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End of Book 2, The Dragon Reborn
Posted by jameson (ST),
07 November 2011
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WoT WoT Cycle Re-Read
The Great Hunt comes to a head over the course of less than a hundred pages and all of the handful of asynchronous plots threads come partially together and are resolved in a frenetic series of chapters.
Rescuing Egwene
Nynaeve, Min, and Elayne rescue Egwene from the Seanchan and it is revealed that the sul'dam, are women who can learn to channel, but are not born with the spark. Egwene's mistreatment results in her sparking off a battle within Falme.
The Horn Found (again)
Mat, Rand, Perrin, Ingtar & Hurin go into Falme to get the Horn of Valere and find Mat's dagger o'death. They find it and we get the first instance of the dagger being used in the books which results in a man dying grotesquely as his body turns black and apparently rots/corrupts from within. Rand faces down a genuine blademaster and with the help of Lan's training and the Void he manages to defeat Lord Turak. Ingtar is revealed a Darkfreind, a repentant one, who chooses to stay behind and give the others the window to escape with the Horn.
The Grave Is No Bar To My Call...
As they ride out Rand, who had caught a glimpse of the captured Egwene, chooses to go back into Falme to save her. Mat, Perrin, and Hurin refuse to let him go alone. Mat sounds the Horn and summons up the Heroes of old, who will help them to drive back the Seanchan and rescue Egwene (never mind that she's already kicking ass and taking names). The Heroes all recognize that Rand is the Dragon and repeatedly call him Lews Telamon. They almost seem amused by his insistance that he's Rand al'Thor.
Round 2, Fight!
Rand ends up in some kind of cloudy battlefield which is apparently in the sky over Falme, or maybe just projected in the sky ... or something. He sparrs with Ba'alzamon once again, and after a back and forth with neither gaining ground Rand allows Ba'alzamon to strike him in exchange for a fatal return blow. Of course we know that it won't be that easy (since this is book 2, and we know from future knowledge that Ba'alzamon is actually Ishamael), but for now Rand is victorious, but wounded in his side with a hurt that even Aes Sedai healing cannot help.
And on it goes...
So coming out of this we get a bunch of little bits and pieces.
We get a 15 page prologue which introduces us to Pedron Nial, the Lord Captain Commander of the Whitecloaks. Revelation that at least one of his men (and one of the Questioners to boot) is a Darkfreind, and worst we find that Fain is alive and well, and has insinuated himself as Nial's advisor. This will not end well, but then, we all knew that the Whitecloaks weren't going to be comedic relief way back in TEotW...
Rescuing Egwene
Nynaeve, Min, and Elayne rescue Egwene from the Seanchan and it is revealed that the sul'dam, are women who can learn to channel, but are not born with the spark. Egwene's mistreatment results in her sparking off a battle within Falme.
The Horn Found (again)
Mat, Rand, Perrin, Ingtar & Hurin go into Falme to get the Horn of Valere and find Mat's dagger o'death. They find it and we get the first instance of the dagger being used in the books which results in a man dying grotesquely as his body turns black and apparently rots/corrupts from within. Rand faces down a genuine blademaster and with the help of Lan's training and the Void he manages to defeat Lord Turak. Ingtar is revealed a Darkfreind, a repentant one, who chooses to stay behind and give the others the window to escape with the Horn.
The Grave Is No Bar To My Call...
As they ride out Rand, who had caught a glimpse of the captured Egwene, chooses to go back into Falme to save her. Mat, Perrin, and Hurin refuse to let him go alone. Mat sounds the Horn and summons up the Heroes of old, who will help them to drive back the Seanchan and rescue Egwene (never mind that she's already kicking ass and taking names). The Heroes all recognize that Rand is the Dragon and repeatedly call him Lews Telamon. They almost seem amused by his insistance that he's Rand al'Thor.
Round 2, Fight!
Rand ends up in some kind of cloudy battlefield which is apparently in the sky over Falme, or maybe just projected in the sky ... or something. He sparrs with Ba'alzamon once again, and after a back and forth with neither gaining ground Rand allows Ba'alzamon to strike him in exchange for a fatal return blow. Of course we know that it won't be that easy (since this is book 2, and we know from future knowledge that Ba'alzamon is actually Ishamael), but for now Rand is victorious, but wounded in his side with a hurt that even Aes Sedai healing cannot help.
And on it goes...
So coming out of this we get a bunch of little bits and pieces.
- The various lady channelers are all top tier in strength, easily some of the most powerful in generations if not in thousands of years, Nynaeve especially ranks very very high in strength with the power.
- Egwene is strong in earth, we're not sure what that means right now, but it probably explains why she was able to re-invent cuendillar in the later books.
- Mat is Rand's piper, linked to the Horn of Valere, and now bound to play a major part at Tarmon Gai'don.
- Perrin appears to be Rand's standard bearer, with similar implications as Mat.
- Rand is a genuine Blademaster now. Its impossible to know if that is all due to his ability and Lan's training, or if Lews Therin is already starting to bleed over into Rand.
- We get the first hints that Rand is going to be *ahem* with three women, and Min doesn't see terribly happy about that at all. No Egwene for that matter.
- Liandrin is known Black Ajah, even the character's know this at this point, there's no other explaination.
- Probably other stuff too ...
We get a 15 page prologue which introduces us to Pedron Nial, the Lord Captain Commander of the Whitecloaks. Revelation that at least one of his men (and one of the Questioners to boot) is a Darkfreind, and worst we find that Fain is alive and well, and has insinuated himself as Nial's advisor. This will not end well, but then, we all knew that the Whitecloaks weren't going to be comedic relief way back in TEotW...
'The man who called himself Bors'. That was when we were pointed out there were Black Ajah, making it easy for us to suspect Liandrin and her probable involvements in the attack on Fal Dara that released Fain.
It also explained the arrival of the Whitecloaks into the Almoth Plain area.