Signing and Q&A with Brandon at Polaris

[herid]

I went to the signing and to the Q&A session with BS today at the Polaris convention in Toronto.

He didn't reveal anything major but he did say a few interesting things.

 

• He said that up until the last few weeks of his life RJ didn't want anybody to finish the books in case he died and even wanted all the notes, outlines etc destroyed. He only changed his mind a few weeks before his death. I suspect he mentioned this in prior interviews but this was the first I've heard about it myself.
   
  
• He said that the scene with the borderlander farmers in tGS prologue and the one with the borderlander Watch Tower in ToM prologue were written by RJ and that they were some of the last complete scenes RJ wrote (he mentioned this in earlier interviews).
   
  He refused to say who wrote "The last that could be done" from tGS.
   
  
• He wrote the scenes of Egwene's dinners with Elaida in tGS. RJs notes suggested just one dinner scene but BS decided that it would work better if it was split in two.
   
  
• He confirmed the mythology connection to Perrin being wounded in the leg in the fight with Slayer in ToM that was suggested by Hael Me in this thread.
   
  
• I asked him whether the second method to destroy cuendillar (the first is TP) can be figured out based on available info and the laws of the world of WoT. He said he doesn't think so but that the method is such that when/if we see it we should feel that it does conform to the rules of the WoT universe. Unfortunately, I can't recall his exact wording but I don't think the way he said implied that we would definitely see it happen.
   
  
• I asked about Galad and his parallels with Mordred that I discussed here. He started nodding before I finished describing the parallels and said that yes, he was aware of those. But he of course didn't say anything specific about how exactly this might play out. He did say that he has much less freedom with Galad than with some other characters as Galad's plotline was mapped out in detail by RJ.
   
  
• I also asked him again (Terez asked him about it on my behalf before) about why Taim when he first shows up in LoC says that he shaved because of the heat, yet it's mentioned twice in that very scene that he is not sweating and he later teaches Rand the antisweating trick and tells him that it works so well that Rand would soon be able to completely ignore even extreme heat and cold. I discuss this in detail in my blog as I believe it proves that Taim is an impostor.
  He said that this issue is not discussed in the notes and he missed it himself previously so the best he can say is that this is meant to show that Taim is a suspicious character who is not to be trusted.
  This doesn't exactly lend support to my theory but I don't think it contradicts it either.
  I didn't ask him if this proves that Taim is an impostor as he'd RAFO that.
  

[Suttree]

Thanks for posting Herid, great read!

[Luckers]

Thanks Herid.

 

The bit about Egwene and Elaida's dinner is interesting, because back before tGS came out I predicted quite vehemently that their confrontation would occur in that dinner leading to the resolution, but ended up liking the way it occured better. So good call Brandon.

[sleepinghour]

Thanks for the report!

[Terez]

He refused to say who wrote "The last that could be done" from tGS.

He said on the TGS tour that it was one of the two chapters (along with the last) that he was most proud of, so it seems he wrote it.

 

I asked about Galad and his parallels with Mordred that I discussed here. He started nodding before I finished describing the parallels and said that yes, he was aware of those. But he of course didn't say anything specific about how exactly this might play out. He did say that he has much less freedom with Galad than with some other characters as Galad's plotline was mapped out in detail by RJ.

Specifically, RJ said 'it ain't happening' (Rand/Galad swordfight). That's why I've left Galad out of most of the Mordred considerations. Moiraine and Gawyn are different stories.