Rand's criminal negligence of Mazrim Taim

[Bugglesley]

On 1/1/2024 at 2:45 PM, HeavyHalfMoonBlade said:

That certainly could be the case. It just felt a bit strange, a bit like an after thought, and it also highlighted that the Black Ajah could have done that at any time. The death toll would have been high and everyone would be so paranoid that the Tower would have stopped to function. 

 

But yes, possibly I did not consider all the possibilities.

That's... that's basically what was happening? The sitters were largely barely a decade into being raised to the shawl, Siuan was one of the youngest Amyrlins in history (until Our Girl Eggy, ofc), the tower's numbers were at a low ebb. Older, wiser AS had figured out by New Spring that rising too high introduced severe life-threatening occupational hazards. Still, nobody was willing to say "black ajah" out loud, the paranoia was largely directed inwards, but it's there and it is severely damaging.

 

The Tower was barely functioning, even before the split. Siuan is clearly stressed. They're failing to keep a lid on false Dragons; both Logain and Taim were allowed to get out of control. Taim even slips away. Wars are breaking out, like in Tarabon and Arad Domon, that a "functioning" Tower would/should have seen coming and prevented. The Forsaken slip into and take charge of nearly every major state; how many of them did the Tower challenge in any possible way? None!

 

Meanwhile, she's sending literal children to hunt murderers working for ancient evils. She is managing the single most important thing any 3rd Age Aes Sedai has ever done (the Dragon Reborn), and so the duly elected Amyrlin Seat trusts... nobody but her two also relatively-young school friends.

 

"Function" is a strong word! While the core component of being a 3rd age Aes Sedai is to project cool, calm, collected control of any situation at all times and the Tower as a whole is functionally doing that (right up until it splits), I'd argue that even by EotW the Tower is not really "functioning" in many of its core missions. Ishy and the Black Ajah had really done a number on them.

 

And to all that--I'd always figured it wasn't that deep, and that Aran'gar killed Anaiya because he wanted to. Maybe she was digging on her own and got too close, maybe he randomly slipped up and she saw evidence of him weaving saidin in the wrong place a the wrong time, maybe he  (a known creepy misogynist pysochopath) just got sick of hanging around all these damn savages without having a little "fun" here and there.

 

The only real relevance to the larger plot imo is that he was plugged into the Black Ajah network and just felt that safe to kill with relative impunity.

 

 

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

And yet the White Tower was instrumental in defeating the Shadow at every point. So matter how dysfunctional it was, it still served its purpose. Indeed, I could see that a "fully functioning" Tower could have made Siuan and Moiraine's task impossible, and would have been a positive boon for the Shadow when delivered into the hands of Elaida. The Tower appears to have been hampered just enough to suit the Dragon Reborn. Maybe I am wrong, or simply armed by hindsight, but it seems to me that the Shadow would have been better served by a completely broken Tower, or a strong Tower in sympathetic hands, rather than what they did, and they definitely could have done something else with the numbers they had and the advantages over the Aes Sedai who were Oath bound and in complete denial.

 

And your analysis of Aran'gar as far as I can see is lacking. He kills Egwene's maids to get access to her, he kills Cabriana's two dearest friends and no one else (am I forgetting anyone?) - to blame this on random love of killing Aes Sedai is a complete refutation of the actual facts. As opposed to non-actual facts, obviously.

 

Of course, forensic examination of the minutiae is rather unfair in fiction, but the fact remains, it did not feel right to me. Which may have been me missing something, admittedly. But the fact remains. 

[Sabio]

On 12/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, Aan-Alone said:

Do you, by chance, have a link these notes? Until your post, I had heard this was only a rumor.

Sorry for the late reply, it's also in the Origins of the Wheel of Time Book where it also shows Taimadred was the original one to kill Asmo,  

 

Halima killed for a few reasons,

1, Anyone who might be able to poke holes in her story.

2. To spread distrust of the Asha'man and Rand.  She wanted to kill any chance of an alliance between male and female channelers.  

3. She killed Egwene's maids Miri and Selame since they were spies for others and she worried they might see or overhear something to endanger herself.  

4. But her main goal was to promote mistrust and to control/influence one of the major power centers.

[Taimandred]

Very frustrating indeed. I remember thinking, this guy is incredibly sane for a mid-thirties, very active channeler. It occurred to me that he was one of the forsaken, given the book theme at that point. He certainly had some kind of protection from the taint. I eventually tossed that idea when he agreed to be a school teacher. On top of that, he himself mentioned he had been channeling for 15 years. Only Ishy was around and he was definitely dead and quite mad. Darkfriend then. 

 

Now, as to why Rand did not realise that, still bothers me. Too focused on Sammael in the beginning and then always something else. He also desperately needed someone to train these men, and Taim was the only one who could do it. So, maybe just blinded by his own need for his plans to succeed. He is a super Ta'veren afterall.

 

To be fair, Logain seemed relatively sane as well. But our only interaction with him before he was gentled is his insane laughter at seeing Rand. So maybe not completely sane afterall. But certainly seemed so after being healed by Nynaeve. Completely immune in fact. Maybe he hadn't been channeling for long before the reds nabbed him.

 

The whole thing just feels unpolished.

Edited March 19 by Taimandred

[wotfan4472]

Anaiya was not killed by Halima for no reason. She was killed, because she figured out from the other crimes, that Halima could channel saidin. 

 

The other two were killed for the same and another reason that was not realised.... Anaiya and the other two Aes Sedai Halima killed witnessed her attempt to kill Mat when he first arrived at Salidar, but Anaiya only realised what she saw when Egwene told her of the saidin killings. She realised Halima was Forsaken.