Reading Wheel of Time for the second time. Rand Al'Thor is my favorite walking disaster area. This is an Elayne positivity space.
Just a heads up about tagging. I will be using:
#wot show spoilers for wheel of time show spoilers
#wot book spoilers for wheel of time book spoilers. Sometimes I will also list the specific book (e.g tpod spoilers). There might be fan art/spoiler-y posts if you go back far enough in my blog, although I tried to edit things. Do with this info what you will.
So, Rand has his battle in the sky with Ishy and gets stabbed/injured. He’s dying, and then Mat remembers how the trollocs were scared to enter Shadar Logoth. So, he figures that the evil of Shadar Logoth can counteract the Dark One’s evil. And he stabs Rand with the dagger to help heal him
LOVED the moment we shifted from Siuan musing that we’d have been in a better position if the Dragon had been a girl, to Egwayne caged and taken from the safety of the Tower anyway, used by the most brutal of captors as a weapon reminiscent of how Tower law dictates the Dragon should be used. And they believe they’re fighting for the Light among the Seanchan too.
This reply has been haunting me all day @ashlass-m
Rand asked the supervillainess in love with him if she could break him out of prison and she was like “sure thing babe let me just set the entire world on fire in a path between me and you” and honestly I’m kind of in love with her at this point.
The math behind adding male and female channelers to a circle is haunting me because I want there to be some sort of underlying like… mathematical theorem and instead I’m pretty sure RJ was just like “you know what I should use? some primes. not all the primes. only the ones I like! …2 and 3 and 13.”
Alright, after being reminded by @siralannatrebond about how atoms are stable when their highest energy level has 8 electrons (see: the non-reactive noble gases), and remembering that RJ was a physics major, I now have an explanation for the circle/linking math.
Presumably the maximum number of channelers in female-only circles is 13 because primes are fun, and 13 is extra-fun because of SYMBOLISM. They’re witches, 13 is a spooky number, I’m wincing a little now, I get it. You can add one (1) man and then add another 13 female magic users. Then add another man, cauldron boil and cauldron bubble, and you’ve hit a change in the Ppattern, you can now only add 8 women before you need another man.
Why 8? ELECTRON VALENCES. You’re an atom and you hit 8 electrons in your outermost valence shell slots and that’s it, you can’t form bonds with other atoms, because you don’t have an empty seat for another electron to sidle over and ask if it can buy you a drink.
This also explains the other somewhat arbitrary-seeming limitation that the largest circle can only have 72 channelers maximum. That 72 is what you get when you add the maximum number of women and the minimum number of men: 13+1+13+1+8+1+8+1+8+1+8+1+8 = 72. That’s 7 groups of women, and there are 7 rows of the periodic table, representing the total number of electron shells in each electron’s atom.
“Her uncle had died, and she had ascended the dais in his stead, a crown placed upon her head. Once, the nobility had tried to revolt. Once, Lord Galldrian of House Riatin had mustered enough support to march on the capital. Once, she had put whole towns to the sword. Once, she had lined the streets of the capital with the heads of traitors — one for every corner, for every street lamp. Once, she had stalked through Cairhien with saidar on her lips and blood soaked up the hems of her dress. Once, she had confiscated estates all across the countryside, throttling the flow of coin into those Houses who had forgotten the meaning of loyalty, who had forgotten their place, letting them die the slow death of obscurity and ruin.
Now, they are afraid to speak her name. Now, the Sun Throne is secure beyond all measure. Now, her rule is absolute.”
