Rands Survival?

[MikeRiley]

The world was ending anyways, at least for the people fighting for the Light.  Their concern about having a world left to rule is the greatest weakness of the people of the Shadow.  There is absolutely no way that the Light should have lost/been losing the fight if they just made use of that and keep balefiring their enemies.  The Shadow has no choice but to concede failure.

 

The only reason might be that if the pattern unravels enough, the Dark One instantly break free.

 

They didn't use balefire after a while on either side because the pattern unraveling had an effect on both sides. The good guys didn't want a world of complete chaos and confusion as their prize for victory over the shadow. The bad guys probably feared dying to the balefire. They were promised immortality and it's been made pretty clear it's hard to recover from that sort of death.

 

If you're facing complete destruction with little chance of winning, you don't destroy everything you're fighting for in an attempt to save it.

[Jethro]

We also know now that if two balefires touch, a connection is formed between both wielders. Maybe the AoLers knew about it-I dont believe for a second that the True Power was necessary for the connection, only that it might be effecting Rand differently because its a True Power bond. Saying that though, I think its obvious that the real reason everyone fears balefire is that it can indeed disrupt the Pattern; I think Moiraine explained very early on about how entire cities ceased to exist in the War of Power.

 

A lot of people say that balefire makes it impossible for the Great Lord to reincarnate, but that isnt accurate. RJ explains it. I will quote him;

 

Week 3 Question: There are many theories that attempt to create a connection of time duration to the transmigration of the dead Forsaken. Are there time and/or power constraints on the Dark One's ability to transmigrate souls?

 

Robert Jordan Answers: There are definitely time constraints on the Dark One's power to transmigrate a soul. The soul doesn't have to be secured immediately - that is, the Dark One doesn't have to be ready to snatch the soul at the instant of death - but the longer that passes after the death, the less chance that the Dark One will be able to secure the soul. Someone who has been killed with balefire in actuality died before the apparent time of his or her death, and thus the window of opportunity for the Dark One to secure that soul for transmigration is gone before the Dark One can know that the soul must be secured unless the amount of balefire used is very small. Remember that the more balefire is used, the further back the target's thread is burned out of the pattern.

 

http://www.wotmania.com/faqtopic.asp?ID=152

 

To put it a bit more simply, if the Great Lords normal time limit for grabbing a dead soul was 30 minutes, and someone died by balfire that burnt the last 25 minutes of their thread, they effectively died 25 minutes ago, leaving the Great Lord only 5 minutes after the actual death of that person. It still hampers him though, RJ makes it clear that a soul can only be caught if the balefire was very weak.

 

Passing thought when typing that last bit; Moiraine killed Bel'al with balefire but it was weak. Weak enough???

 

P.S. TAIM IS NOT BEL'AL!!!!

[Mr Ares]

A lot of people say that balefire makes it impossible for the Great Lord to reincarnate, but that isnt accurate.

This is one of the central foundations of the Be'laim theory - that there is a slim possibility he might have been brought back, and if he was, who would he be? That said, we have no reason to believe he was brought back. Also, very small. I hardly think shaving 5 minutes off a half hour window qualifies. A thirty second window, though? Less? Even shaving a handful of seconds off could make all the difference.