A Gambler that gets a crap hand for a while.
Alright, we’ve covered our first
two Ta’Veren, time to finish out the trio. As Matrim Cauthon’s section follows
Rand’s closely, this’ll be significantly shorter than the last few posts. I
know that made some of you breathe a sigh of relief. Ha. He’s a character that
is… difficult to like early on due to his cursed dagger, but more on that in a
minute. Let’s get to it, shall we?
 |
| Me: Mat, no! Mat: Mat, yes! |
Matrim Cauthon grew up in the Two
Rivers, son of Abell and Natti Cauthon. There’s a slight in consistency with
his backstory where they mention that he has four sisters, but only two, Bodewhin
and Eldrin are ever mentioned by name. I only bring it up because it’s odd. He’s well known in the Emond’s
Field for his pranks, that range from successful to horrible failures. His last
before leaving the Two Rivers being trying to convince a younger kid that hell
hounds are running around the Two Rivers. To do this, he took the blacksmith
Haral Luhhan’s dogs, covered them in flour and unleashed them to try to scare
his friend. But… the dogs immediately ran home, getting flour all over the
Luhhan kitchen and causing Haral and his dogs to be chased from his own home. Haral
was not amused. He’s best friends with
Perrin Aybara and Rand al’Thor, whom he often went on “adventures” with. This
changed on Winternight.
Trollocs attacked the Emond’s Field,
targeting Rand, Perrin, and Mat’s home along with the Luhhan forge. Visiting
Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred and her Warder Lan offer to take the boys to Tar
Valon, the Aes Sedai capital, to protect them as they try to figure out why the
Dark One is after them. They’re also joined by traveling Gleeman Thom Merrillin,
who claimed he wanted to travel in company for protection, and Egwene al’Vere, Rand’s
kind of girlfriend who wanted to see the world too. They spend days riding across
the district of the Two Rivers. On the way, Lan gives the boys basics on how to
use their weapons, Rand his sword, Perri his axe, and Mat his bow. They eventually
make it to Baerlon, the biggest city the kids have ever seen. They spend a
night there, and the boys all have a nightmare of a man in black with burning eyes
and mouth calling himself Ba’alzamon. He tells them to serve or die and serve
any way, warns the Aes Sedai will use them as a False Dragon, and that the Eye
of the World will never serve them. The next day, Mat goes out into the city, running
into Rand when the former chases after the peddler Padan Fain, whom they
thought had been killed on Winternight. They try to find Fain, but can’t find
him. They end up seeing a small group of Whitecloaks walking by. I’ve covered
them a few times now, in short, they’re even judgier Knights Templar than the
Templars. Mat, wanting to take them down a peg, sneaks off and causes some
barrels to fall and splatter their white cloaks with mud. This almost gets Rand’s
ass kicked, but the city guard saves them. They run into Thom on the way back
to their inn and inform him of their nightmares. Thom advices them to keep the
dreams to themselves for now.
 |
| Yes, he's a bit of a scruffy looking nerf herder. |
Back at the inn, they learn that the
town Wisdom and their neighborhood big sister Nynaeve al’Meara followed them
and is insistent they come home. They can’t convince her they need to keep
going, but she isn’t going to drag them home by the ears, which is kind of a win
with Nynaeve. They have a nice night dancing in the inn, but it’s ruined by
Rand almost being killed by a Myrddraal. The group makes a hasty retreat,
leaving the city. They’re briefly held up by the Whitecloaks, but Moiraine
distracts them by using her powers to appear to grow huge so they can escape.
They have to run from Trollocs
again, but can’t escape them this time. They clash with a group of outriders,
where when Lan shouts a battle cry of “For the Seven Towers,” Mat shouts “Carai
an Caldazar! Carai an Ellisande! Al Ellisande!” That was the battle cry of
ancient Manetheren and in the old tongue, to boot. With no other option, Moiraine
takes the group to the ruins of the city of Aridhol. While the more responsible
people are distracted setting up camp, Mat convinces his two friends to explore
the ruins. They have some fun seeing the grand scale of the city, but an empty city
is kinda boring. Before they go back to camp, they meet a man calling himself
Mordeth. He offers them treasure in exchange for their help getting his share
of the treasure to his horses. The boys follow, and are led to a literal
treasure trove. They mention that their traveling to Tar Valon with an Aes
Sedai, causing Mordeth to freak out. He grows to impossible size and screams that
they’re dead before fleeing. The boys run back to their camp and get chewed out
by Nynaeve, and are informed why what they did was moronic by Moiraine. Short
version, Aridhol was destroyed in part by the paranoia and anger created there
by the machinations the mysterious Mordeth. The city became known as Shadar Logoth
after a small Trolloc army disappeared, leaving only prayers written to the
Dark One to save them in blood, which then disappeared a few days later. Lan returns,
then, and informs them that Trollocs are in the city.
The group rides out, but are separated
by Trollocs and by Mashadar, a killing mist that rises in the night. Moiraine
had had a weave set up to keep the mist away, which is the only reason why they’d
have been okay there. Mat ends up by the River Arinelle with Rand and Thom.
They end up on a river craft called the Spray, captained by Bayle Domon. They
spend most of the trip working the ship or taking basic Gleeman lessons from
Thom. The lie they told Domon was that the boys were apprentice Gleemen, and
Thom can’t fake teaching. Rand has skill with a flute, and Mat’s quick hands
let him juggle incredibly well. But, cheerful Mat began acting angry, withdrawn
and paranoid, Rand eventually discovering that Mat had stolen a dagger from the
trove in Shadar Logoth. The dagger is gold with a large ruby in its hilt. Mat
is insistent that because he stole the dagger, they can ignore the warning Moiraine
gave about not how they shouldn’t take gifts from Mordeth from the city. Yes, Matrim
Cauthon is an idiot.
 |
| He doesn't get his naginata, hat or amulet in this story, but they look really neat. |
They arrive a few days later in
Whitebridge. In an Inn, they get caught up on rumors, and learn that a beggar
is looking for them. They also learn that Thom is helping the boys so much as a
means of making up for failing his own nephew Owyn. Owyn was a channeler whom
was captured and gentled by the Aes Sedai, who later committed suicide from the
depression that having his power taken from him induces. They go to leave, and
run into another Myrddraal. Thom gives the boys his instruments and tells them
to run, he’ll meet them on the road or at an inn called the Queen’s Blessing in
the Andor capital of Caemlyn. He runs at the trolloc spawn, hurling knives at
it.
Rand and Mat spend the next few weeks
on the road. It’s a rough run, as they have virtually no money, no horses, and
are constantly wary of darkfriends on their trail. They’re also slowed by Rand’s
occasional bouts of strange illness. Mat grows more paranoid and darker of mood
as they went. But it comes and goes, some days are better than others. They
briefly try to work as entertainers to pay for their travels, but that plan
blows up in their face when a Darkfriend named Gode nearly captures them for
his dark master. Rand is able to channel and save them with a lightning strike,
killing Gode, but blinding Mat for a few days. As they travel, Rand suggest
that they sell Mat’s dagger or at least the ruby for money. Mat is furious at
the statement, claiming the dagger is his and if they need to sell something, why
don’t they sell Rand’s sword. Ya know, the heirloom he got from his dad. Rand
backs off, but notes that Mat is very protective of his dagger, and often plays
with it, sheathing and unsheathing it in a creepy manner. They also run into a
few more darkfriends, including a random boy that just walked up to them, and a
young woman that tried to murder them in a stable.
They eventually arrive at Caemlyn
and the Queen’s Blessing. It’s at this point that Mat’s paranoia and apparent
illness gets so bad that he doesn’t want to even get out of bed. He misses Rand’s
exploits in the palace, and the arrival of his friends. Moiraine goes up to see
him and is terrified of what she sees. Mat makes creepy, weirdly personal
comments, a bit like Reagan ala the Exorcist. Moiraine explains that the dagger
Mat took, like all of Shadar Logoth, is infected with the evil and anger that
killed the original Aridhol. That evil infected Mat like a virus, consuming him
and driving him mad. The evil also worked like a beacon to Darkfriends, drawing
the attention of them, though only periodically. Which is why the rando just
walked up to talk to them. Moiraine with her enhancing angreal to weaken the
evil infection, helping Mat to recover a bit and give him more time to survive
for her to get him to Tar Valon where a group of sisters can sever the connection
to the dagger.
 |
| Yes, they were chased out a few areas by dogs and sticks. |
Rapid fire time again. Rand, Perrin,
Mat, and their new friend Loial the Ogier give Moiraine multiple stories about warnings
that the Eye of the World is going to be in danger of attack by the Dark One.
To get to the Eye, which is far to the north in the Borderlands in the Great
Blight, they use the Ogier Ways to travel hundreds of miles in days. They
almost get attacked by Machin Shin, the black wind that haunts the Ways, but they
make it. After spending a night in the keep of Fal Dara, where Moiraine
interrogates and learns the evil history of the peddler Padan Fain, they travel
to the Blight. They pass through the remnants of Lan’s country, Malkier, before
arriving in the Grove of the Green Man, where the Eye is held. They arrive just
before two of the Forsaken, the greatest minions of the Dark One, Aginor and
Balthamel. Balthamel is killed as he kills the Green Man, but Aginor is more
than enough to hold back and overwhelm Moiraine. Mat and Perrin run off for
safety, allowing Rand to embrace his destiny as the Dragon Reborn and kill Aginor
and deal a sever wound to Ba’alzamon. After, Mat and Perrin help Lan and Loial
gather the items that were held in the Eye of the World. They’re a broken seal
of the Dark One’s prison, the Dragon’s banner, and the Horn of Valere. The Horn
is the biggest deal of these big deal items, as it’s believed to call back dead
heroes to fight the Dark One. Mat returns with the others to Fal Dara keep,
waiting for when they can head out to Tar Valon to free him from the dagger.
Mat Cauthon in this story is just a
young farmer. He’s pretty skilled with a bow. He has the bad luck of grabbing a
dagger from Shadar Logoth. This dagger is infected with the evil that corrupted
and killed the city of Aridhol, turning it into Shadar Logoth. The dagger
corrupts anyone near it, increasing paranoia and anger, and even draws some corrupted
individuals like Darkfriends to it. Needless to say, begin cut by this dagger
is… bad. It doesn’t happen until the next story, but in book two, we see a
fella basically rapidly rotted into goo when sliced. It’s not a pretty way to
go. Mat is also a Ta’Veren, a focal point of the Pattern of reality. This means
that chance and the lives of others are drawn to and “swirl” around him, making
the improbably probable around him. Such as, say, drawing a traveling entertainer
to a location you are who can help you learn skills to survive on the road. Get
it? Got it? Good. I will note that Mat does develop his own unique set of
powers, but they don’t really get introduced until book 3, so I don’t want to
spoil it, beyond acknowledging it exists.
 |
| Mat looks only a little like Mat. Dónal Finn aka Mat 2.0 on left, Barny Harris right. |
Mat Cauthon will appear in Amazon’s
adaptation of The Wheel of Time, set to premier November 19, 2021. He’s going
to be portrayed by Barney Harris in season one. Harris has been in A Brixton
Tale, Brighton Beach, It’s Me, Clique, Billy Lunn’s Long Halftime Walk, and All
Roads Lead to Rome. For reasons unknown at the time of writing, October 29,
2021, Barney Harris has left the Wheel of Time show. He’s been recast for
season 2 with Dónal Finn. Harris has appeared in Albion, Cursed, The Witcher,
and How to Build a Girl. While a I’m a little disappointed that we’ll only be getting
one season of Barney Harris, his clips have been very good, Dónal Finn seems
like a fine replacement. I hope the split from Amazon was amicable or at least
not damaging to Barney Harris’ career. And it doesn’t turn out to be far, far
uglier than it first appeared. Look up David Yost’s exit from Power Rangers to
see how bad it can get.
I’m really curious as to how the
show will present Mat. See, a pretty universal reaction to Mat when reading the
books is that readers find him to be selfish, mean, and possibly stupid for the
first two books, but then after book three when he’s finally separated from the
dagger, he becomes a fan favorite. Odds seem good that they’ll shorten Mat’s
time under the Dagger’s influence, but I’m not sure how they will do it. From
the promotional material they’ve released thus far, it seems like they’re
shifting Mat’s home life to being… well, crappier than it was in the books. It’s
implied that Abell and Natti Cauthon are less than adequate parents and Mat
grew up in poverty, making him taking a dagger with a gold hilt and big ruby in
it more of a reaction to his lifestyle than an impulse theft. Regardless, I’m excited
to see how Mat will be portrayed in the show, and I hope everyone will grow to
like him, even if it’s sooner than I did when I first read the books. Alright,
so we’ve covered our three Ta’Veren, next, we’ll cover the group’s big sister, Nynaeve
al’Meara. See you then.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/58045072
Twitter: basics
No comments:
Post a Comment