Definitive Answers! From the Legend Himself...

[The Dragon Reborn]

Two highly debated topics on this Forum:

 

1. Who Killed Asmodean?

2. Is Sammael dead?

 

The 1st question is the most debated on the entire Forum. The second, I'm not too sure, but I've seen people ask about it so....I came across this interview with CNN, and got some concrete answers:

Question from Vercingetorix: Why do you think everyone has a hard time figuring out who killed Asmodean? Graendal killed him.

 

Robert Jordan: I don't know why people have a hard time figuring that out. To me it seems intuitively obvious even to the most casual observer. The reason I won't tell people though is that I am enjoying watching them squirm entirely too much. It's probably bad for me.

 

Question from Arsolos: It has been reported that you have confirmed that Sammael died at the end of Crown of Swords. Could you confirm that you have said this and elaborate on whether Rand was correct?

 

Robert Jordan: Mashadar killed Sammael. Sammael is toast!

 

Here is the link to the interview: http://www.cnn.com/chat/transcripts/2000/12/12/jordan/

 

I've probably spoiled everybodies fun now... :P

[Majsju]

In the first quote, RJ adresses Vercingetorix question, not his claim that Graendal did it. The following part about how he will not reveal the killer because he enjoys watching us squirm kinda gives that away.

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

Maj is right.

 

What RJ is saying is "I don't know why people have a hard time figuring that [who killed Asmodean] out.

 

His later statement would make no sense if he had in fact confirmed Graendal as Asmodean's killer in the first part of his answer.

 

 

[Feral]

The answer RJ gave to the first question is worthy of an Aes Sedai lol.

[reyler]

Hasn't that Vercingetorix Q&A been getting bounced back and forth for like seven years or something by now?

[The Dragon Reborn]

Whoops  :-[, well if that Vercingetorix Q&A has been mentioned before I never saw it, I've read through some of that topic RE Asmodean, but it's like 200 pages long at this stage, I aint got that kinda time unfortunately.

 

But personally I still feel, if not definitive, it's still pretty clear from his response. He would never have given a completely unambiguous answer, not his style.

He says: 'The reason I won't tell people though is that I am enjoying watching them squirm entirely too much. It's probably bad for me.'

 

I take that to mean that he will not give confirmation, even though the interviewer got it right because it fun to see people's need for confirmation.

[reyler]

::) You can interpret it whatever way you like. Even most Graendaldunnit believers don't put much stock in that one, though.

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

He hasn't even gone so far as to confirm whether or not that statement was a confirmation of who killed Asmodean.

 

But I'm not taking that as evidence until we finally read it in ink.

[Majsju]

I was hanging out at Wotmania when the chat took place, Verc was a member there back then, and it was dismissed as confirmation of anything within a day by pretty much everyone.

 

It does pop up occasionally by people who are not as addicted to read every little scrap of information that's out there as some of us are *g*

[reyler]

See, I've only been part of the community since last December, and even now I don't keep up with it much or read every little scrap of information, and I've still seen Verc's question brought up like 570 times.

[The Dragon Reborn]

Well, I missed it, personally. I never really spend too much time dwelling on the Asmodean issue, so I didn't look too deeply at the huge Asmodean post, just spotted that quote and posted it before really going through it. At 1st glance it looked pretty concrete to me.

 

RJ repeatedly said 'it should be intuitively obvious.' Given that statement, I'd say over-analyzing the story is actually more of a hinderence than it is helpful. If what RJ says is true, on your 1st read, whoever was your #1 suspect, they're probably the person to have done it. As far as I know, Greandal is most peoples #1 assumed suspect. Therefore it's most likely her. Whoever asked that Q to RJ certainly seemed to think so and RJ didn't exactly leap to cast doubt on her as a suspect...

 

But if we're not careful, this will turn into yet another 'who did it?' debate...

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

Well, actually I first thought it was Lanfear. And a lot of other people thought it was Moiraine on the first read through. So I don't think it was intuitively obvious to anyone who didn't already know (everyone except RJ).

[reyler]

Actually from what I've heard most people figure Lanfear on their first read-through, before they come online and find all this madness. Also, from what I've heard, Lanfear was the most popular choice at the time that quote is from, when nobody had gotten it right. Taim can tell us because those black sisters what sprung him took him to Shayol Ghul so Shai'tan could plug Asmodean's soul into him. Taim is Asmodean! There, chew on that one  ;D

 

That wasn't serious, by the way...

[The Dragon Reborn]

Well, after finishing my 1st read I assumed Graendal. I can't remember what the line was but, something about what the DO said to her at Shayol Ghul. I think something about who'll live and who'll die. I assumed she'd been sent to kill Asmodean.

 

Maybe all those theories about Graendal in the other Asmodean post put the thought about Graendal being most people's #1 suspect into my head. ??? I remember alot of talk about her in that post and I kinda came away with the impression that she was most people's #1 suspect after the 1st read...

 

I probably should have analyzed that RJ quote more throughly before posting it... :-[ I suppose people could debate this issue forever, and realistically I doubt we'll ever get a definitive answer, don't think Harriet will give it away!

[reyler]

RJ swore up and down that if he could find a way to work the reveal into AMoL, he would, and if not, he'd announce it after publication. I don't imagine Harriet's plans differ much.

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

I think there are two really good reasons to say that Graendal probably killed him.

 

1) The DO is not omniscient, but he knows about Asmodean's death when he talks to Demandred. Being that Caemlyn is quite a ways from Shayol Ghul, I doubt he would know unless some one of his spies told him. Yet who would know of his death if there is no body? My guess is that only the killer would know. And guess who visited Shayol Ghul a few days before Demandred? None other than Graendal.

 

2) Graendal somehow manages to loot Sammael's place while staying unseen. She mentions that she had a tough time of it with those pesky Asha'man going in and out, but if she could go unnoticed there, why couldn't she have done the same thing in Caemlyn. And why wouldn't she have looted Rahvin's place as well?

 

The only question is how she knew Rahvin was dead so soon. My guess is that the wards in Caemlyn which were made to detect the channeling of saidin were probably set to alert each of the cabal (Sammael, Graendal, Lanfear, and Rahvin) in case the plan got screwed up, which it did. Of course, there is now the question of why Sammael didn't show. Maybe he just wanted to see another Forsaken get offed so he had greater chances of being Nae'blis.

[The Dragon Reborn]

RJ swore up and down that if he could find a way to work the reveal into AMoL, he would, and if not, he'd announce it after publication. I don't imagine Harriet's plans differ much.

Wow I never heard about that! I gotta look into some of this stuff more... There's a load of stuff I never knew up until I started posting here. Few more months and I'll know it all  ;D. Yet another revelation to look forward to..!

 

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

Here's another thing it would be good to know (in case you didn't): Demandred is not Mazrim Taim, nor is he posing as Mazrim Taim.

[reyler]

I was kind of hoping this thread wouldn't degenerate into another Whokilledasmodean thread, but oh well.

 

I think Sammael's desire to kill Rand would outweigh his ambition, and in fact go a long way (under the status quo before the Lord of Chaos strategy kicked in) towards supporting it.

 

And those two things you note about Graendal are suspect, by the way. One, looting Illian and looting Caemlyn are, as has been noted by many including myself, wholly disparate scenarios. Two, for all we know Graendal made her trip to Shayol Ghul before Lanfear gave Asmodean to Rand, or an hour before the meeting with Sammael that brought it to her mind, and got no more than Demandred did in the very first scene.

 

You'll note nobody has yet contended my farcical Asmodean-is-Taim theory. Validation!  :D :D :D

[Kadere]

If you want to ruin everyone's fun you got to post this  ;)

 

Q: Is Sammael dead dead, or 'he will never return dead'?

A: Sammael? [pronounce something like Sammy-el] Sammael is dead. He's dead. He could be reborn. In another life. Eithout knowing anything of Sammael. He's not going to be reincarnated, he's not going to show up again.

 

 

For a LOT more questions and answers (possibly every one ever asked at a Con or in an interview) go to http://www.geocities.com/Area51/stargate/8513/creator.htm

[reyler]

Kads! *turboglomp* What the heck are you doing in here, and not in Fiddles wheres youse belongs?

[Kadere]

I'm constantly looking for news about what's going to happen to AMoL now...

 

And I'm not in Fiddles cause I escaped, don't tell Danya.  ;)

[reyler]

*tattles*

 

Wilson assured e'eryone it would be finished, and that's good enough for me. I wouldn't expect it for a couple more years, though. I'm surprised nobody ever asked him who killed Asmodean.

[lou]

my first read, i thought it was sammael, mostly because he was the one who voiced the "kill asmo" thought first, as it was his first instinct, and sammael would certainly not have hesitated to do so. of course, there is that pesky "sensing" of the power.....

 

[pseudocsb]

Slayer/Lord Luc killed Asmodean.  He's the Dark One's assasin.  He killed the two Black Ajah in the Stone of Tear.  We'd already met him by the time Asmo died.  He could get into the closet, Asmodean would recognize him and know immediately he was there to kill him.  Slayer killed Asmodean.