““Do you remember the first time we met, Lan?” She was watching for some sign, or she would not
have seen the quick twitch of his eyebrow.
It was not often she caught him by surprise. This was a subject neither of them ever
mentioned; nearly twenty years ago she had told him – with all the stiff pride
oof one still young enough to be called young, she recalled – that she would
never speak of it again and expected the same silence of him. “I remember,” was all he said. “And still no apology, I suppose? You threw me into a pond…Every stitch I had
was soaked, and in what you bordermen call new spring. I nearly froze”” – The Great Hunt, p.
321.
While Twitter of Time is rightly losing its mind on
the release of the Amazon Prime adaptation’s teaser trailer this week, the section
of The Great Hunt on the docket is three chapters, all from different
perspectives, finally opening up the worldbuilding and seeing the White Tower,
testing to move up in the Aes Sedai ranks, and characters whose point of view
had been lacking in The Eye of the World. “Watchers” is an exploration of Lan and
Moiraine’s relationship. Lan as a
character didn’t actually get much depth outside of certain parallels to The
Lord of The Rings and his budding relationship with Nynaeve. This particular chapter gives the reader an actual
explanation as to what the bond between Aes Sedai and Warder entails, though
not without some obfuscation. It is a
bond with the One Power, one that can be moved if necessary from Aes Sedai to
Aes Sedai. This is the first time where
Moiraine gives some of her plans for Lan’s bond moving to somebody else,
preparing for the possibility that she will not somehow not make it out
alive. “Myrelle…yes, she would have to
be a Green or else some slip of a girl just raised to full sisterhood…Not a pet
but a parcel. Myrelle is to be a – a caretaker!
Moiraine, not even the Greens treat their Warders. No Aes Sedai has passed their Warder’s bond
to another in four hundred years, but you intend to do it to me not once, but
twice!” – The Great Hunt, p. 323.
Lan’s emotional state her is incredibly important, giving the reader a
real sense of how deep the Warder bond goes, moving it would cause pain but is something
that Moiraine clearly has a plan for.
She’s already seen just how Lan is around Nynaeve, and Myrelle has
promised to pass the bond to one who suits Lan better. Lan’s outrage here is completely justified,
and could easily be explained if Moiraine made her plans known, she sends him
away and the rest of the chapter discusses the possibility of the Forsaken
having made it out of their entrapment. The
Eye of the World already establishes this as something which is happening,
as well as discussing the numerous false Dragons, obviously Logain being captured
but another by the name of Mazrim Taim.
There is also the whisperings of the Black Ajah, an evil group of Aes
Sedai who have not been confirmed to exist, yet.
“Nynaeve shivered. “And you want me to walk into this
one?” The light inside the arches flickered less, now, but she could see what
lay in it no better. “We know what this
one does. It will bring you face to face
with your greatest fears.” Sheriam smiled pleasantly. “No one will ask you what
you have faced; you need not say, no more than you wish. Every woman’s fears are her own property…”“I
just walk through one and out another? Three time’s through, and it’s done?”” –
The Great Hunt, p. 336.
The second chapter is “The Testing,” all about Nynaeve
being tested to become an Accepted, the middle rung of the Aes Sedai while
Egwene has already had her name placed in the Novice book. While there is an opening description of the
White Tower, the main event here is the testing and what it reveals about
Nynaeve. She must enter a ter’angreal, a
power wrought artifact, three times, as there are three archways. Each archway makes Nynaeve face her fears of
the past, present, and future. The Aes
Sedai, lead by Sheriam, Mistress of Novices, know exactly what emotionally they
will be putting her through, Sheriam even offering her one last out, but
Nynaeve insists on going through the testing.
Each vision she is shown tests a different part of
her. The past looks at her recent past
and some unspoken trauma she experienced at the climax of The Eye of the World,
with Aginor appearing and threatening her life.
Nynaeve is a woman who doesn’t wish to be helpless when she or those she
loves are in danger, and with a Forsaken, while she can attempt to fight
Aginor, she gets through only when she realizes that she needs to run away to
fight another day. The second fear is of
those who she left behind at home, with the woman who she left in place when
she chased after the boys has left and been replaced essentially by an evil Wisdom,
representing her fears of the Aes Sedai.
Mavra Mallen, a name that immediately calls the idea of malice and evil,
is essentially the stereotype that was in Nynaeve’s head about Aes Sedai from
the very beginning. Remember that this is
the woman who refused to believe she could channel and believed Moiraine wanted
to spirit away Rand, Mat, Perrin, and Egwene for her own evil purposes, and
letting go of those prejudices is something that she will have to overcome,
when she finishes the test she screams that she hates all Aes Sedai. The final test is what brings her to this,
but this second one is what’s putting her near the edge, the final test seeing
herself and Lan happily married and with children. She has to confront that she could have any real
feelings for Lan, and this final test leaves her scarred with thorns in her
hands. Jordan has included several
instances of religious imagery, and invoking the stigmata here is an
interesting choice connecting Nynaeve to Jesus, already planting the seeds that
she is going to be a healer and protector, something which runs through each of
the visions of the testing. She doesn’t
see her connected to the Aes Sedai, but the chapter ends with this line, “You
are sealed to us, now.” – The Great Hunt, p. 354. Nynaeve has made her fate and while she may
not yet accept it, she’s taken the first steps towards that acceptance.
““My name is Elayne,” she said. She tilted her head, studying Egwene. “And you are Egwene. From Emond’s Field, in the Two Rivers.” She said it as if it had some significance,
but went right on anyway. “Someone who
has been here a little while is always assigned to a new novice for a few days,
to help her find her way. Sit, please.””
– The Great Hunt, p. 356.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back Elayne Trakand,
daughter air of Andor. Elayne is assigned
to Egwene, showing her the ropes of the tower, and both of them have been put
to work doing several chores. This isn’t
really a big let’s move the plot forward chapter, but Jordan uses it to really
make the reader know that he isn’t going to be doing a love triangle between
Rand, Elayne, and Egwene. It’s the
lightest of the three chapters, and does also reintroduce Min, who reveals in a
small point of view section at the end reveals that Elaida, the Aes Sedai
advisor to Queen Morgase who has a way of getting some information about who
Min is (she was called to the Tower by Moiraine) and the three girls here are
all essentially outsiders. Elayne shows
her royal sensibilities here, though is good natured, while Min is just adamant
that she shouldn’t be here under so many Aes Sedai. It’s essentially people becoming friends while
Min has another vision vaguely foreshadowing things that we don’t learn until
much later.
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