I realize that I've been dismissive of the literary value of Wheel of Time for some time. I always viewed it as entertainment. And on that count, there was a series of massively disappointing books - Path of Daggers, Winter's Heart, Crossroads of Twilight - the last certainly being the worst, and in many ways the breaking point for me - but I really did have a fun time reading the first six books, and Book 7 was okay, I guess. I also liked Knife of Dreams and The Gathering Storm moderately well, and when New Spring came out I was actually sad, because I had never read it as a short story and when the book came out, I got "classic Jordan" after several books of "writer's block Jordan" and remembered exactly why I liked the series in the first place (and, coincidentally, I was finally able to conclude that the reason I stopped liking the series had less to do with me changing than the series going downhill).

Why am I mentioning this?

Well, because I keep coming back to my fundamental, cloudy, muddled theory about the end of the series. It has a whole Hell of a lot to do with the prophecies, "twice dawns the day" and all that.

Essentially, it says his blood will be spilled on the rocks of Shayol Ghul, which most people now assume will be the Aiel, since they call themselves the "Blood of the Dragon". Okay, but he still has to die and then live again. Three women in a boat, the old Arthurian legends - this is all still central to what will happen.

I realize that it's been massively unpopular, but I still wonder if Rand's life will be transferred to another body because his is just too damaged. It's possible that Ishamael would then inhabit Rand's body due to the link. Or maybe Ishamael takes control of Rand's body and his life force is transferred to another body. I realize it all sounds silly, but there are a whole LOT of people who seem to have multiple consciousnesses (Rand himself already has LTT, Mat has his memories, and of course we still don't know exactly what's up with the Luc/Isam couple).

Why, you might ask?

Well, Rand's old name is Lucifer, essentially - Lord of the Morning, and he's the Dragon. This is all highly NEGATIVE imagery in our world, and Jordan, while not specifically stating he was writing about our world, implies it in the very beginning of the series (Mosk and Merk, Materese, etc.).

And then there's Logain, who is a Christ figure with a halo of glory around him every time Min views him. Logain, which sounds like the Greek λογος (logos), as in "In the beginning was the λογος, and the λογος was with God, and the λογος was God." It doesn't just mean "word", but also "proportion, ratio, harmony".

I have always been convinced that somehow, Logain slays the Dragon and saves the world, but for that to happen, for the roles to invert, somehow Rand has to not be "the Dragon", or at least seem so for purposes of later legend.

So there. I have said it multiple times but I'm going on record about it, vague as it all is.