Why Destroy the Choedan Kal?

[Thor]

I'm happy that it's destroyed. I haven't been comfortable with it ever since the female one melted.

[Entreri]

To make the Last Battle interesting.

 

With the Choden Kal, Rand could destroy the Trolloc Hordes + Forsaken far too easily. Sharan Haran would be his...you know what. Ishamael, same thing. Demandred, lol. Fain same thing.

 

 

Too easy.

[ajfurst]

Rand nukes the CK for a few reasons, I think.

 

1) He'd drawn in a lot of the OP when he was thinking about destroying the world, and that had to go somewhere once he had his epiphany

2) He realizes that the OP in of itself isn't going to be enough to beat the DO at Tarmon Gai'don/to win the Last Battle

3) He believes in the prophecy and knows Callandor is going to be needed, not the CK

4) It had become too tempting to use

 

I think the latter is probably the most relevant. In ToM, Rand blasts an entire army of Shadowspawn away without the CK or Callandor. He doesn't need either to decimate an army. Still, once he leaves the battlefield he realizes that what he just did was dangerous, even as zen Rand. He's not going to use Callandor until it's needed and until he's got 2 female Aes Sedai he trusts. And even as zen Rand, there's an acknowledgment that he's not immune to anger, temptation, etc., which would tempt him to use the CK.

 

He's no longer struggling with himself, he's no longer grappling with a desire to spam Ultima every time there's a problem. He knows that power alone isn't going to cut it and on Dragonmount instead of destroying the world he destroys the tool he was going to use to that end. It was a symbolic destruction.

That he destroys the CK in itself isn't an issue. There's an inherent risk as shown with Semirhage that even as Zen Rand he needs to sleep or rest without having to guard his back 24/7 from potential CK thieves. And that the DO won't be defeated by (or just by) the One Power, so he doesn't want to have something that makes him think that's possible. All good.

 

However once he's Zen Rand the problem I have is he could have given the CK one last run then destroyed it. Go to the Blightborder above World's end in Saldaea, send a 20 mile wide, 1 mile high sheet of Fire racing north to burn a massive swath of the Blight. Hop east and repeat. Do this till you reach Tarwin's Gap. Goodbye Blight above the borderlands for a good distance, toasted Shadowspawn. THEN and only then trash CK, return south as Zen Rand and visit Egwene knowing not only are you right in the head now, but you've just bought the world extra time to get it's crap in order. No Balefire (the as bad as Nukes argument), no leaving the CK around to be stolen, no trashing where people live, all upside, no downside. Except for the plot of needing to start the invasion of the borderlands and Caemlyn as soon as it's obvious it's Zen Rand, not dark Rand anymore.

[ineedfourberfs]

Rand nukes the CK for a few reasons, I think.

 

1) He'd drawn in a lot of the OP when he was thinking about destroying the world, and that had to go somewhere once he had his epiphany

2) He realizes that the OP in of itself isn't going to be enough to beat the DO at Tarmon Gai'don/to win the Last Battle

3) He believes in the prophecy and knows Callandor is going to be needed, not the CK

4) It had become too tempting to use

 

I think the latter is probably the most relevant. In ToM, Rand blasts an entire army of Shadowspawn away without the CK or Callandor. He doesn't need either to decimate an army. Still, once he leaves the battlefield he realizes that what he just did was dangerous, even as zen Rand. He's not going to use Callandor until it's needed and until he's got 2 female Aes Sedai he trusts. And even as zen Rand, there's an acknowledgment that he's not immune to anger, temptation, etc., which would tempt him to use the CK.

 

He's no longer struggling with himself, he's no longer grappling with a desire to spam Ultima every time there's a problem. He knows that power alone isn't going to cut it and on Dragonmount instead of destroying the world he destroys the tool he was going to use to that end. It was a symbolic destruction.

That he destroys the CK in itself isn't an issue. There's an inherent risk as shown with Semirhage that even as Zen Rand he needs to sleep or rest without having to guard his back 24/7 from potential CK thieves. And that the DO won't be defeated by (or just by) the One Power, so he doesn't want to have something that makes him think that's possible. All good.

 

However once he's Zen Rand the problem I have is he could have given the CK one last run then destroyed it. Go to the Blightborder above World's end in Saldaea, send a 20 mile wide, 1 mile high sheet of Fire racing north to burn a massive swath of the Blight. Hop east and repeat. Do this till you reach Tarwin's Gap. Goodbye Blight above the borderlands for a good distance, toasted Shadowspawn. THEN and only then trash CK, return south as Zen Rand and visit Egwene knowing not only are you right in the head now, but you've just bought the world extra time to get it's crap in order. No Balefire (the as bad as Nukes argument), no leaving the CK around to be stolen, no trashing where people live, all upside, no downside. Except for the plot of needing to start the invasion of the borderlands and Caemlyn as soon as it's obvious it's Zen Rand, not dark Rand anymore.

 

 

Good plan, except for the fact that all that power use would attract...everyone else, and kick off the LB, which Rand didn't want to happen yet. Every Dreadlord and Black Ajah and Forsaken would have been there in an instant, and yes, he had the CK, but it only takes one slip up to die and lose the LB by default.

 

Yes there are plenty of opportunities to do huge mega awesome stuff with the power, but it's not always practical. In fact short of the cleansing, it's very, very rarely useful at all.