Re-Reading "The Shadow Rising": "Chapter 1: Seeds of Shadow"
The first chapter in the third volume of "The Wheel of Time" sets the stage for the heightened drama to come, as Aes Sedai, Seanchan, and Whitecloaks circle the Dragon Reborn and those close to him.
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As promised, we’re resuming our voyage through the books of The Wheel of Time and, appropriately enough, we’re looking at the first chapter of The Shadow Rising. Normally I try to do several chapters at once, but there’s just so much action going on in “Chapter Title” that I decided it was worth giving it a newsletter all on its own. After all, in addition to being quite long, this chapter also has Min meeting the Amyrlin, Elaida hatching plots against Siuan, Suroth gathering the scattered Seanchan, and the Children of the Light remaining poised to enter the Two Rivers. It’s really quite a lot but, because this is Robert Jordan, we’re on the edges of our seats from beginning to end.
As The Wheel of Time goes on, these prologues do an increasing amount of heavy lifting. They set the stage for many of the events to come in the books that follow, and they are particularly adept at creating a sense of dramatic irony. We know what these people are doing, while our beloved protagonists remain clueless. So it is with this prologue, which introduces several plot points that, while not immediately germane to our main characters, will have a tremendous impact on them going forward.
I’ll be honest about something. I’m not a huge fan of Min, at least not as she appears in the books. It always felt to me as if she was a cool tomboy character that Jordan happened upon while he was writing The Eye of the World and then, seeing her potential, he kept her on, only to stop knowing what to do with her once she fell in love with Rand. The problem is that her love of Rand starts to be quite cloying after a while, and I constantly find myself wishing that she had something more interesting to do than moon after the Dragon Reborn. While I didn’t like everything that the Amazon show has done with her character, I do appreciate that they’ve given her an arc that feels more like it has genuine stakes, even if the idea of her giving herself to a Forsaken in order to get rid of her visions raises a whole host of questions.
Min isn’t the only one who is in the Tower, however, and this chapter gives us our first real insight into Elaida, a character who has hovered at the edge of the action but will gradually become one of the most important characters in the entire saga. This chapter reveals her growing suspicion that Siuan is up to something, something that involves Rand al’Thor. Say what you will about Elaida, but she’s no fool, or at least not as much as many of the other characters.
Moreover, Elaida isn’t Black Ajah, though she is definitely a villain particularly if, like me, you love Siuan Sanche and don’t like it when the women under her charge start plotting against her and trying to bring her down. Just as importantly, our only access to her up to this point has been through the eyes of characters like Rand and Egwene and Elayne, which means that we’re already primed to see her as a bit of an asshole. This chapter certainly suggests that she has her own little games that she’s playing and, for all that she’s a Red (who never saw a problem they didn’t think they could bludgeon into submission) she is subtler and more manipulative than some of the others in her Ajah.
The tragic thing about Elaida is that she really does seem to think that she’s doing what’s best for the Tower. Yes, she’s arrogant, and yes, what’s good for the Tower also often coincides with what's in her own best interests, but she still has her own moral compass, even if it’s one that we might not agree with (aligned as we are with Blues like Siuan and with Rand and company). Elaida is also smart enough to know she needs to forge alliances, and from the moment that she encounters Alviarin in the hallway–having done a bit of spying on Siuan and Min–it’s clear that these two are going to be hatching some plots of their own. It’s still early days, yet, but it’s also clear that Alviarin has her own game to play, and that she’s managed to snare herself a very willing accomplice in the headstrong and arrogant Elaida.
On the other side of the scale is Suroth, who has now solidified her hold over the Seanchan after their disastrous defeat at the end of the Great Hunt. I’m on record as stating that I unequivocally hate these people and everything they stand for, particularly their enslavement of women who can channel. Suroth, in many ways, is the paradigmatic example of the Seanchan, someone who has entirely bought into their entire way of life–rigidly hierarchical, utterly dehumanizing to anyone who hasn’t been born into wealth and power–and to make matters worse she has also sworn herself to the Dark One. Much as I hate her, though, I have to admit that she makes for a very good villain in her own right and, as someone who is both Seanchan and a Darkfriend, she represents someone who exists in two very different worlds. Her presence very early in the book makes it clear that, for all that they were defeated by Rand and the others at Falme, the Seanchan still have a lot of fight in them and are going to continue making a nuisance of themselves.
Arguably the most devastating part of this first chapter is the revelation that the Children of the Light are poised to enter the Two Rivers and target Emond’s Field. We already know, of course, that their leader is under the thrall of Padan Fain, now going by the name Ordeith (which, fittingly, translates to “wormwood” in the Old Tongue). Now, we know that Fain is determined to get his revenge on Rand by going after the people that he loves the most, even as his attention is fixed on the struggles attendant on being the Dragon Reborn. Young Dain Bornhald, for his part, is so intent on getting revenge against Perrin that he’s willing to wreak all sorts of havoc on the people of Emond’s Field (It also goes without saying that the sneaky folk of Taren Ferry are more than happy to sell out their peers further on, just so long as it keeps the Children from their own doorsteps). It doesn’t take an Aes Sedai to determine that the people of our dear little village are going to suffer a great deal at the hands of the Whitecloaks and the peddler who used to visit them so often.
Suffice it to say that this early chapter does a great deal to set the stage for the events to come. I’ll be the first to admit that, in some ways, I actually enjoy these chapters more than any others, precisely because Jordan was so adept at creating secondary characters who were even more fascinating (and often far less irritating) than his main ones. Regardless, it’s clear that things are going to only going to get more difficult for Rand and the others, as there are many people who have their own agendas and interests in the Dragon Reborn and the fate of the world that he holds so precariously in his hands.