Re-Reading "The Great Hunt": "Chapter 4: Summoned" and "Chapter 5: The Shadow in Shienar"
While Moiraine meets with the Amyrlin Seat and they plot their next moves, others are also moving, and not everyone has Rand's best interests in mind.
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We’re now barreling right through The Great Hunt, and in these chapters we get a fascinating look, for the first time, at Moiraine and the inner workings of the Aes Sedai. I’ve long been convinced that Moiraine is one of the very best characters that Jordan ever created–Nynaeve is a close second–and I often regret that we don’t get more chapters from her point of view. It’s understandable why this would be the case, though, since she knows far more than Rand or anyone else about what’s going on in the world, and part of the joy of reading The Wheel of Time is fitting the pieces together at the same time as the characters do so. Nevertheless, one of the things I enjoy most about Amazon’s series is the expansion of Moiraine’s role (but then, how can you not do that when you have Rosamund Pike in the role?)
Like Rand, we’ve suspected that there was more up Moiraine’s sleeve than she was willing to reveal openly, and now we get a glimpse of what those purposes are as she meets with none other than the Amyrlin Seat herself Obviously the bond between the two women is significantly tamer (and less sexual) than it is in Amazon’s adaptation (unfortunately), but it’s still clear how much they care about and respect one another. Moiraine, however, is never one to let childhood friendship get in the way of current problems, and it’s clear that their intentions where Rand/The Dragon are concerned may not be as aligned as the Amyrlin might have thought.
Nor is the discussion between Moiraine and Siuan limited to the Dragon and their role in preparing him for the Last Battle. There are also glimpses into the fraught history of the White Tower and the fractious relationships between the Ajahs, particularly the Blue and the Red, who clearly hate one another. Even though we don’t know it yet, the seeds are already being sown for the conflict that will one day lead to the White Tower itself falling into civil war, a civil war that will see Siuan deposed and stilled, something that she seems to have an inkling of even this early in the story.
Indeed, even though the conversation between Moiraine and Siuan is between two members of the Blue Ajah, it gives us a great deal of insight into the way that the White Tower is riven by internal conflict. Much like Gryffindor in Harry Potter would come to stand for the good guys and the Slytherins for undiluted villainy, the Blues are clearly understood in the novel as being on the side of right and the Red on that of evil. This impression will only grow once we get to see more of their actions, particularly those of Liandrin and Elaida, the former of whom will be revealed to be Black Ajah and the latter of whom is so caught up in her own short-sighted understandings of the world that she nearly destroys the White Tower from within.
These chapters are also notable for introducing us to several other Aes Sedai who will become incredibly important, not just to Rand but also in their own right. Obviously there is Siuan herself, who is nothing less than a badass. After all, this is a woman who managed to make her way out of the slums of Tear to become the most powerful woman in the world. Though some signs of her old self occasionally peek through, she now knows how to speak to those in power as if she was born to do so. And then, of course, there’s dear Verin. At this point in the book she is just another abstracted Brown, someone who loves to pursue knowledge for its own sake, but as events will reveal, she’s one of the most important Aes Sedai of this Age or any other.
To me, chapters like this one are some of the most fun to read. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy the adventures and, to a lesser extent, the love interests and other angsting that the characters repeatedly do, but to me where Wheel of Time really sings is in its depiction of the complications of politics. We see again and again how even well-meaning actors like Moiraine and Siuan make mistakes as they do what they do because they think it’s for the best for everyone. Because of their unique position and their privileged access to various kinds of knowledge, they can do things that no one else can, but this power is, like so much else in this series, a double-edged sword.
These chapters also provide some important insight into Liandrin. It’s immediately clear that there is much more to her than meets the eye, and that she has ambitions and purposes of her own which are not necessarily in alignment with the White Tower. It’s not clear just yet that she is in fact Black Ajah, but it’s nevertheless quite obvious that this is what she is. This is a woman, after all, who is willing to use her power to bludgeon Amalisa into doing her will. Someone who is this ruthless is clearly going to be a problem for our heroes, and with Liandrin that will become true sooner rather than later.
There are already rumblings that things are not as they should be, for all that Rand and the Light were able to attain a victory at the Eye of the World. It’ll be a bit yet before we meet the sinister Seanchan and their world-conquering ambitions, but they are already beginning to make their presence felt, creating quite a bit of chaos and destruction on the western shore of the continent. When they finally do appear, it will create all sorts of trouble for both our protagonists and those who are on the side of the Dark One.
It’s also rather surprising that we get some insight into the inner workings of the Children of the Light, particularly since they have already been painted in a very unflattering light in The Eye of the World (and by the prologue of this very novel, which makes it clear that there are some of them who have already turned to the Dark). However, it’s worth noting that Geofram Bornhald, though a devout believer in the purpose of the Children, isn’t necessarily a villain, at least not in the way that, say, Ishamael and the Forsaken are.
These chapters, like so many others in The Wheel of Time as a whole, don’t necessarily move the plot forward in any appreciable sense. What they do, however, is to give us a greater sense of this world and the stakes involved in the conflicts to come. The Aes Sedai, after all, are some of the most powerful and influential power-brokers in this world, and so their actions, both great and small, are fated to have implications on both Rand and on every nation, both those on the main continent and the Seanchan.