The souls in the pattern cannot be fixed in number.

[Matth3134]

On 1/11/2025 at 2:43 PM, driftnet said:

This does raise the question of why the Dark One never seems to have learned enough from past mistakes to find a way to win. Rand's inherited memories don't really go back further than Lews Therin's own experiences, which makes sense as the Dragon is continually reborn. But there's no indication that the Dark One suffers these cyclical memory wipes.

 

It's like a video game where you have infinite lives. Sooner or later you're eventually going to win.

You're thinking of the Dark One like it's human; it's not.  It's unimaginably intelligent and powerful, but it is utterly lacking in empathy and compassion by nature, and that limits its imagination.  It doesn't understand nobility and selflessness, and it can never understand them.  It doesn't really have free will.

[chiamac]

On 3/12/2026 at 1:12 AM, Matth3134 said:

You're thinking of the Dark One like it's human; it's not.  It's unimaginably intelligent and powerful, but it is utterly lacking in empathy and compassion by nature, and that limits its imagination.  It doesn't understand nobility and selflessness, and it can never understand them.  It doesn't really have free will.

The flip side of that is when Rand had the ability to destroy the pattern and everything, then didn't. You'd think with all the times this has happened, one of those times would end up destroying everything. 

We also have those portal stones from the first book that showed a bunch of different visions or even patterns. 

Just things to think about. 

I'm not going to read into anything too much. In the last part of the New Spring audio book there is a R. Jordan interview where he says something about these books being about "free will" but they fall more into predetermination, rather than self determination. That's fine, but with other things these books seem to be more of what the author(s) thought was fun or cool to do rather than something deeper.