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 seven of season 2, “Daes Dae’mar.”
1. Lessons in the Power: Foretelling, Shielding, and Severing
Key to prophecies in various fantasy stories is the seer, or seeress for the female versions. In The Wheel of Time, that power is called Foretelling. As noted before, there are prophecies of both the Light and the Shadow, but only certain channelers have the “ability” to see into the future. Such a skill, or perhaps a condition, is beyond their control, coming at complete random. It seems that those who Foretell can remember their prophecies very effectively, but some are more urgent than others.
In the case of Keeper of the Chronicles Gitara Moroso, the Foretelling is of the birth of the Dragon Reborn, and seems to come in visions more than words (perhaps due to it being a visual, rather than strictly textual, medium). If the source is any indication, she was the reason Tigraine Mantear was on Dragonmount in the first place. Gitara seems to feel Tigraine’s wounds, and she dies as the woman does. But as she dies, she charges Siuan and Moiraine, the only witnesses to her death, with finding the Dragon once more and telling nobody else. As a side note, her age clearly shows despite the slowed aging of users of the One Power, demonstrating her 306 years of age (the oldest Aes Sedai recorded at the time).
There is discussion of Moiraine’s condition, from concern by Siuan to explanations by Lan. For men, the term for cutting someone off from the One Power is “gentling,” while for women, it is called “stilling.” The distinction is entirely based in prejudice, so it is perhaps better to use the gender neutral term, “severing.”
In another moment, we have Lan, having figured out what happened from Logain, explain a legend of the Forsaken’s abilities. Some were capable of tying off weaves and leaving them in place. These may sometimes be similar to the kinds used to block Logain before gentling him, but can be self-sustaining rather than needing constant focus. As Lan notes, even the Forsaken could not cut someone off completely by themselves. As such, Rand realizes he can use the One Power to slice through the knot on Moiraine’s access, reversing her “severing,” which he does with his most proficient threads: Fire and Air along with a blackness that seems to be the male version of Spirit (if it is not just an indicator of male channeling in and of itself).
This information about tied weaves is rather strange, but may influence how the story moves forward. After all, there is very little reason to see a tied off shield as different from just outright severing someone, as in practice they are virtually the same. We will see if this ultimately holds true.
2. Alliances Forged and Broken
The most tragic part of this episode is probably the relationship between Moiraine Damodred and Siuan Sanche.
In the cold open at the close of the Aiel War, they are so close, ready to live together for the rest of their days. It is abundantly clear why Moiraine would pledge on the Oath Rod to always obey her, rather than the Amyrlin Seat itself.
However, unlike Moiraine, Siuan seems intent on controlling, rather than merely guiding, the Dragon on his path toward the Last Battle. The idea is he would be a weapon in the arsenal of the White Tower, not a general of the Light’s forces. Such a decision seems to be in line with Tower law and policy, but she is exceptionally cold in enforcing it. When Rand tries to channel, she quickly shields him, showing her superior training, if not necessarily raw strength. The idea that she immediately knew seems to either mean she could see his weaves (impossible as per the source unless they had an effect like fire) or was so practiced she knew he probably was about to start (more likely). He does seem more versed in sword forms of late, likely having been practicing, so he is still effective without the One Power, but it is rather useless when faced with magic.
Continued belowSome of Siuan’s complaints make no sense. She rants that Moiraine taught him nothing of how to channel, yet she would know that it would be impossible for a woman to teach a man, hence the reason for the Forsaken’s existence and their more dangerous gender-neutral power source. She laments halfheartedly that he was not born a woman instead, something that again feels bizarre when it was already clear that the Dragon would be reborn, an entity that is male (unlike his female counterpart, one of the Heroes of the Horn of Valere to be addressed if and when it is sounded).
Despite Lan trying to get Rand to see that she is of “humbler beginnings” than he, Siuan is still conniving, and blames Moiraine for letting Rand loose and not working to help him, as well as for being severed (itself disgusting as it is essentially victim blaming). Siuan is even willing to betray Moiraine’s trust, imprison her, and ultimately to demand she aid in keeping Rand near, using the aforementioned Oath to her advantage. She may love Moiraine, but she seems to use Moiraine’s inability to help more as an excuse to be more cold and cruel. As Moiraine says, they were supposed to make the White Tower ready to help the Dragon, not to take him as their own, regardless of Tower law. Siuan’s personal power seems more important than her love at this point.
Moiraine feels betrayed by Lan as well, but seems to recognize his point about her needing to learn how to trust others and let them help her. It is likely a slow process, one to be wary of going forward. She even says one of the prophecies to Rand to explain why he is supposed to go to Falme, as he is supposed to proclaim himself there, “bannered ‘cross the sky in fire.”
By keeping Rand in Cairhien, Siuan is either ignoring prophecy or trying to manipulate it, both of which rarely end well in any stories. By contrast to the above prophecy, Siuan claims she wants to announce (read: proclaim) the Dragon Reborn in Cairhien. If anything, she is the one beholden to her pride, though Moiraine has her own issues, as the idea of the Wheel is in letting things fall as they may without too much control, lest it blow up in their faces. Guides, not chains.
In contrast to Siuan, Verin seems to still be on Rand and Moiraine’s side, tricking Leane Sharif into leaving and dropping the shield on Rand so he can escape captivity during Lanfear’s distraction (see explained below). Alanna also seems to be on her side as well.
It may be just for her own benefit (okay, it absolutely is), but it says something when even Lanfear is more accommodating to Moiraine and willing to help than Siuan Sanche, first through her explosive distraction that seemingly lasted all night, then by personally helping Lan, Moiraine, and Rand through the Cairhien Waygate after badly injuring, but not killing, Siuan by herself.
As a side note, having the scene after Lanfear walks through the Foregate turn from brought daylight to the middle of the night was rather odd, and did not seem to be just the case of storm clouds. If she is able to just waltz around Cairhien for the better part of a day with absolutely nobody coming to face her at all, not only are the White Tower Aes Sedai incompetent or complicit, but the Cairhienin guards and military are laughable, if any of them even exist outside of the guards who go to Barthanes’ cell.
3. The Secrets of the Sul’dam
Egwene is going through more time with Renna, she herself outfitted with a gag similar to the one on Miri had. The outfit seems to be common of damane, as others in the training line, including Maigan, also have it. Her strength in the One Power is so potent that her slow of basic strength was felt a long way away, a seemingly harmless shockwave of Air felt in Falme itself from their far off training grounds. However, in private, Egwene admits to still wanting to kill Renna.
After being told by Loial that only a sul’dam can come to the kennels, Elayne and Nynaeve capture and collar the sul’dam Seta Zarbey. As was likely to be expected, it seals, feeding off of her use of the One Power. As a secret of the Seanchan culture, sul’dam and damane are no different from one another, as both can channel. Whether or not Seta realizes this is unclear as of yet, but in the books she was shocked.
Continued below4. A Game of Houses
As it turns out, Barthanes Damodred is a Darkfriend (as he was in the source). Liandrin orders him to kill Moiraine (and if she hears of it, his mother Anvaere) on behalf of their “master,” and he reluctantly agrees. Anvaere, right outside the door, hears all of this and has her son locked in a cell. By how he begs her not to tell Queen Galldrian, she was not in on it.
As for why he is following the Dark One, Barthanes later claims that it is the reason they rose back to power in the first place. He may have been the High Seat of House Damodred (the head of his noble house), but once he would have been king, or at least in direct line to the Sun Throne.
His obsession is probably in part a reaction to the events of and fallout from the Aiel War. Laman Damodred, his cousin (technically his great-uncle given it is his mother’s uncle, but the official word of The Wheel of Time Companion claims it as an uncle), had thoughtlessly angered the Aiel with an insulting use of one of their gifts, and so had started a global conflict that ended with his own death (the only one that the Aiel actually cared about). In the intervening twenty years, Galldrian was the monarch (king in the source, queen here), but Barthanes would have been wanting to bring prestige back to their fallen line.
This plot element in general is the closest the story gets to actually going into the Daes Dae’mar (literally “the Great Game”), the “Game of Houses” and politicking that goes on around Cairhien between the various lords and ladies jockeying for power. However, in the Game of Houses, you end up dragged along eight seasons kicking and screaming until you are a shadow of your former self from a lack of source material or you die. (Or that might be a different series with a similarly named book that started shortly after the beginning of this one.)
In hindsight, perhaps talking about dark purposes and killing family members for an evil “master” should be done after all non-affiliated people are out of earshot for certain? Seems like a pretty glaring security flaw for a secret organization, especially when they did not wait more than ten seconds after the door closed to talk about the world’s equivalent to violent, satanic anarchism and murder.
5. Mat and Perrin
… okay, this section didn’t really have another place, so best to just put together the last two ta’veren.
Mat is abducted from Cairhien and swiftly brought to Falme by Lanfear, so swiftly she clearly has some form of teleportation. As it is, he is brought before Ishamael, who speaks about the main others suffer that he feels they should not have to. The banter between them is a big amusing, but he still is rather uncertain and definitely trapped. Their conversation did lead to the funniest line of the episode, though. To paraphrase “The Superior Foes of Spider-Man,” why would it be a sex thing or a murder thing, Mat?
Before Ishamael, he is convinced to drink a tea that allows him to see his past lives and who he truly is. The trauma he endures is enough to get him to see at least some of what Ishamael intends, and to see how it could be an end of suffering to stop the Wheel.
Of particular note in Mat’s hallucinations is the image of him hanging from a noose. Keep that in mind; it may show up down the line, and is perhaps the most important part of his visions, above the man drowning another man in a bucket, or the woman stabbing another woman. Together these give the impression of someone “rotten,” but there’s more to it.
Journeying across the sands toward Falme, Perrin, Aviendha, and Hopper spot Bain and Chiad, two female Aiel, who bring them toward the grave of the recently deceased fourth member of their party, Jolien, at Aviendha’s request. After paying respects, Bain and Chiad beat Aviendha severely. However, it is clear they do not aim to kill her, given they remove their hoods and veils, rather than don them. Afterwards, it is as if nothing happened, as she was defending herself when Jolien had been stabbed in the back. The beating was punishment for her failure. Also, Perrin reminding her of her debut to him is considered dishonorable.
Amusingly, Aviendha and the other Aiel seem shocked by the existence of the Aryth Ocean. It seems that living out in the desert, they have barely an idea that such a large amount of water could even exist.
Until next the Wheel wills.
