Amusing because of their character and what has really happened there, but Jarid had reasons to believe they might join him. For over a year Andor was rife with rumours that the TR had rebelled, Manetheren and what not etc. Jarid knew all that, it dates back to Gaebril's days. That's why Jarid thought he could find allies willing to fight against Elayne there.



Indeed. Jarid is very distinctly "Whitecloak-ish" in that scene, with the same insane light vs. light rhetoric, the same hatred of Aes Sedai - and the same vision of the LB not being much of a deal (the TW II, at most) displayed once by Pedron Niall.

People forget too much there were big WC sympathizers among the Great Houses opposed to Morgase that with their support spread troubles way back in EOTW, many of those were around Gaebril later not because they were DF, but because he put Morgase in "her place", she appeared to reject all her former allies under his influence, and to break with the WT. House Sarand is one of those Houses. Not DF at all, just one of the Houses that was already bitterly against Trakand in the previous Succession, that would have supported Gaebril taking Morgase's place, his anti-WT sentiments etc.

There's not a clue in the scene that Jarid might be a DF. It just reveals him as one of the Lords we knew (but never got before a real clue to their identity) supported the WC back in EOTW. Jarid has always been described as a self-serving, unpredictable and untrustworthy loose cannon.




Oh, it's deliberate for sure. Almost certainly it's a very subtle clue to the meaning of the prophecy or the symbolism there will be behind it as well, but one not very useful until we see the scene play out and can decipher the allusion. The most I can make of it for now is that this ties the blood on the rocks prophecy with the motif of the Dragon being one with the land. What this guy says echoes both the prophecy and the one-with-the-land motif. RJ loved to play his stuff on the micro and macro levels like this. On the surface it's about this soldier who feels he is one with his native land and the land is one with him, at the second degree it's an allusion to one of the very big theme of AMOL (keep in mind Rand's darkness, because he's one with the Land, is responsible for the "food spoiling" and other phenomenons... though IMHO we'll find out it rather means that Rand being one with the Creation, his gradual fall into darkness and madness weakened the Land the same way it weakened his will and mind... and that is why Shai'tan's power over Creation has grown to the point it corrupts things, spoils food, fucjs up physicial laws and "reality". After he touched the TP and fell almost completely into darkness, Rand's "dark aura" spoiled things more directly.).



Belief and order makes strength. Very nice indeed. I miss RJ's subtlety, as we see in play here.

That everything in Creation is connected, and that creation is an act of defiance against the DO has very long been a important theme in the series, but we're reaching the end and this one is far more obvious then the others (some are obvious already though, think for instance Rand's babies, and of how his love for his wives plays in his epiphany and convince him Life must go on, creation must on).

A important subtlety (very nicely present in that scene too) is the fine line between creation and destruction. What makes that scene feel right, hopeful, encouraging - almost like a rallying cry or life-affirming anthem, is the fact that after making us believe the man would kill Jarid, he didn't. It's creation (life, the light) set against destruction (ie: the Shadow), instead of creation in order to destroy. You see that duality for instance in how LTT is the "lord of the morning" (ie: the rising sun), the light essential to life, that makes things grow etc. vs. how the DO is using the same sun to scorch, set on fire, dry the land etc. The Shadow destroys weapons, the man turns the bones of Andor itself into a new weapon, and it's solely to fight the Shadow. Very nice moment, inspiring image.

So they simply pushed the obstacle out of their way, leaving him a chance to come to his sense... and fight in the LB too. Nice touch. The time has past for Light vs. Light fights, the real enemy has arrived. It introduces a central theme of AMOL, which starts to get resolved around Rand's epiphany only. WC and Perrin, Elayne and Perrin, AS Rebels and Loyalists, Bordermen and Rand etc.

In the first scene (of the original prologue), we had the blacksmith moving north for TG, bringing his whole family with him, explaining his job now was to make weapons for the army in the north, advising his friend on how to to turn everyday objects into weapons, and urging him to follow him north. With that scene, it was more "this concerns everyone, we're all one people and we all must do our part".

In that scene it's even more visceral, it's not even "our daily life now is to unite to fight the LB", it's about how everything is one, how even the bones and blood of the land itself is turned into a weapon against Shai'tan, about how everything to fight Shai'tan is already there... it's all a matter of faith, dedication and creativity.

The only sad thing (a bit) is that this scene comes a little late in the game because of the book split that moved it out of the original prologue. It obviously went before Rand's epiphany. "New Rand"'s impact on Creation is already quite different from how things were increasingly screwed up in his time of darkness. That's not to say the DO won't touch the world massively, not doubt this will increase in fact (a very great deal at that, when Rand breaks the seals) but we already know how Rand has an effect on this.

It also feel a bit flat when moved to the beginning of AMOL, when Perrin and Elayne have already made their deal, when her rule on Andor is solid etc. A bit late to resolve the Jarid storyline now. It's lost much of the impact RJ intended, but it's still a really great scene.