Perrin's Arc (Full Spoilers)

[Sabio]

Out of all of them I disliked Perrins the most.  I just tired of the whole Perrin vs Slayer thing since it always seemed to be the same thing over and over with them hunting each other.  It just lasted too long IMO, I really would of liked him to do something more in the last battle.

[Ataxia]

Perrin wasn't really needed at the Last Battle wielding his hammer against Trollocs. If anything, him being there would've been redundant. Tam easily replaced him there. Matrim was there because he was a general. Perrin was the only one who could stop Slayer and Lanfear. Gaul and hundreds of wolves couldn't even stop him, only slow him. I guess you could say Egwene may have been able to stop him, but she was needed in the physical world.

 

As stated before, its neat to see how powerful Perrin has become. There are a few dream walkers left, but none as powerful as him. 

 

On a completely different note, I cant help but wonder the fate of Vanin and Harnan. Im sure they died, but I wish we knew there fate. Im guessing it will be in the encyclopedia.

[The Wolf]

The more I think about it, the more Perrin's character really was wasted.  I really feel like Brandon messed his final arc up in this last book.  As someone else said, he was being setup to be the ultimate King and leader of men in the series, but we saw none of that.

 

I'm the one who mentioned this before, and the more I think about it, the more I'm guessing that his move to a leadership role post LB was supposed to be assumed.  He's currently married to Fail as well as being a in control of a major section of Andor.  He can move any where in the world in pretty much the blink of an eye, so he is pretty powered up.  Respected by everyone he has worked and fought with, with a focus being on his natural leadership.  One of the good things about the end of this book is they didn't really spell out what happened, they left it up to people to decide for themselves.  I think this is one of those situations   

[Treebeard]

The whole Perrin ( +gual ) and Slayer arc was good , lot of stuff happinging , Perrin accuracy soundly defeated once but ultimately crushing him. Lanfears arch is fantastic ( with exception of her attempt to lure Rand in thg  ) until amol ( until she meets Perrin in amol to be more accurate ). when she meets Perrin ... I can´t even say who much i hate the stupidity of it all

[Guest dni]

I liked Perrin actually, his arc early in the book made for a nice break / pacing from the 4 battlefronts action and added a layer of intrigue with Graendal sneaking about, and Lanfear shadowing him. Unfortunately he then decided to sleep through the last battle and the entire focus shifted to Mat's battle and the book really began to drag and his storyline ended not being very meaningful. I definitely question that decision, i get that he was awake for a long time in the dream, but Rand never sleeps the entire book except for a few hours after aviendha has her way with him. Gaul apparently never slept either? Could of easily explained away Perrin's staying awake with some magical explanation like Rand's along with a bit of Aes Sedai healing for that arrow wound. He did get the coolest action moment of the book imo when he kills slayer, slayer jumping back and forth in disbelief creating a slow motion matrix strobe like effect with alternate realities flashing by and then Perrin turning around to find a bunch of Aiel following him because he looked epic haha.

 

Slayer was alright, but somewhat disappointing. He never met Lan which was surprising, you get a brief bit about his childhood but not much backstory.

 

Lanfear was a massive disappointment and made absolutely no sense to me. She was one of the few fleshed out bad guys with motivations beyond, "i like monocles, top hats and wiry little mustaches." It would of been really easy to give her some cool plot twists (knowing the bore led to the DO pre drilling, redemption etc.) but instead they just doubled down on her being one-dimensionaly clingy. Very boring. I have no idea what her plan was with Perrin either? did that make sense to anyone? She wanted to win him over via compulsion so that at the very end they could strike down moiraine and nyneave together so she could pull the dark ones bum out of the fire? Why did she need Perrin for that? She had apparently been hiding out inside the cave right inside the dreamspike for most of the battle, waiting for Perrin. Nyneave and Moiraine were entirely helpless with Rand in control of the circle. She could of taken them out at any time, or if she needed to strike precisely when Rand's Moridin trap had been sprung she could of done that herself without Perrin. Was bizzare and didn't felt very thought out.

[Barid Bel Medar]

Looking at Foreshadowing in the Egwene Arc Thread, I found this about Perrin, so I thought to bring it here. 

 

 

Found another interesting piece about Perrin and his killing of Lanfear. It could obviously be a coincidence, but it would make a nice little bit of Foreshadowing. 

 

From the same chapter (What Must Be Done), Perrin's PoV talking about him entering TAR in the flesh: 

 

 

Women were alwaying trying to keep a man from doing what he must, as if worried he'd break his neck. 

 

 

 

First that Lanfear tried to make him kill Moiraine and Nynaeve - funnily enough, the two women he is thinking about - via Compulsion, but he worked through it "doing what he must", second obviously the reference of breaking her neck. 

 

[John Everyman]

Gotta say, one of my predictions for Perrin turned out wrong. 

 

I was hoping his hammer, Mah'alleinir, had a bit more to it than being dangerous to shadowspawn (though really the hammer represents Perrin's acceptance of leadership more, so I suppose I can forgive it).  Obviously, the hammer is based after Thor's Mjolnir, which can call down lightning.  To make this fit into WOT, I was expecting the hammer to have limited channeler abilities, reflecting the fact that it was made with saidin and saidar.  I think it would have been fitting if the hammer could "channel" small fireballs, call down lightning and perhaps rip parts of the ground up.  This would have made Perrin, like Mat and especially Rand, a match for other channelers (though you could argue Perrin already is due to TAR).  Alas, was not to be.

 

Once again, I enjoy Perrin's journey through TAR, though I wish we could have seen him a bit more in the actual battle.  As I've said, I consider Perrin one of the characters that actually improved with the author switch.  His arc through TOM and AMOL was much more enjoyable than his arc leading up to it (Plotline of Doom).

 

I can't agree that Perrin's ultimate "role" in the series is to be a leader of men; he's a leader, as all the Ta'veren are, but for actually leading armies, that's more Mat's area.  Perrin's role is much more surreal, and always has been. 

 

I'm not sure how convinced I was of Lanfear's role, though.  Having Perrin kill her felt like something like an afterthought.  I suppose it is cool that Perrin got to off one of the Forsaken, but not the symmetry is all thrown off because Mat didn't get to kill one

[Duskfire]

He should have been used in the actual battle. Mostly for morale purposes; Perrin is an awesome leader, and yet we didnt see any of that in this book, at a time when people needed leadership the most.  I guess I like the idea of him standing at the end there with Mat and his good friend Loial and using that stand as a way to boost everyones morale. Or maybe once it was believed Elayne had fallen, Perrin is the one to step up to the plate and keep the Andorans from fleeing.

[Entreri]

I was hoping to see Perrin's hammer do more things...but it does kill the T-1000 Darkhounds.   He also has a good death count: Lanfear and Slayer...and would have killed Grandael except for the hestitation. 

 

I would say that Perrin is more than a match for ANY channeler in TAR, including the strongest TAR Forsaken, Lanfear and Moghdien.  With Perrin's ability to appear and dissappear at will, he can kill almost any channeler. 

 

Perrin's natural prowess in TAR is greater than Slayer's. Slayers stated that his ablities in TAR rivaled the greatest Forsaken, and Perrin wrecked him in the end. 

[Torome]

Being a leader of men is different from being a leader of battles.  Mat is a tactician, give him the men and weapons, show him what he's up against and the terrain and he can win for you.  Perrin can lead a people, help them build their society and forge alliances.  He is far more of a king than a general; though he can lead men into battle and win, Mat is better than him at that.  Though Mat can make deals and lead people, Perrin is better at it.

[pmtang]

A lot of nationalities came together to fight alongside each other because of Perrin.  Rand had a lot to do with it too, but many specifically swore allegiance to Perrin, not Rand.

[Monkeyfister]

Twelve books and a half of Perrin whining, "Waaaaaahhhhh, I don't want to be a wolf!"

Two nights of practice.

A fight with Slayer.

Now, all of a sudden, he's the complete and total master of the Wolf Dream?

 

Bollocks.

 

Gawd I hated his entire whiny, boring arc.

Served nothing more than filling in a couple of gaps that Jordan opened too wide to logically bridge by any other means.

 

 

 

 

[probe907]

I found the arc interesting up to the point where Perrin went to sleep. The interaction with Gaul was great, as was the chase after Graendal. After that it was dreadful. Perrin turned into some kind of a freak yet unseen in the WoT. He could insta-teleport anywhere in the world, and he could take on the Forsaken effortlessly in T'A'R. Come on!

I hated the way he resolved Lanfear's 13-book long arc with one twist of the wrist. I had a similar problem with Matt and Fain... But with Lanfear, I thought she was being built up toward redemption or something - but no, she was another demented bad gal who had to fall before the epilogue. Her plans made no sense whatever. For that matter, why didn't Rand think of guarding T'A'R access to Shayol Ghul? Why didn't he order a few Asha'man to teleport to T'A'R and watch his back together with a few dreamwalker Wise Ones? He could not have known that Perrin would protect him; and even had he known, he could not have known that in T'A'R, Perrin is tougher than Rand himself. But oh well.

I also disliked the handling of the Last Hunt. Like Fain and Lanfear, the Last Hunt was resolved in about 3 pages. Why not unleash the hounds earlier and have Perrin coordinate the wolf army to counter them; or something?

As for Slayer, I think they (RJ and BS) should have whacked him back when Egwene fought the Seanchan. That would have brough a satisfying resolution to one major plot line, and would have opened up more space for better things in the last two books. It's always the same with Slayer - they keep teleporting around, etc etc, who cares anymore. Plus Slayer makes no sense other than being Perrin's Shadow Mirror - what Fain (who could also have been killed ages ago, perhaps at the Cleansing) is to Matt, and the male Forsaken (Taim and Ishy in particular?) to Rand. Maybe that's why Fain, Slayer and Moridin had to survive until the last 30-40 pages.

The hunt for Faile, which closed Perrin's arc, was also uninspiring, because 1) we've seen Perrin save Faile a million times. It gets old after a while. When Perrin saved Faile in book 3, I was thrilled. When he saved her from the Shaido, I was annoyed. And this time I just didn't care. And 2) Faile living diminished the value of her sacrifice and felt sort of cheap; as did Lan's survival after the duel with Deedee. Perhaps I am somewhat biased against Faile... She may be the most annoying character in the book, along with the unbearable Elayne, of course.

 

Of the three Ta'veren, Perrin had the weakest arc in MoL. Though, again, the first half of the arc was quite good.

[pmtang]

Perrin is the simpleton most fantasies have: Samwise in Lord of the Rings and Neville in Harry Potter for example. He's just there being a solid character.

[Gythwyn]

I dunno. For me, Lanfear always wanted to be the Big Cheese, And Perrin just.. snap.

Nobody will know how or where. She just falls into obscurity

 

The compulsion bit was weird though

[flinn]

Perrin was so good in the Two Rivers.

He was terrible for a lot of books (RJ).

Perrin was as good as the Two Rivers in TGS and ToM.

He was better than the "lot of books" but not as good as Two Rivers or TGS/ToM.

[Beer Rot]

its opposite day so this is really in all caps..... why the bloody hell did faile survive?  you have no idea how happy and excited i was during the last few pages, thinking faile was dead.  bs is a tease.

 

also, kids this is exactly why you engage in premarital sex... so you don't end up with a faile.

[Morsker]

Lanfear's plan at the end brought a different meaning to her new name.

There seemed to be multiple plans to stop Rand once he was in the Pit of Doom, Cyndane's being the "last chance"

 

Yes! I thought so too.

 

I was surprised that Lanfear seemed content to save the Dark One at the end though, having put aside plans to try to take his place. Maybe just because the Choeden Kal were gone?

[mbuehner]

How many lives did Perrin cost by refusing to take out Graendal when he had the chance? Tens of thousands?

[Morsker]

How many lives did Perrin cost by refusing to take out Graendal when he had the chance? Tens of thousands?

 

Lol. The whole "omg killing women" thing should have hit its climax in TFoH, with Lanfear at the docks. Or stuck with Rand only, and been explained as part of his madness at killing Ilyena. Dragging it on like this to the bitter end is just eye-rolling.

 

... but! If Perrin had killed Graendel there, Aviehdna wouldn't've unwoven the gateway, and wouldn't get magic babies. At least, I think that's why she gets magic babies.

[Julian Cook]

I can only think that without Perrin the wheel of time would have lasted 4 books not the 14 it was in the end, really did we need that much soul searching, no I don’t think so.

 

When at the end they changed the rules on how the horn worked just shows that they really did not have a clue how to end the book,  the horn will summon the hero’s of the horn, not some but the hero’s, so why were there no wolves’ at the first time it was sounded, while I liked the book there were far too many instances where they pulled stuff like this out of thin air.  Even the logic fails, a wolf will go to the wolf dream when they die, so if they are hero of the horn how can they talk to Perrin do the precepts not hold for them.  Sorry Team Jordon let us down with too many lazy ends to threads 

[Morsker]

So, Slayer revealed that Perrin also has 2 souls, and this is all it takes to gain his abilities to enter TAR.

 

Does this mean Perrin can leave TAR as Young Bull, and be a wolf in the real world? Just like Slayer can be either Luc or Isam.

 

Also I wonder if Perrin was born with 2 souls, or if a Wolfbrother is just born with the potential to bond with a wolf soul, and Perrin picked one up after meeting Elyas.

[Jak o' the Shadows]

was very disjointed having him out of the action for a good chunk of the book.

 

I'm glad he got Slayer...that was nice justice for Hopper.

 

The Lanfear bit....I gotta say I didn't get his interaction with her...didn't seem like a matchup/fight pairing that made sense.

 

 

Perrin really hit his stride in ToM.  I agree that BS did a hell of a job with that character.  Was hoping for the same sort of excellence in AMoL.  Was disappointed


(PS.  The 'not killing a woman' bit....seriously?  Pretty sure that needed to be left out at this point....last battle, forsaken, evil...it's time to cap 'em whether they're women or men.   Throughout the book a lot of original or young themes in the series seem to be coming back into the story...and it didn't make it better)

[Torome]

Strangely enough, after reading tDR again, the foreshadowing for his interactions with Lanfear are much more sensible.  Ultimately Lanfear needed a man, she didn't want to be a solo act, but she had to be the senior partner.  She started trying to set Perring up early on incase she had to kill Rand- because she never actually loved anyone.  She just wanted someone strong enough, not necessarily in the one power, and Perrin's exploits in TAR and also his ta'verenness attracted her.  It doesn't make perfect sense, but hell, about 9 books worth of writing out of the 14 are testimony to women not making sense.

[Sightblinder'sMinder]

I haven't finished yet, and to be perfectly honest, I never really liked Perrin, but I love his chapters in AMoL. One of the most emotionally jarring moments for me (so far) has been when Perrin forces himself out of the Wolf Dream, and is found by Master Luhhan. That was great. It wasn't just the desperation of it, but being found by his old teacher that got to me. 

 

His whole story line -- i.e. defending the Dream World -- is brilliant. I love how it's played out so far: Perrin defends Tel'aran'rhiod, Mat leads the forces of the Light, and Rand faces down the Dark One himself. Translation: Perrin fights a battle of the mind. Mat fights a real physical battle. And Rand fights a spiritual battle. How awesomely epic. 

 

And, out of all those, I've been most impressed with Perrin's end of it. The irony, of course, is that Perrin has always thought of himself as slow-witted, yet he practically owns Tel'aran'rhiod. Can't wait to see how his story ends.