At face value, The Wheel of Time Prequel – New Spring - is a story about the birth of the dragon,
and Moiraine’s early quest to find that child. But underlying that story is a more touching story.
The story of how Lan and Moiraine first met and eventually Moiraine bonded Lan as her warder.
Their interactions and even more so their thoughts were hilarious. And Robert Jordan dropped a clue
as to the specific reason why Moiraine chose Lan. Let’s dive into it, starting at the beginning.
When the story began, Lan thought to himself that amputating a leg may be better than getting healed
by an Aes Sedai. That it was best to avoid Aes Sedai as much as possible because years later,
you could find one of them had tied strings to you just in case she might have need.
When the Aiel war ended, and Lan headed north, he specifically avoided Tar Valon. All he wanted
was a return to the Blight. And no encounters with Aes Sedai.
In contrast, at the beginning of Moiraine’s story, when she was still one of the Accepted,
her friend Siuan Sanche began discussing warders. Moiraine was intrigued by the bond,
wondering if Aes Sedai and warders could read each others minds.
After Moiraine was raised to Aes Sedai, she fled Tar Valon and went on a dangerous quest
to find the dragon reborn by herself. During her travels, she came across a few Aes Sedai,
including the legend herself – Cadsuane. Cadsuane saw that Moiraine had the potential to become
one of the most powerful Aes Sedai’s, so she worried that Moiraine would get herself killed.
Because of that, Cadsuane told Moiraine that since she did not have a warder, she should
stay in Canluum a few days and let Merean Sedai and Larelle Sedai escort her safely to Chachin.
But then Siuan Sanche showed up in Canluum and told Moiraine that other Searchers had died,
or rather, they had been killed. Probably by the Black Ajah.
That frightened Moiraine. She thought to herself that she wished she were Green Ajah
and had three or four warders to guard her back right then and there.
So basically, Siuan had talked about warders. Moiraine was intrigued by the
warder bond. Cadsuane advised Moiraine to bond a Warder and to choose that Warder wisely. And
Moiraine bean to fear that the Black Ajah would kill her for searching for the dragon reborn.
As a result of all of that, right before she met Lan, Moiraine wanted a Warder. Meanwhile,
Lan wanted nothing to do with Aes Sedai. This leads us into part 2. The road to Chachin.
Moiraine snuck out of Canluum against Cadsuane’s orders. Moiraine trailed a group of three men,
one being Lan. Eventually, Lan’s two companions road off, and Moiraine tried to sneak up on Lan
and grab his sword. But he was too quick. So he threw her into a pond. He then pulled her out,
she dried off, and she paid the three men to escort her safely to Chachin.
That night, Moiraine overheard Lan use the term Aes Sedai in a derogatory way,
so she used the One Power to shoot water at him. She then told him that she was Aes Sedai,
but Lan did not believe her. While they traveled to Chachin,
Moiraine began to probe so as to find out Lan’s backstory, to no avail.
Moiraine also harassed Lan each night by using the One Power to have insects attack him. The
reason that she did that was because Moiraine wanted a display of remorse for dunking her,
she wanted an apology, and she wanted him to give her the proper regard for an Aes Sedai.
The pranks bothered Lan, but he pretended not to care so as to not
give Moiraine the satisfaction of annoying him. And a part of Moiraine admired Lan’s fortitude.
One day, while Moiraine was brainstorming what to do to Lan next, they were attacked. Lan was shot
through the shoulder. And the first thing that Moiraine did was use the One Power to shield him
from further attacks. Moiraine shielded Lan before herself, and at the time, she did not
understand why. That was just her instinct. Lan then charged the attacker as if he did
not already have an arrow sticking through him. Moiraine was impressed. Then, when they removed
the arrow from Lan, he blinked. That’s it. No yell. No wince. Just a blink. And because
Moiraine was annoyed with him at the time, it sort of annoyed her that he was so tough.
Moiraine thought to herself that she had only two more nights to crack him.
Because once they reached Chachin, she would be too busy to attend to Lan Mandragoran. At least,
for a time she would be. That was the first clue that Moiraine had already planned on bonding him.
The next section of this video occurs after they reach the city of Chachin.
When they got to Chachin, Moiraine tried to pay him for the safe escort,
but he told her to keep her coin and considered her offer to pay as yet another insult.
Lan then rode off quickly, thinking to himself that he was glad to be rid of Moiraine.
Moiraine saw how quickly Lan rode off and complimented herself
for having made an impression on him. After they split up, Lan thought to himself that
he was glad since he wanted nothing to do with Moiraine, especially if she really was Aes Sedai.
But Lan kept thinking about her. He could not get Moiraine out of his head. Then after taking
care of some personal business, he began to think about Moiraine a second time.
Later, Lan read that two women were flogged by Aes Sedai for claiming to be Aes Sedai when they were
not, and he found himself hoping that Moiraine was Aes Sedai. He wondered why he should care.
So clearly, Lan liked her, but he was not yet ready to admit it to himself.
Meanwhile, Moiraine experienced similar emotions. At one point, her best friend,
Siuan Sanche, was annoying her, and Moiraine thought to herself that a bear with a sore tooth
would have been better company than her. Even Lan would have been better company. So clearly,
Moiraine liked Lan just as he liked her. Later on, Moiraine found out that Lan was
a king, or rather, he could be a king if he so choose. That shocked her,
so she immediately excused herself from that conversation in order to get some alone time.
Moiraine then saw Lan training with his shirt off, and she noticed claw marks on his back.
She told herself that she was not jealous, but in a way, she was. She
then asked Lan to help her spy on Merean Sedai. At first, he said no because, back in the day,
Aes Sedai had told his people that they would come and help fight the shadowspawn. But the Aes Sedai
never showed. So Lan held a grudge. A very personal grudge. He blamed the Aes Sedai for
the fall of Malkier – the fall of his family and his people. But Moiraine opened up to him, telling
him that the Aes Sedai did send help. They were just too late. Afterwards, the Aes Sedai kept it a
secret since it was better that people thought the Aes Sedai did nothing rather than the Aes Sedai
tried and failed. Moiraine also apologized on behalf of the Aes Sedai despite the fact that
this happened before she was even born. Because of this, Lan agreed to help her spy on Merean Sedai.
Meanwhile, Lady Edeyn was attempting to marry Lan to her daughter Iselle. Lan did not want that and
thought that the only thing to do when faced with an opponent you could not defeat was run.
Lan wanted to run. But his friend Bukama held him there. Bukama and a dream.
Next up, the fight. Turns out, Merean Sedai was Black
Ajah. So Lan and Moiraine fought her and Lan’s friend Ryne who turned out to be a darkfriend.
Ryne was better than Lan. He disabled Lan’s swordarm, and he thought that that the fight
was all but finished. But according to Lan, Ryne never understood. Quote: “You surrender
after your dead.” In other words, Lan kept fighting and he killed Ryne.
Afterwards, Moiraine healed him with the One Power. When she did so, Lan gasped. But unlike
that time with the arrow, when she was annoyed that all he did was blink when they pulled it out,
this time, Moiraine got no satisfaction from Lan showing that he was mortal.
Now, the ending. Lan rode off for the
Blight. Most likely, Lan was riding off to his death. But Moiraine had other plans for him. So
she chased after him, found him, and bonded him. It turns out, Moiraine had known that she would
bond Lan from the very first day they met. So let’s go back and figure out the exact moment.
As we already went over, when Moiraine and Lan first met, he threw her into a pond. So she was
wet. They made a fire, she took off her clothes, and he put up blankets for her to stand behind.
Then, Ryne and Bukama came back to camp. Moiraine overheard Ryne saying that he’d like to see her
without her clothes on. Then, Moiraine heard another sound. Steel whispering on leather.
A sword leaving its sheath. So she immediately prepped some defensive weaves and then peeked
out of the blankets. Low and behold, it was Lan who had drawn the sword. Lan stood with his back
to her. And with his sword out, Lan chastised Ryne for such a lude comment about her body.
Then later, when Moiraine used the One Power to throw water on Lan,
he thought that they were being attacked, so he immediately yelled out to his boys to protect her.
Since Robert Jordan stated that Moiraine knew that she would bond Lan the first day that they met,
these were probably the reasons why she made that choice. Because the very first day that they met,
Lan sprang to her defense two times. The first two times of many times.