A single drawing, tiny fishing boats among reeds, hung above the fireplace. […] Siuan Sanche had been born poor in Tear, and had worked on her father’s fishing boat, one just like the boats in the drawing, in the delta called the Fingers of the Dragon, before ever she dreamed of coming to the Tar Valon.
THE DRAGON REBORN by Robert Jordan, Book Three of the Wheel of Time
#wot#wheel of time#siuan sanche#wot 1x06#wot 03 tdr#wot book spoilers#i guess I kinda went off#I love every scene that has someone rock up to the Amyrlin's study (both pre- and post-schism) and read so much into the inhabitant#everywhere else in the Tower Siuan has to be so aloof and removed but her study is her last refuge#and so she feels like she can dot it with all these personal things#she can wear the briefest hint of paisley#she can have a painting to remind her of her father#she drowns herself in books and remembers the girl who walked into the Tower unable to read or write#she lets herself have this one refuge this one safe harbour#and then in one fell swoop it's taken from her#the one place she thought sacrosanct is invaded#and not only does she lose that but with it go the stole and the staff and the ring#the man who's been by her side all these years lies dying and she can't do anything#she never cried in front of Elaida when she was Accepted but they take that from her too#rip every little piece of information from her that they can#and then when she's bare of everything when the careful armour she's built up over 20+ years is gone they perform that final indignity#they still her#she's rudderless and adrift#but that fisherman's daughter never needed saidar#that fisherman's daughter never needed anything but herself - her feet planted on the deck her hands gripping the nets#she's clung to those bits and pieces of the girl from the Maule and now when she needs them they're there#she's weathered far worse storms than this#they stilled her but she's alive and while she's alive she can fight#and Siuan grew up punching above her weightclass facing up against dockboys and tavern brawlers and never backing down#she's not about to go gently into that good night