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 7: A Goatpen
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Perrin Aybara
Perrin and a small party are near Bethal in Ghealdan to meet with Queen Alliandre Maritha Kigarin based on a letter Rand received. Faile wishes to be the one to make contact and so does Berelain. Several days ago all of the channelers felt a lace of the One Power streaking high across the sky, but none of them know what it means. The Wise Ones with him wish the Aes Sedai Seonid Traighan to go to the meeting. Perrin decides to send Berelain with Annoura which angers the others that wished to go, including Faile when Perrin attempts to apologize.
As they move away from Bethal Aram spots a disturbance at an abandoned farm some distance ahead. A group of men are attempting to set upon a smaller group including three women. Perrin, the Warders, Faile and Aram ride down while the Wise Ones channel to frighten the attackers. When the attackers scatter one of the women on a horse races out of the farmyard and Perrin chases, shouting they will not hurt them. He catches the woman’s horse and another much older woman arrives calling her Maighdin. The older woman is called Lini by Maighdin, then two other men arrive and Perrin offers them protection at his camp.
REACTION:
Jordan writes this big plot arc for Perrin, and what it amounts to is that Perrin has to learn how to (re)act like he is committed to his wife and that he is worthy of her. Go back in time and imagine this conversation in the Stone of Tear, in Cairhien, etc.:
“Hey honey, I don’t know why Berelain is acting this way. How should we deal with it? I don’t think Rand would like it if one of us killed her.” This would put Perrin and Faile on a team together against Berelain, their mutual problem. It’s frustrating that this idea never occurs to him. Instead he keeps trying handle things on his own and he makes Faile – HIS WIFE – into his problem as a result. He’s constantly worried about her emotional scent and how to fix it. When he does ask Faile about the situation with Berelain, he never identifies *Berelain* as the problem. He asks about himself and his own behavior. “What am I doing wrong?” This makes Faile angry. The implication to her is that he doesn’t see *Berelain* and what she is doing as the problem. She won’t join him in a fight against himself.
Why is all of this the case? I think Perrin knows accurately thinks that Faile is too good for him. So he’s constantly trying to prove to himself that he’s worthy of her. That’s why he takes on everything alone. If he works with her to solve a problem, then it doesn’t help him to get over his mental hurdle because she will be the one (in his mind) who solved it. Working with her reinforces to him that he’s not good enough for her. Insecurity can be a pretty insidious and self-defeating belief. We read him opining several times that it would rip his heart out if she were disappointed in him.
He’s young. But it is tiresome. In this chapter, it just doesn’t occur to him at all that publicly picking Berelain over her, and then apologizing to her in front of everyone in such a way that it emphasized to the camp that he picked Berelain over her, was a bad idea. Faile doesn’t get angry until *after* he publicly apologizes to her because up until that point, the rest of the camp (especially Berelain) had no reason to believe that he and Faile were not a united front. He makes it clear with his actions that he is in charge, and that Faile and Berelain are competing. Young or not, he should be able to do that math. This is not uncommon with people who are insecure. Wittingly or not, they often seek equilibrium pretty desperately. You can get there by elevating yourself, or you get there by bringing down the person about whom you feel insecure.
All of that said, as annoying as it is to read, I think this arc is a public service to young men. A huge percentage of the Wheel of Time’s male fanbase *hates* Faile, and it’s because (IMO) that they don’t recognize that the problems between her and Perrin are primarily caused by Perrin. His insecurity makes it difficult for him to work with her. So he leaves her out of decision-making. When he has to include her, he bows out and lets her do it alone (we saw that in the Two Rivers when they were making judgments in their new role as nobility.) He puts her down in public (as was the case in this chapter) without really being aware of the fact he is doing it. His insecurity is blinding him at times to the very notion of being a team.
Jordan set all of this up pretty thoughtfully. Perrin was a backwater village Blacksmith’s apprentice. He’s grieving the loss of his entire family and many of the people he grew up with. He blames himself for all of that. It’s a legit trauma. Unlike either of his two best friends, he didn’t get magically downloaded with other men’s knowledge and experience. He hasn’t really leveled up in power because he doesn’t really understand the wolves or the wolf dream yet. Faile is nobly born and trained. Without Faile, Perrin would have traveled home through the Ways and then shortly after let the Whitecloaks hang him. That was his stupid plan. Maybe without her someone else talks him out of that. Maybe a couple of the times when he was injured, someone else would have sewn him up. Fine. She is chiefly responsible for the construction of Emond’s Field’s defenses (bringing Borderlander experience on that front.) There is no question that without Faile ignoring his orders that she ride to Caemlyn, and instead rallying help at Watch Hill, that Perrin and the entire Two Rivers likely die at the hands of Shadowspawn. The things he loves about her is why he has such an irritatingly gigantic, but well-earned inferiority complex. (Of course, he doesn’t see in himself that he alone got all the Two Rivers farmers to move into town, that it wasn’t actually his fault that his family was murdered and that absolutely nothing he did could have saved them, that he led the battle even if he did not organize every detail, that he was born with an *it* fact that leads even much older men to want to follow him, etc.)
So how does a problem like this get solved? Perrin either needs a role model to emerge and give him fatherly advice. Or he needs something to happen that will instill in himself the belief that he is actually worthy of his wife. Once he believes it, he will start acting like it, and this plot arc with Berelain can be put out of its misery. But for now, Perrin’s insecurity is the issue.
It was probably predictable given the geography that Perrin would eventually run into Morgase’s group. It happens here. He rescues them from some of The Prophet’s men (one of whom cuts off people’s ears and collects them after like trophies.) Charming.
This sets up a reaction from Perrin to remind us of why we like him. Bro is at his best when he’s in a righteous rage. “If one of you looks at me cross-eyed, he hangs!” Fantastic. He’s not lost in his thoughts when he’s angry. We need more Young Bull and less Perrin. Although, come to think of it, that’s one of the other things he’s always worried about isn’t it?
Sigh.