The last that could be done

[StringWinder]

That doesn't make any sense.  Nobody said the Shadow was going to stop trying to hurt Rand because he has an opportunity to be sane again.  What you were saying was that they didn't push rand over the edge, thay just came close. That's not true.  If Rand was any farther gone, the book would have ended with him in Ebou dar.

 

We are all interested in it, but I think you didn't quite express your thoughts the way you meant to at the beginning of this post, and so misinterpreted how people responded.  I think plenty of bad stuff is going to happen, and I'm game to discuss it.  I just don't think Rand will ever be quite as lost as he was in tGS. 

 

I could be very, very, wrong.

[Thor]

Ok fine let's go for a compromise.

 

The Borderlander Aes Sedai are all Black. And they will try to turn Rand to the Shadow.

Ok that's pretty bad in a different way to what Semirhage did. So I think everyone is satisfied.

[StringWinder]

Oh, I am quite far from satified.  Comprimise?  Who do you think I am

[Thor]

Well look, when Semirhage did what she did, Rand hated the fact that Min was going to die by his own hands.

If he gets turned into the Shadow, he'll LOVE killing Min with his own hands, even if it means the backlash of the bond hits him. In fact, he might do it just to experience the backlash.

 

That's pretty bad I think.

[FarShainMael]

In fact, Rand didn't try to kill Min; it was Semirhage, through him. She had control of his actions. (Anyone seen the Star Trek episode 'Skin of Evil', in which the Armus-entity takes control of Data, tries to make him kill his companions, and Data points out that Armus woould be doing the killing, not him.)

 

A far worse moment for Rand came much later when he meets Tam and nearly balefires him. No-one was controlling him then. He was deep in the madness, full of the TP-darkness, but the actions were his own. If he had killed Tam, that, I think, would have been it for the Forces of Light.