspicious of everything and everyone.

In one scene we see him killing a band of travelers (maybe assassins but who knows) before they even got the chance to introduce themselves. I think this means Rand is not a good person… anymore, or yet—or maybe he doesn’t have to be a good person, maybe he just has to be the person who defeats The Dark One.

“Just because fate has chosen something for you instead of you choosing it for yourself doesn’t mean it has to be bad.”

Perrin, the blacksmith and nothing else

There is much more of Perrin in this book than the previous ones. His story focuses more on his internal struggle with his identity as a Wolfbrother. He is very much going the same way as Rand did in the beginning: avoiding destiny. Perrin is very determined not to let the wolves in, he is pushing back thoughts and whispers to the very back of his mind. (But, curiously, he seems to have given up fighting against the tide that is Rand al’Thor. He seems to have accepted Rand’s ta’verenness but not his own.)

Very soon we get to see one justification of why Perrin shouldn’t succumb to the wolves. They meet another one of his kind, named Noam, in one of the villages. However, unlike Perrin, Noam went to the deep end. He has gone insane and Moiraine claims there is no path leading back to humanity. Now Perrin has all the more reason to block out the wolves from his thoughts.

Come to think of it, I still kind of don’t know how Perrin ties in with Rand. We know his life is bound to Rand’s (he mentions seeing it happen over and over again when they journeyed through the Portal Stone) but at this point of the story it is not yet clear to me what his role would be. We know Mat sounded the Horn, and he would be needed again at The Last Battle (unless he dies and somebody has to replace him). We also know about Faile, the falcon from Min’s viewing of Perrin that she says could be someone important in Perrin’s life. We know Perrin can learn things via dreams, much like Egwene, and he has Hopper to help him. But right now I don’t see a clear direction for Perrin.

Mat rolls the dice

The Amyrlin and several other Aes Sedai manage to Heal Mat from the evil of the Shadar Logoth dagger. Mat is still trapped between a rock and a hard place: he needs to stay alive so he can sound the Horn during the Last Battle, the Darkfriends mean to either hunt him down so they can take the Horn for themselves or use him for their own cause. He is still very much in the thick of it, and the only way out is to die.

Selene shows herself to Mat. (I am no longer sure if she is Lanfear.) She hints at a third choice that Mat can take but doesn’t elaborate. I’m not sure I know what that path is as the reader. My guess is that the Forsaken or some other force do not serve the Dark One but mean to usurp him.

As soon as Mat leaves the White Tower, assassins are after him. He kills three men in one night, the first time he has ever killed another human being (unless they were Grey Men, which I think they were).

When Mat arrived in Caemlyn, he discovers that Gaebril (Morgase’s new advisor) means to kill Elayne (with Nynaeve and Egwene as collateral). Now Mat has a new motivation: to save Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne from the assassins sent for them. Friendship-driven storyline.

Nynaeve the powerhouse

Nynaeve continues to get stronger. She only has to see or sense something done once in order to replicate it. She can Heal more effectively now after having seen it done to Mat in the White Tower. In an encounter against three Myrddraal it seems like she… summoned a balefire? Something that is apparently forbidden and I believe is mostly unknown to current living Aes Sedai (with the exception of Moiraine, who also summoned one against Darkhounds in Illian and against Be’lal in the Stone of Tear).

However, even with all that strength Nynaeve still has the block: she has to be angry in order to channel. To be honest, she needs the block. I think she would be too overpowered otherwise. If she eventually gets over the block at some point, I’m sure there are even bigger fish to fry that Nynaeve’s strength with the One Power would not be too out of place.

Nynaeve acknowledges that her hate for Moiraine for putting her and the other Emond Fielders through all of this is what keeps her going (as I call it, hate-driven storyline). I wonder what will happen if she—if ever—finds out she doesn’t hate Moiraine as much as she thought she did? I think eventually she’s going to realize there are bigger problems out there, bigger than her or Moiraine. Would she re-prioritize? Find a new motivation? I’m still thinking about those thorns piercing through her hands.

Egwene the methodical learner

Of course, Egwene is also getting stronger. She and Elayne gets raised to Accepted early on in the book. Egwene went through the trials, where she faced fears relating to Rand and becoming the Amyrlin Seat without touching the Oath Rod.

The main difference between Nynaeve and Egwene is that Egwene works through her learnings more methodically. It seems she can sense the different flows more vividly than Nynaeve or Elayne, and she is able to deduce how flows interact with each other to achieve a particular outcome. Although there are some moments in the story where Egwene just does things without really knowing how she did it, just having a vague idea of it theoretically.

I can definitely see how this sets her up to becoming a great Aes Sedai (maybe even becoming the Amyrlin). Egwene likes knowing the how and the why—if not at the moment then later when she gets a moment to think on it—whereas Nynaeve often just goes with what she feels and lets her emotions sway her actions. They are certainly motivated differently—Egwene doesn’t share Nynaeve’s hatred towards Moiraine, but she is very much invested in helping Rand, however that will look like in the future.

Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.

Other notes

1. Something that may have just slipped through or might be hinting at something else: when Egwene was in the trials to become Accepted, she asked Sheriam about Myrddraal and Dreadlords forcing Rand to turn to the shadow. Sheriam then tells Egwene that there is weakness in being able to channel: it leaves someone vulnerable and open to other things. She basically just admitted that she knew Rand could channel… that or she very quickly deduced that that is what Egwene meant. If I recall correctly, among the Aes Sedai only the Amyrlin, Moiraine, and Verin knows about Rand al’Thor. But that may have changed after the battle at Falme. Maybe everyone knows about Rand now.

2. In the first few books we keep hearing of Rand looking like an Aielman, in this book there’s more and more talk of him looking like Tigraine. I’m not sure who exactly Tigraine is or what her lineage is, but that’s an interesting detail to keep note of.

3. I still don’t have much of a read with Moiraine and Lan, but I should have realized sooner that Moiraine is very much as ta’veren as the three boys, or at least it certainly appears so. She seems the type to just go with wherever Rand pulls the thread—she would still try to pull those threads herself, although she can only do so much—but with the surety of someone who knows it will all work out at the end. She expects the people around her to do what she says and do as she wishes, and they do—even Perrin admits as much. I wonder if it’s an Aes Sedai thing, or a Moiraine thing, or a Moiraine being ta’veren thing. Well, we don’t really know much about Moiraine’s past at this point in the series, so I might just be saying shit.

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Note: This was originally posted on Substack.