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 9: Tangles
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Perrin Aybara
Perrin wakes to what seems to be cooler weather even though it has been much warmer than it should have been in winter. Perrin tours the camp to make sure everything is normal. The men notice that Perrin does not order the Red Wolfhead and Red Eagle banners taken down and the men are pleased. Balwer approaches Perrin and offers his services as a secretary and also to supply information. He tells Perrin the Prophet is probably in Abila.
Perrin needs to see the Wise Ones because they are treating the Aes Sedai as apprentices, which the other groups see as wrong. He enters the tent to find all six Wise Ones present and they immediately address their concern, which is that Masema must be killed. The Aiel dreamwalkers have seen that Masema is a danger to Rand so they advocate removing him as a concern. Perrin switches to the subject of the Aes Sedai and says they must not be beaten anymore. The Wise Ones tell him how apprentices are handled is none of his concern. Seonid who was eavesdropping is asked to come in and she pleads with Perrin to stay out of the affair. The Wise Ones tell him they are treated as apprentices and will continue to be so treated until five Wise Ones agree that they should have a higher standing.
REACTION:
One of the most interesting conversations in this chapter is the short one between Aram and Perrin, regarding Perrin’s habit of checking the horseshoes himself. Aram has to explain to Perrin that this causes the people for whom this is their actual job to believe he doesn’t trust them. It never occurred to Perrin that they’d think this. (Faile told him this, but he didn’t take it seriously when she said it.) He just likes doing the work. This gives us another clue about Perrin’s interpersonal issues. He really struggles to see outside of himself. This is also why he’s so insecure with Faile. He can’t see *why* she’d want to be with him, so he’s constantly trying to earn her love by doing things on his own (which ends up being hurtful to her and counter-productive to his goal.) The same idea kind of exists here. He doesn’t see (accurately) how other people see him. So he just can’t internalize from their perspective how his actions make them feel.
At the same time, I think is probably why people are so ready to follow him. There’s an intensity and a mystery around someone like him. He’s closed off and in his own head. He’s also active and occasionally ferocious. Sometimes, when someone is closed off, the fogginess of who they really are causes everyone else to assume more about them than is really there. We project things innately, to fill in the gaps of blank spaces.
There’s a pretty famous adage:
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
In reality though, people only think you’re a silent fool if you look like one. If you’re silent, but you’re dressed like a Lord, are married to a Warrior Lady like Faile, are close friends with the Dragon Reborn, and have the giant arms of a blacksmith, people think your silence is concealing greatness. They project their assumptions onto the blank spaces you show them.
The negative of Perrin’s inability to see beyond himself is that it causes him to want to do everything alone. He doesn’t see the skill and value of others well. It doesn’t occur to him to look for it because he thinks lowly of himself. “Why should lowly me let ___ help me, when I could just do it myself.” It doesn’t occur to him to consider that they want to or that they’re good at it. This refusal to look outward (to *really* look) causes him to make bad initial assessments of people. He doesn’t value other people enough to look closely and judge fairly. Most other people aren’t important to him in that way because he can do things for himself. He prioritizes doing things for himself because he doesn’t think he’s worthy of people doing things for him. He also projects that outlook sometimes onto the people around his wife.
We see that as he pretty inaccurately thinks that Faile’s retainers are fools, rather than good at what she asks them to do.
It’s ironic that Perrin is probably going to be the re-founder of Manetheren at some point.
As predicted… Balwer begins setting himself up to be Perrin’s future spymaster. That will be useful when Perrin is known as Perrin Goldeneyes, King of the Wolves, Lord of the Two Rivers, High Emperor of Manetheren.
Perrin finishes up the chapter continuing to read situations incorrectly, as made evident by his visit with the Wise Ones. Why is he so protective of Aes Sedai? It’s a little bit weird. This was the thing that he and Rand fought about after Dumai’s Wells, too. Even after finding out that some of them viciously beat and tortured Rand, he wanted to protect them *from* Rand. Now he’s wanting to protect them from the Wise Ones. He also acts completely unaware of the fact that Wise Ones are a parallel group to the Aes Sedai. Perrin *saw* the Shaido Wise Ones fighting the Aes Sedai using the One Power and holding their own. He knows they walk the World of Dreams. He acts like they’re the Temu version of Aes Sedai, anyway. It’s crazy.
Hurr, durr, you should be learning from them, not beating them!
Sigh. Then he goes on to inaccurately assert aloud that the Wise Ones would like to cut the throats of their Aes Sedai apprentices.
The other big argument he has with the Wise Ones regards Masema. We learn here that Masema *must* die. And as readers, we know this is true because it came from the Dreamwalkers. Like Min, they aren’t wrong. Perrin doubts them though. When Nyn met Masema a couple books ago, she thought he was completely unhinged (she still told him off – at least somewhat told him off – because she’s Nynaeve.) Perrin might need to have another meeting. I look forward to what his nose tells him there. He knew Masema before he was insane so it might be hard for him to accept that a guy he traveled with subsequently became unhinged.
“I swore to serve the Dragon Reborn and the best service I can give him is to keep this animal from him.” – Seonid Aes Sedai, re: Masema
“I am going to ignore the advice of literally everyone and do what I want.” – Perrin (more or less)
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