- I wanted the three becomes one prophecy to refer to Rand, LTT, and Moridin merging, but 1) Rand and LTT (and no third person) seemingly do that at the end of TGS, and 2) that interpretation wouldn’t be compatible with Min’s viewing of just two men touching and becoming one. I doubt it refers to what Min thinks it does, which raises the question of what it does signify.
Are you refering to the line of prophecy about Callandor, discussed by Min/Nyn/Caddy? Or an ealier viewing/dream/prophecy?
The Callandor one seems straight forward regarding use of the weapon, though it's not guaranteed.
As for Rand/LTT/Moridin, I wouldn't be so quick to discount just yet. While it appears the ending focused on the merge of LTT/Rand, it's not 100% that's all that was involved.
Remember that Moridin and Rand also "merged" during the Semi incident, when Rand used the TruePower. Remember the whole "if he moved but a hair they would touch" incident from KoD? Well that's what happened. It's my early belief that Rand was able to use the TP with Moridin acting as the conduit, as opposed to Rand drawing the TP himself explicitly from the DO. Of course, I see no reason why the DO would deny such an attempt if it was directly via Rand, as this error by Rand should have far-reaching consequences....perhaps disasterous. The DO has touched him directly...mind, body and soul. That can't be good.
So, the point being that there is still the possibility that those 3...Rand, Moridin, LTT...have "merged".
- Speaking of prophecies, I always imagined the one about Rand’s staff would come together with the ones dealing with his blindness: so much for that thought. Also odd that the blindness prophecy came up twice in the book. A memory of light indeed.
When first reading that, my immediate thought was that Rand was once again going into hiding, and was going to use the beggar persona to avoid drawing attention. He was so loose of mind, his world crashing around him....I figured he was "running away" at that point. Of course, it remains to be seen what he does next after the Dragonmount episode....much is still up in the air.
- It strikes me that the population of Hindistam would make an almost ideal fighting force for the DO at TG: trying to kill everyone in sight with an inhuman energy and regenerating on a daily basis.
That's funny, kind of. Sad, but funny. I'm hoping it's a one-trick pony, only in that town. Scary stuff, to have that spreading around the land. Shit's getting weird.
- Why does SH leave the access terangreal behind for Rand? I thought at the time he might have tinkered with it in some way, but that doesn’t seem to have been the case.
Needs more thought, but at this point I'm wondering if many events should be seen as working together in an effort to further the DO's cause. Start with Rand's dream with Moridin. Moridin claims Rand sought the dream, but it's not clear to me. Moridin seemed very calm and relaxed, almost as if he expected such a meeting. He also planted seeds in Rand's mind, notably the need to use balefire to "defeat" the chosen. This is not insignificant....balefire is an enemy of the Pattern, and Moridin knows this very well. Next comes SH freeing Semi, and instructing her to capture Rand once and for all, giving her the adam. But as you note, he leaves the CK behind...curiously. During the Semi incident, we have the merging of Moridin/Rand, and Rand using the TP....bad, bad move. We then have Moridin/TP-infected Rand clinging to the CK as if it's his only lifeline...and using it to spread balefire like mad...just as Moridin suggested he would need to do. In effect, Rand is further the collapse of the Pattern...much to the DO's delight.
Rand's destruction of the CK when on DM is very significant, along the lines for the reasons noted above. He was driven to it's use due to Moridin/DO's influence, and he was helping to destroy the Pattern. He was willing to destroy near countless innocent lives....it was getting very scary. With Rand's madness increased due to Moridin/DO infection, the CK was becoming the end-all for Rand, and he was on the verge of destroying the world with it. The thing had to go for Rand to have any chance....or rather, for the world to have any chance.
- How/why does Rand initiate his meeting with Moridin? Although Rand views Moridin’s asking why Rand brought him there with suspicion, I can’t imagine what Moridin would have to gain from asking a question he knew the answer to in this case. Come to that, I can’t remember any prior scene in which Ishy asks Rand anything with the seemingly genuine hope of getting information from him. On the other hand, if Rand had initiated it, why would he have set it in the palace in which he had met with Ishy of all places?
I touched on this above. The best we can say is Rand took no conscious actions to initiate that meeting, at least none he shared with us. At this time, I think it was Moridin manipulating Rand, for the reasons noted above, in part at least. Moridin was much to cool, calm and sure of himself. Of course, that could have just been a facade. However Moridin pulled Rand into the meeting initially way back when (can't recall the previous book, tFoH maybe?), it was Moridin manipulating TAR then, and given how the scene played-out in tGS, I would bet it was Moridin manipulating TAR yet again. He basically threw Rand out of TAR when he was finished with him. In addition to sending Rand down the path of using balfire, he also planted seeds about the inevitability of the DO winning, during one turning of the Wheel or another. It's this very premise that nearly leads Rand to destroying the world entirely when on DM. Overall, this meeting seems much too beneficial for Moridin for it simply to be happenstance.
- Surely it would have been far simpler for SH to have killed Egwene himself or ordered one of the Forsaken to do it than to order Sheriam to have her deposed? I suppose he might not have wanted to take the chance of the rebellion becoming so demoralized at her death that it would fizzle out altogether, but seeing to the work himself would have left a far greater possibility of success.
SH? Surely that was not SH who visited Sheriam. My guess is it was Mesaana. (In fact, reading it again there's no way it was SH.) She all but guaranteed Moridin at the beginning during their meeting that she would deliver a broken Tower. This was becoming less likely as time went on, and so Mesaana went to Sheriam to instruct her regarding the Rebel camp. It wasn't a call for Sheriam to remove Egwene, who was locked away in the Tower, but rather to disrupt the rebel camp's ability to support Egwene.
- Is there any chance at all that Mat won’t read Verin’s letter? I mean, this is an epic fantasy series, after all!
Very little to no chance. He'll read it. But what does it say? And why did Verin have a "stack" of them? Who else got letters from Verin? Given how things went for her with Egwene, my initial guess is that the letters contain names of DF's. Mat got a letter about those near/around/associated with him, but Verin could not risk him knowing what she knew at that time (or rather how she knew, so on and so forth). She had to have time to initiate her death and hold the meeting with Egwene. I suppose a number of DF's were revealed by Verin to people other than Egwene in this manner.
I would slave, to pave the way, to sink your ship of fools.
Initial observations and questions on finishing the book
25/10/2009 08:56:37 PM
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Re: Initial observations and questions on finishing the book
25/10/2009 11:10:41 PM
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Looking ahead to ToM
25/10/2009 11:47:31 PM
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Re: Looking ahead to ToM
26/10/2009 01:33:47 AM
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Re: Looking ahead to ToM
26/10/2009 01:42:50 AM
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Re: Looking ahead to ToM
26/10/2009 04:27:56 AM
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Some responses
26/10/2009 03:46:31 PM
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Re: Some responses
26/10/2009 07:14:51 PM
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Re: Some responses
26/10/2009 08:26:32 PM
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Re: Some responses
26/10/2009 09:45:58 PM
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Re: Some responses
26/10/2009 10:22:07 PM
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Rand and Moridin revisited
27/10/2009 01:28:55 PM
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Re: Rand and Moridin revisited
27/10/2009 02:46:54 PM
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Nice idea about the TP turning in on itself to defeat the DO. I like it!
27/10/2009 02:52:03 PM
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Re: Initial observations and questions on finishing the book
29/10/2009 07:19:08 PM
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I'm thinking the same. The 3-1 prophecy is about Rand Elayne and Aviendah
12/11/2009 11:19:44 AM
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Rand fulfilled the Seanchan prophesy...
30/10/2009 01:18:50 AM
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That's a really really good point. I Hadn't thought of it that way before. *NM*
30/10/2009 03:33:29 AM
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