I suppose thats true. But if Gawyn does not _need_ the medallion to succeed then you could say that in your theory Alivia does not play a role in fullfilling the prophecy beyond maybe giving Gawyn courage to face Rand.

So basically what I am saying is that if the medallion has a significant and meaningfull role in a Gawyn VS Rand fight, it would have to be in a more official fight where Rand has time to prepare (and embrace the source). So we can focus our attention on whether or not this would happen and ignore the possibility of Gawyn ambushing Rand via surprise attack.



My understanding of the situation was that at the time, the light was utterly screwed and on the verge of defeat. When your two choices are:

1.certain and complete defeat.
2.a small possibility of victory with failure leading to certain and complete defeat.

then taking option 2 is hardly reckless, but rather common sense. And say what you will, LTT did save the world with that act. As bad as the breaking was, the DO breaking free would have been much worse.

And even if we do consider this a mistake, its on a completely different league to Rand dying in a duel. If some random shmuck would have approached LTT while he was preparing for his final strike and challenged him to a duel over something LTT had not even done, would LTT have decided to risk everything by dying? I doubt it.

And with Rand it is even worse since Rand knows by prophecy that he is required for victory. He knows that his death would be the death of all. To risk that to satisfy some idiots(Gawyns) desire for a duel is something neither Rand or LTT should do.



I thought the next book would also jump backwards, so we get to see the timeline of TGS happening from the PoV of Mat and Perrin and as such nothing major (like Rand dying) will happen.

If Rand does die, it will likely happen in the final book rather than the next one. Or maybe right at the end of the next book when the plotlines converge. I suppose that might mean that Rand returns to life at the start of the final book though.



I don't need everything to be perfect. But I would atleast like a modicum of common sense.



She does not know the FULL truth (that Morgase is actually alive), but she does know that it was Rahvin who was responsible for everything, including using compulsion to manipulate Morgase.

She could tell Gawyn that and make it clear that Rand only attacked AFTER Rahvin had already "killed" their mother.

When Rand attacked, the palace was also defended by large groups of trollocs and Myrddraal that Rahvin had brought. Presumably some of the palace guard/servants/etc would have witnessed that and the corpses afterwards and could verify the truth that there were shadowspawn at the heart of Caemlyn during Rand's attack and that they opposed Rand and his Aiel.

Also don't forget that Rand did leave Caemlyn to Elayne. With the resources he has available he could easily have conquered the place for good. Nothing anyone could have done. That basically removed any potential motivation for Rand killing Morgase on top of everything else.

When all of this is taken together, its pretty solid proof that the shadow(Rahvin) killed Morgase, not Rand. Even for an idiot like Gawyn.



Yeah, it is possible that you are correct. I mean this is the guy that is educated enough to know the prophecies and Rand's role, but is apparently still planning on killing him despite knowing that it would doom the entire world and kill everyone (including his sister).

That takes pretty major stupidity on his part. So much so that its been suggested that he might be under compulsion or something.



Nah, Rand says to Min that he is doing the duel in an effort to try and "touch" him.



Obviously he could be lying but I doubt it. He had no real reason to hate Toram or prove himself to him. I think Rand was indeed hoping that by showing himself skilled with a sword, he could gain Torams respect as a fellow blademaster and open Toram to discussion and potential end to hostilities. Ofcourse Toram was far too crazy at this point for that to work, thanks to Fain.



Your evidence is pretty flimsy to be honest. Not saying it could not happen, but there are lots of other ways that it could happen that are equally likely.



True, but what I am saying that such a duel can be prevented by a LOT of reasons, making it unlikely. It could happen, but I just do not feel that your evidence is solid or conclusive enough to make me believe that it will. Most of your evidence says that it is going to happen, because something similar happened in other stories and because RJ parallled things occasionally so he is going to do it here too, despite how stupid it would be.

That, and my hope that Rand would be smart enough now to realise not to risk himself in a meaningless duel make me think this won't happen.

Gawyn ambushing Rand and killing him via a surprise attack while Rand is crippled by the sickness is a possibility, but as I said before in this case the medallion would not play a role.

Hmm.

Well I suppose we could see an attack by the shadowspawn on Caemlyn and Rand channeling to fight them and THEN being ambushed by Gawyn and trying to stop him with the power he is already holding and failing. But I doubt even Gawyn would attack Rand while the city was under siege by the shadow. Hmm. Unless he had descended to such insanity by then that he believed Rand had somehow brought the shadowspawn.



Do we know this for a fact? TGS was the last book I read and I seem to recall that when Rand uses balefire, it first forms before him and then surges to the target.

So for example when Rand balefires Graendal the balefire first starts forming right before Rand implying that the weaves are there, and only then the balefire itself streaks forward towards the palace.



We see that same thing when Rand nearly balefires Tam. It starts to form infront of Rand, but he comes to his senses and does not send it surging forth and so it dissipates.

Seems quite possible that the weaves never touch the target at all then, but rather are used to "summon" the balefire-energy and then send it forward. In this case the balefire would not contain weaves and would not be stopped by any ter'angreal.