I don’t know if it’s show bias, but I struggle to understand the reading of Moiraine as someone who is so driven by her mission that she doesn’t care.
From the get-go, she flees the White Tower for fear of ending up Queen of Cairhien and as cruel a leader as the rulers in her family, although it would have meant control and power;
Getting knocked down and unable to channel, she stabs a former teacher to stop her from killing innocents who have little to do with her mission;
She rushes to the Blight to bond Lan and keep him from basically killing himself, even if again it is a gamble, and later on, the bond transfer is about saving him, albeit cruelly;
She uses her body as a shield to hold off a Forsaken in order to help Rand, sustaining serious injuries in the fight, although her sacrifive is mostly useless considering how overpowered she is;
Many times, she heals villagers, soldiers, Aiel, wolves, sometimes until she is on the brink of passing out;
She fights Shadowspawns in Tear, in the Waste just as bravely as Lan, despite not being battle Ajah and often being surrounded by Aiel who can do the job by themselves;
She tackles Lanfear, toppling with her inside a collapsing ter'angreal, effectively dooming herself and cutting herself from the narrative, to help Rand, Egwene and Aviendha.
Obviously, you could argue that each of these actions would bring her an advantage and in acting so, she was only playing her part in the pattern, without a care for the people she was helping, but that’s such an ungenerous reading of the character given what the text provides.
Her mindset is utilitarian and pragmatic, but to see her ever-present doubts, her growing despair and raging hope in Rand and still interpret her as uncaring is mind-boggling to me.
Her whole speech in TSR regarding “People [fighting] for you who do not know it, any more than you know them” tells of someone who believes saving the world will require a lot of collaboration and awareness of each other, not merely machinations and control.
If someone doesn’t tell you they “love you, most ardently” in the pouring rain while looking at your lips like they desperately want to kiss you then what even is the point
Light: [internally] …w- whAT?😱 no…he wouldn't👀😰…if i pass him the cake he’ll think i’m kira…but if i doN’T, he’ll have reason to suspect I’m KIRA!!!! dammit L you bastard!!!
me writing dialogue: “what is man but a vessel through which a higher entity may see? what is his purpose? must he find a purpose? we are but stardust; the universe comprehending itself.”
me writing action: they ran real fast from the bad men aand legs hurty
me writing action: Her legs pounded against the earth, the familiar jolt grounding her like nothing else could. Magic, gods, royalty—she didn’t know anything about that. But running? That’s something she’d been doing since day one.
me writing dialogue: “I dunno man whatchu wanna do” “I dunno. What do you think?” “Hey man I don’t know”
me writing action: room go boom
me writing dialogue: noppity nope, that ain’t dope
