#abell cauthon

[ofthebrownajah]

I would not be opposed to a s4 scene of Tam, Abell, and Bran showing up at the White Tower to demand where their kids are

[chloristoflora]

"The Aes Sedai told us about them," Tam said, "spying for the Fades, and we spread the word. The Women's Circle did, too. Nobody paid much mind until they started attacking sheep, though, pecking out eyes, killing some. The clip will be bad enough this year without that. Not that it matters much, I suppose. Between Whitecloaks and Trollocs, I doubt we'll see any merchants after our wool this year."

"Some fool has gone crazy over it," Abell added. "Maybe more than one. We've found all sorts of dead animals. Rabbits, deer, foxes, even a bear. Killed and left to rot. Most not even skinned. It's a man, or men, not Trollocs; I found boot prints. A big man, but too small for a Trolloc. A shame and a waste."

Slayer. Slayer here, and not just in the wolf dream. Slayer and Trollocs. The man in the dream had seemed familiar. Perrin scuffed dirt and leaves over the dead raven with his boot. There would be plenty of time for Trollocs later. A lifetime, if need be. "I promised Mat I'd look after Bode and Eldrin, Master Cauthon. How hard will it he to get them, and the others, free?"

"Hard," Abell sighed, his face sagging. Suddenly he looked his age and more. "Powerful hard. I got close enough to see Natti after they took her, walking outside the tent where they're holding everybody. I could see her with a couple of hundred Whitecloaks between us. I got a little careless, and one of them put an arrow through me. If Tam hadn't hauled me back here to the Aes Sedai..."

"It's a goodsized camp," Tam said, "right under Watch Hill. Seven or eight hundred men. Patrols, day and night, with the heaviest concentration from Watch Hill down to Emond's Field. If they spread out more, it would make things easier for us, but except for a hundred men or so at Taren Ferry, they've just about given the rest of the Two Rivers over to the Trollocs. It's bad down around Deven Ride, I hear. Another farm burned almost every night. The same between Watch Hill and the River Taren. Bringing Natti and the others out will be hard, and after, we'll have to hope the Aes Sedai will let them stay here. That pair aren't too pleased at anyone knowing where they are."

"Surely someone will hide them," Perrin protested. "You can't tell me everyone's turned their backs on you. They don't really believe you're Darkfriends?" Even as he said it, he was remembering Cenn Buie.

"No, not that," Tam said, "except for a few fools. Plenty of folk will give us a meal, or a night in the barn, sometimes even a bed, but you have to understand they're uneasy about helping people the Whitecloaks are chasing. It's nothing to blame them for. Things are stone hard, and most men are trying to look after their own families the best they can, Asking someone to take in Natti and the girls, Haral and Alsbet... Well, it might be asking too much."

"I thought better of Two Rivers folk than that," Perrin muttered.

The Shadow Rising, by Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time #4, Chapter 31: Assurances)

[incorrectwot]

Abell: So, Mat is no longer allowed to take the trash out at night.

Natti: Why not?

Abell: Because I've caught him trying to train badgers to fight five times in a row.

Little boy Mat pouting: You'll be thanking me when the third badger battalion saves us all.

[highladyluck]

Possible backstories for WoT on Prime’s Abell Cauthon

Doesn’t keep records [on his horse-trading business] anyway

There is a House, in Old Cairhein, Hill of the Golden Dawn. It’s been the ruin of many a poor boy, and Light, Abell Cauthon is one.

Shot a man in Baerlon just to watch him die

[theblacktower]

Christopher Sciueref joins the cast as Abell Cauthon. 

[incorrectwot]

Abell Cauthon: Every family has that one child who can do no wrong.

Abell Cauthon: Mat is not that child.

[incorrectwot]

Abel: You were supposed to do something about the raccoon under the wagon.

Mat: I did! I named him Bob. He likes apple cider and cake.

[highladyluck]

I started looking up Mat's family in encyclopedia-wot and the Companion to make sure I knew all the basic stuff about them, and realized several things in this process:

1) All of the Cauthon children are feral, terrifying chaos gremlins, not just Mat.

Bode is described as a female version of Mat personality-wise; she's smart and going for Blue or Green Ajah so she can have adventures instead of reading about them. (So basically the only difference between them is that she reads and can do magic?) She's also a Budget Egwene; she was born with the spark, has a similar future strength level and she's 4th best at cuendillar in Salidar. Eldrin doesn't seem to have much distinguishing her from Bodewhin personality-wise, and she continues the tradition of buck-wild Cauthon antics because she STABBED A TROLLOC WITH A BOAR-SPEAR when it grabbed her older sister. The sisters all tattled on Mat constantly to their mom but he never figured out she was using them as informants, so he still just thinks she's omniscient, which is charming.

2) Since they are all feral, terrifying chaos gremlins, the characteristic Big Cauthon Energy had to come from one or both parents.

Despite Abell's "serious eyes", I peg him as the OG Rogue With A Heart of Gold in the family; he certainly seems to have supplied Mat with the trickster skillset, and going to the White Tower to track down Mat with Tam is also the kind of 'rescuing' thing Mat does. It's quite possible that Natti and Abell were essentially a comedy duo, though, with Abell in the comic role and Natti as the straight man/comedic foil. She's described as 'usually cool and composed', which is what you want in that dynamic. She might not have been a trickster herself, but I bet she knew exactly what she was doing. She probably deliberately encouraged all of them to be feral, terrifying chaos gremlins, the way your friends will pretend not to react to you being silly to encourage you to reach even greater heights of silliness. This is my Theory of Big Cauthon Energy.

3) Freud was right.

Mat fell in love with a woman who is apparently somewhat similar to his mother- someone able to beat him at his own game through strategy, someone *famously* cool and composed (who he makes it a game to try to provoke), someone who is an excellent straight man/comedic foil. Her deadpan responses to Mat, which are a common example of straight man comedy, are some of the funniest things in the series. I'm thinking specifically of the bit where she completes the marriage ceremony by nonchalantly parroting the exact words he used to accidentally start the ceremony, swearing included, or the bit where she asks him what he does for a living, he says he's a gambler, and she just says conversationally "My father called himself a gambler. He died of a bad wager." and Mat is just like "haha WHAT” in his inner monologue... which again feeds back into my point, in that Tuon sees parallels between Mat and her father.

I wish I had a 4th point so I didn't have to end on the icky stuff about Freud...ok, got one.

4) I'm sad we didn't see Eldrin, 16-year-old Trolloc-stabber, stab more Trollocs. Eldrin should get to stab as many Trollocs as possible.