Laurien's Journey through EotW

Laurien Achaur

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Greetings, all! A few people suggested I keep updates going of my first trip through the books. I figured I'd do just that here; it keeps me reading consistently and feeds the veteran readers' nostalgia, so why not? ;) This thread will be sort of a stream-of-consciousness as I make my way through Eye of the World for the first time. Anything I put as a question is something I'm expecting to have answered as I read unless I specifically say I'm confused about something, so don't feel like you need to address those. Unless you want to comment, of course.

So! Here I go with "Earlier" (the prologue to the prologue, it looks like):

- Love the scenery right off the bat. Warm, late spring, green...Very evocative.
- Ohhhh, they're babies! Baby Egwene! "She was going to be the best water-carrier ever." Such a nine-year-old aspiration ;)
- Egwene, questioning the status quo. "Why did you have to keep doing something just because it had always been done that way?" Wise beyond her years, this kid.
- Oof. Creepy ravens. (This makes me sad; I've played so much Assassin's Creed Valhalla this year that ravens are always good in my head. Guess I'll need to adjust.)
- ...Go away, Kenley.
- Don't worry, Egwene; you'll get The Look down eventually.
- Need to adjust my mental pronunciation of "Aynal," because the first way I tried it was...probably not what RJ was going for :laugh:
- The sheep-shearing being a community thing, even a day for celebrating despite it being hard work, makes me wistful. We don't have much of a modern-day equivalent for this, do we?
- They shifted the breakbone fever thing from Berowyn to Egwene in the show. I understand why. Makes for an interesting backstory point for Egwene since we don't really see her sisters in the show.
- Haha, Kenley! Nice catch, Mistress Ayellin.
- Egwene's loyalty to her mom's baking is adorable.
- "Make me fly, Perrin!" Well, now I just love him more :pleased-1:
- Nice little burn to Adora. Egwene with the sass ftw!
- Loise not budging with Dag Coplin is a pretty significant illustration of the power women have in the WoT world, I think.
- I love getting to see apprentice Nynaeve and the old Wisdom. There isn't really any context given for who she took over from in the show.
- And there's the first braid-tug :giggle
- I love how Egwene can already read Nynaeve well enough to know when not to push and why she's acting the way she is.
- Oof. Egwene trying to comfort Elisa and not knowing she's taking a bad tack until it's too late.
- Why is she looking for Perrin and Mat so determinedly, anyway?
- Baby Rand! Lanky and all feet and I am having a hard time picturing it :laugh:
- Why would people have been pairing Egwene off with Rand already when they're all still so little?
- Mat, you uppity, competitive little...
- Even as kids, there's a stark contrast between Rand, Perrin, Mat, and Egwene and the rest of the Two Rivers kids. They think differently, have different expectations, and don't seem to want to settle for things as they are.
- Egwene watches and listens to Rand through that whole exchange and decides she still hasn't learned anything? Well, she is nine.
- Ahh, her father is the Mayor. Might explain why Egwene wants to be the best at even just water-carrying.
- At this point, Mat's mother seems pretty steady. I'm anticipating a shift there, based on the show.
- All the one-upping between Mat and Dav :laugh:
- Why is Buie so against Tam talking about the Dragon? He says it isn't "decent," which is an interesting way to put it.
- I wonder what compelled Tam to tell this story in particular.
- So the Forsaken are Aes Sedai who turned to the Dark One. I'm guessing they're going to be a ton of trouble later.
- I feel there's something significant about Tam talking about Lews Therin Telamon before the Breaking and ending the story there, with the Dark One being defeated, especially when Egwene and probably the other kids know that the Dragon destroyed everything.
- I love Perrin's question here. "Master al'Thor, what does 'the Dragon' mean? If somebody's called the Lion, it means he's supposed to be like a lion. But what's a dragon?" They don't know. A dragon is something mythical and unknown to all of them, obviously. What reason do they have to believe the story, then? Guess they'll find out someday...
- Those ravens... Interesting that Egwene is the only one who seems to notice them.
- Using how one wants to hear stories as a measure of getting older is interesting, and I think it's true. We get older and don't want to hear overdramatized tales from our parents anymore. We want something more complex and thought-provoking, like Egwene wanting to hear a gleeman.

Next up will be the Prologue!
 

Laurien Achaur

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Alright. "Prologue" thoughts as I read in real time.

- The contrast between those tapestries and paintings and the destroyed palace full of death and destruction is perverse. So well-written. Sort of an illustration of Lews Therin - his body in place, his mind a wreck. This is heart-wrenching to see after Tam's story.
- Ilyena is the dead woman on the floor, isn't she? :'(
- Is this Elan Moran guy Ishamael, by any chance?
- What does it mean to be "healed" by the Dark One's power? (Which is the True Source, yes? That name makes it sound like a good thing.)
- Yeah, it's her :'( And I bet Lews Therin was the one who killed her, too, but he didn't know it because of the madness.
- Classic good versus evil - arrogant boasts from the dark power, the good guy denying anything it offers.
- Killed Ilyena, all his kids, his friends... The madness from saidin getting tainted was no joke. Heart-rending.
- Oooo, Traveling. I'm looking forward to seeing who can do that later.
- Oh no. He's drawing both powers recklessly. This can't end well.
- And from Lews Therin himself comes Dragonmount.
- He wanted to end things on his own terms, with Light in the mix. And it robbed Elan Morin of his chance to destroy his eternal adversary this time. I hope the Wheel keeps frustrating the Betrayer of Hope like this.
- Heavy Book of Revelation vibes from the bit out of Aleth nin Taerin alta Camora.
- "And men cried out to the Creator, saying, O Light of the Heavens, Light of the World, let the Promised One be born of the mountain, according to the prophecies, as he was in ages past and will be in ages to come." - from the Charal Drianaan te Calamon. They asked for the Dragon to be reborn on the mountain that was itself born of the Dragon. Wheels within wheels; I love this stuff!

Next up - Chapter 1!
 

Delara Morellin

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Looking forward to following along with you, I still haven't gotten around to reading the prologue prologue :look:
 

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Oh. I remember this EXACT feeling after reading the prologue with Lews Therin. :laugh: You are in for a ride. :hug
 
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I love this! so nice getting a second view of it, can’t wait till you catch up with me, so I can get a broader view while reading:omg:joy
 

Laurien Achaur

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Chapter 1! Here we go!

- This trek down the Quarry Road is making me cold.
- Omens in the predator animals, and again with the ravens. It takes endurance and resiliency to be constantly at odds with the wilds around you like that.
- I wish we could have seen more of Tam in the show. Reading about him paints a far more formidable picture.
- Heavy Black Rider vibes from the following stranger, but almost more...aggressive. I wasn't expecting him to show up so soon! The way the wind doesn't affect him is such a simple thing, but it makes me shiver.
- Awww, Egwene makes Rand "jittery."
- I'm enjoying this "flame and the void" concept. It's very similar to some visualizations I've done in meditations.
- I would love to live somewhere like Emond's Field. Minus what happens to it later, of course. It sounds pretty despite everything, and being around the sort of resiliency the people there show can be catching. I'd be bothering people to go wander the world beyond with me, of course, but otherwise? I think it'd be my kind of place.
- I always thought beating carpets seemed like a good form of catharsis.
- Daise Congar sounds like she should be carrying a sword on her back while she's at it. I like her.
- So all the married women of the town turn into matchmakers when they see Tam coming through? Poor guy :laugh:
- Oh, and Rand gets roped into it. Getting fed is nice and all, but yeesh!
- Bel Tine sounds like a good time. Interesting how so much hinges on the first peddler of the year being there, though.
- The men seem more intent on judging Nynaeve than trying to understand or be patient with her. Unsurprising, though.
- Mat and Dav caught...a badger. They're really serious about their pranks, aren't they? :laugh:
- If Mat also saw the black-cloaked rider, I'm just waiting to find out that Perrin did, too.
- Wow, Mat's the town scapegoat for every bad thing, hm? He acts unbothered, but I don't see how anyone could really be unbothered by that.
- Yay, Tam, for roping Mat into helping :laugh:
- No one's really going to get to enjoy Tam's cider and brandy, are they? Wish I could...

Alright. Hopefully there'll be Chapter 2 tonight!
 

Nadezhda al'Lanahrin

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I am so happy to see you are enjoying the book so far!! These reactions are everything.
 

Laurien Achaur

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On to Chapter 2: Strangers!

- Awwww. Egwene's mom, doing the mom thing with the boys <3
- OMG, Mat. (I should probably start keeping a tally of how many times that's my first reaction to something Mat does.)
- Hmmm. Conspicuous Village Council meeting in the common room...
- Not the way I was expecting Moiraine and Lan to get introduced, but it's fitting, in a way!
- Apparently Lan has an elven cloak :giggle
- ...Well, at least Nynaeve didn't try to thump Moiraine with her stick. Even an apology didn't help; Nynaeve is a prideful one!
- What is the Council talking about??
- I like how Rand and Mat just know the raven is a wrong thing and have the same idea with the stones.
- Seeing Moiraine for the first time seems like a culture shock for Rand as well as a mystery (old and young all at once, the compulsion to stay near her, etc).
- The way Moiraine's mere presence affects the boys is a pretty stark contrast to the show. Granted, they aged the boys up for the show, so perhaps they're less impressionable there (and outright suspicious of her). But here... Is it just a consequence of charisma she's been trained to as an Aes Sedai, or specifically a Blue? Is the One Power involved somehow, or is it all just in who she is despite the Power?
- The way Lan is described makes me love Daniel Henney's casting even more. He really does fit (even if they did take the grey out of his hair).
- For someone keen on making up stores himself, Mat sure quick to scoff about things being "stories" to Ewin and Rand.
- I predict that the peddler is Padan Fain.
- "It was going to be the best Bel Tine ever." Mmmmph...
 

Satara al'Caelahn

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- Apparently Lan has an elven cloak :giggle

This is one of the things that I'm sad didn't make it into the show, but obviously trying to do that much CGI in every scene that Lan's in just isn't practical, sadly. :(

I'm loving these reactions.
 

Dro Beloseren

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So glad you decided to do this Laurien, it's delightful!

This is one of the things that I'm sad didn't make it into the show, but obviously trying to do that much CGI in every scene that Lan's in just isn't practical, sadly.

I think it would have been really funny to do the colour shifting by randomly changing out the cloak for one of a different colour each time they did a take. As if they were deliberately ignoring continuity. So we'd never see it change, but it would constantly switch shades.
 

Laurien Achaur

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So glad you decided to do this Laurien, it's delightful!



I think it would have been really funny to do the colour shifting by randomly changing out the cloak for one of a different colour each time they did a take. As if they were deliberately ignoring continuity. So we'd never see it change, but it would constantly switch shades.
I'm so glad you and others are enjoying it, Dro! Doing that with Lan's cloak in the show could have been great :laugh: And not huge color shifts, either, just enough for people to go, "Something is off, but I can't figure out what..."
 

Laurien Achaur

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Just taking a little break from this because of Christmas ;) And because I'm waiting for my hard copy of the book to get here; reading it off the Nook app on my phone is getting really old really fast!
 
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Chapter 1!
- Heavy Black Rider vibes from the following stranger, but almost more...aggressive. I wasn't expecting him to show up so soon! The way the wind doesn't affect him is such a simple thing, but it makes me shiver.
THIS! This is the scene that TO THIS DAY I still remember reading for the first time almost 30 years ago - this is when I knew that I was hooked on a new series. <3
 

Laurien Achaur

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Chapter 3: The Peddler

- The wagon wheels are taller than the townsfolk? That is a big wagon.
- Show comparison: I don't mind at all that Padan Fain's casting doesn't match the book description (physically, anyway). Johann Myers does a great job with his gleeman-esque, somewhat oily portrayal all the way through to being revealed as a Darkfriend. I do wish we could have gotten a bit of his grandstanding with news of the world in Emond's Field, though.
- ...Awkwaaaard moment for Rand. Poor guy :giggle
- I'm torn between appreciating that Cenn Buie asks some straightforward questions and wanting the townsfolk to run him off.
- Mat might be a pain, but he seems to hear everything. Something spy-ish for him down the line, perhaps?
- Nynaeve has no chill. Yeesh!
- So Egwene makes Rand lose the ability to think before he speaks. Yikes :laugh:
- Aaaand there's Perrin's rider sighting. A coin for him from Moiraine, too!
- Speaking of Moiraine, where are she and Lan while the peddler is here causing a ruckus?
- Okay, Egwene, come down off that high horse. You're not a mini-Nynaeve.

Chapter 4: The Gleeman
- Show comparison: I'll need a rewatch to come up with a theory about why they decided to introduce Thom later rather than in Emond's Field. (I don't believe he's dead, by the way.) And why they made him greyer and gloomier overall. Or maybe just less flashy. That cloak - the patchwork one in the book - seems to be an important part of his identity.
- Oof. I'm thinking Egwene may be harboring plans of sabotage against Thom now :giggle
- ...Not that I blame her after he makes fun of the boys. Even if he has a point, that's not how to make it.
- Spry for his age! At least, the fact that he has white hair seems to imply a certain age. Maybe his age is meant to be a vague thing.
- Rand thinks Egwene "never like stories about adventures and long journeys." Did that change between when she was nine and now, or does he really not know her all that well?
- Thom mentions the Aes Sedai shattering the world...and apparently summons Moiraine and Lan. Whoops.
- Ewin is such a fanboy.
- Geez, the hauteur to Nynaeve is enough to leave cinders in her wake! If I had read the book before seeing the show, I might not count her as one of my favorite characters right now.
- Thank goodness for Master Luhhan.
- So only teen boys of a certain age have been seeing the rider in black...
- Vindication can be a great feeling! I'm glad Tam decided to tell Rand about the other sightings.
- Last line: "There was nothing the black-cloaked horseman could do that the people of Emond's field could not handle together." Oh dear.
 

Satara al'Caelahn

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That cloak - the patchwork one in the book - seems to be an important part of his identity.

If you watch the show in that first moment we meet Thom in the inn, when he sits down to sing, he sort of fans his jacket out and you can see the patches on the inside lining. So they didn't do away with it completely, but they definitely muted down his look.
 

Laurien Achaur

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If you watch the show in that first moment we meet Thom in the inn, when he sits down to sing, he sort of fans his jacket out and you can see the patches on the inside lining. So they didn't do away with it completely, but they definitely muted down his look.
I am definitely due a rewatch so I can pick up on these things. I'll keep an eye out for it, now that I know what to look for; thank you, Satara Sedai!
 

Laurien Achaur

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Work was slow today, which allowed me to get through a small chunk of chapters. Yay! Now I just have to skim back and pick up the thoughts I was having along the way...

Chapter 5: Winternight
- Tam's over-caution seems less like paranoia and more like a sixth sense about the wrongness of things.
- Such a bleak picture of the long winter painted here. And the Emond's Fielders are planning on celebrating Bel Tine anyway. Gotta admire their determination.
- I'm definitely more curious about the origin of Tam's sword, more than I was when it was introduced in the show.
- Nooooo, Tam! :cry
- Show comparison: It seems that they took Tam's injury from the book and transferred it to Moiraine for the show. Since they lessened Tam's role in the show, they needed to have a way to show what being injured by a Trolloc would do using a more prominent character, which also upped the stakes while Moiraine, Lan, and the EF5 were on the run.
- Show Comparison: A Trolloc is named and speaks in this chapter. At this point it doesn't seem like a crucial detail, so I can understand leaving that out for the show. I do wonder if it might come around sometime in future seasons, though.

Chapter 6: The Westwood
- What a grueling chapter all around. I can't wait to get the background on everything Tam goes on about in his fever dream (apart from the Blood Snow; the show got to that bit eventually).

Chapter 7: Out of the Woods
- I want to be irritated at Rand for not understanding why Nynaeve doesn't do anything for Tam, but I completely understand how shock works. And then he runs off to the Mayor and fights past some of the fear the stories about Aes Sedai have put into him to go find Moiraine. I'm impressed and hurting for him all at once.
- Good to see Nynaeve's compassion come out here, and the hurt that comes out when she realizes she can't do anything for Tam.
- I'm thinking the Dragon's Fang must be for Moiraine and Lan, not Bran.
- Show comparison: I understand the showrunners wanting to display Moiraine's power, but I think sticking to her calling lightning down on the Trollocs could have done that just as well as fireballs and brick-flinging. I don't think it was necessarily a bad choice; it still got the job done. I just don't understand why the change was made in this instance. They also don't show her with an angreal to help, which I think would've added a point of interest. Maybe they thought it would detract from the introduction of the ter'angreal (or sa'angreal? I forget which it was) Rand needed to use later on?
- Moiraine urging Lan not to be so grumpy in the midst of everything makes me chuckle.

Chapter 8: A Place of Safety
- I'm not quite sure what to make of Thom yet. Kind of sharing Lan's distrust right now.
- I like that Moiraine's healing work on Tam, even with the angreal, is depicted as a very subtle, quiet thing - very opposite the calling of lightning and such. This seems very fitting for healing magic to me (in this context).
- Show comparison: This part jumped out at me because of how much fuss I've seen over the part in episode 8 where Egwene brings Nynaeve back: "In the Age of Legends," Moiraine went on, "some Aes Sedai could fan life and health to flame if only the smallest spark remained." I wonder if that scene was a nod to this somehow.
 
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Dro Beloseren

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- Show Comparison: A Trolloc is named and speaks in this chapter. At this point it doesn't seem like a crucial detail, so I can understand leaving that out for the show. I do wonder if it might come around sometime in future seasons, though.

Leaving out Narg's speaking role was a tragedy.
He worked so hard to memorize those lines!
:D3
 
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