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DRAGONMOUNT

A WHEEL OF TIME COMMUNITY

Who is the DO?


Jehaine

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I just had a thought... Could it be that the DO is Rand from one full Cycle ago? That Rand is both the beginning and the end of the Wheel, thus fastening the two 'ends' together so the Wheel keeps on turning?

 

Given that there's a climatic battle coming up (DO vs. Rand) that neither side is allowed to win (DO wins = no more Wheel, Rand wins = no more DO), i can't help but shake the feeling RJ was planning to have Rand take the DOs place in the prison for the cycle to be able to repeat itself.

 

Having been trapped in there for Ages afterwards, 'Dark Rand' would then logically start wanting to destroy the Wheel to free himself from this endless cycle... but then be fated to be stopped by his 'successor', the next version of himself.

 

Thoughts?

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You are making one assumption that is incorrect. A victory for Rand does not necessarily mean no more DO. It might just as well just mean that Rand manages to completely seal the Bore, so that the DO will stay imprisoned until next time some researcher in the AOL gets a bright idea (In my book, this scenario is far more likely than Rand managing to destroy the DO).

 

Rand, while being extremely powerful by being the Dragon Reborn, is after all just a human being. The DO stands far above that in the means of pure power. Having Rand taking the place of the DO would mean he somehow ascended to the level of a god. Which I do not see happening.

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Robert Jordans has stated, I believe in his blog or perhaps in question of the week, that souls cannot be divided.  This also would imply that a soul cannot be in two places at once.  Thus, if Rand remains alive and sealed in the DO's prison he cannot be reborn as himself again.  Moreover, if Rand has been trapped in the DO's prison all this time how was he born as LTT in the AOL?  This is kind of a cool idea but I just doesn't work within the context of WOT. 

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Believe it or not, I'm pretty much with Maj on this one.

 

To me, a lot of the concepts embodied in the series are mathematical.  Each age is just a bounded arc segment of a longer closed arc, and as long as a^2 + b^2 = c^2 time remains circular.  The Wheel's job is to keep the function continuous and not allow any asymptotes.  Mankind's challenge is to figure out how to break the circularity without releasing the DO. ( think imaginary numbers and a kind of multi-dimensional calculus that keeps us "here" and the DO "out there", for a solution )

 

So, I do agree with you, something has to happen at some point to close the loop if time is to remain circular.  I just don't think the closure point occurs in this series.

 

My WAG is that since the series opened with LTT, Jordan intended to preserve symmetry in-the-small by having the series end with LTT.

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I hate to ruin the last book for you all...but here it is...I am infact the dark one. Yes, I know, very shocking considering I'm not even in the books, but there you have it.  ;D

 

No I don't think Rand is the dark one either. I'm seriously doubting that the big guy gets to fully escape from his prison to begin with. We don't really know if he was out completely in the AoL before they put a seal on it or not do we? It's seems it would be very difficult to push him back in his hole if he got completely out. Or maybe that mysterious voice that wouldn't have any part in helping Rand in the first book because it was not time will finally decide it's time to lend a hand allowing Rand to wield the power of a god for at least the time it takes to push old Darky back into his hole and reseal it to the creators standards.

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Oh well, 't was a stray thought to begin with ^^;

 

Still, i'll be looking forward to the last Book (like many others) to find out just how exactly RJ planned to handle TG. Though i agree he wouldn't be destroyed. No DO equals no new Forsaken, no new Darkfriends, the Whitecloaks would lose their reason for existing, the lack of a Breaking wouldn't have caused the Ogier Longing, the Aiel to split off from the Tuatha'an...

 

...Then again, there is the fragment of the Karaethon Cycle that Winter's Heart starts with:

 

The seals that hold back night shall weaken,

and in the heart of winter shall winter's heart be born

amid the wailing of lamentations and the gnashing of teeth,

for winter's heart shall ride a black horse,

and the name of it is Death.

 

I always figured that more or less implied the return of the DO in Randland, though i've never read that far yet ^^;

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