Re: Will we EVER see someone forced to the shadow with 13 Myrdrraal + 13 Channelers... - Edit 2
Before modification by Keira at 31/08/2010 10:02:59 AM
1) If yes, then who do you think will be turned?
I don't think we'll actually see it done, I think we'll see it attempted. However, I think we have definitely seen that it HAS been done to someone, and my prime suspect here is Taim. He was captured in the borderlands, then "broke free" when things had been well in-hand. We also know that there are several, IIRC 13, Aes Sedai running around the Borderlands, and again IIRC, are speculated that they are Black Ajah. Seems too convenient to me and it definitely seems like a secretive back-door way to manipulate Rand and sabotage his plans in regards to the Black Tower. Hell, it's possible that more 13BA+13M turnings have already happened in the Black Tower. We just haven't literally had the PoV.
2) If no, then why do you think this tantalizing piece of information was put out in book 1, yet never used?
We saw it again in book 3 when Egwene went through her Accepted training. I know that the Accepted ter'angreal doesn't foretell the future so much as draws out hopes and fears and creates a fairly passable reality. However I think the ter'angreal linked with Egwene's Dreamer ability might lead to more of what future was presented in her testing than most. In her testing Elaida captured Rand and brought him back to the Tower to be gentled. We know now later in the game that that didn't happen, but it COULD have happened, and partly did. If he hadn't been rescued he would have certainly been taken back to the WT and that scene could have partially played itself out, however he was rescued and the pattern split from that possible future. We ALSO know that the Great Purge of Black Ajah had already happened by that point of time in the PoV of her testing. This also is fairly closely mirroring what has happened in the real pattern. The testing also showed us Egwene though Elaida was BA, and I think it's been fairly proven, if not difinitively, that she's not; just kind of a megalomaniacal idiot.
Mesaaana is still lurking in the Tower, and I could just see her attempting to turn a new Amyrlin in this way to quietly manipulate from the shadows.
Anyway, just some thoughts.