How did Rand know how to cleanse Saidin?

[Tom Sawyer]

In PoD, Rand mentions that he asked the Finns how he could cleanse saidin and they responded with a riddle. I don't recall it ever being mentioned what that riddle was though. Was it ever written anywhere?

 

It always seemed sort of random to me that he'd get the idea to try and feed the taint into Shadar Logoth through a funnel of saidar. It was like I'd missed a scene when he figured out how to go about this and it just sort of came out of left field. Was there more buildup to it that I just overlooked or was the plan only presented to the reader when he actually did it?

[OptimusPrime]

It was only revealed in detail when he did it I think. It basically boiled down to, the funnel of saidar would push saidin away from shadar logoth, and shadar logoth would pull the taint, the magnitude of the two opposing gravity effects (saidin vs saidar, Taint vs Shadar Logoth) was enough to seperate the taint from the saidin. What Rand had to do was channel enough saidin to go through the entire taint, wearing it down gradually by it being pulled to SL, and then the saidin that was then clean would return to the Source, making the Source itself get gradually clean.

 

So Rand basically channeled enough saidin for the full Taint to have been filtered out in one massive stretch. Could it be that he even went through the entire Source, just at a slow enough pace that it would return to the Source fast enough to be in abundance throughout the ritual?

[Tom Sawyer]

Ya, I get what he did. What I missed was the part where he thought "Hey, why don't I do this?". What made him think that SL would draw out the taint? It just seemed fairly random. It may not if the Finn's riddle gave him the starting point to go by, but I don't recall ever seeing what that riddle was. Also, Aginor was of the opinion that it was a really clever idea, but the details of why it was clever weren't ever given.

 

There was just a lack of buildup and development to the scene. He seems to have essentially just reversed the polarity of the warp core and moved on to the next episode.

[Elend]

I recall a good deal of thinking about his wounds, which show a similar concept. Flinn's "healing" of the wounds also hinted at it.

[OptimusPrime]

Im thinking the fight against Sammael might have given him some insight as well, didnt he have both wounds at that time, didnt he noticed that the evils of the two wounds seemed to beat against each other?

[GYLD]

When Rand first returns to Shadar Logath after learning to channel consistently, the taint of Saidin is described as pulsing when met with the Shadar Logath evil as a "resonance to evil to evil". Between that experience and discussions with Herid Fel is where I think he got the idea to cleanse Saidin.

[Adrian44]

As I recall it had to do with his Scar that wouldn't heal. When Padan Fain attacks him and slices over the scar he does not die from it like other did when touched by the dagger.

 

He feels the two forces fighting each other.. I will try to find specific quotes....

[Corlock]

He was partially inspired by Flinn's healing of the wound in his side after he was attacked by Fain. Flinn said that the two taints were trying to kill Rand and would have because he couldn't get rid of them. Flinn then had the idea to set the two taints to fighting each other within Rand's wound. Doing this caused them to stop trying to kill Rand and allowed the wound to heal, at least partially. Seeing that the two evils hated each other Rand probably realized, eventually that he could use this to cleanse saidin. The second trip to Shadar Logoth probably helped to solidify this plan.

[Val Mickey]

Maybe the Writer's Guild could reconstruct the Finn riddle. It would be on the lines of 'Fight fire with fire' or 'Opposites attract; Opposites repel.'

[Demiandre]

The riddle refers to sounds principle in both high philosophy and natural philosophy. I suppose it means that everything has a contrary. Fire can vapor water, water can quench fire. Earth can be eroded by wind, but wind can be blocked by earth. There is a struggle of forces in everything. The strengh of those forces is what makes the fight balance one way or another. Applied to Rand's wound, he assumed the nature of his wound is akin to the one on saidin, as they throbbed together. And Fain's wound echoed the one in Shadar Logoth. He had to find a way for both to neglect.

 

The Cleansing proved that the taint was equally powerful with the Shadar Logoth evil. Both disappeared.

[Tom Sawyer]

Ya, there are little clues and things if you look for them, but they're very incomplete and not really summarized in any way to show how he came up with the idea. The scene plays out with him showing up there and just doing this essentially totally random thing that there wasn't any lead up to. I just think there needed to be one or two more scenes infront of it to build up to what he was doing.

[Kestrel]

As I recall it had to do with his Scar that wouldn't heal. When Padan Fain attacks him and slices over the scar he does not die from it like other did when touched by the dagger.

 

He feels the two forces fighting each other.. I will try to find specific quotes....

Let's think a moment about the implications of this...

 

RJ said that Fain was a wildcard, unique to this age and not present in past ages.

 

Now we have seen that the Shadar Logoth power is a pure evil unique to itself, that battles and neutralizes the power of the Dark One. Furthermore, although Shadar Logoth is a pile of cinders now, Fain was not in the city when it was vaporized.

 

What if Fain shows up at Tarmon Gaidon? I can just imagine Rand sealing the Dark One back in his prison, and trapping Fain in there with him.

 

Min said that her viewings of the future were not an indication of Rand's ultimate victory because they were based on the pattern remaining intact; if Rand were to lose the Last Battle the GOOD side would lose for all time. The pattern would be ripped apart and there would be no future.

 

Enter Fain. Should Rand win the Last Battle and trap Fain in the Dark One's prison, the BAD side loses for all time. Fain and the Dark One spend the rest of eternity ripping each other apart!

[Cillian]

How did Rand know how to cleanse Saidin?

 

Google.

[Tom Sawyer]

How did Rand know how to cleanse Saidin?

 

Google.

 

OK, you win the thread!