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Chapters: Prologue to 9
The prologue captures the scene where the Darkfriends are all shmoozing with Ba’alzemon but instead of it being a small group around a table as in the show, it’s a much more ornate affair with many more people. I really liked the way the viewpoint person “Bors” looked down at every other person in the room and it’s finally revealed at the very end that he’s a Whitecloak – mostly because that is very true to form for what we know about Whitecloaks. Even when they are evil they are just better at evil than anybody else.
(And now I’m wondering if “Bors” is short for “Bornehold”.
The Amerlyn Seat arrives in Fal Dara to the sound of trumpets. Because apparently the most powerful woman in the world travels with a team of trumpet players. Rand meets her and is told about the prophecy. In the show Rand figured it out himself, in the book Suan tells him that he’s the Dragon.
There is a lot of kerfuffle around Rand’s clothes – Morraine has had his old clothes burned and replaced everything with much fancier garb. The boys tease him about it and everybody who doesn’t know him starts calling him “Lord” and not believing Rand’s protests that he’s just a shepherd. It doesn’t help that his name starts with “Al”, which is apparently an honourific in Shienaran culture.
The fact that Egwaine is trying to talk to Padin Fain really says something about her personality. In spite of everything she still thinks of him as somebody she knew from Two Rivers and wants to help him. Meanwhile, the guards are getting grumpier as he gets stronger and I strongly suspect he is drawing energy from them in some way.
We get an update on how many False Dragons are running around. Interestingly not all of them can challenge. Meanwhile the Hunt For The Horn has started up again.
We meet Verin who is so far my favourite character in the book. She pays attention to everything, forgets nothing, and is very good at connecting the dots. Morraine even says the Brown Ajah are so buried in books that they know nothing of the real world and within five seconds of being in the room Verin proves her wrong. The distracted librarian is an act that she uses to distract people from how much she really knows.
We see Liandran use compulsion on Amalisa so we know right away that she’s a villain unlike the twist we got in the book. She very clearly believes that might makes right.
There is an attack on Fal Dara and Padin Fain escapes his prison cell with The Horn and Mat’s dagger. Rand starts washing his own name off the walls, which is possibly not the most non-suspicious thing he could do. Nobody seems to register it though, maybe because Liandran stopped him before he got too far.
We get the beautiful declaration of love from Lan to Nynaeve and he gives her his ring, which is played almost word for word in the show. Meanwhile Rand knows he can’t be with Egwene because of the channeling, whereas in the show he promises to follow her to Tar Valon right before he sneaks out in the middle of the night.
I was highly delighted by the scene where Nyneive flat out says that she is going to Tar Valon to be a Aes Sadai so she can learn enough about channeling to kick Morraine’s ass.
The scene with Bayle Domon made me roll my eyes. Somebody giving you ten times your normal fee for a job you already do is painting a big “I am sketchy” sign on themselves and I am really glad Domon is just too smart to fall for it.
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Chapters: 10 to 21
The girls get taken to the White Tower by the Amerlyn Seat and are trained by the various Ajah along the route. I thought it was very apt that Liandran hardly showed them anything because she was too busy asking questions about the boys. They are trained by the Suan herself on the river boat and the scene where Nynaeve is cut off from the source happens with Suan instead of Liandran. Nynaeve channels consciously for the first time and sets some blankets on fire – not quite the explosions she does in the show, but the point is clearly made that she can only channel when she’s angry.
One of the things I thought was hilarious was Nynaeve getting so seasick on a river boat. Meanwhile Jordan makes a point of Suan being able to walk as if she is on level ground because she’s so accustomed to boats she doesn’t even notice she’s doing it.
Meanwhile, the boys are with Ingtar chasing after the horn. I thought it was interesting when Ingtar spoke about how the kingdoms were shrinking and leaving the plains empty, because that did seem to be very much the case in the show. They were often riding across vast fields with no farms or people.
The scene where the people in the house are attacked by the Darkfriends is in a vision that Rand has instead of Perrin – he’s obviously channeling although he doesn’t seem to be aware of it. Rand finally confesses to Matt and Perrin that he can channel when they find him with the Dragon banner. He tells them Morraine is setting him up to be a false Dragon – he’s either still hiding it, or he’s fighting believing it.
And we get the scene with Padin Fain where he has regained some agency and it’s revealed that he was the one who killed the Fade. When we saw him in Fal Dara I compared him to Renfield, but now he seems to have gotten some power from the dagger, because while as he’s mad as a hatter, he’s not a victim any more. He reminds me of Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker – he‘s not even sure what he’s going to do next.
One of the things I thought was really interesting about the scenes where Rand, Loial and Hurin are transported to an alternative universe was how Rand took on the job of leadership. He fought against the idea of being second in command when Ingtar told him, but now he that they need a leader he says, Well I got them into this so I need to step up. Maybe Morraine wasn’t so wrong after all.
All the scenes with Selene made me laugh my ass off. Here she is being so beautiful and alluring and hinting that she would want to “be” with the man who held the Horn – and Rand is such an innocent. Nope, I don’t want the horn, I want to help my friend. She undresses in front of him and he turns his back to give her privacy. He is such a farm boy, all he can think of is that he’s promised to Egwene and that trying to kiss her would be inappropriate. Meanwhile she’s getting more and more pissed off because her wiles are just not working on him. She has to make monster sounds to chase them back to the portal stone. And then he thinks, she called me brilliant, Egwene would call me a woolhead and I howled.
Back in the real world, Perrin takes over as the sniffer. One of my fellow pod-casters suggested that meeting Hurin helped him to become more accepting of the fact that he now has the Wolf Brother traits – Hurin is also different with unusual abilities but the men accept him without comment. It probably also didn’t hurt that he was being useful because that’s definitely something that would be important to Perrin.
And the wolves have given him a nickname, Young Bull. Perfect.
They stop in the town of Tremonsien after passing an enormous statue holding an orb. It’s a weird scene, almost as if the statue is talking to him and I would put down money that it’s going to show up again later in the story. At the Inn they meet Caldevwin, who proceeds to quiz Rand about Andor. What’s hilarious is that he wouldn’t have been able to answer any of the questions without having fallen off the wall by accident and landing in Elayne’s garden.
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Chapters: 22 to 30
One of the things that is very different between TV show and book is that Morraine is never stilled in the show. Chapter 22 has a scene where Lan is angered by Morraine talking about passing their bond over to another Aes Sadai if anything happens to her and Lan is pissed. I think the change does a much better job of explaining that tension.
When Nyneive has her three visions in the arches the first one is completely different, the second still takes place in Two Rivers and deals with a replacement Wisdom – in the book evil and in the show merely incapable. And in the third she is married to Lan but they live in Malkier and she is the Queen. I honestly liked the show better in this case too, she didn’t just lose Lan when she left the vision but also her home.
Elayne in the book is just as aggressively friendly as the show. I did think it was funny that in the book it’s Elida who gets her in trouble with the Matron of Novices. Just another tiny addition to make her hate-able.
There is a sequence where Domon Boyle meets the Seanchen. I don’t think that’s a change from the show, it’s more of a prequel to finding him there that was cut for space.
Rand in Cearyn, finding Thom, trying to avoid getting stuck in the Game of Houses and also trying to avoid the Trollocs and the [Illuminists}. If there is one place where I think the book is better than the show it’s the pure comedy gold of Selene trying to manipulate him and absolutely failing. “A Great Man would defeat them all with the horn.” “Would you stop that? I’m trying to find a way out of this place.” Magnificent. I love every interaction.
And finally Perrin, Matt, and the Shinarans arrive – literally five minutes to late to save the horn. Timing is everything.
Chapters: 31 to 40
There is a full chapter that is written from Perrin’s point of view, and it’s interesting because Perrin keeps reflecting on how much he sees that Rand has changed – he is much more confident and speaks with much more authority after having Loial and Hurin depending on him to get them out of trouble. One of my co-podcasters pointed out that we don’t see gradual change in people we’re around every day, but if you meet up with somebody after some time away it becomes obvious.
There is a scene where Verin talks about the power of the statue, which is a “sa’angreal” – in other words a magical tool – for men. She mentions it’s counterpart, a sa’angreal intended for women and says only a handful of women would be strong enough to actually use it. And she mentions the Amarlyn, Morraine, Elida, and three women still in training.
Of course I immediately think that the three in training are our Towerpuff girls, Egween, Nynaeve, and Elayne.
I have to say I absolutely loved the character of Barthanus in the TV show. He is utterly guileless and open-hearted and I did not see the reveal coming at all. I love it when a show can completely fool me like that.
Barthanus in the book, on the other hand, is opening conniving. Him trying to translate everything Rand says into secret messages is comedy gold. So is the scene where Rand is cornered by the cougar patrol, and a when he later passes through the ballroom he passes Ingtar who is also cornered by the same women. I really think it was a loss not to have those moments in the show, both because it says a lot about how Cairhienins think but also because it would have been really really funny.
The scenes in Toman Head when Padin Fain gives The Horn to Lord Turok is similar to the show, but I find it interesting that the show used Ishamael as the plotter and Padin Fain just worked for him. Ishamael gave the vibes of a chess player, but Paid Fain is more chaotic even though he does have a plan in place. Turok’s explanation of how the Horn works explains why nobody has tried to use it so far.
We get to see a populated Stedding in the book and there is also some information about the social lives of Ogier. They value peace and consistency and Loial is terrified they will realize he’s off book without permission and will make him stay. He complains about the danger Rand gets him into, but he definitely doesn’t want to go back to a life without it.
We also get to meet a group of Aiel spear-maidens and seeing armed men almost makes them forget their oaths, which we know from the show is a really big deal. They seem to be quicker on the trigger than the men.
The journey between the portal stones serves the same purpose as Ishamael’s potion in the show – it gives a glimpse of other possible lives. We only get to actually see Rand’s but it’s obvious the others are also affected – Ingtar is shaken up, repeating that he walks in the light, and Mat immediately promises Rand he won’t betray his friend. Verin’s reaction is textbook Aes Sadai – she tells him he’s foolish for using his power that way and that she should have guided him more, but blames him for the entire thing after she told him to do it.
Liandrin drags the girls to Toman Head and I think this is one place where the show was more believable than the book. In the show she has developed a relationship with Nynaeve and she tells her the boys are in trouble in confidence. Whereas in the book she tells Nynaeve and Egwene that they must come, that only they can save the boys, that they can’t tell anybody – and she’s so overpowering about it that it just ends up feeling sketchy as hell and in their case I would have left a note under my pillow or something in case I got sold to pirates or something because she’s acting so weird.
In the end Min and Egwene are captured just by being caught by surprise and we get the whole story of the a’dam and how women who can channel are enslaved. The creepiness factor is off the charts here and I think the show did a really good job of portraying Renna as somebody who thinks she is kind and Egwene is lucky to have her instead of one of the sul’dam who are strict with their slaves. It’s horrible.
One of the things I really liked about this chapter is how the horror of Egwene’s situation is contrasted with the humour of Liandrin and Lady Suroth sniping at each other while explosions are happening in the distance. Another example of how Jordan really had an eye for visual comedy and it was really wasted that some of that didn’t make it into the show. (Although to be fair it might have made the Seanchen feel slightly less horrifying – and they are definitely horrifying.)
Chapters: 41 to 50
The situation with Egwene imprisoned by the Seanchen feels very different in the book. I do think that the addition of Min being able to come and go as she pleases really ramps up the contrast between their positions. On the other hand the show spent a lot more time in the dungeons and really ramped up the cruelty so it felt so much more intense. In particular we talked about the difference between Egwene being deprived of her name in the book and having her braid cut off in the show and differently those scenes hit. It was also really important to me in the show that Egwene was the one who freed herself, whereas in the book it’s Nynaeve who takes off her collar.
On the other hand, I LOVED the scene where Min and Nynaeve free a Damane from the collar and she immediately turns around and punches her Suldan right in the fucking face. I really wish that bit had been in the show because hell yeah.
Also can we talk about how much the girls gossip about Rand and how hot he is? Min says straight out she’d go for it if Egwene doesn’t want him. Every woman in town wants a piece of the D(ragon).
I’m honestly not sure how I feel about Rand’s fight with Turok. I loved the Indiana Jones moment in the show so much, but in part I loved it because of the modern cultural reference. Maybe I’ll just say that the way the show did it was true to the show, and the way the book did it was true to the book.
Another scene from the book that I would have loved to see in the show was Ingtar’s confession. It would have gone a long way to explain his dedication to finding the horn and his compassion for the darkfriends they find along the way. And it was such an emotional moment, a man who has fucked up and will do anything to set things right. His death was so much more intense with that detail.
Matt blows the horn when the group are trapped between the Seanchan and the Whitecloaks and the heroes appear from the mist. It’s not stated outright that Matt is a Hero of the Horn and Uno isn’t alive so he isn’t one of them. I liked Uno being a Hero, but also I kind of want to see what happens in the rest of the story for him, because he’s a fun character.
Lanfear’s appearance when Rand is unconscious is the first time we find out who Selene really is in the book, while in the show we’ve known for a while.
Rand’s battle with Baelzammon was spread across the sky for all to see and now he’s famous. People are selling paintings of his face. (And presumably other merchandise.) The Shinarins declare themselves to him, and now he has the start of an army.
Not bad for a shepherd from Emonds Field.