I Hate Min...WoT about you?

[Safia al-Maaz]

Wow, I hadn't thought about that...

 

THAT would suck.

 

The fact that Min WAS there probably did keep him strong when Semi started calling him insane.  Her not being there may have crushed his spirit because he might have been afraid to go back to her "knowing" he's crazy?  Food for thought.

[Bob T Dwarf]

And, Min being there may have been the worst thing that could have happened.

 

At some point, Rand is going to have to quit allowing other people to define him and decide for himself who and what he is.  Having to face something like Semi's accusations alone and with nothing but his own resources and judgement to support him might be the thing that finally forces him to do that.

 

Past time for him to let go of Mommy's apron strings and go toddling off on his own.

[DuDZiK]

I have a scenario to propose then, let's pretend Min stayed behind. Rand recognizes Semi and tries to stop her, LTT does the same preventing him from using Saidin. So he jumps, gets away and perhaps doesn't get injured like before. However Semi then goes on and reveals how Rand is hearing LTT and was unable to control the flow. Then Rand does the whole tetering on the edge of sanity bit and this time because Min isn't there he doesn't have his anchor and goes mad.

 

Hmmm... very interesting point, I hadn't thought of that.

[Dhaos]

After that, it is Rands fault for having so little respect for Min that he insists on her riding behind him like some kind of servant. He made an ignorant and idiotic decision, now he has to suck it up and deal with the consequences. Which he does.

 

I'm sorry, but it's not disrespect to put yourself in a position to best protect someone you love.  Min is not a channeller.  Her knives would be of little use against battle-trained damane.  Min's not a delicate flower, but this wasn't likely to be your typical pubside dustup.  So Rand placed himself where he'd be best able to protect her from Power-based threats: right in front of her.  Of course, he was an idiot for not seizing the source up on the hill, but that's another matter...

 

If you want to frame this entirely on the basis of 'respect'- Frankly, Min disrespected Rand- she put herself in a situation where, if things got hot, as they were likely to- she'd be depending on the others there to defend her.  The consequences you speak of are something she shares responsibility for.  Is it all her fault?  No.  Was she childish and partially to blame?  Absolutely.  If Rand disrespected her when making a security-based decision, she certainly disrespected him by making herself a liability in spite of his protests.

 

Edit:

 

By the way, I like Min.  I just think this scenario was stupid and avoidable.

[SolindaSedai]

Min is the reason that Rand lost his hand in the first place. In KoD, she drove me nuts! If she wasn't so pushy about always being everywhere she didn't belong with people who had power way above her head she would not have been in a position where he needed to protect her. I mean woman! Get a life- Every one else there can defend themselves. You can't really believe that you and your two-bit knives are really going to help with any enemy the Dragon Reborn may have!  Nobody gave Rand credit (they never really do in any of the books anyway) for not once blaming her for that (nor did she even once show the slightest remorse). If it were me, I would have been pissed off if I told you to stay home, you insisted you come, I had to protect you and ended up losing my hand.  Just another of the innumerable examples of unbelievable ingratitude of just about everybody in that book towards Rand in particular but towards Mat too to a lesser extent. 

[Jean]

She's more tolerable than Nynaeve, Elyane, Egwene and Avienda. But that's not saying much.