Rage Reads The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time #2), Chapters 25-50

Hello there! Last week I took a short break from Wheel of Time and wrote about other things I’m reading. This week, I will yap about the second half of The Great Hunt! I promise I’ll try to make this sound less of a summary this time. Also, as always: this will contain spoilers for The Great Hunt.

Rand’s transformation

In a short amount of time, Rand was able to transform from a mere sheepherder trying to run away from all his problems into someone who might actually be ready to face at least some of those problems.

There were a few events that forced Rand to have a bit of character development, including: (1) having to keep the Horn of Valere safe after they’ve successfully pilfered it from Fain’s grasp, (2) having to pretend to be a Lord when they came to Cairhien, and (3) having to take on the role of leader for Hurin and Loial. Rand was thrown into the pit against his will, and it has done him well. When Mat and Perrin meets Rand again, Rand feels like a different person. He even instinctively takes on the role of leader even in the presence of Ingtar.

I have a suspicion that Moiraine may have set everything up the way it is set up just for this specific reason: for Rand to be molded into the person he needs to become. But then again, with this talk of ta’veren maybe the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills and Moiraine has nothing to do with any of it. But there certainly was an outside force who helped: Selene, who we later learn is Lanfear, kept urging Rand to go after the Horn, to touch the Source, to chase the glory.

The sul’dam, a’dam, and damane

Talking about transformation and progress, Egwene had a bit of that as well. We get glimpses of Nynaeve and Egwene in the White Tower, where progress seems slow because novices are only allowed to practice touching the Source in the presence of an Accepted or an Aes Sedai. Egwene and Elayne feels that they are capable of more but they cannot be given special training.

We then learn that Liandrin serves the Seanchan army—or at least they serve the same master—when she lures Nynaeve and Egwene into a Seanchan trap where Egwene ends up as a damane. We learn that becoming a damane is a horrible, horrible thing to experience. Egwene is effectively made to be a tool who has no free will. On the up side, damane are trained hard and quick, and Egwene learns many things despite her suffering.

I had been wondering about Aes Sedai perception in the previous issues of Rage Reads Wheel of Time, and this damane system is a perfect example of what could have happened. It’s like Robert Jordan heard me contemplating about the Tar Valon system and how it could be better or worse and told me, here’s how it could be much worse (or better, depending on perspective). This is a contrast to Tar Valon—where the women hold themselves accountable and take on responsibilities they could have easily walked away from. This is the other side of the spectrum, where the people take into their own hands the responsibility of stifling women with the Talent: the women are now slaves without their own free will, they cannot act on their own wants, they cannot use their Talent for their own agenda.

It is a horrible system, and Nynaeve, Egwene, Min, and Elayne might be forever changed for having known it. They know there were people years and years ago who have created a’dam to be used for this purpose. There was a short bit where Nynaeve contemplates about justice versus revenge, what do the sul’dam deserve for treating other women this way? Nynaeve chooses her interpretation of justice: the sul’dam having known what it feels like to be damane is justice enough.

I wonder what people from Caemlyn or Baerlon would think of the damane? Would they agree with the practice of having women with the Talent chained to keep them in line? Would they prefer to have control over Aes Sedai, instead of feeling like the Aes Sedai are using them as pawns to their game?

How do you deal with being a normal person in a world where other people are much more powerful than you?

The battle at Falme

Surprisingly, Rand and the gang has a very easy time sneaking into High Lord Turak’s house—where the Horn of Valere and Mat’s dagger is kept. I wonder why the Seanchan seem to be very lax rulers, but the people are extremely scared to break their rules? Right now I’m thinking it might just be a choice that Robert Jordan made so he can place Rand where the Horn is, but there must be more to it.

After Mat takes the Horn and the dagger, Rand defeats High Lord Turak—who, it turns out, is a real blademaster—in a one-on-one duel. Rand apparently becomes a blademaster in the void. Ingtar reveals himself to be a Darkfriend, and in a last attempt to come back into the Light he sacrifices himself so Rand and the gang could get away safely. Instead of getting away, they decide Mat should blow the Horn and Perrin should fly the banner. The Heroes are summoned—Rogosh, Gaidal, Birgitte, Artur, and many others. They battle the Seanchan army and the Children of the Light—which I don’t think I’ve ever talked about because they just feel like annoying ants to me at the moment, who even are they and what do they want to do? Why do I want to know who Geofram Bornhald is? Who is Byar aside from the guy who really hates Perrin?

Anyway, Rand battles Ba’alzamon again. Everybody sees it in the sky. They see Rand with the banner of the Dragon. Rand manages to pierce Ba’alzamon in the heart in a stance that left him open so Ba’alzamon got one on him as well. Min finds Rand unconscious in a tower somewhere. Egwene follows and then they talk about who gets to be Rand’s wife—girls, Rand might be dying right this minute, I do not care who gets to be his wife. Lanfear, who was Selene, reveals herself to Min.

The gang separates while Rand heals—Nynaeve, Egwene, Mat, and Hurin to Tar Valon with the Horn and Mat’s dagger; Min, Loial, Perrin, and Rand with Moiraine, Lan, and the soldiers of Fal Dara flying the Dragon’s banner.

And that’s how the book ended. The Dragon Reborn has been proclaimed, and Rand can no longer run away (although he still seems like he wants to, and thinks that he could). I think Rand might forever be thinking about running away, and his friends will forever be involved in all kinds of trouble, so Rand is forced to save them from those troubles. It seems like Rand’s biggest motivation is his friends and family—even though he has kind of made peace with the fact that Tam is not his father, he still considers Emond’s Field his home. He is also always thinking Oh, Light, Egwene! which is cue for I need to save Egwene or I need Egwene’s help which also means I cannot leave this web until all my friends are safe.

I think all of the Emond Fielders are in each other’s traps—at one point Mat says “Saving Egwene isn’t wasting time!” It seems that what will keep them moving forward, deeper and deeper into the web, is their care for each other. None of them are willing to leave the other behind for long, even if they have to part ways every now and then.

“The Dark One can have the Horn for all I care! What does finding the Horn count if I abandon Egwene to this? If I did that, the Horn couldn’t save me. The Creator couldn’t save me. I would damn myself.”

Other notes

Ingtar

You were ready to give it up to save a friend. Think not of glory.

All throughout the hunt for the Horn, Ingtar was very obsessed with needing to have the Horn in his hands. In the end we do discover that he was a Darkfriend, and he thought that sounding the Horn would be his salvation.

There is something to be said about Ingtar—who has fought Trollocs and Myrddraals probably every day of his life—and Rand—who only ever knew sheep. Ingtar was obsessed with glory, he did not want to see his suffering bear no fruit. Being on the frontline had made him desperate, as if not having glory is an unthinkable end. Something about having victory barely within arm’s reach had made him hungry for it. It made him unfit for the Horn. But Rand, and by extension Mat and Perrin, being mere farmboys and sheepherders, had no desire for glory—it was a foreign concept to them. What was important to them were each other and their friends and family back home. And maybe that is why they were the perfect candidates to blow the Horn.

Nynaeve

Nynaeve is still somehow the Wisdom of Emond’s Field. She hatched a plan to save Egwene and—even if she was shaking and sweating doing so—she was successful. She would not have forgiven herself if it did not work.

I admire Nynaeve’s determination and bravery. She never hesitated to help her friends, and she is wise enough to know that she has to want to learn things if she wants to save them from trouble. To me, that is the divide between Rand and Nynaeve. Rand is unwilling to play the game while already being in the front and center of it, but Nynaeve studies it, manipulates it, and plays it with the goal to get out of it.

It is kind of funny that she can only channel when it absolutely counts. Hearing her doubts and fears make her so human. Her threats and promises are also hilarious:

If he is any harder to handle than the Village Council with their backs up, I will eat this coat.

The conversation between women

I have multiple notes and highlights where I just wrote, “Why is this a conversation right now?” Yep, it’s a lot of the conversations between Egwene, Elayne, and Min. They talk about Rand so much. He cannot be that important. I don’t care if he’s ta’veren and this is his show. He cannot be that important. Talk about something else, talk about something else please.

It was especially incredulous when Egwene and Min was talking about who gets to be Rand’s wife while Rand was unconscious and probably almost dying. No, I just refuse to believe this is a normal conversation. I want to block it out of my memory. I don’t care if Rand is going to have three wives, I don’t need to hear Egwene and Min and Elayne discuss it every other conversation.

(I can slightly forgive the Galad conversation, because it was the only way (as of now) we as readers could know what kind of person he is. He is a rule-follower, and he will do the right thing every single time even if it meant hurting a person. Got it.)

Rand’s other lives

There was a moment (four months) where Rand transported the Bordermen from Stedding Tsofu to Falme, and in between he lived (or had a glimpse of) many different lives—of what he could have become if his choices were different. We only ever see the ones where Ba’alzamon wins, but in all cases Rand is Lews Therin.

There was one life in particular that interested me. Egwene was the Amyrlin Seat, and she led the initiative in gentling Rand. Surely that’s not foreshadowing… surely. Egwene has spent a lot of time away from Rand, and because of that she has harbored feelings toward him being the Dragon Reborn—feelings that might be negative. She knows what it might mean for his future. She knows he will go mad and his body will rot while he’s still alive. She knows he will be a danger to himself and the people around him. I can kind of see a trajectory where Egwene ends up deciding that gentling Rand is the best decision she could do to save him from himself. That will be an interesting end.

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That concludes The Great Hunt. What was your experience reading the second book from the Wheel of Time series?

Next in line is The Dragon Reborn, which may or may not come next week. I might take a week or two off from Rage Reads, but I will keep you updated through Notes.

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