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 26: The Irrevocable Words
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Morgase Trakand
Summary
Rhadam Asunawa has begun torturing Morgase to gain a confession that will let him hang her. Eamon Valda has forced her into his bed. The combination has left Morgase very depressed until Breane shocks her back to awareness with some frank talk. Tallanvor rushes into her bedroom and Basel Gill explains that he saw a very large bird land on top of one of the buildings. A battle begins in the fortress and Tallanvor correctly guesses it is the Seanchan. While they wait, Morgase senses the One Power being used as part of the fighting.
Seanchan soldiers arrive and take Morgase to the High Lady Suroth. Suroth shows off her pet lopar and her damane, Jinjin and Pura. Pura was once Aes Sedai. Suroth explains that the Empress is a descendant of Artur Paendrag Tanreall and they have returned to take back the lands that were once his. Suroth commands Thera to perform a ritualized dance and then comments to Morgase that she is the former Panarch of Tarabon. Suroth strongly suggests Morgase either swear to the Seanchan or she will be made da’covale like Thera. Once returned to her rooms, Morgase decides to rescind all rights to the throne so Elayne can ascend to the throne without interference. Sebban Balwer arrives and helps Morgase and her followers escape from the Seanchan and leave Amadicia.
REACTION:
This chapter gives us a *lot* of information and covers a lot of ground. Since last we saw her, Morgase has been tortured by Asunawa and raped by Valda. She feels shame for saying “yes” to Valda, and there’s no indication that she struggled, but she was well within a reasonable belief that any other response on her part would have led to the same outcome of violation, by force, and likely also death and/ or violence to her small group of cohorts. I think those circumstances would get a rape conviction for Valda in much of the world.
There’s definitely no reason for Valda to believe that she chose freely. Power dynamics are a tricky thing sometimes, with respect to sex, but this is pretty straight-forward.
Then the Seanchan shows up. The Whitecloaks are routed and Morgase is brought to “High Lady Suroth” where it is strongly implied that either she will be returned to power in Andor, with the nation now a vassal state of the Seanchan Empire, or Morgase will be a slave who dances nearly naked for the entertainment of the Seanchan rulers (like the Panarch of Tarabon.) Or maybe she’ll have some other even worse fate.
Has anyone in the entire series had a worse fall than Morgase? When we met her, she was a powerful Queen. She was made into a mind-controlled political puppet and sex slave by Rahvin. After escaping… things got worse.
In Arthurian legend (some of the legends at least) Morgase is a powerful witch. She’s a half-sister of King Arthur and mother of Arthur’s son – the terrible Mordred – who brings about the ruin of Arthur’s kingdom. Elaine by contrast, is a character from the stories who is well born but is a perpetual victim. Elaine boils in hot water for years until Lancelot rescues her. She bears Lancelot a perfect son (Galahad) but that isn’t enough to win his affection. She eventually kills herself. It feels to me like Jordan kept the two roles in his own story, but switched the names.
Assuming the roles remain consistent, but switched, I wonder if that means that if Rand and Elayne have a son together that the kid will be evil? Morgase already had a perfect (adopted) son and we’ve met him… Galad (based on Galahad.) Anyway…
Seconds away from killing herself (as Arthur’s Elaine does) Morgase is saved. However, just before she is saved, she renounces her titles. Even though nobody heard her, she considers it official. So Elayne better hurry up and find the Bowl of the Winds and go do what Rand has been desperate for her to do for two books – not to mention that it’s her duty though one she never seems to think about. Morgase and Co. are all saved by Balwer, who is Niall’s former spymaster. Is it useful to have a world class spook on your side? Probably. Is it bad for the Whitecloaks that a world class spook now has a grudge against them? Probably. Do the Whitecloaks have much bigger problems than Balwer? Absolutely.
With this raid, the Seanchan now seem to control Tarabon, Amadicia, and Amador. That’s a pretty big chunk of Randland. That also means the Empire is now right next door to Altara (Ebou Dar.)
Visually… we’re really close to having the Aiel coming over one mountain range and the Seanchan coming over the other.
I suspect the Whitecloaks largely survive as an order. It might also be that being homeless will make them even more of a nuisance than they were already. Mostly though, I feel confident that Perrin’s plot ties with them haven’t been satisfactorily concluded yet. I mean… we need the whole Bornhald thing to get sorted right? He thinks Perrin is a murderer (and to be fair… he kind of is one.) He wrongly thinks Perrin murdered his father, though. Bornhald needs to be held to some account for not helping the Emond’s Fielders fend off the trolloc invasion. It seems to easy to think Valda died off the page, without some come-uppance for what he did to Morgase, too.
Anyway… we covered a lot of ground there. It feels like Morgase’s story is wrapped up for this book, though. She has escaped the Whitecloaks and added Balwer to her company. Maybe her luck is about to turn around. Or since this is an apocalypse book, it will just continue to get worse. I suppose we’ll see.