Hey everybody and welcome back to another Wheel of Time video. Today we've got another installment in my character analysis series. In today's video we're going to do a deep dive into one of the most complex, thoughtfully constructed characters in the history of English literature. Bella the Mayor sets the bar for character depth and development and any respectable author would be wise to emulate and create characters like Bella in their stories. As with all the videos in my character analysis series, we're going to break this down into 10 sections, each giving some analysis into the different aspects of Bella's character. The sections are as follows. History before the story. Options during the story. Appearance, personality, special abilities, notable possessions, relationships, greatest moments, what happens after the story, and the overall impact and role on the story. And then at the end I'll give you my analysis a little bit of where I think Bella fits into the whole substance of the story. Before I start my analysis, let's go ahead and throw up a spoiler warning. This video will carry a spoiler warning of red. This will contain major spoilers concerning Bella's actions throughout the novels. You have been warned. But let's go ahead and dive into our video starting with Bella's history before the story. It is unknown the exact year of Bella's birth, but she spent her early years in the two rivers region of Andor. Bella had humble beginnings, getting her start as a symbol cart horse carrying barrels of ale from the farm of Tam Outthor to the small village of Emmons Field. She worked alongside Tam Outthor and has adopted son Rand Outthor for years. Bella's soul is tied to the wheel and is spun out at times of need in the pattern. It is said that Bella is the most powerful to veer in of all time, and the strength of her pull on the pattern is what caused Emmons Field to gather the three to veer and we learn about in our main story. During the day of winter night, in 998 of the new age, Bella was pulling the author's cart on the way to Emmons Field when Rand Outthor noticed a black rider. That black rider turned out to be a murderer. Now while the look of the murderer is fear, Bella was able to scare the murderer off by looking back at it. And the murderer chose at this time not to attack Rand and his father due to Bella's protection. Later, the Alphor farm was attacked by Trollix. While Rand and Tam fought off the few that attacked the house, Bella was forced to defeat the bulk of the Trollix force. She slew near 500 Trollix that had been sent to the Althor farm, saving the life of the dragon reborn before he even knew he was. She bought Rand and Tam time to escape and make it to Emmons Field. Bella decides to accompany the party led by Maraine as they escape Emmons Field, and she allows a Gwein to ride her and protects a Gwein as they ride. As Bella has supernatural power, she does not become exhausted like the other horses. And Maraine begins to become suspicious of Bella after noticing that there was no exhaustion to wash away as she was washing the exhaustion away from the other horses. Bella then goes on to defend the party from Mashadar and Shadar Logoth, and makes it all the way to Shainar after leading the other side characters like Rand, Perrin, Matt, Gwein, and Nainev, and the rest of their party all the way through the ways. Bella then leads the characters into the great blight, and it is her great need that allows them to find the eye of the world. Bella then accompanies Gwein as she heads to the white tower. Bella had always wanted to see Tarvalon, and so she decided to spend some time in the city from this point. After spending a lot of time there and seeing the site, she decides to assist the former Amarlan seat, Suar Sanche, in escaping Tarvalon. She carried Suar all the way to the rebel Isaday in Saladar. Bella then allowed a Gwein to accompany her later as a Gwein attempt to deter the harbor chains of Tarvalon into Quindiar. Bella knew that the only way the tower could be reunified was allowing Gwein to bring it down from the inside. So she allowed Gwein to be captured by the tower Isaday. Later she allowed Suar to accompany her as Bella raided the white tower, and rescued a Gwein after the Sean-Chain attack on the tower. Bella later accompanies Fayail as they attempt to fetch the Horn of Vilear. Bella rescues Ulver and takes him to safety away from the trollic camp after their party was ambushed. In the process, an entire army of Trollik's loosed arrows, and instead of allowing Ulver to be killed, Bella heroically jumped in front of all of the arrows, ending her role in the story. In regards to appearance, Bella is a shaggy brown mare. Her hair is shaggy, it's also brown. She is a mare, and a mare is a female horse. Bella has the courage of a lion, and an iron will. She is kind, gentle, and lives to serve others. She is also very humble, not letting most know of her great power. It has been said that Bella is the embodiment of the creator, and like most Messiah figures in modern religion, Bella is a seemingly perfect character. In regards to special abilities, it's much easier to list the things that Bella can't do than the things that Bella can do. However, let's list a few of Bella's most notable abilities. Bella can channel both the one power and the true power, and as powerful as a horse can be, topping the rankings among horses as channelers, as you can see here. Bella is able to enter the world of dreams in the flesh and have it not be evil. In addition, Bella has counted to infinity twice, and when Bella does push-ups, in reality what she's doing is pushing the world down. Bella has the ability to kill two stones with one bird. The only thing that it said Bella cannot accomplish is making a rock so big that she cannot lift it. Bella's most notable possession is a horseshoe terangriol that allows her to transcend time in space and exist in other realities. Bella has made appearances in the first stage through the use of this terangriol. For example, she starred in a 1960s television show called Mr. Ed, where she showed her versatility as she was an actress and played a male horse. Later in that same century, while masquerading as a horse named Secretariat, she won a triple crown in horse racing. And then later still towards the end of the first stage, she became the first horse to pilot the space shuttle. All of these accomplishments were due to her use of her horseshoe terangriol. Bella's most notable relationship other than being friends with the creator is that of a guane. Bella's special bond with the guane and has looked after guane and kept her safe over the years. Their relationship is based on a mutual respect. Bella also had relationships with many other horses in the series. Bella was a very progressive horse and although she grew up in the two rivers that was very conservative, Bella had a very open mind when it came to romance and love, intended to be very, let's call it, new age in her thinking about, engaging with other horses. She believed in non-monogamy. If you read the books closely, you'll see these interactions at work. I really invite you on your next reread to pay attention to the interaction between the horses. While Bella had many great moments, her greatest moment occurred off screen during the novels. We didn't see much about it, but it is inferred that there was actually a fifth battlefield during the last battle. In addition to the battles going on at Tarwan's Gap, in Kandor, the battles of Kameland, in Kairian, and in Shaeogul. The shadow also invaded the two rivers area again with the bulk of the shadow's forces. Bella single-handedly faced down an army of two million trolics. She was able to rally the other sentient animals and they would defeat the largest army of the shadow, allowing the rest of the forces of light to clean up the remaining scraps of the shadow's army at the fields of Merilor. Bella then traveled to Tarwan and met her ill-fated end protecting over in the Horn of Elear. One heralded, this is probably the single bravest moment in the last battle, and without it, the battle would have been lost. So while this isn't actually well known outside of the Wheel of Time companion, Bella actually lived through the last battle and survived her arrow wounds. In the first years of the fourth age, Bella gave birth to a strong cult and a splendid philly and retired to the green pastures of the two rivers. While it's unknown who the father was, it is said that Bella had an immaculate conception in Bore the Creator's Children. It can be argued that Bella is the most important character in the story. Without her assistance, the dragon reborn would be dead, a Gwain would be dead, and the forces of the shadow would have been triumphant. There is great debate about whether Rander or Gwain are Mary Sue characters, but the true Mary Sue character is actually Bella. But given that Bella is more than likely the creator, this seems like can be explained away in the story. So what do you think? Is Bella a Mary Sue? Where does Bella rank in your top characters of the Wheel of Time? Daniel Green just released a video ranking his top 10 favorite Wheel of Time characters. And while it's an amazing list and you should certainly check out Daniel's channel, I really cannot take him seriously when he doesn't include Bella. You should still watch all of his videos because they're awesome, but it doesn't change how wrong he is about not including Bella on his list. Hey guys, thanks again. I hope you enjoyed the video and I hope you learned something new today. If you are liking the content, please like the video and subscribe to the channel. If you want to support the growth of the channel, please check out my Patreon and get to know me better through using my Discord and the private posts I make there. Well, hey guys, until next time, you take care. In regards to appearance, Bella is a shaggy brown mare. Her hair is shaggy. It's also brown. She is a mare. And a mare is a female.