Hey everybody and welcome back to another Wheel of Time video. In today's video we'll be doing another installment of my character examination series, where we'll be taking a look at the mysterious and evil character known as Slayer. Before getting into the video, let's go ahead and throw up a spoiler warning. Today's video will carry a spoiler rating of red, meaning it will have major spoilers for the Wheel of Time. All the way through the final book, A Memory of Light, please watch at your own risk if you haven't finished the book series. So as with my other videos in this series, I have broken down the analysis into 10 sections that examine a different aspect of the character. The sections are as follows. History before the story. Actions during the story. Persinality. Special abilities. Notable possessions. Relationships. Greatest moments. And what happens after the story. Then I'll give you my opinion on what I think of Slayer as a character and whether or not I feel like he was executed well. So let's dive into my analysis of the Hunter for the Shadow, known as Slayer. History before the story. So Slayer has a somewhat complicated history that is really the amalgam of two separate souls with two separate pasts. So we really need to examine the history of each of these souls and then how Slayer came into being. The first of the two souls that make up Slayer is that of Isom mandrageron. Isom was born in the Borderland Nation of Malchir around 951 of the New Age. Roughly two years prior to his cousin, Landmandrageron. He was born as the nephew to the king. Isom's father, Lane mandrageron, was killed in a raid on the blight, stricken with grief and jealousy. Isom's mother, Brian, plotted with a dark friend named Cohen Fairheart to seize the throne of Malchir and set up Isom as the new king, with his mother ruling in his stead until he was old enough. The coup failed, but in attempting to take the throne, the Border forts that protected them from the blight and the Trollix, they were stripped bare in Trollix overran Malchir. Brian attempted to flee Malchir with Isom, but they were captured by Trollix and believed dead. While his mother was killed, Isom survived this encounter and was raised in the town of village near Shaeogul. He did learn many skills that he would later use as a hunter during his upbringing. The second of the two souls is that of Luke Mantir. Luke is the brother to Tygrain Mantir, who was the daughter heir of Andor prior to running away and joining the IEL. Luke was training to be her first prince of the sword as his customary for the royal brothers and Andor. The Isodai advisor to the queen of Andor at the time, Gitar and Moroso, sent Luke to the blight in the year 971 of the new age. It's unclear why she did this, but she did have the talent of fortelling. And whether this was necessary or if it was her interpretation of a fortelling, he went. The sister Tygrain would leave Andor a year later, leaving Andor without heirs and opening up the throne for a young, more gaced her kind, after the death of Queen Mordrellen. She would later join the IEL and become a maiden of the spear, marrying Janduin, a clan chief of the Tardad IEL. She would travel over the dragon wall after King Laman of Kairian cut down the Evans Doratri and started the IEL war. And that's where she gave birth to Randalfour on the slopes of dragon mount before her death. It was assumed Luke was killed in the blight, but it seems that Luke met with Isom and they were merged somehow by the dark one into one being and given several gifts that make him them an effective hunter. Later, in 978 of the new age, it was said that Janduin, the husband of the now deceased Tygrain, was on a raid into the blasted lands and was killed by a man that looked so much like Tygrain that he would not raise his spear and fight back, seemingly indicating that Rand's father was killed by Luke or Slayer at this point. Actions during the story. The first time Slayer's actions are known as during the dragon reborn is a Gwain and Niniv are attacked by a Greyman in the White Tower. They managed to wrap him up in weaves of air, but when they returned to the Greyman, they discovered that it had been stabbed in the back. They assumed it was another Greyman that did this, but we later learned that this was Slayer, although we didn't know who he was at the time. He is also the person responsible for killing the two Black Aja sisters that were being held captive in the Stone of Tear, Joya and Amiko. He killed them and nailed their tongues to the door, essentially sending a message that anyone thinking of betraying the Shadow will get the same fate. We first encounter Slayer in person in the two rivers during the Book of Shadow Rising. We meet him in his two forms. One is Lord Luke, a hunter for the horn who is helping the people of the two rivers fend off a trollic attack. Parent immediately notices that Lord Luke looks a lot like Rand, which makes sense because he's Rand's uncle. At some point during this time, Niniv visits the two rivers in the world of dreams and Slayer attempts to kill her before she escapes. Parent also encounters Slayer in the Wolf Dream, where at this point he has taken the form of Isom. He is in the two rivers to kill Pat and Fane, but is ultimately unsuccessful in doing so. Parent manages to defeat Slayer, injuring him in the world of dreams. Because he was in the world of dreams in the flesh, Slayer was injured still when he returned to the waking world. And Lord Luke ran off injured as reported by the inhabitants of Edmondsfield that saw him lead. We later see Slayer make his return in the book Winters Heart. He spies on Niniv and a Gwain in Kamlin as they meet in the world of dreams. He later kills a man and woman in formatting, believing them to be Rand and Men as he hunts them. This Slayer as his services are given to Grendal by Morden. Morden tasks Grendal with killing Paranabara and loans her the use of Slayer and a Dream Spike which prevents traveling and inhibits movement in the world of dreams. Parent and Slayer fight in the world of dreams and Slayer kills many wolves there, including copper. Parent and Slayer fight and Parent manages to take the dream spike away and destroy it in a nightmare. Parent also, despite being overmatched in his abilities in the world of dreams, manages to defeat Slayer by using that same nightmare. Slayer recovers in the town that he grew up near Shaeo Ghul where he's approached by Sending who tasks him with killing Rand during the last battle. He is about to do so when Parent stops him and they battle again. This time, Parent manages to come in the flesh and after a long drawn out battle that spans almost the entire length of the book, Parent defeats and kills Slayer with a blow to the head from his hammer. Appearance. Slayer has the ability to choose his appearance between that of Luke and of Isom. Isom is in his middle years and looks almost identical to Landmandragerin. He's very tall, close to 6-5, and is muscular with very thick arms. He's tanned with dark hair and blue eyes, although they appear black when he's in the world of dreams. Luke is also very tall and broad shouldered, with dark reddish hair and grayish white wings to his hair. He's described as having a strong resemblance to Rand. Slayer can choose to appear as either appearance in both the world of dreams and in the waking world, but he must make that change in appearance while in the world of dreams. Personality. We don't get a ton of personality from Slayer, but we do see a few conversations between him and Perrin that give us insight into his views. He is very bitter about his upbringing and the pain and suffering that he went through in his childhood. His bitterness towards humanity and towards those that are good is apparent. He comes across as evil to an extent, but not necessarily inherently evil, just more in a jaded worldview type of sense, because he was growing up around Shadow Spawn. He enjoys killing wolves for fun. He's also very, very confident in his abilities, especially in the world of dreams. He knows his worth and believes him above almost anyone other than the chosen. Special abilities. His special abilities are really where he gets this confidence. Slayer has one major special ability that really sets him apart from almost anyone. He doesn't have the ability to channel, but he does have the ability to access the world of dreams in the flesh. He can shift into the world of dreams without a channeler and without dreaming. In the world of dreams, because he's there in the flesh, he has mastered control of the world. He has incredibly strong there, probably the strongest of anybody we meet in the series, and only really matched by maybe Perrin. His mastery of the world of dreams gives him the ability to travel all around the world, as he can shift physically into the world of dreams and then move himself there. He can also change his appearance and change his personality from Luke to Isomwell there as well. While in the world of dreams, he has the ability to create weapons, shift reality, become incredibly strong, and to an extent, he'll himself, or at least, sell up a wound. Notable possessions. Slayer doesn't have any major possessions that we know of. He's able to create weapons and items within the world of dreams that meet his needs, so he doesn't really have any major need to keep possessions on him. So we don't hear about it. Relationships. We don't see any major relationships for him other than that of an adversarial relationship with Perrin. He finds an equal in Perrin something that he had not really come across in his entire life. Perrin is the first person that Slayer has come across that can match his strength and ability in the world of dreams. He has a couple family relationships that are kind of significant, although we don't see him meet any of these people in the books. Lianman Dragorin is Isom's cousin, and Rand Outhor is Luke's nephew. Greatest moments. Slayer's greatest moments as a character are his battles with Perrin. These battles are intense and they'll be really cinematic in the TV show. I'm kind of excited for it. And it's not fun to see, but when Slayer kills Hopper, it is a very significant moment in the books, both the Perrin and losing his mentor, but also to us as the reader, as most of us really connected with Hopper. It's a shot to the gut, and it's one of those things that will make him an impactful villain. What happens after the story? Well, Slayer's killed in a memory of lights, a history basically ends there. Overall, impact. So overall, what do I think of Slayer? I think he's a great villain within the series. I wish we got a bit more of his backstory as he's really connected to some of our major protagonists. He's a really dangerous villain, and his actions really impact the story. So I really like him as a villain, and his evilness is also somewhat justified in his upbringing and who he was around. There are parts where he's generally really scary, which is also kind of exciting. I'm very excited to see him on the television screen during the TV show. What do you all think of Slayer? Do you think he was executed well as a villain? Is there something I missed? Let me know in the comments below. Make sure to smash that like button if you liked the video and subscribe to the channel to be updated when I release new videos. You can also hit that bell icon right next to it to make sure that you get that notification. Also big shout out, and thank you to everybody over on Patreon for supporting what I do here. Make sure to check out my Patreon page. The link is in the description below. You can find exclusive Patreon only content there, and you can get a link to join my channel's Discord server where we talk about the Wheel of Time a whole bunch and some other random stuff. I'm fairly active there, and I love interacting with you all. Hey guys, that's it for today. Thanks again, and until next time, peace out.