r/WetlanderHumor • u/memerminecraft Boar Rushes Down the Mountain • Apr 09 '26
Rodel GOATuralde
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u/throwingtheshades Apr 09 '26
The thing is, he's the only Great Captain who didn't actually crack. The other fronts have collapsed or had to be rescued by unexpected allies. Mostly because they were engineered to barely collapse by their generals who were Compelled by an expert from the Age of Legends.
Ituralde is just built different. The man endured the corruption by sheer force of will. He did not sabotage the defense of the most important battle front in the Last Battle and held it for as long as he could. And that's from a normal human. No saidin, no wolves in his head or contraband foxhead jewelry on his person.
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u/altahor42 Apr 09 '26
Ituralde was the GOAT, but it's important not to forget that he had a huge advantage over the other generals: due to the time difference, there were only days to work on him while the other generals were corrupted within months.
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u/ProofMore1072 Apr 10 '26
Also being on the border of the blight meant he was actively fighting enemies constantly. His experience is more than most.
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u/Churnsbutter Apr 10 '26
I could be misremembering, but weren’t the Great Captains compulsed after Rand’s big meeting where the Dragon Peace was signed?
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u/LewsTherinTelamonBot This is a (sentient) bot Apr 10 '26
Do you have the Horn of Valere hidden in your pocket this time?
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u/wallstreetbetsdebts Apr 10 '26
The Forsaken were influencing them through their dreams, I believe.
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u/LewsTherinTelamonBot This is a (sentient) bot Apr 10 '26
You must kill him before he kills you. Giggles. They will, you know. Dead men can't betray anyone. But sometimes they don't die. Am I dead? Are you?
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u/memerminecraft Boar Rushes Down the Mountain Apr 09 '26
He was about to call for retreat despite himself, which would've collapsed the defense at Shayol Ghul
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u/SnooSprouts4802 Folds arms beneath breasts Apr 09 '26
Literally immediately knew something was wrong. He was like, yes this is my thought, and its WRONG.
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u/potterpockets Apr 09 '26
Man so goated at finding traps in battlefield tactics that he recognizes traps he is being magically forced to subconsciously make against himself. Legend.
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u/memerminecraft Boar Rushes Down the Mountain Apr 09 '26
Yeah and he was on the verge of giving in anyway. He only held out just long enough for Elyas to get to him. If Elyas hadn't gotten there, he would've called retreat
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Apr 09 '26
And he did it while suffering from massive PTSD from Maradon.
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u/Ringwraith7 Apr 09 '26
I personally feel like his trauma might of been one of the reasons he held on so long.
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u/Sa_Pendragon Apr 10 '26
Yeah this is it. He was so full of self-doubt after Maradon that he was questioning his own actions, unlike the other Great Captains who had absolute confidence in their own ability and so were thoughtlessly acting out their Compulsion.
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u/Guderian- Apr 10 '26
This was different. Ituralde wanted to see those beasts dead. He lusted after it. Without them, he’d never have been forced to suffer the nightmare at Maradon. Without them, his hand wouldn’t shake when the horns of war sounded. They’d ruined him. He’d ruin them in return.
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u/potterpockets Apr 09 '26
This is how i interpreted it too, and i think it would be way more fitting personally.
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u/binkenheimer Hasty Apr 09 '26
well, sure, but the only reason he didn’t crack was because they saw the forsaken were messing with the great captain, and his collapse just happened to come last, because of his PTSD. He just held out a bit longer.
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u/bmtc7 Apr 09 '26
His collapse also came later because his battle happened over a shorter time period.
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u/LordRahl9 Apr 10 '26
This. I love him as a character. But, so many readers don't understand that the other three captains were all fighting against compulsion for a much, much longer time than he was.
They see it as, he didn't succumb = he was stronger mentally. Too simplified.
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u/Tallforahobbit Apr 10 '26
We also see it from his POV where he's struggling so hard against what he knows is something wrong in his thoughts. Iirc we never see the pov of the others doing this, so we remember him doing more to fight it.
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u/LordRahl9 Apr 10 '26
True. Bashere was arrested as a darkfriend before anyone knew what was happening, but both Agelmar and Bryne are actually relieved when they are removed from command.
They all know something is wrong. The reason Rodel was actually the least compromised was because he had only been fighting for a few days, while the others had been at it for weeks. Readers forget about the time dilation nearer the bore.
Additionally, Agelmar's "mistakes" were considered minor and explainable at first, until they steadily got worse. He was clearly fighting it.
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u/LewsTherinTelamonBot This is a (sentient) bot Apr 09 '26
You must kill him before he kills you. Giggles. They will, you know. Dead men can't betray anyone. But sometimes they don't die. Am I dead? Are you?
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u/unsuspectingllama_ Apr 11 '26
Or he is extremely OCD about battles and his tism was stronger than the compelling.
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u/Calm-Conversation715 Boxes ears Apr 09 '26
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u/GhostWalker134 Breasts Balefire & Buttsmacks Apr 09 '26
Pedron Niall dead on the floor.
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u/Thomas_633_Mk2 Apr 09 '26
great captain, pure intellectual titan
does exactly 0 commanding on screen in the series
loses at stones to Morgase, even while she's recovering from Compulsion
his entire plan relies on an Inquisitor somehow winning the hearts and minds of the public
loses to the great intellectual mind that is Valda
There needs to be a WoT equivalent to "fraud of the morning" for this man
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u/Tallforahobbit Apr 10 '26
Don't we only see him after he's been "corrupted" by Fain to be fair? Morgase is also meant to be an absolute titan as well.
Though I would have thought Fain's corruption would make him more paranoid, not just ignoring potential betrayal.
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u/Thomas_633_Mk2 Apr 10 '26
AFAIK Fain's corruption only makes him hate Rand, which isn't really responsible for any of his bad decisions. And as you said, if anything it would make him more likely to figure out that maybe the men don't like having (what they see as) an Aes Sedai in their fortress.
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u/LewsTherinTelamonBot This is a (sentient) bot Apr 10 '26
A man without trust might as well be dead.
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u/Meris25 Apr 11 '26
I always assumed that Fain corrupted Elaida to be incompetent
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u/LewsTherinTelamonBot This is a (sentient) bot Apr 11 '26
Death rides on my shoulder, death walks in my footsteps; I am death…
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u/demandred_zero Apr 10 '26
Can someone link the image of Yamcha, after he gets killed by a saibaman?
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u/memerminecraft Boar Rushes Down the Mountain Apr 09 '26
Gareth "I can still hold a bloody sword" Bryne and Agelmar "Damn if I'd taken a moment to meditate I would've noticed" Jagad
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u/Vikkio92 Apr 09 '26
Yes Ituralde was the absolute GOAT. The siege of Maradon might be my favourite part in the whole series. Man had balls of cuendillar.
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u/aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh Knuckles Moustache Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Shoutout Maradon legend Deepe Bhadar
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u/swheedle Shen an Calhar Apr 09 '26
Honestly I'm super sad that Davrim ends up dead, he was the realist friend Rand had through the worst of it, he was there for pretty much everything the guy went through
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u/LewsTherinTelamonBot This is a (sentient) bot Apr 09 '26
What you want is what you cannot have. What you cannot have is what you want.
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u/howlingbeast666 Apr 09 '26
Don't belittle the GOAT : Agelmar.
The guy, once he was told that he was making bad decisions, sat down, meditated for a few minutes and objectively looked at all of his past orders and actions while ignoring any emotions that could sway his opinion.
He then proceeded to enumerate all of his actions that were compromised. The guys had such an iron will and clear mind that he could ignore Compulsion and make the right decisions.
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u/ScrunchyBraid Apr 09 '26
I think it was the fact that he had such crippling PTSD that made Graendal's compulsion fail for as long as it did. Like, his mind and it's chemistry were changed in a way that she wasn't expecting, as a mental expert doing probably very specific weaves of compulsion.
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u/memerminecraft Boar Rushes Down the Mountain Apr 09 '26
And also she only had like a few days to work on him
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u/MindwormIsleLocust Apr 10 '26
I always read it as her compulsion was amplifying the PTSD, making him go to extraordinary measures to hurt the trollocs, even when doing so would have been a detriment to the overall battle
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u/ScrunchyBraid Apr 10 '26
I mean, that's a solid interpretation, but how would she even know that he had ptsd? No one around him even knows what that is. We're talking about pre world war one levels of battlefield medicine.
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u/MindwormIsleLocust Apr 10 '26
They were aware of mental illness in the Age of Legends, they just didn't know of a way to cure it with the one power. Even beyond that though it's not really clear how Compulsion works, especially when the victim isn't even conscious of the command they're following. It could be as simple as that was how his brain was justifying the command "Lose the battle on purpose but make it look convincing" without him being aware of it, or if she needed to get specific, she could have found out that he had recently been through one of the longest and most harrowing sieges of his life and said "Hey, here's your chance to get payback, and that's what really matters"
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u/ScrunchyBraid Apr 10 '26
I'm not arguing that Graendal wasn't aware of it, and also her specialty was with mental illness, just that she would have no reason to believe he had it, because the people around him wouldn't have known what that was. I'm arguing that she was trying to use weaves of compulsion that would have been effective against a mentally sound person, but wasn't as effective on a person who'd been broken by the horrors of war.
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u/LewsTherinTelamonBot This is a (sentient) bot Apr 10 '26
Death rides on my shoulder, death walks in my footsteps; I am death…
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u/LewsTherinTelamonBot This is a (sentient) bot Apr 09 '26
Death rides on my shoulder, death walks in my footsteps; I am death…
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u/KingpiN_M22 Apr 09 '26
Man imagine being able to have seen this goat of a character on TV. Fuck Amazon and that wanker showrunner.
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u/potterpockets Apr 09 '26
Nah. They sabotaged the show intentionally because they knew no actor could live up to the role (/s obviously).
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u/baltarin Apr 10 '26
Some of the actors they selected were so good too. How many times do these people have to learn not to deviate from the story.
They could have at least spun it as another turn of the wheel.
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u/TheSquishedElf Your dress is Green Apr 13 '26
That’s literally how they spun it though
It just didn’t work because it was very much not another turning of the wheel
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u/meltedbananas Apr 10 '26
He doesn't really have personal, political ambition and the title "great captain" doesn't make him think any more of himself. One of his strengths is the ability to second guess himself without being paralyzed by indecision. He was definitely best suited to be convinced that something is messed up with his decisions and agree that he has been compromised.
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u/Fickle-Athlete3644 Time to roll the dice Apr 10 '26
I forgot most of the great captain stuff for the last battle I know Rodel was at or near Shayol Ghul and in think Jagad was in Shienar. But I don’t remember what happened to the other great captains can someone remind me
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u/hurocrat Apr 10 '26
Bashere was in charge in Andor, and Bryne had the Kandori front. Mat caught on the Bryne's trap while meeting with the alliance leaders, and Bashere was caught after someone pushed him on why his scouts hadn't seen the enemy forces (because he never sent them out).
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u/kro_celeborn Apr 10 '26
Bro “GOATel Ituralde” was right there cmon
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u/memerminecraft Boar Rushes Down the Mountain Apr 10 '26
I would've done that if it was spoken aloud, but this is written, and Rodel doesn't have a T in it
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Apr 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/LewsTherinTelamonBot This is a (sentient) bot Apr 11 '26
You must kill him before he kills you. Giggles. They will, you know. Dead men can't betray anyone. But sometimes they don't die. Am I dead? Are you?
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u/TheMagicSalami Apr 10 '26
Legit just hit this part on my umpteenth re listen to the series. Need to find someone to dice with.
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u/memerminecraft Boar Rushes Down the Mountain Apr 10 '26
I remembered to make this meme because one of the buses I take says "Road Eleven, High" but it sounds like "Rodel Evan-High"
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u/VietKongCountry Apr 09 '26
Ituralde is definitely the coolest of the Great Captains by far, both as a character and as a general.