What if Will missed his own first dance with Alice?
(or his whole wedding)
We all know it. The constant back and forth between Will and Alice during the whole series. In book 7 of Ranger's Apprentice - Eraks Ransom Will misses the dance with Alice at Halts wedding.
At the end of book 10 – The Emperor of Nihon-ja, the two other marriages are finally announced. (Honestly, it took long enough for them to reach that point.)
Anyway, at Evanlyn and Horace's wedding ceremony, he's late for the dance. Alice's threat comes prompt and without mercy.
But what if he missed his own first wedding dance?
The morning before the wedding Will gets a mission and he thinks he can make it in time. Spoiler: He can't.
So afterwards, he comes home all dirty and exhausted. Hair standing in all directions. Looking at the sun (which he didn't get a good view at in the dark forest before) he realises that the ceremony should have started by now for a long, because it's already sunset.
He runs off, quickly putting on one of Crowley's awful shirts on the way.
When he arrives, the guests are already sitting at the tables, drinking, eating, and laughing. Baron Arald is the first to notice him: Hey, what unexpected guest is arriving already?
Walt and Gilan are most likely laughing it off, one inwardly, the other loudly, not able to help himself at all. Pauline, of course isn’t in a really funny mood, neither Alice.
Alice would be very disappointed by Will, no matter how much he’s trying to explain the reasons and apologizes deeply. In fact, she only gets more furious. And in my opinion, Alice can be very vindictive.
"But what if I make a mistake?"
Gilan threw back his head and laughed. "A mistake? One mistake? You should be so lucky. You'll make dozens! I made four or five on my first day alone! Of course you'll make mistakes. Just don't make any of them twice. If you do mess things up, don't try to hide it. Don't try to rationalize it. Recognize it and admit it and learn from it. We never stop learning, none of us does."
-Erak's Ransom by John Flanagan
Who else has a Gilan in his mind who's screwing up the most ridiculous things?
“Now for God's sake, will you two start behaving like a princess and a Courier?"
Halt told them. "If you don't, I'll have to think about sending Will home."
"Me?" Will said, his voice breaking into a high-pitched squeak of indignation. "What's it got to do with me?"
"It's all your fault!" Halt shouted irrationally.
In Book 2 of Ranger's Apprentice - The Burning Bridge, Gilan would leave Will, Horace and Evanlyn to report to King Duncan. He considers it extremely important that information about what’s happening in Celtica have to reach the Araluen army quickly.
But what if he hadn't been able to bring himself to leave the others behind?
In that case, the company would very likely continued with their old rhythm of riding and breaks – just like Will, Horace and Evanlyn in the book.
Of course, they would also have encountered the pack of Wargals that pushed the Celtic prisoners ahead.
Gilan would think that it’s necessary and completely natural to track the Wargals. After all, Gilan has enjoyed pretty much the same apprenticeship as Will at the time. Any information about the upcoming war is essential.
He knows, the decision must be done quickly. So, there are only a few options:
Possibility 1: The exact same events of the book à Will and the others go and follow them. However, Gilan would have never let them do it alone.
Possibility 2: Will and Gilan could take on the hunt together. The only problem with this would be that Horace and Evanlyn, who they still don't know she’s the Crown Princess, could never be let to the King fast enough by the guards, according to their current knowledge of her heritance.
Possibility 3: Gilan goes together with Horace. Will would get access to the tent immediate ethrough the oak leaf he’s wearing and at the same time Halt would be at the meetings without any doubt to support him. Furthermore, Evanlyn would also be put in no further danger.
It’s pretty clear which of the options Gil chooses. Thus, Will and Evanlyn make their way back to Araluen, only protesting quietly.
The chase almost feels like a Déjà-vu to the Kalkara hunt.
Then Gilan and Horace discover the great bridge and the underpass the Celts are working on. Gil also hears all about the Skandians plannings, while the exploration of the tunnel.
Same lessons - similar way of thinking. It’s not enough to delay the building of the bridge. The need to destroy it completely. So set it on fire.
Only, to manage doing this, Horace has to get over his swindle. Since this doesn't work so well because of his clumsiness, Horace will make the fire on the side of the canyon closest to the horses. Gilan will take the other side.
Even though the wind keeps playing with them, they succeed in setting the fire on the ropes. Soon the bridge glows brightly in the night.
Then it happens.
The Skandian notice the burn since the Wargals get too scared to look after. Horace hides among the bushes and thinks anxiously, what to do, while the Skandian only see the shady shape of Gil.
The bridge creaks and cracks under the flames. At least their task has been fulfilled. Now they need to out of this dangerous situation somehow.
Horace quickly realises that the Skandians, who are trying to shoot Gilan down with stones, aren’t able to hit their target. The ranger moves too fast and for them. He’s no more than a ghost - a skilled, deadly arrows shooting ghost.
I think that Gil wouldn’t have been captured so easily by them because of his higher experience than Will’s. That’s why the two would escape probably.
There’s only one question left: What consequences will the absence of the Rangers in Skandia bear?
The first scenario I want to work on is set in the first part of Ranger's Apprentice Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan.
In the book, they manage to defeat the Kalkara without serious injuries. But what if the Kalkara had inflicted more wounds on Halt than just the one on his thigh and he ended up bleeding to death?
In our hypothesis, the battle proceeds in much the same way.
Halt slays the first Kalkara almost on his own and the two knights finish him off. The second one is trickier. Arald gets injured by it and Rodney is disabled under its gaze. At the end, Will kills him with the burning arrow.
Then, we reach the point where we deviate from the book for the first time. For Will hasn’t discovered Halt yet. As Rodney takes care of Baron Arald, he is desperately searching for his tutor. At the same time, Gilan reaches the makeshift camp with his plough horse and helps Will immediately .
Sooner or later, they find him lying on the ground between the old castle walls. He might already be dead, or they might keep him company in the last minutes of his life. In the latter case, the two apprentices (then and now) would probably try to save Halt - to stop the bleeding at any cost.
But he dies.
At least in the knowledge that he could stop Morgarath again and that the two persons, who means the most to him, were not harmed. One can only imagine Will and Gilan lingering over Halts' corpse, tears in their eyes and holding on to each other.
Halts' funeral ceremony was simple, without much splendour. Just like his life.
After all, he never wanted recognition for his acts.
Arald, Rodney, Pauline and a handful others had come, as well as Will, Gilan and Crowley.
They bury his corpse somewhere deep in the forest - somewhere where only few people would wander around and disturb his peace. His Grave is only adorned by a small stone.
Here lies Halt O'Carrick. Ranger, hero and our second father.
The ceremony in Will's honour is far less under such good spirits than in the book.
Nevertheless, Will receives the offer from Baron Arald to join Battleschool.
Will rejects. He will carry on the inheritance of his teacher.
It’s the right decision for him, even if he doesn't know what will happen next.
At this time, Crowley is still in Redmont. There’s that scene in my head, in which Gilan has already reached out to Crowley because of Will.
He offered to take him as his apprentice, so Will wouldn't have to stay with a stranger.
At the same time, Gilan already knows everything about the fief. Therefore, he could be easily moved to it.
So, Will got apprenticed to Gilan. However, he wouldn’t be able to replace Halt as Wills tutor - or as Will's second father. He wouldn't try either.
In any case, a bond would be created between them that no one could ever break.
With the completion of his apprenticeship, Will would be given Halt's silver oak leaf.
I’m currently spending far too much time in thinking about Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan.
Particularly I'm interested in thought experiments where you change one component of the story and see what impact it would have had in the wholesome. Since I can't keep these thoughts to myself all the time, I want to tell you all.
Therefore, I’ll start the project “What if…?” . In this project I'll discuss the points mentioned above.
What do you think of the idea? Is there anything that anyone would like me to cover specifically?
After re-reading Ruins of Gorlan from Flanagans Ranger's Apprentice, it struck me at Choosing Day scene. In some way all the Craftmasters have chosen their heirs:
Will is following in Halt footsteps and if Horace had stayed at Redmont Castle, he’d be probably part of the Battleschool with Sir Rodney. Alice und Pauline got really close to each other and George became a respected scriber. And, we all know about the competition between Jenny and Chubb.
But the only one who doesn't have an heir is Baron Arald. But why? It's not like he's lonely and abandoned. He has a wife Lady Sandra, and they are completely still in love with each other.
At the same time, he has a large fief that has to be ruled by someone else after his death - usually the heir.
In the Middle Ages, the king divided his kingdom into fiefs and gave them to the nobles to govern - as in Araluen.
At that time there were two cases: You kept the fief for life, so it belonged to the family and was therefore passed on, or you only got it for a few years. I wouldn’t have noticed the latter in Araluen (correct me if I am wrong).
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