I also think the dragon motif is used precisely so that it can be inverted at the end to make it a traditional Western view.
I think it's the other way around.
Jordan made Rand a "dragon" so he could spend most of the series playing on the west vs. east conflicting interpretations to keep Rand's dual nature ambiguous, turn him into the slayer/tyrant/out of control beast aspects associated with the mythical western dragons, before making his benevolent/saviour aspects disappear almost altogether (the ultimate fire spitting unleashed dragon is Rand with his Choedan Kal in TGS, with the power to destroy Creation if he chose to, which he almost did) then having the epiphany out of which Rand emerged as the formidably strong and benevolent dragon of eastern tradition. Further evidence of this is how pre-epiphany Rand scoured and made the land die, balefire now his weapon of choice, images associated with western monster dragons, vs. how post-epiphany Rand is now associated with traditional images of chinese traditions, from Rand's new power over the elements (where he walks, the skies clear) and fertility (where he walks, things grow and ripe magically). A few more examples of chinese imagery occuring when Rand leaned the right way and took major steps toward becoming what he should be is when he made a lake appear at Rhuidean. Some chinese dragons have those powers to draw water out of the earth or make it rain.
So you have it upside down, I think. Don't forget for RJ AMOL was all one book, and Rand's epiphany chronologically happened at the end of act 2. The emergence of Rand as benevolent dragon is complete, at about 2/3 into the finale of the series. Things have moved now to Life vs. Death, the matter of Rand's nature is settled, there just remains the matter his allies accepting it fully.
The associations of Rand to Lucifer are related to Lews Therin and his nature as the greatest and his fall.
We have 4th age verses celebrating the Prince of Dawn and Lord of the Morning quite differently from all the fears surroundings Rand as "Dragon Reborn": "Let the Prince of the Morning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs. Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the Dark, and the great sword of justice defend us."
Logain's the male half of Egwene as leader of the channelers. He's the one who will re found their organization on a new glorious basis after "the world's worst nightmares" about males channelling the One Power will become all too real when they emerge out of the Black Tower.
As for christian parallels, when these were brought up to Jordan he said some existed but warned that he conceived of Rand far more as a cultural Hero in the tradition of King Arthur than a close Jesus/Messiah parallel. Unless he lied, as far as we can tell he wasn't in the habit of in Q&A, it seems unlikely he overplays the Christian parallels in the finale, the way for instance J.K. Rowling has done. It's likely to be there, somehow, but more toned down.
This message last edited by DomA on 09/11/2012 at 10:53:56 PM
I figure I have one last chance to get out my underlying assumption on the series
08/11/2012 12:32:46 AM
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The other way around, I believe.
08/11/2012 01:43:00 AM
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Interesting, a few questions.....
08/11/2012 05:25:48 AM
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Everything about the Blight the sealing and the nature of the Dark One indicates TAR
08/11/2012 06:44:14 PM
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I'm not so sure about a few things
08/11/2012 05:28:18 PM
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Re: I'm not so sure about a few things
08/11/2012 09:38:21 PM
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I think you may be trying to hard to satisfy all of the various Dreams, Visions etc...
10/11/2012 12:41:03 AM
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Re: I think you may be trying to hard to satisfy all of the various Dreams, Visions etc...
10/11/2012 06:54:44 PM
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I don't think the Finn theory is likely
11/11/2012 08:14:59 AM
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Re: I don't think the Finn theory is likely
11/11/2012 06:18:01 PM
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Re: I don't think the Finn theory is likely
12/11/2012 05:48:20 PM
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Moiraine and Lanfear
12/11/2012 06:06:11 PM
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Re: Moiraine and Lanfear
12/11/2012 06:45:22 PM
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Re: Moiraine and Lanfear
12/11/2012 11:45:40 PM
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Re: Moiraine and Lanfear
16/11/2012 12:11:28 AM
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I don't think so
16/11/2012 01:22:55 AM
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dang it, somehow a bunch of my message vanished
16/11/2012 03:36:00 AM
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Re: dang it, somehow a bunch of my message vanished
16/11/2012 05:25:29 PM
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Re: I don't think the Finn theory is likely
12/11/2012 08:26:20 PM
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Re: I think you may be trying to hard to satisfy all of the various Dreams, Visions etc...
11/11/2012 05:58:47 PM
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Re: I think you may be trying to hard to satisfy all of the various Dreams, Visions etc...
11/11/2012 08:37:36 PM
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I always thought fades were just channelers and they used the TP instead of the OP
15/11/2012 06:29:55 PM
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Re: I always thought fades were just channelers and they used the TP instead of the OP
16/11/2012 12:20:17 AM
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Think of it as them being learners not sparkers. Or maybe wilders.
18/11/2012 07:29:17 PM
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Re: Think of it as them being learners not sparkers. Or maybe wilders.
18/11/2012 10:40:49 PM
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No DO ok is a good explanation of that
19/11/2012 09:07:27 PM
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Re: No DO ok is a good explanation of that
20/11/2012 01:32:49 PM
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The Blight is an example of compressed reality
20/11/2012 08:46:10 PM
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Re: The Blight is an example of compressed reality
20/11/2012 09:56:13 PM
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Re: The Blight is an example of compressed reality
23/11/2012 08:57:10 PM
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Re: The Blight is an example of compressed reality
23/11/2012 11:38:55 PM
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I think as a channeler she had a legitimate sense of the folding.
26/11/2012 10:31:26 PM
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We obviously disagree about the series
09/11/2012 02:40:07 AM
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Re: We obviously disagree about the series
09/11/2012 10:30:19 PM
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