Will Rand Be a Badass?

[Luckers]

An element I thought could use further discussion. In Apples First Rand is fairly zen--I like him not being a homicidal maniac, but that doesn't mean I want him to become some sort of hippie. I wanna see him lay a smackdown from time to time.

 

Was anyone else concerned by how smacked out on weed Rand seemed in Apples First?

[vasu619]

Yes, actually. I was very concerned. I liked the chapter as is, but I'm not sure I like the idea of Rand turning into some avatar of light, demigod-esque figure. The appeal of the series to me was in the fact that normal humans, and one human in particular had to deal with the more than overwhelming burden of being the guardian of creation itself, while not having any exceptionally fantastic power (OP and ta'veren-ness aside of course, those are things we have seen before and in others). Therefore, I'm not overly concerned about whether Rand has become a completely non-violent hippie, but more about his nature itself.

[The Fisher King]

An element I thought could use further discussion. In Apples First Rand is fairly zen--I like him not being a homicidal maniac, but that doesn't mean I want him to become some sort of hippie. I wanna see him lay a smackdown from time to time.

 

Was anyone else concerned by how smacked out on weed Rand seemed in Apples First?

 

YES!! I for one WAS very concerned!!! - At FIRST! ... Then I thought about it for a bit and decided that was a bit of a Knee-Jerk reaction, probably (or so we hope, lol).

 

Look, I'm as happy as the next man that he took a nice long toke off the ol peace pipe before he trotted back down the mountain, but, yeah, he is still going to need to be able to do what needs to be done in the tough days ahead.

 

And, you know what? I'm confident he will be. I think he just has his ability to discriminate back.

 

But, to the original question: ''Will Rand Still Be a Badass?''

 

Definitely.

 

Look at Jesus. Ghandi. Nelson Mandela. Marthin Luther King Jr. ... all peace-loving, noble figures.

 

But they could all kick ass when needed.

 

He's still the bloody Dragon Reborn ;)

 

 

 

Fish

[Luckers]

[Look at Jesus. Ghandi. Nelson Mandela. Marthin Luther King Jr. ... all peace-loving, noble figures.

 

But they could all kick ass when needed.

 

He's still the bloody Dragon Reborn ;)

Fish

 

When did any of those 'kick ass'?

 

I'm not looking for a social revolution here--though the Aes Sedai could use it--I'm looking for a badass to slap down the Dark One.

 

I liked that Rand's become enlightened--I just hope that he's still capable of being a warrior.

[Lisa Campbell]

I think that "the Dragon will walk the land" healing along the way instead of travelling and riding everywhere. He will touch the people and heal their pains and bring them hope. And he'll be even more bad-arse than ever because of his remembrances on DM.

[Crael123]

Well, remember we have not seen him get MAD yet. and he still thinks he killed Graendal. And we are yet to see the repercussions of him channeling the TP. He may suffer a relapse and balefire Elayne, who knows we can always hope.

 

If he is a hippie i will sit in a corner and vent for a few days.

[Duskfire]

I dont neccessarily believe Rand is a hippie now; only that for the first time ever not only is he comfortable with his role, but he has found a reason to not only fight but to preserve. In fact, I wouldnt be surprised if he is even more willing now to kill women if he has to. He is not bloodthirsty, he is not overly happy; he has that sort of balance where if needs be he can get brutal. Sort of like, a saintly version of Rhuarc :P

[Lisa Campbell]

With you Duskfire. Rand will eventually visit the Tower or meet with Egwene in the future. May be uncomfortable but I don't think it will be the showdown that everyone expects.

 

I think he will adopt some kind of cross of "the way" and a mentality about only killing those aligned with the Shadow or some such. Similar to the three oaths don't you think and perhaps the reason the oaths are going to be taken again in a future Age?

[Lynchgrinch]

aww c'mon guys he's still Rand, he's still the Dragon Reborn. Rand is gonna have some serious major ass kickage to do in the next 2 books...he still knows what his role is, he still knows he's probably gonna create a crap load of destruction before the end....but now atleast he has the correct motives and way of thinking about things.

 

I love the new Rand, it's been too long

[Lisa Campbell]

I don't disagree that Rand will still kick arse. Just that he will be more discriminative. I can't help but to hearken back to a POV/comment (Verin?) that he is fighting the shadow in the wrong way in tGS.

[yoniy0]

I wouldn't worry about it. We only saw him talking to a commoner, in desperate need of concealment. When it's the Shadow that's to be fought, I'll bet his axe will grow a long handle, so to speak

 

Carel123, when will you learn? Blonds always have more fun, that's just the way of things. Your envy of my favorite queen is unseemly

[Panchi]

I am 50-50 about my opinion. On one side it was good to see Rand good. But I was hoping for him to go to DO's side so it was not good. But I think in the book it would be a relief to see Rand in a little peace. He is my fav character.

[NetSlider]

An element I thought could use further discussion. In Apples First Rand is fairly zen--I like him not being a homicidal maniac, but that doesn't mean I want him to become some sort of hippie. I wanna see him lay a smackdown from time to time.

 

Was anyone else concerned by how smacked out on weed Rand seemed in Apples First?

 

I have to completely agree with you. A nice balance would be nice - kind of like Neo from the matrix; nice guy, but piss him off and he'll bi###-slap you 'till next Tuesday.

[ghenjei]

Well, remember we have not seen him get MAD yet. and he still thinks he killed Graendal. And we are yet to see the repercussions of him channeling the TP. He may suffer a relapse and balefire Elayne, who knows we can always hope.

 

If he is a hippie i will sit in a corner and vent for a few days.

 

 

Agreed. As much as I joke about Zen Capt. Rand organizing the first Randland Music Festival, the Rand revealed in Chap 1 made me very worried. I hope it's just the after-effects of the epiphany on Dragonmount. If we have two books of demigod/prophet Rand spewing out airy philosophical exhortations------> wretch (repeat ad nauseum).

[Terrel88]

I personally enjoyed seing Rand like that. Seemed like a return to form when we didn't fully understand Rand- such as the ending of tEotW, when he layed the smackdown on Ishamael. Also, Fish....Ghandi!!??

[ghenjei]

I personally enjoyed seing Rand like that. Seemed like a return to form when we didn't fully understand Rand- such as the ending of tEotW, when he layed the smackdown on Ishamael. Also, Fish....Ghandi!!??

 

 

He better be more like this Gandhi- Gandhi 2: No More Mr. Passive Resistance!

 

 

I am honestly hoping that Rand is not removed of all conflict. How he deals with the struggles and duties of who he is makes him such an awesome character.

[Gor]

“I totally cannot decide whether to be pleased about this, or kind of freaked out.”

- Leigh Butler

 

Sums up my feelings exactly.

[OptimusPrime]

I think Rand will be badass but in a more calm and collected, confident-in-his-connection-to-the-Pattern kind of way. Like, he finds Demandred, and Demandreds about to launch a Power attack and Rand just stands there and just says "Stop," and Demandred cant help but do it. Then it cuts to Demmys PoV where he is all defiance until he tries to channel and realizes while he can channel, he for some reason cant attack Rand, in a similar way to when Mat couldnt even say he wanted to leave in the early books. And then Rand says something like "Tell me where to find Ishamael" and Demandred feels the full force of Rands Ta'verenism, in comparison with the Tuon and Ituralde scenes in TGS...

[Impressive Bosom]

An element I thought could use further discussion. In Apples First Rand is fairly zen--I like him not being a homicidal maniac, but that doesn't mean I want him to become some sort of hippie. I wanna see him lay a smackdown from time to time.

 

Was anyone else concerned by how smacked out on weed Rand seemed in Apples First?

I was kind of thinking the same thing, though to be fair he DID just come off of a life-changing epiphany... I'm wondering if he's going to be more of a Moses type character from here on out - you know, coming down off the mountain, 'let my people go' kind fo thing. Its not like Moses didn't lay the smackdown every now and then what with the locusts, the angel of death, columns of fire by night and smoke by day etc.

 

But truth be told, I think his epiphany was one similar to one I had a number of years back, the realization and understanding of a very simple concept. He had everyone and everything pulling at him in every different direction from fractured romances to kingly responsibilities to thousands of years of prophecy and that is what drove him to be harder and harder to survive all of those buffetting forces until he realized something on Dragonmount, something I realized (ironically also on a mountain in Hawai'i) - that he was in control the entire time. We spend our lives trying to live up to and satisfy the expectations of our friends, our family, our jobs, our faith, and often time begin feeling overwhelmed at being pulled in so many different directions at once... when the fact is that we're doing the pulling, so to speak. No one - no person, no place, no thing, no institution, no concept has any more power over us than we give it. Period.

 

Now the truth is that it is good to give up power over yourself at times. We SHOULD care what our families and friends think, we SHOULD be subject to our spouses and loved ones, we SHOULD maintain our responsibility to our job and our faith... but it needs to be realized, to be understood that those are choices WE make, that that is power that WE surrender - and that at any time, should we wish, we can simply take it back and make different choices. We are the ones in control of our lives and not the myraid of people and things that we share those lives with. Its sort of an emotional 'fly-by-wire' philosophy where you are being pulled in all directions but you decide which one will carry you at any given moment.

 

I think Rand came to understand this and made peace with himself about the world now and in the future, about what he needed to do and most importantly why. I think he found a new serenity by realizing that he wasn't a leaf on the wind - that he was, in fact, the wind itself, and the only thing he HAD to do was simply be who he was. A tremendous amount of peace can be found in such an epiphany but at the same time so can a deadly focus. I don't think Rand is going to be any more accomodating or forgiving than he has been in the past, I just think that he won't some things affect him emotionally as much as they once did - and when he balefires a female Forsaken, he'll do it without his heartbeat rising in the slightest and will walk away without a moment's guilt or regret.

[Sentinel78]

I think Rand will be a bad-ass.

 

I re-read Rand's POVs from tGS last night. A big part of his internal struggle was the whole one hand to destroy, and one to protect, which one had he lost and all that. Obviously, he metaphorically lost the hand to 'protect' in tGS. For example, this was internalized with Rand going from one extreme (don't kill any women) to another extreme (kill everybody in your way).

 

The concept of 'integration' is not abandoning one facet of your personality for another, but merging them together. To me, the combination of Rand the Protector and Rand the Destructor is Rand the Badass, destroying only when necessary.

 

As a disclaimer, I just read through the Mistborn trilogy so I might be viewing this through BS's Ruin + Preservation = Creation lens.

[Axon]

They don't call you the Dragon unless you're a bad ass.

[Rcurran]

Think there will be a lot of caring ad he kills, not like before where it got in the way or whatever. Anyone read the way of kings? Without spoiling anything there is a character in it that talks about how import compassion is when killing folk.

[scraps18]

Am I the only one who loved Rand as a bad-ass, edge-of-your-seat, psycho killer with a stump and tattoos?

 

Seriously though, I like the new Rand too... but he needs to keep that edge, the hint of "I MAY balefire everything in my path cuz I'm the Dragon Reborn and I can," or "I MIGHT fry my surrogate father on a balcony cuz I'm a little lost/crazy/tormented/possessed by evil."

 

I see his progression so far as a reverse Michael Douglas ala Falling Down. Hopefully Rand keeps the Uzi and Louisville Slugger close at hand.

[Rcurran]

I'm with you on that one. I hated his list and I wad glad when he decided to start adding to it ;)

[Maji]

I dont neccessarily believe Rand is a hippie now; only that for the first time ever not only is he comfortable with his role, but he has found a reason to not only fight but to preserve. In fact, I wouldnt be surprised if he is even more willing now to kill women if he has to. He is not bloodthirsty, he is not overly happy; he has that sort of balance where if needs be he can get brutal. Sort of like, a saintly version of Rhuarc :P

 

Scratch the saintly version of Rhuarc and I'll agree completely with this. If Rand needs to off someone, even if it's a woman he may not like it but he'll do what needs to be done to fulfill his role and save/protect the world from the Shadow.

 

I'm with you on that one. I hated his list and I wad glad when he decided to start adding to it ;)

 

When LTT couldn't add to the list after Natrim's Barrow was balefired that was a pretty good scene. I was glad that the list couldn't be added to. I still wonder Moraine will do when she and Rand meet up again. Rand did say in TGS, it all went wrong with Moraine's death, I bet it will have a shock him even if he's, as Lucker's said, more zen-like.