Gaidal Cain

[Yurian]

How do we know Gaidal Cain has been reborn?  Has RJ said so?  I have read a dozen interviews where he says Olver is definitely NOT Gaidal, but only Birgitte's word that he has been reborn.  It seems odd that the Pattern would spin out a Hero of the Horn so soon before TG; it makes his involvement in the story pretty much pointless, which is not RJ's style. 

[RAND AL THOR]

How do we know Gaidal Cain has been reborn?

 

Birgitte was unable to find him in T'A'R and she said that only happens when he has been reborn. She expected herself to be reborn shortly afterwards too but was ripped out by Moggy.

[Avery]

It seems odd that the Pattern would spin out a Hero of the Horn so soon before TG; it makes his involvement in the story pretty much pointless, which is not RJ's style.

 

The world will probably need a hero or two after Rand is finished re-breaking it.

 

It's also possible that an infant performs a heroic role. Not that he will take up a sword and kill Trollocs, but his presence might push other people to be heroic. I admit this is unlikely, but a large part of the things in RJ's world is stuff that never touches it he main story. Actually, most of the things in his world are like that.

 

Or, RJ may have known that he'd never use Gaidal Cain again, and his rebirth is a logical, easily-explained way of removing him from the story.

[Shaidar_Rannow]

Perhaps one of Eylanes twins will be Gaidal? Just a thought

[bRANDan]

It seems odd that the Pattern would spin out a Hero of the Horn so soon before TG; it makes his involvement in the story pretty much pointless, which is not RJ's style. 

 

I think he was going to be used in the outrigger novels RJ was going to write. The ones with Tuon and Mat, Elayne's babies, etc. So much we'll never get to read about.

[Majsju]

Look at the impaqct Rand has already made on the existing nations. Turmoil is an understatement. And TG is still to come...Unless Rand loses TG, the world will indeed need Heroes in the years that will come.

 

That said, I think I should repeat what KI have said somewhere else; If Birgitte dies during TG, there is still time for her to be spun out and hook up with cain as she used to. And considering the position she is in, even if her connection to the Horn has been severed, she has quite a decent chance of getting a new one.

[Yurian]

How do we know Gaidal Cain has been reborn?

 

Birgitte was unable to find him in T'A'R and she said that only happens when he has been reborn. She expected herself to be reborn shortly afterwards too but was ripped out by Moggy.

 

Perhaps something more sinister happened to him, as to Birgitte.  If our only clue is that Birgitte cannot find him, well, he'd be hard to find if he had been killed in T'A'R.  Slayer hunts the dream, as well as the other Forsaken.  That being said, I hadn't considered that his purpose would be after TG; that is a very good point.  I just always have the feeling that there will be very little "cleanup" writing once the Last Battle is done.  RJ or BS may think it funny to end the series with something like, "He looked around the battlefield.  It was done."  Just a feeling.

[Guest Dreadlord]

QUOTE

I think he was going to be used in the outrigger novels RJ was going to write. The ones with Tuon and Mat, Elayne's babies, etc. So much we'll never get to read about.

UNQUOTE

 

I thought that as well, Im sure RJ mentioned that the outrigger set with Mat and Tuon would be ten years after, so Gaidal reborn could easily have been the next equivalent to Olver. Olver has a part to play in book 12 I think, he will convince Mat that the only way to beat the "Snakes" and the Foxes" is by breaking the rules. I would have liked to see that outrigger although I doubt we will now, just to see how the characters have developed after Tarmon Gaidon. Especially Rand