Mat -v- Gawyn

[trakand_01]

So Gawyn was brought up understanding that he would be required to give his life for Elayne if so required. He is a skilled leader and soldier but most of this has been taught to him from an early age and i feel that duty weighs heavy on his shoulders.

 

I feel that Mat has the same qualities, as we progress through the books, but these have been thrust upon him, or else he has 'developed' them; he protects Elayne and Nynaeve and later Tuon, he leads armies, he is an excellent tactician. However certainly for a long time, Mat doesnt seem to feel the weight of his responsibilities in the same way as Gawyn - do you think this is down to personality differences, or the fact that Gawyn has had much longer to be dragged down, and Mat has purely had to get on and deal with his lot?

 

 

[maximus34]

I think its just a personality difference.... Mat has always been the jovial lighthearted prankster and that kind of personality in general is very resilient in regards to letting life get them down.  But being of that same type myself, I have found that it takes alot to get me down... but when something finally does, it hits hard.  I imagine that even though he has held up strong thus far, Mat's plate is about to be overflowing and he will show the signs of the strain more than he has before. Also... Gawyn is a weenie...

[DemandredFO]

I agree that is mainly personality differences and that Gawyn is an idiot.  We shall see what happens when Mat loses the eye.

[bjclinton]

The one thing that I never liked about Mat is how much he distanced himself from Rand once he found out that he was TDR...everyone else that truly cared for Rand- Egwene, Perrin, Loail, etc. accepted him for who he was, yet Mat truly allowed his friendship with him to dissolve and he looked at him from that point on as someone (or something) else. Granted, he got better as the story progressed, but not by much....

 

Mat did end up growing on me, but it took a few books. I held a bit of a grudge against his character for quite a few books before I finally came around.

 

(edited for spelling)

[drewcifer84]

mat is the epitome of the reluctant hero.  gawyn seems to be upset being playing second or even third fiddle behind the accomplishments of elayne and galad.  he doesnt really have a true identity since he always has conflicted interests. (ie serving the tower, letting siuan go, and egwene is the enemy that he loves) 

 

personally, it was hard to accept gawyn killing his warder teachers, but it really annoyed me that he still believes those ridiculous morgase rumors.  seriously how dumb do you have to be to challenge the dragon reborn to a duel when he is going to save his arse from oblivion.  gawyn should be intelligent enough to just believe min or common sense.  i mean its understandable that the masses would believe any dragon reborn rumor, but gawyn should be above that nonsense.  he seems to be lining up for a killing in aMoL imo.

[CUBAREY]

A few points.  Gawyn was raised to play second fiddle to his sister. Moreover, like Lan he was raised to due his duty. Remember he is only a couple of years older then Elayne (not the most mature person in the world).  When looking at his character and the information available to him its not hard to see why he believes Rand killed his mother.  Gawyn shares a lot of traits with Galad. He does what he believes is right (except when it comes to Egwene) no matter how stupid it looks to us.

 

Mat's initial reaction to Rand being the Dragon Reborn is also quite understandable. First remember he was under the influence of the dagger. Second, he was raised to believe the Dragon would break the world, go crazy, kill his kith and kin and otherwise be an inappropriate play mate. Third, he really dislikes AS's having strings to him.  That others acted differently  can be explained by their own history and that they were not under the influence of the dagger. Egwene was Rand's girl since they were toddlers. Nadine(sic) was the village Wisdom and new Rand since he was in diapers. Perrin-- is a deep thinker (or a puppy dog) he also  believed himself  possibly touched by the shadow. 

[oosquaiaddict]

I dont even need to read the posts to know MAT WINS!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D

 

Seriously though, Mat might not have been comfortable with Rand being the Dragon Reborn, but he stuck around Rand for an awful long time. Mat moans a lot about things, but his actions almost always show how deeply loyal he is to his friends. A kind of extension to his whole "always keep a promise" thing. I dont agree with Mat not feeling the weight of his responsibilities. He was resisting his responsibilities, but never denying them. And after KOD it seems like even the resisting thing is done.

[Magicana]

A few points.  Gawyn was raised to play second fiddle to his sister. Moreover, like Lan he was raised to due his duty. Remember he is only a couple of years older then Elayne (not the most mature person in the world).  When looking at his character and the information available to him its not hard to see why he believes Rand killed his mother.  Gawyn shares a lot of traits with Galad. He does what he believes is right (except when it comes to Egwene) no matter how stupid it looks to us.

 

Mat's initial reaction to Rand being the Dragon Reborn is also quite understandable. First remember he was under the influence of the dagger. Second, he was raised to believe the Dragon would break the world, go crazy, kill his kith and kin and otherwise be an inappropriate play mate. Third, he really dislikes AS's having strings to him.  That others acted differently  can be explained by their own history and that they were not under the influence of the dagger. Egwene was Rand's girl since they were toddlers. Nadine(sic) was the village Wisdom and new Rand since he was in diapers. Perrin-- is a deep thinker (or a puppy dog) he also  believed himself  possibly touched by the shadow. 

 

Nynaeve? Nadine was a character from the Sword of Truth series.

[RobertAlexWillis]

LOL ... what was funny to me is that he followed such a gross misspelling with (sic), which, to be honest, should be [sic], and is used in writing to indicate that the spelling error which preceeds it existed in the original, and is not a transcription error.

 

So, in other words, he just claimed that he spelled "Nynaeve" as "Nadine" because thats how Jordan spelled it.

 

:o ::) :D :'( ???

 

(I'm just not sure how I should feel about that one ...)

[Kaznen]

I've got to give props to Mat about how he handles his responiblities.  Gawyn is moaning about, "If I fail my sister is doomed."  But Mat knows that if he screws up the world is doomed.

 

On a side note, I think Mat is a better friend to Rand then Perrin.  Perrin so concerned about his wife that he would put Rand in Danger to protect her.  But Mat knows his enemies are who RAnd says are his enemies and told his new wife, more or less, "the empire that you are about to rule is my enemy.

[trakand_01]

None of the lads are stupid, and Perrin is no more stupid than Mat when it comes to knowing who your enemies are and where your priorities should lie, however I think Perrin is just a different guy to Mat. I think he hopes that if he keeps his head down and looks after Faile, it'll all blow over and he'll be able to live a pretty normal life, whereas Mat knows for certain he's got no chance of being overlooked, so helps Rand as much as he can.

 

I wonder also whether part of Perrins devotion to Faile and tendency to look after him and his wife more than others and 'the world' has anything to do with the fact that he returned to Emonds Field to find the bodies of his family lined up on the hillside, right down to his smallest brother (Paetr?). Perhaps losing his family in such a way changed his priorities towards looking after himself and Faile first and foremost, whereas Mat hasnt had that experience. What Mat HAS had, is to see how bad things can get in the big wide world if he doesnt help Rand in a positive and pro-active way, which in turn is something Perrin hasnt really experienced.