Blitzkrieg Bop Puns

40th part in a series giving thoughts and theories by chapter in my read-through of The Wheel of Time. An index of previous posts in this series can be found here. I have never read this book, so no spoilers past this point!

They're forming in a straight line

They're going through a tight wind

The kids are losing their minds

The blitzkrieg bop

Hey, ho, let's go!

~The Ramones

Chapter 21: Answering the Summons

• Rand has ordered Narishma on a secret mission that he's nervous about. He seems to be gathering a lot of his least trusted allies with the idea that he's going to feed them through a meat grinder. Maybe use them as a distraction?
• Narishma notes that Saidin was "strange" around Ebou Dar. I'm guessing this is something to do with the Bowl of the Winds. I have a couple rolling theories now. Moridin corrupted the ritual is one idea, that they're feeling the True Power mingling with Saidin. Another idea is that by counteracting the Dark One's touch on the weather, they let him touch Saidin (and presumably Saidar). It would make sense that every time you press against Him, you let Him press against you. A counterpoint to both of these is the Forsaken reaction to learning about the Bowl of the Winds was universally negative and alarmed.

Chapter 22: Gathering Clouds

• Lots of good geographic description here. Tolkien catches some flack for it but I'm a sucker for that stuff (username is not a misnomer).
• How did Rand let himself get so surrounded by enemies? I think I understand what he's up to but geez, he is in a grim spot now. I wonder if the Dagger stabbing him has had some sort of effect. He's paranoid as all get out, and with some good reason as he gets an assassination attempt. And he's such a mess he barely survives. Compare to the assassination attempt in Lord of Chaos. Cadsuane is right, this guy needs a mental makeover badly. This also looks like it's being blamed on the Aes Sedai... seems like Padan Fain's signature move, this would be a hell of a bad time for him to show up.
• POV from a Seanchan leader, this is coming to a head. My guess of Rand's plan is he's teleported into enemy territory and is going to wipe out their army controlling the mountain passes. The damane are sick, which could be related to either the above-mentioned issues with the One Power, or possibly Narishma's mission was to do something to the dama