#galad

HOW GALAD BECAME ONE OF MY FAVOURITES PART 1 (he might be my actual favourite now). 

Galad’s first appearance was way back in Eye of the World – he’s just kind of a background character and the only remarkable things about him is that he’s an Andoran royal, he’s really good looking according to Rand, and his sister Elayne hates his guts because he always does the right thing, which greatly inconveniences her. So, while the animosity from Elayne towards Galad is intriguing, and we all love really good looking characters, Galad on first impressions wasn’t that interesting. I ignored him as a narrative device, since clearly in that scene Elayne and Gawyn were meant to be the likeable ones who’ll clearly show up in the future and be connected to Rand.

We next meet Galad when the Andoran Royal Fam go to Tar Valon. Elayne becomes a novice, and Gawyn and Galad train with the Warders.

There’s some stuff here where various main female characters meet Galad and go all silly because he’s super hot, but I still just thought “haha, it’s that lawful good guy and he’s just there to fluster our gals Egwene and Nynaeve”. He wasn’t important beyond that. His appearance was more about how the main characters reacted to him than he himself. He was also a good plot device for Egwene and Rand’s relationship washing up – Egwene seems to have eyes for Galad now, not Rand, but her attraction is superficial. Nynaeve also finds Galad attractive, but she’s sterner and doesn’t put up with his bullshit when he tries to charm her into not being mad at him and Gawyn. Galad seems shocked that smiling and being polite to Nynaeve doesn’t get him the result he wants, but again, this scene is more to do with Nynaeve’s shrewdness despite the “Galad effect” and how she’s not going to be manipulated by a killer smile. Elayne is delighted with Nynaeve sending him on his way, and I actually loved Nynaeve here too.

My memory is foggy on the order of things, but I think we get the fight with Mat next? Again, this whole scene was about showcasing Mat; Gawyn and Galad are just there narratively so Mat can gain prestige by kicking their asses. And how! During my first read, Mat was my favourite character because I’m a basic bitch, so I loved seeing him triumph over G&G. This scene also just reinforces that Galad is meant to be super hot – Aes Sedai and Accepted and everyone are there at the practice yard ogling Galad, who is training shirtless. When Mat defeats him, Galad is literally swarmed by Aes Sedai and god knows who else who want to make sure he’s ok and offer him healing. The writing is very clear that they were eager to get their hands on him, those thirsty wenches. It’s even more hilarious that they largely ignore Gawyn, who is also hurt. Gawyn is meant to be quite handsome himself, but overshadowed by his older half bro. So it’s funny, but again Galad isn’t so important as a character compared to Mat. I did start to wonder why Robert Jordan created an NPC that’s so physically stunning that Aes Sedai abandon their Aes Sedai serenity and want to cop a feel while he’s half naked. What’s the point? Humour? The “Galad effect” does seem to be written to provide humour. Like, it’s so funny how people act around him.

So in this scene, Mat was my hero, but I took notice of Galad’s sword skills and how he was described as almost as being good as a warder – I do love me some competent fighters, especially hot ones.

Whenever Galad showed up in subsequent chapters set in the White Tower, I always thought “oh it’s Elayne's brother, hot sword guy” and laughed at how the other characters react around him or to him. There’s a nice bit where Min is pretending to be a mindless bimbo and her and Gawyn both know it’s an act, but Galad doesn’t and seems so sincere towards “Elmindreda”. You could interpret Galad's offer to escort Min to a “suitable dance in the city if there’s one” as him hitting on her, especially since he already seems quite interested in taking Egwene for a walk and picnic, but I actually think Galad is just behaving in a way he thinks is right around pretty young women. Like he thinks he’s expected to be chivalrous and court them. That’s not to say he doesn’t mean it or that he isn’t interested in the girls, but his gallantry just seems so staid and formulaic, like he's going through the motions.

The meeting with Min is also where we learn Galad has been given some Whitecloak literature and is on the path to being radicalized. After this, he was never not going to be a whitecloak, and I thought “oh well, Elayne's brother, hot sword guy, is going to join the dark side”. He was shaping up to be a future source of conflict for our beloved EF5 and Elayne, so I still didn’t assign him much attention.

I don’t think we see anything of Galad immediately after the White Tower’s split. He’s definitely a character mentioned and talked about by other characters, so we get a bit of an idea that he’s off doing Whitecloak things.

There’s also some foreshadowing from one of Min’s visions that Berelain will fall head over heels for a man in white. I picked up that the vision meant Galad, so I knew there was going to be some kind of easter egg in the future with Berelain meeting him. (And about Berelain – love her so much! She’s super hot herself and a shrewd ruler of her micronation. Her shenanigans with Perrin and Faile get tiresome though, but I could stand it knowing that she wasn’t going to win that battle and Perrin wasn’t meant for her).

We next run into Galad when Nynaeve and Elayne are off hunting Black Ajah. Elayne freaks out thinking that Galad will turn them in to the Whitecloaks so they flee, but he doesn’t, and he later assists them by securing them passage on a ship ….which he just happened to start a war over to keep his promise to help them. The Whitecloak/Aes Sedai clash here adds a bit of risk to encountering Galad as I expected, and if you want to read a better analysis of how this impacts Galad as a character, there’s this article that explores it better than I could write. There’s some awesomely insightful comments on that article too. Whoever “William” there is, he’s got some great analysis going on.

The interactions between Nynaeve and Galad during this whole bit of the story are particularly hilarious. I can see why people interpret Galad as having a thing for Nynaeve – she seems to frustrate the hell out of him partly because she can control herself around his pretty face, and partly because of her natural stubbornness. At one point it’s written that he even raises his hands as if he were going to grab her by her shoulders (or choke the life out of her) which is extremely uncharacteristic for chivalrous Galad. He’d never lay hands on a lady! He’s clearly frustrated by her and intrigued. She almost makes him lose his cool. I also loved how he was just treating Uno and the lads as annoyances here rather than deadly armed borderland warriors with drawn swords. There was a bit of lowkey badass about that. Galad literally swats aside Uno’s sword like it was a fly, not even drawing his own weapon. He just gives no fucks.

So, Galad finds a boat for Nynaeve and Elayne and war erupts over it (I blame Nyn for this, not Galad. He’s just a blunt instrument acting on what Nyn wanted and his promise). The Whitecloaks clash with the prophet’s followers and it’s bloodshed in the streets! This is where I finally clocked Galad as a character I liked more than the occasional “good looking sword guy pops up and hilarity with our main characters ensues”. Until now I felt like there was a “comic relief” characteristic about Galad because of how ridiculous most characters get around him (Even though she works hard not to be effected, eg Nynaeve is still described as having to “Take a deep breath” when Galad smiles). The fight with the Prophet’s rabble was some serious badassery. Quote from the book:

“Yet if they held the mob, it was Galad who broke them. He faced their charge as though awaiting the next dance at a ball, arms folded and unconcerned, not even bothering to bare his blade until they were almost on top of him. Then he did dance, all his grace turned in an instant to fluid death. He did not stand against them; he carved a path into their heart, a clear swath as wide as his sword’s reach.“

- From The Fires of Heaven

And in the aftermath, Nynaeve notes that Galad is the only one of her cohort completely unscathed even though he’s about twenty paces ahead of the Shinarans unprotected by the line. She notices how beautiful he is even though he’s just butchered a bunch of rabid fanatics.

That’s where I really began to like Galad. I looooooove competent fighters. It also seemed to be setting up his ability with the sword for something important later on in the series, so I took notice.

We won’t see Galad again until the prologue of Knife of Dreams, and since this blog has already gotten too long, I’ll break this up into multiple posts.

Stay tuned!