The Story of the Two Rivers: A Wheel of Time Cultural Examination

[@andrewberenson5717]

Another great video. One slight nitpick. When you noted that Two Rivers saw in influx of refugees, I would have made two other comments. First, the refugees brought skills and trades that the TR had not had before. As a result, the population not only grew, but the new trades expanded the TR economy, specifically their export capabilities. Second, I would have noted that the most of the refugees crossed the Mountains of Mist; a very perilous journey.

[@armandog3335]

Um...did you forget that it was the former home of the true hero of the story...Bela! I am so disappointed.

[@NaeBlis]

I need to pull the video down. Damnit!

[@xHugoxN7]

A tragedy!

[@leafcastbrotherdan725]

Fun fact! Baby Trolloc eyeballs are a delicacy in Shienar as a dessert. They are served chilled, and have the taste and texture of mango mochi with a hint of smoked paprika.

[@NaeBlis]

Sounds yummy

[@armandog3335]

I prefer mine in a stew. But to each their own...

[@RobChristianson]

@@armandog3335 Mmm baby trolloc stew in a stolen Trolloc cookpot. Add a twist of lime and a dash of tarragon. C'est magnifique!

[@suepedie1]

I loved that Two Rivers tobac was a nod to Longbottom leaf.

[@hardstroker947]

haha just began lord of chaos and naeblis was mentioned for the first time. genuinely double taked

[@gizmoochi]

A discus is something you throw at the Olympic Games. Discuss.

[@crispyaaron]

Was just getting ready to state that myself! The interwebs thank you!

[@Vortigernrex]

Nice summary. You didn't really describe what Two Rivers people look like - one thing I find interesting is how unique people look from different kingdoms and regions. Two Rivers people look a little different to other Andorans in that they almost all have dark hair and eyes, though fairer skin than people to the south (not as fair skinned as Cairhienen though. They also seem to be shorter (Mat is considered unusually tall) - Egwene and Nynaeve are shorter than most women except Moiraine. Maybe also a description of the types of clothes they wear or what makes them stand out from other people? Love your series - made me start reading the books again.

[@jamesbrownii9508]

Not only acceptable, but highly encouraged. The Aiel men who can channel knows this, and as such travel to the Waste in hopes of getting some. Only a channeler of great strength can hope to prepare the young eyes. It is said that properly prepared young trolloc eyes can cure madness.

[@Ulvehunden1970]

ROTFLMAO |:D

[@brettpetty7840]

I'm almost most excited about finishing this series because I can finally watch theses full videos

[@wyvern723]

Gosh, I remember pouring over the map of th Two Rivers when I read the first book. Hearing about the Sand Hills and the Water wood, it takes me back. Definitely gonna have to look for that pod cast. That's some funny shit.

[@carolbriscoe9337]

I always thought the battle in E8 was a nod and visualization of the battle of Menetheren. The men went off but instead of holding for 5 days, these men were overwhelmed in a day. Then in lieu of a Queen able to channel, the princess formed a circle and with the strength of Egwene and Nynaeve was able to destroy the invading trollocs. And like the initial battle, the trollocs were simply a diversion.

[@lifesabeach2597]

I was born and raised in Walla Walla Washington and kind of feel I grew up in the Two Rivers

[@RobChristianson]

i live in a small town nestled between a river on the east and a river on the west. And in the shadow of a lone volcano. ;) SAME.

[@jakeneilson6060]

I like to think that the rivers used to be far more navigatable for trade and commerce but because of the wars the one power was used make it far more dangerous (particularly The White River in the South) to make it more defendable.

[@andrewdiaz3529]

Might even have some secret ter' angrel like the Far Madding Guardians that make it's depths as tumultuous as a cyclone

[@michaelbaxter6637]

Glad you’re back with examinations! Heroes of the Horn next? Blight? Land of Seanchan?

[@NaeBlis]

Seanchan will be coming soon

[@michaelbaxter6637]

@@NaeBlis oh hell yes

[@wolfbrother7541]

Also, stabbing baby Trollocs in the eye with a spoon I would say is not acceptable. Their eyeballs are too ripe and too small and do not provide enough jelly...which is quite good on toast. 👹

[@RobChristianson]

So I don't think it's ever specifically mentioned, but I'm guessing based on last names changing over time, Aemon Al'Thorin may be an ancestor of Tam Al'Thor. What do you think? I don't have the Companion in case it's mentioned in there.

[@thatrealba]

Good analysis. It's nice to go over things in a sort of vacuum.

[@wolfbrother7541]

Love these Cultural Examinations! Probably my favorite or your video segments. The maps are fantastic.

[@ran7645]

Big fan of this channel!

[@debthompson5454]

I just watched Your Tar Valon after Dark podcast, and I really loved it. Wish it was a video for Recappa's facial expressions. Great idea. Don't know how to comment over there.

[@sandracecelin4963]

Very nice. I’ve read the books!

[@robinsimmert7790]

If a creature is going to try to eat you, regardless of it's age, it's fair game for you to beat it to the punch

[@amandawhite1329]

Another great video! Thank you! I have only read the books once and that was probably a decade or so ago; so this video helped a lot to remind me of the area for the upcoming TV show.

[@menachemsalomon]

I seem to remember that after the story, Mr. and Mrs. Perrin - whose name reminds me of Peregrin (as in Took, which I'm sure is not a coincidence), which is also the name of a breed of falcon (Peregrine), or Faile in the Old Tongue. Anyway, while the suggestion is made that they become High Lord and Lady of the Two Rivers, the settlement is that Rand gets lordship of the Two Rivers, while Perrin is made Steward of the Two Rivers in right of the Dragon Reborn. Faile, meanwhile has a higher title as Queen of Saldea.

[@menachemsalomon]

Oh, and after the story, I imagine Perrin gets Asha'man and Ogier to build a bridge over the White River that almost rivals the one at Whitebridge.

[@matscoundrel5501]

Hahaa awesome show. Great stuff as always.. plus love that podcast snippet

[@scwthillary3461]

Absolutely excellent summary! Thank you!

[@robdonut66]

This was great. I hope that the show will give us some sense of the history of the lands.

[@voodoochild1975az]

After... the Two Rivers is on course to return to the glory days of Manetheren. They basically end as Manetheren reborn.

[@michellesedai3769]

Great show! Suggestion: Timeline analysis - how many years & months do the books cover from that first Winternight to the day the pipe is lit? Fans tend to guess that it's about 3-4 years. But a full year goes by in just the first two books. And I admit a little confusion occurred for me at first when Perrin sees Rand on the mountain half a book after Rand comes down from it. It would be interesting to see a timeline.

[@commbir5148]

A full and well-cited timeline analysis would be painstaking to make, but I think us fans would eat it up.

[@menachemsalomon]

I think it's two full years and a month or two, the Last Battle taking place in mid-Spring, while the books start on the onset of Spring.

[@Magnums_Chronicles]

Hell yes! I love the Podcast. Cracked me up.

[@helengasser9235]

Great channel! Succinct and interesting! Subscribed.

[@vanneli]

I have heard both podcasts that are out now, GREAT FUN! Highly recommended! In there, you and the other podcasters name your 5 favorite characters in WoT, I would like to give my list, it has 4 names that you talk among, but 1 that I really feel is left out. 5. Verin (You and Recappa have in your list.) 4 Rand (I think Jenn and Recappa have them.) 3 Nyneave (Your #1, great arc, a lot of development, and I just cannot place her higher, because of the other 2.) 2 Tam Al'thor (Nobody mentioned him. I know he is very little in the books, but he is CENTRAL to the story. Without him, Rand gets broken and the world ends. He doesn't want power, he doesn't want riches. He just wants peace (and not in the Mel Brooks 'To be or not to be' way;). And how you cannot love the only character, male or female, on the side of light or on the side of the Dark One, that shuts Cadsuane up.) 1 Mat (I think everybody mentioned him.)

[@kevinkamphaus6567]

VERY informative!!! LOVED it.

[@danalou_who7765]

Man, this is fantastic!!

[@michelleobrien2923]

That answers the question about what went down with the end of the white tower podcast 😳

[@RobChristianson]

i want to discuss the misspelling of "discus" on the whiteboard. ;)

[@bjornsundstrom4915]

I’ve started rereading the series for the fourth time and I’m currently on TSR where we for the first time actually get some information on Rand’s parents, however this got me thinking about whether Galad ever finds out that he’s half-brother to the dragon, I don’t think it’s mentioned but maybe I’ve just forgotten something?

[@NaeBlis]

He does in the final book of the series. It’s actually one of the things he says to Demandred before he fights him

[@bjornsundstrom4915]

@@NaeBlis ahhhh, how does he find out though?

[@Ulvehunden1970]

@@bjornsundstrom4915 : Its been a while since i went through the series, but if my memory serves me correct, Elayne is told Rands parental story at some point from wise ones, and gathers that Galad and Rand are halfbrothers, and tells Galad this, at some point in the last book Memory of Light

[@kinslayermds]

I just did a deep dive on this region because I have always been bugged by the Jehenna Road...

[@bearzerger]

Are you certain that the queen of Manetheren destroyed the Trolloc army with balefire? I recall it being said that the dreadlords burned where they stood and that the city was destroyed from the backlash of her drawing too much of the OP, but I don't recall it being explicitly said that she used balefire. As for what happens after the books, in my head canon the Two Rivers eventually becomes the land Perrin's and Elayne's descendants go to war over instead of the two nations being all hugs and kisses as you envision. When Perrin and Elayne negotiated the status of the Two Rivers, that was all Faile and Perrin controlled, wheras at the end of the story Faile is set to become the queen of Saldaea and the queen of Ghealdan has sworn fealty to him. Aside from the Aiel and the Seanchan Perrin/Faile and Elayne will control the largest and most powerful countries of the Westlands. The power balance will imo shift to reflect that and that makes for an explosive mix when future queens of Andor will try to curtail their autonomy and future lords of the Two Rivers will exploit their status to gain economical advantages over their andoran competition.

[@michellesedai3769]

Insightful theory. Guess it depends on how well the kids are raised lol!

[@svenkropelinrieger1688]

If the queen uses balefire, many of the killed men would be resurrected, and this would be a thing in the storys, that Moraine definitly would mentoined. PS: Sorry, no native speaker.

[@t20sgrunt36]

Audible Abercrombie’s First Law series. Steve Pacey is the best narrator hands down. Kramer and Reading are good but Pacey is on another level

[@1lobster]

i thought the water wood is a swamp? tall trees, but damp and muddy

[@armandog3335]

Alright! I love this areas history.

[@daraussedai2163]

Excellent video as always! I agree that Saldaea and Andor will likely end up in some form of union, likely Ghealdan will get swallowed up too since the Seanchan/Altara border is right there.

[@yves2016]

Lol.. The podcast sounds like it's going to be fun

[@IbnShisha1]

Still waiting on Cultural Examination: Kaensada Hill Tribes

[@jerichohill487]

I love this. Especially since I'm from the two rivers

[@ctstackh]

Watching in 4K and counting your gray whiskers....

[@campbk02]

I thought there were no baby trollocs :o

[@pepp77]

Are there even baby trollocs?

[@jeffzimmerman8141]

Of course it is acceptable. That is where the creamy custard is located.

[@Mr73172]

Aren't Myrdraal the offspring of Trollocs? And if so, how could you poke them in the eyeball?

[@NaeBlis]

Only a small percentage of trolloc spawn are myrddraal

[@harlandeke]

I am on my first reread and I have evidently forgotten something...How are Perrin and Faile linked to the crown of Ghealdan?

[@NaeBlis]

Alliandre is sworn to them as a liege

[@harlandeke]

@@NaeBlis ohhh...yeah..duh.

[@dcarman686]

Tom is the best.

[@dcarman686]

I mean Mat is the best

[@BranceCrantly]

Did you misspell "Discuss" on purpose?

[@NaeBlis]

Lol no. I didn’t like the way the word looked when I wrote it the first time I erased the send and forgot to put the extra a back. Lol. I promise I know how to spell discuss haha.

[@TheNimfadora]

So why are your autogenerated subtitles suddenly Vietnamese? 😂

[@NaeBlis]

Lol that’s strange. They say English on my end lol

[@NaeBlis]

Lol that’s strange. They say English on my end lol

[@TheNimfadora]

@@NaeBlis only on this video of yours it is so strange ahahahahaha basically it is the only option I have auto-generated Vietnamese ahahaha! Oh well! Keep up the good work, greetings from Serbia!

[@LiquidFranz]

I get Vietnamese as well

[@jacobshelton7465]

Spoon...no Spork.....most definitely

[@andrewberenson5717]

Stabbing a baby Trolloc in the eye with a spoon is note acceptable. Only forks or knives are acceptable. Spoons are no good. And anybody who uses a spork should be boiled in a Trolloc cookpot on a matter of principal.

[@alexparadi522]

Never really understood why Manetheren had their capitol in the middle of no where. Typically large cities and capitols are a result of the geography of the land. They appear along critical trade routes and sometime militarily important locations. It seems pretty weird that the Two Rivers is so back-water now, but used to be a huge metropolis.

[@ivanmp3e48]

Manetheren was in the mountains so it's builders probably chosed it's location based on how easy it was to defend. With this in mind a region in between two rivers and a mountain range would actually be the perfect location. However after Manetheren fell this aisolation became a disadvantage.

[@alexparadi522]

@@ivanmp3e48 I can possibly buy this - but then wouldn't it be more of a fort rather than a large and powerful city (which is what I always understood it was to be)? Kind of like Fal Dara. It wouldn't be a practical place to rule the country from with both rivers being UN-navigable

[@commbir5148]

Everywhere is the middle of nowhere before you build a capital city. Are you saying that a river basin in the foothills of a mountain chain isn't a good place to build a large settlement?

[@alexparadi522]

@@commbir5148 Well when he goes on to say that the Two Rivers is so isolated because of it's geography and because the two rivers aren't navigable for trade... then yes, that's not a good place for a capital (wait... what's the difference between capital and capitol - I should look that up). Most of the world have big cities where there are crossroads for trade routes. You'll see smaller settlements around forts that are just strategically placed. But I'm pretty sure all the big ones are based on trading ports/routes.

[@astutheit]

@@alexparadi522 I think like was said in another comment that the rivers were likely at one point more navigable some time in the past. I wouldn't be surprised if something that the last queen of Manetheren did didn't alter the waterways in some way. Also, they had a Way Gate that, at one point, was likely stable and not affected by the Black Wind, so travel to and from their capital wasn't an issue, and could have been chosen because A) It was in the mountains and defensible B) had easy access by rivers C) Had easy access by Way Gate. The course of history changed all those factors other than defensiblity really.

[@jenniferwood144]

Trolloc baby tale Trolloc mama......The baby won’t eat Trolloc daddy.....Don’t care feed it whatever. Just shut it up TM swish swish, a sharpening of Two Rivers spoon Smack a tight twist and a pull Trolloc baby ...yum yum TD.....must have been good TM... Just a eye, it’s got another TM...just like his father The end

[@SaltyRoast]

Kinda skimmed over something there huh.

[@jasonlueker3032]

The audiobooks are great. Except for every time they mispronounced words and names.

[@jamestea00]

It's always been weird to me why Andor tried to stretch itself so far west. Seems it would be easier for them to spread north

[@NaeBlis]

Their main money maker is the mines in the mountains of mist. That’s why

[@jamestea00]

@@NaeBlis Ohhhh asked and answered lol. Makes sense. Sounds like an obvious detail that I just skipped right on over. Thanks! Great video as always :)

[@menachemsalomon]

BTW, I think Baerlon is properly part of Andor. Taxes, soldiers, the works.

[@IsmailNuzaifKokky]

.

[@dakatismoonblade3450]

;)

[@Siansonea]

Am I the only one who wants to protecc the baby Trollocs? 😔

[@michellesedai3769]

Maybe...maybe not. I'd bet they're cute when they're babies. Or so ugly that you can't help but love it, like a really bad pun.

[@Siansonea]

@@michellesedai3769 I often wonder if in the Fourth Age, Trollocs can be rehabilitated in the absence of the Dark One's touch on the world. Certainly all of the Myrddraal are dead without the Dark One, and any Trollocs that are bonded to a Myrddraal would instantly die as well. But what of all the female Trollocs, and their young? Will they go extinct without the influence of the Dark One, or can they be saved, possibly with the help of the Aes Sedai, Asha'man and Wise Ones?

[@dcarman686]

Barack Obama's Book? Why would you say that, do you get better algorithms from KZbin?

[@NaeBlis]

Obviously. Liberal elites in ivory towers that want to take your guns away and make everything socialist are the ones that run the KZbin algorithm. It’s science. And it couldn’t possibly be that I read a book from the former president of the United States who also happens to be a lawyer and one of the most popular political figures in the world even to this day. It’s probably definitely a conspiracy instead 😂

[@dcarman686]

Barack Obama's Book? Your done, good bye

[@NaeBlis]

Lol bye? Why would I say that? He was the president? I read his memoirs as I do for every president. If that triggers you so much, you probably won’t like my content lol

[@s7e6p19]

If you are listening to it, then it isn't reading it. It is consuming the information sure and you may like that experience. It still is not reading the words yourself from any type of book regardless of content.

[@dcarman686]

@@s7e6p19 Are usually will float around the Internet a little bit this guys KZbin constantly pops up but I always go to Mike’s review much better

[@dcarman686]

@@s7e6p19 Hmmm? I never tried the audible version.

[@dcarman686]

@@NaeBlis I'd stay out of politics. That is my advice. They are good books. Obama does not inspire fighting sprit. I would just leave the Bamster out of my videos. Get Woke Go Broke