Discuss the Prologue

[deepak_dragonreborn]

Seriously loved the Borderlander POV...It was so awesome!!!I cant wait for more

[bscuga]

SPOILERS

 

I thought the prologue was very good. I am a person that does not look for whether Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson wrote the section and in this case, I really did not notice anything amiss in the writing. I liked Loial's introduction at the beginning and I actually think that A Memory of Light might be positioned to be a book within a book with us reading parts of Loial's The Dragon Reborn.

 

For those of you that have not read the Prologue, below you will find a nice summary with a few thoughts of my own along the way.

 

Lan's POV was good, but it did not progress his story very much except that he was willing to accept someone (Bulen) to ride along with him which will most likely turn out to be an army. If you have not read the prologue, then I suggest you read the Distinctions free preview - Distinctions Free Preview- as it captures the vast majority of Lan's POV (with the exception of accepting Bulen - a few paragraphs is missing) and Loial's introduction.

 

Perrin's POV has him waking up in the wolf dream. One of my favorite parts of Perrin's plot line was when he was in the forge in Tear in I believe the The Shadow Rising. (I could be mistaken on the book). At the beginning of this POV he is in the wolf dream at a forge creating something important, and he first needed to figure out the pieces. Hopper was lying near by. I liked Hopper's thought on how he was confused on why Perrin was reshaping the iron because it was already something useful. Perrin is still thinking that things between Faile and him need to be resolved. Perrin realizes that he is not in as much control of the wolf as he thought he was. Perrin wants to be a man and not a wolf and he asks Hopper is there a way to reverse what has happened to him. Perrin first piece that he was forging was a tiny Aram who was screaming. Hopper and Perrin argue on challenging the pack leader (what Aram did to Perrin), but Perrin tells Hopper that is not what humans do. Perrin then is in Malden and sees himself fighting during the battle to rescue Faile. He sees himself kill some Aiel and Aram. After that scene, Perrin returns to the forge and starts pulling out more figurines of the Two Rivers folk with him. Hopper is pretty funny as he says to Perrin that all the little men can't be eaten and Perrin is fond of rocks.

 

I am not too surprised that Graendal survived, however, I am surprised that her POV was placed in the prologue. At this point in time, I don't know who she is going to go after first, Nynaeve or Min. I don't think she is playing Elayne. It was pretty cool to see her use the true power (although according to Graendal, she is only allowed a trickle of it) and to manipulate the dove into being her eyes so she could spy on Rand. I don't think that Delana using compulsion instead of Graendal was an easy way for the author(s) to keep Graendal alive, but instead I think it fit into her personality. I could envision her doing something like that because she is always careful and perhaps paranoid. Some people have mentioned that Graendal wove a gateway to escape and that she could shield Delana and Aran'gar while weaving a gateway, but don't forget, when Piqor Ramshalan was captured, she weaved a gateway and did not use it, but learned the place even better. She also was able to surprise Aran'gar and probably had an angreal on her. It is always easier to weave a gateway when you know the place and to a short distance away. The reason Graendal did not escape immediately after being found by Rand is because she wanted to know what Rand knew. It was nice to get a new word - Balescream - "a moment when creation itself howled in pain". Graendal know realizes that Rand is more dangerous then she assumed.

 

Galad's POV begins with his force in a swamp that seems to go on and on. The maps that he has are not correct any more. The pattern is not right. Galad gives his troops a speech that boosts the morale. Child Byar has agreed with Galad to align with the Aes Sedai because of the Dreadlords, Myrddraal and Forsaken. According to Galad "doing what is right is the most important thing in life". As if we did not already know that Galad will always do what is right. They ford a river, in which Galad goes first, and there are lots of dead bodies, both people and mules, in the river. Galad is still feeling the effects of the duel that he had with Valda. Galad has come to the realization that Rand is the Dragon Reborn, however, he is not certain who controls him. One of Galad's scouts, Barlett, has betrayed Galad and his force to Asunawa and his larger force of untired men. The scount believes Galad is the traitor and even Galad thinks "...it could be perceived that way". Asunawa tries to name 7,000 Children as darkfriends, but acknowledges that they could have been led astray by their darkfriend commanders. Asunawa also acknowledges that Galad is Lord Captain Commander by slaying Valda, but claims Galad won the duel because of dark forces. Galad brokers a deal with Asunawa to take only him and not questions anyone else underneath Galad.

 

Padan Fain's POV begins with Fain as being the one that was once Fain. The only emotion that he can feel is hate and he want to kill Rand and the Dark One. Fain is in the blight. He believes that his hatred has caused the storm that is going on. As if we did not already know, Fain is mad. He can now control the mists that can kill without him touching the victim. He captures a ton of trollocs and kills a Myddraal. Fain believes he is going to need a new name now. He has chained the trollocs to his will and they will respond more frenzied when he allows them to go to battle than before. He is staying in the blight because he knows that Rand has to come to him.

 

The final POV is from Malenarin Rai, high commander of Heeth Tower in the borderlands (Kandori). He plans on giving his son, Keemlin, a sword, to signify manhood in three days. The tower that he is stationed in has four floors, but the top floor is inaccessible as long as the draw up the ramp in time. Rena Tower, northwest of his tower, sends a flash (a message), but is not responding to communication from Heeth Tower. Farmay tower is also not responding. Malenarin Rai sends messengers south to warn and to orders saying they will make a stand. He sent four messages. Although, it was Rai's intention to send his son, Keemlin, as one of the messengers, Keemlin gave up his spot to someone who was more likely to succeed. Since his son remained, Rai gives his son the sword, three days early, and the tower prepares for an endless sea of trollocs.

[cloglord]

My thoughts from re-reading the Prolouge.

 

I wonder if the partially formed figures of men from the Two Rivers is reflecting a subconscious need for Perrin to finsihforming the Two Rivers into something. What that is I'm not sure, but it could indicate that he's in the process of turning his followers into an army, or even a new nation,....

 

I wonder if the fact that Graendal's Captain of the Gurad being a Saldean Cousin to the queen is an indication that Graendal's been playing around in Saldea.

 

Grandal's most secure hiding place is somewhere far to the west of Arad Doman, Seanchan perhaps?

 

Delana was trained in compulsion. Is this indicative of BA/Dreadlord training program?

 

Granedal had dozens of items of the power destroyed in the attack on Natrin's Barrow, were these just the items pilfered from Sammael or were there others?

 

Mordeth/Fain feasted on the trollocs whilst wrapping them in the mist. The mist kills Fades outright, but reanimates Trollocs. Is this some indication that the souls of fades are tied directly to the DO? Am I the only one who sees the similarity between this mist and Mashadar?

 

Also Fain's repeated references to his Hatred and his Madness reminded me of Mashadar and Machin Shin respectively. Mashadar is often described as the hatred that killed Shadar Logoth, and Machin Shin seems to be an embodiment of madness. If Fain a Mashadar/Mordeth/Machin Shin amalgam now? I am struck by the similarity between the description of the flesh of the Trollocs bubbling, and the description of the trollocs that were found dead in the ways. Is it possible that Fain's run in with Machin Shin stuck as well as his run in with Mordeth?

 

Lan will not reach Tarwin's Gap before he runs into the Trolloc Hordes, it seems most liekly to me that he will end up in Chachin, falling back towards Tar Valon, (coincedently the next place that Nynaeve would look for help for Lan anyways.)

[PhoenixFlame]

Just read the prologue and I'm really excited for the rest of the book.

I enjoyed reading Lan's POV, only wish there had been more. He's my fave character.

And Graendal's alive! I was totally convinced that she was dead and at the time of reading it I actually felt really disappointed by it, cause we didn't actually see her die, so it was just "huh,"

Look forward to seeing what she's gonna do next now.

And Galad's POV I found interesting. I've never really liked the chatracter, or the whitecloaks for that matter. But the way Galad was thinking, that he may have to ally the whitecloaks with the aes sedia and Rand, made me think of him in a different way. To be honest I was relieved that he actually admitted that they would have to work with those who would normally be enemies. And it made me think of how much a twat Gawyn is, honestly when is Gawyn going to see sense?

And Fain? Ooooh, he's creepy. But more and more he reminds me of Gollum. Think he's going to have a significant part in defeating the DO?

[TreeJoe]

To me, quite possibly the finest prologue to date. I distinctly felt the different writing style, but I actually am beginning to feel the BWS + RJ = a superior style. tGS was bloody awesome, and the prologue of ToM sang to me.

 

 

The end of it, the Kandori, was absolutely brilliant.

 

Graendal's PoV was just about pitch perfect and unveiled numerous very cool things (I'm guessing blue Aes Sedai know how to harness animals in the same way, but she used the TP to avoid detection)

 

Galad's interaction with Asunawa was awesome, and reminds me much of Egwene's trials in the Tower.

 

Fain....holy crap man. Fain's madness was beautifully written.

 

...

 

To me, and this was not in the prologue, that only character that still needs work is Mat. He's just not right in the head :)

[Stevros]

Not sure where best to post this qestion, but does anyone know when the other preview chapters are going to be released (I am basically an addict waiting for my next fix!)

[lsm]

i also thought it was very brandon style, especially the speech like egwene's at the white tower

 

still awesome prologue, can't wait for the book! but to me it seemed to be very much brandon

[Kara]

Kudos to Jason, Melissa, Matt, and all the other super fans that this was dedicated to.

How awesome of Brandon to give you the recognition you deserve.

Thanks to you guys, all the lurkers like me get so much more out of the WoT experience

[jemron]

Haha, I think we're all fooling ourselves. The Galad scene felt like it was the most RJ of any of the prologue to me.

 

To each his own. I really gotta stop caring about who wrote what... I mean, I don't care, so why do I keep bringing it up? both are awesome.

[Duskfire]

Mordeth/Fain feasted on the trollocs whilst wrapping them in the mist. The mist kills Fades outright, but reanimates Trollocs. Is this some indication that the souls of fades are tied directly to the DO? Am I the only one who sees the similarity between this mist and Mashadar?

 

I was thinking the Trollocs could become "zombies" because of their low willpower and how easily they are lead when they are alive. However, you could also be right. As for the mist, I would say its definetly Mashadar - thought that as soon as I read it. The only difference now is that Fain is fully controlling it.

[lilltempest]

Haha, I think we're all fooling ourselves. The Galad scene felt like it was the most RJ of any of the prologue to me.

 

To each his own. I really gotta stop caring about who wrote what... I mean, I don't care, so why do I keep bringing it up? both are awesome.

 

I don't care who wrote what either, really. My personal opinion is that Brandon wrote Galad's speech and RJ wrote Egwene's. Egwene's speech was far more arrogant, hypocritical, and self-righteous, and since she has spent the entire series being ridiculously arrogant, self-righteous, and hypocritical, it just seemed to fit with everything else she has ever said or done. Galad's was more to the point and less rambling. Yes, it was self-important, but it was done in a subtler manner, in my opinion. He was, in essence, "doing what was right" by motivating his men and getting their spirits up.

 

Egwene's speech, on the other hand, was extremely heavy handed, annoying as hell, and the only purpose it served was for her to act like her crap doesn't stink while blessing out the rest of the Aes Sedai for being 'bad wittle girls' who had better obey her completely and do exactly what she says from now on since she thinks she's the only one who was not at fault for the very mess she had a huge hand in making. To put it succinctly - Galad's speech was for his men's benefit whereas Egwene's was more power grabbing and self-serving. It's only the fact that Galad's speech was shorter and more subtle that makes me believe Brandon wrote it. RJ always liked having Egwene putting other people down while she sat on her mile high horse named Hypocrite.

 

Personally, I liked Galad's POV. I was also pleased that he is concerned about the Aes Sedai controlling Rand. Now that he's not all wrapped up in his cuendillar act, Rand really needs to take care that he's not seen as an Aes Sedai lapdog/puppet. Allying with someone doesn't mean submitting to them. Galad gets that. Now he just needs to teach it to his good brother (he may as well forget Gawyn...that dipwad is a lost cause).

[Random Man]

Mordeth/Fain feasted on the trollocs whilst wrapping them in the mist. The mist kills Fades outright, but reanimates Trollocs. Is this some indication that the souls of fades are tied directly to the DO? Am I the only one who sees the similarity between this mist and Mashadar?

 

I was thinking the Trollocs could become "zombies" because of their low willpower and how easily they are lead when they are alive. However, you could also be right. As for the mist, I would say its definetly Mashadar - thought that as soon as I read it. The only difference now is that Fain is fully controlling it.

this makes me wonder...Did Aridhol become Shadar Logoth because Mordeth unleashed Mashadar and couldn't control it? Or could he, for a time, and then it grew beyond his control? Fain now controlling Mashadar makes me think the whole idea of Mashadar being the evil of the men of Aridhol's deeds personified, or whatever, as not true, but merely the evil Mordeth unearthed grown too powerful to be contained. Now it's in a vessel more able to contain it, or a vessel capable of being used by it.

 

I would agree for lack of more evidence with Duskfire; Fades are twisted slightly out of reality and are more in...tune...with the Dark One, I'd say this may be why the mist completely destroys them. Trollocs are entirely physical beings, thus allowing them to be reanimated.

 

Fain's POV was quite possibly the most awesome POV written EVER. There was an absolutely poetic, singsong feel to the POV that just drove home how he's embraced a level of clarity that only absolute insanity could bring.

[Musenge_09]

Hi to everyone at DM, it's a fantastic site and WoT resource. I've been a long time reader of these boards but this is my first comment.

 

I'm not sure if this has been remarked upon yet, I trawled through a couple of threads first to check but you can't check everywhere I suppose! Anyway, apologies if someone else has suggested it first:

 

Does the fact of Graendal's angst (slight though it is) about causing the death of another one of the Forsaken (towards the end of her POV) mean that she can be ruled out of the "Who Killed Asmodean?" list of suspects?

 

It was my understanding that she is right at the top of the list (again, apologies if I am mistaken), but if killing another of the Forsaken worries her enough to comment on it in her POV, then maybe it is not something she has done before?

 

That's my ten cents worth :)

[The Desert Pea]

Does the fact of Graendal's angst (slight though it is) about causing the death of another one of the Forsaken (towards the end of her POV) mean that she can be ruled out of the "Who Killed Asmodean?" list of suspects?

Not to make this into an Asmo thread or anything (don't smite me Luckers!), but not at all due to the fact that in killing Asmodean, she wouldn't be killing a Forsaken. In the eyes of the rest of the Shadow, Graendal would be killing a lowly traitor who was teaching the Dragon Reborn valuable channeling techniques.

[Random Man]

Hi to everyone at DM,it's fantastic site and WoT resource. I've been a long time reader of these boards but this is my first comment.

 

I'm not sure if this has been remarked upon yet, I trawled through a couple of threads first to check but you can check averywhere I suppose! Anyway, apologies if someone else has suggested it first:

 

Does the fact of Graendal's angst (slight though it is) about causing the death of another one of the Forsaken (towards the end of her POV) mean that she can be ruled out of the "Who Killed Asmodean?" list of suspects?

 

It was my understanding that she is right at the top of the list (again, apologies if I am mistaken), but if killing another of the Forsaken worries her enough to comment on it in her POV, then maybe it is not something she has done before?

 

That's my ten cents worth :)

I doubt it; Asmodean was a known traitor, whereas the DO had taken the trouble to transmigrate Balthamel into Aran'gar and she'd just been a bit out of favor for getting discovered, I doubt Graendal would see killing the two of them as anything close to the same thing. Although no doubt the DO would in other times see betrayal and incompetence as equally punishable, he's trying to conserve what resources he has in this Age and would probably be less forgiving about Aran'gar's death. He might, though, approve of Graendal's opportunistic approach to the situation -- sure, Aran'gar's toast, but Rand thinks Graendal's dead -- and this gives her a huge tactical advantage, one that's possibly worth the death of a Forsaken who hasn't really lived up to the hype.

[Duskfire]

And Graendal had to be rewarded for something, and maybe killing Asmodean was that. I dont know. I still think it was Lanfear, but I also dont think her POV goes for or against her killing Asmodean. Its another one of those ambigious comments that people on either side are going to interpret differently.

[Sid]

I laughed out loud when I read the first few pages of Fain's PoV. It's as if Brandon read the comments here on overused words in TGS and used CREATURE and TEMPEST repeatedly out of spite. Fain is freaking nuts.

Greandal was Brandon's writing through and through, (she had been played BAH) but had some neat nuggets about the TP and some random AoL person she killed (Yanet?). It's been said so often that Graendal was formidable without seeming formidable on the outside, and it seems they were right. I thought the only way she could survive was some Compulsion weave that dissipated when delved, but using Delana was quite a ruse.

I really liked Galad's PoV. A lot of it sounded like Jordan.

Borderlanders PoV was also a good read, although we'll probably never hear from those guys again.

Perrin was interesting. I assume we'll see much more of him very early in the book, perhaps even the first 2 chapters.

Lan was good, too. This is a good prologue, not the best prologue certainly (It's new content = OMG best ever!) but it's pretty solid. I have high hopes for the rest of the book. Not higher than before, but not less than before either

 

I kind of have to agree with Terez, I read that and was like .......

[The Fisher King]

I laughed out loud when I read the first few pages of Fain's PoV. It's as if Brandon read the comments here on overused words in TGS and used CREATURE and TEMPEST repeatedly out of spite. Fain is freaking nuts.

Greandal was Brandon's writing through and through, (she had been played BAH) but had some neat nuggets about the TP and some random AoL person she killed (Yanet?). It's been said so often that Graendal was formidable without seeming formidable on the outside, and it seems they were right. I thought the only way she could survive was some Compulsion weave that dissipated when delved, but using Delana was quite a ruse.

I really liked Galad's PoV. A lot of it sounded like Jordan.

Borderlanders PoV was also a good read, although we'll probably never hear from those guys again.

Perrin was interesting. I assume we'll see much more of him very early in the book, perhaps even the first 2 chapters.

Lan was good, too. This is a good prologue, not the best prologue certainly (It's new content = OMG best ever!) but it's pretty solid. I have high hopes for the rest of the book. Not higher than before, but not less than before either

 

I kind of have to agree with Terez, I read that and was like .......

 

Sidster...after TGS and ''The Seven-Striped Lass'', I think I have one now that bothers me even more: ''Rubbed his chin''

 

I just...hate it...lol.

 

 

Fish

[water_seeker]

I don't often get to gloat about theories, so please let me have this one.

 

I TOLD YOU SO!!!

 

IDK if I was the "first" to say it, but I don't remember seeing it before I said it, but Graendal LIVED!!! All I remember is that I said it the within the first week that the book came out. Honestly, IDC if I wasn't the first, I'm just so glad I spoke up on that one.

 

/end self back-patting (great, now my shoulder is stiff)

[algspkr]

Does the fact of Graendal's angst (slight though it is) about causing the death of another one of the Forsaken (towards the end of her POV) mean that she can be ruled out of the "Who Killed Asmodean?" list of suspects?

 

Her angst was not guilt, but worry over the Dark One's reaction to her killing a loyal Forsaken, Asmodean was not a loyal Forsaken, and if she killed him the Dark One is likely to reward her for that.

[Musenge_09]

Does the fact of Graendal's angst (slight though it is) about causing the death of another one of the Forsaken (towards the end of her POV) mean that she can be ruled out of the "Who Killed Asmodean?" list of suspects?

 

Her angst was not guilt, but worry over the Dark One's reaction to her killing a loyal Forsaken, Asmodean was not a loyal Forsaken, and if she killed him the Dark One is likely to reward her for that.

 

I agree, she definitely wasn't feeling guilty. Guilt would indicate some type of conscience or sense of empathy, and the lack of those two things are fairly fundamental to being a Forsaken :)

 

Maybe angst was the wrong word. I just felt that her reaction of fear at the DO's response might indicate that she had not done something like that before, thus throwing her (theorised) role in Asmo's death into doubt.

 

BUT!

 

This is definitely not an attempt to bring Asmo into this thread, and I agree with you and the other posts above that Asmo was probably too far gone from the DO's graces at the time of his death for the DO to have been bothered by it in the same way that the Graendal's POV suggests he would be about Aran'gar's death. Although Aran'gar hasn't exactly been covering herself in glory lately either (just covering herself in Delana. No, wait, wrong) and maybe Graendal's fear suggest that the DO does actually care (if that's the right word to ascribe to the Source of All Evil) about the loss of any of his Chosen, even those out of favour.

 

Just as a secondary thought on a slightly different topic, Grandal's "safe place"? Somewhere in Seanchan by the sound of it still being morning whilst it was late afternoon in Arad Doman? Or even on the East coast of Shara?

[Crael123]

okay were aran'gar and delena having sex or something?? what is with all of the ewws?

[ka243]

The prologue was great!

 

I really liked the galad point of view. I thought to myself that he is really in deep crap and I thought he was going to die for sure but then I remembered that we see him with Perrin. I'm very curious how he will get out of that little pickle.

 

The Greandal scene was great. The fact that she has access to the TP further confirms her in my mind as asmo's killer.

 

This is how she could have approached asmo without him noticing she was there, just like aran'gar was very surprised by G's access to the true power.

 

The fact that she offed a forsaken on screen here further shows that she easily could have also done it previously.

 

I laughed out loud when I heard about the dead mules. We are pretty sure RJ wrote this scene because of the mules correct?

Actually, didn't sanderson say that RJ wrote the entire prologue?

 

Looking forward to the Lan scene. I did find the perrin bit somewhat boring.

 

Fain - awesome sauce.

 

This was completely great. Can't wait for more... Hope they release chapter 1 and 2 soon. Anyone have any indication of this?

 

Hopefully this will be on Tor.com so us outside US folks don't need to do bend over backwards and sideways to read it like was the case for this prologue.

[Charlz Guybon]

First of all, WHOAAAA.

Still can't help but feel that he's slightly overmatched though. I mean Fain himself was just a Darkfriend hound and Mordeth/Mashadar while slightly more powerful never gave me the feeling that he was an evil of an order of magnitude to kill Worms and/or even come close to threatening the Dark One. His status as "wild card" outside the Pattern stands but I do hope for some more infodumps detailing exactly how/why Fain/Mordeth got to be so powerful.

 

 

Well, Mashadar did manage to kill an entire army of Shadowspawn during the Trolloc Wars.

[Impressive Bosom]

Just as a secondary thought on a slightly different topic, Grandal's "safe place"? Somewhere in Seanchan by the sound of it still being morning whilst it was late afternoon in Arad Doman? Or even on the East coast of Shara?

My vote is for Rhuidean, which will dovetail nicely with Aviendha's arrival.