a place no chart nor ship can show

<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Sarah</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/clash-of-the-titans-perseus-medusa-claymation-and-camp/">https://reactormag.com/clash-of-the-titans-perseus-medusa-claymation-and-camp/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=813942">https://reactormag.com/?p=813942</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/column/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Column 0"> Column </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/80s-fantasy-film-club/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag 80s Fantasy Film Club 1"> 80s Fantasy Film Club </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1"><i>Clash of the Titans</i>: Perseus, Medusa, Claymation, and Camp</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">Greek myth served up by acting legends and Harryhausen creatures — what&#8217;s not to love?</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/tyler-dean/" title="Posts by Tyler Dean" class="author url fn" rel="author">Tyler Dean</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on May 13, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Credit: MGM Studios</p> </div> <div class="quick-access post-hero-quick-access mt-[17px] tablet:hidden"> <div class="flex gap-[30px] tablet:gap-6"> <a href="https://reactormag.com/clash-of-the-titans-perseus-medusa-claymation-and-camp/#comments" class="flex items-center text-sm font-aktiv tracking-[0.6px] font-semibold uppercase translate-x-[1px] translate-y-[1px]"> <svg class="w-[22px] h-[22px] mr-[7px] icon-hover" viewbox="0 0 18 18" aria-label="comment" role="img" aria-hidden="true" aria-labelledby="icon-comment-quick-access-"> <title id="icon-comment-quick-access-">Comment</title> <g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> <path fill="#FFF" fill-rule="nonzero" d="M6.3 18a.9.9 0 0 1-.9-.9v-2.7H1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 0 12.6V1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 1.8 0h14.4A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 18 1.8v10.8a1.8 1.8 0 0 1-1.8 1.8h-5.49l-3.33 3.339a.917.917 0 0 1-.63.261H6.3Z" /> <path stroke="#000" d="M5.9 14.4v-.5H1.8a1.3 1.3 0 0 1-1.3-1.3V1.8A1.3 1.3 0 0 1 1.8.5h14.4a1.3 1.3 0 0 1 1.3 1.3v10.8a1.3 1.3 0 0 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9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="423" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Clash-of-the-Titans-Featured-740x423.jpg" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Perseus (Harry Hamlin) holds Medusa&#39;s head aloft in a scene from Clash of the Titans (1981)" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Clash-of-the-Titans-Featured-740x423.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Clash-of-the-Titans-Featured-1100x629.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Clash-of-the-Titans-Featured-768x439.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Clash-of-the-Titans-Featured.jpg 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Credit: MGM Studios</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>In <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/80s-fantasy-film-club/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this column</a>, we’re looking back at the 1980s as their own particular age of fantasy movies—a legacy that largely disappeared in the ’90s only to resurface in the 2000s, though in many ways, the fantasy films of the Eighties are far weirder and less polished than what we got in the aughts. In each of these articles, we’ll explore a canonical fantasy movie released between 1980 and 1989 and discuss whatever enduring legacy the film has maintained in the decades since.</p> <p>For a more in-depth introduction to this series of articles, you can find<a href="https://reactormag.com/dragonslayer-a-fantasy-cult-classic-with-a-brutal-edge/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> the first installment here, focusing on 1981’s <em>Dragonslayer</em></a>. Last time, we covered the ferret-filled Don Coscarelli adventure <a href="https://reactormag.com/the-beastmaster-fantasy-classic-or-transcendent-schlok/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>The Beastmaster</em></a><em>.</em> This time we’re blowing our stop-motion budget on 1981’s <em>Clash of the Titans</em>.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <p>I was definitely a Greek Mythology kid, growing up. With a copy of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Greek-Myths-Ingri-dAulaire/dp/0440406943" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Edgar and Ingri Parin d’Aulaire’s tome</a> in hand, I dressed up as Perseus for Halloween in the second grade (the papier-mâché Medusa head still sits on my sideboard) and I greedily devoured as many retellings and adaptations as I could find. I saw <em>Clash of the Titans</em> very young and loved it unironically. I’ve kept it in my life as one of the great, hokey, films to show to friends, jokingly refer to as my favorite Olivier film, and play in the background at parties whenever possible.</p> <p>Directed by Desmond Davis and written by playwright, librettist, and husband of Dame Maggie Smith, Beverley Cross, <em>Clash of the Titans</em> is a loose adaptation of the myth of Perseus. It follows Harry Hamlin’s adventures as the gorgon-slaying, mortal son of Zeus (the mid-century Shakespearean legend, Laurence Olivier) as he strives, alongside the poet Ammon (<em>Batman</em> and <em>Rocky</em> actor Burgess Meredith), to save the Princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker) her vainglorious mother, Cassiopeia (the great Siân Phillips, of <em>Dune</em> and <em>I, Claudius</em>), and the entire city of Joppa from the princess’ cursed, wicked, ex-fiancé, Calibos (Neil McCarthy). Along the way, Perseus contends with Calibos’ mother, the sea-goddess Thetis (Maggie Smith), and a legion of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion animated monsters. </p> <p>As mentioned in my previous column, <em>Clash of the Titans</em> was Harryhausen’s swan song, in which he instilled a lifetime of experience and charm, and brought to life the film’s iconic Kraken and Medusa, alongside Pegasus, Calibos’ cursed form, the two-headed hound, Dioskilos (supposedly, a three-headed Cerberus would have been too time consuming), giant scorpions and vultures, and the right-on-the-line-between-endearing-and-annoying mechanical owl, Bubo.&nbsp;</p> <p>So how does <em>Clash of the Titans</em> hold up? Pretty well, honestly. It occupies a rare space, being a film that is, by no means, “good” from a cinephile’s perspective but which is also laudable and fun enough that you can watch and enjoy it without the irony of a “so-bad-it’s-good” approach. In so many ways, <em>Clash of the Titans</em> feels like a throwback to the Mythical/Biblical/Historical epics of the ’50s and ’60s. Harryhausen’s involvement helps with this, of course, but so does the presence of a ton of actors that made their names both on stage and screen in the middle of the century: Olivier, Phillips, Meredith, Smith, <em>The Haunting</em>’s Claire Bloom as Hera, RSC veteran Jack Gwilim as Poseidon, and original Bond Girl Ursula Andress appearing as Aphrodite, no less.</p> <p><site-embed id="15549"/></p> <p>That sort of pedigree gives the proceedings an invested, somewhat-earned pomposity that is reminiscent of the epic productions of decades past. It feels closer to <em>I, Claudius</em> and <em>Ben Hur</em> than <em>Dragonslayer</em> or <em>Conan the Barbarian</em>. It isn’t in the same stratosphere as Olivier’s Freudian <em>Hamlet</em> or a Zeffirelli film, but it invokes those almost as much as it invokes Harryhausen’s oeuvre of charming, silly creature features.&nbsp;</p> <p>There are some surprisingly touching performances. Burgess Meredith, in a part originally written for John Gielgud, delivers a half-playful, half-dolorous lament about the follies of youth directly to camera and, while it is clear that Davis was doing nothing to rein in his actors, it still manages to be affecting and sweet. Tim Piggot-Smith (a stage and screen actor who you might know from <em>V for Vendetta</em>, the 2004 <em>North &amp; South</em> miniseries, or <em>Remains of the Day</em>), manages to make a thankless role as Thallo—Joppa’s captain of the guard who dispenses all the exposition—into the kind of tertiary role that one actively looks forward to seeing again.&nbsp;</p> <p>It’s gleefully campy throughout. Olivier is doing spectacular eyebrow work while giving a performance that brings completely unnecessary gravitas to a Zeus who is portrayed as an impish old man, constantly stirring the pot with his dysfunctional family. Gwilim stares, vacantly, into the middle distance, mouth agape, while summoning the Kraken, licking his lips in a way that somehow seems simultaneously offhand and deeply thought-through. There are big swings in line delivery. Maggie Smith delivers an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI-48fjZD5Y">amazing one-two punch</a>, first by claiming that Zeus “once tried to seduce [her] disguised as a cuttlefish,” then, after being asked if he was successful, lobbing a withering glance along with her droll denial: “Certainly not!” Ana Monahan, one of the of the Graeae (called “Stygian witches” in the film) whom Perseus must outsmart in order to learn how to defeat the Kraken, gleefully roars the line “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d2O7F26Uw8">A titan against a titan!</a>” with all of the considerable relish that an elderly stage actress can muster while cackling and shaking both her fists at the heavens. It’s the closest thing the film gets to someone announcing the title and Monahan milks it for all it’s worth.</p> <p>The Greek mythology pedant in me has moments of balking at how fast and loose Cross plays with the tale. And we’re not talking the average, familiar levels of bastardization such as the d’Aulaires’ sanitizing influence or Victorian gay erasure. The film claims to be about Titans (the pre-Olympian generation of god-like beings) and then claims those Titans are Medusa (who is, depending on the source, either the granddaughter of primeval monsters Typhon and Echidna, or, according to Ovid, a sea-nymph transformed into a Gorgon for her vanity) and the Kraken. <em>The Kraken</em>. The Kraken isn’t even from Greek mythology. It’s a monster/cryptid from the Medieval Norse world. It’s true that, in the original myth, Perseus fights a sea-monster/primordial sea-goddess, Ceto, who might be considered to be the equivalent of a kraken in some sort of Herodotus-adjacent project of subjecting all mythological traditions to the same taxonomies—but let’s be clear, neither one is a Titan.</p> <p>Smith’s Thetis is described as the goddess of the sea and wife of Poseidon, which is vaguely incorrect. She is a sea-nymph and said to be the mother of Achilles (here she is the mother of the fictional Calibos) but, more importantly, she is the daughter of the Titan-like Nereus. Maggie Smith is the closest thing the film has to an actual Titan and no one ever mentions it. All of that said—it absolutely doesn’t matter. Myths are reinterpreted all the time, our own “canonical” interpretation is distilled from dozens of accounts across hundreds of years, and, in the best possible way, <em>Clash of the Titans</em> doesn’t actually care about mythology. It cares about spectacle. It cares about a wild ride that oscillates between faux-Shakespearean monologue and the utterly engrossing, hypnotic magic of Harryhausen’s claymation bestiary.</p> <p><site-embed id="15550"/></p> <p>So perhaps it’s time to touch on what most folks remember the movie for. Harryhausen’s creations are nothing short of remarkable. It should be noted that, in the same year as Phil Tippett and company were nominated for an Oscar for <em>Dragonslayer</em> on the strength of ILM’s go-motion dragon that still looks stunning today, Harryhausen’s stop-motion animated creatures certainly do not look realistic and are anything but immersive. That isn’t, however, the point. Ray Harryhausen imbued his automata, Hephaestus-like, with the primordial fires of ingenuity and created effects that were brimming with personality, menace, and charm. Medusa is the pièce de résistance of this film (and, perhaps, of Harryhausen’s career): she slithers on her serpentine hindquarters, her tail making an exaggerated rattle that still fills me with dread. It’s hard to make claymation creatures move quickly but Harryhausen uses that to his advantage, making Medusa a patient stalker and turning the sequence into a tense cat-and-mouse game by the light of flickering braziers.</p> <p>Where <em>Clash of the Titans</em> falls into B-movie territory, it remains thoroughly charming. Its incredibly fake-looking plastic helmets, the R2-D2 noises Bubo makes, the monster blood dripping like chunky oil paint, the scene where a real alligator inexplicably falls off the log it’s perched on with a big splash—all help to make it a goofy, campy classic. The fact that it’s also elevated by committed performances from its Shakespearean actors and Harryhausen’s artistry only adds to its unique charm and staying power. It’s always worth a rewatch.&nbsp;</p> <p>As with other films we’ve discussed, <em>Clash of the Titans</em> spawned a 21^st-century remake (2010’s Ralph Fiennes/Liam Neeson-starring <em>Clash of the Titans</em>) and a sequel (2012’s <em>Wrath of the Titans</em>—ostensibly based off of the 2007 comic book series of the same name). The remake attempts to streamline the plot (Calibos has been combined with the traditional villain of the Perseus myth—<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrisius">Acrisius</a>, king of Argos) and features some fun, campy performances from Ralph Fiennes (as Hades—who replaces Thetis as the primary antagonist), Liam Neeson as Zeus, and Mads Mikkelsen and Liam Cunningham in roles that roughly correspond to Thallo. Without Harryhausen’s designs, however, the giant CGI monsters lack charm and personality, and the same can be said for Perseus (perennially “meh” action hero Sam Worthington). Its sequel, though also quite underwhelming, at least does not have a plot that brokers comparison with a superior original and is the only film in the franchise to feature an actual, factual Titan (the Gothic patriarch of the Greek pantheon, Kronos). Both are far too self-serious and grim to really have the sort of impact that a <em>Clash of the Titans</em> remake ought to have.&nbsp;</p> <p>While Hollywood taking on classical epic is nothing new, <em>Clash of the Titans</em> helped to launch a new era of making Greco-Roman mythological mashups on screen. Would we have had <em>Hercules: The Legendary Journeys</em> (1995) and <em>Xena: Warrior Princess</em> (1995), the <em>God of War</em> video game series (whose third installment features Harry Hamlin reprising his role as Perseus), or even transcendent takes on Greek myth like <em>Hadestown</em> (whose original concept album was released the same year as the <em>Clash</em> remake) without the fun of the original <em>Clash of the Titans</em> looming large in the cinematic imagination? Legends live on, and Greek mythology never fully goes out of style—in recent years, we’ve had the <em>Percy Jackson</em> novels and adaptations (2005-2009, 2010, 2013, 2024) Tarsem Singh’s <em>Immortals</em> (2011), <em>Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical</em> (2023), Netflix’s <em>Kaos</em> (2024), the musical film <em>O’Dessa</em> (2025), the <em>Hades</em> videogames (2020, 2025), etc.—and while <em>Clash of the Titans</em> is not the only origin point we can trace from, its winning combination of camp, action, and great actors that fully commit, the movie does feel like an important touchstone for most of these. It’s more likely that they take inspiration from <em>Clash</em> than from, say, the far less charming Lou Ferrigno <em>Hercules</em> films that followed in 1983 and 1985.&nbsp;</p> <p>It was a bridge between the Harryhausen era of polymer maquette creature features taking center stage and the era of highbrow stunt casting, hiring venerable British actors to deliver less-than-stellar material with every fiber of their being that continues to this day. It’s arguably the model for the <em>Harry Potter</em> films’ approach to stacking the cast with BAFTA-winning RSC members and letting their dedication to the craft make up for any deficiencies in the script. Its success also helped to make Greek mythology more mainstream to moviegoing audiences (and more potentially profitable to the studios).</p> <p><site-embed id="15551"/></p> <p>This is the movie that was supposed to launch Harry Hamlin’s career as a handsome, charming leading man, and in reality launched his eventual career as a talented TV character actor and the perfect embodiment of embittered, Hollywood disappointment. My partner and I recently embarked on a rewatch of the 2003 cult classic teen detective drama <em>Veronica Mars</em> and, in addition to being a superb and unnerving time capsule of its era, it’s a great showcase for Hamlin’s brand of frustrated rage, barely concealed under a thick layer of half-believable charm. Hamlin’s movie star trajectory never reached the dizzying heights of his fellow ’80s fantasy film leading men like Arnold Schwarzenegger (<em>Conan the Barbarian</em>, 1982), Tom Cruise (<em>Legend</em>, 1985), or Val Kilmer (<a href="https://reactormag.com/willow-lessons-in-bravery-hope-and-having-fun-with-fantasy-tropes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Willow</em>, 1988</a>). But without <em>Clash of the Titans</em>’ moderate success failing to translate into major movie stardom for Hamlin, we might not have gotten such great turns from him as Aaron Echolls, or <em>Man Men</em>’s Jim Cutler, or as one of the few bright spots in the otherwise disappointing <em>Mayfair Witches</em>. Bravo fans are deeply familiar with that (decidedly less sociopathic) acid that characterizes his appearances as Lisa Rinna’s husband on the <em>Real Housewives</em> shows and spinoffs. He’s a thoroughly watchable and engaging actor… just not at all in the way that <em>Clash of the Titans</em> wanted to showcase.</p> <p>But what do you think? Any Harryhausenheads out there who rank this film among his best? What about the Harryhamlinheads who see <em>Clash of the Titans</em> as a key to all mythologies? Is the film overrated? Underrated? Just perfect? Let me know in the comments and be sure to join me next time as we explore the origin point for millennials’ obsession with existential dread and their own mortality, 1984’s <em>The NeverEnding Story</em>.[end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/clash-of-the-titans-perseus-medusa-claymation-and-camp/">&lt;i&gt;Clash of the Titans&lt;/i&gt;: Perseus, Medusa, Claymation, and Camp</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/clash-of-the-titans-perseus-medusa-claymation-and-camp/">https://reactormag.com/clash-of-the-titans-perseus-medusa-claymation-and-camp/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=813942">https://reactormag.com/?p=813942</a></p>

<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Sarah</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/patrolling-the-spaceways-tom-corbett-space-cadet-stand-by-for-mars-by-carey-rockwell/">https://reactormag.com/patrolling-the-spaceways-tom-corbett-space-cadet-stand-by-for-mars-by-carey-rockwell/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=813876">https://reactormag.com/?p=813876</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-vertical"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/books/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Books 0"> Books </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/front-lines-and-frontiers/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Front Lines and Frontiers 1"> Front Lines and Frontiers </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Patrolling the Spaceways: <i>Tom Corbett, Space Cadet: Stand By for Mars!</i> by Carey Rockwell</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">The first in a series of classic space adventures!</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/alan-brown/" title="Posts by Alan Brown" class="author url fn" rel="author">Alan Brown</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on May 13, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div 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12.856 17.6794 15.0643 17.6787 17.4143H14.6787ZM8.67871 17.4143C8.67871 15.1976 7.89971 13.31 6.34171 11.7513C4.78371 10.1926 2.89605 9.41364 0.678713 9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="407" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Front-Lines-Stand-By-for-Mars-740x407.png" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Cover art for Tom Corbett, Space Cadet: Stand By for Mars!" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Front-Lines-Stand-By-for-Mars-740x407.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Front-Lines-Stand-By-for-Mars-1100x605.png 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Front-Lines-Stand-By-for-Mars-768x422.png 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Front-Lines-Stand-By-for-Mars.png 1400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>In this <a href="http://www.reactormag.com/tag/front-lines-and-frontiers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bi-weekly series</a> reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <p>In the years after World War II, the television industry was exploding throughout the world, and the new medium was hungry for content. With various new scientific advances transforming society, science fiction was a natural fit for television. Thus were born the adventures of <em>Tom Corbett, Space Cadet</em>. While not widely remembered today, at the time the character was ubiquitous, broadcast on television and radio, appearing in books, comic books, and newspaper comic strips, and also in merchandise. Today, I’m going to look back at that character and his adventures, and while the stories haven’t aged terribly well, they are still a lot of fun.</p> <p>My own first exposure to Tom Corbett was through a reel for a View-Master 3D viewer that my parents bought for me and my brothers when I was young. It came with three sample reels. One, I believe, was a set of nature pictures. The second was about the Apollo space program, and I think it was conceptual, because this was before the first moon landing. And the third reel portrayed the adventures of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. To get the 3D effect, the images were created by taking pictures of highly detailed dioramas. I remember the spaceships that looked like a cross between a V2 rocket and a hood ornament, and the vividly colored space suits with their bubble helmets. One of the pictures depicted an alien ruin on an asteroid, which revealed the fact that the asteroids were the remains of what had been the fifth planet of the solar system. I was fascinated by these images, so vivid that they made the fantastic look real. Later, we got a View-Master projector, so we could look at the pictures (in 2D) on a screen. We covered a card table with blankets, drew control panels on cardboard, and used the View-Master projector to put images on our viewscreen. We spent hours imagining we were following Tom Corbett around the Solar System. Years later, at a science fiction convention, I finally got a chance to see a recording of the old TV show and was disappointed, as the grainy black and white images, primitive sets, corny scripts, and stiff acting did not live up to the imaginary adventures triggered by those 3D color View-Master images.</p> <p>The copy of <em>Tom Corbett, Space Cadet: Stand By for Mars!</em> that I am using for this review is a trade paperback published in 2017 by Rocket Science Books, and edited by Tom English, who provided an introduction for this edition. The original series of eight Tom Corbett books was first published by Grosset &amp; Dunlap from 1952 to 1956.</p> <div style="height:10px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>About the Author</strong></h3> <p>Carey Rockwell is the “house name” for the writer of the Tom Corbett series, the pseudonym used by the publisher instead of the names of the author or authors who actually wrote the books. As a result, the identity of those authors remains unknown. In the introduction, reprint editor Tom English states that the creator of the series, Joseph Greene, a pulp science fiction author, was an editor at Grosset &amp; Dunlap when the Tom Corbett series was released, and likely had a hand in creating at least the first book, if not writing it himself. The series also credited German rocket scientist <a href="https://reactormag.com/the-science-of-space-rockets-missiles-space-travel-by-willy-ley/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Willy Ley</a> as a technical advisor, although given some of the things portrayed in the first book, I doubt he got a final vote on what appeared on its pages.</p> <div style="height:10px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The History of Tom Corbett</strong></h3> <p>Because the series shared a name with Robert Heinlein’s <em>Space Cadet</em> (which I previously reviewed <a href="https://reactormag.com/school-days-in-space-space-cadet-by-robert-a-heinlein/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>), I’d always imagined he had a hand in its creation. But it turns out the history is a bit more complicated. As Tom English describes in the introduction, it was author Joseph Greene who created the series, years before Heinlein wrote his juvenile. Greene first created a script for a <em>Space Academy</em> comic book in 1945, but was unable to sell it, even when he reimagined it as a newspaper strip, and then as a radio drama. But the success of Heinlein’s 1948 book changed Greene’s fortunes, and he was able to sell the idea to CBS for a television series. I have read in other sources that the producers licensed the title <em>Space Cadet</em> from Heinlein, as they liked it better than the original <em>Space Academy</em> title, and wanted to avoid lawsuits over similarities between the two works.</p> <p>The television series ran for five seasons, although it bounced between four different networks during that run. It followed the adventures of three space cadets—pilot Tom Corbett, astrogator and radar operator Roger Manning, and engineer Astro; all members of the Solar Alliance’s Solar Guard—who travel the Solar System in their atomic rocket, <em>Polaris</em>. Action generally took place at the Space Academy on Earth, in the control room of <em>Polaris</em>, or at various destinations on other worlds. Often, special effects were seen through <em>Polaris’</em> viewscreen, which helped mitigate their rudimentary nature. The spacesuits were rather flamboyant, in a vivid blue, with a large V on their chest and metal studs adorning the neck and wrists of the jackets. Clear “fishbowl” helmets were worn when working outside the ship. More traditional cloth uniforms were worn in Academy scenes. The stories take place in a solar system that reflects the consensus of most science fiction of its time, with three habitable planets: the Earth, a swampy and prehistoric Venus, and a dry and dusty Mars.</p> <div style="height:10px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong><em>Stand By for Mars!</em></strong></h3> <p>The book opens with the arrival of Tom Corbett at the Space Academy, where he immediately faces the fierce disciplinarian Warrant Officer McKenny (the Space Academy is an overwhelmingly male operation, whose only nod at diversity is the fact that its cadets come from three different planets). Tom meets the arrogant Roger Manning, who has browbeaten the stolid Venusian Astro into carrying his luggage. Of the three, only Astro has any real spacefaring experience, having served aboard commercial freighters. They all take their oath, and become official Space Cadets.</p> <p>They meet Doctor Joan Dale, the only female member of the Space Guard (despite the story being set centuries in the future, they did not foresee any advances in gender equality). She oversees cadet assignments, divided into four specialties: control-deck, astrogation, power-deck, and science (with the first three categories being shipboard, and the fourth serving at the Academy).</p> <p>At this point I took a look at the Goodreads website, wondering what others thought of the book. The general consensus seemed to be positive, with an overall rating of 3.75 out of 5, although many of those positive comments were obviously tinged with nostalgia. Some readers pointed out that the author seemed to be inordinately interested in shirtless men, as there were numerous references to the cadets taking showers, taking off their shirts for athletics, or stripping to the waist for work. And as I continued reading, I found myself glad I hadn’t made finding these references into a drinking game, because there were indeed a lot of shirts removed—something I hadn’t expected to find in a juvenile novel. Another comment that surprised me was a remark that while the book wasn’t great, at least it wasn’t as bad as Heinlein’s <em>Have Spacesuit—Will Travel</em> (if you read my <a href="https://reactormag.com/lessons-in-chivalry-and-chauvinism-have-space-suit-will-travel-by-robert-a-heinlein/">review</a> of that book, you’ll know that comment didn’t go over well with me).</p> <p>Tom is assigned to control-deck, Roger is assigned to astrogation, Astro is assigned to power-deck, and the three of them are directed to train together as a crew. Despite matching well on paper, Roger’s sarcasm is a constant barrier to them working as an effective team, and Captain Strong makes it his personal challenge to snap the team together. Roger’s abrasive attitude is clearly the result of some sort of trauma, the cause of which should have been obvious to the Academy staff, but it plays out as a mystery not revealed until later in the book. Tom and Roger square off one night after hours in a boxing match that unfortunately fails to relieve any tensions in the group. As they prepare for competency exams, Roger belittles Astro. This seems cruel, but Roger has seen that Astro fights harder when he is under pressure. And despite their differences, the three cadets pass their exams, excel in their categories, and are soon assigned to the training ship <em>Polaris</em>.</p> <p>There is a passing comment to let us know that ships crewed by cadets are equipped with non-lethal paralo-ray small arms, but also have a few atomic warheads aboard for emergencies, which doesn’t sound so non-lethal to me. The idea of sending out ships staffed only by cadets also sounds strange, as opposed to the standard practice of sending midshipmen out to serve alongside experienced officers (which Heinlein incorporated into his <em>Space Cadet</em> book). There is a big tournament where the <em>Polaris</em> crew competes with others in a mercuryball tournament. Mercuryballs have a tube partially filled with mercury inside, which makes their movements sometimes unpredictable—a good way to train pilots to respond to the unexpected. The three cadets bicker, but end up winning in the end. They are given a well-deserved liberty trip, but are soon called back to the Academy to take part in an exercise, their first space maneuvers.</p> <p>The exercise will simulate an attack on Luna, with <em>Polaris</em> serving as flagship of the squadrons assigned to defense. Thanks to some quick thinking by Tom, the defenders succeed. But before the crew can celebrate, a distress call comes in from the freighter <em>Lady Venus</em>, and <em>Polaris</em> is dispatched to assist, with Captain Strong coming aboard to assist them. The crew and passengers of <em>Lady Venus</em> are transferred to <em>Polaris</em>, but Tom, Roger and Astro stay aboard <em>Lady Venus</em> to try to save the ship. The engineering spaces have been flooded with radiation, and they must rely on their lead-lined spacesuits for protection. They succeed in jettisoning radioactive debris just before it explodes (everyone seems happy with them for doing this, but while I can see risking lives in order to save other lives, I can’t see risking their lives to save property, especially property contaminated by radiation leaks). <em>Polaris</em> and <em>Lady Venus</em> are ordered to proceed to Mars, which confused me, because they had been in Earth/Lunar space, and the trip to Mars is a long one for rockets using an atomic pile to heat reaction mass (for more on that topic, here is a good <a href="https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/">website</a> for further reading). So they blast toward Mars at the highest possible speed.</p> <p>But when it comes time to brake for Mars, the cadets realize they don’t have the reaction mass needed to slow down (something they should have thought about before they blasted toward the planet). Fortunately, their course will bring them to Mars on a tangent, rather than just augering straight into the ground, and they survive a nasty crash landing in the desert (which near as I can tell is not just improbable, it is downright impossible). The author seems to adhere to the theory that all deserts are hot deserts (which isn’t true even on Earth, and certainly isn’t true on Mars), and the cadets have to trek their way to the nearest canal, and then to the nearest atmosphere booster station. They make it to safety, ready to face more adventures in the future.</p> <div style="height:9px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer"></div> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Final Thoughts</strong></h3> <p>The adventures are fun, but it is the interplay between the three cadets that is the heart of the book. Their relationships keep the reader engaged and caring about them, especially after Roger’s hard exterior is explained. (Some sources have commented that the entertaining interplay between the cadets foreshadows the relationships between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy in the original <em>Star Trek</em>). The book has some corny elements, outdated social attitudes, and some science that will cause your teeth to grind (which makes me think Willy Ley’s involvement was minimal), but it has a lot of energy and heart. This book is nowhere near as good as any of the Heinlein juveniles, but it is entertaining—even if you only read it as an example of the history of science fiction, it’s worth a look.</p> <p>And if you have any thoughts on either Tom Corbett in general or <em>Stand By for Mars!</em> in particular, I’d love to hear them.[end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/patrolling-the-spaceways-tom-corbett-space-cadet-stand-by-for-mars-by-carey-rockwell/">Patrolling the Spaceways: &lt;i&gt;Tom Corbett, Space Cadet: Stand By for Mars!&lt;/i&gt; by Carey Rockwell</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/patrolling-the-spaceways-tom-corbett-space-cadet-stand-by-for-mars-by-carey-rockwell/">https://reactormag.com/patrolling-the-spaceways-tom-corbett-space-cadet-stand-by-for-mars-by-carey-rockwell/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=813876">https://reactormag.com/?p=813876</a></p>

<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Leah Schnelbach</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/thunderbolts-gives-us-marvels-best-villain-ever/">https://reactormag.com/thunderbolts-gives-us-marvels-best-villain-ever/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=813952">https://reactormag.com/?p=813952</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/featured-essays/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Featured Essays 0"> Featured Essays </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/thunderbolts/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Thunderbolts 1"> Thunderbolts </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1"><em>Thunderbolts*</em> Delivers the Best Marvel Villain in Years</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">And no, it isn’t Valentina Allegra de Fontaine</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/leah-schnelbach/" title="Posts by Leah Schnelbach" class="author url fn" rel="author">Leah Schnelbach</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on May 13, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Credit: Marvel Studios</p> </div> 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9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="307" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-2-740x307.jpg" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) confronts her past self inside the Void in Thunderbolts*." srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-2-740x307.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-2-1100x456.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-2-768x319.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-2-1536x637.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Credit: Marvel Studios</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> <p></p> </div> </div> <p><strong>This is a full spoiler essay for <em>Thunderbolts</em>*</strong>, and more important: I&#8217;ll be discussing issues of mental health, addiction, and suicide, so please take that into consideration if you’re not in a good place to read it. I’ll also say that my brain and I are in a complicated situationship. Sometimes we’re BFFS, other times I’m in a corner with a chair and a bullwhip, barely keeping the fucker at bay. And given that, <em>Thunderbolts*</em> felt like a warm—if sometimes uncomfortably tight—hug.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <p>Thanos.</p> <p>Ultron.</p> <p>Dormammu.</p> <p>Erik Kilmonger.</p> <p>The crushing feeling that nothing you do matters, that all life ends in death, that you’ll lose everything you love and there’s no ultimate point to anything you do.</p> <p>I know who I’m putting as the Best Villain Ever on a ranking list post!</p> <p>The villain of the latest Marvel movie is <em>depression</em>. (And shame, guilt, trauma, PTSD, the whole merry gang—but mostly depression.) <em>Thunderbolts* </em>wrestles with them in a that feels honest and raw, while also delivering the most fun comic book movie in years—I felt way better after this than after <em>Guardians of the Galaxy 3</em>.</p> <p>This movie <em>opens</em> with a suicide attempt. Our hero is Yelena Bulova. She tells us in a voiceover that she’s depressed, and feels her work is meaningless. At first, she assumed her disconnection was grief over her sister’s death, but now she thinks it’s more than that—a <em>void</em> that’s inside her all the time. After she tells us this, she closes her eyes, takes a breath, and steps off the edge of the second tallest building in the world. She waits a <em>long</em> time before she opens a parachute and lands gracefully on another level. Long enough to let us know she thought about not opening it at all. (It’s effective enough that the person next to me gasped and covered her face.) As she fights through a research lab, she doesn’t notice the ominous shadows on the wall behind her, she doesn’t listen to the scientist who says that the world is in danger. She’s too lost in her own fog. She goes to her quasi-dad Alexei for advice, then doesn’t listen to him. She walks straight into the Wile E. Coyote-level trap that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine set for her. She fights her way out of Valentina’s underground vault, but has no plan for what to do next, and never seems to care overmuch whether she lives or dies.</p> <p>We listen to her complain about being in a career rut while she wrestles and shoots her way through an <em>Oldboy</em>-style hallway fight. The fatherly advice she receives about serving her country comes from Captain America’s Communist counterpart, whose beloved Soviet Union threw him in a gulag when he was no longer useful. The boss she negotiates with is a shady CIA director in the middle of an impeachment hearing. There’s a certain irony gap at work here.</p> <p>But this is also the most relatable a Marvel character has been in&#8230; maybe ever?</p> <p>And it isn’t just her. The matter-of-fact tone of depression is woven into the film, and embraced by every character.</p> <p>Bob is openly suicidal. He picks a fight with a super soldier. He suggests it’ll be better for everyone if he “stays put” in the vault—i.e. stays behind to either <em>starve to death or burn</em>—because it might be marginally more convenient for the mercs he just met. This isn&#8217;t exactly Natasha leaping off a cliff to save the world from Thanos, or Tony Stark snapping his fingers so the other Avengers can live.</p> <p>Walker responds to everything with barely restrained rage, and almost jumps down an elevator shaft in response to a brief flashback to his failures as a father.</p> <p>Ava shoots Taskmaster in the face to fulfill her mission, and only slightly regrets it later, as Yelena tells her that Taskmaster was a child soldier just like the rest of them, and that all of them will die violent deaths eventually anyway.</p> <p>Alexei is clearly in a slump, losing himself in old footage of Red Guardian overseeing Russian military parades while old food and dirty clothes pile up around him. But no one ever treats this slump like it’s a joke, like a “Fat Thor” situation—what the others look askance at is his exuberance and hope for the future.</p> <p>Ghost is a person who was born of a government experiment, who lived her life in constant chronic pain until Janet Van Dyne was able to (partially) heal her. By then, all she knew was the life of an assassin. John Walker was supposed to be the new Captain America. Instead he killed a man with the shield he was meant to honor. Alexei was supposed to be the glorious symbol of Soviet might, and was every bit as &nbsp;dedicated and patriotic as Steve Roger. And then, like some sort of symbol of how large scale communism rarely works, he was used up and spat out and forced to betray the people he loved, and left as washed up derelict in a prison still singing songs from his glory days, right around the time when America’s symbol, Steve Rogers, had to go rogue to get away from an over-policed surveillance state.</p> <p>And Bucky’s&#8230; Bucky.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="566" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-6-1100x566.jpg" alt="Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) faces off with Bob/Sentry (Lewis Pullman) in Thunderbolts*." class="wp-image-814034" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-6-1100x566.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-6-740x381.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-6-768x395.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-6-1536x790.jpg 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-6.jpg 1652w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Marvel Studios</figcaption></figure> <p>Even Valentina is given a moment. In this version of her story, her father was murdered in front of her after she gave their location away to what seems to be a mafiosi, who promises to take care of her after his death. (That can&#8217;t have been a good childhood.)</p> <p>There were many ways they could have dealt with all this trauma. Endless quips, endless scenes of heart-to-heart conversations. Instead, the film shows us how the depression and dissociation shapes everyone&#8217;s actions. Valentina exploits a person with mental illness to try to spackle over her own shortcomings. Just as Yelena ignores the scientist’s warnings in the opening scene, Valentina doesn’t listen to the sick person tell her what he needs, she doesn’t listen to people who know him better, she doesn’t listen to her level-headed assistant, and she doesn’t listen to the alarm bells in her own head after he shows her a fraction of his power.</p> <p>Instead she fills Bob up with the idea that he can be “better”—that if he just does this thing for her, his life will be golden and he’ll finally be important.</p> <p>All of them take grief and defeat as a baseline—except maybe Alexei, because he knows what it is to feel like a hero.</p> <p>Marvel movies and TV shows have attempted to deal with mental health issues before. Obviously, between the wars, supervillains, and alien invasions, everyone in these things has PTSD to some degree. The Iron Man Trilogy is explicitly about Tony’s anxiety issues, his attempts to control them with alcohol, and/or putting a suit of armor around the world, and how those issues bleed into the first Avengers film and its sequel. Captain America and Captain Marvel both had childhood marked by abuse. <em>Age of Ultron </em>touched on the abuses of the Red Room, <em>Black Widow </em>fleshed out that story marginally better. <em>Ant-Man and the Wasp </em>in part tried to deal with Ava Starr’s chronic pain, and how that shaped her mental health. <em>WandaVision</em> did a fantastic job exploring grief (until <em>Multiverse of Madness </em>ruined everything), and <em>Moon Knight </em>tackled Dissociative Identity Disorder <em>much</em> better than I expected it to. Therapy has come up in both <em>Moon Knight </em>and in <em>Daredevil: Born Again</em>—although in both cases psychologists weren’t exactly cast in a positive light. <em>Avengers: Endgame,</em> <em>Falcon and the Winter Soldier, </em>and<em> Brave New World </em>all highlight the importance of support groups for people dealing with trauma.</p> <p>But have we ever had a film that dealt so honestly with real, deep-rooted trauma? A movie that braided “heroism” and “suicidal depression” so tightly together?</p> <p>Think of what <em>Thunderbolts</em>* could have been: a quiet scene of Yelena looking at a picture of Natasha, maybe even asking her for help. Walker opening up about his family problems while the others listen sympathetically. Bob apologizing for his addiction. Yelena and Alexei sharing a tearful hug after he tells her how proud he is. &nbsp;</p> <p>Look what they do instead: Yelena talks about her sister, she does everything in the shadow of her sister, but mostly she’s furious when anyone mentions her—her grief is immediate and raw as hell, not a plot device. The team only learns that Walker is alone because Bucky tells them—he was <em>never</em> going to admit that. Bob is completely frank about his drug use, and none of them are phased by it. Yelena breaks down messily in public, in the street, surrounded by New Yorkers who don’t acknowledge her, and Alexei keeps his distance from her. When he tells her she used to be full of joy she sobs that she doesn’t remember it. When he tells her she wanted to be a goalie so the team could depend on her, she doesn’t remember that, either. The two finally hear each other, yes, but the conversation is punctured by the fact that <em>Yelena doesn’t have any of Alexei’s good memories of her childhood</em>.</p> <p>Even when Yelena tries to give a “pep talk” to get Bob to leave with them, it’s more the two of them sharing an understanding of darkness than anything else.</p> <p>Yelena: “&#8230;darkness gets pretty enticing, it starts to feel like&#8230;”<br>Bob: “A void.”</p> <p>Their moment of bonding is over their shared suicidal ideation. When Bob asks her “What do you do about it?” she replies “I shove it&#8230; way down” and they both laugh. “That’s really good advice” he says, in a deadpan that sounded all too familiar to me. And then she ends their conversation by telling him that once they’ve gone their separate ways he can pick a fight with a super soldier if he wants to. She never tries to tell him he’s wrong to feel depressed, or that he needs to fight against the sadness, or that he should find a reason to live. On the one hand, this is terrible, and he throws it in her face later on. But it’s also her accepting him where he is—neither demanding he try to be “better”, nor dismissing the reality of his pain. &nbsp;</p> <p>Later on, Bob riffs on the traditional Marvel “sacrifice play”. But where Steve Rogers throws himself heroically on a grenade without knowing it’s a dud, and Tony Stark flies a nuke through a wormhole even though he thinks it’s a one-way trip, Bob distracts the OXE mercenaries from Yelena, Walker, and Ava by flailing a gun around until they open fire. He doesn’t think he’s going to survive this—he has no idea what his full powers are—so how much of this is a sacrifice for his new friends, and how much is a suicide attempt? </p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="540" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-4-1100x540.jpg" alt="Bob (Lewis Pullman) stands in front of a firing squad in Thunderbolts*." class="wp-image-814032" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-4-1100x540.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-4-740x363.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-4-768x377.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-4-1536x753.jpg 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-4.jpg 1733w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Marvel Studios</figcaption></figure> <p>&nbsp;(I <em>really</em> appreciate this movie.)</p> <p>But obviously if it was <em>just</em> this is wouldn’t work. The film introduces its gauntlet early (but in a mercifully low key way) when Bucky tries to work Valentina&#8217;s assistant Mel at a gala, hinting that he can help her if she wants to turn on her boss.</p> <p>I wasn’t expecting anyone to quote Soren Kierkegaard in a Marvel movie?</p> <p>The gala is for the “First Responders Family Fund”, a thing Valentina made up to distract everyone from her impeachment hearing. The event treats the artifacts from the Battle for New York as, well, artifacts. Ancient history in glass cases for rich donors to ooh and aah at. And here’s Bucky, himself an ancient artifact, watching everyone gawk at his dead best friend’s lived experience. Mel seems to acknowledge that, in her early-20s wannabe girlboss way. But when she throws out the pithy quote “Life can only be understood backwards” while the two gaze at the “A” from the old Avengers Tower, it’s important to note is that she’s kind of misusing the line.</p> <p>In the same way that Joan Didion’s “We tell ourselves stories in order to live” is only inspiring if you don’t look at it too close, Kierkegaard’s “It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards” can be read as an acknowledgement of the utter nauseating chaos of life.</p> <p>We <em>have</em> to live life forwards. It isn’t a choice. None of us asked to be thrown into this thresher. We can’t stop time to look around and weigh our choices, we can never know what’s “right” or “wrong”, or where any of our decision will lead. And if you think about any of that <em>at</em> <em>all</em>, life becomes a waking nightmare.</p> <p>Bucky seems to have actually read Kierkegaard, because he replies to Mel with the only possible response: the philosopher believed it was up to individuals to create value.</p> <p>And yeah, he’s trying to entice her away from Valentina, and he’s not very slick about it, but he’s also right. That is all we can do, and this is the underpinning of the movie.</p> <p>But what about Bob?</p> <p>The first manifestations of his power are accidental visions of people’s pasts—not just any visions, but a person’s Worst Moment. He holds Yelena’s hand after an explosion, and she witnesses her first horrifying test in The Red Room. Later, when John Walker pulls Bob up from the ventilator shaft, Walker sees a particularly rocky moment of fatherhood, when he was too caught up in a doomscroll to comfort his sobbing baby.<strong> </strong>Yelena snaps him out of the memory by yelling his name, only for Walker to realize he’s standing on the edge of the shaft again, leaning over, a step away from giving himself to the darkness.</p> <p>Part of him wanted to die rather than live inside that memory another second.</p> <p>When we see Bob (knowingly) test his skills for the first time, he’s supposed to move a glass across a table, the exact same telekinetic ability that is demonstrated in Andrei Tarkovsky’s sci-fi classic <em>Stalker</em>—where it’s implied that the telekinesis comes from some form of radiation coming from the Zone, a forbidden site that’s infused with mysterious, possibly alien, possibly mystical, powers. We know Bob has powers from yet another super soldier serum—the only mystery is how he survived when all the other test subjects died. His attempt to slide a glass of water across a table soon mutates into boiling the water, and then shattering the glass. He’s terrified, then exhilarated. (Valentina’s just exhilarated.) Given a chance to control his new abilities, he still can’t do anything as simple as move a glass—he ends up destroying it.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="524" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-3-1100x524.jpg" alt="Bob (Lewis Pullman) shatters a glass at Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine&#39;s behest in Thunderbolts*." class="wp-image-814031" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-3-1100x524.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-3-740x353.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-3-768x366.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-3-1536x732.jpg 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-3.jpg 1783w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Marvel Studios</figcaption></figure> <p>When Bob demonstrates his powers, none of them feel like him. They’re not specific to him—this isn’t Tony Stark or Bruce Banner using their science expertise, Steve Rogers using a shield rather than a gun, Thor using the hammer only he’s worthy to wield. Bob just tosses the Thunderbolts around like ragdolls, and uses a grab bag of powers against them. The only moments that feel like him are his petulant response when Yelena says she knows him, and, at the same time, his refusal to do any lasting damage to them.</p> <p>Naturally Valentina discards him the second he isn’t useful, and it’s only then, from a place of rejection and abandonment, that his unique power comes to the fore—the power to trap anyone he touches in their worst memories, an endless cycle of shame and self-hatred from which there is, seemingly, no escape.</p> <p>As he reaches out over Manhattan he “voids” people at random. One moment they’re living breathing people, the next shadows on the pavement. Director Jake Schreier <a href="https://collider.com/thunderbolts-the-void-explained-director-jake-schreier/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">made a point of telling Collider </a>that the shadows are based on the victims of the Hiroshima bombing, a real world, historical reference that underlines the horror of these people being snuffed out by a force they can&#8217;t control. If it didn&#8217;t work, it would be a terrible thing to reference, but I think it adds to the weight because of the existential dread the film explores. </p> <p>When we go inside the Void, the promise of those first two “shame rooms” is fulfilled. The Void is a nested nightmare of terrible memories, inescapable, waiting to attack you if you try to fight your way out. Each time you might think you&#8217;re free, you find yourself in an even worse room, and there is no counterweight, no balance to remind you of the good days you had, the good things you did. Every atom of your new world tells you that you&#8217;re worthless.</p> <p>Yelena’s first one is the same one we saw before: the first test in the Red Room that determined whether she could kill a friend. She doesn’t have the training to use her hands yet, but does she have the mental fortitude and will to lure a friend to her death? (I wonder if she was docked points for apologizing.) That second room though, when we see young Yelena “win” at assembling a gun—her shame here is <em>that she won</em>. She’s ashamed that her winning led to punishment for the other girls, no matter that at this point her only options are “win the exercise” or “be whipped along with the rest and then have to do the test again anyway.” In her third room, she’s slumped drunk on a bathroom floor, propped up against a clawfoot tub. This one is fascinating to me because the bathroom looks extremely similar to the one where Pugh’s character Jean Tatlock meets her end in <em>Oppenheimer</em> (whether it’s through suicide or murder is left fuzzy, as it was in life) so with the right pair of eyes, this looks more like a botched suicide attempt than just a blackout.</p> <p>Each time, when she tries to help herself, the past versions attack her, taunt her, or pour vodka down her throat. These things <em>happened</em>. They can’t be undone.</p> <p>When Yelena finds Bob, he’s hiding in an attic above his dining room. His parents fight, his father hits his mother, Child Bob tries to intervene, his mother tells him he always makes it worse. He claims this is the best of the rooms because at least it’s quiet, but&#8230; it isn’t. The fight downstairs echoes up on an endless loop—that this is his best option is heartbreaking. Yelena sits with him and holds his hand, once again being with him rather than trying to “fix” things. She holds his hand even though it was his touch that brought her to her shame room in the first place. And when the rest of the Thunderbolts join them she suggests they go to the “worst” room, intuiting that facing the worst of the darkness might be the way out.</p> <p>Walker punches Bob’s dad on the way out, an interesting moment of one Bad Dad facing off with another. Bob’s stint as a sign-twirling meth chicken is somewhat treated as a gag—because it’s kind of impossible to treat a sign twirling chicken seriously, meth or no meth. But here’s the thing: <em>the movie never shames Bob for his addiction</em>. Apparently Bob’s medical file elaborates that he got addicted to painkillers as a teen after a car wreck, with prescription opiates providing an on-ramp to illegal stuff just as they have to so many people. But there’s no scene in the film where he tries to justify it, or where anyone blames him, no tearjerking scene of him apologizing for being an addict. His addiction is part of him, just like the Void, just like the part of him that wants to help the team.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="583" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-5-1100x583.jpg" alt="Bob (Lewis Pullman) revisits a low point of his drug addiction in Thunderbolts*." class="wp-image-814033" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-5-1100x583.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-5-740x392.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-5-768x407.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-5-1536x814.jpg 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-5.jpg 1603w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Marvel Studios</figcaption></figure> <p>I appreciated that while he feels shame over it, the movie doesn’t shame him—addiction is just an illness.</p> <p>The worst room, where they find Void, is the first place where he voided people. his worst shame isn’t any of the rest of it, it’s that he hurt other ppl, almost certainly accidentally, in a state of shock and terror during a medical experiment.</p> <p>Even though he doesn’t consciously remember this, part of him feels the worst about this.</p> <p>And the shame rooms are&#8230;. hell. Right? (As Bob says, “There’s no death here, the pain just gets worse.”) Trapped in your worst day, repeating endlessly, and if you do manage to escape, you end up in an even worse situation? At least, this is Hell as defined by <em>Bill &amp; Ted’s Bogus Journey—</em>and I’m not convinced a higher theological text exists. Yelena’s even swallowed by a tree in her first room, looking, for a moment, like one of the poor bastards in Dante’s Wood of Suicides.</p> <p>(Kierkegaard, Tarkovsky, <em>and</em> Dante??? In this economy???)</p> <p>It’s in my nature and my training to find the Religious Studies angle in everything. If I had to sit at a table with other children and dissect pop culture via religious symbolism, I would absolutely be done first. So it’s not lost on me that the film slaps Kierkegaard down on the table, and then, an hour later, traps us in a popular vision of hell. A nested nightmare of room after room of Worst Moments, with no relief, no escape, no one to tell you it will get better.</p> <p>As Bob tells Yelena “There’s no death here. The pain just gets worse.”</p> <p>This isn’t a pocket universe inside the Soul Stone or a realm on an Asgardian map. This is a personal, intimate horror, externalized as a realm that the Void can project, but really, I think, inside each person’s mind.</p> <p>And how the fuck do you get out of <em>that</em>?</p> <p>Which brings us to the greatest horror of all: Marvel endings.</p> <p>Wait, come back, they did it this time! They gave us an ending that felt inevitable! In a good way!</p> <p>How do you fight <em>yourself</em>?</p> <p>At first Bob reacts to the Void the same way most Marvel heroes react to &nbsp;their adversaries: PUNCH. PUNCH EVEN MORE. But it’s soon clear that this violence is an extension of his cycle of shame and self-harm. It’s not a solution.</p> <p>Let me back up a second.</p> <p>What makes Yelena a great hero, like really a GREAT hero, &nbsp;is that she never says she wants to save the world, or humanity, or New York. She doesn’t want “glory”, or revenge on Valentina. Over and over she says: “We need to save Bob”. She refuses to leave him behind. She stays in front of him in the Vault. During the big fight in the former Avengers Tower, she tries to put herself between him and the other Thunderbolts. She tries to talk him down. When the Void takes over, she’s the one who follows Bob into the dark. Her concern for him keeps her from getting caught in her own shame loop.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="560" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-1-1100x560.jpg" alt="Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) takes a breath before going into the Void to rescue Bob in Thunderbolts*." class="wp-image-814029" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-1-1100x560.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-1-740x377.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-1-768x391.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-1-1536x782.jpg 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Thunderbolts-Depression-1.jpg 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Marvel Studios</figcaption></figure> <p>She goes in the Void after him pretty much as soon as she clocks what’s happening. She takes a breath to center herself, but there’s no real hesitation. And yet, when the rest of the team come in after <em>her</em>, she’s shocked. She can’t believe that they would all do for her what she did for Bob.</p> <p>She can’t see herself as worth that—and the thing is, none of them do.</p> <p>This plays out, and damn near dooms them, when Bob faces the Void.</p> <p>This is the moment I hoped for from the moment Yelena and Bob had their conversation in the Vault. This was the landing I hoped they’d stick as soon as Kierkegaard entered the chat. If I’m right that Yelena’s shame room contains a glancing nod to Dante.</p> <p>What Bob is doing is just as self-destructive as a meth habit, or taunting a supersoldier. And what Yelena has to do is decide how to make things right. Not in a giant cosmic jumping-off-a-cliff way, but by dodging all the obstacles the Void throws at her, wrapping her arms around Bob, and saying “I’m here.”</p> <p>She can’t promise to “fix” him. She can’t tell him they’ll banish the Void forever—who knows?—but she can be there with him. The other Thunderbolts join them, and the villain is finally vanquished—at least for a moment—with love rather than violence.</p> <p><em>Thunderbolts*</em> doesn’t claim that everything’s fixed with a magical group hug, but in this case, after so many years of MCU films, even the good ones, resolving in a fight or a CGI sludgefest, this ending feels fucking revolutionary</p> <p>Even better, Bob explicitly says that he doesn’t know how to be Sentry without the Void also coming out. That darkness is still part of him.</p> <p><em>Thunderbolts*</em> works well because it fights the real enemy, and acknowledges, in the end, that you’ll never win that fight.</p> <p>Here at the end of it I’ll tell you that writing this essay was a struggle. I don’t want to do <em>anything</em> anymore. I want&#8230; what do I want? Maybe to curl up under a tree and let myself fall into the earth and let grass grow over me. But I got up and worked on this because I appreciated the work that went into the film, and I wanted to give people a place to think about it. I got up and did this because this movie could have been pure commerce, but instead the filmmakers chose to engage with the reality and emotional carnage of the MCU, and tipped a Marvel movie toward ART. I got up and wrote about it because what we create matters, even now, especially now.</p> <p>What would Soren Kierkegaard do? Valentina tells Mel that “Righteousness without power is just an opinion&#8230; [t]here’s a bad guy, and a worse guy, and nothing else”, but against all odds, the Thunderbolts prove her wrong. There are still good guys, they&#8217;re just bruised and depressed. </p> <p>I got up and wrote about it because I’m glad these characters exist, even if most of them are on the fence about that, and for a couple hours they made me happy to exist with them.[end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/thunderbolts-gives-us-marvels-best-villain-ever/">&lt;em&gt;Thunderbolts*&lt;/em&gt; Delivers the Best Marvel Villain in Years</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/thunderbolts-gives-us-marvels-best-villain-ever/">https://reactormag.com/thunderbolts-gives-us-marvels-best-villain-ever/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=813952">https://reactormag.com/?p=813952</a></p>

<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Stefan Raets</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/reading-the-wheel-of-time-loial-makes-vows-and-lews-therin-fights-a-battle-in-knife-of-dreams-part-14/">https://reactormag.com/reading-the-wheel-of-time-loial-makes-vows-and-lews-therin-fights-a-battle-in-knife-of-dreams-part-14/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=814143">https://reactormag.com/?p=814143</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/books/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Books 0"> Books </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/the-wheel-of-time/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag The Wheel of Time 1"> The Wheel of Time </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Reading The Wheel of Time: Loial Makes Vows and Lews Therin Fights a Battle in <i>Knife of Dreams</i> (Part 14)</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">Lots of action and a section told from Loial&#8217;s POV in chapters 18 and 19!</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/kjbarrett/" title="Posts by Sylas K Barrett" class="author url fn" rel="author">Sylas K Barrett</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on May 13, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="quick-access post-hero-quick-access mt-[17px] tablet:hidden"> <div class="flex gap-[30px] tablet:gap-6"> <a href="https://reactormag.com/reading-the-wheel-of-time-loial-makes-vows-and-lews-therin-fights-a-battle-in-knife-of-dreams-part-14/#comments" class="flex items-center text-sm font-aktiv tracking-[0.6px] font-semibold uppercase translate-x-[1px] translate-y-[1px]"> <svg class="w-[22px] h-[22px] mr-[7px] icon-hover" viewbox="0 0 18 18" aria-label="comment" role="img" aria-hidden="true" aria-labelledby="icon-comment-quick-access-"> <title id="icon-comment-quick-access-">Comment</title> <g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> <path fill="#FFF" fill-rule="nonzero" d="M6.3 18a.9.9 0 0 1-.9-.9v-2.7H1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 0 12.6V1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 1.8 0h14.4A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 18 1.8v10.8a1.8 1.8 0 0 1-1.8 1.8h-5.49l-3.33 3.339a.917.917 0 0 1-.63.261H6.3Z" /> <path stroke="#000" d="M5.9 14.4v-.5H1.8a1.3 1.3 0 0 1-1.3-1.3V1.8A1.3 1.3 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width="18" height="18" viewbox="0 0 18 18" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" aria-label="rss feed" role="img" aria-hidden="true"> <g clip-path="url(#clip0_1051_121783)"> <path d="M2.67871 17.4143C2.12871 17.4143 1.65771 17.2183 1.26571 16.8263C0.873713 16.4343 0.678046 15.9636 0.678713 15.4143C0.678713 14.8643 0.874713 14.3933 1.26671 14.0013C1.65871 13.6093 2.12938 13.4136 2.67871 13.4143C3.22871 13.4143 3.69971 13.6103 4.09171 14.0023C4.48371 14.3943 4.67938 14.865 4.67871 15.4143C4.67871 15.9643 4.48271 16.4353 4.09071 16.8273C3.69871 17.2193 3.22805 17.415 2.67871 17.4143ZM14.6787 17.4143C14.6787 15.481 14.312 13.6683 13.5787 11.9763C12.8454 10.2843 11.841 8.80097 10.5657 7.52631C9.29171 6.25164 7.80871 5.24764 6.11671 4.51431C4.42471 3.78097 2.61205 3.41431 0.678713 3.41431V0.414307C3.02871 0.414307 5.23705 0.860306 7.30371 1.75231C9.37038 2.64431 11.1704 3.85664 12.7037 5.38931C14.237 6.92264 15.4497 8.72264 16.3417 10.7893C17.2337 12.856 17.6794 15.0643 17.6787 17.4143H14.6787ZM8.67871 17.4143C8.67871 15.1976 7.89971 13.31 6.34171 11.7513C4.78371 10.1926 2.89605 9.41364 0.678713 9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" /> <path d="M2.67871 17.4143C2.12871 17.4143 1.65771 17.2183 1.26571 16.8263C0.873713 16.4343 0.678046 15.9636 0.678713 15.4143C0.678713 14.8643 0.874713 14.3933 1.26671 14.0013C1.65871 13.6093 2.12938 13.4136 2.67871 13.4143C3.22871 13.4143 3.69971 13.6103 4.09171 14.0023C4.48371 14.3943 4.67938 14.865 4.67871 15.4143C4.67871 15.9643 4.48271 16.4353 4.09071 16.8273C3.69871 17.2193 3.22805 17.415 2.67871 17.4143ZM14.6787 17.4143C14.6787 15.481 14.312 13.6683 13.5787 11.9763C12.8454 10.2843 11.841 8.80097 10.5657 7.52631C9.29171 6.25164 7.80871 5.24764 6.11671 4.51431C4.42471 3.78097 2.61205 3.41431 0.678713 3.41431V0.414307C3.02871 0.414307 5.23705 0.860306 7.30371 1.75231C9.37038 2.64431 11.1704 3.85664 12.7037 5.38931C14.237 6.92264 15.4497 8.72264 16.3417 10.7893C17.2337 12.856 17.6794 15.0643 17.6787 17.4143H14.6787ZM8.67871 17.4143C8.67871 15.1976 7.89971 13.31 6.34171 11.7513C4.78371 10.1926 2.89605 9.41364 0.678713 9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="407" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ReadingWOT_KODbook11-740x407.png" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Reading The Wheel of Time on Tor.com: Knife of Dreams" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ReadingWOT_KODbook11-740x407.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ReadingWOT_KODbook11-768x422.png 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ReadingWOT_KODbook11.png 951w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>I was just saying that I thought <em>Knife of Dreams </em>was getting a little boring, so of course Jordan had to go and reel me back in. It’s time for Reading The Wheel of Time to tackle chapters 18 and 19, which have a wedding, a battle, Rand being kind of dim, and Lews Therin just Lews Therin-ing all over the place. Let’s go!</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots" /> <p>Rand and company are staying in the manor house of a lesser lord, Algarin, who has gone to the Black Tower to become an Asha’man. Loial is interviewing Rand for his book, but is disappointed in the bare-bones account Rand is offering.</p> <p>Nynaeve is also in the room with them, along with Cadsuane and Verin, two Maidens, and Min. Alivia is guarding the door. Min suggests that Loial ask Cadsuane and Verin about the events of cleansing <em>saidin</em>. Loial agrees to do so, though he keeps mentioning other aspects of the Dragon Reborn’s adventures that Rand has omitted or given very few details about. He mentions Mat and Perrin, and Rand experiences the swirling rainbow of colors upon hearing their names. He knows how to dispel it now, but he chooses instead to let the colors resolve into images: Mat riding through a forest and arguing with a woman, Perrin sitting in a tavern with two people in odd red coats.</p> <p>He wonders, angrily, where they are when they need him.</p> <p>A stray thought brings another face into Rand’s mind—the face of the man who saved his life in Shadar Logoth. Somehow, Rand knows that the other man is as aware of him as he is of the man, that this is more than just an image in his head. Lews Therin is also puzzled and uncomfortable. Rand decides that when his balefire met the other man’s, it must have created some connection. He also knows that this man, though not one of the Forsaken, was wielding the so-called “True Power” that comes from the Dark One himself.</p> <p>Loial notices his expression and mentions his concern, which leads to Nynaeve Delving Rand, without asking first.</p> <p>A servant announces “Lord Logain,” and Logain comes in wearing a sigil. Rand learns that Logain was once a minor lord, before he was stripped of estate and title for being a False Dragon. Logain reports the conditions in Andor with the siege and the Borderland army, including rumors that there are thirteen Aes Sedai with the Borderlanders and that they are looking for Rand. He has carried out Rand’s orders, sending about half of the Black Tower, including all of those who have bonded Aes Sedai, into Illian and Arad Doman. No one knows for sure if King Alsalam is still alive, and parts of Arad Doman are largely being run by strongarms and brigands. Rhuarc has started putting things right, and Rand decides that Dobraine will have to be in charge for the time being.</p> <p>Logan expresses concern about Taim, who was desperate to know where Rand is and what he is doing, so much so that Logain thinks Taim might have tortured Logain for the information if he’d had the chance. He’s also concerned about what he calls Taim’s “cronies.”</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“There are forty-one of those now, by the way. He’s given over a dozen men the Dragon pin in the past few days, and he has above fifty more in his ‘special’ classes, most of them men recruited just lately. He’s planning something, and I doubt you’ll like it.”<br><br><em>I told you to kill him when you had the chance,</em> Lews Therin cackled in mad mirth. <em>I told you. And now it’s too late. Too late.</em></p></blockquote></figure> <p>Rand tells Logain to drop it, but Logain insists that Taim has made a Tower of his own inside of the Black Tower, out of men loyal to himself rather than Rand. In his head, Rand wonders how loyal Logain is. In the end, both men are lesser problems that have to wait, and he tells Logain that if Taim is showing favoritism Rand will deal with it after the Seanchan, and possibly after Tarmon Gai’don.</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“If?” Logain growled, slamming his cup down on the table so hard that it broke. Wine spread across the tabletop and dripped over the edge. Scowling, he wiped his damp hand on his coat. “Do you think I’m imagining things?” His tone grew more heated by the word. “Or making them up? Do you think this is <em>jealousy</em>, al’Thor? Is that what you think?”</p></blockquote></figure> <p>Their argument is interrupted by Verin and Cadsuane.</p> <p>Rand tells Cadsuane about his trip through the <em>ter’angreal</em> doorway and how one of the questions he asked the Aelfinn was how to win the Last Battle. The answer he got was “The north and the east must be as one. The west and the south must be as one. The two must be as one.”</p> <p>Rand initially believed that this meant that he had to conquer everywhere, but now, since the Seanchan hold the west and south, he believes an alliance would fulfill the requirements of the Aelfinn’s words.</p> <p>He does not tell Cadsuane that he actually asked how to win the last battle and survive, and that he was told that to live, he must die.</p> <p>The servant returns to tell Loial that three Ogier have arrived and asked for him; one of them is his mother. Loial is immediately alarmed, thinking of his book and asking Rand what he should do. But Cadsuane seems to recognize Loial’s mother’s name, and advises that she isn’t a woman to be kept waiting. The group begins breaking up, but as she’s leaving, Nynaeve stops by Rand and advises him that she is listening to the wind, and it is telling her that a big storm is coming. She isn’t sure if it’s the Last Battle or how soon it will come, but she knows it will be terrible.</p> <p>Loial wants to ask one of the Aes Sedai to come with him to see his mother, but he’s too tongue-tied to manage it. He follows a servant carrying towels up to the Ogier section of the house where his mother, Covril, is waiting, along with Elder Haman and Erith.</p> <p>Covril asks Elder Haman to perform the ceremony, which only Erith has the right to put a stop to at this point. Loial finds himself looking at her, thinking of her beauty and how much he’s always enjoyed conversation with her, and wondering whether or not he wants her to stop the marriage. But he is very upset that he’ll never get to finish his book.</p> <p>The ceremony is performed and Covril expresses her desire to leave as soon as possible—she wants to speak again at the Great Stump. Loial is aghast to learn that the Stump is discussing opening the Book of Translation. Elder Haman does not think that it is time for such an act, but Covril does, and she believes that she will convince the Stump on the matter within a few months.</p> <p>Loial expresses a bitter wish to address the Stump himself. His mother points out that he is too young and always gets tongue-tied before a crowd, but Erith is encouraging, asking her new husband what he would say. Loial goes and looks out of a window, feeling overwhelmed even at the thought of speaking in front of two important Speakers and his wife. But he thinks of the things he has learned from humans about courage, and about how you can win when there is no hope by fighting with desperate courage.&nbsp;</p> <p>He begins to speak—not beautifully as his mother does but plainly—about the War of the Shadow and of the Trolloc Wars, in which the Ogier took part. His mother points out that they had learned by the War of the Hundred Years not to get involved in human affairs. Loial responds:</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“The War of the Hundred Years was a human affair, and none of ours. The Shadow <em>is</em> our affair. When it is the Shadow that must be fought, our axes have always grown long handles. Perhaps in a year, or five, or ten, we will open the Book of Translation, but if we do it now, we cannot run away with any real hope of safety. Tarmon Gai’don is coming, and on that hangs the fate not only of this world, but of any world we might flee to. When fire threatens the trees, we do not run away and hope that the flames will not follow us. We fight. Now the Shadow is coming like wildfire, and we dare not run from it.”</p></blockquote></figure> <p>His mother is just remarking that the content of the speech is good, though not beautiful enough, when Loial realizes that he can see Trollocs emerging from the trees outside. Not just a few, but tens of thousands. He and Elder Haman take down the Ogier axes decorating the wall while his mother and Erith take some long knives.</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>And then he and Elder Haman were running down the corridor together, pounding down the stairs, bellowing at the tops of their lungs a warning, and a battle cry that had not been heard in over two thousand years. “Trollocs coming! Up axes and clear the field! Trollocs coming!”</p></blockquote></figure> <p>Down in the other room, Rand suddenly feels as though he is smelling refuse. At the same moment, Cadsuane announces the presence of Shadowspawn and they hear the warning shouts of the Ogier. Rand runs to the window where he can see Trollocs and Myrddraal running through the rain. Asha’man and Aes Sedai begin channeling at the Trollocs, wielding lightning and fireballs.</p> <p>Rand holds onto the windowsill to steady himself as he seizes <em>saidin</em>. When the dizziness hits him Lews Therin takes control. Rand is horrified as he watches more and more Trollocs reach the outbuildings, trying to get in.</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Flows of Air pushed the casement in front of him out in a shower of shattered glass and fragmented wood. <em>My hands, </em>Lews Therin panted. <em>Why can’t I move my hands? I need to raise my hands!</em> Earth, Air and Fire went into a weave Rand did not know, six of them at once. Except that as soon as he saw the spinning, he did know. Blossom of Fire. Six vertical red shafts appeared among the Trollocs, ten feet tall and thinner than Rand’s forearm. The nearest Trollocs would be hearing their shrill whine, but unless memories had been passed down from the War of the Shadow, they would not realize they were hearing death. Lews Therin spun the last thread of Air, and fire blossomed.</p></blockquote></figure> <p>Rand watches the devastation that follows as the Trollocs are blown apart. Lews Therin also makes slightly altered versions of gateways—Deathgates—which rotate open and shut as Trollocs fall or are swept into them. As Lews Therin continues to scream about his hands, Rand raises them and Lews Therin makes a weave that causes red filaments to shoot from Rand’s fingertips—Arrows of Fire.</p> <p>In the outbuildings, the Saldaeans have cut their way onto the roofs and are shooting the Trollocs with their bows, but Rand sees the Trollocs setting fire to the buildings. He tries to tell Lews Therin to put the fires out, but Lews Therin ignores him, still weaving to kill Trollocs. Other Asha’man are copying the new weaves as well. Desperately, Rand orders Logain to put the fires out, and is relieved when Logain complies.</p> <p>Eventually all the Shadowspawn are killed, but Lews Therin is still drawing on <em>saidin</em>. Rand tells him to let go but Lews Therin starts talking about how he wants to die and be with Ilyena. He remembers how he killed himself before and begins drawing more and more of the One Power.</p> <p>Logain asks if Rand was hiding those weaves, if he is like Taim and only wants to teach things to his favorites. Rand absently answers his questions about the Deathgates and how Shadowspawn cannot survive passing through a gateway.</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“A Deathgate,” Logain said, his voice tinged with distaste. “Why are you still holding the Power?” he asked suddenly. “And so much. If you’re trying to show me that you’re stronger than I am, I already know it. I saw how large your… your Deathgates were compared to mine. And I’d say you’re holding every drop of <em>saidin</em> that you can safely.”</p></blockquote></figure> <p>Cadsuane demands that Min tell her what Rand is feeling, but Rand intercedes, telling her not to threaten Min. He tells Lews Therin that they can’t die yet—they have to reach Tarmon Gai’don or the world will die.</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>“<em>We can die at Tarmon Gai’don,</em> Lews Therin said, and suddenly, the Power drained out of him.<br><br>“He released,” Logain said, as if he were suddenly on Cadsuane’s side.</p></blockquote></figure> <p>Rand reiterates that Cadsuane is not allowed to threaten Min. He heads for the door, agreeing with Lews Therin that they can die at Tarmon Gai’don.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots" /> <p>I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve ever had a section from Loial’s POV, so that’s fun. I really love him as a character. He used to feature more prominently in the first few books, before the extended cast of characters got quite so large, but he still feels like the heart of the story, in some ways.</p> <p>He’s also just a really cute personality. I know he’s supposed to be very young. (Old enough to get married but not old enough to have a beard, apparently. Not sure how that works.) And the way he was talking to Rand in the beginning of the chapter kind of reminded me of Olver. Loial has seen the horrors of battle. As Erith remarks, he was in the Battle of the Two Rivers and the one at Dumai’s Wells—but he still has this almost innocent passion for the details of events, even dark ones. The excited way he asks about Rand’s imprisonment in Far Madding and about Cadsuane and the others fighting Forsaken almost sound like someone who hasn’t experienced the real world and is still thinking of these events like a story told to them by a gleeman, rather than desperate experiences that caused fear and suffering to those involved.</p> <p>But Loial is a scholar, after all, or training to be one. Like some of the Brown Ajah, he sees the world through that lens, despite also being very aware of the dark realities of life. Perhaps in the end, that will make him the perfect person to record the events leading up to the Last Battle. As long as he doesn’t get hauled back to the stedding now that he’s a husband. Or possibly… off the planet?</p> <p>So I guess the Ogier aren’t from Rand’s world. They’re either aliens or some kind of extra-dimensional beings like the Finn. Maybe? The fact that they travel using something called The Book of Translation suggests the latter to me; my brain wants to say it’s like an artifact that “translates” one dimension into another, so that you can go to somewhere that is different and foreign, not just to your knowledge but to your very body itself.</p> <p>Which makes me wonder if that has something to do with what a <em>stedding</em> is. Since the One Power can’t be accessed while one is inside a <em>stedding</em>, the idea that a <em>stedding</em> is not even of this world, or that it has been transformed to be like another world, would make sense. This might also explain the Ogier longing. The longing developed after the Breaking, when the Ogier were separated from the <em>stedding</em>. Perhaps there is some physical attribute of the land that they need to survive. Loial wonders if the longing will cause a problem if they leave the <em>stedding</em> to return to… wherever it is they come from. But he’s very young; just because he doesn’t understand it doesn’t mean the rest of the Ogier don’t. The Elders might be well aware that their home planet/dimension is the same as a <em>stedding</em> and would present no issue, or even resolve the longing altogether.</p> <p>I guess I’ll have to wait for more information on this <em>fascinating</em> new piece of information. I’m also deeply curious about how beings from other planes of existence relate to the fight against the Dark One. They are clearly still part of creation and aware of the Dark One, and if the Last Battle was lost it would be <em>every</em> world and <em>every</em> mirror universe that was destroyed. Not all of the mirror universes have a Dragon Reborn, or even still have people, which raises the question whether this world is, in some way, a Prime or originating universe. After all, you can’t have a reflection without an original image to be reflected.</p> <p>I do think it’s interesting that no one mentioned opening the Book of Translation specifically to escape from the Last Battle. It may be one argument for the Ogier leaving at this time (or against the idea, as in Loial’s case) now, but the looming of Tarmon Gai’don doesn’t appear to be the motivating factor, as far as we currently know. I really want Loial to get to go speak at the Great Stump because I want to know more about how the Ogier are or aren’t considering the Last Battle and how it might affect them. So Loial can give his speech and bring them all into the fight, of course.</p> <p>The whole thing reminds me again of how much the Ogier are inspired by Tolkien’s Ents. The way the Ogier see humans as moving so quickly and hastily while the Ogier like to talk for years before making big decisions. The connection between the Ogier and trees, especially tree singing and sung wood. The way they are slow to anger but once they get there they are fierce and deadly. Loial is significant because he is particularly curious about the world, and particularly interested in humans. He is also young, like Quickbeam in <em>The Lord of the Rings</em>, which gives him more in common with the humans he is spending time with.</p> <p>Have you all finished Season Three of the TV show? Does Loial die on the show because he’s going to die in the series? Don’t really tell me because spoilers but I’m not sure my heart can take that twice. Loial needs to get to finish his book and then have a nice life with Erith, visiting his human friends and being a sort of uncle to all their kids! (Mat and Tuon’s kids in particular are definitely going to need some calming guidance from a Wise Ogier.)</p> <p>It would be nice for Rand, and everyone, if the storm Nynaeve felt coming was this attack, but somehow I don’t feel like they are going to be that lucky. The attack was dramatic, and huge, but it was also over quickly because of Lews Therin and the skills he brought to the fight. I’m assuming that what she heard on the wind either had to do with the Seanchan and meeting with the fake Daughter of the Nine Moons, or possibly something with Moridin. But there are so many storms that are bound to be coming, given how close the Last Battle is. How would you ever know which one was the one you sensed?</p> <p>I was intrigued about the revelation that Rand asked the Aelfinn about how to survive the Last Battle. I’d kind of forgotten about his trip through the redstone doorway way back, well, whenever that was. The section was from Mat’s point of view and there was a lot to unpack with him, even before we got to the fact that Moiraine and Rand also went through and also had questions answered, and it hasn’t come up in Rand’s narration for a long time. We learned something about what Moiraine asked a while back, but now we finally get to know more about Rand, what he asked, and what he plans to do about it.</p> <p>He’s been so certain that he is going to die, but we see a slightly different narration in chapter 18. Rand asked the Aelfinn how to survive the Last Battle and was told that he had to die to live, which is certainly a riddle, but I can think of a few possibilities. He could fake his death in some way, maybe to trick Moridin Or he could die but be brought back to life—Mat’s done that a bunch now, and I could see someone doing some CPR on Rand or something and getting him back after he’s stopped breathing or his heart has stopped. They say you can’t use the One Power to bring back the dead, but I bet you could use it if that heart still has a shockable rhythm.</p> <p>But what’s really interesting is that Rand is still wondering if he really could survive Tarmon Gai’don. I assumed he’d given up on any idea of his own survival, especially from the way he talks about it to everyone, but it seems that there is still one small glimmer of hope in there somewhere. At least we know what Min’s vision means, a little. Whatever the answer to this riddle is, Alivia is going to help him with it.</p> <p>As for Moridin, of course Rand has become connected to that old rival Ishamael again. They are counterparts of each other, after all: the right hands of the Light and the Dark, respectively. I wonder if the True Power is responsible for Rand’s illness. We know that the True Power is dangerous and can make someone insane, just like the taint can. How ironic for Rand that he obtained a new method of being tainted by the Dark One so soon before the cleansing of <em>saidin</em>. Now every other male channeler is free, but he is still suffering. In secret, as per usual.</p> <p>It’s not surprising that Rand asked the Aelfinn how to win the Last Battle. Cadsuane points out that it’s a dangerous thing to ask since it touches on the subject of the Shadow, but really, what other questions could Rand have that are even approaching the importance of that one? Worth the risk, I’d say. It will be interesting if his interpretation is correct: The way to win the Last Battle is for the Seanchan to control the west and south and Rand to lead the north and east, and the two of them are then allied.</p> <p>I’m always harping on the difference between evil and Evil in this world, but this was a moment where I was reminded about the worldbuilding in a really stark way. It feels so strange to think that a culture as horrible as the Seanchan’s would be instrumental in the Light winning the Last Battle, but from a cosmic point of view, the important part is the weaving of the Pattern, which is ostensibly designed by the Creator himself. Every human being is a part of that, their lives the individual threads that get woven together, and even if they are a bad person, that thread is still incorporated.</p> <p>When Balthamel was reincarnated as Aran’gar, the Dark One told her that the the mind would conform to the body, which irked me as a concept, but I do wonder if it shows a little bit about how lives are different than souls—a person can die and their soul can go elsewhere, to be possessed by the Dark One or sheltered in the Creator’s hand or to await rebirth in<em> Tel’aran’rhiod</em> or elsewhere. But I don’t think souls are being woven through the pattern when they are not tied to bodies and lives that are currently in the world.</p> <p>Which means that, from a cosmic standpoint, the lives of bad people are still important to the progression of the Pattern, and even the lives of Darkfriends might be important to the final, infinite picture that is being woven.</p> <p>So yeah, the Seanchan are bad news for everybody, but they have their own Prophecies about their importance in winning the Last Battle, and what the Aelfinn told Rand seems to align with those prophecies. Which is interesting, if somewhat unsatisfying. And I’m not sure what it means in a thematic sense, other than the fact that war is inherently messy and evil, even when it is the only choice available to you.</p> <p>I even got that feeling reading about the Shadowspawn attack. There was something horrible about the Deathgates and the Blossom of Fire. Yes, they were only killing Trollocs and Myrddraal, beings created by servants of the Shadow, but the narration still carried a horror to it. Logain was even put off by the Deathgates, so much so that his distaste was present in his tone. And we are reminded of how terrible the War of the Shadow was, and what violent methods had to be employed to try to stand against the onslaught of the Forsaken and the Dark One.</p> <p>Pretty soon we’re going to see Mat and Aludra developing the Dragons and Dragons Eggs, and get to see this Age’s version of developing terrible weapons for a terrible fight.</p> <p>Rand and Logain’s rivalry is understandable, I suppose, but to the reader—with their added distance and perspective—it does feel a bit petty. And I found myself siding with Logain on this one. The man basically had to <em>escape</em> from the Black Tower, and then specifically came to warn Rand about what is going on there. He’s not being that general about his warnings, either—he’s literally telling Rand that he thinks Taim is a Darkfriend, building a cadre of Asha’man followers, and Rand’s reaction is just to shrug and get annoyed with Logain for badgering him about it?</p> <p>Rand suggests that Taim wouldn’t have built up the strength of the Black Tower if he was a Darkfriend, but Logain answers that easily. And it makes a lot of sense for a Darkfriend to hide in plain sight somewhere like the Black Tower, especially since Taim is a powerful channeler put in a leadership position with basically <em>no</em> oversight. He can do whatever he wants in the Black Tower as long as he keeps turning out weapons to be used in the Last Battle.</p> <p>But what if those weapons ended up on the other side of the line, when Tarmon Gai’don finally comes? What better way to counteract Rand’s attempts at building an army of male channelers to fight for the Light than to make a corresponding one to fight for the Dark, filling its ranks by depleting the very forces Rand is trying to create? Rand said that Taim has to wait until after the Last Battle, but what if Taim is waiting <em>for</em> the Last Battle?</p> <p>Lews Therin was right about him. Lews Therin is mad and afraid of all male channelers, but Lews Therin also had the experience of having friends and colleagues turn to the Dark specifically because they were jealous of Lews Therin’s status. Taim is very jealous and angry that Rand is more powerful than him; I could easily see Taim becoming not just a Darkfriend but one of the Chosen in his own right.</p> <p>Another thought I had: It has been mentioned a few times throughout the series that there is a way to use channelers and Myrddraal to turn a channeler to the Dark against their will. It’s not something we’ve seen yet and I find the concept somewhat perplexing, but that’s not the sort of detail you include in your worldbuilding without using. If Taim is a Darkfriend, he could certainly be recruiting like-minded men to the side of the Dark, but if he’s high-ranking enough as a Darkfriend (certainly plausible, given his power) he might have access to Myrddraal and the resources to attempt a forced conversion on men. His ranks have grown quickly, after all, and maybe that’s just because many power-hungry people tend to end up swearing to the Dark. But then again, maybe there’s something even more nefarious going on.</p> <p>And then there’s Cadsuane, who is there to teach Rand the difference between hardness and strength. She made a foray into that lesson in chapter 18, although it was rejected by Rand.</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Cadsuane: “Stone cracks from a hard enough blow,” she said, her face an Aes Sedai mask of calm. “Steel shatters. The oak fights the wind and breaks. The willow bends where it must and survives.”<br><br>“A willow won’t win Tarmon Gai’don,” he told her.</p></blockquote></figure> <p>Way to miss the lesson, Rand. Not that I would expect it to be that easy,</p> <p>Also, the way Verin diffused the moment of tension between Rand and Cadsuane before Rand could do something in anger and dismiss Cadsuane as his advisor? She is so cool and so canny, I love her so much.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots" /> <p>Two more chapters next week, my friends. Hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am.[end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/reading-the-wheel-of-time-loial-makes-vows-and-lews-therin-fights-a-battle-in-knife-of-dreams-part-14/">Reading The Wheel of Time: Loial Makes Vows and Lews Therin Fights a Battle in &lt;i&gt;Knife of Dreams&lt;/i&gt; (Part 14)</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/reading-the-wheel-of-time-loial-makes-vows-and-lews-therin-fights-a-battle-in-knife-of-dreams-part-14/">https://reactormag.com/reading-the-wheel-of-time-loial-makes-vows-and-lews-therin-fights-a-battle-in-knife-of-dreams-part-14/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=814143">https://reactormag.com/?p=814143</a></p>