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Monday, October 18, 2021

The Great Hunt by: Robert Jordan: Betrayal and Redemption (Chapters 44 to 46)

 

“As far as I’m concerned, you are worse than a murderer, worse than a Darkfriend.  I can’t think of anything worse than you.  The fact that I have to wear this thing on my wrist, to be the same as you for even an hour, sickens me.  So if you think there is anything I’ll balk at oing to you, think again.  You don’t want to be seen? Good.  Neither do we.  No one really looks at a damane, though.  As long as you keep your head down the way a Leashed dOne is supposed to, no one will even notice you.  But you ha better do the best you can to make sure the rest of us aren’t noticed, either.  If we are, you surely will be seen, and if that is not enough to hold you, I promise you I’ll make you curse the first kiss your mother ever gave your father.” – The Great Hunt, p. 627.

 

That, ladies and gentlemen, is perhaps why Nynaeve al’Maera is one of the best characters in The Wheel of Time.  Her sense of justice and passion in stopping the Seanchan and rescuing Egwene is admirable and the sheer stubbornness and will to do what must be done.  Other fantasy stories may have had Rand sweep in to save Egwene, and indeed Rand’s party notices Egwene when they arrive, but it’s Nynaeve’s cunning plan which actually ends up working.  The important revelation here is also the duplicity on which the Seanchan Empire is built upon.  You see, other than the slavery the whole idea that the damane can only be those who can channel, putting the collar on Seta, a sul’dam is supposed to kill her.  It doesn’t, obviously, because like the damane, the sul’dam can channel.  It’s Egwene who comes to this conclusion, realizing that the damane are just those with the innate ability, but those that can be taught to channel, even just a very little bit, can be leashed and they are the sul’dam.  Egwene’s rage is also important as once she’s free, she channels the power in retribution, not having taken the Oaths binding an Aes Sedai (this would break the one about using the Power to harm others): “Before anyone else could move, Egwene snatched the pitcher from her wasahstand and smashed it into Renna’s midriff.  The pitcher shattered, and the sul’dam lost all her breath in a gurgling gasp and doubled over.  As she fell, Egwene leaped on her with a snarl, shoving her flat, grabbing for the collar she had worn where it still lay on the floor, snapping it around the other woman’s neck.” – The Great Hunt, p. 647.  Egwene leaves Renna collared as well as Seta, causing an opportunity for the Seanchan to realize just what their system of slavery can do, something future books will have to address.

 

Now while this rescue is happening there are two (technically three) plotlines going along.  The least important is Bayle Domon preparing to sail and waiting for Nynaeve, Elayne, and Min to bring Egwene to get away, but that doesn’t do much except show how honorable Domon is as a person.  When explosions rock the harbor Domon declares they will stay and wait.  The second plot is that of the Whitecloaks.  Now the Whitecloaks have been on the edge of The Great Hunt, but there’s something here where the events of The Eye of the World, mainly Perrin’s killing of Whitecloaks in his rage at the death of a wolf is revealed to be here.  Geofram Bornhold recognized Perrin and the city so the Whitecloaks have an idea that he is there.  The language here is important, it’s Perrin who is the Darkfriend.  They don’t actually know Rand exists or can channel.  This is a grudge which is becoming more than personal.  The Whitecloaks are preparing for battle.  Preparing for battle is essentially what happens here.

 

Rand, Mat, Perrin, and Hurin have their plot essentially looking and finding the Horn of Valere, but upon finding the Horn and the dagger, Ingtar says this ““The Horn of Valere.”  There was sheer aw in Ingtar’s voice.  He touched the Horn hesitantly, tracing a finger along the silver script inlaid around the bell and mouthing the translation, then pulled his hand back with a shiver of excitement.  “It is.  By the Light, it is!  I am saved!”” – The Great Hunt, p. 635.  Now this would be rather innocuous, but the idea of being saved reads incredibly odd, because while the Horn is necessary for the Last Battle, it’s never implied Ingtar’s life was tied to finding it.  This is the exclamation of a man who was in grave danger.  That grave danger is revealed when the party is overrun right at the end, kicking off the climax of The Great Hunt, as Ingtar is a Darkfriend and he sacrifices himself so the others.  He wanted the Horn as a return to the Light, and this is treated as a redemption, a noble sacrifice.  His reasons for joining the Shadow and becoming a Darkfriend are explained thusly “Humankind is being swept away everywhere.  Nations fail and vanish…We fight to hold the Borderlands, to keep them safe in their houses, and every year, despite all we do, the Blight advances…Why should we be destroyed for them, when we could make our own peace?  Better the Shadow, I thought, then useless oblivion.” – The Great Hunt, p. 653-654.  Ingtar is a man who fell to the despair of seeing the world crumbling around him, and the earlier flicker sequence at the Portal Stones is what brought him back to reality.  The sacrifice is noble, but it is interesting to note that while treated like a redemption, it isn’t necessarily the best one.  The reader hasn’t had time in Ingtar’s head, nor much time with Ingtar, but this death is important.  It marks that Rand can be betrayed by someone he grows to trust.  In The Eye of the World, when the Darkfriends were introduced as just around any corner, Jordan intended that to be any and every corner.  They are everywhere and while one ends in noble sacrifice, they all won’t.  The possibility of redemption, however, is a major theme in The Wheel of Time and Ingtar is the first one to attempt a redemption, through his own blood and sacrifice.

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