I'm always in mind of the need for both halves of the Power - both genders - working together. I'm an egalitarian and so I have to be a feminist, even if I'm old-fashioned. Go figure. Looking at the way that something can be split but whole is very useful when you're analyzing books, etc...

So in RJ's world, we're repeatedly reminded that the best works - the Sword, the Eye of the World - are made when the two opposing natures acted as one. Saidin and Saidar drive each other, and they also drive the Wheel together. The best things come from acting in unison... And the Wheel itself, because it includes the Dark one, is driven by two opposing halves beyond just Saidin and Saidar.

Thematically, there's a lot of... resonance to what happened at the end of the last novel, TGS. It goes beyond Rand's use of the TP (two sides that comprise the universe work together) and Rand's acceptance of LTT as his other half (two parts of a whole joining together) at the end. In a greater way, this may spell a leap forward-by-going-backward for Rand.

When I think about LTT's voice in Rand's head, I now think about where Rand was - internally - at the time. He suffered a stripped identity and undeserved castigation in book 1 (parents =?, and "man-channeler" (thank you Travolta!)).
In book 2, Rand was named the worst man alive ("you are Dragon. It'll suck, but you gotta suffer and die." ). Later in TGH, he is literally branded with marks to further that identity. And his secret gets out and tons of people know his face since he looks totally unique.
At book 3's very end, Rand accepts that claim, that persona. He experiences a massive jolt of One Power through the Sword - and then political and personal power. Forget valuable lands, treacherous nobles, and huge armies. Rand has never had this much control over his *personal dealings* since before he left the Two Rivers. Actually, if Nyn was the Wisdom and Egwene liked him as a child, prolly not in his whole life. Maybe when he went to the Mountains of Mist with the boys...

Doesn't it make sense that as we enter book 4, Rand is starting to deal with all this, and then we see a new personality in his head? What if it's not even so much the Taint and Rand's nature as a Reborn Individual of Note. What if Rand partly created a new identity in himself in order to deal with his new life and role? Consider also, but separately, the idea that a past personality could fill that gap...

Before, he was a courageous-but-quiet kid; he was in wonder at the world. He was trusting and open, caring intensely for everyone around himself, even to his detriment. After he claimed the Dragon title officially, he felt he needed to be hard, manipulative, indirect, and self-centered (outwardly). Even excluding LTT, Rand is taking on a public identity that is vastly at odds with who he really is. That sort of thing can be stressful for anyone - especially an untrained, uneducated, farm kid who is in a world's worth of trouble. Cuckoo much?

He's put in great danger, he's scared. Then a voice starts appearing in his head. It has new ideas just when he needs them (Lanfear's visit during TSR's Stone attack). This voice isn't exactly like what Rand is going for (LTT thought he's not as hard as Al'Thor). Still, LTT shares a lot with Rand 2 - they work with people well, comfortably talking to Important People about Important Things; they're successful self-starters who give orders; they get to take off their man-stockings around many women; they can live lavish lifestyles; they get power, then wield it fairly and justly; they set the World's Safety as the highest priority...

Hell, this is making me wonder a little about when he heard the Creator's voice. Another time when his identity was in disarray and he faced mortal terror...

That aside, Rand had already been trying a change of direction - Elayne was teaching Rand how to deal with a room full of despots. He'd been molding himself into something different in the time just before he had his first LTT-episode. He was in a maleable state, wasn't he? And Rand deserves credit - he has done a lot, acting 60% of the time like half of an individual, to further something that his whole self needed desperately. Even if I'm saying that Rand *drove himself* crazy, I'm not saying it didn't advance his goals nicely.

And isn't it possible that Rand's psyche just split sometime between TDR and TSR? This sort of thing can occur without magical conduits and satanic curses. Isn't it possible that this split itself is what caused LTT to leak through? That LTT's voice is a direct product of Rand's psychological fracture?

Since TSR, we see Rand often acting as two distinct people... One part is a magnified version of the old Rand; he's even more excessively concerned with others. The other part is this guise he's assumed... He does whatever he has to do to get the best effect on other people; it all goes to accomplishing his goals.

One Rand is the old Rand at his most thoughtful, selfless, sympathetic, and wide-eyed. The New Rand possesses only the first quality - he's thoughtful, but even his generous acts are often announced to sound like an egomaniacal accomplishment.

Now look back at the lightshow in TGS's end: thematically, if Rand has "accepted himself back into himself" (my own term), then he's united two halves to the same goal. This suggests that his best work is about to happen. It took Saidin and Saidar, Servants of All working together, to cleanse the Source.

Amd these thoughts also suggest that this internal union will make it easier for Rand to join together with other "halves" that he needs. I'm talking specifically about the Seanchan & the White Tower.

Thinking about all this makes me wonder one more thing:
does Rand need to get the Shadow to work against itself? The DO keeps trying to get The Light to kill itself, doesn't he? His servants focus on it intensely - the Dark does less of its own creation than it subverts what the Light already made. After all, the World Snake does eat its own tail...

So wouldn't a Dragon need to first develop an internal balance and then use the tools of the Shadow, as his opposing force, to aid the Light against the DO?

Rand has already tapped the TP. He also used Lanfear (a little) and Asmodean (especially) to teach him to fight the Shadow. Will Rand's next move - his next "great" move - involve him using the Shadow to harm itself? Will it involve all those BA Aes Sedai? Will he have to make the Shadow somehow seal itself? I can't really speculate at what it will be, as I've already speculated enough for one night...