Hello everyone and welcome to the second week of the Eye of the World Read Along! I’m hosting this week and I hope your holidays and travels were wonderful if you were doing such things ;-). A reminder that this week’s questions cover through chapter 14, so there will be spoilers for all chapters up to that chapter. Also, Linky hasn’t been behaving, so if it doesn’t work, just throw your link in your discussion comment and we’ll do this old school until I fix it :D.
1. The stories of Moraine and her sisters don’t seem to always match up with who she is, but other times they do (the whirlpool). How do you think these two versions of Moraine compare?
So the stories definitely seem way darker than the reality. This makes me wonder if perhaps the Aes Sedai were forced to make very difficult decisions in the past, which earned them horrible reputations, or if they have purposefully spread false rumors…. While Moraine has made it clear that she is not all fluffy bunnies, she does clearly stand against the Dark One, so I’m not sure how stories could ever have confused the Aes Sedai with his minions. Maybe this is hinting at what happened in the past being much more complicated than she’s let on though….
2. Rand has now had two dreams that seem to be more than dreams. What do you think they mean?
The first one could have just been a dream, and at first I was tempted to think that it was prophetic of good things, but with the second dream it seems clear that the Dark One is trying to manipulate and scare Rand. While we could just write it off to Rand’s over-active imagination getting scared from stories, it seems unlikely given the nature of stories ;-). I’m also wondering though if the other boys are having similar dreams, or if this is the Dark One’s way of marking Rand as the only one he is interested in.
3. There are two other boys that could be significant to the Trollocs, but Moraine seems to be paying special attention to Rand. How do you think all of them are involved? Also why do you think all of this is happening now all of a sudden, instead of when the boys were younger?
Speaking of! Since The Eye of the World is written solely from Rand’s perspective (third-person I realize ;-)) so far, it seems likely that he is a major player. It’s possible the other boys are involved somehow as well, but I think that we’ll end up finding out (once Rand tells someone about those dreams….) that Rand is the one they are really after. I could be wrong though! I like Moraine’s theory that all three are important and maybe they are all involved in different ways; that would certainly be an awesome twist, haha!
4. Thom has hinted at an interesting past and reacted to Moraine’s presence when she first appeared. What do you think of this mysterious gleeman?
There is definitely something going on with him. Why did he react so much to Moraine and Lan? Why did he work so hard to come along with the boys’ mission? He hinted at having a past as more than a gleeman and then falling from grace and is it just me or does materializing a dagger seem like more than a parlor trick? He also knows a whole lot about the Aes Sedai and stories that apparently no one tells anymore…..
5. We’ve been learning more about the Aes Sedai, but also about the lack of male counterparts. What do you think of this? Is it somehow related to the prologue?
This was a really interesting spin. So now I’m having trouble remembering the prologue completely, was that the Breaking of the World that the male Aes Sedai were involved with, or am I getting my cataclysmic events mixed up? I really want to know more about what drove the male Aes Sedai to do what they did, and why it was only the males, since it would be rather horrendously stereotypical to say it was some innate “maleness” that drove them to do something foolish ;-). And now of course the door is open to the male magic source needing to be cleansed by a hero who then taps into it in an epic battle to save the world :D.
6. Lan noticed Rand’s sword and commented on how Rand’s father taught him to concentrate. How do you think these coincidences are related?
This is starting to reveal more about Tam’s past, since apparently Lan and Tam’s swords and coaching techniques are similar? Tam couldn’t be an ex-Warder though right? I get the impression that Warder is kind of a life-time commitment…. However maybe there is some sort of peripheral occupation that Tam was involved in, not a Warder, but fighting and training with them or something. I’m surprised that Lan didn’t push the issue further though, it doesn’t seem like his nature, so that seems to me like there are some important secrets being hidden that even Lan is willing to respect….
Also I mentioned in the email that there was a map of the new areas in my book before chapter 13. Did anyone else’s copy have this map? I’ve never actually seen an author do this before (putting partial maps in as new areas are entered by the characters), but I kind of like it. I get overwhelmed by big maps, so it allowed me to focus on the specific area that was currently relevant. What do you think of this formatting strategy?
Remember, if the Linky below doesn’t work, just post the link to your answer post in your discussion comment and we’ll hop around old-school :D.
-A
© 2012, Anya. All rights reserved.
Related posts:
Eye of the World Read Along Week 3
Eye of the World Read Along Week 4
Eye of the World Read Along Week 7
Great insights into the story! :D Mine are at Musings on Fantasia. :D
Yey, thanks for joining in :D
Moraine and fluffy bunnies! Hehe! My book also had the partial map at Chpt. 13 and I like it as it focuses your attention to the geography of the moment. On the larger map it took me several minutes to find the Two Rivers, dork that I am.
Here’s the link to my answers: http://dabofdarkness.com/2012/12/30/the-eye-of-the-world-read-along-part-ii/
Hehe, I also had trouble finding anything on the bigger map!
So many things about this series make me think of Tolkien: the Aes Sedai are mistrusted just like Gandalf, probably because they do not always explain exactly why they do what they do, and also because they do not always provide an easy fix for ruler’s problems.
I like your suggestion about the other boys having dreams, but I agree that Rand is obviously the major character in this series.
A good point, though I wonder how much those similarities stem from this genre just becoming so inundated with those kinds of themes. I do look forward to finding out more about the Aes Sedai though, and I hope that Moraine is like Gandalf since I <3 him :D
I believe deep down in my heart that Moiraine is Gandalf’s feminine half, therefore I can love both guilt-free ;)
Haha, perhaps twins separated at birth!