Theory on asmos murder

[nashdude]

i just thought of something. what if moridin had already been reborn or whatever soon after he died, and he still knew how to do the face of flames thing. and if he killed asmo with the TP so rand didnt notice that anyone had channeled. asmo might have recognized the face of ba'alazmon, hence his surprise.

 

But the readers wouldn't KNOW that Moridin had been reborn, because we wouldn't have seen him. The readers are supposed to find it to be intuitively obvious at the moment it happens, without reading ahead to say "ohhhhh, Ishy was reborn, it must have been HIM that killed Asmodean X hundred pages ago".

 

It had to be someone who we as readers thought was ALIVE at the time Asmo bit the dust. Ishamael does not fit that requirement, as we did not KNOW he was/going to be reborn.

 

I see your point. However, look at all the books previous. Just when you think Ishamael is dead, here he comes again like Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees! It sets up a pattern of return that instills in the reader's mind an expectation that he'd show up further down the line.

 

So yeah, while logic tells you that Ishamael is dead (FINALLY dead, and about time, too, after three or four times of "dying" at Rand's hand) Asmo's murder brings to mind the inevitable question: "What if Ishy's back AGAIN?"

 

Intuitively obvious even to the most casual observer.

[Cybertrolloc]

The problem with that train of thought is Ishy's back at whatever time prior to Asmo's death. So he kills Asmo, then doesn't take much of a hand in events until he's on camera spying 8 months later. Then a week after that he's Neablis and almost everybody on team dark knows about him? Then what events in tSR/FoH/LoC/aCoS that go against his most strenuous standing orders did he let slide? That would probably lead us to IshyTaim...which has it's own set of problems.

[Majsju]

I see your point. However, look at all the books previous. Just when you think Ishamael is dead, here he comes again like Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees! It sets up a pattern of return that instills in the reader's mind an expectation that he'd show up further down the line.

 

So yeah, while logic tells you that Ishamael is dead (FINALLY dead, and about time, too, after three or four times of "dying" at Rand's hand) Asmo's murder brings to mind the inevitable question: "What if Ishy's back AGAIN?"

 

Intuitively obvious even to the most casual observer.

 

You do have the very obvious difference that when Ishy dies in TDR, he does not just disappear from the stage, this time he leaves a very dead body behind.

[lou]

Sammael's plan was to be in Illian...  Are we sure the Forsaken weren't aware the plan had failed?  Why did Lanfear go nuts in Cairhien if she's still planning on defeating Rand in Illian?

 

I think there were two suspicious servants in a place they shouldn't have been while Rand was chasing Rahvin through the palace at the end of tFoH.  Possibly Graendel and Sammael?

 

Also, I'm surprised that anyone thought Sammael might have escaped being killed following Moridin's PoV in the prologue of tPoD...

 

What does that have to do with who killed Asmodean?  He's killed at the end of tFoH (the 5th book).  Sammael dies at the end of aCoS (the 7th book).  There's over a thousand pages between the deaths of Asmodean and Sammael.

 

suspicious servants in the palace where they shouldnt be? that is a contradiction in terms.palaces always have servants.

sammael was my first guess originally. he was the first one to voice the opinion that asmo should be killed. but, unfortunately, sammy eliminated himself as suspect.

[Cybertrolloc]

suspicious servants in the palace where they shouldnt be? that is a contradiction in terms.palaces always have servants.

sammael was my first guess originally. he was the first one to voice the opinion that asmo should be killed. but, unfortunately, sammy eliminated himself as suspect.

It's not a direct contradiction. However we learn a few pages later that this palace's servants ran away when Rahvin brought in the Shadowspawn. As far as having something to do with events other than being servants, I think RJ has denied it sufficiently to not bother reading too much into it. It may have been an oversight as well.