Review: Black Adam

Blah blah blah has changed.

Okay, I’ve put it off long enough, let’s talk about Black Adam. DC’s latest attempt at a live action superhero flic isn’t awful but is another example of DC getting some things right while getting others horribly, horribly wrong. It’s certainly funnier than other DCEU movies, which I must give it credit for, but it’s also funny in the wrong places. They try to do something besides two people with nearly identical or actually identical powers brawling for the majority of the fights… only to devolve into just that for the final-final fight between Black Adam, the Justice Society and the actual villain of the piece. Dwayne Johnson is very fitting in looks and tone for Teth-Adam… but they push the “say’s he’s not a hero but is constantly doing hero stuff” line waaayyyy over the line. Also, not sure if this was everyone’s issue, but my theater had the sound mixing off, so about ¼ to 1/3 of the dialogue got drowned out by the background music BOOMING out. But enough of these vague complaints let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Sigh, this poster was way cooler
than the movie.

Black Adam opens several thousand years ago in the Bronze age in the fictional Egyptian city-state of Kahndaq. It’s a pretty nice city, one of the earliest civilizations in the DCEU canon, until it’s conquered by Ahk-Ton. Ahk-Ton is a tyrannical king whom forced his people to mine Eternium, a magic metal that has been in the DCEU literally the whole time, I guess, to forge him the Crown of Sabbac. It’s a magic crown that will give him great power. A young slave boy named Hurut helps an old man who found a chunk of Eternium turn it over to their masters, only to see the “reward” the old man demands for it is in fact death. Hurut wants to change things, but his world-weary father (whom sounds suspiciously like a former WWE wrestler) tells him to just keep his head down. The boy doesn’t listen, stirs up a small revolt, is captured, but released as he’s about to be executed by the Council of Wizards. The Wizards, lead by the wizard Shazam, bestow upon the boy the power of six gods that he can call upon by saying the word SHAZAM. The powers are: The Stamina of Shu: basically immortality, he can survive without food, water or air indefinitely, invulnerable to most harm; The Speed of Horus: inhuman speed, just short of lightspeed movement; The Strength of Amon: extreme superhuman strength, on par with Superman; The Wisdom of Zehuti: god like intellect, lets him understand all languages and gives him insight into the weakness of others; The Power of Aten: further enhances his strength, lets him fly and summon the Living Lightning, his primary weapon and means of transformation; and the Courage of Mehen: gives him superhuman willpower and resolve, also makes him immune to telepathy and mind control. I list these powers out, because the movie sure doesn’t give you more info than “the (blank) of (insert god). Hurut became the “Champion.” He leads a campaign against Ahk-Ton, ultimately killing him just before Ahk-Ton got the crown and obliterating his throne room and everyone in it. And after that lengthy intro sequence, we can get into the main movie.

 

We jump forward to modern Kahndaq. It’s once again occupied by foreign interests, this time the weirdly well-equipped criminal syndicate Intergang. They’re mining Eternium and using it to power their technology which includes magic flying motorcycles which don’t appear to be a new technology at all. Eternium would break the world as we know it if it existed and it’s weird that it hasn’t come up before from a world building aspect is what I’m saying. We join Archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz, her brother Karim, and her colleagues Samir and obvious villain… I mean Ishmael. They’re stopped at a checkpoint and almost caught, but Adrianna’s son Amon skateboards in and distracts the guard long enough to make him frustrated and wave them through. Why the brother of their highly sought-after fugitive, (who was driving the car!), isn’t also on their “find now!” list, I’ll never know. Amon catches up to them and asks if he can come along after Adrianna pulls herself out of her hiding place in back, but mama says no.

 

I won't lie, he definitely looks the part.

The group travels out to the desert where Adrianna believes that the crown is being held. She is right, and they find an ancient tomb with the crown floating several feet in the air. While Adrianna tries to get it, Ishmael murders Samir by shoving him down the cliff and Intergang soldiers arrive to give him back up. They play it like it’s a mystery what happened to Samir… but like who else could it be? Intergang rush in as Adrianna gets the crown. She is captured, as is Ishmael but we all know he’s playing along at this point, but notices an inscription on the ground. With no real options and “I’ll try anything at this point,” attitude Adrianna reads off the inscription, summoning the “Champion” Teth-Adam back from wherever he’d been for the last 5 millennia. Teth-Adam absolutely obliterates the Intergang soldiers, cooking one of them to bones and ashes with lightning and doing many other unpleasant things to the others.  He follows Adrianna outside and goes to speak with her, but he takes an Intergang Eternium RPG to the face. He survives it, killing the man, but then passes out from the magic enhanced explosion.

 

Around this time, Amanda Waller gets a call about the situation. She deems Teth-Adam a threat and contracts the Justice Society to deal with it. This is one of her dumbest plans ever, but I’ll get to that later. The team consists of veteran members Hawkman (Carter Hall) and Dr. Fate (Kent Nelson), along with legacy member Atom Smasher 2 (Al Rothstein) and completely new member Cyclone (Maxine Hunkel). The team suits up and flies out to Kahndaq to face off against Adam. On the flight there, Waller instructs them about what they know about Adam, ancient hero of myth, great power, and his only weakness is that he’s depowered if he says Shazam. Their plan… is no plan, as all they can think to do is make him say the one completely uncommon word that will take away his powers. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb!

 

Adam wakes up in Amon’s room. The kid is a mega fan of superheroes, which I can respect, but Adam sure doesn’t. He burns the face off one of his posters when he woke up. Adam, not wanting to be involved in any of this, busts through a wall, thanks Adrianna and Karim for their help, and starts fly walking away. I say fly walking, but what I mean is that Adam floats just like a half foot off the ground. He doesn’t move particularly fast, he could just use his leg but he decides not to. Amon chases after him and tries to convince Adam to be a superhero but Adam, again, says he’s not interested. Amon, who is I guess king of not taking a hint, causes a big ruckus in town, gaining Intergang’s notice, and gets Adam to save him. The demi-god murders just so many Intergang members before the Justice Society arrive. Hawkman and Doctor Fate face off against Adam while Cyclone runs support and Atom Smasher tries to find them. Yeah, he got lost during the touch down and must scurry about to find them while the other battle. Hawkman seems to be about on par with Adam physically, while Fate is his match with Magic, but neither can overpower Adam. During the fighting, Fate senses the Crown of Sabbac and then it becomes about Hawkman and Fate tagging in on the fight or tagging out to try to get the crown from Adrianna. Hawkman makes the very dumb call to tell Adrianna, who is a wanted criminal in her own country by an occupying force, that the Justice Society is about protecting Global Stability. Oy, this guy. There is a break in the fighting when Adam flies off to the throne room and Fate reveals to Adrianna that Adam was the one that destroyed most of Kahndaq in his rage 5000 years ago. He was an imprisoned mad man, not a lost hero. They find Adam in the throne room, and the Justice Society and Adrianna try to convince him to help save Kahndaq rather than destroy it. This speech gets extra motivation when Amon calls his mom.

 

They boy had been sent home to hide the crown from all parties. When he arrives there, he finds Ishamael and several Intergang members holding his uncle hostage. Karim is shot and Amon makes a run for it. He’s captured and taken on an Eternium hoverbike. Adam and Hawkman chase the bikes while Fate saves Karim. He reveals to the man that he will in fact die by electrocution. This is rather distressing to Karim as he is an electrician. Adam catches the bikes in flight, searches them for Amon and then drops the bikers, Hawkman saving several of them. He gets the final bike, finds that Amon was stolen away in another bike and the four he’d chased were a distraction, and then kills the last biker by throwing him skyward.

 

Oh just kiss already.

He returns to Adrianna’s home, takes the two bikers that Hawkman saved and interrogates them to tell him where Amon is via threat of falling. They tell him, he drops them anyway, and Hawkman saves them. The learn where Intergang’s headquarters is and fly out in Hawkman’s jet to find them. They arrive at the compound, and while the others want to form a plan, Adam just flies through, lightning blasting everything. They find Ishamael holding Amon behind an Eternium powered shield. He demands the crown for the boy, revealing that he’s the last living descendant of Ahk-Ton and deserves his birthright. Going to call bull on somehow keeping track of a family line through 5000 years, but whatever. They agree to it, but Ishamael betrays the deal immediately and tries to shoot Amon. Adam freaks out, destroying the whole place in lightning, killing Ishamael and seriously injuring Amon.

 

Adam flies back to the throne room and Hawkman follows. In the throne room, Adam touches down to the ground and explains his backstory. He explains that the Champion of Kahndaq was in fact his son, Hurut, and that his actions were misinterpreted as Teth-Adam’s by history. See, his son was made the Champion and lead a successful series of battles against the king. Ahk-Ton, realizing he couldn’t beat the Champion, sent men to kill his parents. Teth-Adam’s wife Isis is killed immediately, Adam grievously wounded before Hurut can arrive. Hurut, wanting to save his father, transfers his power to him via saying Shazam while holding hands. Unfortunately, while in human form, Hurut gets an arrow to the chest by an assassin. Enraged and empowered, Adam attacked Ahk-Ton’s throne room, killing him and severely damaging the city. The Council of Wizards summon Adam to the Rock of Eternity and imprison him for all time. Or so they thought. Seeing that pain he’d caused, Adam turns himself in, saying Shazam and reverting to human form, after getting Hawkman to swear they’ll lock him up somewhere where he can never say the word again.

 

DC has so many contraptions to hold Metas.

Adam is taken to an underwater prison in the arctic circle and sealed up in a cell that would keep him from speaking via a mask over his face. Meanwhile, Adrianna is examining the Crown and realizes that an inscription on it meant that the only way to unleash the power of it was to be killed while holding it. At the same time, Ishamael wakes up in hell and is empowered by six demons when he says their magic word, Sabbac. He’s reborn as a big horned demon thing, and flies to Kahndaq to sit on his ancestor’s throne. The Justice Society are still in town when all this happens and go to try to stop him. Well, they want to, but Fate throws up an energy shield to keep the others out. He wants to face Sabbac alone as it’s the only way to guarantee Hawkman lives. He faces off against the demon king, holding his own for a few minutes with magic copies, while simultaneously using his magic to open Adam’s cell and tell him what’s happening. Adam breaks through all the guards in the prison, somehow, swims up to the surface and transforms again before flying off to help save the day.

 

I’d normally say go see the movie if you want to see how the finale finishes… but it’s been two months, if you had any interest in seeing it, you would have.

 

Whole lot of build up, so little payoff.

Adam arrives and he and a magically enhanced via the Dr. Fate helmet Hawkman battle Sabbac with back up from Cyclone and Atom Smasher. Meanwhile, Amon, Adrianna, Karim and the Kahndaqi people fight the hordes of undead (like 15 zombies at least) that Sabbac summoned when he sat on the chair. Adam literally rips Sabbac’s head off to finish him off.

 

In the aftermath, Adam sits in the throne to see how it feels, decides he’s not a throne guy and destroys it with lightning. He adopts the new name of Black Adam on Amon’s urging.

 

In the post credit scene, Waller sends a drone to tell Adam that he can consider Kahndaq his prison now, and if he sets foot outside it, he’d better be prepared for her to throw the biggest gun she has at him. Adam isn’t impressed and destroys the drone. Only for the big gun to walk in himself… it’s Superman as played by Henry Cavill, saying they need to talk.

 

This movie… is fine. It’s not the worst thing the DCEU has ever cooked up, but it’s just kind of bland. The effortlessly charming Dwayne Johnson comes across as so flat and boring with his constantly scowling Black Adam. He has a few good lines, jokes like him not understanding sarcasm, or him saying “he didn’t make it” when the pilot he threw slammed into the ground behind him .5 seconds before, but that isn’t really enough to make him more than a grumpy Superman with a darker wardrobe. There’s also not much tension in the movie as most of the fights are between Black Adam, a character that is all but invincible being played by an actor who is contractually unable to lose a fight, verses a group of four heroes that in no way can stop him. They could have at least included a minor telepathic hero who they thought could mind control Adam into saying Shazam, instead of just sending them in to try to beat him up until he says it. Hell, Waller should have sent Shazam to do it, as the magic word doesn’t really care which chosen one says it. It’s happened more than once that Billy has said the magic word while grappling with Black Adam and the lightning forcibly changes them both back into human form. That’s a plan that could work way better, but I guess they didn’t want to pay Zach Levi to be in this. Also, again, Kahndaq having a living population and access to an actual, factual magic metal really breaks the reality here. Zero chance in hell that Eternium wouldn’t be mass mined and mass utilized over the whole damn planet if there were people to remember it’s there. Also-also… Sabbac. He’s a bland villain that’s just negative-Shazam with even more nebulous, ill-defined powers. That, and I’m sorry but I can’t accept that Ishamael knew all that he did after 5000 years. Ya know what else was an ancient civilization? Mycenaean Greece. It’s the ancient Greece that the Ancient Greeks said all their myths took place in. It existed between 1750-1050 BC, and that’s about all we know about it. We’ve got writing from the era, but it’s in Linear A and has thus far been untranslatable. So just some random dude knowing he’s descendant from a bronze age king is just… not possible, even in the realm of superhero fiction. The Justice Society was fun, I especially liked Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate, but again, their plan is dumb, they are no match for Black Adam, and they kind of stop fighting him a third of the way through the story to focus on the Sabbac plot. It just seemed kind of silly. Also, Waller, why didn’t you send a Suicide Squad in for this? Did you learn your lesson from the Enchantress incident and want heroes holding the bag? So yeah, it’s not the worst but it’s also not the game changer that DC wanted it to be. Have a good night, everyone. 

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Review: Werewolf By Night

Boris Karloff would be proud. 

Figured I should close out Halloween with Marvel’s Special Werewolf By Night. I will do a write up for Black Adam, but it’ll be in November with Wakanda Forever and five other posts I’m still thinking on. Werewolf By Night is the first in the Marvel Special’s category, holiday, and one-off stories that they’ll be doing periodically. I’ll admit that the title is slightly misleading, as it’s more about another Monster themed Marvel character, Elsa Bloodstone, than Jack Russel aka Werewolf By Night. I assume this is because the term Werewolf has broader mass appeal than Else Bloodstone, but whatever. The special is shot in black and white like classic horror films. The exception being the magical Bloodstone. More on that later. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

It's a cool aesthetic.

We begin with a quick narration explain that this is happening in the MCU, and in the MCU monsters are totally real. This is true to comic canon, as anyone who remembers Blade can attest, but is something that gets… forgotten about quite a lot, I think. This is partially due to the Bloodstone family, a group of monster hunters using their magical Bloodstone to hunt and kill monsters. The patriarch of the family, Ulysses Bloodstone, has died. We arrive at the Bloodstone compound where all the hunters are gathering to take part in a hunt to determine who gets it. We’re then introduced to Jack Russel as he enters the compound. He’s clearly creeped out by all the art depicting monster killings, but masters himself by the time he enters the main hall. It’s full of weapons, paintings of hunts, mounted heads, and more weapons. Everyone gives Jack the stink eye as he walks in. We cut to a servant telling a lady in black that Elsa is there.  Jack, still circling, notes the Bloodstone and is about to touch it when a hunter, Joshua comments on it. Joshua tells Jack he’s killed 57 monsters by way of introducing himself. He remarks that he’ll be starting his 30^th hunting season next year, and Jack comments that he almost (but probably literally can) smells the blood on his hands. Joshua likes Jack’s makeup, and Jack says that he’s honoring his ancestors. They start talking about how great the hall is and Joshua asks if Jack killed any of the beasts mounted on the wall. Jack says no, but points to a vampire looking thing and says he fought him a few times.

 

And you think your step-mom is a pain.

We cut to a woman, Elsa, walking in as her stepmother Verussa comes in to cut her off. We learn that Elsa left 20 years ago to do her own thing, neither Verussa or Ulysses approved of it and Verussa thinks the other guest will object to her being there. Elsa will be happy to leave once she gets the stone. Verussa asks what she wants with the Bloodstone, the strength or longevity it gives, but Elsa says that’s none of her business and that might be the best part. Verussa shames Elsa for leaving, calling her the greatest disappointment of her dad’s life, and then storms off.

 

We cut to Verussa talking up the guests at the funeral, remarking that they have 200 kills between them all. The highest of the hunters is Joshua at 57, but then Verussa reveals that Jack has over 100 deaths attributed to him. Impressive, but this is odd in retrospect. I’ll get back to that later. Elsa loudly pulls a chair over and sits down as Verussa gets started on her speech. She reveals that Ulysses had himself turned into a creepy as hell animatronic in order to lay out how the hunt will commence. I think I’d have turned and vomited were I Elsa. Ulysses explains the situation, they’re going to unleash a unique monster into the grounds of their lodge. Whoever kills it gets the stone and is leader of the hunters. Ulysses makes a joke about “rotting” for them and yeah, definitely barf. Verussa further throws shade on Elsa by pointing out she left and forsook her birthright. They’re only allowed the weapons stashed on the grounds. Also, the bloodstone will be put onto the monster, weakening it but also pissing it off something fierce. One of the hunters’ objects to Elsa being there, but I guess she’s allowed despite all Verussa’s earlier hate speech? It’s odd, but whatever. She unsubtly encourages the others to kill Elsa and calls the hunt to begin.

 

The Hunters draw lots, with Jack getting the right to go first. We hear the monster roar in the distance just before Jack heads out as they others do their creepy cult chant. Jack enters the maze and starts looking around. The horn starts blowing repeatedly and we’re shown the other hunters entering.

 

Elsa comes across a record player, for some reason, and turns it off. Jack and Elsa meet, and Jack suggest just passing each other by. Joshua then runs in and tries to kill Elsa. Unfortunately, she’s a much better fighter than him, she drops him and steals his ax before parkouring away. He announces death is coming for her and resumes the monster hunt.

 

Elsa, ax in hand, finds a trail of footprints burned into the ground. She hears something and approaches a door, ax raised. One of the other hunters sticks his arm out of the door and fires a wrist mounted crossbow. Elsa traps the arm in the door and lops it off. They fight, the one arm guy doing surprisingly well until Elsa grabs his severed arm and uses his crossbow to kill him. Elsa hears someone coming and rolls into a ditch with her opponent, covering his mouth until he bleeds out. It turns out it’s just Ulysses, who grabs the ax without seeing her.

 

Our leads face off. 

We jump to Jack as he approaches a large hedge, suddenly, an arm comes out and grabs him. It’s the monster, but not to worry, they’re friends. They have a classic “human speaks normally, monster communicates in grunts” conversation. Jack says of course he was going to come looking for him and he’ll find a way to save him, but this is the last time. Jack plans to use some demo charges he’s stolen to get them a way out of here, but another hunter comes in and interrupts their conversation. Jack runs way and into a room. Elsa is there and is 1 second to late to tell him to not shut the door. They’re locked in a crypt with other Bloodstones. Elsa and Jack bond a little as Jack helps her with a tourniquet.  Elsa notes that he’s been actively avoiding fights and Jack admits he’s not that kind of hunter. He reveals that he's trying to get the monster out alive, and he’ll give her the stone. Elsa doesn’t believe him. They bond over having unusual families. Elsa spies a specific casket, breaks off a bracket and climbs up to it. She explains that her dad used to tell her stories about her crazy Aunt Francis. She was sure she’d come back from the dead so had herself buried with the keys to the crypt. Jack is weirdly nonplused by being handed Aunt Francis remains as Elsa digs the keys out.

 

They escape and Elsa agrees to Jack’s deal. This is also the first time he says his name officially. Elsa retrieves the wrist crossbow, and tells Jack if they cross her, she’ll kill them both. Jack tells her that to show the Man-Thing (his actual codename in the comics) that she’s a friend she needs to call him Ted (his actual human name). Elsa is as shocked as anyone to hear the creature’s name is Ted. Then Jack accidentally turns on the demo charge and they run to enact their plan as fast as possible.

 

Ted!

We cut to Joshua stalking the Man-Thing. Elsa runs in, distracting him, and Ted comes out of the bushes, grabs Joshua’s head, and melts him into goo. Damn, don’t mess with Ted. Ted roars at Elsa, but then she uses his name and that shocks him. She tells him Jack is waiting for him.

 

We jump to Jack running to the wall and having trouble placing the charge before it goes off. Elsa and Ted run for the wall and everyone else runs after Elsa and Ted. They make it just as the charge blows the wall. Ted makes a break for it, and Elsa uses a hook-shot feature on the arm crossbow to pull the Bloodstone out before Ted runs off. Jack tries to grab the Bloodstone for Elsa but gets blasted back and off his feet. The other hunters arrive and reveal that that would only happen if Jack was a monster. They have Jack tased and Elsa is too after she objects to anyone else having the Bloodstone.

 

Jack and Elsa wake up in a cage. Jack asks if she’s okay, which she is for now, but that’s until Jack rips her throat out. Jack explains that he has systems to make him less dangerous and that he work, so they can be fine. He reveals that he’s a Werewolf, and, because the next full moon is five days away, there’s plenty of time to figure things out. Elsa reveals the Bloodstone can force Jack to transform, which complicates things. Jack, realizing he might become one of the heads on the wall, starts freaking out for a sec, but refocuses a moment later. He tells Elsa to remember to not break eye contact with him, and then starts sniffing her all over. He’s not being weird; he’s trying to memorize her. Elsa asks if this works, to which he says once.

 

The Hunters come in and Jack begs them to not do it this way. He tells them to kill him as he is, or there will be no mercy. The Hunters don’t listen and Verussa claims that their whole mission is on mercy. Verussa tells Elsa that she actually hoped Elsa would come home, but her father died without it, and that he’d prefer that to knowing she betrayed their mission. She starts chanting in Latin and holding up the stone. Jack apologizes to Elsa and then gets hit with the Bloodstone’s power. He’s forcibly transformed into his Werewolf form. Werewolf by Night breathes heavily and Verussa laughs, then he grabs here through the bars and pulls her in close. The guards stop him, tasing the crap out of him and kicking up dust. When it clears, there’s a big hole in the cage and Werewolf by Night is gone. They hear him, though. We see him hanging from the wall before jumping down and killing a guard. The fight is on.

 

NGL, I'd prefer more of wolf snout, but otherwise
this is great.

         Jack as Werewolf By Night is stronger and faster than any of these people but he operates on instinct, so it’s reasonably close. He kills a few of the generic guards as Elsa escapes the cage and kills the other hunters. Jack is so distracted killing guards that he doesn’t get to the exit before the door closes. Verussa grabs the Bloodstone and uses it to hold Werewolf by Night back. Elsa comes to help after she kills the last hunter. She shoots Verussa in the back with the grappling hook and pulls her backwards, knocking her out. Elsa walks over the bodies of the dead guards and goes for the Bloodstone, picking it up. She pockets it as she walks closer to the Werewolf. She tries to talk to Jack within the beast. Werewolf by Night charges her, but Elsa doesn’t break eye contact with him and tries to touch his face to force him to feel. It seems to work and Werewolf by Night leaves her be. He breaks out of the not sealed door and runs off. Elsa gets up, but so does Verussa. She claims Elsa will die as she lived, a disgrace to her family. But then Ted breaks in, fries her, and lobs her fried body at Ulysses puppet corpse. He growls at Elsa, who tells him which direction Jack went. He grunts in thanks and walks off, grabbing a jacket off a dead guard as he goes. The servant from earlier, Billy Swan, survived, he says he wants to make himself of service to her, and Elsa tells him he can start by cleaning this shit up. Color comes to the screen as Elsa sits down and looks at her stone.

 

We cut to Jack and Ted at a camp in the woods somewhere. Ted has made Jack some coffee. Jack asks if Elsa is okay and the two share a laugh at something Ted grunts. Ted suggests they get some food, and while Jack is initially not hungry, they agree on sushi. It’s a sweet ending.

 

This special was a lot of fun. This story had just enough in it for the hour run time and too much more would have made it feel stretched, I think. Just in on the creepy monster hunting cult, into the maze and then the big fight in the trophy room. Bing bang boom. Gel Garcia Bernal was great as Jack Russell. I’m not as familiar with the monster characters of the Marvel universe, but this slightly timid man hiding the raging beast inside was entertaining to watch. I thought he did a great job with his parts with the Man-Thing puppet they used. Yeah, there were CGI elements to it, but the Man-Thing’s head was all practical effects. I liked Laura Donnelly as Elsa Bloodstone. She had a vibe like Johanna Constantine in The Sandman, where she’s a badass but also extremely burnt out on everything. I think that they probably could have expanded on a little more why and how Elsa left her family business years ago. We get a vague sense she didn’t like hunting the monsters like a Bloodstone, but not exactly what that means. Did she have an issue with the trophy hunting aspect? The weapons? Did she find her dad insane as he was the sort of man to turn himself into an animatronic corpse? Big old question mark there. But maybe they’ll do a Midnight Suns movie or more specials and flesh her out a bit more. Oh, and Harriet Sansom Harris is great as Verussa Bloodstone. She’s just a little unhinged through out until her big insane moment where she tries to feed her stepdaughter to a werewolf. I liked the choice to make t hiss an homage to old school horror flicks. The black and white color, the mostly practical effects for Werewolf By Night and Man-Thing, how they acknowledge people bleed when you cut them. It’s all very nice. My one nitpicks is that the maze was a bit of a letdown, as it looks like we’re in the same two corridors the whole way through. So yeah, this was fun and I’m looking forward to more Marvel specials. Have a happy Halloween. Or a good day as you’re reading this after Halloween. Ha. 

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Hero Profile: Moiraine Damodred

Be vewy, vewy quite. She's hunting dwagons, hahahaha

Okay, so we’ve covered the first few episodes of The Wheel of Time, and Lan this month, let’s move onto Moiraine. Moiraine Damodred is the Gandalf of this series, though she does make a few more mistakes than the Maia in human form did. An Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah from the royal family of Cairhien, she’s pretty much the most Aes Sedai in terms of obfuscating. But more on that later. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Hail the Queen, baby.

Moiraine Damodred was born and spent most of her formative years in the royal palace of Cairhien. Her father, Dalresin, was a scholar at heart and was something of the odd one out of the Damodred family. She is the youngest child of her family, having two elder full sisters Anvaere and Innloine, and an eldest half-brother, Taringail. Things changed when she was sixteen and discovered that she had the power to channel. She was taken to the White Tower and trained as an Aes Sedai. She met and formed a strong relationship with Siuan Sanche, daughter of a fishing family from Tear. When I say “strong” I mean the books imply they were BFFs that used to “comfort” each other during difficult times at the tower, but nearly everyone I’ve ever spoken to has read them as lovers up to and beyond their times as Novices and Accepted. But what are you going to do?

 

Moiraine spend the next six years in training, advancing to Accepted in three years and then again to Aes Sedai in the second three years. She and Siuan were notorious for pulling pranks on their fellow Novices and Accepted, with Siuan being the “leader” between the two of them, something that was weird for Moiraine at first, but she learned to roll with it. Things took a turn for her about a week before her advancement. She and Siuan were chosen to attend on the Amyrlin Seat and the Keeper of the Chronicle. They had a bit of trouble focusing, as the Battle of the Blood Snow, the final battle of the Aiel War, was raging outside the tower. Things were calm in the office, until the Keeper, Gitara Moroso, was struck with a foretelling, a prediction the near future. She predicted the rebirth of the Dragon, the man that broke the world 3000 years ago, the shock of which killed her. Moiraine and Siuan were sworn to secrecy and sent on their way.

 

If you like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, you can't
complain that Rosemund Pike is taller than the 
character she portrays.

The two spent the next week practicing for their final test and compiling names for the potential Dragon Reborn. The Amyrlin Seat sent all the Accepted to collect the names supposedly to celebrate the end of the war and reward the soldiers and their families, but really to find the Dragon. They initially collected names directly, but were swapped over to recopying all the names when the higher ups thought she needed to grieve for her uncles whom had been killed. She really didn’t, though, as Laman and the other Damodreds were pretty terrible people.

 

Ten days, or a Third Age week, later, she and Siuan were assessed and then raised to the full Aes Sedai sisters. They did the final ceremony in lock step, which was almost unheard of. Almost at once, Siuan was pulled in to be the apprentice spymaster for the Blue Ajah, and Moiraine was put in charge of distributing the bounty the old Amyrlin wanted to issue for the births. This was actually busy work, though, as the Sisters were planning to force Moiraine to put her name forward to inherit the Sun Throne of Cairhien. When she realized this was inevitable, she took her copy of the list of possible Dragons and ran for it.

 

She was dead set against becoming the Queen of Cairhien, as the last Queen Damodred was more… Bloody Mary than Elizabeth the second, if you know what I mean. The Aes Sedai had been really pushing for it, though, as there hadn’t been a full Sister as a Queen in several thousand years and they really wanted to break that streak.

 

On a road trip with her BBF for 20 years.

She spent the next few months searching for The Dragon but coming up short. Eventually she crossed paths with Lan Mandragoran, traveled with him to Candor, reunited with Siuan there only to find out that all of the sisters sent to secretly search for the Dragon were dead, discovered the existence of the Black Ajah, and ultimately bond Lan as her Warder. I know, heavy summary, but I covered this at length in my history post.

 

Eventually, she and Lan got a tip to search the isolated village of Emond’s Field in the Two Rivers. There she found not one, not two, but three Ta’Veren, all born within a week of Gitara’s prediction. While in town, she pretended to be some sort of visiting noble, and gave the three boys Tar Valon coins and insist they keep them safe. Unfortunately, she was only about twelve hours ahead of the Myrddraal and Trollocs that were sent to get the boys as well. Using her power, Lan’s sword and seer Two Rivers stubbornness, the Trollocs were driven off and she convinced the boys to seek shelter at the Tower. They also pick up the gleeman Thom Merrilin, and Rand’s sort-of Girlfriend Egwene al’Vere, who insisted on coming due to her own desire to have an adventure. There was a SLIGHT hick up were a mob formed outside the inn to try to force Moiraine away, but she got them to back off by telling them of their ancient history and the fall of Manetharan.

 

The group set out, riding all night and resting only briefly. Moiraine used her Channeling to “wash away the fatigue” of the animals and people, all save Rand’s mare Bella, whom Egwene was riding. She said the shaggy mare must have spirit. Odd. They cross the Tarren Ferry using the Ferry at the Tarren, Moiraine ultimately sinking the ferry to slow the Trollocs, and also creating a heavy mist up and down the river to confuse their pursuers. Over the following days, she takes Egwene away from their camp when it’s time to rest, giving her the basics of what it means to be a channeler. Two halves of the source, Gender Binary (I’ll talk about this someday), Female half Saidar is safe and good, Male half Saidin was tainted and kind of sucks now. She shows Egwene the she has the potential to be an Aes Sedai, and Ms. al’Vere jumps at the idea.

 

She embraces Saidar and F's S up!

They ride to the city of Baerlon, where they rest for a day, with the Wisdom of Emond’s Field, Nynaeve, catching up to them in the city. She and Moiraine fight over what’s best for the young people but come to a stalemate. Moiraine, ever sifting for information, asks probing questions about where the boys were born, but Nynaeve refuses to play ball. That night, there’s a dance where Moiraine blows all the boys minds by participating in it, but that’s ruined when a Fade attacks Rand. They beat a hasty retreat, exiting the city. Moiraine has to scare off a few Whitecloaks by using her powers to appear to grow to giant size. They spend the next few days running, the Trolloc chases getting closer and closer until there is a small skirmish with them. They kill the group, and Moiraine is forced to follow Lan’s suggestion to take them to Shadar Logoth to hide. She uses her Channeling to make a fake trail to distract the Fades and Trollocs for a while.

 

They arrive at the city, and Moiraine is so exhausted from using so much of the power, she passes out. This gives the boys enough time to slip off and get into trouble. When they get back, she explains the whole, evil history of how Aredhal fell and became Shadar Logoth. The story ends with Lan running in to tell them that Trollocs are in the city. They all run but are separated by Trollocs and by the killing mist Mashadar.

 

Moiraine and Lan regroup near the river, where Nynaeve finds them. When Lan goes off to fetch Nynaeve’s horse, she and Nynaeve have another confrontation, this time with Moiraine revealing that Nynaeve has the power to channel. And furthermore, that she could potentially be the strongest channeler in living memory. Keep in mind, channelers live centuries, so that is a LONG time. Moiraine reveals that she can track one of the boys, using the coin she gave them. The other two she can’t track as they gave up their coins for passage on a boat. She chooses to follow the two who she lost down river, as, ya know, it’s much harder to change course on a river boat on a river without tributaries.

 

So awkward to talk to your wife when your 
coworkers are watching.

They travel after the boys for several days, coming to the city of Whitebridge just behind the two that had been through there. Not having any more to go on, she takes her small party towards the one she can still track, hoping to get him and meet up with the other two at Caemlyn or Tar Valon. They track the boy, Perrin and bonus points find Egwene, held hostage by Whitecloaks. They’re able to free them and massively inconvenience the Whitecloaks, so win-win.

 

They make it to Caemlyn, meeting up with Rand and Mat. Seeing that one of her charges had been possessed by pure evil and uses her power and an Angreal to temporarily reduce Mat’s evil sickness symptoms, hopefully giving him enough time to get to Tar Valon and get him fully healed. She also hears from Mat, Rand, Perrin and their new friend Loial that the Eye of the World is in danger. They use Loial’s knowledge of the mysterious Ways to travel to the Borderland nation of Fal Dara to get to the Eye. They meet with an old friend of Lan and Moiraine’s, Lord Agelmar, at Fal Dara. He’s hopeful that they’re there to help stop a Trolloc offensive, but that obviously isn’t the case. They also find out someone followed them through the ways, the peddler Padan Fain. Moiraine interrogated him and found that he was a Darkfriend, and he’d been hunting the boys for the last few years. She asks Agelmar to hold him, and they set out.

 

Do. Not. Touch. The. Dagger.

They travel to the Blight and through Lan’s homeland of Malkier. They eventually find their way to the Greenman’s Grove, the hidden pocket dimension that the Eye was hidden in. The Grove’s Greenman shows them to the titular Eye, just before two of the Forsaken, Aginor and Balthamel attack. Lan hesitates between protecting Moiraine, his Aes Sedai, or Nynaeve, his love, and gets blasted for it. The Greenman sacrifices himself to kill Balthamel. Moiraine battles Aginor, but the power scale between her and the Forsaken is too great for her to overcome. The kids run off, which draws Aginor away, probably saving Moiraine’s life. When Rand returns, having defeated Aginor, his boss Ba’alzamon, and revealing himself to be the Dragon Reborn, Moiraine is using her powers to heal up Nynaeve. They return to Fal Dara, and Moiraine uses a trick to eavesdrop on Rand and Egwene resigning themselves to their futures and proclaims him the Dragon Reborn.

 

Moiraine Damodred is an Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah. This means that she believes in championing causes, in justice, and is a fairly talented gatherer of information. She is an incredibly strong channeler, being considered one of the three strongest Aes Sedai active in the Tower at the Time. Along with her strength, she has Talents (basically specialization) in Sky Dancing (an affinity for manipulating the weather) and Healing, if she wasn’t talented before she gets plenty of practice in the next few years. She isn’t said to have a talent for illusions, but she does use them with enough skill that I think it counts. Like all modern Aes Sedai, she is bound by the three Oaths. A ter’Angreal called the Oath Rod is used to bind the oaths into an Aes Sedai’s flesh and bone, making them unable to break them. She can speak no word that is untrue, use the Power to make a weapon for one person to kill another, or use the One Power as a weapon unless in the last extreme of defending her life, her warder’s life or the life of another Sister. While she can’t say an outright lie, she did grow up in the palace of Cairhien, a country known for it’s love of Daes Dae’mar, the great game, or game of Houses. Stop right there, Jordan had 7 books published in his series before Martin published Game of Thrones, if anyone was copying homework, it was Martin. Regardless, Moiraine’s upbring ensured she’d be a master of the half truth and obfuscation regardless of if she went to the tower or not. She is more or less obsessed with finding the Dragon Reborn and seeing the Prophecies fulfilled.

 

Moiraine is being portrayed by Rosamund Pike for the Amazon Wheel of Time adaptation. Rosamund Pike is known for her roles in Gone Girl, Wrath of the Titans, Die Another Day, and Pride and Prejudice, amongst others. As far as I’m aware, she’s the biggest actor attached to this project. Her version of Moiraine, while significantly taller than her book counterpart, has been spot on with her ability to lie without lying, manipulate situations, and use her power to great effect. She’s also been shown to have a stupidly high pain tolerance, as she took a Trolloc dagger to her shoulder during Winternight and didn’t hit “too sick to move” territory until days later.

 

Moiraine is an amazing wizard to draw our Emond’s Fielders out of their sleepy village to go on a grand adventure. Mysterious, intelligent, able to lie without lying, powerful, and more than willing to sacrifice just about anything to make sure her goals were met. She has been obsessed with finding the Dragon Reborn for literally her entire adult life and seeing the world saved from impending doom. She goes so far as to tell the boys that if she thinks they’ll turn to the Shadow, she’ll kill them immediately, and I have no doubts on her ability to follow through on that threat. She’s a brilliant strategist, pretty much effortlessly using Nynaeve’s obvious hatred for her to her advantage on more than one occasion. Her power is great, her goal set, and her cause is literally saving all of creation, so the best cause one can have honestly. That’s Moiraine Damodred for ya. Next time, I’ll finally talk about the Eternals. 

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Hero Profile: al'Lan Mandragoran

 The Golden Crane rides for Tarmon Gai'den

Okay, so I was going to do Dune (2021), but HBO Max took it down sooner than I had planned. And I haven’t found the summaries on Wikipedia or other such pages to be particularly helpful with my usual scene by scene obsessive breakdowns, so I’m shelving Dune until it returns to HBO Max. Which does sound like it’ll be sooner rather than later next year, so I doubt you’ll wait too long to see my thoughts on it. And, since I needed an additional idea to fill out my usual 7 posts this month as well, I figured I should do the rest of the main Wheel of Time cast, Lan and Moiraine. Does this mean I will have basically devoted 3 months to Wheel of Time? Yes, yes it does. … Moving on.

 

All hail the king.

As the name of this post has undoubtedly already told you, we’re talking about al’Lan Mandragoran, Uncrowned King of Malkier, Lord of the Seven Towers, Lord of the Lakes, True Blade of Malkier, Defender of the Wall of First Fires, Bearer of the Sword of the Thousand Lakes, May He Sever the Shadow, Dai Shan, and Aan’allein. Yeah, if you’ve been following the show, the guy who doesn’t talk much has a plethora of titles to his name. Do ya want to know the history of Lord Tight-Lip before the show gets to it? Of course you do. Let’s go.

 

I should point out that some or all off what I’m about to go into might be slightly to significantly different in the show. I forgot to mention it in the previous posts on the subject, but the show is considered a “different turning of the Wheel.” Basically, it means that while the greater events of the story repeat themselves with each turning, the details shift. The previous Dragon breaks the world in his battle with the Dark One, is reborn, and fulfills the prophecies of the Dragon to show his coming. But the locations the Dragon goes to, the order in which he meets and influences people, can change each time. Get it? Got it? Good. Now, onto Lan.

 

He looks so tired.

Lan’s story begins not with himself, but his father and uncle, Akir and Lain Mandragoran. The Elder Mandragorans were as close as brothers could be. They fought and trained together, and beloved by their people. Even when Akir was chosen to assume the throne of their father, Lain was the now al’Akir’s biggest supporter. But his wife, on the other hand, Breyan, was less steadfast in her support of al’Akir and was a firm believer he stole the crown that should have been Lain’s. Breyan, encouraged by the Mandragorans friend Cowin “Fairheart” Gemallan, dared Lain to travel into the Blasted Lands, the worst area of the great Blight. He, and nearly all the men he brought with, were killed there. Breyan, rather unfairly, blamed al’Akir for this, and plotted with Cowin to overthrown al’Akir and put her infant son Isam on the throne. Cowin pulled troops back from the garrisons, leaving only skeleton crews, to help with their coup. As bad luck would have it, this was when the biggest Trolloc assault in generations assaulted the garrisons, destroy them and forcing all Malkier into retreat south. It’s at this point where it was discovered that Cowin was in fact a Darkfriend and had done all of this to destroy Malkier. Breyan fled with Isam, but neither were seen again. Aa young hero of the Malkieri. Jain “Farstrider” Charin, captured Cowin and brought him to his king. Rather than let Cowin have the nobleman’s death of beheading, al’Akir faced him in single combat and killed him. The story has it that al’Akir wept by his friend’s corpse, for the man who lost himself to the shadow, or for his nation, no one is sure.

 

Malkier was being overwhelmed by Trollocs, and it’s allies too far to arrive in time. With no hope in saving their land, al’Akir and his wife, el’Leanna, anointed their infant son Lan as king of Malkier, giving the babe his father’s sword and anointed him a Dai Shan, a battle Lord of Malkier, and in his name swore the oaths of Malkieri kings. They also gave him his family’s signet ring, and a locket to remember them by. He was then given to the 20 best swordsmen in Malkier and sent to Fal Moran in Shienar. Five survived the trip.

 

I have no idea why some official art 
has him wear a helmet. I can't think of
a single time he wore more than his 
hadori on his head.

Pretty much the moment Lan could walk, he began training as a swordsman. His every waking moment was used to train and push his body to make it the ultimate killing machine, to make him capable off avenging his people. At fifteen, a Malkieri noblewoman, Edeyn Arrel (sister of the idiot that screwed everything up, Cowin) chose to be his Carneira. This is a somewhat gross Malkieri tradition where an older person is chosen to be their first lover. Women chose the boys, girls chose the men. Yes, it is deeply uncomfortable. After their first night, Lan’s hair was cut to his shoulders and a lock of it was kept by Edeyn and turned into a daori. It’s a sort of talisman that, while having no actual power over Lan, traditionally compels the man to do as his Carneira asks. More on this later. Lan at 16 was given a hadori, the braided leather cord he wears holding back his hair, making him a man in the Malkier tradition. He spent the next 9 years training and battling the shadow wherever he found it. But things took a turn when he was 25.

 

At the time, the Aiel traveled across the Spine of the World in mass for the first time since they went over it the first time to hunt down and kill Laman Damodred, King of Cairhien, for chopping down the Chora tree they gave him. The battle raged for three years, the final battle being at Tar Valon as the Aiel retreated, having killed Laman. During the retreat, Lan, leading a small force of Borderlanders against the Aiel, the group they passed stopped to chant Aan’allein. This means “A Man who is an entire Nation,” and is a sign of the great respect the Aiel have towards Lan. After the fighting it truly finished, he heads back north, to return to his battle in the north.

 

A few months later, he was traveling to Chachin, the capital of Candor, to deal with the machinations of Edeyn. It turns out, Edeyn had raised the flag of Malkier, and seemed to be trying to resurrect their nation, regardless of Lan’s feelings on the matter. He, his old teacher Bukama and his friend Ryne, were on the road when they were followed out of town by Moiraine Damodred. She was trying to sneak up on Lan when the Malkieri threw her into a lake. She doused him in water as payback a short time later. They traveled together to Chachin, as it was also the next destination on Moiraine’s list of potential candidates for the Dragon Reborn. Lan, meanwhile, learned that Edeyn was planning to use her position as his Carneira and holder of his daori, to go against all tradition and force him to marry her daughter Iselle. Thankfully, Iselle is 100% against it too and wants to go to the Tower. Sadly, Iselle isn’t given that chance, as she’s one of several people killed by Merean Redhill, a Black Ajah Aes Sedai who was also hunting the Dragon Reborn. It’s also revealed that Ryne is a Darkfriend and killed Bukama when he caught the older Malkier spying. He and Moiraine were able to kill both, though. After the battle, Lan rode out to return to the blight but stopping to burn his daori, so it could never be used against him. Moiraine catches up with him, though, and convinces him to let her bond him as her Warder.

 

Just Lan and his non-romantic life partner.

Over the next twenty years, Lan and Moiraine searched for the Dragon Reborn. They were finally led to Emond’s Field in the Two Rivers, where they found not one, not two, but three Ta’Veren. Matrim Cauthon, Rand al’Thor and Perrin Aybara. Unfortunately, Trollocs attacked the day after they arrived during the Winternight Festival. Thankfully, Lan and Moiraine were able to protect the village and rout the enemy. After, they convinced the three boys to accompany them to the White Tower, convincing them that they’ll be protected there. They’re also joined by Thom Merrilin, a gleeman that had been invited to town for Winternight but realized no one is celebrating anymore, and Egwene, Rand’s kind of girlfriend that wants to go on an adventure too.

 

They race across the Two Rivers district, Lan scouting ahead and behind for much of the journey. When there is time, he begins training each of the boys in the weapons they brought along, Rand his sword, Perrin the axe, and Mat a bow. They eventually arrive in the city of Baerlon, where the town Wisdom Nynaeve al’Meara catches up to them. Lan is so impressed she followed his trail, he noticeably emotes. The group tries to relax and dance the night away, but in the night, Rand is attacked by a Fade. Lan, sensing it, rushes to Rand and scares it off. They hastily escape Baerlon and are harried by Trollocs after.

 

Due to Lan’s urging and a lack of options, the group travels to Shadar Logoth, the cursed city, to try to rest as Trollocs try to avoid that city as much as possible. He’s distracted by an exhausted Moiraine long enough for the boys to run off and get into trouble in the city. He goes out to look for them, misses their return, but does report Trollocs are in the city. They rush to escape but are followed both by the Trollocs and by Mashadar, the killing mist that haunts the city after dark.

 

Lan and Moiraine find each other and lament that they lost the boys. Nynaeve finds them, much to Lan’s surprise, and the three of them set out to find the missing boys. He helps Moiraine liberate Perrin and Egwene from Whitecloak captors, with Nynaeve’s help, and then travel onto Caemlyn where they find Rand and Mat.

 

Lan and Mandarb, power couple.

Rapid fire time. He leads the group through the Ways with help from the Ogier Loial, whom Rand had befriended in the city, to the Borderland city of Fal Dara. They traveled north fast to try to protect the Eye of the World, multiple sources telling them it’ll be under attack. They travel into the Blight and into the ruins of his home to try to get to the Eye. In the night, Rand overhears him speaking with Nynaeve. It’s subtle, but heavily implied that the two of them had grown close in their travels. Both want to be together, but Lan doesn’t believe there is room in his heart for anyone with his battle against the shadow and doesn’t want her to watch him die. So, yeah, he tries to break up with her, but in the least effective way possible. This is what he tells her, Verbatim.

 

“You are a remarkable woman, as beautiful as the sunrise, as fierce as a warrior. You are a lioness, Wisdom. I will hate the man you choose because he is not me, and love him if he makes you smile. No woman deserves the sure knowledge of widows black as her bridepiece, you least of all.”

 

Lan, I’m not saying all women love poetry. But I am saying that you shouldn’t tell one poetry when you are trying to break up with her, dummy!

 

They make it to the Eye and meet the Greenman, it’s guardian. They’re almost immediately attacked by two of the Thirteen Forsaken, Aginor and Balthamel. They threaten both Nynaeve and Moiraine, but the two are far enough apart that he can’t protect both. Hesitating, he gets hit by a blast by one of the Forsaken and knocked out. He comes to after the battle and returns to Fal Dara with the rest.

 

If you'd told me in 2009 that "Agent Zero" from 
X-Men Origins would be al'Lan Mandragoran,
I'd have laughed in your face. But here we are.

al’Lan Mandragoran is a born warrior. He’s been a blademaster for most of his life and is considered by many to be the greatest swordsman alive today. He’s also proficient in most other weapons, but his sword is his preferred weapon. His sword is Power forged before the Breaking, meaning the blade is nearly unbreakable and doesn’t require sharpening or oiling to keep it battle ready. Natural skill and power were enhanced by the bond that Moiraine created to make him her Warder. The bond greatly enhances Lan’s strength, endurance, and senses. He can sense when Shadowspawn draw near, and fight for far longer than any normal man. It also allows him to sense Moiraine’s health and emotions at a distance and allow him to track her if they’re separated.

 

Lan is a main character in the Wheel of Time series on Amazon. He’s portrayed by Daniel Henney. He’s been in multiple seasons of Criminal Minds, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and as the voice of Tadashi Hamada in the Big Hero 6 movie. Lan of the series is pretty much identical to his book counterpart, being a man of few words and stony disposition. But with a soft spot for Nynaeve al’Meara.

 

Lan is a great character. In the initial story he is a mysterious man of few words, immensely strong, a man made of steel. He teaches Rand and the boys a lot about fighting, and Rand specifically about concepts of honor. They share a mantra, “Death is lighter than a feather, Duty is heavier than a mountain.” Yes, not a great mantra, but there you go. But, as the story goes on, we see more of him, of the man that hides behind the mask. Nynaeve does her damnedest to break down his walls and make him… human. Their romance is easily the best in the series, and I can’t wait to see more of it. he’s the greatest swordsman of all time, and I can’t wait to see him prove that again. Next time, we’ll talk about the MVP of the series, Moiraine Damodred. 

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Hero Profile: Egwene al'Vere

The innkeeper's daughter with dreams of grandeur. 

Alright,  last but certainly not least, Egwene al’Vere. The innkeeper’s daughter is very much a support character in this first tale, but trust me when I tell you that her role in the story is ultimately closely tied to, some might even say actually tied with, Rand’s own. Her adventure starts with chasing after her friends, but she’ll run out ahead of some of them before long. But I’m getting WAY ahead of myself. Let’s get to it.

 

Spoilers

Egwene al’Vere was born in Emond’s Field, the youngest daughter of the mayor and proprietor of the Winespring Inn Bran al’Vere and his wife Marin. She worked at the inn along side her family, danced at festivals with her friends, and other typical teenage girl stuff. She had a sort of romance with local boy Rand al’Thor since they were very young. Most residence of the Emond’s Field assumed they’d be getting married in the near future. Just before Winternight, she began training under Nynaeve al’Meara as a Wisdom. It seems that, while she had just gotten approval to braid her hair (the Two Rivers sign that a woman a is considered an adult) and COULD ask for approval to marry her sort-of boyfriend Rand, she wasn’t 100% into the idea of being a housewife before she was 20.

 

She who becomes the sun.
... wait, different story.

We officially first meet her after Nynaeve arrives and chastises Mat for spreading a story he’d heard from a caravan guard about the Dragon being Reborn in humanities’ greatest hour of need. When Rand sees that her hair is braided, he has a minor panic attack at the thought that, technically, they could be married at this time next year. And yet, he’s also panicked with Egwene mentions she’s getting Wisdom Training from Nynaeve and might considered going to another Two River’s village to practice, as some areas specifically hire out-of-towner Wisdoms, believing you get less favoritism that way. Egwene has the wanderlust bug, it would seem. When she hears the boys discussing the Black Rider, she doesn’t believe them and tells all three they shouldn’t be off their mother’s apron strings. They’re briefly distracted by a demonstration of Gleeman talent by Thom Merrilin and the stare down that follows between him and Moiraine when the traveling Lady comes out to see his tricks as well.

 

We don’t see Egwene again until Rand drags his sick and injured father into town after the Trolloc attack on the village and the al’Thor and Aybara farms. She’d been up most of the night helping Nynaeve tend to the injured. Despite their earlier fight, Egwene basically tackles Rand in a hug upon hearing that Tam might not make it. We don’t see her again until the boys, Lan and Moiraine are about to head out, pack in hand and insisting that she brought along. When asked how she knew they were leaving, she claimed she saw Mat and Perrin trying to be sneaky, badly, and heard Lan buying the extra horses, so it wasn’t hard for her to figure out. Moiraine agrees to bring her along, much to Lan’s annoyance and Rand’s horror. She ends up riding stout Bela. As Rand helps get his family’s mare saddled, he promises Egwene that he’ll protect her, and she counters by saying they’ll protect each other.

 

They race across the Two Rivers district, only stopping long enough for Moiraine to use her powers to take the horses and their rider’s exhaustion, before reaching Tarren Ferry. They cross the river, and Moiraine creates a whirlpool that destroys it. Moiraine then shows off her power one more time by creating a bank of fog that follows the river down stream for a few miles, using it to hopefully trick the Trollocs, Myrddraal and Draghkar following them into thinking they traveled down stream a ways before heading to Baerlon. When they finally stop to rest, Moiraine pulls Egwene to the side and tells her that Moiraine believes that Egwene can learn to channel. She actually thinks Egwene has “the Spark” meaning she’d channel on her own regardless if she were taught or not. It is 100% better than she be coached, though, as that increases her odds of survival drastically. Moiraine uses the blue gem she wears on a chain to test her, having her try to light it with the power, which she does, much to Rand’s disappointment, even when Egwene asks that he’ll be her Warder.

 

She's a quick study.

Over the next several days, Egwene continues to have private lessons with Moiraine about channeling, and also unbraids her hair, telling a perplexed Rand that Aes Sedai only braid their hair if they wish and he can keep his nose out of what would be Women’s Circle business. In a lesson with Moiraine, Egwene gets some of the basics of Channeling. One Power with two halves, Saidar is for girls and is safe, Saidin for boys and it drives them batty. The Power is broken down into five threads, Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Spirit, that are weaved together to make magic happen. Typically, men are stronger with Earth and Fire, women with Air and Water, and are about equal with Spirit. Neat. One day, Rand follows them and listens in. She hears Egwene asking for reassurance from Moiraine that it was only the evil men channelers fault the world broke, which Moiraine confirms, but stresses that those men were insane, no to evil. She then asks why the Trollocs attacked the Two Rivers, at which point Moraine looks directly at Rand who runs. They arrive in Baerlon and Egwene is the only one of her friends that doesn’t have nightmares about a man in black with burning eyes and mouth. 

 

But, then Nynaeve shows up, and Egwene finds herself stuck between her established existing loyalty to Nynaeve, and her new but fast-growing loyalty to Moiraine. She tries to stay out of sight with her hood up until things are settled, and clearly does not enjoy Nynaeve’s comment that she thought Egwene had more sense than the boys did. Things cool of, though, and Egwene has a bit of fun dancing with everyone later that night. Though a Myrddraal appearing and trying to strangle her boyfriend does kill the mood. She rides out with the others after the attack, marveling at Moiraine’s power when the Aes Sedai makes herself appear to grow large to help cover their escape. They are chased by Trolloc for the next few days, until Moiraine has no choice but to lead them to ruins of the city once called Aridhol, now known as Shadar Logoth. She does her best to help Nynaeve administer to the exhausted Moiraine, so misses it when her friends slip off to explore the city. I imagine her looking quite smug when she’s the only one not yelled at for running off. They get the brief history of Aridhol’s fall, how the mysterious Mordeth caused the city to metaphorically eat itself and becoming the cursed pit that is Shadar Logoth. Lan arrives then, to tell them that Trollocs are in the city. They group rushes to escape, but are separated by the Trollocs and by Mashadar, the killing mist that rises in the city after dark.

 

Yes, she's very much a Belle type.

Egwene ends up escaping across the River Arinelle, keeping some of her supplies and her horse Bela in the crossing. Perrin discovers her a short while later, after she’d gotten a fire started and was trying to warm up. The two begin traveling together, heading east and hoping to find their friends, a road, or village to point them towards a road. They travel for a few days, Egwene following Perrin lead on some things, but also fighting the big man on taking turns riding Bela. They eventually meet Elyas Machera, a wilderness man waiting for them by a fire. They try to hide their past, but Elyas pokes holes I all their stories, and brings in his friends, a pack of wolves, to the two. Egwene is freaked out, but is intrigued by the idea of talking to wolves, but Elyas says that only Perrin could learn to talk to them. Because Perrin is a “Wolfbrother” he’s willing to help led them to civilization. Without his help, they’d have passed 100 miles north of the Andoran capital of Caemlyn, and wouldn’t have run into any towns between there and the Spine of the World Mountains.

 

Elyas leads them for a few days before they run into a group of massive mastiffs. Perrin almost attacks them, but Elyas calls them off with a few hand signs. He leads them to a camp of the Tuatha’an, the traveling people. Elyas introduces them to the Mahdi, a friend of his named Raen. While introducing everyone, Raen’s grandson Aram comes over and sweeps Egwene away to have dinner with his mother. Aram does his damnedest over the next few days to charm Egwene, taking her dancing when he can, giving her a set of blue beads, and taking up as much of her time as he can. Perrin, being a good firend, is uncomfortable and kind of judgy that Egwene is getting so chummy with this guy when she’s dating his friend. When he confronts her about it, she has a sort of mini-breakdown where she starts crying and asking Perrin if he thinks they’ll ever go home. He does his best to reassure her, she even makes him promise to dance with her at Sunday (a holiday, not the day of the week) if they’re back home in time. Eventually, Elyas tells the Two Rivers kids they need to move out. Egwene, despite clearly having had fun with the Tuatha’an, basically turns on her heals to get her stuff packed when she hears. Aram clearly tries to get her to stay, but she’s not interested. Aram’s grandmother Ila seems happy that she’s going but not trying to take Aram along.

 

They spend the next few days running. They run into huge murders (yes, that is the correct term for flocks of crows and ravens) of ravens, patrolling the sky. The Dark One can use carrion eaters as his spies and messengers, so it’s clear he is controlling them to search for them. The ravens attack and absolutely obliterate a fox that tried to sneak by.  They run through gaps in the Raven’s search pattern. They’re all worked to their absolute limit. When it looks like they might be caught, Egwene will never learn this, but Perrin considered killing her with his axe to spare her the slow death the Ravens or Trollocs would offer. Thankfully, they cross into a stedding. These places are where the reclusive Ogier make their homes, though this stedding is abandoned. Stedding are places where the One Power disappear to Channelers senses, and Shadowspawn and animals under the Dark One’s influence can’t cross into them. They rest for a short while, Elyas informing them when they inquire about a massive rock in the shape of an eye that this stedding is where the legendary Artur Hawkwing had intended to build his capital, away from Aes Sedai influence. The common folk, who loved him, commissioned a statute of him, but after Hawkwing’s sudden death and resulting 123 years civil war (confusingly called the 100 years war) the statue was pulled down. They’re history lesson is ended when the wolves tell Elyas and Perrin riders are coming.

 

Oh my, how unseemly, going about with
her hair unbraided.

Perrin and Egwene hide in the ruins of Hawkwing’s hand. The wolves and Elyas try to scare them off, but Perrin and Egwene are discovered. One of the wolves, Hopper by name, attempts to save them but is killed. Perrin in a blind rage attacks the men that did it before being knocked out. They’re brought before the leader of these men, these Whitecloaks, a man named Geofram Bornhald. Whitecloaks being a group of domineering Knights Templar wannabes that use the excuse of spreading the Light to force people to follow their commands. Assholes is what they are. Bornhald presents an almost grandfatherly air, but when their answers (some truthful, some outright lies) make him believe they are Darkfriends. He plans to take them to the Whitecloak capital in Amador for Questioning. And by Questioning, I mean painful torture meant to make them confess to whatever the Questioner asks. Egwene, he says might be released if she repents and confesses, but Perrin is set to be executed for killing two of the Children.

 

They travel as the Whitecloak’s prisoners for several days. Egwene is left reasonably unscathed, but Perrin is used as a punching bag by the Whitecloaks, especially by Bornhald’s #2 Jaret Byar. Eventually, Byar comes to them, kicking Perrin to wake him, and tells them that they’re slowing the Whitecloaks too much. He drops a sharp stone near Perrin, implying that if they cut their bonds and escape, the Children don’t have the resources or time to chase them. Perrin realizes that this is a set-up, but, thankfully, Lan arrives to actually free them. They reunite with Moiraine, Lan and Nynaeve.

 

They're both thinking of the life they wanted instead
of the life they're getting.

Rapid fire time, the group rushes to Caemlyn and the Queen’s Blessing where Mat and Rand are staying. Moiraine is able to heal Mat of the curse of the dagger he took from Shadar Logoth, repressing the infection to give him time to get to Tar Valon to fully cure him. There is a funny moment where Mat mentions Rand meeting a girl named Elayne, which clearly seems to annoy Egwene, only for Perrin to bring up Aram’s name and she gets super evasive. Rand, Perrin, Mat, and their new friend Loial, all have stories of warnings that the Eye of the World is under attack by the forces of the Dark One. Moiraine elects to use Loial’s Ogier knowledge to lead them through the Ways, an extradimensional highway that the Ogier once traveled but abandoned. It was made by tainted Saidin, and began to rot. They travel through the Ways, getting confirmation that the Shadowspawn are using them to move their troops unnoticed. They arrive in the Borderland country of Shienar just outside Fal Dara keep. The group rest at the keep for a night, while Moiraine interrogates Padan Fain, a peddler who seemed to have been following them since the attack on Emond’s Field. He, as it turns out, was tracking the boys for the Dark One. The next day they travel through the Great Blight, stopping to rest in the ruins of Lan’s home country of Malkier. They eventually enter the Green Man’s Grove, a forest oasis in the dead land that is the Blight. The Green Man leads them to the Eye of the World, a container of untainted Saidin. Just then, two of the Thirteen Forsaken, the Dark One’s most powerful minions, Aginor and Balthamel arrive and try to steal the Eye. They quickly overwhelm Lan and Moiraine, Nynaeve tries to stab Balthamel but the Forsaken grabs her by the throat and shocks her. The Green Man rushes over and kills Balthamel with plants just as the Forsaken destroys him. Rand draws Aginor away before battling and destroying him, and then severely wounding Ba’alzamon, the man claiming to be the Dark One that had been haunting Rand, Mat and Perrin’s dreams since Baerlon. Rand returns to the group, where Moiraine is healing Nynaeve while Egwene watches, and tells them he killed the Dark One with channeling. Egwene, reflexively, pulls back from Rand when he goes to hug her after this pronouncement, but then hugs him fiercely. They return to Fal Dara keep. Egwene goes to see Rand after he has a sparring match with Lan, to ask her sort of boyfriend to come with them to Tar Valon when they go. Rand refuses, though, claiming he’ll go somewhere to protect everyone from his potential channeling. Moiraine, who is eavesdropping with the Power, proclaims the Dragon is Reborn.

 

Egwene al’Vere at the start of the story is just an innkeeper’s daughter. She’s smart, driven, and stubborn as a mule. Of the five people to leave Emond’s Field, she is the only one that went of her own freewill and intends to go all the way to Tar Valon. It’s revealed on the trip that she is a Channeler born with the Spark. This means that she would eventually channel regardless of training. And, according to Moiraine, she has the potential to be one of the strongest channeler to enter Tar Valon in centuries, and will be one of the strongest Aes Sedai if she can finish the training. She doesn’t get many chances to use her powers in this first story, as she basically just gets a crash course in channeling before things go nuts.

 

You’re probably wondering why I used sort of whenever I referred to her relationship with Rand. That is because they’re relationship is the most chaste, strained relationship I’ve ever read in fiction. If we hadn’t had Rand’s inner monologue and references to the two being all but promised to each other, I wouldn’t say they’re really in a relationship at all. Just sayin’.

 

Egwene al’Vere is set to appear in Amazon’s Wheel of Time adaptation, premiering November 19, 2021. She’ll be played by Madeleine Madden. Madeleine Madden has appeared in Tidelands, Pine Gap, Mystery Road, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, and Around the Block, amongst other roles.

 

Egwene is one of those characters that is pretty divisive characters in the series. She’s headstrong, stubborn, at times quick tempered, and unwilling to admit when she’s wrong. So, she’s just like the boys she hangs out with. But, ya know, is a girl, so some people react badly to that. She’s also the only member of this group to leave her home of her own freewill, and despite not having sturdy boots or much traveling experience, she complains the least of all of them. She’s the only one to also not express a desire to return home early. As the series progresses, we see her power grow, as well as her ambition to be one of the greatest Aes Sedai of all time. In many ways, she’s Rand’s best foil in the series. Rand is destined to save the world and resists this duty every step of the way. Egwene, in contrast, has no prophecies preordaining her rise but fights tooth and nail to get the power necessary to help save the world. She’s the Yin to his Yang in many ways. And there we have it, my Wheel of Time theme week is at an end. I’ll see you next time when I get back to something Superhero related. See you then. 

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