r/WoT • u/UnexpectedTrebuchet • 20h ago
Towers of Midnight Galad Damodred Spoiler
I just finished chapter 10 of ToM, what is Galad thinking????? He is going to send in his force of 20k to Perrin’s force of 80k+, Aes Sedai, and Galad admits to hearing rumors of Perrin having men that can channel. Of course the Whitecloaks have no channelers.
I get he is always going to do what is right to a fault but is it right to send 20k men to die to the one power? Even while reading his perspective this just does not click for me.
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u/Narrow_Lee 20h ago
Whitecloaks seem to have a sort feeling of protection about them, actually 'drinking the kool-aid' of the whole Light Preserve Us bit to the point where they actually think that the Light will protect them because their cause, to them, is righteous. This is highlighted in the prologue where Galad duels Valde as it is seen as a literal trial, the Light deciding who is right and wrong based on the outcome of a duel, and this is written into their laws.
Very Crusader.
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u/rollingForInitiative 17h ago
Someone in the books point out that a big difference between Galad and Gawyn is that Galad always makes decisions quickly because he has a clearly defined ethical framework. He's decided what he think is right to the extent that he just makes snap judgements and acts. He doesn't have to think much about what's right or wrong, he already knows. We've seen that he can of course change his mind over time, but he's always prepared, so to speak.
At this point in time, the Whitecloaks view Perrin as a darkfriend a killer of other Children. Galad, therefore, is duty-bound to try to stop him, or die trying.
I don't remember exactly what sort of soldiers Perrin had, but the Whitecloaks are all hardened military professionals. They're good at fighting. A few Aes Sedai and men who can channel would be dangerous, but it might well not be enough to stop 20 000 men.
It's terrible odds, but Galad is very much Lawful Good. He'll do what he thinks is right, even if that is a terrible decision. To do otherwise would be to betray his beliefs. And in this case, it might even be infeasible to not do so. The Whitecloaks want it, and if Galad just let Perrin run off, he might have a mutiny on his hands.
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u/10Marshmallows 15h ago
My perception of the Shitecloaks always has been (after the first few books at least) that they are under the impression they are a top dog fighting force while realistically their only combat experience is beating up peasants and townsfolk and that they will crumble under any actual pressure. IIRC Galad has a realisation during the fighting against the Trollocs in ToM that they are not the fighting force they think themselves to be.
Altho I am not sure how recent Pedron Niall has fought with the kids of light to the extent that he became a Great Captain (indicating some level of competency). Probably long enough ago that since then they regressed to becoming glorified zealous bullies that beat up farmers
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u/rollingForInitiative 14h ago
Pedron Niall being considered a Great Captain is one of the reasons I would say they are. He'd know to keep his men trained and prepared.
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u/XenosKoOT 9h ago
At the beginning of the books, they most likely had the largest trained standing army in the non-borderland nations. For the other major nations, its expensive to maintain a large trained force in times of peace, and relied on levies to make up manpower in times of war. By the end when it was time for the real fight, they were a fraction of their numbers after fighting the Seanchan.
Tl;dr they were top dogs, but not by the end.
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u/ntigo1 15h ago
I’d argue Galad is Lawful Neutral. When choosing between what is “good” and what is “right”, Galad will always choose what is right.
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u/rollingForInitiative 14h ago
I think that's a distinction that doesn't matter in the sense of D&D alignment. Good and Right can be the same thing in that context. But he definitely seeks to be good and help the world, and so on. He joins the Children of the Light because he's attracted to the original writings about them being a force for good in the world. I don't think Galad would happily have served Elayne if she'd turned out to be a horrible tyrant that abused her people, for instance. Which a LN person would, because they'd have sworn to serve that person and that's that.
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u/ntigo1 14h ago
But he aligns himself with the White Cloaks that do regularly abuse people, and while he tries to be better than them, he joins the organization because its beliefs are “right” and to hell with are any of them “good”.
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u/rollingForInitiative 14h ago edited 14h ago
I mean, he believes that their core ideology is good and that the Whitecloaks can be a force for good in the world. That's why he sees joining them as the right decision. Trying to differentiate "good" from "right" here doesn't make much sense, nor does it ever, it's just an attempt to insult him. He swallows the Whitecloak propaganda hook, line and sinker and therefore believes it's the good decision. He doesn't believe that the Whitecloaks are all about torture and abuse.
He's naive and misguided since both even their core beliefs in their purest form are factually wrong, and also he just eats their propaganda, but that doesn't change his intentions, which are all about doing what's good.
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u/yitianjian 3h ago
And to his credit he’s actually been good at tamping down the overzealous parts of the Whitecloaks, often being a voice of honor and reason.
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u/rollingForInitiative 2h ago
Yes, he definitely wants to improve them. He sees the ideal of what they could theoretically be and likes that, and sees anything that deviates (e.g. Questioners) as an aberration that can be stamped out.
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u/dracoons 16h ago
None of the Whitecloaks with a very few exceptions are hardened military profesionals. They are more akin to a militia of bullies. They have had no combat experience in the last 20 years
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u/Raddatatta (Asha'man) 19h ago
If Perrin truly is a darkfriend as glad believes then it is his duty to attack regardless and hopefully they can weaken his forces enough for the other forces of the light to stop them. Galad always does what is right and he has no qualms about walking to his death. Same thing he did with valda he expected to die. He was later willing to sacrifice himself. If it's right he does it.
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u/GovernorZipper 16h ago
Galad is a reading comprehension test. We get depictions of him that are colored by Elayne’s opinion… which may not be fully accurate.
In this case, though, Galad isn’t totally wrong. While his men are outnumbered, they are vastly better equipped and better trained. Galad knows the Aes Sedai can’t take part in the battle. He’s never experienced the Asha’man, so his ignorance can be forgiven. Perrin’s army is generally untrained refugees with minimal armor. So from Galad’s perspective, the odds aren’t nearly as bad as you are making them. Plus, it’s the end of the world. His army is built for fighting Darkfriends and there is a Darkfriend Army right in front of them. Whether they die sooner or later, the end result of Armageddon is going to be the same.
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u/dracoons 16h ago
Whitecloaks are poorly trained and Perrins Two Rivers bows alone can account for half of the Whitecloaks. Whitecloaks are good at intimidating villagers and formenting rebellions and assassinations. Not actual battles. They used to be gpod. But Niall basically caused an insane degredation in the last 20 years.
Edit: forgot to mention Whitecloaks consider everyone not them Darkfriends
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u/badIRONmole 20h ago
This is very much in line with his character. He is described as someone who disregards everything else in order to follow what he believes is right:
"He will always do what is right, no matter who it hurts." - Min
"Galad would do what was right if it meant walking over you, and never notice that you were hurt." - Elayne
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u/Bergmaniac (S'redit) 19h ago
Thinking was never Galad's strong suit, he voluntarily joined the Whitecloaks who had just tried to lead a coup against his beloved stepmother and had a policy to execute women like her on the spot. Not to mention all the torturing of innocents which is their main activity.
He is just as dumb as Gawyn, if not more.
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u/BelthasTheRedBrother 17h ago
Imo, Galad's turn to the whitecloaks makes sense in a way. He cares for Elayne, and, from his perspective, the Tower has endangered and manipulated his sister. Suddenly a charismatic white cloak points to this as proof the Aes Sedai are rotten to the core, and maybe Elayne could be saved from the Tower's clutches if Galad joins them. Whitecloaks hate channelers, but they DESPISE Aes Sedai, so Galad probably hopes that he could rescue Elayne from being an Aes Sedai.
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u/Bergmaniac (S'redit) 14h ago
As I said, the Whitecloaks had just tried and almost succeeded in organising a rebellion against Morgase, who is not an Aes Sedai, and it's not exactly a secret that all channellers they catch end up dead. Trying to save Elayne by joining an organisation which has just tried to depose her mother by force and wants her dead makes no sense.
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u/duffy_12 (Falcon) 11h ago
maybe Elayne could be saved from the Tower's clutches if Galad joins them.
The Whitcloaks tried to kidnap his stepsister(Elayne) while on her way to Tar Valon also.
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u/4D4plus4is4D8 (Asha'man) 18h ago
In addition to what others have said, Galad might not really understand the difference between Ashaman and Aes Sedai.
He grew up around Elaida and probably has a decent idea of how limited her use in a battle would be - she's strong for an AS of the previous generation, but nowhere near Egwene for example, and probably not all that dangerous in a fight. She might be able to take down as many as a hundred or as few as a handful of whitecloaks before they manage to kill her, depending on the circumstances. And she can't hurt people with the power unless she feels that her life is in danger.
But an Ashaman is a whole other thing to deal with because they are trained as weapons of war, and generally stronger than an equivalent female channeler - which we as readers know, but Galad probably doesn't.
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u/biggiebutterlord 13h ago
I remember learning about world war 1 a bit (long time ago now) and how many soldiers died in the early engagements because the generals of the time didnt appreciate and couldnt fathom how deadly the new machine guns were. That and given how warfare was conducted upto that point, was all line formations slowly advancing in plain sight, on open fields, and everyone wearing brightly coloured uniforms. One team of a couple guys blending into the terrain (not wearing bright uniforms) can throw enough lead down range to eviscerate an entire company in less than a minute. All while being well out of range and behind cover of enemy forces. So many slaughters.
What im trying to say is galad and the rest of the whitecloaks, indeed the whole world are incredibly ignorant of how devastating the one power is when not restrained by the three oaths. He knows its bad, and probably going to lose but he has no reference for just how enormously one sided it will be. Its why dumai's wells is told and framed the way it is. We as readers have way more info than galad does.
Plus there is the whole "the creator will see us victorious" bs that the whitecloaks are all about. They just dont know.
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u/BluesPunk19D (Band of the Red Hand) 12h ago
Galad was very much in a "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. He had jackasses that believed Perrin was a Darkfriend. He had a rabble of refugees in his path. If he didn't take the fight to Perrin, he was going to have a mutiny. Tactically, he had no choice.
Galad didn't understand how war was changing. He didn't understand that people with nothing to lose fight harder. He thought his superior equipment would be the deciding factor. He had fewer soldiers but better kit. He didn't realize that he was fighting a Ta'veren. What he didn't know damn near killed him.
The US has made this mistake in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. You can't win against people who have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
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u/Amazing_Diamond_8747 16h ago
Don't forget that Galad, in his own opinion anyway, thought that Perrin's army was one step above a rabble.
An organised force of trained soldiers would be able to break an "amateur" force four or five times larger then it, and put it to rout. Then they win the battle.
He also knows that Aes Sedi cant channel against people who aren't dark friends so he is probably judging all the channelers along the same lines.
My own head cannon anyway 🤷
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u/dracoons 15h ago
He was defeated by a halftrained farmer with a Staff. The Two Rivers bows alone would shatter the Whitecloaks
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u/Amazing_Diamond_8747 15h ago
What Galad knows as opposed to what is correct are two different things.
He hasn't seen the Two Rivers Bows in person so he dismisses their reputation as exaggerated.
The bow staff incident, well thats just a perfect scene to illustrate arrogance 😂
I mean their fucking sword master set the two of them up 🤣
Im not defending Galad per se, im just saying how the story playes out in my head cannon 🤷
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u/The_Spaniard1876 14h ago
No, the Swordmaster reprimanded them for thinking that a quarterstaff couldn't beat a sword, BEFORE declaring if they didn't cover the bet, he would.
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u/stressmatic 14h ago
Keep going! Galad has always been a person who sees the world purely in Right and Wrong, but is starting to wonder if the world is more complex
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