The Shadow Rising by: Robert Jordan: Reactions to Evil (Chapters 2 to 4)

 

““Light!” It slipped out before Perrin could stop it.  Moiraine’s eyes turned to him.  “You mean what happened to . . . Rand is going to start happening to everybody?”  “Not to everyone.  Not yet, at least.  In the beginning I think there will only be a few bubbles, slipping through the cracks the Dark One can reach through.  Later, who can say?  And just as tav’eren will tend to attract these bubbles more powerfully than others do.”  Her eyes said she knew Rand was no the only one to have a waking nightmare.” – The Shadow Rising, p. 101.

 

The Shadow Rising proper begins with bubbles of evil.  This is not the first time for an installment of The Wheel of Time to begin this way, The Great Hunt began with the suggestion of a bubble forming around Rand al’Thor while training with Lan in Fal Dara, but it is the most expansive time yet.  The chapters this essay covers are the first time the reader gets to be in the heads of Rand, Mat, and Perrin and specifically their reactions to these described bubbles of evil appearing in Tear.  Jordan takes the particular time for the manifestations of evil to form related to each of the characters on their deepest levels: Perrin’s axe tries to kill him and Faile, Mat is attacked by the images on playing cards, and Rand is attacked by images of himself.  Mat’s is perhaps the least obvious ‘fear’ to parse out exactly what it means.  Perrin and the axe has been a thread since The Eye of the World as he grapples with violence and Rand’s fear of his own madness since The Great Hunt, but Mat as a character hasn’t actually had enough time to fully explore his own fears.  His reaction to the bubble of evil is also the one that takes him furthest away from Rand: he actively finds Thom Merrilin for advice.  Thom is playing his own game, he's positioned himself in the servant’s quarters to stop the association with Rand while Mat’s fears are laid out here: “As good as.  She’s always asking people where I am, what I’m doing.  It gets back to me.  Do you know anybody who won’t tell an Aes Sedai what she wants to know?  I don’t. As good as being watched.” – The Shadow Rising, p. 109.  It’s the Aes Sedai as an organization whom Mat blames for his missing memories and a lack of identity.  Identity being in flux is something that all three of the boys generally share, Rand having just declared his identity while Perrin spends much of his perspective unsure of where he will be going as a person.  Mat as a character is so determined to not be manipulated, Thom is easily able to manipulate him into staying until the next morning, despite the base instinct to run away from his problems and go.

 

Rand’s reaction is perhaps the most vulnerable reaction.  Over the past three books, while all three of our characters of this section have gone through much, Rand’s internal torture has been there since The Great Hunt and Jordan has realized this.  Rand is being manipulated on essentially all sides, while Moiraine is the closest to having Rand’s best interests at heart she is still an Aes Sedai and still is preparing for the Last Battle.  The Shadow Rising’s opening sees Rand in a position of institutional power, he is exclusively referred to as the Lord Dragon and has already been having nightmares of the women he loves destroying him and Moiraine still manipulating him.  Rand is not only confronted by the bubble of evil but has to deal with those using their sexuality to get to him: Berelain, first of Mayene, introduced at the end of The Dragon Reborn establishes herself here by attempting to seduce Rand.  Jordan coats the language in Mayene not being so formal of a culture, dismissing his rejections initially due to Rand’s own naivety as being promised to Egwene (something already being broken at this point in Rand’s own mind with dreams of Elayne and Min) and just a general disinterest or reluctance in sex.  Berelain joins several female Wheel of Time characters in the femme fatale archetype, something that will develop towards different affections going forward but here is how the interaction ends ““I am the only one there is…The one you were treating as if we were betrothed.”  He meant it to smooth her, perhaps make her smile—surely a woman as strong as she had shown herself to be could smile, even if facing a blood-drenched man—but she bent forward, pressing her face to the floor.  “I apologize humbly for having most grievously offended you, Lord Dragon.” Her breathy voice did sound humble, and frightened.  Completely unlike herself.  “I beg you to forget my offense, and forgive.  I will not bother you again.  I swear it.  Lord Dragon.  On my mother’s name and under the Light, I swear it.”” – The Shadow Rising, p. 85.  Rand has power and does not understand how to use it, reacting by lashing out against the evil and showing himself to the world to be the dominant force of power rising.

 

This is finally contrasted with the equal uncertainties of Perrin.  When the bubbles of evil manifest, while Mat runs away, Perrin is the one to go find Rand, reflective of the fact that between him and Mat, Perrin is the one to stay and chase after Rand throughout The Dragon Reborn.  The loyalty of Perrin is fascinating as he is the first of the boys we see in this novel, and he is equally as uncertain as with Mat.  His relationship with Faile, something that The Wheel of Time fandom is rightfully critical of is actually quite sweet here.  There are the beginnings of the tensions between the two characters, but Perrin has grown a beard and it feels right for the character and their relationship.  The relationship is quite cute, Faile being the advocate for Perrin doing what he wants to do, despite their mutual stubbornness and the cultural differences of the pair there is that sweetness.  Faile genuinely cares about Perrin and while Jordan makes some interesting decisions with the character, here she has begun to become his rock to reailty.  We also see the aftermath with Rand and Moiraine from Perrin’s perspective, continuing the general thread from The Dragon Reborn so it’s his reaction that the reader sees, as well as more of the Aiel culture.  Mat is tricked into playing a game called Maiden’s Kiss, and Perrin is asked if he wishes to play.  Maiden’s Kiss is a game of being kissed at spearpoint by Maidens of the Spear.  It’s this interesting detail of Aiel culture, especially as the Aiel will also be taking center stage as the novel develops.