Where’s Bela Wednesday: Fanpony

The Dark One is a big fan of the Biebs. Extrapolate from that what you will.

Where’s Bela Wednesday: Pony Pyrotechny

Sick of Ishamael’s hubris, Bela demonstrates that her servant wasn’t the only one who knew something about fire.

Hoofprints #3

There aren’t many hoofprints to track in The Dragon Reborn. Bela carries Egwene to Tar Valon and stays there for the rest of the book while every other character scampers around. Has The Dark One lost interest in our heroes? Hardly, considering the orders Darkfriends and Forsaken receive to continue attacking them, however, there was one element in the status quo The Dark Onc couldn’t stand:

Bela got sick of bailing Ishamael out of scrapes.

Think about it:

• At the end of The Eye of the World, Bela was present, Rand duelled Ishamael, aka Ba’alzamon, and Ishamael survived a seemingly mortal would.
• At the end of The Great Hunt, Bela was present, Rand duelled Ishamael, aka Ba’alzamon, and Ishamael survived a seeming mortal wound.
• At the end of The Dragon Reborn, Bela was NOT present, Rand duelled Ishamael, aka Ba’alzamon, and Ishamael dies from a mortal wound inflicted in that duel, leaving a body behind as proof.

Clearly, the presence of the Dark One was the lynchpin in keeping Ishamael around in his firey-eyed, Age of Legends persona. Bela kept him around initially, not because he was useful, but because he was, if you’ll pardon the metaphor, the only horse in her stable. The other Forsaken had been away from the world for three thousand years and needed a bit of time to wake up before they could be useful. That bought Ishamael a year and two “get out of death free” cards, but the third time around Bela decided enough was enough and let Ishamael’s foolishness take him on a trip to her eternal domain.

I hear what you’re saying, you what I’ve said is all well and good, but Ishamael’s death is just circumstantial evidence in the fight to prove The Dark One’s real identity. You’re right, the real proof lies in the seals.

Again, consider:

• After the fight at the Eye of the World one seal was broken.
• After the Battle of Falme two seals were broken.
• After the Taking of the Stone of Tear one seal was found intact.
• The only other broken seal was discovered books later, and I’ll give you one guess which horse was found in a nearby stable.

The difference between these events was simple. Bela was not present at the Stone of Tear, and why should she be? With three seals broken The Dark One can bust out the rest of the Forsaken, can touch the world enough to influence the weather in severe ways over the course of years, and let’s not forget those pesky bubbles of evil. That’s all she needs to deliver the world to Tarmon Gai’don. In the end she’s much better off in the Tower, nurturing the coup that will all but destroy the Aes Sedai and drive the world further towards chaos.

Where’s Bela Wednesday: Beauty and the Beast

Where’s Bela Wednesday: Safety LAST!

The Dark One despises all things that promote safety.

Where’s Bela Wednesday: The Starvation Amusememts

The dark one, ever eager to improve her evil, often examines the methods of the dark ones of other worlds. This week she surveys the works of a version of her known as Snow, on a world called Panem.

My First(ish) Audiobook

For the first time in over ten years, I read an audiobook. It was the Great Hunt.

Audiobooks have always been somewhat frustrating for me. I read much faster than spoken word, and I have a lot of books I want to read, so it has always made more sense for me to read a book in a few hours rather than listen to one over the course of several days. I’m also an incredibly poor listener. A single thought can distract me and suddenly I haven’t heard or seen anything going on around me in the last five minutes. An audiobook keeps going during that and suddenly I don’t know what’s going on, but with a book, I don’t (usually) continue turning the pages, so I can jump right in where I left off.
Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting much.

My expectations were BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER!

It was hands down amazing. I’m currently rereading the Wheel of Time in preparation for the final book to come out, so this wasn’t my first time reading the Great Hunt. But it was my favorite time! I think the Wheel of Time actually lends itself quite well to reading on an audiobook (especially if it’s a reread) because it’s so dense. Almost every other sentence foreshadows something (or at least makes a tongue-in-cheek joke about something that will happen later), so I didn’t have a problem with daydreaming – it was interesting enough that it made me want to listen closely so I didn’t miss anything, be it vital to the plot, foreshadowing, or just plain clever wording. I think I actually picked up more from listening to it than reading because it forced me to slow down – as I said, I’m a very fast reader, and when I get excited especially I can’t slow down because I just want to see what happens next, which sometimes it means I just blow by the little details without quite paying as much attention as I should.

For instance, there’s a point where Rand is forced to live through several possible versions of how his life could have gone. It’s not actually that long of a section and you can really fly through it reading in your head (to be honest, I had forgotten all about it until it happened), but hearing it really throws you into each reality and makes you feel the weight of each one. Also, you’ve never read the sentence “I have won again, Lews Therin” until you’ve heard Michael Kramer say it. I’m serious. The way he says that line alone makes the whole thing worth it.

I recommend that EVERYONE try to listen to the book at least once. There are some things you just can’t give justice to in your head.

Also! I noticed another Very Suspicious Activity, so there will be a post on that before we dive into TDR 🙂

Where’s Bela Wednesday: Which One Is It?

Since horses can't read, it would be suspicious for Bela to be seen looking at anything but the Graphic Novel. Unfortunately, there is only the one so far, which makes it hard for her to read ahead and find out what the heroes will do next.

 

“I Pledge Allegiance to the Great Lord…”

This is a quick one – all I’ve read of The Great Hunt is the prologue, but I wanted to point out some things I really like about how it portrays the “bad guys” of the Wheel of Time.

1. They aren’t one-sided. By that I mean they’re not just evil people out doing evil things because they’re – you guessed it – evil! Bors has chosen to become a Darkfriend for some reason or another. He may be the sort who would to kill his own mother just for fun, at this point, who knows. But he’s still got the faith/beliefs he grew up with deeply ingrained in his being. A lot of minions are scared of their masters. That’s true for the Darkfriends as well – after all, the Forsaken are capable of inflicting great pain upon them even to the point of death. But what I really appreciated was that whereas most minions in stories have a physical master, these guys are serving basically the Embodiment of All Evil, and even though they keep telling themselves it’s what they want, they can’t quite stifle that terrified crying in the back of their minds. Even as Bors professes his “Pledge of Allegiance to The Dark One” out loud, he can’t stop himself, no matter how hard he tries, from reciting the opposite litany in his heart. Because somewhere deep inside of him he is terrified of the Dark One actually showing up for realsies.

2. They’re EVERYWHERE. I mean you know objectively that Darkfriends could be anyone, but for me I didn’t really internalize it until Bors went around listing members of just about every group/order/country/culture/ruling body in the world… and implying that those were only a small portion of those gathered – a few of the nearest people to him. I mean, with numbers like that it’s really scary! How can the good guys expect to get anything done without the baddies finding out? It makes me afraid for them to tell anyone anything – and of course it scares me even more because I know a lot of them aren’t going to be as cautious as I would be because they don’t have this reminder.

3. Someone can be a bad guy without even knowing it. Bors is given orders that are so secret even he can’t know what they are. This is where we get the first indication that someone can have orders they don’t know. After all, if you don’t know you’re evil, you’ll never be able to give it away through poor acting. As a rereader, I know about compulsion and stuff already, but for a first time reader, that could really make one paranoid. In fact, it still makes me paranoid – who’s out there still waiting for some secret kill switch to be flipped in the final book?

 

Suspicious Activity #3

I have one last suspicious activity to note before moving on. I can’t believe I missed it the first time around – good thing I read the graphic novel too!

WHY is Bela even on this journey to begin with?

The obvious answer is because Egwene showed up at the last minute and needed a horse. But how did she come to know?

It’s incredibly last minute, preparations are done in secret, and nobody has been informed. They even have an Aes Sedai and a Warder watching out for them to keep anyone from finding out. NOBODY else suspects anything. Not Nynaeve, who keeps a watch on all the villagers. Not Thom, experienced at intrigue as he is – he really only finds out because he’s been preparing to leave on his own in the loft when they enter the stable. Not even Padan Fain, who’s already been set like a hound after the three boys. So why did Egwene notice where everyone else did not?

Did someone perhaps… give her a nudge in the right direction? Someone whose ravens had noted her early in her childhood and remembered her as wanting adventure?

When Bela found out that everyone was leaving she panicked because they weren’t planning on taking her along. As it would be awkward for a horse to follow them on her own, she reached out and gave Egwene’s mind a little tug, pointed out what was going on. It wouldn’t be hard to find her, since she’s always wanted adventure and Bela’s known her in this form for a while.

And to those who will ask why she didn’t tug Padan Fain instead – she needed someone not only would be receptive to going on adventure, but someone who the others would also be willing to bring along without suspicion. Padan Fain is, unfortunately, quite suspicious. Besides, he has his own horses.