Chapter 1 "Apples First"

[TMan]

Maybe I missed something, but why is everybody so sure Rand is going to see Egwene/the Amyrlin? I mean, sure, it's walking distance from Dragonmount, but for all we know he could be going anywhere right? Actually, before reading the forums I was hoping he was either going to hit Cadsuane in the face or "get Aviendha pregnant" ;)

 

Well, I assume he's going to the Amyrlin for a number of reasons:

 

1:

"Now . . . well, now he wasn’t so sure. He glanced eastward, toward Tar Valon. Could the witches be to blame for the failed crop?" "He looked eastward. Almen felt a pull inside of him. Something was tugging him softly in the direction the stranger had gone."

 

2:

He's walking. If he was off to see anyone else who he needed to see, he probably wouldn't be walking. He could have just Traveled off the mountain. Unless, of course, he burned himself out by blowing up the Choden Kal, but that's something else entirely.

 

3:

We know he needs to "feel the Amyrlin's wrath" or whatever the wording is. Plus, he's been putting off seeing the Amyrlin for books and books, especially after LoC. He says "to do something I've been putting off." Fits nicely to me.

 

4:

Nowhere else would make much sense. Why would he go see Cadsuane? Why would he go back to see Tuon after he just tried to blow them up? Mostly, though, I think I can reiterate point number 2 again: why on earth would he be walking toward Tar Valon if he wanted to see anyone else?

 

My gf suggested that he may be going to Alanna (?) to get his bond removed. Now I don't remember where we saw Alanna last (or if she's even still alive for that matter), but I figure he might do that on his way to Egwene.

[gambril]

Going with those rumors were just rumors then chapter 8 is most likely day 10 or so of Mat's stay in Caemlyn, which means 20 days until he enters the TOG. I think the major synching that's being done is Perrin and Mat's climaxes in TOM will peak when Rand has his epiphany on DM and Egwene hers at the end of TGS. So when Rand's on TGS and coming down in chapter 1 Mat, Thom and Noal are in the process of rescuing Moiraine and Perrin's doing whatever he will be doing. This would also fit with Mat's climax chapter, followed by Perrin climax chapter and then Rand/Egwene meeting chapter back to back to back that we know from Brandon's comments and Jason's comments in his review.

 

Perhaps this happens 75%ish percent through the book followed by the big battle that's going to occur and then we'll have our A Renuion chapter with everyone together at the end after the battle. This is how I see the timeline and story working out at least.

[DPT24]

Timeline wise, until we read the book we can't know for sure. My guess is that the 30 days between Mat meeting Verin and her dying is wrong, and in fact she went from Mat to Egwene within a couple days, so it's about 9-10 days latter in chapter 8. But, that's just a guess.

[DemandredFO]

If the affects of Dragonmount are permanent then he can see Egwene whenever. If they'll go away eventually, I'd see her while you're still on cloud. If Rand is more than Rand now Egwene may simply get angry if he seems to talk down to her. If he has all dragons in there now, I don't he can help talking down to her, no matter if he tries not to.

Another idea, AS don't think, they know they know everything and Egwene and the rest might not be to please if the farmboy actually knows what needs to be done better than they.

[Flora Aura]

Wow. I've been lurking in this fandom for nigh on a decade and never felt the need to be an active participant but The Wheel is reaching critical mass and I feel a need to be a more active participant since the end is so near. And I'm beating myself up for not jumping in after tGS because I can't brag about calling anything since if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it...Well, you know. Moral victory, at least.

 

I've been waiting for Rand's mountain descent for a year and I'm so pleased we got a peek in the first chapter instead of having to wait till November!

 

Anyway - my insights. Clearly headed to Egwene for the much touted epic reunion. I'm going to guess that's Ms. Butler's, "Well. I was kind of thinking that was going to be a bit more… dramatic. Or at least have a lot more yelling. But, you know. Okay then." I'm not the biggest fan of Eggy, but people also do her a disservice. And as much as I would enjoy a smack-down, I don't think Rand will be doing the smacking. Sorry folks, but prepare for disappointment. Aside from maybe a few terse words I'm pretty sure it's going to be an anticlimax. Rand/Gawyn is what I'm looking forward to now. Which ever way that goes down, it's going to be awesome.

 

The 'light warping' is the antithesis of the dark-aura. We're in agreement there, yes? The sheer force of his Dragonness made visible. The Dragon is one with the land...etc. Really hammered home in tGS, but manifesting as light beams, apple blossoms and a rainbow out of his keester with his Post-Epiphany feel good. He's a more pronounced messianic archetype now, and I'm really happy about it. Ultimately, at it's core, the Wheel of Time is the story of Rand's journey (it's all very Joseph Campbell) and his evolution from farm boy to Chosen One and after 12 fracking tomes he's finally come into his own. Awesome. I'm so excited for November, it's going to be epic.

[TheAngryDruid]

Sometimes when you fly in an airplane everywhere, you forget that there is land underneath you. You leave New York City and a few hours later, you are in Los Angeles. The fact that you crossed rivers, mountains, farmland, millions of people, trees, squirrels, etc is lost to you. For the past several books since Travelling was discovered, that is what Rand has been doing - flying from point A to point B and ignoring all the things inbetween. By having Rand walk to Tar Valon, he is showing that Rand has changed and has a new outlook on life. He no longer zips around ignoring the little people, but now he tries to help as much as he can. No longer are they tools to be used and discarded, but each person he can help is important.

 

Excellent post, and excellent observation. I couldn't agree more.

 

And in response to nnokwoodeye, I like Egwene a lot. Though I think she does have her faults. Mainly being too matriarchal and a few other things where she's hypocritical (three oaths, loyalty oaths).

 

Still, she's made great progress and is quite clear-headed a lot of the time. Witness how she treated the Reds, even when it hurt her chances of deposing Elaida, she still wanted the Ajah whole.

 

One thing, sort of akin to the airplane metaphor. Egwene hasn't talked with Rand in a LONG time. Lord of Chaos? All the major characters have been apart for so long, they still seem to think of each other as children/young adults that need guidance. Of course, they recognize THEY'VE grown (sometimes in ways they don't see, like Nynaeve becoming ever so like Moiraine sometimes), but don't give the other person equal credit.

 

Nynaeve finally came face to face with this when she finally talked to Rand about his becoming too single minded and too hard in tGS. She found out he isn't a dope at all, but really self-aware and had complete knowledge of what he was doing (yes, he was wrong, but that is beside the point for now).

 

Egwene hasn't come to that realization yet. Nor Rand about Egwene. Many of them still view Mat as the rapscallion and little more. One of the huge benefits of getting the band back together will be showing the growth to each other. Then the need for guidance and protection will fade a bit, as they all have some confidence in each other. Then they can start working together.

[waffle]

"Hey Egwene"

"Hi Rand. How´s it going?"

"Not too bad i suppose. Scored myself three hot women, cleansed saidin and had an epiphany. I did have to kill Gawyn a minute ago though. He ran at me foaming at the mouth and tried to skewer me. What the hell was he doing here anyway?"

"Being clingy. Not that it isn´t good to see you again but what are you doing here?"

"Oh, i came here to tell you that i figured out a way to stop the Dark One"

"i like that"

"but if it works the OP will inaccessible for a couple of Ages"

"I don´t like that"

[Jimmy]

I don't think rand could accept having to work under egweene. Being the dragon reborn and all, I can't imagine him having to follow anyone. I think they should work together but ultimately I think egweene should show some deference to to rand and what he believes the plan needs to be. I think she will end up showing some deference but only after she sees that he is not the hard ass that he use to be. But yes she will still show him how mad she is over the black tower bonding aes sedai.

As far as rand Bering connected to the land, I had that thought after veins of gold. It is cool that during the first chapter, it actually shows that I was right

At first I thought he chapter was going to be boring where nothing happened but I turned out to be a pretty dang awesome chapter

[Vermillion]

“There are always things of use around, if you look closely enough. You can’t stare at them too long. To learn but not be overwhelmed, that is the balance.

 

I guess this means that Rand only took parts of his old lives that he needs to not be overwhelmed.

 

I have a feeling what parts we see of Rand in this book will not be his PoV. More like glimpses of his accention through other people.

[Random Man]

Something just occurred to me. At first I thought Rand's manifesting the increased impact of ta'veren on a rapidly unravelling pattern, but now I'm not that sure. We've been told the difference between ta'veren "happenstance" and the DO's touch on the world is that things caused by proximity to a ta'veren are merely improbable, but not impossible -- they don't break laws of physics or happen unless there's at least one chance in a trillion or whatever. Fish aren't going to rain from the sky unless somehow they got up there to begin with. The DO's touch causes things that couldn't naturally happen, such as the wind blowing two directions at once, or someone's body spontaneously combusting, or...you get the idea.

 

So what the heck was what Rand did to the apple orchard? Rotting apples don't just melt into the ground and vanish, and trees don't go from new blossom to ripened fruit in the blink of an eye. That's an impossibility if we're playing by the Wheel's natural laws. I don't think this could be caused by ta'veren effect. It's if what happened was a...a Bubble of Good.

 

Goodbubble? Lightbubble? Meh. None of them roll off the tongue.

 

I think Rand consciously exerted his will against the pattern to make it happen. The second apple growth wasn't by chance it was by Rand's design. We've seen several times how one of the ta'veren consciously influenced the effect he has on the pattern. Mat throwing a losing toss because he wanted it, Rand influencing on which side the coin would land in Rhuidean and now the apple orchard.

Yeah, but there's a difference between Mat...nudging...dice toward a desired outcome that could happen anyway and Rand creating something that's effectually an impossibility if you follow the rules of the Pattern. Simply removing the DOs own touch was one thing but turning blossoms into ripe apples? Then again, I suppose the Nym were able to do the same thing although there hasn't ever been any real explanation for it other than that they were magical constructs of the Power able to Do Things.

 

Interesting idea I saw posted later about whether the Tower rooms would shift again back to the original layout once Rand shows up. He seems to be this traveling bubble of ... I don't know what. The Creator's avatar let loose among the world.

 

Also, I noticed that Rand said he doubted the Amyrlin would be pleased by what "he" told "her." Doesn't seem like he's concerned she's going to be angry about something that had happened before. I'm guessing this has something to do with new understanding he has in combination with what happened back in the AoL with the female Aes Sedai and the Fateful Concord. What was her name? Lara Rose Pentae or something? The "voice" of LTT was dwelling on this in TGS and "Rand" had been pressing him for answers.

 

Love this idea. I've recently been thinking that Egwene is Latra Posea (or whatever her name is) reborn.

 

Also, it's cool to me that after 12 books, Rand is finally going to Tar Valon for the first time. Remember how that was originally their desired destination back in tEotW?

 

Good stuff!

 

Latra Posae Decume.

 

And, maybe. We have little knowledge of what exactly would have happened had the Fateful Concord not taken place. I think generally we are too quick to judge that LTT was right and Latra wrong; had the powerful women gone with the men, saidar might also have been tainted, and the world would have had no chance at all against either all of the insane channelers or, thousands of years later, the reemerging Dark One. We don't know at all that the only reason the Hundred Companions were only partially successful was the lack of women. That's just one possibility. LTT certainly was not completely confident that his plan would succeed; he just thought it was bolder than the CK strategy.

 

Wasn't Latra one of those in favor of using the Choedan Kal? And I doubt using those would have been the saner strategy.

 

Yeah, she was the leading Aes Sedai in the faction that they should use the Choedan Kal to erect a ward around Shayol Ghul until they could figure out what else to do with the DO. LTT had his own plan with the seven seals, and the two sides couldn't agree, even when the access keys were lost when the construction area was overrun by the Shadow and attempts to reclaim them were unsuccessful. In TGS "LTT" thinks about how he knew brute force wasn't going to work, and we can deduce this is one reason he ended up going rogue with his Hundred Companions to carry out his plan by himself. So I think that now the Dragon knows what has to be done to do it properly this time, and that Egwene isn't going to like the truth of it. Maybe they do need to give up the Power entirely.

[Lynander]

WIth all the talk about Bloodknives skulking around...anybody else get the thought that maybe a Bloodknife will poison Rand's scar - like what happened to Bryne?

 

The whole apple melting and re-blooming of the apples reminded me of the whole "sun will come up twice" prophecy (don't know the wording).

 

Loved the chapter!! Not what I expected but loved it!!

[Razorback]

I wonder if all the structural anomalies the tower has gone through lately would be undone when rand will show up.

 

I considered this - that would be cool

 

That's usually what happens when you contract your repair stonemasons through Hogwarts.

[Jimmy]

Bloodknives only have a lifespan of about 3 days once their ring terangreal that shadows them is activated. They can stretch their life a little if hey remove the ring but not by much. I am pretty sure it's been morethen 3 days since the Seanchan attack

[Ataxia]

Aha, lets just say that some of the blood knives are still alive when Rand arrives for a min.

“Wow, and just when I thought it wasn’t possible to despise you more. Nice job RUINING EVERYTHING, ____. Gah.”

Gawyn runs into Rand and goes kinda crazy. He charges at Rand and seems to attack him. Rand doesnt move to defend himself.

 

“Oh. Er. So, I totally called that wrong. Am a bit red-faced now.”

 

Gawyn kills one of the Blood knives behind Rand. Would be interesting.

[The Fisher King]

I enjoyed this chapter and appreciate all at TOR, Orbit and Team Jordan who worked to provide us with it.

 

Now. There is one question I have that seems to me to be hugely important based on this brief glimpse of Post-VOG Rand. If its already been asked then I apologize for missing it. But...Ok, we see here that Rand is now filled with at least a certain amount of sanity, calmness, gentleness, goodness and Light (my cap on L ight is no accident.)

 

Now, the past few books have bludgeoned us with the understanding that Moridin and Rand are now LINKED ... So, my question, that imo is very crucial is:

 

What affect is Rand's new infusion of at least a certain amount of sanity, calmness, gentleness, goodness and Light having on his new Balefire Cross-Stream/Linked Buddy MORIDIN???

 

 

 

Fish

[Grape_Ape]

Why is he walking?

 

I think the answer to the question is a little more practical than some of us might like it to be. Whichever one of them wrote the chapter wanted us to see Rand in post-VoG form. Kind of hard to do that if he Travels directly where he's going (which I'd bet bucks is the WT). From a creative standpoint that's more than enough of a reason. Not every element of the story has to have fifteen unique and complex devices that get manipulated six ways from Sunday. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[The Fisher King]

Ok. One More Question Because Something Confused Me:

 

Almen sees Rand and a man in brown standing together talking at the base of DragonMount.

 

WHO is this other man???

 

It can't be Tam. Rand left Tam behind when he made his Gateway and left. Rand was alone at DM. ... So, who is this other man???

 

 

 

Fish

[Ataxia]

Its Almen and his son Adim

[A Trite Pun]

Ok. One More Question Because Something Confused Me:

 

Almen sees Rand and a man in brown standing together talking at the base of DragonMount.

 

WHO is this other man???

 

It can't be Tam. Rand left Tam behind when he made his Gateway and left. Rand was alone at DM. ... So, who is this other man???

 

 

 

Fish

 

Lol what? Go back and re-read the chapter

[Jimmy]

Bloodknives only have a lifespan of about 3 days once their ring terangreal that shadows them is activated. They can stretch their life a little if hey remove the ring but not by much. I am pretty sure it's been more then 3 days since the Seanchan attack. They would have to send more bloodknives. I don't think that will happen so soon if at all

[Cyf]

I'm still holding against hope that the end of the series does -not- lead to a removal of the use of the One Power for a few ages. I really hate 'Magic Goes Away' themes. :) Yes, I know it'll happen eventually in setting, I just don't want it to happen -now-. :)

 

Edited to add: Actually, according to Sanderson if they remove the rings, they can stretch it by /weeks/. So yes, they could still be around.

[Vermillion]

By the way Rand should know about the apples because he likely has vague memories of doing it a few infinite times lol.

[Hael Me]

Great chapter! Totally loved it... Well written, we saw an old acquaintance, and we experienced some serious character development. This is what the WoT is all about. The Wheel that keeps spinnin', everything's the same, but yet new, something never seen before.

 

And Rand is all Zen, a master in control of himself and his destiny, calm and amused, distant but friendly, with knowledge of the path before him and of the world and the current condition of it all. He seems to know the shape of things to come, finally. He understands his "mission". How is this possible? On top of Dragonmount, Rand was raving, ready to end it all - and I mean it all. Then enlightenment.

 

But where does it come from, this shining halo, the goodness and order that radiates from The Dragon Reborn? From inside his soul, that is also Lews Therin's soul, or from another source? As far as we know Rand is still connected to Moridin, the greatest philosopher of The Age of Legends. A mortal yet immortal man who was - and is - the only living being who truly understands at least a part of The Dark One.

 

Because of this I think the danger is greater than ever. This is the first time in the series that Rand really, truly, has a chance to win The Last Battle. But if you know how to win, then the path to total failure is also known. For the first time. A forfeit was never an option. A lost battle maybe meant another battle...

 

I have a bad feeling about this.

[The Fisher King]

Great chapter! Totally loved it... Well written, we saw an old acquaintance, and we experienced some serious character development. This is what the WoT is all about. The Wheel that keeps spinnin', everything's the same, but yet new, something never seen before.

 

And Rand is all Zen, a master in control of himself and his destiny, calm and amused, distant but friendly, with knowledge of the path before him and of the world and the current condition of it all. He seems to know the shape of things to come, finally. He understands his "mission". How is this possible? On top of Dragonmount, Rand was raving, ready to end it all - and I mean it all. Then enlightenment.

 

But where does it come from, this shining halo, the goodness and order that radiates from The Dragon Reborn? From inside his soul, that is also Lews Therin's soul, or from another source? As far as we know Rand is still connected to Moridin, the greatest philosopher of The Age of Legends. A mortal yet immortal man who was - and is - the only living being who truly understands at least a part of The Dark One.

 

Because of this I think the danger is greater than ever. This is the first time in the series that Rand really, truly, has a chance to win The Last Battle. But if you know how to win, then the path to total failure is also known. For the first time. A forfeit was never an option. A lost battle maybe meant another battle...

 

I have a bad feeling about this.

 

I love how focused our guys and gals seem now. I mean, I know there is still a long road ahead, and probably some heartache, but, they all - (especially Rand) - really seem to be getting their Game Faces on now.

 

For the first time in a long time I really am feeling like Team Light is ready and about to Go FTW.

 

 

Fish

[Elend]

I loved this chapter so much I blogged about it