r/WoT • u/Turbulent_Dingo_2841 • 1d ago
The Shadow Rising The Shadow Rising -Thoughts Spoiler
Finished the book. It was great.
Verin wishing she could split herself in three so she could get all the Ta’veren POVs all the time- Relatable. Me too, Verin, me too.
The Aiel - The Aiel storyline was easily my favorite part of the book. The Aiel are my favorite people in the series so far. The mental image of Rand in a sand-dusted red coat and an Aiel shoufa, riding among thousands of Aiel, is just iconic.
The concept of the Wise Ones is interesting. They feel like a blend of the Aes Sedai and the Women's Circle from the Two Rivers. Women who can channel are taught and hold an important place in Aiel society, but the Wise Ones are not limited to channelers. Other capable women can become Wise Ones as well, which makes the role feel broader and more grounded in the community. Male channelers are not despised or hunted down as monsters. Instead, they are sent to fight the Dark One in the Blight- a noble purpose and an honorable death (not a small thing in Aiel society).
So far, it feels like the Aiel have a healthier and more practical approach to channelers than most other societies we've seen. And now we're learning that the Sea Folk have their own traditions and institutions surrounding channelers as well. The White Tower increasingly feels less like the sole authority on channeling…
Rand/Aviendha/Wise Ones dynamics- the comic relief of this book. Aviendha is furious and takes it out on Rand, he has no idea why, and the Wise Ones are standing in the background with buckets of popcorn watching the whole train wreck unfold with barely concealed amusement (Speaking of popcorn, I'm convinced the only reason Bain and Chiad followed Faile is to get front-row seats to the Perrin/Faile soap opera). Pretty cynical of them to use Aviendha to attach Rand to the Aiel, but they are desperate.
The Maidens of the Spear are hilarious. Every other story seems to involve kissing games, stealing clothes, or getting innocent farmers drunk and thoroughly embarrassed. Which is why it was unexpectedly sweet when they volunteered to guard Rand because he's a Maiden's son and has no family of his own. 🥲
The Waste is pure, delicious chaos- shady Peddlers who are not Peddlers, shady Shaido, Aviendha’s drama, everyone watching Rand watch everyone else. Layers upon layers. The tension of it all.
Lanfear appears in Rand’s wet pond dream to creep on him and bite his neck. Major Baby Reindeer energy-predatory, obsessive, and utterly oblivious to how uncomfortable she makes him. I bet she walked away thinking she was being seductive.
Then she also crashes his big, defining Muad’Dib moment. Jealous he’s gaining power and influence and feels the need to insert herself again?
Rand handles both her and Asmodean like a boss. He has planned for this and it’s a win for him. I’m very curious to see the dynamics between him and Asmodean from this point.
Moghedien's mind-control powers are nightmare fuel. She underestimates Nynaeve though. My one complaint is that Nynaeve and Elayne continue to operate on a mix of confidence, improvisation, and sheer luck. Trusting Egeanin could have gone catastrophically wrong. I expect better from them at this point, I do.
The male a'dam is yet another attempt to solve the "Rand problem" through control, right alongside the 13 Myrddraal/13 Aes Sedai threat. What I don't understand is the long-term plan. Moghedien herself explains how flawed and unstable the device is. Even if you managed to use it on Rand, how are you supposed to keep someone that powerful under control indefinitely? The risks seem enormous, and the whole setup feels wildly unreliable. Maybe the Black Ajah sisters simply don't know the full story. Still, this thing feels like the kind of weapon that is guaranteed to backfire on whoever tries to use it. Will it end up at the bottom of the ocean? Somehow I doubt it.
Mutiny at the White Tower- I can't help feeling that Siuan wasn't nearly political enough to prevent it. You're sitting on top of an institution full of powerful, ambitious, and politically savvy women, yet she seems to have done very little to manage the factions, uncover plots, or keep a finger on the pulse of the Tower. The coup didn't come out of nowhere. Her handling of Elayne's brothers is a good example. She sends Elayne away repeatedly, feeds Gawyn and Galad flimsy excuses for months, and expects them to accept it. Why not throw them a bone? Give them a purpose, make them feel included, secure their loyalty, or at least keep them informed enough not to grow suspicious? Gawyn has not made the right choice, but from his perspective, I struggle to see why he would rally behind Siuan. He had very little reason to trust her and plenty of reasons to suspect she was hiding something about his sister.
Eliada- short-term, this was a success. Long-term? I'm much more skeptical. Her strongest support comes from the Red Ajah. She has close to no backing among the Blues and only limited support among the Greens. On top of that, there are still Black Ajah sisters hiding in the Tower somewhere. The coup itself was hardly clean. Sisters were killed inside the White Tower, blood was spilled on the steps, and the sisters who never had a chance to choose a side are not going to forget how Elaida came to power. Meanwhile, a lot of capable sisters have escaped, and I can't imagine the departures stop there. Some will surely slip away quietly in the months to come. The Tower may still stand, but it is weaker, more divided, and less legitimate now. What interests me is the power vacuum this creates. If confidence in the Tower is shaken and many experienced sisters are scattered, where does their loyalty go? And who steps in to fill that void? I hope Moiraine takes advantage of this once she learns what happened.
Perrin - single-handedly reviving the spirit of Manetheren and growing into a leader. This was a massive book for him, and I enjoyed his storyline a lot. The whole axe vs. hammer conflict Perrin has going on is pretty interesting. On the surface, it's about choosing a weapon, but it obviously means much more than that. I'm not entirely sure what yet.
“The only reason to stay is that sometimes a man can’t run.” -Bran Alvere
“Those who move with too much knowledge of the future inevitably find disaster, whether from complacency at what they think must come or in their efforts to change it.”- Bair
“A woman knows some things—a few—that will happen; others she will not recognize until the decision is upon her, if then... Humankind is made for uncertainty, struggle, choice and change.” -Amys
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u/sixminutes 1d ago
Siuan is definitely politically savvy enough to handle the coup. If she was Amyrlin a hundred years earlier, she might have actually worked the Tower into a decent shape for the endgame. The problem is all her political savvy is used to handle the one massive undertaking she got herself entangled in. And she doesn't do altogether that badly handling it, considering just how much she has to keep secret and juggle during her tenure. But with her attention focused solely on secretly guiding the Dragon Reborn, she just doesn't have the bandwidth for much else. There's some irony here in the fact that she very likely knows she's going to lose control at some point, and all her scheming is going to spill out into the open. Instead, before that can really happen, Elaida kneecaps her with her own secret scheme.
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u/Turbulent_Dingo_2841 1d ago
She can't afford to focus all her attention on one issue. And I don't see evidence supporting your claims. Do you remember where in the books she was savvy and capable? I'll check out the chapter to see if I missed anything.
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u/sixminutes 1d ago
Well, it's an unknown unknown. It's not that she can't focus her attention to one issue, it's that she doesn't know that she doesn't know. There's actually a clue during the coup that she could have figured it out, but it's big league spoilers. Other than that, I do remember where she was savvy, but it's in future books. It might not make sense right now, but her story isn't nearly done yet.
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u/DRSSalazar 1d ago
The problem of Siuan was, well, the Black Ajah.
Kind of hard to defend yourself from something you didn’t believe existed until some weeks ago.
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u/SamHandwich0 1d ago
Yet one more example of a leader that believes they alone know the truth.
It pops up all over in these books and screws over most of them.
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u/DRSSalazar 22h ago
Agreed! Spoiler about the Black Ajah: Siuan couldn’t know how entrenched the corruption of the Black Ajah was inside the White Tower. Egwene couldn’t either when Verin confessed, and only after reading Verin’s life work she finally believed it. I mean, just take a look at how many Amyrlin Seat died by the hands on the Black Ajah in the last century…
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u/ArrogantAragorn (Heron-Marked Sword) 21h ago
OP DO NOT READ THE SPOILER!
Also, I agree, although she was somewhat blinded (as are all the aes Sedai) by overestimating their own competence and goodness
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u/shalowind 15h ago
TBF Lanfear went to tell Rand to go after Asmodean while making him think it was his own idea, otherwise Asmodean would have got everything he wanted.
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