The Lady Of The Lakes

This started out as an essay “In Defense of Nynaeve.” But defense led right into speculation about her future role in the books, so I decided to write it up as a theory post instead.

Right at the start, let me say that Nynaeve, al’Meara or Mandragoran, is my favourite character in the Wheel of Time series. I am aware that the majority of readers seem not to share my opinion. That’s why the defense essay in the first place. Let me explain.

The first of the books that I read was The Great Hunt (there are very few series that I have actually read in order) in which Nynaeve has a big part. The first of her scenes showed her and Egwene protecting Rand from the, already established as powerful and respected, Aes Sedai. Brave, loyal, stubborn. Second scene, Lan giving her his ring. Star-crossed love. More scenes, during the journey, on the ship, in the Tower, continued to add to my interest in her character. But it was the later scenes with the Seanchan that confirmed her as my undisputed favourite.

Four girls, faced by a dangerous enemy, betrayed by someone they thought was at least nominally on their side. Egwene and Min are captured. Elayne and Nynaeve get away – but Elayne just runs, somehow managing to lose her horse along the way. Nynaeve sends lightning flashing through the sky and kills several of the Seanchan. She then takes the lead in heading for Falme to get back the other two. I’ll let you guess whose character I was most impressed with in that scene.

Skipping on in the book, Nynaeve and Elayne meet up with Min and plan how to rescue Egwene. Nynaeve is the one who takes charge, bullies Domon into agreeing to help them get out of Falme, and forces Seta to go along with their disguise. Now, here we have a couple of quotations from this part of the book, about and from Nynaeve:

Once again she resolved that if anything went wrong, she would somehow pull attention to herself while Min and Elayne escaped. She had told them to run if anything went wrong, and let them think she would run, too. What she would do then, she did not know.

Nynaeve is prepared to sacrifice herself to protect Min and Elayne. Protectiveness, as befits a healer, is a large part of her nature.

“As far as I am concerned, you are worse than a murderer, worse than a Darkfriend. I can’t think of anything worse than you. The fact that I have to wear this thing on my wrist, to be the same as you for even an hour, sickens me. So if you think there is anything I’ll balk at doing to you, think again.”

I love this quote. I’m sure Seta still has nightmares about Nynaeve.

In books 3 and 4, she continues to impress me with her personality and strength of character. At the end of The Shadow Rising, she even got to go head-to-head with a Forsaken – and win! Then, from The Fires of Heaven on, her character starts a rapid slide downhill. What were you thinking, Robert Jordan?!

I don’t mean to imply that she suddenly snapped from being a great character to being a terrible one. Indeed, the scene where she leashes Moghedien and lets a blast of flame loose at Rahvin is one of my favourites. But in the four later books she’s become much more argumentative, much more trivial and much less perceptive than before, and I can not see any possible plot-driven reason for this.

Argumentative? Will she and Elayne (and Birgitte, and Aviendha) never stop bickering? Trivial – what do you call all that fussing with her hat in The Path Of Daggers? And perceptive? I refer you to The Shadow Rising:

“So you have discovered that you’re in love with Rand, Elayne, and Egwene has discovered she isn’t.”

So she – apparently quite easily – picked up on a sensitive situation with the two girls in this case, despite being distracted by her feelings for Lan, trying to question the two Black sisters, and worrying about Rand. And yet, in The Path Of Daggers, she has still completely failed to pick up on the Rand/Elayne/Aviendha situation. Just how likely is this? Considering that a significant part of her job as Wisdom was arranging and interfering in romances?

I’m sorry, but I can see no reason for this sudden decline in Nynaeve’s personality and intelligence except for bad writing on Robert Jordan’s part.

Now, at some point – and I’m hoping it’ll be in the next book – the portrayal of Nynaeve has to improve. Why? Because I’m going to stop buying the damn books if it doesn’t! Ahem…Sorry about that. The reason it has to improve is that Jordan does seem to be too good a writer to carry a weak character for long. He’s let her slide (along with other characters and plotlines) to work on developing other aspects of the series, but sometime soon she has to make a comeback.

Doing what? Well, consider that Nynaeve is one of the more significant characters in the series – she’s Forsaken-strength, and as mentioned before, she’s encountered more than one Forsaken. Just ask Moghedien about her…With this background, she’s bound to take down at least one of the Forsaken. In my opinion she’ll get two – Semirhage and Moghedien. And when I say ‘take down,’ by the way, I mean permanently. Semirhage gets balefired (read my previous essay The Healer and the Sadist) and – well, if you were the Dark One, would you resurrect Moghedien?

Furthermore, it occurs to me that the Dark One might come to think that since ‘the Chosen dwindle,’ and a couple of the remaining ones are moderately pathetic, it might be worth recruiting a few more. Thirteen Dreadlords and thirteen Myrddraal ought to turn the trick on a reluctant candidate – and who better as that candidate than a person who eliminated two of the previous incumbents?

As a side line, I’d like to know exactly how that ‘thirteen’ trick works. Surely it can’t simply be something like Compulsion, which, if used heavily enough to force a person to go completely against their beliefs, basically erases the capacity for independent thought. It has to turn the victim irrevocably to the Shadow without altering their intelligence or personality, otherwise what’s the point? But if their personality doesn’t change, what does?

However it works, though, it’s supposedly permanent. Once it’s been done, it’s impossible to undo. Hmm…

It’s impossible to heal severing.
It’s impossible to channel, or even remember how, within the ter’angreal used for testing novices to be raised to Accepted.
It’s impossible, within that ter’angreal, to, having made a decision to stay, make the decision again to leave.
And it’s impossible to undo the effects of a circle of thirteen Myrddraal and thirteen Dreadlords. See a pattern?

A key element in most of these ‘impossibles’ is willpower. Or, if you prefer, stubbornness. And stubbornness is one thing Nynaeve has in plenty. One thing that isn’t specifically mentioned as impossible, but which certainly can’t be too common, is spontaneously breaking the effects of strong Compulsion. In The Shadow Rising, Nynaeve does just that. Elayne, who was under the same level of Compulsion, doesn’t remember even when Nynaeve tells her what happened. She’s still under it despite knowing she was under. That’s pretty strong.

In this case, and in the two ter’angreal ones, it’s ‘all in the mind.’ It seems to be that if you have a strong enough motive, you can break the rules. Turning-by-thirteen isn’t Compulsion, but it’s something like it – so possibly, if you are turned to the Shadow, you can break free from it if you have that motive and if your will is strong enough. In most cases, it wouldn’t be. Plus, there is the added fact that if you know something is impossible, whether or not it really is, you probably won’t even try to do it. That’s never stopped Nynaeve, though.

Theory: Nynaeve is captured and turned to the Shadow as a new ‘Chosen.’ She’ll stay Shadowsworn for a while - not much more than a book, though – so we can get to see her giving orders to some Black sisters. Hopefully the remainder of Liandrin’s thirteen. (While on the subject, I almost hope Moghedien hasn’t been killed yet – because I would kill to see her face when she finds out that Nynaeve now ranks higher in the Dark hierarchy than she does.) Then, at a nicely climactic moment, she breaks free. How? Love, ah, love makes the world go round! In other words, Lan.

Nynaeve loves Lan. Lan loves Nynaeve. Lan’s dedicated to fighting the Shadow. So, pre-turning, was Nynaeve. Nynaeve has one hell of a temper. Lan in danger from Dark forces – Nynaeve snaps whatever’s binding her and wreaks some major havoc on said forces. Then the Dark One loses his temper and obliterates a few people before calming down.

Score one for the Light!

And there’s another point, too. Presumably at least some Black sisters got that way via a circle of thirteen. They haven’t tried to turn back, because it’s impossible. But if one person can do it…

Score another one for the Light. I don’t think it would be a very good idea for the Dark to try recruiting Nynaeve.

That’s all speculation and without too much solid evidence, but there are some more things I think Nynaeve’s going to do that do have a bit more support. For one, she’s now the – uncrowned – queen of Malkier. Malkier is a dead nation overrun by the Blight. Its new queen is one of the greatest Healers ever. And what, really, is the Blight if it isn’t a mass of disease?

That’s one explanation as to how the Blight will disappear. Another is that it may simply recede, in the same way it advanced, as the Dark One’s influence on the world is cut off. But the healing of Malkier, at least, I think is Nynaeve’s job.

While we’re on the subject of Healing, one of the most popular Tarmon Gai’don theories is that Rand will die (or at least go into a coma) and be restored on the third day by Nynaeve, possibly acting on behalf of the Creator. And come on, we’ve all heard it said that Nynaeve won’t be happy until she Heals someone three days dead.

Moving right along. I’m certain a lot of people disagree with me on this one, but I’ve always thought Nynaeve would make the ideal queen for a Borderland nation. Fighting spirit combined with healing hands, and the experience at governing to keep the country running while its armies are at war. If there’s going to be a new Malkier – which there almost has to be – Nynaeve’s in a perfect position to prove me right.

This essay is more than long enough already, so I’ll cut it off here. Have a nice day.

Raina's Hold / Raina's Library / Raina's Library - Essays
 

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