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Five Thoughts on The Wheel of Time‘s “The Flame of Tar Valon”

By | January 13th, 2022
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The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose above the great recap pages of Multiversity Comics. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

Today, we will look into episode six, “The Flame of Tar Valon.”

1. The Amyrlin Seat

As shown in the cold open, Siuan Sanche, the 997th Amyrlin Seat, was the daughter of a common fisherman in the nation of Tear. Despite wanting to stay with her father, she was forced to go to the White Tower to learn to use her ability to channel, seemingly the way of things in the nations of the Westlands, or at least of Tear itself. Her word choice at times harkens to that, particularly fish-related metaphors around Moiraine.

In the present day, Siuan is shown the gentled Logain, who attempts, without success, to threaten her. Rather than kill him for his crimes, she lets him live, even having his bindings removed. While some may consider her actions a kindness, the exposition in earlier episodes shows it may as well be a punishment in and of itself, given the addictive nature of the One Power to those who can use it. By having him “freed,” she shows he was no threat to her whatsoever. Instead, Logain will be turned into a test subject and example for all future false Dragons.

The structure of the chamber in which Siuan meets the others shows more about the power dynamics of the Aes Sedai themselves: seven collections of three “Sitters,” representatives of each of the seven Ajahs (Blue, Brown, Gray, Green, Red, Yellow, and White), all before the Amyrlin herself, apparently meaning the groups represent each Ajah directly. We have been told about what the Blue, Green, and Red Ajahs are focused on, and there are hints toward the Yellow Ajah being composed of healers, but the others are only glimpsed thus far. Notably, the central seat amongst the Greens was empty at the meeting. Was it perhaps the position of position of Kerene, or Alanna?

After Logain is sent away, Siuan reprimands Liandrin of the Red Ajah, Alanna of the Green Ajah, and Lady Moiraine Damodred of the Blue Ajah for the extrajudicial gentling, noting that even if they were trying to defend themselves, the law is not meant to protect them and their own comforts, but rather to protect other people from Aes Sedai. Her words bring to mind Egwene’s conversation with Moiraine, that about Artur Hawkwing and the Three Oaths sworn to make peace. Rejecting Alanna’s request for clemency, the Amyrlin places blame, and to-be-decided penance, on Liandrin, who would have been in charge after the death of Kerene.

2. Moiraine and the Emond’s Field Five

It seems that this episode is very much Moiraine-centric, as even our introduction to other members of the cast, including major players, is through the lens of her perspective. First, and perhaps least important, is the way that the scene of her sipping tea is framed in a way that Nynaeve (wearing a yellow dress, perhaps indicating her chosen Ajah) leading Loial from one door to another is quite literally in her background.

She then is seen to attempt to address Mat’s corruption by his dagger, again framed from her perspective, with her and Lan going to see him. Rand still believes he is a male channeler, but Mat attacking Moiraine with the dagger that he took shows the real reason for his month-long illness: the different taint of Shadar Logoth itself. As she uses the One Power to drain the corruption out, it plays in a similar way to an exorcism or draining the poison out of a snakebite. A stream of black “bile” emerges from him along her streams of Power, looking similar to the way that Logain used male channeling in a sense (possibly indicating the involvement of male channelers at that location, but uncertain).

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That said, when the corruption is brought into her own body, it seems that it is visible to all, meaning it is not a use of the One Power in the same sense, but is still a magical corruption. Mat does seem to be somewhat healthier afterwards, at least enough to be freed of the connection to the dagger, but Moiraine warns that the dagger was as much feeding on his darkness as he was on its own, meaning Rand will need to watch him given his high constitution in being able to withstand being “consumed” by the dagger for so many weeks. If he is to touch the dagger again, he may be forever lost to his friends.

Then there is her meeting with Egwene and the bedridden Perrin. Moiraine seems to be trying to keep the Two Rivers group separated, given she does not tell Egwene that Rand and Mat are in the city, only that she has people watching for their arrival and that she has on good authority that they are alive. From what Egwene says about Eamon Valda not hurting anymore of the Aes Sedai, it seems that she believes he is dead, but we do not have enough to confirm it to be the case. On hearing about Perrin’s golden eye change and his connection to wolves (which the Aes Sedai seems to recognize), Moiraine demands Egwene not tell anyone about what it is, and that many within the city would hurt him if they knew what he was. By the end of that meeting, Moiraine tells Egwene to come to her when she calls for her, but to tell nobody else where she is going.

3. The Amyrlin Uncensored

That night, Moiraine lets her hair down and her jewelry off, and, after consulting with Lan, goes to the “window” painting, which seems to actually be a portal into the chambers of Siuan Sanche herself utilizing the One Power to open it.

As it so happens, Siuan’s behavior in the sitting of the White Tower was something of a front. Rather than being angry when she spoke to Moiraine, she was fully in league with her, and was acting as she did to save face. Instead of being just another Blue sister, Moiraine instead is Siuan’s lover, and had been for quite some time, seeking the Dragon Reborn with her agreement under the nose of the Reds (and by extension the other Ajahs. Apparently they were present at a prophecy of an oracular Aes Sedai, a Foretelling, that indicated the birth of the Dragon Reborn (hence why they knew of their age), and they were the only ones who knew.

Further, Siuan has been having dreams of the Dark One, ones claiming that he is weak and “barely clinging to his power,” at somewhere called the Eye of the World. By her reckoning, they could destroy him now if they were to move quickly.

Together, the two hatch a plan. Siuan is to “exile” Moiraine from the White Tower, enabling her to continue toward her goal of finding the Dragon Reborn without being subjected to political infighting in the Tower. This actiong would also enable her to leave at all, contrary to Blue Sitter Maigan Sedai’s assessment that Moiraine may need to stay within the Tower itself permanently. In order to do that, she is forced to swear upon the sacred Oath Rod that holds all Aes Sedai to the Three Oaths.

The wording of her new oath is as follows, differing from that which Siuan supposed: “By the Light, and my hope of salvation and rebirth, I, Moiraine Sedai, swear to honor and obey Siuan Sanche, daughter of the river, clever as a pike, strongest of Tairens, and never return until she calls me home, or may the Creator’s face turn from me, and darkness consume my soul.” This wording is particularly important, as not only does it reinforce that they are in love, but it also binds her to Siuan, and not to whoever holds the Seat, meaning that if she did lose power, the ability to return to the White Tower is not dependent on the new leader.

The next time Egwene and Nynaeve both see Moiraine, she is introducing them (after a heartfelt reunion) to the Amyrlin Seat (along with a humorous question from the former about if it could be confusing to name the person who sits in the seat and the seat itself the same thing). Egwene is awestruck, but Nynaeve is comparatively annoyed and nonplused, not bowing or showing any outward respect at all to the point that it amuses Siuan. Behind closed doors, it seems that Siuan does not actually want to be the Amyrlin Seat at all, and does not want the responsibility, having wanted to stay with her father so many years ago. Despite what Nynaeve claims about the Amyrlin Seat not knowing anything about her, the Aes Sedai leader is more similar than she would know. They all have a part to play, and it seems that Nynaeve and Egwene will have their own roles as told by Siuan herself.

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4. Liandrin’s Confrontations

Rather than accept the judgment of the Amyrlin (mentioned in section 1), Liandrin instead deflects, noting that the purpose of the Blue Ajah is to find threats before they become bigger, and to use that knowledge to prepare, whereas Moiraine has been coming to and from the Tower for twenty years without explaining anything up front, including the immensely powerful Nynaeve. According to Liandrin, Nynaeve is more powerful than even Siuan herself. She even wonders about why Moiraine was not there to warn them about the emergence of a false Dragon in the first place.

It seems that Moiraine has had it with the Red sister’s snooping and attention to the Two Rivers group (though she seems to think it all revolves around Nynaeve, who is actually seemingly the least important to Moiraine’s goal). For that reason, she threatens to tell the rest of the Red Ajah about a man who Liandrin meets in the Northharbor sector of Tar Valon, a threat regarding what they both know the Reds would do to him. She would not tell… if Liandrin agrees not to speak to anyone of what she suspects regarding Moiraine and the Two Rivers folk. Is this man a channeler? If so, how hypocritical is Liandrin Sedai?

5. The Ways: Outsmarting Pursuers, Together

Before Moiraine’s exile, she meets and speaks to Loial, of whom she asks a favor. This favor relates to a stone dias with two pillars, one on each side. This is a Waygate, a method of travel related to Ogier. The Emond’s Field group all meet there as well, but their happy reunion is interrupted by Moiraine telling them how they will need to use the portal of the Waygate to approach the Eye of the World to confront the Dark One and learn the identity of the Dragon Reborn, be it man, woman, or (the least likely of all) split between the four ta’veren and Nynaeve.

The Ways are, according to Loial, “ancient pathways, out of time and space.” A step in the Ways could be a hundred miles outside of them, and horses (such as the ones let free by Moiraine and Lan) would be unlikely to survive.

According to Moiraine (and in contrast to the books), the Eye of the World is also the location of the Dark One’s prison. To travel there, and to potentially get between the Dragon and the Dark One, could mean certain death.

Once the dark portal into the Ways is opened, everyone goes in… except for Mat, who elects to stay behind, not trusting the path ahead.

Until next the Wheel wills. Do you have any thoughts, questions, or concerns? Feel free to leave comments below. See you next week!


//TAGS | The Wheel of Time

Gregory Ellner

Greg Ellner hails from New York City. He can be found on Twitter as @GregoryEllner or over on his Tumblr.

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