The State of the Light and Dark Post tGS. (Full Spoilers)

[morkhon]

The Light will triumph. Good always comes out on top at the end of these long series. Rand might die, or he might not. But he'll save the world from the Dark One.

[Crael123]

The Light will triumph. Good always comes out on top at the end of these long series. Rand might die, or he might not. But he'll save the world from the Dark One.

 

man i thought that it would be so ironic if the DO came out on top in this series... that would be epic. then the series would be done and nobody could restart the story after copyright laws go out in 84 years.... but people would be talking about that for years. it would be a very stark ending

[Firebird]

The Light will triumph. Good always comes out on top at the end of these long series. Rand might die, or he might not. But he'll save the world from the Dark One.

 

man i thought that it would be so ironic if the DO came out on top in this series... that would be epic. then the series would be done and nobody could restart the story after copyright laws go out in 84 years.... but people would be talking about that for years. it would be a very stark ending

 

I know, it's kinda funny, but you always read these kinds of stories knowing that the good guys will triumph in the end, cos, well, they're the good guys! There are always ups and downs in their quest but they overcome the huge odds against them. Can you imagine the ruckus on the web if the story ended with all our heroes dead and Randland disappearing into a vacuole! I don't for a minute believe this would happen, but the very thought of the outrage it would cause kinda makes me smile (and I would be as outraged as anyone!)  :D

[b9anders]

I think it's worth bearing in mind that when the forces of light started gathering, the were unbelievably far behind. The fact that we now have the aiel under Rand, the south and eastern nations bound together, a superb strategist in Mat, Asha'man, Aes Sedavalerei unified, some extremely powerful channelers to emerge and mature, armed with presumable more angreals and such, and even adding in the presumed potential developments of the horn of valere resurfacing, the three t'averen coming together and the seanchan allied to Rand's forces is not necessarily an indication that the forces of light are stronger, but moreso a case of them becoming strong enough to match the forces of darkness.

 

The only genuine defeats the dark forces have suffered so far has been the largescale execution enforced by Egwene and the forsaken allowing Rand to pick them off one by one (and even so, this is only a concern for the balefired ones).

 

But even so, I have a strong sense that the military battle is rather irrelevant to the DO. I think he is staging Tarmon Gaidon as a battle and gathering forces for it primarily as a diversion, because that is what the forces of light will expect. The outcome I reckon is largely irrelevant to him, except perhaps to the extent that he needs Rand there to break the seals and free him once and for all.

 

As Moridin noted, it's hard to lose when you're playing both sides of the board. The light dodged a bullet with DarkRand being seconds away from undoing creation himself, but I reckon the DO considers this merely a setback in his plans to have Rand do the work he needs him to do. Beating Rand by beating his morals is just one tactic. There's also the question of Rand needing to figure out what to do about the DO to destroy him/seal him in, and the DO will no doubt have plans for feeding Rand information to help him accomplish the DO's aims instead.

[Vambram]

I think it's worth bearing in mind that when the forces of light started gathering, the were unbelievably far behind. The fact that we now have the aiel under Rand, the south and eastern nations bound together, a superb strategist in Mat, Asha'man, Aes Sedavalerei unified, some extremely powerful channelers to emerge and mature, armed with presumable more angreals and such, and even adding in the presumed potential developments of the horn of valere resurfacing, the three t'averen coming together and the seanchan allied to Rand's forces is not necessarily an indication that the forces of light are stronger, but moreso a case of them becoming strong enough to match the forces of darkness.

 

The only genuine defeats the dark forces have suffered so far has been the largescale execution enforced by Egwene and the forsaken allowing Rand to pick them off one by one (and even so, this is only a concern for the balefired ones).

 

But even so, I have a strong sense that the military battle is rather irrelevant to the DO. I think he is staging Tarmon Gaidon as a battle and gathering forces for it primarily as a diversion, because that is what the forces of light will expect. The outcome I reckon is largely irrelevant to him, except perhaps to the extent that he needs Rand there to break the seals and free him once and for all.

 

As Moridin noted, it's hard to lose when you're playing both sides of the board. The light dodged a bullet with DarkRand being seconds away from undoing creation himself, but I reckon the DO considers this merely a setback in his plans to have Rand do the work he needs him to do. Beating Rand by beating his morals is just one tactic. There's also the question of Rand needing to figure out what to do about the DO to destroy him/seal him in, and the DO will no doubt have plans for feeding Rand information to help him accomplish the DO's aims instead.

 

An excellent post, and very well thought out. I agree with you, and I could not have said this better, myself.