Well basically what I mean with the sickness is that whether or not it will have an effect will depend on how Gawyn might proceed here.

Obviously if Gawyn goes the route of trying to challenge Rand to a honorable duel and so on then Rand would obviously have the necessary time to embrace the source and suffer through the sickness this causes before the duel started. He could then keep hold of the power (the sickness seems worst when he grabs hold of the power, then gets better) during the entire fight.

However since Gawyn is such a nutcase who believes Rand is some crazy murdering animal, it seems quite possible that rather than an official challenge or the like, he will just ambush Rand unexpectedly and try to basically murder him as quickly and as efficiently as possible. In this case Rand is pretty much helpless, medallion or not. He needs time to reach the source due to the sickness, time Gawyn's surprise ambush would not give.

Basically my point here is that if Gawyn manages surprises Rand, he won't need the medallion at all to kill Rand. The medallion is not required.



No denying that Rand has acted like an idiot before.

I guess I am kinda hoping that now that he seems to have merged with the more experienced LTT, he would act smarter in the future and we won't get these kinds of stupid mistakes anymore.

There is really only 2 books left and the next book will be more about Perrin and Mat. Would it really hurt to have atleast a single book where Rand is actually a truly intelligent and competent hero.

You know what I would like? I would like a scene where Gawyn arrives, blames Rand for his Mothers death and challenges Rand to a duel only to have Rand say that he won't be so selfish as to risk the entire world over some stupid duel with an ignorant moron like Gawyn, and then orders the hordes of Aiel with him to capture Gawyn and throw him into a dungeon until the last battle is over.



Elayne knows the truth. He could ask her. I would expect that the word of his sister and queen would still hold atleast some worth to Gawyn. There is also the fact that when Rand invaded, the palace was defended by trollocs. Surely there are still some soldiers Gawyn could question to confirm that.

Also remember that Egwene/AS have told neither Gawyn nor Gareth Bryne the truth about any of this. GB for example still thinks that Morgase willingly betrayed Andor when we know that she was simply a victim of Rahvins compulsion. Not even Siuan has told him which I think is a really twisted and cruel thing to do.

I hope when GB finally learns about Rahvin, and about how the Siuan/Egwene/AS has kept in him in the dark despite all the support and help he gave them, he will get really pissed off and call them on it.



I don't think this is really close to a potential duel with Gawyn. This was not with real swords as you say, but most importantly this happened BEFORE Rand went to SL and did the whole balefire-joining with Moridin and before he lost his hand.

And I seem to recall that it was less about proving his superiority, and more about trying to impress Toram to make him more pliable to Rand's political approaches.



Obviously if the pattern wants Rand dead, he will die. The pattern could easily arrange for Rand to slip and break his neck if it wanted to. I just don't know if he really has to die this way, or if Gawyn has to be the one to do it.



But Elayne already has those bodyguards of hers, and even then there are more than enough maidens around to guard both Rand AND Elayne.



Maybe. As you say anything could be arranged. Though you would expect that if Rand goes to Caemlyn, Nynaeve will join him to visit her friend Elayne if nothing else.



Obviously there are thousands of possibilities. There is nothing in your theory that is impossible as such. It might very well happen the way you say.

I am just being devils advocate here by trying to point out things where things might not make sense. Your theory relies greatly on speculation and on the assumptions that things will follow very closely to Arthurian legends. I guess we shall see.




Maybe. Though most people believe that refers to Callandor. As do I. Maybe we will discover that this prophecy was misinterpreted, but to be honest I really doubt it.

The whole stab each other simultaneously thing would also be a bit repetitive. We already had that with Rand and Ishy in book 2.



How do you know? Did RJ confirm that or is there something in the book that says this?