It is something we just had to expect when Sanderson came in to finish the series. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 15/01/2013 11:26:11 AM
I believe RJ is on record that he had the final scene envisioned from the start, but it is in the nature of such things to jot down outlines without filling in all the details even when they are already decided. Once the small by pivotal details are decided the author is unlikely to forget them—but if he dies before he can record them in their entirety that gives his successors real problems. The same thing happened over and over throughout HoME, and that was assembled by Professor Tolkiens SON, not just an up-and-coming fan and author his wife and publisher tapped to finish his work.
Yep, there's no writer out there, or damn few and I'm sure RJ wasn't one of them, that doesn't rewrite scenes during edit, usually after having an editor and test person(s) read and give an opinion. I'm sure Sanderson tweaked tons of them, I'd just bet that was especially complete and BS didn't see the hole and didn't want to tweak it, or he'd have at least tried to hang some lanterns or arrange some alternatives. I don't think the ending meshed up, because Alivia plays virtually no noted role in the battle in spite of much being made of her being more powerful than Nyneave, the only person more powerful who has any screen time and lots of battle training. It's like some 'oops moment' occurred. I'd half suspect RJ meant to have Rand-Moridin wake up with Alivia there, her attack him and him reason with her and him make a getaway, with her rendezvousing to give him clothes, then her explaining to everyone that she killed Moridin in body-obliterating fashion and them accepting that someone with as much power and battle experience as Alivia could take down a weakened and confused Forsaken. Except the problem there is that they wouldn't have felt Rand channel because he couldn't channel anymore, and that for that matter Alivia wouldn't have sensed any 'weaves' he used and assumed he was using the True Power and was indeed Moridin... except worse, then Rand wouldn't have later been surprised he couldn't channel. So I feel like RJ had his final scene and just figured he'd tweak everything into place, and Sanderson just didn't manage to cover down on it.
Nice thing about BS though is he does do annotations and he's always upfront about 'screwed that one up' or 'didn't really make much sense', so maybe we'll get an answer inside the next year or so.
We will never get every scene exactly as an author originally envisioned, let alone as they would have finally envisioned, because if they had been pre-written in that detail (particularly for very descriptive writers like the Professor and Jordan) they would have already been released. It IS more frustrating with pivotal/closing scenes like that one though, and I agree Alivias absence from both the Last Battle (which lasted for DAYS and was channeling intensive, after all) and Rands body swap is glaring.
It is also hard to imagine the Lights Eternal Champion abandoning his unborn children (wonder what LTT would think of that idea, since he slew the only children he ever had.) It was one thing when he seemed likely to die, but CHOOSING to leave them? All that crap about "I cannot inflict the pain of losing me on my lovers" suddenly turns to "later, hoes..."? No way.
Yeah, it totally doesn't fit, the scene felt akward and had me going 'huh?' a bit even before Cannoli drew the 'X' on it but it being the final scene, and on audio, I wasn't really plot hole gazing at the time. It's just a big no brainer, the scene is unrealistic. I don't feel it spoils things though, I'm just slapping on a mental patch that the girls told his close friends and family in private once they felt Rand had enough time to be safely away so they couldn't spoil his disappearance form the world accidentally or try to talk him out of it.
Yeah, wrongly or not, I took that to be implied. Maybe people are not taking it for granted because Jordan is known for describing everything at exhaustive (and exhausting) length, so anything he leaves unmentioned is assumed to not occur. On the other hand, he DID say he wanted to leave some loose ends, and obviously those would not be directly connected to the DO, so this is a prime candidate.