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 33: A Question of Crimson
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Nynaeve al'Meara
Since she has no other circus skills, Nynaeve finds herself as the target for Thom throwing knives. Luca is also planning for her to wear a fancy low-cut dress for her performances. Nynaeve argues against it but doesn't succeed. Egwene reported from Tel'aran'rhiod last night that Rand and his Aiel are fighting Cairhienin and Andoran soldiers and bandits. Lan gets into the thick of the fighting whenever he can. The prophet, Masema, is on the other side of the river in the city of Samara, which is where Luca plans to set up his menagerie. On this side of the river are several Whitecloak encampments.
The circus performers are at their various tasks. Aludra has more firesticks for Nynaeve to test as she continues to try to develop them in to a useful way to start fires and light lamps. Juilin stops Nynaeve and lets her know that there are Whitecloaks in Samara, too, and one of them is Elayne's brother Galad, who they are trying to keep away from. Elayne wonders why Nynaeve has a black eye and Nynaeve claims that Cerandin hit her when she wasn't looking. Nynaeve then admits she was asking questions about damane and sul'dam and got into a scuffle. Cerandin has some hand-to-hand training and easily handled Nynaeve, but Nynaeve would not give up.
Nynaeve spots the a'dam that Elayne is hiding and asks her what she is up to. Elayne says she thinks she could make one, which abhors Nynaeve but excites Elyane since no one has been able to make ter'angreal for thousands of years.
REACTION:
Unless it was to save the life of someone else... there is no amount of money I'd accept to let someone throw knives at me. There's no peer pressure that would work on me. I don't like other people all that much, aywyay. I mean... what if one of us sneezed? I will absolutely not be a verse in Alanis Morrisette's "Ironic." That's a big NOPE from me.
I completely agree with Nynaeve's self-berating after all of that.
Speaking of... things have not gone well for Nynaeve since we last saw her! Really, it's been all downhill since she beat Moghedien. I guess that makes sense. Jordan needs to have life beat her down a little bit lot before he can allow the plot to elevate her to new heights. When something epic happens with Rand, he has a rogue's gallery of new and worse villains to drive him forward. Nynaeve isn't the main character, though, so she has to have more of a yo-yo plot arc built around self-restraint of her own power and circumstances.
She has now been in at least two public brawls. Elayne reported on one of them to Egwene and now we learned that she tried to fight the Seanchan woman who is a member of the menagerie. By her own begrudging admission, the fight kept going not because it was even, but because she was beaten and wouldn't given up. That's quite a fall from beating one of the most powerful evil people of all time. She should know better anyway, considering her experience with Egeanin in Tanchico.
On the other hand, one of the most powerful humans alive let herself get beat up in a fist fight, when she was angry enough to channel. That's not nothing. Granted, the fight kept going of her own volition, but still.
(At this site, we love and defend Nynaeve.)
The point of the first half of this chapter (and her arc in the book so far) is that Nynaeve is comedically adrift. There's probably no character in the series - apart from maybe Siuan - who values being in charge as much as she does, and here she is brawling and losing out in public, having knives thrown at her despite not wanting them to be thrown at her, having Valan Luca ogle her, etc. This is on the heels of her former pupil manhandling her roughly and talking down to her in the World of Dreams. She's not in charge of herself, let alone anyone else. The humor comes from the way she is handling it. Everyone is aware of her lack of self-awareness and they're stepping lightly around her while also trying not to laugh. Her POV hints that she's maybe a little aware of it, too, but is reluctant to admit things even to herself. All of that said... I think she's going to have an epic finish to this book. She's been the main character of the B plot. She's the one going through the character growth. Jordan needed to beat her down to give her a big moment at the finish.
Elayne figuring out how to make a ter'angreal is a big deal. I'm glad she made Nynaeve (and the readers) focus on it. It's a legitimate powering up for the Daughter Heir. Egwene is the super star of the World of Dreams. Nynaeve has the most raw power by far. Now Elayne brings something extra to the "SuperGirls" group, too. The good guys really need to start closing the knowledge gap on the Forsaken, and that's beginning to happen.
The menagerie is close to where "the Prophet" and his followers are. It's also close to the Whitecloak encampment. We already know that Moghedien is actively looking for Nynaeve and Elayne. It seems like we might be on the verge of a chaotic end to the book.
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