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 45: A Bitter Thought
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Vilnar Barada
Vilnar and ten other Saldaean soldiers are patrolling the streets of Caemlyn. At the Whitebridge gate he finds an odd procession―a long line of farmers with longer bows than he has ever seen before. The leader has a short beard and a wicked axe at his side while a Saldaean woman rides beside him. Then he recognizes Zarine Bashere and wonders what he will tell Deira Bashere, considering the way she is looking at the group’s leader.Point of view: Perrin Aybara
Perrin pauses when the Saldaean soldiers block the gate. Aram is eager to fight his way through, but Perrin calms everyone down and talks to Vilnar. Perrin can only bring a few soldiers into the city, so he has Dannil take everyone to a meadow to set up camp. Gaul, Bain, and Chiad head into Caemlyn without Perrin, to meet with other Aiel in the city. Faile appears to be very concerned that her father and probably her mother are in Caemlyn and she will have to face them for having run away and also gotten married. Perrin is worried about meeting Lord Davram Bashere as a father-in-law. Perrin also feels a ta’veren pull from Rand, which is what has led him to Caemlyn. They are finally taken by Aiel and Maidens to meet with Rand.
Rand greets Perrin and Faile very warmly, congratulating them on getting married. Min is there and Perrin greets her with a big hug, which stokes Faile’s jealousy―until Faile realizes that Min is besotted with Rand. The women go off to have a talk, leaving Rand and Perrin to discuss the state of the world. Rand wants Perrin to go to Tear, to take over the fake invasion of Illian since Mat is no longer there. However, Perrin declines. Perrin berates Rand when he learns that he is playing the two Aes Sedai factions against each other. Rand tells him that the Aes Sedai were never going to leave him alone and this way they are too preoccupied with each other to fully interfere with his plans.
REACTION:
Perrin returns! He’s been gone for most of this book after missing The Fires of Heaven entirely.
I really loved the Rand and Perrin reunion, even more than Rand’s reunion with Min. Rand needed Min like a man who needed oxygen, but being around Perrin took the weight from his shoulder – however briefly – and let him be his old self for a few moments. Despite everything going on in his life, he’s baffled and fascinated by the changes to his home and Perrin is at the center of those changes. It’s even better that when explaining it to Rand, Perrin can hardly believe it himself.
“She calls me Lord Perrin,” […] “she curtsies Rand, she actually curtsies.”
The brief jealousy between Faile and Min was great, too. That would have been a intense knife fight if it hadn’t been sorted out immediately. Perrin at least doesn’t twirl her around in the air like Rand did. Faile obviously likes her more once she realizes that Min is infatuated with Rand.
Jordan does a great job of switching his POV style with each character. Rand is kind of a baseline POV. Mat’s POVs feel distinctively Mat by the volume of small details that he notices. Perrin picks up on emotional details better than the other two. For example, he notices that Rand doesn’t blink often enough anymore and what that type of expression means.
The greeting – where Rand gets to feel like his old self, hearing about the Two Rivers – is later balanced by Rand updating Perrin on world events. Moiraine and Lanfear are both dead. Allegedly. Rand has trouble in every part o the world from allies and foes alike. So Perrin gets to find out exactly why he doesn’t blink enough. He’s literally carrying the weight of the world. He’s grimly realistic about the White Tower splitting and how it benefits him. He also seems to think that there’s a segment of Aes Sedai ready to kneel to him. He’s basing that off the Alviarin letter. Why does Rand believe this? I think he’s making assumptions about the Prophecies – which he’s read and reads constantly.
He’s desperate to hand off Andor (and Cairhien) to Elayne and it’s a complete non-priority for Elayne or the Salidar Aes Sedai to actually show up in Caemlyn to take those burdens from his shoulders. I have no doubt that the Ebou Dar detour will end up benefitting the world, but it would help the Elayne sections immensely (making her more relatable and sympathetic and raising the sense of the stakes for why she’s detouring) if it seemed that she was mentally fixated on what she’s putting off. Instead of “I really need to be there, it’s weighing on me so much” she just seems to take for granted that Caemlyn will wait for her, indefinitely. She even gets angry at the idea of Rand handing Caemlyn to her.
Perrin’s reaction to Rand is great because he doesn’t seem to really internalize how much Rand has grown and changed. He has no reason to have done so, but he’ll get there. Book 3 Perrin would be shocked at Rand having Aes Sedai enemies and they’ve been separated that long. Actually, they barely saw each other in Book 2, as well, because of Rand’s Portal Stones trip. The others have been around to get used to the politics swirling around Rand, but Perrin hasn’t. It’s a good reminder for the readers about how much has changed.
Why does Rand want Perrin in Tear so badly? Mainly I think it’s so that Sammael takes his military bluff (whatever that proves to be) seriously. It also helps Rand – and I think Rand knows it – to have a ta’veren in places where he needs to to put a thumb on the scale in his own favor. Perrin saving the Two Rivers is proof that this is a legitimate strategy. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.