Welcome back to my re-read, recap, and reaction to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This post will only have spoilers through the current chapter.
You can find my previous chapter recaps HERE.
Chapter 42: Before the Arrow
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes rom wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Matrim Cauthon
Mat won’t view himself as a hero or a soldier despite the many memories of battles he now has. Mat has decided to leave Rand and his war with the Shaido and find someplace more peaceful where he is less likely to get stuck by a spear or arrow. Mat makes his way to Rand’s tent to bid farewell, but Rand is out and about right then. He exchanges some comments with Natael, then turns his attention to the two maps set up for the coming battle. Couladin has around one hundred and sixty thousand spears with him. There are also four clans that haven’t aligned with Rand coming from behind that have near the same number. Rand and his seven clans have as many as both groups together, enough to successfully fight either group, but not enough to fight both groups at the same time.
Lan enters and prods Mat about his thoughts on the troop dispositions. As Mat gives a synopsis of the strategy he thinks should be used, he recalls similar battles he fought as other men, some back to the time of the Trolloc Wars. After he finishes, he realizes he should have kept his mouth shut and decides to leave, but Rand is standing behind him. Mat tells Rand he is leaving and Rand just says he is sorry to see him go. After Mat leaves he feels much better and he can almost hear the dice spinning in his head.
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
Rand and Lan discuss Mat’s battle strategy and find it is nearly the same as the plans made with the clan chiefs. Rand has his own memories, from Lews Therin, but they aren’t as helpful at understanding war when he has no prior experience himself. The clan chiefs arrive along with Weiramon representing the Tairen and Cairhienin forces. They make final changes to the plan of battle based on their observations from the tower.
REACTION:
One of the fun parts of a Mat POV is that each time you hit one, after a long break away from him, it feels like a full reintroduction to the character. I think it’s just the way Jordan writes him. When we’re in Mat’s POV, his thoughts bounce around quickly between small details and big picture concerns. His superpower is how quickly he thinks and how much he notices, and Jordan is a master at showing us that while doing it subtly. Mat POVs kind of feel like the setting infodumps that you often get at the beginning of a book. It just happens every time in his case.
Jordan gives us an all-timer of a Mat quote in this chapter:
“Never kiss a girl whose brothers have knife scars.” – Mat
That’s probably good advice. In one of my favorite Mat moments in the entire series so far, he accidentally lets Lan know in this chapter that he’s a military genius, and I particularly liked that Rand put Lan up to it. Lest we forget, Rand is extremely clever, too. Mat shocked Asmodean so much that he stopped playing and just stared at him. This is something like a child playing and beating a world champion chess payer. Jordan absolutely excels at the “powering up” moments for his original characters and this is another big one for Mat, right up there with his first night of extreme luck while leaving Tar Valon, and his fight against the two Andiran princes.
All of that said, you don’t make someone into a military genius without putting that person in charge of a military. It seems likely that this will happen soon for Mr. Mat Cauthon. Rand knows that, too.
It feels as though the fight with the Shaido will start in the next chapter. I always love Jordan’s big finishes, at the end of his books, and this one is in sight.