The Wheel of Time: The Dragon Reborn Prologue Through Chapter 2

It was not the beginning... but it is a beginning. The beginning of a new season, and the next installment in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time! We explore new acronyms, we rope in a guest, and we learn a whole lot about Whitecloak politics! Is this book all Perrin chapters? Is Rand doing a Jesus? Has Robert Jordan finally decided to show a little less than he tells? Some of these questions will be answered as we hop back on the wagon wheel and see where it takes us!

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Transcript

Denny: After Kid Rock, I don't trust any like bad boy country singers. You trusted Kid Rock? No, I didn't actually. I'm not really sure why I framed it that way. I trusted it with my kids. 

Sean: You should not trust Kid Rock with your kids, let me tell you. Pretty sure. 

Tyler: He has kid right there in the name. I thought it would be fine. 

Sean: I'm pretty sure this man from the from the movie Osmosis Jones, he has a song in it. 

Tyler: He does have a nasty song in Osmosis Jones. 

Ben: My name is Kid. Kid's cock. 

Sean: Yeah, he says young ladies, young ladies, I like them underage. See, some say that's statuatory, but I say it's mandatory. 

Tyler: That's pretty straight up admitting a crime. Yeah. Yeah. It's not the type of thing that you get kind of you get credit for rapping about, too. 

Denny: This may surprise you guys, but Kid Rock listeners, I don't think they care. Yeah, I don't know. They're fine with that. Definitely not. I saw a great tweet a while back that was like, Kid Rock makes music for people who think P comes from the balls. 

Sean: Yeah, it sounded like somebody like pulling a straw out of a plastic lid that goes on a soda. 

Tyler: Oh yeah, like or those old like bendy straws, you know, where you get kind of. 

Sean: Yeah, I'm not doing the noise right. But you know, the sound of cheap plastics rubbing against each other. 

Tyler: Man, I think the micro plastics I consumed from that shit as a kid, like my mom didn't trust us with glassware. So I drank out of an Olive Garden cup for like six years. 

Denny: I hate to break it to you, but you have cancer now. Sorry. 

Tyler: Yeah, I probably do. Probably do. 

Ben: It went in the mouth, Tyler, not in the not in the butt. Yeah, good. 

Sean: The mouth, the mouth kind of spine. I thought you're saying my mom did not trust glassware or something. Oh yeah. Not trust us with glassware. And I was like, what is your mom, like a weird glass conspiracy theorist? 

Tyler: No, close, but no. No, just didn't like pretty sure that all of her dumb ass kids would break the glasses, which is true, because then she did trust us with glassware and we broke all of them in like a week. 

Sean: So yeah, just resign yourself to having plastic everything if you're a parent, I think. I'm actually drinking out of plastic right now. 

Ben: So actually there is a glass conspiracy. Glass is an acronym, actually. It stands for Gay, Lesbian, Ass, Sucksuck. 

Sean: Oh my god. What's the conspiracy? It all makes sense. 

Ben: It's all there in the name. 

Tyler: Open your eyes, she pulls. 

Ben: She's pretty, she literally spelled it out, man. Geez, Sean. Get with it. 

Sean: I just don't know what two sucks mean, you know, suck suck. 

Ben: It's all there. It's suck suck. The gay is, let's see. So the gay sucks the ass. No. Wait, no. So the lesbian. No. Wait. No. Oh, the gay sucks the ass of the bisexual. 

Tyler: Who sucks the ass of the lesbian. That's not even in. There's no B in glass, you idiot. There's just a, it's just, there's a silent bisexual. 

Ben: The B is silence. 

Sean: Okay. I want this to be intimate, except I am like 50 miles away, but I want you guys to be intimate. 

Ben: Activate the P and I. Are the teledildonics, are we back on that? Oh yeah. 

Tyler: Nice. That's a good callback. We're saying, yeah, we're in a wheel of time. We're back in teledildonics time. 

Sean: We're, the listener does not know, but if you pay for our Patreon, you can, you can get visual access. We're all connected via teledildonics right now. 

Tyler: You can see us. What you're going to see of us is very intimate. Yeah. 

Denny: Is that like those? It's just, it's about four inches of inside my butt right now. 

Ben: Get it, admire the intricacies of the, the rectums of four white males approaching middle age. 

Sean: Oh no. I mean, probably all need. 

Tyler: It's colonoscopy. You probably all need that about this. 

Sean: But I picture though for teledildonics like this, as we've all got like when Luke is in the Bacta tank recovering after he gets mauled by the Yeti. And he's wearing big old diapers, like robotic underwear. Yeah, robotic diaper in a floating tank. We're all wearing Pigholt robotic diapers, right? Connected to all the right spots. Yes. Yeah. So. 

Tyler: Just imagine that. 

Denny: Just follow us on Twitter for all that coverage. Patreon. Yeah. It's, it's like a chatterbait like cam models, but like way upgraded. 

Sean: Okay. I want to get the fuck off this conversation when I start the intro. Roger that. Oh. Hello and welcome to the Bridge Burners Book Club. Where together we read, discuss, criticize, and get excited about all things science, fiction, and fantasy. I'm your host, Sean. And with me is my co-host, Tyler. That's me. And our co-host, Ben. 

Ben: Carrot Ben of the Inquisitors. You lowly dark friends may refer to me as a questioner, but I will not deign to acknowledge that. Bow before me. Oh, what is that, daddy? Oh, I'm sorry, daddy. No, don't hit me, daddy. No, no. 

Sean: We're excited to have you along with us each week as we take a journey together through the books we love. Also, there's one more thing. We have another co-host today. Who is it? Who is it? Hello. Only person. It's a returning guest. It's the only person that could possibly be a returning guest. It's Denny. 

Denny: Hello, fellas. I don't have a long-winded introduction like Carrot Ben, but I'll work on one for next time if you'll have me back. 

Speaker 6: I don't mess this up. Oh, geez. 

Sean: Yeah, we'll punch that up for you next time. We'll spend a lot of time on it. 

Tyler: I think we should have a musical sting, whatever. Denny enters the room. Oh, like a James Bond theme. 

Sean: It's Denny. There you go. Just use that. OK. I'll take it. 

Sean: Well, anyways, we're glad to welcome Denny back to the show. I felt like this would be the perfect opportunity being that he's actually been following along with the books so far and he's caught up with where we're at and it's the first episode of the new book. 

Ben: He basically opened the book and was caught up with us. 

Sean: That's true, but that's one long prologue. So, you know, it's no small feat. 

Denny: Well, I mean, to be fair, I have been reading the other books up to this point. 

Sean: Yeah. Like I said, back to Wheel of Time. I think one interesting thing to note here right at the beginning is that this will probably be coming out like mid-February at some point and then in late March, they will be releasing the new season of Wheel of Time. And it will be matching up with exactly where we're at in the books and we'll probably finish that out right about the same time that the season finishes out. So, we'll probably be doing some show-related content. What's that? 

Ben: How long in time? Like how many months does it usually take us to do a book like four months? Three? 

Sean: Three or four? Yeah, about four months and it's about two months or so for the show. 

Denny: Also, you have to forgive my noob question here just because I don't think I've actually, I have watched the show, but not as it came out. Do they not like binge all the episodes out at once and you have to sort of watch each week as the new one comes out? 

Sean: Yeah, it's one at a time or maybe they release the first two at once and then one at a time after that. Bold school. I find it's a buy. Yeah, which I actually enjoy. Sometimes you're like, I want to know what happened, but I kind of like having something to look forward to each week to like, oh, it's the next chapter in my book or what else. It's like, it's episodic content used to be a fun thing. I agree. 

Denny: I sort of prefer it these days being an old with kids. I don't really have time to binge a massive season in an afternoon or whatever. So I have an hour or so, a few nights a week. And so it's kind of nice to have something I can maintain interest in for more than a single day. 

Tyler: Yeah, and not have it be spoiled instantly every time you go on the internet. 

Sean: Exactly. Because it will at the same pace that you are. Yeah, wheel time. It's coming. This is going to be fun. We're starting this book. Unless you guys had anything you wanted to talk about, I'm just ready to get right into wheel of time. Let's do it. Let's fucking do it, man. 

Ben: It's been too long. 

Tyler: What's your favorite book, guys? 

Speaker 7: Infinite Jest. My taint is aching. 

Sean: Just general stuff. I mean, we have read the first three chapters or I guess prologue and first two chapters. But even then, do you guys have like, we talk about predictions for this book? Let's say starting based on what we've read, just out of these three in general, like, does this feel like different to you than the books before it at all? Or is it like more of the same? How are you feeling in that way? 

Tyler: Well, there's no such thing as a beginning, Sean. There's or an end. There are beginnings. 

Sean: It literally does open the same way in a sense. 

Tyler: Yeah, there are really beginnings. Yeah, yeah. 

Ben: There's a little bit. Well, it's kind of similar in that like they start the last book. They were kind of bunkered down in Faldara. But this is different that they're hiding and it's like kind of a clandestine, obviously a very clandestine operation. It's interesting with the white cloaks. It's not like necessarily like I, because I think the prologues generally start with like the dark friends. I Have the World was the origin story of Luz there and the breaking of the world. 

And then the great hunt was foggy notion. The dark friend ball. Yeah. 

Where everyone had their disguise genitalia. So this one is not like dark friend centric. It's more like, Or is it? Ironically, the white cloaks are more of like the gray force and that they're like, they're obviously working against Rand, but they're not other than keratin that we know of. Like they're not evil. 

They're just a nuisance. Yeah. And so we're like kind of starting in like more of a neutralish perspective kind of as far as talking about like the dark and light, you know, the very black and white we've had primarily is focused up this point. 

Tyler: I like the shift of the two of the words. The one big shift where he kind of comes out of the tent and they're like hailing him as the dragon reborn in the second chapter in here. It that felt cool. I'm like, oh, this is different. Like Rand is a different person now because of the books and the stuff of her last book. And I didn't enjoy that. That felt. But yeah, I mean, I don't like the white cloaks in general and I'm not super interested in like they're... No, they suck. 

In total. Or let's say they suck. They just seem like they're shitties. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. But I did think I think the prologue is pretty good. That's my that's my that's all I have to say on the bigger structure level because I am taint hungry. 

Ben: My aches fit the side in. Rand comes out of the tent wearing reading glasses to show that time had passed. He's grown a mustache. 

Tyler: They never talk about these boys shaving or them having facial hair, which I think is a little weird. 

Ben: Actually, they do. Heron says he's been shaving so to look older. Oh, yeah. That is true. 

Tyler: He's got peach fuzz or something. I was growing a pretty solid bunch of 18 and 19. 

Ben: I had sideburns for sure. 

Denny: I'm rocking the 90s version of the book, you know, with like the 80s art and like I picture him just like that, you know, like. Oh, is he wearing the cool vest? This one he's got like a white doublet thing with fancy frills and shit. And he's like, you know, holding his arm up with the sword above him. 

Tyler: Perrin has the cool. Perrin has the sexy fur vest. Yeah. 

Denny: But yeah, I always picture him as being that sort of like muscular 80s style like that art that was on every pulpy like paperback fantasy book from the 80s and the 90s. 

Ben: You know, Jordan's like, oh, fuck, man, look at the detail on that cloak. 

Speaker 8: Textiles. He's got double cuffs. 

Sean: That is even more fancy boy looking than I imagine. Well, we all know he's special. 

Tyler: I really do like what Perrin's got in his artwork. I like that we're starting with the cover as well. Listen, that's that's a good vision for us. 

Sean: I also have a map comment. 

Tyler: Yeah. Okay. Ooh. 

Sean: You guys want some map talk? Yeah. Yeah. 

Speaker 9: Let's get it in map talk. Yeah. Well, also there's some there's some good there's some good quotes too in mind as well from the of press buzz that I think is ridiculous. 

Sean: Is it just the same map as the two? I mean the same map as the other two books. 

Ben: I thought I had the same thought. I wasn't sure if like it seems like there's a little more detail. Okay. 

Sean: It's the same drawing. 

Tyler: Well, the way that I have two I have two maps in my book. I've got the I've got a full color one on the inside cover, but it doesn't have the full detail on it. And then I've got the you know, the black and white one where you can actually read all the words. Yeah. I've got the black and white one. 

Ben: Do you guys have that little sigil like that little in the top left the wheel of time like with the yin and the yang and a sword running through a French horn? 

Speaker 9: I think that's supposed to be that's the horn of the lears. 

Tyler: Oh, the horn of the lears. Oh, I'm stupid. Yeah. I'm stupid. We've established how stupid it is that it's a French horn. Come on. Yeah. 

Sean: It was the it was the chapter header image and one of the end ones and the great hunt. 

Denny: Oh, that's right. I always pictured it as being like, you know, one of those big old like, oh, no, I was thinking like a like a Viking horn, you know, like a like a, you know, animal horn that's been like hollowed out. 

Ben: What's the Roshar is the Israeli one? 

Tyler: Shovar. Shovar. I've always pictured and everybody knows. No, now I have now completely lost the track of that joke I was about to say about the horn. 

Sean: So horn talk is over. Was there any good quotes on the front of this book? And the Chicago Sun-Times calls the Dragon Reborn large and splendid, which is something I want to be called. 

I'm a large splendid boy. I did just want to say also like, I do feel like there's just we haven't gone too far in the book yet to really tell, but it seems like there's a different air about the way that Rand is written or just like everyone is written kind of like, I shave now is a thing we got to know like yet time is passing. They're getting older, but like feels more like they're established characters, I guess to me, like seems like maybe Robert Jordan is going to spend a little less time rehashing the same like basic character development stuff that he has been for the first two books. 

Tyler: I didn't I didn't kind of single Tam as my father. Tam is not my father. Oh my god. We made two chapters in or three chapters in without that. I'm hopeful for that. 

Denny: We've exchanged the notes about Tam and Rand's father for the dark ones taint and we're going to hear about it endlessly from now on. 

Ben: Good, good. Can't wait. I think you're right that he's not going to have to re-characterize everyone except you know when Nineveh makes an appearance, it's going to be in a fucking tornado of braid tugging and like rolling pin bashing. Yep. Like a fifties cartoon. Oh, I can't wait. 

Sean: I I I've kind of like almost forgot about Nineveh at the start of this book. 

Tyler: Oh yeah, those checks. Yeah. All right. Well, let's see. You always want to jump into the chapter summary. 

Sean: I think we should definitely jump into the chapter. So let's get going. Prologue. Fortress of the Light. The Lord Captain commander of the Children of the Light, Pedro Nile, entertains three visitors in turn. Child Bayar, head Inquisitor Charidan, and Pat and Fane wearing a fake mustache. The men bring news of false dragons, Shonchan, Rand Al Thor, and All Out War. Inquisitor Charidan is commanded to let Rand go unbothered by the Children of the Light, by the Lord Captain, but is later paid a visit by a mirdrel who orders him to hunt down the dragon reborn. That is an extremely abbreviated chapter summary, but I really didn't want to like just put everything in there because it's mostly talking. This is a beefy, it was a beefy prologue for sure. 

Yeah. Longer than many of the subsequent chapters, speaking which I didn't say in book talk time, but this book is like the same length as just about as the second book. And both of those are shorter than the first book. I thought it was a good length than the second book. Open a little better pacing, good length. 

Tyler: Ben, from your recollection, did these get longer? I just, I recall them getting longer as the series goes on, but maybe I'm thinking about Melisandre in that regard. 

Denny: They sorted through. 

Tyler: I feel like 700 pages, yeah. 700 is right and perfect for this. Then that's book talk. Did you say chapter chat? Well, no, we're not. Book talk is what we're talking all about the book. Chapter chat is about. Now it's chapter chat. It's about the font. 

Denny: I will say that the prologue was sort of interesting to get like, I don't know, I guess an inside look at the white cloaks, even though they're sort of lame and annoying. Then it was sort of filled with politics, but good to get like a little bit of a different narrative POV for a change. 

Sean: Yeah, I do enjoy that quite a bit when you just get something totally different in wheel of time. That usually makes me like a chapter more just based on that. It should jump around even more than it does, I think. 

Ben: It's not Melisandre. It's like a whole new race of people in like a new continent with like a new religion. It's like they speak. I'm learning which you have to learn. Pig Latin and like, we'll see you in three books. Goodbye. 

Sean: I also like, so basically we get Pedro Nile, the leader. I think this is the first time we've seen him in the books. He's a Lord Commander, Captain, whatever of the children of light. And he is visited by a few people in a row here. 

And the first one is basically leaving off from the last book. We had Child By Our Hoves was commanded by Dane's daddy. What's his name? Jeffram. Jeffram told him to go back and well, give news to his son of his death and also to report, you know, what happened to the Lord Captain, but witness me. 

Speaker 7: There's some weird stuff going on with the, as we see through like his interactions with these three different people. I wrote this in the chapter summary and I hope you guys agree that we got Keridan, who's the leader of the torturers, obviously, or the inquisitors. And then you have basically Padan  Fane, but doesn't say. 

Denny: Yes, that's what I got as well. It's totally him. Yeah. 

Ben: One of the many faces of Fadden, the one of the many fanes. 

Denny: With his very notable nose, as it's always described. 

Sean: Yeah. I think he leads the books in being talked about, you know, from a perspective where the people don't know that it's him. We as the reader, all we got to do is look for the description of a nose. And he's like the only character that Robert Jordan really emphasized that nose on. 

Tyler: It's Remdescent of Hummus and Coos Coos. Oh my God. 

Sean: Which kind of Coos Coos, the white one? 

Tyler: Okay. Well, okay. 

Ben: Yeah. But I do not remember Pat and Fane being this integral to the story this late into the, I mean, we're only three out of 17,000 books, but I just don't remember him hanging around so much. 

Denny: Speaking of which, you all never, I was, I like, had prepared what sort of mentally thought about like an explanation of or exposition of my history with this series. Since last time I was on the show, it was just for the short story we read. 

But I only got to about book eight in this series, I think book eight or nine, something like that. And then it just sort of lost steam on it. But I'm a little disappointed to hear that I, to be fair, I don't really recall what Pat and Fane does after this point. But the character is sort of compelling in that, you know, he's like worse than a dark friend. He's got like, you know, this taint of Shadar, Logoth, and whatever that dude was that lived there. 

Mordred. Yeah. More, more, more death. More death. 

Yeah. It maybe feels like a missed opportunity to, you know, not have this sort of other evil play a bigger role in this story. And maybe I'm wrong. You'll be, I'm kind of interested to see. 

Ben: I think that evil plays a part more in Matt's story. I mean, it's the same evil, just different person. Oh, yeah. 

Tyler: That's a good point. And I feel like the Forsaken coming a lot more. 

Ben: The Forsaken, I mean, gonna be huge, but I forgot that Pat and Fane, like I said, was that this involved this deep into the narrative. So it's all kind of in a surprise for me. 

Sean: I think the big problem is that we talked about this with the last book, but at the end of the last book, after it built all that stuff up with him, was Rand, like wanting to go after him or meet him at Toman Head or whatever. Like nothing happened and he disappeared. Yeah. That was like completely anticlimactic. I don't know what was going on. 

Tyler: After screaming about meeting Grant on Toman Head for like, yeah, many interludes. We didn't actually get that. And I don't know if you actually talked about this in the finale episode, but is it just kind of a weird choice just to have the Shanshan be so big in the second book in the series? Like it's all this setup about fighting the dark one and then you kind of just have these other people coming in from overseas just like that early on in the series. I don't know. I just now kind of thought about that structurally is kind of strange, right? You kind of maybe and like no Forsaken were involved. 

Sean: It would have been cool if like book two was like you get mentions of these invaders and little bits of information about them or something, but you don't actually know anything to like third book. 

Ben: I think they kind of like I could be wrong, but I think they kind of slink off a little bit and then they come back like so they kind of do. 

Tyler: I do. Yeah. Oh, Turrach comes back for sure. I recall. Oh no, he died. Did he die? 

Ben: Oh yeah. Ladies Turrach. 

Denny: Did they Forsaken know that they had the Horn of Valyre going into all that? 

Ben: I don't think so. It was just like an age of legends artifact. 

Denny: You know, like looking at it simply like it was just like this kind of impossible. So like without the Horn of Valyre, like they would have all been fucked in the last book. So maybe it is just sort of like a classic story of the heroes managed to find this like artifact and that sort of thwarted everything. 

And like that's why we didn't get a confrontation with the Forsaken and a battle with the Dark One or his cronies in the last book to the degree that we were expecting at least. 

Tyler: It is kind of interesting. It's an interesting thought that like yeah, just by Rand just kind of being there, he does like stop like an entire culture and like an cultural invasion like this huge thing. And he just kind of like oops, we blew this horn and there's one spot, which is kind of, I think it's kind of, you know, Robert Jordan's whole thing with Taverran is like, they're just here to do these things. 

Oh, and by the way, this book is dedicated to his dad, James Oliver Rigney Sr., which reveals the fact that Robert Jordan's name is actually James Oliver Rigney Jr. And Robert Jordan is just his pen name. And that's it. That's all I wanted to say about the book dedication. 

Sean: Let's talk about the actual goings on here. 

Tyler: I kind of, I feel like this Pedro Neil guy, I know as we're kind of getting into this, because this is all from like Pedro, or I think just Neil because I'm boring. I'm sure it's Pedro Neil. He's the kind of, we've never seen him before. He's the Lord Commander or Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light, right? 

And then he's getting the report. And I think he's kind of a bland character. I just feel like I didn't really get a good view of like what this guy actually kind of cares about. 

Ben: Yeah. I like to, we had Child By Our, whose flesh has been boiled from his skin. And then you have Pedro Neil, whose skin is taut and the burst like is gone. It's like two, it's like different angles of the same shape. 

Denny: They're all a bunch of like real thin, like old white dudes. 

Ben: Like bony, like just medium to old white dudes. But also ripped, you know, got six back. Also ripped, for sure. 

Denny: I did appreciate that Robert Jordan did a little bit of the sort of show, but don't tell a little bit here with Pedro Neil though, like where he talks about like his furnishings and like just sort of like, I mean, he sort of buries it into the ground too. But you get like ideas about his character through like the fact that, you know, he's completely unadorned and he doesn't sit on a cushion and, you know, all these like little details, which was sort of sort of nice, I guess. But I agree. You don't really get much about his character. 

Sean: He says that he, that as the Lord Captain, you bring to your chambers what you had before you became the Lord Captain. So it suggests that yeah, he doesn't come from money or anything. So I do want to know like what his background is because I do get a sense from the children of the light that it seems like they have some sort of nobility or like noblemen in their ranks or just like they act like them based on the power that they hold in society. 

Tyler: It's like, I'm sure like, I'm sure like the aristocracy is sending their kids to go join the white cloaks and it's like the gold, the gold sunburst on the floor that's been worn away and replaced, which no gold actually doesn't work, wear away. That's kind of why you would explain it with a thing. 

It would not, that would not happen. It's cool. So like, you know, he's in this, he has all this sparse stuff, but like there's all this stuff around him that kind of reminders of the wealth of the order probably like being a, I'm listening to a book about the Templar Knights and it's giving me template vibes. 

Sean: Yeah, that's what I've always got from them. 

Ben: Is this Templar Talk? Templar Talk. 

Sean: Also though, I think Ben, you said that or someone said that it was kind of, it felt like this guy doesn't have that much of like a personality or he can't really get like much of a sense for what he's, what his motivations are and everything, but like also it's weird that he's paired up against Child Byar at the beginning here. He's like, I don't know about Byar so far. I like want to like him as some kind of villain or like Nemesis, I guess for Perrin. 

Ben: He's not really even like a villain. He's just kind of like a simpleton, like a weapon you point at things. 

Sean: Well, that's his thing. He does seem very stupid, I guess, is he doesn't have a personality. His personality is point me at something and I'll be aggressive towards it, but he's been pointed somehow at Perrin. He like very specifically because he saw Perrin, like during the, you know, fighting in Fulm or whatever, I think if I remember right, he like saw him in there somewhere and decided because he had seen him before and he knew he was involved with something. 

Ben: Well, parents killed two of their guys in somewhere in the first fight. 

Tyler: And then he and him and Gwain escaped from the camp after being questioned by Byar and stuff. 

Sean: So like, it just seems like still not enough to like make him be like Perrin. 

Tyler: He's the one. He called who like brought this, like he's like, and he's the mastermind behind all of it. He's the professor, Mari Arte of the dark friend world. This blacksmith who like killed some guys and ran away. 

Ben: I mean, it's got to be kind of wild to like have this dude show up like probably, you know, a thousand miles away that, you know, had no, there's no reason for Byar or any of those guys to think that they would be connected to what was going on in Fulm. So he's probably the fact that he saw him again. He's like, oh, shit, this guy is like, there's something going on. Connected, man. Yeah. He's part of Glass, which if you remember is gay lesbian ass suck suck. Yes. 

Speaker 9: Suck suck. 

Tyler: Did you guys, no, you can't cut that joke out, Sean. It's tight in. 

Ben: It's exposition. 

Sean: It's Canada. Yeah. It's going to be weird to cut it in because it was before our intro, but they talk about a few things here by our kind of like reports and stuff to Warren Hall. First of all, I guess two things maybe help me remember what the things are that by our shares with the Lord Captain. But also I feel like if I remember right during the conversation, it seems like Nile is like sort of, he knows a lot of this stuff and he's like getting Byar's take on it or like trying to like extract information from him through it, something like that. I feel like there's like a little manipulation in here. 

Ben: I don't remember exactly, but I think there's some sort of conflicting details with what he's heard probably from Keradin and or from not, yeah, I guess he talks to Keradin after, but from a Pat and Fane. So he's trying to like see if there's any cracks in this story or anything like that. See who's lying. I bet he's probably trying to maybe test the veracity of Pat and Fane story. 

Sean: Okay. That would make sense. Yeah. We get the Pat and Fane reveal later on. Yeah. That's true because he's got a lot of, this guy's got some whispers in his ear, man. Got a lot of shit going on here. Too many information streams. This guy's like hooked into Twitter and he just needs to get off. Yeah. And I mean, I guess we'll get to like exactly what Nile's motivations are. 

Ben: He's alt right as fuck. Yeah. Yeah, all these guys are. He's got that proud boys haircut. 

Denny: That was actually kind of one of the issues with the chapters. I mean, I don't really recall spent a long time as I read this book. So I don't remember where it leads, but like, you know, you sort of get it at the end of the prologue when Pat and Fane is talking to him and he's like, Oh, well, you know, you, you'll just, you know, let the lion loose on the village. And then you can like, you know, swoop in and tame the lion and be everyone's hero. 

And, you know, everyone will remember your name forever, which, you know, feels pretty like kind of shallow as a character motivation. But I don't know. I don't remember if there's like more to it than that. Yeah. 

Ben: He seems to be setting, setting people up a lot. And like, that's kind of a stupid. I mean, he's probably under, he's way underestimating Rand, obviously. And so he's like, Oh yeah, we'll just toy with him and then we'll just kill him when it best suits us. Yeah. 

Sean: He seems like, like he's getting manipulated and he's not going to like come out of this with a full understanding of everything. He's just going to let everyone push him in different directions and try and get his wishes out of it. But I guess his main wish is that he becomes the hero that he like says he like wants to stop the last battle. 

Tyler: Yeah. It says it's like, it's he the whole world is stirring near a boil, which I think should be seething near a boil, not stirring. What I actually thought this was one paragraph in here says where all his plans were destroyed, the plans that would have secured his name among the children's device. Is that what he was doing like against Tar Valin and up in Carrion? Like, or no, Andor, right, where they have the dudes outside the Capitol. Is that what they're talking about here? Is that like all that got screwed up? I think now, but now, yeah. 

Ben: I think they were still going to try to conquer Amador or not Amador, but all wherever the Elmeth planes, Erid, Domen and Terabon. 

Tyler: Yeah, yeah, cool. So like, which are kind of bordering their territory, right? They're trying to like do a power grab here in what is this south, southwest, Westlands. 

Ben: It's not like a power center of the continent. So it's right for the taking. 

Sean: When he talks to the keratin, he basically says, you stupid bitch. I told you to take over there. I mean, I wanted you to set it up so I can basically take over all these lands and like double the size of our kingdom, Mary. But like, I don't know if to they rule in Amador? Are they like the actual rulers that I thought he mentions like he has a king that they answer to or something. And that was his thing. 

Tyler: Yeah, they got a puppet kings. I bet he's a boy king. 

Ben: I love boy kings. The country is Amadisia, but the town is Amador, I believe. Or vice versa. Fucking confusing. But they own Amador. 

Sean: So yeah, he wants to get a place of their own to rule without even a king. And yeah, I was like, let the whole Shaan-Chan thing and the inquisitors like children of the light going through the land in the last book was, I guess, part of his plan to like make that right for the taking. But now he's got he's got like false dragons everywhere. There's three false dragons at once. Well, one's the real dragon. He just doesn't know that. 

Tyler: Do you have too many false dragons on your hands? 

Ben: Don't pay man. That's next episode. Next commercial there. Yeah. That's a good one. 

Ben: Oh man. That is a good one. Fuck. Cut this from this episode, Sean. We'll reuse that. I have one thing. 

Denny: If we're getting ready to move on to the next chapter, which I feel like we're there, I have one thing I want to call out at the very end of this of the prologue. You know, we have that scene with Karradin going back to his quarters and finding out that he's a dark friend. You know, he gets bitch slapped by the mirror draw. And he's, you know, like powering like a little bitch in the corner of his room. And then his servant comes in, door opened and Cherubon hurried in a pump man with a basket in his arms. He stopped to stare at. Master, master. I'm going to try again. 

It is a really funny scene though. The door opened and Cherubon hurried in a pump man with a basket in his arms. He stopped to stare at Karradin. Master, are you all right? Forgive me for not being here, master. But I went to buy fruits for your with his good hand. Karradin struck the basket from Charbon's hands, sending withered winter apples rolling across the carpets and backhanded the man across the face. 

Give me my skin. It's such classic like it exemplifies the black and white of the way a lot of these characters are written. And I mean, like you have no reason to like this person at all. And like just in case, just in case the fact that he was a dark friend didn't convince you. He also beats a servant. 

Speaker 10: Watch his servant toddling in with a basket of apples. 

Speaker 8: Like it was so thoughtful, you know. He had these like apples for him. 

Tyler: Picking these for a month. I want fruits for you, son. 

Ben: I sold my son for these, master. 

Tyler: There's a Norman Rockwell painting of like a boss yelling at a guy and the guy yells at his wife and then the wife yells at the kid and then the kid yells at the cat. And it's all very cute, normal Rockwell. But I'm seeing this as like the dark friend, the dark lord yells with the mirage roll. 

Ben: The mirage roll yells at Karen and Karen and Pete shared it. 

Sean: Oh man. It's crazy to me that that scene exists with him first slapping that basket. You have the fruit falling everywhere, but then immediately backhands him across the face. Like, like just an interesting series of events. He's like, get that basket the fuck out of here so that I can slap you. 

Speaker 9: Fuck your apples and fuck you. 

Sean: It's a real one to there. And then of course he wants his paper and his ink to send out those orders. Right. But I did want to that's the end of the chapter. I guess we didn't we kind of brushed over Pat and Fane coming in, but his part is pretty short. 

Tyler: He's a raggedy man showed up one day and rapidly made his way up to being the advisor. We've seen this shit before, Pat. 

Ben: I wanted to point that out. That is a little like the white cloaks are definitely not ones to like be open to outsiders. And they do. They don't seem to be able to be sweet talked easily. And so that one's a little weird. They don't seem like they're into charity either. 

Tyler: Yeah. Yeah. And with the Shanshan, like we didn't really know what happened. Like they like. The Shanshan? Shanshan. Shanshan. 

Ben: Shanshan. Or Sianchan. 

Denny: I always thought it was Sianchan. But like we just like their characters show up there and oh Pat and Fane's there. Like we don't really know. You get a little bit from his POV chapter a little bit later on how he like. But I slowly worked my way in or what however they put it. But this is the first time we're like it's happening with like characters that we sort of know something about. And yeah, I agree. Feels sort of weird that he's just there. It seems sort of convenient. 

Tyler: Kind of far away. Yeah, the timing doesn't seem like it works. How about La La? 

Sean: I wanted to note that he is. I mean it's a pattern now that he like. Nestles up to these powerful people and or in positions of power. But like it also it follows the pattern of Mordeth. Remember that ancient city he like. 

Some dude shows up and becomes the advisor to the king and Scylian the king starts getting real dark and weird and then evil takes over the city. I don't know. Maybe there's something there. Maybe not. I feel like I've heard that somewhere in fiction before. 

Denny: I was just going to say I wonder if Robert Jordan like wrote an essay in college about Grima Wormtongue being the biggest villain in the Lord of the Rings. Like arguing for that. Yeah, I could see it. 

Tyler: And then he saw Aladdin a couple years later was like fuck. 

Denny: They beat me to it. God damn you Walt Disney. 

Sean: One other thing though. What did you guys think is like Pat and Fane's deal here? He's he's I guess he just he wants to get revenge on Rand or I always say revenge, but it's not even really revenge. I don't know. He hates Rand. He's fated to meet with Rand, whatever it is. 

It all seems to be like based on. Toverin. That shit. 

Yeah. Toverin. He's dark toverin. 

Rand and the crew are light toverin. I don't know. Anyways, what we'll find more about. Oh, that was the other thing you guys just said Wormtongue. His name that he chooses or teeth. It means wormwood. 

Tyler: And it sounds like more death. His other name. 

Sean: It's it's all over the place. I think we get the idea. 

Tyler: Literally, yeah. Pat and Fane in a groucho marks glasses and mustache. His nose is pronounced enough already. 

Ben: He just takes one pair off and his nose is still big and he's still got another pair of glasses and just like a Russian doll groucho marks ensemble. 

Sean: Okay. You guys ready for that next chapter? 

Speaker 7: Are you soft? Do you tolerate the taint? Do you whisper of lost glories while the shadow festers in the heart of your village? 

Speaker 11: For the light. The white cloaks. 

Sean: We are the lights chosen. We are the steel against the encroaching darkness. We do not flinch. We do not falter. We purge the shadow wherever it hides. Be it in the whispers of Isidae or the twisted hearts of dark friends. 

Speaker 9: Do you have the strength to stand against the tide? Do you have the courage to face the truth? The light's work is not for the faint of heart. It demands sacrifice. It demands unwavering faith. 

Tyler: Join the children of the light. Purge the shadow. 

Speaker 7: Embrace the light before it's too late. 

Speaker 11: If you think you're a man of the light, join the children of the light. For more information, visit your nearest barracks or dome. The light will find you. 

Ben: Chapter 1. Waiting. Parents sets watch with their Shinaran companions. It is cold and he muses on his axe while he tries to block out the words of his wolf brethren. They wait yet another solo woman messenger, one of many over the months. They see a raven and shoot it as a precaution. Surprisingly, a member of the traveling people, too often, emerges from the snowy backdrop and is soon confronted by the sentries. Masima accuses the traveling people of cowardice, but Uno points out that Masima would be too afraid to undertake the journey by himself. After some huffing and puffing on parents' part, they enter the camp. 

Tyler: I don't remember. Do I have any things to say about this chapter? 

Ben: Like that's why I made my joke. It's kind of a cool setting. I mean, there's not much to learn, but it's a cool setting where they're in like the brush in the in the mountains and then like walking through the stream and good, like, details. 

Tyler: I'm really enjoying Robert Jordan's writing kind of his descriptions of stuff, like nature specifically, I think has always been strong. I think he like, I think he's a guy who likes to sit outside or like this and outside and, you know, look at nature. 

Sean: I actually we kind of joked about it before. I did actually enjoy. Do you guys remember if it did this in the last book where it starts out with the same beginning as it does in the first book? 

Tyler: They all of them start like this. They all have that. OK, I really like that. And it's with the wind blowing in. Remember it blows in to Rand. That smells weird. Right. When he was doing the sword fighting thing. Yeah, it's always a wind coming from somewhere. 

Sean: The beginning of this, though, also like I like how like you're saying it does some cool nature and stuff, but also you're seeing as they're traveling through it. They encounter this woman out there, which is we learn is like one of many of these women who are coming to Telmoir rain news. I guess that's what we learn. 

Tyler: I think she's just on whatever the lesbian version of Grindr is. And she's just she's just like picking up dates wherever they travel. That's what's actually happening. 

Sean: But also it's because they're guiding these women and like it's I like the idea that we start with Perrin as opposed to Rand, you know, and Perrin is like on the outskirts with he's with the cool dudes. You know, he's with Massima and Uno and Ronald Reagan. 

And they're out there. Perrin automatically seems way cooler than he has been to me even. He's like he's like becoming just like a another of the warrior dudes. And these are like he's the cool guys. You know, these are I feel like I don't know if it's going to play out this way, but it seems like, you know, Uno, Massima and Ronald Reagan are like part of the core first followers of Rand kind of thing. And I don't know if that means they'll stick around for us the books, but I hope so. Because they're the apostles. 

Tyler: We I think we get all the way until Ronald Reagan's final decline into Alzheimer's 12. 

Sean: Oh, nice. Well, he's president. Yeah. 

Tyler: For now, he's just like, do you want a jelly bean? And I know I don't I don't have candy anymore. I'm not a child. 

Sean: But it reminds me of like, I think about something like a molla's on where molla's on does a great job of like you meet the bridge burners, right? And there's all this history that's both written about and implied about the bridge burners. But like you also have these characters where it's like, oh, they have these legends from back in the day and their origins or whatever. 

And it sounds super interesting and cool. And like, I don't know, the mystery adds to like how bad some of those characters are. But I like this version where it's like we're starting out book three of, you know, however many frigging books are in the series. It has the opportunity to build characters like that from the beginning to be like, oh, remember like way back when we first met that character. And now they're like Lord King Emperor of the universe, Rans, you know, main henchmen. 

Tyler: It's like Dune is like that as well. Like if you got to see like Dasem Altor coming up from like being a corporal to whatever, you know, I don't know. 

I can't remember Dasem Altor's rise to battle or whatever it worked. But, you know, if you got to like see him and it was all a kind of POV over the course of that many books, it would be pretty rad. Yeah. 

Sean: I don't know if that's the way it works out in the real time. 

Denny: I assume you guys are talking about the the Shinarians, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 

Tyler: Umo and Osama, like what a thing, like in ten books from now, they're super leveled up and awesome and totally not dead. 

Denny: Yeah, I agree. They're there. There's a real interesting era of like, I guess, like trauma for all of these characters where they like grown up on the borderlands, they've all been soldiers from like the beginning of their lives. Like you've you already have the feeling like they all have these sort of backstories of stuff that they could tell and now they're in with the dragon. Like they're they're pretty compelling as a group of characters. 

Sean: Yeah, I I have hope for where this could go. And I like that it's starting out this way. Of course, in classic Robert Jordan fashion, he'll probably just do the opposite of whatever little thing I hope he does. But sorry. 

Ben: They're like the unfunny three suges, Masamune and I guess Reagan now. 

Tyler: Now that what's the three serious is the three stoics. 

Sean: I keep thinking Masamune Curry, one in Spanish and Ronald Reagan. I can Ronald Reagan. 

Ben: Yeah, just call me the gipper. Who knows the card game? What was the what was the guy that died? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a broad question. The guy that the the Shiner, the captain. 

Denny: I was trying to remember his name, too. 

Ben: I don't remember. 

Speaker 9: Isha Indar Indar Indar Indar. He got fucking brutally murdered in the show. I think that was in tar 

Sean: at the at the beginning of this second. Yeah. 

Ben: Put his head down on the spike and they like kicked his head through it. 

Denny: Yeah, not to divert too much from the book to the show, but I got some real Game of Thrones vibes from that scene. It had that sort of like immediacy and violence that made that show so good back in this day. 

Ben: It was the first time like they didn't really get into that and wheel of time in the first season. But but yeah, that was that was definitely a whoa. Hey, it's not ready for that shit. 

Sean: Yeah, I would say big difference with the show is I feel like they haven't really gone full in this direction. But I feel like they're willing to go rated R where Robert Jordan never crossed PG 13. Yeah, maybe they haven't shown like a bunch of nudity or things, but they've gone there with the violence, at least, and they added and swearing and stuff that's not in the books. And wait, it's pretty much implied that Rand fucks a Gwain at the beginning of the show, too. 

Tyler: If we're not going to see Rand's hog, I'm not even going to watch this goddamn show. 

Ben: Yeah. Let's I mean, the violence was great. But I mean, I would just cast that would just see all the tits. Let's see their tits. 

Denny: Well, and they changed more Rand's relationship with the Amarlin seat to being a romantic relationship, which was always framed as just being a close friendship in the books. 

Ben: That I like that that development, because it's like that's realistic. Like it's women that don't fuck dudes for the most part, other than the green green Asia, you know, they're going to be eating beef. Yeah. 

Sean: What else are you going to do? But also one advertisement, the second season, speaking of the violence ramping up does open up with Rand's mom in labor on the mountain in the snow. 

Ben: Oh, I see that. But yeah, that's pretty. That was awesome. 

Denny: Killing Trollix and then giving birth, but fucking fucking murdering Trollix as she's birthing a baby. 

Sean: Speaking of violence, we don't get any in these chapters. We just get talking and a tinker here, which. Other than parents shooting the bird, you just drop a hard tee. Jesus. 

Speaker 9: Oh, sorry. Sorry. They call them Romani now. I'm sorry. Uno does say a bloody tinker. That's that's that's racism, I think. And he also, Massima calls them useless cowards. Reagan's top knot waved as he shakes his head about it. Of course, Ronald Reagan would shake about those outsiders. 

Ben: I don't think in this book and this series, it's racism. It's more outfitism. Right. Right. 

Sean: You wore a green tunic. 

Denny: Those colors totally don't match. 

Tyler: I find your not your pacifistic lifestyle very threatening. 

Ben: Well, Denny mentioned that the only violence that parent skewers raven in the sky was like, that's so hard to hit a fucking bird. I mean, he's got wolf eyes. But like the fact that Shinarin's like they just missed the patch of sky that he had shot at, meaning they would have hit the raven had he not hit it first. Like, yeah, that is fucking hard, man. Like that's why people have shotguns. 

Tyler: And they're they have short bows and he has a long bow. And I think Robert Jordan has a kind of confused idea about the superiority there. 

Denny: But well, all of these characters are special boys. That's it. 

Sean: Very special. True. Very special. But in the first book, was it a raven that they or was it crows? 

Tyler: It was ravens. It's always been ravens. That's been OK. I don't think he said the word crow. I don't think he had. There's no crows. So there's all ravens. 

Sean: I think I'm just thinking of Lord of the Rings. It's crows that serve the exact same purpose. Spies for Saruman. 

Tyler: Oh, yeah, that is the same. I think you can think about that. 

Sean: He's like birds that are spies for the Dark Lord. And they're they're they're not crows. What's a ravens ravens? 

Denny: I'll point out that on the cover of the book that Ben sent to you guys earlier, my my copy of this book, there is a review from The New York Times quoted on the very front page. Jordan has come to dominate the world that Tolkien began to reveal. So Middle Earth. Sort of a nice way of saying like, yeah, there's some stuff here I recognize. It's a bit derivative. 

Sean: Um, in a good way, I guess. Hey, now, let's not be. 

Tyler: Let's not be me. All of Robert Jordan's dwarves are genetic. 

Sean: I wouldn't even honestly say that this is that derivative of Lord of the Rings. So anyways, they shoot down the raven, not the crow. And that's what they've apparently been doing a bunch. They just they're on Woman Watch and they're on Raven Patrol. They say that the raven needs to get back to someone to report. I like that they answered that question that I already had in my head. Does the does the Dark Lord see through their eyes or does he talk to them? But he talks to them. 

Ben: Oh, thank God. This picture like a local news woman watch. That's a woman. 

Tyler: That's a woman. Oh, that's a bitch. 

Sean: Tonight on Woman Watch, we saw this woman more later on Woman Watch. 

Tyler: There she is. So from Rock Bitch Hunter. 

Ben: Yeah, milk, milk hunter. 

Tyler: No, no, it's it's it's definitely bitch hunting. 

Speaker 9: It's a bitch hunter. Bitch hunter. Yeah. 

Ben: Oh, yeah, you're right. Well, they're all show. Yeah. Happy Mother's Day, bitch. 

Sean: And then they just literally made milk island into a show. In real life. So that's their thing. They get this lady. What's her name again? Freakin. 

Speaker 10: Leia, I think. 

Tyler: Yeah. OK, yeah, let's agree because I have to say her name and this next thing. Leia. 

Sean: Yeah. Yes, let's make it simple. Did you guys get the sense that she's like, I don't know if I would say flirting. I feel like she's like her and Perrin have like a little moment, you know, of like a free soul. Some banter back and forth. 

Ben: Yeah, I would not. I would definitely not call that flirting because Robert Jordan does not have that how that works. 

Sean: Yeah, I don't I wouldn't go that far. I would call it a hint that there could be light flirting, maybe several chapters down the road. OK, someone's right ahead. 

Tyler: I think parents, they parents is horny. 

Sean: The way it's set up, it's like Robert Jordan, all of his male and female love interest relationships are like a lot of them seem to involve a lot of like old men and women. They love to fight. Men are from ours. Women are from Venus. Can't live with them. Can't live without him. He's already setting up that dynamic. 

Tyler: I feel it. His wife is just reading these books like, I love you, Bob. We don't find out anything. 

Speaker 8: Where is he coming from? I thought we loved each other. 

Ben: Why sir, I'll just talk about lint in the dryer trap. 

Sean: Very specific. 

Ben: This isn't fit in this universe, versatile. 

Tyler: Robert Jordan's wife just looks down at her undivided writing skirts. I don't know. 

Sean: Oh, my brain. She stopped tugging on her braid for a second. We're back, baby. 

Denny: I think it was sort of like the undercurrent that we haven't really discussed to this point yet, which is that and it's a it's a theme that ends up getting repeated in every book in this series. Going forward is that the first few chapters end up just being exposition to like try to catch readers up on anybody who maybe like somehow did not read the previous books that came before it. There's a lot of that. And so, you know, like in this case, you know, they're just sort of pointing out that, oh, like Perrin had like traveled with the Tuatha on for a while with Egwayne and like he, you know, has all this guilt about violence and sort of like weird self loathing about it. But she is painted as being like weirdly perceptive, like almost in the way that an ace and I would be or something like, you know, she says something about like, oh, like you seem you seem sad. Like for someone who talks about violence so much, you seem sad about it. 

Ben: That makes sense because that actually like ties together a thread of the women that have come to bring messages to more white moirain are always from like different areas and like different casts and whatever. They probably have the talent. She's like casting out and like grabbing these women and they're being compelled, which is does not seem like a ace to die thing. 

Denny: Yeah, that's a good point. I didn't think about that. 

Ben: But you kind of made the point. I just kind of they 

Tyler: just keep showing us thing up like, I know I am. Yeah. Interesting. I didn't think about that. 

Denny: Yeah. Yeah. You connected the dots from you, though, you know, 

Ben: rather than more range sending out messenger sees questing out. I don't know. We don't really know how Cidar works. 

Denny: But we knew that we do know that the blue asia are known for like having networks of like spies or like feelers out like in all of the different realms. 

Sean: So to follow up what Denny said, it, you know, it does do a lot of that. I know throughout this where it's like, Perrin. Perrin was a boy from the two rivers like reading book three and they're like, what the fuck? Okay. 

Tyler: And like within the first paragraph and he also felt bad about himself for being so big. And so he's always very careful about like, yeah, you got this. 

Denny: Every fucking book. Every fucking book. 

Tyler: He's very sensitive about his size, even though, but he's not fat. He's not fat. No, no, no. 

Ben: He's just big. He's just big of ass and shoulders. Fat people aren't main characters. 

Denny: And feel free to cut this out, but this is not a trend that discontinues. Like every book, every fucking book, they all start with like three or four chapters of exposition on crap that you have read for the last. It's an infuriating habit that Robert Jordan had when writing this book. 

Sean: I think what it is really and what bugs me about it also is that it's really just a thing that comes from marketing because they need to try and sell as many books as they can. And they find it like easier to bring in readers that like back into it, you know, or ones that may 

Denny: have not read all the books or. He was probably forced to write it that way. Like where his editors were like, well, you know, you never know, like what book some 

Speaker 10: kids going to pick up off the shelf and like give him a place to start from. 

Sean: Exactly. Exactly. So that's what bugs me about it too, though, is that it's not a writing choice. You know, it's a choice from the production standpoint. 

Tyler: If you start the Wheel of Time with the Dragon Reborn, you're a moron and you need to not read this series. 

Ben: I have. You're doing it wrong. I have actually I've started with the second book book in a series like three times maybe in my life. 

Tyler: You did it with the Baroque cycle, I believe, or someone one of those ones I recommended. I just read that on the border. Yeah. 

Ben: The only one I could think of is the Rebecca Roanhorse, like Navajo series thing where I just picked it up and like, oh, that looks cool. Man, they were really inferring a lot about what has happened up to this point. I mean, I don't think we've talked about that, but I've done this. I've done this a few times in the course of a lifetime where I've started with a book, you know, past the first book. 

Sean: I've done that. And then I realize it after like a chapter or two usually. And then I'm like, oh, just to wrap up here, Princess Leia gets escorted to Rans camp. 

It's or at least we can pretty much imply because it says welcome to the camp of the dragon reborn, which that's what parents. Steve, my buddy. He's just saying that now. But yeah, it is cool to like I love the way he chose to do this. I kind of said this before, but like start with Perrin outside the camp, bring him back into the camp and he gets there and it's like, oh, it's the camp of the dragon who is just Rand. And it's like it feels like he's going into like this war camp or something with like a general or a king or something. But no, it's just fucking Rand Al Thor. 

Tyler: Yeah, it's the fucking teenager with daddy issues. It's fine. 

Sean: Which makes me very curious to know how how it characterizes Rand in this book as he gets more followers. And Rand is like not full of himself at all in his head. As far as like being the dragon, he just wanted to like not have any of this weight put on him and this responsibility and everything. But he kind of fully accepted it at the end of last book. So we'll see. We'll see how he deals with that throughout this book now. But let's move on to the next chapter. Siding. 

Tyler: Chapter two, side in. Perrin accompanies the tinker woman Leia into the camp where she is taken to meet with Moraine. He then talks with Min and the seer woman reveals a sign of death that hovers over the tinker. Also, Loyal is there still talking about DeVeron plus he's writing a book. Rand emerges from the tent and is hailed by the shinarians. 

Oh, that's how he pronounced that word. Rand emerges from the tent and is hailed by the shinarians as the dragon reborn. Retreating to an even more secluded valley, Perrin and Rand talk, musing about Matt's trip to Tar Valin and their new identities and duties to the people now fighting in Rand's name. Rand starts to talk about side in and its call, how he can't control it and how he's worried about what is to come. The ground begins to tremble. Rand releases a small earthquake as the power fills him and threatens to burn him to a crisp. Perrin tries unsuccessfully to get Rand to return to camp and then heads back alone. 

Sean: This chapter also not a whole ton happens, which is classic first feature. 

Tyler: I mean, this is some stuff I like. Now that I've read my summary, how dare you say that, Sean? 

Sean: I mean, not a ton like physically happens. It's just talking. 

Ben: Tyler, you're great. And you're a special boy and everything you've done has been perfect. 

Speaker 10: Thank you, Ben. Thank you. 

Tyler: That's exactly what I needed. You're right. Not a lot happens. I mean, we've seen Rand freak out about side in and blow some stuff up before. It's kind of old hat. Yeah. 

Sean: Although it was an interesting way that that happens at the end. And it's like shows some advancement, I think, in the way that Rand's. 

Tyler: He's power level six right now out of a thousand. So he's getting up there. 

Sean: It seems the same thing going on where he loves using the power, you know, and he's like trying to fight it kind of. But also he's able to like get it under check, I guess, for the moment. Like a cocaine habit. 

Tyler: Something like that. You know, so basically we learn immediately that, you know, my reign's got a tent there. She shares with land, of course. And she just has she's got a parade of women coming into it all the time. 

Denny: The way the chapter is set up does it does a good job of like establishing a bit of otherness around Rand? Like Rand is our main character in the story, but now we're like 80 pages in or wherever this chapter is and haven't had a point of view chapter from him. 

And we're also joining in in the story after all the events of the last book. You know, he's like painted on the sky and he's got like all these followers now. And he's proclaimed himself as the Dragon Reborn sort of. And I actually kind of liked the way that this chapter ran from parents point of view. And he's sort of like seeing his friend and trying to sort of parse out the things he remembers from his friend, but also seeing the ways that he's very different, I guess. 

Tyler: I think the moment where he comes out of the tent and the Shinarians all just like kneel and like salute him like really kind of drives home like, oh, shit, this is way different. Like this is a different character fundamentally than who we saw in the first book. 

Sean: There is even a part though when Rand or when a parent says that that he's not even sure if these friends with Rand anymore. So there is still kind of continuing off some stuff from last book with that. And it is like with this new even newer Rand here, it'll be it will be interesting to see where that goes. But for that, we've got Min basically, Perrin leads the Princess Leia to Moraine's tent and then meets Min outside. And I guess Min just chills with these people now. 

Tyler: I think she's always been Moraine adjacent, I think. Yeah. So she knows where she knows where Paycheck's coming from now that she's lost her gig working for. What was her job at that in? She was working. She was at that in hanging around dressed as a boy girl. 

Sean: We just say probably Min has caught up in hashtag to Verin or whatever and and leave it at that. 

Tyler: But I know I do think Moraine is her employer now. Yeah. Yeah. 

Sean: But she also she's like she sees the lady going and she's like the tinker woman is going to die. That bitch dead. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Okay. And poor Perrin who as I predicted in like four chapters from now is going to almost flirt with her. And but you know maybe that adds to I don't know he's going to try and savor. 

Tyler: I mean he kind of gets hot over like girls that maybe you're going to die. 

Speaker 9: Remember the whole thing with like who he was going to kill a Gwaine? Yeah. He really did. That was pretty weird. Yeah. That was weird. The weird thing to put in a book Robert Jordan 

Sean: still kind of hung up on that. Yeah. What if I have to murder a Gwaine? Yeah. Let's think about that for a while. 

Ben: I think as as the series goes on we kind of lose the Perrin POV and that's not a bad thing. He's not that interesting. He kind of sucks. 

Denny: Honestly, Matt's POV isn't that interesting either. No. 

Tyler: Well we never had a we haven't had a single Matt POV. 

Ben: That's got fingerless gloves so he's got something. 

Tyler: And a spear. I mean. 

Denny: And he's a gambler. 

Tyler: Parents' story, parents' motivation is I just want to be a good boy. And that kind of you know, it's always so far I can go with that. 

Sean: We get like this procession of introductions here too of characters. We get Loyal just kind of shows up and he's like did somebody say Tuahthon? And then a laugh track plays in the sitcom that's going on here. 

Ben: Big cheer and clap because Loyal showed up for the first time this season. 

Tyler: He's looking hot too. He's got a high neck coat of dark brown wool and a flair to the knee of turndown boot tops. He's looking stylish these days. 

Sean: Gotta love it. Being good friends with the dragon has paid off it seems. And he's I think he's embezzling. I bet he's embezzling like mad. Oh totally. No he doesn't need to. 

He just he just gambles I think and wins. Oh that's true. Yeah. It's kind of his thing. But the Loyal like he talks about a little bit of stuff here. But I don't know. It's mostly just regular Loyal stuff talking about Taverin and the pattern and. 

Tyler: I underlined when he said he just he says Taverin Loyal began within like a page of him appearing on this. And then I'm like there we go. Yeah. Back to back out his bullshit. 

Ben: With a little eyebrow winkle and like a wrinkle and wink to the camera. 

Tyler: But I do like that. Yeah. He's putting on he's putting on writing a book about Taverin. Yes. There's nothing like an author writing an author into their own story. 

Sean: I always get really suspicious of that right away. I'm like once where is this going. A little bit of George R. R. Martin in there too. 

Denny: Daniel I always think it was weird how Loyal phrased that of like like Loyal was just like oh and I'm like I'm a little hesitant to tell you but I'm thinking about writing a book. About everything. Oh yeah. Like dude fucking obviously like what else are you going to be doing. Like you're hanging out here. 

Speaker 10: You're obsessed with books. Reading books all goddamn day like what else are you going to fucking do. Yeah he's basically a scholar. 

Tyler: But that's the way like somebody who's planning on writing a book but actually he's never going to write a book that's the way they kind of lead off to like I'm thinking of writing a book about this. You're like oh god don't judge me. 

Ben: I'm sorry I'm so sorry I'm going to write a book. I don't I just have to write a book but don't judge me. I'm so sorry but can't stop me. I'm going to write a book. 

Sean: We get Rand coming out here eventually. And as I think was mentioned before we get this we this kind of crazy reaction to it. People are like would you say they're worshiping Rand now. 

Tyler: Hail to the dragon. Yeah. It's the dragon. 

Sean: Oh it feels like worship. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is kind of crazy. I don't know like it's weird because it moved so slowly in the first two books as far as like developing Rand and him deciding he wants to accept his destiny. That was kind of the big thing was like he needed to finally you know be able to face the facts that he's maybe actually this fucking legendary dragon dude. 

Tyler: Something I don't really understand is like worshiping a false dragon or like being a follower of false dragon is pretty is characterized as being a horrible thing that terrible for dark friends do. 

And then like these upright dudes are like yes well no I get it. I mean they may be to show that Rand like legitimately showed his power back in fall but like it's kind of crazy that like I've never really understood the dichotomy between okay everyone apparently understands that false dragons are bad but then false dragons come around every 10 years or so and millions of people follow them as I go and open TikTok on my phone. 

Sean: Well that's the thing though because it's like he went like I said slowly in the first two books to even accepting that he has his powers and then like he was sort of tricked into developing them by land fear in the last book. Celine and then and then he's like I guess gotten more powerful started to control and use his powers and accepted that he has them and then like had his big battle thing or he actually kills like a good fighter and stuff at the end of the last book and then he just goes straight to in this one being like the commander of armies essentially which is in like worship by people. It's like pretty abrupt. 

It spent a lot of time building up but then it just like switches over all the way into like full on. I don't think there's much coming back from this at this point and like maybe there's a point in the books when Rand gets knocked down from his like position of power you know and is like more reliant on himself and a small group of people again or something. I assume it probably goes in different cycles throughout the books. It sure does. But like also it's that that could be a tough thing to navigate like going all over the place with that but 

Ben: well there's I mean his powers are like he's definitely finding his power and on the other hand you're going to see the like awakening of the other Forsaken and other powerful entities that like come to counter him. I mean it all is like pretty equal. He has a counterbalance the entire time but yeah I mean Rand is still like going to be the most powerful character and fancy. 

Tyler: The most special boy that there was ever special boy. The most most specialist boy. 

Sean: I guess the next thing would be Perrin like follows him off into the woods right or not into the woods. 

Tyler: It was somewhere like no they go through a crack in the rock and there's like a whole thing. Yeah a crevasse. And there's an even more secret valley. They already went into a secret valley and then there's an even more secret valley inside this secret valley. 

Ben: Right and it's a half mile. He's just like I went down a half mile which is like two times around your school. 

Tyler: I know I circled that as well. Like that is a long way to go down like the crack he's describing in rocks. 

Ben: Yeah it's only like 15 minutes but it's like 15 minutes in a hole you know like in the cave. 

Tyler: I know have you like ever gone down like the really narrow Oniota gorge and like Columbia River Gorge. Like it's a tiny little crack that you had to go down. It's way less than a half a mile. It's not even a quarter mile and you're pretty claustrophobic kind of getting through there. I don't know. 

Sean: Yeah but Perrin follows Rand into his weird hideaway place which makes sense that I think he would need something like this with the way things are going with this. These people worshiping him. 

Tyler: The way it's described though. Sorry one last thing. It does feel like Lord of the Rings to me. Like Lord of the Rings always has a like thematically appropriate really traumatic landscape that doesn't it doesn't have to make sense you know for like geographically. There's there is a gorge and a mountain because Eric Gore needs there to be a really dramatic gorge at this point. 

Sean: Oh yeah. No it's all in New Zealand didn't you know. But Rand also like he Rand doesn't know that he's been followed. Rand did not move when Perrin's boots scraped up on stone. So I guess he doesn't hear him or doesn't notice or whatever. But he just starts talking out loud and says like he's quoting the Karathean cycle. There's this kind of mention of the Harrens about being marked multiple times and it's like Rand worrying about the prophecy I guess. It sort of mentions these Harrens that he has marked on him and stuff as if to like remind us that that happened. 

Ben: I don't think he's worried about I think he's I mean he's worried that the prophecy fits him. He's not worried about whether or not the prophecy applies to him. 

Denny: Like yeah well yeah it's reconciliation. He like he's finally decided that like okay like it actually is me and so. 

Ben: Which is a fucking relief to me. 

Tyler: I just stop me stop. No it's not. Ouch. Ouch get off. I couldn't possibly be the dragon or even like no. 

Speaker 10: My father was 10 when I come from the two rivers where I was a shepherd and I'm a shepherd boy and I will always be a shepherd boy. 

Ben: Let's put that shit behind us. He's the dragon and I'm sure that's not that clean. He's gonna be like I don't think I'm dragon ish but not the dragon. I don't know. I'm sure we'll see some more of that. It's an improvement. 

Sean: It's kind of weird though like so their conversation is like oh well you've been arguing with more or fighting with my reign a lot huh and then he's like well it's better than what you do. You just do whatever she tells you to Perrin and then Perrin's like but you've stood up to her and nothing's happened and then Rand says that's because she's right but he just needs to argue with her because it says or I'll burst like a rotted melon. 

It's the only way you can come. Yeah so what we're just I guess the whole thing is that Rand is not he actually agrees with my reign and they're fighting for no reason except for that Rand is moody. 

Tyler: Yeah that's kind of what I got out of that. Yeah yeah good job. 

Denny: It reads that way. Yeah he's like I'm upset about this so I argue with Maurene about this because I'm upset and then she tells me again why we're doing the thing we're doing and it makes sense but I'm going to argue with her about it tomorrow too because I'm just moody and upset and I'm the dragon. I'm a grumpy dragon though. 

Sean: That's why I kind of like I feel like this is not that much happens. This is all scene setting you know it's like it's cool setup but as far as discussion goes it's like okay yeah we're back. Rand's still kind of annoyed with Maurene for some reason but it's like actually even defined as being not a very good reason in this one. He actually had some good reasons before like the whole like her showing up in their village and kind of kidnapping them or whatever and ruining their lives and taking them away from their families forever and all that stuff but you know it's fine. 

That's in the past now we're just Maurene's right but I want to fight with her because that's what their dynamic is and then Rand like goes starts you know testing his power level dragon balls-y style. 

Speaker 9: And then Dusk goes into the air. Some slight rumbling. What else was there? A trunk crash down or something like that? A tree broke. Yeah it's not incredibly exciting but it is cool to see Rand like it feels like Rand is like ready to burst you know where he really needs he needs like a bad guy to unleash his power on or something like he's kind of bored as the dragon I think. 

Tyler: Yeah the dragon needs to be against something. Yeah yeah I can feel the taint even before I touch it. 

Sean: Yeah it's worrying for parents sake like I'm with parent now. 

Tyler: Like hey bro I got my own stuff right now are you cool? 

Sean: Yeah my eyes are yellow. Okay yeah because in the last books we were like I don't know it seemed like Matt and Perrin were being a little unfair to Rand sometimes. Just like oh Mr. Where's the Fancy Robes now even though it was like nothing to do with Rand and he didn't want it that kind of shit. I was a little tired of that shit but this is like okay yeah I'd be worried if I was parent to Rand's like a nuclear bomb that is inhabited by the ghost of a moody teenager or something like that could go off at any time but yeah anything else to say about this chapter? No I think that pretty much covers it. Suffers waiting we haven't got any fun last chapter like little jokes end of the chapter jokes. 

Tyler: But yeah Perrin turned and left him standing there. Yeah and now that I did not laugh. Welcome to the camp of the dragon reborn was a good way to send off that last one. 

Sean: Welcome to the dragon. That's why I thought you were gonna start for the second. Yes that's the that's the music that's gonna play in season three at the end of the first episode when we have coming games. 

Ben: Fucking hope not. Can you imagine like so the first episode like we do the prologue and then we build up to when Perrin gets back to the camp and then when Rand finally comes out of the tent after they've all just been talking about him all episode just Rand appears only at the very end and then music sting and we we go welcome to the jungle. It's gonna be awesome. 

Denny: You said music sting and then I thought like wait are you gonna pivot to sting here like 

Sean: actually needle needle drop is the the right way to say that. 

Tyler: That's dune man that's dune. 

Sean: Yeah but I don't know if I need to predict the next year. 

Tyler: Hold on yeah what do we got here what do we got here. News from the plane. So I think news from the plane is really like we just gotta take a break and we get to news from like will be gone but in this in this so Garrison Keener just comes out. 

Ben: The Norwegian bachelor farmers and no exactly. 

Tyler: So all out there in the two rivers on the edge of the prairie and everyone claps and he just kind of goes into a like a long homespun story about a tobacco farmer who tries to build a pontoon boat on the pond. Yeah it's really just kind of a slow chapter frankly. So that's that's what happens next week and news from the plane. 

Sean: Shadow sleeping. You know how we always get dreams where Rand would dream and the dark one comes into his dreams. This time we get the dark ones dreams and Rand is coming into them. 

Tyler: Oh can we get the dark one like in like a really pointy hat you know like a pointy old fashioned sleep hat and a candle. Yeah he's just kind of going to bed. Yeah. 

Speaker 10: He does the little snoring sounds. Hunk shoe. That all happens. It turns out that the reason why you know the dark one has been harassing Rand is actually because Rand has been unknowingly harassing him for years. It actually it turns out that Rand is the the evil aggressor in this relationship and he's just unaware of it. That's the big twist there. The dark one did nothing wrong. Hashtag the dark one did nothing wrong. 

Tyler: Oh bold. Bale fair. There's a belt still beams right. 

Sean: Exactly. Anybody else. We only really need nightmares walking because we're not going to read the hunt begins. 

Ben: Rand wakes up and he's wearing just a a wife beater and a pair of cargo shorts. Go on. And he realizes I spent all this time detesting the outfit that my rain has forced me to wear and I'm wearing a tank top. There's no sleeves. There's no hair and there's nothing. And what are these pockets for? I can't even like I could put a phone in them but I could put that in a normal pocket. I can't put a knife or a water skin in these pockets. What are they even for? 

Sean: Did Rand time travel? 

Ben: No it's just a nightmare. And so he's walking down the street and then he like sees Bellas Amon. He's like oh thank god. It's just one of those normal nightmares and then he wakes up. 

Sean: Oh I see. The nightmare was that he wore a wife beater and some cargo shorts. 

Tyler: Yeah I mean look at this guy on the front of the book. Like if that guy had to wear a tank top on a wife beater he would just rather die. I suppose. I mean like life would lose its meaning if you're wearing a wife beater. Sorry a ribbed tank top. A ribbed male undershirt. 

Sean: That brings us to the end of another episode of the Bridge Burners Book Club. We would love it if you follow us on Instagram at Bridge Burners Book Club, on Twitter at Bridge Burners BC, and find us on YouTube at Bridge Burners Book Club where we post full episodes, clips, and polls. If you would like to write in, shoot us an email at bridgeburnersbc at gmail.com with any comments, questions, or contentions and maybe we'll read them on air. You can also join our Discord with the link in the episode description for discussions, questions, or to post your best memes. It really helps the show to grow if you give us a rating on Apple and Google podcasts so please consider helping. I'm the Sean Chan and from my co-hosts Ben Buie and Tyler the Creator. Thank you for listening and we'll be back next week. 

Ben: Why are you so sad? Is it because more rain is being a bitch again? Or is it perhaps that you are scared of the dark one's taint? Oh, dark one's taint. It's so scary and fraught with pubic hair. It is a truly horrible place. 

Ben: It's so scary and fraught with pubic hair. It's so exciting. Through the dark one's taint. And grasp it, nothing. Meanwhile your collar itches. From the fancy clothes more rain makes you wear with the dragons on the sleeves. Oh dear. The dragons on the sleeves. And the dark one's taint. 

Sean: Do you remember that one song by the frogs? Grandma sitting in the corner with a penis in her hand going no no no no. 

Speaker 10: I just, what the fuck did you sit down to? Grandma sitting in the corner with a penis in her hand going no no no. It only goes to show. What the fuck?