The Shadow Rising is one of my favorite WoT books and it is also THE best WoT book for Mat/Rand. no those two facts are not related—
Where do I even begin with TSR? How it is possible for one book to bless us with SO MUCH QUALITY CAUTHOR CONTENT??
Just. just look at this shit. I can’t believe this is even legal.
Mat doesn’t even have that many POV chapters in this one and he STILL manages to fit in at least fifty instances of “rand keeps pulling me to him”
he literally uses that exact phrasing at one point. I can’t
seriously I never get tired of it
“Rand gave Mat a smile that made the pair of them look like boys when Mat returned it” IM SOBBING
and this when Rand, as Lord Of Tear, is about to make a Big Declaration, keeping everyone in suspense, literally all the things Mat has been complaining about for MONTHS— and he smiles back at him Like That anyway—
Mat follows Rand everywhere in this book and I know it’s because of the Pattern but, listen, all I’m saying is,,, the Pattern ships it
“Sometimes Mat almost wished Rand would decide whether he was mad or not and get it over with.” Mat no
RHUIDEAN. JUST. ALL OF RHUIDEAN.
Where do I even start with Rhuidean?
“Get ahold of yourself, Rand. You didn’t go crazy in the last minute.”
Mat being a tsundere about waiting for Rand
“I’m not going to come running in to save you!” “Sure fam”
And Rand laughing at him because he knOWS
Rand’s extremely dubious CPR
Seriously. It gives me anxiety
Rand honey that is not how you resuscitate people what are you doing—
Mat constantly getting annoyed at Rand for making his coins land on their sides
Rand purposefully making the coin fall against what Mat wanted to keep him out of danger
“You leave me alone and I’ll strangle you, Dragon Reborn or no” IM FUCKING WEEPING
I could go on for days about the quality of Tsundere Mat in this book but you get the idea
Not Cauthor related but I love that Mat’s first words after literally dying and coming back are, “those flaming sons of goats”
“You always get me in trouble” - Mat, conveniently forgetting the dozens of times he got Rand in trouble in EotW alone
Listen Mat and Rand stealing brandy and getting drunk together when they were thirteen and then just falling asleep together is SO CUTE FIGHT ME
Both of them sitting silently alone and watching the valley together for a WHOLE DAY
“What are you going to do now?” “Something you would like. I’m going to break the rules.” “No I mean like for dinner cause like im really hungry and-”
And then Rand starts laughing and laughing and my crops have been watered, my children fed, my skin cleared—
He laughs a lot around Mat in this book. Most of it is crazy saidin laughing, but. still.
Rand wishing for Mat’s company on the journey to Cold Rocks Hold
(although Mat kind of avoids him at that time)
But whenever Mat does come over it’s to be friendly and make Rand laugh
Right after the attack by the Dragkhar and the Myddral, Rand doesn’t even pause to get rid of his fire-sword, literally the fiRST thing he does is find Mat and ask if he’s alright
‘“Oh, I’m right behind you, Rand.” The worst of it was, it felt right saying that.’
Look me in the goddamn eyes and tell me that that’s just because of the Pattern. I will Fight
And by the end he just seems to accept it
“You have any objections to my coming with you?”
Literally there is no reason for him to go into Alcair Dal with Rand,,, no one told him to, it’s honestly more dangerous if he does,,,
But at this point he’s like “fuck it guess this is my life now”
Mat frantically beckoning Rand to get away when things start going south at Alcair Dal. Like I can just imagine his internal monologue at that point going “burn you, burn me, burn this place, burn these people, burn the pattern, burn—”
And then he’s so happy to see him when Rand returns from his… portal… thing
ffs even their horses hang out together in this book
And there’s so much more, in little moments and throwaway sentences, but if I tried to list it all this post would be as long as the color of the sky post. Just… TSR is so good. I want to reread the whole thing right now.
In conclusion, thank you Robert Jordan for my life
